Indonesia suspect 'in shoot-out'

Noordin Top

Police efforts to find Noordin are focused on central Java

Indonesian police hunting terror suspect Noordin Mohamed Top have been involved in a shoot-out on Java with suspected militants.

There has been no confirmation that the exchange of fire involves Noordin - one of the most significant suspects in South-East Asia.

But unconfirmed reports on Indonesian TV said that Noordin had been arrested.

He is suspected of involvement in July's Jakarta hotel bombings and the 2002 Bali blasts, in which 202 died.

He is also thought to have been behind attacks on the Jakarta Marriott in 2003 and the Australian embassy in 2004, and also on a series of restaurants in Bali in 2005 in which more than 20 people were killed.

Raid 'ongoing'

Noordin, a Malaysian national, was thought to be a key recruiter and financier for a regional Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, but has now formed his own militant group.

A lull in militant attacks since 2005 came to an end in July with suicide attacks on two hotels in Jakarta, raising concerns that Noordin was becoming active again.

Friday's shoot-out took place in Temanggung district in central Java and involved an elite anti-terror unit, police said.

TV reports said the police had closed off an area of 1 sq km and had arrested two people. It quoted police as saying that the man who rented the house being raided resembled Noordin.

Reports said the raid was still going on after several hours of sporadic gunfire.

Correspondents say the search for Noordin has focused on central Java because he is believed to have a network of sympathisers there.

He is the Indonesian police's main target and there is a $100,000 (£59,000) reward for information leading to his capture.

Education Loan Consolidation - A Primer

By Wade Robins

If you have become weighed down by having to scrape together the money to make payments on student loans several times a month, you may have an alternative which will not only simplify your life; it may save you a considerable amount in interest payments. An education loan consolidation will allow you to combine all your student loans into one, relieving you of the need to try and keep up with all of them. And you may be able to find a lender who offers better interest rates on a single education consolidation loan than the average interest rate for your multiple student loans.

How To Apply For An Education Consolidation Loan In order to apply for an education consolidation loan, you’ll need to present an accurate record of your existing student loans. You can find the information you need at the website of the National Student Clearinghouse, at www.nslc.org. You can apply for an education loan consolidation at any credit union or bank which belongs to the Federal Education Loan Program, or FELP. The US Department of Education is another great source of information.

If only one lender has been responsible for issuing each of your student loans, you will be required to arrange an education loan consolidation from that lender. And there are warning signs that someone offering you an education loan consolidation may not be legitimate. Avoid any lender who asks for up-front fees or tells you they want you to submit to a credit check. No education loan consolidation lender who is on the up-and-up will require either of those.

Requirements For Applying For An Education Consolidation Loan Requests for the consolidation of federal student loans are almost always accepted. They can be done even if the applicant is still in school, or changing status from full-time to part-time student. Education loan consolidation done while you remains a student or within six months following your graduation will generally have more favorable interest rates than those you delay beyond that period.

If you decide to go for an education loan consolidation while you’re still a student, you must inform the lender that you are asking for early repayment status. This will guarantee you a lower interest rate, but will mean that you have to begin repaying the education consolidation loan immediately. If necessary, however, you can ask for an in-school deferment which will push back your payments on the loan until after you have graduated.

You should take the time to find the best terms you can in applying for an education loan consolidation, because you may only consolidate your student loans once. You will probably not be able to consolidate any student loans which do not total at least $7500, and it is your responsibility to initiate and follow through on consolidating your student loans. You may, however, be able to get a list of trustworthy lenders from your college’s financial office.

You can also find more info on Graduate School Loan and Law School Loan. schoolloanshelp.com is a comprehensive resource to get information about School Loans.

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The Disadvantages of Perkins and Student Education Loans

The Disadvantages of Perkins and Student Education Loans Even though student education loans can give you an enormous number of opportunities, there are also some serious consequences if you cannot pay them back. Unfortunately, each day, a number of factors are serving to drive the economy deeper into the likelihood of   a depression.   As a result,   the chances of being able to afford to pay back your student loans is becoming significantly risky.   To begin, it is important to realize that obtaining a college education will not automatically guarantee a good job, or a high paying career.   In addition, you will also find that a Bachelor's degree, and even a Master's degree does not carry as much weight as it used to.   As a result, you may have to bear the financial burden of obtaining your masters and PhD in order to achieve a high wage earning potential.   At the same time, you may find your choice of graduate degree programs limited.   Consider that many universities are suffering from a lack of sufficient federal and state funding.   As a result, some may be cultivating students from overseas.   In some cases, the university may receive funding from the foreign country to pay for tuition, as well as fellowships and other stipend programs.   As may be expected, this has the potential to limit the opportunities for people in this country to compete.    In the absence of a scholarship, even if   the educational backgrounds are similar, clearly, the money from overseas would be an added incentive to the university.   Before taking a student education loan, it is very important to consider what your wage earning potential will be.   Among other things, you will need to plan on being at least $50,000 in debt before you even get into the job market.   While consolidation can help reduce your interest rates, it will not be of much help if you cannot afford to pay your loans.   It is also important to realize that there are some serious consequences for defaulting on federal education loans.   Among other things, you cannot file bankruptcy and obtain relief from Perkins loan debt.   Even if you obtain your loans through GMAC, you will be forced to pay your loan back.   If you are planning to apply for a student education loan, you will need to gather info from a number of sources.   Among other things, you will need to study your chosen career field, and find out how much advancement you will get from a particular degree type.   If   you find that graduate work is necessary, you will need to obtain information related to overseas student demographics.   In particular, you will want to gain this information with respect to the program that you want to get into.   Each year, millions of students apply for student loans, hoping that the education they receive will lead to a rewarding financial future.   At the same time, many students find that it is impossible to obtain a job that will cover their living expenses plus the student loan payments.   While student loan lenders do everything they can to help you manage your loans, there are still times when defaulting on them is inevitable.

How To Find a Great College Scholarship For You

By Jon Arnold

When you are looking for a college scholarship, you will find to your dismay that you are certainly not alone. There is no shortage of people who want a good education and when you go looking for a good scholarship, you are going to find that the competition is quite fierce. There are scholarships for many different majors and studies, for people of every background, and you will find that no matter how hard you look that there are still going to be things that you need to think about.
In many ways, the situation for students who are going to college now is more dire than it has been in a while. Due to the economic crunch, many loaning institutions are closing their doors when it comes to student loans, and scholarships seem to be the way to go. There are plenty of ways that scholarships are preferable, after all. In the first place, they do not have to be paid back when you graduate, and in the second place, they are specifically geared towards helping you get the right kind of support.

Too many students feel hopeless when it comes to getting a college scholarship. After all, we can't all be valedictorian and when it comes right down to it, our grades could have been better, and all kinds of things you kick yourself about in retrospect. But there is also a good chance that you fall into that gray area where you do not qualify for financial aid but paying for college is still not an option. However, you don't need to be an academic whiz kid or have financial need to get a lot of scholarships.

The issue is that scholarships are often not supplied by people who publicize them, and when you think about it, it makes sense. Just because an organization has money to provide for a college scholarship doesn't mean that they have the networking it takes to get it to the people who need it. There are plenty of scholarships out there that go unclaimed specifically because no one knows about them! These are scholarships are not necessarily based on financial need, and you will find that while this is not precisely free money lying around that you might be closer to it than you think!

When you are in a situation where you are feeling despondent about getting the college scholarship that you need, remember that there is help out there. Catalog your resources and think about what you have to offer. Chances are, you qualify for more cash for college than you think you do, so start searching! The smart students are the ones who will apply themselves, and many of them have multiple scholarships that are taking care of their college education needs. Is that due to the fact that they have more of a financial need than you do or that they have better grades than you do? Not at all, but the ACTION they have taken is to apply for each and every scholarship that they could have, and found they were awarded at least one if not more.

When it comes to getting a college scholarship awarded to you, the very first step is to actually APPLY for the scholarship. Sure it may be tedious and take up a lot of time and be boring, but remember that getting one or more college scholarships awarded to you that can take care of the finances for most or all of your college education is going to be absolutely awesome.

Visit : http://scholarshipupdate.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-find-great-college-scholarship.html

5 Tips To Find Online Colleges

Online education is one of the effective tasks for the current time. It gives us easy access to the education available from the recognized university world over.

There are several colleges provides basic as well as advance course online. It can be certified by the accredited agencies. If you are looking for the online course, there are different criteria for the selection available online.

Here are the steps require for taking online admission

1. You must find online colleges and see the course offered by them. It is essential that the online college must be accredited by the registered agencies. You can brows the courses details online. The details about the courses and time available online. The selection of online course is depends on the interest of the field, while selecting the online courses you can also see the location in mind, incase you want to visit your college campus and have attend some classes.

2. The second most aspects of the online courses are the structures of the courses. It is depends on the types of courses and colleges. The fee structure is depends on the courses. It also indicates the mode of the payment and other benefits given by the online colleges to the students like student education loan, grants, and scholarship. The fees details have shown on the college website. It is important to take the calculation of your fees so that you have an idea about the final payment.

3. The third most important part of the online education is the admission process it covers entrance test, eligibility of age, prior education records etc. The admission process differs from college to college. You must have to study the admission process and if you have any problem you can contact the admission department of the college. All the online colleges have its own admission department and admissions counselor to deal with admission process. Normally the online admission process is very smoother and quicker. Most of the colleges give online submission to get the admission.

4. The Online College education is ideal then the traditional campus education. Regarding online education there are different types of studies proves that in the present time online education is more effective tools then the traditional education. The quality of the online education is very good. The most important one is you only need to select best college and their approach with the students to provide online education.

5. If you are full time employee it is important to get the admission in online courses.