Jakarta governor dropping appeal 'for sake of nation'

The wife of Jakarta's Christian governor told a tearful press conference Tuesday her husband had withdrawn his appeal against a blasphemy conviction and two-year jail term for the good of Indonesia. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was jailed this month for insulting the Koran while campaigning for re-election, a shock decision that stoked concern about rising religious intolerance in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. The blasphemy allegations against Purnama, Jakarta's first non-Muslim governor for half a century and first ethnic Chinese leader, sparked mass protests spearheaded by radicals.