Page 6 Friday, July 31, 2015 16 Pages Number 155 7 th Year e-mail: [email protected]online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com. Price: Rp 3.000,- I N T E R N A T I O N A L DPS 23 - 32 WEATHER FORECAST Page 13 For North Korea, Iran-style nuclear deal not an option US official: Plane debris in Indian Ocean same type as MH370 It was conveyed by the Head of the Denpasar Public Works Agency, I Ketut Winarta, at the Denpasar parliamentary building, Tuesday (Jul. 29). Previously, a number of legislators questioned about the handling of flooding threat in the city considering that all this time Denpasar is always haunted by the threat of flooding during rainy season. “Until now, no matter how small the flood disaster in Denpasar must be anticipated and get the attention from relevant agencies,” said a legislator of the Denpasar House, I.B. Ketut Kiana. Kiana also mentioned that some drainage improvements are not done thoroughly as happened to Jalan Gunung Sari, Sanur Kauh. “We also receive complaints from residents about the discontinued project at Sanur Kauh,” said the people’s representative from Sanur Kaja. Related to these questions, Wi- narta said that his party had made a number of breakthroughs to cope with the flood disaster. In addition to dredging some drains, his party has also made canal being able to suppress floods. As evidence, until now flooding points have reduced from 18 to 11 points. “We continue to make this effort so that it can reduce the threat of puddles and flooding in Denpasar,” said Wi- narta. (kmb12) IBP/Wawan Traffic jam causing by flood occurred during rainy season in Denpasar. Denpasar belonging to lowland area is often hit by floods. As evidence, a number of locations in Denpasar are frequently hit by floods. DENPASAR - Denpasar belonging to lowland area is often hit by floods. As evidence, a number of locations in Denpasar are frequently hit by floods. Various efforts to mitigate the threat continue to be made, where so far it still leaves at least 11 points of flood, like at Sanur, Jalan Teuku Umar as well as in front of Mitra 10. News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http:// globalfmbali.listen2my- radio.com or live video streaming at http://radioglobalfmbali.com and http:// ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali. Denpasar has 11 points prone to floods Page 8 Paris Saint-Germain beats Manchester United 2-0
For North Korea, Iran-style nuclear deal not an option
US official: Plane debris in Indian Ocean same type as MH370
Whatever you decide about that, let’s be clear about this: When it comes to Tom Cruise and his du-rability as an action hero, luck has little to do with it. The guy’s an action star extraordinaire, and it’s not luck or chance but work and smarts and yes, some swashbuck-ling derring-do that get him there. Whatever you may think of Cruise and his complex off-screen persona, let’s give him this: At age 53, he and his Ethan Hunt are, if anything, getting more fun to watch. And they make “Rogue Nation” not merely a serviceable summer flick, but an entertainment well worth your
inflated ticket price.Let’s give kudos to a few other
folks, too, starting with director-writer Christopher McQuarrie, who, like each director in the franchise, puts his own stamp on the pro-ceedings. McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”) does this with both a wry script that often makes fun of what’s happening, and some seriously en-tertaining action pieces, including a complicated assassination sequence set in Vienna’s glittering opera house during a lavish production of Puccini’s “Turandot.” (Parents: here’s a chance to get some opera into your kids’ summer — sort
of like hiding the broccoli in the brownie mix.)
Also invaluable is returning “MI” vet Simon Pegg as Benji, the wise-cracking (and safe-cracking) computer whiz who provides a crucial dose not only of humor but also of humanity here. Wel-come newcomers include Alec Baldwin, as a pompous CIA boss with deliciously dry delivery, and Rebecca Ferguson, making the most and then some of the obligatory female role. Ferguson is — get this — Swedish-born, named Ilsa here, and, yes, shows up in Casablanca, too. (ap)
LOS ANGELES — Sylvester Stallone is parting with memorabilia from the “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, but he’s keeping the two characters alive onscreen.
The 69-year-old entertainer an-nounced Thursday that he’ll put hundreds of props and costumes from his 40-year career up for auc-tion in October, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting military chari-ties. Some of the items Stallone has agreed to sell include Rambo’s Army jacket and Rocky’s gloves, robe and boxing trunks.
Stallone isn’t saying goodbye to the characters. Ins tead , he’s set to become Rocky Balboa again onscreen in “Creed” this fall and is working on another “ R a m b o ” installment.
Stallone said today’s fascination with cine-matic superheroes leaves little room for the “lone wolf” or “man against the odds” characters he likes to play.
“That’s kind of why I’m still around, because I embrace that and it’s become kind of a rar-ity and there’s not many of us left,” he said in a recent interview. “Will that come around again? I don’t think so. Not in its purest form... So I embrace it and that’s why I want to continue to do it until my body explodes.”
First up is “Creed,” by writer-director Ryan Coogler. Stallone is
Rocky, but this time he’s coach to a young star boxer played by Michael B. Jordan.
“By no means is this a ‘Rocky 7,’” Stallone said. “This is a jour-ney for Michael B. Jordan, who is brilliant in the movie, and Ryan Coogler, (for whom) this is a very personal film.”
When Coogler first approached Stallone about the film, he
declined, saying he felt Rocky had “run his
course.”After mak-
ing “Fruitvale Station,” the f i lmmaker returned to discuss the role again.
“I’ve nev-er seen some-one who was so persis-tent,” Stal-lone said. He ought to know, after hold-
ing out to play the titular character in his breakthrough script, “Rocky,” back in 1976.
At work now on a screenplay for a new “Ram-bo” film, Stallone admitted, “It re-ally is not fun.”
He still thinks the character is compelling — “Where Rocky is the height of op-timism, this guy is the height of pessimism,” he said — but finds wri t ing more challenging than any other artistic discipline. (ap)
Stallone puts ‘Rocky,’ ‘Rambo’ memorabilia
up for auction
Heritage Auctions via AP
This photo provided by Heritage Auctions shows the Rocky Bal-boa boxing ring robe
worn by actor Sylvester Stallone in the 1985 film, “Rocky IV,” is
among the costumes and personal items
consigned by Stallone to Heritage Auctions for a public auction in Los
Angeles and online, October 14-15, 2015.
Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions
In this image released by Paramount Pictures, Rebecca Ferguson, left, and Tom Cruise appear in a scene from “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.”
Mission accomplished for Cruise in new ‘MI’ flick
ThErE’S some interesting talk in the cleverly satisfying script of “Mission: Impossible — rogue Nation” about the element of luck. As in: how much is luck a factor in the success of Ethan hunt and his IMF cohorts? After all, in the last movie they merely saved us from a nuclear holocaust. Was it talent, work, or dumb luck?
It was conveyed by the Head of the Denpasar Public Works Agency, I Ketut Winarta, at the Denpasar parliamentary building, Tuesday (Jul. 29). Previously, a number of
legislators questioned about the handling of flooding threat in the city considering that all this time Denpasar is always haunted by the threat of flooding during rainy
season. “Until now, no matter how small the flood disaster in Denpasar must be anticipated and get the attention from relevant agencies,” said a legislator of the Denpasar House, I.B. Ketut Kiana.
Kiana also mentioned that some drainage improvements are not done thoroughly as happened to Jalan Gunung Sari, Sanur Kauh. “We also receive complaints from residents about the discontinued
project at Sanur Kauh,” said the people’s representative from Sanur Kaja.
Related to these questions, Wi-narta said that his party had made a number of breakthroughs to cope with the flood disaster. In addition to dredging some drains, his party has also made canal being able to suppress floods. As evidence, until now flooding points have reduced from 18 to 11 points. “We continue
to make this effort so that it can reduce the threat of puddles and flooding in Denpasar,” said Wi-narta. (kmb12)
IBP/Wawan
Traffic jam causing by flood occurred during rainy season in Denpasar. Denpasar belonging to lowland area is often hit by floods. As evidence, a number of locations in Denpasar are frequently hit by floods.
DENPASAr - Denpasar belonging to lowland area is often hit by floods. As evidence, a number of locations in Denpasar are frequently hit by floods. Various efforts to mitigate the threat continue to be made, where so far it still leaves at least 11 points of flood, like at Sanur, Jalan Teuku Umar as well as in front of Mitra 10.
News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http://globalfmbali.listen2my-
radio.com or live video streaming at http://radioglobalfmbali.com and http://ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.
Denpasar has 11 points prone to floodsPage 8
Paris Saint-Germain beats Manchester United 2-0
International2 Friday, July 31, 2015 15International Activities
Bali News Friday, July 31, 2015
Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bagiarta. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp.
(0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post
EvEry Temple and Shrine has a special date for it annual Ceremony, or “ Odalan “, every 210 days according to Balinese calendar, including the smaller ancestral shrine which each family possesses. Because of this practically every few days a ceremony of festival of some kind takes place in some Village in Bali. There are also times when the entire island celebrated the same Holiday, such as at Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi day, Saraswati day, Tumpek Landep day, Pagerwesi day, Tumpek Wayang day etc.
The dedication or inauguration day of a Temple is considered its birth day and celebration always takes place on the same day if the wuku or 210 day calendar is used. When new moon is used then the celebration always happens on new moon or full moon. The day of course can differ the religious celebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some temple celebrating for three days while the celebration of Besakih temple, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and most of the time it lasts for 11 days, depending on the importance of the occasion.
The celebration is very colorful. The shrine are dressed with pieces of cloths and sometimes with brocade, sailings, deco-rations of carved wood and sometimes painted with gold and Chinese coins, very beautifully arranged, are hung in the four corners of the shrine. In front of shrine are placed red, white or black umbrellas depending which Gods are worshipped in the shrines.
In front of important shrine one sees, besides these umbrel-las soars, tridents and other weapons, the “umbul-umbul”, long flags, all these are prerogatives or attributes of Holiness. In front of the Temple gate put up “Penjor”, long bamboo poles, decorated beautifully ornaments of young coconut leaves, rice and other products of the land. Most beautiful to see are the girls in their colorful attire, carrying offerings, arrangements of all kinds fruits and colored cakes, to the Temple. Every visitor admires the grace with which the carry their load on their heads.
Balinese Temple Ceremony
As a 4+ star accommodation, the Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach recently held a grooming training program for all employees. This activity is positively welcomed and fully supported by the General Manager, Wahyu A. Bayuaji.
Indriani conveyed that grooming train-ing aims to equalize the performance of employees in accordance with international hotel standards. “As tourism players dealing directly with guests, the appearance is very important to support professionalism at work-place,” she explained friendly.
In the future, the Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach claimed as the best family accommo-dation in Legian area will also hold a Beauty Class to broaden the insight of the employees in applying beauty care and accessories. “El-egant, neat and fragrant appearance does not only reflect good corporate image, but also increases the added value and confidence for everyone,” she said.
LEGIAN - The general manager who opened the iconic Chedi Mus-cat for GHM in 2003 is returning to the luxury hotel group’s fold this month as he takes charge of The Legian Bali.
André Kretschmann moves to the acclaimed 68 all-suite resort with its 11-villa sister property in Seminyak – The Club at The Legian – after six years as an area general manager for the Cheval Blanc Group across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.
From 1995 to 2005, Kretschmann was a mainstay at GHM, where he managed properties in Jakarta, on Phuket, in Oman and on Sri Lanka.
“André spent a good deal of his career with us at GHM, and really helped define the image of a GHM manager,” said GHM President Hans R. Jenni, who co-founded the group with Adrian Zecha in 1992.
On the verge of its 20th Anniver-sary, The Legian endures as one of the most highly regarded hotels on Bali, typically landing among top-3 or top-5 lists of the island’s 1,000-plus hotels. The resort was also re-cently inducted into TripAdvisor’s
IBP/kmb
Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach new look
LEGIAN - “Just imagine that we are dealing with slovenly, smelly, messy and uncomfortable people, it is inconvenient, right?” It is revealed by Sales Manager of Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach, In-driani Kusuma while giving a grooming training.
PROFILE
André KretschmannGM of The Legian Bali
IBP/Courtesy of GHM
Hall of Fame after being awarded with the popular travel review site’s Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years.
Under the watch of Kretschmann’s predecessor, the hotel opened a new, 30-metre infinity lap pool just above the famed sands of Semin-yak, renovated its three-bedroom oceanfront beach house, opened up
new streams of natural light into the hotel rooms and refurbished the spa and wellness facility.
Kretschmann’s career in hos-pitality took flight in his native Germany in the late 1970s. In the mid-1980s, he moved abroad to London and then Paris before relo-cating to Asia where he’s worked for the past 20 years.
SINGArAJA - White Burley tobacco cultivation in Buleleng is still experiencing serious obstacle. Farmers starting to get inter-ested in developing this cigar ingredient tobacco face difficulty to get supplies of seedling in this season. Nevertheless, approximately 50 hectares of land have been planted with White Burley tobacco spreading across Sawan, Buleleng and Sukasada subdistrict.
Some farmers have started the planting of seedlings since the beginning of May 2015. In this year’s planting season, farmers have trouble in getting supplies of White Burley tobacco seedlings. Farmers only rely on the supplies of seedlings from the maker in Banyuwangi, East Java. In the meantime, local farmers have never tried to produce seedlings independently. Actually, if they produce seedlings independently, it can alleviate their operational costs.
It is evidenced by the price of tobacco seedling prepared in Banyu-wangi reaches IDR 150,000 each. Due to long distance, the delivery of seedlings from Banyuwangi has a risk of death if to be planted in Buleleng. In addition, in this planting season the farmers in Buleleng lack of seedling supply. Of the 50 hectares of land available, only 30 hectares can be filled with the seedling supply from Banyuwangi.
In the meantime, the seedlings need for 20 hectares of land are met by the independent nursery made by local farmers facilitated by the Buleleng Forestry and Agriculture Agency.
The Division Head of Plantation, Nyoman Partayasa, with permission from the Head of the Buleleng Plantation and Forestry Agency, Ketut Nerda, admitted at his office last Wednesday that farmers in the region still find difficulty in obtaining supplies of White Burley tobacco seedlings. He added that farmers have actually been taught and facilitated about the techniques and the tobacco seeds have been prepared by the agency. However, since farmers have the habit of buying seedlings ready to be planted, the independent preparation of seedlings has not been done opti-mally. By independent nurseries in the area, farmers can reduce their operating capital. In addition, the death risk of the seedlings during the planting time will be prevented. Over this condition, lately through group counseling to farmers the agency has strived to sensitize farmers related to self-production of the White Burley tobacco seedlings.
“Farmers still rely on the purchase from Banyuwangi. Due to high demand in this year’s planting season, we finally lack of seedlings. This problem may not happen again and we will strive to sensitize farmers to produce their seedling independently,” he said.
On the other hand, Partayasa said that the development of White Burley tobacco in Buleleng these days is constantly increasing. It is in appropriate with the data from 2013 where farmers just made a pilot project on two hectares of land.
In 2014, the acreage increased to 17 hectares and this year in-creases again to 50 hectares. The addition of this land area shows that farmers are keen to cultivate White Burley tobacco. Besides, farmers have also proved that in terms of price this tobacco is quite expensive namely around IDR 37,000 per kg. Other than having relatively good price, the production cost is also much cheaper than that of Virginia tobacco. He cited that one hectare of land only needs production cost as much as IDR 35 million.
In the meantime, the total production reaches 1.5 tons per hect-are, so that farmers get total sales revenue worth IDR 55.5 million. Then, when it is reduced with the production cost worth IDR 35 million, farmers obtain profits as much as IDR 20.5 million. “The production cost is low because tobacco is dried by drying and does not need an oven and LPG stove. This hefty profit encourages our farmers to develop it and the demand of manufacture is also high, so that this opportunity must be captured by our farmers,” added Partayasa. (kmb38)
Operations Manager of Tanah Lot attraction, I Ketut Toya Ad-nyana, explained that other than being crowded by pilgrims, the Tanah Lot tourist attraction is also thronged by travelers. Aside from the Tanah Lot attraction, they also get interested in the procession of temple birthday taking place at three temples located in the area of Tanah Lot. “The convoy of pilgrims increases the beauty of Tanah Lot. Not infrequently, travelers are hunt-ing the rare moment to capture some pictures,” he said.
Tourist arrival continued to in-crease by the afternoon. Moreover, travelers mingled with the pilgrims
on the shoreline to capture the amazing moment. “This piodalan ceremony even adds to the tourist attraction. On that account, many travelers are waiting for the cer-emony in order to enjoy the tourist area of Tanah Lot,” said Toya.
To help smooth the ceremonial process and traffic of pilgrims, all parties at the Tanah Lot attraction are deployed and assisted by cus-tomary youth of Beraban village. “They pay devotional work in turn and already started it on Sunday (Jul. 26),” said Toya. According to him, each customary hamlet at Bera-ban customary village deploys their customary youth to pay devotional
work at the Tanah Lot Temple.The birthday ceremony at the Ta-
nah Lot Temple itself has been held from one o’clock in the morning, Wednesday (Jul. 29) officiated over by temple priest of Beraban cus-tomary village. Peak of the crowds habitually happens at one o’clock in the afternoon till night. In the mean-time, one day earlier, Tuesday (Jul. 28), was held the purificatory rite for the deities to north spring of the Tanah Lot Temple. The ceremony was held at three o’clock in the af-ternoon to purify all the sanctified effigies and ritual paraphernalia to be used in temple birthday on the following day. (kmb24)
White Burley tobacco cultivation hampered by seedlings
Piodalan at Tanah Lot Temple flooded by pilgrims and travelers
TABANAN - Thousands of Hindu pilgrims thronged the Tanah Lot Temple at Kediri, Tabanan to attend a series of piodalan or temple birthday, Wednesday (Jul. 29). In addition to Tanah Lot Temple, similar ceremony also took place at the Batu Bolong and Penataran Temple equally located at Tanah Lot.
IBP/File
The Hindus pray in Tanah Lot
3Friday, July 31, 2015 14 InternationalInternational Bali NewsFashion Friday, July 31, 2015
The idea behind the All Star II is comfort, Converse said in a statement Thursday.
The update is made of durable Tencel canvas, as opposed to the cotton kind, with higher tech shock absorption in Nike Lunarlon for the footbed. There’s foam padding inside at the ankle, non-slip padded tongues and perforated micro-suede liners along the interior sides.
For the exterior, the iconic circle patch is
embroidered on and eyelets will be colored to match the shoe. In addi-tion, the sole is slightly higher than traditional Chucks.
The easily recognizable rubber toe cap wil l remain. The new shoe goes on sale J u l y 2 8 i n black, white, red and blue.
(ap)
PARIS — British singer Jane Birkin has asked Hermes to take her name off the crocodile-skin ver-sions of the iconic Birkin handbag, after being contacted by animal rights group PETA over “cruel” slaughtering practices.
A PETA video from June shows several reptiles at a Texas farm that supplies crocodile skins to Hermes left twitching in a bloody ice con-tainer to die after being shot with a captive bolt gun and cut with a knife.
Birkin said in a statement ob-tained Wednesday that she was “alerted to the cruel practices ... to make Hermes handbags car-rying my name” and has “asked Hermes to de-baptize the Birkin Croco until better practices in line with international norms can be put in place.”
The Birkin bag was created in 1984 by Hermes in honor of the famed singer and ex-girlfriend of Serge Gainsbourg, and is, still today, one of the world’s most ex-clusive luxury items.
The bag is beloved by stars such as Victoria Beckham and comes in calf, ostrich, lizard as well as croco-dile. It can cost between $10,000 and over $100,000, with waiting lists to buy it famously stretching into the years.
PETA said it takes three croco-dile belly skins to make one hand-bag. In their expose, at the Lone Star Alligator Farms, PETA shows abattoir employees referring to live crocodiles and alligators as “watch straps.”
No publicly listed phone num-ber for Lone Star Alligator Farms in Winnie, Texas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Houston, could immediately be located Wednesday.
Steve Lightfoot, a spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Depart-
ment, which regulates the commer-cial production and harvesting of alligators in Texas, said that Lone Star Alligator Farms has a current permit and is operating legally.
PETA filed a complaint on Feb. 25 with the TPWD seeking revoca-tion of Lone Star Alligator Farms’ permit, which the agency declined to do following an unannounced fa-cility inspection March 2 by several state game wardens.
“Our folks did indicate this site was fairly impeccable as far as the conditions, the record-keeping,” Lightfoot said.
The game wardens found some minor code violations, related to height of a structure and one alliga-tor with a mild bacterial infection, leading to misdemeanor citations, Lightfoot said.
“We don’t have any issues with Lone Star Alligator Farms,” Light-foot said Wednesday about the status of the company.
The PETA investigation, how-ever, found “filthy conditions” at the facility, said Kathy Guillermo, a senior vice president for the animal rights group.
“Our investigator in Texas spent most of the day standing in knee deep, filthy, putrid water that had as many as 55 alligators in it, when according to the state’s own statute it should have no more than six,” Guillermo said.
Contacted by The Associated Press, Hermes said it “respects and shares (Birkin’s) emotions” and was “shocked by the images recently broadcast.” An investigation, it says, is underway.
While the fashion powerhouse acknowledges that the Texas farm supplies it with crocodile skins, Hermes says they aren’t used spe-cifically for the Birkin bag. Hermes also uses croc for watchstraps and other bags. (ap)
Converse via A
P
AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File
Jane Birkin asks Hermes to take her name off croc handbag
Converse rolling out first Chuck Taylor update in 98 years
NEW YORK — Con-verse Chuck Taylor All Star fans rejoice! Your favorite sneaker is receiving its first construction update since debuting 98 years ago.
Grigson’s visit to Bali is aimed to develop business opportunities in the tourism sector.
According to the media release, during the visit, Ambassador Grigson will meet Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika and Prince of Ubud Ida Tjokorda Putra.
“Australians have a special fondness for Bali, and with almost a million Australians visiting each year, it is an island full of warm memories, largely due to the friendly nature and generosity of the Balinese people,” Grig-son remarked.
The Australian ambassador to Indonesia will also visit the Konservasi Sawah Founda-tion, supported by the Australian Consulate-General’s Direct Aid Program (DAP).
Founded in 2013, the Konservasi Sawah Foundation works to conserve land and gen-erate economic opportunities for Balinese farmers.
An Ambassador’s Award will also be pre-sented to Chairman and Managing Director of the Bali Hai Group Richard Chandler in recognition of the company’s success in the tourism sector over the last 25 years. (r)
TABANAN - Pupuan belongs to one of the coffee producers whose quality cannot be denied. The ro-busta coffee of Pupuan has even become a national champion for the best coffee quality. Despite hav-ing potential, the robusta coffee of Pupuan still requires certification so that its selling price can be increased.
By all means, the increase in the selling price will certainly have an impact on the welfare of farmers and the preservation of coffee plants in Pupuan.
The Head of the Tabanan Forestry and Plantation Agency, Roemi Li-estyowati, explained that currently the process of certification is still go-
ing on. By teaming up with academi-cians from the Udayana University, the study on the type and soil nutrient in Pupuan will be carried out. Exam-ination of soil nutrients is considered important because Pupuan robusta coffee has unique characteristic of the same kind in Indonesia. “Pupuan robusta coffee has slightly different
IBP/Net
Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson commences a three-day visit to Bali on Thursday to meet political leaders and members of the Indonesian and Australian business, arts, and alumni communities.
Australian Ambassador visits BaliDENPASAR - Australian Ambassador
to Indonesia Paul Grigson commences a three-day visit to Bali on Thursday to meet political leaders and members of the Indonesian and Australian business, arts, and alumni communities.
Coffee plant of Pupuan must be preserved
IBP/Wira
Pupuan belongs to one of the coffee producers whose quality cannot be denied. The robusta coffee of Pupuan has even become a national champion for the best coffee quality.
color and distinctive fragrance. So, we need more researches on the specifications,” said Roemi.
The certification will assure quality of coffee produced, so that it directly increases the selling price. Thus, the increase in farm-ers’ income will make them more prosperous. Indirectly, it will also prevent land conversion and the coffee plantations can be preserved. Moreover, the coffee plant is one of the vertical plants functioning to absorb and store water in Tabanan.
“Coffee plant in Tabanan be-comes one of the plants functioning as water absorbent so that no drought will occur at downstream. On that account, the coffee plant needs to be preserved,” said Roemi. The area of coffee plantation in Pupuan alone reaches approximately 7,800 hectares.
In the meantime, Chairman of the Association of the Pupuan Coffee Productive Business Unit, Wayan Dira, explained that Pupuan robusta coffee has started to be interested by Korean exporters. As evidence, his party already delivered six contain-ers of coffee to Korea, Wednesday (Jul. 29). “Actually the exporter requested ten containers. However, we can only meet the demand gradu-ally,” he said.
Regarding the certification, added Dira, robusta coffee is cur-rently under process, while the Arabica coffee has been certified for the area of 100 hectares. He
acknowledged that the certification indicates if the quality of coffee produced is guaranteed. Of course, it will have an impact on the selling price of the coffee. To that end, he hoped the government to assist and facilitate farmers in the certification process. (kmb24)
Bali News International4 Friday, July 31, 2015 Friday, July 31, 2015 13International
In a flurry of public comments since the deal, the North has been blunt: Its nuclear weapons are not a bargaining chip; it is already a member of the nuclear club; and if Washington wants to talk, it must recognize the North as such or put an immediate end to its hostile policies toward Pyongyang. Clearly, the differ-ences between North Korea and Iran are vast.
North Korea has already gone down the negotiations road and come out on the other end with a small but potentially threatening nuclear arsenal. North Korea is also still technically at war with the U.S. and has a powerful rival and U.S. ally, South Korea, along with tens of thousands of U.S. troops right across the Demilita-rized Zone. Each year, U.S. and South Korea hold massive war games in preparation for a pos-sible invasion from the North, or, as Pyongyang sees it, an invasion of the North. The biggest issue of all, however, could simply be that it is not in the DNA of North
Korea’s leaders to flip-flop.Pyongyang’s desire for a nu-
clear defense against the far superior U.S. forces probably originates with the country’s founder and first president, Kim Il Sung. For the current leader, Kim Jong Un, his grandson, re-versing that course would be an unprecedentedly bold break with the past and bring into question the portrayal of the ruling Kim dynasty as infallible.
When North Korean leaders ponder the option of giving up their nuclear weapons — if they ever seriously do — the benefits Iran will likely reap from its deal with the United States are prob-ably not foremost on their minds. More likely, they recall the fate of Libyan dictator Moammar Gad-hafi, who abandoned his nuclear program and ended up being de-posed, hunted down and killed by rebel forces after months on the run. Though one didn’t directly lead to the other, Gadhafi’s fate is seen in Pyongyang as a potent cautionary tale.
Without referring to the Iran talks, Kim Jong Un told veterans gathered last week in Pyongyang for the 62nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the fight-ing in the 1950-53 Korean War that peace has yet to come to the Korean Peninsula. He held fast to the North’s constant warnings to its people that they must be ready for another, final showdown with the United States. He also said the North’s possession of nuclear weapons has dramatically shifted the balance of power.
“Our force at present is not what it was in the 1950s, when we had to fight with rifles in our hands against the U.S. imperial-ists armed to the teeth,” he said in the address, which was re-peatedly broadcast on television and carried in full in the North’s state-run newspapers. “We now possess such a force as to fight any form of warfare of the choice of the United States. We have a might powerful enough to deter the United States from unleash-ing a nuclear war.” (ap)
YANGON — More than 150 Chinese workers sentenced to life in prison for illegal logging were freed in Myanmar on Thursday under a massive presidential pardon that included nearly 7,000 prisoners.
Others who were freed included former military intelligence of-ficials purged by their army col-leagues more than a decade ago, and at least a handful of journalists and social activists.
An Information Ministry state-ment said 6,966 prisoners, includ-ing 210 foreigners, were being freed across the country “on hu-manitarian grounds and in view of national reconciliation.” No official lists of pardoned prisoners are is-sued, so the names usually come from the prisoners themselves or their families. The majority are common criminals.
The pardons issued by President Thein Sein were timed to coincide with a Buddhist religious holiday and come ahead of a November general election. The polls have triggered criticism that the govern-ment is backsliding on political reforms it promised upon taking power in 2011, after almost five decades of repressive military rule. Past governments have released po-litical prisoners as a way of easing criticism from abroad.
Those released included 155
Chinese workers, all but two of whom received life sentences ear-lier this month in connection with illegal logging in northern Myan-mar. Their jail terms drew much ire in China, which is a top ally of Myanmar. The punishment seemed largely to serve as a warning not to make business deals with Myanmar ethnic rebel groups, as the Chinese logging company was believed to have done.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Myanmar authorities had notified Chinese officials that the 155 would be handed over to their custody on Friday.
Despite close ties, there are significant tensions between China and Myanmar. Chinese economic penetration is big and highly visible in northern Myanmar, and some large infrastructure and mining projects have drawn charges of be-ing insensitive to the environment and local concerns.
China is also seen as providing a safe haven for some Myanmar ethnic rebel groups, with whom Myanmar’s government wants to reach cease-fire agreements.
Others who were pardoned in-cluded eight former senior military intelligence officers, who since 2004 have been serving jail terms of 80 years or more, according to their families. (ap)
AP Photo/Khin Maung Win
Released prisoners on a police truck wave to their relatives and colleagues at entrance of Insein Prison, Thursday, July 30, 2015, in Yangon. Nearly 7,000 prisoners in Myanmar, includ-ing some former military intelligence officials who had been purged by their army colleagues, have been given presidential pardons.
Myanmar pardons China loggers among nearly 7,000 prisoners
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
FILE - In this July 28, 2015 file photo, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il Hun speaks during a new conference in New York.
For North Korea, Iran-style nuclear deal not an option
PYONGYANG — If any hopes have been raised that the progress between the United States and Iran to halt Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons could bring change in Pyongyang, North Korea has gone out of its way to thwart them.
AMLAPURA - Early marriage or young marriage rate in Karangasem is high. This young marriage triggers high rate of maternal mortality in Karangasem.
It was announced by the Head of Women Empowerment and Family Planning, Priagung Duarsa, Wednesday (Jul. 29), in Karangasem dur-ing the medico-technical meeting in Amlapura. Young marriage occurs even at the age of 15 years to 19 years. “Young marriage rate occurred at the age of 15-19 years is quite high, but I do not remember the exact numbers,” he said.
Young marriage, he said, is also prone to cause maternal mortality. In fact, the maternal rate in Karangasem is still high, even the highest in Bali. It is said that early marriage has something to do with infant birth defect or infant mortality and maternal mortality because young marriage does have a high risk. It happens because reproductive organ at an early age has not fully developed, so that it is not ready to give birth. “Early marriage is certainly not ready physically and mentally, including the economic readiness of the house-hold. On that account, early marriage is also prone to result in household tempest or broken home,” he said.
To mature the age of marriage among the gen-erations of Karangasem, said Priagung Duarsa, his party has a reproductive health education program to schools, including the provision of counseling information center for teenagers. Besides, it will also be held generation planning program to schools that aims to prevent early marriages. (013)
Chairman of the Education Council, Wayan Madra, recently said that there are at least hundreds of NFE with unclear license. They mostly proliferate in urban areas like in the town of Tabanan.
“We do not prohibit the exis-tence of non-formal education. But at least, the clarity related to the institution must be able to be accounted for. Thus, the learners
will not be harmed. Moreover, we have seen they have amounted to hundreds of institution,” he said.
He pointed out that many teach-ers open courses or tutoring be-yond school hours and charge certain amount of fee beyond school tuition. Not infrequently, the students that do not attend the courses or extra lessons are often sequestered during the lesson at
school.“It’s not good, and should be
corrected. There is tendency that teachers more easily give the way to resolve questions during the course or tutoring, while school hours posing formal education are often not maximized,” he explained.
Not only that, the other large NFEs also mushrooming along Jalan Bypass Soekarno will also be targeted. In the next monitor-ing, the education council wants to know the extent of the correlation between the educational institu-tions to relevant agencies such as
the Education Agency, especially in terms of reporting. “Do not let the Agency Head sign certificate but having no correlation to the Education Agency,” he said.
If in the monitoring his party gets findings, the Education Agen-cy will make recommendation to the Education Agency for im-mediate action. “We recommend closing the illegal educational institutions,” he said.
As has been known, the Educa-tional Council as the originator of the Education Clinic in Tabanan County is recently aggressive to handle a wide variety of education
issues. Other than targeting teach-ers facing difficulties or obstacles in conducting research or making paper, the education clinic will also intensively supervise the implementation of the student orientation term (MOS) alleged to still hold activities complicating new students.
“Related to the student orien-tation, so far there have been no things considered to have deviated from the existing provisions. How-ever, there are still difficult tasks requested by seniors to younger class during the orientation,” he concluded. (kmb28)
AMLAPURA - Participants of the Utsawa Dharma Gita (UDG) or Dharma song festival for the category of Hindu sermon (dhar-ma vacana) in English language were simultaneously nurtured starting on Wednesday (Jul. 29) in Karangasem. The sermon in English language was held for the first time.
It was announced by the Head of the Karangasem Culture and Tourism Agency, I Wayan Purna,
last Monday. In addition to par-ticipants of English-speaking sermon, at the same time is also fostered the other competi-tions such as memorizing sloka (Sanskrit verse) for children and adults. Participants of the training consist of 79 children and adults. They are directed by 42 coaches such as the artist Ida Nyoman Sugata, Ida Wayan Jelantik Oka and humanist Dewa Gde Catra. “Development of the
UDG participants is meant to make preparation for the UDG event of the Bali provincial level next September,” said Purna.
Division Head of the Cus-tomary Affairs of the Tourism and Culture Agency, Wayan Witrawan, said that the sermon in English is something new or the first time to be held in the UDG Bali next September. In the meantime, the coach of the English language sermon, I
Gusti Komang Kawi, an English teacher at the SMPN 1 Manggis junior high school, said that the implementation of sermon in English language is based on consideration that Hinduism is a religion professed by people around the world.
As for Bali, it has also become a tourist destination visited by travelers from around the world, including those from India and Malaysia making a pilgrimage to
Besakih. Besides, many foreign-ers also come to Bali to know more about Hinduism. On that account, English-speaking ser-monizer must also be prepared.
“Karangasem has also initiated a spiritual tourism. More and more foreigners come to Karan-gasem. Surely when they ask for an explanation on Hinduism, we must be ready even in foreign languages, especially English,” said Kawi. (013)
English-speaking UDG participants get training
Hundreds of illegal NFE institutions found in TabananTABANAN - Increasingly widespread indications of illegal
non-formal education (NFE) in some areas of Tabanan get special attention from the Tabanan Education Council. As planned, in the near future the Education Council will conduct a monitoring against the education institutions feared to harm learners.
Young marriage rate increases, maternal mortality high
IBP/File
The newly married couple carry out ceremony
Bali News Friday, July 31, 2015 5InternationalFriday, July 31, 201512 International
BUSINESS
With the mood on global markets a little more upbeat than at the start of the week, oil prices edged up al-though concerns over a supply glut are keeping a lid on rises.
Tokyo jumped 1.08 percent, or 219.92 points, to 20,522.83 as the yen weakened against the
greenback and top firms including Nintendo reported strong earnings. Sydney rose 0.81 percent, or 45.3 points, to close at 5,669.5 thanks to a pick-up in iron ore prices.
Shanghai suffered a late sell-off to end 2.20 percent lower, dropping 83.40 points to 3,705.77, while
Hong Kong followed the losses to close down 0.49 percent, or 121.47 points, at 24,497.98.
Seoul dropped 0.91 percent, or 18.59 points, to 2,019.03, hurt by selling in heavyweight Samsung Electronics after it reported disap-pointing earnings.
After a two-day policy meet-ing, the Fed said in a statement that the world’s top economy had expanded “moderately” in recent months and the jobs market had
strengthened, but it noted contin-ued “soft” business investment and exports.
It also said inflation was below target, though it put much of that down to falling energy prices and to cheaper imports caused by the strong dollar.
While it gave no more clues about its plans for raising interest rates, analysts said the wording sug-gested September was now a strong possibility for a rate rise.
On Wall Street, the Dow rose 0.69 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.73 percent and the Nasdaq ad-vanced 0.44 percent. The gains were the second in a row after US stocks suffered a five-day losing streak.
“The Fed statement was similar to the last and it was a very modest upgrade to previous language,” said Raiko Shareef, a markets strategist at Bank of New Zealand in Wel-lington. (afp)
SEOUL — Samsung Elec-tronics suffered a fifth straight drop in quarterly earnings as the Galaxy S6 failed to reverse its declining fortunes in global smartphone sales.
The company’s overall earn-ings drop during the April-June quarter was 8 percent but it reported a much bigger decline of 38 percent in the mobile divi-sion’s income. The sharp profit drop in the mobile business came despite its ambitious start to the quarter with the launch of two flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge featuring a curved side display.
“Total sales of the S6 and S6 Edge during the second quarter were below expectations,” Park Jinyoung, a vice president at Samsung’s mobile communica-tions team, said on a conference call Thursday.
The decline in the mobile profit was smaller than the pre-vious quarter’s nearly 60 per-cent plunge, but it extended the mobile division’s losing streak. Samsung’s sky-high growth in the smartphone industry came to a sudden stop in 2013 as bigger iPhone models lured buyers from Samsung phones and Chinese phone makers squeezed its sales in China.
Samsung’s April-June net income was 5.8 trillion won ($5 billion), down 8 percent from 6.3 trillion won a year earlier. A Fact-Set survey of analysts predicted 5.6 trillion won of net income.
Sales fell 7 percent over a year earlier to 48.5 trillion won
while operating income dropped 4 percent to 6.9 trillion won, in line with its earnings preview
earlier this month. It generated 2.8 trillion won operating in-come from the mobile business
compared with 4.4 trillion won a year earlier.
The only bright spot came
from sales of components pow-ering smartphones. A robust performance at its semiconductor department helped narrow the overall profit decline. Operating income from its semiconductor division surpassed the 3 trillion won mark for the first time in several years.
Samsung pinned high hopes on the S6 and S6 Edge phones when they were introduced in April. So much so that local media dubbed them the “Lee Jae-yong phone,” indicating that they were over-seen by the Samsung chairman’s son, Lee Jae-yong. He is a vice chairman at Samsung who is widely expected to succeed his ailing father.
But sales of the flagship mod-els fell short, dealing a blow to the 47-year-old heir apparent who is under pressure to demonstrate he is capable of leading the Asian consumer technology giant at a time of serious challenges.
The company was hit by two problems with its Galaxy S6 se-ries. The regular version of the phone, the Galaxy S6, wasn’t as popular as expected, while it could not keep up with demand for the S6 Edge model, which features a display that curves on both sides that is more difficult to produce.
Market research firm IDC said Samsung, still the world’s largest maker of smartphones, was the only top five smartphone vendor that lost market share during the second quarter, falling to 22 percent, from 25 percent a year earlier. (ap)
Dollar up on Fed rate talk, Asia markets mostly rise
HONG KONG - The dollar pushed higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the US economy, fuelling talk of a September interest rate hike, while Asian shares were mostly up after a Wall Street rally.
Galaxy S6 fails to reverse profit decline at Samsung
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
An employee of Samsung Electronics Co. watches a mobile phone near an advertisement of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphone at a Samsung Electronics shop in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2015.
Recalling the pivotal role played by A.S. Takhi in build-ing bridges between the India & Bali, both Governor Pastika & Ambassador Gurjit Singh were effusive in their recognition and praise for the yeoman’s service by the first Consul General of India in Bali in raising the level of connectivity between peoples of both the countries. The Gov-ernor wished them well for their future endeavours. He was also appreciative of the role played by the Consul General Takhi & the Indian community in developing a harmonious and prosperous Bali. The Governor also sang an evergreen Hindi song, the Bahasa Indonesia version of which has been popular all over Indonesia and of which the Governor is highly fond of, as he hummed the same during his youthful days.
The Ambassador acknowl-edged that Consul General Takhi has indeed carried out his man-
date in remarkable manner not only in the island of Bali but also in several other provinces in eastern Indonesia. He particu-larly referred to the huge success of Sahabat India Festival held in different locations in eastern Indonesia and particularly in universities & schools in this region. The Ambassador thanked the Balinese community for their emphatic support to the Consul General and his team in strength-ening the friendship between two countries.
Earlier, during his farewell address, Consul General Takhi conveyed his greetings to the Balinese community on the Ga-lungan & Kuningan celebrations. He profusely thanked the Gover-nor and his entire administration as well as the entire Balinese community for their consistent support and encouragement. He also expressed his thanks to the provincial & regional adminis-
trations across 15 provinces in eastern Indonesia covering the is-lands of Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua, East & South Kalimantan which form the con-sular districts of the Consulate General of India in Bali. He ap-preciated the assistance received from the universities, schools, socio-cultural institutions, art & cultural personalities and the general public at large across eastern Indonesia, in a show-off enormous goodwill for India, with which Indonesia shares civilizational relations.
Bali had record participation in the first International Day of Yoga celebrations held on June 21, 2015 & both Ambassador Gurjit Singh and Consul Gen-eral A.S. Takhi conveyed their appreciation & thanks for the wholehearted support of the Ba-linese community to this excel-lent initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. (r)
BANGLI - Lately a number of people often express their sense of excitement by dissipating. Some-times, this behavior often results in new problems leading to personal grudges. Apparently this matter does not happen to people at Kayu-bihi village, Bangli. Their joy in life is expressed through the tradition known as Egg War as organized on Wednesday (Jul. 29).
Chief of Kayubihi customary village, I Wayan Sadia, said that the tradition poses a heritage passed down from generation to generation. It is implemented on the Ngusabha Pausa or Kelod. This tradition undergoes similar condi-tion to the Mapeed Ngiring Tangas tradition that has not been held for 22 years due to cuntaka or tempo-rary impurity of the village and construction of several temples at local village. “It has become a tradition of local village. However, it has long not been implemented due to impurity of local village and the construction of several temples. This can just be realized after being dormant for 22 years,” he explained.
Associated with the name of the tradition, explained Sadia, the egg war is not throwing eggs, but using a ball made from young coconut or palm leaf sizing a small child’s fist. The egg war is organized in a series of Nyunding procession meaning to express people’s excitement having been endowed with prosperity.
In addition, when the mutu-
ally throwing action begins, the public is not allowed to be angry or revengeful. “This tradition is intended to implement the Tri Kaya Parisudha (good thought, speech and deed) concept. When throw-ing, all the participants may not say rude, may not get angry and may not be revengeful. After the event, it must still be applied,” he said.
Before the throwing action be-gins, all the participants, namely Jero Truna and Pamuit village and Uduhan village must say prayers first at Pausa Temple located in the east of Kayubihi meeting hall. After the prayers, participants are divided into two camps and move toward the front area of Pausa Temple. It is the time for distributing eggs to participants and the war immedi-ately begins.
In the procession, firstly, Jero Truna is defeated and driven back to Sepat Sikut Temple (north of Pausa Temple). Secondly, customary vil-lagers pushed customary youth to location in the south of the meeting hall. Ultimately, both groups un-dergo purificatory rite at Pasiraman and Dalem Pingit Temple.
Sadia added that after the purifi-catory rite some participants of the war trigged themselves with young coconut leaf headdress and sarong. After that, all the participants make kawisan gift delivery tradition to widows living at the customary village. Interestingly, prior deliver-ing the gifts, the participants must dance. (sos)
IBP/Sosiawan
Egg war, a tradition to awaken Tri Kaya Parisudha concept
Bali bids farewell to Consul General of India
DENPASAR - In an elegant ceremony at Gedung Wiswa Sabha Utama on 27 July 2015, the Balinese community led by the Governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika and Ibu Ayu Pastika, along with the prominent members of the Indian community led by Ambassador of India to In-donesia and Timor-Leste, H.E. Mr. Gurjit Singh, and the members of the Bali Consular Corps, bid farewell to Mr. A.S. Takhi and Mrs. Gurinder Kaur Takhi, who are expected to depart Bali early next month on their next assignment.
IBP/Courtesy of Consulate India
Friday, July 31, 2015 Friday, July 31, 2015 6 11International International
INDONESIAW RLD
“In line with the several tourism events in Papua, the number of tourist arrivals has continued to in-crease during the past four years,” Mano remarked in Jayapura on Thursday.
He noted that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Papua in 2014 constituted 7,268 foreign tourists and 66,137 domestic tour-ists.
Mano further explained that the increase in the number of tourist arrivals was an outcome of the ef-forts made by the Jayapura Culture and Tourism Office to intensively promote the local tourism attrac-tions.
“In order to develop the tour-ism attractions in Papua to make it a tourist destination in eastern Indonesia, the local authorities
continue to work closely with the tourism ministry and other relevant institutions for holding the tourism events,” Mano affirmed.
He remarked that the local au-thorities annually organize events such as the Humboldt Bay Festival, Baliem Valley Festival, and Lake Sentani Festival to promote the local culture and tourism attrac-tions. (ant)
KUPANG - Seven yachts car-rying some 35 foreign participants arrived at Tendys beach, Kupang, to take part in the annual international maritime event of Sail Indonesia.
“On Tuesday evening, (July 28), seven yachts arrived with around 35 foreign tourists aboard,” Marius Ardu Jelamu, the head of the East Nusa Tenggara tourism and cre-ative economy office, stated on Wednesday.
On July 26, two yachts with some 10 to 15 foreign tourists had also
landed on the beach, he noted.The province is hoping to wel-
come a total of 44 yachts that will take part in Sail Indonesia. These yachts will also sail to other tourist destinations in Indonesia.
Thus, until August 4, some 200 foreign tourists from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and some Asian countries, among others, are estimated to arrive in East Nusa Tenggara, he remarked.
The East Nusa Tenggara authori-
ties have planned several activities, such as a gala dinner and sightsee-ing tours to greet and entertain the tourists.
From Kupang, the yachts will sail to Labuan Bajo, Alor, Rote, and other tourist destinations in the province.
This year’s Sail Indonesia event is called Sail Tomini as the peak ceremony will be held at Pangi Beach located in Tomini Bay, Parigi Moutong District, Central Sulawesi, on September 19, 2015. (ant)
JAKARTA - An Indonesian court Wednesday jailed a Chinese Uighur for six years after he was caught trying to join an Islamic extremist group led by the coun-try’s most wanted militant.
Ahmed Bozoglan was arrested last September on the rugged cen-tral island of Sulawesi as he and three other members of the mostly Muslim ethnic minority attempted to meet militant Santoso, leader of a group known as the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen.
The three others were jailed for six years each earlier this month.
Santoso’s group, which hides out in the jungle in an area known as a militant hotbed, is considered one of the few remaining extrem-ist outfits that pose a serious threat in Indonesia and has been accused of deadly attacks on police.
Santoso has also pledged al-legiance to the Islamic State group.
Presiding judge Houtman Tob-ing said Bozoglan, 28, was guilty of an “evil conspiracy” for seeking to join the Islamic militant group and had also breached immigra-tion laws by entering Indonesia using a fake Turkish passport.
“The defendant’s deeds caused
anxiety and fear,” Tobing told a court in the capital Jakarta.
Bozoglan was also ordered to pay a fine of 100 million rupiah ($7,400) or spend another six months in jail.
Indonesia is home to the world’s biggest Muslim population of about 225 million. It has suffered a string of Islamic militant attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
However, a crackdown in re-cent years has largely dismantled the most dangerous networks.
The Uighur minority come from the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, where the group say they face cultural and religious repression.
Many are believed to have fled the restive region in recent years, sometimes travelling through Southeast Asia in the hope of resettling in Turkey.
Many Turks are sympathetic towards the Uighurs, who have cultural ties with Turkey and speak a Turkic language. There were protests in Turkey when around 100 members of the minor-ity were sent back to China from Thailand this month. (afp)
REUTERS/Nyimas Laula
A model of a Garuda Indonesia plane stands inside Garuda ticket office in Jakarta, Indo-nesia July 29, 2015. Indonesian flagship airline PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk swung to a net profit in the first half of 2015 from a loss a year earlier, sending its shares up more than 7 percent on Wednesday.
Foreign yachts participating in Sail Indonesia arrive in Kupang
Uighur jailed over attempt to join militants
Number of tourist arrivals in Papua increases
JAYAPURA - The number of tourist arrivals in Papua through the provincial city of Jayapura continues to increase every year, according to Mayor of Jayapura Benhur Tommy Mano.Air safety investigators — one
of them a Boeing investigator — have identified the component found on the French island of Reunion as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said. Flight 370, which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, is the only 777 known to be missing.
“It’s the first real evidence that there is a possibility that a part of the aircraft may have been found,” said Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss, whose country is leading the search for the plane in a remote patch of ocean far off Australia’s west coast. “It’s too early to make that judgment, but clearly we are treating this as a major lead.”
Flight 370 had been traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but investigators believe based on satellite data that the plane turned south into the Indian Ocean after vanishing from radar. If the wing part is from the Malaysia plane, it would bolster that theory and put to rest others that it traveled north, or landed somewhere after being hijacked.
The wing piece is about 2 me-ters (6 feet) long. Investigators have found a number on the part, but it is not a serial or registration number, Truss said. It could be a maintenance number, which may help investigators figure out what plane it belongs to, he said.
A French official close to an investigation of the debris con-firmed Wednesday that French
law enforcement is on Reunion to examine it. A French television network was airing video from its Reunion affiliate of the debris. U.S. investigators are examining a photo of the debris. The U.S. and French officials spoke on condition that they not be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Flaperons are located on the rear edge of both wings, about midway between the fuselage and the tips. When the plane is bank-ing, the flaperon on one wing tilts up and the other tilts down, which makes the plane roll to the left or right as it turns.
The piece could help investi-gators figure out how the plane crashed, but whether it will help search crews pinpoint the rest of the wreckage is unclear, given the complexity of the currents in the southern Indian Ocean and the time that has elapsed since the plane disappeared.
A massive multinational search effort of the southern Indian Ocean, the China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand has turned up no trace of the plane.
The last primary radar contact with Flight 370 placed its position over the Andaman Sea about 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of the Malaysian city of Penang. Reunion is about 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) southwest of Pen-ang, and about 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) west of the current search area.
It was well understood after the aircraft disappeared that if
LISBON — Portugal’s center-right coalition government hopes its record overseeing the country’s recovery from the brink of bankruptcy will be enough to get it re-elected.
The Social Democratic Party and Popular Party took office after Portugal received a 78 billion euros ($85.5 billion) bailout in 2011 during Europe’s financial crisis. The left-of-center Socialist Party had been in power for the previous six years.
A general election is scheduled for
October, and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said at the launch of the governing parties’ joint manifesto late Wednesday that “those who rectify the past hold the keys to the future.” He promised “diligent and steadfast” government but offered no major policy initiatives.
Austerity measures designed to reduce government debt, including steep tax hikes and cuts in public services, have been deeply unpopu-lar. (ap)
KATHMANDU — Landslides in a mountain area of Nepal buried three villages Thursday, killing at least 20 people, authorities said.
Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center said the landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall in the village at Lumle, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu, where rescuers pulled out 14 bodies.
An Associated Press camera-man saw police and army rescuers
digging through piles of debris in search of at least 11 more people.
Continuing rain was hampering the rescue. The highway linking the village with Pokhara, the main city in the region, was blocked at several places, delaying rescuers. Bad weather also prevented heli-copters from flying.
Another five bodies were pulled out of nearby Dudhe village on Thursday, where two bridges were washed away.
One more person was killed in the neighboring Baglung district, where the death toll was expected to rise.
Heavy monsoon rains in Nepal often trigger landslides in moun-tains and flooding in southern plains.
The devastating earthquake in April that killed nearly 8,900 peo-ple had set off many landslides and officials fear that the heavy rainfall would trigger more. (ap)
Reunion 1ere via AP
In this image taken from video, police officers looking over a piece of debris from a plane, Wednesday, July 29, 2015, in Saint-Andre, Reunion.
US official: Plane debris in Indian Ocean same type as MH370
SYDNEY — A sea-crusted wing part washed up on an island in the western Indian Ocean may be the first trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 since it vanished nearly a year and a half ago, and a tragic but finally solid clue to one of aviation’s most perplexing and expensive mysteries.
Portuguese government rests on its laurels ahead of election
Landslides bury Nepal villages, killing at least 20 people
there was any floating debris from the plane, Indian Ocean currents would eventually bring it to the east coast of Africa, said aviation safety expert John Goglia, a for-mer member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. But the debris is unlikely to provide much help in tracing the ocean currents back to the location of the main wreckage, he said.
“It’s going to be hard to say with any certainty where the source of this was,” he said. “It just confirms that the airplane is in the water and hasn’t been hijacked to some remote place
and is waiting to be used for some other purpose. ... We haven’t lost any 777s anywhere else.”
In a statement Thursday, the prefecture of Reunion emphasized that the source of the debris has not been identified, nor has it been definitely found to be from a Boe-ing 777. Reunion authorities have asked France’s aviation investiga-tive agency, known as the BEA, to coordinate with international investigators, notably the Malay-sian and Australian authorities. A BEA official said there were no current plans to send a team from mainland France to Reunion. The
official was not authorized to be quoted publicly.
Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi, how-ever, said the debris was “almost certain” to be from a Boeing 777 plane, and that a Malaysian team of four experts was leaving Thursday night for Paris, where he said the wing fragment would ulti-mately be taken to be examined.
“The shape and size of the flaperon is similar to that of a Boeing 777. It will take less than two days to verify if it is so and whether it is from MH370,” Aziz said. (ap)
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SEMARAPURA - Nusa Lembongan retains its own uniqueness so that it can continue to develop into a tourist destination. Local communities are competing to build various accommodations ranging from home stay to hotel and villas. However, who will think that most of the land use for tourism purposes is not on the basis of private own-ership as happened to the area of mangrove
forest at Jungutbatu village.“Formerly it was a forest area. Then,
people cultivated seaweed here and probably the village is far from here to bring the crops so that we find respective place here. In other words, the forest land is opened after cutting it down. People call it ‘who acts fast, he can win. Until now the mechanism still goes on,” said a member of the Jungutbatu Rural
Development Agency, Gede Adnyana.According to him, the buildings for tour-
ism purposes at Jungutbatu are established on the backfilled land belonging to the Ministry of Forestry. Local people cannot submit the rights to use. So, it is only taken advantage as it is today with the permission from vil-lage authority. Moreover, there is no written consent.
“It is not directly managed by village, but we collect the levy each month. Actually it is backfilled land owned by the Forestry,” he explained. Adnyana worries if status of the state land can kindle a conflict over
the land considering the people building the accommodation facilities in the area have been inspected by the government of Klungkung.
Customary security guard (pecalang) of Segara Ped Nusa Penida, I Nyoman Widana, said that the utilization of the state forests for tourism purposes is mostly done by local residents. He does not deny if there are some people making collaboration with people from outside Lembongan. “So far, there has been no land conflict. I think it does not harm because it opens job opportunities for local villagers,” he said. (kmb)
IBP/File Photo
The Lembongan
MOSCOW — The Russian Basketball Federation was sus-pended Wednesday by FIBA, mean-ing it could miss the European Championship that doubles as an Olympic qualifier. The suspension comes after two years of infighting at the federation, which culminated last month when a Russian court ordered new elections for all senior federation posts.
An earlier court ruling over-turned the federation’s 2013 presi-dential election result, in which Yulia Anikeeva defeated former WNBA player Svetlana Abrosi-mova, who alleged there were many breaches of election rules.
The federation posted a letter on its website from FIBA, addressed to Anikeeva, saying Russia’s suspen-sion resulted from a lack of “unity and stability” at the federation.
Basketball’s governing body said in a statement that the federa-tion has been “unable to resolve longstanding institutional and legal issues.”
“As a consequence, the RBF for-feits its rights as a member of FIBA, and its teams and officials may not participate in official competitions or activities,” FIBA said.
Russia’s men’s team won a bronze medal in 2012 under David Blatt, who has since left to coach
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Longtime top player Andrei Kirilenko retired from the NBA this past season.
The European Championship is in September. Russia is scheduled to open play against Israel on Sept. 5.
FIBA said the Russian federation could report on its situation at an upcoming board meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 8-9.
“It is FIBA’s hope that the situ-ation be resolved by this date so that the suspension may be lifted to allow for the healthy development of basketball in Russia and the par-ticipation of Russian national teams in FIBA events,” FIBA said. (ap)
An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed in-ternational experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.
It is the first independent com-prehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites.
Brazilian officials have assured that the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes and the medi-
cal director of the International Olympic Committee said all was on track for providing safe competing venues. But neither the government nor the IOC tests for viruses, relying on bacteria testing only.
Extreme water pollution is com-mon in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites.
As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that
in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.
Despite decades of official pledges to clean up the mess, the stench of raw sewage still greets travelers touching down at Rio’s international airport. Prime beaches are deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and pe-riodic die-offs leave the Olympic lake, Rodrigo de Freitas, littered with rotting fish.
“What you have there is basical-ly raw sewage,” said John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Griffith examined the pro-tocols, methodology and results of the AP tests.
“It’s all the water from the toilets and the showers and whatever peo-ple put down their sinks, all mixed up, and it’s going out into the beach waters. Those kinds of things would be shut down immediately if found here,” he said, referring to the U.S.
Vera Oliveira, head of water monitoring for Rio’s municipal environmental secretariat, said of-ficials are not testing viral levels at the Olympic lake, the water quality of which is the city’s responsibility. The other Olympic water venues are under the control of the Rio state environmental agency.
Leonardo Daemon, coordinator of water quality monitoring for the state’s environmental agency, said officials are strictly following Brazilian regulations on water qual-
ity, which are all based on bacteria levels, as are those of almost all nations.
“What would be the standard that should be followed for the quantity of virus? Because the pres-ence or absence of virus in the water ... needs to have a standard, a limit,” he said. “You don’t have a standard for the quantity of virus in relation to human health when it comes to contact with water.”
Olympic hopefuls will be diving into Copacabana’s surf this Sat-urday during a triathlon Olympic qualifier event, while rowers take to the lake’s water beginning Wednes-day for the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships. Test events for sailing and marathon swimming take place later in August. (ap)
Russia suspended from basketball by FIBA for infighting
IBP/net
Russian Basketball Team
AP Photo/Leo Correa
In this July 14, 2015 photo, beachgoers wade into the waters of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An Associated Press analysis of water quality found not one water venue safe for swimming or boating in Rio’s waters.
Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio’s filthRIO DE JANEIRO — Athletes in next year’s Summer
Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so con-taminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
98 InternationalFriday, July 31, 2015 International Friday, July 31, 2015
Sp rt
Off the field, PSG might be on the verge of scoring another victory over the Red Devils. Following the game, PSG manager Laurent Blanc said his squad is close to finishing a deal with Manchester United for talented midfielder Angel di Maria, who didn’t make the trip to the U.S. for the four-match series.
“As Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are very big clubs, negotiations can be difficult,” Blanc said through a translator. “But I feel negotiations are close to the end.” The transfer fee could be as high as $71.7 million for di Maria, who spent last season with Manchester United after the Red Devils picked him up from Real Madrid for an even larger fee.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal wouldn’t confirm that a deal is imminent. “I don’t answer that question,” van Gaal
said. “I don’t know. We’ll announce something when it’s done. It is not done. It’s a process. I want to inter-fere with nothing.”
Without di Maria, Manchester United’s attack sometimes sput-tered, while Paris Saint-Germain was able to hold on after goals from midfielder Blaise Matuidi and forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the first 34 minutes. The victory, before 61,351 spectators, brought PSG the trophy for the series of summer exhibitions. They tied the New York Red Bulls with 10 points on 3-0-1 records, but took the tiebreaker on goal differential.
“There’s a huge quality to this tournament, but we can’t forget there’s an official match (against Olympique Lyonnais in the French League) to win in a few days in Montreal.” That match is Saturday.
Matuidi opened the scoring in the
ROME - Arsenal’s Polish in-ternational goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has joined Serie A side AS Roma on loan for the season, both clubs said on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old helped the Premier League side win the FA Cup last season, one of just 29 appearances in all competitions in 2014-15.
The Pole’s departure follows Arsenal’s signing of Czech inter-national Petr Cech from cham-
pions Chelsea, with Szczesny already losing out last season to Colombian David Ospina in the pecking order.
Roma said Szczesny, who has made 181 appearances for Arsenal since his senior debut in 2009 as a 19-year-old, had signed a one-year contract on Wednesday after successfully completing a medical in Rome.
“I’ve come here to win games and trophies with AS Roma and
I believe that the team is strong enough to do so,” the Pole, who joined Arsenal’s academy from Legia Warsaw in 2006, told Roma TV.
“I think there’s great poten-tial. I know the faces of the players and I know their names, so hopefully I will settle in very quickly.” Arsenal said the loan move was subject to the comple-tion of regulatory processes. (rtr)
SEOUL - Former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon, one of the most influential figures in Asian soccer, said on Thursday he is entering the race to replace Sepp Blatter as president of the sport’s world governing body.
Chung, the 63-year-old billion-aire scion of South Korea’s Hyundai industrial conglomerate, told Reu-ters in an interview he would make a formal announcement next month in Europe, which he called “the centre of world football”.
“I am going to stand as a candi-date for the FIFA presidency,” he said, acknowledging he had a tough fight ahead of him. “It’s not easy, but people don’t want to be part of corruption. They want to be part of the solution.” “We cannot leave FIFA in this kind of disgrace.”
Chung said he did not yet have the required backing of five FIFA federations that would allow him to stand, but he was confident of getting the support he needed.
“I hope to have more than five nominations,” he said, adding he had received assurances of sup-port from within CONCACAF on a recent trip to the United States. CONCACAF is the ruling body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
CONTINUITY ... AND CHANGE
While UEFA chief Michel Pla-tini, 60, appears to be the strong favourite to succeed Blatter, with four of the six FIFA confederations reportedly backing him, Chung said the Frenchman was not the right person for the job.
“He’s a good person, I like him very much, but if you ask me if this is a good time for Michel to become
REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Former FIFA vice president Chung
Mong-joon poses for photographs
after an interview with Reuters in
Seoul, South Korea, July 30,
2015. Chung, one of the most
influential figures in Asian football, said on Thursday he is entering the
race to replace Sepp Blatter as president of the
sport’s world governing body.
South Korea’s Chung running for FIFA president
president of FIFA, right after Sepp Blatter, I don’t think this is good news for FIFA and I don’t think it’s good for Michel either.”
While Chung was outlining his plans to become Asia’s first FIFA president, the region’s football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim gave a ringing endorsement to Platini, “a unique candidate who would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situation.”
The Asian Football Confedera-tion (AFC) has been a staunch sup-porter of Blatter, and Chung said it was beyond its mandate to back a non-Asian candidate. “Asian people did not elect them to that post to rec-ommend another continent’s person for that kind of job,” he said.
Chung, who headed the Korea Football Association from 1993 to 2009 - during which time South Korea co-hosted the World Cup finals with Japan - lost his seat on FIFA’s executive committee in 2011 to then-Blatter ally Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan.
While there have been growing calls for an influx of fresh faces at FIFA, Chung said his departure from the governing body four years ago made him the perfect candidate.
“We need new blood at FIFA, but we also need continuity and change. The fact that I left four years ago was a kind of bless-ing.”
“I understand FIFA very well, I also have the experience of run-ning a national federation. Michel does not have that kind of experi-ence, so I think I am qualified to invite change while preserving the strength of FIFA at the same time.” (rtr)
Images via Reuters / Jeremy Lee Livepic
Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny applauds their fans
Szczesny moves from Arsenal to AS Roma
KUALA LUMPUR, Malay-sia — Michel Platini’s chances of becoming the new president of FIFA received a boost Thurs-
day when the Asian Foot-ball Confederation
chief praised
him as “a unique candidate” and urged his member nations to unite behind a single candidate.
AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said Pla-tini “would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situa-tion” but stopped short of for-mally endorsing the Frenchman to replace the outgoing Sepp Blatter as head of the corruption-
stained world body.The AFC backed Blatter in
this year’s presidential election despite the fact his challenger Prince Ali bin Hussein came from an AFC member nation; Jordan.
Former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon of South Korea has also signaled his in-tention to stand in the Feb. 26 election. (ap)
BUENOS AIRES - Argentine football great Diego Maradona said on Wednesday he wants to fight the “mafia” responsible for the corruption scandal that has rocked FIFA, but he
stopped short of saying he wants to be the next president of global soccer’s governing body.
“I have to fight the mafia that still remains inside FIFA. I have to fight
Maradona says he wants to fight FIFA ‘mafia’
Asia football chief praises Platini as potential FIFA boss
Paris Saint-
Germain midfielder Blaise
Matuidi reacts after scoring
against Manchester United in the first half of an International Champions Cup soccer
match on Wednesday,
July 29, 2015, in Chicago.
Paris Saint-Germain beats Manchester United 2-0
CHICAGO — Paris Saint-Germain claimed the International Champions Cup with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United on Wednesday night at Soldier Field.
2 5 t h minute. Matuidi ran into
the penalty area, fended off defender Phil Jones and sent a slow roller past charging goalkeeper Da-vid De Gea. Van Gaal found fault with De Gea on that play. “They created chances only on personal errors,” Van Gaal said. “They can score out of these kind of errors, and they can finish the game.”
Ibrahimovic and Maxwell, the Brazilian defender, played a bril-liant give-and-go for PSG’s second goal in the 34th minute. Ibrahimovic came down the center, fed Maxwell on the left 25 yards out and took a return feed on the 6-yard line for an easy score.
PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was forced to make only three saves, the best of which came from midfielder Andreas Periera in the 76th minute.
Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata had a goal wiped out by an offside call and misfired on another sure change. His 17-yard shot in the
22nd m i n u t e
was negated af-ter he was ruled offside. In the 55th minute, Mata failed to connect on a shot from the right doorstep that would have cut the Red Dev-ils’ deficit in half.
In the 35th minute, Man-chester United captain Wayne Rooney sent a rebound wide after Memphis Depay was saved from 10 yards out.
Periera’s chance in the 76th minute came as Manchester Unit-ed was pressing the attack. His point-blank one-hop header was stopped by Trapp on the left side of the goal box.
Manchester United beat Club America 1-0 in its opener, then rolled to 3-1 victories over San Jose and FC Barcelona. PSG beat SL Benfica and Fioren-tina before losing to Chelsea on penalties. De Gea was replaced by Sam Johnstone in the Man-chester United goal for the second half. (ap)
AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski
those who have for a long time stolen from inside FIFA,” Maradona told lo-cal television channel America.
Asked whether he would run for the FIFA presidency, the 54-year old replied ambiguously: “I really want to be in FIFA.”
In late May, federal prosecutors in New York indicted nine soccer officials, most of whom held or had held FIFA positions, and five sports media and promotions executives in schemes involving $150 million in bribes over a period of 24 years. Prosecutors said their investigation exposed complex money launder-ing schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed income and tens of millions of dollars in offshore accounts held by the soccer officials.
Maradona has launched scathing attacks on the ruling elite of FIFA, and in particular its head Sepp Blat-ter, who announced in June that he was quitting over the bribery scandal.
Blatter was not charged by U.S. justice officials and denies any misconduct.
Maradona has long ac-cused Blatter of running FIFA like a criminal organiza-tion and expressed delight in seeing U.S. authorities hitting several of FIFA’s top former and current officials with corruption charges. He used to bemoan that his warnings were being ignored.
“Now in my favor, I am walking in step with the yanquis,” Maradona said in the interview, using Spanish-language slang for Americans. “And these yanquis are serious,” he added.
Maradona was one of soccer’s most gifted players and led Argentina to a World Cup victory in 1986. But his dazzling career was blighted in later years by drug addiction, alco-holism and controversial incidents both on and off the soccer field. (rtr)
REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
Former Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona gestures from a balcony as he attends the Argentine First Division soccer match between Boca Juniors and Quilmes at La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires July 18, 2015.
98 InternationalFriday, July 31, 2015 International Friday, July 31, 2015
Sp rt
Off the field, PSG might be on the verge of scoring another victory over the Red Devils. Following the game, PSG manager Laurent Blanc said his squad is close to finishing a deal with Manchester United for talented midfielder Angel di Maria, who didn’t make the trip to the U.S. for the four-match series.
“As Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are very big clubs, negotiations can be difficult,” Blanc said through a translator. “But I feel negotiations are close to the end.” The transfer fee could be as high as $71.7 million for di Maria, who spent last season with Manchester United after the Red Devils picked him up from Real Madrid for an even larger fee.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal wouldn’t confirm that a deal is imminent. “I don’t answer that question,” van Gaal
said. “I don’t know. We’ll announce something when it’s done. It is not done. It’s a process. I want to inter-fere with nothing.”
Without di Maria, Manchester United’s attack sometimes sput-tered, while Paris Saint-Germain was able to hold on after goals from midfielder Blaise Matuidi and forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the first 34 minutes. The victory, before 61,351 spectators, brought PSG the trophy for the series of summer exhibitions. They tied the New York Red Bulls with 10 points on 3-0-1 records, but took the tiebreaker on goal differential.
“There’s a huge quality to this tournament, but we can’t forget there’s an official match (against Olympique Lyonnais in the French League) to win in a few days in Montreal.” That match is Saturday.
Matuidi opened the scoring in the
ROME - Arsenal’s Polish in-ternational goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has joined Serie A side AS Roma on loan for the season, both clubs said on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old helped the Premier League side win the FA Cup last season, one of just 29 appearances in all competitions in 2014-15.
The Pole’s departure follows Arsenal’s signing of Czech inter-national Petr Cech from cham-
pions Chelsea, with Szczesny already losing out last season to Colombian David Ospina in the pecking order.
Roma said Szczesny, who has made 181 appearances for Arsenal since his senior debut in 2009 as a 19-year-old, had signed a one-year contract on Wednesday after successfully completing a medical in Rome.
“I’ve come here to win games and trophies with AS Roma and
I believe that the team is strong enough to do so,” the Pole, who joined Arsenal’s academy from Legia Warsaw in 2006, told Roma TV.
“I think there’s great poten-tial. I know the faces of the players and I know their names, so hopefully I will settle in very quickly.” Arsenal said the loan move was subject to the comple-tion of regulatory processes. (rtr)
SEOUL - Former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon, one of the most influential figures in Asian soccer, said on Thursday he is entering the race to replace Sepp Blatter as president of the sport’s world governing body.
Chung, the 63-year-old billion-aire scion of South Korea’s Hyundai industrial conglomerate, told Reu-ters in an interview he would make a formal announcement next month in Europe, which he called “the centre of world football”.
“I am going to stand as a candi-date for the FIFA presidency,” he said, acknowledging he had a tough fight ahead of him. “It’s not easy, but people don’t want to be part of corruption. They want to be part of the solution.” “We cannot leave FIFA in this kind of disgrace.”
Chung said he did not yet have the required backing of five FIFA federations that would allow him to stand, but he was confident of getting the support he needed.
“I hope to have more than five nominations,” he said, adding he had received assurances of sup-port from within CONCACAF on a recent trip to the United States. CONCACAF is the ruling body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
CONTINUITY ... AND CHANGE
While UEFA chief Michel Pla-tini, 60, appears to be the strong favourite to succeed Blatter, with four of the six FIFA confederations reportedly backing him, Chung said the Frenchman was not the right person for the job.
“He’s a good person, I like him very much, but if you ask me if this is a good time for Michel to become
REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Former FIFA vice president Chung
Mong-joon poses for photographs
after an interview with Reuters in
Seoul, South Korea, July 30,
2015. Chung, one of the most
influential figures in Asian football, said on Thursday he is entering the
race to replace Sepp Blatter as president of the
sport’s world governing body.
South Korea’s Chung running for FIFA president
president of FIFA, right after Sepp Blatter, I don’t think this is good news for FIFA and I don’t think it’s good for Michel either.”
While Chung was outlining his plans to become Asia’s first FIFA president, the region’s football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim gave a ringing endorsement to Platini, “a unique candidate who would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situation.”
The Asian Football Confedera-tion (AFC) has been a staunch sup-porter of Blatter, and Chung said it was beyond its mandate to back a non-Asian candidate. “Asian people did not elect them to that post to rec-ommend another continent’s person for that kind of job,” he said.
Chung, who headed the Korea Football Association from 1993 to 2009 - during which time South Korea co-hosted the World Cup finals with Japan - lost his seat on FIFA’s executive committee in 2011 to then-Blatter ally Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan.
While there have been growing calls for an influx of fresh faces at FIFA, Chung said his departure from the governing body four years ago made him the perfect candidate.
“We need new blood at FIFA, but we also need continuity and change. The fact that I left four years ago was a kind of bless-ing.”
“I understand FIFA very well, I also have the experience of run-ning a national federation. Michel does not have that kind of experi-ence, so I think I am qualified to invite change while preserving the strength of FIFA at the same time.” (rtr)
Images via Reuters / Jeremy Lee Livepic
Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny applauds their fans
Szczesny moves from Arsenal to AS Roma
KUALA LUMPUR, Malay-sia — Michel Platini’s chances of becoming the new president of FIFA received a boost Thurs-
day when the Asian Foot-ball Confederation
chief praised
him as “a unique candidate” and urged his member nations to unite behind a single candidate.
AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said Pla-tini “would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situa-tion” but stopped short of for-mally endorsing the Frenchman to replace the outgoing Sepp Blatter as head of the corruption-
stained world body.The AFC backed Blatter in
this year’s presidential election despite the fact his challenger Prince Ali bin Hussein came from an AFC member nation; Jordan.
Former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon of South Korea has also signaled his in-tention to stand in the Feb. 26 election. (ap)
BUENOS AIRES - Argentine football great Diego Maradona said on Wednesday he wants to fight the “mafia” responsible for the corruption scandal that has rocked FIFA, but he
stopped short of saying he wants to be the next president of global soccer’s governing body.
“I have to fight the mafia that still remains inside FIFA. I have to fight
Maradona says he wants to fight FIFA ‘mafia’
Asia football chief praises Platini as potential FIFA boss
Paris Saint-
Germain midfielder Blaise
Matuidi reacts after scoring
against Manchester United in the first half of an International Champions Cup soccer
match on Wednesday,
July 29, 2015, in Chicago.
Paris Saint-Germain beats Manchester United 2-0
CHICAGO — Paris Saint-Germain claimed the International Champions Cup with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United on Wednesday night at Soldier Field.
2 5 t h minute. Matuidi ran into
the penalty area, fended off defender Phil Jones and sent a slow roller past charging goalkeeper Da-vid De Gea. Van Gaal found fault with De Gea on that play. “They created chances only on personal errors,” Van Gaal said. “They can score out of these kind of errors, and they can finish the game.”
Ibrahimovic and Maxwell, the Brazilian defender, played a bril-liant give-and-go for PSG’s second goal in the 34th minute. Ibrahimovic came down the center, fed Maxwell on the left 25 yards out and took a return feed on the 6-yard line for an easy score.
PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was forced to make only three saves, the best of which came from midfielder Andreas Periera in the 76th minute.
Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata had a goal wiped out by an offside call and misfired on another sure change. His 17-yard shot in the
22nd m i n u t e
was negated af-ter he was ruled offside. In the 55th minute, Mata failed to connect on a shot from the right doorstep that would have cut the Red Dev-ils’ deficit in half.
In the 35th minute, Man-chester United captain Wayne Rooney sent a rebound wide after Memphis Depay was saved from 10 yards out.
Periera’s chance in the 76th minute came as Manchester Unit-ed was pressing the attack. His point-blank one-hop header was stopped by Trapp on the left side of the goal box.
Manchester United beat Club America 1-0 in its opener, then rolled to 3-1 victories over San Jose and FC Barcelona. PSG beat SL Benfica and Fioren-tina before losing to Chelsea on penalties. De Gea was replaced by Sam Johnstone in the Man-chester United goal for the second half. (ap)
AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski
those who have for a long time stolen from inside FIFA,” Maradona told lo-cal television channel America.
Asked whether he would run for the FIFA presidency, the 54-year old replied ambiguously: “I really want to be in FIFA.”
In late May, federal prosecutors in New York indicted nine soccer officials, most of whom held or had held FIFA positions, and five sports media and promotions executives in schemes involving $150 million in bribes over a period of 24 years. Prosecutors said their investigation exposed complex money launder-ing schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed income and tens of millions of dollars in offshore accounts held by the soccer officials.
Maradona has launched scathing attacks on the ruling elite of FIFA, and in particular its head Sepp Blat-ter, who announced in June that he was quitting over the bribery scandal.
Blatter was not charged by U.S. justice officials and denies any misconduct.
Maradona has long ac-cused Blatter of running FIFA like a criminal organiza-tion and expressed delight in seeing U.S. authorities hitting several of FIFA’s top former and current officials with corruption charges. He used to bemoan that his warnings were being ignored.
“Now in my favor, I am walking in step with the yanquis,” Maradona said in the interview, using Spanish-language slang for Americans. “And these yanquis are serious,” he added.
Maradona was one of soccer’s most gifted players and led Argentina to a World Cup victory in 1986. But his dazzling career was blighted in later years by drug addiction, alco-holism and controversial incidents both on and off the soccer field. (rtr)
REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
Former Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona gestures from a balcony as he attends the Argentine First Division soccer match between Boca Juniors and Quilmes at La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires July 18, 2015.
SportsDestination Friday, July 31, 2015 7Friday, July 31, 201510 InternationalInternational
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SEMARAPURA - Nusa Lembongan retains its own uniqueness so that it can continue to develop into a tourist destination. Local communities are competing to build various accommodations ranging from home stay to hotel and villas. However, who will think that most of the land use for tourism purposes is not on the basis of private own-ership as happened to the area of mangrove
forest at Jungutbatu village.“Formerly it was a forest area. Then,
people cultivated seaweed here and probably the village is far from here to bring the crops so that we find respective place here. In other words, the forest land is opened after cutting it down. People call it ‘who acts fast, he can win. Until now the mechanism still goes on,” said a member of the Jungutbatu Rural
Development Agency, Gede Adnyana.According to him, the buildings for tour-
ism purposes at Jungutbatu are established on the backfilled land belonging to the Ministry of Forestry. Local people cannot submit the rights to use. So, it is only taken advantage as it is today with the permission from vil-lage authority. Moreover, there is no written consent.
“It is not directly managed by village, but we collect the levy each month. Actually it is backfilled land owned by the Forestry,” he explained. Adnyana worries if status of the state land can kindle a conflict over
the land considering the people building the accommodation facilities in the area have been inspected by the government of Klungkung.
Customary security guard (pecalang) of Segara Ped Nusa Penida, I Nyoman Widana, said that the utilization of the state forests for tourism purposes is mostly done by local residents. He does not deny if there are some people making collaboration with people from outside Lembongan. “So far, there has been no land conflict. I think it does not harm because it opens job opportunities for local villagers,” he said. (kmb)
IBP/File Photo
The Lembongan
MOSCOW — The Russian Basketball Federation was sus-pended Wednesday by FIBA, mean-ing it could miss the European Championship that doubles as an Olympic qualifier. The suspension comes after two years of infighting at the federation, which culminated last month when a Russian court ordered new elections for all senior federation posts.
An earlier court ruling over-turned the federation’s 2013 presi-dential election result, in which Yulia Anikeeva defeated former WNBA player Svetlana Abrosi-mova, who alleged there were many breaches of election rules.
The federation posted a letter on its website from FIBA, addressed to Anikeeva, saying Russia’s suspen-sion resulted from a lack of “unity and stability” at the federation.
Basketball’s governing body said in a statement that the federa-tion has been “unable to resolve longstanding institutional and legal issues.”
“As a consequence, the RBF for-feits its rights as a member of FIBA, and its teams and officials may not participate in official competitions or activities,” FIBA said.
Russia’s men’s team won a bronze medal in 2012 under David Blatt, who has since left to coach
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Longtime top player Andrei Kirilenko retired from the NBA this past season.
The European Championship is in September. Russia is scheduled to open play against Israel on Sept. 5.
FIBA said the Russian federation could report on its situation at an upcoming board meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 8-9.
“It is FIBA’s hope that the situ-ation be resolved by this date so that the suspension may be lifted to allow for the healthy development of basketball in Russia and the par-ticipation of Russian national teams in FIBA events,” FIBA said. (ap)
An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed in-ternational experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.
It is the first independent com-prehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites.
Brazilian officials have assured that the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes and the medi-
cal director of the International Olympic Committee said all was on track for providing safe competing venues. But neither the government nor the IOC tests for viruses, relying on bacteria testing only.
Extreme water pollution is com-mon in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites.
As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that
in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.
Despite decades of official pledges to clean up the mess, the stench of raw sewage still greets travelers touching down at Rio’s international airport. Prime beaches are deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and pe-riodic die-offs leave the Olympic lake, Rodrigo de Freitas, littered with rotting fish.
“What you have there is basical-ly raw sewage,” said John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Griffith examined the pro-tocols, methodology and results of the AP tests.
“It’s all the water from the toilets and the showers and whatever peo-ple put down their sinks, all mixed up, and it’s going out into the beach waters. Those kinds of things would be shut down immediately if found here,” he said, referring to the U.S.
Vera Oliveira, head of water monitoring for Rio’s municipal environmental secretariat, said of-ficials are not testing viral levels at the Olympic lake, the water quality of which is the city’s responsibility. The other Olympic water venues are under the control of the Rio state environmental agency.
Leonardo Daemon, coordinator of water quality monitoring for the state’s environmental agency, said officials are strictly following Brazilian regulations on water qual-
ity, which are all based on bacteria levels, as are those of almost all nations.
“What would be the standard that should be followed for the quantity of virus? Because the pres-ence or absence of virus in the water ... needs to have a standard, a limit,” he said. “You don’t have a standard for the quantity of virus in relation to human health when it comes to contact with water.”
Olympic hopefuls will be diving into Copacabana’s surf this Sat-urday during a triathlon Olympic qualifier event, while rowers take to the lake’s water beginning Wednes-day for the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships. Test events for sailing and marathon swimming take place later in August. (ap)
Russia suspended from basketball by FIBA for infighting
IBP/net
Russian Basketball Team
AP Photo/Leo Correa
In this July 14, 2015 photo, beachgoers wade into the waters of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An Associated Press analysis of water quality found not one water venue safe for swimming or boating in Rio’s waters.
Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio’s filthRIO DE JANEIRO — Athletes in next year’s Summer
Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so con-taminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Friday, July 31, 2015 Friday, July 31, 2015 6 11International International
INDONESIAW RLD
“In line with the several tourism events in Papua, the number of tourist arrivals has continued to in-crease during the past four years,” Mano remarked in Jayapura on Thursday.
He noted that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Papua in 2014 constituted 7,268 foreign tourists and 66,137 domestic tour-ists.
Mano further explained that the increase in the number of tourist arrivals was an outcome of the ef-forts made by the Jayapura Culture and Tourism Office to intensively promote the local tourism attrac-tions.
“In order to develop the tour-ism attractions in Papua to make it a tourist destination in eastern Indonesia, the local authorities
continue to work closely with the tourism ministry and other relevant institutions for holding the tourism events,” Mano affirmed.
He remarked that the local au-thorities annually organize events such as the Humboldt Bay Festival, Baliem Valley Festival, and Lake Sentani Festival to promote the local culture and tourism attrac-tions. (ant)
KUPANG - Seven yachts car-rying some 35 foreign participants arrived at Tendys beach, Kupang, to take part in the annual international maritime event of Sail Indonesia.
“On Tuesday evening, (July 28), seven yachts arrived with around 35 foreign tourists aboard,” Marius Ardu Jelamu, the head of the East Nusa Tenggara tourism and cre-ative economy office, stated on Wednesday.
On July 26, two yachts with some 10 to 15 foreign tourists had also
landed on the beach, he noted.The province is hoping to wel-
come a total of 44 yachts that will take part in Sail Indonesia. These yachts will also sail to other tourist destinations in Indonesia.
Thus, until August 4, some 200 foreign tourists from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and some Asian countries, among others, are estimated to arrive in East Nusa Tenggara, he remarked.
The East Nusa Tenggara authori-
ties have planned several activities, such as a gala dinner and sightsee-ing tours to greet and entertain the tourists.
From Kupang, the yachts will sail to Labuan Bajo, Alor, Rote, and other tourist destinations in the province.
This year’s Sail Indonesia event is called Sail Tomini as the peak ceremony will be held at Pangi Beach located in Tomini Bay, Parigi Moutong District, Central Sulawesi, on September 19, 2015. (ant)
JAKARTA - An Indonesian court Wednesday jailed a Chinese Uighur for six years after he was caught trying to join an Islamic extremist group led by the coun-try’s most wanted militant.
Ahmed Bozoglan was arrested last September on the rugged cen-tral island of Sulawesi as he and three other members of the mostly Muslim ethnic minority attempted to meet militant Santoso, leader of a group known as the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen.
The three others were jailed for six years each earlier this month.
Santoso’s group, which hides out in the jungle in an area known as a militant hotbed, is considered one of the few remaining extrem-ist outfits that pose a serious threat in Indonesia and has been accused of deadly attacks on police.
Santoso has also pledged al-legiance to the Islamic State group.
Presiding judge Houtman Tob-ing said Bozoglan, 28, was guilty of an “evil conspiracy” for seeking to join the Islamic militant group and had also breached immigra-tion laws by entering Indonesia using a fake Turkish passport.
“The defendant’s deeds caused
anxiety and fear,” Tobing told a court in the capital Jakarta.
Bozoglan was also ordered to pay a fine of 100 million rupiah ($7,400) or spend another six months in jail.
Indonesia is home to the world’s biggest Muslim population of about 225 million. It has suffered a string of Islamic militant attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
However, a crackdown in re-cent years has largely dismantled the most dangerous networks.
The Uighur minority come from the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, where the group say they face cultural and religious repression.
Many are believed to have fled the restive region in recent years, sometimes travelling through Southeast Asia in the hope of resettling in Turkey.
Many Turks are sympathetic towards the Uighurs, who have cultural ties with Turkey and speak a Turkic language. There were protests in Turkey when around 100 members of the minor-ity were sent back to China from Thailand this month. (afp)
REUTERS/Nyimas Laula
A model of a Garuda Indonesia plane stands inside Garuda ticket office in Jakarta, Indo-nesia July 29, 2015. Indonesian flagship airline PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk swung to a net profit in the first half of 2015 from a loss a year earlier, sending its shares up more than 7 percent on Wednesday.
Foreign yachts participating in Sail Indonesia arrive in Kupang
Uighur jailed over attempt to join militants
Number of tourist arrivals in Papua increases
JAYAPURA - The number of tourist arrivals in Papua through the provincial city of Jayapura continues to increase every year, according to Mayor of Jayapura Benhur Tommy Mano.Air safety investigators — one
of them a Boeing investigator — have identified the component found on the French island of Reunion as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said. Flight 370, which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, is the only 777 known to be missing.
“It’s the first real evidence that there is a possibility that a part of the aircraft may have been found,” said Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss, whose country is leading the search for the plane in a remote patch of ocean far off Australia’s west coast. “It’s too early to make that judgment, but clearly we are treating this as a major lead.”
Flight 370 had been traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but investigators believe based on satellite data that the plane turned south into the Indian Ocean after vanishing from radar. If the wing part is from the Malaysia plane, it would bolster that theory and put to rest others that it traveled north, or landed somewhere after being hijacked.
The wing piece is about 2 me-ters (6 feet) long. Investigators have found a number on the part, but it is not a serial or registration number, Truss said. It could be a maintenance number, which may help investigators figure out what plane it belongs to, he said.
A French official close to an investigation of the debris con-firmed Wednesday that French
law enforcement is on Reunion to examine it. A French television network was airing video from its Reunion affiliate of the debris. U.S. investigators are examining a photo of the debris. The U.S. and French officials spoke on condition that they not be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Flaperons are located on the rear edge of both wings, about midway between the fuselage and the tips. When the plane is bank-ing, the flaperon on one wing tilts up and the other tilts down, which makes the plane roll to the left or right as it turns.
The piece could help investi-gators figure out how the plane crashed, but whether it will help search crews pinpoint the rest of the wreckage is unclear, given the complexity of the currents in the southern Indian Ocean and the time that has elapsed since the plane disappeared.
A massive multinational search effort of the southern Indian Ocean, the China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand has turned up no trace of the plane.
The last primary radar contact with Flight 370 placed its position over the Andaman Sea about 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of the Malaysian city of Penang. Reunion is about 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) southwest of Pen-ang, and about 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) west of the current search area.
It was well understood after the aircraft disappeared that if
LISBON — Portugal’s center-right coalition government hopes its record overseeing the country’s recovery from the brink of bankruptcy will be enough to get it re-elected.
The Social Democratic Party and Popular Party took office after Portugal received a 78 billion euros ($85.5 billion) bailout in 2011 during Europe’s financial crisis. The left-of-center Socialist Party had been in power for the previous six years.
A general election is scheduled for
October, and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said at the launch of the governing parties’ joint manifesto late Wednesday that “those who rectify the past hold the keys to the future.” He promised “diligent and steadfast” government but offered no major policy initiatives.
Austerity measures designed to reduce government debt, including steep tax hikes and cuts in public services, have been deeply unpopu-lar. (ap)
KATHMANDU — Landslides in a mountain area of Nepal buried three villages Thursday, killing at least 20 people, authorities said.
Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center said the landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall in the village at Lumle, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu, where rescuers pulled out 14 bodies.
An Associated Press camera-man saw police and army rescuers
digging through piles of debris in search of at least 11 more people.
Continuing rain was hampering the rescue. The highway linking the village with Pokhara, the main city in the region, was blocked at several places, delaying rescuers. Bad weather also prevented heli-copters from flying.
Another five bodies were pulled out of nearby Dudhe village on Thursday, where two bridges were washed away.
One more person was killed in the neighboring Baglung district, where the death toll was expected to rise.
Heavy monsoon rains in Nepal often trigger landslides in moun-tains and flooding in southern plains.
The devastating earthquake in April that killed nearly 8,900 peo-ple had set off many landslides and officials fear that the heavy rainfall would trigger more. (ap)
Reunion 1ere via AP
In this image taken from video, police officers looking over a piece of debris from a plane, Wednesday, July 29, 2015, in Saint-Andre, Reunion.
US official: Plane debris in Indian Ocean same type as MH370
SYDNEY — A sea-crusted wing part washed up on an island in the western Indian Ocean may be the first trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 since it vanished nearly a year and a half ago, and a tragic but finally solid clue to one of aviation’s most perplexing and expensive mysteries.
Portuguese government rests on its laurels ahead of election
Landslides bury Nepal villages, killing at least 20 people
there was any floating debris from the plane, Indian Ocean currents would eventually bring it to the east coast of Africa, said aviation safety expert John Goglia, a for-mer member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. But the debris is unlikely to provide much help in tracing the ocean currents back to the location of the main wreckage, he said.
“It’s going to be hard to say with any certainty where the source of this was,” he said. “It just confirms that the airplane is in the water and hasn’t been hijacked to some remote place
and is waiting to be used for some other purpose. ... We haven’t lost any 777s anywhere else.”
In a statement Thursday, the prefecture of Reunion emphasized that the source of the debris has not been identified, nor has it been definitely found to be from a Boe-ing 777. Reunion authorities have asked France’s aviation investiga-tive agency, known as the BEA, to coordinate with international investigators, notably the Malay-sian and Australian authorities. A BEA official said there were no current plans to send a team from mainland France to Reunion. The
official was not authorized to be quoted publicly.
Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi, how-ever, said the debris was “almost certain” to be from a Boeing 777 plane, and that a Malaysian team of four experts was leaving Thursday night for Paris, where he said the wing fragment would ulti-mately be taken to be examined.
“The shape and size of the flaperon is similar to that of a Boeing 777. It will take less than two days to verify if it is so and whether it is from MH370,” Aziz said. (ap)
Bali News Friday, July 31, 2015 5InternationalFriday, July 31, 201512 International
BUSINESS
With the mood on global markets a little more upbeat than at the start of the week, oil prices edged up al-though concerns over a supply glut are keeping a lid on rises.
Tokyo jumped 1.08 percent, or 219.92 points, to 20,522.83 as the yen weakened against the
greenback and top firms including Nintendo reported strong earnings. Sydney rose 0.81 percent, or 45.3 points, to close at 5,669.5 thanks to a pick-up in iron ore prices.
Shanghai suffered a late sell-off to end 2.20 percent lower, dropping 83.40 points to 3,705.77, while
Hong Kong followed the losses to close down 0.49 percent, or 121.47 points, at 24,497.98.
Seoul dropped 0.91 percent, or 18.59 points, to 2,019.03, hurt by selling in heavyweight Samsung Electronics after it reported disap-pointing earnings.
After a two-day policy meet-ing, the Fed said in a statement that the world’s top economy had expanded “moderately” in recent months and the jobs market had
strengthened, but it noted contin-ued “soft” business investment and exports.
It also said inflation was below target, though it put much of that down to falling energy prices and to cheaper imports caused by the strong dollar.
While it gave no more clues about its plans for raising interest rates, analysts said the wording sug-gested September was now a strong possibility for a rate rise.
On Wall Street, the Dow rose 0.69 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.73 percent and the Nasdaq ad-vanced 0.44 percent. The gains were the second in a row after US stocks suffered a five-day losing streak.
“The Fed statement was similar to the last and it was a very modest upgrade to previous language,” said Raiko Shareef, a markets strategist at Bank of New Zealand in Wel-lington. (afp)
SEOUL — Samsung Elec-tronics suffered a fifth straight drop in quarterly earnings as the Galaxy S6 failed to reverse its declining fortunes in global smartphone sales.
The company’s overall earn-ings drop during the April-June quarter was 8 percent but it reported a much bigger decline of 38 percent in the mobile divi-sion’s income. The sharp profit drop in the mobile business came despite its ambitious start to the quarter with the launch of two flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge featuring a curved side display.
“Total sales of the S6 and S6 Edge during the second quarter were below expectations,” Park Jinyoung, a vice president at Samsung’s mobile communica-tions team, said on a conference call Thursday.
The decline in the mobile profit was smaller than the pre-vious quarter’s nearly 60 per-cent plunge, but it extended the mobile division’s losing streak. Samsung’s sky-high growth in the smartphone industry came to a sudden stop in 2013 as bigger iPhone models lured buyers from Samsung phones and Chinese phone makers squeezed its sales in China.
Samsung’s April-June net income was 5.8 trillion won ($5 billion), down 8 percent from 6.3 trillion won a year earlier. A Fact-Set survey of analysts predicted 5.6 trillion won of net income.
Sales fell 7 percent over a year earlier to 48.5 trillion won
while operating income dropped 4 percent to 6.9 trillion won, in line with its earnings preview
earlier this month. It generated 2.8 trillion won operating in-come from the mobile business
compared with 4.4 trillion won a year earlier.
The only bright spot came
from sales of components pow-ering smartphones. A robust performance at its semiconductor department helped narrow the overall profit decline. Operating income from its semiconductor division surpassed the 3 trillion won mark for the first time in several years.
Samsung pinned high hopes on the S6 and S6 Edge phones when they were introduced in April. So much so that local media dubbed them the “Lee Jae-yong phone,” indicating that they were over-seen by the Samsung chairman’s son, Lee Jae-yong. He is a vice chairman at Samsung who is widely expected to succeed his ailing father.
But sales of the flagship mod-els fell short, dealing a blow to the 47-year-old heir apparent who is under pressure to demonstrate he is capable of leading the Asian consumer technology giant at a time of serious challenges.
The company was hit by two problems with its Galaxy S6 se-ries. The regular version of the phone, the Galaxy S6, wasn’t as popular as expected, while it could not keep up with demand for the S6 Edge model, which features a display that curves on both sides that is more difficult to produce.
Market research firm IDC said Samsung, still the world’s largest maker of smartphones, was the only top five smartphone vendor that lost market share during the second quarter, falling to 22 percent, from 25 percent a year earlier. (ap)
Dollar up on Fed rate talk, Asia markets mostly rise
HONG KONG - The dollar pushed higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the US economy, fuelling talk of a September interest rate hike, while Asian shares were mostly up after a Wall Street rally.
Galaxy S6 fails to reverse profit decline at Samsung
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
An employee of Samsung Electronics Co. watches a mobile phone near an advertisement of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphone at a Samsung Electronics shop in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2015.
Recalling the pivotal role played by A.S. Takhi in build-ing bridges between the India & Bali, both Governor Pastika & Ambassador Gurjit Singh were effusive in their recognition and praise for the yeoman’s service by the first Consul General of India in Bali in raising the level of connectivity between peoples of both the countries. The Gov-ernor wished them well for their future endeavours. He was also appreciative of the role played by the Consul General Takhi & the Indian community in developing a harmonious and prosperous Bali. The Governor also sang an evergreen Hindi song, the Bahasa Indonesia version of which has been popular all over Indonesia and of which the Governor is highly fond of, as he hummed the same during his youthful days.
The Ambassador acknowl-edged that Consul General Takhi has indeed carried out his man-
date in remarkable manner not only in the island of Bali but also in several other provinces in eastern Indonesia. He particu-larly referred to the huge success of Sahabat India Festival held in different locations in eastern Indonesia and particularly in universities & schools in this region. The Ambassador thanked the Balinese community for their emphatic support to the Consul General and his team in strength-ening the friendship between two countries.
Earlier, during his farewell address, Consul General Takhi conveyed his greetings to the Balinese community on the Ga-lungan & Kuningan celebrations. He profusely thanked the Gover-nor and his entire administration as well as the entire Balinese community for their consistent support and encouragement. He also expressed his thanks to the provincial & regional adminis-
trations across 15 provinces in eastern Indonesia covering the is-lands of Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua, East & South Kalimantan which form the con-sular districts of the Consulate General of India in Bali. He ap-preciated the assistance received from the universities, schools, socio-cultural institutions, art & cultural personalities and the general public at large across eastern Indonesia, in a show-off enormous goodwill for India, with which Indonesia shares civilizational relations.
Bali had record participation in the first International Day of Yoga celebrations held on June 21, 2015 & both Ambassador Gurjit Singh and Consul Gen-eral A.S. Takhi conveyed their appreciation & thanks for the wholehearted support of the Ba-linese community to this excel-lent initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. (r)
BANGLI - Lately a number of people often express their sense of excitement by dissipating. Some-times, this behavior often results in new problems leading to personal grudges. Apparently this matter does not happen to people at Kayu-bihi village, Bangli. Their joy in life is expressed through the tradition known as Egg War as organized on Wednesday (Jul. 29).
Chief of Kayubihi customary village, I Wayan Sadia, said that the tradition poses a heritage passed down from generation to generation. It is implemented on the Ngusabha Pausa or Kelod. This tradition undergoes similar condi-tion to the Mapeed Ngiring Tangas tradition that has not been held for 22 years due to cuntaka or tempo-rary impurity of the village and construction of several temples at local village. “It has become a tradition of local village. However, it has long not been implemented due to impurity of local village and the construction of several temples. This can just be realized after being dormant for 22 years,” he explained.
Associated with the name of the tradition, explained Sadia, the egg war is not throwing eggs, but using a ball made from young coconut or palm leaf sizing a small child’s fist. The egg war is organized in a series of Nyunding procession meaning to express people’s excitement having been endowed with prosperity.
In addition, when the mutu-
ally throwing action begins, the public is not allowed to be angry or revengeful. “This tradition is intended to implement the Tri Kaya Parisudha (good thought, speech and deed) concept. When throw-ing, all the participants may not say rude, may not get angry and may not be revengeful. After the event, it must still be applied,” he said.
Before the throwing action be-gins, all the participants, namely Jero Truna and Pamuit village and Uduhan village must say prayers first at Pausa Temple located in the east of Kayubihi meeting hall. After the prayers, participants are divided into two camps and move toward the front area of Pausa Temple. It is the time for distributing eggs to participants and the war immedi-ately begins.
In the procession, firstly, Jero Truna is defeated and driven back to Sepat Sikut Temple (north of Pausa Temple). Secondly, customary vil-lagers pushed customary youth to location in the south of the meeting hall. Ultimately, both groups un-dergo purificatory rite at Pasiraman and Dalem Pingit Temple.
Sadia added that after the purifi-catory rite some participants of the war trigged themselves with young coconut leaf headdress and sarong. After that, all the participants make kawisan gift delivery tradition to widows living at the customary village. Interestingly, prior deliver-ing the gifts, the participants must dance. (sos)
IBP/Sosiawan
Egg war, a tradition to awaken Tri Kaya Parisudha concept
Bali bids farewell to Consul General of India
DENPASAR - In an elegant ceremony at Gedung Wiswa Sabha Utama on 27 July 2015, the Balinese community led by the Governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika and Ibu Ayu Pastika, along with the prominent members of the Indian community led by Ambassador of India to In-donesia and Timor-Leste, H.E. Mr. Gurjit Singh, and the members of the Bali Consular Corps, bid farewell to Mr. A.S. Takhi and Mrs. Gurinder Kaur Takhi, who are expected to depart Bali early next month on their next assignment.
IBP/Courtesy of Consulate India
Bali News International4 Friday, July 31, 2015 Friday, July 31, 2015 13International
In a flurry of public comments since the deal, the North has been blunt: Its nuclear weapons are not a bargaining chip; it is already a member of the nuclear club; and if Washington wants to talk, it must recognize the North as such or put an immediate end to its hostile policies toward Pyongyang. Clearly, the differ-ences between North Korea and Iran are vast.
North Korea has already gone down the negotiations road and come out on the other end with a small but potentially threatening nuclear arsenal. North Korea is also still technically at war with the U.S. and has a powerful rival and U.S. ally, South Korea, along with tens of thousands of U.S. troops right across the Demilita-rized Zone. Each year, U.S. and South Korea hold massive war games in preparation for a pos-sible invasion from the North, or, as Pyongyang sees it, an invasion of the North. The biggest issue of all, however, could simply be that it is not in the DNA of North
Korea’s leaders to flip-flop.Pyongyang’s desire for a nu-
clear defense against the far superior U.S. forces probably originates with the country’s founder and first president, Kim Il Sung. For the current leader, Kim Jong Un, his grandson, re-versing that course would be an unprecedentedly bold break with the past and bring into question the portrayal of the ruling Kim dynasty as infallible.
When North Korean leaders ponder the option of giving up their nuclear weapons — if they ever seriously do — the benefits Iran will likely reap from its deal with the United States are prob-ably not foremost on their minds. More likely, they recall the fate of Libyan dictator Moammar Gad-hafi, who abandoned his nuclear program and ended up being de-posed, hunted down and killed by rebel forces after months on the run. Though one didn’t directly lead to the other, Gadhafi’s fate is seen in Pyongyang as a potent cautionary tale.
Without referring to the Iran talks, Kim Jong Un told veterans gathered last week in Pyongyang for the 62nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the fight-ing in the 1950-53 Korean War that peace has yet to come to the Korean Peninsula. He held fast to the North’s constant warnings to its people that they must be ready for another, final showdown with the United States. He also said the North’s possession of nuclear weapons has dramatically shifted the balance of power.
“Our force at present is not what it was in the 1950s, when we had to fight with rifles in our hands against the U.S. imperial-ists armed to the teeth,” he said in the address, which was re-peatedly broadcast on television and carried in full in the North’s state-run newspapers. “We now possess such a force as to fight any form of warfare of the choice of the United States. We have a might powerful enough to deter the United States from unleash-ing a nuclear war.” (ap)
YANGON — More than 150 Chinese workers sentenced to life in prison for illegal logging were freed in Myanmar on Thursday under a massive presidential pardon that included nearly 7,000 prisoners.
Others who were freed included former military intelligence of-ficials purged by their army col-leagues more than a decade ago, and at least a handful of journalists and social activists.
An Information Ministry state-ment said 6,966 prisoners, includ-ing 210 foreigners, were being freed across the country “on hu-manitarian grounds and in view of national reconciliation.” No official lists of pardoned prisoners are is-sued, so the names usually come from the prisoners themselves or their families. The majority are common criminals.
The pardons issued by President Thein Sein were timed to coincide with a Buddhist religious holiday and come ahead of a November general election. The polls have triggered criticism that the govern-ment is backsliding on political reforms it promised upon taking power in 2011, after almost five decades of repressive military rule. Past governments have released po-litical prisoners as a way of easing criticism from abroad.
Those released included 155
Chinese workers, all but two of whom received life sentences ear-lier this month in connection with illegal logging in northern Myan-mar. Their jail terms drew much ire in China, which is a top ally of Myanmar. The punishment seemed largely to serve as a warning not to make business deals with Myanmar ethnic rebel groups, as the Chinese logging company was believed to have done.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Myanmar authorities had notified Chinese officials that the 155 would be handed over to their custody on Friday.
Despite close ties, there are significant tensions between China and Myanmar. Chinese economic penetration is big and highly visible in northern Myanmar, and some large infrastructure and mining projects have drawn charges of be-ing insensitive to the environment and local concerns.
China is also seen as providing a safe haven for some Myanmar ethnic rebel groups, with whom Myanmar’s government wants to reach cease-fire agreements.
Others who were pardoned in-cluded eight former senior military intelligence officers, who since 2004 have been serving jail terms of 80 years or more, according to their families. (ap)
AP Photo/Khin Maung Win
Released prisoners on a police truck wave to their relatives and colleagues at entrance of Insein Prison, Thursday, July 30, 2015, in Yangon. Nearly 7,000 prisoners in Myanmar, includ-ing some former military intelligence officials who had been purged by their army colleagues, have been given presidential pardons.
Myanmar pardons China loggers among nearly 7,000 prisoners
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
FILE - In this July 28, 2015 file photo, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il Hun speaks during a new conference in New York.
For North Korea, Iran-style nuclear deal not an option
PYONGYANG — If any hopes have been raised that the progress between the United States and Iran to halt Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons could bring change in Pyongyang, North Korea has gone out of its way to thwart them.
AMLAPURA - Early marriage or young marriage rate in Karangasem is high. This young marriage triggers high rate of maternal mortality in Karangasem.
It was announced by the Head of Women Empowerment and Family Planning, Priagung Duarsa, Wednesday (Jul. 29), in Karangasem dur-ing the medico-technical meeting in Amlapura. Young marriage occurs even at the age of 15 years to 19 years. “Young marriage rate occurred at the age of 15-19 years is quite high, but I do not remember the exact numbers,” he said.
Young marriage, he said, is also prone to cause maternal mortality. In fact, the maternal rate in Karangasem is still high, even the highest in Bali. It is said that early marriage has something to do with infant birth defect or infant mortality and maternal mortality because young marriage does have a high risk. It happens because reproductive organ at an early age has not fully developed, so that it is not ready to give birth. “Early marriage is certainly not ready physically and mentally, including the economic readiness of the house-hold. On that account, early marriage is also prone to result in household tempest or broken home,” he said.
To mature the age of marriage among the gen-erations of Karangasem, said Priagung Duarsa, his party has a reproductive health education program to schools, including the provision of counseling information center for teenagers. Besides, it will also be held generation planning program to schools that aims to prevent early marriages. (013)
Chairman of the Education Council, Wayan Madra, recently said that there are at least hundreds of NFE with unclear license. They mostly proliferate in urban areas like in the town of Tabanan.
“We do not prohibit the exis-tence of non-formal education. But at least, the clarity related to the institution must be able to be accounted for. Thus, the learners
will not be harmed. Moreover, we have seen they have amounted to hundreds of institution,” he said.
He pointed out that many teach-ers open courses or tutoring be-yond school hours and charge certain amount of fee beyond school tuition. Not infrequently, the students that do not attend the courses or extra lessons are often sequestered during the lesson at
school.“It’s not good, and should be
corrected. There is tendency that teachers more easily give the way to resolve questions during the course or tutoring, while school hours posing formal education are often not maximized,” he explained.
Not only that, the other large NFEs also mushrooming along Jalan Bypass Soekarno will also be targeted. In the next monitor-ing, the education council wants to know the extent of the correlation between the educational institu-tions to relevant agencies such as
the Education Agency, especially in terms of reporting. “Do not let the Agency Head sign certificate but having no correlation to the Education Agency,” he said.
If in the monitoring his party gets findings, the Education Agen-cy will make recommendation to the Education Agency for im-mediate action. “We recommend closing the illegal educational institutions,” he said.
As has been known, the Educa-tional Council as the originator of the Education Clinic in Tabanan County is recently aggressive to handle a wide variety of education
issues. Other than targeting teach-ers facing difficulties or obstacles in conducting research or making paper, the education clinic will also intensively supervise the implementation of the student orientation term (MOS) alleged to still hold activities complicating new students.
“Related to the student orien-tation, so far there have been no things considered to have deviated from the existing provisions. How-ever, there are still difficult tasks requested by seniors to younger class during the orientation,” he concluded. (kmb28)
AMLAPURA - Participants of the Utsawa Dharma Gita (UDG) or Dharma song festival for the category of Hindu sermon (dhar-ma vacana) in English language were simultaneously nurtured starting on Wednesday (Jul. 29) in Karangasem. The sermon in English language was held for the first time.
It was announced by the Head of the Karangasem Culture and Tourism Agency, I Wayan Purna,
last Monday. In addition to par-ticipants of English-speaking sermon, at the same time is also fostered the other competi-tions such as memorizing sloka (Sanskrit verse) for children and adults. Participants of the training consist of 79 children and adults. They are directed by 42 coaches such as the artist Ida Nyoman Sugata, Ida Wayan Jelantik Oka and humanist Dewa Gde Catra. “Development of the
UDG participants is meant to make preparation for the UDG event of the Bali provincial level next September,” said Purna.
Division Head of the Cus-tomary Affairs of the Tourism and Culture Agency, Wayan Witrawan, said that the sermon in English is something new or the first time to be held in the UDG Bali next September. In the meantime, the coach of the English language sermon, I
Gusti Komang Kawi, an English teacher at the SMPN 1 Manggis junior high school, said that the implementation of sermon in English language is based on consideration that Hinduism is a religion professed by people around the world.
As for Bali, it has also become a tourist destination visited by travelers from around the world, including those from India and Malaysia making a pilgrimage to
Besakih. Besides, many foreign-ers also come to Bali to know more about Hinduism. On that account, English-speaking ser-monizer must also be prepared.
“Karangasem has also initiated a spiritual tourism. More and more foreigners come to Karan-gasem. Surely when they ask for an explanation on Hinduism, we must be ready even in foreign languages, especially English,” said Kawi. (013)
English-speaking UDG participants get training
Hundreds of illegal NFE institutions found in TabananTABANAN - Increasingly widespread indications of illegal
non-formal education (NFE) in some areas of Tabanan get special attention from the Tabanan Education Council. As planned, in the near future the Education Council will conduct a monitoring against the education institutions feared to harm learners.
Young marriage rate increases, maternal mortality high
IBP/File
The newly married couple carry out ceremony
3Friday, July 31, 2015 14 InternationalInternational Bali NewsFashion Friday, July 31, 2015
The idea behind the All Star II is comfort, Converse said in a statement Thursday.
The update is made of durable Tencel canvas, as opposed to the cotton kind, with higher tech shock absorption in Nike Lunarlon for the footbed. There’s foam padding inside at the ankle, non-slip padded tongues and perforated micro-suede liners along the interior sides.
For the exterior, the iconic circle patch is
embroidered on and eyelets will be colored to match the shoe. In addi-tion, the sole is slightly higher than traditional Chucks.
The easily recognizable rubber toe cap wil l remain. The new shoe goes on sale J u l y 2 8 i n black, white, red and blue.
(ap)
PARIS — British singer Jane Birkin has asked Hermes to take her name off the crocodile-skin ver-sions of the iconic Birkin handbag, after being contacted by animal rights group PETA over “cruel” slaughtering practices.
A PETA video from June shows several reptiles at a Texas farm that supplies crocodile skins to Hermes left twitching in a bloody ice con-tainer to die after being shot with a captive bolt gun and cut with a knife.
Birkin said in a statement ob-tained Wednesday that she was “alerted to the cruel practices ... to make Hermes handbags car-rying my name” and has “asked Hermes to de-baptize the Birkin Croco until better practices in line with international norms can be put in place.”
The Birkin bag was created in 1984 by Hermes in honor of the famed singer and ex-girlfriend of Serge Gainsbourg, and is, still today, one of the world’s most ex-clusive luxury items.
The bag is beloved by stars such as Victoria Beckham and comes in calf, ostrich, lizard as well as croco-dile. It can cost between $10,000 and over $100,000, with waiting lists to buy it famously stretching into the years.
PETA said it takes three croco-dile belly skins to make one hand-bag. In their expose, at the Lone Star Alligator Farms, PETA shows abattoir employees referring to live crocodiles and alligators as “watch straps.”
No publicly listed phone num-ber for Lone Star Alligator Farms in Winnie, Texas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Houston, could immediately be located Wednesday.
Steve Lightfoot, a spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Depart-
ment, which regulates the commer-cial production and harvesting of alligators in Texas, said that Lone Star Alligator Farms has a current permit and is operating legally.
PETA filed a complaint on Feb. 25 with the TPWD seeking revoca-tion of Lone Star Alligator Farms’ permit, which the agency declined to do following an unannounced fa-cility inspection March 2 by several state game wardens.
“Our folks did indicate this site was fairly impeccable as far as the conditions, the record-keeping,” Lightfoot said.
The game wardens found some minor code violations, related to height of a structure and one alliga-tor with a mild bacterial infection, leading to misdemeanor citations, Lightfoot said.
“We don’t have any issues with Lone Star Alligator Farms,” Light-foot said Wednesday about the status of the company.
The PETA investigation, how-ever, found “filthy conditions” at the facility, said Kathy Guillermo, a senior vice president for the animal rights group.
“Our investigator in Texas spent most of the day standing in knee deep, filthy, putrid water that had as many as 55 alligators in it, when according to the state’s own statute it should have no more than six,” Guillermo said.
Contacted by The Associated Press, Hermes said it “respects and shares (Birkin’s) emotions” and was “shocked by the images recently broadcast.” An investigation, it says, is underway.
While the fashion powerhouse acknowledges that the Texas farm supplies it with crocodile skins, Hermes says they aren’t used spe-cifically for the Birkin bag. Hermes also uses croc for watchstraps and other bags. (ap)
Converse via A
P
AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File
Jane Birkin asks Hermes to take her name off croc handbag
Converse rolling out first Chuck Taylor update in 98 years
NEW YORK — Con-verse Chuck Taylor All Star fans rejoice! Your favorite sneaker is receiving its first construction update since debuting 98 years ago.
Grigson’s visit to Bali is aimed to develop business opportunities in the tourism sector.
According to the media release, during the visit, Ambassador Grigson will meet Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika and Prince of Ubud Ida Tjokorda Putra.
“Australians have a special fondness for Bali, and with almost a million Australians visiting each year, it is an island full of warm memories, largely due to the friendly nature and generosity of the Balinese people,” Grig-son remarked.
The Australian ambassador to Indonesia will also visit the Konservasi Sawah Founda-tion, supported by the Australian Consulate-General’s Direct Aid Program (DAP).
Founded in 2013, the Konservasi Sawah Foundation works to conserve land and gen-erate economic opportunities for Balinese farmers.
An Ambassador’s Award will also be pre-sented to Chairman and Managing Director of the Bali Hai Group Richard Chandler in recognition of the company’s success in the tourism sector over the last 25 years. (r)
TABANAN - Pupuan belongs to one of the coffee producers whose quality cannot be denied. The ro-busta coffee of Pupuan has even become a national champion for the best coffee quality. Despite hav-ing potential, the robusta coffee of Pupuan still requires certification so that its selling price can be increased.
By all means, the increase in the selling price will certainly have an impact on the welfare of farmers and the preservation of coffee plants in Pupuan.
The Head of the Tabanan Forestry and Plantation Agency, Roemi Li-estyowati, explained that currently the process of certification is still go-
ing on. By teaming up with academi-cians from the Udayana University, the study on the type and soil nutrient in Pupuan will be carried out. Exam-ination of soil nutrients is considered important because Pupuan robusta coffee has unique characteristic of the same kind in Indonesia. “Pupuan robusta coffee has slightly different
IBP/Net
Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson commences a three-day visit to Bali on Thursday to meet political leaders and members of the Indonesian and Australian business, arts, and alumni communities.
Australian Ambassador visits BaliDENPASAR - Australian Ambassador
to Indonesia Paul Grigson commences a three-day visit to Bali on Thursday to meet political leaders and members of the Indonesian and Australian business, arts, and alumni communities.
Coffee plant of Pupuan must be preserved
IBP/Wira
Pupuan belongs to one of the coffee producers whose quality cannot be denied. The robusta coffee of Pupuan has even become a national champion for the best coffee quality.
color and distinctive fragrance. So, we need more researches on the specifications,” said Roemi.
The certification will assure quality of coffee produced, so that it directly increases the selling price. Thus, the increase in farm-ers’ income will make them more prosperous. Indirectly, it will also prevent land conversion and the coffee plantations can be preserved. Moreover, the coffee plant is one of the vertical plants functioning to absorb and store water in Tabanan.
“Coffee plant in Tabanan be-comes one of the plants functioning as water absorbent so that no drought will occur at downstream. On that account, the coffee plant needs to be preserved,” said Roemi. The area of coffee plantation in Pupuan alone reaches approximately 7,800 hectares.
In the meantime, Chairman of the Association of the Pupuan Coffee Productive Business Unit, Wayan Dira, explained that Pupuan robusta coffee has started to be interested by Korean exporters. As evidence, his party already delivered six contain-ers of coffee to Korea, Wednesday (Jul. 29). “Actually the exporter requested ten containers. However, we can only meet the demand gradu-ally,” he said.
Regarding the certification, added Dira, robusta coffee is cur-rently under process, while the Arabica coffee has been certified for the area of 100 hectares. He
acknowledged that the certification indicates if the quality of coffee produced is guaranteed. Of course, it will have an impact on the selling price of the coffee. To that end, he hoped the government to assist and facilitate farmers in the certification process. (kmb24)
International2 Friday, July 31, 2015 15International Activities
Bali News Friday, July 31, 2015
Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bagiarta. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp.
(0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post
EvEry Temple and Shrine has a special date for it annual Ceremony, or “ Odalan “, every 210 days according to Balinese calendar, including the smaller ancestral shrine which each family possesses. Because of this practically every few days a ceremony of festival of some kind takes place in some Village in Bali. There are also times when the entire island celebrated the same Holiday, such as at Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi day, Saraswati day, Tumpek Landep day, Pagerwesi day, Tumpek Wayang day etc.
The dedication or inauguration day of a Temple is considered its birth day and celebration always takes place on the same day if the wuku or 210 day calendar is used. When new moon is used then the celebration always happens on new moon or full moon. The day of course can differ the religious celebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some temple celebrating for three days while the celebration of Besakih temple, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and most of the time it lasts for 11 days, depending on the importance of the occasion.
The celebration is very colorful. The shrine are dressed with pieces of cloths and sometimes with brocade, sailings, deco-rations of carved wood and sometimes painted with gold and Chinese coins, very beautifully arranged, are hung in the four corners of the shrine. In front of shrine are placed red, white or black umbrellas depending which Gods are worshipped in the shrines.
In front of important shrine one sees, besides these umbrel-las soars, tridents and other weapons, the “umbul-umbul”, long flags, all these are prerogatives or attributes of Holiness. In front of the Temple gate put up “Penjor”, long bamboo poles, decorated beautifully ornaments of young coconut leaves, rice and other products of the land. Most beautiful to see are the girls in their colorful attire, carrying offerings, arrangements of all kinds fruits and colored cakes, to the Temple. Every visitor admires the grace with which the carry their load on their heads.
Balinese Temple Ceremony
As a 4+ star accommodation, the Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach recently held a grooming training program for all employees. This activity is positively welcomed and fully supported by the General Manager, Wahyu A. Bayuaji.
Indriani conveyed that grooming train-ing aims to equalize the performance of employees in accordance with international hotel standards. “As tourism players dealing directly with guests, the appearance is very important to support professionalism at work-place,” she explained friendly.
In the future, the Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach claimed as the best family accommo-dation in Legian area will also hold a Beauty Class to broaden the insight of the employees in applying beauty care and accessories. “El-egant, neat and fragrant appearance does not only reflect good corporate image, but also increases the added value and confidence for everyone,” she said.
LEGIAN - The general manager who opened the iconic Chedi Mus-cat for GHM in 2003 is returning to the luxury hotel group’s fold this month as he takes charge of The Legian Bali.
André Kretschmann moves to the acclaimed 68 all-suite resort with its 11-villa sister property in Seminyak – The Club at The Legian – after six years as an area general manager for the Cheval Blanc Group across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.
From 1995 to 2005, Kretschmann was a mainstay at GHM, where he managed properties in Jakarta, on Phuket, in Oman and on Sri Lanka.
“André spent a good deal of his career with us at GHM, and really helped define the image of a GHM manager,” said GHM President Hans R. Jenni, who co-founded the group with Adrian Zecha in 1992.
On the verge of its 20th Anniver-sary, The Legian endures as one of the most highly regarded hotels on Bali, typically landing among top-3 or top-5 lists of the island’s 1,000-plus hotels. The resort was also re-cently inducted into TripAdvisor’s
IBP/kmb
Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach new look
LEGIAN - “Just imagine that we are dealing with slovenly, smelly, messy and uncomfortable people, it is inconvenient, right?” It is revealed by Sales Manager of Club Bali Suites @ Legian Beach, In-driani Kusuma while giving a grooming training.
PROFILE
André KretschmannGM of The Legian Bali
IBP/Courtesy of GHM
Hall of Fame after being awarded with the popular travel review site’s Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years.
Under the watch of Kretschmann’s predecessor, the hotel opened a new, 30-metre infinity lap pool just above the famed sands of Semin-yak, renovated its three-bedroom oceanfront beach house, opened up
new streams of natural light into the hotel rooms and refurbished the spa and wellness facility.
Kretschmann’s career in hos-pitality took flight in his native Germany in the late 1970s. In the mid-1980s, he moved abroad to London and then Paris before relo-cating to Asia where he’s worked for the past 20 years.
SINGArAJA - White Burley tobacco cultivation in Buleleng is still experiencing serious obstacle. Farmers starting to get inter-ested in developing this cigar ingredient tobacco face difficulty to get supplies of seedling in this season. Nevertheless, approximately 50 hectares of land have been planted with White Burley tobacco spreading across Sawan, Buleleng and Sukasada subdistrict.
Some farmers have started the planting of seedlings since the beginning of May 2015. In this year’s planting season, farmers have trouble in getting supplies of White Burley tobacco seedlings. Farmers only rely on the supplies of seedlings from the maker in Banyuwangi, East Java. In the meantime, local farmers have never tried to produce seedlings independently. Actually, if they produce seedlings independently, it can alleviate their operational costs.
It is evidenced by the price of tobacco seedling prepared in Banyu-wangi reaches IDR 150,000 each. Due to long distance, the delivery of seedlings from Banyuwangi has a risk of death if to be planted in Buleleng. In addition, in this planting season the farmers in Buleleng lack of seedling supply. Of the 50 hectares of land available, only 30 hectares can be filled with the seedling supply from Banyuwangi.
In the meantime, the seedlings need for 20 hectares of land are met by the independent nursery made by local farmers facilitated by the Buleleng Forestry and Agriculture Agency.
The Division Head of Plantation, Nyoman Partayasa, with permission from the Head of the Buleleng Plantation and Forestry Agency, Ketut Nerda, admitted at his office last Wednesday that farmers in the region still find difficulty in obtaining supplies of White Burley tobacco seedlings. He added that farmers have actually been taught and facilitated about the techniques and the tobacco seeds have been prepared by the agency. However, since farmers have the habit of buying seedlings ready to be planted, the independent preparation of seedlings has not been done opti-mally. By independent nurseries in the area, farmers can reduce their operating capital. In addition, the death risk of the seedlings during the planting time will be prevented. Over this condition, lately through group counseling to farmers the agency has strived to sensitize farmers related to self-production of the White Burley tobacco seedlings.
“Farmers still rely on the purchase from Banyuwangi. Due to high demand in this year’s planting season, we finally lack of seedlings. This problem may not happen again and we will strive to sensitize farmers to produce their seedling independently,” he said.
On the other hand, Partayasa said that the development of White Burley tobacco in Buleleng these days is constantly increasing. It is in appropriate with the data from 2013 where farmers just made a pilot project on two hectares of land.
In 2014, the acreage increased to 17 hectares and this year in-creases again to 50 hectares. The addition of this land area shows that farmers are keen to cultivate White Burley tobacco. Besides, farmers have also proved that in terms of price this tobacco is quite expensive namely around IDR 37,000 per kg. Other than having relatively good price, the production cost is also much cheaper than that of Virginia tobacco. He cited that one hectare of land only needs production cost as much as IDR 35 million.
In the meantime, the total production reaches 1.5 tons per hect-are, so that farmers get total sales revenue worth IDR 55.5 million. Then, when it is reduced with the production cost worth IDR 35 million, farmers obtain profits as much as IDR 20.5 million. “The production cost is low because tobacco is dried by drying and does not need an oven and LPG stove. This hefty profit encourages our farmers to develop it and the demand of manufacture is also high, so that this opportunity must be captured by our farmers,” added Partayasa. (kmb38)
Operations Manager of Tanah Lot attraction, I Ketut Toya Ad-nyana, explained that other than being crowded by pilgrims, the Tanah Lot tourist attraction is also thronged by travelers. Aside from the Tanah Lot attraction, they also get interested in the procession of temple birthday taking place at three temples located in the area of Tanah Lot. “The convoy of pilgrims increases the beauty of Tanah Lot. Not infrequently, travelers are hunt-ing the rare moment to capture some pictures,” he said.
Tourist arrival continued to in-crease by the afternoon. Moreover, travelers mingled with the pilgrims
on the shoreline to capture the amazing moment. “This piodalan ceremony even adds to the tourist attraction. On that account, many travelers are waiting for the cer-emony in order to enjoy the tourist area of Tanah Lot,” said Toya.
To help smooth the ceremonial process and traffic of pilgrims, all parties at the Tanah Lot attraction are deployed and assisted by cus-tomary youth of Beraban village. “They pay devotional work in turn and already started it on Sunday (Jul. 26),” said Toya. According to him, each customary hamlet at Bera-ban customary village deploys their customary youth to pay devotional
work at the Tanah Lot Temple.The birthday ceremony at the Ta-
nah Lot Temple itself has been held from one o’clock in the morning, Wednesday (Jul. 29) officiated over by temple priest of Beraban cus-tomary village. Peak of the crowds habitually happens at one o’clock in the afternoon till night. In the mean-time, one day earlier, Tuesday (Jul. 28), was held the purificatory rite for the deities to north spring of the Tanah Lot Temple. The ceremony was held at three o’clock in the af-ternoon to purify all the sanctified effigies and ritual paraphernalia to be used in temple birthday on the following day. (kmb24)
White Burley tobacco cultivation hampered by seedlings
Piodalan at Tanah Lot Temple flooded by pilgrims and travelers
TABANAN - Thousands of Hindu pilgrims thronged the Tanah Lot Temple at Kediri, Tabanan to attend a series of piodalan or temple birthday, Wednesday (Jul. 29). In addition to Tanah Lot Temple, similar ceremony also took place at the Batu Bolong and Penataran Temple equally located at Tanah Lot.
