Edisi 08 Juli 2010 | International Bali Post

16 Pages Number 128 2st Year

Russian pianist accused of pedophilia in ThailandAP

Price: Rp 3.000,-

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Tourists from Netherlands attracted on Bali’s nature

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Diana’s family sells Rubens painting for £9 mln AFP

PAGE 8 LONDON – Princess Diana’s family has sold an important Old Master painting by Peter Paul Rubens for nine million pounds at auction.

Lohan’s future on hold until jail, rehab are done PAGE 12

“A Commander Being Armed For Battle”, which is thought to depict the 16th-century Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was sold to an anonymous bidder at Christie’s auction house in London on Tuesday.

The work by the Flemish artist, completed between 16121614, used to hang in Althorp which is the ancestral seat of Diana’s family and the late princess’s childhood home.

It was one of the first items to be bought as the family sells off an array of items including furniture and horse-drawn carriages.

AFP/File –

Continued on page 6

A Christie’s employee looks at a painting entitled “A Commander being armed for Battle”

Japan PM’s party may fall far short of poll target Reuters

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Reuters –

Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan

TOKYO – Japan’s Democratic Party could fall far short of Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s target in this weekend’s upper house poll, media said on Wednesday, putting his job at risk and foiling efforts to curb a huge public debt.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which swept to power for the first time last year with promises of change, will almost certainly run the government regardless of the outcome on Sunday as it controls the powerful lower house.

But the party needs a majority in the upper chamber to enact laws and implement policies smoothly.

Stock market experts said the policy deadlock likely to ensue if the Democrats fared badly and struggled to find new allies would be worrisome, but that investors had grown accustomed to political confusion in Japan and were unlikely to overreact.

Kan, who took over last month as Japan’s fifth prime minister in three years, has put fiscal reform at the center of the campaign, including a possible doubling of the 5 percent sales tax to curb a public debt already nearly twice the size of GDP. Kan has set a modest target of winning at least 54 seats, the same number that the DPJ has up for grabs in the election but fewer than the 60 it needs for an outright majority in the 242-seat chamber. Half the seats are being contested.

But a July 4-6 survey by Kyodo news agency published on Wednesday showed the DPJ might win fewer than 50 seats, and the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper forecast a similar result.

“If they get more than 50 seats, the Kan administration can continue, but if below 50, calls for him to take responsibility will emerge,” said independent analyst Atsuo Ito. Continued on page 6

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International

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Bali News

Genjek Kadong Iseng shows off ‘Wireng Laga’ performance APPEARANCE of Kadong Iseng Genjek a cappella troupe from West Seraya Village, Karangasem mesmerized spectators in the arena of the 32nd Bali Arts Festival (BAF), last Tuesday (Jun 6). Genjek featuring the title ‘Wireng Laga’ really entertained the audience with their genjek songs. Through the performance the audience caught an overview of the history on the birth of Genjek art as development of the Cakepung art.

The birth of Cakepung art is inseparable from the success of the Amlaraja Kingdom of Karangasem with a very famous king named AA Anglurah Karangasem conquering his enemies in ancient times. In the middle of triumphant celebration, the soldiers of Seraya Karangasem entertained themselves through the art of a cappella made spontaneously that later on known as Cakepung. Since Cakepung had particular genres, the Kadong Iseng Genjek troupe attempted to develop its content into freer Genjek by adding musical elements and so forth.

Meanwhile, in the midst of presenting the storyline, the Kadong Iseng troupe appearing with the number of dancers and gamelan players also staged a gebug ende (warrior) art attraction and a social message by performing ‘tajen’ or cockfight composition. Unmitigat-

edly, in the plot filled with important messages, the troupe brought two roosters into the arena. Afterward, the two roosters were then pitted in the arena describing the real situation of cockfighting. While watching the rampant cockfighting where their husbands got involved, the wives were described to look sad and protesting.

As a communicative art, the Genjek also came with Joged. Two joged dancers entertained the audience and invited some of them to come onto stage to join the dance.

Festive atmosphere was created during the Genjek troupe made their appearance for approximately 1.5 hours.

Chairman of Kadong Iseng genjek troupe, I Komang Nisma, said that by taking such story was expected the genjek art could always get a special place in the heart of the

audience. On that account, his party continued to make innovations in accordance with the demands of the times. Thus, he expected that such art would not be abandoned by society. “We are trying to do innovations all the times, so that every moment we can show off something different,” he said while adding what he had done for 20 years had engendered a result, namely the Genjek art of Kadong Iseng that remained to exist within the community.

Likewise, he added that Bali had classical art assets needing a touch and more spaces for revitalizing them. In years to come, government should pay more attention and explore the classical arts in the countryside. “Please give more attention to the arts in the village. It is required an effort to continue the discovery of the existing arts, so as not to come into extinction,” he said. (08)

Fertilizer distribution in Bali is accused of being unfair Denpasar (Bali Post)— Distribution of inorganic fertilizer in Bali was accused of having been unfair and did not reflect the partisanship in the cooperatives. It was considered very ironic because government was endeavoring Bali as the Province of Cooperative in the coming year 2012. The effort to realize Bali as the Province of Cooperative was worried as could not be achieved if the cooperatives were not given more roles. One of the roles was through the distribution of fertilizer. This was revealed in the hearings of Commission II of Bali House with the Bali Agricultural Services, Bali Trade and Cooperative Services, last Tuesday (Jun 6).

In the hearings led by Nyoman Sugawa Korry was also revealed that the distribution of inorganic fertilizer always provided greater priority for big established companies.

Meanwhile, the distribution up to the level of retailers and farmers in Bali was always not on time, inappropriate amount and the price turned to be more expensive.

In that meeting, the Head of Bali Agricultural Services, Putra Suryawan, conveyed that distribution of inorganic fertilizer in

Behind rampant explosion of LPG: Many 3-kg gas cylinders damage, no repair shops available Recently, fire cases afflicting a number of people occurred frequently enough. They did not only cause material loss, but also killed some lives. Ironically, most of the causes of fires were allegedly due to leakage of LPG cylinder sizing three kilograms. How was the handling of LPG tube sizing 3 kg after the rampant cases of fire?

Since the emergence of policies converting kerosene to LPG, all societal classes had now used LPG for their cooking activities.

Ranging from poor households, street vendors, until catering businesses are no longer using kerosene. They all have switched to LPG which campaigned to have many facilities. Unfortunately, many facts in the field these days indicated several cases of fire alleged to be caused by the leakage of LPG cylinder.

From the explanation of Division Head of K3S of PT Dewata Gas Sari (LPG filling and delivery station), Nyoman Karbin, met on the sidelines of raid held by

Denpasar Industry and Trade Services, last Tuesday (Jun 6), said the fire claimed to have been caused by the leakage of LPG cylinder was not fully true. Because, seen from the post-fire, gas cylinder was still intact. “So, most cases were due to leakage occurred outside the tube, such as broken rubber seals, substandard hose and damaged regulator,” explained Karbin.

Not only that, Karbin also highlighted the lack of socialization on the use of LPG in the community.

Since lately more communities used kerosene, so when there was a conversion to LPG, many of them could have not understood. “If only socialization had been done well and properly, I think the negative impact could be minimized,” said Karbin.

Other than the lack of socialization, the quality of marketed gas cylinder to the public did not meet the standards, either. The proof, damaged or improper cylinders amounted quite a lot. Based on a

note in the LPG filling and delivery station of PT Dewata Gas Sari located on Jalan Gatot Subroto Timur the company stored 3,669 damaged gas cylinders, either belonging to 3-kg or 12 kg cylinders.

“These damaged cylinders occur within the past one year,” said Vice Chairman of PT Dewata Gas Sari, Mulyadi.

More ironically, up to now there is no repair shop of 3-kg gas cylinder in Bali. Consequently, the efforts to repair the improper gas cylinders require a long time. It must be sent to the factory first after being reported to Pertamina. “At the moment, we just have repair service for 12-kg cylinder. So, the handling will be quicker. If not damaged, we can use it again after going through several rounds of tests of strength,” explained Mulyadi.

Community of LPG users had to be wary of damaged and expired gas cylinders. Several counterfeit gas cylinders were also in circulation within the community. How-

ever, their number was quite small.

A counterfeit cylinder would be easily known when filling with gas at station. “When hit, the original cylinder sounds louder than the counterfeit cylinder,” said of one the LPG distributors (PT Yasa Nusantara Gemilang) Yapi Paul Saputro.

Related to the numerous cases of fire emerged in the recent months, both Yapi Paul Saputro and Mulyadi admitted it did not affect the demand of LPG cylinder of 3-kg size. Even, at the business owned by Yapi Paulus Saputro, the demand for gas cylinders of the 3-kg size increased.

“We get more demands for 3-kg size because more and more people now use it. Every day, we distribute approximately 200 up to 250 tubes,” said Yapi last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, PT Dewata Gas Sari gas station claimed to fill at least 66 tons of LPG or equaled to 22,000 tubes per day. “If we see the demand, I think there has been no decline,” explained Mulyadi. (ara)

Bali never found any problems and ran smoothly all the times. It was said, the distribution of fertilizer in Bali carried out by producers such as Pupuk Kaltim and Petrokimia Gresik was implemented through division of administrative district. In the circulatory system, they made contract agreement with their distributors and retailers. For example, PT Pupuk Kaltim had 229 retailers and Petrokimia Gresik had 213 retailers. “The distribution is executed evenly, including the distribution through Bali Dwipa Central Cooperative,” he said.

However, the statement was immediately rebutted by Sugawa Korry. According to him, the circulation of inorganic fertilizer in Bali always encountered a lot of problems. Other than the distribution was not punctual and inappropriate quantity, farmers also often complained because of retail price was too expensive. “What farmers said is reasonable because the highest retail price (MRP) in the field is very high. The high price of fertilizer is given a reason due to transport costs,” he said.

Sugawa Korry added the allocation of fertilizer distribution given to cooperatives by Pupuk Kaltim was only 25 percent with district administrative systems in three regencies. Meanwhile, there was no subsidized fertilizer distributed by cooperatives. Aside from not allocating more fertilizers to cooperatives in fertilizer distribution, farmers also complained about the allocation provided. In each hectare of land farmers used 350-400 kg of fertilizer, while they were only given 225 kg per hectare. “In years to come, we ask in order cooperatives and farmers in Bali are given more allocations,” he asserted.

According to Sugawa Korry, cooperatives in Bali needed giving more allocations in order they could take part and have the opportunity to improve their business. Such alternatives could be performed by increasing the distribution of the regency, improving the allocation of subsidized fertilizer distribution through existing distributors and increasing the number of administrative district. “For further arrangements, let’s hand over them to the executive and oblige PT Petrokimia Gresik to engage the distributor from the cooperative movement. Among the six existing distributors, no single cooperative had been involved,” he criticized. (kmb13)

z Founder : K.Nadha, z General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti z Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bali Putra Ariawan, Tabanan: Surpi. Jakarta: Nikson, Suharto Olii, Indu P. Adi, Ahmadi Supriyanto, Achmad Nasrudin, Hardianto, Darmawan S. Sumardjo, Heru B Arifin, Asep Djamaluddin, Ade Irawan, Ipik Tanoyo. NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani, Nur Haedin, Suyadnya. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. z Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. z 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

Bali News

International

Missing Child, Norwegian Reported to Police Denpasar (Bali Post) – A Norwegian tourist, Pier Vegsunduag (53), reported have lost his child which’s suspected taken by a woman initialed SRT. As reported to the Denpasar Police Department, the foreigner who lives at Gunung Lumut Street, Denpasar stated his child was gone since 13th June 2010 around 11 pm. As the child hasn’t come home and can’t be found, Pier reports it to the police last Monday (5/7).

The police stated that SRT could’ve brought the child anywhere and suspected there was a family problem between Pier and SRT. Public Relations of the police department, Police Comissioner Sang Gede Sukawiyasa confirmed the incident last Tuesday (6/7), “There was a report a foreign child is missing. Now it’s being investigated.”

They also received information

from a resident, ESZ (45), who lives at Gunung Batur Street, reporting a case of underage girl sexual abuse. Victim RSM (13), a Junior High School pupil, was abused by an unknown man. The incident happened on Saturday (3/7) around 3.30 pm at a grass field in front of the road, Taman Sari alleyway, Denpasar.

From the information Bali Post received, at that time RSM was walking alone through the grass field. All of a sudden a mysterious guy came near her and captured her. She was forced kissed and caused her neck redden. It happened quickly so then victim straightly went home.

ESZ saw her daughter’s neck went red then report it to the police with report No. LP-B/1425/2010/SPK. Sukawiyasa confirmed that this is also being investigated. “Some witnesses are asked for statements already,” Sukawiyasa concluded. (jep)

Pangeratep Ceremony at Pasimpenan Baturaya Temple Amlapura (Bali Post) – Peak of the pangeratep ceremony (closing of padudusan agung nawaratna ceremony) happened on Tuesday (6/7) at Pasimpenan Baturaya temple located in Tumbu village, Karangasem. The peak was attended by residents believing Ida Batara Kahyangan Jagat Kancing Gumi from Batulantang village, Petang, Badung and hundreds other.

The leader of the ceremony, Jero Mangku Nyoman Sudana explained it has started since Saturday Paing Merakih (3/7) and Ida Batara will be asked to stay for nine days until Sunday (11/7) evening. At its peak yesterday, Karangasem region government and other priests also attended.

Meanwhile, dances accompanied the ceremony such as rejang dewa

(welcome dance for the Gods), baris gede/baris tombak (soldier’s dance), baris dadap (a kind of baris dance with canoe-like shield weapon) and sidakarya mask dance (ending ritual ceremony dance). Mangku Sudana said Ida Batara Mas Sakti who stays and praised in kahyangan jagat kancing gumi was asked to come down to earth.

Mangku Sudana also mentioned his side got an assignment to wake (nangiang) the temple and came true as people and donators supported it.

There was only one pule tree growing healthily and now its 15 meters high. The base to build the temple was saved in a Tumbu epigraphy year 1247. It was then rebuilt at 12th July 2006 and its great ceremony peaked at 14th October 2008. (013)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

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Ganesh fragmentary: Vibrating enchantment of Bali-India romance VIBRANT and full of charm. These impressions are embedded in the hearts of art lovers in Bali when watching the results of collaborative art presented by Bhaskar Arts Theatre Group (India) based in Singapore with the community of artists from the Saba Sari Art Studio, Puri Taman, Blahbatuh, Gianyar. Shown in Ksiraarnawa Building, last Monday (Jun 5) night, the two artist communities based on different cultural roots made a fragmentary presentation at the same stage entitled ‘Ganesh.’

Although still firmly holding the genres and aesthetic concepts of each dance movement, Balinese and Indian artists community managed to look cohesive, whole and united.

It was a romance in art performance that did not mutually drown each another. Attractive movements of Balinese dance and energetic and rhythmic gamelan accompaniment of kekebyaran were able to merge harmoniously with exotic Indian dance movements with musical accompaniment dominated by the thump of snapping percussion instruments. Apparently, the blend of two different artistic-cultural nuances engendered an art creation filled with mesmerizing and thrilling quality.

In short, the Ganesh fragmentary narrated about the nervousness of Goddess Parvati who was often abandoned by her husband Lord Shiva. On account of powerless afflicted by loneliness, Goddess Parvati with her magical power then decided to create a handsome son named Ganesh. When Ganesh grew up into a burly bachelor, he was assigned to guard the door of heaven and prohibited anyone who wanted to enter into heaven. Once, Lord Shiva came to see his wife Goddess Parvati. Being obedient to the task

entrusted by his mother, Ganesh was swiftly expelled Lord Siva. Feeling his intention was hindered to enter heaven, Lord Shiva got angry and eventually beheaded Ganesh.

Seeing her beloved son died with his head severed, Goddess Parvati was very sad and telling the origin of Ganesh. Finally, Lord Shiva promised to bring Ganesh to life and found replacement for his head. Ultimately, the head piece of Ganesh was replaced by elephant’s head and Ganesh got back his life and grew into a burly man having supernatural power.

Bali-India Collaboration could be said very harmonious because of the foresight of these two art groups shared central roles in a balanced manner. The role of Lord Shiva and Ganesh were played by young dancers of India, while Balinese dancers obtained the role as Goddess Parvati and Ganesh when he already elephant-headed.

Meanwhile, figures of handmaidens and servants of Goddess Parvati and Ganesh were

played by a combination of Balinese and Indian dancers accompanied by Indian music and Balinese gamelan music accompaniment alternately.

At certain moments, the two groups of dancers and musicians made collaboration of two cultural elements that eventually emptied out into the nice fusion of dance movement and music raising a very refreshing feel of newness.

In the meantime, Meenakshy Bhaskar and I Gusti Serama Semadi serving as choreographers of Ganesh fragmentary told Bali Post that they were interested in working on such collaborative arts. Both claimed to have no significant difficulty in combining the two elements of different cultures into one piece of art performance. Emphasized, the key to success of the collaboration was the sincerity of each artist group involved to share a room of balanced expression so that the elements of art and culture did not gobble another. “In essence, it is a matter of equilibrium and harmonization,” asserted Meenakshy. (ian)

Suspected Poisoned, Thousands of Fishes Dead at Nyitdah Irrigation Tabanan (Bali Post) – Thousands of nila and karper fishes placed at Subak Kediri irrigation, Nyitdah Village, Kediri, Tabanan by the Tabanan Regent N. Adi Wiryatama with the Bali and Tabanan Indonesian Businesswomen Union (IWAPI) on Monday (28/6) died in the evening of last Monday (5/7) evening. As lots of them died it concerns the regent.

According to information collected, the death happened around 7.30 pm. The 130 meters long irrigation was passed by during a patrol by the local residents. The fishes were hardly breathing and then dragged by the water flow. The death increases and so it was reported to the owner I Nyoman Mulyadi. The dead fishes weighed four tons and expected a loss of IDR 90 million. According to Mulyadi, the fishes kept in this strong water flow 60 meters squared pond was spread in three steps, first on March, then May and last in June. The karper and nila spread weighed around 2,5 tons.

The Tabanan Regent then came to the location to see the incident. He regrets it as it was to be an example on how to maintain irrigation and river. It was expected they were poisoned and so the regent asked local residents and officials to

investigate and find the person who done it. He also asked not to eat the fishes as it’s not known what kind of poison it is.

The regent also asked the people of Tabanan not to capture the fishes in the irrigation and other water flows using electricity shock or poisons which damages the environment and the fishes’ habitat. Head of Tabanan Fishery and Marine Agency, Ir. I Nyoman Wirna Ariwangsa, MM. joined the regent on Tuesday (6/7) to see the location.

Ariwangsa added, besides the Tabanan Region Regulations Number 12 Year 2003 on Public Disciplinary and other law bases that can be used for fish resources conservation such as Bali Province Regulations Number 3 year 1985 on Fishery Security and Indonesian Republic Law Number 31 year 2004 about Fishery also Number 23 year 1997 about Living Environment Maintenance.

The Number 31 year 2004 is the right one for this situation as it stated that anyone who purposely took fishes or cultivating it by using chemicals, biologic, explosives and/ or anything that damages the fish resources conservation and its environment as mentioned at section 8 part (1) thus will be punished 6 years jail and fined IDR 1,2 billion.

IBP/doc

The picture shows farmers harvesting their watermelons. Watermelons become an option for the farmers during the unpredictable weather.

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

News

International

Australian PM rocked as defence minister quits AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s Defence Minister John Faulkner on Wednesday announced plans to quit the cabinet, dealing a blow to new Prime Minister Julia Gillard as national elections loom.

The heavyweight senator said he would return to the back benches after the polls, but denied the move was prompted by last month’s Labor party coup which dumped ex-leader Kevin Rudd, a close political ally.

“Inevitably some will suggest that the recent change in our party’s leadership is responsible for my decision,” he told reporters. “I can’t say strongly enough that any such speculation is just plain wrong.”

Faulkner said he had always intended to step down after Labor’s first term to encourage younger talent, adding that Gillard had persuaded him to contest his Senate seat in the elections later this year.“Julia Gillard has my absolute support,” he said.

“I was unstinting in my efforts to see Kevin Rudd elected prime minister three years ago and no one will work harder than me for the government’s re-election under Julia’s leadership.”

Faulkner is the second senior cabinet member to announce his resignation since Gillard’s sudden rise to power, after popular Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said he would not contest the election.

The 56-year-old powerbroker became Rudd’s defence minister in June last year, after his predecessor Joel Fitzgibbon stepped down following a series of scandals.

His announcement comes during rampant media speculation that Gillard is about to call elections after moving quickly to tackle the key

issues of a controversial mining tax and immigration.

“I’m a little bit old-fashioned about these things,” Faulkner said.

“I wasn’t willing to be placed in a (difficult) position during the election campaign, if asked whether I would serve as defence minister in the government if the government were re-elected.”

Gillard said Faulkner, who also served under ex-prime minister Paul Keating in the 1990s, had “a further contribution to make as a member of the parliament and member of the team”, according to public broadcaster ABC. Faulkner was a key member of the centre-left Rudd’s campaign team for the 2007 elections, which he won by a landslide from long-time conservative leader John Howard.

He was also in Keating’s cabinet in the 1990s, and was Senate leader of the opposition after 2001 elections.

Faulkner was famously caught unawares during last month’s rapid leadership challenge when he admitted knowing nothing about the drama unfolding behind the scenes in Canberra.

“It might be on the ABC news, but it’s also news to me,” Faulkner said during a TV interview in the midst of the coup.

His unexpected resignation comes after Gillard laid the groundwork for the polls by defusing the tax row with the powerful mining industry and unveiling a tough new policy on asylum-seekers.

Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook

AFP –

Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner, seen in June 2010, has said he would leave the cabinet after …

Queen addresses UN, places wreath at ground zero AP

NEW YORK – Queen Elizabeth II challenged the United Nations to fight global dangers by “waging” peace, then entered ground zero on Tuesday for the first time to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Back in New York after more than three decades, the 84-year-old British monarch turned her eyes toward the future of the World Trade Center: new skyscrapers rising over what was once smoldering debris that had buried loved ones forever.

“We are not here to reminisce,” she told the world body earlier Tuesday. “In tomorrow’s world, we must all work together as hard as ever if we are truly to be United Nations.”

Not even a record high temperature of 102 degrees, accompanied by a heat advisory, kept the monarch from New York’s hallowed ground.

She arrived at the 16-acre site in lower Manhattan late Tuesday afternoon with her husband, Prince Philip. They walked slowly across a

AP –

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the World Trade Center site to lay a wreath

wooden walkway that reaches deep over the construction site. Huge cranes hovering overhead were stopped and workers took a break during the queen’s visit.

In silence, Elizabeth laid a wreath of flowers on an iron pedestal near the footprint of the trade center’s south tower. Bowing her head, she gently brushed her gloved hand against the locally grown red peonies, roses, lilies, black-eyed Susans and other summer blossoms.

Then the queen met dozens of family members and first responders who had lost loved ones as the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The queen just was asking me about that day, and how awful it must’ve been,” said Debbie Palmer, whose husband, battalion Fire Chief Orio Palmer, was killed. “She said, `I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in my life as bad as that. And I said, `Let’s hope we never do again.’”

Palmer said of the monarch: “She’s beautiful. She looks like she could be anybody’s grandmother.”

The queen wore a two-piece white, blue and beige print dress with long sleeves and a matching brimmed champagne-colored silk hat with flowers.

International IMIGRATION Australian Consulate General Jalan Tantular 32 Renon Denpasar Phone: +62 361 241118 Fax: +62 361 221195 (General) +62 361 241120 (Immigration)

General Info

Thursday, July 8, 2010

HOSPITAL Denpasar There are 4 major hospitals usually used by foreigners Denpasar General Hospital (RSUP Sanglah), Kasih Ibu Hospital, Rumah Sakit Wongaya and Rumah Sakit Dharma Husada.

HOSPITAL Bangli Bangli General Hospital Jl. Kesumayuda 27, Bangli Phone : +62 366 91521 Gianyar

Royal Danish & Norwegian Mimpi Resort Jimbaran, Bali Phone +62.361.701 070 The Czech Republic Jalan Pengembak No. 17 Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.286 465 France Consulate Agency Jalan Merta Sari Gang II No. 8 Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.285 485 The Federal Republic of Germany Jalan Pantai Karang No 17 Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.288 535 The Republic of Hungary Jalan By Pass No 219 Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.287 701 Italian Consulate Jalan By Pass Ngurah Rai Jimbaran, Bali Phone +62.361.701 005 Honorary Consulate of Mexico Jalan Mohamad Yamin 1 A, Renon, Denpasar, Bali Phone +62.361.223 266 Honorary Consulate of The Netherlands Jalan Raya Kuta 127, Bali Phone +62.361.761 506 Honorary Consulate of Spain Komplek Istana Kuta Galleria Blok Vallet 2 No 11. Jalan Patih Jelantik Kuta, Bali Phone +62.361.769 286 USA Consulate Agency Jalan Hayam Wuruk No. 188 Denpasar, Bali Phone +62.361.222 426 Consulate General of Japan Jalan Raya Puputan No. 170 Renon, Denpasar, Bali Phone +62.361.227 628 Honorary Consulate of British Jalan Tirta Nadi No. 20 Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.270 601 Swiss and Austria Consulate Jalan Patih Jelantik, Komplek Pertokoan Istana Galleria Phone +62.361.751 735 Honorary Consulate of Brazil Jalan Legian No. 186, Bali Phone +62.361.757 775 Honorary Consulate of Thailand Jalan Raya Puputan Renon 81, Denpasar, Bali Phone +62.361.263 310 Embassy of India Jalan Raya Puputan Renon 42-44, Denpasar, Bali Phone +62.361.241 978 Honorary Consulate of Sweden anf Finland Segara Village Hotel, Jalan Segara Ayu, Sanur, Bali Phone +62.361.282 223 Honorary Consulate of Malaysia Alam Kulkul Boutique Resort, Jalan Pantai Kuta, Bali Phone +62.361.752 520

RSUP Sanglah is the main provincial public hospital. Its facilities have improved since the emergency ward had been built in 1991. Difficult/critical cases would not become a problem anymore since it has complete equipments. It is located on Jl. Kesehatan Selatan 1 Sanglah Denpasar with : Phone : 227 911 – 15 Fax : 226 363 Kasih Ibu Hospital is a private hospital which caters for less serious cases such as diarrhea, intestinal disorders, anemia, asthma and minor accidents. Kasih Ibu is also equipped to care for pregnant women. This hospital is located on Jl. Teuku Umar 120 Denpasar.

Phone : 223 036 Fax : 268 690.

Rumah Sakit Wongaya (Public Hospital; Psychiatric Unit) Jl. Kartini, Denpasar.

Phone : 222 142.

Rumah Sakit Dharma Husada , (Private) Jl. Sudirman No 50, Denpasar Phone : 227 560, 234 824 In relating with health, Bali also has insurance and medical evacuation company, that is: AEA International - SOS Assistance Bali.

PT Abhaya Eka Astiti, Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai No. 24X, Kuta 80361.

Phone : 755 768 Fax : 755 768 One thing that should be noted by tourists here is that the Blood Bank in Bali normally carries no stock of Rhesus (Rh) Negative blood.

Badung Bali Medical Clinics There are some medical clinics that are well known by foreigners in Bali. Some of them are western owned and operated : Bali International Medical Center (BIMC) Bali International Medical Centre (BIMC) provides excellent Primary Health Care & Emeregency Medical Services for tourists, traveler, and expatriate living in Bali.

Emeregency Room, Ambulance, Clinic Services, Insurance & Medical Evacuations also available. Open 24 hours Phone : 761 2631. Located Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai No.100X, Kuta, Bali 80361 - Indonesia. http://www.bimcbali.com International SOS Clinic Bali Opened in 1999, offers International SOS members and visitors to Bali comprehensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency medical service.

Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai 505X, Kuta 80361, Bali - Indonesia Phone : 720 100 Fax : 721 919 E-mail : info@sos-bali.com ttp ://www.sos-bali.com Bali Nusa Dua Emergency Clinic Jl Pratama No. 81 Phone : 771 324 Kuta Clinic Jl. Raya Kuta Phone : 753 268 Dental Clinic Dr Indra Guizot, Jl. Patimura 19, Denpasar Phone : 222 445, 234 375 DDS. Ritjie Rihartinah, Jl Pratama No. 81 Nusa Dua Phone : 771 324 Retno W. Agung, Jln. Bypass Ngurah Rai No.4A Br. Tamansari – Sanur Phone : 288 501

Clinic Mas Jl. Raya Mas, Ubud Phone : +62 361 974573 Toyo Clinic Jl. Pengosekan, Ubud Phone : +62 361 978078 Permata Bunda Clinic Jl. Patih Jelantik 50 X, Gianyar Phone : +62 361 942082 Ubud Clinic Jl Raya Ubud No.36 Campuhan, Ubud Phone : +62 361 974911 Gianyar General Hospital Jl. Ciung Wanara 2, Gianyar Phone : +62 361 943049 Karangasem Karangasem General Hospital Jl. Ngurah Rai, Karangasem Phone : +62 363 21001 Klungkung Klungkung General Hospital Jl. Flamboyan 40-4, Klungkung Phone : +62 366 21371 Negara Negara General Hospital Jl. Gelar, Negara Phone : +62 365 41006 Tabanan Laboratorium Clinic Jl. Gunung semeru No. 8, Tabanan Phone : +62 361 819260 Mengwi Clinic Jl. I Gusti Ngurah Rai 46, Tabanan Phone : +62 361 880550 Darma Kerti Hospital Jl. Teratai 16, Tabanan Phone : +62 361 812359 Tabanan General Hospital Jl. Pahlawan 14, Tabanan Phone : +62 361 811027 Singaraja Prodia Clinic Jl. RA Kartini 12, Singaraja Bali 0362 - 24-516 Singaraja Hospital Jl. Ngurah Rai 30, Singaraja Bali 0362 - 22-573 Pet Clinics Kayumas: (0361) 226934 Sayang Binatang: (0361) 483121 Satwa Kertha Husada: (0361) 263018 Pantai Sindhu: (0361) 287518 Sidakarya: (0361) 724492 Pedungan: (0361) 720026

TAXIS Praja Taxi : (0361) 289090 Bali Taxi : (0361) 701111 Ngurah Rai Taxi : (0361) 724724 Pan Wirthi Taxi : (0361) 723366 Komotra Taxi : (0361) 758855

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News

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Russian pianist accused of pedophilia in Thailand BANGKOK, Thailand – Internationally acclaimed Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Vasillievich Pletnev has been charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in a Thai beach town, police said Wednesday.

AFP –

A Bangladeshi sex worker takes an Oradexon tablet in a government-registered brothel in Faridpur

Bangladesh sex workers plump up on cow steroids AFP FARIDPUR, Bangladesh (AFP) – Whenever Bangladeshi brothel owner Rokeya, 50, signs up a new sex worker she gives them a course of steroid drugs often used to fatten cattle.

For older sex workers, tablets work well, said Rokeya, but for younger girls of 12 to 14 — who are normally sold to the brothel by their families — injections are more effective.

“It’s the quickest way to make a girl plump and hide her actual age if she is just a teenager,” Rokeya said, adding that the drug, called Oradexon, is cheap and widely available.

An estimated 200,000 women and teenage girls work in Bangladesh’s sex industry and as many as 90 percent of them may be addicted to Oradexon or similar steroids, according to British charity ActionAid. Doctors say long-term use can be fatal but at the vast, government-registered brothel 100 kilometres (60 miles) outside Dhaka, most of the 900 sex workers use Oradexon daily to give them plump, full bodies.

When sex worker Shahinur Begum first arrived at Faridpur, divorced and bankrupt with a daughter to support, she worried about being too thin to attract clients.

“Oradexon gave me a full body, making me attractive,” she said, adding that her brothel madam first gave her the drug to help her gain weight but she was soon hooked on it.

“I’m swollen like a balloon and have hypertension. The doctors have told me to stop taking it but I can’t,” Shahinur, 30, who earns about 150 dollars a month, told AFP. The drug is so common it is sold in tea-shops in the brothel, with a pack of ten costing just a few cents — less than the price of a cup of tea.

As Hindi music blares from loudspeakers and her neighbours quarrel over poached clients and discarded condoms, Shahinur said she worries the drug will eventually kill her.

“My friend used to take Oradexon every day and now the

doctors say she’s dying,” she said, frying up spicy fish on a stove in her one-room tin shack deep inside the warren of lanes that make up the brothel.

“I find it hard to move my body now, it is so bloated — I don’t want to be like my friend. When I came here seven years back, I was so skinny and I hardly had any clients,” she explained.

“I desperately needed money to send to my daughter and mother. My madam gave me the ‘cow drug’ twice a day and soon enough I looked healthy and beautiful. I now get up to six clients a day.”

Prostitution in Bangladesh is legal in the small number of officially recognised brothels, and the sprawling site discretely hidden behind a row of shops in Faridpur has been in operation for more than 100 years.

Laws say sex workers must be over 18 years old — but many are clearly underage, and ActionAid research says steroid use is most prevalent among the teenagers.

Bangladesh’s bonded sex industry — where sex workers are “owned” by brothel madams and have to repay their purchase cost — makes stamping out the drug hard as sex workers themselves want to use it.

“The drug is a sex worker’s only ticket to early freedom as it makes her attractive and helps her to get as many clients as possible,” said Rokeya, herself a former sex worker.

In 2004, the sudden, unexplained deaths of four young girls who regularly took Oradexon caused panic in Bangladesh’s brothels. ActionAid were then asked by a sex workers’ campaign group to look into the use of the steroid.

“The deaths opened a lid on one of the worst-kept secrets in our sex industry,” Zahid Hossain Shuvo, an ActionAid researcher who was part of a two-year study on the use of drug in Faridpur brothel.

“The girls come in poor and thin at the brothel and need a quick-fix for their malnourished bodies if they want to attract clients. They say Oradexon works like magic potion,” he said.

Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev, the founder of the Russian National Orchestra, was charged Tuesday with rape and appearing in compromising photographs with several other boys, said police Lt. Col. Creetha Tankanarat.

He was released on a 300,000 baht ($9,000) bail, ordered to report to the court every 12 days and is banned from contacting any witnesses in the case.

He could face up to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to 40,000 baht ($1,200) if found guilty.

“This whole thing is a misunderstanding,” said Pletnev in a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press but did not elaborate. He said he had no intention of leaving Thailand and was still residing in Pattaya.

Thailand has long been known as a haven for sex tourists and pedophiles because of widespread prostitution and lax law enforcement. Authorities have voiced intentions to crackdown on such offenses, and the Russian’s arrest is one of the most prominent cases to date.

Police said the musician was taken in Monday evening following a tip from Traipob Boonmasong, a Thai national who was charged with child rape for his alleged involvement in a child prostitution ring. Police confiscated pictures of young boys, some

alongside foreigners.

Pletnev founded the Russian National Orchestra, the country’s first independent orchestra, after befriending Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at conference in Washington, D.C., in 1988, and was its first principal conductor, according to the orchestra’s website. Today, he is the orchestra’s artistic director.

Internationally known as a pianist, conductor and composer, Pletnev won a 2005 Grammy for an arrangement of

exhibition....

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Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, is buried in the grounds of Althorp. There is also an exhibition about her life at the house.

A painting by Italian artist Il Guercino also sold at Tuesday’s auction for 5.2 million pounds, said Christie’s.

“King David”, completed in 1651, depicts the Old Testament Hebrew monarch, and was acquired by the family in the 18th century for Spencer House, their historic London residence.

The trustees of the estate are hoping to raise 20 million pounds from the sales to help with work on Althorp. Part of a 14,000-acre country estate, the stately home is undergoing a 10-million-pound re-roofing and restoration project.

The trustees say the sales will help the estate “thrive for generations to come.”

A treasure trove of items from Althorp will go under the hammer at Christie’s in the coming days, including butlers’ trays, riding whips and saddles.

The family’s collection of 19th century carriages, which includes one used at the coronation of king Edward VII in 1902, will also be offered at the auction house.

On Thursday, furniture, art and porcelain from Spencer House will be offered for sale. The building is still owned by the family but leased to tenants.

A result producing fewer than 50 seats for the DPJ would leave Kan vulnerable to a challenge from inside his own party, although the fiery former grassroots activist is unlikely to go down without a fight.

Prokofiev’s “Cinderella,” which was recorded with him and Martha Argerich on piano.

In Thailand, Pletnev has performed as a guest conductor with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

He also owns a restaurant and several businesses, including a badminton club, in Thailand, police said, and keeps private personal watercraft and two powered hang gliders in his residential compound in Pattaya, a resort town known for its wide-open night life, foreign criminal gangs and police suspected of corruption when dealing with criminal cases. It is also a major destination for Russian tourists.

(AP Photo/Dailay News)

In this photo taken Monday, July 5, 2010, Thai police officer presents the arrest warrant to Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Vasillievich Pletnev, at his residence in Pattaya, Thailand. Pletnev has been charged with raping a 14-year-old boy in a Thai beach town, police said Wednesday, July 7.

ONLY THE GODS KNOW Japanese government bond yields have fallen since Kan put fiscal reform on the agenda and a messy election outcome could weaken that trend. Stock market experts, though, seemed rather blase about the prospects of more policy chaos.

“If the Democrats can’t get 50 seats, we’ll have a state of confusion and such political confusion is negative to the market,” said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities. “But foreign investors ... in Japanese stocks have seen and become immune to situations like this in this country.”

Kyodo also said the DPJ and its tiny ally, the People’s New Party, would have a tough time winning the 56 seats that would allow them to keep joint control of the upper chamber, meaning the Democrats would have to seek new allies.

A weak showing for the Democrats would undercut Kan’s ability to get backing from other parties to implement policies, including a sales tax rise

that Kan has said could take at least two or three years to enact.It would also raise the likelihood that DPJ powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa would back a rival to Kan in a party vote that is set for September but could be moved forward.

Support for the DPJ rebounded after Kan took over from unpopular Yukio Hatoyama last month, but has receded since he floated the possible sales tax hike.

“We need to rebuild our system so it is sustainable. But we’re still struggling a bit to figure out where to start tackling this issue in a way that is supported politically,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told a news conference.

“Only the gods know what the election outcome will be,” he added.

The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and smaller opposition groups such as the pro-reform Your Party have flatly rejected the notion of a tie-up, although analysts said they could change their tune if the Democrats do well.

“Party executives and those close to Kan are talking not of a rejig of the coalition but of cooperation with opposition parties on a policy-by-policy basis,” analyst Ito said.

“In that case, they won’t be able to make progress on policies ... and they will not be able to take bold measures on fiscal reform.”

International

Indonesia Today

Thursday, July 8, 2010

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KPK studying report on police general’s huge bank accounts Antara

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is studying a report from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) regarding huge bank accounts belonging to some police officers.

“We have decided to study it,” KPK deputy chief M Jasin said here on Tuesday.

He said the case was now still in the process of being analyzed by a team.

He said KPK would take a number of actions such as conducting administrative, physical and special investigation in line with the standard procedures with regard to it.

The ICW earlier urged the KPK to investigate a number of suspicious transactions linked to the accounts of several high ranking police officers.

“KPK must follow it up and trace the suspicious transactions of the police officers,” ICW coordina tor, Danang Widoyoko, said at the KPK building last Thursday (July 1).

Danang said it was impossible for the officers connected with the transactions were able to accumulate such a wealth.

He said the Center of Financial Transactions Analysis and Reporting (PPATK) meanwhile had already indicated that there were a lot of suspicious transactions that were linked to the accounts of a number of

high ranking police officers.

“KPK that has the authority must investigate it to see where the money came from,” he said.

House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso meanwhile had expressed hope that the police would be more objective in responding to public criticism including media reports about the suspicious accounts of some high ranking police officers.

“The police must follow suit the TNI (military) in responding to public scrutiny,” he said to newsmen.

He said he criticism must be followed up with an evaluation with regard to knowing whether it was true.

The Tempo magazine office was attacked by molotov bombs early on Tuesday, some believed it was connected with the magazine’s report on the police case.

None was hurt in the incident nor there had been damage as the bombs exploded on a parking lot.

National Police spokesman Inspector General Edward Aritonang suspected that certain people wished to undermine the police through the attack.

Countries to draft tiger rescue plan in Indonesia Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - Representatives from 13 “tiger-range countries” will draft a global recovery plan at a meeting in Indonesia next week in a bid to rescue the big cats from extinction, officials said Tuesday.

The plan to be drafted on the Indonesian resort island of Bali will be used as the basis for discussion at a “tiger summit” scheduled to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, from September 15 to 18.

“We hope the Bali meeting will generate a strong draft Global Tiger Recovery Programme,” Indonesian Forestry Ministry conservation director Darori said in a statement released by environmental group WWF. “This will demonstrate our desire and resolve to come up with solutions to address the threats faced by the world’s remaining wild tiger population — including those faced

by Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger — as well as double their population by 2022.”

Two of Indonesia’s three tiger species are already extinct — the Javan and Balinese — with only around 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

Several are killed every year by poachers and villagers who compete with them for dwindling forest resources.

WWF says the global, wild population of tigers of all species has fallen from about

100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century.

Countries invited to attend the St. Petersburg summit are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The pre-summit talks in Bali from Monday to Wednesday next week will hear details of each country’s tiger protection plans and funding proposals, officials said.

Indonesian conservation official Harry Santoso said Jakarta would ask for more than 175 million dollars in foreign aid to implement its plan to double the Sumatran tiger population to 800 by 2022.

“If we do nothing, tigers around the world, including Indonesia, will be extinct by 2035,” he said.

“Our programme will focus on mitigation of human-animal conflict and law enforcement to stop tiger poaching. We will impose stricter punishments for criminals,” he said, adding that habitats would also be protected.

Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem in the massive archipelago as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for palm oil, forcing animals such as elephants and tigers into closer contact with people.

Santoso said funds were expected to come from donors including the United States, Australia, Germany, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

AFP PHOTO / HO / GREENPEACE

This undated handout photo released on July 6, 2010 by Greenpeace shows deforestation in Bukit Tigapuluh in Riau, Indonesia. Greenpeace has accused supermarket firms Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco of contributing to forest destruction and species loss in Indonesia by buying from paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas. The environmental group said Sinar Mas subsidiary Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) was “relentlessly trashing rainforests”, spewing carbon into the atmosphere and driving species to extinction in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Indonesian cleric Bashir back on police radar: analyst Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - The father of militant Islam in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, is back under a police microscope for his alleged support of terrorist activity, a security analyst said Tuesday.

International Crisis Group expert Sidney Jones said in a new briefing report that Bashir had been on the police radar since May when officers raided his group’s headquarters in Jakarta and arrested three of his followers.

The three members of Bashir’s Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) were charged with raising funds for a terror training camp uncovered by police in Aceh province in February.

“On 12 May, police carried out a reconstruction of a meeting in South Jakarta involving two men now in custody known to have served as camp instructors and another, who wore a large name tag reading ‘Abu Bakar Bashir’,” Jones said in the report.

“JAT’s alleged involvement in fundraising and combat training immediately led to speculation that another arrest of 72-year-old Bashir was imminent.”

Jailed and released in 2006 for his role as a spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network, Bashir founded JAT in 2008 as a legitimate — although radical

— body with which to continue agitating for Islamic law and militant jihad.

But Jones said there was growing evidence that JAT had a “dark side” of supporting violence in pursuit of a hardline Islamic state in the mainly Muslim archipelago.

“That public face gives ‘plausible deniability’ to what appears to be covert support on the part of a small inner circle for the use of force,” she said.

Bashir’s arrest for a third time would not have a significant impact on the jihadist movement in the world’s most populous Muslimmajority country, as he was “neither the driving force behind it now nor its leading ideologue”.

“He has numerous critics among fellow jihadis who cite his lack of strategic sense and poor management skills,” Jones added.

“The truth is that the jihadi project has failed in Indonesia. The rifts and shifting alignments so evident now in the jihadi community are a reaction to that failure.

“There is no indication that violent extremism is gaining ground. Instead, as with JAT’s formation, we are seeing the same old faces finding new packages for old goods.”

JI is blamed for the 2002 attacks on Bali nightspots that killed more than 200 people, mostly Western tourists, as well as numerous other deadly bombings.

Indonesia detains 66 Australia-bound migrants: police Agence France-Presse

KUPANG - Indonesia has detained 66 asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and Iran who were on their way to Australia when their boat ran aground, police said Wednesday.

The migrants, including women and children, were found Tuesday on a beach off East Nusa Tenggara province in the far east of the archipelago.

“They were found Tuesday around noon on a beach in Usu Island. They were trying

to reach Australia,” Rote Ndao district deputy police chief I Nyoman Widjana said.

“There are four women and five toddlers in the group, 34 of them are Iranians and 32 are Afghans.”

Many asylum-seekers pass through Indonesia with the help of people-smugglers before embarking on the dangerous boat journey to northern Australia.

An increase in the number of asylumseekers arriving by boat from Asian troublespots has provoked heated political debate in Australia ahead of upcoming elections.

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Internationa

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Bali Today Tourists from Netherlands attracted on Bali’s nature Antara

Denpasar – The beautiful nature such as the rice field is still become the main attraction for the tourists from Netherlands.

Made Suardana, a special Netherlands guide, said that the beautiful nature attract the attention of the tourists.

The younger tourists usually come in the middle of the year and the elderly choose to come on the year end. “This year, the number of tourists from Netherlands visited Bali are increasing compared to last year,” Made said.

He explained that most of the tourists requested to stay in the hotel which is in the country side or rivers area. The difficult transportation from Europe to Bali is not become a problem for those who wanted to spend their holiday in Bali.

Made along with other guides are taking the tourists from Netherlands to the villages or mountains

throughout Bali because they want to see the beautiful nature and the culture of the locals in the island.

The elderly tourists often stay almost one month in Bali to enjoy their holiday. The data from Bali tourism Department showed that the number of tourists from the Netherlands from January through May 2010 increased 50% compared to the similar period last year.

The tourists from Netherlands usually come through Singapore, Malaysia, or Thailand. Not only from the Netherlands, the tourists visitation from Europe is also increasing approximately 24%.

http://kumpulaninformasi.files.wordpress.com

Rice terrace at Jatiluwih, Tabanan. Natural beauty like rice terrace belong to farmer in Bali still attract many Netherland tourists to come to this paradise island.

Archaeological heritage in Bali Archaeological researches in Bali have found a number of archeological heritages, which belonged to prehistoric and historic remains. Prehistoric remains proved the earliest of the people’s life, started from hunting and food gathering through cul-

BAF Agenda

tivation up to mastering the advanced technology. Such remains indicated the struggle and the achievement of the people’s life gradually, after adapting and exploring their environment its natural resources for their life, because the nature was still quite dan-

Monday, July 8, 2010

Time : 10.00 - 12.00 Activity : Wong Puppeteers classical dance by Sekaa Wayang Wong Dewa Kosala Rakta, Telepud village, Tegallalang, Gianyar Location : Kalangan Ayodya Time : 10.00 - 12.00 Activity : Participation by Art Contemporain Instalation from France Location : Wantilan Time : 17.00 - 19.00 Activity : Contemporary dance by Sanggar Seni Tri Datu, Anturan, Buleleng Location : Gedung Ksirarnawa Time : 19.00 - 20.30 Activity : Jegog creation by Grup Sekar Jaya California, Amerika Location : Wantilan Time : 19.00 - 21.00 Activity : Sendratari Bima Angkus Prana by Sekaa Kesenian Lango Murti, Banjar Mukti, Singapadu village, Gianyar Location : Kalangan Ayodya Time : 20.00 - 22.00 Activity : Documentary movie Location : ISI Denpasar Time : 22.00 - 23.00 Activity : Gong Kebyar parade by Sanggar Gita Santhi, Kelurahan Dauh Waru, Jembrana with accompanied by Grup Dharma Swara, New York Location : Ardha Candra open stage

gerous. On the other hands, the remains also demonstrated the relationship of the prehistoric Balinese people to those who lived in Java, Sumatra, etc, even to the South-East Asian people.

The most important of the prehistoric live in Bali is the invention of the metallic technology along with the megalithic tradition. During the advance technology the Balinese people have produced several kinds of bronze goods for ritual purpose such as kettledrums and for daily uses as well such as axes etc. Mastering the advance technology, Balinese people have succeeded to develop stone moulds in the village of Manuaba (Gianyar) for casting bronze kettledrum. The human-mask decoration, showed a remarkable similarities to the decorations of the huge kettledrums found in the village of Pejeng not so far of the east of Manuaba, but the stone moulds of Manuaba are small in its size.

It should be noted here that bronze kettledrums were not only found in Bali, but also in Java, and Eastern Indonesian Island. Another bronze moulds made of clay were also found in West Java, but not for producing kettledrums, but for making spearheads, axes, etc. Regarding the human-mask decorations, which were founds on the kettledrums of Pejeng, on the stone moulds of Manuaba and on the number of the sarcophagi found in Bali, was regarded as symbol of the leader’s or the ancestor’s spirits. The people believed that the

spirit, who were abode on the top of the mountain or on the inaccessible place have the magic power for protecting the living society. When Hinduism has spread widely in Indonesia, the people believed to the sacred mountain as the place of the Hindu pantheons and the ancestor’s spirit as well. Based on this conception, then the people built their temples on the mountain area such as as Pura Besakih on the slope of Mount Agung.

Along with the development of the metallic industry, the megalithic tradition increased not only in Bali, but also in Sumatra, Flores etc. Several kinds of megalithic remains were founds there namely menhirs, dolmens, menhir statues, stepped pyramids etc. It is a matter of facts that the megalithic tradition have strongly influenced the people’s life and it is not surprising any more that living megalithic tradition could be found until to present day in Nias, Toraja, Bali and Eastern Indonesians Islands. In Bali, the megalithic remains, exe the sarcophagi are regarded as sacred monuments and functioned for worshipping the Hindu Trinity, the local deities and the ancestor’s spirit (Sutaba 1984).

Researches on the advanced technology and on the megalithic tradition in Bali in particular, have made conclusions that Balinese people have build their social organization headed by the leaders. The well organizations have made favorable conditions for mastering the advance technology.

Then the social and cultural development became the solid foundation for facing the new era when Hindu-

ism arrived in Bali (Sutaba, 1930).

Bali have got Hindu-Budhis influences nearly at the 9 century A.D. as Proved by the finding of clay stuphikas and seals beared Budhis formula, near the village of Pejeng, Gianyar. Then a pillar inscription was rediscovered in Blanjong Sanur (Badung) which mentioned the name of the king Kesari Warmadewa. This inscription was originated from c.10 century A.D. Since this period, Hinduism was spread widely in Bali and went deeply into the life of the Balinese people and then survived until today. Having well developed social organization and cultural life before the arrival of Hinduism, have led the Balinese people successfully modified the new elements in accordance with their characters and became the new one beared Balinese identity.

The well known king of Bali is a couple royal named king Udayana and his wife Gunapryadharmapati (c.10 century A.D), then succeeded by their families. During the ancient history of Bali, a number of temples were built nearly in the whole island.

In these temple several kinds of historical remains were preserved e.g. statues, inscriptions etc. As the follower of Hinduism, Balinese people regard the temples including the remains in them as sacred monuments for worshiping the Hindu pantheons, the local deities and the ancestor’s spirit as well. This religious function was the responsibility of the Balinese people for keeping the monuments in well conditions and the welfare of the living society.

(BTN)

al

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Balinese Culture Back to nature:

Hundreds of surfers take part in Red Bull Heli Surf Antara

DENPASAR – Hundreds of surfers will take part in the “Red Bull Heli Surf” which will be held in Kuta beach on July 17th 2010.

Endah Dwi Ekowati, the public relation of Heli Surf, said “300 contestant will participate in the event.

We also will involve helicopter in the competition. The competition will be about pedaling from the beach through the middle of the sea.”

The competition is usually held in Australia and the three winners will be picked up by helicopter in the middle of the ocean. “We are very grateful that Bali is given the honor to become the host of the first

competition which will be held outside Australia. Red Bull will become the main sponsor of the event,” she added.

Red Bull Company which is based in Salzburg, Austria is also managing several other sport clubs in the world such as soccer club in Austria, New York, Brazil, and Germany and also F1 team.

There is great hope that the “Red Bull Heli Surf” can increase the spirit of the local surfers to increase their skill in surfing. The best surfers from throughout the world can show their different skills and technique in pedaling.

The best surfer will be given special prize besides being picked up by the helicopter in the finish line.

River snail served with Balinese cherry potato

Among the prizes is the trip to legendary surfing spot called “G-Land” which is located on the south side of Alas Purwo National Park The “G-Land” is known for its forest and big waves. The winners will also spend their weekend in Joyo’s Camp along with one of the professional Red Bull surfer, Jamie O’Brien.

“It will become the best prize form the winners,” Endah said.

Red Bull Heli Surf is open for public, the only condition is the participant must bring surfboard not longer than 1.98 meter, maximum thickness is 6.35centimeters and wide not more than 0.5 meter. The participants can register in Halfway on Kuta Beach started on 12 pm while the competition will start at 2 pm.

Red Bull Heli Surf that usually held in Australia and the three winners will be picked up by helicopter in the middle of the ocean on July 17th 2010 will be held at Kuta Beach. Hundreds of surfers will take part in that “Red Bull Heli Surf”.

Aside from retaining a beautiful view and challenging attraction like rafting and splashing, river also poses a habitat of various food sources. There are fish, crab, shrimp and snails. Balinese people may call the latter as ungun or river snail. This snail has two forms, namely ordinary snail and half snail. The half snail shapes like carapace of turtle. Its flesh is open and has a piece of thin bone. When boiled, its flesh will easily get released from its carapace, while the ordinary one should be taken out by pin, needle and so on.

When their delicacy is combined with sabrang or Balinese cherry potato, they will have typical flavor. Its shape is much smaller than common potato and its leaf resembles to that of broadleaf thyme (jinten).

Apart from combined with river snail or chicken, this cherry potato is also good if cooked as single vegetable. It is usually sold at traditional market or village stalls.

Ingredients: 2 handful river snail, 250gram sabrang or cherry potato (peeled) and 800ml water for gravy.

Ground spices: 6 cloves shallot, 3 cloves garlic, 2 small chilies, 1 candlenut, 2 tbsp grated coconut (ground with other spices), 1 slice turmeric, 1 slice aromatic ginger and 1 slice galangal Others: 1 pc salam leaf, 1 tbsp palm oil and ½ tsp salt.

Method: · Cleanse thoroughly the river snail and cherry potato and drain. · Pre-heat the palm oil on the frying pan. Stirfry the ground spices until smelling fragrant. Add some water and wait until boiling. · Put the cherry potato and river snail together into the pan. Add salt, salam leaf and please wait until the cherry potato is cooked. · Take out and it is now ready to serve. (BTN/ punia)

Lempog:

http://i41.tinypic.com/

Sweet side of cassava cake To get different flavor, cassava can be served in many ways.

One of them is by making it into lempog cake.

In the past, this cake was popular and often served in social activities such as activities at rice field or socio-religious ones. The reason for this was easy to make and its raw material was widely available at rural area as they cultivated it.

By nature, it is made from boiled cassava. With additional ingredients like palm sugar and salt, they are pounded together in the mortar or plastic base. By doing so, it will be easier to turn each side of the batter in order it will be tender evenly. When the batter has been completely tender, it can be sliced into various shapes as your taste. To serve it, do not forget to sprinkle with grated coconut. Ultimately, have a nice flavor! (BTN/punia) C.045 ibp

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Destinations

International

Yeh Pulu Relief:

Description of Life in Bali Ancient Kingdom Bali is a bijou island, but the content of traditional values, arts, history and culture is not as small as the area. Artistic heritage, history and culture almost spread throughout the nine regencies and city existing on the Island of the Gods. The search on the heritage, arts and cultural relics of this time is to Yeh Pulu Relief.

Relief of the ancient rock stone is located at the Bedulu (Bedahulu) Village, Blahbatuh Subdistrict, Gianyar Regency. Location to Tampaksiring and Kintamani is only about 40 minutes drive from Denpasar City. The entrance to the tourist attraction of holy water is not far from the main road east of Goa Gajah Temple, to the right, into the village street. Visitors should be careful because there are many road junctions without a clue heading for the object of Yeh Pulu Relief, or ask the way to local residents.

The monument in the form of relief becoming the main attraction to tourists, especially foreign tourists, was discovered in 1925 by a courtier or Ubud Royal family. The name was taken from the barrel (or

container of rice in the past) located at the central axis of purified water nestling in the west of the relief.

The word yeh in Balinese language means water and pulu means a barrel.

The appeal of this monument is not only because of the uniqueness of relief sculpture immortalized on the rock stone wall of the hill, but also due to the spread of rice field view along the two-hundred-meters and the sound of clinking water on the left-right path to location is always neatly trimmed and maintained sustainably, emanating a natural beauty.

With such a natural atmosphere, the clear and the sharpness of splashing water are always flowing along the trench making the ambi-

ence around this object really peaceful and enchanting. On that account, it is not mistaken if the niches (caves) in southern relief suspected as the hermitage of the last Balinese ancient King before the collapse of Bali to Majapahit administration in 1343.

Relief with magical nuance and meaningful is 25 meters long and 2 meters high. Many researches conducted by experts from home and overseas to recognize the implicit meaning behind the wall relief of the rock cliffs on the hills. As consequence, it drove many commentaries and analysis to uncover the mystery behind the veil of the true meaning of the relief. Overall, the theme of this story recounts the life in the forest atmosphere and daily life in the ancient kingdom of Bali.

In addition to the Balinese classical carvings, this monument also has niches of Bedahulu Royal Hermitage before his death against the army of the Majapahit kingdom in

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

1343 AD. Yeh Pulu Relief poses one of the many historical classical monuments of Bali originating in ancient Bali (14th century AD) retaining full knowledge of art, which until now is still sustainable and be cared by the members of Subak, as one

of the classical organizations that in particular organizes farmers and manage all aspects of rice field cultivation. For tourists who would like to visit this object first should purchase admission ticket of the object, at IDR 6,000 for adult and IDR 3,000 for child. (BTN/014)

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

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BUSINESS Economic strength spreading across Asia Agence France-Presse

LONDON - Asian economies will “grow pretty fast” over the next two decades, with Indonesia and Vietnam emerging as the new stars behind powerhouses China and India, HSBC chairman Stephen Green said Tuesday.

“Asia is not just a Chinese story, not even just a Chinese and Indian story,” Green, chairman of the Asia-focused banking giant HSBC told a financial event held in London.

Look at “places like Indonesia, places like Vietnam — (South) Korea will continue to be a powerhouse too — Bangladesh is becoming a more and more interesting economy”, said Green.

“The East is catching up” with its Western peers, he said, adding: “We’ve moved from a period in the world’s history where a small number

of rich countries representing a maximum 10 percent of the world’s population was producing and consuming 40-50 percent of the world’s output.”

Asked how he saw Asia performing over the next 20 years, Green said: “I think they will continue to grow pretty fast. I think that the shift in the centre of gravity from the West to the East has only accelerated through the (financial) crisis and I think ... that shift will continue for the next generation at least.”

Green forecast that Indonesia and Vietnam would become members of BRIC — the world’s top four

emerging markets representing Brazil, Russia, India and China.

“I think they will be joined by a couple of other Asian countries.

Indonesia is a country which is beginning to reach a more stable growth path and has all the ingredients for strong performance, assuming strong political leadership and stability there. Vietnam is another one.”

Green added that Brazil was “on a very strong growth track, very closely linked of course with what is going on in Asia” because of the latter’s thirst for the South American country’s raw materials.

Weak aircraft exports hit official French trade balance Agence France-Presse

ARIS - Weak exports by the aerospace and satellite industry hit the French trade balance in May, worsening a deficit, official data showed on Wednesday.

The balance showed a deficit in May of 5.5 billion euros (6.9 billion dollars) from a deficit of 4.258 billion euros in April, the adjusted data from the finance ministry showed.

The trade balance is an important measure of the ability of a nation to pay its way in the world, and the net outcome is also an important contributor to growth if the balance is in surplus, or drag if it is in deficit.

Two particularly significant elements of French trade are exports of food products and of aircraft, mainly Airbus airliners for which parts are made in several countries in Europe.

The ministry said on its web

site that exports in May suffered from a “weak level of final deliveries of Airbus (aircraft) and of satellites.”

It said that a confluence of circumstances had pulled sales in the aerospace and space sector down to a low level after an excellent performance in April.

In addition, exports of refined oil products to other countries in the European Union had fallen and this lay behind a “brutal drop in industrial exports.”

In May, exports fell to 29.9 billion euros from 31.5 billion euros in April.

Imports fell to 35.4 billion euros from 38.8 billion euros in April.

In the 12 months to the end of May, the cumulative trade balance showed a deficit of 45.8 billion euros.

A main pillar of growth of the French economy in recent years has been domestic consumption.

Bank of England to keep China pumps billions of interest rates on hold dollars into Canada’s oil sands Agence France-Presse

LONDON - The Bank of England is expected on Thursday to keep its key interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent as it mulls the impact of the government’s austerity measures on Britain’s fragile economic recovery.

The central bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is predicted by most economists to hold its key lending rate after a two-day meeting despite stubbornly high inflation that sparked dissent from one policymaker last month.

Britain’s coalition government last month delivered a deficit-slashing emergency budget which contained a package of higher taxation and spending cuts amid intense concern about soaring state debt levels in Europe.

“The risks to a still-fragile UK recovery coming from the intensified tightening of fiscal policy that will increasingly kick in ... mean that most members of the MPC are likely to maintain the view that it is premature to raise interest rates despite persistently above-target and sticky consumer price inflation,” said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.

Archer said the policymakers would also anticipate that the budget measures “could negatively impact on consumer and business behaviour.”

The economy clawed its way out of a record-length recession late last year but market concerns remain over the potential of a so-called “double dip” or second phase of economic downturn.

Last month, a single MPC policymaker voted to lift hike the central bank rate to 0.75 percent, according to minutes from the June

10 gathering.

Andrew Sentance argued that an increase was necessary due to a spike to inflation — the first time for almost two years that an MPC member had voted for tightening.

In the event, the MPC voted 7-1 to keep borrowing costs at 0.50 percent.

“The MPC is getting increasingly nervous about the current rise in inflation, as evidenced by Andrew Sentance’s vote for an interest rate rise last month,” said Capital Economics economist Vicky Redwood.

“However, most members still seem prepared to wait and see if the spare capacity in the economy starts to pull inflation back down.”

Worries persist about inflation, which softened in May but held above the BoE’s government-set target of 2.0 percent.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) 12-month inflation, the government’s target measure, fell to 3.4 percent in May from a 17-month peak of 3.7 percent in April, official data showed.

Most economists predict that inflation will spike in the longer term after finance minister George Osborne last month announced a sharp hike in tax on goods and services.

Value-added tax (VAT) will increase to 20 percent from the current 17.5 percent in January 2011.

Meanwhile ahead of the meeting, the government appointed a top economic forecaster to the MPC. Martin Weale, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, will replace Kate Barker, who left the panel at the end of May. The MPC will comprise only eight members this week, instead of the usual nine, because Weale will not take part until August.

Agence France-Presse

BEIJING - Energy-hungry China, once stung in its efforts to secure access to resources in North America, is making a more subtle push into Canada’s oil sands, and the new approach is paying off, experts say.

Chinese firms seeking a toehold in the largest known crude deposit outside the Middle East have opted for joint ventures and partial stakes to avoid the kind of political uproar sparked when CNOOC tried to take over US oil group Unocal in 2005.

“They are tiptoeing around the edge, not challenging anybody, not getting in any American Senators’ faces — just very quietly taking a position,” said David Hewitt, regional head of oil and gas research at CLSA in Hong Kong.

“You haven’t seen an aggressive attempt to buy whole companies, to own management or have dominant control.”

Since the failed bid for Unocal, Chinese firms have pumped billions of dollars into the Alberta oil sands region in western Canada, which has estimated reserves of 175 billion barrels.

That compares with the more than 260 billion barrels in Saudi Arabia.

“Taking a partial stake is a lot more palatable,” said Victor Shum, a Singaporebased analyst at energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

In the latest deal, China’s 300-billiondollar sovereign wealth fund agreed in May to invest 1.25 billion Canadian dollars (1.17 billion US) in Canadian oil sands giant Penn West to help develop its “vast oil sands resources”.

Sinopec Corp, China’s second-largest

oil producer and top refiner, sealed a deal in April to buy US oil firm ConocoPhillips’ nine percent stake in Syncrude Canada Ltd, the biggest oil sands producer, for 4.65 billion US dollars.

In August last year, PetroChina — the country’s top oil producer — agreed to invest 1.9 billion Canadian dollars for a 60 percent stake in two projects held by Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.

The cost of extracting the heavy oil, or bitumen, from sand and clay has not deterred Chinese companies which are also scouring Africa, South America and Central Asia for energy resources needed to power the fastgrowing economy.

China, the world’s second largest consumer of oil after the United States, uses about eight million barrels of crude a day and imports about four million barrels, according to the US Department of Energy’s statistics agency.

“Canada has some of the largest crude oil reserves in the world,” said Tom Grieder, Asia Pacific energy analyst at IHS Global Insight.

Chinese state-run firms “are keen to use their financial clout to take positions in these areas to boost their reserve replacement ratios and future production streams,” he said.

Concerns over state-owned companies buying key resources — the main reason for the failure of the Unocal bid — have been set aside by Canadian lawmakers eager to attract investment in the wake of the global financial crisis.

After the PetroChina deal was approved, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quoted as saying: “Expect more Chinese investment in the resource and energy sectors... there will definitely be more.”

12

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Entertainment

International

Lohan’s future on hold until jail, rehab are done Associated Press Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Lindsay Lohan’s future includes a new fashion line, two new movies, some time in jail and another stint in rehab.

The actress was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail and 90 days in a residential substanceabuse program for violating her probation stemming from two separate 2007 cases of driving under the influence of cocaine and alcohol. She is to surrender and begin her jail sentence July 20.

Rehab will follow.

The punishment, levied by Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel, will keep Lohan from promoting “Machete,” the Robert Rodriguez action film due in theaters in September. Fox, which is releasing the film, had no comment Tuesday.

Lohan’s jail and rehab sentence will also delay production on “Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story,” in which the 24-year-old actress plays the starring role. Writer-director Matthew Wilder said after the ruling that he and his crew remain “100 percent behind Lindsay.” “We are proud to have this remarkable artist work on our film,” he said.

Lohan’s sentence may also pre-

vent her from further promoting her new fashion line, 6126. The first items from the 280-piece collection are shipping out to department stores nationwide this month. Lohan was instrumental in the line’s design and marketing plans and is featured in its promotional materials. Her business partner, Kristi Kaylor, did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Lohan’s agent, Nick Styne, declined to comment Tuesday. Her manager, Jason Weinberg, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Kerry Wallum, a producer with Lucky Films, said Lohan was in negotiations for a role in the upcoming Willie Nelson flick, “The Dry Gulch Kid,” and that the production would wait for her if she wanted the part.

“We’re behind her,” he said Tuesday.

“We’ll wait until all of this blows over.”

Revel chastised Lohan for missing a court hearing in May while at the Cannes Film Festival and repeatedly skipping out on court-mandated alcohol-education classes. She said Lohan lied about using drugs and

tried to blame others for the two driving offenses when the original charges were filed.

A tearful Lohan pleaded with the judge before the sentencing, saying she did the best she could to juggle jobs and the court-ordered classes and really tried to comply with the terms of her probation. “I’m not taking this as a joke,” Lohan said. “It’s my life. It’s my career I’ve worked for my entire life.”

Revel said she found the starlet’s apology insincere, comparing it to “somebody who cheats and thinks it isn’t cheating if she doesn’t get caught.” Lohan burst into tears upon hearing the terms of her punishment. Her sister, Ali, and father, Michael, were also in the courtroom and cried after the ruling.

Lohan spent 84 minutes in jail in 2007 after she pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine and no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08 percent and one count of reckless driving.

(AP Photo/David McNew, Pool)

Actress Lindsay Lohan, left, reacts with her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley after the sentencing by Superior Court Judge Marsha Reve during a hearing in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday, July 6, 2010.

Anger as Jennifer Lopez set Woody Allen starts Paris shoot with Carla in the wings to rock north Cyprus Agence France Presse

NICOSIA – Pop star Jennifer Lopez will give a concert in the Turkish-held statelet of northern Cyprus later this month, organisers said on Tuesday, amid outrage among Greek Cypriots.

The US diva will arrive in the breakaway Turkish Re-

(AFP/Getty Images/File/Neilson Barnard)

Singer Jennifer Lopez performs on stage on June 2010 in New York City. The pop star will give a concert in the Turkish-held statelet of northern Cyprus later this month, organisers said on Tuesday, amid outrage among Greek Cypriots.

public of Cyprus (TRNC) on a private jet on July 22 ahead of a July 24 concert at the Cratos Premium Hotel in Kyrenia to celebrate its opening, said a representative for the Istanbulbased Bozgroup which operates the hotel.

Lopez — who will be accompanied by her husband, singer Marc Anthony, and their twins Max and Emme — will also celebrate her 41st birthday at a “special party” following the concert at the five-star hotel.

“There is no cancellation. A contract was signed and she was paid,” the representative told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The visit has triggered protests in the island’s internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot south which is wary of any move breaking the isolation of the TRNC which is only recognised by Turkey.

A Greek Cypriot rights group Cyprus Action Network of America is running a web campaign urging Lopez to cancel her performance.

“It is with dismay and shock that the people of Cyprus... heard the news that you intend to attend the inauguration of a hotel in the occupied... part of our native country and celebrate your birthday there,” said a letter on the group’s website. “Please do not allow yourself to be used by the Turks,” the letter added.

But the Bozgroup representative insisted Lopez had decided to go ahead with the concert in spite of the controversy. “She is aware of the protest. She received an enormous number of emails and she got a little scared. But we explained the situation to her, that there was no war on the island, and she did not cancel the appearance,” she said.

The cost of organising Lopez’s visit and performance at the 220-million-dollar hotel, where she is expected to stay until July 26, will be around three million dollars (2.4 million euros), the representative added.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the Mediterranean island with Greece. The TRNC is only recognized by Turkey, which maintains troops on the Turkish Cypriot side, while the Greek Cypriot south of the island is recognized as the only legitimate administration on the island.

Agence France Presse

PARIS – Director Woody Allen began shooting his latest movie in Paris on Monday, with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy waiting in the wings to take her first major film role. Despite a starry cast including Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard and American talents Owen Wilson and Kathy Bates, prepublicity for “Midnight in Paris” has focused on the supermodel-turnedsinger’s big screen debut.

Bystanders saw none of the onscreen stars on Monday at the filming location, a second storey Paris apartment in an upscale part of the city’s Right Bank, surrounded by film equipment trucks and screened by black sheets.

But Allen — the 74-year-old actor, screenwriter, director and multiple Oscar-winner most famous for his comedies of manners — was himself briefly spotted leaving the set at around lunch-

time. The costumes of extras standing near the flat appeared to confirm that the film will be set in the 1920s. Allen’s agent Shelby Kimlick has said the movie will tell the story of a family shaken up by a Paris business trip.

Filmcrew members bore badges marked with the film’s industry codename, WASP, which one explained stands for: “Woody Allen’s Summer Project”.

Bruni-Sarkozy revealed last year she had been invited by Allen to feature in the film, but President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 42-year-old wife admitted she is not an experienced actress and is not quite sure what to expect. “I’m not an actress at all.

Perhaps I’ll be completely hopeless but I can’t miss an opportunity like this one. When I’m a grandmother I’d like to be able to say I made a film with Woody Allen,” she told an interviewer.

This combo made by two pictures taken in 2009 show US filmmaker Woody Allen (L) in New York, and France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in Strasbourg.

(AFP/File/Stan Honda-Johanna Leguerre)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

News International

issues of a controversial mining tax and immigration.

“I’m a little bit old-fashioned about these things,” Faulkner said.

“I wasn’t willing to be placed in a (difficult) position during the election campaign, if asked whether I would serve as defence minister in the government if the government were re-elected.”

Gillard said Faulkner, who also served under ex-prime minister Paul Keating in the 1990s, had “a further contribution to make as a member of the parliament and member of the team”, according to public broadcaster ABC. Faulkner was a key member of the centre-left Rudd’s campaign team for the 2007 elections, which he won by a landslide from long-time conservative leader John Howard.

He was also in Keating’s cabinet in the 1990s, and was Senate leader of the opposition after 2001 elections.

Faulkner was famously caught unawares during last month’s rapid leadership challenge when he admitted knowing nothing about the drama unfolding behind the scenes in Canberra.

“It might be on the ABC news, but it’s also news to me,” Faulkner said during a TV interview in the midst of the coup.

His unexpected resignation comes after Gillard laid the groundwork for the polls by defusing the tax row with the powerful mining industry and unveiling a tough new policy on asylum-seekers.

Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook AFP –

Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner, seen in June 2010, has said he would leave the cabinet after …

AP –

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the World Trade Center site to lay a wreath

NEW YORK – Queen Elizabeth II challenged the United Nations to fight global dangers by “waging” peace, then entered ground zero on Tuesday for the first time to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Back in New York after more than three decades, the 84-year-old British monarch turned her eyes toward the future of the World Trade Center: new skyscrapers rising over what was once smoldering debris that had buried loved ones forever.

“We are not here to reminisce,” she told the world body earlier Tuesday. “In tomorrow’s world, we must all work together as hard as ever if we are truly to be United Nations.”

Not even a record high temperature of 102 degrees, accompanied by a heat advisory, kept the monarch from New York’s hallowed ground.

She arrived at the 16-acre site in lower Manhattan late Tuesday afternoon with her husband, Prince Philip. They walked slowly across a

AP

wooden walkway that reaches deep over the construction site. Huge cranes hovering overhead were stopped and workers took a break during the queen’s visit.

In silence, Elizabeth laid a wreath of flowers on an iron pedestal near the footprint of the trade center’s south tower. Bowing her head, she gently brushed her gloved hand against the locally grown red peonies, roses, lilies, black-eyed Susans and other summer blossoms.

Then the queen met dozens of family members and first responders who had lost loved ones as the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The queen just was asking me about that day, and how awful it must’ve been,” said Debbie Palmer, whose husband, battalion Fire Chief Orio Palmer, was killed. “She said, `I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in my life as bad as that. And I said, `Let’s hope we never do again.’”

Palmer said of the monarch: “She’s beautiful. She looks like she could be anybody’s grandmother.”

The queen wore a two-piece white, blue and beige print dress with long sleeves and a matching brimmed champagne-colored silk hat with flowers.

Queen addresses UN, places wreath at ground zero

The heavyweight senator said he would return to the back benches after the polls, but denied the move was prompted by last month’s Labor party coup which dumped ex-leader Kevin Rudd, a close political ally.

“Inevitably some will suggest that the recent change in our party’s leadership is responsible for my decision,” he told reporters. “I can’t say strongly enough that any such speculation is just plain wrong.”

Faulkner said he had always intended to step down after Labor’s first term to encourage younger talent, adding that Gillard had persuaded him to contest his Senate seat in the elections later this year.“Julia Gillard has my absolute support,” he said.

“I was unstinting in my efforts to see Kevin Rudd elected prime minister three years ago and no one will work harder than me for the government’s re-election under Julia’s leadership.”

Faulkner is the second senior cabinet member to announce his resignation since Gillard’s sudden rise to power, after popular Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said he would not contest the election.

The 56-year-old powerbroker became Rudd’s defence minister in June last year, after his predecessor Joel Fitzgibbon stepped down following a series of scandals.

His announcement comes during rampant media speculation that Gillard is about to call elections after moving quickly to tackle the key

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s Defence Minister John Faulkner on Wednesday announced plans to quit the cabinet, dealing a blow to new Prime Minister Julia Gillard as national elections loom.

AFP

Australian PM rocked as defence minister quits

4

Life Style

Thursday, July 8, 2010

even longer, allowing the plane’s 12,000 solar cells to collect even more energy before attempting to coast through the night.

But there was a problem with a key piece of communications equipment, forcing the team to keep the plane on the ground while modifications were made. Every aspect of the aircraft is monitored by engineers on the ground, with much of it fed onto the team’s website and Twitter page.

Borscherg, the plane’s sole pilot, will decide by 8 p.m. (1800 GMT; 2 p.m. EDT) whether to continue through the night. If he goes ahead, the plane will slowly descend to 4,920 feet (1,500 meters) before midnight, where Borschberg will stay until attempting a dawn landing.

Piccard, who achieved the first nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon, the Breitling Orbiter III, in 1999, said that, if successful, the next step will be an Atlantic crossing. That will be done in a second, lighter prototype, involving new challenges and dangers, he said.

Although the goal is to show that emissionsfree air travel is possible, the team has said it doesn’t see solar technology replacing conventional jet propulsion any time soon. Instead, the project is designed to test and promote new energy-efficient technologies.

NEW ORLEANS – Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in the 1990s. The lake rebounded then to once again become a bountiful fishing ground and a popular spot for boating and swimming.

“Even the people involved in the restoration didn’t believe it could be restored. It was completely written off. It was thought to be an impossible task,” said John Lopez, a scientist with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, which led the restoration effort. “It has been a dramatic turnabout.”

It is threatened again after a weekend when tar balls and an oil sheen pushed by strong winds from faraway Hurricane Alex slipped past lines of barges that were supposed to block the passes connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the lake. “Our universe is getting very small,” said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen’s Association.

The oil could be the second setback in five years.

Hurricane Katrina knocked out seafood docks and lakeside restaurants in 2005. The lake’s water quality also took a hit when the Army Corps of Engineers drained New Orleans’ contaminated floodwaters into the lake.

“So far, this stuff has been offshore for the majority of the population in the southeastern portion of Louisiana,” Anne Rheams, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said of the oil spill. “This is bringing it closer to home.”

State authorities closed the lake’s eastern reaches to fishing Monday, though most of it remained open. Barges were lined up at bayous and passes to stop the oil from coming in, and cleanup crews (AFP/Getty Images/File/Kevork Djansezian)

Associated Press Writer

A possible oil sheen is seen as barges lined up to block oil are seen from the air in The Rigolets, which connects the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne to Lake Pontchartrain, in New Orleans, La., Tuesday, July 6, 2010. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has infiltrated Lake Pontchartrain for the first time.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tuesday used nets to collect tar balls from marinas and docks.

They also planned to lay 9,000 feet of special permeable booms, but the lake was too choppy for skimmer vessels to operate. About 1,700 pounds of oily waste has been collected, said Suzanne Parsons Stymiest, a spokeswoman for St. Tammany Parish.

The amount of oil infiltrating 600-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain (pronounced PAHN-chuhtrayn) appears small so far. And tests on seafood have not turned up any oil contamination, said Brian Lezina, a state biologist. But the pollution is distressing to the many people in Louisiana who have a deep attachment to the lake.

“You won’t hear songs about a lot of the marshes in south Louisiana, but you will hear songs about Lake Pontchartrain,” Lezina said.

This time it’s oil trouble for Lake Pontchartrain

TOKYO – Electronics giant Sony said Tuesday it will introduce an upgraded PlayStation 3 videogame console in Japan at the end of July, with a bigger memory and a new white version on offer. The company will sell a 160-gigabyte model for 29,980 yen (341 dollars), the same price at which the Tokyo-based company had previously offered its 120-gigabyte console, it said in a statement.

It will also introduce a 320-gigabyte model for 34,980 yen. Both models will be available from July 29 in Japan. Sony did not indicate worldwide release plans in the statement.

The move comes amid heightened competition between Sony and gaming rival Microsoft, with both giants looking to release motion-sensing controllers later this year in response to the runaway success of Nintendo’s Wii. PlayStation Move wands will hit the market in time for the year-end holiday shopping season in the United States.

The devices let PS3 play be controlled with swings, jabs and other natural movements instead of toggle-and-button commands that have been trademarks of play on PS3 and rival Xbox 360 consoles by Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Kinet technology will use a 3D camera and gesture recognition software to let people play videogames using natural body movements instead of hand-held controllers. Sony shares closed 1.33 percent higher at 2,361 yen in Tokyo Tuesday.

Attendees play video games at the Sony Playstation booth in Los Angeles, California, in 2009. Electronics giant Sony said Tuesday it will introduce an upgraded PlayStation 3 videogame console in Japan at the end of July, with a bigger memory and a new white version on offer.

(AP Photo/Keystone/Fabrice Coffrini/Pool)

13

The experimental aircraft ‘Solar Impulse’ takes off with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard from Payerne’s Swiss airbase on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 on the first attempt to fly around the clock fueled by nothing but the energy of the sun. A Swiss team planning to eventually circle the globe in a solar-powered plane has started a 24-hour test flight that aims to keep the aircraft operating through the night on stored energy collected from the sun.

Agence France Presse

Sony to introduce new PlayStation3 with bigger memory

Clear blue skies mean the prototype aircraft will be able to soak up plenty of solar energy as it flies over the Jura mountains to the west of the Swiss Alps. By midmorning pilot Andre Borschberg was cruising at 9,850 feet (3,000 meters), trying to avoid low-level turbulence and thermal winds that are frequent in the mountains.

He will take the plane to an altitude of 27,900 feet (8,500 meters) by Wednesday evening, when a decision will be made whether to continue through the night using solar power stored in its batteries.

“The goal of the project is to have a solar-powered plane flying day and night without fuel,” said team co-founder Bertrand Piccard, adding that this test flight — the third major step after its first ‘flea hop’ and an extended flight earlier this year — will demonstrate whether the ultimate plan is feasible: to fly the plane around the world.

“This flight is crucial for the credibility of the project,” said Piccard, a record-breaking balloonist whose father and grandfather also accomplished pioneering airborne and submarine feats. The team had hoped to make their 24-hour test flight last week when days in the northern hemisphere were

GENEVA – An experimental solar-powered plane whose makers hope to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun took off for its first 24-hour test flight Wednesday. The plane with its 262.5-foot (80-meter) wingspan left Payerne airfield in Switzerland shortly before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT; 1 a.m. EDT) after overcoming an equipment problem that delayed a previous attempt, the Solar Impulse team said.

Associated Press Writer

Solar plane takes off for 24-hour test flight

International

14

Thursday, July 8, 2010

WORLD CUP 2010

International

Netherlands into WCup final, 3-2 over Uruguay Associated Press Writer

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – If you can paint a town orange, that’s what the Dutch will be doing in Cape Town, Amsterdam and everywhere else they can think of. The Netherlands is in the World Cup final, and boy do the players know how to celebrate a big win.

Like in an Oranje mosh pit. Or on each other’s shoulders, leading the flag-waving, vuvuzelatooting fans in song. The Dutch head to Johannesburg for their first shot at the soccer championship in 32 years after a 3-2 victory over scrappy but outmanned Uruguay on Tuesday night. “We are so close,” said Wesley Sneijder, who scored the go-ahead goal. “There is nothing bigger than the World Cup.” That elusive first title is still one win away. But this was such a moment to savor that most of the squad made a curtain call nearly an hour after the biggest Netherlands victory in decades, leading about 1,000 orange-clad fans in cheers that figure to last until Sunday.

That’s when the Dutch will play either Spain or Germany for soccer’s big prize. “If you win the final, you make yourself immortal, at least in our country,” said Arjen Robben, whose winner came three minutes after Sneijder scored. “We will do everything we can to take the Cup back.”

It’s hard to doubt them, with the Dutch on a 25-game unbeaten streak, including 10 straight wins.

They’re not as creative as the Clockwork Oranje of the 1970s, when they lost two World Cup finals to host teams — West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978. Nor are they as explosive.

But they sure are good, and on the kind of roll that gives the Dutch the look of champions — with an Oranje hue, of course. “This is unforgettable,” said Sneijder, tied with Spain’s David Villa for top scorer at the tournament (five goals). “It was a tough fight and toward the end we complicated matters.

“Sunday we play in the World Cup final. I have to get used to that.”

Long wasteful with its soccer talent, the Netherlands has found the right touch in this tournament, winning all six matches. Inside Green Point Stadium it looked like a Florida citrus grove. Outside, a Netherlands fan in a blue and white bodysuit stood on stilts and played a vuvuzela — badly.

It was about the only thing that didn’t measure up for the Dutch.

And a tournament that looked like a South American fiesta early on will end in a European showdown for the second straight World Cup. Sneijder and Robben made sure of that.

Sneijder’s goal came somewhat unexpectedly because Uruguay had shut down the Dutch offense for much of the second half. His leftfooted shot from just inside the penalty area barely ticked the leg of defender Maximiliano Pereira and, with Robin van Persie almost deflecting it again, the ball skidded past goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.

Then Robben sent a cross from Dirk Kuyt past a flat-footed Muslera with a brilliant header. His teammates piled on in an Oranje Crush celebration, and Robben came up from it muddied and merry — and with the knowledge that, ahead 3-1, the Netherlands was likely headed to the championship match.

Uruguay was without dangerous striker Luis Suarez, whose handball on the goal line in the final seconds of extra time against Ghana saved his team in the quarterfinals. He drew a red card for that, and spent his suspension on the bench watching his undermanned teammates come up just short.

Pereira made the Netherlands sweat with a goal in injury time, and Maarten Stekelenburg’s late save

Van Persie pictures emulating Maradona’s glory Agence FRance Presse

CAPE TOWN – Arsenal striker Robin van Persie has admitted he is desperate to win the World Cup on Sunday to follow in the footsteps of his hero Diego Maradona after the Netherlands semi-final win over Uruguay. The Oranje are bidding to win their first World Cup and after beating Uruguay 32 in Cape Town’s semi-final on Tuesday, will now face either Germany or European champions Spain in Sunday’s final at Johannesburg’s Soccer City. aaVan Persie, who has not been at his best at the finals and has just one goal to his credit, is delighted to be in the final and has even allowed himself to dream of what it will feel like to be part of the first Dutch team to lift the trophy.

“I am used to watching other

teams in the final, but this time I will be in it, I will be in the middle,” beamed the 26-year-old. “I don’t know how good it will feel (to win the World Cup), but I have a really big picture in my games room back home of Maradona holding the World Cup (in 1986 after defeating West Germany).

“It is an unbelievable picture, he is on his teammates shoulders holding the trophy with this huge smile on his face.”

“If we win, I would like to make a picture like that.”

The Netherlands reached the World Cup final at both the 1974 and 1978 tournaments, losing to West Germany and Argentina respectively. Van Persie said to go a step further than the starstudded Dutch teams of the 1970s, led

by Johan Cruyff who suffered World Cup disappointment in 1974 and was not there for the 1978 defeat, would be a dream come true, but will not be easy.

preserved the victory — and touched off the partying.

Robben was replaced late in the match, and at the final whistle he fell flat to the turf as he ran back onto the pitch. At least he wasn’t buried under his teammates and practically eating mud like he was following the pile-on after his goal. Robben came up smiling after that one, then blew kisses to the fans and his teammates.

At the joyous end, Mark van Bommel hustled over to where the ball came to rest, picked it up and hugged it. His teammates then began a pleasure-filled stroll around the field, some of them barechested, as the vuvuzelas blared and Dutch flags waved in the stands.

“This is very special,” coach Bert Van Marwijk said. “After 32 years we play the final again. Such a small country! We can be very proud of this.”

AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE

Netherlands’ defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst is surrounded by teammates as they celebrate his goal during the 2010 World Cup semi final Uruguay vs Netherlands on July 6, 2010 at Green Point stadium in Cape Town.

Forlan deals with injury, but devastated by loss Associated Press Writer

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Diego Forlan ignored the pain for as long as he could, carrying Uruguay on his shoulders and giving the little nation hope of a most improbable World Cup final berth. That made the disappointment all the more bitter.

The score was 1-1 in the second half and the South American nation was making it a tight game against the Netherlands. Forlan was leading by example as the stand-in captain, tying the match with a 25-yard shot, spreading passes from deep and threatening in the box.

Then, the Dutch scored twice late and Forlan’s thigh became so unbearable he couldn’t continue. Despite a fantastic tournament for himself and his country, Forlan was disappointed. “We were so close to the final,” said the 31year-old striker, who scored four goals in South Africa. “It’s very disappointing. We had chances and we didn’t take

them.”

Forlan said he felt pain in his thigh before the 3-2 semifinal loss on Tuesday, but was determined to play — and the immediate results were astounding.

After Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored a stunning first-half goal for the Netherlands, Forlan brought his country of 3.5 million people back into the match with a swerving shot that Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg couldn’t keep out.

With Uruguay missing a number of regular starters because of injury or suspension, Forlan wore the captain’s armband in place of Diego Lugano and seemed determined to compensate for the absence of his normal forward partner Luis Suarez and part of the firstteam midfield.

There he was almost as a right back, sending a pinpoint through pass halfway across the pitch to an onrushing Uruguayan winger. He tested

AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE

Uruguay’s striker Diego Forlan (R) walks past Uruguay’s coach Oscar Tabarez as he is substituted in the final minutes of the 2010 World Cup semi-final match between Uruguay and Netherlands on July 6, 2010 at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town.

Stekelenburg again with a swerving, 30-yard free kick that brought out a good save. And he was fighting for every loose ball. Then, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben scored for the Dutch in quick succession. The Uruguayans were deflated, and Forlan’s thigh was hurting.

“When we started the game, I had a bit of pain. In the later minutes it was more painful,” he said. Still he ran off the pitch at full speed when Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez replaced him in the 85th minute with Sebastian Fernandez.

Those seconds might have counted as the team closed the gap to 3-2 with a late goal, setting up a frantic finish. “He was hurting,” Tabarez said. “It wasn’t anything grave, but obviously you could see, especially at the end, that he wasn’t 100 percent.”

Forlan said he hoped to play in Uruguay’s third-place consolation match in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

The team will face either Spain or Germany, who meet in the other semifinal match Wednesday, and it might be the last chance for Forlan to display his talents on the world’s biggest stage. He will be 35, and possibly too old, when the 2014 World Cup takes place in Brazil.

After averaging more than 20 goals a season at club level in Spain over the past six years, and twice winning the Golden Boot as Europe’s top scorer, this tournament cemented the blond-haired striker’s reputation as one of the world’s top marksmen. Forlan acknowledged the team’s great improvement in recent years, and its fine showing at the World Cup. But a bitter sense of frustration pervaded. “It’s a shame because we lost a unique opportunity,” Forlan said. “We had a chance to score a goal in the second half. The game was going for us.

But we didn’t score, and they scored.”

Sport

International

Thursday, July 8, 2010

15

Armstrong loses ground at Tour de France Associated Press Writer

ARENBERG, France – Lance Armstrong has good reason to be frustrated. Although the 38-year-old American posted his best time trial result in five years before handling treacherous cobblestones sections with authority on Tuesday, Armstrong is already in trouble following the first three stages of the Tour de France.

The seven-time champion dropped from fifth to 18th in the overall standings and now trails the main contenders after a flat tire cost him significant time during the third stage of the race.

Armstrong, who got off to a strong start in the Tour with a fourth-place finish in last week’s prologue, had another strong display during Tuesday’s daunting third stage from Wanze, Belgium, to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, which featured seven sectors of cobbles.

Armstrong looked comfortable in the dust, handling his bike well on tiny and dented roads. At one point, Armstrong held a small lead over defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain, who ended up in 13th place, 1 minute and 13 seconds behind stage winner Thor Hushovd of Norway. Armstrong placed 32nd, 2:08 behind.

“Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail,” Armstrong told reporters at his team bus. “Today I was the nail. I have 20 days now to be the hammer.”

Armstrong, who began the stage ahead of his rivals, lost about 45 seconds when he punctured in the penultimate sector of cobblestones. “We were all just pulling through, really trying to gain as much time on Lance and the guys who were at the back,” said Bradley Wiggins of Britain, who has a 41-second edge on Armstrong.

Wounded US Lance Armstrong (L) rides with a bandage on his right elbow on July 6, 2010 in the Meuse valley, at the start of the 213 km and third stage of the 2010 Tour de France cycling race run between Wanze and Arenberg, northern France.

AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET

Clippers reach deal with Del Negro to coach

(AFP/Pool/File/Alastair Grant)

France’s Nicolas Mahut leaves the court after losing against John Isner of the US, on the fourth day of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in southwest London, in June 2010.

Wimbledon marathon man Mahut wins in short order Agence France Presse NEWPORT, Rhode Island – For Nicolas Mahut, an 11-hour, five-minute Wimbledon epic still isn’t over.

“Even when I sleep, I’m dreaming about the match,” he said of the record-setting battle in which he fell 7068 to John Isner in the fifth set. “It’s a crazy story.” In his dreams, does he win?

“Sometimes,” Mahut said Tuesday. “This match is the best moment of my life, and maybe also the worst. It’s still really painful. It really is. “But I’m also pretty proud to be in the Hall of Fame museum,” added the Frenchman, who has given a shirt and shoe from his record-setting Wimbledon match to be displayed in the shrine.

He’s also in the Hall of Fame tournament, the ATP grasscourt event that coincides with Hall of Fame inductions this week. Mahut’s Wimbledon experience stood him in good stead as he coped with steamy conditions in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 first-round victory over Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.

“Nothing is worse than what I did in Wimbledon.

Every match, I pray it will be easier,” said Mahut, who was playing his first singles match since Wimbledon. “I can’t complain any more.” Mahut needed just 83 minutes to subdue Falla, both players using ice packs on the changeovers to try to stay cool.

“I had no choice. Either you play or you stay in the locker room,” Mahut said. “From what I did in Wimbledon, I couldn’t come out there and say, ‘I can’t do it. It’s too hot.’ Now everything’s different.” Mahut broke Falla’s serve in the sixth game to take the first set, but dropped his first service game en route to dropping the second set.

It must have sounded good, however, to hear the chair umpire say less than an hour into the match “Final set.”

He fell behind love-40 in the opening game of the third set but fought back and took the game with a dropshot winner.

He broke Falla’s serve for a 4-2 lead in the set, and when he finished it off he pumped both of his fists before waving to the fans.

Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Clippers reached an agreement in principle with Vinny Del Negro to become the team’s head coach.

The team said Tuesday night in an e-mail that more details would be announced Wednesday.

Del Negro was fired by the Chicago Bulls in May after going 8282 in two seasons and making two postseason appearances. Though he got Chicago back on track after a poor start last season, he feuded with team president John Paxson, and the two had a postgame altercation on March 30.

Mike Dunleavy quit as Clippers coach in early February to focus exclusively on his general manager duties, then he and the team severed ties completely on March 8. His assistant, Kim Hughes, finished the season as interim coach before being dismissed on April 15.

The Clippers had a 29-53 record last season, missing the playoffs for

the 15th time in 17 years. They were 8-33 on the road, their worst mark away from home since 1999-2000, when they went 5-36.

Del Negro’s hiring comes with the Clippers having significant salary cap space in their attempt to lure free agent LeBron James from Cleveland.

Whether they’re successful in landing James should be known Thursday night, when he is expected to announce where he will play next season.

With or without James, Del Negro will oversee a roster featuring Blake Griffin, last year’s No. 1 draft pick who got hurt and missed all of last season. He is healthy now and is expected to anchor a lineup that includes All-Star center Chris Kaman, former All-Star guard Baron Davis and Eric Gordon.

The Clippers recently drafted AlFarouq Aminu of Wake Forest and Willie Warren of Oklahoma and traded for guard Eric Bledsoe of Kentucky.

(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In this Dec. 29, 2009, photo, then-Chicago Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro watches the Bulls’ NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Chicago.

16

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sport

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Rossi could return earlier than planned

AFP Photo / Carl Court.

British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton performs a wheelspinin his 2008 McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 in front of fans at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England on July 04, 2010.

Valentino Rossi could return to racing action earlier than expected following his injuries during the Italian Grand Prix. The Yamaha rider has been out of action since he broke his leg in a crash at Mugello, and had said last month that he was aiming to return to racing at the Czech Grand Prix in August.

However, Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Rossi is likely to test aYamaha R1 road bike on Thursday at the Misano circuit, to assess his conditions ahead of a possible return to MotoGP at the Sachsenring race on 18 July.

“This is payback for me, because I had immediately predicted short recovery times,” MotoGP doctor Claudio Costa was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Going a certain path wasn’t to make him race at all costs, but it was for making him heal well quickly. The operation, done by inserting only four screws that fix the big pin in a particular way, was done to allow him to walk as soon as possible, despite the bone not being fully healed.

“After all, this pin, called Kuncher, was created to allow the soldiers to be sent to the front quickly...” Costa said that if the test is positive, “Valentino would find the enthusiasm to race immediately.”

But he also warned against a comeback before Rossi is fully healed. “A new crash would be a problem. But the pin inserted is very big and the screws can break only for a manufacturing defect.”

McLaren unsure how upgrade will fare McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale says the team cannot be certain if its upgrade package will deliver the desired results at Silverstone this weekend, and that practice performance will decide whether the blown diffuser is kept on for the race.

The team carried out a straightline test in Spain with the new package last weekend, but Neale admitted that the outcome was inconclusive and that the focus had been on reliability.

“Like all tests, I would describe it as a curate’s egg,” he said during this week’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. “Some bits went very well, some bits gave us some surprises.

“Of course it’s straightline testing so it’s not like a full test in the conventional sense as we used to get midseason and do during the winter.

“Because of the limited time and limited mileage that we had, we weren’t able to do a full set of old car/new car running, so we just gathered as much data as we could, went through all of the race proveouts, so we know if the car will run sensibly behind the safety car, can we do an aborted grid start, will it look after itself in pitstops? So we mainly focused on the durability aspect as well as straightline performance measuring.

“I’m confident that we’ve got a reasonable performance step. Do I think we’ve got everything that we expected? Hard to tell at this stage, I’ll wait to see what the race drivers think. So Friday will be a testing day for us.” When asked by

AUTOSPORT whether removing the package after Friday practice at Silverstone was an option, Neale replied: “Yeah and I think that’s something that all the teams are increasingly doing.

“You’ve seen a number of teams with complex projects, like blown diffusers or the F-duct for example, which are not just paper exercises there’s a lot of installation issues that you have to simultaneously work.

That requires track time to get right, and I heard one of my colleagues in another team describe the F-duct as the ‘F-ing duct’ because it does take time to get these things right.

“We are ambitious, we’d like to take it this weekend and if the drivers think it’s good it will stay on and we’ll run it. If not, we’ll continue to develop it.” Neale said that McLaren had accelerated its development plans in response to the level of upgrades other teams had recently introduced - but that change of plan meant the team was in a race against time to prepare for Silverstone.

“We did try to pull forward a variety of packages that we had planned through to Germany,” he confirmed.

“So at the moment I’ve got a range of things that I’d like to get to the circuit on Friday that we haven’t built yet.

So we’re in that sort of fire-fight between now and Friday - just how

much can we get there?”

He also played down the significance of the blown diffuser - the most notable element of the Silverstone upgrade - agreeing with recent suggestions from Red Bull’s Christian Horner that the device’s contribution to performance had been over-estimated.

“In Formula 1 it’s rare that there are golden bullets that suddenly transform your car from uncompetitive to competitive. We, more than most, last year found that to be the case. It was just straightforward hard work and effort,” said Neale.

“It’s early days in development, but I would tend to agree with Christian that it’s not a case of bolt on your blown diffuser and then blow everybody into the weeds.

That’s not going to happen. It’s one of the things that we are working with at the moment, as part of a package of changes that we are bringing to both the next race and subsequent races.

“In terms of predicting what it will do, I’m not going to be a hostage to fortune and predict a number of wins. Let’s see what the race drivers think of it on Friday. We just haven’t got any what I would call real circuit running on it at the moment, so I’m going to reserve judgment.”

IBP/doc

Valentino Rossi