Edisi 10 Agustus 2009 | International Bali Post

16

Sport

Monday, August 10, 2009

FIA re-opens team selection process

Mass evacuation in China after typhoon pounds Taiwan

16 Pages Number 432 1st Year

PAGE 6

e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bali still alert even Noordin died PAGE 8

Paris-The FIA has re-opened the selection procedure for the final place on the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship entry list, in the wake of BMW’s announcement that it is withdrawing from the sport at the end of the year.

AUTOSPORT understands that yesterday, FIA president Max Mosley wrote to the seven teams on the ‘reserve list’ - those under consideration for a place on the grid that did not receive an automatic entry in July - as well as BMW Sauber, to inform them that a place on the grid has become available.

Peter Sauber is still working with BMW to put a rescue package in place for the team he is a 20% partner in, but the Swiss was not able to secure the necessary funding in time to meet last Wednesday’s deadline to sign the

new Concorde Agreement.

Therefore, while sources suggest that Sauber is making progress to secure the budget to save his eponymous outfit, the FIA is inviting whatever BMW Sauber should become to tender its application alongside the other seven hopefuls selected from the original 15 applications, to pitch for the final place on the grid.

Epsilon Euskadi has already signalled its intention to re-apply, while David Richards’ Prodrive outfit is believed still to be interested should the conditions be right to enter F1.

Epsilon Team boss Joan Villadelprat told AUTOSPORT last

BP/doc

The FIA has re-opened the selection procedure for the final place on the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship entry list week: “We are still working on the project, at a much slower rate obviously because we don’t have the security [to be on the grid].

“What we can say is that the people who were interested in helping us are still interested, which is something incredible. And if the opportunity arises, we are going to attack it, there’s no doubt about it.”

Vermeulen could look beyond Suzuki Chris Vermeulen has admitted that he may have to move away from Suzuki next year as he is desperate to be racing at the front in MotoGP. The Australian wants to remain loyal to Suzuki but says he has to put his own career first, which could mean switching brands if the Japanese manufacturer is unable to up its performance for next year.

“Suzuki gave me my break in MotoGP, I came here as a factory rider,” Vermeulen told AUTOSPORT. “I’ve had some very good times with them and I’ve had some bad times, but my goal is to be world champion.

“I am looking to be on the best

motorbike that is going to give me the chance to be world champion, whether that’s a Suzuki next year or another brand, I haven’t made a decision on that yet. My goal is to win races for myself.

“Riders in the past have stayed too long with bikes that haven’t been the best and that is something I have really got to consider for next year. I can’t afford to... well, from my point of view I don’t want to have another year like this year. I want to be fighting for podiums week-in, week-out not for the second last row of the grid.”

But Vermeulen is hopeful that Suzuki will be able to take a significant step forward in the remainder

of this season, beginning at Brno next weekend.

“There have been very small differences in our bike which I am frustrated about because I was hoping for a lot more to come, but we haven’t been able to make the best out of the one-make tyre at the moment.

“Our main Japanese boss who I have got a lot of respect for, Shinichi Sahara, was the head at the race track before he was promoted. He is very high up in the factory now. He has been working hard back there, but we haven’t seen him for a while. He is coming to Brno and I am hoping he is coming with a bag full of goodies for us to try.”

Obama: Worst may be over in economic crisis PAGE 11 AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim

Indonesian police officers stand guard at a militant safe house a day after it was raided in Temanggung, central Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect was reportedly killed during a 16-hour siege on the suspected militant hide-out that ended Saturday when police stormed the house, but officials said they could not yet confirm he was among the dead.

WEATHER FORECAST CITY

TEMPERATURE OC

DENPASAR

21 - 31

JAKARTA

24 - 33

BANDUNG

19 - 29

YOGYAKARTA

20 - 32

SURABAYA

23 - 34

SUNNY

BRIGHT/CLOUDY

RAIN

HOTLINE For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni

0361-225764

Indonesia awaits DNA test to confirm terror leader’s death

Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - Indonesian police said Sunday it could take two weeks to confirm the death of Asian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, who was reported killed in a dramatic standoff with police special forces.

Indian FM meets student stab victim in Australia

Agence France-Presse

MELBOURNE - India’s foreign minister met Sunday with a Melbourne-based student whose stabbing earlier this year set off a wave of protest over allegedly racist attacks in Australia.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna met Sravan Kumar Theerthala, who spent weeks in a coma fighting for his life after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party in late May. The incident turned the spot-

The Islamist was killed Saturday morning in a hail of gunfire and explosions from US-trained counter-terrorism forces who had surrounded his suspected hideout in remote Beji village, Central Java, according to local media.

The 17-hour siege of the farm-

house was the culmination of a series of raids and arrests of his accomplices which uncovered a plot to attack President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s home outside Jakarta, police said.

Continued on page 6

light on a spate of violence towards Indian students in Australia’s largest cities, straining relations with New Delhi and sparking street protests by fellow students in Sydney and Melbourne.

Continued on page 6

Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna (R) sits with Indian student Sharvan Theerthala who was attacked and stabbed with a screwdriver, in Melbourne on August 9, 2009.

AFP PHOTO/Paul CROCK

2

International

Monday, August 10, 2009

News WORLD NEWS

‘Wise Latina’ Sotomayor joins US Supreme Court

Sport

International

Agence France Presse

BEIJING - Lazio ruffled the feathers of Serie A champions Inter Milan in the Bird’s Nest in Beijing Saturday night to win the Italian Super Cup 2-1.

WASHINGTON - Sonia Sotomayor made history Saturday as she took the oath of office to become the first Hispanic US Supreme Court justice, and just the third woman on the court in its 220-year history.

Vladimir Putin MOSCOW - As Vladimir Putin marks a decade in power, it appears the former KGB strongman may maintain his grip on Russia’s government for years to come. Supporters credit him with rescuing the economy from the postSoviet doldrums and restoring national pride.

Critics say the price rolling back democratic reforms and stifling dissent - has been too high.

Human rights LONDON - A report by lawmakers says Britain should closely monitor U.S. activity on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to ensure the British territory is not used for the rendition or interrogation of terror suspects. Moved.

Pneumonic plague BEIJING - A blockade around a remote northwest Chinese town where deadly pneumonic plague killed three people and sickened nine has been lifted after no new infections were reported, an official says. .

Source: ap

Thursday.

Her detractors accused her of being a “judicial activist” and focused for weeks on a 2001 remark to law students at a conference on Hispanic judges.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Sotomayor said at the event.

The remark made many conservatives nervous, with some calling her a racist. In the final poll, only nine out of the 40 Republican senators voted to confirm her.

Sotomayor, who has been a federal judge for 17 years, replaces outgoing justice David Souter, who announced his retirement in May after 19 years on the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama, who nominated Sotomayor for the job, was not at the event but will hold a White House reception in her honor on Wednesday.

The public swearing-in ceremony was broadcast live on television — a first, as the camera-shy justices do not allow televised broadcasts of its court sessions.

In what is seen as a symbolic sign of independence, Sotomayor chose to have the ceremony at the Supreme

AP Photo/U.S. Supreme Court, Steve Pettewa

In this photograph provided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., right, administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the Justices’ Conference Room at the Supreme Court in Washington Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 as Sotomayor’s mother, Mrs. Celina Sotomayor, holds the family Bible during the ceremony.

Court.

The last two justices to take the bench — Samuel Alito and John Roberts — were nominated by then-president George W. Bush and sworn in at a White House ceremony.

Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx, a working class borough of New York city. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a blue-collar worker.

She graduated from elite Ivy League universities, and was a Manhattan prosecutor and corporate law-

yer before becoming a federal judge.

Sotomayor is the first Supreme Court justice nominated by a Democratic president since 1994.

The new justice will have little time to celebrate — the first case she will hear, concerning the constitutionality of part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, is scheduled for September 8. Obama issued a statement on Sotomayor following the Senate vote confirming her to the bench on Thursday.

Sadat daughter takes US film to court over dog named Anwar Agence France-Presse

CAIRO - The daughter of Egypt’s slain president Anwar Sadat has filed legal complaints against the producers of an American film which portrays a dog named after her father, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Roqeya Sadat’s complaint against the makers of the Hollywood film “I Love You, Man” will be heard by a Cairo court on September 1, lawyer Samir Sabri told AFP. Sadat was shot dead by Islamic militants at a military parade in

Cairo on October 6, 1981, three years after he signed the 1978 Camp David Accords that led to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first by an Arab country.

His daughter is furious over the movie in which the leading character played by Jason Segel names his dog Anwar Sadat, claiming that he resembles the slain Egyptian president.

Roqeya Sadat has described the movie as “insulting” to the memory of her father and was quoted by Egypt’s office news agency MENA as saying that it also “undermines Egypt and its role (of leadership) in the

Middle East.”

The film, a romantic comedy directed by John Hamburg for DreamWorks, was released in Egypt earlier this year but is no longer showing in movie theatres.

“We’ve filed a complaint on Wednesday against the producers of the film, the actors and the company which distributed it in Egypt,” Sabri said.

“We also filed a complaint against the minister of communications” because his office allowed the release of the film in Egypt earlier this year, he added.

According to him Roqeya Sadat wants all copies of the film to be seized, although the offensive movie stopped being shown in Egyptian theatres in July.

It is not clear what the Egyptian court will decide.

But Sabri said that Sadat’s daughter is determined to take the case to US courts.

Last year Roqeya Sadat won a court case against Hoda Abdel Nasser, the daughter of her father’s predecessor, the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had described Anwar Sadat as a US spy.

z Founder : K.Nadha, z Chief Editor: ABG Satria Naradha z Managing Editor: Wirata z Editors: Alit Purnata, Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Darmasunu, Daniel Fajry, Diah Dewi, Iwan Darmawan, Martinaya, Mawa, Palgunadi, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Sutiawan, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Mas Ruscitadewi, Oka Rusmini, Umbu Landu Paranggi, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Gregorius Rusmanda, 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. Publiser: PT Bali Post

15

Lazio shock Inter to lift Italian Super Cup

Agence France-Presse

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath in a brief televised ceremony held in a Supreme Court conference room, with some 60 of Sotomayor’s friends and relatives present. Minutes earlier Roberts administered a slightly different oath in a private ceremony.

The event caps the spectacular rise of Sotomayor, 55, from a gritty working-class background through elite US universities and the federal bench to the top US judicial body, the final arbiter on legal matters in the nation.

The New York-born Sotomayor, whose parents came from the US commonwealth of Puerto Rico, took the oath with her left hand on a Bible held by her widowed mother Celina, as her younger brother Juan, a medical doctor, stood smiling by her side.

The country’s 111th high court justice solemnly swore to “administer justice without respect for persons, and to equal rights to the poor and to the rich,” and to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform” all of her duties as a Supreme Court justice, “so help me God.” “Congratulations and welcome to the Court,” Roberts smiled, as he shook her hand immediately after the oath.

Sotomayor was confirmed by a 68-31 margin in the US Senate on

Monday, August 10, 2009

AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan

The Lazio team holds the Italian Supercup trophy after they won 2-1 against Inter Milan at China’s National Olympic Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing, China, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009. The Italian season curtain raiser was held on the one year anniversary of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Lazio captain Tommaso Rocchi superbly lobbed Inter keeper Julio Cesar after finding a gap between the Inter defence just after the hour to clinch the winner.

Two minutes earlier, Rocchi’s 61st minute freekick found its way through the Inter wall and rebounded off keeper Cesar, bobbling up into the path of Lazio’s Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem, who slotted home to the delight of several thousand Chinese Lazio fans.

The quick double strike stunned Inter’s galaxy of stars and their thousands of Chinese fans into a rare silence after they had controlled affairs on and off the pitch for most of the tense final.

Staring defeat in the face, the normally cool Inter manager Jose Mourinho brought on Patrick Vieira and replaced Serbian captain Dejan Stankovic with Mario Balotelli.

But it was new signing and Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o — who had threatened several times — who fired into the roof of the Lazio net in the 75th minute to rally Inter into a frantic search for a dramatic comeback.

Inter had controlled the game but were frustrated numerous times by the excellent Nestor Muslera in the Lazio goal.

Another Inter new arrival, Argentine Diego Milito, rolled the ball past the stranded Muslera in the 81st minute only to be ruled agonisingly offside.

Eto’o then went just wide with a free kick from just outside the box in injury time.

And though Mourinho’s men laid siege to the Lazio goal in the dying minutes, it was the team from Rome who lifted the cup for a memorable party spoiler in China’s Olympic stadium.

The Bird’s Nest played centre stage to China’s highly acclaimed and choreographed opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics and the final was the first significant competitive sporting event to be played in the iconic stadium since the end of the Games.

The stadium, made of a lattice of cement and steel, has largely served as a tourist attraction since the Games ended, prompting criticism that many costly Olympic venues are sitting idle and not being used for sporting events.

A year ago to the day, however, football chants replaced drummers, acrobatic dancers and singers with many among the 65,000 in the 80,000 seater stadium sporting replica football shirts of their Italian heroes.

The Italian Super Cup is the season curtain raiser contested by the winners of Serie A and the domestic Italian Cup. It is usually played at the home of the Serie A champions. But in a bid to broaden the appeal of Italian football it has been contested overseas several times before.

Marseille off to French flier as Lyon, PSG held Agence France Presse

PARIS - There was early awayday cheer for title hopefuls Marseille on the opening day of the new French league season Saturday, but Lyon and Paris St Germain had to make do with draws.

Lyon were saved at the death by new signing from Porto Lisandro Lopez, who netted a freekick to salvage a 2-2 draw at lowly Le Mans, who were twice ahead, while PSG stuttered to a 1-1 draw at Montpellier.

Former European champions Marseille, who have endured a 17year wait for a league crown, were ahead after just two minutes at Grenoble as Mamadou Niang put them in front having slalomed through a brittle home defence.

New Marseille coach Didier Deschamps, determined to bring the good times back to the Stade Velodrome, permitted himself a nod of satisfaction on the bench as Benoit Cheyrou secured the points with the second goal ten minutes from time.

Deschamps said: “There were more positives than negatives. We had things pretty much under con-

trol though many will say it’s logical that Marseille win at Grenoble. I hope we can go on from here.”

Marseille finished three points adrift of champions Bordeaux last term and now are bent on going one better.

The Girondins, coached by Deschamps’ erstwhile French international teammate Laurent Blanc, will take on Lens in Sunday’s game.

PSG, wholesale underachievers since their last championship win back in 1994, again showed their flaws in drawing 1-1 at Montpellier.

The hosts from the south were down to 10 men for the last hour after Cyril Jeunechamp was dismissed for a second bookable offence for scything down PSG’s Ludovic Giuly from behind in the 27th minute.

Giuly exacted delicious revenge by firing home from close range in the 71st minute after home keeper Geoffrey Jourdren spilled a shot from veteran Claude Makelele.

But rugged Bosnian new signing Emir Spahic powered in a header from inside the six-yard box on the stroke of time to deny the Parisians all three points.

Lyon had a double fright, meanwhile, at Le Mans, who were ahead on 21 minutes through Malian youngster Modibo Maiga.

Mathieu Bodmer levelled seven minutes later for Lyon, who could only come in third last season after seven league title wins on the trot when the run began they had never lifted the trophy in their history - but Mathieu Coutadeur scored from the penalty spot on the hour to restore the hosts’ lead.

Brazilian defender Cris tangled with Maiga to earn Le Mans the spotkick but just as an embarrassing loss loomed up popped Lopez to save Lyon’s blushes.

Elsewhere, Saint-Etienne, who just survived last season after months of trials and tribulations which belied their former status of French giants, went down 2-0 at home to Nice.

Auxerre also lost on home soil to Sochaux by the only goal and northerners Nancy won on their travels, 3-1 at Valenciennes.

Monaco thanked a first-half strike from Nene to see off Toulouse 1-0 in the principality while Rennes swamped promoted Boulogne 3-0.

AFP PHOTO / JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT

Grenoble’s Romao (R) vies with Marseille’s Mamadou Niang during their French L1 football match Grenoble vs Sochaux on August 8, 2009, at the Stade-des-Alpes stadium in Grenoble.

14

Sport

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

News

International

Roddick and Del Potro book Washington final showdown

Agence France Presse

WASHINGTON - Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro struggled into the finals of the ATP Washington Classic on Saturday, Del Potro sagging in sweltering heat and Roddick tested by big-serving John Isner.

US top seed Roddick outlasted Isner 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-5 and secondseeded defending champion Del Potro of Argentina beat Chilean fourth seed Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 at the 1.4 million-dollar hardcourt event.

Fifth-ranked Roddick, playing in his first event since a five-set Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer, fired only nine aces to 20 for Isner but hit 69 percent of his first serves and made only two thirdset unforced errors.

“I like being on the giving end of the big serve,” Roddick said.

“John made me play my best tennis. Anything less than that wasn’t going to get it done.”

It took five break-point chances in the third set before Roddick finally broke compatriot Isner in the penultimate game, then held serve to win after two hours and 31 minutes.

“I wasn’t converting but it’s not because I wassn’t putting the ball on the court. He was coming up with the goods,” Roddick said. “All you can do is put yourself in position and hope you get that point.”

Roddick credits his improved shotmaking to faster speed from

better fitness.

“It’s a lot easier to hit a passing shot when you can get to it,” Roddick said.

Sixth-ranked Del Potro fired 10 aces in hot and humid conditions on his way to beating Gonzalez for the first time in four meetings between South America’s top players, who each reached this year’s French Open semi-finals.

“It was tough for both of us. The court was so hot,” Del Potro said.

“After the first set Fernando was so tired. Me too. It was very difficult for both of us. We were very tired and the sun was very strong.”

Gonzalez was so exhausted that when he fell early in the second set he stayed on his back until Del Potro climbed over the net to help him up.

“He told me, ‘Come with me and give up,’” Del Potro said. “I was thinking lay down with him. If I did we would never stand up. I didn’t.

We kept playing like professionals.”

Del Potro won his only prior match with Roddick in last year’s Los Angeles final and will try to become the first back-to-back Washington champion since Andre

Agassi in 1999.

“I will have to play much better than today,” Del Potro said. “He has improved a lot since we played.”

Roddick expects no trouble in Sunday’s afternoon final after training in Texas heat for weeks but does anticipate seeing Del Potro at his best.

“I’m going to have to hit the ball really well from the baseline,” Roddick said. “He drives the ball through the court as well as anybody. It’s a matter of surviving early on, getting it down hopefully to where it’s just a few big points.”

Roddick, 26, seeks his 28th career crown and fourth in Washington after taking the title in 2001, 2005 and 2007, when he beat Isner, 24, in the final. It would be his second ATP title of the year after a February win at Memphis.

Del Potro, 20, seeks his sixth career title and second of the season after winning at Auckland in January.

Isner, who will climb to 44th from 80th in the rankings, saved two break points in the opening game of the third set and one each in the ninth and 11th games before Roddick closed him out.

“Every service game I held was a challenge and he eventually just broke me down,” Isner said.

Roddick took a tumble diving for a return in the ninth game but was unhurt. “I’m fine,” Roddick said.

“I’m worried about the court.”

Clijsters raring to get this comeback started Agence France Presse

CINCINNATI - Belgian star Kim Clijsters makes a long-awaited return when she serves it up at the WTA Tour’s Cincinnati event on

Monday.

The unseeded wild card Clijsters won’t have it easy as her first match is against 12th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.

Bartoli is fresh off an impressive

BP/doc

Kim Clijsters

win over Venus Williams in the final of the Stanford Bank of the West Classic.

“I see it as a second career,” Clijsters told The New York Times on Saturday. “Honestly, the first word that comes up is, oh, it’s a comeback. But so many things have changed and so many things have happened.”

Indeed the former world number one racked up 34 singles titles when she retired in May 2007 at age 23, citing injuries and the upcoming marriage. Two months later she married basketball player Brian Lynch and then there was the birth of daughter Jada Ellie. During that time of her life her father, Leo, succumbed to lung cancer.

“In tennis, it’s very important that you’re very stable there, the hips and the core,” she said. “With the pregnancy, that’s something that was totally gone.”

Clijsters is in the same half of the draw as top seeded Dinara Safina and sixth seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and could face either or both if she should go on a run.

Monday, August 10, 2009

3

Nagasaki calls on leaders to visit atomic bomb site Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Nagasaki’s mayor, marking the 64th anniversary of his city’s atomic bombing by the United States, called Sunday on the leaders of nuclear-armed powers to visit the site and build a nuclear-free world.

Tomihisa Tanoue urged world leaders from both declared nuclear powers and others such as Iran, Israel and North Korea to visit the city in southwestern Japan.

“I am sure anyone who visits here would feel the sorrow of the victims and be shaken by it,” the mayor said in an address at an annual ceremony commemorating the 1945 bombing.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Andy Roddick, of the Unites States, jumps while returning the ball against Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia, at the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, in Washington, on Friday, Aug. 7, 2009. Roddick won the match 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5).

Espanyol skipper Dani Jarque dies of heart attack MADRID - The skipper of Spanish top flight side Espanyol, Dani Jarque, has died from a heart attack while on a pre-season training camp in Italy.

The 26-year-old Jarque died at the hotel where the team were staying in the town of Coviciana. He was discovered in his room after teammates realised he had not appeared for a meal.

The club said that team doctors as well as Italian paramedics tried to revive the midfielder but without success.

The tragedy comes just two years after the death, also from heart failure, of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta, who died aged 22 after having collapsed during the opening game of the Spanish La Liga season.

Espanyol confirmed the diagnosis of heart failure and said the club doctor’s attempts to revive the player had failed. “It was a heart attack,” said club official German de la Cruz.

“He was talking to his girlfriend when he suddenly began to feel unwell. He told her and then stopped talking. His partner got in touch with the hotel and explained what had happened but it was too late to do anything,” de la Cruz told La Sexta television.

Jarque had played for Espanyol since the 2002-2003 season.

In the last campaign, he featured in 36 legaue matches and scored two goals. He was also a member of the team which won the Spanish Cup in 2006 and who were UEFA Cup runners-up in 2007.

European champions Barcelona, who are Espanyol’s city rivals, sent their condolences to the Jarque’s family from their American tour base in San Francisco.

Barca president Joan Laporta told www.fcbarcelona.com: “We are filled with extreme sadness at this tragic event and tonight we are in mourning.

“On behalf of Barcelona, we want to send our deepest sympathies to Espanyol for the painful loss of their captain Dani Jarque, and to his family.”

A minute’s silence was observed at the start of the second half of a pre-season friendly at the Mestella Stadium where Valencia were taking on English side Arsenal.

Players from both sides also wore black armbands. Real Madrid as well as the Spanish football federation sent their condolences to Jarque’s family.

AP Photo/Kyodo News

A minute of silence was observed at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), when the US bomb exploded above the city, killing roughly 74,000 people. The bombing followed one a week before in Hiroshima and hastened Japan’s surrender in World War II. Tanoue said an April speech by US President Barack Obama in Prague, where Obama pledged to build a world with no nuclear weapons, “im-

A memorial ceremony is held in front of the Statue of Peace at Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on Sunday Aug. 9, 2009. Nagasaki marks the 64th anniversary of the world’s second atomic bomb attack on Sunday.

pressed” the residents of Nagasaki.

“The Japanese government must support the Prague speech. As a nation that has come under nuclear attack, Japan must lead the international community” in abolishing the weapons, he said.

Similar appeals were made Thursday when Hiroshima marked the anniversary of its bombing, which killed 140,000 people.

At the Nagasaki ceremony, Prime Minister Taro Aso reiterated the Japanese government’s antinuclear stance, three weeks ahead of national elections that he is tipped to lose.

Aso raised eyebrows at the Hiroshima ceremony, when he pledged to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons but later told reporters that he thought it was “unimaginable” to attain a nuclear-free world.

Obama in first summit with Greenpeace pressures North America leaders on climate Mexico, Canada leaders Agence France-Presse

GUADALAJARA - US President Barack Obama attends his first North American leaders summit in Mexico on Sunday with the economic crisis and swine flu on an agenda overshadowed by Mexican drug violence.

Hundreds of Mexican soldiers and police deployed in the western city of Guadalajara for the summit in which Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper were due to touch on a wide range of topics affecting the region of almost 450 million inhabitants.

Measures to help recovery in the three major economies that have been tied by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for 15 years were a top priority.

Like the United States, Mexico has sunk deep into recession, with much of its industry tied to the worst-affected areas of the US economy — cars and construction — and migrant workers north of the border sending less money home.

In the two-day meeting, Canada and Mexico — the first and third-largest US trading partners — were expected to pressure Obama over a “Buy American” clause in the US economic stimulus plan.

Mexico also sought to resolve an immigration dispute with Canada over the recent imposition of visas for Mexicans, and a trade dispute involving Mexican trucks operating in the United States, officials said here.

Mexico responded to the US cancellation of a program allowing some Mexican

trucks on its territory — in violation of NAFTA — by slapping some 2.4 billion dollars in tariffs on 89 US products in March.

With Mexico’s news reports splashed with daily violence, and killings in suspected drug attacks approaching 10,000 since the start of 2008, Calderon may seek more support for his controversial military crackdown on the country’s warring drug gangs.

The summit comes amid criticism of alleged abuses by some of around 40,000 troops deployed across the country, and reports of growing Mexican drug gang activity across the United States, Canada and beyond.

The United States — the world’s number one cocaine consumer and a market for illegal weapons and money laundering for Mexican drug gangs — for the first time this year admitted shared responsibility in the Mexican drug cartel problem.

It has already agreed to some 1.4 billion dollars in security and justice aid to Mexico under the three-year Merida Initiative, which still has to be fully approved by Congress.

Other key issues on the Guadalajara agenda include curbing greenhouse-gas emissions ahead of a key climate summit in December, the threat of swine flu on the continent worst hit by A(H1N1), the Honduras crisis and immigration reform.

Some 1,200 federal police officers were deployed around the city for the meeting, as well as around 1,000 Mexican presidential guards and other troops, Mexican officials said. Local rights and environmental groups planned demonstrations in the city on Sunday.

Agence France-Presse

GUADALAJARA - Greenpeace activists climbed a main monument in the Mexican City of Guadalajara Saturday in a bid to push climate change up the agenda of talks between North American leaders here this weekend.

President Felipe Calderon will host Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama for his first “three amigos” meeting in this western city on Sunday and Monday, in which Mexico’s wave of drug violence is a key issue.

A Greenpeace activist dressed as a polar bear held a sign reading “Real leaders back clean energy,” standing on a statue in La Minerva fountain in Guadalajara, as the pressure for concrete promises on reducing emissions increased ahead of a worldwide climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

“We’re the region which contributes most to climate change,” said Maria Jose Cardenas, from Greenpeace Mexico, stating that the region emits 26 percent of worldwide greenhouse gases. Activists called on the three giant energy producers and users to aim to generate almost 40 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Joint security amid Calderon’s crackdown on drug cartels, swine flu and efforts to tackle the financial crisis are also key issues on the summit agenda.

AP Photo/Carlos Jasso

Greenpeace protesters, one of them dressed up as a polar bear, put up a banner for the heads of state that will participate in the North American Leaders Summit which says “Real leaders Back Clean Energy” at the landmark “Minerva” monument in Guadalajara, Mexico, Saturday Aug. 8, 2009.

4

Monday, August 10, 2009

News

International

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi faces new trial uncertainty

AFP PHOTO/FILES

Aung San Suu Kyi. Agence France-Presse

YANGON - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces fresh uncertainty this week over her internationally condemned trial, with her US codefendant’s illness threatening to further delay the verdict.

A prison court is scheduled to hand down judgment on Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and American John Yettaw when it meets on Tuesday for what was expected to be the final episode in the nearly three-month-long legal imbroglio.

But diplomats and officials said it could be postponed once again because Yettaw — who sparked the case by swimming to her lakeside home in May — remains in hospital after suffering repeated epileptic seizures.

Myanmar officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Yettaw’s health improved slightly on Saturday and that he was “eating well” after fasting for weeks, but said the trial could be delayed at least another week.

“If Yettaw’s health does not improve or deteriorates we are heading towards a postponement. We will know more on Monday,” added a Western diplomat, asking not to be named.

“But if his condition improves during the weekend they (Myanmar’s ruling junta) have no interest in delaying further the verdict,” the diplomat said.

Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if convicted of violating her house arrest. She has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years and is being held at Yangon’s Insein prison, where the trial is taking place.

The case is proving to be a major headache for the junta, caught between growing international pressure to free Suu Kyi and what critics say is its determination to keep her locked up during elections due in 2010.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon last week pressed the junta to free political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, after convening a meeting of the “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar”.

A visit to Myanmar in the next two weeks by Democratic US Senator Jim Webb — the first US lawmaker to visit the country in more than 10 years — could further complicate the timing of the verdict, diplomats said.

Suu Kyi’s lawyers have hailed the repeated delays as a sign that the judges have “serious legal problems” — but analysts say the real decisions are being made by reclusive junta leader Than Shwe from the bunker capital Naypyidaw.

Myanmar’s regime “has a window from August 10 and 20 because after that all the governments come back to normal and then early September you have the UN General Assembly,” the western diplomat said.

Kazakh journalist jailed for divulging ‘state secrets’ Agence France-Presse

ALMATY - A Kazakh journalist was Saturday sentenced to three years in prison for divulging state secrets in a ruling slammed by media rights groups who accuse the Central Asian state of stifling press freedom, Interfax reported.

Ramzan Essergenov, chief editor of the newspaper Alma-Ata Info, was sentenced by a court sitting in closed session over an article in which he questioned whether the ex-Soviet republic was ruled by the president or the secret service.

Three others — businessman Sultan Makhmadov and two of his employees — got terms ranging between two and eight years in jail, one of their lawyers Mussatai Bektassov said, according to the

Russian news agency.

Kazakhstan, ruled by President Nursultan Nazarbayev for 20 years, has drawn wide criticism from rights groups at home and abroad for trampling on democracy and human rights.

A controversial recent law allows the shutting down of a website for three months if it is deemed to have intentionally published illegal information.

Media rights groups meanwhile denounced the trial.

“Ramzan Essergenov has only carried out his duty as a citizen, his professional duty,” said a joint letter by opposition newspapers and non-governmental organisations addressed to the attorney general.

“Independent studies have proven that these documents... are not state secrets,” it added.

Life Style

International

Beetroot boosts sports stamina, scientists say Agence France Presse

PARIS – A generous glass of beetroot juice boosts endurance by reducing the amount of oxygen needed during physical exercise, according to a study released Friday.

AFP PHOTO/CARLOS LITULO

Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano (C) signs a memorandum of Agreement flanked by Madagascar ousted president Marc Ravalomanana (R) and transitional president Andry Rajoelina (L) on August 9, 2009 at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre, Mozambique.

Madagascar leaders look forward after inking deal Agence France-Presse

MAPUTO - Leaders of Madagascar’s main political movements met Sunday to discuss the formation of a transitional government after signing an agreement to lead the country to fresh polls and end months of crisis.

The leaders, including ousted president Marc Ravalomanana and his rival Andry Rajoelina, agreed to set up an interim government and hold elections by the end of next year in a deal signed in the early hours of Sunday.

The rivals had “agreed that the transition will last no longer than 15 months from the signature of the accord,” said UN mediator Tiebile Drame, after the overnight talks.

Legislative and presidential elections will be held under international supervision during the period which will see stable democratic institutions re-established in Madagsacar, he said.

The four leaders, including former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy, regrouped for an-

other session early Sunday dedicated to discussion on the make-up of the transition government.

Lead mediator Joaquim Chissano said no decision was expected Sunday.

“It may not be today. Today we’re going to see how to proceed,” said Chissano, the former Mozambican president. “The agenda for today is to see how we are going to accomplish the work ahead.”

African Union envoy to Madgascar Ablasse Ouedraogo said Sunday’s meeting was “too early” in the negotiations to expect agreement on the line-up of the transitional administration. “It is a good starting point,” he said.

The transition government will include a president, vice president, prime minister and three deputy

prime ministers and 28 ministers.

Ravalomanana said he would return home to Madagascar under the terms of the accord — which grants him an amnesty — but would not personally take part in the government of transition.

“In the interests of the nation, and following consultations, it seems reasonable to me to not participate personally in the transition,” he told journalists, adding that his party would take part in the transition institutions.

Under the terms of the accord members of the transition government may not run in the elections, except for its president.

Ravalomanana said however that he would wait to return to Madagascar until “the situation is favourable”.

Ravalomanana has been living in exile in South Africa since fleeing Madagascar in March following the riots which left 100 dead.

Ravalomanana handed over power to the army, which then transferred it to his rival Rajoelina.

ETA claims responsibility for killing three Spanish police Agence France-Presse

MADRID - The Basque separatist organisation ETA claimed Sunday in a statement responsibility for several attacks, including those that killed two Civil Guard officers and a police inspector it called a “torturer”.

In the statement released to the pro-independence Basque daily Gara, a regular channel for ETA communications, the group claimed the June 19 car bomb attack that killed 49-year-old police inspector Eduardo Puelles Garcia in the Basque town of Arrigorriaga.

The statement also claimed the July 30 car bomb attack outside a

police barracks on the Mediterranean island of Majorca that killed two members of the Civil Guards paramilitary police, Diego Salva and Carlos Saenz de Tejada.

It said Puelles was “the chief of police operations against numerous leftist independence activists and against pro-independence youths for the past decade, and the coordinator of different operations against ETA.” “Sometimes, as the most experienced and despicable torturer in the commissariat ... he also pressured independence activists into collaborating by threats,” said the group.

Founded half a century ago, ETA is blamed for the deaths of 828

people in its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland encompassing parts of northern Spain and southwest France.

The group also claimed in the statement a car bomb attack on a Civil Guards barracks in the northern city of Burgos on July 29 that injured 40 people, and a bomb attack on the offices of the ruling Socialist Party in the Basque town of Durango on July 10 in which no one was injured.

Despite claiming the attacks ETA said it “does not seek to impose any project, unlike successive Spanish leaders. It is ETA which has over the long decades sought dialogue and political solution.”

Subjects who drank the juice easily outperformed a control group in tests and were able to exercise at the same intensity for up to 16 percent longer.

The findings, published in the US-based Journal of Applied Physiology, will be of keen interest to endurance athletes but may also prove helpful to people with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases as well as the elderly, the researchers said.

There are essentially two ways to enhance physical performance in relation to oxygen intake.

One is to raise the “VO2-max” level, which is an individual’s highest possible rate of oxygen consump-

tion during all-out exercise.

The VO2-max ceiling varies from person to person. It is partly genetic but it can be increased through training or the use of EPO, the oxygenboosting drug that has plagued the Tour de France cycling competition as well as other professional sports.

“But there is an alternative,” explained Andy Jones, a professor at the University of Exeter in Britain and lead author of the study.

“If you can reduce the energy cost” — the amount of oxygen used — “that can be beneficial too,” he told AFP by phone. That’s where beetroots come in.

In experiments, Jones and colleagues asked two groups of people

AFP/POOL/File/Patrick Hertzog

Cyclists race past the Notre Dame Cathedral as part of the Tour de France in July 2009 in Paris. A glass of beetroot juice boosts endurance by reducing the amount of oxygen needed during physical exercise, according to a new study.

to exercise at a fixed, high-intensity work rate for as long as they possibly could.

The group that drank a redcoloured placebo held out on average for nine or ten minutes. Those who drank beetroot, however, went 11 or 12 minutes.

“They were exercising at exactly the same work rate. The improvement in performance was not because the VO2-max had changed but simply because the efficiency had been enhanced,” Jones said.

“We were amazed by the effects on oxygen uptake because these effects cannot be achieved by any other known means.”

Whether the juice will also work over several hours of less intense exercise — equivalent to long-distance running or cycling — remains to be shown but seems likely, Jones added.

The researchers are not sure exactly how the ruby-red elixir works but they do have an educated guess.

Like lettuce and spinach, beetroot is rich in nitrate, which the body converts into nitrite. This, in turn, is a chemical trigger for another compound, nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide can dilate blood vessels and thus provide more oxygen to muscles. “But we think the key is that it seems to do a lot of weird and wonderful things within the muscle cells’ mitochondria, where oxidated energy is produced,” Jones said.

Earlier laboratory studies confirm the link between nitric oxide and increased energy output but further experiments are needed to see whether this truly is the magic ingredient.

Another study, published last year in the US journal Hypertension, found that beetroot juice reduces blood pressure too.

Attacks on lone blogger reverberate across Web Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The outage that knocked Twitter offline for hours was traced to an attack on a lone blogger in the former Soviet republic of Georgia — but the collateral damage that left millions around the world tweetless showed just how much havoc an isolated cyberdispute can cause.

“It told us how quickly many people really took Twitter into their hearts,” Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said Friday.

Tens of millions of people have come to rely on social media to express their innermost thoughts and to keep up with world news and celebrity gossip.

Twitter “is one of those little amusements that infiltrated the mass behavior in some significant ways, so

that when it went away, a lot of people really noticed it and missed it.”

The attacks Thursday also slowed down Facebook and caused problems for the online diary site LiveJournal. But Twitter, the 140character-or-less messaging site used by celebrities, businesses and even Iranian protesters, suffered a total outage that lasted several hours.

Those attacks continued Friday from thousands of computers pummeling its servers, said Kazuhiro Gomi, chief technology officer for NTT America Enterprise Hosting Services, which hosts Twitter’s service.

Twitter crashed because of a denial-of-service attack, in which hackers command scores of computers toward a single site at the same time to prevent legitimate traffic from getting through. The attack was targeted at a blogger who goes by “Cyxymu” — Cyrillic spelling of

Sukhumi, a city in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia in Georgia — on several Web sites, including Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal.

But they could have just as well targeted Twitter itself. That’s because the effects were the same whether the excess traffic went to the “twitter.com” home page or to the page for Cyxymu at “twitter.com/ cyxymu.” Same with Facebook and LiveJournal.

“A denial of service attack like this one is a very blunt instrument,” said Ray Dickenson, chief technology officer at Authentium, a computer security firm. It’s as if a viewer who didn’t like one show on a television channel decided to “knock out the whole station.”

Or like fishing with dynamite: You’ll catch something, but the blast will kill dolphins, sharks and other organisms, too.

Monday, August 10, 2009

13

Particle collider: Black hole or crucial machine?

Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole.

The world’s largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup.

But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind’s understanding of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Friday it would restart the collider in November at half power under pressure from scientists eager to conduct experiments to unlock secrets of the universe.

But spokesman James Gillies told The Associated Press they would have to shut down yet again next year to finish repairs so that the Large Hadron Collider can operate at full energy of 7 trillion electron volts — seven times higher than any other machine in the world.

CERN has been working since late last year to repair the damage caused by a faulty electrical joint.

The breakdown occurred nine days after the spectacular start up of the $10 billion machine last Sept. 10 when beams of subatomic particles were sent around the accelerator in opposite directions.

Fifty-three massive electrical magnets had to be cleaned and repaired after the failure. Tons of supercold liquid helium spilled out of the system, and a sooty residue had to be cleared from the tubes that are meant to be pristine, holding a vacuum in which subatomic particles can whiz around the tunnel at near the speed of light at temperatures

colder than outer space.

Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York who is an outspoken critic of waste in big science projects, defends the CERN collider as a crucial investment.

“The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing,” Kaku said. “We’re exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe.”

He said the biggest cause of the “bad accident” last year was “probably due to human error caused by rushing the project.”

“But I view it as a temporary black eye. We’ll get it up and running,” Kaku said.

CERN expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about 40 million Swiss francs ($37 million) over the course of several years, covered by the 20-nation organization’s budget.

The collider emerged as the world’s largest after the U.S. canceled the Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas in 1993. Congress pulled the plug after costs soared, and questions were raised about the value of the science it could produce.

Gillies says all 20 of CERN’s member nations have remained supportive and that four other countries — Cyprus, Israel, Serbia and Turkey — have asked to join. A fifth country — Slovenia — has expressed interest.

Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. are observer countries that have made sizable contributions to the CERN project.

CERN is now aiming to restart the machine in November with beams of subatomic particles initially running at 3.5 trillion electron volts, or TeV. That’s only half the level the machine was designed for, but it’s still 3 1/2 times higher than the second most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. During last year’s brief startup phase, the CERN collider only operated at half the Fermilab level.

AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool, File

In this file photo dated Sept. 10, 2008, European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists control computer screens showing traces on Atlas experiment of the first protons injected in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during its switch on operation in CERN’s control room, near Geneva, Switzerland.

12

Entertainment

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

News

International

Taiwan’s Jay Chou goes to Hollywood: report

Beatles fans swarm Abbey Road on album anniversary Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Hundreds of Beatles fans swarmed Abbey Road on Saturday, singing songs and snarling traffic to mark 40 years since John, Paul, George and Ringo strode across the leafy north London street and into the history books on iconic pop photos.

The famous photo graced the cover of the Fab Four’s “Abbey Road,” the last album recorded together, and shows the bandmates walking purposefully across the zebra-striped asphalt.

It remains one of music’s best-known album covers, endlessly imitated and parodied. Although the shoot itself only took a few minutes, so carefully studied was the cover for signs and symbolism that some diehard fans came to the conclusion that Paul McCartney — who appears barefoot and out of step with the rest — had secretly died.

McCartney himself made fun of the bizarre conspiracy in the title of his 1993 concert album, “Paul is Live.”

AP Photo/Sang Tan

A tribute band dressed as members of British band, the Beatles, walk across the famous pedestrian crossing on Abbey Road, in London, in a recreation of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover as hundreds of people gathered to mark the 40th anniversary of the album, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009.

5

Hong Kong businessman behind plot to shoot democrats

Agence France Presse

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s pop singer Jay Chou will star alongside Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz in the movie remake of popular US television series “The Green Hornet,” reports here said Saturday.

Chou, 30, has been cast as the superhero’s sidekick Kato, a role played by the late Chinese-American martial arts icon Bruce Lee about 40 years ago, said the United Daily News.

“I am very happy to act in an international film. I will do my best,” the paper quoted Chou as saying in a statement issued by his company JVR Music.

AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi Chou won the role after a videoJay Chou link audition a month ago with the movie’s director Michel Gondry and writer Seth Rogen, who will play the lead role Britt Reid, or The Green Hornet, the report said.

Chou will start shooting for the film, scheduled to be released on July 9 2010, after wrapping up his directorial work for a television series and two concerts in China, it said.

The Apple Daily said Chou replaced Hong Kong star Stephen Chow, who was originally set to direct and act in the film, but had pulled out due to differences with Columbia Pictures.

Chou, also famous in China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia for his pop music, has expanded into filmmaking in recent years, starring in a number of box-office hits including “Initial D,” “The Curse of the Golden Flower” and “Secret.”

Monday, August 10, 2009

Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Zita Keeley AFP/Getty Images/File/Michael Buckner

Producer Peter Jackson, actor Sharlto Copley and writer/director Neill Blomkamp take part in a panel discussion on the movie “District 9” at Comic-Con 2009 in July in San Diego, California. Hollywood is buzzing with excitement about South African director Blomkamp’s debut film, a science-fiction thriller about aliens segregated in a Johannesburg township.

Hollywood abuzz at South African sci-fi film Agence France Presse

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood is buzzing with excitement about South African director Neill Blomkamp’s debut film “District 9,” a sciencefiction thriller about aliens segregated in a Johannesburg township.

The movie — about the struggles of insect-like extra-terrestrial refugees as they try to settle on Earth amongst hostile humans — has garnered glowing reviews ahead of its North American release on August 14.

Produced by Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, Blomkamp’s film arose from the ashes of plans to adapt smash hit video-game “Halo” for the big screen.

Yet while the film’s setting is a futuristic parallel universe, the story is unmistakably rooted in South Africa’s recent bloody history of apartheid and anti-immigrant social unrest.

Vancouver-based Blomkamp, 29, acknowledges said that despite the symbolism of “District 9,” he had not set out to make a “political” film.

“I was aware that I didn’t want to make a film that sounded overly political and that the audience would find really draining,” Blomkamp told reporters at a press event in Los Angeles.

“But I knew that I wanted the essence of South Africa to be captured and the essence of segregation and pure racism kind of hit it head on, because that was the environment where I grew up in.

“So there was a fine balance between these many analogies of apartheid and these many analogies of the white government and oppression.”

Early reviews of “District 9” suggest Blomkamp has pulled off that balancing act — Internet film review aggregator Rottentomatoes.com has given the movie a perfect 100 percent rating.

The Hollywood Reporter hailed the movie as a “genuinely original science fiction film that grabs you immediately, not letting go until the final shot.”

The film’s central character, Wikus van der Merwe, played by South African Sharlto Copley, is an employee of a private security firm attempting to unravel the mysteries of the aliens’ weapons systems, which can only be unlocked with alien DNA. When Wikus is infected by an alien virus that begins to change his human DNA, the hunter becomes the hunted and he is forced to seek refuge among the extra-terrestrials in their Soweto-like ghetto, District 9.

Blomkamp said Johannesburg was the logical setting for the film, doubting it could have been made anywhere else.

“I think it would be incredibly difficult to replicate what we have in Johannesburg,” he said. “There is so much visual detail here, the dirt or barbed wire or weeds, it’s incredibly rich visually. For the film to work, I think you need this level of reality and this level of pollution and realness.”

New Zealand film-maker Jackson meanwhile said that Blomkamp’s South African identity had allowed him to “bring a unique perspective” to the story.

Jackson and Blomkamp first worked together during planning for a possible film version of Microsoft’s XBox console hit “Halo.”

Blomkamp had impressed Jackson with a short 2005 film “Alive in Joburg,” which first presented the concept on which District 9 is based.

“I flew down to New Zealand to meet Pete and he signed off on me for ‘Halo’; we started to make ‘Halo’ and then ‘Halo’ collapsed,” Blomkamp recalled.

“I was getting ready to move back to Vancouver and then he and Fran Walsh said ‘Why don’t you just stay here and we can try another film?

Let’s use the momentum you created in Halo and just keep it going and start something new.’ “That sounded like a good idea to me. So they kind of allowed this new film to happen and let me make it, which was awesome for me.”

Authorities retrieve a body from the Hudson River after a mid-air collision, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009, in New York. A sightseeing helicopter carrying five Italian tourists collided with a small plane above the Hudson River on Saturday, sending debris into the water and forcing people on New Jersey’s waterfront to scamper for cover. Authorities believe all nine people aboard the two aircraft were killed.

Nine feared dead after New York mid-air collision Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK - Nine people were believed dead Sunday after a helicopter carrying Italian tourists crashed mid-air with a light airplane over New York’s Hudson River.

“Three victims have been recovered,” said Debbie Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, at a late Saturday press conference, adding that search operations had been suspended for the night.

Media reports said the bodies of two adults and one child had been pulled from the Hudson, hours after the helicopter carrying five tourists and a pilot collided with an airplane in full view of horrified residents.

Hersman said she could not confirm the identities of the three bodies, or which aircraft they had been aboard.

Earlier in the day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference that what had started as a rescue operation was

being converted into a recovery operation, saying the incident was “not survivable.”

“This is not going to have a happy ending,” he said.

Hersman said divers had located the wreckage of the helicopter and were using sonar equipment to search for the plane before they shut down operations overnight.

“Once that wreckage is pulled up, they will try to do it tomorrow, depending on the current and the circumstances and the conditions... it will be pulled up and taken to a secure location for further examination,” she said.

The search for the wreckage was made more difficult by the low visibility of only about one meter (three feet) at the bottom of the river, authorities pointed out.

The Eurocopter AS350 was carrying five Italian tourists and a pilot. Two passengers, including one child, plus a pilot were aboard the single-propeller Piper PA32 plane.

The collision took place just after noon (1600 GMT) on a hot summer day when river-front streets were crowded with locals and tourists.

Witnesses described the two aircraft plummeting into the river between Manhattan and New Jersey.

“It hit the water like a stone,” a woman told NY1. “I saw a piece of metal, I saw a helicopter, the helicopter went down, and that was it. I heard no noise, and no smoke or fire.”

Some witnesses said the accident had been almost noiseless, but others reported hearing either the collision or impact against the river.

“We heard a really loud crash which sounded like lightning or thunder,” another woman said.

“They were both falling from the sky.”

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong businessman living in Taiwan was behind a plot to shoot leading democrats Jimmy Lai and Martin Lee, a report said Sunday.

The unidentified businessman put up one million US dollars to Chinese crime bosses to attack Lai, a media mogul, and Lee, a leading politician, the Sunday Morning Post reported citing police evidence from a trial in Shenzhen.

Two of the suspects in the case pinpointed the businessman as the mastermind behind the plot which was foiled last summer, the English-language paper said.

Tung Nga-man, who reports have said is a senior leader in the Triad crime group, told police that he had flown to Taiwan to meet the businessman. “(The businessman) said Lai was anti-government and anti-state, and so on, and that it should be OK

to spend some money to teach him a lesson,” Tung told police, according to the Post.

Another defendant at the trial in Shenzhen, over the Chinese border from Hong Kong, was told the payment would be one million dollars for murdering Lai and 700,000 dollars for injuring him, the report said.

The attack was planned for July 1, when both men were taking part in Hong Kong’s annual pro-democracy march, the paper said.

A Hong Kong court last month jailed a mainland Chinese gunman to 16 years for possessing a firearm with the intention of causing harm.

A second man was handed a three-year jail term after admitting possessing firearms in connection with the plot.

The plot was foiled after a police officer stopped the gunman by chance at a Hong Kong police checkpoint in August last year, the court heard.

Feared toll from Tongan ferry tragedy rises to 95 Agence France-Presse

NUKU’ALOFA - The feared death toll from a ferry disaster in Tonga has risen to 95, police said Sunday as devastated Tongans packed churches across the tiny Pacific island kingdom in a day of mourning.

Police commander Chris Kelley said it was now believed there were 149 people on board the Princess Ashika, which went down just before midnight on Wednesday.

Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, and 93 people are unaccounted for.

Police said the final number could be higher and they were continuing to analyse information about unrecorded people on board the vessel, whose official manifest showed only 79 passengers and crew.

“I think there is a complete

manifest that is held by a crew member on the boat when it sailed, but of course that would have been lost in the sinking,” Kelley said.

“What we are faced is that people are telling us is they put people on the boat and they weren’t on the manifest that was supplied here.”

Navy divers from Australia and New Zealand were to continue Sunday trying to locate the ferry, which was en route from Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa to outlying Ha’afeva when it sank moments after issuing a mayday call.

Survivors said it went down quickly when cargo appeared to shift and people below decks had no time to escape.

The ferry was initially located in about 35 metres (115 feet) of water but may have slipped further on the uneven seabed to a depth of about 100 metres.

Tanzania police arrest suspect over Irishman’s death Agence France-Presse

ZANZIBAR TOWN - Police on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar said they had arrested a suspect in the murder of a 27-year-old Irish tourist, whose body was found on a beach here Saturday.

The body of the victim, who had

arrived in Zanzibar earlier this week, was found about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the capital, the police chief Mselem Masoud Mtulia told AFP. An initial examination of the body had revealed bruises to the neck, said Mtulia, the senior officer for the north of the island.

“We are going with investigation and also call upon people to help police by providing any information which will help us arrest the murderers,” he added.

The Zanzibar archipelago is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania popular with tourists for its beaches and snorkelling.

AP Photo

Concerned citizens gather on the dock as survivors arrives in Pangai on Tonga’s Lifuka Island, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009, after a ferry carrying 117 passengers and crew sank around midnight Wednesday, northeast of the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa.

6

Monday, August 10, 2009

News

Monday, August 10, 2009

11

Mass evacuation in China after BUSINESS typhoon pounds Taiwan World pins recovery hopes on rising house prices Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse

BEIJING - China rushed nearly one million people out of harm’s away as Typhoon Morakot slammed into its coast Sunday after triggering Taiwan’s worst flooding in 50 years to leave at least three people dead.

LONDON - For homeowners around the world struck by the collapse of property markets, figures showing the downward spiral may be halting are the most meaningful signs yet of a possible economic recovery.

After also leaving tens of thousands trapped in Taiwan, the powerful storm landed in China’s Fujian province at 4:20 pm (0820 GMT), the provincial meteorological bureau said.

Morakot pounded Taiwan over the weekend with powerful winds and torrential rain, forcing the government to deploy the military to rescue stranded residents, officials said.

Television footage showed a woman in tears reporting that her daughter and husband had plunged into a river when a flash flood swept away their car in Taiwan’s central county of Nantou.

“My daughter called me twice saying: ‘We’re being washed away!

Hurry, hurry!’ Then I lost them,” the sobbing woman told reporters.

Officials said three people were confirmed dead and at least another 31 were missing as Morakot dumped a record 2.5 metres (100 inches) of rain on the southern Taiwanese county of Pingtung.

At least 10,000 people were trapped in three coastal townships, Pingtung deputy magistrate Chung Chia-pin said, and officials said tens of thousands of other people were also trapped in the counties of Tainan and Chiayi.

“This is the worst flooding in Chiayi in 50 years,” county magistrate Chen Ming-wen told reporters, issuing a plea for more rubber din-

ghies and water pumps.

A typhoon in August 1959 killed 667 people and left some 1,000 missing in Taiwan.

Across the Taiwan Strait, more than 505,000 people had been evacuated from the Fujian coast and another 490,000 were relocated in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhejiang issued a red alert earlier Sunday as it registered a maximum wind speed of nearly 180 kilometres (113 miles) an hour around the coastal city of Taizhou, Xinhua said.

Gale-force winds were expected to persist for at least three days and waves were forecast to reach as high as seven meters, it said.

More than 35,000 ships were called in to port as the storm approached, Xinhua quoted Zhejiang flood-control headquarters as saying.

A cargo ship was stranded in the rough seas and rescuers were trying to rescue its eight sailors, the agency reported.

Xinhua said the ship, Daqing 254, lost control and was blown onto a reef area on Qingshan Island near Fujian’s Ningde City early Sunday as it tried to shelter from the wind.

Among the missing in Taiwan were 14 workers who disappeared when their makeshift shelter beside a river in southern Kaohsiung county

As battered banks and stocks rally again, news that US house prices are finally rising after nearly three years of traumatic decline offers the greatest hope to hard-pressed homeowners from California to Krakow.

The sub-prime home loan crisis in America was the pressure-point that exposed underlying global financial chaos — and many economists say property prices there are the linchpin for confidence in broader economic recovery.

US home sales have been rising and the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index of home prices in 20 major US cities showed a 0.5 percent increase between April and May — the first monthly rise since 2006.

“This is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months. This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing,” said Standard & Poor’s analyst David Blitzer.

Data from the National Association of Realtors also showed the median price of existing US home sales was 181,600 dollars (127,200 euros) in June — 15 percent lower than a year ago, but up from 174,700 in May. Celia Chen, an analyst at credit rating agency Moody’s, said there were “tantalizing signs that the descent in house prices is at least moderating,” but warned that house prices will not reach their 2006 highs until 2020.

Analysts remain skeptical on the longer-term outlook for property prices as stable economic growth remains vulnerable to rising unemployment and government

Indian

Indonesia

From page 1

From page 1

The 25-year-old, his head partially shaven and large scars visible on his scalp, greeted Krishna in the apartment where he had been recuperating but was not well enough to speak publicly.

His cousin Lakshmi Bongnani said Theerthala was progressing well, although he had vision and memory problems due to a brain injury suffered in the attack.

“It’s going to take a year or more (to recuperate),” Bongnani told reporters. He said Krishna had pledged that the Indian government would provide whatever support was necessary. The foreign minister, whose stated purpose in visiting Australia was to “get a clearer sense of what is happening on the ground”, declined to meet with a delegation of Indian students after his audience with Theerthala.

Police called on people to remain vigilant and stressed their counterterrorist operations were ongoing, as the military stepped up security for the president.

“We have optimised and increased security for him and his family,” military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said.

“Based on the police information that there is a cell group that wanted to attack RI-1 (Yudhoyono), then we act according to the situation.”

National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said it could take two weeks to confirm whether Noordin was killed as heavily armed police riddled the squat farmhouse with bullets and explosions on Saturday morning.

“The whole process of DNA testing will take two weeks. It’s a standard procedure,” he said.

AP Photo

A collapsed hotel building is seen in heavily flooded river after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, in Taitung County, eastern Taiwan. The six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into a river Sunday morning after floodwaters eroded its base, but all 300 people in the hotel were evacuated and uninjured, officials said. was washed away by rising floodwaters early Sunday.

Armoured vehicles and marine landing craft, as well as rubber dinghies, were mobilised in a rescue operation involving at least 1,200 troops, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.

The troops were distributing food and drinking water to residents affected by the flooding, which in

some places had gone as high as the first storey of buildings.

Television footage showed a sixstorey hotel in Taipung, southeastern Taiwan, collapsing in the floods. Staff and guests had already been evacuated, the reports said.

The typhoon has caused at least 832 million Taiwan dollars (26 million US) in agricultural damage and temporarily cut electricity to more than one million

households, according to officials.

Morakot also left flooding and landslides in its wake after grazing the Philippines on its way to Taiwan.

The Manila government’s civil defence office said the storm had left a total of 21 people dead including two French tourists and a Belgian, with seven other people still missing.

“The test is being conducted at the Kramat Jati police hospital,” he added, referring to a hospital in Jakarta where the body of the militant found in the farmhouse was taken after the siege.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said late Saturday that the identification process would take less than a week.

Noordin, 40, a Malaysian Islamist, has been blamed for multiple terror attacks against “iconic” Western targets in Indonesia which have killed around 50 people and injured hundreds since 2003.

The latest were believed to have been the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and RitzCarlton hotels in the capital, which killed seven people including six foreigners, plus the two bombers.

A member of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks which killed more than 200 people, he split to form his own even more

violent network to “defend Islam” from perceived injustice.

The self-proclaimed leader of “AlQaeda in the Malay Archipelago” was one of Asia’s most wanted men and had a 100,000-dollar bounty on his head from the Indonesian government, who saw him as public enemy number one.

The police raid on his suspected hideout overshadowed other operations including the arrest of five of Noordin’s alleged accomplices and the uncovering of a major bomb factory in Bekasi, outside Jakarta.

Two would-be suicide bombers were shot dead by police early Saturday at their rented house in Bekasi as they tried to resist arrest, police said.

Police chief Danuri said they had rigged a small truck as a bomb and were planning to launch a suicide attack against Yudhoyono’s main residence, which is a 12-minute drive away.

The attack had been planned to take place around Indonesia’s Independence Day on August 17, and had been ordered by Noordin during a meeting on

April 30 as revenge for the execution of the Bali bombers late last year, Danuri said.

Police have come close to arresting Noordin several times in the past and have captured or killed some of his closest associates during a sixyear manhunt.

Analysts said his death would be a blow to his network, estimated to number as few as 30 hardcore cadres, but would not end the terror threat in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

“Every time there was an attack, there were new accomplices,” Institute for International Peacebuilding researcher Taufik Andrie said.

“There are several people who have the potential to replace Noordin.”

He said he doubted the reports that Noordin had been killed.

“The dead guy doesn’t seem to be Noordin. He has impeccable instincts for evading police raids,” he said.

strategies for a clean exit from recession after unprecedented fiscal stimulus.

But that is doing little to dampen cautious optimism on property markets.

Official data in China is showing house prices in 70 cities were up 0.8 percent in June from May, rising for the fourth straight month, while real estate investment nationwide rose 9.9 percent in the first half of the year.

In Britain, house prices rose by 1.1 percent in July to just under 160,000 pounds (187,600 euros, 267,700 dollars) from June, but were down 12.1 percent over 12 months, a survey from home-loans provider Halifax showed this week.

In neighboring Ireland, however, prices have fallen by up to 40 percent from their peak in 2006 and are still going down — with the government now working to provide 90 billion euros in guarantees to the loan market.

Likewise, Spain’s second-biggest bank BBVA has forecast that house prices after a decade-long, tourism-fuelled property boom will still fall by nearly 30 percent between 2008 and 2011 before they start to recover.

In the Gulf emirate of Dubai, house prices have almost halved over the past year.

The sector there is struggling with a shortage of liquidity and job security for expatriates who represent over 80 percent of the population.

The decline in Dubai has had wider implications, with US bank Morgan Stanley saying world steel production will remain below 75 percent capacity as it awaits a revival in the construction sector in the Middle East.

Fed to stay supportive even with economy healing Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Even as the US economy seems to be emerging from recession, the Federal Reserve is likely to signal it will maintain extraordinary efforts to spur growth until a recovery takes root, analysts say.

The Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday is widely expected to keep on hold the ultra low federal funds rates in a range of zero to 0.25 percent to stimulate lending and prop up economic activity.

The Fed led by Chairman Ben Bernanke could make some changes however in its special efforts to pump over one trillion dollars of liquidity into the financial system — which some call “quantitative easing” — that may no longer be needed, say some economists.

“We expect the Fed to sound more confident about the outlook by noting that the economy appears set to grow in the second half of the year,” said Dean Maki, economist at Barclays Capital, who argues that the latest reports support the view “that the US recession ended in June.”

“In light of this, we do not expect it to expand its 300 billion-dollar Treasury (bond) buying program, which is set to be completed in mid-September.”

Other analysts note that the Fed has a delicate task of keeping inflation expectations in check while instilling confidence in the recovery without creating any new bubbles.

“They probably don’t want to be too pessimistic,” said Cary Leahey, senior economist at Decision Economics. “But they want to temper the enthusiasm of the market” about economic recovery.

The latest economic figures show an economy that is still falling but narrowing its decline. Gross domestic product fell at a 1.0 percent pace in the second quarter, after a 6.4 percent plunge in the January-March period.

Even unemployment, the weak link in the economy, showed signs of improving.

The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a point to 9.4 percent in July as job losses narrowed to 247,000 from 443,000 in June.

“The payrolls report hints that the worst of the labor market crunch is over,” said Krishen Rangasamy at CIBC World Markets.

But, while the US economy will see some growth in the second half of the year, growth will be too mild to put a significant dent in the unemployment rate, which should continue to creep higher.”

Few economists expect the Fed to make any change to interest rates until early 2010, or if employment starts to grow. But the central bank is also likely to take pains to show it has an “exit strategy” in place when needed.

Eugenio Aleman, senior economist at Wells Fargo, said the Fed may have to be ready to hike rates once the economy shows it is recovering on its own without artificial support of the central bank and various stimulus programs.

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said the Fed will seek to send a message “that they are seeing more and more places where the economy is beginning to stabilize or move forward.” But Naroff added: “They are not going to declare the recession is over.”

He said there remains considerable fear that even a small hike in rates could undermine a nascent recovery.

Obama: Worst may be over in economic crisis

Reuters

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Friday the latest U.S. unemployment figures showed the worst may be over in the economic crisis but acknowledged there was more work to be done to put the economy back on track.

“This morning we receive additional signs that the worst may be behind us,” Obama said in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden after a government report that the U.S. jobless rate in July fell for the first time in 15 months.

Obama sought to cast in the best possible light the latest economic data despite economists view that economy has a long way to go to recover from one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Obama’s speech came at the end of a

week in which a Quinnipiac University poll showed his job approval rating had dropped to 50 percent as Americans express doubt about his handling of the U.S. economy and healthcare.

“I’m convinced that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Obama declared, saying his policies had helped unfreeze credit and a rising market was restoring value to battered 401K savings plans.

“We’ve pulled the economy back from the brink,” he said.

But he added, “We have a lot further to go. We will not have a true recovery while we are still losing jobs.”

Employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said on Friday, the least in any one month since last August, taking the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent, down from 9.5 percent in June.

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

People walk past the World Trade Center construction site, Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 in New York.President Barack Obama said on Friday the latest U.S. unemployment figures showed the worst may be over in the economic crisis but acknowledged there was more work to be done to put the economy back on track.

10

Business

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

International

DETROIT - Ford Motor Company, the only one of the country’s Big Three automakers to avoid bankruptcy, has pledged to accelerate its new product lines as it tries to consolidate a four-year turnaround effort.

“Within five years, Ford expects to have reduced the age of its global product portfolio by 20 percent,” the company said this week.

In July, Ford reported a 2.3 percent increase in auto sales — the first month it has posted a yearover-year gain since November 2007.

The company acknowledged that the positive movement was

mostly due to the government’s “cash for clunkers” program, which subsidized the cost of new cars for some Americans, but analysts are upbeat about Ford’s overall health.

“We think Ford could be profitable (on a sustained basis) by the end of 2009,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache.

In an attempt to capitalize on that momentum, Ford is preparing to wheel

out several new and revived lines, including the 2010 Ford Taurus.

“This isn’t about staying the course. It’s about prospering after the downturn,” said Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer.

Ford officially launched its new advertising campaign for the 2010 Ford Taurus bolstered by a positive safety rating from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Others are more skeptical, and Ford marketing director Matt Van Dyke acknowledges that while the Taurus has strong name recognition, the brand’s popularity could stand to be strengthened.

The company hopes to make that

tures, creating adverts with barcodes that smartphone users can scan to access information about the car.

“The convenience and ability to offer customers additional information at the touch of their mobile device speaks volumes on how technologically advanced the new Taurus is,” Van Dyke said.

Ford will also focus on its largely male target customer demographic by heavily advertising on sports broadcasts this fall.

The company is planning to bring its hit Ford Fiesta from Europe to the United States and add more fuel efficient models to its US product lines.

Jl. Kepundung 67 A, e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id Jl. Palmerah Barat 21 F

r pe Su ve a S

Hub:

SICA SECURITY Rimo Trade Center Jl. Diponogoro Lt. II No. C5 Telp. 8047438 233259 ext. 209

G.1044-ibp

G.1039-ibp

G.1036-ibp

G.2055-ibp

THE CCTV SYSTEM TOTAL SOLUTION

Specialis in :

CAMERA CCTV DIGITAL SYSTEM, SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM, ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM Ruko Graha Mahkota No. B-9, Jl Teuku Umar Denpasar

Telp. 254-908 ; 254-909 Fax. 254-961

G.1042-ibp

G.1043-ibp

JAKARTA - Police on Sunday tightened security at the private residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Puri Cikeas in Bogor.

AFP PHOTO/ABROR REZKI/PRESIDENSBY.INFO/HO

... gets maximum benefits with minimum charge Denpasar : +62 361 22-5764 Jakarta : +62 21 535-6271

G.2090-ibp

7

Antara

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (C) speaks to journalists during a press conference at the presidential palace in Jakarta on August 8, 2009. Police on Sunday tightened security at the private residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Puri Cikeas in Bogor.

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

happen through an aggressive advertising campaign that will use television, newspapers and a broad digital campaign.

The 2010 Taurus is priced at 25,995 dollars, the same as the outgoing model, but Ford’s advertising campaign will compare its technology and other features against more expensive luxury sedans from Audi, Lexus, Acura and Infiniti.

“We aren’t trying to put Taurus in a luxury market,” said Jonathan Beebe of the Ford digital launch integration team in a company press release, however.

Ford is partnering with Microsoft to emphasize the Taurus’ high-tech fea-

Monday, August 10, 2009

Security tightened at President Yudhoyono’s residence

Healthier Ford focuses on new product line production Agence France-Presse

Indonesia Today

The New Era of Communication Invading Indonesia (1)

Operators fighting over mobile data users Data has now becoming a new battle field for cellular operators in Indonesia. They stop luring new customers with cheap tariff on voice and short message. Almost all operators start shifting their strategy to become the market leader in this emerging market.

Indonesia as one of potential telecommunication markets for these past few years has been growing rapidly. In fact, Data from Information and Communication Department shows that the numbers of cellular phone users in Indonesia keep increasing. Over 20 million Indonesians now own mobile phones, representing roughly 12 percent of the country’s 233 millions populations.

From 10 operators that operate in Indonesia, both GSM and CDMA network, Telkomsel has the biggest portion of customers, it is also the oldest. It serves 77 million users as in the mid 2009. In the second place is Indosat with 33.3 million customers, the third is Excelcomindo that has 24.9 million users as per first quarter of 2009. Meanwhile others serve small portion of telecommunication users in Indonesia which still growing tremendously.

If now we travel around Indonesia, we rarely find blank spots. Almost every area in Indonesia already covered with cellular phone network. In fact, Telkomsel as the oldest cellular telecommunication provider have covering 95 percent of Indonesia area and will be covering 100 percent if they succeed in implementing the Universal Service Obligation (USO) program that create by government to provide rural area with telecommunication and information system.

Fourteen years after the first telecommunication provider establish in Indonesia, the need of telecommu-

nication service becoming more sophisticated. Nowadays customers not only use cellular phone to communicate through voice and short message, they also need data services. That’s why operators are working hard in this field and try to take a bigger portion of the market.

Data has now becoming the new field for operators to compete, as internet users in Indonesia growing.

Based on the figures that released by Internet World Stats, until the end of 2008 internet users in Indonesia are 25 millions people. This numbers has grown rapidly around 1,150 percent comparing to the year 2000.

Still based on the figures, majority users came from productive ages range between 15 to 29 years old.

The increasing numbers of internet users in Indonesia are cause by the cheaper tariff that being offered by cellular operators and other broadband providers. The tariff for data services becoming much cheaper than before and the speed of the data service also increase.

Thus make customers more comfortable when they using internet to communicate or support their work.

The data services will surely be the future income for operators. This indication, according to Telecommunication observer Herry S.W, can be seen by the way operators tunneling their investment to increase broadband network, especially to international roaming. The observer that bases his office at Surabaya stated this comment a half year ago when he speaking at gathering that conducted by Telkomsel. He said voice and short message will be less alluring for operators because they are continuing decreasing.

Herry mentioned that mobile data services have become an important

tool for generating revenue now that mobile handsets are used not only for voice calls but also for non-voice services such as messaging, music, video, etc. The shift in focus from voice to data services has largely been due to the decreasing growth of voice revenue and the increasing pressure on voice margins. ‘’As voice becomes commoditized, mobile operators need to look at other sources to generate income and this has provided the impetus to formulate and implement strategies to create successful data services that help increase overall data average revenue per user (ARPU),” he argued.

Now, half year later, the operators seem more aggressive in this data services field. The biggest operator, Telkomsel, said it started to double its international broadband network to meet the consumers need. ‘’Telkomsel continue to develop broadband network, especially those that can connect to international because around 85 percent mobile data users in Telkomsel network are include in that category,” Leong Shin Loong, Director of Commerce Telkomsel said.

Loong admitted that until now voice and short message still dominate the biggest portion of Telkomsel’s revenue.

Meanwhile data services only donate a small income for the operator that has a vision to become The Best Mobile Lifestyle Provider. Telkomsel is not standing alone with this problem, Indosat, Excelcomindo, and others GSM operators also fighting to create more income from data services. They are working hard on creating interesting products for customers. But still there are lots to be learned before customers in Indonesia accustomed to use mobile data services as their main telecommunication tool. (iah)

National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Gen Djoko Santoso here on Sunday said hundreds of security personnel have been deployed to tighten the security around the president’s residence following early Saturday morning’s discovery of hundreds of kilograms of explosive material at a house in Bekasi, West Java.

The large cache of explosive material was uncovered at a house in Puri Nusaphala complex in Jati Asih, Bekasi, which was reportedly used as a base by Noordin Muhammad Top, a Malaysian extremist wanted for masterminding a series of suicide bombing in Indonesia.

“We are automatically keeping abreast of the threats of terrorism and security disturbance,” Djoko Santoso said, adding that the security to the president would continue to be tightened until the situation returns to normal.

Anti terror police on Saturday morning confiscated hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials in a raid on the house of terror suspects in Jatiasih, Bekasi, and killed two terror

suspects who threatened to detonate grenades when they were to be arrested. The police also seized a readymade bomb in a Daihatsu Xenia van on Jalan Krangan, Bekasi.

National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said when visiting the site of the raids that the bomb in the car was prepared for next terror actions.

“A car with a bomb in it was made ready for an action in the next two weeks’ time. The target had also been set,” he said.

Following the bombings at JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last July 17, the police’s Special Detachment 88 anti-terror unit had worked to uncover the perpetrators of the bombings and their network.

For three weeks the police had chased the suspects in Temanggung, in Central Java, Bekasi in West Java and Solo in Central Java.

He said the terrorist suspect who had been seized following the raid in Bekasi was Amir Abdillah, the one who booked Room 1808 at the JW Marriott Hotel.

WS Rendra passed away of heart ailment Antara

JAKARTA - Renowned Indonesian poet and playwright WS Rendra, died of a heart ailment on Thursday. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral on Friday.

Since Friday morning, mourners came to pay their last respects to the deceased who laid to temporary rest at his home in Depok, West Java, including fellow artists and public dignitaries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his deep condolences on the passing of the great Indonesian poet.

Minister/State Secretary Hatta Radjasa said at the presidential palace on Friday President Yudhoyono personally conveyed his condolences to WS Rendra’s family.

“The President expressed deep condolences over the death of the great culturalist. He expressed his personal sympathy,” Hatta said.

Citing Rendra’s role as a coura-

geous critic of the past authoritarian regime, the president said Rendra was an extraordinary figure of his time, Hatta said.

Hatta said the government was still considering proposals to give Rendra the title of “national hero.”

“It is my understanding he has already received the highest award in the field of arts from the state,” he said.

Born in Solo, Central Java, in 1935 Willobrordus Surendra Broto Rendra passed away at Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Depok, West Java, at around 21.30pm.

Rendra’s daughter Clara Shinta said her father was first treated in a hospital in Cinere for a week as of June 25, 2009 before being moved to Harapan Kita Hospital and then Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. He was allowed to leave the hospital on August 4 but on August 7 he had a relapse and died at Mitra Hospital in Depok at around 21.30pm.

8

International

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bali Today

Bali still alert even Noordin died DENPASAR – Even tough there was a report saying that the most wanted terrorist, Noordin M Top, had been killed but Bali’s Police Department still alert and increasing the security level.

AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA

An Indonesian policeman stands next to a poster of Malaysian Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top, the man allegedly behind a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia dating back to 2003 and one of Asia’s most-wanted and elusive militant leaders, at Denpasar airport on August 8, 2009. Even tough there was a report saying that the most wanted terrorist, Noordin M Top, had been killed but Bali’s Police Department still alert and increasing the security level.

I Gede Alit Widana, the head of Denpasar Precinct, said “we still on high alert even if the news about Noordin M Top died in the gun battle with the police are true.” He added that the act of terrorism can not be predicted and can happen anywhere and anytime, so Bali Police Department will keep the security maintenance pattern for indefinite length of time.

Widana said “we have the personnel patrolling all around the island and we also increasing the security level in the vital places such as Ngurah Rai Airport, tourism sites, hotels including Nusa Dua.” The police department is also preparing to safeguard several international events which will be held in Bali. “Our law area as an international tourism destination makes bigger possibility to become the target of terrorism act. That’s why we don’t want the similar thing few weeks ago in Jakarta happen again,” said Widana.

In addition to searching everyone entering Denpasar, the police officers also conducted special operation to searched vehicles on the street. The police department also spread undercover police to examine the area vulnerable to be entered by the terrorists.

From the latest results, there was no suspicious person in Denpasar area. Widana said “we don’t want to be carried away with the death news of Noordin. We will keep maintaining the security level as long as it takes.”

A Hidden Treasure of Children Heritage monitor and finally require thick glasses at earlier age.

Advancement is not always bad. However, parents should control them to what extent those games could drive good impact. Before the presence of these modern games, there were many traditional games.

They are no less interesting than the modern ones. Many children even find it attractive and make them creative.

Art parade of Bali Arts Festival 2009 has shown the treasure of traditional games. This event is just like a kaleidoscope highlighting a variety of traditional games that ever existed within the life of Balinese children. To play one of the games, children should first search for its materials by themselves at backyard or garden. Actually, it is here where the challenge of the games begins.

Sometimes, they got injury because they are unable to use a knife properly. It did not matter as intriguing

9

Balinese Culture

Antara

Today, children have unlimited choices of games. They have been pampered by modern games, ranging from Turtle Ninja, Kung Fu, war games and many more. These can make them stay for hours in front of television or computer. Yet, behind this ease and enjoyment, they lose some values like creativity and do not know they have traditional games.

It is said so because there is a trend where children, both in urban and rural areas, begin to leave their traditional games. Many game options have been available in the form of CD, DVD, Internet and cartoon in television. Just by CD rental or buying the cheapest one and sitting down sweetly, they could enjoy the games they like best. If the games contain competition, they will compete against machine or some times against friends. Without realized, this may result in sight disorder where children should gaze the

Monday, August 10, 2009

power has superseded it.

Among the parade, there was a space intended for children world where they displayed some bizarre games like coconut shell clog, walking on stilts, pulling friend by the sheath of areca nut, pulling rope ingroup and two-wheeled toy where its stick carried on shoulder. Meanwhile, the heavier one was gallivanting show by barong effigy.

To play the coconut shell clog, for instance, they should keep their balance well. Standing on the tips of coconut shell is not easy. Moreover, they have to maintain the harmony of steps with the pulling of rope connected to each coconut shell. When the pull and steps can go harmoniously, the player can walk faster.

Balance is also entailed in walking on stilts or tajog or egrang. This game is even riskier because the position of pedal is higher from the ground. However, when a player can operate these stilts properly it is

more challenging and pleasant. The higher the pedal the more challenging it is. Walking on stilts looks like a walking long-legged heron. It would be more interesting when passing through a muddy or kneedeep watery road. These games are often put into competition related to traditional sports.

Another game requiring cooperation is pulling the sheath of areca nut. If the bean of areca nut is used by grandfathers or grandmothers for ingredient of chewing betel, the sheath of it is used by their grandchildren to make ‘a pulling vehicle’.

Yellow leaf signifies it has been mature. It is time for children to take it. They just need to leave out the ribs of leaf. The main rib is not cut as it will be used to pull. One child serves as passenger while another as driver who pulls the sheath. This role is exchanged so both can have an opportunity to enjoy the ‘comfort’ of this vehicle game.

Children also put an interest in dancing barong gallivanting show. For them, it has been designed a smaller-sized barong.

Therefore, before growing adult they have been introduced to art world of adult people. By performing gallivanting show like this, they will obtain experience and earn money. However, the emphasis here is not on the money, but on the experience and fun.

Actually, there are more traditional games that once lived in midst of Balinese community. I hope that Bali Arts Festival have revealed them one by one so young generation can know their traditional heritages. Maybe, having watched or played modern games they could combine with the traditional ones they have. At least, the traditional can become an alternative, as all raw materials have been available at their surroundings.

(BTN/punia)

Bali Police spread Marriott bomber’ suspect pictures

Antara

DENPASAR – Bali Police Department, spread the pictures of Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim, the suspect involved in the bomb blast in JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17th 2009.

Gde Sugianyar, the head of Public Relation Division in Bali Police Department, said that the pictures placed in public places such as terminals, markets, and others.

This was done in order to give information to the people and help in capturing the suspect.

The pictures released by the Anti Terror Special Force 88 registered on July 29th 2009 regarding wanted person by the name Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim. The first picture describe the suspect has “baby face” look, wide forehead, straight black hair, thin lips,dark skin, height approximately 170 centimeter, and using Indonesia-Sunda dialect.

The second one describe the suspect has the similar appearance but using back hat. “If you see someone with similar description, please report to the nearest police station,” Mr. Sugianyar said. In addition to spread the pictures, the

Bali Post/Eka

A police officer showing the picture of Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim. Boim is one of the suspect involved in the bomb blast in JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17th 2009.

police officers also searched everyone and vehicles entering Bali.

Ida, a florist in Denpasar, said that she will report to the police if she sees someone similar to the one

in the pictures. “This is our obligation. We must help in arresting the terrorist. The terrorists also must be punished so they will not conduct any terrible act,” she added.

Jukut urab (Mixed Vegetables with Grated Coconut) Ingredients: 100 gr (3 ½ oz) blanched cabbage 100 gr (3 ½ oz) spinach, blanched 100 gr (3 ½ oz) long beans cut in 32,5 cm (line) pieces, blanched 100 gr (3 ½ oz) bean sprouts, blanched 1 large red chili, sliced 1 tbsp grated coconut 2 tbsp fried shallots Dressings: 2 tbsp fried shallots 2 tbsp sliced garlic clove 1 large red chili, seeded and sliced 2 tsp fried chili (Sambal Sereh Tabia) 3 fragrant lime leaves, very finely sliced 4 cm (1½ in) kencur, peeled & chopped ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper ½ teaspoon white sugar 1 tablespoon oil Preparation: 1. Cut cabbage into pieces about 2,5 cm by 1 cm (1 in by ½ in).

2. Combine all vegetables, chili, grated coconut and fried shallots in salad bowl and mix well.

For the dressing: Combine all ingredients and mix well in separate bowl.

Mix the dressing thoroughly with the vegetables; season to taste with salt, pepper and limejuice. Serve at room temperature. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Sate lilit bebek

(Minced Duck Satay)

Ingredients: 600 gr duck or chicken meat, minced 2 cups freshly grated coconut 5 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed 1 tsp salt 3-5 bird’s eye chilies, very finely chopped 2 tbsp chopped palm sugar lemon grass or satay skewers Spice paste: 12 shallots, peeled and sliced 6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 3 red chilies, sliced 2.5 cm galangal (laos), peeled and sliced 2.5 cm kencur, peeled and sliced 5 cm fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced 2 tsp coriander ½ tsp black peppercorn 3 candlenuts 1 tsp dried shrimp paste pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 2 cloves 2 tbsp oil Preparation: Grind or blend all spice paste ingredients except oil. Heat oil and sauté spice paste for about 5 minutes. Cool then combine with duck and all other ingredients except lemon grass. Mould about 2 tablespoonfuls on lemon grass or skewers and grill over hot charcoal and golden brown. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)

8

International

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bali Today

Bali still alert even Noordin died DENPASAR – Even tough there was a report saying that the most wanted terrorist, Noordin M Top, had been killed but Bali’s Police Department still alert and increasing the security level.

AFP PHOTO / SONNY TUMBELAKA

An Indonesian policeman stands next to a poster of Malaysian Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top, the man allegedly behind a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia dating back to 2003 and one of Asia’s most-wanted and elusive militant leaders, at Denpasar airport on August 8, 2009. Even tough there was a report saying that the most wanted terrorist, Noordin M Top, had been killed but Bali’s Police Department still alert and increasing the security level.

I Gede Alit Widana, the head of Denpasar Precinct, said “we still on high alert even if the news about Noordin M Top died in the gun battle with the police are true.” He added that the act of terrorism can not be predicted and can happen anywhere and anytime, so Bali Police Department will keep the security maintenance pattern for indefinite length of time.

Widana said “we have the personnel patrolling all around the island and we also increasing the security level in the vital places such as Ngurah Rai Airport, tourism sites, hotels including Nusa Dua.” The police department is also preparing to safeguard several international events which will be held in Bali. “Our law area as an international tourism destination makes bigger possibility to become the target of terrorism act. That’s why we don’t want the similar thing few weeks ago in Jakarta happen again,” said Widana.

In addition to searching everyone entering Denpasar, the police officers also conducted special operation to searched vehicles on the street. The police department also spread undercover police to examine the area vulnerable to be entered by the terrorists.

From the latest results, there was no suspicious person in Denpasar area. Widana said “we don’t want to be carried away with the death news of Noordin. We will keep maintaining the security level as long as it takes.”

A Hidden Treasure of Children Heritage monitor and finally require thick glasses at earlier age.

Advancement is not always bad. However, parents should control them to what extent those games could drive good impact. Before the presence of these modern games, there were many traditional games.

They are no less interesting than the modern ones. Many children even find it attractive and make them creative.

Art parade of Bali Arts Festival 2009 has shown the treasure of traditional games. This event is just like a kaleidoscope highlighting a variety of traditional games that ever existed within the life of Balinese children. To play one of the games, children should first search for its materials by themselves at backyard or garden. Actually, it is here where the challenge of the games begins.

Sometimes, they got injury because they are unable to use a knife properly. It did not matter as intriguing

9

Balinese Culture

Antara

Today, children have unlimited choices of games. They have been pampered by modern games, ranging from Turtle Ninja, Kung Fu, war games and many more. These can make them stay for hours in front of television or computer. Yet, behind this ease and enjoyment, they lose some values like creativity and do not know they have traditional games.

It is said so because there is a trend where children, both in urban and rural areas, begin to leave their traditional games. Many game options have been available in the form of CD, DVD, Internet and cartoon in television. Just by CD rental or buying the cheapest one and sitting down sweetly, they could enjoy the games they like best. If the games contain competition, they will compete against machine or some times against friends. Without realized, this may result in sight disorder where children should gaze the

Monday, August 10, 2009

power has superseded it.

Among the parade, there was a space intended for children world where they displayed some bizarre games like coconut shell clog, walking on stilts, pulling friend by the sheath of areca nut, pulling rope ingroup and two-wheeled toy where its stick carried on shoulder. Meanwhile, the heavier one was gallivanting show by barong effigy.

To play the coconut shell clog, for instance, they should keep their balance well. Standing on the tips of coconut shell is not easy. Moreover, they have to maintain the harmony of steps with the pulling of rope connected to each coconut shell. When the pull and steps can go harmoniously, the player can walk faster.

Balance is also entailed in walking on stilts or tajog or egrang. This game is even riskier because the position of pedal is higher from the ground. However, when a player can operate these stilts properly it is

more challenging and pleasant. The higher the pedal the more challenging it is. Walking on stilts looks like a walking long-legged heron. It would be more interesting when passing through a muddy or kneedeep watery road. These games are often put into competition related to traditional sports.

Another game requiring cooperation is pulling the sheath of areca nut. If the bean of areca nut is used by grandfathers or grandmothers for ingredient of chewing betel, the sheath of it is used by their grandchildren to make ‘a pulling vehicle’.

Yellow leaf signifies it has been mature. It is time for children to take it. They just need to leave out the ribs of leaf. The main rib is not cut as it will be used to pull. One child serves as passenger while another as driver who pulls the sheath. This role is exchanged so both can have an opportunity to enjoy the ‘comfort’ of this vehicle game.

Children also put an interest in dancing barong gallivanting show. For them, it has been designed a smaller-sized barong.

Therefore, before growing adult they have been introduced to art world of adult people. By performing gallivanting show like this, they will obtain experience and earn money. However, the emphasis here is not on the money, but on the experience and fun.

Actually, there are more traditional games that once lived in midst of Balinese community. I hope that Bali Arts Festival have revealed them one by one so young generation can know their traditional heritages. Maybe, having watched or played modern games they could combine with the traditional ones they have. At least, the traditional can become an alternative, as all raw materials have been available at their surroundings.

(BTN/punia)

Bali Police spread Marriott bomber’ suspect pictures

Antara

DENPASAR – Bali Police Department, spread the pictures of Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim, the suspect involved in the bomb blast in JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17th 2009.

Gde Sugianyar, the head of Public Relation Division in Bali Police Department, said that the pictures placed in public places such as terminals, markets, and others.

This was done in order to give information to the people and help in capturing the suspect.

The pictures released by the Anti Terror Special Force 88 registered on July 29th 2009 regarding wanted person by the name Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim. The first picture describe the suspect has “baby face” look, wide forehead, straight black hair, thin lips,dark skin, height approximately 170 centimeter, and using Indonesia-Sunda dialect.

The second one describe the suspect has the similar appearance but using back hat. “If you see someone with similar description, please report to the nearest police station,” Mr. Sugianyar said. In addition to spread the pictures, the

Bali Post/Eka

A police officer showing the picture of Ibrohim alias Aam or Boim. Boim is one of the suspect involved in the bomb blast in JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17th 2009.

police officers also searched everyone and vehicles entering Bali.

Ida, a florist in Denpasar, said that she will report to the police if she sees someone similar to the one

in the pictures. “This is our obligation. We must help in arresting the terrorist. The terrorists also must be punished so they will not conduct any terrible act,” she added.

Jukut urab (Mixed Vegetables with Grated Coconut) Ingredients: 100 gr (3 ½ oz) blanched cabbage 100 gr (3 ½ oz) spinach, blanched 100 gr (3 ½ oz) long beans cut in 32,5 cm (line) pieces, blanched 100 gr (3 ½ oz) bean sprouts, blanched 1 large red chili, sliced 1 tbsp grated coconut 2 tbsp fried shallots Dressings: 2 tbsp fried shallots 2 tbsp sliced garlic clove 1 large red chili, seeded and sliced 2 tsp fried chili (Sambal Sereh Tabia) 3 fragrant lime leaves, very finely sliced 4 cm (1½ in) kencur, peeled & chopped ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper ½ teaspoon white sugar 1 tablespoon oil Preparation: 1. Cut cabbage into pieces about 2,5 cm by 1 cm (1 in by ½ in).

2. Combine all vegetables, chili, grated coconut and fried shallots in salad bowl and mix well.

For the dressing: Combine all ingredients and mix well in separate bowl.

Mix the dressing thoroughly with the vegetables; season to taste with salt, pepper and limejuice. Serve at room temperature. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Sate lilit bebek

(Minced Duck Satay)

Ingredients: 600 gr duck or chicken meat, minced 2 cups freshly grated coconut 5 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed 1 tsp salt 3-5 bird’s eye chilies, very finely chopped 2 tbsp chopped palm sugar lemon grass or satay skewers Spice paste: 12 shallots, peeled and sliced 6 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 3 red chilies, sliced 2.5 cm galangal (laos), peeled and sliced 2.5 cm kencur, peeled and sliced 5 cm fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced 2 tsp coriander ½ tsp black peppercorn 3 candlenuts 1 tsp dried shrimp paste pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 2 cloves 2 tbsp oil Preparation: Grind or blend all spice paste ingredients except oil. Heat oil and sauté spice paste for about 5 minutes. Cool then combine with duck and all other ingredients except lemon grass. Mould about 2 tablespoonfuls on lemon grass or skewers and grill over hot charcoal and golden brown. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)

10

Business

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

International

DETROIT - Ford Motor Company, the only one of the country’s Big Three automakers to avoid bankruptcy, has pledged to accelerate its new product lines as it tries to consolidate a four-year turnaround effort.

“Within five years, Ford expects to have reduced the age of its global product portfolio by 20 percent,” the company said this week.

In July, Ford reported a 2.3 percent increase in auto sales — the first month it has posted a yearover-year gain since November 2007.

The company acknowledged that the positive movement was

mostly due to the government’s “cash for clunkers” program, which subsidized the cost of new cars for some Americans, but analysts are upbeat about Ford’s overall health.

“We think Ford could be profitable (on a sustained basis) by the end of 2009,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache.

In an attempt to capitalize on that momentum, Ford is preparing to wheel

out several new and revived lines, including the 2010 Ford Taurus.

“This isn’t about staying the course. It’s about prospering after the downturn,” said Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer.

Ford officially launched its new advertising campaign for the 2010 Ford Taurus bolstered by a positive safety rating from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Others are more skeptical, and Ford marketing director Matt Van Dyke acknowledges that while the Taurus has strong name recognition, the brand’s popularity could stand to be strengthened.

The company hopes to make that

tures, creating adverts with barcodes that smartphone users can scan to access information about the car.

“The convenience and ability to offer customers additional information at the touch of their mobile device speaks volumes on how technologically advanced the new Taurus is,” Van Dyke said.

Ford will also focus on its largely male target customer demographic by heavily advertising on sports broadcasts this fall.

The company is planning to bring its hit Ford Fiesta from Europe to the United States and add more fuel efficient models to its US product lines.

Jl. Kepundung 67 A, e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id Jl. Palmerah Barat 21 F

r pe Su ve a S

Hub:

SICA SECURITY Rimo Trade Center Jl. Diponogoro Lt. II No. C5 Telp. 8047438 233259 ext. 209

G.1044-ibp

G.1039-ibp

G.1036-ibp

G.2055-ibp

THE CCTV SYSTEM TOTAL SOLUTION

Specialis in :

CAMERA CCTV DIGITAL SYSTEM, SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM, ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM Ruko Graha Mahkota No. B-9, Jl Teuku Umar Denpasar

Telp. 254-908 ; 254-909 Fax. 254-961

G.1042-ibp

G.1043-ibp

JAKARTA - Police on Sunday tightened security at the private residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Puri Cikeas in Bogor.

AFP PHOTO/ABROR REZKI/PRESIDENSBY.INFO/HO

... gets maximum benefits with minimum charge Denpasar : +62 361 22-5764 Jakarta : +62 21 535-6271

G.2090-ibp

7

Antara

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (C) speaks to journalists during a press conference at the presidential palace in Jakarta on August 8, 2009. Police on Sunday tightened security at the private residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Puri Cikeas in Bogor.

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

happen through an aggressive advertising campaign that will use television, newspapers and a broad digital campaign.

The 2010 Taurus is priced at 25,995 dollars, the same as the outgoing model, but Ford’s advertising campaign will compare its technology and other features against more expensive luxury sedans from Audi, Lexus, Acura and Infiniti.

“We aren’t trying to put Taurus in a luxury market,” said Jonathan Beebe of the Ford digital launch integration team in a company press release, however.

Ford is partnering with Microsoft to emphasize the Taurus’ high-tech fea-

Monday, August 10, 2009

Security tightened at President Yudhoyono’s residence

Healthier Ford focuses on new product line production Agence France-Presse

Indonesia Today

The New Era of Communication Invading Indonesia (1)

Operators fighting over mobile data users Data has now becoming a new battle field for cellular operators in Indonesia. They stop luring new customers with cheap tariff on voice and short message. Almost all operators start shifting their strategy to become the market leader in this emerging market.

Indonesia as one of potential telecommunication markets for these past few years has been growing rapidly. In fact, Data from Information and Communication Department shows that the numbers of cellular phone users in Indonesia keep increasing. Over 20 million Indonesians now own mobile phones, representing roughly 12 percent of the country’s 233 millions populations.

From 10 operators that operate in Indonesia, both GSM and CDMA network, Telkomsel has the biggest portion of customers, it is also the oldest. It serves 77 million users as in the mid 2009. In the second place is Indosat with 33.3 million customers, the third is Excelcomindo that has 24.9 million users as per first quarter of 2009. Meanwhile others serve small portion of telecommunication users in Indonesia which still growing tremendously.

If now we travel around Indonesia, we rarely find blank spots. Almost every area in Indonesia already covered with cellular phone network. In fact, Telkomsel as the oldest cellular telecommunication provider have covering 95 percent of Indonesia area and will be covering 100 percent if they succeed in implementing the Universal Service Obligation (USO) program that create by government to provide rural area with telecommunication and information system.

Fourteen years after the first telecommunication provider establish in Indonesia, the need of telecommu-

nication service becoming more sophisticated. Nowadays customers not only use cellular phone to communicate through voice and short message, they also need data services. That’s why operators are working hard in this field and try to take a bigger portion of the market.

Data has now becoming the new field for operators to compete, as internet users in Indonesia growing.

Based on the figures that released by Internet World Stats, until the end of 2008 internet users in Indonesia are 25 millions people. This numbers has grown rapidly around 1,150 percent comparing to the year 2000.

Still based on the figures, majority users came from productive ages range between 15 to 29 years old.

The increasing numbers of internet users in Indonesia are cause by the cheaper tariff that being offered by cellular operators and other broadband providers. The tariff for data services becoming much cheaper than before and the speed of the data service also increase.

Thus make customers more comfortable when they using internet to communicate or support their work.

The data services will surely be the future income for operators. This indication, according to Telecommunication observer Herry S.W, can be seen by the way operators tunneling their investment to increase broadband network, especially to international roaming. The observer that bases his office at Surabaya stated this comment a half year ago when he speaking at gathering that conducted by Telkomsel. He said voice and short message will be less alluring for operators because they are continuing decreasing.

Herry mentioned that mobile data services have become an important

tool for generating revenue now that mobile handsets are used not only for voice calls but also for non-voice services such as messaging, music, video, etc. The shift in focus from voice to data services has largely been due to the decreasing growth of voice revenue and the increasing pressure on voice margins. ‘’As voice becomes commoditized, mobile operators need to look at other sources to generate income and this has provided the impetus to formulate and implement strategies to create successful data services that help increase overall data average revenue per user (ARPU),” he argued.

Now, half year later, the operators seem more aggressive in this data services field. The biggest operator, Telkomsel, said it started to double its international broadband network to meet the consumers need. ‘’Telkomsel continue to develop broadband network, especially those that can connect to international because around 85 percent mobile data users in Telkomsel network are include in that category,” Leong Shin Loong, Director of Commerce Telkomsel said.

Loong admitted that until now voice and short message still dominate the biggest portion of Telkomsel’s revenue.

Meanwhile data services only donate a small income for the operator that has a vision to become The Best Mobile Lifestyle Provider. Telkomsel is not standing alone with this problem, Indosat, Excelcomindo, and others GSM operators also fighting to create more income from data services. They are working hard on creating interesting products for customers. But still there are lots to be learned before customers in Indonesia accustomed to use mobile data services as their main telecommunication tool. (iah)

National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Gen Djoko Santoso here on Sunday said hundreds of security personnel have been deployed to tighten the security around the president’s residence following early Saturday morning’s discovery of hundreds of kilograms of explosive material at a house in Bekasi, West Java.

The large cache of explosive material was uncovered at a house in Puri Nusaphala complex in Jati Asih, Bekasi, which was reportedly used as a base by Noordin Muhammad Top, a Malaysian extremist wanted for masterminding a series of suicide bombing in Indonesia.

“We are automatically keeping abreast of the threats of terrorism and security disturbance,” Djoko Santoso said, adding that the security to the president would continue to be tightened until the situation returns to normal.

Anti terror police on Saturday morning confiscated hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials in a raid on the house of terror suspects in Jatiasih, Bekasi, and killed two terror

suspects who threatened to detonate grenades when they were to be arrested. The police also seized a readymade bomb in a Daihatsu Xenia van on Jalan Krangan, Bekasi.

National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said when visiting the site of the raids that the bomb in the car was prepared for next terror actions.

“A car with a bomb in it was made ready for an action in the next two weeks’ time. The target had also been set,” he said.

Following the bombings at JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last July 17, the police’s Special Detachment 88 anti-terror unit had worked to uncover the perpetrators of the bombings and their network.

For three weeks the police had chased the suspects in Temanggung, in Central Java, Bekasi in West Java and Solo in Central Java.

He said the terrorist suspect who had been seized following the raid in Bekasi was Amir Abdillah, the one who booked Room 1808 at the JW Marriott Hotel.

WS Rendra passed away of heart ailment Antara

JAKARTA - Renowned Indonesian poet and playwright WS Rendra, died of a heart ailment on Thursday. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral on Friday.

Since Friday morning, mourners came to pay their last respects to the deceased who laid to temporary rest at his home in Depok, West Java, including fellow artists and public dignitaries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his deep condolences on the passing of the great Indonesian poet.

Minister/State Secretary Hatta Radjasa said at the presidential palace on Friday President Yudhoyono personally conveyed his condolences to WS Rendra’s family.

“The President expressed deep condolences over the death of the great culturalist. He expressed his personal sympathy,” Hatta said.

Citing Rendra’s role as a coura-

geous critic of the past authoritarian regime, the president said Rendra was an extraordinary figure of his time, Hatta said.

Hatta said the government was still considering proposals to give Rendra the title of “national hero.”

“It is my understanding he has already received the highest award in the field of arts from the state,” he said.

Born in Solo, Central Java, in 1935 Willobrordus Surendra Broto Rendra passed away at Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Depok, West Java, at around 21.30pm.

Rendra’s daughter Clara Shinta said her father was first treated in a hospital in Cinere for a week as of June 25, 2009 before being moved to Harapan Kita Hospital and then Mitra Keluarga Hospital in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. He was allowed to leave the hospital on August 4 but on August 7 he had a relapse and died at Mitra Hospital in Depok at around 21.30pm.

6

Monday, August 10, 2009

News

Monday, August 10, 2009

11

Mass evacuation in China after BUSINESS typhoon pounds Taiwan World pins recovery hopes on rising house prices Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse

BEIJING - China rushed nearly one million people out of harm’s away as Typhoon Morakot slammed into its coast Sunday after triggering Taiwan’s worst flooding in 50 years to leave at least three people dead.

LONDON - For homeowners around the world struck by the collapse of property markets, figures showing the downward spiral may be halting are the most meaningful signs yet of a possible economic recovery.

After also leaving tens of thousands trapped in Taiwan, the powerful storm landed in China’s Fujian province at 4:20 pm (0820 GMT), the provincial meteorological bureau said.

Morakot pounded Taiwan over the weekend with powerful winds and torrential rain, forcing the government to deploy the military to rescue stranded residents, officials said.

Television footage showed a woman in tears reporting that her daughter and husband had plunged into a river when a flash flood swept away their car in Taiwan’s central county of Nantou.

“My daughter called me twice saying: ‘We’re being washed away!

Hurry, hurry!’ Then I lost them,” the sobbing woman told reporters.

Officials said three people were confirmed dead and at least another 31 were missing as Morakot dumped a record 2.5 metres (100 inches) of rain on the southern Taiwanese county of Pingtung.

At least 10,000 people were trapped in three coastal townships, Pingtung deputy magistrate Chung Chia-pin said, and officials said tens of thousands of other people were also trapped in the counties of Tainan and Chiayi.

“This is the worst flooding in Chiayi in 50 years,” county magistrate Chen Ming-wen told reporters, issuing a plea for more rubber din-

ghies and water pumps.

A typhoon in August 1959 killed 667 people and left some 1,000 missing in Taiwan.

Across the Taiwan Strait, more than 505,000 people had been evacuated from the Fujian coast and another 490,000 were relocated in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhejiang issued a red alert earlier Sunday as it registered a maximum wind speed of nearly 180 kilometres (113 miles) an hour around the coastal city of Taizhou, Xinhua said.

Gale-force winds were expected to persist for at least three days and waves were forecast to reach as high as seven meters, it said.

More than 35,000 ships were called in to port as the storm approached, Xinhua quoted Zhejiang flood-control headquarters as saying.

A cargo ship was stranded in the rough seas and rescuers were trying to rescue its eight sailors, the agency reported.

Xinhua said the ship, Daqing 254, lost control and was blown onto a reef area on Qingshan Island near Fujian’s Ningde City early Sunday as it tried to shelter from the wind.

Among the missing in Taiwan were 14 workers who disappeared when their makeshift shelter beside a river in southern Kaohsiung county

As battered banks and stocks rally again, news that US house prices are finally rising after nearly three years of traumatic decline offers the greatest hope to hard-pressed homeowners from California to Krakow.

The sub-prime home loan crisis in America was the pressure-point that exposed underlying global financial chaos — and many economists say property prices there are the linchpin for confidence in broader economic recovery.

US home sales have been rising and the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index of home prices in 20 major US cities showed a 0.5 percent increase between April and May — the first monthly rise since 2006.

“This is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months. This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing,” said Standard & Poor’s analyst David Blitzer.

Data from the National Association of Realtors also showed the median price of existing US home sales was 181,600 dollars (127,200 euros) in June — 15 percent lower than a year ago, but up from 174,700 in May. Celia Chen, an analyst at credit rating agency Moody’s, said there were “tantalizing signs that the descent in house prices is at least moderating,” but warned that house prices will not reach their 2006 highs until 2020.

Analysts remain skeptical on the longer-term outlook for property prices as stable economic growth remains vulnerable to rising unemployment and government

Indian

Indonesia

From page 1

From page 1

The 25-year-old, his head partially shaven and large scars visible on his scalp, greeted Krishna in the apartment where he had been recuperating but was not well enough to speak publicly.

His cousin Lakshmi Bongnani said Theerthala was progressing well, although he had vision and memory problems due to a brain injury suffered in the attack.

“It’s going to take a year or more (to recuperate),” Bongnani told reporters. He said Krishna had pledged that the Indian government would provide whatever support was necessary. The foreign minister, whose stated purpose in visiting Australia was to “get a clearer sense of what is happening on the ground”, declined to meet with a delegation of Indian students after his audience with Theerthala.

Police called on people to remain vigilant and stressed their counterterrorist operations were ongoing, as the military stepped up security for the president.

“We have optimised and increased security for him and his family,” military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said.

“Based on the police information that there is a cell group that wanted to attack RI-1 (Yudhoyono), then we act according to the situation.”

National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said it could take two weeks to confirm whether Noordin was killed as heavily armed police riddled the squat farmhouse with bullets and explosions on Saturday morning.

“The whole process of DNA testing will take two weeks. It’s a standard procedure,” he said.

AP Photo

A collapsed hotel building is seen in heavily flooded river after Typhoon Morakot hit Taitung county, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, in Taitung County, eastern Taiwan. The six-story hotel collapsed and plunged into a river Sunday morning after floodwaters eroded its base, but all 300 people in the hotel were evacuated and uninjured, officials said. was washed away by rising floodwaters early Sunday.

Armoured vehicles and marine landing craft, as well as rubber dinghies, were mobilised in a rescue operation involving at least 1,200 troops, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.

The troops were distributing food and drinking water to residents affected by the flooding, which in

some places had gone as high as the first storey of buildings.

Television footage showed a sixstorey hotel in Taipung, southeastern Taiwan, collapsing in the floods. Staff and guests had already been evacuated, the reports said.

The typhoon has caused at least 832 million Taiwan dollars (26 million US) in agricultural damage and temporarily cut electricity to more than one million

households, according to officials.

Morakot also left flooding and landslides in its wake after grazing the Philippines on its way to Taiwan.

The Manila government’s civil defence office said the storm had left a total of 21 people dead including two French tourists and a Belgian, with seven other people still missing.

“The test is being conducted at the Kramat Jati police hospital,” he added, referring to a hospital in Jakarta where the body of the militant found in the farmhouse was taken after the siege.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said late Saturday that the identification process would take less than a week.

Noordin, 40, a Malaysian Islamist, has been blamed for multiple terror attacks against “iconic” Western targets in Indonesia which have killed around 50 people and injured hundreds since 2003.

The latest were believed to have been the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and RitzCarlton hotels in the capital, which killed seven people including six foreigners, plus the two bombers.

A member of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks which killed more than 200 people, he split to form his own even more

violent network to “defend Islam” from perceived injustice.

The self-proclaimed leader of “AlQaeda in the Malay Archipelago” was one of Asia’s most wanted men and had a 100,000-dollar bounty on his head from the Indonesian government, who saw him as public enemy number one.

The police raid on his suspected hideout overshadowed other operations including the arrest of five of Noordin’s alleged accomplices and the uncovering of a major bomb factory in Bekasi, outside Jakarta.

Two would-be suicide bombers were shot dead by police early Saturday at their rented house in Bekasi as they tried to resist arrest, police said.

Police chief Danuri said they had rigged a small truck as a bomb and were planning to launch a suicide attack against Yudhoyono’s main residence, which is a 12-minute drive away.

The attack had been planned to take place around Indonesia’s Independence Day on August 17, and had been ordered by Noordin during a meeting on

April 30 as revenge for the execution of the Bali bombers late last year, Danuri said.

Police have come close to arresting Noordin several times in the past and have captured or killed some of his closest associates during a sixyear manhunt.

Analysts said his death would be a blow to his network, estimated to number as few as 30 hardcore cadres, but would not end the terror threat in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

“Every time there was an attack, there were new accomplices,” Institute for International Peacebuilding researcher Taufik Andrie said.

“There are several people who have the potential to replace Noordin.”

He said he doubted the reports that Noordin had been killed.

“The dead guy doesn’t seem to be Noordin. He has impeccable instincts for evading police raids,” he said.

strategies for a clean exit from recession after unprecedented fiscal stimulus.

But that is doing little to dampen cautious optimism on property markets.

Official data in China is showing house prices in 70 cities were up 0.8 percent in June from May, rising for the fourth straight month, while real estate investment nationwide rose 9.9 percent in the first half of the year.

In Britain, house prices rose by 1.1 percent in July to just under 160,000 pounds (187,600 euros, 267,700 dollars) from June, but were down 12.1 percent over 12 months, a survey from home-loans provider Halifax showed this week.

In neighboring Ireland, however, prices have fallen by up to 40 percent from their peak in 2006 and are still going down — with the government now working to provide 90 billion euros in guarantees to the loan market.

Likewise, Spain’s second-biggest bank BBVA has forecast that house prices after a decade-long, tourism-fuelled property boom will still fall by nearly 30 percent between 2008 and 2011 before they start to recover.

In the Gulf emirate of Dubai, house prices have almost halved over the past year.

The sector there is struggling with a shortage of liquidity and job security for expatriates who represent over 80 percent of the population.

The decline in Dubai has had wider implications, with US bank Morgan Stanley saying world steel production will remain below 75 percent capacity as it awaits a revival in the construction sector in the Middle East.

Fed to stay supportive even with economy healing Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Even as the US economy seems to be emerging from recession, the Federal Reserve is likely to signal it will maintain extraordinary efforts to spur growth until a recovery takes root, analysts say.

The Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday is widely expected to keep on hold the ultra low federal funds rates in a range of zero to 0.25 percent to stimulate lending and prop up economic activity.

The Fed led by Chairman Ben Bernanke could make some changes however in its special efforts to pump over one trillion dollars of liquidity into the financial system — which some call “quantitative easing” — that may no longer be needed, say some economists.

“We expect the Fed to sound more confident about the outlook by noting that the economy appears set to grow in the second half of the year,” said Dean Maki, economist at Barclays Capital, who argues that the latest reports support the view “that the US recession ended in June.”

“In light of this, we do not expect it to expand its 300 billion-dollar Treasury (bond) buying program, which is set to be completed in mid-September.”

Other analysts note that the Fed has a delicate task of keeping inflation expectations in check while instilling confidence in the recovery without creating any new bubbles.

“They probably don’t want to be too pessimistic,” said Cary Leahey, senior economist at Decision Economics. “But they want to temper the enthusiasm of the market” about economic recovery.

The latest economic figures show an economy that is still falling but narrowing its decline. Gross domestic product fell at a 1.0 percent pace in the second quarter, after a 6.4 percent plunge in the January-March period.

Even unemployment, the weak link in the economy, showed signs of improving.

The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a point to 9.4 percent in July as job losses narrowed to 247,000 from 443,000 in June.

“The payrolls report hints that the worst of the labor market crunch is over,” said Krishen Rangasamy at CIBC World Markets.

But, while the US economy will see some growth in the second half of the year, growth will be too mild to put a significant dent in the unemployment rate, which should continue to creep higher.”

Few economists expect the Fed to make any change to interest rates until early 2010, or if employment starts to grow. But the central bank is also likely to take pains to show it has an “exit strategy” in place when needed.

Eugenio Aleman, senior economist at Wells Fargo, said the Fed may have to be ready to hike rates once the economy shows it is recovering on its own without artificial support of the central bank and various stimulus programs.

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said the Fed will seek to send a message “that they are seeing more and more places where the economy is beginning to stabilize or move forward.” But Naroff added: “They are not going to declare the recession is over.”

He said there remains considerable fear that even a small hike in rates could undermine a nascent recovery.

Obama: Worst may be over in economic crisis

Reuters

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Friday the latest U.S. unemployment figures showed the worst may be over in the economic crisis but acknowledged there was more work to be done to put the economy back on track.

“This morning we receive additional signs that the worst may be behind us,” Obama said in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden after a government report that the U.S. jobless rate in July fell for the first time in 15 months.

Obama sought to cast in the best possible light the latest economic data despite economists view that economy has a long way to go to recover from one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Obama’s speech came at the end of a

week in which a Quinnipiac University poll showed his job approval rating had dropped to 50 percent as Americans express doubt about his handling of the U.S. economy and healthcare.

“I’m convinced that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Obama declared, saying his policies had helped unfreeze credit and a rising market was restoring value to battered 401K savings plans.

“We’ve pulled the economy back from the brink,” he said.

But he added, “We have a lot further to go. We will not have a true recovery while we are still losing jobs.”

Employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said on Friday, the least in any one month since last August, taking the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent, down from 9.5 percent in June.

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

People walk past the World Trade Center construction site, Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 in New York.President Barack Obama said on Friday the latest U.S. unemployment figures showed the worst may be over in the economic crisis but acknowledged there was more work to be done to put the economy back on track.

12

Entertainment

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

News

International

Taiwan’s Jay Chou goes to Hollywood: report

Beatles fans swarm Abbey Road on album anniversary Associated Press Writer

LONDON – Hundreds of Beatles fans swarmed Abbey Road on Saturday, singing songs and snarling traffic to mark 40 years since John, Paul, George and Ringo strode across the leafy north London street and into the history books on iconic pop photos.

The famous photo graced the cover of the Fab Four’s “Abbey Road,” the last album recorded together, and shows the bandmates walking purposefully across the zebra-striped asphalt.

It remains one of music’s best-known album covers, endlessly imitated and parodied. Although the shoot itself only took a few minutes, so carefully studied was the cover for signs and symbolism that some diehard fans came to the conclusion that Paul McCartney — who appears barefoot and out of step with the rest — had secretly died.

McCartney himself made fun of the bizarre conspiracy in the title of his 1993 concert album, “Paul is Live.”

AP Photo/Sang Tan

A tribute band dressed as members of British band, the Beatles, walk across the famous pedestrian crossing on Abbey Road, in London, in a recreation of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover as hundreds of people gathered to mark the 40th anniversary of the album, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009.

5

Hong Kong businessman behind plot to shoot democrats

Agence France Presse

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s pop singer Jay Chou will star alongside Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz in the movie remake of popular US television series “The Green Hornet,” reports here said Saturday.

Chou, 30, has been cast as the superhero’s sidekick Kato, a role played by the late Chinese-American martial arts icon Bruce Lee about 40 years ago, said the United Daily News.

“I am very happy to act in an international film. I will do my best,” the paper quoted Chou as saying in a statement issued by his company JVR Music.

AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi Chou won the role after a videoJay Chou link audition a month ago with the movie’s director Michel Gondry and writer Seth Rogen, who will play the lead role Britt Reid, or The Green Hornet, the report said.

Chou will start shooting for the film, scheduled to be released on July 9 2010, after wrapping up his directorial work for a television series and two concerts in China, it said.

The Apple Daily said Chou replaced Hong Kong star Stephen Chow, who was originally set to direct and act in the film, but had pulled out due to differences with Columbia Pictures.

Chou, also famous in China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia for his pop music, has expanded into filmmaking in recent years, starring in a number of box-office hits including “Initial D,” “The Curse of the Golden Flower” and “Secret.”

Monday, August 10, 2009

Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Zita Keeley AFP/Getty Images/File/Michael Buckner

Producer Peter Jackson, actor Sharlto Copley and writer/director Neill Blomkamp take part in a panel discussion on the movie “District 9” at Comic-Con 2009 in July in San Diego, California. Hollywood is buzzing with excitement about South African director Blomkamp’s debut film, a science-fiction thriller about aliens segregated in a Johannesburg township.

Hollywood abuzz at South African sci-fi film Agence France Presse

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood is buzzing with excitement about South African director Neill Blomkamp’s debut film “District 9,” a sciencefiction thriller about aliens segregated in a Johannesburg township.

The movie — about the struggles of insect-like extra-terrestrial refugees as they try to settle on Earth amongst hostile humans — has garnered glowing reviews ahead of its North American release on August 14.

Produced by Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, Blomkamp’s film arose from the ashes of plans to adapt smash hit video-game “Halo” for the big screen.

Yet while the film’s setting is a futuristic parallel universe, the story is unmistakably rooted in South Africa’s recent bloody history of apartheid and anti-immigrant social unrest.

Vancouver-based Blomkamp, 29, acknowledges said that despite the symbolism of “District 9,” he had not set out to make a “political” film.

“I was aware that I didn’t want to make a film that sounded overly political and that the audience would find really draining,” Blomkamp told reporters at a press event in Los Angeles.

“But I knew that I wanted the essence of South Africa to be captured and the essence of segregation and pure racism kind of hit it head on, because that was the environment where I grew up in.

“So there was a fine balance between these many analogies of apartheid and these many analogies of the white government and oppression.”

Early reviews of “District 9” suggest Blomkamp has pulled off that balancing act — Internet film review aggregator Rottentomatoes.com has given the movie a perfect 100 percent rating.

The Hollywood Reporter hailed the movie as a “genuinely original science fiction film that grabs you immediately, not letting go until the final shot.”

The film’s central character, Wikus van der Merwe, played by South African Sharlto Copley, is an employee of a private security firm attempting to unravel the mysteries of the aliens’ weapons systems, which can only be unlocked with alien DNA. When Wikus is infected by an alien virus that begins to change his human DNA, the hunter becomes the hunted and he is forced to seek refuge among the extra-terrestrials in their Soweto-like ghetto, District 9.

Blomkamp said Johannesburg was the logical setting for the film, doubting it could have been made anywhere else.

“I think it would be incredibly difficult to replicate what we have in Johannesburg,” he said. “There is so much visual detail here, the dirt or barbed wire or weeds, it’s incredibly rich visually. For the film to work, I think you need this level of reality and this level of pollution and realness.”

New Zealand film-maker Jackson meanwhile said that Blomkamp’s South African identity had allowed him to “bring a unique perspective” to the story.

Jackson and Blomkamp first worked together during planning for a possible film version of Microsoft’s XBox console hit “Halo.”

Blomkamp had impressed Jackson with a short 2005 film “Alive in Joburg,” which first presented the concept on which District 9 is based.

“I flew down to New Zealand to meet Pete and he signed off on me for ‘Halo’; we started to make ‘Halo’ and then ‘Halo’ collapsed,” Blomkamp recalled.

“I was getting ready to move back to Vancouver and then he and Fran Walsh said ‘Why don’t you just stay here and we can try another film?

Let’s use the momentum you created in Halo and just keep it going and start something new.’ “That sounded like a good idea to me. So they kind of allowed this new film to happen and let me make it, which was awesome for me.”

Authorities retrieve a body from the Hudson River after a mid-air collision, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009, in New York. A sightseeing helicopter carrying five Italian tourists collided with a small plane above the Hudson River on Saturday, sending debris into the water and forcing people on New Jersey’s waterfront to scamper for cover. Authorities believe all nine people aboard the two aircraft were killed.

Nine feared dead after New York mid-air collision Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK - Nine people were believed dead Sunday after a helicopter carrying Italian tourists crashed mid-air with a light airplane over New York’s Hudson River.

“Three victims have been recovered,” said Debbie Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, at a late Saturday press conference, adding that search operations had been suspended for the night.

Media reports said the bodies of two adults and one child had been pulled from the Hudson, hours after the helicopter carrying five tourists and a pilot collided with an airplane in full view of horrified residents.

Hersman said she could not confirm the identities of the three bodies, or which aircraft they had been aboard.

Earlier in the day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference that what had started as a rescue operation was

being converted into a recovery operation, saying the incident was “not survivable.”

“This is not going to have a happy ending,” he said.

Hersman said divers had located the wreckage of the helicopter and were using sonar equipment to search for the plane before they shut down operations overnight.

“Once that wreckage is pulled up, they will try to do it tomorrow, depending on the current and the circumstances and the conditions... it will be pulled up and taken to a secure location for further examination,” she said.

The search for the wreckage was made more difficult by the low visibility of only about one meter (three feet) at the bottom of the river, authorities pointed out.

The Eurocopter AS350 was carrying five Italian tourists and a pilot. Two passengers, including one child, plus a pilot were aboard the single-propeller Piper PA32 plane.

The collision took place just after noon (1600 GMT) on a hot summer day when river-front streets were crowded with locals and tourists.

Witnesses described the two aircraft plummeting into the river between Manhattan and New Jersey.

“It hit the water like a stone,” a woman told NY1. “I saw a piece of metal, I saw a helicopter, the helicopter went down, and that was it. I heard no noise, and no smoke or fire.”

Some witnesses said the accident had been almost noiseless, but others reported hearing either the collision or impact against the river.

“We heard a really loud crash which sounded like lightning or thunder,” another woman said.

“They were both falling from the sky.”

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong businessman living in Taiwan was behind a plot to shoot leading democrats Jimmy Lai and Martin Lee, a report said Sunday.

The unidentified businessman put up one million US dollars to Chinese crime bosses to attack Lai, a media mogul, and Lee, a leading politician, the Sunday Morning Post reported citing police evidence from a trial in Shenzhen.

Two of the suspects in the case pinpointed the businessman as the mastermind behind the plot which was foiled last summer, the English-language paper said.

Tung Nga-man, who reports have said is a senior leader in the Triad crime group, told police that he had flown to Taiwan to meet the businessman. “(The businessman) said Lai was anti-government and anti-state, and so on, and that it should be OK

to spend some money to teach him a lesson,” Tung told police, according to the Post.

Another defendant at the trial in Shenzhen, over the Chinese border from Hong Kong, was told the payment would be one million dollars for murdering Lai and 700,000 dollars for injuring him, the report said.

The attack was planned for July 1, when both men were taking part in Hong Kong’s annual pro-democracy march, the paper said.

A Hong Kong court last month jailed a mainland Chinese gunman to 16 years for possessing a firearm with the intention of causing harm.

A second man was handed a three-year jail term after admitting possessing firearms in connection with the plot.

The plot was foiled after a police officer stopped the gunman by chance at a Hong Kong police checkpoint in August last year, the court heard.

Feared toll from Tongan ferry tragedy rises to 95 Agence France-Presse

NUKU’ALOFA - The feared death toll from a ferry disaster in Tonga has risen to 95, police said Sunday as devastated Tongans packed churches across the tiny Pacific island kingdom in a day of mourning.

Police commander Chris Kelley said it was now believed there were 149 people on board the Princess Ashika, which went down just before midnight on Wednesday.

Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, and 93 people are unaccounted for.

Police said the final number could be higher and they were continuing to analyse information about unrecorded people on board the vessel, whose official manifest showed only 79 passengers and crew.

“I think there is a complete

manifest that is held by a crew member on the boat when it sailed, but of course that would have been lost in the sinking,” Kelley said.

“What we are faced is that people are telling us is they put people on the boat and they weren’t on the manifest that was supplied here.”

Navy divers from Australia and New Zealand were to continue Sunday trying to locate the ferry, which was en route from Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa to outlying Ha’afeva when it sank moments after issuing a mayday call.

Survivors said it went down quickly when cargo appeared to shift and people below decks had no time to escape.

The ferry was initially located in about 35 metres (115 feet) of water but may have slipped further on the uneven seabed to a depth of about 100 metres.

Tanzania police arrest suspect over Irishman’s death Agence France-Presse

ZANZIBAR TOWN - Police on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar said they had arrested a suspect in the murder of a 27-year-old Irish tourist, whose body was found on a beach here Saturday.

The body of the victim, who had

arrived in Zanzibar earlier this week, was found about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the capital, the police chief Mselem Masoud Mtulia told AFP. An initial examination of the body had revealed bruises to the neck, said Mtulia, the senior officer for the north of the island.

“We are going with investigation and also call upon people to help police by providing any information which will help us arrest the murderers,” he added.

The Zanzibar archipelago is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania popular with tourists for its beaches and snorkelling.

AP Photo

Concerned citizens gather on the dock as survivors arrives in Pangai on Tonga’s Lifuka Island, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009, after a ferry carrying 117 passengers and crew sank around midnight Wednesday, northeast of the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa.

4

Monday, August 10, 2009

News

International

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi faces new trial uncertainty

AFP PHOTO/FILES

Aung San Suu Kyi. Agence France-Presse

YANGON - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces fresh uncertainty this week over her internationally condemned trial, with her US codefendant’s illness threatening to further delay the verdict.

A prison court is scheduled to hand down judgment on Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and American John Yettaw when it meets on Tuesday for what was expected to be the final episode in the nearly three-month-long legal imbroglio.

But diplomats and officials said it could be postponed once again because Yettaw — who sparked the case by swimming to her lakeside home in May — remains in hospital after suffering repeated epileptic seizures.

Myanmar officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Yettaw’s health improved slightly on Saturday and that he was “eating well” after fasting for weeks, but said the trial could be delayed at least another week.

“If Yettaw’s health does not improve or deteriorates we are heading towards a postponement. We will know more on Monday,” added a Western diplomat, asking not to be named.

“But if his condition improves during the weekend they (Myanmar’s ruling junta) have no interest in delaying further the verdict,” the diplomat said.

Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if convicted of violating her house arrest. She has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years and is being held at Yangon’s Insein prison, where the trial is taking place.

The case is proving to be a major headache for the junta, caught between growing international pressure to free Suu Kyi and what critics say is its determination to keep her locked up during elections due in 2010.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon last week pressed the junta to free political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, after convening a meeting of the “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar”.

A visit to Myanmar in the next two weeks by Democratic US Senator Jim Webb — the first US lawmaker to visit the country in more than 10 years — could further complicate the timing of the verdict, diplomats said.

Suu Kyi’s lawyers have hailed the repeated delays as a sign that the judges have “serious legal problems” — but analysts say the real decisions are being made by reclusive junta leader Than Shwe from the bunker capital Naypyidaw.

Myanmar’s regime “has a window from August 10 and 20 because after that all the governments come back to normal and then early September you have the UN General Assembly,” the western diplomat said.

Kazakh journalist jailed for divulging ‘state secrets’ Agence France-Presse

ALMATY - A Kazakh journalist was Saturday sentenced to three years in prison for divulging state secrets in a ruling slammed by media rights groups who accuse the Central Asian state of stifling press freedom, Interfax reported.

Ramzan Essergenov, chief editor of the newspaper Alma-Ata Info, was sentenced by a court sitting in closed session over an article in which he questioned whether the ex-Soviet republic was ruled by the president or the secret service.

Three others — businessman Sultan Makhmadov and two of his employees — got terms ranging between two and eight years in jail, one of their lawyers Mussatai Bektassov said, according to the

Russian news agency.

Kazakhstan, ruled by President Nursultan Nazarbayev for 20 years, has drawn wide criticism from rights groups at home and abroad for trampling on democracy and human rights.

A controversial recent law allows the shutting down of a website for three months if it is deemed to have intentionally published illegal information.

Media rights groups meanwhile denounced the trial.

“Ramzan Essergenov has only carried out his duty as a citizen, his professional duty,” said a joint letter by opposition newspapers and non-governmental organisations addressed to the attorney general.

“Independent studies have proven that these documents... are not state secrets,” it added.

Life Style

International

Beetroot boosts sports stamina, scientists say Agence France Presse

PARIS – A generous glass of beetroot juice boosts endurance by reducing the amount of oxygen needed during physical exercise, according to a study released Friday.

AFP PHOTO/CARLOS LITULO

Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano (C) signs a memorandum of Agreement flanked by Madagascar ousted president Marc Ravalomanana (R) and transitional president Andry Rajoelina (L) on August 9, 2009 at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre, Mozambique.

Madagascar leaders look forward after inking deal Agence France-Presse

MAPUTO - Leaders of Madagascar’s main political movements met Sunday to discuss the formation of a transitional government after signing an agreement to lead the country to fresh polls and end months of crisis.

The leaders, including ousted president Marc Ravalomanana and his rival Andry Rajoelina, agreed to set up an interim government and hold elections by the end of next year in a deal signed in the early hours of Sunday.

The rivals had “agreed that the transition will last no longer than 15 months from the signature of the accord,” said UN mediator Tiebile Drame, after the overnight talks.

Legislative and presidential elections will be held under international supervision during the period which will see stable democratic institutions re-established in Madagsacar, he said.

The four leaders, including former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy, regrouped for an-

other session early Sunday dedicated to discussion on the make-up of the transition government.

Lead mediator Joaquim Chissano said no decision was expected Sunday.

“It may not be today. Today we’re going to see how to proceed,” said Chissano, the former Mozambican president. “The agenda for today is to see how we are going to accomplish the work ahead.”

African Union envoy to Madgascar Ablasse Ouedraogo said Sunday’s meeting was “too early” in the negotiations to expect agreement on the line-up of the transitional administration. “It is a good starting point,” he said.

The transition government will include a president, vice president, prime minister and three deputy

prime ministers and 28 ministers.

Ravalomanana said he would return home to Madagascar under the terms of the accord — which grants him an amnesty — but would not personally take part in the government of transition.

“In the interests of the nation, and following consultations, it seems reasonable to me to not participate personally in the transition,” he told journalists, adding that his party would take part in the transition institutions.

Under the terms of the accord members of the transition government may not run in the elections, except for its president.

Ravalomanana said however that he would wait to return to Madagascar until “the situation is favourable”.

Ravalomanana has been living in exile in South Africa since fleeing Madagascar in March following the riots which left 100 dead.

Ravalomanana handed over power to the army, which then transferred it to his rival Rajoelina.

ETA claims responsibility for killing three Spanish police Agence France-Presse

MADRID - The Basque separatist organisation ETA claimed Sunday in a statement responsibility for several attacks, including those that killed two Civil Guard officers and a police inspector it called a “torturer”.

In the statement released to the pro-independence Basque daily Gara, a regular channel for ETA communications, the group claimed the June 19 car bomb attack that killed 49-year-old police inspector Eduardo Puelles Garcia in the Basque town of Arrigorriaga.

The statement also claimed the July 30 car bomb attack outside a

police barracks on the Mediterranean island of Majorca that killed two members of the Civil Guards paramilitary police, Diego Salva and Carlos Saenz de Tejada.

It said Puelles was “the chief of police operations against numerous leftist independence activists and against pro-independence youths for the past decade, and the coordinator of different operations against ETA.” “Sometimes, as the most experienced and despicable torturer in the commissariat ... he also pressured independence activists into collaborating by threats,” said the group.

Founded half a century ago, ETA is blamed for the deaths of 828

people in its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland encompassing parts of northern Spain and southwest France.

The group also claimed in the statement a car bomb attack on a Civil Guards barracks in the northern city of Burgos on July 29 that injured 40 people, and a bomb attack on the offices of the ruling Socialist Party in the Basque town of Durango on July 10 in which no one was injured.

Despite claiming the attacks ETA said it “does not seek to impose any project, unlike successive Spanish leaders. It is ETA which has over the long decades sought dialogue and political solution.”

Subjects who drank the juice easily outperformed a control group in tests and were able to exercise at the same intensity for up to 16 percent longer.

The findings, published in the US-based Journal of Applied Physiology, will be of keen interest to endurance athletes but may also prove helpful to people with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases as well as the elderly, the researchers said.

There are essentially two ways to enhance physical performance in relation to oxygen intake.

One is to raise the “VO2-max” level, which is an individual’s highest possible rate of oxygen consump-

tion during all-out exercise.

The VO2-max ceiling varies from person to person. It is partly genetic but it can be increased through training or the use of EPO, the oxygenboosting drug that has plagued the Tour de France cycling competition as well as other professional sports.

“But there is an alternative,” explained Andy Jones, a professor at the University of Exeter in Britain and lead author of the study.

“If you can reduce the energy cost” — the amount of oxygen used — “that can be beneficial too,” he told AFP by phone. That’s where beetroots come in.

In experiments, Jones and colleagues asked two groups of people

AFP/POOL/File/Patrick Hertzog

Cyclists race past the Notre Dame Cathedral as part of the Tour de France in July 2009 in Paris. A glass of beetroot juice boosts endurance by reducing the amount of oxygen needed during physical exercise, according to a new study.

to exercise at a fixed, high-intensity work rate for as long as they possibly could.

The group that drank a redcoloured placebo held out on average for nine or ten minutes. Those who drank beetroot, however, went 11 or 12 minutes.

“They were exercising at exactly the same work rate. The improvement in performance was not because the VO2-max had changed but simply because the efficiency had been enhanced,” Jones said.

“We were amazed by the effects on oxygen uptake because these effects cannot be achieved by any other known means.”

Whether the juice will also work over several hours of less intense exercise — equivalent to long-distance running or cycling — remains to be shown but seems likely, Jones added.

The researchers are not sure exactly how the ruby-red elixir works but they do have an educated guess.

Like lettuce and spinach, beetroot is rich in nitrate, which the body converts into nitrite. This, in turn, is a chemical trigger for another compound, nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide can dilate blood vessels and thus provide more oxygen to muscles. “But we think the key is that it seems to do a lot of weird and wonderful things within the muscle cells’ mitochondria, where oxidated energy is produced,” Jones said.

Earlier laboratory studies confirm the link between nitric oxide and increased energy output but further experiments are needed to see whether this truly is the magic ingredient.

Another study, published last year in the US journal Hypertension, found that beetroot juice reduces blood pressure too.

Attacks on lone blogger reverberate across Web Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The outage that knocked Twitter offline for hours was traced to an attack on a lone blogger in the former Soviet republic of Georgia — but the collateral damage that left millions around the world tweetless showed just how much havoc an isolated cyberdispute can cause.

“It told us how quickly many people really took Twitter into their hearts,” Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said Friday.

Tens of millions of people have come to rely on social media to express their innermost thoughts and to keep up with world news and celebrity gossip.

Twitter “is one of those little amusements that infiltrated the mass behavior in some significant ways, so

that when it went away, a lot of people really noticed it and missed it.”

The attacks Thursday also slowed down Facebook and caused problems for the online diary site LiveJournal. But Twitter, the 140character-or-less messaging site used by celebrities, businesses and even Iranian protesters, suffered a total outage that lasted several hours.

Those attacks continued Friday from thousands of computers pummeling its servers, said Kazuhiro Gomi, chief technology officer for NTT America Enterprise Hosting Services, which hosts Twitter’s service.

Twitter crashed because of a denial-of-service attack, in which hackers command scores of computers toward a single site at the same time to prevent legitimate traffic from getting through. The attack was targeted at a blogger who goes by “Cyxymu” — Cyrillic spelling of

Sukhumi, a city in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia in Georgia — on several Web sites, including Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal.

But they could have just as well targeted Twitter itself. That’s because the effects were the same whether the excess traffic went to the “twitter.com” home page or to the page for Cyxymu at “twitter.com/ cyxymu.” Same with Facebook and LiveJournal.

“A denial of service attack like this one is a very blunt instrument,” said Ray Dickenson, chief technology officer at Authentium, a computer security firm. It’s as if a viewer who didn’t like one show on a television channel decided to “knock out the whole station.”

Or like fishing with dynamite: You’ll catch something, but the blast will kill dolphins, sharks and other organisms, too.

Monday, August 10, 2009

13

Particle collider: Black hole or crucial machine?

Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole.

The world’s largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup.

But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind’s understanding of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Friday it would restart the collider in November at half power under pressure from scientists eager to conduct experiments to unlock secrets of the universe.

But spokesman James Gillies told The Associated Press they would have to shut down yet again next year to finish repairs so that the Large Hadron Collider can operate at full energy of 7 trillion electron volts — seven times higher than any other machine in the world.

CERN has been working since late last year to repair the damage caused by a faulty electrical joint.

The breakdown occurred nine days after the spectacular start up of the $10 billion machine last Sept. 10 when beams of subatomic particles were sent around the accelerator in opposite directions.

Fifty-three massive electrical magnets had to be cleaned and repaired after the failure. Tons of supercold liquid helium spilled out of the system, and a sooty residue had to be cleared from the tubes that are meant to be pristine, holding a vacuum in which subatomic particles can whiz around the tunnel at near the speed of light at temperatures

colder than outer space.

Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York who is an outspoken critic of waste in big science projects, defends the CERN collider as a crucial investment.

“The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing,” Kaku said. “We’re exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe.”

He said the biggest cause of the “bad accident” last year was “probably due to human error caused by rushing the project.”

“But I view it as a temporary black eye. We’ll get it up and running,” Kaku said.

CERN expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about 40 million Swiss francs ($37 million) over the course of several years, covered by the 20-nation organization’s budget.

The collider emerged as the world’s largest after the U.S. canceled the Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas in 1993. Congress pulled the plug after costs soared, and questions were raised about the value of the science it could produce.

Gillies says all 20 of CERN’s member nations have remained supportive and that four other countries — Cyprus, Israel, Serbia and Turkey — have asked to join. A fifth country — Slovenia — has expressed interest.

Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. are observer countries that have made sizable contributions to the CERN project.

CERN is now aiming to restart the machine in November with beams of subatomic particles initially running at 3.5 trillion electron volts, or TeV. That’s only half the level the machine was designed for, but it’s still 3 1/2 times higher than the second most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. During last year’s brief startup phase, the CERN collider only operated at half the Fermilab level.

AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool, File

In this file photo dated Sept. 10, 2008, European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists control computer screens showing traces on Atlas experiment of the first protons injected in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during its switch on operation in CERN’s control room, near Geneva, Switzerland.

14

Sport

Monday, August 10, 2009

International

News

International

Roddick and Del Potro book Washington final showdown

Agence France Presse

WASHINGTON - Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro struggled into the finals of the ATP Washington Classic on Saturday, Del Potro sagging in sweltering heat and Roddick tested by big-serving John Isner.

US top seed Roddick outlasted Isner 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-5 and secondseeded defending champion Del Potro of Argentina beat Chilean fourth seed Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 at the 1.4 million-dollar hardcourt event.

Fifth-ranked Roddick, playing in his first event since a five-set Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer, fired only nine aces to 20 for Isner but hit 69 percent of his first serves and made only two thirdset unforced errors.

“I like being on the giving end of the big serve,” Roddick said.

“John made me play my best tennis. Anything less than that wasn’t going to get it done.”

It took five break-point chances in the third set before Roddick finally broke compatriot Isner in the penultimate game, then held serve to win after two hours and 31 minutes.

“I wasn’t converting but it’s not because I wassn’t putting the ball on the court. He was coming up with the goods,” Roddick said. “All you can do is put yourself in position and hope you get that point.”

Roddick credits his improved shotmaking to faster speed from

better fitness.

“It’s a lot easier to hit a passing shot when you can get to it,” Roddick said.

Sixth-ranked Del Potro fired 10 aces in hot and humid conditions on his way to beating Gonzalez for the first time in four meetings between South America’s top players, who each reached this year’s French Open semi-finals.

“It was tough for both of us. The court was so hot,” Del Potro said.

“After the first set Fernando was so tired. Me too. It was very difficult for both of us. We were very tired and the sun was very strong.”

Gonzalez was so exhausted that when he fell early in the second set he stayed on his back until Del Potro climbed over the net to help him up.

“He told me, ‘Come with me and give up,’” Del Potro said. “I was thinking lay down with him. If I did we would never stand up. I didn’t.

We kept playing like professionals.”

Del Potro won his only prior match with Roddick in last year’s Los Angeles final and will try to become the first back-to-back Washington champion since Andre

Agassi in 1999.

“I will have to play much better than today,” Del Potro said. “He has improved a lot since we played.”

Roddick expects no trouble in Sunday’s afternoon final after training in Texas heat for weeks but does anticipate seeing Del Potro at his best.

“I’m going to have to hit the ball really well from the baseline,” Roddick said. “He drives the ball through the court as well as anybody. It’s a matter of surviving early on, getting it down hopefully to where it’s just a few big points.”

Roddick, 26, seeks his 28th career crown and fourth in Washington after taking the title in 2001, 2005 and 2007, when he beat Isner, 24, in the final. It would be his second ATP title of the year after a February win at Memphis.

Del Potro, 20, seeks his sixth career title and second of the season after winning at Auckland in January.

Isner, who will climb to 44th from 80th in the rankings, saved two break points in the opening game of the third set and one each in the ninth and 11th games before Roddick closed him out.

“Every service game I held was a challenge and he eventually just broke me down,” Isner said.

Roddick took a tumble diving for a return in the ninth game but was unhurt. “I’m fine,” Roddick said.

“I’m worried about the court.”

Clijsters raring to get this comeback started Agence France Presse

CINCINNATI - Belgian star Kim Clijsters makes a long-awaited return when she serves it up at the WTA Tour’s Cincinnati event on

Monday.

The unseeded wild card Clijsters won’t have it easy as her first match is against 12th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.

Bartoli is fresh off an impressive

BP/doc

Kim Clijsters

win over Venus Williams in the final of the Stanford Bank of the West Classic.

“I see it as a second career,” Clijsters told The New York Times on Saturday. “Honestly, the first word that comes up is, oh, it’s a comeback. But so many things have changed and so many things have happened.”

Indeed the former world number one racked up 34 singles titles when she retired in May 2007 at age 23, citing injuries and the upcoming marriage. Two months later she married basketball player Brian Lynch and then there was the birth of daughter Jada Ellie. During that time of her life her father, Leo, succumbed to lung cancer.

“In tennis, it’s very important that you’re very stable there, the hips and the core,” she said. “With the pregnancy, that’s something that was totally gone.”

Clijsters is in the same half of the draw as top seeded Dinara Safina and sixth seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and could face either or both if she should go on a run.

Monday, August 10, 2009

3

Nagasaki calls on leaders to visit atomic bomb site Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Nagasaki’s mayor, marking the 64th anniversary of his city’s atomic bombing by the United States, called Sunday on the leaders of nuclear-armed powers to visit the site and build a nuclear-free world.

Tomihisa Tanoue urged world leaders from both declared nuclear powers and others such as Iran, Israel and North Korea to visit the city in southwestern Japan.

“I am sure anyone who visits here would feel the sorrow of the victims and be shaken by it,” the mayor said in an address at an annual ceremony commemorating the 1945 bombing.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Andy Roddick, of the Unites States, jumps while returning the ball against Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia, at the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, in Washington, on Friday, Aug. 7, 2009. Roddick won the match 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5).

Espanyol skipper Dani Jarque dies of heart attack MADRID - The skipper of Spanish top flight side Espanyol, Dani Jarque, has died from a heart attack while on a pre-season training camp in Italy.

The 26-year-old Jarque died at the hotel where the team were staying in the town of Coviciana. He was discovered in his room after teammates realised he had not appeared for a meal.

The club said that team doctors as well as Italian paramedics tried to revive the midfielder but without success.

The tragedy comes just two years after the death, also from heart failure, of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta, who died aged 22 after having collapsed during the opening game of the Spanish La Liga season.

Espanyol confirmed the diagnosis of heart failure and said the club doctor’s attempts to revive the player had failed. “It was a heart attack,” said club official German de la Cruz.

“He was talking to his girlfriend when he suddenly began to feel unwell. He told her and then stopped talking. His partner got in touch with the hotel and explained what had happened but it was too late to do anything,” de la Cruz told La Sexta television.

Jarque had played for Espanyol since the 2002-2003 season.

In the last campaign, he featured in 36 legaue matches and scored two goals. He was also a member of the team which won the Spanish Cup in 2006 and who were UEFA Cup runners-up in 2007.

European champions Barcelona, who are Espanyol’s city rivals, sent their condolences to the Jarque’s family from their American tour base in San Francisco.

Barca president Joan Laporta told www.fcbarcelona.com: “We are filled with extreme sadness at this tragic event and tonight we are in mourning.

“On behalf of Barcelona, we want to send our deepest sympathies to Espanyol for the painful loss of their captain Dani Jarque, and to his family.”

A minute’s silence was observed at the start of the second half of a pre-season friendly at the Mestella Stadium where Valencia were taking on English side Arsenal.

Players from both sides also wore black armbands. Real Madrid as well as the Spanish football federation sent their condolences to Jarque’s family.

AP Photo/Kyodo News

A minute of silence was observed at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), when the US bomb exploded above the city, killing roughly 74,000 people. The bombing followed one a week before in Hiroshima and hastened Japan’s surrender in World War II. Tanoue said an April speech by US President Barack Obama in Prague, where Obama pledged to build a world with no nuclear weapons, “im-

A memorial ceremony is held in front of the Statue of Peace at Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on Sunday Aug. 9, 2009. Nagasaki marks the 64th anniversary of the world’s second atomic bomb attack on Sunday.

pressed” the residents of Nagasaki.

“The Japanese government must support the Prague speech. As a nation that has come under nuclear attack, Japan must lead the international community” in abolishing the weapons, he said.

Similar appeals were made Thursday when Hiroshima marked the anniversary of its bombing, which killed 140,000 people.

At the Nagasaki ceremony, Prime Minister Taro Aso reiterated the Japanese government’s antinuclear stance, three weeks ahead of national elections that he is tipped to lose.

Aso raised eyebrows at the Hiroshima ceremony, when he pledged to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons but later told reporters that he thought it was “unimaginable” to attain a nuclear-free world.

Obama in first summit with Greenpeace pressures North America leaders on climate Mexico, Canada leaders Agence France-Presse

GUADALAJARA - US President Barack Obama attends his first North American leaders summit in Mexico on Sunday with the economic crisis and swine flu on an agenda overshadowed by Mexican drug violence.

Hundreds of Mexican soldiers and police deployed in the western city of Guadalajara for the summit in which Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper were due to touch on a wide range of topics affecting the region of almost 450 million inhabitants.

Measures to help recovery in the three major economies that have been tied by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for 15 years were a top priority.

Like the United States, Mexico has sunk deep into recession, with much of its industry tied to the worst-affected areas of the US economy — cars and construction — and migrant workers north of the border sending less money home.

In the two-day meeting, Canada and Mexico — the first and third-largest US trading partners — were expected to pressure Obama over a “Buy American” clause in the US economic stimulus plan.

Mexico also sought to resolve an immigration dispute with Canada over the recent imposition of visas for Mexicans, and a trade dispute involving Mexican trucks operating in the United States, officials said here.

Mexico responded to the US cancellation of a program allowing some Mexican

trucks on its territory — in violation of NAFTA — by slapping some 2.4 billion dollars in tariffs on 89 US products in March.

With Mexico’s news reports splashed with daily violence, and killings in suspected drug attacks approaching 10,000 since the start of 2008, Calderon may seek more support for his controversial military crackdown on the country’s warring drug gangs.

The summit comes amid criticism of alleged abuses by some of around 40,000 troops deployed across the country, and reports of growing Mexican drug gang activity across the United States, Canada and beyond.

The United States — the world’s number one cocaine consumer and a market for illegal weapons and money laundering for Mexican drug gangs — for the first time this year admitted shared responsibility in the Mexican drug cartel problem.

It has already agreed to some 1.4 billion dollars in security and justice aid to Mexico under the three-year Merida Initiative, which still has to be fully approved by Congress.

Other key issues on the Guadalajara agenda include curbing greenhouse-gas emissions ahead of a key climate summit in December, the threat of swine flu on the continent worst hit by A(H1N1), the Honduras crisis and immigration reform.

Some 1,200 federal police officers were deployed around the city for the meeting, as well as around 1,000 Mexican presidential guards and other troops, Mexican officials said. Local rights and environmental groups planned demonstrations in the city on Sunday.

Agence France-Presse

GUADALAJARA - Greenpeace activists climbed a main monument in the Mexican City of Guadalajara Saturday in a bid to push climate change up the agenda of talks between North American leaders here this weekend.

President Felipe Calderon will host Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama for his first “three amigos” meeting in this western city on Sunday and Monday, in which Mexico’s wave of drug violence is a key issue.

A Greenpeace activist dressed as a polar bear held a sign reading “Real leaders back clean energy,” standing on a statue in La Minerva fountain in Guadalajara, as the pressure for concrete promises on reducing emissions increased ahead of a worldwide climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

“We’re the region which contributes most to climate change,” said Maria Jose Cardenas, from Greenpeace Mexico, stating that the region emits 26 percent of worldwide greenhouse gases. Activists called on the three giant energy producers and users to aim to generate almost 40 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Joint security amid Calderon’s crackdown on drug cartels, swine flu and efforts to tackle the financial crisis are also key issues on the summit agenda.

AP Photo/Carlos Jasso

Greenpeace protesters, one of them dressed up as a polar bear, put up a banner for the heads of state that will participate in the North American Leaders Summit which says “Real leaders Back Clean Energy” at the landmark “Minerva” monument in Guadalajara, Mexico, Saturday Aug. 8, 2009.

2

International

Monday, August 10, 2009

News WORLD NEWS

‘Wise Latina’ Sotomayor joins US Supreme Court

Sport

International

Agence France Presse

BEIJING - Lazio ruffled the feathers of Serie A champions Inter Milan in the Bird’s Nest in Beijing Saturday night to win the Italian Super Cup 2-1.

WASHINGTON - Sonia Sotomayor made history Saturday as she took the oath of office to become the first Hispanic US Supreme Court justice, and just the third woman on the court in its 220-year history.

Vladimir Putin MOSCOW - As Vladimir Putin marks a decade in power, it appears the former KGB strongman may maintain his grip on Russia’s government for years to come. Supporters credit him with rescuing the economy from the postSoviet doldrums and restoring national pride.

Critics say the price rolling back democratic reforms and stifling dissent - has been too high.

Human rights LONDON - A report by lawmakers says Britain should closely monitor U.S. activity on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to ensure the British territory is not used for the rendition or interrogation of terror suspects. Moved.

Pneumonic plague BEIJING - A blockade around a remote northwest Chinese town where deadly pneumonic plague killed three people and sickened nine has been lifted after no new infections were reported, an official says. .

Source: ap

Thursday.

Her detractors accused her of being a “judicial activist” and focused for weeks on a 2001 remark to law students at a conference on Hispanic judges.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Sotomayor said at the event.

The remark made many conservatives nervous, with some calling her a racist. In the final poll, only nine out of the 40 Republican senators voted to confirm her.

Sotomayor, who has been a federal judge for 17 years, replaces outgoing justice David Souter, who announced his retirement in May after 19 years on the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama, who nominated Sotomayor for the job, was not at the event but will hold a White House reception in her honor on Wednesday.

The public swearing-in ceremony was broadcast live on television — a first, as the camera-shy justices do not allow televised broadcasts of its court sessions.

In what is seen as a symbolic sign of independence, Sotomayor chose to have the ceremony at the Supreme

AP Photo/U.S. Supreme Court, Steve Pettewa

In this photograph provided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., right, administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the Justices’ Conference Room at the Supreme Court in Washington Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 as Sotomayor’s mother, Mrs. Celina Sotomayor, holds the family Bible during the ceremony.

Court.

The last two justices to take the bench — Samuel Alito and John Roberts — were nominated by then-president George W. Bush and sworn in at a White House ceremony.

Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx, a working class borough of New York city. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a blue-collar worker.

She graduated from elite Ivy League universities, and was a Manhattan prosecutor and corporate law-

yer before becoming a federal judge.

Sotomayor is the first Supreme Court justice nominated by a Democratic president since 1994.

The new justice will have little time to celebrate — the first case she will hear, concerning the constitutionality of part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, is scheduled for September 8. Obama issued a statement on Sotomayor following the Senate vote confirming her to the bench on Thursday.

Sadat daughter takes US film to court over dog named Anwar Agence France-Presse

CAIRO - The daughter of Egypt’s slain president Anwar Sadat has filed legal complaints against the producers of an American film which portrays a dog named after her father, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Roqeya Sadat’s complaint against the makers of the Hollywood film “I Love You, Man” will be heard by a Cairo court on September 1, lawyer Samir Sabri told AFP. Sadat was shot dead by Islamic militants at a military parade in

Cairo on October 6, 1981, three years after he signed the 1978 Camp David Accords that led to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first by an Arab country.

His daughter is furious over the movie in which the leading character played by Jason Segel names his dog Anwar Sadat, claiming that he resembles the slain Egyptian president.

Roqeya Sadat has described the movie as “insulting” to the memory of her father and was quoted by Egypt’s office news agency MENA as saying that it also “undermines Egypt and its role (of leadership) in the

Middle East.”

The film, a romantic comedy directed by John Hamburg for DreamWorks, was released in Egypt earlier this year but is no longer showing in movie theatres.

“We’ve filed a complaint on Wednesday against the producers of the film, the actors and the company which distributed it in Egypt,” Sabri said.

“We also filed a complaint against the minister of communications” because his office allowed the release of the film in Egypt earlier this year, he added.

According to him Roqeya Sadat wants all copies of the film to be seized, although the offensive movie stopped being shown in Egyptian theatres in July.

It is not clear what the Egyptian court will decide.

But Sabri said that Sadat’s daughter is determined to take the case to US courts.

Last year Roqeya Sadat won a court case against Hoda Abdel Nasser, the daughter of her father’s predecessor, the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had described Anwar Sadat as a US spy.

z Founder : K.Nadha, z Chief Editor: ABG Satria Naradha z Managing Editor: Wirata z Editors: Alit Purnata, Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Darmasunu, Daniel Fajry, Diah Dewi, Iwan Darmawan, Martinaya, Mawa, Palgunadi, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Sutiawan, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Mas Ruscitadewi, Oka Rusmini, Umbu Landu Paranggi, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Gregorius Rusmanda, 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. Publiser: PT Bali Post

15

Lazio shock Inter to lift Italian Super Cup

Agence France-Presse

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath in a brief televised ceremony held in a Supreme Court conference room, with some 60 of Sotomayor’s friends and relatives present. Minutes earlier Roberts administered a slightly different oath in a private ceremony.

The event caps the spectacular rise of Sotomayor, 55, from a gritty working-class background through elite US universities and the federal bench to the top US judicial body, the final arbiter on legal matters in the nation.

The New York-born Sotomayor, whose parents came from the US commonwealth of Puerto Rico, took the oath with her left hand on a Bible held by her widowed mother Celina, as her younger brother Juan, a medical doctor, stood smiling by her side.

The country’s 111th high court justice solemnly swore to “administer justice without respect for persons, and to equal rights to the poor and to the rich,” and to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform” all of her duties as a Supreme Court justice, “so help me God.” “Congratulations and welcome to the Court,” Roberts smiled, as he shook her hand immediately after the oath.

Sotomayor was confirmed by a 68-31 margin in the US Senate on

Monday, August 10, 2009

AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan

The Lazio team holds the Italian Supercup trophy after they won 2-1 against Inter Milan at China’s National Olympic Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing, China, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009. The Italian season curtain raiser was held on the one year anniversary of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Lazio captain Tommaso Rocchi superbly lobbed Inter keeper Julio Cesar after finding a gap between the Inter defence just after the hour to clinch the winner.

Two minutes earlier, Rocchi’s 61st minute freekick found its way through the Inter wall and rebounded off keeper Cesar, bobbling up into the path of Lazio’s Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem, who slotted home to the delight of several thousand Chinese Lazio fans.

The quick double strike stunned Inter’s galaxy of stars and their thousands of Chinese fans into a rare silence after they had controlled affairs on and off the pitch for most of the tense final.

Staring defeat in the face, the normally cool Inter manager Jose Mourinho brought on Patrick Vieira and replaced Serbian captain Dejan Stankovic with Mario Balotelli.

But it was new signing and Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o — who had threatened several times — who fired into the roof of the Lazio net in the 75th minute to rally Inter into a frantic search for a dramatic comeback.

Inter had controlled the game but were frustrated numerous times by the excellent Nestor Muslera in the Lazio goal.

Another Inter new arrival, Argentine Diego Milito, rolled the ball past the stranded Muslera in the 81st minute only to be ruled agonisingly offside.

Eto’o then went just wide with a free kick from just outside the box in injury time.

And though Mourinho’s men laid siege to the Lazio goal in the dying minutes, it was the team from Rome who lifted the cup for a memorable party spoiler in China’s Olympic stadium.

The Bird’s Nest played centre stage to China’s highly acclaimed and choreographed opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics and the final was the first significant competitive sporting event to be played in the iconic stadium since the end of the Games.

The stadium, made of a lattice of cement and steel, has largely served as a tourist attraction since the Games ended, prompting criticism that many costly Olympic venues are sitting idle and not being used for sporting events.

A year ago to the day, however, football chants replaced drummers, acrobatic dancers and singers with many among the 65,000 in the 80,000 seater stadium sporting replica football shirts of their Italian heroes.

The Italian Super Cup is the season curtain raiser contested by the winners of Serie A and the domestic Italian Cup. It is usually played at the home of the Serie A champions. But in a bid to broaden the appeal of Italian football it has been contested overseas several times before.

Marseille off to French flier as Lyon, PSG held Agence France Presse

PARIS - There was early awayday cheer for title hopefuls Marseille on the opening day of the new French league season Saturday, but Lyon and Paris St Germain had to make do with draws.

Lyon were saved at the death by new signing from Porto Lisandro Lopez, who netted a freekick to salvage a 2-2 draw at lowly Le Mans, who were twice ahead, while PSG stuttered to a 1-1 draw at Montpellier.

Former European champions Marseille, who have endured a 17year wait for a league crown, were ahead after just two minutes at Grenoble as Mamadou Niang put them in front having slalomed through a brittle home defence.

New Marseille coach Didier Deschamps, determined to bring the good times back to the Stade Velodrome, permitted himself a nod of satisfaction on the bench as Benoit Cheyrou secured the points with the second goal ten minutes from time.

Deschamps said: “There were more positives than negatives. We had things pretty much under con-

trol though many will say it’s logical that Marseille win at Grenoble. I hope we can go on from here.”

Marseille finished three points adrift of champions Bordeaux last term and now are bent on going one better.

The Girondins, coached by Deschamps’ erstwhile French international teammate Laurent Blanc, will take on Lens in Sunday’s game.

PSG, wholesale underachievers since their last championship win back in 1994, again showed their flaws in drawing 1-1 at Montpellier.

The hosts from the south were down to 10 men for the last hour after Cyril Jeunechamp was dismissed for a second bookable offence for scything down PSG’s Ludovic Giuly from behind in the 27th minute.

Giuly exacted delicious revenge by firing home from close range in the 71st minute after home keeper Geoffrey Jourdren spilled a shot from veteran Claude Makelele.

But rugged Bosnian new signing Emir Spahic powered in a header from inside the six-yard box on the stroke of time to deny the Parisians all three points.

Lyon had a double fright, meanwhile, at Le Mans, who were ahead on 21 minutes through Malian youngster Modibo Maiga.

Mathieu Bodmer levelled seven minutes later for Lyon, who could only come in third last season after seven league title wins on the trot when the run began they had never lifted the trophy in their history - but Mathieu Coutadeur scored from the penalty spot on the hour to restore the hosts’ lead.

Brazilian defender Cris tangled with Maiga to earn Le Mans the spotkick but just as an embarrassing loss loomed up popped Lopez to save Lyon’s blushes.

Elsewhere, Saint-Etienne, who just survived last season after months of trials and tribulations which belied their former status of French giants, went down 2-0 at home to Nice.

Auxerre also lost on home soil to Sochaux by the only goal and northerners Nancy won on their travels, 3-1 at Valenciennes.

Monaco thanked a first-half strike from Nene to see off Toulouse 1-0 in the principality while Rennes swamped promoted Boulogne 3-0.

AFP PHOTO / JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT

Grenoble’s Romao (R) vies with Marseille’s Mamadou Niang during their French L1 football match Grenoble vs Sochaux on August 8, 2009, at the Stade-des-Alpes stadium in Grenoble.

16

Sport

Monday, August 10, 2009

FIA re-opens team selection process

Mass evacuation in China after typhoon pounds Taiwan

16 Pages Number 432 1st Year

PAGE 6

e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bali still alert even Noordin died PAGE 8

Paris-The FIA has re-opened the selection procedure for the final place on the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship entry list, in the wake of BMW’s announcement that it is withdrawing from the sport at the end of the year.

AUTOSPORT understands that yesterday, FIA president Max Mosley wrote to the seven teams on the ‘reserve list’ - those under consideration for a place on the grid that did not receive an automatic entry in July - as well as BMW Sauber, to inform them that a place on the grid has become available.

Peter Sauber is still working with BMW to put a rescue package in place for the team he is a 20% partner in, but the Swiss was not able to secure the necessary funding in time to meet last Wednesday’s deadline to sign the

new Concorde Agreement.

Therefore, while sources suggest that Sauber is making progress to secure the budget to save his eponymous outfit, the FIA is inviting whatever BMW Sauber should become to tender its application alongside the other seven hopefuls selected from the original 15 applications, to pitch for the final place on the grid.

Epsilon Euskadi has already signalled its intention to re-apply, while David Richards’ Prodrive outfit is believed still to be interested should the conditions be right to enter F1.

Epsilon Team boss Joan Villadelprat told AUTOSPORT last

BP/doc

The FIA has re-opened the selection procedure for the final place on the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship entry list week: “We are still working on the project, at a much slower rate obviously because we don’t have the security [to be on the grid].

“What we can say is that the people who were interested in helping us are still interested, which is something incredible. And if the opportunity arises, we are going to attack it, there’s no doubt about it.”

Vermeulen could look beyond Suzuki Chris Vermeulen has admitted that he may have to move away from Suzuki next year as he is desperate to be racing at the front in MotoGP. The Australian wants to remain loyal to Suzuki but says he has to put his own career first, which could mean switching brands if the Japanese manufacturer is unable to up its performance for next year.

“Suzuki gave me my break in MotoGP, I came here as a factory rider,” Vermeulen told AUTOSPORT. “I’ve had some very good times with them and I’ve had some bad times, but my goal is to be world champion.

“I am looking to be on the best

motorbike that is going to give me the chance to be world champion, whether that’s a Suzuki next year or another brand, I haven’t made a decision on that yet. My goal is to win races for myself.

“Riders in the past have stayed too long with bikes that haven’t been the best and that is something I have really got to consider for next year. I can’t afford to... well, from my point of view I don’t want to have another year like this year. I want to be fighting for podiums week-in, week-out not for the second last row of the grid.”

But Vermeulen is hopeful that Suzuki will be able to take a significant step forward in the remainder

of this season, beginning at Brno next weekend.

“There have been very small differences in our bike which I am frustrated about because I was hoping for a lot more to come, but we haven’t been able to make the best out of the one-make tyre at the moment.

“Our main Japanese boss who I have got a lot of respect for, Shinichi Sahara, was the head at the race track before he was promoted. He is very high up in the factory now. He has been working hard back there, but we haven’t seen him for a while. He is coming to Brno and I am hoping he is coming with a bag full of goodies for us to try.”

Obama: Worst may be over in economic crisis PAGE 11 AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim

Indonesian police officers stand guard at a militant safe house a day after it was raided in Temanggung, central Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect was reportedly killed during a 16-hour siege on the suspected militant hide-out that ended Saturday when police stormed the house, but officials said they could not yet confirm he was among the dead.

WEATHER FORECAST CITY

TEMPERATURE OC

DENPASAR

21 - 31

JAKARTA

24 - 33

BANDUNG

19 - 29

YOGYAKARTA

20 - 32

SURABAYA

23 - 34

SUNNY

BRIGHT/CLOUDY

RAIN

HOTLINE For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni

0361-225764

Indonesia awaits DNA test to confirm terror leader’s death

Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - Indonesian police said Sunday it could take two weeks to confirm the death of Asian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, who was reported killed in a dramatic standoff with police special forces.

Indian FM meets student stab victim in Australia

Agence France-Presse

MELBOURNE - India’s foreign minister met Sunday with a Melbourne-based student whose stabbing earlier this year set off a wave of protest over allegedly racist attacks in Australia.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna met Sravan Kumar Theerthala, who spent weeks in a coma fighting for his life after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party in late May. The incident turned the spot-

The Islamist was killed Saturday morning in a hail of gunfire and explosions from US-trained counter-terrorism forces who had surrounded his suspected hideout in remote Beji village, Central Java, according to local media.

The 17-hour siege of the farm-

house was the culmination of a series of raids and arrests of his accomplices which uncovered a plot to attack President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s home outside Jakarta, police said.

Continued on page 6

light on a spate of violence towards Indian students in Australia’s largest cities, straining relations with New Delhi and sparking street protests by fellow students in Sydney and Melbourne.

Continued on page 6

Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna (R) sits with Indian student Sharvan Theerthala who was attacked and stabbed with a screwdriver, in Melbourne on August 9, 2009.

AFP PHOTO/Paul CROCK