Edisi 4 Agustus 2009 | International Bali Post

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Sport

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Haug: Schumacher should get F60 test AP Photo/MTI, Szilard Koszticsak

Ferrari’s F1 Brazilian car racer Felipe Massa, second left, lies on a stretcher as he is taken out of an ambulance to be wheeled to a waiting Bombardier challenger 60 business jet at Ferihegy Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009.

Massa leaves hospital, flies home Agence France Presse

BUDAPEST - Injured Formula One driver Felipe Massa left his Hungarian hospital and boarded his private jet on Monday to return home to Brazil, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Massa was accompanied by his wife Rafaela and his doctor Dino Altman. His jet flew out of the Hungarian capital Budapest and was expected to stop over in Dakar, Senegal, before flying on to Sao Paulo.

The pilot will go to a Brazilian hospital for check-ups but is not going to be further hospitalised, his father Luiz Antonio Massa said earlier.

The 28-year-old Ferrari driver had been taken to Budapest’s AEK hospital on July 25 after a horror crash during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Brazilian was struck by a suspension spring which had worked its way off Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP, resulting in Massa crashing his Ferrari into a tyre barrier in qualifying in Budapest.

Massa underwent surgery on his fractured skull but was able to get up and walk around within a few days.

His doctors have said his condition continues to improve.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has agreed to return to racing to fill in for his friend at Ferrari, starting with the European Grand Prix in Valencia on August 23.

Massa says he is eager to return to racing as soon as possible after being

discharged from the Budapest hospital where he was staying following his accident in Hungary.

Just nine days after he suffered lifethreatening injuries after he was hit on the head by a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s car in qualifying in Hungary, the Brazilian driver flew home to Brazil to continue with his recovery.

Massa said he did not remember anything from the accident, but he admitted he was already looking forward to returning to action.

“I don’t remember anything and that’s why what the doctors did had to be explained to me,” said Massa in his first interview since the accident, conducted before flying to Brazil.

“When I saw Rob (Smedley, his race engineer), he asked me if I remembered Rubens, but the last thing I remembered was when I was behind him at the end of my fast lap in Q2, and than it’s blank.

It’s difficult to explain.

“I’m feeling much better now and I want to recover as soon as possible to get back behind the wheel of a Ferrari.”

The Brazilian was thankful for all the support he has received the accident.

“First of all I want to thank God,” he said. “Then I want to thank the doctors at the race track and at Budapest’s AEK hospital, who have done a lot for me, and Dino Altmann, who came with my family from Brazil and who was extraordinary over the last days.

“But I also want to thank everybody who prayed and who wrote to me via my own and Ferrari’s website, hoping that everything went well.

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug says his company would be happy to allow Michael Schumacher to test the 2009 Ferrari before his comeback in the European Grand Prix, and hopes rival teams take the same stance. Ferrari has requested that an exemption to the testing ban be made to help Schumacher reacclimatise before he deputises for the injured Felipe Massa in Valencia. The former world champion last raced in Formula 1 in 2006, and last tested a contemporary car in April 2008, although he drove a 2007 F1 Ferrari fitted with GP2 tyres at Mugello on Friday.

Haug said he could see no reason why Ferrari’s request should be rejected.

“Whatever we can do to support him we will do,” Haug told AUTOSPORT. “I just think it is fair.

This is an exception. If Michael had said he would come back under the condition that he could test, everybody would have said yes. “His team-mate has thousands of kilometres in this car, and he has nothing. As we are fair players, why should he not get some testing? I would be very open to that.”

Toro Rosso’s new driver Jaime Alguersuari had to make his F1 debut in Hungary with minimal preparation due to the testing ban, but Haug thinks the young Spaniard would also have been granted an exemption if his team had asked.

“Maybe even a newcomer should get a test,” said Haug. “If I would be asked to make an exception for a young guy, I would say yes. Giving Jaime a test would have been justifiable, but having said that I don’t think there was an official request.”

AUTOSPORT understands that there remains some resistance to allowing Schumacher to test the F60, although the FOTA teams are believed to support Ferrari’s case.

“You will find some guys that will try to block it,” Haug admitted. “But what goes around comes around.

They will need some help at another stage. It’s not giving people presents, it’s being fair when it’s justifiable.”

But he reckons Schumacher will be a threat for victory whether he is permitted to test or not.

“He is good enough that he could get the job done on Friday if the car is quick,” said Haug.

“Michael is a competitive guy, he will prepare himself in a very mature and thorough manner. If the car is a potentially winning car, then he will be able to win in it. The characteristics at Valencia are not too different to Hungary.” The Mercedes chief added that Schumacher’s shock return and Massa’s good progress in hospital had both been huge boosts for the sport.

“This is the best thing that can happen to Formula 1,” Haug said.

“The best news is that Felipe is quite okay and can leave the hospital.

That looked really frightening.”

Japanese man on course to be matador in Spain

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Tens of thousands bid farewell to exPhilippine leader Agence France-Presse

MANILA - Tens of thousands of Filipinos, many in tears, lined the streets of Manila to see the coffin carrying former leader Corazon Aquino during an emotional procession to the capital’s cathedral Monday.

The ex-president, whose husband was assassinated by forces loyal to dictator Ferdinand Marcos after returning home from exile in 1983, died of cancer at the weekend and is to be buried on Wednesday.

There has been a massive outpouring of tributes for the woman fondly called Tita, or Auntie, Cory, a grandmotherly figure credited with restoring democracy to the nation.

Traffic ground to a halt and confetti rained down from office blocks as people from all walks of life braved intermittent rain to get near Aquino’s coffin, lying on a bed of yellow flowers atop an open truck that slowly made its way through the Makati financial district.

Continued on page 6

Marcos seeks reconciliation as Philippines mourns Aquino Agence France-Presse

MANILA - Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos said Monday she wanted a reconciliation with the family of Corazon Aquino, as the ex-president’s coffin was taken on a solemn procession through Manila.

Continued on page 6

2

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News WORLD NEWS

Trez won’t betray Juventus

Karzai turns to kingmakers to secure Afghan vote Agence France-Presse

KAYAN - While his election challengers pound the campaign trail, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pursuing his own strategy for the looming polls: woo one powerful local leader and win one million votes.

NATO new leader BRUSSELS Anders Fogh Rasmussen starts work as NATO’s new secretary-general, part of a team assembled

by President Barack Obama to lead the war effort in Afghanistan.

New HIV WASHINGTON - A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon.

Missing pilot WASHINGTON Navy pilot Michael “Scott” Speicher was called the first casualty of the 1991 Gulf War. But his true status was a mystery until last weekend, when the Pentagon announced his remains had been found.

Source: ap

Sport

International

In the small hamlet of Kayan, deep in the central highlands of Afghanistan, men in turbans and women and children in sparkling dresses — all members of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam — camp out in the shade of mulberry trees.

They have gathered for a glimpse of their spiritual leader Sayed Mansoor Naderi and a frenzy breaks out when the silver-haired, moustachioed man swaggers through the crowd, cutting a regal figure dressed all in black.

“If he tells them to kill themselves, they will. If he told me to shoot myself, I would because he is our spiritual leader,” said teacher Gulam Sakhi, 40, as he heads past dusty, mud-bricked houses plastered with Karzai’s image.

Such fervent support comes in handy in during election season.

Naderi has come out in favour of Karzai, who is tipped to win another term in Afghanistan’s second presidential elections on August 20.

The incumbent has come under fire for largely eschewing campaigning but in a country of fierce local allegiances and ethnic divisions, analysts say canny deal-making with kingmakers may bring Karzai a victory.

“As Sayed Mansoor is our leader and he selected Karzai, we will also vote for him,” said 32-year-old Abdul Shafiq.

“If he told us to give our vote to Ashraf Ghani, then we would give our vote to Ashraf Ghani,” he told AFP, referring to one of Karzai’s main rivals.

Leaders of the sect headed by the Aga Khan say there are one million Ismailis in Afghanistan, and although that figure is impossible to verify as there has been no census here, it translates to handsome support for Karzai.

It was in Kayan that Karzai held his first rally outside Kabul, more than six weeks into the official campaigning period. Ghani and other top contender Abdullah Abdullah have held rallies across the country almost every week.

“Power today is with people. If Karzai wants votes, he must come to Aga Sahib... Aga Sahib will order his tribe to give their vote to Karzai,” the president told a rapt crowd, using a respectful term to refer to Naderi.

It is not the first deal Karzai has struck with local strongmen, warlords and tribal leaders, who will guide the votes of legions of their supporters.

In late May, Karzai secured the significant backing of warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam, leader of the Uzbek minority, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, his Hazara counterpart — coups on the Afghan political chessboard.

Karzai is a member of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group but his selection of controversial warlord Mohammad Qasim Fahim as a vice presidential candidate also brings him the votes of many of the large Tajik community.

“He knows that finally the Afghan individual votes will not count, they will listen to their leaders,” said Haroun Mir, an analyst from the Af-

AFP

AFP PHOTO/SHAH Marai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of 41 presidential candidates, waves to the crowd at his first campaign rally outside the capital in Kayan valley in central Afghanistan on August 1, 2009 which was also attended by the area’s spiritual leader Sayed Mansoor Naderi. ghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies.

Such deals have been criticised by human rights groups as many warlords have blood on their hands from the decades of civil war and the United Nations has said it wants Afghanistan to shift power away from infamous warriors.

Critics say Karzai has to offer the strongmen cabinet seats or some other authority in a new government to win their support.

His rivals also say Karzai has avoided debates because he is unable to defend his nearly eight years in power, during which an insurgency by the Taliban has mushroomed and most

Afghans remain in dire poverty.

Naderi insisted, however, that he decided to back Karzai after extensive talks with elders and supporters and because he was sympathetic to minority groups, and denied any backroom deals or financial incentives.

But he implied that it may be too early to expect a fully-fledged democratic battle of political pledges and platforms, given the lack of education and huge illiteracy in Afghanistan.

“Some individuals say whoever Sayed Mansoor votes for I will vote for but at the same time what percentage of the population of Afghanistan can understand the policies of any president?” he said.

Bolivia’s President Morales promises houses for newlyweds Agence France-Presse

LA PAZ - Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has promised each pair of newlyweds a house, under a program launched by his populist government, which faces elections in December, the newspaper La Razon reported Sunday.

“To every couple who marries, the state has to give them a house. That will be our program and the government is obliged to meet this demand,” Morales was quoted as saying.

Morales, who is running for reelection in the December vote, gave no other details of the program.

But at a public event in the coca-

TURIN - Juventus striker David Trezeguet has rejected talk linking him with a move to Milan, saying it would feel like ‘a betrayal’. The 31year-old Frenchman has been the subject of several transfer rumours this summer, but now appears likely to stay in Turin.

“I have spoken a lot, also with my family, and the best solution is to stay at Juventus. This year I will celebrate the 10 years I have spent in Bianconero, it’s an extraordinary achievement for a foreign player. I owe a lot to this club because they have given me a lot on a professional and personal level, just as I have done a lot for this team and I have nothing more to prove. I only have something to win,” Trezeguet ex-

growing town of Villa Tunari in central Bolivia, where he enjoys strong support, Morales reminded voters of the social policies his government has undertaken since he assumed office in January 2006.

They include bonuses for school age children, for Bolivians over the age of 60 and for pregnant women.

plained.

Responding to those Milan rumours, Trezeguet said: “Sure, at this particular moment the respect of Milan was important. The words of Leonardo and Galliani have given me enormous pleasure, but I am a very important person in the history of Juventus and to go to Milan would have felt like a betrayal towards the club and towards my team-mates.”

Finally, Trezeguet revealed his relationship with Ciro Ferrara is much better than with his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri. “It never went well with Ranieri. Ferrara was my old team-mate, I cleared things up with him, also because the beginning of training camp wasn’t easy because I didn’t know if I would stay or go.”

Trezeguet joined Juventus in 2000. He is the most prolific foreign goalscorer in their history.

David Trezeguet has rejected talk linking him with a move to Milan, saying it would feel like ‘a betrayal’:

Terry won’t demand big-money signings Agence France - Presse

LONDON - Chelsea captain John Terry insists he won’t use his influence at Stamford Bridge to pressure new boss Carlo Ancelotti into making bigmoney buys.

Recent reports suggested Terry demanded assurances that Chelsea were still committed to signing highprofile players before he decided to spurn Manchester City’s advances last month. The England defender was persuaded to stay after talks with Blues owner Roman Abramovich, after which Terry spoke of his relationship with the Russian in glowing terms.

But Terry was was quick to play down talk that he was pressing Abramovich and Ancelotti to sign the likes of AC Milan midfielder Andrea

15

Liverpool, Real discussing Xabi deal - press

Agence France - Presse

MADRID - Liverpool and Real Madrid are still negotiating the possible transfer of midfielder Xabi Alonso to the big-spending Spanish club, the Spanish press reported Monday.

Officials of both clubs — Jose Angel Sanchez for Real and Christian Purslow for Liverpool — met Sunday in Barcelona to discuss the move, according to sports newspapers AS and Marca.

AS said Real has offered 30 million euros for the Spain international, an amount it said was about five million less than that sought by Liverpool. Marca said Liverpool is seeking 40 million for the 27-year-old — 35 million plus five more based on results.

But it said if negotiations break down Real is ready to target Belgian Steven Defour of Standard Liege instead. Xabi Alonso told AS he “wants the situation resolved soon, one way or another.”

Liverpool officials were in Barcelona for a friendly match against Espanyol on Sunday, which the Engish side lost 3-0. Real have spent over 200 million euros on new players in the close season, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Kaka. Marca said the Spanish giants have also reached a deal to offload Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder to Inter Milan for 18 million euros.

(AFP/File/Roberto Schmidt)

Spain and Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso poses before the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between Spain and the United States at the Freet State stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in June. Liverpool and Real Madrid are still negotiating the possible transfer of Alonso to the big-spending Spanish club, the Spanish press reported

Redknapp eyes top four finish Agence France - Presse

Pirlo. “I want to clear something up.

I’m a player and it’s the manager and board who make those decisions,” Terry told the Daily Mirror.

“The only thing I spoke about with the club was it was important people like Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole, whose contracts are up now, stay with us. It was important to me that we build around the current squad and it was right for them to stay.

“Now people are saying I’m asking for Andrea Pirlo to be signed and I’m asking for this player or that player to be signed. I promise you I never get involved in any players brought in or going. What I know 100 per cent is I’m a player and I want to concentrate on that and leave it to the manager and board to make the signings.”

The state-run National Institute of Statistics estimated in 2005 that 22,000 couples marry in Bolivia each year.

The government already has sent house construction and home sales soaring by providing low interest, 20-year loans for up to 15,000 dollars.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

AFP

Captain John Terry (right) insists he won’t use his influence at Stamford Bridge to pressure new boss Carlo Ancelotti

HONG KONG - Spurs boss Harry Redknapp insists his side can break into the Premier League’s top four this season but admits it will be tougher than ever with mega-bucks Manchester City an added threat. Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have monopolised the top four places in the league for the past four seasons — and with it the lucrative Champions League qualification berths.

Redknapp has tipped Manchester City, bankrolled by their Abu Dhabi billionaire owners, to make a major impact this season but is confident that with a few additions to his squad, Spurs can be challengers. The boss of the North London side, who is eyeing Newcastle United defender Sebastien Bassong, saw his side lose 2-0 Sunday to Hong Kong side South China to round off their summer tour of Asia.

But Redknapp, who transformed a struggling Spurs when he took over last season, only just missing out on a place in the Europa League, says his squad has the quality to finish in the top four. “We will try. It’s going to be really difficult with the big four. You are going to have Man City. It will be a shock if they don’t get in the top four,” Redknapp said.

“Certainly, we have good enough players and we’ll give it a good go. We are still looking to bring in a few players to improve the squad.

I still feel we need one or two players to make us stronger, we should have a good chance.”

“Bassong is a good player who I like but as far as I know the chairman hasn’t made an offer,” he added. He said a deal was close for Darren Bent to move to Sunderland “but we have been close to doing a deal for the last two weeks.” The England striker was forced to apologise last week after using Internet networking site Twitter to blast Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy for failing to rubber-stamp his proposed move.

Redknapp said the Asian tour, during which Spurs beat Hull City in Beijing, to lift the Barclays Asia Trophy, had been tough and some players were now heading away on international duty. “I don’t know if the South China game was a game too far, because I changed it around a bit and gave the young lads a game. I fielded our strongest team in China and full credit to the opposition.”

English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur’s Kyle Naughton (L) succumbs to a clash with Hong Kong club South China’s Kwok Kin Pong (R) during their Panasonic Invitation Cup football match at Hong Kong Stadium on August 2.

(AFP/Ed

14

Sport

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

International

News

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Three time’s a charm for Querrey’s summer title quest

Palestinians can die in their village but not live there

Agence France - Presse

Agence France-Presse

LOS ANGELES - American Sam Querrey came third-time lucky after losing finals in his last two events, stopping the rot with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 defeat of Aussie newcomer Carsten Ball to win the Los Angeles Open Sunday. Querrey, the breakout artist of the post-Wimbledon summer season, had lost back-toback finals last month in Newport (to Rajeev Ram) and a week ago in Indianapolis to Robby Ginepri.

But the 22-year-old from nearby Thousand Oaks would not be denied as he took on the 205thranked Ball, Los Angeles-born son of 1974 Australian Open doubles finalist Syd Ball. “It feels great,” Querrey said. “After losing two finals there was no way I wanted to lose a third. I was worried after the second set, he was putting pressure on me and I was mad at myself. I started thinking about the other finals. But I sat down at the changeover and collected myself.

I lifted my first-serve percentage in the third set, that was the key. I was able to keep it all together.”

The younger Ball, a junior rival in southern California against Querrey, was playing this week in the first ATP-level event of his career and couldn’t have asked for a more positive scenario.

“I was just thinking about winning

the qualie matches, one at a time,” said Ball who has played Davis Cup Down Under. “I had some luck this week, it was great to play a fellow Southern California buddy also.”

Querrey added the LA title to his only other career honour, the Las Vegas crown in 2008. “This was not a great match on either side,” said Querrey. “Neither of us lit the place up. There is a lot of emotion involved, finals mean a lot.” Querrey, ranked 32nd, stands 13-2 over the past month, and was the first American to reach at least three ATP finals in a row since Andy Roddick advanced to four straight from June 7 to August 1, 2004.

Ball, 22, played as the fifth qualifier to reach an ATP final this season. He is the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 to reach the LA final. Querrey was the 16th different American in the post1968 Open era to win the LA crown.

PHOTO/HO

A picture released by the official website of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows Khamenei (L) presenting a decree to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) during an official ceremony in Tehran on August 3, 2009. Khamenei praised Ahmadinejad as he confirmed him in office and hailed the “unprecedented” vote that returned him to power.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Sam Querrey, of the United States, poses with the trophy after defeating Carsten Ball, of Australia, in the final of the L.A. Tennis Open in Los Angeles, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. Querrey won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Bartoli upsets Williams to Tiger Woods wins Buick Open capture Stanford tennis by 3 strokes Agence France - Presse

STANFORD, California - Marion Bartoli avenged a Wimbledon loss to Venus Williams, winning a marathon final at the WTA Bank of the West Classic 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 at the American’s expense on Sunday. Frenchwoman Bartoli was beaten by Williams for the All England club final two years ago.

Bartoli’s bitter memory was still fresh as she struck back in the three-set thriller lasting two and three-quarters hours in northern California. “It was great to play Venus again,” said the Frenchwoman, “I have a lot of good memories from Wimbledon.” Bartoli lost the title match here a year ago to Canadian Aleksandra

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Marion Bartoli, of France, holds the winner’s trophy after beating Venus Williams 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in the final of the Bank of the West tennis tournament in Stanford, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009.

Wozniak. She was unable to beat Williams in straight sets while leading a set and 5-4, failing to serve out the victory.

Bartoli will move up two spots in the rankings to 12th on Monday after claiming her second title of 2009 and the fifth of her career.

Williams, 29, had a strong history at Stanford, playing her seventh final in eight visits. “I had a great tournament,” said the disappointed American. “But Marion was just too good today.”

She won her only two titles at the start of the decade in 2000 and 2005, last finishing runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2005. The five-time Wimbledon champion will remain on third in the world behind number one Dinara Safina of Russia and sister Serena Williams, Bartoli went up an early break in the opening set only to lose it a game later. But the French player took the lead again on a third consecutive break and added an insurance policy with another for 5-2 before closing it out in 40 minutes.

The unseeded Bartoli jumped out to a 1-0 start in the second with another break of the erratic Williams. But serving for victory, Bartoli’s level dropped, saving two break points but missing on a third as her opponent levelled at five games apiece. Williams saved break points in the next game, 6-5, with Bartoli succumbing to a double-fault to hand over the set 7-5.

The third set also began Bartoli’s way with a break, which she promptly lost for three-all. But a re-break in the seventh game finally put the Frenchwoman on the right path, with Bartoli serving out the win on her first match point after coming form love-30 down in the final game. The loss was the eighth this season for Williams against 31 wins; Bartoli stands 35-14. The see-saw contest featured ten breaks of serve and a dozen double-faults for Williams, who lost serve six times.

Associated Press Writer

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Tiger Woods cruised to his easiest victory of the year, getting away with an awful round to open the Buick Open and an average one to hold off a weak field. His competition and the courses he’s going to play are about to get much tougher. Woods shot a 3-under 69 and coasted to a three-shot victory with a 20-under 268 total at Warwick Hills, which hosted its first Buick Open in 1958 and seemed to stage its final one Sunday.

Woods, whose previous three wins this year were each by one shot, spent much of Sunday ahead by two before he took a threestroke lead with the birdie at No. 16. His businesslike final round included three birdies and no bogeys and he won without trailing in the final round for the first time since Bay Hill in 2008.

He will play at the Bridgestone Invitational this week before going to Hazeltine for the PGA Championship, his final chance to win a major this year. He scheduled himself to compete in two straight tournaments going into a major for the first time in his career.

“I feel good,” Woods said. “The win helps.” Woods won the Buick Open for a third time and claimed his 69th PGA Tour victory, but the end-of-an-era feel made it more than a ho-hum experience. “I’ve played all around the world, and I’ve never seen a day like this,” said Woods, also the 2002 and 2006 winner at Warwick Hills. “This event has always been special, but today was something else.” He acknowledged thinking about his walk up 18 at Warwick Hills being his last, leading to him throwing his ball with a lot of velocity back down the fairway to fans. He also tossed a

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Tiger Woods holds the winner’s trophy after the final round of the Buick Open golf tournament at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Mich., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. ball into the gallery at 17.

“I never do that, but today was different,” Woods said. “We aren’t coming back here, and I wanted to thank all these people.” GolfWeek Magazine reported on its Web site that General Motors Co. would end the PGA Tour’s longest partnership, and The Associated Press confirmed it with a person briefed on the decision. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement wouldn’t be made until after the tournament.

GolfWeek also reported The Greenbrier in West Virginia is waiting for the PGA Tour to confirm it will replace the Buick Open in 2010. “Hopefully, we’ll get back to this region soon,” Woods said. If a sponsor doesn’t step up with about $7 million to lure a PGA Tour event back to Michigan, the best golfers in the world might not play in the state again until late in the next decade when the U.S. Open could possibly return to Oakland Hills.

Iran leader endorses Ahmadinejad but rivals absent Agence France-Presse

TEHRAN - Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term, describing him as a “courageous” man but telling him to listen to his critics.

In a sign of the escalating feud between rival political factions over Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed re-election, key opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, state television said.

Khamenei, who has given his full backing to Ahmadinejad despite a political spat, described his protege as a “courageous, astute and hardworking,” and hailed his “unprecedented” victory on June 12.

But he warned Ahmadinejad that the “angry, wounded opposition” would continue challenging his government and told him to heed the views of his critics, in a possible reference to a row between the president and his own conservative supporters.

Ahmadinejad, 52, whose first four years put him on a collision course with the West, again lashed out at “selfish and meddling” foreign governments over the election crisis.

“You do not want a new model of divine democracy rising in the world.

You wanted to divert global opinion from the collapse of capitalism, so you insulted the Iranian people,” the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

“Whether you like it or not, the sun of justice has dawned upon the world and the government of justice will prevail.”

The June poll set off the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and increasing divisions among the ruling elite.

Among those who did not attend Monday’s ceremony were

Ahmadinejad’s defeated rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

Ahmadinejad, who is to be sworn in before parliament on Wednesday, has also come under fire from his own hardline camp, which has questioned his loyalty to Khamenei in a row over a key political appointment.

His landslide victory was met with a vast outpouring of public anger and opposition complaints the vote was rigged. At least 30 people were killed and several thousand protesters rounded up, including reform figures and journalists.

Ahmadinejad’s re-election has also created a rift among the clergy, with several senior clerics siding with the opposition and condemning the postelection violence and the regime’s treatment of its critics.

The authorities hit back with a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters, whom they accuse of seeking to overthrow the regime with a “velvet revolution”.

On Saturday, around 100 people were put on trial in a revolutionary court, a move slammed by the opposition which accused the authorities of torture but welcomed by hardliners who in turn accused Mousavi and Khatami of treason.

Another 10 people went on trial on Sunday.

Relations with the West worsened during Ahmadinejad’s first term over

his frequent verbal attacks on Israel and his uncompromising stance on Tehran’s nuclear drive, which world powers fear is a cover for weapons development.

Although key policy issues are decided by Khamenei, critics point the finger of blame at Ahmadinejad for three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Opponents also accuse Ahmadinejad, who enjoyed windfall oil revenues in his first term, of mismanaging the economy, stoking inflation, wasting resources and manipulating statistics to cover his failures.

Ahmadinejad crossed swords with Khamenei after the supreme leader ordered him to dismiss a controversial aide, but president denied any rift, characterising his relationship with the supreme leader as one of “father and son.” His second term is likely to be characterised by greater tension with the West, which has warned of tougher sanctions over Iran’s nuclear drive and voiced alarm over the crackdown on protesters.

Iran has yet to respond to overtures by new US President Barak Obama after three decades of severed diplomatic ties, but has ruled out negotiations on the nuclear programme, insisting it is for solely peaceful ends.

Tehran’s stance towards staunch US ally Israel is also likely to harden. Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, has not ruled out military action to curb Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

IQRIT - Unlike other Palestinian refugees, the residents of the Arab village of Iqrit know for certain that Israel will one day allow them to return to their ancestral home. When they are dead.

The several hundred people living in the hilltop village near the Lebanon border were ordered out of their homes in October 1948 amid ongoing fighting of the first Israeli-Arab war, in what the army said was a temporary measure.

“They told us we could come back in two weeks,” says Maruf Ashqar, 79, who was 19 years old at the time.

The Christian residents of Iqrit had no reason to doubt the promise — when Israeli troops showed up just days before, they welcomed them.

“It was a Sunday morning, at 7:30 am” when the soldiers first arrived on October 31, Ashqar says, speaking outside the church at the centre of the deserted hilltop village.

“We hoisted a white flag and welcomed them with food,” he recalls.

The Greek Catholic villagers welcomed the troops “as ‘liberators’ with bread and salt,” writes Israeli historian Benny Morris in his 2004 edition of his reference work, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.

So the residents, helped by the soldiers, moved to the village of Rama, some 20 kilometres away to the south inside Israel.

The two weeks turned into months, but still the residents were not allowed to return while the government of the nascent state divided up Iqrit’s land — along with the Maronite Christian village of Biram nearby that faced a similar fate — among Jewish kibbutzim or collective farms in the area.

The village residents appealed to the High Court of Israel, in which they were now citizens, and in July 1951 the justices ruled in favour of their return to their homes.

“But the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continued to obstruct a return,” Morris wrote. “On December 24, 1951 — Christmas Eve — the IDF razed what remained of Iqrit.”

“They didn’t leave anything except a church and cemetery,” says Ashqar. “It’s as if they were saying, ‘come back when you’re dead.’” In fact, the state still allows residents to bury their dead in the deserted village.

Until the Israelis arrived, Iqrit had been inhabited at least since the time of the Crusades.

Today, weeds, bushes and trees cover the ruins of the village’s houses and roads, blended them into Galilee’s serene, green landscape.

The church and cemetery are the only mute reminders of Iqrit’s onceactive life.

The villagers have continued

3

their fight since, but to no avail.

According to Morris, the army and the state sought in 1948 to create a security zone along the northern border clear of potentially-hostile Arab population.

Successive governments feared that allowing the Iqrit villagers to return would set a dangerous precedent both for other internally displaced Israeli Arabs and for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced out during the 1948 war.

The latter today number some 4.6 million souls scattered throughout the Middle East and the prospect of them returning is a daunting one for Israel, where the Jewish population stands at 5.6 million.

“The precedent of returning the displaced persons to their villages would be used for propaganda and political purposes by the Palestinian Authority,” the then prime minister Ariel Sharon said in an affidavit in 2001 before the High Court that deliberated the latest appeal on the issue.

Things seemed to look up for the villagers and their offspring amid the Oslo Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 1993, when a committee appointed by the Israeli government recommended allowing the villagers to return, but at the same time setting a string of conditions they eventually rejected.

The High Court turned down the villagers’ latest appeal to return in July 2003, but said that when the political situation allows, the government should consider a solution that would enable their return.

The decades of setbacks have not weakened the resolve of Iqrit residents — today some 1,200 people scattered throughout various villages in Israel’s north — to return to the hilltop where their families have lived for centuries.

They made their case to Pope John Paul II during his historic visit in 2000, then again to his successor Benedict XVI this May. Using their own money, they paved a route which was destroyed by the Israeli authorities last year that leads up to the church.

“We rebuilt it the same day, to show them that we won’t rest with our arms crossed,” says Imad Yaqub, 59, who has never lived in the place he considers home.

“Despite the destruction of our village, we have remained faithful to it,” he says. “We organise one mass per month, we celebrate marriages and baptisms in the church and we bury our dead in the cemetery.”

“Each summer we organise camps for the youth, during which they get to know the village and its history, so that they love Iqrit.”

“The government is counting that with time, memories will fade and the new generations forget from where they come,” he says.

“But we will prove otherwise.”

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News

International

Sudan trouser woman ‘ready for 40,000 lashes’

AFP PHOTO/ASHRAF SHAZLY

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein.

Agence France-Presse

KHARTOUM - A Sudanese journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing “indecent” trousers vowed on the eve of her judgment that she is ready to be whipped 40,000 times in her bid to change the country’s harsh laws.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is to be judged on Tuesday after waiving the immunity granted to UN workers.

She is to be judged under Article 152 of Sudanese law, which promises 40 lashes for anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing.”

Hussein, who is in her 30s and whose husband died of kidney failure, told AFP in a telephone interview: “I’m ready for anything to happen. I’m absolutely not afraid of the verdict.”

Police arrested Hussein and 12 other women wearing trousers at a Khartoum restaurant on July 3.

Two days later 10 of the women accepted a punishment of 10 lashes, but Hussein is appealing in a bid to eliminate such rough justice.

The other two women are also facing charges.

“If I’m sentenced to be whipped, or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary,” Hussein said.

“And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I’m ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times.”

Hussein invited scores of journalists to her first court hearing on Wednesday, when she made a point of wearing the same clothes she wore when she was arrested — moss-green slacks with a loose floral top and green headscarf.

Hordes of people, many of them female supporters and some also wearing trousers out of solidarity, crammed into the courthouse for the hearing. “My main objective is to get rid of Article 152,” Hussein said. “This article is against both the constitution and sharia,” the Islamic law ruling northern Sudan.

Adding insult to injury, some of the women whipped in July were from animist and Christian south Sudan where sharia law does not apply. “If some people refer to the sharia to justify flagellating women because of what they wear, then let them show me which Koranic verses or hadith (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed) say so. I haven’t found them.”

Unlike many other Arab countries, particularly in the Gulf, women have a prominent place in Sudanese public life. Nevertheless, human rights organisations say some of the country’s laws discriminate against women. “Tens of thousands of women and girls have been whipped for their clothes these last 20 years. It’s not rare in Sudan,” Hussein said.

Five dead in Peru ‘Shining Path’ attack Agence France-Presse

LIMA - Three policemen and two civilians have been killed in an overnight raid on a special forces base in southern Peru, which the government has blamed on once-powerful Maoist guerrillas. Police on Sunday said around 50 guerrillas attacked the base in San Jose de Secce between midnight and dawn, using explosives and firearms.

The bodies of five victims, including two women, were transferred by military helicopter to the nearby Andean city of Ayacucho, 300 kilometers (200 miles) south east of the capital Lima.

The Ayacucho area was

among the hardest hit during the Shining Path’s insurgency in the 1980s and is now a hub for Peru’s illicit trade in drugs.

In April, President Alan Garcia vowed Tuesday to “crush” the remnants of the rebel group after ambushes killed 14 soldiers in the remote southeast jungles of the country, the worst rebel attacks in 10 years.

Peruvian officials have blamed the recent attacks on remnants of the Maoist group — also known by its Spanish name, Sendero Luminoso — who have allied with drug traffickers in the region.

Peru is one of the world’s principle coca leaf producers, the main ingredient for making cocaine.

International

Panasonic announces Q1 net loss of 560 mln dlrs

Life Style

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

13

Agence France - Presse

AP Photo/Mark Baker

FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2009 file photo, protesters run as police fire tear gas at demonstrators during an anti Internal Security Act (ISA) protest near the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia’s main lawyers’ organization denounced a police crackdown on a mass rally against a tough detention law, saying Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, that the new government appears determined to stifle criticism.

Malaysia Bar denounces weekend crackdown on public

The Malaysian Bar Council said Saturday’s violent police action against an estimated 20,000 peaceful demonstrators was a violation of their fundamental right to assembly and an “abusive show of power” by the government.

Led by opposition leaders, the protesters demanded the abolishment of the Internal Security Act, a law that allows indefinite detention without trial. Human rights activists say the law has often been used to jail government critics. Saturday’s crackdown heightened opposition concerns that Prime Minister Najib Razak, who took office in April, will not fulfill his promises to protect civil liberties.

“This new government appears determined to continue stifling public opinion, persecuting and punishing those who dare to speak out while blaming them for creating unrest and disorder,”

the Bar Council, which represents about 12,000 lawyers, said in a statement.

Police used tear gas and chemicallaced water and arrested almost 600 people to crush the protest deemed illegal because no permit was obtained.

All were freed without charges, except 29 who will be tried on Sept. 4. They were freed on bail Monday.

Sixteen were charged with taking part in an illegal assembly, which is punishable by up to a year in prison.

The remaining 13 were charged with helping an illegal organization, which carries a possible three-year sentence.

Among those arrested was Sivarasa Rasiah, a vice president of the opposition People’s Justice Party. He also was released on bail Monday without charges but was asked to report at a police station on Aug. 17.

Calling the arrests “an exercise of intimidation,” Sivarasa told reporters the crackdown was “another example of brutish, authoritarian behavior of a police force” being manipulated by the government.

Government leaders have dismissed the protest as an attempt by the opposition to gain political mileage. Najib said it was “unnecessary and only caused hardship to the people” because the government had already pledged to review the controversial law.

Human rights activists have held numerous smaller protests over the years against the Internal Security Act. They say at least 17 people are now being held under the law, mainly for alleged links to militants and document forgery. Since taking office, Najib has released 26 detainees, including five leaders of an ethnic Indian protest.

Saturday’s protest was the biggest since November 2007 when tens of thousands of ethnic Indians demonstrated against Malaysia’s laws that give preferences in education and contracts to majority ethnic Malays over minority Indian and Chinese citizens of the country.

Agence France-Presse

cided to bury them in mass graves,” Borno State government spokesman Usman Chiroma said.

“It is difficult for them to do so (claim the bodies), because their dead relations were members of the Boko Haram (sect) that waged war against the government.

They just don’t want to be associated with them,” Chiroma told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri.

He also said security agents aided by local chiefs this weekend have arrested dozens of suspected members of the radical Islamist sect still hiding in Maiduguri after the deadly clashes. “Ward heads, called

Bulama, are now leading soldiers and policemen in a house-to-house hunt for members of Boko Haram and effecting their arrests. So far, scores have been arrested and the operation is ongoing,” he stated.

He did not give exact figures for the number arrested, nor how many bodies have been removed. ThisDay newspaper on Sunday put the body count at about 700. Clashes between security forces and sect members in four northern states — Bauchi, Kano, Yobe and Borno — killed more than 600 people in five days of violence, according to police and witnesses.

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s main group of lawyers denounced a weekend crackdown on a mass rally against a tough detention law, saying Monday that the new government appears determined to stifle criticism despite its promises of reforms.

Slain Nigerian sect members buried in mass graves KANO - Nigerian authorities swept dozens of bodies into mass graves Sunday in the grisly aftermath of last week’s Islamist uprising that killed hundreds of people, officials and residents said. Authorities had spent two days clearing bodies off the streets of the northeastern university city of Maiduguri, which bore the brunt of the violence.

“Our evacuation team has finished removing all dead bodies from the streets of the city. Families are not forthcoming in claiming the dead bodies. Therefore, the government de-

TOKYO - Japanese high-tech giant Panasonic Corp. announced Monday a big first-quarter loss, blaming weak sales of televisions, digital cameras and other electronic goods during the recession. Panasonic posted a net loss of 52.98 billion yen (560 million dollars) for the April-June quarter, swinging from a year-earlier profit of 73.03 billion yen. Revenue slumped 25.9 percent to 1.60 trillion yen.

It logged an operating loss of 20.18 billion yen, against a profit of 109.57 billion yen in the same period of 2008, “due mainly to the effect of a sharp sales decrease and price decline,” the Osaka-based company said in a statement.

Panasonic, which is buying its struggling smaller rival Sanyo, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of 195 billion yen in the full business year to March 2010, warning that price competition was likely to intensify further.

It expects sales to drop 10 percent to 7.0 trillion yen but operating

profit to rise 2.9 percent to 75 billion yen, unchanged from its earlier projections.

The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.

Panasonic is not the only Japanese electronics giant in trouble. Last week Sony Corp. posted a net loss of 37.1 billion yen for the April-June quarter, while Sharp Corp. fell 25.2 billion yen into the red in the same period.

AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO

Japan’s electronics giant panasonic employee displays the new stylish compact digital cameras “Lumix DMC-ZX1” (L), “Lumix DMC-FX60” (R) and “Lumix DMC-FP8” at the company’s showroom in Tokyo on August 3, 2009. The DMC-ZX-1 and FX60 features the world’s thinnest lens in the compact lens unit, portion of the lens measures 0.3mm in thickness. Panasonic will put them on the market on August 21.

RU-486 abortion drug to be allowed in Italy

Associated Press Writer

ROME – Italy has approved the use of the abortion drug RU-486, capping years of debate and defying opposition from the Vatican, which warned of immediate excommunication for doctors prescribing the pill and for women who use it.

The pill is already available in a number of other European countries.

Its approval by Italy’s drug regulation authorities was praised by women’s groups and pro-choice organizations, which say the pill will provide women with an additional, noninvasive procedure.

It drew the immediate protest of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion and contraception. “That’s not how you alleviate human suffering, that’s not how you help women, that’s not how you help mankind,” Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, a senior church bioethicist, said in an interview Friday with Associated Press Television News. The Italian Drug Agency ruled after a meeting that ended late Thursday that the drug, which terminates pregnancy by causing the embryo to detach from the uterine wall, cannot be sold in pharmacies but can only be administered by doctors in a hospital.

The agency said in a statement that the pill can only be taken up to the seventh week of pregnancy, and not up to the ninth as is the case in other countries. Women who used the

pill between the seventh and the ninth week of pregnancy incurred more risks and had often needed surgery, it said. The decision is expected to be effective in about two months, the agency said.

In a nod to the ethical implications associated with the decision and the controversy surrounding it, the agency noted that “the task of protecting the well-being of citizens ... must take precedence over personal convictions.”

The 4-1 vote at the agency’s executive branch comes about two years after the agency first started looking at the issue. The pill became available in some parts of Italy on an experimental basis in 2006. For the Catholic Church, the agency’s decision was the latest defeat in its efforts to ban or restrict abortion in the nation that hosts the Vatican. Italy legalized abortion on demand through the end of the third month of pregnancy in 1978, after a long battle between secular forces and the church.

Abortion after three months is allowed when the pregnancy is deemed a grave danger to the woman’s mental or physical health.

Three years later, Italians voted in a referendum to keep the law, again defying a church-backed campaign.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, issued a strong condemnation of abortion and the RU-486 pill

in a front-page article in Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano on Friday. He said the church cannot passively sit back, and insisted the ethical implications of the pill could not be overlooked. “An embryo is not a bunch of cells,” Fisichella wrote. “It’s real and full human life. Suppressing it is a responsibility nobody can take without fully knowing the consequences.”

Sgreccia, who called the RU-486 “not a drug, but poison,” said that women taking the pill or doctors ad-

ministering are automatically excommunicated under church law. There were about 121,000 abortions on demand in Italy in 2008, according to figures provided by Italy’s health authorities. That number was down 48 percent from 1982 — the year when the number peaked after the referendum upholding the abortion law — and down 4 percent compared to the previous year.

But critics of RU-486 say that taking a pill might reverse that trend because it would make interrupting a

REUTERS/Newscom

A bottle and two pills of mifepristone, formerly know as RU-486 are seen in a handout photo.

pregnancy easier. They also fear that it would be possible to avert a mandatory hospitalization policy and effectively go back to the pre-legislation days of clandestine abortions performed at home without medical supervision. “The apparent ease of this pharmacological method will inevitably lower the level of caution and responsibility,” Romano Colozzi, the only member of the agency to vote against the use of the pill, told the ANSA news agency.

Supporters say it has no significant side effects and is safe. Gabriella Pacini, a doctor with the Woman’s Life group that provides medical counseling to women, said that RU486 “has been used for years in Europe, on millions of women and is considered safe and effective.” “Why not give Italian women a choice between pharmacological abortion and surgical abortion?” she said. The RU486 pill, first introduced in France two decades ago, is known chemically as mifepristone and causes an embryo to detach from the uterine wall. A second pill, misoprostol, is used afterward to cause contractions and push the embryo out of the uterus.

Doctors can declare themselves conscientious objectors and refuse to carry out abortions. Since 2000, Italy also allows the so-called morning-after pill, which prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall and growing into an embryo.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Entertainment

International

News

International

Jude Law ‘Committed’ to New Baby

The mother of Jude Law’s fourth child has slammed reports the actor has shunned all contact with her - insisting quotes attributed to her mom were “taken out of context.” Samantha Burke is seven months pregnant with a baby girl after dating the Brit star when he was shooting Sherlock Holmes in New York earlier this year. New reports allege Law has refused contact with Burke since finding out she was expecting his baby, with Burke’s mother reportedly going on the record to voice her concerns.

Lea Burke was quoted as saying, “Samantha has no idea what is going on. She is very stressed out and upset. This was never planned and Jude didn’t want the baby. It was a total accident. This was no way planned. Hell, no. She was in shock when she found out she was pregnant and terrified to tell him.

It would be nice if the father was around but that’s not going to happen because of his job and Samantha knows that.”

“Samantha is staying positive and hoping Jude will get in touch.

She really wanted to get hold of him, but he hasn’t called once.” Burke was so infuriated by the reports; she appeared in public on Friday for the first time since news of her pregnancy broke, admitting: “It’s a hard time.” She stood alongside her spokesperson outside her home to confirm Law is “committed to the health and wellbeing of this child.”

The 24 year old’s spokesperson

Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

Sandler’s ‘Funny People’ wins weekend with $23.4M

Anthony Mackie Under Threat On War Movie Set

Actor Anthony Mackie has ruled out making another lifelike war movie after constantly fearing for his life - for real - while filming The Hurt Locker in Jordan.

The actor, who portrayed Tupac Shakur in Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious, admits he didn’t have a great experience on the set of the gritty new film, in which he plays an army bomb squad expert.

However, sandstorms and poor conditions were the least of his worries - there was a constant threat that he and his cast mates could be killed.

He explains, “My life was hell.

There were points where it got really hairy. The exhaustion and fear you see in the film was because of our surroundings. We were in the Middle East running around with American military suits with big guns in Jordan which kept the fear very real. Sometimes people didn’t react the way we would’ve liked

them to react but they did react the way we expected them to react.

There were people up on their rooftops watching us film, who were not actors. When we were in the desert there were Bedouins 400 yards at the top of a cliff watching us.”

“If you’re on a set when they yell ‘cut’ you go into your trailer with the AC (air conditioning) on and drink your Starbucks. You have a tent covering you to protect you from the sun or a fan cooling you off and probably ice packs in your shirt. But we were laying in the real desert, not pseudo desert, in 120 degree heat with 20 pounds of Kevlar (bullet proof vests) on with a Barret sniper rifle.”

“There was nothing forgiving about that situation and we did that for eight days. If you’ve never been in a sandstorm it’s like sand paper brushing against your face. It was rough but I’m glad I did it. It’s something I can tell my kids about and I’ll never do it again.”

5

Extradited arms dealer lands in Germany

says, “Samantha and her mother would like to be clear that comments attributed to her mother and media stories reported in the last 24 hours regarding Jude’s contact with Samantha and his involvement were taken out of context. Samantha, her mom and her family can confirm Jude has been responsive and supportive through the relationship and pregnancy and know that he will remain so as a father once baby Sophia is born.”

“Jude and Samantha remain committed to the health and wellbeing of this child and appreciate your honoring her privacy during this special time.” Britain’s The Sun newspaper also reports Law is terrified intimate snaps taken during the pair’s fling will be leaked to the press.

Universal Pictures’ “Funny People,” with Sandler trading adolescent humor for an adult story about a terminally ill comedy star, debuted as the top weekend movie with $23.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was a modest weekend for Hollywood, with the shadow of last summer’s juggernaut “The Dark Knight” hanging over the current blockbuster season. Overall summer revenues, which had been running ahead of last year’s since early May, dipped below those of 2008, when “The Dark Knight” was packing theaters for weeks on end.

“It’s staggering how strong ‘The Dark Knight’ was last year. At this point last year, ‘The Dark Knight’ had added nearly $400 million to the summer box office. How can you compete with that?” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. Revenues this weekend came in at $122 million, down 20 percent from a year ago, when “The Dark Knight” led with $42.7 million, followed by “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” with $40.5 million.

“The Dark Knight” went on to a $533 million domestic haul, the biggest hit since “Titanic.” Since the summer season opened the first week of May, Hollywood’s domestic receipts total $3.34 billion, off 0.8 percent through the same weekend last summer, according to figures compiled by Hollywood.com. Factoring in this year’s higher ticket prices, movie attendance this season is down 4.4 percent compared with summer 2008.

Next weekend’s new action tale, Paramount’s “G.I. Joe: The Rise of

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Cobra,” has great fan buzz and could help set Hollywood back on track to break last summer’s domestic revenue record of $4.2 billion, Dergarabedian said. For the year, movies have rung up $6.43 billion, on pace to break the revenue record of $9.68 billion set in 2007. Coming in second for the weekend was the Warner Bros. fantasy adventure “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” with $17.7 million, raising its domestic total to $255.5 million.

Disney’s family action tale “GForce,” the previous weekend’s top movie, slipped to third with $17.1 million, lifting its total to $66.5 mil-

lion. The weekend’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s family flick “Aliens in the Attic,” opened at No. 5 with $7.8 million. “Funny People” debuted well below most of Sandler’s comedies, which typically start with $30 million to $40 million opening weekends. Universal is counting on good word of mouth to keep it alive for a long run at the box office. The movie pairs Sandler as the dying comic with Seth Rogen as his new assistant and joke writer. It also reunites Rogen with his “Knocked Up” director Judd Apatow, a longtime friend and former roommate of Sandler.

In this photo taken on March 12, 2009, jurors are seated with judges during a moot court at Saitama district court in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan, in preparation for the start of jury system in Japan in August. Japan opened its first jury trial in post-World War II history Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, under a major overhaul of a legal system that has in the past often been criticized as unfair and arduous.

Japan starts first jury trial

Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japan kicked off its first jury trial Monday following legal reforms that aim to bring the judicial process closer to the people, amid concerns about allowing jurors to hand down the death penalty.

In the first trial to employ six “lay judges,” a 72-year-old man is accused of stabbing to death a 66year-old female South Korean neighbour.

The jurors, who were randomly selected from the pool of eligible voters, will be asked to decide not only the verdict but, if the man is convicted, also the sentence in the scheduled four-day case at the Tokyo District Court.

However, as a safeguard, at least one of three professional judges presiding over the trial must agree with the citizen-judges’ majority decisions.

A law passed in May paved the way for the reform, which seeks to give the public a greater role in a judicial process that has often been criticised as remote, complicated and out of touch with the public’s sense of justice.

But the change has sparked fierce criticism from some legal experts who argue that randomly selected citizens are not fit to make informed judgements in serious crime cases or decisions about a convict’s life and death.

Japan imposes the death penalty but usually only for multiple murders. Last week three convicts were

executed in Japanese prisons.

Critics also charge prosecutors will be tempted to use graphic crime scene images as evidence to sway impressionable jurors.

Recent polls have shown that many members of the public are reluctant to be called up as jurors, which has now become a civic duty enforced with fines of up to 100,000 yen (about 1,000 dollars) for failure to show up.

Lay judges are also committed to a lifetime of secrecy on their closed-door deliberations, a vow of silence enforced by penalties of up to six months in prison or a 500,000 yen fine for violators.

Before the start of the murder trial, defence lawyer Shunji Date pledged to avoid legalistic jargon and “use language as simple as possible.”

MUNICH - A 75-year-old German-Canadian arms dealer landed in Munich on Monday to face tax evasion and bribery charges following a decade-long battle to avoid extradition, authorities said.

After touching down from Canada at around 09:30 local time (0730 GMT), Karlheinz Schreiber was expected to be taken straight to jail in Augsburg to await trial.

A spokesman for the court in Augsburg, Karl-Heinz Haeusler, said it was not possible to say whether the politically-sensitive trial would begin before national elections, which take place on September 27.

“That would be a case of reading tea-leaves. One can only speculate,” Haeusler told AFP. Schreiber is accused of playing a key role in a sprawling slush-fund scandal that rocked the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the 1990s and helped pave the way for current chancellor Angela Merkel’s rise to power.

His undeclared contributions to the CDU sparked a political scandal that claimed the scalp of the then head of the party, Wolfgang Schaeuble, now interior minister, and tarnished former chancellor Helmut Kohl’s legacy.

Schreiber, who holds both German and Canadian nationality, is believed to have made an undeclared one-million-mark (500,000euro, 712,000-dollar) donation to the CDU. In 2002, he also told a delegation of German deputies visiting him in Toronto that he had paid at least 510,000 euros (726,000 dol-

lars) to the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of the CDU. And he stands accused of evading taxes on millions of euros (dollars) in income from arms deals as well as offering bribes to ensure government approval for the sale of armoured cars to Saudi Arabia.

A Canadian court on Sunday rejected his final appeal to avoid extradition to Germany and he was flown out from Toronto later that night. “Over a 10-year period, Mr. Schreiber was given every reasonable opportunity to challenge his extradition,” said Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

“His surrender to Germany was in full accord with the law and consistent with the spirit and purpose of extradition.”

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Schreiber said there was a political dimension to his extradition, with a general election less than two months away.

“The Social Democrats won three elections with my case in the past,” he said, referring to the junior partner in Merkel’s coalition government.

“If I come now that would be the greatest thing, it would start a huge investigation and ... they would think they could win the next election.”

The Social Democrats are currently trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc by as much as 15 points in the polls.

But the Canadian authorities rejected Schreiber’s argument, concluding that it was “the latest in a series of creative instalments to frustrate a legitimate extradition process.”

China official jailed for child rape Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Adam Sandler, a cast member in ‘Funny People,’ gives a thumbs-up to photographers as he arrives at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Monday, July 20, 2009.

BEIJING - A court in southwest China Monday sentenced a tax official to 10 years in jail for raping a 13-year-old girl, state media reported.

Lu Yumin, an official in

Yibing, Sichuan province, paid a businesswoman 6,000 yuan (880 dollars) to supply him with a virgin, whom he raped at a hotel in December, Xinhua news agency said.

The court in Yibing sentenced the woman to nine years while her niece, who found the girl for Lu and was un-

der the age of 18 at the time of the crime, was jailed for six years.

The case had sparked national criticism over the official’s behaviour, Xinhua said. Four officials in neighbouring Guizhou province were jailed last month for their roles in a child prostitution ring.

AFP PHOTO/GEOFF ROBINS

Picture taken on November 29, 2007 shows German-Canadian arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber being escorted in handcuffs from the Parliament Buildings in.

6

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News Marcos...

From page 1

AFP PHOTO/ JORGE GUERRERO.

Japanese bullfighter Taira Nono performs a pass on his bull during a bullfight in Torremolinos, southern Spain, on August 2, 2009.

Japanese man on course to be matador in Spain Agence France-Presse

TORREMOLINOS - A Japanese man moved closer to achieving his goal of becoming his country’s first full-fledged professional matador by taking part in his first bullfight involving mounted lancers.

Taira Nono slayed two young bulls at the bullring in the southern Spanish resort town of Torremolinos on Sunday after a picador, a bullfighter on horseback, goaded the animals with steelpointed lances which weaken their shoulder muscles.

“I am very happy and have a real desire to succeed. I love the bullfighting world and am in Spain to become the first matador in Japanese history,” the soft-spoken 35-year-old told reporters before entering the ring.

Since he moved to Spain from Tokyo 12 years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a matador, Nono has up until now only participated in simpler bullfights that did not involve picadors.

To become a matador he must undergo the “alternativa”, a ceremony that separates amateurs from professionals in which a novice or “novillero” is proposed and seconded by two other matadors.

Until then he can only take part in bullfights with bulls aged at least three years old, whereas matadors face bulls aged at least four years which can weigh between 480 and 600 kilos (1,060 to 1,320 pounds).

Audiences judge bullfighters according to their skill, grace and daring and the sparse crowd of around 300 people which turned out to watch Nono’s debut with mounted lancers was sympathetic to his efforts in the ring.

They applauded and called out “matador” whenever Nono, who wore a green silk suit embroidered with gold sequin which sparkled in the late afternoon sun, elegantly swirled his red cape around the body of the bull.

After he killed his first bull with a single thrust of his sword into the animal’s neck, the majority of the crowd petitioned the presiding judge to award him one of the ears of the slain bull by waving

white handkerchiefs.

“For a ‘novillero’ he is not bad,” said Antonio de la Torre Reina who raises bulls for a living at a ranch in the surrounding countryside of Andalucia, the southern region of Spain that is the traditional spawning ground for bullfighters and the birthplace of the ritual.

“He killed the bull with one thrust. It is hard to become a matador but he has shown great willpower,” he added as he sat in the shady part of the ring beside his brother and a friend.

Many in the crowd were foreigners, including a handful of Japanese who were drawn by the rare appearance in the ring of a compatriot.

“Japanese have come today to cheer him on. I think it is difficult to become a matador, it takes time,” said Chie Ito, a Japanese woman who runs a study abroad service in neighbouring Malaga and who came specifically to see Nono.

Only top bullfighters earn a living at their trade and to survive Nono — who says he set his sights on becoming a matador after watching a report on television on the ritual — earns money picking fruits and vegetables.

There have been a handful of Chinese and Japanese aspirants who have had varying degrees of success but none has earned the “alternativa” and reached the level of matador.

Nono has been compared to another Japanese man, Atsuhiro Shimoyama, or the “Nino de Sol Nascientero” (Son of the Rising Sun) as he was called, who achieved some fame in Spain in in his bid to become a matador.

His dream was cut short in 1995 when the horn of a 400-kilogramme bull caught on his suit and tossed him in the air during a bullfight, leaving him with a bad limp that caused him to drag his left leg.

Aquino, whose husband was assassinated by the forces of dictator Ferdinand Marcos after returning home from exile in 1983, died at the weekend following a battle with cancer.

“I can feel the pain, the loss of a loved one, so I am in prayer. If these two families reconciled, there will be a miracle for the Philippines,” the former first lady said on television.

The Aquino family earlier said members of the Marcos family could attend the wake for the former president, who died Saturday at the age of 76, but should not expect a warm welcome.

The youngest of Aquino’s children, Kristina Bernadette Aquino, thanked Marcos for offering Sunday prayers for her mother.

“I never thought the time would come (that I would say this), but thank you to the Marcoses for really praying for mum,” she said.

Marcos’s aides have said the former first lady or her children may attend Aquino’s wake later Monday, although there were no concrete plans.

The comments came as preparations for Aquino’s funeral on Wednesday gathered pace.

An open truck carrying her coffin and decorated with yellow flowers symbolising the “People Power” revolution that swept her to power started its three-hour procession through the streets of Manila.

Traffic was at a standstill while mourners threw yellow confetti and flowers onto the cortege as it passed through the capital on its way to Manila Cathedral, where Aquino’s body was to lie in state until her funeral.

Aquino will then be buried beside her husband, Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino. Outside the cathedral around 1,000 policemen were setting up steel barricades to contain the thousands of people expected to gather there later.

Thousands braved heavy monsoon rains over the weekend to queue up for hours to catch a glimpse of the woman fondly referred to by the

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 public as Tita, or Auntie, Cory, as she lay in state at a Manila high-school.

Mourners from all walks of life offered silent payers and recalled fond memories of the deeply religious woman who, even in death, wore her trademark yellow dress, and clutched a rosary with a golden cross.

Many wore pins and shirts with pictures of Aquino, whose death sparked tributes from around the world.

Among those who had visited her body was Wan Azizah Ismail, the wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who called Aquino a source of inspiration for Asian leaders.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was also expected to view the coffin at the cathedral later Monday, friends and family said.

John Bolinao, 43, stood four hours late Sunday to see Aquino’s body.

“I’m a fan of Cory. I identify with her heroism, that’s why I am here to pay my last respects,” said Bolinao, who joined the 1986 revolution when he was a 19-year-old student.

Patricia Patriarca meanwhile took a bus from out of town and arrived as heavy rain began to drench the crowd. “I am sad because she is gone, but happy that she is no longer in pain.”

“I appreciate what she did for the poor like me,” she said.

Reluctantly stepping into the shoes of her husband, Aquino in 1986 challenged Marcos in a presidential election that he won amid massive cheating.

A group of military officers subsequently turned against him, and Aquino called millions onto the streets to protect them from Marcos’s troops.

This mushroomed into a massive street protest that eventually forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii, where he died in 1989.

Aquino’s family rejected the offer of a state funeral from President Gloria Arroyo, who fell out with the former president over allegations of corruption in Arroyo’s nine-year presidency.

Tens...

From page 1 Making the letter “L” sign with their fingers for Laban (Fight) — Aquino’s party slogan — the crowd sang a revolutionary anthem and chanted “Cory, Cory”.

Women openly cried as yellow balloons symbolising Aquino’s “People Power” revolution were released into the air. Yellow banners fluttered from rooftops and posters of Aquino hung from lampposts outside the stock exchange.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all,” the youngest of the Aquino children, actress Kristina Bernadette, said as the convoy stopped in front of a statue of her late father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.

“Our hearts feel so wonderful because you are letting us feel that you loved my mum very much,” she said. “I feel so blessed to be a Filipino.”

She said allowing the public to view her mother’s body was “our way of saying thank you to the people who were with us from the very start”.

Imelda Marcos, the famously extravagant widow of Aquino’s arch-foe, said she hoped for national reconciliation.

“I can feel the pain, the loss of a loved one, so I am in prayer. If these two families reconciled, there will be a miracle for the Philippines,” the former first lady said on television.

The Aquino family earlier said relatives of Marcos could attend the wake for the former president, but should not expect a warm welcome.

Aquino’s family rejected the offer of a state funeral from President Gloria Arroyo, who fell out with the former leader over allegations of corruption in Arroyo’s ad-

ministration.

Sirens wailed and ships docked at Manila’s harbour blared their horns as the procession approached the Manila Cathedral after a fivehour trip across town that covered a mere 12 kilometres (7.5 miles).

Classical music played while her body was received on a red carpet. She was taken near the altar, and priests wafted incense.

“The battle is over, victory is won,” said close family friend Bishop Socrates Villegas, who helped officiate at a mass.

Mourners offered silent prayers and recalled fond memories of the deeply religious woman who, even in death, wore her trademark yellow dress, and clutched a rosary with a golden cross.

Many wore pins and shirts with pictures of Aquino, whose death sparked tributes from around the world.

Among those who had visited her body was Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who called Aquino a source of inspiration for Asian leaders.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was also expected to view the coffin at the cathedral later Monday, friends and family said.

Reluctantly stepping into the shoes of her husband, Aquino in 1986 challenged Marcos in a presidential election that he won amid massive cheating.

A group of military officers subsequently turned against him, and Aquino called millions onto the streets to protect them from Marcos’s troops.

This mushroomed into a massive street protest that eventually forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii, where he died in 1989.

11

BUSINESS US officials see economic growth in second half 2009 Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK - Top US administration officials said on Sunday that economic growth is highly likely to resume in the second half of the year, but warned of “hard choices” to contain rising deficits once recovery is assured.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would not rule out higher taxes in the future, telling ABC television: “We’re going to have to do what is necessary.”

Geithner and White House economic adviser Larry Summers went on the Sunday television talk shows to make the case that President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program was gaining traction despite rising unemployment and worries about the US deficit.

“A very great likelihood, and this is what most professional forecasters say, is that we’ll see growth going forward in the second half of this year,” Summers said in an interview with NBC television.

Their prognosis was backed by former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, who told ABC the worst US financial crisis in a half a century was “not quite” over, “but we’re getting there.”

Greenspan said he was “pretty sure” the broader US economy had hit bottom and begun to turn around in mid-July.

Summers pointed to the popularity of a “cash for clunkers” program as a sign that the US auto industry was coming back to life, and said industries will have to replace inventories that have been massively cut.

But both he and Geithner acknowledged that the US jobless rate will continue to climb from its current level of 9.5 percent. The treasury secretary cited private analysts as saying it will not start coming down until the begin-

ning of the second half of 2010.

“You are right that there are signs the recession is easing. And if you think about where we were at the end of last year — we had an economy in freefall, a financial system on the verge of collapse,” Geithner said on ABC. “But I think we have a ways to go,” he added. “I want to emphasize the basic realities. Unemployment is still very high in this country. We need to make Americans more confident about their future.”

The latest ray of light in the economic storm came with new gross domestic product figures released Friday by the Commerce Department, which estimated that the US economy contracted 1.0 percent in the second quarter, better than forecasters expected.

The administration said the new report showed the economy was in deeper trouble than believed when Obama took office but that its recovery programs were working.

“What you’re going to see first is growth turn positive,” Geithner said.

“And then you’re going to see the pace of job losses slow materially for the — they have already slowed significantly, as you said. They’re going to slow materially further.”

Asked about the possibility of a “double dip” in the recession, Geithner said the administration did not see it as a risk at the moment.

Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told CNN: “We, like most private forecasters, think that real GDP growth will probably turn positive

before the end of the year, but that’s just the first step, right? You’ve got to start growing again before you start adding jobs.

“As you go into 2010, we can’t just limp out of this thing, we need to be growing robustly to make sure that the unemployment rate comes down.”

But as the US economy emerges from recession, the administration will be faced with another daunting challenge: bringing under control the huge deficits used to refloat the economy.

Republicans have zeroed in on the issue as their main line of attack on Obama’s economic program and his push for reform of the US health care system.

“What I worry more than anything about is the long-term effects because we are committing generational theft,” said Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran for president against Obama last year.

“We have put trillions of additional debt on future generations of Americans. And there is no one that I know that sees a way out of it.”

Geithner said the administration’s first priority was to stabilize the economy but he acknowledged that the recovery will not be “strong and sustained unless we can convince the American people that we’re going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established.”

Asked whether that meant raising taxes, Geithner said, “We’re going to have to do what is necessary.”

Japanese shares end mixed in cautious trade Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japanese share prices ended mixed on Monday as investors took a breather after the market ended last week at a near 10-month high on growing optimism about the global economy.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index slipped 4.36 points, or 0.04 percent, to 10,352.47.

But the broader Topix index of all first section shares rose 7.30 points, or 0.77 percent, to 957.56, rising for a 12th straight trading day, the longest unbroken winning streak in more than 21 years.

Market watchers said the index

seemed to be getting a bit bubbly.

“There is a strong sense that the market is overheated,” Nikko Cordial broker Hiroichi Nishi said, noting the headline index had risen by 14 percent from a recent low hit on July 13.

“Wary investors moved to lock in profits,” he said.

The yen’s rise against the dollar and mixed data on the US economy encouraged investors to lock in gains, he said.

Official data showed Friday a smaller-than-expected 1.0 percent contraction in the world’s largest economy in the second quarter but weakness in consumer spending.

Nishi said, however, that the overall market sentiment was upbeat.

“There are growing hopes for a world economic recovery and upturns in company earnings,” he said.

All Nippon Airways, which on Friday announced a first-quarter net loss of more than 300 million dollars, fell 0.8 percent to 262 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial jumped 6.0 percent to 600 yen after announcing its net profit soared 48 percent in the fiscal quarter.

Nissan climbed 5.4 percent to 726 yen a day after it unveiled its first electric car, vowing to take a lead over its rivals in zero emission vehicles.

Toyota rose 2.5 percent to 4,090 yen on the eve of its earnings results.

AFP PHOTO DDP/ THOMAS LOHNES

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama holds the lecture “Get to know Buddhism” in Frankfurt/Main, western Germany on July 30, 2009. The Dalai Lama visits Frankfurt/Main from July 30 to August 2, 2009 and gives lessons about “the art of living”.

Dalai Lama urges global cooperation in economic crisis Agence France-Presse

FRANKFURT - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday called for worldwide cooperation to fight the effects of the economic crisis.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader said the global downturn showed “how our world is really small” and urged countries to take concerted action.

“We have to think globally,” he said, speaking at a conference on the economic crisis in Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, also said urgent measures were needed to fight global warming and close the gulf between rich and poor.

“We don’t need just nice talking, we must take action,” he told an audience of several thousand gathered in a football stadium.

The spiritual leader, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, was

taking part in the conference on the economic crisis organised by several groups including Germany’s Buddhist Union.

Also speaking at the gathering, a businessman and an economist specialising in ethics denounced the “greed” and “selfishness” of the modern economy.

A young couple who had travelled to see the Dalai Lama from the southwestern city of Heidelberg praised his “wise words”, but added: “He is not saying anything extraordinary.”

Kristina, a 27-year-old teacher, hailed the Tibetan leader as a figure of “particular influence” but lamented what she described as a downbeat atmosphere at the event.

Others at Saturday’s conference voiced anger at the financial crisis.

Tom Waldmueller, 48, said: “The current crisis was predictable, all the bankers knew the bubble would burst one day.”

But the world would learn from its mistakes, he added.

10

Business

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

International

International

Barclays reports near 10-pct leap in first-half profit

Agence France-Presse

LONDON - British bank Barclays said on Monday that first-half net profits soared nearly 10 percent as its investment banking unit was boosted by markets turmoil and the part-purchase of Lehman Brothers.

But Barclays, which has avoided nationalisation unlike many other leading British banks, warned that trading would remain “difficult” this year because of a spreading global recession sparked by the world financial crisis.

Net earnings leapt 9.9 percent to 1.9 billion pounds (2.2 billion euros, 3.2 billion dollars) in the six months to the end of June, compared with 1.7 billion pounds in the same part of 2008, the group said in a re-

sults statement.

“The investments we have made, particularly in our international businesses, are driving very strong income performance and allowing us to absorb the consequences of the economic downturn,” said Chief Executive John Varley in the earnings release.

“Our goal for 2009 is very clear: we seek to deliver another year of solid profitability. Our first half per-

formance is a good start to this.”

Barclays added that revenues surged by 37 percent to a record 16.253 billion pounds.

Pre-tax profit rose eight percent to 2.98 billion pounds — of which 35 percent was attributed to the group’s Barclays Capital investment division.

“The Lehman Brothers North American businesses acquisition of 2008, coupled with the market share opportunities created by the upheaval in the global investment banking sector, have enabled us to increase substantially the scale of the client flow business within Barclays Capital,” the group said.

On the downside, impairment

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

charges and other credit provisions almost doubled to 4.56 billion pounds in the first half. That compared with 2.45 billion pounds last time around.

“The environment has remained very difficult in 2009 as a consequence of the onset during 2008 of economic recession in most parts of the world in which we operate,” added Varley.

“At the heart of this performance is the service to our customers and clients, for whom the recession creates both challenges and opportunities.

“High levels of activity on their behalf enabled us to grow our income by 37 percent. This has en-

abled us to absorb the impact of further credit market writedowns and increasing impairment.”

Barclays was lifted by its purchase of the investment banking and trading units belonging to failed US investment giant Lehman Brothers.

Lehman went bankrupt last year after the collapse of the US housing market and subsequent credit crunch, plunging the global financial system into chaos.Barclays has avoided nationalisation in the wake of the credit crunch by courting investment from wealthy Gulf states.

In 2008, Barclays secured additional capital from investors in Abu Dhabi and Qatar in order to bolster its finances.

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JAKARTA - Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will grow at five percent next year after another round of stimulus spending worth more than six billion dollars, according to a draft budget released Monday in Indonesia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono proposed a deficit of 98 trillion rupiah (9.98 billion dollars), or 1.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the 2.5 percent of GDP target for 2009.

Yudhoyono said the government would spend an additional 61.2 trillion rupiah to boost the economy next year, slightly less than the 70 trillion allocated for extraordinary stimulus measures this year.

Further stimulus spending would help achieve five percent growth in 2010, which is at the lower end of previous government forecasts.

Yudhoyono, who was reelected to a second five-year term last month on the back of sound economic management and an anticorruption drive, said Indonesia was in good shape to weather the global economic storm.

“As a country with an open economy, Indonesia certainly cannot disengage itself from the impact of the downturn of global economic activities,” the liberal exgeneral said.

“Nevertheless, due to the rapid, appropriate and measured ... action, Indonesia’s position was relatively speaking far better off than other countries.”

The government has predicted economic growth of 4.0-4.5 percent this year, third only to China and India in the G20 club of rich and developing countries. The economy grew 6.1 percent in 2008.

Inflation would remain low at about five percent in 2010 and the rupiah would stay steady around 10,000 to the dollar, according to the draft budget.

Strong domestic demand in the country of 234 million people, as well as its relatively low exposure to export markets hit hard by the global recession, have insulated Indonesia from the global crisis.

Yudhoyono reminded lawmakers that only a decade ago Indonesia was on the brink of bankruptcy as the Asian economic contagion swept the region, causing currencies to tumble and banks to collapse.

But reforms after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 have paid economic dividends, he said.

“After 11 years of ‘reformasi’ we have succeeded to build our domestic economy stronger and more self-reliant,” he said.

The government would spend 144.4 trillion rupiah on subsidies — especially on fuel, food and fertiliser — or more than 14 percent of the total budget.

Gadjah Mada University economist Sri Adiningsih said the government should have allocated more for stimulus spending.

“Expenditure of 61.2 trillion rupiah is not enough to stimulate the economy. We need at least 100 trillion rupiah just to improve the infrastructure like broken roads and old dams,” she said.

In an annual review, the International Monetary Fund last week said Indonesia had taken “timely and appropriate” action to ease monetary policy last year but additional fiscal stimulus efforts would be needed.

It said the economy would expand by 3.5 percent this year, rising to 4.5 percent in 2010.

The draft budget must be approved by parliament before it is implemented from January 1 next year.

JAYAPURA - Indonesian search and rescue teams were scouring the mountains of eastern Papua province Monday for signs of a plane that went missing with 16 people on board, an official said.

Jayapura Air Base commander Suwandi Miharja, who is coordinating the search, said two rescue aircraft were looking for the Merpati Airlines plane which disappeared on a flight from Jayapura to Oksibil on Sunday.

“We’re focusing our search on the border between Kerom and Pegunungan Bintang districts... it’s a mountainous, jungly region,” he said.

“They’re flying beneath the clouds. The weather is unfriendly... foggy and rainy,” he said.

Thirteen passengers and three crews, all Indonesian, were on board the Merpati Nusantara Twin Otter when it disappeared, Miharja said.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands which relies heavily on air links, but fatal accidents are common.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Indonesia budget sees 5.0 pct growth next year

No sign of missing plane in Indonesia

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Indonesia Today

AFP PHOTO/Bay ISMOYO

Students hold hands as they take part in a rally to demand the government be more transparent in Jakarta on August 3, 2009. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will grow at five percent next year after another round of stimulus spending worth more than six billion USD, according to a draft budget released on August 3 in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s drug fight pushing prison AIDS explosion

Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - Their tattooed skin hanging loosely from hollowed-out limbs, the young men in the clinic at the edge of Jakarta’s Cipinang Narcotic Prison lie limply across black vinyl beds.

The half-dozen inmates are in the advanced stages of HIV/AIDS, and are part of a crisis that has seen the disease sweep through Indonesia’s overcrowded, squalid and corrupt prisons.

The root of the problem, activists say, is a war on drugs that treats injecting users — many of them already HIV positive — with the same harsh punishments as dealers, flooding jails where opportunities to get drugs and spread the disease are plentiful.

“People who are selling drugs, buying drugs, bringing drugs, abusing drugs, whatever, are being locked in the same place in the same situation — no treatment, no nothing,” said Baby Jim Aditya, the head of Partisan, a non-governmental organisation dealing with public health.

A 27-year-old, HIV-positive former heroin addict who goes by the nickname Black is a recently released veteran of that system.

Arrested by an enraged crowd in 2007 as he attempted to shoot up with a friend in a quiet corner of a Jakarta market, Black spent 20 months in jail for possession of onetenth of a gram of low-grade heroin,

or “putaw”.

While in police detention, his friend, Rahman, died after being cut off from access to anti-retroviral medication and going through heroin withdrawal. Black then graduated to Jakarta’s Salemba prison.

“When I was still inside, there were lots of drugs, all sorts,” Black said.

Prison gangs would sell drugs such as marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and heroin with the connivance of guards, for very little difference in price compared to the outside world, he said.

A small packet of heroin that would cost 40,000 rupiah (four dollars) on the outside costs 50-60,000 rupiah in Salemba, and is usually better quality, he said.

In numbers, the HIV/AIDS crisis in Indonesia’s prisons is striking.

Roughly a third of the 254 prison deaths recorded in May this year were due to HIV/AIDS, according to official statistics.

Nearly 12,000 people are locked up in Jakarta prisons built to house just 5,056 inmates. Almost 6,900 inmates — more than the entire Jakarta prisons system’s official capacity — are in for drug crimes.

The number of inmates infected with HIV/AIDS is imprecise, but Partisan’s Aditya reckons somewhere between a quarter and 40 percent of prisoners locked up on drugrelated crimes are HIV positive, and most of them are unaware of their status.

The authorities at Cipinang Narcotic — capacity 1,084, real population 2,297 — estimate 20 to 30 percent of their inmates are infected.

Those arguing for drug law reform in Indonesia say it should not be like this.

A war on drugs spearheaded by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and an impending bill introducing heavy minimum sentences are part of a push that has seen prisons overflow, Atma Jaya University law lecturer Asmin Fransiska said.

“The policy on drugs is much harsher right now than 10 years ago.

(Former president) Abdurrahman Wahid’s drug user policy put it as a social issue but since Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, drugs have been put on the level of security,” Fransiska said.

Although in theory the law allows for light sentences and rehabilitation for addicts, in practice authorities opt for a tough line, she said.

Despite the grimness of its infirmary ward, Cipinang Narcotic is the closest thing Indonesia has to a model prison when it comes to dealing with HIV/AIDS and drug addiction.

The prison conducts basic tests on all inmates for HIV, deals out antiretroviral drugs and has a methadone programme.

But the prison’s chief, Ibnu Chauldun, believes the effectiveness of all this has been undermined by a dysfunctional system that has overwhelmed his jail with users who should not be there.

8

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bali Today Bali’s bamboo handicrafts exported to Middle East Antara

DENPASAR – Handicrafts made from bamboo such as lamp, have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia. Anak Agung Putri, a craftswoman and exporter, said “the order is not much but we are quite busy in handling the order.”

She added that the bomb explosions in Jakarta several weeks ago started to affect the handicrafts business in Bali. The orders keep decreasing after the bomb blast. “Hopefully it is only temporary and the business can be as usual as soon as possible,” said Mrs. Putri.

I Ketut Dana, a craftsman, also stated similar thing. He hopes that the effect of the Jakarta bomb blast will not last for long time.

“If the bomb terrors keep happening in Indonesia, the handicrafts business will become slower because the handicrafts order mostly coming form foreign tourists,’ he added.

The decrease of exports in

handicrafts was not only because the bomb explosion but also because the financial crisis which happened throughout the world. Bali Trade Department stated that the number of handicraft exports was decreasing during January through May 2009 period.

In the first five months of 2009, the number of handicrafts exports to Netherlands decreased from $5.7 million last year and became $4.1 million. The number of exports to Japan also decreased 20% compared to the same period last year. During January through May 2008, the number of exports was $37.8 million but in the same period this year the number of exports was only $30.2 million.

http://pariwisata.jogja.go.id

Handicrafts made from bamboo such as lamp, have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia.

Telkomsel doubles data capacity in August The Awakening of Indonesian Citizen 2009 Painters’ Association of Ubud IBP

DENPASAR – In order to increase the data’s traffic from customers, Telkomsel is increasing their data capacity. In August 2009, the international broadband capacity will be doubled than before. Leong Shin Loong, the Director of Commerce Telkomsel stated that plan on Saturday, August 1st 2009, in the Telkomsel Poin period IV 2008-2009 event in Mataram.

Leong said that currently Telkomsel is concentrating on broadband. It is not only in the products such as Flash, BlackBerry, and iPhone but

also broadband in general. The current use of data service throughout the world is 85%. “For that reason we will increase the capacity of the international network up to twice from its original and it will be carried out in August,” added Leong.

Meanwhile in the Telkomsel Poin event, the company gave away a Mercedes E200 Compressor as the Grad Prize, 3 Mercedes C200 as the main prizes, 100 hand phones, and 100 packages of money each worth 10 million rupiah.

The Mercedes C200 won by Soeriansyah (Lampung), Heru Kriswanto (Surabaya), and the head of Selayar district. The Mercedes E200 Compressor

Telkomsel

Director of Commerce Telkomsel Leong Shin Loong (two from right) accompanied by Telkomsel’s Vice President of Jawa Bali Area (right) pushing the button to inaugurate the searching of first prize winner in Telkomsel Poin periode IV 2008 - 2009.

won by Suparman (Depok).

Telkomsel also gave 1 unit of computer to religion school in western Lombok.

A day before, Telkomsel carried out priority night for the member of Telkomsel Priority in Sanur. Syaiful Bachri, the General Manager of Sales and Customer Services Telkomsel Bali Nusra, said that the annual event was the form of Telkomsel appreciation to its customers. There was also mini exhibition of Telkomsel products which are Flash, BlackBerry, and iPhone 3G In the press release, Telkomsel spread its cheap data service up to China. It is because the high number of Telkomsel’s customers travel to China. The data Roam service could give extra comfort for the customer.

The service can be done because the cooperation b between China Unicom with Bridge Alliance where Telkomsel is one of its member.

Approximately 500,000 Telkomsel customers travel abroad, especially to Asia Pacific region every month. For the cheap 5 megabytes data service, the customer only needs to send SMS, type DR5 and send it to 2662. Then the customer can enjoy the cheap data service abroad to access email, chatting, browsing, and downloading. The 5 megabytes package can be used for 100 emails or 500 pages of WAP

Cultural asset like the art of painting in Ubud has been well known in international circle where Ubud poses a strategic destination to foreign visitors. In addition, the phenomenon of Ubud as the kampong of artists to discover their creative ideas has been undeniable.

This matter drives the artists coalesced into the Painters’ Association of Ubud to organize an exhibition entitled “The Awakening of Indonesian Citizen 2009.”

The exhibition displays some 40 works composed by 32 artists that not only come from Bali but also from outside Bali. Superb moment of the celebration of the Indonesian Independence Day is selected by these artists to tighten the relationship among the artists.

According to the committee of the exhibition, M Yanan said that it was the second event organized to maintain close relationship and share ideas among the artists.

Out of tens of works presented, figurative style is very dominant gracing the walls of Green House Lounge, Pertiwi Resort & Spa Ubud where the exhibition takes place. Other styles

jazzing up the exhibition are the contemporary and abstract. “We hope that this exhibition can become a forum to mutually do correction among the young and old artists from diverse backgrounds,” Yanan said.

Yanan also added that many of those works generally highlighted the environmental issues and social life.

In the exhibition taking place for a month (17 July—17 August) also lies a uniformity of painting, namely in the form of size ranging from 2m x 1m up to 40cm x 40cm. “Except for exhibited, these works are also sold. We do not set up particular price. However, we entrust it all to the artists and art enjoyers,” he said.

It is expected that through the Painters’Association of Ubud, the preservation and development of arts in Indonesia and Bali in particular could stay to increase in keeping with other countries in the world. Even, the cooperation in continuous establishment would become a sturdy root to shore up the growth and development of arts in Bali and Indonesia in general. It is important to do so in order the works on show could remain to have high quality and artistic value. (BTN/008)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Balinese Culture Gedang Mekuah

(Green Papaya Soup with Seafood)

”Marine Life”

The Theme Highlighted for Sanur Village Festival 2009 Sanur Village Festival (SVF) is considered efficacious to promote the tourism of Sanur in particular and Bali in general. Its evidence, this annual event is organized again this year for five days (12-16 August 2009) by presenting a variety of cultural attractions, sports and culinary. “This festival poses the promotion of Sanur tourism. Visitors have waited when the SVF will be organized,” IB Sidharta Putra, the Head of Organizing Committee, said on the press conference in Sanur.

Gusde, as he is familiarly greeted, said that the fourth SVF will be centralized at Mertasari Beach and is removed from the former venue, the front area of Inna Grand Bali Beach. It is intended to introduce Sanur from different perspective, namely at the southern corner near Serangan Island. The theme highlighted is also different, that is “Marine Life” as reflection of cultural roots and day-to-day life of Sanur community that is famous for its marine activities.

There are more than 25 programs on offer, such as international cartoon exhibition, bonsai and adenium exhibition, fun bike, cultural parade, water sport, jukung outrigger parade, Sanur golf tournament, under water festival/coral plantation, painting exhibition, food festival, bazaar, jazz festival, photo contest, fashion show, body & face painting, orchid exhibition, collaborative dance performance, trade fair and music presentation..

Other intriguing activities filling the event consist of turtle hatchling release, mangrove planting and beach clean up remain to be undertaken. In the meantime, surfing will be packed into Bali Open because it also involves foreign participants. Fun game will engage local and foreign community so that the event will be able to create familiar atmosphere. In addition, the kite’s competition will involve 27 countries of the world.

A number of 12 artists from across Indonesia will exhibit their installation works in the event. Meanwhile, ICCA with its expertise will discover local food

BTN/Doc

People crowded at Sanur Beach, Bali Island. Sanur Village Festival (SVF) 2009 is intended to introduce Sanur from different perspective, namely at the southern corner near Serangan Island. to become the world typicality. Yoga en masse, an activity engaging local and foreign community, will be performed in the afternoon and it is different from the one in last year that was organized in the morning.

The latest activity is establishing a village in the midst of Sanur Village involving 15 countries like Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, China, Africa, Sudan and Somalia.

Such event will involve security personnel from the Bali Police Department and Denpasar Metro Police. “The budget allocated is approximately IDR 2 billion obtained from the Budget of Denpasar Municipality and hopefully we will also get the one from the central government,” Gusde said in the press conference that was also attended

by Chief of South Denpasar Sector Police, Head of Denpasar Government Tourism Office and Head of Bali Tourism Board. (BTN/015)

Overview: Unripe papayas are often used as a vegetable in Bali. If these are not available, you can use summer squash or Chinese winter melon.

Ingredients: 1 unripe papaya, weighing roughly 750 gr (1½ lb) 1 cup spice paste for seafood 1 liter chicken stock ¼ liter coconut milk 2 salam leaves 1 stalk lemon grass, bruised ¼ tsp powdered black pepper 100 gr shrimps, clams, and mussels 100 gr diced firm fish 1 tsp salt Fried shallots to garnish Preparation: 1. Heat stock, add seafood, marinade and bring to boil. Simmer 2 minutes 2. Add salam leaves, lemongrass and papaya, simmer gently until the papaya is 95% tender. Add coconut milk and seafood and continue to simmer (do not boil) until papaya and seafood is tender.

3. If the stock reduces too much, add more stock 4. Season to taste with pepper and salt and garnish with fried shallots.

Note: If you wish to prepare a lighter version of this soup then leave coconut milk and seafood out. (www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Tum Bebek

(Minced Duck in Banana Leaf) Overview: Tum, leaf-wrapped bundles of highly seasoned food, are made with almost any basic ingredient in Bali, ranging from eels, to chicken, pork, beef or duck.

Ingredients: 600 gr boneless duck, skin removed and minced 1 tbsp fried shallots 1 tbsp fried garlic 1/3 cup coconut milk, thick 3 tbsp basic spice paste 4 bird’s-eye chilies, sliced 1 tbsp salt 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed 12 pieces banana leaf, cut in 20 cm (8 in) squares 12 ea salam leaves

FOTO ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana

A guy is spraying disinfectant to the class room of elementary school on Denpasar, Bali on Monday, August 3, 2009. Since last week hundreds of students were infected by flu but the type of it not yet determined.

Preparation: Combine the above ingredients except for banana leaf and mix well. Fold a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into the center of a banana leaf and wrap.

Steam parcels for about 15 minutes, until well cooked. If banana leaf were not available, use greaseproof paper in preference to aluminum foil.

The above mixture can also be used for duck satays; simply add 200g of grated coconut and double the quantity of the basic spice paste salt and pepper. Spear 2 heaped tablespoons of the paste around a large satay skewer or stalk of lemon grass. (www.baliguide.com/ balifood)

9

8

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bali Today Bali’s bamboo handicrafts exported to Middle East Antara

DENPASAR – Handicrafts made from bamboo such as lamp, have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia. Anak Agung Putri, a craftswoman and exporter, said “the order is not much but we are quite busy in handling the order.”

She added that the bomb explosions in Jakarta several weeks ago started to affect the handicrafts business in Bali. The orders keep decreasing after the bomb blast. “Hopefully it is only temporary and the business can be as usual as soon as possible,” said Mrs. Putri.

I Ketut Dana, a craftsman, also stated similar thing. He hopes that the effect of the Jakarta bomb blast will not last for long time.

“If the bomb terrors keep happening in Indonesia, the handicrafts business will become slower because the handicrafts order mostly coming form foreign tourists,’ he added.

The decrease of exports in

handicrafts was not only because the bomb explosion but also because the financial crisis which happened throughout the world. Bali Trade Department stated that the number of handicraft exports was decreasing during January through May 2009 period.

In the first five months of 2009, the number of handicrafts exports to Netherlands decreased from $5.7 million last year and became $4.1 million. The number of exports to Japan also decreased 20% compared to the same period last year. During January through May 2008, the number of exports was $37.8 million but in the same period this year the number of exports was only $30.2 million.

http://pariwisata.jogja.go.id

Handicrafts made from bamboo such as lamp, have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Netherlands, and Australia.

Telkomsel doubles data capacity in August The Awakening of Indonesian Citizen 2009 Painters’ Association of Ubud IBP

DENPASAR – In order to increase the data’s traffic from customers, Telkomsel is increasing their data capacity. In August 2009, the international broadband capacity will be doubled than before. Leong Shin Loong, the Director of Commerce Telkomsel stated that plan on Saturday, August 1st 2009, in the Telkomsel Poin period IV 2008-2009 event in Mataram.

Leong said that currently Telkomsel is concentrating on broadband. It is not only in the products such as Flash, BlackBerry, and iPhone but

also broadband in general. The current use of data service throughout the world is 85%. “For that reason we will increase the capacity of the international network up to twice from its original and it will be carried out in August,” added Leong.

Meanwhile in the Telkomsel Poin event, the company gave away a Mercedes E200 Compressor as the Grad Prize, 3 Mercedes C200 as the main prizes, 100 hand phones, and 100 packages of money each worth 10 million rupiah.

The Mercedes C200 won by Soeriansyah (Lampung), Heru Kriswanto (Surabaya), and the head of Selayar district. The Mercedes E200 Compressor

Telkomsel

Director of Commerce Telkomsel Leong Shin Loong (two from right) accompanied by Telkomsel’s Vice President of Jawa Bali Area (right) pushing the button to inaugurate the searching of first prize winner in Telkomsel Poin periode IV 2008 - 2009.

won by Suparman (Depok).

Telkomsel also gave 1 unit of computer to religion school in western Lombok.

A day before, Telkomsel carried out priority night for the member of Telkomsel Priority in Sanur. Syaiful Bachri, the General Manager of Sales and Customer Services Telkomsel Bali Nusra, said that the annual event was the form of Telkomsel appreciation to its customers. There was also mini exhibition of Telkomsel products which are Flash, BlackBerry, and iPhone 3G In the press release, Telkomsel spread its cheap data service up to China. It is because the high number of Telkomsel’s customers travel to China. The data Roam service could give extra comfort for the customer.

The service can be done because the cooperation b between China Unicom with Bridge Alliance where Telkomsel is one of its member.

Approximately 500,000 Telkomsel customers travel abroad, especially to Asia Pacific region every month. For the cheap 5 megabytes data service, the customer only needs to send SMS, type DR5 and send it to 2662. Then the customer can enjoy the cheap data service abroad to access email, chatting, browsing, and downloading. The 5 megabytes package can be used for 100 emails or 500 pages of WAP

Cultural asset like the art of painting in Ubud has been well known in international circle where Ubud poses a strategic destination to foreign visitors. In addition, the phenomenon of Ubud as the kampong of artists to discover their creative ideas has been undeniable.

This matter drives the artists coalesced into the Painters’ Association of Ubud to organize an exhibition entitled “The Awakening of Indonesian Citizen 2009.”

The exhibition displays some 40 works composed by 32 artists that not only come from Bali but also from outside Bali. Superb moment of the celebration of the Indonesian Independence Day is selected by these artists to tighten the relationship among the artists.

According to the committee of the exhibition, M Yanan said that it was the second event organized to maintain close relationship and share ideas among the artists.

Out of tens of works presented, figurative style is very dominant gracing the walls of Green House Lounge, Pertiwi Resort & Spa Ubud where the exhibition takes place. Other styles

jazzing up the exhibition are the contemporary and abstract. “We hope that this exhibition can become a forum to mutually do correction among the young and old artists from diverse backgrounds,” Yanan said.

Yanan also added that many of those works generally highlighted the environmental issues and social life.

In the exhibition taking place for a month (17 July—17 August) also lies a uniformity of painting, namely in the form of size ranging from 2m x 1m up to 40cm x 40cm. “Except for exhibited, these works are also sold. We do not set up particular price. However, we entrust it all to the artists and art enjoyers,” he said.

It is expected that through the Painters’Association of Ubud, the preservation and development of arts in Indonesia and Bali in particular could stay to increase in keeping with other countries in the world. Even, the cooperation in continuous establishment would become a sturdy root to shore up the growth and development of arts in Bali and Indonesia in general. It is important to do so in order the works on show could remain to have high quality and artistic value. (BTN/008)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Balinese Culture Gedang Mekuah

(Green Papaya Soup with Seafood)

”Marine Life”

The Theme Highlighted for Sanur Village Festival 2009 Sanur Village Festival (SVF) is considered efficacious to promote the tourism of Sanur in particular and Bali in general. Its evidence, this annual event is organized again this year for five days (12-16 August 2009) by presenting a variety of cultural attractions, sports and culinary. “This festival poses the promotion of Sanur tourism. Visitors have waited when the SVF will be organized,” IB Sidharta Putra, the Head of Organizing Committee, said on the press conference in Sanur.

Gusde, as he is familiarly greeted, said that the fourth SVF will be centralized at Mertasari Beach and is removed from the former venue, the front area of Inna Grand Bali Beach. It is intended to introduce Sanur from different perspective, namely at the southern corner near Serangan Island. The theme highlighted is also different, that is “Marine Life” as reflection of cultural roots and day-to-day life of Sanur community that is famous for its marine activities.

There are more than 25 programs on offer, such as international cartoon exhibition, bonsai and adenium exhibition, fun bike, cultural parade, water sport, jukung outrigger parade, Sanur golf tournament, under water festival/coral plantation, painting exhibition, food festival, bazaar, jazz festival, photo contest, fashion show, body & face painting, orchid exhibition, collaborative dance performance, trade fair and music presentation..

Other intriguing activities filling the event consist of turtle hatchling release, mangrove planting and beach clean up remain to be undertaken. In the meantime, surfing will be packed into Bali Open because it also involves foreign participants. Fun game will engage local and foreign community so that the event will be able to create familiar atmosphere. In addition, the kite’s competition will involve 27 countries of the world.

A number of 12 artists from across Indonesia will exhibit their installation works in the event. Meanwhile, ICCA with its expertise will discover local food

BTN/Doc

People crowded at Sanur Beach, Bali Island. Sanur Village Festival (SVF) 2009 is intended to introduce Sanur from different perspective, namely at the southern corner near Serangan Island. to become the world typicality. Yoga en masse, an activity engaging local and foreign community, will be performed in the afternoon and it is different from the one in last year that was organized in the morning.

The latest activity is establishing a village in the midst of Sanur Village involving 15 countries like Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, China, Africa, Sudan and Somalia.

Such event will involve security personnel from the Bali Police Department and Denpasar Metro Police. “The budget allocated is approximately IDR 2 billion obtained from the Budget of Denpasar Municipality and hopefully we will also get the one from the central government,” Gusde said in the press conference that was also attended

by Chief of South Denpasar Sector Police, Head of Denpasar Government Tourism Office and Head of Bali Tourism Board. (BTN/015)

Overview: Unripe papayas are often used as a vegetable in Bali. If these are not available, you can use summer squash or Chinese winter melon.

Ingredients: 1 unripe papaya, weighing roughly 750 gr (1½ lb) 1 cup spice paste for seafood 1 liter chicken stock ¼ liter coconut milk 2 salam leaves 1 stalk lemon grass, bruised ¼ tsp powdered black pepper 100 gr shrimps, clams, and mussels 100 gr diced firm fish 1 tsp salt Fried shallots to garnish Preparation: 1. Heat stock, add seafood, marinade and bring to boil. Simmer 2 minutes 2. Add salam leaves, lemongrass and papaya, simmer gently until the papaya is 95% tender. Add coconut milk and seafood and continue to simmer (do not boil) until papaya and seafood is tender.

3. If the stock reduces too much, add more stock 4. Season to taste with pepper and salt and garnish with fried shallots.

Note: If you wish to prepare a lighter version of this soup then leave coconut milk and seafood out. (www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Tum Bebek

(Minced Duck in Banana Leaf) Overview: Tum, leaf-wrapped bundles of highly seasoned food, are made with almost any basic ingredient in Bali, ranging from eels, to chicken, pork, beef or duck.

Ingredients: 600 gr boneless duck, skin removed and minced 1 tbsp fried shallots 1 tbsp fried garlic 1/3 cup coconut milk, thick 3 tbsp basic spice paste 4 bird’s-eye chilies, sliced 1 tbsp salt 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed 12 pieces banana leaf, cut in 20 cm (8 in) squares 12 ea salam leaves

FOTO ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana

A guy is spraying disinfectant to the class room of elementary school on Denpasar, Bali on Monday, August 3, 2009. Since last week hundreds of students were infected by flu but the type of it not yet determined.

Preparation: Combine the above ingredients except for banana leaf and mix well. Fold a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into the center of a banana leaf and wrap.

Steam parcels for about 15 minutes, until well cooked. If banana leaf were not available, use greaseproof paper in preference to aluminum foil.

The above mixture can also be used for duck satays; simply add 200g of grated coconut and double the quantity of the basic spice paste salt and pepper. Spear 2 heaped tablespoons of the paste around a large satay skewer or stalk of lemon grass. (www.baliguide.com/ balifood)

9

10

Business

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

International

International

Barclays reports near 10-pct leap in first-half profit

Agence France-Presse

LONDON - British bank Barclays said on Monday that first-half net profits soared nearly 10 percent as its investment banking unit was boosted by markets turmoil and the part-purchase of Lehman Brothers.

But Barclays, which has avoided nationalisation unlike many other leading British banks, warned that trading would remain “difficult” this year because of a spreading global recession sparked by the world financial crisis.

Net earnings leapt 9.9 percent to 1.9 billion pounds (2.2 billion euros, 3.2 billion dollars) in the six months to the end of June, compared with 1.7 billion pounds in the same part of 2008, the group said in a re-

sults statement.

“The investments we have made, particularly in our international businesses, are driving very strong income performance and allowing us to absorb the consequences of the economic downturn,” said Chief Executive John Varley in the earnings release.

“Our goal for 2009 is very clear: we seek to deliver another year of solid profitability. Our first half per-

formance is a good start to this.”

Barclays added that revenues surged by 37 percent to a record 16.253 billion pounds.

Pre-tax profit rose eight percent to 2.98 billion pounds — of which 35 percent was attributed to the group’s Barclays Capital investment division.

“The Lehman Brothers North American businesses acquisition of 2008, coupled with the market share opportunities created by the upheaval in the global investment banking sector, have enabled us to increase substantially the scale of the client flow business within Barclays Capital,” the group said.

On the downside, impairment

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

charges and other credit provisions almost doubled to 4.56 billion pounds in the first half. That compared with 2.45 billion pounds last time around.

“The environment has remained very difficult in 2009 as a consequence of the onset during 2008 of economic recession in most parts of the world in which we operate,” added Varley.

“At the heart of this performance is the service to our customers and clients, for whom the recession creates both challenges and opportunities.

“High levels of activity on their behalf enabled us to grow our income by 37 percent. This has en-

abled us to absorb the impact of further credit market writedowns and increasing impairment.”

Barclays was lifted by its purchase of the investment banking and trading units belonging to failed US investment giant Lehman Brothers.

Lehman went bankrupt last year after the collapse of the US housing market and subsequent credit crunch, plunging the global financial system into chaos.Barclays has avoided nationalisation in the wake of the credit crunch by courting investment from wealthy Gulf states.

In 2008, Barclays secured additional capital from investors in Abu Dhabi and Qatar in order to bolster its finances.

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

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

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Hub:

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

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Specialis in :

JAKARTA - Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will grow at five percent next year after another round of stimulus spending worth more than six billion dollars, according to a draft budget released Monday in Indonesia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono proposed a deficit of 98 trillion rupiah (9.98 billion dollars), or 1.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the 2.5 percent of GDP target for 2009.

Yudhoyono said the government would spend an additional 61.2 trillion rupiah to boost the economy next year, slightly less than the 70 trillion allocated for extraordinary stimulus measures this year.

Further stimulus spending would help achieve five percent growth in 2010, which is at the lower end of previous government forecasts.

Yudhoyono, who was reelected to a second five-year term last month on the back of sound economic management and an anticorruption drive, said Indonesia was in good shape to weather the global economic storm.

“As a country with an open economy, Indonesia certainly cannot disengage itself from the impact of the downturn of global economic activities,” the liberal exgeneral said.

“Nevertheless, due to the rapid, appropriate and measured ... action, Indonesia’s position was relatively speaking far better off than other countries.”

The government has predicted economic growth of 4.0-4.5 percent this year, third only to China and India in the G20 club of rich and developing countries. The economy grew 6.1 percent in 2008.

Inflation would remain low at about five percent in 2010 and the rupiah would stay steady around 10,000 to the dollar, according to the draft budget.

Strong domestic demand in the country of 234 million people, as well as its relatively low exposure to export markets hit hard by the global recession, have insulated Indonesia from the global crisis.

Yudhoyono reminded lawmakers that only a decade ago Indonesia was on the brink of bankruptcy as the Asian economic contagion swept the region, causing currencies to tumble and banks to collapse.

But reforms after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 have paid economic dividends, he said.

“After 11 years of ‘reformasi’ we have succeeded to build our domestic economy stronger and more self-reliant,” he said.

The government would spend 144.4 trillion rupiah on subsidies — especially on fuel, food and fertiliser — or more than 14 percent of the total budget.

Gadjah Mada University economist Sri Adiningsih said the government should have allocated more for stimulus spending.

“Expenditure of 61.2 trillion rupiah is not enough to stimulate the economy. We need at least 100 trillion rupiah just to improve the infrastructure like broken roads and old dams,” she said.

In an annual review, the International Monetary Fund last week said Indonesia had taken “timely and appropriate” action to ease monetary policy last year but additional fiscal stimulus efforts would be needed.

It said the economy would expand by 3.5 percent this year, rising to 4.5 percent in 2010.

The draft budget must be approved by parliament before it is implemented from January 1 next year.

JAYAPURA - Indonesian search and rescue teams were scouring the mountains of eastern Papua province Monday for signs of a plane that went missing with 16 people on board, an official said.

Jayapura Air Base commander Suwandi Miharja, who is coordinating the search, said two rescue aircraft were looking for the Merpati Airlines plane which disappeared on a flight from Jayapura to Oksibil on Sunday.

“We’re focusing our search on the border between Kerom and Pegunungan Bintang districts... it’s a mountainous, jungly region,” he said.

“They’re flying beneath the clouds. The weather is unfriendly... foggy and rainy,” he said.

Thirteen passengers and three crews, all Indonesian, were on board the Merpati Nusantara Twin Otter when it disappeared, Miharja said.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands which relies heavily on air links, but fatal accidents are common.

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7

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse

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

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Indonesia budget sees 5.0 pct growth next year

No sign of missing plane in Indonesia

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

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Indonesia Today

AFP PHOTO/Bay ISMOYO

Students hold hands as they take part in a rally to demand the government be more transparent in Jakarta on August 3, 2009. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will grow at five percent next year after another round of stimulus spending worth more than six billion USD, according to a draft budget released on August 3 in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s drug fight pushing prison AIDS explosion

Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA - Their tattooed skin hanging loosely from hollowed-out limbs, the young men in the clinic at the edge of Jakarta’s Cipinang Narcotic Prison lie limply across black vinyl beds.

The half-dozen inmates are in the advanced stages of HIV/AIDS, and are part of a crisis that has seen the disease sweep through Indonesia’s overcrowded, squalid and corrupt prisons.

The root of the problem, activists say, is a war on drugs that treats injecting users — many of them already HIV positive — with the same harsh punishments as dealers, flooding jails where opportunities to get drugs and spread the disease are plentiful.

“People who are selling drugs, buying drugs, bringing drugs, abusing drugs, whatever, are being locked in the same place in the same situation — no treatment, no nothing,” said Baby Jim Aditya, the head of Partisan, a non-governmental organisation dealing with public health.

A 27-year-old, HIV-positive former heroin addict who goes by the nickname Black is a recently released veteran of that system.

Arrested by an enraged crowd in 2007 as he attempted to shoot up with a friend in a quiet corner of a Jakarta market, Black spent 20 months in jail for possession of onetenth of a gram of low-grade heroin,

or “putaw”.

While in police detention, his friend, Rahman, died after being cut off from access to anti-retroviral medication and going through heroin withdrawal. Black then graduated to Jakarta’s Salemba prison.

“When I was still inside, there were lots of drugs, all sorts,” Black said.

Prison gangs would sell drugs such as marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and heroin with the connivance of guards, for very little difference in price compared to the outside world, he said.

A small packet of heroin that would cost 40,000 rupiah (four dollars) on the outside costs 50-60,000 rupiah in Salemba, and is usually better quality, he said.

In numbers, the HIV/AIDS crisis in Indonesia’s prisons is striking.

Roughly a third of the 254 prison deaths recorded in May this year were due to HIV/AIDS, according to official statistics.

Nearly 12,000 people are locked up in Jakarta prisons built to house just 5,056 inmates. Almost 6,900 inmates — more than the entire Jakarta prisons system’s official capacity — are in for drug crimes.

The number of inmates infected with HIV/AIDS is imprecise, but Partisan’s Aditya reckons somewhere between a quarter and 40 percent of prisoners locked up on drugrelated crimes are HIV positive, and most of them are unaware of their status.

The authorities at Cipinang Narcotic — capacity 1,084, real population 2,297 — estimate 20 to 30 percent of their inmates are infected.

Those arguing for drug law reform in Indonesia say it should not be like this.

A war on drugs spearheaded by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and an impending bill introducing heavy minimum sentences are part of a push that has seen prisons overflow, Atma Jaya University law lecturer Asmin Fransiska said.

“The policy on drugs is much harsher right now than 10 years ago.

(Former president) Abdurrahman Wahid’s drug user policy put it as a social issue but since Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, drugs have been put on the level of security,” Fransiska said.

Although in theory the law allows for light sentences and rehabilitation for addicts, in practice authorities opt for a tough line, she said.

Despite the grimness of its infirmary ward, Cipinang Narcotic is the closest thing Indonesia has to a model prison when it comes to dealing with HIV/AIDS and drug addiction.

The prison conducts basic tests on all inmates for HIV, deals out antiretroviral drugs and has a methadone programme.

But the prison’s chief, Ibnu Chauldun, believes the effectiveness of all this has been undermined by a dysfunctional system that has overwhelmed his jail with users who should not be there.

6

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News Marcos...

From page 1

AFP PHOTO/ JORGE GUERRERO.

Japanese bullfighter Taira Nono performs a pass on his bull during a bullfight in Torremolinos, southern Spain, on August 2, 2009.

Japanese man on course to be matador in Spain Agence France-Presse

TORREMOLINOS - A Japanese man moved closer to achieving his goal of becoming his country’s first full-fledged professional matador by taking part in his first bullfight involving mounted lancers.

Taira Nono slayed two young bulls at the bullring in the southern Spanish resort town of Torremolinos on Sunday after a picador, a bullfighter on horseback, goaded the animals with steelpointed lances which weaken their shoulder muscles.

“I am very happy and have a real desire to succeed. I love the bullfighting world and am in Spain to become the first matador in Japanese history,” the soft-spoken 35-year-old told reporters before entering the ring.

Since he moved to Spain from Tokyo 12 years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a matador, Nono has up until now only participated in simpler bullfights that did not involve picadors.

To become a matador he must undergo the “alternativa”, a ceremony that separates amateurs from professionals in which a novice or “novillero” is proposed and seconded by two other matadors.

Until then he can only take part in bullfights with bulls aged at least three years old, whereas matadors face bulls aged at least four years which can weigh between 480 and 600 kilos (1,060 to 1,320 pounds).

Audiences judge bullfighters according to their skill, grace and daring and the sparse crowd of around 300 people which turned out to watch Nono’s debut with mounted lancers was sympathetic to his efforts in the ring.

They applauded and called out “matador” whenever Nono, who wore a green silk suit embroidered with gold sequin which sparkled in the late afternoon sun, elegantly swirled his red cape around the body of the bull.

After he killed his first bull with a single thrust of his sword into the animal’s neck, the majority of the crowd petitioned the presiding judge to award him one of the ears of the slain bull by waving

white handkerchiefs.

“For a ‘novillero’ he is not bad,” said Antonio de la Torre Reina who raises bulls for a living at a ranch in the surrounding countryside of Andalucia, the southern region of Spain that is the traditional spawning ground for bullfighters and the birthplace of the ritual.

“He killed the bull with one thrust. It is hard to become a matador but he has shown great willpower,” he added as he sat in the shady part of the ring beside his brother and a friend.

Many in the crowd were foreigners, including a handful of Japanese who were drawn by the rare appearance in the ring of a compatriot.

“Japanese have come today to cheer him on. I think it is difficult to become a matador, it takes time,” said Chie Ito, a Japanese woman who runs a study abroad service in neighbouring Malaga and who came specifically to see Nono.

Only top bullfighters earn a living at their trade and to survive Nono — who says he set his sights on becoming a matador after watching a report on television on the ritual — earns money picking fruits and vegetables.

There have been a handful of Chinese and Japanese aspirants who have had varying degrees of success but none has earned the “alternativa” and reached the level of matador.

Nono has been compared to another Japanese man, Atsuhiro Shimoyama, or the “Nino de Sol Nascientero” (Son of the Rising Sun) as he was called, who achieved some fame in Spain in in his bid to become a matador.

His dream was cut short in 1995 when the horn of a 400-kilogramme bull caught on his suit and tossed him in the air during a bullfight, leaving him with a bad limp that caused him to drag his left leg.

Aquino, whose husband was assassinated by the forces of dictator Ferdinand Marcos after returning home from exile in 1983, died at the weekend following a battle with cancer.

“I can feel the pain, the loss of a loved one, so I am in prayer. If these two families reconciled, there will be a miracle for the Philippines,” the former first lady said on television.

The Aquino family earlier said members of the Marcos family could attend the wake for the former president, who died Saturday at the age of 76, but should not expect a warm welcome.

The youngest of Aquino’s children, Kristina Bernadette Aquino, thanked Marcos for offering Sunday prayers for her mother.

“I never thought the time would come (that I would say this), but thank you to the Marcoses for really praying for mum,” she said.

Marcos’s aides have said the former first lady or her children may attend Aquino’s wake later Monday, although there were no concrete plans.

The comments came as preparations for Aquino’s funeral on Wednesday gathered pace.

An open truck carrying her coffin and decorated with yellow flowers symbolising the “People Power” revolution that swept her to power started its three-hour procession through the streets of Manila.

Traffic was at a standstill while mourners threw yellow confetti and flowers onto the cortege as it passed through the capital on its way to Manila Cathedral, where Aquino’s body was to lie in state until her funeral.

Aquino will then be buried beside her husband, Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino. Outside the cathedral around 1,000 policemen were setting up steel barricades to contain the thousands of people expected to gather there later.

Thousands braved heavy monsoon rains over the weekend to queue up for hours to catch a glimpse of the woman fondly referred to by the

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 public as Tita, or Auntie, Cory, as she lay in state at a Manila high-school.

Mourners from all walks of life offered silent payers and recalled fond memories of the deeply religious woman who, even in death, wore her trademark yellow dress, and clutched a rosary with a golden cross.

Many wore pins and shirts with pictures of Aquino, whose death sparked tributes from around the world.

Among those who had visited her body was Wan Azizah Ismail, the wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who called Aquino a source of inspiration for Asian leaders.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was also expected to view the coffin at the cathedral later Monday, friends and family said.

John Bolinao, 43, stood four hours late Sunday to see Aquino’s body.

“I’m a fan of Cory. I identify with her heroism, that’s why I am here to pay my last respects,” said Bolinao, who joined the 1986 revolution when he was a 19-year-old student.

Patricia Patriarca meanwhile took a bus from out of town and arrived as heavy rain began to drench the crowd. “I am sad because she is gone, but happy that she is no longer in pain.”

“I appreciate what she did for the poor like me,” she said.

Reluctantly stepping into the shoes of her husband, Aquino in 1986 challenged Marcos in a presidential election that he won amid massive cheating.

A group of military officers subsequently turned against him, and Aquino called millions onto the streets to protect them from Marcos’s troops.

This mushroomed into a massive street protest that eventually forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii, where he died in 1989.

Aquino’s family rejected the offer of a state funeral from President Gloria Arroyo, who fell out with the former president over allegations of corruption in Arroyo’s nine-year presidency.

Tens...

From page 1 Making the letter “L” sign with their fingers for Laban (Fight) — Aquino’s party slogan — the crowd sang a revolutionary anthem and chanted “Cory, Cory”.

Women openly cried as yellow balloons symbolising Aquino’s “People Power” revolution were released into the air. Yellow banners fluttered from rooftops and posters of Aquino hung from lampposts outside the stock exchange.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all,” the youngest of the Aquino children, actress Kristina Bernadette, said as the convoy stopped in front of a statue of her late father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.

“Our hearts feel so wonderful because you are letting us feel that you loved my mum very much,” she said. “I feel so blessed to be a Filipino.”

She said allowing the public to view her mother’s body was “our way of saying thank you to the people who were with us from the very start”.

Imelda Marcos, the famously extravagant widow of Aquino’s arch-foe, said she hoped for national reconciliation.

“I can feel the pain, the loss of a loved one, so I am in prayer. If these two families reconciled, there will be a miracle for the Philippines,” the former first lady said on television.

The Aquino family earlier said relatives of Marcos could attend the wake for the former president, but should not expect a warm welcome.

Aquino’s family rejected the offer of a state funeral from President Gloria Arroyo, who fell out with the former leader over allegations of corruption in Arroyo’s ad-

ministration.

Sirens wailed and ships docked at Manila’s harbour blared their horns as the procession approached the Manila Cathedral after a fivehour trip across town that covered a mere 12 kilometres (7.5 miles).

Classical music played while her body was received on a red carpet. She was taken near the altar, and priests wafted incense.

“The battle is over, victory is won,” said close family friend Bishop Socrates Villegas, who helped officiate at a mass.

Mourners offered silent prayers and recalled fond memories of the deeply religious woman who, even in death, wore her trademark yellow dress, and clutched a rosary with a golden cross.

Many wore pins and shirts with pictures of Aquino, whose death sparked tributes from around the world.

Among those who had visited her body was Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who called Aquino a source of inspiration for Asian leaders.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was also expected to view the coffin at the cathedral later Monday, friends and family said.

Reluctantly stepping into the shoes of her husband, Aquino in 1986 challenged Marcos in a presidential election that he won amid massive cheating.

A group of military officers subsequently turned against him, and Aquino called millions onto the streets to protect them from Marcos’s troops.

This mushroomed into a massive street protest that eventually forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii, where he died in 1989.

11

BUSINESS US officials see economic growth in second half 2009 Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK - Top US administration officials said on Sunday that economic growth is highly likely to resume in the second half of the year, but warned of “hard choices” to contain rising deficits once recovery is assured.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would not rule out higher taxes in the future, telling ABC television: “We’re going to have to do what is necessary.”

Geithner and White House economic adviser Larry Summers went on the Sunday television talk shows to make the case that President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program was gaining traction despite rising unemployment and worries about the US deficit.

“A very great likelihood, and this is what most professional forecasters say, is that we’ll see growth going forward in the second half of this year,” Summers said in an interview with NBC television.

Their prognosis was backed by former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, who told ABC the worst US financial crisis in a half a century was “not quite” over, “but we’re getting there.”

Greenspan said he was “pretty sure” the broader US economy had hit bottom and begun to turn around in mid-July.

Summers pointed to the popularity of a “cash for clunkers” program as a sign that the US auto industry was coming back to life, and said industries will have to replace inventories that have been massively cut.

But both he and Geithner acknowledged that the US jobless rate will continue to climb from its current level of 9.5 percent. The treasury secretary cited private analysts as saying it will not start coming down until the begin-

ning of the second half of 2010.

“You are right that there are signs the recession is easing. And if you think about where we were at the end of last year — we had an economy in freefall, a financial system on the verge of collapse,” Geithner said on ABC. “But I think we have a ways to go,” he added. “I want to emphasize the basic realities. Unemployment is still very high in this country. We need to make Americans more confident about their future.”

The latest ray of light in the economic storm came with new gross domestic product figures released Friday by the Commerce Department, which estimated that the US economy contracted 1.0 percent in the second quarter, better than forecasters expected.

The administration said the new report showed the economy was in deeper trouble than believed when Obama took office but that its recovery programs were working.

“What you’re going to see first is growth turn positive,” Geithner said.

“And then you’re going to see the pace of job losses slow materially for the — they have already slowed significantly, as you said. They’re going to slow materially further.”

Asked about the possibility of a “double dip” in the recession, Geithner said the administration did not see it as a risk at the moment.

Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told CNN: “We, like most private forecasters, think that real GDP growth will probably turn positive

before the end of the year, but that’s just the first step, right? You’ve got to start growing again before you start adding jobs.

“As you go into 2010, we can’t just limp out of this thing, we need to be growing robustly to make sure that the unemployment rate comes down.”

But as the US economy emerges from recession, the administration will be faced with another daunting challenge: bringing under control the huge deficits used to refloat the economy.

Republicans have zeroed in on the issue as their main line of attack on Obama’s economic program and his push for reform of the US health care system.

“What I worry more than anything about is the long-term effects because we are committing generational theft,” said Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran for president against Obama last year.

“We have put trillions of additional debt on future generations of Americans. And there is no one that I know that sees a way out of it.”

Geithner said the administration’s first priority was to stabilize the economy but he acknowledged that the recovery will not be “strong and sustained unless we can convince the American people that we’re going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established.”

Asked whether that meant raising taxes, Geithner said, “We’re going to have to do what is necessary.”

Japanese shares end mixed in cautious trade Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japanese share prices ended mixed on Monday as investors took a breather after the market ended last week at a near 10-month high on growing optimism about the global economy.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index slipped 4.36 points, or 0.04 percent, to 10,352.47.

But the broader Topix index of all first section shares rose 7.30 points, or 0.77 percent, to 957.56, rising for a 12th straight trading day, the longest unbroken winning streak in more than 21 years.

Market watchers said the index

seemed to be getting a bit bubbly.

“There is a strong sense that the market is overheated,” Nikko Cordial broker Hiroichi Nishi said, noting the headline index had risen by 14 percent from a recent low hit on July 13.

“Wary investors moved to lock in profits,” he said.

The yen’s rise against the dollar and mixed data on the US economy encouraged investors to lock in gains, he said.

Official data showed Friday a smaller-than-expected 1.0 percent contraction in the world’s largest economy in the second quarter but weakness in consumer spending.

Nishi said, however, that the overall market sentiment was upbeat.

“There are growing hopes for a world economic recovery and upturns in company earnings,” he said.

All Nippon Airways, which on Friday announced a first-quarter net loss of more than 300 million dollars, fell 0.8 percent to 262 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial jumped 6.0 percent to 600 yen after announcing its net profit soared 48 percent in the fiscal quarter.

Nissan climbed 5.4 percent to 726 yen a day after it unveiled its first electric car, vowing to take a lead over its rivals in zero emission vehicles.

Toyota rose 2.5 percent to 4,090 yen on the eve of its earnings results.

AFP PHOTO DDP/ THOMAS LOHNES

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama holds the lecture “Get to know Buddhism” in Frankfurt/Main, western Germany on July 30, 2009. The Dalai Lama visits Frankfurt/Main from July 30 to August 2, 2009 and gives lessons about “the art of living”.

Dalai Lama urges global cooperation in economic crisis Agence France-Presse

FRANKFURT - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday called for worldwide cooperation to fight the effects of the economic crisis.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader said the global downturn showed “how our world is really small” and urged countries to take concerted action.

“We have to think globally,” he said, speaking at a conference on the economic crisis in Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, also said urgent measures were needed to fight global warming and close the gulf between rich and poor.

“We don’t need just nice talking, we must take action,” he told an audience of several thousand gathered in a football stadium.

The spiritual leader, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, was

taking part in the conference on the economic crisis organised by several groups including Germany’s Buddhist Union.

Also speaking at the gathering, a businessman and an economist specialising in ethics denounced the “greed” and “selfishness” of the modern economy.

A young couple who had travelled to see the Dalai Lama from the southwestern city of Heidelberg praised his “wise words”, but added: “He is not saying anything extraordinary.”

Kristina, a 27-year-old teacher, hailed the Tibetan leader as a figure of “particular influence” but lamented what she described as a downbeat atmosphere at the event.

Others at Saturday’s conference voiced anger at the financial crisis.

Tom Waldmueller, 48, said: “The current crisis was predictable, all the bankers knew the bubble would burst one day.”

But the world would learn from its mistakes, he added.

12

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Entertainment

International

News

International

Jude Law ‘Committed’ to New Baby

The mother of Jude Law’s fourth child has slammed reports the actor has shunned all contact with her - insisting quotes attributed to her mom were “taken out of context.” Samantha Burke is seven months pregnant with a baby girl after dating the Brit star when he was shooting Sherlock Holmes in New York earlier this year. New reports allege Law has refused contact with Burke since finding out she was expecting his baby, with Burke’s mother reportedly going on the record to voice her concerns.

Lea Burke was quoted as saying, “Samantha has no idea what is going on. She is very stressed out and upset. This was never planned and Jude didn’t want the baby. It was a total accident. This was no way planned. Hell, no. She was in shock when she found out she was pregnant and terrified to tell him.

It would be nice if the father was around but that’s not going to happen because of his job and Samantha knows that.”

“Samantha is staying positive and hoping Jude will get in touch.

She really wanted to get hold of him, but he hasn’t called once.” Burke was so infuriated by the reports; she appeared in public on Friday for the first time since news of her pregnancy broke, admitting: “It’s a hard time.” She stood alongside her spokesperson outside her home to confirm Law is “committed to the health and wellbeing of this child.”

The 24 year old’s spokesperson

Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

Sandler’s ‘Funny People’ wins weekend with $23.4M

Anthony Mackie Under Threat On War Movie Set

Actor Anthony Mackie has ruled out making another lifelike war movie after constantly fearing for his life - for real - while filming The Hurt Locker in Jordan.

The actor, who portrayed Tupac Shakur in Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious, admits he didn’t have a great experience on the set of the gritty new film, in which he plays an army bomb squad expert.

However, sandstorms and poor conditions were the least of his worries - there was a constant threat that he and his cast mates could be killed.

He explains, “My life was hell.

There were points where it got really hairy. The exhaustion and fear you see in the film was because of our surroundings. We were in the Middle East running around with American military suits with big guns in Jordan which kept the fear very real. Sometimes people didn’t react the way we would’ve liked

them to react but they did react the way we expected them to react.

There were people up on their rooftops watching us film, who were not actors. When we were in the desert there were Bedouins 400 yards at the top of a cliff watching us.”

“If you’re on a set when they yell ‘cut’ you go into your trailer with the AC (air conditioning) on and drink your Starbucks. You have a tent covering you to protect you from the sun or a fan cooling you off and probably ice packs in your shirt. But we were laying in the real desert, not pseudo desert, in 120 degree heat with 20 pounds of Kevlar (bullet proof vests) on with a Barret sniper rifle.”

“There was nothing forgiving about that situation and we did that for eight days. If you’ve never been in a sandstorm it’s like sand paper brushing against your face. It was rough but I’m glad I did it. It’s something I can tell my kids about and I’ll never do it again.”

5

Extradited arms dealer lands in Germany

says, “Samantha and her mother would like to be clear that comments attributed to her mother and media stories reported in the last 24 hours regarding Jude’s contact with Samantha and his involvement were taken out of context. Samantha, her mom and her family can confirm Jude has been responsive and supportive through the relationship and pregnancy and know that he will remain so as a father once baby Sophia is born.”

“Jude and Samantha remain committed to the health and wellbeing of this child and appreciate your honoring her privacy during this special time.” Britain’s The Sun newspaper also reports Law is terrified intimate snaps taken during the pair’s fling will be leaked to the press.

Universal Pictures’ “Funny People,” with Sandler trading adolescent humor for an adult story about a terminally ill comedy star, debuted as the top weekend movie with $23.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was a modest weekend for Hollywood, with the shadow of last summer’s juggernaut “The Dark Knight” hanging over the current blockbuster season. Overall summer revenues, which had been running ahead of last year’s since early May, dipped below those of 2008, when “The Dark Knight” was packing theaters for weeks on end.

“It’s staggering how strong ‘The Dark Knight’ was last year. At this point last year, ‘The Dark Knight’ had added nearly $400 million to the summer box office. How can you compete with that?” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. Revenues this weekend came in at $122 million, down 20 percent from a year ago, when “The Dark Knight” led with $42.7 million, followed by “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” with $40.5 million.

“The Dark Knight” went on to a $533 million domestic haul, the biggest hit since “Titanic.” Since the summer season opened the first week of May, Hollywood’s domestic receipts total $3.34 billion, off 0.8 percent through the same weekend last summer, according to figures compiled by Hollywood.com. Factoring in this year’s higher ticket prices, movie attendance this season is down 4.4 percent compared with summer 2008.

Next weekend’s new action tale, Paramount’s “G.I. Joe: The Rise of

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Cobra,” has great fan buzz and could help set Hollywood back on track to break last summer’s domestic revenue record of $4.2 billion, Dergarabedian said. For the year, movies have rung up $6.43 billion, on pace to break the revenue record of $9.68 billion set in 2007. Coming in second for the weekend was the Warner Bros. fantasy adventure “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” with $17.7 million, raising its domestic total to $255.5 million.

Disney’s family action tale “GForce,” the previous weekend’s top movie, slipped to third with $17.1 million, lifting its total to $66.5 mil-

lion. The weekend’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s family flick “Aliens in the Attic,” opened at No. 5 with $7.8 million. “Funny People” debuted well below most of Sandler’s comedies, which typically start with $30 million to $40 million opening weekends. Universal is counting on good word of mouth to keep it alive for a long run at the box office. The movie pairs Sandler as the dying comic with Seth Rogen as his new assistant and joke writer. It also reunites Rogen with his “Knocked Up” director Judd Apatow, a longtime friend and former roommate of Sandler.

In this photo taken on March 12, 2009, jurors are seated with judges during a moot court at Saitama district court in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan, in preparation for the start of jury system in Japan in August. Japan opened its first jury trial in post-World War II history Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, under a major overhaul of a legal system that has in the past often been criticized as unfair and arduous.

Japan starts first jury trial

Agence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japan kicked off its first jury trial Monday following legal reforms that aim to bring the judicial process closer to the people, amid concerns about allowing jurors to hand down the death penalty.

In the first trial to employ six “lay judges,” a 72-year-old man is accused of stabbing to death a 66year-old female South Korean neighbour.

The jurors, who were randomly selected from the pool of eligible voters, will be asked to decide not only the verdict but, if the man is convicted, also the sentence in the scheduled four-day case at the Tokyo District Court.

However, as a safeguard, at least one of three professional judges presiding over the trial must agree with the citizen-judges’ majority decisions.

A law passed in May paved the way for the reform, which seeks to give the public a greater role in a judicial process that has often been criticised as remote, complicated and out of touch with the public’s sense of justice.

But the change has sparked fierce criticism from some legal experts who argue that randomly selected citizens are not fit to make informed judgements in serious crime cases or decisions about a convict’s life and death.

Japan imposes the death penalty but usually only for multiple murders. Last week three convicts were

executed in Japanese prisons.

Critics also charge prosecutors will be tempted to use graphic crime scene images as evidence to sway impressionable jurors.

Recent polls have shown that many members of the public are reluctant to be called up as jurors, which has now become a civic duty enforced with fines of up to 100,000 yen (about 1,000 dollars) for failure to show up.

Lay judges are also committed to a lifetime of secrecy on their closed-door deliberations, a vow of silence enforced by penalties of up to six months in prison or a 500,000 yen fine for violators.

Before the start of the murder trial, defence lawyer Shunji Date pledged to avoid legalistic jargon and “use language as simple as possible.”

MUNICH - A 75-year-old German-Canadian arms dealer landed in Munich on Monday to face tax evasion and bribery charges following a decade-long battle to avoid extradition, authorities said.

After touching down from Canada at around 09:30 local time (0730 GMT), Karlheinz Schreiber was expected to be taken straight to jail in Augsburg to await trial.

A spokesman for the court in Augsburg, Karl-Heinz Haeusler, said it was not possible to say whether the politically-sensitive trial would begin before national elections, which take place on September 27.

“That would be a case of reading tea-leaves. One can only speculate,” Haeusler told AFP. Schreiber is accused of playing a key role in a sprawling slush-fund scandal that rocked the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the 1990s and helped pave the way for current chancellor Angela Merkel’s rise to power.

His undeclared contributions to the CDU sparked a political scandal that claimed the scalp of the then head of the party, Wolfgang Schaeuble, now interior minister, and tarnished former chancellor Helmut Kohl’s legacy.

Schreiber, who holds both German and Canadian nationality, is believed to have made an undeclared one-million-mark (500,000euro, 712,000-dollar) donation to the CDU. In 2002, he also told a delegation of German deputies visiting him in Toronto that he had paid at least 510,000 euros (726,000 dol-

lars) to the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of the CDU. And he stands accused of evading taxes on millions of euros (dollars) in income from arms deals as well as offering bribes to ensure government approval for the sale of armoured cars to Saudi Arabia.

A Canadian court on Sunday rejected his final appeal to avoid extradition to Germany and he was flown out from Toronto later that night. “Over a 10-year period, Mr. Schreiber was given every reasonable opportunity to challenge his extradition,” said Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

“His surrender to Germany was in full accord with the law and consistent with the spirit and purpose of extradition.”

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Schreiber said there was a political dimension to his extradition, with a general election less than two months away.

“The Social Democrats won three elections with my case in the past,” he said, referring to the junior partner in Merkel’s coalition government.

“If I come now that would be the greatest thing, it would start a huge investigation and ... they would think they could win the next election.”

The Social Democrats are currently trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc by as much as 15 points in the polls.

But the Canadian authorities rejected Schreiber’s argument, concluding that it was “the latest in a series of creative instalments to frustrate a legitimate extradition process.”

China official jailed for child rape Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Adam Sandler, a cast member in ‘Funny People,’ gives a thumbs-up to photographers as he arrives at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Monday, July 20, 2009.

BEIJING - A court in southwest China Monday sentenced a tax official to 10 years in jail for raping a 13-year-old girl, state media reported.

Lu Yumin, an official in

Yibing, Sichuan province, paid a businesswoman 6,000 yuan (880 dollars) to supply him with a virgin, whom he raped at a hotel in December, Xinhua news agency said.

The court in Yibing sentenced the woman to nine years while her niece, who found the girl for Lu and was un-

der the age of 18 at the time of the crime, was jailed for six years.

The case had sparked national criticism over the official’s behaviour, Xinhua said. Four officials in neighbouring Guizhou province were jailed last month for their roles in a child prostitution ring.

AFP PHOTO/GEOFF ROBINS

Picture taken on November 29, 2007 shows German-Canadian arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber being escorted in handcuffs from the Parliament Buildings in.

4

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News

International

Sudan trouser woman ‘ready for 40,000 lashes’

AFP PHOTO/ASHRAF SHAZLY

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein.

Agence France-Presse

KHARTOUM - A Sudanese journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing “indecent” trousers vowed on the eve of her judgment that she is ready to be whipped 40,000 times in her bid to change the country’s harsh laws.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is to be judged on Tuesday after waiving the immunity granted to UN workers.

She is to be judged under Article 152 of Sudanese law, which promises 40 lashes for anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing.”

Hussein, who is in her 30s and whose husband died of kidney failure, told AFP in a telephone interview: “I’m ready for anything to happen. I’m absolutely not afraid of the verdict.”

Police arrested Hussein and 12 other women wearing trousers at a Khartoum restaurant on July 3.

Two days later 10 of the women accepted a punishment of 10 lashes, but Hussein is appealing in a bid to eliminate such rough justice.

The other two women are also facing charges.

“If I’m sentenced to be whipped, or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary,” Hussein said.

“And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I’m ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times.”

Hussein invited scores of journalists to her first court hearing on Wednesday, when she made a point of wearing the same clothes she wore when she was arrested — moss-green slacks with a loose floral top and green headscarf.

Hordes of people, many of them female supporters and some also wearing trousers out of solidarity, crammed into the courthouse for the hearing. “My main objective is to get rid of Article 152,” Hussein said. “This article is against both the constitution and sharia,” the Islamic law ruling northern Sudan.

Adding insult to injury, some of the women whipped in July were from animist and Christian south Sudan where sharia law does not apply. “If some people refer to the sharia to justify flagellating women because of what they wear, then let them show me which Koranic verses or hadith (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed) say so. I haven’t found them.”

Unlike many other Arab countries, particularly in the Gulf, women have a prominent place in Sudanese public life. Nevertheless, human rights organisations say some of the country’s laws discriminate against women. “Tens of thousands of women and girls have been whipped for their clothes these last 20 years. It’s not rare in Sudan,” Hussein said.

Five dead in Peru ‘Shining Path’ attack Agence France-Presse

LIMA - Three policemen and two civilians have been killed in an overnight raid on a special forces base in southern Peru, which the government has blamed on once-powerful Maoist guerrillas. Police on Sunday said around 50 guerrillas attacked the base in San Jose de Secce between midnight and dawn, using explosives and firearms.

The bodies of five victims, including two women, were transferred by military helicopter to the nearby Andean city of Ayacucho, 300 kilometers (200 miles) south east of the capital Lima.

The Ayacucho area was

among the hardest hit during the Shining Path’s insurgency in the 1980s and is now a hub for Peru’s illicit trade in drugs.

In April, President Alan Garcia vowed Tuesday to “crush” the remnants of the rebel group after ambushes killed 14 soldiers in the remote southeast jungles of the country, the worst rebel attacks in 10 years.

Peruvian officials have blamed the recent attacks on remnants of the Maoist group — also known by its Spanish name, Sendero Luminoso — who have allied with drug traffickers in the region.

Peru is one of the world’s principle coca leaf producers, the main ingredient for making cocaine.

International

Panasonic announces Q1 net loss of 560 mln dlrs

Life Style

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

13

Agence France - Presse

AP Photo/Mark Baker

FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2009 file photo, protesters run as police fire tear gas at demonstrators during an anti Internal Security Act (ISA) protest near the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia’s main lawyers’ organization denounced a police crackdown on a mass rally against a tough detention law, saying Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, that the new government appears determined to stifle criticism.

Malaysia Bar denounces weekend crackdown on public

The Malaysian Bar Council said Saturday’s violent police action against an estimated 20,000 peaceful demonstrators was a violation of their fundamental right to assembly and an “abusive show of power” by the government.

Led by opposition leaders, the protesters demanded the abolishment of the Internal Security Act, a law that allows indefinite detention without trial. Human rights activists say the law has often been used to jail government critics. Saturday’s crackdown heightened opposition concerns that Prime Minister Najib Razak, who took office in April, will not fulfill his promises to protect civil liberties.

“This new government appears determined to continue stifling public opinion, persecuting and punishing those who dare to speak out while blaming them for creating unrest and disorder,”

the Bar Council, which represents about 12,000 lawyers, said in a statement.

Police used tear gas and chemicallaced water and arrested almost 600 people to crush the protest deemed illegal because no permit was obtained.

All were freed without charges, except 29 who will be tried on Sept. 4. They were freed on bail Monday.

Sixteen were charged with taking part in an illegal assembly, which is punishable by up to a year in prison.

The remaining 13 were charged with helping an illegal organization, which carries a possible three-year sentence.

Among those arrested was Sivarasa Rasiah, a vice president of the opposition People’s Justice Party. He also was released on bail Monday without charges but was asked to report at a police station on Aug. 17.

Calling the arrests “an exercise of intimidation,” Sivarasa told reporters the crackdown was “another example of brutish, authoritarian behavior of a police force” being manipulated by the government.

Government leaders have dismissed the protest as an attempt by the opposition to gain political mileage. Najib said it was “unnecessary and only caused hardship to the people” because the government had already pledged to review the controversial law.

Human rights activists have held numerous smaller protests over the years against the Internal Security Act. They say at least 17 people are now being held under the law, mainly for alleged links to militants and document forgery. Since taking office, Najib has released 26 detainees, including five leaders of an ethnic Indian protest.

Saturday’s protest was the biggest since November 2007 when tens of thousands of ethnic Indians demonstrated against Malaysia’s laws that give preferences in education and contracts to majority ethnic Malays over minority Indian and Chinese citizens of the country.

Agence France-Presse

cided to bury them in mass graves,” Borno State government spokesman Usman Chiroma said.

“It is difficult for them to do so (claim the bodies), because their dead relations were members of the Boko Haram (sect) that waged war against the government.

They just don’t want to be associated with them,” Chiroma told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri.

He also said security agents aided by local chiefs this weekend have arrested dozens of suspected members of the radical Islamist sect still hiding in Maiduguri after the deadly clashes. “Ward heads, called

Bulama, are now leading soldiers and policemen in a house-to-house hunt for members of Boko Haram and effecting their arrests. So far, scores have been arrested and the operation is ongoing,” he stated.

He did not give exact figures for the number arrested, nor how many bodies have been removed. ThisDay newspaper on Sunday put the body count at about 700. Clashes between security forces and sect members in four northern states — Bauchi, Kano, Yobe and Borno — killed more than 600 people in five days of violence, according to police and witnesses.

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s main group of lawyers denounced a weekend crackdown on a mass rally against a tough detention law, saying Monday that the new government appears determined to stifle criticism despite its promises of reforms.

Slain Nigerian sect members buried in mass graves KANO - Nigerian authorities swept dozens of bodies into mass graves Sunday in the grisly aftermath of last week’s Islamist uprising that killed hundreds of people, officials and residents said. Authorities had spent two days clearing bodies off the streets of the northeastern university city of Maiduguri, which bore the brunt of the violence.

“Our evacuation team has finished removing all dead bodies from the streets of the city. Families are not forthcoming in claiming the dead bodies. Therefore, the government de-

TOKYO - Japanese high-tech giant Panasonic Corp. announced Monday a big first-quarter loss, blaming weak sales of televisions, digital cameras and other electronic goods during the recession. Panasonic posted a net loss of 52.98 billion yen (560 million dollars) for the April-June quarter, swinging from a year-earlier profit of 73.03 billion yen. Revenue slumped 25.9 percent to 1.60 trillion yen.

It logged an operating loss of 20.18 billion yen, against a profit of 109.57 billion yen in the same period of 2008, “due mainly to the effect of a sharp sales decrease and price decline,” the Osaka-based company said in a statement.

Panasonic, which is buying its struggling smaller rival Sanyo, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of 195 billion yen in the full business year to March 2010, warning that price competition was likely to intensify further.

It expects sales to drop 10 percent to 7.0 trillion yen but operating

profit to rise 2.9 percent to 75 billion yen, unchanged from its earlier projections.

The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.

Panasonic is not the only Japanese electronics giant in trouble. Last week Sony Corp. posted a net loss of 37.1 billion yen for the April-June quarter, while Sharp Corp. fell 25.2 billion yen into the red in the same period.

AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO

Japan’s electronics giant panasonic employee displays the new stylish compact digital cameras “Lumix DMC-ZX1” (L), “Lumix DMC-FX60” (R) and “Lumix DMC-FP8” at the company’s showroom in Tokyo on August 3, 2009. The DMC-ZX-1 and FX60 features the world’s thinnest lens in the compact lens unit, portion of the lens measures 0.3mm in thickness. Panasonic will put them on the market on August 21.

RU-486 abortion drug to be allowed in Italy

Associated Press Writer

ROME – Italy has approved the use of the abortion drug RU-486, capping years of debate and defying opposition from the Vatican, which warned of immediate excommunication for doctors prescribing the pill and for women who use it.

The pill is already available in a number of other European countries.

Its approval by Italy’s drug regulation authorities was praised by women’s groups and pro-choice organizations, which say the pill will provide women with an additional, noninvasive procedure.

It drew the immediate protest of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion and contraception. “That’s not how you alleviate human suffering, that’s not how you help women, that’s not how you help mankind,” Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, a senior church bioethicist, said in an interview Friday with Associated Press Television News. The Italian Drug Agency ruled after a meeting that ended late Thursday that the drug, which terminates pregnancy by causing the embryo to detach from the uterine wall, cannot be sold in pharmacies but can only be administered by doctors in a hospital.

The agency said in a statement that the pill can only be taken up to the seventh week of pregnancy, and not up to the ninth as is the case in other countries. Women who used the

pill between the seventh and the ninth week of pregnancy incurred more risks and had often needed surgery, it said. The decision is expected to be effective in about two months, the agency said.

In a nod to the ethical implications associated with the decision and the controversy surrounding it, the agency noted that “the task of protecting the well-being of citizens ... must take precedence over personal convictions.”

The 4-1 vote at the agency’s executive branch comes about two years after the agency first started looking at the issue. The pill became available in some parts of Italy on an experimental basis in 2006. For the Catholic Church, the agency’s decision was the latest defeat in its efforts to ban or restrict abortion in the nation that hosts the Vatican. Italy legalized abortion on demand through the end of the third month of pregnancy in 1978, after a long battle between secular forces and the church.

Abortion after three months is allowed when the pregnancy is deemed a grave danger to the woman’s mental or physical health.

Three years later, Italians voted in a referendum to keep the law, again defying a church-backed campaign.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, issued a strong condemnation of abortion and the RU-486 pill

in a front-page article in Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano on Friday. He said the church cannot passively sit back, and insisted the ethical implications of the pill could not be overlooked. “An embryo is not a bunch of cells,” Fisichella wrote. “It’s real and full human life. Suppressing it is a responsibility nobody can take without fully knowing the consequences.”

Sgreccia, who called the RU-486 “not a drug, but poison,” said that women taking the pill or doctors ad-

ministering are automatically excommunicated under church law. There were about 121,000 abortions on demand in Italy in 2008, according to figures provided by Italy’s health authorities. That number was down 48 percent from 1982 — the year when the number peaked after the referendum upholding the abortion law — and down 4 percent compared to the previous year.

But critics of RU-486 say that taking a pill might reverse that trend because it would make interrupting a

REUTERS/Newscom

A bottle and two pills of mifepristone, formerly know as RU-486 are seen in a handout photo.

pregnancy easier. They also fear that it would be possible to avert a mandatory hospitalization policy and effectively go back to the pre-legislation days of clandestine abortions performed at home without medical supervision. “The apparent ease of this pharmacological method will inevitably lower the level of caution and responsibility,” Romano Colozzi, the only member of the agency to vote against the use of the pill, told the ANSA news agency.

Supporters say it has no significant side effects and is safe. Gabriella Pacini, a doctor with the Woman’s Life group that provides medical counseling to women, said that RU486 “has been used for years in Europe, on millions of women and is considered safe and effective.” “Why not give Italian women a choice between pharmacological abortion and surgical abortion?” she said. The RU486 pill, first introduced in France two decades ago, is known chemically as mifepristone and causes an embryo to detach from the uterine wall. A second pill, misoprostol, is used afterward to cause contractions and push the embryo out of the uterus.

Doctors can declare themselves conscientious objectors and refuse to carry out abortions. Since 2000, Italy also allows the so-called morning-after pill, which prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall and growing into an embryo.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

International

News

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Three time’s a charm for Querrey’s summer title quest

Palestinians can die in their village but not live there

Agence France - Presse

Agence France-Presse

LOS ANGELES - American Sam Querrey came third-time lucky after losing finals in his last two events, stopping the rot with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 defeat of Aussie newcomer Carsten Ball to win the Los Angeles Open Sunday. Querrey, the breakout artist of the post-Wimbledon summer season, had lost back-toback finals last month in Newport (to Rajeev Ram) and a week ago in Indianapolis to Robby Ginepri.

But the 22-year-old from nearby Thousand Oaks would not be denied as he took on the 205thranked Ball, Los Angeles-born son of 1974 Australian Open doubles finalist Syd Ball. “It feels great,” Querrey said. “After losing two finals there was no way I wanted to lose a third. I was worried after the second set, he was putting pressure on me and I was mad at myself. I started thinking about the other finals. But I sat down at the changeover and collected myself.

I lifted my first-serve percentage in the third set, that was the key. I was able to keep it all together.”

The younger Ball, a junior rival in southern California against Querrey, was playing this week in the first ATP-level event of his career and couldn’t have asked for a more positive scenario.

“I was just thinking about winning

the qualie matches, one at a time,” said Ball who has played Davis Cup Down Under. “I had some luck this week, it was great to play a fellow Southern California buddy also.”

Querrey added the LA title to his only other career honour, the Las Vegas crown in 2008. “This was not a great match on either side,” said Querrey. “Neither of us lit the place up. There is a lot of emotion involved, finals mean a lot.” Querrey, ranked 32nd, stands 13-2 over the past month, and was the first American to reach at least three ATP finals in a row since Andy Roddick advanced to four straight from June 7 to August 1, 2004.

Ball, 22, played as the fifth qualifier to reach an ATP final this season. He is the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 to reach the LA final. Querrey was the 16th different American in the post1968 Open era to win the LA crown.

PHOTO/HO

A picture released by the official website of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows Khamenei (L) presenting a decree to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) during an official ceremony in Tehran on August 3, 2009. Khamenei praised Ahmadinejad as he confirmed him in office and hailed the “unprecedented” vote that returned him to power.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Sam Querrey, of the United States, poses with the trophy after defeating Carsten Ball, of Australia, in the final of the L.A. Tennis Open in Los Angeles, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. Querrey won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Bartoli upsets Williams to Tiger Woods wins Buick Open capture Stanford tennis by 3 strokes Agence France - Presse

STANFORD, California - Marion Bartoli avenged a Wimbledon loss to Venus Williams, winning a marathon final at the WTA Bank of the West Classic 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 at the American’s expense on Sunday. Frenchwoman Bartoli was beaten by Williams for the All England club final two years ago.

Bartoli’s bitter memory was still fresh as she struck back in the three-set thriller lasting two and three-quarters hours in northern California. “It was great to play Venus again,” said the Frenchwoman, “I have a lot of good memories from Wimbledon.” Bartoli lost the title match here a year ago to Canadian Aleksandra

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Marion Bartoli, of France, holds the winner’s trophy after beating Venus Williams 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in the final of the Bank of the West tennis tournament in Stanford, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009.

Wozniak. She was unable to beat Williams in straight sets while leading a set and 5-4, failing to serve out the victory.

Bartoli will move up two spots in the rankings to 12th on Monday after claiming her second title of 2009 and the fifth of her career.

Williams, 29, had a strong history at Stanford, playing her seventh final in eight visits. “I had a great tournament,” said the disappointed American. “But Marion was just too good today.”

She won her only two titles at the start of the decade in 2000 and 2005, last finishing runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2005. The five-time Wimbledon champion will remain on third in the world behind number one Dinara Safina of Russia and sister Serena Williams, Bartoli went up an early break in the opening set only to lose it a game later. But the French player took the lead again on a third consecutive break and added an insurance policy with another for 5-2 before closing it out in 40 minutes.

The unseeded Bartoli jumped out to a 1-0 start in the second with another break of the erratic Williams. But serving for victory, Bartoli’s level dropped, saving two break points but missing on a third as her opponent levelled at five games apiece. Williams saved break points in the next game, 6-5, with Bartoli succumbing to a double-fault to hand over the set 7-5.

The third set also began Bartoli’s way with a break, which she promptly lost for three-all. But a re-break in the seventh game finally put the Frenchwoman on the right path, with Bartoli serving out the win on her first match point after coming form love-30 down in the final game. The loss was the eighth this season for Williams against 31 wins; Bartoli stands 35-14. The see-saw contest featured ten breaks of serve and a dozen double-faults for Williams, who lost serve six times.

Associated Press Writer

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Tiger Woods cruised to his easiest victory of the year, getting away with an awful round to open the Buick Open and an average one to hold off a weak field. His competition and the courses he’s going to play are about to get much tougher. Woods shot a 3-under 69 and coasted to a three-shot victory with a 20-under 268 total at Warwick Hills, which hosted its first Buick Open in 1958 and seemed to stage its final one Sunday.

Woods, whose previous three wins this year were each by one shot, spent much of Sunday ahead by two before he took a threestroke lead with the birdie at No. 16. His businesslike final round included three birdies and no bogeys and he won without trailing in the final round for the first time since Bay Hill in 2008.

He will play at the Bridgestone Invitational this week before going to Hazeltine for the PGA Championship, his final chance to win a major this year. He scheduled himself to compete in two straight tournaments going into a major for the first time in his career.

“I feel good,” Woods said. “The win helps.” Woods won the Buick Open for a third time and claimed his 69th PGA Tour victory, but the end-of-an-era feel made it more than a ho-hum experience. “I’ve played all around the world, and I’ve never seen a day like this,” said Woods, also the 2002 and 2006 winner at Warwick Hills. “This event has always been special, but today was something else.” He acknowledged thinking about his walk up 18 at Warwick Hills being his last, leading to him throwing his ball with a lot of velocity back down the fairway to fans. He also tossed a

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Tiger Woods holds the winner’s trophy after the final round of the Buick Open golf tournament at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Mich., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. ball into the gallery at 17.

“I never do that, but today was different,” Woods said. “We aren’t coming back here, and I wanted to thank all these people.” GolfWeek Magazine reported on its Web site that General Motors Co. would end the PGA Tour’s longest partnership, and The Associated Press confirmed it with a person briefed on the decision. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement wouldn’t be made until after the tournament.

GolfWeek also reported The Greenbrier in West Virginia is waiting for the PGA Tour to confirm it will replace the Buick Open in 2010. “Hopefully, we’ll get back to this region soon,” Woods said. If a sponsor doesn’t step up with about $7 million to lure a PGA Tour event back to Michigan, the best golfers in the world might not play in the state again until late in the next decade when the U.S. Open could possibly return to Oakland Hills.

Iran leader endorses Ahmadinejad but rivals absent Agence France-Presse

TEHRAN - Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term, describing him as a “courageous” man but telling him to listen to his critics.

In a sign of the escalating feud between rival political factions over Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed re-election, key opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, state television said.

Khamenei, who has given his full backing to Ahmadinejad despite a political spat, described his protege as a “courageous, astute and hardworking,” and hailed his “unprecedented” victory on June 12.

But he warned Ahmadinejad that the “angry, wounded opposition” would continue challenging his government and told him to heed the views of his critics, in a possible reference to a row between the president and his own conservative supporters.

Ahmadinejad, 52, whose first four years put him on a collision course with the West, again lashed out at “selfish and meddling” foreign governments over the election crisis.

“You do not want a new model of divine democracy rising in the world.

You wanted to divert global opinion from the collapse of capitalism, so you insulted the Iranian people,” the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

“Whether you like it or not, the sun of justice has dawned upon the world and the government of justice will prevail.”

The June poll set off the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and increasing divisions among the ruling elite.

Among those who did not attend Monday’s ceremony were

Ahmadinejad’s defeated rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

Ahmadinejad, who is to be sworn in before parliament on Wednesday, has also come under fire from his own hardline camp, which has questioned his loyalty to Khamenei in a row over a key political appointment.

His landslide victory was met with a vast outpouring of public anger and opposition complaints the vote was rigged. At least 30 people were killed and several thousand protesters rounded up, including reform figures and journalists.

Ahmadinejad’s re-election has also created a rift among the clergy, with several senior clerics siding with the opposition and condemning the postelection violence and the regime’s treatment of its critics.

The authorities hit back with a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters, whom they accuse of seeking to overthrow the regime with a “velvet revolution”.

On Saturday, around 100 people were put on trial in a revolutionary court, a move slammed by the opposition which accused the authorities of torture but welcomed by hardliners who in turn accused Mousavi and Khatami of treason.

Another 10 people went on trial on Sunday.

Relations with the West worsened during Ahmadinejad’s first term over

his frequent verbal attacks on Israel and his uncompromising stance on Tehran’s nuclear drive, which world powers fear is a cover for weapons development.

Although key policy issues are decided by Khamenei, critics point the finger of blame at Ahmadinejad for three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Opponents also accuse Ahmadinejad, who enjoyed windfall oil revenues in his first term, of mismanaging the economy, stoking inflation, wasting resources and manipulating statistics to cover his failures.

Ahmadinejad crossed swords with Khamenei after the supreme leader ordered him to dismiss a controversial aide, but president denied any rift, characterising his relationship with the supreme leader as one of “father and son.” His second term is likely to be characterised by greater tension with the West, which has warned of tougher sanctions over Iran’s nuclear drive and voiced alarm over the crackdown on protesters.

Iran has yet to respond to overtures by new US President Barak Obama after three decades of severed diplomatic ties, but has ruled out negotiations on the nuclear programme, insisting it is for solely peaceful ends.

Tehran’s stance towards staunch US ally Israel is also likely to harden. Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, has not ruled out military action to curb Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

IQRIT - Unlike other Palestinian refugees, the residents of the Arab village of Iqrit know for certain that Israel will one day allow them to return to their ancestral home. When they are dead.

The several hundred people living in the hilltop village near the Lebanon border were ordered out of their homes in October 1948 amid ongoing fighting of the first Israeli-Arab war, in what the army said was a temporary measure.

“They told us we could come back in two weeks,” says Maruf Ashqar, 79, who was 19 years old at the time.

The Christian residents of Iqrit had no reason to doubt the promise — when Israeli troops showed up just days before, they welcomed them.

“It was a Sunday morning, at 7:30 am” when the soldiers first arrived on October 31, Ashqar says, speaking outside the church at the centre of the deserted hilltop village.

“We hoisted a white flag and welcomed them with food,” he recalls.

The Greek Catholic villagers welcomed the troops “as ‘liberators’ with bread and salt,” writes Israeli historian Benny Morris in his 2004 edition of his reference work, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.

So the residents, helped by the soldiers, moved to the village of Rama, some 20 kilometres away to the south inside Israel.

The two weeks turned into months, but still the residents were not allowed to return while the government of the nascent state divided up Iqrit’s land — along with the Maronite Christian village of Biram nearby that faced a similar fate — among Jewish kibbutzim or collective farms in the area.

The village residents appealed to the High Court of Israel, in which they were now citizens, and in July 1951 the justices ruled in favour of their return to their homes.

“But the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continued to obstruct a return,” Morris wrote. “On December 24, 1951 — Christmas Eve — the IDF razed what remained of Iqrit.”

“They didn’t leave anything except a church and cemetery,” says Ashqar. “It’s as if they were saying, ‘come back when you’re dead.’” In fact, the state still allows residents to bury their dead in the deserted village.

Until the Israelis arrived, Iqrit had been inhabited at least since the time of the Crusades.

Today, weeds, bushes and trees cover the ruins of the village’s houses and roads, blended them into Galilee’s serene, green landscape.

The church and cemetery are the only mute reminders of Iqrit’s onceactive life.

The villagers have continued

3

their fight since, but to no avail.

According to Morris, the army and the state sought in 1948 to create a security zone along the northern border clear of potentially-hostile Arab population.

Successive governments feared that allowing the Iqrit villagers to return would set a dangerous precedent both for other internally displaced Israeli Arabs and for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced out during the 1948 war.

The latter today number some 4.6 million souls scattered throughout the Middle East and the prospect of them returning is a daunting one for Israel, where the Jewish population stands at 5.6 million.

“The precedent of returning the displaced persons to their villages would be used for propaganda and political purposes by the Palestinian Authority,” the then prime minister Ariel Sharon said in an affidavit in 2001 before the High Court that deliberated the latest appeal on the issue.

Things seemed to look up for the villagers and their offspring amid the Oslo Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 1993, when a committee appointed by the Israeli government recommended allowing the villagers to return, but at the same time setting a string of conditions they eventually rejected.

The High Court turned down the villagers’ latest appeal to return in July 2003, but said that when the political situation allows, the government should consider a solution that would enable their return.

The decades of setbacks have not weakened the resolve of Iqrit residents — today some 1,200 people scattered throughout various villages in Israel’s north — to return to the hilltop where their families have lived for centuries.

They made their case to Pope John Paul II during his historic visit in 2000, then again to his successor Benedict XVI this May. Using their own money, they paved a route which was destroyed by the Israeli authorities last year that leads up to the church.

“We rebuilt it the same day, to show them that we won’t rest with our arms crossed,” says Imad Yaqub, 59, who has never lived in the place he considers home.

“Despite the destruction of our village, we have remained faithful to it,” he says. “We organise one mass per month, we celebrate marriages and baptisms in the church and we bury our dead in the cemetery.”

“Each summer we organise camps for the youth, during which they get to know the village and its history, so that they love Iqrit.”

“The government is counting that with time, memories will fade and the new generations forget from where they come,” he says.

“But we will prove otherwise.”

2

International

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

News WORLD NEWS

Trez won’t betray Juventus

Karzai turns to kingmakers to secure Afghan vote Agence France-Presse

KAYAN - While his election challengers pound the campaign trail, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is pursuing his own strategy for the looming polls: woo one powerful local leader and win one million votes.

NATO new leader BRUSSELS Anders Fogh Rasmussen starts work as NATO’s new secretary-general, part of a team assembled

by President Barack Obama to lead the war effort in Afghanistan.

New HIV WASHINGTON - A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon.

Missing pilot WASHINGTON Navy pilot Michael “Scott” Speicher was called the first casualty of the 1991 Gulf War. But his true status was a mystery until last weekend, when the Pentagon announced his remains had been found.

Source: ap

Sport

International

In the small hamlet of Kayan, deep in the central highlands of Afghanistan, men in turbans and women and children in sparkling dresses — all members of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam — camp out in the shade of mulberry trees.

They have gathered for a glimpse of their spiritual leader Sayed Mansoor Naderi and a frenzy breaks out when the silver-haired, moustachioed man swaggers through the crowd, cutting a regal figure dressed all in black.

“If he tells them to kill themselves, they will. If he told me to shoot myself, I would because he is our spiritual leader,” said teacher Gulam Sakhi, 40, as he heads past dusty, mud-bricked houses plastered with Karzai’s image.

Such fervent support comes in handy in during election season.

Naderi has come out in favour of Karzai, who is tipped to win another term in Afghanistan’s second presidential elections on August 20.

The incumbent has come under fire for largely eschewing campaigning but in a country of fierce local allegiances and ethnic divisions, analysts say canny deal-making with kingmakers may bring Karzai a victory.

“As Sayed Mansoor is our leader and he selected Karzai, we will also vote for him,” said 32-year-old Abdul Shafiq.

“If he told us to give our vote to Ashraf Ghani, then we would give our vote to Ashraf Ghani,” he told AFP, referring to one of Karzai’s main rivals.

Leaders of the sect headed by the Aga Khan say there are one million Ismailis in Afghanistan, and although that figure is impossible to verify as there has been no census here, it translates to handsome support for Karzai.

It was in Kayan that Karzai held his first rally outside Kabul, more than six weeks into the official campaigning period. Ghani and other top contender Abdullah Abdullah have held rallies across the country almost every week.

“Power today is with people. If Karzai wants votes, he must come to Aga Sahib... Aga Sahib will order his tribe to give their vote to Karzai,” the president told a rapt crowd, using a respectful term to refer to Naderi.

It is not the first deal Karzai has struck with local strongmen, warlords and tribal leaders, who will guide the votes of legions of their supporters.

In late May, Karzai secured the significant backing of warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam, leader of the Uzbek minority, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, his Hazara counterpart — coups on the Afghan political chessboard.

Karzai is a member of the dominant Pashtun ethnic group but his selection of controversial warlord Mohammad Qasim Fahim as a vice presidential candidate also brings him the votes of many of the large Tajik community.

“He knows that finally the Afghan individual votes will not count, they will listen to their leaders,” said Haroun Mir, an analyst from the Af-

AFP

AFP PHOTO/SHAH Marai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of 41 presidential candidates, waves to the crowd at his first campaign rally outside the capital in Kayan valley in central Afghanistan on August 1, 2009 which was also attended by the area’s spiritual leader Sayed Mansoor Naderi. ghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies.

Such deals have been criticised by human rights groups as many warlords have blood on their hands from the decades of civil war and the United Nations has said it wants Afghanistan to shift power away from infamous warriors.

Critics say Karzai has to offer the strongmen cabinet seats or some other authority in a new government to win their support.

His rivals also say Karzai has avoided debates because he is unable to defend his nearly eight years in power, during which an insurgency by the Taliban has mushroomed and most

Afghans remain in dire poverty.

Naderi insisted, however, that he decided to back Karzai after extensive talks with elders and supporters and because he was sympathetic to minority groups, and denied any backroom deals or financial incentives.

But he implied that it may be too early to expect a fully-fledged democratic battle of political pledges and platforms, given the lack of education and huge illiteracy in Afghanistan.

“Some individuals say whoever Sayed Mansoor votes for I will vote for but at the same time what percentage of the population of Afghanistan can understand the policies of any president?” he said.

Bolivia’s President Morales promises houses for newlyweds Agence France-Presse

LA PAZ - Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has promised each pair of newlyweds a house, under a program launched by his populist government, which faces elections in December, the newspaper La Razon reported Sunday.

“To every couple who marries, the state has to give them a house. That will be our program and the government is obliged to meet this demand,” Morales was quoted as saying.

Morales, who is running for reelection in the December vote, gave no other details of the program.

But at a public event in the coca-

TURIN - Juventus striker David Trezeguet has rejected talk linking him with a move to Milan, saying it would feel like ‘a betrayal’. The 31year-old Frenchman has been the subject of several transfer rumours this summer, but now appears likely to stay in Turin.

“I have spoken a lot, also with my family, and the best solution is to stay at Juventus. This year I will celebrate the 10 years I have spent in Bianconero, it’s an extraordinary achievement for a foreign player. I owe a lot to this club because they have given me a lot on a professional and personal level, just as I have done a lot for this team and I have nothing more to prove. I only have something to win,” Trezeguet ex-

growing town of Villa Tunari in central Bolivia, where he enjoys strong support, Morales reminded voters of the social policies his government has undertaken since he assumed office in January 2006.

They include bonuses for school age children, for Bolivians over the age of 60 and for pregnant women.

plained.

Responding to those Milan rumours, Trezeguet said: “Sure, at this particular moment the respect of Milan was important. The words of Leonardo and Galliani have given me enormous pleasure, but I am a very important person in the history of Juventus and to go to Milan would have felt like a betrayal towards the club and towards my team-mates.”

Finally, Trezeguet revealed his relationship with Ciro Ferrara is much better than with his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri. “It never went well with Ranieri. Ferrara was my old team-mate, I cleared things up with him, also because the beginning of training camp wasn’t easy because I didn’t know if I would stay or go.”

Trezeguet joined Juventus in 2000. He is the most prolific foreign goalscorer in their history.

David Trezeguet has rejected talk linking him with a move to Milan, saying it would feel like ‘a betrayal’:

Terry won’t demand big-money signings Agence France - Presse

LONDON - Chelsea captain John Terry insists he won’t use his influence at Stamford Bridge to pressure new boss Carlo Ancelotti into making bigmoney buys.

Recent reports suggested Terry demanded assurances that Chelsea were still committed to signing highprofile players before he decided to spurn Manchester City’s advances last month. The England defender was persuaded to stay after talks with Blues owner Roman Abramovich, after which Terry spoke of his relationship with the Russian in glowing terms.

But Terry was was quick to play down talk that he was pressing Abramovich and Ancelotti to sign the likes of AC Milan midfielder Andrea

15

Liverpool, Real discussing Xabi deal - press

Agence France - Presse

MADRID - Liverpool and Real Madrid are still negotiating the possible transfer of midfielder Xabi Alonso to the big-spending Spanish club, the Spanish press reported Monday.

Officials of both clubs — Jose Angel Sanchez for Real and Christian Purslow for Liverpool — met Sunday in Barcelona to discuss the move, according to sports newspapers AS and Marca.

AS said Real has offered 30 million euros for the Spain international, an amount it said was about five million less than that sought by Liverpool. Marca said Liverpool is seeking 40 million for the 27-year-old — 35 million plus five more based on results.

But it said if negotiations break down Real is ready to target Belgian Steven Defour of Standard Liege instead. Xabi Alonso told AS he “wants the situation resolved soon, one way or another.”

Liverpool officials were in Barcelona for a friendly match against Espanyol on Sunday, which the Engish side lost 3-0. Real have spent over 200 million euros on new players in the close season, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Kaka. Marca said the Spanish giants have also reached a deal to offload Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder to Inter Milan for 18 million euros.

(AFP/File/Roberto Schmidt)

Spain and Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso poses before the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between Spain and the United States at the Freet State stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in June. Liverpool and Real Madrid are still negotiating the possible transfer of Alonso to the big-spending Spanish club, the Spanish press reported

Redknapp eyes top four finish Agence France - Presse

Pirlo. “I want to clear something up.

I’m a player and it’s the manager and board who make those decisions,” Terry told the Daily Mirror.

“The only thing I spoke about with the club was it was important people like Didier Drogba and Ashley Cole, whose contracts are up now, stay with us. It was important to me that we build around the current squad and it was right for them to stay.

“Now people are saying I’m asking for Andrea Pirlo to be signed and I’m asking for this player or that player to be signed. I promise you I never get involved in any players brought in or going. What I know 100 per cent is I’m a player and I want to concentrate on that and leave it to the manager and board to make the signings.”

The state-run National Institute of Statistics estimated in 2005 that 22,000 couples marry in Bolivia each year.

The government already has sent house construction and home sales soaring by providing low interest, 20-year loans for up to 15,000 dollars.

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

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

AFP

Captain John Terry (right) insists he won’t use his influence at Stamford Bridge to pressure new boss Carlo Ancelotti

HONG KONG - Spurs boss Harry Redknapp insists his side can break into the Premier League’s top four this season but admits it will be tougher than ever with mega-bucks Manchester City an added threat. Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have monopolised the top four places in the league for the past four seasons — and with it the lucrative Champions League qualification berths.

Redknapp has tipped Manchester City, bankrolled by their Abu Dhabi billionaire owners, to make a major impact this season but is confident that with a few additions to his squad, Spurs can be challengers. The boss of the North London side, who is eyeing Newcastle United defender Sebastien Bassong, saw his side lose 2-0 Sunday to Hong Kong side South China to round off their summer tour of Asia.

But Redknapp, who transformed a struggling Spurs when he took over last season, only just missing out on a place in the Europa League, says his squad has the quality to finish in the top four. “We will try. It’s going to be really difficult with the big four. You are going to have Man City. It will be a shock if they don’t get in the top four,” Redknapp said.

“Certainly, we have good enough players and we’ll give it a good go. We are still looking to bring in a few players to improve the squad.

I still feel we need one or two players to make us stronger, we should have a good chance.”

“Bassong is a good player who I like but as far as I know the chairman hasn’t made an offer,” he added. He said a deal was close for Darren Bent to move to Sunderland “but we have been close to doing a deal for the last two weeks.” The England striker was forced to apologise last week after using Internet networking site Twitter to blast Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy for failing to rubber-stamp his proposed move.

Redknapp said the Asian tour, during which Spurs beat Hull City in Beijing, to lift the Barclays Asia Trophy, had been tough and some players were now heading away on international duty. “I don’t know if the South China game was a game too far, because I changed it around a bit and gave the young lads a game. I fielded our strongest team in China and full credit to the opposition.”

English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur’s Kyle Naughton (L) succumbs to a clash with Hong Kong club South China’s Kwok Kin Pong (R) during their Panasonic Invitation Cup football match at Hong Kong Stadium on August 2.

(AFP/Ed

16

Sport

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Haug: Schumacher should get F60 test AP Photo/MTI, Szilard Koszticsak

Ferrari’s F1 Brazilian car racer Felipe Massa, second left, lies on a stretcher as he is taken out of an ambulance to be wheeled to a waiting Bombardier challenger 60 business jet at Ferihegy Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009.

Massa leaves hospital, flies home Agence France Presse

BUDAPEST - Injured Formula One driver Felipe Massa left his Hungarian hospital and boarded his private jet on Monday to return home to Brazil, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Massa was accompanied by his wife Rafaela and his doctor Dino Altman. His jet flew out of the Hungarian capital Budapest and was expected to stop over in Dakar, Senegal, before flying on to Sao Paulo.

The pilot will go to a Brazilian hospital for check-ups but is not going to be further hospitalised, his father Luiz Antonio Massa said earlier.

The 28-year-old Ferrari driver had been taken to Budapest’s AEK hospital on July 25 after a horror crash during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Brazilian was struck by a suspension spring which had worked its way off Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP, resulting in Massa crashing his Ferrari into a tyre barrier in qualifying in Budapest.

Massa underwent surgery on his fractured skull but was able to get up and walk around within a few days.

His doctors have said his condition continues to improve.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has agreed to return to racing to fill in for his friend at Ferrari, starting with the European Grand Prix in Valencia on August 23.

Massa says he is eager to return to racing as soon as possible after being

discharged from the Budapest hospital where he was staying following his accident in Hungary.

Just nine days after he suffered lifethreatening injuries after he was hit on the head by a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s car in qualifying in Hungary, the Brazilian driver flew home to Brazil to continue with his recovery.

Massa said he did not remember anything from the accident, but he admitted he was already looking forward to returning to action.

“I don’t remember anything and that’s why what the doctors did had to be explained to me,” said Massa in his first interview since the accident, conducted before flying to Brazil.

“When I saw Rob (Smedley, his race engineer), he asked me if I remembered Rubens, but the last thing I remembered was when I was behind him at the end of my fast lap in Q2, and than it’s blank.

It’s difficult to explain.

“I’m feeling much better now and I want to recover as soon as possible to get back behind the wheel of a Ferrari.”

The Brazilian was thankful for all the support he has received the accident.

“First of all I want to thank God,” he said. “Then I want to thank the doctors at the race track and at Budapest’s AEK hospital, who have done a lot for me, and Dino Altmann, who came with my family from Brazil and who was extraordinary over the last days.

“But I also want to thank everybody who prayed and who wrote to me via my own and Ferrari’s website, hoping that everything went well.

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug says his company would be happy to allow Michael Schumacher to test the 2009 Ferrari before his comeback in the European Grand Prix, and hopes rival teams take the same stance. Ferrari has requested that an exemption to the testing ban be made to help Schumacher reacclimatise before he deputises for the injured Felipe Massa in Valencia. The former world champion last raced in Formula 1 in 2006, and last tested a contemporary car in April 2008, although he drove a 2007 F1 Ferrari fitted with GP2 tyres at Mugello on Friday.

Haug said he could see no reason why Ferrari’s request should be rejected.

“Whatever we can do to support him we will do,” Haug told AUTOSPORT. “I just think it is fair.

This is an exception. If Michael had said he would come back under the condition that he could test, everybody would have said yes. “His team-mate has thousands of kilometres in this car, and he has nothing. As we are fair players, why should he not get some testing? I would be very open to that.”

Toro Rosso’s new driver Jaime Alguersuari had to make his F1 debut in Hungary with minimal preparation due to the testing ban, but Haug thinks the young Spaniard would also have been granted an exemption if his team had asked.

“Maybe even a newcomer should get a test,” said Haug. “If I would be asked to make an exception for a young guy, I would say yes. Giving Jaime a test would have been justifiable, but having said that I don’t think there was an official request.”

AUTOSPORT understands that there remains some resistance to allowing Schumacher to test the F60, although the FOTA teams are believed to support Ferrari’s case.

“You will find some guys that will try to block it,” Haug admitted. “But what goes around comes around.

They will need some help at another stage. It’s not giving people presents, it’s being fair when it’s justifiable.”

But he reckons Schumacher will be a threat for victory whether he is permitted to test or not.

“He is good enough that he could get the job done on Friday if the car is quick,” said Haug.

“Michael is a competitive guy, he will prepare himself in a very mature and thorough manner. If the car is a potentially winning car, then he will be able to win in it. The characteristics at Valencia are not too different to Hungary.” The Mercedes chief added that Schumacher’s shock return and Massa’s good progress in hospital had both been huge boosts for the sport.

“This is the best thing that can happen to Formula 1,” Haug said.

“The best news is that Felipe is quite okay and can leave the hospital.

That looked really frightening.”

Japanese man on course to be matador in Spain

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Tens of thousands bid farewell to exPhilippine leader Agence France-Presse

MANILA - Tens of thousands of Filipinos, many in tears, lined the streets of Manila to see the coffin carrying former leader Corazon Aquino during an emotional procession to the capital’s cathedral Monday.

The ex-president, whose husband was assassinated by forces loyal to dictator Ferdinand Marcos after returning home from exile in 1983, died of cancer at the weekend and is to be buried on Wednesday.

There has been a massive outpouring of tributes for the woman fondly called Tita, or Auntie, Cory, a grandmotherly figure credited with restoring democracy to the nation.

Traffic ground to a halt and confetti rained down from office blocks as people from all walks of life braved intermittent rain to get near Aquino’s coffin, lying on a bed of yellow flowers atop an open truck that slowly made its way through the Makati financial district.

Continued on page 6

Marcos seeks reconciliation as Philippines mourns Aquino Agence France-Presse

MANILA - Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos said Monday she wanted a reconciliation with the family of Corazon Aquino, as the ex-president’s coffin was taken on a solemn procession through Manila.

Continued on page 6