Edisi 7 Agustus 2009 | International Bali Post

Emotional homecoming for US journalists

16 Pages Number 431 1st Year

PAGE 3 e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Friday, August 7, 2009

Japan pledges help for 300 more atom bomb survivors Agence France-Presse

Barenboim pleased with outcome of his Mideast ‘peace orchestra’ PAGE 6

Scarlett Johansson Looks Great in Her Tight Fitting Costume For ‘Iron Man 2’ PAGE 12

HIROSHIMA - Japan’s government promised relief for more than 300 ailing survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings on Thursday, 64 years after the United States dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima.

In a new agreement, Tokyo pledged to end legal battles with the plaintiffs of a years-old class action lawsuit, most of whom are now aged in their 70s and 80s, and to set up a compensation fund for them.

However, the offer does not cover 7,000 more people who have applied for recognition as ‘hibakusha’ or survivors of the atomic bombings that in 1945 devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki leading to Japan’s surrender.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, speaking at a memorial service in Hiroshima, said “I made the decision to help the plaintiffs who have long suffered due to the drawn-out court trials as they have been getting older.”

Under the agreement, which came weeks before national elections, the government pledged not to appeal 19 district court rulings in favour of the plaintiffs, and to pass a law to set up a compensation fund.

The size of the fund was not known, but under Japanese law, certified hibakusha have been entitled to free public medical treatment and a 137,000 yen (1,440 dollar) monthly health allowance.

Top government spokesman Takeo Kawamura rejected speculation that Aso had made the offer to win support ahead of elections as his conservative Liberal Democratic Party is trailing the opposition in opinion polls.

Continued on page 6

With the gutted Atomic Bomb Dome as a backdrop, doves fly over the cenotaph of the Peace Memorial Park at Hiroshima, western Japan, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. Hiroshima marks the 64th anniversary of the the world’s first atomic bomb attack that devastated the western Japanese city at the closing days of World War II.

WEATHER FORECAST CITY

TEMPERATURE OC

DENPASAR

21 - 31

JAKARTA

24 - 33

BANDUNG

19 - 29

YOGYAKARTA

20 - 32

SURABAYA

23 - 34

SUNNY

BRIGHT/CLOUDY

Aussie koala that survived fires dies in surgery Associated Press Writer

ADELAIDE - Sam the koala, who gained worldwide fame and sympathy when she was rescued during Australia’s devastating wildfires this year, was euthanized Thursday after a veterinarian found the cysts that threatened her life were inoperable. The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects more than 50 percent of Australia’s koala population.

During surgery, the disease was found to be so advanced that it was inoperable and Sam was

RAIN

HOTLINE

For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni

0361-225764

AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

AP Photo/File

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sam the koala is treated at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Center in Rawson, Australia, as she recovers from burns suffered in devastating wildfires.

euthanized, said Peita Elkhorne of TressCox law firm, which represents the shelter where the koala had lived since the February fires.

“It was so severe that there was no possible way to be able to manage her pain,” Elkhorne said in a statement. “All of those who have been involved with Sam are devastated with this loss.”

John Butler, the veterinarian who was conducting the operation, said Sam was too scarred inside to carry out the surgery.

“She was going to be left in pain in the state she was in,” Butler told reporters. “We had no hope of helping her any further.”

As fires raged, Sam was gingerly making her way on scorched paws past a fire patrol north of Melbourne when one of the firefighters spotted her. The firefighter was photographed holding a bottle of water to her lips, an image that resonated around the world.

Continued on page 6

2

International

Friday, August 7, 2009

News WORLD NEWS

Historic US court pick Sotomayor faces final vote Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Judge Sonia Sotomayor was expected to win Senate confirmation as early as Thursday as the first Hispanic US Supreme Court justice, in a major victory for President Barack Obama.

Tonga accident NUKU’ALOFA One British man is killed and 40 people are missing and feared dead after an overnight ferry capsized in open waters near Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, officials say.

US-Africa diplomacy US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to meet in Kenya with Somalia’s embattled president, who faces a bruising offensive by groups experts say could turn the country into a new Afghanistan.

The 55-year-old appeals court judge was to become the third woman to sit on the bench that serves as the final arbiter of the US Constitution and is called upon to decide bitter feuds on volatile issues like gun rights and abortion.

Support from all of Obama’s Democratic allies and a handful of Republicans meant the outcome was never seriously in doubt — though the final days brought increasingly harsh debate over the place of race in the nomination.

Republican Senator James Inhofe took aim at Sotomayor’s much-quoted comment that she hoped a “wise Latina” judge could be a better judge than a white male, and bluntly declared: “I consider that racist.”

The only Hispanic Democratic senator, Robert Menendez, joined leaders of major Latino groups to warn Republicans that they will “pay a price” in coming elections for voting against the groundbreaking nomination.

“I believe the Republicans will pay a price for saying ‘no’ to this judge,” and to Obama’s policies in general, Menendez said in Spanish at a press conference in the US Capitol.

The Cuban-American New Jersey lawmaker said “maybe less than 10” of the chamber’s 40 Republicans will

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor participate in a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009. and it will be long remembered.”

Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri announced he would vote for confirmation even though he disagreed with her views, bringing to seven the number of Republicans backing Sotomayor.

“I will support her, I’ll be proud for her, the community she represents, and the American Dream she shows is possible,” he said. “I urge my colleagues to do the same.”

Republican Senator Jon Kyl, his party’s number two in the Senate, said

that while “every American should be proud that a Hispanic woman has been nominated,” lawmakers “must evaluate Judge Sotomayor on her merits, not on the basis of her ethnicity.”

Republicans also underlined that Democrats blocked a vote to confirm a Hispanic nominee, Miguel Estrada, to be an appeals court judge.

“Because he had been nominated by a Republican, Estrada got no points for his compelling personal story,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Chavez halts import of 10,000 Colombian cars

Britain history

Agence France-Presse

WELLS, England Thousands of people are expected to pay their respects at the funeral of Harry Patch, the last soldier to fight in the trenches of Europe in World War I, who died last month at the age of 111.

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered a halt to the import of 10,000 cars from Colombia and initiated import substitutes, in a sign of rising tensions between the South American neighbors.

The move came just a week after the firebrand leftist leader recalled his ambassador from Bogota and announced a “freeze” in bilateral relations after Colombia said that arms sold by Sweden to Venezuela in the 1980s ended up in the hands of the FARC, a Colombian leftist guerrilla group.

Source: ap

vote to confirm Sotomayor, who is the daughter of migrants from Puerto Rico.

Some Republicans have worried that opposition to Sotomayor may hurt the party with Hispanic voters, who could play a decisive role in the 2010 mid-term elections and the 2012 presidential vote.

“In last year’s elections, the road to the White House in large part came through the Latino community,” said Menendez. “We need to know who is with us, and who is not.”

Hispanic Americans, who went about 2-to-1 for Obama over Republican Senator John McCain in the 2008 White House race, do not vote as a bloc.

And most — more than 60 percent — are Mexican-American.

But because the Hispanic sociological group is the fastest-growing US minority, lawmakers are keen to try to line up support.

Janet Murguia, head of the top US Hispanic rights group National Council of La Raza, said Sotomayor’s nomination had galvanized and united the diverse Latino population and cautioned Republicans about the coming vote.

“I think the Republican Party is at a crossroads with our Latino community,” she said. “This vote will matter

“Zero. We will not bring any vehicles from Colombia,” Chavez told reporters. “These 10,000 vehicles from Colombia, we are not going to bring them and I am very sorry for the workers in Colombia.”

He said the imports would be replaced with cars from Argentina and Brazil, which “produce more.”

In April, during a meeting between Chavez and conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, the Venezuelan government promised to grant licenses to import 10,000 vehicles from Colombia.

In the past two years, Colombia reduced its auto exports to Venezuela to 45,000 units in 2007 and to a

mere 15,000 in 2008.

Chavez said cars imported from its neighbor arrived on the Venezuelan market with prices double their actual cost.

He also threatened to suspend other, mostly food-related imports from Colombia, which amounted to 6 billion dollars last year.

“We will replace all such imports.

It is a liability, because any time the Yankees come and say: do not send more beef to Chavez, no more milk is sent to the Venezuelans.”

Instead, Chavez said, Venezuela would increase its food imports from Argentina, noting he would seek business with “governments that are true

allies, friends, not hidden daggers.”

He said that rocket launchers and automatic rifles found in a Colombian rebel camp were stolen from a Venezuelan naval post 14 years ago, denying Bogota’s claim he gave them to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The arms had been in the arsenal in the post in Cararabo, close to the Colombian border, that was cleared out in a 1995 robbery, Chavez said, describing Bogota’s charges as a “dirty move” intended to divert attention from a plan to open seven military bases in Colombia to US forces.

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

News

International

Friday, August 7, 2009

3

Emotional homecoming for US journalists Agence France-Presse

BURBANK - Muffled sobs and a heartwrenching embrace between a mother and her daughter provided an emotional end to a 140-day nightmare for former North Korean captives Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

The two US journalists emerged from a chartered Boeing 737 jet into a chilly aircraft hangar at Bob Hope Airport as dawn broke to be greeted by family and loved ones at the foot of a staircase below.

Laura Ling, 32, smiled and waved her hands in jubilation as she descended the steps to a throng that included her husband, sister and parents.

Her fellow former prisoner Euna Lee, 36, however had only one thing on her mind as she rushed to embrace her husband Michael Saldate before hugging her tiny daughter Hana, 4, tightly as other relatives moved in.

Ling and Lee were sentenced to 12 years hard labor by North Korea in June after being arrested in March near the reclusive Stalinist state’s border with China as they filmed a report on human trafficking.

The two were pardoned by North Korea and freed after a high-profile diplomatic effort spearheaded by former US President Bill Clinton, who accompanied the journalists on their flight home.

Ling, her voice trembling with emotion as she addressed a crowd of around 200 journalists, described the ordeal as “the most difficult, heartwrenching time of our lives.”

The lightning speed of the diplomatic effort to free her and Lee had taken both women by surprise, she said.

“Thirty hours ago Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea. We feared that at any moment we could

be sent to a hard labor camp,” she said.

“And then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting. We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us president Bill Clinton.

“We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here home and free.”

After thanking Clinton and his “wonderful, amazing, supercool team” who had traveled to Pyongyang to secure the journalists release, Ling also paid tribute to President Barack Obama’s administration.

Yet Ling said it was the kindness of strangers that had helped sustain the two women during their darkest moments in captivity.

“To our loved ones, friends, colleagues, and to the complete strangers with the kindness of heart who showed us so much love and sent us so many positive thoughts and energy, we thank you,” Ling said. “We could feel your love all the way in North Korea. It is what kept us going in the darkest of hours. It is what sustained our faith that we would come home.”

“We are so happy to be home, and we are just so anxious right now to be able to spend some quiet, private time getting reacquainted with our family. Thank you so much,” she said.

Former US vice president Al

Gore, co-founder of the television station that employed Ling and Lee, had hugged his old friend and colleague Clinton as he disembarked from the plane, which belongs to entertainment industry mogul Steve Bing, a prominent contributor to Democratic Party causes.

“It speaks well of our country that when two American citizens are in harm’s way, that so many people would put things aside and just go to work to make sure that this has had a happy ending,” Gore told reporters before turning to address Ling and Lee. “I want you know, your families have been unbelievable,” Gore told the two women. “Passionate, involved, committed, innovative — you’ll hear a lot of stories and they’re looking forward to hearing stories from you.”

Ling’s sister Lisa later told reporters the two journalists had not planned to cross into North Korea when they set out on their story.

“I really haven’t talked specifics about what actually happened that day. We know, as we’ve said, and she will confirm, that when they left US soil, they never intended to cross the border,” she said.

“As journalists, when you’re in the field, you never know what is going to arise and things can be unpredictable and whatever happened that day, she will tell you when she is ready to talk about it.

“But based on the limited knowledge that I have, I don’t think they used poor judgment.”

TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS

Freed US journalists Laura Ling (top) embraces her husband Iain Clayton, while Euna Lee is welcomed by husband Michael Soldate and daughter Hannah after they arrive from North Korea at the airport in Burbank, California with former US president Bill Clinton on August 5, 2009. Following talks in Pyongyang with Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women were sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally.

First French ‘Son of a Boche’ gets German citizenship Agence France-Presse

PARIS - More than six decades after his birth, the son of a French mother and a German Wehrmacht officer, retiree Daniel Rouxel was on Wednesday at last granted German citizenship and a measure of dignity.

After a lifetime of humiliation at the hands of a population ashamed of France’s wartime occupation, the 66-year-old “Son of a Boche” feels that by becoming a dual FrenchGerman national he finally has a legitimate identity.

“I’m German. I’m not a bastard any more. I’m a child like all the others. At last I’ve got the second half that I was so cruelly missing,” he said, blinking back tears after leaving the German consulate in Paris.

Rouxel was born in Paris in 1943 during the World War II occupation,

when his mother was working in the canteen of the German airbase in the Brittany town of Pleurtuit where his father, Lieutenant Otto Ammon, was stationed.

Ammon was killed during the Allied liberation of France and after the war, when his mother could no longer cope with raising him, Rouxel was taken on by his grandmother and moved to a small and unwelcoming Breton village.

“I’m the child born of a love made impossible by war,” he said, in a recent account of his life written in support of his citizenship bid.

As the illegitimate son of the former enemy, Rouxel was a figure of hate, tormented by local youths, often forced by his own grandmother to sleep in a henhouse and publicly mocked by local officials.

He still remembers the day the

deputy mayor of the town publicly singled him out as the villagers left church and asked “What’s the difference between a swallow and a Boche?”

— an abusive term for Germans.

“When a swallow has kids in France and then flies off, it takes its children with it,” the official said, according to Rouxel. “I cried a lot. I was only six years old and already I wanted to kill myself,” he said.

Neither German nor French officials in the period after the war wanted to address the issue of children born to occupying troops, who might number up to 200,000 according to writers Jean-Paul Picaper and Ludwig Norz.

Officially registered as “father unknown” they have been subjected to years of ostracism and persecution, and the countries — now close allies — recently reached an agreement to

recognise the children’s parentage.

Germany agreed on February 19 to grant joint citizenship to those war children who want it, and Rouxel — who has been a vocal representative of the group, even though he cannot speak German — was the first to sign up.

In April last year, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made a speech in Berlin in which he regretted that both governments had “remained deaf to the distress of the innocent victims of a conflict they had no part in.”

Since then, lawyers and officials from both sides of the Rhine have ironed out the remaining legal hurdles for the survivors to take German nationality.

Today it is thought that only a few dozen will do so, in most cases those who have managed to track down surviving German relatives and build

ties with them rather than those who lost touch in the chaos of war.

Rouxel was among those who, after a difficult upbringing in a France that wanted to forget the war and reject his heritage, managed to make contact with his father’s relatives.

“When I was two he held me in his arms. He fed me from the bottle and wrote to his family, before he was killed, to tell them he had a child in France,” he said, in his account of his life.

“His family wanted to do what was needed to raise me in Germany, but my mother refused. When I was 12, I met my German family. I was warmly received, our relations are excellent,” he said.

The French foreign ministry officially welcomed the German consulate’s award of citizenship.

4

News

Friday, August 7, 2009

International

Mauritarian coup leader sworn in as president Agence France-Presse

NOUAKCHOTT Mauritania’s coup leader Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz took the oath as president Wednesday on the eve of his widely condemned putsch a year ago amid fresh claims that he would restore democracy.

Ould Abdel Aziz was sworn before 20,000 people at a giant ceremony at Nouakchott stadium, attended among others by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who helped broker a deal between him and supporters of the ousted president, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

The ceremony began with the reading of Koranic verses. After arriving at the stadium, the 53year-old army general went around the track waving to the crowd.

Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi and Gambian Vice President Isatou

Njie-Saidy also attended the swearing-in with officials from the African Union, which had roundly condemned the coup.

Former colonial ruler France meanwhile claimed the new president had pledged to bring back constitutional order after toppling the first democratically elected head of state.

“The new president, with whom we have been very firm last year, has accepted almost all the demands put forth by the international community,” French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet said.

He said the junta leader had stepped down as army head before the July election as promised, allow his ousted predecessor to return, and held elections where everyone had a level playing field.

But three opposition candidates had denounced “massive fraud” in the vote and accused Ould Abdel Aziz of stealing the election in which he garnered 52 percent of the ballot in the first round.

Taliban brainwashed Pakistan teenage ‘suicide bombers’ Agence France-Presse

KHWAZAKHELA - The scars may take years to heal for Hamad Ahmad, one of many Pakistani boys purportedly brainwashed by the Taliban and determined to enact maximum carnage as a suicide bomber.

His mind trained on violence and his heart full of God, Ahmad says he wants to carry a pistol and strap explosives to his body in the name of Islamic law — not hold books and wear school uniform.

“I am ready to carry out a suicide attack against any target with approval of my ameer (chief),” said 15-year-old Hamad, who claimed he received 40 days of training from the Taliban after being snatched last year.

Hamad, who talked to AFP by telephone from Qambar village in Swat, is now among a group of teenagers being treated by military psychiatrists in the wake of Pakistan’s latest air and ground assault against the Taliban in the valley.

Hamad’s father, Furqan Ahmad, found his son receiving militant training in the northern Swat town of Charbagh last February, two months after he mysteriously disappeared and before the latest military offensive began.

“My son disappeared in December after I thrashed him for carrying a pistol,” said Furqan, a bank employee. “I was able to get him back with the help of a Taliban commander, who was known to me.”

AFP PHOTO/A MAJEED

This picture taken on July 31, 2009 shows detained alleged teenage suicide bombers being presented to the media at a Pakistani military compound in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley region.

AFP PHOTO/ADEM ALTAN

Greenpeace activists display symbolic mock-ups of traditional Russian matryoshka dolls with pictures of Russian Prime Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, depicted at centre and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, (L) as a smoking cauldron covers the scene during their protest against Putin’s offer to help Turkey build nuclear power plants, in Ankara on August 6, 2009, hours before Putin is scheduled to arrive in Ankara.

Putin arrives in Turkey Agence France-Presse

ANKARA - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived here Thursday for a one-day visit aimed at boosting cooperation with Turkey in energy projects.

Putin’s talks with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan were to be followed by the signing of several accords, in which the two countries were expected to pledge cooperation in a gas pipeline project and in the field of nuclear energy.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to join the two leaders and attend the signing ceremony, an official from Erdogan’s office said.

Under one of the deals, Turkey will permit Russia to carry out ex-

ploration work in its Black Sea waters for the possible construction of the South Stream pipeline, a project Moscow is promoting as a new route to supply natural gas to Europe.

Berlusconi’s attendance is related to Italian energy firm Eni’s partnership with Russian gas giant Gazprom in the South Stream project.

Putin was to also briefly meet with Turkish President Abdullah Gul before wrapping up his visit later in the day.

Algiers streets calm but tense after clashes with Chinese traders Agence France-Presse

ALGIERS - The streets of Algiers are deserted following clashes between Chinese and Algerian traders, but the tension is palpable despite comments by Beijing’s envoy describing the unrest as an isolated incident.

“I thought I was going to die,” said Abdelkrim Salaouda, sitting on a chair in front of his shop selling household electrical goods in the city’s Bab Ezzouar quarter, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city centre.

According to Salaouda, the clashes broke out over a dispute on Monday afternoon between a Chinese man and a young Algerian who was accused of having parked his car near his shop.

His brother came to his aid, but around 50 Chinese men, armed with swords, knives and iron bars then set upon the Algerian traders in support of their compatriot, residents said.

“I was going towards my neighbour’s shop when a group of Chinese attacked me and gave me a thrashing,” said Salaouda whose head is still wrapped in a bandage.

“At the hospital I had to have seven stitches,” he said.

“The Chinese have taken advantage of the kindness of the Algerians. They were accepted despite their faults, today they are attacking us,” added one of Salaouda’s employees Mounir.

“They drink alcohol in front of their shops and in full view of the Algerians and often parade about in shorts in the area. This sort of behaviour is against our religion and our culture,” said Abdellah, another resident.

Since Monday police cars have been patrolling the area along with plain clothes officers.

Salaouda believes that the Chinese traders might now, however, be regretting their behaviour after they suggested mediation in order to sort

out their differences amicably.

“We don’t want them here any more. The only thing for them to do is to go back to China,” he said, surrounded by dozens of neighbours who nodded in agreement.

The residents had also signed a petition to the authorities calling for the Chinese to be asked to leave, he added. The usually bustling area was on Wednesday deserted.

All the shops belonging to the Chinese traders were closed and none had appeared in public since the incidents, according to locals.

“They are afraid of possible reprisals. On Monday evening young people from neighouring areas attacked four or five shops belonging to the Chinese,” said another man speaking on condition of anonymity. The police had to intervene late in the evening, he said.

China’s embassy in Algiers on Wednesday played down the violent clashes as an isolated incident unrepresentative of normal relations.

News

International

Friday, August 7, 2009

5

Saudi businessman orders solid gold penis enlarger Agence France-Presse

AP Photo/Dhiraj Singh Syed.

Mohammed Haneef Abdul Rahim, in white, one of the people found guilty in the 2003 Mumbai bombings, is escorted by policemen outside a court in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. The court on Thursday ordered death sentences for two Muslim men, including Rahim, and a woman guilty in twin bombings that killed 52 people and wounded 100 in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, six years ago.

Death penalty for 2003 Mumbai bombers Agence France-Presse

MUMBAI - An Indian court on Thursday sentenced to death three people, including a married couple, for planting bombs that killed 52 in the city of Mumbai in 2003.

Judge M.R. Puranik, sitting at a special anti-terrorism court, ordered that Haneef Sayyed, his wife Fahmeeda Sayyed, and Ashrat Ansari “should be hanged by the neck until dead” for murder, criminal conspiracy and terrorism.

All three were convicted last week, six years after bombs exploded at the Gateway of India monument and in the Zaveri Bazaar jewellery quarter.

They stood impassive in the dock as the sentences were handed down.

Their lawyers have indicated that they will appeal against the death penalty, which is given rarely in India and is often delayed indefinitely or commuted by the president.

The court had heard the blasts were carried out in retaliation for Hindu atrocities against Muslims during riots in western Gujarat state in 2002 and the trio claimed to be

members of the so-called “Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force”.

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam also said they were members of the banned, Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was also allegedly behind last year’s militant attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people. Haneef Sayyed’s lawyer had argued that his client should be sent to prison for life without parole.

Fahmeeda Sayyed’s counsel also argued against the death penalty, saying she was a poor, uneducated woman pressured into committing the crime by her husband out of Muslim duty and was taken along to “camouflage” the group’s intentions.

Pregnant Briton set to leave Laos jail: official Agence France-Presse

HANOI - A pregnant Briton sentenced to life in prison in Laos for drugs trafficking was on Thursday due to be sent home for Britain to serve out her sentence, just weeks before the expected birth of her baby.

Samantha Orobator, 20, who was first arrested a year ago, was due to fly to Bangkok and then on to Britain, Lao foreign ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing told AFP. The spokesman said there would be a “handover ceremony” at 8:30 pm (1330 GMT). Orobator was then scheduled to fly out on a Bangkokbound Thai Airways flights at 9:45 pm.

“She has served one year in Laos, the rest will be served in the UK —

we got assurances from the UK side,” the spokesman said on Wednesday.

A court in Vientiane convicted Orobator in June of trafficking 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin almost a year ago, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand.

Normally, anyone found with more than 500 grams of heroin faces execution but the Lao government gave assurances to Britain that a pregnant woman would not receive the death penalty.

Orobator was sentenced in June to life in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 600 million kip (70,000 dollars).

Before her trial, a Lao government spokesman said that to his knowledge, no foreigner had ever been executed in the communist

country.

Human rights group Amnesty International said last year that no executions had been carried out in Laos since 1989, but urged the communist authorities to “go a step further by formalising the de facto moratorium.”

Last week, Britain and Laos signed an agreement paving the way for the transfer of Orobator.

The two sides had already signed a prisoner transfer agreement in May. But as it was taking time to put the measure into effect, a special memorandum of understanding was signed to allow Orobator to leave while she was still physically able to fly, British officials have said.

OTTAWA - A Saudi businessman has purchased what is being described by the Canadian seller as the world’s most expensive adult novelty item — a solid 18-carat gold penis enlarger worth nearly 50,000 dollars.

X4 Labs, a Canadian manufacturer of medical devices, received the unorthodox request and recruited a Montreal custom jeweler to help with its design and construction.

“This male health accessory is the most expensive traction device ever produced and will likely become a historical benchmark for the adult novelty industry,” the company said in a statement.

Little is known about the buyer, except that he lives in Jeddah.

His glitzy new penis enlarger, however, is being encrusted at his request with 40 diamonds and several rubies and is to be delivered by armored car in October, said Rick Oh, X4 Labs co-owner.

Saudi law bans the import of

adult sex toys, but the company insists its product is a US government certified medical device.

Such devices normally retail for less than 400 dollars. But this custom order is expected to cost about 47,000 dollars US, Oh said.

“It’s an unusual request,” Oh told AFP. “We didn’t take it seriously at first, but once he sent us a deposit, we had to agree to it.”

“Obviously, there were giggles initially when we presented our project to a jeweler and asked him for help.”

But the seemingly lavish device was actually conceived for a practical purpose, Oh explained. “We were approached by the customer who insisted on a solid gold version of our product because he claimed to have a severe skin allergy to stainless steel.”

Later, the buyer asked to add diamonds and rubies to it.

The company intends to now offer all customers custom designs for their male novelty devices, although it states it is “uncertain as to whether this will become a trend.”

‘Bird’s nest’ boom in Malaysia sparks protests Agence France-Presse

KLANG - Thousands of bird “motels” have opened across Malaysia to lure the swiftlets whose nests are harvested to make bird’s nest soup, a costly delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

But as the business booms and flocks of swiftlets — who make the nests out of their saliva — descend on towns and villages, the noisy, messy practice has triggered a wave of protest. In the heart of the coastal town of Klang, southwest of the capital Kuala Lumpur, the owner of the Goldcourse Hotel has converted part of the multi-storey building into a swiftlet “motel”.

To entice the swiflets to build their nests in their concrete home — and not their natural cave habitat — from sun-up to sun-down a soundtrack of shrill bird noises including mating calls is blasted from speakers.

Nearby, other entrepreneurs have opened competing ventures by turning four-storey shophouses into bird havens, and the cacophony and shower of bird droppings is alienating those living and working nearby.

“The sound is so loud and irritating, and the bird droppings can be harmful to our health,” said local resident Abdul Hamid Abdullah as he watched the swiflets dart in and out of the buildings.

“These birds build their nests in caves. That is where they should be,” the 46-year-old told AFP. Malaysia’s swiftlet industry began in the 1980s but gained momentum after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when entrepreneurs converted the interiors of abandoned

AFP PHOTO / Saeed KHAN

This photo taken on July 13, 2009 shows a shop owner displaying dried bird’s nest after taking it out from a locker on Crab Island off Port Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur.

Thousands of bird “motels” have opened across Malaysia to lure the swiftlets whose nests are harvested to make bird’s nest soup, a costly delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

properties into bird motels.

Fans of the gelatinous soup, which is popular in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, say it can stave off ageing, boost sex drive, prevent lung disease and enhance the complexion.

A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the small, cup-shaped nests can fetch 4,000 ringgit (1,130 dollars), and the combination of big profits and a lack of legislation has seen countless swiftlet “farms” established illegally in populated areas.

6

Friday, August 7, 2009

News

AFP PHOTO / CRISTINA QUICLER

This combo picture shows Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim conducting the WestEastern Divan orchestra during a rehearsal in Sevilla on August 4, 2009.

Daniel Barenboim says he is pleased with the path which the orchestra made up young musicians from both Israel and the Arab world has taken since he founded it a decade ago.”Musically we have performed in the most important venues in the world, the most difficult works in the repertoire,” he told AFP in Spain where the orchestra began its latest European tour.

Barenboim pleased with outcome of his Mideast ‘peace orchestra’ Agence France-Presse

PILAS - Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim says he is pleased with the path which the orchestra made up of young musicians from both Israel and the Arab world has taken since he founded it a decade ago.

“Musically we have performed in the most important venues in the world, the most difficult works in the repertoire,” he told AFP in Spain where the orchestra began its latest European tour on Sunday in Seville.

“The orchestra has become a myth in Europe, it has become an alternative way to think of this conflict,” he added at the base of the orchestra’s summer camp in the southwestern town of Pilas.

Barenboim, who is tipped by many as a future recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, founded the orchestra in 1999 with his friend Edward W. Said, a Palestinian literary scholar who died in 2003.

This year the so-called ‘peace orchestra’ is made up 103 musicians, including 37 Israelis and 42 Palestinians.

The rest are from Muslim nations in the Middle East like Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Iran as well as a few members from Spain.

Spanish musicians have been given places in the orchestra since the regional government of the southern Andalusia region in 2002 began supporting it by providing the musicians with a base for their yearly summer workshop at Pilas.

The goal is to help bring about reconciliation in the fractious Middle East between young Arabs and Israelis by having them work together on music for which they have a common passion and hopefully break down assumptions they have about one another.

“Our orchestra does not have a common political opinion. This orchestra has 10,000 political opinions. This is a project where everyone has the right to express their opinion,”

said Barenboim.

“No one expects that anyone will be convinced by the other’s arguments. But we do expect that they have the curiosity to try to understand the logic of the arguments of the other,” the 66-year-old added.

Aside from rehearsal sessions in preparation for concerts and tours and the intensive summer workshop, the musicians do not work often together.

But when they do Barenboim said inevitably “there are always heated discussions”.

“There are people from enemy states. An Israeli and a Syrian, how are they going to agree?” he added.

During a visit to the workshop at Pilas, an argument broke out among the musicians over the concrete wall that makes up segments of Israel’s West Bank separation barrier as they decorated a panel that will be placed in Berlin for celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A Palestinian has written “The Apartheid wall must fall” in a reference to the West Bank barrier, which angered an Israeli.

“A big part of Israelis have a closed mind,” the Palestinian, Ramzi Abu Redwan, said.

“I have come to defend my message and say that what his country is doing in Palestine is not good,” added the 30-year-old, who was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

But for Lebanese cellist Nassib Ahmadieh, being in the orchestra has opened his eyes to the fact that there is a wide range of views in Israel regarding the conflict.

“I know now that there are people in Israel

that are against the Israeli politics, that are against the destruction, that are against war, that there are people in Israel that basically do have sympathies with the Palestinian cause,” the 32year-old said.

“Or at least they try to understand the suffering of the Palestinian people, and this is a very calming idea for me,” he added.

For Barenboim the highlight of the orchestra’s ten-year run came in 2005 when it performed in Ramallah.

The concert only took place after tortuous diplomatic maneuvers.

The Israelis were forbidden by law to venture into Palestinian territory and the Syrians and Lebanese were not allowed to travel through Israeli land, which they had to do in order to reach Ramallah, by the laws of their own countries.

“Traveling with Syrian, Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanians and Egyptians to Palestine, the occupied territories, was an historic event,” Barenboim said.

“It was only possible thanks to the vision of the Spanish government which gave all the musicians Spanish diplomatic passports,” he added.

Barenboim, who lives in Berlin and holds Argentine, Israeli and Spanish citizenship, called the existing situation in the IsraeliPalestian conflict “depressing”.

“Where have we arrived? Two peoples who have the deep conviction that they have the right to live in the same land and that depend on an American president who is I don’t know how many thousands of miles away to impose a solution,” he said.

Sri Lanka arrests 32 migrants heading for New Zealand Agence France-Presse

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan police arrested 32 men who were illegally trying to leave for New Zealand by boat, an official said Thursday.

The men were taken into custody late Wednesday on the island’s western coast of Seeduwa from where they planned to set off for New Zealand in a fishing trawler, senior police superintendant Ranjith Gunasekara said.

The men had each paid 300,000 rupees (2,600 dollars) to an agent for the trip, he said, adding that police have yet to arrest those who organised the illegal journey.

Sri Lankans are often caught seeking to migrate to other countries in unseaworthy boats with few provisions.

People smuggling to Europe and the Far East is often carried out in fishing boats.

Deep freezers are converted to cramped living quarters for the illegal immigrants who usually spend about a month at sea before reaching the promised destination.

Italy and Australia have been favourite destinations of people smugglers, but some have ended up in Japan and European countries as well. Hundreds have also reportedly drowned when their boats capsized.

In May, Indonesian police intercepted a boat carrying 55 Sri Lankan migrants as they tried to reach Australia.

Japan pledges...

From page 1 “We’ve decided this policy purely from the viewpoint of helping the sufferers,” said Kawamura, the chief cabinet secretary.

Sunao Tsuboi, speaking for the plaintiffs, said the new measures would bring relief to many, calling the agreement “dozens of steps forward.”

Japan saw its first class-action lawsuit in 2003 by people suffering cancers and other illnesses seeking recognition as hibakusha.

The plaintiffs said they had never been officially recognised as atom bomb victims, often because of their distance from the bomb’s ground zero or because their illness did not match an approved list of ailments.

Aussie koala...

From page 1 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that photo made Sam a symbol of hope for Australia.

“I think that gave people of the world a great sense that this country, Australia, could come through those fires, as we have,” Rudd said. “And Sam the koala was part of the symbolism of that.

It’s tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us.”

Sam suffered second- and third-degree burns to her paws and had been recuperating at the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter. Officials there had said she would be returned to the wild within months after she was completely healed.

It was not known whether Sam had the infection before the fire.

The disease, one of the main killers of the koala, is brought on by stress.

Deborah Tabart, CEO of the Australian Koala Foundation, said she was saddened by Sam’s death but noted that thousands of other koalas die every year of the disease and are not lamented nor cared for by the government.

“Sam’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Tabart said. “Sam’s doing her wild cousins a huge favor by this international interest. Our koalas are in serious trouble across the country.” Sam was found in early February, when record temperatures, high winds and forests dried by years of drought set off infernos that swept a vast area of Victoria state, killing more than 170 people and destroying thousands of homes.

International

Indonesia Today

Friday, August 7, 2009

7

RI-PNG border closure reports denied Antara

JAYAPURA - The chief of the Papua Border Cooperation Agency, Berti Ferdinandes, has denied reports that the Indonesian-Papua New Guinea (PNG) border has been closed.

“It is not true that the RI-PNG border in the Wutung area in Keerom district has been closed,” Ferdinandes said here Thursday.

He said the situation at the border remained normal with people there continuing to carry out their daily activities as usual.

“Who says the RI-PNG border is closed? If you do not believe me, go to the border and see things there for yourself,” Ferdinandes said.

Earlier, on Tuesday, National Defense Forces (TNI) Headquarters spokesman Rear Marshal Sagom Tamboen said in Jakarta the border between Indonesia and PNG had been temporarily closed following the recent shooting incidents in the PT Freeport area in Timika.

Tamboen at the time said the two countries (Indonesia and PNG) had agreed to close the border to anticipate possible undesired happening following the shooting incidents in the concession area of PT Freeport Indonesia in Timika, Papua.

“The closure is to anticipate the impact of the incidents, including the possibility of foreign interference in the incidents,” Tamboen said.

He said the border had been closed since the implementation of the presidential election on July 8, 2009, also in anticipation of possible incidents during and after the poll.

The Freeport incidents started on July 8, 2009, when a company bus and security post were set on fire at Mile 71 early in the morning.

Three days later, Drew Nicholas Grant (38) was shot dead by unknown gunmen at Mile 53. Grant was an Australian national who was working for PT Freeport Indonesia.

Markus Rante Allo, a PT Freeport security officer, was shot dead at Mile 51 a day later. The latest incident occurred on July 13, 2009, when the remains of Second Brigadier Marson Fredy Pettipelohi, a Papua police officer, were found at Mile 64. Serious wounds were found on his neck.

AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY

A Papuan man holds placards during a protest to demand US mining company Freeport close its mining operations on Papua land, in front of the Freeport office in Indonesian’s capital Jakarta on July 31, 2009. The chief of the Papua Border Cooperation Agency, Berti Ferdinandes, has denied reports that the Indonesian-Papua New Guinea (PNG) border has been closed.

Government plans to close down weigh bridges President dedicates Antara

KUNINGAN - The West Java provincial transportation service planned to close down all weigh bridges in eight cities in West Java, as they were believed to be no longer effective and have become outdated.

“Lacking effectiveness because

there are now much more roads but only eight weigh bridges across West Java, which means only 25 percent than actually needed,” head of the West Java provincial transportation service said following a working conference of transportation service chiefs of West Java at Tirta Sanita hotel in

Kuningan area.

Besides, he added, the equipment and instruments of the weigh bridges have become so outdated, especially when handling vehicles weighing more than 40 tons, so that many vehicles of more than this weight range escaped control.

AFP PHOTO/Bay ISMOYO

Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri help their unconcious friend who burried himself to drive home the message that the Indonesian land belongs to Indonesia and not to foreign company during a protest in Jakarta on August 6, 2009 as they assumed that there was a foreign involvement for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s victory. The protestors demanded new election as Indonesian opposition leader Megawati launched a Constitutional Court challenge to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-election victory, as she refused to accept the results of the July 8 polls.

Aceh’s Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport Antara

BANDA ACEH - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dedicated two projects in Aceh on Thursday - the Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport and a number of other infrastructure projects.

On the occasion, the president said the infrastructure projects, especially Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, were expected to facilitate the region’s economic development.

“These projects are specifically intended to spur Aceh’s economic development and help improve the local people’s welfare. Therefore, when I opened the Aceh Cultural Week (PKA) yesterday, I said development in Aceh should be improved to make the province more safe, peaceful, just, and prosperous,” the president said.

He said with the existence of better transportation facilities, the province would have a brighter and more promising future because the facilities would help to increase economic growth and income per capita.

Built according to a modern Acehnese architectural concept, the Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport’s three-story building has a capacity to accommodate 1.7 million passengers per year.

The new airport has a 3,000-meter runway, sufficient to enable Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet liners to land and take off.

In addition to Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, the president also dedicated a number of infrastructure projects among others the Redelong and Labuhan Haji Barat drinking water project in Aceh Selatan district, Pasantren T Chik Oemar Dian drinking water facility, the 20-km Tutut-Meulaboh road, the 26-km Sabang-Iboh road, and Kampung Jawa trash dumping site project.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the president opened the 5th Aceh Cultural Week (PKA-V) and the Aceh International Expo 2009.

Meanwhile, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf in his address said the modern infrastructure projects in Aceh were intended to promote the local people’s welfare.

Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal expressed hope that Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Blam Bintang, Aceh, would improve the province’s cultural and economic development.

8

Internationa

Friday, August 7, 2009

Bali Today 4000 workers working abroad infected with HIV

Craftsmen working with wood to make sculpture. Bali’s non-oil and gas exports to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan keep increasing even the economics crisis happened throughout the world.

DENPASAR – The research from Bali Health Foundation (Yakeba) showed that approximately four thousands of Indonesian workers who work all over the world infected by HIV. Bob Monthouse, the Director of Yakeba, said “those who already infected by HIV usually deported back to Indonesia through Soekarno Hatta Airport. However, the data was taken only from Soekarno Hatta Airport and not from other airports in Indonesia.

Several other airports such as Surabaya, Batam, Medan, and Makasar was unditected so maybe the number of the workers infected by HIV is double than the current data.”

Monthouse added that most of the workers who infected by the virus work in factories, textile industries, farming, or house maid. The uncontrolled sex and being rape can cause the disease spread among them. They also must suffer other consequences because of HIV. They often alienated by the society and didn’t receive the proper services. The person infected

by HIV has the risk to transmit the disease to others.

“They often didn’t aware that they already infected with HIV so they still blend with other people. Maybe this is the cause why the number of people suffer from the desease increase from time to time,” he said.

Based on the data from Indonesian Health Department, the HIV and AIDS cases in Indonesia until March 2009 were 23,632 cases and 3,492 of them had died.

The National Commission for AIDS Handling predicted that the cases detected in Indonesia is only 15% from the total cases.

The rest of them maybe didn’t receive the proper medication for their sickness.

Monthouse said “many Indonesian people think that HIV and AIDS is far away from their live but they didn’t aware that they alienated their friends and relatives suffer from HIV or AIDS.”

Palm Leaf Handicrafts In the past time, palm leaf manuscripts functioned like a book used

by Balinese community to record every event and immortalize literary works. On the palm leaf is inscribed any proceedings so that they can be learned by the following generations.

Up to these moments, those manuscripts are kept securely in the library or museum.

Lately, the palm leaves were widely used to make a variety of handicrafts for interior decoration. Here are some examples of handicraft made from palm leaf by Nyoman Anadiani from Mekar Buana Village, Sigaran, Badung: (1) Cane or peacock-like flower arrangement, (2) Coconut tree for tabletop vase, (3) flower vase for room ornament, and (4) sampian Gebogan used for ornament of penjor.

One of the palm leaf handicraft

BTN/DOc

Bali’s exports to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan increase Antara

DENPASAR – Bali’s non-oil and gas exports to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan keep increasing even the economics crisis happened throughout the world. Ni Wayan Kusumawathi, the head of Foreign Trade Division in Bali Trade Department, said the income gained from the export during January through May 2009 period was $7.2 million.

The income increased compare to the same period last year

which was only $6 million.

Kusumawathi said that the export to Taiwan was the highest increased which was 20%, followed by Hong Kong 14% and China which increased from $875,000 last year and became $1.5 million in 2009.

The fact that the exports to those countries was increasing give hope to the businessmen in Bali. The economics crisis made Bali’s handicrafts and other non-oil and gas exports decreased especially to USA and European Union.

In the first five months of 2009,

Bali’s non-oil and gas exports was $38.1 million. The number decreased 13% compared to the same period last year which was $43.9 million. The export to Europe decreased 21% from $88 million last year then became $69 million in 2009.

Kusumawathi explained that Bali’s handicrafts products had entered 79 countries throughout the world and donated $187 million of income in the first five months of 2009. However, the number decrease 20% compared to the same period last year.

Conservation group buy thousands of eggs Antara

NEGARA – Kurma Asih turtle conservation group in Perancak, Jembrana, is trying to find as many as turtle eggs as possible. They often searched the eggs at night and buy the eggs from the people. Usually one egg cost 1,500 rupiah. Anom, a member of the group said “we conduct these steps to conserve the turtle because its number is decreasing from time to time. Guarding the natural resources is our responsibility.”

The serious steps done by the group, they succeeded in hatching the turtle egg in captivity. “We released 2,000 newborn turtles or ‘tukik’ into the ocean. They spent several days in captivity in order to prepare the turtle before they released to the sea,” added Anom.

The Kurma Asih group was established in 1997. The group was set up based on the worrying sight of turtle hunt in the area.

In 1980’s, the fishermen in Perancak also hunted turtles using spears and often traded in the market. The fishermen hunted turtles because it was more expensive than fish.

Then turtles were very rare in the sea so the people in Perancak decided to establish he conservation group. The group cooperated with other NGO and the govern-

ment especially the Marine and Fishery Department.

In 2006, Kurma Asih received 200 meter square of land in Perancak by the government for the turtle captivity. Anom explained that the group searched the egg on the beach in order to prevent it from being stolen.

Usually, the turtles go to the beach at night to lay their eggs.

The eggs will be hatched in captivity. The egg placed in the sand for two months and after they hatch, the newborn will be placed in captivity for one month before being released

to the sea. Anom said “we didn’t receive any economics benefit from these activities but we are very satisfied because successfully increasing the number of turtles.”

In order to support the conservation, the group had asked 40 million rupiah from the government but the government only gave 20 million rupiah. The number increased from last year which was only 15 million rupiah. There is great hope that in the future the government will pay more attention in the conservation efforts.

BTN/Doc

Tourists releasing baby turtle at Kuta Beach as part of turtle conservation act. Kurma Asih turtle preservation group in Perancak, Jembrana, is trying to find as many as turtle eggs as possible. They often searched the eggs at night and buy the eggs from the people. Usually one egg cost 1,500 rupiah.

al

Friday, August 7, 2009

Balinese Culture Balinese Architectural Style: From Bale, Bade to Villa Each community around the globe has its own characteristic related to convenient housing in accordance with its surroundings. If Eskimos have unique dome-like igloo in polar zone, Balinese people have a house called bale or pavilion. Designed for two seasons, it is thatched to generate warmth or coolness. The ones in original design remain to be found almost everywhere in Bali.

Bangli Regency, for instance, has Penglipuran traditional village. It resembles a living showcase of Balinese compounds designed based on traditional architectural concept. Zonal arrangement is made in such a way where sanctum lies at upper stream or higher place, then residential area at the lower and followed by cemetery at the end. Similarly, the structure and affixing ornaments in use goes along with the local concept. Another ancient pavilion can be observed at Kertha Gosa Hall of Justice in Klungkung.

This pavilion was formerly used as courtroom during the reign of Klungkung kingdom. These two destinations are visited by many tourists every day.

Traces of written source left regarding to Balinese architecture retains in the manuscripts like the Asta Bumi and Asta Kosala Kosali. Students of architecture in Bali are, at least, also

given introduction to this subject.

Though original manuscripts are difficult to find, its transliterated version are widely sold at most bookstores in Denpasar. Both manuscripts are referred in designing various sanctum and traditional pavilion. By nature, Asta Bumi highlights about the basic measurements of sanctum building, house, geomancy and selection of good wood used for each building.

Meanwhile, Asta Kosala Kosali also contains some standard measurements used for making bale building and its attached bed’s structure. In addition, it also alludes the making of bade tower used in cremation ceremony. The latter is explained from the materials required until the initiation rites and mantra chanted before the tower is used for the cremation.

Let us be back to Balinese bale.

Residential zone in Balinese compound is filled with a series of traditional houses having different functions. Each building is called bale. It is generally filled with bale delod (southern pavilion for organizing ritual), bale daja (northern pavilion for bedroom), bale dauh (western pavilion for hosting guests), kitchen and rice granary. Afterwards, each has fixed measurement, number of beam, ornament pursuant to its type and distance from one another and from sanctum and kitchen. Failing

to meet these standards, it is believed to result disharmony in the dwellers.

Marked characteristics of bale lay on its base, beam (6, 8, 9 and 12), roof and other structures. In the past, bale always used alang-alang or thatch roof.

The alang-alang grass itself can give warmth during the rainy season and coolness during the dry season.

Then, the wall applied the mixture of refined soil, husk of rice and reinforced by bamboo bars. Today, some elements like foundation, wall and roof have been replaced with modern materials. However, its design and structure remain the same.

In keeping with the development of tourism industry, the bale architectural style has much widely inspired the design of tourism property across the island. It does not only give new style to the property itself, but also preserves the indigenous traditional concept. Based on this inspiration, creative undagi (traditional architect) have produced a wide variety of gazebo for hotel, villa or spa outlets. Interestingly, bale has now been made in mass production in the form of wooden knockdown. It shores up the emerging trend of eco-friendly property both at home and overseas. It is good to install at coastal and chill area. (BTN/punia)

Timun Mesanten

(Cucumber with Coconut Sauce) Overview: The bland flavor of cucumbers can be enhanced when prepared with coconut milk and spicy seasonings.

Ingredients: 2 tbsp oil 3 shallots, peeled and sliced 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 2 large red chilies, seeded and sliced ½ tsp dried shrimp paste 2 cups coconut milk 2 medium sized cucumbers, peeled, seeded and sliced 1 tsp salt ¼ tsp black peppercorns, crushed Fried shallots to garnish Preparation: Heat oil in heavy saucepan. Add shallots, garlic and chilies and sauté for 2 minutes over low heat. Mix in shrimp paste and sauté for another minute. Pour in coconut milk and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cucumbers and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat and simmer until beans are cooked.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with salt and pepper. Garnish with fried shallots. Helpful hints: Any type of green bean can be used instead of the long Asian variety. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Tambusan be Pasih

(Diced Fish Roasted in Banana Leaf) Overview: The spicy fish dish is excellent for barbeques.

Ingredients: 600 gr (1¼ 1lb) boned mackerel fillets, skin removed and cut in 2.5 cm (1in) cubes ½ cup basic marinade 1 heaped tbsp tamarind pulp, soaked in ¼ cup warm water and juice extracted 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed 1 ½ tsp salt 3 lemon leaves, cut in hair like shreds 3 tbsp oil 2 salam leaves 2 square of banana leaf 30x30cm (10x10 in) Preparation: In deep bowl combine mackerel cubes, spice paste, tamarind juice, crushed black pepper, salt, lime leaf and oil, and mix very well in order to coat fish evenly. Cover and marinate in cool place for 2 hours. Place one salam leaf in center of each piece of banana leaf. Top with half of seafood mix and fold the same way as for Tum Bebek.

Place parcels directly onto moderately hot charcoal and roast very slowly for one hour. Alternatively, bake on rack in a moderate oven or under a grill for about 30 minutes. Serve with Sambal Matah, Sambel Tomat, wedges of lime and steamed rice. (http:// www.baliguide.com/balifood)

9

10

Business

Friday, August 7, 2009

International

Rivaled by the Web, US mail service faces tough times Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Fewer and fewer mailboxes lining the streets, post offices closing, mail volume in freefall: the US Postal Service is going through tough times, battling the Internet and a recession.

Up to a thousand of the 32,000 postal stations and branches could disappear from US cities and towns, as the service says it faces the biggest drop in mail volume of its history.

USPS on Wednesday posted a 2.4-billion-dollar loss in the third quarter, with operating revenue of 16.3 billion, a nine percent drop over the same period last year.

“Ongoing electronic diversion

and the widespread economic recession continued to reduce mail volume, resulting in a 1.6-billion-dollar decrease in revenue for the quarter,” it said in a statement.

For the first time in decades, USPS was in the red in 2008, with a deficit of two billion dollars that is set to triple to 7.1 billion dollars in 2009.

“The financial situation of the postal service is grave,” USPS act-

ing vice president of network operations Jordan Small told a panel of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week.

The postal service is set to distribute 175 billion letters and packages in 2009 — 38 billion less than in 2007 — while it is organized to distribute 300 billion pieces of mail each year.

During the first three quarters of 2009, 20 billion fewer letters and packages were brought to the post office.

During the last quarter alone, seven billion pieces less was transported compared to the same period last year, “the largest consecutive

International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us

three-quarter drop in total volume since 1971,” USPS said.

The 13.7 percent projected drop in mail volume in 2009 is “the largest percentage decline since the Great Depression,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s auditing arm, noted in a report.

The GAO has already placed USPS on its “high risk list.”

The Internet now accounts for a major portion of the postal market, as both businesses and individual consumers are opting for electronic transactions, which has sped the tremendous drop in mail traffic.

In 2000, 80 percent of households

paid their bills by mail. That figure dropped to 56 percent in 2008, the GAO said.

“Mail volume peaked in 2006 and its decline has accelerated with the economic recession, particularly among major mail users in the advertising, financial and housing sectors,” it added.

The postal service currently has 640,000 employees, after 150,000 people were fired since 2000, but more cuts are expected.

Some 3,200 postal stations and branches are under “review,” and “fewer than 1,000 offices could be considered as viable candidates to study further,” Small said.

... 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

r pe Su ve Sa

Hub:

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

G.1044-ibp

G.1039-ibp

G.1036-ibp

G.2055-ibp

THE CCTV SYSTEM TOTAL SOLUTION

Specialis in :

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

Telp. 254-908 ; 254-909 Fax. 254-961 G.1042-ibp

G.1043-ibp

G.2090-ibp

Friday, August 7, 2009

11

BUSINESS Obama launches economic counter-attack Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Despite staggering job losses and nationwide financial misery, President Barack Obama has a new message for recession-weary Americans: the pulse of the sickly US economy is quickening.

With his once sky-high approval ratings eroding by the week as Republican foes slash away at his ambitious domestic reform plans, Obama is seeking to remold the debate on the economic crisis.

His efforts come ahead of new unemployment figures due on Friday that analysts expect to show the jobless rate climbing to a 26-year high of 9.6 percent, ever closer to the politically perilous 10 percent barrier.

Obama’s assault also had the feel of a pep talk to those on the edge of despair, as he unveiled a 2.4-billion-dollar program to develop electric hybrid vehicles, which he said would create tens of thousands of jobs.

Vice President Joe Biden, who made his own trip to a depressed corner of the midwest, in Michigan on Wednesday, is echoing Obama’s call.

Recent polls show Obama’s popularity eroding, with growing doubts over his handling of the economy and the huge price of his government rescue interventions in the banking and industrial centers.

His healthcare reform plan is facing a tough ride in Congress.

A USA-Today Gallup poll for instance last month showed Obama’s approval rating at 55 percent, six months into his presidency, with pessimism over the pace of recovery draining his momentum.

A few months ago, Republicans, seeking to dent the euphoria surrounding Obama’s historic inauguration, accused the president of talking down the economy for political gain.

Now they say it is much worse than the president is letting on, mounting a furious attack on his program, in the hope of damaging vulnerable Democratic members of Congress in conservative districts.

Some economic indicators do offer ammunition for the administration, suggesting the pace of decline has slowed.

A new survey by the Institute of Supply Management suggested on Monday that the factory sector moved within striking distance of growth in July.

And top administration officials are now saying that expansion is highly likely to resume in the second half of this year.

But even if economic revival is stirring, punishing job loss figures may be obscuring evidence of recovery for ordinary Americans.

Obama though argues that better economic statistics will revive the labor markets down the road.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

Construction workers finish the exterior of a new single family home, August 5, 2009, in Warrenton, Virginia. Despite staggering job losses and nationwide financial misery, President Barack Obama has a new message for recession-weary Americans: the pulse of the sickly US economy is quickening.

Commerzbank posts sharp loss, China central bank eyes ‘fine-tuning’ to monetary policy lifts loan provisions Agence France-Presse

FRANKFURT Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank posted a sharp second-quarter loss on Thursday and raised provisions for bad loans, while working on integrating the loss-making Dresdner Bank.

Commerzbank joined a list of big banks which have unveiled weak results when it posted a net loss of 746 million euros (1.08 billion dollars), compared with a profit of 200 million euros in the same period of 2008.

The result was markedly worse than an average analyst forecast for a loss of 636 million euros compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.

In the first quarter of the year, Commerzbank, in which the state owns a stake of 25 percent, had suffered an even bigger net loss of 861 million euros however.

Commerzbank chairman Martin Blessing said in a statement that “2009 will remain a challenging year but we are heading in the

right direction.”

The bank reported an operating loss of 201 million euros in the threemonth period, better than its loss of 591 million euros in the first quarter.

The acquisition of Dresdner Bank weighed on the second quarter results, the statement said, forcing Commerzbank to book 216 million euros in charges from a projected total of around two billion euros.

Blessing said his bank was “running perfectly to schedule with the integration of Dresdner Bank.”

Meanwhile, Commerzbank more than doubled provisions against risks and losses to 993 million euros as it braced for more loan defaults from recession-hit businesses.

It depreciated the value of risky assets by 621 million euros, on top of 5.8 billion euros in write-downs since the beginning of 2008.

Commerzbank’s improved operating result was the result of lower charges on structured credit products that have caused heavy losses at banks since the financial crisis erupted in mid 2007, it added.

Other European banks reporting

weak results this week included Britain’s state-controlled Lloyds Banking Group, which suffered a first-half loss of 3.124 billion pounds (3.7 billion euros, 5.3 billion dollars).

A positive development at Commerzbank was an increase in its Tier 1 ratio, an important indicator of financial health, to 11.3 percent from 10.2 percent at the end of the first quarter.

The bank would reimburse 18 billion euros in state aid by 2011 if financial markets rebound strongly, it said.

Blessing added that lending to German-based companies stood at a record 134 billion euros, amid a controversy over whether commercial banks are squeezing off business credit needed to pull Europe’s biggest economy out of its worst recession since World War II. Shares in Commerzbank gained 0.76 percent to 5.95 euros in morning trades on the Frankfurt stock exchange, while the DAX index on which they are listed was 0.91 percent higher overall.

Agence France-Presse

BEIJING - China’s central bank said it will maintain a monetary policy aimed at bolstering the economy, but will also start applying “fine-tuning”, in what analysts see as a sign of emerging caution.

“The People’s Bank of China will... resolutely continue to carry out its moderately loose monetary policy,” it said in its second quarter policy implementation report posted on its website late Wednesday.

The bank has on several occasions in recent weeks stressed its monetary policy would continue, in an apparent attempt to address investor fears that credit will be tightened.

The report caused the stock market to drop 2.44 percent by noon.

Chinese banks extended a record 7.4 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion dollars) in new loans in the first half of the year as they heeded government calls to support growth amid the global

downturn.

However, the central bank did suggest it may adjust the flood of loans, amid concerns they have been funneled into the asset markets for quick profit, rather than being put to use to bolster the economy.

Andy Xie, an independent economist based in Shanghai, said this indicated that the central bank has turned more cautious and the huge new loan growth was unlikely to continue in the second half.

The central bank has stepped up efforts to rein in liquidity in the banking system by issuing more central bank bills, a short-term bond to buy back excess funds at commercial banks, he said.

The bank’s data showed only 480 billion yuan in central bank bills were issued in the first three months of this year, but the figure jumped to 930 billion yuan in the second quarter.

The Chinese economy grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter after 6.1 percent in the first, which economists said was largely underpinned by unprecedented lending.

12

Friday, August 7, 2009

Entertainment

International

Ryan Seacrest: Paula Abdul Quitting is Not a Publicity Stunt American Idol host Ryan Seacrest insists co-star Paula Abdul’s decision to quit the hit talent contest is not a publicity stunt the judge has left the show.

Radio and TV presenter Seacrest responded to Abdul’s shock decision on Twitter.com overnight, and addressed the reports on his Los Angeles radio show on Wednesday morning.

He revealed Abdul took to Twitter to confirm she was leaving the show in five ‘tweets’. She wrote, “With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to American Idol.

I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent... I’ll miss being a part of the show that I helped become an international phenomenon.”

Seacrest told listeners, “It stunned me last night... She’s a dear friend, I love her to death. I’m really sad. “As far as I know, it’s real. At this point she has decided to leave... we wish her the absolute best.” The host admits even he thought Abdul’s tweets were part of an elaborate stunt: “I got on the phone... and I was told, ‘Yeah, it’s sad but it’s true...’ It’s not a publicity stunt.”

Seacrest insists he’ll know more about Abdul’s decision this weekend when he and the singer/dancer’s fellow Idol judges meet up for Idol auditions in Denver, Colorado. Reports suggest Abdul and Idol producers fell out over money - producers allegedly offered her a 30 per cent raise for the upcoming season and she insisted that wasn’t enough. Ironically, her decision to quit comes as TV Guide publishes the latest star salary list. According to the publication, Seacrest is the highest-paid reality TV host, earning $15 million a year while top judge Simon Cowell takes home a whopping $100 million a year.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler falls from stage in SD Associated Press Writer

RAPID CITY, S.D. – Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was airlifted to a hospital after falling from stage during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota.

Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around after the sound system failed during the song “Love In an Elevator,” said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the outdoor concert.

Tyler was on the stage’s catwalk when he fell backward onto a couple of fans in the middle of what was a record crowd, Sanborn said. Security rushed to help him and the crowd cheered when Tyler got back up.

“He was good natured about it,” Sanborn said. “He was in good spirits when he got in the helicopter. He was talking and joking with the physician.” “It was an unfortunate end to an extraordinary evening.”

Tyler suffered minor head and neck injuries and a shoulder injury, but it wasn’t immediately clear how serious that was, he said.

Tyler was taken backstage and around 12:15 a.m., Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the

audience Tyler was being taken to the hospital and that the show would not go on.

It happened about halfway through the performance, Sanborn said. “He does a lot of dancing on the stage and he does a lot of stuff with his mike stand. He put his stand down and twirled around and stepped backwards off the stage,” he said.

Sanborn said Tyler was attended to on site by a physician and flown to Rapid City Regional Hospital, the only major hospital in the region.

Jennifer Horton, the hospital’s vice president of public relations and marketing, said early Thursday that Tyler wasn’t in the hospital directory. Under the privacy laws, that means the person is either not there or chose not to be included in the directory, according to the hospital’s Web site.

Tyler attended Sturgis last year to promote his Dirico Motorcycles line and was back this year to do that again and play at the Buffalo Chip. Fans were disappointed the concert was cut short but hoped Tyler was OK. Lance Yellow Robe, who said he was 8 eight feet from the stage when Tyler fell off, told the Rapid City Journal “you could kind of see it coming because he was dancing all over the stage.

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson Looks Great in Her Tight Fitting Costume For ‘Iron Man 2’ Scarlett Johansson plays the superheroine Black Widow, a new addition to the Iron Man cast for next summer’s sequel. She had actually become a redhead on her own, and it just happened to fit the part.

“Part of that was me wanting to experiment with my hair color and the other part of that was me kind of hoping that [director] Jon [Favrea] would like the fact that I had experimented,” Johansson said.

More concerning was the Lycra cat suit that Black Widow wears. “I have to say, you put that much work into something and you put it on, and you better be happy with it,” Johansson continued. “It was crazy to see it for the first time, everything all zipped up and all the weapons in there, bracelets on, and the whole look.

It was pretty sweet I have to say.

Certainly walking on set, because a

lot of the people that worked on the film were fans of the comic and of course they knew the Black Widow, they were all super excited to see the Black Widow. When they, when everybody in the crew were like, ‘That looks awesome.’ I knew like ‘Okay.’

It’s no surprise that Scarlett Johansson looks good in a tight fighting superheroine costume, but how did it feel? “Warm,” she joked.

“Warm and stretchy.” The Johansson house is in full-on superhero world right now, with hubby Ryan Reynolds cast in Green Lantern and still working on Deadpool. “I have quite a few stacks of comic books.

We’re in completely different universes over there but it’s kind of something that I’m certainly delving into for the first time. There is quite a stack.”

Jessica Simpson’s Weight Issues Began At Age 12 Jessica Simpson was devastated when the media poked fun at her weight earlier this year - because she’s harbored hang-ups about her figure since she was a child. The 29 year old was pictured looking heavier than usual in January and was subsequently scrutinized for her fluctuating figure by the press for months.

Some callous reports even assumed that Simpson was pregnant with her then-boyfriend Tony Romo’s baby.

The singer admits she is insecure about her weight - and that her worries started when she was just 12 years old. She tells Glamour magazine, “When I was young, I would look at magazines and feel a lot of pressure. As a child of 12, I would write things in my journal like, ‘I’m lying here and all I can think about

is that my stomach is hanging over my underwear.’ That disturbs me even today! I was always disconnected from myself; there was this idea of perfection I couldn’t ever get to. But all women struggle with insecurity, and we all have something we don’t like about ourselves.”

However, Simpson is hoping her new reality TV show The Price Of Beauty will help women learn to love their figures - whatever their size. She adds, “No matter how much money you spend to make yourself beautiful - with all the products, the diets, the plastic surgery - in the end, women need to fall in love with themselves and realize they’re beautifully and wonderfully made. There is no ‘perfect’ you.” “It will be interesting for women to see how self-obsessed we’ve become.”

Jessica Simpson

Life Style

International

Friday, August 7, 2009

13

Lucky survivors rescued

by Fla. turtle hospital Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/San Diego Zoo, Ken Bohn

This image provided by the San Diego Zoo shows a new panda birth, upper right, captured Wednesday Aug. 5, 2009 via a closed-circut camera in the birthing den in the zoo in San Diego. It was the fifth birth for mother, Bai Yun. The sex of the mostly hairless, pink newborn, which is about the size of a stick of butter, will not be known for some time, and it will be approximately one month before the iconic black-and-white coloration of a giant panda becomes visible.

San Diego Zoo panda gives birth to 5th cub Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO – Prized San Diego Zoo panda Bai Yun gave birth Wednesday to her fifth cub after a 130day pregnancy that zookeepers said ended with an apparently pleasant labor. The cub born to 17-year-old Bai Yun (White Cloud) became just the 14th panda in the United States, five of which are in San Diego.

Shortly before the birth, the mother licked herself, rolled on her back to grab her hind legs and stood on her head. “We saw a contraction and then about five seconds later, we just heard a wailing cry of the cub. ... It was a very vocal cub, it was like whoa. It’s got a really good set of lungs,” veterinarian Dr. Meg Sutherland-Smith said at a news conference.

“She really had, I think, a very pleasant labor, not that I would know, but she didn’t have seemingly as much discomfort or moving about as what we’ve seen in the past,” she said. Bai Yun seemed comfortable with the cub and appeared to start nursing about 30 minutes after birth.

“She knows she’s been there, done that,” Sutherland-Smith said. A second fetus had been detected, but it was probably absorbed in the mother’s uterus.

The pink, nearly hairless panda newborn weighed about 4 ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. Its gender won’t be known for several weeks, until officials can get a better look, and it won’t get a name for 100 days, in line with Chinese tradition. Mom and cub will lead

private lives for the next four months or so, but they will appear on the zoo’s live Panda Cam, which can be watched online.

Bai Yun, who weighs about 300 pounds, was born in a breeding center in China and arrived in San Diego in 1996. The zoo announced last week that Bai Yun was pregnant, based on ultrasound tests. The father is longtime consort Gao Gao (Big Big), who has fathered three of Bai Yun’s other cubs. The number of cubs makes the pair one of the most reproductively successful panda couples ever in captivity.

Pandas are notoriously poor breeders — one reason their species is endangered — and females have only three days a year in which they can conceive. Only about 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild, and around 200 live in captivity, said the zoo’s conservation program specialist, Megan Owen. Bai Yun and Gao Gao come together only a couple days a year. When Bai Yun enters her fertile periods, zookeepers make sure Gao Gao is there, sniffing her through a perforated gate zookeepers call a “howdy door” until her chirps and bleats indicate

she’s ready to get down to business.

Zookeepers initially had little hope for the pair because Bai Yun is big for a female and Gao Gao is small for a male, said Megan Owen, conservation program specialist at the zoo. “Watching them mate is kind of excruciating because it takes a long time for them to get the position right, but they always do,” Owen said. “She is great at letting him know where she’s at in terms of her cycle, and he is also very good at advertising his interest. ... Their model of communication is something that all couples could benefit from.”

Gao Gao will not have any role in raising the cub. Bai Yun gave birth to her first cub in 1999 through artificial insemination from her first arranged suitor, Shi Shi (Stone). Hua Mei (China/U.S.A.) was the first giant panda cub born in the United States after a decade of failed breeding attempts. She has had three sets of twins since returning to China in 2003. The Chinese government has a right to bring the new panda cub to China when it turns 4, said Carmi Penny, curator of mammals at the zoo.

MARATHON, Fla. – The turtles at this waterfront hospital have been hit by boat propellers, caught in fishing nets, attacked by sharks, stricken with tumors and lost flippers. Or, as their veterinarian puts it, they’ve had a heck of a lot of luck.

Most injured turtles are never spotted and die at sea. The fortunate ones are brought to The Turtle Hospital — a converted strip club where workers graft the waterproof fabric Gore-Tex to patch badly injured shells and find other innovative ways to save lives. On this particular day, a 13-pound green sea turtle named Fin is being treated for a potentially debilitating tumor.

“He’s got a new life now,” says Dr. Doug Mader, the center’s chief veterinarian. The seafoam green hospital, halfway through the Florida Keys, offers round-theclock care to the turtles that call the waters around this ribbon of islands home.

Morning is just beginning, and the hospital’s patients are already being prepped on the X-ray room floor. Iain, an 89-pound loggerhead, and Fin are on their backs in plastic kiddie pools, being sprayed with disinfectant. Another green sea turtle on deck for surgery, 37-pound Rocky Thyme, awaits attention.

Iain is eventually lifted onto a steel cart and wheeled into the operating room. A half-dozen hospital staffers gather around the turtle, including Mader, who is wearing blue Wrangler jeans and Teva sandals.

“Ready?” Mader asks.

“Ready,” says Richie Moretti, the hospital’s founder and director, who assists in surgery but is not a veterinarian. And a morning of surgery begins. Iain’s tumor is removed with the flash of a laser.

Fin’s surgery is a bit more complex: her flippers flutter against a white towel as a breathing tube is inserted, and a manual respirator causes her shell to lift slightly with

her lungs every six to seven seconds as 15 tumors are removed.

Finally the surgeons move on to Rocky Thyme, who has clung to life even though a boat split her spine. Rocky has external tumors and is weakened by injury. If she has internal tumors, too, she will have to be euthanized. Mader enters Rocky’s body with an endoscope; a crack in her shell glows orange from the light. On a small Sony screen, the black-and-white image shows her insides — lungs, kidneys, intestines.

“Good news,” says Mader, a volunteer. Rocky shows no signs of internal tumors. She’ll be nursed back to health and eventually have external tumors removed to prevent the fibropapilloma from spreading.

There is a bittersweet side to this: Rocky is still paralyzed and will never fully recover. She can never again live in the wild.

This used to be a strip club.

Moretti bought a 21-room motel next door in 1981. He turned a saltwater pool into an aquarium for fish, but children fascinated by the cartoon “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” kept asking where the turtles were. The only way the state would let him keep endangered animals was to help rehabilitate them. So in 1986, the hospital was born. At first, it was a makeshift operation. Turtles were mostly sent to local veterinarians for treatment and nursed back to health at the motel. But surgeries were done there, too, and guests could see vets in scrubs carrying turtles into motel rooms for treatment.

In 1991, Moretti bought the shuttered strip club. The motel had to close after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but the turtle sanctuary has lived on in the converted club. Out back, a 100,000-gallon pool — and a number of smaller ones — house recuperating turtles. Some can only float, with spinal cord injuries causing paralysis. Some have the bite marks of a shark on their shells.

One was attacked by wild dogs.

Along the way, Mader, 51, and others have had little guidance on how to treat these creatures.

Marine biology student Micah Rogers tends to two sea turtles after they had operations to remove tumors July 7, 2009 at The Turtle Hospitla in Marathon, Fla.

14

Sport

Friday, August 7, 2009

International

Triumphant return for Roddick after Wimbledon heartbreak Agence France - Presse

WASHINGTON - US top seed Andy Roddick made a triumphant return Wednesday in his first match since a heartbreaking Wimbledon final loss, defeating Germany’s Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-2 at the ATP Washington Classic.

Fifth-ranked Roddick fired eight aces and overpowered his 47th-ranked rival in 55 minutes to reach a third-round match against countryman Sam Querrey, who beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4 at the 1.4 million-dollar hardcourt event. “I did all right.

All in all it was a good first match,” Roddick said. “I learned what I wanted out there. I wasn’t going to get too creative. I wanted to get my feet under me, not come out firing from all the gates, just try and do the basics well.”

Swiss superstar Roger Federer outlasted Roddick in a five-set thriller at the All-England Club a month ago to claim his record 15th Grand Slam title, but not before Roddick pushed him through the longest fifth set in Slam history. “I was certainly eager to get back out there,” Roddick said. “I’m glad to be getting into the swing of it.”

Roddick, a three-time champion at Washington, broke Becker’s first service game in each set. Roddick lost only three points on his serve in the opening set, ending it on an ace, and broke at love in the fifth game of the last set. “I did a good job of putting returns in the court,” Roddick

said.

Roddick, whose only Grand Slam title came at the 2003 US Open, felt the rust of a month-long layoff most in his serve, even though he connected on 58 percent of first serves. “I didn’t serve that well. It wasn’t where it normally is,” Roddick said. “If I have to have one thing rusty that I don’t worry about coming around, it’s my serve.”

Querrey has been on a roll in the past month, reaching the finals at Newport and Indianapolis and winning last week’s title at Los Angeles. “He’s in form. It’s certainly not going to be easy,” Roddick said.

“He has a full month of matches behind him. It’s probably going to come down to a few points here or there.”

Querrey expects top form from Roddick despite the layoff. “It’s going to be a tough match,” Querrey said.

“It’s a good test to see where I’m at.”

American John Isner fired 20 aces past third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and won four of the last five points after a rain delay in the third-set tie-breaker to beat the Frenchman 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/ 4). “For my first match in a while, it was not easy to play a big guy serving well,” Tsonga said. “That might be the first time I have ever lost without losing my serve.”

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Andy Roddick,of the United States, hits a ball into the crowd after winning his match against Benjamin Becker, of Germany, at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009. Roddick won the match 6-3, 6-2.

Top-ranked Safina to face Zheng China hopeful Yao will recover quickly and Sharapova advances Agence France - Presse

Agence France - Presse

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Dinara Safina, of Russia, hits a forehand during a match against Daniela Hantuchova, of Slovakia, at the LA Women’s Tennis Championships in Carson, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009.

Safina won the match 6-2, 6-4.

LOS ANGELES - World number one Dinara Safina and former world number one Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round of the WTA Los Angeles Championships with triumphs Wednesday.

Russian star Safina defeated Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-4 to reach a Thursday matchup with China’s Zheng Jie, who defeated Russia’s Elena Vesnina 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 at the 700,000-dollar hardcourt event.

Russian beauty Sharapova, coming back from right shoulder surgery, rallied to defeat third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2.

Poland’s Urszula Radwanska upset Slovakian seventh seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 and in the third round will face China’s Li Na, who outlasted Canada’s Alexandra Wozniak 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Other seeded winners included Russian No. 5 Nadia Petrova, who ousted Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, and Polish eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who eliminated Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-2, 6-1. Australia’s Samantha Stosur advanced to a third-round meeting with Serbian eighth seed Ana Ivanovic by beating Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-4.

BEIJING - China hopes that superstar Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming will make a speedy recovery and will not force him to play for the national basketball team, a top sports official said Thursday. “We expect him to recover as soon as possible and return to the basketball court,” Vice Minister of Sports Cui Dalin told AFP. “He is injured, this is a fact, so we are not going to force him to do anything he does not want to do.” Yao underwent surgery on his broken left foot in Houston last month, but is expected to sit out the 2009-2010 NBA season. He is currently missing the Asian Basketball Championships being held in China.

Cui said Chinese authorities support the decision for Yao to sit on the Houston Rockets bench for the year and let him recuperate from what has been diagnosed as a possibly careerending injury. “When it comes to injuries to our players, we are concerned and we take care of these players, we will safeguard their interests and respect their choices,” he said.

Yao, a seven-time NBA All-Star, has averaged 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in his NBA career and was having his best season yet when he broke his left foot in May during a playoff match against the Los Angeles Lakers. He broke the same foot in April 2008, six months ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Despite the injury, Yao led China to an eighth-place finish in the Games, matching the nation’s highest-ever finish.

“You can’t say that it’s because Yao Ming came back to China and played a few games in the Olympics that he went out and injured himself,” Cui said, citing reports in the US press.

“It was because he played in over 100 games in a row in the NBA... in using Yao, the Houston head coach played him too much, so he was injured.”

Cui said he was convinced that Yao would once again represent China following his recovery. “Yao Ming personally has a very strong desire to come back and represent the nation,” Cui said. “He wants to represent his homeland and show his talent ... we understand this, so our attitude is that we must take care of him.”

Sport

International

Friday, August 7, 2009

15

Robinho impressed by City’s new mentality Agence France - Presse

MANCHESTER, England - Brazil forward Robinho believes Manchester City’s 100 million pounds spending spree proves his club are ready to become one of Europe’s top teams. City boss Mark Hughes has splashed out on the likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Roque Santa Cruz after being handed a massive transfer warchest by the club’s Abu Dhabi-based owners.

Robinho is convinced City are now on the same level as the likes of Real Madrid and he expects the Eastlands outfit to make a major impact in the Premier League this season. “Manchester City are thinking big and if I’m honest there is no difference between City and Real Madrid or the Brazilian national team,” Robinho told The Sun. “Everybody at those three teams now believes they are winners and half the battle is won in the mind. We are now thinking big and when you think big, greatness fol-

lows. “There have been some fantastic players signed for City. But what is important for me is that there has been a big change in the club’s thinking. We no longer have the mentality of a small side and that will do a lot for the players at the club.

“When I transferred from Madrid last year there was a different mentality from that of Madrid because City were not thinking like a big club. This team now has real balance to it and I believe we are ready to compete, not in a few seasons but now.”

AFP

Forward Robinho believes Manchester City’s 100 million pounds spending spree proves his club are ready to become one of Europe’s top teams

Huntelaar set for AC Milan switch - report Agence France - Presse

ROME - Unhappy Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is poised to sign for AC Milan, Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Thursday. AC Milan annonced Wednesday they were on the lookout for a top class striker and, says the report, will pay 15 million euros for the Dutchman who would be given a contract until 2013 with an annual net salary of three million euros.

Huntelaar, who will turn 26 years old on August 12, finished as the Dutch league’s top scorer with 33 goals in 2007-2008 when he played for Amsterdam giants Ajax. He then moved to Real on a four-and-a-half-year deal in December 2008 for a fee of 27 million euros but since then he has played only 19 matches for a return of eight goals.

Last month Huntelaar tried in vain to get out of his contract with Real in a bid to join Stuttgart in Germany’s Bundesliga. It now appears he could resurrect his career, if given the chance, at the side owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Serie A club have been quiet on the transfer market this summer but Berlusconi said

Maradona calls on troubled Ortega for NZ friendly Agence France - Pressse

Unhappy Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is poised to sign for AC Milan, Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Thursday Wednesday this is about to change.

“The club have freed up funds and commissioned (club vice-president) Adriano Galliani to purchase a top striker,” Berlusconi told a press conference at the club’s Milanello base.

“The names (of the strikers) you already know,” he said. The club lost their best forward with the sale

of Brazilian Kaka to Real Madrid.

But reports from Italy claim the club are chasing Brazilian Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Huntelaar and Peruvian Claudio Pizarro (Chelsea).

AC Milan’s current strikers include Brazilians Ronaldinho and Pato and Italians Filippo Inzaghi and Marco Borriello.

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina coach Diego Maradona announced Thursday the return to his squad of midfield veteran Ariel Ortega for an upcoming friendly against New Zealand in Cordoba.

Argentina’s squad for the September 30 encounter will be composed entirely of national league players, including Ortega, who has famously played in three World Cup campaigns but gained as much notoriety for his battle with alcoholism.

Maradona’s decision comes as the 35-year-old Ortega, who plays for River Plate, continues his long fight to leave his personal problems behind him. Maradona told radio station Mitre: “I’m going to name Ortega in the squad. Ariel is getting treatment and is continuing to train.”

Throughout his impressive

career Maradona also gained notoriety, for cocaine use and a turbulent lifestyle which saw him balloon in weight and go on to suffer serious health problems. The Argentine football legend said it is during such challenging times that remembering the importance of family is essential.

“He (Ortega) should think more about his kids. Having (his daughters) Dalma and Gianinna at my side helped me a lot,” added Maradona. “If he does this then I’m sure he can get out of this situation.” Ortega, who played alongside Maradona in the 1994 World Cup and played in the next two editions in 1998 and 2002, began his club career at Newell’s Old Boys before moving to Europe for spells with Valencia in Spain, Sampdoria and Parma in Italy and Turkish giants Fenerbahce. “I’m really happy. It’s going to do me a lot of good to pull the Argentina shirt on again,” said Ortega.

16

Sport

Friday, August 7, 2009

Whitmarsh: McLaren developing for 2010 McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has vowed that the team will keep developing the MP4/24 following Lewis Hamilton’s breakthrough victory in the recent Hungarian Grand Prix. Whitmarsh believes that the car, which began the season uncompetitively, is capable of more successes this season and will form the aerodynamic basis for a championship contender in 2010.

AFP

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh,left, has vowed that the team will keep developing the MP4/24 following Lewis Hamilton’s breakthrough victory in the recent Hungarian Grand Prix.

Sauber: BMW demands were too high Peter Sauber has blamed BMW’s demands for the failure of his negotiations to complete a takeover of the team. BMW was asking for much more money for the purchase of its Hinwil base from which all the team’s activities except powertrain development are run - than Sauber was willing to pay.

Sauber, who brought the team into Formula 1 in 1993 and retained a 20 percent stake after it was bought by BMW in 2005, said that had a deal been completed, he would have been able to sign the Concorde Agreement.

This would have guaranteed the team a share of the sport’s sport revenue for the next three years and helped ensure its long-term future.

“Following the announcement

by BMW that it will be pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of the 2009 season, I tried to launch a takeover and rescue of the team,” said Sauber. “However, the negotiations with BMW have failed

Peter Sauber has blamed BMW’s demands for the failure of his negotiations to complete a takeover of the team

because the demands were simply far too high for me. Consequently, I have been unable to sign the Concorde Agreement, which guarantees payments worth millions and would have secured the future of the team.”

Sauber is still determined to do everything he can to ensure that the Hinwil-based team continues in Formula 1, but described the collapse of the deal as the “bitterest” in his motorsport career. “I am incredibly disap-

pointed and disconsolate,” said Sauber. “For me this is the bitterest day in my 40-year career in motor sport. It is also a devastating setback for the team. Other solutions must now be sought. The responsibility for that lies in the hands of BMW. Needless to say, I am willing to help, as before.”

“We knew what we had to do, we just had to find a way to achieve our goal and I think we have made significant progress with the car, as you can see from the results on the track,” said Whitmarsh. “We won’t stop at that we are going to continue to develop this car.

“But more importantly we want to ensure that we have got a competitive car for next season. The aerodynamic regulation changes for next year are negligible,” he added. “We obviously have the prohibition of refuelling, but that doesn’t effect the overall aerodynamic package so I think we have got every reason to be confident. At the same time we mustn’t be complacent.

A lot of teams have already stopped development on this year and started on next year and we have got to make sure we do a better job than them. The goal of this team is to be out there winning races and the world championship next year.”

Whitmarsh also outlined the huge undertaking McLaren had gone through to make the MP4/24 a race-winner after beginning the year considerably slower than its

rivals - Hungary also marked the first podium finish for the team in 2009. “As the season progressed... while potentially we had a car, which the fundamental characteristics were good, we were, for a variety of different reasons, someway behind in terms of aerodynamic performance,” said Whitmarsh.

“And while we made progress in a short period of time, I sensed it was coming to a plateau of performance.

Because we weren’t, as the season progressed, able to maintain that momentum in our development. That required us to have a dramatic rethink. It coincided with the run-in to our home grand prix [at Sillverstone in July]. It was a very difficult and challenging time because we made some decisions, and sometimes you have to step back to go forward. We made some fundamental changes to the weight distribution and we started to accept that we needed a completely different aerodynamic philosophy,” he added. “Perhaps inadvertently we had got ourselves into a cul-de-sac of development and we needed to reverse out of that.”