Edisi 04 Maret 2015 | International Bali Post

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Nepal official says human waste on Everest a major problem

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

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

16 Pages Number 557th year

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Fierce clashes outside Iraq’s Tikrit after new offensivePage 6 Page 8

Mourinho seeks further titles with new generation at Chelsea

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radio.com or live video streaming at http://radioglobalfmbali.com and http://ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.

MANAMA, Bahrain — Award-winning American singer and songwriter John Legend took to the stage in Bahrain on Monday night, performing to a sold-out crowd of more than 2,000 people despite calls by some activists to cancel the concert due to concerns over human rights abuses in the Gulf Arab nation.

“When you look at me you might see international superstar John Legend, but I’m also the de-scendant of slaves... but we fought for change,” he told the concert-goers before singing his Oscar-winning song “Glo-ry,” the anthem for the film “Selma,” which is based on the his-toric 1965 march in Alabama led by Mar-tin Luther King Jr.

Whi le no t ad -dressing the turmoil in Bahrain directly, Legend explained he was at the festival “to celebrate art and its power to bring us together and help us see each other’s hu-manity.”

“I feel like it’s part

of my job to express myself freely and pas-sionately about the issues that I care about,” he said, as the crowd cheered in support.

“A just society is not one built on fear or repression or vengeance or exclusion, but one built on love,” added Legend, who has spoken out in support of free-dom of expression and civil rights issues in the United States.

Bahrain, a close U.S. ally that hosts

Navy’s 5th fleet, has seen nearly daily protests by members of the Shiite majority demanding a greater say in the Sunni-led monarchy. Several thousand protesters have been jailed and dozens killed in the tiny-island nation over the last four years.

The concert was guarded by anti-riot police vehicles outside the entrance to the historic open-air Arad Fort in Bah-rain’s capital.

Several Bahraini ac-tivists took to Twitter to urge Legend to boycott the 10th annual Spring of Culture festival, or-ganized by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

In a s ta tement to The Independent newspaper before the concert, Legend ad-dressed calls for him to back out of the Bah-rain show, and said he has “spent quite a bit of time thinking about human rights, civil rights and other issues of justice.” He said that he felt participat-ing in the conversation was the best way to drive progress. (ap)

Warner Bros studio secured the rights to the memoir by Lynsey Addario, the award-winning American international photojournalist, after an auction, Vari-ety said.

“American Sniper” producer Andrew Lazar will also be involved, it said, cit-ing sources.

Addario has traveled to war-torn

countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq and was part of a New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009.

Lawrence, 24, who won an Oscar in 2013 for “Silver Linings Playbook” and starred in “The Hunger Games” movies, is currently shooting David O. Russell’s “Joy,” which is set for release at Christ-mas. (afp)

MANILA — Tony award winner Lea Salonga says talks have not yet been finalized on her joining the cast of George Takei’s musical “Allegiance” on Broadway, but added it is a show she wants to be part of.

The Broadway veteran played the lead female role Kei Kimura when the musical made its sold-out premiere in 2012 at the Old Globe in San Diego, California,

“Star Trek” actor Takei’s personal and heartfelt show about Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II goes to Broadway this fall with him in a starring role.

“Of course I’d like to be a part of it, if only to be part of something that’s very important in Broadway his-tory,” Salonga told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Monday.

But she said things were still being discussed by her agent and the show producers, so she could not say if she will be part of the musical.

“Allegiance” is multigenerational tale with two love stories that’s framed by a Japanese-American war vet-eran looking back on his family’s time in a Wyoming internment camp. Previews begin Oct. 6. It will mark the first Asian-led cast of a musical on Broadway in more than a decade, since “Flower Drum Song.”

The story of “Allegiance” covers an important part of American history, when tens of thousands of Asian-Americans were put in camps just because they looked like the enemy, said Salonga. “This kind of prejudice and bigotry is actually still happening,” added the 44-year-old Salonga. “It’s still relevant and that’s the sad and scary part of it.” She said with very few Asian-led musicals on Broadway, “Allegiance” is “a big, big deal” and also excites her because it will be another milestone for Takei.

The actor famous for playing Hikaru Sulu in “Star Trek” turned his childhood memories in an internment camp into the musical. “George Takei who is almost 80 years old is going to make his Broadway debut which is really, really exciting for me as a friend of his and as one who worked with him and he’s somebody I used to watch on TV when I was a kid,” she added. Takei turns 78 next month.

Salonga — the original “Miss Saigon” in London and New York who also starred in the Broadway revival of “Flower Drum Song” in 2002 — will have a concert on March 14 at the Town Hall in New York. She has also been busy as a coach in “The Voice of the Philippines” singing contest that ended its second season Sunday. She continues as coach in the next season of the kid’s edition of the contest. Salonga said she loves grooming the next generation of artists in the Philippine music industry. “It’s something I would like to do even off camera, even when I’m not in front of an audience,” she said. (ap)

Salonga says she is in talks on taking

role in “Allegiance”

Andrew Chan and Myuran Su-kumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug trafficking gang, and officials escorting them will be flown in two military aircraft, said Momock Bambang Samiarso, head of the Bali prosecutor’s office.

Officials are yet to announce a date for their executions, but the transfer indicates it is imminent.

The men, in their early 30s, were convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and sen-tenced to death the following year.

They recently lost their appeals for presidential clemency, typically a death row convict’s last chance to avoid the firing squad, and are expected to be put to death soon.

Canberra has mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign to stop the executions from going ahead, but President Joko Widodo has been a vocal supporter of the death penalty and has refused to change course.

Following a coordination meeting with other officials on Tuesday, Sami-arso told reporters: “The coordination has been completed. (The transfer) will be carried out tomorrow.”

The Australians are being trans-ferred to Nusakambangan island, which is home to several prisons. Five people, including foreigners, were put to death on the island in

January. The Australians are among

a group of foreigners, in-cluding a Frenchman and a Brazilian, who have lost their appeals for clemency and are facing imminent execution.

Authorities must give convicts 72 hours

notice before

they are put to death.Australian Prime Minister Tony

Abbott has made repeated appeals for Chan and Sukumaran’s lives to be spared.

Chan’s brother, Michael, called on Widodo to show mercy in an ap-pearance on Indonesian television at the weekend.

“Andrew is a changed man from 10 years ago,” he said, urging Widodo to give him a “second chance”. (afp)

ANTARA FOTO/Nyoman Budhiana

Australian Consul, Majel Hind (right) accompanied Raji Sukumaran, mother of death convicted Myuran Sukumaran during a visit to Kerobokan Jail on Tues-day, March 3, 2015. Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia will be transferred Wednesday from their jail on Bali to an island off Java where they will be put to death, an official said.

Australians to be moved to execution site Wednesday

DENPASAR - Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia will be transferred Wednesday from their jail on Bali to an island off Java where they will be put to death, an of-ficial said.

Jennifer Lawrence to play war photographer

LOS ANGELES - Jennifer Lawrence will star in Steven Spielberg’s “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War,” US media said Monday.

IBP/Net

John Legend talks about justice at Bahrain concert

International2 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 15International Activities

Bali News

EvEry Temple and Shrine has a special date for it annual Ceremony, or “ Odalan “, every 210 days according to Balinese calendar, including the smaller ancestral shrine which each family possesses. Because of this practically every few days a ceremony of festival of some kind takes place in some Village in Bali. There are also times when the entire island celebrated the same Holiday, such as at Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi day, Saraswati day, Tumpek Landep day, Pagerwesi day, Tumpek Wayang day etc.

The dedication or inauguration day of a Temple is con-sidered its birth day and celebration always takes place on the same day if the wuku or 210 day calendar is used. When new moon is used then the celebration always happens on new moon or full moon. The day of course can differ the religious celebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some temple celebrating for three days while the celebration of Besakih temple, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and most of the time it lasts for 11 days, depending on the importance of the occasion.

The celebration is very colorful. The shrine are dressed with pieces of cloths and sometimes with brocade, sailings, decorations of carved wood and sometimes painted with gold and Chinese coins, very beautifully arranged, are hung in the four corners of the shrine. In front of shrine are placed red, white or black umbrellas depending which Gods are worshipped in the shrines.

In front of important shrine one sees, besides these umbrellas soars, tridents and other weapons, the “umbul-umbul”, long flags, all these are prerogatives or attributes of Holiness. In front of the Temple gate put up “Penjor”, long bamboo poles, decorated beautifully ornaments of young coconut leaves, rice and other products of the land. Most beautiful to see are the girls in their colorful attire, carrying offerings, arrangements of all kinds fruits and colored cakes, to the Temple. Every visitor admires the grace with which the carry their load on their heads.

Balinese Temple Ceremony

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bagiarta. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp.

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Nyepi New Year is one of the most important holidays in the Balinese Hindu calendar. Observed with a day of silence, prayer and meditation, throughout the island noise and activity are kept to a minimum to promote the intention of in-ner reflection. The spiritual belief is that evil spirits descend to Bali and seeing that it is uninhabited, leave the island alone for another year. In preparation for this day, on the eve of Nyepi large colourful sculptures of ‘ogoh-ogoh’ monsters are

paraded and then burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits and to symbolise self-purification.

Bringing to life this ancient Balinese ritual for guests to enjoy in luxurious surrounds, Anantara Seminyak Resort & Spa has created a special Balinese Nyepi New Year’s Eve Dinner on the beach on Friday 20th March 2015 from 7:00 pm. The lavish buffet features Indonesian salad creations, flame grilled meats and seafood in exotic island style marinades, signature

Indonesian specialties, local crackers with homemade chili sauces, followed by indig-enous cakes and desserts. Guests savour this special occasion with rich cultural entertainment of an ogoh-ogoh procession and a Balinese dance performance.

Extending the festive pleasures to an unforgettable two night stay, Anantara Seminyak Resort & Spa’s Nyepi New Year Special room package for two per-sons offers a luxury Anantara Suite with a host of indulgent experiences from 20th

DJ, producer, singer/songwriter Michiel Eduard (33), also known as Mikey has release a new single and video clip. “Ku Ingin Kau” was record-ed in Den Haag as the video clip was taken in Jakarta, directed by Ivho Si-hombing. The song has been produced and written by Michiel himself.

Michiel, who has Dutch (mother) and Javanese (Father) roots, is based in Amsterdam. As a youngster he shows a big interest in his Indonesian roots. As a son of a classic piano teacher and an ex-Indo Rock Drummer, Michiel decided, after being an international hip hop club DJ, to focus on creating Indonesian pop music. He very driven to promote the Indonesian Music in Europe and showing the Indo people of Holland that Indonesian pop music is something different than Keroncong and Indo Rock.

As the king of the Indo Rock, Andy Tielman of the Tielman Brothers passed away, Michiel has become more active to promote the Indo music, but

now in the Indonesian language with pop/rock as genre.

His first single “Laki Laki Paling Gila” was made together with Abdee Negara and Ivanka of SLANK in 2010. The video clip was taken in Ja-karta with Dewi Rezer as model.

The second song “Jalan Setapak’ was a tribute to his passed away friend Tony Polin from Surabaya. The video was taken in Medan, 2013.

Now Michiel is back with a new song and new clip. “My new song is called “Ku Ingin Kau” and hopefully it will be accepted by the Indonesian music lovers in Indo-nesia itself and also worldwide,” said Michiel. (kmb)

IBP/Net

Celebrate “Nyepi” with a cultural dining experience

SEMINyAK - Celebrating Bali’s sacred Nyepi New year festival in signature style, Anantara Semin-yak resort & Spa has created a special Balinese Nyepi New year’s Eve Dinner to offer a feast for all the senses, as well as an indulgent room package for the ultimate New year stay.

Profile

Michiel EduardPromoting Indonesian

music in Europe

to 22nd March 2015. Guests can discover Bali’s cultural wellness traditions and some of the world’s most treasured therapies with a 20% Anantara Spa discount. Culinary temptations abound with a lavish breakfast buffet every day, a rooftop cocktail and tapas occasion with stunning ocean views MoonLite Kitchen and Bar, as well as a mouthwatering choice of drinks and dining at 20% off throughout the stay. (r)

IBP/kmb

Up until Tuesday, the tour-ist situation in Ubud remained stable despite the Australian government urging its citizens not to come to Indonesia. It currently appears that we will continue to see large numbers of international visitors from Europe, Australia, Japan and China in the streets of Ubud.

“Approximately 15-20 per-cent of travelers in Ubud are from Australia,” said former Chairman of the Indonesia

Hotel and Restaurant Associa-tion (PHRI) of Gianyar, Dewa Gede Arimbawa, who is also involved in the tourist industry in Ubud. “So far, there was no negative influence against Ubud tourism,” he said. “Normal patterns of Australian tourist visits in Ubud continue because they do not feel affected by the appeal of the government. They are willing to respect to legal process in Indonesia”, he speculated. A similar opinion

was expressed by Ketut Karda, another person in the tourist industry who is also a legisla-tor in Gianyar. He observed that tourists from Australia had possibly planned and booked trips. He also mentioned that Australian travelers often came repeatedly to Bali and consid-ered Ubud and Bali their home. “Contrary condition will occur if there is uncertainty regard-ing the execution plan,” he said. (kmb16)

SINGARAJA – The county road be-tween Banyualit hamlet and Kalibukbuk hamlet, Kalibukbuk village, Lovina is in a bad state of repair. As a result, travelers often complain that they feel uncomfort-able visiting Bali Bagus Beach, Lovina. Promised repairs to the road were not made in 2014 and the condition of the road has worsened.

The damage is very bad about 800 meters northward Singaraja-Seririt to. The road surface has no asphalt and even the gravel has come off. Potholes are a big problem especially in the raining season where gaping holes filled with rainwater resemble ponds in the middle of the road. Vehicles transporting foreign travelers complain they cannot pass through con-veniently. Travelers walking on the road have trouble avoiding the puddles.

Managers of local hotels, villas or restaurants along the road to the beach are disappointed that the government is ignoring the damage. This is especially true since hotel and restaurant tax goes to the local government, but the supporting tourism infrastructure actually gets mini-mal attention.

Demer, a resident who often escorts guests to Bali Bagus Lovina Beach, said the road damage had occurred since 2014. Previously the road was traversed by many travelers looking for restaurants or hotels on the beach. By and large, travelers

passed through in the afternoon to night. Allegedly, since it was established, the road has never been repaired by a relevant technical agency. “The road is damaged and travelers frequently complained because they feel uncomfortable when crossing the road,” he said.

The head of Kalibukbuk, I Ketut Suka, when contacted separately last Sunday confirmed that the road in the area was seriously damaged. Responding to the damaged condition, village authorities had repeatedly reported and submitted a proposal to local government so that the road could be immediately repaired. Due to such effort, in 2014 the government promised to pave the road. An official of the Buleleng Public Works at that time conducted a survey and measured the length of the damaged road. But almost a year later, Public Works has not done the work. “I thought it would be repaired because the damaged road was measured, but until now there is no clarity about the road repair,” he said.

Suka explained that the road fell under county authority because it was support-ing tourist infrastructure for Lovina. On that account, it was the responsibility of the county government to repair the road, in this case the Buleleng Public Works Agency. “If only the status is rural road, it would be repaired with the village alloca-tion fund (ADD),” he added. (kmb38)

DENPASAR - Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office, Momock Bambang Sumiarso, with the Deputy Governor of Bali, Ketut Sudikerta, accompanied by the Chief of Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Bali, I Gusti Kompiang Adnyana, inspected the situation of Ker-obokan Prison, Monday (Mar. 2). The entourage accompanied by Prison Chief Sudjonggo also met the two death row inmates, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Arrival of the officials drew the attention of dozens of for-eign and local media crews. It was kindled by an issue if the transfer was made on Monday afternoon. However, there was no transfer. Not much informa-tion was conveyed by the Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office on the prison situation. gToday, we make a visit while observ-ing the situation and meeting both of them,h said Momock

Bambang.He denied if he had made co-

ordination in prison. However, the coordination would be made on Tuesday. In prison, the Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office also asked about the health condition of both inmates and they were declared fine. No important things were discussed. gYes, we just make a dialog. Thatfs it. Their condition is good,h he said. Is there any request of both convicts? Prison chief said that there was no request.

So, what is the problem of transfer? Momock Bambang said that so far his party found no problems, moreover, the au-thority of Nusa Kambangan was ready. gJust wait for the com-mand from Jakarta,h he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Governor of Bali, Sudikerta, said that he already talked to both convicts. Regarding the health condition, they were fine. gSimilarly, I also visit them (the convicts).

They are in good condition,h said Sudikerta while walking toward his car.

In the meantime, the Chief of Kerobokan Prison, Sudjonggo, said the officials making a visit last Monday were also saying prayers. In addition, the en-tourage also talked to the two convicts from Australia. It was not performed inside but outside the cell of the convicts. When asked what they talked about, Sudjonggo said the entourage of Bali Prosecutorfs Office Chief, Deputy Governor as well as the Justice and Human Rights Agency just had plain talk. Be-sides, they were also invited to see paintings. gEven, they had a joke as well,h said Sudjonggo.

As monitoring at Kerobokan, dozens of local and foreign journalists still flocked there. They were awaiting confirma-tion on the transfer of Bali Nine duo who would be sentenced to death for drug cases. (kmb37)

Concern timing of execution of Bali Nine may impact tourism

GIANyAr - Most people in the tourist industry in the Ubud region feel that the ex-ecution of Bali Nine members in Nusa Kambangan will not affect of tourism. However, there is concern on the part of some people that the lack of a definite time frame for the execution of the drug dealers could negatively impact tourism.

Chief of Prosecutorfs Office inspects prison condition

Road to Bali Bagus Lovina Beach severely damaged

IBP/Mudiarta

The damage road leading in the border of Banyualit and Kalibukbuk Village is often complained by the

tourists

3Wednesday, March 4, 201514 InternationalInternational Bali NewsTechnology Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Samsung, fellow South Korean firm LG and hip Chinese maker HTC timed their smartphone launches to grab the attention on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest telecoms trade fair, in Barcelona, Spain.

In a head-on challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone 6 which was released last year, Sam-sung came out fighting on Sunday with the Galaxy S6, a smartphone with a touchscreen that curves around the edges and has a wire-less charger.

It also presented the larger S6 Edge, a “phablet” somewhere between a tablet and a phone in size.

LG unveiled a new top-line phone with a curved back to sit snugly in the palm, the LG Flex 2, as well as a range of four new mid-range smartphones and two new luxury internet-connected watches.

At a noisy stage presentation before a crowd of hundreds, HTC chief executive Pe-ter Chou meanwhile presented the HTC One

M9, with a grey metallic handset moulded from a single piece of aluminium.

HTC also revealed a new connected “fit-ness band” body-monitoring bracelet and a virtual reality headset that it said it hoped to sell commercially by the end of the year.

Apple as usual was staying away from the Barcelona show but was reported to be preparing a coup with the launch next month of its new Apple Watch, reflecting a major trend in wearable gadgets this year.

The chief executive of Samsung’s mo-bile division, J.K. Shin, said the company aimed to set “a new standard to drive the global mobile agenda”, claiming his phones had the fastest processers and most high-performance cameras on the market.

Samsung is the world’s biggest seller of smartphones but saw its world market share fall last year from 34 percent to 20 percent, according to a report by tech consultancy IDC.

“There’s a risk Samsung’s 2015 flagship

devices are insufficient for the company to regain brand leadership among consumers and businesses looking for high-end smart-phone experiences,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at another consultancy, Forrester, in a note after Sunday’s launch.

“Samsung’s lack of software DNA will still prevent it from delivering truly dif-ferentiated service experiences like Apple does.”

Also present at the congress were two of the world’s other biggest-selling smartphone makers, Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi.

Joining in the rush for big launches on the eve of the trade fair, Huawei unveiled its first “smartwatch”, a round luxury design that, like LG’s, can display incoming call and message alerts.

The companies refused to cite consumer prices for the new products. Top-end smart-phones typically cost several hundred dollars (euros). (afp)

NEW YORK — Samsung’s new Gal-axy smartphones improve in two major areas: design and picture quality. Samsung ramped up its camera technology in last fall’s Galaxy Note 4, and the camera is even better in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge announced Sunday. More importantly, the new phones have a more stylish design.

For years, Samsung phones have had removable backs made of plastic. That al-lowed for battery replacement, but made the phones look cheap. I’m glad to see the metal frame and glass back in the new phones. The phones are lighter than before, even with metal.

The main S6 model feels boxy in hands. More recent iPhones have smoother, curved edges. The S6 Edge curves on the left and right sides to create side displays, so it feels better. But boxy or not, Samsung’s new design better than its old models.

The Note 4 camera was excellent for producing images rich in color. However, the colors sometimes felt unnatural, espe-cially with indoor shots. The S6 phones seek to fix that by using their infrared sen-sors (normally used for heart rate tracking) to better detect and adjust for specific light-ing conditions. This sounds promising.

The S6 phones also sport better focus, borrowing technology from Samsung’s stand-alone NX1 camera. You already can focus on a person by touching that part of the screen. But if the person walks away, the focus is off. With the new technology, the focal point moves with the person. Double tap the home button anytime to open the camera app quickly, so you don’t miss shots.

You can no longer replace the battery

with a spare, but there’s fast-charging tech-nology to get you from zero to 50 percent in a half-hour.

With wireless charging, you can place the phone on a special mat to charge it. No cords needed. This will be handy when coffee shops and restaurants start making these mats available.

The S6 Edge model has curved sides, similar to last fall’s Note Edge phone. The S6 Edge improves on the Note by having the display curve over both the left and right sides. The Note Edge’s side display was on the right only, making some fea-tures awkward for lefties.

With the S6 Edge, you can assign colors to important contacts — such as red for your spouse. With the phone face down, the side will flash red when a call from your spouse comes in. You can decide without rudely lifting the phone whether you really need to take that call.

When it launches this summer in the U.S. and South Korea, Samsung Pay will let people pay with a tap at retail stores. The service promises to work at more places than Apple Pay because it has backup tech-nology that replicates the magnetic-strip signals on plastic cards. However, based on Samsung’s descriptions, Samsung Pay will require a few more steps than Apple Pay at checkout.

The S6 phones have improved finger-print sensors. Before, you had to swipe down on the home button; the phone wouldn’t unlock if you didn’t swipe cor-rectly. Now, you simply touch the home button, just as you do on iPhones. The fingerprint ID will authorize mobile pay-ments too.

STOCKHOLM — Lost that charger again for your cellphone or tablet? Hate sorting heaps of wires to charge various devices?

Swedish retailer IKEA might just have the answer — furniture with built-in charging spots, including in bedside tables, lamps and desks.

The new collection will be available in Europe and North America from next month, followed by global distribution.

Jeanette Skjelmose, manager of the lighting and wireless charging sector, said Monday Ikea aims to make life at home simpler because “we know that people hate cable mess.”

The new furniture uses the Qi wireless charging standard, found in some Windows and Android phones, including the new Samsung Galaxy S6 expected to be launched soon.

Ikea said it will also provide special charg-ing covers for iPhones and older Samsung Galaxies. (ap)

Asian firms challenge Apple with snazzy new smartphones

BARCELONA - Several big Asian phone companies launched new high-end smartphones and other wireless gizmos on Sunday, hoping to challenge US giant Apple in a big year for wireless gadgets.

Ikea launches furniture with inbuilt wireless chargers

Samsung gets a lot right with new S6 phones

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

Two new Samsung phones, Galaxy

S6, left, and Galaxy S6 Edge, right, are shown at a special

press preview in New York.

Samsung also streamlined the software inter-face. Currently, the menu of additional options is accessed by tapping on the three vertical dots on the top right. Why three vertical dots? Who

knows? That’s been replaced with the word “MORE.”

Little touches like these will help make the phones more accessible to customers. (ap)

“Compared to December 2014, the number of tourist arrivals in January 2015 dropped 13.13 percent,” Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Office in Bali Province Panusunan Siregar stated.

During the year 2014, as many as 3.76 million foreign tourists visited Bali, a 14.89 percent increase as compared to 3.27 million tourists recorded a year before.

Panusunan remarked that the number of tourists from seven of the top ten sources of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali rose significantly, while the number of tourists from the other three countries fell.

Australia still ranked first in the list of top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali in January 2015, with 85,059 tourists, up 19.32 percent from 71,288 tourists in the same month last year.

The number of Japanese tourists rose significantly by 25.43 percent to 17,882 in January 2015 from 14,256 in the same month last year, thereby placing the country in the third position in the list of top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali.

The number of South Korean tourists also increased 23.81 percent from 12,223 in January 2014 to 15,133 in January 2015. Meanwhile, the number of tourist ar-rivals from Britain increased 26.56 percent, the United States 8.84 percent, Taiwan 0.47 percent, and India 28.65 percent.

The number of tourists from China fell 0.45 percent, Malaysia 11.80 percent, and Singapore 11.10 percent, he added. (ant)

DENPASAR - Bali is categorized as a region with good food security. In other words, the food needs of the population are sufficient, both in terms of quantity and quality, and it is equitable and affordable for the community. Admittedly, the food security of Bali is still dependant on some rice from outside Bali. It was expressed by The Chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) of Bali Chapter, Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Suparta noted that a disrup-tion to the distribution network could have economic and social impacts and even political implications. A sufficiency of rise is especially important in this regard. The threat of economic, social and political crisis could arise if rice production was no longer sufficient for the community. For this reason, Bali would be well advised to try to reach rice self-sufficiency.

Based on experiments carried out in vari-ous regions of Bali, this would be possible. The application of technologies such as the PTT Tabela Leowo 2: 1 at Subak Guama by BPTP Bali, SRI water-saving technology at Subak Megati Tabanan, Longping Pusaka hybrid seed technology in several counties in Bali, seed fertilizer technology as well as planting and fertilizing technique by rice research team of Mahasaraswati University in Tabanan has been able to increase produc-tion from 6.5 to 13.5 tons per hectare.

“If the rice productivity can be increased to an average of 8 tons per hectare, Bali will certainly be self-sufficient, and even attain a surplus,” he said.

Nevertheless, success in meeting this

ANTARA FOTO/Fikri Yusuf

As many as 301,748 foreign tourists visited the resort island of Bali in January 2015, up 8.05 percent from 279,257 tourists in the same month last year.

Foreign tourists to Bali increase 8 percentDENPASAR - As many as 301,748 foreign

tourists visited the resort island of Bali in Janu-ary 2015, up 8.05 percent from 279,257 tourists in the same month last year.

Bali food security needs improvement

A farmer worked in his paddy field. Bali is categorized as a region with good food se-curity. In other words, the food needs of the population are sufficient, both in terms of quantity and quality, and it is equitable and affordable for the community. Admittedly, the food security of Bali is still dependant on some rice from outside Bali.

objective would only be possible ed if all relevant components had a strong commitment to achieve it. With coordination and the commit-ment of parties involved, it would be possible to achieve the rice self-sufficiency and also to improve the income and welfare of farmers.

Achieving this goal involves en-suring the availability of farm land. With land conversion the availability of irrigation water risks a decrease. The availability of organic and non-organic fertilizers of good quality at a

reasonable price and the availability of high yielding rice seeds, as well as the application of appropriate farming technologies are factors. No less important was the need to ensure efficient human resources in terms of farm management to ensure rice storage and guarantee on the price of grain. All these improvements require the total commitment and ef-forts. “On that account, it is required a hard work of all parties together in order to achieve rice self-sufficiency in Bali and improve the welfare of

farmers,” he affirmed. He urged that existing problems be addressed wisely through togetherness.

It is well known that one of the achievements of Indonesia in agricultural development has been the shift from being the largest rice importing country in the world to a rice self-sufficient country in 1984. Such success was supported by mass efforts begun in 1965/1966 and mass intensification of the green revolu-tion. Unfortunately, two years later Indonesia re-imported rice when a

drop in selling price and weak farm management led to farmers working less seriously work on their paddy fields. (kmb27)

International4 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 13InternationalBali News

The more than 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on Everest’s slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of feces and urine, and the issue has not been addressed, Ang Tshering told reporters. He said Nepal’s govern-ment needs to get the climbers to dispose of the waste properly so the mountain remains pristine.

Hundreds of foreign climbers attempt to scale Everest during Nepal’s mountaineering season, which began this week and runs through May. Last year’s season was canceled after 16 local guides were killed in an avalanche in April. Climbers spend weeks acclimatiz-ing around the four camps set up between the base camp at 5,300

meters (17,380 feet) and the 8,850-meter-high (29,035-foot-high) sum-mit. The camps have tents and some essential equipment and supplies, but do not have toilets.

“Climbers usually dig holes in the snow for their toilet use and leave the human waste there,” Tshering said, adding that the waste has been “piling up” for years around the four camps. At the base camp, where there are more porters, cooks and support staff during the climbing season, there are toilet tents with drums to store the waste. Once filled, the drums are carried to a lower area, where the waste is properly disposed.

Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been leading Everest cleanup ex-

peditions since 2008, said some climbers carry disposable travel toi-let bags to use in the higher camps. “It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed,” he said.

Nepal’s government has not come up with a plan yet to tackle the issue of human waste. But starting this season, officials stationed at the base camp will strictly moni-tor garbage on the mountain, said Puspa Raj Katuwal, the head of the government’s Mountaineering Department.

The government imposed new rules last year requiring each climb-er to bring down to the base camp 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of trash — the amount it estimates a climber discards along the route. (ap)

MOSCOW — One by one, thou-sands of mourners and dignitaries filed past the white-lined coffin of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday, many offering flowers as they paid their last respects to one of the most prominent figures of Russia’s beleaguered opposition. Nemtsov was shot to death late Fri-day while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin with a companion. No suspects have been arrested.

The killing has deeply shaken Russia’s small and marginalized opposition movement. Many op-position supporters suspect the killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for Nemtsov’s ardent criticism of President Vladimir Putin, while authorities have sug-gested several possible motives, including a provocation aimed at tarnishing Putin’s image.

With an hour to go until the scheduled end of the viewing, the line of mourners stretched for hundreds of meters (yards) and included mourners both young and old. “He was our ray of light. With his help, I think Russia would have risen up and become a strong coun-try. It is the dream of all progressive people in Russia,” said 80-year-old Valentina Gorbatova.

Nemtsov, 55, had been a deputy prime minister under President Bo-ris Yeltsin and was widely seen as a rising young reformer. However, in the Putin era Nemtsov’s party lost its seats in parliament. Although his influence in mainstream politics vanished, Nemtsov remained visi-ble as one of Putin’s most vehement critics. Just a few hours before his death, he conducted a radio inter-view in which he denounced Putin for “mad, aggressive” policies in the Ukraine crisis.

His body lay in a coffin in the Sakharov Center in central Mos-cow, named after the late Soviet-era dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov. The funeral and burial are to be held in the afternoon.

Among those attending the viewing were U.S. Ambassador John Tefft and former prime min-ister Mikhail Kasyanov, who has gone over to the opposition. Rus-sian deputy prime ministers Sergei Prikhodko and Arkady Dvorkovich and Yeltsin’s widow Naina also came, according to Russian news reports.

“They probably know that if they don’t come, then at some point people will be coming for them,” Irina Khakamada, co-leader of a liberal party in parliament with Nemtsov, said of the Russian gov-ernment officials.

Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomarev echoed the view of many opposition figures that the strong nationalism and intolerance of dissent that has risen up under Putin and is on display on Rus-sian state-controlled television has coarsened society and encouraged violence. “In this atmosphere of violence and hate, these killings will only continue,” he said.

Many commentators said that, like other key opposition leaders, Nemtsov was constantly being shadowed by police, so it would be hard to imagine that his killing could go unnoticed by them. Some noted that Nemtsov died on the newly established holiday com-memorating the Special Operations Forces, honoring troops who swept through Ukraine’s Crimean Penin-sula, setting the stage for its annexa-tion by Russia a year ago. (ap)

SANTIAGO, Chile — A vol-cano in southern Chile has erupted, prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people in the sur-rounding area.

The Villarica volcano erupted Tuesday around 3 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), according to the Na-tional Emergency Office, which issued

a red alert and ordered evacuations.Several local news sites showed

images of the volcano bursting at the top, with laving spewing out mixed with heavy smoke.

The 9,000 foot (2,847-meter) volcano is located in Chile’s central valley about 400 miles (670 kilo-meters) south of Santiago. It’s one

of South American’s most active volcanoes, and sits above the small city of Pucon, where tourists flock for outdoor activities, including hiking around the volcano.

Chilean authorities issued an alert on Monday because of in-creased volcanic activity, and began preparing for evacuations.

AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

Relatives and friends pay their last respects at the coffin of Boris Nemtsov during a farewell ceremony inside the Sakharov center in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 3, 2015.

Volcano in southern Chile erupts, thousands evacuated

Mourners view body of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov

AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File

FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2011 file photo, the last light of the day sets on Mount Everest as it rises behind Mount Nuptse as seen from Tengboche, in the Himalaya’s Khumbu region, Nepal.

Nepal official says human waste on

Everest a major problemKATHMANDU, Nepal — Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has become a

problem that is causing pollution and threatening to spread disease on the world’s highest peak, the chief of Nepal’s mountaineering association said Tuesday.

At high tide, much of the rubbish drifts away to the area around Gili-manuk Beach, Prapat Agung Beach and the West Bali National Park (TNBB). “When diving, the under-sea visibility is no longer clean as a lot of rubbish settles. Actually, there has been a ban on taking out rubbish but there are still passengers who deliberately dump it into the sea,” added one of the coin-seeking boys when met recently.

One worry is that rubbish is drift-ing to Gilimanuk Bay frequently used by divers. Both land and water in Gilimanuk have a lot of garbage. Not only is the area densely popu-lated, but the village does not have a landfill. The Chief of the Jembrana Environment, Sanitation and Land-scaping Agency, I Wayan Darwin, admitted that Gilimanuk was one of the areas in Jembrana prone to litter pollution. He expressed the hope

that all elements of both society and agencies at Gilimanuk could be re-sponsible for the waste mitigation. “At the harbor, the rubbish indeed has not been processed. Necessarily, it should also think of treating and managing it,” he explained. Waste management with the concept of reducing, reusing and recycling had not been implemented yet. People only dumped their waste in a tem-porary disposal site. (kmb26)

SEMARAPURA - Production cost of Guyangan springs in Nusa Penida subdistrict is very high. Such condition causes the Mu-nicipality Waterworks (PDAM) of Klungkung to be unable to manage it alone if the management will be handed over by Bali government to PDAM Klungkung. Currently the MoU between Bali government and PDAM Klungkung is being deliber-ated to review the contents.

Director of the PDAM Klung-kung, Nyoman Renin Suyasa, said on Monday (Mar. 2) the Guyangan spring was very potential to be developed. With the water poten-tial of 200 liters per second, when managed by the PDAM its coverage could be further expanded. Cur-rently the service of the PDAM Klungkung in Nusa Penida only reached 25 percent, or about 3,000 connections at six villages. gOper-ating cost is very high. Honestly, the PDAM Klungkung cannot af-ford when delegated to manage it,h said Renin. Moreover, the operation cost of five pumps was quite high. Unfortunately, Renin could not specify the amount of operating cost of the Guyangan springs.

According to him, the Guyangan spring should still be managed by Bali province. So, the PDAM Klungkung just needed to buy wa-ter from Bali government through its technical agency. Currently the MoU was still under process. If it

would be sold for IDR 1,200 per cubic meter, the PDAM Klungkung could buy and sell it to customers for IDR 1,400 per cubic meter. Currently, out of the five pumps, only two could work to suck the Guyangan spring to reservoir one and reservoir two. Meanwhile, the remaining pumps were out of order. To optimize the Guyangan springs, he said there would be three additional pumps to replace the damaged ones. Two units would be placed in reservoir two and an-other in reservoir one.

Currently the Guyangan springs had been connected to six villages on Nusa Penida island, especially on the upper land. Among others, it had covered the Batukandik, Ba-tumadeg, Sekartaji, Bunga Mekar, Klumpu and Tanglad. Guyangan springs just flowed to public taps provided at free of charge. Its pipeline had not been connected to peoplefs homes. Meanwhile, the Penida springs managed by the PDAM could just serve six villages, namely the Sakti, Ped, Kutampi, Batumulapan, Carangsari and Su-ana. So far, the PDAM Klungkung is still waiting for the MoU with the Bali government.

His party hoped the operating costs remained to be borne by provincial government. Thus, the PDAM would just need to buy it from provincial government to be distributed to customers. (kmb31)

DENPASAR - The village market management forum has asked the government to focus on preserving and developing the potential of the traditional culinary heritage of Denpasar. Suggestions include a culinary drop in as part of the city tour program and building a culinary center.

Secretary of the village market management forum, Wayan Agus Indrawan, noted on Monday (Feb. 2) that Denpasar has culinary trea-sures in various corners of the city. Each village market has a distinc-tive cuisine. For example, there was yam rice at Waringin Sari market at Anggabaya and typical porridge at Renon.

Various traditional cuisines should be made sustainable. Not only that, Agus encourages the government to continuously de-

velop the culinary potential. He hopes the government can feature traditional culinary through the city tour program. The establishment of a culinary center is also considered strategic for introducing travelers to Denpasar to a variety of traditional cuisines. “We strongly support the endeavor to feature traditional cuisines that can become a new option for people and travelers to enjoy typical culinary delights belonging to the city of Denpasar,” said Agus.

A similar opinion was expressed by Wayan Marya, a trader at Kertha Waringin Sari market. According to him, with the presence of culinary center, the community including travelers would be able to enjoy a variety of traditional cuisines. He hoped it could be realized. (kmb25)

Municipal government asked to highlight culinary tourism

High production costsPDAM Klungkung unable to manage Guyangan springs

Gilimanuk waters contaminated

by wasteGILIMANUK - Gilimanuk is prone to be contaminated by rubbish on land. But now, the

harbor water around Gilimanuk Harbor is full of plastic waste and food wrappers. Passengers who see the condition of water in the Strait of Bali complain that it looks vile. Observation of the water shows garbage and plastic floating and settling on the sea floor. . “Approaching midday, the water condition is better as the waste is carried by currents to beach areas. But a lot settled at the bottom,” said Aswin, a passenger ship crew. He said that it was not only the waste from the vessel activities, but also from people who dumped rubbish into the sea.

IBP/File

The ship to Ketapang Harbor is traveling from Gilimanuk. The water in the area is contaminated by waste

Indonesia Today Wednesday, March 4, 2015 5InternationalWednesday, March 4, 201512 International

BUSINESS

BEIJING - Factory employment has been falling for more than a year in the workshop of the world as Chinese growth slows, and analysts expect more intervention by the central bank after its second interest rate cut in just three months. The weekend’s rate reduction comes as authorities contend with rising deflationary threats in the world’s second-largest economy and an unusually weak currency.

Communist Party leaders are seeking to prevent the growth de-celeration from careening out of control. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.4 percent last year, its slowest pace in 24 years, and recent indicators show signs the slowdown is continuing.

Slack manufacturing -- including employment declines in the sector according to surveys for banking giant HSBC -- consumer inflation plunging to its lowest in five years, three years of factory price deflation and a drop in the yuan currency have also sounded alarm bells.

The tightly controlled yuan ex-tended declines after the rate cut, falling to its lowest level against the dollar since October 2012 on Monday.

Describing China’s domestic economic situation as “bleak”, Jeremy Stevens, Beijing-based Asia economist at South Africa’s Stan-dard Bank, says the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) had no choice but to cut rates again.

“The manufacturing sector has contracted for the first two months of this year,” he said in a report Monday, referring to official data. New home prices continue to fall and the country “is ebbing ever closer to deflation”, he added.

“We are particularly worried that consumption growth presents a large downside risk for the Chinese economy in 2015,” he said, add-ing there was anecdotal evidence employers were cutting wages to avoid redundancies, “presenting a big risk for spending”.

A newspaper in the northeastern city of Shenyang reported last week that the monthly wages on offer at a migrant workers’ employment fair were 300 to 500 yuan ($50 to $80) lower than last year.

Chinese leaders say that the investment-fuelled double-digit growth of years past is no longer sustainable and they are seeking a “new normal” of gradually slower expansion led by consumer spend-ing.

The PBoC announced Saturday

that it was lowering benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percentage points, to 2.5 per-cent for deposits and 5.35 percent for lending. The central bank cited “historically low inflation” among the factors behind the decision, which followed a reduction in No-vember and was a clear indication of official concern.

The timing, coming at the end of the extended Chinese New Year holiday and just before the start of the NPC, “indicates a new-found degree of urgency to lower interest rates amid downward pressures on growth and inflation”, RBS econo-mist Louis Kuijs wrote in a report.

Analysts broadly expect more rate reductions and other measures to be implemented.

“Chinese policymakers have to do more and we expect them to do so,” Societe Generale economist Yao Wei said in a report.

She called for a broad policy assault, including the PBoC inject-ing more liquidity to the banking system through further reductions in the reserve requirement ratio, the percentage of funds banks must keep on hand.

Tax cuts and spending by the central government need to be intensified, mortgage rules should be further loosened if the housing market fails to perk up and liberali-sation of China’s corporate sector including reform of state-owned enterprises should be accelerated, she said. (afp)

“In dealing with terrorism, pri-oritize prevention, not to handle it only after it happens,” Jokowi informed the press after issuing di-rectives during a leadership meeting of the TNI and Polri on Tuesday.

Preventive efforts need to be backed by on-field data and infor-mation collected by the intelligence agency, he noted.

Terrorism still poses a threat not only to Indonesia but also to other

countries. He mentioned the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as an eminent terror threat.

Jokowi also emphasized that se-curity and stability is crucial to help achieve the targets of economic growth

and infrastructure development.Deputy National Police Chief

Commissioner General Badrodin Haiti stated that the TNI-Polri leader-ship meeting is a strategic momentum to implement nine priority agenda outlined in the National Mid-Term Development Plan 2015-2019.

Haiti noted that during the meet-

ing, an agreement on joint basic education will be inked between the TNI and Polri.

The leadership meeting is themed “A Synergy between TNI and Polri as Mental Revolution Drivers.”

The meeting is being attended by 246 high-ranking officers of the TNI and Polri. (ant)

Taking a machete to expenses, banks are speeding up disinvest-ments, trimming administrative budgets and turning to automation to replace employees in a broad array of banking operations, includ-ing online.

The largest US bank in terms of assets, JPMorgan Chase, plans to save nearly $5 billion by 2017, and is closing 300 bank branches.

In 2014, Goldman Sachs’s pay fell to the lowest level since the prestigious Wall Street investment bank went public in 1999.

To meet regulators’ demands, the

banking industry is also jettisoning lucrative assets and is trying to shrink certain deposits by charging institutional clients a fee to hold them, a move JPMorgan announced last week.

Goldman Sachs is scaling back holdings in investment funds and private-equity firms, a Goldman spokesman told AFP.

Morgan Stanley is lowering its profile in commodity and foreign-exchange trading and has put its oil trading unit on the market, preferring to focus on wealth management, a business with

fewer risks.Regulators have toughened their

standards in a bid to avoid a repeti-tion of the 2008 financial crisis that forced the US and other govern-ments to bail out banks.

In their cross-hairs are the fa-mous “too big to fail” financial institutions, considered a risk to the financial system.

The Basel III global regulations require banks to reinforce their own capital buffers, both in quality and in quantity, to represent a mini-mum 7.0 percent of their assets at all times. That formula means, for

example, that for every $100 lent, $7 is the bank’s own money.

Both the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Financial Stability Board want a bigger but-tress.

The FSB is seeking to require major global banks that are con-sidered systemically important to hold a minimum capital cushion of 16-20 percent of their risk-weighted assets, or Total Loss Absorbency Capacity.

As for the Fed, it wants eight major US banks to be subject to a risk-based capital surcharge. Under the proposal, the central bank could prevent the banks from paying out dividends or repurchasing shares if the failed to comply.

“We want to pay our sharehold-ers. We want to pay dividends, buybacks in a balanced way,” JPMorgan spokesman Brian Mar-chiony told AFP.

Bank of America, in its 2014 annual report, said: “We continue to wind down our global principal investments operations.”

Under the so-called Volcker rule in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, US banks are barred from proprietary trading, or trad-ing with their own funds. The aim is to prevent the kind of excessive speculative behavior that threatens their stability, such as the “London Whale” trading debacle in 2012 that cost JPMorgan about $6 billion in losses. (afp)

Big US banks batten down as tighter regulation looms

NEW YORK - Faced with increased regulation beginning in 2017, the major US banks are taking a number of restructuring steps, shedding staff and some speculative businesses, and cutting bonuses.

China rate cuts just the start as growth slows

People shop at a supermarket in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, March 2, 2015. Fac-tory employment has been falling for more than a year in the workshop of the world as Chinese growth slows, and analysts expect more inter-vention by the central bank after its second interest rate cut in just three months.

REUTERS/Alex Lee

JAKARTA - Confederation of Indo-nesia Prosperity Trade Union (KSBSI) Chairman Mudhofir has urged the govern-ment to stabilize the fluctuating rice prices in the country.

“The government should stabilize the rice prices as soon as possible to ease the burden of the poor community in various regions across the country,” Mudhofir stated on Tuesday.

He also criticized the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for having failed to op-timally play its role of maintaining price stability in the present times.

The KSBSI chairman noted that re-gardless of the situation, Bulog should be

prepared for any eventuality in an effort to keep the rice prices stable.

Besides this, Bulog should have coop-erated well with the relevant authorities in cracking down on speculators with vested interests and importers of rice.

According to agriculture observer Khudori, the fluctuating prices of rice were caused by speculators. He said speculators fear that the government might release its rice stocks and bring down the rice prices in the market. Speculators who have so far withheld their stocks will only be able to make a small profit if they do not release their rice stocks immediately because Bulog

will then distribute its stocks.“At the Cipinang wholesale rice market

in Jakarta, the price of rice dropped by Rp500 per kilogram. This means that the speculators have released their stocks,” he explained.

President Jokowi earlier inspected Bu-log’s rice warehouses at Kelapang Gading in North Jakarta where he launched the rice for the poor (Raskin) program and some market operations.

The country has 1.4 million tons of rice stocks, which will be adequate until March-April when the harvest season starts, the president revealed on the oc-casion. (ant)

JAKARTA - Environmental group Greenpeace said Monday it had suspended cooperation with paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper after an Indonesian farmer was allegedly beaten to death by guards linked to the company.

The green group had once been one of the strongest critics of APP, accusing it of destroying vast swathes of carbon-rich forests that are home to endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans and tiger.

But following APP’s announcement two years ago that it would stop using any logs from Indonesia’s natural forests, Greenpeace had been supporting the company’s efforts.

However, Bustar Maitar, the head of Greenpeace’s Indonesia forest campaign, told AFP that the group was temporarily withdrawing support for the company’s initiatives on forest conservation after a farmer was beaten to death on western Sumatra island last week.

Police said the farmer, Indra Pelani, was alleg-edly killed Friday near an acacia plantation in Jambi province by guards hired by a security firm contracted by Wirakarya Sakti, a pulp wood supplier owned by APP.

“Indra was found dead with injuries on his body near the company’s concession on Saturday,” local police spokesman Almansyah, who like many Indo-nesians goes by one name, told AFP.

He said that the seven alleged perpetrators fled and police were hunting for them.

Maitar said support for APP would be suspended until the case was “settled in a transparent and fair manner.

“They have declared themselves to be a responsible company. If APP doesn’t take this seriously, it will cost them their reputation.”

Greenpeace added in statement that they were “deeply saddened by the news of the brutal death”, and called for the company to launch a full investigation of its security procedures and contractors to ensure no such incident is repeated.

APP said in a statement that it had ordered Wira-karya Sakti to suspend all personnel allegedly involved in the incident.

“We condemn violence and we support Green-peace’s decision to focus its efforts on this issue,” it said, adding that efforts would be made “to ensure that justice is done”.

APP’s pledge to stop using logs from Indonesia’s natural forests followed years of campaigning by green groups, which had led to the company losing packag-ing contracts with big brands such as foodmaker Kraft and Barbie’s Mattel. (afp)

President urges military, police to prioritize prevention of terrorismJAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has called on the Indonesian Defense Forces

(TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to prioritize prevention of terrorism.

Greenpeace rebukes paper

giant over farmer’s death

REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

A farmer pulls an old fishing net over a rice field to protect it from birds in Cilacap, Central Java March 2, 2015. Confederation of Indonesia Prosperity Trade Union (KSBSI) Chairman Mudhofir has urged the government to stabilize the fluctuating rice prices in the country.

Government urged to stabilize rice prices

Wednesday, March 4, 20156 International

W RLD 11International Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Fierce clashes were underway mainly outside the town of al-Dour, south of Tikrit, while government troops were shelling militant bases inside the city, they said. The of-ficials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief media.

The military operation is seen as a litmus test for the capabil-ity of Iraqi troops to dislodge the militants from major cities they conquered in the country’s Sunni heartland in the north and west during an onslaught last summer. Previous attempts to capture Tikrit all failed because of tough resis-

tance from the militants.Tikrit, the provincial capital of

Salahuddin province, is located 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad. It was taken by the Islamic State group along with the northern second-largest city Mosul during last year’s fighting.

U.S. military officials have said a coordinated military mis-sion to retake Mosul will likely begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. But the Americans have cautioned that if the Iraqis aren’t ready, the offen-sive could be delayed. On Monday, Iraqi and U.S. officials said the

U.S.-led coalition was not involved in the Tikrit operation and had not been asked to carry out airstrikes.

Also Monday, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported Iranian Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Revo-lutionary Guard’s Quds Force, was taking part in the offensive. Soleimani has emerged as the chief tactician in Iraq’s fight against the Sunni militants.

Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the military commander of the Sala-huddin region told Iraqi state TV that troops would need some time to enter the city of Tikrit. (ap)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Avalanches have cut off at least three districts in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, the head of a disaster relief agency said Tuesday, a week after nearly 200 people died when snow buried their homes in a valley near the capital Kabul. Severe weather conditions in Takhar province in the last 24 hours have cut road access to the districts, said Daim Kakar, the general director of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.

Authorities were attempting to reach villages to deliver emergency supplies, including food, blankets and tea. “Bulldoz-ers are being brought in to clear the roads of snow so that the deliveries can be made,” Kakar said.

Across Afghanistan, 320 people have been killed and 187 injured since severe rain and snow swept across 20 provinces early last week, he said.

In Panjshir province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Kabul, a total of 196 people died in a huge avalanche early last week, according to acting Gov. Abdul Rahman Kabiri.

Authorities have been dropping food and other supplies to people stranded on their rooftops in the far north of the Panjshir Valley, with the military deploying helicopters while roads were being cleared.

More than 4,000 houses have been damaged across 188 dis-tricts, and more than 3,200 livestock have been killed, according to official figures. (ap)

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey says a recent notice seeking to reserve a large swath of airspace over the Aegean Sea for military maneuvers was issued by mistake and then canceled. A statement by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said Tuesday that the Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, was inadvertently declared “with an inaccurate coordinate.” He did not elaborate.

Greece had complained about the planned maneuvers, which it said would have intruded into Greek airspace and interfered with commercial air traffic.

Bilgic said Turkey would not declare a new NOTAM for “a certain period of time” and said Turkey was willing to resolve the dispute through talks.

The two NATO allies have been at odds for decades over territorial issues in the Aegean Sea, including over airspace and territorial waters. (ap)

BEIJING — A bus carrying an opera troupe fell off a cliff in central China on Tuesday, killing 20 people and injuring 13, state media reported. The accident happened early Tuesday in Linzhou city in Henan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The bus was carrying members of a local opera troupe, according to the government of Anyang city, which oversees Linzhou.

Linzhou police confirmed the accident in an online state-ment, but didn’t say how many people were killed or injured. It said 33 people were on the bus, which had been hired by the troupe. (ap)

AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo

Iraqi Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of their comrade Ali Mansour, who his family says was killed in Tikrit fighting Islamic militants, during his funeral procession, in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 2, 2015.

Fierce clashes outside Iraq’s Tikrit after new offensive

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops fought on Tuesday with Islamic State extremists south of the militant-held city of Tikrit but their offensive to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown was slowed by roadside bombs, local officials said. Backed by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and advisers along with Sunni tribal fighters, government forces made little headway on the second day of a large-scale military operation to recapture Tikrit, which fell to the Islamic State group last summer, two local officials said.

Afghan avalanches cut off 3 northern districts

Turkey: Notice on military maneuvers in Aegean was a mistake

Bus carrying China opera troupe falls off cliff, killing 20

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 7SportsWednesday, March 4, 201510 InternationalInternationalDestination

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Deluang Sari, a little delta overgrown by mangrove forests with coastal white sand and calm waves, is situated overlooking the sea recreation center of Benoa Harbor. Since it has an intact ecological system, clean beaches and lush mangrove forests, this place was then developed for breeding sea turtles. At low tide, we can get there on foot in the sidelines of the mangrove trees of Tanjung Benoa, while at high tides we have to cross by boat from Benoa Harbor for about 10 minutes. Aside from seeing turtle breeding, visitors coming here can also see different types of fighting cocks, animals and wild birds as well as a small temple, As a tourist destination, this small island has also been equipped with restaurants, souvenir shops and animal attractions. (IBP)

IBP/File Photo

Turtle Breeding at Deluang Sari

P.J. Tucker had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns, who also got 20 points from Eric Bledsoe. Markieff Morris and Brandon Knight scored 13 apiece.

In all, there were five player technical fouls, three ejections and two flagrant fouls assessed in the third quarter alone, the 12 minutes of play needing 42 minutes to complete. Morris was ejected for a flagrant-2

foul against Dragic in the third quarter, and Whi-

teside and Alex Len were both

tossed later in the pe-riod after g e t t i n g tangled up un-der the Miami b a s -ket.

Brooklyn’s Jarrett Jack made a tiebreaking jump shot with 1.1 seconds left as the Nets overcame Stephen Curry’s stirring fourth-quarter comeback attempt to beat the Golden State Warriors 110-108.

Curry brought the Warriors back from 10 points down with under 4 minutes left to tie it, but couldn’t get a final shot off after Jack’s jumper. Curry finished with 26 points, 18 in the final period and Andrew Bogut scored 16 for Golden State.Brook Lopez had 26 points and Deron Wil-liams 22 for the Nets.

In Minneapolis, Chris Paul had 26 points and 14 assists as the Los Angeles Clippers allowed only one field goal in the fourth quarter to outlast the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-105.

J.J. Redick scored 18 points before getting ejected in the fourth and DeAndre Jordan had 12 points and 18 rebounds, his ninth straight game with at least 15 boards. Glen Davis scored 12 points off the bench to help the Clippers get their seventh win in nine games.

The Toronto Raptors ended a five-game losing streak by downing the Philadelphia 76ers 114-103 after DeMar DeRozan scored a season-high 35 points and Lou Williams had 21, while the Dallas Mavericks defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 102-93. (ap)

The FIA has published details of Formula 1’s new helmet livery rules, which will prevent drivers changing their designs during the season. As AUTOSPORT revealed last month, F1’s leading figures voted through a new rule for 2015 to end the practice of drivers regularly swapping their helmet colours.

It was felt that forcing drivers to keep the same design for the season would help fans recogn-ise them more easily. The latest draft of F1’s sporting regulations published by the FIA outlines that drivers must have “substantially” the same helmet colours at every round of the championship.

This will prevent drivers run-ning dramatically different one-off helmets, but does allow small freedoms if there are new spon-sors or minor design changes.

A revised article 21.1 of F1’s sporting regulations states: “In order for drivers to be easily distinguished from one another whilst they are on the track, the

crash helmet of each driver must be presented in substantially the same livery at every event during a championship season.”

NUMBER RULE CLARIFICATION

The FIA has also revealed what will happen to drivers’ race numbers once they are no longer competing in F1. Since the start of last season, drivers have to pick a set number for their entire career - but there was uncertainty about what happens to a number when that driver retires or moves on.

Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, Rotterdam street demo 2014

The rules now state: “A driver’s career in Fo rmula 1 w i l l be deemed to have ended if he does not partici-pate in an event for two entire consecu-tive championship seasons.” (net)

PARIS — Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has fuelled speculation of a possible comeback by asking her fans on social media if it would be a good idea. The 30-year-old Bartoli retired from professional tennis a month after her Wimbledon triumph in 2013. She has since worked as a commentator and started a new career in fashion, launching a jewelry collection and a shoe line.

Bartoli, who struggled with inju-ries throughout her 14-year career, pondered an eventual comeback on

Twitter, writing “Coming back or not coming back to #tennis? What do you think? Should I?”

Bartoli, whose signature two-hand-ed groundstrokes helped her win Wim-bledon without losing a set, played an exhibition match on grass against a 15-year-old junior last year but was forced to quit with a shoul-der problem. (ap)

Bartoli fuels speculation on

possible comeback

IBP/net

FIA reveals details of new limits on Formula

1 helmet designs

Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic celebrates after making a 3-point shot during the second half against the Phoenix Suns in an NBA bas-ketball game, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Mi-ami. Miami won 115-98.

Dragic scores 21, Heat beat Suns

115-98 as tensions run highMIAMI — Tyler Johnson scored a career-high 26 points and Goran Dragic added 21 against his

former team as the Miami heat beat the Phoenix Suns 115-98 on Monday in a game that included two third-quarter altercations. Hassan Whiteside finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds before getting ejected for Miami, which got 16 points and nine assists from Dwyane Wade.

98 InternationalWednesday, March 4, 2015 International Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Sp rt

After scoring the first goal in the 2-0 victory over Tottenham, captain John Terry was followed up to the Wembley Stadium royal box by goal-keeper Petr Cech and striker Didier Drogba on Sunday. Then came Jose Mourinho to raise aloft the trophy — the same one that kick-started his trophy-laden first spell as Chelsea manager in 2005.

“It’s given us a taste of where we want to be at the end of the season, lifting more trophies obviously,” Mourinho said. “This is our first one collectively, and looking back in

2004-05 it definitely had that effect on the squad. Hopefully it can have the same effect again to this new and upcoming squad.” Mourinho sees this as a new era for the Blues in his second season back.

“It’s the first (trophy) of a new team,” Mourinho said. “You have Petr Cech, John Terry, Didier Drogba and, after that, everybody belongs to a new generation of players.”

Such as 20-year-old Kurt Zou-ma, who was pushed forward into midfield as a defensive shield as Nemanja Matic was suspended for

the final, and helped Chelsea stifle Tottenham striker Harry Kane. And Eden Hazard, fresh from signing a new contract until 2020, helped to unsettle the north London club with his dribbling and creativity.

It was Diego Costa’s strike — deflected in by Tottenham defender Kyle Walker — that ensured Chelsea would take its first trophy since the 2013 Europa League back to Stam-ford Bridge.

Further success could come on two fronts this season. In the Champi-ons League, Chelsea is locked at 1-1

MILAN — AC Milan has lost key midfielders Riccardo Monto-livo and Nigel de Jong to injury, adding to the woes of embattled coach Filippo Inzaghi. Both play-ers were hurt in Saturday’s goall-ess draw at relegation-threatened Chievo.

Milan says Montolivo injured a hamstring muscle and will undergo more medical tests in a week, while De Jong hurt the back of his thigh and will be re-assessed in 10 days.

Milan’s injury list already included Adil Rami, Cristian

Zapata, Ignazio Abate, Mattia De Sciglio, Pablo Armero and Cristian Zaccardo. Struggling in 10th place and without suc-cessive victories since October, Inzaghi’s job has been at risk for weeks. Milan hosts Hellas Verona next weekend. (ap)

CAIRO — Egyptian Football Association has appointed Hec-tor Cuper, from Argentina, as the new manager of its national team. The 59-year old previously led the Emirati al-Wasl club, and the Spanish Racing de Santander. The appointment was announced on Monday.

Cuper takes over a squad that won the African Nations’ Cup a record seven times but failed to qualify for the last three editions

of the biannual tournament.Egypt’s team has been without

a fulltime manager since American Bob Bradley quit in late 2013 after he failed to take the Pharaohs to the World Cup in Brazil.

Egyptian soccer suffered a massive setback when more than 70 soccer fans were killed in post-match violence in 2012. Last month, 20 fans died in a stampede outside a stadium as police fired tear gas. (ap)

ZEIST, Netherlands — The Dutch candidate for the FIFA presidency said Monday he wants to boost the number of teams at the World Cup to 40 and give guaranteed berths to host nations and defending champions. Royal Netherlands Football Association Chairman Michael van Praag also said FIFA should send more money to national federations, pledging an annual handout of $1 million to each football fed-eration, four times the current $250,000.

Van Praag made the pledges as he asked the Dutch FA to foot the 394,538-euro ($440,977) bill for his campaign to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter following

May’s election.Van Praag briefly outlined his

bid to “normalize” FIFA before rushing to catch a plane to Para-guay, where he will lobby mem-bers of the South American foot-ball federation for their support.

He said future 40-team World Cups should also include an extra team from each confederation. He said prize money for participants at the World Cup and Confedera-tions Cup also should be increased and a separate budget should be established to improve infrastruc-ture at national associations that need financial support.

Not surprisingly given the Dutch FA’s support for goal-line technology, Van Praag said he

wants to give referees more tech-nological help where possible.

He said that when something controversial happens on the pitch, “we cannot expect our referees to be the only people in the stadium who can’t replay that moment.” He also said that as FIFA president he would set up an international academy to train referees and another for youth trainers.

The 78-year-old Blatter is seeking a fifth term running global football’s governing body. FIFA Vice President Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan and Portugal great Luis Figo also looking to end Blatter’s reign, which began in 1998. (ap)

LONDON — English Premier League club Sunderland suspended midfielder Adam Johnson on Mon-day after he was arrested on suspi-cion of sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16. The 27-year-old Johnson, who has played for Eng-land, was later released on police bail “pending ongoing investigations,” a force in northeast England said.

News of Johnson’s arrest emerged Monday, a day before Sunderland’s Premier League game at Hull. “A 27-year-old man was arrested earlier today on suspicion of sexual activity with a girl under 16,” police in the northeast city of Durham said in a statement on Monday when asked about reports of Johnson’s arrest.

In response, Sunderland said in a statement that Johnson had been suspended by the club “pending the outcome of a police investigation.” Johnson grew up near Durham and began his career in the northeast with Middlesbrough, graduating from the academy to the first team. Johnson’s impressive performances secured a transfer to Manchester City in 2010 for 7 million pounds (now about $11 million).

But after City won the Premier League in 2012, Johnson sought more regular first-team football and joined Sunderland for 10 million pounds (now about $15 million). Johnson made the last of his 12 England appearances in August 2012 against Italy. (ap)

LONDON — Sunder land has succeeded in overturning the red card shown to defender Wes Brown against Manchester United on Saturday. Brown was

dismissed by referee Roger East for an apparent foul on United striker Radamel Falcao in the penalty area, although it appeared on replays that John

O’Shea had been the player to impede the Colombian.

The Premier League referees’ organization released a state-ment after Sunderland’s 2-0

loss saying that East believed Brown’s foul had been the cru-cial one.

But an independent regula-tory commission convened by

the English Football Association cleared Brown of any wrongdo-ing and he will not now have to serve a one-match suspension. (ap)

Dutch candidate for FIFA presidency wants more transparency

AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

AC Milan’s Riccardo Montolivo, left, jumps for the ball with Cesena’s Gregoire Defrel during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Cesena at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015.

Montolivo and De Jong injured

AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis, File

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010 file photo, former Aris’ head coach Hector Cuper of Argentina, gives instructions to his play-ers during a Greek League soccer match in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Johnson suspended by Sunderland after arrest, out on bail

Egypt names Cuper from Argentina to lead its soccer team

Brown’s red card overturned after Sunderland appeal succeeds

AP Photo/Tim Ireland

Chelsea’s head coach Jose Mourinho, left and Chelsea’s John Terry hold the trophy after they won the English League Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley stadium in London, Sunday, March, 1, 2015. Chelsea won the match 2-0.

Mourinho seeks further titles with new generation at Chelsea

LONDON — A decade on from the first trophy from the Roman Abramovich-era, Chelsea collected the League Cup with just three survivors from the 2005 matchday squad.

with Paris Saint-Germain after the first leg of their round of 16 match. In the Premier League, Chelsea has a five-point lead over Manchester City — and now with a game in hand after the champions lost at Liverpool on Sunday.

After Mourinho’s longest trophy drought — Sunday’s success came almost three years after his 2012 Spanish title triumph with Real Ma-drid — the relief for the Portuguese manager was evident at Wembley. “Two seasons without a trophy ... looked like I was 20 years without a trophy,” the 52-year-old Mourinho said. “This is a good problem, to have that feeling that two years is a long

time. That’s a good feeling. “For me, it’s important to feel that I’m a kid. Before the game, that I had the same feelings as my first final however many years ago.” And the oldies are there to share in the success, and help to deliver further trophies before June.

“After that (2005 League Cup final) we got more experience in big moments, big games, big finals like this one,” said the 36-year-old Drogba, who was a late substitute on Sunday. “It’s a step forward for this team. We want to grow up ... and I’m really happy to be part of this team and help them to become better and stronger.” (ap)

98 InternationalWednesday, March 4, 2015 International Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Sp rt

After scoring the first goal in the 2-0 victory over Tottenham, captain John Terry was followed up to the Wembley Stadium royal box by goal-keeper Petr Cech and striker Didier Drogba on Sunday. Then came Jose Mourinho to raise aloft the trophy — the same one that kick-started his trophy-laden first spell as Chelsea manager in 2005.

“It’s given us a taste of where we want to be at the end of the season, lifting more trophies obviously,” Mourinho said. “This is our first one collectively, and looking back in

2004-05 it definitely had that effect on the squad. Hopefully it can have the same effect again to this new and upcoming squad.” Mourinho sees this as a new era for the Blues in his second season back.

“It’s the first (trophy) of a new team,” Mourinho said. “You have Petr Cech, John Terry, Didier Drogba and, after that, everybody belongs to a new generation of players.”

Such as 20-year-old Kurt Zou-ma, who was pushed forward into midfield as a defensive shield as Nemanja Matic was suspended for

the final, and helped Chelsea stifle Tottenham striker Harry Kane. And Eden Hazard, fresh from signing a new contract until 2020, helped to unsettle the north London club with his dribbling and creativity.

It was Diego Costa’s strike — deflected in by Tottenham defender Kyle Walker — that ensured Chelsea would take its first trophy since the 2013 Europa League back to Stam-ford Bridge.

Further success could come on two fronts this season. In the Champi-ons League, Chelsea is locked at 1-1

MILAN — AC Milan has lost key midfielders Riccardo Monto-livo and Nigel de Jong to injury, adding to the woes of embattled coach Filippo Inzaghi. Both play-ers were hurt in Saturday’s goall-ess draw at relegation-threatened Chievo.

Milan says Montolivo injured a hamstring muscle and will undergo more medical tests in a week, while De Jong hurt the back of his thigh and will be re-assessed in 10 days.

Milan’s injury list already included Adil Rami, Cristian

Zapata, Ignazio Abate, Mattia De Sciglio, Pablo Armero and Cristian Zaccardo. Struggling in 10th place and without suc-cessive victories since October, Inzaghi’s job has been at risk for weeks. Milan hosts Hellas Verona next weekend. (ap)

CAIRO — Egyptian Football Association has appointed Hec-tor Cuper, from Argentina, as the new manager of its national team. The 59-year old previously led the Emirati al-Wasl club, and the Spanish Racing de Santander. The appointment was announced on Monday.

Cuper takes over a squad that won the African Nations’ Cup a record seven times but failed to qualify for the last three editions

of the biannual tournament.Egypt’s team has been without

a fulltime manager since American Bob Bradley quit in late 2013 after he failed to take the Pharaohs to the World Cup in Brazil.

Egyptian soccer suffered a massive setback when more than 70 soccer fans were killed in post-match violence in 2012. Last month, 20 fans died in a stampede outside a stadium as police fired tear gas. (ap)

ZEIST, Netherlands — The Dutch candidate for the FIFA presidency said Monday he wants to boost the number of teams at the World Cup to 40 and give guaranteed berths to host nations and defending champions. Royal Netherlands Football Association Chairman Michael van Praag also said FIFA should send more money to national federations, pledging an annual handout of $1 million to each football fed-eration, four times the current $250,000.

Van Praag made the pledges as he asked the Dutch FA to foot the 394,538-euro ($440,977) bill for his campaign to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter following

May’s election.Van Praag briefly outlined his

bid to “normalize” FIFA before rushing to catch a plane to Para-guay, where he will lobby mem-bers of the South American foot-ball federation for their support.

He said future 40-team World Cups should also include an extra team from each confederation. He said prize money for participants at the World Cup and Confedera-tions Cup also should be increased and a separate budget should be established to improve infrastruc-ture at national associations that need financial support.

Not surprisingly given the Dutch FA’s support for goal-line technology, Van Praag said he

wants to give referees more tech-nological help where possible.

He said that when something controversial happens on the pitch, “we cannot expect our referees to be the only people in the stadium who can’t replay that moment.” He also said that as FIFA president he would set up an international academy to train referees and another for youth trainers.

The 78-year-old Blatter is seeking a fifth term running global football’s governing body. FIFA Vice President Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan and Portugal great Luis Figo also looking to end Blatter’s reign, which began in 1998. (ap)

LONDON — English Premier League club Sunderland suspended midfielder Adam Johnson on Mon-day after he was arrested on suspi-cion of sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16. The 27-year-old Johnson, who has played for Eng-land, was later released on police bail “pending ongoing investigations,” a force in northeast England said.

News of Johnson’s arrest emerged Monday, a day before Sunderland’s Premier League game at Hull. “A 27-year-old man was arrested earlier today on suspicion of sexual activity with a girl under 16,” police in the northeast city of Durham said in a statement on Monday when asked about reports of Johnson’s arrest.

In response, Sunderland said in a statement that Johnson had been suspended by the club “pending the outcome of a police investigation.” Johnson grew up near Durham and began his career in the northeast with Middlesbrough, graduating from the academy to the first team. Johnson’s impressive performances secured a transfer to Manchester City in 2010 for 7 million pounds (now about $11 million).

But after City won the Premier League in 2012, Johnson sought more regular first-team football and joined Sunderland for 10 million pounds (now about $15 million). Johnson made the last of his 12 England appearances in August 2012 against Italy. (ap)

LONDON — Sunder land has succeeded in overturning the red card shown to defender Wes Brown against Manchester United on Saturday. Brown was

dismissed by referee Roger East for an apparent foul on United striker Radamel Falcao in the penalty area, although it appeared on replays that John

O’Shea had been the player to impede the Colombian.

The Premier League referees’ organization released a state-ment after Sunderland’s 2-0

loss saying that East believed Brown’s foul had been the cru-cial one.

But an independent regula-tory commission convened by

the English Football Association cleared Brown of any wrongdo-ing and he will not now have to serve a one-match suspension. (ap)

Dutch candidate for FIFA presidency wants more transparency

AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

AC Milan’s Riccardo Montolivo, left, jumps for the ball with Cesena’s Gregoire Defrel during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Cesena at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015.

Montolivo and De Jong injured

AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis, File

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010 file photo, former Aris’ head coach Hector Cuper of Argentina, gives instructions to his play-ers during a Greek League soccer match in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Johnson suspended by Sunderland after arrest, out on bail

Egypt names Cuper from Argentina to lead its soccer team

Brown’s red card overturned after Sunderland appeal succeeds

AP Photo/Tim Ireland

Chelsea’s head coach Jose Mourinho, left and Chelsea’s John Terry hold the trophy after they won the English League Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley stadium in London, Sunday, March, 1, 2015. Chelsea won the match 2-0.

Mourinho seeks further titles with new generation at Chelsea

LONDON — A decade on from the first trophy from the Roman Abramovich-era, Chelsea collected the League Cup with just three survivors from the 2005 matchday squad.

with Paris Saint-Germain after the first leg of their round of 16 match. In the Premier League, Chelsea has a five-point lead over Manchester City — and now with a game in hand after the champions lost at Liverpool on Sunday.

After Mourinho’s longest trophy drought — Sunday’s success came almost three years after his 2012 Spanish title triumph with Real Ma-drid — the relief for the Portuguese manager was evident at Wembley. “Two seasons without a trophy ... looked like I was 20 years without a trophy,” the 52-year-old Mourinho said. “This is a good problem, to have that feeling that two years is a long

time. That’s a good feeling. “For me, it’s important to feel that I’m a kid. Before the game, that I had the same feelings as my first final however many years ago.” And the oldies are there to share in the success, and help to deliver further trophies before June.

“After that (2005 League Cup final) we got more experience in big moments, big games, big finals like this one,” said the 36-year-old Drogba, who was a late substitute on Sunday. “It’s a step forward for this team. We want to grow up ... and I’m really happy to be part of this team and help them to become better and stronger.” (ap)

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Deluang Sari, a little delta overgrown by mangrove forests with coastal white sand and calm waves, is situated overlooking the sea recreation center of Benoa Harbor. Since it has an intact ecological system, clean beaches and lush mangrove forests, this place was then developed for breeding sea turtles. At low tide, we can get there on foot in the sidelines of the mangrove trees of Tanjung Benoa, while at high tides we have to cross by boat from Benoa Harbor for about 10 minutes. Aside from seeing turtle breeding, visitors coming here can also see different types of fighting cocks, animals and wild birds as well as a small temple, As a tourist destination, this small island has also been equipped with restaurants, souvenir shops and animal attractions. (IBP)

IBP/File Photo

Turtle Breeding at Deluang Sari

P.J. Tucker had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns, who also got 20 points from Eric Bledsoe. Markieff Morris and Brandon Knight scored 13 apiece.

In all, there were five player technical fouls, three ejections and two flagrant fouls assessed in the third quarter alone, the 12 minutes of play needing 42 minutes to complete. Morris was ejected for a flagrant-2

foul against Dragic in the third quarter, and Whi-

teside and Alex Len were both

tossed later in the pe-riod after g e t t i n g tangled up un-der the Miami b a s -ket.

Brooklyn’s Jarrett Jack made a tiebreaking jump shot with 1.1 seconds left as the Nets overcame Stephen Curry’s stirring fourth-quarter comeback attempt to beat the Golden State Warriors 110-108.

Curry brought the Warriors back from 10 points down with under 4 minutes left to tie it, but couldn’t get a final shot off after Jack’s jumper. Curry finished with 26 points, 18 in the final period and Andrew Bogut scored 16 for Golden State.Brook Lopez had 26 points and Deron Wil-liams 22 for the Nets.

In Minneapolis, Chris Paul had 26 points and 14 assists as the Los Angeles Clippers allowed only one field goal in the fourth quarter to outlast the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-105.

J.J. Redick scored 18 points before getting ejected in the fourth and DeAndre Jordan had 12 points and 18 rebounds, his ninth straight game with at least 15 boards. Glen Davis scored 12 points off the bench to help the Clippers get their seventh win in nine games.

The Toronto Raptors ended a five-game losing streak by downing the Philadelphia 76ers 114-103 after DeMar DeRozan scored a season-high 35 points and Lou Williams had 21, while the Dallas Mavericks defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 102-93. (ap)

The FIA has published details of Formula 1’s new helmet livery rules, which will prevent drivers changing their designs during the season. As AUTOSPORT revealed last month, F1’s leading figures voted through a new rule for 2015 to end the practice of drivers regularly swapping their helmet colours.

It was felt that forcing drivers to keep the same design for the season would help fans recogn-ise them more easily. The latest draft of F1’s sporting regulations published by the FIA outlines that drivers must have “substantially” the same helmet colours at every round of the championship.

This will prevent drivers run-ning dramatically different one-off helmets, but does allow small freedoms if there are new spon-sors or minor design changes.

A revised article 21.1 of F1’s sporting regulations states: “In order for drivers to be easily distinguished from one another whilst they are on the track, the

crash helmet of each driver must be presented in substantially the same livery at every event during a championship season.”

NUMBER RULE CLARIFICATION

The FIA has also revealed what will happen to drivers’ race numbers once they are no longer competing in F1. Since the start of last season, drivers have to pick a set number for their entire career - but there was uncertainty about what happens to a number when that driver retires or moves on.

Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, Rotterdam street demo 2014

The rules now state: “A driver’s career in Fo rmula 1 w i l l be deemed to have ended if he does not partici-pate in an event for two entire consecu-tive championship seasons.” (net)

PARIS — Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has fuelled speculation of a possible comeback by asking her fans on social media if it would be a good idea. The 30-year-old Bartoli retired from professional tennis a month after her Wimbledon triumph in 2013. She has since worked as a commentator and started a new career in fashion, launching a jewelry collection and a shoe line.

Bartoli, who struggled with inju-ries throughout her 14-year career, pondered an eventual comeback on

Twitter, writing “Coming back or not coming back to #tennis? What do you think? Should I?”

Bartoli, whose signature two-hand-ed groundstrokes helped her win Wim-bledon without losing a set, played an exhibition match on grass against a 15-year-old junior last year but was forced to quit with a shoul-der problem. (ap)

Bartoli fuels speculation on

possible comeback

IBP/net

FIA reveals details of new limits on Formula

1 helmet designs

Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic celebrates after making a 3-point shot during the second half against the Phoenix Suns in an NBA bas-ketball game, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Mi-ami. Miami won 115-98.

Dragic scores 21, Heat beat Suns

115-98 as tensions run highMIAMI — Tyler Johnson scored a career-high 26 points and Goran Dragic added 21 against his

former team as the Miami heat beat the Phoenix Suns 115-98 on Monday in a game that included two third-quarter altercations. Hassan Whiteside finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds before getting ejected for Miami, which got 16 points and nine assists from Dwyane Wade.

Wednesday, March 4, 20156 International

W RLD 11International Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Fierce clashes were underway mainly outside the town of al-Dour, south of Tikrit, while government troops were shelling militant bases inside the city, they said. The of-ficials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief media.

The military operation is seen as a litmus test for the capabil-ity of Iraqi troops to dislodge the militants from major cities they conquered in the country’s Sunni heartland in the north and west during an onslaught last summer. Previous attempts to capture Tikrit all failed because of tough resis-

tance from the militants.Tikrit, the provincial capital of

Salahuddin province, is located 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad. It was taken by the Islamic State group along with the northern second-largest city Mosul during last year’s fighting.

U.S. military officials have said a coordinated military mis-sion to retake Mosul will likely begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. But the Americans have cautioned that if the Iraqis aren’t ready, the offen-sive could be delayed. On Monday, Iraqi and U.S. officials said the

U.S.-led coalition was not involved in the Tikrit operation and had not been asked to carry out airstrikes.

Also Monday, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported Iranian Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Revo-lutionary Guard’s Quds Force, was taking part in the offensive. Soleimani has emerged as the chief tactician in Iraq’s fight against the Sunni militants.

Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the military commander of the Sala-huddin region told Iraqi state TV that troops would need some time to enter the city of Tikrit. (ap)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Avalanches have cut off at least three districts in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, the head of a disaster relief agency said Tuesday, a week after nearly 200 people died when snow buried their homes in a valley near the capital Kabul. Severe weather conditions in Takhar province in the last 24 hours have cut road access to the districts, said Daim Kakar, the general director of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.

Authorities were attempting to reach villages to deliver emergency supplies, including food, blankets and tea. “Bulldoz-ers are being brought in to clear the roads of snow so that the deliveries can be made,” Kakar said.

Across Afghanistan, 320 people have been killed and 187 injured since severe rain and snow swept across 20 provinces early last week, he said.

In Panjshir province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Kabul, a total of 196 people died in a huge avalanche early last week, according to acting Gov. Abdul Rahman Kabiri.

Authorities have been dropping food and other supplies to people stranded on their rooftops in the far north of the Panjshir Valley, with the military deploying helicopters while roads were being cleared.

More than 4,000 houses have been damaged across 188 dis-tricts, and more than 3,200 livestock have been killed, according to official figures. (ap)

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey says a recent notice seeking to reserve a large swath of airspace over the Aegean Sea for military maneuvers was issued by mistake and then canceled. A statement by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said Tuesday that the Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, was inadvertently declared “with an inaccurate coordinate.” He did not elaborate.

Greece had complained about the planned maneuvers, which it said would have intruded into Greek airspace and interfered with commercial air traffic.

Bilgic said Turkey would not declare a new NOTAM for “a certain period of time” and said Turkey was willing to resolve the dispute through talks.

The two NATO allies have been at odds for decades over territorial issues in the Aegean Sea, including over airspace and territorial waters. (ap)

BEIJING — A bus carrying an opera troupe fell off a cliff in central China on Tuesday, killing 20 people and injuring 13, state media reported. The accident happened early Tuesday in Linzhou city in Henan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The bus was carrying members of a local opera troupe, according to the government of Anyang city, which oversees Linzhou.

Linzhou police confirmed the accident in an online state-ment, but didn’t say how many people were killed or injured. It said 33 people were on the bus, which had been hired by the troupe. (ap)

AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo

Iraqi Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of their comrade Ali Mansour, who his family says was killed in Tikrit fighting Islamic militants, during his funeral procession, in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 2, 2015.

Fierce clashes outside Iraq’s Tikrit after new offensive

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops fought on Tuesday with Islamic State extremists south of the militant-held city of Tikrit but their offensive to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown was slowed by roadside bombs, local officials said. Backed by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and advisers along with Sunni tribal fighters, government forces made little headway on the second day of a large-scale military operation to recapture Tikrit, which fell to the Islamic State group last summer, two local officials said.

Afghan avalanches cut off 3 northern districts

Turkey: Notice on military maneuvers in Aegean was a mistake

Bus carrying China opera troupe falls off cliff, killing 20

Indonesia Today Wednesday, March 4, 2015 5InternationalWednesday, March 4, 201512 International

BUSINESS

BEIJING - Factory employment has been falling for more than a year in the workshop of the world as Chinese growth slows, and analysts expect more intervention by the central bank after its second interest rate cut in just three months. The weekend’s rate reduction comes as authorities contend with rising deflationary threats in the world’s second-largest economy and an unusually weak currency.

Communist Party leaders are seeking to prevent the growth de-celeration from careening out of control. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.4 percent last year, its slowest pace in 24 years, and recent indicators show signs the slowdown is continuing.

Slack manufacturing -- including employment declines in the sector according to surveys for banking giant HSBC -- consumer inflation plunging to its lowest in five years, three years of factory price deflation and a drop in the yuan currency have also sounded alarm bells.

The tightly controlled yuan ex-tended declines after the rate cut, falling to its lowest level against the dollar since October 2012 on Monday.

Describing China’s domestic economic situation as “bleak”, Jeremy Stevens, Beijing-based Asia economist at South Africa’s Stan-dard Bank, says the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) had no choice but to cut rates again.

“The manufacturing sector has contracted for the first two months of this year,” he said in a report Monday, referring to official data. New home prices continue to fall and the country “is ebbing ever closer to deflation”, he added.

“We are particularly worried that consumption growth presents a large downside risk for the Chinese economy in 2015,” he said, add-ing there was anecdotal evidence employers were cutting wages to avoid redundancies, “presenting a big risk for spending”.

A newspaper in the northeastern city of Shenyang reported last week that the monthly wages on offer at a migrant workers’ employment fair were 300 to 500 yuan ($50 to $80) lower than last year.

Chinese leaders say that the investment-fuelled double-digit growth of years past is no longer sustainable and they are seeking a “new normal” of gradually slower expansion led by consumer spend-ing.

The PBoC announced Saturday

that it was lowering benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percentage points, to 2.5 per-cent for deposits and 5.35 percent for lending. The central bank cited “historically low inflation” among the factors behind the decision, which followed a reduction in No-vember and was a clear indication of official concern.

The timing, coming at the end of the extended Chinese New Year holiday and just before the start of the NPC, “indicates a new-found degree of urgency to lower interest rates amid downward pressures on growth and inflation”, RBS econo-mist Louis Kuijs wrote in a report.

Analysts broadly expect more rate reductions and other measures to be implemented.

“Chinese policymakers have to do more and we expect them to do so,” Societe Generale economist Yao Wei said in a report.

She called for a broad policy assault, including the PBoC inject-ing more liquidity to the banking system through further reductions in the reserve requirement ratio, the percentage of funds banks must keep on hand.

Tax cuts and spending by the central government need to be intensified, mortgage rules should be further loosened if the housing market fails to perk up and liberali-sation of China’s corporate sector including reform of state-owned enterprises should be accelerated, she said. (afp)

“In dealing with terrorism, pri-oritize prevention, not to handle it only after it happens,” Jokowi informed the press after issuing di-rectives during a leadership meeting of the TNI and Polri on Tuesday.

Preventive efforts need to be backed by on-field data and infor-mation collected by the intelligence agency, he noted.

Terrorism still poses a threat not only to Indonesia but also to other

countries. He mentioned the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as an eminent terror threat.

Jokowi also emphasized that se-curity and stability is crucial to help achieve the targets of economic growth

and infrastructure development.Deputy National Police Chief

Commissioner General Badrodin Haiti stated that the TNI-Polri leader-ship meeting is a strategic momentum to implement nine priority agenda outlined in the National Mid-Term Development Plan 2015-2019.

Haiti noted that during the meet-

ing, an agreement on joint basic education will be inked between the TNI and Polri.

The leadership meeting is themed “A Synergy between TNI and Polri as Mental Revolution Drivers.”

The meeting is being attended by 246 high-ranking officers of the TNI and Polri. (ant)

Taking a machete to expenses, banks are speeding up disinvest-ments, trimming administrative budgets and turning to automation to replace employees in a broad array of banking operations, includ-ing online.

The largest US bank in terms of assets, JPMorgan Chase, plans to save nearly $5 billion by 2017, and is closing 300 bank branches.

In 2014, Goldman Sachs’s pay fell to the lowest level since the prestigious Wall Street investment bank went public in 1999.

To meet regulators’ demands, the

banking industry is also jettisoning lucrative assets and is trying to shrink certain deposits by charging institutional clients a fee to hold them, a move JPMorgan announced last week.

Goldman Sachs is scaling back holdings in investment funds and private-equity firms, a Goldman spokesman told AFP.

Morgan Stanley is lowering its profile in commodity and foreign-exchange trading and has put its oil trading unit on the market, preferring to focus on wealth management, a business with

fewer risks.Regulators have toughened their

standards in a bid to avoid a repeti-tion of the 2008 financial crisis that forced the US and other govern-ments to bail out banks.

In their cross-hairs are the fa-mous “too big to fail” financial institutions, considered a risk to the financial system.

The Basel III global regulations require banks to reinforce their own capital buffers, both in quality and in quantity, to represent a mini-mum 7.0 percent of their assets at all times. That formula means, for

example, that for every $100 lent, $7 is the bank’s own money.

Both the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Financial Stability Board want a bigger but-tress.

The FSB is seeking to require major global banks that are con-sidered systemically important to hold a minimum capital cushion of 16-20 percent of their risk-weighted assets, or Total Loss Absorbency Capacity.

As for the Fed, it wants eight major US banks to be subject to a risk-based capital surcharge. Under the proposal, the central bank could prevent the banks from paying out dividends or repurchasing shares if the failed to comply.

“We want to pay our sharehold-ers. We want to pay dividends, buybacks in a balanced way,” JPMorgan spokesman Brian Mar-chiony told AFP.

Bank of America, in its 2014 annual report, said: “We continue to wind down our global principal investments operations.”

Under the so-called Volcker rule in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, US banks are barred from proprietary trading, or trad-ing with their own funds. The aim is to prevent the kind of excessive speculative behavior that threatens their stability, such as the “London Whale” trading debacle in 2012 that cost JPMorgan about $6 billion in losses. (afp)

Big US banks batten down as tighter regulation looms

NEW YORK - Faced with increased regulation beginning in 2017, the major US banks are taking a number of restructuring steps, shedding staff and some speculative businesses, and cutting bonuses.

China rate cuts just the start as growth slows

People shop at a supermarket in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, March 2, 2015. Fac-tory employment has been falling for more than a year in the workshop of the world as Chinese growth slows, and analysts expect more inter-vention by the central bank after its second interest rate cut in just three months.

REUTERS/Alex Lee

JAKARTA - Confederation of Indo-nesia Prosperity Trade Union (KSBSI) Chairman Mudhofir has urged the govern-ment to stabilize the fluctuating rice prices in the country.

“The government should stabilize the rice prices as soon as possible to ease the burden of the poor community in various regions across the country,” Mudhofir stated on Tuesday.

He also criticized the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for having failed to op-timally play its role of maintaining price stability in the present times.

The KSBSI chairman noted that re-gardless of the situation, Bulog should be

prepared for any eventuality in an effort to keep the rice prices stable.

Besides this, Bulog should have coop-erated well with the relevant authorities in cracking down on speculators with vested interests and importers of rice.

According to agriculture observer Khudori, the fluctuating prices of rice were caused by speculators. He said speculators fear that the government might release its rice stocks and bring down the rice prices in the market. Speculators who have so far withheld their stocks will only be able to make a small profit if they do not release their rice stocks immediately because Bulog

will then distribute its stocks.“At the Cipinang wholesale rice market

in Jakarta, the price of rice dropped by Rp500 per kilogram. This means that the speculators have released their stocks,” he explained.

President Jokowi earlier inspected Bu-log’s rice warehouses at Kelapang Gading in North Jakarta where he launched the rice for the poor (Raskin) program and some market operations.

The country has 1.4 million tons of rice stocks, which will be adequate until March-April when the harvest season starts, the president revealed on the oc-casion. (ant)

JAKARTA - Environmental group Greenpeace said Monday it had suspended cooperation with paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper after an Indonesian farmer was allegedly beaten to death by guards linked to the company.

The green group had once been one of the strongest critics of APP, accusing it of destroying vast swathes of carbon-rich forests that are home to endangered species such as Sumatran orangutans and tiger.

But following APP’s announcement two years ago that it would stop using any logs from Indonesia’s natural forests, Greenpeace had been supporting the company’s efforts.

However, Bustar Maitar, the head of Greenpeace’s Indonesia forest campaign, told AFP that the group was temporarily withdrawing support for the company’s initiatives on forest conservation after a farmer was beaten to death on western Sumatra island last week.

Police said the farmer, Indra Pelani, was alleg-edly killed Friday near an acacia plantation in Jambi province by guards hired by a security firm contracted by Wirakarya Sakti, a pulp wood supplier owned by APP.

“Indra was found dead with injuries on his body near the company’s concession on Saturday,” local police spokesman Almansyah, who like many Indo-nesians goes by one name, told AFP.

He said that the seven alleged perpetrators fled and police were hunting for them.

Maitar said support for APP would be suspended until the case was “settled in a transparent and fair manner.

“They have declared themselves to be a responsible company. If APP doesn’t take this seriously, it will cost them their reputation.”

Greenpeace added in statement that they were “deeply saddened by the news of the brutal death”, and called for the company to launch a full investigation of its security procedures and contractors to ensure no such incident is repeated.

APP said in a statement that it had ordered Wira-karya Sakti to suspend all personnel allegedly involved in the incident.

“We condemn violence and we support Green-peace’s decision to focus its efforts on this issue,” it said, adding that efforts would be made “to ensure that justice is done”.

APP’s pledge to stop using logs from Indonesia’s natural forests followed years of campaigning by green groups, which had led to the company losing packag-ing contracts with big brands such as foodmaker Kraft and Barbie’s Mattel. (afp)

President urges military, police to prioritize prevention of terrorismJAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has called on the Indonesian Defense Forces

(TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to prioritize prevention of terrorism.

Greenpeace rebukes paper

giant over farmer’s death

REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

A farmer pulls an old fishing net over a rice field to protect it from birds in Cilacap, Central Java March 2, 2015. Confederation of Indonesia Prosperity Trade Union (KSBSI) Chairman Mudhofir has urged the government to stabilize the fluctuating rice prices in the country.

Government urged to stabilize rice prices

International4 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 13InternationalBali News

The more than 700 climbers and guides who spend nearly two months on Everest’s slopes each climbing season leave large amounts of feces and urine, and the issue has not been addressed, Ang Tshering told reporters. He said Nepal’s govern-ment needs to get the climbers to dispose of the waste properly so the mountain remains pristine.

Hundreds of foreign climbers attempt to scale Everest during Nepal’s mountaineering season, which began this week and runs through May. Last year’s season was canceled after 16 local guides were killed in an avalanche in April. Climbers spend weeks acclimatiz-ing around the four camps set up between the base camp at 5,300

meters (17,380 feet) and the 8,850-meter-high (29,035-foot-high) sum-mit. The camps have tents and some essential equipment and supplies, but do not have toilets.

“Climbers usually dig holes in the snow for their toilet use and leave the human waste there,” Tshering said, adding that the waste has been “piling up” for years around the four camps. At the base camp, where there are more porters, cooks and support staff during the climbing season, there are toilet tents with drums to store the waste. Once filled, the drums are carried to a lower area, where the waste is properly disposed.

Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has been leading Everest cleanup ex-

peditions since 2008, said some climbers carry disposable travel toi-let bags to use in the higher camps. “It is a health hazard and the issue needs to be addressed,” he said.

Nepal’s government has not come up with a plan yet to tackle the issue of human waste. But starting this season, officials stationed at the base camp will strictly moni-tor garbage on the mountain, said Puspa Raj Katuwal, the head of the government’s Mountaineering Department.

The government imposed new rules last year requiring each climb-er to bring down to the base camp 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of trash — the amount it estimates a climber discards along the route. (ap)

MOSCOW — One by one, thou-sands of mourners and dignitaries filed past the white-lined coffin of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday, many offering flowers as they paid their last respects to one of the most prominent figures of Russia’s beleaguered opposition. Nemtsov was shot to death late Fri-day while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin with a companion. No suspects have been arrested.

The killing has deeply shaken Russia’s small and marginalized opposition movement. Many op-position supporters suspect the killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for Nemtsov’s ardent criticism of President Vladimir Putin, while authorities have sug-gested several possible motives, including a provocation aimed at tarnishing Putin’s image.

With an hour to go until the scheduled end of the viewing, the line of mourners stretched for hundreds of meters (yards) and included mourners both young and old. “He was our ray of light. With his help, I think Russia would have risen up and become a strong coun-try. It is the dream of all progressive people in Russia,” said 80-year-old Valentina Gorbatova.

Nemtsov, 55, had been a deputy prime minister under President Bo-ris Yeltsin and was widely seen as a rising young reformer. However, in the Putin era Nemtsov’s party lost its seats in parliament. Although his influence in mainstream politics vanished, Nemtsov remained visi-ble as one of Putin’s most vehement critics. Just a few hours before his death, he conducted a radio inter-view in which he denounced Putin for “mad, aggressive” policies in the Ukraine crisis.

His body lay in a coffin in the Sakharov Center in central Mos-cow, named after the late Soviet-era dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov. The funeral and burial are to be held in the afternoon.

Among those attending the viewing were U.S. Ambassador John Tefft and former prime min-ister Mikhail Kasyanov, who has gone over to the opposition. Rus-sian deputy prime ministers Sergei Prikhodko and Arkady Dvorkovich and Yeltsin’s widow Naina also came, according to Russian news reports.

“They probably know that if they don’t come, then at some point people will be coming for them,” Irina Khakamada, co-leader of a liberal party in parliament with Nemtsov, said of the Russian gov-ernment officials.

Veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomarev echoed the view of many opposition figures that the strong nationalism and intolerance of dissent that has risen up under Putin and is on display on Rus-sian state-controlled television has coarsened society and encouraged violence. “In this atmosphere of violence and hate, these killings will only continue,” he said.

Many commentators said that, like other key opposition leaders, Nemtsov was constantly being shadowed by police, so it would be hard to imagine that his killing could go unnoticed by them. Some noted that Nemtsov died on the newly established holiday com-memorating the Special Operations Forces, honoring troops who swept through Ukraine’s Crimean Penin-sula, setting the stage for its annexa-tion by Russia a year ago. (ap)

SANTIAGO, Chile — A vol-cano in southern Chile has erupted, prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people in the sur-rounding area.

The Villarica volcano erupted Tuesday around 3 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), according to the Na-tional Emergency Office, which issued

a red alert and ordered evacuations.Several local news sites showed

images of the volcano bursting at the top, with laving spewing out mixed with heavy smoke.

The 9,000 foot (2,847-meter) volcano is located in Chile’s central valley about 400 miles (670 kilo-meters) south of Santiago. It’s one

of South American’s most active volcanoes, and sits above the small city of Pucon, where tourists flock for outdoor activities, including hiking around the volcano.

Chilean authorities issued an alert on Monday because of in-creased volcanic activity, and began preparing for evacuations.

AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

Relatives and friends pay their last respects at the coffin of Boris Nemtsov during a farewell ceremony inside the Sakharov center in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 3, 2015.

Volcano in southern Chile erupts, thousands evacuated

Mourners view body of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov

AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File

FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2011 file photo, the last light of the day sets on Mount Everest as it rises behind Mount Nuptse as seen from Tengboche, in the Himalaya’s Khumbu region, Nepal.

Nepal official says human waste on

Everest a major problemKATHMANDU, Nepal — Human waste left by climbers on Mount Everest has become a

problem that is causing pollution and threatening to spread disease on the world’s highest peak, the chief of Nepal’s mountaineering association said Tuesday.

At high tide, much of the rubbish drifts away to the area around Gili-manuk Beach, Prapat Agung Beach and the West Bali National Park (TNBB). “When diving, the under-sea visibility is no longer clean as a lot of rubbish settles. Actually, there has been a ban on taking out rubbish but there are still passengers who deliberately dump it into the sea,” added one of the coin-seeking boys when met recently.

One worry is that rubbish is drift-ing to Gilimanuk Bay frequently used by divers. Both land and water in Gilimanuk have a lot of garbage. Not only is the area densely popu-lated, but the village does not have a landfill. The Chief of the Jembrana Environment, Sanitation and Land-scaping Agency, I Wayan Darwin, admitted that Gilimanuk was one of the areas in Jembrana prone to litter pollution. He expressed the hope

that all elements of both society and agencies at Gilimanuk could be re-sponsible for the waste mitigation. “At the harbor, the rubbish indeed has not been processed. Necessarily, it should also think of treating and managing it,” he explained. Waste management with the concept of reducing, reusing and recycling had not been implemented yet. People only dumped their waste in a tem-porary disposal site. (kmb26)

SEMARAPURA - Production cost of Guyangan springs in Nusa Penida subdistrict is very high. Such condition causes the Mu-nicipality Waterworks (PDAM) of Klungkung to be unable to manage it alone if the management will be handed over by Bali government to PDAM Klungkung. Currently the MoU between Bali government and PDAM Klungkung is being deliber-ated to review the contents.

Director of the PDAM Klung-kung, Nyoman Renin Suyasa, said on Monday (Mar. 2) the Guyangan spring was very potential to be developed. With the water poten-tial of 200 liters per second, when managed by the PDAM its coverage could be further expanded. Cur-rently the service of the PDAM Klungkung in Nusa Penida only reached 25 percent, or about 3,000 connections at six villages. gOper-ating cost is very high. Honestly, the PDAM Klungkung cannot af-ford when delegated to manage it,h said Renin. Moreover, the operation cost of five pumps was quite high. Unfortunately, Renin could not specify the amount of operating cost of the Guyangan springs.

According to him, the Guyangan spring should still be managed by Bali province. So, the PDAM Klungkung just needed to buy wa-ter from Bali government through its technical agency. Currently the MoU was still under process. If it

would be sold for IDR 1,200 per cubic meter, the PDAM Klungkung could buy and sell it to customers for IDR 1,400 per cubic meter. Currently, out of the five pumps, only two could work to suck the Guyangan spring to reservoir one and reservoir two. Meanwhile, the remaining pumps were out of order. To optimize the Guyangan springs, he said there would be three additional pumps to replace the damaged ones. Two units would be placed in reservoir two and an-other in reservoir one.

Currently the Guyangan springs had been connected to six villages on Nusa Penida island, especially on the upper land. Among others, it had covered the Batukandik, Ba-tumadeg, Sekartaji, Bunga Mekar, Klumpu and Tanglad. Guyangan springs just flowed to public taps provided at free of charge. Its pipeline had not been connected to peoplefs homes. Meanwhile, the Penida springs managed by the PDAM could just serve six villages, namely the Sakti, Ped, Kutampi, Batumulapan, Carangsari and Su-ana. So far, the PDAM Klungkung is still waiting for the MoU with the Bali government.

His party hoped the operating costs remained to be borne by provincial government. Thus, the PDAM would just need to buy it from provincial government to be distributed to customers. (kmb31)

DENPASAR - The village market management forum has asked the government to focus on preserving and developing the potential of the traditional culinary heritage of Denpasar. Suggestions include a culinary drop in as part of the city tour program and building a culinary center.

Secretary of the village market management forum, Wayan Agus Indrawan, noted on Monday (Feb. 2) that Denpasar has culinary trea-sures in various corners of the city. Each village market has a distinc-tive cuisine. For example, there was yam rice at Waringin Sari market at Anggabaya and typical porridge at Renon.

Various traditional cuisines should be made sustainable. Not only that, Agus encourages the government to continuously de-

velop the culinary potential. He hopes the government can feature traditional culinary through the city tour program. The establishment of a culinary center is also considered strategic for introducing travelers to Denpasar to a variety of traditional cuisines. “We strongly support the endeavor to feature traditional cuisines that can become a new option for people and travelers to enjoy typical culinary delights belonging to the city of Denpasar,” said Agus.

A similar opinion was expressed by Wayan Marya, a trader at Kertha Waringin Sari market. According to him, with the presence of culinary center, the community including travelers would be able to enjoy a variety of traditional cuisines. He hoped it could be realized. (kmb25)

Municipal government asked to highlight culinary tourism

High production costsPDAM Klungkung unable to manage Guyangan springs

Gilimanuk waters contaminated

by wasteGILIMANUK - Gilimanuk is prone to be contaminated by rubbish on land. But now, the

harbor water around Gilimanuk Harbor is full of plastic waste and food wrappers. Passengers who see the condition of water in the Strait of Bali complain that it looks vile. Observation of the water shows garbage and plastic floating and settling on the sea floor. . “Approaching midday, the water condition is better as the waste is carried by currents to beach areas. But a lot settled at the bottom,” said Aswin, a passenger ship crew. He said that it was not only the waste from the vessel activities, but also from people who dumped rubbish into the sea.

IBP/File

The ship to Ketapang Harbor is traveling from Gilimanuk. The water in the area is contaminated by waste

3Wednesday, March 4, 201514 InternationalInternational Bali NewsTechnology Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Samsung, fellow South Korean firm LG and hip Chinese maker HTC timed their smartphone launches to grab the attention on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest telecoms trade fair, in Barcelona, Spain.

In a head-on challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone 6 which was released last year, Sam-sung came out fighting on Sunday with the Galaxy S6, a smartphone with a touchscreen that curves around the edges and has a wire-less charger.

It also presented the larger S6 Edge, a “phablet” somewhere between a tablet and a phone in size.

LG unveiled a new top-line phone with a curved back to sit snugly in the palm, the LG Flex 2, as well as a range of four new mid-range smartphones and two new luxury internet-connected watches.

At a noisy stage presentation before a crowd of hundreds, HTC chief executive Pe-ter Chou meanwhile presented the HTC One

M9, with a grey metallic handset moulded from a single piece of aluminium.

HTC also revealed a new connected “fit-ness band” body-monitoring bracelet and a virtual reality headset that it said it hoped to sell commercially by the end of the year.

Apple as usual was staying away from the Barcelona show but was reported to be preparing a coup with the launch next month of its new Apple Watch, reflecting a major trend in wearable gadgets this year.

The chief executive of Samsung’s mo-bile division, J.K. Shin, said the company aimed to set “a new standard to drive the global mobile agenda”, claiming his phones had the fastest processers and most high-performance cameras on the market.

Samsung is the world’s biggest seller of smartphones but saw its world market share fall last year from 34 percent to 20 percent, according to a report by tech consultancy IDC.

“There’s a risk Samsung’s 2015 flagship

devices are insufficient for the company to regain brand leadership among consumers and businesses looking for high-end smart-phone experiences,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at another consultancy, Forrester, in a note after Sunday’s launch.

“Samsung’s lack of software DNA will still prevent it from delivering truly dif-ferentiated service experiences like Apple does.”

Also present at the congress were two of the world’s other biggest-selling smartphone makers, Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi.

Joining in the rush for big launches on the eve of the trade fair, Huawei unveiled its first “smartwatch”, a round luxury design that, like LG’s, can display incoming call and message alerts.

The companies refused to cite consumer prices for the new products. Top-end smart-phones typically cost several hundred dollars (euros). (afp)

NEW YORK — Samsung’s new Gal-axy smartphones improve in two major areas: design and picture quality. Samsung ramped up its camera technology in last fall’s Galaxy Note 4, and the camera is even better in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge announced Sunday. More importantly, the new phones have a more stylish design.

For years, Samsung phones have had removable backs made of plastic. That al-lowed for battery replacement, but made the phones look cheap. I’m glad to see the metal frame and glass back in the new phones. The phones are lighter than before, even with metal.

The main S6 model feels boxy in hands. More recent iPhones have smoother, curved edges. The S6 Edge curves on the left and right sides to create side displays, so it feels better. But boxy or not, Samsung’s new design better than its old models.

The Note 4 camera was excellent for producing images rich in color. However, the colors sometimes felt unnatural, espe-cially with indoor shots. The S6 phones seek to fix that by using their infrared sen-sors (normally used for heart rate tracking) to better detect and adjust for specific light-ing conditions. This sounds promising.

The S6 phones also sport better focus, borrowing technology from Samsung’s stand-alone NX1 camera. You already can focus on a person by touching that part of the screen. But if the person walks away, the focus is off. With the new technology, the focal point moves with the person. Double tap the home button anytime to open the camera app quickly, so you don’t miss shots.

You can no longer replace the battery

with a spare, but there’s fast-charging tech-nology to get you from zero to 50 percent in a half-hour.

With wireless charging, you can place the phone on a special mat to charge it. No cords needed. This will be handy when coffee shops and restaurants start making these mats available.

The S6 Edge model has curved sides, similar to last fall’s Note Edge phone. The S6 Edge improves on the Note by having the display curve over both the left and right sides. The Note Edge’s side display was on the right only, making some fea-tures awkward for lefties.

With the S6 Edge, you can assign colors to important contacts — such as red for your spouse. With the phone face down, the side will flash red when a call from your spouse comes in. You can decide without rudely lifting the phone whether you really need to take that call.

When it launches this summer in the U.S. and South Korea, Samsung Pay will let people pay with a tap at retail stores. The service promises to work at more places than Apple Pay because it has backup tech-nology that replicates the magnetic-strip signals on plastic cards. However, based on Samsung’s descriptions, Samsung Pay will require a few more steps than Apple Pay at checkout.

The S6 phones have improved finger-print sensors. Before, you had to swipe down on the home button; the phone wouldn’t unlock if you didn’t swipe cor-rectly. Now, you simply touch the home button, just as you do on iPhones. The fingerprint ID will authorize mobile pay-ments too.

STOCKHOLM — Lost that charger again for your cellphone or tablet? Hate sorting heaps of wires to charge various devices?

Swedish retailer IKEA might just have the answer — furniture with built-in charging spots, including in bedside tables, lamps and desks.

The new collection will be available in Europe and North America from next month, followed by global distribution.

Jeanette Skjelmose, manager of the lighting and wireless charging sector, said Monday Ikea aims to make life at home simpler because “we know that people hate cable mess.”

The new furniture uses the Qi wireless charging standard, found in some Windows and Android phones, including the new Samsung Galaxy S6 expected to be launched soon.

Ikea said it will also provide special charg-ing covers for iPhones and older Samsung Galaxies. (ap)

Asian firms challenge Apple with snazzy new smartphones

BARCELONA - Several big Asian phone companies launched new high-end smartphones and other wireless gizmos on Sunday, hoping to challenge US giant Apple in a big year for wireless gadgets.

Ikea launches furniture with inbuilt wireless chargers

Samsung gets a lot right with new S6 phones

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

Two new Samsung phones, Galaxy

S6, left, and Galaxy S6 Edge, right, are shown at a special

press preview in New York.

Samsung also streamlined the software inter-face. Currently, the menu of additional options is accessed by tapping on the three vertical dots on the top right. Why three vertical dots? Who

knows? That’s been replaced with the word “MORE.”

Little touches like these will help make the phones more accessible to customers. (ap)

“Compared to December 2014, the number of tourist arrivals in January 2015 dropped 13.13 percent,” Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Office in Bali Province Panusunan Siregar stated.

During the year 2014, as many as 3.76 million foreign tourists visited Bali, a 14.89 percent increase as compared to 3.27 million tourists recorded a year before.

Panusunan remarked that the number of tourists from seven of the top ten sources of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali rose significantly, while the number of tourists from the other three countries fell.

Australia still ranked first in the list of top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali in January 2015, with 85,059 tourists, up 19.32 percent from 71,288 tourists in the same month last year.

The number of Japanese tourists rose significantly by 25.43 percent to 17,882 in January 2015 from 14,256 in the same month last year, thereby placing the country in the third position in the list of top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali.

The number of South Korean tourists also increased 23.81 percent from 12,223 in January 2014 to 15,133 in January 2015. Meanwhile, the number of tourist ar-rivals from Britain increased 26.56 percent, the United States 8.84 percent, Taiwan 0.47 percent, and India 28.65 percent.

The number of tourists from China fell 0.45 percent, Malaysia 11.80 percent, and Singapore 11.10 percent, he added. (ant)

DENPASAR - Bali is categorized as a region with good food security. In other words, the food needs of the population are sufficient, both in terms of quantity and quality, and it is equitable and affordable for the community. Admittedly, the food security of Bali is still dependant on some rice from outside Bali. It was expressed by The Chairman of the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) of Bali Chapter, Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Suparta noted that a disrup-tion to the distribution network could have economic and social impacts and even political implications. A sufficiency of rise is especially important in this regard. The threat of economic, social and political crisis could arise if rice production was no longer sufficient for the community. For this reason, Bali would be well advised to try to reach rice self-sufficiency.

Based on experiments carried out in vari-ous regions of Bali, this would be possible. The application of technologies such as the PTT Tabela Leowo 2: 1 at Subak Guama by BPTP Bali, SRI water-saving technology at Subak Megati Tabanan, Longping Pusaka hybrid seed technology in several counties in Bali, seed fertilizer technology as well as planting and fertilizing technique by rice research team of Mahasaraswati University in Tabanan has been able to increase produc-tion from 6.5 to 13.5 tons per hectare.

“If the rice productivity can be increased to an average of 8 tons per hectare, Bali will certainly be self-sufficient, and even attain a surplus,” he said.

Nevertheless, success in meeting this

ANTARA FOTO/Fikri Yusuf

As many as 301,748 foreign tourists visited the resort island of Bali in January 2015, up 8.05 percent from 279,257 tourists in the same month last year.

Foreign tourists to Bali increase 8 percentDENPASAR - As many as 301,748 foreign

tourists visited the resort island of Bali in Janu-ary 2015, up 8.05 percent from 279,257 tourists in the same month last year.

Bali food security needs improvement

A farmer worked in his paddy field. Bali is categorized as a region with good food se-curity. In other words, the food needs of the population are sufficient, both in terms of quantity and quality, and it is equitable and affordable for the community. Admittedly, the food security of Bali is still dependant on some rice from outside Bali.

objective would only be possible ed if all relevant components had a strong commitment to achieve it. With coordination and the commit-ment of parties involved, it would be possible to achieve the rice self-sufficiency and also to improve the income and welfare of farmers.

Achieving this goal involves en-suring the availability of farm land. With land conversion the availability of irrigation water risks a decrease. The availability of organic and non-organic fertilizers of good quality at a

reasonable price and the availability of high yielding rice seeds, as well as the application of appropriate farming technologies are factors. No less important was the need to ensure efficient human resources in terms of farm management to ensure rice storage and guarantee on the price of grain. All these improvements require the total commitment and ef-forts. “On that account, it is required a hard work of all parties together in order to achieve rice self-sufficiency in Bali and improve the welfare of

farmers,” he affirmed. He urged that existing problems be addressed wisely through togetherness.

It is well known that one of the achievements of Indonesia in agricultural development has been the shift from being the largest rice importing country in the world to a rice self-sufficient country in 1984. Such success was supported by mass efforts begun in 1965/1966 and mass intensification of the green revolu-tion. Unfortunately, two years later Indonesia re-imported rice when a

drop in selling price and weak farm management led to farmers working less seriously work on their paddy fields. (kmb27)

International2 Wednesday, March 4, 2015 15International Activities

Bali News

EvEry Temple and Shrine has a special date for it annual Ceremony, or “ Odalan “, every 210 days according to Balinese calendar, including the smaller ancestral shrine which each family possesses. Because of this practically every few days a ceremony of festival of some kind takes place in some Village in Bali. There are also times when the entire island celebrated the same Holiday, such as at Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi day, Saraswati day, Tumpek Landep day, Pagerwesi day, Tumpek Wayang day etc.

The dedication or inauguration day of a Temple is con-sidered its birth day and celebration always takes place on the same day if the wuku or 210 day calendar is used. When new moon is used then the celebration always happens on new moon or full moon. The day of course can differ the religious celebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some temple celebrating for three days while the celebration of Besakih temple, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and most of the time it lasts for 11 days, depending on the importance of the occasion.

The celebration is very colorful. The shrine are dressed with pieces of cloths and sometimes with brocade, sailings, decorations of carved wood and sometimes painted with gold and Chinese coins, very beautifully arranged, are hung in the four corners of the shrine. In front of shrine are placed red, white or black umbrellas depending which Gods are worshipped in the shrines.

In front of important shrine one sees, besides these umbrellas soars, tridents and other weapons, the “umbul-umbul”, long flags, all these are prerogatives or attributes of Holiness. In front of the Temple gate put up “Penjor”, long bamboo poles, decorated beautifully ornaments of young coconut leaves, rice and other products of the land. Most beautiful to see are the girls in their colorful attire, carrying offerings, arrangements of all kinds fruits and colored cakes, to the Temple. Every visitor admires the grace with which the carry their load on their heads.

Balinese Temple Ceremony

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bagiarta. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp.

(0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post

Nyepi New Year is one of the most important holidays in the Balinese Hindu calendar. Observed with a day of silence, prayer and meditation, throughout the island noise and activity are kept to a minimum to promote the intention of in-ner reflection. The spiritual belief is that evil spirits descend to Bali and seeing that it is uninhabited, leave the island alone for another year. In preparation for this day, on the eve of Nyepi large colourful sculptures of ‘ogoh-ogoh’ monsters are

paraded and then burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits and to symbolise self-purification.

Bringing to life this ancient Balinese ritual for guests to enjoy in luxurious surrounds, Anantara Seminyak Resort & Spa has created a special Balinese Nyepi New Year’s Eve Dinner on the beach on Friday 20th March 2015 from 7:00 pm. The lavish buffet features Indonesian salad creations, flame grilled meats and seafood in exotic island style marinades, signature

Indonesian specialties, local crackers with homemade chili sauces, followed by indig-enous cakes and desserts. Guests savour this special occasion with rich cultural entertainment of an ogoh-ogoh procession and a Balinese dance performance.

Extending the festive pleasures to an unforgettable two night stay, Anantara Seminyak Resort & Spa’s Nyepi New Year Special room package for two per-sons offers a luxury Anantara Suite with a host of indulgent experiences from 20th

DJ, producer, singer/songwriter Michiel Eduard (33), also known as Mikey has release a new single and video clip. “Ku Ingin Kau” was record-ed in Den Haag as the video clip was taken in Jakarta, directed by Ivho Si-hombing. The song has been produced and written by Michiel himself.

Michiel, who has Dutch (mother) and Javanese (Father) roots, is based in Amsterdam. As a youngster he shows a big interest in his Indonesian roots. As a son of a classic piano teacher and an ex-Indo Rock Drummer, Michiel decided, after being an international hip hop club DJ, to focus on creating Indonesian pop music. He very driven to promote the Indonesian Music in Europe and showing the Indo people of Holland that Indonesian pop music is something different than Keroncong and Indo Rock.

As the king of the Indo Rock, Andy Tielman of the Tielman Brothers passed away, Michiel has become more active to promote the Indo music, but

now in the Indonesian language with pop/rock as genre.

His first single “Laki Laki Paling Gila” was made together with Abdee Negara and Ivanka of SLANK in 2010. The video clip was taken in Ja-karta with Dewi Rezer as model.

The second song “Jalan Setapak’ was a tribute to his passed away friend Tony Polin from Surabaya. The video was taken in Medan, 2013.

Now Michiel is back with a new song and new clip. “My new song is called “Ku Ingin Kau” and hopefully it will be accepted by the Indonesian music lovers in Indo-nesia itself and also worldwide,” said Michiel. (kmb)

IBP/Net

Celebrate “Nyepi” with a cultural dining experience

SEMINyAK - Celebrating Bali’s sacred Nyepi New year festival in signature style, Anantara Semin-yak resort & Spa has created a special Balinese Nyepi New year’s Eve Dinner to offer a feast for all the senses, as well as an indulgent room package for the ultimate New year stay.

Profile

Michiel EduardPromoting Indonesian

music in Europe

to 22nd March 2015. Guests can discover Bali’s cultural wellness traditions and some of the world’s most treasured therapies with a 20% Anantara Spa discount. Culinary temptations abound with a lavish breakfast buffet every day, a rooftop cocktail and tapas occasion with stunning ocean views MoonLite Kitchen and Bar, as well as a mouthwatering choice of drinks and dining at 20% off throughout the stay. (r)

IBP/kmb

Up until Tuesday, the tour-ist situation in Ubud remained stable despite the Australian government urging its citizens not to come to Indonesia. It currently appears that we will continue to see large numbers of international visitors from Europe, Australia, Japan and China in the streets of Ubud.

“Approximately 15-20 per-cent of travelers in Ubud are from Australia,” said former Chairman of the Indonesia

Hotel and Restaurant Associa-tion (PHRI) of Gianyar, Dewa Gede Arimbawa, who is also involved in the tourist industry in Ubud. “So far, there was no negative influence against Ubud tourism,” he said. “Normal patterns of Australian tourist visits in Ubud continue because they do not feel affected by the appeal of the government. They are willing to respect to legal process in Indonesia”, he speculated. A similar opinion

was expressed by Ketut Karda, another person in the tourist industry who is also a legisla-tor in Gianyar. He observed that tourists from Australia had possibly planned and booked trips. He also mentioned that Australian travelers often came repeatedly to Bali and consid-ered Ubud and Bali their home. “Contrary condition will occur if there is uncertainty regard-ing the execution plan,” he said. (kmb16)

SINGARAJA – The county road be-tween Banyualit hamlet and Kalibukbuk hamlet, Kalibukbuk village, Lovina is in a bad state of repair. As a result, travelers often complain that they feel uncomfort-able visiting Bali Bagus Beach, Lovina. Promised repairs to the road were not made in 2014 and the condition of the road has worsened.

The damage is very bad about 800 meters northward Singaraja-Seririt to. The road surface has no asphalt and even the gravel has come off. Potholes are a big problem especially in the raining season where gaping holes filled with rainwater resemble ponds in the middle of the road. Vehicles transporting foreign travelers complain they cannot pass through con-veniently. Travelers walking on the road have trouble avoiding the puddles.

Managers of local hotels, villas or restaurants along the road to the beach are disappointed that the government is ignoring the damage. This is especially true since hotel and restaurant tax goes to the local government, but the supporting tourism infrastructure actually gets mini-mal attention.

Demer, a resident who often escorts guests to Bali Bagus Lovina Beach, said the road damage had occurred since 2014. Previously the road was traversed by many travelers looking for restaurants or hotels on the beach. By and large, travelers

passed through in the afternoon to night. Allegedly, since it was established, the road has never been repaired by a relevant technical agency. “The road is damaged and travelers frequently complained because they feel uncomfortable when crossing the road,” he said.

The head of Kalibukbuk, I Ketut Suka, when contacted separately last Sunday confirmed that the road in the area was seriously damaged. Responding to the damaged condition, village authorities had repeatedly reported and submitted a proposal to local government so that the road could be immediately repaired. Due to such effort, in 2014 the government promised to pave the road. An official of the Buleleng Public Works at that time conducted a survey and measured the length of the damaged road. But almost a year later, Public Works has not done the work. “I thought it would be repaired because the damaged road was measured, but until now there is no clarity about the road repair,” he said.

Suka explained that the road fell under county authority because it was support-ing tourist infrastructure for Lovina. On that account, it was the responsibility of the county government to repair the road, in this case the Buleleng Public Works Agency. “If only the status is rural road, it would be repaired with the village alloca-tion fund (ADD),” he added. (kmb38)

DENPASAR - Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office, Momock Bambang Sumiarso, with the Deputy Governor of Bali, Ketut Sudikerta, accompanied by the Chief of Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Bali, I Gusti Kompiang Adnyana, inspected the situation of Ker-obokan Prison, Monday (Mar. 2). The entourage accompanied by Prison Chief Sudjonggo also met the two death row inmates, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Arrival of the officials drew the attention of dozens of for-eign and local media crews. It was kindled by an issue if the transfer was made on Monday afternoon. However, there was no transfer. Not much informa-tion was conveyed by the Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office on the prison situation. gToday, we make a visit while observ-ing the situation and meeting both of them,h said Momock

Bambang.He denied if he had made co-

ordination in prison. However, the coordination would be made on Tuesday. In prison, the Chief of Bali Prosecutorfs Office also asked about the health condition of both inmates and they were declared fine. No important things were discussed. gYes, we just make a dialog. Thatfs it. Their condition is good,h he said. Is there any request of both convicts? Prison chief said that there was no request.

So, what is the problem of transfer? Momock Bambang said that so far his party found no problems, moreover, the au-thority of Nusa Kambangan was ready. gJust wait for the com-mand from Jakarta,h he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Governor of Bali, Sudikerta, said that he already talked to both convicts. Regarding the health condition, they were fine. gSimilarly, I also visit them (the convicts).

They are in good condition,h said Sudikerta while walking toward his car.

In the meantime, the Chief of Kerobokan Prison, Sudjonggo, said the officials making a visit last Monday were also saying prayers. In addition, the en-tourage also talked to the two convicts from Australia. It was not performed inside but outside the cell of the convicts. When asked what they talked about, Sudjonggo said the entourage of Bali Prosecutorfs Office Chief, Deputy Governor as well as the Justice and Human Rights Agency just had plain talk. Be-sides, they were also invited to see paintings. gEven, they had a joke as well,h said Sudjonggo.

As monitoring at Kerobokan, dozens of local and foreign journalists still flocked there. They were awaiting confirma-tion on the transfer of Bali Nine duo who would be sentenced to death for drug cases. (kmb37)

Concern timing of execution of Bali Nine may impact tourism

GIANyAr - Most people in the tourist industry in the Ubud region feel that the ex-ecution of Bali Nine members in Nusa Kambangan will not affect of tourism. However, there is concern on the part of some people that the lack of a definite time frame for the execution of the drug dealers could negatively impact tourism.

Chief of Prosecutorfs Office inspects prison condition

Road to Bali Bagus Lovina Beach severely damaged

IBP/Mudiarta

The damage road leading in the border of Banyualit and Kalibukbuk Village is often complained by the

tourists

Page 13

Nepal official says human waste on Everest a major problem

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

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

16 Pages Number 557th year

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Fierce clashes outside Iraq’s Tikrit after new offensivePage 6 Page 8

Mourinho seeks further titles with new generation at Chelsea

News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http://globalfmbali.listen2my-

radio.com or live video streaming at http://radioglobalfmbali.com and http://ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.

MANAMA, Bahrain — Award-winning American singer and songwriter John Legend took to the stage in Bahrain on Monday night, performing to a sold-out crowd of more than 2,000 people despite calls by some activists to cancel the concert due to concerns over human rights abuses in the Gulf Arab nation.

“When you look at me you might see international superstar John Legend, but I’m also the de-scendant of slaves... but we fought for change,” he told the concert-goers before singing his Oscar-winning song “Glo-ry,” the anthem for the film “Selma,” which is based on the his-toric 1965 march in Alabama led by Mar-tin Luther King Jr.

Whi le no t ad -dressing the turmoil in Bahrain directly, Legend explained he was at the festival “to celebrate art and its power to bring us together and help us see each other’s hu-manity.”

“I feel like it’s part

of my job to express myself freely and pas-sionately about the issues that I care about,” he said, as the crowd cheered in support.

“A just society is not one built on fear or repression or vengeance or exclusion, but one built on love,” added Legend, who has spoken out in support of free-dom of expression and civil rights issues in the United States.

Bahrain, a close U.S. ally that hosts

Navy’s 5th fleet, has seen nearly daily protests by members of the Shiite majority demanding a greater say in the Sunni-led monarchy. Several thousand protesters have been jailed and dozens killed in the tiny-island nation over the last four years.

The concert was guarded by anti-riot police vehicles outside the entrance to the historic open-air Arad Fort in Bah-rain’s capital.

Several Bahraini ac-tivists took to Twitter to urge Legend to boycott the 10th annual Spring of Culture festival, or-ganized by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

In a s ta tement to The Independent newspaper before the concert, Legend ad-dressed calls for him to back out of the Bah-rain show, and said he has “spent quite a bit of time thinking about human rights, civil rights and other issues of justice.” He said that he felt participat-ing in the conversation was the best way to drive progress. (ap)

Warner Bros studio secured the rights to the memoir by Lynsey Addario, the award-winning American international photojournalist, after an auction, Vari-ety said.

“American Sniper” producer Andrew Lazar will also be involved, it said, cit-ing sources.

Addario has traveled to war-torn

countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq and was part of a New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009.

Lawrence, 24, who won an Oscar in 2013 for “Silver Linings Playbook” and starred in “The Hunger Games” movies, is currently shooting David O. Russell’s “Joy,” which is set for release at Christ-mas. (afp)

MANILA — Tony award winner Lea Salonga says talks have not yet been finalized on her joining the cast of George Takei’s musical “Allegiance” on Broadway, but added it is a show she wants to be part of.

The Broadway veteran played the lead female role Kei Kimura when the musical made its sold-out premiere in 2012 at the Old Globe in San Diego, California,

“Star Trek” actor Takei’s personal and heartfelt show about Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II goes to Broadway this fall with him in a starring role.

“Of course I’d like to be a part of it, if only to be part of something that’s very important in Broadway his-tory,” Salonga told The Associated Press in a telephone interview late Monday.

But she said things were still being discussed by her agent and the show producers, so she could not say if she will be part of the musical.

“Allegiance” is multigenerational tale with two love stories that’s framed by a Japanese-American war vet-eran looking back on his family’s time in a Wyoming internment camp. Previews begin Oct. 6. It will mark the first Asian-led cast of a musical on Broadway in more than a decade, since “Flower Drum Song.”

The story of “Allegiance” covers an important part of American history, when tens of thousands of Asian-Americans were put in camps just because they looked like the enemy, said Salonga. “This kind of prejudice and bigotry is actually still happening,” added the 44-year-old Salonga. “It’s still relevant and that’s the sad and scary part of it.” She said with very few Asian-led musicals on Broadway, “Allegiance” is “a big, big deal” and also excites her because it will be another milestone for Takei.

The actor famous for playing Hikaru Sulu in “Star Trek” turned his childhood memories in an internment camp into the musical. “George Takei who is almost 80 years old is going to make his Broadway debut which is really, really exciting for me as a friend of his and as one who worked with him and he’s somebody I used to watch on TV when I was a kid,” she added. Takei turns 78 next month.

Salonga — the original “Miss Saigon” in London and New York who also starred in the Broadway revival of “Flower Drum Song” in 2002 — will have a concert on March 14 at the Town Hall in New York. She has also been busy as a coach in “The Voice of the Philippines” singing contest that ended its second season Sunday. She continues as coach in the next season of the kid’s edition of the contest. Salonga said she loves grooming the next generation of artists in the Philippine music industry. “It’s something I would like to do even off camera, even when I’m not in front of an audience,” she said. (ap)

Salonga says she is in talks on taking

role in “Allegiance”

Andrew Chan and Myuran Su-kumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug trafficking gang, and officials escorting them will be flown in two military aircraft, said Momock Bambang Samiarso, head of the Bali prosecutor’s office.

Officials are yet to announce a date for their executions, but the transfer indicates it is imminent.

The men, in their early 30s, were convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and sen-tenced to death the following year.

They recently lost their appeals for presidential clemency, typically a death row convict’s last chance to avoid the firing squad, and are expected to be put to death soon.

Canberra has mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign to stop the executions from going ahead, but President Joko Widodo has been a vocal supporter of the death penalty and has refused to change course.

Following a coordination meeting with other officials on Tuesday, Sami-arso told reporters: “The coordination has been completed. (The transfer) will be carried out tomorrow.”

The Australians are being trans-ferred to Nusakambangan island, which is home to several prisons. Five people, including foreigners, were put to death on the island in

January. The Australians are among

a group of foreigners, in-cluding a Frenchman and a Brazilian, who have lost their appeals for clemency and are facing imminent execution.

Authorities must give convicts 72 hours

notice before

they are put to death.Australian Prime Minister Tony

Abbott has made repeated appeals for Chan and Sukumaran’s lives to be spared.

Chan’s brother, Michael, called on Widodo to show mercy in an ap-pearance on Indonesian television at the weekend.

“Andrew is a changed man from 10 years ago,” he said, urging Widodo to give him a “second chance”. (afp)

ANTARA FOTO/Nyoman Budhiana

Australian Consul, Majel Hind (right) accompanied Raji Sukumaran, mother of death convicted Myuran Sukumaran during a visit to Kerobokan Jail on Tues-day, March 3, 2015. Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia will be transferred Wednesday from their jail on Bali to an island off Java where they will be put to death, an official said.

Australians to be moved to execution site Wednesday

DENPASAR - Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia will be transferred Wednesday from their jail on Bali to an island off Java where they will be put to death, an of-ficial said.

Jennifer Lawrence to play war photographer

LOS ANGELES - Jennifer Lawrence will star in Steven Spielberg’s “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War,” US media said Monday.

IBP/Net

John Legend talks about justice at Bahrain concert