Edisi 11 Maret 2014 | International Bali Post

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

16 Pages Number 606th year

e-mail: [email protected] online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Page 6

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

DPs 23 - 32

EntertainmentWEATHER FORECAsT


Page 8 Page 13

“The arrival of tourists from Australia, China, Malaysia, Singa-pore, Taiwan, the United States and the UK has increased. Meanwhile,

the tourist arrival from Japan, South Korea and Russia has decreased,” said the Head of BPS Bali, Panusu-nan Siregar, in Denpasar.

He said the number of foreign travelers who came to Bali in January 2014 reached 292,257. This figure in-creased by 19.89 percent compared to the same month in the previous year. When, compared to December 2013, the number of travelers decreased by 6.61 percent. In January 2014, the majority of foreign tourists coming to Bali were through the Ngurah Rai Airport reaching 278,685 people or 99.80 percent, while through seaport amounted to 572 people.

“Compared to the same month

in the previous year, the number of tourists who came through the Ngurah Rai Airport has increased by 21.40 percent. Meanwhile, when compared to condition last December, this figure was down 4.87 percent,” he said.

According to him, slowing down of tourist arrival also had implica-tions on the room occupancy rate at the beginning of 2014. Evidently, the room occupancy rate of star hotel in Bali in January reached an average of 57.76 percent, down 4.77 points compared to the room

occupancy rate in December 2013 which amounted to 62.53 percent.

“The highest occupancy rate was in Tabanan, amounting to 71.80 percent and the lowest was 33.05 percent in Buleleng. Compared to December 2013, the occupancy rate in Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Karangasem, Buleleng and Den-pasar showed a decrease respec-tively by 1.33 points, 4.54 points, 5.49 points, 5.97 points, 7.76 points and 0.63 points,” he explained.

Three potential tourism markets of Bali downBali Post

DENPASAR - Tourist arrival from a number of Bali tourism potential markets such as Japan, South Korea and Russia de-creased. Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali Chapter noted that by nationality, the most travelers visiting the Island of Gods were from Australia, China, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, with the respective percentage of 25.53 percent, 18.64 percent, 5.61 percent, 5.10 percent and 4.38 percent.

Tourist arrival from a number of Bali tourism

potential markets such as Japan, South Korea and

Russia decreased. ANTARA FOTO/Nyoman Budhiana

Continued on page 6

Seven years after the original “300” became an unlikely, ultra-stylish, blood-soaked sensation, Warner Bros.’ 3-D follow-up showed considerable might at the box office. While “300: Rise of an Empire” didn’t come close to the North American debut of Zack Snyder’s 2007 original ($70.9 million and without the benefit of 3-D ticket prices), it performed like a blockbuster overseas.

“Rise of an Empire,” which with flexed torsos and lots of bloodshed fur-ther chronicles the ancient battles of the Greeks and Persians, led a busy box-of-

fice weekend that also saw an Academy Awards bump for “12 Years a Slave” and one of the highest per-screen averages ever for Wes Anderson’s European caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Though “300: Rise of an Empire” is excessively macho, Eva Green — the film’s fiercest presence — may have drawn females for what was always go-ing to be a male-centric release. Whereas the female audience for the first “300” was only 29 percent, it was 38 percent for “Rise of an Empire.” “Talk about fe-male empowerment,” said Jeff Goldstein,

head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., of the “Casino Royale” actress.

Noting the popularity of 3-D and IMAX screenings for the movie, Gold-stein credited the visual panache of producer Snyder (Noam Murro took over directing), who drew directly from Frank Miller’s graphic novels: “He brings a lot to the screen that mesmerizes you.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media ana-lyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, said the “300” franchise “translates to virtually every culture. Every country can appreci-ate the visuals of these movies.”

The week’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s animated “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” opened in second with $32.5 million. Though the perfor-mance was better than some expected, it’s a relatively low total for a film that

cost about $140 million to make.

The film is based on the cartoon about a time-traveling boy and his brilliant dog from “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.” Some of the fam-ily film market was likely taken by Warner Bros.’ hit “The Lego Movie,” which added $11 million in its fifth weekend.

Associated Press Writer

Two years after launching its Infinite line of digital comics, Marvel Entertainment said it intends to expand the line’s offerings with its first all-ages titles as it moves to attract younger readers familiar with characters like Spider-Man from animated television shows. Announced Sunday at the annual South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and Kristin Vincent, the vice president of its digital products, called the new “Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man” digital title the publisher’s first for kids in the Infinite format.

“We’re trying to reach the next generation of comics fans,” Vincent said. “These stories resonate with kids.” By taking tales from the television series of the same name, the publisher hopes the digital comics will find an audience in kids who are more used to reading on a tablet than traditional paper.

“The story telling just lends itself naturally to a tablet . images replace the other images,” she said, adding that while it’s not animation, the pages and story are bright, vivid and redolent of what kids see on television.

With the Infinite format — a digital-only me-dium that features stories and art native to digital readers — Alonso believes kids will get their first hands-on experience with comics in a way more akin to what they’ve experienced with TV.

“It will excite them and it’s in a format they understand,” he said of the title, which is due out later this year and will eventually be available in more than 10 languages around the globe.

The stories feature writers known to readers of traditional comics, including Eugene Son, Matt Kindt, Cullen Bunn and Tim Seeley, along with artists Luciano Vecchio and Soutchey Leimetry and storyboards by J.L. Mast and Geoffrey Beaulieu.

AP Photo/Marvel Comics

This image released by Marvel Comics shows a scene from the first all-ages Infinite Comics series, “Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man,” airing Sunday mornings inside the Marvel Universe on Disney XD.

Marvel expands Infinite with ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’

‘300’ sequel rules box office with $45.1M debutAssociated Press Writer

NEW YORK — The shirtless warriors of the “300” sequel “Rise of an Empire” ravaged the post-Oscars box-office weekend with a domestic debut of $45.1 million but an even bigger international haul of $87.8 million.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Sullivan Staple-ton in “300: Rise of an Empire.”

Investigators chase ‘every angle’ in missing jet

Pistorius trial: Court hears autopsy testimony

Ronaldo helps Madrid win to reclaim sole lead

International2 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 15International Activities

Bali News

Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Adnyana, 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

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


Calendar Event for March 5 through May 21, 2014

5 Mar Hari Urip 6 Mar Hari Patetegan7 Mar Pengeradanan Pura Dadia Agung Pasek Kabayan Penebel Tabanan

8 Mar Saraswati Pura Pasek tangkas Gempinis Dalang TabananPura Pasek Gelgel Sayan AbiansemalPura Watu Gunung BimaPura Agung Jagat Karana SurabayaPura Aditya Jaya JakartaPura Pemaksan Banyuning TimurPura Agung Wira Loka Cimahi Jawa Barat

9 Mar Hari Banyu Pinaruh 10 Mar Soma ribek Pura Jati JembranaPura Kawitan Bayu Gaiyang BangliTirta Wening SurabayaPura Desa Lingga Wana Abang Karangasem

11 Mar Sabuh Mas12 Mar Hari Pagerwesi Pura Labang Sindu JiwaUbudPura Kehen BangliPura Wira Bhuana Magelang Jawa tengahPura Padang Sakti Denpasar TimurPura Payogan Agung Ketewel GianyarPura Gaduh Pangiasan Dauh Puri DenpasarPura Masceti Tampak SiringPura Dalem Ularan DenpasarPura Siwa Penebel TabananPura Luhur Sliki BanyuwangiPura Gunung Lebah UbudPura Puseh Sukawati

15 Mar Purnama Sasih Kesanga Pura Nataran Sasih Pejeng GianyarPura Bukit Mentik Gunung lebah Batur Kintamani

17 Mar Kajeng Kliwon Uwudan 22 Mar Tumpek Landep Pura Mutering Jagat Dalem Sidakarya

DenpasarPura Agung Pasek TabananPura Pasek Tangkas TabananPura Kerta Banyuning BulelengPura Dalem Tenggaling Singapadu GianyarPura Bhujangga JembranaPura Dalem pingit TegalalangPura Penataran Pande Pandean MengwiPura Ida Ratu Pande BesakihPura Penataran AGung TulikupPura Kumuda Saraswati UbudPura Batur Arya Tabanan

23 Mar radite Umanis Ukir Sanggah Gede Dukuh Segening Tegal Tugu Gianyar

26 Mar Buda Cemeng Ukir Pura Pajenengan Kawitan Arya Gelgel KelungkungPura Pasar Agung BesakihPura Pasek Bendesa Legian Kuta BadungPura Gde Gunung Agung Munggu BadungPura Puseh Bebalang BangliPura Dalem Peruncak BadungPura Pasek Bendesa Hyang Krobokan BadungPura Kereban Langit Mengwi Badung

28 Mar Melasti Pakiyisan Ke Segara Pura Pasek Gelgel Kukuh Marga

30 Mar Tilem Kesanga Tawur Agung 31 Mar Hari raya Nyepi 1 May Buda Kajeng Kliwon Enyitan 2 May Bhatara Sri Ida Ratu Geng BesakihPura Penataran Agung BesakihIda Ratu Raja Puraus BesakihMerajan Saloding Besakih

6 May Anggara Kasih Juluwangi Pura Thirta Harum Tegal Wangi BangliPura Baratan BaturitiPura Batu Klotok Klungkung

Pura Pasek Tohjiwa Wanasari TabananPura Ibu Wanagiri Selemadeg TabananPura Manik Bingin Dukuh Sidemen

7 May Pura Penataran Gana Bebalang BangliPura Dalem Gede Pande BangliPura Puncak Sari Sangeh Abian SemalPura Puseh Penegil Dharma Kubu Tam-bahan BangliPura Dalem Maya Blahbatuh GianyarPura Linggih Betara Kayu Selem Penataran Agung Besakih

13 May Purnama Sasih Jiyestha Pura Dwija Warsa MalangPura Pucak Tinggah Angsri BaturitiPura Kawitan Luhur Bhujangga Jati Lu-wih PenebelPura Kawitan Batur Pande Tonja Tonja DenpasarPura Penataran Agung Sidemen Karan-gasemPura Maospahit Grenceng Denpasar

15 May Sugihan Jawa Pura Kawitan Tangkas Kori Agung Tang-kas KlungkungPura Siang Kangin Peninjoan Tembuku BangliPura Ida Ratu Mas Penataran Agung BesakihPura Ida Bhatara Bang Tulus Besakih

16 May Sugihan Bali Dan Kajeng Kliwon 18 May Penyekeban 19 May Penyajaan Galungan 20 May Penampahan Galungan21 May Hari raya Galungan Pura Wakika Kupang NTTPura Agung Girinatha Sumbawa Besar NTBPura Dukuh Sakti Dukuh Kediri Ta-bananPura Atambuananta Kutamba NTTPura Webananta Kupang NTTPura Giripati Mulawarman PontianakPura Mustika Dharma Cijantung Jakarta Timur

Taking the standard, minimalist budget hotel concept to an entirely new level, the new Hotel NEO Kebayoran will be the latest ad-dition to the already famous NEO brand. Hotel NEO Kebayoran will merge authentic contemporary art and invigorating interior designs with high-end in-room facilities. It will come complete with upscale features and professional service, meeting the needs of the modern-day urban professional by offer-ing a stylish yet affordable hotel alternative.

Located in South Jakarta, the ho-tel is just 5 minutes to the Busway shelter and close by to high-end shopping malls like Gandaria City, Pondok Indah Mall and Senayan City & Plaza Senayan. Just 15 minutes away is the Cipulir Market,

while Carrefour Express is located opposite to the hotel.

Hotel NEO Kebayoran will boast 105 rooms in two different categories. The hotel will also provide 4 meeting rooms, a coffee shop, a stylish lobby area and ample space for convenient parking.

“We are always proud to com-memorate the beginning of a new project, and this new build will be particularly exciting seeing as it is our flourishing NEO brand hitting the capital city once more. We are confident that Hotel NEO Kebay-oran will live up to and surpass all expectations, and we promise that this latest branch will be as unique and contemporary as our other NEO hotels.” Said Norbert Vas, Vice President Sales & Marketing Archipelago International. IBP/Courtesy of Archipelago International

New Neo Hotel’s groundbreakingIBP

JAKArTA - On Saturday, February 24th 2014, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the new Hotel NEO Ke-bayoran, marking the commencement of the construction process for the new 105-room hotel.

Bali Post

GIANyAr - Banyupinaruh celebratory mood on the Saba Beach, Saba village, Blahbatuh, almost claimed a victim, Sunday (Mar 9). Amid the hectic residents visit-ing the Saba Beach around 7:10 a.m., an incident was experienced by Wayan Sudiarta from Kendran village, Tegallalang, swept away by waves. Fortunately, the victim could be saved by his companions by using an outrigger owned by local fisherman.

Information compiled from the location, the Saba Beach as other beaches in Gianyar had been visited by many people from 05:00 a.m. The victim Wayan Sudiarta along with five companions from Kendran, Tegallalang, came to the beach and was about to carry out the Banyupinaruh (holy bath) procession. Firstly, the youth group played and then took a bath on Saba Beach, exactly in front of the Anyar Saba Temple.

Although the waves were not too big in that morning, the victim was suddenly unable to control the flows of the beach when taking a bath, so he was dragged into the sea. The victim screamed for help and was assisted by his companions. Residents, security officers as well as the local lifeguard (Balawista) also lent a hand to evacuate the victim. At that time, the victim had been dragged for almost 45 minutes in the sea. After provided with a bamboo outrigger, the victim could survive and was pulled to the beach by degrees.

With permission from Chief of Blahbatuh Police, Wayan Latra, the rural police of Saba village Ketut Se-dana said the victim in the sea was attempted to go ashore with a boat outrigger aided by his companions. However, due to sea condition and having no experience at sea, the victim’s companion also almost became a victim. “Some of the people and officers also helped evacuate them,” he explained while adding that after the incident people began to leave the beach.

In the current implementation of the Banyupinaruh procession on the beach, along the beach in Gianyar was jointly supervised by the officers from each subdistrict police, marine police of Gianyar Police, lifeguard, Gianyar Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) as well rural police of each region.

Chief of Marine Police Squad of Gianyar Police, Ketut Manis, explained that based on observation on the visit of residents to the beaches in Gianyar in that morning, the most crowded visit was on the Purnama Beach (Sukawati subdistrict), Cucukan Beach, Saba Beach (Blahbatuh) and Lebih Beach (Gianyar). Thousands of people began to ar-rive from 05:00 a.m. and left the beach at 09:00 a.m.

Meanwhile, not much different atmosphere from the beach also occurred in the springs. Since the morning on the Banyupinaruh Day, the holy bathing place in the Tirta Empul Temple, Tampaksiring, was thronged by many people who wanted to perform melukat or purificatory rite. They were almost the same as those coming to the beach. Peak of the procession was around 10:00 a.m., where people were willing to be in line for the purificatory rite in the Tirta Empul Temple. (kmb16)

The Head of Bali Health Agency, Ketut Suarjaya, explained the dengue occurred throughout the counties and municipality. The endemic nature made this viral infection disease able to develop any time if the environ-ment was supportive. In terms of the data of each county and municipality, Buleleng County showed the highest dengue case during the year 2014. In January, the dengue case in Buleleng reached 245 and 282 in February. Then, it was followed by Badung and Denpasar with respectively 179 cases and 70 cases in January, rising to 201 and 120 cases in February.

Bangli County formerly indicating

a very rare dengue case recorded an increase in 2014 to 4 cases in Janu-ary and 15 cases in February. Seeing the data, the dengue case commonly dominated by Denpasar began to de-cline and the increase even occurred in Buleleng County.

According to Suarjaya, the increase in dengue cases in the region depend-ed on the environmental sanitation condition and the regular mosquito nest eradication (PSN) by local com-munity. “All the regions have the potential to be infected mainly those in lowland area. Emergence of the disease is triggered by the environ-ment so the role of the community to

maintain the environment is impor-tant,” said Suarjaya.

When the environmental condition permitted such as the existence of many puddles as well as hot weather interspersed with rain, it would greatly accelerate the development of the dengue vector mosquito, namely the Aedes aigypti. Eradication of the mosquito itself was not only in the adult phase but also of its larvae phase. Thus, other than fogging, the eradication of mosquito nest should also be regularly carried out along with draining and covering the water reservoir and burying rubbish with the potential to hold water. (san)

A visitor to Saba Beach dragged by waves

IBP/File

The officers carry out fogging to prevent the spread of dengue fever

A total of 838 dengue cases occur in February

Bali PostDENPASAr - The development of dengue case in February 2014 showed an increase compared to the

ones in January 2014. During the February, the total dengue case reached 838 where the rate increased by about 139 cases from the dengue case in January recorded to reach 699 cases.

3Tuesday, March 11, 201414 InternationalInternational Bali NewsScience Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Bali Post

DENPASAR - Rapid growth of tourism in Bali should be balanced with the readiness of human resources and agricultural products as well as plantations. To meet the demand for ornamental flowers, including tuberose and chrysanthemums, Balinese farmers have not been able and it must mostly be supplied from Java.

As disclosed by an employee of tuberose distributor, I Made Diana, 34, when met on Jalan Sutoyo, Denpasar, he sent 40 bunches (a bunch contained an average of 1,000 stems) of tuberose to customers every day. “These flowers are brought in from Pasuruan, East Java. Every day, I am assigned to send dozens of bunches of this kind of flower. By and large, I send here (Jalan Sutoyo) and Jalan Teuku Umar,” added Diana from Kapal, Mengwi.

He added the chrysanthemum was brought in from Malang, East Java. The flower was transported by using a special bus. “Both flowers are highly in demand and mostly used at hotels. The tuberose is sold for IDR 300 per stem, while the cheapest chrysanthemum is sold for IDR 15,000 per bunch,” he added.

According to Diana, the tuberose cultivation had been tried in the region of Tabanan. But the results were not so good because it could only produce small flowers. “To my knowledge, this kind of flower cannot be cultivated in Bali,” he said.

Meanwhile, a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, Udayana Uni-versity, I Putu Sudiarta, Ph.D., said the chrysanthemum plant was very suitable to be cultivated on highlands with the average altitude of 900 meters above sea level. In Bali, such altitude was at Besakih, Kembang Merta, Candikuning, Bukit Catu, Bedugul and Pancasari. So, the loca-tions were ideal for the cultivation of chrysanthemums.

“Bali as a tourist destination which has many hotels is in remarkable need of chrysanthemum as a decorative plant. So far, the production of chrysanthemum in Bali is still lacking,” added Sudiarta.

As a result, most of the cut flower products, including chrysanthe-mum, were supplied from Java. Even, the seedlings of chrysanthemum were brought in from Java. On that account, this opportunity was still widely open. Farmers at Besakih and Bedugul area had been already producing chrysanthemum, but the results had not been maximal.

The constraints of ornamental flower cultivation, said Sudiarta, were namely pests and diseases as well as the market strategy remaining to become a problem. This needed to be taken seriously so that Bali would not be dependent on other regions. Tourism opportunities should be utilized by the people of Bali so that Balinese farmers as the host were not even turning poor due to tourism. “Synergy of tourism and the agriculture must not just be rhetoric. Collaboration of farmers, govern-ment and tourism players are synergistic control of the agriculture and tourism,” he said. (rah)

A banking and SME observer, IB Kade Perdana, said that foreign-owned banks would be more aggressive to work on the market in this country. Their presence would certainly have an impact on the banking industry in Indonesia.

“Facing the free market, the na-tional and local banking industry since the beginning must be vigilant and have been preparing for the invasion of foreign banks. This policy would have an impact on the sharpening of the level of competition in the banking world. Similarly, this condition can in-crease the threat against the existence of small banks, speed up their extinc-tion process, be away from the hope to become a host at home country,” said Kade Perdana.

He said the government, espe-cially the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia, should immediately take concrete measures

to improve the situation and protect the existence of national and small (local) banks in order to keep surviving in their home land. “Local banks need to be protected because the banking industry also plays favorable role to the nationalism, the spirit of entrepre-neurship and support the growth of the national economy,” he said.

To that end, he said the OJK and BI should impose strict enough rules against foreign banks wishing to open a branch in Indonesia, like the condi-tion experienced by national banks that were difficult to open branches overseas. “Strict rules are intended to protect the entry of foreign banks and support the banking industry in order to improve competitiveness and become the host in their home country,” he said.

Even, an economist from the Undiknas University, Prof. Dr. Gede Sri Darma, DBA, said that many

national banks were controlled by foreign parties ahead of the free market. There was possibility if the AEC would become the entrance of foreign parties to control local banks.

“It is impossible to dam or cancel this condition. One of the policies of the AEC is regarding the freedom of foreign banks to open their branches in Indonesia. Only some months to go, but foreign banks have been present in Indonesia. As proof, many shares of private national banks have been purchased by foreign compa-nies,” he said.

Nevertheless, Sri Darma argued if the domestic banks had capital and good capabilities could also expand to overseas. To that end, the banking industry should improve the quality in all areas in order to compete and ready to face the AEC 2015 and other free market in 2020. (kmb27)

ANTARA FOTO/Yudhi Mahatma

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 does not only provide the opportunities for foreign workers to work in Indonesia. The free market also opens up the opportunities for for-eign bankers to expand to Indonesia because Indonesia has been a major market for foreign banks operating here.

2015, business opportunity of foreign bank increasingly openBali Post

DENPASAR - The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 does not only provide the oppor-tunities for foreign workers to work in Indonesia. The free market also opens up the opportunities for foreign bankers to expand to Indonesia because Indonesia has been a major market for foreign banks operating here. Liberalization in the AEC increases the influx of foreign businesses.

IBP/Ngurah Ken

Rapid growth of tourism in Bali should be balanced with the readiness of human resources and agricultural prod-ucts as well as plantations. To meet the demand for orna-mental flowers, including tuberose and chrysanthemums, Balinese farmers have not been able and it must mostly be supplied from Java.

Ornamental flower suppliers from Java ‘besiege’ Bali

Asteroid P/2013 R3 was de-tected in September in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It appeared as a fuzzy object. Further observations by ground telescopes revealed three bodies. Hubble uncovered 10 objects, each with dusty tails. The four largest fragments are up to 656 feet (200 meters) across.

Scientists say the asteroid be-gan coming apart early last year. They theorize sunlight is slowing pulling the asteroid apart by in-creasing its rotation.

A planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Jewitt, led the investigation. He says seeing the rock “fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing.” The pictures were released Thursday.


WASHINGTON — The World Digital Library led by the Library of Congress reached a milestone Thursday, surpassing 10,000 items with the addition of ancient manuscripts from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Officials said the digital library’s collection has grown to include 10,037 digitized manuscripts, maps, books, prints, photographs, films, sound re-cordings and other cultural items. The ongoing effort is a collaborative project that includes contributions from 102 institutions in 46 different countries. The content can be accessed online in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Rus-sian and Spanish.

The latest contributions include an early 16th-century Gospel manuscript from Ethiopia and a manuscript containing an Ottonian Gospel book fragment believed to have been made in a German monastery in the 10th century. There is also a church calendar in Greek that was created in Byzantium around 1025 to 1041.

The Walters Art Museum has been using a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities to digitize its manuscript collection. Librarian of Congress James Billington said the digital library is making important and beautiful content available to a global audience.

“This project is of enormous benefit to students, teachers, scholars and lifelong learners, and I am gratified to see that it continues to grow,” he said. The World Digital Library began to take shape in 2005 with a $3 million gift from Google. It was for-


SAN JOSE, California — Arwin Buditom guards some of the most successful high-tech firms in America. Joseph Farfan keeps their heat, air and electric systems humming. But these workers and tens of thousands like them who help fuel the Silicon Val-ley’s tech boom can’t even make ends meet anymore. Buditom rooms with his sister an hour’s drive from work. Farfan gets his groceries at a food pantry.

“It’s unbelievable until you’re in the middle of it,” Farfan said, standing in line at the Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose for free pasta, rice and vegetables. “Then the reality hits you.”

Silicon Valley is entering a fifth year of unfettered growth. The median household income is $90,000, according to the Census Bureau. The average single-family home sells for about $1 mil-lion. The airport is adding an $82 million private jet center.

But the river of money flowing through this 1,800-square-mile (5,000-sq. kilometer) peninsula, stretching from south of San Fran-cisco to San Jose, has also driven housing costs to double in the past five years while wages for low- and middle-skilled workers are stagnant. Nurses, preschool teachers, security guards and land-scapers commute for hours from less-expensive inland suburbs. Now the widening income gap between the wealthy and those left behind is sparking debate, anger and sporadic protests.

Rants against the rich were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, home to many top tech CEOs that Forbes magazine last year called the nation’s most expensive community. In Cupertino, security guards rallied outside Apple’s shareholder meeting on Feb. 28 demanding better wages. “What’s the matter with Silicon Val-ley? Prosperity for some, poverty for many. That’s what,” read their banner.

This combi-nation image

made avail-able by NASA on Thursday,

March 6, 2014 shows a series of photos from

the Hubble Space Tele-

scope record-ing the disin-

tegration of an asteroid from

Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 14, 2014.

Hubble Telescope captures shattering asteroid


CAPE CANAVERAL, Flor-ida — The Hubble Space Tele-scope has captured the first pictures of a disintegrating asteroid.

Silicon Valley boom eludes many, drives income gap

World Digital Library grows to 10,000 items

AP Photo/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014 by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, shows a photograph from Ernest Hemingway’s passport, one of many new items from Hemingway’s former estate in Cuba being made available at the museum.

mally launched in 2009 at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris with content from national libraries around the world. Since the launch, Spanish language users have been the largest group using the digital library’s resources.

AP Photo/NASA, ESA, UCLA, D. Jewitt

Bali News International4 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 13International RLDW

With no confirmation that the Boeing 777 had crashed, hundreds of distraught relatives waited anx-iously for any news. Thai police and Interpol questioned the proprietors of a travel agency in the resort town of Pattaya that sold one-way tickets to two men now known to have been traveling on flight MH370 using stolen passports.

Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, told a news conference that investigators were looking at “every angle” to explain the plane’s disappearance early Saturday, in-cluding hijacking.

“There are many experts around the world who have contributed their knowhow and knowledge,” Azharuddin said. “As far as we are concerned, we are equally puzzled as well.”

The search operation has in-volved 34 aircraft and 40 ships from several countries covering a 50-nautical mile radius from the point the plane vanished from ra-dar screens between Malaysia and Vietnam, he said.

Experts say possible causes of the apparent crash include an explo-sion, catastrophic engine failure, terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, or pilot error or even suicide.

Selamat Omar, a Malaysian whose 29-year-old son Mohamad Khairul Amri Selamat was a pas-senger on the flight, expected a call from him at the 6.30 a.m. arrival time. Instead he got a call from the airline to say the plane was missing. “We accept God’s will. Whether he is found alive or dead, we surren-der to Allah,” Selamat said. There have been a few glimmers of hope,

but so far no trace of the plane has been found.

On Sunday afternoon, a Viet-namese plane spotted a rectangular object that was thought to be one of the missing plane’s doors, but ships working through the night could not locate it. Then on Monday, a Singa-porean search plane spotted a yellow object some 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of Tho Chu island, but it turned out to be some sea trash. Malaysian maritime officials found some oil slicks in the South China Sea and have sent a sample to a lab to see if it came from the plane.

As relatives of the 239 people on the flight grappled with fading hope, attention focused on how two passengers managed to board the air-craft using stolen passports. Interpol confirmed it knew about the stolen passports but said no authorities checked its vast databases on stolen documents before the jet departed.

Warning that “only a handful of countries” routinely make such checks, Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble chided authorities for “waiting for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates.”


LILING, China — The local Chinese official remembers the panic he felt in Room 109. He had refused to confess to bribery he says he didn’t commit, and his Communist Party interrogators were forcing his legs apart. Zhou Wangyan heard his left thigh bone snap, with a loud “ka-cha.” The sound nearly drowned out his howls of pain.

“My leg is broken,” Zhou told the interrogators. According to Zhou, they ignored his pleas. China’s government is under strong pressure to fight rampant corruption in its ranks, faced with the anger of an increasingly prosperous, well-educated and Internet-savvy public. However, the party’s methods for extracting confessions expose its 85 million members and their families to the risk of abuse. Experts estimate at least several thousand people are secretly detained every year for weeks or months under an internal system that is separate from state justice.

In a rare display of public defi-ance, Zhou and three other party members in Hunan described to The Associated Press the months of abuse they endured less than

two years ago, in separate cases, while in detention. Zhou, land bu-reau director for the city of Liling, said he was deprived of sleep and food, nearly drowned, whipped with wires and forced to eat excre-ment. The others reported being turned into human punching bags, strung up by the wrists from high windows, or dragged along the floor, face down, by their feet.

All said they talked to The Associated Press despite the risk of retaliation because they were victims of political vendettas and wanted to expose what had hap-pened. Party officials denied any abuses had taken place.

Zhou’s account is supported by medical records, prosecutor statements, party reports and a notice confirming that police failed to investigate the abuse. The AP also corroborated information through interviews with family and friends.

A Liling party official named Yi Dingfeng said provincial au-thorities were investigating the case. Local anti-graft officials on a Hunan online forum in Febru-ary last year denied Zhou was tortured, saying he injured himself by slipping in the bathroom. Eigh-teen months after his leg broke, Zhou still limps on crutches.

In China, brutality yields confessions of graft

AP Photo/Andy WongIn this Monday, Jan. 20, 2014 photo, Zhou Wangyan, head of the Liling city land resources bureau, stands with crutches near a plot of land under development in Liling city in central China’s Hunan province.

AP Photo/Daniel ChanA girl stands next to a sign board made and written by the public at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Monday, March 10, 2014.

Investigators chase ‘every angle’ in missing jetAssociated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Rescue helicopters and ships searching for a Malaysia Airlines jet rushed Monday to investigate a yellow object that looked like a life raft. It turned out to be moss-covered trash floating in the ocean, once again dashing hopes after more than two days of fruitless search for the plane that disappeared en route to Beijing with 239 people on board.Bali Post

NEGARA - Some of the free electricity programs for fishermen in 2013 were not on target because they were not enjoyed by fishermen. A number of fishermen that were supposed and worth to acquire did not enjoy the program of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in collaboration with the state-owned power company (PLN). Chairman of the Indonesian Fishermen As-sociation (HNSI) of Jembrana County, Made Widanayasa, revealed on Friday (Mar 7) that in Jembrana County there were at least 130 fishermen who received the program last year. However, from observation of the HNSI, some fishermen did not meet the criteria to receive the program.

The PLN also lacked of coordination with related agencies in relation to the installa-tion of the electricity. Actually, the related agencies had previously submitted a list of names which were eligible to receive the as-sistance to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs

and Fisheries. However, some fishermen that were worth to receive finally did not get it.

“A few requirements must be met to re-ceive the program. Basically, they must be small fishermen and have a fisherman mem-bership card. After that, they have a modest house. But in reality, the program was even enjoyed by non-fishermen,” he explained.

When checked to Jembrana Forestry, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (KPK), the installation by the PLN was without coordina-tion. “Similarly, there was no coordination to the agency whether the installation has been done or not. The execution lies in the PLN,” he affirmed while accompanied by Secretary of the HNSI Jembrana, Wayan Sudiarsana.

He pointed out the cases occurred at Perancak village, but did not specify the non-fisherman receiving the facility. Many fishermen meeting the criteria did not re-ceive the electricity for fishermen. One of the reasons was related to the installation by the PLN. Slightly far location of the house from the power poles did not meet

the technical criteria for the installation. As a matter of fact, this program was very useful for fishermen. “The agency has also submitted the complaint of fishermen to the ministry, and they also regretted it very much,” he added.

Separately, the Operations Manager of the PLN for Negara Region, Agus Yu-dhishthira, said the electricity program for fishermen in Negara area had accomplished last year. The regional office only installed as the data provided by the PLN Bali in ac-cordance with specified technical feasibility. Technical feasibility related to the length of cable from the substation to the home or to one another. “We just an implementer and the recipients of the program definitely have been surveyed because we received fixed data and just needed to install. There were no recipients eliminated,” he said.

For Negara region, there were approxi-mately 130 recipients. They received the installation at free of charge along with the first electrical pulse.

This trader just realized if her gold jewelry lost after being told by her sisters, Ni Nengah Sumerti, 55, and Ni Nengah Astuti, 43, after seeing the condition of the room, where the place of victim to store

the gold jewelry was in messy condition.

Chief of Klungkung Subdistrict Police, I Ketut Sutaman, confirmed the incident, Sunday (Mar 9). The missing valuables consisted of

gold jewelry in the form of chain (35 grams), a bracelet (15 grams), 4 rings and a pair of earrings, 2 swastika pendant and diamond pendant. All the jewelries were stored in the victim’s cupboard. As a result of the incident, the victim suffered a loss of IDR 34 million. The victim then reported the theft case to Klungkung Police.

Before at Manduang village, similar theft of gold jewelry also occurred at Takmung village, Ban-jarangkan subdistrict, Wednesday (Mar 5). The victim was Ketut

Diasta, 62. His jewelries in two different boxes and put in the cup-board suddenly disappeared. Both boxes contained some gold neck-laces, each weighing 50 grams, 40 grams, 12 grams, 4 grams and 9 grams. Besides, he also lost nine rings, respectively four pieces of ring weighing 50 grams and a ring of 12 grams, 8 grams, 9 grams, 4 grams and 5 grams. In addition, he also lost four pairs of earrings with the weight of 15 grams each. Thus, the missing gold jewelries were totally 231 grams. In total,

the victim suffered a loss of about IDR 160 million. The victim then reported the case to Banjarangkan Police.

To date, the culprits in the two theft cases had not been re-vealed yet. The officers of both subdistrict police were still being elaborated. Chief of Klungkung Police Investigator Unit, I Nyo-man Wirajaya, also asserted that his party was still elaborating the cases. “Our ranks are moving, but so far the result is still nothing,” he said. (kmb31)

Bali Post

AMLAPURA - Australian citizen, Bates Mark Andrew, 58, was beaten by his fellow Australian, LVW (56) on Saturday (Mar 8) at 12:30 a.m. in a food stall on Jasri Beach, Karangasem. The victim could not accept to have been beaten by LVW, recorded to have the address at Pedahan, Kubu, a mountain-ous and barren village, so the culprit was reported to Karangasem Police headquarters after the incident.

Spokesperson of Karangasem Police, Nyoman Arya Tatar, with permission from Karangasem Police Chief, Sun-day (Mar 9) confirmed if the officers had received the report of the plaintiff. Meanwhile, the case was still elaborated by the officers.

On Saturday, the victim was ac-companied by his wife, the witness Ni Komang Murniasih, before surfing on Jasri Beach. After surfing, he came to a food stall and ate. A few moments later, the culprit accompanied by his wife as well came to Jasri Beach. The culprit intentionally looked for the victim. He immediately got angry and accused the victim of having stolen his passport. After that, without clear reason, the culprit pushed to the victim’s body to fall. When the victim fell down, the culprit fisted the victim with right hand for two times and afflicted the left side of the victim’s mouth.

The victim’s mouth bruised. Howev-er, the act of the culprit had not stopped. The culprit being younger than the vic-tim took a piece of short bamboo nearby and would like to beat the victim.

Victim’s wife Komang Murniasih was responsive and attempted to intervene in the tantrums of the culprit. However, the witness Murniasih was also pushed to fall down. Residents in the vicinity then came to break up the abuse. The culprit then left the victim with his wife. As a result of the torture, the victim suffered lacerations on the left mouth. (013)

Theft action proliferates again in KlungkungBali Post

SEMARAPURA - A theft case occurred again in Klungkung. At this time, the target was a housewife who stored gold jewelry as expe-rienced by Ni Nengah Ngeti, 55, at Kaleran hamlet, Manduang village. The entire gold jewelry vanished from its place. It was just known by the victim on Saturday night (Mar 8), when she was about to take her gold jewelry to be put on when going to pray for the Sarawasti Day.

Australian reported beaten Australian

IBP/FileThe fishermen just got back from the sea

Electricity program for fishermen not on target

“Our struggle is through spiritual path since the Bali is known as the Island of Thousand Temples. All this time, the people’s struggle to re-ject the reclamation has never been responded to by the leaders of Bali.

On that account, we now surrender it to the Lord abiding in the Candi Narmada Temple. We pray for our leaders, especially the governor in order the Lord opens his heart and opens his mind to keep the nature

of Bali and to preserve the existing environment in Bali,” said Coor-dinator of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation, AA Ngurah Pujawan.

His party regretted the governor

who did not want to learn from the experience of reclamation failures in Bali. Pujawan pointed out the reclamation made in the Mertasari Temple with the area of 4 hectares by PT Sanur Mentari Dinamika was then abandoned and having no follow-up. The second example was reclamation on Serangan Island by BTID reaching up to three times of the original area of the island also gave unclear outcomes for the community.

“Investors come to lure the prosperity for people at Sanur and Serangan. Now, what happens to the promise? Nothing!” said Chairman of the Development Forum of Sanur Beach, Padanggalak and Serangan. Similarly, his party also urged the governor to revoke the Gubernato-rial Decree No. 1727.

As long as the gubernatorial decree had not been revoked, it meant the Benoa Bay reclamation would continue to happen. Actually, the reclamation also had an impact on the existence of the coastal ter-ritories of Bali Island. Other than harming the marine life and man-grove forests, it would also drown the surrounding villages like the Suwung, Pemogan, Sanur, Simpang Siur, Jimbaran, Tanjung Benoa and Sidakarya.

“Reclamation of the Benoa Bay with the height of about 6 meters, our territory, Benoa, Sanur, Sidakarya et cetera existing in the coastal territories of Denpasar will sink later on. As we know today, the Serangan Island reclamation has caused the abrasion to Lebih, Pa-danggalak and Sanur Beach. Before the reclamation at the Benoa Bay,

the beaches on the Island of Bali have been eroded and destroyed by abrasion, let alone after the recla-mation,” he explained.

StatementThe Coastal Community Ele-

ment Rejecting Reclamation also made a statement containing three points, namely rejecting the Benoa Bay reclamation, stopping crimi-nalization and intimidation against environmental activists and releas-ing 4 (four) environmental fighters of Jalak Sidakarya.

They expected the leaders want-ed to take side with Balinese com-munity affected by the Benoa Bay reclamation. The leaders were also asked not to resolve the issue through legal access because it was the same as criminalizing the people expressing the aspiration.

“Hopefully, the leader can hear the aspiration from the countryside of this island coast and the voice of the grassroots, stop the arrogant attitude, invoke the Gubernatorial Decree No.1727 as well as release the four environmental fighters of the Action Network Rejecting Reclamation (Jalak) Sidakarya. The coastal communities that will later become the victim of the reclama-tion plan will continue to voice their rejection against the reclamation plan,” they wrote in a three-sheet statement.

As in the previous action, the Coastal Community Element Reject-ing Reclamation also struggled to raise the coin for struggle, which was defined as the characteristic of small people struggle that cared about the environmental issues. (kmb32)

Bali News Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5InternationalTuesday, March 11, 201412 International

Agence France-Presse

HANOVER - The German IT and communications sector is set to return to growth in 2014 driven by smartphones and tablet computers but still trail a booming global market, an industry lobby said Sunday. On the eve of the world’s biggest hi-tech fair, Germany’s BITKOM said sales in IT, telecommuni-cations and consumer electronics were due to increase 1.7 percent this year after a fall of 0.5 percent in 2013.

“The bottom line will see a plus again in 2014 but we see a divergence within the branch,” said BITKOM president Dieter Kempf.

Europe’s top economy is set for sales in the overall sector to reach 153.4 billion euros ($212.8 billion) in 2014, with smartphones, tablets, software and services driving business, he said.

Globally, the IT and telecommuni-cations sector is expected to jump 4.5 percent this year compared to 2013, to nearly 3.0 trillion euros, the German lobby group has said.

While the IT sector worldwide is set for 3.8-percent growth, in Germany it will lag slightly behind, weighed down by business in desktop computers and laptops, BITKOM said.

Tablet computers however are boom-ing but “for many people will remain rather the second or third device and will not completely oust the PC and Notebook”, Kempf said.

Within the telecommunications branch, Germany is eyeing only 0.4 percent growth with sinking revenues in data and other services, compared to 5.0 percent forecast globally, the lobby said. The US is expected to continue to boast the biggest share of the global IT and telecommunications market at 27 percent, with the European Union at 21 percent, according to BITKOM figures. Brazil, Russia, India and China -- known as the BRIC nations -- are set to grow the fastest, with India leading the way, followed by China and Brazil.

The publication of the BITKOM forecasts is traditionally the first event of the CeBIT high-tech fair which will be inaugurated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron later Sunday.

Britain is the CeBIT’s partner coun-try this year at the five-day event, focused on the theme of “datability”, the ability to use vast amounts of data quickly and responsibly.

The fresh figures will turn the focus on to Bank of Japan policymakers as they start a two-day meeting, with speculation they could unveil further monetary easing measures to counter a possible slowdown from a sales tax rise next month.

There are fears the rate hike -- seen as crucial to bringing down Japan’s massive na-tional debt -- will hit consumer spending and in turn dent the country’s nascent recovery.

The world’s number-three economy ex-panded 0.2 percent in the quarter to Decem-ber and 1.5 percent through 2013, the latest data showed. That compared with earlier results showing gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent for the October-December period and 1.6 percent in 2013.

However, the new figures still mark Japan’s best annual performance in three years, as Abe’s growth blitz of big spending

and monetary easing -- dubbed Abenomics -- rippled through the economy. The economy grew 1.4 percent in 2012 and contracted 0.5 percent in 2011 swing to the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster and subsequent nuclear crisis.

“The recovery... lost pace in the second half of the year,” said London-based Capital Economics.

“Nonetheless, it would be premature to conclude that Abenomics has failed based on these figures alone.

“After all, private consumption and busi-ness investment were stalling before PM Abe’s election, but have picked up speed since then. The problem instead lies on the external side.”

A key reason for the downward revision was weak exports, as Japan’s trade imbalance balloons on the back of surging energy bills,

aggravated by the shutdown of its nuclear reactors in 2011 in response to the Fuku-shima crisis.

Atomic power once supplied about a third of the resource-poor nation’s energy.

In separate data Monday, the deficit in the January current account -- Japan’s broadest measure of trade with the rest of the world -- more than quadrupled to another record figure of 1.589 trillion yen ($15.4 billion).

The growing imbalance was driven by the soaring costs of imported energy -- made pricier by a weak yen -- and lacklustre growth in shipments of Japanese goods abroad.

Critics fear that the controversial tax rise to 8.0 percent from 5.0 percent will curtail the budding recovery in an economy beset by years of falling prices, which curbed spending and business investment. Still, Abe’s efforts to stoke the economy have been bearing fruit.

Since the conservative swept national elections in late 2012, the has yen lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar -- giv-ing a boost to Japanese exporters. The dollar bought 103.05 yen in midday Tokyo trading on Monday.

German IT market eyes 2014 growth

AP Photo/Koji SasaharaPeople walk by model houses in Yokohama near Tokyo Monday, Feb. 17, 2014. Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace than initially thought in the last quarter of 2013, revised data showed Monday, underscoring concerns about the pace of recovery under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy blitz.

Japan growth slowsAgence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace than initially thought in the last quarter of 2013, revised data showed Monday, underscoring concerns about the pace of recovery under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy blitz.

Bali Post

DENPASAR - With the ma-jority of Hindu community, the Balinese customary residents organize various kinds of ceremo-nies. Meanwhile, the agricultural land and plantation on the island increasingly diminish so the ritual facilities are dominantly brought in from Java. For instance, the need of banana remains to de-pend on the supply from Java and Flores.

s revealed by a banana seller at the Uma Anyar Market, Denpasar, Firman, on Sunday (Mar 9), hun-dreds of bunches of bananas sold at the place were brought in from Jember and Malang, East Java. Ev-

ery day, at least he ordered a truck of banana from Malang or Jember.

“The bananas sold here were first sorted in Malang. For the banana of super quality will usually be sold to mills or exported, while the regular quality will be dropped to Bali,” he added.

For the price, according to Fir-man, the plantain was usually sold for an average of IDR 50,000 per cluster, while banana of super qual-ity was sold for IDR 2,500 each. In addition, the half-ripe bananas had different price. He added the half-ripe bananas were more expensive. “The half-ripe bananas can last longer. Besides, the half-ripe can be sold more quickly. Aside from plantains, we also sell other types

of banana,” he said.Ripe bananas and the ones start-

ing to perish were usually pur-chased by cakes and fritto traders. So, any bananas offered there would definitely sell out. “Ahead of fes-tivities like Galungan, Kuningan, Pagerwesi and others, a lot of orders will be definitely sent to Java. By all means, three days before the feast, the bananas are dropped to Bali,” said Firman.

For kepok banana, said Firman, the best quality was from Flores, NTT. So, the kepok banana was the most sought after, primarily by traders of fried foods. “The flesh is more solid than the ones brought in from Java. The bananas brought in from Flores mostly belong to the

kepok banana,” he said.Meanwhile, according to the

lecturer at the Faculty of Agricul-ture, Udayana University, Prof. Dr. I Made Sudana, accompanied by I Putu Sudiarta, Ph.D., the low land areas such as Karangasem and Jembrana were suitable for banana plantation as long as there were sufficient water supplies. If the banana plantation was encouraged, Balinese people could be fulfilled so it was no longer dependent or Java to Flores.

“In my opinion, the agriculture of Bali has now been merged into an instant action being destructive to the economy of Bali. Not just ba-nana, even the flowers and canang oblations are also brought in from

Java,” said Sudiarta.In other words, the instant activi-

ties, said Sudiarta, meant that the land was plotted to make people rich instantly. As a result, the farming systems established by the ancestors vanished and the products from outside dominated Bali. The lack of government at-tention to training and coaching caused the banana farmers to be less maintained. Banana plantation was commonly planted or cultivated as intercrops among other plants. As a result, the banana plants got less sunlight and affected by wilt disease. Ideally, bananas should be grown in monoculture and managed with better agribusiness manage-ment. (rah)

Elements of coastal communities unite to reject Benoa Bay reclamation

To minimize dependencyBanana plantation must be boosted

Bali Post

DENPASAR - The struggles of Jalak Sidakarya to reject the Benoa Bay reclamation continued to spread to various elements of other society. After resumed by the Tirta Sidakarya, it was the turn of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation. However, it was truly different where the action was not filled with speeches, but with worship activity in the Candi Narmada Temple, Tanah Kilap, Sunday (Mar 9). The spiritual action starting around 10:00 a.m. was attended by hundreds of residents and coastal community leaders of Denpasar.

IBP/Komang SuryawanThe struggles of Jalak Sidakarya to reject the Benoa Bay reclamation continued to spread to various elements of other society. After resumed by the Tirta Sidakarya, it was the turn of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation.

BUSINESS

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Tuesday, March 11, 20146 11International International

From page 1

INDONESIAW RLD

AntaraKUALA LUMPUR - Families of Indonesians

on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are leaving for Kuala Lumpur on Monday to follow the search of the missing plane, Indonesian Ambas-sador for Malaysia Herman Prayitno stated.

“The family members will stay in a hotel in Putrajaya area while awaiting further information regarding the missing plane,” noted the ambas-sador.

Herman stated that there were seven Indonesians in flight MH370 namely Firman Siregar (25 years old), Lo Sugianto (47), Indra Suria Tanurisam (57), Chynthya Tio Vinny (47), Willy Surijanto Wang (53) and two people with similar names, Ferry Indra Suadaya (each aged 42 and 35 years).

Flight MH370 went missing while on its jour-ney from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday (March 8) morning. The flight took off from Kuala Lumpur at around 00.41 a.m. and was supposed to arrive in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. However, the plane lost contact with Subang air traffic control at around 2.40 a.m.

Until now the search for the missing plane still continues with Malaysia leading the process as-sisted by the navy and air force personnel from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, China and Australia.

AntaraPEKANBARU - Schools in Riau province are

closed following worsening air pollution caused by the ongoing forest fires, Chief of Education Office of Riau province Zulfadil stated on Monday.

“All schools will be closed until March 12, starting today,” Zulfadil noted.

Earlier the province’s environmental body stated that the air quality had dropped to dangerous levels during the past two days. In such a situation, residents have been asked not to indulge in outdoor activities.

Thick haze is still covering most of the areas in Riau province’s capital city Pekanbaru. Visibility is recorded at one thousand meters only.

Data from the Special Task Force handling haze stated that thick haze also covers Bengkalis district and Siak district. The air pollution in both the areas are on a dangerous level.

About 40 thousand people suffer from respiratory infection due to the haze in Riau Province. Up till now forest fires are still happening in the area with over 14 thousand hectares of land burnt so far.

“Yogyakarta is one of the favorite des-tinations for tourists. Although there are several attractive tourist destinations in Indonesia, Yogyakarta has an advantage over the others,” Chairman of Widya Budaya Yogyakarta Foundation Widi Utamingsih noted here on Monday.

Widi added that there is a lot of po-tential for tourism in Yogyakarta, but the stakeholders needed to improve the promotion of its tourist sites.

“Other destinations compete to pro-mote their potentials. If Yogyakarta is slow in promoting its strengths, then tourist visitations will probably de-cline,” she added.

Widi explained that a number of foreign tourists, who had visited Yog-yakarta earlier, had expressed admira-tion over the destination. They asserted that the tourism sites in Yogyakarta not only include Sultan Palace, Prambanan

Temple and Malioboro, but a lot of other attractive spots like the traditional crafts market.

“The reasons why they visited Yog-yakarta are for its comfort, conducive atmosphere and several tourism loca-tions,” she explained.

The other reasons, according to Widi, are the costs of living and craft prices that are cheap as well as the local cultural environment and the people.

Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan, right, and Hendra Setiawan celebrate with trophy after beating Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa, 21-19, 21-19, during the Final of the Men’s Doubles, at the Yonex All England Open 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England, Sunday, March 9, 2014.

AP Photo/Rui Vieira

Yogyakarta becomes an attractive tourist destination

AntaraYOGYAKARTA - Yogyakarta Province is becoming one of the tourist attractions in Indonesia, for both foreign

and domestic tourists, stated culture and tourism practitioner Widi Utamingsih.

Schools in Riau closed amid worsening haze

Families of Indonesians on board missing plane in Malaysia

Meanwhile, according to hotel classification, admitted Siregar, the four-star hotel room occupancy rate was 59.74 percent posing the high-est occupancy rate compared to other hotel class. The lowest occupancy rate occurred at one-star hotel which reached 49.53 percent.

“The average length of stay of foreign and domestic guests at star hotel in Bali in January 2014 reached 3.52 days. This figure is down 0.32 point compared to an average length of stay in December 2013 which reached 3.84 days,” he mentioned.

He added, as a whole, the average length of stay of Indonesian travelers in January 2013 amounted to 3.63 days, much longer than the average length of stay of the Indonesian travelers in 2014 reach-ing 3.49 days.

“Based on the county or city, the average length of stay reached the highest in January 2014 in Denpasar City (4.27 days) and the lowest was in Tabanan (2.24 days),” he said. (kmb27)

Three potential... Judge Thokozile Masipa an-

nounced the ban after prosecutor Gerrie Nel, supported by chief defense lawyer Barry Roux, said Saayman’s testimony would have an “explicitly graphic nature” and should not be shown around the world. “It’s not a question of press freedom,” Nel said.

Before beginning his testimony, Saayman said the “very personal nature” of his autopsy findings as well as graphic details about the injuries could “compromise the dignity of the deceased,” as well as harm her friends and family, if they are broadcast. “It goes against the good morals of society for us to make information of this nature available” in a way that children and other unsuspecting people might be

exposed, Saayman said in the wit-ness box.

Proceedings can be partly tele-vised and the audio can be broad-cast in its entirety under a judge’s pre-trial order that sought to bal-ance the right to a fair trial with the intense public interest in the Pistorius case and the principle of open justice. Under the order, some witnesses can choose not to be shown on television.

Earlier Monday, Masipa ex-tended that order, saying “private witnesses are more vulnerable than public figures” and that still photographs of witnesses who re-quested some discretion cannot be published or disseminated for the duration of the trial, even if they were obtained from sources outside

the courtroom.The new ruling followed the

publication in a South African media outlet last week of a photo of a wit-ness whose image was lifted from a publicly accessible website.

Pistorius, the first amputee to run in the Olympics, is charged with pre-meditated murder for Steenkamp’s shooting death. The 27-year-old Pis-torius says the killing was accidental because he thought his girlfriend was a dangerous intruder in a toilet cubicle in his home.

Before the adjournment Mon-day, a security guard who said he spoke with Pistorius soon after the shooting of Steenkamp was questioned by the defense about his recollection of the sequences of the events that night.


DAMASCUS — Greek Orthodox nuns freed after being held hostage by al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels arrived in Damascus Monday morning, ending their four-month ordeal, Syrian state media reported.

Residents gave the 13 nuns a warm welcome at the Church of the Cross in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Qassaa, official news agency SANA reported. They were released early Monday in a rare deal between the Syrian government and rebels of the Nusra Front, mediated by the Gulf country of Qatar, traditionally a rebel supporter.

The women said they were well treated and appeared so in a video of their release issued by the Nusra Front, the group that held them. One elderly nun too weak to walk was carried by a rebel gunman, his face covered with a balaclava, to a nearby vehicle. They thanked God for their safety before heading to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Old Damascus, where they will now stay, SANA said.

About 150 imprisoned Syrian women will be released in exchange for the nuns, who along with three other women were taken from their convent in the Christian-dominated town of Maaloula during clashes in December.

The Syrian Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Assistant, Bishop Luca al-Khoury, who led an official church reception to greet the nuns, accused the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad of targeting Syria’s patchwork of religious minorities. Al-Khoury is a frequent defender Assad’s rule.

“Syria, which does not differentiate between Muslims and Christians, is targeted ... by the armed terrorist groups who don’t understand anything but the language of killing and destruction.”

The nuns’ seizure confirmed the fears of many in Syria’s minority Christian community that they were being targeted by extremists among rebels. Syria’s three-year conflict has become increasingly sectarian.


FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts — Public safety officials are getting ready to release more details about enhanced security for this year’s Boston Marathon.

Local, state and federal agencies, the Boston Athletic Association and leaders from the eight communities that make up the marathon route are expected to reveal the new security measures during a news conference Monday at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Framingham.

Authorities have been meeting for months to come up with a plan to beef up security for the April 21 marathon following last year’s deadly attack. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the race.

This year, police are expecting about 36,000 runners and up to a million spectators.

Pistorius trial: Court hears autopsy testimonyAssociated Press Writer

PRETORIA, South Africa — The judge in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius on Monday banned live broadcasting and tweeting of the graphic testimony of the expert who conducted the autopsy on Reeva Steenkamp, who was fatally shot by her athlete boyfriend. The court heard arguments about whether to allow audio and video broadcasting of the testimony of Prof. Gert Saayman, head of the forensic medicine department at the University of Pretoria.

AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool

Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock as he listens to cross questioning about the events surround-ing the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in court during his trial in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, March 10, 2014.

Security plans for Boston Marathon to be detailed

Nuns freed after hostage ordeal arrive in Damascus

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7SportsTuesday, March 11, 201410 InternationalInternationalDestination

IBP

UBUD - Museum is an interesting place to see many things depending on what it displays. In Bali you can find many painting museum because except famous with natural beauty, Bali also famous with its cultural activities, such as painting and sculpture.

The famous and often visited by tourists that holidaying in Bali is painting museum that located about 200 meters from Puri Saren / Ubud Palace and it is dissociated by dell, climb a piece of wide plain with beautiful view call Puri Lukisan.

It is situated in calm and peaceful area of Ubud Bali so that this place is an ideal place for who wish to see and enjoy result of art from all big actor like I Gusti Nyo-man Lempad, Ida Bagus Nyana, Anak Agung Gde Sobrat, I Gusti Made Deblog, Rudof Bonnet, Walter Spies and more.

This museum is opened in the year 1956 by minister of Education and Cul-ture, Mr. Moh. Yamin. This museum is consisted of three special buildings in U-shape. In the middle of this museum is the courtyard and fishpond with the beautiful lotus flower. The building number 1 is a place for a permanent exhibition of pup-pets dressy or puppets style painting. This building is collecting the painting from I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and the clarifi-cation about the existence of Pita Maha Organization. The Building number 2 is also a place for permanent exhibition or still from masterpiece result of all artist of Balinese modern dressy style. The Building number 3 is for a temporary exhibition.

IBP/File Photo

Painting Museum


INDIAN WELLS, California — Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut knocked out Tomas Berdych on Sunday in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, beating the fourth-seeded Czech player 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Berdych had won 11 matches in a row in February and is 16-4 this year. “He really handled the tough situation today really well,” Berdych said. “Anything I touched today was basically bad and was wrong....definitely my worst match that I had this year.”

Bautista Agut’s third-round op-ponent will be Finnish veteran Jark-ko Nieminen, who progressed when Florian Mayer withdrew while trail-ing 6-2, 1-0. Two-time tournament champion Novak Djokovic, seeded second, was a 7-6 (1), 6-2 winner over Victor Hanescu of Romania in their second-round match.

“I was not very happy with my

performance but it was a straight set win,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to have to work very hard on the practice court to get better.”

In women’s play, second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska coasted into the fourth round with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Annika Beck of Germany; 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard of Canada beat ninth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-3, 6-3; and 2011 champion Caroline Wozniacki topped qualifier Yaro-slava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-1.

Sixth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro withdrew because of liga-ment damage in his left wrist. The

Argentine player also pulled out of the Dubai tournament last week. Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France was also eliminated, fall-ing 6-4, 6-4 to countryman Julien Benneteau.

John Isner, the No. 12 seed and the only remaining American from the original 14-man contingent, advanced with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko. Isner, slowed by an ankle injury earlier this season, said he feels good physically and mentally. “In the U.S., (on a) hard court that bounces high and pretty slow, and have the fans on my side, I can’t ask for anything more,” Isner said.

Indiana’s only succor is that nearest East rival Miami also keeps losing, dropping a third straight at Chicago, while Golden State beat Phoenix to open a three-game gap between the Pacific Divi-sion teams.

Houston’s Jeremy Lin had 26 points, including four points in the 8-2 run that turned a three-point deficit in overtime into a three-point lead, and he then sank two free throws to complete the scoring. Harden also hit a 3-pointer in that overtime run,

having earlier hit a 3 with seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime.

LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 28 points and 12 rebounds, but managed just two points in OT. Dallas led Indiana by 17 points in the first half and saw almost all that lead whittled away before steadying in the closing stages to win 105-94.

Monta Ellis and Devin Harris scored 20 points apiece. Ellis, who also had eight rebounds, put the game away in the final 2 minutes with a pair of jumpers for the Mavericks, who got 41 points from their bench players against just 4 from the Pacers’ reserves.

The Pacers rallied from 17 points down in the first half and almost wiped out another double-digit deficit after halftime, but had the same offensive troubles late that plagued them early in the game. Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Pacers.

4th-seeded Tomas Berdych falls in Indian Wells

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, makes a return against Roberto Bautista Agut, of Spain, in a match at the BNP Paribas

Open tennis tournament on Sunday, March 9, 2014, in Indian Wells, Calif. Berdych lost the match 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Rockets beat Blazers in overtime as Harden starsAssociated Press Writer

HOUSTON — Houston’s James Harden scored 41 points to lead the Rockets to a 118-113 overtime win over Portland on Sunday, moving up to third place overall in the NBA Western Conference, two games ahead of the Trail Blazers. Their Texan rival Dallas also had an impres-sive victory, beating Eastern Conference leader Indiana and sending the Pacers to a worrying fourth-successive defeat.

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Houston Rockets guard James Harden, left, drives to the basket during the third quarter of an NBA basketball game agains the Sacra-mento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday Feb. 25, 2014. Harden scored 43 points in the Rockets 129-103 victory.

98 InternationalTuesday, March 11, 2014 International Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Sp rt

The Ballon d’Or winner then passed for Marcelo to score in the 49th and ensure Ma-drid extended its undefeated streak in all com-petitions to 29 straight matches. With Madrid firmly in control, the game turned testy with several bookings until David Navarro saw a direct red for tackling Ronaldo from behind in the 64th.

Ronaldo went close to getting another goal when he hit the crossbar after Levante de-fender Nikos Karabelas had already turning in an own goal in the 82nd. Madrid’s win came a week after Ronaldo scored to salvage a draw at Atletico Madrid, and it lifted Carlo Ancelotti’s side three points clear of its crosstown rivals at the top of the table.

Barcelona was left four points adrift of the pacesetters following Saturday’s stunning 1-0 defeat at Valladolid. “It’s an important mo-ment because everything is turning out well and there is a good atmosphere surrounding the team,” said Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti. “We have to continue forward. We have a small advantage in the league but we can’t think about anything other than the next game. It’s risky not to.”

Madrid’s placid outing was tarnished when

fullback Dani Carvajal collapsed with an ap-parent leg injury and had to been carried off in the 90th, leaving the hosts with 10 men for stoppage time.

Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 at Valencia to increase its hold on fourth place and the last Champions League berth. Sevilla routed Almeria 3-1 on the road to earn its third con-secutive victory, while Espanyol also eased to a 3-1 home win over Elche. Levante was without its two first-choice midfielders in Papakouly Diop and Simao Mate, but it ar-rived on an eight-round unbeaten run, largely thanks to the outstanding play of goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

And Navas did well to get a glove on Ronaldo’s volley to turn back the match’s first goal-bound shot in the sixth minute. There was no denying Ronaldo a second time, however.

The Portugal forward rose up to meet Angel Di Maria’s corner kick and thump the ball beyond Navas, who got a touch on the ball but not enough to keep it out of his net. “Ronaldo’s goal was a blow,” said Levante coach Joaquin Caparros. “But if he hadn’t scored then, Ma-drid would have scored another way.”


LONDON — Tottenham’s gam-ble of selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid and using the proceeds of the world-record fee to bolster its squad with a slew of new, expen-sive players has backfired. Badly. The evidence? Less a glance at the Premier League standings, more a scroll down Spurs’ team sheet for Saturday’s Premier League match against Chelsea.

For one of their biggest games of the season against a rival they hadn’t beaten away in 24 years, none of the seven players they splurged a total of about 110 million pounds ($180 million) on last year was selected in the starting XI.

No Brazil international Paulin-ho, who cost a then-club record 17 million pounds. No Spain striker Roberto Soldado, who eclipsed that fee when he arrived for 26 million pounds. The less said about Erik Lamela, on whom Spurs splashed out 30 million pounds but who has been a major flop this season and is currently out injured, the

better. Instead, Tottenham played three center backs in a four-man defense, had a right back playing in midfield and a winger roving across the frontline.

Chelsea won 4-0, without even playing well. The result just about summed up Tottenham’s chaotic season that has featured one-sided defeats of 6-0 and 5-1 to Man-chester City, 5-0 at home to Liver-pool and a change of manager when Andre Villas-Boas was replaced by a rookie, Tim Sherwood. Indeed, it’s a wonder how they are still fifth in the standings, albeit with fading hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Meanwhile, Bale is beginning to hit his stride after a tough start to life in Madrid, scoring six goals in his last eight games for club and country and being branded “super-human” by an international colleague last week. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy backed up his reputation as the ultimate hard-nosed negotiator by forcing Madrid to part with 100 million euros (then $132 million) to sign

Bale in August.But there must have been many

times over the last few months when he wondered: What if? What if he had played hard ball with Bale, ignored the eye-popping of-fer Madrid put on the table and kept the brilliant forward at White Hart Lane to the terms of his contract, which still had three years to run?

Some say Bale wouldn’t have accepted that, and may have gone on strike. By giving Spurs the silent treatment while a deal was being negotiated, he certainly appeared to be heading that way. It could have been achieved, though — just look at Liverpool’s dealings with Luis Suarez.

Suarez pushed for a move from Anfield, even giving newspaper interviews saying the club had reneged on an agreement that it would let him go if it didn’t qualify for the Champions League. Liv-erpool’s American owners didn’t flinch. Suarez stayed and is now spearheading the second-place team’s unlikely charge for the Premier League title.


LONDON — Second-tier Wigan pulled off a stunning victory over Manchester City for the second straight year in the FA Cup on Sunday, leaving one of the most unlikely semifinal lineups in the famous com-petition’s recent history. City, one of Europe’s top teams, was looking to avenge its shock defeat to Wigan in last year’s final but slumped to a 2-1 loss at home, ending its hopes of a domestic treble just seven days after winning the League Cup final.

“People kept saying we were lucky last year,” Wigan captain Emmerson Boyce said, “but we’re going back to Wembley and we’re making history again.” Wigan can seal a return to the final against all the odds by beating Arsenal, which is now overwhelming favorite for the competition. The other semifinal will be between Hull - which is into the last four for the first time since 1930, and Sheffield United - which became the first third-tier team to reach the semifinals since 2001.

Hull defeated Sunderland 3-0 and United scored twice in two min-utes to beat Charlton 2-0. “To get to this stage as a League One club in the semifinal is an incredible achievement,” said United manager Nigel Clough, the son of late English coaching great Brian Clough. Arsenal, which advanced on Saturday with a 4-1 win over Everton, won’t have a better opportunity to end its nine-year trophy drought. But the Gunners will underestimate Wigan at their peril.

City did just that by fielding a raft of second-string players with Wednes-day’s Champions League match against Barcelona in mind, and they paid a huge price. “It’s disappointing because we cannot be eliminated from the FA Cup at home by Wigan,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said.

Wigan’s players threw their shirts into the crowd and took in the adula-tion of their fans after pulling off a tactical triumph for its manager Uwe Rosler, an East German who spent four years at City from 1994-98 and became a cult hero at the club. Jordi Gomez converted a 27th-minute penalty after Martin Demichelis fouled Marc-Antoine Fortune and James Perch tapped in Wigan’s second in the 47th. City couldn’t reproduce the comeback it delivered against Sunderland in last weekend’s League Cup, with Samir Nasri’s 68th-minute goal its only reply.

“We pressed them high, got in their faces and they didn’t like it,” Perch said. Anything is possible now. Hopefully we can prove a few people wrong again in the semifinal against Arsenal.”


BUENOS AIRES — River Plate defeated Arsenal 1-0 on Sunday to move to within three points of leader Colon in Argentina’s first division, while bitter rival Boca Juniors won 2-1 against Racing. Colon drew 0-0 with Gimnasia La Plata on Saturday, while second-placed Velez Sarsfield moved within a point of the lead following its 3-1 win over Belgrano in the seventh round of matches.

In Sunday’s other games, Godoy Cruz drew 1-1 with San Lorenzo and Olimpo defeated Newell’s Old Boys 1-0. River Plate striker Fernando Cave-naghi converted from the penalty spot in the 61st minute, improving River to sixth place in the league. Boca’s Cristian Erbes scored the winner against Racing in the 76th, when he tapped in after goalkeeper Sebastian Saja spilled ball from an Emmanuel Gigliotti shot.

Boca had taken the lead through

Juan Sanchez Mino’s fierce effort in the 25th after being setup by Emanuel Insua down the left, with Racing equal-izing through a 68th minute penalty by goalkeeper Saja. Colon’s best chance against Gimnasia came in the 15th, when a shot from Alario was well saved by ‘keeper Monetti.

Velez came from behind after Guillermo Farre had put Belgrano ahead in the 13th. Mauro Zarate equal-ized three minutes after halftime with a finish from a tight angle, before Agustin Allione put Velez ahead in the 62st from close range. Lucas Pratto added the third one minute before the final whistle.

Sah Lorenzo looked to have secured victory against Godoy Cruz when Nico-las Blandi scored in 83rd but Fucundo Castillon leveled the scores in the sec-ond minute of stoppage time. Olimpo held on for a win against Newell’s, with Ezequiel Cerutti scoring the sole goal from just outside the penalty area in the 16th.

Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo, top, in action Levante’s goalkeeper Keylor

Navas, bottom, during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain,

Sunday, March 9, 2014. Ronaldo helps Madrid win to reclaim sole lead


BARCELONA, Spain — Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid reclaim sole possession of the Spanish league on Sunday, scoring one goal and setting up an-other in a dominant 3-0 victory over 10-man Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu. Ronaldo recorded his league-leading 24th goal of the season to get Madrid rolling in the 11th minute.

River Plate beats Arsenal, closes on leader

AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

AP Photo/Jon Super

Wigan’s Jordi Gomez, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring a penalty against Manchester City during their Eng-lish FA Cup quarterfinal soccer match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday, March 9, 2014.

Wigan stuns City for 2nd straight year in FA Cup

Tottenham living to regret sale of Gareth Bale

AP Photo/David Davies, PA

Wales’ Gareth Bale during a training session with other members of the Wales soccer team at The Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, Tuesday March 4, 2014. Wales will play Iceland in a friendly soccer match Wednesday.

98 InternationalTuesday, March 11, 2014 International Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Sp rt

The Ballon d’Or winner then passed for Marcelo to score in the 49th and ensure Ma-drid extended its undefeated streak in all com-petitions to 29 straight matches. With Madrid firmly in control, the game turned testy with several bookings until David Navarro saw a direct red for tackling Ronaldo from behind in the 64th.

Ronaldo went close to getting another goal when he hit the crossbar after Levante de-fender Nikos Karabelas had already turning in an own goal in the 82nd. Madrid’s win came a week after Ronaldo scored to salvage a draw at Atletico Madrid, and it lifted Carlo Ancelotti’s side three points clear of its crosstown rivals at the top of the table.

Barcelona was left four points adrift of the pacesetters following Saturday’s stunning 1-0 defeat at Valladolid. “It’s an important mo-ment because everything is turning out well and there is a good atmosphere surrounding the team,” said Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti. “We have to continue forward. We have a small advantage in the league but we can’t think about anything other than the next game. It’s risky not to.”

Madrid’s placid outing was tarnished when

fullback Dani Carvajal collapsed with an ap-parent leg injury and had to been carried off in the 90th, leaving the hosts with 10 men for stoppage time.

Athletic Bilbao drew 1-1 at Valencia to increase its hold on fourth place and the last Champions League berth. Sevilla routed Almeria 3-1 on the road to earn its third con-secutive victory, while Espanyol also eased to a 3-1 home win over Elche. Levante was without its two first-choice midfielders in Papakouly Diop and Simao Mate, but it ar-rived on an eight-round unbeaten run, largely thanks to the outstanding play of goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

And Navas did well to get a glove on Ronaldo’s volley to turn back the match’s first goal-bound shot in the sixth minute. There was no denying Ronaldo a second time, however.

The Portugal forward rose up to meet Angel Di Maria’s corner kick and thump the ball beyond Navas, who got a touch on the ball but not enough to keep it out of his net. “Ronaldo’s goal was a blow,” said Levante coach Joaquin Caparros. “But if he hadn’t scored then, Ma-drid would have scored another way.”


LONDON — Tottenham’s gam-ble of selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid and using the proceeds of the world-record fee to bolster its squad with a slew of new, expen-sive players has backfired. Badly. The evidence? Less a glance at the Premier League standings, more a scroll down Spurs’ team sheet for Saturday’s Premier League match against Chelsea.

For one of their biggest games of the season against a rival they hadn’t beaten away in 24 years, none of the seven players they splurged a total of about 110 million pounds ($180 million) on last year was selected in the starting XI.

No Brazil international Paulin-ho, who cost a then-club record 17 million pounds. No Spain striker Roberto Soldado, who eclipsed that fee when he arrived for 26 million pounds. The less said about Erik Lamela, on whom Spurs splashed out 30 million pounds but who has been a major flop this season and is currently out injured, the

better. Instead, Tottenham played three center backs in a four-man defense, had a right back playing in midfield and a winger roving across the frontline.

Chelsea won 4-0, without even playing well. The result just about summed up Tottenham’s chaotic season that has featured one-sided defeats of 6-0 and 5-1 to Man-chester City, 5-0 at home to Liver-pool and a change of manager when Andre Villas-Boas was replaced by a rookie, Tim Sherwood. Indeed, it’s a wonder how they are still fifth in the standings, albeit with fading hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Meanwhile, Bale is beginning to hit his stride after a tough start to life in Madrid, scoring six goals in his last eight games for club and country and being branded “super-human” by an international colleague last week. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy backed up his reputation as the ultimate hard-nosed negotiator by forcing Madrid to part with 100 million euros (then $132 million) to sign

Bale in August.But there must have been many

times over the last few months when he wondered: What if? What if he had played hard ball with Bale, ignored the eye-popping of-fer Madrid put on the table and kept the brilliant forward at White Hart Lane to the terms of his contract, which still had three years to run?

Some say Bale wouldn’t have accepted that, and may have gone on strike. By giving Spurs the silent treatment while a deal was being negotiated, he certainly appeared to be heading that way. It could have been achieved, though — just look at Liverpool’s dealings with Luis Suarez.

Suarez pushed for a move from Anfield, even giving newspaper interviews saying the club had reneged on an agreement that it would let him go if it didn’t qualify for the Champions League. Liv-erpool’s American owners didn’t flinch. Suarez stayed and is now spearheading the second-place team’s unlikely charge for the Premier League title.


LONDON — Second-tier Wigan pulled off a stunning victory over Manchester City for the second straight year in the FA Cup on Sunday, leaving one of the most unlikely semifinal lineups in the famous com-petition’s recent history. City, one of Europe’s top teams, was looking to avenge its shock defeat to Wigan in last year’s final but slumped to a 2-1 loss at home, ending its hopes of a domestic treble just seven days after winning the League Cup final.

“People kept saying we were lucky last year,” Wigan captain Emmerson Boyce said, “but we’re going back to Wembley and we’re making history again.” Wigan can seal a return to the final against all the odds by beating Arsenal, which is now overwhelming favorite for the competition. The other semifinal will be between Hull - which is into the last four for the first time since 1930, and Sheffield United - which became the first third-tier team to reach the semifinals since 2001.

Hull defeated Sunderland 3-0 and United scored twice in two min-utes to beat Charlton 2-0. “To get to this stage as a League One club in the semifinal is an incredible achievement,” said United manager Nigel Clough, the son of late English coaching great Brian Clough. Arsenal, which advanced on Saturday with a 4-1 win over Everton, won’t have a better opportunity to end its nine-year trophy drought. But the Gunners will underestimate Wigan at their peril.

City did just that by fielding a raft of second-string players with Wednes-day’s Champions League match against Barcelona in mind, and they paid a huge price. “It’s disappointing because we cannot be eliminated from the FA Cup at home by Wigan,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said.

Wigan’s players threw their shirts into the crowd and took in the adula-tion of their fans after pulling off a tactical triumph for its manager Uwe Rosler, an East German who spent four years at City from 1994-98 and became a cult hero at the club. Jordi Gomez converted a 27th-minute penalty after Martin Demichelis fouled Marc-Antoine Fortune and James Perch tapped in Wigan’s second in the 47th. City couldn’t reproduce the comeback it delivered against Sunderland in last weekend’s League Cup, with Samir Nasri’s 68th-minute goal its only reply.

“We pressed them high, got in their faces and they didn’t like it,” Perch said. Anything is possible now. Hopefully we can prove a few people wrong again in the semifinal against Arsenal.”


BUENOS AIRES — River Plate defeated Arsenal 1-0 on Sunday to move to within three points of leader Colon in Argentina’s first division, while bitter rival Boca Juniors won 2-1 against Racing. Colon drew 0-0 with Gimnasia La Plata on Saturday, while second-placed Velez Sarsfield moved within a point of the lead following its 3-1 win over Belgrano in the seventh round of matches.

In Sunday’s other games, Godoy Cruz drew 1-1 with San Lorenzo and Olimpo defeated Newell’s Old Boys 1-0. River Plate striker Fernando Cave-naghi converted from the penalty spot in the 61st minute, improving River to sixth place in the league. Boca’s Cristian Erbes scored the winner against Racing in the 76th, when he tapped in after goalkeeper Sebastian Saja spilled ball from an Emmanuel Gigliotti shot.

Boca had taken the lead through

Juan Sanchez Mino’s fierce effort in the 25th after being setup by Emanuel Insua down the left, with Racing equal-izing through a 68th minute penalty by goalkeeper Saja. Colon’s best chance against Gimnasia came in the 15th, when a shot from Alario was well saved by ‘keeper Monetti.

Velez came from behind after Guillermo Farre had put Belgrano ahead in the 13th. Mauro Zarate equal-ized three minutes after halftime with a finish from a tight angle, before Agustin Allione put Velez ahead in the 62st from close range. Lucas Pratto added the third one minute before the final whistle.

Sah Lorenzo looked to have secured victory against Godoy Cruz when Nico-las Blandi scored in 83rd but Fucundo Castillon leveled the scores in the sec-ond minute of stoppage time. Olimpo held on for a win against Newell’s, with Ezequiel Cerutti scoring the sole goal from just outside the penalty area in the 16th.

Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo, top, in action Levante’s goalkeeper Keylor

Navas, bottom, during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain,

Sunday, March 9, 2014. Ronaldo helps Madrid win to reclaim sole lead


BARCELONA, Spain — Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid reclaim sole possession of the Spanish league on Sunday, scoring one goal and setting up an-other in a dominant 3-0 victory over 10-man Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu. Ronaldo recorded his league-leading 24th goal of the season to get Madrid rolling in the 11th minute.

River Plate beats Arsenal, closes on leader

AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

AP Photo/Jon Super

Wigan’s Jordi Gomez, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring a penalty against Manchester City during their Eng-lish FA Cup quarterfinal soccer match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday, March 9, 2014.

Wigan stuns City for 2nd straight year in FA Cup

Tottenham living to regret sale of Gareth Bale

AP Photo/David Davies, PA

Wales’ Gareth Bale during a training session with other members of the Wales soccer team at The Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, Tuesday March 4, 2014. Wales will play Iceland in a friendly soccer match Wednesday.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7SportsTuesday, March 11, 201410 InternationalInternationalDestination

IBP

UBUD - Museum is an interesting place to see many things depending on what it displays. In Bali you can find many painting museum because except famous with natural beauty, Bali also famous with its cultural activities, such as painting and sculpture.

The famous and often visited by tourists that holidaying in Bali is painting museum that located about 200 meters from Puri Saren / Ubud Palace and it is dissociated by dell, climb a piece of wide plain with beautiful view call Puri Lukisan.

It is situated in calm and peaceful area of Ubud Bali so that this place is an ideal place for who wish to see and enjoy result of art from all big actor like I Gusti Nyo-man Lempad, Ida Bagus Nyana, Anak Agung Gde Sobrat, I Gusti Made Deblog, Rudof Bonnet, Walter Spies and more.

This museum is opened in the year 1956 by minister of Education and Cul-ture, Mr. Moh. Yamin. This museum is consisted of three special buildings in U-shape. In the middle of this museum is the courtyard and fishpond with the beautiful lotus flower. The building number 1 is a place for a permanent exhibition of pup-pets dressy or puppets style painting. This building is collecting the painting from I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and the clarifi-cation about the existence of Pita Maha Organization. The Building number 2 is also a place for permanent exhibition or still from masterpiece result of all artist of Balinese modern dressy style. The Building number 3 is for a temporary exhibition.

IBP/File Photo

Painting Museum


INDIAN WELLS, California — Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut knocked out Tomas Berdych on Sunday in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, beating the fourth-seeded Czech player 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Berdych had won 11 matches in a row in February and is 16-4 this year. “He really handled the tough situation today really well,” Berdych said. “Anything I touched today was basically bad and was wrong....definitely my worst match that I had this year.”

Bautista Agut’s third-round op-ponent will be Finnish veteran Jark-ko Nieminen, who progressed when Florian Mayer withdrew while trail-ing 6-2, 1-0. Two-time tournament champion Novak Djokovic, seeded second, was a 7-6 (1), 6-2 winner over Victor Hanescu of Romania in their second-round match.

“I was not very happy with my

performance but it was a straight set win,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to have to work very hard on the practice court to get better.”

In women’s play, second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska coasted into the fourth round with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Annika Beck of Germany; 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard of Canada beat ninth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-3, 6-3; and 2011 champion Caroline Wozniacki topped qualifier Yaro-slava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-1.

Sixth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro withdrew because of liga-ment damage in his left wrist. The

Argentine player also pulled out of the Dubai tournament last week. Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France was also eliminated, fall-ing 6-4, 6-4 to countryman Julien Benneteau.

John Isner, the No. 12 seed and the only remaining American from the original 14-man contingent, advanced with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko. Isner, slowed by an ankle injury earlier this season, said he feels good physically and mentally. “In the U.S., (on a) hard court that bounces high and pretty slow, and have the fans on my side, I can’t ask for anything more,” Isner said.

Indiana’s only succor is that nearest East rival Miami also keeps losing, dropping a third straight at Chicago, while Golden State beat Phoenix to open a three-game gap between the Pacific Divi-sion teams.

Houston’s Jeremy Lin had 26 points, including four points in the 8-2 run that turned a three-point deficit in overtime into a three-point lead, and he then sank two free throws to complete the scoring. Harden also hit a 3-pointer in that overtime run,

having earlier hit a 3 with seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime.

LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 28 points and 12 rebounds, but managed just two points in OT. Dallas led Indiana by 17 points in the first half and saw almost all that lead whittled away before steadying in the closing stages to win 105-94.

Monta Ellis and Devin Harris scored 20 points apiece. Ellis, who also had eight rebounds, put the game away in the final 2 minutes with a pair of jumpers for the Mavericks, who got 41 points from their bench players against just 4 from the Pacers’ reserves.

The Pacers rallied from 17 points down in the first half and almost wiped out another double-digit deficit after halftime, but had the same offensive troubles late that plagued them early in the game. Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Pacers.

4th-seeded Tomas Berdych falls in Indian Wells

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, makes a return against Roberto Bautista Agut, of Spain, in a match at the BNP Paribas

Open tennis tournament on Sunday, March 9, 2014, in Indian Wells, Calif. Berdych lost the match 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Rockets beat Blazers in overtime as Harden starsAssociated Press Writer

HOUSTON — Houston’s James Harden scored 41 points to lead the Rockets to a 118-113 overtime win over Portland on Sunday, moving up to third place overall in the NBA Western Conference, two games ahead of the Trail Blazers. Their Texan rival Dallas also had an impres-sive victory, beating Eastern Conference leader Indiana and sending the Pacers to a worrying fourth-successive defeat.

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Houston Rockets guard James Harden, left, drives to the basket during the third quarter of an NBA basketball game agains the Sacra-mento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday Feb. 25, 2014. Harden scored 43 points in the Rockets 129-103 victory.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Tuesday, March 11, 20146 11International International

From page 1

INDONESIAW RLD

AntaraKUALA LUMPUR - Families of Indonesians

on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are leaving for Kuala Lumpur on Monday to follow the search of the missing plane, Indonesian Ambas-sador for Malaysia Herman Prayitno stated.

“The family members will stay in a hotel in Putrajaya area while awaiting further information regarding the missing plane,” noted the ambas-sador.

Herman stated that there were seven Indonesians in flight MH370 namely Firman Siregar (25 years old), Lo Sugianto (47), Indra Suria Tanurisam (57), Chynthya Tio Vinny (47), Willy Surijanto Wang (53) and two people with similar names, Ferry Indra Suadaya (each aged 42 and 35 years).

Flight MH370 went missing while on its jour-ney from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday (March 8) morning. The flight took off from Kuala Lumpur at around 00.41 a.m. and was supposed to arrive in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. However, the plane lost contact with Subang air traffic control at around 2.40 a.m.

Until now the search for the missing plane still continues with Malaysia leading the process as-sisted by the navy and air force personnel from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, China and Australia.

AntaraPEKANBARU - Schools in Riau province are

closed following worsening air pollution caused by the ongoing forest fires, Chief of Education Office of Riau province Zulfadil stated on Monday.

“All schools will be closed until March 12, starting today,” Zulfadil noted.

Earlier the province’s environmental body stated that the air quality had dropped to dangerous levels during the past two days. In such a situation, residents have been asked not to indulge in outdoor activities.

Thick haze is still covering most of the areas in Riau province’s capital city Pekanbaru. Visibility is recorded at one thousand meters only.

Data from the Special Task Force handling haze stated that thick haze also covers Bengkalis district and Siak district. The air pollution in both the areas are on a dangerous level.

About 40 thousand people suffer from respiratory infection due to the haze in Riau Province. Up till now forest fires are still happening in the area with over 14 thousand hectares of land burnt so far.

“Yogyakarta is one of the favorite des-tinations for tourists. Although there are several attractive tourist destinations in Indonesia, Yogyakarta has an advantage over the others,” Chairman of Widya Budaya Yogyakarta Foundation Widi Utamingsih noted here on Monday.

Widi added that there is a lot of po-tential for tourism in Yogyakarta, but the stakeholders needed to improve the promotion of its tourist sites.

“Other destinations compete to pro-mote their potentials. If Yogyakarta is slow in promoting its strengths, then tourist visitations will probably de-cline,” she added.

Widi explained that a number of foreign tourists, who had visited Yog-yakarta earlier, had expressed admira-tion over the destination. They asserted that the tourism sites in Yogyakarta not only include Sultan Palace, Prambanan

Temple and Malioboro, but a lot of other attractive spots like the traditional crafts market.

“The reasons why they visited Yog-yakarta are for its comfort, conducive atmosphere and several tourism loca-tions,” she explained.

The other reasons, according to Widi, are the costs of living and craft prices that are cheap as well as the local cultural environment and the people.

Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan, right, and Hendra Setiawan celebrate with trophy after beating Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa, 21-19, 21-19, during the Final of the Men’s Doubles, at the Yonex All England Open 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England, Sunday, March 9, 2014.

AP Photo/Rui Vieira

Yogyakarta becomes an attractive tourist destination

AntaraYOGYAKARTA - Yogyakarta Province is becoming one of the tourist attractions in Indonesia, for both foreign

and domestic tourists, stated culture and tourism practitioner Widi Utamingsih.

Schools in Riau closed amid worsening haze

Families of Indonesians on board missing plane in Malaysia

Meanwhile, according to hotel classification, admitted Siregar, the four-star hotel room occupancy rate was 59.74 percent posing the high-est occupancy rate compared to other hotel class. The lowest occupancy rate occurred at one-star hotel which reached 49.53 percent.

“The average length of stay of foreign and domestic guests at star hotel in Bali in January 2014 reached 3.52 days. This figure is down 0.32 point compared to an average length of stay in December 2013 which reached 3.84 days,” he mentioned.

He added, as a whole, the average length of stay of Indonesian travelers in January 2013 amounted to 3.63 days, much longer than the average length of stay of the Indonesian travelers in 2014 reach-ing 3.49 days.

“Based on the county or city, the average length of stay reached the highest in January 2014 in Denpasar City (4.27 days) and the lowest was in Tabanan (2.24 days),” he said. (kmb27)

Three potential... Judge Thokozile Masipa an-

nounced the ban after prosecutor Gerrie Nel, supported by chief defense lawyer Barry Roux, said Saayman’s testimony would have an “explicitly graphic nature” and should not be shown around the world. “It’s not a question of press freedom,” Nel said.

Before beginning his testimony, Saayman said the “very personal nature” of his autopsy findings as well as graphic details about the injuries could “compromise the dignity of the deceased,” as well as harm her friends and family, if they are broadcast. “It goes against the good morals of society for us to make information of this nature available” in a way that children and other unsuspecting people might be

exposed, Saayman said in the wit-ness box.

Proceedings can be partly tele-vised and the audio can be broad-cast in its entirety under a judge’s pre-trial order that sought to bal-ance the right to a fair trial with the intense public interest in the Pistorius case and the principle of open justice. Under the order, some witnesses can choose not to be shown on television.

Earlier Monday, Masipa ex-tended that order, saying “private witnesses are more vulnerable than public figures” and that still photographs of witnesses who re-quested some discretion cannot be published or disseminated for the duration of the trial, even if they were obtained from sources outside

the courtroom.The new ruling followed the

publication in a South African media outlet last week of a photo of a wit-ness whose image was lifted from a publicly accessible website.

Pistorius, the first amputee to run in the Olympics, is charged with pre-meditated murder for Steenkamp’s shooting death. The 27-year-old Pis-torius says the killing was accidental because he thought his girlfriend was a dangerous intruder in a toilet cubicle in his home.

Before the adjournment Mon-day, a security guard who said he spoke with Pistorius soon after the shooting of Steenkamp was questioned by the defense about his recollection of the sequences of the events that night.


DAMASCUS — Greek Orthodox nuns freed after being held hostage by al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels arrived in Damascus Monday morning, ending their four-month ordeal, Syrian state media reported.

Residents gave the 13 nuns a warm welcome at the Church of the Cross in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Qassaa, official news agency SANA reported. They were released early Monday in a rare deal between the Syrian government and rebels of the Nusra Front, mediated by the Gulf country of Qatar, traditionally a rebel supporter.

The women said they were well treated and appeared so in a video of their release issued by the Nusra Front, the group that held them. One elderly nun too weak to walk was carried by a rebel gunman, his face covered with a balaclava, to a nearby vehicle. They thanked God for their safety before heading to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Old Damascus, where they will now stay, SANA said.

About 150 imprisoned Syrian women will be released in exchange for the nuns, who along with three other women were taken from their convent in the Christian-dominated town of Maaloula during clashes in December.

The Syrian Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Assistant, Bishop Luca al-Khoury, who led an official church reception to greet the nuns, accused the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad of targeting Syria’s patchwork of religious minorities. Al-Khoury is a frequent defender Assad’s rule.

“Syria, which does not differentiate between Muslims and Christians, is targeted ... by the armed terrorist groups who don’t understand anything but the language of killing and destruction.”

The nuns’ seizure confirmed the fears of many in Syria’s minority Christian community that they were being targeted by extremists among rebels. Syria’s three-year conflict has become increasingly sectarian.


FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts — Public safety officials are getting ready to release more details about enhanced security for this year’s Boston Marathon.

Local, state and federal agencies, the Boston Athletic Association and leaders from the eight communities that make up the marathon route are expected to reveal the new security measures during a news conference Monday at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Framingham.

Authorities have been meeting for months to come up with a plan to beef up security for the April 21 marathon following last year’s deadly attack. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the race.

This year, police are expecting about 36,000 runners and up to a million spectators.

Pistorius trial: Court hears autopsy testimonyAssociated Press Writer

PRETORIA, South Africa — The judge in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius on Monday banned live broadcasting and tweeting of the graphic testimony of the expert who conducted the autopsy on Reeva Steenkamp, who was fatally shot by her athlete boyfriend. The court heard arguments about whether to allow audio and video broadcasting of the testimony of Prof. Gert Saayman, head of the forensic medicine department at the University of Pretoria.

AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool

Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock as he listens to cross questioning about the events surround-ing the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in court during his trial in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, March 10, 2014.

Security plans for Boston Marathon to be detailed

Nuns freed after hostage ordeal arrive in Damascus

“Our struggle is through spiritual path since the Bali is known as the Island of Thousand Temples. All this time, the people’s struggle to re-ject the reclamation has never been responded to by the leaders of Bali.

On that account, we now surrender it to the Lord abiding in the Candi Narmada Temple. We pray for our leaders, especially the governor in order the Lord opens his heart and opens his mind to keep the nature

of Bali and to preserve the existing environment in Bali,” said Coor-dinator of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation, AA Ngurah Pujawan.

His party regretted the governor

who did not want to learn from the experience of reclamation failures in Bali. Pujawan pointed out the reclamation made in the Mertasari Temple with the area of 4 hectares by PT Sanur Mentari Dinamika was then abandoned and having no follow-up. The second example was reclamation on Serangan Island by BTID reaching up to three times of the original area of the island also gave unclear outcomes for the community.

“Investors come to lure the prosperity for people at Sanur and Serangan. Now, what happens to the promise? Nothing!” said Chairman of the Development Forum of Sanur Beach, Padanggalak and Serangan. Similarly, his party also urged the governor to revoke the Gubernato-rial Decree No. 1727.

As long as the gubernatorial decree had not been revoked, it meant the Benoa Bay reclamation would continue to happen. Actually, the reclamation also had an impact on the existence of the coastal ter-ritories of Bali Island. Other than harming the marine life and man-grove forests, it would also drown the surrounding villages like the Suwung, Pemogan, Sanur, Simpang Siur, Jimbaran, Tanjung Benoa and Sidakarya.

“Reclamation of the Benoa Bay with the height of about 6 meters, our territory, Benoa, Sanur, Sidakarya et cetera existing in the coastal territories of Denpasar will sink later on. As we know today, the Serangan Island reclamation has caused the abrasion to Lebih, Pa-danggalak and Sanur Beach. Before the reclamation at the Benoa Bay,

the beaches on the Island of Bali have been eroded and destroyed by abrasion, let alone after the recla-mation,” he explained.

StatementThe Coastal Community Ele-

ment Rejecting Reclamation also made a statement containing three points, namely rejecting the Benoa Bay reclamation, stopping crimi-nalization and intimidation against environmental activists and releas-ing 4 (four) environmental fighters of Jalak Sidakarya.

They expected the leaders want-ed to take side with Balinese com-munity affected by the Benoa Bay reclamation. The leaders were also asked not to resolve the issue through legal access because it was the same as criminalizing the people expressing the aspiration.

“Hopefully, the leader can hear the aspiration from the countryside of this island coast and the voice of the grassroots, stop the arrogant attitude, invoke the Gubernatorial Decree No.1727 as well as release the four environmental fighters of the Action Network Rejecting Reclamation (Jalak) Sidakarya. The coastal communities that will later become the victim of the reclama-tion plan will continue to voice their rejection against the reclamation plan,” they wrote in a three-sheet statement.

As in the previous action, the Coastal Community Element Reject-ing Reclamation also struggled to raise the coin for struggle, which was defined as the characteristic of small people struggle that cared about the environmental issues. (kmb32)

Bali News Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5InternationalTuesday, March 11, 201412 International

Agence France-Presse

HANOVER - The German IT and communications sector is set to return to growth in 2014 driven by smartphones and tablet computers but still trail a booming global market, an industry lobby said Sunday. On the eve of the world’s biggest hi-tech fair, Germany’s BITKOM said sales in IT, telecommuni-cations and consumer electronics were due to increase 1.7 percent this year after a fall of 0.5 percent in 2013.

“The bottom line will see a plus again in 2014 but we see a divergence within the branch,” said BITKOM president Dieter Kempf.

Europe’s top economy is set for sales in the overall sector to reach 153.4 billion euros ($212.8 billion) in 2014, with smartphones, tablets, software and services driving business, he said.

Globally, the IT and telecommuni-cations sector is expected to jump 4.5 percent this year compared to 2013, to nearly 3.0 trillion euros, the German lobby group has said.

While the IT sector worldwide is set for 3.8-percent growth, in Germany it will lag slightly behind, weighed down by business in desktop computers and laptops, BITKOM said.

Tablet computers however are boom-ing but “for many people will remain rather the second or third device and will not completely oust the PC and Notebook”, Kempf said.

Within the telecommunications branch, Germany is eyeing only 0.4 percent growth with sinking revenues in data and other services, compared to 5.0 percent forecast globally, the lobby said. The US is expected to continue to boast the biggest share of the global IT and telecommunications market at 27 percent, with the European Union at 21 percent, according to BITKOM figures. Brazil, Russia, India and China -- known as the BRIC nations -- are set to grow the fastest, with India leading the way, followed by China and Brazil.

The publication of the BITKOM forecasts is traditionally the first event of the CeBIT high-tech fair which will be inaugurated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron later Sunday.

Britain is the CeBIT’s partner coun-try this year at the five-day event, focused on the theme of “datability”, the ability to use vast amounts of data quickly and responsibly.

The fresh figures will turn the focus on to Bank of Japan policymakers as they start a two-day meeting, with speculation they could unveil further monetary easing measures to counter a possible slowdown from a sales tax rise next month.

There are fears the rate hike -- seen as crucial to bringing down Japan’s massive na-tional debt -- will hit consumer spending and in turn dent the country’s nascent recovery.

The world’s number-three economy ex-panded 0.2 percent in the quarter to Decem-ber and 1.5 percent through 2013, the latest data showed. That compared with earlier results showing gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent for the October-December period and 1.6 percent in 2013.

However, the new figures still mark Japan’s best annual performance in three years, as Abe’s growth blitz of big spending

and monetary easing -- dubbed Abenomics -- rippled through the economy. The economy grew 1.4 percent in 2012 and contracted 0.5 percent in 2011 swing to the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster and subsequent nuclear crisis.

“The recovery... lost pace in the second half of the year,” said London-based Capital Economics.

“Nonetheless, it would be premature to conclude that Abenomics has failed based on these figures alone.

“After all, private consumption and busi-ness investment were stalling before PM Abe’s election, but have picked up speed since then. The problem instead lies on the external side.”

A key reason for the downward revision was weak exports, as Japan’s trade imbalance balloons on the back of surging energy bills,

aggravated by the shutdown of its nuclear reactors in 2011 in response to the Fuku-shima crisis.

Atomic power once supplied about a third of the resource-poor nation’s energy.

In separate data Monday, the deficit in the January current account -- Japan’s broadest measure of trade with the rest of the world -- more than quadrupled to another record figure of 1.589 trillion yen ($15.4 billion).

The growing imbalance was driven by the soaring costs of imported energy -- made pricier by a weak yen -- and lacklustre growth in shipments of Japanese goods abroad.

Critics fear that the controversial tax rise to 8.0 percent from 5.0 percent will curtail the budding recovery in an economy beset by years of falling prices, which curbed spending and business investment. Still, Abe’s efforts to stoke the economy have been bearing fruit.

Since the conservative swept national elections in late 2012, the has yen lost about a quarter of its value against the dollar -- giv-ing a boost to Japanese exporters. The dollar bought 103.05 yen in midday Tokyo trading on Monday.

German IT market eyes 2014 growth

AP Photo/Koji SasaharaPeople walk by model houses in Yokohama near Tokyo Monday, Feb. 17, 2014. Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace than initially thought in the last quarter of 2013, revised data showed Monday, underscoring concerns about the pace of recovery under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy blitz.

Japan growth slowsAgence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace than initially thought in the last quarter of 2013, revised data showed Monday, underscoring concerns about the pace of recovery under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy blitz.

Bali Post

DENPASAR - With the ma-jority of Hindu community, the Balinese customary residents organize various kinds of ceremo-nies. Meanwhile, the agricultural land and plantation on the island increasingly diminish so the ritual facilities are dominantly brought in from Java. For instance, the need of banana remains to de-pend on the supply from Java and Flores.

s revealed by a banana seller at the Uma Anyar Market, Denpasar, Firman, on Sunday (Mar 9), hun-dreds of bunches of bananas sold at the place were brought in from Jember and Malang, East Java. Ev-

ery day, at least he ordered a truck of banana from Malang or Jember.

“The bananas sold here were first sorted in Malang. For the banana of super quality will usually be sold to mills or exported, while the regular quality will be dropped to Bali,” he added.

For the price, according to Fir-man, the plantain was usually sold for an average of IDR 50,000 per cluster, while banana of super qual-ity was sold for IDR 2,500 each. In addition, the half-ripe bananas had different price. He added the half-ripe bananas were more expensive. “The half-ripe bananas can last longer. Besides, the half-ripe can be sold more quickly. Aside from plantains, we also sell other types

of banana,” he said.Ripe bananas and the ones start-

ing to perish were usually pur-chased by cakes and fritto traders. So, any bananas offered there would definitely sell out. “Ahead of fes-tivities like Galungan, Kuningan, Pagerwesi and others, a lot of orders will be definitely sent to Java. By all means, three days before the feast, the bananas are dropped to Bali,” said Firman.

For kepok banana, said Firman, the best quality was from Flores, NTT. So, the kepok banana was the most sought after, primarily by traders of fried foods. “The flesh is more solid than the ones brought in from Java. The bananas brought in from Flores mostly belong to the

kepok banana,” he said.Meanwhile, according to the

lecturer at the Faculty of Agricul-ture, Udayana University, Prof. Dr. I Made Sudana, accompanied by I Putu Sudiarta, Ph.D., the low land areas such as Karangasem and Jembrana were suitable for banana plantation as long as there were sufficient water supplies. If the banana plantation was encouraged, Balinese people could be fulfilled so it was no longer dependent or Java to Flores.

“In my opinion, the agriculture of Bali has now been merged into an instant action being destructive to the economy of Bali. Not just ba-nana, even the flowers and canang oblations are also brought in from

Java,” said Sudiarta.In other words, the instant activi-

ties, said Sudiarta, meant that the land was plotted to make people rich instantly. As a result, the farming systems established by the ancestors vanished and the products from outside dominated Bali. The lack of government at-tention to training and coaching caused the banana farmers to be less maintained. Banana plantation was commonly planted or cultivated as intercrops among other plants. As a result, the banana plants got less sunlight and affected by wilt disease. Ideally, bananas should be grown in monoculture and managed with better agribusiness manage-ment. (rah)

Elements of coastal communities unite to reject Benoa Bay reclamation

To minimize dependencyBanana plantation must be boosted

Bali Post

DENPASAR - The struggles of Jalak Sidakarya to reject the Benoa Bay reclamation continued to spread to various elements of other society. After resumed by the Tirta Sidakarya, it was the turn of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation. However, it was truly different where the action was not filled with speeches, but with worship activity in the Candi Narmada Temple, Tanah Kilap, Sunday (Mar 9). The spiritual action starting around 10:00 a.m. was attended by hundreds of residents and coastal community leaders of Denpasar.

IBP/Komang SuryawanThe struggles of Jalak Sidakarya to reject the Benoa Bay reclamation continued to spread to various elements of other society. After resumed by the Tirta Sidakarya, it was the turn of the Coastal Community Element Rejecting Reclamation.

BUSINESS

Bali News International4 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 13International RLDW

With no confirmation that the Boeing 777 had crashed, hundreds of distraught relatives waited anx-iously for any news. Thai police and Interpol questioned the proprietors of a travel agency in the resort town of Pattaya that sold one-way tickets to two men now known to have been traveling on flight MH370 using stolen passports.

Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, told a news conference that investigators were looking at “every angle” to explain the plane’s disappearance early Saturday, in-cluding hijacking.

“There are many experts around the world who have contributed their knowhow and knowledge,” Azharuddin said. “As far as we are concerned, we are equally puzzled as well.”

The search operation has in-volved 34 aircraft and 40 ships from several countries covering a 50-nautical mile radius from the point the plane vanished from ra-dar screens between Malaysia and Vietnam, he said.

Experts say possible causes of the apparent crash include an explo-sion, catastrophic engine failure, terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, or pilot error or even suicide.

Selamat Omar, a Malaysian whose 29-year-old son Mohamad Khairul Amri Selamat was a pas-senger on the flight, expected a call from him at the 6.30 a.m. arrival time. Instead he got a call from the airline to say the plane was missing. “We accept God’s will. Whether he is found alive or dead, we surren-der to Allah,” Selamat said. There have been a few glimmers of hope,

but so far no trace of the plane has been found.

On Sunday afternoon, a Viet-namese plane spotted a rectangular object that was thought to be one of the missing plane’s doors, but ships working through the night could not locate it. Then on Monday, a Singa-porean search plane spotted a yellow object some 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of Tho Chu island, but it turned out to be some sea trash. Malaysian maritime officials found some oil slicks in the South China Sea and have sent a sample to a lab to see if it came from the plane.

As relatives of the 239 people on the flight grappled with fading hope, attention focused on how two passengers managed to board the air-craft using stolen passports. Interpol confirmed it knew about the stolen passports but said no authorities checked its vast databases on stolen documents before the jet departed.

Warning that “only a handful of countries” routinely make such checks, Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble chided authorities for “waiting for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates.”


LILING, China — The local Chinese official remembers the panic he felt in Room 109. He had refused to confess to bribery he says he didn’t commit, and his Communist Party interrogators were forcing his legs apart. Zhou Wangyan heard his left thigh bone snap, with a loud “ka-cha.” The sound nearly drowned out his howls of pain.

“My leg is broken,” Zhou told the interrogators. According to Zhou, they ignored his pleas. China’s government is under strong pressure to fight rampant corruption in its ranks, faced with the anger of an increasingly prosperous, well-educated and Internet-savvy public. However, the party’s methods for extracting confessions expose its 85 million members and their families to the risk of abuse. Experts estimate at least several thousand people are secretly detained every year for weeks or months under an internal system that is separate from state justice.

In a rare display of public defi-ance, Zhou and three other party members in Hunan described to The Associated Press the months of abuse they endured less than

two years ago, in separate cases, while in detention. Zhou, land bu-reau director for the city of Liling, said he was deprived of sleep and food, nearly drowned, whipped with wires and forced to eat excre-ment. The others reported being turned into human punching bags, strung up by the wrists from high windows, or dragged along the floor, face down, by their feet.

All said they talked to The Associated Press despite the risk of retaliation because they were victims of political vendettas and wanted to expose what had hap-pened. Party officials denied any abuses had taken place.

Zhou’s account is supported by medical records, prosecutor statements, party reports and a notice confirming that police failed to investigate the abuse. The AP also corroborated information through interviews with family and friends.

A Liling party official named Yi Dingfeng said provincial au-thorities were investigating the case. Local anti-graft officials on a Hunan online forum in Febru-ary last year denied Zhou was tortured, saying he injured himself by slipping in the bathroom. Eigh-teen months after his leg broke, Zhou still limps on crutches.

In China, brutality yields confessions of graft

AP Photo/Andy WongIn this Monday, Jan. 20, 2014 photo, Zhou Wangyan, head of the Liling city land resources bureau, stands with crutches near a plot of land under development in Liling city in central China’s Hunan province.

AP Photo/Daniel ChanA girl stands next to a sign board made and written by the public at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Monday, March 10, 2014.

Investigators chase ‘every angle’ in missing jetAssociated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Rescue helicopters and ships searching for a Malaysia Airlines jet rushed Monday to investigate a yellow object that looked like a life raft. It turned out to be moss-covered trash floating in the ocean, once again dashing hopes after more than two days of fruitless search for the plane that disappeared en route to Beijing with 239 people on board.Bali Post

NEGARA - Some of the free electricity programs for fishermen in 2013 were not on target because they were not enjoyed by fishermen. A number of fishermen that were supposed and worth to acquire did not enjoy the program of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in collaboration with the state-owned power company (PLN). Chairman of the Indonesian Fishermen As-sociation (HNSI) of Jembrana County, Made Widanayasa, revealed on Friday (Mar 7) that in Jembrana County there were at least 130 fishermen who received the program last year. However, from observation of the HNSI, some fishermen did not meet the criteria to receive the program.

The PLN also lacked of coordination with related agencies in relation to the installa-tion of the electricity. Actually, the related agencies had previously submitted a list of names which were eligible to receive the as-sistance to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs

and Fisheries. However, some fishermen that were worth to receive finally did not get it.

“A few requirements must be met to re-ceive the program. Basically, they must be small fishermen and have a fisherman mem-bership card. After that, they have a modest house. But in reality, the program was even enjoyed by non-fishermen,” he explained.

When checked to Jembrana Forestry, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (KPK), the installation by the PLN was without coordina-tion. “Similarly, there was no coordination to the agency whether the installation has been done or not. The execution lies in the PLN,” he affirmed while accompanied by Secretary of the HNSI Jembrana, Wayan Sudiarsana.

He pointed out the cases occurred at Perancak village, but did not specify the non-fisherman receiving the facility. Many fishermen meeting the criteria did not re-ceive the electricity for fishermen. One of the reasons was related to the installation by the PLN. Slightly far location of the house from the power poles did not meet

the technical criteria for the installation. As a matter of fact, this program was very useful for fishermen. “The agency has also submitted the complaint of fishermen to the ministry, and they also regretted it very much,” he added.

Separately, the Operations Manager of the PLN for Negara Region, Agus Yu-dhishthira, said the electricity program for fishermen in Negara area had accomplished last year. The regional office only installed as the data provided by the PLN Bali in ac-cordance with specified technical feasibility. Technical feasibility related to the length of cable from the substation to the home or to one another. “We just an implementer and the recipients of the program definitely have been surveyed because we received fixed data and just needed to install. There were no recipients eliminated,” he said.

For Negara region, there were approxi-mately 130 recipients. They received the installation at free of charge along with the first electrical pulse.

This trader just realized if her gold jewelry lost after being told by her sisters, Ni Nengah Sumerti, 55, and Ni Nengah Astuti, 43, after seeing the condition of the room, where the place of victim to store

the gold jewelry was in messy condition.

Chief of Klungkung Subdistrict Police, I Ketut Sutaman, confirmed the incident, Sunday (Mar 9). The missing valuables consisted of

gold jewelry in the form of chain (35 grams), a bracelet (15 grams), 4 rings and a pair of earrings, 2 swastika pendant and diamond pendant. All the jewelries were stored in the victim’s cupboard. As a result of the incident, the victim suffered a loss of IDR 34 million. The victim then reported the theft case to Klungkung Police.

Before at Manduang village, similar theft of gold jewelry also occurred at Takmung village, Ban-jarangkan subdistrict, Wednesday (Mar 5). The victim was Ketut

Diasta, 62. His jewelries in two different boxes and put in the cup-board suddenly disappeared. Both boxes contained some gold neck-laces, each weighing 50 grams, 40 grams, 12 grams, 4 grams and 9 grams. Besides, he also lost nine rings, respectively four pieces of ring weighing 50 grams and a ring of 12 grams, 8 grams, 9 grams, 4 grams and 5 grams. In addition, he also lost four pairs of earrings with the weight of 15 grams each. Thus, the missing gold jewelries were totally 231 grams. In total,

the victim suffered a loss of about IDR 160 million. The victim then reported the case to Banjarangkan Police.

To date, the culprits in the two theft cases had not been re-vealed yet. The officers of both subdistrict police were still being elaborated. Chief of Klungkung Police Investigator Unit, I Nyo-man Wirajaya, also asserted that his party was still elaborating the cases. “Our ranks are moving, but so far the result is still nothing,” he said. (kmb31)

Bali Post

AMLAPURA - Australian citizen, Bates Mark Andrew, 58, was beaten by his fellow Australian, LVW (56) on Saturday (Mar 8) at 12:30 a.m. in a food stall on Jasri Beach, Karangasem. The victim could not accept to have been beaten by LVW, recorded to have the address at Pedahan, Kubu, a mountain-ous and barren village, so the culprit was reported to Karangasem Police headquarters after the incident.

Spokesperson of Karangasem Police, Nyoman Arya Tatar, with permission from Karangasem Police Chief, Sun-day (Mar 9) confirmed if the officers had received the report of the plaintiff. Meanwhile, the case was still elaborated by the officers.

On Saturday, the victim was ac-companied by his wife, the witness Ni Komang Murniasih, before surfing on Jasri Beach. After surfing, he came to a food stall and ate. A few moments later, the culprit accompanied by his wife as well came to Jasri Beach. The culprit intentionally looked for the victim. He immediately got angry and accused the victim of having stolen his passport. After that, without clear reason, the culprit pushed to the victim’s body to fall. When the victim fell down, the culprit fisted the victim with right hand for two times and afflicted the left side of the victim’s mouth.

The victim’s mouth bruised. Howev-er, the act of the culprit had not stopped. The culprit being younger than the vic-tim took a piece of short bamboo nearby and would like to beat the victim.

Victim’s wife Komang Murniasih was responsive and attempted to intervene in the tantrums of the culprit. However, the witness Murniasih was also pushed to fall down. Residents in the vicinity then came to break up the abuse. The culprit then left the victim with his wife. As a result of the torture, the victim suffered lacerations on the left mouth. (013)

Theft action proliferates again in KlungkungBali Post

SEMARAPURA - A theft case occurred again in Klungkung. At this time, the target was a housewife who stored gold jewelry as expe-rienced by Ni Nengah Ngeti, 55, at Kaleran hamlet, Manduang village. The entire gold jewelry vanished from its place. It was just known by the victim on Saturday night (Mar 8), when she was about to take her gold jewelry to be put on when going to pray for the Sarawasti Day.

Australian reported beaten Australian

IBP/FileThe fishermen just got back from the sea

Electricity program for fishermen not on target

3Tuesday, March 11, 201414 InternationalInternational Bali NewsScience Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Bali Post

DENPASAR - Rapid growth of tourism in Bali should be balanced with the readiness of human resources and agricultural products as well as plantations. To meet the demand for ornamental flowers, including tuberose and chrysanthemums, Balinese farmers have not been able and it must mostly be supplied from Java.

As disclosed by an employee of tuberose distributor, I Made Diana, 34, when met on Jalan Sutoyo, Denpasar, he sent 40 bunches (a bunch contained an average of 1,000 stems) of tuberose to customers every day. “These flowers are brought in from Pasuruan, East Java. Every day, I am assigned to send dozens of bunches of this kind of flower. By and large, I send here (Jalan Sutoyo) and Jalan Teuku Umar,” added Diana from Kapal, Mengwi.

He added the chrysanthemum was brought in from Malang, East Java. The flower was transported by using a special bus. “Both flowers are highly in demand and mostly used at hotels. The tuberose is sold for IDR 300 per stem, while the cheapest chrysanthemum is sold for IDR 15,000 per bunch,” he added.

According to Diana, the tuberose cultivation had been tried in the region of Tabanan. But the results were not so good because it could only produce small flowers. “To my knowledge, this kind of flower cannot be cultivated in Bali,” he said.

Meanwhile, a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, Udayana Uni-versity, I Putu Sudiarta, Ph.D., said the chrysanthemum plant was very suitable to be cultivated on highlands with the average altitude of 900 meters above sea level. In Bali, such altitude was at Besakih, Kembang Merta, Candikuning, Bukit Catu, Bedugul and Pancasari. So, the loca-tions were ideal for the cultivation of chrysanthemums.

“Bali as a tourist destination which has many hotels is in remarkable need of chrysanthemum as a decorative plant. So far, the production of chrysanthemum in Bali is still lacking,” added Sudiarta.

As a result, most of the cut flower products, including chrysanthe-mum, were supplied from Java. Even, the seedlings of chrysanthemum were brought in from Java. On that account, this opportunity was still widely open. Farmers at Besakih and Bedugul area had been already producing chrysanthemum, but the results had not been maximal.

The constraints of ornamental flower cultivation, said Sudiarta, were namely pests and diseases as well as the market strategy remaining to become a problem. This needed to be taken seriously so that Bali would not be dependent on other regions. Tourism opportunities should be utilized by the people of Bali so that Balinese farmers as the host were not even turning poor due to tourism. “Synergy of tourism and the agriculture must not just be rhetoric. Collaboration of farmers, govern-ment and tourism players are synergistic control of the agriculture and tourism,” he said. (rah)

A banking and SME observer, IB Kade Perdana, said that foreign-owned banks would be more aggressive to work on the market in this country. Their presence would certainly have an impact on the banking industry in Indonesia.

“Facing the free market, the na-tional and local banking industry since the beginning must be vigilant and have been preparing for the invasion of foreign banks. This policy would have an impact on the sharpening of the level of competition in the banking world. Similarly, this condition can in-crease the threat against the existence of small banks, speed up their extinc-tion process, be away from the hope to become a host at home country,” said Kade Perdana.

He said the government, espe-cially the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia, should immediately take concrete measures

to improve the situation and protect the existence of national and small (local) banks in order to keep surviving in their home land. “Local banks need to be protected because the banking industry also plays favorable role to the nationalism, the spirit of entrepre-neurship and support the growth of the national economy,” he said.

To that end, he said the OJK and BI should impose strict enough rules against foreign banks wishing to open a branch in Indonesia, like the condi-tion experienced by national banks that were difficult to open branches overseas. “Strict rules are intended to protect the entry of foreign banks and support the banking industry in order to improve competitiveness and become the host in their home country,” he said.

Even, an economist from the Undiknas University, Prof. Dr. Gede Sri Darma, DBA, said that many

national banks were controlled by foreign parties ahead of the free market. There was possibility if the AEC would become the entrance of foreign parties to control local banks.

“It is impossible to dam or cancel this condition. One of the policies of the AEC is regarding the freedom of foreign banks to open their branches in Indonesia. Only some months to go, but foreign banks have been present in Indonesia. As proof, many shares of private national banks have been purchased by foreign compa-nies,” he said.

Nevertheless, Sri Darma argued if the domestic banks had capital and good capabilities could also expand to overseas. To that end, the banking industry should improve the quality in all areas in order to compete and ready to face the AEC 2015 and other free market in 2020. (kmb27)

ANTARA FOTO/Yudhi Mahatma

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 does not only provide the opportunities for foreign workers to work in Indonesia. The free market also opens up the opportunities for for-eign bankers to expand to Indonesia because Indonesia has been a major market for foreign banks operating here.

2015, business opportunity of foreign bank increasingly openBali Post

DENPASAR - The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 does not only provide the oppor-tunities for foreign workers to work in Indonesia. The free market also opens up the opportunities for foreign bankers to expand to Indonesia because Indonesia has been a major market for foreign banks operating here. Liberalization in the AEC increases the influx of foreign businesses.

IBP/Ngurah Ken

Rapid growth of tourism in Bali should be balanced with the readiness of human resources and agricultural prod-ucts as well as plantations. To meet the demand for orna-mental flowers, including tuberose and chrysanthemums, Balinese farmers have not been able and it must mostly be supplied from Java.

Ornamental flower suppliers from Java ‘besiege’ Bali

Asteroid P/2013 R3 was de-tected in September in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It appeared as a fuzzy object. Further observations by ground telescopes revealed three bodies. Hubble uncovered 10 objects, each with dusty tails. The four largest fragments are up to 656 feet (200 meters) across.

Scientists say the asteroid be-gan coming apart early last year. They theorize sunlight is slowing pulling the asteroid apart by in-creasing its rotation.

A planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Jewitt, led the investigation. He says seeing the rock “fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing.” The pictures were released Thursday.


WASHINGTON — The World Digital Library led by the Library of Congress reached a milestone Thursday, surpassing 10,000 items with the addition of ancient manuscripts from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Officials said the digital library’s collection has grown to include 10,037 digitized manuscripts, maps, books, prints, photographs, films, sound re-cordings and other cultural items. The ongoing effort is a collaborative project that includes contributions from 102 institutions in 46 different countries. The content can be accessed online in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Rus-sian and Spanish.

The latest contributions include an early 16th-century Gospel manuscript from Ethiopia and a manuscript containing an Ottonian Gospel book fragment believed to have been made in a German monastery in the 10th century. There is also a church calendar in Greek that was created in Byzantium around 1025 to 1041.

The Walters Art Museum has been using a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities to digitize its manuscript collection. Librarian of Congress James Billington said the digital library is making important and beautiful content available to a global audience.

“This project is of enormous benefit to students, teachers, scholars and lifelong learners, and I am gratified to see that it continues to grow,” he said. The World Digital Library began to take shape in 2005 with a $3 million gift from Google. It was for-


SAN JOSE, California — Arwin Buditom guards some of the most successful high-tech firms in America. Joseph Farfan keeps their heat, air and electric systems humming. But these workers and tens of thousands like them who help fuel the Silicon Val-ley’s tech boom can’t even make ends meet anymore. Buditom rooms with his sister an hour’s drive from work. Farfan gets his groceries at a food pantry.

“It’s unbelievable until you’re in the middle of it,” Farfan said, standing in line at the Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose for free pasta, rice and vegetables. “Then the reality hits you.”

Silicon Valley is entering a fifth year of unfettered growth. The median household income is $90,000, according to the Census Bureau. The average single-family home sells for about $1 mil-lion. The airport is adding an $82 million private jet center.

But the river of money flowing through this 1,800-square-mile (5,000-sq. kilometer) peninsula, stretching from south of San Fran-cisco to San Jose, has also driven housing costs to double in the past five years while wages for low- and middle-skilled workers are stagnant. Nurses, preschool teachers, security guards and land-scapers commute for hours from less-expensive inland suburbs. Now the widening income gap between the wealthy and those left behind is sparking debate, anger and sporadic protests.

Rants against the rich were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, home to many top tech CEOs that Forbes magazine last year called the nation’s most expensive community. In Cupertino, security guards rallied outside Apple’s shareholder meeting on Feb. 28 demanding better wages. “What’s the matter with Silicon Val-ley? Prosperity for some, poverty for many. That’s what,” read their banner.

This combi-nation image

made avail-able by NASA on Thursday,

March 6, 2014 shows a series of photos from

the Hubble Space Tele-

scope record-ing the disin-

tegration of an asteroid from

Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 14, 2014.

Hubble Telescope captures shattering asteroid


CAPE CANAVERAL, Flor-ida — The Hubble Space Tele-scope has captured the first pictures of a disintegrating asteroid.

Silicon Valley boom eludes many, drives income gap

World Digital Library grows to 10,000 items

AP Photo/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014 by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, shows a photograph from Ernest Hemingway’s passport, one of many new items from Hemingway’s former estate in Cuba being made available at the museum.

mally launched in 2009 at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris with content from national libraries around the world. Since the launch, Spanish language users have been the largest group using the digital library’s resources.

AP Photo/NASA, ESA, UCLA, D. Jewitt

International2 Tuesday, March 11, 2014 15International Activities

Bali News

Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Adnyana, 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

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


Calendar Event for March 5 through May 21, 2014

5 Mar Hari Urip 6 Mar Hari Patetegan7 Mar Pengeradanan Pura Dadia Agung Pasek Kabayan Penebel Tabanan

8 Mar Saraswati Pura Pasek tangkas Gempinis Dalang TabananPura Pasek Gelgel Sayan AbiansemalPura Watu Gunung BimaPura Agung Jagat Karana SurabayaPura Aditya Jaya JakartaPura Pemaksan Banyuning TimurPura Agung Wira Loka Cimahi Jawa Barat

9 Mar Hari Banyu Pinaruh 10 Mar Soma ribek Pura Jati JembranaPura Kawitan Bayu Gaiyang BangliTirta Wening SurabayaPura Desa Lingga Wana Abang Karangasem

11 Mar Sabuh Mas12 Mar Hari Pagerwesi Pura Labang Sindu JiwaUbudPura Kehen BangliPura Wira Bhuana Magelang Jawa tengahPura Padang Sakti Denpasar TimurPura Payogan Agung Ketewel GianyarPura Gaduh Pangiasan Dauh Puri DenpasarPura Masceti Tampak SiringPura Dalem Ularan DenpasarPura Siwa Penebel TabananPura Luhur Sliki BanyuwangiPura Gunung Lebah UbudPura Puseh Sukawati

15 Mar Purnama Sasih Kesanga Pura Nataran Sasih Pejeng GianyarPura Bukit Mentik Gunung lebah Batur Kintamani

17 Mar Kajeng Kliwon Uwudan 22 Mar Tumpek Landep Pura Mutering Jagat Dalem Sidakarya

DenpasarPura Agung Pasek TabananPura Pasek Tangkas TabananPura Kerta Banyuning BulelengPura Dalem Tenggaling Singapadu GianyarPura Bhujangga JembranaPura Dalem pingit TegalalangPura Penataran Pande Pandean MengwiPura Ida Ratu Pande BesakihPura Penataran AGung TulikupPura Kumuda Saraswati UbudPura Batur Arya Tabanan

23 Mar radite Umanis Ukir Sanggah Gede Dukuh Segening Tegal Tugu Gianyar

26 Mar Buda Cemeng Ukir Pura Pajenengan Kawitan Arya Gelgel KelungkungPura Pasar Agung BesakihPura Pasek Bendesa Legian Kuta BadungPura Gde Gunung Agung Munggu BadungPura Puseh Bebalang BangliPura Dalem Peruncak BadungPura Pasek Bendesa Hyang Krobokan BadungPura Kereban Langit Mengwi Badung

28 Mar Melasti Pakiyisan Ke Segara Pura Pasek Gelgel Kukuh Marga

30 Mar Tilem Kesanga Tawur Agung 31 Mar Hari raya Nyepi 1 May Buda Kajeng Kliwon Enyitan 2 May Bhatara Sri Ida Ratu Geng BesakihPura Penataran Agung BesakihIda Ratu Raja Puraus BesakihMerajan Saloding Besakih

6 May Anggara Kasih Juluwangi Pura Thirta Harum Tegal Wangi BangliPura Baratan BaturitiPura Batu Klotok Klungkung

Pura Pasek Tohjiwa Wanasari TabananPura Ibu Wanagiri Selemadeg TabananPura Manik Bingin Dukuh Sidemen

7 May Pura Penataran Gana Bebalang BangliPura Dalem Gede Pande BangliPura Puncak Sari Sangeh Abian SemalPura Puseh Penegil Dharma Kubu Tam-bahan BangliPura Dalem Maya Blahbatuh GianyarPura Linggih Betara Kayu Selem Penataran Agung Besakih

13 May Purnama Sasih Jiyestha Pura Dwija Warsa MalangPura Pucak Tinggah Angsri BaturitiPura Kawitan Luhur Bhujangga Jati Lu-wih PenebelPura Kawitan Batur Pande Tonja Tonja DenpasarPura Penataran Agung Sidemen Karan-gasemPura Maospahit Grenceng Denpasar

15 May Sugihan Jawa Pura Kawitan Tangkas Kori Agung Tang-kas KlungkungPura Siang Kangin Peninjoan Tembuku BangliPura Ida Ratu Mas Penataran Agung BesakihPura Ida Bhatara Bang Tulus Besakih

16 May Sugihan Bali Dan Kajeng Kliwon 18 May Penyekeban 19 May Penyajaan Galungan 20 May Penampahan Galungan21 May Hari raya Galungan Pura Wakika Kupang NTTPura Agung Girinatha Sumbawa Besar NTBPura Dukuh Sakti Dukuh Kediri Ta-bananPura Atambuananta Kutamba NTTPura Webananta Kupang NTTPura Giripati Mulawarman PontianakPura Mustika Dharma Cijantung Jakarta Timur

Taking the standard, minimalist budget hotel concept to an entirely new level, the new Hotel NEO Kebayoran will be the latest ad-dition to the already famous NEO brand. Hotel NEO Kebayoran will merge authentic contemporary art and invigorating interior designs with high-end in-room facilities. It will come complete with upscale features and professional service, meeting the needs of the modern-day urban professional by offer-ing a stylish yet affordable hotel alternative.

Located in South Jakarta, the ho-tel is just 5 minutes to the Busway shelter and close by to high-end shopping malls like Gandaria City, Pondok Indah Mall and Senayan City & Plaza Senayan. Just 15 minutes away is the Cipulir Market,

while Carrefour Express is located opposite to the hotel.

Hotel NEO Kebayoran will boast 105 rooms in two different categories. The hotel will also provide 4 meeting rooms, a coffee shop, a stylish lobby area and ample space for convenient parking.

“We are always proud to com-memorate the beginning of a new project, and this new build will be particularly exciting seeing as it is our flourishing NEO brand hitting the capital city once more. We are confident that Hotel NEO Kebay-oran will live up to and surpass all expectations, and we promise that this latest branch will be as unique and contemporary as our other NEO hotels.” Said Norbert Vas, Vice President Sales & Marketing Archipelago International. IBP/Courtesy of Archipelago International

New Neo Hotel’s groundbreakingIBP

JAKArTA - On Saturday, February 24th 2014, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the new Hotel NEO Ke-bayoran, marking the commencement of the construction process for the new 105-room hotel.

Bali Post

GIANyAr - Banyupinaruh celebratory mood on the Saba Beach, Saba village, Blahbatuh, almost claimed a victim, Sunday (Mar 9). Amid the hectic residents visit-ing the Saba Beach around 7:10 a.m., an incident was experienced by Wayan Sudiarta from Kendran village, Tegallalang, swept away by waves. Fortunately, the victim could be saved by his companions by using an outrigger owned by local fisherman.

Information compiled from the location, the Saba Beach as other beaches in Gianyar had been visited by many people from 05:00 a.m. The victim Wayan Sudiarta along with five companions from Kendran, Tegallalang, came to the beach and was about to carry out the Banyupinaruh (holy bath) procession. Firstly, the youth group played and then took a bath on Saba Beach, exactly in front of the Anyar Saba Temple.

Although the waves were not too big in that morning, the victim was suddenly unable to control the flows of the beach when taking a bath, so he was dragged into the sea. The victim screamed for help and was assisted by his companions. Residents, security officers as well as the local lifeguard (Balawista) also lent a hand to evacuate the victim. At that time, the victim had been dragged for almost 45 minutes in the sea. After provided with a bamboo outrigger, the victim could survive and was pulled to the beach by degrees.

With permission from Chief of Blahbatuh Police, Wayan Latra, the rural police of Saba village Ketut Se-dana said the victim in the sea was attempted to go ashore with a boat outrigger aided by his companions. However, due to sea condition and having no experience at sea, the victim’s companion also almost became a victim. “Some of the people and officers also helped evacuate them,” he explained while adding that after the incident people began to leave the beach.

In the current implementation of the Banyupinaruh procession on the beach, along the beach in Gianyar was jointly supervised by the officers from each subdistrict police, marine police of Gianyar Police, lifeguard, Gianyar Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) as well rural police of each region.

Chief of Marine Police Squad of Gianyar Police, Ketut Manis, explained that based on observation on the visit of residents to the beaches in Gianyar in that morning, the most crowded visit was on the Purnama Beach (Sukawati subdistrict), Cucukan Beach, Saba Beach (Blahbatuh) and Lebih Beach (Gianyar). Thousands of people began to ar-rive from 05:00 a.m. and left the beach at 09:00 a.m.

Meanwhile, not much different atmosphere from the beach also occurred in the springs. Since the morning on the Banyupinaruh Day, the holy bathing place in the Tirta Empul Temple, Tampaksiring, was thronged by many people who wanted to perform melukat or purificatory rite. They were almost the same as those coming to the beach. Peak of the procession was around 10:00 a.m., where people were willing to be in line for the purificatory rite in the Tirta Empul Temple. (kmb16)

The Head of Bali Health Agency, Ketut Suarjaya, explained the dengue occurred throughout the counties and municipality. The endemic nature made this viral infection disease able to develop any time if the environ-ment was supportive. In terms of the data of each county and municipality, Buleleng County showed the highest dengue case during the year 2014. In January, the dengue case in Buleleng reached 245 and 282 in February. Then, it was followed by Badung and Denpasar with respectively 179 cases and 70 cases in January, rising to 201 and 120 cases in February.

Bangli County formerly indicating

a very rare dengue case recorded an increase in 2014 to 4 cases in Janu-ary and 15 cases in February. Seeing the data, the dengue case commonly dominated by Denpasar began to de-cline and the increase even occurred in Buleleng County.

According to Suarjaya, the increase in dengue cases in the region depend-ed on the environmental sanitation condition and the regular mosquito nest eradication (PSN) by local com-munity. “All the regions have the potential to be infected mainly those in lowland area. Emergence of the disease is triggered by the environ-ment so the role of the community to

maintain the environment is impor-tant,” said Suarjaya.

When the environmental condition permitted such as the existence of many puddles as well as hot weather interspersed with rain, it would greatly accelerate the development of the dengue vector mosquito, namely the Aedes aigypti. Eradication of the mosquito itself was not only in the adult phase but also of its larvae phase. Thus, other than fogging, the eradication of mosquito nest should also be regularly carried out along with draining and covering the water reservoir and burying rubbish with the potential to hold water. (san)

A visitor to Saba Beach dragged by waves

IBP/File

The officers carry out fogging to prevent the spread of dengue fever

A total of 838 dengue cases occur in February

Bali PostDENPASAr - The development of dengue case in February 2014 showed an increase compared to the

ones in January 2014. During the February, the total dengue case reached 838 where the rate increased by about 139 cases from the dengue case in January recorded to reach 699 cases.


16 Pages Number 606th year

e-mail: [email protected] online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Page 6

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

DPs 23 - 32

EntertainmentWEATHER FORECAsT


Page 8 Page 13

“The arrival of tourists from Australia, China, Malaysia, Singa-pore, Taiwan, the United States and the UK has increased. Meanwhile,

the tourist arrival from Japan, South Korea and Russia has decreased,” said the Head of BPS Bali, Panusu-nan Siregar, in Denpasar.

He said the number of foreign travelers who came to Bali in January 2014 reached 292,257. This figure in-creased by 19.89 percent compared to the same month in the previous year. When, compared to December 2013, the number of travelers decreased by 6.61 percent. In January 2014, the majority of foreign tourists coming to Bali were through the Ngurah Rai Airport reaching 278,685 people or 99.80 percent, while through seaport amounted to 572 people.

“Compared to the same month

in the previous year, the number of tourists who came through the Ngurah Rai Airport has increased by 21.40 percent. Meanwhile, when compared to condition last December, this figure was down 4.87 percent,” he said.

According to him, slowing down of tourist arrival also had implica-tions on the room occupancy rate at the beginning of 2014. Evidently, the room occupancy rate of star hotel in Bali in January reached an average of 57.76 percent, down 4.77 points compared to the room

occupancy rate in December 2013 which amounted to 62.53 percent.

“The highest occupancy rate was in Tabanan, amounting to 71.80 percent and the lowest was 33.05 percent in Buleleng. Compared to December 2013, the occupancy rate in Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Karangasem, Buleleng and Den-pasar showed a decrease respec-tively by 1.33 points, 4.54 points, 5.49 points, 5.97 points, 7.76 points and 0.63 points,” he explained.

Three potential tourism markets of Bali downBali Post

DENPASAR - Tourist arrival from a number of Bali tourism potential markets such as Japan, South Korea and Russia de-creased. Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali Chapter noted that by nationality, the most travelers visiting the Island of Gods were from Australia, China, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, with the respective percentage of 25.53 percent, 18.64 percent, 5.61 percent, 5.10 percent and 4.38 percent.

Tourist arrival from a number of Bali tourism

potential markets such as Japan, South Korea and

Russia decreased. ANTARA FOTO/Nyoman Budhiana

Continued on page 6

Seven years after the original “300” became an unlikely, ultra-stylish, blood-soaked sensation, Warner Bros.’ 3-D follow-up showed considerable might at the box office. While “300: Rise of an Empire” didn’t come close to the North American debut of Zack Snyder’s 2007 original ($70.9 million and without the benefit of 3-D ticket prices), it performed like a blockbuster overseas.

“Rise of an Empire,” which with flexed torsos and lots of bloodshed fur-ther chronicles the ancient battles of the Greeks and Persians, led a busy box-of-

fice weekend that also saw an Academy Awards bump for “12 Years a Slave” and one of the highest per-screen averages ever for Wes Anderson’s European caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Though “300: Rise of an Empire” is excessively macho, Eva Green — the film’s fiercest presence — may have drawn females for what was always go-ing to be a male-centric release. Whereas the female audience for the first “300” was only 29 percent, it was 38 percent for “Rise of an Empire.” “Talk about fe-male empowerment,” said Jeff Goldstein,

head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., of the “Casino Royale” actress.

Noting the popularity of 3-D and IMAX screenings for the movie, Gold-stein credited the visual panache of producer Snyder (Noam Murro took over directing), who drew directly from Frank Miller’s graphic novels: “He brings a lot to the screen that mesmerizes you.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media ana-lyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, said the “300” franchise “translates to virtually every culture. Every country can appreci-ate the visuals of these movies.”

The week’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s animated “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” opened in second with $32.5 million. Though the perfor-mance was better than some expected, it’s a relatively low total for a film that

cost about $140 million to make.

The film is based on the cartoon about a time-traveling boy and his brilliant dog from “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.” Some of the fam-ily film market was likely taken by Warner Bros.’ hit “The Lego Movie,” which added $11 million in its fifth weekend.


Two years after launching its Infinite line of digital comics, Marvel Entertainment said it intends to expand the line’s offerings with its first all-ages titles as it moves to attract younger readers familiar with characters like Spider-Man from animated television shows. Announced Sunday at the annual South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and Kristin Vincent, the vice president of its digital products, called the new “Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man” digital title the publisher’s first for kids in the Infinite format.

“We’re trying to reach the next generation of comics fans,” Vincent said. “These stories resonate with kids.” By taking tales from the television series of the same name, the publisher hopes the digital comics will find an audience in kids who are more used to reading on a tablet than traditional paper.

“The story telling just lends itself naturally to a tablet . images replace the other images,” she said, adding that while it’s not animation, the pages and story are bright, vivid and redolent of what kids see on television.

With the Infinite format — a digital-only me-dium that features stories and art native to digital readers — Alonso believes kids will get their first hands-on experience with comics in a way more akin to what they’ve experienced with TV.

“It will excite them and it’s in a format they understand,” he said of the title, which is due out later this year and will eventually be available in more than 10 languages around the globe.

The stories feature writers known to readers of traditional comics, including Eugene Son, Matt Kindt, Cullen Bunn and Tim Seeley, along with artists Luciano Vecchio and Soutchey Leimetry and storyboards by J.L. Mast and Geoffrey Beaulieu.

AP Photo/Marvel Comics

This image released by Marvel Comics shows a scene from the first all-ages Infinite Comics series, “Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man,” airing Sunday mornings inside the Marvel Universe on Disney XD.

Marvel expands Infinite with ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’

‘300’ sequel rules box office with $45.1M debutAssociated Press Writer

NEW YORK — The shirtless warriors of the “300” sequel “Rise of an Empire” ravaged the post-Oscars box-office weekend with a domestic debut of $45.1 million but an even bigger international haul of $87.8 million.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Sullivan Staple-ton in “300: Rise of an Empire.”

Investigators chase ‘every angle’ in missing jet

Pistorius trial: Court hears autopsy testimony

Ronaldo helps Madrid win to reclaim sole lead

Edisi 11 Maret 2014 | International Bali Post

Documents