Thursday, September 16, 2010

16 Pages Number 1762st Year

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CITY TEMPERATURE OC

WEATHERFORECAST

25 - 33

25 - 34

21 - 31

24 - 33

26 - 37

DENPASAR

JAKARTA

BANDUNG

YOGYAKARTA

SURABAYA

SUNNY BRIGHT/CLOUDY RAIN

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

Conservatives threaten toConservatives threaten toConservatives threaten toConservatives threaten toConservatives threaten toshatter Australia PM’s ruleshatter Australia PM’s ruleshatter Australia PM’s ruleshatter Australia PM’s ruleshatter Australia PM’s ruleAgence France Presse

SYDNEY – Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott Wednesday threatened to bringSYDNEY – Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott Wednesday threatened to bringSYDNEY – Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott Wednesday threatened to bringSYDNEY – Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott Wednesday threatened to bringSYDNEY – Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott Wednesday threatened to bringdown Julia Gillard’s fragile minority government, one day after it was sworn in, by persuad-down Julia Gillard’s fragile minority government, one day after it was sworn in, by persuad-down Julia Gillard’s fragile minority government, one day after it was sworn in, by persuad-down Julia Gillard’s fragile minority government, one day after it was sworn in, by persuad-down Julia Gillard’s fragile minority government, one day after it was sworn in, by persuad-ing independent MPs to support him. Neither leader won an outright majority at August 21ing independent MPs to support him. Neither leader won an outright majority at August 21ing independent MPs to support him. Neither leader won an outright majority at August 21ing independent MPs to support him. Neither leader won an outright majority at August 21ing independent MPs to support him. Neither leader won an outright majority at August 21polls but Gillard’s ruling Labor party was returned to office after the prime minister man-polls but Gillard’s ruling Labor party was returned to office after the prime minister man-polls but Gillard’s ruling Labor party was returned to office after the prime minister man-polls but Gillard’s ruling Labor party was returned to office after the prime minister man-polls but Gillard’s ruling Labor party was returned to office after the prime minister man-aged to broker the support of minority lawmakers.aged to broker the support of minority lawmakers.aged to broker the support of minority lawmakers.aged to broker the support of minority lawmakers.aged to broker the support of minority lawmakers.

But Abbott said he was determined tolure two rural “kingmaker” independentsto his side by convincing them that Labor’splanned national broadband Internet net-work was a mistake — a move that wouldsmash Gillard’s hold on power.

AFP PHOTO / Torsten BLACKWOOD

(Front row) Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (L) and Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce (2nd L) are joined byDeputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan (C), Stephen Conroy (2nd R), minister for broadband, communications andthe digital economy, and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd (R) for the official photo during a ceremony at Govern-ment House in Canberra on September 14, 2010.

Agence France PressePARIS – The Eiffel Tower has re-

opened a day after being evacuated be-cause of a bomb threat from an anonymouscaller. Paris police said Wednesday thatno enhanced security measures wereplanned at France’s most visited monu-ment, and an investigation has been handedover to the city prosecutor’s office.

Explosives experts found nothing sus-picious, and there was no immediateclaim of responsibility.

Parts of a second tourist hub — theSaint-Michel subway station near NotreDame Cathedral — were briefly evacu-ated following a similar threat. An at-tack there in 1995 killed eight and in-jured scores of people.

The head of France’s counterespio-nage agency was quoted over the week-end as saying the risk of an attack inFrance has never been higher.

Eiffel Towerreopens

after bombthreat,

evacuation

Military officersstand guard afterthe evacuation ofthe Eiffel Tower andthe park surround-ing the Paris land-mark following abomb alert onSeptember 14, 2010.A police officer saidabout 25,000 peoplewere in the area atthe time of the alertbut added that theyleft calmly shortlybefore 9:00 pm(1900 GMT).

AFP PHOTO / PATRICK KOVARIK

Nicole Kidmansweats newproducer role

‘Realistic’ Stonerfacing a ‘tough job’

Spiritual Farming:From one green tosome other greens

InternationalThursday, September 16, 20102

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, Wirya, YudiWinanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: BaliPutra Ariawan, Tabanan: Surpi. Jakarta: Nikson,Hardianto,Ade Irawan . NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani, Nur Haedin, Suyadnya. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: AlitPurnata, 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

Bali NewsEntry and exit counter overrun by vehiclesEntry and exit counter overrun by vehiclesEntry and exit counter overrun by vehiclesEntry and exit counter overrun by vehiclesEntry and exit counter overrun by vehiclesDozens of regional migrants repatriatedDozens of regional migrants repatriatedDozens of regional migrants repatriatedDozens of regional migrants repatriatedDozens of regional migrants repatriated

As consequence, the officerschiefly at Post II or entrance to Balihad to work extra. Other than in-specting their vehicle document,they should also check the baggageof passengers. Even, crowded situ-ation from both directions was dis-cernible when two ships unloadedsimultaneously. Examinationqueues at Post II and identity cardPost was unavoidable.

Since last Monday night, the en-try counter had been crowded byhundreds of private cars going backto Java. In addition, it was also over-run by inter-provincial city buses forthe route of Surabaya-Malang andCentral Java. Due to many busescoming almost simultaneously, busconductors diverted the bus queueto the front of Gilimanuk shoppingcomplex or did not pass through theusual pathway namely through theparking maneuvers. As a result,more buses could get out of the shipthan private cars.

Negara (Bali Post)—Backflow at Gilimanuk Harbor since last Monday (Sep 13) afternoon until Tuesday (Sep 14)

continued from two directions. The entry counter to the harbor was crowded by private vehiclesand tourist buses that wanted to go back to Java, whereas from the opposite direction, privatevehicles dominated by motorcycles and passenger vehicles flowed continuously from Ketapang.Among these migrants, some did not bring along with identity card despite identity check hadbeen performed at Ketapang.

Operations Manager of waters trans-portation services (ASDP) of Gilimanuk,Ospar Silaban, when asked for his con-firmation justified the increasing num-ber of vehicles using the ship services.Similarly, the number of vehicles leav-ing Bali was also increasing. Such con-dition caused long queue at the harborparking. According to him, there were21 ships operated for the crossing ser-vices in the Bali Strait. The queue of ve-hicles ran out in the morning at 6:00 amLocal Time.

Without identity cards

On the other side, the measure ofBali Police to alleviate the problemsregarding to regional migrants com-ing without identity has not been per-fect. In reality, there were dozens ofmigrants found to have no identitybut had set foot at Gilimanuk Har-bor.

They were ensnared when exam-ined at identity check post at

Gilimanuk. Other than having noidentity card, some others showedexpired identity card. When moreand more passengers came in, infact, many of them did not bringalong identity card. They were even-tually repatriated to their place oforigin or to Ketapang. According toChief Village of Gilimanuk, IGN RaiBudi, based on the data obtained atthe identity check post since one dayafter Idul Fitri there had been re-corded dozens of migrants having noidentity card.

“Until this afternoon, there were 43violations of identity and some of themhad been repatriated. Meanwhile, somewere allowed to resume their journeyas they confessed to go to Lombok, notto Bali. Rai Budi was glad to welcomethe initiative of police to conduct a pre-caution at Ketapang. His party agreedthat identity examination was con-ducted in multiple layers. “They (mi-grants) would be looking for cracks sothey can enter Bali,” he said. (sur)

IBP/doc

A number of regional migrants just coming into Gilimanuk Har-bor passed through identity check post. Since one day afterholiday, dozens of migrants were repatriated as did not bringalong identity card.

Denpasar (Bali Post)—Since getting complaints about

rental charges of bathroom by visitors,Sanglah Hospital had no longer im-posed any charges since a month ago.

But after taking place for a month,new complaints emerged. According tothe attendants and patients sitting in thewaiting room located in front of thebathroom of Emergency Room, smellof urine wafted up to where they sat.Moreover, condition of bathroom con-sisting of six rooms also looked dirty.Actually, when there was an officerserving as gatekeeper, rental collectorand cleaning service, the bathroom wasclean and better maintained.

When asked for confirmation aboutthe matter, Division Head of Public Re-lations of Sanglah Hospital, IGNAPutra Wibawa, last Tuesday (Sep 14),said that based on the current regula-tion state hospitals were not allowed toimpose any charges for the bathroomfacilities. If there was indeed a chargein Sanglah Hospital all this time, it wasconducted in partnership with thirdparty. In other words, to maintain thesanitation of bathroom the hospitalmade cooperation with external party.As compensation, the cleaning serviceprovider was entitled to get such rentalcharges.

However, since there was a com-

Bathroom of Emergency Roomin Sanglah Hospital complained

plaint letter about the charges, coopera-tion with the external party was waivedand sanitation responsibility was takenover by in-house cleaning service. Putraadmitted that cleaning service officersof Sanglah Hospital had fulfilled theirobligation to maintain the bathroom.Then, why is it still dirty? According toPutra, in the normal visit there were 318cleaning service officers in SanglahHospital being capable of covering theentire tasks.

However, when more visits ensuedas in the recent months, their work loadincreased, too. “Responsibility of clean-ing service on duty in EmergencyRoom does not only clean the bath-room. Their main task is to pick up pa-tients and clean the spacious Emer-gency Room,” said Putra. On that ac-count, his party hoped the attendantsand patients using the bathroom tomaintain the sanitation well. One of theways was by flushing the toilet afterusing and disposing rubbish into thecontainer provided.

Habitually, there was one cleaningservice officer on duty per shift in Emer-gency Room. To handle the public com-plaints about the dirty bathroom, theSanglah Hospital would optimize theexisting cleaning service so that lateron there would be three officers on dutyper shift. (kmb24)

Denpasar (Bali Post)—Zaenap, 45, from Wonorejo 4/

37 community unit (RT) 008,neighborhood unit (RW) 006,Wonorejo, Tegalsari, Surabaya,East Java, i s now forced tocrouch in the cell of South KutaPolice. Such jobless woman wascaptured by mobile detectiveunit of South Kuta Police, lastSunday (Sep 12) at 7:30 pm Lo-cal Time because of stealing abag belonged to Chong Hongjin.The bag of foreigner containinga number of valuables wasgrabbed by the suspect.

The theft incident ensued inCafe Tebe, Muaya Beach,Jimbaran, South Kuta, Badung.At that time, the victim found thesuspect stealing the bag. She wasimmediately arrested and handedover to South Kuta Police. “The

Jobless woman arrestedafter stealing a foreigner’s bag

suspect has been arrested. Now,we’re still developing the case,including whether the suspectalso took action on other scene,”said Chief of South Kuta PoliceNanang Prihasmoko, last Tues-day (Sep 14).

According to Chief NanangPrihasmoko, the theft action be-gan when the victim was havingmeals at the cafe. Afterward, thevictim went into the bathroomand placed her bag on the table.At the same time, the suspect alsocame to the scene by pretendingto do shopping. “Well, the sus-pect immediately grabbed thevictim’s bag lying on the table.Furthermore, the suspect at-tempted to escape,” he said.

When the suspect tried to flee,the victim came back to her table.How surprised she was when

knowing her bag was taken by atheft. Of course, the victim calledout and chased after the perpe-trator. Not long after, the suspectcould be arrested and immedi-ately handed over to South KutaPolice. “The suspect and the evi-dence had been submitted to us.Immediately, we are going to ex-amine the suspect,” he explained.

Chief Nanang Prihasmokosaid the investigation to the sus-pect was on progress. Based onpreliminary results, the suspectwas just in Bali for few days. Shedid not have any job and perma-nent residence. “Evidence se-cured consisted of laptop, cam-era and camcorder. As her testi-mony, she just stole for first time.However, we are still making fur-ther invest igat ion,” he con-cluded. (kmb21)

3International Bali News Thursday, September 16, 2010

Incoming Residence Can’tIncoming Residence Can’tIncoming Residence Can’tIncoming Residence Can’tIncoming Residence Can’tEnter Without Denpasar IDEnter Without Denpasar IDEnter Without Denpasar IDEnter Without Denpasar IDEnter Without Denpasar ID

During the inspection that carried outby Denpasar’s civil administration of-fice, there are many incoming residencewithout identities are found. The inspec-tion was done on Tuesday.

The inspection to anticipate the post-mobilization incoming residences fromtheir hometown after celebratingRamadan. This sudden inspection per-formed since 07.00 targeting bus passen-gers that arrived in the largest bus sta-tion in Bali. Passengers who get off thebus identity are checked directly by theofficers of the officers from both depart-ment as well several officers from po-lice department.

Head of Mobilization for Population,Civil Administration Department ofDenpasar, Pande Made Sri Artatika saysfrom this inspection, there are 384 resi-dents who had recently arrived in Bali.The incoming residences were gatheredfrom the 29 buses that stopped in Termi-nal Ubung. “There are three of them whogot no ID Card,’’she said.

However Artatika say no immigrantsreturn to his homeland as it promisedsome time ago. “Three people have a

Denpasar (Bali Post) -Bali’s government not only checking the identity card of incom-

ing people that arrived in Gilimanuk port, they also have severalposts in other ports and bus station. The incoming people (Duktang)that newly arrived in Denpasar by bus AKAP via Terminal Ubungget the same checking treatment and got warrant if they can’t showtheir ID cards.

warrant here, we do not send themhome,’’ she explained.

Meanwhile, hundreds of othersthat being gathered by officers onlyasked to report to the head of their

neighborhood and get the temporaryidentity card (kipem).

Artatika stated that sudden in-spection will be held until the flowof Lebaran holiday subsidize.Denpasar plan to do this inspectionuntil September 17, 2010. Accord-ing to Artatika there is also the sameinspection will be held in Benoa Porton 23 and 24 September. “We con-duct the inspection on that dates be-cause there are ships that will becoming to the port.’’ (kmb12)

IBP/doc

The incoming people are registered by the offcers and thosewho didn’t bring any indentification must return to their nativearea.

Invasive monkeysthwart harvest ofresidents, so theydivert to handicraftSemarapura (Bali Post)—

The attack by hundreds of monkeys in a number of areas ofNusa Penida such as Penangkidan, Punduk Ehe, Sompang,Penida, Sakti, Bunga Mekar and others is increasingly moreserious. It resulted in great loss to local residents. Monkeysinvaded the crops of any kind owned by residents. As conse-quence, in the harvest time residents could only produce 40percent. Residents then should think hard to generate extra in-come. One of them was by moving to handicraft works.

Some villagers of Punduk Ehe like Mangku Sulatri andSukerta revealed that existence of the monkeys had ensued sincelong time ago. However, they turned rampant recently. “Allplants we planted in the dry field were harmed,” they said. Noaction could be taken to reduce the attacks. Indeed, they saidthat one of the villagers had shot the monkeys, but no effect.“When a monkey dies, there will be more monkeys emerging,”he said while adding that the most frequently damaged werecorn, beans and others. “Due to this harvest failure, we suf-fered a loss up to 60 percent,” he said.

Mangku Sulatri added they did not only disturb the plants,but also disturbed residents passing through nearby. Especially,they liked to disturb women bringing food to their dry field.By and large, those monkeys jumped and swung on the head ofresidents bringing along the food. “On that account, if a womanwished to convey food to her dry fields she does not dare goalone. However, she should go with other friends,” he added.

Since they were unable to expel those monkeys, people thensubmitted to their destiny. Aside from remaining to do farm-ing, they also took side job to handicraft work for additionalearnings. They might produce bamboo cages for rooster, bam-boo rice bowl and other crafts. “Meanwhile, there are also lo-cal residents carving a wooden panel,” said Sukerta. Accord-ing to them, during the rainy season local residents cultivatedcorn, while during dry season they planted sweet potatoes orbeans. (kmb20)

Excise and Customs officerspay special attention to IranianMany get involved in drug smugglingDenpasar (Bali Post)—

Numerous Iranian gettinginvolved in drug abuse latelycaused trauma among the Cus-toms and Excise officers. In re-sponse to the situation, theyeven made a sort of new Stan-dard Operating Procedure(SOP) by implementing inten-sive inspection to all Iraniancitizens when they would leavethe immigration inspectionarea.

Such testimony was deliv-ered by Ketut Sumarta (Cus-toms and Excise Officer ofNgurah Rai Airport) whenserving as a witness at the trialof the defendant RouhollahSerish Abadi bin Samad, 26, inDenpasar District Court, lastTuesday (Sep 14). The sessionwas presided over by JudgeAmzer Simanjuntak with Pros-ecutor Made Tangkas. Mean-while, the defendant was ac-companied by lawyer MadeKartika.

The witness described thatwhen seeing the arrival of the

accused he already had suspi-cion. He said the defendant wasnervous and paced about immi-gration counter. On seeing suchsuspicious appearance and ges-tures, Sumarta then followed thedefendant until he took his largeblue suitcase taken down fromthe baggage compartment of theairline. The officers were get-ting more and more suspiciousbecause such a large suitcasecarried by the defendant lookedso light.

“Finally, I follow until hetook the su i tcase pass ingthrough the X-ray to leave theinternational terminal. Whenpassing through the X-ray, Isee there were two round vir-tual fruits in defendant’s lug-gage. Then, I resumed thescanning through ion-scan andin fact, it was positively foundnarcotics in the suitcase,” hecontinued.

Being inadequate to per-form the X-ray and ion-scan,Sumarta confessed to take outall clothes in the suitcase and

re-examined it through X-ray.As a result, the officials stillfound two virtual fruits in theluggage. At the end, the offic-ers unpacked and discoveredthe methamphetamine weigh-ing 1.047 kilograms at thebottom of the suitcase.

After intensively examinedby Customs and Excise offic-ers, the defendant admitted tobe picked up by a man namedAhmed at the Ngurah Rai Air-port. But after waiting for un-til 2:00 am in the next morn-ing, the officers could notfound the man named Ahmed.

The wi tness added tha tsince the arrest of Iranians at-tempting to smuggle metham-phetamine by means of cap-sule, the standard operatingprocedure (SOP) a t theNgurah Rai Airport was tight-ened, especially for Iranians.“However, we do not suspectall Iranians. We should remainto pay attention to their pro-file,” he explained. (015)

DENPASAR - The Secretary of the Bali chapter of Indonesian Hotel andRestaurant Association (PHRI), Perry Markus, estimates that the peak seasontravel that generally accompanies the celebration of the end of the fasting monthhas filled most Bali hotels. Quoted in Kompas.com, Markus said, “our observa-tions indicate that tourist numbers to Bali at this time are quite good, with hoteloccupancies between 80-90%.”

Markus estimated that hotels in Bali will remain full for at least three daysfollowing the official holiday on September 10-11, 2010. Adding, “a large num-ber of the tourists staying (in Bali) are domestic visitors, from places that includeJakarta and Surabaya.”

Such strong numbers staying in hotels, prompt concerns over whether thesupporting services in Bali are able to carry these high numbers and if publicorder and security of the island can be maintained.

The estimation in the Kuta area of Bali experienced a five-fold increase invehicular traffic over the Lebaran holidays as domestic visitors flooded the area.Traffic jams and gridlock plagued Bali throughout the day on Sunday, Septem-ber 12, 2010, as Indonesian holidaymakers swam, surfed, enjoyed beach mas-sages and partook in the beach fare offered by roaming food vendors.

The State of Travel in Bali

Data from the Bali Tourism Authority from the end of 2009 put the totalnumber of hotel rooms in Bali at 46,014 . In the same year, total foreign touristswere put at 2.2 million staying an average of 8.75 days. Meanwhile, the numberof domestic tourists in 2009 stood at 3.5 million who stayed an average of 3 dayson the island.

The number of accommodation providers in 2009 totaled 2,175 units hostingthe 46.014 saleable rooms. This was comprised of 1,037 “melati hotels” at 20,516rooms; 981 “pondok wisata” businesses at 4,380 rooms; and 157 starred hotelsat 21,118 rooms. Of the entire total of 46,014 tourist rooms in Bali, 26,387 (57.3%)are located in the southern regency of Badung.

Bali Booms OverIdul Fitri Holidays

News International4 Thursday, September 16, 2010

But Clinton gave no indicationWednesday that the sides are anycloser to resolving the most im-mediate stumbling block to newlyrelaunched peace talks: a Pales-tinian threat to quit the negotia-tions if Israel doesn’t extend acurb on West Bank settlementconstruction.

Clinton is in Jerusalem for asecond day of talks with IsraeliPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu and Palestinian Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas, a day af-ter meeting the leaders at a sum-

Clinton: Israel,Clinton: Israel,Clinton: Israel,Clinton: Israel,Clinton: Israel,PalestiniansPalestiniansPalestiniansPalestiniansPalestinians

serious about peaceserious about peaceserious about peaceserious about peaceserious about peaceJERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saysJERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saysJERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saysJERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saysJERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are already “getting down to business” inIsraeli and Palestinian leaders are already “getting down to business” inIsraeli and Palestinian leaders are already “getting down to business” inIsraeli and Palestinian leaders are already “getting down to business” inIsraeli and Palestinian leaders are already “getting down to business” intackling the key issues at the heart of their conflict.tackling the key issues at the heart of their conflict.tackling the key issues at the heart of their conflict.tackling the key issues at the heart of their conflict.tackling the key issues at the heart of their conflict.

Associated Press WriterSEOUL, South Korea – A ty-

phoon killed dozens of people anddestroyed roads, railways andthousands of homes in North Ko-rea early this month, the reclusivestate’s media reported Wednes-day. It was the first confirmationfrom the North of the extent ofthe damage inflicted by TyphoonKompasu that hit the dividedKorean peninsula on Sept. 2 —also killing five people in SouthKorea.

The typhoon struck as impov-

NKorea: TyphoonKompasu killeddozens of people

US Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clintonmeets with Palestinian

Prime Minister SalamFayyed in Jerusalem,

Israel Wednesday, Sept.15, 2010.

erished North Korea struggled to re-cover from flooding last month thatbattered its northwest. The officialKorean Central News Agency re-ported Wednesday that landslides,strong winds and heavy rains causedby the typhoon killed “dozens” ofpeople.

Heavy rains washed away 30,000hectares (74,130 acres) of farmland,and landslides “completely ravaged”railroads and tracks. It said that about8,380 houses were destroyed andmany people were staying in publicshelters.

Agence France PresseHONG KONG – Former Paki-

stani president Pervez Musharraf saidWednesday he would soon launch anew party, touting his support amongthe Facebook generation as he vowedto remake the nation’s turbulent poli-tics. The retired general also accusedAfghan President Hamid Karzai oflacking “legitimacy” but urged theWest to stay the course against theTaliban or risk destabilising the re-gion still further.

“I’m going to declare a party onOctober 1... We have to bring abouta new political culture in Pakistan,”he told reporters in Hong Kong afteraddressing an annual investors’ fo-rum organised by the CLSA broker-age.

The 67-year-old Musharraf, wholives in self-imposed exile in London,shrugged off the threat of possiblelegal action arising from his years ofmilitary rule of Pakistan.

“There are elements opposed tome, political elements, and they arethe ones who engineer these cases.One has to face that. I’m very confi-dent nothing can happen (on hiseventual return home),” he said.Musharraf, who plans to stand forparliament at the next general elec-tion in 2013, did not say where hewould launch his new party — calledthe All Pakistan Muslim League.

Reports in Pakistan say the Octo-ber 1 event is slated for London, andMusharraf has proclaimed his beliefthat he could become president again.

As army chief, Musharraf oustedcivilian prime minister Nawaz Sharifin a bloodless coup in 1999. He waspresident from 2001 and has livedabroad since resigning in 2008.

Musharraf to launchPakistan party on October 1

Pakistan is back under civilianrule but President Asif Ali Zardari— the widower of assassinatedformer prime minister BenazirBhutto — is under siege from ram-pant militants, a parlous economyand catastrophic floods.

Political analyst Mutahir Ahmedsaid that despite the Zardarigovernment’s enormous unpopular-ity, Musharraf posed little threat. “Ido not think they should be worried,although they lack credibility them-selves,” Ahmed, a professor of in-ternational relations at KarachiUniversity, told AFP in Islamabad.

“In the political history of Paki-stan, retired generals have not beenable to make a mark and their po-litical forays have ended as fail-ures,” he said.

Zardari and Bhutto’s 21-year-oldson Bilawal is being groomed forhis own political career, butMusharraf said Pakistan had to turna page on its dynastic politics andclaimed to have his own followingamong Pakistani youth.

He said that more than 80 per-cent of the 295,000-plus followersof his Facebook page were agedbetween 18 and 34. “Therefore Iknow that it is the youth who areyearning for change.”

After the September 11, 2001 at-tacks, Musharraf made Pakistan akey ally of then US presidentGeorge W. Bush in the “war on ter-ror”, but faced a resurgence of Is-lamist militancy in the tribal north-west near Afghanistan. He had adismal relationship with Karzai,who regained power last year in anelection that was widely decried asfraudulent.

“There must be a legitimate gov-ernment in Afghanistan... He doesnot have that legitimacy,” Musharraftold the CLSA forum. In contrast,the former military leader heapedpraise on US General DavidPetraeus, calling the head of foreignforces in Afghanistan a “great com-mander”.

But with US President BarackObama planning a troop drawdownfrom mid-2011, Musharraf warnedthat abandoning Afghanistan would“be playing into the hands of theTaliban and Al-Qaeda”, and said“quitting is not an option”.

mit in Egypt.Addressing reporters, Clinton said

they already have “begun to grapplewith the core issues” in their conflict.But she made no mention of the settle-ment dispute.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool

AFP PHOTO/MIKE CLARKE

Former Pakistan president PervezMusharraf speaks to the press inHong Kong on September 15,2010. Musharraf was a guestspeaker at the CLSA Investors’ Fo-rum in the territory.

AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea NewsService in Tokyo, North Korean residents look at floodwaters inWonsan, North Korea, Friday, Sept. 3, 2010. Typhoon Kompasu killeddozens of people and destroyed roads, railways and thousands ofhomes in North Korea early this month, the reclusive state’s mediareported Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010.

Hotel Activities Thursday, September 16, 2010 5International

Temple Ceremony

44444hhhhh – – – – – “Tumpek Wayang”, day devoted to“Sanghyang Iswara”, the lord of puppeteers, whenblessing ceremony is given to shadow – puppet playsets for proper function and magical power.

Temple Festival at:Temple Festival at:Temple Festival at:Temple Festival at:Temple Festival at:- Pr.aspahit, Jembrana.- Pr. Panti Gelgel, Ds. Pangembungan, Sesetan,

Badung.- Pedharman Dalem Sri Aji Kresna Kepakisan,

Besakih.- Pedharman Dalem Sukawati, Besaih.- Pedharman Kaba-Kaba , Besakih.- Pedharman Dalem Bakas, Besakih.- Pr. Pedharman Mengwi, Besakih.- Pr. Penataran Giri Purwa, Ds. Kutarejo, Tegal

Dalimo, Banyuwangi.

55555th _th _th _th _th _ Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at:- Pr. Maospahit, Ds. Gerenceng Denpasar.

88888th _th _th _th _th _ Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at:- Pr. Ulun Kulkul, Besakih.- Pr. Melanting, Ds. Camenggaon, Sukawati.- Pr. Penataran Agung, Teluk Padang,Karangasem.- Pr. Pasek Gelgel, Ds. Pangembungan,

Bongkasa, abiansemal.- Pr. Pasek Bandesa, Ds. Riyang Gede, Penebel

Tabanan.- Pr. Pasek Banjar Jawa, Buleleng.- Pr. Gaduhan Jagat, Ds. Singakerta, Ubud.- Pr. Masceti Tengah, Ds. Mancawarna,

Tampaksiring.- Pr. Penataran Batulepang, Ds. Kamasan,

Klungkung.- Pr. Paibon Pasek Gobleg, Ds. Kedonganan,

Kuta- Pr. Pasek Gelgel, Ds. Songan, Batur,

Calendar of Event (Sep 3- 23 2010)Kintamani.- Pr. Pasanggerahan Agung, Ds. Bebandem,

Karangasem.- Pr. Penataran Dalem Peed, Nusa Penida.- Mr.Pasek Perateka, Ds. Pekandelan,Sidemen, Karangasem.- Mr.Pasek Perateka Taman Sari, Sukasada.- Pr. Kawitan Jero Wenayu, Ds. Wenayu,

Bedulu, Gianyar.- Pr. Jati, Ubud.- Pr. Gua, Besakih.1010101010th _th _th _th _th _ Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at:

- Merajan Geriya Kebon – Tabanan.- Pr. Candi Gora, Ds. Tianyar, Karangasem.

1414141414th _th _th _th _th _ Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at:- Pr. Puseh Jagat Dalem Dukut, Nusa Penida.- Pr. Dalem, Ds. Batuyang, Batubulan.- Pr. Pasek Magending, Kediri, Tabanan.- Pr. Pasek Undagi, Ds. Timpag, Kerambitan,

Tabanan.- Pr. Desa + Pura Pucak, Br. Taman Bedulu,

Gianyar.- Mr.Pasek Tangkas Kori Agung, Ds. Sulahan.- Mr.Pasek Padang Rata, Ds. Padang,

Karangasem.- Pr. Telaga Sakti/Dalem Tarukan, Ds.Ambengan, Nusa Penida.- Pr. Dalem, Ds. Padangan, Pupuan, Tabanan.- Pr. Yogha, Br. Teba Jero, Kaba-Kaba, Kediri

Tabanan.- Pr. Dalem Purwa, Br. Kawan, Bangli.

1515151515th _th _th _th _th _ Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at: Temple Festival at:- Pr. Agung Pasek Gelgel, Ds. Sibang Kaja,

abiansemal.- Pr. Dalem Samprangan, Gianyar.- Pr. Ds. Galiran, Bhakti Seraga, Buleleng.

EVERYEVERYEVERYEVERYEVERY Temple and Shrine has a special date for it annualCeremony, or “ Odalan “, every 210 days according to Ba-linese calendar, including the smaller ancestral shrine whicheach family possesses. Because of this practically every fewdays a ceremony of festival of some kind takes place in someVillage in Bali. There are also times when the entire islandcelebrated the same Holiday, such as at Galungan, Kuningan,Nyepi day, Saraswati day, Tumpek Landep day, Pagerwesiday, Tumpek Wayang day etc.

The dedication or inauguration day of a Temple is consid-ered its birth day and celebration always takes place on thesame day if the wuku or 210 day calendar is used. When newmoon is used then the celebration always happens on new moonor full moon. The day of course can differ the religious cel-ebration of a temple lasts at least one full day with some templecelebrating for three days while the celebration of Besakihtemple, the Mother Temple, is never less than 7 days and mostof the time it lasts for 11 days, depending on the importanceof the occasion.

The celebration is very colorful. The shrine are dressed withpieces of cloths and sometimes with brocade, sailings, deco-rations of carved wood and sometimes painted with gold andChinese coins, very beautifully arranged, are hung in the fourcorners of the shrine. In front of shrine are placed red, whiteor black umbrellas depending which Gods are worshipped inthe shrines.

In front of important shrine one sees, besides these umbrel-las soars, tridents and other weapons, the “umbul-umbul”, longflags, all these are prerogatives or attributes of Holiness. Infront of the Temple gate put up “Penjor”, long bamboo poles,decorated beautifully ornaments of young coconut leaves, riceand other products of the land. Most beautiful to see are thegirls in their colorful attire, carrying offerings, arrangementsof all kinds fruits and colored cakes, to the Temple. Everyvisitor admires the grace with which the carry their load ontheir heads.

Balinese TempleCeremony

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Thursday, September 16, 20106 News

“The security forces had to open fire whenprotesters turned violent,” a police officersaid, declining to give his name. “Two peoplehave died. They opened fire only after tear-gas shelling and a cane (baton) charge failed.”

Indian Kashmir is a Muslim-majority re-gion, but also includes the southern Hindu-majority area of Jammu. The violence inMendhar was the first in recent months inJammu, suggesting a summer of unrest in theregion is spreading.

Aga Mukhtair, a leading Muslim cleric inMendhar, told AFP over the telephone thatthe rally was provoked by a group of Chris-tians who tore pages from the Koran outsidethe White House on Saturday.

“It was a peaceful demonstration againstdesecration of the Koran and there was noviolence at all,” he said. Five of those injuredwere in a critical condition and are being air-lifted to hospital, officials said.

Protesters elsewhere in Indian Kashmir setfire to two government buildings overnightamid isolated skirmishes with security forces,police said.

Thousands of Indian police andparamilitaries patrolled streets across Kash-mir to enforce a curfew, which was first im-posed on Sunday.

On Monday, the region suffered its bloodi-est day in three months of unrest, with 17 people

Agence France Presse

VERSAILLES, France –A French court on Wednesdayrejected Kigali’s request to ex-tradite Rwandan doctor Eu-gene Rwamucyo, who is sus-pected of involvement in the1994 genocide.

The court in Versailles, just out-side Paris, also ordered the releaseof Rwamucyo, who was arrestedwhile attending a funeral in Mayon the strength of an internationalwarrant issued by Rwanda in 2007.“This is a relief because this mat-ter is very political and so it’s a vic-tory of law over politics,” saidRwamucyo’s lawyer, PhilippeMeilhac.

Rwamucyo is wanted byKigali for having allegedlyplanned and carryied outatrocities in the Butare regionof southern Rwanda.

The doctor, aged in his 50s,is still the subject in Paris of acomplaint filed by the familiesof genocide victims for crimesagainst humanity. His arrestcame nearly three months af-ter police detained AgatheHabyarimana, the widow ofRwanda’s assassinated ex-president, and one of the al-leged masterminds of the geno-

Agence France Presse

JOHANNESBURG – South African authorities have ar-rested a police officer in the shooting death of a a 17-year-oldgirl who was among student protesters complaining that ateachers strike had given them insufficient time to prepare forexams.

In a statement Wednesday, the Independent Complaints Di-rectorate, an independent government watchdog, said its in-vestigators arrested the officer Tuesday after determining “theshooting was premeditated.” The investigators say the officerhad earlier threatened to hurt the students if they protested

Monday’s protest in the central Free State region was amongseveral across the country following the end of a three-weeknationwide strike by teachers and other government workers.The strike was halted Sept. 6, shortly before a series of exams

Police shoot dead twoPolice shoot dead twoPolice shoot dead twoPolice shoot dead twoPolice shoot dead twoprotesters in Indian Kashmirprotesters in Indian Kashmirprotesters in Indian Kashmirprotesters in Indian Kashmirprotesters in Indian KashmirAgence France Presse

SRINAGAR, India – Police in Indian Kashmir shot dead two protesters and wounded several others onWednesday when they opened fire at the latest violent demonstration in the region, police told AFP. Officersfired at a rally in the southern town of Mendhar, a Muslim settlement in the Hindu-dominated Jammu area,about 450 kilometres (280 miles) from the summer capital Srinagar.

(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Kashmiri Muslim protesters run for cover as tear gas shell explodenear them during a protest in Srinagar, India, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010.Indian police patrolled the streets of Kashmir on Tuesday, threaten-ing to shoot anyone defying a rigid curfew in the disputed region aday after 19 people died in battles between troops and protesters.

killed in police shootings, including amother-of-five who was a bystander. Onepolice officer also died in mob violence.

Furious protests have erupted almostdaily in Kashmir since a teenage student

was killed by a police teargas shellin Srinagar on June 11. A total of90 civilians have died, according toan AFP tally, mostly in shootingsby security forces.

AFP PHOTO PHILIPPE HUGUEN

(FILES) — A file photo taken on October 24, 2009 inLille shows Rwandan doctor Eugene Rwamucyo,working in a city hospital in Maubeuge, northernFrance, posing during an interview.

France refuses toextradite Rwandagenocide suspect

cide of Tutsis and moderateHutus.

It also follows PresidentNicolas Sarkozy’s landmark tripto Kigali in March during whichhe said France would do every-thing possible to ensure that “allthose responsible for the genocideare found and are punished.”

Rwamucyo lived in Belgium withhis family and until April worked asa doctor in a city hospital inMaubeuge, northern France. In an in-terview to AFP last year, Rwamucyohad denied the allegations of geno-cide and accused the Tutsi-led gov-ernment in Kigali of waging a cam-paign against him.

“They are trying to makepeople believe that all of theHutus who held any position ofresponsibility at the time werethinking about killing Tutsis,”Rwamucyo said.

Rwanda has repeatedly ac-cused France of allowing geno-cide suspects to live comfortablelives in French towns and villagesand turning a blind eye to callsfor them to face justice.

France has transferred threeRwandan suspects to Tanzania toface prosecution before the inter-national tribunal, but judges haveso far refused to extradite geno-cide suspects to Kigali.

“I think that’s what we should be do-ing,” Abbott said, when asked whetherhe would try to persuade the indepen-dent MPs to defect.

“Exposing the waste and extrava-gance inherent in the government’sbroadband plans, that becomes a veryreal prospect,” Abbott told ABC radio.

But country independents RobOakeshott and Tony Windsor have saidLabor’s plan to bring broadband to 93percent of Australian homes was cru-cial in winning their support. A thirdunaligned MP, Andrew Wilkie, whosevote is also crucial to Gillard holdingon to her 76-74 lead in seats in the lowerhouse, also supports the scheme.

“I don’t think we need another elec-tion,” Abbott said, indicating that he

Officer arrested indeath of SAfrican teen

Conservatives........From page 1

would attempt to wrest power fromGillard by persuading the independentsto switch sides, giving him enoughseats to form a Liberal-led govern-ment.

Gillard dismissed the threats, say-ing Abbott had no Internet policy ofhis own to win the independents overand was only interested in negative at-tacks.

“Anybody can get on the radio andspew out criticisms — easily done, andof course the opposition will be doingthat,” Gillard said. “But what really isthe test here is what would you do dif-ferently? Mr Abbott can’t answer that.”

Windsor also poured cold water onthe prospect, saying he wouldn’t “bepushing the government out of power

over one particular issue or another”and would only be swayed by cor-ruption or serious maladministrationby Labor.

Former prime minister KevinRudd, who Gillard deposed as leaderin a sudden party coup three weeksbefore calling the election, alsoplayed down fears of infightingwithin the Labor administration.

Rudd, who had reportedly beendevastated by his sudden June 24ouster by his former deputy, said henow had a “productive and profes-sional relationship” serving asGillard’s foreign minister. “For meit is a great honour to now act asAustralia’s foreign minister,” he toldreporters.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Printers in thiscity near the Afghan border say they have pro-duced thousands of fake voter registration cardsat the request of Afghan politicians for use inthat country’s parliamentary elections on Sat-urday. The cards, some shown to The Associ-ated Press, add to evidence that fraud couldundermine the elections and further destabilizethe Western-backed government of President

Pakistani printers make fake Afghan voting cards Associated Press Writer

Hamid Karzai.A fraud-marred presidential election last

year threatened the credibility of the Afghanadministration at home and with the Westernnations waging war on the country’s resurgentTaliban.

Regulation of voting has been improved,but an influx of fake cards raises the possibil-ity of a person with multiple voter cards vot-

ing many times and could still cause prob-lems in an insecure country where moni-toring of polling stations will likely be spotty.

Three printers in a dimly lit section ofPeshawar’s Storytellers’ Bazaar told the AP thatAfghan election candidates had traveled to thewalled heart of the ancient city about an hourfrom the border and provided them withsamples of Afghan voter registration cards.

Thursday, September 16, 2010 7Indonesia TodayInternational

The trio were part of a 12-manteam who arrived last week inMakassar, the provincial capital ofSouth Sulawesi, last week to helpthe Indonesian air force assembleand operate recently-purchasedSukhoi fighter jets, police said.

One of the three was founddead on Monday in an air forcedormitory, local police chiefJhony Waenal Usman said, withthe other two dying later that dayin hospital.

Police didn’t specify theirjobs but the Voice of Russia saidthat they worked as engineers.

Usman said post mortem ex-amination results were stillawaited but the victims all showedsimilar symptoms before theydied.

“They suffered from dizzi-

Police probePolice probePolice probePolice probePolice probedeaths ofdeaths ofdeaths ofdeaths ofdeaths ofthree Russiansthree Russiansthree Russiansthree Russiansthree Russiansin Indonesiain Indonesiain Indonesiain Indonesiain IndonesiaAgence France-Presse

MAKASSAR - Police are investigating after three Russian military MAKASSAR - Police are investigating after three Russian military MAKASSAR - Police are investigating after three Russian military MAKASSAR - Police are investigating after three Russian military MAKASSAR - Police are investigating after three Russian militaryaircraft specialists died in Indonesia following a drinking session, offi-aircraft specialists died in Indonesia following a drinking session, offi-aircraft specialists died in Indonesia following a drinking session, offi-aircraft specialists died in Indonesia following a drinking session, offi-aircraft specialists died in Indonesia following a drinking session, offi-cials said Tuesday.cials said Tuesday.cials said Tuesday.cials said Tuesday.cials said Tuesday.

Antara JAKARTA - Forests are one

of the world’s major carbon stor-ages, for which forest conservationis much needed to prevent defores-tation and climate change.

“We are making sure that thecommunities who live in the forestsstill feel the benefits of the pro-gram,” Marco Lambertini, chiefexecutive of birdlife international,said in Jakarta Thursday.

Birdlife International is thebiggest partnership organization ofnational nature conservation.Singapore’s nature society was theBirdlife’s partner.

Narci said to preserve the for-ests, Birdlife International has em-ployed more than 200 local staffpersonnel particularly highly skilledforest patrol officers.

He said because of that in thelast three years, the program hasproduced results.

“In this context, SingaporeAirlines (SIA) has donated 3 mil-lion dollars to big scale of long termenvironment projects and the

Antara JAKARTA - President SusiloBambang Yudhoyono has asked foran immediately settlement of theproblem relating to the house ofprayers of the Huria Batak Chris-tian Protestant (HKBP) membersand the recent attack on some ofthem. In a press conference here onTuesday President Yudhoyono saidcorrect solutions of the problemshad to be found. “The ministers concerned thedistrict head of Bekasi, religiousleaders of the Indonesian Commun-ion of Churches (PGI) must sit andfind a good way out. I wish it couldbe achieved,” he said. To make the problem not to de-velop further he called against anyintervention from any parties whohave an ill will. “There must not be any inter-vention that would only make thesituation worse. There must be nonebut good intentions,” he said. The President said the law mustbe enforced regardless of whowould be affected. “The law must be enforcedmoreover if it has to do with a sen-sitive issue including inter-religiousrelations. Bring anyone involved tojustice,” he said. President Yudhoyono mean-while called on the people to con-tinue to maintain the good relations

Yudhoyono calls for immediatesettlement of church attack

between different religious follow-ers because Indonesia is a pluralcountry and a rule has also beenmade available to regulate construc-tion of a house of prayers. He also called on the people toprevent violence and used wisdomto deal with it. He said all government appara-tus had to act swiftlier to overcomethe problem.

Nine arrested National Police chief GeneralBambang Hendarso Danuri on theoccasion said the police had alreadyarrested the suspects behind the at-tack of the church members on Sun-day. Police have arrested nine sus-pects behind the recent attack ofBatak Christian Protestant Church(HKBP) members in Bekasi, WestJava. “The investigation is still ongo-ing but nine people we arrested havealready been named suspects,”Jakarta Metropolitan Police Com-mand chief Inspector General TimurPradopo said. The suspects known by their ini-tials as AF, the leader, DTS, NN,AN, ISN, PN and KA may becharged under Article 351 on vio-lent torture and Article 170 on grouptorture. The police are still intensivelyinvestigating several other wit-

nesses, including the head of the Is-lam Defenders‘ Front (FPI)‘s Bekasidistict chapter, he said. Apart from arresting the personthat has stabbed the church members,the police had also confiscated theclothes of the victims, the clothes ofthe perpetrators, a plank and threemotorcycles. The police also hadvideo footage of the incident and au-topsy results. “The knife used by the attackeris still being searched for,” he said. Regarding the motive behind it,Timur Pradopo said that the attack-ers thought that the church membershad not abided by the local law pro-hibiting the holding of a religiousservice on the location of the inci-dent. Timur said he would act firmlyagainst the one who had stabbed oneof the church-goers based on thelaw. Asiah Lumbuan Toruan (49)and pastor Luspida (40) were at-tacked by unknown persons onJalan Pondok Timur Asam,Cikeuting, Mustika Jaya, Bekasi, ataround 8.45am on Sunday. Asiahsuffered a stab wound on his rightabdomen while Luspida suffered abump on her head. After the attackthe two were immediately taken to anearby hospital for treatment.Eight people on motorcycles at-tacked the two while they were walk-ing towards the location of a reli-gious service.

ness, nausea, breathing difficultiesand were foaming from theirmouths,” he told reporters.

“Our forensic team is also in-vestigating the evidence such asthe leftover drink and medicinesbelonging to the victims.” Localnews website Detikcom quoted anair force spokesman as saying thatthe men were killed from drinkingalcohol and it may have been con-taminated.

Twenty-five people includingfour foreigners died after drinkingmethanol-laced palm wine lastyear on the Indonesian resort islandof Bali, while 13 were killed insimilar fashion in Central Java ear-lier this year. A Russian jet wasexpected to arrive Wednesday totake the bodies back home, addedUsman.

Forest conservationneeds to bemaintained

sustainability of global environ-ment.” said Bay Soo Khiang, SIASenior Executive Vice President forMarketing and Corporate Service.

He said that the donation fromSIA will be used for supporting the“Prakarsa Harapan Rainforest”project under cooperation betweenthe international NGOs includingBirdlife International and BirdlifeIndonesia.

The SIA contribution for pro-tection and forest restoration in low-land tropical forests in Indonesia wasa reflection of a conviction that theenvironment preservation effort hasto be focused to make real differ-ences and concrete result for thewelfare of the Indonesian people.

According to him, the repre-sentatives of Singapore Airlines,Birdlife International and KEHIfoundation had reached agreementto implement the programs.

KEHI foundation is an Indone-sian non-profit organization ap-pointed by the Birdlife Consortiumto manage implementation of theprogram

FP PHOTO / RUHT SEMIONO / SUARA PEMBARUAN

In this photograph taken on September 13, 2010, wounded Christian church member Hasian Sihombing isattended to by a nurse at a hospital in Bekasi, outside Jakarta following a knife attack by unknown assail-ants on September 12, 2010 injuring Sihombing and a church priest.

8 InternationaThursday, September 16, 2010

Bali Today

Spiritual Farming: From one green to some other greensAdvancement of science of tech-

nology does not answer all problemsencountered by human life. In agricul-ture, for instance, modern farmers cannow have boosted the quantity of pro-duction, even in multiple amounts. Onthe one had, it’s a great success but onthe other hand it still leaves a problemon the decline of environmental andhuman health quality.

Green revolution occurred between1943 and 1970s through the imple-mentation of chemical fertilizer andgood irrigation system has conjured upthe rice production. In short term, itbecame an efficacious medicine to re-solve the famine in tropical countries.Few decades later, it had an impact onthe reduction of environmental qual-ity, like pollution in water, land andothers. Apart from the impact on theenvironment, it was also had an im-pact on human health like the rise ofsome new cancers.

Realizing these facts, now Bali hasan initiative to become a green prov-ince and implement the integratedfarming system (Simantri). Hopefully,implementation of the system couldrealize the Bali Organic plan and con-sequently minimize the environmen-tal destruction. Green province cam-paign includes some aspects, namelygreen culture, green economy and Baligreen and clean. Green culture is in-tended to change the societal behav-ior in managing their waste manage-ment and environment. Greeneconomy hints that all economic ac-tivities should be in the eco-friendlyorientation. These two aspects willempty out into the initiative of BaliOrganic.

One of the aspects is applied in the

Balinese becoming moreinterested in reading

Antara

DENPASAR - Bali residents‘ interest in reading has increased as indicated by a rise in thenumber of people visiting the province’s National Library, the region’s chief librarian said.

Bali’s National Library is now being visited by an average of 500 people per day comparedto less than 100 per day some time ago, Ni Luh Putu Praharsini, head of Bali’s LibraryAffairs Agency, said here Tuesday.

The increase in the library’svisitors implied people were get-ting more interested in reading andmore aware of the importance ofgaining knowledge through read-ing, Praharsini said after handingawards to winners of a ReadingInterest Contest 2010.

“Reading is very essential in

the education of the nation.Therefore, we hope every citi-zen will become avid readers ofbooks,” she said.

More than 60 percent of thevisitors to Bali’s national Li-brary were undergraduate stu-dents, while the rest were stu-dents ranging from elementary

to senior high schools, she said.Undergraduate students domi-

nated the visitors as they wanted toread and find references for theirtheses, she said.

“To anticipate a further increasein visitors, the library would remainopen on Saturdays and Sundays.The library would be closed on na-

tional and religious holidays,”she said.

The number of visitors, how-ever, rose more distinctly atweekends and holidays than onregular days, she said.

The Bali administration wascontinuing to provide the librarywith new books every year, andnow it had a collection of morethan 200,000 volumes of 85,000titles.

The number did not includemagazines, dictionaries and en-cyclopedias, she said, adding thatthe administration had promisedto allocate funds from the provin-

cial budget to procure new booksevery year.

“The book procurement will bebased on the data of the most pre-ferred books to read,” she said.

The most preferred books forthe time being were children’s sto-ries, history and literary works, shesaid.

“These types of books will beprocured every year due to thepublic’s high interest in them,” shesaid.

The National Library would al-ways procure books in their latestedition to keep up with current de-velopments Praharsini said.

agricultural field. Socialization hasbeen intensified while establishingfarmer groups. Through breedinglocal cows, for instance, farmers areexpected to get maximal benefits.Other than increasing the numberof cows, they will be able to takeadvantage the cow dung and urinefor organic fertilizers. In the longrun, it will reduce the use of chemi-cal fertilizers and pesticides. Ofcourse, this endeavor will reduce theproduction cost that should be spentby farmers and at the same time in-crease the quality of rice as well asimprove the environmental quality.

As a matter of fact, simple prac-tice of this concept could have beenseen around 1970s. Farmers usingcows to cultivate their land couldalso take advantage of their cowdung. It was spread out onto the ricefield and its efficacy could last forat least for two planting seasons. Interraced rice field, it could uniquelybe managed by establishing acowshed in the upper stream. Lateron, the collected dry cow dung waschanneled to rice field through thewater gutter.

However, since being urged bythe demand to multiple the rice pro-duction, farmers left the method.Introduction of hand tractor andchemical fertilizers gradually re-placed the role of cows. The newmethod was expected to acceleratethe land cultivation process. As con-sequence, cows were only servingas ‘family saving’ for farmers.

Simple eco-friendly pest controlactually has been proposed in thepalm-leaf manuscript entitled “ShriTattwa or Darmaning Pemaculan.”

It has been applied by subak commu-nity in Bali from generation to genera-tion until today. However, it seems toput more emphasis on the ritual aspectonly, while herbal pesticide or othermeans of the oblation is only appliedsymbolically. For instance, bird raids aremanaged by offering two pieces ofketupat sidayu together with oblation andside dish of yellow dragonfly.

Meanwhile, Subash Palekar from In-dia claimed to have developed the vedic-based farming. He has initiated his ‘spiri-

tual farming’ since 1988. In essence hesaid that God or nature has provided hu-man with everything required to growplants. So implementing the chemical fer-tilizers and pesticide means to opposeGod and will result in bad impact to hu-man. Cow dung and urine as well as com-post are three beneficial ingredients be-ing enough for farming both on irrigatedand non-irrigated land. By doing so, heclaims it is a ‘zero budget of natural farm-ing’ as in his trilogy book entitled Phi-losophy of Spiritual Farming.

To sum up, all movements at least re-fer to the same keywords namely green,natural and eco-friendly concept. Theydenote milestone of new awareness onmodern human to re-orientate their foodproduction in quality. This awareness hastriggered the orientation in the quality oflife and environment. Hopefully, the as-piration of Bali as Green Province andother green concepts could be realizedsupported by entire community based ontheir awareness of a better quality life!(BTN/punia)

http://www.baliwoodworks.comRice field

Balinese Culture

Thursday, September 16, 2010 9al

C.045 ibp

OVERVIEW:If you are only accustomed to eating deep-fried

squid, you’ll be surprised by the differencewhen it is cooked Balinese style. If squid isunavailable, replace with large cuttlefish orany other firm fish fillets such as snapper orsea bass.

INGREDIENTS:600 gr baby squid, cleaned and diced1 tbsp freshly squeezed limejuice1/3 tsp powdered black pepper1/2 tsp salt1/2 tsp oil5 shallots, peeled and sliced2 large red chilies, seeded and sliced1/2 cup spice paste for seafood1 cup chicken stock5 sprigs lemon basil, slicedFried shallots and sprigs of lemon basil to

garnish

PREPARATION:Heat oil in wok, add shallots, chilies and squid

and sauté for 2 minutes over high heat. Addseafood spice paste and continue to sauté for1 more minute. Pour in chicken stock, addthe sliced basil and bring to boil. Reduceheat and simmer for 1 minute. Season to tasteand garnish with sprigs of lemon basil, friedshallots and serve with Coconut Rice.(www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Australian marketworries on the rabies issueAntara

Denpasar – The rabies problem in Bali could affect the tour-ism and industry which is directly connected with Australianmarket. Bagus Y Siregar, the Area Manager Australia and NewZealand in PT Garuda Indonesia, said that the papers in Aus-tralia was reporting the rabies spread in Bali.

“We as the businessmen who areconnected with Australia started toworry with the rabies issue,” he added.Bagus explained that some local me-dia in Australia made rabies as theirheadline.

Currently there is no major effect onthe issue but if it continues then it couldbecome very bad. Bagus said that sev-eral question had appear from Austra-lia. The tourists from the country is alsostarted to worry on the issue.

“Our flights to Australia are verygood. Until October 2010, it is alwaysfull and we don’t want the tourists who

travel to Bali cancel their trip becauseof the rabies issue,” Bagus said.

He urged the government to actpromptly on the problem and it must beinformed to the media. “The action takenby the government must also being in-formed to the foreign media includingonline media. It will give balance newsto the readers,” Bagus said.

He added that currently, Garuda flyto three cities in Australia which isSidney, Melbourne, and Perth.

“Load factor from Australia toDenpasar is above 85% and it is verygood,” Bagus explained.

Garuda Indonesia in Denpasar re-ceived question from several peoplein China regarding the rabies issueand the company had explained thatthe government already conduct thestep to prevent the spread of the ra-bies, such as dog vaccination andelimination.

Bali PostDENPASAR - Bali becoming a

tourist destination, in fact, stays to havethe same opportunity in making it intoa Meeting, Incentive, Convention,Exhibition (MICE) destination. More-over, Bali retains cultural diversity tosupport the implementation of MICEbeing different from other regions inIndonesia and in the world. However,the success of making Bali into a ma-

Bali potential to be MICE destinationjor MICE destination remained to re-quire the support of all parties, par-ticularly government, communitiesand MICE organizer in Bali.

This potential was disclosed byChairman of the Indonesia Congressand Convention Association (INCCA)of Bali Chapter Ida Bagus Lolec(Surakusuma) accompanied by ViceChairman Ketut Jaman, SecretaryMartin and Sumadi in his office, last

Tuesday (Sep 14), in the midst ofpreparation for the third anniversaryof INCCA Bali.

Lolec said that INCCA Bali inau-gurated in last September 10, 2007,aimed to make a forum of companiesrunning a business in organizing con-gresses and conventions as well asother related businesses to conventionservices, incentive travel and exhibi-tion in Bali.

Kenus Mebase Bali(Balinese Squid)

http://media.vivanews.com

One of Bali’s resident hold herdog while a veterinarian shotit with rabies vaccine.

Thursday, September 16, 201010 InternationalBusiness

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This botanical garden is opened on 1959and owns 154.5 ha land located Tabananregency, northwest part of Bali. It is closeto the beautiful lake which is called BeratanLake and Ulun Danu Temple. It has inhab-itants more than 1187 plant types and mul-tifarious of floras. In this area, there is or-chid garden with the collection of 320 or-chid types from Bali, Java, Nusa TenggaraTimur, Sulawesi and also Irian Jaya. We canalso meet the rose garden with the collec-tion of various rose from rust colored untilgreen chromatic.

Bedugul Botanical Garden or KebunRaya Eka Karya is also completed by 524birches which are still in its original forest.In this place we can meet the collection fromAmerica, South America, China, Japan,Australia, Africa and also Netherlands.Cyathea Garden is one of the specific gar-dens owning the various collections ofPaku-pakuan (tropical vegetable) which can

Bedugul Botanical GardenBedugul Botanical GardenBedugul Botanical GardenBedugul Botanical GardenBedugul Botanical GardenIBP

For those of you who like to see and know more about plantation, especially the tropi-For those of you who like to see and know more about plantation, especially the tropi-For those of you who like to see and know more about plantation, especially the tropi-For those of you who like to see and know more about plantation, especially the tropi-For those of you who like to see and know more about plantation, especially the tropi-cal types, you can visit Bedugul Botanical Garden which located in Bedugul, plateau areacal types, you can visit Bedugul Botanical Garden which located in Bedugul, plateau areacal types, you can visit Bedugul Botanical Garden which located in Bedugul, plateau areacal types, you can visit Bedugul Botanical Garden which located in Bedugul, plateau areacal types, you can visit Bedugul Botanical Garden which located in Bedugul, plateau areain Bali. The garden is situated in the cool atmosphere with rain forest and hill surrounds.in Bali. The garden is situated in the cool atmosphere with rain forest and hill surrounds.in Bali. The garden is situated in the cool atmosphere with rain forest and hill surrounds.in Bali. The garden is situated in the cool atmosphere with rain forest and hill surrounds.in Bali. The garden is situated in the cool atmosphere with rain forest and hill surrounds.

be eaten as vegetable by Balinese and someof them are used for decoration. The treefrom this nail Cyatheas are often exploitedas growth media of various orchid types.Cactus collections are consisted of 104types. This cactus is obtained from Africa,America, Germany, Switzerland and alsoIndonesia. The crop season at botanical gar-den is taken 94 types plants that are the col-lection from the exploitation for Balineselife ceremony, temple ceremony, devoting/offering and others purpose. It also ownsthe collection of drug crop with 84 types/species.

Beside of the crop collections, BedugulBotanical Garden or Kebun Raya EkaKarya also owns the traditional Balinesehouses and it function as guest house forscientist who is doing observation. It is alsoopened for public including tourists and tobe one of favorite tourist destinations inBali especially for domestic tourists.

Thursday, September 16, 2010 11

BUSINESS

Agence France-Presse

SINGAPORE - Asia cangenerate billions of dollars in newbusiness and taxes and create hun-dreds of thousands of jobs within afew years if it cracks down on soft-ware piracy, an industry studyshowed Wednesday.

The Business Software Alli-ance (BSA) and research group IDCsaid nearly 60 percent of all soft-ware programmes installed on per-sonal computers in the region arepirated.

Reducing piracy by 10 per-centage points in four years wouldproduce almost 41 billion dollars ineconomic activity, create 350,000new jobs and generate nearly ninebillion dollars in taxes, accordingto the joint study.

Achieving the same reduc-tion in two years would boost theeconomic benefits for the region by33 percent, a press statement said.

“Reducing software piracy is

Japan intervenesJapan intervenesJapan intervenesJapan intervenesJapan intervenesin forex market toin forex market toin forex market toin forex market toin forex market to

stem yen’s risestem yen’s risestem yen’s risestem yen’s risestem yen’s riseAgence France-Presse

TOKYO - Japan on Wednesday intervened in currency mar-kets for the first time since 2004 in a bid to stem the yen’s appre-ciation against the dollar, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.

The move came one day afterPrime Minister Naoto Kan reaffirmedhis leadership in a ruling party elec-tion victory Tuesday, seeing off a can-didate outspoken in his calls for in-tervention to help safeguard Japan’srecovery.

The yen traded at 84.57 to the dol-lar at around 0220 GMT following theintervention, after earlier surging toa fresh 15-year high of 82.86.

The euro strengthened to 109.77yen from 107.75.

“We conducted a market interven-tion,” Noda told reporters. “We willcontinue to monitor the movement ofthe market and take determined steps,including intervention, when neces-sary.”

Noda said the move was made uni-laterally, but added Japan had beenin touch with foreign governmentsamid qualms from the likes of Europeand the United States that exchangerates should be kept free-floating.

“We’ve been in close cooperation

with authorities concerned, but I’dlike to refrain from commenting onhow each of them has reacted” toJapan’s action, Noda said.

There was no immediate com-ment from the US Treasury onJapan’s market move.

“Our country’s economy is still ina very severe situation with contin-ued deflation,” said Noda.

The yen’s rapid appreciation“harms the stability of the economyand finances. We cannot tolerate it.”

Noda did not reveal the size of theintervention but Dow JonesNewswires cited traders as sayingJapan’s Ministry of Finance had ini-tially sold between 200 and 300 bil-lion yen (2.4 billion and 3.6 billiondollars).

In a statement Bank of Japan gov-ernor Masaaki Shirakawa said uncer-tainty over the US economy meantdownside risks to Japan “warrant at-tention”.

“The Bank of Japan strongly ex-

pects that the action taken by the Min-istry of Finance in the foreign ex-change market will contribute tostable foreign exchange rate forma-tion.”

The central bank has come undergovernment pressure to do more tooffset the impact of the strong yenon Japan’s economy, and recently ex-panded a multi-billion-dollar loanscheme in an effort to help revive arecovery.

But the yen’s appreciation has putmany Japanese exporters at a disad-vantage against foreign rivals as iterodes their repatriated earnings.

A recent government survey sug-gested that many companies in Japanwere considering moving productionoverseas if the yen stayed high, castinga shadow over the nation’s recovery.

The strong yen also makes importscheaper, prolonging a cycle of defla-tion that has hurt Japan for years asconsumers defer purchases in thehope of further price falls.

Wednesday’s move buoyed Tokyoshares, with the benchmark Nikkei225 index paring earlier losses tosurge 1.84 percent with exporters’shares rising on news of the currencyintervention.

Possible mass strikesmay take place in BritainAgence France-Presse

MANCHESTER – Could Britain soon see strikes on the scaleof Greece or France? While its trade unions have backed jointaction, questions remain about whether this will happen and itslikely impact.

There has been a lot of fiery rhetoric at this week’s annualTrades Union Congress (TUC) about the need for coordinatedaction to fight proposed government austerity cuts, promptingheadlines predicting “all-out strikes.”

Some union chiefs hail what has happened elsewhere in Eu-rope — where millions have taken to the streets, causing wide-spread disruption — and are confident of strong support for suchsteps.

“I look at France and and I look at Greece and other placesand I’m inspired by the fact that many unions are able to justmobilise together,” Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Pub-lic and Commercial Services (PCS) union and a leading voicefor joint action, told AFP.

But others worry that trying to fight the cuts with widespreadstrikes likely to be opposed by many members of the public couldprove disastrous.

“It’s not just about putting your head down and running atthem,” said Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Commu-nication Workers’ Union (CWU), who also highlighted the needfor campaigning against the cuts in the community.

Trade unions in Britain have lost much of their influence sincetheir heyday before former premier Margaret Thatcher’s freemarket reforms and limiting of trade union power in the 1980s.

Union membership among British employees has halved sinceits peak in 1979, now standing at 6.7 million. Only around 15percent of private sector workers are now union members com-pared to nearly 57 percent in the public sector.

Such figures may be part of the reason why TUC chief BrendanBarber and other moderates now stress the importance of win-ning “hearts and minds” over the cuts as well as talking of strikes.

Les Bayliss, a candidate to become the next leader of Britain’sbiggest union Unite, warned unions risk being painted as “thevillains of the piece” instead of the government if they do go onstrike.

Curbing tech piracy can stimulate Asian economies: report

People shop around anIT mall in Singapore on

September 15, 2010.Asia can potentiallyenjoy an economic

boost of 41 billion USdollars if the use of

illegal computer soft-ware in the region is cutby 10 percentage points

in four years, a reportsaid September 15.

an opportunity to inject much-needed stimulus into Asia Pacificeconomies,” said Roland Chan,BSA’s senior regional director formarketing.

“This study clearly showsthat aggressively fighting soft-ware piracy today means greatereconomic benefits tomorrow —for the region’s economy, not justthe software industry.”

Piracy is defined as install-ing legitimate software beyondthe number of computers allowedby a company’s licence, or theoutright usage of counterfeit soft-ware peddled by “criminal enter-prises” at cut-rate prices.

The report looked at 13economies that make up 98 per-cent of the region’s packagedsoftware market — Australia,China, Hong Kong, India, Indo-nesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Phil-ippines, Singapore, South Korea,Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The BSA is an industry

group that works for copy-right protection and countsamong its members some ofthe world’s biggest technol-ogy companies, includingApple, Microsoft, Symantecand Adobe.

IDC is a global re-search firm specializing ininformation technology andtelecommunications.

AFP PHOTO/ROSLAN RAHMAN

Entertainment InternationalThursday, September 16, 201012

“The reason I’m wearing this jacket is because I’msweating under here and I can’t take it off ‘cause thisshirt shows it,” Kidman said.

“I feel very exposed, very nervous,” she explained.“It’s a whole different ball game because it’s so per-sonal when you’re in a film but you’re not respon-sible for the film. “I’m responsible for this film soit’s a big weight. But I’m glad that we made it.”

“Rabbit Hole” is based on David Lindsay-Abaire’sPulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, andexamines a couple mourning the loss of a child aftera hit-and-run accident.

Aaron Eckhart, best known for his roles in “TheDark Knight” (2008) and “Thank You for Smoking”(2005), co-stars with Kidman in the film directed byJohn Cameron Mitchell.

Nicole Kidman sweatsNicole Kidman sweatsNicole Kidman sweatsNicole Kidman sweatsNicole Kidman sweatsnew producer rolenew producer rolenew producer rolenew producer rolenew producer roleAgence France Presse

TORONTO – Nicole Kidman was feeling “veryTORONTO – Nicole Kidman was feeling “veryTORONTO – Nicole Kidman was feeling “veryTORONTO – Nicole Kidman was feeling “veryTORONTO – Nicole Kidman was feeling “veryexposed and very nervous” as a first-time producerexposed and very nervous” as a first-time producerexposed and very nervous” as a first-time producerexposed and very nervous” as a first-time producerexposed and very nervous” as a first-time producerpromoting her new film “Rabbit Hole” at a majorpromoting her new film “Rabbit Hole” at a majorpromoting her new film “Rabbit Hole” at a majorpromoting her new film “Rabbit Hole” at a majorpromoting her new film “Rabbit Hole” at a majorfilm festival, she said Tuesday. The actress, who wonfilm festival, she said Tuesday. The actress, who wonfilm festival, she said Tuesday. The actress, who wonfilm festival, she said Tuesday. The actress, who wonfilm festival, she said Tuesday. The actress, who wonan Academy Award in 2002 for her portrayal of earlyan Academy Award in 2002 for her portrayal of earlyan Academy Award in 2002 for her portrayal of earlyan Academy Award in 2002 for her portrayal of earlyan Academy Award in 2002 for her portrayal of earlytwentieth century English novelist Virginia Woolftwentieth century English novelist Virginia Woolftwentieth century English novelist Virginia Woolftwentieth century English novelist Virginia Woolftwentieth century English novelist Virginia Woolfin “The Hours,” literally sweated through a news con-in “The Hours,” literally sweated through a news con-in “The Hours,” literally sweated through a news con-in “The Hours,” literally sweated through a news con-in “The Hours,” literally sweated through a news con-ference at the Toronto film festival.ference at the Toronto film festival.ference at the Toronto film festival.ference at the Toronto film festival.ference at the Toronto film festival.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images/AFP

Actress Nicole Kidman speaks at “Rabbit Hole” pressconference during the 2010 Toronto International FilmFestival at the Hyatt Regency on September 14, 2010in Toronto, Canada.

Agence France PresseLONDON - British pop star

George Michael was sentenced toeight weeks in jail by a court on Tues-day after he admitted driving under theinfluence of cannabis when he crashedhis car into a shop. The 47-year-old“Freedom” and “Careless Whisper”singer was arrested after his RangeRover smashed into a photographyshop in north London in the earlyhours of July 4, the latest in a long

Singer George Michael jailed for drug drivingline of clashes with the law.

Michael, who was charged underhis real name Georgios Panayiotou,sighed as the sentence was an-nounced and a fan sobbed in the pub-lic gallery of Highbury MagistratesCourt in London as he was taken tothe cells.

“It does not appear that you tookproper steps to deal with what isclearly an addiction to cannabis.That’s a mistake which puts you and,

on this occasion, the public at risk,”Judge John Perkins said. He said ajail term was inevitable becauseMichael had a conviction for drivingwhile unfit dating back to 2006, add-ing that this time he had taken a “dan-gerous and unpredictable mix” of pre-scription drugs and cannabis.

“I accept entirely that you haveshown remorse for the offence, thatyou are ashamed of it, that you ad-mitted it,” Perkins said, but added thatit was with “regret” that he could notfind any mitigation against a prisonsentence.

Perkins said Michael would servefour weeks in prison and after that hewould be released and the remainderof the term would be spent understrict conditions.

The court also slapped Michaelwith a five-year driving ban and a fineof 1,250 pounds (1,500 euros, 1,930dollars). Michael had admitted thedriving offence at an earlier hearingin August. He also pleaded guilty topossessing cannabis cigarettes. Thesinger was found by police slumpedat the wheel of his Range Rover withthe engine still running after the crashin July. Officers roused him and saidhe appeared “spaced out.”

The star’s lawyer, Mukul Chawla,said Michael had personally repaidthe cost of the damage to the ownershop. “The only thing that MrMichael has specifically asked hislawyers to address to the court is hisprofound shame and horror of hav-ing repeated the conduct of 2006,”Chawla told the court. Michael ar-rived at the court on Tuesday wear-ing dark glasses and waving to fans,some of whom screamed his nameand tried to burst through police bar-riers to reach him.

Agence France PresseTORONTO - American actor

James Caan became sentimentalTuesday over his most famous1972 “Godfather” toll boothshooting scene, at the world pre-miere of his new film “Henry’sCrime.” Caan earned an Acad-emy Award nomination for hisrole as Santino “Sonny” Corleonein Mario Puzo’s “The Godfa-ther.” His character dies after be-ing sprayed with bullets in a bru-tal mafia killing at a toll plaza.

In director Malcom Venville’s“Henry’s Crime,” which pre-miered at the Toronto film festi-val, Caan plays the cellmate of adisgruntled toll booth attendant(Keanu Reeves) who stumblesacross an armed robbery and ismistaken by police as one of therobbers.

Caan wisecracked that he re-fused to be on set at the Buffalo,New York toll booth for the film-ing of the opening scene withReeves.

“I refused to go to the tollbooth, but in case Malcolm asked

James Caan stillwary of toll boothsafter ‘Godfather’

me, I had the correct change,” hesaid, referencing the ambushwhile waiting for change from atoll booth attendant in “The God-father.” “I just keep thinking if Ihad the correct change, I wouldhave made a lot more money. Ididn’t know they were going tomake a (Godfather) II, so I wouldhave refused to die” in the firstchapter of the trilogy, he said.

He briefly appears in a flash-back scene in the sequel. Askedif he ever gets tired of talkingabout “The Godfather,” Caan re-plied “No. I thank God for it.”

“Unlike actors that hide, or thatdon’t like to give autographs orbe recognized... I’m very thank-ful that people still remember thatI’m alive and all that,” he wenton. “No. I don’t get tired of it. Imean, it was a blessing. God, I’mgetting sentimental.”

“Henry’s Crime” also starsVera Farmiga, best known for herOscar-nominated performance in“Up in the Air,” as well as “TheVintner’s Luck” and “The De-parted.”

Associated Press WriterLOS ANGELES - Political

satirist Bill Maher has been im-mortalized in Hollywood. WithLarry King and “Family Guy”producer Seth MacFarlane stand-ing nearby, HBO’s “Real Timewith Bill Maher” talk show hostunveiled his Walk of Fame star

Bill Maher gets HollywoodWalk of Fame star

Tuesday outside the W Hotel atthe corner of Hollywood Boule-vard and Vine Street. Maher, whoonce hosted the late-night talkshow “Politically Incorrect,” saidhe wanted to thank “George Bush,Sarah Palin and the pope.” It wasthe 2,417th star dedicated on thefamous sidewalk.

AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

British singer George Michael arrives for sentencing at Highbury mag-istrates court in London, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010. George Michael isfacing a fine or jail time after he admitted driving while under the influ-ence of drugs. The singer pleaded guilty last month to driving underthe influence and possession of cannabis following an incident on July4 when his Range Rover crashed into a photo shop in north London.

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese

James Caan arrives for the screening of the film “Henry’s Crime”during the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto Tues-day, September 14, 2010.

International Thursday, September 16, 2010 13Life Style

Print advertising — the life-blood of a newspaper’s revenuebase — has plunged 47 percentin the hard-hit North Americanmarket since 2005, while the out-look for Europe, Middle East andAfrica (EMEA) remains tepid,says a new study by globalconsultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.

However, Asia’s newspaperadvertising is expected to rise 3.1percent annually through 2014 to27.3 billion US dollars, accord-ing to PwC’s “Global Entertain-ment and Media Outlook 2010-2014.”

The trend toward online newshas been slower in Asia wherenewspapers remain popular, in-cluding Japan which has theworld’s highest newspaper read-ership.

“In Asia Pacific and LatinAmerica...newspaper readershiphas held up and is increasing,which accounts for their strongerperformance in recent years andfaster growth rates compared withNorth America and EMEA in thenext five years,” the report said.

Spending in Asia’s newspapersector will rise at 2.3 percent an-nually through 2014, it added. InHong Kong, the city’s myriadChinese and English-languagenewspapers wage a daily battlefor readers in one of the world’smost saturated newspaper mar-kets.

Asia defies global newspaper meltdownAsia defies global newspaper meltdownAsia defies global newspaper meltdownAsia defies global newspaper meltdownAsia defies global newspaper meltdownAgence France Presse

HONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print mediaHONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print mediaHONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print mediaHONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print mediaHONG KONG - Asian newspapers are defying the global print mediameltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay offmeltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay offmeltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay offmeltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay offmeltdown while their counterparts in the West spill red ink and lay offstaff in droves as readers flock to online news.staff in droves as readers flock to online news.staff in droves as readers flock to online news.staff in droves as readers flock to online news.staff in droves as readers flock to online news.

Leading tabloid Apple Dailyboosts its coverage with fancifulanimated depictions of gruesomeand violent news stories, and em-ploys an army of young reporterswho will stop at little to get thestory.

“It is cut-throat competition,”says Cheng Ming-yan, Apple’schief editor, adding, “We’re notconservative — we have very ag-gressive reporting.” Number-oneselling Oriental Daily News(ODN) once sued its bitter rivalApple over claims that its report-ers tricked ODN colleagues intodivulging exclusive stories.

“It is pretty intense — HongKong has always been a newspa-per town,” said Steve Shellum,executive editor of the English-language daily The Standard.

Newspapers reach almost 80percent of adults in Hong Kong,a city of seven million, and its twobiggest-selling papers each claima daily readership above 1.2 mil-lion, according to “World PressTrends 2010” produced by news-paper association WAN-IFRA.

“Chinese people are eager toget information from newspapersbecause, traditionally, that wasthe way their mother and fatherspent their leisure time,” saidCheng at Apple Daily.

But circulation at Hong Kong’spaid dailies has still been drop-ping as free newspapers musclein on their turf. Apple not only

plans to continue using cartoonanimations in its print edition, itis also moving to video withsometimes questionable depic-tions of news — all in a bid toattract the next generation.

“It’s very important and willbecome more important. Youngpeople have grown up with car-toons — they want the image,”Cheng said.

Apple’s computer-generatedvideo of Tiger Woods’ now ex-wife running after his car swing-ing a golf club — after hearing

AFP PHOTO / MIKE CLARKE

A selection of newspaper frontpages in Hong Kong on Septem-

ber 7, 2010. Asian newspapers aredefying the global print media

meltdown while their counterpartsin the West spill red ink and lay offstaff in droves as readers flock to

online news.

Agence France PresseLESBOS ISLAND LESBOS ISLAND LESBOS ISLAND LESBOS ISLAND LESBOS ISLAND - It’s Sep-

tember and for a 10th year, the vil-lage of Eressos on Greece’s Lesbosisland has drawn lesbians fromacross Europe to a unique interna-tional festival for women. In acountry strongly influenced by theGreek Orthodox church and whereroughly half the population isagainst same-sex marriage, the les-bian-run event has been quietlygrowing in this corner of theAegean Sea.

Over the past decade, attendanceat the two-week InternationalWomen’s Festival has jumpedfrom 30 to hundreds of women —mainly German, British, Dutch andScandinavian, but also Greek andItalian.

The busy programme of eventsincludes women-only walks andsunset cruises, breathing and drum-ming workshops, Greek danceclasses and lesbian film screenings.

“I’ve been blown away, there’sno unease at all,” says LaurenBianchi, a Scottish woman in herearly 20s who is at the festival forthe first time and who had read ar-ticles about difficult relations be-tween locals and lesbians.

Lesbian purchasing power topples taboos on Greek islandIn 2000, when the festival

launched, tensions ran high. Aposter advertising one of its eventssparked the anger of the village

mayor, who threatened to take theorganisers to court and ban theevent, vowing to drive lesbiantourism from the village.

Ten years on, the municipality islending the town hall for one of thefestival’s art exhibitions and allowedthe use of the beach to stage the open-

of the golf legend’s infidelities —was an Internet sensation, and seemsunlikely to be a one-hit wonder.“Our new business is to focus on liveanimation news,” Cheng said.

That swing to online and videonews will ultimately spell doom fornewspapers even in the Asian mar-ket, said Chan Yuen-ying, directorof the University of Hong Kong’sjournalism school. “(The decline) ishitting Asia slower and media own-ers still have some time, but the dooris closing,” Chan said. “I don’t thinkthere is reason to be optimistic.”

ing event on September 4.“It was economic gameplay and

the lesbians took the ticket and said,‘yes, if you want cash, you’ve got it’,”says Marianthi Lianou, a Greek soci-ologist in her 50s who moved toEressos six years ago to study itssmall lesbian community.

Lesbian holidaymakers have beencoming to Lesbos since the 1970s, at-tracted by the island’s associationwith Sappho, the seventh centuryGreek poet who wrote about her lovefor women and was born in Eressos.

According to the Sappho travelagency, lesbians now make up 60 per-cent of visitors to the village, risingto 90 percent in September when thefestival takes place.

“My rooms are full for the next twoweeks. We’d usually be dead in Sep-tember, but now it’s booming,” saysAndreas, who runs the Sappho cafebar and rents rooms on the villageseafront. As the economic crisis con-tinues to pinch, he says Greekholidaymakers spent less this summerand he is grateful for the extendedseason brought by lesbian tourism.“People in the village have got usedit, especially the young people, butthe old people still discuss it amongthemselves,” he says.

AFP PHOTO / LOUISA GOULIAMAKI

Women lay on the beach of the village of Eressos on Lesbos island on September 4 , 2010.

Thursday, September 16, 201014 InternationalSport

Wesley Sneijder gave the visi-tors the lead on his return to hishomeland but Janssen curled ina stunning free-kick before Di-ego Milito’s own goal gave thehosts the lead, only for SamuelEto’o to earn the Italians a point.

Benitez, who replaced JoseMourinho at the Inter helm in thesummer, declared himselfpleased with his side’s Group Aopener. “The first half was verydifficult but we did very well inthe second,” he said. “We con-trolled the game and I’m satis-fied with the second half againsta difficult team.”

The result leaves Inter andTwente in a four-way tie withTottenham Hotspur and WerderBremen, whose game in north-western Germany also ended ina 2-2 stalemate.

Tottenham went 2-0 up inside20 minutes after a Petri Pasanenown goal and a Peter Crouchheader, but the hosts hit backthrough Hugo Almeida and drewlevel early in the second periodwhen Marko Marin fired in a lowdrive. “That first 42 minutes orso was the best you could eversee us play,” said Tottenhamcoach Harry Redknapp.

“We passed the ball andopened them up time and timeagain. But then we conceded abad goal, which suddenly boughtthem back into the game.”United made 10 changes for thevisit of Rangers and were madeto pay as the Scottish championsground out a goalless draw intheir Group C fixture at OldTrafford.

The hosts dominated posses-sion but without testing visitinggoalkeeper Allan McGregor, andthree long-range drives fromIrish midfielder Darron Gibsonwere all they had to show fortheir efforts.

The evening ended on a sournote for the 2008 Europeanchampions, who had Ecuador in-ternational winger AntonioValencia stretchered off with asuspected dislocation and frac-ture to his ankle.

“Rangers set their stall out todefend and play on the counter-attack, and you have to respectthat,” said United coach Sir AlexFerguson. “They came knowingwhat they wanted to do and theydid it well. Our final ball wasn’tgood enough to get three points.”

Current Spanish league lead-ers Valencia top Group C after aconvincing 4-0 win at Champi-

Agence France Presse

MANCHESTER – Manchester United winger Antonio Valenciawill not play again this season after a freak injury in the 0-0 Champi-ons League draw with Rangers left him with a fractured and dislo-cated ankle. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson defended his selection policy,for the second consecutive game, after making 10 changes to the teamthat drew at Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.

But the loss of Ecuador international Valencia was, possibly, themost costly feature of the Old Trafford stalemate for the United man-ager.

Valencia, who had surgery on the right ankle in the summer, twistedawkwardly as he sprinted down the sideline and was left with a shat-tered left ankle, dislocated and fractured. Ferguson said: “He’s goneto hospital. It is a dislocation and a fracture, it’s a bad one and willkeep him out for a long time.

“He seemed to dig his toe in the turf and when we saw the Rangersplayer waving we knew it was bad. It was an innocuous challenge andwe didn’t expect that.

“It’s a similar injury to the one (former striker) Alan Smith hadhere in 2006 so he is out for the rest of the season.” Rangers defenderKirk Broadfoot looked shaken as he helped Valencia and waved onthe United medical team who stretchered off the player.

But the injury was not the only concern for Ferguson who recalledWayne Rooney, whom he had controversially left out at Everton, andRio Ferdinand but saw his team unable to make a single clear-cutchance.

Ferguson, while defending the policy, did admit that omittingDimitar Berbatov from even a place on his bench may have been anerror. “The criticism will be why I didn’t pick a strong team but I feltI picked a strong team,” said Ferguson. “We have a terrific squad ofplayers and most of them played at the Charity Shield.

“We wanted to see how Chicharito (Javier Hernandez) could do ina full game but by doing that we left out Berbatov and his form hasbeen outstanding.

“He’s been one of our best players this season and you have to saythat was a loss. His ability to create in tight situations would havemade a difference.

“They should have won the game but give Rangers credit as theirsystem was difficult to break down. “You need 10 points to qualify.Obviously our home record over the years has been very good. It wasa blemish against Rangers but it is one point and you never know howthe rest of the games will go. But we have a target now, nine pointsfrom five games.”

Ferguson, who has seen his team draw two away games already inthe Premier League this season, is also expecting a positive responsefrom his team when Liverpool visit Old Trafford on Sunday.

Inter, Man United heldInter, Man United heldInter, Man United heldInter, Man United heldInter, Man United heldas Barcelona hit fiveas Barcelona hit fiveas Barcelona hit fiveas Barcelona hit fiveas Barcelona hit five

PARIS - Holders Inter Milan drew 2-2 at competition debutants FC Twente as the ChampionsLeague group phase began on Tuesday, while Manchester United were held by Rangers andBarcelona thrashed Panathinaikos. Theo Janssen was the star for Twente, Dutch champions forthe first time in their history last season, scoring one and making one to frustrate Rafael Benitez’sside on a rain-soaked night in Enschede, eastern Holland.

ons League new boys Bursasporof Turkey.

Barcelona began their Euro-pean campaign in similarly spec-tacular fashion, smashing fivetypically well-worked goals pastGreek champions Panathinaikosin a 5-1 victory at Camp Nou. Thevisitors had the temerity to take a20th-minute lead through formerLyon forward Sidney Govou, butBarca were 3-1 up at the intervalthanks to a Lionel Messi bracethat sandwiched a close-rangeDavid Villa strike.

Messi spurned the chance toclaim a hat-trick when his tamesecond-half penalty was saved, butgoals from Pedro Rodriguez andDani Alves in the 78th and 93rdminutes added gloss to thescoreline.

“We couldn’t win on Saturday

and knew we had to win tonight,”said Pedro, whose side fell to ashock 2-0 defeat at home to newlypromoted Hercules in La Liga atthe weekend.

An 87th-minute goal by DameN’Doye earned FC Copenhagen a1-0 win at home to Russia’s RubinKazan in the other group game.Lyon, semi-finalists last season,and two-time champions Benficaboth got off to winning starts inGroup B.

The French side prevailed 1-0at home to Schalke, who had cen-tre-back Benedikt Howedes sentoff in the first half after MichelBastos had put Lyon ahead.

Benfica beat Israeli competitiondebutants Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2-0 inLisbon, with Brazil centre-backLuisao netting the 5,000th goal inChampions League history.

Valencia Unitedseason finishedafter horror break

AFP PHOTO/ANDREW YATES

Manchester United’s Ecuador midfielder Antonio Valenciareceives treatment for an injury to his leg caused by a tacklefrom Rangers’ Scottish defender Kirk Broadfoot (not pic-tured) during their UEFA Champions League Group C foot-ball match at Old Trafford in Manchester, north-west En-gland, on September 14, 2010.

(AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Roberto Rosales of FC Twente, bottom, battles for the ball withSamuel Eto’o of Inter Milan during their first round group AChampions League soccer match at the Grolsch Veste stadiumin Enschede, Netherlands, Tuesday Sept. 14, 2010.

Thursday, September 16, 2010 15International Sport

Nadal on Monday became onlythe seventh man in history — andthe youngest at 24 — to have wonthe world’s four top tennis tourna-ments: the US, French and Austra-lian Opens and Wimbledon.

The left-hander achieved the featafter he overcame second-rankedNovak Djokovic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2at Flushing Meadows to capture hisfirst US Open crown. “As a tennisplayer I have taken a step forward,”he said of the achievement, addingthat he maintains “the hunger forvictory and the hope to keep win-ning”.

But he described the Grand Slamas a “dream” as the US Open “hasbeen in past the one that has beenhardest for me”. “First of all therewas my knees,” he said, referringto the tendinitis he suffered the 2007

Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS – Boxer FloydMayweather Jr. gave his ex-girl-friend $200 to put under theirdaughter’s pillow for a lost toothbefore threatening, hitting andtaking a cell phone from thewoman in an argument that led toa felony charge last week, accord-ing to a police arrest report madepublic on Monday.

The 33-year-old Mayweatheris quoted as threatening to kill 30-year-old Josie Harris and her newboyfriend during the argumentearly Thursday at a home insouthwest Las Vegas, and stating,“I’m going to have you both dis-appear,” according to the report.

Mayweather faces a grand lar-ceny charge over the missing cellphone — not domestic battery orassault — after turning himself into police on Friday. He was freedfrom jail on $3,000 bail pendinga Nov. 9 appearance in Las Ve-gas Justice Court. Mayweather’slawyers have denied wrongdoingon his behalf.

“We are confident the full pic-ture will come out in the futureand clarify the situation,” defenseattorney Karen Winckler saidMonday.

Winckler added that theMayweather camp was waiting tosee whether Clark County Dis-

Modest Nadal says GrandModest Nadal says GrandModest Nadal says GrandModest Nadal says GrandModest Nadal says GrandSlam just a ‘step forward’Slam just a ‘step forward’Slam just a ‘step forward’Slam just a ‘step forward’Slam just a ‘step forward’

Agence France Presse

MADRID - World number one tennis ace Rafael NadalWednesday downplayed his achievement in completing a careerGrand Slam, describing it as merely “a step forward” in hiscareer. “I’m not the best sportsman, it’s quite obvious that I’mnot,” the Spaniard told a news conference on his arrival atMadrid’s airport from New York.

U.S. Openmen’s singlestennis cham-pion RafaelNadal, of Spain,holds histrophy in NewYork’s TimesSquare, Tues-day, Sept. 14,2010. Nadaldefeated NovakDjokovic, 6-4,5-7, 6-4, 6-2 inthe final onMonday.

edition, when he lost in the fourthround to David Ferrer.

The following year, “I was verytired after the Olympics, and lastyear I pulled an abdominal muscle.”Nadal said the 2010 season so far hasbeen “very special, as when youdon’t win for some time and then youstart winning again it means that youhave overcome the problems.”

He said he was now focused onthe Shanghai tournament and theMasters events in Paris and London.“The last part of the year is impor-tant to continue winning points,” hesaid.

Nadal’s win adds to a list of suc-cesses for Spanish sportsmen thisyear following the country’s firstever World Cup win in South Africaand Alberto Contador’s third victoryin the Tour de France. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Arrest report released inMayweather case in Vegas

(AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.,exits the Clark County Deten-tion Center after posting bailon a grand larceny chargestemming from a domestic vio-lence complaint, Friday, Sept.10, 2010 in Las Vegas.Mayweather’s lawyer, RichardWright, says the charge stemsfrom an allegation thatMayweather took an iPhonefrom Josie Harris, his ex-girl-friend and mother of three ofhis children.

trict Attorney David Roger addsdomestic battery or other crimi-nal charges in the case. Police ini-tially labeled the incident a bat-tery domestic case. The arrest re-port about the scuffle is similar toan account Harris provided Thurs-day to obtain a Clark County Fam-ily Court protection order againstMayweather.

Both say Mayweather was an-gry about her a relationship withanother man, and both sayMayweather grabbed Harris byher hair, hit her and twisted herarm while yelling that he wouldkill her.

The couple have three children,ages 7 to 10. The police reportprovided the account about toothfairy money and aboutMayweather giving an iPhone asa gift to his 10-year-old son. Onlythe police report includes a refer-ence to the alleged theft of Har-ris’ cell phone.

Mayweather’s son told policethat Mayweather also took phonesfrom him and his brother. Policesay Mayweather was accompa-nied by another man when he ar-rived at the house, and the son toldpolice he witnessed his father hit-ting and kicking Harris.

Police say Mayweather threat-ened to beat the children if theyleft the house or called police, andthat Mayweather later used

Harris’s phone to call her friend,who had accompanied Harris to aLas Vegas hospital for treatmentof minor facial injuries and a soreleft arm. The woman hung up onMayweather, police said.

Agence France Presse

BERLIN - Teenage athleteswere also subjected to dopingunder communist EastGermany’s vast programme ofsteroid abuse, a leading formersports official has admitted inhis upcoming new book. Tho-mas Koehler, former vice presi-dent of the East German sportsassociation DTSB, is the firsthigh-ranking member of the de-funct Stalinist state’s sportingestablishment to acknowledgethat minors were also doped.

“When athletes participated(in doping programmes) fromthe age of 16, it was primarilydone when their biological ma-turity was established,” Koehlerwrites in the book “The TwoSides of the Medal”, to be pub-lished this week.

Doping “had been plannedfor select elite athletes, whowere generally adults. “Therewere exceptions, however, forexample in swimming — a sportwhere the optimum age is lower.But the only athletes includedwere those who were among thebest and had several years oftraining behind them,” he

Teen athletes alsodoped in East

Germany: officialwrites.

Koehler, himself a two-timeOlympic luge champion in 1964and 1968, said that cheating was“the only way for East Germanyto hold its own at the interna-tional level.”

The 70-year-old said that thecommunist officials had the in-terest of their athletes at heart,with 90 sports doctors em-ployed to monitor their health.

“The distribution of medica-tion (steroids) occurred underthe closest observation by medi-cal doctors performing theirduties,” he insisted, disputingscientific evidence that athletessuffered ill effects from the littleblue pills.

The East German state estab-lished a vast, systematic dopingprogramme in the 1970s usingTurinabol, an anabolic steroidwhich encourages musclegrowth and allowed the countryto excel in swimming, athleticsand cycling.

During the 20-year periodEast Germany competed as aseparate state, the small coun-try of 16 million people won519 medals at 11 Olympicgames, 192 of which were gold.

Thursday, September 16, 201016 SportI N T E R N A T I O N A L

And although the competitive-ness of the fight at the front meanshuge pressure for those involved,Whitmarsh believes that those wholove the sport have a real treat ontheir hands.

“It will be a race to Abu Dhabinow and that is great,” saidWhitmarsh. “This is an epic worldchampionship - and I hope every-one realises that this is potentiallyone of the best world champion-ships ever in the history of F1. Thatis fantastic.

“You have got Jenson andLewis, you have the two Red Bulldrivers, and you have Alonso, ab-solutely all in this championship -and that is fantastic really.”

Whitmarsh believes that theway the form-book this season hasmoved around so much - favouringeither Red Bull Racing, McLarenor Ferrari depending on track char-acteristics - meant there was noway of picking out who wasfavourite at the moment.

“Ferrari and Red Bull are verystrong, I think we are not too bad,”he said. “I would not want to call

Whitmarsh hails ‘epic’ championship Whitmarsh hails ‘epic’ championship Whitmarsh hails ‘epic’ championship Whitmarsh hails ‘epic’ championship Whitmarsh hails ‘epic’ championshipMcLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says fans should be relishingMcLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says fans should be relishingMcLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says fans should be relishingMcLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says fans should be relishingMcLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says fans should be relishing

how good a Formuhow good a Formuhow good a Formuhow good a Formuhow good a Formula 1 season they are witnessing this season - aheadla 1 season they are witnessing this season - aheadla 1 season they are witnessing this season - aheadla 1 season they are witnessing this season - aheadla 1 season they are witnessing this season - aheadof what he thinks could be the greatest title showdown in history.of what he thinks could be the greatest title showdown in history.of what he thinks could be the greatest title showdown in history.of what he thinks could be the greatest title showdown in history.of what he thinks could be the greatest title showdown in history.Five drivers - Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel,Five drivers - Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel,Five drivers - Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel,Five drivers - Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel,Five drivers - Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel,Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso - remain locked in a thrillingJenson Button and Fernando Alonso - remain locked in a thrillingJenson Button and Fernando Alonso - remain locked in a thrillingJenson Button and Fernando Alonso - remain locked in a thrillingJenson Button and Fernando Alonso - remain locked in a thrillingbattle for the championship with just five races remaining.battle for the championship with just five races remaining.battle for the championship with just five races remaining.battle for the championship with just five races remaining.battle for the championship with just five races remaining.

this one. We are going to aim to win.You hear these pundits say we areweak here and strong there, and Idon’t know how they can work it out- they obviously know more aboutour car than I do.

“The fact is, at Monza, Ferrariwas marginally the quickest race car,our car wasn’t bad and Red Bull wasa bit behind. But in Singapore allthree positions could be very differ-ent.”

Whitmarsh’s views on how closethis season has been have been ech-oed by world champion Button - whois left in no doubt about how intensethe year is.

“For me to be in a very competi-tive car, fighting at the front, withso many great drivers, so many tal-ented drivers that have either wonthe championship or been close towinning it, it is a great feeling to bepart of it,” explained Button.

“This season, whatever happens,will be one of the best and most com-petitive seasons ever in F1. That istrue for the drivers but also theteams, and it is great to be a part ofit.”

AP Photo/Alberto Pellaschiar

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain, top center,is led by the two Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, right, and FelipeMassa, left, chasing McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Buttonof Britain, at the first turn of the Italian Formula One Grand Prixon the Monza racetrack in Monza, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010.

Casey Stoner insists that hisDucati team is working hard to find‘something extra’ in his quest toreturn to the MotoGP victorycircle, but laments the reality islikely to be somewhat tougher.Stoner heads to MotorlandAragon for the inaugural AragonGrand Prix keen to forget the lasttwo events having retired at India-napolis and trailed in fifth atMisano.

‘Realistic’ Stoner facing a ‘tough job’However, the advent of a new

circuit gives Stoner renewed opti-mism that he can get back onto thepodium, even if he admits he stillneeds to find a solution to improv-ing the feeling of the GP10.

“I’m happy to be going toAragon. The last two races havebeen difficult for us and racing at anew track is exciting. We’ll go intothe weekend with optimism andhope that the track is good fun and

well suited to the Ducati, althoughbeing realistic we know we face atough job to find something extra.

“The team and all the engineersare doing a fantastic job so it is acase of giving my maximum andhelping come up with somethingnew to improve the feeling with thebike, to get it turning better and findsome more grip. More than anythingwe want to put the last couple ofweeks behind us.”

Casey Stoner