16
Sport
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
‘fully fit’ Neck injury wrecks Lorenzo after summer break Schumacher comeback
Agence France Presse
BERLIN - Former world champion Michael Schumacher has abandoned plans to return to Formula One racing at the European Grand Prix in Valencia on August 23 due to a neck injury, he announced on his website on Tuesday. The 40-year-old German, who won the world title seven times before retiring in 2006, had been primed to replace the injured Felipe Massa in the Ferrari team for the race in Spain and possibily for the rest of the season. But he injured his neck in a motorcycle accident in February and medical tests showed that he had yet to fully recover. “Yesterday evening, I had to inform Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and Team Principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I’m not able to step in for Felipe,” Schumacher said on his website. “I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn’t work out. “Unfortunately we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in the neck which occurred after the private F1-day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible. The door for a sensational Schumacher comeback to the sport he dominated for so long was opened when Brazilian Massa sustained serious head injuries during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on July 25. That looked certain to rule him out for the rest of the season and the Italian team immediately turned toward their former top driver to step in. His planned comeback to racing added more spice to what has already been a dramatic season, but was not welcomed by all, especially Formula One rivals Williams, who invoked rules and regulations to block his testing Ferrari’s current car ahead of Valencia. That would have left him desparately short of practice for the race, but as it turned out it was physical more than mechanical reasons that spoiled his return. “The consequences of the injuries caused by the bike-accident in February, fractures in the area of head and neck, unfortunately have turned out to be still too severe,” he said. “That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula 1 yet. I am disappointed to the core. “I am awfully sorry for the guys of Ferrari and for all the fans which crossed fingers for me. I can only repeat that I tried everything that was within my power. All I can do now is to keep my fingers crossed for the whole team for the coming races.” Ferrari announced that the team’s test driver Luca Badoer would take the place of Schumacher replacing
Massa for the European Grand Prix. The 38-year-old Italian has competed in five Grands Prix during his career, the last being in 1999. Team boss Luca di Montezemolo said he was disappointed that Schumacher had been forced to pull out of the race in Valencia as he had already shown his enthusiasm and dedication to winning were intact.
Spain - Jorge Lorenzo says the three-week summer break has given him time to fully recover from the shoulder and foot injuries he has been carrying since Laguna Seca last month. The Yamaha rider finished on the podium at Laguna and the Sachsenring before crashing out of the lead at Donington Park last time out. But he says the time off has allowed his collar bone and foot to heal and expects to be 100 per cent fit for the Czech race at Brno this weekend. “I’m really excited about this race after what feels like a long time without one,” said Lorenzo. “It was good to have a bit of a break and I used the time to work on my fitness and to completely recover from the injuries I had after Laguna, in the gym and with my physiotherapist.
16 Pages Number 434 1st Year e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com. Price: Rp 3.000,-
Chavez warns of ‘war’ over Colombia-US deal
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
PAGE 3
“The result is that I feel much better than I did in Germany and England and I’m excited to be getting back on the bike. “I like Brno and I have had good results in the past there, including three wins. This time my aim is to fight hard and get back on the podium.”
Jorge Lorenzo BP/doc
Nusa Dua – The participants watching the pictures regarding HIV/AIDS in Asia Pacific Village Exhibition. The event was held during the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Nusa Dua on Monday, August 10th 2009. The congress is being held to discuss and spread the knowledge, programs, and policies in the global responds on HIV/ AIDS.
Most drug-resistant TB cases go untested PAGE 9
50 million Asian women at risk of HIV infection: UNAIDS ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana/Koz/nz/09
This is It’: Jackson film out in October PAGE 12
Agence France-Presse
NUSA DUA - More than 1.5 million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their husbands or boyfriends and 50 million more are at risk of infection, according to a report released Tuesday. The “HIV Transmission in Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia” report by UNAIDS said the women at risk are either married or in longterm relationships with men who engage in “high-risk sexual behaviours.” “That is, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, the clients of sex workers,” UNAIDS regional
AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, FILES
FILE — In this file photo taken Monday, Jan. 26, 2004, Ferrari Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany, right, and test driver Luca Badoer joke at a photo session, during the presentation of the new Formula 1 F2004 racing car in Maranello, Italy.
WEATHER FORECAST CITY
TEMPERATURE OC
DENPASAR
21 - 31
JAKARTA
24 - 32
BANDUNG
19 - 30
YOGYAKARTA
22 - 31
SURABAYA
23 - 34
SUNNY
BRIGHT/CLOUDY
RAIN
HOTLINE For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni
0361-225764
director Prasada Rao said. “(It’s) a problem of great magnitude that the countries have largely ignored (and) a challenge that we may no longer ignore,” Rao told reporters on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which is being held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Continued on page 6
Strong quake hits central Japan, more than 100 injured Agence France-Presse
YAIZU - A strong earthquake rocked central Japan on Tuesday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering a landslide and shutting down a nuclear power plant and bullet trains, officials said. The magnitude 6.4 tremor shook buildings, threw objects from shelves and jolted people from their sleep in and around To-
kyo, the world’s largest urban area, at 5:07 am (2007 GMT Monday). The quake hit in Suruga Bay on the Pacific Ocean coast, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) southwest of Tokyo, at a depth of 27 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. At least 101 people were injured, mostly by falling objects such as television sets, in the worst-hit pre-
fecture of Shizuoka, including three who were in serious condition, officials said. Seven more people were injured in Tokyo and in Kanagawa and Aichi prefectures, said the National Police Agency. “It was a huge tremble, like nothing I had experienced before,” said Tadao Negami, a 69-year-old resident of Mishima city in Shizuoka. The Hamaoka nuclear plant in the prefecture automatically shut
down two reactors when the quake hit, operator Chubu Electric Power Co. said. A company official said no radiation had leaked from the plant. The utility said the quake caused power failures in some 9,500 households. Central Japan Railway Co. suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the quake-hit region but resumed the services several hours later. Continued on page 6
2
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News WORLD NEWS
Iranian Nobel laureate calls for fresh election under UN Agence France-Presse
SEOUL - Iranian Nobel peace prizewinner Shirin Ebadi called Tuesday for a fresh election under UN surveillance to end violence in her country and urged UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon to visit Tehran.
Dmitry Medvedev MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lashes out at Ukraine’s leadership on an array of grievances, accused the country of endangering European gas supplies and says Russia won’t send a new ambassador until relations improve.
Merchant of death BANGKOK - A Thai court rejects a U.S. request to extradite a Russian arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death” to face terrorism charges.
Activist abducted MOSCOW - The kidnapped head of a Chechen aid group and her husband are found dead in the trunk of their car a day after being kidnapped. Source: ap
AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man
Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi answers a reporter’s questions during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. Nobel laureate Ebadi on Sunday urged Iran’s government to release detained activists and citizens accused of involvement in the country’s postelection unrest, saying the president must “listen to the people’s voice.”
Ebadi, a lawyer and human rights defender who won the prize in 2003, said Ban must gather first-hand information on human rights conditions before drawing up a United Nations report on Iran due in December. “In order to have fair election results, there must be a re-election under UN surveillance,” she told journalists during her visit to South Korea. “I plead with the UN secretary general to come to Iran. He must see what’s happening in Iran with his own eyes and talk to Iranians in order to write an accurate and truthful report,” she said through an interpreter. Ebadi denounced Tehran for using violence against citizens who protested at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in a June 12 poll that sparked weeks of unrest. She urged Tehran to stop using violence against peaceful protesters, halt the “show trials” of political opponents, release detainees, end censorship and compensate victims of government violence. Many Iranians had begun employing new tactics to continue protests while avoiding arrest, she said. In one instance mothers of demonstrators who were killed or arrested wear black and gather in public parks on Saturday nights for silent protests, carrying pictures of their children, she said.
“I ask mothers in Korea and other countries to do the same so that Iranian mothers can be aware that they are not alone,” she said. In another new form of protest, many Iranians shout “God is great” through their windows at night. Ebadi called for international pressure on Tehran to stop violence but made it clear she opposes economic sanctions or military intervention. “Economic sanctions would only aggravate the people’s hardship,” she said. “It’s much more important for the international community to share in Iranians’ pain rather than to impose economic sanctions on them.” Ebadi arrived Saturday for a sixday trip to receive this year’s Manhae Peace Prize named after a 20th century Korean Buddhist reformer. At least 20 people have died in clashes with security forces in Iran. About 2,000 opposition supporters were arrested in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad’s victory. Most have been released but around 200 remain behind bars. At least 110 have also been put on trial. Ebadi said the government had abused the spirit of Islam by abusing human rights. “Islam and human rights go handin-hand. Undemocratic governments are smearing the good name of Islam,” she said.
Sweden’s Princess Madeleine to marry: palace Agence France-Presse
STOCKHOLM - Sweden’s Princess Madeleine, the youngest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, is engaged to marry her boyfriend, the Swedish royal palace said on Tuesday.
“Today, Tuesday 11 August 2009, the engagement between Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine and Mr. Jonas Bergstroem was announced,” the palace said in a short statement. The palace announced the nuptials after the king received approval
from the Swedish government, according to procedures set out in the constitution. No date has yet been set for the wedding, the royal palace said. Princess Madeleine, 27, has two older siblings, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Carl Philip, making her
third in line to the Swedish throne. Princess Victoria, 31, announced her own engagement on February 24. She will wed 35-year-old Daniel Westling, who owns several luxury fitness centres in Stockholm, in June next year.
z Founder : K.Nadha, z Chief Editor: ABG Satria Naradha z Managing Editor: Wirata z Editors: Alit Purnata, Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Darmasunu, Daniel Fajry, Diah Dewi, Iwan Darmawan, Martinaya, Mawa, Palgunadi, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Sutiawan, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Mas Ruscitadewi, Oka Rusmini, Umbu Landu Paranggi, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Gregorius Rusmanda, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bali Putra Ariawan, Tabanan: Surpi. Jakarta: Nikson, Suharto Olii, Indu P. Adi, Ahmadi Supriyanto, Achmad Nasrudin, Hardianto, Darmawan S. Sumardjo, Heru B Arifin, Asep Djamaluddin, Ade Irawan, Ipik Tanoyo. NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani, Nur Haedin, Suyadnya. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. z Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. z Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publiser: PT Bali Post
Sport
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
15
Argentina face Russian test ahead of Brazil qualifier Agence France Presse
MOSCOW - Two-time world champions Argentina will test their skills and physical condition ahead of a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier with Brazil in a friendly match with the hosts Russia here on Wednesday. Russia, who reached the semifinals at the last year’s European championships in Austria and Switzerland, have never met Argentina before, but the South Americans have a winning record in their previous matches with the Soviet national side. Argentina secured three wins, including the teams’ only meeting at the World Cup (2-0 in 1990), and suffered two defeats at the hands of the Soviet squad. Six matches ended a draw. Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona said earlier this month that he was not happy with the decision to play a friendly in Moscow, calling the match useless and illtimed. “We need to concentrate completely on the preparations for the
crucial qualifier with Brazil, while this match would hardly help us to prepare for it the best way,” the press quoted Maradona as saying. “I don’t like the idea of playing in Moscow ahead of the match with Brazil.” In Wednesday’s match Argentina will be without three of their stars as defender Martin Demichelis, midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron and striker Carlos Tevez were all on the injured list. Russia’s Dutch manager Guus Hiddink will also be without Spartak Moscow midfielder Vladimir Bystrov, who was sidelined with a thigh injury and Chelsea winger Yury Zhirkov, who has still failed to overcome his knee injury. Hiddink said he was happy with a chance to test his team in the match against strong opponents ahead of
the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with Liechtenstein and Wales next month. “For me every match my team plays is very important even if it’s a friendly game,” Hiddink said. “And I expect an interesting rivalry between two strong opponents on Wednesday.”
Brazil’s soccer team midfielder Kaka enters a hotel in the Estonian capital Tallinn, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, as he arrives with other members of the national team. The Brazil soccer team, record five-time World Cup winners, are arriving in Estonia to play a friendly soccer match against Estonia, on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
Lampard gearing up for trophy haul Agence France Presse
LONDON - Frank Lampard is gearing himself up for one of the biggest seasons of his career and is determined to win major silverware for both club and country. Lampard believes Chelsea can mount a serious challenge for the title again and still dreams of helping his side win the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. Chelsea signalled their intentions by beating Manchester United in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday and have been able to keep their big name players at the club. With former AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti taking over the managerial helm at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea midfielder feels his side will not stand a better chance of challenging the big boys once again. Lampard is also thinking about the World Cup in South Africa next summer and feels the time has come for England to finally deliver and win their first major trophy since 1966. When asked if this was the biggest year of his career, Lampard said: “I think it will be for every player in the squad. Hopefully I’ve got a very positive season with Chelsea, a lot of things to win back and to win. “I’ve got a real strong desire to win the league back this year and I think that’s something that flows throughout the team. “I’ve spoken to John Terry, Ashley Cole and the other players. There was nothing better than to win
AP Photo/NIPA, Timur Nisametdinov
Capello’s England start World Cup countdown in Holland Agence France Presse
AP Photo/Akira Suemori
Chelsea’s John Terry, center, lifts the trophy with Frank Lampard, right, and Didier Drogba after Chelsea won the English FA Community Shield soccer match against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. the league and know that we were the best team in England so I’d love to do that first and foremost. “I’ve dreamt about the Champions League probably because I’ve sniffed it six times in the last six years. It keeps recurring in your head and you wake up in sweats. “Then with England it’s about qualifying - it’s all up for grabs this year. In a World Cup year, this was always going to be the big one to try to make an imprint as individuals and as a team. “You only have to look at how highly regarded the 1966 team are and rightly so having been the only England team to win the World Cup. “We want to go and win the World Cup as individuals and as a team but there are many great players who haven’t won a World Cup.
I grew up watching them. Winning the World Cup would be a great history making achievement.” Lampard knows more than anyone the disappointment of England failing to produce their best form when it comes to a major tournament. After being beaten on penalties by Portugal in the World Cup quarter-finals in 2006, Lampard admits the players are still deeply hurt by their failure to reach the European Championships last summer. Lampard added: “It’s the worst feeling in football when you’ve been on a run. “Even in the Euros when I thought we had a strong momentum to go and win the championships and then you’re out in a second. Nobody forgets that feeling and nobody wants it to happen again.”
AMSTERDAM - Fabio Capello expects England to start their countdown to the World Cup by vindicating his decision to leave Michael Owen out of the squad for Wednesday’s friendly against Holland. With the start of the Premier League campaign coming just three days after England’s trip to Amsterdam, it would be understandable if Capello’s players weren’t fully focused on their international commitments. But the England coach has just 10 months to prepare for next year’s World Cup in South Africa and every minute with his squad is vital. After winning all seven of their World Cup qualifiers, England can clinch their place at the finals with a victory over Croatia at Wembley on September 9, so the Holland match is anything but a meaningless friendly to Capello. The Italian will use the clash at Ajax’s Amsterdam Arena to test his belief that Emile Heskey is the perfect partner for Wayne Rooney, while continuing the development of Steven Gerrard’s role on the left wing. Capello will also run the rule over his reserve goalkeepers in the absence of injured first choice David James. Frank Lampard, a key member
of Capello’s midfield, has no doubt that the fixture can play a significant part in England’s preparations for the final stages of their qualifying campaign and also the World Cup itself. “It’s important for us and our manager to see where the players are,” Lampard said. “You never know who’s fit, so it’s nice to have a gathering with the big games coming next month. “It would be great to have a good performance and to win as well, but the performance is what you want to take into the qualifiers.” Capello has been able to use England’s friendly matches to decide that the best way to allow Manchester United forward Rooney to thrive is to pair him with a more imposing targetman such as Aston Villa’s Heskey. Rooney’s form over the last year suggests Capello is right and the Italian shows no signs of changing his mind about casting Owen into international exile. Owen’s poor finishing in United’s recent friendly against Valencia did little to change Capello’s feeling that the former Liverpool player’s star is waning. Yet Jermain Defoe and Carlton Cole, the forwards picked ahead of Owen, have done little in an England shirt to suggest they could change the course of a World Cup match.
14
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sport
International
News
International
Clijsters makes triumphant return
Obama slams Honduras critics at North America summit
Agence France Presse
CINCINNATI - Former world number one Kim Clijsters made a triumphant return to tennis on Monday, defeating France’s Marion Bartoli in straight sets in her first match in more than two years. Clijsters, who retired in May of 2007 and gave birth to a daughter in February of 2008, defeated 12thseeded Bartoli 6-4, 6-3. “I’m really excited playing my first match,” said Clijsters, 26, who received a wild card into the draw of the tournament which has been bumped up to WTA premier status. “I’ve been training since the start of February, and I’ve always been focused on Cincinnati. Winning my first match feels good.” The ebullient Belgian advanced to a second-round clash against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko. American Serena Williams, seeded second here behind world number one Dinara Safina, said she was impressed with Clijsters even before the Belgian hit a ball in anger. “I look like I had a kid more than she does,” Williams said in a meet the press session Monday. “She looks amazing.” Certainly Clijsters showed no sign of rust as she raced to a 4-0 lead, displaying a solid serve as well as the canny ground game that was her trademark. Clijsters, who held the world number one ranking for 19 weeks in 2003 and won the US Open in 2005, weathered the storm as Bartoli steadied to win four straight games, the Belgian putting away an opening set in which she notched 14 winners to Bartoli’s two. “I thought I started off really well,” Clijsters said. “Maybe I surprised myself a little bit with that start. I felt like my movement was good, but it could be better.”
In the second set, Clijsters fended off a break point in the fifth game to hold for a 4-1 lead, and she fought back from 0-40 down to serve out the match. Bartoli, who defeated Venus Williams to lift the title in Stanford on Sunday, admitted it was a tough first-round match-up. “It was very difficult to expect anything,” she said. “I haven’t seen her in two years. That’s the reason I didn’t start well. I was trying to figure out what she was doing instead of playing my game. “By the time I figured out her tactics, I was down 0-4. It’s just a really bad draw, I guess.” The return of Clijsters, who owns 34 career singles titles, was the highlight of the opening day of the two million-dollar tournament. But she wasn’t the only former world number one in action. Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic rallied after dropping the first set and shrugged off a rain delay of nearly two hours to beat American Melanie Oudin 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. Ninth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). German Anna-Lena Groenefeld downed France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, while Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3. Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko cruised past Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-2 to set-up a second-rounder with Serena Williams. The top eight seeds, including Safina, Serena and No. 3 Venus Williams and Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva all received first-round byes.
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO/Pablo COZZAGLIO
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speaks to the press at the Swisshotel in Quito, Ecuador on August 9, 2009. AP Photo/Tony Tribble
Kim Clijsters, of Belgium, returns the ball to Marion Bartoli, of France, during the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament in Mason, Ohio, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
‘Cheetah Man’ Crawford looking to give Bolt a shock Agence France Presse
Gasol sidelines with broken finger for three weeks Agence France Presse
MADRID - Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol broke a finger of his left hand during a practice with the Spanish national team and will be sidelined for three weeks, Spain’s basketball federation said Tuesday. The 28-year-old forward suffered the injury when he attempted to block a shot during a practice on Monday and he was taken to a hospital in the southern city of Seville where he underwent surgery to treat ligament damage, it said in a statement.
“The player must wait between twelve and fourteen days for the removal of the stitches and a total of twenty with a splint on his finger. After those twenty days he can touch the ball with some form of protection,” it said. Gasol, who helped the Lakers win the NBA championship last season, is part of Spain coach Sergio Scariolo’s 12-man squad for the EuroBasket tournament which will take place from September 7-20 in Poland. World champions Spain were runners-up to Russia in the last Eurobasket finals held in Madrid in 2007.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Shawn Crawford
BERLIN - Shawn Crawford is one of the more colourful characters on the athletics circuit, but the man who glories in the nickname ‘Cheetah Man’ is hoping that he can upset the odds here and take the 200 metres title. If that sounds an unlikely scenario given the current form of Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay, his track record proves he is always up for a challenge. For the 31-year-old, 2004 Olympic 200m champion - a former training partner of disgraced sprinter Justin Gatlin - has previously raced a giraffe and a zebra in 2003. The giraffe came off second best but the zebra overcame a slow start to beat the extrovert American - however that did not deter him from believing he could have had the zebra’s stripes. “Tell the zebra I coulda whooped him,” he told ESPN the Magazine. Crawford, who has also stated he wants to run in war paint, having already worn a Phantom of the Opera mask at a meeting in Milan, has also shown that he is not all bluster and self-promotion. Having failed to defend his title successfully at last year’s Olympics, finishing a distant fourth behind Bolt he found himself promoted ultimately to second as compatriot Wallace Spearmon and Netherlands Antilles Churandy BP/ist Martina were disqualified.
Crawford, though, was plainly embarrassed and, in a sport not known for its humility, he handed the silver medal to Martina - who would have been the first ever Olympic medallist from the island. However, for Crawford it was important he did give Martina the medal. “I felt like it was a burden off my shoulders,” said Crawford at the US trials in late June. “I can’t do anything about that,” he said. “He (Martina) knows where my heart is.” Crawford showed he was in top form at the trials winning the 200 metres in style even if he was deprived of facing Gay, who automatically qualified for the world championships as defending champion. Crawford put the race down as one of the finest of his career as he timed a wind assisted 19.73 seconds. “That’s the fastest my body has ever moved in its lifetime, so I’m happy with that,” said Crawford, whose personal best with a legal wind is 19.79, recorded back in 2004, the year he won Olympic 200m gold. Crawford put down the improvement in his performance to celebrated coach Bobby Kersee. “We’ve been practising just driving the first 120 metres and let your body carry you the rest of the way,” said Crawford, who admitted he was a little sceptical. “I’ve been doubtful about doing it in my previous races. But I was like, in the final, what have I got to lose?” Exactly the sentiments he will have when he lines up he hopes in the world final alongside Gay and Bolt as nobody will be expecting ‘Cheetah Man’ to upset the formguide - apart from himself of course.
Chavez warns of ‘war’ over Colombia-US deal Agence France-Presse
QUITO - Leftist leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador thundered against a US military presence in Latin America on Monday, warning the “winds of war” were blowing across the increasingly polarized continent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, attacking Colombia’s decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Chavez’s Ecuadoran counterpart and ally Rafael Correa during the inauguration of his second term. Speaking in Quito at a regional summit, Chavez said he was fulfilling his “moral duty” by telling fellow leaders that the “winds of war were beginning to blow,” because of the July accord between Bogota and Washington. “This could generate a war in South America,” he told the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meet in the Ecuadoran capital. The heightened rhetoric came a day after Chavez accused Colombia’s leader Alvaro Uribe and the Colombian military of “provocations” by entering Venezuelan territory. Colombia’s foreign ministry denied the charge. Moderate Latin American countries, led by Brazil and Argentina, agreed in Quito to hold a summit, probably in Argentina later this month, to discuss the deal that has angered many in the region. They said Uribe, America’s main ally in the region, would be invited to explain his case. The Colombian
leader was not present at the UNASUR gathering because of ongoing tensions with Correa. Colombia raised concern throughout the region, which has a troubled history of US military interventions, when it announced a deal on July 15 to allow American forces to coordinate anti-drug operations from seven of its military bases. “I hope the installation of these bases... does not strengthen the warmongering policies of the (Colombian) government and the fight, not against drug trafficking, but against the insurgent governments of our America,” Correa said in his inaugural address. Ecuador recently refused to renew an agreement with Washington that saw the US military installed at the Manta Air Base on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. Chavez has led a diplomatic offensive against the Colombia-US agreement in recent weeks, saying he feared the move amounted to preparations for an invasion of his country by a “Yankee military force.” Colombia and the United States have insisted the bases are meant only to expand the US fight against drug trafficking in Colombia. “The Yankees are starting to command the Colombian armed forces;
they are the ones who are in charge, who are in charge of these provocations, who make up huge lies,” Chavez has charged. On Sunday he stepped up his accusation against Uribe, accusing the Colombian military of having entered Venezuelan territory, although he didn’t specify when. “We are not talking about a patrol with a few soldiers that strayed over a border” into Venezuela, Chavez said during his television show “Hello President.” “These troops crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and carried out an incursion into Venezuelan territory. When our troops got there, the Colombians had already gone away,” he said. In Bogota, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said the military had checked with the units in charge of guarding the border along the river in the provinces of Vichada and Guainia and that the Venezuelan accusations “are not true.” The new charges follow last month’s decision by Chavez to freeze relations with Colombia in response to accusations leveled by Bogota that Venezuela was supplying weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist guerrilla group.
GUADALAJARA - US President Barack Obama Monday accused critics of his response to the coup in Honduras of “hypocrisy” and agreed at a summit with Canada and Mexico to gird for a swine flu resurgence. In his debut “three amigos” summit, Obama also joined Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in pressing for urgent action on climate change and on unleashing economic recovery. Calderon meanwhile challenged critics of his drugs war against vicious cartels to prove rights abuses by Mexico’s armed forces went unpunished and won an endorsement of his military crackdown from his guests. Obama reaffirmed the US position that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was his country’s rightful leader, a day before a mediation mission by the Organization for American States (OAS) begins. He also assailed those who fault his approach. “The same critics who say the US has not intervened in Honduras are the same people who say we are always intervening and Yankees need to get out of Latin America,” he said, accusing such opponents of “hypocrisy.” “You can’t have it both ways,” he told reporters after the summit in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, adding that Washington had done everything it could since Zelaya was ousted in a coup in June. Harper rode to Obama’s defense in the open-air press briefing after a summit in an ornate former orphanage. “The United States is accused of meddling except when it’s accused of not meddling,” Harper said, praising the US “multilateral” role in efforts to reverse the coup and ease the Honduran crisis. Critics in Washington and elsewhere have complained that US policy is directed at reinstalling Zelaya’s left-wing government and brand the ousted leader a dictator who deserved to be toppled. On the opposite flank, others have claimed Washington has watered down its calls for Zelaya’s restoration. The three leaders also took steps to bolster defenses against an expected resurgence of (A)H1N1 swine flu in the Northern Hemisphere flu season. “We know that H1N1 will re-
3
turn in winter,” said Calderon. “We three countries are preparing to confront this virus responsibly and minimize its impact for our people.” In a declaration, the leaders promised to share information and expertise about the disease, but warned border closures would not stop its spread and could aggravate economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Most of the 1,008 world swine flu deaths have come in the WHO’s America’s region, encompassing North and South America and including Mexico and the United States, the countries where the virus first appeared. The threat of drugs crime, moving from a bloody epicenter in Mexico to the criminal underworld of Canada and Mexico, also preoccupied the leaders, and Calderon rebuked critics of his tactics. “In all cases, there’s a scrupulous effort to protect human rights. “Those who dispute that have to prove one case, a single case in which competent authorities have not responded to punish those legal authorities, police, soldiers or others,” Calderon said. Obama added: “I heartily complement President Calderon and his government for their determination and courage in taking on these cartels,” adding that his host had pledged to respect human rights in the war on drugs. Washington has pledged 1.4 billion dollars in aid to Mexico’s battle against the cartels, but 100 million dollars of the money has been delayed over criticism of Mexico’s record in Congress. All three leaders, under pressure over job cuts in the economic crisis, sought common remedies ahead of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh next month. “By working together, we will accelerate recovery and job creation, and build a strong base for long-term prosperity,” they said in a joint statement. But despite the warm feelings, there was little sign of progress on disputes like the row on US curbs on access to Mexican trucks, and fears by both Mexico and Canada of protectionist sentiment stalking Congress. In a separate declaration on climate change, the three leaders also promised “aggressive” action in the run-up to a UN conference on global warming later this year in Copenhagen and vowed to embrace low carbon technologies.
4
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News
International
French winegrowers raise a glass to satellite technology
Spain seeks woman in ETA bomb probe
AFP PHOTO
Itziar Moreno. Agence France-Presse
PALMA DE MAJORCA - Police in Spain were looking Monday for a woman suspect following a wave of ETA bombings in Majorca where officials downplayed the impact of the attacks on the battered tourism sector. The authorities noted that the three small bombs which went off Sunday at two restaurants and a shopping centre under a major city square in Palma de Majorca were all planted in women’s toilets. Several witnesses also told police they saw a suspected female member of ETA near the police barracks on the island where a car bombing killed two policeman on July 30, El Mundo daily reported. A photo of Itziar Moreno was widely distributed by the interior ministry after that attack, along with that of five other suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group. Police were sifting through the debris from Sunday’s blasts to determine if the timers used could have allowed the bombs to be planted days in advance, giving the bombers time to leave the island undetected. “We have to work on both hypotheses — that they are still here and that they may have quit the island,” regional interior ministry delegate Ramon Socias told the news radio station Cadena SER. The explosions which rocked Majorca on Sunday, causing some
damage but no injuries, followed a warning call made from France to a Basque taxi company in the name of ETA. The group issued a statement overnight Saturday in which it claimed responsibility for the July 30 Majorca bombing that killed the two police officers. No warning was made before that attack. Spanish media said police believe a fourth bomb may have caused an explosion on Sunday at an empty restaurant in Palma, a blast firefighters had initially blamed on a gas leak. Officials believe the bombings were aimed at hurting Spain’s key tourist industry, which is already suffering from a slump in visitors due to the global economic downturn, at the height of the summer holiday season. “It’s early to draw conclusions from the situation but based on the information we have gathered ... the terrorist attacks have not changed the holiday plans of tourists,” secretary of state for tourism Joan Mesquida said. “ETA has been looking to hit tourism in Spain for 30 years and tourism always emerges stronger from it.” The head of the Spanish Federation of Travel Agents, Jesus Martinez Millan, said that the July 30 attack led to just “25 to 30 cancellations” in Majorca. “When a country is perceived as safe, which (Spain) in fact is, an incident of this kind cannot do any harm,” he told the Europa Press news agency. “If (ETA) has tried to harm the tourist industry, it has backfired.” Spain’s King Juan Carlos and his wife Queen Sofia continued their annual holiday at their summer residence in Majorca despite the attacks. In August 1995, Juan Carlos was the target of an assassination attempt while on holiday on the island. Tourism accounts for 80 percent of the economy of the Balearic Islands, which group Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. In 2008, they welcomed 10 million tourists, including four million Germans and 3.4 million Britons.
Pakistan police book Musharraf Agence France-Presse
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan police on Tuesday registered a case against ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf for ordering the house arrest of top judges during a bid to hold onto power two years ago, an official said. Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and sacked about 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the supreme court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
On a plea filed by lawyer Aslam Ghuman, Islamabad’s district and sessions judge Mohammad Akmal on Monday directed police to register a case against Musharraf, who is currently in London. “We have registered a case against Pervez Musharraf under Pakistan’s Penal Code,” Hakim Khan, the chief officer of the relevant police station, told AFP. The registration of the case will now see police investigate the charges levelled against the former head of state, who seized power in a 1999 coup.
Life Style
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
13
New Products
Agence France Presse
LEOGNAN - French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of winemaking. The Oenoview system — initially developed to help grain producers — combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.
AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY
British Ambassador to Indonesia Martin Hatfull speaks during a press conference at the embassy in Jakarta on August 11, 2009. Indonesia expressed its disappointment at the latest conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest for 18 months on August 11. “The Indonesian government is very disappointed over the verdict given by the Burmese court against Aung San Suu Kyi,” foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told AFP, using the old name for the country.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi gets 18 months under house arrest Agence France-Presse
YANGON - Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was Tuesday ordered to stay under house arrest for 18 months after a prison court convicted the Nobel laureate at the end of her internationally condemned trial. The court at Yangon’s Insein jail sentenced her to three years imprisonment and hard labour for breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside residence in May. The head of the ruling junta signed a special order commuting the sentence and allowing the frail 64-yearold to serve out just a year and half
under house arrest, Home Affairs Minister General Maung Oo said outside the court. The ruling means that she will still be in detention during multi-party elections promised by the iron-fisted military regime next year. Her party won a landslide victory in the country’s last democratic polls. American John Yettaw, 54, the man who swam to her house, was
sentenced to a total of seven years hard labour and imprisonment on three separate charges but it was not clear if the terms would run consecutively or concurrently. Security forces sealed off the area around the notorious jail and the ruling junta allowed diplomats from all foreign embassies in Yangon and local journalists to attend the hearing, officials and witnesses said. Suu Kyi has already been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years since Myanmar’s ruling military junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in elections in 1990.
Yemen welcomes home cleric expelled from US Agence France-Presse
SANAA - Yemen staged a warm welcome on Tuesday for an ailing Muslim cleric expelled from the United States after originally being sentenced to 75 years in jail for supporting terrorism. Mohammed Ali Hassan alMoayad returned home after a US federal judge on Friday ordered his deportation, along with his assistant and bodyguard Mohammed Zayed. Three Yemeni government ministers, including the foreign, justice and human rights ministers, as well as tribal chiefs and political leaders were on hand at Sanaa airport to
greet the men, an AFP correspondent said. The ailing 61-year-old, who according to his American lawyer is dying from various ailments including cirrhosis, made no public comments after his arrival and was immediately taken to hospital for medical tests, relatives said. “This is a big day,” one of them said on condition of anonymity. The former imam of Sanaa’s main mosque, Moayad was arrested with Zayed in Frankfurt, Germany in 2003, and subsquently the pair were extradited to the United States where they were tried on charges of supporting terrorism.
At the time of their arrest, then US Attorney General John Ashcroft said that Moayad admitted giving Al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden 20 million dollars before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. But the defence team insisted that the claim was tainted by the main informant’s lack of credibility, with one of the US lawyers, William Goodman, saying the US government tried to “entrap” Moayad. In 2005 the pair were found guilty of supporting terrorism, and Moayad was sentenced to 75 years in jail, while his assistant received an equally lengthy prison term.
AFP PHOTO/JEAN PIERRE MULLER
Stephen Carrier, director of the Fieuzal chateau near Bordeaux, holds a satellite map of his vinyeard made by ‘Oenoview’ on July 30, 2009. French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cuttingedge technology and the ancient art of winemaking. The Oenoview system — initially developed to help grain producers — combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.
It indicates to winegrowers important information about the berries, such as the amount of water in the fruit and how much to prune back their vines. Wine producers, challenged like other luxury goods industries by the global economic downturn, have hailed the service as a vital tool which will save much painstaking effort and help them to better figure out when to pick their produce. “I am getting years of information,” said winemaker Stephen Carrier, who uses the system at the Chateau de Fieuzal vineyard in Graves, part of the famous Bordeaux wine region in southern France. “Rather than waiting years and then being able to say ‘Ah, I know my plots of land,’ I have a tool that I can pass down. “That will allow me to work for future generations,” added Carrier, himself the son of winemakers from the French Champagne region. Using infrared images collected from the Taiwanese satellite Formosat 2, which flies over France every day, researchers also uncovered a vital link between the amount of vegetation on the vines and the quality of the grape. This information allows wine producers like Carrier to prune each vine carefully, helping the berries reach their optimal ripeness. Carrier is awaiting the latest computer images from the system, which he has been using since 2008, to prepare the harvest on his 85-hectare (210-acre) vineyard. Oenoview is the fruit of three years of collaboration between France’s wine and vine institute and satellite imagery firm Infoterra. “Our work was to collect different indicators which can be picked up via satellite and then combine them with analyses from the wine institute on the grapes,” explains Henri Douche, from the farming department of Infoterra. Wine lovers will also toast the invention which has led to the discovery of new land suitable for planting vines, leading to a boost in production for some growers. “It has led to the discovery of 20 percent more plots where very good wine can be produced,” said Douche. Oenoview, which counts several big wine-producing estates among its customers, earns just more than one euro cent per bottle of grand cru. Several cooperative wine producers also use the service, and share the cost.
Facebook buys social media start-up FriendFeed Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, said it will buy FriendFeed, netting a group of prized ex-Google engineers in the fast-growing Internet business. FriendFeed, an up-and-coming social media startup, lets people share content online in real time across various social networks and blogs. The service is similar to, though less popular than Twitter, the microblogging site that Facebook
tried to buy for $500 million in 2008, according to sources familiar with the matter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed on Monday, but Facebook said FriendFeed would operate as it has for the time being as the teams determine long-term plans. Facebook’s big gain in the acquisition is the engineering talent at FriendFeed, rather than the actual product, which has won critical praise, but lagged in popularity compared to Twitter, said Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang. “These guys know how to build
scalable, social applications,” said Owyang. In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he admired the FriendFeed team for having created a service he described as simple and elegant. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use,” said Zuckerberg. FriendFeed’s four founders are former Google Inc employees who count well known products like Gmail and Google Maps among their accomplishments.
AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO
An employee for Japan’s electronics giant Panasonic displays the company’s new Blu-ray disk/HDD recorder, called the “Diga DMRBW970”, equipped with the world’s largest capacity 2TB harddisk drive (HDD) enabling it to make a total of 1,440 hours of high-definition recording, at the company’s showroom in Tokyo on August 10, 2009. The model also features a 50GB capacity double layer Blu-ray disk drive which can record a 35-hour high-definition movie. Panasonic will put it on the market in September, 2009.
A model displays Japanese electronics giant Sony’s digital camera Cybershot DSC-TX1 at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on August 6, 2009. The camera which is equipped with a 10.2 mega-pixel Exmor R super-sensitive CMOS image sensor which Sony says can shoot in low light conditions, such as clear night scene, with low noise, and a 6.18 - 24.7mm/F3.5 4.6 zoom lens will hit the market next month. AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO
A model displays Japanese electronics giant Sony’s digital camera Cybershot DSC-WX1 at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on August 6, 2009. The camera which is equipped with a 10.2 mega-pixel Exmor R supersensitive CMOS image sensor which Sony says can shoot in low light conditions, such as clear night scene, with low noise, and a 4.25 - 21.25mm/ F2.4 - 5.9 zoom lens will hit the market next month.
AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO
12
Entertainment
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
International
News
International
Fox network to air twohour ‘Octomom’ special Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK – The Fox network said Monday it will air a twohour special on the life of “Octomom” Nadya Suleman, based on footage bought from an online company that paid for access to her life. Called “Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage,” Fox has scheduled the show for Aug. 19. Suleman, already a single mother of six, gave birth to octuplets Jan. 26. Curiosity about Suleman turned to some outrage after it became clear that the single, unemployed mother had been using student loans and Social Security disability payments to help pay for her children’s care. Last month, a California judge appointed a lawyer to oversee the estate of the octuplets, saying he wanted to make sure they weren’t exploited by paid ventures like reality shows. Footage of Suleman caring for her children was shot by RadarOnline, which struck its own deal with the mother for access. RadarOnline sold access to the footage to a production company, Pilgrim Films & Entertainment, for an undisclosed fee, and Pilgrim made the deal for the special with Fox. Suleman was not involved in the deal, although Fox executive Mike Darnell said the network and Pil-
Agence France Presse
WAMEGO - Seventy years after a tornado tossed Dorothy into the Land of Oz on the silver screen, a small Kansas town is cashing in on the fact there’s no place like home. “The Wizard of Oz”, which premiered on August 12 1939, and L. Frank Baum’s book series “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” both named Dorothy’s home as Kansas, forever putting the sunflower state on the map. Most tourist shops in the largely rural state flog a hefty selection of Oz paraphernalia, from plush versions of Dorothy’s loyal Cairn terrier Toto to T-shirts with the image of the ruby-red slippers that finally took them home. But the town of Wamego, population 4,312, has turned Dorothy into a major cottage industry, embracing the fact that people around the world know little about Kansas except its connection to the Wizard of Oz. This year being the 70th anniversary of the release of the film, local businesses are hoping for a bigger tourism impact, especially in the midst of the economic crisis. So far this year they’ve already seen 3,000 more visitors than in the whole of
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO/Alfredo Estrella
AP Photo/ Kevin Mazur, AEG/Getty Images, file
FILE - In this June 23, 2009 handout photo provided by AEG, pop star Michael Jackson rehearses at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles probate judge has scheduled a hearing for Monday, Aug. 10 to see if Jackson’s mother, Katherine, has any objections to an agreement between concert promoter AEG Live, Columbia Pictures, and others to make a full-length motion picture filled with footage of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsals.
This is It’: Jackson film out in October Agence France Presse
Nadya Suleman
Banking on Dorothy: Kansas town cashes in on Oz 2008. Other Kansas towns have yellow brick roads and small Oz fairs, but in Wamego the restaurants have Ozthemed names and menu items, the hair salon Scissors of Ahhhhz has a yellow facade, and a local winery uses the Oz-theme for cheeky names and labels. There’s a museum too, where visitors can see life-sized depictions of the main characters, old editions of Baum’s Oz series, and pictures of actress Judy Garland from her days playing Dorothy. There is also an annual street festival, dubbed the Oztoberfest, and a strip of the state highway that serves as the town’s main road has been renamed the Road to Oz. For local entrepreneur Clark Balderson, who spearheaded efforts to turn Wamego into the Land of Oz, the eureka moment came at immigration control in Portugal when he was asked about Dorothy. “It was a point where I realized that, oh my God, everyone associates Kansas with the Wizard of Oz.” Balderson, who admits being obsessed with economic development, said he had been thinking of ways of improving the economy of his hometown.
5
Couple named in Britain’s Baby P abuse case
grim had set up a “six-figure” account for the children. “We thought it was the right thing to do,” Darnell said. Darnell said he didn’t believe Fox was exploiting the children because the footage already existed. Airing the RadarOnline footage lets the viewers decide for themselves what Suleman’s life is like. “That’s what makes it viable,” said Darnell, longtime head of Fox’s reality programming. Craig Piligian, head of Pilgrim, said the material is “really jawdropping in some moments, really compelling stuff.” He said it was a look inside of Suleman’s life and her thoughts, and the show will be aired without a host or narration.
AP Photo/Nick Ut, file
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
LOS ANGELES – Fans saddened by Michael Jackson’s sudden death on June 25 before a long-awaited return to the stage may find comfort in a film showing his final rehearsals to be released at the end of October. “This Is It,” to be released worldwide starting on October 30, will be drawn from hundreds of hours of backstage footage of Jackson rehearsing and feature interviews with some of his closest friends and creative collaborators, Sony studios announced Monday. It is named after the series of 50 London concerts the star had planned to perform for his July farewell — before his death from an apparent cardiac arrest on June 25 at a rented mansion in Los Angeles shocked the world. Sony said the film “will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-thescenes look at the performer, his career and the stage spectacular that would have been.” Most of the footage was shot in June 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the site of the Jackson tribute watched by millions of people around the world. Other scenes were shot at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The footage was “captured in high definition with state-of-the-art digital sounds,” Sony said, adding that select sequences would be in 3-D. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment will co-
produce the film with AEG Live and the estate, while Sony Pictures will distribute the feature, which would amount to a major undertaking as Jackson had not commercialized concert footage. Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s creative partner on the “This Is It” concerts, said “the world will see what our team was so fortunate to experience, which was the full commitment, passion and creativity that Michael put into this project.” The film, he added, “will show Michael as he truly was, creatively involved with every aspect of the production, from the staging and choreography, to the music, lighting, production design and conception of the original short films and video backdrops.” Neither Sony nor the court released figures of the deal reached with Jackson’s estate and concert promoters AEG Live, but media reports said Sony paid 60 million dollars for rights to the footage. The pop icon’s mother, Katherine Jackson, also gave her support to the multi-million-dollar deal approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Beckloff. AEG Live has yet to give its approval on the sharing of profits from the distribution of the footage. But Beckloff did not validate contracts with AEG and merchandiser
Bravado International Group to market Jackson memorabilia and organize an exhibition of the singer’s belongings. “I’m not sure I can approve anything without anyone here for the children,” he said. “I think everyone’s interests are similar. I feel sorry the result is something you don’t like today, but I feel I don’t have an option.” Instead, Beckloff said he would appoint a special guardian to represent the financial interests of Jackson’s three orphaned children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, during business negotiations. The film announcement also came as the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said it had completed a “thorough and comprehensive” autopsy but would not release the results until police complete their investigation, further prolonging the mystery surrounding the circumstances of Jackson’s death. The LAPD said it had requested that “the cause and manner of death remain confidential” and that an existing “security hold” on the results of the coroner’s investigation remain in place. The continued security measures, the LAPD said, “will help maintain the integrity of the investigation and allow investigators from LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division, as well as our partner law enforcement agencies to continue their investigation.” The singer’s reported addiction to painkillers and sedatives is believed to have been behind his death at the age of 50.
Alleged members of drug traffickers gang “Cartel del Golfo” are presented in a press conference at the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City, on August 10, 2009. Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels in December 2006, dispatching over 36,000 troops and police across the country to disrupt their operations.
Police say drug cartel plot to kill Mexican president foiled Agence France-Presse
MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s federal police force on Monday said it had foiled a plot by the Sinaloa drug cartel to assassinate President Felipe Calderon. After a year-long investigation, Ramon Pequeno, head of the federal police’s counter-narcotics wing, said a suspect had been arrested on Sunday and was charged with plotting to kill the president in retaliation for the army’s nationwide crackdown on trafficking. The plot also was intended as retaliation for the seizure of five million dollars by police during a raid targeting a Sinaloa cartel chief, Pequeno said. Calderon launched a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels in
December 2006, dispatching over 36,000 troops and police across the country to disrupt their operations. Since then fighting between rival gangs over drug trafficking routes to the United States and clashes with security forces have claimed nearly 13,000 lives, according to officials and media reports. Pequeno said the suspect, Dimas Diaz Ramon, had specialized in transporting marijuana stashed in the tires of trucks that carried hot peppers and avocados from the western state of Michoacan to the
US border, police said. During a summit with US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Calderon said he did not have details on an assassination plot and played down threats from the drug cartels. “It certainly won’t be the first or the last occasion on which we might hear something about an attempt on my life,” Calderon told reporters in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara. “The government can’t stop,” he added, according to an interpreter’s translation of his comments. “We are destroying their criminal organizations, we’re hitting them hard, we’re hitting at the heart of their organizations, we’re making them back away.”
China clamps down on sexy text messages Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Mobile phone users in central China could face jail for sending unwanted erotic text messages while in the north, one local Communist Party branch has held 480 meetings on the problem in the past month. Henan province has announced that firing off just one such message could see the sender slapped in detention for up to five days, the China Daily reported Tuesday. Three messages could result in 10 days behind bars and a fine of 500 yuan (73 dollars), the Englishlanguage newspaper reported. The province’s legal office announced the new penalties to address the growing problem of unwanted and inappropriate text mes-
sages in a country with more than 600 million mobile phone users, it said. “I’m totally for the rules. It’s uncomfortable to get dirty text messages from male friends and even more gross when they are from strangers,” Zhang Kai, 26, told the daily. “But I’ll take them as jokes and reply if they are from my female friends,” said Zhang, whose gender was not given. Henan is not the first province to tackle the problem. Liaoning in the northeast passed a regulation earlier this year that such messages could be part of a sexual harassment charge, the paper said. In a similar move, Communist Party members in Shenze county, in Hebei province, will be punished for
sending text messages with “inappropriate” content, the People’s Daily said. “Obscene information not only harms the people’s soul but harms the people’s morality as well,” it quoted the party rule as saying. Offenders would face an unspecified punishment and the worst ones would be named and shamed in the media. Since July 10, Shenze party officials have held 480 meetings to discuss the harmful effects of obscene messages, a degree of dedication that has been questioned by the public, the People’s Daily said. “It’s not necessary to hold 480 meetings on this. This is an enormous waste of administrative resources,” an Internet user named Han Haoyue was quoted as saying.
LONDON - The couple responsible for the brutal death of toddler Baby P, which shocked Britain, were publicly named Tuesday, triggering a renewed surge of anger and revulsion at their crimes. The toddler’s mother Tracey Connelly and her lover Steven Barker were jailed in May over the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly, whose corpse was found in his blood-spattered cot at his London home in 2007. The names of the couple, and details of their background, were released after a High Court order protecting their anonymity expired at midnight Monday. New details revealed that Baby P had four siblings. Now they have been settled with carers, the convicts can be named. Newspapers printed front-page
photographs of the pair along with disturbing details of the case, which sparked outrage in Britain and an urgent review of childcare policy. Experts said Tuesday the couple could need police protection and new identities when they are released from prison, given the public fury over the case and risk if vigilante attacks. The toddler, who had been known as Baby P for legal reasons, had more than 50 injuries at the time of death. Social workers, doctors and police failed to notice the abuse despite seeing him at least 60 times over eight months. Two days before Baby P died, a doctor failed to spot he had a broken back, eight fractured ribs and was paralysed from the waist down. He had been punched so hard he swallowed a tooth. The subsequent neck injury that affected his breathing was probably the fatal blow.
AFP PHOTO/Metropolitan
(COMBO) A combination of handout pictures obtained from the Metropolitan Police press office in London on August 11, 2009 shows Steven Barker (L), the stepfather of Baby P and Tracey Connelly, the mother of Baby P.
China arrests man in celebrity sex photo blackmail Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Police in Beijing have arrested a man who allegedly tried to blackmail dozens of Chinese celebrities by threatening to post nude photos and sex videos of them on the Internet, a report said Tuesday. The man, surnamed Wang, sent more than 120 text messages to 88 actors, singers and film directors in July, the Global Times said, citing police. “I have some naked photos and sex videos of you. Give me 300,000 yuan (about 44,000 dollars) in hush money before 2:00 pm. After you send it, send me your mailbox address and we will talk about other details. “Otherwise, pay attention to the online news at three o’clock,” read the message, which included a bank account number, according to the paper. Police tracked down and ar-
rested Wang following a report by a female singer who had received the message. In an apparent copycat bid inspired by Hong Kong’s Edison Chen sex photos scandal, Wang said he had obtained the celebrities’ contact details from a computer belonging to a film director which he had helped repair. Wang said he did not actually have the naked photos but an unidentified person did send 3,000 yuan to his bank account on the day he was arrested, July 30, the Global Times reported. A Hong Kong computer technician was found guilty earlier this year of illegally distributing more than 1,000 photos of singer Chen performing sex acts with a string of starlets. The images were plastered across the Internet last year, causing a huge scandal, forcing Chen to flee to his childhood home of Canada and damaging the careers of several of the stars involved.
6
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
UN chief warns of ‘incalculable’ suffering without climate deal Agence France-Presse
AP Photo
Papuan tribeswomen run with their pigs in a pig race during Baliem Valley culture festival in Wamena, Papua province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. The festival is held annually ahead of the Aug. 17 independence day celebrations, to promote local tribal culture.
Explosion kills least six miners in Slovakia: ministry Agence France-Presse
BRATISLAVA - At least six miners died in an explosion Monday in a mine in Handlova, central Slovakia, and 14 others have almost certainly perished, the country’s economy minister told reporters. “Rescuers found six bodies, but the conditions in the mine are such that no one can survive,” Lubomir Jahnatek said. The other 14 miners, trapped underground for more than 10 hours, were also probably dead, he added. “The rescuers found six bodies 65 metres (71 yards) from the epicentre of the explosion. They couldn’t get any further as the conditions in the mine do not support life,” Jahnatek said. “All victims probably died at the moment of explosion,” he added. “It’s an immense tragedy,” Prime Minister Robert Fico said late Monday at the accident site, 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of the capital Bratislava.
“The government will meet tomorrow to declare a period of national mourning,” he added. The explosion occurred at about 9:30 am (0730 GMT) as the miners were putting out a fire in the mine some 330 meters (360 yards) underground. Officials had initially indicated 18 miners were missing in the blast at the ‘brown coal’ or lignite mine. “A fire broke out at about 7:00 am in the eastern mine, which is no longer used for mining. At about 9:00 am, eleven rescuers went down to put out the fire. The mine headquarters lost contact with them at 9:30 am, probably as a result of the explosion,” Jahnatek said. Nine miners with minor injuries
were treated in a hospital and released. The mining accident is the worst on record in Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million people that joined the European Union in 2004. In November 2006 four miners were killed when a shaft caved-in at the central Slovak Novaky coal mine in what was Slovakia’s largest mining accident until Monday. With a work force of some 4,100, Hornonitrianske Banke Prievidza is Slovakia’s top brown coal producer, supplying fuel to the nearby Novaky heating plant. The mine produces some 2.2 million tonnes of lignite per year and has plans to open new mines in the region after the discovery of deposits of some 7.2 million tonnes.
Tongan transport minister resigns after ferry disaster Agence France-Presse
NUKU’ALOFA - Tonga’s Transport Minister Paul Karalus resigned Tuesday, but said he was not taking responsibility for last week’s ferry disaster believed to have claimed at least 95 lives. Claims have been made the Princess Ashika was unseaworthy after the ferry sank late last Wednesday northeast of Nuku’alofa on its way north to the Nomuka islands.
Asked by journalists if he resigned over the sinking of the ferry, Karalus repeated his assertion the Princess Ashika was seaworthy. He added he was resigning to ensure the work of a commission of inquiry into the disaster could run smoothly. “The royal commission responds to the privy council and as a cabinet minister I am a privy councillor,” Karalus told a press conference. “My ministry is the subject of the
royal commission, so one has to — from a legal perspective if no other — step aside.” Prime Minister Feleti Sevele announced Monday the setting up of the commission of inquiry, as well as a relief fund for the families of victims. The ferry sank suddenly and only 54 survivors were rescued. Two bodies have been recovered and at least 93 people remain unaccounted for.
INCHEON - UN chief Ban Kimoon warned Tuesday of “incalculable” human suffering if the world fails to reach a deal at crucial climate change talks this December. The United Nations is orchestrating the talks in the Danish capital in hopes of securing an agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. “As we move toward Copenhagen in December, we must seal a climate change deal that secures our common future,” Ban told an environmental forum in Incheon city west of Seoul. The UN secretary general, who began a visit to his homeland Sunday, warned of catastrophes if the world fails to work out a deal. Ban said unchecked climate change would intensify drought, floods and other natural disasters and bring water shortages and malnutrition — aggravating tensions and social unrest and even sparking violence. “The human suffering will be incalculable,” Ban said. He said he was confident the world
50 million... From page 1 Women accounted for 35 percent of all adult HIV infections in Asia in 2008, up from 17 percent in 1990, according to the report. In Cambodia, India and Thailand, the largest number of new HIV infections occur among married women and in Indonesia the virus is now spreading to long-term partners and sex workers, it added. “The facts speak for themselves. It is
could avert catastrophe but time was running out. “We have the power to change course but we must do it now.” Ban said industrialised countries should lead the way by committing to mid-term targets of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels. He urged developed countries to provide “sufficient, measurable and verifiable” technical and financial support to developing nations to achieve the common goal. Ban also urged developing countries to take “measurable, reportable and verifiable” actions to reduce emissions. “Any agreement must be fair, effective, equitable and comprehensive and based on science,” he said. “Trust between developing and developed countries is essential.” Ban recalled that Incheon was the city where United Nations forces launched a daring landing in 1950 to turn the tide of the Korean War. “Today we need to turn a different tide. The tide of climate change.... Together we truly can turn the tide once again here in Incheon,” he said. estimated that more than 90 percent of the 1.7 million women living with HIV in Asia became infected (by) husbands and partners while in long-term relationships,” Rao said. “These women are often perceived as low risk... women who have not been adequately covered in our national responses.” The Bali congress, which runs until Thursday, covers topics ranging from HIV risks among transgenders and migrant workers to biomolecular advances in HIV treatment and the impact of the financial crisis on those with HIV/AIDS.
Strong quake... From page 1 A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged the Tomei Expressway at Makinohara, Shizuoka, causing long traffic jams. In Shizuoka city, parts of the stone wall around the 424-year-old Sunpu castle collapsed, said castle park official Yasushi Watanabe. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s office set up an emergency centre shortly after the quake, which was followed by 13 noticeable aftershocks. Japan’s Meteorological Agency, which measured the quake at a revised 6.5, said there was no risk of a tsunami after detecting initial waves about 40 centimetres (16 inches) high at Omaezaki, Shizuoka. “The quake was so scary, and the tsunami warning too,” said Masaki Yamada, 44, a fisheries cooperative official in the port of Yaizu, where a new 300-metre long crack ran along the quay. “Today’s event is a rehearsal for us in preparing for a bigger, real disaster,” he said. Tokyo has long braced itself for a great quake, often referred to as “the big one” — over a magnitude of 8.0 — while catastrophic quakes are also
expected to strike some time in the future in the Tokai and Nankai regions. In 1923, a quake that measured 8.3 on the Richter scale hit the Tokyo region, killing more than 140,000 people, many of them in fires. Japanese seismic experts on Tuesday “concluded that the earthquake and related seismic activities are not linked to the predicted Tokai quake,” said Takashi Yokota, of the meteorological agency. The agency was also monitoring Typhoon Etau, which had threatened to bring strong rains to Tokyo but then veered east, away from the Japanese coast. Torrential rains triggered by Etau have soaked much of Japan since the weekend, and floods and landslides caused by the downpours had killed 14 people by Monday and left 18 missing. The weather agency warned of more possible landslides as watersoaked earth may have become unstable after being jolted by the strong tremor. A strong earthquake also hit central Japan late on Sunday. Around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes strike the country, which is located at the intersection of four tectonic plates.
11
BUSINESS Singapore to see ‘sluggish’ economic rebound Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - Singapore’s economy performed better than estimated in the second quarter, but recovery will be “sluggish” on continued weak demand from the United States and Europe, the government said Tuesday. The trade-reliant economy expanded by a seasonally adjusted 20.7 percent in the June quarter from the previous three months, better than the estimated growth of 20.4 percent released last month. The expansion marks Singapore’s first quarter-on-quarter growth in five quarters and analysts said this suggests the economy is emerging from its worst recession since independence 44 years ago. It followed a quarter-on-quarter dive of 12.2 percent in the first three months. Second quarter performance was underpinned by strong gains in the manufacturing sector, where output climbed 49.5 percent compared with the previous quarter’s contraction of 18.5 percent. Manufacturing growth was powered by a surge in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in medicines worldwide
and a rise in inventory restocking in electronics. The construction sector grew 32.7 percent on the back of a resilient property market and the ongoing building of two massive casino projects in the city-state. However, gross domestic product (GDP) in the three months to June was still down 3.5 percent year on year, the ministry said, indicating that any recovery would be fragile. In the March quarter GDP shrank 9.5 percent from the same point in 2008. The trade ministry noted that industrial production and consumption in Singapore’s key export markets such as the United States and Europe are still weak and unemployment remains high. As a result, the government is maintaining its forecast for the economy to shrink between 4.0 and 6.0 percent this year.
“While we are probably past the worst of the economic crisis, we have not fully recovered and we do not expect economic recovery from this severe downturn to be quick,” Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said. Despite the quarter-on-quarter GDP rise, Lim cautioned that “it is too early to cheer as Singapore is an open economy which is dependent on world trade as well as regional and international developments.” In a separate statement, the government’s trade promotion body International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said key exports rose a seasonally adjusted 7.6 percent in the June quarter from the previous three months. Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession in the second half of last year after a financial and economic crisis that started in the United States hit demand for its exports.
Bank of Japan holds super-low interest rates steady Agence France-Presse
TOKYO - Japan’s central bank on Tuesday held its rock-bottom interest rates steady to give the world’s number two economy more time to recover from its worst recession in decades. The Bank of Japan reiterated its view that Japan’s economic conditions “have stopped worsening,” but cautioned that much uncertainty remains because of the murky outlook for the global economy. “Public investment is increasing and exports and production are picking up,” the BoJ said in a statement. “On the other hand, business fixed investment is declining sharply mainly reflecting weak corporate profits.” Private consumption is showing some signs of recovering, helped by economic stimulus measures, but generally remains weak because of rising unemployment and sluggish wages, it said. The BoJ’s eight-member monetary policy board voted unanimously at the end of a twoday meeting to leave the main lending rate unchanged at 0.1 percent, as expected. The Bank is fighting Japan’s worst recession in decades with super-low interest rates and a policy of buying up corporate debt to keep credit flowing to cash-strapped firms. It said the economy should start recover-
AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File
In this July 15, 2009 photo, businessmen walk past the Bank of Japan in Tokyo. Japan’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1 percent Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, and maintained a cautious view on the strength of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. ing from the second half of this financial year to March 2010, supported by policymakers’ efforts to tackle the economic downturn. Japan entered recession in the second quarter of 2008 as its heavy dependence on overseas demand to drive growth left it highly exposed to the global downturn. Its economy shrank at an annualised pace of 14.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, the worst performance on record, but analysts believe it returned to positive growth in AprilJune, helped by rebounding exports.
AFP PHOTO/ROSLAN RAHMAN
Pedestrians wait in front of a large commercial advertisment to cross the road in the Orchard road shopping district in Singapore on August 11 2009. Singapore’s economy performed better than estimated in the second quarter, but recovery will be “sluggish” on continued weak demand from the United States and Europe, the government said.
Amid green shoots, Fed likely to keep taps open Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday amid rising signs the recession is receding but they are not expected to ease aggressive efforts to boost growth until recovery is well under way. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday is widely anticipated to hold unchanged its key federal funds rate at a historically low range of zero to 0.25 percent to spur lending and economic activity. Economists say the financial markets will be closely watching the FOMC’s statement accompanying its interest rate decision Wednesday for clues about the momentum of the world’s largest economy, which seems to be emerging from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Amid the growing optimism that recovery is at hand, the markets will be focused on whether the Fed, led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, will adjust its unprecedented efforts to pump over one trillion dollars of liquidity into the stricken financial system, which some call “quantitative easing.” “Considering that the US economy remains in a fragile transition to recovery, we do not expect any surprises. The likelihood is that interest rates along with the Fed’s asset purchase programs will remain unchanged,” said Drew Matus, senior US economist at Merrill Lynch.
The upbeat US economic outlook gained support from better-than-expected recent government readings on growth and unemployment. Gross domestic product (GDP) — the broad measure of the economy’s activity — fell at an annualized rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter, after a 6.4 percent plunge in the January-March period. Unemployment dipped unexpectedly in July to 9.4 percent, one-tenth point lower than the 26-year high hit in June. Although job losses narrowed to 247,000 from 443,000 in June, the labor market remained frail. A total of 6.7 million jobs have vanished from payroll since the recession began in December 2007. On the eve of the Fed meeting, US stocks fell slightly, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 32.12 points or 0.3 percent after a surge of nearly 200 points last week. “Close to 90 percent of our panelists believe the recession — the longest and deepest in the post-World War II era — will eventually be declared by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to have ended this quarter,” the Blue Chip Economic Indicators report said Monday. The Blue Chip consensus predicted GDP would grow at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the current quarter and 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter. A 2.6 percent contraction in 2009 would be followed by 2.3 percent growth in 2010.
10
Business
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
China’s prices continue to fall in July, investment slows Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Chinese consumer prices continued to decline last month, while government-funded investment slowed slightly, official data showed Tuesday. The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell 1.8 percent in July compared with the same month a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. The release of the figures had been avidly awaited by the markets, looking for clues about how the world’s third-largest economy was faring in the global crisis. China’s economy expanded by 7.9 percent in the second quarter,
up from 6.1 percent in the first, suggesting its export-dependent economy might be at the start of a recovery. July’s inflation figure was the sixth consecutive monthly decline, and compared with a fall of 1.7 percent in June. Investments in urban fixed assets rose 32.9 percent in the first seven months of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, the bureau said.
It indicated a slight deceleration in July, given growth of 33.6 percent in the first half. The bureau did not publish a figure for July alone. Meanwhile industrial output expanded by 10.8 percent in July from a year earlier, the bureau said. Earlier data showed it increased by 10.7 percent in June and by 7.0 percent for the first half of 2009. Retail sales, the main measure of consumer spending, rose 15.2 percent in July compared with the same month last year, the government said Tuesday. In June, the figure was up 15 percent from a year earlier. The Chinese government sees consumer spending as a key factor in boosting the economy.
International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s economy grew at its slowest annual pace in seven years in the second quarter but expanded quicker on a quarterly basis than the previous three months, officials said Monday.
... gets maximum benefits with minimum charge Jl. Kepundung 67 A, e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id Jl. Palmerah Barat 21 F
AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO
A man collects firewood to sell in Jakarta on August 4, 2009. Indonesia’s economy grew at its slowest annual pace in seven years in the second quarter but expanded quicker on a quarterly basis than the previous three months, officials said Monday.
SICA SECURITY Rimo Trade Center Jl. Diponogoro Lt. II No. C5 Telp. 8047438 233259 ext. 209
G.1039-ibp
G.1036-ibp
G.2055-ibp
THE CCTV SYSTEM TOTAL SOLUTION
Economists said the strongerthan-expected data suggest the central bank’s focus will shift toward containing inflation rather than stimulating growth. The economy grew four percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, slowing from 4.37 percent on-year in the first three months, the Central Statistics Agency said. Economists had predicted the slowdown, citing the boost to economic output last year from a spike in prices of commodities that Indonesia exports. On-quarter, Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 2.30 percent thanks to election-related spending. This was stronger than the revised growth of 1.70 percent in the January-March quarter. The statistics agency said household consumption, which typically accounts for around 60 percent of gross domestic product, rose 4.8 percent on year in the second quar-
ter, and 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter. At the same time, government spending expanded 17 percent onyear and 23.7 percent on-quarter, while investment grew 2.7 percent over the year and 2.4 percent on a quarterly basis. Exports, meanwhile, declined 15.7 percent on-year but expanded 7.4 percent on-quarter. “Indonesia had held up somewhat better than others in the region, as domestic demand has helped the economy sustain its momentum, and should now improve as the global economy appears to be turning around,” Singapore-based Action Economics economist David Cohen told Dow Jones Newswires. The International Monetary Fund predicted the Indonesian economy to grow around 3.5 percent this year, making Indonesia among the few economies that are expected to continue expanding this year.
APA commit to realizing international peace Antara
Hub:
JAKARTA - Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) members are expected to show a high commitment to realizing international peace and security at global and regional levels, the organization’s leader, Agung Laksono, said. “The realization of international peace and security is the basic principle in the progress of national development in Asian countries,” APA President Agung Laksono said at a function to open a two-day executive
board meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly here on Tuesday. According to Agung Laksono who is concurrently the House of Representatives (DPR) speaker, the security and political stage in Asian region was still marked by various conflicts and criminal activities such as terrorism. “Issues related to peace and security in Asia should be our common concern,” Laksono told the APA executive board. He pointed out that PalestinianIsraeli conflict, security situation in
Iraq and Afghanistan, inter-state border disputes, and nuclear threat posed a serious challenge to Asian region. Laksono added that the challenge for APA in the future would be even bigger. Asian region with the most population in the world, according to Laksono, still have serious humanitarian problems such as poverty, food crisis, pandemic diseases, and environmental degradation. As a member of parliament to represent Asian people, Agung
Laksono said APA had a big responsibility to help find the best possible solution to those problems in Asia. “We have to build our common awareness and commitment to strengthening our friendship and cooperation in various fields,” Laksono said. The House of Representatives is hosting the Asian Parliamentary Assembly executive board meeting here from Tuesday to Wednesday (Aug 11-12, 2009) to discuss draft resolution which had been deliberated on in several sub-commissions in a
number of APA member countries. Indonesia is currently president of the 39-member APA, until 2010. The draft resolutions would be recommended to be adopted in APA General Assembly scheduled to be held in Bandung, West Java, in November or December 2009. APA was initially known as the Association of Asian Parliamentarians for Peace (AAPP) which was established in 1999. In 2006, AAPP was transformed into APA with a broader scope of cooperation among Asian parliaments.
Tame elephant killed by ivory hunter Antara
Specialis in :
CAMERA CCTV DIGITAL SYSTEM, SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM, ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM Ruko Graha Mahkota No. B-9, Jl Teuku Umar Denpasar
Telp. 254-908 ; 254-909 Fax. 254-961
G.1042-ibp
G.1043-ibp
G.2090-ibp
7
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE LOPEZ
Denpasar : +62 361 22-5764 Jakarta : +62 21 535-6271
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Indonesia has growth spurt in second quarter
A woman holding the hand of a child walks out of a shopping mall in Shanghai on August 11, 2009. Chinese consumer prices continued to decline last month, while government-funded investment slowed slightly, official data showed Tuesday.
r pe Su ve a S
G.1044-ibp
Indonesia Today
International
International
LABUHAN RATU, East Lampung - A tame elephant at the elephant Training Center (PLG) in the Way kambas Naitonal Park in east Lampung was found dead on Saturday morning from apparent poisoning by people who had taken its tusks. “We believe the ivory thieves gave the elephant poison-laced food, waited until it collapsed, and then cut off its two tusks,” Jhon Kenedie, head of the Way Kambas National Park conservation agency, said in Labuhan Ratu sub distirct, East lampung, on Monday. The 21-year-old elephant’s 1.9-ton body was found in its corral at the Way kambas Elephant Training Center, about 150 km southwest of Bandarlampung city, was believed to have been killed between 02:00 and 03:00 am on Saturday morning. Named Seno and with a pair of tusks weighing 70 kgs, the elephant had been trained to do various kinds of jobs, including driving away wild elephants that sometimes strayed into local residents’ farm lands or villages.
The thieves apparently had a good knowledge of the situation at the center and knew that after midnight nobody was watching over the elephants. “They did not hesitate to kill Seno with poison merely to get hold of its 70-cm-long tusks,” Jhon said. Meanwhile, a member of the non-governmental organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working in the Way Kambas Natural Park, M Gio, said the fact that ivory hunters had turned to tamed elephants could be an indication that the population of wild elephants in the region was continuing to drop. He said the number of wild elephants known to be living in the 125,000-hectare Way Kambas Natural Park was now only about 250. In addition, wild elephants between the ages of 15 and 20 years now rarely still had their tusks apparently because they had been taken by ivory hunters. Gio expressed hope the local law-enforcing agencies would soon be able to take measures to stop the illegal ivory hunting activity that appeared to have become more rampant lately.
AP Photo/Tim Aylen
Miss Indonesia Zivanna Siregar poses during the national costume event of the Miss Universe 2009 competition in Nassau, Bahamas, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. Contestants from 84 countries will compete for the coveted crown on August 23.
8
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Bali Today Foreign tourist arrivals up 12.9 percent
Balinese Culture
Most drug-resistant TB cases go untested Reuters
Antara
DENPASAR - The number of foeign tourist arrivals in Bali grew by 12.9 percent to 200,566 in June 2009 from the same period last year, an official said. Compared to May 2009 the number of foreign tourist arrivals in June 2009 increased 5.12 percent, Head of the Bali Provincial Office of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) IB Komang Wisnu said here on Monday. A total of 190,803 foreign tourists visited the resort island in May 2009. Australia topped the list of tourist arrivals in Bali in June 2009 with 43,668 tourists accounting for 21.77 percent of the total, he said. Japan came in second with 21,949 tourists (10.94 percent), followed by Malaysia 15,661 tourists (7.81 percent), China 12,102 tourists (6.03 percent), and South Korea 10,734 tourists (5.35%). Star-rated hotels’ occupancy rate
in June 2009 averaged 62.77 percent, up by 2.51 points from a month earlier when it was recorded at 60.26 percent, he said. “Badung district took the lead in terms of occupancy rate with 68.18 percent, followed by Tabanan with 63.53 percent, Denpasar 56.29 percent, Gianyar 50.73 percent, Karangasem 33.05 percent, and Buleleng 30.47 percent,” he said. He said two-star hotels’ occupancy rate in June 2009 reached 44.08 percent, the lowest among star-rated hotels’ occupancy rates in that month. “Non-star hotels’ occupancy rate in Bali in June 2009 reached an average of 32.62 percent,” he said. Bali is one of Indonesia’s main tourist destinations.
Legian beach to be re-arrange Antara
KUTA – The sellers which are increasing in number in Legian and Kuta Beach make the area very crowded and dirty. The problem can be solved by rearrange the sellers and grocers in Kuta and Legian. IGN Sudiarsa, the head of Kuta village, said that the crowded and dirty condition can make the tourists reluctant to visit the beach. “In the rearrangement, not all sellers can work in Legian beach. We will give the permit card for those who already qualified,” he added. If the condition can not be fixed soon then it could disturb the tour-
ists. Sudiarsa said “we don’t want waste the time. We will conduct the rearrangement as soon as possible. We don’t want the beach filled with merchants so it could disturb the visitors.” He also planed to forbid the sellers to work in some parts of the beach. This preventive step needs to be done in order to give comfort to the visitors. The rules for the permit card are currently being prepared by a special team in Kuta village. “We will conduct full analysis and survey before determining the proper way for the card,” added Sudiarsa. Kuta village received 30,000 each pay as the retribution. The money directly paid to the village and used for its development.
Bali Post/Edi
A man picking up garbage near one of beaches in Bali.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
FOTO ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana
A fisherman crosses beside the art installation work about sea on the Sanur Festival in Mertasari Beach, Sanur, Bali, Tuesday (11/8). The festival which will run from August 12 until August 16 will followed by five country.
Burglary, Netherlands Tourist lost 28 million Denpost
DENPASAR – Crimes in hotel rooms rarely happened in Bali in the past few months but a case happened in Inna Bali Hotel in Veteran Street, western Denpasar on Saturday, August 8th 2009. Thieves broke in a room rented by Hadje Ratoemar
Niamat from the Netherlands and took jewelry worth 28 million rupiah. The police officers directly conducted investigation in the crime scene. However, the police didn’t find any signs of entering by force around the room. There were no door or windows that broken in the crime scene. He officer said “there is great possibility that the thieves was us-
ing false key to enter the room.” The thieves were entering the room when Hadje wasn’t in the room. The thieves took four 35 grams of bracelets and two 80 grams of bracelets. The police are still investigating the case. Previously, similar cases often happened in Kuta but now the case happened in Denpasar.
Foreign countries join the cultural parade of Negara commemoration Antara
NEGARA – Art Groups from several countries had confirmed to take part in the Cultural Parade to commemorate the 144th of Negara, the capital of Jembrana regency. Marjono, one of the committee, said “the art groups from other countries will make the parade more interesting and it also could attract tourists.” The events to commemorate the anniversary will be started on August 25th through September 2nd 2009. The celebration also will hold other events. Marjono said that the committee had given invitation to all regencies in Indonesia and countries throughout Asia. The theme of the event is
“Bhinneka Sandi Adnyana” which means variety lead to one goal. Until yesterday, August 10th 2009, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, and 16 regencies in Indonesia had confirmed that they will participate in the event. The cultural parade is the peak of the celebration. The parade will be divided into three different events which are cultural parade, art performances, and handicraft exhibition. There is great hope that the event will develop the art and culture and increase the unity in Indonesia. The art performances will be held on August 14th through September 2nd 2009 which joined by all participants. The handicrafts exhibition will be held on 25 August through September 2nd
2009. The parade will be held on September 1st and the route will be approximately 1 kilometer. In adition to the cultural events, the celebration also will be filled with other event which is information technology program. The program leads to cooperation within the participants in information technology. The programs consist of information technology consultation (E-Government) such as making Master Plan EGovernment, making information system like SIMDA, poverty monitoring system, SIMPEG, Smartcard application such as J-ID, J-Smart School and training. There is great hope that the system will help in conducting the program in each government and with other regencies.
NUSA DUA - Cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis are underdiagnosed around the world and even among those who have been diagnosed, only a fraction are being treated, a Global Fund official said on Monday. “The Global Fund is funding about 25,000 to 30,000 patients but the estimated total number of cases is 500,000,” Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund’s effort to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, told an HIV/AIDS conference. “So we are very far off. It is a dangerous epidemic that is spreading,” he told the conference in Bali. “There is an underdiagnosis of MDR-TB.” The Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), but only one percent of the cases are being treated, he added. Most cases of TB can be cured with a drug regimen of 6 to 8 months. Multi-drug resistant TB emerges when there is improper use of antibiotics in fighting regular TB, such as failure to complete the whole course of treatment. People with HIV/AIDS are especially susceptible to falling ill with TB because their immune systems are compromised. An estimated one-third of people living with HIV are co-infected with TB, and TB continues to
Ayam Pelalah
(Shredded Chicken with Chilies & Lime) AFP PHOTO / Sonny TUMBELAKA
Pakistani performer Salman Ahmad (C) sings together with Balinese children on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Nusa Dua on the resort island of Bali on August 10, 2009. Besides talking about AIDS, the ICAAP also discussing on Tuberculosis disease. be the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. The emergence of multi-drug resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB in recent years poses a significant public health threat, especially for countries with high HIV prevalence. Multi-drug resistant TB is resistant to two of the most powerful TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin. Kazatchkine said treatment for someone with multi-drug resistant TB
costs US$7,000 a year, about 100 times the cost of treating regular TB. “The best way to prevent resistant TB is to get people to take the whole course of standard TB drugs,” he said. He stressed, however, there was still an urgency to allocate more money to treat people with multi-drug resistant TB. “If we can do it for H1N1, we can do it for TB. These epidemics have been at (pandemic) level 6 plus plus plus plus for years,” he said.
Overview: You can use any type of leftover chicken (roast, steamed or fried) for this delightfully tangy chicken salad Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, weighing about 1.2 kg (2 ½ lb) 1 cup chicken spice paste ½ cup tomato sambal 3 tbsp freshly squeezed limejuice Preparation: 1. Rub the chicken outside and inside with the spice paste, and season with salt and crushed black pepper. 2. Place on wire rack in oven and roast first at 220 Celsius (420 F) for 20 min, and then reduce heat to 180 Celsius (350 F) and roast until done. Frequently baste chicken with a mixture of coconut oil and chicken spice paste. 3. When cool, remove and discard the skin. Remove meat from bones and shred by hand into fine strips. 4. Combine chicken stripes with remaining ingredients. Mix well and season to taste. Serve at room temperature with steamed rice. (http:// www.baliguide.com/balifood)
Soto Babat
(Clear Tripe Soup) Overview: This is usually served with sambel tomat as a contrasting condiment. The sugar cane is used to help soften the tripe rather than to add any sweetness to the soup. Ingredients: 600 gr beef tripe, cleaned and washed well 3 liter water 1 liter beef stock 1 cup beef spice paste 5 cm sugar can stem, split lengthwise (optional) 2,5 cm ginger, peeled and sliced lengthwise 4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar 200 gr giant white radish, peeled and diced in 1 cm cubes 5 sprigs celery leaf chipped 1 tbsp fried shallots Preparation: Rinse tripe well under running water until very clean. Bring water to boil in a large pan, add tripe and simmer until soft approx 1 hour. Strain water and cool tripe in ice water. Cut in pieces approx 2,5 cm x 1cm. Bring beef, beef spice paste, sugar cane, ginger, garlic and vinegar to boil. Add tripe and radish. Simmer until vegetables are soft. Garnish with celery leaf and fried shallots. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)
9
8
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Bali Today Foreign tourist arrivals up 12.9 percent
Balinese Culture
Most drug-resistant TB cases go untested Reuters
Antara
DENPASAR - The number of foeign tourist arrivals in Bali grew by 12.9 percent to 200,566 in June 2009 from the same period last year, an official said. Compared to May 2009 the number of foreign tourist arrivals in June 2009 increased 5.12 percent, Head of the Bali Provincial Office of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) IB Komang Wisnu said here on Monday. A total of 190,803 foreign tourists visited the resort island in May 2009. Australia topped the list of tourist arrivals in Bali in June 2009 with 43,668 tourists accounting for 21.77 percent of the total, he said. Japan came in second with 21,949 tourists (10.94 percent), followed by Malaysia 15,661 tourists (7.81 percent), China 12,102 tourists (6.03 percent), and South Korea 10,734 tourists (5.35%). Star-rated hotels’ occupancy rate
in June 2009 averaged 62.77 percent, up by 2.51 points from a month earlier when it was recorded at 60.26 percent, he said. “Badung district took the lead in terms of occupancy rate with 68.18 percent, followed by Tabanan with 63.53 percent, Denpasar 56.29 percent, Gianyar 50.73 percent, Karangasem 33.05 percent, and Buleleng 30.47 percent,” he said. He said two-star hotels’ occupancy rate in June 2009 reached 44.08 percent, the lowest among star-rated hotels’ occupancy rates in that month. “Non-star hotels’ occupancy rate in Bali in June 2009 reached an average of 32.62 percent,” he said. Bali is one of Indonesia’s main tourist destinations.
Legian beach to be re-arrange Antara
KUTA – The sellers which are increasing in number in Legian and Kuta Beach make the area very crowded and dirty. The problem can be solved by rearrange the sellers and grocers in Kuta and Legian. IGN Sudiarsa, the head of Kuta village, said that the crowded and dirty condition can make the tourists reluctant to visit the beach. “In the rearrangement, not all sellers can work in Legian beach. We will give the permit card for those who already qualified,” he added. If the condition can not be fixed soon then it could disturb the tour-
ists. Sudiarsa said “we don’t want waste the time. We will conduct the rearrangement as soon as possible. We don’t want the beach filled with merchants so it could disturb the visitors.” He also planed to forbid the sellers to work in some parts of the beach. This preventive step needs to be done in order to give comfort to the visitors. The rules for the permit card are currently being prepared by a special team in Kuta village. “We will conduct full analysis and survey before determining the proper way for the card,” added Sudiarsa. Kuta village received 30,000 each pay as the retribution. The money directly paid to the village and used for its development.
Bali Post/Edi
A man picking up garbage near one of beaches in Bali.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
FOTO ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana
A fisherman crosses beside the art installation work about sea on the Sanur Festival in Mertasari Beach, Sanur, Bali, Tuesday (11/8). The festival which will run from August 12 until August 16 will followed by five country.
Burglary, Netherlands Tourist lost 28 million Denpost
DENPASAR – Crimes in hotel rooms rarely happened in Bali in the past few months but a case happened in Inna Bali Hotel in Veteran Street, western Denpasar on Saturday, August 8th 2009. Thieves broke in a room rented by Hadje Ratoemar
Niamat from the Netherlands and took jewelry worth 28 million rupiah. The police officers directly conducted investigation in the crime scene. However, the police didn’t find any signs of entering by force around the room. There were no door or windows that broken in the crime scene. He officer said “there is great possibility that the thieves was us-
ing false key to enter the room.” The thieves were entering the room when Hadje wasn’t in the room. The thieves took four 35 grams of bracelets and two 80 grams of bracelets. The police are still investigating the case. Previously, similar cases often happened in Kuta but now the case happened in Denpasar.
Foreign countries join the cultural parade of Negara commemoration Antara
NEGARA – Art Groups from several countries had confirmed to take part in the Cultural Parade to commemorate the 144th of Negara, the capital of Jembrana regency. Marjono, one of the committee, said “the art groups from other countries will make the parade more interesting and it also could attract tourists.” The events to commemorate the anniversary will be started on August 25th through September 2nd 2009. The celebration also will hold other events. Marjono said that the committee had given invitation to all regencies in Indonesia and countries throughout Asia. The theme of the event is
“Bhinneka Sandi Adnyana” which means variety lead to one goal. Until yesterday, August 10th 2009, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, and 16 regencies in Indonesia had confirmed that they will participate in the event. The cultural parade is the peak of the celebration. The parade will be divided into three different events which are cultural parade, art performances, and handicraft exhibition. There is great hope that the event will develop the art and culture and increase the unity in Indonesia. The art performances will be held on August 14th through September 2nd 2009 which joined by all participants. The handicrafts exhibition will be held on 25 August through September 2nd
2009. The parade will be held on September 1st and the route will be approximately 1 kilometer. In adition to the cultural events, the celebration also will be filled with other event which is information technology program. The program leads to cooperation within the participants in information technology. The programs consist of information technology consultation (E-Government) such as making Master Plan EGovernment, making information system like SIMDA, poverty monitoring system, SIMPEG, Smartcard application such as J-ID, J-Smart School and training. There is great hope that the system will help in conducting the program in each government and with other regencies.
NUSA DUA - Cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis are underdiagnosed around the world and even among those who have been diagnosed, only a fraction are being treated, a Global Fund official said on Monday. “The Global Fund is funding about 25,000 to 30,000 patients but the estimated total number of cases is 500,000,” Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund’s effort to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, told an HIV/AIDS conference. “So we are very far off. It is a dangerous epidemic that is spreading,” he told the conference in Bali. “There is an underdiagnosis of MDR-TB.” The Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), but only one percent of the cases are being treated, he added. Most cases of TB can be cured with a drug regimen of 6 to 8 months. Multi-drug resistant TB emerges when there is improper use of antibiotics in fighting regular TB, such as failure to complete the whole course of treatment. People with HIV/AIDS are especially susceptible to falling ill with TB because their immune systems are compromised. An estimated one-third of people living with HIV are co-infected with TB, and TB continues to
Ayam Pelalah
(Shredded Chicken with Chilies & Lime) AFP PHOTO / Sonny TUMBELAKA
Pakistani performer Salman Ahmad (C) sings together with Balinese children on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Nusa Dua on the resort island of Bali on August 10, 2009. Besides talking about AIDS, the ICAAP also discussing on Tuberculosis disease. be the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. The emergence of multi-drug resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB in recent years poses a significant public health threat, especially for countries with high HIV prevalence. Multi-drug resistant TB is resistant to two of the most powerful TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin. Kazatchkine said treatment for someone with multi-drug resistant TB
costs US$7,000 a year, about 100 times the cost of treating regular TB. “The best way to prevent resistant TB is to get people to take the whole course of standard TB drugs,” he said. He stressed, however, there was still an urgency to allocate more money to treat people with multi-drug resistant TB. “If we can do it for H1N1, we can do it for TB. These epidemics have been at (pandemic) level 6 plus plus plus plus for years,” he said.
Overview: You can use any type of leftover chicken (roast, steamed or fried) for this delightfully tangy chicken salad Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, weighing about 1.2 kg (2 ½ lb) 1 cup chicken spice paste ½ cup tomato sambal 3 tbsp freshly squeezed limejuice Preparation: 1. Rub the chicken outside and inside with the spice paste, and season with salt and crushed black pepper. 2. Place on wire rack in oven and roast first at 220 Celsius (420 F) for 20 min, and then reduce heat to 180 Celsius (350 F) and roast until done. Frequently baste chicken with a mixture of coconut oil and chicken spice paste. 3. When cool, remove and discard the skin. Remove meat from bones and shred by hand into fine strips. 4. Combine chicken stripes with remaining ingredients. Mix well and season to taste. Serve at room temperature with steamed rice. (http:// www.baliguide.com/balifood)
Soto Babat
(Clear Tripe Soup) Overview: This is usually served with sambel tomat as a contrasting condiment. The sugar cane is used to help soften the tripe rather than to add any sweetness to the soup. Ingredients: 600 gr beef tripe, cleaned and washed well 3 liter water 1 liter beef stock 1 cup beef spice paste 5 cm sugar can stem, split lengthwise (optional) 2,5 cm ginger, peeled and sliced lengthwise 4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar 200 gr giant white radish, peeled and diced in 1 cm cubes 5 sprigs celery leaf chipped 1 tbsp fried shallots Preparation: Rinse tripe well under running water until very clean. Bring water to boil in a large pan, add tripe and simmer until soft approx 1 hour. Strain water and cool tripe in ice water. Cut in pieces approx 2,5 cm x 1cm. Bring beef, beef spice paste, sugar cane, ginger, garlic and vinegar to boil. Add tripe and radish. Simmer until vegetables are soft. Garnish with celery leaf and fried shallots. (http://www.baliguide.com/balifood)
9
10
Business
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
China’s prices continue to fall in July, investment slows Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Chinese consumer prices continued to decline last month, while government-funded investment slowed slightly, official data showed Tuesday. The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell 1.8 percent in July compared with the same month a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. The release of the figures had been avidly awaited by the markets, looking for clues about how the world’s third-largest economy was faring in the global crisis. China’s economy expanded by 7.9 percent in the second quarter,
up from 6.1 percent in the first, suggesting its export-dependent economy might be at the start of a recovery. July’s inflation figure was the sixth consecutive monthly decline, and compared with a fall of 1.7 percent in June. Investments in urban fixed assets rose 32.9 percent in the first seven months of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, the bureau said.
It indicated a slight deceleration in July, given growth of 33.6 percent in the first half. The bureau did not publish a figure for July alone. Meanwhile industrial output expanded by 10.8 percent in July from a year earlier, the bureau said. Earlier data showed it increased by 10.7 percent in June and by 7.0 percent for the first half of 2009. Retail sales, the main measure of consumer spending, rose 15.2 percent in July compared with the same month last year, the government said Tuesday. In June, the figure was up 15 percent from a year earlier. The Chinese government sees consumer spending as a key factor in boosting the economy.
International Bali Post Classifieds Contact us
JAKARTA - Indonesia’s economy grew at its slowest annual pace in seven years in the second quarter but expanded quicker on a quarterly basis than the previous three months, officials said Monday.
... gets maximum benefits with minimum charge Jl. Kepundung 67 A, e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id Jl. Palmerah Barat 21 F
AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO
A man collects firewood to sell in Jakarta on August 4, 2009. Indonesia’s economy grew at its slowest annual pace in seven years in the second quarter but expanded quicker on a quarterly basis than the previous three months, officials said Monday.
SICA SECURITY Rimo Trade Center Jl. Diponogoro Lt. II No. C5 Telp. 8047438 233259 ext. 209
G.1039-ibp
G.1036-ibp
G.2055-ibp
THE CCTV SYSTEM TOTAL SOLUTION
Economists said the strongerthan-expected data suggest the central bank’s focus will shift toward containing inflation rather than stimulating growth. The economy grew four percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, slowing from 4.37 percent on-year in the first three months, the Central Statistics Agency said. Economists had predicted the slowdown, citing the boost to economic output last year from a spike in prices of commodities that Indonesia exports. On-quarter, Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 2.30 percent thanks to election-related spending. This was stronger than the revised growth of 1.70 percent in the January-March quarter. The statistics agency said household consumption, which typically accounts for around 60 percent of gross domestic product, rose 4.8 percent on year in the second quar-
ter, and 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter. At the same time, government spending expanded 17 percent onyear and 23.7 percent on-quarter, while investment grew 2.7 percent over the year and 2.4 percent on a quarterly basis. Exports, meanwhile, declined 15.7 percent on-year but expanded 7.4 percent on-quarter. “Indonesia had held up somewhat better than others in the region, as domestic demand has helped the economy sustain its momentum, and should now improve as the global economy appears to be turning around,” Singapore-based Action Economics economist David Cohen told Dow Jones Newswires. The International Monetary Fund predicted the Indonesian economy to grow around 3.5 percent this year, making Indonesia among the few economies that are expected to continue expanding this year.
APA commit to realizing international peace Antara
Hub:
JAKARTA - Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) members are expected to show a high commitment to realizing international peace and security at global and regional levels, the organization’s leader, Agung Laksono, said. “The realization of international peace and security is the basic principle in the progress of national development in Asian countries,” APA President Agung Laksono said at a function to open a two-day executive
board meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly here on Tuesday. According to Agung Laksono who is concurrently the House of Representatives (DPR) speaker, the security and political stage in Asian region was still marked by various conflicts and criminal activities such as terrorism. “Issues related to peace and security in Asia should be our common concern,” Laksono told the APA executive board. He pointed out that PalestinianIsraeli conflict, security situation in
Iraq and Afghanistan, inter-state border disputes, and nuclear threat posed a serious challenge to Asian region. Laksono added that the challenge for APA in the future would be even bigger. Asian region with the most population in the world, according to Laksono, still have serious humanitarian problems such as poverty, food crisis, pandemic diseases, and environmental degradation. As a member of parliament to represent Asian people, Agung
Laksono said APA had a big responsibility to help find the best possible solution to those problems in Asia. “We have to build our common awareness and commitment to strengthening our friendship and cooperation in various fields,” Laksono said. The House of Representatives is hosting the Asian Parliamentary Assembly executive board meeting here from Tuesday to Wednesday (Aug 11-12, 2009) to discuss draft resolution which had been deliberated on in several sub-commissions in a
number of APA member countries. Indonesia is currently president of the 39-member APA, until 2010. The draft resolutions would be recommended to be adopted in APA General Assembly scheduled to be held in Bandung, West Java, in November or December 2009. APA was initially known as the Association of Asian Parliamentarians for Peace (AAPP) which was established in 1999. In 2006, AAPP was transformed into APA with a broader scope of cooperation among Asian parliaments.
Tame elephant killed by ivory hunter Antara
Specialis in :
CAMERA CCTV DIGITAL SYSTEM, SECURITY ALARM SYSTEM, ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM Ruko Graha Mahkota No. B-9, Jl Teuku Umar Denpasar
Telp. 254-908 ; 254-909 Fax. 254-961
G.1042-ibp
G.1043-ibp
G.2090-ibp
7
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE LOPEZ
Denpasar : +62 361 22-5764 Jakarta : +62 21 535-6271
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Indonesia has growth spurt in second quarter
A woman holding the hand of a child walks out of a shopping mall in Shanghai on August 11, 2009. Chinese consumer prices continued to decline last month, while government-funded investment slowed slightly, official data showed Tuesday.
r pe Su ve a S
G.1044-ibp
Indonesia Today
International
International
LABUHAN RATU, East Lampung - A tame elephant at the elephant Training Center (PLG) in the Way kambas Naitonal Park in east Lampung was found dead on Saturday morning from apparent poisoning by people who had taken its tusks. “We believe the ivory thieves gave the elephant poison-laced food, waited until it collapsed, and then cut off its two tusks,” Jhon Kenedie, head of the Way Kambas National Park conservation agency, said in Labuhan Ratu sub distirct, East lampung, on Monday. The 21-year-old elephant’s 1.9-ton body was found in its corral at the Way kambas Elephant Training Center, about 150 km southwest of Bandarlampung city, was believed to have been killed between 02:00 and 03:00 am on Saturday morning. Named Seno and with a pair of tusks weighing 70 kgs, the elephant had been trained to do various kinds of jobs, including driving away wild elephants that sometimes strayed into local residents’ farm lands or villages.
The thieves apparently had a good knowledge of the situation at the center and knew that after midnight nobody was watching over the elephants. “They did not hesitate to kill Seno with poison merely to get hold of its 70-cm-long tusks,” Jhon said. Meanwhile, a member of the non-governmental organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working in the Way Kambas Natural Park, M Gio, said the fact that ivory hunters had turned to tamed elephants could be an indication that the population of wild elephants in the region was continuing to drop. He said the number of wild elephants known to be living in the 125,000-hectare Way Kambas Natural Park was now only about 250. In addition, wild elephants between the ages of 15 and 20 years now rarely still had their tusks apparently because they had been taken by ivory hunters. Gio expressed hope the local law-enforcing agencies would soon be able to take measures to stop the illegal ivory hunting activity that appeared to have become more rampant lately.
AP Photo/Tim Aylen
Miss Indonesia Zivanna Siregar poses during the national costume event of the Miss Universe 2009 competition in Nassau, Bahamas, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. Contestants from 84 countries will compete for the coveted crown on August 23.
6
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
UN chief warns of ‘incalculable’ suffering without climate deal Agence France-Presse
AP Photo
Papuan tribeswomen run with their pigs in a pig race during Baliem Valley culture festival in Wamena, Papua province, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009. The festival is held annually ahead of the Aug. 17 independence day celebrations, to promote local tribal culture.
Explosion kills least six miners in Slovakia: ministry Agence France-Presse
BRATISLAVA - At least six miners died in an explosion Monday in a mine in Handlova, central Slovakia, and 14 others have almost certainly perished, the country’s economy minister told reporters. “Rescuers found six bodies, but the conditions in the mine are such that no one can survive,” Lubomir Jahnatek said. The other 14 miners, trapped underground for more than 10 hours, were also probably dead, he added. “The rescuers found six bodies 65 metres (71 yards) from the epicentre of the explosion. They couldn’t get any further as the conditions in the mine do not support life,” Jahnatek said. “All victims probably died at the moment of explosion,” he added. “It’s an immense tragedy,” Prime Minister Robert Fico said late Monday at the accident site, 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of the capital Bratislava.
“The government will meet tomorrow to declare a period of national mourning,” he added. The explosion occurred at about 9:30 am (0730 GMT) as the miners were putting out a fire in the mine some 330 meters (360 yards) underground. Officials had initially indicated 18 miners were missing in the blast at the ‘brown coal’ or lignite mine. “A fire broke out at about 7:00 am in the eastern mine, which is no longer used for mining. At about 9:00 am, eleven rescuers went down to put out the fire. The mine headquarters lost contact with them at 9:30 am, probably as a result of the explosion,” Jahnatek said. Nine miners with minor injuries
were treated in a hospital and released. The mining accident is the worst on record in Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million people that joined the European Union in 2004. In November 2006 four miners were killed when a shaft caved-in at the central Slovak Novaky coal mine in what was Slovakia’s largest mining accident until Monday. With a work force of some 4,100, Hornonitrianske Banke Prievidza is Slovakia’s top brown coal producer, supplying fuel to the nearby Novaky heating plant. The mine produces some 2.2 million tonnes of lignite per year and has plans to open new mines in the region after the discovery of deposits of some 7.2 million tonnes.
Tongan transport minister resigns after ferry disaster Agence France-Presse
NUKU’ALOFA - Tonga’s Transport Minister Paul Karalus resigned Tuesday, but said he was not taking responsibility for last week’s ferry disaster believed to have claimed at least 95 lives. Claims have been made the Princess Ashika was unseaworthy after the ferry sank late last Wednesday northeast of Nuku’alofa on its way north to the Nomuka islands.
Asked by journalists if he resigned over the sinking of the ferry, Karalus repeated his assertion the Princess Ashika was seaworthy. He added he was resigning to ensure the work of a commission of inquiry into the disaster could run smoothly. “The royal commission responds to the privy council and as a cabinet minister I am a privy councillor,” Karalus told a press conference. “My ministry is the subject of the
royal commission, so one has to — from a legal perspective if no other — step aside.” Prime Minister Feleti Sevele announced Monday the setting up of the commission of inquiry, as well as a relief fund for the families of victims. The ferry sank suddenly and only 54 survivors were rescued. Two bodies have been recovered and at least 93 people remain unaccounted for.
INCHEON - UN chief Ban Kimoon warned Tuesday of “incalculable” human suffering if the world fails to reach a deal at crucial climate change talks this December. The United Nations is orchestrating the talks in the Danish capital in hopes of securing an agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. “As we move toward Copenhagen in December, we must seal a climate change deal that secures our common future,” Ban told an environmental forum in Incheon city west of Seoul. The UN secretary general, who began a visit to his homeland Sunday, warned of catastrophes if the world fails to work out a deal. Ban said unchecked climate change would intensify drought, floods and other natural disasters and bring water shortages and malnutrition — aggravating tensions and social unrest and even sparking violence. “The human suffering will be incalculable,” Ban said. He said he was confident the world
50 million... From page 1 Women accounted for 35 percent of all adult HIV infections in Asia in 2008, up from 17 percent in 1990, according to the report. In Cambodia, India and Thailand, the largest number of new HIV infections occur among married women and in Indonesia the virus is now spreading to long-term partners and sex workers, it added. “The facts speak for themselves. It is
could avert catastrophe but time was running out. “We have the power to change course but we must do it now.” Ban said industrialised countries should lead the way by committing to mid-term targets of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels. He urged developed countries to provide “sufficient, measurable and verifiable” technical and financial support to developing nations to achieve the common goal. Ban also urged developing countries to take “measurable, reportable and verifiable” actions to reduce emissions. “Any agreement must be fair, effective, equitable and comprehensive and based on science,” he said. “Trust between developing and developed countries is essential.” Ban recalled that Incheon was the city where United Nations forces launched a daring landing in 1950 to turn the tide of the Korean War. “Today we need to turn a different tide. The tide of climate change.... Together we truly can turn the tide once again here in Incheon,” he said. estimated that more than 90 percent of the 1.7 million women living with HIV in Asia became infected (by) husbands and partners while in long-term relationships,” Rao said. “These women are often perceived as low risk... women who have not been adequately covered in our national responses.” The Bali congress, which runs until Thursday, covers topics ranging from HIV risks among transgenders and migrant workers to biomolecular advances in HIV treatment and the impact of the financial crisis on those with HIV/AIDS.
Strong quake... From page 1 A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged the Tomei Expressway at Makinohara, Shizuoka, causing long traffic jams. In Shizuoka city, parts of the stone wall around the 424-year-old Sunpu castle collapsed, said castle park official Yasushi Watanabe. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s office set up an emergency centre shortly after the quake, which was followed by 13 noticeable aftershocks. Japan’s Meteorological Agency, which measured the quake at a revised 6.5, said there was no risk of a tsunami after detecting initial waves about 40 centimetres (16 inches) high at Omaezaki, Shizuoka. “The quake was so scary, and the tsunami warning too,” said Masaki Yamada, 44, a fisheries cooperative official in the port of Yaizu, where a new 300-metre long crack ran along the quay. “Today’s event is a rehearsal for us in preparing for a bigger, real disaster,” he said. Tokyo has long braced itself for a great quake, often referred to as “the big one” — over a magnitude of 8.0 — while catastrophic quakes are also
expected to strike some time in the future in the Tokai and Nankai regions. In 1923, a quake that measured 8.3 on the Richter scale hit the Tokyo region, killing more than 140,000 people, many of them in fires. Japanese seismic experts on Tuesday “concluded that the earthquake and related seismic activities are not linked to the predicted Tokai quake,” said Takashi Yokota, of the meteorological agency. The agency was also monitoring Typhoon Etau, which had threatened to bring strong rains to Tokyo but then veered east, away from the Japanese coast. Torrential rains triggered by Etau have soaked much of Japan since the weekend, and floods and landslides caused by the downpours had killed 14 people by Monday and left 18 missing. The weather agency warned of more possible landslides as watersoaked earth may have become unstable after being jolted by the strong tremor. A strong earthquake also hit central Japan late on Sunday. Around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes strike the country, which is located at the intersection of four tectonic plates.
11
BUSINESS Singapore to see ‘sluggish’ economic rebound Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - Singapore’s economy performed better than estimated in the second quarter, but recovery will be “sluggish” on continued weak demand from the United States and Europe, the government said Tuesday. The trade-reliant economy expanded by a seasonally adjusted 20.7 percent in the June quarter from the previous three months, better than the estimated growth of 20.4 percent released last month. The expansion marks Singapore’s first quarter-on-quarter growth in five quarters and analysts said this suggests the economy is emerging from its worst recession since independence 44 years ago. It followed a quarter-on-quarter dive of 12.2 percent in the first three months. Second quarter performance was underpinned by strong gains in the manufacturing sector, where output climbed 49.5 percent compared with the previous quarter’s contraction of 18.5 percent. Manufacturing growth was powered by a surge in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in medicines worldwide
and a rise in inventory restocking in electronics. The construction sector grew 32.7 percent on the back of a resilient property market and the ongoing building of two massive casino projects in the city-state. However, gross domestic product (GDP) in the three months to June was still down 3.5 percent year on year, the ministry said, indicating that any recovery would be fragile. In the March quarter GDP shrank 9.5 percent from the same point in 2008. The trade ministry noted that industrial production and consumption in Singapore’s key export markets such as the United States and Europe are still weak and unemployment remains high. As a result, the government is maintaining its forecast for the economy to shrink between 4.0 and 6.0 percent this year.
“While we are probably past the worst of the economic crisis, we have not fully recovered and we do not expect economic recovery from this severe downturn to be quick,” Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said. Despite the quarter-on-quarter GDP rise, Lim cautioned that “it is too early to cheer as Singapore is an open economy which is dependent on world trade as well as regional and international developments.” In a separate statement, the government’s trade promotion body International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said key exports rose a seasonally adjusted 7.6 percent in the June quarter from the previous three months. Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession in the second half of last year after a financial and economic crisis that started in the United States hit demand for its exports.
Bank of Japan holds super-low interest rates steady Agence France-Presse
TOKYO - Japan’s central bank on Tuesday held its rock-bottom interest rates steady to give the world’s number two economy more time to recover from its worst recession in decades. The Bank of Japan reiterated its view that Japan’s economic conditions “have stopped worsening,” but cautioned that much uncertainty remains because of the murky outlook for the global economy. “Public investment is increasing and exports and production are picking up,” the BoJ said in a statement. “On the other hand, business fixed investment is declining sharply mainly reflecting weak corporate profits.” Private consumption is showing some signs of recovering, helped by economic stimulus measures, but generally remains weak because of rising unemployment and sluggish wages, it said. The BoJ’s eight-member monetary policy board voted unanimously at the end of a twoday meeting to leave the main lending rate unchanged at 0.1 percent, as expected. The Bank is fighting Japan’s worst recession in decades with super-low interest rates and a policy of buying up corporate debt to keep credit flowing to cash-strapped firms. It said the economy should start recover-
AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File
In this July 15, 2009 photo, businessmen walk past the Bank of Japan in Tokyo. Japan’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1 percent Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, and maintained a cautious view on the strength of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. ing from the second half of this financial year to March 2010, supported by policymakers’ efforts to tackle the economic downturn. Japan entered recession in the second quarter of 2008 as its heavy dependence on overseas demand to drive growth left it highly exposed to the global downturn. Its economy shrank at an annualised pace of 14.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, the worst performance on record, but analysts believe it returned to positive growth in AprilJune, helped by rebounding exports.
AFP PHOTO/ROSLAN RAHMAN
Pedestrians wait in front of a large commercial advertisment to cross the road in the Orchard road shopping district in Singapore on August 11 2009. Singapore’s economy performed better than estimated in the second quarter, but recovery will be “sluggish” on continued weak demand from the United States and Europe, the government said.
Amid green shoots, Fed likely to keep taps open Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday amid rising signs the recession is receding but they are not expected to ease aggressive efforts to boost growth until recovery is well under way. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday and Wednesday is widely anticipated to hold unchanged its key federal funds rate at a historically low range of zero to 0.25 percent to spur lending and economic activity. Economists say the financial markets will be closely watching the FOMC’s statement accompanying its interest rate decision Wednesday for clues about the momentum of the world’s largest economy, which seems to be emerging from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Amid the growing optimism that recovery is at hand, the markets will be focused on whether the Fed, led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, will adjust its unprecedented efforts to pump over one trillion dollars of liquidity into the stricken financial system, which some call “quantitative easing.” “Considering that the US economy remains in a fragile transition to recovery, we do not expect any surprises. The likelihood is that interest rates along with the Fed’s asset purchase programs will remain unchanged,” said Drew Matus, senior US economist at Merrill Lynch.
The upbeat US economic outlook gained support from better-than-expected recent government readings on growth and unemployment. Gross domestic product (GDP) — the broad measure of the economy’s activity — fell at an annualized rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter, after a 6.4 percent plunge in the January-March period. Unemployment dipped unexpectedly in July to 9.4 percent, one-tenth point lower than the 26-year high hit in June. Although job losses narrowed to 247,000 from 443,000 in June, the labor market remained frail. A total of 6.7 million jobs have vanished from payroll since the recession began in December 2007. On the eve of the Fed meeting, US stocks fell slightly, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 32.12 points or 0.3 percent after a surge of nearly 200 points last week. “Close to 90 percent of our panelists believe the recession — the longest and deepest in the post-World War II era — will eventually be declared by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to have ended this quarter,” the Blue Chip Economic Indicators report said Monday. The Blue Chip consensus predicted GDP would grow at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the current quarter and 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter. A 2.6 percent contraction in 2009 would be followed by 2.3 percent growth in 2010.
12
Entertainment
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
International
News
International
Fox network to air twohour ‘Octomom’ special Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK – The Fox network said Monday it will air a twohour special on the life of “Octomom” Nadya Suleman, based on footage bought from an online company that paid for access to her life. Called “Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage,” Fox has scheduled the show for Aug. 19. Suleman, already a single mother of six, gave birth to octuplets Jan. 26. Curiosity about Suleman turned to some outrage after it became clear that the single, unemployed mother had been using student loans and Social Security disability payments to help pay for her children’s care. Last month, a California judge appointed a lawyer to oversee the estate of the octuplets, saying he wanted to make sure they weren’t exploited by paid ventures like reality shows. Footage of Suleman caring for her children was shot by RadarOnline, which struck its own deal with the mother for access. RadarOnline sold access to the footage to a production company, Pilgrim Films & Entertainment, for an undisclosed fee, and Pilgrim made the deal for the special with Fox. Suleman was not involved in the deal, although Fox executive Mike Darnell said the network and Pil-
Agence France Presse
WAMEGO - Seventy years after a tornado tossed Dorothy into the Land of Oz on the silver screen, a small Kansas town is cashing in on the fact there’s no place like home. “The Wizard of Oz”, which premiered on August 12 1939, and L. Frank Baum’s book series “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” both named Dorothy’s home as Kansas, forever putting the sunflower state on the map. Most tourist shops in the largely rural state flog a hefty selection of Oz paraphernalia, from plush versions of Dorothy’s loyal Cairn terrier Toto to T-shirts with the image of the ruby-red slippers that finally took them home. But the town of Wamego, population 4,312, has turned Dorothy into a major cottage industry, embracing the fact that people around the world know little about Kansas except its connection to the Wizard of Oz. This year being the 70th anniversary of the release of the film, local businesses are hoping for a bigger tourism impact, especially in the midst of the economic crisis. So far this year they’ve already seen 3,000 more visitors than in the whole of
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO/Alfredo Estrella
AP Photo/ Kevin Mazur, AEG/Getty Images, file
FILE - In this June 23, 2009 handout photo provided by AEG, pop star Michael Jackson rehearses at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles probate judge has scheduled a hearing for Monday, Aug. 10 to see if Jackson’s mother, Katherine, has any objections to an agreement between concert promoter AEG Live, Columbia Pictures, and others to make a full-length motion picture filled with footage of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsals.
This is It’: Jackson film out in October Agence France Presse
Nadya Suleman
Banking on Dorothy: Kansas town cashes in on Oz 2008. Other Kansas towns have yellow brick roads and small Oz fairs, but in Wamego the restaurants have Ozthemed names and menu items, the hair salon Scissors of Ahhhhz has a yellow facade, and a local winery uses the Oz-theme for cheeky names and labels. There’s a museum too, where visitors can see life-sized depictions of the main characters, old editions of Baum’s Oz series, and pictures of actress Judy Garland from her days playing Dorothy. There is also an annual street festival, dubbed the Oztoberfest, and a strip of the state highway that serves as the town’s main road has been renamed the Road to Oz. For local entrepreneur Clark Balderson, who spearheaded efforts to turn Wamego into the Land of Oz, the eureka moment came at immigration control in Portugal when he was asked about Dorothy. “It was a point where I realized that, oh my God, everyone associates Kansas with the Wizard of Oz.” Balderson, who admits being obsessed with economic development, said he had been thinking of ways of improving the economy of his hometown.
5
Couple named in Britain’s Baby P abuse case
grim had set up a “six-figure” account for the children. “We thought it was the right thing to do,” Darnell said. Darnell said he didn’t believe Fox was exploiting the children because the footage already existed. Airing the RadarOnline footage lets the viewers decide for themselves what Suleman’s life is like. “That’s what makes it viable,” said Darnell, longtime head of Fox’s reality programming. Craig Piligian, head of Pilgrim, said the material is “really jawdropping in some moments, really compelling stuff.” He said it was a look inside of Suleman’s life and her thoughts, and the show will be aired without a host or narration.
AP Photo/Nick Ut, file
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
LOS ANGELES – Fans saddened by Michael Jackson’s sudden death on June 25 before a long-awaited return to the stage may find comfort in a film showing his final rehearsals to be released at the end of October. “This Is It,” to be released worldwide starting on October 30, will be drawn from hundreds of hours of backstage footage of Jackson rehearsing and feature interviews with some of his closest friends and creative collaborators, Sony studios announced Monday. It is named after the series of 50 London concerts the star had planned to perform for his July farewell — before his death from an apparent cardiac arrest on June 25 at a rented mansion in Los Angeles shocked the world. Sony said the film “will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-thescenes look at the performer, his career and the stage spectacular that would have been.” Most of the footage was shot in June 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the site of the Jackson tribute watched by millions of people around the world. Other scenes were shot at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The footage was “captured in high definition with state-of-the-art digital sounds,” Sony said, adding that select sequences would be in 3-D. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment will co-
produce the film with AEG Live and the estate, while Sony Pictures will distribute the feature, which would amount to a major undertaking as Jackson had not commercialized concert footage. Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s creative partner on the “This Is It” concerts, said “the world will see what our team was so fortunate to experience, which was the full commitment, passion and creativity that Michael put into this project.” The film, he added, “will show Michael as he truly was, creatively involved with every aspect of the production, from the staging and choreography, to the music, lighting, production design and conception of the original short films and video backdrops.” Neither Sony nor the court released figures of the deal reached with Jackson’s estate and concert promoters AEG Live, but media reports said Sony paid 60 million dollars for rights to the footage. The pop icon’s mother, Katherine Jackson, also gave her support to the multi-million-dollar deal approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Beckloff. AEG Live has yet to give its approval on the sharing of profits from the distribution of the footage. But Beckloff did not validate contracts with AEG and merchandiser
Bravado International Group to market Jackson memorabilia and organize an exhibition of the singer’s belongings. “I’m not sure I can approve anything without anyone here for the children,” he said. “I think everyone’s interests are similar. I feel sorry the result is something you don’t like today, but I feel I don’t have an option.” Instead, Beckloff said he would appoint a special guardian to represent the financial interests of Jackson’s three orphaned children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, during business negotiations. The film announcement also came as the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said it had completed a “thorough and comprehensive” autopsy but would not release the results until police complete their investigation, further prolonging the mystery surrounding the circumstances of Jackson’s death. The LAPD said it had requested that “the cause and manner of death remain confidential” and that an existing “security hold” on the results of the coroner’s investigation remain in place. The continued security measures, the LAPD said, “will help maintain the integrity of the investigation and allow investigators from LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division, as well as our partner law enforcement agencies to continue their investigation.” The singer’s reported addiction to painkillers and sedatives is believed to have been behind his death at the age of 50.
Alleged members of drug traffickers gang “Cartel del Golfo” are presented in a press conference at the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City, on August 10, 2009. Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels in December 2006, dispatching over 36,000 troops and police across the country to disrupt their operations.
Police say drug cartel plot to kill Mexican president foiled Agence France-Presse
MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s federal police force on Monday said it had foiled a plot by the Sinaloa drug cartel to assassinate President Felipe Calderon. After a year-long investigation, Ramon Pequeno, head of the federal police’s counter-narcotics wing, said a suspect had been arrested on Sunday and was charged with plotting to kill the president in retaliation for the army’s nationwide crackdown on trafficking. The plot also was intended as retaliation for the seizure of five million dollars by police during a raid targeting a Sinaloa cartel chief, Pequeno said. Calderon launched a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels in
December 2006, dispatching over 36,000 troops and police across the country to disrupt their operations. Since then fighting between rival gangs over drug trafficking routes to the United States and clashes with security forces have claimed nearly 13,000 lives, according to officials and media reports. Pequeno said the suspect, Dimas Diaz Ramon, had specialized in transporting marijuana stashed in the tires of trucks that carried hot peppers and avocados from the western state of Michoacan to the
US border, police said. During a summit with US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Calderon said he did not have details on an assassination plot and played down threats from the drug cartels. “It certainly won’t be the first or the last occasion on which we might hear something about an attempt on my life,” Calderon told reporters in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara. “The government can’t stop,” he added, according to an interpreter’s translation of his comments. “We are destroying their criminal organizations, we’re hitting them hard, we’re hitting at the heart of their organizations, we’re making them back away.”
China clamps down on sexy text messages Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Mobile phone users in central China could face jail for sending unwanted erotic text messages while in the north, one local Communist Party branch has held 480 meetings on the problem in the past month. Henan province has announced that firing off just one such message could see the sender slapped in detention for up to five days, the China Daily reported Tuesday. Three messages could result in 10 days behind bars and a fine of 500 yuan (73 dollars), the Englishlanguage newspaper reported. The province’s legal office announced the new penalties to address the growing problem of unwanted and inappropriate text mes-
sages in a country with more than 600 million mobile phone users, it said. “I’m totally for the rules. It’s uncomfortable to get dirty text messages from male friends and even more gross when they are from strangers,” Zhang Kai, 26, told the daily. “But I’ll take them as jokes and reply if they are from my female friends,” said Zhang, whose gender was not given. Henan is not the first province to tackle the problem. Liaoning in the northeast passed a regulation earlier this year that such messages could be part of a sexual harassment charge, the paper said. In a similar move, Communist Party members in Shenze county, in Hebei province, will be punished for
sending text messages with “inappropriate” content, the People’s Daily said. “Obscene information not only harms the people’s soul but harms the people’s morality as well,” it quoted the party rule as saying. Offenders would face an unspecified punishment and the worst ones would be named and shamed in the media. Since July 10, Shenze party officials have held 480 meetings to discuss the harmful effects of obscene messages, a degree of dedication that has been questioned by the public, the People’s Daily said. “It’s not necessary to hold 480 meetings on this. This is an enormous waste of administrative resources,” an Internet user named Han Haoyue was quoted as saying.
LONDON - The couple responsible for the brutal death of toddler Baby P, which shocked Britain, were publicly named Tuesday, triggering a renewed surge of anger and revulsion at their crimes. The toddler’s mother Tracey Connelly and her lover Steven Barker were jailed in May over the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly, whose corpse was found in his blood-spattered cot at his London home in 2007. The names of the couple, and details of their background, were released after a High Court order protecting their anonymity expired at midnight Monday. New details revealed that Baby P had four siblings. Now they have been settled with carers, the convicts can be named. Newspapers printed front-page
photographs of the pair along with disturbing details of the case, which sparked outrage in Britain and an urgent review of childcare policy. Experts said Tuesday the couple could need police protection and new identities when they are released from prison, given the public fury over the case and risk if vigilante attacks. The toddler, who had been known as Baby P for legal reasons, had more than 50 injuries at the time of death. Social workers, doctors and police failed to notice the abuse despite seeing him at least 60 times over eight months. Two days before Baby P died, a doctor failed to spot he had a broken back, eight fractured ribs and was paralysed from the waist down. He had been punched so hard he swallowed a tooth. The subsequent neck injury that affected his breathing was probably the fatal blow.
AFP PHOTO/Metropolitan
(COMBO) A combination of handout pictures obtained from the Metropolitan Police press office in London on August 11, 2009 shows Steven Barker (L), the stepfather of Baby P and Tracey Connelly, the mother of Baby P.
China arrests man in celebrity sex photo blackmail Agence France-Presse
BEIJING - Police in Beijing have arrested a man who allegedly tried to blackmail dozens of Chinese celebrities by threatening to post nude photos and sex videos of them on the Internet, a report said Tuesday. The man, surnamed Wang, sent more than 120 text messages to 88 actors, singers and film directors in July, the Global Times said, citing police. “I have some naked photos and sex videos of you. Give me 300,000 yuan (about 44,000 dollars) in hush money before 2:00 pm. After you send it, send me your mailbox address and we will talk about other details. “Otherwise, pay attention to the online news at three o’clock,” read the message, which included a bank account number, according to the paper. Police tracked down and ar-
rested Wang following a report by a female singer who had received the message. In an apparent copycat bid inspired by Hong Kong’s Edison Chen sex photos scandal, Wang said he had obtained the celebrities’ contact details from a computer belonging to a film director which he had helped repair. Wang said he did not actually have the naked photos but an unidentified person did send 3,000 yuan to his bank account on the day he was arrested, July 30, the Global Times reported. A Hong Kong computer technician was found guilty earlier this year of illegally distributing more than 1,000 photos of singer Chen performing sex acts with a string of starlets. The images were plastered across the Internet last year, causing a huge scandal, forcing Chen to flee to his childhood home of Canada and damaging the careers of several of the stars involved.
4
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News
International
French winegrowers raise a glass to satellite technology
Spain seeks woman in ETA bomb probe
AFP PHOTO
Itziar Moreno. Agence France-Presse
PALMA DE MAJORCA - Police in Spain were looking Monday for a woman suspect following a wave of ETA bombings in Majorca where officials downplayed the impact of the attacks on the battered tourism sector. The authorities noted that the three small bombs which went off Sunday at two restaurants and a shopping centre under a major city square in Palma de Majorca were all planted in women’s toilets. Several witnesses also told police they saw a suspected female member of ETA near the police barracks on the island where a car bombing killed two policeman on July 30, El Mundo daily reported. A photo of Itziar Moreno was widely distributed by the interior ministry after that attack, along with that of five other suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group. Police were sifting through the debris from Sunday’s blasts to determine if the timers used could have allowed the bombs to be planted days in advance, giving the bombers time to leave the island undetected. “We have to work on both hypotheses — that they are still here and that they may have quit the island,” regional interior ministry delegate Ramon Socias told the news radio station Cadena SER. The explosions which rocked Majorca on Sunday, causing some
damage but no injuries, followed a warning call made from France to a Basque taxi company in the name of ETA. The group issued a statement overnight Saturday in which it claimed responsibility for the July 30 Majorca bombing that killed the two police officers. No warning was made before that attack. Spanish media said police believe a fourth bomb may have caused an explosion on Sunday at an empty restaurant in Palma, a blast firefighters had initially blamed on a gas leak. Officials believe the bombings were aimed at hurting Spain’s key tourist industry, which is already suffering from a slump in visitors due to the global economic downturn, at the height of the summer holiday season. “It’s early to draw conclusions from the situation but based on the information we have gathered ... the terrorist attacks have not changed the holiday plans of tourists,” secretary of state for tourism Joan Mesquida said. “ETA has been looking to hit tourism in Spain for 30 years and tourism always emerges stronger from it.” The head of the Spanish Federation of Travel Agents, Jesus Martinez Millan, said that the July 30 attack led to just “25 to 30 cancellations” in Majorca. “When a country is perceived as safe, which (Spain) in fact is, an incident of this kind cannot do any harm,” he told the Europa Press news agency. “If (ETA) has tried to harm the tourist industry, it has backfired.” Spain’s King Juan Carlos and his wife Queen Sofia continued their annual holiday at their summer residence in Majorca despite the attacks. In August 1995, Juan Carlos was the target of an assassination attempt while on holiday on the island. Tourism accounts for 80 percent of the economy of the Balearic Islands, which group Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. In 2008, they welcomed 10 million tourists, including four million Germans and 3.4 million Britons.
Pakistan police book Musharraf Agence France-Presse
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan police on Tuesday registered a case against ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf for ordering the house arrest of top judges during a bid to hold onto power two years ago, an official said. Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and sacked about 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the supreme court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
On a plea filed by lawyer Aslam Ghuman, Islamabad’s district and sessions judge Mohammad Akmal on Monday directed police to register a case against Musharraf, who is currently in London. “We have registered a case against Pervez Musharraf under Pakistan’s Penal Code,” Hakim Khan, the chief officer of the relevant police station, told AFP. The registration of the case will now see police investigate the charges levelled against the former head of state, who seized power in a 1999 coup.
Life Style
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
13
New Products
Agence France Presse
LEOGNAN - French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cutting-edge technology and the ancient art of winemaking. The Oenoview system — initially developed to help grain producers — combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.
AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY
British Ambassador to Indonesia Martin Hatfull speaks during a press conference at the embassy in Jakarta on August 11, 2009. Indonesia expressed its disappointment at the latest conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest for 18 months on August 11. “The Indonesian government is very disappointed over the verdict given by the Burmese court against Aung San Suu Kyi,” foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told AFP, using the old name for the country.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi gets 18 months under house arrest Agence France-Presse
YANGON - Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was Tuesday ordered to stay under house arrest for 18 months after a prison court convicted the Nobel laureate at the end of her internationally condemned trial. The court at Yangon’s Insein jail sentenced her to three years imprisonment and hard labour for breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside residence in May. The head of the ruling junta signed a special order commuting the sentence and allowing the frail 64-yearold to serve out just a year and half
under house arrest, Home Affairs Minister General Maung Oo said outside the court. The ruling means that she will still be in detention during multi-party elections promised by the iron-fisted military regime next year. Her party won a landslide victory in the country’s last democratic polls. American John Yettaw, 54, the man who swam to her house, was
sentenced to a total of seven years hard labour and imprisonment on three separate charges but it was not clear if the terms would run consecutively or concurrently. Security forces sealed off the area around the notorious jail and the ruling junta allowed diplomats from all foreign embassies in Yangon and local journalists to attend the hearing, officials and witnesses said. Suu Kyi has already been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years since Myanmar’s ruling military junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in elections in 1990.
Yemen welcomes home cleric expelled from US Agence France-Presse
SANAA - Yemen staged a warm welcome on Tuesday for an ailing Muslim cleric expelled from the United States after originally being sentenced to 75 years in jail for supporting terrorism. Mohammed Ali Hassan alMoayad returned home after a US federal judge on Friday ordered his deportation, along with his assistant and bodyguard Mohammed Zayed. Three Yemeni government ministers, including the foreign, justice and human rights ministers, as well as tribal chiefs and political leaders were on hand at Sanaa airport to
greet the men, an AFP correspondent said. The ailing 61-year-old, who according to his American lawyer is dying from various ailments including cirrhosis, made no public comments after his arrival and was immediately taken to hospital for medical tests, relatives said. “This is a big day,” one of them said on condition of anonymity. The former imam of Sanaa’s main mosque, Moayad was arrested with Zayed in Frankfurt, Germany in 2003, and subsquently the pair were extradited to the United States where they were tried on charges of supporting terrorism.
At the time of their arrest, then US Attorney General John Ashcroft said that Moayad admitted giving Al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden 20 million dollars before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. But the defence team insisted that the claim was tainted by the main informant’s lack of credibility, with one of the US lawyers, William Goodman, saying the US government tried to “entrap” Moayad. In 2005 the pair were found guilty of supporting terrorism, and Moayad was sentenced to 75 years in jail, while his assistant received an equally lengthy prison term.
AFP PHOTO/JEAN PIERRE MULLER
Stephen Carrier, director of the Fieuzal chateau near Bordeaux, holds a satellite map of his vinyeard made by ‘Oenoview’ on July 30, 2009. French winegrowers are reaping the benefits of satellite imagery to improve their grape harvests, in a fusion of cuttingedge technology and the ancient art of winemaking. The Oenoview system — initially developed to help grain producers — combines satellite pictures and vine analysis to allow oenologists to determine when grapes planted in varying conditions across sprawling estates will be ready.
It indicates to winegrowers important information about the berries, such as the amount of water in the fruit and how much to prune back their vines. Wine producers, challenged like other luxury goods industries by the global economic downturn, have hailed the service as a vital tool which will save much painstaking effort and help them to better figure out when to pick their produce. “I am getting years of information,” said winemaker Stephen Carrier, who uses the system at the Chateau de Fieuzal vineyard in Graves, part of the famous Bordeaux wine region in southern France. “Rather than waiting years and then being able to say ‘Ah, I know my plots of land,’ I have a tool that I can pass down. “That will allow me to work for future generations,” added Carrier, himself the son of winemakers from the French Champagne region. Using infrared images collected from the Taiwanese satellite Formosat 2, which flies over France every day, researchers also uncovered a vital link between the amount of vegetation on the vines and the quality of the grape. This information allows wine producers like Carrier to prune each vine carefully, helping the berries reach their optimal ripeness. Carrier is awaiting the latest computer images from the system, which he has been using since 2008, to prepare the harvest on his 85-hectare (210-acre) vineyard. Oenoview is the fruit of three years of collaboration between France’s wine and vine institute and satellite imagery firm Infoterra. “Our work was to collect different indicators which can be picked up via satellite and then combine them with analyses from the wine institute on the grapes,” explains Henri Douche, from the farming department of Infoterra. Wine lovers will also toast the invention which has led to the discovery of new land suitable for planting vines, leading to a boost in production for some growers. “It has led to the discovery of 20 percent more plots where very good wine can be produced,” said Douche. Oenoview, which counts several big wine-producing estates among its customers, earns just more than one euro cent per bottle of grand cru. Several cooperative wine producers also use the service, and share the cost.
Facebook buys social media start-up FriendFeed Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, said it will buy FriendFeed, netting a group of prized ex-Google engineers in the fast-growing Internet business. FriendFeed, an up-and-coming social media startup, lets people share content online in real time across various social networks and blogs. The service is similar to, though less popular than Twitter, the microblogging site that Facebook
tried to buy for $500 million in 2008, according to sources familiar with the matter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed on Monday, but Facebook said FriendFeed would operate as it has for the time being as the teams determine long-term plans. Facebook’s big gain in the acquisition is the engineering talent at FriendFeed, rather than the actual product, which has won critical praise, but lagged in popularity compared to Twitter, said Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang. “These guys know how to build
scalable, social applications,” said Owyang. In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he admired the FriendFeed team for having created a service he described as simple and elegant. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use,” said Zuckerberg. FriendFeed’s four founders are former Google Inc employees who count well known products like Gmail and Google Maps among their accomplishments.
AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO
An employee for Japan’s electronics giant Panasonic displays the company’s new Blu-ray disk/HDD recorder, called the “Diga DMRBW970”, equipped with the world’s largest capacity 2TB harddisk drive (HDD) enabling it to make a total of 1,440 hours of high-definition recording, at the company’s showroom in Tokyo on August 10, 2009. The model also features a 50GB capacity double layer Blu-ray disk drive which can record a 35-hour high-definition movie. Panasonic will put it on the market in September, 2009.
A model displays Japanese electronics giant Sony’s digital camera Cybershot DSC-TX1 at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on August 6, 2009. The camera which is equipped with a 10.2 mega-pixel Exmor R super-sensitive CMOS image sensor which Sony says can shoot in low light conditions, such as clear night scene, with low noise, and a 6.18 - 24.7mm/F3.5 4.6 zoom lens will hit the market next month. AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO
A model displays Japanese electronics giant Sony’s digital camera Cybershot DSC-WX1 at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on August 6, 2009. The camera which is equipped with a 10.2 mega-pixel Exmor R supersensitive CMOS image sensor which Sony says can shoot in low light conditions, such as clear night scene, with low noise, and a 4.25 - 21.25mm/ F2.4 - 5.9 zoom lens will hit the market next month.
AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO
14
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sport
International
News
International
Clijsters makes triumphant return
Obama slams Honduras critics at North America summit
Agence France Presse
CINCINNATI - Former world number one Kim Clijsters made a triumphant return to tennis on Monday, defeating France’s Marion Bartoli in straight sets in her first match in more than two years. Clijsters, who retired in May of 2007 and gave birth to a daughter in February of 2008, defeated 12thseeded Bartoli 6-4, 6-3. “I’m really excited playing my first match,” said Clijsters, 26, who received a wild card into the draw of the tournament which has been bumped up to WTA premier status. “I’ve been training since the start of February, and I’ve always been focused on Cincinnati. Winning my first match feels good.” The ebullient Belgian advanced to a second-round clash against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko. American Serena Williams, seeded second here behind world number one Dinara Safina, said she was impressed with Clijsters even before the Belgian hit a ball in anger. “I look like I had a kid more than she does,” Williams said in a meet the press session Monday. “She looks amazing.” Certainly Clijsters showed no sign of rust as she raced to a 4-0 lead, displaying a solid serve as well as the canny ground game that was her trademark. Clijsters, who held the world number one ranking for 19 weeks in 2003 and won the US Open in 2005, weathered the storm as Bartoli steadied to win four straight games, the Belgian putting away an opening set in which she notched 14 winners to Bartoli’s two. “I thought I started off really well,” Clijsters said. “Maybe I surprised myself a little bit with that start. I felt like my movement was good, but it could be better.”
In the second set, Clijsters fended off a break point in the fifth game to hold for a 4-1 lead, and she fought back from 0-40 down to serve out the match. Bartoli, who defeated Venus Williams to lift the title in Stanford on Sunday, admitted it was a tough first-round match-up. “It was very difficult to expect anything,” she said. “I haven’t seen her in two years. That’s the reason I didn’t start well. I was trying to figure out what she was doing instead of playing my game. “By the time I figured out her tactics, I was down 0-4. It’s just a really bad draw, I guess.” The return of Clijsters, who owns 34 career singles titles, was the highlight of the opening day of the two million-dollar tournament. But she wasn’t the only former world number one in action. Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic rallied after dropping the first set and shrugged off a rain delay of nearly two hours to beat American Melanie Oudin 2-6, 6-1, 6-1. Ninth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). German Anna-Lena Groenefeld downed France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, while Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3. Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko cruised past Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-2 to set-up a second-rounder with Serena Williams. The top eight seeds, including Safina, Serena and No. 3 Venus Williams and Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva all received first-round byes.
Agence France-Presse
AFP PHOTO/Pablo COZZAGLIO
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speaks to the press at the Swisshotel in Quito, Ecuador on August 9, 2009. AP Photo/Tony Tribble
Kim Clijsters, of Belgium, returns the ball to Marion Bartoli, of France, during the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament in Mason, Ohio, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009.
‘Cheetah Man’ Crawford looking to give Bolt a shock Agence France Presse
Gasol sidelines with broken finger for three weeks Agence France Presse
MADRID - Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol broke a finger of his left hand during a practice with the Spanish national team and will be sidelined for three weeks, Spain’s basketball federation said Tuesday. The 28-year-old forward suffered the injury when he attempted to block a shot during a practice on Monday and he was taken to a hospital in the southern city of Seville where he underwent surgery to treat ligament damage, it said in a statement.
“The player must wait between twelve and fourteen days for the removal of the stitches and a total of twenty with a splint on his finger. After those twenty days he can touch the ball with some form of protection,” it said. Gasol, who helped the Lakers win the NBA championship last season, is part of Spain coach Sergio Scariolo’s 12-man squad for the EuroBasket tournament which will take place from September 7-20 in Poland. World champions Spain were runners-up to Russia in the last Eurobasket finals held in Madrid in 2007.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Shawn Crawford
BERLIN - Shawn Crawford is one of the more colourful characters on the athletics circuit, but the man who glories in the nickname ‘Cheetah Man’ is hoping that he can upset the odds here and take the 200 metres title. If that sounds an unlikely scenario given the current form of Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay, his track record proves he is always up for a challenge. For the 31-year-old, 2004 Olympic 200m champion - a former training partner of disgraced sprinter Justin Gatlin - has previously raced a giraffe and a zebra in 2003. The giraffe came off second best but the zebra overcame a slow start to beat the extrovert American - however that did not deter him from believing he could have had the zebra’s stripes. “Tell the zebra I coulda whooped him,” he told ESPN the Magazine. Crawford, who has also stated he wants to run in war paint, having already worn a Phantom of the Opera mask at a meeting in Milan, has also shown that he is not all bluster and self-promotion. Having failed to defend his title successfully at last year’s Olympics, finishing a distant fourth behind Bolt he found himself promoted ultimately to second as compatriot Wallace Spearmon and Netherlands Antilles Churandy BP/ist Martina were disqualified.
Crawford, though, was plainly embarrassed and, in a sport not known for its humility, he handed the silver medal to Martina - who would have been the first ever Olympic medallist from the island. However, for Crawford it was important he did give Martina the medal. “I felt like it was a burden off my shoulders,” said Crawford at the US trials in late June. “I can’t do anything about that,” he said. “He (Martina) knows where my heart is.” Crawford showed he was in top form at the trials winning the 200 metres in style even if he was deprived of facing Gay, who automatically qualified for the world championships as defending champion. Crawford put the race down as one of the finest of his career as he timed a wind assisted 19.73 seconds. “That’s the fastest my body has ever moved in its lifetime, so I’m happy with that,” said Crawford, whose personal best with a legal wind is 19.79, recorded back in 2004, the year he won Olympic 200m gold. Crawford put down the improvement in his performance to celebrated coach Bobby Kersee. “We’ve been practising just driving the first 120 metres and let your body carry you the rest of the way,” said Crawford, who admitted he was a little sceptical. “I’ve been doubtful about doing it in my previous races. But I was like, in the final, what have I got to lose?” Exactly the sentiments he will have when he lines up he hopes in the world final alongside Gay and Bolt as nobody will be expecting ‘Cheetah Man’ to upset the formguide - apart from himself of course.
Chavez warns of ‘war’ over Colombia-US deal Agence France-Presse
QUITO - Leftist leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador thundered against a US military presence in Latin America on Monday, warning the “winds of war” were blowing across the increasingly polarized continent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led the charge, attacking Colombia’s decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Chavez’s Ecuadoran counterpart and ally Rafael Correa during the inauguration of his second term. Speaking in Quito at a regional summit, Chavez said he was fulfilling his “moral duty” by telling fellow leaders that the “winds of war were beginning to blow,” because of the July accord between Bogota and Washington. “This could generate a war in South America,” he told the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meet in the Ecuadoran capital. The heightened rhetoric came a day after Chavez accused Colombia’s leader Alvaro Uribe and the Colombian military of “provocations” by entering Venezuelan territory. Colombia’s foreign ministry denied the charge. Moderate Latin American countries, led by Brazil and Argentina, agreed in Quito to hold a summit, probably in Argentina later this month, to discuss the deal that has angered many in the region. They said Uribe, America’s main ally in the region, would be invited to explain his case. The Colombian
leader was not present at the UNASUR gathering because of ongoing tensions with Correa. Colombia raised concern throughout the region, which has a troubled history of US military interventions, when it announced a deal on July 15 to allow American forces to coordinate anti-drug operations from seven of its military bases. “I hope the installation of these bases... does not strengthen the warmongering policies of the (Colombian) government and the fight, not against drug trafficking, but against the insurgent governments of our America,” Correa said in his inaugural address. Ecuador recently refused to renew an agreement with Washington that saw the US military installed at the Manta Air Base on Ecuador’s Pacific coast. Chavez has led a diplomatic offensive against the Colombia-US agreement in recent weeks, saying he feared the move amounted to preparations for an invasion of his country by a “Yankee military force.” Colombia and the United States have insisted the bases are meant only to expand the US fight against drug trafficking in Colombia. “The Yankees are starting to command the Colombian armed forces;
they are the ones who are in charge, who are in charge of these provocations, who make up huge lies,” Chavez has charged. On Sunday he stepped up his accusation against Uribe, accusing the Colombian military of having entered Venezuelan territory, although he didn’t specify when. “We are not talking about a patrol with a few soldiers that strayed over a border” into Venezuela, Chavez said during his television show “Hello President.” “These troops crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and carried out an incursion into Venezuelan territory. When our troops got there, the Colombians had already gone away,” he said. In Bogota, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said the military had checked with the units in charge of guarding the border along the river in the provinces of Vichada and Guainia and that the Venezuelan accusations “are not true.” The new charges follow last month’s decision by Chavez to freeze relations with Colombia in response to accusations leveled by Bogota that Venezuela was supplying weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist guerrilla group.
GUADALAJARA - US President Barack Obama Monday accused critics of his response to the coup in Honduras of “hypocrisy” and agreed at a summit with Canada and Mexico to gird for a swine flu resurgence. In his debut “three amigos” summit, Obama also joined Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in pressing for urgent action on climate change and on unleashing economic recovery. Calderon meanwhile challenged critics of his drugs war against vicious cartels to prove rights abuses by Mexico’s armed forces went unpunished and won an endorsement of his military crackdown from his guests. Obama reaffirmed the US position that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was his country’s rightful leader, a day before a mediation mission by the Organization for American States (OAS) begins. He also assailed those who fault his approach. “The same critics who say the US has not intervened in Honduras are the same people who say we are always intervening and Yankees need to get out of Latin America,” he said, accusing such opponents of “hypocrisy.” “You can’t have it both ways,” he told reporters after the summit in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, adding that Washington had done everything it could since Zelaya was ousted in a coup in June. Harper rode to Obama’s defense in the open-air press briefing after a summit in an ornate former orphanage. “The United States is accused of meddling except when it’s accused of not meddling,” Harper said, praising the US “multilateral” role in efforts to reverse the coup and ease the Honduran crisis. Critics in Washington and elsewhere have complained that US policy is directed at reinstalling Zelaya’s left-wing government and brand the ousted leader a dictator who deserved to be toppled. On the opposite flank, others have claimed Washington has watered down its calls for Zelaya’s restoration. The three leaders also took steps to bolster defenses against an expected resurgence of (A)H1N1 swine flu in the Northern Hemisphere flu season. “We know that H1N1 will re-
3
turn in winter,” said Calderon. “We three countries are preparing to confront this virus responsibly and minimize its impact for our people.” In a declaration, the leaders promised to share information and expertise about the disease, but warned border closures would not stop its spread and could aggravate economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Most of the 1,008 world swine flu deaths have come in the WHO’s America’s region, encompassing North and South America and including Mexico and the United States, the countries where the virus first appeared. The threat of drugs crime, moving from a bloody epicenter in Mexico to the criminal underworld of Canada and Mexico, also preoccupied the leaders, and Calderon rebuked critics of his tactics. “In all cases, there’s a scrupulous effort to protect human rights. “Those who dispute that have to prove one case, a single case in which competent authorities have not responded to punish those legal authorities, police, soldiers or others,” Calderon said. Obama added: “I heartily complement President Calderon and his government for their determination and courage in taking on these cartels,” adding that his host had pledged to respect human rights in the war on drugs. Washington has pledged 1.4 billion dollars in aid to Mexico’s battle against the cartels, but 100 million dollars of the money has been delayed over criticism of Mexico’s record in Congress. All three leaders, under pressure over job cuts in the economic crisis, sought common remedies ahead of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh next month. “By working together, we will accelerate recovery and job creation, and build a strong base for long-term prosperity,” they said in a joint statement. But despite the warm feelings, there was little sign of progress on disputes like the row on US curbs on access to Mexican trucks, and fears by both Mexico and Canada of protectionist sentiment stalking Congress. In a separate declaration on climate change, the three leaders also promised “aggressive” action in the run-up to a UN conference on global warming later this year in Copenhagen and vowed to embrace low carbon technologies.
2
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
News WORLD NEWS
Iranian Nobel laureate calls for fresh election under UN Agence France-Presse
SEOUL - Iranian Nobel peace prizewinner Shirin Ebadi called Tuesday for a fresh election under UN surveillance to end violence in her country and urged UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon to visit Tehran.
Dmitry Medvedev MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lashes out at Ukraine’s leadership on an array of grievances, accused the country of endangering European gas supplies and says Russia won’t send a new ambassador until relations improve.
Merchant of death BANGKOK - A Thai court rejects a U.S. request to extradite a Russian arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death” to face terrorism charges.
Activist abducted MOSCOW - The kidnapped head of a Chechen aid group and her husband are found dead in the trunk of their car a day after being kidnapped. Source: ap
AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man
Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi answers a reporter’s questions during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. Nobel laureate Ebadi on Sunday urged Iran’s government to release detained activists and citizens accused of involvement in the country’s postelection unrest, saying the president must “listen to the people’s voice.”
Ebadi, a lawyer and human rights defender who won the prize in 2003, said Ban must gather first-hand information on human rights conditions before drawing up a United Nations report on Iran due in December. “In order to have fair election results, there must be a re-election under UN surveillance,” she told journalists during her visit to South Korea. “I plead with the UN secretary general to come to Iran. He must see what’s happening in Iran with his own eyes and talk to Iranians in order to write an accurate and truthful report,” she said through an interpreter. Ebadi denounced Tehran for using violence against citizens who protested at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in a June 12 poll that sparked weeks of unrest. She urged Tehran to stop using violence against peaceful protesters, halt the “show trials” of political opponents, release detainees, end censorship and compensate victims of government violence. Many Iranians had begun employing new tactics to continue protests while avoiding arrest, she said. In one instance mothers of demonstrators who were killed or arrested wear black and gather in public parks on Saturday nights for silent protests, carrying pictures of their children, she said.
“I ask mothers in Korea and other countries to do the same so that Iranian mothers can be aware that they are not alone,” she said. In another new form of protest, many Iranians shout “God is great” through their windows at night. Ebadi called for international pressure on Tehran to stop violence but made it clear she opposes economic sanctions or military intervention. “Economic sanctions would only aggravate the people’s hardship,” she said. “It’s much more important for the international community to share in Iranians’ pain rather than to impose economic sanctions on them.” Ebadi arrived Saturday for a sixday trip to receive this year’s Manhae Peace Prize named after a 20th century Korean Buddhist reformer. At least 20 people have died in clashes with security forces in Iran. About 2,000 opposition supporters were arrested in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad’s victory. Most have been released but around 200 remain behind bars. At least 110 have also been put on trial. Ebadi said the government had abused the spirit of Islam by abusing human rights. “Islam and human rights go handin-hand. Undemocratic governments are smearing the good name of Islam,” she said.
Sweden’s Princess Madeleine to marry: palace Agence France-Presse
STOCKHOLM - Sweden’s Princess Madeleine, the youngest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, is engaged to marry her boyfriend, the Swedish royal palace said on Tuesday.
“Today, Tuesday 11 August 2009, the engagement between Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine and Mr. Jonas Bergstroem was announced,” the palace said in a short statement. The palace announced the nuptials after the king received approval
from the Swedish government, according to procedures set out in the constitution. No date has yet been set for the wedding, the royal palace said. Princess Madeleine, 27, has two older siblings, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Carl Philip, making her
third in line to the Swedish throne. Princess Victoria, 31, announced her own engagement on February 24. She will wed 35-year-old Daniel Westling, who owns several luxury fitness centres in Stockholm, in June next year.
z Founder : K.Nadha, z Chief Editor: ABG Satria Naradha z Managing Editor: Wirata z Editors: Alit Purnata, Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Darmasunu, Daniel Fajry, Diah Dewi, Iwan Darmawan, Martinaya, Mawa, Palgunadi, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Sutiawan, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Mas Ruscitadewi, Oka Rusmini, Umbu Landu Paranggi, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Gregorius Rusmanda, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bali Putra Ariawan, Tabanan: Surpi. Jakarta: Nikson, Suharto Olii, Indu P. Adi, Ahmadi Supriyanto, Achmad Nasrudin, Hardianto, Darmawan S. Sumardjo, Heru B Arifin, Asep Djamaluddin, Ade Irawan, Ipik Tanoyo. NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani, Nur Haedin, Suyadnya. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. z Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. z Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publiser: PT Bali Post
Sport
International
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
15
Argentina face Russian test ahead of Brazil qualifier Agence France Presse
MOSCOW - Two-time world champions Argentina will test their skills and physical condition ahead of a crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier with Brazil in a friendly match with the hosts Russia here on Wednesday. Russia, who reached the semifinals at the last year’s European championships in Austria and Switzerland, have never met Argentina before, but the South Americans have a winning record in their previous matches with the Soviet national side. Argentina secured three wins, including the teams’ only meeting at the World Cup (2-0 in 1990), and suffered two defeats at the hands of the Soviet squad. Six matches ended a draw. Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona said earlier this month that he was not happy with the decision to play a friendly in Moscow, calling the match useless and illtimed. “We need to concentrate completely on the preparations for the
crucial qualifier with Brazil, while this match would hardly help us to prepare for it the best way,” the press quoted Maradona as saying. “I don’t like the idea of playing in Moscow ahead of the match with Brazil.” In Wednesday’s match Argentina will be without three of their stars as defender Martin Demichelis, midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron and striker Carlos Tevez were all on the injured list. Russia’s Dutch manager Guus Hiddink will also be without Spartak Moscow midfielder Vladimir Bystrov, who was sidelined with a thigh injury and Chelsea winger Yury Zhirkov, who has still failed to overcome his knee injury. Hiddink said he was happy with a chance to test his team in the match against strong opponents ahead of
the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with Liechtenstein and Wales next month. “For me every match my team plays is very important even if it’s a friendly game,” Hiddink said. “And I expect an interesting rivalry between two strong opponents on Wednesday.”
Brazil’s soccer team midfielder Kaka enters a hotel in the Estonian capital Tallinn, Monday, Aug. 10, 2009, as he arrives with other members of the national team. The Brazil soccer team, record five-time World Cup winners, are arriving in Estonia to play a friendly soccer match against Estonia, on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
Lampard gearing up for trophy haul Agence France Presse
LONDON - Frank Lampard is gearing himself up for one of the biggest seasons of his career and is determined to win major silverware for both club and country. Lampard believes Chelsea can mount a serious challenge for the title again and still dreams of helping his side win the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. Chelsea signalled their intentions by beating Manchester United in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday and have been able to keep their big name players at the club. With former AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti taking over the managerial helm at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea midfielder feels his side will not stand a better chance of challenging the big boys once again. Lampard is also thinking about the World Cup in South Africa next summer and feels the time has come for England to finally deliver and win their first major trophy since 1966. When asked if this was the biggest year of his career, Lampard said: “I think it will be for every player in the squad. Hopefully I’ve got a very positive season with Chelsea, a lot of things to win back and to win. “I’ve got a real strong desire to win the league back this year and I think that’s something that flows throughout the team. “I’ve spoken to John Terry, Ashley Cole and the other players. There was nothing better than to win
AP Photo/NIPA, Timur Nisametdinov
Capello’s England start World Cup countdown in Holland Agence France Presse
AP Photo/Akira Suemori
Chelsea’s John Terry, center, lifts the trophy with Frank Lampard, right, and Didier Drogba after Chelsea won the English FA Community Shield soccer match against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. the league and know that we were the best team in England so I’d love to do that first and foremost. “I’ve dreamt about the Champions League probably because I’ve sniffed it six times in the last six years. It keeps recurring in your head and you wake up in sweats. “Then with England it’s about qualifying - it’s all up for grabs this year. In a World Cup year, this was always going to be the big one to try to make an imprint as individuals and as a team. “You only have to look at how highly regarded the 1966 team are and rightly so having been the only England team to win the World Cup. “We want to go and win the World Cup as individuals and as a team but there are many great players who haven’t won a World Cup.
I grew up watching them. Winning the World Cup would be a great history making achievement.” Lampard knows more than anyone the disappointment of England failing to produce their best form when it comes to a major tournament. After being beaten on penalties by Portugal in the World Cup quarter-finals in 2006, Lampard admits the players are still deeply hurt by their failure to reach the European Championships last summer. Lampard added: “It’s the worst feeling in football when you’ve been on a run. “Even in the Euros when I thought we had a strong momentum to go and win the championships and then you’re out in a second. Nobody forgets that feeling and nobody wants it to happen again.”
AMSTERDAM - Fabio Capello expects England to start their countdown to the World Cup by vindicating his decision to leave Michael Owen out of the squad for Wednesday’s friendly against Holland. With the start of the Premier League campaign coming just three days after England’s trip to Amsterdam, it would be understandable if Capello’s players weren’t fully focused on their international commitments. But the England coach has just 10 months to prepare for next year’s World Cup in South Africa and every minute with his squad is vital. After winning all seven of their World Cup qualifiers, England can clinch their place at the finals with a victory over Croatia at Wembley on September 9, so the Holland match is anything but a meaningless friendly to Capello. The Italian will use the clash at Ajax’s Amsterdam Arena to test his belief that Emile Heskey is the perfect partner for Wayne Rooney, while continuing the development of Steven Gerrard’s role on the left wing. Capello will also run the rule over his reserve goalkeepers in the absence of injured first choice David James. Frank Lampard, a key member
of Capello’s midfield, has no doubt that the fixture can play a significant part in England’s preparations for the final stages of their qualifying campaign and also the World Cup itself. “It’s important for us and our manager to see where the players are,” Lampard said. “You never know who’s fit, so it’s nice to have a gathering with the big games coming next month. “It would be great to have a good performance and to win as well, but the performance is what you want to take into the qualifiers.” Capello has been able to use England’s friendly matches to decide that the best way to allow Manchester United forward Rooney to thrive is to pair him with a more imposing targetman such as Aston Villa’s Heskey. Rooney’s form over the last year suggests Capello is right and the Italian shows no signs of changing his mind about casting Owen into international exile. Owen’s poor finishing in United’s recent friendly against Valencia did little to change Capello’s feeling that the former Liverpool player’s star is waning. Yet Jermain Defoe and Carlton Cole, the forwards picked ahead of Owen, have done little in an England shirt to suggest they could change the course of a World Cup match.
16
Sport
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
‘fully fit’ Neck injury wrecks Lorenzo after summer break Schumacher comeback
Agence France Presse
BERLIN - Former world champion Michael Schumacher has abandoned plans to return to Formula One racing at the European Grand Prix in Valencia on August 23 due to a neck injury, he announced on his website on Tuesday. The 40-year-old German, who won the world title seven times before retiring in 2006, had been primed to replace the injured Felipe Massa in the Ferrari team for the race in Spain and possibily for the rest of the season. But he injured his neck in a motorcycle accident in February and medical tests showed that he had yet to fully recover. “Yesterday evening, I had to inform Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and Team Principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I’m not able to step in for Felipe,” Schumacher said on his website. “I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn’t work out. “Unfortunately we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in the neck which occurred after the private F1-day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible. The door for a sensational Schumacher comeback to the sport he dominated for so long was opened when Brazilian Massa sustained serious head injuries during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on July 25. That looked certain to rule him out for the rest of the season and the Italian team immediately turned toward their former top driver to step in. His planned comeback to racing added more spice to what has already been a dramatic season, but was not welcomed by all, especially Formula One rivals Williams, who invoked rules and regulations to block his testing Ferrari’s current car ahead of Valencia. That would have left him desparately short of practice for the race, but as it turned out it was physical more than mechanical reasons that spoiled his return. “The consequences of the injuries caused by the bike-accident in February, fractures in the area of head and neck, unfortunately have turned out to be still too severe,” he said. “That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula 1 yet. I am disappointed to the core. “I am awfully sorry for the guys of Ferrari and for all the fans which crossed fingers for me. I can only repeat that I tried everything that was within my power. All I can do now is to keep my fingers crossed for the whole team for the coming races.” Ferrari announced that the team’s test driver Luca Badoer would take the place of Schumacher replacing
Massa for the European Grand Prix. The 38-year-old Italian has competed in five Grands Prix during his career, the last being in 1999. Team boss Luca di Montezemolo said he was disappointed that Schumacher had been forced to pull out of the race in Valencia as he had already shown his enthusiasm and dedication to winning were intact.
Spain - Jorge Lorenzo says the three-week summer break has given him time to fully recover from the shoulder and foot injuries he has been carrying since Laguna Seca last month. The Yamaha rider finished on the podium at Laguna and the Sachsenring before crashing out of the lead at Donington Park last time out. But he says the time off has allowed his collar bone and foot to heal and expects to be 100 per cent fit for the Czech race at Brno this weekend. “I’m really excited about this race after what feels like a long time without one,” said Lorenzo. “It was good to have a bit of a break and I used the time to work on my fitness and to completely recover from the injuries I had after Laguna, in the gym and with my physiotherapist.
16 Pages Number 434 1st Year e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com. Price: Rp 3.000,-
Chavez warns of ‘war’ over Colombia-US deal
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
PAGE 3
“The result is that I feel much better than I did in Germany and England and I’m excited to be getting back on the bike. “I like Brno and I have had good results in the past there, including three wins. This time my aim is to fight hard and get back on the podium.”
Jorge Lorenzo BP/doc
Nusa Dua – The participants watching the pictures regarding HIV/AIDS in Asia Pacific Village Exhibition. The event was held during the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Nusa Dua on Monday, August 10th 2009. The congress is being held to discuss and spread the knowledge, programs, and policies in the global responds on HIV/ AIDS.
Most drug-resistant TB cases go untested PAGE 9
50 million Asian women at risk of HIV infection: UNAIDS ANTARA/Nyoman Budhiana/Koz/nz/09
This is It’: Jackson film out in October PAGE 12
Agence France-Presse
NUSA DUA - More than 1.5 million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their husbands or boyfriends and 50 million more are at risk of infection, according to a report released Tuesday. The “HIV Transmission in Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia” report by UNAIDS said the women at risk are either married or in longterm relationships with men who engage in “high-risk sexual behaviours.” “That is, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, the clients of sex workers,” UNAIDS regional
AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, FILES
FILE — In this file photo taken Monday, Jan. 26, 2004, Ferrari Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany, right, and test driver Luca Badoer joke at a photo session, during the presentation of the new Formula 1 F2004 racing car in Maranello, Italy.
WEATHER FORECAST CITY
TEMPERATURE OC
DENPASAR
21 - 31
JAKARTA
24 - 32
BANDUNG
19 - 30
YOGYAKARTA
22 - 31
SURABAYA
23 - 34
SUNNY
BRIGHT/CLOUDY
RAIN
HOTLINE For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni
0361-225764
director Prasada Rao said. “(It’s) a problem of great magnitude that the countries have largely ignored (and) a challenge that we may no longer ignore,” Rao told reporters on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which is being held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Continued on page 6
Strong quake hits central Japan, more than 100 injured Agence France-Presse
YAIZU - A strong earthquake rocked central Japan on Tuesday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering a landslide and shutting down a nuclear power plant and bullet trains, officials said. The magnitude 6.4 tremor shook buildings, threw objects from shelves and jolted people from their sleep in and around To-
kyo, the world’s largest urban area, at 5:07 am (2007 GMT Monday). The quake hit in Suruga Bay on the Pacific Ocean coast, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) southwest of Tokyo, at a depth of 27 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. At least 101 people were injured, mostly by falling objects such as television sets, in the worst-hit pre-
fecture of Shizuoka, including three who were in serious condition, officials said. Seven more people were injured in Tokyo and in Kanagawa and Aichi prefectures, said the National Police Agency. “It was a huge tremble, like nothing I had experienced before,” said Tadao Negami, a 69-year-old resident of Mishima city in Shizuoka. The Hamaoka nuclear plant in the prefecture automatically shut
down two reactors when the quake hit, operator Chubu Electric Power Co. said. A company official said no radiation had leaked from the plant. The utility said the quake caused power failures in some 9,500 households. Central Japan Railway Co. suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the quake-hit region but resumed the services several hours later. Continued on page 6