At least seven people were known to have died -- including two who police said blew themselves up in the area which is also overlooked by United Nations offices, in what the country’s president dubbed “acts of terror”.

An unknown number of gunmen were involved in the blasts, includ-ing at a police post that left four mangled bodies lying in the road.

“Five terrorists are dead,” Se-

curity Minister Luhut Panjaitan told reporters. He said that one Indonesian and one Dutch citizen had died, but the Dutch embassy said only that one of its nationals was wounded and being treated in hospital.

While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, they have revived fears that home-grown extremists bloodied on the battlefields of the Middle East with

the Islamic State group could have brought their jihad home.

Indonesia suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 strike on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

A security crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks, leading to a long lull in large-scale strikes.

But the European-based Soufan Group says that of the 500-700 In-donesians who travelled abroad to join the self-proclaimed caliphate of the IS, scores have since returned.

“We know that ISIS has the

desire to declare a province in this region,” said Kumar Ramakrishna, a counter-terrorism analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“The threat of returning South-east Asian fighters radicalised in the Iraq/Syria region are also another factor of concern, together with the possibility of self-radicalised lone wolves appearing in the scene.”

Witnesses to the carnage on Thursday said a powerful explosion ripped through a branch of US cof-fee giant Starbucks before at least one gunman emerged and began shooting at bystanders, reloading

his weapon as police flooded the streets.

In chaotic scenes, security forces moved in behind the cover of mov-ing vehicles, with regular bursts of gunfire and warnings of a sniper in the area. (afp)

Page 6

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Friday, January 15, 2016

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

London police increase number of officers who are armed

Page 8 Page 13

Zinedine Zidane looks to keep Real Madrid on a roll

Palestinian refugee driven into new exile by IS

Friday, January 15, 2016

PASADENA - Jennifer Lopez and America Ferrera agree: Televi-sion is embracing diversity, finally. “It’s been coming for many years,” Lopez, promoting her new NBC police drama “Shades of Blue,” told a TV critics’ meeting Wednesday. “There’s no denying what society is right now. It’s not just race, it’s gender, it’s all kind of diversity be-ing showcased.”

She cited the ethnically diverse cast of producer Shonda Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy,” the ABC drama that debuted in 2005, as the “turn-ing point.”

“There’s no getting away from it anymore,” Lopez said.

Ferrera, who stars in NBC’s freshman comedy “Superstore,” lauded the inclusiveness of her show in particular and NBC in general.

“This is the first time I’ve been offered a role that wasn’t written” for a Latino, the former “Ugly Betty” star said at a separate Q&A session with reporters.

She was struck by the fact that the pilot script for “Superstore”

didn’t specify races for the series’ other characters as well, she said. Her co-stars include Nico Santos, a native of the Philippines, and Colton Dunn, who is African-American.

Ferrera also praised NBC’s new trio of Latina-led shows — hers, Lopez’s and Eva Longoria’s “Tele-novela” — as “ground-breaking and history.”

Perhaps it will encourage other broadcasters to “enrich their story-telling by reflecting the world we live,” she said.

Her castmate, Canadian native Mark McKinney, couldn’t resist adding a punchline. He said he applauded NBC and producers for “taking the great step of casting two Canadians,” indicating co-star Lauren Ash.

Speaking to reporters later, Longoria said diversity needs to extend to those in decision-making jobs.

“There’s a lot to be done to have more diversity in front of the camera, but it starts behind the camera.” (ap)

The British rock legend’s death on Sunday at age 69 after an un-disclosed battle with cancer has triggered an outpouring of grief from fans and leading artists, many of whom cite him as a towering influence.

“He was one of the geniuses in the music industry, one of the great singer-songwriters of the 20th century,” Madonna told the audi-

ence at her concert Tuesday night in Houston, according to a video posted online.

Madonna, known for her elabo-rate show routines and expansive sense of sexuality, said that she saw Bowie in Detroit when she was growing up in Michigan and “he changed my life.”

“He showed me that it was okay to be different,” she said.

“He was the first ‘Rebel Heart’ I laid eyes on,” said the pop superstar, referring to the title of her latest album.

With a slideshow of Bowie images on the screen behind her, Madonna sang an energetic cover of his “Rebel Rebel,” throwing down her skirt to prance across the stage in bright purple and red shorts.

Elton John offered a more se-dated cover as he taped an appear-ance on the Sirius XM satellite radio station in Los Angeles.

As his band was still setting up, John spontaneously sang and played piano to “Space Oddity,” Bowie’s early hit with the probing opening lines, “Ground control to Major Tom.”

“We don’t have to say anything about the music: It speaks for itself. He was innovative, he was boundary-changing, and he danced to his own tune -- which in any artist is really rare,” John said, as quoted by Billboard magazine.

John applauded Bowie for keep-ing his illness quiet in an age of 24-hour social media.

“We know David Bowie the figure, the singer, the outrageous performer, but actually, we don’t know anything about him -- and that’s the way it should be in music and should be in any art form what-soever,” he said.

Among other tributes, Britt Daniel, lead singer of indie rock-ers Spoon, posted on Facebook an acoustic cover of Bowie’s “Never Let Me Down” recorded after his death.

“No other artist has meant as much to me personally or inspired my own songs as much,” Daniel wrote.

“What a spirit. What an inspira-tion. What a shining example of the beauty that humanity can create.” (afp)

Madonna, Elton John honor Bowie with covers

NEW YORK - David Bowie’s music has returned to stage after his death, with stars including Madonna and Elton John dedicat-ing emotional tributes to the legend -- by singing his songs.

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Jennifer Lopez

Lopez, Ferrera agree: TV finally embracing diversity

THE DEADLY attacks Thursday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, were not a complete surprise to Indonesian authorities, who warned last month of a credible threat.

The government had deployed 150,000 security personnel to safeguard churches,

airports and other public places across the predominantly Muslim nation, and made a series of pre-emptive arrests. A series of arrests accompanied the warnings, as Indone-sian police said they foiled a plot by suspected Muslim militants to kill government officials, law enforcement officers and others.

The heightened security extended through Christmas and New Year’s before ending Jan. 6.

It’s unclear whether Thursday’s attacks are related to the earlier reported threat. No one has claimed responsi-bility.

Authorities have been keenly aware of the danger of terrorism since bombings in 2002 on the resort island of Bali killed more than 200 people, over half of them foreign tourists.

Continue to page 2Blamed ...

AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

Indonesian soldiers man an armored vehicle as they guard near the site where an attack occurred in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bus-tling shopping area in Indonesia’s capital and waged gunbattles with police Thursday, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise windows.

Seven dead as suicide attackers hit Indonesian capital

JAKARTA - Suicide attackers struck the Indonesian capital Thursday, with a series of explosions and gunfire that tore through a Starbucks cafe and shook an embassy district in the Muslim-majority nation.

Islamist radicals have been blamed for a number of attacks around the country since the Bali bombings, which were attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qai-da-linked Southeast Asian group.

However, Jakarta had not been targeted since the bombings in 2009 of two American-managed hotels that killed at least eight people.

The recent growth of the Islamic State group, and fears that Indonesians who joined the group’s fighting in Syria could bring their struggle home,

have sharpened concerns about security.

Luhut Pandjaitan, a Cabinet minister in charge of security and political affairs, said in De-cember that the government had received serious intelligence about the possibility of attacks during the Christmas-New Year’s period. National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti sounded a similar warning.

Anti-terror police had ar-rested nine men in five cities on Indonesia’s main island of Java, and Badrodin said intelligence gleaned from the suspects and evidence seized from their hide-outs revealed an elaborate plot to kill police, government of-ficials, Shiite followers and oth-ers considered to be enemies of their faith. The vast majority of Indonesia’s more than 200 mil-lion Muslims follow the Sunni brand of Islam.

National police spokesman Maj. Gen. Anton Charliyan said the group collaborated with Indonesia militants who had fought for IS in Syria. “They

want to perform a ‘concert’ to attract international news cover-age of their existence here,” he said, explaining that references in document seized in the raids using the term ‘concert’ referred to planned attacks.

Anton said police have identi-fied about 240 people who have returned home out of at least 800 Indonesians who have traveled to the Middle East to join Islamic State.

At the same time, about 1,300 security personnel are hunt-ing for Santoso, the leader of a militant group known as the East Indonesia Mujahidin. He has taken responsibility for the killing of several police officers and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Cabinet minister Luhut said.

Santoso also faces charges of running an extremist training camp in Poso, a flashpoint of terrorism in Central Sulawesi where a Muslim-Christian con-flict killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002. (ap)

International2 15International Activities

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Friday, January 15, 2016Friday, January 15, 2016

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

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

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

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

Balinese Temple Ceremony

COVER STORYFrom page 1Blamed ...

AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

Police officers examine debris at the site where an explo-sion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bustling shopping area of downtown Jakarta and waged gun-battles with police Thursday, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise windows.

The perpetrator, who carried out the shooting, was a man wear-ing a short-sleeved shirt, while the others wore long-sleeved shirts and entered the cafe that was targeted in the bomb attack.

At first, Ruli thought that the shock wave he felt from the ex-plosion was that of an earthquake, but after going downstairs, he witnessed the blast and a person being thrown out of the cafe due to the impact of the explosion.

Another witness said there were three suicide bombers who blew themselves up near a police check post at the Jakarta Theatre Building on the M.H. Thamrin Boulevard.

Tri Feranto, an eye witness who is a security officer at Mandi-ri Bank, claimed that the first and second explosions occurred at

the Starbucks cafe at 10:35 a.m. local time.

The third explosion at a police check post was carried out by the three suicide bombers, in which a policeman was injured.

After the third explosion, a series of shootings took place that targeted the police, and two officers were injured during the gunfight.

Feranto claimed to have seen the face of the perpetrator who passed in front of him.

“He looked like an immigrant having dark skin, was not too tall, and still young,” he explained.

Press attache of the French Cultural Agency (IFI) Dwi Set-yowati whose office is near the bombing sites pointed out that he heard five explosions and gunshots.

“All staff members at the IFI

and French Embassy are pro-hibited from going outside right now,” she added.

The buildings and shops along

the Thamrin Boulevard have been cordoned off. Some helicopters are conducting aerial monitoring of the situation. (ant)

December, 2000: Improvised bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches and clergymen kill 19 people and injure scores more across Indonesia. October, 2002: Bombs at crowd-

ed nightspots in the resort island of Bali kill 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Indonesia’s worst ever terror attack. September, 2004: A suicide car

bomb kills 10 outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. May, 2005: Twin bomb blasts kill

22 in a market in the Central Sulawesi town of Tentena in an attack bearing the hallmarks of JI. October, 2008: Three suicide

bombers detonate explosives at tourist spots on Bali, killing 20. November, 2008: Imam Samudra,

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron are executed for helping plan the 2002 Bali bombings and channeling funds for the attack. July, 2009: Seven people are

killed, six of them foreigners, and more than 40 injured when suicide bombers target the luxury Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta. August and September, 2009:

Police kill Noordin Mohammed Top, a Malaysian suspected of orchestrat-ing the Bali bombings, during a Java raid. Three of his associates are also killed as police uncover an alleged plot to use a truck bomb to assas-sinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. June, 2011: Abu Bakar Bashir,

a spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia and a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, is jailed for 15 years for funding a terrorist group. June, 2013: Badri Hartono, leader

of a group called Al-Qaeda Indonesia, is jailed for 10 years for recruiting people to militant training camps. December, 2014: Police arrest six

people they say were attempting to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State group. In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians were estimated to have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Islamic State militants. November and December, 2015:

Indonesia increases security at airports following a threat directed at one of the airports serving Jakarta. Police foil terror plots being planned by several groups, including a plan to launch a suicide attack on New Year. Experts say two of the groups were linked to IS. (afp)

Timeline of Islamist attacks

in Indonesia

Perpetrators of Jakarta bombings carried firearms

AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim

Police officers examine a police post where an explosion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. The perpetrators behind the bomb blasts at the police check post and Starbucks cafe near the Sarinah departmental store at the Thamrin Boulevard in Central Jakarta were reportedly unmasked and carrying firearms.

JIMBArAN - For Italians, food isn’t just nourishment, it is life. The Italian food culture is all about joy, family and tradition. Grandma’s and Mama’s recipes are passed on with care and pride, each one a symbol of a family’s heritage and roots. Family gatherings are frequent and always centred around food and home cook-ing. Enjoying a meal with the family is the main ingredient of any Italian dish.

At Bella Cucina, they are pleased to introduce cena di familia, representing the importance of spending time with the family and enjoying traditional home-cooked dishes: “Just like Mama used to make.”

The meal will begin with a large sharing platter placed in the middle of the table and filled with cold cuts, marinated vegetables, olives, rustic country breads and a selection of Ital-ian cheeses.

The Primo course will be prepared live by our chef at the table and will

include an impressive choice of home-made pastas with a tasty selection of sauces. It will also include a very important highlight of the event, for which our chef will be reinventing the wheel by scooping out a hollow within a large wheel of Parmesan cheese to create a shallow bowl for blending and mixing his delicious risotto, which will be further enhanced by the rich flavour of the cheese. This is a first for Bali and a “must try.”

For the main course, diners will be able to select their preferences from our special à la carte menu, which will accompanied by a sharing platter of garnishes that typify the rustic Ital-ian countryside style of cooking. The platter will be placed in the centre of the table, just like Mama would have done at home.

Finally, for those with a sweet tooth, our chefs will set up a whole table of desserts, tempting everyone with a wide range of wicked delights to end the cena di familia or family dinner.

THE PErPETrATOrS behind the bomb blasts at the police check post and Starbucks cafe near the Sarinah departmental store at the Thamrin Boulevard in Central Jakarta were reportedly unmasked and carrying firearms. “They were still young and were carrying FN pistols and backpacks,” a witness named ruli stated on Thursday before being evacuated from the scene.

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

Cena di familia

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

14 InternationalFashionFriday, January 15, 2016 3International Bali News Friday, January 15, 2016

LOS ANGELES — Move over New York City, Paris and Milan, there’s a new fashioni-sta on the rise: Los Angeles. Stella McCartney made a glitzy, star-studded Hollywood debut Tuesday. The British de-signer followed on the heels of brands like Burberry and Tom Ford who recently brought their runway shows to the West Coast.

“It just really felt like the time to have it in L.A.,” said McCartney, who has previously presented in New York and London. “It’s such a great place for music, for fashion, for film, for entertainment, for the arts, and it just felt like the right time and the right city.”

Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hud-son, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom and Demi Lovato were among the guests at the presentation held at the record store, Amoeba Music.

“It’s a movement! I love it!” said celebrity stylist and designer Rachel Zoe. “I do think designers have really fallen in love with L.A. ... I think everyone’s figuring out this is the best place to live and the best place to be and that there’s a huge market out here and a huge client base.”

McCartney’s pre-fall collection included silky dresses, oversized coats and cozy knitwear in playful patterns and animal prints.

Loose-fitting trousers and blous-es had blue and gold diagonal stripes or geometric color-blocking, and feminine floral dresses were layered under colorful tulle.

“The collection is very much about celebrating the rejuvenation of a woman’s wardrobe,” said the designer and daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney. “Looking at pieces that go from day to eve-ning. ... Lots of prints, lots of cats, lots of leopard.”

Models danced on platforms and played arcade games before performances by Brian Wilson, Pink and Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson.

“I think it’s a great,” said “Mad Men” actress Kiernan Shipka. “L.A. is a really, really cool town and I love that Stella knows how to throw party.” (ap)

“We remain wary of Gafatar in our efforts to avoid untoward inci-dents from occurring in Bali and Nusa Tenggara,” Udayana Military Command spokesman Lieutenant Colonel (inf) Hotman Hutahaean

remarked on Wednesday.Hutahaean affirmed that they

will continue to remain vigilant as the TNI had indicated the spread of the organization in the areas of Bali and Nusa Tenggara.

However, he did not reveal de-tails regarding the region where the organization is still operating.

Hutahaean stated that the Udaya-na Military Command was intensi-fying its efforts due to the existence of the organization, founded in 2012, including the activities of its members.

“We have yet to arrive at a conclusion. We are still studying

and learning about the extent of its activities,” he affirmed.

Muhammadiyah Amin, secre-tary of the Directorate General of Islamic Guidance at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, remarked in Jakarta on Wednesday that the teachings of Gafatar are misguid-ing and misleading, and therefore, Muslims must be wary of its movement.

Amin noted that Gafatar was not registered at the Ministry of Reli-gious Affairs, and thus, he was not in a position to stop the activities of the organization.

He further acknowledged that the negative impact of Gafatar’s activities were already being felt by the public after members of several families recently went miss-ing. (ant)

DENPASAR - The nation’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has opened a new route to China between Bali’s Denpasar and Shanghai starting on Wednesday.

Earlier Garuda already had regu-lar flights between Denpasar and Beijing and between Denpasar and Guangzhou.

Commercial Director of Garuda Indonesia, Handayani, said in a statement on Thursday China has been one of the focuses for interna-tional flights of the airline aiming to facilitate tourists from the world’s most populous country.

China is one of the most po-

tential tourism markets in the world with around 100 million Chinese traveling abroad every year.

The number of Chinese visi-tors to Indonesia has increased from year to year - up 25 percent on year in the first eight months of 2015.

“Chinese are the second largest in number after Australians visiting Bali every year. Certainly China is a potential market for Garuda,” Handayani said.

Garuda Indonesia serves the Denpasar - Shanghai route three times a week round trips every

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday using A330-300 aircraft with a seat capacity of b360 passengers. The first flight by GA 858 took off at 16.15 local time from Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport and arrived in Shanghai at 23.30 local time on Wednesday. Meanwhile, GA 859 took off from Shanghai at 01.00 and landed at Denpasar at 08.35 local time on Thursday.

The opening of the new route is expected to contribute to reaching the country’s target of increasing the number of foreign tourists to 12 million in 2016 and 20 million in 2020.

From Denpasar as a hub of Garuda Indonesia, foreign tour-ists could proceed to other tourist destinations in the country such as Lombok, Makassar, Menado, Labuan Bajo, and Yogyakarta, Handayani said.

Including from Jakarta, Garuda serves 10 direct flights per week from Indonesia to Shanghai.

Altogether Garuda serves 26 flights from Indonesia to China a week with the three destinations; Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, via Jakarta and Denpasar.

In the flights to the Chinese cit-ies, Garuda uses Chinese nationals

as cabin crew to make it easier in communications with Chinese pas-sengers.

Garuda also plans to serve char-ter flights from Chinese cities like Chengdu, Chong Qin, Hefei, Kunming, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Tianjing, Taiyuan, and Xian to Indonesia in January and March, 2016.

In February, 2015, and July in the same year, Garuda Indonesia already opened charter flights from Chengdu, Chong Qin, Ningbo, Kunming, Junan, Harbin, Xian, Shenyang dan Chengzhou to Den-pasar and Manado. (ant)

Stella McCartney on trend withstar-studded

Hollywood soiree

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Gwyneth Paltrow, left, and Stella McCartneyRich Fury/Invision/AP

Demi Lovato

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Kelly OsbourneRich Fury/Invision/AP

Katy Perry

Bali on guard against “Gafatar”DENPASAR - The Udayana Military Command in the Indo-

nesian island resort of Bali is on guard against the Nusantara Daybreak Movement (Gafatar), a banned mass organization whose teachings are considered misleading.

Garuda opens another flight route to China

IBP/File Photo

The nation’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has opened a new route to China between Bali’s Denpasar and Shanghai starting on Wednesday.

AMLAPURA - Many hectares of paddy fields at Asak, Timbrah and surrounding area are cracked from dryness. Local Timrah village farmer, Ni Nengah Arti, explained

than as she plowed her field last week, the soil was just barely wet, but that with the help of a tractor she was still able to plant her paddy seedlings.

Unfortunately just one week after planting them, water from the irrigation channels stopped flowing altogether so her seedling shrivelled up, and soil turned pale

and cracked. In the past, the seventh month of

the Balinese calendar (January) was always the peak of the rainy season with an abundance of water. How-

ever due to climate change, it has hardly rained at all in Karagasem over the past few weeks. People are sweltering under the heat of the sun and may people suspect that the clouds are being blasted with laser beams to prevent it from raining on building projects. This obvisouly outrages many people.

Ni Made Arti, fears that paddy fields owned by Asak custom-ary village will continue to be drought stricken causing ongoing crop failure. According to subak authorities the water discharge from the local springs is very low, so paddy fields upstream cannot access water.

As seen by reporters on Wednes-day (Jan 12) afternoon, Asak village paddy fields -located to the South and to the North of of the village, have become totally dried out, making it impossible for farmers to grow rice paddy. A few fields have been planted with peanuts, but most are so parched that even grasses have turned yellow. Water from the Municipal Waterworks (PDAM) at Asak at Timbrah has not flowed to peoples homes for some time now, so local residents have been bathing in irrigation channels that still have a bit of water. (013)

His life of exile is framed by wars that redrew borders and scattered centuries-old communities, and his trauma is shared by millions across the Middle East, who have packed their belongings and bundled up their families to seek safety far from their home-lands, joining the largest wave of refugees since World War II.

His odyssey began in 1948, when he was among the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in Israel’s War of Independence. In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of Jews from ancient communities across the Middle East emigrated to Israel, often after suffering persecution.

“We fled our homes in Palestine in 1948 to Jordan on the back of a truck,” Mahmoud said. His family then flew to Basra, a swel-tering city at the southern tip of Iraq, on the Persian Gulf.

“When we came to Basra, my father started to sell falafel. It was new here so busi-ness was going well,” he said. But the family struggled to adapt to their new surroundings, far from the temperate Levant.

“Life in Basra was difficult. It was dusty and the water wasn’t clean where we lived,” he said. Unable to find anywhere else to live, Ibrahim and his family took refuge in an abandoned synagogue with other Palestinian families, living there for 30 years, he said.

Up to 70,000 Palestinians lived in Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, accord-ing to numbers provided by the U.N. refugee agency. Saddam Hussein’s government pro-claimed solidarity with the Palestinians, who

were allowed to work and even hold govern-ment jobs but were never granted citizenship. After the U.S.-led invasion, however, many Iraqis viewed the Palestinians as complicit with the former regime, and the refugees fled from discrimination and growing unrest. Of-ficial figures do not exist, but the U.N. refugee agency estimates that just 3,000 Palestinians remain in the country today.

In the mid-1970s, Mahmoud, his wife and five children moved to Mosul after he was told by an old man who had fought in the 1948 war that he would feel more at home in the northern city. “He told me there was a place in Iraq just like Palestine. There’s grass everywhere and rivers. And they have oranges there,” he said.

The city was just as the man had described, but Mahmoud struggled to make ends meet, in part because of the crippling international sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s. His children were forced to work instead of at-tending school. “We had to make sure there was bread on the table, so that’s all we could give them,” he said.

They remained in Mosul during the chaos that engulfed Iraq after 2003, when the city saw heavy fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents and frequent bombings.

As the fighting slowly died down and U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, Mahmoud might have thought his lifelong flight from war was finally over, that while he may never see Haifa again he could at least live in peace. But then a hot summer’s night in June 2014 was shattered by the grimly familiar thud of explosions and rattle

of gunfire, as the Islamic State group swept into Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Within weeks the extremist group would add vast swaths of northern and western Iraq to its territory in neighboring Syria, establishing a self-styled caliphate governed by a chilling interpretation of Islamic law.

Mahmoud and his family, which by then included 11 children, remained until August of that year, before once again packing their belongings and bidding farewell to a place they had called home. “I saw people being beheaded in the streets. What kind of life is that?” Mahmoud said.

Now he and his family live in the Baharka refugee camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where some 4,000 people huddle in tents pitched along muddy roads. The winter rains send water into the tents, and Mahmoud, who is in his late 70s, says he struggles to walk through the mud.

His 35-year-old son Thamer, who works as a barber in the camp, was born and raised in Iraq but has always felt like an outsider.

“As far as I can remember I have been living in Iraq. But I don’t feel I’m in my homeland, because my ID says I’m a refu-gee,” he said. (ap)

Bali News International4 Friday, January 15, 2016 Friday, January 15, 2016 13International

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER - A British ex-soldier who tried to smuggle a 4-year-old Afghan girl into Britain at her father’s request was no hero but wanted “to save a little girl” and put a human face on the plight of refugees, he said hours before going on trial in France.

The 49-year-old British father-of-four faces up to five years in jail and a 30,000-euro ($32,500, or 22,500 pounds) fine for aiding illegal immigration, in a case that goes to the heart of Europe’s dilemma over how to deal with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

Lawrie said he felt he must act to help refugees after pictures of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi stirred worldwide sympathy in September for Syrians and Afghans fleeing war and poverty.

The day after seeing the picture, he went to help migrants in the squalid “jungle” camp in Calais, northern France, where he met Bahar Ahmadi, known as Bru, and her father, who asked Lawrie to take the girl to Britain.

He refused several times but relented on Oct.24 as nights grew colder in the camp. He set off in his van with Bru but French police caught him, also finding two Eritrean men in the back of the vehicle, and returned Bahar to her father in the camp.

“Selfishly for me, my thought is one of fear. I don’t

want to go to jail,” Lawrie told reporters ahead of the trial.

“I also like to think we’ve changed the public im-age of young men trying to get on trains and trucks,” he said after arriving at the news conference carrying in his arm the little Afghan girl, who was smiling and eating candies. “We’ve put a compassionate image on the refugee crisis in northern France.”

He said he regretted what he called an irrational decision and wouldn’t recommend that anyone else try to do the same, but also added: “I don’t understand why other people around the world are not getting as emotional as me.”

An estimated 4,000 people live in the Calais “jungle” and some 3,000 in another nearby camp, hoping to reach Britain, where better job opportunities and the more familiar English language are big lures. Most at-tempt the crossing by trying to board trains or trucks.

Lawrie’s lawyer said she would try to get him cleared of all charges, basing her case on a part of French law that protects from punishment those who help migrants in danger without being paid in return.

As many European governments tighten their migra-tion policies, a growing number of individuals choose to go out and help, sometimes illegally, according to researcher Francois Gemenne, a specialist on immigra-tion. (rtr)

Briton goes on trial in France for trying to smuggle Afghan child into UK

AP Photo/Jon Super

Former British soldier Rob Lawrie sits by a computer after an interview with the Associated Press in Guiseley, England, Friday Jan. 8, 2016. Rob Lawrie had a choice. On one side lay the law _ you can’t sneak a 4-year-old girl across international borders _ and on the other side sat his sentiments: How could he leave that girl trapped in a squalid migrant camp? He led with his heart _ and was caught.

Palestinian refugee driven into new exile by ISBAHARKA REFUGEE CAMP — As a nine-year-old boy, Ibrahim Mahmoud

fled his hometown of Haifa on the back of a truck during the 1948 war that attended the creation of Israel. Now, as a hunched old man, he is once again encamped far from home, having fled the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

AP Photo/Bram Janssen

This Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 photo shows Ibrahim Mahmoud standing in Baharka refugee camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. At the age of 9, during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war he fled his native Haifa with his family to Iraq and he hasn’t left ever since. The now 76 year-old never got rid of the refugee status.

“We have not been received by the governor and although we have sent a letter there has been no re-sponse. Be patient, later on we will surely be able to meet with him,” said Chairman of PHDI’s team 9, Ida Mpu Jaya Acharyananda, when contacted by phone on Wednesday (Jan. 13).

Ida Mpu said that he did not want any personal opinions affecting the decisions taken by Team 9. His team is therefor still trying to get comprehensive data from relevant institutions, especially information from the state agency (the govern-ment) because his team was cre-ated with the mandate to explore and discover as much as possible about relevant parties that make the rules and issue permits as well as information about the extent of the possible consequences of going ahead with the proposed project.

“There lies the problem. It is not a matter of whether we reject the plan or not. We need to first think very carefully, weighing all

the facts, lest we become mired in politics or pragmatism. We want to maintain the integrity of our institu-tion (parisadha),” he said.

Ida Mpu then said that Team 9 still has until February 22, 2016 to explore the issues related Benoa Bay, but that he understands the publics insistence that Team 9 take immediate action. Team 9, he add-ed, does not want to disregard any public groups, whether they are for or against the reclamation plan.

“We want to be impartial. As the parisadha (council), what’s more -as higher priests, we have to think clearly. We may not take sides, but must always uphold the truth of the scriptures,” he explained.

Ida Mpu promised to give a state-ment related to the Benoa Bay plan after January 15. Of course, Team 9 has to have managed to meet with related government officials and have obtained comprehensive data from them. He again emphasized that Team 9 realizes that the public is concerned about what measures

they are taking to address the is-sue. “Apparently there is concern about us needing to first meet with the government. We do not want to resolve anything emotionally, let us first calm down, because the

mandate of our decree is to explore relevant agencies. Meanwhile, what happens at the grass roots level are sporadic movements not bona fide institutions. This does not neces-sarily mean that we do not agree,

as they are our children that should be heard. But, we need to listen to everyone. Just like the Hindu proverb says “clear ideas may come from anywhere”. That is what we want,” he explained. (kmb32)

PHDI’s Team 9 to meet GovernorDENPASAR - Team 9 of the Hindu Dharma Council of Indo-

nesia (PHDI) Bali is apparently still waiting to receive compre-hensive data regarding the Benoa Bay reclamation plan, from the government -especially the Governor of Bali. Team 9, that consists of high priests (sulinggih) have thus been unable to come to a decision regarding the Benoa Bay plan, and unable to meet with the Love Bali Froum who organized a group discussion involving several groups, on Tuesday (January 12).

IBP/Eka Adhiyasa

The Love Bali Forum discuss the reclamation plan with Team 9 of the Hindu Dharma Council of Indonesia (PHDI) Bali.

Hectares of paddy fields in Karangasem hit by drought

Bali News Friday, January 15, 2016 5InternationalFriday, January 15, 201612 International

BUSINESS

SEOUL — South Korea’s cen-tral bank trimmed its growth fore-cast for the country’s economy on Thursday, citing the instability in Chinese markets.

The Bank of Korea predicting that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will grow 3.0 percent this year, down from an earlier estimate of 3.2 percent. Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said the volatility in Chi-nese financial markets and a sharp drop in the South Korean currency were behind the revision.

The central bank said a recovery in consumer spending could be limited by the phase-out in con-sumption tax cuts and slowing sales of housing markets. Private capital spending will likely see slower growth due to uncertainties at home and abroad, it added.

The bank’s outlook is more optimistic than private economic

research centers but is broadly in line with the financial ministry’s forecast.

Still, its downward revision is the latest reminder that the once dynamic Asian economy is losing steam. South Korean manufacturing companies that used to fuel growth and development of the country with exports of ships, cars, steel, televisions and memory chips are quickly losing edge, coming under threats from Chinese companies.

Exports last year dropped 8 per-cent from a year earlier. The coun-try’s trade ministry said exports will recovery slightly this year, gaining 2 percent from last year.

South Korea’s economy has been increasingly relying on do-mestic demand for growth as exports remained weak. That trend is likely to continue this year, the central bank said. (ap)

Regional equities plunged as jittery investors reacted to a slump on Wall Street as oil saw another drop and the Federal Reserve released a lukewarm report on the US economy.

Global markets have been in free-fall since the beginning of the year, largely on the back of worries about a growth slowdown in China -- a key driver of the world economy.

Plunging oil rates overshadowed a better-than-forecast Chinese trade report Wednesday, which provided some rare good news about the Asian economic giant.

Crude prices, which have plum-meted about 70 percent in 18 months -- continue to tumble, with news that US stockpiles had risen last week add-ing to the sense of gloom. The Brent

contract on Wednesday fell below $30, a day after the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) did the same.

The Fed’s closely watched Beige Book report pointed to more sluggish US economic growth, throwing cold water on the likelihood its policy board will add to December’s inter-est rate hike when it next meets later this month.

In Tokyo, the dollar weakened to 117.56 yen, from 117.72 yen in New York, while the euro was also lower at 127.87 yen against 128.00 yen.

The euro edged up to $1.0883 from $1.0874. The yen is widely seen as a safe asset in times of uncertainty and turmoil.

“There is a trend of yen buying amid falls in global stock markets,” Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities, told Bloomberg News.

But the dollar picked up against emerging market currencies, with the South Korean won down 0.6 percent and the oil-reliant Malaysian ringgit weakening 0.4 percent.

The Australian dollar was 0.2 per-

cent lower but supported by a better-than-expected jobs report.

Indonesia’s rupiah shed 0.9 percent after reports emerged of a huge blast in Jakarta that had killed at least three people.

“We’re in a perfect storm,” said Yousef Abbasi, global market strate-gist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in New York.

“Even though we knew a lot of these factors in the past, they all seemed to come together at the start of 2016 to take a bite out of people.” (afp)

SINGAPORE - Oil prices lin-gered near $30 a barrel in Asia Thursday, with analysts warning they could fall further as a rise in US stocks added to fears a glut in world supplies will last until next year.

Global crude benchmark Brent slipped below the psychologically

key point to a 12-year low in the previous session after data showed stockpiles rose in top consumer the US.

The looming return of Iranian oil to world markets after the final implementation of a deal on its nuclear programme -- which Tehran expects by Sunday -- also weighed

on prices.US benchmark West Texas In-

termediate for delivery in February was up 33 cents at $30.81 at around 0810 GMT. Brent crude for Febru-ary was trading 10 cents higher at $30.41 after lingering below $30 in the morning.

“Oil prices continued trend-

ing downwards this week amid persistent concerns on global oversupply,” Sanjeev Gupta, who heads the Asia Pacific oil and gas practice at EY, told AFP.

Oil prices have collapsed by about two thirds in 18 months as supplies outweighed demand

growth due to a slowdown in the world economy, and particularly in key consumer China.

Adding to that picture, a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) report released Wednesday showed domestic oil stockpiles rose 200,000 barrels in the week ending January 8. (afp)

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

A woman walks by a sale sign at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. South Korea’s central bank has trimmed its outlook on Asia’s fourth-largest economy, citing the instability in Chinese markets.

Oil prices stay near $30 a barrel on oversupply worries

Yen picks up, emerging units fall as sentiment sours

TOKYO - The yen rallied in Asia Thursday as traders fled higher-risk assets, pushing down emerging currencies as a rout that has swept global markets at the start of the year resumed.

South Korea’s central bank trims growth outlook to 3 percent

SINGARAJA - Normally farmers in Buleleng harvest their rice paddy crops in March, however due to this year’s extreme weather conditions, they have been forced to delay planting their seedlings. As of mid-January, only 1,706 hectares of the 13,170 hectares of potential paddy fields have been planted.

Some of Buleleng’s subaks have already started making prepara-tions for planting their fields, but because the rains have not come, irrigation water has been scarce, so they have delayed planting their fields. Rice seedlings that are old enough to be planted must wait patiently in their rice seedling plots until it’s their subak’s turn to access the irrigation water.

Head of the Buleleng Agriculture and Livestock Agency, Nyoman Swatantra, accompanied by Division Head of Rice and Crop Produc-tion, I Gede Suadnyana, said that the impact of extreme weather these days is indeed unpredictable. There is not much farmers can do, he said, because Buleleng’s paddy fields depend on subak irrigation water. Normally the planting season coincides with the start of the rainy season -when there is a natural increase in the volume of water available to the irrigation, but delays in the arrival of the rains, mean delays in the planting of rice paddy plants. “Based on the reports that we have received, many subaks have delayed planting their paddy plants, due to the lack of irrigation water. Natural factors like rainfall are clearly beyond the control of the famers,” he said.

In order to accelerate the rate at which the fields are planted once the rains do come, Buleleng’s Agriculture and Livestock Agency have purchased mechanized agriculture equipment, including 50 tractors and transplanting machines. With the approval of subak administrators, farmers will be able to borrow these machined by submitting a request to do so. A number of water pumps and pipeline have also been acquired to suck up water from paddy field wells.

“We have appealed to farmers to speed up the cultivation of their plots of land and we have machines that can borrow to help them speed up the planting process in the next two months,” said Swatantra. Statistical data indicate that Buleleng’s total area of paddy fields amounts to some 10,700 hectares and are spread across seven subdistricts no including Tejakula and Gerokgak. Anywhere between 6 to 7 tons of rice per hectare are yielded each harvest. In 2015 the Agriculture and Livestock Agency aimed to yield 139,000 tons of rice but feel 6 tons short of their target, having yielded 133.000 tons of rice. The target was not reaches due to the extremely long dry season that impacted productivity. Buleleng was nonetheless able to meet the needs of the people in this subdistrict and there was in fact a surplus of rice. (kmb38)

“Originally, I was deeply in-volved in creating bamboo crafts, but I had a lot of competitors, so I switched to pressed bamboo works,” said Suwirya on Tuesday (Jan. 12) when journalists visited his residence.

Suwirya explained that he started his business in 2009 and that he never went to school for bamboo, but instead learned all his manufacturing techniques from the internet. He gradually amassed enough knowledge and practice to finally be able to cre-ate a successful product. “I just looked for different techniques

online, kept experimenting and finally it got it,” explained Su-wirya.

Due to his diligence and per-severance, this junior high-school graduate, is now able to produce bamboo products such as beams and boards. Although he does sell these products as building materials, his pressed bamboo is also used for making gazebos and sculptures. Apart from tourism areas in Bali, Suwirya’s bamboo products are also sold in Jakarta, Bogor and even overseas.

In fact, he is sometimes de-layed in delivering his orders

when they involve large quanti-ties. “I have many orders but am unable to meet them all because of my limited production capac-ity. It takes me a month to com-plete a gazebo,” he said.

This 28-year old man added that he sells his gazebos for be-tween IDR 50-60 million, while his pressed bamboo beams are sold for IDR 32 million per cubic meter. What may seem like high prices, are in fact representative of the quality of these products. “The quality of this bamboo is very good and even better than many woods,” he explained.

To demonstrate just how good this pressed bamboo is, Suwirya’s newly build house is made almost entirely of bamboo, including the doors, window frames and other interior elements. “I used this product on my own home - it is very strong,” he concluded. (kmb45)

BANGLI - In response to the violence and crime that were often triggered by drunkeness, in 2001, Bangli’s Pengotan customary vil-lage created an awig-awig (cus-tomary law) to discourage people from drinking alcohol. Jro Kopok, Chief of Pengotan Village recently explained that this awig-awig penalizes anyone who is caught consuming alcohol, causing a commotion or fighting, or selling alcohol in the village.

The sanctions imposed on those found to be in volition of the awig-awig, include the obligation to hold a resigana alit ceremony in the out-ermost courtyard of the village tem-ple. “Since such behaviours qualify as having caused a commotion, it is necessary to hold an resigana alit ceremony, all the expenses of which are charged to the violator. We the

customary authorities, judge those caught violating the awig-awig, and impose appropriate sanctions,” explained Jro Kopok.

The imposition of relatively se-vere sanctions is meant to serve as a deterrent for prospective violators. “We included a customary law relat-ed to alcohol as way to show people the kinds of behaviours that should be modelled as well as the kinds of behaviours that should be avoided be-cause they can bring about sanctions that must be imposed,” he said.

Kopok said that this awig-awig has in fact been ,very effective in suppressing the widespread cir-culation of alcohol in the village, and since the bylaw has been put in place there have absolutely no cases of young people fighting or committing violent acts because of drunkenness. (kmb40)

Pengotan village’s sober awig-awig

Extreme weatherBuleleng paddy

planting delayedIBP/Sosiawan

Nengah Suwirya is showing one of the pressed bamboo products

Pressed bamboo products sold overseas

MANY regions in Bangli have a lot of potential to grow bam-boo that is used in customary ceremonies and is also the raw materials for a wide range of products including sokasi (oblation basket), laundry baskets and so forth. For Gebagan hamlet, Kayubihi village, resident I Nengah Suwirya, this versatile plant is transformed into a pressed bamboo product that resembles wooden logs that are be sold for millions of rupiah.

6 11International

W RLDFriday, January 15, 2016Friday, January 15, 2016 International

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s central bank has cut its bench-mark interest rate for the first time in nearly a year to help shore up the weak economy.

Bank Indonesia said Thursday that it was cutting its BI rate by a quarter point to 7.25 percent.

The decision was made at the bank’s scheduled monthly policy meeting, held on the same day that attackers set off explosions in downtown Jakarta and waged gunbattles with police, leaving at least seven people dead.

Until the latest announcement, the rate had been unchanged at 7.5 percent since February.

The bank said it moved to cut rates because fourth quarter eco-nomic growth did not show sig-nificant improvement and inflation remained low. (afp)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s president ordered police on Wednes-day to step up surveillance after at least a dozen people went missing and are believed to have joined a little known group that authorities have described as radical and dangerous.

The order from President Joko Widodo came during a period of heightened concern about the danger of Islamist militants and a crackdown by counter-terrorism police on people with suspected links to Islamic State.

The more than a dozen men and woman were reported miss-ing by their families and there were strong indications they had joined a group known as Gafatar, authorities have said.

“This has the potential to disturb public security,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in an online statement. “We have been asked by President Joko Widodo to monitor this.”

Anung said little was known about the group but the re-ligious affairs ministry had been asked to help the police in investigating.

Police last month rounded up several men across Java island who were found with bomb-making materials, a suicide-bomb vest, and books on waging jihad.

The men were believed to have been targeting Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations in the capital, Jakarta, and other cities. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has set up an agency to restore about 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of carbon-rich peatland damaged by fires that sent smoke across the region last year angering neighbouring countries.

The region suffers every dry season from so-called haze caused by smouldering fires, often set deliberately to clear land for palm oil plantations on Sumatra and Borneo islands.

“I have tasked this agency with creating and implementing an action plan so that we can convince the world that we are very serious about overcoming the damage caused to forests and peatlands,” Widodo told reporters late on Wednesday.

The agency will work until 2020 in seven provinces on Su-matra, Kalimantan, and Papua islands.

The fires and pollution were particularly bad last year because of dry weather caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon with smoke blanketing neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia for weeks and drifting as far north as the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The fires cost Indonesia $16 billion, according to the gov-ernment.

Efforts by Indonesia and neighbouring countries to prevent the fires, and put them out after they start, have shown little success. The fires last year only ended when the rainy season arrived.

A $565 million lawsuit brought by Indonesia against a pulp and paper company was rejected by a court last month, dealing a blow to government efforts to punish those who set the fires to clear land.

The Southeast Asian nation is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. (rtr)

Indonesia sets up peatland restoration

agency after fires

Missing Indonesians raise concern about “dangerous” group

REUTERS/Beawiharta

A worker carries packs of clothes as he walks near an adver-tisement at the Tanah Abang textile market in Jakarta, Indo-nesia January 13, 2016. Indonesia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly a year to help shore up the weak economy.

Indonesia cuts interest rates to help economic growth

Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said Thursday that the Metropolitan police will train 600 more firearms officers, increas-ing the number of armed officers to around 2,800. The police will also double the number of armed re-sponse vehicles — giving authori-ties the ability to respond quickly to any attack.

“By increasing the number of armed response vehicle officers we have we can make sure that our fire-arms response continues to come from a group of highly specialist and highly skilled officers,” Hogan-Howe said in a statement.

The Met declined to say how many armed officers might be on the streets at any one time, saying that to “provide such detail may be of use to those who plan to attack London.”

Londoners are proud that most police do not carry guns, and the decision announced Thursday after a review does not change the fun-damental principle that they should routinely be unarmed. Even with the changes, 92 percent of London’s 31,000 police officers will be not carry guns.

But the Paris attacks — in which gunmen fired into crowds of people — underscored the challenge police

face in responding to a situation in which they are outgunned.

“The tragic attacks in Paris re-inforced the vital role that firearms officers would be called upon to play on behalf of all of us, to run forward and confront the deadly threat that such attackers would pose,” Hogan-Howe said “Whilst I sincerely hope it is something that never happens on our streets, it is only right that the Met are as ready as can be.”

Armed response vehicle officers are trained to respond to so-called “marauding terrorist firearms” at-tacks. Such training was developed following attacks in India in 2008, a series of bombings and shootings in the heart of Mumbai that killed 166 people. (ap) JERUSALEM - Israel’s 92-

year-old former President Shimon Peres suffered a “mild” heart at-tack Thursday but was in “excel-lent” condition following a heart procedure, his personal physician said.

Peres was rushed to a hospital near Tel Aviv from his home on Thursday morning after he fell ill with chest pains and a check-up found an irregular heart rate, his spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch told Israeli Army Radio.

His personal physician Raphi Walden said Peres had a “mild heart attack” but that “his condition is excellent” following a successful cardiac catheterization.

“I would like to calm the people of Israel,” Walden told reporters outside the Tel Hashomer hospital. “He feels very well and he is awake. He was awake the whole time and he is only worried about the con-tinuation of his schedule.”

Walden said that Peres was expected to stay in hospital for “a few days.” “We expect that within a short time he will return to normal,” he added.

Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize

in 1994 following the signing of the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated, and Palestinian leader Yasser Ara-fat. The prize earned him his stature abroad as a revered statesman.

Peres completed his seven year term as president in 2014 and re-mains in the public eye. He is still active through his non-governmen-tal Peres Center for Peace, which promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews and peace and de-velopment in the Middle East.

Peres has filled nearly every position in Israeli public life since he became the director general of the Defense Ministry at the age of 29 and spearheaded the develop-ment of Israel’s nuclear program. A protégé of the country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Peres was first elected to parliament in 1959.

He has since held every major Cabinet post - including defense, finance and foreign affairs â?? and served three brief stints as prime minister in 1977, 1984 and 1995. (ap)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The leader of al-Qaida has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia after the kingdom’s mass execution of 47 people in January, many of whom were tied to the terror group.

Al-Zawahiri’s comments came in a seven-minute audio record-ing released earlier this week and reported by a U.S.-based terror monitor, the SITE Intelligence

Group, on Thursday.In it, the Egyptian doctor and

militant leader exhorted his follow-ers to launch new attacks against the interests of the kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family, which he called a “rotten regime that corrupted your religion.”

Al-Zawahiri also called for attacks on “the Zionist-Crusader alliance”, referring to Israel and its

Western allies, as “this is what hurts Al Saud much.”

However, Saudi Arabia likely faces a greater threat from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group, which has claimed a series of attacks in the kingdom in recent months, than al-Qaida itself.

The Jan. 2 Saudi executions included a number of people con-

victed in al-Qaida attacks that roiled the kingdom some 10 years ago. In the time since, however, al-Qaida has been eclipsed by the Islamic State group, a breakaway faction that holds territory in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Zawahiri’s message comes amid high tensions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite power Iran over the executions,

which included that of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Al-Zawahiri dismissed the kill-ing of al-Nimr as part of the “Saudi-Iranian competition for power in the region.” After his death, protesters in Iran attacked two of the king-dom’s diplomatic posts and the kingdom cuts diplomatic ties to the Islamic Republic, raising regional tensions. (ap)

Al-Qaida leader threatens Saudi Arabia over mass execution

London police increase number of officers

who are armed

AP Photo/Frank Augstein

An armed police officer guards the entrance of Horse Guards prior to the New Year’s Eve cel-ebrations in central London, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015. Security is going to high in the capital this New Year’s Eve following the Paris attacks and with Belgium authorities cancelling the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Brussels after a terrorism threat.

LONDON — London has put more armed police officers on the streets — a direct consequence of the attacks on a nightclub and restaurants in Paris last year.

AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File

FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 2, 2015 file photo, former Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Jerusalem. Israel’s 92-year-old Peres was rushed to hospital Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, following chest pains and underwent a heart procedure, his spokeswoman said.

Israel’s Shimon Peres suffers ‘mild’ heart attack

Friday, January 15, 2016DestinationFriday, January 15, 201610 InternationalInternational

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Curry scored 20 of his 38 points in the final period but lost the ball under defensive pressure from Da-nilo Gallinari in the last moments, allowing the Denver Nuggets to hang on to hand the Golden State Warriors their third loss of the season, 112-110 on Wednesday night.

“It was a great opportunity to try to tie the game or take the lead,” Curry said about the last of his eight turnovers. “Got stuck between look-ing for the open man and handling the ball, and one little mishandle and Gallinari got it.”

The defending NBA champion Warriors (36-3) had won seven straight since their previous defeat, 114-91 at Dallas on Dec. 30. Gal-linari led the Nuggets with 28 points but it was his defense at the game’s critical moment that made the dif-ference, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

“Gallo has proven this year he can guard most players on the floor,” Malone said. “And he did a great job. He got into a stance,

forced a deflection, was first to the floor and comes out with the loose ball. Those are winning plays. Those are what separate teams and we had enough winning plays tonight where we were able to withstand the furious comeback that they made.”

Will Barton added 21 points for the Nuggets, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the Warriors despite being outscored 37-29 in the final period.

The Clippers improved to 10 straight wins with a 104-90 victory over the Heat with backup center Cole Aldrich scoring 19 points and making seven rebounds in place of ailing DeAndre Jordan, who was sidelined because of pneumonia, ending the NBA’s longest active consecutive games played streak at 360.

At Oklahoma, Kevin Durant had 29 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder romped to a 108-89 win against a Dallas lineup missing its usual starters.

Thunder star Russell Westbrook

was ejected in the second quarter after getting his second technical foul following skirmishes with J.J. Barea. Westbrook went scoreless.

The Mavericks played the sec-ond night of a back-to-back after an overtime loss to Cleveland and coach Rick Carlisle chose not to use his five regular starters — Dirk Nowitzki, Wesley Matthews, Chan-dler Parsons, Deron Williams and Zaza Pachulia.

The Celtics ended a four-game losing streak with a 103-94 win over the Pacers, with Isaiah Thomas scoring 28 points and Jae Crowder matching his career high with 25. In New York, Brook Lopez scored 20 points, Thaddeus Young had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Brook-lyn ended its 10-game home losing streak with a 110-1o4 victory over the Knicks.

Elsewhere, the Wizards beat the Bucks 106-101, the Rockets had a 107-104 win over the Tim-berwolves, the Hornets beat the Hawks 107-84, the Trail Blazers won 99-85 against the Jazz and the Pelicans tied a team record with 16 3-pointers in a 109-97 victory against the Kings.(ap)

WELLINGTON - Jack Sock started a new tradition at the Auck-land Classic on Thursday, one the 23-year-old hopes will become his trademark as he carves out a successful tennis career.

The American overcame world number 12 Kevin Anderson 1-6 6-4 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open warm-up and in celebration flipped off a shoe before handing one of his socks to a fan.

“We were talking about it in warm-up today... a few people have their own things,” Sock told reporters in Auckland. “I think with such a unique name that I have, we figured I might start a new tradition and give a sock away if I win.”

The American started poorly against the fourth-seeded South Af-rican, who blasted seven aces in a dominant opening set in which he raced through his service games and broke the 26th-ranked Sock in the fourth and sixth games.

Sock settled in the second set and improved his return as Anderson lost range and accuracy, tying up the quarter-final on his second break and set point opportunity in the 10th game. Anderson served better in the decider but Sock eked out another break, again in the 10th game, to seal the contest in 98 minutes.

“I thought he came out firing and did not miss many first serves, which against a guy like that, it was crucial for me he misses a few,” Sock added. “I was able to get some balls in near the end and scrap out some points. I’m looking forward to playing in the semis.”

Sock will next face four-times champion David Ferrer after the Spaniard completed a 6-3 6-4 win over the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol.

The 33-year-old Ferrer, who was granted a wild card and took the top seeding, was at his retrieving best on Thursday, forcing Rosol to continually play an extra shot, while he converted three of his four break point opportunities. “I have to play well to beat him,” Ferrer said.

“I tried to serve good and be aggressive with my forehand. The important thing is I am in the semi-finals playing good tennis.”

Twice champion John Isner of the United States will not be in the last four after losing the third quarter-final 7-5 2-6 6-3 to Roberto Bautista Agut, despite firing down 17 aces.

The Spaniard will meet French second seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who saw off Italy’s Fabio Fognini 7-5 7-6(4) in the final match of the day. (rtr)

Isaiah J. Downing

Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari (8) guards Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) in the fourth quarter at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets defeated the Warriors 112-110.

Curry scores 38 but Warriors lose to Nuggets, 112-110

DENVER — Stephen Curry was just about unstoppable in the fourth quarter, except near the very end.

Anderson socked by Jack in Auckland

IBP/net

Jack Sock

IBP/File Photo

MANGUPURA - Pinge hamlet has a very beautiful natural panorama. The air is cool and comfortable as being free from pollu-tion. Along the country road leading to the hamlet, we can see the neat courtyard, while the neighborhood is clean enough. Each tela-jakan (public area) is planted with flowers so that butterflies and birds can play and dance intimately in a peaceful rural atmosphere. Afternoon atmosphere will be comfortable. Small animals such as dog-day cicadas give a nuance of beautiful village. ‘Arrogant’ crows of roosters make our journey more comfort-able. Then, familiar smile of the locals leads us to a convenient ambience to be here.

Pinge hamlet is about 1 km from the center of Tua village office, about 8 km from the Marga subdistrict town or 18 km from Tabanan town. The village is located at an altitude of 500-750 meters above sea level with a rela-tively flat topography and fertile land suitable for farming rice and vegetables. It has a number of unique cultural potential. There is Natar Jemeng temple that stores some objects of the archaeological heritage in the form of Ganesha statue, lingam-yoni and Kiranti with the status as cultural heritage. At this hamlet lie some temples such as the Subak Pinge temple, Puseh temple, Penataran temple, Melanting temple and Dalem temple. This reflects if the hamlet has had high civilization. It is said, the Jemeng temple was the origin of Pinge hamlet.

House of local residents is built in a row facing the road, where each is restricted by a compound wall and angkul-angkul (traditional gates). On average, each house compound has some build-ings such as the bale daja (northern pavilion), bale dangin (eastern pavilion) and other buildings that have function associated with the local traditions and customs. Another unique element is that each house compound has a connecting door to adjacent neighbor. It is intended to maintain the familial relationship and togetherness.

Pinge Village

98 Friday, January 15, 2016 Friday, January 15, 2016

Sp rt

After routing Deportivo La Coruna 5-0 at the San-tiago Bernabeu Stadium in Zidane’s debut as head coach on Saturday, Madrid plays an opponent that has lost seven of its last eight games, including the last four.

Sporting hasn’t won a match since early December and is only 18th in the 20-team standings. It has a game in hand, but it’s against Barcelona. To make things worse, the team just found out that it will be without defender Bernardo Espinosa for about seven months because of a knee injury sustained last weekend.

Madrid, meanwhile, is boosted by the arrival of Zidane, who breathed new life into the Spanish giant after it struggled under coach Rafa Benitez.

Another victory under the command of the former player will keep fans satisfied and can move the team closer to the top of the table. At the halfway point, Madrid is third with 40 points, two less than Barcelona and four less than Atletico Madrid.

Zidane has had a full week to train the squad and try to reinforce his playing style, which is based on trying to retain ball possession and avoid long ball transitions from the defense to the attack.

The only bad news for the former France great go-ing into Sunday’s match at the Bernabeu is that captain Sergio Ramos is nursing a lingering shoulder injury that forced him to be substituted at halftime against Deportivo last Saturday.

Here are other things to know about the 20th round:

ATLETICO’S DOMINANCEAtletico Madrid, which plays at 16th-place Las

Palmas on Sunday, is the hottest team in the Spanish league with eight wins in its last nine games. Its only setback was a 1-0 loss at Malaga four rounds ago.

Diego Simeone’s team continues to rely on solid defense to stay on top. Atletico has conceded eight goals in 19 matches, and the only time it conceded more than one goal in a game was in a 2-1 home defeat to Barcelona in the third round. It’s by far the best defense in the league — Barcelona and Malaga come next with 15 goals each.

Atletico has scored 27 times — Real Madrid has 52 goals and Barcelona 44 — but it’s been enough to keep the wins coming. Atletico leads the league with 14 victo-ries, one more than Barcelona. Real Madrid and fourth-place Villarreal each won 12 times in 19 rounds.

“We’ve been improving game after game,” Simeone said. “We hope to keep playing with this consistency, which is a difficult thing to do.”

FULL-STRENGTH BARCELONAAfter resting some players in the 2-0 win over

Espanyol in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, coach Luis Enrique is expected to field the team’s regular starters when Barcelona hosts eighth-place Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Enrique rested striker Neymar and defender Gerard Pique against Espanyol, but the duo is expected to be back in the squad against Athletic. Luis Suarez, who didn’t play Wednesday because of a suspension for insulting opponents in the first leg against the city rival, also is set to return. Neymar and Suarez are the league’s leading scorers with 15 goals each. Lionel Messi played Wednesday and is also certain to be in the lineup Sunday.

“His fitness is always so strong and that’s essential for us,” Enrique said. “He got plenty of rest when he was out injured and the more time he gets to play, the better.” (ap)

MILAN - AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic expects speculation over his future to continue for the rest of the season, he said after his side reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals to ease the pressure on him.

“It’s the third match in a row that my job has been on the line and it will be like that until the end of the season,” the Serb told reporters after Wednesday’s 2-1 win over fellow Serie A side Carpi.

“It’s not easy but I’ve overcome worse things in life. I’m just unhappy for the lads that there is this criticism and this jeering, because they don’t deserve it.”

Wednesday’s win following a 1-1 Serie A draw away at AS Roma on Saturday, a result which ultimately cost Roma coach Rudi Garcia his job, and the two matches combined ap-pear to have guaranteed Mihajlovic’s future at least in the short term.

“I am trying to work hard and while I am in charge of Milan, I will continue with my head held high. The team are united and everything else that is said is just chit-chat,” he said.

Seven-times champions AC Milan appear to have lost their way over the last few seasons, firing three coaches in the last two years and failing to qualify for European football twice in a row.

Colombia forward Carlos Bacca scored Milan’s opening goal on Wednesday with a ‘rabona’ (with the kicking leg wrapped around the planted foot), despite having angered Mihajlovic earlier in the season when he tried the same trick and missed the target.

“Bacca scored with a rabona to-night and he got it spot on. It’s a risky move but one that he has in his blood. When he pulls it off and scores, that’s great,” Mihajlovic added. (rtr)

LIVERPOOL, England — His eyes bulging and his teeth gritted, Liverpool manager Juer-gen Klopp sprinted along the touchline, gave a double fist pump and furiously beat his chest. Klopp’s celebration to greet his team’s last-gasp equal-izer was as wild as the game itself, as Liverpool and Arse-nal served up a pulsating 3-3 draw in the Premier League on Wednesday.

“People will talk about this game,” Klopp said. “It’s not easy to forget.” An end-to-end match that started in the rain and climaxed in the snow got a fitting conclusion when sub-stitute Joe Allen steered home a 90th-minute volley to salvage Liverpool a point that its strong finish probably deserved.

Four goals were scored in 15 frantic minutes in the first half, with Roberto Firmino twice giving Liverpool the lead only for Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud to bring Arsenal level.

When Giroud span his marker with a wonderful Cruyff turn and curled home a finish in the 55th minute, it looked as if Arsenal would be preserving its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Allen’s goal, however, wiped out the visitors’ advantage and left them tied for points with Leicester after 21 games.

“Hopefully, we are not go-ing to have to regret this goal at the end of the championship,” Giroud said.

A tweet from Arsenal play-maker Mesut Ozil summed up one of the games of the season: “There was no time to blink dur-ing the match.”

It was chaotic at times, es-pecially Liverpool’s axis of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and central defenders Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho that was all over the place in the first half. Mignolet might have been at fault for both of Arsenal’s first-half goals, and the Belgian re-ceived ironic cheers at one stage in the first half when he collected the weakest of shots.

Liverpool started at a furious pace and took a 10th-minute lead when Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech parried Emre Can’s fierce, angled shot straight out to Firmi-no. The Brazil forward controlled and shot left-footed through the legs of Laurent Koscielny and past an unsighted Cech.

Arsenal’s response was rapid as Joel Campbell slipped a per-fectly-weighted pass through to Ramsey, who drove a low finish past Mignolet at his near post in the 14th.

Firmino grabbed the third — and best — goal in a thrilling nine-minute span when he curled a shot from 25 meters beyond

Cech’s grasp.The defending couldn’t really

be blamed there, but fingers will be pointed at Mignolet and his defenders for Giroud’s first goal, the striker getting the faintest of touches on Ramsey’s left-wing corner to the near post, which wasn’t guarded by a Liver-pool player. Mignolet scrambled across his line but couldn’t keep the ball out.

Mignolet had no chance with Giroud’s classy second. The France international took a short pass from Campbell, beat Toure with a turn, and bent a low shot into the bottom corner from 10 meters.

With Liverpool’s passing becoming ragged, Arsenal grew in confidence but still looked vulnerable at the back, especially to crosses from the wings. Klopp threw on Christian Benteke, then Allen, and then defender Steven Caulker — signed to ease Liver-pool’s injury woes at center back — as an emergency striker.

From one of many high balls into the box, Benteke leapt high-est and headed the ball across for Allen to volley home.

“It’s an explosion of goals,” Klopp said, “but at the final whistle you cannot ignore there were problems.” Liverpool is in ninth place but only five points off the Champions League plac-es. (ap)

LONDON — After a three-game winless run and goal drought exceeding six hours in the Premier League, Leicester reignited its title bid by displaying grit and resilience in grinding out a 1-0 victory over Tottenham on Wednesday.

Robert Huth’s late header showed that Leicester is clearly not prepared to yield to more il-lustrious sides. This unexpected pursuit of English football’s top prize is not ready to be re-linquished. What a remarkable turnaround in fortunes it has been

for Leicester.When the 31-year-old Huth

last scored in April, Leicester was bottom of the league in the closing weeks of the season. Nine months on, Leicester lifting the Premier League trophy for the first time in May seems a lot less implausible — especially with Arsenal drawing 3-3 at Liverpool and Manchester City being held by Everton on Wednesday.

Only goal difference is now splitting Leicester from leader Ar-senal and the central England team

is three points ahead of City. And Champions League games could be hosted at the King Power Stadium for the first time next season, with Leicester eight points clear of fifth place.

“It’s only January. It’s not May,” Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri cautioned. “This is a crazy league this year and we must continue.”

Fourth-place Tottenham had only lost two games, like Leices-ter, before their top-four faceoff at White Hart Lane where Huth powered in a header from Christian

Fuchs’ corner in the 83rd minute.“It’s not often having a square

shaped head comes in useful,” the German defender quipped on Twit-ter. It demonstrated that Leicester is not so reliant on Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, who have 28 league goals between them but rarely looked like scoring in north London.

“Vardy and Mahrez are very im-portant for us and when you score without them that’s good,” Ranieri said. “We created a lot of chances and it’s not only with Mahrez and

Vardy.”Putting aside the 374-minute

goal drought that Huth ended, perhaps more significant was goal-keeper Kasper Schmeichel keeping a third consecutive clean sheet in the league.

No wonder Leicester fans did not seem so fanciful when they serenaded their overachieving team with: “We’re going to win the league.” Asked how he responds to those suggesting Leicester could be champions, Ranieri said: “I laugh.” (ap)

ZURICH — The FIFA ethics com-mittee has explained why the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid inspector was banned from soccer, six months after imposing a seven-year sanction.

FIFA ethics judges say in a state-ment that Harold Mayne-Nicholls of Chile “repeatedly asked for personal favors related to the hosting and train-ing of his relatives (a son, nephew and brother-in-law).”

The bidder and institution were not identified, though it was previously

reported Mayne-Nicholls approached the Aspire center in Doha. The youth academy was linked to Qatar’s suc-cessful 2022 World Cup hosting bid.

The ethics judging chamber say Mayne-Nicholls broke several articles of FIFA’s ethics code, including offer-ing or accepting gifts and conflicts of interest.

By giving Mayne-Nicholls written reasons for the verdict, he can now take his case to the FIFA appeals com-mittee. (ap)

REUTERS/Susana Vera

Real Madrid’s new coach Zinedine Zidane talks to Real Ma-drid’s Marcelo

Leicester reboots surprise title charge by beating Tottenham

Zinedine Zidane looks to keep Real Madrid on a roll

MADRID — Zinedine Zidane gets a chance to keep Real Madrid’s momentum going in a home game against struggling Sporting Gijon in the Spanish league this weekend.

Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine

Roberto Firmino celebrates scoring the first goal for Liverpool as referee Mike Jones shows him a yellow card

Klopp goes wild as Liverpool salvages 3-3 draw vs Arsenal

FIFA judges explain 7-year ban for

2018-2022 bid inspector

Mihajlovic sees no end to speculation over Milan job

REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito

AC Milan’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic leaves the pitch after receiving a red card during the match against AS Roma.

98 Friday, January 15, 2016 Friday, January 15, 2016

Sp rt

After routing Deportivo La Coruna 5-0 at the San-tiago Bernabeu Stadium in Zidane’s debut as head coach on Saturday, Madrid plays an opponent that has lost seven of its last eight games, including the last four.

Sporting hasn’t won a match since early December and is only 18th in the 20-team standings. It has a game in hand, but it’s against Barcelona. To make things worse, the team just found out that it will be without defender Bernardo Espinosa for about seven months because of a knee injury sustained last weekend.

Madrid, meanwhile, is boosted by the arrival of Zidane, who breathed new life into the Spanish giant after it struggled under coach Rafa Benitez.

Another victory under the command of the former player will keep fans satisfied and can move the team closer to the top of the table. At the halfway point, Madrid is third with 40 points, two less than Barcelona and four less than Atletico Madrid.

Zidane has had a full week to train the squad and try to reinforce his playing style, which is based on trying to retain ball possession and avoid long ball transitions from the defense to the attack.

The only bad news for the former France great go-ing into Sunday’s match at the Bernabeu is that captain Sergio Ramos is nursing a lingering shoulder injury that forced him to be substituted at halftime against Deportivo last Saturday.

Here are other things to know about the 20th round:

ATLETICO’S DOMINANCEAtletico Madrid, which plays at 16th-place Las

Palmas on Sunday, is the hottest team in the Spanish league with eight wins in its last nine games. Its only setback was a 1-0 loss at Malaga four rounds ago.

Diego Simeone’s team continues to rely on solid defense to stay on top. Atletico has conceded eight goals in 19 matches, and the only time it conceded more than one goal in a game was in a 2-1 home defeat to Barcelona in the third round. It’s by far the best defense in the league — Barcelona and Malaga come next with 15 goals each.

Atletico has scored 27 times — Real Madrid has 52 goals and Barcelona 44 — but it’s been enough to keep the wins coming. Atletico leads the league with 14 victo-ries, one more than Barcelona. Real Madrid and fourth-place Villarreal each won 12 times in 19 rounds.

“We’ve been improving game after game,” Simeone said. “We hope to keep playing with this consistency, which is a difficult thing to do.”

FULL-STRENGTH BARCELONAAfter resting some players in the 2-0 win over

Espanyol in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, coach Luis Enrique is expected to field the team’s regular starters when Barcelona hosts eighth-place Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Enrique rested striker Neymar and defender Gerard Pique against Espanyol, but the duo is expected to be back in the squad against Athletic. Luis Suarez, who didn’t play Wednesday because of a suspension for insulting opponents in the first leg against the city rival, also is set to return. Neymar and Suarez are the league’s leading scorers with 15 goals each. Lionel Messi played Wednesday and is also certain to be in the lineup Sunday.

“His fitness is always so strong and that’s essential for us,” Enrique said. “He got plenty of rest when he was out injured and the more time he gets to play, the better.” (ap)

MILAN - AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic expects speculation over his future to continue for the rest of the season, he said after his side reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals to ease the pressure on him.

“It’s the third match in a row that my job has been on the line and it will be like that until the end of the season,” the Serb told reporters after Wednesday’s 2-1 win over fellow Serie A side Carpi.

“It’s not easy but I’ve overcome worse things in life. I’m just unhappy for the lads that there is this criticism and this jeering, because they don’t deserve it.”

Wednesday’s win following a 1-1 Serie A draw away at AS Roma on Saturday, a result which ultimately cost Roma coach Rudi Garcia his job, and the two matches combined ap-pear to have guaranteed Mihajlovic’s future at least in the short term.

“I am trying to work hard and while I am in charge of Milan, I will continue with my head held high. The team are united and everything else that is said is just chit-chat,” he said.

Seven-times champions AC Milan appear to have lost their way over the last few seasons, firing three coaches in the last two years and failing to qualify for European football twice in a row.

Colombia forward Carlos Bacca scored Milan’s opening goal on Wednesday with a ‘rabona’ (with the kicking leg wrapped around the planted foot), despite having angered Mihajlovic earlier in the season when he tried the same trick and missed the target.

“Bacca scored with a rabona to-night and he got it spot on. It’s a risky move but one that he has in his blood. When he pulls it off and scores, that’s great,” Mihajlovic added. (rtr)

LIVERPOOL, England — His eyes bulging and his teeth gritted, Liverpool manager Juer-gen Klopp sprinted along the touchline, gave a double fist pump and furiously beat his chest. Klopp’s celebration to greet his team’s last-gasp equal-izer was as wild as the game itself, as Liverpool and Arse-nal served up a pulsating 3-3 draw in the Premier League on Wednesday.

“People will talk about this game,” Klopp said. “It’s not easy to forget.” An end-to-end match that started in the rain and climaxed in the snow got a fitting conclusion when sub-stitute Joe Allen steered home a 90th-minute volley to salvage Liverpool a point that its strong finish probably deserved.

Four goals were scored in 15 frantic minutes in the first half, with Roberto Firmino twice giving Liverpool the lead only for Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud to bring Arsenal level.

When Giroud span his marker with a wonderful Cruyff turn and curled home a finish in the 55th minute, it looked as if Arsenal would be preserving its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Allen’s goal, however, wiped out the visitors’ advantage and left them tied for points with Leicester after 21 games.

“Hopefully, we are not go-ing to have to regret this goal at the end of the championship,” Giroud said.

A tweet from Arsenal play-maker Mesut Ozil summed up one of the games of the season: “There was no time to blink dur-ing the match.”

It was chaotic at times, es-pecially Liverpool’s axis of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and central defenders Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho that was all over the place in the first half. Mignolet might have been at fault for both of Arsenal’s first-half goals, and the Belgian re-ceived ironic cheers at one stage in the first half when he collected the weakest of shots.

Liverpool started at a furious pace and took a 10th-minute lead when Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech parried Emre Can’s fierce, angled shot straight out to Firmi-no. The Brazil forward controlled and shot left-footed through the legs of Laurent Koscielny and past an unsighted Cech.

Arsenal’s response was rapid as Joel Campbell slipped a per-fectly-weighted pass through to Ramsey, who drove a low finish past Mignolet at his near post in the 14th.

Firmino grabbed the third — and best — goal in a thrilling nine-minute span when he curled a shot from 25 meters beyond

Cech’s grasp.The defending couldn’t really

be blamed there, but fingers will be pointed at Mignolet and his defenders for Giroud’s first goal, the striker getting the faintest of touches on Ramsey’s left-wing corner to the near post, which wasn’t guarded by a Liver-pool player. Mignolet scrambled across his line but couldn’t keep the ball out.

Mignolet had no chance with Giroud’s classy second. The France international took a short pass from Campbell, beat Toure with a turn, and bent a low shot into the bottom corner from 10 meters.

With Liverpool’s passing becoming ragged, Arsenal grew in confidence but still looked vulnerable at the back, especially to crosses from the wings. Klopp threw on Christian Benteke, then Allen, and then defender Steven Caulker — signed to ease Liver-pool’s injury woes at center back — as an emergency striker.

From one of many high balls into the box, Benteke leapt high-est and headed the ball across for Allen to volley home.

“It’s an explosion of goals,” Klopp said, “but at the final whistle you cannot ignore there were problems.” Liverpool is in ninth place but only five points off the Champions League plac-es. (ap)

LONDON — After a three-game winless run and goal drought exceeding six hours in the Premier League, Leicester reignited its title bid by displaying grit and resilience in grinding out a 1-0 victory over Tottenham on Wednesday.

Robert Huth’s late header showed that Leicester is clearly not prepared to yield to more il-lustrious sides. This unexpected pursuit of English football’s top prize is not ready to be re-linquished. What a remarkable turnaround in fortunes it has been

for Leicester.When the 31-year-old Huth

last scored in April, Leicester was bottom of the league in the closing weeks of the season. Nine months on, Leicester lifting the Premier League trophy for the first time in May seems a lot less implausible — especially with Arsenal drawing 3-3 at Liverpool and Manchester City being held by Everton on Wednesday.

Only goal difference is now splitting Leicester from leader Ar-senal and the central England team

is three points ahead of City. And Champions League games could be hosted at the King Power Stadium for the first time next season, with Leicester eight points clear of fifth place.

“It’s only January. It’s not May,” Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri cautioned. “This is a crazy league this year and we must continue.”

Fourth-place Tottenham had only lost two games, like Leices-ter, before their top-four faceoff at White Hart Lane where Huth powered in a header from Christian

Fuchs’ corner in the 83rd minute.“It’s not often having a square

shaped head comes in useful,” the German defender quipped on Twit-ter. It demonstrated that Leicester is not so reliant on Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, who have 28 league goals between them but rarely looked like scoring in north London.

“Vardy and Mahrez are very im-portant for us and when you score without them that’s good,” Ranieri said. “We created a lot of chances and it’s not only with Mahrez and

Vardy.”Putting aside the 374-minute

goal drought that Huth ended, perhaps more significant was goal-keeper Kasper Schmeichel keeping a third consecutive clean sheet in the league.

No wonder Leicester fans did not seem so fanciful when they serenaded their overachieving team with: “We’re going to win the league.” Asked how he responds to those suggesting Leicester could be champions, Ranieri said: “I laugh.” (ap)

ZURICH — The FIFA ethics com-mittee has explained why the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid inspector was banned from soccer, six months after imposing a seven-year sanction.

FIFA ethics judges say in a state-ment that Harold Mayne-Nicholls of Chile “repeatedly asked for personal favors related to the hosting and train-ing of his relatives (a son, nephew and brother-in-law).”

The bidder and institution were not identified, though it was previously

reported Mayne-Nicholls approached the Aspire center in Doha. The youth academy was linked to Qatar’s suc-cessful 2022 World Cup hosting bid.

The ethics judging chamber say Mayne-Nicholls broke several articles of FIFA’s ethics code, including offer-ing or accepting gifts and conflicts of interest.

By giving Mayne-Nicholls written reasons for the verdict, he can now take his case to the FIFA appeals com-mittee. (ap)

REUTERS/Susana Vera

Real Madrid’s new coach Zinedine Zidane talks to Real Ma-drid’s Marcelo

Leicester reboots surprise title charge by beating Tottenham

Zinedine Zidane looks to keep Real Madrid on a roll

MADRID — Zinedine Zidane gets a chance to keep Real Madrid’s momentum going in a home game against struggling Sporting Gijon in the Spanish league this weekend.

Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine

Roberto Firmino celebrates scoring the first goal for Liverpool as referee Mike Jones shows him a yellow card

Klopp goes wild as Liverpool salvages 3-3 draw vs Arsenal

FIFA judges explain 7-year ban for

2018-2022 bid inspector

Mihajlovic sees no end to speculation over Milan job

REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito

AC Milan’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic leaves the pitch after receiving a red card during the match against AS Roma.

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Curry scored 20 of his 38 points in the final period but lost the ball under defensive pressure from Da-nilo Gallinari in the last moments, allowing the Denver Nuggets to hang on to hand the Golden State Warriors their third loss of the season, 112-110 on Wednesday night.

“It was a great opportunity to try to tie the game or take the lead,” Curry said about the last of his eight turnovers. “Got stuck between look-ing for the open man and handling the ball, and one little mishandle and Gallinari got it.”

The defending NBA champion Warriors (36-3) had won seven straight since their previous defeat, 114-91 at Dallas on Dec. 30. Gal-linari led the Nuggets with 28 points but it was his defense at the game’s critical moment that made the dif-ference, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

“Gallo has proven this year he can guard most players on the floor,” Malone said. “And he did a great job. He got into a stance,

forced a deflection, was first to the floor and comes out with the loose ball. Those are winning plays. Those are what separate teams and we had enough winning plays tonight where we were able to withstand the furious comeback that they made.”

Will Barton added 21 points for the Nuggets, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the Warriors despite being outscored 37-29 in the final period.

The Clippers improved to 10 straight wins with a 104-90 victory over the Heat with backup center Cole Aldrich scoring 19 points and making seven rebounds in place of ailing DeAndre Jordan, who was sidelined because of pneumonia, ending the NBA’s longest active consecutive games played streak at 360.

At Oklahoma, Kevin Durant had 29 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder romped to a 108-89 win against a Dallas lineup missing its usual starters.

Thunder star Russell Westbrook

was ejected in the second quarter after getting his second technical foul following skirmishes with J.J. Barea. Westbrook went scoreless.

The Mavericks played the sec-ond night of a back-to-back after an overtime loss to Cleveland and coach Rick Carlisle chose not to use his five regular starters — Dirk Nowitzki, Wesley Matthews, Chan-dler Parsons, Deron Williams and Zaza Pachulia.

The Celtics ended a four-game losing streak with a 103-94 win over the Pacers, with Isaiah Thomas scoring 28 points and Jae Crowder matching his career high with 25. In New York, Brook Lopez scored 20 points, Thaddeus Young had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Brook-lyn ended its 10-game home losing streak with a 110-1o4 victory over the Knicks.

Elsewhere, the Wizards beat the Bucks 106-101, the Rockets had a 107-104 win over the Tim-berwolves, the Hornets beat the Hawks 107-84, the Trail Blazers won 99-85 against the Jazz and the Pelicans tied a team record with 16 3-pointers in a 109-97 victory against the Kings.(ap)

WELLINGTON - Jack Sock started a new tradition at the Auck-land Classic on Thursday, one the 23-year-old hopes will become his trademark as he carves out a successful tennis career.

The American overcame world number 12 Kevin Anderson 1-6 6-4 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open warm-up and in celebration flipped off a shoe before handing one of his socks to a fan.

“We were talking about it in warm-up today... a few people have their own things,” Sock told reporters in Auckland. “I think with such a unique name that I have, we figured I might start a new tradition and give a sock away if I win.”

The American started poorly against the fourth-seeded South Af-rican, who blasted seven aces in a dominant opening set in which he raced through his service games and broke the 26th-ranked Sock in the fourth and sixth games.

Sock settled in the second set and improved his return as Anderson lost range and accuracy, tying up the quarter-final on his second break and set point opportunity in the 10th game. Anderson served better in the decider but Sock eked out another break, again in the 10th game, to seal the contest in 98 minutes.

“I thought he came out firing and did not miss many first serves, which against a guy like that, it was crucial for me he misses a few,” Sock added. “I was able to get some balls in near the end and scrap out some points. I’m looking forward to playing in the semis.”

Sock will next face four-times champion David Ferrer after the Spaniard completed a 6-3 6-4 win over the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol.

The 33-year-old Ferrer, who was granted a wild card and took the top seeding, was at his retrieving best on Thursday, forcing Rosol to continually play an extra shot, while he converted three of his four break point opportunities. “I have to play well to beat him,” Ferrer said.

“I tried to serve good and be aggressive with my forehand. The important thing is I am in the semi-finals playing good tennis.”

Twice champion John Isner of the United States will not be in the last four after losing the third quarter-final 7-5 2-6 6-3 to Roberto Bautista Agut, despite firing down 17 aces.

The Spaniard will meet French second seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who saw off Italy’s Fabio Fognini 7-5 7-6(4) in the final match of the day. (rtr)

Isaiah J. Downing

Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari (8) guards Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) in the fourth quarter at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets defeated the Warriors 112-110.

Curry scores 38 but Warriors lose to Nuggets, 112-110

DENVER — Stephen Curry was just about unstoppable in the fourth quarter, except near the very end.

Anderson socked by Jack in Auckland

IBP/net

Jack Sock

IBP/File Photo

MANGUPURA - Pinge hamlet has a very beautiful natural panorama. The air is cool and comfortable as being free from pollu-tion. Along the country road leading to the hamlet, we can see the neat courtyard, while the neighborhood is clean enough. Each tela-jakan (public area) is planted with flowers so that butterflies and birds can play and dance intimately in a peaceful rural atmosphere. Afternoon atmosphere will be comfortable. Small animals such as dog-day cicadas give a nuance of beautiful village. ‘Arrogant’ crows of roosters make our journey more comfort-able. Then, familiar smile of the locals leads us to a convenient ambience to be here.

Pinge hamlet is about 1 km from the center of Tua village office, about 8 km from the Marga subdistrict town or 18 km from Tabanan town. The village is located at an altitude of 500-750 meters above sea level with a rela-tively flat topography and fertile land suitable for farming rice and vegetables. It has a number of unique cultural potential. There is Natar Jemeng temple that stores some objects of the archaeological heritage in the form of Ganesha statue, lingam-yoni and Kiranti with the status as cultural heritage. At this hamlet lie some temples such as the Subak Pinge temple, Puseh temple, Penataran temple, Melanting temple and Dalem temple. This reflects if the hamlet has had high civilization. It is said, the Jemeng temple was the origin of Pinge hamlet.

House of local residents is built in a row facing the road, where each is restricted by a compound wall and angkul-angkul (traditional gates). On average, each house compound has some build-ings such as the bale daja (northern pavilion), bale dangin (eastern pavilion) and other buildings that have function associated with the local traditions and customs. Another unique element is that each house compound has a connecting door to adjacent neighbor. It is intended to maintain the familial relationship and togetherness.

Pinge Village

6 11International

W RLDFriday, January 15, 2016Friday, January 15, 2016 International

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s central bank has cut its bench-mark interest rate for the first time in nearly a year to help shore up the weak economy.

Bank Indonesia said Thursday that it was cutting its BI rate by a quarter point to 7.25 percent.

The decision was made at the bank’s scheduled monthly policy meeting, held on the same day that attackers set off explosions in downtown Jakarta and waged gunbattles with police, leaving at least seven people dead.

Until the latest announcement, the rate had been unchanged at 7.5 percent since February.

The bank said it moved to cut rates because fourth quarter eco-nomic growth did not show sig-nificant improvement and inflation remained low. (afp)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s president ordered police on Wednes-day to step up surveillance after at least a dozen people went missing and are believed to have joined a little known group that authorities have described as radical and dangerous.

The order from President Joko Widodo came during a period of heightened concern about the danger of Islamist militants and a crackdown by counter-terrorism police on people with suspected links to Islamic State.

The more than a dozen men and woman were reported miss-ing by their families and there were strong indications they had joined a group known as Gafatar, authorities have said.

“This has the potential to disturb public security,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in an online statement. “We have been asked by President Joko Widodo to monitor this.”

Anung said little was known about the group but the re-ligious affairs ministry had been asked to help the police in investigating.

Police last month rounded up several men across Java island who were found with bomb-making materials, a suicide-bomb vest, and books on waging jihad.

The men were believed to have been targeting Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations in the capital, Jakarta, and other cities. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has set up an agency to restore about 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of carbon-rich peatland damaged by fires that sent smoke across the region last year angering neighbouring countries.

The region suffers every dry season from so-called haze caused by smouldering fires, often set deliberately to clear land for palm oil plantations on Sumatra and Borneo islands.

“I have tasked this agency with creating and implementing an action plan so that we can convince the world that we are very serious about overcoming the damage caused to forests and peatlands,” Widodo told reporters late on Wednesday.

The agency will work until 2020 in seven provinces on Su-matra, Kalimantan, and Papua islands.

The fires and pollution were particularly bad last year because of dry weather caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon with smoke blanketing neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia for weeks and drifting as far north as the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The fires cost Indonesia $16 billion, according to the gov-ernment.

Efforts by Indonesia and neighbouring countries to prevent the fires, and put them out after they start, have shown little success. The fires last year only ended when the rainy season arrived.

A $565 million lawsuit brought by Indonesia against a pulp and paper company was rejected by a court last month, dealing a blow to government efforts to punish those who set the fires to clear land.

The Southeast Asian nation is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. (rtr)

Indonesia sets up peatland restoration

agency after fires

Missing Indonesians raise concern about “dangerous” group

REUTERS/Beawiharta

A worker carries packs of clothes as he walks near an adver-tisement at the Tanah Abang textile market in Jakarta, Indo-nesia January 13, 2016. Indonesia’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly a year to help shore up the weak economy.

Indonesia cuts interest rates to help economic growth

Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said Thursday that the Metropolitan police will train 600 more firearms officers, increas-ing the number of armed officers to around 2,800. The police will also double the number of armed re-sponse vehicles — giving authori-ties the ability to respond quickly to any attack.

“By increasing the number of armed response vehicle officers we have we can make sure that our fire-arms response continues to come from a group of highly specialist and highly skilled officers,” Hogan-Howe said in a statement.

The Met declined to say how many armed officers might be on the streets at any one time, saying that to “provide such detail may be of use to those who plan to attack London.”

Londoners are proud that most police do not carry guns, and the decision announced Thursday after a review does not change the fun-damental principle that they should routinely be unarmed. Even with the changes, 92 percent of London’s 31,000 police officers will be not carry guns.

But the Paris attacks — in which gunmen fired into crowds of people — underscored the challenge police

face in responding to a situation in which they are outgunned.

“The tragic attacks in Paris re-inforced the vital role that firearms officers would be called upon to play on behalf of all of us, to run forward and confront the deadly threat that such attackers would pose,” Hogan-Howe said “Whilst I sincerely hope it is something that never happens on our streets, it is only right that the Met are as ready as can be.”

Armed response vehicle officers are trained to respond to so-called “marauding terrorist firearms” at-tacks. Such training was developed following attacks in India in 2008, a series of bombings and shootings in the heart of Mumbai that killed 166 people. (ap) JERUSALEM - Israel’s 92-

year-old former President Shimon Peres suffered a “mild” heart at-tack Thursday but was in “excel-lent” condition following a heart procedure, his personal physician said.

Peres was rushed to a hospital near Tel Aviv from his home on Thursday morning after he fell ill with chest pains and a check-up found an irregular heart rate, his spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch told Israeli Army Radio.

His personal physician Raphi Walden said Peres had a “mild heart attack” but that “his condition is excellent” following a successful cardiac catheterization.

“I would like to calm the people of Israel,” Walden told reporters outside the Tel Hashomer hospital. “He feels very well and he is awake. He was awake the whole time and he is only worried about the con-tinuation of his schedule.”

Walden said that Peres was expected to stay in hospital for “a few days.” “We expect that within a short time he will return to normal,” he added.

Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize

in 1994 following the signing of the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated, and Palestinian leader Yasser Ara-fat. The prize earned him his stature abroad as a revered statesman.

Peres completed his seven year term as president in 2014 and re-mains in the public eye. He is still active through his non-governmen-tal Peres Center for Peace, which promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews and peace and de-velopment in the Middle East.

Peres has filled nearly every position in Israeli public life since he became the director general of the Defense Ministry at the age of 29 and spearheaded the develop-ment of Israel’s nuclear program. A protégé of the country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Peres was first elected to parliament in 1959.

He has since held every major Cabinet post - including defense, finance and foreign affairs â?? and served three brief stints as prime minister in 1977, 1984 and 1995. (ap)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The leader of al-Qaida has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia after the kingdom’s mass execution of 47 people in January, many of whom were tied to the terror group.

Al-Zawahiri’s comments came in a seven-minute audio record-ing released earlier this week and reported by a U.S.-based terror monitor, the SITE Intelligence

Group, on Thursday.In it, the Egyptian doctor and

militant leader exhorted his follow-ers to launch new attacks against the interests of the kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family, which he called a “rotten regime that corrupted your religion.”

Al-Zawahiri also called for attacks on “the Zionist-Crusader alliance”, referring to Israel and its

Western allies, as “this is what hurts Al Saud much.”

However, Saudi Arabia likely faces a greater threat from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group, which has claimed a series of attacks in the kingdom in recent months, than al-Qaida itself.

The Jan. 2 Saudi executions included a number of people con-

victed in al-Qaida attacks that roiled the kingdom some 10 years ago. In the time since, however, al-Qaida has been eclipsed by the Islamic State group, a breakaway faction that holds territory in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Zawahiri’s message comes amid high tensions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite power Iran over the executions,

which included that of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Al-Zawahiri dismissed the kill-ing of al-Nimr as part of the “Saudi-Iranian competition for power in the region.” After his death, protesters in Iran attacked two of the king-dom’s diplomatic posts and the kingdom cuts diplomatic ties to the Islamic Republic, raising regional tensions. (ap)

Al-Qaida leader threatens Saudi Arabia over mass execution

London police increase number of officers

who are armed

AP Photo/Frank Augstein

An armed police officer guards the entrance of Horse Guards prior to the New Year’s Eve cel-ebrations in central London, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015. Security is going to high in the capital this New Year’s Eve following the Paris attacks and with Belgium authorities cancelling the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Brussels after a terrorism threat.

LONDON — London has put more armed police officers on the streets — a direct consequence of the attacks on a nightclub and restaurants in Paris last year.

AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File

FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 2, 2015 file photo, former Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Jerusalem. Israel’s 92-year-old Peres was rushed to hospital Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, following chest pains and underwent a heart procedure, his spokeswoman said.

Israel’s Shimon Peres suffers ‘mild’ heart attack

Bali News Friday, January 15, 2016 5InternationalFriday, January 15, 201612 International

BUSINESS

SEOUL — South Korea’s cen-tral bank trimmed its growth fore-cast for the country’s economy on Thursday, citing the instability in Chinese markets.

The Bank of Korea predicting that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will grow 3.0 percent this year, down from an earlier estimate of 3.2 percent. Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said the volatility in Chi-nese financial markets and a sharp drop in the South Korean currency were behind the revision.

The central bank said a recovery in consumer spending could be limited by the phase-out in con-sumption tax cuts and slowing sales of housing markets. Private capital spending will likely see slower growth due to uncertainties at home and abroad, it added.

The bank’s outlook is more optimistic than private economic

research centers but is broadly in line with the financial ministry’s forecast.

Still, its downward revision is the latest reminder that the once dynamic Asian economy is losing steam. South Korean manufacturing companies that used to fuel growth and development of the country with exports of ships, cars, steel, televisions and memory chips are quickly losing edge, coming under threats from Chinese companies.

Exports last year dropped 8 per-cent from a year earlier. The coun-try’s trade ministry said exports will recovery slightly this year, gaining 2 percent from last year.

South Korea’s economy has been increasingly relying on do-mestic demand for growth as exports remained weak. That trend is likely to continue this year, the central bank said. (ap)

Regional equities plunged as jittery investors reacted to a slump on Wall Street as oil saw another drop and the Federal Reserve released a lukewarm report on the US economy.

Global markets have been in free-fall since the beginning of the year, largely on the back of worries about a growth slowdown in China -- a key driver of the world economy.

Plunging oil rates overshadowed a better-than-forecast Chinese trade report Wednesday, which provided some rare good news about the Asian economic giant.

Crude prices, which have plum-meted about 70 percent in 18 months -- continue to tumble, with news that US stockpiles had risen last week add-ing to the sense of gloom. The Brent

contract on Wednesday fell below $30, a day after the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) did the same.

The Fed’s closely watched Beige Book report pointed to more sluggish US economic growth, throwing cold water on the likelihood its policy board will add to December’s inter-est rate hike when it next meets later this month.

In Tokyo, the dollar weakened to 117.56 yen, from 117.72 yen in New York, while the euro was also lower at 127.87 yen against 128.00 yen.

The euro edged up to $1.0883 from $1.0874. The yen is widely seen as a safe asset in times of uncertainty and turmoil.

“There is a trend of yen buying amid falls in global stock markets,” Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities, told Bloomberg News.

But the dollar picked up against emerging market currencies, with the South Korean won down 0.6 percent and the oil-reliant Malaysian ringgit weakening 0.4 percent.

The Australian dollar was 0.2 per-

cent lower but supported by a better-than-expected jobs report.

Indonesia’s rupiah shed 0.9 percent after reports emerged of a huge blast in Jakarta that had killed at least three people.

“We’re in a perfect storm,” said Yousef Abbasi, global market strate-gist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in New York.

“Even though we knew a lot of these factors in the past, they all seemed to come together at the start of 2016 to take a bite out of people.” (afp)

SINGAPORE - Oil prices lin-gered near $30 a barrel in Asia Thursday, with analysts warning they could fall further as a rise in US stocks added to fears a glut in world supplies will last until next year.

Global crude benchmark Brent slipped below the psychologically

key point to a 12-year low in the previous session after data showed stockpiles rose in top consumer the US.

The looming return of Iranian oil to world markets after the final implementation of a deal on its nuclear programme -- which Tehran expects by Sunday -- also weighed

on prices.US benchmark West Texas In-

termediate for delivery in February was up 33 cents at $30.81 at around 0810 GMT. Brent crude for Febru-ary was trading 10 cents higher at $30.41 after lingering below $30 in the morning.

“Oil prices continued trend-

ing downwards this week amid persistent concerns on global oversupply,” Sanjeev Gupta, who heads the Asia Pacific oil and gas practice at EY, told AFP.

Oil prices have collapsed by about two thirds in 18 months as supplies outweighed demand

growth due to a slowdown in the world economy, and particularly in key consumer China.

Adding to that picture, a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) report released Wednesday showed domestic oil stockpiles rose 200,000 barrels in the week ending January 8. (afp)

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

A woman walks by a sale sign at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. South Korea’s central bank has trimmed its outlook on Asia’s fourth-largest economy, citing the instability in Chinese markets.

Oil prices stay near $30 a barrel on oversupply worries

Yen picks up, emerging units fall as sentiment sours

TOKYO - The yen rallied in Asia Thursday as traders fled higher-risk assets, pushing down emerging currencies as a rout that has swept global markets at the start of the year resumed.

South Korea’s central bank trims growth outlook to 3 percent

SINGARAJA - Normally farmers in Buleleng harvest their rice paddy crops in March, however due to this year’s extreme weather conditions, they have been forced to delay planting their seedlings. As of mid-January, only 1,706 hectares of the 13,170 hectares of potential paddy fields have been planted.

Some of Buleleng’s subaks have already started making prepara-tions for planting their fields, but because the rains have not come, irrigation water has been scarce, so they have delayed planting their fields. Rice seedlings that are old enough to be planted must wait patiently in their rice seedling plots until it’s their subak’s turn to access the irrigation water.

Head of the Buleleng Agriculture and Livestock Agency, Nyoman Swatantra, accompanied by Division Head of Rice and Crop Produc-tion, I Gede Suadnyana, said that the impact of extreme weather these days is indeed unpredictable. There is not much farmers can do, he said, because Buleleng’s paddy fields depend on subak irrigation water. Normally the planting season coincides with the start of the rainy season -when there is a natural increase in the volume of water available to the irrigation, but delays in the arrival of the rains, mean delays in the planting of rice paddy plants. “Based on the reports that we have received, many subaks have delayed planting their paddy plants, due to the lack of irrigation water. Natural factors like rainfall are clearly beyond the control of the famers,” he said.

In order to accelerate the rate at which the fields are planted once the rains do come, Buleleng’s Agriculture and Livestock Agency have purchased mechanized agriculture equipment, including 50 tractors and transplanting machines. With the approval of subak administrators, farmers will be able to borrow these machined by submitting a request to do so. A number of water pumps and pipeline have also been acquired to suck up water from paddy field wells.

“We have appealed to farmers to speed up the cultivation of their plots of land and we have machines that can borrow to help them speed up the planting process in the next two months,” said Swatantra. Statistical data indicate that Buleleng’s total area of paddy fields amounts to some 10,700 hectares and are spread across seven subdistricts no including Tejakula and Gerokgak. Anywhere between 6 to 7 tons of rice per hectare are yielded each harvest. In 2015 the Agriculture and Livestock Agency aimed to yield 139,000 tons of rice but feel 6 tons short of their target, having yielded 133.000 tons of rice. The target was not reaches due to the extremely long dry season that impacted productivity. Buleleng was nonetheless able to meet the needs of the people in this subdistrict and there was in fact a surplus of rice. (kmb38)

“Originally, I was deeply in-volved in creating bamboo crafts, but I had a lot of competitors, so I switched to pressed bamboo works,” said Suwirya on Tuesday (Jan. 12) when journalists visited his residence.

Suwirya explained that he started his business in 2009 and that he never went to school for bamboo, but instead learned all his manufacturing techniques from the internet. He gradually amassed enough knowledge and practice to finally be able to cre-ate a successful product. “I just looked for different techniques

online, kept experimenting and finally it got it,” explained Su-wirya.

Due to his diligence and per-severance, this junior high-school graduate, is now able to produce bamboo products such as beams and boards. Although he does sell these products as building materials, his pressed bamboo is also used for making gazebos and sculptures. Apart from tourism areas in Bali, Suwirya’s bamboo products are also sold in Jakarta, Bogor and even overseas.

In fact, he is sometimes de-layed in delivering his orders

when they involve large quanti-ties. “I have many orders but am unable to meet them all because of my limited production capac-ity. It takes me a month to com-plete a gazebo,” he said.

This 28-year old man added that he sells his gazebos for be-tween IDR 50-60 million, while his pressed bamboo beams are sold for IDR 32 million per cubic meter. What may seem like high prices, are in fact representative of the quality of these products. “The quality of this bamboo is very good and even better than many woods,” he explained.

To demonstrate just how good this pressed bamboo is, Suwirya’s newly build house is made almost entirely of bamboo, including the doors, window frames and other interior elements. “I used this product on my own home - it is very strong,” he concluded. (kmb45)

BANGLI - In response to the violence and crime that were often triggered by drunkeness, in 2001, Bangli’s Pengotan customary vil-lage created an awig-awig (cus-tomary law) to discourage people from drinking alcohol. Jro Kopok, Chief of Pengotan Village recently explained that this awig-awig penalizes anyone who is caught consuming alcohol, causing a commotion or fighting, or selling alcohol in the village.

The sanctions imposed on those found to be in volition of the awig-awig, include the obligation to hold a resigana alit ceremony in the out-ermost courtyard of the village tem-ple. “Since such behaviours qualify as having caused a commotion, it is necessary to hold an resigana alit ceremony, all the expenses of which are charged to the violator. We the

customary authorities, judge those caught violating the awig-awig, and impose appropriate sanctions,” explained Jro Kopok.

The imposition of relatively se-vere sanctions is meant to serve as a deterrent for prospective violators. “We included a customary law relat-ed to alcohol as way to show people the kinds of behaviours that should be modelled as well as the kinds of behaviours that should be avoided be-cause they can bring about sanctions that must be imposed,” he said.

Kopok said that this awig-awig has in fact been ,very effective in suppressing the widespread cir-culation of alcohol in the village, and since the bylaw has been put in place there have absolutely no cases of young people fighting or committing violent acts because of drunkenness. (kmb40)

Pengotan village’s sober awig-awig

Extreme weatherBuleleng paddy

planting delayedIBP/Sosiawan

Nengah Suwirya is showing one of the pressed bamboo products

Pressed bamboo products sold overseas

MANY regions in Bangli have a lot of potential to grow bam-boo that is used in customary ceremonies and is also the raw materials for a wide range of products including sokasi (oblation basket), laundry baskets and so forth. For Gebagan hamlet, Kayubihi village, resident I Nengah Suwirya, this versatile plant is transformed into a pressed bamboo product that resembles wooden logs that are be sold for millions of rupiah.

AMLAPURA - Many hectares of paddy fields at Asak, Timbrah and surrounding area are cracked from dryness. Local Timrah village farmer, Ni Nengah Arti, explained

than as she plowed her field last week, the soil was just barely wet, but that with the help of a tractor she was still able to plant her paddy seedlings.

Unfortunately just one week after planting them, water from the irrigation channels stopped flowing altogether so her seedling shrivelled up, and soil turned pale

and cracked. In the past, the seventh month of

the Balinese calendar (January) was always the peak of the rainy season with an abundance of water. How-

ever due to climate change, it has hardly rained at all in Karagasem over the past few weeks. People are sweltering under the heat of the sun and may people suspect that the clouds are being blasted with laser beams to prevent it from raining on building projects. This obvisouly outrages many people.

Ni Made Arti, fears that paddy fields owned by Asak custom-ary village will continue to be drought stricken causing ongoing crop failure. According to subak authorities the water discharge from the local springs is very low, so paddy fields upstream cannot access water.

As seen by reporters on Wednes-day (Jan 12) afternoon, Asak village paddy fields -located to the South and to the North of of the village, have become totally dried out, making it impossible for farmers to grow rice paddy. A few fields have been planted with peanuts, but most are so parched that even grasses have turned yellow. Water from the Municipal Waterworks (PDAM) at Asak at Timbrah has not flowed to peoples homes for some time now, so local residents have been bathing in irrigation channels that still have a bit of water. (013)

His life of exile is framed by wars that redrew borders and scattered centuries-old communities, and his trauma is shared by millions across the Middle East, who have packed their belongings and bundled up their families to seek safety far from their home-lands, joining the largest wave of refugees since World War II.

His odyssey began in 1948, when he was among the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in Israel’s War of Independence. In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of Jews from ancient communities across the Middle East emigrated to Israel, often after suffering persecution.

“We fled our homes in Palestine in 1948 to Jordan on the back of a truck,” Mahmoud said. His family then flew to Basra, a swel-tering city at the southern tip of Iraq, on the Persian Gulf.

“When we came to Basra, my father started to sell falafel. It was new here so busi-ness was going well,” he said. But the family struggled to adapt to their new surroundings, far from the temperate Levant.

“Life in Basra was difficult. It was dusty and the water wasn’t clean where we lived,” he said. Unable to find anywhere else to live, Ibrahim and his family took refuge in an abandoned synagogue with other Palestinian families, living there for 30 years, he said.

Up to 70,000 Palestinians lived in Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, accord-ing to numbers provided by the U.N. refugee agency. Saddam Hussein’s government pro-claimed solidarity with the Palestinians, who

were allowed to work and even hold govern-ment jobs but were never granted citizenship. After the U.S.-led invasion, however, many Iraqis viewed the Palestinians as complicit with the former regime, and the refugees fled from discrimination and growing unrest. Of-ficial figures do not exist, but the U.N. refugee agency estimates that just 3,000 Palestinians remain in the country today.

In the mid-1970s, Mahmoud, his wife and five children moved to Mosul after he was told by an old man who had fought in the 1948 war that he would feel more at home in the northern city. “He told me there was a place in Iraq just like Palestine. There’s grass everywhere and rivers. And they have oranges there,” he said.

The city was just as the man had described, but Mahmoud struggled to make ends meet, in part because of the crippling international sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s. His children were forced to work instead of at-tending school. “We had to make sure there was bread on the table, so that’s all we could give them,” he said.

They remained in Mosul during the chaos that engulfed Iraq after 2003, when the city saw heavy fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents and frequent bombings.

As the fighting slowly died down and U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, Mahmoud might have thought his lifelong flight from war was finally over, that while he may never see Haifa again he could at least live in peace. But then a hot summer’s night in June 2014 was shattered by the grimly familiar thud of explosions and rattle

of gunfire, as the Islamic State group swept into Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Within weeks the extremist group would add vast swaths of northern and western Iraq to its territory in neighboring Syria, establishing a self-styled caliphate governed by a chilling interpretation of Islamic law.

Mahmoud and his family, which by then included 11 children, remained until August of that year, before once again packing their belongings and bidding farewell to a place they had called home. “I saw people being beheaded in the streets. What kind of life is that?” Mahmoud said.

Now he and his family live in the Baharka refugee camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where some 4,000 people huddle in tents pitched along muddy roads. The winter rains send water into the tents, and Mahmoud, who is in his late 70s, says he struggles to walk through the mud.

His 35-year-old son Thamer, who works as a barber in the camp, was born and raised in Iraq but has always felt like an outsider.

“As far as I can remember I have been living in Iraq. But I don’t feel I’m in my homeland, because my ID says I’m a refu-gee,” he said. (ap)

Bali News International4 Friday, January 15, 2016 Friday, January 15, 2016 13International

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER - A British ex-soldier who tried to smuggle a 4-year-old Afghan girl into Britain at her father’s request was no hero but wanted “to save a little girl” and put a human face on the plight of refugees, he said hours before going on trial in France.

The 49-year-old British father-of-four faces up to five years in jail and a 30,000-euro ($32,500, or 22,500 pounds) fine for aiding illegal immigration, in a case that goes to the heart of Europe’s dilemma over how to deal with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

Lawrie said he felt he must act to help refugees after pictures of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi stirred worldwide sympathy in September for Syrians and Afghans fleeing war and poverty.

The day after seeing the picture, he went to help migrants in the squalid “jungle” camp in Calais, northern France, where he met Bahar Ahmadi, known as Bru, and her father, who asked Lawrie to take the girl to Britain.

He refused several times but relented on Oct.24 as nights grew colder in the camp. He set off in his van with Bru but French police caught him, also finding two Eritrean men in the back of the vehicle, and returned Bahar to her father in the camp.

“Selfishly for me, my thought is one of fear. I don’t

want to go to jail,” Lawrie told reporters ahead of the trial.

“I also like to think we’ve changed the public im-age of young men trying to get on trains and trucks,” he said after arriving at the news conference carrying in his arm the little Afghan girl, who was smiling and eating candies. “We’ve put a compassionate image on the refugee crisis in northern France.”

He said he regretted what he called an irrational decision and wouldn’t recommend that anyone else try to do the same, but also added: “I don’t understand why other people around the world are not getting as emotional as me.”

An estimated 4,000 people live in the Calais “jungle” and some 3,000 in another nearby camp, hoping to reach Britain, where better job opportunities and the more familiar English language are big lures. Most at-tempt the crossing by trying to board trains or trucks.

Lawrie’s lawyer said she would try to get him cleared of all charges, basing her case on a part of French law that protects from punishment those who help migrants in danger without being paid in return.

As many European governments tighten their migra-tion policies, a growing number of individuals choose to go out and help, sometimes illegally, according to researcher Francois Gemenne, a specialist on immigra-tion. (rtr)

Briton goes on trial in France for trying to smuggle Afghan child into UK

AP Photo/Jon Super

Former British soldier Rob Lawrie sits by a computer after an interview with the Associated Press in Guiseley, England, Friday Jan. 8, 2016. Rob Lawrie had a choice. On one side lay the law _ you can’t sneak a 4-year-old girl across international borders _ and on the other side sat his sentiments: How could he leave that girl trapped in a squalid migrant camp? He led with his heart _ and was caught.

Palestinian refugee driven into new exile by ISBAHARKA REFUGEE CAMP — As a nine-year-old boy, Ibrahim Mahmoud

fled his hometown of Haifa on the back of a truck during the 1948 war that attended the creation of Israel. Now, as a hunched old man, he is once again encamped far from home, having fled the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

AP Photo/Bram Janssen

This Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 photo shows Ibrahim Mahmoud standing in Baharka refugee camp in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. At the age of 9, during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war he fled his native Haifa with his family to Iraq and he hasn’t left ever since. The now 76 year-old never got rid of the refugee status.

“We have not been received by the governor and although we have sent a letter there has been no re-sponse. Be patient, later on we will surely be able to meet with him,” said Chairman of PHDI’s team 9, Ida Mpu Jaya Acharyananda, when contacted by phone on Wednesday (Jan. 13).

Ida Mpu said that he did not want any personal opinions affecting the decisions taken by Team 9. His team is therefor still trying to get comprehensive data from relevant institutions, especially information from the state agency (the govern-ment) because his team was cre-ated with the mandate to explore and discover as much as possible about relevant parties that make the rules and issue permits as well as information about the extent of the possible consequences of going ahead with the proposed project.

“There lies the problem. It is not a matter of whether we reject the plan or not. We need to first think very carefully, weighing all

the facts, lest we become mired in politics or pragmatism. We want to maintain the integrity of our institu-tion (parisadha),” he said.

Ida Mpu then said that Team 9 still has until February 22, 2016 to explore the issues related Benoa Bay, but that he understands the publics insistence that Team 9 take immediate action. Team 9, he add-ed, does not want to disregard any public groups, whether they are for or against the reclamation plan.

“We want to be impartial. As the parisadha (council), what’s more -as higher priests, we have to think clearly. We may not take sides, but must always uphold the truth of the scriptures,” he explained.

Ida Mpu promised to give a state-ment related to the Benoa Bay plan after January 15. Of course, Team 9 has to have managed to meet with related government officials and have obtained comprehensive data from them. He again emphasized that Team 9 realizes that the public is concerned about what measures

they are taking to address the is-sue. “Apparently there is concern about us needing to first meet with the government. We do not want to resolve anything emotionally, let us first calm down, because the

mandate of our decree is to explore relevant agencies. Meanwhile, what happens at the grass roots level are sporadic movements not bona fide institutions. This does not neces-sarily mean that we do not agree,

as they are our children that should be heard. But, we need to listen to everyone. Just like the Hindu proverb says “clear ideas may come from anywhere”. That is what we want,” he explained. (kmb32)

PHDI’s Team 9 to meet GovernorDENPASAR - Team 9 of the Hindu Dharma Council of Indo-

nesia (PHDI) Bali is apparently still waiting to receive compre-hensive data regarding the Benoa Bay reclamation plan, from the government -especially the Governor of Bali. Team 9, that consists of high priests (sulinggih) have thus been unable to come to a decision regarding the Benoa Bay plan, and unable to meet with the Love Bali Froum who organized a group discussion involving several groups, on Tuesday (January 12).

IBP/Eka Adhiyasa

The Love Bali Forum discuss the reclamation plan with Team 9 of the Hindu Dharma Council of Indonesia (PHDI) Bali.

Hectares of paddy fields in Karangasem hit by drought

14 InternationalFashionFriday, January 15, 2016 3International Bali News Friday, January 15, 2016

LOS ANGELES — Move over New York City, Paris and Milan, there’s a new fashioni-sta on the rise: Los Angeles. Stella McCartney made a glitzy, star-studded Hollywood debut Tuesday. The British de-signer followed on the heels of brands like Burberry and Tom Ford who recently brought their runway shows to the West Coast.

“It just really felt like the time to have it in L.A.,” said McCartney, who has previously presented in New York and London. “It’s such a great place for music, for fashion, for film, for entertainment, for the arts, and it just felt like the right time and the right city.”

Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hud-son, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom and Demi Lovato were among the guests at the presentation held at the record store, Amoeba Music.

“It’s a movement! I love it!” said celebrity stylist and designer Rachel Zoe. “I do think designers have really fallen in love with L.A. ... I think everyone’s figuring out this is the best place to live and the best place to be and that there’s a huge market out here and a huge client base.”

McCartney’s pre-fall collection included silky dresses, oversized coats and cozy knitwear in playful patterns and animal prints.

Loose-fitting trousers and blous-es had blue and gold diagonal stripes or geometric color-blocking, and feminine floral dresses were layered under colorful tulle.

“The collection is very much about celebrating the rejuvenation of a woman’s wardrobe,” said the designer and daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney. “Looking at pieces that go from day to eve-ning. ... Lots of prints, lots of cats, lots of leopard.”

Models danced on platforms and played arcade games before performances by Brian Wilson, Pink and Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson.

“I think it’s a great,” said “Mad Men” actress Kiernan Shipka. “L.A. is a really, really cool town and I love that Stella knows how to throw party.” (ap)

“We remain wary of Gafatar in our efforts to avoid untoward inci-dents from occurring in Bali and Nusa Tenggara,” Udayana Military Command spokesman Lieutenant Colonel (inf) Hotman Hutahaean

remarked on Wednesday.Hutahaean affirmed that they

will continue to remain vigilant as the TNI had indicated the spread of the organization in the areas of Bali and Nusa Tenggara.

However, he did not reveal de-tails regarding the region where the organization is still operating.

Hutahaean stated that the Udaya-na Military Command was intensi-fying its efforts due to the existence of the organization, founded in 2012, including the activities of its members.

“We have yet to arrive at a conclusion. We are still studying

and learning about the extent of its activities,” he affirmed.

Muhammadiyah Amin, secre-tary of the Directorate General of Islamic Guidance at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, remarked in Jakarta on Wednesday that the teachings of Gafatar are misguid-ing and misleading, and therefore, Muslims must be wary of its movement.

Amin noted that Gafatar was not registered at the Ministry of Reli-gious Affairs, and thus, he was not in a position to stop the activities of the organization.

He further acknowledged that the negative impact of Gafatar’s activities were already being felt by the public after members of several families recently went miss-ing. (ant)

DENPASAR - The nation’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has opened a new route to China between Bali’s Denpasar and Shanghai starting on Wednesday.

Earlier Garuda already had regu-lar flights between Denpasar and Beijing and between Denpasar and Guangzhou.

Commercial Director of Garuda Indonesia, Handayani, said in a statement on Thursday China has been one of the focuses for interna-tional flights of the airline aiming to facilitate tourists from the world’s most populous country.

China is one of the most po-

tential tourism markets in the world with around 100 million Chinese traveling abroad every year.

The number of Chinese visi-tors to Indonesia has increased from year to year - up 25 percent on year in the first eight months of 2015.

“Chinese are the second largest in number after Australians visiting Bali every year. Certainly China is a potential market for Garuda,” Handayani said.

Garuda Indonesia serves the Denpasar - Shanghai route three times a week round trips every

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday using A330-300 aircraft with a seat capacity of b360 passengers. The first flight by GA 858 took off at 16.15 local time from Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport and arrived in Shanghai at 23.30 local time on Wednesday. Meanwhile, GA 859 took off from Shanghai at 01.00 and landed at Denpasar at 08.35 local time on Thursday.

The opening of the new route is expected to contribute to reaching the country’s target of increasing the number of foreign tourists to 12 million in 2016 and 20 million in 2020.

From Denpasar as a hub of Garuda Indonesia, foreign tour-ists could proceed to other tourist destinations in the country such as Lombok, Makassar, Menado, Labuan Bajo, and Yogyakarta, Handayani said.

Including from Jakarta, Garuda serves 10 direct flights per week from Indonesia to Shanghai.

Altogether Garuda serves 26 flights from Indonesia to China a week with the three destinations; Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, via Jakarta and Denpasar.

In the flights to the Chinese cit-ies, Garuda uses Chinese nationals

as cabin crew to make it easier in communications with Chinese pas-sengers.

Garuda also plans to serve char-ter flights from Chinese cities like Chengdu, Chong Qin, Hefei, Kunming, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Tianjing, Taiyuan, and Xian to Indonesia in January and March, 2016.

In February, 2015, and July in the same year, Garuda Indonesia already opened charter flights from Chengdu, Chong Qin, Ningbo, Kunming, Junan, Harbin, Xian, Shenyang dan Chengzhou to Den-pasar and Manado. (ant)

Stella McCartney on trend withstar-studded

Hollywood soiree

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Gwyneth Paltrow, left, and Stella McCartneyRich Fury/Invision/AP

Demi Lovato

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Kelly OsbourneRich Fury/Invision/AP

Katy Perry

Bali on guard against “Gafatar”DENPASAR - The Udayana Military Command in the Indo-

nesian island resort of Bali is on guard against the Nusantara Daybreak Movement (Gafatar), a banned mass organization whose teachings are considered misleading.

Garuda opens another flight route to China

IBP/File Photo

The nation’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has opened a new route to China between Bali’s Denpasar and Shanghai starting on Wednesday.

Islamist radicals have been blamed for a number of attacks around the country since the Bali bombings, which were attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qai-da-linked Southeast Asian group.

However, Jakarta had not been targeted since the bombings in 2009 of two American-managed hotels that killed at least eight people.

The recent growth of the Islamic State group, and fears that Indonesians who joined the group’s fighting in Syria could bring their struggle home,

have sharpened concerns about security.

Luhut Pandjaitan, a Cabinet minister in charge of security and political affairs, said in De-cember that the government had received serious intelligence about the possibility of attacks during the Christmas-New Year’s period. National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti sounded a similar warning.

Anti-terror police had ar-rested nine men in five cities on Indonesia’s main island of Java, and Badrodin said intelligence gleaned from the suspects and evidence seized from their hide-outs revealed an elaborate plot to kill police, government of-ficials, Shiite followers and oth-ers considered to be enemies of their faith. The vast majority of Indonesia’s more than 200 mil-lion Muslims follow the Sunni brand of Islam.

National police spokesman Maj. Gen. Anton Charliyan said the group collaborated with Indonesia militants who had fought for IS in Syria. “They

want to perform a ‘concert’ to attract international news cover-age of their existence here,” he said, explaining that references in document seized in the raids using the term ‘concert’ referred to planned attacks.

Anton said police have identi-fied about 240 people who have returned home out of at least 800 Indonesians who have traveled to the Middle East to join Islamic State.

At the same time, about 1,300 security personnel are hunt-ing for Santoso, the leader of a militant group known as the East Indonesia Mujahidin. He has taken responsibility for the killing of several police officers and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Cabinet minister Luhut said.

Santoso also faces charges of running an extremist training camp in Poso, a flashpoint of terrorism in Central Sulawesi where a Muslim-Christian con-flict killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002. (ap)

International2 15International Activities

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

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Friday, January 15, 2016Friday, January 15, 2016

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

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

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

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

Balinese Temple Ceremony

COVER STORYFrom page 1Blamed ...

AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

Police officers examine debris at the site where an explo-sion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bustling shopping area of downtown Jakarta and waged gun-battles with police Thursday, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise windows.

The perpetrator, who carried out the shooting, was a man wear-ing a short-sleeved shirt, while the others wore long-sleeved shirts and entered the cafe that was targeted in the bomb attack.

At first, Ruli thought that the shock wave he felt from the ex-plosion was that of an earthquake, but after going downstairs, he witnessed the blast and a person being thrown out of the cafe due to the impact of the explosion.

Another witness said there were three suicide bombers who blew themselves up near a police check post at the Jakarta Theatre Building on the M.H. Thamrin Boulevard.

Tri Feranto, an eye witness who is a security officer at Mandi-ri Bank, claimed that the first and second explosions occurred at

the Starbucks cafe at 10:35 a.m. local time.

The third explosion at a police check post was carried out by the three suicide bombers, in which a policeman was injured.

After the third explosion, a series of shootings took place that targeted the police, and two officers were injured during the gunfight.

Feranto claimed to have seen the face of the perpetrator who passed in front of him.

“He looked like an immigrant having dark skin, was not too tall, and still young,” he explained.

Press attache of the French Cultural Agency (IFI) Dwi Set-yowati whose office is near the bombing sites pointed out that he heard five explosions and gunshots.

“All staff members at the IFI

and French Embassy are pro-hibited from going outside right now,” she added.

The buildings and shops along

the Thamrin Boulevard have been cordoned off. Some helicopters are conducting aerial monitoring of the situation. (ant)

December, 2000: Improvised bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches and clergymen kill 19 people and injure scores more across Indonesia. October, 2002: Bombs at crowd-

ed nightspots in the resort island of Bali kill 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Indonesia’s worst ever terror attack. September, 2004: A suicide car

bomb kills 10 outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. May, 2005: Twin bomb blasts kill

22 in a market in the Central Sulawesi town of Tentena in an attack bearing the hallmarks of JI. October, 2008: Three suicide

bombers detonate explosives at tourist spots on Bali, killing 20. November, 2008: Imam Samudra,

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron are executed for helping plan the 2002 Bali bombings and channeling funds for the attack. July, 2009: Seven people are

killed, six of them foreigners, and more than 40 injured when suicide bombers target the luxury Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta. August and September, 2009:

Police kill Noordin Mohammed Top, a Malaysian suspected of orchestrat-ing the Bali bombings, during a Java raid. Three of his associates are also killed as police uncover an alleged plot to use a truck bomb to assas-sinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. June, 2011: Abu Bakar Bashir,

a spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia and a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, is jailed for 15 years for funding a terrorist group. June, 2013: Badri Hartono, leader

of a group called Al-Qaeda Indonesia, is jailed for 10 years for recruiting people to militant training camps. December, 2014: Police arrest six

people they say were attempting to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State group. In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians were estimated to have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Islamic State militants. November and December, 2015:

Indonesia increases security at airports following a threat directed at one of the airports serving Jakarta. Police foil terror plots being planned by several groups, including a plan to launch a suicide attack on New Year. Experts say two of the groups were linked to IS. (afp)

Timeline of Islamist attacks

in Indonesia

Perpetrators of Jakarta bombings carried firearms

AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim

Police officers examine a police post where an explosion went off in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. The perpetrators behind the bomb blasts at the police check post and Starbucks cafe near the Sarinah departmental store at the Thamrin Boulevard in Central Jakarta were reportedly unmasked and carrying firearms.

JIMBArAN - For Italians, food isn’t just nourishment, it is life. The Italian food culture is all about joy, family and tradition. Grandma’s and Mama’s recipes are passed on with care and pride, each one a symbol of a family’s heritage and roots. Family gatherings are frequent and always centred around food and home cook-ing. Enjoying a meal with the family is the main ingredient of any Italian dish.

At Bella Cucina, they are pleased to introduce cena di familia, representing the importance of spending time with the family and enjoying traditional home-cooked dishes: “Just like Mama used to make.”

The meal will begin with a large sharing platter placed in the middle of the table and filled with cold cuts, marinated vegetables, olives, rustic country breads and a selection of Ital-ian cheeses.

The Primo course will be prepared live by our chef at the table and will

include an impressive choice of home-made pastas with a tasty selection of sauces. It will also include a very important highlight of the event, for which our chef will be reinventing the wheel by scooping out a hollow within a large wheel of Parmesan cheese to create a shallow bowl for blending and mixing his delicious risotto, which will be further enhanced by the rich flavour of the cheese. This is a first for Bali and a “must try.”

For the main course, diners will be able to select their preferences from our special à la carte menu, which will accompanied by a sharing platter of garnishes that typify the rustic Ital-ian countryside style of cooking. The platter will be placed in the centre of the table, just like Mama would have done at home.

Finally, for those with a sweet tooth, our chefs will set up a whole table of desserts, tempting everyone with a wide range of wicked delights to end the cena di familia or family dinner.

THE PErPETrATOrS behind the bomb blasts at the police check post and Starbucks cafe near the Sarinah departmental store at the Thamrin Boulevard in Central Jakarta were reportedly unmasked and carrying firearms. “They were still young and were carrying FN pistols and backpacks,” a witness named ruli stated on Thursday before being evacuated from the scene.

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

Cena di familia

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

IBP/Courtesy of InterContinental

At least seven people were known to have died -- including two who police said blew themselves up in the area which is also overlooked by United Nations offices, in what the country’s president dubbed “acts of terror”.

An unknown number of gunmen were involved in the blasts, includ-ing at a police post that left four mangled bodies lying in the road.

“Five terrorists are dead,” Se-

curity Minister Luhut Panjaitan told reporters. He said that one Indonesian and one Dutch citizen had died, but the Dutch embassy said only that one of its nationals was wounded and being treated in hospital.

While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, they have revived fears that home-grown extremists bloodied on the battlefields of the Middle East with

the Islamic State group could have brought their jihad home.

Indonesia suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 strike on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

A security crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks, leading to a long lull in large-scale strikes.

But the European-based Soufan Group says that of the 500-700 In-donesians who travelled abroad to join the self-proclaimed caliphate of the IS, scores have since returned.

“We know that ISIS has the

desire to declare a province in this region,” said Kumar Ramakrishna, a counter-terrorism analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“The threat of returning South-east Asian fighters radicalised in the Iraq/Syria region are also another factor of concern, together with the possibility of self-radicalised lone wolves appearing in the scene.”

Witnesses to the carnage on Thursday said a powerful explosion ripped through a branch of US cof-fee giant Starbucks before at least one gunman emerged and began shooting at bystanders, reloading

his weapon as police flooded the streets.

In chaotic scenes, security forces moved in behind the cover of mov-ing vehicles, with regular bursts of gunfire and warnings of a sniper in the area. (afp)

Page 6

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Friday, January 15, 2016

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

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

London police increase number of officers who are armed

Page 8 Page 13

Zinedine Zidane looks to keep Real Madrid on a roll

Palestinian refugee driven into new exile by IS

Friday, January 15, 2016

PASADENA - Jennifer Lopez and America Ferrera agree: Televi-sion is embracing diversity, finally. “It’s been coming for many years,” Lopez, promoting her new NBC police drama “Shades of Blue,” told a TV critics’ meeting Wednesday. “There’s no denying what society is right now. It’s not just race, it’s gender, it’s all kind of diversity be-ing showcased.”

She cited the ethnically diverse cast of producer Shonda Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy,” the ABC drama that debuted in 2005, as the “turn-ing point.”

“There’s no getting away from it anymore,” Lopez said.

Ferrera, who stars in NBC’s freshman comedy “Superstore,” lauded the inclusiveness of her show in particular and NBC in general.

“This is the first time I’ve been offered a role that wasn’t written” for a Latino, the former “Ugly Betty” star said at a separate Q&A session with reporters.

She was struck by the fact that the pilot script for “Superstore”

didn’t specify races for the series’ other characters as well, she said. Her co-stars include Nico Santos, a native of the Philippines, and Colton Dunn, who is African-American.

Ferrera also praised NBC’s new trio of Latina-led shows — hers, Lopez’s and Eva Longoria’s “Tele-novela” — as “ground-breaking and history.”

Perhaps it will encourage other broadcasters to “enrich their story-telling by reflecting the world we live,” she said.

Her castmate, Canadian native Mark McKinney, couldn’t resist adding a punchline. He said he applauded NBC and producers for “taking the great step of casting two Canadians,” indicating co-star Lauren Ash.

Speaking to reporters later, Longoria said diversity needs to extend to those in decision-making jobs.

“There’s a lot to be done to have more diversity in front of the camera, but it starts behind the camera.” (ap)

The British rock legend’s death on Sunday at age 69 after an un-disclosed battle with cancer has triggered an outpouring of grief from fans and leading artists, many of whom cite him as a towering influence.

“He was one of the geniuses in the music industry, one of the great singer-songwriters of the 20th century,” Madonna told the audi-

ence at her concert Tuesday night in Houston, according to a video posted online.

Madonna, known for her elabo-rate show routines and expansive sense of sexuality, said that she saw Bowie in Detroit when she was growing up in Michigan and “he changed my life.”

“He showed me that it was okay to be different,” she said.

“He was the first ‘Rebel Heart’ I laid eyes on,” said the pop superstar, referring to the title of her latest album.

With a slideshow of Bowie images on the screen behind her, Madonna sang an energetic cover of his “Rebel Rebel,” throwing down her skirt to prance across the stage in bright purple and red shorts.

Elton John offered a more se-dated cover as he taped an appear-ance on the Sirius XM satellite radio station in Los Angeles.

As his band was still setting up, John spontaneously sang and played piano to “Space Oddity,” Bowie’s early hit with the probing opening lines, “Ground control to Major Tom.”

“We don’t have to say anything about the music: It speaks for itself. He was innovative, he was boundary-changing, and he danced to his own tune -- which in any artist is really rare,” John said, as quoted by Billboard magazine.

John applauded Bowie for keep-ing his illness quiet in an age of 24-hour social media.

“We know David Bowie the figure, the singer, the outrageous performer, but actually, we don’t know anything about him -- and that’s the way it should be in music and should be in any art form what-soever,” he said.

Among other tributes, Britt Daniel, lead singer of indie rock-ers Spoon, posted on Facebook an acoustic cover of Bowie’s “Never Let Me Down” recorded after his death.

“No other artist has meant as much to me personally or inspired my own songs as much,” Daniel wrote.

“What a spirit. What an inspira-tion. What a shining example of the beauty that humanity can create.” (afp)

Madonna, Elton John honor Bowie with covers

NEW YORK - David Bowie’s music has returned to stage after his death, with stars including Madonna and Elton John dedicat-ing emotional tributes to the legend -- by singing his songs.

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Jennifer Lopez

Lopez, Ferrera agree: TV finally embracing diversity

THE DEADLY attacks Thursday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, were not a complete surprise to Indonesian authorities, who warned last month of a credible threat.

The government had deployed 150,000 security personnel to safeguard churches,

airports and other public places across the predominantly Muslim nation, and made a series of pre-emptive arrests. A series of arrests accompanied the warnings, as Indone-sian police said they foiled a plot by suspected Muslim militants to kill government officials, law enforcement officers and others.

The heightened security extended through Christmas and New Year’s before ending Jan. 6.

It’s unclear whether Thursday’s attacks are related to the earlier reported threat. No one has claimed responsi-bility.

Authorities have been keenly aware of the danger of terrorism since bombings in 2002 on the resort island of Bali killed more than 200 people, over half of them foreign tourists.

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AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

Indonesian soldiers man an armored vehicle as they guard near the site where an attack occurred in Jakarta, Indonesia Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bus-tling shopping area in Indonesia’s capital and waged gunbattles with police Thursday, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise windows.

Seven dead as suicide attackers hit Indonesian capital

JAKARTA - Suicide attackers struck the Indonesian capital Thursday, with a series of explosions and gunfire that tore through a Starbucks cafe and shook an embassy district in the Muslim-majority nation.