edisi 17 desember 2010 | international bali post

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For placing advertisment, please contact: Eka Wahyuni 0361-225764 HOTLINE CITY TEMPERATURE O C WEATHER FORECAST 22 - 31 24 - 33 20 - 28 22 - 31 24 - 33 DENPASAR JAKARTA BANDUNG YOGYAKARTA SURABAYA SUNNY BRIGHT/CLOUDY RAIN PAGE 12 Friday, December 17, 2010 16 Pages Number 6 3 rd Year e-mail: [email protected] online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com. I N T E R N A T I O N A L Price: Rp 3.000,- PAGE 6 But no changes to US strategy are expected, despite critics complaints that US policy in war-torn Afghani- stan is too ambitious, challenged by countrywide corruption and that po- litical fragility may make US gains unsustainable. “I doubt there will be, in all hon- esty, a lot of surprise at what the re- view lays out,” White House spokes- man Robert Gibbs said. “There has been some important progress in halting the momentum of the Taliban in Afghanistan. “We have seen, through counterterrorism, success at degrading senior Al- Qaeda leaders. And we?ve seen greater cooperation over the course of the past 18 months with the Paki- Obama to unveil Afghan strategy review Agence France Presse WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is expected to declare Thursday that his strategy in Afghanistan and Pa- kistan is on track, despite record combat deaths and public US tensions with the two countries. Obama will unveil an unclassified version of a sweeping two-month review of US military and civilian operations likely to claim important progress against the Taliban admit severe challenges remain in the nine-year war. AFP PHOTO/Massoud HOSSAINI US Marines from 1st Battalion 8th Marines watch a US Marine CH-53 helicopter drop flares as it leaves Musa Qala in Helmand province on December 14, 2010. The US-led NATO alliance in Afghanistan warned December 13 that foreign soldiers will face further violence in 2011, capping what has been the dead- liest year of the war on record. stani government. “You will also see in the review an enumeration of the continued challenges that we have in that re- gion,” Gibbs told reporters on Tues- day. Administration officials on Wednesday played down two intel- ligence reports cited by two news- papers, which apparently paint a less optimistic picture of the war than that seen in the administration report. US intelligence agencies believe the US-led war effort could be doomed unless Pakistan cracks down on militant sanctuaries inside its border, the Los Angles Times and New York Times reported. The in- telligence reports point to a longstanding problem cited by mili- tary officers, that Afghan Taliban and other militants move across the Paki- stani border with impunity, allowing them to stage attacks against coalition troops. The reports, or National Intelli- gence Estimates, reflect a consensus view of all 16 intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Agence France Presse SYDNEY – Hope dwindled for survivors of a refugee boat wreck off Australia Thursday which killed at least 28 people, including seven Aussie PM warns asylum boat toll to rise in grim hunt children, renewing debate on the plight of boat people travelling from Asia. The wooden craft, crowded with up to 100 Iraqi, Kurdish and Iranian asylum seekers and their children, hit rocks at remote Christ- mas Island Wednesday and was shat- tered by huge waves as residents watched in horror. Traumatised survivors pulled from the sea after the disaster huddled in a hospital and reception centre Thursday, with the most seri- ously injured flown to Perth as hope faded of finding their fellow passen- gers alive in wild seas. “We have got to prepare ourselves for the likelihood that more bodies will be found and there has been fur- ther loss of life than we know now,” warned Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who cut short her holiday to respond to the emergency. Cyclonic condi- tions hampered search and rescue efforts which resumed at first light but yielded no further bodies or sur- vivors by late Thursday, Customs said. Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said 28 bodies had been recovered, including four infants, three children and nine women, un- derscoring “the tragedy that’s oc- curred here”. Among the 42 survi- vors were eight children, one unac- companied minor and three Indone- sian crew, he added. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen earlier said there had been between 70 and 100 people on board the leaky fishing boat, according to survivors, adding that the exact num- ber of dead would “probably never” be known. Medical personnel believe as many as 50 people may have per- ished on the jagged limestone out- crop, some 2,600 kilometres from Australia’s mainland. “Yesterday we saw a truly hor- rific event, a terrible human tragedy on what is a very dangerous coast- line at Christmas Island,” said Gillard. “I know the nation is shocked by what we have seen.” Gillard was forced to defend border police as questions mounted about how the boat managed to cross the most closely-watched people-smug- gling corridor between Indonesia and Australia without being inter- cepted. AFP PHOTO / THE WEST AUSTRALIAN / HO A Channel 7 TV framegrab of a photo released by The West Australian on December 15, 2010 shows an asylum boat full of refugees being smashed by violent seas against the jagged coastline of Australia’s Christmas Island. Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 Sunni rebels claim Iran suicide blasts, 39 dead Getting in Touch with Local Culture PAGE 8 Veteran CNN host Larry King hangs up suspenders

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Headline : Obama to unveil Afghan strategy review

TRANSCRIPT

For placing advertisment,please contact: Eka Wahyuni0361-225764

HOTLINE

CITY TEMPERATURE OC

WEATHERFORECAST

22 - 31

24 - 33

20 - 28

22 - 31

24 - 33

DENPASAR

JAKARTA

BANDUNG

YOGYAKARTA

SURABAYA

SUNNY BRIGHT/CLOUDY RAIN

PAGE 12

Friday, December 17, 2010

16 Pages Number 63rd Year

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

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

Price: Rp 3.000,-

PAGE 6

But no changes to US strategy areexpected, despite critics complaintsthat US policy in war-torn Afghani-stan is too ambitious, challenged bycountrywide corruption and that po-litical fragility may make US gainsunsustainable.

“I doubt there will be, in all hon-esty, a lot of surprise at what the re-view lays out,” White House spokes-man Robert Gibbs said.

“There has been some importantprogress in halting the momentumof the Taliban in Afghanistan. “Wehave seen, through counterterrorism,success at degrading senior Al-Qaeda leaders. And we?ve seengreater cooperation over the courseof the past 18 months with the Paki-

Obama to unveilAfghan strategy reviewAgence France Presse

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is expectedto declare Thursday that his strategy in Afghanistan and Pa-kistan is on track, despite record combat deaths and publicUS tensions with the two countries. Obama will unveil anunclassified version of a sweeping two-month review of USmilitary and civilian operations likely to claim importantprogress against the Taliban admit severe challenges remainin the nine-year war.

AFP PHOTO/Massoud HOSSAINI

US Marines from 1st Battalion 8th Marines watch a US MarineCH-53 helicopter drop flares as it leaves Musa Qala in Helmandprovince on December 14, 2010. The US-led NATO alliance inAfghanistan warned December 13 that foreign soldiers willface further violence in 2011, capping what has been the dead-liest year of the war on record.

stani government.“You will also see in the review

an enumeration of the continuedchallenges that we have in that re-gion,” Gibbs told reporters on Tues-day.

Administration officials onWednesday played down two intel-ligence reports cited by two news-papers, which apparently paint a lessoptimistic picture of the war than thatseen in the administration report.

US intelligence agencies believethe US-led war effort could bedoomed unless Pakistan cracksdown on militant sanctuaries insideits border, the Los Angles Times andNew York Times reported. The in-telligence reports point to a

longstanding problem cited by mili-tary officers, that Afghan Taliban andother militants move across the Paki-stani border with impunity, allowingthem to stage attacks against coalitiontroops.

The reports, or National Intelli-gence Estimates, reflect a consensusview of all 16 intelligence agencies,including the CIA and the DefenseIntelligence Agency.

Agence France Presse

SYDNEY – Hope dwindled forsurvivors of a refugee boat wreckoff Australia Thursday which killedat least 28 people, including seven

Aussie PM warns asylum boat toll to rise in grim huntchildren, renewing debate on theplight of boat people travelling fromAsia. The wooden craft, crowdedwith up to 100 Iraqi, Kurdish andIranian asylum seekers and theirchildren, hit rocks at remote Christ-

mas Island Wednesday and was shat-tered by huge waves as residentswatched in horror.

Traumatised survivors pulledfrom the sea after the disasterhuddled in a hospital and receptioncentre Thursday, with the most seri-ously injured flown to Perth as hopefaded of finding their fellow passen-gers alive in wild seas.

“We have got to prepare ourselvesfor the likelihood that more bodieswill be found and there has been fur-ther loss of life than we know now,”warned Prime Minister Julia Gillard,who cut short her holiday to respondto the emergency. Cyclonic condi-tions hampered search and rescueefforts which resumed at first lightbut yielded no further bodies or sur-vivors by late Thursday, Customssaid.

Home Affairs Minister BrendanO’Connor said 28 bodies had beenrecovered, including four infants,three children and nine women, un-derscoring “the tragedy that’s oc-curred here”. Among the 42 survi-

vors were eight children, one unac-companied minor and three Indone-sian crew, he added.

Immigration Minister ChrisBowen earlier said there had beenbetween 70 and 100 people on boardthe leaky fishing boat, according tosurvivors, adding that the exact num-ber of dead would “probably never”be known. Medical personnel believeas many as 50 people may have per-ished on the jagged limestone out-crop, some 2,600 kilometres fromAustralia’s mainland.

“Yesterday we saw a truly hor-rific event, a terrible human tragedyon what is a very dangerous coast-line at Christmas Island,” saidGillard. “I know the nation isshocked by what we have seen.”Gillard was forced to defend borderpolice as questions mounted abouthow the boat managed to cross themost closely-watched people-smug-gling corridor between Indonesiaand Australia without being inter-cepted.

AFP PHOTO / THE WEST AUSTRALIAN / HO

A Channel 7 TV framegrab of a photo released by The WestAustralian on December 15, 2010 shows an asylum boat fullof refugees being smashed by violent seas against the jaggedcoastline of Australia’s Christmas Island.

Continued on page 6

Continued on page 6

Sunni rebels claimIran suicide blasts,39 dead

Getting in Touchwith Local CulturePAGE 8

Veteran CNN hostLarry King hangsup suspenders

InternationalFriday, December 17, 20102

Bali News

Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Wirya, YudiWinanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: BaliPutra Ariawan,Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan,. NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. Office: JalanKepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605

Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post

The incident shocking the peopleof Taro Kelod who were working toprepare a ritual in the Mount RaungTemple was estimated to occur at02.00 a.m. Local Time. According tothe priest of Puseh Temple whosehome located in the south of thetemple, at that time he heard a quiteloud noise. Unthinkably, such a loudnoise was the sound of falling treescrashing the temple’s buildings. Thefalling tree was just known in themorning at around 07:00 a.m. “I wastold by residents that meeting hallwas missing,” he explained.

When checked to the temple, in factthe meeting hall had been destroyedas crashed by the large enough fallingtree. Such an incident was then re-

Semarapura (Bali Post)—The development of tourism sector in

Klungkung Regency starts to move. It is dis-cernible from tourist visits to a number of tour-ist objects like Kerthagosa, Goa Lawah andsome others. However, the development has notgiven significant impact on the increase of theregionally generated revenue (PAD) ofKlungkung. It is caused by less optimal appli-cation of the regional regulation (Perda) No. 5/2008 regarding to tour guides resulting in quitea few illegal tour guides operating and theywere uncontrollable by local governments. Thematter was revealed by a legislator of BaliHouse from Klungkung, Ketut Mandia, inKlungkung, Wednesday (Dec 15).

According to Mandia, it was time for re-gional government to discipline those illegaltour guides so that they would be controllableand give contribution to the region. As set forthin the Regional Regulation No. 5/2008, everysingle tour guide was required to have certifi-cation issued by the authorities of Bali Gov-ernment Tourism Office.”It is valid for manylocal and foreign tour guides flocking to Bali,”said Mandia while adding that the regulationalso governed the tour guides in charge of thelocal tourist object.

“There are special tour guide who only op-erates around the particular object and a gen-

IBP/dar

The tempel damage by the tree fall down due to the bad weather.

Crashed by tree, buildings ofCrashed by tree, buildings ofCrashed by tree, buildings ofCrashed by tree, buildings ofCrashed by tree, buildings ofPuseh Temple severely damagedPuseh Temple severely damagedPuseh Temple severely damagedPuseh Temple severely damagedPuseh Temple severely damaged

Mangupura (Bali Post)—Justiciary team of Badung Regency Gov-

ernment began to perform execution againstthe buildings violating the green belt alongthe Jalan Raya Canggu until Jalan RayaPererenan on Wednesday (Dec 15). Suchgradual dismantling targeted 30 violatingbuildings. Meanwhile, the demolition was ledby the Head of Badung public order officers(Satpol PP), I Wayan Adi Arnawa.

According to Adi Arnawa accompanied bythe Division Head of Investigation of theSatpol PP, I Ketut Muliasa, out of the 30 vio-lating buildings listed, 23 of which locatedalong the Jalan Raya Canggu. In the mean-time, the rest sat on the Jalan Raya Pererenan.Demolition of the 30 buildings would be car-ried out gradually or not simultaneously. AdiArnawa reasoned that such an action wastaken with consideration of time and insuffi-cient personnel.

He explained that before demolition ex-ecuted, his party had sent a warning letter forthree times to the building owners. However,the owners did not pay attention or kept thebuilding on standing on the green belt area.Buildings located on green belt posed a formof violation against the Regional RegulationNo. 3/1992 concerning with the prohibitionof establishing buildings in the area of greenbelt. The demolition was also in accordancewith a warrant granted by the Regent ofBadung.

Gianyar (Bali Post)—Heavy rain accompanied by strong winds occurred in Gianyar on Wednesday (Dec 15) re-

sulted in disaster at Taro Kelod customary village, Taro village, Tegallalang subdistrict, Gianyar.A pedanten tree of hundreds of years old suddenly collapsed and crashed the shrine buildings inthe Puseh Temple of Taro Kelod. Severe damage occurred at the Meeting Hall, psalmodic pavil-ion, Ratu Puseh shrine, and bebotohan shrine.

ported to village apparatus and TaroKelod customary village. Likewise,the falling tree caused the com-pound wall damaged. When localresidents knew it, more and morepeople flocked to temple to see thedamage buildings.

According to the temple priest, thefalling tree was triggered by decayedcondition of the tree. The tree itselfhad fallen for two times. However,the more severe condition occurredin the current incident. Furthermore,village apparatus of Taro Kelodplanned to spiritually ask for the treelocated at Tegal Suci, Taro Kaja.

“Tegal Suci poses a sacred areaovergrown by many trees used forto the ritual paraphernalia in the

Mount Raung Temple. So, the re-maining the tree would be invokedthrough ceremonial procession toavoid similar cases happening againin the future,” he explained.

Meanwhile, after the disaster af-flicting the Puseh Temple of TaroKelod, the authority of regional di-saster management agency had ex-amined the losses. Such identifica-tion was also witnessed by Subdis-trict Head of Tegallalang while hav-ing a closer look at the damage un-dergone by the temple. In responseto the incident, the temple priestthoroughly hoped that governmentcould help the renovation to thedamaged buildings caused by disas-ter of falling tree. (kmb16)

30 buildings on green belt executedAdi Arnawa also revealed, aside from con-

ducting the discipline on the green belt, thedemolition also denoted an initial stage inorder to develop the public awareness that theBadung Regency Government was very con-sistent in the enforcement of rules, in this casethe enforcement of Regional Regulation.

“We appeal the people having a land lo-cated in the area of green belt may not do anydevelopment. As consequence of this viola-tion, the building will be demolished,” he said.

Nevertheless, he also disclosed that thegovernment actually gave tolerance to thecommunity. Pursuant to the Regional Regu-lation No. 3/1992 people were allowed to opena business in harmony with the arrangementof green areas such as the one selling variousplants, provided there were no permanentbuildings.

Meanwhile, in the demolition made lastWednesday, the authority first dismantled thebuilding owned by Komang Swastika situ-ated on Jalan Raya Canggu No. 27, NorthKuta. Such asbestos-roofed building wastaken advantage for the business of “Ani JayaMotor” providing muffler services. Afterholding a talk with the business owner, oneby one of the building materials began to bedismantled by construction workers alongwith dozens of personnel of the public orderofficers. In the meantime, the officers ofNorth Kuta Police came down to secure thelocation. (kmb25)

Tourism afoot, tour guidesmust be controlled

eral tour guide that can operate at all touristobjects,” he added. The presence of unlicensedlocal and foreign tour guides was worried tokindle a separate problem namely incapabilityof describing about a tourist attraction wherethey operated. “Additionally, the existence offoreign tour guides also threatens the potentialof local residents. In terms of ability to com-municate, many certified local tour guides wereno less competitive compared to foreign tourguides,” he said.

On that account, he said that Regional Regu-lation No. 5/2008 became one of the protectionsfor the potentials of local community, let alonewhen they talked about the matter of historicaltourist objects. “Do not let the information givento tourists go against the truth because the tourguides do not understand about the history oftourist attraction,” he said while hoping that pro-vincial government through Bali GovernmentTourism Office could oblige all tour guides tohave certification.

“Otherwise, strict sanction should be im-posed. The Regional Regulation No. 5/2008 hasbeen firmly set forth that uncertified tour guidesare fined as much as IDR 10 million,” he saidwhile mentioning that so far his party neverheard that illegal tour guides were imposed withsanction. It showed the control against the lawremained very weak. (kmb20)

3International Bali News Friday, December 17, 2010

Negara, DenPostStrong winds landed on Jembrana

Region on Tuesday night changed intoa disaster. The meru building insidePura (temple) Beragbang Agung,Berangbang Village, Jembrana, brokendown. It caused material loss also psy-chological disturbing the guardians ofthe pura remembring on Monday (20/12) will held its piodalan (anniversaryceremony).

The wind also caused forests inwest Bali a mess as tens of huge treesalso other dozens of trees fell down tothe streets causing traffic routes totaljammed. The Gilimanuk-KetapangHarbor also experienced chaos as theyhave to keep opening and closing theharbors.

Berangbang Head Village, NengahSudama, stated the meru that was builtsince 2001 was broken down at mid-night. Besides the meru it also dam-aged the ‘bale tetaring’ made frombamboo with aluminium top made bythe local residents for the comingcerenoby. For this incident, Sudamawill have a meeting with some village

According to Sumiati, it’s time al-ready !ali to have it as there have beenan increase in crimes against womenand children looking at the increasinggraphics from 20080 to November2010. Based on the data stated by BaliPolice Criminal Research Directorate,crime cases towards women kept in-creasing as most were domestic viola-tion. Until November 2010 at least 54percent of the case that victimisewomen has been done physically.When actually during 2008 this kindof case only reached 50 percent. Mean-while other cases were torture, kidnap-ping, sexual assault, rape and abortion.

And for harshness cases on chil-dren, until November 2010 it is notedhave reached 125 cases. This caseshows trend of increase rememberingduring 2008 only noted 120 and 2009only 122. Along 201, the cases weredominated by sexual intercourse onchildren reaching 42 cases followed

Amlapura (Bali Post) -Karangasem House of Represen-

tatives (DPRD) member, NyomanSadra, BA, last Wednesday (15/12)stated there were still quite a lot ofreports from fishermen on those whouse poison to capture fishes on the sea.And so lately it caused Karangasemfishermen sufferring badly as theirfishing results were uncertain becausethey’re hard to find, “They capturedvery little while they have to spendon petrol because it’s very far.”

According to Sadra, the bomber onthe sea at Karangasem beach wasnever heard again since 2004 as at thattime a number of sea bombers werecaptured by police, “There were lessand there were none lately as therewere no more basic fish population.

Denpasar (Bali Post)-Poverty has to get a serious tackle

from the government and public com-ponent. Moreover in year 2006 thenumber of poor families (RTM)reached 4.159 or 17.066 people yetuntil 2010 have quite decreased sig-nificantly reaching 44 percent oraround 14.423 people. This was sraredby Denpasar Mayor IB RaiDharmawijaya Mantra, SE, MSi, inhis welcome speech read by RegionalSecretary First Assistant Drs. I KetutMister, MM when opening asocialisation of President RegulationNo. 15 Year 2010 last Wednesday (15/12) at Praja Madya Meeting Room ofthe Mayor’s Office. The mayor statedit happened as the city governmenthave done various programs tostrengthen the people’s economy. Tofasten this tackle, it needed a unitedapproach done in steps, planned andinvolves every connected sides fromthe government and non governmentorganisations including the public it-self. Rai Mantra hoped this successwill keep continuing and keeps de-creasing year to year. This in the sametime goes on with the Bali ProvincePoverty Tackle Coordination Team

Protect the Women and Children

RepresentativeRepresentativeRepresentativeRepresentativeRepresentativePromised SpecialPromised SpecialPromised SpecialPromised SpecialPromised SpecialRegulationsRegulationsRegulationsRegulationsRegulationsDenpasar (Bali Post) -

Bali House of Representatives (DPRD) members promised willarrange regional regulation planning (ranperda) that will dis-cuss protection on women and children as until now Bali has nospecial regulation on it. The promise was stated by First Com-mission member of DPRD Bali Ni Made Sumiati during a dia-log at Wantilan of DPRD Bali last Wednesday (15/12).

by torture 30 cases, sexual assault 20cases and kidnapping 19 cases and therest were rape.

Taking action to these, Sumiatilooked over what’s need to be arrangedin the ranperda to protect the womenand children. Sumiati who specialiseon law and government stated theranperda will be a suggestion from leg-islative. She clarified, this regulationwill be very important to protect themas !ali never had this before, “This sug-gestion was actually stated by Chil-dren Protection Commission(KPAID).”

In connrcting to this, Vice Head ofKPAID Bali, Luh Anggraeni, wel-comed well that plan as with it coor-dination and special management forwomen and children will be easier, “Itis time for Bali to have the regulation.Don’t let the cases upon women andchildren kept increasing from year toyear.”(kmb13)

Poor Families in DenpasarDecreased 44 Percent

(TKPK) program and guidance whichhoped that gradually Bali can decreasepoverty minimal 10.000 RTM a yearas stated at President Regulation No.15 Year 2010 on to fasten tackling pov-erty also Home Minister No. 42 Year2010 on coordination team in tacklingprovince/regional/city poverty thereshould be an action plan programmed.For that through this meeting, theMayor hoped there will be suggestionsfrom the meeting candiidates. Besidesthat Mayor hoped that this meeting cansharpen priority so this program getsto the right target, useful and result-ing.

Meanwhile Head of Public andVillage City Government Source IKetut Dunia who’s also head of themeeting committee in the reportstated the purpose and meaning ofthis socialisation was to know thecauser to poverty specifically, notonly to know the address but to knowthe productivity potential, causer,access, and program affect. Besidesarranging the action plan, what’smore effctive would be to get it ontarget and so the government policywould be quicker applied to fastenpoverty tackling. (kmb12)

IBP/doc

A man is trying to catch fish in the river.

Fish Poisoners Still ExistSea Assets Have to be Saved

These bombers then changed to poi-soners by capturing lots of aquariumfishes or others by poisoning.”Bomber and poisoner are both dan-gerous for the population coninuingin the sea and corals. For that, it has tobe protected.

Sadra who also likes to go fishingat sea thinks that 87 km Karangasemwaters were potential to increase thefishermen’s prosperity as the numberof fishermen here is a lot along thebeach shores.all this time their pros-perity has been low so for that fisheryand sea management is very impor-tant and needs higher budget alloca-tion. He asked there should be postsfor sea guards with suitable facilitiesusing the Regional Budget and Ex-penses (APBD) and so it needs to be

fought to get to APBD or even fromthe state’s (APBB).

Karangasem Secretary, Drs.Nengah Sudarsa, stated actually therehas been join work in protecing thesea assets where there is a memoran-dum of join work with Sea Indone-sian Army (TNI-AL) and they haveposts at Ujung and Seraya Beaches.It is hoped with these posts the seaassets will be safer so there’s nolonger opportunities for those seapoisoners. It is admitted with the longand wide waters of course thereshould be join work with all sidesespecially the fishermen atKarangasem to coordinate and reportquickly to the sea posts and air po-lices if there are suspicion on seacrimes. (013)

Strong Wind in Jembrana

Causing Harbor Closed and Openedfigures and the pura priest to find a so-lution to this disaster. This disaster hasinvited worries to the JembranaRegent’s official I Gusti MadeSunendra who came to location. In thisopportunity the Bupati official askedall those who came to take the mean-ing of this disaster. Connecting to thepeople’s demand to fix the damages inthe pura, Jembrana Secretary SecondAssistant I Made Sudantra stated theJembrana government has given feeIDR 25 million from this year’s bud-get and expenses (APBD) to widen thepura’s areal and there will be fixing feein the APVD 2011 as much as IDR 60million including to fix the meru that’sdamaged.

Meanwhile, trees were falling downon the north side of Denpasar-Gilimanuk route included two big ones.First a sonokling tree at Penginumanforest, Gilimanuk fell down with itstrunk blocking the road causing halfan hour traffic. The tree hit a Damribus DK 9142 AB driven bySuwandidan with 20 passengers whichcaused the front bit’s window fractured.

To remove it so, SAR team and otherdrivers who were helping police tookone hour to do iy as the small saw theywere using can’t wuickly cut the hugetree. The traffic jam cause was as longas 3 km on each sides. “In this routethere are many trees. We ask the roadusers to be aware during this such sea-son,” Head of Melaya Police, AKP INyomanPageh, stated when comingdown to location.

Closed HarborMeanwhile the bad weather at Bali

Strait caused Gilimanuk Harbor to beclosed. Head of Gilimanuk HarborDewa Nyoman Kari, last Wednesday(15/12) stated the crossing on Tuesday(14/12) night was closed for a whilefrom 10 to 10.45 pm. The harbor wasclosed due to strong winds and high seawaves.

Then on Wednesday (15/12) theharbor was closed again at 1 tto 2.30pm due to unfriendly sea wave andso there were queue of vehicles, “Wewill delay departures if the weather’snot good and we ask everyone to bealert of it.” (120)

International4 Friday, December 17, 2010 News

For almost five years, Chavez hasenjoyed near total control ofVenezuela’s National Assemblythanks to a strategic blunder by hisfoes, who boycotted 2005 elections.That untrammeled power comes toan end Jan. 5 when a new congressarrives, with enough opposition law-makers to hinder some types of ma-jor legislation.

Critics accuse Chavez of tryingto sidestep those limits and neutral-ize his opponents by getting the out-going congress to give him decreepowers for 12 months — allowinghim to impose laws on his own. Theysee it as a power grab by a presidentthey say is steering Venezuela to-ward Cuba-style socialism.

Supporters say Chavez needs de-cree powers to swiftly approve di-saster relief measures after severefloods and mudslides that left thou-sands homeless.

But the law goes beyond suchemergency measures, allowing de-crees affecting telecommunications,the banking system, informationtechnology, the military, rural andurban land use, and the country’s“socio-economic system.”

Several thousand studentsmarched to the National Assemblyon Wednesday, chanting “Free-dom!” to protest against a separategovernment bill that they fear wouldincrease state controls over autono-mous universities.

The demonstration broke up after agroup of Chavez supporters hurledrocks and other objects at the march-ers. At least one student was hit in thehead with what appeared to be a rock.

Other government opponents warnthat Chavez is trying to push throughlaws clamping down on oppositionmedia, free speech and human rightsgroups.

In a speech to the National Assem-bly, opposition lawmaker IsmaelGarcia denounced what he called a “apackage of laws that are a coup d’etatagainst the constitution.”

In Washington, State Departmentspokesman P.J. Crowley noted Chavezhas asked congress for decree powersfour times in his presidency.

Chavez foes, USChavez foes, USChavez foes, USChavez foes, USChavez foes, UScondemn plan forcondemn plan forcondemn plan forcondemn plan forcondemn plan for

decree powersdecree powersdecree powersdecree powersdecree powersAssociated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez is using a friendly lame-duck congress to seek broadpowers to rule by decree for the next year — a plan that drew strong criticism Wednesday from the U.S.government and opponents who called it a blow to democracy.

A supporter of Venezuela’sPresident Hugo Chavez throws a

chair toward students duringclashes with university students

outside the National Assemblyin Caracas, Venezuela, Wednes-

day Dec. 15, 2010.

AP Photo/Fernando Llano

AFP PHOTO/ KAMARUL AKHIR

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (R) leaves the Parlia-ment House in Kuala Lumpur on December 16, 2010. Anwar andthree of his allies were suspended from parliament for six monthsin a vote that triggered pandemonium and an opposition walkout.

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia’s ruling coalition wona vote Thursday to ban its archrival Anwar Ibrahim and three ofhis top allies from Parliament for six months, eroding theopposition’s legislative influence to precarious levels.

The suspension reduces the opposition to less than one-third ofMalaysia’s 222-member Parliament for the first time since 2008general elections. That could enable Prime Minister Najib Razak’scoalition to change the constitution and election district bound-aries before the next national polls, which some expect next year.

Anwar was suspended on accusations of making false statementsin Parliament last March, when he claimed that the government’sprogram to promote multiracial unity in this Muslim-majority coun-try was inspired by a 1999 Israeli election campaign.

The suspension was the government’s “way of mocking thepeople’s voice, preventing us from defending ourselves,” the op-position leader said after Thursday’s vote. Anwar’s three seniorcolleagues were penalized for leaking details about a parliamen-tary investigation into his remarks.

Anwar and dozens of other opposition legislators stormed outof Parliament’s lower house during the vote, which followed scenesof pandemonium and shouting. Some opposition lawmakers heldposters denouncing the lower house as “a kangaroo court” becausethey claimed Anwar was unfairly targeted.

Anwar and his three colleagues will be barred from parliamen-tary debates and votes through June, but they can continue otherpolitical work, such as addressing rallies. The opposition has al-ready launched efforts to convince the public that the governmentis abusing its legislative majority.

Khairy Jamaluddin, a prominent government lawmaker, saidAnwar “was given every opportunity to defend himself but choseto abuse and stall the process” over the past nine months. Anwarhas insisted his comments linking the government’s policies to Is-rael were correct.

Political activity has intensified amid rampant rumors that Najibwill call for national polls next year, even though they are not dueuntil mid-2013. Najib might seek to capitalize on internal bicker-ing in Anwar’s three-party alliance, which made spectacular gainsin 2008 elections but has since lost some of its luster.

Anwar has also been distracted by an ongoing trial on chargesthat he sodomized a male former aide in 2008. He faces a 20-yearprison sentence if convicted of the accusation, which he says wasfabricated to stem his political ascent. The government denies anyconspiracy.

Malaysia Parliamentsuspends Anwar, 3 top allies

Activities Friday, December 17, 2010 5International

Temple Ceremony

December 1stTemple anniversary celebrations and full moon cer-emony at :- Pura Bhatara Kawitan Pura Agung Bangli,

downtown of Bangli- Pura Pasek Gelgel, Pedungan village, south of

Denpasar- Pura Kertha, Banyuning village, downtown of

Singaraja ( north Bali)- Pura Taman, Bubunan village, district of Seririt,

Buleleng regency ( north Bali)

December 2ndTemple anniversary celebrations and full moon cer-emony at :- Pura Puseh and Desa Silakarang village district of

Sukawati village, Gianyar regency- Pura Dalem Pulasari Samprangan village, district

of Blahbatuh, Gianyar regency- Pura Natih, banjar kaloh batuan village- Pura Dalem petitenget, Kerobokan village, district

of Kuta, Badung regency

December 3rdTemple anniversary celebrations and full moon cer-emony at :- Pura Dalem Puri, Besakih village, Karangasem

regency- Pura Dalem Puri, Batuan village, Gianyar regency- Pura Dalem, Singakertha village, district of Ubud,

Gianyar regency- Pura Dalem Agung, downtown of Bangli- Pura Dalem, Ketewel village, district of Sukawati,

Gianyar regency- Pura Desa, Downtown of Denpasar- Pura Puncak Payogan, Kedewatan village, district

of Ubud, Gianyar regency

December 8thTemple anniversary celebrations and full moon cer-emony at :- Pura Merajan Agung, Batuyang village, district of

Calendar Event for December 1st through December 13th 2010

Sukawati, Gianyar regency- Pura Tanjungsari, Padangbai village, Karangasem

regency.

December 8thGalunganThis is the most important holiday symbolizing thevictory of Virtue (Dharma) upon Evil (Adharma). Theholiday is specialized by the fitting of ‘penjor’, a tallbamboo pole splendidly decorated with woven youngcoconut leaves, fruit, cakes and flowers, on the rightside of every house entrance. People are attired in theirfinest clothes and jewels this day.

December 11th Temple ceremony on this day:- Segara Temple, Jembrana Regency- Dalem Gede Temple, Losan – Klungkung Regency

December 12th- Redite Wage Kuningan, Ulihan. Balinese do

believe, this day is the return of all mighty spiritback to heaven after leaved a prosperity andlongevity to the worshipers.

Temple ceremony on this day:- Dalem Tegal Tamu Temple, Sekarmukti, Batubulan- Gianyar Regency- Kubayan Umagunung Temple, Sempidi – Badung

Regency

December 13thTemple ceremony on this day:- Dasar Gelgel Temple, Gelgel – Klungkung Regency- Pasek Tohjiwa Temple, Sawah, Selemadeg –

Tabanan Regency- Pemerajan Agung Temple, Benawah Kangin –

Gianyar Regency- Panti Pasek Gelgel Temple, Pelapuhan, Busungbiu- Buleleng Regency- Kahyangan Tulus Temple, Apuan – Tabanan

Regency

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

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

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

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

Balinese TempleCeremony

Potato Head Beach Club will offer the most creative music, art andfashion collaborations of international and indigenous artistes. The enter-tainment calendar will be filled with educational and artistic breakthroughevents throughout the year and will have the clients exposed to the peak ofartistic creativity. Furthermore, the presence of A-list internationally rec-ognized celebrities and talents are befitting to a world-class experienceand recognition. A truly special venue one must see and feel, while visit-ing the Island of Gods.

Potato Head Beach ClubPotato Head Beach ClubPotato Head Beach ClubPotato Head Beach ClubPotato Head Beach ClubIBP

PETITENGET - Potato Head was first introduced in Jakarta andafter almost two years on the culinary scene it has been voted as oneof the best venues in the capital of Indonesia. After long anticipation,Potato Head will finally open its doors in the island of the Gods.

Friday, December 17, 20106 News

In a statement on its website, theSunni Muslim group said it was respon-sible for the bombings outside theImam Hussein Mosque in Chabahar,which also wounded more than 100people.

“At least 39 people were martyredafter two suicide bombings targetedShi’ite mourners in front of a mosquein the town of Chabahar,” Fariborz

AP

KATMANDU, Nepal – Rescu-ers have recovered the wreckageof a small passenger plane thatwent missing in Nepal’s mountain-ous east on Wednesday. They sayall 22 people onboard were killed.

The Rescue Coordination Com-mittee at Katmandu Airport saidThursday that rescuers were

AP

PARIS – A French court onWednesday turned down former Pana-manian dictator Manuel Noriega’s re-quest to be released from prison whileawaiting possible extradition to hishome country.

Noriega was sent to France this yearto face trial after spending two decadesin a U.S. prison. In July, a Paris courtconvicted him of laundering drugmoney in France and ordered him tospend seven years behind bars.

Despite the seven-year sentence,

Reuters –

The aftermath of an explosion outside a mosque in Iran’s southeastern city of Chabahr

Sunni rebels claim IranSunni rebels claim IranSunni rebels claim IranSunni rebels claim IranSunni rebels claim Iransuicide blasts, 39 deadsuicide blasts, 39 deadsuicide blasts, 39 deadsuicide blasts, 39 deadsuicide blasts, 39 deadReuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Two suicide bomb attacks killed 39 people outside a mosque during aShi’ite religious ceremony in southeastern Iran on Wednesday, a strike Jundollah rebels said wasretaliation for the execution of their leader in June.

Ayati Firouzabadi, head of the Coroner’soffice in the province.

The bombings killed many childrenand women, who attended a Shi’ite re-ligious ceremony to commemorate thedeath of Prophet Mohammad’s grand-son Hussein, state television reported,adding that the death toll was expectedto increase.

The poor province of Sistan-

Baluchistan, near Iran’s border withPakistan and Afghanistan, has been thescene of unrest with the mainly Sunnipopulation claiming discrimination bythe Shi’ite authorities.

Iran’s Interior Minister MostafaMohammad-Najjar told state televisionthat the attackers had links toneighbouring Pakistan and that an in-vestigation was underway.

French court rejectsNoriega’s request for release

Noriega is likely to be eligible for pa-role much sooner than that. However,Panama is seeking his extradition fromFrance for crimes including the murderof political opponents.

Noriega’s lawyer says he would notoppose being sent to Panama, but hewants to be released from prison inFrance in the meantime. An extraditionwould require approval from a host ofFrench judges and top officials, as wellas from the United States, and a deci-sion could take time

Lawyer Yves Leberquier, who peti-tioned the Paris appeals court for

Noriega’s release, argued that his cli-ent is in poor health. Noriega’s legalteam says he has blood pressure prob-lems and is paralyzed on the left side asa result of a stroke four years ago.

Noriega says he is 76, though thereis confusion about his true date of birth.

Panamanians who fought againsthuman rights abuses during Noriega’s1983-1989 regime are worried he coulddie in France and want to see him facejustice at home. Noriega was deposedafter a 1989 U.S. invasion and went onto serve 20 years in a Florida prison fordrug trafficking.

Missing Nepal planefound, all 22onboard dead

searching through the wreckage.The Canadian-built Twin Otter

aircraft belonging to domestic TaraAir was carrying 19 passengersand three crew members fromLamidanda, about 200 miles (320kilometers) to the east ofKatmandu. Its wreckage wasfound near a village about 100miles (160 kilometers) fromKatmandu.

Defense officials say the intelli-gence accounts are “behind thecurve,” lacking insights from troopson the frontline in a fluid situation.

“We have agreed to disagree,”one official, who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity, told AFP. Offi-cials say Obama’s report will high-light improved cooperation in thefight against extremism with the Pa-kistani government — but added itwould also state the need forIslamabad to do more.

The White House has signaledthat the review will show sufficientprogress for Obama to sign off onhis promised start to a conditions-

The prime minister said theboat had approached the islandin predawn darkness and “ex-treme weather conditions” meantit was not detected “until seenfrom Christmas Island itself”.

“In very rough and danger-ous seas there is a limit to whatcan be achieved through radarand other surveillance mecha-nisms,” Gillard said, addingthere would be a criminal inves-tigation as well as a coroner’sprobe. Officials could not com-ment on the vessel’s origin andsaid it was not being tracked be-cause it was made of wood andwas hard to detect.

Local police said they had re-ceived an emergency call fromsomeone claiming to be on aboat with about 80 people —believed to be the stricken ves-sel — about 20 minutes after itwas first sighted as it driftedafter losing power.

Residents said they werewoken at dawn Wednesday bythe screams of victims, gather-ing life jackets and rushing tothe cliffs to offer help, but werehelpless as strong winds blewthe flotation devices back on-shore. They watched in horroras the victims were crushed

From page 1

Obama...

based drawdown of US surgetroops — 30,000 of whom were or-dered to Afghanistan a year ago.

But despite the promised start tothe drawdown, the key date for USAfghan policy is now 2014, whichNATO partners agreed at a summitlast month to set as the target to cedefull control to Afghan securityforces.

Limited progress in Afghanistanhas come at a high cost: more for-eign troops — nearly 700 — diedin 2010 than in any year of the nine-year conflict, and Washington haswaged public spats with Kabul andIslamabad.

Aussie PM...From page 1

against limestone rocks, despitethe efforts of navy rescuers toreach them in towering swells.

More than 5,000 asylumseekers from Iraq, Afghanistanand Sri Lanka have made theirway to Australia this year,mostly on unseaworthy vesselsfrom Indonesia, promptingcriticism of Canberra for soft-ening its refugee policy.

But lawyers and refugee ad-vocates including Amnesty andthe UNHCR said the tragedyhighlighted the desperate plightof refugees and urged greatercooperation between nationsfor more humane solutions.Survivors of the wreck were re-covering Thursday in a hospi-tal and a reception centre onChristmas Island, the site ofAustralia’s main immigrationdetention centre for boatpeople. Five seriously injuredpeople were flown to the main-land for medical treatment.

Though they would be dealtwith under normal immigrationprocesses, Gillard said survivorswould be given time to recoverfrom their ordeal, and said thechildren and families would beallowed to live in the communityinstead of detention camps.

Friday, December 17, 2010 7Indonesia TodayInternational

AntaraJAKARTA - An economist said

a lot of companies in Indonesia hadnot yet utilized the capital marketoptimally for expansion.

“In view of our economy, ourmarket capitalization is still far be-low that in the neighboring coun-tries,” Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, aneconomist from Danareksa Re-search Institute said here onWednesday.

He said the ratio of market capi-talization to the Gross DomesticProduct in 2009 still reached 35.97percent compared to 147.05 percentin Malaysia, 78.56 percent in thePhilippines, 252.91 percent inSingapore and 64.89 percent inThailand.

“The relatively small ratio in In-donesia shows that the role of thecapital market in the Indonesianeconomy is still small compared tothat in the neighboring countries,”he said.

He said with the increasing posi-tive sentiment towards the Indone-sian capital market and huge for-eign capital inflows now was the

Undersea quake hitsUndersea quake hitsUndersea quake hitsUndersea quake hitsUndersea quake hitseastern Indonesiaeastern Indonesiaeastern Indonesiaeastern Indonesiaeastern Indonesia

Agence France-PresseJAKARTA - An undersea earthquake hit eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, seismologists said, but there

was no tsunami warning and no immediate reports of damage.

The quake hit at 20:29 (1329GMT), 249 kilometres (154miles) northwest of Saumlaki inMaluku province at a depth of 191kilometres, according to the localmeteorology and climatologyagency, which gave the magnitude

as 6.1.The US Geological Survey said

the quake had a magnitude of 5.9and was 148 kilometres deep.

“The quake occurred on the sea.Its epicentre located very deep andfar from land. I don’t think it will

cause damage,” national earth-quake official Ramdan told AFP.

The vast Indonesian archi-pelago sits on the Pacific “Ringof Fire”, where the meeting ofcontinental plates causes highseismic activity.

Government claims itseconomic policy on right trackAntara

JAKARTA - The government claimed its present economic policyis on the right track due among others to various corrective steps ithas taken to address a number of problems including those in the lo-gistics sector.

“The government`s (economic) policy is now on the right track,”Djatmiko, expert staff of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Af-fairs, said at a seminar held to commemorate the 73rd anniversary ofANTARA News Agency here on Wednesday.

While most countries saw their economic growth contracting as aresult of the 2008 global economic meltdown, Indonesia, along with afew nations recorded positive growth in that year, he said.

Responding to the growing capital inflows in recent months, hesaid the government agreed with Bank Indonesia (the central bank/BI) to slow them down.

“So the problem is how to prevent the foreign hot money from caus-ing problems and allow it to stay longer in this country,” he said.

Many developed countries had now been looking for suitable placesparticularly in Asia to invest, he said.

So far, India, China and Vietnam had emerged as contenders forIndonesia to attract foreign investors, he said.

Djatmiko said Indonesia‘s performance in the fields of export, im-port and investment also continued to improve all the time.

The high investment growth would be directed towards encourag-ing the development of productive sectors to allow the economy togrow at a faster pace, he said.

RI to increasetransportation safety

cooperation with AustraliaAntara

JAKARTA - Indonesia is to step up and promote its transportationsafety cooperation with the Australian government, TransportationMinister Freddy Numberi said.

“The purpose of this arrangement is to enhance and promote Indo-nesian transport safety in accordance with existing international stan-dards and contemporary safety management practices.” Numberi saidafter signing the annex of an MoU with Australian Minister of Infra-structure and Transport Anthony Albanese MP here Wednesday.

The annex of MoU was established in the forum of arrangementbetween the Ministry of Transportation of Indonesia and the Ministryof Infrastructure and Transport of Australia o the Indonesian Trans-port Safety Assistance Package (ITSAP).

The package consists of four components, namely transport safetypolicy and management, aviation safety, maritime transport safety andthe safety management itself.

The Australian government provides 14.5 million dollar to traintransport safety inspector and accidents investigator as well as under-take joint search and rescue exercise.

The investment was aimed to strengthen the relationship betweenthe two countries and to reassure the traveling public of both coun-tries that their government consider safety as a number one priority,Australian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Anthony AlbaneseMP said.

The Australian government would administer the funding in coop-eration with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Austra-lian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the Australian Maritime SafetyAuthority (AMSA) and Aircevices Australia, he said.

Indonesia‘s Directorate General of Civil Aviation is given opportu-nity to improve its air traffic management systems and the transitionto a single air navigation service provider cooperating with AirserviceAustralia.

Moreover, over 700 Indonesian government and industry profes-sionals in a range of areas including safety investigation, port control,maritime systems, air navigation, and search and rescue would betrained in the cooperation.

Australia would also fund three joint Australia-Indonesia civil searchand rescue exercises involving AMSA and Indonesia‘s National Searchand Rescue Agency and also three Indonesian National Transporta-tion Safety Committee investigators to complete an ATSB TransportSafety Investigation diploma, Albanese said.

The CASA would also provide training and technical assistance toIndonesian counterparts in safety management systems and airwor-thiness audits, he said.

Companies yet to utilize capital market optimallyright time for domestic companies totap into the funds from the market.

“Indonesia must make use of thepositive momentum and would notworry too much about possible sud-den reversal,” he said.

He said daily transactions in theIndonesian capital market hadsoared. In 2005 it reached onlyaround Rp1.67 trillion but in 2010 itwent up to around Rp4.5 trillion.

“This shows that our market ismore liquid. The rise in liquidity willcertainly become an attraction in it-self for investors,” he said.

The significant hike in the priceof shares in the Indonesian stock ex-change has also increased marketcapitalization significantly.

In 2009 the market capitalizationreached Rp2,000 trillion while untilOctober 2010 it rose to aroundRp3,000 trillion.

Purbaya said right now the Indo-nesian economy was in the phase ofexpansion which could last until2016. This means there is still an op-portunity for the composite index torise higher than the present level.

He said companies could tap into

the funds in the market throughvarious means such as an IPO ora right issue. They could also is-sue bonds.

“The more companies thatwould utilize the capital marketthe more competitive our finan-cial system would be,” he said.

He said competition in thecapital market would give addi-tional pressures on the bankingsystem to reduce their lendingrates to a better level for theeconomy.

“Our capital market couldmake our financial system morecompetitive with the lending ratestending to be lower to make oureconomy able to grow faster,” hesaid.

Regarding views that the risein the composite index was abubble Purbaya the hike was sup-ported by economic fundamen-tals.

“What has happened in ourcapital market now is not a bubblebut will continue to expand until2016. Ups and downs in the mar-ket are a common thing,” he said.

AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY

Indonesian people explore a shopping mall in Jakarta on December 15, 2010. Many shopping malls andbusiness establishments in Indonesia are decorated with Christmas ornaments ahead of the Christmas day.

8 InternationaFriday, December 17, 2010

Bali Today

Most of the hotels in Bali are alreadyfully booked for the holiday. The man-agements of hotel and restaurants arealso decorating their place to com-memorate the festivities.

She said that the number of touristscelebrating Christmas and New Year inBali will be higher compare the lastholiday. The year end holiday is cel-ebrated by everyone and offices alsowill be closed so many people will cometo Bali.

Puniati explained that most of the

Mangupura (Bali Post)—Boeing 777-300 aircraft owned by

Gateway’s Bali Airlines flying fromKuala Lumpur International Airport toNgurah Rai International Airport onWednesday (Dec 15) at 7:05 p.m. LocalTime made an emergency landing. Theplane landed from runway 27, but it wasoverrunning and exploded. Such high-speed aircraft carrying 175 passengersbroke into several pieces.

The fiery accident killed 23 and injured62 people, while 90 others survived, in-cluding passengers indicated as the mem-bers of a terrorist group. Such an incidentposed a handling simulation of the 60thDirgantara Raharja or aviation emergencyexercise 2010 organized by the authorityof Ngurah Rai Airport to ascertain thatthe airport was ready to face any emer-gency situation.

General Manager (GM) of PT AngkasaPura I (Persero) Ngurah Rai Airport, HeruLegowo, explained that officers, facilitiesand emergency handling procedureswould be trained, tested and evaluated inthe face of certain scenarios. “This willbecome the Indonesia’s first training heldat night. Accidents can happen anytime,so we must be ready and alert in the facethem, day or night,” he explained.

Furthermore, he added the exerciseconducted periodically once every twoyears was also intended to test and en-sure whether personnel of the airport were

Robinson Crusoe might not originally haveplaned to explore the pristine tropical Island of Màsa Tierra. However, since the ship he went with waswrecked by vicious storm, he had no choice butattempted to save himself to nearest island. Likeblessing in disguise, he has fallen in love with theisland for some 28 years. He could do many thingsand obtain valuable experiences while waiting forthe time to return home.

At that time, he probably did know about theterms agrotourism. Yet, without being realized hehas enjoyed a variety of tourism activities. He gotacquainted with local tribes and did farming as thelocal did.

Agrotourism is similar to what might have beencarried out by the figure Robinson Crusoe in thenovel authored by Daniel Defoe. It is the form oftourism taking advantage of rural culture as tour-ist attraction. Its focus lies on cultural landscape.It’s worth noting here that the culture does not onlyinclude the arts and tradition, but culture in thegeneral sense as in the seven universal elements ofculture that also embrace the system of livelihood,equipment, technology, language, religion and soforth. Actually it’s a comprehensive and sustain-able tourism development. By this, local peopleare enabled to be widely involved in various ac-tivities, not merely as passive spectators.

On the other hand, through this activity visitorshave a good opportunity to get acquainted withmany aspects of rural life, starting from agricul-tural occupation, local products, traditional culi-nary, custom and tradition as well as lifestyle oflocal people. In agricultural field, for instance, thereare areas producing characteristic local variety ofrice like at Penebel; snakefruit at Pupuan andSibetan; strawberry at Bedugul; and tangerine atBondalem and Tejakula to name a few. Then whatis making different from that of other regions acrossthe archipelago? This disparity concerns with thetradition and lifestyle. In Bali, visitors will be ableto see that local farmers have traditional organiza-tion managing the irrigated and non-irrigated farm-ing named subak. Uniquely, they perform ritual toexpress their gratitude to God on the prosperityobtained from farming on particular days and spe-cifically on Tumpek Bubuh (the nearest one falls

Getting in Touch with Local Culture

Bali is stillfavorite placeTo celebrate New YearAntara

Denpasar – Bali is still become the main destination for the touristswho wanted to spend their Christmas holiday and celebrates the 2011New Year. Ni Nyoman Purniati, a tourism businesswoman, said “Bali isstill a favorite place and most of the businessmen already promote theyear end package. This attracts many tourists to visit Bali.”

visitors already booked hotel roomssince four months ago because they wereafraid to run out of rooms.

The similar condition is also happen-ing in the transportation business. DewNyoman Sujana, the owner of car rentalin Denpasar, said “most of our guestsalready order a car since a few monthsago. They want to use the car duringtheir holiday in Bali.”

He said that usually the highest num-ber of tourists will happened on Decem-ber 23 through January 6.

Boeing 777-300 explodesat Ngurah Rai AirportDuring a simulation

really professional and always ready foremergencies occurring any time in the air-port.

“The decision to do the exercise at nightposes a big challenge for us and this exer-cise has been thoroughly prepared withcare,” he said.

The activity would ensure that all air-port employees were ready to implementthe Airport Emergency Plan profession-ally. “This exercise poses a means for usto improve the procedures, train staff andprovide facilities in the face of emergencysituations that can happen anytime,” hesaid.

According to synopsis of the exerciseas presented by Heru, it employed Boeing777-300 aircraft, with registration num-ber PK-BGW, call sign of gateways 555and flew from Kuala Lumpur to theNgurah Rai Airport.

At the same time, the Aviation Secu-rity also received information from theState Intelligence Agency (BIN) that oneof the passengers was suspected as a ter-rorist group that would meet its membersat the Ngurah Rai Airport.

On entering the airspace of Bali terri-tory, the pilot declared that smokes arosein the cabin from the engine No. 1 thatwas on fire. The pilot requested a priorityfor landing as well as asked for medicalassistance because some passengers haddifficulty to breath and some others fellunconscious. (par)

on 21 February).Moreover, this kind of tourism will bring visitors

closer to nature and other rural activities beyond farm-ing. Even, they can participate in those activities. Forinstance, if Bali has rich traditional dances, visitorscan join to learn some of them. As a result, visitors donot only visiting Bali to feel the pleasure of touring,watching cultural performance and seeing the enchant-ing panoramas, but also experiencing in person thelocal lifestyle. Other than agricultural-related activi-ties, Bali retains a wide variety of unique ones that areworth visiting. There are handicraft making, traditionalpainting, (seasonal) coffee harvesting, fishing andmany more. And if possible, they can stay with thelocal community.

Visitors participated in agrotourism are ideallyexpected to be more active than the average tour-ists while on trips. In essence, there are some cat-egories of activity in agrotourism namely the fam-ily-oriented activities like sporting and cycling;participatory activities like learning to dance andcook traditional food; nature-oriented activitieslike horse riding, elephant safari, trekking; farm-ing-related activities like seasonal harvesting, ex-ploring local fruits at traditional market and soforth. These activities can complete the existingtourism product. In Bali, this tourism has becomean alternative to avoid the market saturation ofthose very same products.

Agrotourism does not only enrich the existingtourism products and provide alternative to visi-tors. To local community, it poses an empower-ment that enables to them get involved in the tour-ist activities. In general, it will make an even dis-tribution of tourist visits to villages and workingopportunity. To sum up, this community-basedtourism will make available more opportunity towider community. Hopefully there will be no caseslike the closing access to see the beautiful view ofterraced rice field as the field’s owner gets noth-ing from ‘his property of attraction.’ By this de-velopment, at least the land owner gets additionalbenefits from valued asset he has apart from hisharvest. By doing so, he would feel the benefit oftourism while remaining cultivating his land. Doyou think he will sell his land providing him withsuch double impacts? (BTN/punia)

http://www.purnamabeachestate.com

The photo shows Bali’s rice field.

Balinese Culture

Friday, December 17, 2010 9al

OVERVIEW:Although this is

made with freshtuna in Bali, youcan also usedrained cannedtuna as asubstitute. Seasonthe canned tunaand combine withseasonings, butdo not attempt to fry it.

INGREDIENTS:4 fresh tuna steaks, weighing 100 gr each¼ cup seafood spice paste1 tsp salt½ tsp crushed black pepper1 tbsp freshly squeezed limejuice2 tbsp oil1-cup sambal matahFried shallot for garnish

PREPARATION:1. Season fresh tuna steaks with seafood spice paste,

salt pepper and lime juice.2. Heat oil in frying pan and cook tuna steaks for 3

minutes on each side over high heat. Do not over cook.Set aside and allow cooling down, and then breaking thetuna into small chunks. Place in salad bowl, add sambalmatah and mix well.

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnishwith fried shallots. Serve at room temperature withsteamed rice. (www.baliguide.com/baliguide)

Except for oral t radi t ion,Balinese community also haswritten traditions. It is insepa-rable from the spread of Hin-duism and Buddhism in Indo-nesia during the ninth to tenthcen tu r i e s . A t t he t imeDevanagari and Pallawa scriptwere widely used to performwritten inscriptions immortal-izing important events.

Thanks to these two scriptsthat implanted important basicin the origin of Balinese script.At a glance, Japanese scripts(H i r agana , Ka takana andKanji) have similarity to Ba-l inese script in terms of i tsfunctions. Balinese script hasth r ee t ypes i nvo lv ing t hewreastra (to inscribe commonwords), swalalita (borrowingwords from Old Javanese andSanskrit), and modre (holy syl-lables). Departing from thissimilarity, Bali should be ableto take a spirit to develop it-self. If Japanese language canplay important role in the re-gions most visited by its tour-ists, Bali ideally should be ableto p lay the ro le a t l eas t a thome.

JATA Ecotourism Handbookmen t ions some impor t an tpoints regarding to ecotourismnamely the principle of treasur-ing and preserving irreplace-able nature and precious cul-tura l asse ts ( inc luding lan-guage and sc r ip t ) ; and theguidelines including to valueand respect cultural assets and

Balinese Script: A Key toOpen the Asset of Bali

historical si tes and to try tocommunicate in the local lan-guages. On seeing these, lan-guage and script denote impor-tant cultural asset in ecotourismdevelopment.

A friend of the writer, an ex-pert in Balinese language, oncetold that in Leiden, the lontarsmanuscript are stored in a verysecure room. In order to see( r ead ) i t ; one shou ld pa s sthrough at least three securitylayers. Then, another point is animpor t an t l on t a r was oncehanded ove r t o t he fo rmerPre s iden t Megawa t i by t heQueen of the Netherlands inperson. These indicate that howimpor t an t a s se t s t he l on t a rmanuscripts are. Have the Ba-linese given the same attentionto theirs? Probably, only somehave done it, while some oth-ers prefer to leave theirs obso-lete at home without knowingwhat subject matter it contains.

As a tourist destination Balihas a great potential to intro-duce t h i s a s se t t o v i s i t o r s .Moreover, script as a medium torecord important thinking, an-c i en t t r ad i t i on and l i t e r a ryworks is worth giving seriousattention. The problem is thathow to make the preservationgo hand in hand with the ‘busi-ness.’ It needs a business touchpackaging the leisure travel andstudy on the native language ofthe destination. And more spe-cifically, how to make the pub-lication written in Balinese lan-

guage and script that can attractothers (beyond Balinese com-munity) to know and read it? Ofcourse, it should feature some-thing beneficial for them.

Up to these days, Balinesecharacters are only widely usedin the writing of lontar (palm-leaf) manuscripts. Meanwhile,for commercial book, magazineor publication for public con-sumption is almost unavailable.Ideally, there are regular pub-lications using the native lan-guage (basa Bali) and Balinesescript (aksara Bali). By doing so,both can be used to express Ba-linese culture and accommodatethe needs of modern community.Through the media, both can fea-ture relevant subject matter tomodern living. On that account,the preservation will not stop atthe competition of lontar inscrip-tion, writing of labels like thenames of street in Denpasar, shop(along Jalan Gajah Mada), andboard sign of government’s of-fice, but keeps on meeting thedemand of the users’ life.

In shor t , Bal inese scr ip ts(along with Balinese language)should be able to accommodatethe needs of its users today. Theyare becoming both an icon of Ba-linese community and a mediumto express the users’ mind, emo-tion and communication in widercontext as other languages andscripts do. Therefore, they shouldgo hand in hand with time andmake them not be left behind byits users! (BTN/w punia)

INGREDIENTS:100 gr Long

bean cut,blanched

1 cup Beansprout, blanched

100 grSpinach,blanched

1/4 eaCabbage chopped and blanched

1 ea Carrot (medium), thinly sliced, blanched4 sq Hard beancurd, deep fried, sliced4 ea Hard boiled eggs, cut in wedges2 tsp Shallot, sliced, fried1/2 cup peanut sauce

PREPARATION:Prepare the sauce by blending first four ingredients

until coarse. Put in pan with all other ingredients exceptfried shallots and lime juice. Simmer over very low heatfor I hour. Stirring to prevent sticking. Stir in lime juiceand shallots just before use. Arrange all vegetables andon a dish and pour over the sauce. Garnish with beancurd and eggs, sprinkle with shallots and serve withdeep-fried krupuk. (www.baliguide.com/balifood)

Gado-Gado(Vegetable Salad With Peanut Sauce)

Sambal Be Tongkol(Tuna Fish Salad)

http://staff.unud.ac.id

Balinese manuscripts

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Bali Museum save the Ba-linese culture heritage, emergethe founding plan a museumwhich afterward becomes theBali Museum:

* The early planning of BaliMuseum founding was Govern-mental functionary of Dutch, BaliKing, Society Prominent, all art-ists like: WFJ Kroon (assistant ofDutch Resident), Curt Grundler(a Germany Architect), I GustiAli t Ngurah (BestuurderPenegara Badung), I Gusti BagusJelantik (King of Karangasem), IGusti Ketut Djelantik (King of http://2.bp.blogspot.com

Bali MuseumBali MuseumBali MuseumBali MuseumBali MuseumIBP

Strategically located in Major Wisnu Street in Denpasar Bali and itis find it due to the location is in the heart town. In the north side thereare glorious temple of Jagatnatha, meanwhile in front of it the PuputanBadung (Badung Courtyard) and four face statue (Catur Muka Statue)are located. The development of Bali Museum is begun by the exist-ence of initiative how to vitally the heritage of Balinese culture andtaking care of, preserve and maintaining. The initiative is based on theexistence of feeling to worry, that there is symptom a kind of cultureerosion, so that the cultural heritage become totally disappeared, lose,what omit only photograph and documentations.

Buleleng), King of Tabanan, andall art ists l ike I Gusti KetutKandel, I Gusti Ketut Rai. ThePlanning is happened in year 1910with the elementary concept BaliMuseum building structure thatwas solidarity of the structure be-tween temple building (Sanctum)and Palace (Keraton).

* After agreed on the con-cept of the museum buildingstructure, hence founded a mainsbuilding which deflect finished inyear 1925. Because of the ancientobject collection which had beencollected is not yet adequate and

then during 7 years (1925-1932),the mains building stood func-tioned for the exhibition purpose.All meritorious experts in check-ing object taken as collection ofBali Museum for example:DR.W.F. Stutterheim, G.I .Graider, G.M. Hendrikss, DR.R.Goris, and artist of Walter Spies

* Bali Museum in the begin-ning is handled by an institutionthat is called Bali Museum Insti-tution and opened officially on 8December 1932 with the name ofBali Museum

* The management herein-after by institution of Bali Mu-seum has been reverted to Gov-ernment of Indonesia since 5January 1966.

The object collections whichare kept in Bali Museum can beclassified become the prehistoricobject collection like: the GravePetrify (sarkopag), the object col-lection coming from history eralike: stupika clay containing su-perstitious formula Ye Te, thebronze statues (Hindu and Budhastatues) and ethnography objectcol lect ion l ike Keris , EndekCloth, and religious ceremonyequipments (Sangku, Cecepanand Sidakarya mask).

Friday, December 17, 2010 11

BUSINESS

Reuters

BRUSSELS – European Unionleaders meet on Thursday to try toagree the next steps in tackling ayear-long debt crisis that has con-sumed Greece and Ireland andthreatens to spread to Portugal andSpain.

After months of battling to putout fires, including a 110 billioneuro bailout for Athens and an 85billion euro aid package forDublin, EU leaders will discusschanging the EU’s treaty to createa permanent crisis-resolutionmechanism from 2013, and maylook at enlarging their existing cri-sis fund.

The two-day summit comes asmarket pressure on the sovereigndebt of peripheral euro zone stateshas fallen marginally before year-end, but EU officials are consciousthat any failure to take decisive ac-tion could be interpreted as weak-ness, with the threat of further bondmarket fallout early next year.

Ratings agency Moody’swarned Spain on Wednesday thatits debt could be downgraded, andPortugal took steps to revive itseconomy and bolster its finances,hoping to stave off renewed mar-ket pressure that could force it intoan EU bailout.

Moody’s said it was concernedabout Spain’s high debt fundingneeds, its heavily indebted banksand its regional finances, but it didnot expect Madrid would have tofollow Greece and Ireland in seek-

The government accuses the com-panies of disregarding federal safetyregulations in drilling the well thatblew out April 20 and triggered adeadly explosion on the DeepwaterHorizon rig. The lawsuit is separatefrom a Justice Department criminalprobe that has not resulted in anycharges.

“The department’s focus on inves-tigating this disaster and preventingfuture (spills) is not over,” AttorneyGeneral Eric Holder said during anews conference in Washington.“Both our civil and criminal investi-gations are ongoing.”

The federal lawsuit filed in NewOrleans names BP, rig owner Trans-ocean and some other companies in-volved in the ill-fated drilling project,but not Halliburton — the project’s

Feds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damagesFeds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damagesFeds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damagesFeds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damagesFeds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damagesAssociated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The Justice Department sued BP and sev-eral other companies involved in the Gulf oil spill Wednesday,an opening salvo in the government’s effort to get billions ofdollars for untold economic and environmental damage.

cement contractor — or the maker ofa key cutoff valve that failed. Bothcould be added later.

BP said it would respond to theclaims at a later date but noted that itstands “alone among the parties” inhaving already stepped up to pay forthe cleanup. It said in a statement thatit will continue to fulfill its commit-ments to the Gulf and to cooperatewith ongoing investigations.

“The filing is solely a statementof the government’s allegations anddoes not in any manner constitute anyfinding of liability or any judicialfinding that the allegations havemerit,” BP said.

The lawsuit makes it possible forthe federal government to seek bil-lions of dollars in penalties for pol-luting the Gulf of Mexico, beaches

and wetlands, and reimbursement forits cleanup costs. More than 300 law-suits filed previously by individualsand businesses, and now consolidatedin the New Orleans federal court, in-clude claims for financial losses andcompensation for the families of 11workers killed in the blast.

The judge overseeing those law-suits had set Wednesday as the dead-line to file certain types of com-plaints, though it was unclear whetherthe government was bound by thattime frame.

“The Justice Department has leftits options open to argue that therewas gross negligence and thereforeshould be higher penalties,” saidDavid Uhlmann, a law professor atthe University of Michigan whoheaded up the Justice Department’senvironmental crimes section forseven years. “The government hasnot limited itself in any way with thefiling of its civil lawsuit.”

The suit asks that the companiesbe held liable without limitation un-der the Oil Pollution Act for all re-

moval costs and damages caused bythe spill, including damages to natu-ral resources. The lawsuit also seekscivil penalties under the Clean WaterAct.

The government did not set a dol-lar figure in the lawsuit, saying theamount of damages and the extent ofinjuries sustained by the UnitedStates are not yet fully known.

Under the Clean Water Act alone,BP faces fines of up to $1,100 foreach barrel of oil spilled. If BP werefound to have committed gross neg-ligence or willful misconduct, thefine could be up to $4,300 per barrel.

That means that based on thegovernment’s estimate of 206 milliongallons released by the well, BP couldface civil fines of between $5.4 bil-lion and $21.1 billion. BP disputesthe government’s spill estimate.

The government did not specifyin its lawsuit whether it believes therewas gross negligence, but it left openthe possibility for such a finding later.

Besides BP Exploration & Pro-duction Inc., the other defendants in

the case are Anadarko Exploration &Production LP; Anadarko PetroleumCorp.; MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC;Triton Asset Leasing GMBH; Trans-ocean Holdings LLC; Transocean Off-shore Deepwater Drilling Inc.; Trans-ocean Deepwater Inc.; andTransocean’s insurer, QBE Underwrit-ing Ltd./Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036.Anadarko and MOEX are minorityowners of the well that blew out.

Transocean disputed the allegationsand insisted it should not be held li-able.

“No drilling contractor has everbeen held liable for discharges from awell under the Oil Pollution Act of1990,” Transocean said in a statement.“The responsibility for hydrocarbonsdischarged from a well lies solely withits owner and operator.”

The Justice Department isn’t thefirst government entity to sue BP. Ala-bama Attorney General Troy Kingfiled federal lawsuits in August on be-half of the state against BP, Transocean,Halliburton and other companies thatworked on the project.

Agence France-Presse

CHARLOTTE - Bank of Americaand a group of investors demanding thebank buy back soured mortgages it soldto them have agreed to extend talksaimed at resolving their dispute.

The bank and a law firm represent-ing the investors said Wednesday theywould go beyond a 60-day discussionperiod triggered by a letter sent to thebank in mid-October. The bank did notsay whether there was a new time limitset on the talks.

Investors appeared to welcome theprospects of a negotiated settlement tothe standoff and the possibility of thebank avoiding a costly, and potentiallymessy, legal battle. Following Bank ofAmerica’s statement late Wednesday,its shares added 25 cents to $12.54 inaftermarket trading. The stock hadslipped 11 cents to $12.29 during theregular session. As the housing boomraged, many lenders sold off mortgagesto investment banks that pooled theloans into securities and sold them toinvestors. However, in the housing andeconomic crisis that followed, manyhomeowners ended up defaulting ontheir loans, saddling investors with se-curities backed by bad loans.

Now, some of those investors aredemanding that the lenders that soldthem the now-troubled mortgages buythe loans back — a practice known as“put-backs” on Wall Street.

Bank of America had previouslyrejected the claims and said last monthit would not buy back bad mortgages,

EU hopes to seize debt crisis initiative at summiting EU assistance.

The Portuguese government an-nounced moves to cut red tape andboost growth, and said it wouldsoon adopt quarterly fiscal targets.Both Spain and Portugal havecome under intense pressure andare facing funding crunches nextyear.

As well as approving a changeto the EU’s treaty demanded byGermany to create a permanentsystem for handling crises frommid-2013, EU leaders will discusshow they can improve the currenttemporary financial safety net —a 750 billion euro ($1 trillion) jointEU/IMF loan facility.

One possibility is to increase thesize of the fund, while anotherwould involve making it moreflexible in terms of the loans it canmake, including the possibility ofcredit lines.

Belgian Finance MinisterDidier Reynders said the EU’s por-tion, 440 billion euros, could po-tentially be doubled to fend off thethreat of renewed market pressureon Portugal and Spain, and Spain’seconomy minister backed the ideaof a larger fund.

The EU’s leading powers, Ger-many and France, say less than 10percent of the rescue funds havebeen committed so far, so there isno urgent need to increase themoney available.

German Chancellor AngelaMerkel said no country in Europewould be left on its own, and reit-erated that the euro was a strong

currency that would be defended tothe hilt.

“We know that the euro is ourcollective destiny, and Europe is ourcollective future,” she said onWednesday. “Nobody in Europe willbe abandoned. Europe will succeedtogether.”

European Commission PresidentJose Manuel Barroso urged leadersto act fast to reach a consensus atthe summit.

The European Central Bankholds the second day of a regular,non-rate setting meeting on Thurs-day, when it is expected to agree toask euro zone member states formore capital, a move to lower itsrisk profile as it helps tackle the debtcrisis.

Belgium had the outlook on itssovereign debt lowered by Standard& Poor’s on Tuesday, with the threatof a downgrade within six monthsif it fails to sort out a political im-passe.

Top EU officials, including Lux-embourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and the Italian fi-nance minister, have called for theeuro zone to consider issuing col-lective treasury bonds, or e-bonds,which would effectively mean the16 euro zone countries sharingcredit risk and debt issuance.

Germany opposes the proposal,which would expose its credit riskto the influence of riskier peripheraleuro zone countries such as Portu-gal and Greece. The issue may beraised at the EU summit, but no de-cisions are expected.

BofA gets more time fortalks over soured loans

even as both sides engaged in talks.The announcement that we’re mak-

ing today is consistent with our strat-egy all along that if there is a valid de-fect, Bank of America will act respon-sibly and buy back the loan, and in caseof no evidence of a valid defect we willdefend the interests of the company andof our shareholders,” said JerryDubrowski, a BofA spokesman.

The group of eight investors seek-ing put-backs from Bank of Americaincludes the Federal Reserve Bank ofNew York, Freddie Mac, Pimco Invest-ment Management and Blackrock Fi-nancial Management.

The investors own interests in a slateof 115 transactions with an originalprincipal balance of $104 billion. Nowthe balance is $46 billion. The inves-tors want Bank of America to buy backdefaulted mortgages made by its Coun-trywide unit, which the Charlotte-basedbank acquired in July 2008.

They argue that Countrywide’s prac-tice of modifying loans found to havefaulty paperwork or those written out-side of normal underwriting standardsbreached signed agreements with theinvestors. By continuing to service badloans rather than speeding up foreclo-sures, the group claims, Countrywideran up servicing fees, enriching itself atthe expense of investors. Bank ofAmerica, however, has described theloan modifications as the “proper re-sponse to an unprecedented housing cri-sis and in furtherance of the stated policyof the federal government.” It calledclaims of poorly handled loans baseless.

Entertainment InternationalFriday, December 17, 201012

Typically combining high politicswith showbiz news and gossip,interviewees on his final shows thisweek have included Barbra Streisandand former British premier TonyBlair. Born Larry Zeiger in Brook-lyn, the CNN icon has become oneof the most recognizable figures onUS television, after previously an-choring a national radio show forseven years.

Over the decades the gravel-voiced broadcaster has quizzed ev-eryone who is anyone on his nightlyprogramme, including every USpresident since Gerald Ford.

Other highlights included Playboyfounder Hugh Hefner with a bevvy ofPlaymate girlfriends, Mike Tyson in-terviewed inside the boxing ring at the

Agence France Presse

SHANGHAI - Sesame Street’sBig Bird is returning to Chinesetelevision after a nine-year ab-sence as the star of his own Man-darin-language spin-off series setto premiere in Shanghai nextweek. The eight-foot-tall yellowbird is the host of “Sesame Street’sBig Bird Looks at the World”, adaily 11-minute programme set todebut on Shanghai Media Group’sHa Ha Children’s Channel on De-cember 22, the producers said.

“Sesame Workshop has had aproud history of serving the needsof children globally since 1969and in China since 1983 when BigBird first visited,” Gary E. Knell,president and CEO of the non-profit Sesame Workshop, said ina statement.

Big Bird first came to China tofilm sequences for “SesameStreet” 27 years ago and againfrom 1998 to 2001. Sesame Work-shop at that time partnered withShanghai television to produceZhima Jie, a Chinese version ofthe legendary educational children’s programme.

But the show did not last beyond 130 episodes in a tough regulatory environment thatfavours domestic fare over imported programmes.

“Through the continued efforts of those in the industry, the children’s media landscape inChina has made big strides in the last few years,” said Ye Chao, deputy general manager ofToonmax, the Shanghai Media Group unit in charge of Ha Ha.

Big Bird’s co-stars on the show will be Elmo and a new character named Lily, a martialarts-loving tiger, the producers said. Each of the 52 episodes will focus on a question raisedby one of the characters such as “Where does the sun go at night?” or “What are seashells?”,the producers said.

Health care products company MSD China, a subsidiary of Merck & Co, which workswith Sesame Workshop around the world, is helping fund the programme.

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Aretha Franklin is home fromthe hospital — and she’s already making plansfor the holidays. In a statement released Wednes-day, the Queen of Soul said she’s been home forthree days and her family and friends are takinggreat care of her. Franklin says she also has aprivate nurse who checks on her every day.

Veteran CNN host Larry KingVeteran CNN host Larry KingVeteran CNN host Larry KingVeteran CNN host Larry KingVeteran CNN host Larry Kinghangs up suspendershangs up suspendershangs up suspendershangs up suspendershangs up suspenders

Agence France Presse

LOS ANGELES - Veteran CNN talk show host Larry King hangs up his famous suspenders Thursday,after a quarter of a century of interviewing the powerful and famous. The 77-year-old, who will be suc-ceeded by former British journalist Piers Morgan, is finally retiring from “Larry King Live,” the show hehas presented on the Atlanta-based news network since 1985.

AP Photo/John Russell, file

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 1999 file photo, Republican presidential candi-date Texas Gov. George W. Bush jokes with CNN’s Larry King afterfinishing the “Larry King Live” show from the Wildhorse Saloon in Nash-ville, Tenn. After 25 years of “Larry King Live,” Larry King will hang uphis suspenders with his last broadcast on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010.

MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and Pal-estinian leader Yasser Arafat. Whilecritics say his interviewing style canbe too soft-soap, others argue that’swhy he gets everyone to come onhis show, winning scoops whichsome credit with helping establishCNN in its early days.

The Emmy award-winner hasconducted over 40,000 interviewsover the years, and recently brokethe world record for the same TVinterview show in the same timeslot with the same presenter.

To celebrate his 40th anniversaryin broadcasting, Tinsel Town hon-ored King in 1997 with a star onthe Walk of Fame on HollywoodBoulevard, a short walk fromCNN’s LA offices. King’s private

life has been almost as storied as hison-screen career: in April he filedfor divorce from his seventh wifeShawn Southwick, citing “irrecon-cilable differences.”

Although Southwick was King’sseventh wife, it was the eighth timehe had filed for a divorce. He wastwice married and divorced to AleneAkins, with whom he split in 1972.

Tributes have been flowing sincehe announced he was leaving theshow. “We will miss Larry’s giggle.We will miss Larry’s stupid suspend-ers,” said Washington Post TV col-umnist Lisa de Moraes.

“We will miss the way he, attimes, has no idea who he is inter-viewing. There will never be anotherlike Larry,” she added.

Big Bird stars in Chinese‘Sesame Street’ spin-off

Aretha Franklin goes homefor the holidays

AP Photo/Shea Walsh, file

FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2008 file photo, Aretha Franklin performs at the House of Blues inLos Angeles.

She also says she’s hoping to see a play aboutSam Cooke in her hometown of Detroit soonand to see the production of “Dreamgirls” therebefore it closes this month. Franklin had sur-gery for an ailment she has not disclosed. Shesays her doctors deemed the operation “highlysuccessful.”

Franklin was forced to cancel concerts re-cently because of illness.

International Friday, December 17, 2010 13Life Style

“I’m going to kill that dirty In-dian,” she shouts as she grapples,kicks, punches and jumps off the toprope onto her opponent in a smallwrestling ring set up in a square inLa Paz’s northern suburb of El Tejar.It’s wrestling in all its glory with afeminine touch of the Andes.

Sporting the traditional longbraids and multi-layered skirts ofthe Aymara, these “cholitasluchadoras” (Indian women wres-tlers) have become a local institu-tion half-way between circus andsport, much as wrestling is consid-ered elsewhere in the world.

It all started nearly eight years agoin El Alto, a sprawling bedroomcommunity overlooking La Paz, at anose-bleeding 4,100 meters (13,400feet) above sea level, wrestling pro-moter Nelson Calle told AFP.

Wrestler Edgar Palacios, Calle

Agence France Presse

PARIS - The Palace of Versailles is to transform one of itssatellite buildings into a luxury hotel, paving the way for a seriesof French projects aimed at exploiting the economic potential oflisted buildings while securing their renovation.

The Hotel du Grand Controle, the traditional home of thechateau’s treasurers, is to be converted into a “luxury hotel,” Jean-Jacques Aillagon, president of the Chateau de Versailles, saidTuesday. “It’s a pioneering initiative,” he told reporters. The open-ing of the 23-bedroom establishment, in which some rooms willlook out onto the “Orangerie” — the chateau’s elaborate green-house — or the Swiss ornamental lake, is planned for late 2011.

The palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site deemed one ofthe crowning achievements of 18th-century French art, is one ofEurope’s most popular tourist attractions.

Famed for its Hall of Mirrors and home to the French courtfrom 1682, the complex was transformed and expanded underthe Sun King Louis XIV into a monument to royal grandeur andabsolutism. It remained the official seat of power until the FrenchRevolution in 1789, when Marie-Antoinette fled the palace via asecret passage.

A concession has been granted to the Belgian company Ivy

Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A sunken shipthat may be several centuries old and con-taining green and gray ceramics has beenfound off remote Indonesian islands re-cently hit by a tsunami, officials saidThursday.

Fishermen who found the vessel believethe Oct. 26 wave off the Mentawai islands— which killed more than 500 people —lifted the 20-foot- (7-meter-) long shipfrom the ocean floor and pushed it closerto shore, said Yosmeri, who heads WestSumatra’s Maritime and Fishery Depart-ment.

Wooden ships laden with ceramic pots,golden necklaces and valuable spices forcenturies navigated Indonesian waters, akey trade route linking Asia with Europeand the Middle East. Hundreds are said tolitter the seabed off West Sumatra prov-ince.

The pots, jugs and bowls found lastweek still need to be tested to determinetheir origin and age, Yosmeri said, but headded that they are similar to 14th centuryartifacts found inside sunken Chinese ves-sels.

Local fisherman say they found thewooden ship after spotting its mast 4 miles(6 kilometers) from the beach off Pagai Is-land, hardest hit by the tsunami.

They dove into the water and emergedwith several well-preserved jugs and potsfound in the hull, which they said wasladen with more treasures.

Pictures of the artifacts have been sentto the capital, Jakarta, and teams will besent to the area soon to carry out a moreextensive search, Yosmeri said.

Women wrestling in the Bolivian AndesWomen wrestling in the Bolivian AndesWomen wrestling in the Bolivian AndesWomen wrestling in the Bolivian AndesWomen wrestling in the Bolivian AndesAgence France Presse

LA PAZ - On weekdays, mild-mannered 29-year-old Mariela Averanga works as a secretary in La Paz,but at the weekend she dons the billowing, Aymara skirt of the highlands and climbs into the ring as thenefarious “Benita the Untouchable”.

said, “saw a couple of women fight-ing in El Alto. They were fightingfor real, and he noticed people hadgathered round to watch withoutinterfering in any way. That’s wherehe got the idea of the fighting In-dian women.”

That’s one version. A likelier oneis that as male wrestling began los-ing popularity in the 1990s to tele-vision and DVDs, promoters turnedto female wrestling to lure thecrowds back to neighborhood rings.

The cholitas luchadoras gradu-ally caught on and spread to La Pazand El Alto, Bolivia’s biggest cit-ies, which sport some eight privatestables of female wrestlers with ringnames like “Tender Juanita”,“Headbusting Elizabeth” and “Jen-nifer Two-Face”.

The two-hour fighting extrava-ganzas make their way around the

suburbs, the provinces and evenabroad, in neighboring Peru. Theskirted wrestlers have become part-time sportswomen and local celebri-ties, something with little precedentfor Bolivian women of indigenousextraction, who are mostly home-makers, street vendors and officeworkers, said Calle.

Depending on their standing, theymake between 100 and 200bolivianos (14-28 dollars) per fightnight, which is about 25-33 percentof the minimum monthly salary inBolivia.

But they have other rewards. “I’vebeen fighting since I was seven. I likeit. I like the adrenaline rush,” “Benitathe Untouchable” told AFP after amatch she lost to “Cute Angela”, amore technical opponent who wowedsome 200 spectators with flying scis-sors and headlocks.

AFP PHOTO/Aizar RALDES

In a picture taken on December 4, 2010 Benita La Intocable (R), facesSimpatica Angela during a “cholitas” (Aymara women in skirts) all-inwrestling fight in La Paz. The fighting “cholitas” are one of the mainattractions of the “catchascan”, a kind of circus that perform in popu-lar neighbourhoods of Bolivia.

Indonesianfishermen findold sunken ship

France’s Versailles palace to host luxury hotelInternational SA, which is to renovate and develop the satellitebuilding, which dates back to the 17th century, over 30 years. Thecompany is already working on a similar luxury hotel in France’swestern Brittany region.

Built in the 1680s by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart,the 1,700 square-metre (18,000 square-feet) Hotel du GrandControle served as an officers’ mess until 2006. “This buildingwas given to us in a very dilapidated state,” said Aillagon. “I’vebeen given the task of saving it,” he added.

Ivy will pay for the renovation works, estimated at 5.5 millioneuros (7.3 million dollars), which will be led by historic monu-ments architect-in-chief Frederic Didier. The company will payVersailles an annual fee to lease the building.

A November 2009 agreement between the Culture Ministryand the Secretariat of State for Tourism set out to encourage theeconomic and touristic development of French heritage. Anotherroyal palace, the Chateau of Fontainbleau south of Paris, is pre-paring to appeal for bids to develop its listed Heronniere barracksnext year.

“We have to find a purpose for these buildings to avoid themfalling into ruin,” said Jean-Francois Hebert, president ofFontainbleau. “One of the ways will be to set up an upmarkethotel complex,” he said.

A picture taken on

December 14,

2010 in Versailles,

west of Paris,

shows the back

view of “Grand

Controle” hotel

that will be

renovated in a

twenty tree rooms

luxury hotel.

AFP PHOTO/JACQUES DEMARTHON

Friday, December 17, 201014 InternationalSport

Inter, who last season won anunprecedented treble of Italianleague, cup and ChampionsLeague titles, were 10 points be-hind Serie A leaders AC Milanwhen they left for Abu Dhabi, butthey will now be expected to endthe year with another piece ofmajor silverware.

“It was a very hard win and itwas difficult to control the gameas Seongnam players were run-ning a lot and they knew exactlywhat to do,” said Benitez. “Itwasn’t easy to start as well as wedid as we lost (Wesley) Sneijderso quickly.

“The second goal made the dif-ference for us and then towards theend we controlled the game.” Headded: “I’m happy with my play-ers as they did what we wanted ofthem. Seongnam are wellorganised and they have a lot ofqualities but they had some diffi-culties tonight.”

Seongnam Ilhwa coach ShinTae Yong said: “I would like tocongratulate Inter as they playedreally well today. The score mightbe 3-0 but our players gave theirbest until the end of the game.“Our team did a lot of effectivework but in the first half we con-ceded two goals and they had a

Agence France Presse

PARIS – Runaway Germanleague leaders BorussiaDortmund crashed out of theEuropa League on Wednesdayas they were held 2-2 by Span-ish side Sevilla in Spain in theirGroup J clash.

Dortmund - who exited theirdomestic Cup to third divisionOffenbach in October - neededto win to progress and deny theiropponents a place in the last 32but it was Sevilla who gained amuch needed morale boost toend a run of five successive de-feats, including three at home.

French title contenders ParisSaint Germain topped the group,ending their campaign with a 1-1 draw away at Ukrainian outfitKarpaty Lviv.

Napoli took the phrase lastchance saloon to its limits alsoon Wednesday as a goal from in-form Uruguayan internationalstriker Edinson Cavani in thethird minute of time added ongave the Serie A side a 1-0 winover Romanian outfit.

The win lifted Napoli overthe unfortunate Romanians andfill second spot behind groupwinners Liverpool, who drew 0-0 at home to Utrecht. Dortmundhad got the ideal start in Sevilleas Japanese str iker ShinjiKagawa struck in the fourthminute.

However, Ivory Coast inter-national Romaric drew the hostslevel just after the half hourmark reacting first after the ballcame off the chest of Brazilianteam-mate Luis Fabiano.

AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili

Inter Milan Samuel Etoo, left, is challenged by South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma soccerplayer Ko Jae Sung , middle, during their FIFA Club World Cup semi final soccer match at theZayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Wednesday Dec. 15, 2010.

Inter cruise into ClubInter cruise into ClubInter cruise into ClubInter cruise into ClubInter cruise into ClubWorld Cup finalWorld Cup finalWorld Cup finalWorld Cup finalWorld Cup finalAgence France Presse

ABU DHABI - European champions Inter Milan swept into the final of the Club World Cupwith a convincing 3-0 semi-final defeat of Asian counterparts Seongnam Ilhwa here on Wednes-day. Argentine striker Diego Milito made one goal and scored another on his return from a five-week absence, as Rafael Benitez’s under-performing side set up a meeting with surprise pack-age Tout Puissant Mazembe in Saturday’s final.

slight advantage.“If we compare the two teams,

Inter’s players were physically stron-ger. “Also, their individual skillswere better than us and that was oneof the reasons why we lost tonight.Inter were good and they scoredthree goals but we were not bad our-selves and gave a good performancetonight.”

Inter welcomed Julio Cesar,Cristian Chivu and Milito back frominjury, but Sneijder had to go off af-ter appearing to injure his left ham-string inside the first 30 seconds.Sneijder had barely disappeareddown the tunnel when veteranSerbian midfielder Dejan Stankovicput Inter ahead. After Milito wascrowded out on the edge of theSeongnam box, Stankovic displayedimpressive balance and a cool headto steady himself and then roll theball into the bottom-right corner withhis left foot.

Seongnam were unable to react tothe setback and in the 32nd minuteInter doubled their lead in stylishfashion. Captain Javier Zanettiflicked the ball to Milito and droveinto the box before receiving Milito’sexpertly directed back-heel and guid-ing the ball beyond Seongnam goal-keeper Jung Sung-Ryong.

Julio Cesar had to be alert to save

a Dzenan Radoncic header asSeongnam sought a route back intothe game, but the Brazilian goal-keeper was then beaten by a headerfrom Chu Byung-Kuk as he ad-vanced to claim a free-kick, only forthe ball to go wide of the post.

Jo Jae-Chol gave Inter a mildscare with a snapshot from distancethat brushed the roof of the net, butthe Italian champions were largelyable to keep their opponents at arm’slength.

Eto’o was denied by Jung with 17minutes remaining, but Milito wason hand to stab the rebound into thenet and seal Inter’s place in the fi-nal.

Seongnam had a superb opportu-nity to respond shortly afterwards,but when Julio Cesar parried Asianplayer of the year Sasa Ognenovski’sfree-kick straight to Radoncic, theMontenegrin side-footed the ballwide from close range.

Earlier, Mexican side Pachuca hitback from 2-0 down to defeat localrepresentatives Al-Wahda on penal-ties in the fifth place play-off.

Pachuca trailed by two goals withless than 10 minutes to play butDario Cvitanich claimed a late braceto tie the scores and after a goallessperiod of extra time, the Mexicansprevailed 4-2 on penalties.

AP Photo/Angel Fernandez

Borussia Dortmund ‘s goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, rear,reacts as assistant referee Vladimir Pettay looks on duringtheir Europa League group J soccer match against Sevillaat the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville, on Wednes-day Dec. 15, 2010.

Dortmund Cup woecontinues, Napolisqueeze through

Sevilla took the lead fourminutes later in the 35th minuteas Malian striker and club cap-tain Fredi Kanoute headed home- however he had to leave thefray in the 41st minute injured.

The German visitors foughtback to level the match in the49th minute. Serbian interna-tional central defender NevenSubotic powered a header home,but chances were few and farbetween from then on andDortmund were left to focussolely on maintaining their do-mestic league lead.

Greek side PAOK had goneinto the final match requiringjust a draw away over Croatianopponents Dinamo Zagreb, whoneeded a win to progress.

However, it was PAOK whotook the second and last quali-fying place in Group D with ahard-earned 1-0 victory, all themore impressive as it came onlya day after a group of VIP’s trav-elling with them had their busattacked by home fans.

A goal on the hour by Greekinternational DimitriosSalpingidis split the sides andextended the hosts miserablerecord in European competitionwhich has seen them fail to playEuropean football after the NewYear since 1970.

Thursday’s play sees holdersAtletico Madrid praying for amiracle to retain their hopes ofdefending their crown as theyneed to beat already qualifiedBayer Leverkusen in Germanyand Greek outfit Aris fail to beatNorwegian opponentsRosenborg in Greece.

Friday, December 17, 2010 15International Sport

The Knicks had their eight-game winning streak snappedwhen a video replay ofStoudemire’s shot showed theball was clearly still in his handsas time expired.

Pierce scored 32 points for theCeltics, who trailed most of thefourth quarter before runningtheir record to 20-4, best in theEastern Conference.

Stoudemire had 39 points, ex-tending his franchise-recordstreak to nine straight 30-pointgames. But the Knicks were de-nied the victory over a top teamthey desperately craved to punc-tuate their return to relevance.They get another chance Friday,when LeBron James and the Mi-ami Heat come to MadisonSquare Garden.

“The Knicks have arrived,”Pierce said in a postgame televi-sion interview. “They’re going tobe a force to reckon with in thedivision.”

Ray Allen scored 26 points andKevin Garnett had 20 points and13 rebounds for the Celtics, en-

Agence France Presse

LONDON - Football penaltyshoot-outs give an unfair psychologi-cal advantage to the team that shootsfirst according to new research fromthe London School of Economics andPolitical Science (LSE) publishedThursday. Now Professor IgnacioPalacios-Huerta, from the LSE’s de-partment of management, has sug-gested football chiefs switch to a ten-nis style tie-break system, duringwhich players can have two consecu-tive serves, in a bid to make shoot-outsfairer.

Celtics edge Knicks onCeltics edge Knicks onCeltics edge Knicks onCeltics edge Knicks onCeltics edge Knicks onPierce jumper with 0.4 leftPierce jumper with 0.4 leftPierce jumper with 0.4 leftPierce jumper with 0.4 leftPierce jumper with 0.4 left

New York Knicks’ AmareStoudemire (1) passes away

from Boston Celtics’ KevinGarnett (5) during the firsthalf of an NBA basketball

game, Wednesday, Dec. 15,2010, in New York.

Associtated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Paul Pierce made a tiebreaking jumper with 0.4 seconds left, Amare Stoudemire’s3-pointer at the buzzer was ruled too late, and the Boston Celtics pulled out a thrilling 118-116victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night for their 11th straight win.

joying their fifth winning streakof 10 games or more since theirBig Three came together beforethe 2007-08 season.

Raymond Felton had 26 pointsand 14 assists, Danilo Gallinariscored 20 points and WilsonChandler had 18 points and 12 re-bounds for the Knicks, who lostfor just the second time in theirlast 15 games.

Most of those victories cameduring a soft part of the schedule,leaving the Knicks needing a vic-tory over an established NBApower to prove doubters they wereback, despite their 16-10record.The Celtics just wouldn’tlet it happen.

Stoudemire’s dunk snapped a94-all tie with 8:05 left, and theKnicks stayed ahead until Garnettmade two free throws with 1:29remaining. Felton was late gettingback after landing hard on amissed drive and the Celticsswung the ball around to Allen,whose 3-pointer gave Boston a116-113 lead with 1:02 to play.

Gall inari answered with a

three-point play and the Knicksgot the ball back after the Celticsthrew it away trying to find Allen,but Stoudemire’s shot from thelane rolled out.

Pierce ran the clock down andcreated enough space to make hisshot over Stoudemire, who hadpicked him up on a switch. Aftera timeout, the Knicks inboundedthe ball to Stoudemire behind thearc, and the Madison Square Gar-den crowd that was standing formost of the final minutes roaredwhen his shot went through.

But the referees had ruled itcame too late, and with the Celticsstanding behind them as theywatched it again on video, theysaw their judgment was correct.

AP Photo

Penalty shoot-outs ‘unfair’ say researchersPalacios-Huerta and co-author Jose

Apesteguia, an associate professor atPompeu Fabra University in Barcelona,studied 2,820 kicks from shoot-outs inmajor national and international com-petitions between 1970-2008.

They found that the team that takesthe first kick wins 60 percent of the timeand the team that takes the second 40percent of the time.

“Most TV channels cut to the com-mercial break when the coin is beingtossed to decide which team takes thefirst penalty — but our findings showthat this could be the deciding momentafter a drawn match,” Palacios-Huerta

said.“The coin gives a 20 percent advan-

tage to the team that shoots first. Thepsychological pressure of ‘lagging be-hind’ clearly affects the performance ofthe team that kicks second.” The re-search, published in the American Eco-nomic Review, is said to be the firststudy of its kind.

Palacios-Huerta and Apesteguiastudied films of the penalty coin toss in20 matches. In every case, except one,the winner of the toss chose to take thefirst penalty.

The exception was Italy-Spain in the2008 European Championships — Italywon the coin toss but opted to go sec-ond and Spain won the shoot-out. Theresearchers also interviewed 240 play-ers and coaches — both professionaland amateur.

Almost all said they would prefer totake the first kick and 96 percent saidthis was to put pressure on the teamkicking second.

“I suspect that the heads of FIFA orUEFA are not going to like the factthat the winner of the World Cup, theEuropean Championship or the Cham-pions League is decided, in part, onthe 60-40 flip of a coin,” Palacios-Huerta said. His proposed solution forreducing the impact of the kicking or-der mirrors what happens in a tie-breakin a tennis match.

Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND – Teenagepitching sensation, World War IIhero, outspoken Hall of Famer andlocal sports treasure. Bob Fellerwas all of them. One of a kind, hewas an American original.

Blessed with a right arm thatearned the Iowa farmboy the nick-name “Rapid Robert” and madehim one of the greatest pitchers inbaseball history, Feller, who leftbaseball in the prime of his careerto fight for his country, diedWednesday night. He was 92.

Feller, who won 266 games in 18seasons — all with the Indians —died at 9:15 p.m. on Wednesdaynight of acute leukemia at a hospice,said Bob DiBiasio, the Indians vicepresident of public relations.

Remarkably fit until late in life,Feller had suffered serious healthsetbacks in recent months. He wasdiagnosed with leukemia in Au-gust, and while undergoing chemo-therapy, he fainted and his heartbriefly stopped. Eventually, he hadpacemaker implanted. In Novem-ber, he was hospitalized with pneu-

Hall of Famer Bob Feller dies at 92monia and recently released intohospice care.

Even as his health deteriorated,Feller continued doing what heloved most — attending Indiansgames deep into last season. “No-body lives forever and I’ve had ablessed life,” Feller said in Sep-tember. “I’d like to stay on thisside of the grass for as long as Ican, though. I’d really like to seethe Indians win a World Series.”

Feller, in fact, was part of therotation the last time the Indianswon it all — in 1948. Fiercelyproud and patriotic, Feller’s lifewas much like one of his overpow-ering fastballs. He seemed unstop-pable, whether on the mound orin conversation. Feller, who brokeinto the majors at the tender ageof 17, could always bring the heat.

“Bob Feller is gone. We cannotbe surprised,” Indians owner LarryDolan said in a statement. “Yet, itseems improbable. Bob has beensuch an integral part of our fabric,so much more than an ex-ballplayer, so much more than anyCleveland Indians player. He isCleveland, Ohio.

Friday, December 17, 201016 SportI N T E R N A T I O N A L

Having limped out injured at the2008 Beijing Olympics, Liu madesure to live up to the soaringexpections of a demanding nation,coming home in an impressive13.09 seconds.

“I used to be unwilling to men-tion what happened (in Beijing)because it would take me into a de-pression,” said Liu, the former

Aprilia technical director Luigidall’Igna says it is unlikely that hiscompany will return to MotoGPwhen the new rules come into effectin 2012.

The Italian manufacturer won thisyear’s World Superbike title withformer MotoGP star Max Biaggi.The new MotoGP regulations willallow teams to run with production-based 1000cc engines, leading to

Liu makes triumphantreturn, Rudisha shinesAgence France Presse

PARIS - Chinese hurdles star Liu Xiang made a triumphant comeback in a year when TysonGay made the most of Usain Bolt’s absence through injury and Kenyan David Rudisha explodedonto the 800m scene. Liu claimed his third successive Asian Games title in the 110m hurdles andimmediately set his sights on reclaiming the Olympic gold he won at the 2004 Athens Games.

world record holder.“But that shadow isn’t following

me around anymore. “I think aboutthe demons facing me now when Irace. I know that I can conquer themif I face them head on.” Elsewhereon the track, Kenya’s David Rudishamade history by twice breaking thelong-standing 800m world record,the previous best mark set by

Denmark’s Kenyan-born WilsonKipketer in August 1997.

The 21-year-old, coached by re-nowned Irish priest ColmO’Connell, first broke the worldrecord in Berlin on August 22 witha time of 1min 41.09sec beforebettering that mark with 1:41.01in Rieti, Italy, a week later.

He was also crowned African

champion in July in Nairobi and wasunbeaten in his 16 races during theoutdoor campaign. O’Connellwarned, however, that he must keephis feet on the ground.

“Rudisha should realise there ismuch work to be done and what hehas achieved this year is a phase inhis career,” 0’Connell said. “Thenext two years are very importantsince we have the world champion-ships and the Olympics coming upand he can only consider himself agreat if he adds his name to thesecategories.”

Rudisha and Croatian high jumpstar Blanka Vlasic were named maleand female athletes of the year bythe sport’s governing body, the In-ternational Association of AthleticsFederations (IAAF).

Alongside Rudisha’s record-breaking runs, the 27-year-old Vlasicwon both the European outdoors andworld indoors titles. It was a quietseason for the biggest global drawin athletics, Jamaican Usain Bolt,ahead of the 2011 world champion-ships in Daegu, South Korea.

The reigning treble gold medal-list in world and Olympic competi-tion and world record holder in the100 and 200m missed most of the

season through injury.Bolt raced 11 times, seven indi-

vidually, but stopped his season earlyon the advice of doctors because ofa lower back problem after missinga month earlier in the season with atight Achilles tendon. The Jamaican,who has since resumed training, wasa loser in his final appearance of2010, dropping a 100m race in Au-gust to US rival Gay in Sweden.

After spending the last two yearsin Bolt’s shadow, Gay emerged withthe right to be called the best sprinterover the blue riband distance.

The 28-year-old finished atop thestandings for the shortest event inthe inaugural 14-leg DiamondLeague, which replaced the six-event Golden League and associatedGrand Prix meetings. “You have tochange your training around a littlebit,” Gay said of the season-longstructure, bemoaning a lack ofsynchronicity in complementingevents. “If I run the 100m, I like towatch the women run the 100.”

Doping again reared its uglyhead, the most high-profile casebeing that of American 400m Olym-pic champion LaShawn Merritt,who received a 21-month ban forfailing three dope tests.

Aprilia plays down MotoGPreturn hopes

AFP PHOTO / PETER PARKS

Liu Xiang of China takes the final before finishing first and taking gold in the men’s 110mhurdles final in the athletics competition at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou on November24, 2010.

rumours that some current Superbikemanufacturers might be tempted intoMotoGP next year.

But dall’Igna has played down thechance of Aprilia joining the grandprix field under the ‘claiming rule’.“You need to consider that Aprilia isa manufacturer that has reaped a lotof success in the series it has partici-pated in,” he told Motosprint.

“To race in a world championship

with a bike that is not on the samelevel as our rivals is not the right spiritto face such an important commit-ment, so I think that in 2012 we won’tbe in the world motorcycling elite,and we won’t participate inMotoGP.”

Aprilia last competed in MotoGPin 2004. It retains a presence in thegrand prix series in 125cc, which itcurrently dominates.