Edisi 07 Maret 2011 | International Bali Post

16 Pages Number 61 3rd Year Price: Rp 3.000,-

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Ngembak Geni, a time of resurrection for Bali

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Monday, March 7, 2011

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Sean Penn thanks Venezuela’s Chavez for Haiti aid PAGE 12 AFP PHOTO / MARCO LONGARI

A Libyan rebel fighter mans a check point in the stronghold oil town of Ras Lanuf on March 5, 2011 where up to 10 people were killed and more than 20 wounded in clashes between opposition and loyalists of Moamer Kadhafi forces.

Heavy machinegun fire rocks Libyan capital Tripoli Reuters

TRIPOLI – Intense automatic gunfire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi’s main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule.

WEATHER FORECAST

It was unclear who was doing the shooting, which started just before daybreak, or what had caused it.

Machinegun volleys, some of them

heavy caliber, reverberated around central Tripoli along with ambulance sirens, pro-Gaddafi chants, and a cacophony of car horns as vehicles

sped through the vicinity. Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim denied any fighting was under way in the capital, saying the gunfire was to mark the army’s recapture of several cities from rebel forces.

“These are celebrations because government forces have taken control of all areas to Benghazi and are in the process of taking control of Benghazi,” Ibrahim said, referring

to Libya’s rebel-controlled second largest city situated in the far east.

But Benghazi and the Libyan coast east of the port city of Ras Lanuf remained in rebel hands, Reuters correspondents there said. State television said government forces also had retaken the important coastal cities of Zawiyah and Misrata, to the immediate west and east of Tripoli.

Continued on page 6

CITY

TEMPERATURE OC

DENPASAR

24 - 31

JAKARTA

Nyepi in Kuta

23 - 32

BANDUNG

21 - 29

Police officer and Malaysian tourist arrested

YOGYAKARTA

22 - 31

Mangupura (Bali Post) –

23 - 32

Generally, Nyepi celebration in Badung and Denpasar area was in order. The similar condition can be seen in one of the most crowded tourism place in Bali, Kuta. On normal days, Kuta is packed with domestic and foreign tourists who want to enjoy the beautiful beach or even find entertainment in the clubs around the area.

However, during Nyepi Day,

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the condition was completely different. Kuta resembled a dead city where no one nowhere to be seen.

Small incidents occurred when several people were arrested due to their ignorance on the celebration of Nyepi.

The head of Kuta customary village, I Gusti Ketut Sudira, stated that one police officers and a tourist were arrested during Nyepi. He explained that the police officer was arrested when he was caught

fishing on German Beach at 10 pm.

“We handed the suspect to their superior in Kuta Police Department and he will receive the proper punishment,” Sudira added.

Meanwhile, a tourist from Malaysia, Mike, was also arrested by the local security officer, pecalang, in Kuta. He was found sleeping in a Balawista, lifeguard, post approximately at 6 o’clock in the morning.

The pecalang then arrested Mike in the security post near the beach.

Mike admitted that he didn’t know there would be Nyepi celebration on Saturday, March 5, 2011. The violation cost Mike a nigh in the prison.

After a day of peace and quiet, Kuta area is stared to be packed with tourists. In addition to enjoy the beautiful beach, the tourists and the locals in the area visited the Majalangu Market. The market is only opened once a year, every Ngembak Geni or a day after Nyepi.

Continued on page 6

2

International

Monday, March 7, 2011

Bali News Ahead of Nyepi, hotel occupancy rate in Bali low Mangupura (Bali Post)—

Nyepi Celebration of the Caka New Year 1933 did not necessarily affect the hotel occupancy rate in Bali. One day before the celebration, the hotel occupancy rate in Bali remained low namely on the average of 55 percent to 60 percent. Such a rate was equivalent to the occupancy rate on the previous days.

Secretary of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) of Bali Chapter, Ferry Markus, stated if compared to days before the New Year and Idul Fitri celebration becoming the peak seasons, the occupancy rate usually reached 90 percent. “As the report we received, the occupancy rate of hotels in Bali stuck at 60 percent,” said Ferry Markus, Thursday (Mar 3).

According to him, the occupancy rate before the celebration of Caka New Year’s Eve every year tended to stagnate. Both foreign and domestic tourists intending to watch the celebration live were still fairly minimal if compared to before the celebration of Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year.

“Tourists quite understand about the tradition of Nyepi in Bali. Even, they were very impressed with the Balinese people who can stop the total activities during the day,” he said.

PHRI of Bali Chapter, acknowledged Ferry Markus, had provided a flyer of the Hindu Darma Council of

Indonesia (PHDI Bali) and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

The flyer contained the procedures and restrictions that should be obeyed by hotel management in Bali in making the Catur Beratha Penyepian or four abstinences a success.

“We appeal tourists not to go out of the hotel and remain to stay inside, not to make noises and may turn on lights but not to penetrate the glass. Then, we will provide a good understanding to those violating the appeal,” he said.

According to Ferry Markus, PHRI of Bali Chapter had also informed all members to turn on lights as needed.

Hoteliers were also asked to close their restaurant before dusk in order to reduce the use of lightings.

Meanwhile, Chairman of PHRI of Badung Chapter, IGN Rai Suryawijaya, stated that Nyepi package which heavily promoted within the past two weeks did not significantly boost the occupancy rate. Considering, the Nyepi Day was merely regarded as a regular holiday by tourists.

IBP/ist

One of the hotel in Nusa Dua area “I predict the occupancy rates of hotels in Badung on Nyepi celebration will only reach 70 percent. This can be seen from the trend of occupancy rate since the past few years,” he said.

According to him, tourists only con-

sidered Nyepi as a day to meditate. They already knew that on Nyepi people were not allowed to go out and turn on lighting. They had different attitude toward Nyepi and it was different from addressing the Christmas and New Year

holidays.

“There are only a few tourists staying in hotels just to feel the moment of Nyepi festivity. Nyepi is not unusual attractions for tourists,” he added. (par)

Delaying deportation, Child Commission writes to Immigration Office Denpasar (Bali Post)—

The threats of Eli Gattenio, 50, to have self-immolation along with his four daughters, made many circles wary. It included the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) of Bali Chapter.

Moreover, the eldest daughter of Eli, Indigo Gattenio, 11, sent a letter directly to KPAI of Bali Chapter.

To anticipate any inconveniences, the KPAI of Bali Chapter wrote a letter to the Immigration Office to delay the deportation of Eli. The measure was taken for the safety of the four children. If Eli was deported without his four children, he threatened to burn himself.

As planned, Eli will be going to be deported on Monday (Mar 7).

Chairperson of KPAI of Bali Chapter, AA Sri Wahyuni, said her party had sent a letter to request the deportation delay. Likewise, her party had coordinated with police department related to the threats of Eli that caused wary.

Moreover, Eli had prepared everything required to perform his selfimmolation action such as kerosene, diesel oil and so forth.

Meanwhile, police officer was asked to oversee and perform monitoring against the villa inhabited by Eli and his four children. All doors and windows of the villa were closed and hampered from inside by wardrobe. “I have made coordination with Chief of Kuta Police, I Gede Ganefo, to conduct surveillance. Hopefully, nothing will happen to them,” she explained, Thursday (Mar 3).

Sri Wahyuni also explained about the letter of Indigo asking for help to conduct DNA test for her and the three younger sisters. The request was used to prove whether Eli was their real father. “DNA tests will be conducted on Monday (Mar 7),” she explained to Bali Post.

In addition, she also asked for help to change her birth certificate.

The certificate did not mention the name of her father, only the name of her mother. Later, she also submitted another request in order she could be made a family registration card (KK). And lastly, she objected in relation to the delay given to her mother.

Moreover, the provision of suspension made her and her younger

sisters not quiet because her mother threatened her. Not only that, the mother was alleged to have forged

her letters and obscured the facts like the current problem concerning with the immigration matters. “Obviously,

we remain to focus on the problem of these children to prevent any inconvenience,” she added. (kmb21)

PHRI respects implementation of Nyepi Gianyar (Bali Post)—

Implementation of Nyepi festivity on Saturday posed a holy day respected by the Hindu community. On that account, all parties, especially the tourism business perpetrators like hotels and restaurants in Gianyar Regency, were expected to respect the execution of Brata Penyepian or Nyepi abstinences held for 24 hours. It was reminded by the Chairman of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) of Gianyar Chapter, Dewa Gede Arimbawa, Thursday (Mar 3).

On Nyepi or Day of Silence, Arimbawa mentioned that hotels as usual would provide information for guests staying in hotels, at least about provisions of dos and don’ts as well as services obtained during their stay. By and large, every ho-

tel put that information in each room so that they could understand and know the significance of Nyepi. Similarly, it was intended to reduce the occurrence of complaints to hotel.

In this regard, the PHRI itself expected the hotels and restaurants to respect the appeal by informing their guests not to go out of the hotel area.

“Though the appeal was not delivered specifically, but hopefully the appeal of government should be obeyed by all tourism service providers,” he explained.

To the implementation of Nyepi, several hotels even reduced their services. Hotels would give information to their guests such as there would be no cleaning service on that day as usual, except for some replacements like dirty towels. “We are minimizing services,” he explained.

Aside from hotels, restaurants also

enforced specific policy, such as reducing lighting so that dinner function could have been settled at 7:00 p.m. Local Time. Regarding to reduction of services, the inhouse guests remarkably understood about the matter. Even, they appreciated it as a distinctive and memorable experience.

As the analysis throughout the years, there were not comprehensive data on the occupancy rate of hotels in Ubud area on Nyepi Day. However, since during March remained in low season, the hotel occupancy would be ranging around 40 percent to 50 percent. They were mostly foreign guests. “Even though there are some hotels providing special packages on Nyepi holiday, it does not significantly boost the room occupancy rate,” he added. (kmb16)

z Founder : K.Nadha, z General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Diah Dewi Juniarti z Editors: Gugiek Savindra,Alit Susrini, Alit Sumertha, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sri Hartini, Suana, Sueca, Sugiartha, Wirya, Yudi Winanto zDenpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subagiadnya, Subrata, Suentra, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Pujawan, Buleleng: Adnyana, Gianyar: Agung Dharmada, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Bali Putra Ariawan. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Syamsudin Karim, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto. z Development: Alit Purnata, Mas Ruscitadewi. z Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post

Bali News

International

3

Monday, March 7, 2011

Ogoh-ogoh parade centered at villages can reduce congestion Denpasar (Bali Post)—

Implementation of Catur Beratha Penyepian or four abstinences of Nyepi in Denpasar on last Saturday looked more qualified. It was shown by martinet of the Hindus and guest dwellers or regional migrants respecting the four abstinences.

If the atmosphere of Nyepi implementation last years was disturbed by the noises of officers’ vehicle and ambulance, now it hardly existed, except for only one or two ambulances conveying patients to the hospital.

Hindu devotees undertook the four abstinences of Nyepi with higher quality. At a number of villages, the series of Nyepi celebration was preceded by maprani worship on Friday morning. According to Jro Mangku Nyarikan of Dalem Kesiman, it was a gift to all living beings including humans and invisible beings in the universe. In the afternoon, it was followed by Pengerupukan filled with mabuubuu ritual and ogoh-ogoh (papier mache demon) parade.

Interestingly, the parade of ogohogoh in Denpasar, aside from being centered in the Catur Muka statue, it was also performed at respective village. By doing so, it could minimize the physical clashes among the participants. This matter was acknowledged by legislator of Denpasar, Gusti Ngurah Gede, where such a pattern could reduce physical collision among the hamlets and resolve

traffic jams. Residents living in the suburbs would be unnecessary to throng the Puputan Badung Square to watch ogoh-ogoh. Meanwhile, the young artists along with their creative baleganjur gamelan music composition could make maximal presentation before the public. Almost all ogoh-ogoh attractions also featured a dance fragment.

At Kesiman Petilan, for instance, the parade was centered in front of the Pengerebongan Temple. It was followed by all hamlets existing at the customary village marked by the handing over of development funds

by Village Chief Gede Dharma Putra to respective customary youth club in each hamlet. The parade was preceded by the performance of ogohogoh entitled Envoy of Hanuman presented by Bukit Buwung Hamlet, and then followed by Kala Detya Kala Maya and Gayus rats of Kedaton Hamlet. Meanwhile, the Hamlet of Abianangka Klod showed off the ogoh-ogoh entitled KalaNateng Dirah, Batanbuah with Siyu Demon, Dukuh Hamlet with Kala Kreket, Meranggi Hamlet with Dirah Anyuti Rupa and Kehen Hamlet with Wimba Pralaya. (025)

IBP/Sueca

The situation during ogoh-ogoh parade in Denpasar during Pengerupukan, a day before Nyepi.

Unique tradition at Semate Customary Village on Ngembak Geni RESIDENTS of Semate Customary Village, Abianbase Village, Mengwi Subdistrict, Badung Regency, held a ceremony or traditional attraction known as Mbed-mbedan tugoff-war on Ngembak Geni, Sunday (Mar 6). All participants seemed to have assembled in the local Village Temple in the morning and been commenced by saying prayers. Each villager brought along an oblation in the form of tipat bantal to be offered to local deities. Afterward, all customary villagers led to the front of the Village/ Puseh Temple to organize the Mbed-mbedan.

This unique tradition has not been held for about 40 years and it was just revived last year.

How does the ceremony or tradition look like? Mbed-mbedan at Semate Customary Village resembles to a tug of war. However, the rope in use is special stem of creeping plants, where local villagers call it kalot stem.

The stem widely grows in the

cemetery of Semate Village. The plant itself has grown since hundreds of years, spreading on a kroya tree.

Participants of Mbed-mbedan did not only consist of the members of customary youth club, but also the elders. In this tradition, participants did not prioritize the status of win or lose. Male participants faced male opponent, while female participants faced female opponents. The ropes prepared from kalot stems were held by each opponent with the same number of participants and strength. After the start cue was given, each participant showed off its strength and then the rope was pulled as strongly as possible.

When participants showing off their strength, there was a villager assigned to tickle the participants’ body. Participants who could not stand tingling they would set free the rope. Therefore, the strength became weakened. The games would be declared over when participants managed to pull the rope held by the opponents. After

Mbed-mbedan was over, local villagers then got together, enjoyed together the tipat bantal that had been offered.

Familial relationship and togetherness were really discernible at the ceremony. It could be said that Semate customary villagers opened the first day of after Nyepi in the Caka New Year (Ngembak Geni) with a new spirit of togetherness. Commenced with saying prayers en masse, they were engaged in the implementation of tradition or heritage ceremony and then enjoyed the tipat bantal symbolizing the graces of local deities. Having organized the ceremony, it was filled with mutual forgiveness.

Chief of Semate Customary Village, I Gede Suryadi, said that Mbed-mbedan had been existed at the village for long time. Such tradition or ceremony had not been held for some 40 years. Since last year, it had been revived. Such ancient heritage was mentioned in a Raja Purana chronicle of Semate Customary Village.

Mbed-mbedan was inseparable from the existence of Semate Customary Village. In the Raja Purana was narrated that Maharishi Bantas perform a pilgrimage to a forest densely overgrown by gelam trees. There, he encountered with the descendant relatives of Mpu Gnijaya. He asked the citizens why they were in the forest region. Residents answered that they did not agree with the king’s actions. Since the forest was haunted, Maharishi Bantas recommended them to make a place of worship for their safety. In response to the suggestion, they organized a meeting to determine the name of the temple. Since they always argued against one another, they finally could not find a name. As the discussion dragged on, Maharishi Bantas ultimately named the sanctum Putih Semate because the region was overgrown by gelam trees. And, the area was named Semate because local villagers had united in mind and would not submit to others and

became determined to live in the area (in the same difficult circumstances as others). After that, the village and temple were inaugurated by a ceremony in the Caka Year 1396 or 1474 AD. Before leaving the Semate Village and resuming the journey northwardly, Maharishi Bantas said a Bhisama or religious stipulation: “O, my children, since you have held a talk going on in long-drawn process for making the decision, as a commemoration, you have to perform a Mbed-mbedan attraction every year right on the first date in the tenth month (in Balinese calendar) or the day after Nyepi to invoke salvation and grace of God or deities by offering daksina suci with segehan oblation in the local temple. Thus, it must be remembered, never forget it.”

According to Suryadi, it was the basis of why the local villagers carried out the Mbedmbedan tradition. (lun)

4

News

Monday, March 7, 2011

International

Chinese state media slams calls for protests Agence France Presse

BEIJING – China’s state media stepped up its criticism of recent calls for anti-government rallies, saying stability was key amid concern unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation. The reports come a day after a similar comment piece was published for the first time in a staterun newspaper, amid renewed online calls for citizens to gather in dozens of cities to participate in “strolling” demonstrations Sunday.

“Firstly we must recognise that some people with ulterior motives at home and abroad are using various means to incite ‘street politics’,” a report on the front page of the Beijing Youth Daily said. “They are using the Internet to create and disseminate false information, incite illegal gatherings in a bid to bring the chaos in the Middle East and North Africa to China, to mess up China.”

A report in the Jiefang Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece in Shanghai, carried a similar comment piece, urging people to “maintain social harmony and stability.”

“People must... highly cherish and consciously maintain hard-won sta-

bility like they take care of their own eyes,” it said. The anonymous calls for rallies each Sunday, inspired by popular uprisings in the Arab world, have heightened official concern about unrest in China amid growing resentment at issues such as a yawning wealth gap and corruption.

Reflecting this unease, an official budget report unveiled at the nation’s annual parliament session on Saturday revealed plans to allocate 624.4 billion yuan ($95.1 billion) for law and order in 2011. This represents a 13.8% jump from last year, and compares to a lower planned hike of 12.7% for national defence spending to 601.1 billion yuan.

Campaigners behind the socalled “Jasmine rallies” again called for people to gather in cities on Sunday, despite no apparent signs of protests last weekend amid heavy security at designated sites in Beijing and Shanghai. Several foreign journalists who turned up at the site in a Beijing shopping street on February 27 were roughed up, and police have told reporters they could lose their permission to work in China unless they stick by new rules. Once again, there were no obvious protests Sunday in Beijing or Shanghai.

AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN

A woman is questioned by a policewoman along Chang’An Avenue near Tiananmen Square in Beijing on March 6, 2011 amid heightened security with the ruling Communist Party’s annual parliament underway.

(FILES) This picture taken on October 22, 2009 shows Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, giving a speech before the plenary Session of the 4th European Developpment Days meeting in Stockholm.

On March 2, 2011

AFP PHOTO / OLIVIER MORIN / FILES

Court to rule on Nobel laureate’s dismissal Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh’s High Court was set to rule Sunday on the legality of a government order dismissing Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as head of the microfinance bank he founded, a move that prompted concern at home and abroad. Bangladesh’s central bank ordered Yunus out of Grameen Bank on Wednesday, saying he violated the country’s retirement laws. Yunus said he was still holding the post and went to the court, which heard arguments challenging the legality of the order.

Deputy Attorney General Karunamoy Chakma said the ruling was expected later Sunday. The government holds 25 percent share of the bank and the remainder is owned by its borrowers. Yunus’ bank, founded in 1983, pioneered the concept of reducing poverty by making tiny loans to the poor. His work spurred a boom in such lending across the developing world and earned him and the bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Yunus, 70, an outspoken government critic, has recently been under pressure at home, where he has long had frosty relations with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She has accused Grameen Bank and other microfinance institutions of charging high interest rates and “sucking blood from the poor

borrowers.” She reportedly was angered byYunus’ 2007 attempt to form his own political party, backed by the country’s powerful army.

The move to oust Yunus from Grameen has sparked criticism in Bangladesh and abroad. Borrowers and supporters of the bank held human chain protests in parts of Bangladesh on Saturday to demand withdrawal of the government order, local media reported.

In Washington, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern over efforts to remove Yunus and said the international community would watch the situation closely. He said he hoped both sides could reach a compromise that maintains

Grameen Bank’s autonomy and effectiveness and that Yunus’ “lifelong work to reduce poverty and empower women through microloans has deservedly received worldwide attention and respect.”

Controversy surrounded Yunus after a Norwegian television documentary that screened in December accused him of transferring Norwegian development funds from Grameen Bank to another venture without prior approval in 1996.

Pressure by the Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka resulted in the funds being transferred back in 1998, and the Norwegian government has said there was no indication Grameen was engaged in corruption or embezzlement.

Egyptians turn anger toward state security agency Associated Press Writer

CAIRO – Three weeks after President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, Egyptians are turning their anger toward his internal security apparatus, storming the agency’s main headquarters and other offices Saturday and seizing documents to keep them from being destroyed to hide evidence of human rights abuses.

What to do with Egypt’s tainted security agencies remains one of the most contentious issues facing the military rulers who took charge after Mubarak was forced to step down on Feb. 11 after an 18-day popular uprising.

The 500,000-strong internal security services are accused of some of the worst human rights abuses in the suppression of dissent against Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule. The protesters are demanding the agency be dismantled and its leaders face a reckoning. The ruling military council’s bind was evident on Friday and Saturday when thousands of protesters — including some people who said they were victims of abuse by security agents — marched on several state security buildings in Alexandria, Cairo and other cities.

Protesters stormed inside at least six of the buildings, including the agency’s main headquarters in

Cairo’s northern Nasr City neighborhood, confronting officers faceto-face and attacking some in a surreal reversal of roles.

“We are inside, hundreds of us,” Mohammed Abdel-Fattah, one of the protesters who barged into the Nasr City compound on Saturday, said in a telephone interview. “We are fetching documents and we are looking for detainees.”

Cries of “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” could be heard in the background, as one of the protesters found a file with Mubarak’s name on it. Around 2,500 people swept into the compound, according to the state news agency.

AP Photo/Ahmed Mohammed

In this Friday, March 4, 2011 photo state security cars smoulder after they were set on fire by protesters outside the police security headquarters in Alexandria, Egypt.

Activities

International

Monday, March 7, 2011

5

Melia Bali Earns EarthCheck Platinum Certification for Environmental Practices IBP

NUSA DUA - Melia Bali has earned an EarthCheck Platinum Certification for Environmental Practices. The EarthCheck Program is focused on maximizing operational efficiencies to minimize CO2e emissions, while supporting host communities. It looks at key environmental indicators such as energy and water consumption, total waste production as well as community commitment, to determine the level of performance.

Only those organizations that can consistently demonstrate operational practices that adhere to the highest environmental standards over a period of 10 years, receive the much-coveted Platinum Certification.

“Melia Bali has always been a leader in promoting sustainable tourism,” said Jim Boyles, General Manager of Melia Bali. “We are the

first hotel in Asia to be given the distinction of EarthCheck Platinum and one of only five hotels in the world ... We believe the hospitality industry in Bali is highly dependent on the island’s unspoiled environment and the culture of its people.

Visitors come especially to enjoy Bali’s unique cultural heritage. A better living standard and quality of life for the Balinese people will ensure the future of Bali’s hospitality industry.”

Prior to achieving Certification, Melia Bali successfully benchmarked and certified its operations each year, using the EarthCheck tool. This involved the organization submitting a year’s worth of operational data, and having it compared to that of other organizations that are similar in kind.

The EarthCheck Program uses more than a decade of factual, operational data, submitted by over 1100 organisations in 65 countries.

By taking such a holistic view of company practices, Melia Bali was able to identify where they were outperforming others, and keep at the forefront of global sustainable tourism efforts.

“I congratulate Melia Bali in their achievement of EarthCheck Certified Platinum status,” said Stewart Moore, CEO of EC3 Global. “Melia Bali is one of less than a handful of organizations in the world to have achieved this and should be viewed as a leader in the field of sustainable tourism ... Platinum Certification is not a green tick that can be purchased or applied for.

It must be duly earned over a decade of verifiable commitment to the highest possible standards of operational practices. The resort has recognized a maturing of the science behind climate change and environmental sustainability, and has demonstrated their belief that the planet deserves more than half measures.”

Temple Ceremony Calendar Event for March 8 through March 19, 2011 8 March Anggar Kasih Perangbakat Bukit Buluh Gunaksa - Klungkung Tirta Sudamala Bebalang - Bangli Paibon Pasek Bendesa Sangsit - sawan Buleleng Pasek Gelgel Pangi Dawan - Klungkung Gunung Tengsong Lombok - NTB Dalem Benawah Benawah - Gianyar Dalem Bitra Bitra - Gianyar Dalem Banyuning Banyuning Timur Buleleng Dalem Pauman Batan Getas Titih Denpasar Tengah Padang Tegalalang - Gianyar Merajan Pasek Gelgel Desa Sande - Pupuan Tabanan Kawitan Tangkas Kori Agung Desa Adat Pagan Denpasar Hyangaluh/Jenggala Besakih - Gianyar Merajan Pasek Lurah Tutuan Gunaksa Klungkung Merajan Pasek Gelgel SelulungSelulung Merajan Pasek Subrata Medahan Merajan Pasek Munggu Munggu Pura Tengkulak Tulikup - Gianyar Penataran Badung Ogang Village Sidemen Karangasem 9 March Buda Umanis Perangbakat Puri Agung Dalem Tarukan Tarukan Pejeng Tampak Siring-Gianyar Rambut Siwi Jembrana Batu Bolong Canggu - Kuta Pasek Marga Klaci Klaci - Tabanan Agung Pasek Dauh Waru Jembrana Ratu Pasek Sangsit Sawan - Buleleng Pasek Tangkas Darma Reyanggede Tabanan Banyuning Village Temple Banyuning Buleleng Srijon Tabanan Pasek Gelgel Lebah Pangkung Petemon

Tirta Anom Padang Sigi Sading - Tampak Siring Dadi Agung Pasek Bendesa Dukuh Manuaba Tegalalang Pedarmaan Batursari Ngilis Jegu Penebel Tabanan Puncak Mundi Nusa Penida 19 March Purnama Kedasa Odalan Betara Turun Kabeh Besakih Karangasem Ngusaba in Bukit Jati Temple Bangli Batur Kalanganyar Bangli Masceti Pejeng Aji Tegalalang - Gianyar Dalem Tangsub Sukawati - Gianyar Penambangan Badung Denpasar City Ngusaba in Lempuyab Madia Temple Karangasem Ngusaba in Batur Temple Bangli Village Temple Singakerta Ubud Pasek Gelgel Tagtag Kukuh Marga Tabanan Gaduh Ketapian Sumerta Denpasar Pasek Bendesa Batur Tuak Ilang Tabanan Pasek Agung Tagtag Kelod Peguyangan Denpasar Agung Pasek Bendesa Tonja Tonja - Denpasar Pasek Gelgel Angsri Baturiti - Tabanan Pasek Gelgel Bale Agung Subamia Beraban Dukuh Sari Belatung Bengkel Timpag Kerambitan Pusat Dukuh Sari Belatung Rendang Karangasem Pita Maha Palangkaraya Kalteng Canda Peraba Komplek Polri Jelambar Jakarta Barat Agung Jagat Natha Denpasar Pemerajan Agung Puri Petak Gianyar Dadia Agung Tangkas Kori Agung Abiansemal Badung

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

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

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

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

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Monday, March 7, 2011

News Russian airliner crashes during test, killing 6 Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – Russian news reports say an Antonov-148 airliner has crashed during a test flight, killing six people including two pilots from Myanmar.

The reports citing officials in the Emergencies Ministry and the Investigative Committee say the crash took place Saturday morning in the Belgorod region about 600 kilometers (350 miles) south of Moscow.

The Interfax-AVN military

news agency said the Myanmar air force has ordered two An-148s. It was not immediately known if the plane that crashed was to be delivered to the country.

The An-148 is a regional highwing jet with a maximum range of about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) and passenger capacity of 99.

There was no information on the cause of the crash. State airline Rossiya last year criticized the An148 for door lock and engine problems.

Nyepi in Kuta...

From page 1

AFP PHOTO/ LEHTIKUVA / Heikki Saukkomaa

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leaves the European People’s Party (EPP) Summit in Helsinki on March 4, 2011. The EPP was meeting to smooth out the details among the various conservative parties in the European parliament ahead of the eurozone summit on March 11, set to discuss, among other things, the state of the bloc’s financial safeguarding mechanisms.

Lawyer: Berlusconi aims to defend himself in court Associated Press Writer

ROME – Silvio Berlusconi, who faces trial for allegedly paying for sex with an underage Moroccan teenager, will defend himself in court, as long as the Italian premier doesn’t have to show up more than once a week, his lawyer said Saturday.

Niccolo Ghedini told reporters outside a Milan courtroom that the defense has asked the head of Milan’s court to schedule hearings for Mondays. Berlusconi is defending himself in the prostitution case as well as in separate trials involving dealings stemming from the billionaire’s business empire.

“The premier considers it opportune to show up in person to defend himself,” Ghedini said. Italian law leaves it up to the defendant whether they want to show up in court during trial.

“We have asked the court to set aside Mondays” on its calendar for Berlusconi’s various trials, the lawyer said. “It’s the most you can expect. For a premier, one day a week is no small thing,” Ghedini said, insisting Berlusconi was making the “maximum effort” to be available.

Ghedini was awaiting the start of a preliminary hearing for Berlusconi in a case stemming from the sale of film rights by one of the premier’s media companies.

Because of a technicality, that hearing was put off till March 28.

The most sensational trial against Berlusconi, set to begin on April 6 in Milan, sees the premier defending himself from charges he improperly used his government office to try to cover up an alleged paid sexual encounter at his private villa near Milan with a then 17year-old nightclub dancer who goes by the nickname Ruby.

Berlusconi has denied ever paying for sex. He has insisted that in the Ruby case, as well as in several past and current criminal probes and trials against him, he is the innocent victim of prosecutors he contends sympathize with the opposition left.

In a trial whose next hearing is set for March 11, Berlusconi is accused of bribing British lawyer David Mills to lie in court in the 1990s to protect the media magnate’s business interests. Mills was convicted in 2009 of having taken a $600,000 bribe, but the verdict was overturned last year when

Italy’s highest criminal court ruled the statute of limitations had expired.

Berlusconi said Saturday that his Cabinet in a special meeting in a few days will work on what he hailed as “epochal” reform of the Italian justice system. Among the reforms Berlusconi would like to see are extensive limits on use of intercepted telephone conversations by prosecutors.

Italian media recently have run intercepted conversations of young women who were invited to frequent parties at the premier’s private residences. Berlusconi’s wife, who is divorcing from him, has complained of what she has called his infatuation with young women.

Earlier this year, Italy’s constitutional court watered down a law promoted by Berlusconi’s government that shielded him from prosecution.

Critics contend that Berlusconi has used much of his energy since becoming premier in 2008 to promote laws tailor-made to help him with his judicial woes.

IGN Tresna, the head of Kuta officers, said that the market is a tradition passed on from generation to generation. It was started as a small market for the locals but it attracts the attention of tourists and from time to time the numbers of visitors and sellers

participating in the market increased.

Now, the market has become one of the interested tourism attractions in Kuta especially after the celebration of Nyepi, the new year for the Hindus throughout Bali. (kmb25)

Heavy...

From page 1 While a resident in Misrata insisted the city still under rebel control, the fate of Zawiyah was unclear on Sunday after government troops and tanks launched a series of fierce attacks there the previous day that were repulsed by the rebels. Gaddafi’s forces also launched a counterattack on Bin Jawad, a town west of Ras Lanuf captured by rebels on Saturday.

One fighter returning wounded from the frontline town said the Gaddafi loyalists had attacked with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Asked what he had seen, he replied: “Death.” Other rebel fighters in Ras Lanuf said they had received news of the attack by phone from the frontline. “People tell us in Bin Jawad there are Gaddafi forces.

Some rebels have been hit by snipers,” Khamis al-Libi, a rebel fighter, said.

The resilience of Gaddafi’s forces in the face of the widespread rebellion and their ability to counter-attack will increase fears that Libya is heading for a protracted civil war rather than a swift revolution as seen in Tunisia and Egypt. Salem Ghazy, a Tripoli businessman, was part of a group of security forces and civilians who were firing into the air from automatic weapons in Tripoli and brandishing posters of Gaddafi.

“Libya is united. We will fight these forces that are trying to ruin the country. These forces are backed by outside powers,” he said.

A resident near the central Green Square said: “They are

shooting in celebration. It’s because they said the towns where the rebels have been fighting have been liberated.” Ibrahim denied there was any fighting in Tripoli.

“Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 percent under control,” he said, while adding: “I would like to advise you not to go there for your safety.” Rebel commander Abdelwahabin said most people in Tripoli opposed Gaddafi.

“All Libyans are unanimous about overthrowing Gaddafi, even in Tripoli, but they are unable to move there as all the security forces are dressed in civilian clothing, mixing with anyone trying to protest,” he said. As of Saturday night, Libyan rebels had dug into positions in Zawiyah after withstanding two armored assaults by government forces, but it was not possible to reach anyone in the town early on Sunday morning.

With rifle-toting insurgents on rooftops and manning checkpoints on streets leading into the center of Zawiyah, the rebels had said they were bracing for another tank and artillery attack by government forces on Sunday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters late on Saturday that Zawiyah was “quiet and peaceful. “We hope by tomorrow morning life will be back to normal.”

A doctor in Zawiyah, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, were killed during fighting on Saturday that wrecked the town center, raising to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles.

International

Indonesia Today

Monday, March 7, 2011

7

Warning of not climbing Mt Merapi‘s peak ignored Antara

BOYOLALI - Tens of Indonesians and foreigners have ignored the warning of not climbing the peak of Mount Merapi for their own safety.

AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO

Jazz guitarist, George Benson (67), gestures during a press conference at the annual Java Jazz Festival 2011 in Jakarta, on March 5, 2011.

Repatriated workers traumatized by experience in Libya Antara

TEMANGGUNG - Repatriated Indonesian workers have complained that they were traumatized in Libya due to the political conflict there.

One of the workers, Ciproni, said here Saturday he was traumatized by his experience in Libya after airport officers treated him and his co-workers inhumanely by confiscating his belongings such as money and cell phones.

“My 30 Dinar allowance and cell phone were confiscated by airport officers. We could only carry just our clothes. I`m traumatized by the violence at the airport, those who did not obey were beaten by the offic-

ers,” he said.

Ciproni said he was forced to leave Libya after working there for two months of his one year contract due to the national political conflict.

Ciproni is an Indonesian who worked as a brick mason for an Indonesian building construction company, Wijaya Karya, that was carrying out building projects in Libya such as hospitals, malls, mosques, hotels.

Along with his co-workers, Sudiyat was repatriated to Indonesia for safety reasons by firstly evacuated to Tunisia from where they were flown to Jakarta.

According to another Indonesian brick mason in Libya, Sudiyat, there were 201 Indonesians working for

Wijaya Karya Company who had been repatriated.

“Every day we hear gunfire, we are still worried about the situation although the project director had guaranteed our safety, and finally we were sent home,” he said.

For safety reasons during the repatriation effort, all of the workers were given a red uniform with the national red-and-white flag and “INDONESIA” written on their shirt so that the security would not mistake them for rebel activists.

“We were abandoned for 40 hours at the airport without food, we even had to drink from water taps, but under the hostile situation, Indonesian citizen managed to escape safely from Libya,” he said.

RI to have only 78 SOEs by 2014

Instead, they had climbed the volcano that erupted last year through Plalangan hamlet‘s track in Lencoh village, Selo subdistrict, Boyolali district, Central Java, since two weeks ago, said Muh Sony, a travel guide who frequently escorted them, here Sunday.

“Tens of climbers, including 25 foreigners who are doing research, have climbed the peak of Mount Merapi over these past two weeks,” he said.

Among the foreign climbers were from Malaysia, Belgium, Germany, and France. They climbed the volcano as part of their research activities, he said adding that he and other travel guides were willing to escort them due to higher payments they would receive.

He said the amount of payments they received from the foreign researchers was 50 percent higher than that of the normal condition.

Those foreigners started climbing the mountain at about 01.00 AM through Plalangan hamlet‘s track in Lencoh village, he said.

In response to the local and foreign climbers‘ activities, a rescue

Two killed in Mataram Brawl Antara

Antara

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has set itself the target of having only 78 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by 2014, a spokesman said. At present, Indonesia had 142 state-owned companies and the reduction of the number by half was a measure to make those companies world-class ones, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said here Thursday.

He disclosed the plan to slash the number of state-owned companies after a meeting with SOE Minister Mustafa Abubakar and Deputy Trade Minister Alex Retraubun at the SOE ministry in Jakarta.

Rajasa said the policy of reduc-

ing the number of state-owned companies would be implemented as the government wanted them to become spearheads of the national economy.

At the meeting, he had listened to reports on the progress and current conditions of the 142 SOEs. Rajasa said the reduction would be carried out through restructuring, re-grouping and consolidation based on the shareholders‘ actions involving mergers, holding, divestment or liquidations.

“The essence is that how the government keeps on strengthening the SOEs to achieve world class status, despite some remaining to hold public service functions yet still they need to be strengthened,” Minister Rajasa said.

Minister Abubakar admitted that the overall performance of the SOEs had yet to reach optimum level and was marked by lowk competitiveness, especially in this age of fast changing business climate in the ever globalizing and free trade eras.

To date, the majority of the 142 SOEs was of relatively small business scale and had been in the red in for years. SOE Ministry data shows that up to December 31, 2010 there were 22 big-scale SOEs whose total assets representing to 90.5 percent of the total 142 SOEs, 88.92 their total equities, 85.99 percent of their sales and 89.89 percent their net profits.

The other 119 SOES are of small scale in business size in terms of assets, equities, sales and net profits.

worker of Lencoh village, Samsuri, said the climbing activities to the peak of Mount Merapi remained prohibited.

“The warning remains on the Plalangan hamlet`s notice board,” he said. However, local and foreign climbers ignored the warning and prohibition, he said.

The Mount Merapi‘s condition in the aftermath of its deadly eruptions last year remains dangerous partly due to its big amount of remaining volcanic materials.

According to Head of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) of Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry‘s Geology Agency, Surono, the Mount Merapi‘s cold lava floods into rivers in Magelang district would even remain a serious threat over the next four years.

“Volcanic materials from Mount Merapi`s 2010 eruptions are expected to reach 150 million cubic meters,” he said recently.

According to Surono, the volcanic materials, which had flown into parts of Magelang had yet to reach one third of 150 million cubic meters of the emitted materials.

MATARAM - Two people were killed after they had been involved in a brawl in Mataram, capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, early Saturday.

The brawl which took place at 01.00 a.m. followed a dispute between M. Ziad and Hasbullah over unclear thing. A number of eyewitnesses said Hasbullah stabbed M Ziad in the waist. The 24-year-old Ziad was later rushed to the nearby hospital for serious wounds in his waist. He was pronounced dead at around 02.25 a.m.

Seeing that M. Ziad sustained serious wounds hundreds of his friends later attacked a rented house on Jalan Serayu VI No. 6 in

Mataram where Hasbullah was believed to hide.

The angry mob vandalized the window glass of the rented house and attacked its five tenants identified as Adi Susanto, Razak, Andi, Suardi and Sebaya.

Adi Susanto sustained serious wounds in the attack. The 20-yearold man was later rushed to the West Nusa Tenggara Provincial General Hospital for serious wounds. However, he was pronounced dead at 04.45 p.m. on Saturday.

The other four tenants of the rented house who had earlier been rushed to the Bhayangkara police hospital are being detained at the Mataram police station for further questioning.

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International

Monday, March 7, 2011

Bali Today Ngembak Geni, a time of resurrection for Bali Antara

Denpasar – The dau after Nyepi is usually called “Ngembak Geni” and it seems that Bali is resurrected after a peaceful and quiet day during the Caka New Year 1933. The activity of the society is also begun after they stay at home for one day during Nyepi.

Bali, inhabited by 3.8 million people looked like a dead island on Saturday, March 5, 2011. The island was quiet all day and there was no light at night. Even though the activity is started a day after Nyepi but not everything goes through as normal.

Many shops are still closed and the road is not as crowded as usual. Some traditional markets around Denpasar are also started to receive customers.

Bali Governor, Made Mangku Pastika, give holiday to all department in Bali started on Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 6, 2011.

During “Ngembak Geni”, the people in Bali usually visit their

families or friends or even go to tourism site with their love ones.

Meanwhile, other activity is done by the officer of Denpasar Cleanliness Department where they must clean all garbage scattered in many areas. They work hard to transport the garbage from the housing or streets to the final garbage disposal unit (TPA).

Tenth of garbage trucks loaded with garbage are transporting it to the TPA in Suwung area. The ritual done during the commemoration of Nyepi day left garbage especially during the ogoh-ogoh parade.

During the parade, the people drink or eat so it crated garbage and now is the chance for the officers to clean it up.

IBP/Eka Adhiyasa

Hawkers and people crowded at Puputan Badung Park during the Ngembak Geni Day, a day after Nyepi Day.

Omed-Omedan, unique tradition of Sesetan Village The day after Nyepi is known as Ngembak Geni. Meanwhile, some people also call it as the end of abstinence, release of abstinence, dissolution of abstinence namely the end of fasting or upawasa. On the Ngembak Geni, the Hindus should pay a visit to families and relatives to forgive one another and hold dharma santhi or masima krama for maintaining social relationship.

Such a moment can be filled with the reading of sloka (compilation of Sanskrit word), song, psalmody or dharma gita (song of dharma), and Hindu sermon about the significance of Nyepi. Masima krama or dharma santhi can be executed either between families or community around one’s residence.

For residents of Kaja Hamlet, Sesetan Village, Denpasar, the

IBP/Doc

Omed-omedan tradition at Sesetan village. A unique tradition that held a day after Nyepi Day.

Ngembak Geni celebration is filled with a unique tradition and it is eagerly awaited, namely the implementation of Med-Medan or OmedOmedan. As the name implies, it is an attraction of ‘pulling each other’ performed by two groups ending with a ‘kiss.’ Participants of this attraction consist of single teenagers.

On that account, teenagers of Kaja Hamlet, Sesetan, registered as the member of customary youth club (STT) are required to join.

Procedure of implementing the Med-Medan attraction is that the members of each group are specified in advance. If male group has 40 participants, the female will have 60 participants to poise their strength. Those have not got their turn in the first round will be placed as stand-by in the next round. As consequence, all existing members will join the group in turn.

Each group has a group head, namely a teenager placed in the front position. Then, each participants lining up in the rear should hug the waist of another participant in front of him or her. When command of the attraction has been started, the male group head holds the hand of the female group.

To make the play run orderly, pecalang or customary security taskforce divides their tasks. Some officers will give command to start

the game, mediate and discontinue the game by means of flushing water. Every spraying of water by pecalang, participants must stop pulling their opponent. The flushing indicates the end of the round and every even round (II, IV, VI, and so on) is followed by exchange of position for the next start.

In appropriate with the deals of the committee with all participants, Med-Medan will be terminated by the officer if participants have looked lethargic or the time has reached around 5:00 p.m. Local Time. Status of final, win or lose is not added up and not announced to the public.

Not porn action The Med-Medan tradition has lasted for some hundreds of years.

There are no sources mentioned when the tradition began to take place. According to I Made Munggah, a resident of Sesetan researching about the tradition, prior to the 1980s the attraction was performed right in the afternoon on Nyepi festivity. The attraction took place spontaneously without guidance and certainly it was not governed by pecalang. After the 1980s, the Med-Medan tradition was arranged more neatly and undertaken on Ngembak Geni.

There has been an allegation that

the Med-Medan tradition was taken advantage as an opportunity to kiss in front of the general public. Thus, they had committed pornographic action. Such accusation was denied

by Made Munggah. It never happened and there had been no such idea. The tradition just posed an expression of overflowing joy of the youth when they carried out MedMedan on the Ngembak Geni as an annual event of local villagers as written by Munggah in his book entitled Med-Medan: Tradisi Unik dari Sesetan or Med-Medan: A Unique Tradition of Sesetan published by Bali Post Publisher.

Munggah added that pecalang reminded so that no single participant deliberately did the kiss. Hamlet apparatus always told that such attraction should take place well, courteously, and ethically in accordance with Balinese culture (Oriental culture). Similarly, the apparatus did not want if the attraction led to obscene, filthy and disgusting actions.

According to Munggah, MedMedan was preceded by saying prayers en masse, dharma santhi or masima krama and then followed by performing Balinese dances. Afterwards, Med-Medan attraction was held in the local Hamlet Hall and ended with having a meal together. (rta/iah)

International

Monday, March 7, 2011

Balinese Culture Archeological protection in Bali and the role of the society Archeological protection through maintenance, preservation and conservation, even through reconstruction as well, has turned to be an international problem not only today, but actually in the future. Such matters were indicated by the activities of UNESCO as an international institution, who concerned with the most important of world cultural heritage e.g. archeological remains. UNESCO have done a lot of excellent work, which need a reasonable budgets, expert, equipment etc. and the best example is the safeguarding of Brobudur temple. As the UNESCO member, our governments are concerned and responsible to protect our monuments for our national interest, such as Brobudur temple.

Based on the development of archaeological studies and the related studies especially in field of archaeological protection, now such problems is a technical matter and besed on scientific consideration. Facing such problem , Indonesian government have done a number of works e.g the safeguarding of borobudur tample {in cooperation with {UNESCO}, Prambanan tample ,Demak mosque, and other tamples in Bali namely Pura Besakih ,Pura Mengening , Pura Pegulingan , Pura Taman Sari etc. In this case, our government as one of the ASEAN countries have carried out a coordinate programmers through SPAFA (Sub project of archaeology and fine art) to find out the effective ways and means dealing with the problems of archaeological protection .

Discussing the archaeological protection in Bali, it should be remembered that Bali, even a very small is-

land, but has a lot of archaeological monuments, which most of them belonged to living monuments. Among them are a number of Hindu tample, spreated nearly in the whole island, as well as Hindu stastues , inscription etc.

As the holy monuments for Balinese society, so the Balinese have the responsibility to take care their monuments as their religious function Officially, archaeological protection in Bali is done

by Bali Office for Preservation of archaeological and Historical Heritage (Kantor Bali Suaka pening-gelang Sejarah dan Purbakala Bali) in coordialnation and corporation with the local government and local people as well. This office have done a lot of archaeological reconstruction, but not yet covered the whole of them, because of the limited budgets etc.

In case of protecting the archaeological monuments in Bali, Bali Office for Preservation of archaeological and Historical Heritage has given a technical guidance to the local people for reconstructing their monuments and financial support as well. As the governments have a very limited budget for these works, and as the owner of the living monuments, so the Balinese people have their religious tasks and responsibility to protect sacred monuments. In Bali generally each village have three village temples named Pura Kyayangan Tiga e.g Pura Puseh,Pura Desa (sometime combined with Pura Bale Agung ) and Pura dalem. Among them are belonged to archaeological monuments and frequently in these temple a number of archaeological monuments are preserved such as statues, inscription etc. It is important to

note here that the unity of the Balinese society is tightly bounded by the village temples and social organization.

Based on religious reasons, actuality Balinese society has a strong spirit to keep their monuments in a well condition as holy monuments. Since a very long time the Balinese people have maintained and restored their monuments in a very traditional ways, based on their own religious will and spirit, and for this purpose they collected the materials, even reasonable money from the village members. The village members, especially the skilled members (Balinese, undagi) did the restoration and led by the village leader, without any payment (Balinese, ngayah). This mutual model of works named gotong royong is one of the Indonesian spirits, which has been developed since the early time until today.

It is a remarkable fact since the early time Balinese people have done the archeological protection in their traditional ways, which really should be regarded as a community based conservation. The most important meaning of these facts is the Balinese have done their religious task, which still continued from one generation to next generation and still retained until today.

Therefore these facts indicated that the Balinese people from time to time have played important role for protecting their archeological monuments, for worshipping their ancestor’s spirit, the Hindu Trinity as well as their local deities. It is hoped that this religious traditions should be keep in people’s mind and increased, now and in the near future for the safeguarding the archeological monuments and its cultural values. (BTN/Doc)

GULING CELENG (Suckling Pig)

OVERVIEW: If there’s just one dish that people remember after a visit to Bali, it’s this famous delicacy, usually known by its Indonesian name, Babi Guling.

INGREDIENTS: 1 suckling pig, weighing about 6-8kg 1½ tbsp salt 200 shallots, peeled and sliced 100 gr cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 50 gr ginger, peeled & chopped 300 gr candlenuts, chopped 350 gr fresh turmeric, peeled &chopped 3 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed 80 gr laos, finely chopped 120 gr bird’s-eye chilies, sliced 10 stalks lemon grass, finely sliced 1 tbsp black peppercorns, crushed 1 tsp dried shrimp paste, roasted 5 fragrant lime leaves, finely shredded 2 salam leaves 2½ tbsp oil 4 tbsp turmeric water PREPARATION: Ensure inside of suckling pig is completely cleaned out. Season inside and outside with salt. Combine all other ingredients, except turmeric water, and mix thoroughly. Fill inside of suckling with mixture, close belly with string or thin satay skewer. Rub the outside of the pig with turmeric water until the skin is shiny yellow.

Place suckling pig on roasting rack and roast in hot oven (220°C / 425°F) for approximately 1 hour. Rest for 10 minutes in warm place before serving. When serving, first remove the crisp skin with a strong carving knife, then loosen meat from the bones and cut into even dice or slices. Place a heaped tablespoon of stuffing on each serving plate, and then top with meat and skin.

Traditionally this dish is eaten with Jukut Nangka Mekuah and steamed rice.

Helpful hint: If you have a large barbeque with rotisserie or constantly turning spit, you can cook the pig over charcoal for an authentic Balinese flavor.

C.045 ibp

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10

Destinations

Monday, March 7, 2011

International

Tenganan Village IBP

Tenganan Village is one of the oldest Balinese Traditional located in Karangasem Regency, east part of Bali. This village is much referred by cultural literature science of Tenganan Pegringsingan, which is very famous in the island. It own very unique local community life pattern which is one example of Bali Aga Village cultures (Hindu Prehistoric) and different with other countryside in plain of Bali. Nowadays, this village has been appointed as a place for tourist destination which can present the attractive and unique matters which able to add the variation of object and fascination for tourist to come.

Tenganan village is geographically situated among the hill in west and east part of this village. This village is located in Manggis sub district and Karangasem Regency or about 1 hour drive from Denpasar Town. It is a small village consisted of three Banjars (group of local community) those are Banjar Kauh, Banjar Tengah and Banjar Pande. The regional of this village is consisted of three complexes those are resident, plantation and rice field complex. The history of Tenganan village is expressed in a few versions. The first version is mentioned that the resident of Tenganan village are come from Paneges Village, a village is lo-

cated near with Bedahulu Village that is located Gianyar Regency. The second version is expressed that word of Tenganan recognized in one of Bali inscription that was written by the word of Tranganan. The third version is expressed that the Tenganan Village Resident prays to the Bukit Lempuyang Temple. The word of Tenganan is ascribed by a Tengah root word which can mean to aim to middle of Pegringsingan, the fasten cloth type weave that is typically produce by Tenganan village resident. The structure of resident in Tenganan village is built in linear consisted of six rays. Each of ray consisted of some lawn broadly, the building form where the local community use it to present the handicraft for tourists. All the tradition existences of the human being are harmoniously with the God, human and environment as according to Tri Hita Karana concept. The Tourism Destination of Tenganan remains to draw during the time, goodness as tourism cultural object, tourism nature and agriculture tourism.

It is a very famous village throughout Bali where most of the local people knows where it is located. It is located in Karangasem Regency and close to Candidasa. You can find many travel agencies serve the tour to visit this village and you may join Karangasem Tour which you will discover places of interest in east part of Bali including this village.

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11

BUSINESS Pressure rises as euro debt deadline looms Agence France-Presse

AFP PHOTO

In a picture taken on March 5, 2011 a Chinese vendor waits for customers at a market in Hefei in east China’s Anhui province.

China promises sweeping economic change Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – China’s government is promising an economic overhaul that would raise the status of consumers and entrepreneurs but has given no sign how it will tackle its politically volatile reforms.

Beijing wants to nurture self-sustaining growth driven by consumption and develop service and high-tech industries, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a weekend speech outlining goals for 2011. That will require reining in elite state industry and other changes that might trigger a backlash within the party — hurdles Wen avoided mentioning.

“It looks great on the surface but it isn’t clear whether they have the political capital or will to push through those changes,” said Alistair Thornton, China analyst for IHS Global Insight.

Changes outlined by Wen could drive the evolution of the world’s second-largest economy from low-cost factory into major consumer market. That might help to narrow a yawning wealth gap between China’s elite and its poor majority and ease tensions over its trade surplus by boosting consumer demand for imports.

But to achieve its goals, Beijing has to cut subsidies and low-cost bank loans to state companies, real estate developers and other vested interests that have allies in the Communist Party and might fight back.

Wen promised unspecified “interest rate reforms” — a suggestion Beijing might give entrepreneurs a more level playing field by allowing the market to set interest rates — but he gave no timeline. The government has announced similar changes in past years but done little toward carrying them out.

The government also will have to clamp down on growth driven by investment, which might alienate local leaders whose development plans call for more spending on new factories and public works.

The plan is in line with goals approved by communist leaders in a five-year development plan in October. It calls for shifting from the investment- and export-led growth of China’s three-decade-old boom to promote efficiency and household spending.

Wen said Beijing will encourage consumer spending, including giving subsidies to the rural poor to buy home appliances.

“We will focus on the establishment of a long-term mechanism to boost domestic demand,” Zhang Ping, the chairman of the Cabinet’s planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, told a news conference Sunday.

“In the past five-year plan period, we focused on growth. In the next five-year plan period, we will focus on improving people’s livelihood,” Zhang said.

Wen promised to promote technology industries from software and new energy vehicles to environmental protection. That could create higher-paid jobs but also might fuel strains with Washington and other governments that complain Beijing is hampering access

to its markets in its efforts to promote Chinese technology companies.

To narrow the wealth gap, Wen promised more social spending, a higher minimum wage and taxes on real estate.

New social spending could be financed by requiring major state companies to hand over more of their profits to the government, a step a Cabinet official said last month Beijing plans to take.

But that, combined with changes in access to credit and resources, could conflict with Beijing’s campaign to create “national champions” in a range of industries from banking to oil to airlines. Regulators who oversee China’s top companies say they are less competitive than their foreign counterparts, raising questions about how they will function without continued government support.

A Chinese think tank, the Unirule Institute of Economics, said in a report this month that major state companies are so inefficient that if subsidies are factored out, their return on equity — a measure of profitability — was an annual loss of 6 percent from 2001 to 2008.

“It’s a question of stopping that,” said Thornton. “A lot of it is economic — changes in interest rates, cheap land and so on. But a lot of it is political and tackling those vested interests.”

BRUSSELS – Europe faces mounting pressure this week to bridge a political chasm running from north to south, and right to left, over how to harmonise economic policy.

While the 27-state European Union is preoccupied by upheaval in Libya going into an emergency summit on Friday, markets are sounding ever more pessimistic about progress within the 17-nation eurozone towards resolving its debt crisis.

They are already on edge over high oil and food prices, with the knock-on effect that has on inflation and the eurozone already has plans for its own special summit in Brussels later the same day.

One major concern will be the decision by Fitch Ratings on Friday to downgrade Spain’s sovereign credit outlook at the weekend.

Fitch Ratings is one of the three top agencies assessing borrower reliability and was a prime mover in Greece and Ireland’s drift to the edge of the precipice last year.

Fitch moved Spain from stable to negative, with the agency blaming a weak economy, banking woes and big-spending regional administrations.

Fitch also warned that Spain could be punished if another summit on March 24-25 failed to produce a “credible and comprehensive” response to its stated goal of deciding the size, shape and scope of a financial rescue system.

Fitch’s rating decision — and its warning on sorting out the rescue mechanism — came after EU leaders separated across old political faultlines on the how to solve the bloc’s economic problems.

Right-wing leaders gathered in Helsinki, while the left met in Athens Friday and Saturday.

The near 2,500-kilometre distance was more than just symbolic.

One EU source close to negotiations on the “comprehensive” package EU president Herman Van Rompuy is negotiating described it as a “chess game” being played out against the clock.

He told AFP Germany would not budge on boosting rescue funds and allowing those funds to buy up government bonds from weaker economies such as

Portugal, unless Chancellor Angela Merkel could go to voters with “commitments from other countries to reform their economies.”

In Helsinki late on Friday, Merkel rallied Europe’s conservative majority behind a “competitiveness pact” first launched alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy at an already fractious summit last month.

Designed to even out gaps in performance across the eurozone economy, it is presented as a condition for further rescue funding guarantees post2013.

The centre-right European People’s Party signed up to a call for states to open up national accounts to EU scrutiny, and face “clear sanction mechanisms” if they failed to comply with new fiscal rules.

However, demands which would see everything from wages, pensions or business taxation policies lurch to the right have angered the left.

I n A t h e n s o n S a t u r d a y, Europe’s socialists launched “an alternative to the SarkozyMerkel plan, for creating eight million jobs in Europe,” according to Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, head of the Party of European Socialists.

“The European right wing is missing the big picture,” their gathering concluded. “It ignores the causes and dimension of the multi-faceted crisis that threatens our economy and societies.”

Other items on the socialist wish-list include the creation of joint eurozone bonds — which Germany fears would lead to a fiscal transfer union — and a tax on financial transactions.

But a call for a softening of what the left sees as rapacious interest rates for the Greek and Irish bailouts seems unlikely to go the distance.

Conservative EPP deputy head and incoming Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s own calls have failed to move their political allies in Helsinki.

“The real subject of the negotiations is what the current fund can do,” said the EU insider of the fall-out over the Berlin-Paris pact.

“Can it buy up eurozone public debt or not? And will it be able to offer short-term credit lines to countries?

“On these issues, Germany and the Netherlands aren’t moving much and if nothing happens there, the markets are likely to start attacking the weakest countries again.”

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Entertainment

International

Sean Penn thanks Venezuela’s Chavez for Haiti aid Associated Press Writer

AFP/File/Ben Stansall

George Michael (C), seen here after appearance at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court in London, in August 2010.

George Michael says drugs jail term was ‘karma’ Agence France Presse

LONDON – Pop star George Michael said he deserved to be jailed for a month for crashing his car while high on cannabis, describing his time inside as karma, in a BBC radio interview. The former Wham! singer said he was now receiving therapy over his drug abuse issues and was “ashamed” to have broken the law repeatedly.

The 47-year-old was jailed in September last year after admitting driving under the influence of drugs. “I was assured I wasn’t going to prison but I thought I was, and it was much easier to take because I felt it was deserved,” he said, in an interview to be broadcast Monday.

“This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly so karmically I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.

“Remarkably enough — I know people must think it was a really horrific experience — it’s so much easier to take any form of punishment if you believe you actually deserve it, and I did.”

Besides his jail term, Michael was also been banned from driving for five years and was forced to pay fines and costs worth £1,365. The singer said he felt he was jailed partly because “I’m George Michael and the poster boy for cannabis”. Michael, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, said many fellow musicians wrote to him in jail, including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Boy George.

Describing his first night in prison, he said: “It wasn’t a weekend break, put it that way. “I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this place is absolutely filthy’.

“I just thought, ‘you get your head down’.” He said his last night inside was “great”, with “every single staff member” and prisoner getting his autograph — some of them on headed prison paper. The singer — who first found fame in 1980s pop group Wham! and has gone on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide — has a long history with drugs and scrapes with the law.

Miley Cyrus meets her impression as ‘SNL’ host Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Miley Cyrus has met her “Saturday Night Live” impression while lampooning a fellow teen pop star herself. Cyrus hosted “SNL” on Saturday night, leading to an inevitable face-off between the 18-year-old singer and cast member Vanessa Bayer’s parody. But Cyrus appeared on Bayer’s “The Miley Cyrus Show” not as herself, but 17-year-old Justin Bieber.

Cyrus played Bieber as too hip to use Bayer’s enthusiastic “pretty cool” catch phrase. In other sketches, Cyrus also played Fergie and Lindsay Lohan. Her Lohan impression occurred during a sketch with cast members portraying Charlie Sheen as the host of a TV show called “Duh! Winning!” with Lohan, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and fashion designer John Galliano as guests.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

In this Feb. 8, 2011 file photo, Miley Cyrus arrives at the premiere of the documentary film ‘Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,’ in Los Angeles.

CARACAS, Venezuela – Sean Penn thanked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday for supporting the actor’s relief organization in Haiti, saying the aid has helped its humanitarian work in distributing medicines. Chavez met with Penn at the presidential palace and praised the actor’s efforts with his J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which was founded in response to the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Neither provided details about how much financial assistance Venezuela has provided to the group. The Oscar-winning actor noted that in addition to Venezuela’s financial help, his organization has also received support from the U.S. military. Penn called that ironic, adding: “We hope that this kind of collaboration can be an example for future approaches to many other issues” — in spite of limited U.S.-Venezuelan diplomatic contacts.

The U.S. and Venezuela have been without ambassadors since December, when Chavez formally rejected the White House’s nominee for envoy in a diplomatic dispute. The U.S. government revoked the visa of Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez in response.

Penn has met four times with Chavez in recent years.

Chavez has praised the actor for his critical stance toward U.S. foreign policy.

The leftist president said their meeting Saturday was productive in discussing “new plans and ideas.” “Sean is an activist of the struggles for the world’s oppressed peoples, and he’s leaving for Haiti right now,” Chavez said outside the presidential palace when they emerged from their meeting.

AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, right, shakes hands with US actor Sean Penn at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, March 5, 2011.

South Korean filmmaker brings diabolic tale to US Agence France Presse

LOS ANGELES – South Korean director Kim Ji-woon says his latest film, “I saw the Devil,” is a study in evil he hopes will strike a chord with US audiences as much as it did in his homeland. About a man seeking violent revenge against a serial killer for slaying his pregnant girlfriend, the movie tells how, “to win over evil, the main character has to become evil hismelf,” he said.

“This is the first script I didn’t write myself,” said the 46-year-old, an established filmmaker in South Korea, on the eve of the film’s opening in the United States this weekend. “There was not any specific news that drew me to this story, but there was a time where there were major serial killers in Korea,” he told AFP in Los Angeles.

Kim is known for trying his hand at a range of film types, from horror flicks like “A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) to action movies like 2005’s “A Bittersweet Life” and “The Good, the Bad and the Weird” (2008).

This time he gets his teeth into a thriller, in the form of a secret agent bent on revenging his lover’s death by causing her killer as much pain as possible before killing him. “I’ve always been interested in crossing many genres and especially for this film I was interested in thriller, which has a very distinctive visual style,” he said.

The film has already done the

tour of international film festivals, from Toronto to San Sebastian, and was at the Sundance independent movie fest in January. Stunningly beautiful from the opening scene — riding in a car on a snowy night, to the sound of melancholy guitar — it nevertheless pulls no punches in depicting violence, sometimes with almost unbearable detail.

Far from showing his main character compassionately, as a hero avenging a wrong, Kim draws him as an exterminating angel who will only find peace after killing the monster who took his gilfriend’s life in the cruelest possible way. The film has been very well received in Asia,

which the director believes is due to the psychological depth which enriches a fairly classic man-hunt type thriller. He insists he only realized the depths as he worked on the movie.

“As a film, as a story there is a chance to make something very much more complete and much more in depth with that kind of emotional and psychological tension, much more so than the pure visual or the action,” he said. “What I was trying to get in the film was that in order to win over evil, the main character has to become evil himself. I wanted to really work this very kind of tragic chase and process of revenge.”

AFP/Getty Images/File/Larry Busacca

Kim Ji-woon poses for a photo at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January. T

Science

International

13

Early horses ate squishy fruit, not grass

A bed of branching coral shows the effects of bleaching in Indonesia’s Wakatobi archipelago, a thriving marine paradise, packing a bewildering abundance of life that supports 100,000 people and contributes millions of dollars to Indonesia’s economy.

Agence France Presse

AFP/The Nature Conservancy/Rod Salm

Bleaching and resilience: can reefs survive?

Agence France Presse

WAKATOBI, Indonesia – Red anthia fish and rainbow-coloured wrasse dart among the glittering reefs of Indonesia’s Wakatobi archipelago, as eagle rays and barracudas cruise past in the blue depths.

It’s hard to believe Wakatobi is anything but a thriving marine paradise, packing a bewildering abundance of life that supports 100,000 people and contributes millions of dollars to Indonesia’s economy.

But scientists are worried. Last year, coral bleaching caused by higher sea temperatures wreaked havoc across the Coral Triangle, a region of rich tropical reefs spanning much of Southeast Asia and almost all of Indonesia.

Up to 70 percent of the coral in Wakatobi, off the southeastern tip of Sulawesi island, was totally or partially bleached. In Aceh province, off the northern tip of Sumatra, as much as 90 percent was killed, scientists said. Experts from environmental groups The Nature Conservancy and WWF, as well as the Indonesian government, returned to Wakatobi last month to see if the marine park’s reefs had bounced back.

Over two weeks of diving at sites

Monday, March 7, 2011

with names like Table Coral City and Blue Hole, the team looked for signs of long-term damage or resilience, in the hope of learning more about how reef systems respond to climate-related stresses.

“In Aceh about 90 percent of the coral bleached, and that included some of the really big varieties that are hundreds of years old and had survived the (2004) tsunami but died because of the bleaching,” said Joanne Wilson, deputy director for science in TNC’s Indonesia Marine Programme.

“Very fortunately in Wakatobi ... it seems that only about five to 10 percent of the corals actually died.

We’re very lucky here.” Bleaching occurs when corals respond to stress,

such as stronger than normal direct sunlight or elevated sea temperatures, by expelling the algae that live inside them and give them their brilliant colours.

In normal conditions the symbiotic algae provide the corals with nutrients, and without them the corals turn white and can die within days. They may also recover, depending on the circumstances. Wilson described the “eerie” experience of diving on wintry, frozen-looking reefs during the height of the bleaching at Wakatobi last year, the warmest year on record.

“I saw that a lot of the corals were affected by the bleaching to various stages. Some were completely white but still alive,” she said. Scientists feared a repeat of the 1998-1999 global bleaching that was linked to the El Nino and La Nina weather cycles in the Pacific Ocean. About 16 percent of the world’s reefs died in that crisis, providing a wake-up call to scientists about the dangers posed to reef systems — and the millions of people who depend on them — from global warming.

WASHINGTON – Early ancestors of the modern horse likely ate fruit that did not require sharp molars to grind down, a study of horse teeth fossils dating back 55 million years has shown, scientists said. As land conditions evolved over time, horses’ diets became more mixed and their teeth became tougher to be able to chew and digest grasses that may have had gritty dust or soil mixed in, said the study in the journal Science.

The evolution of bigger, sharper molars closely follows historical changes in climate, but with a large enough gap between environmental shifts and dental changes to suggest that plenty of horses died off along the way, the research said.

“We found that evolutionary changes in tooth anatomy lag behind the dietary changes by a million years or more,” said co-author Matthew Mihlbachler of the New York Institute of Technology.

“One of the advantages of studying extinct creatures like prehistoric horses is we can look at how animals responded to their envi-

ronments over millions of years — something that biologists who study living species cannot do.”

Mihlbacher and colleague Nikos Solounias examined the fossilized teeth of 6,500 horses representing 222 different populations of more than 70 extinct horse species, and compared the data to record of climate changes in North America over time.

Using a process called “dental mesowear analysis,” they were able to look at the wear and tear on the teeth and make an estimation of what the horses ate. “The earliest horses from (about) 55.5 million years ago had shortcrowned (brachydont) molars with poorly developed shearing crests, suggesting a frugivorous (fruit-based) diet,” said the study.

Over time, grasslands became more predominant and horse teeth grew larger and taller with sharper edges. “High-abrasion mesowear patterns resembling those of modern horses and zebras have persisted for the past four to five million years,” the study said. The research suggests that larger and more evolved teeth indicate higher adaptability and a greater likelihood of survival.

AFP/File/Joe Klamar

A horse searches for pasture in Slovakia in February 2010. Early ancestors of the modern horse likely ate fruit that did not require sharp molars to grind down, a study of horse teeth fossils dating back 55 million years has shown, scientists said Thursday.

Farewells for space crews: Discovery set to undock Associated Press Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The space shuttle and space station crews will soon say goodbye. Astronauts will close the hatches between their

AP Photo/NASA

spacecraft Sunday afternoon. Then on Monday morning, shuttle Discovery will undock for the final time from the International Space Station.

Discovery is on its final flight.

When it returns to Earth on Wednes-

In this March 3, 2011 photo provided by NASA, inside the U.S. lab Destiny, 12 astronauts and cosmonauts take a break from a very busy week aboard the International Space Station to pose for a joint STS133/Expedition 26 group portrait.

day, it will be retired and sent to a museum.

The shuttle and its crew of six have spent more than a week at the space station. They delivered and installed a new storage compartment, along with a humanoid robot. Mission Control gave the shuttle astronauts two extra days at the orbiting outpost. They took advantage of the bonus time to empty the storage unit of all the gear that was carried up.

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Sport

International

Gattuso downs Juve to send Milan clear Agence France Presse

ROME – A rare Gennaro Gattuso goal sent leaders AC Milan eight points clear in Serie A after they dominated a poor Juventus 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin on Saturday ahead of Italy’s main programme.

The combative midfielder, who is suspended for Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Tottenham, struck in the 68th minute, firing under Gianluigi Buffon to cap a splendid week for the Rossoneri who had beaten title-challengers Napoli 3-0 on Monday.

It was Juventus’ third defeat on the trot and leaves them languishing in seventh position, seven points off the Champions League places with ten matches to go. “It’s not easy to beat Juve but I thought it was another fine all-round performance,” said Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri after the club continued their unbeaten start to the year with a seventh win in 11 games.

“We kept hold of the ball, were patient and contained them on the break.” Allegri, who had lined up

alongside Gattuso in his playing days, betrayed a flicker of emotion after the midfielder’s first goal in three seasons.

“He’s actually been close to scoring in recent games,” he added. “I’m just happy for him because he doesn’t score than often.”

Juventus are now 20 points behind Milan in Serie A and worse off than they were last season when Ciro Ferrara was sacked mid-season. “I’m giving my best,” said coach Gigi Delneri. “We played with more energy than against Bologna and Lecce, but I can’t deny that we failed to create chances.”

The former Sampdoria coach suggested he needed better players brought in. “Look at Milan today, they brought on (Clarence) Seedorf and Robinho. We need more quality,” he added.

AFP PHOTO / Filippo MONTEFORTE

AC Milan’s midfielder Gennaro Gattuo (R) celebrate with teammates after scoring against Juventus during their Serie A football match in Turin’s Olympic Stadium on March 5, 2011 .

Keita strike puts Barcelona ten clear of Real Agence France Presse

MADRID – Mali international midfielder Seydou Keita scored only his second goal of the season as champions Barcelona moved ten points clear

of Real Madrid in the Spanish first division with a hard-fought 1-0 home win over Real Zaragoza on Saturday.

The 31-year-old Keita, a fringe player this season, scored the decisive goal on 43 minutes

as Barcelona made it three league wins in the space of eight days and piled the pressure on Real who travel to Racing Santander on Sunday. It was a far from vintage performance, but three points and another clean sheet are the perfect

AFP PHOTO/ LLUIS GENE

preparation for Barcelona’s Champions League second leg showdown with Arsenal on Tuesday as Barca bid to overturn a 2-1 deficit.

“It was a difficult game and we had to be careful of the counter attack as Zaragoza have some quick players,” said Barcelona defender Gaby Milito. “We couldn’t find as much space as we have done in the past, but we have won and now we can think about the Champions League.”

Real Madrid are in action on Sunday when they travel to Racing Santander, looking to improve their erratic away form, but they must do so without top-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo who is missing with a thigh muscle strain. With the Arsenal game in three days time, Barca coach Pep Guardiola rested Spanish stars David Villa and Andres Iniesta allowing Keita and Bojan Krkic a chance to shine.

Goalkeeper Victor Valdes also returned between the sticks after missing the last three league

Barcelona’s Malian midfielder Seydou Keita jumps with a ball during the UEFA Spanish League football match FC Barcelona vs Real Zaragoza on March 5, 2011 at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona.

matches with a knee injury so Jose Manuel Pinto dropped to the bench. Barca were almost given a shock in the eighth minute with Gerard Pique called upon to make a decisive late tackle as Nicolas Bertolo was about to shoot on goal.

The hosts had their first real effort in the 18th minute with Pedro Rodriguez’s low shot tipped wide of the post after the home side had worked a training ground corner routine. Minutes later Bojan’s deflected shot clipped the bar and Keita had a header ruled out for a marginal offside.

Keita scored again on 43 minutes and this time the goal stood.

Lionel Messi showed his trademark close control to get behind two Zaragoza defenders and cut the ball back from the right touchline and the ball fell kindly for Keita to stroke home only his second league goal of the season.

Zaragoza, two points above the relegation zone, almost levelled early in the second half with Bertolo going past Pique but his curling effort crept inches past the post.

Pique had a header saved on the goal line before Florent Sinama Pongolle missed a glorious chance to equalise with an outstretched foot from Valdes denying the Frenchman. Substitute Villa should have scored a second for Barca on 73 minutes but the striker blazed over after Maxwell’s shot had been parried by Antonio Doblas but it didn’t matter as the hosts saw out the game.

Sport

International

Monday, March 7, 2011

15

Phelps cleans up with 2 more gold medals in Indy Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS – Michael Phelps is back and he’s starting to get that unbeatable appearance, too. The 14-time Olympic gold medalist beat Ryan Lochte again Saturday night, produced worldbest times in two more events and left the Indianapolis Grand Prix with five gold medals — one for each event he entered.

Not bad for a guy who has competed twice this season and insists he’s still not 100 percent. “In my eyes, it just feels good to be able to race and race at a good speed,” Phelps said. “After the weekend at Austin, I felt like I didn’t get one thing out of it other than feeling slow and out of shape. Being able to slingshot into this meet just shows how fast things can change.”

Lochte, the world’s most dominant swimmer in 2010, got a firsthand glimpse at Phelps’ resurgence.

The feature attraction in the three-day meet had Phelps, the twotime defending Olympic gold medalist in the 200-meter individual medley, pitted against Lochte, the world record-holder in the event.

Two months ago, Lochte beat Phelps in the event in Texas. This time, it wasn’t even close.

Phelps led Lochte by more than eight-tenths of a second at the mid-

way point, extended the margin to nearly 1 1/2 seconds at the third turn and wound up beating the fatigued Lochte by more than two full seconds. Phelps’ time of 1 minute, 56.88 seconds also supplanted Lochte for the No. 1 time in the world this season. Lochte finished in 1:59.19, his best time of the year, but lost both of his finals matchups against Phelps in Indy.

“He’s back, there’s no doubt about it,” Lochte said. “I don’t think he’s ever not there, no matter what he says. I feel like he can step up and race any time.”

Phelps proved it this weekend in what may go down as the world’s fastest meet so far this season. On Friday, swimmers routinely posted times among the world’s top five, and Phelps led the pack again Saturday.The 200 IM final included four swimmers ranked among the seven fastest in the world.

In the 100 free, Phelps charged back from third place with his strongest finish this year. His winning time of 48.89 was another worldbest. Matthew Grevers finished second in 50.01 and Olympic gold med-

alist Jason Lezak was third in 50.08.

“The last 50 just felt incredible,” Phelps said. “I felt like I really was able to build a lot of momentum coming off the wall. You know, I’m never really satisfied, but I am happy to put

up the five fastest times in the world here.” Lochte, however, struggled.

He swam two events Friday and three more Saturday morning, leaving the 26-year-old, three-time Olympic gold medalist exhausted.

Big-hitting Ivo Karlovic serves up new world record

Griffin, Bledsoe lead Clips over Nuggets 100-94

Agence France Presse

Associated Press Writer

ZAGREB – Big-hitting Croat Ivo Karlovic set a new world record with a 251km per hour serve in his country’s Davis Cup World Group first round tie against Germany, competition organisers said. The previous record of 249.4km per hour was set by American Andy Roddick in a Davis Cup semi-final in 2004.

The 2.08m Karlovic, making his return from achilles surgery, on Saturday hit the monster serve in the fourth set of his doubles tie which he and teammate Ivan Dodig lost 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to Germany’s Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner.

Germany lead Croatia 2-1 going into Sunday’s reverse singles rubbers.

LOS ANGELES – Rookie Blake Griffin had 18 points, 12 rebounds and a career high nine assists and the Los Angeles Clippers overcame yet another injury to leading scorer Eric Gordon to beat the Denver Nuggets 100-94 on Saturday night. Eric Bledsoe scored 15 of his career-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, to help the Clippers win their first two games this month, equaling their victory total for February, when they were 2-12. Newly acquired Mo Williams had 17 points.

Nene led Denver with 25 points and tied a season high with 14 rebounds.

Kenyon Martin had 11 points before fouling out with 10.6 seconds remaining. The Nuggets are three games behind Oklahoma City for first place in the division.

Gordon left the game with 5:08 remaining in the second quarter after he was fouled by Timofey Mozgov on an attempted driving layup with the Clippers leading 43-29 and crashed to the floor — reaggravating the sprained right wrist and fractured bone chip that had sidelined him for 18 games.

Gordon wasn’t able to make his free throws, which automatically made him ineligible for the rest of the game, and he was taken for X-rays. It was Gordon’s second game back in the lineup after missing the previous 18 with a sprained right wrist that had a

Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic (above), with teammate Ivan Dodig, returns the ball to Germany’s Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner (not pictured) during their Davis Cup first round match on March 5, 2011 Zagreb.

AFP PHOTO/ STRINGER

small fracture in it. On Wednesday, he scored 24 points in a 106-103 victory that snapped Los Angeles’ five-game losing streak.

Gordon, who helped the U.S. national team won the a gold medal at the world championship in Turkey last summer, entered the game averaging 24.1 points and 4.5 assists.

The Nuggets are 5-2 since trading Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the Knicks in a multiplayer trade that brought them Mozgov, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari. Mozgov faced the Clippers at Staples Center for the first time since Nov. 20, when Griffin used the rookie center’s head to balance himself with one hand as he dunked with the other during a 124-115 loss to the Knicks.

The Nuggets opened the third quarter with a 16-4 run that turned a 10point halftime deficit into a 54-52 lead.

Nene helped fuel the rally with eight points, including a layup that capped it with 6:51 left in the quarter. The Clippers entered the fourth with a six-point lead and increased it to 78-75 when Eric Bledsoe hit a layup, then fed rookie AlFarouq Aminu for an alley-oop dunk and drained a 3-pointer with 11:07 to play. Denver went on a 14-2 run capped by a 16-footer from Nene that brought the Nuggets within 80-79 with 7:32 remaining. But the Clippers stayed in front the rest of the way.

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Monday, March 7, 2011

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

Sport

Mexican prodigy Alvarez downs Hatton for WBC crown Agence France Presse

ANAHEIM, California – Unbeaten Mexican prodigy Saul Alvarez became the youngest world champion in super welterweight history by defeating Britain’s Matthew Hatton for the vacant World Boxing Council crown. The 20-year-old freckled redhead, whose nickname “Canelo” is Spanish for cinnamon, on Saturday improved to 36-0 with one drawn by taking the 154-pound title on a unanimous decision.

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Saul Alvarez, left, of Mexico, and Matthew Hatton, of England, trade punches during the sixth round of their WBC super welterweight title boxing match in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, March 5, 2011.

Ogier leads into Mexican finale SEBASTIEN Ogier heads into the final day of Rally Mexico with a 10.5second cushion over his Citroen teammate Sebastien Loeb in their battle for victory.

Loeb was quickest on both runs through the Leon superspecial that concluded Saturday’s stage line-up, but was only able to trim a few fractions of a second out of Ogier’s advantage as the younger Frenchman went secondquickest each time.

Although Ogier will be running first on the road on Sunday, the final-day itinerary is relatively brief on this rally, with just a single loop of three stages for Loeb to chase down his team-mate.

With the gaps between the rest of the cars now becoming large, there were no changes in position on the Leon stages on Saturday night.

Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and JariMatti Latvala are resigned to salvaging third and fourth places from a difficult rally for the team, while fifth-placed Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) is still determined to get as high as possible in his recovery drive after leg one’s electrical glitch, but now faces a big gap to the four cars ahead of him.

AFP PHOTO/Alfredo Estrella

French driver Sebastien Ogier and co-pilot Julien Ingrassia steer their Citroen DS3 WRC, during the second day of the 2011 World Rally Championship in Leon, Guanajuato State, Mexico on March 5, 2011.

All three judges scored the bout 119108 for Alvarez. The Mexican sensation thanked his supporters and promised the best was yet to come. “This is my dream,” Alvarez said. “I told them I would give them world championships. I would give them great fights.

This is my first world championship. I will have more big fights to come and more titles for Mexico.”

Hatton, the European welterweight champion, fell to 41-5 with two drawn and saw his nine-fight win streak snapped, but he gamely denied Alvarez a 27th career knockout, what would have been only the second such loss for Hatton.

Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao vacated the crown ahead of his May 7 bout with American Shane Mosley, prompting the Mexico-based WBC to give the crown to the winner between Alvarez and Hatton even through the British fighter had never fought in so large a division and there was a catch-weight for the bout.

“I’m a fighter through and through,” Hatton said. “When you get the chance for a world title you have to take it. I’ll move back down to welterweight and look for a world title opportunity there.” Alvarez failed to make the catch-weight of 150 pounds and forfeited $70,000, but it did not affect his eligibility for the crown and

Hatton agreed to fight him anyway.

“He didn’t hurt me,” Hatton said.

“He was just too big in there.”

Alvarez was uncertain of his next opponent but was ready to take his time before facing one of the division’s superstars.

“We’ve got to wait a bit, maybe two more fights, but we have to wait and prepare to have bigger fights and better fights,” Alvarez said. Alvarez pounded Hatton in the first round and bloodied the 29-year-old Englishman’s nose in the second.

Hatton, cheered on at ringside by his former world champion brother Ricky Hatton, stood toe-to-toe throughout the fight with the larger Alvarez, who was supported by the majority of the Southern California crowd. Alvarez opened a gash over Hatton’s left eye midway into the fourth round but lost a point in the seventh round for punching Hatton in the face as the fighters were being pushed apart by referee Lou Moret.

“He’s a good rival,” Alvarez said of Hatton. “People criticize him. He would hold onto me and hurt me. He had some good experience.” Hatton was stunned by a pair of right hands to the head late in the 10th round but the valiant Briton traded blows to the bell and battled the Mexican to the finish. “I shared the ring with a great fighter,” Hatton said.