Edition Wednesday, March 14, 2018 | Internasional Bali Post

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

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

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Meghan Markle carries out first royal engagement with UK’s Queen Elizabeth O.J. Simpson gets tongues

IBP/net

O.J. Simpson

LONDON - Prince Harry’s American fiancee Meghan Markle on Monday took part in her first official royal engagement with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth since the couple announced they were getting married last year.

Markle joined her husband-to-be and Britain’s other senior royals including Harry’s father, Prince Charles, and his elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate at London’s Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth service.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth Secretary-General were among the 2,000-strong congregation for the service, the largest annual inter-faith gathering in the United Kingdom, which also included more than 800 schoolchildren and young people.

Elizabeth has been head of the Commonwealth since 1952 and aides say she regards the success of

the organisation, which now has 53 members representing over 2.4 billion people, as one of her greatest achievements as queen.

She has made more than 200 trips to Commonwealth countries during her 66-year reign, visiting every country except Cameroon and Rwanda.

London will host next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where the BBC and other British media have speculated the issue of who will succeed the 91-year-old monarch might be discussed.

“Having enjoyed the warm hospitality of so many Commonwealth countries over the years, I look forward to the pleasure of welcoming the leaders of our family of 53 nations to my homes in London and Windsor,” the queen said in a statement.

Windsor Castle, west of London, also will be the setting for the wedding of Harry and actress Markle, star of U.S. TV drama “Suits”, on May 19. (rtr)

REUTERS/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Meghan Markle leaves after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain March 12, 2018.

wagging, but ‘American Idol’ wins on TV

LOS ANGELES - A more than 10 year-old interview in which O.J. Simpson gave a hypothetical account of how he might have murdered his ex-wife fired up social media, but Americans proved more interested in watching the return of “American Idol,” television ratings data on Monday showed.

Some 10.3 million Americans watched the two-hour premiere of “American Idol” on ABC on Sunday night, compared with 4.4 million who tuned in to see rival Fox broadcast the 2006 tape in a show called “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?,” according to Nielsen.

Fox broadcast for the first time a 2006 video with Simpson in which he talked about his marriage to Nicole Brown Simpson and gives a hypothetical account of events on the night in June 1994 when she and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered at her Los Angeles home.

Simpson was acquitted of double murder in 1995 after a 13month trial in a case that continues to captivate Americans. The 2006 interview and a book written by Judith Regan based on it were pulled from publication at the time because of public outrage.

The Twitter hashtag #DidOJConfess was one of the top trending items on Sunday night but few posters on social media felt the

video had changed their opinion about Simpson’s guilt or innocence.

Under U.S. law, a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice.

Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne said Simpson was “indifferent” about the broadcast.

“This 2006 ‘If I Did It’ concept

by Regan offered to Simpson was despicably poor judgment and should be considered a plague on the houses of all involved, including the eventual publishers. The 2006 project was a cash grab.

Nothing more,” LaVergne wrote on Twitter late Sunday.

Mainstream media was mostly critical of Fox for airing the interview, which was seen as an attempt to draw viewers away from ABC’s reboot of “American Idol” two years after the talent show ended on Fox after 15 seasons.

“With O.J. interview, Fox falls off the human decency wagon,” Entertainment Weekly wrote, calling Sunday’s two-hour special a rehash of material known or better handled by award winning TV documentaries and mini-series in 2016.

Vanity Fair asked if “The Lost Confession?” was “Genius or Gross?” and the New York Times concluded that while the TV program was unpleasant and offered little in the way of closure, “It’s a piece of broadcasting and cultural history, which supplements all the other O.J. Simpson coverage.” (rtr)

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Austin Fire Department/Handout via REUTERS.

Austin Fire Department personnel attend the scene of a package explosion in the 6700 block of Galindo Street in east Austin, Texas, U.S. March 12, 2018.

Police link two deadly package bombs in Austin, Texas, to earlier attack

AUSTIN - Two package bombs left outside homes in Austin, Texas, exploded on Monday, killing a teenager and injuring two women in attacks that police linked to a deadly blast earlier this month. The latest bombings came as the Texas capital hosted its annual South by Southwest music, technology and film festival downtown. The victims in all three cases were AfricanAmerican or Hispanic, and police said they were examining the attacks as possible hate crimes.

In each of the three attacks, a cardboard package was left at the front of a private residence and exploded after an unwitting victim picked it up or tried to open it, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters.

The packages that exploded on Monday were not delivered by any

mainstream commercial shipping services, such as Federal Express or United Parcel Service, Manley said.

“We are looking at these incidents as being related,” Manley said, adding that federal investigators had joined the search for suspects and a possible motive. “We

cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this, but we are not saying that that is the cause,” Manley told a news conference. He warned residents to watch out for boxes left outside their homes and to report anything suspicious to police.

The first explosion, on March 2, killed a 39-year-old black man at a house in the city’s Harris Ridge neighborhood, which is home to technology companies and about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of downtown. The blast was powerful enough to blew out walls at the home’s entryway.

A 17-year-old African-American boy died on Monday when he found

a package outside his house in east Austin and brought it into the kitchen of his home, where it exploded, Manley said. A woman in her 40s was in the home and injured by the blast, although she was expected to survive, police said.

A second explosion, about 4 miles (6 km) away in southeastern Austin, injured a 75-yearold woman in the predominantly working-class Hispanic community of Montopolis, police said. A neighbor, Brandon Rendon, told Reuters the victim was in a wheelchair watering her grass before the blast occurred.

Monday’s attacks unfolded as the

city was thronged by visitors to the South by Southwest Festival. On Monday afternoon, London Mayor Sadiq Khan delivered a keynote address at the event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city each year. Manley said the bombings posed no threat to the festival, but he urged visitors to remain vigilant. (rtr) News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http:// globalfmbali.listen2myradio.com or live video streaming at http:// radioglobalfmbali.com and http:// ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Bali News

International

International

Ornaments of melasti welcome Nyepi at The Nusa Dua

IBP/file

Last year’s Nyepi in Kuta

Related to Nyepi in Kuta

Accommodation operators asked to educate their guests

MANGUPURA - During the implementation of Nyepi celebration in Kuta area, the hotel and villa managements including the owners of the house rented to foreigners are asked to educate their guests. This is important for the order and smoothness of the Nyepi celebration. This was affirmed by the Acting Head of Kuta Subdistrict, Made Widiana, on Monday (Mar. 12).

According to him, the management and owners of the accommodation are asked to educate so their in-house guests will not be traveling, coming out or beating any instruments of entertainment and music during the Nyepi celebration. It began to be applied at 06:00 on Saturday (Mar. 17) to Sunday (Mar. 18) at 06:00. “They are necessary to understand this catur brata penyepian (four abstinences), so the solemnity of the Nyepi implementation can be maintained together,” he said.

Meanwhile, during the night of Pengrupukan, all bearers of the ogoh-ogoh (papier mâché demon) are expected to avoid consuming alcoholic beverages.

Hopefully, such anticipation can minimize the undesirable things. “After parading the ogoh-ogoh, they are expected to return to their respective hamlet and not to do any activities on the roadside,” he hoped.

When contacted separately, chief of Kuta customary village, I Wayan Swarsa, conveyed that preparation of the Nyepi Day of this year is relatively the same as

in previous years. It starts from the series of melasti to be held on March 14. He said that various forms of creativity and entertainment will be held at Kuta customary village such as the Festival of Cultural Art (FSB) VIII. The festival is a separate activity from Nyepi procession including the ritual pemelastian, pengerupukan, catur brata penyepian and ngembak geni.

On the night of Pengerupukan, Swarsa said there will be a performance of sendratari (ballet), ogoh-ogoh competition in front of the Desa - Bale Agung temple of Kuta customary village. Meanwhile, on the Nyepi Day coinciding with the celebration of Saraswati, the celebration of Saraswati Day is still implemented by taking simple procession.

“According to the customary village decision, the implementation of Saraswati Day must have been finished at 06:00 on Saturday (Mar. 17) and continued with the implementation of the catur brata penyepian,” he explained.

In the meantime, on the ngembak geni on Sunday (Mar. 18), the village will hold the Grand Final of Jegeg Bungan Desa (JBD) beauty pageant selection, parade of kid gong kebyar and vibrant Majelangu Market of Kuta customary village. “There are four forms of creativity to be displayed, namely the ogohogoh contest involving the sekaa taruna (customary youth club) of Kuta customary village, the selection of Jegeg Bungan Desa (JBD), the parade of kid gong kebyar and the vibrant Majelangu Market,” he added. (kmb23)

MANGUPURA - The Nusa Dua participated in welcoming the celebration of Nyepi of Caka New Year 1940. A number of preparations are made where one of which is the making of ornaments entitled Melasti near the entrance into the area. Tourists are invited to feel the aura of Nyepi celebration that can only be found on this Island of God. Operations Division Head of The Nusa Dua, Pari Wijaya, said on Monday (Mar. 12) The Nusa Dua which is part of the Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) installed the decoration with the concept of melasti ceremony. This theme is deliberately chosen because the melasti ceremony is the main procession of Nyepi Day. “Melasti means the purification of nature, macrocosm and microcosm,” he said.

He described that melasti ritual decorations made this time are entirely using natural materials starting from areca nut sheath, coconut

sheath, dried banana leaves, burlap sacks, leaves and dry branches.

This ornament is made by artist Putu Suardana helped by three assistants. “We use natural materials and assisted by local artists,” he added.

He admitted the making of this ornament serves as a tribute and part of the existing culture in Bali.

He hoped that tourists staying in the area of The Nusa Dua can also experience the aura of Nyepi Day celebration. “Uniqueness of Nyepi (Day of Silence) can only be found in Bali. We want our tourists can also feel the aura of Nyepi,” he added.

The making of religious day ornaments is not only related to Nyepi celebration. Previously, the tourist area having approximately 5,200 rooms of star-rated hotels also made wooden ornaments of Christmas tree as well as the Lunar New Year in the form of earth dog made from wood. (kmb23)

The Nyepi ornament in Nusa Dua

IBP/Yudi Karnaedi

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2018 Nyepi Retreat

Activities

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

An Escape to the Art, Soul and Romance of Indonesia On the famous Balinese Day of Silence, the Nyepi Day, Bali is standing still for one day and one night. At Tugu Bali, watch the sun setting over the Indian Ocean from your bedroom window and experience one day of complete tranquility. Dip into your own private plunge pool or rejuvenate in your sumptuous outdoor bath. Experience the full Nyepi by arriving few days before the Nyepi Day to join the beautifully spiritual Melasti cleansing ceremony at the sacred Batu Bolong temple in front of the hotel, as well as the famous burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh parade all over Bali.

Or hop onto a 20 minutes flight and escape to paradise on earth on the miles long white sand beach of Tugu Lombok. Spend the whole day by the turquoise waters or explore the vast 6 hectares lush palm gardens and majestic temples.

When evening comes, choose your favourite private spot for dinner - on your own corner of the beach under a million stars serenaded by whispers of the waves, or on top of an ancient temple architecture from 10th century.

Another alluring option is to escape to the true soul of Java. City of Malang in East Java, with a history dating back to the Singhasari kingdom and now a nostalgic colonial old town has its own charm inviting you to drift along in an air of nostalgia. Stay at Tugu Malang, explore the surrounding of Malang on becak or bicycle, take trips to Mt Bromo, hills of coffee, apple & tea plantations, or hundreds-years- old temple ruins.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Technology

The robot helping ill kids to beat loneliness - and keep learning

LONDON - For children battling longterm illness, coping with physical pain is not their only challenge: being away from school also means missing out on time with friends, and that can be tough.

And parents often worry about the impact months of missed classes will have on their child’s education.

That is where a classroom robot called AV1 comes in. Its job is to act as the eyes, ears and voice for children with long-term illnesses who cannot make it to class.

It allows Elliot Smith to stay in touch with his friends and to keep up with his lessons. He controls it from home using a tablet computer, and can listen or talk. If he wants to ask a question, he lights up the robot’s head to alert the teacher.

“I was sort of worried about what the other REUTERS/No Isolation students would think of the robot. They were definitely surprised by it,” the 12-year-old, who is No Isolation’s AV1 robot in a classroom in Norusing the AV1 while recovering from brain cancer, way. It helps children with long term illnesses keep up with their schoolwork remotely. told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Schools can rent a robot or buy one for 2,200 pounds ($3,065). Smith’s AV1 - which his classDolva’s goal with No Isolation was to make mates christened ‘Bob’ - was paid for through a technology useful. She used to run a consultancy mix of fundraising and philanthropy. incubating tech companies, but felt they were too The robot looks like a garden gnome that has focused on “making efficient people faster, which gone through tech giant Apple’s minimalist design is so sad”. process. They are made by a Norwegian social “We would never have started No Isolation unenterprise called No Isolation, which was founded less we could help someone. That was the one thing to reduce involuntary isolation. we were absolutely sure about when we started,” Across Europe, 370 young people between the she said. ages of eight and 20 use an AV1. Most live in More than one in ten people in Britain feel isoScandinavian countries. lated, and research links loneliness to dementia, The organisation’s founder, 27-year-old Karen early mortality and high blood pressure.

Dolva, who studied computer science at university, started No Isolation after a friend working as ENTER THE ROBOT Months of chemotherapy left Elliot Smith, from a nurse in a children’s unit described it as “quite Yeovil in southwest England, too weak to attend miserable”.

After researching the issue, Dolva met Anne school. His weight nearly halved, and he could Fi Troye, whose teenage daughter had died from barely eat.

His father said the robot had made a big differcancer. Troye told Dolva about the experience, and of the devastating effect of isolation for children ence as his son was able to see and listen to his teacher, and interact when he felt strong enough, recovering at home.

“They’re locked away, forgotten. And when they reducing his anxiety about falling behind at school.

“This device is absolutely pivotal in making get well they’re just pushed out into the world and everyone assumes they’re going to be happy now those first next steps into integrating back into that they’re well again,” Dolva told the Thomson mainstream education,” Bill Smith said.

Another worry was that he was losing touch Reuters Foundation. with his friends, while also feeling self-conscious GROWING APART about his appearance.

Research by the British cancer charity CLIC “His hair is only just starting to grow back.

Sargent found nearly half of parents of primary Whenever we would go anywhere with Elliot beschool children with cancer said their child’s di- fore, he wouldn’t take his hat off. He’s very conagnosis and treatment had caused the youngsters scious of his appearance, so this has helped in that to grow apart from their friends. he doesn’t physically have to be there,” Smith said.

After speaking to charities and healthcare The 12-year-old said he was unsure how much professionals in Britain, Dolva’s organisation Bob was helping him to learn, not least because concluded that 70,000 British children spend large the amount he can hear varies depending on level parts of the school year at home or in hospital due of classroom noise and the robot’s proximity to a to illness. wifi router. (rtr)

International

Bali News

International

New Boeing jet to accelerate services shake-up

CHICAGO - Boeing Co is doubling down on its landmark new strategy designed to muscle in on the business of maintenance providers by making its next jet the laboratory for in-house services that could radically alter the global business model for selling planes.

Unlike Boeing’s last all-new design, the 787 Dreamliner, its proposed new mid-market plane will not bring a flood of revolutionary technical designs to the drawing board.

But it will give the world’s largest plane maker a chance to test its new business approach of designing the plane so that it generates lucrative services revenues for Boeing while also offering efficiencies to airlines over the aircraft’s decades-long lifespan.

Along with production costs, the new approach could help Boeing decide whether to invest the $15 billion or more in development needed to build the jet.

“If we decide to launch, it’s a big investment and it’s an investment that has to contemplate not only the product itself but all of our other strategic objectives,” Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Reuters.

“So you can imagine we would want to look at this airplane through the lens of lifecycle value as we are growing our services business,” he said.

Until recently, Boeing and Europe’s Airbus sold planes with little involvement in the way they were operated and maintained. Instead, that was work carried out by their own suppliers or third-party shops.

Heavy outsourcing on jets like

the 787 expanded the trend by leaving suppliers - such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries , which supplies the 787’s carbon wings - in command of key components.

While Boeing and others squeezed their balance sheets to launch jets, many of their suppliers used their design influence to forge profitable relationships directly with airlines as they conducted part swaps or repairs required by regulators.

“That seems a little out of balance, doesn’t it?” said Muilenburg, describing how the pendulum is now swinging back to give Boeing more control over parts and therefore the stream of aftermarket services that comes with owning a part’s design.

“We do take the majority of the risk in developing new products, and we think that would cause us to want to gain the financial benefit of that risk-taking for the long term,” he said.

The long-term approach to the new jet is the latest evidence of changes in the $180 billion aeroaftermarket as planemakers jostle with suppliers - and even airlines - for control of repairs, training and data in pursuit of higher margins.

Last year, Boeing centralized services formerly spread across the company in a new division with a goal to more than treble sales to $50 billion in a decade.

The new unit posted operating margins of 15.4 percent last year, compared with 16.1 percent that United Technologies Aerospace Systems, a major supplier, earned from selling new equipment, services and aftermarket parts. (rtr)

REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

President, Chairman and CEO of The Boeing Company Dennis Muilenburg speaks at the “What’s Next?” conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

3

Mount Agung victim Ni Nengah Werni

Survives thanks to sweetness of snakefruit

SEMARAPURA - The eruptions of Mount Agung have impacted the fate of the people who live on the slopes of this great mountain.

Apart from the struggles of having been evacuated from their homes for many months, many also lost their means of earning a living Facing such conditions, Ni Negah Werni from Perang Sari hamlet, North Duda, Selat, has risen from such hardships by selling snakefruit in the town of Semarapura.

IBP/net

Darmawan’s creamation will take place at the Kerta Semadhi Crematorium in Mumbul, Nusa Dua.

The late Hari Darmawan

Asked to be cremated in Bali

DENPASAR — The original founder of Matahari Department Store, Hari Darmawan, was found dead in Ciliwung River, Bogor, West Java, on Saturday (Mar. 10) after having been reported missing since Friday night (Mar. 9).

The remains of this 77-year-old man will be taken to Kerta Semadhi funeral home, Jalan Cargo Permai, Denpasar after arriving in Bali on Sunday (Mar. 11). According to information complied in the field, Darmawan’s creamation will take place at the Kerta Semadhi Crematorium in Mumbul, Nusa Dua, on Wednesday (Mar. 14). Some time ago, Hari Darmawan had asked his family to have his remains cremated there.

As of 23:59 on Sunday however the corpse has not arrived at the funeral home, though dozens of wreaths of condolences from relatives, friends and business associates of the late Hari Darmawan lined the entrance to the Kertha Semadi funeral home. A number of employees and managers of Matahari Duta Plaza located at Jalan Dewi Sartika, Denpasar, were also seen waiting for the arrival of the corpse.

Store Manager of Matahari Duta Plaza on Jalan Dewi Sartika, Kadek Suwardana, said that Hari Darmawan was known as a kind of father figure with all his employees considered to be part of a

big family.

“Not only was he caring but also provided a lot of motivatino for his employees so we all felt like we were part of a fmialiy not just employees. He alsways spoke to us as equals encouraging us to move forward together, we were never made to feel lower than him”, said Suwardana.

Hari Darmawan was known to be hard-working and tenacious but never positioned himself as the important owner of giant retail company, instead he mingled like family. He never expressed anger to his employees and always sought to build moral so that the company could improve as a whole. “He was very humble and anyone who knew him will certainly feel a great loss”, he said.

“He like to provide constructive motivation but never with anger. When he would come to the regional outlets Bali, he always brought high spirits and shared his experience providing constructive criticism without criticizing”, added Suwardana.

Suwardana explained that he last met Hari Darmawan one year ago at the airport before leaving for Jakarta. “We exchanged well wishes. He travailed without an aide or bodyguard. He was a very simple man. I was very surprised to hear of his sudden passing”, he concluded. (kmb42)

Approaching midday, many people can be seen on the streets of Semarapura going about their busyness.

Government employees in their uniforms are seen around the regent’s office which is where Nengah Werni tries to sell her fruit. This stalky woman in faded clothes carries a large bamboo basket, clinging tightly to its edges so that she does not drop it, she approaches people in e by one offering them to buy her sweet snakefruit. “I sell sugar- snakefruit”, she says.

Werni has been trying her luck at selling snakefruit every since she was evacuated from here home last September and took refuge in Kemoining hamlet, Semparapura Kelod. Although she did return to her village after the biggest mountain in Bali started to calm down, she continues to sell fruit in Klungkung to ease the burden of her life. “We have no work in the village anymore. We sold off all our cattle so we have no source of income, that why we are sellign fruit

here”, she explained.

Werni sells fruit everyday. Sometimes from early monring until noon and sometimes from noo until evening. After walking swiftly aroudn the govermnet offeice grounds she makes her way to other parts of the city and bearing the harch heat of the day ahs become commonoplace to her. Her sweating has become a friend that she does not complain about. “We used to work as farmers in our village”, she said.

The snakefruit that she sells does not belong to her, she just sells it for the tree owner at IDR 20,00 per kilo. AS the name implies this sugar snakefruit is indeed small but sweet. Somedays she can sell up to 20 kilograms. “Sometimes we go home to Karangasem, sometimes we stay here in Kemoning. The snakefruit is brought here”, said Werni smiling warmly.

Although she does not earn very much, she said that she feels grateful to have this work that allows her to get by as there is no work at all in their village.

Despite these life burdens, this woman who is wife to I Nengah Rauh said she breaths a little easier knowing that even though their wages are small, her two sons work in Denpasar. “If I just sat at home with nothing to do, I would not feel good at all”, she said.

Werni’s husband Negah also works hard taking odd jobs wherever he can. Werni added that she hopes that the conditio of Mount Agung will retunrn to normal. “Yesterday there were several earthquakes. We are worried about styaing in our village”, she added. (sos)

IBP/sos

Ni Negah Werni (L) from Perang Sari hamlet, North Duda, Selat, has risen from such hardships by selling snakefruit in the town of Semarapura.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Bali News

International

Preventing fake news on Nyepi

“Bali is very special due to the existence of its customary villages. If the customary villages are safe, it means that Bali is also safe”, said Juliarto.

Although there have been many incidents across Indonesia that involved irresponsible parties pitting different groups against each other whether based on tribal affiliation or religion, Juliarto said he was grateful to see that such incidents have not occurred on Bali and that the risk is also very low.

“Nevertheless, customary villages are still be asked to raise awareness. Any suspicious activities should be reported immediately so that they can be followed up on. We also urge the monitoring of migrants in order to anticipate undesirable things:, he affirmed.

Juliarto also said that he hoped to see customary villages actively participating in maintaining a peaceful atmosphere leading up to the simultaneous regional leadership election, particularly with regards to Bali as a tourist destination.

“Let us carry out this regional leadership election peacefully. Please report any violent acts to the established authorities - the integrated law enforcement, so that the democratic events can run safely, smoothly, and give birth to the leadership as expected by the people”, he said.

Fake news stories, he added have also become a problem, so Juliarto also called on the customary village chiefs to alert their villages about not getting hooked in by such stories circulating on social media.

“Hopefully, people will not be easily provoked by such fake news. Let us together create a safe and brilliant Bali”, he said.

Head of the Denpasar Customary Village Chief Forum, I Wayan Butu Antara, expressed his support and appreciation of the performance of Bali Police. Such hard work he said contributes greatly to maintaining public order and security for the celebration of Nyepi as well as the upcoming regional leadership elections.

Antara added that the customary villages in Denpasar are continuing to work on ensuring a sense of security and the orderly running of the religious and national duties with serenity and peacefulness. (kmb36)

IBP/kmb36

Director of Intelligence of Bali Police, met with customary village chiefs from across Denpasar.

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Malaysia’s Mahathir says he can win a fair election but expects it to be “terribly dirty”

Bali Police summon chiefs of customary villages

DENPASAR — In anticipation of Nyepi Day, Director of Intelligence of Bali Police, Akhmad Jamal Juliarto, met with customary village chiefs from across Denpasar at the LPD Office of Penatih customary village, East Denpasar, on Saturday (Mar. 10). In front of 35 customary village, chiefs, Akhmad Jamal conveyed his message about public order and security expressing gratitude for the great help that the police have received from customary villages, chiefly pecalang (customary security guard)who have carried out their tasks with full responsibility.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

Nyoman Sujaya

IBP/kmb

Nyepi ensured to be without internet on mobile phones

DENPASAR — Ministry of Communications and Informatics is ready to meet the fourth point of the joint appeal of the religious assemblies of Bali province related to Nyepi (Day of Silence) celebration.

It is about the mobile telecommunication services expected to turn off their mobile data (internet) services from Saturday (Mar. 17) at 06:00 until Sunday (Mar.18) at 06:00.

“Essentially, the fourth point can be met by the ministry and mobile telecommunication companies operating in Bali,” said the Head of the Bali Communications, Informatics and Statistics Agency, Nyoman Sujaya, when confirmed via telephone after attending a meeting in Jakarta on Monday night (Mar. 12).

According to Sujaya, the internet network service to be disconnected on Nyepi Day is focused on smartphone or mobile telecommunication. Meanwhile, strategic services such as security, hospitals, airports, and disasters remain active as ever before.

“All mobile data operators were present at the meeting and ready to meet the fourth points of the appeal. The Hindu Dharma Council of Indonesia (PHDI) and Interfaith Concord Forum (FKUB) were also present,” he added.

Sujaya added that the ministry will soon correspond officially to each operator. Although the internet on mobile phone will not be activated on Nyepi Day, the mobile telephone service and SMS can still be used. “Mobile phone and SMS can still be used, while the internet is not disconnected,” he said.

Previously, Chairman of the PHDI Bali, I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana, asked the people of Bali not to be anxious and emotional as the appeal is actually expected to have a positive impact on the Hindus that celebrate Nyepi in Bali.

“It is based on consideration that internet contains a lot of entertainment. In the catur brata penyepian there is amati lelanguan meaning abstaining from enjoying entertainment. As an impact, many parties are greatly offended and so forth.

Moreover, there are people even threatening the Chairman of PHDI, that’s natural,” he said.

According to Sudiana, the appeal has been proposed to Ministry of Communications and Informatics. If it will be accepted by the operators or providers of mobile telecommunication services, it will be good. Otherwise, there is no sanction given to them. Actually, he hoped the mobile telecommunication service companies can understand that Nyepi Day celebrated once in a year can be implemented peacefully.

“All the Hindus should not be anxious even though a lot of criticisms have come to us. However, if you can feel the pleasure of not using social media for one day, it will make addicted later on,” he added.

Sudiana added that when celebrating Nyepi Day communication with God does not need to use any other means. Simply by bring together our thoughts, words and deeds is enough. “At that time, if we can carry it out well, we will feel the essence of being religious,” he said. (kmb32)

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday said his opposition alliance could easily win a general election that must be held by August, so long as it was free and fair, but that he expected it to be “terribly dirty”.

At 92, Malaysia’s old political war horse has another shot at the top job, and a win against scandaltainted Prime Minister Najib Razak would make him the world’s oldest premier.

It would also bring to an end the 61-year rule of a party that Mahathir helped build, and which has held power since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957.

“We have a good chance of winning this time because public opinion is very much for us,” Mahathir told Reuters in an interview at his office in the administrative capital, Putrajaya.

“The only way Najib can frustrate us is by cheating. If it’s a free and fair election, we will win hands down.”

Mahathir was a tough establishment stalwart for decades, the scourge of dissenters who dared to challenge the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

But a scandal over a state-run investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has brought unprecedented shifts in Malaysia’s political forces, and Mahathir now heads an opposition alliance and is seen as the biggest threat to Najib, who has been engulfed in the scandal.

Najib denies any wrongdoing over 1MDB, which is at the centre of money-laundering investigations

in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

Despite the scandal, analysts and ruling party sources say Najib is confident of election victory, and could hold the polls as early as April.

The opposition alliance is concerned, in particular, about plans to redraw the boundaries of more than half of Malaysia’s 222 parliamentary constituencies. Critics say the moves are unconstitutional and could skew voting in favour of Najib.

“It’s going to be a terribly dirty election,” Mahathir said, adding that he suspected Najib might derail his plans to stand.

“I believe that one way or another he is going to make sure that I cannot contest,” Mahathir said, pointing out that the government had delayed the registration of his party, which could affect his campaign.

Asked for examples of dirty tricks, Mahathir said his party had found instances of more than 70 people registered as voters from one house and several hundred people with suspiciously similar names on the voter roll.

The ruling party fared surprisingly poorly in the last general election in 2013. The opposition, which won the popular vote last time, said the ruling party only sealed victory through fraud.

The government rejected that complaint and dismisses fears of rigging this time. Reuters was not able to verify any opposition allegations of fraud. (rtr)

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad

IBP/net

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A plane lands near the crash site, a day after the US-Bangla airplane crashed while arriving from Dhaka, in Kathmandu, Nepal March 13, 2018.

Nepal begins probe of plane crash that killed 49, airline defends pilot

KATHMANDU - Investigators have retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage of a Bangladeshi airliner that crashed, killing at least 49 aboard, including the crew, when it attempted to land in Nepal’s capital, officials said on Tuesday.

The airline and airport authorities in Kathmandu have blamed each other in the aftermath of Monday’s aviation disaster, the Himalayan nation’s worst since the 1992 crash of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft killed 167.

“The flight data recorder has been recovered, we have kept it safely,” said Raj Kumar Chettri, the airport’s general manager, adding that an investigation had begun into the cause of the crash.

The Bombardier Q400 series aircraft was carrying 71 people from the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka when it tried to land in conditions of visibility that weather officials said exceeded 6 km (4 miles), with clouds at one end of the runway and a light tailwind of six to seven knots.

Flight operator US-Bangla Airlines said Captain Abid Sultan, a former pilot of the Bangladesh Air Force, had landed more than 100 times at Kathmandu, where wind shear and bird hits are frequent hazards.

Sultan had more than 5,000 hours of flying experience and was specially trained to land at the airport, said airline spokesman Kamrul Islam.

The airline also denied a media report that the aircraft had skidded off the runway during a domestic flight in 2015, saying it “never ever encountered any accident. It had no technical glitches.”

CONFUSION ABOUT RUNWAY

Defending the pilots, airline chief executive Imran Asif cited a transcript of their radio conversation with ground control in Kathmandu that was issued by a German air safety website, JACDEC. “We suspect wrong signals from Kathmandu air traffic control room might have led to the crash,” Asif told reporters on Monday. “A three-minute conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control before the landing indicated that they sent a wrong signal to the pilot.”

The transcript, which Asif said was accessible on YouTube, reveals confusion over the runway designated for the flight to land.

Transmissions by the Kathmandu tower controller show that, despite being cleared to land on runway 02, the flight began deviating from its course.

The captain and the tower controller discussed which runway the aircraft was aiming for, the website said. At one point, the controller told the woman copilot she was heading toward runway 20, although the aircraft had been cleared for runway 02.

Later, the captain took over the conversation and confirmed the plan to land at runway 02. At one stage, ground control said runway 20 had also been cleared for landing, however.

Eventually the plane made an attempt to land on the runway it was originally meant to use, but crashed short of it, broke into pieces and caught fire. Both pilots are dead.

Sanjiv Gautam, a senior Nepali civil aviation official, did not directly confirm the authenticity of the transcript, saying instead that publication of such exchanges went against the law. (rtr)

12

International

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

BUSINESS

Bali News

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

5

‘Destroyed’ Venezuela needs $15 bln per year: presidential hopeful’s aide

CARACAS - Venezuela needs to dollarize its economy, seek $15 billion to $20 billion a year from abroad, and ease oil sector taxes to reverse the “disaster” of President Nicolas Maduro’s rule, according to an adviser to his main election rival.

Former state Governor Henri Falcon, who will face Maduro in a May 20 presidential vote, has tapped a 48-year-old Venezuelan economist with Wall Street’s Torino Capital for ideas to turn around the OPEC nation’s recession-hit economy.

“The person who has destroyed this nation’s economy is Nicolas Maduro,” Francisco Rodriguez, long an influential commentator on Venezuela, said in an interview. “He is the one that has made an economy sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, with all the potential for being prosperous, into an economy of hunger.”

Falcon, 56, defied an opposition boycott to run despite

conditions critics say are rigged to ensure the ruling socialists win. He wants Rodriguez to head his economic team if he takes the presidency.

Foremost among his ideas for stabilizing Venezuela’s state-led economy is ditching the devalued bolivar in favor of the U.S. currency to “snap out” of hyper-inflation.

“You cannot have hyper-inflation if you are using the U.S. dollar as a currency, whereas all other types of adjustment programs can fail,” Rodriguez argued, saying it would stop excess government money-printing. Annual inflation is running at more than 6,000 percent, according to the opposition.

Rodriguez said most Venezuelans backed adopting the greenback and suggested a reasonable conversion rate today would be 70,000 to the dollar - far stronger than the current black market rate of 216,000. To grow post-Maduro, Venezuela’s economy would also need $15 billion to $20 billion per year in foreign capital, the adviser said, from both private investment and potential loans from multilateral bodies like

Women shop at a private-sector grocery store in Caracas, Venezuela in February.

IBP/net

the International Monetary Fund.

‘WORLD’S MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL ECONOMY’ Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chavez demonized the international lending bodies as instruments of U.S. policy and global capitalism that prejudice welfare. “What has avoiding the IMF gotten Venezuela? What has avoiding macroeconomic stabilization, what has not changing the exchange rate, not adjusting the price of gasoline? All of the things the government thought were unpopular and therefore avoided ... they have produced the most dysfunctional economy in the world.”

With oil production at a three-decade low, Rodriguez said it was imperative to give incentives to foreign joint venture partners by overhauling the tax regime and possibly lowering state company PDVSA’s minimum 60 percent stake. Closely read for years by Venezuela’s bondholders, Rodriguez advised them to wait before aggressively pressing or “accelerating” claims as the cash-strapped state seeks to renegotiate some $60 billion of bonds.

“Once we come into government, it will certainly make life easier both for Venezuela and for foreign investors if acceleration (of payments) has not taken place,” Rodriguez said. Despite critics’ accusations he is a stooge legitimizing Maduro’s “dictatorship” by running, Falcon and his team believe they can win and point to some polls showing them ahead.

They hope the opposition coalition’s boycott campaign will evaporate as Falcon’s candidacy gathers steam. “As time goes by, it’s going to become clear that Henri Falcon is winning the presidency and that it makes sense for the different political actors to support him,” Rodriguez said.

A former Chavez ally, Falcon broke with the socialists in 2010 and is now promising a “national unity” government.

Another of his top aides suggested Maduro’s defense minister could stay in a Falcon government.

“We do not believe in destroying ‘Chavismo’ to change Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, arguing the ruling movement was an important minority that should be respected.

“If that means at some moment some co-habitation agreements have to be reached, I think that the governor will consider them carefully and decide in the interests of the nation.” (rtr)

Dollar tops 107 yen as politics pressures Japan

LONDON - The dollar jumped against the yen on Tuesday, nearing a two-week high as the Japanese currency was pressured by a political scandal engulfing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s govermment. The yen weakened by 0.3 to 0.5 percent against other major currencies after Japan’s ministry of finance said on Monday it altered documents related to a discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abe’s wife.

The dollar is also benefiting from the decline in broader currency market volatility which is encouraging investors to add positions in higher-yielding currencies, though the greenback’s gains were capped before monthly U.S. inflation data.

“The broader story remains that of U.S. monetary policy normalization in the backdrop of an improving economy and a further decline in currency market volatility would only

fuel more risk taking appetite,” said Commerzbank’s FX strategist Thu Lan Nguyen. The dollar was trading at 106.95 against the yen, up 0.5 percent and just below a two-week high of 107.05.

The yen tends to suffer in an environment when riskier and higher-yielding assets are bid but Morgan Stanley strategists said in a note that a further deterioration in the political situation that affected the position of Abe, could see the yen “forcefully return towards its previous upward trend.”

Elsewhere, though the renewed drop in currency volatility prompted investors to add bets on higher-yield currencies with the Australian dollar recovering smartly from threemonth lows while the euro gaining nearly 2 percent in the last 10 trading sessions.

The euro was broadly flat around $1.2329 against the dollar on the day. A key focus for investors is the U.S. CPI data

due at 1230 GMT. Median forecasts by economists polled

by Reuters point to annual core CPI inflation of 1.8 percent in February, which would be flat from January.

A higher reading could stoke expectations that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates four times, rather than three times, this year. A rate hike at its upcoming policy meeting on March 20-21 has been long considered a done deal while another increase in June is almost fully priced in.

Yet traders are also mindful that the prospects of more U.S. rate hikes, while theoretically positive for the dollar, may not necessarily lift the U.S. currency, given other factors weighing on the greenback.

One big issue is U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff on steel and aluminium, which many investors worry could trigger retaliatory moves by U.S. trade partners and hurt the economy.(rtr)

BAF May Not Just Become Peak of Art Creativity

IBP/file

The Bali Arts Festival (BAF) held every year is proved to have been a powerful medium to explore, preserve and develop the arts. This year’s art extravaganza does not only have a positive impact on the artists, but also on creative industry. Moreover, the discovery and preservation are not only limited to its form, but also its philosophy, nobility and universal values.

Armed with knowledge and the art as representation of civilization, Balinese people, especially the artists, are able to develop the art through creation, innovation and cultural adaptation. As a result, it remains to survive and runs sustainably in the context of changing times. In the current development, in the capacity of Bali as an international tourist destination, the BAF has played a role as a medium to improve the welfare of the artists and their community.

If noted, every BAF implementation has great impact on the role of talented young generation of Bali. As evidence, creative young people are able to preserve the arts inherited by their ancestors, and creatively gave birth to new works of art. Prestige demands them to compete, so that it demonstrates the quality of the art of each region to be the best and superior.

The artists appointed to represent never hesitate to appear and to be the best. It makes the participation of all the districts and municipality in Bali always display their art well and nicely. They perform optimally by promoting creativity and innovation, but do not leave the traditional norms. Then, will the BAF only become the peak of the art process that is just enough to get there?

At the first appearance in 1979 on the idea of ??the late Prof. Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra, the BAF aiming to accommodate the artworks, art aspirations, art reconstruction, art innovation, art attractions and art appreciation may have been answered. However, when the BAF has entered the 39th year, is there any thought for its continuation or is it enough to get to this point?

During the long passage of the BAF, it should not only develop the art, but must also be followed by the development of the management. After accommodating the best work of art, the government as the organizers must also think about the continuation, so that the arts having developed will not only live during the BAF and then go extinct after the event comes to an end. It is very much deplored, if the artistic pro-

cess of the generation is only stagnant until in the BAF. Bali government should have thought about the continuity of the various works of art having been featured in the BAF. It can be done by providing a medium, a wider opportunities to express the results of their creation. For example, the art troupes becoming the best get the opportunity to be an envoy of Bali to appear in national or international events, such as joining the art competitions, festival or art parade.

The artists or art troupes having performed well in the BAF should be given the opportunity as an art mission that promotes local culture outside the region or overseas. If too excessive, then they can also be given the opportunity to welcome official guests or as an art envoy at the international event held on this Island of the Gods.

I Ketut Keplug, a traditional drummer of Denpasar, said that giving the opportunity to appear can serve as a reward to those who succeed in artistic creativity. It should not even be dominated by certain people that do not play a role in the BAF. “Showing off superior arts from different supporters will certainly be able to give new nuances. Besides, it can serve as reflection that Balinese people have a variety of arts,” he said.

Similar opinion was also stated by I Wayan Weda, an artist from Tabanan, who cares about younger generation.

According to him, this time many art troupes appearing in the BAF are in suspended animation after the BAF. They must be given the breath to stay alive. “Well, the opportunity to appear again will make the art troupes more passionate to seriously pursue their profession. They should not even switch professions because there is no chance to get earnings,” he added.

Prof. Dr. I Made Surada, a lecturer of the State Hindu Dharma Institute (IHDN) of Denpasar, said that BAF organizer should be more creative in creating space and giving awards to the best participants. For example, the champions of inscribing palm-leaf manuscript, Balinese literature, story-telling and other competitions need to be given a further opportunity. “The work of participating contest is very good. But unfortunately, after getting their champions where do they go? This sustainability needs to be considered. Do not just practice for the sake of BAF, after that disappears.

So, it is not wrong if every BAF implementation only gives impression that it just implements the project,” he said.

The Bali Arts Festival (BAF) has now entered the 39th year. In the implementation of each year, Balinese people can review again about this celebration of the art. Other than showing off new arts, it should also revive and preserve the nearly extinct arts. “It is unique because the concept of discovery and development through a new collaboration or creation process is still sourced from the existing arts” said Prof. Dr. I Made Surada, a lecturer at the State Hindu Dharma Institute (IHDN) of Denpasar He explained that BAF is an activity to maintain, discover, display and develop Balinese arts. The artwork of the development process is actually beneficial to give contribution in the life of Balinese people especially in the economic field.

The artists are working in the art creativity while the government creates creative spaces, so that it has an impact on the sustainability of the arts.

The BAF event should have an impact on economic improvement for its people. Besides, it must also be accompanied with an increase in lifestyle, standard of living, attitude, mental and appearance. Creating a sense of pleasure in the artists is very important because if their economy increases, it will also have an impact on the art sustainability. “Philosophically, human beings cannot be separated from the arts.

Humans will get pleasure, satisfaction and happiness if they have been able to do art creativity,” added Prof. Surada.

Actually, the life poses an art. Please keep in mind that in the teaching of Hinduism, God creates nature also through the art. Art with extraordinary creativity results in a wide range of creatures and plants. God does not only create one kind, but many kinds, so as to bring a sense of beauty. Diversity of the arts in the BAF can give a sense of beauty and happiness for every connoisseur.

On that account, the BAF celebration every year is expected to create a sense of fun in the community, so that it has an impact on peace of life. Unfortunately, the implementation of BAF that has been mature enough has not yielded anything maximal. “Only some people have enjoyed the celebration. It has not reached the artists as a whole because the presentation is only made by those very same art troupes. Sustainability of the art troupes appearing also began to be doubted because after appearing in the BAF they have no relationship and tend to break up,” he said. (kmb)

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

W

RLD

REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain, March 12, 2018.

UK’s May says “highly likely” Russia behind nerve attack on spy

LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday it was “highly likely” that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in England of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter using a militarygrade nerve agent.

May told parliament that either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed the nerve agent to get into the hands of others.

London has given Russia until the end of Tuesday to explain its use.

British officials had identified the substance as being part of the Novichok group of nerve agents that were developed by the Soviet military during the 1970s and 1980s, May said.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, have been in hospital in critical condition since being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

“Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom,” she said, calling the attack a “reckless and despicable act”.

Russia’s foreign ministry hit back immediately, saying May’s comments were a “circus show” and part of a political information campaign against Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States had “full confidence” in Britain’s assessment that Russia was likely responsible.

“We agree that those responsible - both those who

committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences,” Tillerson said in a statement.

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stood by America’s “closest ally,” but she stopped short of blaming Russia for the attack.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of any nerve agent was “horrendous and completely unacceptable” and “this incident is of great concern to NATO”.

Relations between Britain and Russia have been strained since the murder in London of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.

On Monday, May said the latest poisoning took place “against a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression” and that Britain was ready to take “much more extensive measures” against Russia than in the past.

Russia’s ambassador to London has been summoned to explain to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson how the nerve agent came to have been used.

“On Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state,” May said.

Novichok agents are believed to be five to 10 times more lethal than the more commonly known VX and Sarin gases. They cause a slowing of the heart and restriction of the airways, leading to death by asphyxiation, University of Reading pharmacology professor Gary Stephens said. (rtr)

International

In bow to NRA, Trump throws gun purchase age to states, courts

WASHINGTON - Under pressure from gun rights groups, President Donald Trump backed away on Monday from raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, one of several measures he had supported after the latest U.S. school shooting.

The proposal to raise the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21 was not part of a modest set of Trump administration school safety plans announced on Sunday and which were closely aligned with National Rifle Association (NRA) positions.

The administration plan also included training teachers to carry guns in schools, an idea already in place in some states and backed by the powerful gun lobby.

“On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly),” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Florida last week adopted new gun regulations, triggering a federal lawsuit from the NRA to block raising the minimum age for buying long guns.

The Republican president, who championed gun rights during his 2016 campaign, vowed to take action to prevent school shootings after a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

The shootings reignited fierce debate in the United States, and Trump stunned members of Congress during White House meetings by endorsing proposals long opposed by his fellow Republicans and accusing lawmakers of being afraid of the NRA. However, the measures proposed by the White House on Sunday night were weaker than some of the more sweeping changes Trump had embraced during his televised meetings on the issue.

White House spokeswoman Sar-

ah Sanders said Trump still backs some of those changes, including new age limits, but is focusing on measures that can get through the U.S. Congress.

“Right now the president’s primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately,” she said at a news briefing.

Trump backs legislation aimed at providing more data for the background check system: a database of people who are not legally allowed to buy guns. But he did not endorse a broader proposal that would close loopholes in existing law by requiring background checks for guns bought at gun shows or arranged over the Internet.

The NRA did not return a request for comment on the president’s proposals on Monday.

The top Democrats in Congress accused Trump of caving to the NRA and vowed to keep pushing for tougher gun measures.

“The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership, not a White House that cravenly tiptoes around the NRA,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

Trump met with the NRA privately at the White House twice last month as he weighed his response to the shooting.

It was not clear how quickly Congress would move on the issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has not scheduled debate for any gunrelated bills.

The NRA-backed background check data bill, which now has a supermajority of co-sponsors, is pending in the Senate. With more than 60 co-sponsors in the 100-member chamber, individual senators would have a hard time slowing or blocking its passage if it were brought up for debate. (rtr)

International

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

11

Dentist drills through stigma holding back Indonesia’s disabled

MEDAN - T en years ago, at the dental clinic Annita Foe runs in the Indonesian city of Medan, she watched a homeless, wheelchair-bound patient struggle to hoist herself into the chair. After giving a free check-up, the dentist asked what else she could do to help the woman, crippled by polio as a child.

That simple question launched Foe on a personal mission to support people with disabilities and transform attitudes.

“I was shocked - I had never seen anyone like that before,” said Foe, 53, who is vice president of Yayasan Surya Kebenaran International, a foundation that runs health clinics and provides other basic services for North Sumatra’s poor.

“She said, ‘If you want to help, help my friends who don’t have legs’,” Foe told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Since then, Foe has mobilised funding and expertise to provide some 8,000 prosthetic limbs to hundreds of people disabled by birth defects, disease or accidents across the country. She arranges visits by German and Dutch surgeons once a year who perform operations and help people in need of prosthetic limbs. She also organises free healthcare, food aid and job training, and puts on social events that bring together people with disabilities in Medan.

There are about 10 million people in Indonesia with some form of disability, according to a 2017 report by Australia’s Monash University. Many are still struggling to be accepted by a society that has largely failed to provide services and assistive devices to make life easier for the disabled.

While attitudes vary across the archipelago, having a disabled child often brings shame and stigma, with some communities blaming a curse or bad luck due to past behaviour. That can deter the parents of disabled children from registering the birth, said Irwanto, head of the psychology department at Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta who goes by one name only.

Some parents hide disabled children away in cramped rooms at home, while others are entrusted to orphanages or under-funded state-run institutions. With little in the way of community-based support, government rehabilitation centres for the disabled and mentally ill often suffer from overcrowding and undignified conditions.

Patients are sometimes even beaten and kept in chains or stocks with no treatment or support, despite this being banned, several disability experts said. Without a birth certificate or identity card, many disabled Indonesians cannot access public services like education and healthcare, and often fall into extreme poverty as adults.

“I felt huge embarrassment, especially because of the way people looked at me,” said David Sitorus, 43, who lost a leg in 1994 while working as a contractor for an electricity company. “It was difficult for me to adjust and earn a living.”

Sitorus, who had a prosthetic leg fitted in 2009 with financial help from Foe’s foundation, now drives a modified becak, a type of rickshaw, to earn money to support his wife and two daughters in Medan. “It was a happy and proud moment when I got my prosthetic leg,” he said. “My selfconfidence came back.”

social issues and rights, said Dibley, who has also run training for Indonesian disability activists.

“Although the situation for people with disabilities is far from ideal and there are still significant challenges ... the changes that have happened and the work done by advocates over the last decade is pretty phenomenal,” she said. As part of this process, Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011. A new national disability law that revamped existing legislation was passed in 2016 with input from many activists.

The law ensures that the needs of the disabled are taken into account in all decisions made by government departments. It is now also mandatory for government institutions to have people with disabilities make up about 3 percent of their staff, said disability researcher Irwanto, who was left wheelchair-bound after a medical accident in 2003.

Eva Kasim, a senior policy analyst at Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs, said implementation of the 2016 law was an “ongoing process” and would take time. The new terminology it employs will help shift attitudes and improve rights for the disabled, she said.

The ministry has helped establish an association for parents of children with disabilities so they can share knowledge and experiences. Meanwhile, a rapid response unit set up by

the ministry is working with police and local authorities to stop mistreatment at state-run institutions, Kasim said.

SCHOOLS AND WEDDINGS

Maintaining the involvement of disability advocates in policymaking at all levels is crucial, activists said. Many Indonesian towns and cities suffer from crumbling, underfunded infrastructure and transport networks, so introducing disabled access is a huge challenge.

Where wheelchair ramps and elevators have been put in, they must be kept in good order, Dibley said. Wide pavements that are wheelchair-friendly and tactile paving for the visually impaired must not be taken over by street vendors, she added.

Activists also called for more funds to be allocated to education, which would allow more children with disabilities to enroll at local schools, breaking down stereotypes.

Back in Medan, Foe fondly remembers a wedding she helped organise three years ago for a man who lost a leg in a work accident and his bride, unable to use both legs due to polio. More than 200 guests attended, including many with disabilities. “Many people feel that disabled people are useless and cannot get married, but I felt proud and glad to see them being accepted by society,” said Foe. (rtr)

RESPECT FOR RIGHTS

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting on trade with members of Congress at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2018.

Indonesian attitudes to people with disabilities have slowly evolved over the past decade, said Thushara Dibley, deputy director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, who has researched the disability movement in Indonesia. In keeping with a global shift, Indonesians are now less likely to see disability as a problem to be overcome with medical treatment or charity, but as a condition with implications for

Thomson Reuters Foundation / Michael Taylor

David Sitorus, who lost a leg after an accident at work, sits on his modified rickshaw outside a medical clinic in Medan, Indonesia, February 22, 2018.

10

Destination

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

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your expert guide through a simple warmup. Master the fundamentals during a practice session on shore and familiarize yourself with the wind patterns and water conditions as you get ready to take to the waters.

Over the course of the day, feel the excitement as you master body dragging, upwind movement, speed control, and the perfect way to ride the waves. When you are ready, launch your kite into the air and pilot your board with your newly acquired skills. Leave the course with new confidence and readiness to take on your next kitesurfing challenge. (net)

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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

Federer cruises past Krajinovic at Indian Wells

CALIFORNIA - World number one Roger Federer needed less than an hour to dispatch Filip Krajinovic at the BNP Paribas Open in California on Monday, mixing overpowering serves and pinpoint groundstrokes to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.

Playing for a third consecutive day due to weather delays in Indian Wells, the 36-year-old Swiss showed no sign of wear en route to a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of the Serbian in the pair’s first ever meeting.

Federer, who had looked slightly off his game in his rain-disrupted third round match against Federico Delbonis, was his dominant self on Monday, winning 89 percent of his first service points while cracking six aces to just one double fault.

Krajinovic had no answer for Federer’s serve or relentless return game and ended up winning just 31 of the match’s 93 points.

With rivals Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray electing not to enter the tournament, and Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori both out of the running, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title.

Despite the promising outlook, Federer insisted he was taking it one match at a time.

“You can’t really look ahead to semi-finals, finals and speculate about who you could play,” he told reporters.

“I think that would be a mistake. I am on a good run right now and I want to maintain that. I have to stay sharp.”

Next up for Federer is a meeting on Wednesday with France’s Jeremy Chardy, who upset his countryman Adrian Mannarino earlier on Monday.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem had to retire with an ankle injury while trailing Pablo Cuevas 6-3 4-6 2-4.

Seventh seed Kevin Anderson took down Nicolas Kicker 7-6(1) 7-6(3) and South Korea’s Chung Hyeon beat Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-4.

Borna Coric of Croatia upset 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1 6-3 and Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-1 7-5.

American Taylor Fritz enjoyed a comeback victory over Fernando Verdasco 4-6 6-2 7-6(1). The 20-year-old has now won 11 of 12 final-set tiebreaks.

“I think it speaks to my strengths on court, which is just being clutch and playing my best tennis in the big moments,” Fritz said, adding, “... it’s probably the stat that I’m most proud about in my tennis career”. (rtr)

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Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Please contact Gugiek : 08123840500

Roger Federer (SUI) during his third round match against Filip Krajinovic (not pictured) in the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Liberty starts second season with bumpy road ahead.

REUTERS

Liberty starts second season with bumpy road ahead

LONDON - Liberty Media enjoyed plenty of goodwill after taking over Formula One and ousting former supremo Bernie Ecclestone but the honeymoon is over as the Americans start a second season in charge.

There has been much talk of putting fans first, with more engagement at the racetrack and through social media, and developing a digital strategy to tap new revenue streams and woo fresh audiences.

The big questions have yet to be answered, however.

The sport has elemental decisions to make on what it wants to be, and what rules to play by once current contracts expire at the end of 2020, and storm clouds are gathering.

“Liberty had a positive first year, they did a lot of good things around the sport,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told reporters during pre-season testing in Barcelona.

“But a lot of that is window-dressing, it’s not dealing with the fundamentals of the product.

“The next 12 months are going to be crucial for the (governing) FIA and for Liberty, where they’ve got to get on the same page and then present what they want to do and what they see Formula One as from 2021.”

In fairness, Liberty’s hands are bound by existing agreements with teams and FIA that cover the distribution of revenues, how the sport is run and what kind of engines are used.

But Formula One must now decide how best to balance technology and entertainment, and how level a playing field it really wants.

Ferrari -- the oldest, most glamorous and successful

team who get more money than anyone else -- have already threatened to walk away if they do not like the direction the sport is taking.

Fierce rivals on the track, they and champions Mercedes are closely aligned off it on financial matters and engines -- supplying six of the 10 teams.

CUMBERSOME

“The two of them had the dominant position, revenue and engines and I think the two of them will try to protect that fiercely,” says McLaren executive director Zak Brown.

“In the first half of the year we need to have 2021 locked down, because the big teams such as ourselves are going to need to adapt to these potential new rules and that takes time.”

Formula One’s chief executive Chase Carey said this month that he believed there was “alignment on the overall broad goals, but we have to find the right compromises as we work through the details.”

He told analysts after Liberty’s fourth quarter results, however, that Formula One’s governing structure was “a bit more cumbersome than expected.”

The focus has been to lay the foundations for the growth of what Carey calls “a tremendous franchise that has not been achieving its potential”.

A new Formula One TV offering was launched this month, and Liberty have invested in research and marketing as well as eSports to attract a new and younger demographic.

That has also meant teams getting less money, as more is spent on building up the business and putting on special events. (rtr)

8

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Sp rt

Relegation-threatened Southampton sack manager Pellegrino

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Manchester City’s David Silva in action with Stoke City’s Joe Allen and Moritz Bauer

Silva service at Stoke sends City closer to title

Manchester City’s David Silva underlined his importance to their impending title success with both goals in a comfortable 2-0 Premier League win at Stoke City on Monday. Pep Guardiola’s side could have won by a much clearer margin against Paul Lambert’s relegation-threatened Stoke but with the title in sight -- City are 16 points clear of secondplaced Manchester United -- they will not agonise over wasted chances.

If City win their next league game at Everton on March 31 that will set up a Manchester derby at City’s Etihad Stadium where a win over their arch-rivals would secure the title.

“Everybody in the blue side of Manchester knows it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity but steady, it won’t be handed to us,” said City skipper Vincent Kompany.

If that April 7 Manchester derby does indeed turn into a celebration party for City then Spanish midfielder Silva, whose invention and creativity have been fundamental to the side’s success, surely deserves his own moment of appreciation. Silva, whose son was born prematurely in January, has been splitting his time between Manchester and Spain in order to be with his family yet there is no sign on the field of the difficulties in his personal life affecting his performance.

“When I play football I forget about everything else, it is good for me to play,” Silva said after the game.

“My private life is very hard for me but my son is fighting and getting better.”

Southampton have parted company with their Argentine manager Mauricio Pellegrino after just one win in their last 17 Premier League games, the south-coast club said on Monday. Pellegrino took over in June to replace sacked Frenchman Claude Puel but after a 3-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday they are one place and one point above the relegation zone.

“Southampton Football Club can today confirm that it has parted company with first team Manager Mauricio Pellegrino,” Southampton said in a statement. “The club will look to appoint a new management team as soon as possible with the search for a replacement already underway.”

Former Stoke City manager Mark Hughes, ex-Watford boss Marco Silva and former West Ham United head coach Slaven Bilic are the frontrunners in the betting to take over at St Mary’s Stadium.

Only Harry Redknapp and Steve Wigley have a worse points-per-

game record among Southampton managers in the Premier League than 46-year-old former Argentina defender Pellegrino. Saints visit third-tier Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday but their next league game is not until March 31 when they travel to relegation rivals West Ham United.

They have won just five league games this season and their 3-2 victory at West Bromwich Albion, who are bottom of the table, in February is their only league win since November.

Southampton, who are the ninth Premier League club to change manager this term, are in their sixth straight season in the top flight and have not finished lower than 14th in that time.

They finished eighth for the fourth successive season in the previous campaign and also reached the League Cup final which they narrowly lost to Manchester United at Wembley in February 2017. (rtr)

Hughton to field strongest Brighton team at Man United in FA Cup

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton believes only his strongest team can pose a challenge to Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final and said he will resist the urge to rotate his squad for the clash at Old Trafford.

Promoted Brighton are 11th in the league with 34 points and the FA Cup represents their best shot at silverware. Hughton has rested some of his regular starters in earli-

er rounds but said he would change his plans for the trip to United.

“It’s one of the toughest games we could have and in any way that we are going to win it we’ve got to put in a performance that will give us a chance,” Hughton told local daily The Argus.

“So if anything I will look to put out the strongest side that I can to get a result... I have decisions to make, but I’m also very conscious it’s Manchester United at Old

Trafford.”

Midfielder Dale Stephens missed the 2-0 league defeat by Everton over the weekend with a minor knock in training but Hughton expects him to recover in time for Saturday’s game.

Brighton come into the clash with Jose Mourinho’s men after defeating Coventry City 3-1 in the fifth round while United defeated Huddersfield Town 2-0. (rtr)

Arsenal striker PierreEmerick Aubameyang said that his forced absence from the club’s Europa League campaign this season was the main reason for a “frustrating” start to life at London. Aubameyang, who joined Arsenal in January, played for former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League this season and UEFA’s ‘cup-tied’ rule prevents him from representing his new team in Europe for the rest of the season.

“I am really frustrated because the rules are a bit... I don’t know how to say in English but I am dis-

appointed because I can’t help my team,” Aubameyang told British media. “When I was in Dortmund, I was playing every three days but now I play once a week or have a long time between games. It is not easy... that’s life. I have to deal with it.”

Gabon international Aubameyang has scored three Premier League goals in five starts for the club, including in the 3-0 league win over Watford last Sunday.

“I didn’t play a lot in January so it was difficult to find the rhythm.

Now I’m feeling better. I work hard, I work a lot in the last weeks

and I am happy because I feel better,” he added.

The 28-year-old will watch from the stands as his team mates take on AC Milan in the second leg of their Europa League last 16 clash at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday.

Arsenal beat AC Milan 2-0 in the first leg.

Striker Danny Welbeck, who is tasked with leading Arsenal’s line in Europe in the absence of Aubameyang and the injured Alexandre Lacazette, said he was relishing the competition with his fellow forwards.

“It’s competition and I embrace

Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring their second goal

Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino

Brighton manager Chris Hughton

Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough

Forced absence from Europa League frustrates Arsenal’s Aubameyang

SIMPLY STUNNING

Silva put City ahead in the 10th minute, finishing off a move of stunning simplicity with a confident close-range strike from Raheem Sterling’s low cross after the England winger had been set clear by a clever pass from Gabriel Jesus. The only real work City keeper Ederson had to do in the first half was to tip over a misplaced clearance from team mate Kyle Walker, although Badout Ndiaye had shot wide after a moment of incisive dribbling from Xherdan Shaqiri.

Stoke, second-bottom in the table, showed lots of endeavour but City were always in charge and Silva doubled the advantage five minutes after the break, putting a high bouncing ball past advancing keeper Jack Butland after a swift exchange with Jesus.

Silva’s impact on City, this season in particular, has not only been with his intelligent touches but also his workrate and competitiveness - qualities he showed at Stoke.

“David Silva controls the tempo. He has the skills no doubt about that, but in the bad moments he is there to control the game and he is an aggressive competitor,” said Guardiola.

Butland produced a fine save to keep out a fierce drive from Leroy Sane and City had several other chances but lacked their usual clinical touch in the final third. At the whistle, while City fans celebrated, Guardiola was deep in conversation with Sane, explaining some technical points to the Germany winger.

The learning never stops with the Spanish coach, whose team now head of for a break in Abu Dhabi, with their fans looking forward to the mouthwatering prospect of clinching the league title in a match against their local rivals. (rtr)

9

REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

it,” Welbeck said. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been playing for an academy with scouts all over the world that are looking for top players to come in. “You have competition throughout your whole life and it only makes you better... gives you extra motivation.”

Welbeck has struggled with hip

and groin injuries this season and has not found the net since Arsenal’s 4-2 FA Cup third round defeat

by Nottingham Forest in January.

“My mindset’s focused on looking forward, bettering myself, getting on the pitch, on the training pitch, doing what I can do to improve myself.” (rtr)

8

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Sp rt

Relegation-threatened Southampton sack manager Pellegrino

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Manchester City’s David Silva in action with Stoke City’s Joe Allen and Moritz Bauer

Silva service at Stoke sends City closer to title

Manchester City’s David Silva underlined his importance to their impending title success with both goals in a comfortable 2-0 Premier League win at Stoke City on Monday. Pep Guardiola’s side could have won by a much clearer margin against Paul Lambert’s relegation-threatened Stoke but with the title in sight -- City are 16 points clear of secondplaced Manchester United -- they will not agonise over wasted chances.

If City win their next league game at Everton on March 31 that will set up a Manchester derby at City’s Etihad Stadium where a win over their arch-rivals would secure the title.

“Everybody in the blue side of Manchester knows it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity but steady, it won’t be handed to us,” said City skipper Vincent Kompany.

If that April 7 Manchester derby does indeed turn into a celebration party for City then Spanish midfielder Silva, whose invention and creativity have been fundamental to the side’s success, surely deserves his own moment of appreciation. Silva, whose son was born prematurely in January, has been splitting his time between Manchester and Spain in order to be with his family yet there is no sign on the field of the difficulties in his personal life affecting his performance.

“When I play football I forget about everything else, it is good for me to play,” Silva said after the game.

“My private life is very hard for me but my son is fighting and getting better.”

Southampton have parted company with their Argentine manager Mauricio Pellegrino after just one win in their last 17 Premier League games, the south-coast club said on Monday. Pellegrino took over in June to replace sacked Frenchman Claude Puel but after a 3-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday they are one place and one point above the relegation zone.

“Southampton Football Club can today confirm that it has parted company with first team Manager Mauricio Pellegrino,” Southampton said in a statement. “The club will look to appoint a new management team as soon as possible with the search for a replacement already underway.”

Former Stoke City manager Mark Hughes, ex-Watford boss Marco Silva and former West Ham United head coach Slaven Bilic are the frontrunners in the betting to take over at St Mary’s Stadium.

Only Harry Redknapp and Steve Wigley have a worse points-per-

game record among Southampton managers in the Premier League than 46-year-old former Argentina defender Pellegrino. Saints visit third-tier Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Sunday but their next league game is not until March 31 when they travel to relegation rivals West Ham United.

They have won just five league games this season and their 3-2 victory at West Bromwich Albion, who are bottom of the table, in February is their only league win since November.

Southampton, who are the ninth Premier League club to change manager this term, are in their sixth straight season in the top flight and have not finished lower than 14th in that time.

They finished eighth for the fourth successive season in the previous campaign and also reached the League Cup final which they narrowly lost to Manchester United at Wembley in February 2017. (rtr)

Hughton to field strongest Brighton team at Man United in FA Cup

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton believes only his strongest team can pose a challenge to Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final and said he will resist the urge to rotate his squad for the clash at Old Trafford.

Promoted Brighton are 11th in the league with 34 points and the FA Cup represents their best shot at silverware. Hughton has rested some of his regular starters in earli-

er rounds but said he would change his plans for the trip to United.

“It’s one of the toughest games we could have and in any way that we are going to win it we’ve got to put in a performance that will give us a chance,” Hughton told local daily The Argus.

“So if anything I will look to put out the strongest side that I can to get a result... I have decisions to make, but I’m also very conscious it’s Manchester United at Old

Trafford.”

Midfielder Dale Stephens missed the 2-0 league defeat by Everton over the weekend with a minor knock in training but Hughton expects him to recover in time for Saturday’s game.

Brighton come into the clash with Jose Mourinho’s men after defeating Coventry City 3-1 in the fifth round while United defeated Huddersfield Town 2-0. (rtr)

Arsenal striker PierreEmerick Aubameyang said that his forced absence from the club’s Europa League campaign this season was the main reason for a “frustrating” start to life at London. Aubameyang, who joined Arsenal in January, played for former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League this season and UEFA’s ‘cup-tied’ rule prevents him from representing his new team in Europe for the rest of the season.

“I am really frustrated because the rules are a bit... I don’t know how to say in English but I am dis-

appointed because I can’t help my team,” Aubameyang told British media. “When I was in Dortmund, I was playing every three days but now I play once a week or have a long time between games. It is not easy... that’s life. I have to deal with it.”

Gabon international Aubameyang has scored three Premier League goals in five starts for the club, including in the 3-0 league win over Watford last Sunday.

“I didn’t play a lot in January so it was difficult to find the rhythm.

Now I’m feeling better. I work hard, I work a lot in the last weeks

and I am happy because I feel better,” he added.

The 28-year-old will watch from the stands as his team mates take on AC Milan in the second leg of their Europa League last 16 clash at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday.

Arsenal beat AC Milan 2-0 in the first leg.

Striker Danny Welbeck, who is tasked with leading Arsenal’s line in Europe in the absence of Aubameyang and the injured Alexandre Lacazette, said he was relishing the competition with his fellow forwards.

“It’s competition and I embrace

Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates scoring their second goal

Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino

Brighton manager Chris Hughton

Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough

Forced absence from Europa League frustrates Arsenal’s Aubameyang

SIMPLY STUNNING

Silva put City ahead in the 10th minute, finishing off a move of stunning simplicity with a confident close-range strike from Raheem Sterling’s low cross after the England winger had been set clear by a clever pass from Gabriel Jesus. The only real work City keeper Ederson had to do in the first half was to tip over a misplaced clearance from team mate Kyle Walker, although Badout Ndiaye had shot wide after a moment of incisive dribbling from Xherdan Shaqiri.

Stoke, second-bottom in the table, showed lots of endeavour but City were always in charge and Silva doubled the advantage five minutes after the break, putting a high bouncing ball past advancing keeper Jack Butland after a swift exchange with Jesus.

Silva’s impact on City, this season in particular, has not only been with his intelligent touches but also his workrate and competitiveness - qualities he showed at Stoke.

“David Silva controls the tempo. He has the skills no doubt about that, but in the bad moments he is there to control the game and he is an aggressive competitor,” said Guardiola.

Butland produced a fine save to keep out a fierce drive from Leroy Sane and City had several other chances but lacked their usual clinical touch in the final third. At the whistle, while City fans celebrated, Guardiola was deep in conversation with Sane, explaining some technical points to the Germany winger.

The learning never stops with the Spanish coach, whose team now head of for a break in Abu Dhabi, with their fans looking forward to the mouthwatering prospect of clinching the league title in a match against their local rivals. (rtr)

9

REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

it,” Welbeck said. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been playing for an academy with scouts all over the world that are looking for top players to come in. “You have competition throughout your whole life and it only makes you better... gives you extra motivation.”

Welbeck has struggled with hip

and groin injuries this season and has not found the net since Arsenal’s 4-2 FA Cup third round defeat

by Nottingham Forest in January.

“My mindset’s focused on looking forward, bettering myself, getting on the pitch, on the training pitch, doing what I can do to improve myself.” (rtr)

10

Destination

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

Private Kitesurfing Lesson

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Get started with a comfortable ride from your hotel as an airconditioned vehicle takes you to the spectacular Sanur Beach. With one of Bali’s most popular surfing areas just offshore, join your experienced instructor for orientation before you start your lesson.

Collect your gear and follow

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Looking Bar Manager,Bar Staff,Host /Hostess,Cashier,Cooks,Waiter/ ess,Stewards,Jl.Arjuna Legian Krm CV:info@hoipolloibali.com

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your expert guide through a simple warmup. Master the fundamentals during a practice session on shore and familiarize yourself with the wind patterns and water conditions as you get ready to take to the waters.

Over the course of the day, feel the excitement as you master body dragging, upwind movement, speed control, and the perfect way to ride the waves. When you are ready, launch your kite into the air and pilot your board with your newly acquired skills. Leave the course with new confidence and readiness to take on your next kitesurfing challenge. (net)

Sales/Marketing,for HealthCare /Beauty Care, Experience, National Area,Apply to: versaindustries4@gmail. com

B.BP.031.01.18.0000667

Kuta:Spv Bar,Bartender,Waiters SPA,CS,Kasir,Cook,08123807241

B.BP.001.02.18.0001346

Cr waiter/waitress experienced Speak good English,New Coffee &Green Food,Healthy Juices etc 9-5 hrs,6working days.Send CV juwitaariana@gmail.com immediate start Seminyak

B.BP.001.02.18.0001377

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

Federer cruises past Krajinovic at Indian Wells

CALIFORNIA - World number one Roger Federer needed less than an hour to dispatch Filip Krajinovic at the BNP Paribas Open in California on Monday, mixing overpowering serves and pinpoint groundstrokes to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.

Playing for a third consecutive day due to weather delays in Indian Wells, the 36-year-old Swiss showed no sign of wear en route to a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of the Serbian in the pair’s first ever meeting.

Federer, who had looked slightly off his game in his rain-disrupted third round match against Federico Delbonis, was his dominant self on Monday, winning 89 percent of his first service points while cracking six aces to just one double fault.

Krajinovic had no answer for Federer’s serve or relentless return game and ended up winning just 31 of the match’s 93 points.

With rivals Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray electing not to enter the tournament, and Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori both out of the running, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title.

Despite the promising outlook, Federer insisted he was taking it one match at a time.

“You can’t really look ahead to semi-finals, finals and speculate about who you could play,” he told reporters.

“I think that would be a mistake. I am on a good run right now and I want to maintain that. I have to stay sharp.”

Next up for Federer is a meeting on Wednesday with France’s Jeremy Chardy, who upset his countryman Adrian Mannarino earlier on Monday.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem had to retire with an ankle injury while trailing Pablo Cuevas 6-3 4-6 2-4.

Seventh seed Kevin Anderson took down Nicolas Kicker 7-6(1) 7-6(3) and South Korea’s Chung Hyeon beat Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-4.

Borna Coric of Croatia upset 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1 6-3 and Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-1 7-5.

American Taylor Fritz enjoyed a comeback victory over Fernando Verdasco 4-6 6-2 7-6(1). The 20-year-old has now won 11 of 12 final-set tiebreaks.

“I think it speaks to my strengths on court, which is just being clutch and playing my best tennis in the big moments,” Fritz said, adding, “... it’s probably the stat that I’m most proud about in my tennis career”. (rtr)

Hotel Reservations Personnel needed in Jimbaran-Bali.Very Well Spoken And Written English is a must.Experience Work ing in the hospitality Industry is a plus.

Please send Cover letter and CV to hr@ lotus-hotel.com

B.BP.001.01.18.0001103

Htl&Rest need Waiter,Good English,Direct intvw to The Yulia Inn Jl.Pantai Kuta 43 T.751893

Place Your Add Here

It is for Job Vacancy, Property, Selling or Buying

B.BP.001.02.18.0001374

Need Waiter/Waitess,IT/Design, Bartender,Cook for Resto in Kuta. Send CV + Foto to Email: wikamitra@yahoo. com Phone/WA :089693670981

B.BP.001.01.18.0000157

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Please contact Gugiek : 08123840500

Roger Federer (SUI) during his third round match against Filip Krajinovic (not pictured) in the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Liberty starts second season with bumpy road ahead.

REUTERS

Liberty starts second season with bumpy road ahead

LONDON - Liberty Media enjoyed plenty of goodwill after taking over Formula One and ousting former supremo Bernie Ecclestone but the honeymoon is over as the Americans start a second season in charge.

There has been much talk of putting fans first, with more engagement at the racetrack and through social media, and developing a digital strategy to tap new revenue streams and woo fresh audiences.

The big questions have yet to be answered, however.

The sport has elemental decisions to make on what it wants to be, and what rules to play by once current contracts expire at the end of 2020, and storm clouds are gathering.

“Liberty had a positive first year, they did a lot of good things around the sport,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told reporters during pre-season testing in Barcelona.

“But a lot of that is window-dressing, it’s not dealing with the fundamentals of the product.

“The next 12 months are going to be crucial for the (governing) FIA and for Liberty, where they’ve got to get on the same page and then present what they want to do and what they see Formula One as from 2021.”

In fairness, Liberty’s hands are bound by existing agreements with teams and FIA that cover the distribution of revenues, how the sport is run and what kind of engines are used.

But Formula One must now decide how best to balance technology and entertainment, and how level a playing field it really wants.

Ferrari -- the oldest, most glamorous and successful

team who get more money than anyone else -- have already threatened to walk away if they do not like the direction the sport is taking.

Fierce rivals on the track, they and champions Mercedes are closely aligned off it on financial matters and engines -- supplying six of the 10 teams.

CUMBERSOME

“The two of them had the dominant position, revenue and engines and I think the two of them will try to protect that fiercely,” says McLaren executive director Zak Brown.

“In the first half of the year we need to have 2021 locked down, because the big teams such as ourselves are going to need to adapt to these potential new rules and that takes time.”

Formula One’s chief executive Chase Carey said this month that he believed there was “alignment on the overall broad goals, but we have to find the right compromises as we work through the details.”

He told analysts after Liberty’s fourth quarter results, however, that Formula One’s governing structure was “a bit more cumbersome than expected.”

The focus has been to lay the foundations for the growth of what Carey calls “a tremendous franchise that has not been achieving its potential”.

A new Formula One TV offering was launched this month, and Liberty have invested in research and marketing as well as eSports to attract a new and younger demographic.

That has also meant teams getting less money, as more is spent on building up the business and putting on special events. (rtr)

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W

RLD

REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain, March 12, 2018.

UK’s May says “highly likely” Russia behind nerve attack on spy

LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday it was “highly likely” that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning in England of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter using a militarygrade nerve agent.

May told parliament that either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed the nerve agent to get into the hands of others.

London has given Russia until the end of Tuesday to explain its use.

British officials had identified the substance as being part of the Novichok group of nerve agents that were developed by the Soviet military during the 1970s and 1980s, May said.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, have been in hospital in critical condition since being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

“Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom,” she said, calling the attack a “reckless and despicable act”.

Russia’s foreign ministry hit back immediately, saying May’s comments were a “circus show” and part of a political information campaign against Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States had “full confidence” in Britain’s assessment that Russia was likely responsible.

“We agree that those responsible - both those who

committed the crime and those who ordered it - must face appropriately serious consequences,” Tillerson said in a statement.

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the United States stood by America’s “closest ally,” but she stopped short of blaming Russia for the attack.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the use of any nerve agent was “horrendous and completely unacceptable” and “this incident is of great concern to NATO”.

Relations between Britain and Russia have been strained since the murder in London of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.

On Monday, May said the latest poisoning took place “against a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression” and that Britain was ready to take “much more extensive measures” against Russia than in the past.

Russia’s ambassador to London has been summoned to explain to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson how the nerve agent came to have been used.

“On Wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the Russian state,” May said.

Novichok agents are believed to be five to 10 times more lethal than the more commonly known VX and Sarin gases. They cause a slowing of the heart and restriction of the airways, leading to death by asphyxiation, University of Reading pharmacology professor Gary Stephens said. (rtr)

International

In bow to NRA, Trump throws gun purchase age to states, courts

WASHINGTON - Under pressure from gun rights groups, President Donald Trump backed away on Monday from raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, one of several measures he had supported after the latest U.S. school shooting.

The proposal to raise the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21 was not part of a modest set of Trump administration school safety plans announced on Sunday and which were closely aligned with National Rifle Association (NRA) positions.

The administration plan also included training teachers to carry guns in schools, an idea already in place in some states and backed by the powerful gun lobby.

“On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly),” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Florida last week adopted new gun regulations, triggering a federal lawsuit from the NRA to block raising the minimum age for buying long guns.

The Republican president, who championed gun rights during his 2016 campaign, vowed to take action to prevent school shootings after a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

The shootings reignited fierce debate in the United States, and Trump stunned members of Congress during White House meetings by endorsing proposals long opposed by his fellow Republicans and accusing lawmakers of being afraid of the NRA. However, the measures proposed by the White House on Sunday night were weaker than some of the more sweeping changes Trump had embraced during his televised meetings on the issue.

White House spokeswoman Sar-

ah Sanders said Trump still backs some of those changes, including new age limits, but is focusing on measures that can get through the U.S. Congress.

“Right now the president’s primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately,” she said at a news briefing.

Trump backs legislation aimed at providing more data for the background check system: a database of people who are not legally allowed to buy guns. But he did not endorse a broader proposal that would close loopholes in existing law by requiring background checks for guns bought at gun shows or arranged over the Internet.

The NRA did not return a request for comment on the president’s proposals on Monday.

The top Democrats in Congress accused Trump of caving to the NRA and vowed to keep pushing for tougher gun measures.

“The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership, not a White House that cravenly tiptoes around the NRA,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

Trump met with the NRA privately at the White House twice last month as he weighed his response to the shooting.

It was not clear how quickly Congress would move on the issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has not scheduled debate for any gunrelated bills.

The NRA-backed background check data bill, which now has a supermajority of co-sponsors, is pending in the Senate. With more than 60 co-sponsors in the 100-member chamber, individual senators would have a hard time slowing or blocking its passage if it were brought up for debate. (rtr)

International

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

11

Dentist drills through stigma holding back Indonesia’s disabled

MEDAN - T en years ago, at the dental clinic Annita Foe runs in the Indonesian city of Medan, she watched a homeless, wheelchair-bound patient struggle to hoist herself into the chair. After giving a free check-up, the dentist asked what else she could do to help the woman, crippled by polio as a child.

That simple question launched Foe on a personal mission to support people with disabilities and transform attitudes.

“I was shocked - I had never seen anyone like that before,” said Foe, 53, who is vice president of Yayasan Surya Kebenaran International, a foundation that runs health clinics and provides other basic services for North Sumatra’s poor.

“She said, ‘If you want to help, help my friends who don’t have legs’,” Foe told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Since then, Foe has mobilised funding and expertise to provide some 8,000 prosthetic limbs to hundreds of people disabled by birth defects, disease or accidents across the country. She arranges visits by German and Dutch surgeons once a year who perform operations and help people in need of prosthetic limbs. She also organises free healthcare, food aid and job training, and puts on social events that bring together people with disabilities in Medan.

There are about 10 million people in Indonesia with some form of disability, according to a 2017 report by Australia’s Monash University. Many are still struggling to be accepted by a society that has largely failed to provide services and assistive devices to make life easier for the disabled.

While attitudes vary across the archipelago, having a disabled child often brings shame and stigma, with some communities blaming a curse or bad luck due to past behaviour. That can deter the parents of disabled children from registering the birth, said Irwanto, head of the psychology department at Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta who goes by one name only.

Some parents hide disabled children away in cramped rooms at home, while others are entrusted to orphanages or under-funded state-run institutions. With little in the way of community-based support, government rehabilitation centres for the disabled and mentally ill often suffer from overcrowding and undignified conditions.

Patients are sometimes even beaten and kept in chains or stocks with no treatment or support, despite this being banned, several disability experts said. Without a birth certificate or identity card, many disabled Indonesians cannot access public services like education and healthcare, and often fall into extreme poverty as adults.

“I felt huge embarrassment, especially because of the way people looked at me,” said David Sitorus, 43, who lost a leg in 1994 while working as a contractor for an electricity company. “It was difficult for me to adjust and earn a living.”

Sitorus, who had a prosthetic leg fitted in 2009 with financial help from Foe’s foundation, now drives a modified becak, a type of rickshaw, to earn money to support his wife and two daughters in Medan. “It was a happy and proud moment when I got my prosthetic leg,” he said. “My selfconfidence came back.”

social issues and rights, said Dibley, who has also run training for Indonesian disability activists.

“Although the situation for people with disabilities is far from ideal and there are still significant challenges ... the changes that have happened and the work done by advocates over the last decade is pretty phenomenal,” she said. As part of this process, Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011. A new national disability law that revamped existing legislation was passed in 2016 with input from many activists.

The law ensures that the needs of the disabled are taken into account in all decisions made by government departments. It is now also mandatory for government institutions to have people with disabilities make up about 3 percent of their staff, said disability researcher Irwanto, who was left wheelchair-bound after a medical accident in 2003.

Eva Kasim, a senior policy analyst at Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs, said implementation of the 2016 law was an “ongoing process” and would take time. The new terminology it employs will help shift attitudes and improve rights for the disabled, she said.

The ministry has helped establish an association for parents of children with disabilities so they can share knowledge and experiences. Meanwhile, a rapid response unit set up by

the ministry is working with police and local authorities to stop mistreatment at state-run institutions, Kasim said.

SCHOOLS AND WEDDINGS

Maintaining the involvement of disability advocates in policymaking at all levels is crucial, activists said. Many Indonesian towns and cities suffer from crumbling, underfunded infrastructure and transport networks, so introducing disabled access is a huge challenge.

Where wheelchair ramps and elevators have been put in, they must be kept in good order, Dibley said. Wide pavements that are wheelchair-friendly and tactile paving for the visually impaired must not be taken over by street vendors, she added.

Activists also called for more funds to be allocated to education, which would allow more children with disabilities to enroll at local schools, breaking down stereotypes.

Back in Medan, Foe fondly remembers a wedding she helped organise three years ago for a man who lost a leg in a work accident and his bride, unable to use both legs due to polio. More than 200 guests attended, including many with disabilities. “Many people feel that disabled people are useless and cannot get married, but I felt proud and glad to see them being accepted by society,” said Foe. (rtr)

RESPECT FOR RIGHTS

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting on trade with members of Congress at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2018.

Indonesian attitudes to people with disabilities have slowly evolved over the past decade, said Thushara Dibley, deputy director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, who has researched the disability movement in Indonesia. In keeping with a global shift, Indonesians are now less likely to see disability as a problem to be overcome with medical treatment or charity, but as a condition with implications for

Thomson Reuters Foundation / Michael Taylor

David Sitorus, who lost a leg after an accident at work, sits on his modified rickshaw outside a medical clinic in Medan, Indonesia, February 22, 2018.

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BUSINESS

Bali News

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

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‘Destroyed’ Venezuela needs $15 bln per year: presidential hopeful’s aide

CARACAS - Venezuela needs to dollarize its economy, seek $15 billion to $20 billion a year from abroad, and ease oil sector taxes to reverse the “disaster” of President Nicolas Maduro’s rule, according to an adviser to his main election rival.

Former state Governor Henri Falcon, who will face Maduro in a May 20 presidential vote, has tapped a 48-year-old Venezuelan economist with Wall Street’s Torino Capital for ideas to turn around the OPEC nation’s recession-hit economy.

“The person who has destroyed this nation’s economy is Nicolas Maduro,” Francisco Rodriguez, long an influential commentator on Venezuela, said in an interview. “He is the one that has made an economy sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, with all the potential for being prosperous, into an economy of hunger.”

Falcon, 56, defied an opposition boycott to run despite

conditions critics say are rigged to ensure the ruling socialists win. He wants Rodriguez to head his economic team if he takes the presidency.

Foremost among his ideas for stabilizing Venezuela’s state-led economy is ditching the devalued bolivar in favor of the U.S. currency to “snap out” of hyper-inflation.

“You cannot have hyper-inflation if you are using the U.S. dollar as a currency, whereas all other types of adjustment programs can fail,” Rodriguez argued, saying it would stop excess government money-printing. Annual inflation is running at more than 6,000 percent, according to the opposition.

Rodriguez said most Venezuelans backed adopting the greenback and suggested a reasonable conversion rate today would be 70,000 to the dollar - far stronger than the current black market rate of 216,000. To grow post-Maduro, Venezuela’s economy would also need $15 billion to $20 billion per year in foreign capital, the adviser said, from both private investment and potential loans from multilateral bodies like

Women shop at a private-sector grocery store in Caracas, Venezuela in February.

IBP/net

the International Monetary Fund.

‘WORLD’S MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL ECONOMY’ Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chavez demonized the international lending bodies as instruments of U.S. policy and global capitalism that prejudice welfare. “What has avoiding the IMF gotten Venezuela? What has avoiding macroeconomic stabilization, what has not changing the exchange rate, not adjusting the price of gasoline? All of the things the government thought were unpopular and therefore avoided ... they have produced the most dysfunctional economy in the world.”

With oil production at a three-decade low, Rodriguez said it was imperative to give incentives to foreign joint venture partners by overhauling the tax regime and possibly lowering state company PDVSA’s minimum 60 percent stake. Closely read for years by Venezuela’s bondholders, Rodriguez advised them to wait before aggressively pressing or “accelerating” claims as the cash-strapped state seeks to renegotiate some $60 billion of bonds.

“Once we come into government, it will certainly make life easier both for Venezuela and for foreign investors if acceleration (of payments) has not taken place,” Rodriguez said. Despite critics’ accusations he is a stooge legitimizing Maduro’s “dictatorship” by running, Falcon and his team believe they can win and point to some polls showing them ahead.

They hope the opposition coalition’s boycott campaign will evaporate as Falcon’s candidacy gathers steam. “As time goes by, it’s going to become clear that Henri Falcon is winning the presidency and that it makes sense for the different political actors to support him,” Rodriguez said.

A former Chavez ally, Falcon broke with the socialists in 2010 and is now promising a “national unity” government.

Another of his top aides suggested Maduro’s defense minister could stay in a Falcon government.

“We do not believe in destroying ‘Chavismo’ to change Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, arguing the ruling movement was an important minority that should be respected.

“If that means at some moment some co-habitation agreements have to be reached, I think that the governor will consider them carefully and decide in the interests of the nation.” (rtr)

Dollar tops 107 yen as politics pressures Japan

LONDON - The dollar jumped against the yen on Tuesday, nearing a two-week high as the Japanese currency was pressured by a political scandal engulfing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s govermment. The yen weakened by 0.3 to 0.5 percent against other major currencies after Japan’s ministry of finance said on Monday it altered documents related to a discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abe’s wife.

The dollar is also benefiting from the decline in broader currency market volatility which is encouraging investors to add positions in higher-yielding currencies, though the greenback’s gains were capped before monthly U.S. inflation data.

“The broader story remains that of U.S. monetary policy normalization in the backdrop of an improving economy and a further decline in currency market volatility would only

fuel more risk taking appetite,” said Commerzbank’s FX strategist Thu Lan Nguyen. The dollar was trading at 106.95 against the yen, up 0.5 percent and just below a two-week high of 107.05.

The yen tends to suffer in an environment when riskier and higher-yielding assets are bid but Morgan Stanley strategists said in a note that a further deterioration in the political situation that affected the position of Abe, could see the yen “forcefully return towards its previous upward trend.”

Elsewhere, though the renewed drop in currency volatility prompted investors to add bets on higher-yield currencies with the Australian dollar recovering smartly from threemonth lows while the euro gaining nearly 2 percent in the last 10 trading sessions.

The euro was broadly flat around $1.2329 against the dollar on the day. A key focus for investors is the U.S. CPI data

due at 1230 GMT. Median forecasts by economists polled

by Reuters point to annual core CPI inflation of 1.8 percent in February, which would be flat from January.

A higher reading could stoke expectations that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates four times, rather than three times, this year. A rate hike at its upcoming policy meeting on March 20-21 has been long considered a done deal while another increase in June is almost fully priced in.

Yet traders are also mindful that the prospects of more U.S. rate hikes, while theoretically positive for the dollar, may not necessarily lift the U.S. currency, given other factors weighing on the greenback.

One big issue is U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff on steel and aluminium, which many investors worry could trigger retaliatory moves by U.S. trade partners and hurt the economy.(rtr)

BAF May Not Just Become Peak of Art Creativity

IBP/file

The Bali Arts Festival (BAF) held every year is proved to have been a powerful medium to explore, preserve and develop the arts. This year’s art extravaganza does not only have a positive impact on the artists, but also on creative industry. Moreover, the discovery and preservation are not only limited to its form, but also its philosophy, nobility and universal values.

Armed with knowledge and the art as representation of civilization, Balinese people, especially the artists, are able to develop the art through creation, innovation and cultural adaptation. As a result, it remains to survive and runs sustainably in the context of changing times. In the current development, in the capacity of Bali as an international tourist destination, the BAF has played a role as a medium to improve the welfare of the artists and their community.

If noted, every BAF implementation has great impact on the role of talented young generation of Bali. As evidence, creative young people are able to preserve the arts inherited by their ancestors, and creatively gave birth to new works of art. Prestige demands them to compete, so that it demonstrates the quality of the art of each region to be the best and superior.

The artists appointed to represent never hesitate to appear and to be the best. It makes the participation of all the districts and municipality in Bali always display their art well and nicely. They perform optimally by promoting creativity and innovation, but do not leave the traditional norms. Then, will the BAF only become the peak of the art process that is just enough to get there?

At the first appearance in 1979 on the idea of ??the late Prof. Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra, the BAF aiming to accommodate the artworks, art aspirations, art reconstruction, art innovation, art attractions and art appreciation may have been answered. However, when the BAF has entered the 39th year, is there any thought for its continuation or is it enough to get to this point?

During the long passage of the BAF, it should not only develop the art, but must also be followed by the development of the management. After accommodating the best work of art, the government as the organizers must also think about the continuation, so that the arts having developed will not only live during the BAF and then go extinct after the event comes to an end. It is very much deplored, if the artistic pro-

cess of the generation is only stagnant until in the BAF. Bali government should have thought about the continuity of the various works of art having been featured in the BAF. It can be done by providing a medium, a wider opportunities to express the results of their creation. For example, the art troupes becoming the best get the opportunity to be an envoy of Bali to appear in national or international events, such as joining the art competitions, festival or art parade.

The artists or art troupes having performed well in the BAF should be given the opportunity as an art mission that promotes local culture outside the region or overseas. If too excessive, then they can also be given the opportunity to welcome official guests or as an art envoy at the international event held on this Island of the Gods.

I Ketut Keplug, a traditional drummer of Denpasar, said that giving the opportunity to appear can serve as a reward to those who succeed in artistic creativity. It should not even be dominated by certain people that do not play a role in the BAF. “Showing off superior arts from different supporters will certainly be able to give new nuances. Besides, it can serve as reflection that Balinese people have a variety of arts,” he said.

Similar opinion was also stated by I Wayan Weda, an artist from Tabanan, who cares about younger generation.

According to him, this time many art troupes appearing in the BAF are in suspended animation after the BAF. They must be given the breath to stay alive. “Well, the opportunity to appear again will make the art troupes more passionate to seriously pursue their profession. They should not even switch professions because there is no chance to get earnings,” he added.

Prof. Dr. I Made Surada, a lecturer of the State Hindu Dharma Institute (IHDN) of Denpasar, said that BAF organizer should be more creative in creating space and giving awards to the best participants. For example, the champions of inscribing palm-leaf manuscript, Balinese literature, story-telling and other competitions need to be given a further opportunity. “The work of participating contest is very good. But unfortunately, after getting their champions where do they go? This sustainability needs to be considered. Do not just practice for the sake of BAF, after that disappears.

So, it is not wrong if every BAF implementation only gives impression that it just implements the project,” he said.

The Bali Arts Festival (BAF) has now entered the 39th year. In the implementation of each year, Balinese people can review again about this celebration of the art. Other than showing off new arts, it should also revive and preserve the nearly extinct arts. “It is unique because the concept of discovery and development through a new collaboration or creation process is still sourced from the existing arts” said Prof. Dr. I Made Surada, a lecturer at the State Hindu Dharma Institute (IHDN) of Denpasar He explained that BAF is an activity to maintain, discover, display and develop Balinese arts. The artwork of the development process is actually beneficial to give contribution in the life of Balinese people especially in the economic field.

The artists are working in the art creativity while the government creates creative spaces, so that it has an impact on the sustainability of the arts.

The BAF event should have an impact on economic improvement for its people. Besides, it must also be accompanied with an increase in lifestyle, standard of living, attitude, mental and appearance. Creating a sense of pleasure in the artists is very important because if their economy increases, it will also have an impact on the art sustainability. “Philosophically, human beings cannot be separated from the arts.

Humans will get pleasure, satisfaction and happiness if they have been able to do art creativity,” added Prof. Surada.

Actually, the life poses an art. Please keep in mind that in the teaching of Hinduism, God creates nature also through the art. Art with extraordinary creativity results in a wide range of creatures and plants. God does not only create one kind, but many kinds, so as to bring a sense of beauty. Diversity of the arts in the BAF can give a sense of beauty and happiness for every connoisseur.

On that account, the BAF celebration every year is expected to create a sense of fun in the community, so that it has an impact on peace of life. Unfortunately, the implementation of BAF that has been mature enough has not yielded anything maximal. “Only some people have enjoyed the celebration. It has not reached the artists as a whole because the presentation is only made by those very same art troupes. Sustainability of the art troupes appearing also began to be doubted because after appearing in the BAF they have no relationship and tend to break up,” he said. (kmb)

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Bali News

International

Preventing fake news on Nyepi

“Bali is very special due to the existence of its customary villages. If the customary villages are safe, it means that Bali is also safe”, said Juliarto.

Although there have been many incidents across Indonesia that involved irresponsible parties pitting different groups against each other whether based on tribal affiliation or religion, Juliarto said he was grateful to see that such incidents have not occurred on Bali and that the risk is also very low.

“Nevertheless, customary villages are still be asked to raise awareness. Any suspicious activities should be reported immediately so that they can be followed up on. We also urge the monitoring of migrants in order to anticipate undesirable things:, he affirmed.

Juliarto also said that he hoped to see customary villages actively participating in maintaining a peaceful atmosphere leading up to the simultaneous regional leadership election, particularly with regards to Bali as a tourist destination.

“Let us carry out this regional leadership election peacefully. Please report any violent acts to the established authorities - the integrated law enforcement, so that the democratic events can run safely, smoothly, and give birth to the leadership as expected by the people”, he said.

Fake news stories, he added have also become a problem, so Juliarto also called on the customary village chiefs to alert their villages about not getting hooked in by such stories circulating on social media.

“Hopefully, people will not be easily provoked by such fake news. Let us together create a safe and brilliant Bali”, he said.

Head of the Denpasar Customary Village Chief Forum, I Wayan Butu Antara, expressed his support and appreciation of the performance of Bali Police. Such hard work he said contributes greatly to maintaining public order and security for the celebration of Nyepi as well as the upcoming regional leadership elections.

Antara added that the customary villages in Denpasar are continuing to work on ensuring a sense of security and the orderly running of the religious and national duties with serenity and peacefulness. (kmb36)

IBP/kmb36

Director of Intelligence of Bali Police, met with customary village chiefs from across Denpasar.

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Malaysia’s Mahathir says he can win a fair election but expects it to be “terribly dirty”

Bali Police summon chiefs of customary villages

DENPASAR — In anticipation of Nyepi Day, Director of Intelligence of Bali Police, Akhmad Jamal Juliarto, met with customary village chiefs from across Denpasar at the LPD Office of Penatih customary village, East Denpasar, on Saturday (Mar. 10). In front of 35 customary village, chiefs, Akhmad Jamal conveyed his message about public order and security expressing gratitude for the great help that the police have received from customary villages, chiefly pecalang (customary security guard)who have carried out their tasks with full responsibility.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

International

Nyoman Sujaya

IBP/kmb

Nyepi ensured to be without internet on mobile phones

DENPASAR — Ministry of Communications and Informatics is ready to meet the fourth point of the joint appeal of the religious assemblies of Bali province related to Nyepi (Day of Silence) celebration.

It is about the mobile telecommunication services expected to turn off their mobile data (internet) services from Saturday (Mar. 17) at 06:00 until Sunday (Mar.18) at 06:00.

“Essentially, the fourth point can be met by the ministry and mobile telecommunication companies operating in Bali,” said the Head of the Bali Communications, Informatics and Statistics Agency, Nyoman Sujaya, when confirmed via telephone after attending a meeting in Jakarta on Monday night (Mar. 12).

According to Sujaya, the internet network service to be disconnected on Nyepi Day is focused on smartphone or mobile telecommunication. Meanwhile, strategic services such as security, hospitals, airports, and disasters remain active as ever before.

“All mobile data operators were present at the meeting and ready to meet the fourth points of the appeal. The Hindu Dharma Council of Indonesia (PHDI) and Interfaith Concord Forum (FKUB) were also present,” he added.

Sujaya added that the ministry will soon correspond officially to each operator. Although the internet on mobile phone will not be activated on Nyepi Day, the mobile telephone service and SMS can still be used. “Mobile phone and SMS can still be used, while the internet is not disconnected,” he said.

Previously, Chairman of the PHDI Bali, I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana, asked the people of Bali not to be anxious and emotional as the appeal is actually expected to have a positive impact on the Hindus that celebrate Nyepi in Bali.

“It is based on consideration that internet contains a lot of entertainment. In the catur brata penyepian there is amati lelanguan meaning abstaining from enjoying entertainment. As an impact, many parties are greatly offended and so forth.

Moreover, there are people even threatening the Chairman of PHDI, that’s natural,” he said.

According to Sudiana, the appeal has been proposed to Ministry of Communications and Informatics. If it will be accepted by the operators or providers of mobile telecommunication services, it will be good. Otherwise, there is no sanction given to them. Actually, he hoped the mobile telecommunication service companies can understand that Nyepi Day celebrated once in a year can be implemented peacefully.

“All the Hindus should not be anxious even though a lot of criticisms have come to us. However, if you can feel the pleasure of not using social media for one day, it will make addicted later on,” he added.

Sudiana added that when celebrating Nyepi Day communication with God does not need to use any other means. Simply by bring together our thoughts, words and deeds is enough. “At that time, if we can carry it out well, we will feel the essence of being religious,” he said. (kmb32)

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday said his opposition alliance could easily win a general election that must be held by August, so long as it was free and fair, but that he expected it to be “terribly dirty”.

At 92, Malaysia’s old political war horse has another shot at the top job, and a win against scandaltainted Prime Minister Najib Razak would make him the world’s oldest premier.

It would also bring to an end the 61-year rule of a party that Mahathir helped build, and which has held power since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957.

“We have a good chance of winning this time because public opinion is very much for us,” Mahathir told Reuters in an interview at his office in the administrative capital, Putrajaya.

“The only way Najib can frustrate us is by cheating. If it’s a free and fair election, we will win hands down.”

Mahathir was a tough establishment stalwart for decades, the scourge of dissenters who dared to challenge the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

But a scandal over a state-run investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has brought unprecedented shifts in Malaysia’s political forces, and Mahathir now heads an opposition alliance and is seen as the biggest threat to Najib, who has been engulfed in the scandal.

Najib denies any wrongdoing over 1MDB, which is at the centre of money-laundering investigations

in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

Despite the scandal, analysts and ruling party sources say Najib is confident of election victory, and could hold the polls as early as April.

The opposition alliance is concerned, in particular, about plans to redraw the boundaries of more than half of Malaysia’s 222 parliamentary constituencies. Critics say the moves are unconstitutional and could skew voting in favour of Najib.

“It’s going to be a terribly dirty election,” Mahathir said, adding that he suspected Najib might derail his plans to stand.

“I believe that one way or another he is going to make sure that I cannot contest,” Mahathir said, pointing out that the government had delayed the registration of his party, which could affect his campaign.

Asked for examples of dirty tricks, Mahathir said his party had found instances of more than 70 people registered as voters from one house and several hundred people with suspiciously similar names on the voter roll.

The ruling party fared surprisingly poorly in the last general election in 2013. The opposition, which won the popular vote last time, said the ruling party only sealed victory through fraud.

The government rejected that complaint and dismisses fears of rigging this time. Reuters was not able to verify any opposition allegations of fraud. (rtr)

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad

IBP/net

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A plane lands near the crash site, a day after the US-Bangla airplane crashed while arriving from Dhaka, in Kathmandu, Nepal March 13, 2018.

Nepal begins probe of plane crash that killed 49, airline defends pilot

KATHMANDU - Investigators have retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage of a Bangladeshi airliner that crashed, killing at least 49 aboard, including the crew, when it attempted to land in Nepal’s capital, officials said on Tuesday.

The airline and airport authorities in Kathmandu have blamed each other in the aftermath of Monday’s aviation disaster, the Himalayan nation’s worst since the 1992 crash of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft killed 167.

“The flight data recorder has been recovered, we have kept it safely,” said Raj Kumar Chettri, the airport’s general manager, adding that an investigation had begun into the cause of the crash.

The Bombardier Q400 series aircraft was carrying 71 people from the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka when it tried to land in conditions of visibility that weather officials said exceeded 6 km (4 miles), with clouds at one end of the runway and a light tailwind of six to seven knots.

Flight operator US-Bangla Airlines said Captain Abid Sultan, a former pilot of the Bangladesh Air Force, had landed more than 100 times at Kathmandu, where wind shear and bird hits are frequent hazards.

Sultan had more than 5,000 hours of flying experience and was specially trained to land at the airport, said airline spokesman Kamrul Islam.

The airline also denied a media report that the aircraft had skidded off the runway during a domestic flight in 2015, saying it “never ever encountered any accident. It had no technical glitches.”

CONFUSION ABOUT RUNWAY

Defending the pilots, airline chief executive Imran Asif cited a transcript of their radio conversation with ground control in Kathmandu that was issued by a German air safety website, JACDEC. “We suspect wrong signals from Kathmandu air traffic control room might have led to the crash,” Asif told reporters on Monday. “A three-minute conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control before the landing indicated that they sent a wrong signal to the pilot.”

The transcript, which Asif said was accessible on YouTube, reveals confusion over the runway designated for the flight to land.

Transmissions by the Kathmandu tower controller show that, despite being cleared to land on runway 02, the flight began deviating from its course.

The captain and the tower controller discussed which runway the aircraft was aiming for, the website said. At one point, the controller told the woman copilot she was heading toward runway 20, although the aircraft had been cleared for runway 02.

Later, the captain took over the conversation and confirmed the plan to land at runway 02. At one stage, ground control said runway 20 had also been cleared for landing, however.

Eventually the plane made an attempt to land on the runway it was originally meant to use, but crashed short of it, broke into pieces and caught fire. Both pilots are dead.

Sanjiv Gautam, a senior Nepali civil aviation official, did not directly confirm the authenticity of the transcript, saying instead that publication of such exchanges went against the law. (rtr)

14

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Technology

The robot helping ill kids to beat loneliness - and keep learning

LONDON - For children battling longterm illness, coping with physical pain is not their only challenge: being away from school also means missing out on time with friends, and that can be tough.

And parents often worry about the impact months of missed classes will have on their child’s education.

That is where a classroom robot called AV1 comes in. Its job is to act as the eyes, ears and voice for children with long-term illnesses who cannot make it to class.

It allows Elliot Smith to stay in touch with his friends and to keep up with his lessons. He controls it from home using a tablet computer, and can listen or talk. If he wants to ask a question, he lights up the robot’s head to alert the teacher.

“I was sort of worried about what the other REUTERS/No Isolation students would think of the robot. They were definitely surprised by it,” the 12-year-old, who is No Isolation’s AV1 robot in a classroom in Norusing the AV1 while recovering from brain cancer, way. It helps children with long term illnesses keep up with their schoolwork remotely. told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Schools can rent a robot or buy one for 2,200 pounds ($3,065). Smith’s AV1 - which his classDolva’s goal with No Isolation was to make mates christened ‘Bob’ - was paid for through a technology useful. She used to run a consultancy mix of fundraising and philanthropy. incubating tech companies, but felt they were too The robot looks like a garden gnome that has focused on “making efficient people faster, which gone through tech giant Apple’s minimalist design is so sad”. process. They are made by a Norwegian social “We would never have started No Isolation unenterprise called No Isolation, which was founded less we could help someone. That was the one thing to reduce involuntary isolation. we were absolutely sure about when we started,” Across Europe, 370 young people between the she said. ages of eight and 20 use an AV1. Most live in More than one in ten people in Britain feel isoScandinavian countries. lated, and research links loneliness to dementia, The organisation’s founder, 27-year-old Karen early mortality and high blood pressure.

Dolva, who studied computer science at university, started No Isolation after a friend working as ENTER THE ROBOT Months of chemotherapy left Elliot Smith, from a nurse in a children’s unit described it as “quite Yeovil in southwest England, too weak to attend miserable”.

After researching the issue, Dolva met Anne school. His weight nearly halved, and he could Fi Troye, whose teenage daughter had died from barely eat.

His father said the robot had made a big differcancer. Troye told Dolva about the experience, and of the devastating effect of isolation for children ence as his son was able to see and listen to his teacher, and interact when he felt strong enough, recovering at home.

“They’re locked away, forgotten. And when they reducing his anxiety about falling behind at school.

“This device is absolutely pivotal in making get well they’re just pushed out into the world and everyone assumes they’re going to be happy now those first next steps into integrating back into that they’re well again,” Dolva told the Thomson mainstream education,” Bill Smith said.

Another worry was that he was losing touch Reuters Foundation. with his friends, while also feeling self-conscious GROWING APART about his appearance.

Research by the British cancer charity CLIC “His hair is only just starting to grow back.

Sargent found nearly half of parents of primary Whenever we would go anywhere with Elliot beschool children with cancer said their child’s di- fore, he wouldn’t take his hat off. He’s very conagnosis and treatment had caused the youngsters scious of his appearance, so this has helped in that to grow apart from their friends. he doesn’t physically have to be there,” Smith said.

After speaking to charities and healthcare The 12-year-old said he was unsure how much professionals in Britain, Dolva’s organisation Bob was helping him to learn, not least because concluded that 70,000 British children spend large the amount he can hear varies depending on level parts of the school year at home or in hospital due of classroom noise and the robot’s proximity to a to illness. wifi router. (rtr)

International

Bali News

International

New Boeing jet to accelerate services shake-up

CHICAGO - Boeing Co is doubling down on its landmark new strategy designed to muscle in on the business of maintenance providers by making its next jet the laboratory for in-house services that could radically alter the global business model for selling planes.

Unlike Boeing’s last all-new design, the 787 Dreamliner, its proposed new mid-market plane will not bring a flood of revolutionary technical designs to the drawing board.

But it will give the world’s largest plane maker a chance to test its new business approach of designing the plane so that it generates lucrative services revenues for Boeing while also offering efficiencies to airlines over the aircraft’s decades-long lifespan.

Along with production costs, the new approach could help Boeing decide whether to invest the $15 billion or more in development needed to build the jet.

“If we decide to launch, it’s a big investment and it’s an investment that has to contemplate not only the product itself but all of our other strategic objectives,” Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Reuters.

“So you can imagine we would want to look at this airplane through the lens of lifecycle value as we are growing our services business,” he said.

Until recently, Boeing and Europe’s Airbus sold planes with little involvement in the way they were operated and maintained. Instead, that was work carried out by their own suppliers or third-party shops.

Heavy outsourcing on jets like

the 787 expanded the trend by leaving suppliers - such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries , which supplies the 787’s carbon wings - in command of key components.

While Boeing and others squeezed their balance sheets to launch jets, many of their suppliers used their design influence to forge profitable relationships directly with airlines as they conducted part swaps or repairs required by regulators.

“That seems a little out of balance, doesn’t it?” said Muilenburg, describing how the pendulum is now swinging back to give Boeing more control over parts and therefore the stream of aftermarket services that comes with owning a part’s design.

“We do take the majority of the risk in developing new products, and we think that would cause us to want to gain the financial benefit of that risk-taking for the long term,” he said.

The long-term approach to the new jet is the latest evidence of changes in the $180 billion aeroaftermarket as planemakers jostle with suppliers - and even airlines - for control of repairs, training and data in pursuit of higher margins.

Last year, Boeing centralized services formerly spread across the company in a new division with a goal to more than treble sales to $50 billion in a decade.

The new unit posted operating margins of 15.4 percent last year, compared with 16.1 percent that United Technologies Aerospace Systems, a major supplier, earned from selling new equipment, services and aftermarket parts. (rtr)

REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

President, Chairman and CEO of The Boeing Company Dennis Muilenburg speaks at the “What’s Next?” conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 4, 2016.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

3

Mount Agung victim Ni Nengah Werni

Survives thanks to sweetness of snakefruit

SEMARAPURA - The eruptions of Mount Agung have impacted the fate of the people who live on the slopes of this great mountain.

Apart from the struggles of having been evacuated from their homes for many months, many also lost their means of earning a living Facing such conditions, Ni Negah Werni from Perang Sari hamlet, North Duda, Selat, has risen from such hardships by selling snakefruit in the town of Semarapura.

IBP/net

Darmawan’s creamation will take place at the Kerta Semadhi Crematorium in Mumbul, Nusa Dua.

The late Hari Darmawan

Asked to be cremated in Bali

DENPASAR — The original founder of Matahari Department Store, Hari Darmawan, was found dead in Ciliwung River, Bogor, West Java, on Saturday (Mar. 10) after having been reported missing since Friday night (Mar. 9).

The remains of this 77-year-old man will be taken to Kerta Semadhi funeral home, Jalan Cargo Permai, Denpasar after arriving in Bali on Sunday (Mar. 11). According to information complied in the field, Darmawan’s creamation will take place at the Kerta Semadhi Crematorium in Mumbul, Nusa Dua, on Wednesday (Mar. 14). Some time ago, Hari Darmawan had asked his family to have his remains cremated there.

As of 23:59 on Sunday however the corpse has not arrived at the funeral home, though dozens of wreaths of condolences from relatives, friends and business associates of the late Hari Darmawan lined the entrance to the Kertha Semadi funeral home. A number of employees and managers of Matahari Duta Plaza located at Jalan Dewi Sartika, Denpasar, were also seen waiting for the arrival of the corpse.

Store Manager of Matahari Duta Plaza on Jalan Dewi Sartika, Kadek Suwardana, said that Hari Darmawan was known as a kind of father figure with all his employees considered to be part of a

big family.

“Not only was he caring but also provided a lot of motivatino for his employees so we all felt like we were part of a fmialiy not just employees. He alsways spoke to us as equals encouraging us to move forward together, we were never made to feel lower than him”, said Suwardana.

Hari Darmawan was known to be hard-working and tenacious but never positioned himself as the important owner of giant retail company, instead he mingled like family. He never expressed anger to his employees and always sought to build moral so that the company could improve as a whole. “He was very humble and anyone who knew him will certainly feel a great loss”, he said.

“He like to provide constructive motivation but never with anger. When he would come to the regional outlets Bali, he always brought high spirits and shared his experience providing constructive criticism without criticizing”, added Suwardana.

Suwardana explained that he last met Hari Darmawan one year ago at the airport before leaving for Jakarta. “We exchanged well wishes. He travailed without an aide or bodyguard. He was a very simple man. I was very surprised to hear of his sudden passing”, he concluded. (kmb42)

Approaching midday, many people can be seen on the streets of Semarapura going about their busyness.

Government employees in their uniforms are seen around the regent’s office which is where Nengah Werni tries to sell her fruit. This stalky woman in faded clothes carries a large bamboo basket, clinging tightly to its edges so that she does not drop it, she approaches people in e by one offering them to buy her sweet snakefruit. “I sell sugar- snakefruit”, she says.

Werni has been trying her luck at selling snakefruit every since she was evacuated from here home last September and took refuge in Kemoining hamlet, Semparapura Kelod. Although she did return to her village after the biggest mountain in Bali started to calm down, she continues to sell fruit in Klungkung to ease the burden of her life. “We have no work in the village anymore. We sold off all our cattle so we have no source of income, that why we are sellign fruit

here”, she explained.

Werni sells fruit everyday. Sometimes from early monring until noon and sometimes from noo until evening. After walking swiftly aroudn the govermnet offeice grounds she makes her way to other parts of the city and bearing the harch heat of the day ahs become commonoplace to her. Her sweating has become a friend that she does not complain about. “We used to work as farmers in our village”, she said.

The snakefruit that she sells does not belong to her, she just sells it for the tree owner at IDR 20,00 per kilo. AS the name implies this sugar snakefruit is indeed small but sweet. Somedays she can sell up to 20 kilograms. “Sometimes we go home to Karangasem, sometimes we stay here in Kemoning. The snakefruit is brought here”, said Werni smiling warmly.

Although she does not earn very much, she said that she feels grateful to have this work that allows her to get by as there is no work at all in their village.

Despite these life burdens, this woman who is wife to I Nengah Rauh said she breaths a little easier knowing that even though their wages are small, her two sons work in Denpasar. “If I just sat at home with nothing to do, I would not feel good at all”, she said.

Werni’s husband Negah also works hard taking odd jobs wherever he can. Werni added that she hopes that the conditio of Mount Agung will retunrn to normal. “Yesterday there were several earthquakes. We are worried about styaing in our village”, she added. (sos)

IBP/sos

Ni Negah Werni (L) from Perang Sari hamlet, North Duda, Selat, has risen from such hardships by selling snakefruit in the town of Semarapura.

2

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Bali News

International

International

Ornaments of melasti welcome Nyepi at The Nusa Dua

IBP/file

Last year’s Nyepi in Kuta

Related to Nyepi in Kuta

Accommodation operators asked to educate their guests

MANGUPURA - During the implementation of Nyepi celebration in Kuta area, the hotel and villa managements including the owners of the house rented to foreigners are asked to educate their guests. This is important for the order and smoothness of the Nyepi celebration. This was affirmed by the Acting Head of Kuta Subdistrict, Made Widiana, on Monday (Mar. 12).

According to him, the management and owners of the accommodation are asked to educate so their in-house guests will not be traveling, coming out or beating any instruments of entertainment and music during the Nyepi celebration. It began to be applied at 06:00 on Saturday (Mar. 17) to Sunday (Mar. 18) at 06:00. “They are necessary to understand this catur brata penyepian (four abstinences), so the solemnity of the Nyepi implementation can be maintained together,” he said.

Meanwhile, during the night of Pengrupukan, all bearers of the ogoh-ogoh (papier mâché demon) are expected to avoid consuming alcoholic beverages.

Hopefully, such anticipation can minimize the undesirable things. “After parading the ogoh-ogoh, they are expected to return to their respective hamlet and not to do any activities on the roadside,” he hoped.

When contacted separately, chief of Kuta customary village, I Wayan Swarsa, conveyed that preparation of the Nyepi Day of this year is relatively the same as

in previous years. It starts from the series of melasti to be held on March 14. He said that various forms of creativity and entertainment will be held at Kuta customary village such as the Festival of Cultural Art (FSB) VIII. The festival is a separate activity from Nyepi procession including the ritual pemelastian, pengerupukan, catur brata penyepian and ngembak geni.

On the night of Pengerupukan, Swarsa said there will be a performance of sendratari (ballet), ogoh-ogoh competition in front of the Desa - Bale Agung temple of Kuta customary village. Meanwhile, on the Nyepi Day coinciding with the celebration of Saraswati, the celebration of Saraswati Day is still implemented by taking simple procession.

“According to the customary village decision, the implementation of Saraswati Day must have been finished at 06:00 on Saturday (Mar. 17) and continued with the implementation of the catur brata penyepian,” he explained.

In the meantime, on the ngembak geni on Sunday (Mar. 18), the village will hold the Grand Final of Jegeg Bungan Desa (JBD) beauty pageant selection, parade of kid gong kebyar and vibrant Majelangu Market of Kuta customary village. “There are four forms of creativity to be displayed, namely the ogohogoh contest involving the sekaa taruna (customary youth club) of Kuta customary village, the selection of Jegeg Bungan Desa (JBD), the parade of kid gong kebyar and the vibrant Majelangu Market,” he added. (kmb23)

MANGUPURA - The Nusa Dua participated in welcoming the celebration of Nyepi of Caka New Year 1940. A number of preparations are made where one of which is the making of ornaments entitled Melasti near the entrance into the area. Tourists are invited to feel the aura of Nyepi celebration that can only be found on this Island of God. Operations Division Head of The Nusa Dua, Pari Wijaya, said on Monday (Mar. 12) The Nusa Dua which is part of the Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) installed the decoration with the concept of melasti ceremony. This theme is deliberately chosen because the melasti ceremony is the main procession of Nyepi Day. “Melasti means the purification of nature, macrocosm and microcosm,” he said.

He described that melasti ritual decorations made this time are entirely using natural materials starting from areca nut sheath, coconut

sheath, dried banana leaves, burlap sacks, leaves and dry branches.

This ornament is made by artist Putu Suardana helped by three assistants. “We use natural materials and assisted by local artists,” he added.

He admitted the making of this ornament serves as a tribute and part of the existing culture in Bali.

He hoped that tourists staying in the area of The Nusa Dua can also experience the aura of Nyepi Day celebration. “Uniqueness of Nyepi (Day of Silence) can only be found in Bali. We want our tourists can also feel the aura of Nyepi,” he added.

The making of religious day ornaments is not only related to Nyepi celebration. Previously, the tourist area having approximately 5,200 rooms of star-rated hotels also made wooden ornaments of Christmas tree as well as the Lunar New Year in the form of earth dog made from wood. (kmb23)

The Nyepi ornament in Nusa Dua

IBP/Yudi Karnaedi

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2018 Nyepi Retreat

Activities

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

An Escape to the Art, Soul and Romance of Indonesia On the famous Balinese Day of Silence, the Nyepi Day, Bali is standing still for one day and one night. At Tugu Bali, watch the sun setting over the Indian Ocean from your bedroom window and experience one day of complete tranquility. Dip into your own private plunge pool or rejuvenate in your sumptuous outdoor bath. Experience the full Nyepi by arriving few days before the Nyepi Day to join the beautifully spiritual Melasti cleansing ceremony at the sacred Batu Bolong temple in front of the hotel, as well as the famous burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh parade all over Bali.

Or hop onto a 20 minutes flight and escape to paradise on earth on the miles long white sand beach of Tugu Lombok. Spend the whole day by the turquoise waters or explore the vast 6 hectares lush palm gardens and majestic temples.

When evening comes, choose your favourite private spot for dinner - on your own corner of the beach under a million stars serenaded by whispers of the waves, or on top of an ancient temple architecture from 10th century.

Another alluring option is to escape to the true soul of Java. City of Malang in East Java, with a history dating back to the Singhasari kingdom and now a nostalgic colonial old town has its own charm inviting you to drift along in an air of nostalgia. Stay at Tugu Malang, explore the surrounding of Malang on becak or bicycle, take trips to Mt Bromo, hills of coffee, apple & tea plantations, or hundreds-years- old temple ruins.

15

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

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

16 Pages Number 70 10th year

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Meghan Markle carries out first royal engagement with UK’s Queen Elizabeth O.J. Simpson gets tongues

IBP/net

O.J. Simpson

LONDON - Prince Harry’s American fiancee Meghan Markle on Monday took part in her first official royal engagement with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth since the couple announced they were getting married last year.

Markle joined her husband-to-be and Britain’s other senior royals including Harry’s father, Prince Charles, and his elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate at London’s Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth service.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth Secretary-General were among the 2,000-strong congregation for the service, the largest annual inter-faith gathering in the United Kingdom, which also included more than 800 schoolchildren and young people.

Elizabeth has been head of the Commonwealth since 1952 and aides say she regards the success of

the organisation, which now has 53 members representing over 2.4 billion people, as one of her greatest achievements as queen.

She has made more than 200 trips to Commonwealth countries during her 66-year reign, visiting every country except Cameroon and Rwanda.

London will host next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where the BBC and other British media have speculated the issue of who will succeed the 91-year-old monarch might be discussed.

“Having enjoyed the warm hospitality of so many Commonwealth countries over the years, I look forward to the pleasure of welcoming the leaders of our family of 53 nations to my homes in London and Windsor,” the queen said in a statement.

Windsor Castle, west of London, also will be the setting for the wedding of Harry and actress Markle, star of U.S. TV drama “Suits”, on May 19. (rtr)

REUTERS/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Meghan Markle leaves after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain March 12, 2018.

wagging, but ‘American Idol’ wins on TV

LOS ANGELES - A more than 10 year-old interview in which O.J. Simpson gave a hypothetical account of how he might have murdered his ex-wife fired up social media, but Americans proved more interested in watching the return of “American Idol,” television ratings data on Monday showed.

Some 10.3 million Americans watched the two-hour premiere of “American Idol” on ABC on Sunday night, compared with 4.4 million who tuned in to see rival Fox broadcast the 2006 tape in a show called “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?,” according to Nielsen.

Fox broadcast for the first time a 2006 video with Simpson in which he talked about his marriage to Nicole Brown Simpson and gives a hypothetical account of events on the night in June 1994 when she and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered at her Los Angeles home.

Simpson was acquitted of double murder in 1995 after a 13month trial in a case that continues to captivate Americans. The 2006 interview and a book written by Judith Regan based on it were pulled from publication at the time because of public outrage.

The Twitter hashtag #DidOJConfess was one of the top trending items on Sunday night but few posters on social media felt the

video had changed their opinion about Simpson’s guilt or innocence.

Under U.S. law, a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice.

Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne said Simpson was “indifferent” about the broadcast.

“This 2006 ‘If I Did It’ concept

by Regan offered to Simpson was despicably poor judgment and should be considered a plague on the houses of all involved, including the eventual publishers. The 2006 project was a cash grab.

Nothing more,” LaVergne wrote on Twitter late Sunday.

Mainstream media was mostly critical of Fox for airing the interview, which was seen as an attempt to draw viewers away from ABC’s reboot of “American Idol” two years after the talent show ended on Fox after 15 seasons.

“With O.J. interview, Fox falls off the human decency wagon,” Entertainment Weekly wrote, calling Sunday’s two-hour special a rehash of material known or better handled by award winning TV documentaries and mini-series in 2016.

Vanity Fair asked if “The Lost Confession?” was “Genius or Gross?” and the New York Times concluded that while the TV program was unpleasant and offered little in the way of closure, “It’s a piece of broadcasting and cultural history, which supplements all the other O.J. Simpson coverage.” (rtr)

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Austin Fire Department/Handout via REUTERS.

Austin Fire Department personnel attend the scene of a package explosion in the 6700 block of Galindo Street in east Austin, Texas, U.S. March 12, 2018.

Police link two deadly package bombs in Austin, Texas, to earlier attack

AUSTIN - Two package bombs left outside homes in Austin, Texas, exploded on Monday, killing a teenager and injuring two women in attacks that police linked to a deadly blast earlier this month. The latest bombings came as the Texas capital hosted its annual South by Southwest music, technology and film festival downtown. The victims in all three cases were AfricanAmerican or Hispanic, and police said they were examining the attacks as possible hate crimes.

In each of the three attacks, a cardboard package was left at the front of a private residence and exploded after an unwitting victim picked it up or tried to open it, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters.

The packages that exploded on Monday were not delivered by any

mainstream commercial shipping services, such as Federal Express or United Parcel Service, Manley said.

“We are looking at these incidents as being related,” Manley said, adding that federal investigators had joined the search for suspects and a possible motive. “We

cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this, but we are not saying that that is the cause,” Manley told a news conference. He warned residents to watch out for boxes left outside their homes and to report anything suspicious to police.

The first explosion, on March 2, killed a 39-year-old black man at a house in the city’s Harris Ridge neighborhood, which is home to technology companies and about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of downtown. The blast was powerful enough to blew out walls at the home’s entryway.

A 17-year-old African-American boy died on Monday when he found

a package outside his house in east Austin and brought it into the kitchen of his home, where it exploded, Manley said. A woman in her 40s was in the home and injured by the blast, although she was expected to survive, police said.

A second explosion, about 4 miles (6 km) away in southeastern Austin, injured a 75-yearold woman in the predominantly working-class Hispanic community of Montopolis, police said. A neighbor, Brandon Rendon, told Reuters the victim was in a wheelchair watering her grass before the blast occurred.

Monday’s attacks unfolded as the

city was thronged by visitors to the South by Southwest Festival. On Monday afternoon, London Mayor Sadiq Khan delivered a keynote address at the event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city each year. Manley said the bombings posed no threat to the festival, but he urged visitors to remain vigilant. (rtr) News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http:// globalfmbali.listen2myradio.com or live video streaming at http:// radioglobalfmbali.com and http:// ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.