Edisi 16 September 2016 | Internasional Bali Post

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

16 Pages Number 173 8th year

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

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Friday, September 16, 2016

Justin Timberlake kicks off concert documentary at Toronto festival

TORONTO - Pop star Justin Timberlake’s new concert documentary was a joy to make because the lack of rigid plot or story structure makes shooting such productions the “purest form of film making,” director Jonathan Demme said on Wednesday.

“Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, was filmed at the final performances of the singer’s world tour in Las Vegas in January 2015.

It begins with a pre-show band huddle and then launches within minutes into the action-packed dance and musical spectacle from onstage.

“When we film music, to me that’s the purest form of film making,” Demme said in an interview in Toronto with Timberlake. “There’s no script that has to be followed.

The only narrative is the music itself.”

Demme, known for “Philadelphia,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” and concert films such as “Stop Making Sense” with Talking Heads, said being in the middle of the show makes even a non-musician such as himself feel part of the music.

“We’re feeling it, so intense, and capturing it, it’s like, ‘We’re in the band now!’” he said.

The film, which will be released on Netflix on Oct. 12, is a culmination of Timberlake’s 134 shows and 2 years on the road on a tour billed as one of the highest-grossing of the decade.

Timberlake said on Wednesday

he initially was nervous because he was being himself, instead of portraying characters as he usually does on screen.

“Last night I had a bit of that,” he said. “I was going like, ‘Oh, wow, a lot of people are going to see this now.’”

But Demme had told him that,

e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Friday, September 16, 2016 Obama, meeting with Suu Kyi, says U.S. ready to lift Myanmar sanctions Page 6

Angry Allegri: Juventus not favorite for Champions League Page 8

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening Page 13

in a way, performing on stage was playing a character as well, Timberlake said.

“Being on stage is intuitive but it’s also a bigger version of yourself,” he said.

Timberlake is a Demme fan and said the movie maker had captured the concert well, including his supporting cast. While Timberlake was the focus, the film did not neglect the Tennessee Kids, Timberlake’s 25-piece band whose members were given liberal screen time. (rtr)

AP Photo

Police investigators examine the Gili Cat 2 boat following an explosion while it was enroute to nearby island of Lombok, at Padangbai Port in Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016.

REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Justin Timberlake arrives on the red carpet for the film “Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids” during the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), in Toronto, Canada, September 13, 2016.

Indonesia ferry blast kills two, injures several

DENPASAR - An explosion on a ferry carrying 35 tourists between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok killed two people on Thursday and injured several more, police said. The nationalities of the tourists involved was still unclear, the police said, correcting an earlier description of the two dead as being a Dutch citizen and an Indonesian national. “ U p t o n o w, t w o p e o p l e have died, but I don’t know the details of their identities,” said district police chief Sug-

eng, who uses only one name, like many Indonesians. Several injured tourists were being treated in hospitals.

Police denied reports there was a bomb on board the ferry, saying instead that they suspected a gas cylinder explo-

sion.

“We confirm there was no bomb on board,” Sugeng said.

“The explosion happened because of...a gas cylinder close to the engine.” Bali and neighbouring Lombok are two of Indonesia’s most popular holiday destinations. (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.

Marine sector generates economy

Do not just be made as imaging DENPASAR - Marine and fishery sector is now expected to become the generator of economic growth in Indonesia. However, this

expectation must also be accompanied with non-contra-productive policies or rules. The government should not just make regulations nationally, but also pay attention to the peculiarities of each region.

“Core of Indonesia’s economy focused

on the maritime is okay. But it must not just become an imaging. The imaging is executed by bombing vessel (in handling illegal fishing—Ed), but derivatives of the rules must be considered for each region,” said the a member of Commission II of the

Bali House of Representatives, A.A. Ngurah Adhi Ardhana, in Denpasar, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Continued on page 2 Marine...

2

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

COVER STORY

Marine...

From page 1

Adhi Ardhana sees there is a counter-productive regulation of the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs to the intention of the president wishing the fisheries and maritime sector to drive the economy. One of them is the implementation of Regulation of the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs No.1/2015 on the prohibition of catching lobsters and crabs weighing less than 300 grams.

“Nationally it is good. But in Bali, fishermen produce sand lobster of small size and they mostly weigh less than 300 grams. If it is forbidden, it is annoying,” he explained. Similar opinion was delivered by a member of Commission II, I Gede Putra Kusuma.

Due to the regulation, fishermen are

finally not able to export lobster as their livelihood.

“Finally they are unable to sell, but mocked by middleman,” he said. Kusuma Putra emphasized that such regulation cannot be applied equally in each region. This regulation is clearly contrary to the wishes of the government, especially the president, so that marine products can be used for the welfare of fishermen. In addition to meeting local consumption, it can bring in foreign exchanges for the state through exports.

“Lobster in Bali belongs to sand species. Regardless of the age, it remains to have such size. That’s why the Bali Fisheries and Maritime Affairs must be proactive so there is exclusivity of regulations to Bali,” he said.

In the meantime, Chairman of Commission II, Ketut Suwandhi,

The menu at Manisan serves truly authentic Indonesian flavours of the Indonesian archipelago.

Using carefully selected ingredients, expect time-tested recipes that bring classic food traditions

IBP/file

Thousands of manuscripts found damaged and less maintained

Ibp/Yudi Karnaedi

“Initially we did a mapping on the potential of language, in terms of literature and Balinese language.

In fact, when coming down to the field and meeting several public figures, many of them are giving the palm-manuscripts and asked to be rescued. Most of them ask for conservation and reading,” said Chairman of Balinese Language Extension Officer of Bali Province, I Nyoman Suka Ardiyasa, when presenting the data at the Bali Culture Agency, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

During the two-month at villages, added Suka, a total of 8,370 packs of manuscripts were found.

Of that number, 2,562 packs are in poor and damaged condition. In this case, the condition of manuscript is no longer intact both in the form of physical condition or content. The data are subject to change because

Activities

Friday, September 16, 2016

15

The Golden Age of Taste

By Culinary Legend William Wongso

said that all this time there has been no effort to maintain the sustainability of marine resources such as fish without exception for Bali. As the impact, the current number of fish is not as much as before. On that account, the entire community from the lowest level at hamlet is asked to help prevent illegal fishing, including prohibiting the fishing by means of bombing. “If the fishing is done by bombing, it will not just kill fish but also the coral reef,” he said.

Suwandhi added that firmness in handling illegal fishing must not only be done at the beginning because all this time the marine resources do not contribute much to the economy because they are undermined by foreign vessels.

Other than marine resources stolen by foreign vessels, the potential of Bali is also often taken by vessels from outside Bali. (kmb32)

DENPASAR - The extension officers of Balinese language find thousands of palm-leaf manuscripts spreading in the community in poorly maintained and damaged condition. It happens because people just sanctify the manuscripts without reading or having the intention to know the content. Actually, the manuscript is one of the invaluable historical heritages to the Paradise Island.

The damaged ancient manuscript

International

in some places there are palm-leaf manuscripts that can only be seen on particular feast days such like on the celebration of Saraswati.

“Most of the manuscripts are stored in palace and house of high priest, while the damaged ones are usually owned by general public.

Those stored in the palace and house of high priest are usually well maintained. But indeed in some palaces, the next generation cannot afford to take care of them.

In other words, they no longer care about them,” he added.

Suka explained that the damage to the manuscripts is inseparable from people’s assumption that they are terrible or sacred goods.

Not all people are allowed to read the manuscripts. Since they have not been read too long, the manuscripts then gnawed by insects and finally damaged. In the meantime,

the manuscripts in palace or house of high priest can still survive because they are frequently opened to consult auspicious day or the other needs of Hindu ceremony.

“But in the community there is no such interest. They are only presented with offerings every six months if they can still make the offerings. A strange fact we found is that when the palm-manuscripts are presented the oblation, the holy water is then sprinkled to their body in order to get fine health and magic. Actually it is wrong behavior in maintaining the palm-leaf manuscript,” he explained.

He added that conservation of palm-leaf manuscripts in the future becomes a home work for all parties because it is related to huge funding. Then, people should also realize that manuscripts are not just heritage but also literature. Moreover, Balinese manuscripts contain a lot of spiritual teachings, philosophy, medicine, astrology (wariga) to the record of debts. “Palm-leaf manuscript is a book that should be read before made sacred and we must know about the content,” he said. (kmb32)

 Founder : K.Nadha,  General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Gugiek Savindra  Editors:Agus Toni, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Manik Astajaya, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Dewa Farendra. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto.  Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post

ONGOING EVENTS March 2- August 31th A Love Affair With Asia: Bridges Cafe, Jalan Campuhan, Ubud www.bridges.com FREE Every Tuesday Ecstastic Tuesday Morning Dance 9AM-12Noon Guided improvised movement Paradiso, Jalan Goutama Selatan, Ubud www.paradisoubud.com 100K Every Thursday African Drum Class with Catur Sang Klang Wijaya 4PM-6PM Experience the healing power of drumming. all levels welcome Ashram Satya Graha, Nyuh Kining, Ubud

BY DONATION Every Friday Exploration in Motion 6:30PM-8PM The art of exploration in movement Samadi Bali, Jalan Padang Linjong 38, Echo Beach, Canggu www.samadibali.com 130K Every Sunday Batu Jimbar Cafe Sunday Market 10AM-1PM Organic produce, Bali honey, homemade jams, european specialties Batu jimbar Cafe, Jalan Danau Tambligan No75, Sanur www,batujimbarcafe.com Samadi Bali Sunday Organic Market Organic food, handmade creative clothes and jewellery, yoga for kids, music Samadi Bali, Jalan Padang, Linjong 39, Kuta www.samadibali.com

back to life. Each dish takes guests on a culinary adventure in celebration of our nation’s spirit and diversity.

Guests can also aspect impromptu cooking surprises and classic

food traditions from Minangkabau and Bandung, and other more esoteric dishes from cities such as Pontianak and Ambon.

Manisan will be opened in the middle of September

14

Friday, September 16, 2016

Fashion

International

Bali News

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

3

Amid onslaught of plastic mats

Balinese mat made of pandanus leaf still draws people’s interest

Zara just made this the coolest trend for Fall

WITH the influx of fall trends finally arriving in-store, it can be tricky to determine where to start first. Should you splurge on a pair of velvet ankle boots?

Maybe pick up a slip dress? Well, if Zara has anything to say about it, the first thing you add to your wardrobe will be something shimmery. The brand debuted

a new editorial, “Bling Bling,” for its TRF line, and let’s just stay there’s plenty of sparkle to catch your eye.

From a statement-making pink

skirt to a silver puffer jacket you’ll wear all winter long, there’s no shortage of heavy metal in the stylish spread. Pairing them with soft sweaters,

sporty accessories, and basic tees, Zara proves that it’s easy to incorporate metallics into your wardrobe for the coming months.

(IBP/net)

BANGLI - Although many plastic mats are currently sold, Balinese mats made from pandanus leaf evidently remain in demand.

As evidence, Balinese mats are still purchased by many people, mainly for ceremonial purposes.

In Bangli, Balinese mats are still made by residents of Tanggahan Talangjiwa hamlet, Demulih.

Of the approximately 237 family heads at the hamlet, a total of 80 residents are still deeply involved in the profession as Balinese mat craftsmen.

One of the mat crafters at local hamlet, Ni Wayan Raka, said that Balinese mat craft at Tanggahan Talangjiwa hamlet has been worked on by residents through generations since decades ago. The mat produced by residents all this time, said Raka, is made by using raw material of thorny pandanus leaf that is easily found at the moor of local residents.

She explained that the making of Balinese mat is begun from the process of picking pandanus leaves. Furthermore, the pandanus leaves whose thorns have been removed are then rolled and dried.

Drying process takes a long time approximately one month. After the pandanus leaves go brownish, they are woven into mats with the measure of approximately 1.5 x 1 meter. “Within one day, we usually can weave three pieces of mat,” she said, Tuesday (Sep. 13).

Raka said that all this time the mat products of Tanggahan Talangjiwa residents are widely

purchased by residents and collectors from Bangli and Gianyar.

Mat weavers usually sell it for IDR 15,000 per each sheet. The mat products of local artisans will usually sell well during the season of cremation ceremony.

Although the buyers of Balinese mat for ceremony are still quite a lot, people who are struggling as the mat craftsmen, he admitted, have begun to diminish. At this time the profession as mat craftsmen is only worked on by old people. While younger generation, he admitted, is very rarely willing to become mat artisans. “Perhaps it happens because the making process takes long time,” she said.

In the meantime, hamlet chief of Tanggahan Talangjiwa, I Nyoman Berana, said that although many plastic mats are sold in the market, Balinese mat made from pandanus leaf is still favored by many buyers at his village. This happens because Balinese mat is still used by the community for various purposes, especially in religious ceremonies. “When people are organizing ceremony, they must always use a mat,” he said.

To improve people’s welfare, he hoped the government of Bangli could provide assistance in the form of training to process pandanus leaves into other craft items such as bags and wallets. The population of pandanus leaves in the mountain village is still quite a lot. “The government should also help the marketing,” he added. (kmb40)

IBP/kmb40

Balinese mats are still purchased by many people, mainly for ceremonial purposes.

Kiosks of merchants around the dolphin statue at Lovina will be re-arranged.

Govt plans to arrange kiosks at Lovina

SINGARAJA - Lovina Beach shows an increase in the tourist visit in a series of the Lovina Festival (Lovfest). Crowded foreign travelers come to enjoy the natural charm and beauty of the dolphin attraction.

Deputy Regent of Buleleng, Nyoman Sutjidra, said that Lovina having been famous around the globe is considered necessary to arrange the kiosks of souvenir merchants.

He said the potential of the arrangement will bring in positive image for the visitation and improvement of revenue from selling.

One of the events having been initiated and implemented by the government is the Lovina Festival.

Deputy Regent Sutjidra hoped that merchants will experience the crowd sustainably. Thus, it will require intensive communication and discussion regarding the governance of souvenir merchants in the area of Lovina Beach. “Well, people have great enthusiasm to witness the Lovina Festival. So, we consider it necessary to arrange the kiosks of merchants on Lovina.

Now, we will discuss it back together with the Culture and Tour-

ism Agency and local customary leaders. We’ll talk back to arrange the local kiosks,” he said, Tuesday (Sep. 13).

According to Sutjidra, a representative governance of the merchants will give beautiful impression and comfort for tourist visit to Lovina. Sanitation of souvenir kiosks and Lovina Beach neighborhood become the priorities.

“The regent has delivered that kiosks of merchants around the dolphin statue at Lovina will be re-arranged. The design has been prepared by the regent and there will be an arrangement so that the icon of tourism at Lovina will not go vile. Sanitation on Lovina Beach needs to be maintained together,” he said.

In keeping with the increasing tourist visit, he hoped that merchants and local tour guides can maintain the conduciveness.

IBP/kmb34

“Well, the tour guide at Lovina will be gradually discussed because it concerns the lives of many people. Probably, it will be arranged through tourism customary bylaw as at Pemuteran village,” he said.

A similar opinion was expressed by the Chairman of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) of Buleleng, Dewa Suardipa, where the merchants of souvenirs or art shops along the pedestrian of Lovina are considered very important. Merchants are able to get in touch closer with visitors. They are able to promote the excellence of Lovina Beach, while at other times they make visitors eager to come back to enjoy the natural beauty of Lovina Beach.

“Souvenirs displayed at the art shops are necessary to be arranged and presented beautifully.

It is required to peddle unique and distinctive souvenirs owned

by Lovina and cannot be found in other regions. Arrangement of the kiosks must be carried out as well as possible,” said Suardipa. (kmb34)

4

Friday, September 16, 2016

Bali News

International

Prestige of drama gong increasingly recedes

DENPASAR - Exactly 50 years ago or in 1966, the drama gong was born in Bali. This traditional art achieved the peak of popularity in the 1970s to1980s. However, the appearance of various other types of entertainment has made the drama gong marginalized. In other words, the prestige begins to decline in keeping with the age of growing older.

“People’s understanding on drama gong has decreased. Moreover, they do not know Balinese language,” complained humanist Prof. Dr. I Made Bandem after guiding a discussion with the artists of drama gong at the Bali Culture Agency, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Bandem added that today it is increasingly difficult to find new stars to play drama gong. The only remaining are the old stars or the seniors in this art show. One of the reasons is that there is no longer truly strong art troupe having commitment to the preservation of drama gong. Actually, the drama gong is a genre or a new discovery in the performing arts of Bali.

“Do not let the art having been in the peak, liked by people and given contribution to the Balinese performing arts disappear,” he added.

Bandem proposed there is flexibility in performing the drama gong. However, it must still refer to the standards as a basic guideline. Selection of storylines, for

instance, will become the style of a drama gong performance.

“In Buleleng, for instance, it features more populist storylines such as the Jayaprana and Sampek Ingtay, while in South Bali the drama gong frequently features the stories of history,” he explained.

Another thing to note, added Bandem, is the necessity of dialogue and monologue, the essence of the story, costumes and dialect.

Related to costumes, drama gong actually has owned uniqueness without having to take from gambuh, wayang wong or barong. Most importantly, it must be adapted to the storyline.

“Hopefully, one day drama gong can also be staged overseas as the art representing the identity of Bali.

On that account, let’s think about the strategy so that drama gong can also be known by people outside of Bali,” he affirmed.

An artist of drama gong, I Wayan Sugita, said that drama gong should still highlight the use of Balinese

language in accordance with the basic understanding of drama gong.

Based on his experience while playing drama gong outside Bali, particularly in the transmigration area, the audience even asked the drama gong still speaks Balinese language. “Residents at the transmigration area feel nostalgic with the use of Balinese grammar,” he said.

Sugita added the development of drama gong also needs an agreement on the use of gong (gamelan music). It especially regards the scope of gong in Bali which amounts to about 30 types.

This player of ‘grand duke’ in the drama gong also highlights the makeup of the players presenting a joke is considered too excessive.

As a result, the element of joke is not displayed through dialogue but giving more emphasis on the makeup.

In the meantime, another artist, I Wayan Juana, stressed that the old stories of drama gong should still be preserved. However, it must be adapted in accordance with the present context. “It is intended so that the audience does not become bored quickly,” explained the artist being famous for the character of Dadong (grandma) Rerod. (kmb32)

Friday, September 16, 2016

International

China says opposes “unhelpful” unilateral N.Korea sanctions

BEIJING - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart that China opposes “unhelpful” unilateral sanctions on North Korea but will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response to its fifth nuclear test.

China has expressed anger with North Korea for its largest nuclear test to date last week, but has not said directly whether it will support tougher sanctions.

China has said it believes sanctions are not the ultimate answer and called for a return to talks.

Wang told Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that China opposed the nuclear test, and that it is willing to work with other permanent members of the UN Security Council to “come up with a necessary response to the new changes to the situation on the peninsula”, China’s Foreign Ministry said late on Wednesday.

“With all sides focused on the authoritative channel of the Secu-

The tourist enjoys the beautiful scenery of Kintamani.

rity Council, China opposes unilateral sanctions that are unhelpful to resolving the issue,” the statement paraphrased Wang as saying, without elaborating.

A U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, met Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama last Friday.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Kishida said the nuclear test was unforgivable and a direct, grave threat to Japanese security, and asked China for a constructive response as a responsible permanent member of the Security Council.

China is isolated North Korea’s most important diplomatic backer and biggest trading partner, but frustrated with repeated nuclear and missile tests it has signed on to increasingly tough UN sanctions and insisted it is complying with them. (rtr)

IBP/file

Tourism Office admits many local visitors rarely buy ticket

The Drama Gong Performance

IBP/file

13

BANGLI - The Bangli Culture and Tourism Agency admitted to be intensifying the activity of monitoring to the admission ticket booth in Kintamani. This happens because all this time local visitors making a visit to Kintamani are rarely willing to buy ticket. This was stated by the Head of the Bangli Culture and Tourism Agency, Wayan Adnyana, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Adnyana said that local visitors making a visit to Kintamani are rarely willing to buy admission ticket. They often provide specific reasons in order to avoid charges of the ticket attendant.

According to Adnyana, lack of awareness of local visitors to buy ticket becomes one of the causes of not achieving the revenue target from tourism sector this year.

He said that in the main regional budget 2016 the revenue target to be achieved from tourism sector is as much as IDR 18 billion. In the amended regional budget, it will be

added IDR 2 billion, bringing the total revenue target from tourism sector of IDR 20 billion.

Adnyana admitted that the revenue target is actually quite difficult considering the current condition of Bangli tourism. Nevertheless, his agency will seek to achieve the target. “We will strive to meet the target,” he said.

In the future, to pursue the revenue target, his agency will intensify the monitoring activities to ticket booth in order to minimize leakage. Such activity will be done intensively for the next three months.

According to Adnyana, actually to maximize the revenue from tourism sector needs a separation of the lane at Penelokan between travelers and general public. “This time the collection is still done on the highway so that we consider it difficult to distinguish the entourage of travelers from ordinary people,” he added. (kmb40)

REUTERS/Tyrone Siu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A partially capsized fishing ship is seen after Typhoon Meranti made landfall, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan September 15, 2016.

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening

BEIJING - Typhoon Meranti slammed into southeastern China on Thursday with strong winds and lashing rain that cut power to 1.65 million homes, but there were no reports of more casualties in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally.

KCNA/Files via Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets scientists and technicians in the field of research into nuclear weapons in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 9, 2016.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping across southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen.

Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day MidAutumn Festival holiday.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people.

About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province,

where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, state television said.

Large sections of Xiamen also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows in tall buildings shattered, sending glass showering onto the ground below, state news agency Xinhua said.

The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm

approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain. (rtr)

12

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

BUSINESS

Europe’s main stock markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris dipped in and out of positive territory as the region struggled to pull out of a five-day losing streak.

Primarily it has been caused by nagging concerns that having resorted to previously unthinkable measures like negative interest rates and mass money printing, top central banks are now running out of options to get economies going.

Euro zone bond yields crept up again in early deals as the real power driver, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed back past

1.71 percent which lifted the dollar against the yen, euro and pound.

“We are 150 percent focused on the fixed-income selloff,” said State Street’s head of global macro strategy Michael Metcalfe.

“The market concern is that the central bank support is going to be different going forward,” he said, adding that tandem falls in equity and bond markets pointed to “a big unwind of risk”.

That theme of central bank policy effectiveness was live.

The Switzerland’s central bank kept its key interest rates in deep negative territory in Zurich and re-

Indonesia Today

Indonesia to resume work on “Giant Sea Wall” to save sinking Jakarta

Stocks struggle for footing after bond slip

LONDON - World stocks steadied at two-month lows on Thursday though bond markets stayed firmly in the red, as eight years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers two of Europe’s top central banks prepared to keep their interest rates pointing down.

International

peated its view that the Swiss franc was “significantly overvalued” and that it was willing to intervene in the FX markets.

The franc barely budged. The Bank of England was also meeting, with it widely expected to stand pat after cutting rates and ramping up its stimulus programme last month in a bid to limit any Brexit damage to the UK economy.

Economists and traders will be watching carefully though to see whether it reconfirms that it plans to cut rates again towards the end of the year.

“The BoE is important in a broader sense for the market,” said State Street’s Metcalfe. “That would send the message that at least one of the major central bank is still being as easy as can be.” (rtr)

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 13, 2016.

REUTERS/Joachim Herrmann

Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk speaks during an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, August 30, 2016.

IMF board approves $1 billion loan disbursement to Ukraine

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund said its board on Wednesday approved a long-awaited loan disbursement to Ukraine of about $1 billion after a review of the country’s bailout program.

The IMF has agreed to pump $17.5 billion into Ukraine’s economy in a four-year bailout, releasing the funds in installments subject to the government making progress on economic and anti-corruption reforms.

To date, Ukraine has received about $7.62 billion in the program launched in March 2015.

The latest disbursement was less than the roughly $1.7 billion anticipated, after some reforms required by the fund had stalled.

But the IMF said in a statement that the board had approved waivers for Kiev’s failure to meet criteria related to international reserves targets, external payments arrears and foreign exchange restrictions.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the disbursement would clear the way for an additional $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee and a new 600 million-euro loan from the European Union.

In a statement, he said a Russian attempt to undermine the IMF’s decision had failed, and that the funds’ release would help keep the hryvnia currency stable and aid the economy.

“The positive decision by the IMF is evidence that the world recognises that reforms are happening in Ukraine, that real and positive changes are happening in Ukraine, and that the country is moving in the right direction,” Poroshenko said.

Last week, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said the IMF decision should clear the way for the sale of about $1 billion in U.S.-guaranteed bonds by the end of September.

The IMF cash and external loans should boost foreign currency reserves to $17.2 billion by the end of the year, a central bank deputy governor, Oleh Churiy, said, welcoming the IMF decision as a positive signal for domestic and foreign investors.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement after the board’s vote that Ukraine was showing signs of recovery and improved confidence, which she attributed to the implementation of reforms, sound macroeconomic policies and efforts to rehabilitate Ukraine’s banking system.

“Further progress in fiscal reforms is key to ensure mediumterm sustainability,” Lagarde said, calling for pension reforms and tax policies that would avoid higher deficits, and the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia will resume land reclamation that will help prevent Jakarta from sinking below sea level, a cabinet minister said, five months after work was suspended due to regulatory and environmental concerns.

Greater Jakarta, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, sits on a swampy plain and is sinking at a faster rate than any other city in the world. Jakarta has focused its attention on bolstering its defences with a 15-mile sea wall and refurbishing the crumbling flood canal system.

The government decided late on Tuesday to allow work to continue on a key phase of the “Giant Sea Wall”, which aims to shore up northern Jakarta while revamping the capital’s image into a Singapore-like waterfront city. “If this Giant Sea Wall is not done, that will create a big impact on Jakarta with regards to salt water penetration,” Coordinating Maritime Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Tuesday.

Included in the master plan is the building of 17 artificial islands off Jakarta’s northern coast, where property developers plan to build shopping malls and attractions similar

to Singapore’s Sentosa Island.

But work on that project was suspended in April following disagreements between the government and the Jakarta governor over who had authority to issue permits. Some fishermen have also protested against reclamation, saying it would reduce their catch.

In response, the government plans to offer them fishing permits in waters near the Natuna Islands.

The suspension in April also threatened to delay Indonesian property developer PT Agung Podomoro Land’s multi-billion-dollar Pluit City, comprising apartments, offices and shopping malls on parts of artificial land it was constructing.

“We are still waiting for government direction,” said Justini Omas, the company’s corporate secretary.

“Previously, we had planned that construction of the island would be done in 2018.”

Earlier this month, former Agung Podomoro executive Ariesman Widjaja was jailed for three years for bribing a member of the Jakarta provincial assembly to influence the regulation for the land reclamation, media said. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s tax office will investigate Alphabet Inc’s Google for suspected unpaid taxes from billions of dollars worth of advertising revenue, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.

Muhammad Hanif, head of the specials cases branch in the tax office, said Google’s refusal to cooperate after it was sent a letter in April requesting to be allowed to examine the company’s tax reports had raised suspicions. He told a news conference that the probe would not be launched until the end of the month at the earliest. PT Google Indonesia, incorporated in 2011, said it was complying with the government.

“We continue to cooperate fully with local authorities and pay all applicable taxes,” a Google Indonesia spokesman said in an emailed response to questions. The government had also asked to examine the tax reports of the Indonesian offices of three other U.S. Internet based companies - Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook .

Those three companies have complied, officials said. Yahoo and Google have formed Indonesian limited liability companies, while Twitter and Facebook operate branches of their Asia-Pacific offices in Indonesia.

The government believes these companies owe income and value added tax on billions of dollars of revenue they generate from advertising in Indonesia, the tax office said.

Hanif said Google’s Indonesian entity was only allocated around 4

percent of the total revenues generated from the country, and it was this amount that was taxed, which he described as too small and “unfair”.

The communications ministry had estimated the value of digital advertising in Indonesia at about $800 million last year. The ministry said all of it was untaxed. There was no immediate explanation for the wide discrepancy of the two agencies’ estimates for digital advertising revenue.

Indonesia is facing a sizeable revenue shortfall this year as the resourcerich country can no longer rely on commodity-related income.

In a separate development, the tax office said it is checking whether Ford Motor Co had avoided paying appropriate taxes, after a local newspaper reported that the U.S. car maker modified imported Everest model vehicles sold in Indonesia to pay a lower tax rate. If the car maker is proven to have caused state losses, it may have to pay back taxes of up to four times the amount it owed, according to Indonesian law.

“We have always strictly complied with all Indonesia government regulations and policy, including all importrelated tax and customs requirements, related to each of our Ford vehicles officially marketed and sold in the country,” a Ford spokesman said.

Ford announced in January it is closing all operations in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, where it held less than a 1 percent market share. (rtr)

Indonesia to investigate Google over possible unpaid taxes

Friday, September 16, 2016

5

Singapore banks report tax amnesty Indonesians to police

SINGAPORE - Private banks in Singapore are sharing with local police the names of clients embracing an Indonesian tax amnesty, three banking sources told Reuters, a move that could undermine the amnesty and damage the banks’ business with their biggest client pool.

Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), a police unit that deals with financial crime, told banks last year they must file a suspicious transaction report (STR) whenever a client takes part in a tax amnesty scheme, the sources told Reuters.

After initial resistance from the banks, worried they might lose clients, that message was reinforced this year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, when Indonesia launched a tax amnesty aimed at wooing back some of the cash its wealthy citizens have stashed in Singapore, the sources said.

“We are filing the STR and hope others are doing it, too,”? said one senior private banker when asked about clients responding to the Indonesian amnesty.

“Banks have filed STRs,” said another banking source, adding that clients should not be informed about the filing. Both the Singapore police and MAS declined to comment.

Singapore, where Indonesians hold an estimated $200 billion in private banking assets - 40 percent of the island’s total private banking assets - made tax evasion a moneylaundering offence in 2013.

It is toughening up the implementation of the law after an investigation into state-backed fund 1MDB in neighbouring Malaysia exposed how some of its banks failed to impose robust controls on suspicious money flows. The STR requirement on suspected tax crimes is part of that process.

“The moment the client tells you

he’s participating in the amnesty, you have a suspicion that the assets with you are not compliant, and so you have to report to the authorities,” said a senior executive at a Singapore-based wealth manager.

“In light of the toughening regulatory environment, banks need to conduct more proactive checks on the effectiveness of their internal controls and procedures,” said Wilson Ang, a partner in the Singapore office of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

Reuters spoke to several other senior private bank officials who confirmed the STR filing requirement, but declined to comment further.

Ken Dwijugiasteadi, the head of Indonesia’s tax office, said: “I haven’t heard of such information, but if true, it is the Singapore’s government’s matter. It becomes my matter when someone joins the tax amnesty.”

EXTRA SCRUTINY

The Singapore police website says it has used STR filings to detect financial crime. That means if there is any evidence of wrongdoing from these filings, authorities can further probe clients or banks.

The fear of such scrutiny could deter Indonesians from considering the amnesty, which runs to March 2017 and has so far had a tepid uptake. The Indonesian tax office said 393 trillion rupiah ($30 billion) of assets had been declared as of Sept. 13, of which at least 30 trillion rupiah are in Singapore.

“I don’t think Indonesians there

are afraid,” said Dwijugiasteadi.

“A lot of Indonesians in Singapore have already joined the amnesty.”

Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardojo said late on Wednesday the bank’s modelling suggests the amnesty will secure just 11 percent of its targeted revenue this year.

Indonesians are among the biggest investors in Singapore’s property market and use banks there to invest in currencies or regional stocks, encouraged by the strong legal framework and security of the Asian financial centre.

Many moved money to Singapore after attacks against ethnic Chinese businesses in Indonesia in 1998, when economic problems triggered riots and the fall of the Suharto government.

The increased tax scrutiny in Singapore comes just ahead of the publication of a report on the island nation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body that conducts regular evaluations of countries’ anti-money laundering standards.

One of the FATF guidelines states that a financial institution needs to report suspicious transactions when it suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that a client’s funds are proceeds of a criminal activity such as tax evasion.

Ong-Ang Ai Boon, director of the Association of Banks in Singapore, said the lobby group had told banks that amnesty programmes were a useful tool for individuals to regularise their tax affairs with their local tax authorities. The association did not comment on the new filing requirements. “If there’s a red flag and we ignore it, that’s our problem,” the second banking source said. (rtr)

REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/File Photo

Tourists stand at a promenade across the water from the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in Singapore June 22, 2010.

6

Friday, September 16, 2016

W

International

RLD

Obama, meeting with Suu Kyi, says U.S. ready to lift Myanmar sanctions

WASHINGTON - Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi called on Wednesday for the lifting of economic sanctions against her country, and President Barack Obama, in their first White House meeting since she became leader, said the United States was ready to do so.

“It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government,” Obama said with Suu Kyi beside him in the Oval Office.

The trip by Suu Kyi, 71, who like Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, capped a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader after her party won a sweeping electoral victory last year.

With Suu Kyi no longer an opposition figure, Washington has been weighing a further easing of sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, as Obama looks to normalize relations with a country shunned when it was ruled by a military junta.

“We think that the time has now come to remove all the sanctions that hurt us economically,” Suu Kyi

said, noting that the U.S. Congress had supported her country by backing sanctions in the past to apply pressure for democratic reforms.

As Suu Kyi arrived for the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying it would reinstate Myanmar to the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, which provides duty-free treatment for goods from poor and developing countries.

Myanmar was removed from GSP benefits in 1989 following prodemocracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta. Myanmar will be back in the program on Nov. 13, U.S. officials said.

Reinstating those benefits, combined with lifting sanctions, “will give the United States, our businesses, our non-profit institutions greater incentive to invest and participate in what we hope will

be an increasingly democratic and prosperous partner for us in the region,” Obama said.

After visiting the White House, Suu Kyi met with some members of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol.

She was to return there on Thursday for meetings with House and Senate leaders from both parties, although not Paul Ryan, the Republican House speaker. Ryan’s aides said he had a scheduling conflict.

Some members of Congress have expressed concerns about change in Myanmar and its human rights record. They have introduced at least two pieces of legislation seeking to give lawmakers some influence on the process of easing sanctions.

Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commented after meeting with Suu Kyi that while the new administration brought hope to Myanmar, he remained committed to efforts to protect its oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority. (rtr)

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi as they speak to media at the conclusion of a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016.

REUTERS/Jamil Bittar/File Photo

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talks with his wife Marisa Leticia during a ceremony at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, June 26, 2007.

Brazil’s Lula charged as ‘top boss’ of Petrobras graft scheme

CURITIBA - Brazilian prosecutors charged ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday with being the “boss” of a vast corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras, in a major blow to the leftist hero’s hopes of a political comeback.

It was the first time that Lula, still Brazil’s most popular politician despite corruption accusations against him and his Workers Party, was charged by federal prosecutors for involvement in the political kickbacks scheme at Petroleo Brasileiro, as the company is officially known.

Public Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol told a news conference that Lula will be charged with corruption and money laundering for leading a kickback scheme that caused an estimated 42 billion reais ($12.6 billion) in losses to Petrobras shareholders and tax payers.

“He was the conductor of this criminal orchestra,” Dallagnol said during a detailed presentation of the investigation. “The Petrobras graft scheme aimed at keeping the Workers Party in power by criminal means.”

Lula’s lawyers said prosecutors lacked evidence to back up their accusations which were part of political persecution to stop him running in the 2018 election.

“This Lula-centered farce was trumped up as an affront to the democratic state and intelligence

of Brazilian citizens,” one of Lula’s lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Dallagnol stopped short of saying investigators would seek an arrest order for Lula, who became a hero to many poor Brazilians during his 2003-2010 government.

The two-year-old Operation Carwash anti-corruption investigation, based in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, has uncovered how political appointees named by Lula’s Workers Party and its allies handed overpriced contracts to engineering firms in return for illicit party funding and bribes.

The scandal helped topple the Workers Party from power last month by crushing the popularity of Lula’s chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff. She was impeached by Congress on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules, amid rising anger over her handling of Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s.

Dallagnol said that Lula, because of his control of the machinery of the Workers Party and the Brazilian government, was the central figure in the scheme.

Prosecutors allege that the charismatic former union leader had personally received some 3.7 million reais ($1.11 million) in bribes, including a luxury apartment on the coast of Sao Paulo from one of the engineering and construction firms at the center of the bribery scandal, OAS. (rtr)

10

Friday, September 16, 2016

Destination

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

International

Button could race in Japan next year

Enjoying countryside charm of Mengesta

TABANAN - Wow… how beautiful the countryside of Mengesta Village is. Terraced rice fields with organic rice plants, dry fields overgrown with lush trees, small familiar animals and clean surroundings make this village really convenient. Moreover, people are very friendly making the village atmosphere peaceful.

One time visit to this village will definitely make you addicted to come again.

Having an excursion to destination situated at Wangaya Betan Hamlet, Mengesta Village, Penebel Subdistrict, Tabanan,

about 10 km north of Tabanan City, will never make you bored.

Conversely, you should prepare a fit stamina because you will have much promenade on the rice field bund, moor, river bank with many slopes and steep grades. Aside from absorbing, there will be many interesting and entertaining things encountered along the journey.

This ecotourism journey starts from the end of the village passing through paddy fields. Previously, you will be welcomed by villagers with a variety of Balinese arts and cultural attractions. There are Balinese women upholding

gebogan (fruits and flowers arrangement), kids dance, while men play gamelan music with devotional spirits. You can watch the attraction, while cooling down your body by enjoying young coconut drink.

Furthermore, visitors can walk along the rice field while watching the activities of local farmers cultivating their farm traditionally. To enrich your experience, you will get the opportunity to feel how to plow, level the soil and transplanting rice seedling by moving forward and backward.

Plowing and leveling soil drawn

by two cows is certainly exciting.

Once trying, you must be addictive because this activity is best-loved by travelers when making a trip to this village.

The next route is to walk on moor area to enjoy typical aura of local trees. On the terraced moor planted with local green grasses, you can observe local trees with fruits and its benefits will be explained by your tour guide.

Among them, there are durian, coffee, cacao, passion fruit, coconut, pineapple, rose apple, guava, jackfruit, soursop, mangosten, longan, papaya, avocado, straw-

berry, vanilla and various types of bananas. And the most favored is the cacao because so far they only know the processed cacao.

You are also invited to look around the village atmosphere such as socializing with children in primary school and visiting pristine houses remaining to apply Asta Kosala-Kosali or Balinese geomancy. Here, you can learn Balinese or teach your own language to local community. If you like to have horseback riding, you can take advantage of the four-legged animal to look natural moor in Bali. (IBP/net)

SINGAPORE - McLaren’s Jenson Button could race in Rallycross or in Japan’s Super GT series when he takes a break from Formula One next year.

The 2009 world champion, who has spent almost two decades in grand prix racing, is handing over his race seat to Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne next season.

McLaren have retained the 36-year-old Briton under contract until the end of 2018, however, and could draft him in if a reserve is needed before then.

Button is the most experienced driver on the starting grid and while his sabbatical is likely to spell the end of his Formula One racing career, he said he could still compete elsewhere.

“I want to spend more time with friends, family and to do other things...I love triathlons and maybe I’ll race in something else like Rallycross or Super GT in Japan,” he told reporters at a promotional event in Singapore on Wednesday.

Super GT is a Japanese touring car series with some international races. Carmaker Honda, who make the NSX sportscar, is McLaren’s engine partner.

Button’s late father John was a rallycross driver.

“There are so many options and

that’s why it’s exciting, because I can sort of live my life the way I want to next year,” said Button.

“I have a contract to race with the team in 2018 if the team wants me to race and if I feel that I want to race.

“I’ve been driving in Formula One for 17 years, which is my whole adult life, so I want to live a year in my life that is not by (its) schedule.”

Button, who claimed the last of his 15 grand prix victories in Brazil four years ago, believes Formula One will benefit from a raft of technical and sporting rule changes for the 2017 season if they lead to a reining in of dominant Mercedes.

“I’m happy there are regulation changes for the future and hopefully it’ll bring people closer together,” Button said.

“Formula One needs that. There are so many good fights behind Mercedes in the rest of Formula One. There are so many good races but those two (Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg), it’s just too easy for them.”

Button is 15th in the drivers’ championship on 17 points after 14 of 21 races, with his best result a sixth-place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

The Singapore Grand Prix takes place on Sunday. (rtr) REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff

Silver medalist Stuart Tripp (L to R) of Australia, gold medalist Alessandro Zanardi of Italy and bronze medalist Oscar Sanchez of USA pose with their medals.

Zanardi wins gold, 15 years on from horror crash

RIO DE JANEIRO - Former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi won his third Paralympic gold medal on Wednesday, a day before the 15th anniversary of the Champ Car crash that cost the Italian both legs and nearly his life.

REUTERS/Max Rossi

McLaren’s Jenson Button of Britain smiles during the news conference.

The 49-year-old won the 20km H5 hand-cycling road time trial in Rio de Janeiro to add to the two golds he won on his Paralympics debut in London four years ago.

“Normally I don’t thank God for these type of things as I believe God has more important stuff to worry about,” he told NBC television.

“But today is too much. I had to raise my eyes and thank him.

“I feel very lucky, I feel my life is a never-ending privilege.”

Zanardi, a two times champion

in the U.S.-based Champ Car series that is now IndyCar, competed in 41 grands prix between 1991 and 1999 with his final season at Williams.

He had both legs amputated above the knee, with his heart stopping seven times as he lost all but a litre of the blood in his body, after the horrific crash at the Lausitzring in Germany on Sept. 15, 2001.

The Italian was leading the race when he lost control of his Reynard-Honda in the final laps

and Canadian Alex Tagliani ran into him at more than 350kph.

“The car broke into two pieces, one bit of me stayed with the car and the other bit, which was my legs, went ‘arrivederci’ in the other direction,” he said before competing at the London 2012 Games.

Zanardi, who had been read the last rites, returned to racing a year and a half after the accident and competed in the world touring car championship until 2009, by which time he had taken up handcycling.

Two years after the accident, he returned to the Lausitzring and finished the 13 laps that he had failed to complete during the race. (rtr)

8

Friday, September 16, 2016

Friday, September 16, 2016

Sp rt Angry Allegri: Juventus not favorite for Champions League

TURIN — Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri angrily denied his side is favorite to win the Champions League following a massive outlay in the transfer market in the offseason.

A sixth successive Serie A title appears to be a foregone conclusion for Juventus after a summer spending spree which included signing last season’s top goalscorer Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli for 90 million euros ($99 million) in the most expensive transfer in Italian football history.

Great things were also expected of Juventus in Europe, but it opened up its campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Sevilla on Wednesday.

“I think Juventus has the same ambitions as last year and two years ago. No more, no less,” Allegri said after the match. “It doesn’t mean that because we had a great transfer window we are now obliged to win the Champions League, because winning the Champions League is not easy. I think we have the duty to try in the Champions League and the duty to win the league, the Italian Cup and the Italian Supercup.

“The Champions League is a competition where there are four or five teams which are certainly at

the same level as Juventus and not a level above. This doesn’t mean that Juventus can’t try to win the Champions League. But everyone is talking about this Juventus. It seems that Juventus is the only favorite for the Champions League when it’s been 20 years since Juventus won the Champions League, so we need to keep our feet on the ground.”

Juventus reached the Champions League final in Allegri’s first year in charge, losing to Barcelona, but was eliminated in the round of 16 last season by Bayern Munich.

As well as Higuain, it also brought in the likes of Miralem Pjanic, Dani Alves, Medhi Benatia and Juan Cuadrado — although it sold Paul Pogba back to Manchester United for a word-record fee of $116 million.

Higuain, who scored twice in the opening 10 minutes of a 3-1 win over Sassuolo on Saturday, was kept quiet by a defensive-minded Sevilla at the Juventus Stadium, although he did go closest to break-

ing the deadlock shortly before the hour mark when he headed Dani Alves’ cross off the crossbar.

Juventus has won its opening two matches in the league but now trails Lyon in Group H after the French side beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0, and needs a positive result in Croatia in two weeks’ time.

Defender Giorgio Chiellini believes Allegri’s anger in the post-match press conference was directed at the media hype surrounding Juventus and not his players.

“It’s more a message to the outsiders because the players are very much aware of what we need to do,” Chiellini said. “On the outside on the other hand there is always a lot less balance and you go from hero to zero in an instant and that’s not reality.

“We need to continue with a lot of calm, a lot of balance, a lot of humility, knowing that on Saturday we won 3-1 but we made a lot of mistakes. Tonight it was 0-0 but we had a better performance. We need to improve day by day because the aim is to get to March and still be fighting on all fronts.” (ap)

Ronaldo and Morata save Madrid in Champions League

MADRID — Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata scored very late goals as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1 and avoid starting the defense of its Champions League title with a shock defeat on Wednesday.

Ronaldo equalized from an 89th minute free kick against his former club and Morata netted the winner deep in injury time to give the hosts a hard-fought victory in a match Sporting had largely under control.

“I’m happy with the points. We suffered but never gave up,” Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “I don’t know if the result was fair or not, but it’s clear we believed. You have to play until the end. It wasn’t a perfect match, you never see a perfect match, but the important thing was to win.”

Madrid, trying to become the first team to win back-to-back Champions League titles since the tournament’s new format went into effect in 1992-93, avoided what would have been only its second loss in 31 Champions League matches at home. It has won 27 times and drawn three at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Sporting was just a few minutes

away from its first win in 11 matches in Spain in UEFA competitions.

Madrid almost lost at home to a Portuguese team for the first time.

Boosted by a loud visiting crowd, Sporting played well from the start, defending with efficiency and creating dangerous chances up front with well-timed counterattacks and accurate passing.

Bruno Cesar put the Portuguese side ahead only three minutes into the second half after Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric failed to clear, allowing the Brazilian midfielder to fire a left-footed shot into the far corner.

It was the first time Real Madrid conceded a goal at home in the Champions League since the semifinals of the 2014-15 season.

“Our strategy worked well until the final five or six minutes,” Cesar said. “We played great and we showed what we are capable of.

We are sad, of course, because we played face to face with a team like Real Madrid, we could have won and we lost, but we leave with our heads held high.”

Madrid struggled to produce significant scoring opportunities despite starting with the attacking trio of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and

Karim Benzema for the first time since last season.

Ronaldo, who had been cheered by fans from both teams, was mostly ineffective until coming up with the well-placed free kick that was touched by Sporting goalkeeper Rui Patricio before hitting the post and going in. Ronaldo did not celebrate as he usually does and only raised his hands in the air as teammates rushed over.

“It was against the team where I learned my trade, the club has a place in my heart and I have a lot of respect for them,” he said. “That’s why I couldn’t celebrate.”

The winner also came in dramatic fashion, coming from a pair of second-half substitutes five minutes into stoppage time. James Rodriguez curled a cross into the area from the left flank and Morata found the net with a firm header from near the penalty spot. Patricio again touched the ball but was not able to fully deflect it.

“We always believed in ourselves and we proved that you can always win a game until the referee blows the final whistle,” Morata said. “Football is not always fair but it was fundamental to win and that’s what we’ve done.” (ap)

REUTERS/Giorgio Perottino

Juventus’ coach Massimiliano Allegri during the match.

Dortmund’s beaming Goetze on road to redemption

AP Photo/Alik Keplicz

Dortmund’s Mario Goetze, left, celebrates with Christian Pulisic after scoring the first goal of his team during the Champions League Group F soccer match between Legia Warsaw and Dortmund at Stadion Wojska Polskiego in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016.

Mario Goetze could not stop smiling after scoring his first goal for Borussia Dortmund since his return in their 6-0 demolition of Legia Warsaw in the Champions League on Wednesday. The 24year-old’s best appearance since his controversial return to Dortmund in the close season following a hapless three-year spell at rivals Bayern Munich could not have come at a better time.

Dortmund notched their biggest ever away win in the Champions League in their opening group match, setting a marker ahead of their match against reigning champions Real Madrid later this month.

Goetze had left Dortmund in 2013 in even more controversial fashion, with his move announced -- the most expensive for a German player at the time with 35 million euros -- only weeks before they met Bayern in the Champions League final.

His transfer to their bitter German rivals had sparked fury among

fans who had accused him of betraying the Ruhr valley club he had played for since childhood.

Goetze’s return this summer was an equally heated affair with some fans angered by club bosses who welcomed him back with open arms.

But few will now think it was a bad decision after his dazzling performance on Wednesday, with the player unable to suppress his smile. “I feel great and looking forward to what lies ahead, you can see it on the pitch that I feel good,” he told reporters. “It was really fun being out there and we can really be satisfied.”

Once regarded as the most talented German player of his generation, the attacking midfielder was assured a place in the history books when he scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final for Germany.

But that was also the last of his major career highlights, having failed to settled at Bayern with both coach Pep Guardiola and his suc-

cessor Carlo Ancelotti refusing to guarantee him playing time.

His return to Dortmund was a surprise for many but Goetze brushed off his past few seasons with yet another smile.

“What corner?,” he said when asked if he had finally turned the corner. “This was a goal for the team, the club and the Champions League.”

The creative player was deployed by Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel in his more natural position behind the forwards and it paid off.

A constant source of problems for the Polish defence, Goetze upped the pace when needed, drew players on him and got on the scoresheet in an overall outstanding performance.

“One can see that things are now working out for him,” said Dortmund sports director Michael Zorc.

“His lightness, his ease is coming back again. Of course there was never any doubt about his football skills.” (rtr)

9

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during match.

REUTERS/Juan Medina

Kiev to host 2018 Champions League final

IBP/net

KIEV - Kiev’s Olympic stadium will host the final of the 2018 Champions League, the head of Ukraine’s soccer federation said on Thursday.

The 70,000-capacity stadium, which hosted the final of the 2012 European Championship, will be confirmed officially following a meeting of UEFA officials in Athens but Andriy Pavelko, head of Football Federation of Ukraine, announced the news on his federation’s website.

“The historical decision for the Ukrainian football was taken in Athens,” Pavelko said. “The final of the Champions League is the common win of every Ukrainian citizen. Now we can greet each other with this feast of football to be held in Kiev.

“This is an incredible event that will take its place in the history of the country,” Pavelko added. “We will do all possible for this final to become exemplary.”(rtr)

8

Friday, September 16, 2016

Friday, September 16, 2016

Sp rt Angry Allegri: Juventus not favorite for Champions League

TURIN — Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri angrily denied his side is favorite to win the Champions League following a massive outlay in the transfer market in the offseason.

A sixth successive Serie A title appears to be a foregone conclusion for Juventus after a summer spending spree which included signing last season’s top goalscorer Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli for 90 million euros ($99 million) in the most expensive transfer in Italian football history.

Great things were also expected of Juventus in Europe, but it opened up its campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Sevilla on Wednesday.

“I think Juventus has the same ambitions as last year and two years ago. No more, no less,” Allegri said after the match. “It doesn’t mean that because we had a great transfer window we are now obliged to win the Champions League, because winning the Champions League is not easy. I think we have the duty to try in the Champions League and the duty to win the league, the Italian Cup and the Italian Supercup.

“The Champions League is a competition where there are four or five teams which are certainly at

the same level as Juventus and not a level above. This doesn’t mean that Juventus can’t try to win the Champions League. But everyone is talking about this Juventus. It seems that Juventus is the only favorite for the Champions League when it’s been 20 years since Juventus won the Champions League, so we need to keep our feet on the ground.”

Juventus reached the Champions League final in Allegri’s first year in charge, losing to Barcelona, but was eliminated in the round of 16 last season by Bayern Munich.

As well as Higuain, it also brought in the likes of Miralem Pjanic, Dani Alves, Medhi Benatia and Juan Cuadrado — although it sold Paul Pogba back to Manchester United for a word-record fee of $116 million.

Higuain, who scored twice in the opening 10 minutes of a 3-1 win over Sassuolo on Saturday, was kept quiet by a defensive-minded Sevilla at the Juventus Stadium, although he did go closest to break-

ing the deadlock shortly before the hour mark when he headed Dani Alves’ cross off the crossbar.

Juventus has won its opening two matches in the league but now trails Lyon in Group H after the French side beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0, and needs a positive result in Croatia in two weeks’ time.

Defender Giorgio Chiellini believes Allegri’s anger in the post-match press conference was directed at the media hype surrounding Juventus and not his players.

“It’s more a message to the outsiders because the players are very much aware of what we need to do,” Chiellini said. “On the outside on the other hand there is always a lot less balance and you go from hero to zero in an instant and that’s not reality.

“We need to continue with a lot of calm, a lot of balance, a lot of humility, knowing that on Saturday we won 3-1 but we made a lot of mistakes. Tonight it was 0-0 but we had a better performance. We need to improve day by day because the aim is to get to March and still be fighting on all fronts.” (ap)

Ronaldo and Morata save Madrid in Champions League

MADRID — Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata scored very late goals as Real Madrid came from behind to beat Sporting Lisbon 2-1 and avoid starting the defense of its Champions League title with a shock defeat on Wednesday.

Ronaldo equalized from an 89th minute free kick against his former club and Morata netted the winner deep in injury time to give the hosts a hard-fought victory in a match Sporting had largely under control.

“I’m happy with the points. We suffered but never gave up,” Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “I don’t know if the result was fair or not, but it’s clear we believed. You have to play until the end. It wasn’t a perfect match, you never see a perfect match, but the important thing was to win.”

Madrid, trying to become the first team to win back-to-back Champions League titles since the tournament’s new format went into effect in 1992-93, avoided what would have been only its second loss in 31 Champions League matches at home. It has won 27 times and drawn three at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Sporting was just a few minutes

away from its first win in 11 matches in Spain in UEFA competitions.

Madrid almost lost at home to a Portuguese team for the first time.

Boosted by a loud visiting crowd, Sporting played well from the start, defending with efficiency and creating dangerous chances up front with well-timed counterattacks and accurate passing.

Bruno Cesar put the Portuguese side ahead only three minutes into the second half after Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric failed to clear, allowing the Brazilian midfielder to fire a left-footed shot into the far corner.

It was the first time Real Madrid conceded a goal at home in the Champions League since the semifinals of the 2014-15 season.

“Our strategy worked well until the final five or six minutes,” Cesar said. “We played great and we showed what we are capable of.

We are sad, of course, because we played face to face with a team like Real Madrid, we could have won and we lost, but we leave with our heads held high.”

Madrid struggled to produce significant scoring opportunities despite starting with the attacking trio of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and

Karim Benzema for the first time since last season.

Ronaldo, who had been cheered by fans from both teams, was mostly ineffective until coming up with the well-placed free kick that was touched by Sporting goalkeeper Rui Patricio before hitting the post and going in. Ronaldo did not celebrate as he usually does and only raised his hands in the air as teammates rushed over.

“It was against the team where I learned my trade, the club has a place in my heart and I have a lot of respect for them,” he said. “That’s why I couldn’t celebrate.”

The winner also came in dramatic fashion, coming from a pair of second-half substitutes five minutes into stoppage time. James Rodriguez curled a cross into the area from the left flank and Morata found the net with a firm header from near the penalty spot. Patricio again touched the ball but was not able to fully deflect it.

“We always believed in ourselves and we proved that you can always win a game until the referee blows the final whistle,” Morata said. “Football is not always fair but it was fundamental to win and that’s what we’ve done.” (ap)

REUTERS/Giorgio Perottino

Juventus’ coach Massimiliano Allegri during the match.

Dortmund’s beaming Goetze on road to redemption

AP Photo/Alik Keplicz

Dortmund’s Mario Goetze, left, celebrates with Christian Pulisic after scoring the first goal of his team during the Champions League Group F soccer match between Legia Warsaw and Dortmund at Stadion Wojska Polskiego in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016.

Mario Goetze could not stop smiling after scoring his first goal for Borussia Dortmund since his return in their 6-0 demolition of Legia Warsaw in the Champions League on Wednesday. The 24year-old’s best appearance since his controversial return to Dortmund in the close season following a hapless three-year spell at rivals Bayern Munich could not have come at a better time.

Dortmund notched their biggest ever away win in the Champions League in their opening group match, setting a marker ahead of their match against reigning champions Real Madrid later this month.

Goetze had left Dortmund in 2013 in even more controversial fashion, with his move announced -- the most expensive for a German player at the time with 35 million euros -- only weeks before they met Bayern in the Champions League final.

His transfer to their bitter German rivals had sparked fury among

fans who had accused him of betraying the Ruhr valley club he had played for since childhood.

Goetze’s return this summer was an equally heated affair with some fans angered by club bosses who welcomed him back with open arms.

But few will now think it was a bad decision after his dazzling performance on Wednesday, with the player unable to suppress his smile. “I feel great and looking forward to what lies ahead, you can see it on the pitch that I feel good,” he told reporters. “It was really fun being out there and we can really be satisfied.”

Once regarded as the most talented German player of his generation, the attacking midfielder was assured a place in the history books when he scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final for Germany.

But that was also the last of his major career highlights, having failed to settled at Bayern with both coach Pep Guardiola and his suc-

cessor Carlo Ancelotti refusing to guarantee him playing time.

His return to Dortmund was a surprise for many but Goetze brushed off his past few seasons with yet another smile.

“What corner?,” he said when asked if he had finally turned the corner. “This was a goal for the team, the club and the Champions League.”

The creative player was deployed by Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel in his more natural position behind the forwards and it paid off.

A constant source of problems for the Polish defence, Goetze upped the pace when needed, drew players on him and got on the scoresheet in an overall outstanding performance.

“One can see that things are now working out for him,” said Dortmund sports director Michael Zorc.

“His lightness, his ease is coming back again. Of course there was never any doubt about his football skills.” (rtr)

9

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during match.

REUTERS/Juan Medina

Kiev to host 2018 Champions League final

IBP/net

KIEV - Kiev’s Olympic stadium will host the final of the 2018 Champions League, the head of Ukraine’s soccer federation said on Thursday.

The 70,000-capacity stadium, which hosted the final of the 2012 European Championship, will be confirmed officially following a meeting of UEFA officials in Athens but Andriy Pavelko, head of Football Federation of Ukraine, announced the news on his federation’s website.

“The historical decision for the Ukrainian football was taken in Athens,” Pavelko said. “The final of the Champions League is the common win of every Ukrainian citizen. Now we can greet each other with this feast of football to be held in Kiev.

“This is an incredible event that will take its place in the history of the country,” Pavelko added. “We will do all possible for this final to become exemplary.”(rtr)

10

Friday, September 16, 2016

Destination

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

International

Button could race in Japan next year

Enjoying countryside charm of Mengesta

TABANAN - Wow… how beautiful the countryside of Mengesta Village is. Terraced rice fields with organic rice plants, dry fields overgrown with lush trees, small familiar animals and clean surroundings make this village really convenient. Moreover, people are very friendly making the village atmosphere peaceful.

One time visit to this village will definitely make you addicted to come again.

Having an excursion to destination situated at Wangaya Betan Hamlet, Mengesta Village, Penebel Subdistrict, Tabanan,

about 10 km north of Tabanan City, will never make you bored.

Conversely, you should prepare a fit stamina because you will have much promenade on the rice field bund, moor, river bank with many slopes and steep grades. Aside from absorbing, there will be many interesting and entertaining things encountered along the journey.

This ecotourism journey starts from the end of the village passing through paddy fields. Previously, you will be welcomed by villagers with a variety of Balinese arts and cultural attractions. There are Balinese women upholding

gebogan (fruits and flowers arrangement), kids dance, while men play gamelan music with devotional spirits. You can watch the attraction, while cooling down your body by enjoying young coconut drink.

Furthermore, visitors can walk along the rice field while watching the activities of local farmers cultivating their farm traditionally. To enrich your experience, you will get the opportunity to feel how to plow, level the soil and transplanting rice seedling by moving forward and backward.

Plowing and leveling soil drawn

by two cows is certainly exciting.

Once trying, you must be addictive because this activity is best-loved by travelers when making a trip to this village.

The next route is to walk on moor area to enjoy typical aura of local trees. On the terraced moor planted with local green grasses, you can observe local trees with fruits and its benefits will be explained by your tour guide.

Among them, there are durian, coffee, cacao, passion fruit, coconut, pineapple, rose apple, guava, jackfruit, soursop, mangosten, longan, papaya, avocado, straw-

berry, vanilla and various types of bananas. And the most favored is the cacao because so far they only know the processed cacao.

You are also invited to look around the village atmosphere such as socializing with children in primary school and visiting pristine houses remaining to apply Asta Kosala-Kosali or Balinese geomancy. Here, you can learn Balinese or teach your own language to local community. If you like to have horseback riding, you can take advantage of the four-legged animal to look natural moor in Bali. (IBP/net)

SINGAPORE - McLaren’s Jenson Button could race in Rallycross or in Japan’s Super GT series when he takes a break from Formula One next year.

The 2009 world champion, who has spent almost two decades in grand prix racing, is handing over his race seat to Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne next season.

McLaren have retained the 36-year-old Briton under contract until the end of 2018, however, and could draft him in if a reserve is needed before then.

Button is the most experienced driver on the starting grid and while his sabbatical is likely to spell the end of his Formula One racing career, he said he could still compete elsewhere.

“I want to spend more time with friends, family and to do other things...I love triathlons and maybe I’ll race in something else like Rallycross or Super GT in Japan,” he told reporters at a promotional event in Singapore on Wednesday.

Super GT is a Japanese touring car series with some international races. Carmaker Honda, who make the NSX sportscar, is McLaren’s engine partner.

Button’s late father John was a rallycross driver.

“There are so many options and

that’s why it’s exciting, because I can sort of live my life the way I want to next year,” said Button.

“I have a contract to race with the team in 2018 if the team wants me to race and if I feel that I want to race.

“I’ve been driving in Formula One for 17 years, which is my whole adult life, so I want to live a year in my life that is not by (its) schedule.”

Button, who claimed the last of his 15 grand prix victories in Brazil four years ago, believes Formula One will benefit from a raft of technical and sporting rule changes for the 2017 season if they lead to a reining in of dominant Mercedes.

“I’m happy there are regulation changes for the future and hopefully it’ll bring people closer together,” Button said.

“Formula One needs that. There are so many good fights behind Mercedes in the rest of Formula One. There are so many good races but those two (Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg), it’s just too easy for them.”

Button is 15th in the drivers’ championship on 17 points after 14 of 21 races, with his best result a sixth-place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

The Singapore Grand Prix takes place on Sunday. (rtr) REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff

Silver medalist Stuart Tripp (L to R) of Australia, gold medalist Alessandro Zanardi of Italy and bronze medalist Oscar Sanchez of USA pose with their medals.

Zanardi wins gold, 15 years on from horror crash

RIO DE JANEIRO - Former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi won his third Paralympic gold medal on Wednesday, a day before the 15th anniversary of the Champ Car crash that cost the Italian both legs and nearly his life.

REUTERS/Max Rossi

McLaren’s Jenson Button of Britain smiles during the news conference.

The 49-year-old won the 20km H5 hand-cycling road time trial in Rio de Janeiro to add to the two golds he won on his Paralympics debut in London four years ago.

“Normally I don’t thank God for these type of things as I believe God has more important stuff to worry about,” he told NBC television.

“But today is too much. I had to raise my eyes and thank him.

“I feel very lucky, I feel my life is a never-ending privilege.”

Zanardi, a two times champion

in the U.S.-based Champ Car series that is now IndyCar, competed in 41 grands prix between 1991 and 1999 with his final season at Williams.

He had both legs amputated above the knee, with his heart stopping seven times as he lost all but a litre of the blood in his body, after the horrific crash at the Lausitzring in Germany on Sept. 15, 2001.

The Italian was leading the race when he lost control of his Reynard-Honda in the final laps

and Canadian Alex Tagliani ran into him at more than 350kph.

“The car broke into two pieces, one bit of me stayed with the car and the other bit, which was my legs, went ‘arrivederci’ in the other direction,” he said before competing at the London 2012 Games.

Zanardi, who had been read the last rites, returned to racing a year and a half after the accident and competed in the world touring car championship until 2009, by which time he had taken up handcycling.

Two years after the accident, he returned to the Lausitzring and finished the 13 laps that he had failed to complete during the race. (rtr)

6

Friday, September 16, 2016

W

International

RLD

Obama, meeting with Suu Kyi, says U.S. ready to lift Myanmar sanctions

WASHINGTON - Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi called on Wednesday for the lifting of economic sanctions against her country, and President Barack Obama, in their first White House meeting since she became leader, said the United States was ready to do so.

“It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government,” Obama said with Suu Kyi beside him in the Oval Office.

The trip by Suu Kyi, 71, who like Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, capped a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader after her party won a sweeping electoral victory last year.

With Suu Kyi no longer an opposition figure, Washington has been weighing a further easing of sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, as Obama looks to normalize relations with a country shunned when it was ruled by a military junta.

“We think that the time has now come to remove all the sanctions that hurt us economically,” Suu Kyi

said, noting that the U.S. Congress had supported her country by backing sanctions in the past to apply pressure for democratic reforms.

As Suu Kyi arrived for the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying it would reinstate Myanmar to the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, which provides duty-free treatment for goods from poor and developing countries.

Myanmar was removed from GSP benefits in 1989 following prodemocracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta. Myanmar will be back in the program on Nov. 13, U.S. officials said.

Reinstating those benefits, combined with lifting sanctions, “will give the United States, our businesses, our non-profit institutions greater incentive to invest and participate in what we hope will

be an increasingly democratic and prosperous partner for us in the region,” Obama said.

After visiting the White House, Suu Kyi met with some members of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol.

She was to return there on Thursday for meetings with House and Senate leaders from both parties, although not Paul Ryan, the Republican House speaker. Ryan’s aides said he had a scheduling conflict.

Some members of Congress have expressed concerns about change in Myanmar and its human rights record. They have introduced at least two pieces of legislation seeking to give lawmakers some influence on the process of easing sanctions.

Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commented after meeting with Suu Kyi that while the new administration brought hope to Myanmar, he remained committed to efforts to protect its oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority. (rtr)

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi as they speak to media at the conclusion of a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016.

REUTERS/Jamil Bittar/File Photo

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talks with his wife Marisa Leticia during a ceremony at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, June 26, 2007.

Brazil’s Lula charged as ‘top boss’ of Petrobras graft scheme

CURITIBA - Brazilian prosecutors charged ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday with being the “boss” of a vast corruption scheme at state oil company Petrobras, in a major blow to the leftist hero’s hopes of a political comeback.

It was the first time that Lula, still Brazil’s most popular politician despite corruption accusations against him and his Workers Party, was charged by federal prosecutors for involvement in the political kickbacks scheme at Petroleo Brasileiro, as the company is officially known.

Public Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol told a news conference that Lula will be charged with corruption and money laundering for leading a kickback scheme that caused an estimated 42 billion reais ($12.6 billion) in losses to Petrobras shareholders and tax payers.

“He was the conductor of this criminal orchestra,” Dallagnol said during a detailed presentation of the investigation. “The Petrobras graft scheme aimed at keeping the Workers Party in power by criminal means.”

Lula’s lawyers said prosecutors lacked evidence to back up their accusations which were part of political persecution to stop him running in the 2018 election.

“This Lula-centered farce was trumped up as an affront to the democratic state and intelligence

of Brazilian citizens,” one of Lula’s lawyers, Cristiano Zanin, told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Dallagnol stopped short of saying investigators would seek an arrest order for Lula, who became a hero to many poor Brazilians during his 2003-2010 government.

The two-year-old Operation Carwash anti-corruption investigation, based in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, has uncovered how political appointees named by Lula’s Workers Party and its allies handed overpriced contracts to engineering firms in return for illicit party funding and bribes.

The scandal helped topple the Workers Party from power last month by crushing the popularity of Lula’s chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff. She was impeached by Congress on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules, amid rising anger over her handling of Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s.

Dallagnol said that Lula, because of his control of the machinery of the Workers Party and the Brazilian government, was the central figure in the scheme.

Prosecutors allege that the charismatic former union leader had personally received some 3.7 million reais ($1.11 million) in bribes, including a luxury apartment on the coast of Sao Paulo from one of the engineering and construction firms at the center of the bribery scandal, OAS. (rtr)

12

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

BUSINESS

Europe’s main stock markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris dipped in and out of positive territory as the region struggled to pull out of a five-day losing streak.

Primarily it has been caused by nagging concerns that having resorted to previously unthinkable measures like negative interest rates and mass money printing, top central banks are now running out of options to get economies going.

Euro zone bond yields crept up again in early deals as the real power driver, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed back past

1.71 percent which lifted the dollar against the yen, euro and pound.

“We are 150 percent focused on the fixed-income selloff,” said State Street’s head of global macro strategy Michael Metcalfe.

“The market concern is that the central bank support is going to be different going forward,” he said, adding that tandem falls in equity and bond markets pointed to “a big unwind of risk”.

That theme of central bank policy effectiveness was live.

The Switzerland’s central bank kept its key interest rates in deep negative territory in Zurich and re-

Indonesia Today

Indonesia to resume work on “Giant Sea Wall” to save sinking Jakarta

Stocks struggle for footing after bond slip

LONDON - World stocks steadied at two-month lows on Thursday though bond markets stayed firmly in the red, as eight years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers two of Europe’s top central banks prepared to keep their interest rates pointing down.

International

peated its view that the Swiss franc was “significantly overvalued” and that it was willing to intervene in the FX markets.

The franc barely budged. The Bank of England was also meeting, with it widely expected to stand pat after cutting rates and ramping up its stimulus programme last month in a bid to limit any Brexit damage to the UK economy.

Economists and traders will be watching carefully though to see whether it reconfirms that it plans to cut rates again towards the end of the year.

“The BoE is important in a broader sense for the market,” said State Street’s Metcalfe. “That would send the message that at least one of the major central bank is still being as easy as can be.” (rtr)

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 13, 2016.

REUTERS/Joachim Herrmann

Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk speaks during an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Germany, August 30, 2016.

IMF board approves $1 billion loan disbursement to Ukraine

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund said its board on Wednesday approved a long-awaited loan disbursement to Ukraine of about $1 billion after a review of the country’s bailout program.

The IMF has agreed to pump $17.5 billion into Ukraine’s economy in a four-year bailout, releasing the funds in installments subject to the government making progress on economic and anti-corruption reforms.

To date, Ukraine has received about $7.62 billion in the program launched in March 2015.

The latest disbursement was less than the roughly $1.7 billion anticipated, after some reforms required by the fund had stalled.

But the IMF said in a statement that the board had approved waivers for Kiev’s failure to meet criteria related to international reserves targets, external payments arrears and foreign exchange restrictions.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the disbursement would clear the way for an additional $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee and a new 600 million-euro loan from the European Union.

In a statement, he said a Russian attempt to undermine the IMF’s decision had failed, and that the funds’ release would help keep the hryvnia currency stable and aid the economy.

“The positive decision by the IMF is evidence that the world recognises that reforms are happening in Ukraine, that real and positive changes are happening in Ukraine, and that the country is moving in the right direction,” Poroshenko said.

Last week, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said the IMF decision should clear the way for the sale of about $1 billion in U.S.-guaranteed bonds by the end of September.

The IMF cash and external loans should boost foreign currency reserves to $17.2 billion by the end of the year, a central bank deputy governor, Oleh Churiy, said, welcoming the IMF decision as a positive signal for domestic and foreign investors.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement after the board’s vote that Ukraine was showing signs of recovery and improved confidence, which she attributed to the implementation of reforms, sound macroeconomic policies and efforts to rehabilitate Ukraine’s banking system.

“Further progress in fiscal reforms is key to ensure mediumterm sustainability,” Lagarde said, calling for pension reforms and tax policies that would avoid higher deficits, and the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia will resume land reclamation that will help prevent Jakarta from sinking below sea level, a cabinet minister said, five months after work was suspended due to regulatory and environmental concerns.

Greater Jakarta, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, sits on a swampy plain and is sinking at a faster rate than any other city in the world. Jakarta has focused its attention on bolstering its defences with a 15-mile sea wall and refurbishing the crumbling flood canal system.

The government decided late on Tuesday to allow work to continue on a key phase of the “Giant Sea Wall”, which aims to shore up northern Jakarta while revamping the capital’s image into a Singapore-like waterfront city. “If this Giant Sea Wall is not done, that will create a big impact on Jakarta with regards to salt water penetration,” Coordinating Maritime Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Tuesday.

Included in the master plan is the building of 17 artificial islands off Jakarta’s northern coast, where property developers plan to build shopping malls and attractions similar

to Singapore’s Sentosa Island.

But work on that project was suspended in April following disagreements between the government and the Jakarta governor over who had authority to issue permits. Some fishermen have also protested against reclamation, saying it would reduce their catch.

In response, the government plans to offer them fishing permits in waters near the Natuna Islands.

The suspension in April also threatened to delay Indonesian property developer PT Agung Podomoro Land’s multi-billion-dollar Pluit City, comprising apartments, offices and shopping malls on parts of artificial land it was constructing.

“We are still waiting for government direction,” said Justini Omas, the company’s corporate secretary.

“Previously, we had planned that construction of the island would be done in 2018.”

Earlier this month, former Agung Podomoro executive Ariesman Widjaja was jailed for three years for bribing a member of the Jakarta provincial assembly to influence the regulation for the land reclamation, media said. (rtr)

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s tax office will investigate Alphabet Inc’s Google for suspected unpaid taxes from billions of dollars worth of advertising revenue, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.

Muhammad Hanif, head of the specials cases branch in the tax office, said Google’s refusal to cooperate after it was sent a letter in April requesting to be allowed to examine the company’s tax reports had raised suspicions. He told a news conference that the probe would not be launched until the end of the month at the earliest. PT Google Indonesia, incorporated in 2011, said it was complying with the government.

“We continue to cooperate fully with local authorities and pay all applicable taxes,” a Google Indonesia spokesman said in an emailed response to questions. The government had also asked to examine the tax reports of the Indonesian offices of three other U.S. Internet based companies - Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook .

Those three companies have complied, officials said. Yahoo and Google have formed Indonesian limited liability companies, while Twitter and Facebook operate branches of their Asia-Pacific offices in Indonesia.

The government believes these companies owe income and value added tax on billions of dollars of revenue they generate from advertising in Indonesia, the tax office said.

Hanif said Google’s Indonesian entity was only allocated around 4

percent of the total revenues generated from the country, and it was this amount that was taxed, which he described as too small and “unfair”.

The communications ministry had estimated the value of digital advertising in Indonesia at about $800 million last year. The ministry said all of it was untaxed. There was no immediate explanation for the wide discrepancy of the two agencies’ estimates for digital advertising revenue.

Indonesia is facing a sizeable revenue shortfall this year as the resourcerich country can no longer rely on commodity-related income.

In a separate development, the tax office said it is checking whether Ford Motor Co had avoided paying appropriate taxes, after a local newspaper reported that the U.S. car maker modified imported Everest model vehicles sold in Indonesia to pay a lower tax rate. If the car maker is proven to have caused state losses, it may have to pay back taxes of up to four times the amount it owed, according to Indonesian law.

“We have always strictly complied with all Indonesia government regulations and policy, including all importrelated tax and customs requirements, related to each of our Ford vehicles officially marketed and sold in the country,” a Ford spokesman said.

Ford announced in January it is closing all operations in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, where it held less than a 1 percent market share. (rtr)

Indonesia to investigate Google over possible unpaid taxes

Friday, September 16, 2016

5

Singapore banks report tax amnesty Indonesians to police

SINGAPORE - Private banks in Singapore are sharing with local police the names of clients embracing an Indonesian tax amnesty, three banking sources told Reuters, a move that could undermine the amnesty and damage the banks’ business with their biggest client pool.

Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), a police unit that deals with financial crime, told banks last year they must file a suspicious transaction report (STR) whenever a client takes part in a tax amnesty scheme, the sources told Reuters.

After initial resistance from the banks, worried they might lose clients, that message was reinforced this year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, when Indonesia launched a tax amnesty aimed at wooing back some of the cash its wealthy citizens have stashed in Singapore, the sources said.

“We are filing the STR and hope others are doing it, too,”? said one senior private banker when asked about clients responding to the Indonesian amnesty.

“Banks have filed STRs,” said another banking source, adding that clients should not be informed about the filing. Both the Singapore police and MAS declined to comment.

Singapore, where Indonesians hold an estimated $200 billion in private banking assets - 40 percent of the island’s total private banking assets - made tax evasion a moneylaundering offence in 2013.

It is toughening up the implementation of the law after an investigation into state-backed fund 1MDB in neighbouring Malaysia exposed how some of its banks failed to impose robust controls on suspicious money flows. The STR requirement on suspected tax crimes is part of that process.

“The moment the client tells you

he’s participating in the amnesty, you have a suspicion that the assets with you are not compliant, and so you have to report to the authorities,” said a senior executive at a Singapore-based wealth manager.

“In light of the toughening regulatory environment, banks need to conduct more proactive checks on the effectiveness of their internal controls and procedures,” said Wilson Ang, a partner in the Singapore office of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

Reuters spoke to several other senior private bank officials who confirmed the STR filing requirement, but declined to comment further.

Ken Dwijugiasteadi, the head of Indonesia’s tax office, said: “I haven’t heard of such information, but if true, it is the Singapore’s government’s matter. It becomes my matter when someone joins the tax amnesty.”

EXTRA SCRUTINY

The Singapore police website says it has used STR filings to detect financial crime. That means if there is any evidence of wrongdoing from these filings, authorities can further probe clients or banks.

The fear of such scrutiny could deter Indonesians from considering the amnesty, which runs to March 2017 and has so far had a tepid uptake. The Indonesian tax office said 393 trillion rupiah ($30 billion) of assets had been declared as of Sept. 13, of which at least 30 trillion rupiah are in Singapore.

“I don’t think Indonesians there

are afraid,” said Dwijugiasteadi.

“A lot of Indonesians in Singapore have already joined the amnesty.”

Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardojo said late on Wednesday the bank’s modelling suggests the amnesty will secure just 11 percent of its targeted revenue this year.

Indonesians are among the biggest investors in Singapore’s property market and use banks there to invest in currencies or regional stocks, encouraged by the strong legal framework and security of the Asian financial centre.

Many moved money to Singapore after attacks against ethnic Chinese businesses in Indonesia in 1998, when economic problems triggered riots and the fall of the Suharto government.

The increased tax scrutiny in Singapore comes just ahead of the publication of a report on the island nation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body that conducts regular evaluations of countries’ anti-money laundering standards.

One of the FATF guidelines states that a financial institution needs to report suspicious transactions when it suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that a client’s funds are proceeds of a criminal activity such as tax evasion.

Ong-Ang Ai Boon, director of the Association of Banks in Singapore, said the lobby group had told banks that amnesty programmes were a useful tool for individuals to regularise their tax affairs with their local tax authorities. The association did not comment on the new filing requirements. “If there’s a red flag and we ignore it, that’s our problem,” the second banking source said. (rtr)

REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/File Photo

Tourists stand at a promenade across the water from the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in Singapore June 22, 2010.

4

Friday, September 16, 2016

Bali News

International

Prestige of drama gong increasingly recedes

DENPASAR - Exactly 50 years ago or in 1966, the drama gong was born in Bali. This traditional art achieved the peak of popularity in the 1970s to1980s. However, the appearance of various other types of entertainment has made the drama gong marginalized. In other words, the prestige begins to decline in keeping with the age of growing older.

“People’s understanding on drama gong has decreased. Moreover, they do not know Balinese language,” complained humanist Prof. Dr. I Made Bandem after guiding a discussion with the artists of drama gong at the Bali Culture Agency, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Bandem added that today it is increasingly difficult to find new stars to play drama gong. The only remaining are the old stars or the seniors in this art show. One of the reasons is that there is no longer truly strong art troupe having commitment to the preservation of drama gong. Actually, the drama gong is a genre or a new discovery in the performing arts of Bali.

“Do not let the art having been in the peak, liked by people and given contribution to the Balinese performing arts disappear,” he added.

Bandem proposed there is flexibility in performing the drama gong. However, it must still refer to the standards as a basic guideline. Selection of storylines, for

instance, will become the style of a drama gong performance.

“In Buleleng, for instance, it features more populist storylines such as the Jayaprana and Sampek Ingtay, while in South Bali the drama gong frequently features the stories of history,” he explained.

Another thing to note, added Bandem, is the necessity of dialogue and monologue, the essence of the story, costumes and dialect.

Related to costumes, drama gong actually has owned uniqueness without having to take from gambuh, wayang wong or barong. Most importantly, it must be adapted to the storyline.

“Hopefully, one day drama gong can also be staged overseas as the art representing the identity of Bali.

On that account, let’s think about the strategy so that drama gong can also be known by people outside of Bali,” he affirmed.

An artist of drama gong, I Wayan Sugita, said that drama gong should still highlight the use of Balinese

language in accordance with the basic understanding of drama gong.

Based on his experience while playing drama gong outside Bali, particularly in the transmigration area, the audience even asked the drama gong still speaks Balinese language. “Residents at the transmigration area feel nostalgic with the use of Balinese grammar,” he said.

Sugita added the development of drama gong also needs an agreement on the use of gong (gamelan music). It especially regards the scope of gong in Bali which amounts to about 30 types.

This player of ‘grand duke’ in the drama gong also highlights the makeup of the players presenting a joke is considered too excessive.

As a result, the element of joke is not displayed through dialogue but giving more emphasis on the makeup.

In the meantime, another artist, I Wayan Juana, stressed that the old stories of drama gong should still be preserved. However, it must be adapted in accordance with the present context. “It is intended so that the audience does not become bored quickly,” explained the artist being famous for the character of Dadong (grandma) Rerod. (kmb32)

Friday, September 16, 2016

International

China says opposes “unhelpful” unilateral N.Korea sanctions

BEIJING - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart that China opposes “unhelpful” unilateral sanctions on North Korea but will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response to its fifth nuclear test.

China has expressed anger with North Korea for its largest nuclear test to date last week, but has not said directly whether it will support tougher sanctions.

China has said it believes sanctions are not the ultimate answer and called for a return to talks.

Wang told Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that China opposed the nuclear test, and that it is willing to work with other permanent members of the UN Security Council to “come up with a necessary response to the new changes to the situation on the peninsula”, China’s Foreign Ministry said late on Wednesday.

“With all sides focused on the authoritative channel of the Secu-

The tourist enjoys the beautiful scenery of Kintamani.

rity Council, China opposes unilateral sanctions that are unhelpful to resolving the issue,” the statement paraphrased Wang as saying, without elaborating.

A U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, met Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama last Friday.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Kishida said the nuclear test was unforgivable and a direct, grave threat to Japanese security, and asked China for a constructive response as a responsible permanent member of the Security Council.

China is isolated North Korea’s most important diplomatic backer and biggest trading partner, but frustrated with repeated nuclear and missile tests it has signed on to increasingly tough UN sanctions and insisted it is complying with them. (rtr)

IBP/file

Tourism Office admits many local visitors rarely buy ticket

The Drama Gong Performance

IBP/file

13

BANGLI - The Bangli Culture and Tourism Agency admitted to be intensifying the activity of monitoring to the admission ticket booth in Kintamani. This happens because all this time local visitors making a visit to Kintamani are rarely willing to buy ticket. This was stated by the Head of the Bangli Culture and Tourism Agency, Wayan Adnyana, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Adnyana said that local visitors making a visit to Kintamani are rarely willing to buy admission ticket. They often provide specific reasons in order to avoid charges of the ticket attendant.

According to Adnyana, lack of awareness of local visitors to buy ticket becomes one of the causes of not achieving the revenue target from tourism sector this year.

He said that in the main regional budget 2016 the revenue target to be achieved from tourism sector is as much as IDR 18 billion. In the amended regional budget, it will be

added IDR 2 billion, bringing the total revenue target from tourism sector of IDR 20 billion.

Adnyana admitted that the revenue target is actually quite difficult considering the current condition of Bangli tourism. Nevertheless, his agency will seek to achieve the target. “We will strive to meet the target,” he said.

In the future, to pursue the revenue target, his agency will intensify the monitoring activities to ticket booth in order to minimize leakage. Such activity will be done intensively for the next three months.

According to Adnyana, actually to maximize the revenue from tourism sector needs a separation of the lane at Penelokan between travelers and general public. “This time the collection is still done on the highway so that we consider it difficult to distinguish the entourage of travelers from ordinary people,” he added. (kmb40)

REUTERS/Tyrone Siu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A partially capsized fishing ship is seen after Typhoon Meranti made landfall, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan September 15, 2016.

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening

BEIJING - Typhoon Meranti slammed into southeastern China on Thursday with strong winds and lashing rain that cut power to 1.65 million homes, but there were no reports of more casualties in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally.

KCNA/Files via Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets scientists and technicians in the field of research into nuclear weapons in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 9, 2016.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping across southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen.

Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day MidAutumn Festival holiday.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people.

About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province,

where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, state television said.

Large sections of Xiamen also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows in tall buildings shattered, sending glass showering onto the ground below, state news agency Xinhua said.

The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm

approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain. (rtr)

14

Friday, September 16, 2016

Fashion

International

Bali News

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

3

Amid onslaught of plastic mats

Balinese mat made of pandanus leaf still draws people’s interest

Zara just made this the coolest trend for Fall

WITH the influx of fall trends finally arriving in-store, it can be tricky to determine where to start first. Should you splurge on a pair of velvet ankle boots?

Maybe pick up a slip dress? Well, if Zara has anything to say about it, the first thing you add to your wardrobe will be something shimmery. The brand debuted

a new editorial, “Bling Bling,” for its TRF line, and let’s just stay there’s plenty of sparkle to catch your eye.

From a statement-making pink

skirt to a silver puffer jacket you’ll wear all winter long, there’s no shortage of heavy metal in the stylish spread. Pairing them with soft sweaters,

sporty accessories, and basic tees, Zara proves that it’s easy to incorporate metallics into your wardrobe for the coming months.

(IBP/net)

BANGLI - Although many plastic mats are currently sold, Balinese mats made from pandanus leaf evidently remain in demand.

As evidence, Balinese mats are still purchased by many people, mainly for ceremonial purposes.

In Bangli, Balinese mats are still made by residents of Tanggahan Talangjiwa hamlet, Demulih.

Of the approximately 237 family heads at the hamlet, a total of 80 residents are still deeply involved in the profession as Balinese mat craftsmen.

One of the mat crafters at local hamlet, Ni Wayan Raka, said that Balinese mat craft at Tanggahan Talangjiwa hamlet has been worked on by residents through generations since decades ago. The mat produced by residents all this time, said Raka, is made by using raw material of thorny pandanus leaf that is easily found at the moor of local residents.

She explained that the making of Balinese mat is begun from the process of picking pandanus leaves. Furthermore, the pandanus leaves whose thorns have been removed are then rolled and dried.

Drying process takes a long time approximately one month. After the pandanus leaves go brownish, they are woven into mats with the measure of approximately 1.5 x 1 meter. “Within one day, we usually can weave three pieces of mat,” she said, Tuesday (Sep. 13).

Raka said that all this time the mat products of Tanggahan Talangjiwa residents are widely

purchased by residents and collectors from Bangli and Gianyar.

Mat weavers usually sell it for IDR 15,000 per each sheet. The mat products of local artisans will usually sell well during the season of cremation ceremony.

Although the buyers of Balinese mat for ceremony are still quite a lot, people who are struggling as the mat craftsmen, he admitted, have begun to diminish. At this time the profession as mat craftsmen is only worked on by old people. While younger generation, he admitted, is very rarely willing to become mat artisans. “Perhaps it happens because the making process takes long time,” she said.

In the meantime, hamlet chief of Tanggahan Talangjiwa, I Nyoman Berana, said that although many plastic mats are sold in the market, Balinese mat made from pandanus leaf is still favored by many buyers at his village. This happens because Balinese mat is still used by the community for various purposes, especially in religious ceremonies. “When people are organizing ceremony, they must always use a mat,” he said.

To improve people’s welfare, he hoped the government of Bangli could provide assistance in the form of training to process pandanus leaves into other craft items such as bags and wallets. The population of pandanus leaves in the mountain village is still quite a lot. “The government should also help the marketing,” he added. (kmb40)

IBP/kmb40

Balinese mats are still purchased by many people, mainly for ceremonial purposes.

Kiosks of merchants around the dolphin statue at Lovina will be re-arranged.

Govt plans to arrange kiosks at Lovina

SINGARAJA - Lovina Beach shows an increase in the tourist visit in a series of the Lovina Festival (Lovfest). Crowded foreign travelers come to enjoy the natural charm and beauty of the dolphin attraction.

Deputy Regent of Buleleng, Nyoman Sutjidra, said that Lovina having been famous around the globe is considered necessary to arrange the kiosks of souvenir merchants.

He said the potential of the arrangement will bring in positive image for the visitation and improvement of revenue from selling.

One of the events having been initiated and implemented by the government is the Lovina Festival.

Deputy Regent Sutjidra hoped that merchants will experience the crowd sustainably. Thus, it will require intensive communication and discussion regarding the governance of souvenir merchants in the area of Lovina Beach. “Well, people have great enthusiasm to witness the Lovina Festival. So, we consider it necessary to arrange the kiosks of merchants on Lovina.

Now, we will discuss it back together with the Culture and Tour-

ism Agency and local customary leaders. We’ll talk back to arrange the local kiosks,” he said, Tuesday (Sep. 13).

According to Sutjidra, a representative governance of the merchants will give beautiful impression and comfort for tourist visit to Lovina. Sanitation of souvenir kiosks and Lovina Beach neighborhood become the priorities.

“The regent has delivered that kiosks of merchants around the dolphin statue at Lovina will be re-arranged. The design has been prepared by the regent and there will be an arrangement so that the icon of tourism at Lovina will not go vile. Sanitation on Lovina Beach needs to be maintained together,” he said.

In keeping with the increasing tourist visit, he hoped that merchants and local tour guides can maintain the conduciveness.

IBP/kmb34

“Well, the tour guide at Lovina will be gradually discussed because it concerns the lives of many people. Probably, it will be arranged through tourism customary bylaw as at Pemuteran village,” he said.

A similar opinion was expressed by the Chairman of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) of Buleleng, Dewa Suardipa, where the merchants of souvenirs or art shops along the pedestrian of Lovina are considered very important. Merchants are able to get in touch closer with visitors. They are able to promote the excellence of Lovina Beach, while at other times they make visitors eager to come back to enjoy the natural beauty of Lovina Beach.

“Souvenirs displayed at the art shops are necessary to be arranged and presented beautifully.

It is required to peddle unique and distinctive souvenirs owned

by Lovina and cannot be found in other regions. Arrangement of the kiosks must be carried out as well as possible,” said Suardipa. (kmb34)

2

International

Friday, September 16, 2016

COVER STORY

Marine...

From page 1

Adhi Ardhana sees there is a counter-productive regulation of the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs to the intention of the president wishing the fisheries and maritime sector to drive the economy. One of them is the implementation of Regulation of the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs No.1/2015 on the prohibition of catching lobsters and crabs weighing less than 300 grams.

“Nationally it is good. But in Bali, fishermen produce sand lobster of small size and they mostly weigh less than 300 grams. If it is forbidden, it is annoying,” he explained. Similar opinion was delivered by a member of Commission II, I Gede Putra Kusuma.

Due to the regulation, fishermen are

finally not able to export lobster as their livelihood.

“Finally they are unable to sell, but mocked by middleman,” he said. Kusuma Putra emphasized that such regulation cannot be applied equally in each region. This regulation is clearly contrary to the wishes of the government, especially the president, so that marine products can be used for the welfare of fishermen. In addition to meeting local consumption, it can bring in foreign exchanges for the state through exports.

“Lobster in Bali belongs to sand species. Regardless of the age, it remains to have such size. That’s why the Bali Fisheries and Maritime Affairs must be proactive so there is exclusivity of regulations to Bali,” he said.

In the meantime, Chairman of Commission II, Ketut Suwandhi,

The menu at Manisan serves truly authentic Indonesian flavours of the Indonesian archipelago.

Using carefully selected ingredients, expect time-tested recipes that bring classic food traditions

IBP/file

Thousands of manuscripts found damaged and less maintained

Ibp/Yudi Karnaedi

“Initially we did a mapping on the potential of language, in terms of literature and Balinese language.

In fact, when coming down to the field and meeting several public figures, many of them are giving the palm-manuscripts and asked to be rescued. Most of them ask for conservation and reading,” said Chairman of Balinese Language Extension Officer of Bali Province, I Nyoman Suka Ardiyasa, when presenting the data at the Bali Culture Agency, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

During the two-month at villages, added Suka, a total of 8,370 packs of manuscripts were found.

Of that number, 2,562 packs are in poor and damaged condition. In this case, the condition of manuscript is no longer intact both in the form of physical condition or content. The data are subject to change because

Activities

Friday, September 16, 2016

15

The Golden Age of Taste

By Culinary Legend William Wongso

said that all this time there has been no effort to maintain the sustainability of marine resources such as fish without exception for Bali. As the impact, the current number of fish is not as much as before. On that account, the entire community from the lowest level at hamlet is asked to help prevent illegal fishing, including prohibiting the fishing by means of bombing. “If the fishing is done by bombing, it will not just kill fish but also the coral reef,” he said.

Suwandhi added that firmness in handling illegal fishing must not only be done at the beginning because all this time the marine resources do not contribute much to the economy because they are undermined by foreign vessels.

Other than marine resources stolen by foreign vessels, the potential of Bali is also often taken by vessels from outside Bali. (kmb32)

DENPASAR - The extension officers of Balinese language find thousands of palm-leaf manuscripts spreading in the community in poorly maintained and damaged condition. It happens because people just sanctify the manuscripts without reading or having the intention to know the content. Actually, the manuscript is one of the invaluable historical heritages to the Paradise Island.

The damaged ancient manuscript

International

in some places there are palm-leaf manuscripts that can only be seen on particular feast days such like on the celebration of Saraswati.

“Most of the manuscripts are stored in palace and house of high priest, while the damaged ones are usually owned by general public.

Those stored in the palace and house of high priest are usually well maintained. But indeed in some palaces, the next generation cannot afford to take care of them.

In other words, they no longer care about them,” he added.

Suka explained that the damage to the manuscripts is inseparable from people’s assumption that they are terrible or sacred goods.

Not all people are allowed to read the manuscripts. Since they have not been read too long, the manuscripts then gnawed by insects and finally damaged. In the meantime,

the manuscripts in palace or house of high priest can still survive because they are frequently opened to consult auspicious day or the other needs of Hindu ceremony.

“But in the community there is no such interest. They are only presented with offerings every six months if they can still make the offerings. A strange fact we found is that when the palm-manuscripts are presented the oblation, the holy water is then sprinkled to their body in order to get fine health and magic. Actually it is wrong behavior in maintaining the palm-leaf manuscript,” he explained.

He added that conservation of palm-leaf manuscripts in the future becomes a home work for all parties because it is related to huge funding. Then, people should also realize that manuscripts are not just heritage but also literature. Moreover, Balinese manuscripts contain a lot of spiritual teachings, philosophy, medicine, astrology (wariga) to the record of debts. “Palm-leaf manuscript is a book that should be read before made sacred and we must know about the content,” he said. (kmb32)

 Founder : K.Nadha,  General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Gugiek Savindra  Editors:Agus Toni, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sueca, Sugiartha, Yudi Winanto Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Suasrina, Buleleng: Dewa kusuma, Gianyar: Manik Astajaya, Karangasem: Budana, Klungkung: Dewa Farendra. Jakarta: Nikson, Hardianto, Ade Irawan. NTB: Agus Talino, Izzul Khairi, Raka Akriyani. Surabaya: Bambang Wilianto.  Office: Jalan Kepundung 67 A Denpasar 80232. Telephone (0361)225764, Facsimile: 227418, P.O.Box: 3010 Denpasar 80001. Bali Post Jakarta, Advertizing: Jl.Palmerah Barat 21F. Telp 021-5357602, Facsimile: 021-5357605 Jakarta Pusat. NTB: Jalam Bangau No. 15 Cakranegara Telp. (0370) 639543, Facsimile: (0370) 628257. Publisher: PT Bali Post

ONGOING EVENTS March 2- August 31th A Love Affair With Asia: Bridges Cafe, Jalan Campuhan, Ubud www.bridges.com FREE Every Tuesday Ecstastic Tuesday Morning Dance 9AM-12Noon Guided improvised movement Paradiso, Jalan Goutama Selatan, Ubud www.paradisoubud.com 100K Every Thursday African Drum Class with Catur Sang Klang Wijaya 4PM-6PM Experience the healing power of drumming. all levels welcome Ashram Satya Graha, Nyuh Kining, Ubud

BY DONATION Every Friday Exploration in Motion 6:30PM-8PM The art of exploration in movement Samadi Bali, Jalan Padang Linjong 38, Echo Beach, Canggu www.samadibali.com 130K Every Sunday Batu Jimbar Cafe Sunday Market 10AM-1PM Organic produce, Bali honey, homemade jams, european specialties Batu jimbar Cafe, Jalan Danau Tambligan No75, Sanur www,batujimbarcafe.com Samadi Bali Sunday Organic Market Organic food, handmade creative clothes and jewellery, yoga for kids, music Samadi Bali, Jalan Padang, Linjong 39, Kuta www.samadibali.com

back to life. Each dish takes guests on a culinary adventure in celebration of our nation’s spirit and diversity.

Guests can also aspect impromptu cooking surprises and classic

food traditions from Minangkabau and Bandung, and other more esoteric dishes from cities such as Pontianak and Ambon.

Manisan will be opened in the middle of September

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

16 Pages Number 173 8th year

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

Price: Rp 3.000,-

Friday, September 16, 2016

Justin Timberlake kicks off concert documentary at Toronto festival

TORONTO - Pop star Justin Timberlake’s new concert documentary was a joy to make because the lack of rigid plot or story structure makes shooting such productions the “purest form of film making,” director Jonathan Demme said on Wednesday.

“Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, was filmed at the final performances of the singer’s world tour in Las Vegas in January 2015.

It begins with a pre-show band huddle and then launches within minutes into the action-packed dance and musical spectacle from onstage.

“When we film music, to me that’s the purest form of film making,” Demme said in an interview in Toronto with Timberlake. “There’s no script that has to be followed.

The only narrative is the music itself.”

Demme, known for “Philadelphia,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” and concert films such as “Stop Making Sense” with Talking Heads, said being in the middle of the show makes even a non-musician such as himself feel part of the music.

“We’re feeling it, so intense, and capturing it, it’s like, ‘We’re in the band now!’” he said.

The film, which will be released on Netflix on Oct. 12, is a culmination of Timberlake’s 134 shows and 2 years on the road on a tour billed as one of the highest-grossing of the decade.

Timberlake said on Wednesday

he initially was nervous because he was being himself, instead of portraying characters as he usually does on screen.

“Last night I had a bit of that,” he said. “I was going like, ‘Oh, wow, a lot of people are going to see this now.’”

But Demme had told him that,

e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.

Friday, September 16, 2016 Obama, meeting with Suu Kyi, says U.S. ready to lift Myanmar sanctions Page 6

Angry Allegri: Juventus not favorite for Champions League Page 8

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening Page 13

in a way, performing on stage was playing a character as well, Timberlake said.

“Being on stage is intuitive but it’s also a bigger version of yourself,” he said.

Timberlake is a Demme fan and said the movie maker had captured the concert well, including his supporting cast. While Timberlake was the focus, the film did not neglect the Tennessee Kids, Timberlake’s 25-piece band whose members were given liberal screen time. (rtr)

AP Photo

Police investigators examine the Gili Cat 2 boat following an explosion while it was enroute to nearby island of Lombok, at Padangbai Port in Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016.

REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Justin Timberlake arrives on the red carpet for the film “Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids” during the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), in Toronto, Canada, September 13, 2016.

Indonesia ferry blast kills two, injures several

DENPASAR - An explosion on a ferry carrying 35 tourists between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok killed two people on Thursday and injured several more, police said. The nationalities of the tourists involved was still unclear, the police said, correcting an earlier description of the two dead as being a Dutch citizen and an Indonesian national. “ U p t o n o w, t w o p e o p l e have died, but I don’t know the details of their identities,” said district police chief Sug-

eng, who uses only one name, like many Indonesians. Several injured tourists were being treated in hospitals.

Police denied reports there was a bomb on board the ferry, saying instead that they suspected a gas cylinder explo-

sion.

“We confirm there was no bomb on board,” Sugeng said.

“The explosion happened because of...a gas cylinder close to the engine.” Bali and neighbouring Lombok are two of Indonesia’s most popular holiday destinations. (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.

Marine sector generates economy

Do not just be made as imaging DENPASAR - Marine and fishery sector is now expected to become the generator of economic growth in Indonesia. However, this

expectation must also be accompanied with non-contra-productive policies or rules. The government should not just make regulations nationally, but also pay attention to the peculiarities of each region.

“Core of Indonesia’s economy focused

on the maritime is okay. But it must not just become an imaging. The imaging is executed by bombing vessel (in handling illegal fishing—Ed), but derivatives of the rules must be considered for each region,” said the a member of Commission II of the

Bali House of Representatives, A.A. Ngurah Adhi Ardhana, in Denpasar, Wednesday (Sep. 14).

Continued on page 2 Marine...