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Thursday, February 21, 2019
China sci-fi blockbuster blasts off at the box office
SHANGHAI - China’s first space-age blockbuster is on a trajectory to become the country’s highest-grossing movie ever and is being held up as evidence that bigbudget home-grown films can now hold their own with Hollywood on pure spectacle. “The Wandering Earth” has made more than 3.9 billion yuan ($576 million) in domestic box office as of Tuesday morning, putting it on course to eclipse the 5.7 billion yuan earned in 2017 by current champion, “Wolf Warrior 2”. Based on a novel by Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin, the film tells the story -- through the eyes of Chinese protagonists -- of a project to move the earth away from a dying sun using giant fusion-powered engines. Reportedly made with a $50 million budget, the movie draws on pride in China’s growing space programme and is packed with advanced special effects. Director Guo Fan said that threequarters of the more than 2,000 special-effects shots were created by Chinese staff.
Noted film commentator Wang Hailin told a recent movie seminar that “The Wandering Earth” showed that “the historic moment to rival Hollywood has arrived.” “The Wandering Earth” has also made $3.8 million in North America in the 11 days since its release, the highest for a Chinese film in nearly five years, the film’s official social media account said on Sunday. With Chinese President Xi Jinping asserting tight control over arts and entertainment and pushing patriotic themes, any Chinese film depicting a future world is bound to draw political scrutiny. But the movie largely ignores politics, with no mention of China’s ruling Communist Party. Chinese heroes figure most prominently in the action, but the film’s overall message is to encourage international collaboration. In a pivotal scene, a Chinese astronaut played by martial artist and actor Wu Jing -- the star of the “Wolf Warrior” franchise -- works closely with a Russian counterpart in a bid to save the world. (afp)
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Robyn Beck / AFP
Chocolate Oscar statues covered in an edible gold leaf are displayed at the 91th annual Academy Awards Governors Ball press preview at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 15, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Who votes for the Oscars, and how does it work?
LOS ANGELES - The ballots are almost all in! Millions of television viewers around the globe will tune in Sunday to watch the Oscars, the glitziest night in showbiz, but most don’t know how the winners are chosen. Less than 8,000 people in the entertainment industry select the honorees -- and Tuesday marks the final day of voting. The following is a look at the complex, sometimes confounding process that leads to the winners of the 24 Academy Awards:
STR/AFP
This photo taken on February 7, 2019 shows people sitting next to a poster of Chinese sci-fi film “The Wandering Earth” in Yichang in China’s central Hubei province.
- Who votes? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles currently has 7,902 voting members. Academy membership is divided into 17 branches -- actors, directors, producers, costume designers, etc -- and candidates must be active or otherwise have “achieved distinc-
tion” in the industry.Applicants must be sponsored by two Academy members representing their branch. Oscar winners and nominees are automatically considered for membership and don’t need sponsors. Applications are reviewed once a year by the Academy’s Board of Governors, which has the final say on who joins the elite group. Members used to enjoy voting rights for life but since 2016, “voting status” has been limited to 10 years, and is renewable, to avoid having voters who are no longer active in the business. Lifetime voting rights only come after three 10-year terms.
Those not active become “emeritus” members who cannot vote. - Who are the Academy members? On principle, the Academy does not reveal its voting roll, though nothing prevents a member from saying he or she can cast a ballot. Following the #OscarsSoWhite uproar in 2015 and 2016, about the lack of black nominees, the Academy has endeavored to be more inclusive, vowing to double the number of women and minority members by 2020. In June 2018, the Academy took the unusual step of revealing the names of all 928 people invited to join. If they all agreed, 31 percent of Academy members are now women and 16 percent are people of color, according to The Hollywood Reporter. (afp)
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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual state of the nation address in Moscow on February 20, 2019.
As poll numbers fall, Putin vows to improve living conditions
President Vladimir Putin promised Russians rapid improvements in their living conditions as he delivered his annual state of the nation address Wednesday under pressure from falling approval ratings. Putin, who was elected to a fourth term last year with more than 76 percent of the vote, laid out a series of new measures in his speech to Russia’s two houses of parliament. His promises seemed aimed at addressing growing discontent over the dismal living conditions, especially outside Moscow, that many Russians still face nearly 20 years after Putin came to power. “We cannot wait, the situation must change for the better now,” Putin told assembled lawmakers from the lower house State
Duma and upper house Federation Council. “Within this year (Russians) should feel changes,” he said, promising a wide range of steps including new child benefits and lower taxes for larger families. “We did and will do everything for the strengthening of family values,” he said. “The incomes of Russian families should of course rise”. Putin, 66, appeared calm and confident as usual during the speech, but the Kremlin is reportedly deeply concerned by the fall in his personal approval ratings in
recent months. A survey by Russia’s independent Levada Center released in January found his approval rating at 64 percent -- a figure many Western leaders could only dream of, but Putin’s lowest in five years. - Unpopular reforms Russians appear increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of economic growth and the concentration of the country’s wealth in a few hands in Moscow. Moves by the government to implement economic reforms,
including an increase in the retirement age and a rise in the valueadded tax from January 1, have prompted widespread opposition including rare street protests. Another Levada poll in October found only 40 percent of Russians would vote for Putin if an election were held. wLast year, Putin used his annual address to unveil a new arsenal of weapons in a nearly twohour speech that stunned the West and many in Russia. Speaking two weeks before his 2018 re-election, Putin hailed Moscow’s military might as relations with the West reached post-Cold War lows. Nearly an hour into this year’s speech, Putin had yet to address any international issues.
He was expected to touch on the withdrawal of Russia and the United States from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which has raised concerns of a new arms race. He was also likely to cover the crisis in Venezuela, where Moscow has accused the West of “destructive interference” and stood by its ally President Nicolas Maduro. (afp) News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http:// globalfmbali.listen2myradio.com or live video streaming at http:// radioglobalfmbali.com and http:// ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Bali News
International
Activities
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
15
Royal wedding of Ajik Krisna’s son studded with stars
Features potential of Blangsinga village and promotes Balinese culture
DENPASAR - A Balinese businessman, who has a famous souvenir shop in Bali namely the Krisna Oleh-Oleh, I Gusti Anom or who familiarly addressed Ajik Krisna, has just held a super fancy wedding for his son, Berlin Bramantara with Anastasia Phanasta, a woman from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Moreover, his son’s super fancy wedding can be called a royal wedding because the wedding held at Blangsinga village was attended by approximately 10,000 invitees. Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding lasted for two days, namely on Saturday (Feb. 16) and Sunday
(Feb. 17). On Saturday (Feb. 16) was held the traditional wedding while on Sunday was resumed
The wedding of Berlin Bramantara with Anastasia Phanasta
with the luxurious wedding reception attended by thousands of invitees. Besides, the event was also attended by Indonesian luxury car communities. Various super cars such as Lamborghini and Ferrari were also lined up in the reception location. A number of national celebrities such as Hotman Paris, Kaka Slank, Prilly Latuconsina, Vicky Shu, Varrel Bramsta, Natasha Wilona, Glenn Alinskie,
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Chelsea Olivia, Gading Marten, Atta Halilintar and many other artists appeared on the reception night. Like being studded with stars, the Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding was guided by presenter Sule and enlivened by the Yovie & Nuno Band. Like king and queen, Berlin and Anastasia came to the wedding location using a carriage supported by Paripurna Dance Studio. With prominent gold nuance, the whole room was decorated with a blend of gold and white by Ubud decorator, Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra. The bride and groom put on Balinese purple-green and golden customary attires. Meanwhile, Ajik Krisna along with his wife and Anastasia’s parents used green traditional attires. Chairperson of the Royal Wedding Committee who is also the Operations Manager of Krisna Holding Company, Ayu Saraswati, said that initially she only distributed 2,600 invitations and prepared 4,000 seats for invited guests. However, there were 8,000 invited guests. The preparations had been made since two months ago by involving 300 employees of Krisna Oleh-Oleh holding company in Bali assisted by approximately 1,200 youths and local village communities. “Ajik chose Blangsinga village as the wedding venue because he wanted to appoint Blangsinga village denoting his birth village to be known by the Indonesian
people. Moreover, Blangsinga has a beautiful waterfall, so invited guests can enjoy the natural beauty of the village and be shared in the social media. Thus, the natural beauty of Blangsinga village is known and visited by the community later,” said Ayu Saraswati at press conference in Denpasar on Tuesday (Feb. 19). During that occasion, on behalf of Ajik Krisna and the company, she expressed her gratitude to all Balinese people, especially the Blangsinga village community who had participated in the success of the Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding. At the same time, she apologized to invited guests who have not had time to be addressed and have not had time to go up to VVIP. Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra, who handled the decoration, admitted to be very happy and proud to be involved in the wedding event of Ajik Krisna’s son. He said that as an unpretentious entrepreneur in Bali, the wedding held was far from exclusive. “I salute that midst the high modernity, Ajik still prioritizes the touch of Balinese culture in the decoration of his son’s wedding. Taksu Jagat of Blangsinga is inseparable from the existence of Musen Temple and the charm of Tukad Petanu riverside. I am confident in the future Krisna Blangsinga will get success if remaining to uphold the Tri Hita Karana concept in running the business,” said Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra.
Anticipation of fake news ahead of simultaneous election DENPASAR - Simultaneous elections will be held on April 17. Preparation is not only carried out by election organizers, especially the Electoral Commission (KPU), but also police authority. In this case, it is doing the mapping of vulnerable points in accordance with the previous simultaneous elections. “All are vulnerable in my opinion. By intelligence, nothing is underestimated. It must be overestimated because we may not get lulled safely, but it turns out it is not safe,” said Director of Intelligence
and Security at Bali Police. Wahyu Suyitno, on the sidelines of the event “Bali Police Gathering with the Commissioner of Bali Electoral Commission in order to realize the Election 2019 which is honest, fair and having integrity,” he said on Tuesday (Feb. 19). According to Wahyu Suyitno, security issues in the election are not only seen from one side. However, it is related to Astagatra, ranging from geography, demography, natural resources, to the aspects of ideology, politics, economics, socio-culture, and resilience and
security. Geographic aspects, for example, can be erupting mountain, tsunami or earthquakes during elections. In addition, he also anticipated fake news. “We anticipate fake news from outside. Don’t let it spread in Bali because whatever happens Bali must be still conducive,” he explained while saying he always coordinated with the Electoral Commission and Electoral Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) of the Bali province. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Bali Electoral Commission, I
Dewa Agung Gede Lidartawan, said that his commission is currently still focused on election and logistics dissemination activities. Besides, it remains to prepare public meeting campaign that will commence on March 24. “For logistics up to this day (Tuesday—Ed), the entire ballots have been distributed to several districts, namely Jembrana, Buleleng, Karangasem, Klungkung, and Bangli,” he said. According to Lidartawan, the ballots distributed to the district have been received well and they
are now being sorted and folded. If they lack having been sorted and folded, it will be proposed to the provider through the Bali Electoral Commission to be forwarded to the Central Electoral Commission. He immediately checked the forms being produced by the printing company in Surabaya, East Java. “I will check there if everything has been ready to print and I assume that everything works like what we’ve planned, by mid March we will have accomplished everything,” he added. (kmb32)
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Experience Moment of Silence at Aston Kuta
Welcoming Balinese Saka New Year 1941, Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence invites the guest to experience the moment of Silence for 3 Days 2 Nights on 6 - 8 March 2019. Nyepi is Balinese Day of Silence that is commemorated every Saka New Year according to the Balinese calendar and it will be celebrated on 7 March this year. The offer includes
staying at Superior Room with daily breakfast, 1 Lunch coupon for various Food Stall selections for 2 persons with free flow of ice tea/mineral water, 1 time dessert, 1 time Buffet Dinner for 2 persons, complimentary Beach Lounge access with free welcome drink for the day before/after Silence Day, 20% discount for F&B (exclude
cigarette & alcohol), and free Yoga Class. Enjoy the tranquility with IDR 1,388,888++ only. On the eve of Nyepi, the guest will be given a chance to participate as Ogoh-Ogoh judges at Kuta Art and Culture Festival on 6 March 2019, following with the Ogoh-ogoh parades all around the island. “Travelers who have chosen to
stay on the island during this day of silence will experience pure atmosphere of complete tranquility and peace with clean fresh air, clear blue skies, and wonderful stargazing in the evening” said Rizka Fitriana, Assistant Marcom Manager of Aston Kuta. Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence is a 4 star International hotel in
Kuta area. In addition to being located in one of the most popular spots in Bali, Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence also boast complete resort facilities such as meeting rooms, rooftop bar, kids club and gymnasium. For information and booking, you can contact info@ astonkuta.com or via Whatsapp at +62 818 0488 4888.
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Health
International
Bali News
International
Dog DNA testing takes off, and generates debate
NEW YORK - As people peer into DNA for clues to health and heritage, man’s best friend is under the microscope, too. Genetic testing for dogs has surged in recent years, fueled by companies that echo popular at-home tests for humans, offering a deep dive into a pet’s genes with the swab of a canine cheek. More than a million dogs have been tested in little over a decade. The tests’ rise has stirred debate about standards, interpretation and limitations. But to many dog owners, DNA is a way to get to know their companions better. “It put some pieces of the puzzle together,” says Lisa Topol, who recently tested her mixed-breed dogs, Plop and Schmutzy. Plop was the topscoring mixed-breed, and Schmutzy also competed, in Saturday’s agility contest at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York. Judging toward the coveted best-in-show prize begins Monday. A test by Embark — which this fall became Westminster’s first DNAtesting partner — confirmed Topol’s guess that her high-octane pets are more Australian cattle dog than anything else. But Schmutzy’s genetic pie chart had surprise ingredients, including generous amounts of Labrador retriever and Doberman pinscher. Huh? Topol thought at first. And then: Maybe Schmutzy’s love of water and fetching is her inner Lab coming out. And doesn’t she walk a bit like a Doberman? “They are the dogs that they are,” said Topol, a New York advertising executive. “They’re unique, and they’re special.” But the testing “makes me understand them better.” Canine DNA testing for certain conditions and purposes goes back over two decades, but the industry
Plop, a mixed-breed rescue dog owned by Lisa Topol, who ordered genetic testing for Plop and her other dog, Schmutzy.
took off after scientists mapped a full set of dog genes and published the results in 2005. Wisdom Health, part of pet care and candy giant Mars Inc., launched a breed-identification test in 2007, added a health-screening option a few years later, and says it has now tested over 1.1 million dogs worldwide. Numerous other brands are also available. Mass-market tests have fueled research and helped animal shelters attract adopters by providing more information about prospective pets. DNA can back up purebred dogs’ parentage and help breeders try to eliminate certain diseases. The technology has been used to identify dogs whose owners don’t pick up their droppings, to pursue dogs accused of biting and to free a Belgian Malinois from dog death row after he was accused of killing a Pomeranian in Michigan. And some veterinarians believe that DNA testing enhances care. “I want to know as much about my patients as possible,” says Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian and TV personality in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. He recommends testing all puppies. But qualms about the dog DNA boom spilled into the prestigious science journal Nature last year. “Pet genetics must be reined in,” a Boston veterinarian and two other scientists wrote. Their commentary opened with a troubling story: a pug being euthanized because her owners interpreted DNA results to mean that she had a rare degenerative neurological disorder, when in fact her ailment
might have been something more treatable. “These (tests) should be used in a limited way until we get a lot more information,” said co-author and vet Dr. Lisa Moses. One concern is that tests can show genetic mutations that are linked to disease in some breeds but have unknown effects in the breed being tested. It also may be unclear how often dogs with the mutation ultimately get sick. That means tests, in themselves, can’t necessarily tell pet owners how much they should worry. Or tell breeders whether a dog shouldn’t reproduce. Some in dogdom fear that DNA test results could keep animals from passing on otherwise good genes because of an ambiguous possibility of disease. “The risk for overinterpretation is great,” but DNA testing can be useful along with other tools, said veterinarian Dr. Diane Brown, the CEO of the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation. It has invested almost $20 million in genomic and molecular research and supports an international effort to promote standardization for dog DNA tests. The initiative, led by the nonprofit International Partnership for Dogs, provides searchable data on test labs’ procedures and breed-specific health test information. Test companies say their work can help researchers address the unknowns and provides immediately useful information, such as whether a dog’s genes suggest bad reactions to certain medications. Companies including Embark and Wisdom have veterinarians assigned to help people understand worrisome results. (net)
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Marijuana lollipops sold on the street in New York.
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Marijuana lollipop gives man a heart attack
As medical and recreational marijuana becomes legal in more and more places, experts worry that there isn’t enough science on the risks of the drug, especially for patients with heart disease. In a new case report, doctors describe the heart attack of a man who ate a lollipop laced with high levels of THC, marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient. This patient’s story may serve as a warning that cannabis isn’t as benign as some would like to think, doctors wrote this week in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. The 70-year-old Canadian man, who had pre-existing heart disease, suffered a heart attack half an hour after consuming most of a lollipop that contained 90 milligrams of THC. The man had hoped that it would help with arthritis pain and allow him to sleep. The dose in the lollipop was far greater than what people typically inhale with a single marijuana joint, 7 milligrams, the researchers note. “With access to marijuana legal now in Canada, it’s going to be accessible to a larger proportion of the population and it’s more likely that some of them will have heart disease,” said study co-author Dr. Rob Stevenson, a cardiologist at the New Brunswick Heart Center in St. John, New Brunswick. “This could be the canary in the coal mine.” The man had already been diagnosed with atherosclerosis and had bypass surgery, but he was taking medications to treat the condition, and his disease was “stable” at the time he consumed the edible cannabis, said lead study author Dr. Alex Saunders, chief resident of the internal medicine program at the St. John’s site for Dalhousie University. “After his bypass surgery he had no repeats of chest pain other than this one,” Saunders said. The man had smoked marijuana in his youth and had fond memories of it, Saunders said. But once the effects of the high-dose THC in the lollipop started to hit, the man’s blood pressure and heart rate quickly shot
Thursday, February 21, 2019
up. “He described fearful hallucinations,” Saunders said. “He was very afraid he was going to die.” By the time family members got to him, “he was not only having hallucinations, but also intense chest pain,” Saunders said, adding that the terror the man experienced may have been too much for his heart. Once at the hospital, doctors confirmed that he’d had a heart attack. The man survived his heart attack, but tires more quickly than before with exercise. Saunders worries that with marijuana now legal in Canada, increasing numbers of people with heart disease will be using it and some of them will be at risk for heart attacks. “When I was in my rheumatology rotation, over half of my patients were asking if marijuana would help with the aches and pains that don’t get better with traditional medicine,” she said. And while many would have avoided cannabis before, “now that it’s legal they don’t feel as bad,” Saunders said. “One of the most reliable acute effects of the THC in cannabis is that it increases heart rate,” said Ryan Vandrey, a researcher who wasn’t involved in the case report. “And it’s dose dependent. Even at modest doses you can get increases in heart rate of 20 to 30 beats per minutes. And it can go higher. If someone with cardiovascular risk factors experiences a short-term bump in heart rate, that would be a concern.” Vandrey, a psychiatry researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, was especially disturbed by the high dose of THC in the lollipop. “Part of my frustration with products like this is that nobody is going to take just a couple of licks and then put it away,” he said. “There should be no circumstance where you get a product and you’re not supposed to consume the whole thing and it’s not clear when you’re supposed to stop.” (net)
The closure is made because it is illegal and has the potential to pollute the river just below the disposal site.
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DLH closes illegal landfill at Busungbiu village
SINGARAJA - Temporary waste disposal site (TPS) at Kelod hamlet, Busungbiu, was closed on Tuesday (Feb. 19). The closure is made because it is illegal and has the potential to pollute the river just below the disposal site. Additionally, the existence of the disposal site disturbed the aesthetics of the Busungbiu town because it sits in the Seririt – Pupuan road section (Tabanan district). The decision to close the disposal site over the river was carried out after the Buleleng Environment and Sanitation Agency (DLH) held a coordination meeting with the ranks of the Busungbiu leadership council (Muspika) and the Busungbiu village apparatus on Monday (Feb. 18). The meeting was chaired by the Head of DLH Buleleng, Putu Ariadi Pribadi, Headman of Busungbiu, Gede Putra Aryana, Representative of Busung-
biu Police, Municipal Police and apparatus of Busungbiu village. The Head of the DLH Buleleng, Putu Ariadi Pribadi, stated the closure of the disposal site was done because the DLH had carried out studies and direct observations to the location. Based on the study, the household waste that is not accommodated at the 3R disposal site managed by village government is dumped into the disposal site over the
river and bordered the bridge. A pile of garbage that does not decompose is feared to pollute the river emptying into the beach. Additionally, the existence and activities in the illegal disposal site were not good in terms of aesthetics at the entrance gate to the Busungbiu subdistrict town. With such consideration, the DLH closed the disposal site on the land owned by local residents. After closing, the DLH has coordinated with subdistrict leadership council and municipal police to conduct supervision against the site. If after the closure people are found disposing of garbage at that location, they will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the Regional Regulation (Perda) regarding the dispute. “Starting
in 2015, we have started to accommodate garbage that is not processed at waste disposal site. If left unchecked, the impact will trigger pollution in the river and this is inversely proportional because on the beach we do cleanup while in the upstream there is even a disposal site on the river bank, so that it can pollute the river,” he said. According to Ariadi, to overcome the excessive volume of waste that is not managed at temporary site and 3R, every day DLH will transport excess of waste volumes by using three garbage trucks. From technical calculations, the daily volume of garbage in Busungbiu reaches 35 cubic meters. Of that number, only 10 cubic meters have been handled at the ex-
Ahead of Nyepi, ogoh-ogoh makers start to be flooded by orders
AMLAPURA - Ahead of the Nyepi or Day of Silence, ogohogoh or papier mâché demon makers in Karangasem began to be flooded with orders. As experienced by one of the makers, Ida Ketut Santosa, an ogoh-ogoh maker from Bebandem village, is overwhelmed to serve the making of ogoh-ogoh accessories ahead of the Nyepi. Santosa stated the order of ogohogoh accessories has started to be crowded since a few days ago. The orders are coming from a number of sub-districts in Karangasem such
as Karangasem, Selat, Sidemen, Kubu, Manggis and Selat. “Now, we have received orders for around 50 pieces of ogoh-ogoh mask that have not been worked on. We have already accomplished around 30 masks. Due to lack of staff, we reject some orders from outside Karangasem,” he said. He said that he is only capable of completing as many as three masks each day. Meanwhile, the making of ogoh-ogoh takes up to a week. “We do it with the help of two workers. If worked on alone, surely it will be even
longer,” he said. When asked about the price of the masks, Santosa said they are sold for different prices in accordance with the level of difficulty. As illustration, his products are sold from the price of IDR 400,000 to IDR 800,000. (kmb41) Ahead of the Nyepi or Day of Silence, ogoh-ogoh or papier mâché demon makers in Karangasem began to be flooded with orders.
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isting 3R disposal site. This happens because the capacity of 3R disposal site has not yet supported, and sorting waste at the household level is not optimal. Waste that has not been sorted at TPS 3R will be transported by DLH to Bengkala landfill, Kubutambahan. From regular transportation every day, Ariadi ensured that 18 cubic meters of garbage per day are transported to the landfill. “In order not to increase the capacity in the 3R disposal sites, village government is expected to sensitize the community to process organic waste into organic fertilizer for their own interests, so that the excessive volume that is not accommodated in our 3R disposal site will be carried out regularly every day,” he explained. (kmb38)
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Bali News
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Bali targeted to have 189 digital gas stations
BANGKOK - Thousands of devotees of a powerful Thai Buddhist sect, whose spiritual leader is on the run over a multimillion dollar fraud, joined a stunning candle-lit procession at their 1,000-acre Bangkok headquarters.
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Bali is targeted to have 189 digital gas stations. Such digitization is expected to be more effective in terms of real time monitoring against the fuel stock at gas stations. At present, the public can use emoney transactions but it does not rule out the possibility that other transactions will be easier and more sophisticated in the future. Previously, Managing Director
of PT Pertamina (Persero), Nicke Widyawati, targeted to digitize all the gas stations. Through this digitization, all incoming and outgoing fuel data outlets throughout Indonesia will be recorded in real
time. The process is being recorded on the fuel distribution valve (nozzle). He admitted the data will get connected to Pertamina’s data center. Any gas station having
minimum stocks will be monitored automatically. For Pertamina, it can give warning for immediate delivery. The service will increase and reduce the scarcity of fuel that causes queues. (kmb42)
Before inaugurated, observation tower at Penelokan damaged
BANGLI - Quality of the Penelokan observation tower construction project claiming a budget of tens of billions of rupiah is questioned by Commission III of the Bangli House of Representa-
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Controversial Thai Buddhist sect dazzles with annual procession
DENPASAR - Bali is targeted to have 189 digital gas stations. Such digitization is expected to be more effective in terms of real time monitoring against the fuel stock at gas stations. Communication and Relations Section of Pertamina MOR V, Rico Raspati, stated that Bali is one of the regions that will implement digitization for Public Gas Refueling Stations (SPBUs). Until now, 20 percent of gas stations have been digitized. However, until June 2019 the target of digital gas stations must be 100 percent. “All of them have been 100 percent surveyed. Until now, there have been 34 gas stations installed with cables in the office and dispenser area,” he said on Monday (Feb. 18). A number of gas stations in the region are ready for the digitization. They are Barakuda, Kalisakti, Umanis, Gianyar and Singaraja to Tabanan. “Digitization fund of the gas stations will be borne by Pertamina,” he said. Digitization of gas stations will also make it easier for the community because the cashless payment system will make it easier for people to bring money physically.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
tives. Condition of the government project newly completed about two months ago and having not yet been inaugurated has now begun to experience damage. The damage can be seen on the floor, downstairs to
IBP/kmb40
The damage can be seen on the floor, downstairs to the stage where the conditions start to come off.
the stage where the conditions start to come off. Besides, the House also highlighted the quality of wavy wooden floors around the stage. During the visit to the observation tower on Monday (Feb. 18), Chairman of Commission III of the Bangli House of Representatives, Ketut Suastika, accompanied by member of Commission III, Wayan Karyasa, looked surprised to see the condition of downstairs floors. A lot of floor with a carpet-like surface has started to peel off. At one point, the surface of the floor is even destroyed when touched. Additionally, the downstairs floor also looks dirty because it contains a lot of dog poop. When going down near the stage, Suastika and Karyasa found a wall starting to crack and wooden floors with uneven surfaces. Stairs in the location equally did not escape from the attention. According to Karyasa, condition of the stairs at the location is quite dangerous because it has a different size. Some stairs whose width is less than the length of an adult’s foot, when passed can po-
tentially make people fall. “At least, the steps are 30 centimeters wide because if the stairs are like this, it is quite dangerous as can cause people to fall,” he explained. Similarly, he doubted the steps were not made according to the design. Both Karyasa and Suastika admitted to be quite sad to see such condition of the newly completed project. They assessed the uneven wood floor surface and the damage to the floor on the way to the stage happened due to the hasty process of the project. To prevent the damage from getting worse, Suastika and Karyasa requested immediate repairs as the Penelokan observation tower is currently under maintenance. “The steps must be repaired, made with the same width, so as not to endanger. Meanwhile, the wood floor must be flat. If ignored, over time it can get damaged and broken down,” said Karyasa. When confirmed separately related to this, the Head of the Bangli Tourism and Culture Office, Wayan Bona, did not dismiss the fact regarding the condition of the floor
going down to the stage having begun to peel off. He said the damage is caused by repeated herd of dogs that often entered the area. “It happened because of being scratched by dogs. For many nights, a number of dogs came into it. In the past, it was covered in plywood, but it was broken through too,” he said. To avoid the presence of animals from entering the stage area, Bona considered it necessary to make a door. In the project construction yesterday, the road to the stage is not fitted with a door because it is not included in the plan. Condition of the corrugated wood floor surface, Bona asked to acknowledge it considering the construction of the Penelokan observation tower was done in a very short time, which was only 3.5 months. The process was done until midnight. Additionally, it was also said that Penelokan observation tower had been submitted to the BUGG Tourism Management Agency, so later on the maintenance will be carried out by the management body. (kmb40)
The Dhammakaya sect, a wealthy Buddhist order founded in 1970, was steered to riches by the septuagenarian monk Phra Dhammachayo. He won the devotion of superrich Thai politicians and businessmen and with it the distrust of Thailand’s Buddhist establishment. The former abbot was the subject of a massive police hunt of the Dhammakaya temple complex in 2017, where he was believed to be holed-up to evade arrest over allegations of money laundering and a massive embezzlement of $33 million. The monk, 72 at the time, vanished without trace after a search which lurched into farce and saw officers led through hundreds of rooms - including a chamber where they pulled back a bed cover to find an arrangement of pillows instead of the elderly monk. Police eventually concluded the abbot may have slipped out of the temple in the early days of their weeks-long search.
The temple has since quietly rebounded and continues to hold several high-profile annual events. On Tuesday evening the 300,000 tiny Buddha statues which stud the space-age dome of their vast temple, were illuminated as worshippers processed around the dome. Thousands of monks and white-clad temple members held candles in a stunning, perfectly choreographed expression of devotion, giant flags bearing the Dhammakaya’s symbol billowing overhead. The annual event was held to mark Makha Bucha Day, one of the most important days of the Buddhist calendar. The Dhammakaya is accused by Buddhist authorities of spinning a pay-your-way to nirvana philosophy, spreading the sect’s popularity through public relations events. The temple refutes the allegations saying it has been the target of politically motivated charges. (afp)
Jewel SAMAD / AFP
Devotees make their offerings at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on February 20, 2019.
App-based delivery men highlight India’s growing gig economy MUMBAI - Suraj Nachre works long hours and regularly misses meals but he treasures his job as a driver for a food delivery startup -- working in a booming industry that highlights India’s expanding apps-based gig-economy.
The 26-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of young Indians who, armed with their smartphones and motorcycles, courier dinners to offices and homes ordered at the swipe of a finger. A surge in the popularity of
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
In this photograph taken on February 6, 2019, Indian delivery man Arjun Kumar Mehto (R) working with the food delivery app FoodPanda rides with food to deliver to a customer in New Delhi.
food-ordering apps like Uber Eats and Swiggy provides a welcome source of income for many as India’s unemployment rate sits at a reported 45-year high. But they also shine a spotlight on the prevalence of short-term contracts in the economy, raising questions about workers’ rights and conditions and the long-term viability of the jobs. “(These delivery workers) are treated as independent contractors so labour laws governing employees are not applicable and they lack job security,” Gautam Ghosh, a human resources consultant, told AFP. “While jobs created by food delivery apps are crucial, they may not exist in 10 years so for the majority of youngsters they are a stopgap arrangement,” he added. India’s army of food delivery drivers, mostly men but some women too, became a talking point on social media late last year when a rider for the Zomato platform was filmed sampling a customer’s order. The video, apparently shot on a mobile phone, showed the man
taking bites from several food parcels before wrapping them again. It sparked anger online and he was promptly sacked.
- Rushing around Many internet users rallied to his defence, however. They insisted that the two-minute clip showed he was hungry and desperate, and said Zomato had acted harshly in dismissing him. “It is a challenging job,” said Nachre, expressing sympathy for the unnamed delivery man who was working in the southern city of Madurai before being fired. “We work 12 hours straight in soaring heat and heavy rains. Sometimes I don’t even have time to eat,” he added. Nachre drives for the Scootsy platform. He leaves home at 9:00 am and does not return until after 1:00 am. Navigating Mumbai’s abysmal traffic makes work stressful, he says. “We’re always in a rush to deliver and customers keep calling us. We know we have to be on our toes all the time or customers might complain and we may lose
our jobs,” Nachre told AFP. India’s food delivery apps, backed by major international investment, are offering new avenues of employment for Indian youngsters who lack higher education but possess a driving licence. Their importance to the likes of Nachre was highlighted recently when a leaked government report said India’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in 2017-18, the highest since the 1970s. “This job is lucrative,” said Nachre, who has no post-school qualifications and earns a minimum of 18,000 rupees ($253) a month. In his previous job running errands at an office he made only 8,000 rupees. The app-based food delivery industry is worth an estimated $7 billion to Asia’s third-largest economy, according to market research firm Statista, and is expanding rapidly. Swiggy announced at the end of last year that it had received $1 billion in funding from foreign backers including South Africa’s Naspers and China’s Tencent. (afp)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
BUSINESS Japan’s Honda to shut UK car plant, as Brexit looms
Honda will shut its UK plant with the loss of 3,500 jobs, the Japanese car maker announced Tuesday as the global auto industry faces “unprecedented changes” and the UK economy hits the skids on Brexit uncertainty. The factory in Swindon, southwest England, which is Honda’s only EU plant, will shut in 2021 “at the end of the current model’s production lifecycle”, the company said as carmakers worldwide increasingly invest in greener electric vehicles over diesel cars. Business Secretary Greg Clark described Honda’s decision as “devastating” and “a particularly bitter blow to the thousands of skilled and dedicated staff who work at the factory, their families and all of those employed in the supply chain”. Katsushi Inoue, Honda’s chief officer for European regional operations, said the decision had “not been taken lightly”. The firm blamed “unprecedented changes in the global automotive industry” for the decision but it comes amid investment uncertainty in Britain ahead of the country’s departure from the European Union next month. Analysts said an EU-Japan trade agreement signed recently had likely also played a part in Honda’s decision. Clark said that while Honda’s decision was made for “commercial” reasons, it was nonetheless “devastating... for Swindon and the UK”. He added in a statement: “The automotive industry is undergoing a rapid transition to new technology. The UK is one of the leaders in the development of these technologies and so it is deeply disappointing that this decision has been taken now.” - Brexit clouds Speaking earlier in Tokyo, Honda president Takahiro Hachigo told reporters: “I’d like you to understand this is not related to Brexit.” Nevertheless, it comes after Japanese peer Nissan earlier this month axed plans to make its X-Trail SUV in the Brexit-backing UK city of Sunderland, citing “business reasons” but also uncertainty over Britain’s EU departure. Toyota, another Japanese car giant making vehicles in Britain, has meanwhile warned there would be no way to avoid a negative impact should the UK crash out of the EU without a deal. The Bank of England earlier this month slashed its forecast for 2019 UK growth to 1.2 percent from 1.7 percent, blaming the downgrade on a global economic slowdown and “the fog of Brexit”. Honda’s fellow Japanese firms Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi are also scaling back their UK operations. (afp)
Bali News
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Foreign Tourists Like Monkey Attraction at Alas Kedaton
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Both domestic and foreign tourists love the action of monkeys when invited to take a pictures or selfie. The four-legged animal has an extraordinary style when being faced with camera. As requirements, the must be given to eat nuts, so they want to be quiet while chewing snacks like tubers. Besides, it must also be guided by a handler or local guide. Don’t try to do it by yourself!
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File
In this Feb. 15, 2019, file photo, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, right, talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, while they line up for a group photo at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. China’s economy czar is going to Washington for talks Thursday and Friday aimed at ending a tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions.
China’s economy czar heading to Washington for trade talks
BEIJING - China’s economy czar is heading to Washington for talks Thursday and Friday aimed at ending a fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions ahead of a deadline for a massive U.S. tariff hike. The announcement Tuesday via the official Xinhua News Agency follows talks last week in Beijing that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said “made headway” on key issues. Xinhua said Vice Premier Liu He will hold talks with Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Business groups and economists saw Friday’s surprise announcement of further talks this week as a sign they were making progress. Both governments have expressed optimism but they have given no details of their talks. Economists say the time available for negotiations is too brief to resolve an array of irritants in U.S.-Chinese relations. They say Beijing’s goal is to persuade President Donald Trump they are making enough progress to push back threatened U.S. penalties. Beijing hopes for “a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement that is acceptable to
both sides,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang. Without an agreement, a 10 percent tariff increase imposed in July on $200 billion of Chinese goods is due to rise to 25 percent on March 2. Last Friday, Lighthizer told the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the two sides “made headway on very, very important and difficult issues.” Trump imposed the penalties over complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. The talks also include complaints about Beijing’s plans for government-led technology development, cyberspying and China’s trade surplus. Beijing retaliated with higher duties on U.S. goods and told its importers to find other suppliers. That led to a 40 percent drop in Chinese imports of American goods in January. Washington, Europe, Japan and other
trading partners complain plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for government -led creation of global competitors in robotics and other technologies, violate Beijing’s market-opening obligations. China’s leaders have offered to narrow its multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more natural gas, soybeans and other exports. But they are resisting pressure to scale back industry plans they see as a path to prosperity and global influence. Other stumbling blocks include Chinese resistance to U.S. pressure to accept an enforcement mechanism with penalties to ensure Beijing carries out whatever commitments it makes. Trump said last week he might be willing to push back the March 2 date if the talks go well but Washington has yet to say whether the negotiations are making enough progress. (ap)
Alas Kedaton attraction located at Kukuh village, Marga, Tabanan, or about 8 km North West of Denpasar City is indeed a tourist idol for traveling. They come in the afternoon or evening to continue watching sunset at Tanah Lot. “Tourists really like the attraction of this monkey,” said Ni Putu Marani, one of the local officers. This forest does not only has monkeys as an attraction, but also giant bats (flying foxes) and tropical forests with various types of plants. Every day, this object is opened from 8:30 until 15:30. The admission ticket for adults costs IDR 20,000 and IDR 15,000 for child. Meanwhile, the admission ticket for foreign adults is IDR 30,000 and IDR 20,000 for child. “Especially for Galungan, Kuningan and New Year’s Day specifically for local people, the admission ticket
will be charged at IDR 5,000,” said Ni Putu Marani. Tourists having held a ticket will be accompanied by a local guide who is also a souvenir merchant. The ticket is then presented to the officer at the lobby of the tourist attraction, then heading for the monkey attraction. Under direction of local guide, visitors walk to the middle of the forest through a pathway to the right side of Dalem Kahyangan Kedaton Temple. On the way, the atmosphere is cool because the area is rich in large plants. At each wall visitors will come across forest dwellers that can be invited to take pictures. Local guide continues to explain the uniqueness of the temple, the attraction of the fruit bat show and snake show. “We invite tourists to witness the attraction of taking pictures with flying fox and snakes
using Balinese customary clothes,” he added. Formerly, the flying fox and snake show were located on the west side of the tourist attraction,
but it has now been moved to the east of forest area, to the right of the temple. To take pictures with snakes, visitors must pay IDR 70,000 and IDR 60,000 for tak-
ing pictures with flying fox. After that, the local guide will direct you to their shops to browse or buy various kinds of souvenirs on offer. (kmb)
Ngelawang Procession at Temple, What Does It Mean? Ngelawang barong becomes a routine phenomenon during Galungan and Kuningan celebrations. This traditional show is usually done on the streets, especially in front of people’s house compound. However, different tradition is showed by the ngelawang procession held by Puakan customary village, Taro, Tegallalang, Gianyar. At this village thousands of residents attend the ngelawang procession coinciding with Umanis Galungan, Thursday (Dec. 27). Implementation of the Ngelawang tradition also known as ngelungang was followed by thousands of residents, concentrated at Puakan village. Ngelawang at this village is carried out every six months by walking from one village to another, almost followed by the entire customary villagers located in the northern territory of Ubud. Centered at this village, all the sanctified effigies or tapakan Ida Bhatara comprising Barong and Rangda are given special ceremonies in two locations, namely the Puseh and Bale Agung temple of the customary village. Local temple priest, I Wayan Tagil Kumara Nata, explained the tradition begins with a ceremony at Puseh Temple and continues at Bale
Agung Temple. At Puseh Temple the sanctified effigies face east or towards the shrines, aiming at coming before the deities to invoke divine power. In addition, said Tagil Kumara Nata, the ngelawang procession is also carried out as a form of repelling negative things or neutralizing the negative influences of the universe. “This tradition is to ask for salvation, especially for natural harmony,” he said. After the procession at Puseh Temple, all the sanctified effigies are accompanied by residents heading for the Bale Agung Temple and continued by dropping in at each temple of the customary village passed through. Due to long distance, not infrequently this procession can last until midnight. “To go back to each customary village, they take a long time to late night,” he said. Nevertheless, it does not dampen vivacity of the people. The tradition held on the day after Galungan is still running every six months. Meanwhile, especially for customary villages experiencing cuntaka or obstacles due family’s death, they will usually choose another day adjusted to the situation and decision of the local custom. (kmb)
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Brexit: May heads back to Brussels but EU not budging
BRUSSELS - Prime Minister Theresa May heads back to Brussels on Wednesday to renew her quest to reopen the terms of Britain’s Brexit divorce, but appears headed for disappointment. With less than six weeks until Brexit day, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has agreed to meet May once again, but EU leaders insist they will not restart negotiations. “I have great respect for Theresa May, for her courage and her assertiveness. We will have a friendly talk tomorrow but I don’t expect a breakthrough,” Juncker said Tuesday. May and the other 27 EU leaders approved a Brexit withdrawal agreement at a summit on November 25 last year, but the British leader’s own parliament rejected it on January 15. Since then, May and her ministers have repeatedly met EU leaders and their negotiator Michel Barnier to urge them to reopen the text to find a way to appease eurosceptic MPs. May will try again on Wednesday, but on this trip she will not even meet Donald Tusk who, as president of the European Council, represents the leaders of EU member states. She will instead meet Juncker and Barnier, who have no mandate from Tusk’s council or EU capitals to renegotiate the deal, or to modify the infamous “Irish backstop” clause. This provides for Britain to remain in the EU customs union until a way is found -- such as a future free trade deal -- to ensure that Ireland’s border with Northern Ireland remains open. Brexiteers in May’s own Conser-
vative party see this as a “trap” to keep Britain in a form of union indefinitely, and have demanded a time limit or a unilateral exit clause. This would be seen in Brussels as a betrayal of EU member Ireland, and it has consistently got short shrift from EU officials. “We cannot accept a time limit to the backstop or a unilateral exit clause,” Juncker’s spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters on Tuesday, reiterating the longstanding EU position. This represents a direct rejection of May’s core demand. May’s spokesman said the prime minister was “working hard to secure legally binding changes” to the backstop. “The prime minister believes that she can secure changes in relation to the backstop MPs want -- there is a majority in parliament for a deal”. Without a deal, Britain is due to leave the Union abruptly after four decades on March 29, with no followon agreement or transition period to manage trade and economic relations. - Economic chaos feared -
Both sides have said they want to avoid this, and many experts foresee economic chaos, even warning of food and medicine shortages or a renewed threat of unrest in Northern Ireland.
Manufacturing supply chains could be disrupted, and Brexit uncertainty has already been cited as a contributing factor in the closure or departure of several British-based businesses. Another option would be for Brussels to accord Britain an extension to the March 29 deadline, which is enshrined in British law. But May’s government insists it will not request a delay, all 27 remaining members would have to agree and it would be legally difficult for Britain to remain in the EU for long. Member states are obliged to hold polls May 23-26 to elect a new European Parliament, which will start sitting from July 2, presumably without any British members. “Any decision to ask for more time lies with the UK. If such a request were to be made, no one in Europe would oppose it,” Juncker told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten this week. “If you are asking for how long the withdrawal can be postponed, I have no timeframe in mind... But I find it hard to imagine that British voters would again vote in the European elections.” May is due at the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters for her meeting with the Commission president at 6:30 pm (1730 GMT). The next day, British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet Barnier. (afp)
Adrian DENNIS / AFP
Political satire artist Kaya Mar poses with an artwork depicting opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (R) and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May as anti-Brexit activists demonstrate outside of the Houses of Parliament in central London on February 14, 2019.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen
IBP/net
Taiwan’s Tsai says no peace deal with China unless force ruled out
TAIPEI - President Tsai Ingwen on Wednesday said no formal peace deal could be signed with China until leaders in Beijing rule out using force against the island. Tsai was speaking a day after she confirmed she would run for re-election in early 2020 despite falling ratings and an increasingly strained relationship with China. Beijing still sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. Tsai was responding to recent comments by Wu Den-yih, head of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), that his party would pursue a peace treaty with Beijing if it were to regain power next year. “There would be no so-called negotiation on equal footing and no real peace as China refuses to give up the use of force against Taiwan and forcefully pushes the ‘one country, two systems’ framework,” she said in a media briefing. “China’s military intentions and its refusal to give up the use of force against Taiwan is a real source of regional instability and a threat to regional peace,” she added. “One country, two systems” is China’s proposal to absorb Taiwan into the mainland but allow it to keep some of its freedoms. Beijing has made its dislike of Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party clear. After her election in 2016, it cut communication with her administration, stepped up military drills and poached several of Taiwan’s dwindling diplomatic allies.
President Xi Jinping reiterated in a speech last month that China would not renounce the option of using military force to bring Taiwan into the fold, describing unification with the mainland as “inevitable”. A KMT win in 2020 would likely please leaders in Beijing given the much closer relationship it forged with the previous administration of Ma Ying-jeou. Ma suggested in 2011 that Taiwan should consider a peace treaty with China within the coming decade, to formally bring an end to a civil war that has actually been over for seventy years. The proposal sparked criticism from detractors that it would be tantamount to a unification or surrender treaty. Ma later stressed that he would only move ahead for a peace agreement with the approval of both the parliament and the public, and the issue had been shelved since. The KMT’s drubbing at the 2016 election partly stemmed from voter unease over the party’s perceived cosiness to the mainland. But Wu -- a former vice president under Ma -- has resurrected the issue ahead of next year’s polls. He is among the KMT bigwigs who have been tipped to run for president. Tsai said she believed voters would balk at the proposal unless Beijing withdrew its threats. “I believe Taiwanese society would not accept any political agreement that could harm or eliminate our sovereignty or eliminate Taiwan’s democracy,” she said. (afp)
General elections tend to be hostile: Mahfud MD
CIREBON - Constitutional law expert Mahfud MD opined that the ongoing general election process tended to be hostile, as though it is no longer about selecting a leader, for which he called for efforts to ease tensions. “This general election is (as though) an event for hostility and not for selecting a leader,” Mahfud, chairman of the Nationalism Torch Movement, noted during the third series of the Nationalism Dialogs, here, Tuesday. He also viewed that the ongoing election process had tended to
trigger a divide among primordial bonds and an emergence of identity politics. “It is since this election has, as if, caused quarrels between supporters of A and B, between followers of this religion and that religion, members of this tribe and that tribe, and members of
Indonesia submits formal bid to host the 2032 Olympics Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympics, officials said Tuesday, after the Southeast Asian nation’s widely lauded handling of the Asian Games last summer. Muliaman Hadad, Indonesia’s ambassador to Switzerland, submitted a formal bid letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne last week, the foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday. “This is the right moment to show Indonesia’s capability as a big country,” Hadad said in a statement made public this week. Widodo publicly expressed
Indonesia’s interest in hosting the 2032 event in the capital, Jakarta, during last year’s Asian Games -- the world’s second biggest multisport event behind the Olympics. India has also expressed an interest in hosting the 2032 games while North and South Korea have said they might enter a joint bid. The IOC will announce the 2032 host by 2025. If successful, Indonesia would be the fourth Asian Olympics host after Japan, South Korea and China. The next Olympics will be in 2020 in Tokyo, while Paris will host it in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028. (afp)
this race and that race. These have begun to emerge and these need to be calmed down before it becomes a disease of the nation,” he cautioned. He called for ideas to strengthen nationalism to address this condition. “All those are just symptoms and have not become a real disease. Hence, if anticipatory measures are not taken, it could become a disease of this nation,” he emphasized. The Nationalism Dialogs are or-
ELECTION 2019
IBP/net
ganized by the Indonesian railway company KAI in cooperation with the Nationalism Torch Movement, from Merak in Banten Province to Banyuwangi, East Java. The objective behind the dialogs is to promote public awareness of the need to strengthen the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia will organize simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019. Seeking a second term, Joko Widodo, popularly known as
Jokowi, has picked Ma`ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), as his partner, to everyone`s surprise. The pair will face retired military general Prabowo Subianto, who has chosen Sandiaga Solahuddin Uno, a young and successful entrepreneur, as his running mate. This year`s race will be a repeat of the bitter 2014 presidential election that showcased the country`s divide as Jokowi went head-tohead with Subianto. (ant)
Judge rejects exception of musician Ahmad Dhani
SURABAYA - Surabaya District Court`s Chief of the Judge Panel R. Anton Widyopriono rejected an exception put forward by prominent musician Ahmad Dhani`s lawyer and decided to proceed with witness examination in an alleged defamation case. “The exception of the defendant`s lawyer cannot be accepted,” the chief judge noted in a trial held here, Tuesday. In the interlocutory decision, the judge asked the prosecutors to present witnesses for the subsequent trial scheduled for next Tuesday. The Surabaya prosecutor`s office charges Dhani for his statement on his Instagram account on August
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26, 2018. Dhani was in a Surabaya hotel that was surrounded by several protestors, who opposed Dhani`s presence in the city, as he was to attend an event called “A declaration to change the President in 2019” held at the Surabaya Heroes` Monument. The protestors were grouped in the “Defend NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia)” coalition. While being stopped from leaving the hotel by the protestors, Dhani recorded a video on his Instagram account, containing his statement, saying: “These who are protesting, the protestors defend the
ruler. It`s funny, funny. These, these are the idiots, protesting against people who are not in power.” For the “idiot” statement, Public Prosecutor Dedi Arisandi charged Dhani with violation of Law No. 11 of 2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE). The prosecutor said that Dhani had insulted, harassed, and defamed the protestors by calling them “idiots.” Dhani is a popular Indonesian rock musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He is the front man of the Dewa 19 rock band and also a member of the intercontinental band, The Rock. (ant)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Vettel wary of threat from new Ferrari teammate Leclerc
MONTMELO - Sebastian Vettel said on Tuesday he considers new Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc a “full rival” as the German prepares for his latest tilt at a fifth Formula One world title.
Pura Beji Temple Old Temple in North Bali SINGARAJA - The Pura Beji temple is a large and beautiful temple complex in the village of Sangsit in North Bali, dating back to the 15th century, during the spread of the Majapahit kingdom from Java. The temple is revered by village farmers and is unique in Bali, in that it also serves as a ‘pura puseh’ or the village’s central temple. The temple adds to the checklist of historical landmarks that you can tick off on your sightseeing tours to Bali’s northern area. The temple is within a seven-kilometre transfer east from the Buleleng regency’s capital of Singaraja, and eight kilometres’ drive from Lovina Beach. The timeworn structures and walls within the temple complex are exquisitely contrasted by the manicured green lawns and tropical gardens. Shrine bases and white sandstone walls are covered in arrays of carvings, inspired by the great Hindu epics with a mixture of fables and legends, such as
serpents, menacing demons and guardians. The stone staircases and temple gates of Pura Beji temple also feature intact statues. It is a great stopover for art buffs and architecture lovers. Roaming through the whole complex can easily take up an hour. The name ‘beji’ in the local tongue signifies purification by way of holy water, and it so happens that the Pura Beji temple was built over a well. Revered by local farmers as a ‘pura subak’ or Balinese collective irrigation temple that worships the rice and fertility goddess Dewi Sri, the temple also features a bit of anachronism: two statues of Dutch musicians, each holding a guitar and a rebab. These may have been added later in time, as with the motifs found at Pura Meduwe Karang temple, further west in the village of Kubutambahan. No entrance fees apply, save for a donation box beside the guestbook at the entrance, as well as the conventional rent of waist sashes. (IBP/net)
Monegasque Leclerc was the quickest driver on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, clocking within 0.1 seconds of Vettel’s leading time 24 hours earlier. Vettel is heading into his fifth season with Ferrari since leaving Red Bull in 2014, having finished second to Lewis Hamilton in each of the last two years. The 21-year-old Leclerc replaced Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian manufacturer after an impressive 10 points finishes in his rookie season with Sauber. “Of course (Leclerc is) a full rival,” said Vettel. “I think he is in the seat for a reason and I have to take it very seriously. “But I think you always have close rivalry with your teammate and priority number one is for sure trying to bring the team forward. “I have been around for a bit longer compared to him, so it is different things maybe that he will have on his plate in the beginning... I am very certain he will be quick enough and put me under pressure so we’ll see how it goes.” Vettel made a strong start to his 2018 campaign, before a series of individual and team errors saw him lose the race with Mercedes’ Hamilton to become a five-time world champion by 88 points. But he remains confident that Ferrari can clinch their first drivers’ crown since Raikkonen’s dramatic triumph in 2007. “Obviously we’ve had better years and years we were further away,” said the 31-year-old Vettel, who won four successive world championships at Red Bull from 20102013. “But overall though the progression is there, the team is developing. “So I hope that this year we get to have a lot of fun. Fun is to win a lot of races and then ultimately you are fighting for the championship. “That’s obviously what we want but at this point it is very far away.” The 2019 Formula One season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne on March 17. (afp)
LLUIS GENE / AFP
Ferrari’s German driver Sebastian Vettel walks in the paddock during the tests for the new Formula One Grand Prix season at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo in the outskirts of Barcelona on February 18, 2019.
Hirscher wins sixth World Cup slalom crown
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Austria’s Marcel Hirscher competes in the first run of the men’s slalom event at the 2019 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships at the National Arena in Are, Sweden, on February 17, 2019.
STOCKHOLM - Austrian ski star Marcel Hirscher captured a sixth World Cup slalom crown on Tuesday despite crashing out of the city event in Stockholm in the quarter-finals. The 29-year-old defeated Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet in the first round of the parallel slalom format -- enough to guarantee Hirscher another crystal globe. He was later eliminated by eventual winner Ramon Zenhaeusern in the last eight, keeping Hirscher on five slalom wins this season along with the gold he claimed at last week’s world championships in Are. Tuesday’s city event featured
16 of the world’s top slalom skiers, with racers going head to head against one another in each round. Clement Noel, Hirscher’s closest rival in the slalom standings, crashed out in the first round after straddling the final gate. With a lead of 275 points over Noel before arriving in Stockholm, Hirscher just needed to advance beyond the first round to clinch a sixth slalom title in seven years. There are only two more slalom races left on this year’s World Cup calendar, at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia on March 10 and the season-ending event in Andorra a week later.
Hirscher is well on course for a record-extending eighth overall World Cup crown. He leads France’s Alexis Pinturault by 480 points with a dozen races left. Switzerland’s Zenhaeusern beat home favourite and reigning Olympic slalom champion Andre Myhrer in Tuesday’s final, while Austrian Marco Schwarz backed up his world championship bronze medal by finishing third. It was the 26-year-old Zenhaeusern’s second World Cup win, following his victory in the same event last season. He also helped Switzerland take gold in the team event at the world championships a week ago. (afp)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Valverde finds positives as Barcelona draw blank in Lyon to leave tie open Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde shrugged off his team’s struggles in front of goal after they were held to a 0-0 draw away at Lyon in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
The Spanish side had most of the chances at the Groupama Stadium, with Luis Suarez firing just wide in the second half, although it was Lyon who came the closest when Martin Terrier hit the bar early on. Lionel Messi and co. were once again left frustrated on the road at the business end of the competition, and have now gone six away matches without winning in the Champions League knockout rounds, scoring just a single goal in that time. It is a run that goes back three years. Desperate to end Real Madrid’s recent European dominance, Barca must now finish the job when the teams meet again at the Camp Nou on March 13, but Lyon remain in the tie. Barcelona’s form needs to improve between now and then, though -- they have drawn four of their last five matches in all, and have scored just once, from a penalty, in their last three outings. “We played good football, but you have to hit the target as well, and we didn’t,” Valverde said. “We are on the right road, though, and the tie is still up in the air. We will try to win it in front of
our fans.” He added: “I am not happy with the result, but I am happy with the performance and with what we created. “We didn’t score, but that is how it is. It is not easy to win away from home in the Champions League.” The visitors -- who started with Sergi Roberto in midfield rather than the out-of-form Philippe Coutinho -- had good reason to be wary of their hosts, who have excelled in big games this season. - Lyon still unbeaten in Europe -
Bruno Genesio’s team had taken four points from a possible six against Manchester City in the group stage and recently won at home to Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. They are still unbeaten in Europe this season, although this was their sixth consecutive draw. “It’s a satisfying result because it leaves us with a chance for the second leg, and we didn’t concede. If we can score at the Camp Nou we’ll have a chance of going through,” said Genesio. He admitted that he had hoped for an even better performance,
but Lyon were missing their World Cup-winning captain Nabil Fekir due to suspension here. It was the 21-year-old Terrier who surprisingly started in his place, and he delivered the most exciting moment of the first half for the crowd of almost 58,000 with a thunderous strike from 20 yards out in the ninth minute that was tipped onto the bar by Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The same player later shot over at the end of a fantastic move, while Houssem Aouar had earlier been denied by the goalkeeper, but it was Barcelona who enjoyed the longer spells of possession. Ousmane Dembele -- one of two Frenchmen in the away lineup -- came closest for them in the first half, although their best chances came after he had been replaced by Coutinho midway through the second period. Suarez came within inches of breaking the deadlock 20 minutes from time, firing narrowly wide from Jordi Alba’s cutback. He has now gone 16 away matches without scoring in the competition. Coutinho had a powerful shot beaten away by Anthony Lopes, with the Lyon goalkeeper also frustrating Messi and Sergio Busquets as Barcelona domi-
nated but departed without a potentially precious away goal. “It is a little bit of a disappointment, but there is still the second leg to come and we hope to do better,” said defender Clement Lenglet. At least they extended their unbeaten record a g a i n s t Ly o n t o s e v e n matches, but there remains hope for the French club ahead of the return.(afp)
IBP/net
he converted a Nahki Wells pass. Jacob Murphy restored Albion’s lead just after the hour mark when he capitalised on a terrible mistake by Joel Lynch. Darren Moore’s side were pegged back again by back Tomer Hemed’s 75th-minute penalty after Craig Dawson was adjudged to have fouled the onloan Brighton striker. But, with just seconds re-
Liverpool’s Guinean midfielder Naby Keita (R) misses with this overhead kick during the UEFA Champions League round of 16, first leg football match between Liverpool and Bayern Munich at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, northwest England on February 19, 2019.
Ghosts of ‘81 defeat haunt Bayern boss after Anfield draw
Barcelona’s Spanish coach Ernesto Valverde gestures during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg football match between Lyon (OL) and FC Barcelona on February 19, 2019, at the Groupama Stadium in DecinesCharpieu, centraleastern France.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has warned Bayern Munich not to let history repeat itself against Liverpool in their home Champions League last 16, second leg after a goalless draw at Anfield. Bayern earned the draw in a nervy first leg on Merseyside to put the German giants in a good position for the return at their Allianz Arena on March 13. “We have opened the door for
the second leg a bit, but I warn against going into the return leg with too much euphoria - it’s not a result that is safe,” Rummenigge, Bayern’s chairman, warned. The 63-year-old speaks from experience having been in an identical situation before. He was part of the same Munich team as current president Uli Hoeness that lost the semi-final of the 1981 European Cup to Liverpool. In 1981, Bayern also earned a
goalless draw at Anfield and Rummenigge scored in a 1-1 draw in the return leg, but an away goal by Ray Kennedy at Munich’s Olympic Stadium put Liverpool through. “We were eliminated after a 1-1 draw in Munich, so we must not make the same mistake my team made. We have to play very well in the second game,” said Rummenigge. Bayern put in a solid defensive display on Merseyside on Tuesday to frustrate a Liverpool side fresh
after a 10-day break, but head coach Niko Kovac also warned they must finish the job in Munich. “Everyone was there for the other and you can see that if we have a structure in our game, it’s hard to score against us,” said Kovac. “That’s the approach, but there was still room for improvement. “We have reached our goal and earned a draw, now we have to see that we finish the job at home.” Centre-back Mats Hummels
said Bayern’s game plan was focused on frustrating Liverpool’s forward trio of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane. “It was primarily about taking out the strengths of the opponent and we succeeded,” said Hummels. “The goal was to slow down Liverpool’s three forwards. “We now have a situation where we can progress with a home win and no team is ever happy to come to Munich.” (afp)
World Cup ‘firsts’ still vivid for West Indies hero Lloyd
Livermore’s late strike boosts West Brom’s promotion bid Jake Livermore boosted West Bromwich Albion’s bid for promotion to the Premier League as his late goal sealed a 3-2 victory at QPR on Tuesday. Jefferson Montero’s first goal for Albion since arriving on loan from Swansea opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Luke Freeman’s strike drew the hosts level at Loftus Road 10 minutes before half-time when
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m a i n i n g , f o r m e r To t t e n h a m midfielder Livermore nudged home Mason Holgate’s low cross. West Brom move within one point of second-placed Sheffield United and three of C h a m p i o n s h i p l e a d e r s N o rwich. QPR have lost six consecutive league games as they slip dangerously close to the relegation battle. (afp)
The children playing cricket in the unlikely setting of London’s Trafalgar Square could have been forgiven for not knowing the identity of the grey-haired gentleman loping between the wickets. Yet even wearing a heavy coat to guard against the chill of an English winter morning, the tall, bespectacled and slightly stooping figure of Clive Lloyd was still instantly recognisable to generations of cricket fans. Lloyd was in London on Tuesday at an event marking 100 days until the start of the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. But unlike all the England cricketers past and present also involved, including Nasser Hussain, Graeme Swann, Alastair Cook and James Anderson, Lloyd knows what it is
be a World Cup-winner, having led West Indies to victories in Lord’s finals in 1975 and 1979. The 1975 edition, the inaugural men’s World Cup, saw West Indies captain Lloyd make a superb century during a 17-run win in the final against Australia. “It was the first World Cup -they’ll never be another first -- and having won it in front of a large West Indian contingent, it was quite exciting,” Lloyd told AFP.
- ‘Spot of bother’ -
Modern batsmen are often expected to score at better than a run-a-ball in a one-day game. That wasn’t the case, however, in 1975 when field restrictions had yet to become part of limited-overs cricket.
Lloyd’s innings of 102 off 85 balls, including 12 fours and two sixes, in the final would have been eye-catching enough in scoringrate terms alone. But that he came in with West Indies having slumped to 50 for three after being sent into bat by Australia captain Ian Chappell and made a hundred against an attack featuring outstanding quicks Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, as well as left-arm swing bowler Gary Gilmour, made it all the more impressive. Lloyd -- dropped early on -received excellent support from veteran batsman Rohan Kanhai who, in his 40th year, got off the mark by driving the fearsomely fast Thomson off the back foot for four. The pair shared a stand of 149
that helped West Indies to a total of 291 for eight in a then 60 overs, with Chappell later remarking that Lloyd “battered us from one side of Lord’s to the other”. Lloyd’s recollection was, typically, rather more understated. “I got a few runs -- I think I got 102 - but the point is I got in there when we lost three quick wickets, so we were in a spot of bother. “Rohan Kanhai and myself sort of rallied the situation and then we got to a pretty good score. We had a total that we can defend and we defended it quite well. Although it was close in the end, we were always in the ascendancy.” West Indies had to come through a qualifying event to reach this year’s World Cup.
But they recently upset the odds to beat England 2-1 in a Test series and their 74-year-old former captain believes they could cause a few upsets at the World Cup as well, especially if self-styled “Universe Boss” Chris Gayle -- a powerful left-handed batsman in the Lloyd mould -finds his form. “I think they can be quite a formidable side if they choose the right team,” said Lloyd ahead of the start of a five-match one-day series between the West Indies and World Cup favourites England in Barbados on Wednesday. “We have some good one-day players and let’s hope Mr Gayle fires in more ways than one. I think they can do very well in this competition.” (afp)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Valverde finds positives as Barcelona draw blank in Lyon to leave tie open Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde shrugged off his team’s struggles in front of goal after they were held to a 0-0 draw away at Lyon in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
The Spanish side had most of the chances at the Groupama Stadium, with Luis Suarez firing just wide in the second half, although it was Lyon who came the closest when Martin Terrier hit the bar early on. Lionel Messi and co. were once again left frustrated on the road at the business end of the competition, and have now gone six away matches without winning in the Champions League knockout rounds, scoring just a single goal in that time. It is a run that goes back three years. Desperate to end Real Madrid’s recent European dominance, Barca must now finish the job when the teams meet again at the Camp Nou on March 13, but Lyon remain in the tie. Barcelona’s form needs to improve between now and then, though -- they have drawn four of their last five matches in all, and have scored just once, from a penalty, in their last three outings. “We played good football, but you have to hit the target as well, and we didn’t,” Valverde said. “We are on the right road, though, and the tie is still up in the air. We will try to win it in front of
our fans.” He added: “I am not happy with the result, but I am happy with the performance and with what we created. “We didn’t score, but that is how it is. It is not easy to win away from home in the Champions League.” The visitors -- who started with Sergi Roberto in midfield rather than the out-of-form Philippe Coutinho -- had good reason to be wary of their hosts, who have excelled in big games this season. - Lyon still unbeaten in Europe -
Bruno Genesio’s team had taken four points from a possible six against Manchester City in the group stage and recently won at home to Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. They are still unbeaten in Europe this season, although this was their sixth consecutive draw. “It’s a satisfying result because it leaves us with a chance for the second leg, and we didn’t concede. If we can score at the Camp Nou we’ll have a chance of going through,” said Genesio. He admitted that he had hoped for an even better performance,
but Lyon were missing their World Cup-winning captain Nabil Fekir due to suspension here. It was the 21-year-old Terrier who surprisingly started in his place, and he delivered the most exciting moment of the first half for the crowd of almost 58,000 with a thunderous strike from 20 yards out in the ninth minute that was tipped onto the bar by Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The same player later shot over at the end of a fantastic move, while Houssem Aouar had earlier been denied by the goalkeeper, but it was Barcelona who enjoyed the longer spells of possession. Ousmane Dembele -- one of two Frenchmen in the away lineup -- came closest for them in the first half, although their best chances came after he had been replaced by Coutinho midway through the second period. Suarez came within inches of breaking the deadlock 20 minutes from time, firing narrowly wide from Jordi Alba’s cutback. He has now gone 16 away matches without scoring in the competition. Coutinho had a powerful shot beaten away by Anthony Lopes, with the Lyon goalkeeper also frustrating Messi and Sergio Busquets as Barcelona domi-
nated but departed without a potentially precious away goal. “It is a little bit of a disappointment, but there is still the second leg to come and we hope to do better,” said defender Clement Lenglet. At least they extended their unbeaten record a g a i n s t Ly o n t o s e v e n matches, but there remains hope for the French club ahead of the return.(afp)
IBP/net
he converted a Nahki Wells pass. Jacob Murphy restored Albion’s lead just after the hour mark when he capitalised on a terrible mistake by Joel Lynch. Darren Moore’s side were pegged back again by back Tomer Hemed’s 75th-minute penalty after Craig Dawson was adjudged to have fouled the onloan Brighton striker. But, with just seconds re-
Liverpool’s Guinean midfielder Naby Keita (R) misses with this overhead kick during the UEFA Champions League round of 16, first leg football match between Liverpool and Bayern Munich at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, northwest England on February 19, 2019.
Ghosts of ‘81 defeat haunt Bayern boss after Anfield draw
Barcelona’s Spanish coach Ernesto Valverde gestures during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg football match between Lyon (OL) and FC Barcelona on February 19, 2019, at the Groupama Stadium in DecinesCharpieu, centraleastern France.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has warned Bayern Munich not to let history repeat itself against Liverpool in their home Champions League last 16, second leg after a goalless draw at Anfield. Bayern earned the draw in a nervy first leg on Merseyside to put the German giants in a good position for the return at their Allianz Arena on March 13. “We have opened the door for
the second leg a bit, but I warn against going into the return leg with too much euphoria - it’s not a result that is safe,” Rummenigge, Bayern’s chairman, warned. The 63-year-old speaks from experience having been in an identical situation before. He was part of the same Munich team as current president Uli Hoeness that lost the semi-final of the 1981 European Cup to Liverpool. In 1981, Bayern also earned a
goalless draw at Anfield and Rummenigge scored in a 1-1 draw in the return leg, but an away goal by Ray Kennedy at Munich’s Olympic Stadium put Liverpool through. “We were eliminated after a 1-1 draw in Munich, so we must not make the same mistake my team made. We have to play very well in the second game,” said Rummenigge. Bayern put in a solid defensive display on Merseyside on Tuesday to frustrate a Liverpool side fresh
after a 10-day break, but head coach Niko Kovac also warned they must finish the job in Munich. “Everyone was there for the other and you can see that if we have a structure in our game, it’s hard to score against us,” said Kovac. “That’s the approach, but there was still room for improvement. “We have reached our goal and earned a draw, now we have to see that we finish the job at home.” Centre-back Mats Hummels
said Bayern’s game plan was focused on frustrating Liverpool’s forward trio of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane. “It was primarily about taking out the strengths of the opponent and we succeeded,” said Hummels. “The goal was to slow down Liverpool’s three forwards. “We now have a situation where we can progress with a home win and no team is ever happy to come to Munich.” (afp)
World Cup ‘firsts’ still vivid for West Indies hero Lloyd
Livermore’s late strike boosts West Brom’s promotion bid Jake Livermore boosted West Bromwich Albion’s bid for promotion to the Premier League as his late goal sealed a 3-2 victory at QPR on Tuesday. Jefferson Montero’s first goal for Albion since arriving on loan from Swansea opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Luke Freeman’s strike drew the hosts level at Loftus Road 10 minutes before half-time when
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m a i n i n g , f o r m e r To t t e n h a m midfielder Livermore nudged home Mason Holgate’s low cross. West Brom move within one point of second-placed Sheffield United and three of C h a m p i o n s h i p l e a d e r s N o rwich. QPR have lost six consecutive league games as they slip dangerously close to the relegation battle. (afp)
The children playing cricket in the unlikely setting of London’s Trafalgar Square could have been forgiven for not knowing the identity of the grey-haired gentleman loping between the wickets. Yet even wearing a heavy coat to guard against the chill of an English winter morning, the tall, bespectacled and slightly stooping figure of Clive Lloyd was still instantly recognisable to generations of cricket fans. Lloyd was in London on Tuesday at an event marking 100 days until the start of the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. But unlike all the England cricketers past and present also involved, including Nasser Hussain, Graeme Swann, Alastair Cook and James Anderson, Lloyd knows what it is
be a World Cup-winner, having led West Indies to victories in Lord’s finals in 1975 and 1979. The 1975 edition, the inaugural men’s World Cup, saw West Indies captain Lloyd make a superb century during a 17-run win in the final against Australia. “It was the first World Cup -they’ll never be another first -- and having won it in front of a large West Indian contingent, it was quite exciting,” Lloyd told AFP.
- ‘Spot of bother’ -
Modern batsmen are often expected to score at better than a run-a-ball in a one-day game. That wasn’t the case, however, in 1975 when field restrictions had yet to become part of limited-overs cricket.
Lloyd’s innings of 102 off 85 balls, including 12 fours and two sixes, in the final would have been eye-catching enough in scoringrate terms alone. But that he came in with West Indies having slumped to 50 for three after being sent into bat by Australia captain Ian Chappell and made a hundred against an attack featuring outstanding quicks Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, as well as left-arm swing bowler Gary Gilmour, made it all the more impressive. Lloyd -- dropped early on -received excellent support from veteran batsman Rohan Kanhai who, in his 40th year, got off the mark by driving the fearsomely fast Thomson off the back foot for four. The pair shared a stand of 149
that helped West Indies to a total of 291 for eight in a then 60 overs, with Chappell later remarking that Lloyd “battered us from one side of Lord’s to the other”. Lloyd’s recollection was, typically, rather more understated. “I got a few runs -- I think I got 102 - but the point is I got in there when we lost three quick wickets, so we were in a spot of bother. “Rohan Kanhai and myself sort of rallied the situation and then we got to a pretty good score. We had a total that we can defend and we defended it quite well. Although it was close in the end, we were always in the ascendancy.” West Indies had to come through a qualifying event to reach this year’s World Cup.
But they recently upset the odds to beat England 2-1 in a Test series and their 74-year-old former captain believes they could cause a few upsets at the World Cup as well, especially if self-styled “Universe Boss” Chris Gayle -- a powerful left-handed batsman in the Lloyd mould -finds his form. “I think they can be quite a formidable side if they choose the right team,” said Lloyd ahead of the start of a five-match one-day series between the West Indies and World Cup favourites England in Barbados on Wednesday. “We have some good one-day players and let’s hope Mr Gayle fires in more ways than one. I think they can do very well in this competition.” (afp)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Vettel wary of threat from new Ferrari teammate Leclerc
MONTMELO - Sebastian Vettel said on Tuesday he considers new Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc a “full rival” as the German prepares for his latest tilt at a fifth Formula One world title.
Pura Beji Temple Old Temple in North Bali SINGARAJA - The Pura Beji temple is a large and beautiful temple complex in the village of Sangsit in North Bali, dating back to the 15th century, during the spread of the Majapahit kingdom from Java. The temple is revered by village farmers and is unique in Bali, in that it also serves as a ‘pura puseh’ or the village’s central temple. The temple adds to the checklist of historical landmarks that you can tick off on your sightseeing tours to Bali’s northern area. The temple is within a seven-kilometre transfer east from the Buleleng regency’s capital of Singaraja, and eight kilometres’ drive from Lovina Beach. The timeworn structures and walls within the temple complex are exquisitely contrasted by the manicured green lawns and tropical gardens. Shrine bases and white sandstone walls are covered in arrays of carvings, inspired by the great Hindu epics with a mixture of fables and legends, such as
serpents, menacing demons and guardians. The stone staircases and temple gates of Pura Beji temple also feature intact statues. It is a great stopover for art buffs and architecture lovers. Roaming through the whole complex can easily take up an hour. The name ‘beji’ in the local tongue signifies purification by way of holy water, and it so happens that the Pura Beji temple was built over a well. Revered by local farmers as a ‘pura subak’ or Balinese collective irrigation temple that worships the rice and fertility goddess Dewi Sri, the temple also features a bit of anachronism: two statues of Dutch musicians, each holding a guitar and a rebab. These may have been added later in time, as with the motifs found at Pura Meduwe Karang temple, further west in the village of Kubutambahan. No entrance fees apply, save for a donation box beside the guestbook at the entrance, as well as the conventional rent of waist sashes. (IBP/net)
Monegasque Leclerc was the quickest driver on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, clocking within 0.1 seconds of Vettel’s leading time 24 hours earlier. Vettel is heading into his fifth season with Ferrari since leaving Red Bull in 2014, having finished second to Lewis Hamilton in each of the last two years. The 21-year-old Leclerc replaced Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian manufacturer after an impressive 10 points finishes in his rookie season with Sauber. “Of course (Leclerc is) a full rival,” said Vettel. “I think he is in the seat for a reason and I have to take it very seriously. “But I think you always have close rivalry with your teammate and priority number one is for sure trying to bring the team forward. “I have been around for a bit longer compared to him, so it is different things maybe that he will have on his plate in the beginning... I am very certain he will be quick enough and put me under pressure so we’ll see how it goes.” Vettel made a strong start to his 2018 campaign, before a series of individual and team errors saw him lose the race with Mercedes’ Hamilton to become a five-time world champion by 88 points. But he remains confident that Ferrari can clinch their first drivers’ crown since Raikkonen’s dramatic triumph in 2007. “Obviously we’ve had better years and years we were further away,” said the 31-year-old Vettel, who won four successive world championships at Red Bull from 20102013. “But overall though the progression is there, the team is developing. “So I hope that this year we get to have a lot of fun. Fun is to win a lot of races and then ultimately you are fighting for the championship. “That’s obviously what we want but at this point it is very far away.” The 2019 Formula One season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne on March 17. (afp)
LLUIS GENE / AFP
Ferrari’s German driver Sebastian Vettel walks in the paddock during the tests for the new Formula One Grand Prix season at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo in the outskirts of Barcelona on February 18, 2019.
Hirscher wins sixth World Cup slalom crown
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Austria’s Marcel Hirscher competes in the first run of the men’s slalom event at the 2019 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships at the National Arena in Are, Sweden, on February 17, 2019.
STOCKHOLM - Austrian ski star Marcel Hirscher captured a sixth World Cup slalom crown on Tuesday despite crashing out of the city event in Stockholm in the quarter-finals. The 29-year-old defeated Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet in the first round of the parallel slalom format -- enough to guarantee Hirscher another crystal globe. He was later eliminated by eventual winner Ramon Zenhaeusern in the last eight, keeping Hirscher on five slalom wins this season along with the gold he claimed at last week’s world championships in Are. Tuesday’s city event featured
16 of the world’s top slalom skiers, with racers going head to head against one another in each round. Clement Noel, Hirscher’s closest rival in the slalom standings, crashed out in the first round after straddling the final gate. With a lead of 275 points over Noel before arriving in Stockholm, Hirscher just needed to advance beyond the first round to clinch a sixth slalom title in seven years. There are only two more slalom races left on this year’s World Cup calendar, at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia on March 10 and the season-ending event in Andorra a week later.
Hirscher is well on course for a record-extending eighth overall World Cup crown. He leads France’s Alexis Pinturault by 480 points with a dozen races left. Switzerland’s Zenhaeusern beat home favourite and reigning Olympic slalom champion Andre Myhrer in Tuesday’s final, while Austrian Marco Schwarz backed up his world championship bronze medal by finishing third. It was the 26-year-old Zenhaeusern’s second World Cup win, following his victory in the same event last season. He also helped Switzerland take gold in the team event at the world championships a week ago. (afp)
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INDONESIAN INDONESIAN
Brexit: May heads back to Brussels but EU not budging
BRUSSELS - Prime Minister Theresa May heads back to Brussels on Wednesday to renew her quest to reopen the terms of Britain’s Brexit divorce, but appears headed for disappointment. With less than six weeks until Brexit day, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has agreed to meet May once again, but EU leaders insist they will not restart negotiations. “I have great respect for Theresa May, for her courage and her assertiveness. We will have a friendly talk tomorrow but I don’t expect a breakthrough,” Juncker said Tuesday. May and the other 27 EU leaders approved a Brexit withdrawal agreement at a summit on November 25 last year, but the British leader’s own parliament rejected it on January 15. Since then, May and her ministers have repeatedly met EU leaders and their negotiator Michel Barnier to urge them to reopen the text to find a way to appease eurosceptic MPs. May will try again on Wednesday, but on this trip she will not even meet Donald Tusk who, as president of the European Council, represents the leaders of EU member states. She will instead meet Juncker and Barnier, who have no mandate from Tusk’s council or EU capitals to renegotiate the deal, or to modify the infamous “Irish backstop” clause. This provides for Britain to remain in the EU customs union until a way is found -- such as a future free trade deal -- to ensure that Ireland’s border with Northern Ireland remains open. Brexiteers in May’s own Conser-
vative party see this as a “trap” to keep Britain in a form of union indefinitely, and have demanded a time limit or a unilateral exit clause. This would be seen in Brussels as a betrayal of EU member Ireland, and it has consistently got short shrift from EU officials. “We cannot accept a time limit to the backstop or a unilateral exit clause,” Juncker’s spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters on Tuesday, reiterating the longstanding EU position. This represents a direct rejection of May’s core demand. May’s spokesman said the prime minister was “working hard to secure legally binding changes” to the backstop. “The prime minister believes that she can secure changes in relation to the backstop MPs want -- there is a majority in parliament for a deal”. Without a deal, Britain is due to leave the Union abruptly after four decades on March 29, with no followon agreement or transition period to manage trade and economic relations. - Economic chaos feared -
Both sides have said they want to avoid this, and many experts foresee economic chaos, even warning of food and medicine shortages or a renewed threat of unrest in Northern Ireland.
Manufacturing supply chains could be disrupted, and Brexit uncertainty has already been cited as a contributing factor in the closure or departure of several British-based businesses. Another option would be for Brussels to accord Britain an extension to the March 29 deadline, which is enshrined in British law. But May’s government insists it will not request a delay, all 27 remaining members would have to agree and it would be legally difficult for Britain to remain in the EU for long. Member states are obliged to hold polls May 23-26 to elect a new European Parliament, which will start sitting from July 2, presumably without any British members. “Any decision to ask for more time lies with the UK. If such a request were to be made, no one in Europe would oppose it,” Juncker told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten this week. “If you are asking for how long the withdrawal can be postponed, I have no timeframe in mind... But I find it hard to imagine that British voters would again vote in the European elections.” May is due at the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters for her meeting with the Commission president at 6:30 pm (1730 GMT). The next day, British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet Barnier. (afp)
Adrian DENNIS / AFP
Political satire artist Kaya Mar poses with an artwork depicting opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (R) and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May as anti-Brexit activists demonstrate outside of the Houses of Parliament in central London on February 14, 2019.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen
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Taiwan’s Tsai says no peace deal with China unless force ruled out
TAIPEI - President Tsai Ingwen on Wednesday said no formal peace deal could be signed with China until leaders in Beijing rule out using force against the island. Tsai was speaking a day after she confirmed she would run for re-election in early 2020 despite falling ratings and an increasingly strained relationship with China. Beijing still sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949. Tsai was responding to recent comments by Wu Den-yih, head of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), that his party would pursue a peace treaty with Beijing if it were to regain power next year. “There would be no so-called negotiation on equal footing and no real peace as China refuses to give up the use of force against Taiwan and forcefully pushes the ‘one country, two systems’ framework,” she said in a media briefing. “China’s military intentions and its refusal to give up the use of force against Taiwan is a real source of regional instability and a threat to regional peace,” she added. “One country, two systems” is China’s proposal to absorb Taiwan into the mainland but allow it to keep some of its freedoms. Beijing has made its dislike of Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party clear. After her election in 2016, it cut communication with her administration, stepped up military drills and poached several of Taiwan’s dwindling diplomatic allies.
President Xi Jinping reiterated in a speech last month that China would not renounce the option of using military force to bring Taiwan into the fold, describing unification with the mainland as “inevitable”. A KMT win in 2020 would likely please leaders in Beijing given the much closer relationship it forged with the previous administration of Ma Ying-jeou. Ma suggested in 2011 that Taiwan should consider a peace treaty with China within the coming decade, to formally bring an end to a civil war that has actually been over for seventy years. The proposal sparked criticism from detractors that it would be tantamount to a unification or surrender treaty. Ma later stressed that he would only move ahead for a peace agreement with the approval of both the parliament and the public, and the issue had been shelved since. The KMT’s drubbing at the 2016 election partly stemmed from voter unease over the party’s perceived cosiness to the mainland. But Wu -- a former vice president under Ma -- has resurrected the issue ahead of next year’s polls. He is among the KMT bigwigs who have been tipped to run for president. Tsai said she believed voters would balk at the proposal unless Beijing withdrew its threats. “I believe Taiwanese society would not accept any political agreement that could harm or eliminate our sovereignty or eliminate Taiwan’s democracy,” she said. (afp)
General elections tend to be hostile: Mahfud MD
CIREBON - Constitutional law expert Mahfud MD opined that the ongoing general election process tended to be hostile, as though it is no longer about selecting a leader, for which he called for efforts to ease tensions. “This general election is (as though) an event for hostility and not for selecting a leader,” Mahfud, chairman of the Nationalism Torch Movement, noted during the third series of the Nationalism Dialogs, here, Tuesday. He also viewed that the ongoing election process had tended to
trigger a divide among primordial bonds and an emergence of identity politics. “It is since this election has, as if, caused quarrels between supporters of A and B, between followers of this religion and that religion, members of this tribe and that tribe, and members of
Indonesia submits formal bid to host the 2032 Olympics Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympics, officials said Tuesday, after the Southeast Asian nation’s widely lauded handling of the Asian Games last summer. Muliaman Hadad, Indonesia’s ambassador to Switzerland, submitted a formal bid letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne last week, the foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday. “This is the right moment to show Indonesia’s capability as a big country,” Hadad said in a statement made public this week. Widodo publicly expressed
Indonesia’s interest in hosting the 2032 event in the capital, Jakarta, during last year’s Asian Games -- the world’s second biggest multisport event behind the Olympics. India has also expressed an interest in hosting the 2032 games while North and South Korea have said they might enter a joint bid. The IOC will announce the 2032 host by 2025. If successful, Indonesia would be the fourth Asian Olympics host after Japan, South Korea and China. The next Olympics will be in 2020 in Tokyo, while Paris will host it in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028. (afp)
this race and that race. These have begun to emerge and these need to be calmed down before it becomes a disease of the nation,” he cautioned. He called for ideas to strengthen nationalism to address this condition. “All those are just symptoms and have not become a real disease. Hence, if anticipatory measures are not taken, it could become a disease of this nation,” he emphasized. The Nationalism Dialogs are or-
ELECTION 2019
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ganized by the Indonesian railway company KAI in cooperation with the Nationalism Torch Movement, from Merak in Banten Province to Banyuwangi, East Java. The objective behind the dialogs is to promote public awareness of the need to strengthen the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia will organize simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17, 2019. Seeking a second term, Joko Widodo, popularly known as
Jokowi, has picked Ma`ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), as his partner, to everyone`s surprise. The pair will face retired military general Prabowo Subianto, who has chosen Sandiaga Solahuddin Uno, a young and successful entrepreneur, as his running mate. This year`s race will be a repeat of the bitter 2014 presidential election that showcased the country`s divide as Jokowi went head-tohead with Subianto. (ant)
Judge rejects exception of musician Ahmad Dhani
SURABAYA - Surabaya District Court`s Chief of the Judge Panel R. Anton Widyopriono rejected an exception put forward by prominent musician Ahmad Dhani`s lawyer and decided to proceed with witness examination in an alleged defamation case. “The exception of the defendant`s lawyer cannot be accepted,” the chief judge noted in a trial held here, Tuesday. In the interlocutory decision, the judge asked the prosecutors to present witnesses for the subsequent trial scheduled for next Tuesday. The Surabaya prosecutor`s office charges Dhani for his statement on his Instagram account on August
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26, 2018. Dhani was in a Surabaya hotel that was surrounded by several protestors, who opposed Dhani`s presence in the city, as he was to attend an event called “A declaration to change the President in 2019” held at the Surabaya Heroes` Monument. The protestors were grouped in the “Defend NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia)” coalition. While being stopped from leaving the hotel by the protestors, Dhani recorded a video on his Instagram account, containing his statement, saying: “These who are protesting, the protestors defend the
ruler. It`s funny, funny. These, these are the idiots, protesting against people who are not in power.” For the “idiot” statement, Public Prosecutor Dedi Arisandi charged Dhani with violation of Law No. 11 of 2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE). The prosecutor said that Dhani had insulted, harassed, and defamed the protestors by calling them “idiots.” Dhani is a popular Indonesian rock musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He is the front man of the Dewa 19 rock band and also a member of the intercontinental band, The Rock. (ant)
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International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
BUSINESS Japan’s Honda to shut UK car plant, as Brexit looms
Honda will shut its UK plant with the loss of 3,500 jobs, the Japanese car maker announced Tuesday as the global auto industry faces “unprecedented changes” and the UK economy hits the skids on Brexit uncertainty. The factory in Swindon, southwest England, which is Honda’s only EU plant, will shut in 2021 “at the end of the current model’s production lifecycle”, the company said as carmakers worldwide increasingly invest in greener electric vehicles over diesel cars. Business Secretary Greg Clark described Honda’s decision as “devastating” and “a particularly bitter blow to the thousands of skilled and dedicated staff who work at the factory, their families and all of those employed in the supply chain”. Katsushi Inoue, Honda’s chief officer for European regional operations, said the decision had “not been taken lightly”. The firm blamed “unprecedented changes in the global automotive industry” for the decision but it comes amid investment uncertainty in Britain ahead of the country’s departure from the European Union next month. Analysts said an EU-Japan trade agreement signed recently had likely also played a part in Honda’s decision. Clark said that while Honda’s decision was made for “commercial” reasons, it was nonetheless “devastating... for Swindon and the UK”. He added in a statement: “The automotive industry is undergoing a rapid transition to new technology. The UK is one of the leaders in the development of these technologies and so it is deeply disappointing that this decision has been taken now.” - Brexit clouds Speaking earlier in Tokyo, Honda president Takahiro Hachigo told reporters: “I’d like you to understand this is not related to Brexit.” Nevertheless, it comes after Japanese peer Nissan earlier this month axed plans to make its X-Trail SUV in the Brexit-backing UK city of Sunderland, citing “business reasons” but also uncertainty over Britain’s EU departure. Toyota, another Japanese car giant making vehicles in Britain, has meanwhile warned there would be no way to avoid a negative impact should the UK crash out of the EU without a deal. The Bank of England earlier this month slashed its forecast for 2019 UK growth to 1.2 percent from 1.7 percent, blaming the downgrade on a global economic slowdown and “the fog of Brexit”. Honda’s fellow Japanese firms Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi are also scaling back their UK operations. (afp)
Bali News
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Foreign Tourists Like Monkey Attraction at Alas Kedaton
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Both domestic and foreign tourists love the action of monkeys when invited to take a pictures or selfie. The four-legged animal has an extraordinary style when being faced with camera. As requirements, the must be given to eat nuts, so they want to be quiet while chewing snacks like tubers. Besides, it must also be guided by a handler or local guide. Don’t try to do it by yourself!
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File
In this Feb. 15, 2019, file photo, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, right, talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, while they line up for a group photo at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. China’s economy czar is going to Washington for talks Thursday and Friday aimed at ending a tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions.
China’s economy czar heading to Washington for trade talks
BEIJING - China’s economy czar is heading to Washington for talks Thursday and Friday aimed at ending a fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions ahead of a deadline for a massive U.S. tariff hike. The announcement Tuesday via the official Xinhua News Agency follows talks last week in Beijing that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said “made headway” on key issues. Xinhua said Vice Premier Liu He will hold talks with Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Business groups and economists saw Friday’s surprise announcement of further talks this week as a sign they were making progress. Both governments have expressed optimism but they have given no details of their talks. Economists say the time available for negotiations is too brief to resolve an array of irritants in U.S.-Chinese relations. They say Beijing’s goal is to persuade President Donald Trump they are making enough progress to push back threatened U.S. penalties. Beijing hopes for “a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement that is acceptable to
both sides,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang. Without an agreement, a 10 percent tariff increase imposed in July on $200 billion of Chinese goods is due to rise to 25 percent on March 2. Last Friday, Lighthizer told the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the two sides “made headway on very, very important and difficult issues.” Trump imposed the penalties over complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. The talks also include complaints about Beijing’s plans for government-led technology development, cyberspying and China’s trade surplus. Beijing retaliated with higher duties on U.S. goods and told its importers to find other suppliers. That led to a 40 percent drop in Chinese imports of American goods in January. Washington, Europe, Japan and other
trading partners complain plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for government -led creation of global competitors in robotics and other technologies, violate Beijing’s market-opening obligations. China’s leaders have offered to narrow its multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more natural gas, soybeans and other exports. But they are resisting pressure to scale back industry plans they see as a path to prosperity and global influence. Other stumbling blocks include Chinese resistance to U.S. pressure to accept an enforcement mechanism with penalties to ensure Beijing carries out whatever commitments it makes. Trump said last week he might be willing to push back the March 2 date if the talks go well but Washington has yet to say whether the negotiations are making enough progress. (ap)
Alas Kedaton attraction located at Kukuh village, Marga, Tabanan, or about 8 km North West of Denpasar City is indeed a tourist idol for traveling. They come in the afternoon or evening to continue watching sunset at Tanah Lot. “Tourists really like the attraction of this monkey,” said Ni Putu Marani, one of the local officers. This forest does not only has monkeys as an attraction, but also giant bats (flying foxes) and tropical forests with various types of plants. Every day, this object is opened from 8:30 until 15:30. The admission ticket for adults costs IDR 20,000 and IDR 15,000 for child. Meanwhile, the admission ticket for foreign adults is IDR 30,000 and IDR 20,000 for child. “Especially for Galungan, Kuningan and New Year’s Day specifically for local people, the admission ticket
will be charged at IDR 5,000,” said Ni Putu Marani. Tourists having held a ticket will be accompanied by a local guide who is also a souvenir merchant. The ticket is then presented to the officer at the lobby of the tourist attraction, then heading for the monkey attraction. Under direction of local guide, visitors walk to the middle of the forest through a pathway to the right side of Dalem Kahyangan Kedaton Temple. On the way, the atmosphere is cool because the area is rich in large plants. At each wall visitors will come across forest dwellers that can be invited to take pictures. Local guide continues to explain the uniqueness of the temple, the attraction of the fruit bat show and snake show. “We invite tourists to witness the attraction of taking pictures with flying fox and snakes
using Balinese customary clothes,” he added. Formerly, the flying fox and snake show were located on the west side of the tourist attraction,
but it has now been moved to the east of forest area, to the right of the temple. To take pictures with snakes, visitors must pay IDR 70,000 and IDR 60,000 for tak-
ing pictures with flying fox. After that, the local guide will direct you to their shops to browse or buy various kinds of souvenirs on offer. (kmb)
Ngelawang Procession at Temple, What Does It Mean? Ngelawang barong becomes a routine phenomenon during Galungan and Kuningan celebrations. This traditional show is usually done on the streets, especially in front of people’s house compound. However, different tradition is showed by the ngelawang procession held by Puakan customary village, Taro, Tegallalang, Gianyar. At this village thousands of residents attend the ngelawang procession coinciding with Umanis Galungan, Thursday (Dec. 27). Implementation of the Ngelawang tradition also known as ngelungang was followed by thousands of residents, concentrated at Puakan village. Ngelawang at this village is carried out every six months by walking from one village to another, almost followed by the entire customary villagers located in the northern territory of Ubud. Centered at this village, all the sanctified effigies or tapakan Ida Bhatara comprising Barong and Rangda are given special ceremonies in two locations, namely the Puseh and Bale Agung temple of the customary village. Local temple priest, I Wayan Tagil Kumara Nata, explained the tradition begins with a ceremony at Puseh Temple and continues at Bale
Agung Temple. At Puseh Temple the sanctified effigies face east or towards the shrines, aiming at coming before the deities to invoke divine power. In addition, said Tagil Kumara Nata, the ngelawang procession is also carried out as a form of repelling negative things or neutralizing the negative influences of the universe. “This tradition is to ask for salvation, especially for natural harmony,” he said. After the procession at Puseh Temple, all the sanctified effigies are accompanied by residents heading for the Bale Agung Temple and continued by dropping in at each temple of the customary village passed through. Due to long distance, not infrequently this procession can last until midnight. “To go back to each customary village, they take a long time to late night,” he said. Nevertheless, it does not dampen vivacity of the people. The tradition held on the day after Galungan is still running every six months. Meanwhile, especially for customary villages experiencing cuntaka or obstacles due family’s death, they will usually choose another day adjusted to the situation and decision of the local custom. (kmb)
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Bali News
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
Bali targeted to have 189 digital gas stations
BANGKOK - Thousands of devotees of a powerful Thai Buddhist sect, whose spiritual leader is on the run over a multimillion dollar fraud, joined a stunning candle-lit procession at their 1,000-acre Bangkok headquarters.
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Bali is targeted to have 189 digital gas stations. Such digitization is expected to be more effective in terms of real time monitoring against the fuel stock at gas stations. At present, the public can use emoney transactions but it does not rule out the possibility that other transactions will be easier and more sophisticated in the future. Previously, Managing Director
of PT Pertamina (Persero), Nicke Widyawati, targeted to digitize all the gas stations. Through this digitization, all incoming and outgoing fuel data outlets throughout Indonesia will be recorded in real
time. The process is being recorded on the fuel distribution valve (nozzle). He admitted the data will get connected to Pertamina’s data center. Any gas station having
minimum stocks will be monitored automatically. For Pertamina, it can give warning for immediate delivery. The service will increase and reduce the scarcity of fuel that causes queues. (kmb42)
Before inaugurated, observation tower at Penelokan damaged
BANGLI - Quality of the Penelokan observation tower construction project claiming a budget of tens of billions of rupiah is questioned by Commission III of the Bangli House of Representa-
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Controversial Thai Buddhist sect dazzles with annual procession
DENPASAR - Bali is targeted to have 189 digital gas stations. Such digitization is expected to be more effective in terms of real time monitoring against the fuel stock at gas stations. Communication and Relations Section of Pertamina MOR V, Rico Raspati, stated that Bali is one of the regions that will implement digitization for Public Gas Refueling Stations (SPBUs). Until now, 20 percent of gas stations have been digitized. However, until June 2019 the target of digital gas stations must be 100 percent. “All of them have been 100 percent surveyed. Until now, there have been 34 gas stations installed with cables in the office and dispenser area,” he said on Monday (Feb. 18). A number of gas stations in the region are ready for the digitization. They are Barakuda, Kalisakti, Umanis, Gianyar and Singaraja to Tabanan. “Digitization fund of the gas stations will be borne by Pertamina,” he said. Digitization of gas stations will also make it easier for the community because the cashless payment system will make it easier for people to bring money physically.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
International
tives. Condition of the government project newly completed about two months ago and having not yet been inaugurated has now begun to experience damage. The damage can be seen on the floor, downstairs to
IBP/kmb40
The damage can be seen on the floor, downstairs to the stage where the conditions start to come off.
the stage where the conditions start to come off. Besides, the House also highlighted the quality of wavy wooden floors around the stage. During the visit to the observation tower on Monday (Feb. 18), Chairman of Commission III of the Bangli House of Representatives, Ketut Suastika, accompanied by member of Commission III, Wayan Karyasa, looked surprised to see the condition of downstairs floors. A lot of floor with a carpet-like surface has started to peel off. At one point, the surface of the floor is even destroyed when touched. Additionally, the downstairs floor also looks dirty because it contains a lot of dog poop. When going down near the stage, Suastika and Karyasa found a wall starting to crack and wooden floors with uneven surfaces. Stairs in the location equally did not escape from the attention. According to Karyasa, condition of the stairs at the location is quite dangerous because it has a different size. Some stairs whose width is less than the length of an adult’s foot, when passed can po-
tentially make people fall. “At least, the steps are 30 centimeters wide because if the stairs are like this, it is quite dangerous as can cause people to fall,” he explained. Similarly, he doubted the steps were not made according to the design. Both Karyasa and Suastika admitted to be quite sad to see such condition of the newly completed project. They assessed the uneven wood floor surface and the damage to the floor on the way to the stage happened due to the hasty process of the project. To prevent the damage from getting worse, Suastika and Karyasa requested immediate repairs as the Penelokan observation tower is currently under maintenance. “The steps must be repaired, made with the same width, so as not to endanger. Meanwhile, the wood floor must be flat. If ignored, over time it can get damaged and broken down,” said Karyasa. When confirmed separately related to this, the Head of the Bangli Tourism and Culture Office, Wayan Bona, did not dismiss the fact regarding the condition of the floor
going down to the stage having begun to peel off. He said the damage is caused by repeated herd of dogs that often entered the area. “It happened because of being scratched by dogs. For many nights, a number of dogs came into it. In the past, it was covered in plywood, but it was broken through too,” he said. To avoid the presence of animals from entering the stage area, Bona considered it necessary to make a door. In the project construction yesterday, the road to the stage is not fitted with a door because it is not included in the plan. Condition of the corrugated wood floor surface, Bona asked to acknowledge it considering the construction of the Penelokan observation tower was done in a very short time, which was only 3.5 months. The process was done until midnight. Additionally, it was also said that Penelokan observation tower had been submitted to the BUGG Tourism Management Agency, so later on the maintenance will be carried out by the management body. (kmb40)
The Dhammakaya sect, a wealthy Buddhist order founded in 1970, was steered to riches by the septuagenarian monk Phra Dhammachayo. He won the devotion of superrich Thai politicians and businessmen and with it the distrust of Thailand’s Buddhist establishment. The former abbot was the subject of a massive police hunt of the Dhammakaya temple complex in 2017, where he was believed to be holed-up to evade arrest over allegations of money laundering and a massive embezzlement of $33 million. The monk, 72 at the time, vanished without trace after a search which lurched into farce and saw officers led through hundreds of rooms - including a chamber where they pulled back a bed cover to find an arrangement of pillows instead of the elderly monk. Police eventually concluded the abbot may have slipped out of the temple in the early days of their weeks-long search.
The temple has since quietly rebounded and continues to hold several high-profile annual events. On Tuesday evening the 300,000 tiny Buddha statues which stud the space-age dome of their vast temple, were illuminated as worshippers processed around the dome. Thousands of monks and white-clad temple members held candles in a stunning, perfectly choreographed expression of devotion, giant flags bearing the Dhammakaya’s symbol billowing overhead. The annual event was held to mark Makha Bucha Day, one of the most important days of the Buddhist calendar. The Dhammakaya is accused by Buddhist authorities of spinning a pay-your-way to nirvana philosophy, spreading the sect’s popularity through public relations events. The temple refutes the allegations saying it has been the target of politically motivated charges. (afp)
Jewel SAMAD / AFP
Devotees make their offerings at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on February 20, 2019.
App-based delivery men highlight India’s growing gig economy MUMBAI - Suraj Nachre works long hours and regularly misses meals but he treasures his job as a driver for a food delivery startup -- working in a booming industry that highlights India’s expanding apps-based gig-economy.
The 26-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of young Indians who, armed with their smartphones and motorcycles, courier dinners to offices and homes ordered at the swipe of a finger. A surge in the popularity of
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
In this photograph taken on February 6, 2019, Indian delivery man Arjun Kumar Mehto (R) working with the food delivery app FoodPanda rides with food to deliver to a customer in New Delhi.
food-ordering apps like Uber Eats and Swiggy provides a welcome source of income for many as India’s unemployment rate sits at a reported 45-year high. But they also shine a spotlight on the prevalence of short-term contracts in the economy, raising questions about workers’ rights and conditions and the long-term viability of the jobs. “(These delivery workers) are treated as independent contractors so labour laws governing employees are not applicable and they lack job security,” Gautam Ghosh, a human resources consultant, told AFP. “While jobs created by food delivery apps are crucial, they may not exist in 10 years so for the majority of youngsters they are a stopgap arrangement,” he added. India’s army of food delivery drivers, mostly men but some women too, became a talking point on social media late last year when a rider for the Zomato platform was filmed sampling a customer’s order. The video, apparently shot on a mobile phone, showed the man
taking bites from several food parcels before wrapping them again. It sparked anger online and he was promptly sacked.
- Rushing around Many internet users rallied to his defence, however. They insisted that the two-minute clip showed he was hungry and desperate, and said Zomato had acted harshly in dismissing him. “It is a challenging job,” said Nachre, expressing sympathy for the unnamed delivery man who was working in the southern city of Madurai before being fired. “We work 12 hours straight in soaring heat and heavy rains. Sometimes I don’t even have time to eat,” he added. Nachre drives for the Scootsy platform. He leaves home at 9:00 am and does not return until after 1:00 am. Navigating Mumbai’s abysmal traffic makes work stressful, he says. “We’re always in a rush to deliver and customers keep calling us. We know we have to be on our toes all the time or customers might complain and we may lose
our jobs,” Nachre told AFP. India’s food delivery apps, backed by major international investment, are offering new avenues of employment for Indian youngsters who lack higher education but possess a driving licence. Their importance to the likes of Nachre was highlighted recently when a leaked government report said India’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in 2017-18, the highest since the 1970s. “This job is lucrative,” said Nachre, who has no post-school qualifications and earns a minimum of 18,000 rupees ($253) a month. In his previous job running errands at an office he made only 8,000 rupees. The app-based food delivery industry is worth an estimated $7 billion to Asia’s third-largest economy, according to market research firm Statista, and is expanding rapidly. Swiggy announced at the end of last year that it had received $1 billion in funding from foreign backers including South Africa’s Naspers and China’s Tencent. (afp)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Health
International
Bali News
International
Dog DNA testing takes off, and generates debate
NEW YORK - As people peer into DNA for clues to health and heritage, man’s best friend is under the microscope, too. Genetic testing for dogs has surged in recent years, fueled by companies that echo popular at-home tests for humans, offering a deep dive into a pet’s genes with the swab of a canine cheek. More than a million dogs have been tested in little over a decade. The tests’ rise has stirred debate about standards, interpretation and limitations. But to many dog owners, DNA is a way to get to know their companions better. “It put some pieces of the puzzle together,” says Lisa Topol, who recently tested her mixed-breed dogs, Plop and Schmutzy. Plop was the topscoring mixed-breed, and Schmutzy also competed, in Saturday’s agility contest at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York. Judging toward the coveted best-in-show prize begins Monday. A test by Embark — which this fall became Westminster’s first DNAtesting partner — confirmed Topol’s guess that her high-octane pets are more Australian cattle dog than anything else. But Schmutzy’s genetic pie chart had surprise ingredients, including generous amounts of Labrador retriever and Doberman pinscher. Huh? Topol thought at first. And then: Maybe Schmutzy’s love of water and fetching is her inner Lab coming out. And doesn’t she walk a bit like a Doberman? “They are the dogs that they are,” said Topol, a New York advertising executive. “They’re unique, and they’re special.” But the testing “makes me understand them better.” Canine DNA testing for certain conditions and purposes goes back over two decades, but the industry
Plop, a mixed-breed rescue dog owned by Lisa Topol, who ordered genetic testing for Plop and her other dog, Schmutzy.
took off after scientists mapped a full set of dog genes and published the results in 2005. Wisdom Health, part of pet care and candy giant Mars Inc., launched a breed-identification test in 2007, added a health-screening option a few years later, and says it has now tested over 1.1 million dogs worldwide. Numerous other brands are also available. Mass-market tests have fueled research and helped animal shelters attract adopters by providing more information about prospective pets. DNA can back up purebred dogs’ parentage and help breeders try to eliminate certain diseases. The technology has been used to identify dogs whose owners don’t pick up their droppings, to pursue dogs accused of biting and to free a Belgian Malinois from dog death row after he was accused of killing a Pomeranian in Michigan. And some veterinarians believe that DNA testing enhances care. “I want to know as much about my patients as possible,” says Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian and TV personality in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. He recommends testing all puppies. But qualms about the dog DNA boom spilled into the prestigious science journal Nature last year. “Pet genetics must be reined in,” a Boston veterinarian and two other scientists wrote. Their commentary opened with a troubling story: a pug being euthanized because her owners interpreted DNA results to mean that she had a rare degenerative neurological disorder, when in fact her ailment
might have been something more treatable. “These (tests) should be used in a limited way until we get a lot more information,” said co-author and vet Dr. Lisa Moses. One concern is that tests can show genetic mutations that are linked to disease in some breeds but have unknown effects in the breed being tested. It also may be unclear how often dogs with the mutation ultimately get sick. That means tests, in themselves, can’t necessarily tell pet owners how much they should worry. Or tell breeders whether a dog shouldn’t reproduce. Some in dogdom fear that DNA test results could keep animals from passing on otherwise good genes because of an ambiguous possibility of disease. “The risk for overinterpretation is great,” but DNA testing can be useful along with other tools, said veterinarian Dr. Diane Brown, the CEO of the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation. It has invested almost $20 million in genomic and molecular research and supports an international effort to promote standardization for dog DNA tests. The initiative, led by the nonprofit International Partnership for Dogs, provides searchable data on test labs’ procedures and breed-specific health test information. Test companies say their work can help researchers address the unknowns and provides immediately useful information, such as whether a dog’s genes suggest bad reactions to certain medications. Companies including Embark and Wisdom have veterinarians assigned to help people understand worrisome results. (net)
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Marijuana lollipops sold on the street in New York.
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Marijuana lollipop gives man a heart attack
As medical and recreational marijuana becomes legal in more and more places, experts worry that there isn’t enough science on the risks of the drug, especially for patients with heart disease. In a new case report, doctors describe the heart attack of a man who ate a lollipop laced with high levels of THC, marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient. This patient’s story may serve as a warning that cannabis isn’t as benign as some would like to think, doctors wrote this week in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. The 70-year-old Canadian man, who had pre-existing heart disease, suffered a heart attack half an hour after consuming most of a lollipop that contained 90 milligrams of THC. The man had hoped that it would help with arthritis pain and allow him to sleep. The dose in the lollipop was far greater than what people typically inhale with a single marijuana joint, 7 milligrams, the researchers note. “With access to marijuana legal now in Canada, it’s going to be accessible to a larger proportion of the population and it’s more likely that some of them will have heart disease,” said study co-author Dr. Rob Stevenson, a cardiologist at the New Brunswick Heart Center in St. John, New Brunswick. “This could be the canary in the coal mine.” The man had already been diagnosed with atherosclerosis and had bypass surgery, but he was taking medications to treat the condition, and his disease was “stable” at the time he consumed the edible cannabis, said lead study author Dr. Alex Saunders, chief resident of the internal medicine program at the St. John’s site for Dalhousie University. “After his bypass surgery he had no repeats of chest pain other than this one,” Saunders said. The man had smoked marijuana in his youth and had fond memories of it, Saunders said. But once the effects of the high-dose THC in the lollipop started to hit, the man’s blood pressure and heart rate quickly shot
Thursday, February 21, 2019
up. “He described fearful hallucinations,” Saunders said. “He was very afraid he was going to die.” By the time family members got to him, “he was not only having hallucinations, but also intense chest pain,” Saunders said, adding that the terror the man experienced may have been too much for his heart. Once at the hospital, doctors confirmed that he’d had a heart attack. The man survived his heart attack, but tires more quickly than before with exercise. Saunders worries that with marijuana now legal in Canada, increasing numbers of people with heart disease will be using it and some of them will be at risk for heart attacks. “When I was in my rheumatology rotation, over half of my patients were asking if marijuana would help with the aches and pains that don’t get better with traditional medicine,” she said. And while many would have avoided cannabis before, “now that it’s legal they don’t feel as bad,” Saunders said. “One of the most reliable acute effects of the THC in cannabis is that it increases heart rate,” said Ryan Vandrey, a researcher who wasn’t involved in the case report. “And it’s dose dependent. Even at modest doses you can get increases in heart rate of 20 to 30 beats per minutes. And it can go higher. If someone with cardiovascular risk factors experiences a short-term bump in heart rate, that would be a concern.” Vandrey, a psychiatry researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, was especially disturbed by the high dose of THC in the lollipop. “Part of my frustration with products like this is that nobody is going to take just a couple of licks and then put it away,” he said. “There should be no circumstance where you get a product and you’re not supposed to consume the whole thing and it’s not clear when you’re supposed to stop.” (net)
The closure is made because it is illegal and has the potential to pollute the river just below the disposal site.
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DLH closes illegal landfill at Busungbiu village
SINGARAJA - Temporary waste disposal site (TPS) at Kelod hamlet, Busungbiu, was closed on Tuesday (Feb. 19). The closure is made because it is illegal and has the potential to pollute the river just below the disposal site. Additionally, the existence of the disposal site disturbed the aesthetics of the Busungbiu town because it sits in the Seririt – Pupuan road section (Tabanan district). The decision to close the disposal site over the river was carried out after the Buleleng Environment and Sanitation Agency (DLH) held a coordination meeting with the ranks of the Busungbiu leadership council (Muspika) and the Busungbiu village apparatus on Monday (Feb. 18). The meeting was chaired by the Head of DLH Buleleng, Putu Ariadi Pribadi, Headman of Busungbiu, Gede Putra Aryana, Representative of Busung-
biu Police, Municipal Police and apparatus of Busungbiu village. The Head of the DLH Buleleng, Putu Ariadi Pribadi, stated the closure of the disposal site was done because the DLH had carried out studies and direct observations to the location. Based on the study, the household waste that is not accommodated at the 3R disposal site managed by village government is dumped into the disposal site over the
river and bordered the bridge. A pile of garbage that does not decompose is feared to pollute the river emptying into the beach. Additionally, the existence and activities in the illegal disposal site were not good in terms of aesthetics at the entrance gate to the Busungbiu subdistrict town. With such consideration, the DLH closed the disposal site on the land owned by local residents. After closing, the DLH has coordinated with subdistrict leadership council and municipal police to conduct supervision against the site. If after the closure people are found disposing of garbage at that location, they will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the Regional Regulation (Perda) regarding the dispute. “Starting
in 2015, we have started to accommodate garbage that is not processed at waste disposal site. If left unchecked, the impact will trigger pollution in the river and this is inversely proportional because on the beach we do cleanup while in the upstream there is even a disposal site on the river bank, so that it can pollute the river,” he said. According to Ariadi, to overcome the excessive volume of waste that is not managed at temporary site and 3R, every day DLH will transport excess of waste volumes by using three garbage trucks. From technical calculations, the daily volume of garbage in Busungbiu reaches 35 cubic meters. Of that number, only 10 cubic meters have been handled at the ex-
Ahead of Nyepi, ogoh-ogoh makers start to be flooded by orders
AMLAPURA - Ahead of the Nyepi or Day of Silence, ogohogoh or papier mâché demon makers in Karangasem began to be flooded with orders. As experienced by one of the makers, Ida Ketut Santosa, an ogoh-ogoh maker from Bebandem village, is overwhelmed to serve the making of ogoh-ogoh accessories ahead of the Nyepi. Santosa stated the order of ogohogoh accessories has started to be crowded since a few days ago. The orders are coming from a number of sub-districts in Karangasem such
as Karangasem, Selat, Sidemen, Kubu, Manggis and Selat. “Now, we have received orders for around 50 pieces of ogoh-ogoh mask that have not been worked on. We have already accomplished around 30 masks. Due to lack of staff, we reject some orders from outside Karangasem,” he said. He said that he is only capable of completing as many as three masks each day. Meanwhile, the making of ogoh-ogoh takes up to a week. “We do it with the help of two workers. If worked on alone, surely it will be even
longer,” he said. When asked about the price of the masks, Santosa said they are sold for different prices in accordance with the level of difficulty. As illustration, his products are sold from the price of IDR 400,000 to IDR 800,000. (kmb41) Ahead of the Nyepi or Day of Silence, ogoh-ogoh or papier mâché demon makers in Karangasem began to be flooded with orders.
IBP/kmb
isting 3R disposal site. This happens because the capacity of 3R disposal site has not yet supported, and sorting waste at the household level is not optimal. Waste that has not been sorted at TPS 3R will be transported by DLH to Bengkala landfill, Kubutambahan. From regular transportation every day, Ariadi ensured that 18 cubic meters of garbage per day are transported to the landfill. “In order not to increase the capacity in the 3R disposal sites, village government is expected to sensitize the community to process organic waste into organic fertilizer for their own interests, so that the excessive volume that is not accommodated in our 3R disposal site will be carried out regularly every day,” he explained. (kmb38)
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Bali News
International
Activities
International
Thursday, February 21, 2019
15
Royal wedding of Ajik Krisna’s son studded with stars
Features potential of Blangsinga village and promotes Balinese culture
DENPASAR - A Balinese businessman, who has a famous souvenir shop in Bali namely the Krisna Oleh-Oleh, I Gusti Anom or who familiarly addressed Ajik Krisna, has just held a super fancy wedding for his son, Berlin Bramantara with Anastasia Phanasta, a woman from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Moreover, his son’s super fancy wedding can be called a royal wedding because the wedding held at Blangsinga village was attended by approximately 10,000 invitees. Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding lasted for two days, namely on Saturday (Feb. 16) and Sunday
(Feb. 17). On Saturday (Feb. 16) was held the traditional wedding while on Sunday was resumed
The wedding of Berlin Bramantara with Anastasia Phanasta
with the luxurious wedding reception attended by thousands of invitees. Besides, the event was also attended by Indonesian luxury car communities. Various super cars such as Lamborghini and Ferrari were also lined up in the reception location. A number of national celebrities such as Hotman Paris, Kaka Slank, Prilly Latuconsina, Vicky Shu, Varrel Bramsta, Natasha Wilona, Glenn Alinskie,
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Chelsea Olivia, Gading Marten, Atta Halilintar and many other artists appeared on the reception night. Like being studded with stars, the Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding was guided by presenter Sule and enlivened by the Yovie & Nuno Band. Like king and queen, Berlin and Anastasia came to the wedding location using a carriage supported by Paripurna Dance Studio. With prominent gold nuance, the whole room was decorated with a blend of gold and white by Ubud decorator, Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra. The bride and groom put on Balinese purple-green and golden customary attires. Meanwhile, Ajik Krisna along with his wife and Anastasia’s parents used green traditional attires. Chairperson of the Royal Wedding Committee who is also the Operations Manager of Krisna Holding Company, Ayu Saraswati, said that initially she only distributed 2,600 invitations and prepared 4,000 seats for invited guests. However, there were 8,000 invited guests. The preparations had been made since two months ago by involving 300 employees of Krisna Oleh-Oleh holding company in Bali assisted by approximately 1,200 youths and local village communities. “Ajik chose Blangsinga village as the wedding venue because he wanted to appoint Blangsinga village denoting his birth village to be known by the Indonesian
people. Moreover, Blangsinga has a beautiful waterfall, so invited guests can enjoy the natural beauty of the village and be shared in the social media. Thus, the natural beauty of Blangsinga village is known and visited by the community later,” said Ayu Saraswati at press conference in Denpasar on Tuesday (Feb. 19). During that occasion, on behalf of Ajik Krisna and the company, she expressed her gratitude to all Balinese people, especially the Blangsinga village community who had participated in the success of the Berlin and Anastasia’s wedding. At the same time, she apologized to invited guests who have not had time to be addressed and have not had time to go up to VVIP. Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra, who handled the decoration, admitted to be very happy and proud to be involved in the wedding event of Ajik Krisna’s son. He said that as an unpretentious entrepreneur in Bali, the wedding held was far from exclusive. “I salute that midst the high modernity, Ajik still prioritizes the touch of Balinese culture in the decoration of his son’s wedding. Taksu Jagat of Blangsinga is inseparable from the existence of Musen Temple and the charm of Tukad Petanu riverside. I am confident in the future Krisna Blangsinga will get success if remaining to uphold the Tri Hita Karana concept in running the business,” said Cokorda Gde Bayu Putra.
Anticipation of fake news ahead of simultaneous election DENPASAR - Simultaneous elections will be held on April 17. Preparation is not only carried out by election organizers, especially the Electoral Commission (KPU), but also police authority. In this case, it is doing the mapping of vulnerable points in accordance with the previous simultaneous elections. “All are vulnerable in my opinion. By intelligence, nothing is underestimated. It must be overestimated because we may not get lulled safely, but it turns out it is not safe,” said Director of Intelligence
and Security at Bali Police. Wahyu Suyitno, on the sidelines of the event “Bali Police Gathering with the Commissioner of Bali Electoral Commission in order to realize the Election 2019 which is honest, fair and having integrity,” he said on Tuesday (Feb. 19). According to Wahyu Suyitno, security issues in the election are not only seen from one side. However, it is related to Astagatra, ranging from geography, demography, natural resources, to the aspects of ideology, politics, economics, socio-culture, and resilience and
security. Geographic aspects, for example, can be erupting mountain, tsunami or earthquakes during elections. In addition, he also anticipated fake news. “We anticipate fake news from outside. Don’t let it spread in Bali because whatever happens Bali must be still conducive,” he explained while saying he always coordinated with the Electoral Commission and Electoral Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) of the Bali province. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Bali Electoral Commission, I
Dewa Agung Gede Lidartawan, said that his commission is currently still focused on election and logistics dissemination activities. Besides, it remains to prepare public meeting campaign that will commence on March 24. “For logistics up to this day (Tuesday—Ed), the entire ballots have been distributed to several districts, namely Jembrana, Buleleng, Karangasem, Klungkung, and Bangli,” he said. According to Lidartawan, the ballots distributed to the district have been received well and they
are now being sorted and folded. If they lack having been sorted and folded, it will be proposed to the provider through the Bali Electoral Commission to be forwarded to the Central Electoral Commission. He immediately checked the forms being produced by the printing company in Surabaya, East Java. “I will check there if everything has been ready to print and I assume that everything works like what we’ve planned, by mid March we will have accomplished everything,” he added. (kmb32)
Founder : K.Nadha, General Manager :Palgunadi Chief Editor: Gugiek Savindra Editors:Agus Toni, Daniel Fajry, Mawa, Sueca, Denpasar: Dira Arsana, Giriana Saputra, Subrata, Sumatika, Asmara Putra. Bangli: Swasrina, Buleleng: Mudiarta, Gianyar: Manik Astajaya, Karangasem: Eka Parananda, Klungkung: Bagiarta. 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
Experience Moment of Silence at Aston Kuta
Welcoming Balinese Saka New Year 1941, Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence invites the guest to experience the moment of Silence for 3 Days 2 Nights on 6 - 8 March 2019. Nyepi is Balinese Day of Silence that is commemorated every Saka New Year according to the Balinese calendar and it will be celebrated on 7 March this year. The offer includes
staying at Superior Room with daily breakfast, 1 Lunch coupon for various Food Stall selections for 2 persons with free flow of ice tea/mineral water, 1 time dessert, 1 time Buffet Dinner for 2 persons, complimentary Beach Lounge access with free welcome drink for the day before/after Silence Day, 20% discount for F&B (exclude
cigarette & alcohol), and free Yoga Class. Enjoy the tranquility with IDR 1,388,888++ only. On the eve of Nyepi, the guest will be given a chance to participate as Ogoh-Ogoh judges at Kuta Art and Culture Festival on 6 March 2019, following with the Ogoh-ogoh parades all around the island. “Travelers who have chosen to
stay on the island during this day of silence will experience pure atmosphere of complete tranquility and peace with clean fresh air, clear blue skies, and wonderful stargazing in the evening” said Rizka Fitriana, Assistant Marcom Manager of Aston Kuta. Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence is a 4 star International hotel in
Kuta area. In addition to being located in one of the most popular spots in Bali, Aston Kuta Hotel & Residence also boast complete resort facilities such as meeting rooms, rooftop bar, kids club and gymnasium. For information and booking, you can contact info@ astonkuta.com or via Whatsapp at +62 818 0488 4888.
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
China sci-fi blockbuster blasts off at the box office
SHANGHAI - China’s first space-age blockbuster is on a trajectory to become the country’s highest-grossing movie ever and is being held up as evidence that bigbudget home-grown films can now hold their own with Hollywood on pure spectacle. “The Wandering Earth” has made more than 3.9 billion yuan ($576 million) in domestic box office as of Tuesday morning, putting it on course to eclipse the 5.7 billion yuan earned in 2017 by current champion, “Wolf Warrior 2”. Based on a novel by Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin, the film tells the story -- through the eyes of Chinese protagonists -- of a project to move the earth away from a dying sun using giant fusion-powered engines. Reportedly made with a $50 million budget, the movie draws on pride in China’s growing space programme and is packed with advanced special effects. Director Guo Fan said that threequarters of the more than 2,000 special-effects shots were created by Chinese staff.
Noted film commentator Wang Hailin told a recent movie seminar that “The Wandering Earth” showed that “the historic moment to rival Hollywood has arrived.” “The Wandering Earth” has also made $3.8 million in North America in the 11 days since its release, the highest for a Chinese film in nearly five years, the film’s official social media account said on Sunday. With Chinese President Xi Jinping asserting tight control over arts and entertainment and pushing patriotic themes, any Chinese film depicting a future world is bound to draw political scrutiny. But the movie largely ignores politics, with no mention of China’s ruling Communist Party. Chinese heroes figure most prominently in the action, but the film’s overall message is to encourage international collaboration. In a pivotal scene, a Chinese astronaut played by martial artist and actor Wu Jing -- the star of the “Wolf Warrior” franchise -- works closely with a Russian counterpart in a bid to save the world. (afp)
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Robyn Beck / AFP
Chocolate Oscar statues covered in an edible gold leaf are displayed at the 91th annual Academy Awards Governors Ball press preview at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 15, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Who votes for the Oscars, and how does it work?
LOS ANGELES - The ballots are almost all in! Millions of television viewers around the globe will tune in Sunday to watch the Oscars, the glitziest night in showbiz, but most don’t know how the winners are chosen. Less than 8,000 people in the entertainment industry select the honorees -- and Tuesday marks the final day of voting. The following is a look at the complex, sometimes confounding process that leads to the winners of the 24 Academy Awards:
STR/AFP
This photo taken on February 7, 2019 shows people sitting next to a poster of Chinese sci-fi film “The Wandering Earth” in Yichang in China’s central Hubei province.
- Who votes? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles currently has 7,902 voting members. Academy membership is divided into 17 branches -- actors, directors, producers, costume designers, etc -- and candidates must be active or otherwise have “achieved distinc-
tion” in the industry.Applicants must be sponsored by two Academy members representing their branch. Oscar winners and nominees are automatically considered for membership and don’t need sponsors. Applications are reviewed once a year by the Academy’s Board of Governors, which has the final say on who joins the elite group. Members used to enjoy voting rights for life but since 2016, “voting status” has been limited to 10 years, and is renewable, to avoid having voters who are no longer active in the business. Lifetime voting rights only come after three 10-year terms.
Those not active become “emeritus” members who cannot vote. - Who are the Academy members? On principle, the Academy does not reveal its voting roll, though nothing prevents a member from saying he or she can cast a ballot. Following the #OscarsSoWhite uproar in 2015 and 2016, about the lack of black nominees, the Academy has endeavored to be more inclusive, vowing to double the number of women and minority members by 2020. In June 2018, the Academy took the unusual step of revealing the names of all 928 people invited to join. If they all agreed, 31 percent of Academy members are now women and 16 percent are people of color, according to The Hollywood Reporter. (afp)
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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual state of the nation address in Moscow on February 20, 2019.
As poll numbers fall, Putin vows to improve living conditions
President Vladimir Putin promised Russians rapid improvements in their living conditions as he delivered his annual state of the nation address Wednesday under pressure from falling approval ratings. Putin, who was elected to a fourth term last year with more than 76 percent of the vote, laid out a series of new measures in his speech to Russia’s two houses of parliament. His promises seemed aimed at addressing growing discontent over the dismal living conditions, especially outside Moscow, that many Russians still face nearly 20 years after Putin came to power. “We cannot wait, the situation must change for the better now,” Putin told assembled lawmakers from the lower house State
Duma and upper house Federation Council. “Within this year (Russians) should feel changes,” he said, promising a wide range of steps including new child benefits and lower taxes for larger families. “We did and will do everything for the strengthening of family values,” he said. “The incomes of Russian families should of course rise”. Putin, 66, appeared calm and confident as usual during the speech, but the Kremlin is reportedly deeply concerned by the fall in his personal approval ratings in
recent months. A survey by Russia’s independent Levada Center released in January found his approval rating at 64 percent -- a figure many Western leaders could only dream of, but Putin’s lowest in five years. - Unpopular reforms Russians appear increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of economic growth and the concentration of the country’s wealth in a few hands in Moscow. Moves by the government to implement economic reforms,
including an increase in the retirement age and a rise in the valueadded tax from January 1, have prompted widespread opposition including rare street protests. Another Levada poll in October found only 40 percent of Russians would vote for Putin if an election were held. wLast year, Putin used his annual address to unveil a new arsenal of weapons in a nearly twohour speech that stunned the West and many in Russia. Speaking two weeks before his 2018 re-election, Putin hailed Moscow’s military might as relations with the West reached post-Cold War lows. Nearly an hour into this year’s speech, Putin had yet to address any international issues.
He was expected to touch on the withdrawal of Russia and the United States from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which has raised concerns of a new arms race. He was also likely to cover the crisis in Venezuela, where Moscow has accused the West of “destructive interference” and stood by its ally President Nicolas Maduro. (afp) 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.