4
Bali News
Friday, September 28, 2012
International
International
W
Hundreds of joint officers deployed
RLD
Forest on Mt. Batur Kintamani catches fire Bangli (Bali Post)—
After Kidul Market, now it is the turn of forest on Mt. Batur Kintamani caught fire, though the forest fires afflicting Kintamani regularly happens every year. The fire on Mount Batur took place since Tuesday (Sep 25) around 3:00 p.m. It made residents in the vicinity of Mount Batur, especially the area of Yeh Mampeh, Batur village, panicky. A number of hotspots appeared simultaneously and quickly spread. Aside from being caused by dried twigs, the fire spread quickly because of hot weather and the wind was blowing strongly. Information compiled in Kintamani on Wednesday (Sep 26) mentioned if the fire began burning on Tuesday afternoon. Residents with officials who knew the incident had actually attempted to extinguish the fire then. Due to steep terrain and a must to climbing a mountain to get to the scene, the effort to extinguish the fire could not be done maximally. Moreover, it was carried out manually like by making a hole in the ground and slapping the burning branches and trees with a twig. The team consisted of hundreds of volunteers from the Regional Disaster Management Agency of Bangli, Badung, Bali Province as well as military personnel from the 1626 Bangli Military District and Bangli Police. The team had started to climb from the morning to a number of visible hotspots at Yeh
Mampeh, Batur village, Kintamani. Among the team getting involved in the effort was the Commander of the 1626 Bangli Military District, Djoni Prasetyo, while the Deputy Chief of Bangli Police did monitoring directly to the scene. Burnout of fire allegedly arising from the friction of trees and dry bushes was carried out from three lanes at Yeh Mampeh hamlet. Members of the team were in disarray because the fire in the lane two that had successfully been extinguished flared again. Therefore, hundreds of volunteers finally came back to location of lane two. “The fire is still going on because the burnout effort is difficult. Besides, the hotspots are located on steep terrain and hard to reach,” said Headman of South Batur, I Wayan Maliastra. He added the location of fire was far away from residential areas so the incident did not disrupt the activities of people at Yeh Mampeh hamlet and around the Mentik Hill. Nevertheless, his party had instructed the surrounding residents to remain vigilant. Deputy Chief of Kintamani Police, I Made Reda, with permission from Kintamani Police Chief, Komang Susanta, when contacted said the fire broke out at a number of points. It was unknown for sure the cause of those bush fires. Clearly, to prevent the spread of fire to residential location his party had mobilized the members with the help of volunteers and local people. (kmb17)
AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis
The destroyed fishing boat is seen in Jembrana Regency
Rolled up by waves
Boat of Air Kuning fisherman destroyed
Negara (Bali Post)—
Since the past two days, the weather in the waters of Jembrana was less friendly to traditional fishermen. As a result, a number of fishing boats from Air Kuning, Negara, were destroyed by the waves in the sea on Tuesday afternoon (Sep 25). The boat belonged to Suhardi and three colleagues were destroyed after hit by high waves while spreading nets at sea. Encountered when repairing his shattered boat, Suhardi said that at the time he and three colleagues were in the middle of the ocean. Even, he was about to spread his nets around 150 meters from the beach. Suddenly, a big wave came toward him and crashed his boat. Luckily, he was
Denpasar (Bali Post) –
The smokes pill up from the slopes of Mount Batur
IBP/File
able to escape and swim to shore. Meanwhile, the boat was destroyed and scattered to the beach. Residents who knew the boat of Suhardi rolled up by waves came and rescued him. Similarly, his three colleagues could finally swim to the shore. Meanwhile, the net
valued at millions of rupiahs used to catch fish was carried away by the waves. “When we are going to sea, the waves were calm. However, after sailing a few hundred kilometers and I was about to throw the nets, huge waves emerged and swept my boat. Luckily, I could save myself, but my boat was destroyed,” said Suhardi. There were no casualties in the incident, but this fisherman claimed to suffer many losses due to the disaster. The damaged boat and lost net were estimated to value at IDR 12 million. (kmb26)
The Indonesia Farmers Group (HKTI) asked Bali Province Government to reduce importing beef and to pay more attention in developing local beef production. It seemed this importing situation has been going on for years as there are no limits to it. Head of HKTI Prof. Dr.I Nyoman Suparta, in Denpasar stated last Wednesday (26/0) that HKTI disagree the fact imported beef is needed for essentials or restaurants needs as government should be clear in making a policy that takes the side of breeders or animal husbandries.
Bali’s beef quality actually has no different to imported beef for that government is asked to put a target so it can fulfill the beef needed in the country itself without depending in imported beef. It doesn’t mean that HKTI is anti-importing but government has to think more on how to develop further animal husbandries here to be more productive. Based on the Bali Animal Husbandry and Health Agency data it is stated the amount of imported beef in Bali needed was 1,000-1,500 tons from the total of 8,000 tons per year when actually Bali has been a cow supplier for other areas in Indonesia as much as 75,000 cows for year 2012
alone while those cut reached more than 42,000 this year. Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Group (PHRI) Bali branch a while ago admitted that most of the hotels in Bali hardly used local beef compared to imported ones where it reached 80 percent of their beefs come from overseas. Head of PHRI Bali, Tjokorda Artha Ardana Sukawati, stated that to increase the use of beef in an area needs cooperation with all sides, from breeders and tourism industries, where breeders will be able to increase their product standard so it can compete overseas as it still has a potential. (kmb27)
A fire bomb explodes among riot police during clashes in Athens Wednesday Sept. 26, 2012. Police clashed with protesters hurling petrol bombs and bottles in central Athens Wednesday after an anti-government rally called as part of a general strike in Greece turned violent.
Greek riots, Spanish marches shatter market calm Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece — Europe’s fragile financial calm was shattered Wednesday as investors worried that violent anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain’s debt troubles showed that the continent still cannot contain its financial crisis. Police fired tear gas Wednesday at rioters hurling gasoline bombs and chunks of marble during Greece’s largest anti-austerity demonstration in six months. The protests were part of a 24-hour general strike, the latest test for Greece’s nearly four-month-old coalition government and the new spending cuts it plans to push through. The brief but intense clashes by several hundred rioters among the 60,000 people protesting in Athens came a day after anti-austerity protests rocked the Spanish capital. In Madrid, thousands of angry protesters again swarmed as close as they could get Wednesday night to Parliament, watched by a heavy contingent of riot police. There was
no fresh violence, but the demonstrators cut off traffic on one of the city’s major thoroughfares at the height of the evening commute. The protesters chanted for the release of 34 people detained Tuesday night in clashes that injured 64 others. They also demanded new elections to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his conservative government, which has imposed cutbacks and tax hikes, deepening the gloom in a country struggling with recession and unemployment of nearly 25 percent, the highest among the 17 nations using the common euro currency. Spain’s central bank warned Wednesday the country’s economy continues to shrink “significantly,”
sending the Spanish stock index tumbling and its borrowing costs rising. Across Europe, stock markets fell as well. Germany’s DAX dropped 2 percent while the CAC40 in France fell 2.4 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 1.4 percent. The euro was also hit, down a further 0.3 percent at $1.2840. The turmoil Wednesday ended weeks of relative calm and optimism among investors that Europe and eurozone might have turned a corner. Markets have been breathing easier since the European Central Bank said earlier this month it would buy unlimited amounts of government bonds to help countries with their debts. The move by the ECB helped lower borrowing costs for indebted governments from levels that only two months ago threatened to bankrupt Spain and Italy. Stocks also rose. Media speculation about the timing and cost of a eurozone breakup or a departure by troubled Greece faded.
13
Putin condemns bloody regime change in Middle East Associated Press Writer
Indonesia Farmers Group: reduce beef import
IBP/File
Friday, September 28, 2012
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a strong warning Wednesday against inciting violent regime change in the Middle East — an apparent rebuke to Western calls for an end to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s rule. Putin said the international community should operate as a united front to soothe the tensions in the Mideast and claimed that a bloody regime change would only fuel further unrest. “Violence only begets violence,” Putin said in a speech to foreign diplomats in Moscow. The statement appeared to again pit Putin against President Barack Obama, who used his speech at the U.N. General Assembly this week to call for an end to the Assad regime over its violent crackdown on an uprising that began in March 2011.
Speaking about the rising violence in Syria, Obama said Tuesday that “the future must not belong to a dictator who massacres his people.” “Together, we must stand with those Syrians who believe in a different vision,” Obama said. As frustration deepens at the ongoing failure of U.N.-led measures to reach a solution on Syria, officials from a coalition including the United States, the European Union and the Arab League met in the Netherlands last week to devise new ways of isolating the Assad regime. But Putin said Wednesday that attempts to circumvent U.N.-led diplomatic efforts would prove destructive. “Such action is fraught with potential for destabilization and chaos,” Putin said. “Life has recently given us proof that this is correct. It is time for us to draw lessons from what is happening.”
AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks prior to a ceremony of receiving credentials in Moscow’s Kremlin on Wednesday in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.
China hits back at Japan PM’s statement on islands
Associated Press Writer
BEIJING — China on Thursday attacked Japan’s prime minister as obstinate and wrong for saying his nation won’t compromise in their dispute over who owns tiny islands in the East China Sea. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in New York a day earlier that the islands are clearly an “inherent part of our territory, in light of history and international law.” He said
AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihiko Noda addresses a news conference in New York Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.
that issues over the islands should be resolved peacefully and by the rule of law. “China is strongly disappointed and sternly opposes the Japanese leader’s obstinacy regarding his wrong position” on the matter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement that repeated China’s stance that Japan was ignoring historical facts and international laws. “The country seriously challenges the postwar international order, but tries to take the rules of international law as a cover. This is self-deceiving,” Qin said in a separate statement. Senior diplomats from both countries have met this week in New York and Beijing in an
attempt to mend ties frayed by the spat over the island group in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The islands, held by Japan, are uninhabited but sit astride rich fishing waters and potentially large reserves of natural gas. They are also claimed by Taiwan. Japan’s purchase of some of the islands from their private Japanese owners two weeks ago sparked sometimes violent protests in China that targeted Japanese-owned stores and factories. Noda defended the purchase as an attempt to ensure their “stable management,” but conceded “it seems that China has yet to understand that.”