TABANAN ~ After a closing ceremony of a short training course, 240 members of the Indonesian Blue-Collar Workers (TKI) are planning to embark to Europe in order to work in tourist sectors abroad, I Gede Nugura Rai Wijaya, from the Department of Transmigration and Labor in Tabanan, said. Attendees of the ceremony included Peter Zinty, [...]

DENPASAR ~ After successfully keeping the United Nations Climate Change Conference secure in December, Bali Police are ready to cover the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, a second conference in which state parties will convene. The conference will be held in Bali from January 25 to February 2. Spokesman Antonios Reniban said that approximately 1,500 [...]

I Ketut Sandi is a Pecalang (traditional village security officer) who helps protect the public and ensure that Hindu ceremonies run smoothly. … Read entire article… »

Ni Nyoman Sardi is 85 and from the Tandeg area of Canggu Read entire article… »

JAKARTA ~ A 6.2-magnitude quake rattled remote Nias island off the west coast of Sumatra early on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and four others injured, police said. An 11-year-old boy was killed after the ceiling of a newly built military dormitory collapsed during the quake, First Sergeant Muri of the North Nias district police [...]

JAKARTA ~ The Indonesian navy has grounded eight of its light aircraft following a recent crash that killed two people and left two critically injured, the navy said on Thursday. “We have 22 Nomad aircraft and eight of them are now grounded,” navy spokesman Commodore Iskandar Sitompul said. Sitompul said the navy had conducted a [...]

JAKARTA ~ The government is negotiating the return of an ancient Javanese stone that was first taken by a British colonialist in the 1800s and is now held by a family trust in Scotland. The Sangguran stone, a column dated 928 AD and inscribed with ancient Javanese characters, was taken from its site near the [...]

JAKARTA ~ Former president Suharto may be able to leave hospital soon if his condition does not deteriorate further, one of the doctors treating him said. Suharto’s condition has gone up and down since he was admitted to hospital three weeks ago, and doctors said on Wednesday it was worsening because of fresh infections. The [...]

KUALA LUMPUR ~ Malaysia attracted 20.88 million foreign visitors last year, a 19 percent rise, setting a new record and bringing in US$14 billion in revenue, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said. Tengku Adnan said he expected an even better performance for the 12 months of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 – held to attract [...]

NEW YORK ~ British tycoon Richard Branson unveiled his newest spaceship this week and said that test flights for the vessel would begin this year. Branson, who has ambitious plans to begin carrying tourists on short flights into space by 2010, revealed models and photographs of the newest version of SpaceShipTwo and also the twin-fuselage [...]

By Scott Vogel The Washington Post Tall and tan and young and lovely and now 62 or 63 years old, depending on whom you ask, Heloisa Pinheiro — the woman who inspired The Girl From Ipanema — has never made a single centavo off the song. I don’t know about you, but when I heard [...]

A lack of Vitamin E  - often a sign of poor nutrition  - is linked to physical decline in older people, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers studied nutrition and physical function in 698 people aged 65 and older in Tuscany, Italy, conducting baseline examinations [...]