JAKARTA ~ The leader of an Indonesian sect who had controversially claimed he was a prophet was jailed for four years for contempt against Islam on Wednesday. Ahmad Mushaddeq alias Abu Salam, 63, leader of the Al Qiyadah Al Islamiyah sect, was “guilty of showing contempt in public against a religion recognized by the state,” [...]

DILI, East Timor ~ East Timor’s chief prosecutor headed to Indonesia on Tuesday to take custody of three men arrested over assassination attempts against the country’s leadership, the Timorese president said. President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was shot by rebels outside his Dili home on February 11, said that even without an extradition treaty, the men [...]

JAKARTA ~ A court ordered the extradition of an alleged Australian child-sex offender to his home country on Thursday. A panel of judges agreed to the prosecutors’ demand that Charles Alfred Barnett, 66, should be returned to Australia to face justice there. The South Jakarta District Court, in a ruling read out by Judge Syaefulah [...]

JAKARTA ~ Police swooped on rights activists protesting against Chinese rule in Tibet outside the venue of the Olympic torch relay in Jakarta on Tuesday, detaining at least nine including a Dutchman. The protesters were carrying banners reading “No human rights, no Olympics” and chanting “A united people will be invincible” when police moved in, [...]

JAKARTA ~ A court sentenced two leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, to 15 years’ jail on Monday and slammed the Islamist outfit as a “terrorist organization.” Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah leaders Abu Dujana and Zarkasih were sentenced to 15 years each at separate trials at the South Jakarta [...]

JAKARTA ~ Greenpeace called this week for a moratorium on the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis. It said a two-year investigation into the health of the country’s rainforests and peatlands showed “wholesale” destruction driven by demand from food, cosmetic and [...]

JAKARTA ~ A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off East Timor on Saturday but there was no tsunami threat and no immediate reports of damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. The quake, which struck at 10:12am, was centered about 81 kilometers northeast of the East Timorese capital Dili and about 40 kilometers south of Indonesia’s Wetar [...]

DENPASAR ~ A group of 10 Balinese performance artists are to participate in the Wintermoon Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, in May, a spokesman said. Head of the Suardana Arts Foundation in Celuk village, I Ketut Suardana, said that this would be second time Balinese performers would be taking part in the event. Last year [...]

DENPASAR ~ In order to keep Bali’s image positive to maintain a steady flow of tourism, crimes against tourists will have be handled more seriously, a businessman has said. The managing director of Sesari Transport, Made Kondra, said on Sunday that competition between tourist destinations was fierce, and crimes against tourists were bad for Bali’s [...]

DENPASAR ~ Prosecutors at the Denpasar District Court recommended a three-month jail sentence on Thursday for an Australian tourist on trial on drug-offence charges. Avinash Sundhahar, 24, had the drugs in his pocket when he was arrested in a nightclub car park in Kuta in February, prosecutor Kusuma Yasa told the court. Sundhahar had originally [...]

TABANAN ~ Tower construction in Tabanan concerned citizens because it interfered with television reception in the Pujungan area, and people did not know where to report the problem, legislators said. A member of the regional assembly, I Ketut Suwardana, said that laws regarding tower construction did not yet exist; in order to protect society, laws [...]

By Amy Chavez For The Bali Times It seems that with the filling in of potholes currently underway on Jl. Legian, we can all look forward to smooth driving down Kuta’s main tourist road. Until the potholes come back, that is. The thing about potholes is that they are like a disease, a mumps of [...]