By Susan Spano Los Angeles Times BORMES-LES-MIMOSAS, France ~ The honest, pathetic and irritating truth is that after devoting myself to travel the past 15 years – going far north of the Arctic circle in Sweden or to crocodile-infested waters in South Africa; staying in igloos, grass huts and tree houses; traveling by train, plane, [...]

All A-Glitter IT’S the biggest event to happen on or near Nusa Dua’s great Geger Beach since the local banjars decided to demolish all the independent beach cafes and set up a single cooperative in their place (that was a really bad move, guys). The official opening of The St. Regis property had The Diary [...]

By Paulo Coelho For The Bali Times The Indian poet Rabinranath Tagore says: I slept and I thought that life was Happiness I woke up and discovered that life was Duty I fulfilled my duty and discovered that it was Happiness. In fact, through my work I discover life, people and everything that happens around [...]

By Graeme Dobell Hillary Clinton’s Asia trek offers some hints at how the Asia game is played, and at America’s ability to leverage the privilege of being a foreign white devil (a gweilo). More on that in a moment. But first, which Asian power puts the greatest effort into measuring and weighing the symbols and [...]

By Ahmed Rashid LAHORE, Pakistan ~ Maulana Sufi Mohammed, a radical cleric who was freed last year after spending six years in jail for leading 10,000 Pashtun tribesmen in opposition to the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has begun a new campaign. He is leading a peace march through the strategic Swat Valley in [...]

By Doyle McManus President Barack Obama is working against time to untangle 30 years of enmity and prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but even his own advisers know the chance of success is slim. So they also have been working on Plan B: What do we do if Iran gets the bomb? Today, [...]

JAKARTA ~ He counts lawmakers and senior officials among his scalps but Indonesia’s anti-corruption chief says it could be 20 years before graft entrenched at all levels of government has been cleaned up. Since its inception in 2003, the independent Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has gained a fearsome reputation as one of the few clean [...]

JAKARTA ~ The national parliament has approved a US$6-billion stimulus package to protect Southeast Asia’s largest economy from the worst of the global economic crisis, lawmakers said. The parliamentary budget committee approved the plan worth Rp73.3 trillion ($6.15 billion) late on Tuesday after weeks of debate, amid a rash of bad economic news from some [...]

BANDA ACEH ~ President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appealed this week to political rivals in Aceh to resolve their differences democratically at the polls in April, amid fears of violence. In only his second visit to the province since the signing of a historic peace deal between the government and separatist rebels in 2005, Yudhoyono warned [...]

JAKARTA ~ The attorney general was forced into an embarrassing about-face this week after activists slammed his appointment of allegedly corrupt prosecutors to oversee graft investigations. Attorney General Hendarman Supandji revoked the appointments of Kemas Yahya Rahman and Muhammad Salim with immediate effect after criticism from Indonesian Corruption Watch, an official said. The prosecutors were [...]

By Hannah Black The Bali Times SILAKARANG ~ It seems the Balinese can turn their hands to just about anything, including construction projects around the compound. Over the past couple of years I have watched my husband Ongky and family members build a barbecue and a fishpond, landscape a terraced garden, erect a TV antenna, [...]

WASHINGTON ~ President Barack Obama vowed to lead a fearful America through its torment to emerge stronger than ever, declaring a “day of reckoning” after an age of excess ended in economic meltdown. In an ambitious, policy-heavy debut address to Congress on Wednesday morning Bali time, the new president demanded national sacrifice and responsibility in [...]