By Susan Spano Los Angeles Times SIENA, Italy ~ I was feeling lucky. That was my excuse for going to Siena in winter, when Tuscany is generally cold and rainy. But rules were made to be broken in Italy, I’ve found. In Rome, you can wake up on a winter morning with rain beating on [...]

Our Week for the Sounds of Silence BALI offers many things to a tired and jaded world. One of these is Nyepi, the annual Hindu “Silent Day” when everything shuts up. Even the airport closes down, disrupting schedules everywhere. The day is designed for Hindu reflection and also to persuade bad spirits that since there [...]

By Paulo Coelho For The Bali Times I am someone who believes in the judicial system. Despite all the drawbacks, we see – for example – the United States Supreme Court disqualifying torture as an interrogation method, even when the president of the republic and his vice have, through legal artifices, tried to justify it. [...]

By Haleh Bakhash WASHINGTON ~ To celebrate the Persian New Year, President Obama sent a videotaped message to the people of Iran. But his references to a “new day” for relations between Washington and Tehran may not be heard by many women there. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old Iranian American freelance journalist from Fargo, has been [...]

By Phaison Daoh SONGKHLA, Thailand ~ Those living outside of Thailand often imagine the country as a homogeneous society, but closer examination reveals much diversity. Although the majority of Thais practice Buddhism, the unofficial state religion, small but notable Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh and Taoist populations exist, and many estimate that up to 10 [...]

By Tracy Grant Richardson’s death punctures the illusion we all cling to that there is some order to the world, that things happen for a reason. WASHINGTON ~ A week ago Natasha Richardson was flirting around the edges of fame. For most, her name elicited a vague “Yeah, seems familiar,” but then they couldn’t quite [...]

DEPOK, West Java ~ Prosecutors demanded the death sentence this week for a man who has confessed to killing 11 people and is planning to release a pop album on the back of his infamy. Prosecutors called for the maximum sentence against Verry Idham Henyansyah over the murder of Hery Santoso, who was stabbed and [...]

JAKARTA ~ A Sriwijaya Air plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday after one of its engines failed in mid-flight, but no one was injured, an airport official said. The Boeing 737-200, headed from Bintan island to the capital Jakarta, was forced to land shortly after takeoff on Batam island near Singapore, [...]

JAKARTA ~ A former general running for the country’s presidency has gone to unusual lengths to shake a bloody reputation for human rights abuse, by recruiting activists he kidnapped 11 years ago. Prabowo Subianto, the former head of the country’s notorious Kopassus special forces, is hoping the three activists will be his secret weapon as [...]

By Hannah Black The Bali Times SILAKARANG ~ One thing that continues to puzzle me about the compound I live in is the family dynamics. In the Balinese tradition, my father-in-law and his two brothers stayed in the compound after they were married and are now watching their sons raise their families in the same [...]

Dear Sir With regard to the letter from Svend Laursen strongly criticizing the postal services, we take this opportunity of congratulating the postal services in our part of Bali for their excellent service. We live in what is sometimes called the Wild West of Bali, and whilst services such as electricity supply and telecommunications are [...]

WASHINGTON ~ A UN panel has urged the release of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, saying the junta violated not only world law but also its own law by keeping her under house arrest, documents made public this week show. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader’s US-based lawyer released a copy of an opinion reached [...]