So there I am, sitting in my villa, gazing at the things around me that I take for granted: multiple luxurious bedrooms, ensuite bathrooms, a big, well-equipped kitchen, a garden and a nice pool. Then there are all the bule toys that many of us seem to hold sacred, like satellite TV, air-conditioning, fridges, fans, [...]

WASHINGTON ~ US President Barack Obama will announce his new Afghan strategy in an address to the nation next Tuesday from the prestigious West Point military academy, the White House said. In a defining moment for his young presidency, Obama is widely expected to order more than 30,000 additional American troops into battle against an [...]

LONDON ~ Britain’s Tony Blair may have swung behind US calls for regime change in Iraq after meeting President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch in 2002, a top diplomat told an inquiry into the war on Thursday. Christopher Meyer, then Britain’s ambassador to Washington, said Blair’s line seemed to harden following talks at [...]

VIENNA ~ Outgoing IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei fired a parting shot at Iran here on Thursday, saying efforts to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme have reached a dead end, as the UN atomic watchdog considered censuring Tehran. Iran’s delegate to the meeting threatened to reduce cooperation to a minimum if a [...]

By Lester R. Brown As the UN climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least [...]

JAKARTA ~ Protesters burned photos of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and demanded his resignation this week over what they see as his complicity in a series of major corruption scandals. Protesters slammed Yudhoyono, popularly known as SBY, over a controversial bailout of failed lender Bank Century and an alleged conspiracy among senior law enforcers to [...]

JAKARTA ~ The country’s chief detective has been replaced after being implicated in an alleged plot to falsely imprison anti-graft investigators, police said. National Chief Detective Susno Duadji, who resigned from his post earlier this month only to be reinstated, has been shifted from his post as part of a broad administrative reshuffle. Police spokesman [...]

JAKARTA ~ The vice president denied this week any wrongdoing in a contentious US$704-million bank bailout at the centre of the country’s latest corruption scandal. Boediono, the former head of the central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), told a gathering with foreign reporters on Wednesday that he stood by the decision to authorise the Rp6.7-trillion lifeline [...]

SILAKARANG ~ Like most villages, or desas, there is a small market in Silakarang where all the women go in early morning to buy food for the day. As many people don’t have fridges (and those who do often fill them full of offerings, like my in-laws), all the food for the day has to [...]

Airport Shocker Dear Sir In the hope that someone will take an interest, I would like to tell the following story. I arrived at Bali’s airport on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 15) with my lady friend after more than 30 hours of travelling. We were absolutely exhausted. An off-guard man approached me in the luggage hall, [...]

By Sarah Teasdale I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea. You love me, and I find you still A spirit beautiful and bright, Yet I am I, who long to be Lost as [...]

The trip to Tabanan to see how Lana and Messy, two BAWA – Bali Animal Welfare Association – puppies, were enjoying their new home had been planned for the previous weekend. For one reason or another I couldn’t make it and moped around all week feeling less than on top of the world until I [...]