KUTA A domestic tourist from Java was dragged out to sea at Kuta Beach and drowned while two others are missing, officials said. The victim was a 14-year-old boy on a school trip from a West Java high school whose body was found floating off the beach on Wednesday morning. Search teams are continuing to [...]

SEMARAPURA Eight of Nusa Penida’s 16 villages are officially poverty-stricken, sub-district head Made Sudiarka Jaya has told Klungkung regency officials. He said four of the villages also suffer severe water shortage, a perennial problem on the island. “This is clearly a job that is not easy for Klungkung to handle alone,” Sudiarka told a meeting [...]

Flying High: American Nick Rosza dazzles with a high-powered aerobatic manoeuvre during Reef Bali Pro 2010 at Kuta Beach that concluded at the weekend. Local boy Made Raditya Rondi won the open division of the week-long contest.

DENPASAR The Denpasar District Court sentenced eight Iranians to life in prison on Tuesday for smuggling hundreds of methamphetamine tablets in their stomachs into Bali. “The accused were proven legally and convincingly guilty of smuggling narcotics in large numbers,” chief judge Djumain told the court. Indonesia enforces stiff penalties, including life imprisonment and death, for [...]

MATARAM An Italian tourist was killed when she fell into a ravine while climbing Mount Rinjani on Bali’s eastern neighbour Lombok, police said on Tuesday. The 27-year-old woman and her French boyfriend, accompanied by porters and a guide, had begun the trek up the active volcano on Sunday, local police chief Ketut Matria said. “But [...]

JAKARTA At least six people were killed on Tuesday when a packed passenger train derailed in East Java, an official said. The train was heading from Purwokerto to Jember in East Java province when it went off the tracks, Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told said. “Six people were killed in the accident,” he said. [...]

JAKARTA A young Bengal tiger mauled a three-year-old girl after breaking free from its handlers at a zoo in East Java, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday, leaving the toddler with head injuries that required surgery. The 10-month-old male tiger, called Ony, attacked Angelica Rosa while it was being transferred between enclosures at Taman Safari Prigen [...]

JAKARTA An Indonesian publisher and Islamist blogger known as the “Prince of Jihad” was sentenced to five years in jail on Tuesday for abetting suicide attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last year. Women robed from head to toe in black Islamic dress shouted abuse at the judges as the sentence — lighter than [...]

SINGARAJA Buleleng is still waiting to get its new director of food price control, because the recruitment process is still underway, secretary of the regency legislature Ida Bagus Puja Erawan has said. Three candidates have been put forward to the legislature. But according to the Erawan some of the applications do not have all the [...]

New Arrival: An as-yet unnamed male hippopotamus has been born at the Bali Marine and Safari Park in Gianyar. Weighing in at around 30kg, the calf was born underwater on May 18 and is a result of the park’s conservation programme.

JAKARTA Lawmakers demanded on Monday that the government crack down on a violent Islamist vigilante group that has threatened “war” against Christians in Jakarta and urged mosques to set up militia forces. Parliamentarians from various parties held a press conference to demand the government outlaw the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) — a private militia with [...]

JAKARTA Leading Indonesian newsweekly Tempo reported on Monday that copies of its latest edition on rampant police corruption are being bought in bulk by plain-clothes officers before they reach newsstands. Tempo magazine said on its website that mysterious buyers who looked like police were snapping up its June 28 edition — which has a cover [...]