Giddy-Up: A man preps his gaily decked-out horse and cart while waiting for tourist rides, at Kuta Beach. While Bali may be chock-a-bloc with taxis, on neighboring islands such as the Gilis it is the traditional and only way of getting around. Juliyusman Sine/The Bali Times

LOVINA Buleleng Police are investigating the theft of cash from the hotel room of a French tourist who did not immediately notice the money was missing but reported the theft to Lovina Police later. Guillaume Fonts, 27, was staying at the Anturan Puspa Rama hotel at Lovina when the theft occurred. He told police he [...]

DENPASAR Enforcement of a five-kilometre building exclusion zone around Bali’s major temples – including Uluwatu on the Bukit in Badung where major development has already taken place – has moved a step closer. Bangli Regent I Made Gianyar said last week he would seek clarification from Governor I Made Mangku Pastika, on behalf of all [...]

DENPASAR A new programme will scan and digitally store 10,000 ancient Balinese manuscripts this year, as part of the provincial government’s plan to safeguard religious and social texts currently only held on lontar (leaf) scrolls. The documents to be data-based in 2011 include most of the Ramayana story, the Usadha (treatment techniques) and lontar scripts [...]

GIANYAR A third-time bridegroom, Wayan Terang, 50, died on his way to his wedding in Klungkung. He became ill after a stop at Ubud while travelling with the wedding party from his home at Busung Biu in Singaraja and died at a clinic he was rushed to in a vain attempt to revive him. The [...]

SEMARAPURA Authorities on Nusa Penida killed more than 1,000 stray dogs in two days after the island’s first rabies deaths including a man from Batu Kandik village, who died in Sanglah Hospital three weeks ago. Klungkung regency animal husbandry chief Gusti Ngurah Badiwangsa said the mass cull was necessary because Nusa Penida – part of [...]

JAYAPURA Hundreds of Papuans protested on Wednesday rejecting the region’s special autonomy within Indonesia and demanding a referendum on self-determination. Carrying a wooden coffin covered with a black cloth which said “Special Autonomy is Dead in Papua,” more than 1,000 activists, students and church leaders protested in front of the provincial parliament in Jayapura, witnesses [...]

DENPASAR A dukun (shaman or wise man) who sexually molested at least four female patients at his practice at Padang Galak, East Denpasar, is under arrest and reportedly contrite for his offences. Police detained Muhammad Nursidik, 32, from Jember in East Java and a qualified lawyer, after complaints from women who had sought treatment from [...]

DENPASAR The head of Bali’s leading foreign-owned realtor Ray White Paradise Property has been arrested by police after a land sale to a Chinese woman went sour. Mark Tuck, 60, was detained by Badung Police after a client, Dorothy Poon, 63, reported that land-title certificates for a Rp5.4-billion (US$597,600) plot of land in Seminyak were [...]

By Radwan Masmoudi There has been a democratic revolution in Tunisia over the past four weeks. This is a new and exciting era in Tunisian history, and an example for other countries of the Arab world. Unfortunately, however, it all started when a 26-year-old university graduate set himself on fire on 17 December in a [...]

Intending visitors to our island had even more cause to worry about their holiday this week when alerts were issued over a potential new health outbreak: Legionnaire’s disease, a bacterial infection that can be fatal and that has reportedly struck down 10 Australians who became ill after returning home from Bali. Health chief Nyoman Sutedja [...]

It is now apparently certain – such a qualification is always necessary here – that the preferred road option to solve the traffic jams between Jimbaran and Kuta is the elevated highway on pylons over the mangroves east of the present Bypass Ngurah Rai. The Sanur-Tanjung Benoa bridge was always a non-starter, given the muddle [...]