GIANYAR Gianyar regency’s revenue service is being probed over alleged irregularities in tax payments by non-government organisations, but Regent Tjok Oka Artha Ardnana Sukawati is not keen on the intervention. “Hopefully what has happened is not fatal,” he said in response to questions about problems occurring in agencies in Gianyar during his term of office. [...]

TRIPOLI A defiant Moamer Kadhafi said Libya is “ready for battle” as Western leaders mulled their next steps on the fifth day on Wednesday of UN-backed military strikes on his oil-rich country. “We will win this battle,” footage showed Kadhafi telling supporters at his Bab Al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli that was the target of a [...]

SINGARAJA Buleleng’s chief planner, Gede Darmaja, has said it is crucial the proposed North Bali airport goes ahead because of the multiplier effect it will have on the area’s economy and jobs and because Bali badly needs a second international airport. Darmaja, head of the regional development planning board (Bappeda), said the ideal site was [...]

DENPASAR State power provider PLN said on Tuesday that it was unable to provide sufficient electricity to Bali and asked people to turn off their lights to conserve usage. PLN chief Dadan Koerniadipoera said Bali’s many hotels should operate on their own generators at peak times. He said homes should turn off as many lights [...]

BRISBANE Queensland-based Australian full-service carrier Strategic Airlines, which started its landmark Brisbane-Bali non-stop service with a wide-body Airbus 330 last Saturday, is under financial pressure after losing a lucrative defence contract. It lost the A$30 million (US$29.4 million) Australian Defence Forces (ADF) contract following announcement of a federal police inquiry into whether criminal offences occurred [...]

JAKARTA Three young Komodo dragons have gone missing from a zoo in Surabaya, a spokesman said on Tuesday, warning that the lost lizards were dangerous and fast on their feet. The missing reptiles, which measured 50 centimetres to a metre long, were each around one year old and disappeared from their cage early this month, [...]

DENPASAR A six-year-old Denpasar girl is Bali’s latest rabies victim. She died at Sanglah Hospital on March 17 after falling ill several months after a neighbour’s dog bit her on the arm. The girl, who lived in Jl Sedap Malam, Denpasar, did not have her bite-wound thoroughly cleaned or get a three-shot post-exposure anti-rabies vaccine. [...]

Helping Hand: Japanese national Chisato Tomimura, 29, was collecting donations in Denpasar on Sunday for her stricken fellow citizens. A massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan has left 8,649 people dead and 13,262 are missing as authorities continue to battle a possible meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Photo: Juliyusman Sine/The Bali Times

SINGARAJA An earthquake measuring 4.7 shook Singaraja and nearby parts of Buleleng late on Sunday evening, prompting cafe patrons in the northern Bali areas to run into the streets and sparking fears of aftershocks. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the epicentre of the small quake, at 11.29pm, was 23 kilometres west of Singaraja. [...]

DENPASAR Bali Police and the anti-terrorist unit Densus 88 are reported to be looking for a man believed to have brought explosives into Bali by car after eluding security checks at Gilimanuk. They reportedly named the man as Edi Junianto, from Serak in Magelan, Central Java, and said he was known to have links with [...]

  The country’s self-proclaimed “King of Luwak” is having a hard time keeping up with demand around the world for the beans excreted by his stable of pampered civet cats, writes Alvin Soedarjo Demand for coffee brewed with beans plucked from the dung of the furry, weasel-like creatures – known locally as luwaks – is [...]

US health officials have announced approval of the first new drug in 56 years to treat lupus, a potentially fatal autoimmune disease affecting millions worldwide. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it approved belimumab, marketed under the trade name Benlysta, an inhibitor that may reduce the number of abnormal cells believed to be [...]