Health Care: Traders at Denpasar’s Bird Market, where many kinds of birds are sold as pets, are also on alert for bird flu. The local authorities spray the market with disinfectant and care is being taken to ensure birds’ cages are clean. Photograph by Juliyusman Sine/The Bali Times

By Dr Robert Goldman Longevity News and Review provides readers with the latest information in breakthroughs pertaining to the extension of the healthy human lifespan. These news summaries are compiled by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net), a non-profit medical society composed of 24,000 physician and scientist members from 110 nations, united in [...]

Staff at Bangli General Hospital have called on the national and provincial governments to provide additional assistance to help treat cases of suspected bird flu. The hospital has come in for criticism for failing to diagnose two children who were suffering from bird flu, and who subsequently died after being transferred to the main Sanglah [...]

Researchers say they have found a “shocking” association – if only a statistical one – between violence by teenagers and the amount of sugary drinks they consume. High-school students in the US city of Boston who consumed more than five cans of non-diet, fizzy soft drinks every week were between nine and 15-percent likelier to [...]

DENPASAR A 14-year-old Australian being held in Bali for alleged drug possession is facing three charges, and may stand trial as soon as next week. The authorities have said that the trial will be kept as low-key as possible to avoid “intimidating” the youth, with judges and prosecutors wearing batik shirts instead of formal robes [...]

TUBAN Customs officials arrested six people after they foiled another two attempts to smuggle crystal-methamphetamine worth Rp13.6 billion (US$1.5 million) into Bali in the past week. The first arrest came on October 19. Brett Savage, a 44-year-old South African citizen, was caught at Ngurah Rai International Airport after arriving on a Singapore Airlines flight from [...]

DENPASAR Following power cuts in southern Bali last week, the state electricity provider, PT PLN, has warned businesses and householders in the area to expect more outages in the February, with major repair worked planned for the main Gilimanuk power plant, where electricity generated in neighbouring East Java is channelled into Bali. “We have asked [...]

DENPASAR Two foreign nationals are facing investigation for suspected immigration offences. American Philipe Escane was visited by immigration officials at his address in Padang Griya in West Denpasar under suspicion of conducting business on a social visa. Meanwhile, another man, Aaron Reddy, whose nationality has not been revealed, but who lives in Banjar Tegal Buah, [...]

By Moha Ennaji Influenced by the events in Egypt and Tunisia, Moroccans have been demanding political and constitutional rights that would give citizens greater influence in government affairs. But unlike their neighbours, Moroccans have not made large-scale calls for regime change. This difference should not be seen as complacence. Instead, it stems from a desire [...]

By Dawoud Abu Lebdeh The Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange was an emotional moment for thousands of Palestinians who were reunited with family members they had not seen for years. But it came at a price. Some of the public perceive the prisoner release deal as an achievement for Hamas’ militant approach, a success story that Palestinian [...]

Every visitor to our shores is all too aware of the harassment by local vendors that they encounter – Balinese and other Indonesians brashly and forcibly peddling everything from trinkets to “transport.” It is a frustrating experience that mars their time spent here and clouds their view of Bali as an island of tranquillity. And [...]

By Richard Boughton People are obstinate. There you have it. The encapsulation, in three words, of human behaviour. I reckon it ought to be the first sentence in every psychology textbook. Take Saddam Hussein, for instance: a poster boy for obstinacy if ever there was one. Here we had a man who preferred to let [...]