JAKARTA President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for an immediate resolution of a nearly two-month strike by workers at a giant US-owned gold and copper mine in Papua province. About one-third of the 23,000 workers at Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg mining complex, who have been on strike since mid-September over better wages, threatened on Tuesday to [...]

An former senior executive of Citibank Indonesia went on trial this week for bank fraud and allegedly embezzling US$5 million from customers’ accounts, crimes which carry a 15-year jail term. Inong Malinda Dee, 49, allegedly embezzled the money from wealthy customers’ savings accounts between 2007 and February this year when she was a premium client [...]

Due in Town: The red carpet will be rolled out when US President Barack Obama arrives in Bali next week to attend a series of ASEAN meetings.

DENPASAR An American Secret Service team has arrived in Bali ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama for an ASEAN summit next week. The president is expected to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, which will be held in Nusa Dua from November 14 to 19. According to Jumarto, commander of [...]

NEGARA Police at Gilimanuk Port in Jembrana have begun to increase security measures against illegal migrants ahead of the ASEAN summit. Head of the Gilimanuk maritime police Made Prihenjagat said his officers were anticipated all potential threats. Gilimanuk is the main point of access for passengers and road traffic from neighbouring Java, and the major [...]

DENPASAR The Bali authorities have ordered a clampdown on beggars in the run-up to the ASEAN Summit and US President Barack Obama’s visit. The Denpasar and Badung authorities have been conducting sweeps of local streets since the weekend, focussing on intersections with traffic lights, popular spots for beggars and itinerant hawkers to target motorists. “We [...]

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 [...]

The start of the rainy season could see an increase in incidents of bird flu amongst humans, as the damp conditions encourage respiratory infections, health experts have said. Ngurah Mahardika, a flu specialist at Udayana University, said bird-to-human transmission of the disease was more likely during wet weather. “In high humidity, the virus is able [...]

Udayana University’s medical faculty hosted a training session on Sunday to teach health workers how to avoid the risk of HIV infection from patients. Around 300 medical students, as well as professional midwives, were taught various skills and risk factors. Yudha Ganesa, a member of university staff who helped organise the session said that awareness [...]

Members of the dreary Association of Southeast Asian Nations need to do something worthwhile in their week-long series of meetings here next week to convince their respective populations that they are capable of anything other than vapidity. Their docile leaders, who traditionally eschew criticising the excesses of fellow member nations, including human rights abuses, due [...]

By Vyt Karazija So I’m taking a short-cut home one night after a late dinner, and turn the bike into a somewhat dark lane in Seminyak. It’s around midnight, and my headlight illuminates a young woman standing stock-still in the centre of the road. She has long black hair covering most of her face, which [...]

By Richard Boughton “What do you do here?” This is generally the eighth in a line of questions I am asked during the polite though somewhat unsettling and curiously thorough process of everyday Indonesian interrogation. Apa kabar? (How are you?) comes first, as is the case in most languages and cultures. In America this is [...]