By Jonathan Cainer This week begins with a lunar eclipse, suggesting the chance to conquer a fear. It also brings the end of two ‘retrograde phases’. Mercury and Uranus have been apparently slipping backwards through the zodiac for some while. As they start moving in ‘the right direction’, we should gain a greater sense of [...]

By Vyt Karazija So I’m sitting there on a torpid Tuesday afternoon, slurping down my caffeine fix and watching the endlessly fascinating passing parade along Jalan Padma Utara. Suddenly, there is an eruption of demented yells and a group of boys zoom unsteadily into view on their rented motorbikes. Shirtless, barefoot and helmet-less, they weave [...]

By Richard Boughton You’ve got to be kidding me. A no-smoking law passed in Bali? It can’t be, and yet it is apparently so. Soon hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, government offices, places of worship, and who knows what else — bars, boats, cars, bikes, malls, the insides of buildings and the outsides of buildings and [...]

DENPASAR The chain of corruption in government needs to be broken at the recruitment stage, according to a senior official. The assistant deputy for systems development supervision and administrative reform at the Ministry for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms, Hendro Witjaksono, said law-enforcement and careful recruitment were among the most important anti-corruption measures. “If measures for [...]

DENPASAR A senior politician has blamed the proliferation of cafes – late-night drinking venues which often double as venues for prostitution – for an increase in HIV cases in Bali. Ketut Kariyasa Adnyana, deputy head of the Bali regional assembly, said cafes, which are popular with many local men, and have been associated with drugs [...]

WASHINGTON US President Barack Obama has praised Indonesia for ratifying the nuclear test ban treaty CTBT, a move that brings the pact a step closer to coming into force. Obama said the decision by a country where he spent four years as a boy showed the “positive leadership role” that Indonesia could play in combating [...]

JAKARTA A man is in critical condition with 95 percent burns on his body after he apparently set himself alight beside the State Palace. The man, believed to be in his 40s, doused himself in petrol and torched himself near the palace on Wednesday before running towards a billboard bearing the photograph of President Susilo [...]

By Radwan Masmoudi The October 23 elections in Tunisia were as important and as historic as the revolution itself. I saw with my own eyes masses of people crying from joy and pride as they cast their votes in the decision on who would represent them in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), feeling the dignity [...]

By Mohamed El-Sayed As millions of Egyptians turned to polling stations to take part in the first of three phases of the historic parliamentary elections, it was clear that a new era had dawned. For the first time in six decades, Egyptians are freely casting their votes in democratic elections. Regardless of minor irregularities that [...]

By Katherine Marshall The deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26 during NATO operations at two border posts inside Pakistan was, as US President Barack Obama observed, a tragedy for the soldiers’ families and for their nation. It would be another tragedy to miss the opportunity that this crisis offers to step back and [...]

A government official from Jakarta attempting to stamp out endemic corruption in Bali is wasting his time by saying it can be tackled though efficient recruitment processes – weeding out those seeking to bribe their way in the door. Hendro Witjaksono of the grandly titled Ministry for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms, which has its own [...]

Women of childbearing age can reduce their risk of heart problems by regularly eating fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids, according to a Danish study. The study is the first to examine younger women, age 15-49, and determine whether fish in their diet has a real impact on their current likelihood of heart problems, [...]