ULUWATU ~ At a meeting in Pekendungan Temple in Tanah Lot, Balinese priests discussed the reformulation of procedures and ethics of maligia (Hindu cremation sequence), a spokesman said.

In addition to discussing the reformulation of procedures and ethics of maligia (Hindu cremation sequence), Balinese priests at a high meeting that took place in Pekendungan Temple in Tanah Lot also discussed the issue of villa construction in the area, a spokesman said.

One of the priests said that he was surprised that Badung officials had issued permits to developers in the first place, since it was illegal to build in the vicinity of the sacred area.

“I do not know exactly what these officials want since they’re the ones who made regional regulations against construction in the first place. Then they issue developers the building permit to allow construction. So are regional regulations still in effect now? The government needs to please prevent construction from reaching the yard of Uluwatu Temple,” the priest said.

He also said that the regent could not pursue regional income by sacrificing area that was considered holy and sacred.

He added that Badung Regency needed to apologize to the Balinese and demolish the villa project that had started construction within Uluwatu’s sacred area.

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JAKARTA ~ The central government confirmed this week that it will raise its subsidized fuel prices to protect the state budget from the soaring price of oil.

“We will raise the subsidized fuel price within the limits that people can afford. We’re now working on that and we’ll announce it to the public later,” Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono told reporters.

He did not indicate the size of the price hikes, which are likely to further fuel inflation in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy ahead of parliamentary elections next year.

Rising fuel prices helped drive Indonesia’s inflation rate to 8.96 percent in April, its fastest rise in more than 18 months.

Indonesia’s ballooning fuel subsidies are putting pressure on the budget and draining funds away from spending on the poor and crumbling infrastructure.

The subsidies have become increasingly expensive as the price of oil has surged.

Fuel subsidies this year are projected to nearly triple to Rp126.8 trillion (US$13.8 billion), or about 12 percent of the state budget, based on a revised oil price of $95 per barrel.

In afternoon Asian trade on Monday, New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was 20 cents higher at $116.52 per barrel.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the question was no longer whether prices would be raised, but by how much.

“We are not at the stage of talking about whether to raise it or not, but which commodities should be increased and whether it will be 20, 25 or 30 percent …,” he said.

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SEMINYAK ~ One of the biggest populations of wild orangutans on Borneo will be extinct in three years without drastic measures to stop the expansion of palm oil plantations, conservationists said this week.

“For Central Kalimantan, the species will be gone as soon as three years from now,” Centre for Orangutan Protection director Hardi Bhaktiantoro told a press conference on Wednesday.

More than 30,000 wild orangutans live in the forests of Central Kalimantan province, or more than half the entire orangutan population of Borneo island.

Experts believe the overall extinction rate of Borneo orangutans is 9 percent per year, but in Central Kalimantan they are disappearing even faster due to unchecked expansion of palm oil plantations.

“The expansion of palm oil plantations is wiping out entire habitats and unless the government takes drastic measures to protect these orangutan sanctuaries there is no way to reverse the trend,” Bhaktiantoro said.

Orangutans are listed as endangered by the Swiss-based World Conservation Union, the paramount scientific authority on imperiled species.

It says numbers of the ape have fallen by well over 50 percent in the past 60 years as a result of habitat loss, poaching and the pet trade.

BI Hikes Key Rate: The central bank raised its key policy rate this week by 25 basis points to 8.25 percent to rein in soaring inflation.

It was Bank Indonesia’s first interest rate hike in more than two years. The central bank last hiked the benchmark BI rate in December 2005, to its peak of 12.75 percent.

The decision took into account the prospect of inflationary pressures in coming months and the volatility of global commodity prices, BI senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom told a briefing on Tuesday.

Aussie Firm Wyes Krakatau Steel: Australian firm BlueScope Steel Ltd. has expressed an interest in participating in the privatization of Indonesia’s largest steel maker, PT Krakatau Steel.

A spokeswoman for BlueScope in Australia said discussions were at a very early stage and it was too early to provide any details.

India’s Tata Steel could also bid for a stake in Krakatau Steel, according to the state-run news agency Antara at the weekend.

TUBAN ~ The authorities wrapped up a major three-day bird flu drill in Bali with an exercise focused on passengers at the island’s international airport.

In a simulation on Sunday, departing passengers were made to pass a scanner that detects body temperature. Among the travellers were three undercover personnel who simulated having high fever but insisted on leaving on their flights.

Staff steered them to a clinic at the airport and when test results showed they might have bird flu infections, the three were sent to the main hospital in Denpasar.

Despite posters notifying the public of the exercise, some tourists appeared concerned by the operations, as all personnel involved in the operation were wearing face masks.

“We were a bit worried but then we saw the posters. It’s fine, better be prepared,” said Angela Foster, an Australian tourist who was to fly back home through the airport.

“It is important as part of our bird flu containment efforts. We do not want to export a disease,” I Nyoman Kandun, the Health Ministry’s director general for handling of infectious disease, told journalists at the airport.

The simulation was the last part of a national exercise practicing how to contain the spread of a bird flu outbreak.

Indonesia is the nation worst hit by the bird flu so far, with 108 dead since the first human case appeared here in 2005.

Transmissions have so far been from bird to human but experts worry that the H5N1 virus that causes the disease could mutate and allow human-to-human transmission, leading to a pandemic.

Global warming could take a break in the next decade thanks to a natural shift in ocean circulations, although Earth’s temperature will rise as previously expected over the longer term, according to a study published on Thursday in the British journal Nature.

Climate scientists in Germany base the prediction on what they believe is an impending change in the Gulf Stream - the conveyor belt that transports warm surface water from the tropical Atlantic to the northern Atlantic and returns cold water southwards at depth.

The Gulf Stream will temporarily weaken over the next decade, in line with what has happened regularly in the past, the researchers say.

This will lead to slightly cooler temperatures in the North Atlantic and in North America and Europe, and also help the temperatures in the tropical Pacific to remain stable, they suggest.

Last year, scientists in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that by 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 C and 6.4 C compared to 1980-99 levels.

In the next 20 years alone, the global climate would warm by around 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade, the IPCC said.

These calculations are based on atmospheric concentrations of carbon gases - the famous “greenhouse effect” in which solar heat is stored in the air rather than released into space.

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JAKARTA ~ Thousands of Indonesians took to the streets of the capital for Labor Day rallies on Thursday, with rising food prices and an expected cut in fuel subsidies weighing heavily on workers’ minds.

“We are expecting more than 40,000 people demonstrating today,” policeman Hariyadi said as thousands of workers gathered at the central Imam Bonjol traffic circle.

Carrying banners reading “Lower Food Prices Now” and “More Pay for Workers and Farmers,” many of the demonstrators said they were alarmed at soaring inflation and the prospect of sharply higher fuel bills.

“We want the price of kerosene to come down. Food is getting expensive,” said garment factory worker Yuningsih.

Jakarta Police chief Adang Firman told reporters after monitoring the capital from a helicopter that 10,000 security personnel had been deployed to control the rallies and another 50,000 were on standby.

All May Day rallies were banned in Surabaya, the country’s second largest city, because the workers’ holiday coincided with a religious holiday, police said.

“Rallies are not allowed during a public holiday. Let’s respect Jesus’ Ascension day,” Surabaya Police chief Anang Iskandar told state news agency Antara.

If there were any rallies, they would be broken up, he said.