Ahhhh, life is good here. The Westin Hotel= occidental luxury and class. The Eastin Hotel = Asia’s me-too at 1/4 the price.This hotel is excellent. Truly a fantastic deal. Read more…

Reuters - Georgia on Tuesday urged Russia to stop naval exercises near the countries' sea border, calling them a threat to regional peace and a violation of the United Nations charter. Read more…

AP - In one week, several Interior Department workers spent more than 30 minutes on sexually explicit Web sites. Read more…

AFP - A senior Capitol Hill aide resigned his post as a widening sex scandal pummelled President George W. Bush's Republican party one month before national congressional elections. Read more…

AP - The Bush administration can continue its warrantless surveillance program while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Read more…

AP - Pointing toward midterm elections, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi promises to raise the minimum wage while cutting taxes to spur economic growth and help the middle class. Read more…

AP - Republican Ken Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland wrangled Wednesday night about whether deep tax cuts would boost the state's economy or help the wealthy during the third debate in Ohio's closely watched governor's race. Read more…

AP - Usually out front in force, national Democrats expressed outrage over the Mark Foley scandal and its aftermath but largely let their candidates and allied groups do the tough talking. Read more…

AP - Speaker Dennis Hastert's job is on the line as members of the House ethics committee decide how to launch a credible investigation of former Rep. Mark Foley's salacious computer messages to teenage pages. Read more…

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People will probably remember the case in 2004, of the Human Rights activist Munir, who was murdered on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. Police found out that a pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a flight attendent, and a member of the security services put arsenic in his food. “Chicken with rice, or fish [...] Read more…

Bank Commonwealth, which is related to the Commonwealth Bank in Australia, is opening a series of its ‘FX’ shops that will account holders of any Australian bank to exchange money and withdraw from the ATM. Bali has a mulitude of banks, ATM’s and moneychangers already, but the advantages of this one are that its not a [...] Read more…

Sitting by the pool having beer bought for me by the Russian mafia. Life is strange sometimes. Tomorrow Ko Chang. Read more…

AP - The number of bags lost or delayed by airlines continues to climb, with a daily average of 14,089 in August, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Wednesday. Read more…

AP - More vacationers are choosing to wile away their Caribbean holidays in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean destinations rather than Puerto Rico, an industry group in the U.S. territory says. Read more…

AP - With "Monday Night Football" bringing its cameras to Denver next week for a Broncos game, Colorado ski resorts are praying for a little snow — nothing big, just enough to remind a national audience that the ski season is just around the corner. Read more…

Reuters - Kosovo Albanian leaders called on the United Nations on Wednesday not to postpone a decision on the fate of their breakaway province until after snap elections in Serbia. Read more…

The Christian Science Monitor - A backlash among voters this November against an unpopular Supreme Court decision on eminent domain could dramatically curtail the ability of officials to manage growth and development in parts of the western United States. Read more…

AP - The Bush administration said Thursday it has forced government agencies and businesses into complying with federal disability laws in more than 2,000 cases over the past five years, mostly without imposing penalties. Read more…

AP - Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez has opened a slight lead over Republican Tom Kean Jr., helped by Democrats rallying around their candidate, according to a poll released Thursday. Read more…

AP - An Atlanta man told a local television station and newspaper that former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley sent him sexually suggestive messages after he served as a congressional page 10 years ago. Read more…

Indonesia passed a law back in April barring female circumcision. In typical fashion, they didn’t tell anyone, about the new law. Yesterday it was announced to the medical community. Female circumcision is very popular in Muslim parts of the country, such as Semarang, where Ika is from. Talking with Indonesia women who have had the proceedure, [...] Read more…

When I was a kid in the UK, BBC2 (the artsy channel) always offered a show called ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking’. Indian food is super popular in Britain, and this week Madhur Jaffrey spoke at the Ubud Readers & Writers Festival in Ubud. Madhur Jaffrey broke with tradition in her TV shows, by steeping out of [...] Read more…

Travellers visiting Bali may be tempted to visit Java, the attractions being Mt. Bromo in east Java, Solo and Yogyakarta in Central Java. The way I got to java back in 1993, was to take a bus from Kuta, out through Negara, to the port of Gilimanuk. Most people don’t hang around in Gilimanuk, as [...] Read more…

The Bali Barat National Park (Taman Nasional Bali Barat) has one very nice place to stay. Its called Waka Shorea, and is located in the middle of dence forest. The bungalows are on stilts, built in an eco-friendly way, without destroying the forest by clear cutting. The whole are is populated by wild animals including [...] Read more…