Harry Potter coming back, this time on stage in new play

There may not be any new Harry Potter novels in the works, but the famed boy wizard will be on the London stage in a new play set to open next summer.

Author J.K. Rowling tweeted Friday that she is "very excited" to confirm that a new play to be called "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" will be produced.

It is based on a new original story by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. The play is expected to premiere at London's Palace Theatre.

Thorne has written the play, which will be directed by Tiffany. It is the first play about Harry Potter.

Rowling has written seven Harry Potter novels, which have achieved global success and been turned into successful films.

Tickets will go on sale this fall. (ika)(+++)

The participants of the action Indosiar 2015

The participants of the action Indosiar 2015

the participants of the action was tense Indosiar that ultimately gets the highest sms mumuy his nyangka ga cute little longer, while the wise person that comes out rich fathers, a game like that will continue until the final get caught who comes out as the winner and will be dai Indonesia if I am the hope really that will come out of the mumuy if ga si robi people bogor and sijamilah yes it depends on the decision of a jury of his nentuin kaga mao pass what is important for the bes

Raditya Dika bares his soul, sharing his personal take on Ramadhan

Writer and filmmaker Raditya Dika has launched a new video series on Youtube titled "Surat untuk Ramadhan" (Letters for Ramadhan) as a personal project during the fasting month.

But be warned, it's not necessarily in the comedy genre like Raditya's most famous work, Malam Minggu Miko (Miko's Saturday Night), which is both a movie and a Youtube video series.

"The videos are my personal letters. I made them without any attempt to be humorous. Just me being truthful," Raditya told the Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said that the videos talked about his thoughts, feelings and experiences relating to Ramadhan, including how the month led him to reunite with old friends and reminded him of a road where he used to play with firecrackers during his childhood.

The first video, which takes an essay-like form, was uploaded on Wednesday and is titled Apa Kabar? (How are you?). In it, he welcomes and discusses the arrival Ramadhan. On Thursday, it already had 36,138 views.

Raditya said that he planned to upload three videos a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and that he had finished filming the next two videos of the series.

He also hoped to inspire more people to follow his move.

"With these videos, I would like to inspire people to create their own version of “Letters for Ramadhan”; their own personal takes on it," he said.

Even though Raditya said that he had not yet planned all of the videos that he would create, he was sure about the theme for one of the final videos, at the end of the fasting month.

"I want to make one about the loneliness of Jakarta when all of the people leave the city for their hometowns, as I myself don't go to my hometown," he explained. (fsu/dmr)

EU commits $133 million for Latin America, Caribbean

EU commits $133 million for Latin America, Caribbean 

The European Union has committed 118 million euros (US$$133 million) in investment support for Latin America and Caribbean nations at the start of a two-day summit.

The EU Commission said Wednesday that the combination of loans, grants and other financial operations would seek to enhance trans-Atlantic cooperation.

The executive of the 28-nation EU said the support would center on the transportation, energy and environment sectors in the nations

The amusing, record-breaking ‘Britain’s Got Talent’

The amusing, record-breaking ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ 

The sheer variety of talent on show could well be the formula behind the success of Simon Cowell’s Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) television show.

The show’s charms have captivated millions of people across the UK and other countries.

Fan of the show Emma Spencer came all the way from Ireland, queuing for three hours to get free tickets to watch the show’s semi-final live with her two brothers.

“I always watch it every year and this is my first time at the show. I’m very excited to be here,” she told The Jakarta Post on semi-final night.

The mixture of different performers with lots of good talent made BGT a fun TV show to watch, she said.

“I think Britain’s Got Talent is probably the biggest TV show today, and it’s pretty big too in Ireland,” said Spencer, who admires the dance troupe Diversity, which was a finalist in 2009’s BGT.

In addition to amusing performances, the panel of judges —
Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams — add entertainment value to the show.

Eight-year-old Liam Barden said he liked the show because he was a fan of the multi-talented author and comedian Walliams.

“I like the show because I’m a fan of David’s books and he’s so funny,” he said.

Many children who attended the live shows brought along copies of Walliams’ books, asking him to sign them, and hoping to get a chance to take pictures with him during commercial breaks.

Coveted and criticized, Latin America's rich multiply

Coveted and criticized Latin America's rich multiply

They buy 10 Porsches a day and travel the world by private jet, toting their Louis Vuitton bags and leaving behind a faint scent of Chanel.

They are Latin America's super-rich, and they are multiplying faster than anywhere in the world, coveted by luxury brands keen to tap their buying power, but criticized for paying low taxes in a region plagued by inequality.

Latin America, a region of some 600 million people, is home to nearly 15,000 "ultra high net worth" individuals, or people with fortunes of at least US$30 million, according to luxury industry consultancy Wealth-X.

The number rose five percent last year, while the number of billionaires rose to 151, a 38 percent increase.

That was the fastest growth rate for billionaires of any region on Earth.

Natixis Global Asset Management, a firm that specializes in managing large fortunes, recently launched its first Latin American offices, in Mexico City and Montevideo.

"We've clearly identified it as one of the regions where individual wealth is in an exceptional growth phase," said Sophie del Campo, head of the firm's Iberian division in Madrid.

Ensconced behind the high walls of their luxury villas, the mining magnates, telecoms tycoons, large landholders and others who make up Latin America's uppermost crust can be less visible than the region's poor.

But they are the flipside of its intractable inequality problem.

Their lavish lifestyles and growing numbers are attracting keen interest from the global luxury industry, eager to expand to new markets and court new customers in existing ones.

Porsche is one example. Since arriving in Latin America 15 years ago, the German sports car maker has increased annual sales to the region from less than 300 vehicles to nearly 3,900 vehicles, said George Wills, president of Porsche Latin America, which is based in Miami.

The region's largest economies, Mexico and Brazil, remain the "volume drivers," he said.

"But if you look in terms of the markets themselves, the markets that are enjoying good growth are markets like Peru, Colombia, Panama... with 60 percent growth in some of them."

According to market research firm Euromonitor, the Latin American luxury market will total $26.5 billion in 2019, up 88.8 percent from 2014 -- the strongest growth in the world.

The boom applies to big-ticket luxuries, too.

Mexico is the world's second-largest market for private jets, behind the United States, with Brazil poised to surpass it within the next decade, according to a recent market study by Brazilian jetmaker Embraer.

The ultra-wealthy have varied profiles, from Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim, whose $77 billion fortune is the second-largest in the world according to Forbes, to Brazilian beer magnate Jorge Paulo Lemann (net worth: $25 billion), Chilean mining scion Iris Fontbona ($13.5 billion), to Colombian banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento ($13.4 billion).

What is clear is that their numbers are growing, in some cases because family fortunes have been divided up among heirs, said Mykolas Rambus, the chief executive of Singapore-based Wealth-X.

"The amount of wealthy people globally is booming and that is true in Latin America: it's growing at a very good pace," he said.

But the super-rich also face growing scrutiny in countries like Nicaragua, where 42.5 percent of the country lives below the poverty line but 210 ultra-wealthy individuals control a combined fortune of $30 billion, equal to 2.5 times the country's annual economic output.

"The main characteristic of inequality in Latin America is not that there are a lot of poor people, but that there are a few people who have a lot," said Juan Pablo Jimenez, an economist at the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America.

Moreover, the latter "pay very low taxes, both in international terms and compared to what they are supposed to pay," he said.

"Taxes on wealth are very low in Latin America, and inheritance taxes are almost nonexistent."

Last year, humanitarian group Oxfam called for more "fiscal justice" in the region to fight inequality.

But it is easier said than done.

Ecuador's socialist President Rafael Correa had to back down last week from plans to start taxing inheritances of more than $35,400 after an outcry from the business world

Pertamina ‘ready for Mahakam’

Pertamina ‘ready for Mahakam’


State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, the new operator of Mahakam, the country’s largest oil and gas block, is technically and financially ready to operate the oil and gas block after the existing contract ends in 2017, the company’s top executive has said.

“We have no problem in getting financing to support the operation. In the initial stage, for instance, we can access funds from banks and repay the loans in the same year using the revenues we obtain from the block,” Pertamina president director Dwi Soetjipto said on Friday.

He dismissed doubts that have been raised about Pertamina’s ability to operate the country’s largest oil and gas block given the high production targets and sizable operational costs.

The block, located offshore East Kalimantan, is the major supplier for one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, the nearby Bontang plant. 

At present it generates around 1.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfpd) of gas, or nearly 25 percent of the total national gas output, in addition to 62,000 barrels of oil per day. To keep annual production of the gas block at the current level, Pertamina will have to spend up to US$2.5 billion each year, according to Dwi.

He also welcomed the government’s decision to give existing operators French oil giant Total SA and its partner Japanese oil company Inpex Corp. a 30 percent stake after the block is formally handed over to Pertamina in 2018.

Dwi said that the involvement of Total and Inpex in the future operation of the Mahakam block would ensure the continuity of the production activities. 

Total, along with Inpex, has been operating Mahakam since 1967 and both oil giants now control a 50 percent participating interest each in the current contract.

In addition, existing workers in Mahakam Block would also be transferred to Pertamina, therefore human resources would not be an issue, Dwi added.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said officially announced on Friday that Pertamina and local governments would have a 70 percent interest in the Mahakam block under the new contract, which would take effect in early 2018, while existing operators Total and Inpex would have the remaining 30 percent. The exact proportion of the stakes to be given to the provincial and regency administrations in East Kalimantan have not yet been fully disclosed. 

After years of uncertainty, the government named Pertamina in March this year as the operator of the Mahakam gas block when the current contract ends. Due to the huge size of the block, Pertamina asked Total and Inpex to stay on in Mahakam as partners.

According to Sudirman, the government had asked the three companies to discuss openly the transition process that needed to take place before Pertamina took over the operation of the Mahakam block in January 2018. 

The minister had earlier said that the decision on the percentage of ownership that must be given to Total and Inpex had to be decided by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo because Pertamina and the other two companies could not decide among themselves. 

The appointment of Pertamina as the operator of the Mahakam block illustrates Indonesia’s aspiration to take a firmer grip on the country’s abundant natural resources amid mounting calls by elements across the nation for greater state control of national resources.

Total declined to make any comment on the decision. “We still have no response on the issue. We’re still discussing it,” Total E&P Indonesie spokesman Kristanto Hartadi told The Jakarta Post.

Energy think tank ReforMiner Institute deputy chairman Komaidi Notonegoro said that while the decision would be unlikely to affect the block’s production target, it would almost certainly make a substantial contribution to state revenues.

“As a state-owned firm, Pertamina will have to pay higher dividends to the state thanks to its income from the block,” he said. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/20/pertamina-ready-mahakam.html#sthash.ru2l1Wqr.dpuf

Police in manhunt for killer on nine in South Caroline church

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CHArLESTON -- Police in Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday were searching for a white gunman who killed nine people in a historic African-American church in an attack that police and the city's mayor described as a hate crime.

The shooter, a 21-year-old white man with sandy blond hair, sat with hurchgoers inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for about an hour on Wednesday before opening fire, Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.

The gunman, who is considered extremely dangerous, had yet to be caught, Mullen said, and police did not have a sense of where he might be.

"This is an unfathomable and unspeakable act by somebody filled with hate and with a deranged mind," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley told reporters.

Six females and three males died in the attack, Mullen said.

The shooting recalled the 1963 bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls and galvanized the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The Charleston church is one of the largest and oldest black congregations in the South, according to its website. It has its roots in the early 19th century, and was founded in part by a freed slave who was later executed for organizing a revolt, according to the U.S. National Park Service.

"This tragedy that we are addressing right now is indescribable," Mullen said. "We are committed to do whatever is necessary to bring this individual to justice."

The attack follows the April shooting of an unarmed black man in neighboring North Charleston by a white police officer. The officer has been charged with murder in that case, one of a number of deaths of unarmed black men in encounters with police that have raised racial tensions in the United States.