It is being called the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history.

This is heartbreaking. It is the most beautiful place to be in the whole world to me. I go there to get my sanity and peace of mind back. How can people do this?

Just on the news it was reported that the death total is 150 now and over 200 injured. Both figures are expected to rise.

Oh dear! I heard it was 58 this afternoon.......... I only think of Bali as a place like Ren says.............a "dream" for me...but have they mentioned perpetrators, anything? I mean, why? I am not up to date on the politics there...the tensions. Why? This is so sad..........

Indonesia seems to be always in political turmoil, Lefois. And no word yet on perpetrators but I'm sure it will be reported how Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world and that Bali is a popular travel destination so would have been packed with tourists from many western countries.

The Australian Foreign Minister believes it was the work of el-Qaeda, or a related group, but it sounds like he is guessing. See story here.

Thanks for the link, ozzz...........
Strange how, in this world of instant communication, there wasn't much of a stir on this side of the pond. It's horrendous.

Just saw a television news report that said 170 dead and 375 injured ... mostly Australians.

lefois, I can think of a couple of reasons, but I would rather not display my cynicism in this thread.

lefois

In reply to:

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A massive blast ripped through a nightclub on the tourist island of Bali, killing 171 people in what the national police chief says is the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history.

Authorities said a second bomb exploded near the island's US consular office. Police said there were no casualties in the second explosion.

The blasts came amid increasing fears by the United States and others that Indonesia - the most populous Muslim nation - is becoming a haven for terrorists and that al-Qaeda operatives are active here.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing in the Sari Club at the Kuta Beach resort, which officials said killed Indonesians along with Australians, Canadians, Britons, and Swedes.

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Go ahead Ozzz, we're probably all thinking it anyway.

At this time of year there are many sporting teams having thier end of season trips and Bali is a popular destination. There seems to be a good few stories from these kind of groups which are missing people.

Here is another story

copago, I will phrase my cynicism in two questions.

1) What is the oil production of Indonesia? and
2) Can 'Bali Belly' be classified as a weapon of mass destruction?

Latest death toll is over 180.

I thank you all for the updates. I still can't believe the lack of coverage here..............I did hear about it...but all CNN programming was "sniper" related...all day. I am sorry it appears so many ozzies were lost. And to think of the medical situation in Bali makes me ill. I am sorry for all who had to have their end come this way. Terrible.

I'm surprised you're not hearing more about it as there seems to be Canadians among the dead as well as Europeans and Kiwis ... no Americans yet (chalk that up at number three, Ozzz) . As for the medical situation some of the more serious ones are being evacuated by the Aust defence forces to hospitals here. And basically everyone is being told to leave and extra flights are being put on.

I have to be fair, here. I did watch American news in the "background" all day long. And the story wasn't quite so horrendous at the beginning...CNN did give it a mention. I'm sure our Canadian CBC did more coverage and I didn't catch it. Perhaps my timing and attention were lacking!

Ozzz2002 .... I'm no fan of American politics, but surely you are not suggesting that the American Government has anything to do with the bombing in Bali!

Good Lord, no, Squirrel!
I was merely suggesting that that is why the media coverage in North America is scanty.

ahh ok, glad we got that sorted out

I heard radio news reports this morning in which Bush expressed his outrage of the bombings. I think that given the number of Australians effected by this, it's understandable that our news services have not focused too much on what the Americans have to say at this point in time.

I'm sure that the North American news services will pick the story up ... just as soon as they work out where/what Bali is.

As I'm an American living in France, and watch both the French and Italian reports, and listen to the BBC on the radio everyday, I always note the nationalistic nature of reporting.
We heard about this, undoubtedly because there are a few French tourists there, but it's not as big a destination as Thailand for example.
We heard more about the French workers being killed in Pakistan and the French ship that just got attacked outside of Yemen for example, it's clearly terrorist.
I heard absolutely nothing on the French channels about the entire village in China being the victims of a snack shop guy's poisoning them with rat poisoning as he was jealous of his rival. I heard that on the BBC.
We're hearing reports on the Washington DC area sniper of course, but not 24 hour coverage.
I'll wager no one heard about the Paris mayor being the victim of a stabbing either. We've had more and more terrorist events here in France, I doubt they're covered.

So perhaps it is human nature to be interested in one's own?
Not saying that it is morally right, but you'll notice the coverage of every event is slanted according to who's covering it.

All in all, French coverage is decent, but I'm finding the BBC World is about the best.

So we do hear about these things, but it's often stepped up if French nationals are present.

Question: Did ANYONE hear about Finland having its first terrorist style attack in a shopping mall? I did, on French TV and French AOL.

We heard about this on BBC radio news. I think I'm fairly safe in saying that all terrorist attacks, no matter where, are reported in detail by the BBC.

This is so depressing.

I believe the death toll is now over 200.

Only 24 people have been identified, 7 of those are Australians.

They believe that 80-90% in the Sari nightclub were Australians

Besides Australians is seems the dead include people from Indonesia (Balinese?), Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Britain and possibly France. Injured include an American and some Japanese.

In Australia, BTW, the Finnish bombing was covered, as was the stabbing of the French mayor, as was the death of the French in Pakistan, the poisoning in China and the ship in Yemen.

But I tend to only watch the ABC news (government station) and that of the multicultural TV station not commercial TV

Al-Qaeda group 'behind bombing'
October 13, 2002

AL-QAEDA South-East Asian network Jemaah Islamiyah is responsible for the terrorist attack on Bali, a leading expert on the group has said.

Full story here

A lot of OUR rugby players are missing too. This is dreadful. I have a lot of kids staying there from school as it is half term. Chinese group tours too as it is a public holiday tomorrow. I can't believe they would target Bali. They are bastards through and through.

I'm not surprised that they would target Bali at all. I'm sure the security on the island was lax, and it does happen to be the non-Islamic Indonesian island with the largest population. If a member of Al Qaeda wanted to make a 'statement' and kill as few Muslims as possible, what better place to attack? Surely this will result in the stepping up of security on the island, but I'm afraid that the peaceful majority Hindu population on Bali will have no idea how to react to this disaster.

It's sad, there is virtually no network and cable television news coverage of the situation in the U.S., despite the fact that a couple of hundred people have died. I wonder if this reflects how self-centered America is in this war on terrorism?

jazz, I agree with what you say, but I have a couple of small points.
1) "security was lax".. how can any place on earth be secured against deranged minds like this? Sydney is rumoured to be a possible target, too. The supposed targets will be power stations and high transmission lines- impossible to protect... and
2) I made the point above about the paucity on the coverage over there, but could not think of the 'right' word. "Self-centered" describes it to a T.