An attempted legal challenge on the use of state funds for compensation in the Lapindo case has failed at the Constitutional Court. Taxpayers will be liable for compensating the mudflow victims.

Last week, dozens of people gathered at point 21 of the mudflow containment levee in Jatirejo village of Porong, East Java. Armed with hoes and pick-axes, they were not getting ready for their daily work as tour guides. The residents, whose villages have