April 18, 2012

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1408

20 PAGES

www.alwatandaily.com

150 Fils with IHT

Environmental catastrophe feared as millions of tires burn • Lawmakers call for special session to discuss fire • Residents asked to stay indoors and wear masks

Mohammed Al-Salman & Mohammed Al-Khaldi Staff Writers & Agencies

KUWAIT: Hundreds of Kuwaiti firemen on Tuesday fought to contain a massive fire in a dump for used tires, with some members of parliament calling the blaze an environmental catastrophe.

Firemen from the National Guard, the army and the oil sector joined efforts to extinguish the fire that was still raging 10 hours after it broke out in the dump of more than five million tires, the fire department said. Environment authorities advised residents in the area to stay away and to use masks, but the education ministry rejected calls by MPs to suspend classes at local schools. A number of MPs described the fire as an “environmental catastrophe” and vowed to demand a debate on the issue in a special parliamentary session next week. Some said they will demand an official probe.

The parliamentary debates will focus on the fire and on its consequences on the environment as well as on the government’s measures to confront hazards, MP Mohammad Al Dallal said.

The tire fire which erupted in Jahra

is expected to end the ‘honeymoon’ between the executive authority and the Parliament, with certain MPs suggesting that the inferno is likely to “burn the government.” A group of MPs have warned that all constitutional tools at their disposal will be used and that the prime minister, his concerned ministers and negligent officials will be held accountable.

MP Mohammad Al-Dallal announced that lawmakers are unanimous on holding an extraordinary session to deliberate over the disaster or allocate part of Tuesday session to discuss this matter. He expressed hope that recommendations will be issued for the government and that a committee will be formed to probe the incident.

Speaking to Al Watan, the lawmaker stressed that discussions should be focused on the magnitude of the environmental damage inflicted on the Jahra residents and others. He added that the government should be obliged to submit a report about a precautionary government plan to confront disasters including nuclear radiation that might emanate from the Iranian nuclear reactor.

Al-Dallal called on the government to demonstrate its seriousness in dealing

Fans proclaim innocence in Egypt soccer riot trial

with the disaster and the ensuing environmental damage whereby State institutions play a more effective role in facing such a calamity.

In the same vein, MP Dr. Mohammad Al-Hatlani proposed the formation of a parliamentary investigation panel to establish the circumstances surrounding the tire fire in Arhiya and pinpoint the concerned authorities responsible for the problem in the first place.

In a statement to Al Watan, the MP stressed that an urgent interpellation motion should be filed to question the concerned minister, describing what happened as a colossal environmental disaster. Al-Hatlani added that the Ministry of Health had promised to conduct an urgent study regarding the impact of the fire on people’s lives due to the emission of toxic gases as a result of the inferno.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Khaled Al-Sultan condemned the arson, and billed as a crime against the environment and the people of Kuwait.

He added that the incident wouldn’t have taken place had not it been for the negligence of the government authorities, particularly the Kuwait Municipality.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Millions of tires burn in Jahra, north-west of Kuwait City on April 17, 2012. Source of the fire is unknown as fear of environmental catastrophe caused by disaster surfaces. (Al Watan)

Japan pledges $60 billion to IMF for Europe firewall

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African Union suspends Guinea-Bissau over coup

BISSAU: The African Union on Tuesday suspended Guinea-Bissau after a coup and arrests of top officials, and said they may impose sanctions on coup leaders and supporters in the tiny West African nation. Ramtane Lamamra, the head of the AU’s peace and security council, announced the automatic suspension Tuesday at AU headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital. Lamamra said the AU could apply more sanctions if coup leaders don’t take measures to return the country to constitutional rule.

Soldiers overthrew the government Thursday night.

The AU said in a statement Tuesday that the sanctions could affect those responsible for the coup and their supporters, and could include travel bans, asset freezes and more. The AU said “the recurrence of illegal and unacceptable interference of the leadership of the Bissau-Guinean army in the political life of the country contributes to the persistence of instability and the culture of impunity, hampers efforts towards the establishment of the rule of law, the promotion of development and the entrenchment of a democratic culture.” Also Tuesday, ECOWAS Commission President Desire Kadre Ouedraogo said ECOWAS is “ready to send troops” to Guinea-Bissau to help reform the military and security sectors. Ouedraogo did not give a timeline or state the number of troops they were considering sending.

He said ECOWAS had “zero tolerance” for power apprehended by non-constitutional means. -AP

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M Some of the 75 Egyptian defendants charged in connection with Egypt’s worst football disaster, which left more than 70 people dead in Port Said in February, appear behind a cage in a court room during their trial at police academy in Cairo on April 17, 2012. Defendants pleaded “not guilty” as some chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), denying the charges of premeditated murder and possession of weapons. (AFP) More on 4

Space shuttle Discovery takes off on final flight to museum CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The space shuttle Discovery took off on its final voyage on Tuesday, on a piggyback jet ride to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Virginia annex.

The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a project of 15 countries, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station’s 240mile-high (384-km-high) orbit.

Discovery, the fleet leader of NASA’s three surviving shuttles, completed its last spaceflight in March 2011. It was promised to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the nation’s official repository for space artifacts.

“It’s sad to see this happening,” said NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, a member of Discovery’s final crew. “But you look at it and you just can’t help but be impressed by it.

That’s my hope now, that every time someone looks at that vehicle they are impressed, that they feel that this is what we can do when we challenge ourselves.”

For its last ride, Discovery took off not from its seaside launch pad but atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier jet that taxied down the Kennedy Space Center’s runway at dawn.

The shuttle’s tail was capped with an aerodynamically shaped cone and its windows were covered. -Reuters

Syria regime’s finances cut in half by sanctions Troops widen shelling attacks: Activists

PARIS/BEIRUT: France’s foreign minister says an array of international sanctions targeting Syria’s repressive regime have depleted its financial reserves by half – and Damascus is actively trying to evade them. Alain Juppe called Tuesday for a solid international response to such “maneuvers” as he opened a Paris meeting of 57 countries to tighten sanctions against President Bashar Al-Assad.

Meanwhile, the Syrian regime widened shelling attacks on opposition strongholds Tuesday, activists said, targeting a second town in a new sign that a UN-brokered cease-fire is quickly unraveling despite the presence of foreign observers.

The truce is part of an international plan to launch talks between President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and those trying to topple him. An uprising against Assad erupted 13 months ago, but became increasingly violent in response to a regime crackdown.

Regime compliance with the cease-fire has been partial, and the latest escalation further lowered expectations that the key element of special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan can stick. Mortar shells struck the central city of Homs at a pace of one a minute Tuesday morning, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

Annan, joint emissary for the UN and the Arab League, was briefing the Arab League in Qatar on the situation in Syria on Tuesday.

Leaders of two Syrian opposition groups said Tuesday, a day after meeting Russia’s deputy for-

Kuwaiti film Tora Bora dazzles, nabs prize at Gulf Film Festival

eign minister in Moscow, that they have sensed a shift in Russia’s stance and hope Moscow will crank up pressure on Assad.

“Russia has all the necessary levers to apply pressure on Assad’s government and help Annan’s mission,” said Haytham Manna of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, an activist group.

Russia twice shielded Assad from UN Security Council condemnation, but has become more critical of the regime.

In Paris, diplomats and finance ministry officials from the Arab world, the West and elsewhere were meeting Tuesday to coordinate sanctions against Syria. Diplomats say a string of EU, US and other sanctions have affected Al-Assad by curbing Syria’s ability to export oil and the ability of his cronies to do business abroad.

In Syria, the overall level of violence is down since the cease-fire formally took effect Thursday, but the regime has gradually stepped up attacks.

The number of people killed every day has also risen steadily since a brief lull that coincided with the start of the truce.

At least 26 people were reported killed on Monday, including 10 in a daylong gunbattle between rebel fighters and the Syrian army in the northwestern town of Idlib. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said at least 55 people were killed Monday, including 26 in Idlib.

A six-member advance team of UN observers arrived in Damascus over the weekend, but More on 4 hasn’t traveled to hotspots yet.

Former East Timor independence fighter wins presidency

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KUWAIT: The fifth Gulf Film Festival, the largest of its kind showcase of films from the Arabian peninsula and trend-setting international shorts, held under the patronage of His Highness SheikhMajidBinMohammedBinRashid Al-Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, concluded on Monday evening with the award ceremony honoring the best in filmmaking talent in the region and around the More on 17 world.

Researchers develop blood test for depression

Space Shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, flies by Washington Dulles International Airport during the final trip to its retirement place April 17, 2012 in Chantilly, Virginia. (AFP)

2012 Pulitzers highlight global issues and online reporting

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CONNECTICUT: Researchers have developed a blood test that could one day help diagnose teens with depression according to HealthDay News. To create the test, researchers identified 26 potential biological markers for depression. Then they tested the markers in a small group of teens and found that a handful of them could distinguish the teens with major depression from those without depression. “I think it would be more accurate to diagnose depression with a blood test,” said study author Eva Redei, a professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The biomarkers now have to be studied in a larger group of More on 15 teens, she added.

Rescue workers clear debris from the site of a factory that collapsed in Jalandhar, India, Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Rescue work continues at the site of a three-storey factory that collapsed in northern India close to midnight Sunday, killing at least five people. (AP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

kuwait

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

Initial indicators of tire inferno reveal fire was caused by arson

Compiled by Al Watan Daily

KUWAIT: The General Fire Directorate said that a huge fire started at Tuesday dawn and was raging all day, fueled by some five million used tires in Rhayyah area in northern Kuwait.

The statement indicated that there were no injuries due to the fire, adding that the teams had rushed to the scene from stations in AlJahra, the industrial area, Sabbiyya, Sabhan, Ardhiya, as well as the support teams from the National Guard, the Army, and Kuwait Oil Company. The fire fighters were battling all day the stubborn flames and the rising plumes of dark black smoke, consisting of flammable substance and gas.

General Manger Lieutenant Jassim Mohammad Al-Mansouri told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that huge efforts were exerted earlier not only to put out part of the fire, but also isolate the fire area with seven-meter dirt tracks from the massive pile of burning tires.

The weather condition helped in minimizing damage done by the fire. The wind blew the fire smoke toward the seaside, Al-Mansouri noted. “Dealing with tire fires requires strenuous efforts,” he pointed out. He clarified that the affected area were divided into parts and sections to extinguish fires of that massiveness.

In the early afternoon of yesterday, Kuwait Municipality Director General Ahmad Al-Subih had indicated that the fire was under control. “The biggest part of the tires fire in Rhayya Area is now under control, and the flames are expected to be put out completely later tonight, if the response plan is implemented smoothly,” he said.

In press remarks at the scene of the fire, the official noted that the fire was brought under control through cooperation of municipality staff and the Fire Directorate.

He added “the affected area is a landfill for industrial waste, therefore not within Kuwait Municipality responsibility. The municipality is responsible for construction material waste and household waste material only. However, we are present at the site to prevent the spread of the flames to other parts of the landfill and to the remaining piles of used tires.” Al-Subih remarked progress in putting the flames under

Photos show the tire inferno in which firefighters battled by all day on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 in Rhayyah Area located in Jahra. (KUNA) (Al Watan)

control was faster than anticipated in the response plan, pointing out it is “vital to provide round-the-clock security for the site. It is just as vital to secure such sites as it is with oil industry locations.”

Municipality Council member Ahmad AlBegheili held Public Works Minister Fadhil Safar responsible for the fire that occurred for not taking any action to solve this problem while he was the Minister of Municipal Affairs. He added that Safar is also linked to other environmental disasters, such as Mishref Station.

He asked the government to end dumping the tires haphazardly and to take swift action, since this matter cannot be delayed any further. He stressed that the health and safety of the people in Kuwait is more important than any other issues, and called for following precautionary steps to avoid such accidents that require years to overcome their consequences.

Municipality Council member Manea Al-Ajmi stressed that the fire is a severe environmental disaster, and called for allocating a piece of land by the borders designated only for dumping the tires. He also called for fundamental solutions before the disaster spreads

to other areas, since those used tires can be of great benefit to the economy. He applauded the procedures taken by Ministries of Interior and Defense to control the fire.

Municipality Council member Jenan BuShehri said that she is waiting for a report by the Fire Directorate regarding the reasons behind the fire. She added that initial indicators show that this was an act of arson. She criticized the fact that the location has not been secured and warned against the poisonous fumes being emitted from the fire.

The Minister of Information Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said that the government will form a committee to investigate the reasons behind the fire. He extolled the hard efforts and cooperation amongst the different government institutions to extinguish the fire, which included Kuwait Municipality, Fire General Department, National Guards, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Works, Kuwait Oil Company, and Environment Public Authority.

Meanwhile, the Environment Public Authority (EPA) strongly warned the public on

Participants keen to execute proposals made in chemists’ conference KUWAIT: President of the educational committee in the second Kuwait Chemistry Conference and Arab 16th Chemists Union Conference Dr. Noriya AlAwadhi asserted on Tuesday keenness of implementing its recommendations, including coordination among researchers in alternative energy field.

Al-Awadhi made her remarks in the final communique of the conference, adding that discussions highlighted vital issues and research scientific papers, most importantly sources to alternative energy, noting that the two conferences were hosted in conjunction with the announcement made by the UN General Assembly meeting, labeled sustained energy.

Al-Awadhi also said modernization and technological advancements increase need for alternative energy.

The Kuwaiti official added that the Kuwait Chemistry Conference achieved its intended goals and the results were included in recommendations, mainly to hold the third conference on such issues in two years, but topics were to be determined at later time.

The conference, held under patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is themed “Chemistry and Alternative Energy”.

Director General of Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS) Dr. Adnan Shihab Aldin presented a research paper on “Kuwait and Energy Economies of Gulf Cooperation Council.” Among other papers in the conference, there was a study that highlighted growing demand for conventional energy at local and international levels. -KUNA

Minister signs contracts for electric stations in Sabah Al-Ahmad city

KUWAIT: Minister of Electricity and Water, State Minister for Municipality Affairs Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, signed Tuesday two contracts for installing eight electric stations in Sabah Al-Ahmad City. The contracts are worth about 17.119 million Kuwaiti dinars.

These projects are expected to be completed in 24 months, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the deals were signed, as part of its plan for securing power to various regions of the country.

The ministry urged completion of the city’s infrastructure in Sabah Al-Ahmad city. -KUNA

Environmental catastrophe feared as millions of tires burn CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Al-Sultan called on the government to protect the environment and the people and to firmly deal with such violations away from foot-dragging. For his part, MP Mohammad Al-Khalifa announced that a number of MPs will conduct a field visit to the site on Monday, alongside certain ministers and the Director Generals of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) and the Public Authority for Industry in order to assess the impact of the blaze and find optimal solutions.

In a related development, the Minister of Education and the Minister of Higher Education Dr. Nayef AlHajraf asserted that the ministry had set up a taskforce to set out a plan to counter the ramifications of the tire fire, including its impact on students in Jahra and Farwaniya educational areas. The minister explained that the ministry cancelled all the outdoors activities, adding that the ministry’s inspectors have been deployed across the disaster zones to monitor the situation.

On the other hand, the inferno affected the performance of MPs during a planned session on Tuesday

which was supposed to discuss a response to the speech delivered by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah at the inauguration of the National Assembly’s recent session. The proceedings were adjourned early due to a lack of quorum.

During the brief session, the MPs urged for a clear cut government policy and genuine reforms in order to curb political crises besetting the country. The lawmakers affirmed that attention should be focused on development, economy and the enforcement of the Constitution and set laws. MP Mohammad Al-Saqr remarked that sectarian inclination has become overwhelming, and demanded that this trend should be countered by justice, equality and mutual respect.

Meanwhile, MP Abdurrahman Al-Anjeri stated that it is high time that political reforms were introduced to push the reform agenda in the country, while describing democratic practice as an essential part of Kuwait’s national security. MP Faisal Al-Yahya remarked that national unity is not about slogans; rather it should be enforced. He added that public funds are wastefully spent, hence called for revenue diversification.

Tuesday to steer away from Rhayya Area. It stressed the people’s cooperation is essential to allow all authorities concerned to address the situation without obstruction.

A press statement by the authority had urged members of the public to take precautionary measures to protect their health, including keeping away from the said area, shutting all windows firmly, and checking that air filters are at best condition, especially those living or working in and nearest to Al-Jahra Area.

The authority also advised that workers of state institutions who are directly involved in battling the fire and working at the scene be given adequate masks to protect them from the pollutants and the smoke.

The authority already deployed its air-quality assessment units in several areas in Kuwait to ascertain pollution levels and the readings are being taken constantly and documented for best follow up on developments.

Moreover, Minister of Education and Higher Education Nayef Al-Hajraf said that schools near the Rhayya area might be shut down if necessary.

Minister Al-Hajraf said at a press confer-

ence in Jahra that the situation was being observed by the authorities and actions by the Ministry would be taken according to the upcoming news and development on how the fire was handled. The emergency plan took effect in schools located in Farwaniya and Jahra districts, said the official, noting that the Health Ministry was on alert in case of any health hazards due to the fire.

The Health Ministry had warned citizens in the Jahra area from leaving their residence unless it was for urgent matters to prevent people from inhaling any hazardous gases Head of Al-Jahra Education Zone Abdullah Al-Harbi Tuesday said “school is on as usual and there is no break as a result of the fire that started (yesterday) in Rhayyah area, Al-Jahra.” The official told KUNA the education zone’s rapid intervention teams had been called in and are all keeping up with developments and news.

Schools’ clinics and counselors are also on alert and ready to help should the need arise.

All Jahra Education Zone school administrations had been instructed to use diligence and to contact parents or care-takers should students need go home.

Educational inputs unmatched by outputs: PAAET Mubarak Al-Shemmari Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Staff Faculty in the Public Authority for Applied Training and Education (PAAET) has held, as part of its cultural season festivals, a forum on the status and condition of the education in Kuwait to highlight the PAAET’s educational input as it is part of the leading educational institutions in the country.

The forum which was held under the title “Quality of Education: PAAET’s Input and Output” invited former Member of Parliament (MP) Dr. Salwa Al-Jassar, Dr. Ghazi Al-Rasheedi, and Dr. Salah AlSharhan. It was run and organized by the General Secretary of the Cultural Committee of the Staff Faculty Dr. Ahmad AlHunaiyan.

Al-Hunaiyan began by saying that there is no dispute over the importance and significance of education here in Kuwait, adding that on the other hand many academicians believe that the level of education is deteriorating and going down the hill.

“The lower level of the secondary school outputs reflects negatively on the Authority’s inputs because the secondary education is the source for Kuwait University as well as PAAET’s colleges,” he

explained. He added at the same time that educational experts and specialists differ on the reasons behind such degradation in education, pointing out that such reasons however are restricted to the curriculum, educational buildings, family and teachers. He then went on to explain that some nevertheless have blamed the students for such degradation “which has prompted the Faculty of Staff to organize such forum to ascertain the reasons behind the degradation and to arrive at some of the solutions to the issue.”

On her part, Dr. Salwa Al-Jassar said that the case of the education is an international issue and that it is a national par excellence. She added that to reform the educational institutions here in the country should be the responsibility of all the state departments starting from the family, educational institutions, market labor, civil societies to the legislative and executive authorities. She explained that the Ministry of Education and the educational institutions in the country have been exchanging accusations in terms of who should be held accountable for the degradation of education. However, Dr. Al-Jassar added that they all agree that the level of education is hitting down and is not compatible with the outputs of the higher education.

As for Dr. Ghazi Al-Rasheedi, he said that the Singaporean experience in education is an ideal start. He said that even though Singapore is a country which gained independence in the 1960s which is similar to Kuwait but the fact remains that Singapore enjoys the best higher education in the entire world. He went on to outline the reasons behind such resounding success.

“They have always considered education as the corner stone of their economic growth and development. Such belief in education was reflected in many of their policies including allotting a great budget for that purpose.

The budget they have allotted for education is second to none with the exception of defense. About 20 percent of the budget is for education only,” he explained, adding that to make a comparison between Kuwaiti students and Singaporean students, Kuwaiti students are the highest in the world in terms of cost. However, he noted that expenditure in Singapore is allocated for developing while in Kuwait it is allocated for salaries and increments. He added that three authorities in Singapore are steering the education development in the country, which include the Ministry of Education, Technological Universities, and Schools.

MPs refer response to Amir’s speech to Parliament committee KUWAIT: National Assembly members referred Tuesday their response to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s inaugural speech of the 14th Parliamentary session to a specialized committee.

The move comes after the parliament completion of the general deliberation of the speech and suggested MPs’ responds to it.

During the deliberations, the MPs said that the government must have a clear political vision and reform programs to deal with the political situation and crisis in the state.

They also stressed that the government should give high priority to economic and social development and upholding

of the rule of law. The MPs highlighted the great role of national unity in pushing development process ahead.

The national unity is the main pillar of the state’s stability and strength, they concurred.

The Parliament underscored that the democratic practices have become an integrated part of the national security and stability, particularly after the pro-democracy upheavals in the Arab region.

The MPs urged the government to exert more efforts to upgrade medical and housing services and education.

The government has to take all necessary measures to fight rampant graft and protect public money. -KUNA

ALWATAN DAILY

KUWAIT

wednesdAY, april 18, 2012

Al-Madhi: No disputes with Iraq on Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Manager of the Environment Public Authority Salah Al-Madhi revealed that Kuwait will convey a message to Iraq about the construction stage reached regarding Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port during a meeting that will be held between the common committee formed by officials from both countries by the end of this month.

He added that the meeting that was held with Iraqi officials six months ago focused on environment, and stated that Kuwait had explained to Iraq that the damage to the environment will be very mild and will be treated.

He went on to say that Iraq had concerns about the width of the water passage, but Kuwait underlined its commitment to international agreements and Decree 833 of the United Nations that stipulates that the water passage can

be used by all countries and cannot be blocked.

He revealed that Iraq plans to construct Al-Fao Port that is close to Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, and noted that this project requires studies about its effect on the environment.

Concerning environmental compensations, he said that there will be a meeting next month at the United Nations in Geneva to discuss that matter.

He expressed his optimism regarding the projects that include remediation of oil lakes, and revealed that PNC Company was assigned to manage that project that should start soon.

He added that there is another project concerning the Ministry of Defense that has already begun.

However, he mentioned that the main project is the oil lakes project that has been allocated 70 percent of the budget to remediate the Kuwaiti environment.

He stated that the rest of the budget will be

spent on small projects, such as nature reserves that have been allocated around 20 percent of Kuwait’s land as per a Cabinet decree.

Moreover, he said that becoming a board member of Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) highlights the government’s interest in reviving the role played by the Environment Public Authority. He explained that if the oil sector is one of the sectors that heavily pollute the environment, then such an authority will reflect the government’s keenness to work closely with the oil sector to preserve the environment.

Regarding the treatment of the pollution caused by Mishref station and the remediation of the beach, he mentioned that an agreement has been reached with a British institution to remediate marine life.

He went on to say that it is time to turn the authority into a ministry, and denied rumors that he had resigned. He remarked that this issue is being examined by the Court of Cassation.

Second Kuwait Metro, Rail Conference Exhibition kicks off KUWAIT: Under the patronage of Minister of Communications Salem Al-Othaina the Second Kuwait Metro and Rail Conference and Exhibition kicked off Tuesday, with large participation from rail, transport companies and experts from the four corners of the globe.

“This gathering of a galaxy of international transport and infrastructure experts is a great chance to mull the relevant projects which Kuwait preparing to execute as a part of the state development plan,” Acting Communication Ministry Undersecretary Rashed Al-Mea said in the conference opening speech.

He added that the Ministry of Communication is keen to participate in the second round of the conference and exhibition.

“We believe that this participation will help develop the Ministry performance in future projects,” he said.

Kuwait is on the verge of a new era in public transportation. The country is planning to develop its own rail and metro projects as part of the GCC’s wider efforts to improve public transportation networks and its connectivity with neighbors.

The project is part of the planned Gulf railway network aiming to link the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states together.

Another mega project is the Kuwait metro which involves the construction of a 160 kilometer-long metro network with more than 60 stations along four lines running across Kuwait City. Some 65 percent of the network will be above ground on an elevated track.

The project also includes an interchange station, electricity substations and maintenance workshops. Kuwait Metro is likely to go ahead simultaneously with the GCC metro network in Abu Dhabi and Doha. All these projects will be completed by 2018.

Minister of Communications Salem Al-Othaina with attendees during the Second Kuwait Metro and Rail Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (Al Watan)

The Government procurement agency, the Partnerships Technical Bureau, has recently invited expressions of interest in the first phase of the Kuwait metro which includes 50 kilometer railroad, 28 stations, 30 percent of them are underground.

Held for the second time, Kuwait Metro Rail Conference and Exhibition is a unique international event for rail professionals, consultants, contractors, suppliers and investors.

It is a one-stop platform to discuss the future

of rail infrastructure, including planning, expansion, execution, project funding models, operations, maintenance, station management, civil and construction work, cutting-edge technologies of signaling, telecommunication, rolling stocks, tunneling, power and electrification and track management. The event will provide a superb platform to network, exchange ideas, seek business opportunities and to tap into the experience of key industry leaders. -KUNA

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Information minister calls for strict implementation of laws KUWAIT: National unity and maintaining the social fabric of Kuwait are among priorities of the government and top priority of the Ministry of Information, affirmed the Minister of Information on Tuesday.

In a statement as he emerged from a parliament session, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said while the file of the national unity and oneness of the social fabric are among the government priorities, they are regarded in the ministry of information as major priorities, and the other matters as secondary.

Unity of the social fabric of Kuwait can be solidified through literal implementation of the audio, visual and publishing laws and the bill that was presented by the government regarding protection of the national unity, he said. -KUNA

French Embassy to open educational office for travelers, students Nancy Oteifa Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The French Ambassador to Kuwait Nada Yafi was invited to speak about different issues regarding the relationship between Kuwait and France during her presence at the weekly Media Saloon gathering.Yafi praised the relationship between Kuwait and France saying, “The relationship between the two countries is very strong and friendly from the political, cultural, social and economic side.”

She stressed on the fact that France supported and stood beside Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991 and noted that many diplomatic visits have been exchanged between the two countries.

“The economic cooperation between the bilateral relationships is very strong where France is the 10th partner with Kuwait from the economic side.

The size of trade between the two countries reaches a billion Kuwaiti dinars per year.

There are a lot of French companies in Kuwait that are interested in the development plan and are willing to cooperate with Kuwaiti companies. French companies are also keen to participate in investment projects talking place in Kuwait and they are also willing to attract the attention of Kuwaiti investors to invest in France too where the size of Kuwaiti investment into France is 12 of Billion dollars,” said the ambassador.

As for the touristic part, the ambassador noted that the French Embassy

in Kuwait had issued 30,000 visas to France and that the embassy is facilitating the procedures for those willing to travel.

Yafi also noted that schools and universities in France do not only teach in the French language as a result of the cultural relationship between countries, which became part of the political relationships. She stressed on the importance of the cultural relationship between the West and the East, which is achieved by having cultural events that portray exhibitions, seminars and musical concerts. Some of the issues discussed during the seminar were the problems faced by Kuwaiti students studying in France and that some of the universities in France are not accredited in Kuwait.

The ambassador said that the French Embassy in Kuwait is keen on having awareness classes to teach the students willing to travel and study in France.

She added, “The educational events and seminars are very important to us. From now on, there will be an educational office for those willing to travel and study in France where this office will teach the students everything they need to know about living and studying there.”

Speaking about the Arab Spring and its effect on the French citizen she noted, “There is a strong relationship between the French people and the Arab world and what’s happening in the Arab World is very near to our hearts, especially as the Arab Spring started from the other side of France in Tunisia.”

Omani daily hails Kuwaiti hospitality to Sultan Qaboos MUSCAT: Oman newspaper praised the hospitality shown by the Kuwaiti government and people to Sultan Qaboos Bin Said who is currently visiting the country to strengthen bilateral and brotherly ties.

The Omani daily said, on Tuesday, that the deep-rooted ties between Kuwait and Oman are thriving thanks to the wisdom and foresight of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

and Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.

The two leaders will tackle the latest developments in the regional, Arab and International Arenas, the newspaper added.

The Kuwaiti leadership’s keen perception ensured a safe and stable progression and advancement in all of the country’s various fields, the newspaper reiterated. -KUNA

Foreign minister arrives in Doha for special GCC meeting

Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah AlHamad Al-Sabah during his departure from Kuwait’s airport on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (KUNA)

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Hamad Al-Sabah arrived in Qatar on Tuesday to head Kuwait’s delegation at the extraordinary GCC ministerial meeting and the Arab commission for Syria that were due in the Qatari capital on the same day.

The minister and the accompanying officials were received upon arrival by the Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmad Al-Mahmoud, GCC Secretary General

Abdul-Latif Al-Zayyani, the Kuwaiti ambassador to Qatar Salman Al-Haifi and other figures.

His delegation includes the director of the ministry’s bureau, Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, the director of the GCC affairs department, Ambassador Homoud Yousef Al-Roudhan, the permanent delegate of the State of Kuwait at the Arab League Ambassador Jamal Al-Gahnem, and the Kuwaiti ambassador to Syria, Aziz Al-Dihani.

-KUNA

Al-Fadhl criticizes lawmakers who seek ‘favoritism’ KUWAIT: MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl criticized the lawmakers who impose pressure on ministers to accomplish certain transactions; as such step contributes in enhancing corruption and breaks the articles of the Constitution. He added that the MPs who violate Constitution are not qualified to fight corruption.

The lawmaker told Al Watan that the current constitutional articles prevent him from filing interpellations against MPs, but the very rights enable him to quiz the ministers who are subjected to the pressures by the lawmakers. He stressed that if a minister approves any transaction through favoritism, then he will file an interpellation against the Prime Minister, since the matter could be turned into a phenomenon.

Al-Fadhl said that some lawmakers became mediators in order to carry out transactions for other people. He wondered why the Parliament doesn’t have a committee that is tasked with observing the behaviors and practices set by MPs. He concluded his statement saying that the reform attempts will never come to an end although the Parliament itself suffers from certain faults, adding and the real reforms start with eradicating the lawmakers who practice favoritism (Wasta).

The French Ambassador to Kuwait Nada Yafi (left) speaking during the Media Saloon gathering on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (Al Watan)

Top Kuwaiti, US commanders discuss cooperation, issues KUWAIT: Top Kuwaiti and US military commanders held talks here on Tuesday on military cooperation between the two countries within framework of the joint defense treaty, means of boosting this coordination as well as regional issues.

The Kuwaiti side was headed, during the meeting, by Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Khalid Al-Jarrah AlSabah, with presence of members of the

defense council, and the American party

by General James N. Mattis, Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

Kuwait and the US maintain close cooperation in the defense and military fields.

Washington spearheaded an international military campaign that drove Iraqi occupation forces out of the country in 1991. -KUNA

Undersecretaries’ council supports reorganizing mosques’ hours

KUWAIT: The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Dr. Adel Al-Falah said that the undersecretaries’ council at the ministry supports the decision made by Assistant Undersecretary Waleed Al-Shuaib concerning the reorganization of mosques working hours, adding that the decision grants “more freedom”.

He added that this comes “part of the spirit of synchronization between the undersecretaries who support this decision.” Al-Falah said that the council is highly interested in discussing the different issues, which are expected to lead to developing the work performance at mosques and protecting religious freedom.

Al-Falah disclosed that ministry is preparing a charter for mosques according to the new regulations which enhance national unity amongst the Kuwaiti people, adding that the sector achieves a great success in the different fields. -KUNA

Top Kuwaiti and US military commanders during a meeting on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (KUNA)

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ALWATAN DAILY

regional

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

Syrian troops widen shelling attacks: Activists

Burning effigies

By Hossam Fathi Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The sight of the burning of Allenby effigies, which are usually constructed of straw, occurs during the activities of the annual Breeze Celebration.The celebration, which marks the onset of spring, dates back to the era of Pharaohs, however; the effigy burning aspect of the festivities has been taking place in Ismaeliya and Port Said since the thirties of the last century. The activity is associated with expressing popular wrath against the Field Marshal Edmond Henry Allenby. Allenby, a British officer nicknamed the “Bloody Bull”, was known for his role in the defeat of the Ottomans in 1917.

However, the Egyptian people immortalized his ruthlessness, and showed their relief upon his leaving Egypt by preparing effigies - they dubbed Allenby dolls - and burning them every year since his departure. This act embodies the spirit of the Egyptian people, who do not easily forget when harm is visited upon them. During the past few years, many other figures have been added to the effigy-burning custom, to emphasize the Egyptian people’s dislike, such as the former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Maier and currently Netanyahu.

This year’s celebration marked even more interesting additions to the effigy-burning festivities, among which were the ousted president and some of his supporters.

Fans proclaim innocence in Egypt soccer riot trial CAIRO: Fans charged in connection to Egypt’s deadliest-ever soccer riot protested their innocence in the first session of their trial Tuesday, turning their anger on the police who are widely believed to have collaborated in the killing of 75 members of a rival club.

Nine senior officers, including six police generals and a colonel, are among the 73 people charged in the case.

If convicted, it would further fuel the widespread speculation that the country’s much-despised police force allowed the bloody Feb. 1 attack on a soccer fan organization with which they had a long history of rivalry.

Most of the defendants however are fans of Al-Masry, the main sports club in the Mediterranean city of Port Said where the attack took place. The majority of the victims were fans of a rival team, Cairo’s Al-Ahly, a club closely associated with Egypt’s 2011 uprising.

“We will get them their justice or die like them,” the defendants held in the courtroom cage chanted, fists pumping in the air as they referred to those killed in the riots. The chants suggested they consider themselves scapegoats, and the police the real architects of the crime. Some grieving mothers of the victims, dressed all in black, smiled tearfully and nodded in support.

Egypt’s police force is widely loathed. It is viewed as having been the front line of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s regime against dissent, and of having been dominated by corrupt and brutal senior officers. Anti-police demonstrations in reaction to the Feb. 1 soccer riot led to at least 14 deaths.

Protesters outside the Cairo courtroom held photos of those killed and raised posters that said, “I will never forget justice for our brothers,” and, “We were killed in Port Said.”

The 30-minute killing frenzy broke out when Al-Masry fans stormed the pitch just seconds after the whistle blew, even though the home team had won the match. What happened next is not entirely clear, but according to witnesses and survivors,Al-Ahly fans were attacked with batons, knives, fireworks and a number of weapons. Some were tossed from the tops of bleachers, while others said they were undressed as Port Said fans carved slogans into their skin.

The lights to the stadium were abruptly turned off and the exit doors closed during the melee, forcing a stampede down a narrow corridor after the stadium’s gate, which was locked from the outside, was forced open by the crowd.

Dozens were crushed to death, including fans of Al-Masry.

The youngest victim was 14 years old.

Most of the victims were from Al-Ahly’s “Ultras”, an organization of the club’s most hardcore fans. The Ultras and their equivalents at another Cairo club, Zamalek, have been credited with playing a major role in the 18-day popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011.

Some believe the security forces stood by to punish the Al-Ahly Ultras for their high-profile involvement in the uprising against Mubarak and in subsequent protests against the country’s military rulers who took power after his ouster.

Others attribute the violence in Port Said to negligence.

Security forces at the stadium did little during the attack.

Beforehand, they failed in routine security measures like searching fans for weapons, despite a multitude of signs of trouble, with both sides threatening attacks on one another.

Some of the defendants face murder charges. The officers have been charged with assisting the attackers, and face up to 10 years in prison. In addition to fans and the police, the manager of the stadium and the man in charge of the lights have also been charged.

After the riot, Egypt imposed a two-year ban on Al Masry, while this year’s club season has been suspended.

Port Said residents say their city has been stigmatized and is boycotted by other Egyptians. -AP

BEIRUT: The Syrian regime widened shelling attacks on opposition strongholds Tuesday, activists said, targeting a second town in a new sign that a UN-brokered cease-fire is quickly unraveling despite the presence of foreign observers.

The truce is part of an international plan to launch talks between President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and those trying to topple him. An uprising against Assad erupted 13 months ago, but became increasingly violent in response to a regime crackdown.

Regime compliance with the cease-fire has been partial, and the latest escalation further lowered expectations that the key element of special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan can stick. Mortar shells struck the central city of Homs at a pace of one a minute Tuesday morning, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

Annan, joint emissary for the UN and the Arab League, was briefing the Arab League in Qatar on the situation in Syria on Tuesday.

Leaders of two Syrian opposition groups said Tuesday, a day after meeting Russia’s deputy foreign minister in Moscow, that they have sensed a shift in Russia’s stance and hope Moscow will crank up pressure on Assad.

“Russia has all the necessary levers to apply pressure on Assad’s government and help Annan’s mission,” said Haytham Manna of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, an activist group.

Russia twice shielded Assad from UN Security Council condemnation, but has become more critical of the regime.

In Paris, diplomats and finance ministry officials from the Arab world, the West and elsewhere were meeting Tuesday to coordinate sanctions against Syria. Diplomats say a string of EU, US and other sanctions have affected Al-Assad by curbing Syria’s ability to export oil and the ability of his cronies to do business abroad.

In Syria, the overall level of violence is down since the cease-fire formally took effect Thursday, but the regime has gradually stepped

up attacks. The number of people killed every day has also risen steadily since a brief lull that coincided with the start of the truce.

At least 26 people were reported killed on Monday, including 10 in a daylong gunbattle between rebel fighters and the Syrian army in the northwestern town of Idlib. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said at least 55 people were killed Monday, including 26 in Idlib.

A six-member advance team of UN observers arrived in Damascus over the weekend, but hasn’t traveled to hotspots yet. UN officials said the team is still devising a plan on where to go and whom to meet. A previous Arab League observer mission was hampered by regime restrictions on movement, and UN chief Ban Kimoon has demanded his monitors be given free access.

The head of the observer team, Col. Ahmed Himmiche, suggestedTuesday it would take time to get to the hardest hit areas. Work in Syria is “difficult,” he said in Damascus. “There should be coordination and planning ... We must walk

Palestinians begin mass hunger strike on Prisoners’ Day WEST BANK/GAZA: At least 1,200 Palestinian inmates of Israeli jails began an openended hunger strike on Tuesday as rallies across the occupied territories marked Prisoners’ Day. As thousands gathered in towns and cities in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, threequarters of the 4,700 Palestinians held by Israel began refusing food, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) said.

Of that number, 2,300 male and eight female prisoners said they would refuse food throughout the day, while another 1,200 said they were beginning a hunger strike, IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told AFP. “In the framework of Prisoners’ Day, around 2,300 security prisoners said they were refusing their daily meals, and around 1,200 prisoners said they were starting a hunger strike,” Weizman said. “At IPS, we have coped with hunger strikes in the past and we are prepared to do so again now,” she added.

Speaking to crowds gathered in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, gave a higher figure for the hunger strike, saying “1,500 prisoners from all the factions” had joined it already and more were expected to later in the month. “We are united and undivided when it comes to prisoners, and we will stand by them until they get their demands,” he said.

Earlier this week, prisoners minister Issa Qaraqaa told AFP that 1,600 inmates were expected to join the strike, and on Tuesday he said the initial number was likely to grow.

“Our estimations were that 1,600 prisoners would begin a hunger strike but there was a difference of opinion between the prisoners which prevented all of them from joining the hunger strike,” he told AFP. “But this number is likely to increase in the coming days.”

Throughout the morning, thousands of people held marches and rallies across the West Bank, with around 3,000 people gathering in Shuhada Square in central Nablus, waving Palestinian flags and holding up pictures of imprisoned relatives. Another 1,000 or so people gathered in central Ramallah, with a sit-in planned for later in the afternoon outside the nearby Ofer prison. In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, 1,500 people gathered holding up flags, pictures and slogans reading: “Stop the

A Palestinian protester accidentally sets himself on fire while throwing a Molotov cocktail towards the Israeli soldiers during clashes following a demonstration to mark the Prisoners’ Day near Israel’s Ofer prison, between Jerusalem and Ramallah on April 17, 2012. (AFP)

policy of solitary confinement.”

Hundreds more gathered in the northern towns of Tulkarem and Qalqilya, AFP correspondents said.

In Gaza City, around 2,000 people marched to the headquarters of the Red Cross where they set up a solidarity tent with the hunger strikers.

This year’s Prisoners’ Day took on added symbolism as it was also the day when Israel was to release Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad prisoner who went on hunger strike for a record 66 days in protest at being held without charge.

Adnan, whose nearly 10-week fast turned him into a national hero, was to be freed later on Tuesday, although it was not clear exactly when or where, his lawyer said.

Before Tuesday’s action, 10 Palestinian inmates of Israeli prisons were already on hunger strike, four of whom had been transferred to prison hospitals because of fragile health, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said. Two of them, Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahla, 34, had been refusing food for 50 days.

They were both being held in the hospital wing of Ramle prison near Tel Aviv, with pris-

Yemen consul’s kidnappers demand prisoner release: Saudi spokesman JEDDAH: A suspected Al-Qaeda militant who claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a Saudi Arabian diplomat in Yemen has warned that his group will “prepare the knives” unless their demands are met, an official Saudi spokesman said on Tuesday.

Mishaal Mohammed Rasheed AlShodoukhi, who was named on a list of fugitive Al-Qaeda militants by the Saudi authorities in 2009, phoned the Saudi embassy in Yemen to demand a ransom and the release of militants in Saudi prisons, the spokesman said.

He also threatened more attacks including an embassy bombing and the assassination of a Saudi prince.

Abdallah Al-Khalidi, the kingdom’s deputy consul, was kidnapped outside his residence in the south Yemen port of

Aden on March 28.

“There are some people here who have been calling, ever since Al-Khalidi was kidnapped, to prepare the knives (to kill him)... Now it is a consul kidnapped, tomorrow it will be an embassy bombing and after that a prince killed,” Shodoukhi said, according to a transcript of his conversation with the embassy released by the Saudi authorities.

“The Saudi embassy in Yemen received phone calls by Shodoukhi ... saying that he represents the ‘evil group’ and confirming that they have kidnapped the deputy consul in Aden,” a Saudi security spokesman was quoted as saying by the Saudi Press Agency.

The Saudi spokesman, Mansour Al-Turki, confirmed to Reuters that the reference to the “evil group” meant Al

-Qaeda in Yemen.

“They have demands which include handing over a number of the prisoners, who are members of their organization, in Yemen,” the statement on SPA said.

Websites associated with AlQaeda did not carry a claim of responsibility for the abduction. The transcript quoted Shodoukhi as demanding a ransom but saying he did not know how much it would be as “it will be agreed upon later; I am just a messenger”.

Separately, a suicide car bomber killed four people including three soldiers and wounded four other people on Tuesday near the southern town of Lawder, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The bomber blew himself up at the army checkpoint, according to the ministry. -Reuters

Nuclear talks don’t exempt Iran from attack: Barak

JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense minister said on Tuesday that Israeli military action against Iran remains an option even while nuclear negotiations are under way, and voiced strong doubts whether the talks would succeed.

Asked whether the negotiations, which began in Turkey on Saturday, could persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment, Ehud Barak told Army Radio: “It does not look to me as if it is going to happen - not now, in the wake of Istanbul, and not ... after the (Baghdad round of talks next month).”

Barak is due to meet US Defense Secre-

step by step as it’s not an easy process.”

The group is to be reinforced by an additional 25 monitors who are expected to arrive in the next few days, he said.

In violence Tuesday, army tanks shelled the southern town of Busra Al-Harir, killing at least two people, according to the Observatory. The town, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of the capital of Damascus, is a stronghold of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Adel Al-Omari, an activist in the area, said troops have been shelling Busra Al-Harir and the nearby rural region of Lajat since midday Monday. He said the shelling was intensifying and that many residents are fleeing to nearby villages or to Jordan.

Regime forces also fired mortars and shells at the neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Bayada in an apparent push to take control of the rebelheld districts in Homs, a center of the rebellion against Assad, according to the Observatory.

Homs has been under continuous regime attack, with only a short break on the first day of the cease-fire, activists said. -AP

tary Leon Panetta in Washington on Thursday amid speculation in the Israeli media that Israel has promised its main ally that it will refrain from attacking Iran while the talks continue.

“We are not committing to anything,” Barak said, when asked whether any such pledge had been made. “There is not, there has not been, there should not be and there cannot be (such a promise).”

Barak has said that Iran could soon enter a “zone of immunity” against Israeli attack as it puts its nuclear installations deep underground, comments that raised international

concern that a strike could be nearing.

In the interview, he reiterated Israeli fears that the negotiations between Iran and a group comprising the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany could drag on and waste what he described as “precious time”.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to open a rift withWashington over the talks by saying that a five-week break between the Istanbul meeting and the next session in Baghdad on May 23 gave Iran a “freebie” to continue enriching uranium.

US President Barack Obama, respond-

ing to Netanyahu’s accusations, said “so far at least we haven’t given anything away” and that it had been made clear to Iran that “the clock is ticking” and there could be no “stalling process”.

Israel and the West fear Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

In an interview on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the Islamic Republic could make concessions on its higher-grade uranium enrichment in exchange for an easing of international sanctions. -Reuters

oner rights group Adameer describing their condition as “rapidly deteriorating.”

Another prisoner, Hassan Safdi, on hunger strike for 44 days, was being held in the same facility, with his condition described as “”very serious.”

All 10 are being held without charge under administrative detention orders, which means they can be held for renewable periods of up to six months. There are 4,699 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails, of whom 319 are in administrative detention, according to Prisoners Club figures. -AFP

Ahmadinejad vows to defend territorial integrity

TEHRAN: Iran will respond with force to any threats to its territorial integrity, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, adding that it would prefer to cooperate with its Arab neighbours to maintain security in the Gulf.

“The armed forces and the army will inflict heavy regret and shame in case of any aggression against Iranian lands and interests,” Ahmadinejad told military commanders and personnel on the occasion of Iran’s annual Army Day. Iran “is ready to protect its existence and sovereignty,” he said. Ahmadinejad did not explicitly refer to fresh tensions with Gulf Arab nations over an April 11 visit he made to the island of Abu Musa, which is claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

But he said the key to lasting stability in the Gulf was regional cooperation. “When it comes to the Persian Gulf, security is achieved only through the collective cooperation of all nations and governments,” he said, while lashing out at “foreign interference which only causes destruction and division.”

The remarks by the firebrand president, known for his controversial speeches, came hours before a meeting of foreign ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states in Doha to discuss the simmering islands dispute between Iran and the UAE. Tensions over three tiny Gulf islands, including Abu Musa, were heightened by Ahmadinejad’s assertion on the island during his visit last Wednesday that historical records proved “the Persian Gulf is Persian.”

Abu Dhabi denounced Ahmadinejad’s visit as a “violation of UAE sovereignty” and recalled its ambassador from Tehran in protest. The UAE has also lodged a protest with the United Nations over the visit, stressing that the territorial dispute should be resolved through negotiations or at the International Court of Justice.

Tehran on Monday advised caution and patience, with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi insisting Iranian sovereignty over the islands was “not negotiable.”

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan responded by warning that if left unresolved, the issue “could jeopardize international security and peace.”

Iran, then under the rule of the Western-backed shah, gained control of the islands of Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb in 1971, as Britain granted independence to its Gulf protectorates and withdrew its forces.

Abu Musa, the only inhabited island of the three, was placed under joint administration in a deal with Sharjah, now part of the UAE. Abu Dhabi says the Iranians have since taken over the entire island, which controls access to the oil-rich Gulf, and have installed an airport and military base on Abu Musa. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

wednesdAY, april 18, 2012

UK to raise Heywood murder with Chinese official LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to discuss the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in China with a visiting senior Chinese official, an aide said on Tuesday, as the British government faced questions over its handling of the affair.

“It’s likely to come up,” a spokeswoman for Cameron said when asked about the prime minister’s talks on Tuesday with Li Changchun, China’s propaganda chief and a member of China’s most powerful leadership body, the ninemember Politburo Standing Committee.

Li is the most senior Chinese official to visit Britain since the announcement by Chinese authorities this month that the wife of Bo Xilai, a former high-flying Communist Party chief of China’s southwestern Chongqing city, is a suspect in the murder of Heywood.

The 41-year-old was found dead in a hotel room in the city last November. The death ended Bo’s hopes of emerging as a top central leader and sparked political upheaval in China.

Heywood was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation of the affair said.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said last week that Chinese police had set up a team

Handout picture shows British businessman Neil Heywood. (Reuters)

to reinvestigate his death.

In his talks with Li, Cameron “will welcome the investigation that’s ongoing and look forward to seeing the outcome of that, but we are pleased to see it has started,” Cameron’s

spokeswoman said.

Cameron said last week Britain was ready to cooperate in any way it could in China’s investigation of the death but it was unclear if he would offer any specific help to Li on Tuesday.

The scandal comes at a time when Cameron’s coalition government is trying to build closer trade and investment ties with China to help boost Britain’s stuttering economy.

Britain’s foreign ministry, which asked China to investigate Heywood’s death only three months after the event, is facing growing questions over its handling of the affair.

Chongqing police initially attributed Heywood’s death to a cardiac arrest due to overconsumption of alcohol, though his family said he was not a heavy drinker.

“The fundamental question is why it took so long for the British authorities to start questioning the explanation,” said Menzies Campbell, a member of parliament for the Liberal Democrats, who rule in coalition with Cameron’s Conservatives.

“There is a British businessman with what were well-known high-level political and commercial connections who dies suddenly in a hotel bedroom and is cremated almost immediately. I would have thought that those circumstances would at the very least have triggered an inquiry,” he told the BBC. Foreign Secretary William Hague is expected to face questions about the case when he appears in parliament on Tuesday. -Reuters

Former East Timor independence fighter wins presidency DILI: Former East Timor independence fighter Jose Maria de Vasconcelos has been elected president, a post vital to promoting stability in Asia’s newest and one of its poorest countries. Provisional results show that Vasconcelos, who is also known as Taur Matan Ruak, won about 61 percent of the vote with about 98 percent of ballots counted, government election commission official Tomas Cabral told reporters.

Ruak defeated another former independence fighter, Francisco Guterres “Lu Olo”, from the opposition Fretilin party who won 38.8 percent of the vote in Monday’s run-off, Cabral said.

“The tally is still being updated but it indicates that Taur Matan Ruak has gotten the majority of votes,” said Cabral.

The president plays little role in policy making but is vital to promoting stability in the country that gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after years of bloody struggle, and was later rocked by factional unrest.

“He can become a president who will unify all political forces,” his spokesman, Fidelis Magalhaes, told a news conference.

A former Portuguese colony, East Timor

Provisional results show that former East Timor independence fighter Jose Maria de Vasconcelos s, who is also known as Taur Matan Ruak, won about 61 percent of the vote with about 98 percent of ballots counted, government election commission officials told reporters. (Reuters)

was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and later annexed. For decades Indonesia tried in vain to crush opposition to its rule.

Ruak’s nickname means two sharp eyes in a dialect of the country’s Tetum language. He was the last commander of East Timor’s Na-

tional Liberation Army, Falintil, before independence.

Central to his election campaign was his role in the independence movement and his argument that the struggle remains incomplete, said Cillian Nolan, a Southeast Asia expert with the International Crisis Group think tank.

“The struggle that began in the jungle by the guerrilla fighters during the resistance ... bringing independence to East Timor, is unfinished because the second part of the struggle is to increase the wellbeing of the population. This appears to have been an appealing message for voters,” he said.

Incumbent President Jose Ramos-Horta was eliminated in the first round last month. RamosHorta won the Nobel peace prize for his role in the country’s independence campaign and survived an assassination attempt in 2008.

He lost the support of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and his CNRT party which had backed Ramos-Horta when he first stood for president in 2007. Gusmao instead backed Ruak, Nolan said. It is hoped the peaceful election will set the scene for a concerted effort to tackle high unemployment, poverty and a lack of infrastructure. -Reuters

Afghan leader challenges Taliban ‘brothers’ over attacks Philippines, China trade barbs over new incursions

Australia to end Afghan mission in 2013

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday coordinated Taliban attacks in Kabul and three provinces had only prolonged a foreign presence in Afghanistan and he challenged the insurgents to do more for the good of the country.

The weekend attacks on the parliament and Kabul’s diplomatic quarter had caused only Afghan deaths and worked to hurt economic and security confidence, Karzai said.

Clashes raged for 18 hours before Afghan security forces backed by NATO killed the insurgents. Karzai said the violence had done nothing to win support for Taliban aims of getting foreigners and NATO-led troops to leave.

“You did nothing for Islam, you did not work for Afghanistan’s independence and you did not work for its people, freedom and development. You worked to prolong a foreign presence,” Karzai said in a speech commemorating almost 150 years since the birth of an Afghan reformer.

But in an effort to keep alive reconciliation efforts with the insurgents and hopes of a peace deal before most foreign combat troops leave the country in 2014, Karzai said he would not stop calling the Taliban “brothers”.

“Some criticize me in the Afghan media for saying the Taliban are brothers, but I won’t give up,” he said to enthusiastic applause.

Karzai on Monday laid most of the blame for the Taliban assault on NATO and his government’s Western backers for the failure of intelligence agents to prevent it.

Thirty-five insurgents were killed along with 11 members of the Afghan security forces and four civilians.

But NATO defended intelligence efforts and said it was not possible to block every insurgent attack in the conflict-racked country, where the war has entered its 11th year and where NATO is expected to complete its combat drawdown by the end of 2014.

“You will never be able to, in a counterinsurgency, stop every attempt of determined insurgents to infiltrate into a city of three million,” Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for NATO forces in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

The assault raised fresh questions about Afghanistan’s prospects just as NATO members with forces there are making plans to get troops out.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a gathering in Kabul April 17. (Reuters)

Australia said on Tuesday it would start withdrawing its troops this year and expected all international forces there to be playing a supporting role for Afghan forces by mid-2013.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would take her timetable to a NATO conference on Afghanistan in Chicago in late May, before which the US government is aiming to sign a strategic agreement on a future presence in the country after NATO’s 2014 combat force withdrawal.

Karzai challenged the United States to do more in the agreement to fund infrastructure and improvements that would be of benefit to all Afghans, rather than just spend billions on training and equipping the police and army.

“We would like to help them save their money and give some of it back to us,” Karzai said of the United States, adding he wanted at least $2 billion a year from Washington after 2014.

He said that while the United States had promised money as part of its strategic partnership, it had not specified an amount.

“Write the figure, just write something!” Karzai said. -Reuters

Tokyo governor seeks to buy islands disputed with China TOKYO: Tokyo’s controversial governor wants to use public funds to buy islands disputed between Japan and China, a plan bound to infuriate Beijing.

The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have long been the centre of maritime territorial disputes between China and neighbors both citing historical and other claims over fishing areas and potential rich gas deposits.

Shintaro Ishihara, 79, announced the idea of buying the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea from private owners during his visit to Washington and the Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed the plan on Tuesday.

In a statement citing Ishihara, the Tokyo

government said the islands were “extremely important” for Japan and offered great potential for development of natural resources and fisheries.

Japanese government spokesman said he was not aware of the plan and declined further comment.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry news official told Reuters by telephone it had “no information to offer” regarding the plan.

Diplomatic ties between Beijing and Tokyo hit a low point in late 2010 after Japan’s arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain near the disputed islands, though they have improved since then.

In 2008, Beijing and Tokyo agreed in prin-

ciple to jointly develop gas fields near the islands, but progress has been slow and Japan has accused China of drilling for gas in violation of the deal.

Kyodo news agency quoted Ishihara as saying that talks with owners were already under way and that a deal could be wrapped up by the end of the year. Ishihara, elected for a fourth term a year ago, is no stranger to controversy, admired by some for his blunt style, a rarity in Japan, and lambasted by others for a tendency to offend.

Last year, he was forced to apologies for suggesting that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami were “divine punishment” for the “egoism” of the Japanese people. -Reuters

MANILA: The Philippines and China traded fresh accusations Tuesday of illegal incursions in a disputed area of the South China Sea, while refusing to compromise on their territorial claims. The Philippines said it had lodged a new diplomatic protest, accusing Chinese vessels of harassing a Filipino-flagged archaeological research ship at Scarborough Shoal. The shoal is the same area where Chinese vessels last week blocked a Filipino warship from arresting the crews of eight Chinese fishing boats.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the M/Y Saranggani was “harassed by Chinese ships and aircraft” at Scarborough, which is about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.

“We lodged the protest yesterday afternoon. The harassment of the vessel is part of the continued intrusion and illegal activities being done by China in our area,” Hernandez told AFP. Philippine National Museum director Jeremy Barns said the vessel was conducting a preliminary survey of potential ancient shipwrecks, and was manned by Filipino and French scientists, including nine French archaeologists.

“We’re looking for the wrecks of Western as well as Asian vessels -- Vietnamese, Thai, and also Chinese. This is a project of the National Museum,” Barns told AFP. He described the area around the shoal as an important maritime passageway for foreign vessels that conducted trade with the Philippine islands, possibly even prior to their colonization by Spain in the 16th Century.

Filipino officials would not say when the scientific vessel specifically arrived in the area, but Hernandez said the boat was still there. “It is doing research, which is well within our rights,” he said. But the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Manila, Zhang Hua, insisted China owned Scarborough, and accused the Saranggani of intrusion.

“We urge the archaeological vessel leave the area immediately,” Chang said in a statement. China claims all of the South China Sea as its own on historical grounds, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The nearest Chinese land mass from Scarborough Shoal is Hainan province, 1,200 kilometers, (750 miles) to the northwest, according to Philippine naval maps given to the media.

The rival claims have been a source of regional tensions for decades, and the Philippines as well as Vietnam have accused China over the past year of becoming increasingly aggressive in asserting its position. -AP

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NEWS IN BRIEF Japan to be without nuclear power after May 5 TOKYO: Japan will within weeks have no nuclear power for the first time in more than 40 years, after the trade minister said two reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster would not be back online before the last one currently operating is shut down. Trade Minister Yukio Edano signaled it would take at least several weeks before the government, keen to avoid a power crunch, can give a final go-ahead to restarts, meaning Japan is set on May 6 to mark its first nuclear power-free day since 1970. “If we thoroughly go through the procedure, it would be (on or) after May 6 even if we could restart them,” Edano told a news conference, adding that whether they can actually be brought back online is still up to ongoing discussions. -Reuters

Norway killer on trial: ‘I would have done it again’ OSLO: The Norwegian anti-Islamic gunman who killed 77 people said at his trial on Tuesday his shooting spree and bomb attack were “sophisticated and spectacular” and that he would do the same thing again. Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has pleaded not guilty and said he was defending his country by setting off a car bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo last July, then killing another 69 people in a shooting spree at a youth summer camp organized by the ruling Labor Party. “I have carried out the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack committed in Europe since the Second World War,” Breivik told the court in a prepared statement. -Reuters

BJP headed for win in Delhi civic polls NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was Tuesday headed for a big win in the Delhi civic polls with 49 of its candidates emerging victorious in 80 of 272 wards for which results were declared.

The party, which could control the civic administration in Delhi again, was also leading in more than 60 seats, election officials said. The Congress, whose Sheila Dikshit is in her third consecutive term as the Delhi chief minister, has claimed only 19 seats so far. In the counting of votes for the recently trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the BJP till 12.30 p.m. had secured 18 seats in north Delhi, 20 in south and 10 in east Delhi. The Congress had won six in north Delhi, nine in south and four in east Delhi. -AFP

Mali military personnel arrest two politicians BAMAKO: Soldiers arrested the head of one of Mali’s biggest political parties Tuesday, hours after a former prime minister was detained by military personnel, officials said. The arrests come amid questions about who is in control of Mali, where the democratically elected president was ousted in a coup last month. The coup leaders recently handed over power to an interim civilian leader, but the junta’s leader also has said he will play an important role in Mali’s political future.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the EU and the United States all want to see the junta back in their barracks and out of politics as soon as possible. The latest arrests suggest that the junta has yet to accept this.

Soumaila Cisse was arrested in front of his home in Bamako, according to Abdoul Malick Diallo, a member of parliament from Cisse’s party. Diallo said that Cisse was hurt during the arrest but that he couldn’t say how serious the injury was. Cisse was one the front-runners for the presidential election that was due to take place on April 29. Late Monday, a former Malian prime minister was re-arrested by military personnel just days after being released from custody.

Cheickna Diarra said that Modibo Sidibe was arrested at home Monday night by men who arrived in vehicles marked “military police.” Diarra said he did not know why Sidibe was arrested or where he is being held.

Sidibe was among around a dozen politicians who were arrested immediately after the military coup and who were released following the handover to the civilian interim leader. -AP

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ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION

wednesDAY, april 18, 2012

Words mightier than a sword and fatal for Kuwait Nabeel Al-Fadhal

M

P Khaled Shakheer had stated on Tuesday that he demands that the Ambassador of the United States of America work on the release of Kuwaiti detainees in Guantanamo Fayez and Fawzi and that if he doesn’t wish to do then the US ambassador should “leave the country because his presence is a further mental burden for the family of the detainees.”

First of all, the United States ambassador was not the person who has arrested and detained the Kuwaiti citizens Fayez and Fawzi. Furthermore, the US ambassador has no authority or jurisdiction to order the release of the detainees or otherwise.

It is really strange that an MP should make such demands in the National Assembly. No MP may demand from an ambassador who has presented his letter of credence to the authority in Kuwait to leave the country. This is to put it simply, a blatant violation and direct attempt at intervening in the power and jurisdiction of the executive body as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Constitutional Court distinguishes between the control of diplomatic performance and the control of the parliamentary performance.

But for the sake of the argument let us assume that since MP Khaled Shakheer is a member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly he therefore has every right to make such a demand and that his demand should be regarded as obligatory and effective by the Kuwaiti government.

Still, let us again for the sake of the argument say that the United States and the US Administration are trembling and terrified by the MP’s demand and that the last thing

We can’t even imagine if the actions and behavior of the MP Al-Barrak would be comparable to other MPs.

it needs in its foreign policy is for MP Khaled Shakheer to make such demands publicly and thus putting the US Administration in a very critical and challenging situation.

Let us assume for the sake of the argument that the United States had indeed weighted up the MP’s demand and decided therefore to withdraw the US ambassador to Kuwait.

And again for the sake of the argument and to please the MP and his demands the US Administration decided to shut down its embassy in Kuwait.

Now we are still assuming the scenario that the United States has indeed accepted the demands for the reasons we mentioned earlier. But then we have also to assume a different scenario altogether.

The scenario goes like this: the US embassy is closed and there is not an ambassador there to communicate with and suddenly after supposed shutting of the embassy we find that the security of the country is in jeopardy and that an external threat is coming to threaten the very existence of the country.

Naturally, and again we are still in the same scenario, we will seek the assistance of the United States to help us to fend off the aggressor. But then quite rightly the United States would respond by saying that it is because of one of our MPs who publicly demanded that the US ambassador should leave the country and we did precisely that according to his demand.

Therefore, the United States would not be able to assist us because even if they wanted to do the diplomatic relations between the two countries is severed following the MPs demand.

Now, this is the reality of the situation here. With the absence of our ally the United States to protect our country, surely there is an alternative way to deter the aggression against our country. Perhaps we say: “Where is Shakheer?, “Please Shakheer, help us!” “Hey, Shakheer this is your chance to protect us now that we got rid of the United States!”

But alas! Shakheer would not be able to do a thing to deter the aggression. It is not because Shakheer is far more vulnerable and weaker than the aggression but because we will be wondering if Shakheer would be in the country or not.

It is possible that this is just a fantasy and an unrealistic situation but it is also possible that there is element of truth in it.

It would be more logical on the part of the MP Dr. Khaled Shakheer to weigh up his words before he makes such public demands. He needs to ascertain the situation more fully to know the end result of his demands before he fires them away in such a manner.

Finally, we fully appreciate the interest and care you have showed in the case of the Kuwaiti detainees and es-

pecially your endeavors to release the Kuwaiti citizen Ali Al-Harbi.

It seems that MP Musallam Al-Barrak is persistent to violate the National Assembly bylaws almost on a daily basis.

He is particularly concerned with divulging the discreet parliamentary sessions to the press. He is obviously fully aware that the majority of the MPs as well as the presidency of the National Assembly would never ward him off against such violations and even a tap on the shoulder is unlikely to take place.

We can’t even imagine if the actions and behavior of the MP Al-Barrak would be comparable to other MPs. If the MP Abdulhamid Dashti for example dared to follow the footsteps of Al-Barrak there would be a disastrous conflict.

The issue of divulging the confidential sessions held in the parliament doesn’t stop there. MP Al-Barrak is acting as if he is the only authority in the county and his recent action proves exactly that. He recently decided to refer assistant undersecretaries to the office of the Public Prosecutor.

Then he moved on to demand that they would be terminated without referring to any written or verbal authority, constitution or bylaws. Just like that!

There is no doubt that the MP believes that he has the upper hand and that he would never be held accountable as nobody would dare to question him over his behavior.

Unless he is told that he does not have the upper hand and that he would be questioned over such violations, MP AlBarrak will continue doing what he is doing.

What a great life we lead!

Men have long hair and behave like women, a sea which is about to become empty of fish due to pollution and the unorganized fishing, fish is very expensive although fishermen get them from the sea for free.

Ali Farzat

Aziza Al-Mufarej

MPs

M

en have long hair and behave like women, a sea which is about to become emptied of fish due to pollution and the unorganized fishing, very expensive fish although fishermen get them from the sea for free, satellite channels defend the country but they are described as corrupt ones, military men took an oath to abide to laws of the country but they break laws more than others, undersecretaries and assistant undersecretaries are responsible for the deterioration of the public services, criminals still enjoy freedom in the country and authorities could not arrest them, MPs are interested in putting regulations to organize parties and covering the hair of women by veils more than they are interested in the lives of youths which are usually lost by road accidents, the nature of people is changed because of marrying foreign women by the Kuwaiti people and the very matter led to scattering the loyalty of sons to different countries some in the east and others in the west, foreign embassies work in the country as if they were inside their original countries, expatriates get job opportunities at the government institutions but Kuwaiti citizens do not, expatriate legal advisors dominate the whole country and they exert tough efforts just to get financial awards and bonuses.

Meanwhile, some Kuwaiti officials have witnessed all those mistakes occurring in Kuwait but they did not attempt to stop either because they are incompetent and can`t understand what is happening around them or because they approve of such practices!!

The very officials can see the treasury of the state under theft and they still don`t have the courage to offer protection. All these problems can be seen in Kuwait in 2012.

Therefore, we feel we need to look to the previous decades especially the sixties of the last century, we wish to live like those days.

Where is the government?

Dr. Shamlan Yousef Al-Esa

D

emocracy has undergone critical junctures in the different countries of the world and it took a longer time before it matured. During the history of the various countries we have never heard that a society became a democratic one suddenly.

The democratic process in Kuwait had started before half a century but Kuwaiti democracy still faces dangerous attempts aimed at deforming democracy as well as stirring sedition especially after tribal and political Islam movements reached power in Kuwait through obtaining the majority of the parliamentary seats therefore we witnessed an unreasonable set back as the MPs who promised people to protect the constitution, national unity and eradicating corruption broke their promise and they attempted to amend some constitutional articles. We can`t believe how the government and 46 MPs have approved toughening the penalty the citizens who talk inappropriately about God or the Prophet peace be upon him and penalty of such a case

National Assembly plan 2012

We think that the government has already planned to endorse such stances in order to convey a message to the Kuwaiti people. might reach to capital punishment.

We believe that there isn’t a sane person who talks inappropriately about God or the Prophet! We also need to explain the meaning of inappropriate speech or insults and how the penalty of such cases will be assessed.

The parliaments in the different countries of the world exist in order to protect people against the arbitrary governmental decisions. We can`t believe that the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs which is a part of the government calls for observing Shiite mosques and a team of the ministry also headed to the Shiite cemeteries and removed the black flags! What is the target behind such behavior! Does the government aim at pleasing the parliamentary majority even if such decisions affect Shiite persons and national unity? The government did exert the required efforts for facing the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement

and the Salafi one! A lot of people in the Diwaniya, forums, university and media sources question the role of the government and whether the government conceded its executive role to the movements of political Islam. Why does the government remain silent in terms of such wrong practices of certain MPs and the did not even disclose its opinion about protecting the constitution and the state of law.

We think that the government has already planned to endorse such stances in order to convey a message to the Kuwaiti people. This means that the Kuwaiti people have elected such MPs and therefore the people have to bear their practices! It also means that the people elected the tribal and political Islamist MPs and the people have to tolerate the results of their votes! The other question is “what can the government do, particularly if the government is not supported by the people?”

However, His Highness the Amir has appealed to the Kuwaiti people many times to think before voting and vote for the qualified candidates who deserve to represent the Kuwaiti people. We- as ordinary people and in civil society- have to admit that we were deceived by the false slogans which were released by candidates before the former parliamentary elections. We also have to admit that we are defeated by religious movements but we should not give up and let our country down because our country needs us now as a result we have to unify our efforts to stop the attempts of undermining the constitution and turning Kuwait into an Islamic state.

We should not leave the government and extremist MPs to dominate the potentials of our country and we have to fight all steps that the Muslim brotherhood movement and the Salafi one are taking for the Islamization of laws. The Islamist officials who reached power in Tunisia insist to maintain Tunisia as a civil state therefore we wonder how our government and people remain silent about the suspected steps for undermining our civil state.

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views

WEDNESDAY, april 18, 2012

What’s on your investing bucket list?

By marking each bucket high, low or medium risk, you’ve identified some prospective allocations in this behavioral approach.

John Wasik Reuters

G

ot travel or mountain climbing on your bucket list? How about taking up the guitar? If you really want to live life to the fullest in your remaining days, then what you should also add to those goals is a list of your investment priorities and adjusting your risk accordingly.

This idea doesn’t come from a cheesy Hollywood movie, but rather from the study of behavioral portfolio theory put forward by Nobel Prize-winner Harry Markowitz and leading behavioral economics expert and finance professor and author Meir Statman. They theorize that if investors divide their portfolios into mental account layers measured by risk, they can counter nervous investment errors.

This is how it works: let’s say you have a one million US dollars portfolio. You can divide it up into different-sized buckets with goals for items like college savings and retirement. For example: The largest bucket, or sub-account, would be for retirement. Assume that about 800,000 US dollars is in this bucket for an event that’s 15 years away. Ultimately, you would like to build this to two million US dollars.

Saving for college? Earmark 150,000 US dollars for a goal that’s three years away, eventually totaling 180,000 US dollars when your student matriculates.

Want to fund a bequest for your alma mater or your favorite charity? Put aside 50,000 US dollars for a goal that’s 25 years away.

If all of these goals were equal - and they are not - you might leave them in one portfolio.

However, you want to take much less risk with the college fund than with the bequest goal that is 25 years away.

By marking each bucket high, low or medium risk, you’ve identified some prospective allocations in this behavioral approach. In this case, risk is roughly equivalent to the time you have to save for each goal. The shorter the time horizon, the lower the risk you can assign to the bucket.

The short-term bucket should be invested mostly in bonds or cash equivalents in which you cannot lose principal. This is your most

Mind the neighbors Anne-Marie Slaughter Project Syndicate

T

he conventional wisdom last week on whether Syria would comply with former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s ceasefire plan was that it was up to Russia.

We were reverting to Cold War politics, in which the West was unwilling to use force and Russia was willing to keep arming and supporting its client.

Thus, Russia held the trump card: the choice of how much pressure it was willing to put on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to comply with the plan.

If this view were correct, Iran would surely be holding an equally powerful hand. Annan, after all, traveled to Tehran as well. Traditional balanceof-power geopolitics, it seems, is alive and well.

But this is, at best, a partial view that obscures as much as it reveals. In particular, it misses the crucial and growing importance of regional politics and institutions.

A longer-term resolution of the Syrian crisis depends as much on Turkey and the Arab League as it does on the United States, Europe, and Russia. Consider what else happened last week: Turkey’s government made clear that it would turn to new measures if Annan’s plan does not produce results.

Turkish officials have been issuing similar proclamations for months, but now Syrian troops have fired into Turkey, chasing Free Syrian Army rebels who fled across the border, while the number of Syrian civilian refugees has increased sharply.

Last week, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo_an raised the stakes dramatically with talk of having “many options,” and by adding: “Also, NATO has responsibilities to do with Turkey’s borders, according to Article 5.”

Article five of the NATO treaty stipulates that an attack on one NATO member is to be considered an attack on all, and that all will come to the member’s aid. Of course, other NATO members could disagree that Syria has in fact attacked Turkey, but if Turkey were to invoke Article five, a refusal to offer assistance could have unpleasant consequences for the alliance as a whole. And Assad knows full well that it will be impossible to avoid further border incidents unless he is prepared to allow the Free Syrian Army to use Turkey as a safe zone.

The significance of Article 5 is that if a credible case can be made that Turkey and its allies are acting in self-defense, they do not need to seek the UN Security Council’s approval.That makes Erdo_ an’s suggestion a game-changer, forcing Assad to reckon with the prospect of a de facto militarilyenforced safe zone for the civilian opposition. The deeper point here is that regional organizations, including NATO, provide the first level of legality and legitimacy required for a successful use of force. The US would not have supported intervention in Libya if the Arab League had not supported a no-fly zone and been willing to go to the UN on that basis.

Indeed, assuming that Assad does not start bulldozing entire cities, I cannot imagine any circumstances under which the US would support even limited military intervention in Syria without public approval by the Arab League and Turkey.

That is why we have seen a game of “after you” with respect to Syria, with the Turks saying that they need Western support, the US saying that it needs regional support, and both saying that they need UN support.

FILE- People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo as Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 142.19 points, or 1.47 percent at 9,546.26 Monday, April 9, 2012. (AP)

secure bucket and it’s for goals such as saving for a down payment on a home or a car, or to set aside money for a known expenditure like property taxes. Don’t expect much, if any, return on these funds. Federally-insured moneymarket accounts, Treasury bills and certificates of deposit are probably the safest assets.

The medium-term bucket can be for major emergency expenses such as unemployment

7

and out-of-pocket medical expenses. I keep that money in a short-maturity bond fund. It’s not principal-protected, but it pays a somewhat higher return than a money-market fund.

A medium-term bucket is also a good place for college savings. For the biggest chunk of college funds for my two daughters, for example, I have money set aside in automatically age-adjusted 529 savings plans. As they get older, the

fund company shifts more money from stocks into bonds. I like this approach because the accounts are rebalanced every year, so I don’t fret about market risk. All I worry about is putting enough money in to cover soaring education bills.

Your longer-term goals can be weighted more heavily toward stocks and alternative vehicles. Again, you can choose an automatic

approach through a target-date maturity fund that ratchets down stock-market risk as you age, balance your own portfolio of low-cost exchange-traded funds or hire a fiduciary adviser to select passive funds for you (the most expensive route).

As you create your bucket list, don’t get tripped up by things like projected or “desired” returns. Guess on the conservative side less than four percent for bonds and six percent for stocks.

It’s also important not to try to over think your decisions. Be flexible and try different scenarios. Use allocation engines to guide you through determining a comfortable portfolio mix. For some good calculators, see websites like those of Yahoo Finance, TIAA-CREF or T. Rowe Price.

Any comprehensive financial planner who works on a fee-only basis no commissions will be able to fine-tune your strategy if your needs are complex. Brokers and insurance agents should be avoided.

If you do this right, you’ll be able to see a range of investing possibilities that you may not see today. There is no one right way to go about this, but if it is done with care, you can avoid a leaky investing bucket.

John F. Wasik is a columnist for Reuters.

The opinions expressed are his own.

Why Richard Koo’s idea won’t save the Eurozone Those who If all the eurozone countries interpret all moves funded themselves jointly and on the international severally, then the yields on stage in terms of European government debt would be states’ eternal very low, and there would be no fiscal jockeying for power crisis in Spain. and prestige will never lack for evidence.

Felix Salmon Reuters

A

Looking beyond the Middle East, Africa provides the best evidence for a geopolitics based as much on regional powers and institutions as on traditional great powers. While Annan has been trying his diplomatic best to resolve Syria’s crisis, upheavals in Senegal, Mali, Malawi, and GuineaBissau have been swiftly addressed by other regional powers. In particular, the African Union (AU) has acted repeatedly in the name of enforcing the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance.

In Senegal, simmering violence accompanied recent elections in which President Abdoulaye Wade was allowed to stand for an unprecedented third term. The first round forced Wade into a runoff with Macky Sall, at which point the AU promptly sent an Elections Observer Mission, drawn from 18 African countries, to assess whether the elections were legal and the results “reflected the will of the Senegalese people.” We cannot be sure what impact the mission had on Wade’s ultimate decision to concede defeat to Sall, but knowing that the region was watching must have focused his mind.

The situation in Mali is more complicated, for it involves an ongoing secessionist movement, as well as a coup on March 21. But, after the coup the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), backed by the UN, immediately suspended Mali’s membership in the AU, imposed economic and diplomatic sanctions on the country, and placed travel restrictions on coup leaders.

Just over two weeks later, ECOWAS announced that it had reached an agreement with the coup leaders to return the government to civilian rule in exchange for lifting the sanctions.

Likewise, AU President Jean Ping condemned a coup in Guinea-Bissau in early April immediately and in the strongest terms.

Those who interpret all moves on the international stage in terms of states’ eternal jockeying for power and prestige will never lack for evidence.

The way in which the Saudi-Iranian rivalry is playing out in Syria is a prominent example. But countries’ desire to stop mass murder in their neighborhood, or to enforce regional norms, has its own force. Increasingly, when a regional institution will not act, powers from outside the region find it difficult to intervene.And, when a region does unite on a course of action, intervention by outside powers becomes either less necessary or more effective.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department (2009-2011), is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

lot of people were looking forward to Richard Koo deliver his paper at INET last week; it comes with associated slides, here. Koo is the intellectual father of the idea of the balance-sheet recession - an idea which was born in Japan, has increasingly been adopted in the US and the UK, and which is now gaining traction in the Eurozone.

Koo’s diagnosis that Europe is in a balance-sheet recession, which he defines as a post-bubble-bursting state of affairs where individuals and companies choose to pay down their debts rather than borrow money, even when interest rates are at zero. That certainly seems to be the problem in Spain; Koo’s charts can be hard to read, but what you’re seeing here is a massive borrowing binge by the Spanish corporate sector - the dark-blue line - suddenly turning into net savings after the crisis hits. And to make matters worse, Spanish households - the red line - did exactly the same thing. As a result, the government had to run a massive deficit after the crisis; the four lines always have to sum to zero.

In this kind of a recession, monetary policy - reducing rates to zero - doesn’t work.

And tax cuts don’t work either: they just increase household savings. You need government spending, at least until the economy has warmed up to the point at which companies and individuals start borrowing again. And the good news is that in a balance sheet recession, government spending is pretty much cost-free, since interest rates are at zero.

That’s the good news in Japan and the US and the UK, anyway. But it’s not the case in Spain. This is a big problem with the single currency, as Koo explains: it encourages capital to flow in exactly the wrong direction.

When presented with a deleveraging private sector, fund managers in non- eurozone countries can place their money only in their own government’s bonds if constraints prevent them from taking on more currency risk or principle risk.

In contrast, eurozone fund managers who are not allowed to take on more principle risk or currency risk are not required to buy their own country’s bonds: they can also buy bonds issued by other eurozone governments because they all share the same currency. Thus, fund managers at French and German banks were busily moving funds into Spanish and Greek bonds a number of years ago in search of higher yields, and Spanish and Portuguese fund managers are now buying German and Dutch government bonds for added safety, all without incurring foreign exchange risk.

The former capital flow aggravated real estate bubbles in many peripheral countries prior to 2008, while the latter flow triggered a sovereign debt crisis in the same countries after 2008. Indeed, the excess domestic savings of Spain and Portugal fled to Germany and Holland just when the Spanish and Portuguese governments needed them to fight balance sheet recessions. That

capital flight pushed bond yields higher in peripheral countries and forced their governments into austerity when their private sectors were also deleveraging. With both public and private sectors saving money, the economies fell into deflationary spirals which took the unemployment rate to 23 percent in Spain and to nearly 15 percent in Ireland and Portugal.

With the recipients, Germany and Holland, also aiming for fiscal austerity, the savings that flowed into these countries remained unborrowed and became a deflationary gap for the entire eurozone. It will be difficult to expect stable economic growth until something is done about these highly pro-cyclical and destabilizing capital flows unique to the eurozone.

The solution to this problem is eurobonds. If all the eurozone countries funded themselves jointly and severally, then the yields on European government debt would be very low, and there would be no fiscal crisis in Spain.

But that’s not the solution that Koo provides to the problem that he quite correctly diagnoses. Instead, he said at the INET conference that the way to bring Spanish government bond yields down would be to massively decrease the number of people allowed to buy Spanish bonds.

This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. After all, in any market, the greater the number of potential buyers, the higher the price. But I’ll let Koo try to explain: Eurozone governments should limit the sale of their government bonds to their own citizens. In other words, only German citizens should be allowed to purchase Bunds, and only Spanish citizens should be able to buy Spanish government bonds. If this rule had been in place from the outset of the euro, none of the problems affecting the single currency today would have happened.

The Greek government could not have pursued a profligate fiscal policy for so long if only Greeks had been allowed to buy its bonds, since private-sector savings in the country was nowhere near enough to finance the government’s spending spree.

The new rule will also resolve the capital flight problem by preventing Spanish savings from flowing into German Bunds.

This will prompt Spanish fund managers facing private sector deleveraging to invest in Spanish government bonds, just as their counterparts in the US, UK or Japan must buy bonds issued by their own governments. That would allow Spanish government bond yields to come down to UK-if not to US-levels. With low bond yields and high bond prices, talk of a sovereign debt

crisis would also disappear.

It’s absolutely true that a lot of Spanish fund managers, in a flight-to-quality trade, are buying up German and Dutch government bonds. It’s also true that Koo’s proposed rule would prevent them from doing that. But it’s emphatically not true that if they couldn’t buy German or Dutch government bonds, they would buy Spanish government bonds instead.

I asked Koo about this, in Berlin, and the conceptual problem quickly emerged.

On the one hand, Koo is careful not to say that he wants fully-fledged capital controls preventing Spanish fund managers from investing abroad at all. He’s confining his proposal just to government bonds, and is not including corporate bonds, equities, structured credit, or anything else that Spaniards can currently invest in. But, he still thinks that this one rule would, single-handedly, take the 6% of GDP that the Spanish private sector is currently saving, and divert it directly into the Spanish government bond market, sending yields there plunging.

It wouldn’t.

The fact is that when money flows into US Treasuries or JGBs or Gilts during a balance-sheet recession, that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they’re government bonds, and absolutely everything to do with the fact that they’re the dollar- or yen- or pound-based securities with the lowest perceived credit risk. If you ban Spanish institutional investors from investing in Bunds, then they’ll just buy something else with extremely low credit risk instead - AAA-rated corporate bonds, perhaps, or covered mortgage bonds from somewhere in the north, or some other kind of highly collateralized structured credit instrument.

None of those things might have quite the degree of liquidity that Bunds can offer, but they’re still safer than Spanish government debt right now.

Koo is absolutely right that the flow of savings out of Spain is doing absolutely gruesome things to the Spanish economy: you can’t possibly grow when your companies and households are paying down debt, and all your national savings are fleeing the country. So maybe there’s a case for fullyfledged capital controls. But Koo’s weaktea version would only serve to decrease, rather than increase, demand for Spanish government bonds. Their price would go down, their yields would go up, and Spain would be in an even worse position than it’s in now.

Felix Salmon is the finance blogger at Reuters. The opinions expressed are the author’s own.

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BUSINESS

WEDNESdAY, april 18, 2012

m ar ket watc h KUWAIT 0.7% 6237

DUBAI

QATAR

0.01% 1649

0.16% 8713

Kuwait to shut parts of Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery in mid-May CAPITALS: Kuwait’s largest refinery Mina Al Ahmadi will be partially shut in mid-May for planned maintenance that is expected to last up to 30 days, four industry sources said on Tuesday. The maintenance will include shutting down a crude distillation unit (CDU), an atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit and some other units, the sources said.

Refinery shutdowns change the short-term balances of the oil products market in the region and are closely watched by traders.

See page 10

OIL MARKETS

OMAN

ABU DHABI

BAHRAIN

0.57% 5983

0.21% 2505

0.48% 1144

EGYPT 1.19% 4679

SAUDI

3.2% 7512

US Crude $103.18 $0.11 London Brent $121.83 $0.11 Kuwait Crude $115.85 $1.99 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

CURRENCIES US Dollar

British Pound

Saudi Riyal

Qatari Riyal

Indian Rupee

Euro

Japanese Yen

UAE Dirham

Bahraini Dinar

Philippine Peso

Buy 0.2779 Sell 0.2785 Buy 0.3648 Sell 0.3657

Kuwaiti oil price down to $115.85 per barrel Kuwait, Netherlands to deepen, intensify cooperation in oil sector

CAPITALS: Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA), operator of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s most up-to-date networks, announced in a press release on Tuesday, its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, maintaining positive growth across key financial metrics and continuing its investment in network quality.

Total revenues from services increased to 1.522 billion Saudi riyals, up three percent from the same period in 2011 (1.484 billion riyals).

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) during the first quarter amounted to 243 million riyals compared to 154 million riyals for the same quarter last year, which represents an increase of 58 percent.

Operating losses decreased by 18 percent from 233 million riyals in the first quarter of 2011 to 191 million riyals in first quarter 2012 as the Company continues to streamline its organizational structure, operations and spending.

Net losses also decreased by 21 percent, down to 420 million riyals in Q1 this year from 532 million riyals in the first quarter of 2011 as a result of lower financing costs, depreciation and amortization. Zain KSA continues to focus on financial structure and improvements throughout 2012 Commenting on the company’s financial results, HRH Prince Dr. Hussam bin Saud bin Abdul Aziz, Chairman of Zain KSA, said,”The improvement in our key financial metrics in the first quarter is encouraging and reflects the company’s continued progress in achieving its strategic goals following the strategic review carried out towards the end of 2011.

Zain KSA board and management team are actively working on the company’s planned capital restructuring (capital reduction and subsequent capital increase) with the full support of all of its founding shareholders, including strong sponsor support from Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (Zain Kuwait). The capital restructuring is subject to the requisite regulatory approvals.

Furthermore, following the Company’s announcement in January 2012 of the successful extension of the maturity of its current 2.6 billion US dollar Murabaha Financing facility to July 27, 2012, the Company is finalizing documentation and arrangements towards the refinancing of the said facility which is to be replaced by a 5-year, medium term facility. Further information will be announced in due course.

Buy 0.003444 Sell 0.003453

Buy 0.0742 Sell 0.0742

Buy 0.07645 Sell 0.07637

Buy 0.07566 Sell 0.07583

Buy 0.7372 Sell 0.73884

Buy 0.005411 Sell 0.005399 Buy 0.006525 Sell 0.006513

Prices in Kuwaiti fils as of April 17, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

In Focus

Coutt, Un Coutt Savio S. Gomes

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil went down by 1.99 US dollars to $115.85 per barrel (pb) on Monday, compared to $117.84 pb on Friday, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Tuesday.

The recent price decrease was attributed to the European fears towards the debt crisis in the euro zone and global economic growth statistics.

Investors avoiding risky business transaction resulted in the increase in demand for the US dollar, leading to the decrease of crude oil price.

In more news, a top-level delegation from Kuwait’s oil sector is currently visiting the Netherlands for talks with Dutch government officials and representatives of oil companies to boost cooperation between the two countries.

Kuwait has already planned steps to entrench its presence in the Netherands. The oil-rich Gulf state is to revamp and expand its refinery in the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Kuwait Petroleum International, KPI, is to inaugurate its European headquarters at the Hague in May. Speaking to Kuwait news agency, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), the chairman and managing director of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), Fahed Al-Ajmi, said their visit follows an invitation by the Dutch embassy in Kuwait to meet representatives of Dutch oil companies and officials from the ministry of economic affairs and innovation.

The Kuwait delegation has already met representatives of the Royal Dutch Shell, he said.

“Many off shore companies and international oil companies have their offices in the Netherlands. Rotterdam is the most important port in Europe for oil trade. It is the number one gas hub in Europe,” he said.

Al-Ajmi said Kuwait is embarking on building a large LNG facility to import gas. “We are now under the concept and study phase. The Dutch have an excellent experience in this sector. We want to know the technical know-how and maybe we need assistance from them.” They will also be meeting the Chamber of Commerce and the mayor in Rotterdam. “We are looking forward to these important meetings,” he said.

Zain KSA increases revenues to 1.522 billion riyals in Q1 2012

Buy 0.4432 Sell 0.4443

Exclusive to Al Watan Daily

In this Oct. 17, 2011 photo, a restored Coca-Cola sign is displayed on a building in Springfield, Ill. The Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday, April 17, 2012, that its net income rose eight percent in the first quarter as it sold more of its beverages around the world. The world’s biggest drinks maker said it earned $2.05 billion, or 89 cents per share, for the three months ended March 30. That’s compared with a net income of $1.9 billion, or 82 cents per share, in the year-ago period. (AP)

Commenting on the current global oil price, AlAjmi said many Kuwait official have always indicated that price of oil above one hundred US Dollars is good for both the consumer and supplier.

“Our view is that the price between 100 US dollars and $120, we find it reasonable, “ he said.

On his part, Hussain Esmaiel, chairman and managing director of KPI, noted that Netherlands is one of the leading importers of Kuwaiti oil and petroleum products.

“I think Kuwait and Netherlands enjoy an outstanding relationship and it goes back a long time. We through the KPI have major investments in the Netherlands like our refinery in Rotterdam.

We also operate retail stations to sell fuel products like gasoline and diesel within the country,” he told KUNA. Esmaiel emphasized that “Kuwait has very good taxation treaty with the Netherlands The Hague is very well suited from many aspects. Therefore we will locate our European headquarters in the Hague in May,” he declared.

The KNPC board has taken a decision to proceed with the feed study to revamp and develop the refinery at the Europort in Rotterdam. This decision was taken ten days ago and we are now proceeding to implement this decision, noted Esmaiel. -Agencies

Boubyan Bank Q1 profits increase by 17% to KD 2.48 million KUWAIT: Providing the fastest growth rate among the Islamic banks in Kuwait, Boubyan Bank reported net profits of 2.48 million Kuwaiti dinars for the first quarter in 2012 compared to KD 2.11 million for the corresponding period of 2011, by a growth rate of 17 percent due to hike in the bank’s operating profits amounting to KD 7.5 million. This was stated in a press release on Tuesday. Adel Al-Majed, Chairman and Managing Director of Boubyan Bank, highlighted that Boubyan managed, in a short span from the strategic development in 2009, to prove its potential to compete in the Islamic product and service market, which witnesses continuous growth of customer acquisition.

Al-Majed added, “Many of our strategic targets for 2010-2014 have been accomplished by the bank, which is now bound back to profitability thanks to the banking products and services and financing solutions that accommodate the individual and corporate customers’ needs.”

“This is backed by a hike in our market share of deposits during the period from December 2009 to February 2012

from.45 percent to 3.95 percent, and of finance from 2.34 percent to 4.23 percent,” Al-Majed added. Boubyan Bank reported an increase in financing income for the first quarter of 2012 by 36 percent to touch KD 11.8 million against KD 8.7 million for the comparative period of 2011, and an increase by 21 percent to KD 1.249 billion compared to KD 1.036 billion in 2011.

Total assets of the bank increased, at the end of March 2012, to KD 1.618 billion compared to KD 1.424 billion in March 2011, i.e. a growth rate of 14 percent. Total shareholders’ equity increased to KD 249 million against KD 242 million in 2011 giving rise to a Capital Adequacy Ratio of 24 percent compared to the minimum regulatory ratio of 12 percent, as stipulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait. Chief among the positive highlight is was the booming financing portfolio, which amounted to KD 1.092 billion at the end of March 2012 compared to KD 889 million, a growth rate of 23 percent in addition to the increasing number of bank’s customers.

Financial Highlights of Boubyan Bank March 2012 KD Million

March 2011 KD Million

Change (%)

Net Profit

2.48

2.11

17%

Net Financing Income

11.78

8.69

36%

Customers’ Deposits

1,249

1,036

21%

Finance Portfolio

1,092

889

23%

Assets

1,618

1,424

14%

KUWAIT: Coutt & Co. (‘Coutt’) is the private bank used by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. A probe by the Financial Services Authority resulted in a fine of 12.5 million Sterling pounds (discounted by 30 percent for early settlement). Coutt violated money laundering regulations and did not carry out stipulated checks on a majority of its clients with ‘politically exposed’ positions or clients vulnerable to corruption. The FSA concluded that there had been an unacceptable risk that the bank may have handled proceeds of crime. The bank failed in identifying high risk clients and in adequately monitoring transactions (in some instances, criminal links were identified, but not followed up and customers were approved). Coutt’s problems stemmed from around 2007 when the bank promoted bonus policies based on number of customers signed up. According to FSA, Coutt’s failings were significant, widespread and unacceptable. The private bank used by the Queen is now an example of uncouth behavior by a private bank. By next year, it could get worse. The Queen’s head could fall into private hands. The government in the UK has set a date for the privatization of the Royal Mail. The Royal Mail is clearly not equipped to compete in a digital environment, has a unionized workforce and owes an obligation to provide delivery to all parts of the UK within an affordable price structure. Price controls and a pension funding gap of over nine billion pounds are the other key problems faced by the Royal Mail. There are hopes that either a full or partial sell off will bring in much needed funds for new investments, bring in efficiencies and help compete in the more profitable segments of information delivery and messaging. Meanwhile, the Encyclopedia Britannica is going out of print after 244 years.

Only 8,000 sets of the 2010 edition were sold (120,000 in 1990). Print encyclopedias contribute less than one percent of Britannica’s revenues. A majority of the company’s revenues now is based on sales of curriculum products in English, science and math. The math clearly does not add up and print editions have been submerged by the internet revolution.

Web sites such as Wikipedia are easier to update and far more easily accessible. Martians visiting Earth will have to look beyond the gold lettered Encyclopedia (with its 32 volumes) to learn about human kind.

It was not so long ago that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was burdened with a head that has a political background and no background in economics. The US President is going one better, with his nominee for the head of the World Bank. Jim Yong Kim (‘JYK’) is a Korean - American physician and president of Dartmouth College.

JYK has an MD from Harvard Medical School and has a history of focus on radical, community focused health care programs. JYK is on record as being anti growth. His hypothesis is that corporate led economic growth tends to make the middle class and the poor worse off. He has few views, if any on economic policy and his focus has been on health policy and programs. JYK believes that the quest for increasing GDP has worsened the lives of millions. The circle of global economic mess is almost complete. The head of IMF is a politician who does not understand economics and the proposed head of World Bank is a physician who is anti growth. All the US Treasury needs is a poet (of Chinese origin) and the UK, a Chancellor - painter (of African origin).

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) continues to find new means of attracting tourists. The Real Madrid Resort Island (to open in 2015) will have 50 hectares including a 10,000 capacity sea facing stadium, museum, theme park and training academy, and is expected to attract one million tourists a year - branded sand, what’s next?

The views expressed above are the writer’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Al Watan Daily and its staff. Savio is a financial and management advisor with a background in economics. He has carried outconsulting and management intervention projects in several countries such as US, UK, Australia, Kenya, Armenia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc. The writer may be contacted on saviosgomes@ gmail.com.

Outlook remains stable for Kuwaiti banking system: says Moody’s LIMASSOL: The outlook on Kuwait’s banking system remains stable, reflecting a gradual recovery in the banks’ profitability and a supportive operating environment, characterized by high government spending, says Moody’s Investors Service in a new Banking System Outlook just published. Over the 12-18 month outlook period, Moody’s also expects that system liquidity will remain solid - underpinned by ready access to deposits of cash-rich government-related corporate/ agencies. Over the outlook period, the government will likely record high fiscal surpluses on the back of high oil revenues, which will sustain its capacity to provide fiscal stimulus to non-oil private-sector economy (domestic banks’ operating domain). Moody’s estimates that real gross domestic product (GDP) will increase to around 5.5 percent in 2012, from 5.3 percent in 2011.

Moody’s expects that the banks’ reported asset-quality metrics will likely remain close to year-end 2011 levels with NPL levels at around six percent. Despite ongoing progress, Moody’s believes there are downside risks to the system’s asset quality, stemming from high industry and single-party exposures, and a lack of transparency regarding restructured loan levels. However, the rating agency notes that the sector’s strong capitalization provides the banks with substantial loss-absorption buffers. Likewise, Moody’s expects that Kuwaiti banks’ funding and liquidity profiles will remain solid. The system is predominantly deposit-funded and liquidity will remain comfortable. The banks will continue to have access to government and quasi-government deposits, and although such deposits give rise to funding concentrations, these have been stable even during pe-

riods of market unrest.

Moody’s says that the banks’ net profitability will progressively improve, mainly due to declining provisioning charges, but return on equity and return on assets will remain well below the levels of 20 percent24 percent and 2.7 percent-2.9 percent, respectively, recorded during the boom years of 2006-07.

However, Moody’s acknowledges that the strengths of the system are counterbalanced by certain credit negative factors including (i) discord between the executive and legislative (parliament) branches of the government that continue to cause delays in the implementation of economic policy; (ii) banks’ have structurally high depositor concentrations and large single-party and industry credit concentrations; and (iii) corporate governance weaknesses at some banks. -Agencies

KSE gains 41.4 points at closing

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) closed Tuesday in the green zone. The price index read 6,237.4 points at a gain of 41.4 points, while the weighted index came to 415.19 points, an increase of 3.56 points. Trades came to 4,505 transactions, worth 32,404,980 Kuwaiti dinars, and volume reached 344,475,000 shares. Within the sectors, the top gainer was services sector with a hike of 85.6 points.

Gainer share of the day was Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) Asset Management Company (KAMCO), while the biggest loser was Kout Food Group. The top volume stock went to International Resorts Company. -KUNA

10

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

wednesDAY, april 18, 2012

Oil slips towards $118 on euro zone worries Iran says Saudi unable to fill oil gap in long run

CAPITALS: Brent crude oil slipped to 118 US dollars on Tuesday, continuing a steep decline as rising Spanish debt costs raised fears of a new euro zone crisis that could derail economic growth.

Brent crude for June delivery fell 70 US cents to a low of $117.98 before recovering a little to trade around $118.40 by 0825 GMT. On Monday, Brent slid 2.6 percent, its biggest one-day percentage loss since December.

US crude for May delivery which expires on Friday, rose 20 cents to $103.13 a barrel.

“A new euro zone debt crisis appears to be building,” said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “It could have a serious impact on commodities and the growth outlook.”

Ben Le Brun, market analyst at OptionsXpress, agreed, saying euro zone concerns were affecting all risk assets.

Spanish government bond yields broke through six percent on Monday for the first time since December, stoking fears that the euro zone’s fourth largest economy could fail to meet deficit targets and require a very costly bailout.

Spain will see its borrowing costs leap when it sells 12- and 18-month bills at auction on Tuesday.

Market nervousness is now also spreading to Italy and investors are worried rescuing either of these major European economies could put unbearable strain on the euro zone.

Iran

Worries over the possible loss of Iranian oil gave some support for prices after US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said sanctions would be maintained on Tehran.

Iran’s foreign minister was quoted as saying his country was ready to resolve all nuclear issues if the West started lifting sanctions.

Iran produced 3.15 million barrels per day (bpd)in March, Reuters’ Organization of Petroleum Exporting (OPEC) output survey showed and the loss any significant portion of this would impact prices, traders say.

SaudiArabia will not be able to replace Iranian oil supplies in the long run, in case of shortfalls due to sanctions against Iran, state television quoted Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi as saying.

On Friday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali AlNaimi said top oil exporter Saudi Arabia was determined to bring down high oil prices, reiterating there were no supply shortages in the global markets and the kingdom stood ready to use its spare production capacity if necessary.

“The level at which Saudi Arabia is producing at the moment, I think that’s a maximum,” said Qasemi, quoted by Iran’s Press TV news channel late on Monday.

“If it wants to produce any further it may be on a temporary basis... in the long-run that cannot last,” Qasemi said.

Concern of a supply shortage due to production problems in some producing countries as US and European sanctions target exports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) second-largest producer Iran have helped lift Brent crude by about 13 percent this year.

“Iran’s crude is of high quality and will always have its own customers,” Qasemi added. Iraqi oil exports have surged to record rates that are expected to be sustained this year.

US commercial crude stockpiles were forecast to have risen last week after data showed the largest three-week build in more than three years due to higher imports, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. The American Petroleum Institute (API) will release its report at 2030 GMT. -Agencies

SABIC Q1 net profit drops 5% on higher feedstock price

DUBAI: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) the world’s biggest petrochemical firm by market value, said its first quarter net profit fell five percent to 7.27 billion Saudi riyals (1.94 billion US dollars) from a year earlier on higher input prices, but came in above market expectations.

Analysts surveyed by Reuters estimating the chemicals, fertilizers, metals and plastics conglomerate would post profits of 6.74 billion riyals.

SABIC’s profits fell sharply in the last quarter of 2011 after two successive quarters of record profits achieved on the back of surging product prices and strong global demand.

It posted net profit of 7.69 billion riyals in the first quarter of 2011.

Since SABIC products are used in a wide variety of industries, from car manufacture to house construction and cheaper retail goods it is highly sensitive to movement in the global economy.

“Demand will continue in 2012 from SABIC’s traditional markets in China, the kingdom and Europe,” Mady said in March. “It is true that growth in China fell from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent but I don’t think there is a fear of a decline in demand from China.”

Last year several SABIC subsidiaries brought new production lines onstream, helping to boost sales against the performance of a year earlier. -Reuters

Petrol pumps are seen as petrol prices continue to rise on April 16, 2012 in Auckland, New Zealand. Brent crude oil slipped to 118 US dollars on Tuesday, continuing a steep decline as rising Spanish debt costs raised fears of a new euro zone crisis that could derail economic growth. (AFP)

Iraq seeks refinery investors; demand rising fast

LONDON: Iraq is looking to gradually privatize its oil refineries and to attract investment in new plants around the country, its deputy oil minister said on Tuesday.

Domestic demand for fuel is rising fast in Iraq as in other major Middle East oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia. Baghdad, which is boosting its oil production, is also pushing ahead with a downstream expansion to end costly fuel imports.

“We would like to see the private sector increase its role,” Deputy Oil Minister Ahmed Al-Shamma said at a conference in London. “You shouldn’t have the ministry of trade buying and selling commodities; it’s out of date.”

He added, “We are looking to complete renovation of old refineries and privatize them gradually. That’s the ultimate goal.”

Demand for products coming from refineries is growing fast, both internationally and at home, the deputy minister said. “Domestic demand is increasing rapidly. People are driving around at midnight, when a few years ago there was an effective curfew at 6 p.m.”

Through improvements at existing refineries, Iraq aims to increase its capacity to 610,000 bpd by the end of 2012 from 567,000 bpd in 2011, Al-Shamma said. Its target for next year is 750,000 bpd.

Over time, four proposed plants would add about 750,000 bpd of capacity: Kerbala, Missan and Kirkuk, each with a capacity of about 150,000 bpd, and Nassiriya, with a capacity of 300,000 bpd.

Of those four, Iraqi officials previously said Nassiriya would be the lowest priority, because it is designed to run on crude from the Nassiriya oilfield, which has yet to be developed.

Al-Shamma said some of the products from the Nassiriya refinery would be available for export and that infrastructure was being put in place in southern Iraq to facilitate this.

“We have provided all the facilities to make it easy for investors.

There are four jetties being built for jet fuel, fuel oil, gasoline and gasoil,” he said.

“There’s a hurry to get refineries built.” -Reuters

Mubadala in billion dollar deal with Boeing

ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala’s aerospace division unveiled a one billion US dollar contract to build carbon-composite structures for Boeing, boosting the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) efforts to become a key manufacturer for the aerospace industry.

The 10 year deal calls for the Mubadala Aerospace to produce ribs, or strengthening components, for the tail section of the 777 mini-jumbo and the vertical part of the tail for the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing’s latest passenger jet.

It also marks the first time, Boeing said, of a direct outsourcing deal for composites production in the Arab world. Airline manufacturers are using more and more lightweight composite materials in their aircraft to boost fuel efficiencies.

“It’s ballpark about the same as our previous deals with Airbus and Alenia Aermacchi. The payments will be spread over time, according to deliveries,” Executive Director Homaid Al-Shemmari told Reuters.

The move reflects a goal by Mubadala Aerospace, a unit of state fund Mubadala, to become one of the world’s top five suppliers to the aerospace industry, he said.

Its Strata subsidiary started delivering wing parts for the A330340 to Airbus 18 months ago from a factory at Al Ain. Strata will begin delivering the carbon-composite tail parts to Boeing in 2013, according to the deal finalized at an Abu Dhabi aerospace conference.

A newly signed strategic agreement also puts Strata in a position to be a future supplier of the vertical fin or stabilizer for the 787 Dreamliner, the companies said.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, real estate and tourism to diversify its economy.

The emirate accounts for more than half of the country’s economic output. The emirate hopes to lift its non-oil share of gross domestic product to 64 percent in 2030 from roughly 50 percent now.

Mubadala Aerospace owns a majority stake in SR Technics (SRT), the Swiss repair and overhaul firm. It also owns local repair company Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT).

It holds a controlling stake in Italian business aircraft manufacturer Piaggio Aero along with India’s Tata Group and has partnerships with General Electric and Finmeccanica.

In Abu Dhabi its subsidiaries also include military repair company Ammroc, which it owns together with minority partners Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky. -Reuters

Markaz launches initiative in economic policy alternatives toward sustainable development KUWAIT: In the first publication of its economic policy research series, Kuwait Financial Centre S.A.K. (Markaz) has recently published a policy research titled ‘Towards Sustainable Economic Development: Tools to Strengthen and Support the State of Kuwait’s Private Sector.’ The research examines the role of the private sector in the Kuwaiti economy. It also recommends policies and steps the State can take to achieve Kuwait’s unfulfilled economic potential by moving forward on a path of sustainable development and inclusive growth. This was stated in a press release on Tuesday.

Foundationally, the research suggests that the State develops strategies that aim to: (1) increase business entry, foster competition, and reduce rents; (2) reform institutions to level the playing field and reduce illicit rent-seeking behavior; and (3) foster open policy making based on inclusive partnerships with the private sector.

Markaz has stepped in with the initiative of conducting research in public policy in collaboration with leading experts in this area, amidst high global oil prices, which renders the need for formulating credible public policy that focuses on sustainable development a key initiative. Markaz believes that such initiatives will enable Kuwait

Goldman Sachs’ profits mask revenue decline NEW YORK: Goldman Sachs more than doubled its first-quarter profits and announced plans to raise its dividend Tuesday.

The strong results masked other problems, including a 16 percent decline in revenue. To make up for that, and to propel earnings higher, Goldman turned to cost-cutting.

The storied investment bank slashed 3,000 workers over the year, or about eight percent of its work force. It cut back on salaries, trimmed occupancy costs and paid less in brokerage fees, cutting total expenses by 14 percent.

Revenue from financial advising, where the bank advises big companies and investors on mergers and acquisitions, was one of the few areas to record a revenue gain, 37 percent.

Revenue from underwriting stock and bond sales fell 27 percent. Revenue from trading fell 14 percent, hurt by lower fees and revenue from the division that trades bonds, currencies and commodities. Total revenue fell to 9.9 billion US dollars from $11.9 billion, though that beat the $9.4 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting.

Goldman Sachs said its net income available to common shareholders rose to $2.1 billion, or $3.92 per share.

That was a jump of about 128 percent from $908 million, or $1.56 per share, a year ago. The per-share earnings also beat expectations of analysts, who had been predicting $3.52.

The bank also announced it would raise its quarterly shareholder dividend to 46 US cents per share from 35 cents. Though the bank didn’t say so, that’s a particular sign of strength in the current market, because it’s also a reminder that Goldman, unlike some of its peers, got permission to do so after passing the government’s most recent round of stress tests.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lloyd Blankfeink called the quarter a “solid performance.” In a prepared statement, he noted that “client activity remains relatively low in certain areas,” but said that “our mix of businesses gives the firm significant room for revenue growth as economic and

FILE - A Goldman Sachs sign is seen above their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in this Jan. 19, 2011 file photo. Goldman Sachs more than doubled its first-quarter profits and announced plans to raise its dividend Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (Reuters)

market conditions continue to improve.”

For decades, Goldman has been known for beating its Wall Street competitors and churning out executives who

go on to high leadership positions.

But the past few years have left it bruised. Last fall, it recorded a quarterly loss, only its second since going public

through a sustainable development path by introducing economic substance that aims to advocate public debates and address the formidable social transformation of the region as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region rarely had serious advice on public policy matters - other than commercial advisory studies. The Markaz Economic Policy Research differentiates itself from others by being a policy research emanating from Kuwait, not for profit, independent, and non-partisan.

Raghu Mandagolathur, Head of Research at Markaz said, “As the Middle East region, especially Gulf States, enter a high growth-high spending phase orchestrated by the government as the key stakeholder, the role of on-ground independent public policy research becomes sine-quo-non. The current lack of such bodies as well as the fragmented nature of the industry provides a classic opportunity to create environment conducive to the establishment of such initiatives and Markaz is keen to play a role in that process. Moreover, an ambitious five year development plan was announced in March 2010 creating major political and economic debates on its feasibility. Currently, Kuwait faces several challenges in the area of demography, economic diversification and fiscal structure.”

in 1999. In 2010 and 2011, its net income fell year-over-year in six of the eight quarters.

Investors are trying to piece together whether the troubles are a short-term annoyance or a sign of deep-rooted problems. They wonder if the bank needs a new game plan.

Like the rest of the banking industry, Goldman has to figure out how to navigate a world of stricter government controls that will dry up some of its key revenue streams.

Goldman has made big profits trading for its own account, especially when markets are volatile. But regulations taking effect this year will reduce Goldman’s ability to make those trades.

Unlike much of the banking industry, Goldman doesn’t have a large consumer banking arm to fall back on when trading and investment banking get bumpy. Its clients are largely hedge funds and multinational corporations that need to hedge their bets on foreign currencies, fluctuating interest rates and commodities.

Return on equity was about 12 percent, in line with a year ago. That was a big change from 38 percent five years ago, before the global economic meltdown.

Goldman also has public-relations problems to worry about. In the era of Occupy Wall Street, Goldman has been the target for much of the vitriol of people who blame the financial crisis on reckless practices in the banking industry.

Last month, the vitriol came to a head when a mid-level executive resigned via a blistering editorial in the New York Times, where he accused the bank of losing its “moral fiber” and caring only about its own profits rather than its clients’.

The accusations are still swirling. Last week, the bank agreed to pay $22 million to settle regulators’ charges that Goldman analysts shared confidential research with favored clients. In the first quarter, the bank set aside $59 million for litigation and regulatory proceedings.

Goldman Sachs’ stock fell slightly in pre-market trading, down 73 cents to $117. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

Japan pledges $60 billion to IMF for Europe firewall TOKYO: Japan said Tuesday it would pledge 60 billion US dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it was a critical part of the organization’s bid to boost a global firewall against Europe’s debt crisis.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said he hoped the move would spur other nations to kick in funds, which he said were “crucial not only to the eurozone but also to Asia and Japan if we are to ensure that the crisis is completely over.” The announcement comes several days before a Group of 20 finance chiefs’ meeting in Washington that is expected to focus on Europe’s debt, with the spotlight now on Spain as its borrowing costs spike.

Azumi said Tuesday that the $60.0 billion, which will come in the form of emergency loans using Japan’s foreign-exchange reserves, was “important to make public our attitude if we are to help forge an early agreement”. IMF chief Christine Lagarde welcomed the pledge and urged other member states to follow suit.

“This is an important step forward... to prevent and fight crises and to promote global economic stability,” she said.

The Washington-based fund earlier this year said it would likely need an additional $500.0 billion to help European countries strengthen their defenses against the crisis.

But Lagarde told a German newspaper that the lender was scaling back its debt-crisis funding needs to “400 billion dollars plus.”

“My hope is that we will get a critical mass this week,” added Lagarde in comments published Tuesday by the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Tuesday’s effort makes Japan the first non-eurozone country to announce a pledge, which will be formally announced at the G20 talks starting Friday, and was expected to be among the largest contribution by an IMF member.

Eurozone contributions have so far hit $200.0 billion, with Beijing and others also expected to kick in as part of the global effort.

Tokyo and Beijing have been in talks about their contributions with Azumi saying that the pair “have confirmed a shared sense of direction,” Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Lagarde added that “Japan has a longstanding record of helping others, and of supporting the IMF

FILE- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks at the Brookings Institution April 12, 2012. Japan said Tuesday it would pledge 60 billion US dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it was a critical part of the organization’s bid to boost a global firewall against Europe’s debt crisis. (AFP)

in its core mission of helping to support economic stability in all its member countries.”

Last month, eurozone finance ministers agreed to increase their bailout funds to 700 billion euros ($917 billion) from 500 billion, a move that was welcomed by Tokyo at the time.

Europe’s debt crisis has come sharply into focus again, with dealers growing concerned Madrid will have trouble closing its huge public deficit after an austerity budget that included swingeing cuts to services.

Yields on Spain’s benchmark 10-year bonds jumped above 6.0 percent for the first time since late last year, stoking fears it could follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

“We can never be optimistic about the situation in Europe, even though the area is almost set to exit the crisis thanks to (government) policy efforts,” Azumi was quoted as saying at a regular

press briefing in Tokyo.

While Azumi also said Europe has not done enough to tackle its financial crisis, he has previously praised the European Central Bank for its moves to tackle the simmering issue.

Japan’s move comes as a strong yen and sinking demand in key European markets dented its export-oriented economy, with Tokyo a regular buyer of debt issued by the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund since last year.

The ECB has chopped eurozone borrowing costs to an all-time low of one percent and embarked on a hotly contested program of buying up the bonds of debt-mired countries.

In two so-called long-term refinancing operations in December and February, it pumped more than 1.0 trillion euros ($1.31 trillion) into the banking system in a bid to avert a credit squeeze in the 17 countries that share the euro. -AFP

Trading Prices of Kuwait Exchange Trading Prices of Kuwait StockStock Exchange Date of Closing Prices: 17 / 04 / 2012 For more information please contact “Global” at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net

Company

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National Bank Gulf Bank Commercial Bank Ahli Bank Ahli United Bank International Bank Burgan Bank Kw Finance House Boubyan Bank

1,080 430 870 280 425 760 600

1,060 425 860 275 415 740 580

Kw Investment Commercial Facilit.

Int'L Financial Adv. National Invest.

Kw Projects Ahlia Holding Coast Invest.

Int'L Investor Securities House Ind. & Fin. Inv. Securities Group Int'L Finance MARKAZ KMIFIC Aref Inv. Group Al AMAN Inv. ALOLA Inv. ALMAL Inv. Gulf Inv. House A'ayan Leasing Bayan Inv. GLOBAL Inv. Osoul Inv. KFIC KAMCO Nat. Int'l Holding Housing Finance MADAR Al Deera Holding Al Safat Inv. Al Salam Group Ekttitab Holding Al Qurain Holding Sokouk Holding Al-Madina Finance NOOR Tamdeen Inv. KW BH Int'l Exch.

Taiba Kuwaiti Holding Kuwait Syrian Strategia Kuwait China Inv. Manafae Inv. Gulf North Africa Amwal Al Masar Al-Imtiaz

150 305 61 106 116 148 52 64 295 39.0 236.0 104.0 75.0 178 65 52 50 112

148 300 60 100 114 146 51 64 280 37.5 224.0 102.0 72.0 176 64 52 49 102

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Global Index - Investment

Kuwait Insurance Gulf Insurance Ahlia Insurance Warba Insurance Kuwait Re-Ins. First Takaful Ins. Wethaq Insurance

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Global Index - Insurance

Kuwait R.E. United R.E. National R.E. Salhia R.E. Pearl R.E. Tamdeen R.E. Ajial R.E. Massaleh R.E. Arab R.E. Union R.E. ERESCO Mabani INJAZZAT RE Inv. Holding Grp Int'L Resorts Commercial R.E Sanam R.E. Aa'yan R.E Aqar Kuwait R.E Holding AL Mazaya Al Dar National R.E Themar Int'L Holding Grand R.E Projects Tijara & R.E Invest Al Tameer Arkan Al-Kuwait R.E Al Argan Int'L Abyaar Munshaat First Dubai KBT Manazel REAM Mena Real Estate Al Moudon Intl. R.E Markaz Real Estate Kuwait Remal R.E

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Date of Closing Prices:

228 120 1,260 290 880

224 120 1,260 290 870

1060 430 790 610 870 275 420 740 590 318.22

Previous Close Change 177.21 1.54 6,196.00 41.40 Trading Activity Tran. Value(KD) Chng Volume

DTD 0.87% 0.67% Last Bid

Last Ask

MTD YTD -0.31% -2.42% 1.17% 7.28% Div. Annual Close High Yield Low P/E

20 5 5 10 2.92

405,000 370,000 45,000 3,110,000 190,000 410,000 2,880,000 7,410,000

18 10 3 40 7 31 56 165

433,950 157,300 39,100 855,750 79,250 307,200 1,699,050 3,571,600

1,060 425 590 870 275 420 740 590

1,080 430 630 880 280 425 750 600

3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 2.5% 1.7% 1.8% 2.4% 2.0% 0.0% 2.0%

1,220 510 800 680 920 285 480 900 600 326.42

1,040 425 700 600 790 236 410 720 530 314.20

15.55 36.98 1240.61 18.34 32.63 26.79 12.99 26.75 130.71 19.55

-

35 23 63 195 16 43 29 6 12 53 113 134 238 13 4 1 11 270

104 255 148 305 60 102 114 146 51 34.5 61.0 285 38.5 236.0 102.0 73.0 176 27 72 64 52 49 110.0

106 260 150 310 62 230 104 116 102 148 52 35.5 66.0 295 61 39.0 104.0 74.0 180 295 30 65 54 50 112.0

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.9% 3.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.4%

112 285 67 182 345 18.5 69 25.0 130 36.0 230 122 120 102 52 35.5 148 65 35 71 44.0 48.5 70.0 26.0 295 65 39 51 47.5 104 270.0 130.0 25.0 33.5 96.0 29.0 190 310 114 32 89 73 60 59 64 42.5 140.0 85.99

104 255 40 144 295 11.5 50 25.0 130 21.0 230 99 102 50 52 24.0 106 47 21 71 28.5 48.5 64.0 26.0 242 51 36 51 26.0 61 99.0 19.5 19.0 16.0 38.0 29.0 154 255 114 26 58 50 51 47 64 42.5 106.0 74.96

16.16 9.83 0.00

104 260 52 148 305 13.0 60 25.0 130 25.0 230 102 112 102 52 26.0 148 51 26.5 71 35.0 48.5 64 26.0 270 65 38.5 51 37.5 100 226.0 102.0 22.0 22.5 73.0 29.0 174.0 285 114 28.00 75 64 52 49 64 42.50 106 80.58

25 1.5 10.0 1.0 4.0 1 4 0.81

1,740,000 520,000 3,560,000 16,360,000 620,000 3,940,000 2,240,000 400,000 230,000 6,880,000 5,220,000 5,900,000 16,760,000 360,000 440,000 40,000 880,000 10,120,000 76,210,000

1,259

258,320 157,350 215,360 1,685,000 71,720 575,280 115,280 25,600 67,500 263,040 1,217,480 609,920 1,233,880 63,760 28,520 2,080 42,880 1,083,560 7,716,530

300 520 500 134 220 122 40.50 43.48

300 520 500 134 220 122 40.50 43.48

Ex-D Ex-D Ex-D -

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255 500 124 30.0

300 500 550 144 43.0

6.7% 3.8% 5.0% 3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.7%

325 610 540 148 220 134 40.5 44.91

280 520 450 102 220 102 40.5 42.22

55 110 124 232 32.5 234 118 91 35.0 110 95 970 76 14.5 61.0 95 55 65 74 36.0 83 19.0 87 17.5 41.5 69 75 160 41.5 28.5 40.5 17.5 20.5 134 134 220 53 340 57.14

1 -2 4 -

1,640,000 2,760,000 300,000 660,000 560,000 760,000 645,000 240,000 2,080,000 36,960,000 6,480,000 1,000,000 18,440,000 240,000 3,920,000 9,680,000 1,000,000 14,640,000 2,480,000 1,920,000 160,000 320,000 670,000 107,555,000

21 25 8 19 7 14 29 6 20 228 32 21 302 5 33 63 10 75 30 22 2 8 37

56 112 124 236 236 134 36.5 96 990 76 15.0 65.0 95 54 67 79 37.5 84 19.5 89 44.0 68 76 170 42.0 40.0 20.5 130 34 53 340

1,017

90,240 303,600 36,280 153,960 20,120 72,960 635,200 18,040 30,640 2,311,600 615,240 53,600 1,226,080 19,840 74,440 420,160 67,600 609,640 98,360 39,360 5,080 17,040 223,750 7,142,830

55 110 122 234 230 108 87 35.5 95 980 74 14.5 64.0 94 53 65 76 34.0 83 18.5 87 43.0 160 41.5 39.0 20.0 32 52 330

Ÿ

56 110 122 236 32.5 234 118 91 36.0 110 96 990 75 15.0 65.0 94 54 67 74 36.0 84 19.5 87 17.5 44.0 68 75 160 41.5 28.5 39.5 17.5 20.5 134 134 220 53 340 57.57

0.0% 4.5% 0.0% 6.4% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 7.7% 0.0% 6.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.7% 6.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.0%

63 118 152 246 37.5 250 130 100 52.0 120 104 1,080 85 20.0 67.0 97 75 73 90 38.0 92 23.0 91 17.5 45.0 70 80 174 52.0 39.5 40.5 28.5 25.5 134 34 220 70 480 57.93

47 97 108 200 32.5 224 114 77 27.0 108 94 840 62 11.0 35.0 77 54 52 74 33.0 59 13.5 87 17.5 31.0 57 64 116 27.5 22.0 25.0 17.5 15.0 134 31 220 49 270 49.06

Ÿ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ

228 120 450 122 1,260 290 134 880

224 118 450 122 1,260 290 134 880

1,320,000 1 320 000 160,000 57,500 30,000 35,000

31 8 10 3 5

298,400 298 400 19,200 72,450 8,700 30,700

226 118 440 124 1,240 285 128 870

228 120 450 132 1,260 295 142 880

0.0% 0 0% 0.0% 3.3% 0.0% 5.8% 3.4% 0.0% 7.4%

260 136 470 158 1,480 345 222 920

214 116 415 122 1,260 290 134 660

ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ

55 110 120 230 35.5 96 970 74 14.5 61.0 94 52 65 81 18.5 42.0 66 41.0 39.0 20.5 32 53 330

1080 430 790 610 870 280 425 740 600 321.13

Ÿ ŷ ź Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ Ÿ Ÿ ź Ÿ Ÿ ź ź Ÿ ŷ ŷ Ÿ Ÿ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ź ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ź ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ

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1 2 4 1 -

1.0 1 20 -1 0.5 4.0 -1 -1 2 1 0.5 2.5 -1 1.0Ex-D 0.43 4 2 -

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties has secured a four billion UAE dirham (1.09 billion US dollars) credit facility from National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), a deal expected to help the struggling developer manage its liquidity needs.

The three-year revolving facility, which was undrawn at signing, will be used for general business purposes, Aldar said in an emailed statement.

The funds from the deal will allow the company to manage its working capital and liquidity requirements over the next three years, it said.

No terms of the deal were provided in the statement, the latest show of financial support for the emirate’s flagship developer which has been hit hard by slumping real estate value in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

National Bank of Abu Dhabi is the largest lender by market value in the UAE and over 70-percent government-owned.

Aldar has been bailed out twice by the Abu Dhabi government with rescue packages totaling over $10 billion.

State-owned investment fund

Mubadala, which holds a near-majority position in Aldar said last month that it transferred a 14 percent stake in the developer to secure a loan facility from another Abu Dhabi lender.

Talks are also underway for a possible merger of the developer with rival Sorouh Real Estate, as Abu Dhabi looks to consolidate its property sector.

Shares of Aldar were flat on the Abu Dhabi bourse following the announcement.

Aldar’s $1.25 billion 10.75 percent bond, maturing 2014 was bid at 109.244 on Tuesday, according to Thomson Reuters data, to yield 6 percent, down about 10 basis points since the beginning of the month.

The builder of the Yas Marina Formula One circuit has been forced to sell key projects to the government including the Ferrari World Theme Park.

The announcement comes after the United Arab Emirates’ central bank amended large exposure limit rules for state-linked firms earlier this month, setting a limits of 100 percent of the capital base for all lending by a bank. -Reuters

IFC, IDB to invest $100 million in MENA infrastructure

DUBAI: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Islamic Development Bank (IDB) jointly plan to invest up to 100 million US dollars on major infrastructure projects across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), IFC said on Monday. Both the institutions are pooling in $50 million each to the Arab Infrastructure Investment Vehicle, which is part of the Arab Financing Facility for Infrastructure (AFFI), a joint initiative of the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and IFC. The AFFI provides financing and technical assistance to cross-border infrastructure projects and encourages governments and the private sector to work to-

gether on such projects.

IFC, which invests in developing the private sector in emerging economies, is looking at sectors such as infrastructure, education, financial services and trade, a senior executive said in January, adding it plans one billion dollar MENA investments by end June.

Governments in the Gulf Arab region are also investing billions of dollars to boost local infrastructure as they cater to demands of growing young population.

The IFC has invested close to two billion dollars in the region last year and has channeled more than $2.2 billion since the beginning of the Arab Spring last January. -Reuters

05 / 01 / 2012

For more Information please contact "Global" at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net

104 260 52 148 305 13.0 61 25.0 130 25.0 230 104 116 102 52 26.0 148 52 26.5 71 35.0 48.5 64 26.0 295 65 38.5 51 39.0 100 236.0 102.0 22.0 22.5 74.0 29.0 178 285 114 28.00 75 65 52 49 64 42.50 110 81.39

ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ Ÿ

56 110 122 236 36.0 96 990 76 15.0 65.0 95 54 68 84 19.5 44.0 68 42.0 40.5 20.5 32 54 340

Global Index - Real Estate

Nationl Ind Ind. Group Pipes Ind. & Oil Kuwait Cement Refrigeration Ind. Gulf Cables & Elec.

Heavy eng. & Ship.

Marine Services Portland Cement

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Last Close 178.75 6,237.40 Last Prev.

Close Close

Abu Dhabi’s Aldar signs $1.1 billion credit facility with NBAD

Trading Prices of Kuwait Stock Exchange Date of Closig Prices: 17/04/2012

For more Information please contact "Global" at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net Global General Index KSE Price Index

11

13.57 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 46.63 0.00 0.00 0.00 67.72 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13.99 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.77 22.52 16.18 573.07

0.00 0.00 5.49 13.93 13.38 13.67 11.92 21.80 63.13 64711.96 13.38 50.32 12.93 16.47 0.00 22.83 9.61 15.16 24.12 29.12 0.00 16.39 393.14

108.32 0.00 13.74 8.00 178.97 0.00 0.00 26.88 439.41 0.00 0.00 19.25

20.11 7.29 13.08 16.78 31.52

- Change 216 216 - ŷ Last Close Previous Close DTD 112 112 176.53 - źŷ 110 -0.40% 116 177.24 -0.70 - 5,754.20 - -27.30 350 3505,726.90 330 355 - źŷ -0.47% 218 218 216 226 - ŷ ACICO Prev.

Trading116 Activity1,067,280 Last85 Last 5 12,920,000 80 85 80 Ÿ Last United Industries 85 Company Close High Volume Ask630 Chng 35,000 Tran.3 Value(KD) 630 630 21,800 Bid 620 ŷ Close 620 Boubyan Petroch.

630 Low 1,100 1,100 1,200 ŷ Gulf Glass 3,796,050 - 1,120 1,140 - 1,120 - ŷ -1120 1120 69 3,377,500 National Bank 1,140 216 216 ŷ HilalBank Cement 20 495 495 -830,000 407,950 490 - ŷ Gulf 495 490 495 415 415 ŷ 390 Al Kout Ind. Bank Project 770 770 10,000 1 7,700 -Commercial 770 770 - ŷ 770 780 275 275 300 255 K-PAK 640 -20 2 6,400 660 10,000 640 - źŷ Ahli Bank 640 640 660 224 Ex-D 224 Building Material 800 50 850 350,000 23 282,700 Ahli United Bank 850 840 850 800 - Ÿ 305 3,100 10,000 310 16 1 248 248 -5 700,000 173,600 305 310 Ÿ 310 310 ŷ Nat. Ind.Co. Bank 248 International 246 248 248 130 10 2,860,000 59 460 465 140 -5 500,000 10 229,750 391,560 132 źŸ 140 140 Equipment Holding 460 460 465 Burgan Bank 455 890 -10 880 1,280,000 66 1,127,050 102 102 890 880 Kw FinanceIndustries House 880 - źŷ 870 Consumer 590 590 607,850 1,035,000 33 580 - ŷ Boubyan Bank 590 590 580 128 Ex-D 128 Kuwait Gypsum 214 1,740,000 240 32 372,280 214 214 212 Qurain Index - Banking214 212 źŷ 319.37 319.54 8,092,500 6,639,050 0.17-Global 44 44 - ŷ Salbookh Trading 106 106 Kw Investment 102 106 - ŷ 194 560,000 19 194 109,560 194 ŷ 192 198 IKARUS 194 260 265 5 250,000 14 65,750 265 260 265 260 Commercial Facilit. ź 75 75 ŷ 75 74 Boubyan Int'L Ind. 40 1,680,000 -1 67,160 41 13 41 40 40 40 ź Int'L Financial Adv. 19,727,500 287 0.85 167.40 2,395,030 166.55 Global Invest.

Index - Industrial 170 1,040,000 20 172 -2 177,720 174 National 172 170 źŸ 168 300 110,000 5 33,000 295 5300 - Ÿŷ Kw Projects 300 295 300 960 960 960 National Cinema 1,000 7,040,000 12.5 12.5 46 90,920 Ahlia Holding 13.5 - 12.5 - ŷ 12.5 13.0 280 280 ŷ Kw Hotels 1,280,000 22 6 52 53 -1 67,280 51 52 Coast 53 52 400 210,000 83,000 400 400 AgilityInvest.

395 źŷ 395 400 25.0 25.0 Int'L Investor ŷ 52 52 Market Complexes - ŷ 130 130 Securities House - ŷ 720 639,000 10 885,000 730 33 Ÿ 720 ZAIN 730 720 730 31.0 31.0 Ind. & Fin. Inv. -75.0 -74.0 33.5 -73.0 ŷ 1,600,000 2.0 75.0 28 118,280 73.0 Ÿ Safat Energy 75.0 230 230 - - - -Securities Group - - -- ŷ 110 110 -ŷ Educational Group 102 102 Int'L Finance - ŷ 350 350 Indep. Petroleum 330 - ŷ 355 108 112 73,920 680,000 18 110 MARKAZ 106 110 108 ŷ 11,840,000 1,914,280 194 166 10.0 156 National Cleaning 166 154 Ÿ 164 166 50 50 KMIFIC - ŷ 320,000 104 16 104 33,440 104 ŷ 104 Sultan Center 106 106 44.0 44.0 Int'L Inv. Group ŷ 200,000 10 21,560 -2 108 106 106 ź 106 Arabi Group 108 108 52 52 Aref Inv. Group - ŷ 550 550 - ŷ City Group 540 74 74 Investment Dar - ŷ 57,500 16 132,900 60 2,280 2,340 Ÿ 2,300 Wataniya Tele.

2,340 2,300 2,340 28.5 28.5 27.0 29.5 Al AMAN Inv. ŷ 7,060,000 10 864,360 125 124 114 Ÿ 116 ŷ Kw GulfInv. Link 124 124 108 14 54,920 108 500,000 110 ALOLA 110 108 108 58 58 ŷ Kw Cable Vision 49 49.5 15,840 -1 320,000 4 ALMAL Inv. 50 49 50 49 ź 300 300 ŷ 290 Automated System 320 23 - - 23 -- -Gulf Inv. House 21 24 -- ŷ 355 355 ŷ NAPESCO 71 71 - ŷ A'ayan Leasing - 295 8,850 30,000 295 ŷ 295 ŷ KCPCInv. 295 295 31.0 290 31.0 31.0 58,760 1,840,000 22 3 -32.5 Bayan 31.0 32.5 255 255 ŷ K.S.H 48.5 48.5 GLOBAL Inv. ŷ 260 260 ŷ - ŷ Eyas Inv. - - 68 68 - 64.0 Osoul 2 1,299,640 12,100,000 177 108 106 Ÿ Hits Telecom 20.5 20.5 - 106 - 108 -106 ŷ GULFINVEST -108 1 2,800,000 19 49,120 17.5 18.0 Ÿ Al Safwa Holding 26.0 26.0 -17.5 -18.0 -17.5 ŷ KFIC -18.0 270 270 ŷ Human Soft 244 - 244 -- - - 238 KAMCO -- ŷ -4,280,000 70 323,800 76 75 Ÿ 75 Privatization 77 75 94 -1 94 -76 Int'l Leasing &Holding Inv. - ŷ 84 84 ŷ Nafaaes Holding - - 51 51 -- - 5489 -- ŷ Nat. Int'l Holding -154 154 - 36 ŷ 36 -- - NationalFinance Slaughter 184 - --- ŷ Housing 51 51 -2 120 10 118 200,000 23,880 Ÿ MADAR - ŷ Aref energy 120 120 118 118 26.5 26.5 2 6,360 240,000 600 600 26.0 26.5 - 26.5 - ŷ 27.0 Al Deera Holding ŷ 600 Safwan 75 75 Al Safat Inv. - ŷ 2.0 72.0 6,640,000 70.0 102 475,280 Ÿ 72.0 71.0 Gulf Petroleum 73.0 70.0 8.0 122.0 112.0 1,305,280 120.0 Al Salam Group 0.5- 11,180,000 25.0 24.5 160,000 212 2 3,880 118.0 24.5 Gulf Franchising 24.5 114.0 23.0 24.0 Ÿź 120.0 2.0-39.5 41.5 24 77,080 1,920,000 39.0 41.0 - 39.0 - źŷ Ekttitab 120 120 130 Credit &Holding Collection 19.0 19.0 - 20.0 -19.5 ŷ Al Qurain Ranges Holding -20.0 18.0 57 195,080 10,000,000 20.0 20.0 ŷ 20.0 19.5 National 16.5 5 7,920 16.5 480,000 16.0 16.5 16.5 - 16.5 - ŷ Sokouk 260 260 ŷ 270 Burgan Holding Well Drilling 39.0 0.5-- 10,640,000 93 419,440 38.5 Al-Madina 40.0 38.5 39.0 400 220,500 540,000 400 41 405 420 38.5 IFA H&R Finance 400 źŷ 400 29.0 29.0 - 20 NOOR ŷ 100,950 1,700 60,000 11 1,680 Ÿ 1,700 1,680 Combinted Group 1,700 1,680 160 2.0158 12,680 80,000 45 15681 16083 Tamdeen Inv. 160 158 -3 83 86 16,560 200,000 82 źź 83 Jeeran Holding 255 255 -2 270 KW BH Agro Int'l Exch.

- ŷ 118 4,680 114 4 40,000 Ÿ Palms 118 116 114 122 114 114 Taiba -3 - ŷ 71.0 8,600 1.0 120,000 72.0 Ÿ 72.0 72.0 73.0 SafatKuwaiti TEC Holding 71.0 26.00 26.00 2788 Kuwait Syrian ŷ 20 880 000 77 440 88 86 2.0 880,000 13 77,440 Mushrif Trading 89 87 Ÿ 86 68 - - 68 - 63 73 -Strategia -- ŷ 340 340 -ŷ 315 345 UPAC 53 200,000 53 10,600 2 53 52 53 53 Kuwait China Inv. 295 295 283,200 19 960,000 ŷ ALAFCO 295 295 ŷ 295 300 60 60 61 - ŷ Manafae Inv. 168 168 - ŷ Al-Muwasat 178 46.5 46.5 47 Gulf North Africa - ŷ 300 305 24 117,300 5 390,000 Mashaer Holding 300 Ÿ 305 305 300 64 64 69 Amwal - ŷ 265 5,300 2 265 20,000 Oula Fuel 265 ŷ 260 270 265 42.50 42.50 Al Masar ŷ 285 285 - ŷ 270 Future Comm.

128 130 2 1,240,000 38 157,920 124 ź 124.0 128.0 Al-Imtiaz 132 104 81,400 102 23 2.0 780,000 106 104 106 104 Ÿ Hayat Comm.

76.02 0.1275.90 40,720,000 558 2,702,550 ź Global Index - Investment 64 648,880 61 152 3 10,240,000 65 64 64 61 Ÿ Mubarrad Transport - - 325 325 - 325 Kuwait 300 48.0 48.0 -ŷ 49.0 45.5 --- ŷ KuwaitInsurance Resorts - - 560 560 - 610 -- ŷ Gulf Insurance -510 770 770 -ŷ 750 Advanced Technolgy - 485 - 485 - --- ŷ Ahlia 460 500 385 385 Ex-D 375 350 YiacoInsurance Medical 118 -8 120,000 110 6 13,200 112 108 - źŷ Warba Insurance 108 114 470 470 450 460 Al Jazeera Airways 220 220 Ex-D-2 -1 Kuwait Re-Ins. 240 242 4,800 20,000 ź 238 242 240 Al Soor Fuel 240 114 -114 - - - - 110 First Takaful --- ŷ 106 106 ŷ 108 Future Kid Ins. -40.50 40.50 - 285 43.0 Wethaq -295 -290 ŷ 290 505,600 290 91 1,740,000 ŷ 290 K G L Insurance 43.63 0.19-120,000 6 13,200 Global Index - Insurance 82 82 86 - źŷ 43.43 Al Nawadi 77 122 20,000 2,400 120 120 114 Alrai Media 120 źź 120 11 3,840 49 -1-2 48 80,000 49 48 48 Kuwait R.E. 48 98 98 Zima Holding 106 92,000 9 100 99 1920,000 100 100 - Ÿŷ 99 United R.E. 100 1,256 733.32 724.39 74,392,500 105 8,263,960 8.93 383,920 124 120 4 3,100,000 118 ŸŸ 126 National 126 122 Global R.E. Index - Services 12 104,680 200 204 -4 520,000 200 - źŷ 202 Salhia R.E.Trans.

204 200 184 184 LiveStock 37.5 37.5 Pearl R.E. 37.5 ŷ 93 40,000 1 3,760 94 1 94 94 Dana Al-Safat 93 94 Ÿ 3 224 10.0100,000 22,400 234 224 224 ź 224 Tamdeen R.E. 136 136 United Poultry 126 - ŷ 120 120 Ajial R.E. - ŷ 110 130 1,360 1,360 401,200 295,000 20 1,340 Kw FoodStuff 1,360 1,360 ŷ 1,360 82 82 - ŷ Massaleh R.E. 85 340 340 290 United Food - ŷ 350 1 30.0 80,000 30.5 0.52,400 Arab R.E. 31.5 30.0 30.0 ź 580 550 1 2,750 -30 5,000 550 Kout Food 550 600 550 ź 108 108 - ŷ 112 118 Union R.E. 0.9422 407,710 334.34 335.27 340,000 Global Index - Food 98 31,160 -1 320,000 98 97 8 95 98 96 źź ERESCO 1,656,950 10 1,935,000 850 57 860 86077 860 840 - Ÿ 87081 Mabani 85 85 Ex-D Sharjah Cement 2 8,960 120,000 275 73 75 7681 74 7177 INJAZZAT RE 88 3,440,000 303,760 88 60 Gulf Cement 90 87 Ÿŷ 15 23,960 11.5 12.0 0.5-2,000,000 12.0 11.587 12.089 Inv. 70 86,800 70 1,240,000 20 70 11.5 70 źŷ UmHolding QuwainGrp Cement 38.0 38.0 35.5 37.0 Int'L Resorts ŷ 93 120,000 11,080 3 3 90 91 Ÿ 69 93 Fujaira Cement 70 3 18,520 78 77 1240,000 7788 7993 78 77 - Ÿŷ Commercial R.E 126 126 Ras AlKheimah 67,400 17 1,000,000 65 70 -5 65 70 65 - źŷ Sanam 112 112 124 ARIG R.E. 128 4 10,720 54 -1 55 200,000 53 54 54 53 - źŷ Aa'yan 178 178 120 102 United R.E Gulf Bank - 90 -- 90 - 91 --- ŷ Aqar 280 280 ŷ 188 178 Egypt Kw Holding - - - 38.0 38.0 40.5 - 280 Kuwait R.E 455 Ex-D 455 300 Bahrain KwHolding Ins. - ŷ 11 59 26,160 440,000 -4 63 60 59 AL Mazaya 60 56.0 300,760 56.0 56 5,440,000 55.0 źŷ Gulf Fin. House 56.0 1 80,000 1,120 14.0 14.5 0.514.5 14.0 ź Al Dar National R.E 13.5 14.0 Ÿ Inovest Int'L Holding 72 69 18,920,000 69 1,340,440 168 71 2 91 91 9456 - ŷ 9055 Themar 2 2 13,560 168 170 80,000 ź 70 Ahli United Bank 170 168 17.5 17.5 - 71 Grand R.E Projects ŷ 29.5 29,600,000 190 850,920 3 Ÿ 168.0 170.0 Ithmaar Bank 31.0 31.027.0 33.5 -27.0 ŷ 30.0 Tijara & R.E Invest -29.5 Ÿ 2,907,320 41.87 0.00 41.88 58,840,000 499 59 59 57 - ŷ Al Tameer Global Index - Non-Kuwaiti -4 320,000 2 22,400 70 74 70 74 Arkan Al-Kuwait R.E 70 - źŷ 70 122 122 Markaz Real Estate 48.5 48.5 Safat Global ŷ Investment Funds 124 124 116 126 - ŷ Al Argan Int'L 144 144 12 0.5-2,720,000 76,880 28.0 28.5 Al-Bareeq Holding 28.0 28.5 28.5 - 28.0 - źŷ Abyaar 1.0-80,000 1 1,880 23.5 24.5 106 106 25.0 23.5 23.5 - 23.5 - źŷ Munshaat AFAQ 0.5240,000 6,160 3 26.0 25.5 25.0 25.5 First Dubai 26.0 - 25.5 - ź 250 250 Ex-D Al-Shamel 35,040,000 946,080 - 4 27.0 27.0 24.5 28.0 KBT 27.0 27.0 ŷ 22.0 22.0 ŷ 23.0 Al-Safat Real Estate 1,200,000 8 1.019,240 16.5 15.5 15.5 16.033 Manazel 16.5 15.5 ź 2 7,360 31 240,000 32 2 31 31 31 ź Ajwan Real Estate 134 134 130 REAM - ŷ 28 215,850 480,000 450 450 ŷ 445 450 455 Specialities Group 440 - - - 134 134 29 3250 -Mena RealInter.

Estate -- ŷ 51 51 ŷ Masaken -- - - 220 220 - Al Moudon Intl. R.E 218 --- ŷ 345 345 ŷ Dulaqan R.E -1 240,000 6 13,520 57 58 Markaz Real Estate 57 56 - źŷ 5580 57 106 106 Eid Food 47 610,850 295 290 52,110,000 Kuwait 295 285 - Ÿŷ 290 295 2,260 2,260 MaidanRemal Clinic R.E 0.024,151,200 49.73 49.75 ź Global Index - Real Estate 40.5 Ex-D 53,085,000 - 332 40.5 43.0 Flex 88.0 88.0 ŷ -92.0 Dar Al-Thuraya Real E 242 242 -10 13,220,000 - 154 3,111,120 232 232 Nationl Ind. Group 232 ź ŷ 65 65 Kw Medical Services 128 -140,000 6 17,800 128 122 13070 Pipes Ind. & Oil 128 126 - ŷ Amar For Fin. & Leas. 455 55 55 470 -20 50,000 2 22,550 450 45550 46560 Kuwait Cement 450 - źŷ 150 150 150 - ŷ Refrigeration Ind. 720,000 30 223,210 Total Parallel Market 1,460 -40 2,500 1 1,420 3,550 1,420 1,420 ź 1,420 Gulf Cables & Elec.

1,440 4,505 32,404,980 Totaleng.

Market 335 - 344,475,000335 310 - ŷ Heavy & Ship.

340 212 Close 212 Marine Services - ŷ 216 Prev. -Close Change DTD Global Special Indices 720 230,000 720 19 165,600 710 720 ŷ Portland Cement 720 720 Ÿ 188.65 186.93 1.72 0.92% Global Industrial Index - Kuwaiti Co.'s 180 180 178 190 - ŷ Shuaiba Ÿ 181.69 2.01 1.11% 183.70 Global Index 10 Large Cap. 106 -2 104 80,000 3 8,480 104 ź 104 108 Metal Collecting 110 Ÿ 563.56 1.06 0.19% 460 564.62 Global Index - Islamic 460 435 - ŷ Kuwait Foundry Shuaiba Industrial

Metal Collecting Global General Index Kuwait Foundry KSE Price Index

0.0% 216 180 12.59 MTD YTD 0.0% 120 102 -1.55% -1.55% 495 0.0% 315 -1.50% -1.50% 224 2.3% 196 27.06 Div. Annual 0.0% 102 Close79 34.79 Yield High630 Low550 P/E 0.0% 89.84 1,400 1,100 17.40 3.6% 3.6% 1,120 1,100 14.74 216 206 12.38 6.9% 0.0% 510 490 33.95 340 9.94 415 8.4% 1.9% 790 770 88.62 300 0.0% 275 5.20 3.1% 660 640 17.34 228 35.32 224 2.2% 1.6% 850 790 29.68 260 25.33 325 3.2% 0.0% 255 248 23.59 140 0.0% 0.0% 475 46051 12.26 2.3% 900 88093 25.07 102 0.0% 0.0% 590 590 18.88 128 112.24 128 5.5% 222 318.41 210 13.03 0.0% 2.0% 319.54 18.61 41 0.00 51 0.0% 0.0% 106 106 40.56 162 214 17.30 4.1% 8.5% 265 260 12.09 0.0% 88 70 0.0% 42 40 163.04 13.74 174.76 2.8% 0.0% 174 170 88.93 6.7% 305 295 12.13 18.02 910 4.4% 1,120 0.0% 13.5 12.5 1.33 280 0.0% 280 0.0% 54 52 430 15.48 340 7.5% 0.0% 25.065 25.041 0.00 0.00 0.0% 0.0% 130 130 900 690 11.00 8.9% 0.0% 36.0 31.0 81.0 45.0 0.0% 0.0% 230 230 110 110 58.86 0.0% 0.0% 102 102 0.00 295 350 0.0% 9.3% 116 108 166 21.21 110 3.0% 0.0% 50 50 0.00 102 136 0.0% 0.0% 44.0 44.0 0.00 84 8.96 110 0.0% 0.0% 52 52 0.00 530 550 0.0% 0.0% 74 74 0.00 1,920 12.21 2.1% 2,340 0.0% 28.5 28.5 0.00 0.0% 126 0.0% 112 10895 0.00 0.0% 0.0% 5168 4958 230 22.18 8.3% 350 0.0% 23 22 7.0% 340 8.75 395 0.0% 71 71 0.00 3.4% 260 10.08 305 0.0% 31.5 31.0 7.1% 255 12.82 260 0.0% 48.5 48.5 260 260 4.79 7.7% 0.0% 68.0 68.0 32.31 355.94 0.0% 132 0.0% 20.5 20.554 14.0 0.0% 23.5 0.0% 26.0 26.0 0.00 270 12.91 280 0.0% 0.0% 244 244 13.46 6.6% 0.0% 9484 9461 0.00 0.0% 104 0.0% 51 5184 116.80 154 9.95 0.0% 154 0.0% 36 36 0.00 0.0% 51 5191 0.00 0.0% 120 0.0% 26.5 27.5 520 14.57 4.5% 710 0.0% 75 75 0.00 30.0 11.18 0.0% 78.0 99.0 0.0% 120.0 16.0 0.0% 28.5 19.5 0.0% 41.5 120 0.0% 140 19.0 0.0% 19.0 0.00 20.5 0.0% 12.0 0.0% 17.0 16.5 42.66 198 0.0% 275 0.0% 39.0 38.0 87.26 490 380 0.0% 0.0% 29.0 0.00 % 29.0 16.18 1,740 1,500 4.1% 15673 8.28 3.8% 16289 5.51 0.0% 255 22.77 255 5.1% 13.68 8.5% 124 86 11.92 114 0.0% 114 0.0% 78.0 57.0 2680 0.0% 28 0 0% 0 00 0.0% 104 0.00 68 43.00 0.0% 68 340 12.34 8.8% 270 53 0.0% 55 280 3.4% 315 3.86 60 0.0% 60 130 7.71 6.0% 168 47 10.8% 47 172 4.3% 10.85 305 64 0.0% 64 21.52 305 265 0.0% 42.5 0.00 0.0% 42.5 300 20.02 265 0.0% 0.0% 132.0 128.0 5.19 0.0% 70 108 10.01 75.90 2.4% 76.32 0.0% 72 51 16.97 6.2% 325 325 0.0% 62.0 44.0 20.90 12.90 4.5% 560 560 1.9% 770 640 31.91 9.91 5.2% 520 485 3.9% 390 12.62 345 17.37 9.1% 118 110 485 410 9.80 0.0% 220 220 2.7% 0.0% 270 236 296.83 17.65 0.0% 134 11498 4.7% 14.64 114 40.5 0.0% 40.5 300 218 8.87 6.9% 12.60 4.7% 44.80 92 43.43 77 7.12 8.5% 114 156 22.32 0.0% 37.20 0.0% 49 48 0.0% 110 12.83 0.0% 100 9994 791.90 705.36 11.20 12.3% 0.0% 120 22.21 128 10.0% 200 17.83 208 182 15.27 222 0.0% 0.0% 37.5 37.5 90 114 0.0% 4.5% 234 224 16.20 126 6.02 3.7% 136 0.0% 130 120 1,360 11.38 4.8% 1,500 6.1% 82 82 5.29 390 44.60 340 1.5% 0.0% 30.5 30.0 500 9.86 5.5% 610 6.5% 108 108 15.28 365.22 334.34 11.36 4.2% 0.0% 100 96 39.65 0.0% 86095 84044 21.70 0.0% 0.0% 76 7355 0.0% 108 0.0% 0.00 12.573 11.543 32.52 10.0% 0.0% 38.0 38.046 0.0% 122 0.0% 78 14.56 77 118 11.30 7.9% 126 0.0% 75 65 102 0.0% 132 54 26.32 0.0% 55 172 0.0% 232 387.72 0.0% 90 90 7.1% 330 250 6.24 0.0% 38.0 38.0 5.5% 455 0.00 455 63 0.0% 59 0.0% 74.0 531.96 40.5 14.5 4.15 14.0 0.0% 0.0% 5.5% 91 91 9.27 7.1% 17.5 17.5 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 31.0 31.0 19.44 47.16 40.74 8.61 4.3% 0.0% 59 59 0.0% 78 70 11.37 1,220 1,220 0.0% 0.00 48.5 48.5 0.0% 144 124 5.38 0.0% 0.0% 29.0 28.0 27.28 0.0% 24.5 23.5 4.7% 5.03 0.0% 26.0 25.5 6.0% 13.99 0.0% 28.5 27.0 0.0% 0.0% 16.5 15.5 0.0% 3.7% 134 134 23.07 6.3% 14.45 0.0% 32 32 0.0% 220 0.0% 220 18.82 0.0% 816.78 57 60 0.00 0.0% 0.0% 9.98 0.0% 295 270 0.00 0.0% 1.1% 49.86 49.73 16.27 0.0% 22.75 0.0% 232 0.0% 260 70.58 0.0% 0.0% 130 128 0.0% 2.2% 470 450 18.38 3.3% 158 150 0.6% 13.19 4.6% 1,460 1,420 6.49 4.74% 14.63 3.0% 340 335 8.02 212 2.4% 222 193.84 MTD YTD 710 96.15 13.9% 740 -2.34% -0.47% 180 10.91 5.6% 180 -3.37% -3.46% 104 23.15 0.0% 116 0.89% 0.47% 460 26.77 4.3% 460

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

12

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, april 18, 2012

April 21, 2009 April 17, 2012 Rebased RebasedPerformance Performance 113

DailyIndex Index Performance Snapshot Daily Performance Snapshot

4% 6%

4% 6% Oman Saudi

113 111

2%

Qatar

2%

112 Dubai

-1%

Qatar

90

GCC Best Performers

Saudi

95 17-Jan-12 85

17-Feb-12

17-Mar-12

MENA Best Performers

-4%

17-Apr-12

Close

-6% -2

S&P Pan3-Feb-09 Arab Large/18-Feb-09 Mid Composite GCC Large/ Mid Composite 19-Jan-09 5-Mar-09S&P20-Mar-09 4-Apr-09 19-Apr-0

1

4 114 Bank AlBilad

Period's Liquidity 1 Ratio (PLR x)

-1

MENA Indices Highlights

SAR 9.20 SAR 5.60

KAM KIPCO Asset Management Co. GEC Galfar Engineering & Contracting

KWD 0.295 OMR 0.703

430 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. KCB Al Khaliji Commercial Bank

SAR 11.75 QAR 6.35

102 Bank Al Jazira

Country (Index)

Index Level

Sa Saudi Arabia (Tadawul All Share Index) Country (Index)

Ku Kuwait (KSE Weighted Index)

Index 7,512 Level

UASa UAE (ADX Index) Saudi Arabia (Tadawul All Share Index)

2,505 5,250

UAE (DFM(KSE Index) Ku Kuwait Weighted Index)

415

% Chg.

52 Wk High

YTD

3.2% % Chg.

52 Wk 7,931 High

17.0% YTD

0.9%

2.4%

52 Wk Low

Turnover USD million

Trailing

Mkt. Cap. USD million

PE

Trailing

OMR 0.720

8.0%

467

396

117

100,600

PE 14.19

PB1.42

17 2,183

66,161 264,263

8.74 10.24

1.04 1.77

GC Gulf Cement Co. 238 Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co.

4.2% 9.3%

2,775 10,090

2,293 4,130

MENA Worst Performers

0.0% 1.8%

21.9% -0.2%

1,754 787

1,301 316

55 718

34,597 98,547

10.68 9.99

0.78 1.52

8,713 2,695

-0.2% 0.6%

-0.7% 12.8%

8,892 5,148

8,071 2,137

104 122

126,265 69,783

11.51 7.29

BaQa Bahrain Qatar (BSE (DSMIndex) Index)

1,144 5,590

1,129 4,230

1 196

17,166 65,352

1.91 FAC QNCommercial Qatar Navigation 1.37 Facilities Co. 1.61 SO Sorouh Real Estate Co. 0.88 238 Rabigh Petrochem.

Eg Egypt (EGX 30 Index)

OmOman (MSM Index)

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

Ba Bahrain (BSE Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)

Eg Egypt (Hermes Egypt Index (HFI))*

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)*

Tu Tunisia (Tunis SE Index)

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)* *Market Closed

0.6% 1.9%

0.5% 3.9%

5.1% 6.6%

0.0% -18.8%

1,407 12,627

0.7%

12,109

4,679

-1.2%

29.2%

2,019

0.5%

1.3%

10,385

0.9%

5,478

1,681 463

5.1% 0.4%

1,190

0.0%

469

-0.1%

5,044

-0.3%

2,825

10,621 1,094

-

2.2% -

6,397 5,860 5,628

5,419 1,433 3,587

1,921

-6.6%

12,203

10,233

1.1%

1,403

1,164

-1.6%

513

465

2,903

8.5%

1,033

2.4%

5,044

-3.3%

14,635

-7.2%

2,119

6.0%

47

4,224

2,216

-6.8%

16 305

328

-

2,551 -

1,043

-

4,091

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

546

0.9%

23.6%

739

407

Tu TunisiaClosed (Tunis SE Index)* * Market

3,282

-

13.6%

3,418

2,837

55,343

9.29

SAR 13.70

-6.8%

8.07

1.29

101 Riyad Bank

SAR 24.70

-6.4%

7.67

1.56

33,782

12.71

2.15

59,990

18.36

3.95

8,507

6.47

0.86

2,079

8.67

2.50

6,576

13.85

1.92

56,927

15.26

1.30

1.61 3.25

6.32

0.85

9.12

10,014

-

15.49

SAUDI ARABIA *Market Closed Rebased Performance

Summary

465,630,625

115 Alinma Bank (KSA)

1.77

430 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. (KSA)

250,957,240

Turnover (USD)

198,415,586

422 Emaar the Economic City (KSA)

343,553,085 193,589,808

201 (KSA) 201Saudi SaudiBasic BasicIndustries IndustriesCorp.

Corp.

(KSA)

119,955,261 187,738,978

115 703Alinma Zain - Bank Saudi(KSA) Arabia (KSA)

NBKNational Bank of Kuwait (KUW)

97,126,838

KFI Kuwait Finance House (KUW)

88,742,222

EMAEmaar Properties (UAE) Best Performers

64,280,166

32.00

Advance/Decline Ratio

Close 7030.SSE Zain - Saudi Arabia

7,931 / 5,916 4300.SSE Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

Tadawul Index 52 week High / Low

12,736,425

Turnover (SAR '000)

114

Turnover (USD)

MENA Highest Turnover

1.15

88% 1140.SSE Bank AlBilad

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

115

GCC Highest Turnover

7,512 (3.2%)

Tadawul Index (% Chg.)

125

-1.8% -8.9%

225 Saudi Industrial Inv. Grp.

2,509

2

1.10 SARAED 22.95

1.68

13.70

10,571

7

QAR 69.40 -13.1% -2.3% KWD 0.265

9.50

27,619

63,640

1

SAR 23.10% Chg. -2.5% Close

-1.8% -8.6%

18,727

1

-10.0%

2.75 SARAED 48.00

4

5

9.17 8.85

% Chg.

0.88 201 CBD Commercial Bank of Dubai 1.74 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

15,024

67

9,406

5,065

10.83 6.87

46

13

1,572

18,371 37,413

Close AED 1.08

1,649 406 5,983 1,745

8.0%

BKMBankMuscat

Mkt.390,739 Cap. USD million

0.2% -4.0%

8.3% 8.6%

8.0%

Turnover 3,396 USD million

2.02

9.3% 8.8%

QAR 21.60

525,916 Wk Low

13.16

9.5% 9.8%

QGTQatar Gas Transport Co.

QaUAUAE Qatar (DSM Index) (ADSM Index) OmOman UAE(MSM (DFMIndex) Index)

SAR 29.60

GCC Worst Performers

PB

% Chg.

SAR 31.40% Chg. 9.8% Close

703Kingdom Zain - Saudi 3 428 Hldg.Arabia Co.

Period's Liquidity Ratio (PLR x)*

MENA Indices Highlights

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi

-2%

-6%

Palestine

-4%

Dubai

95 100

Dubai Bahrain

Palestine

105

0%

0%

-2%

Saudi Dubai

0%

100

Kuwait Kuwait

Oman

Qatar Saudi

Bahrain Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi

Oman Qatar

Return DailyDaily Return (%)(%)

109

Kuwait Oman

110

1%

0%

Jordan Kuwait

105

Jordan Egypt

115110

3% 4%

Bahrain Bahrain

120115

Bull/Bear Indicator Bull/Bear Indicator

1,465,388,837

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

% Chg.

31.40

9.8%

9.20

9.5%

11.75

8.3%

1020.SSE Bank Al Jazira

29.60

8.0%

4220.SSE Emaar the Economic City

12.65

7.2%

112

Highest Turnover

Worst Performers

105

Turnover (SAR) 1,746,254,532 2380.SSE Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co. 941,164,937 1060.SSE SABB 744,117,972 1090.SSE Samba Financial Grp. 726,019,856 3050.SSE Southern Province Cement Co.

1 Alinma Bank 43Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. 42Emaar the Economic City 20Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

95 17-Jan-12

17-Feb-12

17-Mar-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

17-Apr-12

704,077,489

70Zain - Saudi Arabia

7020.SSE Etihad Etisalat Co.

Close

% Chg.

23.10

-2.5%

36.70

0.0%

54.25

0.5%

93.00

0.5%

66.75

1.1%

Saudi SE

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (SAR '000)

Volume ('000)

52-Week High

% Change

Low

on high

YTD

12 mths

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

Trailing PE

PB

1 Al Rajhi Bank

78.25

3.6%

78.75

77.00

114,324

1,471

82.75

67.25

-5.4%

12.6%

4.0%

117,375,000

15.9

1 Alinma Bank

15.40

6.2%

15.45

14.75

1,746,255

116,366

16.25

9.05

-5.2%

64.7%

53.2%

23,100,000

nmf

1.5

2 Almarai Co.

62.75

1.6%

63.25

62.00

46,381

739

71.75

48.41

-12.5%

9.7%

17.0%

25,100,000

21.9

3.5

3.6

1 Arab National Bank

31.00

1.3%

31.40

30.60

2,632

85

33.70

26.60

-8.0%

12.7%

-6.1%

26,350,000

12.1

1.6

1 Bank AlBilad

31.40

9.8%

31.40

29.00

147,557

4,882

32.90

17.20

-4.6%

58.2%

66.6%

9,420,000

28.8

2.8

1 Bank Al Jazira

29.60

8.0%

29.60

27.70

87,132

3,027

31.90

15.75

-7.2%

74.6%

51.4%

8,880,000

32.8

1.9

1 Banque Saudi Fransi

38.80

1.0%

38.80

38.20

3,043

79

40.00

30.00

-3.0%

15.2%

6.4%

35,075,894

12.0

1.8

4 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

11.75

8.3%

11.85

10.95

941,165

82,351

13.85

6.05

-15.2%

62.1%

23.7%

12,690,000

11.7

0.8

4 Emaar the Economic City

12.65

7.2%

12.70

11.95

744,118

60,420

13.60

6.20

-7.0%

72.1%

84.7%

10,752,500

nmf

1.5 2.5

7 Etihad Etisalat Co.

66.75

1.1%

67.75

66.25

109,559

1,631

68.25

50.00

-2.2%

27.1%

27.1%

46,725,000

9.2

4 Jabal Omar Development Co.

20.05

5.3%

20.15

19.10

238,672

12,120

20.15

11.10

-0.5%

65.0%

47.2%

18,634,470

nmf

2.1

154.00

1.3%

154.25

151.25

7,647

50

155.50

101.83

-1.0%

10.6%

49.5%

9,240,000

18.0

10.2

4 Kingdom Holding Co.

12.15

3.4%

12.30

11.80

27,352

2,265

13.10

7.05

-7.3%

37.3%

42.9%

45,026,470

nmf

1.8

2 National Industrialization Co.

38.00

4.7%

39.50

36.40

107,338

2,886

50.75

35.10

-25.1%

-6.6%

6.1%

21,182,282

8.7

1.9

4 Jarir Marketing Co.

2 Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co.

23.10

-2.5%

23.30

22.55

174,395

7,583

29.80

21.20

-22.5%

-0.6%

-2.9%

20,235,600

nmf

2.5

1 Riyad Bank

25.20

1.0%

25.50

25.00

16,574

657

26.90

23.10

-6.3%

8.2%

-2.7%

37,800,000

12.0

1.3

1 Samba Financial Grp.

54.25

0.5%

54.25

53.25

13,802

256

56.75

42.40

-4.4%

16.4%

-0.5%

48,825,000

11.3

1.7 5.6

2 Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co. 1 Saudi Arabian Mining Co. 2 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

3 Saudi Cement Co.

182.50

3.7%

182.50

177.25

26,745

148

200.00

165.00

-8.8%

3.7%

6.0%

45,625,000

11.1

34.10

4.6%

34.60

33.00

76,233

2,238

37.50

24.25

-9.1%

34.8%

35.9%

31,542,500

nmf

1.9

102.25

4.3%

102.25

100.50

726,020

7,147

112.50

87.75

-9.1%

6.2%

-4.4%

306,750,000

10.5

2.2

89.50

1.4%

91.00

88.50

23,967

267

98.00

54.75

-8.7%

24.3%

62.7%

13,693,500

14.5

4.7

5 Saudi Electricity Co.

13.80

3.0%

13.80

13.50

154,466

11,327

16.30

12.85

-15.3%

-0.7%

5.7%

57,498,995

25.9

1.1

Saudi Hollandi Bank

29.00

1.4%

29.20

28.60

3,772

130

29.30

21.42

-1.0%

16.8%

14.1%

11,510,100

11.4

1.6

22.85

2.2%

23.15

22.40

63,334

2,778

27.20

18.55

-16.0%

20.3%

-8.0%

10,282,500

19.5

1.7

22.00

1.9%

22.15

21.70

62,259

2,842

24.45

17.75

-10.0%

11.7%

5.0%

8,066,667

11.4

1.4

19.05

1.9%

19.30

18.90

5,089

267

21.00

15.55

-9.3%

18.0%

0.3%

10,477,500

14.8

1.2

1

22 Saudi Industrial Investment Grp.

2 Saudi International Petrochemical Co. 1 Saudi Investment Bank 2 Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. 7 Saudi Telecom Co. 2 Savola Group Co. 0 3 Southern Province Cement Co. 0 1 SABB

17.80

4.1%

17.80

17.20

286,437

16,410

21.30

15.50

-16.4%

2.3%

0.6%

26,700,000

nmf

1.8

40.20

5.0%

40.20

38.50

76,013

1,949

41.30

33.00

-2.7%

18.9%

4.7%

80,400,000

10.5

1.7

35.20

4.8%

35.30

33.70

29,972

864

35.50

23.70

-0.8%

22.6%

28.5%

17,600,000

14.8

2.3

93.00

0.5%

95.75

93.00

7,046

75

106.75

61.25

-12.9%

8.1%

51.8%

13,020,000

14.5

4.9

36.70

0.0%

36.90

36.20

8,848

242

46.30

34.20

-20.7%

-9.8%

-15.2%

36,700,000

12.7

2.1

3 Yamama Saudi Cement Co.

50.50

2.2%

50.75

49.50

43,843

872

83.25

47.50

-39.3%

-27.9%

-6.9%

10,226,250

13.9

3.0

2 Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co.

51.75

3.5%

52.00

50.75

73,863

1,433

56.00

41.60

-7.6%

17.6%

3.7%

29,109,375

9.2

2.8

9.20

9.5%

9.20

8.65

704,077

78,173

11.50

5.25

-20.0%

65.8%

32.4%

12,880,000

nmf

3.0

7 Zain - Saudi Arabia

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

13

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, april 18, 2012

KUWAIT Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 6,237 (0.7%)

KSE General Index (% Chg.)

120

415 (0.9%)

KSE Weighted Index (% Chg.)

53%

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

7.00

Advance/Decline Ratio

115

110

2.340

2.6%

MABANEE. Mabanee Co.

0.990

2.1%

International Finance Co.

0.104

2.0%

National Bank of Kuwait

1.080

1.9%

27,986,938

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

Highest Turnover

Worst Performers

103

Turnover (KWD) 1,699,050

B Boubyan Bank

100

95 17-Jan-12

17-Feb-12

17-Mar-12

17-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

9.3%

32,618

Turnover (KWD '000)

105

NMTC.KSE Wataniya

467 / 396 NBK.KSE

KSE Weighted Index 52 week High / Low

% Chg.

0.295

6,523 / 5,694 IFC.KSE

KSE General Index 52 week High / Low

112

Close KAMCO.KSKIPCO Asset Management Co.

Close NRE.KSE

National Real Estate Co.

% Chg.

0.122

-1.6%

0.094

-1.1%

IFInternational Finance Co.

1,685,000

K Kuwait International Bank

855,750

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

ZA Zain Kuwait

639,000

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

MMabanee Co.

635,200

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

ALTIJARIA The Commercial Real Estate Co.

KSE Weighted Index

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Agility

0.400

0.0%

A Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

0.610

T Al Themar Intl. Holding Co.

Low

Turnover (KWD '000)

52-Week

Volume ('000)

83

High

0.400

0.395

-

-

-

0.087

-

-

-

A Alafco Aviation Lease and Fin. Co.

0.295

0.0%

0.295

0.295

A AREF Energy Holding Co.

0.120

1.7%

0.120

0.118

24

200

0.124

B Boubyan Bank

0.600

1.7%

0.600

0.580

1,699

2,880

0.620

B Boubyan Petrochemical Co.

0.630

0.0%

0.630

0.620

22

35

0.630

B Burgan Bank

0.425

1.2%

0.425

0.415

79

190

0.524

A Burgan Co. for Well Drilling

0.260

-

-

-

-

C Combined Grp Contracting Co.

1.700

1.2%

1.700

1.680

C Commercial Bank of Kuwait

0.790

-

-

-

-

F Commercial Facilities Co.

0.260

-

-

-

-

G Global Investment House

0.049

-

G Gulf Bank

0.430

0.0%

-

-

0.430

0.425

% Change

Low

on high

YTD

12 mths

Trailing

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

PE

PB

210

0.435

0.248

-8.0%

6.7%

5.3%

418,735

15.5

0.5

-

-

0.657

0.590

-7.2%

-3.0%

3.4%

923,076

18.3

1.9

-

-

0.104

0.079

-16.3%

-4.4%

-13.0%

88,088

nmf

1.0

283

960

0.380

0.280

-22.4%

-6.3%

-20.3%

230,033

5.8

1.5

0.085

-3.2%

13.2%

0.0%

90,000

nmf

1.3

0.530

-3.2%

1.7%

1.7%

1,048,941

nmf

4.2

0.530

0.0%

12.5%

14.5%

305,613

34.9

1.2

0.410

-18.9%

-6.0%

-12.6%

656,611

13.0

1.5

0.420

0.198

-38.1%

22.6%

-44.7%

54,503

37.2

1.0

1.945

1.300

-12.6%

7.6%

-6.5%

164,272

16.6

4.1

-

0.940

0.700

-16.0%

0.0%

-15.1%

1,004,898

nmf

1.9

-

0.380

0.255

-31.6%

0.0%

-34.2%

139,559

9.8

0.9

101

60

-

-

0.055

0.019

-10.9%

0.0%

44.1%

64,309

nmf

3.1

157

370

0.552

0.425

-22.1%

-11.5%

-14.9%

1,132,228

37.0

2.6 1.5

C Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Co.

1.260

0.0%

1.260

1.260

72

58

1.680

1.260

-25.0%

-11.3%

-25.0%

264,513

7.3

IF IFA Hotels & Resorts

0.400

0.0%

0.420

0.400

221

540

0.495

0.285

-19.2%

-15.8%

-12.1%

181,553

nmf

3.7

IK Ikarus Petroleum Industries Co.

0.194

0.0%

0.198

0.194

110

560

0.214

0.138

-9.3%

14.1%

40.6%

145,500

17.3

1.0

IF International Finance Co.

0.104

2.0%

0.106

0.100

1,685

16,360

0.242

0.096

-57.0%

2.0%

-59.2%

83,500

nmf

0.8

JAJazeera Airways

0.470

-

-

-

-

-

0.485

0.118

-3.1%

3.3%

298.3%

103,400

9.8

4.0

0.295

0.280

-

-

K KIPCO Asset Management Co.

0.295

9.3%

K Kuwait Cement Co.

0.450

-

K Kuwait Finance House

0.740

0.0%

0.760

F Kuwait Food Co.

1.360

0.0%

1.360

K Kuwait International Bank

0.280

1.8%

P Kuwait Portland Cement Co.

0.880

0.0%

68

230

0.295

0.236

0.0%

20.9%

9.3%

77,674

nmf

1.0

-

-

0.630

0.415

-28.6%

-2.2%

-25.0%

286,945

20.1

1.9

0.740

307

410

1.019

0.720

-27.4%

-11.2%

-26.0%

2,149,081

35.7

1.2

1.360

401

295

1.620

1.360

-16.0%

-8.1%

-9.3%

546,723

11.4

1.9

0.280

0.275

856

3,110

0.350

0.236

-20.0%

9.8%

-9.7%

290,451

26.8

1.4

0.880

0.870

31

35

1.580

0.660

-44.3%

23.9%

-42.1%

79,996

31.5

1.3

520

0.405

0.281

-24.7%

5.2%

-19.9%

407,655

13.6

0.7

645

0.990

0.664

0.0%

26.6%

49.1%

605,077

29.1

4.1

K Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding)

0.305

0.0%

0.305

0.300

157

M Mabanee Co.

0.990

2.1%

0.990

0.970

635

M Mena Holding

0.033

-

-

-

N National Bank of Kuwait

1.080

1.9%

1.080

1.060

N National Industries Co.

0.310

1.6%

0.310

0.310

3

10

0.340

0.260

-8.8%

10.7%

N National Industries Grp. Holding

0.228

1.8%

0.228

0.224

298

1,320

0.285

0.192

-20.0%

-12.3%

N National Investments Company

0.148

0.0%

0.150

0.148

258

1,740

0.295

0.144

-49.8%

-14.0%

-46.2%

N National Real Estate Co.

0.122

-1.6%

0.122

0.120

36

300

0.168

0.056

-27.4%

-4.7%

19.6%

O Oula Fuel Marketing Co.

0.265

0.0%

0.265

0.265

5

20

0.360

0.265

-26.4%

-11.7%

A Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Co.

0.214

0.0%

0.214

0.212

372

1,740

0.226

0.186

-5.3%

0.0%

S Salhia Real Estate Co.

0.236

1.7%

0.236

0.230

154

660

0.246

0.200

-4.1%

S Sultan Center Food Products Co.

0.104

0.0%

0.106

0.104

33

320

0.136

0.093

T Tamdeen Real Estate Co.

0.234

-

-

-

-

0.270

A The Commercial Real Estate Co.

0.094

-1.1%

0.095

0.094

6,480

S The Securities House

0.130

-

-

-

-

N Wataniya

2.340

2.6%

2.340

2.300

133

Z Zain Kuwait

0.730

1.4%

0.730

0.720

639

-

-

434

405

615 -

-

-

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

21,780

2.3

0.1

1.145

0.909

-5.7%

6.1%

-1.0%

4,614,707

15.2

2.1

-6.1%

107,323

25.3

1.4

-12.3%

295,283

nmf

0.7

129,680

nmf

0.7

-

nmf

0.6

-11.7%

87,370

21.5

2.1

12.6%

235,400

13.0

1.1

13.5%

8.3%

121,003

16.9

0.9

-23.5%

-13.3%

-13.3%

60,198

nmf

0.9

0.216

-13.3%

1.7%

-6.4%

87,310

22.8

0.9

0.097

0.067

-3.1%

22.1%

32.4%

172,473

16.4

0.7

-

-

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

88,400

nmf

7.0

58

2.340

1.880

0.0%

20.6%

21.9%

1,179,437

3.3

1.5

885

1.200

0.690

-39.2%

-18.9%

-37.1%

3,144,500

11.0

1.5

UAE Rebased Performance

Summary

135

Best Performers

DFM Index (% Chg.)

1,649 (0.0%)

ADSM Index (% Chg.)

2,505 (0.2%)

2.4%

3.23

2.2%

DFM Index 52 week High / Low

8.68

1.3%

ADSM Index 52 week High / Low

2,775 / 2,293 DFM.DFM

1.15

0.9%

Dubai Financial Market

266,903

Turnover (AED '000)

398,668,003

Market Cap. (AED '000)

115

3.1%

3.36

Advance/Decline Ratio

126

% Chg.

0.99

64% ARTC.DFM Arabtec Holding 0.54 ADIB.ADSM Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank 1,754 / 1,301 ETISALAT.AEtisalat

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price 125

Close ARKAN.AD Arkan Building Materials Co.

112

Highest Turnover

109 105

Worst Performers Turnover (AED) 48,538,584 GCEM.ADS Gulf Cement Co. 38,570,794 SOROUH.A Sorouh Real Estate Co. 18,537,618 CBD.DFM Commercial Bank of Dubai

E Emaar Properties A Arabtec Holding E Etisalat

95 17-Jan-12

17-Feb-12 S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

17-Mar-12

17-Apr-12

Abu Dhabi SE

Close

% Chg.

1.08

-10.0%

1.10

-1.8%

2.75

-1.8%

A ALDAR Properties

16,884,940

TAMWEEL Tamweel

1.37

-1.4%

S Sorouh Real Estate Co.

13,303,289

EMIRATES Emirates NBD

2.85

-1.0%

Dubai FM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (AED '000)

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High

% Change

Low

on high

YTD

12 mths

Market Cap. (AED '000)

Trailing PE

PB

A Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

3.19

-0.3%

3.24

3.18

761

239

3.32

2.60

-3.9%

14.7%

22.2%

17,849,956

5.9

A Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

3.23

2.2%

3.24

3.16

272

84

3.55

2.92

-9.0%

2.2%

2.9%

7,638,000

6.6

1.2

T Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.

1.35

0.0%

1.35

1.22

139

103

1.63

1.14

-17.2%

12.5%

-12.9%

8,403,750

12.9

1.1

A Abu Dhabi National Hotels

2.19

-

-

-

2.94

2.02

-25.5%

-0.5%

-21.8%

2,190,000

8.7

0.3

A Air Arabia

0.72

0.1%

0.72

0.71

11,791

16,483

0.77

0.57

-7.3%

22.0%

-5.8%

3,336,691

12.4

0.6

A ALDAR Properties

1.11

-0.9%

1.13

1.09

16,885

15,182

1.68

0.76

-33.9%

20.7%

-33.5%

4,534,493

7.1

0.6

A Amlak Finance

1.02

-

-

-

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

1,530,000

nmf

1.1

A Arabtec Holding

3.36

2.4%

3.24

38,571

11,583

-7.4%

111.3%

115.4%

5,023,200

19.8

1.7

-

3.37

-

-

3.63

1.24

0.8

A Aramex

1.80

0.0%

1.81

1.79

1,605

890

1.96

1.69

-8.2%

0.0%

-6.3%

2,635,380

12.5

1.4

A Arkan Building Materials Co.

0.99

3.1%

1.00

0.95

18

18

1.68

0.71

-41.1%

-2.0%

-39.6%

1,732,500

nmf

1.1

C Commercial Bank of Dubai

2.75

-1.8%

2.75

2.75

15

5

3.24

2.75

-15.1%

-0.4%

-0.4%

5,605,468

6.8

0.9

D Dana Gas

0.47

0.0%

0.48

0.46

2,989

6,409

0.71

0.34

-33.8%

4.4%

-31.9%

3,102,941

6.1

0.4

D Deyaar Development Co.

0.39

0.3%

0.39

0.39

1,702

4,383

0.46

0.20

-15.2%

81.2%

22.2%

2,230,308

nmf

0.6

D du

3.24

-0.9%

3.25

3.16

7,041

2,191

3.63

2.80

-10.7%

12.1%

1.9%

14,811,429

13.5

2.4

D Dubai Financial Market

1.15

0.9%

1.15

1.13

12,332

10,811

1.46

0.68

-21.2%

36.9%

-19.6%

9,200,000

nmf

1.2

D Dubai Islamic Bank

1.98

-1.0%

2.00

1.98

3,073

1,546

2.31

1.88

-14.3%

2.1%

-10.4%

7,518,167

7.4

0.8

E Emaar Properties

3.15

-0.3%

3.17

3.13

48,539

15,390

3.49

2.41

-9.7%

22.6%

-8.2%

19,187,401

10.7

0.6

E Emirates NBD

2.85

-1.0%

2.86

2.82

3,451

1,212

4.63

2.65

-38.4%

-3.1%

-21.9%

15,839,658

6.3

0.5

E Etisalat

8.68

1.3%

8.75

8.56

18,538

2,135

11.20

8.57

-22.5%

-4.9%

-16.5%

68,625,295

11.8

1.7

F First Gulf Bank

9.22

-0.9%

9.26

9.15

2,247

244

10.75

6.98

-14.2%

19.4%

3.0%

27,660,000

7.5

1.0

G Gulf Cement Co.

1.08

-10.0%

1.08

1.08

324

300

1.56

0.67

-30.8%

52.1%

-24.5%

886,785

nmf

0.7

91.45

-

-

-

102.00

74.70

-10.3%

-9.9%

22.4%

15,462,089

18.8

1.3

N National Bank of Abu Dhabi

8.63

0.0%

9.00

7.38

-4.1%

6.4%

1.8%

33,437,439

9.0

1.3

N National Bank of Fujairah

4.51

-

-

-

-

-

4.70

3.00

-4.0%

-0.9%

16.5%

4,961,000

17.7

2.4

N National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain

1.78

-

-

-

-

-

2.34

1.63

-23.9%

-1.7%

-18.0%

2,848,000

8.9

0.9

S Sharjah Islamic Bank

0.89

0.0%

0.89

0.89

250

281

1.02

0.80

-12.7%

6.0%

0.0%

2,158,695

8.6

0.5

S Sorouh Real Estate Co.

1.10

-1.8%

1.13

1.09

13,303

12,067

1.54

0.67

-28.6%

29.4%

-24.1%

2,887,500

8.6

0.5

M Mashreq

8.65

8.60

648

75

T Tamweel

1.37

-1.4%

1.40

1.36

6,041

4,373

1.49

0.53

-8.1%

127.2%

38.4%

1,370,000

13.4

0.6

U Union National Bank

2.88

-0.7%

2.90

2.88

275

95

3.90

2.82

-26.2%

-0.3%

-9.7%

7,187,400

4.8

0.7

U Union Properties

0.46

-0.7%

0.47

0.45

2,665

5,787

0.50

0.24

-7.1%

78.3%

10.0%

1,548,754

nmf

0.6

U United Arab Bank

3.95

-

-

-

5.00

3.28

-21.0%

8.5%

-25.5%

3,935,785

11.9

1.9

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

-

-

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

14

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, april 18, 2012

QATAR Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 8,713 (-0.2%)

DSM Index (% Chg.)

120

Advance/Decline Ratio 112

Turnover (QAR '000) Market Cap. (QAR '000)

459,817,480

Turnover (QAR) 32,030,056 QNNS.DSMQatar Navigation 29,723,310 BRES.DSMBarwa Real Estate Co. 26,443,750 QGTS.DSMQatar Gas Transport Co.

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co. MMasraf Al Rayan 17-Feb-12

17-Mar-12

17-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

2.6%

19.10

2.4%

51.20

0.6%

60.90

0.5%

139.80

0.4%

Worst Performers

B Barwa Real Estate Co.

90 17-Jan-12

IQCD.DSM Industries Qatar

Highest Turnover

101

100

% Chg.

8.65

8,892 / 8,071 QIIK.DSM Qatar International Islamic Bank 379,952 DHBK.DSMDoha Bank

DSM 52 week High / Low

110

Close

56% VFQS.DSM Vodafone Qatar 1.00 AHCS.DSMAamal Co.

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

Close

% Chg.

69.40

Q Qatar Telecom

18,437,968

CBQK.DSMThe Commercial Bank of Qatar

V Vodafone Qatar

13,594,555

QNBK.DSMQatar National Bank

-2.3%

28.00

-1.1%

17.69

-0.9%

75.50

-0.5%

134.20

-0.5%

Doha SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (QAR '000)

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High

% Change

Low

on high

YTD

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

12 mths

Trailing PE

PB

A Aamal Co.

19.10

2.4%

19.30

18.50

4,704

248

24.09

15.40

-20.7%

20.1%

7.5%

9,454,500

19.2

1.6

K Al Khalij Commercial Bank

16.59

-0.1%

16.59

16.25

199

12

18.73

16.06

-11.4%

-3.4%

-11.4%

5,972,400

12.3

1.1

B Barwa Real Estate Co.

28.00

-1.1%

28.35

27.95

32,030

1,141

34.20

28.00

-18.1%

-6.5%

-18.1%

10,895,490

9.0

0.9

C The Commercial Bank of Qatar

75.50

-0.5%

75.90

75.10

1,291

17

85.50

68.00

-11.7%

-10.1%

4.9%

18,682,201

9.9

1.3

D Doha Bank

60.90

0.5%

60.90

60.00

990

16

67.00

50.00

-9.1%

-5.0%

17.6%

12,587,896

10.1

1.8

E Ezdan Real Estate Co.

19.70

-

-

-

-

24.97

18.60

-21.1%

-11.3%

-19.6%

52,254,185

nmf

1.9

139.80

0.4%

140.20

139.00

10,867

78

148.50

118.80

-5.9%

5.1%

-5.2%

76,890,000

9.7

2.9 2.4

IQIndustries Qatar

-

27.00

0.0%

27.10

26.90

26,444

980

28.10

22.50

-3.9%

-3.1%

13.0%

20,250,000

14.4

141.60

0.4%

142.50

141.50

258

2

150.00

129.50

-5.6%

1.4%

-5.6%

14,160,000

10.9

4.7

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

17.69

-0.9%

17.87

17.66

29,723

1,675

18.63

16.59

-5.0%

1.0%

-9.6%

9,797,500

11.8

6.7

Q Qatar International Islamic Bank

51.20

0.6%

51.30

51.00

3,376

66

56.20

45.50

-8.9%

-5.2%

9.3%

7,750,080

11.6

1.7

Q Qatar Islamic Bank

77.30

-0.4%

77.70

77.30

2,991

39

85.30

76.30

-9.4%

-8.3%

-3.4%

18,265,464

12.8

1.7

134.20

-0.5%

135.00

134.10

6,312

47

141.73

122.73

-5.3%

-2.9%

5.8%

93,903,691

12.0

2.3

69.40

-2.3%

71.00

69.40

7,197

103

87.50

69.90

-20.7%

-9.3%

-17.2%

7,948,049

11.3

0.8

128.20

0.4%

129.00

127.00

18,438

144

168.50

127.70

-23.9%

-8.9%

-14.1%

29,332,160

11.4

1.4

8.65

2.6%

8.75

8.33

13,595

1,587

9.22

7.24

-6.2%

14.6%

8.4%

7,312,710

nmf

1.1

M Masraf Al Rayan Q Qatar Electricity & Water Co.

Q Qatar National Bank Q Qatar Navigation Q Qatar Telecom V Vodafone Qatar

OMAN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 5,983 (0.6%)

MSM Index (% Chg.)

120

Advance/Decline Ratio

6,397 / 5,419 OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co. 6,171 RCCI.MSM Raysut Cement Co.

MSM 52 week High / Low

112

Turnover (OMR '000)

110

Close

47% RNSS.MSMRenaissance Services 6.00 NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

7,072,817

Market Cap (OMR '000)

OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co.

% Chg.

0.63

2.8%

0.30

2.4%

0.62

2.2%

1.10

0.7%

1.28

0.2%

107

Highest Turnover

Worst Performers

100

Turnover (OMR) 650,289 BKDB.MSMBank Dhofar 323,998 BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

R Renaissance Services O Oman Telecommunications Co. 90 17-Jan-12

17-Feb-12

17-Mar-12

17-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

Close

% Chg.

0.47

-1.3%

0.63

0.2%

N National Bank of Oman

309,527

OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co.

1.28

0.2%

O Oman Cement Co.

167,143

RCCI.MSM Raysut Cement Co.

1.10

0.7%

B Bank Muscat

146,816

OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co.

0.62

2.2%

Muscat SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (OMR '000)

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High

% Change

Low

on high

YTD

12 mths

Market Cap. (OMR '000)

Trailing PE

PB

B Bank Dhofar

0.469

-1.3%

0.470

0.468

39

84

0.549

0.423

-14.6%

3.1%

-14.3%

515,955

12.9

2.3

B Bank Muscat

0.631

0.2%

0.633

0.629

147

233

0.679

0.572

-7.1%

-5.3%

-6.4%

1,133,777

9.6

1.3

N National Bank of Oman

0.302

2.4%

0.304

0.301

310

1,026

0.324

0.291

-6.8%

-3.2%

0.7%

334,624

9.8

1.2

O Oman Cement Co.

0.619

2.2%

0.623

0.608

167

270

0.622

0.416

-0.5%

43.3%

3.9%

204,810

16.0

1.4

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

1.284

0.2%

1.285

1.280

324

252

1.425

1.041

-9.9%

-1.9%

15.9%

963,000

8.6

2.0

R Raysut Cement Co.

1.100

0.7%

1.115

1.089

119

109

1.100

0.711

0.0%

44.7%

0.5%

220,000

14.7

2.1

R Renaissance Services

0.625

2.8%

0.630

0.614

650

1,040

1.084

0.458

-42.3%

14.7%

-42.3%

176,309

nmf

1.1

BAHRAIN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,144 (0.5%)

BSE Index (% Chg.)

120

% of stocks trading above 1 yr avg. price Advance/Decline Ratio

1,407 / 1,129 AUB.BSE 194 #N/A

BSE 52 week High / Low

112

Turnover (BHD '000)

110

6,471,474

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

1,456

B Bahrain Islamic Bank

13

A Ahli United Bank 17-Mar-12

17-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

0.10

5.3%

0.47

2.2%

0.60

0.0%

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

Turnover (BHD) 91,630 AUB.BSE Ahli United Bank 18,525 BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co.

17-Feb-12

Ahli United Bank

% Chg.

Worst Performers

IT Ithmaar Bank 90 17-Jan-12

#N/A

Highest Turnover

100

100

Close

16% ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank - BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

-

B Albaraka Banking Grp.

Close

% Chg.

0.60

0.0%

0.47

2.2%

ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank

0.10

5.3%

BARKA.BS Albaraka Banking Grp.

0.93 -

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

Bahrain SE

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Ahli United Bank*

0.600

0.0%

B Albaraka Banking Grp.*

0.930

A Arab Banking Corp.*

0.420

B Bahrain Islamic Bank

0.088

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co.

0.472

B BBK

0.400

Low

Turnover (BHD '000) 0

0.600

0.600

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

0.0%

0.088

0.088

1

2.2%

0.472

0.464

92

-

-

-

-

797

-

-

-

-

IT Ithmaar Bank*

0.100

5.3%

0.100

0.100

N National Bank of Bahrain

0.550

-

-

-

U United Gulf Bank

0.304

-

-

-

IN Investcorp Bank*

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High

Low

on high

YTD

12 mths

0.680

0.599

-11.8%

-0.5%

-8.1%

-

1.089

0.857

-14.6%

-0.4%

-

0.530

0.420

-20.8%

0.0%

17

0.116

0.082

-24.1%

-2.2%

195

0.490

0.380

-3.7%

20.4%

-

0.428

0.390

-6.5%

-3.4%

-

797

797

0.0%

0.0%

490

0.105

0.065

-4.8%

53.8%

-4.8%

-

-

0.600

0.550

-8.3%

-4.3%

-

-

0.424

0.270

-28.3%

1.3%

49

0

% Change

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

Trailing PE

PB

3,140,133

10.1

1.2

-14.6%

943,462

8.0

0.8

-26.3%

1,306,200

6.4

0.4

-24.1%

82,691

nmf

0.8

-3.7%

679,680

8.5

1.3

-6.1%

340,542

10.6

1.4

-30.0%

637,560

4.5

0.6

267,776

nmf

0.5

-8.3%

470,448

10.3

1.7

-25.1%

253,707

nmf

1.2

LIFE

Avoid asthma triggers If you’re trying to prevent an asthma flare, avoiding things that trigger your breathing problems is a good start.The American Academy of Family Physicians says common asthma triggers include: •Allergens such as tree pollen, grasses or molds. •Colds and other viral infections.

•Exposure to pollutants, tobacco smoke, chemical fumes or perfume.

•Sinus infections. •Heartburn. •Exercising.

•Breathing in cold air. •Stress or strong emotions.

wednESDAY, april 18, 2012

Secrets of molecule that helped build the universe exposed Researchers develop blood test for depression

The molecule known as H3+ is believed to have had a vital role in cooling down the first stars of the universe, and may still play an important part in the formation of current stars. Above, the Hubble Space Telescope shows the heart of the Tarantula nebula, a region teeming with star formation. The image is a giant mosaic view released on April 17, 2012 to mark Hubble’s 22nd anniversary in space. ESO telescope observations augment the view. (AFP)

NEWYORK: A new study of one of the most fundamental molecules in the universe has given scientists clues into how the very first stars were formed according to LiveScience.

For the first time, researchers have calculated the vibration patterns of a compound called H3+ (also known as a triatomic hydrogen ion), which consists of three hydrogen atoms sharing two electrons. Knowing how the molecule can vibrate allows scientists to predict which wavelengths of lightit will emit, giving them a way to identify its signature in astronomical observations.

H3+ is important because it is thought to have been prevalent in the universe just after the Big Bang that started things off around 13.7 billion years ago.

“Most of the universe consists of hydrogen in various forms,” University of Arizona chemist Ludwik Adamowicz said in a statement, “but the H3+ ion is the most prevalent molecular ion in interstel-

lar space. It’s also one of the most important molecules in existence.” H3+’s vibration and light-emitting qualities may have enabled it to transfer heat away from the first stars as they were in the process of forming, allowing them to coalesce without overheating and bursting apart.

“There wouldn’t be any star formation if there weren’t molecules that slowly cool down the forming star by emitting light,” said Michele Pavanello, who was a University of Arizona graduate student when he worked on the project. “Astronomers think that the only molecule that could cool down a forming star in that particular time is H3+.” Adamowicz and Pavanello used a computer simulation to model the behavior of H3+, based on quantum mechanics.

“One has to involve a large amount of computations at the quantum mechanical level to predict those vibrations,” Adamowicz said. “The role of theory is essentially to simulate those vibrations in the comput-

New Zealand firm to trial pig cells to treat Parkinson’s MELBOURNE: A New Zealand company plans to implant pig cells in the human brain in a clinical trial to treat Parkinson’s disease and help improve movement and brain functions in patients.

The clinical trials, planned for next year, would be the first using pig brain cells for potential treatment in humans. Living Cell Technologies Ltd said on Tuesday the treatment involves transplanting “support” cells from the brain of pigs that can help repair damaged nerve tissue in people with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s is a degenerative disorder of the nervous system that affects four to six million people worldwide. In Parkinson’s, reduced dopamine levels in the brain lead to movement-related symptoms such as tremor, rigidity and slow movement, and later cognitive symptoms.

Living Cell Chief Executive Andrea Grant said pre-clinical trials in monkeys showed improvements of greater than 50 percent in symptoms. “Within two weeks of implanting the cells, we saw an improvement in the movement tremors that the monkeys had.

We saw an improvement in tests of their memory and attention, and the improvement was sustained for the six-month pe-

riod of the trial,” Grant told Reuters.

The results suggested the cell implants could protect brain tissue that would otherwise die, potentially delaying or even preventing the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s, Grant said. Conventional drugs to treat Parkinson’s alleviate its symptoms, but they lose effectiveness over time and do not address the underlying loss of the brain cells that produce dopamine. “The support cells are like the regeneration engine of the brain. They enable neurons that are sick to regenerate and repopulate the area of the brain that’s damaged,” Grant said in a telephone interview. The cells are taken from the brain tissue of newborn pigs from a special “clean” herd, because of the risks of diseases from modern pigs.

The company uses pigs descended from a herd that was left isolated in the 1850s on an abandoned whaling station in the Auckland Islands, some 465 km (290 miles) south of New Zealand. The cells are treated to prevent the human immune system from rejecting them. Living Cell Technologies plans to apply to New Zealand authorities in early May and, if approval is granted, to start Phase I trials by the end of the March quarter 2013. -Reuters

Dinosaur eggs said found in Russia’s Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia: Geologists in Russia’s volatile Chechnya region have discovered what they believe to be fossilized dinosaur eggs laid by one of the huge extinct reptiles that roamed the Earth more than 60 million years ago.

“We’ve found about 40 eggs so far, the exact number has not been established,” said Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, a geologist at the Chechen State University.

“There could be many more laying under the ground.”

The find was uncovered when a construction crew was blasting through a hillside to build a road near the region’s border with former Soviet Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains. A team of geologists stumbled across the smooth, oval rock-like forms, which range from 25 cm to one meter coincidentally on a recent trip to the area, said Dzhabrailov. He said paleontologists were needed to determine which species of dinosaur had laid them.

Dzhabrailov said that the regional Chechen government, which is eager to shed the region’s reputation for violence, is considering turning the area into a nature preserve and seeking to attract tourists. Federal forces fought two separatists wars between 1994-2001 in Chechnya, and an Islamist insurgency persists in the mostly Muslim region and surrounding provinces of Russia’s North Caucasus.

However, violence has declined under the strong-arm rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, whose multi-million dollar construction projects are aimed at raising the region’s profile and boosting the tourism potential of the troubled area. -Reuters

er and then describe how the molecule is swinging or dancing.”

Their simulations predicted numerous potential vibrations that would cause H3+ to emit photons of specific wavelengths, or energies. If telescope observations of a particular cloud in space reveal light of these wavelengths, then astronomers will know the cloud contains H3+. The calculations should also help scientists understand the complicated physics of how stars form, especially the earliest stars in the universe.

“The only way we can predict how the stars form is if we know very well what the cooling abilities of H3+ are, and we cannot know its cooling ability until we know its vibrational spectrum,” Pavanello said. “We need to know what these energy levels are.

With this paper, we have pinpointed the energy levels up to a certain energy threshold that is already good enough to generate accurate predictions of the cooling ability of H3+.”

CONNECTICUT: Researchers have developed a blood test that could one day help diagnose teens with depression according to HealthDay News.

To create the test, researchers identified 26 potential biological markers for depression. Then they tested the markers in a small group of teens and found that a handful of them could distinguish the teens with major depression from those without depression.

“I think it would be more accurate to diagnose depression with a blood test,” said study author Eva Redei, a professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The biomarkers now have to be studied in a larger group of teens, she added.

Currently the diagnosis for depression is subjective and involves doctors talking with patients about their moods. The evaluation is especially tricky in teens because this is a trying time emotionally to start with, Redei said.

Having an objective diagnosis that relies on biomarkers could also make it an easier diagnosis for teens to hear and ease some of the stigma associated with depression.

“It would bring this disease into the same family of other serious illnesses,” Redei said. “It would be much more difficult for somebody to say, ‘Just snap out of it’ or ‘Get yourself together.’”

Between 17 percent and 25 percent of adolescents and young adults experience depression, according to study background information.Teens who develop depression have a worse prognosis, marked by illness, substance abuse and suicidal behavior, compared to people who are diagnosed later in life.

In a clinical setting, a screening test for depression would involve a panel of biomarkers, Redei explained. Some of them would give the doctor a yes/no answer about whether the teen could have depression and should be further evaluated, while others could reveal information about the depression and how to treat it, such as its severity and whether it is accompanied by anxiety.

“The hope is that not only can these tests identify who is depressed, but they also potentially discriminate between different types of depression,” Redei said.

But first Redei’s group has to determine

Brain tumor vaccine shows promise in early trial

CONNECTICUT: A vaccine made from brain cancer patients’ own tumor cells led to a nearly 50 percent improvement in survival times for those stricken with glioblastoma multiforme, the same malignancy that claimed the life of US Sen. Edward Kennedy, a new study suggests according to HealthDay News.

A phase 2 multicenter trial of about 40 patients with recurrent glioblastoma – an aggressive brain cancer that typically kills patients within 15 months of diagnosis – showed that the vaccine safely increased average survival to nearly 48 weeks, compared with about 33 weeks among patients who didn’t receive the treatment. The six-month survival rate was 93 percent for the vaccinated group, compared with 68 percent for 86 other glioblastoma patients, who were treated with other therapies.

“We’ve done a lot of things for this kind of tumor in the last 40 or 50 years, all variations on different chemotherapies that haven’t really panned out,” said Dr. Jonas Sheehan, director of neuro-oncology at the Penn State Cancer Institute, who was not involved in the study. “What we’ve known needed to happen for a while now is a revolution – a totally new way of approaching these tumors. This is an example of a totally new paradigm.” About a quarter of the 18,500 brain tumors diagnosed each year are glioblastomas, which are more common in men and typically occur between the ages of 50 and 70, according to the AANS. Kennedy died of the malignancy in 2009, 15 months after his diagnosis. Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are among the standard treatment options. The vaccine used in the trial, known as HSPPC-96, was created with tumor cells from patients who had undergone surgery to remove as much tumor as possible. The vaccine was then injected into their bodies to induce an immune response against the tumor, said lead investigator Dr. Andrew Parsa, vice chairman of neurological surgery at University of California, San Francisco. Side effects among participants were minimal. Parsa said the vaccine’s impact, if validated with a randomized study in the near future, could be a “total game-changer.”

Added Sheehan: “The hope is that we’ll go from a survival of 15 months to a meaningful difference.

We’re looking to go from 15 months to five years, a quantum leap forward.”

Because this study was to be presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

whether their biomarkers are accurate in a large group of teens representing a range of racial backgrounds and from different areas of the country.

They are now beginning these studies.

Larger studies will tell us a lot about how useful these biomarkers could be, said Dr. Sheldon Preskorn, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. Anytime you test a number of potential biomarkers on a small group of people you are going to find some biomarkers that look clinically important, he added.

But having a screen to help identify who has depression could be hugely helpful, Preskorn said. “This kind of approach is somewhat the holy grail of psychology.”

There are as yet no biomarkers available for diagnosing depression at any age.

Redei’s group is also testing the biomarkers in adults. Although it is too soon to tell for sure, she thinks that some will end up being helpful for diagnosing depression in adults.

The group originally identified the set of 26 candidate biomarkers by studying rats with conditions that mimic depression in humans.And like in humans, the condition in rats is linked either to genetic or environmental factors.

The researchers looked in these animals at a type of molecule called a transcript, which is an intermediate molecule between a gene and its corresponding protein. Differences in the level of transcripts indicate changes in gene expression.

They found 11 transcripts that were different in the blood and brain of animals that were bred to be in a perpetual state of depression compared to normal animals. In addition, they found 15 transcripts that increased or decreased in groups of rats with environment-induced depression.

Altogether the changes that the researchers found were in genes that were “most unexpected,” Redei said, adding that, “This just characterized how little we know about depression.

The discovery of these biomarkers gives researchers a new list of targets to pursue as potential antidepressants, Redei said.

Having a reliable blood-based diagnostic for depression could also open the door to treating people before symptoms appear, Preskorn said.

“You might want to look at high-risk populations, like if you have a family history of depression.”

Spectacular solar flare erupts from the sun

A beautiful prominence eruption shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on Monday, April 16, 2012. This view of the flare was recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. (Agencies)

NEW YORK: The sun erupted in an amazing solar flare Monday, unleashing an intense eruption of super-heated plasma that arced high above the star’s surface before blasting out into space according to SPACE. The powerful solar flare occurred at 1:45 p.m.

EDT (1745 GMT) and registered as a moderate M1.7-class on the scale of sun storms, placing it firmly in the middle of the scale used by scientists to measure flare strength. The storm is not the strongest this year from the sun, but photos and video of the solar flare captured by NASA spacecraft revealed it to be an eye-popping display of magnetic plasma.

“Great eruption happening on the sun now,” scientists with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) wrote in a Twitter post.

The solar flare erupted along the sun’s eastern limb (its left side) from an active region that may also be responsible for solar storm activity observed on Sunday, SDO mission officials said.

The flare kicked up a massive amount of solar plasma in an explosion known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.

“Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (mediumsized) flare did occur at the same time, though it was not aimed toward Earth,” officials with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., explained in an image description. The Goddard center oversees the sun-monitoring SDO mission.

When aimed at Earth, strong solar flares and CMEs can supercharge the planet’s auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights. Extremely powerful CMEs can pose a danger to astronauts and satellites in space, as well as power grids, navigation and communications systems on Earth.

Astronomers measure solar flares on a letter scale, with the strongest events falling into three categories: C, M and X. C-class solar flares are the weakest events, with the X-class sun storms marking the most powerful events on the sun.

The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is expected to reach its peak activity in 2013. The current solar weather cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.

16

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

wednesDAY, april 18, 2012

2012 Pulitzers highlight global issues and online reporting FRANCE: Agence France-Presse and the news websites Huffington Post and Politico each won their first Pulitzer Prizes Monday as the prestigious journalism awards highlighted global issues and online reporting.

The New York Times won two Pulitzers, and the committee notably did not make awards for editorial writing or fiction in a year which saw Web journalism mark further gains.

AFP’s Massoud Hossaini won the award for breaking news photography “for his heartbreaking image of a girl crying in fear after a suicide bomber’s attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul,” the committee announced.

His AFP photograph published Dec. 7 shows young Tarana Akbari screaming after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a crowd at the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul on Dec. 6.

Sig Gissler, the Pulitzer administrator, called the AFP picture “one single riveting photograph,” and “a picture you will long remember.”

AFP chief executive Emmanuel Hoog said the committee “has honored one of our bravest and best photojournalists, Massoud Hossaini, and the award is recognition of AFP’s insistence on quality and commitment across the range of journalistic pursuits.”

Hoog added, “Today, in the news arena, words without images are impoverished and pictures without text are not enough. The two complement each other and images -- fixed or moving -- are essential to the journalism of the 21st century... Bravo and congratulations to Massoud.”

Hossaini, who is based in Kabul, said he was “shocked and happy” to receive the news.

“This is not just about winning an award because I know I have become a voice for the Afghan people and those who lost their lives in the suicide attacks and for all victims of the war,” he said.

The image brings back such painful memories that he now avoids it, he said.

“I don’t look at it anymore because my heart beats faster and it brings back the emotions of that day.”

“I know that whoever sees this photo will think about the photographer but I hope they don’t forget the pain Afghanistan’s people have in their life.”

The Pulitzers, which date back to 1917, began allowing online-only publications to compete three years ago.

David Wood of The Huffington Post won the national reporting prize “for his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges” facing American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, the committee said.

Politico’s Matt Wuerker won the award for editorial cartooning, satirizing the partisan

Girl in Pulitzer-winning picture still has nightmares

Down a rutted dirt alley in Old Kabul, the “Girl in the green dress” -- the subject of AFP’s Pulitzer-winning photograph -- still has nightmares about the day a suicide bomber made her image world famous.

Tarana Akbari, 11, no longer wears her best dress, which was drenched in her own blood and that of her relatives who were among 70 people who died around her at a religious festival on Dec. 6 last year.

Tarana still cries sometimes when she remembers that day, but she managed an occasional shy smile in an interview with AFP at her modest home on Tuesday, as she cuddled her sisters, who were both wounded in the blast.

That her picture has been featured on newspaper front pages around the world means little to her, she says, with a small shrug and a fleeting smile.

But when she first saw the searing image she wondered: “How come I am alive. I can see all the dead bodies around me but only I survived.”

She is still frightened at times, and that bloody day still haunts her, awake or asleep, but she says she is getting better.

One of the two spartan rooms that Tarana shares with her family of seven has a television in a corner, but what she sees there does not always help her recovery.

Last Sunday, squads of Taliban suicide bombers infiltrated the capital and unleashed gunfire and explosions in an 18hour assault before all being killed by security forces.

“It made me frightened again,” she said. “I am not happy, because that day when the bomb went off destroyed my family.” Of the bomber and those who sent him on his mission, she says only: “They did a bad thing. They should not have done it.”

Her unemployed father, Ahmad, 35, lifts the shirt of Tarana’s four-year-old sister to show horrific scars covering her entire stomach from the shrapnel that ripped through the celebrating crowd. Out of 17 women and children from her extended family who went to a riverside shrine near her home that day to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura, seven died, including her seven-year-old brother Shoaib. conflict that engulfed Washington in 2011.

The public service award went to The Philadelphia Inquirer “for its exploration of pervasive violence in the city’s schools,” according to the Pulitzer committee.

The prize for breaking news went to the staff of the Tuscaloosa News for the Alabama paper’s coverage using real-time updates to help locate missing people after a deadly tornado, which forced the newspaper to publish at another site.

The award for investigative reporting was shared by Matt Apuzzo,Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the Associated Press and Michael Berens and Ken Armstrong

FILE-This photo dated Dec. 6, shows Tarana Akbari crying near dead and injured people after suicide bomber targetted Shiite worshippers during a religious ceremony outside the Abul Fazel shrine in Kabul where Shia Muslims were marking the Day of Ashura. (AFP)

Tarana herself has scars on her legs and arms and walks with a limp. She no longer attends school because her legs hurt, she says, adding: “I hope I can get well soon and go back to school.”

Asked about her hopes for the future, the sweet smile makes an appearance and she says she would like to be a teacher, with the local language Dari being her favorite subject.

of The Seattle Times. The AP was recognized for reporting on the New York Police Department’s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities.

The Seattle Times journalists were honored for their coverage of a little-known governmental body in Washington State which moved vulnerable patients from safer pain-control medication to methadone, a cheaper but more dangerous drug.

The New York Times took awards for explanatory reporting for David Kocieniewski’s reporting on tax loopholes; and for international reporting for Jeffrey Gettleman’s coverage of famine and conflict in East Africa.

She spends her days playing with her sisters in the ramshackle house and in the dirt courtyard outside which leads to an alley where huddled young men openly inject heroin against crumbling mud walls.

Behind those walls, the “Girl in the green dress” nurses her pain and her fears, now dressed in a plain, baggy, shalwar khameez hiding the scars from the day her life was torn apart.

Pulitzers also went to Sara Ganim, one of the youngest-ever winners at 24, and members of The Patriot-News Staff in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for local reporting; Eli Sanders of the Washington state weekly The Stranger, for feature writing; Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune for commentary; Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe for criticism; and Craig Walker of The Denver Post for feature photography.

Besides journalism, the Pulitzer Board, made up of journalists from around the country and representatives of Columbia University, also bestows awards for literature, drama and music. No award was given this year for

fiction for the first time since 1977.

The drama award went to “Water by the Spoonful” by Quiara Alegria Hudes, while the history prize went to the late Manning Marable for “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.”

John Lewis Gaddis won the Pulitzer for biography for his book “George F. Kennan: An American Life,” on the American diplomat.

The Pulitzers for poetry went to “Life on Mars” by Tracy K. Smith; general nonfiction to “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern,” by Stephen Greenblatt; and music to “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” by Kevin Puts.

Each Pulitzer winner receives $10,000.

-AFP

Uncertain future for Japan’s cat cafes Scenes from Kuwait

art exhibition opens under NCCAL sponsorship KUWAIT: An art exhibition under the slogan “Scenes from Kuwait” opened here late Monday by Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) Ali Al-Yo’ha.

Al-Yoh’a said in the opening speech that since the inception of the plastic art

movement in the 1960s, Kuwaiti youth have been participating in art exhibitions reflecting their talents.

The exhibition, said Al-Yo’ha, showcased the sense of community amongst artists, adding that the event, held at the Art gallery in Abdullah Al-Salem area re-

minded Kuwaitis of similar events held by the pioneers of art in the country.

He affirmed that the NCCAL would continue to support the art scene in the country in order to cultivate what’s in the minds of Kuwaiti talent and showcase it to the public. -KUNA

Japanese island man lives as naked hermit FILE-Japanese youths feed cats at a ‘cat cafe’ in Tokyo on Feb. 23, 2012. (AFP)

FRANCE: For the young women whiling away their evenings with a cappuccino in hand and a cat on their lap, Tokyo’s “neko cafes” are the ideal place to unwind and soothe their stresses.

“After a long day at work, I just want to stroke cats and relax,” said saleswoman Akiko Harada.

“I love cats, but I can’t have one at home because I live in a small apartment. I started coming here because I really missed having fun with cats and touching them.”

For Harada and others like her, the “neko cafes” of the Japanese capital are a harmless institution where customers pay a premium for their coffee in exchange for the chance to pet the cats that stroll among them.

But for animal rights activists, these cafes are exploitative places where animals are subjected to unnatural stress.

They welcome a new ordinance, coming into force later this year that will ban the display of animals after 8:00 pm.

The rules were drawn up by the environment ministry after it received more than 155,000 requests for action from the public -- an unusually high number in politically ambivalent Japan.

The law is primarily aimed at the pet shops in Tokyo’s entertainment districts that regularly raise the eyebrows of Western visitors with their brightly-lit windows displaying dogs and cats in cramped glass tanks late into the night.

But cat cafe manager Shinji Yoshida says he will also be snared by the law and will have to close in the evenings -- his busiest time.

Yoshida’s cat cafe in Ikebukuro, a busy commercial and commuter hub in Tokyo, keeps 13 cats in a carpeted room where they have the freedom to jump around and climb all over the large fake tree.

“It is a huge blow to us cat cafes, and it’s nothing to do with protecting cats’ health,” said Yoshida, 32.

“As you see, cats can walk and play freely. I ask customers not to touch them if they are sleeping. At

night, we dim the room light,” he said. “And cats can rest during daylight.”

He says about 80 percent of his customers are salaried workers who drop in for a welcome change from the daily grind of work and long commutes.

“If I close this cafe at 8:00 pm, I’ll see red ink,” he said.

Yoshida’s customers definitely want the cafe to be allowed to stay open.

Office worker Ayako Kanzaki, 22, began visiting cat cafes three years ago because she loves cats but her apartment is too small to keep one.

“I like to do things at my own pace, and I must say I am not a very social person. So I come here alone, because I want to focus on the cats,” she said.

“During the day, cats are mostly sleeping, and if they are awake, they often don’t pay attention to the people. In the evening they are very lively, it’s more enjoyable.”

Saleswoman Harada agrees.

“If cat cafes are shut down at night, I won’t have many opportunities to come any more,” she said.

Animal welfare campaigner Chizuko Yamaguchi says the sheer number of customers in cat cafes can make life difficult for the animals.

“From morning to night these cats are being stroked by people they do not know. For the animals, that is a real source of stress,” she said.

Fusako Nogami, head of animal rights groupALIVE, said the rule change banning the display of animals in the evening was a good thing, but acknowledges the cat cafes are not the target.

Nogami said the commodification of animals in Japan was a real problem, with many people looking at them purely as fashion accessories, and not as lives in their own right.

“What deserves more public attention is the way pets are sold in Japan,” she said. “We need to ban the trade of newborn kittens and puppies just because they are pretty and sell well.” -AFP

SOTOBANARI ISLAND, Japan: Dangerous currents swirl around Sotobanari Island, which has not a drop of natural water, and local fishermen rarely land there.

But 76-year-old Masafumi Nagasaki has made this kidney-shaped island in Japan’s tropical Okinawa prefecture his retirement home, with an unusual dress code: nothing at all.

Naked, he braves lashing typhoons and biting insects as a hermit in the buff.

“I don’t do what society tells me, but I do follow the rules of the natural world.

You can’t beat nature so you just have to obey it completely,” he said. “That’s what I learned when I came here, and that’s probably why I get by so well.”

The wiry Nagasaki, his skin leathered by the sun of two decades on the island, worked briefly as a photographer before spending years on the murkier side of the entertainment industry. When retirement came, he wanted to get far away from it all.

He chose Sotobanari, which is roughly

a 1,000 meters across and means “Outer Distant island” in the local dialect. It lies off the Coast of Iriomote Island, far closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo.

His resolve was tested relatively soon into his stay when a massive typhoon swept over the island, scouring away most of the scrub he had counted on for shade, as well as carrying away the simple tent he lived in.

“I just scorched under the sun,” he said. “It was at that point I thought this was going to be an impossible place to live.”

For the first year he lived on Sotobanari, he threw on clothes whenever boats passed his way. But slowly the island stripped away his embarrassment.

“Walking around naked doesn’t really fit in with normal society, but here on the island it feels right, it’s like a uniform,” he said. “If you put on clothes you’ll feel completely out of place.”

He does throw on clothes once a week for a trip to a settlement an hour away by boat, where he buys food and drink-

ing water. He also collects the 10,000 yen ($120) sent to him by his family, on which he lives.

His staple food is rice cakes, which he boils in water, eating whenever hunger strikes - sometimes four or five times a day. Water for bathing and shaving comes from rainwater caught in a system of battered cooking pots.

Each day is conducted according to a strict timetable, starting with stretches in the sun on the beach. The rest is a race against time as he prepares food, washes and cleans his camp before the light fails and insects come out to bite.

It isn’t the healthiest of lifestyles, he concedes - but that isn’t the point.

“Finding a place to die is an important thing to do, and I’ve decided here is the place for me,” he said.

“It hadn’t really occurred to me before how important it is to choose the place of your death, like whether it’s in a hospital or at home with family by your side. But to die here, surrounded by nature - you just can’t beat it, can you?” -Reuters

Seventy-sixyear-old naked hermit Masafumi Nagasaki speaks on Sotobanari Island, off western coast of Iriomote island, Okinawa prefecture, April 14, 2012. (Reuters)

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

wednesDAY, april 18, 2012

17

Kuwaiti film Tora Bora dazzles, nabs prize at Gulf Film Festival Compiled by Al Watan Daily

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Tigerlily Artist: La Roux Album: La Roux Genre: Dance/Pop In short: La Roux’s debut album is one of the best duo debuts since Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain; while the album had a coherent sound, the styles and arrangements of songs were diverse enough to keep listeners interested in almost every song on the album without mistaking it for another. “Tigerlily” was an instant favorite upon the first listen, the Thrillerlike breakdown towards the end perfected the song, ending it on a high note.

To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.com E-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz Bobby Brown pleads not guilty to DUI Bobby Brown has pleaded not guilty to drunken driving and other charges stemming from his arrest last month in Los Angeles. City News Service says an attorney entered pleas Monday on Brown’s behalf to misdemeanor counts of DUI, driving with an illegal blood-alcohol content and driving on a suspended license. He could face up to six months in jail if convicted. Brown didn’t attend the Superior Court arraignment in Van Nuys. The 43-year-old singer is the former husband of the late Whitney Houston. He was arrested by the California Highway Patrol on March 26. -AP

Jesse Tyler Ferguson to appear in theater sitcom Jesse Tyler Ferguson might be a star now, but he remembers sweating it out in front of casting directors. Says the “Modern Family” actor: “I’ve had many horrible, horrible auditions.

They’re tucked away. I try not to remember them.” Ferguson is revisiting those early tough days in a cameo for “Submissions Only,” a new online scripted sitcom now wrapping up its second season that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the life of theater hopefuls. Each episode begins with an audition and the one featuring Ferguson - which airs April 27 on BroadwayWorld.com - has him belting out an original song and crashing and burning. “It’s sort of the actor’s nightmare,” says Ferguson. “You get in your head too much and you start second-guessing everything too much.” -AP

Assange interviews Hezbollah leader in TV premiere Julian Assange’s new talk show has premiered on the Kremlin’s English-language satellite broadcaster, its opening episode featuring an interview with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. “The World Tomorrow” opened Tuesday on the RT network, a broadcaster criticized by some as a Russian propaganda mouthpiece. The WikiLeaks founder has promised that his guests have told him things they “could not say on a mainstream TV network.” Assange remains under strict bail conditions at an undisclosed location in England while he fights extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations. The interview with the Shiite militant boss was carried out via videolink and with the help of translators. -AP

KUWAIT: The fifth Gulf Film Festival, the largest of its kind showcase of films from the Arabian peninsula and trendsetting international shorts, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, concluded on Monday evening with the award ceremony honoring the best in filmmaking talent in the region and around the world. Kuwaiti film “Tora Bora” nabbed the top prize along with many others.

His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum presented the awards to the winners of GFF’s Official Gulf Features, Official Gulf Shorts, Official Gulf Students Shorts and International Shorts competitions. More than half a million dirhams in prizes and prestigious awards were distributed at the ceremony, attended by Arab and Gulf film celebrities and distinguished guests.

At the closing ceremony, Kuwaiti film “Tora Bora” dazzled the panel at the 5th Gulf Film Festival and was awarded the top prize in the conclusion ceremony Monday night, with a special honor awarded to prominent Kuwaiti actor Saad Al-Faraj before the regular awards were called out. Al-Faraj received the award from festival sponsor Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

Film director Waleed Al-Awadi told KUNA the red-carpet premier was a great success, and the film was praised by head of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority Sheikh Majid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. He said he is pleased with the reception of his work, adding that he was also proud to have Palestinian actor Qais Nashif in a leading role in the film, and that his performance had earned him the best actor award.

Upon receiving the festival’s special award presented by the judges’ panel, the director said the weight of the story behind the film and the strong scenario contributed to its excellent reception. He dedicated this achievement to His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, all those who contributed to the production, and to the Kuwaiti people, and especially to Al-Faraj.

The twin juries of the festival were also honored. The Official Gulf Competition jury comprised: Iraqi theatre director Jawad Al-Assadi, Saudi Arabian filmmaker Abdullah Al-Eyaf and UAE media personality, theatre director and author Jamal Matar. The International Shorts Competition and the Gulf Student Competition jury comprised Tampere Film Festival Finland Director Jukka-Pekka Laakso, Emirati filmmaker and writer Jamal Salim, and Egyptian film critic Essam Zakarea.

Commenting on the Official Gulf competitions, jury member Jamal Matar said: “There has been impressive participation from across the Gulf region. Compared with the past years, there has been a strong improvement in the quality of the movies and the scripts. We would like to see stronger participation in the coming years, and greater diversity in themes.”

On the International Shorts, jury member Jamal Salem said that the films were distinguished by the different themes they tackled. “The filmmakers took simple subjects and explored how these have a wider effect on the society. These short films were indeed thought-provoking and had the power to touch the audience.” He said that the Gulf Students shorts were chiefly graduation projects, which limited the range of topics and subjects that were tackled.

One of the highlights of GFF 2012 was the strong response to its inaugural Gulf Script Market for Short Films. From about 100 script submissions, 14 projects were selected with the writers offered the opportunity to work with top-notch film professionals over a three-day mentoring session.The polished

From left to right Kuwaiti Producer and film maker Walid Al-Awadi, actors Saad Al-Faraj and Khaled Ameen pose during the photocall of “Tora Bora” movie in the opening ceremony of the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai on April 10, 2012. (AFP)

List of Winners in the 5th Gulf Film Festival New York Film Academy Abu Dhabi Aspiring Filmmaker Award: Eman Al Suwaidi; Aisha Abdullah Official Gulf Student Shorts Competition:

Best Emerging Talent: Fatema Abdulla Al Nayeh “Rithath Al Hayat” (UAE) Best Director: Melak Abd Ali Mnahi “Cassette” (Iraq) Third Prize: “Dhahirat Al Qamboa’a” (UAE) Second Prize: “Sabr AlMelh” (Bahrain) Special Jury Prize: “Smile Again” (Iraq) Best Short Film: “En Let Brise” (Denmark)

Mad Men star Harris signs for The Quiet Ones

Harris, who plays the very proper advertising executive Lane Pryce on “Mad Men,” will go ghost hunting for Hammer Studios. Harris has signed to star as Professor Joseph Coupland in the supernatural thriller “The Quiet Ones,” Hammer’s parent company Exclusive Media said Monday. In the film, Harris’ charismatic professor convinces his students to participate in an experiment to try to create a poltergeist. John Pogue (“Quarantine 2”) will direct the film, which James Gay-Rees (“Senna”) will produce in association with TPSC Films. -Reuters

Ferguson taking Late Late Show home to Scotland Craig Ferguson is going back to Scotland and taking “Late Late Show” viewers along for the trip. CBS says the Scotland-based episodes will air the week of May 14.While there, Ferguson explores Edinburgh and Glasgow. He also returns to his hometown of Cumbernauld, with stops at his childhood home and high school. On the trip, taped last month, he’s joined by actors Mila Kunis, Michael Clarke Duncan and Rashida Jones, as well as author-humorist David Sedaris.

Music will be performed by local Glasgow rock band The Imagineers. -AP

Official Gulf Feature Competition:

Special Mention: Kais Nashef “Tora Bora” (Kuwait) Best Director: Akram Hidou “Halabja - The Lost Children” (Germany, Iraq, Syria) Third Prize: “Man Yek Mozdore Sefid Hastam” (Iraq) Second Prize: “Amal” (UAE) Special Jury Prize: “Tora Bora” (Kuwait) Best Feature Film: “Halabja - The Lost Children” (Germany, Iraq, Syria)

Official International Shorts Competition:

Best Director: Ulo Pikkov “Keha Malu” (Estonia) Second Prize: “A Fabrica” (Brazil) Special Jury Prize: “Al Hesab” (Egypt) Best Short Film: “Sedaye Baran” (Iran) Official Gulf Shorts Competition:

Special Mention: “Lamha” (UAE)

scripts were then pitched to producers and directors. Coupled with GFF’s Enjaaz program, extending production funding of up to US$50,000, the Festival offered a solid sounding board to promote regional filmmaking.

The selection of films and mentoring were by Egyptian director and scriptwriter Mohamed Khan; award-winning Lebanese director, scriptwriter and film entrepreneur Michel Kammoun; and Bahraini author and scriptwriter Fareed Ramadan.

Khan observed the Gulf Script Market for Short Films was the most distinguishing factor of the festival this year.

“Through this initiative, we are providing an opportunity for youngsters to express themselves through the art of cinema.”

In another significant initiative, the festival also announced the launch of the Robert Bosch Stiftung awards for three coproduction prizes for joint short film productions by young German and Arab filmmakers in the animated film, documentary and short film categories.

Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg bring back Tupac at Coachella INDIO, California: Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg resurrected late rapper Tupac Shakur as an onstage hologram singing hit songs and wowing crowds alongside other hip hop stars to close the first weekend of the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Sunday night.

The life-sized figure of Shakur, who died at age 25 in a 1996 shooting, appeared on stage with Snoop Dogg causing a lull to fall

Johnny Depp sued for assault A disabled woman, who identifies herself as a professor of medicine at UC Irvine, has filed a lawsuit against Johnny Depp. The suit alleges that the actor’s bodyguards assaulted her at an Iggy Pop concert at the Hollywood Palladium Theater last year; according to ET Online. In court papers obtained by ET, the woman claims that Depp’s bodyguards restrained her unprovoked as she tried to get to her seat in the VIP area of the concert. The papers go on to claim that the bodyguards pried her cell phone from her hand “one finger at a time,” put her in handcuffs and dragged her away, during which time her pants fell off. According to the filings, the woman’s pre-existing spondyloarthritis and fibromyalgia, which affects her joints and back, was ex acerbated in the alleged tussle.

Special Mention: “Al Arabana” (Iraq) Special Mention: “Sogha” (UAE) Best Script: Rezgar Hussein “Paysikl” (Iraq) Best Director: Dana Al Mojil “Bilad Al Ajaeb - Kissa Qaqae’a” (Kuwait) Third Prize: “Huna London” (Bahrain, UAE) Second Prize: “Aswar Khafiya” (Yemen) Special Jury Prize: “Bilad Al Ajaeb - Kissa Waqae’a” (Kuwait) Best Short Film: “Paysikl” (Iraq)

Rapper Snoop Dogg (left) and a hologram of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur perform onstage during day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 15, 2012 in Indio, California. (AFP)

momentarily across thousands of people gathered to see the set. They couldn’t believe their eyes.

The Tupac hologram performed “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” with Snoop Dogg before dissipating into thin air, leaving the audience in awe, and somewhat unsettled, by the technology used to make the rapper reappear and perform.

Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg had plenty more surprises in store for their set, including appearances from rappers Eminem, who performed “I Need A Doctor,” “Forget About Dre” and “Till I Collapse” with Dr Dre, and 50 Cent, who rapped “In Da Club.”

Nate Dogg, who died last year aged 41, was remembered by Snoop and Dr. Dre through a montage of photographs and a performance of “Ain’t No Fun,” featuring Warren G and Kurupt, all of whom had worked with Nate Dogg over their careers. Dre and Snoop also brought on rising hip hop stars such as Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa, who came on stage to sing “Young, Wild & Free.” The Coachella closer came after a hot list of acts performed in the sunshine during Sunday, finally allowing festival-goers to party in warmth after cool desert weather blanketed the event from its outset on Friday. -Reuters

Ryan O’Neal says he has Stage 2 prostate cancer

LOS ANGELES: Ryan O’Neal says the prognosis is positive for his recovery from recently diagnosed Stage 2 prostate cancer.

The 70-year-old actor said in a statement released through his publicist on Monday that he was “shocked and stunned by the news” but feels fortunate the disease was caught early. He says he’s expected to make a full recovery.

A memoir about his romance with actress Farrah Fawcett, “Both of Us: My Life With Farrah,” will be published on May 1. Fawcett died in 2009 after a public battle with cancer.

O’Neal says he’s grateful for the support of his friends and family and advocates regular exams since early detection is the best defense.

Higher stage numbers mean more extensive disease, with Stage 4 being the highest, according to the National Cancer Institute. -AP

Angelina Jolie named special UN refugee envoy GENEVA: After a decade of promoting refugee causes around the world,Angelina Jolie herself has been promoted.

The United Nations refugee agency has elevated the Hollywood star from being a goodwill ambassador to a special envoy, a role that will see her represent the organization at the diplomatic level to governments and diplomats.

It is the first time the UN refugee agency has named a special envoy, said its spokesman Adrian Edwards. Elsewhere in the global body such posts are usually reserved for career diplomats or retired politicians.

“Her work does go substantially beyond what we would typically see as being the normal role of a goodwill ambassador,” Edwards told reporters in Geneva. “I don’t think you need a rocket scientist to see the benefits that she is bringing in terms of the attention that she is getting for the plight of the world’s displaced.”

Jolie has jetted the world on behalf of the organization over the past ten years, making high-profile visits to refugee camps in Iraq, Haiti and Pakistan, among other places.

Apart from her time, Jolie has also given large personal

donations to the organization, which relies entirely on voluntary contributions from governments, companies and individuals.

“She has donated substantially to refugees,” said Edwards, noting that the actress/director won’t receive any money for her role. “There is to my knowledge absolutely no connection between any donation of money and this role.” Jolie’s new position will focus on the complex crises that result in the mass displacement of people, such as in Afghanistan and Somalia. In addition, on special occasions she will represent the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.

“That can mean conveying messages to governments.

It can mean conveying messages to other people and partners that we work with,” said Edwards.

UNHCR works to help almost 35 million refugees and internally displaced people around the world. It was established to aid millions of Europeans displaced during World War II and has since become one of the world’s most prominent humanitarian organizations. -AP

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012 file photo, Angelina Jolie attends the news conference of the film In the Land of Blood and Honey at the 62 edition of the Berlinale, International Film Festival in Berlin. (AP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

If you have an event you wish to include, please email: aroundtown@alwatandaily.com

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

KGL employees donate blood for a human cause

Sudoku

Elementary KUWAIT: As part of its continuous social and civil responsibility in giving back to society, and under the theme “Every drop counts... Let’s share our blood”, KGL in association with the Blood Bank of Kuwait organized a Blood Donation Drive on Tuesday. This donation drive was aimed at boosting employee participation in a commendable act to offer genuine support to those in need.The Blood Donation Drive took place at KGL Logistics facility in Mina Abdulla, where employees of various Business Units gathered to participate in this human cause. This drive comes as a continuation of

Month a t

Advanced

Intermediate

the previous year’s donation efforts carried out by the company that resulted in an overwhelming response by the company staff from all levels.

This participation represented a strong and humanitarian message that exemplified a sincere contribution (with over 100 donors) to provide support to needy individuals of the community.

It is noteworthy to mention that a team of medical specialists from the Blood Bank of Kuwait supervised the blood donation and provided all forms of support and advice to donors.

General A n n o u n c e m e n t s

a glance are mundane encounters of beauty that sprouted from the ego and surrounding events, creating emotions which dissolved into aesthetic visual messages.

Arabic course March 11-April 19/ TIES Center: TIES Center is glad to announce the start of Arabic courses. We offer classes for all levels, from beginners to advance and also introduced new classes called Kuwait dialect. TIES Arabic classes are intended for all expatriates who wish to learn Arabic for whatever purposebusiness, basic communication, as a second language or simply as a hobby. For more information/registration, contact 97228860/97793440.

Marriage counseling session

Dar Al Funoon hosts artist Karim Ghidinelli April 2- 19/ 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. / Dar Al Funoon: Born in Italy in 1976, Karim spent his childhood in this city; he went to middle school and high school in African countries. His body of work consists of a central iconic image that of a finger imprint, within each thumb impression he has formulated a pseudo-calligraphic narrative of life experiences on luminous and luxurious enamel weaves.

Presentation on iconic rugs April 24/ 6 p.m. / Sadu House: The KTAA under the auspices of Al Sadu House cordially invites you to the presentation: ‘The Turkmen Yurt and Its Furnishings’ by James Bishop. Inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, the diminishing nomadic people of Turkmenistan weave some of the most iconic rugs. The weavings of each tribe are distinctive with characteristic octagons or guls. This evening you will learn about some of the major tribes, the primary design features of their various guls, their bags (chuvals, torbas, jollars, etc.), tent bands, animal trappings, and chirpies.

Art exhibition April 15-26/ 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. / Gallery Tilal: Abdul Rasool Salman’s rhythms

K’S PATH invites applicants for the adoption of pets Sepp is a Domestic Long Haired (DLH) male cat. He will be 2-years-old April 2012. This friendly, laid-back boy loves a good cuddle and likes a high vantage point in a cat tree or ledge to look out from. He would do best in a home with children over 12 years of age.

To adopt, contact +965 67006122 or visit the website www.kspath.org

May 2/ 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. / TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites all ladies to a lecture on Marriage Institution by Joanne Hands (Psychologist, Licensed Counselor, Marriage & family Therapist). The lecture will cover on a brief introduction to the stages of marriage institution, a successful approach to the day to day marriage life, tricks of nourishing and improving your marriage relationships and techniques of overcoming the marriage challenges.

Refreshments will be served. For more information please contact us on 97228860/2523015/6 or emailinfo@tiescenter.net.

Mario is a gentle and affectionate 6-years-young Spitz male. This friendly boy does great with people and dogs of all ages.

Bread baking course April 19- May 10/ 6 p.m.-8 p.m. /TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites all ladies the unique course of preparing the ancient traditional food “The Bread Baking”. Baking of different kinds of breads will be demonstrated including Old English Toast, Italian Bread Stick, Strawberry Sweet Heart and many more. For more information please contact us on 97228860/2523015/6 or emailinfo@tiescenter.net.

Brainbang session October 7-April/ 11:45 a.m. -1:45 p.m. /Salmiya: BRAINBANG, the creative arm of Friends of CRY Club (FOCC) invites all students aged 11 and above, to join us fortnightly on Fridays.

The areas of development are: Creativity in learning, tools and techniques to empower your mind, profile based learning, activity, fun, games and worksheet based assignments, practical experiments, mind gymnastics and application of learning techniques to conventional study. E-mail: brainbang@focckwt.org or call 25660835/25618471/97677820.

Dilbert

Open House for Indian Citizens Ambassador of India would be holding an Open House for Indian citizens to address their problems\grievances on Wednesdays of the second and the fourth weeks of every month between 1500 hrs and 1600 hrs in the Embassy. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day. To ensure timely action/follow-up by the Embassy, it is requested that, wherever possible, Indian citizens should exhaust the existing channels of interaction/grievance redressal and bring their problems/issues in writing with supporting documents.

Royal Thai Embassy The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait wishes to invite Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14.

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

You can overcome the intensity of today’s planetary energies by making a conscious effort stay positive, Aries. Distract yourself with necessary household chores and errands. Don’t forget to take some time out for fun, too. As you work around the house, stop to indulge yourself every few hours. A cup of hot chocolate or a chat on the phone will add a welcome grace note to the day.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Don’t take any information you receive today at face value, Taurus. Technical glitches will likely plague you throughout the day. Your bank statement could be incomprehensible. Bills could show up with an extra zero tacked on. Don’t panic. Make some phone calls and get all the facts. Whatever you do, don’t let this ruin your day. Everything will get sorted out.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

Don’t take anything you read or hear today at face value, Gemini. It’s possible that you’ll receive some rather distressing news, but before you react in frustration, read the fine print. The news may not really be so bad. In fact, it may not even be true! Take a deep breath and heave a sigh of relief, then get back to your normal routine.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

It’s likely that you’ll receive some unpleasant news today, Cancer. Perhaps there are changes occurring at work that you read about in the morning newspaper.

Or it could be that you get a phone call and receive some upsetting news about an old friend. You’ll need to take the information in stride and not let it ruin your day.With the intensity of the planetary energies at play, you’re at risk of overreacting.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

This could be a day of technical glitches and malfunctions, Leo. It’s frustrating, to be sure, but a little bit funny, too. Everything you touch, from computer to washing machine, seems to groan and shudder before finally breaking. Apparently, today you have the opposite of the Midas touch. Don’t take it personally. Instead, use it as an excuse to do something out of the ordinary with your time.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Today is filled with socializing, with a strong emphasis on the exchange of information. If you’re attending a party this evening,Virgo, be receptive to anyone you meet. It’s likely that someone new will arrive who will have a significant impact on your life. It might be that he or she tips you off about a professional opportunity at work.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

You might want to make an extra effort to tidy up the house this morning, Libra. It’s likely that you’ll have some unexpected guests. Some neighbors could drop by unannounced, or an old friend could call from her car and say she’s on her way over. Take it all in stride. Even though you had a lot planned for the day, it will be much more enjoyable if you spend it socializing with friends.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

You’ll have to let go of your usual drill-sergeant manner and simply let the day unfold as it will.

Try as you might, even you won’t be able to direct events today, Scorpio. You could find your attention diverted from one project to another. It isn’t an unpleasant day but a disjointed one. Stay open to all possibilities. You could be surprised by the way things turn out.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

You work hard to reach your goal of financial independence, Sagittarius. All signs indicate that you’re well on your way. Today you could receive some news that makes you realize you aren’t there yet.

Perhaps a relative calls to say you’re no longer his/her sole beneficiary. Maybe your investment statement shows a poor return.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

You’re bound to be busy but happy today. You’ll likely spend the morning doing chores and generally puttering around the house. Don’t be surprised if a friend drops by unexpectedly in the afternoon with some important news to share. Your evening could be occupied doing research at the library or on the computer. It seems your friend’s news piqued your curiosity about a particular subject.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

This could be a rather intense day for you, Aquarius. Your mind is filled with plots for novels you want to write and ideas for ways to streamline production at work. Don’t you have an “pause” switch? You’d benefit from taking some much-needed time off.

You’ll find that you can quiet your mind simply by sipping some tea and being still for ten minutes.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

This is one day for you to be as flexible as possible, Pisces. It may be that you begin with a specific list of items that absolutely must be done, but get distracted by some news from a friend or co-worker.

What had seemed so important is no longer so, and your day shifts to accommodate this new piece of information.

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

wednesDAY, april 18, 2012

19

Basketball

Chicago Bulls lose as Miami Heat win to close NBA gap NEW YORK: Struggling Washington upset injurynagged NBA win leader Chicago 87-84 while the Miami Heat, also without a key star, rallied late behind LeBron James to defeat host New Jersey 101-98.

As a result, the Heat closed the gap on Chicago in the fight for the best overall record in the Eastern Conference and a home-court playoff advantage into the NBA Finals, Miami improving to 43-17 while the Bulls fell to 46-15.

The Heat play host to Chicago on Thursday in what figures to be a critical showdown to decide which of them will be the overall top seed in the East for the playoffs, which begin on April 28.

Chicago played without reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose, who missed his 24th game of the lockout-shortened season with a sore right foot, and Britain’s Luol Deng, who has a right rib injury.

Miami was missing star guard Dwyane Wade, who was rested by the Heat, while the Nets lacked star Deron Williams, who was nursing an injured right calf.

At Chicago, a James Singleton dunk gave the Wizards an 82-77 lead with 1:40 remaining but C.J. Watson answered with a jumper for the Bulls. John Wall hit one free throw but Watson sank another jumper to pull Chicago within 83-81.

Two more Wall free throws with 22 seconds remaining gave Washington an 85-81 edge but Watson responded with a 3-pointer with 16 seconds to play to pull Chicago

within 85-84 before the Wizards added two Maurice Evans free throws to produce the final margin.

Watson and Richard Hamilton missed 3-point shots in the final five seconds and the Wizards hung on for the upset victory, improving to 15-46, the NBA’s second-worst record, with their first win in Chicago since 2008.

Hamilton led the Bulls with 22 points while Watson added 17 and Carlos Boozer contributed 16 points and 13 rebounds. Kevin Seraphin led Washington with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

At New Jersey, LeBron James scored eight of his gamehigh 37 points in the last 90 seconds to rally the Heat. Cris Bosh added 22 points and 15 rebounds.

The Nets led 96-93 before James scored eight points in a row down the stretch to seize a victory.

A James layup pulled Miami within 96-95 and another after a Gerald Green miss for the Nets put the Heat ahead to stay with 51 seconds remaining.

James hit an inside jumper with 13 seconds remaining for a 99-96 Miami lead and, after a Nets turnover, he hit two free throws to give Miami a five-point cushion.

MarShon Brooks hit a jumper for the Nets with .4 of a second remaining but it was too little and too late to keep New Jersey, already eliminated from playoff contention, from falling to 22-40.

Kris Humphries led New Jersey with 29 points while Brooks added 24. -AFP

Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem (40) goes up for a shot against New Jersey Nets’ Sundiata Gaines (1) during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game, Monday, April 16, 2012. (AP)

Tennis

Nadal admits to nerves prior to Monte Carlo start MONACO: Clay king Rafael Nadal has admitted that he is nervous about his Wednesday start at the Monte Carlo Masters, a fortnight after quitting with knee pain prior to his last match.

“I’m scared because this is the start to an important season for me,” said the Spaniard, who is bidding for an unprecedented eighth straight title on the clay of the principality. “Hopefully it will work well.”

Nadal, seeded second behind Novak Djokovic, will play Jarkko Nieminen in the second round after the Finn beat Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

In first-round play on Monday, all three seeds on court advanced.

Spain’s number 13 seed Fernando Verdasco, a 2010 finalist against Nadal, beat Belgian Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, while 15th-ranked Austrian Jurgen Melzer defeated Lukas Kubot 6-2, 7-5. Alexandr Dolgopolov, the number 16 seed, put out Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-2.

Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, ranked 352 in the world after a long absence with a knee injury, crushed Donald Young 6-0, 6-1 to leave the American winless in his last five events.

Australian Bernard Tomic reached the second round by beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-3 to claim his first ATPlevel victory on clay.

Tomic won a qualifying match in Moncao a year ago but lost out to Julien Benneteau for a spot in the main draw.

“I’m starting to learn how to play on clay, that’s the important thing,” said the 36th-ranked Australian.”If I play my tennis, clay specialists struggle with my game even on clay. This next six weeks will be very interesting to see how I go. And I think can do pretty good.”

After quitting before his Miami semi-final against Andy Murray on March 30 due to pain in his left knee, Nadal returned to Spain for injections and treatment of the tendon problem that was causing him grief.

The king of clay, whose last trophy came at the 2011 French Open, played down the fact that his last success came 10 months ago.

“There are players there (at lower-profile events) who can beat you, but the chances are better. But I don’t make my calendar to win titles, I want to compete at the most important events against the best players of the world.

SALT LAKE CITY: Al Jefferson hasn’t been close to the playoffs since his rookie season.

Seven years later, the Utah Jazz big man is doing everything he can to make sure he’s not on the outside looking in again. Jefferson scored 28 points and tied a career-high with 26 rebounds to fuel Monday night’s 123-121 triple-overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

Dallas was coming off an overtime loss Sunday to the Los Angeles Lakers, and Monday’s felt just as bad. It was the Mavs’ first triple-OT game since Dec. 29, 1989, against Portland, which they also lost.

Monday’s win halted Utah’s seven-game losing streak against the Mavericks, but more importantly kept the Jazz in the postseason race. Utah began the day 10th in the Western Conference but pulled one-half game behind Phoenix and Houston for the eighth and final spot with four games remaining.

The Jazz (32-30) hold the tiebreaker with the Rockets but not with the Suns, who they face again next week. The loss dropped defending champion Dallas to seventh in the West, one-half game behind

Denver.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 40 points against Utah for the second straight time. His 3-pointer forced the second overtime, but he couldn’t convert late in the third extra period. The Jazz forced overtime on Paul Millsap’s put-back dunk with 2.2 seconds remaining in regulation.

The Jazz led by as many as 11 points early, and were up 87-83 with 46 seconds left in regulation before Vince Carter hit back-to-back 3s, including the second with 8.5 seconds left in regulation.

On Utah’s final possession in regulation, Gordon Hayward drove the lane but missed, only to have Millsap fly in for thunderous put-back dunk. Nowitzki’s long 3 to win it at the buzzer in regulation came up short.

Utah led by four in the first overtime, only to see Nowitzki force the second extra period with a 3 with 3.9 seconds left.

Jefferson hit a jumper in the third overtime then blocked Ian Mahinmi’s shot, setting up Millsap for a fast-break score and 115-113 lead. -AP

Football

Football Star Ahmad Al-Mutairi to Judge Red Bull Street Style Final in Kuwait FILE - Rafael Nadal of Spain in action against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France during Day 10 of the Sony Ericcson Open at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 28, 2012. (AFP)

I’m not playing only on my best surface, but to try and win titles. That makes it more difficult. But I don’t feel pressure just because I haven’t won since Roland Garros.” -AFP

Murray eases into Monte Carlo third round MONACO: Andy Murray dispatched Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday. The third-seeded Brit led 4-0 after 17 minutes and did not face a single break point in improving to 5-0 against the Serb.

“Normally when I come here I usually find I need a few matches to get adjusted,” said Murray, who lost to seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in last year’s semifinals. “But I played very well, it was a very good first match.”

Murray took the opening set by stepping into Troicki’s return and clipping a

Jazz outlast Nowitzki, Mavericks 123-121 in 3OT

forehand down the line. Troicki held his serve at the start of the second set, but Murray took his next service game and held for 3-1. In the next game, Troicki saved two break points playing serve and volley. But Murray took his serve for the fifth time in the match and sealed the victory on his first match point when Troicki’s two-handed backhand went wide.

Murray struggled against Troicki in last year’s French Open, rallying from two sets down to beat the Serb in the fourth round.

Murray next plays either Austria’s Jurgen Melzer or Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

Also on Tuesday, fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France was playing Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan reached the second round after rallying to beat 14th-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

In other first-round play, Italy’s Fabio Fognini beat Frenchman Michael Llodra 7-5, 6-3; Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win against South African Kevin Anderson, and Filippo Volandri won 7-5, 6-3 in an all-Italian match against Alessandro Giannessi. -AP

KUWAIT: Football Star Ahmad Al-Mutairi from Kuwait along with Marzouk AlAjmi and Chris Njokwana from South Africa have been selected to judge the 2012 Red Bull Street Style Final in Kuwait which will take place this Friday April 20 at the Marina Crescent at 6:30 p.m.

Ahmad Al-Mutairi, the Kazma football club star will evaluate the Control category.

Marzouk Al-Ajmi, head of sports in Annahar newspaper and Media Coordinator of the 2006 FIFA World Cup will evaluate the style category while Khris Njokwana the Freestyle Champion from South Africa will handle the creativity category.

Al-Mutairi, a veteran in football, has won the Kuwait Premier League title twice in 1994 and 1996, he also managed to hold the Amir Cup three times (1995, 1997-98).

Control, Creativity and Style are the name of the game at Red Bull Street Style.

The Final will see the best 16 freestyle footballers compete against the other ballers in head-to-head battles for a ticket to the World Final. Each battle follows the same format: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball, with each freestyler having 30 seconds to impress the judges before passing the ball back to his competitor.

The winner in the final of Kuwait will qualify to the world final which will be held in Rome, Italy in September.

2008 Red Bull Street Style South African (ZA) national Champ Chris Njokwana performs a few tricks for his fans.

CRICKET

Pakistan prepares for cricket revival

Pakistani cricket team captain Misbah-ul-Haq jogs with his teammates during a team training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka, March 9, 2012. (AFP)

Lahore: Work is being sped up to get Lahore’s Gadhafi Stadium ready for the visit of Bangladesh later this month, cricket officials say - Pakistan’s first home international in three years.

Foreign teams have shunned Pakistan since the deadly militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus during the third Test in Lahore in March 2009, but on Sunday Bangladesh agreed to a two-match tour.

“The preparation work is fast and we are ready to host Bangladesh,” said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman Nadeem Sarwar. “We have had a physical inspection of the Stadium today and are gearing up for Bangladesh matches.”

Work has begun to clean the stands and replace broken seating, but with the security situation still volatile, measures to ensure

player safety have taken precedence.

PCB security manager Waseem Shahid said a complete plan for the arrangements will be submitted to the government for their approval.

“We will send a security plan to the federal government and as per the ICC (International Cricket Council) standards will put in place the best possible arrangements for the Bangladesh team,” said Shahid.

When Bangladesh and Pakistan line up for their 50-over match at the Gaddafi Stadium on April 29, it will be the end of a 37-month gap in international cricket in Pakistan. Groundsman Haji Bashir, who has worked at the stadium since its inception 53 years ago, said he was thrilled at Bangladesh’s visit.

“I am delighted at the prospect of pre-

paring pitches for the matches and it’s great news for the nation that we will host international games again,” the 73-year-old said.

The Gaddafi Stadium, named after the former Libyan leader in 1974 -- has been the focus of the cricketing world on numerous occasions.

It was here that Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga lifted the trophy after their shock World Cup triumph in 1996, sparking wild celebrations on the island.

But 13 years later, the Sri Lankan cricketers had to be airlifted in a helicopter after the horrifying terror attacks.

Last year, the Pakistan government resisted calls from the world community to change the name of the Stadium after the autocratic rule of Libya’s leader ended in a bloody revolution. -AFP

WEDNESday, april 18, 2012

SPORTS

Football

Late Gomez strike gives Bayern win over Real

Sports Editors Highlight SPAIN: Fierce rivalry between Spain’s Champions League contenders Real Madrid and Barcelona poses no threat to harmony in the national team dressing room, coachVicente Del Bosque said Monday. League-leaders Real and second-place Barcelona, each home to several players in the Spain squad, face off Saturday in the biggest grudge tie in the league and are both vying for this season’s European club crown. He was speaking at the Polish embassy in Madrid at a reception promoting this summer’s Euro 2012 international tournament. Real and Barca could face off in an all-Spanish Champions League final if they win their semi-final legs this week and next. - AP

Wigan great escape continues at Arsenal LONDON: Wigan Athletic pulled off a shock 2-1 win at third-placed Arsenal on Monday to continue their dramatic late bid to escape the Premier League relegation zone.

Roberto Martinez’s side scored twice in the first eight minutes and although Arsenal struck back quickly at the Emirates Stadium, Wigan hung on to claim a victory that moved them five points clear of relegation with four matches left in the season.

Arsenal stayed third, five points ahead of their north London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur and fifth-placed Newcastle United.

“I am so so satisfied because this wasn’t an accident,” Martinez told Sky Sports. “The manner in which we coped physically and tactically makes me very

very proud. It was a well deserved three points and to say that speaks volumes about the performance of my players.”

Wigan, who beat league leaders Manchester United 1-0 last week, took the lead when striker Franco di Santo scored a classic counter-attacking goal after seven minutes and they immediately doubled the advantage through Jordi Gomez.

Arsenal, who had won nine of their last 10 league matches, were shellshocked but they regrouped quickly and defender Thomas Vermaelen powered home a header after 21 minutes from Tomas Rosicky’s whipped cross.

The hosts continued to dominate possession and Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi made several fine saves to keep his team in front at halftime.

Wigan defended bravely in the second

half as Arsenal’s frustration mounted and the visitors’ man-of-the-match striker Victor Moses wasted a good chance to add a third goal after breaking clear of the home defense.

“We should have been ahead at halftime but in the second half we did not create a lot because we were not patient enough,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “In the second half we lost our cohesion, we were doing too much individually, the passing wasn’t quick enough to be dangerous. We had too many strikers, we were exposed a bit but we weren’t sharp enough.”

Wigan climbed three points ahead of 17th-placed Queens Park Rangers and five clear of Bolton Wanderers who occupy the last relegation spot but have two games in hand on their rivals. -AP

Guardiola dismisses talk of Chelsea move Bayern’s Mario Gomez (center) scores his side’s 2nd goal past Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas (left) and Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa (right) during the Champions League first leg semifinal soccer match between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in Munich, April 17, 2012. (AP)

MUNICH: Bayern Munich are on course to reach next month’s Champions League final at their Allianz Arena home after Mario Gomez hit a late winner to earn a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in Tuesday’s semifinal first leg.

After France winger Franck Ribery gave Bayern an early lead, Real’s Mesut Oezil equalized before Germany striker Gomez hit the 90th-minute winner ahead of next Wednesday’s return leg at Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium.

The Bavarians preserved their remarkable record of having never lost at home to Madrid, with nine wins and a draw in their 10 meetings in Munich since 1976.

Bayern are now in pole position to return to Munich for this year’s Champions League final on May 19, when they will face either holders Barcelona or Chelsea, who meet in the first leg of their semi-final on Wednesday.

Both teams started at full-strength, with wingers Ribery and Arjen Robben either side of Toni Kroos behind Gomez in Bayern’s attack.

Real coach Jose Mourinho opted to start with France’s Karim Benzema as striker in front of Oezil, who was flanked by Argentina’s Angel di Maria and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo.

After Ribery had seen a penalty appeal turned down, the Frenchman fired past Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas from close range on 17 minute after Madrid failed to deal with a Kroos corner and the ball fell kind-

ly to the former Marseille winger.

The goal injected some confidence into the Bayern attack as midfielders Kroos and Luiz Gustavo got the better of their Real opponents, while Bastian Schweinsteiger forced Casillas into a diving save.

Likewise, Robben started finding space down the right flank and began to give Real’s Sergio Ramos a few problems.

Bayern picked up two first-half bookings, with both defender Holger Badstuber and Robben earning cautions, but neither will miss the second leg.

With 39 minutes on the clock, Gomez nearly made it 2-0 when Casillas had to stretch to save his shot with half-time beckoning. But the visitors got back on level terms just seven minutes into the second half.

Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer managed to save Ronaldo’s shot, but when Benzema fired the ball back across goal, the Portugal star teed up Oezil for a simple tap-in as Neuer watched on helplessly.

Having squandered several chances and had a penalty appeal turned down, Gomez finally found the net in the 90th minute after Bayern captain Philipp Lahm squared for the German star to bundle the ball home from close range.

There was a melee in the dying stages after substitute Thomas Mueller was heavily fouled by Madrid replacement Marcelo, who was shown a yellow card, but Bayern now have everything to play for in the return leg in Spain. -AFP

SPAIN: Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday that talk of him leaving the European champions for Chelsea was “fantasy”.

Guardiola has been reported to be the number one target for Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who earlier this season sacked Andre Villas-Boas and installed former Blues midfielder Roberto di Matteo as caretaker coach until the end of the season. But not even the suggestion of a £10 million-a-year ($15.9million US dollars) contract appeared enough to sway the 41-year-old.

Speaking on the eve of Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final first leg

against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Guardiola downplayed all talk of a move, even though he has yet to sign a new contract with the Spanish giants.

“It is fantasy, it’s hypothetical,” he said. “I am coach of Barcelona now and Chelsea have a good manager who is getting unbelievable results. It’s not useful for Chelsea or for Barcelona to talk about that. There is no time to talk about that.”

The fact Guardiola has yet to put pen to paper on a new Camp Nou contract has led to intense speculation on his future but, not for the first time this season, he insisted he was just concentrating on the match in front of him.

“I just want to focus on the game,” he said ahead of Wednesday’s clash in west London. “This is a dream come true, to be here ahead of this great game. I just want to make sure my players are focused on the game and can enjoy playing matches like that.”

Barcelona’s win over Chelsea three years ago was arguably the catalyst for their emergence as one of the greatest ever club sides and Guardiola, recalling that match, said: “That was our first year together. We had that kind of love story you have in the first year. We were united, and we scored that goal right at the end.

The rest is history.” - AFP

Chelsea warriors digging in for Barca assault

Postponed Serie A fixtures to be played April 24-25 MILAN: Last weekend’s postponed Italian Serie A program will now be played on April 24 and 25, the Italian Football League confirmed on Monday. It means Italian top flight clubs will all play five times within a two week period starting this weekend.

The 33rd round of matches had been postponed as a mark of respect due to the death Saturday of Livorno’s Piermario Morosini during a Serie B encounter at Pescara.

Two of the matches will be played in the early evening on Tuesday, April 24 with the rest played on Wednesday, April 25 in the afternoon and early evening.

The matches cannot be played on the usual 20.45 kick-off times due to the Barcelona-Chelsea and Real Madrid-Bayern Munich Champions League encounters being played on those evenings.

UEFA rules state that no top flight club matches in Europe can take place at the same time as Champions League football.

Atalanta-Chievo and Cagliari-Catania will both be played on the Tuesday at 18.30 local time with all other

matches played on the Wednesday, a national holiday in Italy.

It means that most of the Wednesday matches can be played at 15.00 local time, as happens on Sundays.

The news means that this weekend’s program will go ahead as planned.

There had been a speculation that last weekend’s 33rd round matches would be played this weekend with the 34th round moved into the following midweek.

However, that was rejected in favor of the simplest solution - to play the 33rd round on April 25, after the 34th round.

However, due to the two matches on April 24, two extra matches have been brought forward from Sunday, April 22 to the day before, to give the teams an extra day’s rest ahead of their Tuesday matches.

Parma-Cagliari and Catana-Atalanta will now join Chievo-Udinese and Napoli-Novara in being played on the Saturday.

It all means Italian teams face a punishing schedule to end the season with six matches to be played in three weeks. -AFP

Premier League gets nostalgic 20 years on LONDON: Nostalgia, the old line goes, is not what it used to be. But as the Premier League gets misty eyed about its 20 years of existence, it appears that great goals are not what they used to be either.

Arguably the most striking thing about the candidates for the ‘20 Seasons Awards’ launched this week by the Premier League is that just one of the 10 best goal contenders was scored in the last 10 years.

Wayne Rooney’s overhead strike for Manchester United against Manchester City in February 2011 stands alone as the only goal scored after 2002.

This means there is no place for any of the competition’s recent top marksmen like Cristiano Ronaldo, who found the net 84 times in six seasons at Manchester United, or Chelsea’s Didier Drogba who has twice topped the goal chart.

Two goals from former Southampton favorite Matt Le Tissier, a player whose chubby physique was a throwback to the days before the increased athleticism of the Premier League era are the earliest choices on the list.

There is also David Beckham’s famous 1996 goal from the halfway line for Manchester United against Wimbledon.

Strikes by Tony Yeboah, Eric Cantona, Paolo Di Canio, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Alan

Shearer all feature among the nominees that fans will select a winner from via a vote on the Premier League website, www.premierleague.com.

The public will also choose the best match, best save, best celebration and best team of individuals from the 20 years since the 20-team league replaced the old first division as English football’s top tier in August 1992.

In contrast with the choice of goals, seven of the 10 contenders for the best match of the past two decades are from 2007 onwards.

In fact there are three games from 2011 alone, compared with just two from the 1990’s, Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Newcastle United in 1996 and Newcastle’s 5-0 rout of Manchester United that same year. This begs the question whether individual goals stay in the memory longer than games.

Football fans with longer memories might also point out the irony of the Premier League getting nostalgic in the first place as the preceding century of organized league football in England is often ignored amid the hype surrounding the competition.

Besides the public vote, which is open until April 30, a panel of football figures, journalists and commentators will select a best player, manager, team and season. -Reuters

Juan Mata of Chelsea celebrates as he scores their second during the FA Cup with Budweiser Semi Final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium, April 15, 2012. (AFP)

LONDON: Written off as too old and accused of hastening the downfall of Andre Villas-Boas, Chelsea’s old guard have flourished under stand-in manager Roberto Di Matteo and will relish trying to halt Barcelona’s bandwagon on Wednesday.

Chelsea reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for a sixth time after a thrilling second leg comeback to knock out Napoli, playing with more freedom and confidence since Italian Di Matteo replaced the sacked Villas-Boas in early March.

Holders Barcelona represent formidable opponents but the likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry will walk out at Stamford Bridge for the first leg with no trepidation and fuelled with a desire to avenge a bitter semi-final defeat in 2009.

The sides have met four times in the knockout phase of the tournament with Barca prevailing three times, most notably three years ago when Chelsea were on the brink of reaching the final before Andres Iniesta’s stunning stoppage time strike broke their hearts and sent Drogba apoplectic with rage.

Drogba warmed up for another meeting with Barca with a spectacular goal in the 5-1 FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, while

Lampard scored a sensational free kick and Terry produced some defensive heroics. All three have been instrumental in the club’s upturn in fortune since VillasBoas left.

Di Matteo is holding the fort while owner Roman Abromovich decides on a new general, with Barca’s Pep Guardiola one of the names mentioned, but the Italian appears to have unified a fractured dressing room -- crucially getting the best out of the club’s old warriors.

“Robbie has been brilliant, he took over a team that was looking like going out of the Champions League, struggling in the league,” Lampard told Chelsea’s website. “He loves the club, he has brought confidence into the dressing room, spoke to all the players and you can see the response he has got.”

Barca have been on a dizzying run of form, winning 14 of their last 15 matches and drawing the other 0-0 against AC Milan in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg.

Lionel Messi has scored 26 goals in 14 games during that run and the Argentine World Player of the Year has set a new Champions League season record of 14 goals.

His incredible 63 goals in all competitions this term is only four short of the

all-time season record of 67 set by former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Mueller in 1972-73.

“All that matters in the two games is that we perform on the night. Barcelona have so many players that can hurt you, the greatest player in the world in Lionel Messi so it’s a tough task for us but we have to be confident,” Lampard said.

If Chelsea can shackle Messi they have half a chance of knocking out the holders as they did in 2005.

“Messi is decisive, and when you have the best player in the world in your team, you tend to become a little dependent on him because he is goal-hungry and in any match he can be the decisive element,” said Barca midfielder Javier Mascherano. The first leg comes three days before crucial domestic league fixtures for both clubs.

Barcelona have cut Real Madrid’s lead at the top of La Liga back from 10 points to four over the last month and host Jose Mourinho’s side, who play Bayern Munich in the other Champions League semi-final this week, on Saturday.

Chelsea face Arsenal on Saturday when defeat could mean their best hope of playing in next season’s Champions League could be by winning this year’s competition. -Reuters