April 13, 2012

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1403

20 PAGES

www.alwatandaily.com

150 Fils with IHT

MPs approve tougher penalties for blasphemy Mohammed Al-Salman Staff Writers

KUWAIT: The National Assembly session concluded peacefully yesterday after MPs approved amendments concerning the toughening of penalties against those who blaspheme against Allah, the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and his wives.

It is worth noting that the draft laws were approved by 46 MPs during the first session, while MPs Hussein Al-Qallaf, Saleh Ashour, Abdulhameed Dashti, and Adnan Al-Mutawwa rejected the draft law. MPs Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari abstained from voting. MP Lari called on all society segments to cooperate in turning laws into Islamic laws, and to take into consideration the beliefs of every sect. however, he asserted that everyone agrees on toughening sentences regarding those who slander Allah and the Prophet. Lari stressed the importance of differentiating between Muslims and non-Muslims, while MP Osama Al-Menawer asserted that the Legislative Committee asked the Awqaf to express its opinion regarding the law. However, he mentioned that the fatwas issued by the Ministry of Awqaf are based on the Sunni sect. Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Jamal Al-Shehab applauded what MP Lari had said about think-

US Visa processing fees to change on Friday

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No launch from North Korea; no backing down, either PYONGYANG: North Korea’s first chance at a rocket launch came and went Thursday with no word of a liftoff, but also with no sign that Pyongyang intends to call off what the US and its allies consider an attempt to test long-range missile technology.

The launch window for what North Korea says is a observation satellite opened during a week aimed at celebrating Sunday’s centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder.

Events also include high-level meetings where new leader Kim Jong Un has received at least three new titles to further cement More on 5 his rule.

ing carefully before turning laws into Islamic laws.

MP Khaled Al-Sultan stated that what Al-Shehab had said is correct, and stressed that Islamic Shariah has defined penalties for those who slander Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), which is execution. However, MP Abdulsamad asked him to review what Sunnah scholars had mentioned about the issue, since there are quotes that differ. Al-Sultan responded by saying that he has already revised the sayings of scholars, and that they all approve the execution of anyone who slanders the Prophet and his family. Moreover, MP Ali Al-Rashed said that everyone approves the law, but that the details must be further probed. He went on to say that they should ask scholars about those who repent from their sins, which calls for referring the law back to the committee for further reviewing.

MP Mubarak Al-Waalan remarked that some people slander the leaders of the GCC countries and defend the tyrant Bashar Al-Assad. Shiites MPs considered the statement made by AlWaalan as being out of context and inappropriate, which triggered arguments in the parliament. Speaker of National Assembly Ahmad Al-Saadoun stepped in and ordered the statement made by Al-Waalan be struck from the minutes of the meeting.

Syria calm after UN truce deadline

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

London police suspect antiterror hotline hacked

LONDON: London’s Metropolitan Police said Thursday it is investigating whether conversations on its AntiTerrorist Hotline had been recorded by hackers.

“We are aware of an issue whereby hoaxers have made calls to the Anti-Terrorist Hotline and have made recordings of their conversations with Anti-Terrorist Hotline staff,” the force said in a statement. “In addition, recordings have been made of conversations between Metropolitan Police Service Anti-Terrorist Hotline staff.” It added that the Anti-Terrorist Hotline remains operational and that an investigation into the matter is being led by the e-Crime Unit. The statement came after a hacktivist group posted what appeared to be recordings on YouTube and claimed responsibility on Twitter for “terrorizing” the Anti-Terrorist unit. The hotline is provided for the public to report any suspicions of terrorist activity. -AP

Louvre goes visual with Nintendo 3DS guide

A person uses a handheld Nintendo 3DS console which replace audio guides as she visits the Louvre Museum on April 12, 2012 in Paris. (AFP)

PARIS: For the Louvre, the existing audio guide is so 20th century. So the famed Paris museum is going 3D visual with its electronic guides in a deal with Japan’s Nintendo to provide game consoles to help visitors who navigate its labyrinthine halls by the millions each year. The game consoles launched this week offer 700 recordings on celebrated works like the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa. The guides can also offer virtual glimpses of artistic touches that are tough for the naked eye to see - like tiny details on towering tableaus in the museum’s wood-paneled walls. The guides, in seven languages, and accompanying headsets cost 5 euro (6.50 US dollars) on top of the museum’s 10 euro standard admission price. -AP

In this image made from amateur video released by the Ugarit News and accessed Thursday, April 12, 2012, purports to show Syrians holding Syrian revolutionary flags during a demonstration in Deir El-Zour, Syria. (AP)

BEIRUT: A fragile cease-fire brokered by the UN took hold in Syria on Thursday with regime forces apparently halting widespread attacks on the opposition but still defying demands by international envoy Kofi Annan to pull troops back to barracks.

If the truce holds, it would be the first time the regime has observed an internationally brokered cease-fire since Bashar Al-Assad’s regime launched a brutal crackdown 13 months

NATO chief pledges to meet Afghan handover goal

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Algeria mourns first president’s passing

ALGIERS: Algeria was in mourning on Thursday after the death of its first post-independence president Ahmed Ben Bella, hailed as an anti-colonialist hero and the father of the nation.

The body of Ben Bella, who died at home on Wednesday at the age of 95 following a recent hospital stay for respiratory problems, was taken to the People’s Palace in Algiers where it will lie in state for 24 hours.

State television showed Ben Bella’s flag-draped coffin being carried by six senior army officials, who were followed by his two daughters Mehdia and Noria.

“Farewell, father to Algerians,” proclaimed L’Expression newspaper, which like other media outlets extolled Ben Bella and the profound mark he left on

the north African country.

Current President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who said Algeria had lost one of its bravest leaders, went to the People’s Palace to greet the coffin. Ben Bella will lie in state for 24 hours.

Bouteflika on Wednesday declared an an eight-day period of national mourning, with Ben Bella’s funeral to be held on Friday.

A charismatic hero of Algeria’s independence from France, Ben Bella was president from 1963 to 1965, when he was overthrown by his defense minister, Houari Boumediene, a close ally of Bouteflika.

France granted independence in 1962, after which Ben Bella became the new nation’s first president a year later. -AFP

Lack of sleep may boost diabetes risk

Interim Mali leader promises vote, anti-rebel fight

BAMAKO: Former parliament speaker Dioncounda Traore took over as Mali’s interim president on Thursday from the leaders of last month’s coup, promising to hold elections and fight Tuareg and Islamist rebels occupying half the country.

Traore, 70, a labor activist turned politician, was sworn in by Supreme Court President Nouhoum Tapily in the capital Bamako as part of a deal to restore civilian rule after army officers staged a March 22 coup in the West African state.

The coup shattered predominantly Mulsim Mali’s image as one of the most peaceful and stable states in the region. Triggered by army anger over the previous civilian government’s failure to tackle a Tuareg-led rebellion in the north, it backfired spectacularly, allowing the rebels to advance and declare a northern separatist homeland. Al Qaedalinked Islamist fighters are among the occupying rebels.

With residents and UN rights experts reporting killings, rapes and looting on the rise in rebel-seized northern towns, there are fears of the vast northern territory becoming a lawless and destabilizing “rogue state” in West Africa. “We will never negotiate the partition of Mali,” Traore said in his inauguration speech in which he promised to organize “free and transparent elections over the whole of the national territory”. -Reuters

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Russia to spend $1 bln on new space launch pad

A handout picture released by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s official website shows supporters of Ahmadinejad holding his pictures and waving Iranian flags during his visit to Jask in the southern Hormozgan province on April 12, 2012. Iran “will not retreat an iota” from its nuclear rights, Ahmadinejad said, ahead of weekend talks in Istanbul with world powers over Tehran’s atomic activities. (AFP)

ago on mass protests calling for his ouster. The opposition called for peaceful protests on Friday to test the government’s commitment to the accord. There was deep skepticism that the regime would halt its fire for long, given that AlAssad has broken promises in the past. Also, the regime said Wednesday, on the eve of the truce deadline, that it reserves the right to respond to any aggression, potentially a pretext More on 4 for breaking the truce.

MOSCOW: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday his nation will spend about 1 billion US dollars this year alone to build a new space launch pad in the far east that should ease the Russian space program’s reliance on ex-Soviet neighbor Kazakhstan. Putin told government officials in televised remarks Thursday that the first rocket launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome is set to be conducted by 2015, and in 2018 it should launch a first manned mission.

Officials have put the total cost of the project at about $10 billion.

Putin said Russia will continue to use the Soviet-built Baikonur launch pad it leases from Kazakhstan, but added that a new launch facility of its own is needed to secure the national space program’s independence.

Russia has a lease deal to use Baikonur until 2050 for an annual fee of $115 million. In the past, Kazakh authorities briefly suspended Russian rocket launches from Baikonur following the spill of highly toxic rocket fuel.

“Only the existence of several space launch pads would guarantee Russia a full independence in space activities,” Putin said. Russia also has the Plesetsk launch pad in the north used mostly for launches of military satellites.

Vostochny, where construction work began last year, is located outside the town of Uglegorsk in the far eastern Amur region, 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) east of Moscow, and just about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away from the border with China. Putin said the new facility will include more than 40 apartment buildings for personnel and the necessary infrastructure to make it a “comfortable, modern town.” -AP

Firefighters battle a blaze on a pipeline at the port of Leixoes in northern Portugal Thursday, April 12 2012. One worker was killed and another seriously injured by an explosion when a gas pipeline at the port was damaged during the dismantling of an old crane, seen at right. (AP)

Distant galaxies confirm accelerating growth of universe, dark energy

WASHINGTON: The pesky reality that the universe’s expansion is accelerating an observation that prompted astronomers to invoke an unknown entity called dark energy to explain it - has been further confirmed by new measurements according to SPACE. Scientists have used cosmic magnifying glasses called gravitational lenses to observe super-bright distant galaxies, giving a measure of how quickly the universe is blowing up like a giant balloon. They found, in agreement with previous measurements, that the universe’s expansion is indeed speeding up over time. The first measurement of this phenomenon, based on exploding stars called supernovae, was made in the 1990s.

“The accelerated cosmic expansion is one of the central problems in modern cosmology,” Masamune Oguri, of the University of Tokyo’s Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, said in a statement. “In 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe using observations of distant supernovae. A caution is that this method using supernovae is built on several assumptions, and therefore independent checks of the result are important More on 15 in order to draw any robust conclusion.”

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ALWATAN DAILY

kuwait

friDAY, april 13, 2012

MPs approve tougher penalties for blasphemy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

During a press conference later on, MP AlQallaf stated that Kuwait currently witnesses extremism and division, and added that some people try to eliminate those who have different opinions. He mentioned that Kuwait has not reached a point where it has become common to slander the Prophet, in order to issue a law especially for it.

It is worth noting that the National Assembly has agreed to lift the parliamentary immunity of MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl who faces six charges, and MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel who faces one. However, the assembly refused to lift MP Mohammad Hayef’s immunity. Hayef accused some corrupt senior officers at the Ministry of Interior of making false accusations to defend the Syrian regime.

MP Bader Al-Dahoum stated that the Ministry of Interior has corrupt senior officers that are selective when making accusations against others. He added that writer Mohammad AlMilaifi was slandered and the police took no action.

The National Assembly opened a discussion

regarding citizens being fired from private sector jobs, and discussed the approval of a law that protects their positions and offers support for their families.

MP Shaye Al-Shaye mentioned that there are 3600 citizens who have been terminated from the private sector, and added that some of them committed suicide, while others are in jail. MP Lari called for the setup of a fund that helps those who were terminated from their jobs, while MP Dashti criticized the government for losing 800 million Kuwaiti dinars in the bourse and failing to help its citizens.

MP Adnan Al-Mutawwa asked the government to address the issue of job opportunities for 70 percent of university graduates, while MP Khaled Al-Sultan revealed that there are 80,000 employees who are currently unemployed.

Minister of Finance Mostafa Al-Shamali stressed that the government is keen to find solutions for citizens who have been terminated from the workforce. He added that the government is discussing their files, in order to address their jobless status.

Development plans in final stages: Minister Safar Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer & Agency

KUWAIT: The Minister of Public Works and Minister of Planning and Development Dr. Fadhil Safar announced that he will begin coordination meeting for the fourth annual plan preparation for the year 2013/2014 and this is the last series of the series of the four annual plans for the development plans 2010/2011 - 2013/2014 to execute Article 6 of law 6/2010 to issue the development plan.

In a speech delivered during a meeting with the undersecretaries regarding the fourth annual plan preparation, he said “The pace of achievement of the state development plan over the past two years is considered a success, though not meeting the high aspirations of the people but it is a success for all which provides us with hope and incentive to always seek more development in performance and success.”

He went on to add that the reports following up the two plans point out that there are clear improvements in the level of performance of all government bodies in the implementation of their own projects and that there are many obstacles which have been overcome calling on all to exert more efforts in the preparation of the fourth annual plan for the year 2013/2014 to achieve more successes and to be loyal to responsibility.

He stressed on taking care of projects which support the policies of the development plan and more of internal coordination in the government bodies and to work within the spirit of one team so that the development plan projects are set up in an integral and compliant way with the body’s budget.

He pointed out to the importance of achieving more coordination with the team of the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development.

He stressed on working on the execution of the recommendations made by the workshop set up for dealing with obstacles especially the one related to simplify the paper work related to many procedures as well as allocating plots of lands for the construction of projects and make benefits of the outputs of the training programs which were implemented by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development. He also stressed on taking care of the qualified planning cadres in the government bodies to benefit from the

accumulating experiences of these cadres in the preparations of the plan projects and in the coordination of and following up with the team of General Secretariat for Planning.

Dr. Safar emphasized to impalement the vision to transfer Kuwait into a financial and commercial center in order to attract investment, where the private sector takes the lead in economic activities and reinforces the spirit of competition and elevate the production efficiency. He noted that this should happen under the state control and supervision as to support the Kuwaiti values and social identity.

He explained that the following six strategies aim to represent the government with an action plan: total local production increase, elevating the living standards of the citizens, leading the private sector for development according to the mechanism of incentives, supporting human and society development, improving the population policies to support development, effective government management as well as reinforcing the Arab and Islamic identity.

Dr. Safar demonstrated the main points of the government action plan: respecting the constitution and law and state department, keeping the basic rights and freedoms, keeping the security of the country and taking all necessary measures and preparations to maintain its fundamentals and protect its stability, as well as keenness to have effective cooperation between the two executive and legislative authorities in a way that will guarantee the effective work and achieving national accomplishments, supporting national unity and endorsing its fundamentals and fighting off strife as well as activating the role of the media.

The minister, however, underlined the importance of exerting more efforts in setting the plan of 2013/2014, the last episode of the four-year development plan, to help meet the ambitions of the people.

He stressed the need for more coordination among state bodies and teamwork spirit in executing the plans.

Safar urged best benefit from the experience of the highly-qualified planning experts in different ministries.

Meanwhile, the Minister said “The State of Kuwait 2035 Vision” aims to turn Kuwait into a financial and commercial hub, where the private sector plays an important role in leading the economy to raise competitiveness of Kuwaiti products and efficiency of Kuwait bodies and personnel.

Room view of Thursday’s Parliament session held April, 12, 2012. (Al Watan)

Deputy Prime Minister says to refer ‘money transfers’ file to Parliament Wafa Qansour Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah affirmed that the cooperation between the executive and legislative authorities was well-manifested in the issue of alleged illicit financial transfers abroad. The minister noted that the ministry is fully ready to refer the issue to the National Assembly once the Audit Bureau provides them with the dossier.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Senegal National Day celebrations which, was held in Sheraton in the presence of senior political and diplomatic personalities, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled explained that the ministry refer this dossier to the Audit Bureau since a committee was formed to probe the issue.

Regarding an announcement by the former US Secretary General and the current UN-Arab League convoy to Syria Kofi Annan about the cessation of fighting in Syria, the minister said,” We expect the envoy to proceed with his mission and keep track of the agreement he reached with the Syrian government.”

He added that Kuwait remains fully committed to the Arab Action Plan and the six-point agreement that Annan called for.

The minister also commented on His Highness the Amir’s recent participation in the Arab League Summit which was held in Baghdad, describing it as important. In the meantime, he told reporters that the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port is Kuwait and is built on Kuwaiti territory, while stressing on Kuwait’s determination to maintain good relations with its neighbors.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled congratulated Senegal on the National Day and the successful presidential elections which have been recently held.

For his part, the Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Khaled Al-Jarallah asserted that there are contacts with the Iraq to have Ali AlHarbi, a Kuwaiti national, released.

The official added that positive developments and expressed hope that the citizen will be released soon.

Speaking earlier, the Senegal Ambassador to Kuwait Abdul Ahad Mbake hailed the cordial ties between Kuwait and Senegal in all domains.

He commended the loans offered by Kuwait and the projects it implements, and attributed

New Education Undersecretaries determined to serve Kuwait from any position

Abdu-Aziz Al-Fadli Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education Undersecretaries assumed their duties on Thursday following the extensive reshuffle that the Minister of Education Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf had done recently.

The Undersecretary for Private Education, who used to occupy the post of public education undersecretary, Mona Al-Logani made a familiarization tour to the Private Education Department in Salmiya where she had a meeting with the head of the department Mohammed Al-Dahes. The two officials discussed relevant issues and the prospect of putting in place a mechanism in order to address all the pending matters, be they related to schools or students.

Reacting to the reshuffle, Al-Logani said she welcomes the decision, while expressing

Al-Sadoun meets UN envoys

readiness to serve Kuwait from any position.

The undersecretary added that she won’t find it difficult to get familiarized with the work mechanism in the private education sector, particularly since it is closely related to the public education where she had served for the past years.

Al-Logani stressed that she will work to remove all the hurdles that face the sector with the support of the minister who spares no effort in offering any support that can advance the education process in the country.

For his part, the Undersecretary for ExtraCurricular Activities Radhi Al-Rasheedi, who used to be the undersecretary for finance, reported to work very early and held a meeting with his top aides. He affirmed that smooth workflow and productivity are his ultimate aim.

“We all work to serve the interests of students and the teaching staff,” the official was

Staff Writer

National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Sadoun with a visiting delegation of United Nations (UN) member countries on Thursday, April 12, 2012. (KUNA)

nent members of the states of Madagascar, Eretria, Cape Verde,Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Grenada, Myanmar, East Timor, Fiji, and Micronesia to the United Nations. -KUNA

quoted as saying. He immediately signed a decision ordering the deposit of the allowances due for the employees who work in evening clubs.

In the meantime, the Undersecretary for Administration Sector Duaij Al-Duaij held a meeting with the officials under his purview, during which they discussed the most important issues and decisions to be taken.

He expressed satisfaction at the enthusiasm shown by the employees in serving visitors.

The new Undersecretary for Public Education Mohammed Al-Kandari kicked off his activities with a visit to Jahra where he attended an event there.

The official revealed that the ministry is currently in search of places close to learners with Down syndrome in order to shorten distances for them. He added that the ministry is keen on providing all the necessary facilities for this segment of students.

MP Al-Juwaihel Kuwait condemns terrorist blast in Bahrain KUWAIT: The State of Kuwait strongly 2011, and the outcome of the probe, recently rejects dual citizenship condemned on Wednesday the terrorist blast unveiled, drew large-scale praise from inside

Abdullah Al-Najar

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Sadoun received on Thursday a visiting delegation of United Nations (UN) member countries. The delegation consisted of perma-

this to the special relations between the two nations and the instructions of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Mbake revealed that the new Senegalese leader will soon visit Kuwait, while expressing hope the trade relations between the two countries will further develop.

For his part, the Russian Ambassador to Kuwait Alexandrovich Kinshchak affirmed that the cessation of military activities will serve as a truce for peaceful solutions and called on the opposition to refrain from violence which will make it possible to send international observers. The envoy also expressed hope that Iran would play a positive role that will enable the international community to implement the peace plan.

Ambassador Kinshchak added that his country was engaged in negotiations at a ministerial level in Moscow two days ago, noting that Russia has exerted all possible efforts to convince the Syrian leadership of the importance of this move.

He added that the ball is now in the opposition’s court, and stressed that arming the opponents of the regime will only lead to more violence.

KUWAIT: The Member of Parliament (MP) Mohammed Al-Juwaihel told Al-Watan that he is against holding two different citizenships and his next interpellation motion against the Minister of Interior includes an item regarding dual citizenship.

The lawmaker affirmed that supporting the Saudi citizen Nayef Ayesh Al-Metairie for obtaining the Kuwaiti citizenship is a different case because the man deserves the Kuwaiti citizenship as he is “a good man who suffered greatly while serving Kuwait” unlike the other Saudi citizen who forged certain documents to receive the Kuwaiti citizenship which in turn will lead to many advantages.

The lawmaker pointed out that his motion aims to depriving the man that committed forgery cases from obtain the Kuwaiti citizenship but in the meantime he supports Nayef because he served the Kuwaiti army and because he has documents proving that. He also was captured by the Iraqi forces during the invasion and was tortured. He went on to say that Nayef was born in Kuwait and that he holds the official documents of the census of 1965 proving so, noting that he also received many medals due to his hard efforts in serving in the Kuwaiti army.

that took place in Al-Ekar village, eastern Bahrain, on Monday.

An official of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said the despicable act of violent could only disturb the Kingdom’s civil peace and hinder the positive atmosphere created by the speech of King Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa. The King had instructed setting up an inquiry panel to probe the incidents of February and March,

and outside the kingdom, the official pointed out. “The State of Kuwait stands by sisterly Bahrain in its efforts to protect its security and stability and the safety of its citizens.

Kuwait supports all efforts being made

by Bahrain to deal with the menace of terrorism,” he stressed. The official voiced quick recovery for the eight policemen injured in the attack. -KUNA

29 Group forum: Time to solve Bedoun issue Shereen Sabri Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Participants who took part in the forum that was organized two days ago by the 29 Group, asserted that the time has come to solve the Bedoun (stateless Arabs) issue, and called for a fundamental solution.

They warned against slackness in solving this issue, since it will further complicate it, and asserted that Bedouns are a productive segment of the society.

Moreover, they noted that the Bedoun issue requires more attention in Kuwait, since it is sidelined. They stressed the importance of reaching fast solutions, in order to avoid further worsening of the situation, and ap-

plauded the role shouldered by the group that raised awareness regarding that thorny issue.

Furthermore, the participants stated that the Bedoun are a productive segment in the society, and that many of them are well educated and intellectual.

Dentist Abdul Hakeem Al-Fadhli stressed that the family atmosphere that he was brought up in serves as a motive to continue his studies. He went on to say that Bedouns are citizens, and held the government responsible for not being able to solve this issue. He called for allowing all Bedouns to learn.

The forum concluded by showing a documentary that demonstrates numerous accomplishments made by Bedouns in the fields of art, sports, literature, media, and medicine.

ALWATAN DAILY

KUWAIT

fridAY, april 13, 2012

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Embassy in Thailand monitors current ‘tsunami threat’ situation Kuwaitis in Mexico unharmed by earthquake: Ambassador

CAPITALS: Kuwaiti Charge D’affaires at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Thailand, Omar Al-Kanderi affirmed that the embassy is closely following the Thai authorities’ warnings over Tsunami, stressing that no Kuwaiti citizen is harmed.

Al-Kanderi told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Thursday that the embassy will continue to monitor the developments on the state of emergency, and will coordinate with Thai authorities over this issue.

Kuwaiti official urged Kuwaiti citizens to adhere to the guidelines and preventive measures issued by the Thai authorities in

case of any emergency that may occur as a result of the earthquake that struck Sumatra. Bangkok International Airport is still operating normally, he noted.

He also confirmed, that the Thai authorities strictly warned six coastal provinces, although Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center affirmed that the chances are low of a tsunami in the south-western coast of Thailand.

No casualties were reported so far in result of the earthquake, he said.

In related news, “All Kuwaiti diplomats, embassy staff, and their families are safe and unharmed” after the strong quake that hit seven points on the Richter Scale Wednesday evening, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Mexico Samih Jowhar Hayat told KUNA

on Thursday.

In exclusive remarks, the ambassador pointed out all may rest assured that “all Kuwaiti nationals in Mexico” are unharmed according to reports so far.

The diplomat said the quake which hit the western part of the country rattled the public and caused people to rush onto the streets in panic, fearing buildings may collapse.

He added that the federal authorities are currently conducting a thorough survey of all vital installations and buildings in the capital city to assess the damage. Several buildings showed cracks and signs of structural damage after the strong quake, he reported, which is the fourth since December 2011. -KUNA

Iranian Ambassador optimistic about promising future for both countries Jameel W. Karaki Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Iranian Ambassador to Kuwait Rouhullah Qahremani expressed his satisfaction concerning the outcome of the discussions during the meetings held between the political and economical joint committees of both countries.

He added that talks took place in a friendly atmosphere with mutual understanding as well as sincere desire to achieve the objectives of fraternal cooperation and the development of political, consular and economic relations. The Iranian party in the consular committee affirmed that it would issue free visas for accredited Iranian diplomats at the state of Kuwait, and granting visas to the families of Iranian teachers working in Iranian schools in Kuwait. Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti side asserted

securing the safety of wooden ships coming into Doha port and to speed up the exchange of documents related to the security cooperation convention between the two countries.

As for the commercial joint committee, members reached final decisions about increasing commercial exchange, promoting the visits of public and private delegations between the two countries where the Kuwaiti side explained the Foreign Direct investment Law and the advantages awarded to foreign companies. The two sides also discussed the importance of free trade zones and the tax exemptions provided by those areas of industrial investment.

They also discussed encouraging participation in trade fairs held in both countries and to study the developments, economic conditions and encouraging the exchange of information to enhance bilat-

eral cooperation.

The two sides also welcomed the talks between chambers of commerce and industry in both countries regarding the protocol of cooperation. Both parties agreed to unify the specifications and standards and implementation of training programs and exchange of experiences in the field of laboratory services and coordination of positions in international and regional organizations.

The Committee of Justice and legal affairs for the two countries have exchanged ideas and theses on the file of the continental shelf in all candor, transparency and clarity, and decides to be a final decision on all the files and intensification of deliberations during the meeting of the Higher Committee under the chairmanship of the Foreign Ministers of both countries and which will be during the next few weeks.

US Visa processing fees to change on Friday

Students are seen playing in the rain on Thursday, April 12, 2012. Kuwait witnessed yesterday a rainy weather, which according to forecasts is expected to resume to today, Friday. (KUNA)

Municipality prepares for urban dev. conf

KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipal Council formed on Thursday the organizing committees for the international urban development and municipal administration conference to be held in Kuwait on May 7-9.

Head of the conference media committee Abdulmohsen AbalKhail told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the committee met to discuss the preparations for the international event.

He indicated that each organizing committee was given a task to complete as to prepare for the conference which would focus on urban and sustainable development. -KUNA

Visa bans causing frustration, sorrow one year on

Michael A. Kolarov Staff Writer

KUWAIT: In a press statement on Thursday, the American Embassy in Kuwait announced that effective April 13, 2012, the Department of State will adjust visa processing fees.

The fees for most nonimmigrant visa applications and Border Crossing Cards will increase, while all immigrant visa processing fees will decrease.

The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing visas through the collection of application fees. For a number of reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of pro-

cessing nonimmigrant visas.

The nonimmigrant visa fee increase will support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities, as well as additional staffing required to meet increased visa demand.

Although most categories of nonimmigrant visa processing fees will increase, the fee for E visas (treaty-traders and treatyinvestors) and K visas (for fiancé(e)s of US citizens) will decrease.

The embassy added that because of a reallocation of costs associated with immigrant visas, all categories of immigrant visa processing fees will decrease.

Sheikh Ahmad nominated for ANOC Presidency MOSCOW: Head of Kuwaiti and Asian Olympic bodies Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah was nominated here Thursday as President of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

Sheikh Ahmad, who is acting president of the ANOC, was nominated for the position during 55th meeting for the Association’s Executive Office which consists of 26 members.

He vowed to develop ANOC if elected as President.

He thanked the UN for supporting the ANOC, indicating that such gesture

showcased the international organization’s keenness on developing sports globally.

The Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC) was created during the Constitutive General Assembly held on June 26-27, 1979 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, convened as the IX General Assembly of the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and chaired by Mario Vazquez Rana. The first “General Assembly of the NOCs” had taken place in Rome on September 30, October 1st-2nd, 1965. -KUNA

KUWAIT: Kuwait presently bans nationals from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria from entering the country. The ban, which was implemented in May of 2011, includes suspending all tourism, visit and trade visas as well as visas sponsored by spouses. Officials, who requested to remain anonymous, stated at the time that the visa ban was due to the “difficult security conditions in the five countries” and to “the remarkably increasing tendency of nationals from the five countries to apply for visas to bring in relatives who are facing or could be faced with arrest by the local authorities to Kuwait.” Authorities insisted that no exception in the visa application would be tolerated, but that the ban was temporary and would be lifted after the security situation in those countries stabilizes.

In September of 2011, Kuwait also suspended commercial visit visas, Mohammad Al-Afasi, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor stressed the need to balance the lopsided population structure in the country, especially since the ministry has noticed a remarkable increase in the number of visit visas being transferred to work permits. He said that some people have abused the leniency of the authorities; hence, the need to take strict measures to curb the rising number of marginal workers.

In a March 2012 television interview, the Director of the Hawalli Immigration Department, Brigadier Talal Marafie said, “Many expatriates are unaware that issuance of family visa to enable parents to join their children in Kuwait has been suspended because many of them visit the country for medical treatment,” Brigadier Marafie said the Interior Ministry has

been carrying out a study regarding parents of expatriates visiting Kuwait on family visit visas. He hinted that this will happen only after the health insurance fee is raised in cooperation with private hospitals to reduce pressure on public hospitals.

Al Watan Daily sat down with Tariq Saleem, a Pakistani businessman who explained some of the problems faced by the Pakistani community due to the visa ban. He said, “One of the biggest problems with the ban is for Pakistanis who already live here, but go back to get married. They can’t bring their wives over to live with them. It’s really a big problem for the Pakistani Community. Also families can’t all be together for the weddings, or the courtship, so it’s very difficult to match people for marriages.”

Saleem added, “Usually, for those who are able, what’s done is they bring their families over here in the summers. But now they can’t do that.” Pakistani nationals who bring their families to Kuwait for vacations, according to Saleem can stay on the job, and have their families over for a visit, which also means they are spending money in Kuwait, and that’s a good source of income for many businesses in Kuwait because tourists want to go out and see what Kuwait has to offer.

Saleem also explains that another major problem has become an issue with young students who go back to Pakistan to study, their parents remain in Kuwait and then they get stuck in Pakistan unable to come back and visit their parents during vacations.

Al Watan Daily also met with a Syrian national who asked to be identified by a pseudonym name Jassim, due to the situation in his home country. Jassim works as an auto mechanic and has been in Kuwait for the last sev-

Engineers Society announces hosting environment conference Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer

Kuwait Engineers Society spokespersons are seen during a press conference on Thursday, April 12, 2012.

KUWAIT: The Director of Kuwait Engineers Society (KES) Eng. Hussam Al-Kharafi announced that the society has completed preparations for hosting the activities of the Arab Environment Conference. The event will be organized by society in cooperation with Arab Engineers Union on Sunday and Monday at Palms Hotel in Bida’a area.

The conference is under the patronage of the Minister of Oil Eng. Hani Hussein, Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC), Environment Public Authority, Ministry of Communication and some other institutions.

The conference director, Eng. Jassem Al-Kharafi said in a press conference that the event aims at keeping pace with the latest developments in the field of environment, adding that the society hopes to attract the attention of the Arab elites to take a part in the conference. After completing the conference activities, the society will prepare researches and studies on the environment, where it will then send it to the relevant authorities, which include the government and the National Assembly.

On his part, the Head of the Environmental Committee at Eng. Mansour Al-Marri affirmed that the conference will discuss different environmental issues such as green buildings, national experiments, integrated treatment of hard and dangerous wastes and the reserves in the Arab world as well.

The Head of Scientific Committee at society Dr. Abdurrahman Al-Sulaili pointed out that the committee has completed the assessment of 75 documents and researches on various environmental issues. He added that the committee approved 37 to be discussed in the conference. Those documents and researches were submitted by about 15 countries.

He added saying that the conference will includes four workshops during the two days as well as many other sessions. The first workshop will be held by Dr. Mohammad Al-Haj Hussein from Saudi Arabia by the title “the green buildings, the second workshop will be held by the title “the Kuwaiti experiment on recycling constructional wastes”, the third workshop will take place by the title “assessing environmental revenues” and the fourth session by the title “principle of environmental commitment”.

enteen years, he recently returned to Kuwait from a trip to Syria, where he went to relocate his family to a safer place with other relatives to escape the conflict. “I want to bring my family here to Kuwait where I know they will be safe, but because of the ban, I can’t do that.

How can the government be so [inhumane]? To tell a man he can’t bring his family to live with him when they are in that situation?”

Some internet research reveals great confusion about the issue, with rumors popping up on various community websites and blogs indicating that the visa ban had been lifted, but the comments sections are filled up with people demanding to know how the ban was circumvented, or what the source of the information was.

However, circulated reports on Wednesday said that the interior ministry would allow Syrians residing in Kuwait to apply for dependant visas for their children, yet with the condition that their wives have valid residencies. The decision takes into consideration the current situation in Syria given the difficult circumstances.

In October of 2011, it was reported in the media that the General Immigration Department had lifted the ban on family visit visas for the first degree relatives of the citizens of the six countries Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, this was only for those expatriates whose families entered the country on dependent visas, completed all the health and other formalities, but did not have their residence stamped after the ban was imposed. The report lead to confusion that the ban had been lifted entirely, when in fact, it has not been. According to available information, the ban is still in place, and there are no signs of it being lifted.

4

ALWATAN DAILY

regional

friDAY, april 13, 2012

Syria calm after UN truce deadline BEIRUT: A fragile cease-fire brokered by the UN took hold in Syria on Thursday with regime forces apparently halting widespread attacks on the opposition but still defying demands by international envoy Kofi Annan to pull troops back to barracks.

If the truce holds, it would be the first time the regime has observed an internationally brokered cease-fire since Bashar Al-Assad’s regime launched a brutal crackdown 13 months ago on mass protests calling for his ouster. The opposition called for peaceful protests on Friday to test the government’s commitment to the accord. There was deep skepticism that the regime would halt its fire for long, given that Al-Assad has broken promises in the past. Also, the regime said Wednesday, on the eve of the truce deadline, that it reserves the right to respond to any aggression, potentially a pretext for breaking the truce.

The West and its allies doubt the sincerity of the regime’s pledges to comply with the truce plan, which calls on the Syrian government to allow peaceful protests. A prolonged cease-fire could threaten the regime by encouraging large numbers of protesters to flood the streets, as they did at the start of the revolt against the four-decade rule of the Al-Assad clan. The government met those demonstrations with a harsh crackdown, and more than 9,000 people have died since, according to the UN. Friday demonstration

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, urged Syrians to demonstrate peacefully on Friday. Protests are common on Fridays after Muslims crowd mosques for noon prayers.

“Tomorrow, like every Friday, the Syrian people are called to demonstrate even more and put the regime in front of its responsibilities - put the international community in front of its responsibilities,” he said.Annan is to brief the UN Security Council by video conference from Geneva on Thursday afternoon.

Both the government and the opposition

Major offensive

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on April 12, 2012 allegedly shows demonstrators in the town of Al-Tah in Idlib province, chanting anti-regime slogans as a UN-Arab League deadline to implement a ceasefire went into effect. (AFP)

have said they will abide by the truce, which began at 6 a.m. Thursday.

All the flashpoints of the uprising were reported quiet in the hours after the truce took hold.The central provinces of Hama and Homs, the northern regions of Idlib and Aleppo, the capital Damascus and its suburbs, as well as Deraa to the south and Deir El-Zour to the east were all calm, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

However, troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers continued to patrol several op-

position strongholds, including Damascus and the city of Homs, activists said.

“There have been no withdrawals from checkpoints but calm is prevailing in all areas in Syria,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. Another activist group, the grassroots Local Coordination Committees, said regime forces carried out arrests in the Damascus suburb of Maadamiyah shortly after reinforcements entered the area. It also reported anti-regime protests at universities in the southern city of Deraa and the eastern

Netanyahu to seek direct talks with Abbas at Fayyad meet JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will propose holding direct talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas when he meets Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jerusalem next week, his office said on Wednesday.

The Israeli prime minister is to hold a rare meeting with his Palestinian counterpart and two other senior officials from Ramallah in Jerusalem on April 17, a spokesman from his office said earlier.

It will be the first top-level meeting between the two sides since the peace process ground to a halt more than 18 months ago in a bitter dispute over Jewish settlement building. At the meeting, Netanyahu is to propose “raising the level of talks” and holding face-to-face negotiations with Abbas, his office said.

“At his meeting next week with the Palestinian delegation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will propose raising the level of the talks to conduct them directly with Abu Mazen,” it said, using Ab-

bas’s nom-de-guerre.

“This message will also be passed on through his personal envoy, the lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, who is expected to meet with Abu Mazen and hand him a letter with Israel’s position on a future agreement with the Palestinians,” it said, referring to the head of the Israeli negotiating team.

Israel and the Palestinians are expected to exchange letters in the coming week, with each side outlining its demands for a resumption of peace talks. But Abbas’s political adviser appeared less than impressed with Netanyahu’s proposal.

“If Netanyahu wants to meet President Abbas, he must first announce that he’s stopping settlements,” Nimr Hammad told AFP in a clear sign the Palestinians were not backing down from their central demand for resuming talks - that Israel halt its settlement building.

Top Quartet diplomats met in Washington on Wednesday in their latest attempt to find a way out of the deadlock, but the

Egypt Islamist groups to hold mass protest Friday

Egyptian supporters of Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Abu Ismail shout as they take part in a demonstration outside the State Council court in Cairo on April 11, 2012. (AFP)

CAIRO: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups will hold a mass protest in Cairo on Friday to demand that members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s regime be barred from running for public office. The Islamist groups - which have dominated politics since the popular uprising last year toppled Mubarak - are calling for the “protection of the revolution,” in statements on their websites.

They object to former regime figures such as ex-intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and former foreign minister, Amr Mussa, running in the presidential election scheduled for May 23 and 24. The protest comes as parliament discusses a draft law that would prohibit Mubarak regime members from running for public office, though the long process means it’s unlikely the draft will become law before the election.

The call for protest signals an escalation by the powerful Brotherhood in its standoff with the ruling military council, which took

gan said Turkey could seek NATO’s help in case the Syrian troops violate its borders again. Syrian forces opened fire across the Turkish border on Monday, killing two people in a Turkish refugee camp. Al-Assad apparently is unwilling to ease control over opposition areas for fear of widespread anti-government protests.

A major test could come on Friday. Since the outbreak of the protests in March 2011, thousands have taken to the streets every week after Friday noon prayers in the mosques.

The government denies that it is facing a popular uprising, claiming instead that terrorists are carrying out a foreign conspiracy to destroy Syria. In pledging Wednesday to observe the cease-fire, the government set a major condition, saying troops reserve the right to defend themselves if attacked.

power when Mubarak was ousted.

The Brotherhood’s candidate for next month’s poll, Khairat El-Shater, had likened Suleiman’s candidacy to an attempt “to steal the revolution” and warned it could set off another round of huge street protests.

But the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) insisted on Thursday that it was neutral when it came to the presidential candidates. SCAF “puts the interest of the country above all else.... It does not seek to achieve any interests and does not side with one party over the other,” it said in a statement.

SCAF “does not back any of the presidential candidates,” it added.

Secular groups have called for a protest on April 20 to press for the goals of the revolution and to denounce what they say is the Islamist monopolization of politics since the uprising.

They also want ex-regime figures banned from the presidency. -AFP

meeting ended with a bland statement urging both sides to merely “strengthen and improve the climate for a resumption of direct negotiations.” The statement was welcomed by Israel but the Palestinians were less than enthusiastic. “Israel welcomes the Quartet statement calling for a continuation of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians without preconditions,” Netanyahu’s office said.

But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Quartet needed to find a way of dealing with the issue of settlements. “The Quartet needs a mechanism to compel Israel to stop settlement and to act on the two-state solution,” he told AFP. Next week’s rare encounter between Netanyahu and Fayyad will be the first high-level talks in more than 18 months.

“The meeting will take place in Jerusalem, probably at the prime minister’s office,” Netanyahu’s spokesman Ofir Gendelman told AFP earlier on Wednesday, confirming the two would meet on Apr. 17. -AFP

city of Deir El-Zour, and a protest march in the northern village of Tamanaa.

Troop withdrawal snag

The regime ignored a Tuesday deadline for withdrawing troops from population centers, prompting renewed demands by Annan that forces return to their barracks. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded that the Syrian troops withdraw, saying that “keeping the cities under pressure is not meaningful.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo-

Syrian troops have been on a major offensive since late January when they attacked rebel-held areas around the capital Damascus.

During the first week of February, Al-Assad’s forces began a major campaign to retake the Baba Amr neighborhood in the city of Homs that fell in the hands of the regime in early March.

Since then, Al-Assad’s forces have been retaking major rebel-held areas including the city of Idlib as well as many towns around the country. Troops also now control much of the areas that border Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq making it more difficult for refugees to leave the country. Despite the regime gains, rebels still held some areas, including spots in the province of Homs, Hama, Daraa.

The White House cautioned Wednesday that the Al-Assad regime has reneged on promises to stop the violence in the past.

“What is important to remember is that we judge the Al-Assad’s regime by its actions and not by their promises, because their promises have proven so frequently in the past to be empty,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in Washington. -AP

Israeli group wants ‘flytilla’ activists put on trial

JERUSALEM: An Israeli group on Thursday called for the arrest and trial of hundreds of proPalestinian activists who are expected to arrive at Ben Gurion airport as part of a solidarity campaign this weekend. Between Saturday evening and Sunday, hundreds of activists, mainly from European countries, are expected to land at Israel’s main international airport as part of a campaign called “Welcome to Palestine.”

The visitors are expected to openly declare their intent to visit the West Bank. But Israel has vowed to prevent them from arriving.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel Law Center, said she had asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein “to put an end” to the campaign, now in its third year. “We are asking him to put them on trial,” she told Israeli public radio.

“This is criminal activity... (which is) a breach of several laws in Israel including unauthorised assembly and crossing the border when they have been specifically told not to come here.”

In previous years activists have been held in custody pending deportation but not charged with any offence. “Israel must put an end to this,” Darshan-Leitner said, “They don’t learn because

they don’t pay the price.” Hundreds of Israeli police are to be deployed in and around the airport from Saturday night, and the security establishment has already approached foreign carriers in an attempt to prevent known activists from travelling, press reports said.

Representatives of all the airlines which fly to Israel were summoned to a meeting last week with senior police and defence officials, at which they were told that the activists would not be allowed in, Maariv newspaper reported on Wednesday. “It was made clear to those present that every activist that arrived in Israel would be detained, and the airline would be held responsible for returning him at its own expense,” it said.

Israel is also planning to hand the airlines a list of activists who are expected to arrive shortly before the planes are scheduled to take off from their points of origin, it said.

Most of the flights defined as “problematic” would not arrive at the main Ben Gurion terminal, but would be rerouted to another part of the airport where they would be “isolated so that the police officers can check the passengers prior to disembarkation,” the paper said. -AFP

Prosecutor asks ICC to report South Sudan’s Kiir rejects calls to withdraw troops JUBA: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir rejectin the state. Kiir said he had told UN chief Ban KiLibya to the UN ed calls Thursday to pull out from contested border moon in a telephone call Wednesday he would send AMSTERDAM: The International Criminal Court prosecutor asked judges on Thursday to report Libya to the UN Security Council over its failure to extradite Seif Al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of the late Libyan leader. Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a panel of judges to reject an appeal filed by Libya on Tuesday requesting more time to transfer Seif Al-Islam to the Netherlands. “The fact that the Libyan authorities have filed a request for leave to appeal does not exempt them from compliance with the chamber’s decision,” the prosecutor said. “ICC decisions are binding until such time as they are reversed, or suspended.”

The ICC issued a warrant for Seif AlIslam in June last year, after prosecutors accused him and others of involvement in the killing of protesters during the revolt that eventually toppled and killed his father, Muammar Gaddafi, in August.

Ahmed Al-Jehani, the Libyan lawyer in charge of the Seif Al-Islam case and who liaises between the Libyan government and the ICC, said on Wednesday that the Zintan fighters who captured and hold Seif Al-Islam in a secret prison in Zintan want him tried locally. Libya’s government wants to transfer Seif Al-Islam to the capital and put him on trial there rather than transfer him to the International Criminal Court. He faces the death penalty if found guilty by a Libyan court, but a prison term if convicted by the ICC. “Libyan authorities have also been cautioned of the consequences of non-cooperation, but have taken no steps to commence the implementation of Mr. Gadhafi’s surrender to the ICC,” the prosecutor added.

The ICC can report countries refusing to cooperate to the United Nations. The Security Council could impose penalties, but such steps would need the support of all permanent members. -Reuters

regions, but said he did not want war with Khartoum, whose warplanes bombed a Southern town for the first time. Three days of heavy fighting between rival armies this week, the worst since South Sudan won independence in July after one of Africa’s longest civil wars, have brought the two former foes the closest to a return to outright war. Kiir, in a speech to parliament, also threatened to send troops into the disputed Abyei region - held by Khartoum and patrolled

by UN peacekeepers - if Sudan did not withdraw its forces from the area. “I will not order the forces to withdraw from Heglig,” Kiir told parliament, despite calls by the African Union and United Nations to pull out from the region seized from Khartoum’s army earlier this week. Sudanese war planes dropped five bombs at dawn targeting a strategic bridge on the edge of Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity border state and some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the frontier where rival armies are fighting.

“The population is staying in their places, when the planes come they lie down,” said Gideon Gatpan, Unity state information minister. One person was killed in the attack, the latest in a string of air strikes

troops into the Abyei region if the UN did not enforce a withdrawal there by Khartoum’s forces, who seized the area last year.

“I said, I am not under your command,” Kiir said, demanding that Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir be pressured to enforce an agreement to pull his soldiers from Abyei, an area the South says is theirs.

“If you (Ban) are not moving these forces of Bashir out of Abyei, we are going to reconsider our position and we are going to head to Abyei,” Kiir told lawmakers to a standing ovation.

This week’s clashes follow border fighting that erupted last month between the neighbors. Each side has blamed the other for starting the hostilities.

The unrest has prompted Khartoum to pull out of AU-led crisis talks aimed at resolving the protracted dispute with Juba over oil, border demarcation, contested areas and citizenship issues.

Khartoum has vowed to react with “all means” against a three-pronged attack it said South Sudanese forces had launched against Sudan’s South Kordofan state, including the Heglig oil field, which produces around half of the north’s crude. -AFP

Toll hits 177 in south Yemen battle with Al-Qaeda SANAA: A battle between Al-Qaeda militants and armed civilians for control of the Yemeni town of Loder spread on Thursday to nearby Mudia, as the death toll from four days of clashes reached 177, local sources said. The armed men attacked a vehicle outside Mudia carrying Al-Qaeda militants from nearby Shabwa province to Loder, the scene of fighting between Islamists and the army backed by armed civilians, the sources told AFP. “The militants traded machinegun fire” with the armed civilians, who have formed “popular resistance committees,” leaving one dead on each side, they said.

Residents of Abyan province, mainly from Loder and Mudia, formed the armed groups in 2011 after Al-Qaeda militants overran the provincial capital of Zinjibar. The Yemeni air force, meanwhile, raided Al-Qaeda positions on the outskirts of Loder, which the militants have been trying to seize since they launched an assault on an army barracks in the town

on Monday, residents said. The army also fired artillery shells at Al-Qaeda positions on the outskirts of Loder on Thursday, residents said.

And the Islamist insurgents fired mortar rounds at the town, wounding two children, members of the committee and residents said. “Al-Qaeda militants are shelling our town and targeting civilians,” one tribesman said. “It is random, vengeful shelling.”

At least 51 people were killed Wednesday in a third day of clashes in and around Loder, raising to 175 the total death toll, with the Islamists making up more than 140 of the dead, according to military and tribal sources.

A tribal source said militants wanted to recapture Loder because of its strategic location between Shabwa, Bayda and Lahij provinces where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is also active. Abyan has fallen completely under the control of the terror network except for Loder and Mudia. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

fridAY, april 13, 2012

No launch from North Korea; no backing down, either PYONGYANG: North Korea’s first chance at a rocket launch came and went Thursday with no word of a liftoff, but also with no sign that Pyongyang intends to call off what the US and its allies consider an attempt to test long-range missile technology.

The launch window for what North Korea says is a observation satellite opened during a week aimed at celebrating Sunday’s centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder. Events also include high-level meetings where new leader Kim Jong Un has received at least three new titles to further cement his rule.

North Korea had told international organizations that its rocket launch would come between Thursday and Monday, between 7 a.m. and noon local time. That timeframe passed Thursday without liftoff.

North Korean space officials, who had taken foreign journalists to the launch control center Wednesday and said fueling was under way, did not comment on the timing of the launch beyond saying it would occur in the five-day window.

Poor weather made a Thursday launch unlikely, Philippine disaster management agency chief Benito Ramos said, citing an assessment passed on to him by the Philippine military, which is being briefed by US and Japan counterparts. Wind in particular can scuttle rocket

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (center) attends the Fourth Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang, in this picture released on April 12. (Reuters)

launches.

The United States, Japan, Britain and others say the launch would constitute a provocation and would violate UN Security Council resolu-

tions banning North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs. Experts say the Unha-3 carrier is similar to the type of rocket that could be used to fire a missile mounted

Cameron calls for world to ‘get behind’ Myanmar

British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) speaks to his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak after a welcoming ceremony at Dataran Perdana in Putrajaya near Kuala Lumpur April 12.

Cameron is on a two-day official visit to Malaysia.

(Reuters)

KUALA LUMPUR: British Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday called on the international community to “get behind” burgeoning reforms in Myanmar ahead of his scheduled historic visit to the country.

Cameron praised Myanmar’s President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who this month won a seat in parliament during landmark by-elections largely praised internationally as a step towards democracy.

“Where reform is beginning, like in Burma, we must get behind it,” Cameron told university students in Jakarta, referring to Myanmar by its former name.

“So let us pay tribute to those who for decades at huge personal cost to themselves have fought for that freedom and fought for that reform, not least, of course, the inspirational Aung San Suu Kyi. “Let us also pay tribute to the leadership of President Thein Sein and his government, which has been prepared to release political prisoners, to hold by-elections and to legalize political parties that had previously been outlawed.

“And let us show that when they have the courage to reform, we have the courage to respond.”

During a subsequent stop in Malaysia, Cameron

said Britain - Myanmar’s former colonial ruler - must be at the forefront of any effort to reward the country’s leadership for reforms.

He said Britain played a leading role in placing sanctions on the regime, “so we should be the ones (to respond), if we are satisfied that real change is taking place”.

Cameron is due to travel to Myanmar on Friday the first visit by a top Western leader since decades of military rule ended last year.

The European Union is slated to decide on April 23 whether to renew sanctions against the country, which has surprised the world with a series of political, economic and social reforms.

Speaking at Jakarta’s Al Azhar Islamic university, Cameron also praised Indonesia as a model for nations transitioning to democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring, saying that the world’s largest Muslimmajority nation proved that democracy and Islam can co-exist.

“What Indonesia shows is that in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, it is possible to reject this extremist threat and prove that democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other,” he said.

Cameron is on a five-day tour of Asia, focused heavily on trade. -AFP

NATO chief pledges to meet Afghan handover goal

KABUL: NATO said Thursday it is on track to fully hand over responsibility for securing Afghanistan to local forces by the end of 2014 as scheduled.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said Afghan troops would be ready to take the lead role around the country by mid-2013, allowing international combat forces to move into a support and training role.

“We will stick to the road map and we will gradually hand over by 2014,” Rasmussen told Afghan special forces during a visit to their main training base outside Kabul. He also met President Hamid Karzai.

The security transition began last year, when NATO handed over responsibility for areas that are home to half the nation’s population - with coalition forces in those regions now in a support role. The handover took place in two stages and a third tranche is expected before a NATO summit in Chicago in late May. Another three phases are planned over the coming year.

“Thanks to the courage and commitment of the Afghan forces we will reach out common goal of a secure Afghanistan,” Rasmussen said. “What I have seen makes me confident that we will fulfill our goal of handing over responsibility to the Afghan national security forces.”

Afghan security forces now number about 330,000 and are to increase to 352,000 by the end of the year. They are expected to take over much of the fight-

ing as the US draws down an additional 23,000 troops to 68,000 by the end of September. US troop levels reached a high of about 100,000 last year.

There are about 8,500 trained Afghan commandos in nine battalions and 500 special operations troops.

Afghan commando units and special forces are expected to play a key role in fighting the Taliban in areas where American and other foreign troops are thinning their presence as part of a drawdown and a realignment of forces.They include parts of the restive east along the Afghan border with Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

Rasmussen said the Afghan special forces are “some of the best in the world” and “the backbone of our strategy for handing over the lead responsibility to the Afghan national security forces.”

The United States has already given Afghans authority over special operations that involve raids of Afghan homes.

The two countries last week signed an agreement giving NATO troops only a support role in the raids. The majority of these raids are nighttime operations in which US and Afghan troops descend without warning on homes or residential compounds searching for insurgents.

The raids are widely resented by Afghans, and Karzai had repeatedly called for the halt to all night raids by international forces, saying they would have to stop before he would sign a much-anticipated pact governing the long-term US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014. -AP

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) talks as NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen looks on during a joint news conference in Kabul April 12. (Reuters)

China, Philippines both send ships as dispute simmers MANILA: China and the Philippines deployed on Thursday ships to a disputed area of the South China Sea as a standoff simmered despite efforts by both sides to resolve the disagreement diplomatically.

China has territorial disputes with several countries in the region, including the Philippines, over areas of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas and is crossed by important shipping lanes.

China has sought to resolve the disputes on a oneon-one basis but there is concern among its neighbors over what some see as its growing assertiveness in staking its claims over the sea and various islands, reefs and shoals.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said a third Chinese vessel had arrived at the Scarborough Shoal, a small group of rocky outcrops.

“Some time today, this morning,” Del Rosario told reporters when asked when the Chinese ship had ar-

with a nuclear warhead to strike the US or other targets.

North Korea denies that the launch is anything but a peaceful civilian bid to send a satellite into space. The Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite is designed to send back images and data that will be used for weather forecasts and agricultural surveys.

Pyongyang made two previous attempts to launch a satellite, in 1998 and 2009, but the US and other outside observers say there is no evidence that either reached orbit. This week’s planned launch came with more fanfare, with Pyongyang inviting a possibly unprecedented crowd of foreign journalists and other guests.

North Korea also is elevating Kim Jong Un, who has been firmly in power since his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December.

He was named first secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party at a conference Wednesday, a new top title that allowed the party to grant Kim Jong Il the posthumous title of “eternal general secretary.”

Though he already is considered supreme commander of the armed forces, Kim is expected to gain other new titles formalizing his position as “supreme leader,” possibly including his father’s title of chairman of the National Defense Commission.

Another key meeting, the Supreme People’s Assembly session, opens Friday. -AP

rived. “It’s a bureau of fisheries Chinese civilian ship,” he said.

Both sides traded diplomatic protests on Wednesday over the dispute in an area straddling shipping lanes between East Asia and Europe and the Middle East, with China alleging harassment by the Philippine navy of its fishermen and Manila complaining of illegal fishing.

Manila sent a coastguard cutter to the shoal on Thursday to reinforce its largest warship, a US Hamilton-class cutter, which on Sunday found some Chinese fishing boats anchored in the area, with one carrying illegally collected corals, giant clams, and live sharks.

Del Rosario said he had raised the matter with China’s ambassador, Ma Keqing, adding he was not alarmed by the arrival of the third Chinese ship and the talks would go on.

“We’re moving forward but it’s still work in prog-

ress,” he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily briefing in Beijing that he did not know how many Chinese vessels were in the area.

“What I can tell you is that China’s law enforcement vessels are currently protecting the safety of fishermen and their boats in these seas,” said Liu, adding that the vessels were protecting the “legitimate” activities of Chinese fishermen.

The Philippines refers to the disputed area as the Panatag Shoal while China calls it Huangyan Island.

Philippine officials said the navy vessel was likely to leave the area soon, as part of Manila’s effort to ease tension as it had said the navy should not be involved in the enforcement of the country’s maritime laws. The shoal is about 125 nautical miles off the main Philippine island of Luzon and near Subic Bay, which once housed the largest US base outside its mainland. -Reuters

5

NEWS IN BRIEF Strong quake shakes Mexico, no major damage MEXICO CITY: A strong earthquake hit western Mexico late on Wednesday, shaking buildings as far away as the capital and sending people rushing out of offices onto the streets, though there were no reports of major damage. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on his Twitter account there were no initial signs of serious damage and that key services in the capital, including its subway system and the international airport, were operating normally. “There was a nasty crunching sound in my bathroom and everything moved,” said Adela Arceo, who was looking after two young children in the central Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. There were no initial reports of casualties. -Reuters

Karzai considers change in election timetable KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday he was considering changes to either the 2014 timetable for a presidential election or the transition of security to Afghan forces that year to avoid overburdening the country. Fear is mounting among Afghans and foreign governments alike that the planned pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014 and an election in the same year could see the country engulfed in conflict and authorities too stretched. Under the constitution, a vote must be held before the end of 2014 to elect on a successor to Karzai, who has to step aside after winning a second five-year term in 2009. -Reuters

Indian Maoist rebels free Italian tour guide NEW DELHI: Indian Maoist rebels freed an Italian tour guide on Thursday, almost a month after kidnapping him in a remote part of the state of Orissa in what was believed to be the first seizure of a foreigner by the leftist guerrillas. Also known as Naxals, the rebels have fought for decades in a swathe of central and eastern India, including many resource-rich regions, where tension runs high between poor farmers and industrial developers.

Television footage showed Paolo Bosusco, in a pink T-shirt and beige trousers torn at the knees, carrying a black rucksack on his shoulders as he walked through villages. He later arrived in the state capital, Bhubaneshwar. -AP

Denmark braced for terror trial against four Swedes COPENHAGEN: Four Swedes accused of plotting a revenge attack on a newspaper that printed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad will go on trial Friday in Denmark. Prosecutors have described the four men as Islamic militants who wanted to frighten Danish society with a shooting attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that printed the Prophet cartoons in 2005. If found guilty of terrorism charges the four men could face some 16 years in prison, while prosecutors say they will ask that the men be expelled from Denmark after serving the sentence. -Reuters

Turkey launches new crackdown on ex-officers ANKARA: Turkish prosecutors on Thursday ordered the arrest of dozens of former military officers, including four retired generals, over their role in the ousting of an Islamist prime minister.

The latest probe comes at a time when Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government is trying to quash military’s influence in the country’s politics.

Police searched homes of more than a dozen suspects Thursday, including Cevik Bir and three other former generals, over their role in forcing the resignation in 1997 of an Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan. Bir, a former deputy chief of staff who served in Somalia as commander of the UN peacekeeping mission there in 1993, had gained fame as the military’s chief critic of radical Islam. The country’s military considers itself a bulwark of Turkey’s secular rule. -AP

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ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION

friDAY, april 13, 2012

Parliamentary interpellation often used as publicity stunts Nabeel Al-Fadhl

I

t seems that the public is now accustomed to the very idea of suspense and action that accompany any parliamentary interpellation as were the cases in the past.

Remarkably, even writers and columnists are also involved in such issues as if it is part of the political intrigue and constitutional necessities.

Although the parliamentary interpellation itself is a constitutional tool used and employed when need be such as instances where there are violations committed or political mishaps are taking place or an executive shortcoming on the part of a ministry, the issue here is that this tool has become disgustingly awful and disparagingly abused on the part of some of those who are known for badmouthing everyone for the sake of exploiting if not extorting the others for the sake of bargaining with a minister over a personal gain or otherwise. To get back to the issue of the function and nature of parliamentary interpellations I believe that the parliamentary interpellation as performed by MP Saleh Ashour was one of the highest standard and professional one. The MP grilled His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and throughout the parliamentary interpellation, the entire scene was perfect from start, to the time His Highness the Prime Minister answered and replied to all questions, to the end.

It is a fact that MP Saleh Ashour never attempted to abuse the situation, exploit circumstances or even tried to take full advantage of the fact he was about to grill His Highness the Prime Minister. Some MPs on the other hand have abused it and caused a fuss about the whole affair all just to serve their dubious goals and objectives, all part of publicity stunts.

This is how those people who are only good at criticism perceive things. They have no regard for the wider picture which is in this case the state of Kuwait.

All had witnessed how professional and civilized the parliamentary interpellation between the MP Saleh Ashour and His Highness the Prime Minister. It was obvious for all that there were not any malign intentions by any of the personalities from either side. As the MP Ashour had managed successfully to highlight and underscore the major issues of the parliamentary interpellation such as the issue of banking deposits, MP Hussein Al-Qallaf had equally managed to bring his own parliamentary interpellation without abusing, hurting or insulting anyone.

Perhaps one would acknowledge that certain parts in MP Ashour’s parliamentary interpellation was clearly unconstitutional and perhaps the same goes for MP Al-Qallaf as well but the professional level of the grill overwhelmed the entire parliamentary interpellations leaving no chance for the usual criticism. Both in the cases of His Highness the Prime Minister who faced MP Ashour and Minister of Information who faced MP Al-Qallaf managed too to answer the grills successfully.

Despite the fact that the parliamentary interpellations went on smoothly, carried out professionally and conducted respectfully, some have surprisingly complained any parliamentary interpellation which doesn’t shake the very foundation of the government is indeed not an interpellation and certainly not a successful one as it only wasted the time and

efforts of the government and the National Assembly.

This is how those people who are only good at criticism perceive things. They have no regard for the wider picture which is in this case the state of Kuwait. They don’t understand that to shake the very foundation of the government means exactly to shake the very foundation of the statehood.

Such an aim is not part of the two MPs Saleh Ashour or Hussein Al-Qallaf’s agenda. It may be at the top agenda of some but certainly not Ashour and Al-Qallaf.

Now if we think about the function and nature of the parliamentary interpellation no one disputes the fact that it is a lawful and legal right for all members of parliament to use because the very use of it is always beneficial for the country and the public as well. But if the motives and purposes of the parliamentary interpellations are of a skeptical nature and have no true reflection of aims as announced publicly, then we have a serious issue here in our hands.

There is no doubt that some MPs are keen to conduct parliamentary interpellations the purpose of which is of dubious nature and controversial motives. On the other extreme of the spectrum as some say is that parliamentary interpellations are simply a waste of time and should be stopped. This is true if the purposes and motives are not as declared. But when there are violations being committed or

when the majority of MPs are ganging up a small minority of MPs because they don’t follow their politics and never ascribe to them, then parliamentary interpellations are adequate, right and lawfully required.

It is alright for some to be critical of the number of parliamentary interpellations conducted but it is not all right to criticize when the reasons behind them are clear and justified. Obviously, the recurrence of the parliamentary interpellations is not happening in a haphazard fashion and that there is clear reason for them.

Finally, let us discuss this particular point which deals with the MP Musallam Al-Barrak and the court. To get down to details, the MP Al-Barrak was summoned by the court following a request made by my colleague Nawaf Al-Fuzai over the issue of money transference because it was MP AlBarrak who constantly made reference to this particular issue saying that in his possession there are documents which support his claims.

The MP demanded that he was to be granted some time to collate all evidence. I believe that is normal and people have the right to demand for time to collect the documents they wish to present to the court to substantiate their claims.

But the MP Al-Barrak at a later stage went to the court and spent four hours after which the court declared that it still awaits the document which the MP proclaimed that he has in his possession.

I find it extremely unfathomable that an MP who repeatedly and at every opportunity declaring that in his possession are documents which prove his claims over a certain issue, and then when he gets the chance, the MP fails to provide the court with the needed documents.

How to explain such an attitude? I wonder.

Boyish girls and girlish boys

The very girl annoyed other students who study with her in the same class and she used to urge them to do inappropriate things.

Dr. Shamlan Yousef Al-Esa

W

riting about political affairs everyday has become a boring matter as well as that the very writing is not expected to lead to positive changes and especially that most citizens including the MPs became experts in the different fields in addition to atomic and Fatwa files. As a result I decided to assign an article every week for discussing social issues.

Al-Shahed Newspaper published on its last page last Wednesday a quaint piece of news saying that some parents staged a demonstration beside a girls` intermediate school in Bayan area to show rejection of lip kissing among girls.

The parents criticized the administration of the school that did not exert effective efforts to get rid of this matter and particularly to protect girls from kisses of a boyish girl!! The very girl annoyed other students who study with her in the same class and she used to urge them to do inappropriate things.

The parents asked the headmistress of the school to apply laws for expelling the boyish girls but the headmistress answered saying if we dismiss boyish girls then we don’t need to open the school as all girls will be expelled.

One of the parents visited the administration of the school then he met one of the female officials then the man complained against the boyish girl but the official answered that she did behave inappropriately at one time when she was kissing the other girls on their lips, adding that the administration of the school had expelled the girl temporarily but the girl did not abide to that and kept attending classes.

I discussed this matter with my students at university and asked them to find a practical solution for such problem.

The answers of students were different wherein some of them were optimistic with the boyish girl and they said that the administration of school has to understand her problem?! They also asked for discussing the matter with the parents of the boyish girl as they might help her.

Other students support applying laws to avoid such matters and other students said that this is a simple matter because it occurs in the different schools and it should be tackled by the administration of the schools.

Boyish girls and girlish boys phenomenon is spread in our society and some other Arab societies especially in the last few years. This phenomenon is a complicated one and it needs effective efforts by the relevant figures to tackle including psychologists. However, this problem might be created inside the houses that boyish and girlish persons grew in because of other problems like divorce or death of fathers or mothers.

According to recent studies the boys and girls who like to change their genders have certain genes since they were born. Therefore those who want to treat these problems have to consider the reasons well. In the western countries boyish and girlish behavior from the opposite genders are treated like the other ordinary people and they do not harm others and some states have even allowed them to join the police and army.

I met many of them and they had only asked for respecting them as long as they did not harm anybody or break laws. We hope the parents would leave such matters to the specialized figures at schools to treat the problem.

The Syrian regime is leading Lebanon towards a civil war Abdullah Al-Hadlaq

T

he attempted assassination of the Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea still sweeps the Lebanese arena and the very incident indicates that Lebanon might be directed towards a new stage of chaos and instability due to the absence of international efforts for stopping the conspiracies of the brutal Syrian regime that undermines the stability of both Syria and Lebanon.

Lebanon faces the most dangerous circumstances since assassinating the former Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri in 2005.

The assassination attempt which was conducted

by Hezbollah Party following instructions from the Syrian regime had foiled in which the two sides were planning to get rid of Geagea where the chief of Hezbollah and his ally Michel Aoun were planning to dominate Lebanon as well as weakening Christians and making them feel afraid of civil wars.

They believe that such steps will help Aoun to be the sole leader for Lebanon!!

The allies of Syria and Iran in Lebanon con-

After they failed to force Geagea to leave Lebanon they attempted to assassinate him!

sider Geagea as an obstacle that interrupts them from dominating Lebanon and taking decisive decisions as a result they try to weaken March 14 Powers wherein Geagea can be considered as the backbone of these powers. After they failed to force Geagea to leave Lebanon they attempted to assassinate him!

When Michel Aoun returned back from exile in France he joined Hezbollah and the Assad regime and supported their bloody policy.

After the failing attempt in assassinating Geagea the representatives of March 14 powers including Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze held

a meeting and asked for deploying their armed individuals to defend the icons of the powers before Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and the Iranian one assassinate the current icons.

The Egyptian MP- the member of Muslim Brotherhood Movement who is visiting Washington- Abdulmawjoud Al-Dardairi affirmed that the movement will not conduct a referendum about Camp David agreement as the movement respects all international agreements although some leaders of the movement had already announced that the agreement might be reconsidered through making a referendum to get acquainted on the opinion of people about that.

The movement attempts to please Washington especially after American officials declared that the US will halt its financial support to Egypt if the latter doesn`t abide by the previous agreements that were signed during the era of the former governments! So, all can be sure that political Islamic movements don`t abide by the statements that they release.

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views

friDAY, april 13, 2012

The ECB’s lethal inhibition

Bernanke’s Instagram bubble

Barry Eichengreen Project Syndicate

L

ast December, with Europe’s financial system on the brink of disaster, the European Central Bank stunned the markets with an unprecedented intervention, offering banks across the euro zone essentially unlimited liquidity against any and all collateral for an exceptional period of three years.

The ECB’s surprise liquidity operation put the continent’s crisis on hold. But now, just fourth months later, matters are again coming to a head. The big southern European countries, Spain and Italy, battered by austerity, are spiraling into recession. The deterioration of economic conditions is casting doubt on their governments’ budgetary arithmetic, undermining political support for structural reform, and reopening seemingly closed questions about the stability of banking systems.

Once again, the euro zone appears to be on the verge of unraveling. So, will it be once more into the breach for the ECB? The hurdles to further monetary-policy action are high, but they are largely self-imposed. At its most recent policy meeting, the ECB left its policy rate unchanged, citing inflation half a percentage point above the official two percent target. Board members may have also been concerned by evidence of cost-push inflation in Germany.

The leading German trade union, IG Metall, has called for a 6.5 percent wage increase in the next annual round of negotiations. And German public-sector workers obtained an agreement at the end of March that boosts wages by 6.3 percent in the coming two years.

But this increase in German labor costs is, in fact, precisely what Europe needs to accelerate its rebalancing, because it will help to realign the competitive positions of the northern and southern European economies.

Southern Europe needs to enhance its competitiveness and export more, and has been criticized, not without justification, for failing to do more along these lines.

But what matters are southern Europe’s costs of production relative to those of Germany, Europe’s export champion. That is why the prospect of rising German labor costs, after a decade of stasis, is actually one of the few positive economic developments on the European scene - hardly something that the ECB should resist.

And the fact that higher wages in Germany will be matched by lower wages across southern Europe suggests that continent-wide inflationary pressures will remain subdued.

With euro zone unemployment above 10 percent, it is hard to see how things could be otherwise. The 2.6 percent headline inflation rate in March was heavily influenced by spiking energy prices, the effects of which should be transitory events in the Middle East permitting. Indeed, the ECB’s own forecast has inflation falling in the second half of 2012 and again in 2013, suggesting that it has monetary room for maneuver.

A second argument against further monetary-policy action is that it should be considered only as a reward for budgetary austerity and structural reform, areas in which politicians continue to underperform. Where spending cuts should, in principle, help to dampen inflation, European governments, like that of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, are backtracking on their budgetary com-

James Saft Reuters

I

FILE- European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends the monthly news conference in Frankfurt April 4, 2012. (Reuters)

With governments hesitating to do their part, the ECB is reluctant to support them. mitments. Similarly, where structural reforms should rein in price growth by encouraging competition, leaders like Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, finding it increasingly difficult to marshal support for unpopular measures, are watering down already-modest proposals to enhance labor-market flexibility.

With governments hesitating to do their part, the ECB is reluctant to support them. In its view, rewarding them with monetary stimulus - keeping the boat afloat with more spending - only relieves the pressure on national officials to do what is necessary.

If this is the ECB’s thinking, then it is playing a dangerous game. Without spending and growth, there can be no solution to Europe’s problems. Absent private spending, budget cuts will only depress tax revenues, requiring additional budget cuts, without end. There will be no economic growth at the end of the tunnel, and political support for structural reforms will continue to dissipate.

The ECB is preoccupied by moral-hazard risk - the idea that supporting spending will relieve the pressure

on governments to act. But it should also worry about meltdown risk - about the danger that its own failure to act, by leading to a deep recession, will undermine political leaders’ ability to take the steps needed to put their economies on a sound footing.

The ECB will object, not without reason, that monetary policy is a blunt instrument with which to rebalance the European economy. A cut in policy rates or “quantitative easing” by another name will do nothing to enhance the troubled southern European economies’ competitiveness.

True enough. But, without economic growth, the political will to take hard measures at the national level is unlikely to be forthcoming. Without support from the ECB, both goals - economic recovery and political leaders’ commitment to structural reform - will remain purely aspirational.

Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

The trouble with libertarian paternalism Raghuram Rajan Project Syndicate

T

here are many arguments against government paternalism: apart from limiting individual choice for example, the choice to remain uninsured in the current health-care debate in the United States and preventing individuals from learning, history suggests time and again that the conventional wisdom prevalent in society is wrong. And, since governments typically try to enforce the conventional wisdom, the consequences could be disastrous, because they are magnified by the state’s coordinating - and coercive - power.

A clear example is financial regulation, which in many ways is a form of paternalism. In the US, the low risk assigned to senior tranches of mortgage-backed securities made them attractive instruments for banks to hold, given the relatively high return they offered. But they proved far from safe, despite the prior conventional wisdom. And, because the regulator had pronounced them safe, far too many banks overloaded on them, rendering them even more risky when the banks tried to sell them at the same time.

Other examples of the danger of the coordinating power of government paternalism abound. As I drive to downtown Chicago, I pass a series of high-rise housing projects, meant in their time to be the miracle cure for homelessness, poverty, unemployment, and crime. Today, they are seen as the best way to concentrate and perpetuate many of those ills.

Not only were the housing projects kept a safe distance from areas that had good jobs, but, with few residents experiencing stable families and livelihoods, there were not enough local examples of success to guide young people. As a result, many went astray.

The fashion today is to integrate poor households into flourishing communities. No doubt we will discover some unintended consequences in the future, and the power of government coordination will ensure that those consequences are widespread.

But some amount of paternalism is necessary in civilized societies. Social security is a paternalistic form of forced savings for old age, preventing individuals from consuming and saving as they please. It exists, in part, because individuals know that civilized societies will never stand by and watch the elderly starve. So individuals are forced to save in order to prevent them from gaming the system - not saving when young, knowing that they will be assured a minimum level of support by a humane society when old. Similarly, the mandated purchase of insurance in the Obama administration’s health-care bill is an attempt to prevent the young and the healthy from remaining uninsured and turning to the government for support only when they discover that they need it.

So, if paternalism has benefits as well as costs, how do we get the former without the latter? My colleague, Richard Thaler, along with Cass Sunstein, who currently serves in the Obama administration, wrote a best-selling book, Nudge, in which they suggest a way to reduce our uneasiness with paternalism. Essentially, by exploiting behavioral quirks, they would nudge people into making decisions that are good for them, even while individuals have complete freedom to change their mind. So libertarian paternalism, in their view, eliminates one of the main objections to paternalism - that it constrains individual choice.

7

President Barack Obama listens as his daughters Sasha, (center), and Malia, (right), read “A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Monday, April 9, 2012. (AP)

The problem is that the semblance of choice in libertarian paternalism is an illusion.

For example, in deciding how their pension savings will be allocated, most people simply choose the default option in their employer-offered plan. Often, the default option is unsuitable for most individuals - for instance, it typically allocates all savings to low-return money-market funds. Sunstein and Thaler would have the employer choose a default option that works for most people, such as 60 percent in equities, 30 percent in bonds, and 10 percent in money-market funds.

That is the paternalistic part. The libertarian part is that the employee has the right to opt out of the default option. Because people rarely move away from the default option, the employer’s paternalistic choice prevails, and we get libertarian paternalism. What is not to like?

The problem is that the semblance of choice in libertarian paternalism is an illusion. Choice remains unexercised, because individuals do not consciously think through their decision. If their choices can be directed, is this not paternalism plain and simple, rendered more sinister because individuals are unaware that they are being nudged, and cannot raise their guard?

One response is to point out that most plans already have a default option that determines savings allocations.

Sunstein and Thaler merely say that the default option should be set in a way that is good for people, and clearly they have an idea of what is good. This, then, is the nub of the problem. In choosing the default option, the government or the employer nudges all employees into prevailing fads such as “buy equity for the long run.”

This, they believe, is better than the current typical default option of putting individuals’ money into moneymarket funds. But it may be worse: coordinating everyone into risky asset investments may be more dangerous than coordinating them into boring investments like money-market funds.

Could there be a better alternative? What if there were no default option, and individuals were sent repeated, and increasingly urgent, reminders to choose an allocation if they did not choose one already. The conventional wisdom could be offered as a recommendation, along with explanations of why it makes sense, but it would not be the default. This would force people to exercise choice. Some people would differ from the conventional wisdom, benefiting the system by introducing some variety and resilience.

More generally, the flaw in some forms of libertarian paternalism is that the free choice that it appears to offer leaves the paternalism largely unconstrained. Would it not be far better to force conscious choice in order to limit the consequences of paternalistic mistakes?

Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist of the IMF, is Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and the author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy.

nstagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger ought to get down on their knees every night and thank Ben Bernanke.

That’s because the Federal Reserve chief has been crucial in creating an atmosphere in which two 20-somethings can sell an 18-month-old company with 13 employees and no significant revenue for one billion US dollars.

Facebook agreed on Monday to pay one billion US dollars in cash and stock for Instagram, which develops photo-sharing applications, just a week after the infant company closed a funding deal valuing it at a paltry 500 million US dollars.

While Bernanke and the Fed won’t get a cut of the cash, the past 15 years show clearly exactly how much credit for these sorts of bubble valuations they deserve.

Twice since 1997 the Federal Reserve has eased policy in the wake of disruptions to financial markets and twice speculative bubbles have grown up in the aftermath. It is looking increasingly as if social media technology shares are the third in the series.

In 1998, following on from the Asian financial crisis, Long-Term Capital Management came near to failure and required a Fed-orchestrated bailout.

While no Fed money was used in the rescue it was followed up shortly with a cut in interest rates intended in part to calm the waters. That sent a clear signal to the market: the Fed has your back.

It should come as no surprise that subsidizing speculation gave rise to more speculation, but this time on a larger scale. The Internet bubble rose rapidly and burst just as rapidly, followed by a sustained campaign by the Fed to lower interest rates.

The Fed, led by Alan Greenspan, had already halved rates to three percent by the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks and it carried on, ultimately taking them to just one percent.

That set the stage for the housing bubble, which, fanned by low rates, duly grew and hugely exceeded in size the manias which came before it. When housing burst the global financial system nearly failed and Bernanke’s Fed took rates to virtually zero before launching a multipronged quantitative easing campaign which is still ongoing.

In some ways, if the worst we get this time is a few extra social media billionaires and the pension fund pain that will follow, we should count ourselves lucky. The underlying lesson is that in trying to protect the real economy from Wall Street shocks, the Fed has simply fed Wall Street and caused it and the bubbles which are so good for its business to grow.

In some respects the Fed is trapped. Monetary policy is clearly not too loose by many measures, and certainly too tight if you are an unemployed former construction worker. The issue rather is that the Fed is having, or trying, to do too much of the heavy lifting of getting out of a balance-sheet recession by itself.

The Fed has useful tools, but perhaps not the right ones for the job at hand.

None of this is to say that there is nothing to the social media frenzy, or even that the Instagram purchase will definitely turn out to be a bust. Just as the Internet bubble had at its core a world-changing phenomenon, so too this one may have a genuine basis.

The issue is price, and the prices now being paid seem highly unlikely to reward investors, at least in aggregate.

An ocean of liquidity has been poured on markets worldwide, in a nearly explicit attempt to get investors to take on more risks. Instagram is the result.

It is also probably unfair to criticize Facebook for paying a multiple of infinity for Instagram’s revenues. Facebook is making rational decisions within a context which is fundamentally irrational.

Facebook has been awarded a valuation of its own shares and business which is likely hugely in excess of their actual promise. That valuation is predicated, in large part, on their dominant position within social media. They are being paid because they have the best network.

It makes sense, in the early stages of the bubble we are in, for Facebook to pay up for potential competitors because they must become the Amazon of their space to justify their current price.

As time passes that valuation may be ratified, but more likely the air will leak and the valuations will collapse. For now though, Facebook is in the game, and the game has said they are very valuable. They must act as if they and their competitors are, or the game will end. As the South Sea and Tulip bubbles demonstrated, speculative manias predate central banks. Central banks, like the one now led by Bernanke, did not invent bubbles but they certainly seem to be working to perfect them.

James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

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Shuwaikh 4th Ring Rd Airport Rd Ras Salmiyah 4th Ring Rd 4th Ring Rd Hawalli Shuwaikh Kheitan Farwaniyah 3rd Ring Rd King Faisal Rd Hawalli Hawalli Andalus Shuwaikh Shamiyah Nuzha Farwaniyah Farwaniyah Bayan Shuwaikh Shuwaikh Al Rai 6th Ring Rd Al Hasawi Sabah Salem 3rd Ring Rd Jahra Rd Shuwaikh UN Circle Jahra Rd Fahaheel Rd Hawalli Shuwaikh Ahmadi

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Police stations Tel.:

Abu Halifa 2371 7656 Ahmadi 2398 0304 Ardiya 2488 1273 Bayan 2538 7762 Dahar 2383 0500 Dahiya 2256 0855 Dasma 2253 1917 Fahaheel 2391 2959 Faiha 2255 2693 Farwaniya 2471 1977 Ferdous 2489 0583 Fintas 2390 4388 Hawalli 2264 1116 Jabriya 2531 5855 Jahra Ind. Area 2457 5565 / 2458 7392 Jahra North 2455 2295 Jleeb Al Shouyoukh 2431 1234 Keifan 2483 2839 Kheitan 2472 2590 Mina Abdullah 2326 1144 Nugra 2261 6662 Omariya 2474 2160

Ambulance

Central Adan Amiri Hospital Da’iya Fahaheel Farwaniya Farwaniya Jahra Mubarak Al Kabir Sabah Salmiya Shuaiba

23940600 / 23941455 22422366 22510854 23919098 24883000 24725149 24570583 25311437 24815000 25739011 23261927

Private Hospitals

Al-Rashid Hospital Dar Al-Shifa Hospital Hadi Clinic London Hospital Mowasat Hospital Salam Hospital

Qadsiya 2257 4386 Qurain 2542 3772 Rabiah 2474 2160 Rawda 2256 0058 Riqqa 2394 1958 Rumaithiya 2562 4123 Sabah Al-Salem 2551 7229 Sabahiya 2361 5619 Salhiya (Kuwait City) 2242 7157 Salmi 2457 6576 Salmiya 2572 6950 Salwa 2562 6950 Shamiya 2484 5953 Sharq 2244 2466 Shuaiba Ind. Area 2326 1789 Shuwaikh 2481 3726 / 2484 4842 Sulaibekhat 2487 6555 Sulaibiya 2467 0672 Sulaibiya Ind. Area 2467 2728 Surra 2531 2220 Tayma’a 2457 1700 Wafra 2381 0412 Waha 2455 7902 Zour 2395 0160

Adan General Hospital Al-Sabah Chest Hospital Al-Sabah Maternity Hospital Amiri General Hospital As’ad Al-Hamad Dermatology Center

Farwaniya General Hospital Ibn Sina Hospital Jahra General Hospital Mubarak Al-Kabeer General Hospital Subhan Renal Hospital Sulaibikhat Orthopedic Hospital

25624000 22802555 1828282 1883883 25726666 22533177

Private Health Centers/ Clinics

Boushahri Clinic British Medical Center Care Clinic International Clinic

Public Hospitals

cons u l a tes

Fax 2532 6274 2251 9497 2537 9212 2256 3052 2232 2430 2535 5246 2533 0882 2531 6041 2574 8389 2251 6550 2539 2106 2532 8613 2532 1453 2256 4167 2533 3341 2254 9360 2240 2971 2252 9021 2534 1007 2256 3877 2533 1179 2531 7429 2532 4198 2257 1058 2252 0763 2481 7103 2535 4707 2532 3904 2257 1192 2481 9250 2252 9868 2535 6030 2530 9401 25353316 2257 2182

centr a l 4 7 2 2 0 0 0

94904040

hospital charges

medical services

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23940600 24815000 24848067 22450080

1885544 23713100 22610666 25745111

Public Health Centers/ Clinics:

Dasman Clinic Faiha Polyclinic Farwaniya Polyclinic Hawalli Polyclinic Inaya Germen Medical Center Sabah Al-Salem Clinic Salmiya Polyclinic Shamiya Clinic Shuwaikh Clinic Yarmouk Clinic

24832067 24883000 24840300 24575300 25312700 24840027 24874240

22447602 22545188 24726033 22611645 25750777 25524821 25723500 25610660 24848913 25336482

DOCTORS & DENTISTS

I N PR I VAT E PR AC T ICE

Andrology, Male Infertility and Impotence Specialist Abdullatif A. Al Salim 2533 4438

Dermatologist & Venereologists Fahad I. Al Othman 2266 5166 Taibah M. Almonayes 2573 7477 Dr. Mohamed Bo Hamra 2266 5166

Dentists & Oral Surgeons Ahmed Al Balool 2262 2211 Badri K. Al Rayes 2574 2557 Duha Al Shaqan 2264 4614 Ebraheem Behbehani 2573 0000 Farida Al Herz 2257 3883 Maria Blanaru 2573 0000 Najat Essa-Bahman 2262 4595 Najeeb Kassim 2573 9277 Salwa A. Abdulsalam 2573 0000 Kuwait Medical Center 2575 9044 / 5 Endocrinologists Latifa Al Dowaisan Kamal Abdulaziz Al Shome

Gastroenterologist Mohamed A. Al Shimali 2532 2030 - 2263 9955 Urologist Fawzi Taher Abul Ali Yousef Mehdi

2565 0064 2533 3501

General Practitioner Dina Al Rifai 2533 3501 - 2533 3502 Obstetricians & Gynecologists Samira Al Awadi 2573 8055 Ma’asouma Maksheed 2573 1275 Mohamed Gamal 2534 9077 Mai Al Snan 2532 1171

2572 8004 2532 9924

Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeons Hossam Eldin Abdulfattah 2574 5056 Abdulmohsen Mousa Jafar 2565 5535

Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Adel Quttainah

2562 5030 / 60

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Awqaf & Islamic Affairs Commerce & Industry Communications Defense Education Health Higher Education Electricity & Water Finance

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2242 5141 2530 1000 2241 5301 2248 0000 2241 5201 2242 8200 2248 0000 2538 5520

RESTAURANT • Café Library Lounge Al-Manshar Rotana Hotel Tel: 23931000 Hang.Out Lounge Galleria 2000 Tel: 25755588 Song Bird Café Hilton Kuwait Resort Tel: 23725500 Chit Chat Café Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555 Lounge Café Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555 The English Tea Room Sheraton Hotel Tel: 1835555 Waterlemon Al-Raya Tel: 22244797 Marina Mall Tel: 22997666 Le Pain Quotidien Palms Beach Hotel Tel: 25633684 Marina Crescent Tel: 22244942 Avenues Tel: 24954632 • Casual Dining Applebee’s Bneid Al-Gar Tel: 22407536 Fintas Tel: 23714559 Burgerhub Gulf road Tel: 22464818 Chili’s Bneid Al-Gar Tel: 22452200 Chili’s Al-Bida’a Tel: 22253120/1 Hard Rock Café Salmiya Tel: 25710004 Ruby Tuesdays Bneid Al-Gar Tel: 22444454 T.G.I. Fridays Bneid Al-Gar Tel: 22544300

• Chinese China Hut Tel: 25656226 China Express Jabriya Tel: 25342399 Salwa Tel: 25653230 China House Salmiya Tel: 25713339 / 60 China Lake Al-Blajat St. Tel: 25713072 / 3 China Town Salmiya Tel: 25652541 Greens Al-Wafra Complex Tel: 22516031

Tel: 1815050 • French Le Notre Gulf Road Tel: 25758888 • Indian Dawat Restaurant Bneid Al Gar Tel: 22411728 Abu Halifa Tel: 23724251 Al Alamia Mall, Jahra Tel: 24554642 Taal Restaurant Salmiya Beda’ Tel: 22253142 Winner’s Salmiya Tel: 25739954 Abu Halifa Tel: 23711374 / 5 Riggae Tel: 24895501 / 2 Jahra Tel: 24560088/8800

Gulf Royal Tel: 23925390-Fintas 22622556-Hawalli 25710448-Salmiya 22244795-Marina

Asha’s Tel: 22244502/3/9 Marina Crescent Tel: 24954700

Noodles Salmiya Tel: 25712233

Bukhara Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055

The Peacock Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000

Tourist Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22411702

Noodle Factory Avenues Tel: 24954751

Mugal Mahal Farwaniya Tel: 24726126/7 Fintas Tel: 23915588 Salmiya Tel: 25722223/4 Sharq Tel: 22425132

• Continental Casper & Gambini’s Kuwait City Tel: 22430054 La Marina Sharq Mall Tel: 22426672 • Fast Food Burger King Tel: 22444466 Domino’s Pizza Tel: 1800800 Hardees Tel: 1888333 KFC Tel: 1888666 Little Caesar’s Tel: 1888855 Pizza Hut

Tikka Tel: 1822833 • International Al-Bustan Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000 Al-Hamra Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055 Al-Marsa Restaurant Le Meridien Tel: 22510999 Atrium Restaurant Courtyard Marriott Hotel

Tel: 22997000

L I S T I N G S

Beit 7 Kuwait City Tel: 22450871 Café Rio Al-Fanar Tel: 25732226 Dunes Ritz Hotel Tel: 22499911 Failaka Al-Manshar Rotana Hotel Tel: 23931000 La Brasserie JW Marriott Tel: 22455550 Ritz Shamiya Tel: 24820184 Shuwaikh Tel: 24844350 Square International Tel: 22437681 Test n’ Taste Villa Moda Tel: 24827010 Teatro Hilton Kuwait Resort Tel: 23725500

Kuwait City Tel: 22400737

Nino Gulf Road Tel: 22541900 Pizza Express Abdullah Al-Salem Tel: 22560273 Al-Bida’a Tel: 22253166 Airport Tel: 24342681 Tel: 23725500 Ricardo Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055 • Japanese Edo Shaab Tel: 22659590 Kei JW Marriott Hotel Tel: 22422650 Korea & Japan Restaurant New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Sakura Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

AlRoshinah Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

Shogun The Palms Hotel Tel: 27070022

Il Forno Restaurant Courtyard Marriot Hotel Tel: 22997000 Johnny Carino’s Salmiya Tel: 22667050 La Piazza Kuwait City Tel: 24246639 Lorenzo

Manousha Salmiya Tel: 25722607 / 8

Al-Noukhaza Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

Fakhr Al-Din Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22423180

Villa Fairouz Shaab Tel: 22652030

Shrimpy Gulf Road Tel: 22563118 Totally Fish Marina Crescent Tel: 22244960/1

Garden New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Yeldes Palace Kuwait City Tel: 22455212

Kabab-Ji Tel: 1861616

Zahrat Tunis Hawalli Tel: 22662444/333

Mais Al-Ghanim Kuwait City Tel: 22402590

• Persian Kabab Al-Hijja Bnaid Al-Gar Tel: 22517512

Palm Palace Salmiya Tel: 25756331 Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822 Sarai Al-Bida’a Tel: 22253180/1 Shisha &

Sushi Club Al-Blajat St. Tel: 25712144 Wasabi Al-Bida’a Tel: 22253112 Kuwait City Tel: 22494000 • Lebanese Al-Berdawny Palace Tel: 25661117 Ayam Zaman Holiday Inn Tel: 18477777 Burg Al-Hamam Gulf Road Tel: 22529095

• Steak House Relais De L’Entrecote Al-Fanar Complex Tel: 25729600 Terrace Grill JW Marriott Hotel Tel: 22455550

Shabistan Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

The Gaucho Grill The Palms Hotel Tel: 25667370 -

• Seafood Al-Ahmadi Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

• Tex-Mex Chi Chi’s Salmiya Tel: 25625811

Al-Boom Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25756000

Tumbleweed Southern Grill Al-Bida’a Tel: 22253154/5

Maki Al-Blajat St. Tel: 25733561 Marina Waves Tel: 22244560

Flavors Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

• Italian Ciro’s Pomodoro Kuwait City Tel: 22424004

Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822

Te l : 1 8 3 9 0 9 0

Salmiya - Jabriya - Keifan www.healthstop.com.kw

HOTELS

FIVE STAR Al-Manshar Rotana Hotel Crowne Plaza Kuwait Hilton Kuwait Resort JW Marriot Kuwait City Hotel Kempinski Julai’a Hotel & Resort The Regency Hotel & Resort Le Meridien Le Meridien Tower Marina Hotel Kuwait Movenpick Albid’a Movenpick Palms Beach Hotel & Spa Radisson Blu Hotels & Resorts Refad Palace Safir International Hotel Kuwait Sheraton Kuwait Hotel & Towers Safir Hotel & Residences Kuwait

23931000 24772000 23725500 22455550 1 844 444 25766666 22510999 22831831 22244970 22253100 24610033 22824060 25673000 23908630 22530000 22422055 25455555

FOUR STAR Carlton Tower Hotel The Courtyard by Marriott Kuwait El Joan Resort Four Points by Sheraton Kuwait

22452740 22997000 23281897 22415001

Ghani Palace Hotel Holiday Inn Khalifa Resort Kuwait Continental Hotel New Park Hotel Al Bastaki Hotel Al Dana Hotel Heritage Village Palace Hotel Shiik Flamingo Hotel & Resort Swiss-Belhotel Plaza Kuwait

25710301 1 847 777 23280144 22527300 25634200 22555081 23902760 22520600 1 821 111 25725050 22436686

THREE STAR Imperial Hotel Oasis Hotel Safari House Hotel Second Home Hotel Spring Continental Hotel Ibis Hotel Salmiya Ibis Hotel Sharq

22528766 22465489 22443136 22532100 25742410 25713872 22928080

TWO STAR International Hotel Kuwait Residence Hotel

25741788 22467560

India replaces China as Iran’s top oil client CAPITALS: India has vaulted to the top of the list of Iran’s oil customers, overtaking China, in a first quarter buying surge ahead of tighter sanctions against Tehran this summer, data published by a leading industry consultant showed. Direct imports to India from Iran were 433,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter compared with 256,000 bpd to China, according to data compiled by Geneva’s Petrologistics and seen by Reuters via an industry source.

BUSINESS

fridAY, april 13, 2012

m ar ket watc h KUWAIT

DUBAI

QATAR

OMAN

0.40% 6188.9

0.4% 1679

0.3% 8785

1.3% 5981

ABU DHABI 0.4% 2523

OIL MARKETS BAHRAIN

EGYPT

SAUDI

0.2% 1136

1.8% 4735

MARKET CLOSED

US Crude $102.71 $0.01 London Brent $119.46 $0.52 Kuwait Crude $116.32 $1.86 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

CURRENCIES US Dollar

British Pound

Saudi Riyal

Qatari Riyal

Indian Rupee

Euro

Japanese Yen

UAE Dirham

Bahraini Dinar

Philippine Peso

Buy 0.2778 Sell 0.2783 Buy 0.3652 Sell 0.3659

Kuwaiti crude continues downwards trend, reaches $116.3

Buy 0.4429 Sell 0.4438

Buy 0.003434 Sell 0.003441

Buy 0.0741 Sell 0.0742

Buy 0.07564 Sell 0.07578

Buy 0.07645 Sell 0.07630 Buy 0.737 Sell 0.73837

Buy 0.00541 Sell 0.005398

Buy 0.006518 Sell 0.006502

Prices in Kuwaiti fils as of April 12, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

In Focus

Muppets and Pikers

Oil slips below $120 in well supplied market

Savio S. Gomes Exclusive to Al Watan Daily

CAPITALS: Kuwaiti crude oil was still going down in price and had reached 116.32 US dollars per barrel (pb) in trades Wednesday, a down of $1.86 pb as reported by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Thursday.

Prices of crude oil continued to slide yesterday approaching bottom price reported this month, on the heels of an initial report indicating increase in stockpiles of the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer, for the third consecutive week. A state of instability and fluctuation persists and prevails over the market due to a number of non-traditional factors such as hot geo-political dossiers, the Iranian nuclear dossier, and fears of escalation of the euro crisis and a global economic downturn in general.

Brent slips

Brent crude oil slipped below $120 per barrel on Thursday, depressed by news of higher production and lower estimates of global oil demand of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

But the oil market is looking increasingly well supplied as Middle East output rises and fuel demand across the industrialized and developing economies is weaker than expected.

The International Energy Agency, which advises 28 industrialized nations on energy policy, said in its monthly report the oil market could be turning the corner after more than two years of tightening as global oil inventories rose. “The cycle of repeatedly tightening fundamentals since 2009 has been broken for now,” the IEA report said.

ICE Brent futures fell 53 cents to $119.65 a barrel by 1240 GMT, after touching a low of $119.51 earlier in the session. US oil was up two cents at $102.72. The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies.

The IEA said Iran was producing less oil now than last year thanks to the impact of sanctions by Washington and the European Union. But oil markets were well supplied, the IEA said, adding that global oil stocks may have built by as much as one million barrels per day (bpd) during the first quarter of this year. Saudi Arabia was producing around 10 million bpd in March, the IEA said, one million bpd higher than a year earlier.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi confirmed to reporters on Thursday that Saudi Arabia had risen to that level in April. “Oil supply is plentiful,” Al-Naimi said on a visit

See page 10

Women work on embroidery at a stall during a visit by US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah (unseen) in an occasion to highlight the work of female micro entrepreneurs in Karachi April 12, 2012. South Asian women, and especially Pakistani women from rural area, are part of a rich local traditional of making beautifully embroidered handicrafts. These products could become a source of income for the women artisans and their families, USAID said in their press release. (Reuters)

to South Korea. “There is no shortage.”

OPEC in its monthly report also said oil markets are well supplied and the only reason prices are high is the perceived danger of a supply shortage.

Iraqi crude production has also risen to the highest level since May 2001 and will largely offset Iranian losses. Output was up 220,000 bpd to 2.835 million bpd in March, according to the IEA’s report.

Offtake from traditional buyers of Iranian crude oil production is expected to fall by 800,000 to one million barrels per day (bpd) by mid-summer after sanctions come into place in July.

OPEC price down to $117.80

OPEC’s daily basket price dropped on Wednesday, falling to the level of $117.80 a barrel, compared with

$119.38 pb the previous day.

OPECNA, the news bulletin of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said in a statement released on Thursday that the average annual price of OPEC’s 12-crude basket, of the past year, stood at $107.46 pb.

OPEC’s basket of crudes is made up of Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (United Arab Emirates) and Merey (Venezuela).

Oil ministers of OPEC’s member states decided, on December 14, to lift ceiling of production by the cartel producers to 30 million barrels per day. -Agencies

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sees World trade growth in 2012 to ‘slow to 3.7%’ lower investments in 2012 Global outward investment up in 2011 despite economic uncertainties, says UNCATD

CAPITALS: Growth in global trade is expected to slow to 3.7 percent this year after 5.0 percent growth in 2011, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Thursday, blaming economic shocks such as the eurozone debt crisis. The WTO said the world economy had “lost momentum,” with the 2011 figure below the September forecast of 5.8 percent. Multiple setbacks during the year had dampened growth beyond expectations, they said, leading to a stronger than expected easing in the last three months of the year, mainly due to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. This time last year the WTO had predicted 6.5-percent growth for 2011. The WTO also cited the effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsumani and the floods in Thailand that struck last year. “More than three years have passed since the trade collapse of 2008-2009, but the world economy and trade remain fragile,” said WTO chief Pascal Lamy.

“The further slowing of trade expected in 2012 shows that the downside risks remain high. We are not yet out of the woods.”

World trade is expected to recover somewhat by 2013 with a predicted growth of 5.6 percent.

In more news, the Global foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows rose by 16 percent in 2011 to an estimated 1.66 trillion US dollars, surpassing the pre-crisis levels of 2007, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) latest Global Investment Trends Monitor reports, Thursday. “This growth was due in large part to crossborder mergers and acquisitions and to increased amounts of cash reserves kept in foreign affiliates,” said UNCTAD Director of Investment and Enterprise Division James Zhan in a press conference.

The report notes that much-needed direct investment in new productive assets through greenfield investment projects or capital expenditures in existing foreign affiliates appeared to be limited. Outward FDI from developed countries rose by 25 percent in 2011, exceeding $1.23 trillion, with the European Union (EU), North America, and Japan all contributing to the growth, the Monitor says. Meanwhile, FDI outflows from developing countries fell by seven percent mainly due to significant declines in outward FDI from Latin America and the Caribbean.

As a result, the share of developing and transition economies in global FDI outflows declined from 31 percent in 2010 to 26 percent in 2011. Nevertheless, outward FDI from developing and transition economies remained important, reaching the second highest level ever recorded.

Prospects for FDI outflows in 2012 continue to improve since the depth of the crisis, but they remain guarded due to the fragility of the global economic recovery, Zhan says. -Agencies

ABU DHABI: Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment vehicle, expects its investment outlay in 2012 to be slightly lower than last year’s after saying its overall annual loss surged due to volatile global markets.

The state-owned fund, which has stakes in General Electric and private equity firm Carlyle, made an overall loss of 4.2 billion UAE dirhams ($1.14 billon) in 2011, compared with a loss of 338 million dirhams in 2010, it said in a statement.

Mubadala, which set a capital and investment expenditure of $16.3 billion for 2011, said that amount is expected to be lower in the current year.

According to a statement total assets increased by 73 percent to 177 billion dirhams in 2011 compared to 102 billion dirhams in 2010, driven by the consolidation of ATIC, as well as an increase in the assets of Mubadala’s business lines in industry, capital, information and communication technology, healthcare, and aerospace among others.

“It is likely to be slightly less this year. It is still a significant amount,” Chief Financial Officer, Carlos Obeid said in a conference call, without specifying a figure.

Cash contribution from the government more than doubled to 28 billion dirhams ($7.62 billion) from 13 billion a year-ago, Mubadala’s detailed financial statements showed.

Mubadala, which recently bought a two billion US dollar stake in Brazilian conglomerate EBX Group, incurred a loss of 3.03 billion dirhams from its financial investments compared with a profit of 355 million dirhams a year earlier, the company’s financial statements showed.

“While our financial investments’ performance was impacted by the volatility in the global market place during 2011, we continue to maintain a long-term financial investment perspective,” Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, chief executive and managing director said in the statement.

Unlisted Mubadala saw its 2011 revenues surge 77 percent to 27.9 billion dirhams due to high energy prices last year and consolidation of its semi-conductor unit Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

This compared with revenues of 15.8 billion dirhams in 2010.

Aldar stake cut

Mubadala, one of few state-controlled vehicles to publish results, also owns stakes in local companies including indebted developer Aldar Properties and cooling firm Tabreed which it helped recapitalize last year.

The fund, which holds a near-majority position in indebted Aldar, plans to transfer a 14 percent stake in the developer to secure a 500 million dirhams loan facility from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. After the stake transfer, Mubadala holds about 35 percent of Aldar’s shares, Obeid said in the call.

Last month, Mubadala said it would buy a two billion dollar stake in Brazil’s EBX Group, providing fresh capital to the Brazilian conglomerate of billionaire Eike Batista.

“Mubadala will continue to assess geographical opportunities and multiple sectors, we are looking at other geographies and positions news to Mubadala,” Waleed al Mu hairi, chief operating officer, said on the call.

Mubadala also remains a supportive shareholder of Carlyle Group, viewing the upcoming initial public offer (IPO) as a “positive step” and taking a long-term perspective of its investment in the private equity firm, he said.

Carlyle Group LP is eyeing a market valuation of $7.5 billion to $8 billion in an initial public offering, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Tuesday.

Mubadala initially bought a 7.5 percent stake in Carlyle for $1.35 billion at the top of the cycle four years ago, valuing the private equity firm at $18 billion.

The 10-year old firm’s total outstanding debt as of January this year is 38 billion dirhams with 5 billion dirhams due in the short-term, said Obeid, adding Mubadala has ample cash to cover it. Still, Mubadala is engaging with banks, export credit agencies and the capital markets to secure the best funding to finance its projects, he added.

Abu Dhabi, which sits on most of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) oil reserves, is also home to sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). -Agencies

CAPITALS: Greg Smith, while resigning from Goldman Sachs said that investment bankers referred to their clients as ‘muppets’. The state of the services industries generally, is such that clients are looked at in terms of how easy or difficult it is to get their money. Credit card managers call customers who pay their credit card dues on time as ‘deadbeats’ because the service providers do not earn interest and penalty charges. In the advertising world, clients are ‘bobbleheads’ if they approve readily of almost anything.

Share brokers on Wall Street classify clients as ‘marks’ (easy to get), ‘pawns’ (will do anything) and ‘pikers’ (small fish).

Flight attendants call infrequent travelers ‘clampetts’ and demanding frequent fliers as ‘platinum trash’. To a political advisor, a wealthy client running for office is simply known as ‘the checkbook’. Apparently, the service industry is not yet ready to respect the customer and, ‘the customer is always right’ has been replaced by ‘cash is king’.

Dr. Fill finished only 141 out of 600 participants in the recent American Crossword Puzzle Competition. Dr. Fill is an artificial intelligence (AI) computer program. The problem with computers for robots and other AI applications is that computer programs cannot detect humour, and this is apparently a serious working limitation. It is a limitation since most humor is based on a response that is surprisingly different from an orthodox, expected, or patterned response.

Unorthodox situations and jokes that a three year old would understand are beyond the capabilities of AI programs.

Lawrence Mazlack, a computer science professor is working to develop programs that can detect and even create jokes.

This is currently a key weakness in using AI in human work or assistance situations. Comedians are obviously one class of working professionals who are unlikely to be replaced by computers anytime soon. Followers of Star Trek will recollect the otherwise reliable Mr. Spock (of pointed ears) who was perpetually at a loss to understand the earthly humor that Captain Kirk shared with Scotty and Doc McCoy on the USS Enterprise.

Steve Jobs had to leave Apple in 1985, only to return more than a decade later in a more successful avatar. A number of high profile successful people were fired by their employers, and this should inspire those being fired. Perhaps it is a simple matter of learning the hard way to value what we have. Lee Iaccocoa (Ford), JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame (Amnesty International), Bloomberg (Salomon Brothers).

Robert Redford (Standard Oil), Thomas Edison (Western Union), Madonna (Dunkin’ Donuts), and Walt Disney (Kansas City Star) are some who thrived after losing their jobs.

Sportspersons know which side of their bread is buttered. Gary Player is one of the most successful players in the history of golf, with 165 tournament victories on six continents. Gary Player who was known as Mr. Fitness and an international ambassador for the sport was recently asked who he would have liked on his all time great team. Without any hesitation, Player replied ‘Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mandela and Evangelist Billy Graham’.

The BRIC (Brazil, Rusiia, India, China) nations recently agreed to conduct bilateral trade in their own currencies, and to work toward establishing a development bank that would reflect their needs. Brazil and China have begun talks in earnest to improve bilateral trade between the two countries. China currently, buys few products from Brazil other than commodities and Brazilian exports have faced a downturn on the back of the troubles in the EU and in the USA. In a first step, China has agreed to purchase 300,000 donkeys a year from Brazil. While this is still a long way off from buying industrial products, it is a hoof in the right direction. Not great news for the animals that are probably used to a laid back lifestyle.

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 out consulting and management intervention projects in several countries such as USA, UK, Australia, Kenya, Armenia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc. The writer may be contacted on saviosgomes@ gmail.com.

KSE ends the week on greener board KUWAIT: Trading at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) for the last day of this week ended with a mixed board mostly in green as the price index came to 6,188.9 points at a gain of 24.6 points and the weighted index came to 412.43 points at an up of 3.05 points. Trades came to 4,122 transactions, worth 33,883,220 Kuwaiti dinars, and volume came to 324,410,000 shares. The sector indices were six green and two red, with biggest gain in the banking index, and the losses suffered by the food and Non-Kuwaiti companies indices.

Top share of the day was National Ranges Company, which was also today’s top volume share, while biggest loser was Amar Finance and Leasing Company.

Trading at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) for the last day of this week started with mixed readings, with the price index reading 6,161.4 points at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, a down of 2.9 points, while the weighted index came to 409.91 points, an up of 0.53 points. Trades came to 604 spot transactions, valued at KD 5,942,680 and with 36, 820,000 shares changing hands. -KUNA

10

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

friDAY, april 13, 2012

India replaces China as Iran’s top oil client Iran offers Asia oil buyers easier credit terms

CAPITALS: India has vaulted to the top of the list of Iran’s oil customers, overtaking China, in a first quarter buying surge ahead of tighter sanctions against Tehran this summer, data published by a leading industry consultant showed.

Direct imports to India from Iran were 433,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter compared with 256,000 bpd to China, according to data compiled by Geneva’s Petrologistics and seen by Reuters via an industry source.

The Indian import figure was up by around 23 percent from the 351,0000 bpd imported over the same period of 2011 and significantly above the its 2011 average of 326,000 bpd.

Iran, like many oil exporters, does not publish its own oil sales data on a timely basis, but the Petrologistics figures add to signs that India has stepped up imports due to a cooling of relations between Tehran and Beijing over payment terms.

India is also widely seen to be raising imports ahead of tighter sanctions this summer when payments, insurance and supplies are expected to be more uncertain.

Iran traditionally sells most of its 2.2 million barrels per day of oil exports in Asia, where China, India, Japan and South Korea are the four biggest buyers, although its exports have fallen this year due to international sanctions aimed at slowing Tehran’s nuclear program.

Industry sources said Iran’s crude oil exports fell by around 300,000 bpd to 1.9 million bpd in March, with customers in Europe making deep cuts ahead of an EU embargo due to be implemented on July 1.

FILE- Gas flares from an oil production platform, as an Iranian flag is seen in the foreground, at the Soroush oil fields in the Arabian Gulf. Iran is offering Asian oil buyers, including India, easier credit terms to lure more business and counteract tough Western sanctions aimed at restricting the OPEC member’s principal export, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. (Reuters)

Customs data showed that China’s imports from Iran for February were down by 40.3 percent from the same period

India February industrial output slows to 4.1%

OPEC leaves 2012 oil demand steady, pumps more LONDON: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) left its forecast for world oil demand growth in 2012 unchanged for a second month, saying there were signs that a slowdown in global economic activity is easing.

In a monthly report on Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said world oil demand would rise by 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2012, steady from the previous assessment.

The group, which pumps more than a third of the world’s oil, had cut its growth forecast from an initial estimate 1.3 million bpd due to a weaker economic outlook. It said on Thursday the outlook was levelling off.

“Some encouraging signs have pointed at a stabilization of the slowdown in economic activity,” said the report, which is written by OPEC economists at the group’s Vienna headquarters.

“The US is at present experiencing better-than-expected momentum and, along with the recovery in Japan and higher exports from Germany, this should provide some support for the global economic recovery.”

OPEC also reported higher supply from its members as Libya’s oil industry recovers, with production rising to 31.31 million bpd in March, 1.31 million bpd above target levels according to secondary sources, despite lower Iranian production.

A hike in OPEC production was one of the main fac-

in 2011 This trend was confirmed by the Petrologistics data which showed that imports were down 39.4 percent in the

tors for a market easing, the Agency said, remarking that OPEC output was near the highest levels recorded since early 2009.

“March OPEC supply held near three-and-a-half year highs, up by 135,000 bpd to 31.43 million bpd,” the report indicated.

The group, in a bid to be more transparent, also began issuing production figures as reported to OPEC headquarters by member-countries. Ten members, all except Algerian and Ecuador, provided March figures.

OPEC has for many years used secondary sources to monitor its output, a legacy of past disputes about how much oil members said they were pumping.

According to the “direct communication” figures, Iran has told OPEC its output was steady in March at 3.76 million bpd and has risen so far in 2012, effectively denying that supply has suffered due to sanctions on Tehran.

Venezuela, which has long argued its production is higher than secondary sources say, told OPEC it pumped 2.82 million bpd in March, while secondary sources estimated Venezuelan production at 2.38 million bpd.

At the same time non-OPEC supply fell by 500,000 bpd in March to 52.7 million bpd and the decline was attributed to a drop in British and Canadian output. NonOPEC production is expected to pick up through 2012 at average 53.4 million bpd, up 700,000 over 2011 levels.

-Agencies

CAPITALS: India said on Thursday that industrial output grew a worse-than-expected 4.1 percent year-on-year in February, as sluggish manufacturing and weakening exports drag on the economy.

The Central Statistical Office’s (CSO) data come as the economy suffers a slowdown following an aggressive monetary tightening drive aimed at fighting stubborn inflation. The CSO also revised its January result to 1.1 percent growth from an initial estimate of 6.8 percent, but blamed the sharp fall on a technical error. February’s growth of 4.1 percent in manufacturing, mining and electricity output from a year earlier sharply undershot financial market expectations of 6.6 percent expansion.

The central bank hiked interest rates 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011 to curb rising prices, marking the most aggressive pace of monetary tightening by any major economy.

Muted demand in the United States and the eurozone, whose economies are struggling, has hit also India’s export performance.

The Congress-led coalition government estimates the economy grew just 6.9 percent in the year to March 31, 2012 - the weakest pace since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Industry bodies have called on the central bank to start unwinding its interest rate hikes to allow cheaper loans to boost investments and spur economic growth.

The central bank meets next week but economists say continuing inflationary pressures mean policymakers may only cut the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point at most. The central statistics department on Thursday blamed the sharp January revision in industrial output on mistakes in data compilation.

The industrial output figures are known for being volatile but the size of the January revision was unusual and was expected to fuel doubts about the reliability of India’s financial data. -AFP

first quarter versus last year.

India, openly disdainful of sanctions to pressure Tehran, has been left off a list of nations given a US waiver from the measures, but is privately pushing its refiners for substantial cuts in imports from Iran.

On a monthly basis, India’s crude purchases from Iran have fallen steadily from a January’s 531,000 bpd when it first overtook China as top importer, the data showed, suggesting that purchases of Iranian crude have already peaked.

Reuters shipping data showed a similar trend and in February India imported about seven percent less Iranian crude. Many expect lower volumes when new contracts begin in April.

Meanwhile, Iran is offering Asian oil buyers, including India, easier credit terms to lure more business and counteract tough Western sanctions aimed at restricting the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member’s principal export, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Tehran has been offering a handful of potential customers in Asia 180 days of free credit, the newspaper said quoting unnamed industry officials. Each month of credit amounted to a discount of roughly 1.2 US dollars to $1.5 a barrel.

Despite its generous terms, Iran was struggling to find new customers, the FT said.

The United States and European Union have tightened sanctions on Iran’s oil trade as they seek to reduce the flow of petrodollars and to force Tehran to halt a nuclear program the West suspects is intended to produce weapons.

SaudiArabia and other leading Middle East oil producers extend 30 days of credit, and Tehran in the past has allowed importers such as China to pay in 60 to 90 days. Iran’s offer of longer payment periods amounts to a discount of about 7.5 percent per $118 barrel, the newspaper said. -Agencies

Mitsubishi, Shell tie-up to bring Canadian LNG to Asia

TOKYO: Japan’s major trading house Mitsubishi Corporation is in final negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell Plc as well as two energy companies in China and South Korea on joint production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in western Canada, a leading Japanese business daily reported Thursday.

With LNG demand surging in Asia, the alliance is aimed at ensuring steady supplies, the Nikkei Shimbun said, adding that Mitsubishi is in talks with Shell, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Korea Gas Corp. to build an LNG terminal together in the vicinity of Kitimat, British Columbia.

Via pipeline, each of the four firms will send to the facility gas collected at Canadian fields to which they own rights, the newspaper said, with production slated to begin around 2020, with the companies churning out 12 million tons of LNG a year. The project’s total cost is seen exceeding one trillion Japanese yen (12.4 billion US dollars), and a broad agreement on stakes in the joint venture is expected as early as this month, it said.

The international LNG market has to date been swayed by major producers, such as the Middle East and Australia, but now, production of shale gas is on the rise in North America. A four-way alliance between Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese firms and a resource major will create a new force in the global market. Mitsubishi, Japan’s top handler of LNG, spent 230 billion yen ($2.8 billion) in February to buy a 40 percent interest in a shale gas field from Canada’s biggest natural gas company, Encana Corporation Meanwhile, Korea Gas is the world’s single largest buyer of LNG among businesses, importing an annual 30 million tons. The state-run CNPC is involved in developing and producing natural gas as well as purchasing interests in foreign gas fields. -KUNA

RIM experiences 119% growth in Middle East last fiscal year: Sandeep Saihgal CAPITALS: The following is an interview held with Sandeep Saihgal, Managing Director of Research in Motion (RIM) in the Middle East discussing the market conditions and financial performance of RIM in the Middle East How does the Middle East fit into the wider picture for RIM?

SAIHGAL: We are continuing to experience strong growth in the Middle East region.

According to GfK retail figures for the Middle East region, our fiscal growth rate from March 2011 to March 2012 was 119 percent. In fact, the majority of RIM’s subscriber and revenue growth is now coming from international markets outside of North America and the UK. We are still the number one selling smartphone in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait; as well as many other countries globally including the UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Nigeria and Latin America. According to Asymco, BlackBerry smartphones outsold a key competitor by more than 3:1 across the MEA region last year.

Globally, we have grown our subscriber base to 77 million in the last quarter, from 75 million in the third quarter (Q3) and 70 million in the second quarter (Q2). BBM continues to be one of our key customer propositions in the Middle East. Our region has one of the highest BBM penetration rates in the world with 98 percent of all BlackBerry smartphone customers using BBM (98 percent in UAE, 99 percent in Saudi Arabia, 97 percent in Kuwait). We have over 55 million BBM users globally.

Do you see the Middle East as an important growth market for you? What steps are you taking to ensure you remain ahead of the competition in the region?

SAIHGAL: This year we will kick-off our largest investment to date in terms of our sales and marketing and brand awareness campaigns and initiatives.

We believe that ahead of the BlackBerry10 launch, and throughout the remainder of 2012, it is critical that we drive BlackBerry 7 sales to sustain the subscriber base. To do this we plan to aggressively incentivize sales of

BlackBerry7 smartphones through the implementation of programs to both drive upgrades from older BlackBerry products to BlackBerry 7 and to ‘onboard’ feature phone customers to BlackBerry 7 for their first smartphone experience. This will be supported by the new BlackBerry7 entry level smartphones and strong BBM value proposition.

We will be working with our distributors to deliver the best user experience to our customers, while providing them with an unbeatable value proposition.

What is the financial situation in the Middle East compared to other parts of the world?

SAIHGAL: As I mentioned, we experienced a 119 percent YoY growth for the last fiscal year. This is the only information I can share in terms of market situation.

There is a huge opportunity for the Middle East as one of RIM’s ‘high growth markets’ along with Africa and Asia Pac - 68 percent of RIM’s business growth is now outside of the North America and UK markets, so we are placing a large business focus on this region.

Why is the Middle East different?

SAIHGAL: One of our key successes in the Middle East is the adoption of our messaging and social networking tool, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). The Middle East has one of the highest BBM penetration rates in the world with 98 percent of all BlackBerry smartphone customers using BBM (98 percent in UAE).

Globally, there are over 55 million BBM users.

The Middle East represents a great hub for developers who want to create locally relevant applications, as well as globally available applications in their local language. We are also able to work well with content providers to offer customers the applications they want. We are constantly engaged with partners, be it developers, telecommunications companies or regulatory authorities to offer the best smartphone solutions in the region. We have also recently opened a Developer Lab in Jordan, and an upcoming lab will be opened in Egypt.

The labs will allow us to support the local developer community, to provide the tools and resources necessary for Jordanian and Egyp-

tian app developers to create mobile apps and content for the BlackBerry platforms.

Finally, in January 2012, RIM and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) announced the launch of the BlackBerry Entrepreneurship Academy at the Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Academy will give Saudi mobile developers access to RIM’s in-house team of developers, and provide support for getting their apps to market into BlackBerry App World. This is the first time a government entity in the region has partnered with a handset manufacturer on such a scheme.

What about the consumer market? Is RIM planning to pull out completely to focus on Enterprise?

SAIHGAL: We are embracing the consumerization of smartphone adoption and supporting those users who want to ‘bring their own device to work’ with the launch of Mobile Fusion, a next gen Enterprise Mobility solution.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry, BlackBerry BBX, Android and iOS operating systems will be possible with Mobile Fusion.

It also brings together the BlackBerry solution for BlackBerry devices with Mobile Device Management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, while simplifying the management of smartphones and tablets (corporate and personal liable) for IT departments with a single console for managing the diversity of devices.

Mobile Fusion is available in the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar and KSA immediately.

We remain very committed to our consumer market, aggressively focusing on delivering a unique and compelling user experience to all of our customers to enhance the way people engage, produce content, and manage data via mobile computing. The consumer market is vast, so rather than trying to be all things to all people, RIM will focus its talent base and homegrown software and services on specific areas of the consumer market where BlackBerry excels - which includes delivering a great mobile social and productivity experience - and we will look to existing and new partnerships to provide additional compelling

Sandeep Saihgal, Managing Director Middle East, Research in Motion (RIM).

apps and services that customers want.

BlackBerry 7 and PlayBook OS 2.1 were a big step forward in this journey. As part of the lead up to BlackBerry 10, we will continue to seek partnerships with application and service providers to deliver consumer features and content that are central to the BlackBerry value proposition. We believe these partnerships, combined with our core product offerings, will provide an extremely attractive experience to both consumers and our enterprise customers.

We are excited about our renewed company focus and hope our partners and customers are excited as well.

Do you have any predictions for RIM in the Middle East?

SAIHGAL: We have seen a constant growth in the Middle East since 2010, and we expect this trend to continue well into 2012.

This year, we launched the PlayBook 2.0 OS

upgrade, and we’ll be launching the BlackBerry 7.1 OS upgrade shortly. This new upgrade brings with it many new exciting features to BlackBerry users, including BlackBerry Tag, which allows the sharing of information between BlackBerry users via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

We will also introduce new additions to the BlackBerry 7 family in the BlackBerry Curve 9320 and BlackBerry Curve 9220.

Both smartphones will be lower cost and cater to entry-level smartphone users. Both products will fully support existing BlackBerry 7 features such as Liquid Graphics and the HTML5/WebWorks browser.

Later in the year, we will be launching a new range of BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The BlackBerry 10 platform will deliver a next generation of BlackBerry experiences through the BlackBerry 10 OS, which will power our next generation of smartphones and tablets.

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

11

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012

Optimism toward Dubai lifts Nakheel bonds

Difficult conditions

Nakheel, which overstretched itself late last decade with ambitious projects such as a man-made islands in the shape of palm trees, was brought under direct government control last August as part of the restructuring of its parent Dubai World. A second, $65 million tranche of Nakheel’s Sukuk will probably be issued to trade creditors by the end of April, its chairman said this week. The tranche will be about a quarter of the size previously expected after the firm persuaded creditors to accept a big discount on their claims.

Although there are some signs that Nakheel’s business is reviving - it launched a residential project on its Palm Jumeirah site this year, the first to be publicized since the real estate market collapsed - it still faces difficult business conditions and a multi-year process of paying down debt.

Nakheel does not make regular, comprehensive reports on its financial condition but said in December that it made a net profit of $143 million in the first half of 2011; it did not give a year-earlier comparison. Revenue for the period was 1.5 billion UAE dirhams ($409 million), mainly from the handover of properties

in a number of its projects.

“It’s fair to say that they are not the worst of the bunch anymore. But they are not the best,” said Loic Pelichet, assistant vice president for research at National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Capital. “We know Nakheel restored some of its projects and are in a better position now. But Nakheel is still in the news with some problems.” Dubai property prices plunged 50 percent or more during the crash; while recent months have seen signs of strength in some areas, such as rents for high-end villas, the residential market as a whole is still plagued by oversupply so a strong rebound of the market looks unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Dubai’s real estate watchdog estimates as many as 16,000 new homes will hit the market this year, adding to an estimated 10,700 that were introduced last year. A Reuters poll of analysts in January suggested the emirate’s residential property sector was oversupplied by about 30 percent. Another concern for investors is that although Nakheel is now stateowned, and might be able to request government support in the event of another crisis, its Sukuk is guaranteed by the company’s assets and not directly by the government.

“Nakheel’s company-specific developments have not played any role in the Sukuk’s dramatic rally...From a stand-alone credit perspective, Nakheel remains the ugly duckling in the Dubai Inc space,” said Gus Chehayeb, Dubai-based director for high yield and distressed research at Exotix.

He said the rally in the Sukuk was largely due to “opportunistic buyers” who saw Nakheel as a high-return bet with repayment of the principal still four years away.

Confidence

That opportunism has been encouraged, however, by an improvement in investors’ attitude to Dubai assets in general.

Dubai’s five-year sovereign credit default swaps (CDS), used to insure against any debt default by the government, have narrowed to 349 basis points (bps) from around 445 at the start of this year and levels above 600 in early 2010. That is despite an increase in geopolitical tensions in the Gulf because of Iran’s disputed nuclear program. CDS for Dubai’s financially stronger neighbor, oil-rich Abu Dhabi, have narrowed much more slowly this year, to 116 bps from 125 bps. One reason for the greater

optimism is a sense that Dubai’s state-linked firms in general are acting more aggressively to resolve their debt problems. Last week Dubai Holding, the conglomerate owned by the emirate’s ruler, said its private equity arm had agreed with creditors to restructure $2.5 billion of debt, ending nearly two years of talks.

Early this month Drydocks World, Dubai World’s shipbuilding unit, said it would use a special tribunal in Dubai to force recalcitrant creditors to sign up to its $2.2 billion debt restructuring plan, and had filed legal proceedings in Singapore to push through the proposal.

It is unclear how well creditors will be treated by the tribunal, which has largely been untested. But for some investors, the sight of Dubai playing hardball with creditors in a restructuring may be positive, because it suggests the emirate wants to resolve its remaining debt problems quickly. There are also signs that procedures are being changed to reduce the risk of future financial crises. Last week the United Arab Emirates’ central bank tightened its large-exposure rules for commercial banks, introducing new caps for loans made to local governments and their entities in the first such change for nearly two decades. Dubai government entities have issued $2.2 billion of bonds so far this year, as borrowing costs drop back to more acceptable levels and investors show appetite for the debt.

Strategy

The other major factor behind the increased optimism toward Dubai is a sense that the emirate may be succeeding in putting together a viable long-term economic growth strategy that relies less on the fickle real estate market.

Tourism has been performing strongly; passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport climbed 14 percent from a year earlier in January and 19 percent in February. Dubai announced last month that it was reviving plans to build an opera house, surrounded by a massive entertainment complex; although the project carries echoes of the grandiose ambitions that the emirate displayed last decade, it could make business sense as a tourist draw.

Financial sources told Reuters in February that the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the UAE’s financial hub, expects to permit transactions in Chinese yuan from this year. That could win Dubai more financial business in a region that is rapidly building eco-

Trading Prices of Kuwait Stock Exchange Trading Prices of Kuwait Stock Exchange

Company

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High

Low

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

1,060

1,040 425 610 810 270 415 740 570

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. Int'll Exch KW BH Int Exch.

106 280 148 310 146 51 35.0 275 39.5 -

430 610 850 275 425 760 580

Global Index - Banking

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

79.0 184 55 114

104 280 144 305 142 50 35.0 270 38.0 242.0 104.0 75.0 178 54 110

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

520 -

520 -

55 112 130 226 234 36.5 96 990 80 15.5 63.0 97 58 67 86 18.0 39.5 160 40.0 37.5 20.5 31 52 340

54 108 124 226 226 35.5 95 980 77 15.0 61.0 94 57 65 84 18.0 37.0 160 40.0 35.5 20.5 31 52 335

230 118 122

228 118 122 1,240 295 870 340

Taiba Kuwaiti Holding

246.0 110.0

Global Index - Investment

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

Global Index - Real Estate

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

Heavy eng. & Ship.

Marine Services Portland Cement Shuaiba Industrial Metal Collecting Kuwait Foundry

1,260

295 880 345

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Last Close 177.67 6,188.90 Last Prev.

Close Close 1060 430 790 610 850 275 425 760 580 318.83

106 280 52 144 310 13.0 55 25.0 130 25.0 230 99 112 102 52 26.0 146 50 26.5 71 35.0 48.5 64 26.0 270 61 38.5 51 39.0 100 244.0 110.0 22.0 22.5 78.0 29.0 178 285 114 28.00 75 65 54 50 64 42.50 112 81.52

300 520 500 148 220 122 40.50 43.82 55 110 124 226 32.5 232 118 91 36.0 110 96 990 77 15.5 63.0 97 58 67 77 36.0 85 18.0 87 17.5 39.5 69 80 160 40.0 28.5 37.5 17.5 20.5 134 134 220 52 340 57.52

230 118 450 122 1,260 295 140 880 216 106 345

1040 430 790 610 840 270 415 740 580 314.42

Previous Close Change 176.41 1.26 24.60 6,164.30 Trading Activity Tran. Value(KD) Chng Volume 20 10 5 10 20 4.41

1,740,000 110,000 10,000 315,000 8,750,000 1,770,000 1,565,000 2,360,000 16,620,000

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120,000 180,000 1,480,000 190,000 30,420,000 2,680,000 240,000 20,000 7,600,000 4,380,000 8,760,000 15,600,000 240,000 80,000 1,460,000 73,450,000

6 3 36 8 50 24 3 2 67 122 207 228 12 2 39 809

5,000 5,000

104 280 52 148 310 13.0 55 25.0 130 25.0 230 99 112 102 52 26.0 140 49.5 26.5 71 36.0 48.5 64 26.0 270 61 38.5 51 37.5 100 244.0 106.0 22.0 22.5 75.0 29.0 178.0 285 114 28.00 75 65 51 50 64 42.50 114 81.41

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56 110 128 234 32.5 232 118 91 35.5 110 95 980 77 15.5 62.0 95 58 67 77 36.0 84 17.5 87 17.5 37.0 69 80 160 40.0 28.5 35.0 17.5 20.5 134 134 220 51 340 57.32

0.5 1 10 1.0 2 1 0.5 2.5 2.5 Ex-D 1 0.20

2,160,000 10,260,000 880,000 100,000 140,000 1,600,000 2,120,000 70,000 1,200,000 5,520,000 18,520,000 5,840,000 520,000 560,000 3,280,000 1,280,000 2,480,000 40,000 9,840,000 4,240,000 1,920,000 80,000 320,000 2,770,000 75,740,000

228 118 450 124 1,260 295 140 880 216 106 335

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nomic ties with China.

The total debt of Dubai’s government-related enterprises is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to have declined only marginally to $76 billion in 2011 from $77 billion in 2010, and it remains a concern. This partly explains why Dubai’s CDS are still much higher than those for many Gulf Arab states.

But high oil prices look set to support growth in the UAE for now at least, benefitting Dubai even if global trade slows. United Arab Emirates (UAE) Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed Al-Mansouri predicted last month that the UAE’s gross domestic product would expand nearly four percent this year; that was an

improvement from last November, when he said growth might slow to around three percent in 2012.

Analysts said that while the level of Nakheel’s Sukuk yield suggested it might still struggle if it tried to issue bonds in the open market, conditions were likely to be good for further issuance by high-rated Dubai entities in coming weeks or months.

“The Dubai sovereign and high-grade corporate issuers from the emirate like DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) or Emirates (airline) will find good appetite if the issuers come to market,” Exotix’s Chehayeb said. -Reuters

Date of Closing Prices:

DTD 0.71% 0.40%

Last Bid

05 / 01 / 2012

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

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

FILE - The Burj Khalifa is seen in this undated file photo. A dramatic fall in yields on the bonds of state-owned property developer Nakheel underlines how investor sentiment toward Dubai is improving, even though the outlook for the company’s own business remains tough.

Trading Prices of Kuwait Stock Exchange Date of Closig Prices: 12/04/2012

Date of Closing Prices: 12 / 04 / 2012 For more information please contact “Global” at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net Global General Index KSE Price Index

(Photo by D.Amara)

DUBAI: A dramatic fall in yields on the bonds of state-owned property developer Nakheel underlines how investor sentiment toward Dubai is improving, even though the outlook for the company’s own business remains tough. Nakheel’s 1.0 billion US dollar, fiveyear sukuk is yielding about 14 percent, down from levels above 21 percent when the Islamic bond was issued to trade creditors last August as part of a restructuring of the company’s $16 billion debt. It is a big improvement for a firm which has been seen as a symbol of Dubai’s 2009 corporate debt crisis, and the drop suggests international investors are increasingly looking beyond the crisis at the emirate’s efforts to grow as a trade, tourism and financial services hub.

“The improvement in the perception of Dubai is certainly a key factor” in Nakheel’s bond rally, said Biswajit Dasgupta, head of trading at Abu Dhabi investment firm Invest AD. “There is an overall sense that the emirate is on the right track and is doing what it needs to do to resolve the problem. The on-the-ground evidence in the form of tourism and hospitality numbers, real estate...is also helpful.”

Last Ask

MTD YTD -3.02% -0.92% 6.44% 0.39% Div. Annual Close High Low P/E Yield

1,040 425 590 840 270 420 750 570

1,060 430 620 850 275 425 760 580

3.8% 0.0% 0.0% 2.5% 1.8% 1.8% 2.4% 2.0% 0.0% 2.0%

1,220 510 800 680 920 285 480 900 590 326.42

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

15.26 36.98 1240.61 18.34 31.88 26.31 12.99 27.47 126.35 19.45

12,680 50,400 216,000 58,000 4,378,360 133,880 8,400 5,450 296,360 1,066,000 938,960 1,210,040 43,400 4,360 163,520 8,585,810

104 280 144 305 112 144 50 35.0 60.0 270 38.5 242.0 108.0 78.0 176 28 73 64 51 48 110.0

106 285 146 310 230 114 95 146 51 35.5 69.0 285 61 39.0 244.0 110.0 79.0 180 285 31 80 65 52 51 112.0

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.5% 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% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.9% 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 35.5 146 65 35 71 44.0 48.5 70.0 26.0 280 62 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 42.5 112.0 74.96

16.47 10.59 0.00

1 1

2,600 2,600

255 480 500 36.0

300 530 510 148 43.0

6.7% 3.8% 5.0% 3.4% 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

31 59 20 3 7 19 33 9 27 47 179 54 9 12 61 12 22 2 62 49 23 1 8 60 809

118,120 1,130,440 112,480 22,600 32,200 57,760 202,280 68,650 94,320 82,840 1,146,400 552,760 29,960 37,240 278,640 23,040 96,080 6,400 393,600 157,120 39,360 2,480 16,640 928,350 5,629,760

54 108 124 228 226 87 35.5 96 980 77 15.0 62.0 96 57 65 73 34.0 84 18.0 87 39.5 75 158 40.0 37.0 20.5 31 51 335

55 110 126 230 236 36.0 97 990 78 15.5 63.0 97 58 67 80 38.5 85 18.5 89 68 85 168 40.5 37.5 21.0 130 34 53 340

0.0% 4.5% 0.0% 6.6% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 7.7% 0.0% 6.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.3% 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 39.0 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 56 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

24 16 1 35 1 3 4

237,200 40,120 2,440 138,450 8,850 60,950 13,700

228 116 440 122 1,240 295 132 870 104 340

230 120 445 124 1,260 300 146 880 216 108 350

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

260 136 470 158 1,480 345 222 920 216 120 495

214 116 415 122 1,260 295 140 660 180 102 315

13.79 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 46.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 67.72 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 14.47 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.77 22 52 22.52 16.18 573.07

0.00 0.00 5.59 14.23 13.38 13.67 11.92 24.07 63.13 64711.96 13.50

49.42 12.93 15.77 0.00 22.64 9.61 15.16 24.12 29.12 0.00 16.91 393.14

99.98 0.00 14.66 8.00 172.51 0.00 0.00 26.88 439.41 0.00 0.00 19.25

20.11 7.29 13.30 17.53 31.52 12.59

ACICO

218

Global 83 United General IndustriesIndex Boubyan 620 KSE PricePetroch.

Index

Gulf Glass Hilal Cement Company High Al Kout Ind. Project 1,140 National K-PAK Bank Gulf Bank Material 495 Building Commercial Bank 770 Nat. Ind.Co. Ahli Bank 640 Equipment Holding 116 Ahli United Bank 850 Mena Holding International Bank Consumer Industries 248 460 Burgan Bank Kuwait Gypsum 890 Kw Finance House 216 Qurain Boubyan Bank 590 Salbookh Trading Global Index - Banking194 IKARUS Kw Investment Boubyan Int'L Ind. 76

218 79 620 Low 1,120 490 770 640 110 800 248 455 880 214 580 190 73

ŷ źź źŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷŷ ŷ ŷŷ źŸ Ÿŷ ŷ ŷ ź

ź Ÿ ŷ ŷ ź ź ŷź 265 260 źŸ Commercial Facilit.

Global Index - Industrial 41 40 ź Int'L Financial Adv. National Cinema 174 - 170 - źŷ National Invest.

Kw Hotels Kw Projects 300 - 300 - Ÿŷ 400 ŷŷ Agility 400 12.5 Ahlia Holding 13.5 Market Complexes Coast Invest.

53 52 - źŷ ZAIN - 730 - 720 ŷŷ Int'L Investor Securities House - ŷŷ 74.0 72.0 Safat Energy Ind. & Fin. Inv. Group Educational - ŷŷ - Securities Group - - ŷŷ Indep. Petroleum Int'L Finance - ŷŷ National Cleaning 150 148 110 MARKAZ 106 108 Sultan Center 106 ŷŷ KMIFIC - ŷŷ 114 Arabi Group 108 Int'L Group CityInv. Group - ŷŷ Aref Inv. Group 2,260 2,160 ŷŸ Wataniya Tele.

Investment Dar 116 Kw Gulf Link 114 ŷź Al AMAN Inv. ŷ - ŷ Kw Cable Vision ALOLA Inv. 110 108 ŷ Automated System - ŷ ALMAL Inv. 50 49 ź NAPESCO 355 345 Gulf Inv. House - ŷ KCPCLeasing 295 290 - ŷŷ A'ayan K.S.HInv. 32.5 - 31.0 - ŷŷ Bayan Eyas - ŷŷ GLOBAL Inv. Hits Telecom - 112 - 106 ŷŸ Osoul Inv. Al Safwa Holding -17.0 ŷŷ GULFINVEST -18.0 - ŷŷ Human Soft KFIC 75 Privatization Holding 77 KAMCO - ŷŷ Int'l Leasing & Inv. - - - ŷŷ Nafaaes Holding - - ŷŷ Nat. Int'l Holding - National Slaughter - ŷŸ Housing Finance 106 112 Aref energy MADAR - - - ŷŷ Safwan 26.5 AlGulf Deera Holding 75.0 ŷŷ 77.0 26.5 Petroleum AlGulf Safat Inv. - ŷŸ 22.5 Franchising 24.0 AlCredit Salam&Group Collection 122.0 - 114.0 - Ÿŷ 41.0 Ekttitab Holding 17.5 źŸ 20.0 39.0 National Ranges Al Qurain Holding - ŷŷ Burgan Well Drilling 16.5 Sokouk Holding 16.5 ŷ - ŷ IFA H&R Al-Madina Finance 40.0 38.5 ź 1,700 1,700 ŷ Combinted Group NOOR ŷ Jeeran Holding Tamdeen Inv. 160 158 źŷ 116 116 Palms Agro KW BH Int'l Exch.

- ŷŷ 73.0 73.0 Safat TEC Holding Taiba Kuwaiti - ŷź 88 85 Mushrif Trading Kuwait Syrian - ŷŸ UPAC Strategia - - ŷŷ ALAFCO 290 ŷź 300 53 53 Kuwait China Inv. 168 Al-Muwasat 168 - ŷŸ Manafae Inv. Mashaer Holding 305 295 Gulf North Africa - ŷŸ Amwal - - - ŷŷ Oula Fuel AlFuture MasarComm.

- ŷŷ Al-Imtiaz 132 104 źŷ 110 124 Hayat Comm.

61 60 źŷ Mubarrad Transport Global Index - Investment --- ŷŷ Kuwait Resorts Kuwait Insurance Advanced Technolgy - - ŷŷ Gulf Insurance - Yiaco Medical - - - ŷŷ Ahlia Insurance Al Jazeera Airways 455 445 112 108 źŷ Warba Insurance Al Soor Fuel - - - ŷ Kuwait Re-Ins. Future Kid Ins. First Takaful - - - ŷŷ K G L Insurance Wethaq - 290 - 285 ŷź Al Nawadi 81 źŸ Global Index - Insurance81 Alrai Media - ŷ 48 ź Kuwait R.E. 48 - 100 - ŷ Zima Holding United R.E. 100 Ÿ GlobalR.E. Index - Services 118 ŸŸ National 126 200 Salhia R.E. 204 LiveStock Trans.

- źŷ - 94 ŷź Pearl R.E. - 95 Dana Al-Safat 224 224 Tamdeen R.E. United Poultry - źŷ Ajial - ŷź 1,380 Kw R.E. FoodStuff 1,360 - ŷ Massaleh R.E. United Food - ŷ Arab R.E. 30.0 30.0 ź Kout Food - ŷ - ŷ Union R.E. Global Index Food 98 96 źź ERESCO 860 - 840 - Ÿ Mabani Sharjah Cement 7595 7495 Ÿŷ INJAZZAT RE Gulf Cement Inv. Holding Grp Um Quwain Cement 12.070 11.569 źŷ Int'L Resorts 88 ŷŸ Fujaira Cement 90 78 77 - Ÿŷ Commercial R.E Ras AlKheimah 70 65 Sanam R.E. ARIG 112 112 źŷ 54 53 ź Aa'yan R.E United Gulf Bank 174 172 ź - ŷ Aqar Egypt Kw Holding 280 280 ź Kuwait R.E Holding ŷ Bahrain Kw Ins. 59 ź AL Mazaya 60 House 58.0 14.0 55.0 źŷ AlGulf Dar Fin. National R.E 14.0 64 InovestInt'L Holding 66 - ŷŸ Themar

- 168 Grand R.E Projects - 172 Ahli United Bank -26.0 Tijara & R.E Invest -28.0 Ithmaar Bank AlGlobal TameerIndex - Non-Kuwaiti Arkan Al-Kuwait R.E 70 70 Markaz Real Estate Safat Global AlInvestment Argan Int'L Funds 28.5 28.0 Abyaar Al-Bareeq Holding 23.5 - 23.5 Munshaat AFAQ First Dubai 26.0 Al-Shamel - 25.5 KBT 27.0 27.0 Al-Safat Real Estate Manazel 16.5 15.5 33 32 Ajwan Real Estate REAM Specialities Group 435 445 Mena Real Estate Masaken Inter.

Al Moudon Intl. R.E - Dulaqan R.E Markaz Real Estate 57 56 Eid Food Kuwait Remal R.E 295 285 -

MaidanIndex Clinic - Real Estate Global Flex

-

-

-

Nationl Ind. GroupReal E242 232 Dar Al-Thuraya Pipes Ind. & Oil Kw Medical Services 128 - 126 Kuwait Cement 455 450 Amar For Fin. & Leas.

55 55 Refrigeration Ind. Total Parallel Market 1,420 1,420 Gulf Cables & Elec.

Heavy eng. & Ship.

Total Market Marine Services 720 Portland 720 GlobalCement Special Indices Shuaiba Industrial Global Index - Kuwaiti Co.'s 104 Metal Collecting 110 Cap. Global Index - 10 Large Kuwait Foundry -

Global Index - Islamic

ŷŸ ŷŸ ŷź ź ŷŷ ŷ źŷ ź ŷ ź ŷ ŷ ź Ÿ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ źŷ Ÿŷ źŷ

Last Close Previous Close DTD 218 20,000 1 Change4,360 218 214 220 -0.40% 177.24 -0.70 79 176.5380 -1 3,200,000 61 260,760 79 80 6205,726.90 620 85,000 11 -27.3052,700 - 5,754.20 610 -0.47% 630 1,100 1,100 Last Prev.

Trading Activity Last Last 216 216 224 Close Close Ask Chng - Volume -Tran. - Value(KD) - Bid 415 415 3,796,050 - 1,120 - 1120 1120 69 3,377,500 1,140 275 275 300 20 495 495 830,000 407,950 490 495 224 Ex-D 224 214 770 770 10,000 1 7,700 770 780 300 300 295 310 640 -20 4 2 6,400 660 10,000 640 660 808,880 114 110 7,080,000 182 110 114 800 50 850 350,000 23 282,700 840 850 33 33 16 248 248 700,000 173,600 246 248 102 102 460 465 -5 500,000 10 229,750 460 465 128 128 Ex-D 890 -10 880 1,280,000 66 1,127,050 880 870 7 216 214 2 160,000 34,320 216 214 590 590 607,850 1,035,000 33 590 580 44 44 319.37 319.54 8,092,500 6,639,050 0.17240 190 220,000 9 42,200 -4 194 190 194 106 106 -7 --2 102 106 73 280,000 75 20,680 74 72 260 265 -5 250,000 14 65,750 260 265 166.40 166.20 0.19 12,695,000 362 1,725,610 40 960 170 280 300 400 12.5 52 52 730 25.0 130 74.0 31.0 110 230 340 102 150 108 106 50 108 44.0 550 52 2,240 74 114 28.5 58 108 300 49 355 23 295 71 255 31.0 260 48.5 110 68 17.5 20.5 270 26.0 77 244 94 84 51 154 36 112 51 600 26.5 76.0 75 24.0 120.0 120 39.5 20.0 19.0 260 16.5 400 38.5 1,700 29.0 80 158 116 255 73.0 114 86 26.00 340 68 290 53 168 60 305 46.5 64 275 42.50 285 128 104 60 75.90

48.5 325 770 560 370 485 450 110 242 220 98 114 285 40.50 81 43.43 122

48 98 100 726.02 124 200 184 37.5 94 224 136 120 1,360 82 340 30.0 580 108 335.42 97 860 85 75 95 11.5 69 38.0 90 78 124 65 112 54 172 90 280 38.0 455 59 57.0 14.0 66 91 17.5 168 31.0 28.0 59 41.71 70 122 48.5 124 28.0 144 23.5 106 25.5 250 27.0 22.0 15.5 32 134 445 134 51 220 345 57 106 295 2,260 49.73

40.5

232 88.0 128 65 450 55 ź 150 ŷ 1,420 ź 335 ŷ 212 ŷ 720 ŷ 180 ŷ Ÿ 104 ź Ÿ 460 ŷ źŷ ŷ ŷ ź

Ÿ

41 960 172 280 295 400 12.5 5352 730 25.0 130 74.0 31.0 110 230 340 102 150 112 106 50 108 44.0 550 52 2,160 74 116 28.5 58 108 300 49.5 370 23 295 71 255 31.0 260 48.5 108 68 17.5 20.5 270 26.0 77 244 94 84 51 154 36 104 51 600 26.5 76.0 75 23.0 112.0 120 41.5 18.0 19.0 260 16.5 400 39.0 1,700 29.0 80 160 116 255 76.0 114 85 26.00 340 68 300 53 160 60 295 46.5 64 275 42.50 285 130 104 60 76.02

48.5 325 770 560 370 485 450 118 242 220 98 114 290 40.50 78 43.63

122 49 98 99 721.67 120

204 184 37.5 96 234 136 120 1,420 82 340 30.5 580 108 347.53 98 850 85 73 95 12.0 69 38.0 86 77 124 70 112 55 176 90 300 38.0 455 63 57.0 14.5 64 91 17.5 166 31.025.5 59 41.72 74 122 48.5 124 28.5 144 24.5 106 26.0 250 27.0 22.0 16.5 31 134 420 134 51 220 345 58 106 290 2,260 49.75

40.5

1,680,000 13 1,040,000 20 110,000 5 50,000 7,040,000 46 5 1,280,000 22 -1 45 850,000 -14 880,000 - - -- - --500,000 17 - 680,000 1821 560,000 - 2,040,000 64 - - -80 167,500 20 -2 1,080,000 35 14 500,000 -1 320,000 4 Ex-D 40,000 -3 120,000 8 1,840,000 22 - - - 2 24,480,000 314 4,320,000 35 - - 1,400,000 28 - - - - - - - -8 30 740,000 - - - 258 - 240,000 2,880,000 -3 1.0 240,000 8.0 - 11,180,000 - 212 2.024 1,920,000 40,560,000 183 2.0 5 480,000 0.510,640,000 93 40,000 2 2.080,000 4 20,000 -1 3.080,000 -2 47 2,160,000 1.0 -- -10 1,180,000 200,000 240 20,000 8 -1 2,210,000 10 90 - - - - - - --2 1,240,000 3885 2,400,000 320,000 558 7 0.12- - 40,720,000 -1 -2 5 -

---

- -8 Ex-D - --5 0.19-3

-1 1 4.36 4

- - - 170,000 120,000 - - 630,000 40,000 120,000

- - - 13 6 - - 31 61

1 80,000 9 920,000 1,203 90,177,500 105 3,100,000 12 520,000 51 2,400,000 3 100,000 -7 72,500 1 80,000 2,472,500 320,000 858

-4 --2 10.0- -60 0.512.12-1 10 1,935,000 57 Ex-D 21 120,000 2 40,000 1513 0.5- 2,000,000 800,000 -3 4 120,000 3 1 240,000 17 1,000,000 -5 100,000 1 4 -1 200,000 -4 40,000 2 10,000 1 -20 Ex-D 11 440,000 -4 22,160,000 192 1 80,000 0.52 59 4,320,000 1,020,000 2 29 24,640,000 224 3 53,250,000 525 0.01-4 320,000 2 - - - - 12 0.5- 2,720,000 1.0- 80,000 1 0.5240,000 3 Ex-D 35,040,000 4 1,200,000 8 1.0400,000 1 5 430,000 25 - 25 - - - -1 240,000 6 47 5 2,110,000 0.02- - 53,085,000 - 332 -

Ex-D

-

-

242 -10 13,220,000 - 154 88.0 128 140,000 6 65 470 -20 50,000 2 120,000 60 150 --5 -1 950,000 1,460 -40 2,500 131 335 324,410,000 4,122 212 720 Close 230,000 19 Prev Close Prev.

180 187.48 186.07 106 80,000 179.903 182.20-2 460 -

565.78

558.14

67,160 40 910 177,720 168 33,000 295 20,000 395 90,920 12.5 67,280 51 615,850 - 720 63,760 73.0 - - - 74,080 148 73,920 106 59,360 104 226,800 108 - 368,800 2,220 124,520 112 27.0 54,920 108 290 15,840 49 14,000 355 21 35,000 295 58,760 31.0 2,677,360 110 64.0 75,600 -17.0 - 106,120 76 - - - - 80,720 110 - 560 6,360 26.0 219,000 75.0 5,600 21.0 1,305,280 - 118.0 77,080 -19.5 759,360 18.0 7,920 16.0 375 419,440 38.5 68,000 1,700 12,680 156 2,320 114 5,840 73.0 187,320 86 320 - 63 348,100 290 10,600 52 3,360 150 662,200 300 - 265 - - 250 157,920 255,640 124.0 104 19,440 2,702,550 60 - - - 76,300 13,200 - - 181,850 3,240 13,200

3,840 92,000 7,339,540 383,920

104,680 226,280 22,400 98,800 2,400 325,080 31,160 1,656,950 8,960 3,800 23,960 55,520 10,680 18,520 67,400 11,200 10,720 6,920 2,800 26,160 1,248,280 1,120 281,360 172,600 670,160 2,463,320 22,400 - - 76,880 1,880 6,160 946,080 19,240 12,760 190,050 - 13,520 610,850 4,151,200 -

-

300 510 350 460 450 108 238 - - 285

78 114 48 99

122 200 - 93 126 110 1,360 530 112 95 860 78 71 78 11.5 95 35.5 69 77 90 122 53 112 174 285 13.5 55 90 - 66 30.0 168.0 70 116 28.0 23.5 25.0 24.5 15.5 31 440 29 218 55 80 290

-

-

3,111,120 83.0 17,800 122 22,550 455 6,600 150 209,410 3,550 1,420 310 33,883,220 165,600 Change 710 178 1.41 8,480 2.30 104 435

7.64

40

1,020 172 300 400 13.0 52 - 730 74.0 33.5 345 150 110 106 110 - 530 2,240 114 29.5 56 110 325 50 24 300 32.5 - 112 -18.0 - 290 77 238 89 54 184 112 610 27.0 76.0 25.0 120.0 130 39.0 20.0 20.0 270 16.5 405 39.0 1,720 160 118 270 74.0 87 27 340 73 295 53 170 61 305 47 69 275 - 270 128.0 106 61 49.0 325 750 610 390 500 455 114 240 110 290 43.0 122 49 106 100

126 202 37.5 94 224 130 1,400 85 355 31.5 600 118 98 870 83 76 83 12.0 96 37.0 70 79 91 65 126 54 120 91 182 40.5 295 60 14.5 57 94 - 67 33.5 170.0 57 74 126 28.5 25.0 25.5 240 28.0 22.0 16.0 32 130 445 32 50 57 90 295

43.0

MTD YTD 27.06 2.3% 224 196 -1.55% 102 -1.55% 0.0% 79 32.34 0.0% 550 88.41 -1.50% -1.50% 630 1,400 1,100 17.40 3.6% Div. Annual Close 216 206 12.38 6.9% Yield High Low P/E9.94 415 340 8.4% 3.6% 1,120 14.74 300 1,100 275 5.20 0.0% 0.0% 510 490 33.95 228 224 35.32 2.2% 1.9% 790 770 88.62 325 260 24.52 3.3% 3.1% 660 640 17.34 114 51 0.0% 1.6% 850 790 29.68 33 33 0.00 0.0% 0.0% 255 248 23.59 102 93 0.0% 0.0% 475 460 12.26 128 128 18.88 5.5% 2.3% 900 880 25.07 222 210 13.15 0.0% 0.0% 590 590 112.24 51 41 0.00 0.0% 2.0% 319.54 318.41 18.61 214 162 16.94 4.2% 0.0% 106 106 40.56 0.0% 88 70 8.5% 265 260 12.09 174.76 163.04 13.69 2.8%

0.0% 4.4% 0.0% 0.0% 6.7% 7.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.3% 9.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.3% 0.0% 7.0% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 7.1% 0.0% 7.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.5% 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% 4.1% 0.0% % 0.0% 3.8% 8.6% 5.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8 8% 8.8% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 6.0% 0.0% 4.3% 10.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.4% 0.0%

0.0% 6.2% 1.9% 4.5% 4.1% 5.2% 0.0% 9.1% 0.0% 2.7% 5.1% 0.0% 7.0% 0.0% 8.6% 4.7% 0.0%

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 12.5% 0.0% 10.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.5% 3.7% 0.0% 4.8% 6.1% 1.5% 0.0% 5.2% 6.5% 4.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 10.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.1% 0.0% 5.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.5% 0.0% 7.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.7% 0.0% 6.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.7% 6.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.1%

0.0%

232 0.0% 91.0 0.0% 130 0.0% 70 0.0% 465 2.2% 0.0% 3.3% 0.6% 1,440 4.6% 340 3.0% 4.77% 216 2.4% 720 DTD 13.9% 190 5.6% 0.76% 108 0.0% 1.28% 4.3%

1.37%

42

40

910 1,120 174 170 280 280 305 295 430 340 13.5 12.5 65 41 54 52 900 690 25.0 25.0 130 130 81.0 45.0 36.0 31.0 110 110 230 230 295 345 102 102 154 110 116 108 102 136 50 50 84 110 44.0 44.0 530 550 52 52 1,920 2,280 74 74 95 126 28.5 28.5 68 58 112 108 230 350 51 49 340 395 23 22 260 305 71 71 255 260 31.5 31.0 260 260 48.5 48.5 54 132 68.0 68.0 14.0 23.5 20.5 20.5 270 280 26.0 26.0 61 84 244 244 94 94 84 104 51 51 154 154 36 36 91 120 51 51 520 710 26.5 27.5 30.0 78.0 75 75 16.0 28.5 99.0 120.0 120 140 19.5 41.5 20.0 12.0 19.0 19.0 275 198 17.0 16.5 490 380 39.0 38.0 1,740 1,500 29.0 29.0 89 73 156 162 124 86 255 255 78.0 57.0 114 114 104 80 26 28 340 270 68 68 280 315 53 55 130 168 60 60 172 305 47 47 64 64 305 265 42.5 42.5 300 265 132.0 70 108 128.0 76.3272 75.9051 44.0 62.0 325 325 770 640 560 560 345 390 520 485 410 485 118 110 270 236 220 220 98 114 134 114 300 218 40.5 40.5 44.8092 43.4377 114 156 49 48 94 110 100 99 791.90 705.36 120 128 208 222 37.5 114 234 136 130 1,500 82 390 30.5 610 108 365.22 100 860 95 76 108 12.5 73 38.0 122 78 126 75 132 55 232 90 330 38.0 455 63 74.0 14.5 91 17.5 31.0 59 47.16 78 1,220 48.5 144 29.0 24.5 26.0 28.5 16.5 134 32 220 60 295 49.86

-

200 182 37.5 90 224 126 120 1,360 82 340 30.0 500 108 335.42 96 840 44 73 55 11.5 43 38.0 46 77 118 65 102 54 172 90 250 38.0 455 59 40.5 14.0 91 17.5 31.0 59 40.74 70 1,220 48.5 124 28.0 23.5 25.5 27.0 15.5 134 32 220 57 270 49.73

-

232 260 130 128 470 450 158 150 1,460 1,420 340 335 212 222 710 740 MTD 180 180 -2.95% 104 116 -4.25% 460 460

1.10%

18.02 88.93 12.13 15.48 1.33 0.00

11.00 0.00 58.86 0.00 19.17 0.00 9.12 0.00 0.00 11.69 0.00 0.00 0.00

22.18 8.75 10.08 0.00 12.82 4.79 362.53 32.31 12.91 0.00

13.63

0.00 116.80 9.95 0.00 0.00 14.57

11.80

0.00

0.00 42.66 87.26 16.18 0.00 5.31 8.28 13.45 22.77 11.92

0.00

12 34 12.34 43.00

3.79 7.71 10.85 22.34 0.00 20.02

5.19 10.01

21.12 16.97 31.91 12.90 12.13 9.91 9.38 17.37 17.80 296.83 13.53 8.72

7.03 12.60 22.69

37.20 12.83 11.09 22.21 17.83 15.27 16.20 6.02

11.38 44.60 10.40 15.28 11.40 39.65 5.29

21.70

0.00 32.06 14.56 11.12 26.32

374.65 6.24 0.00 541.46 4.15 9.27

19.44

8.60

11.37 0.00 5.38 27.28

5.03 13.99 23.07

14.28

18.82 816.78 0.00 9.98 0.00 16.27

22.75

70.58 18.38

13.10 6.49 8.02 14.57 193.84 96.15 YTD 10.91 -1.09% 23.15 -4.15% 26.77

0.67%

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

12

ALWATAN DAILY friday, april 13, 2012

April 21, 2009 April 12, 2012

2% 6%

2% 6% Oman

Oman Qatar Kuwait

95 100

Qatar

Bahrain

-4%

-1%

Abu Dhabi

90

-6%

GCC Best Performers

Saudi

95 12-Jan-12 85

12-Feb-12

12-Mar-12

MENA Best Performers

-2%

12-Apr-12

-6% -2

S&P Pan 3-Feb-09 Arab Large/ 18-Feb-09 Mid Composite S&P 20-Mar-09 GCC Large/ Mid Composite 19-Jan-09 5-Mar-09 4-Apr-09 19-Apr-0

1

MENA Indices Highlights Country (Index)

Index Level

% Chg.

YTD

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

Index 7,573 Level

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

2,523 5,250

-0.4% -4.0%

QaUAUAE Qatar (DSM Index) (ADSM Index)

8,785 2,695

0.3% 0.6%

Ku Kuwait (KSE Weighted Index)

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

OmOman UAE(MSM (DFMIndex) Index)

412

1,679 406

5,981 1,745

% Chg.-

18.0% YTD

0.7%

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

2,034

0.7%

OmOman (MSM 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

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

5,478

1,681

10,456

463

1,189

2,825 469

10,621

5,041

1,094 546

Tu TunisiaClosed (Tunis SE Index)* * Market

3,282

0.1% 12.8%

8,892 5,148

5.0% 6.6%

-0.7% -18.8%

1.8%

30.7%

5.1%

0.7%

2.0%

0.4%

-0.4%

-0.5%

-6.8%

-6.0%

-

8.5%

1.1%

2.2%

0.4%

0.8%

2.4%

-1.6%

-

-

525,916 Wk Low

Turnover USD million

2,293 4,130

25 2,183

66,646 264,263

8,071 2,137

88 122

126,542 69,783

11.59 7.29

0 196

17,052 65,352

9.19 8.85

396

122

1,754 787

1,301 316

6,406 5,860

5,419 1,433

20 305

3,587

75

1,412 12,627

1,129 4,230

2,216

1,921

5,628

12,109 2,903

5,044

2,551

1,414 513

328

465

4,091

23.6%

739

407

2,119

13.6%

-

1,164

5,036

9,406

3,418

18,385 37,413

-

1,043

-

2,837

-

4

13.76

63,640

7.67

18,727

1

1.64

1.29

15.30

10,571

3.26

1.56

6.32

67

33,782

12.71

8

10,046

15.61

2,514

0.85

2.15

9.15

59,990

1.15

18.36

8,507

2

1.68

8.07

57,147

0

1.31

3.95

1.78

6.47

2,079

0.86

8.67

6,576

2.50

13.85

1.92

SAUDI ARABIA *Market Closed

FOOKuwait Food Co.

KWD 0.290 SAR 22.95

225 Saudi Industrial Inv. Grp.

101 Riyad Bank

KWD 0.124 SAR 48.00

-3.1% -8.6%

SAR 24.70

-6.4%

11,503,973 11,476,670

EMAEmaar Properties (UAE)

Turnover (USD)

8,602,841

KIB Kuwait International Bank (KUW)

343,553,085 6,630,169

201 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

(KSA) NBK National Bank of Kuwait (KUW)

119,955,261 5,903,261

115 Alinma BankQatar (KSA) VFQ Vodafone (QA)

97,126,838

NBKNational Bank of Kuwait (KUW)

Tadawul Index 52 week High / Low

117

115

7,931 / 5,916 -

Turnover (SAR '000)

1,467,176,514

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

113

88,742,222

Close

#N/A

#

#N/A

#

12-Feb-12

12-Mar-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

12-Apr-12

#

% Chg.

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A #N/A #N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

Worst Performers Turnover (SAR) 7020.SSE Etihad Etisalat Co. #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A

1 Al Rajhi Bank

#

64,280,166

#N/A

Highest Turnover

105

-6.8%

Turnover (USD)

MENA Highest Turnover

ARTArabtec Holding (UAE)

-

Advance/Decline Ratio

-3.3% -8.9%

SAR 13.70

GCC Highest Turnover

88%

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

95 12-Jan-12

KWD 0.226 -13.1% -3.4% KWD 0.265

7,573 (0.0%)

Tadawul Index (% Chg.)

125

-8.8%

KWD 1.360% Chg. -4.2% Close

EMAEmaar Properties (UAE) Best Performers

Summary

% Chg.

AED 3.20

KFI Kuwait Finance House (KUW)

Rebased Performance

8.0%

Close

ADI Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

0.88 201 NRSaudi National Real Estate Co. 1.74 Basic Industries Corp.

9.50

27,920

MENA Worst Performers

1.91 FAC SRE Salhia RealFacilities Estate Co. 1.37 Commercial Co. 1.61 ALAAlafco Aviation Lease and Fin. Co. 0.88 238 Rabigh Petrochem.

9.37

15,024

3

0.79 1.52

10.86 6.87

55,779

46

10.79 9.99

1.04 1.77

8.0%

OMR 0.720

GCC Worst Performers

2.02

2.7%

QAR 21.60

BKMBankMuscat

PB1.41

3.7% 8.6%

KWD 0.760

QGTQatar Gas Transport Co. PB

4.5% 8.8%

KWD 2.240 QAR 6.35

KFI Kuwait Finance House

PE 14.11 8.80 10.24

35,039 98,547

18

1,572

10,495

13.15

100,021

53 718

4,224

12,203

1,033

Trailing

5.6% 9.8%

OMR 1.043 OMR 0.703

NM Wataniya KCB Al Khaliji Commercial Bank

PE

Mkt.391,216 Cap. USD million

USD5.60 0.095 SAR

RCC Raysut Cement Co. GEC Galfar Engineering & Contracting

Trailing

Mkt. Cap. USD million

Turnover USD million

14,635

-7.2%

0.9%

52 Wk Low

-3.3%

5.9%

-

467

2,775 10,090

1.3% 1.9%

0.2% 3.9%

52 Wk 7,931 High

5.0% 9.3%

24.0% -0.2%

1,136 5,590 4,735

1.7%

0.4% 1.8%

BaQa Bahrain Qatar (BSE (DSMIndex) Index)

Eg Egypt (EGX 30 Index)

52 Wk High

% Chg.

KWD 0.112% Chg. 7.7% Close

ITHKingdom Ithmaar Bank 3 428 Hldg. Co.

Period's Liquidity Ratio (PLR x)*

MENA Indices Highlights

Close

4 AREAREF Energy Holding Co.

Period's Liquidity 1 Ratio (PLR x)

-1

Abu Dhabi

105

0%

-2%

Tunisia Abu Dhabi

0%

Dubai

Palestine Palestine

Bahrain

Abu Dhabi

0%

100

0%

Kuwait

Dubai Dubai

Return DailyDaily Return (%)(%)

Dubai

Qatar

110

Oman Saudi

105

1%

2%

Morocco Qatar

111

113 110

4%

Oman Lebanon

115110

Jordan

113

Kuwait Kuwait

113

DailyIndex Index Performance Snapshot Daily Performance Snapshot

Egypt Jordan

120115

Bull/Bear Indicator Bull/Bear Indicator

Bahrain Bahrain

Rebased RebasedPerformance Performance

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

Close

% Chg.

66.00 #N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

7020.SSE Etihad Etisalat Co.

66.00 -

#N/A

Saudi SE

Quotes Company Name 1 Al Rajhi Bank

Close 79.25

Daily % Chg.

High -

-

Low

Turnover (SAR '000)

-

-

-

-

-

-

1 Alinma Bank

14.85

-

-

-

-

1 Arab National Bank

31.00

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

2 Almarai Co.

1 Bank AlBilad

1 Bank Al Jazira

64.25 31.20

29.50

-

-

-

-

-

-

1 Banque Saudi Fransi

38.80

-

-

-

-

4 Emaar the Economic City

13.00

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. 7 Etihad Etisalat Co.

4 Jabal Omar Development Co. 4 Jarir Marketing Co.

4 Kingdom Holding Co.

2 National Industrialization Co.

2 Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co. 1 Riyad Bank

1 Samba Financial Grp.

12.15 66.00

18.60

152.00 12.20

38.20

25.00

25.00

54.75

2 Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co.

192.50

2 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

102.75

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

34.30

-

-

-

-

89.00

-

-

-

-

1 Saudi Hollandi Bank

29.30

-

-

-

-

2 1 Saudi Investment Bank 2 Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. 7 Saudi Telecom Co. 2

22.80

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

1 Saudi Arabian Mining Co. 3 Saudi Cement Co.

5 Saudi Electricity Co.

22 Saudi Industrial Investment Grp.

Saudi International Petrochemical Co.

Savola Group Co. 0 3 Southern Province Cement Co. 0 1 SABB 3 Yamama Saudi Cement Co.

2 Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co. 7 Zain - Saudi Arabia

14.25

22.60 19.10

18.90

-

-

-

-

-

-

Volume ('000) -

52-Week High

% Change

Low

on high

82.75

67.25

-

114.50

64.25

-43.9%

-

32.90

17.20

-5.2%

-

-

16.25

33.80

31.90

9.05

26.60 15.75

-

40.00

30.00

-

13.60

6.20

-

-35.1%

-30.9%

14,777,500

12.9

2.1

57.2%

60.4%

9,360,000

28.6

2.7

-3.0%

15.2%

-0.2%

35,075,894

12.0

1.8

-4.4%

76.9%

89.8%

11,050,000

-8.3%

-7.5%

50.00

-3.3%

-

155.50

101.17

-

50.75

34.80

-24.7%

26.90

23.10

-7.1%

-

-

-

-

13.10

29.80

56.75

11.10 7.05

21.20

42.40

-7.7%

-2.3%

-

24.45

17.75

-

27.20 21.00 21.30

53.1% 9.2%

-6.1%

10.5

2.2

8.4%

59,373,962

26.7

1.1

23.6%

67.1%

0.0%

18.0%

13.4%

11,629,170

11.5

1.6

-6.7%

15.7%

-0.9%

8,360,000

11.8

1.5

5.0%

28,350,000

nmf

20.2%

28.7%

17,250,000

-10.8%

-20.4%

15.9%

-0.5%

12.85

-12.6%

18.55

-16.9%

15.55

-9.0%

15.50

-11.3%

23.70

-2.8%

2.5%

18.9%

18.3% 8.6%

-

-

-

-

-

106.75

61.25

49.80

-

-

-

-

-

83.25

47.50

-40.2%

-28.9%

-

-

5.25

-18.7%

68.5%

51.00 9.35

-

-

-

-

-

-

46.30

56.00

11.50

34.20

41.60

1.2

2.7

308,250,000

97.25

-

11.9

nmf

-4.0%

6.8%

33.00

-

37,500,000

21,900,000

21,293,768

1.8

5.9

41.30

-

1.9

6.2%

nmf

11.7

-

36.30

8.7

45,211,764

48,125,000

-

35.50

10.1

7.2%

-

-

1.9

17.8

34.1% 9.8%

2.5

9.4%

-

-

9,120,000

nmf

1.5

-3.8%

-

-

49.3%

17,286,840

9.1

0.9

7.3%

40.10

34.50

35.2%

46,200,000

nmf

-9.2%

16.30

-

26.3%

12.1

1.9

38.3%

-

21.42

25.7%

13,122,000

32.7

1.6

35.6%

-8.7%

29.30

29.3%

8,850,000

12.1

1.4

-8.5%

87.75

-

48.2%

26,350,000

nmf

17.5%

112.50

53.25

-8.3%

22,275,000

-3.5%

-

98.00

47.8%

67.6%

7.5%

-3.8%

-

74.0%

-16.1%

165.00 24.25

12.7%

37.9%

200.00 37.50

58.8%

-6.9%

-

PB 3.6

68.25

20.15

Trailing PE 16.1

-12.3%

-

Market Cap. (SAR '000) 118,875,000

-8.6%

14.0%

12 mths 4.3%

6.05

-

13.85

-4.2%

YTD

-2.9%

18.6%

-8.9%

13.1%

-21.6% -8.9%

-1.4%

-9.6%

-4.5%

3.4%

58.1%

49,275,000

31,727,500

13,617,000

10,170,000 10,505,000

11.5 nmf

16.4

19.2 14.8

1.8 1.9

4.1

1.7 1.2

1.9

80,200,000

10.5

1.7

13,615,000

15.2

5.1

36,300,000

14.5

12.6

-8.2%

10,084,500

13.7

34.5%

13,090,000

nmf

28,687,500

9.0

2.2

2.1

3.0

2.7

3.0

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

13

ALWATAN DAILY friday, april 13, 2012

KUWAIT Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 6,189 (0.4%)

KSE General Index (% Chg.)

120

412 (0.7%)

KSE Weighted Index (% Chg.)

KSE Weighted Index 52 week High / Low

110

0.760

2.7%

467 / 396 ALTIJARIA The Commercial Real Estate Co.

0.097

2.1%

Highest Turnover 103

12-Feb-12

12-Mar-12

Turnover (KWD) 2,392,450

K Kuwait International Bank

12-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

0.425

2.4%

Worst Performers

N National Bank of Kuwait

1,843,850

K Kuwait Finance House

1,174,850

1,346,000

B Boubyan Bank 95 12-Jan-12

3.7%

27,815,860

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

100

2.240

33,968

Turnover (KWD '000)

105

KFIN.KSE Kuwait Finance House

NMTC.KSE Wataniya

6,523 / 5,694 BURG.KSE Burgan Bank

KSE General Index 52 week High / Low

113

7.7%

1.67

Advance/Decline Ratio

115

% Chg.

0.112

48%

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

Close AREFENRGAREF Energy Holding Co.

740,250

B Burgan Bank

Close FOOD.KSE Kuwait Food Co. SRE.KSE

Salhia Real Estate Co.

NRE.KSE

National Real Estate Co.

% Chg.

1.360

-4.2%

0.226

-3.4%

ALAFCO.KSAlafco Aviation Lease and Fin. Co.

0.290

-3.3%

NINV.KSE National Investments Company

0.144

-2.7%

0.124

-3.1%

KSE Weighted Index

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Agility

0.400

0.0%

T Al Themar Intl. Holding Co.

0.087

-

A AREF Energy Holding Co.

0.112

A Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

0.610

A Alafco Aviation Lease and Fin. Co. B Boubyan Bank

B Boubyan Petrochemical Co. B Burgan Bank

0.290

-3.3%

0.580

0.0%

0.620

0.425

A Burgan Co. for Well Drilling

0.260

C Commercial Bank of Kuwait

0.790

C Combined Grp Contracting Co. F Commercial Facilities Co. G Global Investment House

0.0%

-

0.425 -

0.0%

1,013,976

0.415

740

1,770

0.524

0.410

-18.9%

-6.0%

-12.6%

68

40

1.945

1.300

-12.6%

7.6%

-7.4%

50

180

0.395

0.255

-29.1%

47

110

0.552

0.425

-22.1%

-11.5%

-

0.495

0.285

-19.2%

-15.8%

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

0.450

0.760

K Kuwait International Bank

0.275

K Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding)

0.310

-

220

0.214

0.455

0.445

76

170

0.485

-

-

2.6

-12.1%

181,553

nmf

-24.1%

264,513

37.7%

-61.2% -1.8%

7.3

1.5

3.7

16.9

1.0

99,000

9.4

3.8

nmf

71,091

-27.3%

3.1

142,500 79,485

268.9%

nmf

286,945

0.7

nmf

0.9

20.1

1.9

0.350

0.236

-21.4%

7.8%

-14.1%

285,265

26.3

1.4

0.0%

0.310

0.305

58

190

0.405

0.281

-23.5%

6.9%

-18.6%

414,338

13.8

0.880

0.226

-3.4%

0.232

0.0%

99

0.870

61 69

0.9%

-

70

1.360

1.580

0.660

-16.0%

23.9%

0.0%

26.6%

-7.4%

4.1%

1,844

1,740

1.145

0.909

0.228

237

1,040

0.285

0.192

-19.3%

0.130

0.124

112

880

0.168

0.056

-26.2%

0.216

0.214

34

-

-

-

-

0.148

0.144

-

-

-

-

0.106

2.1%

0.097

0.094

553

2.160

369

0.234

0.226

-

-

2.260

0.730

0.720

0.260

0.295

-

0.144

0.360

160

0.265

0.226

100

0.186

0.246

0.200

0.0%

-11.8%

-51.2%

-23.6% -4.4% -8.1%

-8.1%

546,723

-41.3%

79,996

11.4

1.9

31.5

1.3

0.7

53.5%

605,077

29.1

4.1

0.5%

4,614,707

15.2

2.1

-11.5%

-11.5%

297,873

nmf

0.7

-3.1%

21.6%

0.0%

7.1%

-16.3% -8.3%

0.0%

21,780

-9.1%

103,861

-50.3%

-

-6.8%

1.3

nmf

0.7

nmf

0.6

90,667

22.3

2.1

115,875

16.2

0.9

16.1%

237,600 61,356

2.7%

0.1

24.5

126,175

0.9% 8.7%

2.3

13.1

1.1

560

0.136

0.093

-22.1%

-11.7%

-14.5%

5,840

0.097

0.067

0.0%

26.0%

32.9%

177,977

16.9

0.7

168

2.280

1.800

-1.8%

15.5%

24.4%

1,129,033

3.1

1.4

32

140

-

-

0.340

1,480

23

0.226

-

-

216

-

0.226

-

-8.1%

-44.3%

0.636

0.106

0.0%

1.620

0.990

0.0%

3.7%

73

70

59

-

0.730

37.0

64,309

8,750

1.360

-3.1%

Z Zain Kuwait

-2.2%

1,132,228

40.0%

2,392

-2.7%

2.240

-28.6%

10.7%

-11.5%

1.9

0.270

1.380

0.124

N Wataniya

-5.3%

-2.9%

-1.1%

0.9

nmf

0.275

-

0.130

-7.2%

10.6

1,004,898

-27.3%

1.9%

N National Real Estate Co.

S The Securities House

0.415

-59.1%

11.8%

150,294

-15.1%

1.0

1.2

-

0.097

0.630

-11.2%

-11.3%

4.1

37.2

36.7

0.230

A The Commercial Real Estate Co.

-

0.236

-25.0%

0.0%

16.6

54,503

2,207,165

0.9%

0.106

0.285

-10.9%

7.7%

164,272

-44.7%

1.2

-24.0%

0.230

T Tamdeen Real Estate Co.

20

0.096

0.118

0.0%

1.5

34.3

-8.8%

N National Industries Grp. Holding

S Sultan Center Food Products Co.

0.242

-16.0%

13.0

300,762

1.2

-25.4%

1.040

0.216

0.138

22.6%

656,611

17.0%

nmf

0.720

1.060

S Salhia Real Estate Co.

-

1.260

-38.1%

4.2

84,000

1.019

1.9%

A Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Co.

1.680

10.7%

nmf

-8.2%

1,565

0.0%

0.275

0.019

-1.6%

1.5

1,175

1.060

O Oula Fuel Marketing Co.

0.055

110

5

0.700

5.7%

1.0

5.7

0.740

0.880

0.144

-

-

0.198

0.940

42

0.980

N National Investments Company

0.420

0.190

0.270

0.530

-9.7%

1.9

0.760

-4.2%

0.300

-

0.630

0.194

0.990

N National Industries Co.

-

0.085

0.5

18.3

2.7%

1.360

0.033

85

138

1.0%

N National Bank of Kuwait

0.124

1.240

0.990

M Mena Holding

740

53

-

K Kuwait Finance House

nmf

-1.7%

-

0.275

88,088

923,076

-6.5%

-

0.0%

-13.0%

1.7%

0.530

0.400

0.270

-4.4%

-3.0%

0.620

0.425

-

15.5

2,360

81

0.430

1.260

418,735

1,346

0.0%

-

-16.3%

-7.2%

5.3%

0.570

0.430

0.0%

0.079

0.590

PB

6.7%

226,134

0.280

0.099

0.104

0.657

PE

-22.7%

0.280

0.0%

-8.0%

Trailing

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

-7.9%

0.0%

-

-

0.248

12 mths

-23.7%

0.280

-

10

0.435

YTD

0.280

1.700

-

6

on high

0.380

1.700

-

50

% Change

Low

1,180

0.0%

0.450

M Mabanee Co.

0.580

High

348

1.700

JAJazeera Airways

P Kuwait Portland Cement Co.

20 -

52-Week

Volume ('000)

0.290

0.620

-2.1%

F Kuwait Food Co.

0.300

0.620

0.190

K Kuwait Cement Co.

-

Turnover (KWD '000)

0.610

0.0%

IK Ikarus Petroleum Industries Co.

K KIPCO Asset Management Co.

-

0.610

0.106

1.260

IF International Finance Co.

0.400

0.112

C Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Co.

IF IFA Hotels & Resorts

0.400

7.7%

2.4%

0.049

G Gulf Bank

Low

0.270

-

616

0.216

-

850

-

1.360

0.690

-14.1%

0.0%

-46.3%

0.9%

0.0%

-18.9%

-9.0%

86,564

0.0%

88,400

-46.3%

3,144,500

nmf

0.9

22.6

0.9

nmf

7.0

11.0

1.5

UAE Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,679 (0.4%)

DFM Index (% Chg.)

135

2,523 (-0.4%)

ADSM Index (% Chg.)

125

Advance/Decline Ratio

DFM Index 52 week High / Low

Highest Turnover

E Emaar Properties A Aramex

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

12-Mar-12 Abu Dhabi SE

12,307,416

A Air Arabia

12-Apr-12

1.3%

1.84

Turnover (AED) 42,256,393 ADIB.ADSM Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank 42,156,106 ARKAN.AD Arkan Building Materials Co. 20,100,158 CBD.DFM Commercial Bank of Dubai

A Arabtec Holding

95 12-Jan-12

1.4%

1.5%

1.1%

Worst Performers

107

105

3.01

402,266,389

Market Cap. (AED '000)

113

1.5%

0.73

286,725

Turnover (AED '000)

% Chg.

2.03

1.36

2,775 / 2,293 ARMX.DFM Aramex

ADSM Index 52 week High / Low 115

Dubai Islamic Bank

73% TAQA.ADS Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. 1.22 UNB.ADSM Union National Bank 1,754 / 1,301 AIRARABIA Air Arabia

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price 126

Close DIB.DFM

11,982,408

A ALDAR Properties

Close

% Chg.

3.20

0.98

2.75

TAMWEEL Tamweel

1.32

DEYAAR.D Deyaar Development Co.

0.40

-8.8% -2.0%

-1.8%

-1.5%

-1.0%

Dubai FM

Quotes Company Name

Close

A Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

3.26

T Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.

1.36

A Air Arabia

A Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

A Abu Dhabi National Hotels A ALDAR Properties A Amlak Finance

A Arabtec Holding A Aramex

A Arkan Building Materials Co. C Commercial Bank of Dubai D Dana Gas

D Deyaar Development Co. D du

3.22

1.5%

1.37

1.34

0.73

1.3%

0.73

0.72

1.02

-

3.20

2.19

1.18

N National Bank of Fujairah

N National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain S Sharjah Islamic Bank

S Sorouh Real Estate Co. T Tamweel

0.49

0.40

3.17

-1.8%

0.0%

-1.0%

0.3%

0.8

1,589

1,168

1.63

1.14

-16.6%

13.3%

-11.1%

8,466,000

13.0

1.1

12,307

16,963

-5.3%

24.6%

-0.8%

3,406,691

12.7

0.0%

1,530,000

nmf

1,967 -

11,982 -

3.18

3.12

2.01

1.1%

2.87

2.86

9.40

-0.2%

91.45

-

-

8.69

0.2%

1.78

-

-

8.65

9.44 -

-

8.70 -

5,968

11,017 4,099

8.9%

-24.6%

1,805

1,898

9,209 2,022

3.24

0.71

0.46

3.30

1.46 2.31

2.75

0.34

0.20

2.80

0.2%

0.47

6,307

1.16 3.00 -

11,406 820 -

120 -

9,705 5,920 272

13,120 -

1.56

9.00

2.34

1.54 1.49

-31.0%

-11.6% -3.9%

1.88

-12.1%

2.65

-38.0%

-12.6%

0.80

568

-

4.63

-15.1%

-18.5%

1.02

-

211

-6.1%

0.68

631

-

0.48

-

nmf

3.00

7,922

-

1,715,000

4.70

1.32

3.95

-39.9%

-

-

1.36

U United Arab Bank

-3.0%

74.70

1,038

7.5

-41.7%

1.69

102.00

-

4,820,452

0.71

-

8.58

-23.9%

0.0%

1.68

1.96

6.98

-

28.3%

0.0%

8.7

2

10,848

10.75

-

-29.8%

2,190,000

20.3

164

-

-19.5%

6.6

5,157,750

8.63

-

-0.5%

7,567,059

130.0%

11.20

1,545

5.3%

117.0%

1,341

9.30

1.3%

-5.0%

11,528

-1.5%

0.49

-

8.55

1.32

3.03

0.76

-

2.41

0.90

1.4%

1.68

3.49

0.90 1.19

-25.5%

0.57

12,994

0.0% 0.0%

2.02

42,156

0.90 1.18

2.94

0.77

3.22

605

-9.9%

1.24

9,826

885

2.92

3.63

3,980

0.48

0.40

3.55

12,179

15

2.04

-0.4%

-

41

1.5%

8.60

10,152

2.75

1.18

3.27

-

20,100

1.21

-0.3%

4.51

0.50

0.41

614

1.84

-0.8%

3.22

1.13

2.75

PB 6.0

1

2.75

PE

18,241,647

0.98

1.87

Trailing

Market Cap. (AED '000)

25.4%

0.98

1.1%

12 mths

17.3%

-2.0%

1.84

YTD

-1.8%

1.16 -

on high

2.60

0.98

3.01

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

-

% Change

Low

3.32

42,256

U Union National Bank U Union Properties

1.20

-

High

151

3.42

2.87

N National Bank of Abu Dhabi

0.0%

-

3.17

492

3.53

E Emirates NBD

M Mashreq

-

3.35

52-Week

Volume ('000)

0.9%

2.03

G Gulf Cement Co.

-8.8%

Turnover (AED '000)

3.45

D Dubai Islamic Bank

F First Gulf Bank

Low

3.30

1.19

E Etisalat

High

0.6%

D Dubai Financial Market

E Emaar Properties

Daily % Chg.

0.67

7.38

-0.4%

88.7% 9.7%

41.7% 4.6%

-7.7%

25.3%

-23.2%

-5.8%

-27.6%

-10.3% -3.4%

-4.0%

-2.1%

-6.8%

13.2

-4.7%

11.6

1.7

28,200,000

7.6

1.1

18.8

1.3

-21.0%

22.4%

-3.2%

85.7%

-22.8%

5.00

3.28

-21.0%

4.2%

8.5%

927,839 -

33,669,913 2,848,000

-14.5%

0.24

15,950,813

9.1%

28.1%

38.8%

2.82

0.8

67,992,804

-23.4%

118.9%

1.3

-16.5%

0.67

-11.4%

7.6

2.3

0.6

-25.5%

0.53

nmf

0.4

10.9

-1.7%

7.1%

1.1

19,613,788

-23.9%

-11.8%

1.4

-1.2%

11.2%

7.1%

7,708,020

1.1

1.7

0.6

6.4

14,491,429 9,520,000

0.7

0.9

1.9%

-11.9%

21.7%

-0.9%

3,234,981

0.3

0.7

6.8

nmf

-21.4%

-9.9%

5,605,468

12.7

2,322,756

-2.4%

59.2%

2,693,944

47.8%

1.63

3.90

0.50

2.2%

1.2

3.4%

33.3%

nmf

8.9

0.9

2,182,950

8.7

9.3

1,320,000

13.0

1,612,725

nmf

7,511,831

-25.5%

3,935,785

0.7

1.3

17.7

3,097,500

0.5

9.1

4,961,000

-3.5%

48.8%

6.3

2.4

0.5

0.5

0.6

5.0

0.7

11.9

1.9

0.7

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

14

ALWATAN DAILY friday, april 13, 2012

QATAR Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 8,785 (0.3%)

DSM Index (% Chg.)

120

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price Advance/Decline Ratio Turnover (QAR '000)

110

460,764,085

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co. 12-Mar-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

13,430,937

Q Qatar National Bank

12-Apr-12

77.60

0.8%

0.9%

16.60

Turnover (QAR) 21,494,954 VFQS.DSM Vodafone Qatar 18,493,496 QEWS.DSMQatar Electricity & Water Co. 16,248,459 QNNS.DSMQatar Navigation

MMasraf Al Rayan

12-Feb-12

1.1%

0.6%

Worst Performers

V Vodafone Qatar

90 12-Jan-12

1.8%

141.60 27.35

KCBK.DSMAl Khalij Commercial Bank

Highest Turnover

101

100

% Chg.

18.50

8,892 / 8,071 MARK.DSMMasraf Al Rayan 318,794 QIBK.DSM Qatar Islamic Bank

DSM 52 week High / Low

113

Close

56% AHCS.DSMAamal Co. 1.67 IQCD.DSM Industries Qatar

11,590,658

IQIndustries Qatar

Close

% Chg.

9.07

-1.6%

75.50

-0.4%

144.50

QTEL.DSM Qatar Telecom

QIIK.DSM Qatar International Islamic Bank

-1.0%

127.70

-0.2%

51.80

-0.2%

Doha SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

A Aamal Co.

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (QAR '000)

18.50

1.8%

19.00

17.51

9,299

28.40

0.5%

28.45

28.20

11,464

59.60

1,239

16.60

C The Commercial Bank of Qatar

75.90

0.4%

75.90

75.30

2,571

E Ezdan Real Estate Co.

19.80

0.5%

19.80

19.00

200

B Barwa Real Estate Co. D Doha Bank

59.60

0.6%

0.2%

16.77

16.50

692

K Al Khalij Commercial Bank

59.80

IQIndustries Qatar

141.60

1.1%

141.60

139.90

11,591

Q Qatar Electricity & Water Co.

144.50

-1.0%

145.10

144.00

1,139

51.80

-0.2%

Q Qatar National Bank

134.30

-0.1%

Q Qatar Telecom

127.70

-0.2%

M Masraf Al Rayan

27.35

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

17.75

Q Qatar International Islamic Bank Q Qatar Islamic Bank

77.60

Q Qatar Navigation

75.50

V Vodafone Qatar

9.07

0.9%

0.2% 0.8%

-0.4%

-1.6%

27.40

17.79

405

35.35

28.00

-19.7%

-5.2%

42

6,684

75.30 9.00

21,495

-11.7%

1.6

-19.7%

11,051,140

9.1

0.9

-11.6%

1.9%

18,781,180

10.0

1.3

52,519,435

nmf

1.9

20,512,500

14.6

9,830,731

11.8

6.7

18,336,352

13.4

1.6

10

24.97

18.60

-20.7%

-10.8%

-16.1%

-2.7%

-1.8%

12.3%

16.59

-9.3%

1.4%

-8.0%

76.30

-9.0%

82

148.50

118.80

8

153.50

129.50

679

28.10

22.50

19.58

41

56.20

45.50

85.30

100

141.73

122.73

52

168.50

128.00

66

2,335

87.50

69.90

9.22

7.24

-11.0% -4.6%

-5.9% -7.8% -5.2%

-13.7%

-24.2% -1.6%

PB

-3.3%

-9.6%

50.00

PE 18.6

-11.2%

67.00

Trailing

9,157,500

68.00

103

127.10

16.06

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

2.8%

85.50

21

7,986 4,984

18.80

12 mths

34

77.00

128.30 9.31

16.4%

916

13,431

YTD

-23.2%

16,248

133.90

on high

15.40

17.68

134.50

Low

24.09

18,493

2,108

75.80

High

% Change

499

27.05

51.50

52.00

77.80

52-Week

Volume ('000)

-7.0%

5,976,000

7.6%

6.5%

12,319,189

-1.4%

3.5%

77,880,000

1.0%

-4.1%

10.4%

-2.8%

6.0%

-7.9%

14,450,000 7,840,901

-6.4%

-1.3%

93,973,664

-10.8%

-9.3%

8,646,653

-13.7%

20.1%

29,217,760

12.3%

7,667,778

12.3

1.1

9.9

1.7

9.8

3.0

2.4

11.1

4.8

12.0

1.6

12.0

2.3

12.3

0.8

11.3

1.4

nmf

1.1

OMAN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 5,981 (1.3%)

MSM Index (% Chg.)

120

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price Advance/Decline Ratio Turnover (OMR '000)

110

7,070,723

Market Cap (OMR '000)

% Chg.

1.04

4.5%

0.30

0.7%

0.49

6,406 / 5,419 NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman 7,659 BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

MSM 52 week High / Low

113

Close

58% RCCI.MSM Raysut Cement Co. - BKDB.MSMBank Dhofar

2.7%

0.64

RNSS.MSMRenaissance Services

0.6%

0.59

0.3%

105

Highest Turnover

100

Worst Performers Turnover (OMR) 660,529 OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co. 254,399 OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co.

B Bank Muscat

R Raysut Cement Co.

228,824

B Bank Dhofar

90 12-Jan-12

12-Feb-12

12-Mar-12

12-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

215,320

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

193,352

N National Bank of Oman

Close

% Chg.

1.28

0.0%

RNSS.MSMRenaissance Services

0.59

0.3%

NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman

0.30

0.7%

0.62

BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

0.3%

0.64

0.6%

Muscat SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

B Bank Dhofar

0.494

N National Bank of Oman

0.296

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

1.281

R Renaissance Services

0.590

B Bank Muscat

O Oman Cement Co.

R Raysut Cement Co.

Daily % Chg.

High

2.7%

Low

0.500

Turnover (OMR '000)

Volume ('000)

0.482

229

0.295

193

1.279

215

0.588

117

0.6%

0.638

0.630

0.622

0.3%

0.625

0.619

190

1.015

254

1.043

0.7%

0.0% 4.5% 0.3%

0.297

1.285 1.060 0.594

High

463

661

0.635

52-Week

% Change

Low

0.549

on high

0.423

-10.0%

0.291

-8.6%

1,041

0.679

0.572

305

0.622

0.416

654

0.324

168

1.425

244

1.097

197

1.094

8.6%

12 mths -8.5%

9.6

1,140,964

0.0%

44.0%

9.1%

-4.9%

37.2%

-10.1%

0.458

-46.1%

-2.1%

15.5%

8.3%

-43.7%

2.4

9.7

1.3

205,803

16.1

1.4

208,600

13.9

960,750

-3.4%

PB

327,975

-6.3%

-1.7%

PE 13.6

-4.7%

-5.1%

Trailing

543,458

-6.5%

1.041 0.711

YTD

Market Cap. (OMR '000)

166,436

1.2

8.6

1.9

2.0

nmf

1.0

BAHRAIN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,136 (0.2%)

BSE Index (% Chg.)

120

21% ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank - BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

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

1,412 / 1,129 AUB.BSE 156 #N/A

BSE 52 week High / Low

113

Turnover (BHD '000)

110

6,428,775

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

Highest Turnover

100

100

IT Ithmaar Bank

12-Mar-12

9,419

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

4,537

A Ahli United Bank

12-Apr-12

5.6%

0.46

0.9%

0.60

0.0%

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

Turnover (BHD) 28,040 AUB.BSE Ahli United Bank 27,834 BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co. 12-Feb-12

#N/A

% Chg.

0.10

#N/A

Worst Performers

B BBK

90 12-Jan-12

#N/A

Ahli United Bank

Close

3,425

U United Gulf Bank

ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank

BARKA.BS Albaraka Banking Grp. #N/A

Close

% Chg.

0.60

0.46

0.10

0.93 -

#N/A

#N/A

0.0%

0.9%

5.6%

#N/A

Bahrain SE

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Ahli United Bank*

0.600

0.0%

A Arab Banking Corp.*

0.420

-

B Albaraka Banking Grp.* B Bahrain Islamic Bank

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co. B BBK

IN Investcorp Bank*

IT Ithmaar Bank*

N National Bank of Bahrain U United Gulf Bank

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

0.930 0.090

-

0.456

0.9%

797

-

0.400

0.0%

Low

0.600

0.600

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

0.456

-

-

-

-

-

0.402

0.400

5.6%

0.095

0.095

0.304

0.0%

0.304

0.304

-

-

Volume ('000)

12 -

-

0.456

0.095

0.550

Turnover (BHD '000)

20

9

-

28 74 3

-

21 70

52-Week High

% Change

Low

0.680

0.599

0.570

0.420

1.089 0.116 0.492 0.428 797

-0.5%

12 mths

3,140,133

-26.3%

1,306,200

-6.6%

656,640

-0.4%

-14.6%

0.082

-22.4%

0.0%

-22.4%

0.380 0.390 797

0.065

13

0.424

0.270

0.550

-26.3%

0.0%

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

-8.1%

-14.6%

0.105

0.625

-11.8%

YTD

0.857

776 -

on high

943,462

nmf

0.8

340,542

10.7

0.0%

-30.0%

637,560

-4.3%

-12.0%

470,448

-9.5%

46.2%

-28.3%

1.3%

-12.0%

-17.4% -25.1%

1.2

84,571

0.0%

-4.8%

10.1

0.8

16.3% -3.4%

PB 8.0

-7.3% -6.5%

Trailing PE

254,388 253,707

6.4

0.4

8.2

1.3

4.5

0.6

10.3

1.7

nmf

nmf

1.4 0.4 1.2

LIFE

Keep the weight off It’s tempting to let good eating habits slide once you’ve reached your desired weight, but that can mean quickly re-adding those lost pounds. The Cleveland Clinic suggests how to help you maintain weight loss: •Cut down on daily calories; work with a dietitian to come up with the ideal caloric intake for you.

•Scale back on sauces, dressings and other condiments. Opt for healthier offerings such as lemon juice, vinegar, herbs and low-calorie marinades.

•Never skip meals or starve yourself. This could cause you to binge eat and pack on even more pounds.

friDAY, april 13, 2012

Distant galaxies confirm accelerating growth of universe, dark energy WASHINGTON: The pesky reality that the universe’s expansion is accelerating - an observation that prompted astronomers to invoke an unknown entity called dark energy to explain it - has been further confirmed by new measurements according to SPACE. Scientists have used cosmic magnifying glasses called gravitational lenses to observe super-bright distant galaxies, giving a measure of how quickly the universe is blowing up like a giant balloon. They found, in agreement with previous measurements, that the universe’s expansion is indeed speeding up over time.

The first measurement of this phenomenon, based on exploding stars called supernovae, was made in the 1990s.

“The accelerated cosmic expansion is one of the central problems in modern cosmology,” Masamune Oguri, of the University of Tokyo’s Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, said in a statement.

“In 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe using observations of distant supernovae. A caution is that this method using supernovae is built on several assumptions, and therefore independent checks of the result are important in order to draw any robust conclusion.”

Scientists still don’t have much of an idea why the universe is not only expanding doing so ever-faster.

The gravity of all the mass in the universe would be expected to pull everything back inward, so scientists call whatever force is counteracting gravity “dark energy.”

“Our new result using gravitational lensing not only provides additional strong evidence for the accelerated cosmic expansion, but also is useful for accurate measurements of the expansion speed, which is essential for investigating the nature of dark energy,” Oguri said.

Ogiri led the new study of quasars with Naohisa Inada at Japan’s Nara National College of Technology.

Quasars are objects bright enough to be spotted halfway across the universe. They are thought to be powered by hungry black holes that gobble up copious amounts of matter in the centers of galaxies, releasing radiant jets of light that shoot out into space.

The light from quasars sometimes passes by mas-

Lack of sleep may boost diabetes risk

NEWYORK: An inconsistent sleep schedule or a general lack of sleep may increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study according to LiveScience. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston monitored 21 otherwise healthy people, all of whom lived in a lab during the experiment. For three weeks, participants were put on a schedule where they slept for less than six hours per day, and went to sleep later each day- essentially putting them on a 28-hour “day.”

The results showed that the participants’ abilities to regulate their blood sugar levels became so impaired that they may have developed diabetes had the experiment continued longer, according to the researchers.

“Glucose levels were higher for a longer time, and even rose to prediabetic levels in some participants,” wrote the authors in their study. Poor regulation of blood sugar has been linked with excess weight.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the role of sleep restriction or deprivation on obesity and weight gain,” said Dr. Vivian Fonseca, chief of endocrinology at Tulane University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new research.

The new study showed that hormone levels change with lack of sleep, which may help explain how the link works, Fonseca said.

NEW YORK: Dramatic warming at the end of the last ice age produced an intense rise in sea level and a massive ice sheet collapse in the Antarctic according to LiveScience.

The sea level rise is known as Melt-Water Pulse 1A, and new research indicates it increased sea level by about 45 feet (14 meters) sometime between 14,650 and 14,310 years ago, during the same time as a period of rapid climate change known as the Bølling warming.

Understanding the impacts of earlier warming and sealevel rise is important for predicting the effects of future warming.

“It is vital that we look into Earth’s geological past to understand rare but high-impact events, such as the collapse of giant ice sheets that occurred 14,600 years ago,” study researcher Alex Thomas of Oxford University said in a statement.

“Our work gives a window onto an extreme event in which deglaciation coincided with a dramatic and rapid rise in global sea levels - an ancient ‘mega flood.’”

During this period, “sea level rose more than ten times more quickly than it is rising now,” Thomas said, with the rising seas resulting from melting ice sheets that had formed during the ice age. “This is an excellent test bed for climate models: If they can reproduce this extraordinary event, it will improve confidence that they can also predict future change accurately.”

FILE - The galaxy cluster Abell 1689 is famous for the way it bends light in a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. (AFP)

sive objects on its way to telescopes on Earth, and the gravity from these objects bends space-time, causing the light to travel along a curved path. This can produce warped and distorted double images of a single distant quasar.

As the universe expands, the distance to quasars increases, and so do the chances that a quasar’s light will pass by a massive object and be gravitationally lensed.

Thus the frequency of gravitationally lensed quasars can indicate the expansion speed of the universe.

Ogiri, Inada and their colleagues searched for such quasars in the catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which took detailed observations of giant swaths of the night sky. In a collection of about 100,000 quasars, the researchers identified 50 that were being gravitationally lensed, significantly increasing the known total sample of these objects.

The researchers used their calculation of the frequency of gravitationally lensed quasars to deduce that the universe’s expansion is indeed accelerating.

Cost of aging rising faster than expected: IMF WASHINGTON: People worldwide are living three years longer than expected on average, pushing up the costs of aging by 50 percent, and governments and pension funds are ill prepared, the International Monetary Fund said. Already the cost of caring for aging baby boomers is beginning to strain government budgets, particularly in advanced economies where by 2050 the elderly will match the numbers of workers almost one for one. The IMF study shows that the problem is global and that longevity is a bigger risk than thought.

“If everyone in 2050 lived just three years longer than now expected, in line with the average underestimation of longevity in the past, society would need extra resources equal to 1 to 2 percent of GDP per year,” it said in a study to be released in its World Economic Outlook next week.

For private pension plans in the United States alone, an extra three years of life would add 9.0 percent to liabilities, the IMF said in urging governments and the private sector to prepare now for the risk of longer lifespans.

Demographers for many years have assumed that the lengthening of lifespans would slow in developed countries. But with continual advances in medical technology, that has not happened as acutely as expected. In emerging economies, rising standards of living and the expansion of health care also are adding to lifespans.

To give an idea of how costly this could prove, the IMF estimated that if advanced economies were to plug the shortfall in pension savings of an extra three years immediately, they would have to stash away the equivalent of 50 percent of 2010 GDP, and emerging economies would need 25 percent. These extra costs fall on top of the doubling in total expenses that countries can expect through 2050 from an aging population. The faster countries tackle

the problem, the easier it will be to handle the risk of people living longer, the IMF said. These estimates cover only pensions. They do not account for healthcare costs, which also rise the longer someone lives.

In a December 2009 study, the MacArthur Research Network on Aging estimated that Americans are living between three and eight years longer than commonly expected, adding $3.2 trillion to the Medicare and Social Security, the government-backed healthcare plan for the elderly and pension program.

In North America and advanced Europe, lifespans increased by eight years between 1970 and 2010, and are projected to increase by an additional four years through 2050 -- that’s about five weeks more per year.

At the same time old-age dependency, or the ratio of population over 65 to those in the prime working ages of 15 to 64, is expected to increase from 24 percent to 48 percent of the total population in advanced economies by 2050 -- in other words roughly one worker for every retired person. Emerging Europe has seen lifespans grow more slowly by 1.1 years in the 40 years to 2010 but can expect longevity to rise sharply by 6.8 years in the next 40 years, the IMF said. For emerging economies, their old-age dependency ratios are expected to rise from 13 percent today to 33 percent by 2050.

Steps governments can take to manage the risk of people living longer are to raise the retirement age, increase taxes to fund public pension plans and lower benefits -- all steps most advanced economies are already considering.

They also could help the private sector by educating citizens better on how to prepare for their retirements and by promoting retirement products that protect people against the risk that they outlive their assets. -Reuters

Coral cores

The expedition brought the scientists off the coast of Tahiti to collect fossilized coral cores going back thousands of years.

“Tahiti is located at a sufficiently considerable distance from the major former ice sheets to give us close to the average of sea levels across the globe, as a non-volcanic island it is also subsiding into the ocean at a steady pace that we can easily adjust for,” study researcher Pierre Deschamps, of the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement, said in a statement.

The researchers used radioactive dating and species analysis of the coral samples to reconstruct the rise in sea level over the last deglaciation. Different species of corals live at different depths, so by analyzing the coral makeup in cores and comparing that with the coral’s age, researchers can get an idea of the sea level during those time periods.

“Corals are outstanding archives to reconstruct past sea-level changes as they can be dated to within plus or minus 30 years stretching back thousands of years,” Deschamps said.

They found that the sea level rose about 45 feet (14 meters) in less than 350 years.

To figure out where all that water came from, the researchers compared sea-level rise in Tahiti with previous measurements of sea-level rise for the same time period in Barbados. With the two islands showing similar rises in sea level, the researchers say the water must have come from the Antarctic ice sheet. If the water had come from the Laurentide ice sheet, which covered a large area of North America during the Ice Age (the other main theory), there would have been a sea-level rise of about 40 percent less in Barbados due to its location, the researchers said.

Changing climate

The researchers warn that more research is needed to understand the sequence of events that led to this drastic rise in the seas.

Even so, “insights into past sea-level changes may help to better constrain future changes,” Deschamps said. “Our work sheds light onto an extreme event of rise in global sea levels in which ice-sheet collapse coincided with a rapid warming.”

“Whether the freshwater pulse was a result of an already warming world or helped to warm the climate is currently unclear,” Deschamps said. “However, our finding will help scientists currently modeling future climate-change scenarios to factor in the dynamic behavior of major ice sheets and finally to provide more reliable predictions of ice-sheet responses to a warming climate.”

In mice, drug reverses symptoms of condition linked to autism

Sleep and blood sugar

In the study, researchers conducted blood tests to measure levels of several hormones, including insulin, cortisol (which is associated with stress), and leptin and ghrelin (which are associated with regulating appetite).

They found that the impaired sleep schedule led to a 32 percent reduction in the amount of insulin released in the body after eating. Insulin is a key hormone in the regulation of blood sugar.

A reduction in insulin levels is one explanation for how sleep disruption or deprivation may lead to diabetes, said Lisa Rafalson, a professor of pediatrics and family medicine at the University at Buffalo.

“Chronic, ongoing sleep deprivation that’s thought to act as kind of an injury to the body over time,” Rafalson said.

Elevated stress hormones that keep the body awake can throw off the balance of hormones.”Insulin can’t do its job efficiently, so you end up getting an overabundance of glucose that remains in the bloodstream,” she said.

On the other hand, the new findings cast doubt on another idea - that an increased appetite stemming from sleep loss may also explain the heightened diabetes risk. Researchers have suggested that insufficient sleep leads to higher levels of the hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, and lower levels of leptin, which signals “fullness,” Rafalson said.

But in the new study, researchers did not see these changes in hormone levels.

Collapse of Antarctic ice sheet linked to ancient ‘mega flood’

A handout photo provided on April 12, 2012 by the South African National Sea Rescue Institute shows the carcass of a 14-meter (46-foot) southern right whale that washed ashore in the south coast tourist town of Knysna on April 11, where volunteers were trying to haul it from rocks and back out to sea. A crew from the National Sea Rescue Institute initially though the whale was an overturned ship, spokesman Craig Lambinon said in a statement. The whale washed up on rocks just off the coast on April 11, frustrating efforts to haul it back out to sea. (AFP)

CONNECTICUT: An experimental drug reversed many of the major symptoms of Fragile X syndrome in mice, researchers report according to HealthDay News.

Fragile X syndrome is a leading cause of autism, and its symptoms include developmental delays, hyperactivity, learning and memory difficulties, low IQ, seizures and social and communication deficits.

Prior research suggested that inhibiting mGlu5, a receptor for a neurotransmitter known as glutamate, might help alleviate some symptoms.

In the new study, researchers in Switzerland and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology treated adult mice genetically engineered to have Fragile X syndrome with a compound called CTEP, which inhibits mGlu5.

“We found that even when treatment with CTEP was started in adult mice, it reduced a wide range of [Fragile X] symptoms,” study author Dr. Lothar Lindemann, of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Basel, said in a journal news release.

Symptoms that showed improvement included learning and memory challenges and hypersensitivity to sounds.

Although studies involving animals can be useful, they frequently fail to produce similar results in humans, experts noted. The study’s authors also pointed out that CTEP was not developed for use in people. The findings, however, could help scientists pursue a similar treatment for people with Fragile X. “The most important implications of our study are that many aspects of [Fragile X] are not caused by an irreversible disruption of brain development, and that correction of the altered glutamate signaling can provide widespread therapeutic benefit,” said Mark Bear, of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

16

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

friDAY, april 13, 2012

Start-up firms bloom in wake of Arab Spring DUBAI: Jordanian entrepreneur Majied Qasem waited three years before arranging outside funding for his startup company, d1g.com, an Arabic social media and contentsharing platform. He finally succeeded in September 2011, eight months after Arab Spring uprisings erupted in the region.

The company now has over 35 million page views per month, with growth in traffic stimulated by online debates about a wide range of political and social issues, says Qasem, 40.

Like many entrepreneurs in the Arab world, he believes the region’s political and economic upheaval has helped rather than hurt his business, by creating fresh demand for his products, persuading investors to seek new opportunities, and making governments more sympathetic to the needs of start-ups.

“Investors historically targeted well-established companies that had very low risk and provided high returns. But now, after the Arab Spring, investors are pouring the same amounts of money into multiple smaller companies, betting a few of them will see a remarkable success story,” said Qasem. The economic damage caused by the Arab Spring has not yet faded. Egypt and Tunisia are coping with waves of industrial unrest as they seek to rebuild their tourism industries and lure back foreign investors. Libya is recovering from a civil war, while sectarian unrest still weighs on Bahrain’s economy. In countries such as Jordan, governments have boosted welfare spending to try to buy social peace, undermining their finances.

Arif Naqvi, group chief executive of Abraaj Capital, the Middle East’s largest private equity firm with over $6 billion under management, said one of the most dramatic changes in the region’s economic thinking since the Arab Spring was the realization that smaller firms, not big state-linked ones, would be the engine for growth because they could create more jobs.

“Mohamed Bouazizi wasn’t sending a political message when he set himself on fire. He wanted to work, to live and to survive,” Naqvi added, referring to the Tunisian vegetable seller whose suicide in December 2010 triggered the upheaval in the region.

Technology

A man uses a laptop computer in a mobile phone shop in Tripoli April 2, 2012. Many believe that the region’s political and economic upheaval has helped rather than hurt businesses, by creating fresh demand for products, persuading investors to seek new opportunities, and making governments more sympathetic to the needs of start-ups. (Reuters) Funding

Difficulty in obtaining loans from risk-averse Arab banks, which often focus on serving large clients, has long been a major obstacle to setting up businesses in the region.

Foreign aid donors such as the European Union, the United States and multilateral lending bodies have stepped up efforts to fill this gap since last year.

Mouayed Makhlouf, regional director for the Interna-

tional Finance Corp, a unit of the World Bank, said the IFC had invested $2.2 billion in the Middle East and North Africa since January 2011, becoming a significant source of capital for private firms.

“Back in 2005 we were doing in the range of $300 million in MENA. We’re now allocating more than $2 billion a year,” mainly investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, he said, adding that the IFC saw investment

Afghan amputees a grim signature of more powerful bombs KABUL: Gently massaging the soft flesh under his knees, 20-year-old Abdul Ahmat recalls the suicide bomb six months ago that destroyed his legs.

The former construction worker, in a wheelchair after his legs were amputated, is among a growing number of Afghans severely wounded by bombs that have grown grimly more powerful than ever before in three decades of conflict.

“I stepped onto the street to head to work, when suddenly I became helpless. I knew I had lost my legs,” the father of one said of the attack that killed 13 foreign troops and four Afghans in the capital, Kabul, in October 2011.

Ahmat, who had come to Kabul from relatively peaceful Bamiyan province in search of work, spoke in a Red Cross orthopedic centre, one of the largest in the world and one of seven the humanitarian organization operates in Afghanistan.

The free-of-charge centers log some 6,000 new patients every year, all of them Afghans. Of those, 1,000 are direct victims of war, many grievously wounded by the heightened potency of bombs.

opportunities in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco.

But governments in wealthy Gulf states, seeing unemployment as a potential source of social unrest, are paying more attention to funding smaller firms. Last year, the stateaffiliated Saudi Industrial Development Fund began guaranteeing as much as 80 percent of commercial bank loans to small firms, up from 50 percent previously.

Increased government support is in turn encouraging more private investors within the Middle East to consider funding start-ups, businessmen say.

Abraaj, through its $650 million Riyada Enterprise Development Fund, has invested in 13 SMEs since 2009.

It says the fund screened over 400 companies for possible investment in 2011, roughly four times the number in 2010.

“Large pools of money are being set up to invest in the right venture. More than before, investors believe in the economic, social and financial value of seeding start-ups,” said Fadi Ghandour, founder and chief executive of Dubailisted logistics company Aramex.

“I can’t say that the number of Afghan bomb victims is increasing, but the power of the blasts certainly is,” said Alberto Cairo, an Italian physiotherapist in charge of the orthopedic centers. He started his work in Kabul in 1990.

Bombs have changed over the course of the war, experts say, evolving from crude affairs using cheap explosives packed with nails and other bits of metal into relatively more sophisticated devices using fertilizers imported from Pakistan.

Military officials, who did not wish to be identified, said the Taliban are now increasing the chance of infection among victims by covering bombs with urine, feces or blood, leading to an increased likelihood of amputation.

No statistics exist for Afghan amputees, but the victims of more powerful bombs are yet another example of civilians who have borne the brunt of a war becoming even more dangerous as foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.

Civilian deaths in Afghanistan were up for a

A disabled Afghan woman exercises with her prosthetic leg at the Orthopedic Center of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul April 11, 2012. (Reuters)

fifth straight year in 2011, according to the United Nations, with more than 3,000 killed last year alone.

The vast majority were killed by insurgents.

In its report, the United Nations said bombs - also known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - planted on roads and increasingly deadly suicide attacks that targeted civilians killed more people than any other form of attack.

“It is really devastating what bombs can now do. In the past we had a few double amputee patients, now we see quite a lot,” Cairo told Reuters as he tended to a middle-aged IED victim trying out a new pair of prosthetic legs.

The difference between old and new bombs in the orthopedic centre is stark: most of the onelegged men are grey-haired and wearing turbans, many victims of Soviet mines during the war with Moscow in the 1980s.

T-shirt clad younger patients, such as one man in his twenties who lost both legs above the knees in December’s suicide attack, appear to have suffered graver injuries.

Almost all of the Kabul centre’s 323 members of staff are themselves disabled from war or disease, something which the Red Cross says helps boost patient morale. Other patients include children suffering from congenital diseases.

The Kabul centre also has an on-site factory, where disabled workers turn out custom-made artificial legs and arms from individual moulds.

Civilians are not the only victims of increasingly powerful bombs that are also believed responsible for more amputations among US troops.

NATO forces fighting the Taliban say IEDs are the insurgents’ deadliest weapon. Those who disarm the bombs are considered to have the most dangerous jobs in the increasingly unpopular war, which has dragged into its eleventh year.

Last year a record number of American soldiers needed amputations, with the number reaching 20 a month, outpacing even the most violent years of the war in Iraq, US reports say.

Smaller IEDs are also being made, again usually from fertilizer smuggled from Pakistan, aimed at passers-by.

For 11-year-old Norzia, the fear of IEDs is very real. The daughter of a shepherd was hit by a Soviet-era landmine when tending to her family’s sheep in eastern Wardak province.

Her pretty face framed by a colorful hijab, she gingerly walked on artificial legs towards her physiotherapist, who guided her with a slight limp.

“I want our government to stop the war in our country, I want the Taliban to stop planting roadside bombs. This is what can happen,” she said.

-Reuters

Some entrepreneurs think the Arab Spring is creating business opportunities for them by refocusing the attention of governments on mass living standards and social welfare.

Other firms think they will benefit because the government will get out of their way. Tunisia’s revolution has removed the grip of businessmen close to former ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from the economy, says Ridha Charfeddine, founder of Unimed, a group of pharmaceutical laboratories in the country.

“Generally speaking, now that the rules of the game are clear, everybody is equal and has their chance,” he said, adding that deals and tenders involving the government had become more transparent.

Partly as a result, he said, Unimed’s revenues grew at a double-digit rate last year. The company obtained a fresh investment from Abraaj Capital and investment firm Proparco in April 2011 to support its expansion. -Reuters

Salman Rushdie reveals details of new memoir

LONDON: Salman Rushdie is drawing the title of his new memoir from the alias he was forced to adopt during the decade he spent in hiding, Joseph Anton, reports The Guardian.

After the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie on 14 February 1989, sentencing him to death because his novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ was accused of being “against Islam, the Prophet and the Qu’ran”, the author went underground, living under police protection for almost 10 years. Asked to choose an alias for police to call him by, Rushdie plucked a name from the combination of the first names of two writers he loved: Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.

“I made it the title of the book because it always felt very strange to be asked to give up my name, I was always uncomfortable about it, and I thought it might help dramatize, for the reader, the deep strangeness and discomfort of those years,” said Rushdie.

Joseph Anton, out on 18 September, will tell of the years the author spent in hiding. “He talks about the sometimes grim, sometimes comic realities of living with armed policemen, and of the close bonds he formed with his protectors; of

his struggle for support and understanding from governments, intelligence chiefs, publishers, journalists, and fellow writers; and of how he regained his freedom,” said his publisher Random House. “How do a writer and his family live with the threat of murder for over nine years? How does he go on working? How does he fall in and out of love? How does despair shape his thoughts and actions, how and why does he stumble, how does he learn to fight back?”

Four years ago Rushdie received an apology in the high court from the author and publisher of a book about the time he spent under police protection, for false claims including that the author was locked in a room by his protection officers, with whom his relationship was claimed to be unfriendly. He has since been working with archivists at Emory University in Atlanta, where a collection of his papers is housed, to tell the story himself.

His publisher called Joseph Anton a book of “exceptional frankness and honesty, compelling, provocative, moving, and of vital importance. Because what happened to Salman Rushdie was the first act of a drama that is still unfolding somewhere in the world every day.”

Oxford University, Vatican libraries to digitize works

LONDON: The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV) said on Thursday they intended to digitize 1.5 million pages of ancient texts and make them freely available online. The libraries said the digitized collections will centre on three subject areas: Greek manuscripts, 15th-century printed books and Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books.

The areas have been chosen for the strength of the collections in both libraries and their importance for scholarship in their respective fields.

With approximately two-thirds of the material coming from the BAV and the remainder from the Bodleian, the digitization effort will also benefit scholars by uniting virtually materials that have been dispersed between the collections for centuries.

“Transforming these ancient texts and images into digital form helps

transcend the limitations of time and space which have in the past restricted access to knowledge,” Bodley’s librarian Sarah Thomas said.

“Scholars will be able to interrogate these documents in fresh approaches as a result of their online availability.”

The initiative has been made possible by a 2 million pound award from the Polonsky Foundation.

“The service to humanity which the Vatican Library has accomplished over almost six centuries, by preserving its cultural treasures and making them available to readers, finds here a new avenue which confirms and amplifies its universal vocation through the use of new tools, thanks to the generosity of the Polonsky Foundation and to the sharing of expertise with the Bodleian Libraries,” Holy See Librarian Cardinal Raffaele Farina said. -Reuters

Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is seen as it is hung for display at Sotheby’s Auction Rooms in London, Thursday, April 12, 2012. The picture made with pastels is one of four versions of the composition, and dates from 1895, it will be auctioned in the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in New York on May 2, with an estimated price of 80 million dollars. (AP)

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: R.I.P. (Feat. Tinie Tempah) Artist: Rita Ora Album: R.I.P. - Single Genre: Pop/R&B In short: Rita Ora is Jay-Z’s new prodigy, he’s been with her helping her promote herself and her music on different radio stations around the US. “R.I.P.” is a slick piece of R&B-tinged pop, and its sample of the best part of Nneka’s “Heartbeat” elevates the song to new heights.

To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.com E-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz Marc Anthony files for divorce from Jennifer Lopez

friDAY, april 13, 2012

Axl Rose declines induction into Rock Hall NEW YORK: The acrimony that helped dissolve Guns N’ Roses nearly 20 years ago still lingers.

Axl Rose announced Wednesday that he won’t be showing up to see the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and declined the honor for himself.

In a letter to the hall, band fans and “To Whom It May Concern,” Rose listed several reasons for not attending Saturday’s ceremony in Cleveland, including a feeling that the hall does not respect him.

In declining his own induction, he added: “I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia and please know that no one is authorized nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf.”

The hall said in a statement that it still plans to induct Rose with the rest of the group. “We are sorry he will not be able to accept his induction in person,” it said.

According to the rock hall only the Sex Pistols have declined induction before.

Although Rose now fronts a reconstituted version of Guns N’ Roses that does not include former members Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan or Steven Adler, some held out hope that the band might reunite at the hall.

Even Slash seemed to leave an opening

FILE - Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses perform during the DeLeon Tequila with Nur Khan Electric Sessions Presents The DeLeon Rock Lounge featuring Guns N’ Roses at the Hiro Ballroom at The Maritime Hotel on Feb.16, 2012 in New York City. (AFP)

for the possibility. “I have no idea what’s going to happen on that day,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press last month.

“It’s more like going into it with blinders on

and just see what happens.”

But Rose apparently was miffed by such talk. “There’s a seemingly endless amount of revisionism and fantasies out there for the

First lady plugs her ‘Joining Forces’ on Colbert

Marc Anthony has made his breakup from Jennifer Lopez official by filing for divorce months after the superstar couple announced their separation. The Latin crooner filed his petition Monday in Los Angeles. He cited irreconcilable differences but did not put additional details of the split, including the date he and Lopez separated, in the filing. The former couple announced they were ending their marriage in June after seven years. They have twin children together, and Anthony is seeking joint custody. The pair had been a highprofile couple and maintained a business relationship even after their announcement, appearing in the reality television series “Q’Viva!” and promoting it together. -AP

At 90 years young, Betty White joins Twitter Betty White has just raised the average age of the Twitter community considerably. The “Golden Girls” icon, who turned 90 years young in January, launched her official Twitter account Tuesday, offering an adoring public a glimpse into the still-spry actress’ fertile mind, 140 characters at a time. The actress’s maiden tweet was a typical bit of witticism (or is that White-icism?) designed to enchant and delight the masses.

“Hello Twitter! And they said it would never happen. Oh wait, that was me,” White cracked. White’s second tweet, about 45 minutes later, was more mercenary than whimsical, consisting of a plug for her geriatric hidden-camera show, “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.” “My new show ‘Betty White’s Off Their Rockers’ airs 8 PM tomorrow on NBC... I’m new at this... ;),” White wrote. -Reuters

Marley to stream on Facebook while in theaters The Bob Marley documentary “Marley” will stream on Facebook simultaneously during its theatrical opening, a signal that social media may also play a role in shifting movie release windows. Such day-and-date releases have become increasingly common in recent years for smaller independent films. But this will be the first such US film to stream concurrently on the social media behemoth while opening in theaters. The film, directed by Kevin Macdonald, will be available for a $6.99 rental beginning April 20th. A portion of the proceeds from Facebook sales will benefit Save the Children, the charity for needy children. -AP

ABC renews General Hospital not Revolution

In this photo provided by Comedy Central, first lady Michelle Obama laughs with Stephen Colbert during her appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” in New York on Wednesday April 11, 2012. (AP)

WASHINGTON: First lady Michelle Obama appeared Wednesday on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” to plug the anniversary of her “Joining Forces” initiative designed to honor US troops and their families, particularly by helping find employment for veterans returning from war.

“We have seen people hiring our veterans and finding wonderful flexible opportunities for spouses because employment is a key issue for these families,” Mrs. Obama said of the program she began with Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife.

Noting that unemployment for returning veterans is above the national average, she told host Stephen Colbert, “We’re seeing it decrease at some pretty significant rates.”

“But until we get it to zero, we still have a lot of work to do. ...These people are bringing in skills that actually improve the bottom line of companies because these are some of the most highly trained, highly skilled, disciplined people that we have in our society, the best this country has to offer. So we all need to do our part.”

Colbert suggested that hiring a vet, who will have war stories to tell, “will really make the interoffice complaining sound trivial” and will be good for office morale. “It’s hard to be a whiner around a veteran,” Mrs. Obama agreed. Colbert also said he was doing his part by training a Marine to do a pundit’s job, teaching his student: “You are an expert at everything. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. You have an opinion, and that opinion is the right one.” -AP

sake of self-promotion and business opportunities masking the actual realities,” he wrote.

He added: “So let sleeping dogs lie or lying dogs sleep or whatever. Time to move on. People get divorced. Life doesn’t owe you your own personal happy ending especially at another’s, or in this case several others’, expense.”

A rep for Slash said he would still attend Saturday but had no further comment. Green Day is scheduled to induct the group.

Rose admitted that when it was first announced that the band would be inducted, he had mixed feelings. But “I was honored, excited and hoped that somehow this would be a good thing. Of course, if Guns N’ Roses were to be inducted it’d be somewhat of a complicated or awkward situation.”

Rose’s announcement cast a cloud over the band’s induction but in some ways was fitting, given the dysfunction that marked the group as it became one of the world’s most popular acts in the 1980s and 1990s. Its hits included “Welcome to the Jungle,” ‘’Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “November Rain.”

Besides Guns N’ Roses, the inductees will include the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the late singer/songwriter Laura Nyro, Donovan, and The Small Faces/The Faces, which included Rod Stewart and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. -AP

Police say no crime occurred in Houston’s death BEVERLY HILLS: Police have closed their investigation into Whitney Houston’s death without finding any evidence to suggest it was anything than an accidental drowning, investigators announced Wednesday.

The Beverly Hills Police Department did not release a detailed report on the case, but Lt. Mark Rosen said the conclusion came after detectives reviewed the complete findings of the coroner’s office. Coroner’s officials ruled Houston drowned accidentally at the Beverly Hilton on Feb. 11 and that heart disease and cocaine use contributed to her death.

Beverly Hills authorities also released a minute-long 911 call made by a hotel worker who summoned police and paramedics to Houston’s suite at the hotel. The call revealed few details, other than that people in the Grammy-winning singer’s room repeatedly hung up on hotel personnel after discovering Houston in a bathtub.

The dispatcher had asked to be patched into the room to deliver lifesaving instructions, but the security worker said that wasn’t possible. He said a woman who notified the hotel that Houston was unresponsive was “irate” and didn’t provide many details.

Rosen re-iterated condolences to Houston’s family and friends in a brief statement.

Houston’s death on the eve of the Grammy Awards stunned the world. The singer had been attempting a comeback and had finished work on a remake of the film “Sparkle” when she drowned.

Toxicology results showed cocaine throughout her body, and coroner’s officials said the results indicated chronic use. In the bathroom, investigators found a small spoon described by investigators as having a “crystal-like substance” in it, and they discovered a white powdery substance in a drawer, a coroner’s report released last week showed.

Houston had a history of drug abuse which marred her career, robbing her of her voice and reputation, but family and friends described her as intent on returning to glory in the months before her death. -AP

Comedian Jim Gaffigan supports Woodruff Foundation

It looks like ABC is not ready to totally give up on the soap opera genre. The network has renewed its one remaining soap, “General Hospital,” meaning it will be around for its 50th anniversary on April 1, 2013. The lifestyle show “The Revolution” is not so lucky. It has been cancelled and will air its final episode in July. Cutting “The Revolution” makes room for Katie Couric’s talk show to premiere in September. The news was first announced by the website Deadline Hollywood. -AP

Singer Jimmy Buffet added to the Jazz Fest lineup Jimmy Buffett will replace Pearl Jam singer and guitarist Eddie Vedder in the May 3 lineup at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.Vedder canceled when he postponed his 15city US solo tour because of nerve damage in his right arm stemming from a back injury earlier this year. Buffett is a Jazz Fest veteran who has built an empire based largely on such Caribbean-flavored rock hits as “ Margaritaville.” He first performed at Jazz fest in 1989. This time, Buffett will leave his rock band behind and sing and play acoustic guitar with Mac McAnally, a Mississippi native named the Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year for the past four years in a row.

Jazz Fest spans two weekends, April 27-29 and May 3-6. -AP

Minaj ousts Madonna from top of Billboard chart Rapper Nicki Minaj shot straight to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with her sophomore album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” usurping the crown from Madonna, who suffered the biggest second week sales drop in chart history. Sales for Madonna’s 12th studio album “MDNA” fell a staggering 86.7 percent to just 48,000 copies sold this week, dropping from No. 1 to No. 8 on the chart.

The percentage drop in “MDNA” sales trumps Lady Gaga’s 2011 album “Born This Way,” which fell from 1.1 million copies in its opening week to 174,000 in week two, an 84 percent decline. -Reuters

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In this April 4, 2012 photo, comedian Jim Gaffigan poses for a portrait in New York. (AP)

NEW YORK: Comedian Jim Gaffigan isn’t hoping a few laughs will help returning war veterans, he’s banking on it.

His new 75-minute stand-up special, “Mr. Universe,” is available through a $5 download on his website, and Gaffigan is donating $1 from each sale to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which has supported more than 1 million veterans, service members and their families since 2008.

Woodruff was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in 2006 while covering the war in Iraq for ABC News. His foundation supports war veterans who are returning to civilian life.

“He’s been very deeply moved by what needs to be done to further this mission of ours and our foundation,” Woodruff said of Gaffigan during a phone interview before leaving on assignment for ABC News in North Korea.

“We ask these men and women to serve and protect our country and then they come back and are sometimes forgotten,” said Gaffigan, who met Woodruff last year when he performed at the foundation’s Stand Up for Heroes event in New York.

According to Woodruff, advances in technology have limited physical injuries and death when compared with previous wars, but he added: “A huge number, as compared to previous wars, have been injured by invisible wounds. So that’s the one that’s still to a large degree is not really well understood.”

Woodruff, who suffers from a traumatic brain injury, counts himself among the latter group. He suffered head and brain injuries and spent 36 days in a medically induced coma, but returned to the job 13 months later. “It was a hell of a lot of fun,” Woodruff joked. As for starting the foundation, Woodruff says he wanted to help military members and their families because they fall through the cracks. -AP

FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2006, file photo, musician Whitney Houston arrives at the 17th Carousel of Hope Ball benefiting the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Beverly Hills, California. (AP)

Actor, pioneer of Mexican telenovela, dies at 78 MEXICO CITY: Mexican television and movie actor Julio Aleman, who starred in the first telenovela ever produced in the country, died Wednesday. He was 78.

Aleman had been fighting lung cancer since early 2000 and was admitted to a Mexico City hospital on Monday with an infection, according to Televisa, his broadcast employer.

Considered a pioneer in the telenovela industry, Aleman also starred in movies and served as a state representative.

His last telenovela was produced only two years ago.

He had six children and married three times, including twice with the same woman. He is survived by nine grandchildren.

Aleman was born on Nov. 29, 1933, in the western Mexican city of Morelia. -AP

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ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012

If you have an event you wish to include, please email: aroundtown@alwatandaily.com

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

Women as global leaders: Creating a sustainable future for the world

KUWAIT: The American University of Kuwait (AUK) selected five female students to attend the 4th “Women as Global Leaders” conference at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. The event was sponsored by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak. This year’s conference theme “Creating a Sustainable Future for the World” focused on social, environmental, and economic aspects that would lead to a sustainable future.

Throughout the conference, reputable guest speakers gave speeches on leadership, climate change, women’s role in society, etc. The delivered speeches were aimed at motivating young women to contribute positively to the development of their communities. H.E. Raja Al Gurg, Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, and one of the guest speakers said, “An empowered woman is the best catalyst to promote a sustainable future.” Being mothers, sisters, daughters, employees, or employers, women play a major role in shaping the future of the world.

Another distinguished speaker, Sigourney Weaver, winning actress and environmentalist mentioned that women are 14 times more vulnerable to climate change than men. She urged women to seek education and compete to obtain decision making positions. According to Zeinab Badawi-BBC TV personality, one thing that makes women better leaders is their passion, Indicating that passion is a sign of a successful leader and not a weakness.

Dalaa Al-Qahtan, a senior at AUK studying Computer Science was inspired by one of the panelists saying, “one speaker whom I won’t forget was Her Excellency Noura Al-Kaabi the head of TwoFour54 Tawasol and human development, who prior to that was an IT support manager at Zayed Military Hospital, the things

Month a t

she said were extremely motivating coming from another tech major, seeing that there is a future for female computer scientists/engineers in the Arab world especially it being a male dominated field.”

One of the most rewarding aspects of this conference was having the opportunity to network with prominent women as well as female students from all around the world.

Lujain Abu Zaid, an accounting and finance student at AUK said, “Observing Women coming from conservative backgrounds that fight for their rights wanting to leave their own fingerprint makes us wonder of the great power that lies within every women.”

The conference was a great experience for the AUK delegation, allowing the students to learn about women around the world, and obtain a deeper understanding of leadership education.

Sudoku

Elementary

Advanced

Intermediate

General A n n o u n c e m e n t s

a glance

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.

Golden era club April 13/ 5 p.m. -7 p.m. /Rumaithiya: Join the Golden Era club for a fascinating Earth Day activity. Come armed with old newspapers, a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue. You also get to join Dr. Leos on a fascinating journey through a jewel nestled in central Europe, ranking high in human development. Seniors (60+) don’t miss out on the adventure! Venue- House #34, next to Abu-Tammam Intermediate School for Boys, Sate Alhusari St., Block 2, Rumaithiya. For details call 97172788/ 66208183 or drop a line to goldenera60@yahoo.com

K’S PATH’s last Shelter Open Day April 14/ 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. / Wafra: This is a great opportunity for visitors to interact and socialize with our dogs and cats for adoption, get acquainted with K’S PATH’s work in animal welfare and habitat protection through a shelter tour, and meet K’S PATH’s growing team of volunteers and staff. We will also hold an educational session for children on Kuwait’s desert and marine species followed by a crafts session to build a model desert and marine habitat.

April 15-26/ 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. / Gallery Tilal: Abdul Rasool Salman’s rhythms are mundane encounters of beauty that sprouted from the ego and surrounding events, creating emotions which dissolved into aesthetic visual messages.

Arabic course

Waist Watchers

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.

Every Tuesday/ 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. / British Ladies Society: Meetings are based on the world’s most successful healthy eating plan. Weekly meetings include private weigh in, motivational talks, recipes to try, and cooking demonstrations.

Fee of KD 2.500 is required to cover for the cost of course material. For more info contact; Danielle desertdanny@hotmail.com.

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.

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

Mario is a gentle and affectionate 6-years-young Spitz male. This friendly boy does great with people and dogs of all ages.

Art exhibition

Brainbang session

Bread baking course

K’S PATH invites applicants for the adoption of pets

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

Career matters couldn’t be going better right now, Aries, especially if you’re in one of the communication fields, including writing, publishing, teaching, the Internet, or mass media. Your financial situation is probably improving very quickly, and you’re making contact with congenial, intriguing people who share your interests.You’re also becoming more aware of the changes going on in the world.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Have you been planning a trip by air,Taurus, perhaps to a distant place associated with a specific spiritual tradition? Warm places like Egypt, Mexico, or Israel could be especially appealing now. You could be going with a group of friends. If you haven’t been considering such a journey, think about it. You might receive some surprising insights and revelations from such a trip. Start planning it now. Go for it!

Gemini: May 21- June 21

Some vivid, inspiring, and intense dreams or visions could come your way today, Gemini. They could involve paranormal figures, such as angels. Make sure you keep a record of them, as your higher self is trying to tell you something. Make a list of all the images you can remember and analyze what these images symbolize to you.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Love and romance should be flying high for you now, Cancer. If you’re single, you could soon form an incredible relationship. If you’re already involved, the spiritual and emotional bonds between you and your beloved should grow by leaps and bounds.The lines of communication are wide open. Make use of them and you may find the kind of love of which most people can only dream.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

You should be feeling physically strong, healthy, and energetic today, Leo, although you could also be a little lightheaded. You could experience the sensation of wandering around in a daze with your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds. Achieving balance won’t be easy, but you should be able to manage it today. Concentrate on activities that involve spiritual or imaginative faculties today.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

In future years, you might remember today as one of the best days of your life,Virgo. Romance should be going beautifully. You could exchange deeply felt words of love with your partner. The future looks bright, and you should be full of enthusiastic plans for pursuing what you really want to do.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

Happiness reigns in the home as friends and family members gather for a long-awaited reunion, Libra.

Or you could be hosting a gathering of friends and acquaintances interested in the arts or psychic or metaphysical matters. Discussions should be intense but fascinating nonetheless. A young visitor could come up with some unexpected insights and revelations that blow everybody away.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

Group activities, perhaps with a social, ecological, or humanitarian focus, could take place today somewhere in your neighborhood, Scorpio. You might decide to attend with your romantic partner.

You could encounter some friends in the process, and all of you could well be caught up in the excitement generated by those in the spotlight. Listen well and think about what you learn today.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

Your values could undergo a complete turnaround today, Sagittarius. Recent developments in the world, your community, among your circle of friends, and within you could make you realize, like it or not, you and everyone around you is going through a transformation. This might be a little disconcerting, but it’s a positive development.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

Spiritual and psychic matters come to the forefront today. You could be greatly inspired to express yourself creatively. You could also be quite surprised at the wisdom you find within yourself. A gathering of friends, perhaps for the purpose of discussing metaphysical subjects, could bring this to your attention so blatantly that it becomes hard to ignore. Don’t cling to the shore. Flow with the current.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

Are you contemplating a move of some kind,Aquarius? Perhaps you’re thinking about relocating to be closer to members of a group with which you’re affiliated. You might also be considering a move to a community where spiritual and metaphysical values are not only discussed but also lived. Make a list of your options, if that helps.

You’re in a transitional period right now. You need to be practical.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

Communication with friends, siblings, and neighbors should be open, congenial, and supportive today, Pisces. A gathering could open the door to new friendships, interesting discussions, and other group activities that you might enjoy. The only downside could involve mental overload.

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012

Basketball

Rondo carries road-weary Celtics to win over Hawks

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Lakers manhandle Spurs behind Bynum’s 30 rebounds SAN ANTONIO: Andrew Bynum had 16 points and 30 rebounds, the most in an NBA game this season, and the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t need Kobe Bryant to blow out the San Antonio Spurs 98-84 Wednesday night.

Metta World Peace scored 26 points and the Lakers, playing their third straight game without the injured Bryant, manhandled the Spurs underneath to hand the West’s second-place team one of their most embarrassing losses this season.

Bryant is sitting out to heal his sore left shin. There remains no timetable on when the NBA’s leading scorer might return. Bynum’s dominating night surpassed the previous NBA season-high of 25 rebounds, set twice by Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Milwaukee’s Ersan Ilyasova. Danny Green led the Spurs with 22 points.

Pau Gasol added 21 points and 11 re-

bounds for the Lakers, who are now 2-1 without Bryant. Two nights after barely squeaking past lowly New Orleans, the Lakers played far livelier this time without their superstar. World Peace scored a season-high while shooting 10 of 15 from the field, including 5 of 8 from behind the 3-point arc.

Los Angeles has seven games left and are in third place in the West, 4 1/2 games behind the Spurs for second place. San Antonio remained just a game out of first despite the loss since Oklahoma City also lost Wednesday night.

After winning 11 in a row, the Spurs have now lost consecutive games for the first time since January. Falling in Utah on Monday night was hardly shocking: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili didn’t even make the trip that night in coach Gregg Popovich’s pursuit to keep his stars fresh as possible for the playoffs.

But the Big Three were back for the Lakers, and few saw this coming - especially with Bryant sidelined in a suit.

Parker and Ginobili might as well have taken another night off. Parker scored four on 2 of 12 shooting and Ginobili scored 9. Duncan had 14 points and just two rebounds.

So unstoppable was Bynum under the basket that by the end of the third quarter, the 7-footer already had matched Howard and Ilyasova for the season’s single-game mark. Bynum tapped missed shots to himself with ease over the undersized Spurs frontcourt, and nearly singlehandedly outrebounded the entire Spurs lineup combined.

San Antonio finished with 32 rebounds. It’s the second time the Spurs have been beaten up on the boards: One of Howard’s 25-rebound nights was also against San Antonio. -AP

Knicks hold off Bucks to boost playoff hopes Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo (9) drives against Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeff Teague (0) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Boston on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. (AP)

BOSTON: An early morning return after an emotional win in Miami, followed by an overtime victory against a well-rested Atlanta team.

Paul Pierce overcame a miserable shooting game with a key jumper in overtime and Rajon Rondo finished with a triple-double with 20 assists, 10 points and 10 rebounds to lift the surging Celtics to an 88-86 win over the Hawks on Wednesday night. Coming off an eight-point win over the Heat one night earlier and facing the Hawks, who hadn’t played since winning Saturday night, the Celtics knew how tired they were.

Garnett had 22 points and grabbed 12 boards before fouling out with just under 3 minutes left in OT, and Brandon Bass, who also hit a jumper in OT, scored 21 points. It was Rondo’s 19th straight game with double digits in assists.

Bass and Pierce hit jumpers, giving Boston an 8884 lead early in the OT, but the Hawks sliced it to a one possession game on Kirk Hinrich’s open jumper.

The teams traded turnovers over the next 2 minutes - with the Hawks’ Smith getting picked cleanly by

Pierce with 30 seconds to play, but the Celtics’ captain was called for an offensive foul on the other end with 10.1 seconds to go. Smith front-rimmed a 3 and Boston gained possession after a battle for the rebound went out of bounds off a Hawks’ player in front of Boston’s bench with 1.3 seconds left.

Boston inbounded the ball to Rondo, who fired it in the air as the horn sounded. Pierce, just 6 of 19 from the floor, raised his arms in triumph. In a back and forth fourth quarter during which the teams traded the lead five times, Boston went up 82-81 on Garnett’s jumper from the top of the key with 1:26 to go, but Zaza Pachulia hit one of two free throws on the Hawks’ next possession, tying it with 74 seconds left.

Bass then hit a short jumper in the lane and the Hawks’ tied it again on Johnson’s jumper with 47 seconds to play. Pierce, who struggled from the floor all night, missed a 3 but Garnett grabbed the rebound. After Boston’s time-out, Garnett was forced to take a long fadeaway that missed the rim badly and the 24-second shot expired during a scramble for the rebound. -AP

Formula one

Race still on unless pulled by Bahrain: Ecclestone

NEW YORK: The New York Knicks held off the Milwaukee Bucks 111-107, boosting their NBA post-season hopes with a victory over their closest pursuers in the playoff race. Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 32 points. Tyson Chandler added 19 and J.R. Smith delivered the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:04 to play. The Knicks improved to 30-28, and moved two games ahead of Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with eight games remaining.

The Knicks are one game behind seventh-placed Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference and four games behind Boston in the Atlantic Division.

Both the 76ers and the Celtics won on Wednesday -- Philadelphia beating Toronto 93-75 and the Celtics edging Atlanta 88-86 in over-time.

The Knicks have a difficult remaining schedule that includes home games against Miami, Boston and the Los Angeles Clippers as well as a road game in Atlanta. Philadelphia have just three games left against teams with winning records, but the 76ers end the season on a fivegame road trip.

Chandler said the Knicks wouldn’t worry about what the 76ers, Celtics or Bucks are doing as the lockout-shortened regular season hurtles to a close.

“It’s all about us, honestly,” Chandler said. “I don’t really care about what other teams are doing because it’s all about how we’re playing and how we go into the playoffs.

“Obviously, we want a chance at our division. We want to get a high seed. But to me it ultimately comes down to how you’re playing when you get in.”

Monta Ellis had 35 points and 10 assists for Milwaukee. Brandon Jennings added 22 points and Mike Dunleavy chipped in 19, but the Bucks couldn’t hold on to an eight-point fourth-quarter advantage. -AFP

New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony (left) goes up for a basket against Milwaukee Bucks’ Mike Dunleavy during their NBA basketball game in Milwaukee, April 11, 2012. (Reuters)

Tennis

Serena Williams on US Fed Cup team; Venus is not F1 boss Britain’s Bernie Ecclestone, (center) waves as he walks into the F1 paddock on his arrival at the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai, China, April 12, 2012. (AP)

SHANGHAI, China: Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone said Thursday that the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead next week as scheduled - unless national authorities decide to cancel the race.

Pressure has been growing for the April 22 race to be canceled for the second straight year because of ongoing clashes between security forces and antigovernment protesters. The crackdown has left at least 50 people dead. Ecclestone, however, said ahead of the Chinese GP that there had been no change of plans.

“The race is on the calendar. Unless it gets withdrawn by the national sporting authority in the country, we will be there,” he said. Ecclestone plans to meet with the F1 teams on Friday for discussions, but stressed that wouldn’t change the situation.

“I don’t see any difference between here (China) and Bahrain,” Ecclestone said. “It’s the same. It’s another race on the calendar.”

Bahrain’s Sunni leaders and race organizers remain committed to going ahead as a way of showing the divided Persian Gulf island nation is moving past the strife of the past year.

Bahrain’s circuit chairman said earlier this week that extremist groups are using “scare-mongering tactics” to make the unrest seem worse than it is to force the cancellation of the race.

Last year, Bahrain organizers canceled the race after an attempt to reschedule it by motor sport’s world governing body (FIA) was criticized by rights groups, F1 teams and fans.

Amid the ongoing turmoil in the country, human rights groups have criticized the race being reinstated

this year. Protesters have galvanized supporters by incorporating anti-F1 chants in their marches, putting anti-F1 posters on walls and criticizing Ecclestone and F1 drivers in online posts.

Amnesty International is also planning to release a report next week on the eve of the race detailing the numbers of protesters in Bahraini jails and the human rights violations that it says are still being committed by security forces.

Many drivers avoided talking about the situation on Thursday. When six of them were asked at a news conference whether they had any moral problems with competing in Bahrain, all six sat completely still and didn’t say a word. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel also deflected questions about the race.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who is coming off a victory at the Malaysian GP last month, said any decision is out of the drivers’ hands. “I think we need to trust the FIA in which the people that have all the information,’’ he said. ‘’As personal point of view, the sport is made to help some kinds of these situations. If doing the race, the sport can help the people there, that can be a good thing - we will be good to go. If it is the opposite, if the sport can be a problem, so it is no good to go. We will accept any decision.”

Webber was asked if he thought the country would be safe for drivers, officials and workers.

“We need to trust the people making the decision that they know how these people are going to operate,’’ he said. ‘’That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day. You and I don’t know. And that’s what we’re going to find out.” -AP

NEW YORK: Serena Williams is on the US Fed Cup roster for matches against Ukraine on April 21-22, but her sister Venus is not. “She just played Miami and Charleston, so she’s trying to gauge now her recovery, how much she can play,” US Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez said Wednesday about Venus. “She’s, I believe, planning on playing a couple of tournaments now before the French Open.”

Venus recently returned to action after being sidelined for more than six months.

She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, Sjogren’s syndrome. Joining Serena, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, on the team picked by Fernandez were Christina McHale, Sloane Stephens, and Liezel Huber. The best-of-five-match series will be on clay at Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The country that wins will be promoted into the main Fed Cup group in 2013 and be able to compete for the title. The loser will drop into World Group II. Serena Williams is making her second

consecutive Fed Cup appearance after winning twice against Belarus in February to improve to 6-0 in singles play in the team competition. “For me, obviously it’s a big bonus to have someone like Serena there, not only in terms of (how) your chances increase tremendously, but the effect she has on the rest of the team, what she brings to the table with motivation, the work ethic, how she talks to the players,” Fernandez said. “I think it really just is priceless.” -AP

Spain’s Lopez wins Houston debut

HOUSTON: Feliciano Lopez, ranked 15th in the world, won his Houston debut on Wednesday, beating Paolo Lorenzi 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP Tour US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Lopez, seeded third, belted 13 aces past Italy’s Lorenzi to secure the victory in one hour and 56 minutes.

Lopez is seeking to win back-to-back matches for just the second time this year.

He reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

His next opponent is sixth-seeded Argentinian Carlos Berlocq, who became the first player to reach the last eight with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory over Germany’s Bjorn Phau. The last three first-round matches were also on Wednesday’s slate, with South African fifth seed Kevin Anderson advancing with a 6-3,, 6-4 victory over Brazilian Joao Souza.

Anderson, ranked 33rd in the world and winner of the title at Delray Beach last month, broke Souza five times en

route to the victory. US teenager Ryan Harrison pulled off the upset of the day, downing seventh-seeded Russian Alex Bogomolov jnr 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Harrison fired 13 aces and saved nine of the 11 break points he faced. American Bobby Reynolds withstood a barrage of 19 aces from eighth-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic en route to a 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-3 victory.

Karlovic won the Houston title without dropping a set in 2007 and reached the semi-finals last year, but he couldn’t find a way past the 116th-ranked Reynolds. Reynolds earned a second-round clash with defending champion Ryan Sweeting.

The top two seeds in the $442,500 tournament, Americans Mardy Fish and John Isner, were scheduled to open their campaigns on Thursday with second-round matches.

Fish takes on US qualifier Michael Russell.

Isner, who won both of his singles matches to lead the United States to a Davis Cup triumph in France at the weekend, faces Argentinian qualifier Horacio Zeballos. -AFP

Sports Editors Highlight

SPORTS

friday, april 13, 2012

SHANGHAI: French striker Nicolas Anelka will become a “player-coach” at Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua, the club said onThursday while insisting French head coach Jean Tigana remained on board. In a statement, Shenhua named Anelka as playercoach and said the shake-up of coaching staff followed a failure by the club to live up to expectations and problems with the quality of training. The former Arsenal and Chelsea player, the most high-profile foreign footballer to sign for the Chinese league, joined Shenhua in January amid hopes he could boost performances at the club, which finished in the bottom half of the table last season. Anelka, who is also team captain, said the change in coaching staff marked a “new beginning” for the team. -AFP

Football

Ronaldo-led Real eyeing La Liga record MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired La Liga leaders Real Madrid will have Spain’s 22year goal-scoring record in their sights when they host relegation-threatened Sporting Gijon on Saturday.

Real restored their four-point lead over Barcelona on Wednesday when Ronaldo netted his seventh treble of the campaign in a 4-1 rout of Atletico Madrid to become the first player to notch 40 goals in two consecutive seasons in Europe’s top four leagues.

The Portuguese and his team mates have amassed 104 goals in 32 La Liga games and three more would equal the record Real set in the 1989-90 season under Welsh coach John Toshack.

With six games left they are closing in on a first domestic league title in four years, although with Barca on a run of 10 straight wins and Real’s trip to the Nou Camp looming on April 21 the destination of the crown is by no means a foregone conclusion. Ronaldo’s spectacular form - he has also provided 11 assists in the league - has been the principle reason Real are closer than ever to ending Barca’s threeyear grip on the title and he is brimming with confidence for the run-in.

“I always believe in myself, knowing that from one moment to the next I can do impor-

tant things,” said the former Manchester United forward who joined Real for a record fee in 2009. “We are very confident and we have our fate in our own hands which is crucial for the final stages of the season,” he told reporters.

Barca have their own record-breaker in World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, who scored his 39th league goal of the campaign in Tuesday’s 4-0 win at home to Getafe, his 61st in all competitions compared to 52 for Ronaldo.

Pep Guardiola’s side visit fifth-placed Levante in Saturday’s late kickoff and could find themselves seven points behind Real by then.

“We have to focus on what will be one of the toughest games we have left away from home,” said Guardiola.

Barca have trimmed their deficit by six points in three weeks following the Madrid club’s draws against Malaga, Villarreal and Valencia and probably have a slightly easier run-in as well as home advantage in the ‘Clasico’. If the two teams finish level on points the title will be decided on head-to-head record.

“From here on all the matches are like finals,” said Barca forward Pedro who has recently rediscovered his scoring touch after returning from injury. “We have managed our goal of cutting the gap but it’s still going to be tough to knock off the points that divide us.” -Reuters

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (left) vies for the ball with Atletico Madrid’s Portuguese midfielder Tiago Mendes during a Spanish league football match, April 11, 2012. (AFP)

Wenger hails reliant Robin after Wolves trashing LONDON: Arsene Wenger paid tribute to Robin van Persie after the Arsenal striker equaled Ian Wright’s Premier League record for scoring against the most teams in a 38-game season.

Van Persie’s early penalty in Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Wolves meant he has now scored against 17

international failed to net against.

Andy Cole and Alan Shearer have also managed to score against 17 separate teams in a league campaign, but when the Premier League comprised of 22 teams.

“To achieve this in the modern game is remark-

FILE - Arsenal’s Dutch striker Robin van Persie runs with the ball during the English Premier League football match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park in Liverpool, March 21, 2012. (AFP)

of Arenal’s 19 league opponents this season, having only failed to find the net against Fulham and Manchester City, Only Gunners great Wright has previously managed such a feat, with Sunderland and Manchester United the only sides the former England

able, I would like to congratulate him. You only have 19 teams to score against so for your striker to have scored against 17 teams is something sensational,” Wenger said. “He could have beaten it if he had scored against Manchester City on Sunday but he hit the post twice.”

Van Persie’s penalty arrived after Sebastien Bassong had been red carded for a professional foul on Theo Walcott, who added a second just two minutes later before Yossi Benayoun rounded off the win in the second half.

It was a ninth win from their last 10 in the league for Wenger’s side, who strengthened their hopes of qualifying outright for next season’s UEFA Champions League.

With just five games of the season remaining, they now enjoy a five-point cushion between themselves and fourth-placed Tottenham, who are beginning to look locked in a three-way battle with Newcastle and Chelsea for the final spot in Europe’s elite competition.

“We had a strong start and that made the difference,” Wenger added. “We played a bit with the handbrake on but they defended deeply with a great spirit. I am very happy we are in this position in third but I remain cautious as some teams were in that position before. From where we have come back from helps us to be focused.”

Bottom side Wolves have now lost seven successive games and are nine points adrift of safety, but Connor is refusing to give up hope.

“There is a chance. If the lads play with the heart, spirit and determination they did here, I can’t ask for any more.”

Meanwhile, Wenger has revealed his surprise that Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli has not been subjected to retrospective action for his stamp on Alex Song in Sunday’s match, while Shaun Derry’s seemingly soft dismissal against Manchester United on the same weekend has been allowed to stand. “I’m not looking to get Balotelli suspended but it is difficult to understand.” -AFP

Juve wary of Mutu as top meets bottom

MILAN: Juve, Italy’s most successful club, beat Lazio 2-1 on Wednesday to go a point clear of AC Milan with six games remaining as the Turin outfit seek a first scudetto since their 2006 match-fixing demotion.

That traumatic event also led Juve to let Romanian Mutu join Fiorentina despite a decent season with the Bianconeri and his career has taken a turn for the worse since. Disciplinary and doping problems meant he left Florence for Cesena last June but his eight goals, including a superb strike in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Genoa, have not stopped The Seahorses occupying last place, 15 points from safety.

They will go down on Sunday if they lose at home to Juve and surprise strugglers Genoa get at least a point at Milan on Saturday but coach Mario Beretta is banking on former Chelsea forward Mutu.

Juve look set to be without centre back Leonardo Bonucci because of a broken nose as the defence try to shackle Mutu but the sight of the Romanian will remind Antonio Conte’s team how far they have come since the dark days of 2006. Few Juve fans expected a full-on assault on the Serie A title this term after two seasons of woe but the arrival of hard-nosed former midfielder Conte as coach and the patchy form of other sides has opened the door to a scudetto challenge.

To everyone’s surprise, they are unbeaten in the league and are flying high thanks in part to midfielder Andrea Pirlo rediscovering the form he showed in his best years at Milan. Juve defender Giorgio Chiellini knows a sixth straight win is not a foregone conclusion at Cesena.

Champions Milan come up against a Genoa side who had ambitions of Europe in August but now lie two points above the drop zone despite boasting ex-Milan striker Alberto Gilardino. Milan forward Antonio Cassano will again hope for a run out as he gets back to full fitness after five months out following a heart problem, with a spot in Italy’s Euro 2012 squad in mind. A number of injuries could give Cassano his chance. Lazio travel to second-bottom Novara on Sunday while AS Roma in fifth host struggling Fiorentina and sixth-placed Napoli, in awful form, go to third-bottom Lecce. -AFP

Dortmund cool title talk, despite beating Bayern Home comfort BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp has insisted his team have won nothing yet, even though their 1-0 win over Bayern Munich has left them six points clear at the top of the German league. Dortmund are on course to win a second consecutive Bundesliga title after Poland striker Robert Lewandowski’s second-half strike on Wednesday left secondplaced Bayern six points behind with four games left.

“We remain in the lead, but we won be celebrating in any case,” insisted Klopp, whose team face Schalke, Moenchengladbach, bottom side Kaiserslautern and Freiburg on their league run in.

Bayern face Mainz, Bremen, Stuttgart and Cologne in their last four league games and disappointed Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge virtually waved the white flag.

Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski (center) celebrates with his team mates after scoring during the German Bundesliga first division soccer match against VfL Wolfsburg, April 7, 2012.

(Reuters)

After Dortmund secured their fourth straight victory over Bayern, only a disaster will prevent Borussia celebrating another German league title when the season finishes on May 5.

Lewandowski’s 77th-minute winner at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park stadium was his 20th goal of the season, but there was drama in the dying stages as Bayern’s Arjen Robben had a penalty saved four minutes from time.

The Dutch star then fired over with the goal at his mercy, while at the other end, Lewandowski hit the crossbar just before the final whistle.

“That was thrilling at the end, the last few minutes were unbelievable,” said Klopp. “Hats off to my team, you can’t play much better than that. I think the victory was highly deserved, I am very happy. Now the next step is against our

friends in Gelsenkirchen.”

It was Dortmund’s 24 consecutive game without defeat - their last Bundesliga loss coming last September against Hanover - and Dortmund’s fourth straight win over the Bavarians, who will meet them again in the German Cup final on May 12.

Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes must now rebuild his players’ morale quickly as they face Real Madrid next Tuesday in the Champions League semi-final, first-leg, and before that host Mainz on Saturday in the Bundesliga.

“The first half went to Borussia Dortmund, but after the break, the tide turned,” said Heynckes. “Arjen Robben then had two great opportunities to put us level, but things like that happen in football. “Dortmund hold all the cards now.” -AFP

can clinch title says Ferguson

ENGLAND: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes his team’s home form will be key in deciding whether they can secure a 20th title.

United lost ground in the title race on Wednesday with a 1-0 defeat at Wigan and Manchester City’s 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion seeing their lead cut to five points.

The champions’ lead could be reduced to two points when City travel to Norwich on Saturday, 24 hours before United entertain Aston Villa at Old Trafford. United also host Everton and Swansea before the end of the season and must travel to City in the third last game of the season.

After seeing his team’s eight-match winning run ended at the DW Stadium Ferguson thinks those home dates will be key in closing out the title.

“It’s been a great run and put us in a position where we can win the league,” Ferguson said. “We were well behind City a couple of months ago, they were 5/1 on and ahead on goal difference and points, so we have to take some credit for getting back in the race. It’s important to win our home games now. We’ll improve from this performance, I’m sure of that. We wish our lead was better but considering where we were a couple of months ago we have to accept that somewhere along the line you will drop points. I said that weeks ago.

“We pointed it out to the players that Wigan were under-rated and in a false position. They were outstanding at Chelsea and dominated at Liverpool so we were under no illusions what a difficult game it was going to be but we just didn’t cope with it.”

Ferguson will also have a concern over Phil Jones, who limped through the closing stages of the game at Wigan, with United already having made their three substitutions.

Shaun Maloney scored the only goal at the DW Stadium, curling in from the edge of the area just after half-time to give Wigan their first-ever points against United at the 14th attempt.

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez dismissed specu-

lation that he will leave the club as a free agent this summer.

It had been claimed that Martinez had not signed an agreed contract extension, following his rejection of Aston Villa, last summer and that his agreement with the Latics would expire this summer.

Martinez insists there is no foundation in the rumor and claims he still has two years left on his contract but admits that the rumors had been damaging. -AFP

Manchester United’s Phil Jones (right) reacts at the final whistle after their 1-0 defeat in the English Premier League football match between Wigan Athletic and Manchester United, April 11, 2012. (AFP)