April 14, 2012

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1404

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150 Fils with IHT

Government, Minority to face Majority bloc

Draft law pushed by Minority bloc in coordination with government for Kuwait a one-constituency system Mohammad Al-Salman & Mohammad Al-Khaldi Staff Writer

KUWAIT: In pursuance of a policy of balancing matters up within the National Assembly, the Minority bloc MPs began coordinating with the government to introduce a new draft law related to amending the existing constituency system to curtail the monopoly of some groups and their influence in the Parliament.

Sources close to the minority MPs revealed to Al Watan that the Minority bloc

believes that the way the Parliament is structured at the moment strongly indicates that it does not represent the electoral constituencies; especially now that the government has forsaken the idea to have its own Majority bloc within the rank and file of the MPs. Meanwhile, the majority MPs seem to have the upper hand when it comes to decision and the government appears powerless.

Sources went on to say that the current structure of the parliament appears “incorrect” and that the government has

come to the conclusion that the situation as it is can be dangerous and therefore it seeks to adopt a firmer stance against the majority MPs. The government has therefore sanctioned direct contacts with the Minority bloc MPs and expressed its initial approval to the idea of adopting a one constituency system.

According to the sources, the issue of amending the existing constituency system with an eye on adopting a one system would certainly put the Majority bloc MPs in a very critical situation. The majority of MPs would find it extremely dif-

ficult to resist and reject the idea because it would fight off corruption and implement reform. On the other hand, the majority bloc MPs see that the five constituency system has granted the opportunity to become members of parliament.

Sources affirmed that the issue of amending the existing constituency system has become a priority for both the minority MPs and the government.

Sources acknowledged however that the issue is not finalized yet as some argue that perhaps bringing in the old system of 10-constituency would be more

Egypt Islamists rally against ex-regime candidates

appropriate.

Sources further confirmed that there are some Majority bloc MPs who have expressed their support for the one constituency system because they fear that they may lose their seat in the next election.

Meanwhile, some in the Minority bloc have expressed their willingness to table a parliamentary interpellation but their colleagues have advised them otherwise saying that the timing is not yet appropriate for such a move. There is a fear that the Minority bloc MPs would appear in the eyes of the public as a source of foment-

ing crisis. MPs Mohammad Al-Juwaihel, Hussein Al-Qallaf, Saleh Ashour have declared their intention to bring certain ministers to the podium.

On the other hand, ministerial sources have disclosed to Al Watan that the parliamentary structure is seen as a burden by the state in terms of cost and laws.

Sources explained that some of the laws are fully endorsed by the government as they would implement justice and equality to all citizens but many other laws are frowned upon because they will add further burden to the state budget.

Sheikh Ahmad elected head of national Olympic body

• Million-man march aimed to ‘Protect the revolution’ • Demonstrators chant ‘no to former regime’

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist movement supporters take part in a demonstration in the capital’s landmark Tahrir Square in Cairo on April 13, 2012 under the slogan “protect the revolution,” demanding that former regime members be barred from public office. (AFP)

Guinea-Bissau president, PM held after coup

GUINEA-BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau’s president and prime minister were in army custody on Friday after troops staged an apparent coup just two weeks ahead of a presidential run-off vote in the chronically unstable west African country. A bodyguard of interim president Raimundo Pereira said soldiers arrested him at his home during the putsch on Thursday and took him to an “unknown destination.”

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior – tipped to win the ballot set for April 29 - was also arrested and whisked away in a pickup truck, his wife Salome told AFP earlier.

The army said however that it has “no ambition for power” in the troubled country of 1.6 million people, following an earlier statement that it acted in response to an alleged “secret deal” between Guinea-Bissau and Angola, which has 200 troops in the country ostensibly to help More on 3 reform the military.

CAIRO: Egyptians marched from mosques and protested in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday in a show of strength by Islamists, demanding the country’s ruling generals bar Hosni Mubarak’s former spy chief and other ousted regime officials from running in upcoming presidential elections.

The rally was the first major demonstration in Egypt in months and was a turnaround for the Islamists, who had abandoned street protests, particularly after they gained domination of parliament in elections late last year, and pursued a strategy of coexistence with the military even during violence army crackdowns on pro-democracy activists.

But the struggle for power has heated up with the approach of next month’s presidential vote, in which Islamists see their chance to capture Egypt’s highest post. In response, one of the most powerful members of Mubarak’s inner circle - former intelligence chief and vice president Omar Suleiman - has entered to the race, proclaiming he wants to prevent Islamist rule Friday’s rally, organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafi movement, further underlined the difficult situation of Egypt’s libMore on 2 erals and leftists.

F1 chiefs give green light to Bahrain GP

MOSCOW: Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad AlSabah head of the Olympic Council of Asia, was voted in as president of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) at the opening of its general assembly in Moscow on Friday. Asia’s top Olympic official was elected as head of the global body of national Olympic committees, taking over after longtime chief

Mario Vazquez Rana resigned amid political infighting. Sheikh Ahmad replaces Mario Vazquez Rana, the Mexican media mogul who quit last month after heading ANOC for more than 30 years. ANOC represents the world’s 204 national Olympic bodies.

Al-Fahad, the only candidate has led the Asian Olympic body since 1991. More on 7

Syrian protesters test fragile truce, at least 5 killed

North Korea rocket launch fails

PYONGYANG: North Korea’s heralded long-range rocket test ended in failure Friday, disintegrating in mid-air soon after blast-off and plunging into the sea in a major embarrassment for the reclusive state. The defiant launch drew condemnation from world leaders who described it as a “provocative” act that threatened regional security, despite Pyongyang insisting it was intended to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.

Some four hours after the rocket exploded over the Yellow Sea, the North admitted the satellite had failed to enter orbit, and that “scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure”. The United States and its allies slammed the exercise as a disguised ballistic missile test that contravened United Nations resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests.

“North Korea is only further isolating itself by engaging in provocative acts, and is wasting its money on weapons and propaganda displays while the North Korean people go hungry,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

He said the launch “violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments”, under which Pyongyang had agreed to suspend its nuclear and missile tests in return for US food aid.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the launch as “deplorable”, saying it “defies the firm and unanimous stance of the international community”.

The European Union joined governments in Japan and South Korea in condemning Friday’s move as a provocation that undermined peace and security in the volatile Korean peninsula and the wider region. -AFP

India protests film star Shah Rukh Khan’s detention at US airport

Ousted Tunisian strongman’s kin says ready to face justice

Yemeni worshipers hold their sun umbrellas as they listen to the Friday prayers sermon in the southern city of Aden on April 13, 2012. Aden has been plagued by violence since last May that Al-Qaeda-linked militants overran several towns in neighboring Abyan province. Despite the loss of an estimated 152 men in four days of fighting in and around Loder in Abyan province, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is still engaging Yemeni soldiers and local tribesmen in fierce firefights. (AFP)

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ANOC Interim President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and Russia’s Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin during the session of ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees ) 2012 in Moscow, on April 13, 2012. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: The exiled brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali regrets his role in the dictatorship and is prepared to face justice at home, news reports said Friday, quoting an open letter. “I have written this letter to apologize, even if I know that in the eyes of many Tunisians, if not all of them, I am unfairly considered a criminal who looted the country before fleeing abroad,” wrote Belhassen Trabelsi, thought to have headed a clan that embezzled government funds.

“If I made mistakes I am prepared to offer an account and appear before the courts, even if I never had the intention of harming my country or my people,” said the brother of Ben Ali’s despised wife Leila. In the letter, authenticated by his lawyer, “citizen Belhassen Trabelsi” says he invested his fortune in the north African country, creating around 4,000 jobs.

Trabelsi, who has been in Montreal since fleeing the uprising in January 2011, faces a review of his immigration status in Canada on April 23. The Tunisian authorities have asked Ottawa to arrest him. -AFP

A protester shouts slogans as others wave Syrian opposition flags during a demonstration organized by Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon, against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad and to express solidarity with Syria’s anti-government protesters, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

BEIRUT: A Syria ceasefire was largely holding Friday as tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets in the first major test of the UN brokered truce. Activists said regime forces fired live bullets and tear gas in some locations, killing at least five people, but stood back in other areas where demonstrators beat drums and chanted antiregime slogans.

President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces halted the large-scale shelling attacks on opposition strongholds that have pushed the country toward civil war over the past 13 months.

But security forces backed by tanks, snipers and plainclothes agents maintained an intimidating presence in the streets and scattered violence was More on 2 reported.

1000 year old rare language under threat in Straits of Hormuz

FRANCE: Home to 4,000 people and overlooking the strategic Straits of Hormuz that Iran has threatened to close, Kumzar village has a thousand year-old language of its own that no one else on earth understands. Nestled on the northernmost tip of Oman’s Musandam peninsula and hidden by spectacular mountains that plunge into the Gulf’s aquamarine waters, tiny Kumzar is a simple fishing village that is a haven for dolphins and teems with marine life.

But with the arrival of television and the Internet not many years ago, its people are very much aware of the growing speculation that their lives could be shaken by a war involving

Iran, which lies just 50 kilometers away.

These same outside influences are also threatening the survival of the ancient Kumzari language, a mix of Indo-European languages and Arabic, remarkable in that it is the only non-Semitic language spoken on the Arabian Peninsula in the past 1,400 years.

For centuries, Kumzaris have had front row seats to history. They have witnessed and even assisted invading armies of the world’s great empires that have sought control of the Straits, a chokepoint crucial to global marine trade and through which most of the world’s seaborne oil More on 10 passes today.

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Syrian protesters test fragile truce, at least six killed BEIRUT: Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country Friday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance. But a UN-brokered truce largely held up without the widespread, bloody offensives that have pushed the nation toward civil war.

Activists said security forces killed at least six people, a lower-than-usual toll. The rallies, described as some of the largest in months, stretched from the suburbs of Damascus to the central province of Hama, Idlib in the north and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising began in March 2011.

The protests might have been far larger had President Bashar Assad’s regime not violated a key aspect of the truce by keeping troops, tanks and snipers in population centers instead of pulling them back to barracks. The presence of plainclothes agents of the feared Mukhabarat security service also had a chilling effect on some of the gatherings in Damascus, the capital, and elsewhere.

The demonstrations were a critical test of the cease-fire, which went into effect at dawn Thursday, because they challenged the government’s commitment to avoid the kind of attacks that have made Syria one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Arab Spring revolts.

Regime forces tried to block protesters from occupying main squares out of fear they will form a sit-in akin to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of people camped out for days in an extraordinary scene that drove longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak from power.

Many world leaders expressed doubt that the truce would endure in a country where 9,000 people have been killed during the 13-month uprising, according to UN figures.

A team of UN observers was on standby to fly into Syria and monitor the truce, but the mission still needed approval from the Security Council. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters the text was more complicated than he expected and that more negotiations would be needed, but he said his government also wanted to act quickly to get observers on the ground.

Demonstrators protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad after Friday prayers in Kafranbel, near Idlib April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

Russia has been one of Syria’s strongest allies, shielding Assad from international condemnation at the UN out of fear that it would open the door to possible NATO airstrikes like those which helped topple Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi.

Iran, powers set for high-stakes nuclear talks ISTANBUL: Iran and six world powers prepared on Friday for rare talks aimed at easing fears that a deepening dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program could plunge the Middle East into a new war.

Senior officials from Iran and the big powers arrived in Istanbul ahead of Saturday’s bid to restart stalled diplomacy after months of soaring tension and persistent speculation that Israel might bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

The meeting is widely seen as a chance for the countries involved - the United States, France, Russia, China, Britain and Germany - and Iran to halt a downward diplomatic spiral and to seek ways out of years of deadlock.

Western diplomats have expressed cautious optimism that Iran, which has seen its economically vital oil exports squeezed by increasingly tough sanctions, may finally be ready to discuss curbs to its nuclear program to relieve the pressure.

But Iran’s English-language state television, Press TV, cited sources close to Iran’s delegation as saying Tehran saw “few encouraging points” in the remarks of US and European officials. It did not elaborate.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability and Israel - believed to be the only Middle East state with an atomic arsenal - has hinted at pre-emptive military strikes to prevent its foe from obtaining such arms.

Iran, which has promised to put forward “new initiatives” in Istanbul, says its nuclear program is peaceful and has repeatedly ruled out suspending it.

Diplomats and analysts played down any expectations of a major breakthrough in the meeting, but said it might pave the ground for further negotiations to resolve the decade-long row.

Western officials have made clear

their immediate priority is to convince Tehran to cease the higher-grade uranium enrichment it began in 2010. It has since expanded that work, shortening the time it would need for any weapons “breakout”.

Iran has signaled some flexibility over halting its enrichment to a fissile purity of 20 percent - compared with the 5 percent level required for nuclear power plants but also suggests it is not ready to do so yet.

The talks “will begin a very complex negotiation, and for several months diplomacy will take some pressure off oil prices and help keep the chance of Israeli strikes very low,” said Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East analyst at the Eurasia Group.

But in the end, Kupchan said, renewed diplomacy is unlikely to yield a resolution to the crisis, which has helped push global oil prices higher this year.

If Iran were to accept scaling back its uranium enrichment program, it would probably expect to be rewarded with a relaxation of sanctions, for example the lifting of an EU oil embargo due to take effect in less than three months time.

But one Western official appeared to dismiss this. “That decision is taken. We would expect the oil embargo to come into force on July 1 and it would be a surprise if Iran did something that merited moving on that.”

Iran’s deputy negotiator Ali Baqeri held separate talks with senior Chinese and Russian officials in Istanbul, and the six powers met internally to coordinate tactics. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman headed the US delegation.

Quoted by Iran’s official news agency IRNA, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said there was still no concrete proof Iran’s nuclear work had a military dimension. -Reuters

President Barack Obama has ramped up US aid, including communications equipment and medical supplies, to Syria’s opposition in hopes of accelerating Assad’s downfall of Assad, officials said Friday.

Islamists rally in Cairo against ex-regime candidates CAIRO: Thousands of Egyptians protested in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday against a run for the presidency by former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, making an Islamist show of strength against a symbol of Hosni Mubarak’s old guard.

The Muslim Brotherhood - the biggest group in parliament - called the protest after Suleiman announced his candidacy last week. His presidential bid has alarmed reformists, who regard him as a threat to their hopes for democratic change.

“Suleiman, do you think this is the old days?” chanted the protesters gathered in the square, the cradle of the uprising where Egyptians last year united to sweep Mubarak from power but which on Friday was mostly filled by Islamists alone. Others boycotted, reflecting deep divisions in the reform movement.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters waved the group’s green flag and the red, white and black Egyptian national colors. “The people demand the fall of the regime!” they chanted, a slogan heard during the anti-Mubarak revolt. They also sang the national anthem and chanted “Down, down with military rule”.

Several thousand Islamists protested in the northern coastal city of Alexandria. “I reject any replication of the old regime,” said Taher Ismail, 42, one of the protesters.

Banners in Tahrir Square showed Suleiman and Mubarak alongside the Star of David, depicting both as agents of Israel - a perception stemming from policies that included Egypt’s role in enforcing a blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Suleiman played a major role in managing a Middle East policy which became the focus of ever sharper public criticism during Mubarak’s last years in power, long after Egypt under his predecessor Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979.

The council of army generals that has been running Egypt since Mubarak was deposed is due to hand power to an elected president on July 1. The vote, Egypt’s first real presidential election, is due to get under way on May 23 and will likely go to a run-off in June between the top two candidates.

Frontrunners include the Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat al-Shater, ultra-orthodox Salafi sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, ex-Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, and Ahmed Shafiq, who served as prime minister in Mubarak’s last days in power.

People chant during a protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

The Islamist-dominated parliament on Thursday passed legislation that would stop both Suleiman and Shafiq from running on the grounds they served in top posts under Mubarak. However, analysts doubt the law will be enacted by the ruling generals, setting the stage for more tension.

Mubarak appointed Suleiman as his vice president in his last days in power. Suleiman, 74, publicly engaged the Brotherhood and other opposition forces during a failed effort to quell the uprising last year.

An army general, he is closely associated with the security policy of a state that kept the Islamists on a tight leash, maintaining an official ban on the Brotherhood and deploying heavy force against more radical Islamists who took up arms.

Reformists fear his candidacy represents an army maneuver to keep control of the post held by ex-military men since the monarchy was overthrown in 1952 - an assertion denied by both the military and Suleiman.

Shater, the Brotherhood candidate, has de-

Yemen: Military kills 28 Al-Qaeda militants Yemen: The Yemeni Defense Ministry said military troops and armed civilians killed 28 AlQaeda-linked militants in battles on Friday in the southern part of the country.

The fighting is the latest in a series of bloody confrontations between government forces and militants in southern Yemen where militants con-

A soldier riding at the back of a pickup truck mans a weapon as soldiers secure a street, where barricades are being dismantled in Sanaa April 10, 2012.

(Reuters)

The president signed off on the package last week, US officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. They declined to outline all forms of American assistance because of the danger anti-Assad protesters have faced over the last year.

Despite the hitches in the cease-fire plan, Syrians poured into the streets Friday. A particularly large protest of many thousands was reported in the sprawling Damascus suburb of Douma, where the regime conducted sweeping arrest raids in the days before the truce.

“It was an example of what a large peaceful protest can be like when the government does not intervene and fire on people,” said local activist Mohammed Saeed.

But there were violent eruptions, as well, as security forces fired live rounds, tear gas and beat protesters with clubs in some areas.

Activist Adel al-Omari said security forces opened fire at protesters in the southern village of Nawa as they gathered in a central square, killing at least two.

“Once they gathered in the village’s main square they came under fire,” al-Omari said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources on the ground, said the dead also included two marchers who were in a crowd trying to reach the main Assi Square in Hama, an opposition stronghold.

Troops and pro-government militiamen known as shabiha beat protesters chanting anti-government slogans as they tried to leave a mosque in the Damascus neighborhood of Qadam, said the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network. In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, troops fired tear gas at marchers gathering outside the Grand Mosque, the group said.

The LCC put the nationwide death toll at 13 protesters, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six were killed. Late Friday, both groups said explosions and gunfire were heard in districts of the central city of Homs but that it was not immediately clear what was happening.

The regime restricts access of foreign observers, including journalists, making it difficult to verify death tolls and other claims independently. -AP

trol a patchwork of towns taken mostly last year during the country’s political turmoil. The ministry said in a statement that hours of fierce battles drove Al-Qaeda militants from a town called Zara in Abyan province. Two senior Al-Qaeda members were also arrested, the ministry said.

The ministry claims that nearly 200 militants

have been killed in ongoing fighting this week in Abyan including Friday’s violence. The Yemeni army has often been outmaneuvered by the AlQaeda linked militants, forcing local residents to take up arms to defend themselves.

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, known as AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the movement’s most dangerous offshoots.

In the city of Lawder, also in Abyan, armed residents drove Al-Qaeda out in July but the militants have since been trying to regain their foothold in the town, which has a population of about 30,000.

Al-Qaeda has become the de facto government in the towns they control, and in some places appear to be implementing a harsh version of Islamic law.

The terror group has long had a presence in Yemen, but is trying to take advantage of the chaos over the last year in Yemen to improve its position. Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in February after a year of anti-government protests weakened his grip on power.

Saleh was Washington’s longtime partner in the fight against the terror network’s branch in this impoverished Arab nation. But he was frequently found to be unreliable, turning a blind eye to the growing strength of militant groups as part of an elaborate balancing act to maintain his grip on the fractured nation located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.-AP

scribed Suleiman’s candidacy as an insult to Egyptians who rose up against Mubarak.

However Suleiman does appear to have a constituency among Egyptians alarmed by the rise of Islamists and who see him as the kind of strong man needed to restore stability after a year of political turmoil that has hit the economy hard. There was no sign in the square of the protest groups that led the anti-Mubarak uprising. They oppose the Suleiman presidential bid but are also angry at the Islamists who they say have put the pursuit of power above the goals of the revolution, and they are planning their own protest next Friday.

One youth movement said in a statement they would take part in a protest next Friday. “It is time to abandon the Brotherhood as they abandoned the revolution and the youth,” it said. “The Brotherhood are going down for their own organizational reasons: for the goals of the Brotherhood and not the public,” Ahmed Maher, one of the founders of the April sixth movement that helped ignite the revolt last year, told Reuters. -Reuters

Pakistan to send bin Laden family to Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will deport Osama bin Laden’s three widows and their children to Saudi Arabia next week after they finish a 45-day prison sentence for illegally entering and living in the country, their defense lawyer said Friday. The family has been in detention since American commandos killed bin Laden in a large house in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last May, but they were only convicted on April second. The Americans left the women and children behind in the house after they flew off with bin Laden’s corpse.

The women and children will be deported on April 18, a day after they finish their sentence, said their lawyer Mohammed Amir Khalil.

Two of the women are from Saudi Arabia and one is from Yemen. It was unclear why authorities weren’t sending the Yemeni woman to her home country. There has been uncertainty about whether Saudi Arabia would accept the women. The country stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 because of his verbal attacks against the Saudi royal family. Saudi officials have declined to comment in the past. The women may have information about how bin Laden managed to remain undetected for close to 10 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt. The youngest, 30-year-old Yemeni wife Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah alSada, has told investigators bin Laden lived in five houses while on the run and fathered four children, two of whom were born in Pakistani government hospitals. Pakistani officials have said they had no idea the Al-Qaeda chief was in Abbottabad, something many in Washington found hard to believe because his compound was located close to Pakistan’s equivalent of the West Point military academy. The US has not found evidence indicating senior Pakistani officials knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts, but said he must have had some form of “support network.” -AP

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Spain warns Argentina over seizure of Repsol unit MADRID: Spain on Friday threatened Argentina with retaliation if it nationalized oil major Repsol’s YPF operation, raising the stakes in a long-running row over production at the Argentine unit.

Spain’s secretary of state for EU affairs Inigo Mendez de Vigo warned that Argentina would become “an international pariah” if it were to go through with such plans.

“I think that if it happens, it would be very bad news for everybody, but also for Argentina because in the international community we live in, breaking the rules bears a cost,” he said.

YPF, Argentina’s largest oil and gas company which provides 25 pct of Repsol’s operating profits, has been under fierce state pressure to raise production as costly fuel imports eat into Argentina’s trade surplus.

A proposal by YPF to boost investment to a record 15 billion pesos (3.4 billion US dollars) was rejected as inadequate by the Argentinean government.

Speculation has swirled for weeks that the Argentine government could take or buy a stake in YPF or even nationalize it.

An expected announcement by President Cristina Fernandez failed to materialize on Thursday.

Spain’s foreign minister on Friday summoned Argentina’s ambassador to Madrid to seek clarity on the government’s intentions on YPF and invite the country to return to the negotiating table.

However, other companies and countries have found it difficult to pressure Argentina on similar matters. The South American country has been blocked from issuing international debt since its default a decade ago and has failed to pay compensation awards in disputes involving investors.

In March, US President Barack Obama said he would suspend trade benefits for Argentina because of its non-payment of settlements ordered by a body of the World Bank.

The European Commission said its delegation in Argentina had expressed concerns to the Argentine government over reports of the possible nationalization.

Fernandez nationalized private pension funds and the nation’s flagship airline in 2008.

NEWS IN BRIEF Hungary ruling party backs Ader for president BUDAPEST: The leadership of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party backs Janos Ader, a European Parliament deputy of Fidesz, as the candidate for president of the republic, the national news agency MTI said on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

The post has been vacant since President Pal Schmitt quit early this month after a plagiarism scandal. The leadership of Fidesz, including Prime Minister and party president Viktor Orban, backed Ader’s candidacy at a meeting, according to MTI. Orban will formally name a candidate on Monday to the party’s parliamentary group. Parliament is expected to elect the new president later this month. -Reuters

US stops food aid to N. Korea after missile launch ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: The United States will not go forward with planned food aid to North Korea, the White House said on Friday, after the impoverished nation unsuccessfully tried to launch a long-range missile which Washington had warned would have consequences. “We are not going forward with an agreement to provide them with any assistance,” White House National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama to Florida. -Reuters

Russia backs US nominee to head World Bank

People walk by a YPF gas station, of the Spanish-owned oil and gas group Repsol-YPF, in Buenos Aires, April 12, 2012. (Reuters)

Some media said Fernandez would unveil her plan for YPF on Thursday evening, but she met with the governors of energy-producing provinces privately and made no statement afterwards.

Repsol said in a statement on Friday it had not received any notification from the Argentine government regarding its 57 percent stake in YPF. While some analysts said even a zero evaluation of YPF was already in Repsol’s share

price, the uncertainty that lies ahead was still weighing on shares on Friday, which lost over 2 percent to 17.50 euros by 1330 GMT. YPF’s shares are down about 27 percent since Jan. 1, meaning that Repsol may struggle to get a fair price for any stake, despite the recent discovery of shale oil in the Vaca Muerta area that could potentially double YPF’s output within a decade.

Receiving cash for expropriated assets may also take years and come in below expectations,

as seen by Venezuela’s nationalization payment to Exxon in January..

On the bright side, any money received could be invested in new markets where Repsol has made finds such as Brazil and West Africa.

Repsol, which was previously focused on refining, bought YPF in 1999 for exposure to higher margin upstream oil and gas production, a strategy which failed when Argentine politics led to price controls, putting returns for output well below international levels. -Reuters

Five killed in Macedonia, fear of rising ethnic tension SKOPJE: Police in Macedonia have found the bodies of five people who were shot dead near a lake just outside the capital Skopje, the authorities said on Friday, a grisly discovery that risks fuelling tensions in the ethnically volatile country.

Authorities deployed riot police and the interior minister called for calm as hundreds of residents of the nearby village of Radisani, home to some of the victims, gathered to demand a quick investigation and attacked cars and television crews.

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Local TV stations said the victims were Macedonians and ran pictures of some of them, although police said they had yet to identify the victims or the perpetrators.

Only last month, several people were injured and dozens were arrested in a string of tit-for-tat attacks between youths from Macedonia’s Slavic-speaking majority and ethnic Albanian minority. The timing of the killings - on the eve of Orthodox Good Friday and just two days ahead of Easter - could trigger further unrest in the former Yugoslav republic

of 2 million people.

“We appeal to all citizens and media to restrain from speculations or activities that could stoke ethnic tensions,” Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska told reporters.

At least a quarter of Macedonia’s population is ethnic Albanian, living mainly in the north and west.

Four of the victims were in their late teens and 20s, the ministry said, while the fifth victim was a 40-year-old man. A fisherman found the bodies on the shore of a lake near

Guinea-Bissau prime minister arrested BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau: Soldiers have arrested the prime minister of this tiny nation known for transiting cocaine to Europe, a military spokesman said Friday, the latest instability to roil a coup-prone African country where no leader in nearly 40 years has finished his time in office.

The announcement of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr.’s detention came hours after his home came under attack.

Guinea-Bissau was due to hold a contentious presidential runoff election on April 29, and Gomes was the front-runner.

Portuguese broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa showed a large hole blasted around the front door of the prime minister’s official residence in Bissau and other damage to the house from what it said were rocket-propelled grenades.

In 2009, the country’s longtime leader was assassinated in his home, and his successor died from illness in January before finishing his term, prompting this year’s special election. The timing of Thursday’s power grab was not accidental, said Martin Roberts, a West Africa analyst with IHS Global Insight.

Guinea-Bissau’s land border with neighboring Senegal was closed Friday, and both Portugal and the United States advised their citizens against traveling to the nation of about 1.6 million.

In a communique released Friday in Bissau, an unidentified military commander claimed that Gomes was going to allow troops from Angola, another former Portuguese colony in Africa, to attack military forces in Guinea-Bissau. Roberts said military officials likely feared the Angolans would interfere with cocaine trafficking.

Officially, most of Guinea-Bissau’s earnings come from cashew nuts. But traffickers from Latin America use the nation’s archipelago of uninhabited islands to land small, twin-engine planes loaded with drugs, which are then parceled out and carried north for sale in Europe.

The traffickers, according to analysts, have bought off key members of the government and the military, creating a narcostate.

Minister of defense for Guinea Bissau Baciro Dja responds to questions concerning reports of the coup attempt in Bissau after an an extraordinary session of The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abidjan on April 12, 2012. (AFP)

the village of Smiljkovci, just outside Skopje, late on Thursday.

“On the scene we uncovered bullet casings, trails of blood and all the bodies had visible gunshot wounds,” it said in a statement.

In 2001, fighting broke out between government security forces and ethnic Albanian fighters until Western diplomacy pulled them back from the brink of civil war.

A decade on, tensions persist, fuelled by poverty and the slow pace of integration with the European Union and NATO. -Reuters

Gomes had been favored to win the April 29 runoff after his challenger Kumba Yala, a former president who was overthrown in a 2003 coup, said he would boycott the vote because of irregularities in the first round of balloting.

Military press attache Francelino Cunha told The Associated Press that Gomes had been detained by the military. The whereabouts of the country’s interim president Raimundo Pereira remained unknown.

The Portuguese Foreign Ministry said it “urges the masterminds of the military coup to respect the well-being of the Guinean democratic authorities and free those who have been detained.”

Military officials said they thwarted a coup attempt in December not long before the president’s death. And fears of a military coup have grown since his funeral, when power was handed over to the interim president.

The unidentified military commander claimed that soldiers possessed a “secret document” drawn up by the Guinea-Bissau government mandating Angola to attack Guinea-Bissau’s military. It was impossible to independently verify the claim.

Angola sent about 200 troops to Guinea-Bissau in March 2011 to help reform the country’s armed forces as part of a bilateral military agreement, according to Angolan state news agency Angop. Their mission recently ended but the contingent is still in Bissau, Angop said without providing further details.

Angolan Defense Minister Candido Pereira Van-Dunem said Thursday in Luanda that his country would “continue to provide full support” to Guinea-Bissau, with which Angola has “excellent ties,” Angop reported. He said a calendar for the return of Angolan troops to Luanda was being negotiated with the Bissau authorities.

Guinea-Bissau has weathered successive coups, attempted coups and a civil war since winning independence from Portugal in 1974.

On Thursday night, witnesses said explosions rocked the capital. Shooting started after the state radio station signal inexplicably went dead. Resident Edmond Ajoye, an employee of a Dutch NGO, said he was around three miles (five kilometers) from his home when the shooting began.

“There was panic. Women were running,” he said. “There were rockets being launched, and the soldiers were shooting with guns mounted on their trucks.”

The unrest in Guinea-Bissau takes place only three weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the democratically elected president of Mali, who was about to retire after an April election. The country’s junta leader handed over power to an interim civilian president on Thursday.

Guinea-Bissau’s upheaval presents another dilemma for the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, which is already considering military force to oust rebels who declared independence in northern Mali.

“The commission firmly denounces this latest incursion by the military into politics and unreservedly condemns the irresponsible act, which has once more demonstrated their penchant to maintain Guinea-Bissau as a failed state,” Desire Kadre Ouedraogo, the president of the ECOWAS commission, said in a statement released early Friday. -AP

MOSCOW: Russia will support Jim Yong Kim, the US nominee for the next World Bank head, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday after meeting the candidate, who is in Moscow on his world tour to seek support. “Taking into account Mr. Kim’s considerable professional qualities as well as his experience and knowledge, the Russian Federation will support the candidacy of Jim Yong Kim during the voting by the bank’s board of directors,” the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement. -Reuters

UN can’t be tried for Srebrenica massacre: Dutch court

AMSTERDAM: The Dutch Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the United Nations cannot be prosecuted in the Netherlands for failing to prevent genocide against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica near the end of Bosnia’s war in 1995.

The final ruling was the last legal option in the Netherlands for a group of survivors of the July 1995 massacre, when as many as 8,000 boys and men were killed by Serb forces in an area that the United Nations had declared a “safe haven”.

Lawyers representing a group of 6,000 survivors calling themselves the Mothers of Srebrenica said they would appeal against the decision at the European Court of Human Rights.

“The UN, as the international human rights champion, should not stand above the law but should take responsibility for its role in the Srebrenica genocide in 1995,” a statement issued by the group said.

“This is a violation of fundamental human rights and in contravention of the case law of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ).”

In 2001 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) judged that the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide.

The fall of Srebrenica to Serb forces was the worst single atrocity during the 1992-95 war and the first act of genocide in Europe since the Nazi Holocaust against Jews.

The Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia near the border with Serbia was under the protection of Dutch peacekeeping troops deployed by the United Nations.

“The Supreme Court upholds the opinion of the lower court that the UN has the most farreaching form of immunity and cannot be prosecuted by any national court,” a summary of the ruling said.

Axel Hagedorn, an attorney at theVan Diepen Van der Kroef law firm representing families of the victims, said an appeal would be filed at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg within six months.

“We will argue that the Dutch soldiers and the United nations violated human rights,” he said. “Granting legal immunity to a group claiming to defend human rights is like turning things upside down.”

Inexperienced and outgunned Dutch soldiers were unable to prevent attacking Serb fighters from capturing Srebrenica, separating Bosnian Muslim men from women and busing them off to dozens of execution sites.

Last year, a Dutch appeals court found the Dutch state responsible for the deaths of three victims, opening the way for compensation claims over the failed peacekeeping mission.

Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, indicted by the ICTY near the end of the war for genocide and war crimes over the Srebrenica killings and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, was arrested a year ago after 16 years on the run.

In December, the tribunal accepted a prosecutor’s request to speed up the trial amid fears that Mladic, 69, who has suffered ill health, could die without facing justice as happened with former Yugoslav and Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. -Reuters

news in pics

A tourist wearing Kashmiri traditional attire poses for a photograph being taken by her relative inside Pari Mahal garden during Baisakhi festival in Srinagar April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

ALWATAN DAILY SaturDAY, APRIL 14, 2012

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A Nepalese reveler rings bells on a wooden chariot during celebrations for the Nepalese New Year or “Bisket Jatra” in Bhaktapur, some 12 kilometers east of Kathmandu, on April 13, 2012. The festival, which begins on April 9, is celebrated for nine days by the ethnic Newar community in Bhaktapur. (AFP)

North Korean soldiers stand in formation as they attend the unveiling ceremony for two statues of former leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang on April 13, 2012. (AFP)

A mural decorates the side of a building as a pedestrian walks by in the Little Five Points neighborhood Thursday, April 12, 2012, in Atlanta. The murals, which decorate the sides of buildings throughout the neighborhood, change about every three months. (AP)

Race-goers pose for photographs as they arrive for Ladies’ Day on the second day of the Grand National meeting at Aintree in Liverpool, northern England April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

An Indian potter arranges earthen water pots for drying in the sun at the Kumbharwada potters colony in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai on April 13, 2012. Earthen water pots, locally known as ‘Matkas’, are in great demand as they are widely used across the country to store water during the tropical summer months. (AFP)

This image provided by the San Diego Zoo shows Amur leopards Thursday April 12, 2012, at the zoo in San Diego. This is the first time the Zoo has housed this critically endangered species. (AP)

A visitor looks at a work by South Korean artist Kang Hyung-Koo at China International Gallery Exposition 2012 in Beijing, April 13, 2012. (Reuters)

India’s trade deficit soars on crude import costs

saturdAY, APRIL 14, 2012

BUSINESS

CAPITALS: India’s trade deficit soared to 185 billion US dollars in the last fiscal year, driven by high crude oil import costs, according to preliminary data released on Friday. India’s merchandise exports surpassed the government’s goal of $300 billion in the 12 months to March 31, 2012, as the country reached out to new emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said. But the bad news was that imports in the last fiscal year were $485 billion, with crude oil and petroleum products accounting for nearly a third of the total import bill, Sharma said.

India buys 80 percent of its crude oil from abroad, leaving it at the mercy of global price swings. -AFP

Kuwait posts budget surplus of KD 14.4 billion Holds estimated 101.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, 7% of world’s total

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s budget for the fiscal year (FY) 20112012, shows positive signs during the first ten months ended last January, as the surplus rose up to 14.4 billion Kuwaiti dinars, against a predicted deficit of about KD 6 billion, a specialized economic report showed Friday.

The report, by Kuwait Finance House (KFH) Research, a research subsidiary of KFH, pointed out that Kuwait posted revenues of KD 24.2 billion during the 10 months on the back of higher oil revenues, while spending still remains less than expected, with total spending in the first ten months of KD 9.8 billion, retreating by more than half of the budget allocation of KD 19.4 billion.

“Kuwait’s monthly budget surplus increased by 61.1 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to KD 1.2 billion in January 2012 (Decem-

ber 2011: KD1.6 billion) from KD 0.8 billion in January 2011 which translates to a provisional budget surplus of KD14.4bln in the first ten months of the fiscal year (FY) 2011-12,” reads the report.

In terms of spending, for the first ten months of FY 20112012, budget expenditure totaled to KD 9.8 billion, which is still far below than the initial budget estimate of KD 19.4 billion for FY 2011-2012.

“Kuwait regularly projects a higher expenditure based on its prudent underestimation of oil prices but achieves lower expenditure. Nevertheless, total government expenditure rose by 50.1 percent y-o-y to KD 1.5 billion in January 2012 from KD 1.0 billion in January 2011 as the Kuwait government increased its social spending through direct transfers and hike in pensions and public sector wages, For instance, in March 2012, the Kuwait government announced a large rise in public sector wages while encouraging reduction on food prices. The official announcement suggested the government workers would receive a 25.0

percent hike and pensioners would receive 12.5 percent pension rise,” said the report.

The report expected gross domestic product to remain strong in light of the surplus at an annual rate of 5.4 percent for the current year.

“Kuwait is in a stronger position to attain its fiscal target underpinned by high crude oil prices and increased oil production.

Furthermore, the current international oil prices (100 US dollars per barrel) are well above the Kuwait’s fiscal breakeven average price of $80 pb,” it said.

Kuwait’s crude oil production remained high at 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in March 2012, and expect to bode well throughout 2012 as it begins to produce closer to its estimated capacity of 2.7 million bpd and as new fields come on stream.According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kuwait’s territorial boundaries contained an estimated 101.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, roughly seven percent of the world total. -KUNA

Iran ships ‘off radar’ as Tehran conceals oil sales LONDON: Iran is concealing the destination of its oil sales by disabling tracking systems aboard its tanker fleet, making it difficult to assess how much crude Tehran is exporting as it seeks to counter Western sanctions aimed at cutting its oil revenues.

Most of Iran’s 39-strong fleet of tankers is now “off-radar” after Tehran ordered captains in the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) to switch off the black box transponders that are used in the shipping industry to monitor vessel movements, oil industry, trading and shipping sources said.

“Iran, helped by its customers, is trying to obfuscate as much as possible,” said a senior executive at a national oil company that has done business with Iran. And Iran may have countered a reported reduction in its oil sales in March by offering big discounts in the form of free freight, finance and insurance and generous credit terms, the sources said.

Europe’s July 1 oil embargo, and US and European financial sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program have seen Tehran’s oil sales drop to most Western destinations and drawn promises from some Asian buyers that they will cut purchases.

But cheap, covert sales may have curbed or even reversed the reduction in shipments, the sources say. Discretion is paramount.

Ship captains steering NITC supertankers have switched off recognition systems and customers are keeping business strictly under wraps.

“People are being very secretive right now. They are not talking about this on email, Yahoo or mobile,” said the head of a crude oil desk at a top oil trading houses.

A Reuters’ survey of the Iranian fleet via the ship tracking system Automatic Identification System (AIS) Live shows only seven of its 25 very large crude carriers are still operating on-board transponders, allowing computers to track vessels. Only two of NITC’s nine smaller Suezmax size tankers now have their tracking systems in operation, shipping sources say.

“NITC oil tankers are going to operate in stealth mode,” said a shipping official, who declined to be identified.

Under normal circumstances, tankers would generally not turn off their tracking systems, which were introduced to improve safety at sea and allow marine authorities to locate vessels.

Ships are obliged by international law to have a satellite tracking device on board when travelling at sea. However, a ships’ master has the discretion to turn off the device on safety grounds

Oil falls as China growth lags forecast

Tourist visit the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap province April 13, 2012. Tourism is one of the key currency earners for Cambodia with a reported growth of 5.0 percent in services, Asian Development Bank (ADB) said this week in its outlook. Tourist arrivals picked up by 14.8 percent to 2.9 million in 2011 with arrivals from elsewhere in Asia particularly strong. Growth in tourism benefited the hotels and restaurants, retailing, and transport. (Reuters)

with the permission on the vessel’s flag state.

Some tankers turned off their trackers to avoid detection last year during the Libyan civil war in order to trade with the Gaddafi government. As sanctions make it harder to pay for and ship oil from Iran, it is increasingly difficult to gauge how much is moving out of the country’s main terminal at Kharg Island.

Iran’s Oil Minister, Rostam Qasemi, has said Tehran’s crude exports are steady at last year’s rate of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd). But that has been hard to square with tanker tracker data and market intelligence.

Expert opinion is that Iran’s visible crude oil sales fell to about 1.9 million bpd in March. These calculations are backed by some of the best oil industry forecasters in the business including the International Energy Agency and Geneva-based Petrologistics, the respected tanker tracking consultant which monitors global oil shipments.

New estimates for April put Iranian exports

down by as much as 500,000 bpd from last year.

The trouble is there is no hard evidence that Iran’s oil production has actually fallen or that it is going into storage. Millions of barrels of Iranian oil that were in storage in Iranian tankers a few weeks ago now seem to have disappeared, ship tracking data shows.

So where is it going? Has it been re-routed, has production been shut in or is the oil being stored somewhere else? Is it all being stored at sea? “It’s the million-dollar question - the billiondollar question even,” a senior executive in Asia at a large oil trading house said.

The hunt is getting more complicated as the second biggest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) comes up with a range of tactics to avoid scrutiny.

“Some big Asian companies may be taking oil on Iranian ships provided they switch off the transponders,” said another European shipping industry source. -Reuters

NEW YORK: Oil prices fell on Friday and headed for a weekly loss after data showed No. 2 oil consumer China’s economy grew at its weakest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter, reinforcing concerns about slowing demand for petroleum. A stronger dollar and a slip in US consumer confidence in April added pressure on oil prices and equities on Wall Street and key industrial feedstock copper also were weighed down by the slip in Chinese economic growth.

Caution ahead of talks between Iran and five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany about Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and news of falling North Sea oil production were expected to limit losses heading into the weekend. “The Chinese numbers were a little bit disappointing ... (but) we’re not heading into a new substantial downward trend,” said Tony Machacek, an oil futures broker at Jefferies Bache Ltd. “There’s still quite a few geopolitical issues knocking about.”

Expiring May Brent crude fell 65 US cents to $121.06 a barrel by 10:44 a.m.

EDT (1444 GMT), having traded from $120.77 to $121.88. Brent crude for June delivery fell 84 cents to $120.68 a barrel.

US May crude fell 64 cents to $103, having traded from $102.61 to $103.90.

A finish below $103.31 is necessary to avoid posting a weekly loss.

In more news, the Middle East crude market stayed weak on Friday, with poor demand from Asian refiners weighing on prices. At least one cargo of Al-Shaheen crude for June lifting was sold by Maersk at around $1.00 to $1.50 a barrel, down from around $2.40 to $2.50 for May parcels, traders said.

Sentiment also soured after top producer Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali AlNaimi said it was determined to bring down high oil prices and was working with fellow members of the Organization of Petroluem Exporting Countries (OPEC) to accomplish that. -Reuters

China’s Q1 growth slowest in nearly three years CAPITALS: China said on Friday its economy grew by 8.1 percent in the first three months of 2012, its slowest pace in nearly three years, but analysts forecast a pick-up in the second half of 2012. The figure was well below the 8.9 percent growth recorded in the last quarter of 2011 and marked the fifth consecutive quarterly slowdown, piling further pressure on Beijing to loosen its monetary policy.

However, analysts predicted the world’s second-largest economy would avoid a hard landing, with growth expected to rebound towards the end of the year as Europe’s economic outlook brightens and existing loosening measures kick in.

“Green shoots have sprung up in many sectors, convincing us that the current slowdown looks more and more like a slow consolidation, rather than a precipitous downturn like we saw in 2008-09,” said Xianfang Ren, economist with IHS Global Insight. The first quarter “might turn out to be the weakest quarter for China in the current down cycle, as signs of stabilization have already emerged on both domestic and external demand sides”.

Further evidence of a slowdown in China’s export-driven economy came with data showing output from its millions of factories and workshops rose at a much slower pace in the first three months of this year. Industrial output was up 11.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with growth of 15.7 percent a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Spokesman Sheng Laiyun said there

This photo taken on April 12, 2012 shows a Chinese laborer working at a construction site in Hefei, in eastern China’s Anhui province. China said on April 13 its economy grew by 8.1 percent in the first three months of 2012, its slowest pace in nearly three years, as domestic demand fell and Europe’s woes curbed business activity. (AFP)

was now “enormous” pressure on exports as China’s vast manufacturing sector is hit by falling demand for in crisis-hit Europe, the country’s main export market.

“The global situation in the first quarter is complex... the pressure on exports growth is enormous,” he told reporters.

Over the past few months Beijing has pledged to “fine-tune” policy to prevent a

hard landing for the economy, which could trigger widespread job losses and spark social unrest.

China’s annual growth slowed to 9.2 percent last year from 10.4 percent in 2010, prompting the government to cut its economic growth target to 7.5 percent this year, in an official acknowledgement that the export-driven economy is slowing.

The government has also introduced a string of measures to help its struggling small businesses and pledged to support its export sector. The central bank in February cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve for the second time in three months as policymakers moved to increase lending and boost domestic consumption.

“More policy easing will be needed to sustain growth and to facilitate a less painful deceleration”, said Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale, which expects two further cuts in the reserve requirement ratio in the coming months.

Data on Thursday showed the effects of China’s easing monetary policy seem to be seeping through as banks ramped up lending in March by issuing 1.01 trillion Chinese yuan (160.3 billion US dollars) in new loans, a big jump from the 710.7 billion yuan issued in February. And retail sales, the main gauge of consumer spending, rebounded slightly last month to 15.1 percent. “The worst is over. The first quarter will be the trough of this cycle. Policy stance will remain pro-growth, but don’t expect big stimulus,” said Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in a note to clients.

Despite a slight rebound in March, inflation has also eased significantly, leaving more room for Beijing to support growth.

Fixed-asset investment slowed to 20.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, pulling back quite significantly from last year’s nearly 24 percent growth and reflecting slower housing and infrastructure construction. -AFP

biz briefs JPMorgan posts $5.4 billion Q1 profit CAPITALS: US banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase on Friday announced it made 5.4 billion US dollars in the first quarter of this year on growing revenue in its retail business, despite signs of a stillweak mortgage market. Deposits were up, the number of checking accounts held by customers was up and the number of branches was also up as the bank’s retail business improved. “We are pleased that our results for the quarter reflected positive credit trends for our consumer real estate and credit card portfolios,” said Jamie Dimon, the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO). But in a sign that the US housing crisis is far from over, he added: “We expect to see elevated levels of costs and losses associated with mortgage-related issues for a while longer.” Against this back drop first quarter profit was slightly down from the first quarter of 2011, when the bank made $5.6 billion. -AFP

Spanish banks borrow record $299 billion from ECB CAPITALS: Borrowing by Spanish banks from the European Central Bank (ECB) hit a new record in March at 227.6 billion euros (299 billion US dollars) as they snapped up emergency cheap loans, official data showed on Friday. The figures from Spain’s central bank are a sign of weak confidence in Spain’s troubled financial sector, with commercial banks turning to the ECB since they are struggling to borrow on interbank lending markets. The volume of ECB borrowing by Spanish banks in March rose from previous records of 152.4 billion euros in February and 133.2 billion euros in January, the figures showed. The figure has been growing since September and has reached record levels since the European bank in December and February offered low-rate loans to help spur lending in the eurozone. Spanish banks have found it hard to borrow money from banks in other eurozone countries because many in Spain are heavily exposed to the realestate sector, which has been in a slump since a bubble burst in 2008. -AFP

Iran buys Indian soymeal at record prices CAPITALS: Iran has stepped up soymeal purchases from India, taking up to 275,000 tons in recent deals at record prices as the nation fights Western sanctions that have reduced its ability to source food from other origins. Indian exporters are negotiating more deals and there are expectations that soymeal contracts for another 200,000 to 250,000 tons will be signed in the coming weeks, trade sources in Singapore and New Delhi said on Friday. Iran’s government is expected to start buying hundreds of thousands of tons of feed grains as Western sanctions are causing enormous disruption to the financing of Iran’s imports, traders said on Thursday.

Iranian farmers face a shortage of feed for their huge livestock flocks as private-sector grain importers are unable to arrange payments, traders said. Though food shipments are not targeted under the Western sanctions aimed at Iran’s disputed nuclear program, financial measures have frozen Iranian firms out of much of the global banking system, hindering grain buying.

The Iranian government, which had bought more than two million tons of bread-making wheat recently, is now poised to make substantial feed grain deals. -Reuters

saturdAY, APRIL 14, 2012

Sports Editors Highlight

SPORTS

ZURICH: FIFA says it will decide soon if Iraq is safe enough to host 2014 World Cup qualifying matches again. FIFA says Friday after meeting an Iraqi delegation, including national team coach Zico, that any decision to lift the existing ban “will be based exclusively on security considerations.”

Iraq is scheduled to host Oman on June 12, after beginning the next qualifying phase away to Jordan on June 3. FIFA banned Iraq from hosting qualifiers for the World Cup and 2012 Olympics for security reasons, and after a stadium power outage in the Kurdish city of Irbil during a World Cup qualifier against Jordan in September. Iraq played subsequent World Cup home matches in Doha, Qatar. Iraq’s current group also includes Australia and Japan. -AP

FOOTBALL

Di Matteo’s Chelsea ready to prove Bale wrong

Redknapp wants stars to earn their Spurs

FILE - Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspur is challenged by Ashley Cole of Chelsea during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, March 24, 2012. (AFP)

LONDON: Roberto Di Matteo insists Chelsea will prove Gareth Bale wrong after the Tottenham Hotspur winger claimed his side are better than their FA Cup semifinal opponents.

Bale backed Spurs to beat the Blues in a series of explosive comments just days before the London rivals meet at Wembley for a place in the final. But Di Matteo naturally disagrees and he is confident Chelsea will silence the Wales winger on Sunday.

“We respect his opinion and we’ll see on Sunday. Obviously, I don’t agree with him,” Di Matteo said on Friday.

The sides drew both Premier League matches this season and Di Matteo added: “We played them twice in the league and

both games were quite balanced in that sense. “When you play a one-off game, it’s difficult to say who’s the favourite because of the form the team’s in. The dynamic of the game is different. This is a decisive game.We are in good form.We’ve been getting some good results and the players are confident.”

Di Matteo’s hopes of making Bale eat his words were boosted by the news that captain John Terry and left-back Ashley Cole are fit to start following injuries.

The Chelsea interim coach could be forgiven for holding back most of the players he planned to use in Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona. But he hinted that he would send

Aguero vows to stay with Man City

Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero (left) celebrates after scoring the opening goal of the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion, April 11, 2012. (AFP)

LONDON: Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has pledged his future to the Premier League club after reports linked the Argentine with Real Madrid. Aguero is said to be one of Real’s top transfer targets following his impressive first season with City, but the former Atletico Madrid star is adamant he has no intention of quitting Eastlands.

The 23-year-old, who has scored 26 goals for City since his club record £38 million move last year, believes talk of a switch to Jose Mourinho’s side is a complete fabrication.

When asked if there was any truth in the rumors, Aguero said: “No no, all of that, no. The truth is that I am happy here, happy with my fellow players and the rest of the staff. The only thing I have to do is enjoy playing football. I hardly ever do interviews.

Sometimes I have to get in touch to deny or correct the claims but I can’t dispel every claim that is written about me. I repeat that I am very happy here and they invent things to try to compromise me.”

Aguero’s importance to City was underlined when he missed the recent draws against Stoke and Sunderland as he strug-

gled with a foot injury.

He returned to show his class in Wednesday’s 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion that closed the gap on Premier League leaders Manchester United to five points.

City boss Roberto Mancini insists his team would have remained closer to United if Aguero had played those games.

“I have always said he is our best striker and I was really upset to lose him for two games. That was like United losing (Wayne) Rooney,” Mancini said.

Aguero also set up another on Wednesday for compatriot Carlos Tevez, who scored for the first time in 11 months while making his first start since September.

The pair had started together for City only once before and have rarely been paired for their national team, but Aguero feels the partnership has promise.

“Yes, obviously Carlos is a great player, like Edin (Dzeko) and Mario (Balotelli), and fortunately we know each other from (playing with) Argentina,” Aguero said.

“He knows how I move and play and I know his game so we hope to be able to keep getting to know each other better and I’m happy for his first game.” -AFP

out his strongest possible line-up against Spurs.

“I will look at the team for Sunday and only think about what’s best for that game, to win that game,” he said. “Whichever team I select, they have to put in a collective effort to win the game. One player alone won’t be able to do that.”

Some Chelsea fans might be willing to sacrifice FA Cup glory in exchange for winning the Champions League or even finishing in the Premier League’s top four, which secures a place in next season’s Champions League.

But Di Matteo is just focused on taking the chance to move a step closer to winning a trophy. -AFP

LONDON: Harry Redknapp has challenged his Tottenham stars to prove they deserve to be ranked alongside the club’s legends by winning the FA Cup. Redknapp’s side have earned flattering comparisons to some of the great Spurs sides, including the 1991 FA Cup winners and the 1961 double-winning team.

An 11-match unbeaten run at the end of 2011 featured some eye-catching play that saw Spurs labelled the most entertaining team in the country. But Redknapp believes all that praise would quickly be forgotten if Spurs fail to fulfill their potential.

To earn their place in the Tottenham history books along the likes of Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoigne, Danny Blanchflower and Cliff Jones, Redknapp insists they must win silverware and that means beating Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup semifinal, then winning the trophy itself.

“This is a great opportunity for us to go all the way this year,” Redknapp said on Friday. “On our day we can beat Chelsea. We can beat anyone. There is not a lot between the two teams, but

they have the medals to show for it. They have been there and done it all in the last few years.

Tottenham is a club that have won two trophies since 1991 and they were both League Cups so it’s about time Tottenham won another trophy.”

If Tottenham can beat Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday, Redknapp believes it will prove the potential is there for his club to continue to better their west London rivals, as long as the board are prepared to keep investing in new signings.

“If we want Champions League football again we need to improve the squad again in the summer. You have to keep improving because everyone else around us will,” Redknapp said.

“If you want to start winning championships then you really have to push on and raise the bar because that’s the only way you are going to do it.”

Having being on the verge of going 13 points clear of Arsenal in February, many Tottenham fans are worried that their campaign is going to end with a whimper, but Redknapp disagrees and claims expectations have risen to astronomical levels since the start of the season. -AFP

Scholes to return for United as Ferguson eyes riposte

Dalglish putting Liverpool back on track, says Rush

LONDON: Liverpool legend Ian Rush has told the Anfield club’s owners that Reds boss Kenny Dalglish remains the right man to restore the team to its’ former glories. Rush and Dalglish formed a deadly strike partnership when Liverpool dominated the English game and ruled Europe in the 1980s and the former Wales striker is convinced his old team-mate is slowly putting the Anfield outfit back on course to relive those trophy-filled days despite a difficult campaign.

Dalglish has come under fire this season following a woeful run of results that shattered the team’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League and speculation about his future intensified following the club’s decision to part company with director of football Damien Comolli on Thursday.

However, Dalglish, who has led Liverpool to League Cup success and an FA Cup semi-final this season, received the backing of owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner following that ruthless move to oust Comolli and Rush believes they must continue to back the Scot. Meanwhile, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard insists his side’s recent dominance over Everton and the Toffees’ superior league position will count for nothing when the rivals meet in Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.

The Reds won their two league encounters this season, but David Moyes’ side are ahead of their neighbors in the Premier League table. Yet Gerrard is certain the prospect of a place in the FA Cup final will ensure form goes out the window in the first Wembley Merseyside derby since the 1989 FA Cup final. -AFP

FILE - Manchester United’s Paul Scholes (right) vies for the ball against Bolton Wanderers’ Nigel ReoCoker during their English Premier League soccer match at Old Trafford, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP)

LONDON: Paul Scholes will start for Manchester United at home to Aston Villa on Sunday as Alex Ferguson looks for the midfielder’s experience to help settle the Premier League leaders after a shock midweek loss at lowly Wigan Athletic.

The 1-0 defeat, where 37-year-old Scholes was rested, allowed second-placed Manchester City to cut the gap to five points with five games left.

Scholes retired at the end of last season but was tempted back by Ferguson in January because of a lack of fit players in midfield, although the former England man has continued to be a first choice even with the injury list easing.

His precision passing and occasional eye for goal led Ferguson to label Scholes as one of the best midfielders in the last 20 years, which goes some way to explaining why United struggled to replace him in the close season.

Bids for Inter Milan’s Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder were denied by United but their recall of Scholes and general lack of flair has prompted pundits to say this could be one of the worst United sides to win the Premier League title.

They are not quite there yet after Wednesday’s wobble but Ferguson believes the championship experience of Scholes and Co means an immediate re-

covery is likely at Old Trafford on Sunday.

“We were disappointed to lose but we have to put it into perspective. In the treble year (1999) we went through the whole season from December without losing. A couple of years back we lost 4-1 at home to Liverpool and won the league by nine points,” he said. “From the position of a few months ago to where we are today, we have to be delighted. Sunday is very important and we must get back on track. A great thing about our club is we do recover and we have to do that again.”

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini said on Wednesday the title race was over despite his side’s 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion but most commentators think he was playing mind games to try to destabilize United.

Ferguson said: “I think he has maybe picked the wrong time to say it - there are still five games to go.

The Premier League is fascinating. Our experience will help us and Sunday’s game is the one to focus on.”

Villa are not totally safe from relegation and manager Alex McLeish, who played for Ferguson at Aberdeen, is under pressure from fans after struggling to mould a youthful winning side since his shock move from bitter city rivals Birmingham City. -AFP

Bayern can shock Real, insists Beckenbauer

BERLIN: German football legend Franz Beckenbauer says Bayern Munich can beat Real Madrid in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg, if they learn from their midweek German league defeat at Borussia Dortmund.

Bayern lost 1-0 at the league leaders on Wednesday, with Dutch star Arjen Robben seeing a late penalty saved, and the defeat leaves second-placed Munich six points behind with four games left in the Bundesliga.

Real Madrid now stand between Bayern and a place in the Champions League final at Munich’s Allianz Arena on May 19 and Beck-

enbauer says the hosts should aim for victory at home in Tuesday’s first leg.

“If they produce the same performance they showed in the second half (at Dortmund), then they certainly have a chance to turn over Madrid,” said ex-Bayern president Beckenbauer, who captained and coached West Germany to World Cup titles.

History favors the Bavarians as Madrid have lost 10 of their 18 matches against Bayern and in four previous ties between the teams at this stage, the Germans have gone on to reach the final on three occasions.

Defeat in mid-week has left Bayern facing

an uphill task in the league, but they remain in contention for two other titles, with a German Cup final against Dortmund coming up on May 19.

“We still have two competitions. These are the goals that we should focus on now,” said captain Philipp Lahm.

Coach Jupp Heynckes has said Bayern need a win at the Allianz Arena against Mainz on Saturday in the league to boost confidence ahead of the visit of Madrid.

“We need a positive mood for Madrid, so we need to focus on the next game and that is Mainz,” he said. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

saturDAY, APRIL 14, 2012

7

Olympics

Sheikh Ahmad elected head of global Olympic body MOSCOW: Asia’s top Olympic official was elected Friday as head of the global body of national Olympic committees, taking over after longtime chief Mario Vazquez Rana resigned amid political infighting.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, head of the Olympic Council of Asia, was voted in as president of the Association of National Olympic Committees at the opening of its general assembly in Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later addressed the group, saying sport is a force for good in the world.

Sheikh Ahmad replaces Mario Vazquez Rana, the 79year-old Mexican media mogul who quit last month after heading ANOC for more than 30 years. ANOC represents the world’s 204 national Olympic bodies.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, has led the Asian Olympic body since 1991. He sought to strike a note of unity following his election, which he won by a vote of 174 in favor, one against and two abstentions. He said of Vazquez Rana that “our relationship is more than what you are hearing.”

Sheikh Ahmad said ANOC’s priorities under his leadership will include “a vision to help the underdeveloped countries’ national Olympic committees.”

Vazquez Rana was re-elected to another four-year term as ANOC president in 2010.

But with his IOC membership coming to an end this year after he turns 80, opponents had been pushing him

to go and allow younger leaders to take over. Had he not resigned, Vazquez Rana would have faced a revolt at the Moscow assembly from delegates seeking his ouster. Delegates from around the world are attending the assembly, including from Syria.

Syrian participation in the London Olympics has come under scrutiny because of the violence shaking the country, but Syrian Olympic Committee head Mowaffak Joumaa told The Associated Press that the country’s athletes are training satisfactorily, many of them outside Syria in countries including Azerbaijan, France and Britain.

Putin, who will be inaugurated as president in May after spending four years as prime minister, has made sports a key element of his political and personal appeal in a dozen years as national leader.

He has been a driving force for Russia’s re-emergence as an international sports power. His speech to the International Olympic Committee during his previous term as president was seen as decisive in the choice of Sochi to host the 2014 Winter Games. He also supported Russia’s successful bid to hold the 2018 World Cup. The ANOC assembly, which ends Sunday, will hear short presentations from the five cities bidding for the 2020 Olympics which are Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul, Tokyo and Baku, Azerbaijan. The IOC executive board will decide next month whether to cut the field or keep all five candidates. -AP

FILE - President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Jacques Rogge (left) and President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah shares a light moment during the opening of the 30th OCA general assembly in Tokyo, July 14, 2011. (AP)

Formula one

Basketball

F1 chiefs give green light to Bahrain GP Rose withers but Bulls SHANGHAI: Formula One chiefs gave next week’s Bahrain Grand Prix the green light on Friday despite security concerns and calls from anti-government activists for the race to be cancelled.

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) declared in a statement that the race, cancelled last year after a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protestors and in doubt again due to ongoing violence, was on as scheduled.

It said the decision followed regular briefings from senior diplomats and “independent experts” in the Gulf kingdom.

Formula One’s commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, mobbed by reporters after a meeting with representatives of the 12 teams at the Chinese Grand Prix, declared the race “200 percent” certain to go ahead.

“All the teams are happy to be there,” added the 81-year-old. “There’s nothing happening. I know people who live there and it’s all very quiet and peaceful.”

He was speaking only hours after an explosion damaged two cars in Manama.

Al Arabiya television said the blast was caused by a gas container thrown among vehicles on a street.

A home-made bomb wounded seven Bahraini policemen, three seriously, during a protest near the capital on Monday.

Christian Horner, principal of world champions Red Bull, side-stepped a question about whether he was happy to go but said he respected the FIA position.

“I think it’s clear. The confusing thing has been uncertainty so I think for everybody here in the paddock now it’s clear that there will be a race in Bahrain next week,” he told reporters. The Bahrain International Circuit welcomed the decision and said it was ready.

“The BIC has been clear throughout

top Heat to stretch East lead

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone (center) speaks to the media after meeting with Formula One team officials to discuss the Bahrain F1 race at the Shanghai International Circuit, April 13, 2012. (AFP)

recent weeks and months that the security situation in Bahrain is suitable for the staging of a major sporting event,” it declared in a statement. “This assessment has been provided by experienced figures, from both inside and outside the Bahraini government, to motor racing entities which have travelled to Bahrain to do their own research.” The timing of the FIA statement, released a day before its French president Jean Todt is due to arrive at the Shanghai circuit, was seen as a clear sign of the governing body’s determination to set the agenda.

The race at Sakhir, which brought in

Schumacher puts Mercedes on top in China

SHANGHAI: Michael Schumacher returned to the scene of his 91st and last Formula One victory on Friday to set the fastest lap for Mercedes in Chinese Grand Prix practice.

The 43-year-old seven times world champion, whose last win was with Ferrari in Shanghai in 2006, lapped the monumental circuit with a best time of one minute 35.973 seconds after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton laid down a marker in the morning.

Hamilton, who will have a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race due to an unscheduled gearbox change that has wrecked his hopes of a third pole position in a row, was second fastest after lunch.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, last year’s winner and the only driver to have triumphed twice in Shanghai, completed only seven laps in the morning but topped the timing screens in 1:37.106. With a damp start to the session after overnight rain, the Briton was happy to save his tyres in the knowledge that he will need every strategic advantage on Sunday if he is to celebrate a first win of the season.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Schumacher, whose team saw off a protest by rivals Lotus on Thursday over their controversial rear wing, were second and third quickest respectively in the first session.

Mexican Sergio Perez, who took his Sauber to a stunning second place in Malaysia last month, was fourth in the morning ahead of Japanese team mate Kamui Kobayashi but the usual suspects pushed them back in the afternoon.

Red Bull’s double champion Sebastian Vettel ended the day third fastest with Australian team mate Mark Webber fourth.

Ferrari seemed mired in problems again, with championship leader Fernando Alonso lapping 11th and 10th fastest in the two sessions. Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa was 17th in the afternoon.

Alonso, who tested some updates, said it was a “normal Friday” but Massa was clearly frustrated. Vettel, who has yet to win this season or qualify on the front row after dominating 2011, was using a different exhaust set-up to Webber.

Force India’s French reserve Jules Bianchi made his practice debut, replacing Britain’s Paul Di Resta for the first session. Other less familiar Friday names included Finnish reserve Valtteri Bottas for Williams and Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde for Caterham. -Reuters

more than 100,000 visitors and half a billion dollars in spending when last held in 2010, will be the fourth round of the 20race season.

The race also contributes some $40 million in hosting fees to Formula One’s coffers and Ecclestone told Reuters last month that the sport would be there “for as long as they want us.”

The first country in the Middle East to host a grand prix, making its debut on the calendar in 2004, Bahrain has considerable influence in Formula One with a representative on the FIA’s decision-making World Motor Sport Council. -Reuters

CHICAGO: Had he known he was going to play so poorly, Derrick Rose might have sat this one out.

Good thing for him, his Chicago teammates picked up the slack. C.J. Watson scored 16 points, including the game-tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation, and the Chicago Bulls pulled away in overtime to beat the Miami Heat 96-86 on Thursday night.

Carlos Boozer scored 19 points and Kyle Korver added 17 for the Bulls, who outscored Miami 12-2 in overtime to boost their lead in the Eastern Conference to four games.

The Bulls were able to pull off the victory despite a horrible shooting night by Derrick Rose, who scored a career-low two points.

At least his team did just fine. LeBron James scored 30 points for Miami but missed a free throw that would have made it a two-possession game late in regulation. Dwyane Wade added 21 points, Chris Bosh scored 20, but the Heat lost for the sixth time in 11 games.

Things were looking good for Miami when James nailed a 3 that made it 83-81 with 49 seconds left in regulation. But with a chance to seal the game, he missed the first of two free throws with 11.4 seconds remaining.

That kept the Bulls in it and Watson made a 3 to

tie it at 84 with 2.2 seconds left. The game went into overtime when Wade missed a baseline jumper at the buzzer.

Rose hit just 1 of 13 shots and sat out the extra period, a brutal night for the reigning MVP. Then again, he hasn’t played much lately, so this wasn’t a total shocker.

He returned from a 12-game absence due to a groin injury for Sunday’s overtime loss at New York, only to sprain his right ankle. He did not play Tuesday, when the Bulls beat the Knicks at home, and he’s missed 23 games in all this season.

But even with Rose struggling, the Bulls managed to pull this one out.

Luol Deng scored 16. Boozer grabbed 11 rebounds and fed Watson for that tying 3. Korver came up big again, hitting 5 of 6 from beyond the arc after scoring 14 on Tuesday.

He let out a big smile after nailing one in the extra period and helped the Bulls and helped send this one into overtime with eight points in the fourth quarter.

His 3-pointer and jumper put Chicago ahead 78-74 with about 3:30 left, and after Wade scored, Boozer nailed a jumper and Ronnie Brewer hit a free throw to put the Bulls’ lead at 5. Wade, however, kept Miami in it. -AP

Tennis

Qualifier Russell shocks top seed Fish at ATP Houston

HOUSTON: Qualifier Michael Russell stunned top seed Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-1, thrilling his hometown fans as he booked a quarter-final berth at the ATP Tour US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Russell, a 33-year-old who lives in Houston, converted five of his break point chances against the world number nine to triumph in 74 minutes. It was Russell’s first victory over a top-10 opponent in 13 attempts.

Russell booked his first tour-level quarter-final of 2012. He’ll face 19-year-old fellow American Ryan Harrison, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Russian Igor Kunitsyn. Second-seeded John Isner, playing his opening match after a first-round bye, rallied to beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2.

Isner arrived in Houston from Monte Carlo, where he led America to a Davis Cup triumph in France last weekend. He won both of his singles matches in the United States’ 3-2 victory in the quarter-finals of the nations tournament.

The 26-year-old didn’t drop his serve and fired 16 aces in the match lasting two hours and 13 minutes.

Isner, ranked 10th in the world, is seeking a first career clay court title. He next faces defending champion Ryan Sweeting, A 6-3, 6-2 winner over fellow American Bobby Reynolds. Fifth seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa defeated American Sam Querrey 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the quarter-finals.

Anderson, seeking to add a second title of 2012 to the one he captured at Delray Beach last month, next faces fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina. Monaco defeated Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-3. Monaco, who claimed his fourth career title at Vina del Mar this year and was a semi-finalist at the Miami Masters, is through to his third quarter-final of the year. The other quarter-final match-up was determined on Wednesday, with third-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain advancing to a clash with sixth-seeded Carlos Berlocq of Argentina. -AFP

Joakim Noah (13) of the Chicago Bulls moves against Chris Bosh (1) of the Miami Heat at the United Center on April 12, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. (AP)

Mavericks survive late run, top Warriors 112-103 OAKLAND: Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points and former Golden State lottery pick Brandan Wright had 16 points and nine rebounds, leading the Dallas Mavericks past the Warriors 112-103 on Thursday night. Jason Kidd added 12 assists, 10 rebounds and nine points to pace the Mavericks to a 19-point lead before hanging on late, moving 1 1/2 games behind Memphis for the Western Conference’s fifth playoff seed. The Grizzlies lost 10797 to San Antonio earlier in the night.

The Mavericks are just a half-game ahead of Denver and Houston. David Lee had 30 points and eight rebounds and rookie Klay Thompson finished with 24 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the shorthanded Warriors. Golden State has lost three straight and is already eliminated from playoff contention. Dallas survived late behind its usual playmakers.

The Mavericks, who plucked the injuryriddled Wright out of free agency in December, opened the game open behind patches of open space with the forward drawing so much attention. Nowitzki followed with a flurry of jumpers, giving Dallas a 60-41 lead late in the second quarter to take complete control. -AP

8

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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

LIFE

Have a safe picnic

Food poisoning can do more harm to your family picnic than a family of red ants. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these picnic-safety suggestions: • Bring a food thermometer to your barbeque and make sure all foods are cooked to their recommended guidelines for minimum internal temperature.

• Store raw foods and ready-to-eat foods in separate containers to avoid possible contamination.

• Pack perishable foods separately with an ice pack, making sure they are stored at a minimum of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Throw away any food that has been sitting out for more than two hours, or one hour in temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

saturDAY, april 14, 2012

Word-spotting baboons leave scientists spell-bound FRANCE: Baboons can recognize scores of written words, a feat that raises intriguing questions about how we learn to read, scientists reported on Thursday.

In a specially-made facility in France where they could come and go at will, monkeys learned to differentiate between a real word, such as KITE, and a nonsense word such as ZEVS. The baboons had access to a large enclosure with several touch-sensitive computer screens, each projecting a four-letter word.

The animals had to tap one of two shapes on the screen to show that they understood whether the word was a real one or garble. Choosing the real word got them a tempting reward of food – a pellet of dry wheat that came from an automatic dispenser.

The six baboons used the computers up to 3,000 times a day, notching up an average total of 50,000 “trials” over a month and a half.

They learned to distinguish scores of words, identifying them with an accuracy of 75 percent, according to the study led by Jonathan Grainger at the Cognitive Research Laboratory at France’s Aix-Marseille University. There were 500 real words and 7,832 nonsense ones in the data bank.

“This ... is a remarkable result, given the level of orthographic similarity between the word and nonword,” according to the paper, published by the US journal Science.

“More detailed analysis revealed that baboons were not simply memorizing the word ... but had learned to discriminate words from nonwords on the basis of differences in the frequency of letter combinations.”

The champion speller was a baboon called Dan, who learned 308 words, around three times as many as his chums.

There was no sign that the animals actually understood the meaning of the words.

But the fact that they learned to distinguish one word from another opens insights into the acquisition of reading.

According to a popular theory, we humans learn to recognize words thanks to speech -- we process the sequence of letters into words by building on the sequence of sounds in speech.

But the baboons do not speak any human language, which means the speech hypothesis “may be at best incomplete and possibly wrong,” said Michael Platt and Geoffrey Adams of Duke University in North Carolina in a commentary also carried by Science.

That leaves the field open for a rival theory: that there are brain circuits which evolved to support other functions – and we share this circuitry with our primate cousins. One possible candidate is the visual word form area (VWFA), in the occipitotemporal sulcus region of the brain.

If so, the evidence of cerebral versatility is reassuring news for people with reading difficulties.

“The observation that the neural circuits involved in reading and writing are not hard-wired may explain why most people with dyslexia can learn to read,” said Platt and Adams.

“The very plasticity that enabled humans to invent reading and writing can be harnessed to overcome dysfunctions in the underlying neural circuitry.” -AFP

This undated handout photo provided by of Joel Fagot, and the journal Science shows a baboon Dora during a reading experiment. (AP)

Satellite mapping pinpoints penguin population Australia’s Qantas makes first commercial biofuel flight FRANCE: Australia’s Qantas Friday launched the nation’s first commercial flight using a mixture of refined cooking oil, saying it would not survive if it relied solely on traditional jet fuel. The Airbus A330 left Sydney for Adelaide using a 50-50 blend derived from recycled cooking oil and regular jet fuel in what the airline hopes will be the first step towards a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia.

“We need to get ready for a future that is not based on traditional jet fuel or frankly we don’t have a future,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said. “And it’s not just the price of oil that’s the issue – it’s also the price of carbon. “From July, Qantas will be the only airline in the world to face liabilities in three jurisdictions, so our sense of urgency is justified.”

Europe already imposes a controversial carbon tax on airlines, while New Zealand has a carbon tax that applies to flights within that country by Qantas’ budget carrier Jetstar. Australia’s tax on carbon emissions comes into force on July 1.

Qantas said the biofuel, which has been certified for use in commercial aviation, has a “life cycle” carbon footprint about 60

percent smaller than that of conventional jet fuel. Jet fuel is the largest operational expense for the Australian carrier, which in February announced it would slash at least 500 jobs and cut costs after an 83 percent slump in first-half net profits.

In March it hiked its fuel surcharge for the second time in two months, saying its fuel costs were expected to rise by Aus$300 million (US$312 million) in the six months to June 30 to Aus$2.25 billion.

The Australian government said it would help Qantas fund a study into the sustainable production and commercialization of aviation biofuels.

Under the Aus$500,000 Emerging Renewables Program grant, Qantas will partner with Shell Australia to undertake a feasibility study into the long-term viability of biofuel feedstock and the production of low carbon aviation fuels.

“Today’s flight, together with the feasibility study, represents an important step towards an Australian aviation industry powered by our own biofuels,” Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said.

“This could be the beginning of Qantas becoming ‘Flying Bio-Roo’.” -AFP

Egg donors remain fertile after procedure: Study

NEW YORK: Donating eggs does not appear to hurt a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant in the years after the procedure, a small study from Belgium found. Few other studies have looked at the effects of egg-harvesting procedures on the future reproductive health of women who donate eggs.

Some experts question whether hormonally stimulating the ovaries -- which makes them produce extra eggs – and removing those eggs from a healthy, young woman could later increase her chance of infertility, but others contend there are no serious long-term risks.

“Egg donation has been offered to patients in Belgium since the 1980s.We were not surprised by the good reproductive outcomes in ex-egg donors,” Dr. Dominic Stoop, medical director at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Brussels, Belgium and lead author of the study, wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

The researchers gave a telephone questionnaire to 194 women who had donated eggs at the Belgian center between 1999 and 2010. The surveys were conducted an average of four to five years after those procedures.

At the time of donation, women averaged 30 years old.

Sixty past egg donors reported trying to get pregnant since the procedure. Of those, 57 women conceived without help. The other three women required fertility treatment, though two of them sought treatment because of their partner’s infertility. Sixteen percent of donors had changes in their menstrual cycle after donation.

However, none of the women reporting these changes had fertility problems.

“Menstrual pattern could be disrupted temporarily by hormonal changes due to ovarian stimulation, much like how menstrual changes also appear after stopping an oral contraceptive,” said Stoop, whose study is published in Fertility and Sterility.

“In the short term, egg donation appears to have no effect on fertility,” said Dr. Orhan Bukulmez, an infertility specialist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who wasn’t involved in the new research. But longer-term studies of egg donors are needed, he told Reuters Health.

Although some researchers argue that the extra hormones women are given before the procedure and possible trauma to the ovaries during it could lead to early menopause in egg donors, studies haven’t found reasons to be concerned so far.

Egg donation is a well-established form of fertility treatment. In the United States, roughly 12 percent of all treatment cycles in 2009 used donor eggs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Future research is needed to also consider possible fertility risks for women who have their eggs harvested and frozen for their own future personal use, according to Stoop. Originally explored as a way for women undergoing cancer treatment to preserve their fertility, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine still considers that type of egg freezing experimental.

Bukulmez cautioned that the results of the current study cannot be generalized to include women seeking to freeze their own eggs. Egg donors are a very select group of patients that are chosen for their healthy ovaries, according to Bukulmez.

“They may not be representative of the fertile female population as a whole,” he said. -Reuters

SYDNEY: Counting emperor penguins in their icy Antarctic habitat was not easy until researchers used new technology to map the birds from space, and they received a pleasant penguin surprise for their efforts.

Using satellite mapping with resolution high enough to distinguish ice shadows from penguin poo, an international team has carried out what they say is an unprecedented penguin census from the heavens over the past three years.

The good news was that the team found the Antarctic emperor penguin population numbered about 595,000, nearly double previous estimates.

But the bad news was that some colonies have disappeared altogether due to changing weather patterns and the long-term future of the birds is far from assured.

“Yes, this is the first comprehensive census of a species taken from space, absolutely,” said Barbara Wienecke, a sea bird ecologist with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) who spoke with Reuters by phone from the Aurora Australis research vessel.

Previous counts have been inaccurate due to rough terrain that made some colonies inaccessible and frigid temperatures that can plummet to - 50 degrees Celsius (- 58 Fahrenheit).

This time the group, a collaboration between the AAD, the British Antarctic Survey, the University of Minnesota/National Science Foundation and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, used aerial photography to calibrate their analysis of counts taken on the ground.

Emperor penguins, with their distinctive black and white plumage, stand out against the snow. That means colonies are clearly visible on satellite images, the group found. Their results are published in the journal PLoS ONE. The technique also has the advantage of having no negative impact on the sensitive Antarctic environment or the birds.

“Most of the time it is impossible to take into consideration every single colony, but now we are in a position that we can actually compare how the sea ice environment changes and hopefully continue to monitor the population - and see which ones may or may not be decreasing in

Brazil court OKs abortions for brainless fetuses

BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted to authorize abortions in cases of fetuses with no brains.

Abortion is illegal in Brazil except when a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother and in cases of rape. The Supreme Federal Tribunal’s 8-2 vote Thursday now decriminalizes abortions involving anencephalic fetuses.

Such fetuses develop without brains and cannot survive outside the womb for more than a few minutes. Most die before birth. Brazil has a high rate of such cases, with 10 out of every 10,000 pregnancies.

Brazil is the world’s most populous Roman Catholic country and religious groups staged vigils outside the court and in other cities opposing a ruling to allow such abortions. -AP

This NASA image obtained on April 12, 2012 shows baby stars creating chaos 1,500 light-years away in the cosmic cloud of the Orion Nebula. Four massive stars make up the bright yellow area in the center of this false-color image for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Green indicates hydrogen and sulfur gas in the nebula, which is a cocoon of gas and dust. Red and orange indicate carbon-rich molecules.

Infant stars appear as yellow dots embedded in the nebula. (AFP/NASA)

size,” Wienecke said.

Previous censuses using more traditional counting methods came up with estimates of 270,000 to 350,000 birds.

While the greater number of penguins is encouraging, changing weather patterns mean their survival is far from assured.

The larger population may also pressure the numbers of krill in the oceans, an essential food for the penguins.

Warming oceans observed by the research team can also have an impact. Of particular concern is what happens with “long fast ice” - ice that is attached to the continent and forms a continuous flat area of frozen ocean.

Such ice is where most of the penguin colonies are found, its flat surface essential for the male penguins who incubate each mating pair’s single egg on their feet.

“Things change very quickly, so we can’t take comfort in having half a million birds at the moment,” Wienecke said.

“If the fast ice changes, the birds can end up in a lot of strife very, very quickly.” -Reuters

DNA tests uncover hazards in Chinese therapies

FRANCE: A host of potential toxins, allergens and traces of endangered animals showed up in DNA sequencing tests on 15 Chinese traditional medicines, researchers said on Thursday. Such therapies have been used in China for more than 3,000 years, but have risen in popularity outside Asia in recent decades and now amount to a global industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to the study in PLoS Genetics. Despite their popularity, little scientific evidence exists to prove the benefits of Chinese traditional medicines (TCMs), and a growing body of research has begun to point to their potential dangers. The samples analyzed for this study included herbal teas, capsules, powders and flakes that were seized by Australian border officials and were subsequently tested by scientists at Australia’s Murdoch University.

Plant agents suspected of causing urinary tract and kidney cancer such as Aristolochic acid, as well as the potentially poisonous herb ephedra were among the dangerous elements found. “TCMs have a long cultural history, but today consumers need to be aware of the legal and health safety issues before adopting them as a treatment option,” said lead researcher Michael Bunce, a Murdoch University Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Some of the 68 different plant families that were detected in the 15 samples can be toxic if taken in the wrong doses, but the packaging did not list the concentrations of the elements inside, he said.

“We also found traces from trade restricted animals that are classified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, including the Asiatic black bear and Saiga antelope” he said, adding that some contained ingredients that were not included on the label. “A product labeled as 100 percent Saiga antelope contained considerable quantities of goat and sheep DNA,” he said. “Another product, Mongnan Tianbao pills, contained deer and cow DNA, the latter of which may violate some religious or cultural strictures.”

Performing any in-depth analysis of the biological elements contained in traditional therapies has been difficult in the past because the act of processing ingredients into powders and pills mingled the components too much. But the approach used by researchers for this study, described as second-generation, high throughput sequencing, was both efficient and cost-effective, said researcher Megan Coghlan. “The approach has the ability to unravel complex mixtures of plant and animal products,” she said. “We found multiple samples that contained DNA from animals listed as trade-restricted according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Legislation. Put simply, these TCMs are not legal.”

Future tests could help customs officials track the illegal trade of endangered species as well as clamp down on dangerous ingredients, she added. -AFP

10

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

saturDAY, april 14, 2012

1000 year old rare language under threat in Straits of Hormuz FRANCE: Home to 4,000 people and overlooking the strategic Straits of Hormuz that Iran has threatened to close, Kumzar village has a thousand year-old language of its own that no one else on earth understands.

Nestled on the northernmost tip of Oman’s Musandam peninsula and hidden by spectacular mountains that plunge into the Gulf’s aquamarine waters, tiny Kumzar is a simple fishing village that is a haven for dolphins and teems with marine life.

But with the arrival of television and the Internet not many years ago, its people are very much aware of the growing speculation that their lives could be shaken by a war involving Iran, which lies just 50 kilometers away.

These same outside influences are also threatening the survival of the ancient Kumzari language, a mix of IndoEuropean languages and Arabic, remarkable in that it is the only non-Semitic language spoken on the Arabian Peninsula in the past 1,400 years.

For centuries, Kumzaris have had front row seats to history. They have witnessed and even assisted invading armies of the world’s great empires that have sought control of the Straits, a chokepoint crucial to global marine trade and through which most of the world’s seaborne oil passes today. At first inspection, Kumzar seems entirely cut off from civilization. But looking more closely one can see signs of the march of modern time in the past 10 years or so -- besides electricity, running water, a school and a hospital, a helipad, satellite television and Internet access.

These new-found luxuries are a welcome change for the village’s resident teenagers, but according to experts, they are contributing to the extinction of their unwritten language.

“The schooling in Kumzar is in Arabic, and they get a lot of influence from the (United Arab) Emirates and Oman ... so children don’t speak Kumzari as well as their grandparents did,” says Christina van der Wal, a researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands who has lived in the village.

The Kumzari word for oven is “forno”, likely picked up from the Portuguese who ruled the region in the 16th and 17th centuries, says Van der Wal. “There’s a lot of vocabulary from Arabic and Persian as

FILE-Omani women arrive in a boat to the tiny village of Kumzar on the northernmost tip of Oman’s Musandam peninsula on March 14, 2012. (AFP)

well but they have made it their own,” adds Van der Wal, who says Iranians and Arabs cannot understand it.

The word for “rod” is “qetub”, derived from the original Arabic word “qadib” and would be totally unintelligible to Arabs, according to linguist Erik Anonby, who has also lived in the remote village.

For ‘car’ they say ‘motor’, and like ‘raha’ (radio) and ‘apsit’ (upset) these words were derived from English, says Anonby, adding that there is “extensive marine terminology exclusive to Kumzari”, not found in any other language.

The two linguists are on a mission to save the dying language. Together, they are working on a Kumzari dictionary.

Anonby is working on a spelling system, while Van der Wal is working on the grammar.

Meanwhile, satellite television and the World Wide Web have brought a source of entertainment for the youth who say life in the sedentary and geographically isolated village has always been somewhat dull.

“There wasn’t much to do around here except hike up the mountain trail,” says 15-year-old Jamayel as she walks

Defying ban, Egyptian Christians visit Jerusalem JERUSALEM: After the death of their spiritual leader, more than 2,000 Egyptian Copts have poured into the Holy Land for the Easter holidays, defying a ban he imposed on visiting Jerusalem and other Israeli-controlled areas.

The influx - after decades when Egyptian pilgrims were a rarity - adds a new element to the already diverse mix of languages and faiths in Jerusalem’s Old City during the holy season. The pilgrims are clearly distinguished by the Egyptian accent of their Arabic and long cotton robes worn by many of the men.

“It’s the most beautiful thing in the world to see light of the Messiah. We have dreamed of this for a long time,” said Halim Farag, 60, in the plaza outside the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

Farag, his sister and his wife paid $860 each for their five-day trip - money they scraped over a year of saving and borrowing. They will stay for Coptic Easter, which is Sunday, following the Orthodox calendar used by some Eastern churches.

For many Copts, visiting the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular, is one of the most meaningful acts of faith they can perform. Some liken it to the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are obligated to make at least once in their lives if they can.

But for the past three decades, very few Copts have made the journey because of the ban by Pope Shenouda III. Shenouda imposed the ban to protest Egypt’s 1979 peace agreement with Israel, saying Christians shouldn’t visit Israel until it makes peace with the Palestinians. Shenouda was also upset over a custody dispute with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church over a rooftop monastery at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That dispute remains unresolved.

Small groups of Copts have always defied the ban.

But following Shenouda’s death in late March at the age of 88, there has been a clear spike. The ban remains in place, but the visitors said they believed this was their chance.

“There is nothing more beautiful than to visit the holy sites. This is a pilgrimage this shouldn’t tied to politics,” said a 62-year-old pilgrim who would only identify herself by her first name, Samia, because she was worried about punishment from the Church.

Another woman said the pilgrimage is “a dream for all of us” but admitted she was concerned over the repercussions, both from the Coptic Church and the Egyptian public, who largely reject any normalization

Christian worshippers attend the “Washing of the Feet” Easter ceremony in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem’s Old City, which Christians traditionally believe was built on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried, on April 12, 2012. (AFP)

of ties with Israel.

“You don’t know what they will do to us when we come back - especially after they see what numbers we came in,” said the woman, wearing a knee-length black skirt and black shirt.

The Copts, mostly middle-aged or senior citizens, have been busy milling around the Holy Sepulcher throughout the week. They have trundled to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, built on the site where they believe Jesus was born. They have shopped and haggled on the way, charming many Palestinians with their Egyptian accents and humor, made familiar throughout the Arab world through generations of popular Egyptian movies and soap operas.

A Palestinian tour guide who works with the Coptic community said most in the wave of pilgrims “are old, and they want to visit at least once in their life.”

“They revolted against the pope’s decision,” said the guide, who like the woman spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid problems with the Church.

The precise number of visitors is hard to measure.

A Coptic church official estimated the number of visitors from the community this year is at least double last year’s, an assessment that was echoed by the tour guide.

In an indication of the strong growth, an Egyptian airport official said about 650 Copts have flown to Israel this holiday season, compared with 150 in past years.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of Egyptian security rules. Many other pilgrims enter Israel through its land crossing with Egypt.

The Israeli Interior Ministry said 2,500 Egyptians entered the country during the first 10 days of April, but had no further figures or comparisons from the previous year.

April is one of the busiest tourist seasons, drawing an estimated 225,000 Christian visitors from around the world, according to the Israeli Tourism Ministry.

The Coptic Church has not yet named a successor to Shenouda, and it remains unclear how strictly the next leader will enforce the ban. -AP

through the narrow alleyways of the village.

“But now we can watch TV, we can search things on the Internet, we can listen to music online,” she says, adding that her favorite Western artist is the late Michael Jackson.

Her best friend Mariam dreams of becoming an architect and wants to renovate the poorly built village stone shacks in which most people live.

“This place has a lot of potential,” she says. She plans to return to Kumzar and rebuild it once she gets her degree.

Despite Kumzar’s conservative Islamic culture, parents are sending their sons and daughters to the Omani capital Muscat and abroad for higher education.

Village resident Mariam Ahmad, a 34-year-old mother of three already has one daughter studying computer science. Ahmad was married at 13 and had her first child soon after. “But we don’t marry them off so young anymore,” she says, as her husband nods in agreement.

“What’s the point of sending them to school for 12 years if they’re just going to get married,” he argues.

The Kumzaris are a proud people with a strong sense of history. Though they are Omani Arabs, they identify themselves as Kumzaris, descendants of Sheiks who ruled over the whole peninsula for hundreds of years, according to Van der Wal. They are semi-nomadic. In the fall, winter and spring they fish and live in Kumzar. In the summer, they all move to the nearby port town of Khasab where they harvest dates.

The Kumzari fisherman share the waters of the Gulf with American warships and aircraft carriers as well as Iranian and Omani military patrol boats.

“We will always be in the line of fire because we live on the Straits,” says a 31-year-old fisherman, who gave his name only as Zeid.

But as tensions escalate between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program, with Iran threatening to cut off the Straits if it comes under attack, the villagers seem unphased by the prospect of conflict.

“If there’s a war in the Straits... there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Zeid.

“So for now, we’ll keep fishing, and we’ll keep living because all the other stuff is out of our hands.” -AFP

JK Rowling’s first adult novel will be ‘blackly comic’ LONDON: It may lack wizards and witches, but J.K. Rowling and her publisher are hoping her first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” will have the magic touch.

The book’s title was announced Thursday by Little, Brown & Co. along with a brief plot synopsis and publication date.

The publisher said the “blackly comic” tale of rivalry and duplicity in a small English town would be available worldwide on Sept.

27. The book will be Rowling’s first post-Potter effort. Her sevenvolume saga about the adventures of a boy wizard became one of the most successful fictional series in history and led to a series of extremely popular films.

The new book, aimed at a grown-up audience, will be set in a seemingly idyllic English town called Pagford which is described as far more menacing than its pretty facade would indicate.

It opens with the sudden death of a popular man whose unexpected demise shocks the town. The battle for his seat on the local council sets off “the biggest war the town has yet seen,” with rich people fighting poor, parents battling their teenagers, and wives in conflict with their husbands.

The publisher said the 480-page novel will be sold as an e-book and audio download as well as in traditional hardback form.

The seven Harry Potter novels have sold 450 million copies and have been translated into 74 languages.

Rowling’s final Potter offering, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was published in 2007. She published a short Potter spinoff collection of stories, “The Tales Of Beedle The Bard,” in 2008.

Rowling said earlier this year she wanted to reach an adult audience, but kept the book’s name and publication date secret until Thursday.

In the past, many successful children’s writers have struggled to remake themselves as adult authors. Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne, a successful playwright in his early years, once confessed that he was forced to say “goodbye to all that” after his beloved books about the bear and friends.

But Rowling has one advantage: the Potter books had a huge adult, as well as child, audience.

Jon Howells of British book store chain Waterstones said “The Casual Vacancy” would likely be the year’s best-selling novel.

He said the synopsis came as a surprise and suggested similarities to the work of popular mystery writer Alexander McCall Smith and Mark Haddon, a children’s writer who had a huge adult hit with “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

“We were all expecting some sort of crime or mystery novel, but she has, refreshingly, surprised us all,” Howells said. “The plot sounds like it will have hints of Mark Haddon and McCall Smith, and the promise of black comedy is very beguiling.” -AP

ISLAMABAD FASHION WEEK

Models present creations by Fashion Era on the second day of the Islamabad Fashion Week at the Pak-China Friendship Center in Islamabad. The fashion week’s primary objective is to educate, empower and encourage designers and promote traditional crafts. (AFP)

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Redemption Artist: Jazmine Sullivan Album: Love Me Back Genre: R&B In short: Jazmine Sullivan burst into the scene with the Missy Elliott-assisted “Need U Bad” but her big breakthrough came with “Bust Your Windows,” and her sophomore album featured more of the great quality her debut has delivered; “Redemption” is a testament to Sullivan’s prowess as a songwriter and a singer.

To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.com E-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz Bieber, Swift team up for new song Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has teamed with country sensation Taylor Swift on a new song for his upcoming third album, though details were scant as the “Boyfriend” singer keeps fans guessing. Bieber told British radio station Capital FM in a recent interview that Swift was one of several people he had worked with on “Believe.” “I even wrote a song with Taylor Swift, so the whole album ranges differently,” Bieber said. “With my music it doesn’t only stay in a box. Everything is so different and that’s why I’m so happy with this album,” he added. Bieber, 18, did not give the title of the song he wrote with Swift, 22, nor did he say if the pair would sing it together. The pop singer also has said he worked with R&B star Usher, rappers Kanye West and Drake, and producer Timbaland on the new album which is expected to be released later this summer. -Reuters

Beyonce pens love letter to Michelle Obama There might not be much love lost between President Obama and KanyeWest. But it’s a whole different story when it comes to his wife Michelle and another musical icon, Beyonce.

The “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” songbird published a hand-written mash note to the First Lady on her Tumblr page (via Politico) recently, calling Obama “the ULTIMATE example of a truly strong African American woman. “She is a caring mother, she’s a loving wife, while at the same time, she is the FIRST LADY!!!!!,” Beyonce’s gush-fest continued.

“No matter the pressure, and the stress of being under the microscope - she’s humble, loving and sincere.” The singer wrapped up the missive by calling Obama a role model for her daughter, Blue Ivy. “Michelle, thank you so much for every single thing that u do for us -- I am proud to have my daughter grow up in a world where she has people like you to look up to.” The singer and the First Couple have something of a history together. Beyonce performed at the White House State Dinner that hosted Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon in 2010. -Reuters

Obama prefers Jay-Z over Kanye West President Barack Obama has softened and shifted his stance on some issues, but on one topic, he stands firm: Kanye West is still a jackass. Obama, who famously called “808s & Heartbreak” rapper West “a jackass” after West hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards, reaffirmed that opinion during an interview with the Atlantic.

Asked by the interviewer -- who will surely receive a Pulitzer for this -- whether he prefers West or his fellow rapper/recent collaborator Jay-Z, Obama answered, “Jay-Z ...lthough I do like Kanye. He’s a Chicago guy, smart. He’s very talented.”

Remembering Obama’s post-VMAs comment -- which was captured on a live mic prior to an interview -- the reporter queried further, “Even though you called him a jackass?”

“He is a jackass,” the leader of the free world replied. “But he’s talented.” -Reuters

saturDAY, april 14, 2012

India protests film star Shah Rukh Khan’s detention at US airport FRANCE: India on Friday lodged a diplomatic complaint with the United States after Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said he was detained by US airport immigration officials for 90 minutes.

Khan, 46, who was travelling in a private plane to deliver a speech at Yale University on Thursday evening, said he was held by officials at New York’s White Plains airport.

“Yes it always happens, it’s nice.

Whenever I start feeling arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America,” he joked with students at the Yale event.

“The immigration guys kick the stars out of stardom,” said Khan, who boasted of some small victories when he was questioned under detention, such as fibbing about his height.

“The next time I’m gonna be more adventurous.

What color are you? I’m gonna say white,” Khan said.

It’s not the first time Khan has complained of being targeted in the United States.

In 2009, the Indian cinema legend was detained for two hours at Newark airport in New York, suggesting then that he was singled out as a Muslim. He was re-

leased after the intervention of the US embassy.

That incident came shortly after Fox Star Studios struck a deal to finance and distribute the film “My Name is Khan”, starring Khan as an Indian Muslim setting out on a journey across the United States.

The film featured the contentious subject of racial profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Reacting to the latest incident, India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said he had asked India’s ambassador to Washington to take up the issue with the US authorities.

The US embassy in New Delhi issued a statement late Friday, apologizing for any “inconvenience” that Khan “may have experienced” on his way to Yale University.

Khan, is a heartthrob in movie-mad India having acted in nearly 80 films, including huge box-office hits such as “Om Shanti Om”.

A foreign ministry official in New Delhi said the “repeated” targeting of Khan had to be more than coincidental.

“A mechanical apology is not adequate,” said the official, who declined to be named. -AFP

Indian Bollywood film actor Shah Rukh Khan attends the unveiling of the brand campaign ‘Nokia Channel Me’ for the Nokia Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), IPL Season 5 in Mumbai on April 2, 2012. (AFP)

Idol judges save finalist from elimination LOS ANGELES: The “American Idol” judges didn’t stutter: Jessica Sanchez “ain’t going home.”

The 16-year-old high school student from San Diego who powered through the Jazmine Sullivan ballad “Stuttering” on Wednesday, was revealed to have received the fewest viewer votes on Thursday, but the “Idol” judges unanimously decided to save Sanchez before she could even finish her last-chance performance of Deborah Cox’s “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.”

“Give me that mic,” interrupted Jennifer Lopez. “This is crazy! Yes, we’re using the save. You ain’t going home.”

Sanchez, sometimes known as her sassy alter ego “Bebe Chez,” had been deemed one of this season’s front-runners, consistently impressing the panel with savvy-beyond-her-years takes on such tunes as Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” and Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams.”

Elise Testone, the rockin’ 28-year-old teacher from Charleston, S.C., who sizzled with Lady Gaga’s “You and I,” and 20year-old student Joshua Ledet, of Westlake, La., who earned a standing ovation from the panel for Bruno Mars’ “Runaway Baby,” joined Sanchez as the bottom three vote-getters. It was the first time at the bottom for Sanchez.

“This is a ridiculous bottom three, America,” said Randy Jackson. Thursday’s results surprised even longtime “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. Earlier in the day, Seacrest tweeted: “There is a result tonight on ‘American Idol’ that some would say is very shocking.” Lythgoe later reiterated the sentiment, posting on Twitter: “I am truly shocked by tonight’s ‘American Idol’ result! I don’t understand!”

Three seasons ago, “Idol” producers introduced the ability for the show’s judges to overturn viewers’ votes one time before the top five finalists are selected. Rescuing the technically impressive singer this week means two contestants will be booted next week. “I want people to know I’ve been working hard my whole life,” said Sanchez after her bailout. Before the results were revealed, the top seven finalists performed Pink’s “Raise Your Glass,” 10th season finalist James Durbin delivered his original tune “Higher Than Heaven” and third season finalist Jennifer Hudson dueted with Ne-Yo on “Think Like a Man.”

Princess Diana wanted to star in Bodyguard 2, says Kevin Costner

In this April 11, 2012 photo released by Fox, Jessica Sanchez performs on the singing competition series “American Idol,” in Los Angeles. (AP)

The other singers remaining in the competition are Hollie Cavanagh, 18, of McKinney, Texas; Colton Dixon, 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Skylar Laine, 18, of Brandon, Miss.; and Phillip Phillips, 21 of Leesburg, Ga. The seven finalists will return to the stage Wednesday and face elimination again Thursday. -AP

LONDON: Princess Diana was in line to take the Whitney Houston role in a sequel to 1992 romantic blockbuster ‘The Bodyguard’ shortly before her death, Kevin Costner has revealed, reports The Guardian.

Speaking on the US talk show Anderson, in a recording due to be broadcast in May, Costner said he received the screenplay for the proposed project on Aug. 31, 1997, the day before the princess was killed in a car accident in a Paris tunnel at the age of 36 while trying to escape chasing photographers. The film, tentatively titled ‘The Bodyguard 2’, would have seen Diana take a familiar role, that of a princess who requires protection from paparazzi and stalkers. Costner would have reprised his role as former special agent turned bodyguard Frank Farmer, who is charged with keeping her safe.

“Diana and I had been talking about doing Bodyguard 2,” said Costner, who produced the first film. “I told her I would take care of her just the same way that I took care of Whitney.

“She wanted me to write it for her. I said: ‘I’ll tailor it for you if you’re interested.’ She goes: ‘I am interested.’”

‘The Bodyguard’ was one of the highestgrossing films of the early 90s, with a worldwide return of $410m.

Mel Gibson fires back at anti-Semitism claim LOS ANGELES: Mel Gibson fired back Thursday at screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for accusing the “Braveheart” star of anti-Semitism, calling the writer’s comments “utter fabrications” and saying he was angry over a rejected film script.

Gibson, who has been dogged by similar criticism since making an anti-Semitic statement in 2006 to police in a drunken rant, had been working with the “Basic Instinct” screenwriter on a movie about the ancient Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.

On Wednesday, Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Eszterhas’ script was rejected by Warner Bros. Upon hearing of it, Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called “The Maccabees.”

Eszterhas wrote that Gibson announced the project purely “in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism,” according to a copy posted on TheWrap.com.

He also accused Gibson of calling Jews “oven-dodgers” and “Jewboys” when they met, and even wrote that Gibson admitted vowing to kill his ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, following a bitter public feud with her over custody of the pair’s child. Gibson, the Oscar winner whose movies include “Mad Max” and “Lethal Weapon,” did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Eszterhas’ description of his “statements and actions” are “utter fabrications.”

“Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,” Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman.

“I absolutely want to make this movie; it’s just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,” he said. Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Eszterhas submitted the most “substandard” he had seen

in 25 years of overseeing script development and a “waste of time.”

Jewish leaders criticized Gibson’s Maccabee project when it was revealed last fall as offensive given the star’s history.

In the past, Jewish groups accused Gibson of evoking ageold stereotypes about Jews in 2004’s “Passion of the Christ,” which made over $600 million at worldwide box offices.

Two years later, Gibson was arrested for drunken driving in Malibu, California, and he ranted at the officer: “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” His arrest and tirade made headlines around the world. He later publicly apologized and attended self-help meetings. Judah Maccabee was the son of a Jewish priest who in the 2nd century B.C. led a guerrilla revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empire. The historical figure, whose last name in Hebrew translates as “The Hammer,” is revered by many Jews. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates his triumphs. -Reuters

German runaway Yvonne the cow nets moo-vie deal

Allen’s To Rome With Love to open L.A. film fest Woody Allen’s “To Rome With Love” will serve as the opening night film at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival, LAFF organizers announced on Thursday. The Sony Pictures Classics comedy, which features an ensemble cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page and Allen, will have its North American premiere at the festival. Its world premiere takes place this month in Italy. Allen’s last film, “Midnight in Paris,” was launched at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film received a Best Picture nomination, won Allen an Oscar for his screenplay and became the top-grossing film of the writer-director’s career, with more than $56 million at the US box office and nearly $150 million worldwide. “I can’t think of a better way to kick off this year’s festival than with the original independent filmmaker himself, Woody Allen,” said festival director Stephanie Allain in a press release announcing the selection. -Reuters

Hell’s Kitchen gets a double order from Fox “Hell’s Kitchen” has cooked up another couple of seasons.

Fox has renewed the series for an 11th and 12th season, the network said Thursday, ensuring that fans will be treated to the sight of Gordon Ramsay bellowing at terrified aspiring chefs for a long time to come. The 10th season of “Hell’s Kitchen” premieres May 29 at 8 p.m. -Reuters

11

Indian Bollywood actresses Sushmita Sen (left) and Poonam Dhillon (right) displays creations by designer Manish Malhotra (center) for a public awareness campaign “Save and Empower the Girl Child” in Mumbai. (AFP)

BERLIN: Yvonne the German cow evaded helicopter searches, dodged the hunter’s gun and even eschewed her calf and best friend for a life on the run. Now the tale of the runaway cow, who captivated the nation last year when she bolted from her farm to escape slaughter and roamed free in the Bavarian countryside for three months, will provide fodder for a Hollywood animated film.

“Cow on the Run,” based on the daring dairy cow’s escapades in the wild, will be produced by Munich-based film company Papa Loewe and American film producer Max Howard, whose previous credits include Walt Disney’s “The Lion King.”

Michael Aufhauser, founder of the Gut Aiderbichl animal sanctuary in southern Germany, which now looks after Yvonne, said the film was going to be “very romantic.”

“Yvonne even falls in love with a buck,” he said of the film which is set to hit the silver screen in 2014. The farmyard fugitive broke through an electric fence on a farm near the Bavarian town of Muehldorf in May last year. Yvonne lived happily off the land for three months until she landed on a “most wanted” list after bolting in front of a police car. Authorities deemed the runaway a security risk and gave hunters the go ahead to gun her down.

But Yvonne foiled numerous attempts to capture her, and thwarted plans by animal activists to lure her back to the farmyard using her own calf, her friend and a breeding bull named Ernst.

The canny cow was eventually captured in September after receiving a double dose of tranquilizers and was taken to the animal sanctuary after more than 90 days in the wild.

“People thought she was a dumb cow and would not know what to do in the wild,” Aufhauser said.

“But she was so clever, nobody could catch her and that amazed people.” -Reuters

12

ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2012

If you have an event you wish to include, please email: aroundtown@alwatandaily.com

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

GUST opens up with Layan and iGive

KUWAIT: The Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) student-run club iGive, collaborated with Layan, a media volunteer team from around the Gulf, who are specialized in covering the tragedy of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Both groups are working together to raise awareness and collect donations in attempts to provide aid for the Syrian refugees and so they got together to tell their stories of what they saw, what they did and how it is important to reach out.

The main purpose is to educate individuals about the conditions in Syria, spread awareness about what is happening and encourage people to participate in whatever means they can whether it be engaging in the act of volunteering, helping spread awareness or even donating.

First, iGive share the story of Lulu Al-Shaheen, GUST Student and iGive Member who was nominated to join the Layan team on their trip to Lebanon. A small video was shared, where Lulu talks about what she saw, the hospitals and homes they visited and what she felt when she was there: “It became very clear to me that the people there needed more moral support than they did material support.”

Other members of the trip were

Month a t

there to share their stories, including Abdulkareem Al-Shatti, Fahad Al-Rahmani, Talal Al-Mattar and Wasan Al-Budaiyeh.All normal Kuwaiti citizens, living ordinary lives here in Kuwait, but all who were determined to go lending a helping hand and ended up being helped themselves, as they said. The team took turns speaking about their journey, the families they met, their need for someone to hear them out.

They all mentioned how they were there to help, but from the hope they felt from the people there, it gave them hope in themselves.

The team members shared sto-

ries of the strength and hope of the refugees and urged the audience to help in any way they can, and that doesn’t necessarily mean money or to go there, but even a word spreading awareness - is of utmost importance. iGive is a GUST voluntary youth club that hosts and organizes activities in and out of university.

It addresses topics that touch the students’ lives in order to increase their efficiency, productivity, and responsibility towards their community. It also aims to promote the principle of diversity and social responsibility.

Sudoku

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

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 pseudocalligraphic narrative of life experiences on luminous and luxurious enamel weaves.

Art exhibition 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.

K’S PATH invites applicants for the adoption of pets Sepp is a Domestic Long Haired (DLH) male cat. He will be 2-years-old April 2012. This friendly, laid-back boy loves a good cuddle and likes a high vantage point in a cat tree or ledge to look out from. He would do best in a home with children over 12 years of age.

To adopt, contact +965 67006122 or visit the website www.kspath.org

Diwaniya presentation

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.

Arabic course March 11-April 19/ TIES Center: TIES Center is glad to announce the start of Arabic courses. We offer classes for all levels, from beginners to advance and also introduced new classes called Kuwait dialect. TIES Arabic classes are intended for all expatriates who wish to learn Arabic for whatever purposebusiness, basic communication, as a second language or simply as a hobby. For more information/registration, contact 97228860/97793440.

Bread baking course April 19- May 10/ 6 p.m.-8 p.m. /TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites all ladies the unique course of preparing the ancient traditional food “The Bread Baking”. Baking of different kinds of breads will be demonstrated including Old English Toast, Italian Bread Stick, Strawberry Sweet Heart and many more. For more information please contact us on 97228860/2523015/6 or emailinfo@tiescenter.net.

April 17/ 7 p.m. / AWARE Center: The AWARE Center cordially invites interested expats to its diwaniya presentation entitled, “The Impact of Islamic civilization on the West,” by Bryn Barnard on Tuesday. Bryn Barnard will be discussing the impact of Islamic civilization on the West, the subject of his book ‘The Genius of Islam: How Muslims Made the Modern World’. This one hour illustrated PowerPoint talk will include aspects of Islamic philosophy, art, book arts, music, astronomy, medicine, engineering; a discussion of how Islamic civilization is presented in North American schools; and suggestions about why the deep historical connections between Islam and the West are not better known today.

Waist Watchers 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.

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

Hip Hop at BAIA Every week/ Salmiya: BAIA offers weekly Hip Hop classes for students aged five and up. These “just for fun” classes are a great work-out. For more information visit www.thebaia.com or contact: info@thebaia.com. Telephone: 2562 3604 ext.154, 2562 0706 ext.154. Mobile: 6005 2087.

Dilbert

Mario is a gentle and affectionate 6-years-young Spitz male. This friendly boy does great with people and dogs of all ages.

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

This could be a day of inner turmoil, Aries. You’ll rethink some of your fundamental values, unsure if they’re still relevant to your life. It’s clear that some soul searching is needed.There are no right or wrong answers, only what is in your heart. If your goal is to live authentically, then you’ll need to make some big changes in your life. Don’t act rashly. Think things through before taking steps.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

You need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, Taurus. Why not take a few steps back and try to look at your life more objectively? Regardless of what you might be thinking at the moment, you do have a terrific life. Stop and count your blessings. Make a list and keep it in your wallet to refer to at low moments. Force yourself to be festive tonight. It will do you good to get out.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

A particularly tricky situation could occur at work.

If you aren’t careful, you could lose your cool.

Make a concerted effort to keep your wits about you, Gemini. It could be that a colleague is baiting you, but that’s no reason to take it. Keep to yourself as much as possible today. Close your office door. At home, go to bed early.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Boy, your life seems seriously out of balance, doesn’t it, Cancer? Today provides an opportunity to rethink what is truly important. Consider exercise as one way to improve your health and manage your stress level. Once you get started with a healthy regimen, you’ll see how it helps you gain perspective. It’s likely that the cause of all this stress can be eliminated when viewed through a different lens.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

You like to feel needed, Leo, but today you might throw up your hands and say, “Enough!” You’ve given so much of yourself for so long that friends and loved ones tend to think of your largesse as a right rather than a privilege. Today, remind them of their error.

Take a day off from indentured servitude. Go to a fancy restaurant and enjoy being waited on. Don’t forget to leave a big tip.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

You could be overwhelmed with information today, Virgo, as you receive more phone calls and email messages than you can possibly answer. Be clear about your priorities and stick with them.

Otherwise, you’re likely to spend the day being batted around the court like a tennis ball.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

Your mind is like a sponge today, Libra, eager to absorb all sorts of information. Take care that the information you’re absorbing is accurate. There’s a high likelihood that the fascinating news you hear is mostly a mix of fantasy and fiction. Go to the source and get the facts before acting on this information. If necessary, do your own research online or in the library.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

If you aren’t careful, there’s a strong possibility that you’ll overindulge today, Scorpio. Your career frustrations may manifest in the form of overeating, excess drinking, or reckless spending. These are just symptoms masking the real problem. If you can take some time to meditate, you’ll calm your nerves and reveal the root of your frustration.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

You’re too hard on yourself, Sagittarius. If things haven’t gone exactly as planned over the last few days, there’s no sense in berating yourself over it.

As long as you did the best that you could, what’s the problem? It’s likely you’ve experienced a delay and not a cancellation.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

You’re especially intuitive today, Capricorn. If this is a fairly new occurrence for you, you could be at a loss as to how to make the most of this gift.

Only you can know for sure, but one suggestion is to reflect on changes that you’d like to make at work. Pitch them to your boss. With today’s keen insight, you’ll almost be able to read his or her mind and anticipate any objections.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

Today’s planetary aspects indicate that this is likely to be a day of excess, Aquarius, some of it good, some of it not so good. Take care not to overindulge in food and drink. You could be merely acting out your stress with such behavior. You’d be better served to meditate and get to the root of the problem. On the other hand, money could come your way, possibly a lot of it!

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

You should make an effort to be patient and tolerant, especially at the office, even though you might not feel like it, Pisces. You’ll likely take a lot of deep breaths as projects get delayed and meetings drag on. There isn’t much you can do about it. Stay focused and trust that everything will be resolved by day’s end.