April 23, 2012

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1413

20 PAGES

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150 Fils with IHT

Citizenship to be granted for 20,000 Bedouns

Committee finalized 3,300 cases, identifies nationalities of 70,000 Bedouns Mohammed Al-Salman, Mohammed Al-Khaldi Staff Writers & Agencies

KUWAIT: The Head of the Central Commission for Illegal Residents Saleh Al-Fadhala revealed that the committee had reviewed the cases of 3,300 Bedouns (Stateless Arabs) in preparation for naturalizing them. He explained that the total number of

candidates is estimated at 20,000 which include dependents.

The revelation was made to reporters by the Rapporteur for the Parliamentary Bedoun Committee MP Nayef Al-Merdas following a meeting with Al-Fadhala with the committee on Sunday. The lawmaker also stated that the nationalities of 70,000 Bedouns have been identified through definite indicators, which according to him, will not prevent them from obtaining identity documents.

Elaborating on the issue, Al-Merdas said, “The Central Commission for Illegal Residents has identified three categories for Bedouns. The first one is eligible considering the fact that they were included in the 1965 census, hence will be issued with a green card.” The MP quoted Al-Fadhala as saying that 3,300

Blood continues to flow in Syria despite UN presence

DAMASCUS: Troops shot dead six civilians on Sunday in Homs despite the presence of UN observers in the rebel province to pave the way for a 300-strong mission approved by the Security Council, monitors said. The deaths rose to 17 on Sunday across Syria, including two civilians and four soldiers who died during an assault on a rebel bastion near Damascus by regime forces, they said.

The violence came even as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan singled out the government of President Bashar Al-Assad in an appeal for an end to hostilities by both loyalist forces and rebels seeking to oust him. “I urge all forces whether governmental, opposition or others to put down their weapons and work with the United Nations monitors to consolidate the fragile cessation of violence,” Annan said in a statement. “The government in particular must desist from the use of heavy weapons and, as it has committed, withdraw such weapons and armed units from population centers and implement fully its commitments under the six-point plan.”

The latest bloodshed came only hours after the UN Security Council voted to send 300 unarmed observers to Syria for three months, although Washington warned it may veto a new mandate for the mission.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces shot dead three civilians in the city of Homs and three others in Talbisseh, another town visited by UN observers in restive Homs province.

“Three citizens were killed by security forces fire in the Khaldiyeh, Al-Guta and Al-Mukayam districts of Homs,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.

Two advance team members set up base in Homs on Sunday, mission member Neeraj Singh said earlier, a day after they made their first visit to the central protest city since arriving in Syria a week ago.

On Saturday “the team drove or walked around the city of Homs and stopped at different locations to talk to the people. Two UN military observers have now been stationed at Homs since yesterday evening,” Singh told AFP. UN observers also toured on Sunday the city of Rastan in Homs province, according to Free Syrian Army spokesman Colonel Saadeddine Kassem who escorted them through the rebel town. Troops fired warning shots into the air to disperse a group of residents who surrounded the observers, he added.

Later the observers visited the city of Hama farther north, including a square which witnessed huge antiregime protests last year, activist Abu Ghazi Hamwi reported from the scene. The official Syrian news agency SANA said the observers met the governor of Hama during the visit.

On Saturday, the observers went to Baba Amr, a rebel hideout in Homs battered by a month-long army bombardment that monitors say killed hundreds before it was retaken on March 1.

Bedouns, which is equivalent to half of the eligible candidates, have been contacted to ensure that they have no security restrictions on them and to inform them that they are in the queue for naturalization.

The MP further explained that the second category will be issued with a yellow card, noting that this includes those who have been in Kuwait since 1966 through 1980. The third category, he stated, will be issued with a red card due to security restrictions on them. However, they will be entitled to education and health services.

MP Al-Merdas also revealed that the commission created a blue card to verify those suspected of holding false passports.

For his part, Al-Fadhala affirmed that he had presented a

Kuwait embassy in London denies reports of diplomat arrest by British police KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Embassy in London denied on Sunday a report of arrest by British Police to one of its diplomats in front of the residence of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. An official of the embassy told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the embassy strongly denied such allegations and contacted the media outlet which published the report through the British foreign ministry which vigorously denied the claims as well. The official also denied that any of its diplomats could have gone through any ordeal. The official explained that what happened was a small dispute which took place last year between a Kuwaiti citizen and British police in front of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s house.

The official added the embassy succeeded in ending the dispute and sending the citizen back home.

Kuwait March inflation at 4-month high of 4.1% CAPITALS: Kuwait’s annual inflation edged up to a four-month high of 4.1 percent in March, helped by a jump in food prices, data from the Gulf Arab country’s Central Statistics Office showed on Sunday.

Consumer price growth accelerated to 0.8 percent month-on-month in March from 0.2 percent in February as food prices surged 2.6 percent, the fastest rate in 15 months, the data showed.

Analysts have expected price growth in one of the world’s biggest crude exporters to ease this year partly due to a global economic slowdown.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member’s economy is seen growing by 3.8 percent this year after an estimated 4.5 percent in 2011, when it was helped by robust crude prices and increased government More on 9 spending.

Security boosted in Bahrain for F1 race

Clashes in Bangladesh over missing opposition head

4 Activists clash with police in Bangladesh over missing opposition leader in Dhaka on Sunday, April 22, 2012. Opposition leader Ilias Ali has been missing for five days (AFP)

PARIS: Voters were turning out Sunday in solid numbers for the first round of France’s presidential election, with conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political career on the line amid frustration over his personal style and inability to turn around a stagnant French economy. Sunday’s balloting will trim down a list of 10 candidates from across the political spectrum to two finalists for a decisive May 6 runoff, which will set a course for the next five years in this pillar of the European Union. The Interior Ministry said early turnout figures showed 28 percent of France’s 44-million-plus voters cast ballots before noon - less than the 31 percent in 2007 at the same time, but more than in the four previous races.

Sarkozy and his main expected challenger, Socialist nominee Francois Hollande, have pushed for a strong turnout on the idea that it would help the political mainstream and dilute the impact of more ideological voters.

Polls for months have shown that Sarkozy and Hollande are likely to make the cut - and suggest Hollande would win the campaign finale.

“This is an election that will weigh on the future of Europe. That’s why many people are watching us,” said Hollande after voting in Tulle, a town in central France.

“They’re wondering not so much what the winner’s name will be, but especially More on 5 what policies will follow.”

Light bulb with 20-year life unveiled in US on Earth Day

PARIS: A prize-winning, super energy saving LED bulb from Dutch electronics giant Philips, said to last over 20 years, went on sale online and in stores Sunday to coincide with Earth Day. The bulb that won the 2011 US Department of Energy’s “Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize,” was available from retailers for $50, and the company said it was planning discounts to bring the cost down to as little as $25-$30.

The 10-watt light bulb was deemed an efficient alternative to the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb, and when used three hours a day, boasted an impressive 27.4 years maximum life span, the company said.

For consumers attentive to cost, Philips said the price tag was easily offset by energy savings of $165 over its lifetime. “Because the new bulb is 83 percent more energy efficient than the standard 60-watt incandescent, consumers can now experience new savings for their pocketbooks,” Philips’ North America executive Ed Crawford said in announcing rebates. International Earth Day, now in its 42nd year, was celebrated by environmentalists Sunday seeking to bring attention to climate change and pollution, and highlight ways to save energy. -AFP

Space mining startup set for launch in US

Pakistan orders new plane inspection after crash

Artist Murad Subaya paints a graffiti artwork on a concrete wall at the site of weekly rallies held by anti-government protesters in Sanaa April 22, 2012.

A group of youth artists have launched a graffiti painting campaign on Sanaa’s streets to promote peace in neighborhoods where violence took place during last year’s uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down from power in February. (Reuters)

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France goes to polls for first round of presidential elections

France’s President and UMP party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, exit the voting booth with their ballots in the first round of 2012 French presidential election at a polling station in Paris, April 22, 2012. (Reuters)

roadmap to the committee to resolve the longstanding issue. He added that the individuals with clean records and were included in the 1965 census will be naturalized. The official noted that the commission invited 3,000 individuals of this segment, while affirming quest to finalize the files of all those included in the 1965 census. “The files of Bedoun who work in oil companies and postgraduate degree holders will be referred to the Council of Ministers to consider their naturalization,” the commission head further unveiled.

He added that a decree will be issued within days for granting citizenship to two groups of those included in the 1965 census and the children of widows and divorcees with clean records.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s defense minister says all airplanes operated by private airlines in the country must undergo a new technical inspection to determine whether they are safe to fly.

Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar’s comments Sunday come two days after a passenger jet crashed as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at the main airport in the capital, Islamabad, killing all 127 on board.

It was the second major air disaster involving a private airline in Pakistan in less than two years. It revived concerns about the safety of aviation in a country saddled by economic problems.

Mukhtar told state TV the inspections would be carried out one by one, and any planes that failed would be grounded. He said planes currently in operation could continue to fly as they awaited inspection. -AP

DHAKA: Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of opposition activists in Bangladesh on Sunday as a nationwide strike over the disappearance of a senior politician brought daily life to a halt. More than a dozen people were injured, four of them seriously, police said, as violence erupted in the northeastern city of Sylhet, home to opposition leader Ilias Ali who has been missing for five days. Rights groups have blamed security agencies for the disappearance of dozens of opposition activists over the past two years, alleging the victims have been abducted on government orders. Police found Ali’s car abandoned in an upmarket district of Dhaka on Tuesday night. His driver is also missing.

Ali, a regional head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is the highest profile opposition politician to have “disappeared” since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power in January 2009.

The BNP has accused the elite Rapid Action Battalion of abducting Ali, an allegation it has rejected.

Police in Sylhet said clashes broke out after they were attacked by 800 opposition activists, forcing officers to retaliate with rubber bullets and tear gas.

“We’ve fired more than 50 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells. But the clashes are still going on,” deputy commissioner of Sylhet police Abdullah Al Azad told AFP, adding more than a dozen people were injured.

There was also unrest in the northwestern city of Rajshahi, where police beat BNP activists with batons as they marched through the streets, television pictures showed.

In the capital Dhaka, streets were empty, businesses and schools were closed as around 10,000 policemen were on patrol to prevent violence, Dhaka police spokesman Masud Ahmed told AFP. Two small bombs were exploded in the city, but no one was injured. -AFP

Tea to be declared India’s national drink

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Iran says is building copy of captured US drone

TEHRAN: Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related what he said were details of the aircraft’s operational history to prove his claim that Tehran’s military experts had extracted data from the US RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran, state television reported. Among the drone’s past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed. Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

US officials have acknowledged losing the drone. They have said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory. Hajizadeh told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a “national asset” for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details. But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered. “There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft.We recovered part of the data that had been erased. There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God,” Hajizadeh said.

He said all operations carried out by the drone had been recorded in the memory of More on 4 the aircraft, including maintenance and testing.

Bee Gee Robin Gibb wakes from coma

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ALWATAN DAILY

kuwait

mondAY, april 23, 2012

Cabinet extends technical body chief ’s term of office for 4 years KUWAIT: The Cabinet held Sunday its weekly meeting at Seif Palace here chaired

by His Highness Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali said the Cabinet has approved a draft decree extending the chairman of the technical agency for studying development projects and initiatives Adel Al-Roumi’s term of office for four years.

Following the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah made a statement on the meeting’s deliberations and outcome.

At the onset of the meeting, the Cabinet was briefed on two letters sent to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah from Spanish King Juan Carlos and Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.

The letters focused on bilateral relations and means to strengthen cooperation in all domains.

On the other hand, the Cabinet welcomed the coming visit of Tunisian President Marzouki to Kuwait, which will start Monday.

The Prime Minister offered a detailed presentation on the outcome of the recent of visit of the Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said Al Said.

The Cabinet hailed candid talks between the leaders of Kuwait and Oman and the strong bonds linking the two nations.

Meanwhile, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib presented a report to the Cabinet on the situation of sports in Kuwait including recommendations on the measures required to overcome incumbent negative aspects and challenges. The Cabinet discussed the main issues to be debated by the National Assembly this week.

Finally, the Cabinet reviewed the political affairs in light of the reports related to the overall political developments at the Arab and international levels. -KUNA

Amir sponsors PAAET graduation ceremony

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is to sponsor a ceremony on Monday for honoring top graduates of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) faculties and institutes for the scholastic year 20102011.

The ceremony is to take place at the Basic Education Faculty theatre, in Shamiyya, at 10:30 a.m. -KUNA

Cabinet during its weekly meeting at Seif Palace chaired by His Highness Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah on Sunday, April 22, 2012.

(KUNA)

Kuwait increases appropriations for overseas medication KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Cabinet decided on Sunday to increase the appropriations for covering the daily expenses of patients in US, European and Arab hospitals, Minister of Health Dr. Ali Saad Al-Obeidi said.

Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after the weekly meeting, the minister said: “Under the decision the per diem appropriations for

medication at US hospitals rose from 16 US dollars to 150, British hospitals from 10 to a 100 sterling pounds, other European hospitals from 10 Euros to 150, and Arab hospitals from five Kuwait dinars to 35.”

“The appropriations for a patient’s costs of living outside hospitals in the US increased from $120 to 150, the United Kingdom from 75 to

Kuwait embassy in London denies reports BuResli: Rayyaha has 8 million tires, 2 percent of them only were burnt of diplomat arrest by British police KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Embassy in London denied on Sunday a report of arrest

by British Police to one of its diplomats in front of the residence of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

An official of the embassy told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the embassy strongly denied such allegations and contacted the media outlet which published the report through the British foreign ministry which vigorously denied the claims as well.

The official also denied that any of its diplomats could have gone through any

ordeal. The official explained that what happened was a small dispute which took place last year between a Kuwaiti citizen and British police in front of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s house.

The official added the embassy succeeded in ending the dispute and sending the citizen back home.

The media outlet had published a report saying that the “official was tasered by cops for urinating on Tony Blair’s doorstep ... with a powerful 50,000 volt shock and took him into overnight custardy.” -Agencies

Ministry of Commerce, Industry foils fraud attempt Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Ministry of Commerce and Industry foiled a fraud attempt yesterday morning in theWholesale Market in Shuwaikh Industrial Area, wherein the dealer tried to deceive customers through typing false volume of quantity on the boxes of tissues.

Head of Capital Inspection Team Eid AlReshidi told Al-Watan that the team conducted the inspection raid according to the instructions of the minister of commerce and industry in order to ensure the safety of local markets and protect the consumers.

The team raided four stalls offering tissues boxes where the dealer had typed on each box that it includes 150 double tissues, but the team discovered that each box includes just 112 tissues. The case was referred to the public prosecution.

Al-Reshidi disclosed that the product was made in Kuwait and the team confiscated thousands of boxes, adding that the

Photo of boxes of tissues that the Ministry confiscated. (Al Watan)

ministry will exert all possible efforts to observe local markets and foil all fraud attempts.

Citizenship to be granted for 20,000 Bedouns continued from page 1

It has been gathered that the members of the Bedoun Committee appealed to Al-Fadhala that his pronouncements and promises should be translated into tangible actions and to serve justice for the eligible candidates among the Bedoun in order to ward off a rally that the Bedoun are reportedly planning on May 1 if their grievances are not addressed.

In another development, a group of MPs within the Majority Bloc are planning to question any minister who fails to respond to questions addressed to them within the allowed deadline. The said lawmakers envisage this as a solution to ministers’ failure to adequately deal with their questions.

In this context, MP Badr Al-Dahoum accused some ministers of deliberately disregarding the questions, which according to him is indicative of a lack of cooperation.

He noticed that certain ministers turn to their undersecretaries of directors to handle the questions, and called on such officials to resign if they feel unable to run their ministries.

“We need competent ministers who do not place their responsibilities on undersecretaries and directors. An incapacitated minister should be stay home,” the lawmaker thundered.

In other news, the head of the parliamentary investigation committee into alleged illicit financial transfers abroad Dr. Faisal Al-Mislem stated that the committee had decided to second him to the government institutions that have decline to hand over necessary documents to the committee. “Following 13 meetings by the committee which took about 50 hours, it has become evident that there is a purposeful attempt to obstruct the committee by certain government agencies through abstention to address questions or provide certain necessary documents,” the MP lamentably said.

Moreover, parliamentary sources have revealed that MP Khaled Al-Mutairi has finalized a draft interpellation against the Minister of Defense containing issues such as allegations of corruption, failure to address parliamentary queries.

Mervat Abdul Dayem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Owner of Al-Fazzaa Company, which owns the tires at the dumps yard in Rayyaha, Resli BuResli said that what occurred is a “cheap attempt made by influential people to approve their projects”.

He noted that if the fire was set in another area, the disaster would have been worse than burning oil wells, adding that the incident has its negative impact on health and the environment. He noted that in 2009, when the company was awarded the tender of buying used tires from the municipality on Feb. 8, the site was not handed over to the company officially.

“The company was not allowed to import its equipment, since they (the equipment) require approvals from the municipality to enter Kuwait, not to mention confiscating 60 percent of the space of the project unnecessarily.” In May, the supervisor of the site expelled all 41 laborers and banned the entrance of any vehicle. He also blocked the entrances and exits with a sand wall and confiscated big lots of land from the project under the pretext that they are not owned by the company months after signing the contract.

Moreover, the company assigned to guard the site has a contract with the municipality to guard the whole area that is under the municipality’s umbrella. He went on to say that his company’s contract with the municipality is to buy the tires and export them, but since the tender was awarded, the company was not able to work officially and the site was not handed over to the company officially. He complained that the municipality placed obstacles to obstruct the work of the company and expelled its workers from the site after 25 days of work only, not to mention ignoring official correspondences. He said that he had met the minister, but the minister stated that he has no control over the municipality employ-

ees. He added that the municipality forces the company to export the tires as they are which violates the laws and regulations, in addition to international agreements that Kuwait had signed, such as Basel. Basel bans the importation and exportation of used tires. He said that this prompted his company to obtain official approvals to bring equipment to handle the tires in an environmental way that is legal. However, this request was declined, but in the second contract, the equipment was added to it. He explained that this equipment allows the company to turn tires from a banned substance to a substance that can be sold, but the company’s request for this equipment was declined.

He noted that around 35 containers of used tires were shipped to various destinations, adding that some of those containers were seized in several countries where used tires are banned. He criticized the authorities for forcing his company to work in illegal business and stressed that those equipment are manufactured according to the municipality’s standards. He said that when he informed the municipality that exporting used tires is illegal, the municipality told him to go to the port and the authorities there will allow the company to ship the containers carrying the used tires.

However, the containers were seized in other countries shipment, which led to arguments. He revealed that he received tips that influential figures have obtained a license for a factory that recycles used tires and plan to ban the exportation of used tires in order to not negatively influence the business. He mentioned that he filed a case a year ago is waiting for the final verdicts.

He added that this issue has been discussed before and that there were similar arsons in the past.

He remarked that although he provided the authorities with information about those responsible for the arsons, the authorities did not take any action against them.

100 pounds, other European countries from EUR 75 to 150 and KD 35 in Arab countries,” Dr. AlObeidi revealed.

The decision set the appropriations for the daily expenses of patient’s companion at USD 150 in the US, 100 pounds in the UK, EUR 150 in European countries and KD 35 in Arab countries, he added. -KUNA

KISR, MoE to carry out study on reusing water Mervat Abduldaim Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) on Sunday signed an agreement with the Ministry of Electricity and Water to carry out a pilot study to lower the water levels for reuse in Jaber Al-Ahmad and Qairawan areas. Speaking on the occasion, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity and Water Ahmad Al-Jassar expressed confidence that the relevant studies being carried out by KISR would yield the desired results.

“This agreement is part of our cooperation with KISR which has previously conducted numerous studies for the ministry yielding important results,” the undersecretary said.

Al-Jassar underscored the ministry’s keenness on depending on the research-based studies in the implementation of sustainable development projects. He explained that the pilot study being carried by KISR complement the ministry’s efforts in confronting the rise of underground and subservice water levels in Qairawan residential area, adding that the ministry seeks to treat these waters for reuse in the two areas.

“Kuwait’s dependence on water desalination is an essential option to provide necessary fresh water,’ the official noted, while stressing the ministry’s efforts in creating additional water resources. For his part, the Director General of KISR Dr. Naji Al-Mutairi noted that the research study complements similar previous projects that have been carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Electricity and Water.

He added that the project constitutes a key step in comprehensively treating all the areas affected by rising water levels, while elaborating on the techniques to be used by KISR researches to this effect.

The KISR Director further asserted that the project will equally provide training opportunities for the ministry’s employees on how to handle such kind of problems and find solutions to them. For his part, the Director of Water Resources at KISR Mohammad Al-Rashed referred to the longstanding cooperation between the two sides, adding that his organization has handed over the outcome of a previous project in Shamiya and Keifan areas.

Social justice, stability required for development: Minister DOHA: Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh said Sunday that social justice and stability are the main bases for development and progress in both developed and developing countries. “The basic fact in today’s world is that people are looking forward to having proper job, home, secure atmosphere and better future for daughters and sons as well as a government that heed their ambitions and aspirations,” Al-Saleh said in his speech at the thirteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) held here.

“So the UNCTAD XIII has to recommend a package of general policies and organizational reforms on both the national and international levels to raise the standards of living of developing countries and help it face the repercussions of global crisis.” Al-Saleh underlined the importance of democracy and good governance in achieving sustainable development.

“Building modern states should be based on consultation, accountability, transparency, education and investing more in developing human resources,” he said. The Kuwaiti official urged the

UNCTAD to better implement its mechanisms and capacity to help bolster economic and social cooperation on the international level to achieve development goals.

He pointed out the UNCTAD VIII is held in critical time after the global financial crisis and the debts crisis in most developed countries as well as the political upheavals in the Arab region.

“The UNCTAD has to take all necessary measures to build balanced world economy that focuses on sustainable development, social justice, human dignity and welfare,” he said.

Al-Saleh said the world economy faces several serious challenges including; linking credit to real economy, lake of food security, skyrocketing energy prices and climate change. The Minister applauded the constructive role of the UNCTAD on providing all rich and poor countries with all support to meet the challenges they face.

He also spoke highly of the UNCTAD role in supporting Palestinian economy.

Established in 1964, UNCTAD promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD

has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development. The highest decisionmaking body of UNCTAD is the quadrennial conference, at which member States make assessments of current trade and development issues, discuss policy options and formulate global policy responses. The conference also sets the organization’s mandate and work priorities. The conference is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly. The conferences serve an important political function: they allow intergovernmental consensus building regarding the state of the world economy and development policies, and they play a key role in identifying the role of the United Nations and UNCTAD in addressing economic development problems.

The last session was held in the Ghanaian Capital of Accra during the period 20-25 April 2008. -KUNA

ALWATAN DAILY

KUWAIT

mondAY, april 23, 2012

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Kuwaiti students in Jordan call for ambassador to leave

Kuwaiti students in Jordan are seen protesting in the capital city Amman in fron of the embassy against the Ambassador Dr. Hamad AlDuaij, asking him to leave.

(Al Watan) Mubarak Al-Shimmery Staff Writer

AMMAN: A number of the Kuwaiti students in Jordan gathered in front of a hotel in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Saturday calling for the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Jordan

Dr. Hamad Al-Duaij to leave, adding that the ambassador colluded against their rights and aspirations.

The students said that the gathering aimed at delivering a message to the Kuwaiti government to help them to restore their rights, given that many Kuwaiti students were assaulted in

Kuwait renews efforts for central geo infrastructure KUWAIT: Several state departments are currently seeking “common vision and recommendations” for execution of the project of geographic data and information pending submission to the government, said the Minister of Public Works on Sunday.

Dr. Fadil Safar, also the Minister of State for Development Affairs and Planning, indicated in a statement on the sidelines of a workshop, held at the headquarters of the secretariat general of the Supreme Council of Planning and Development, that ministries and other government departments needed such information for decision making.

Officials and staff of more than 30 government departments are involved in the workshop, examining various proposals and views, as a prelude to issuing recommendations for establishment of a common infrastructure for geographic information, Safar added.

He indicated a proposal to “place the project under umbrella of a single government department,” noting that efforts at this level had been exerted in the past by the national oil sector and Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), the Ministry of State for Municipal Affairs and the Ministry of Public Works.

These departments have exerted efforts for collecting geographic information, but these efforts need to be unified, coordinated and centralized for sake of upgrading data and facilitating supply of information to decision makers, the minister said, noting that the State has been spending large sums for offering easy services for the citizens.

He urged the participants to reach a joint perspective and common recommendations for launching the project of geographic data infrastructure, in preparation of submitting recommendations in this regard to the cabinet.

For his part, Dr. Jassem Al-Ali, a sociology professor, said Kuwait University proposed, in December 2002, establishing the national center for geographic information. The plan was approved by the cabinet on Nov. 17, 2005, and ministry of planning was tasked with supervising such body. Later, a special committee had been formed to follow up on this initiative, however its tasks were suspended when the ministry of planning was dissolved.

Kuwait was among the first to try make advancement at this level, however, in action it lagged behind, with the UAE and Bahrain moving forward. -KUNA

Jordan, but the embassy failed to denounce such assaults. The students said that the ambassador released false information to the media describing the assaults as merely rumors.

Shortly after the ambassador attempted to correct the mistake and announced that some simple incidents occurred to Kuwaiti students. The

students pointed out during the gathering that they hope the government would exert more efforts in protecting the Kuwaiti students in Jordan and to recall the ambassador.

They wondered how the ambassador released his statement about what happened not to mention that he was not present at the scene,

adding that they appreciate the mutual love between the Kuwaiti students and the Jordanian people.They announced that they will pursue escalation against the Kuwaiti Embassy until their requests are met. The students extolled the stance of the MPs who paid attention to the case and announced support.

Minister urges UNCTAD participants to address economic gap DOHA: It is important to seriously address the economic gap between developing nations and highly developed nations, which is at the core of the mission of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), stressed Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Khalid Al-Saleh in remarks to KUNA, Sunday.

The minister’s remarks came on the sidelines of the UNCTAD conference which kicked off Saturday.

Al-Saleh noted that over 140 working papers would shed light on participants’ views and observations on means to reduce this economic gap, in addition to shedding light on the impact the global economic crisis is having on developing nations’ economies.

“The economic crisis of 2008, which lasted through

2009, is still having an impact on the countries of our region and developing countries. This requires boosting and coordinating effort to limit the negative effects of the crunch,” the minister noted. He said he would address UNCTAD later Sunday and address possible measures towards this end.

Touching on Kuwait’s development plan, the minister said he is optimistic, noting cabinet and National Assembly meetings both send positive signals and give the impression all are seriously seeking to invigorate developmental progress through the appropriate mechanisms to positively affect the Kuwaiti national economy. Established in 1964, UNCTAD promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. The organization

states that its prime goals are to “work as a laboratory of ideas and to provide on-the-ground assistance to help developing countries raise living standards through trade, investment, finance and technology; to help developing countries benefit from the globalized economy; and to contribute to international debate on emerging issues related to developing countries and the world economy - such as the current global financial crisis - through major reports, policy briefs, and contributions to international conferences.” Among the areas of special interest at the conference, held every four years, is WTO conditions deemed unfair to developing nations, inadequacy of financial aid, and impact of international blocs and mergers on developing countries’ economies. -KUNA

Citizens call for tackling problems of Jahra Ahmad Hani Al-Gahes Staff Writer

Newly elected member to Kuwait Municipality Abdullah Al-Kandary (Second from right) hosted a lunch Tuesday noon for the Philippine Labor Attache David Des Dicang (First left) with COO of Kuwait Legal Services Markos Williams and Geologist Aalia Al-Shalaan.

KUWAIT: The residents of Jahra asked the Municipality, in a statement on Sunday, to exert more efforts in monitoring the markets from spoiled products as well as show more interest in some areas that suffer from negligence. They also asked Municipality to remove the remains of the constructional objects from some streets in addition to modernizing the city and solving its problems. Faisal Mawas Al-Enzi asked the Municipality to respond to the requests made by citizens, where they asked to clean different areas. They hoped the municipality would intensify its campaigns to monitor the markets. Citizen Khalid Al-Mutairie affirmed that some areas in the city suffer from negligence. He called on the officials to follow up on the performance of the cleaning companies whom are required to clean the streets continuously.

On his part, the citizen Mansour Al-Enzi extolled the role of Jahra Municipality for following up the violations, labor workers and hawkers in addition to observing restaurants to avoid serving rotten foodstuffs at markets and restaurants. The citizen Muhsen Al-Enzi expressed gratitude to the performance of Municipality particularly and its efforts to improve the city. Saad Al-Zaferi asked the municipality to remove the constructional objects and wastes which increased rapidly in the last period. The citizen Saud Mutlaq said that the performance of Municipality is reasonable and asked it to focus on monitoring the restaurants which are located inside the residential areas.

Tunisian president Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh presents society with moral indecency in Kuwait today Ali Al-Saud Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The President of Tunisia Al-Moncef AlMarzouki is expected in Kuwait on Monday, along with an accompanying delegation, for an official twoday visit.

The president and Tunisian officials are to hold official talks with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. -KUNA

FM meets US peace envoy KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Sabah met on Sunday visiting US Middle East Peace Envoy David Hill.

During the meeting, they discussed the latest regional and international political developments and several issues of mutual interest. The meeting was also attended by several officials of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry and US Ambassador in Kuwait Matthew Tueller. -KUNA

KUWAIT: It has lost its national identity. It has its own private laws. It has become a safe haven for criminals for illegal activities one can imagine. Gangsters are commonly active in the area providing all kinds of services for generous customers that ranges from prostitutions, gambling, alcohol, stolen items and food items which had long expired. If you plan to visit the area, you would think that you are travelling to a different country altogether. The name of the area is Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh where it seems civilization has ended. There is no proper infrastructure as water pipes are rusty and broken. The streets are strewn with rubbish and trash as if there are no road sweepers or cleaners.There is basically no service for the locals. Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh is now synonymous with notoriety, disrepute and unsavory activities.

Member of the Kuwait Municipal Council Ashwaq Al-Mudhaf is particularly concerned with the status of the city. She is seen roving the local areas especially nearby schools monitoring and watching the events as they occur.

Al-Mudhaf agonizingly complained that the city of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh has abandoned all the Kuwaiti families who live in that area for so long. She explained that she had received many complaints from locals urging her to do something about the abysmal and degrading situation of the city. She added that in the past

there were many Kuwaiti families who used to live in the city, but as it has become a synonym of disrepute many have relocated to other areas. As for the remaining 45 families, they are for different reasons mainly financial staying foot. “Nobody would even question the debasing and humiliating conditions in the area.

Those who think that this is somehow an exaggerated statement need only to drive around

for one hour to see for themselves. We are not talking about a normal city conditions, we are talking about unbearable demographic overpopulation, with businesses are being conducted on the pavement where next to them food items long expired but sold without any fear,” she explained.

Al-Mudhaf pointed out that the city is no longer part of the country not only because of

Picture of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh’s illegal market. (Al Watan)

the various illegal activities, but even the very names which the Municipality has officially named the various parts of the area are no longer in use. In the stead, locals are changing the names to Satan Quarters, Thieves Quarters, and Used Items Quarters and so on.

She justified the strange names behind them by saying that each name indicates exactly what it stands for. She visited the Thieves Quarter and there she remarked that even the law would not be able to present itself to apply it. She added that not only the police is absent here, but also all state departments including the Social Affairs and the Municipality. She noted that none of the shops which sell basic commodities is licensed.

Al-Mudhaf expressed her astonishment that the issue is not unknown to the government. She said that some time ago, following media coverage n the dwindling conditions of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, the government appointed a committee to look carefully into the issue and to pass its recommendations to resolve the problem once and for all.The committee did its part of the bargain and one of its recommendations was for the government to offer price quotas known locally as “pricing the plots of lands” for blocks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 21 as they are no longer qualified for decent living socially, environmentally and hygienically.

Al-Mudhaf said that unfortunately nothing has materialized since the report had been released and the locals on their part still await the state’s rescue mission.

4

ALWATAN DAILY

regional A Dirty war!

By Hossam Fathi Staff Writer

The first rule in facing your enemy is to put yourself in his shoes and discover what he thinks about you. To succeed in your plan, the conspiracy theory shouldn’t be always used as a pretext that portrays your enemy as the sole party behind all our disasters as well.

This doesn’t mean that the enemy is honest; on the contrary, it patiently waits for the perfect chance to launch a severe attack against us.

Israel has warned its compatriots from heading to the Sinai Peninsula, as terrorist attacks are expected to take place.

Such warning can be considered as a part of the dirty war it is playing with the aim of affecting tourism in Egypt, which will contribute in weakening the economy particularly after Sharm Al-Sheikh witnessed lately touristic growth.

The warning also aims at persuading tourists to spend their vacation in Israel. What is alarming is the fact that the government’s interest deviated away the peninsula due to the economic, political and security problems that Egypt still suffers from.

Therefore the government has to exert all possible efforts to maintain security as the enemy might attempt to bomb some areas to hinder the Egyptian tourism. hossam@alwatan.com.kw Twitter:@hossamfathy66

Security boosted in Bahrain for F1 race

MANAMA: Security forces in Bahrain set up checkpoints and stationed armored vehicles in antigovernment strongholds Sunday to confront possible protests coinciding with the Gulf nation’s Formula One Grand Prix.

The beefed-up security moved into place shortly before the start of the race, which was being held after a series of clashes and protest marches by opposition groups angered by Formula One’s return to the kingdom. Protesters claim at least one person was killed by riot police in the run-up to the event.

Opposition groups have sharply criticized the return of the race to the strategic island, which Bahrain’s rulers have pushed hard for F1 organizers to restore.

But the worldwide spotlight also has put the leadership in a difficult spot as scenes of clashes and a massive protest march have often overshadowed the preliminary events on the track.

The unrest, however, has remained far from the Formula One’s desert circuit about 35 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital Manama.

On Saturday, opposition groups claimed a man - 36-year-old Salah Abbas Habib Musa - was killed by riot police and his body left on a rooftop. The Interior Ministry said the death is being treated as a “homicide” and promised an investigation, but gave few details.

Meanwhile, authorities have tried to dismiss claims that a prominent jailed activist - on a hunger strike for more than two months - is in sharply failing health.

Race drivers have mostly kept quiet about the controversy surrounding the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Asked about Musa’s death after taking pole position in Saturday’s qualifier, F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel said, “I think it’s always dreadful if someone dies.”

Bahrain’s monarchy is the main backer of the F1 race, and the crown prince owns the rights to the event.

The country’s leaders have offered some reforms, but the opposition says they fall short of Shiite demands for a greater voice in the country’s affairs and an elected government.

The unrest also has put Washington into an awkward position.

US officials have called for efforts to reopen political dialogue in Bahrain, but are careful not to press too hard against the nation’s leadership and possibly jeopardize its important military ties.

The hacker group Anonymous, which last week took down the official Formula One website in protest over the race, on Sunday posted what it said was personal data about dozens of race ticket holders stolen from Formula One servers.

The spectator information was partially redacted before being posted. It included customers’ last names, and partial phone numbers and email addresses. The authenticity of the information could not immediately be verified.

In a statement posted online, the hacker group threatened further attacks should any harm come to hunger striker Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja or his family, saying, “Anonymous will respond with fury and rage the likes of which have never been seen.”

The group criticized the Bahraini government for what it said was “an attempt to conceal the oppression it is committing against its own people.” It also blasted Formula One for supporting the government’s hosting of the race, saying revenues generated is being used to buy tear gas and ammunition used against demonstrators.

Anonymous last week took responsibility for a denial-of-service attack against the official Formula One website and another site, F1-racers.net.

Denial-of-service attacks work by flooding a website with traffic. As the race got under way, the official Formula One site was operating as normal.

However, the content of F1-racers.net was replaced with a video clip showing footage of Bahraini police clashing with protesters and an apparently new message that included today’s date and the list of hacked ticket information. -AP

monDAY, april 23, 2012

Syrian troops attack Damascus suburb, activists say BEIRUT: Syrian troops stormed and shelled districts in a suburb of the capital Damascus Sunday, activists said, a day after the Security Council voted to expand the number of UN truce monitors from 30 to 300 in hopes of salvaging an international peace plan marred by continued fighting between the military and rebels.

An eight-member team is already on the ground in Syria, and since Thursday has visited flashpoints of the 13-month-long conflict. Fighting generally temporarily stops when the observers visit an area, but there has been a steady stream of reports of violence from towns and regions where they have not yet gone.

“This UN observers thing is a big joke,” said Mohammed Saeed, an activist in the sprawling Damascus suburb of Douma, which came under fire from regime troops on Sunday. “Shelling stops and tanks are hidden when they visit somewhere, and when they leave, shelling resumes.”

Saeed said two people were killed Sunday by indiscriminate firing in Douma, which was the scene of intense clashes between rebels and security forces before the UN-brokered cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition group with a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the deaths. It said four soldiers were also killed when a roadside bomb hit an armored personnel carrier in the town later Sunday.

The Observatory also reported that security forces killed three people in the northern province of Idlib and one person in the village of Hteita outside Damascus when troops opened fire from a checkpoint.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the attack on Douma. Saeed said loud explosions that shook the city early Sunday caused panic among residents, some of whom used mosque loudspeakers to urge people to take cover in basements and in lower floors of apartment buildings.

The Security Council approved a resolution Saturday expanding the UN observer mission from 30 to 300 members, initially for 90 days. The expanded force is meant to shore up the cease-fire that officially took effect 10 days ago, but has failed to halt the violence that the UN says has killed more than 9,000 people since March 2011.

Annan on Sunday welcomed the vote, calling it a “pivotal moment” in the process of stabilizing the country and urged all Syrians to uphold the cease-fire. State-run news agency SANA said Sunday that an officer was killed and 42 others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion that targeted their bus Sunday in

A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network shows Syrian residents talking to Moroccan UN observer, Colonel Ahmed Himmiche (right) during the monitors’ visit to the Khalidiya district in the restive city of Homs on April 21, 2012. (AFP)

northern Syria. Two other explosives were dismantled on the spot on the Raqqa-Aleppo highway, SANA said.

The UN eight-member advance team has visited the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, the southern province of Daraa, and the battered opposition stronghold of Homs. The monitors have not visited Douma yet.

Five monitors who toured Homs Saturday encountered unusually calm streets after weeks of shelling, and activists said it was the first quiet day in months. Two observers stayed behind in Homs to keep monitoring the city, after the rest of the team

Iran says is building copy of captured US drone TEHRAN: Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverseengineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related what he said were details of the aircraft’s operational history to prove his claim that Tehran’s military experts had extracted data from the US RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran, state television reported.

Among the drone’s past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed.

Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

US officials have acknowledged losing the drone.

They have said Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory. Hajizadeh told state television that the captured surveillance drone is a “national asset” for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details. But he did provide some samples of the data that he claimed Iranian experts had recovered.

“There is almost no part hidden to us in this aircraft.

We recovered part of the data that had been erased.There were many codes and characters. But we deciphered them by the grace of God,” Hajizadeh said.

He said all operations carried out by the drone had been recorded in the memory of the aircraft, including maintenance and testing.

Hajizadeh claimed that the drone flew over Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan two weeks before the Al-Qaeda leader was killed there in May 2011 by US Navy SEALs. He did not say how the Iranian experts knew this.

Before that, he said, “this drone was in California on Oct. 16, 2010, for some technical work and was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan on Nov. 18, 2010. It conducted flights there but apparently faced problems and (US experts) were unable to fix it,” he said.

Hajizadeh said the drone was taken to Los Angeles in December 2010 where sensors of the aircraft underwent testing at an aerospace factory.

“If we had not achieved access to software and hardware of this aircraft, we would be unable to get these details. Our experts are fully dominant over sections and programs of this plane,” he said. “It’s not that we can bring down a drone but cannot recover the data.”

There are concerns in the US that Iran or other states may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone’s radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft’s sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

There are also worries that adversaries may be able to hack into the drone’s database, as Iran claimed to have done. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted. Media reports claimed this week that Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on the drone but Iran’s Defense Ministry denied this. -AP

Al-Maliki in Iran for talks on host of issues

Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi (right) meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki (left) in Tehran on April 22, 2012 upon the latter’s arrival for two days of meetings with Iranian leaders and senior officials on various bilateral issues. (AFP)

TEHRAN: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, accompanied by a delegation of senior officials, arrived in the Iranian capital on Sunday starting a two-day visit during which he would hold talks with local leaders on bilateral relations and issues of joint concern, it was officially reported. Al-Maliki is due to hold talks with the supreme guide of the Islamic revolution of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and other ranking officials. He is due to head the Iraqi side during meetings of the common supreme commission. The Iranian participants in the planned meetings would be led by Rahimi.

Iraqi ambassador to Iran Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh said in a statement to the television network, Al-Alam, AlMaliki’s mission in the republic was of particular significance, amid current conditions prevailing throughout the region.

Hinting at some topics that may be raised during AlMaliki’s meeting with the Iranian officials, the diplomat noted that Iraq is currently chairman of the Arab League and will be hosting talks between the Iranians and the P5+1 group on Tehran’s nuclear file, next month.

Al-Maliki, who reportedly maintains special ties with Tehran, is carrying out this diplomatic mission against background of some major problems at home, namely his row with political adversaries over his push for prosecution of the vice president, Tareq Al-Hashemi, who has fled Iraq and accused Al-Maliki of seeking to restore a regime of dictatorship in the country. The Iraqi prime minister appears to be facing a major crisis in his relations with another regional power, Turkey, which has recently hosted the Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani. The latter has recently refused to hand over Al-Hashemi when he first escaped to Kurdishcontrolled northern Iraq. -KUNA

left that evening.

Amateur video posted on the Internet showed the observers walking through rubble-strewn streets lined by gutted apartments buildings. They were thronged by residents clamoring for foreign military help to oust Assad.

In one video, two monitors are seen sitting in a room listening to a Syrian man asking them to stay in Homs.

“We want you to stay, please stay. ... When you come, shelling stops, killing stops. It’s our blood,” the man says as an observer nods his head. -AP

Israel forces ‘ready to hit Iran if ordered’

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces are carrying out more special operations beyond the country’s borders and will be ready to attack Iran’s nuclear sites if ordered, the chief-of-staff said in an interview on Sunday.

In an extract from an interview with the top-selling Yediot Aharanot daily, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said that 2012 would be a critical year in efforts to halt what Israel and much of the international community believe is an Iranian nuclear arms program.

“We think that a nuclear Iran is a very bad thing, which the world needs to stop and which Israel needs to stop -- and we are planning accordingly,” Gantz said. “In principle, we are ready to act.

“That does not mean that I will now order (air force chief) Ido (Nehushtan) to strike Iran,” he added in the interview which will be published in full on Wednesday, on the eve of Israel’s 64th anniversary as a state. The United States says it does not believe Iran has so far taken a decision to develop a nuclear weapon, or that the time is right for military action, preferring to give international sanctions time to work.

But Israel, which sees a nuclear Iran as a threat to its very existence, claims Tehran may be on the cusp of “breakout” capability - when it could quickly build a nuclear weapon - and it does not rule out staging a pre-emptive strike of its own.

Gantz said he had increased the number of Israeli special operations in other countries but did not give details.

“I do not think you will find a point in time where there is not something happening, somewhere in the world,” he said. “The threat level is also higher.” “I’m not taking the credit,” he added. “I’m just accelerating all those special operations.” -AFP

S. Sudan completes withdrawal from flashpoint oil field

KHARTOUM/JUBA: South Sudan’s army has completed its withdrawal from Sudan’s main Heglig oil field, the military said Sunday, but condemned the north for bombing the area. Juba seized the flashpoint oil hub on April 10, claiming that Khartoum was using Heglig as a base to attack the South’s oil-producing Unity State. Although South Sudan disputes it, Heglig is internationally regarded as part of Sudan. The South’s Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) “completed its withdrawal from Heglig yesterday,” the South’s military spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP. But, he charged that Sudan “continued bombing” the area on Friday and on Saturday morning.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon branded Juba’s 10-day occupation of the region illegal and US President Barack Obama has said the long-time rivals must negotiate to avoid further military escalation along their contested and volatile border. In related news, a Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

The church in Khartoum’s Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border. The witnesses and several newspapers said a mob of several hundred shouting insults at southerners torched the church. Fire engines could not put out the fire, they added. One newspaper, Al-Sahafah, said the church was part of a complex that included a school and dormitories. Ethiopian refugees living in the Sudanese capital also used the church. The mostly Christian and animist South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011, some six years after a peace deal ended more than two decades of war between the two sides. But tens of thousands of southerners remain in Sudan, a legacy of the civil war that drove hundreds of thousands of them to seek relative safety in the north of what was then a single Sudanese nation.

Vice President Ali Osman Taha, meanwhile, rejected in a television interview suggestions by South Sudan for the deployment of international forces in Heglig, saying the area was internationally recognized as Sudanese territory. He also said that Khartoum would shortly announce the monetary value of what he said was the destruction caused by Southern Sudanese troops in Heglig and that his government would demand compensation.

Sudanese army spokesman Col. Sawarmy Khaled also said that government forces have repulsed an attack by Southern Sudanese forces in the area around the town of Talode in South Kordofan, the same region where Heglig is located. He said the southerners suffered unspecified casualties but did not say when the fighting took place. -Agencies

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

mondAY, april 23, 2012

Turnout solid in French presidential election Sarkozy political career hangs on thread

PARIS: Voters were turning out Sunday in solid numbers for the first round of France’s presidential election, with conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political career on the line amid frustration over his personal style and inability to turn around a stagnant French economy.

Sunday’s balloting will trim down a list of 10 candidates from across the political spectrum to two finalists for a decisive May 6 runoff, which will set a course for the next five years in this pillar of the European Union.

The Interior Ministry said early turnout figures showed 28 percent of France’s 44-millionplus voters cast ballots before noon - less than the 31 percent in 2007 at the same time, but more than in the four previous races.

Sarkozy and his main expected challenger, Socialist nominee Francois Hollande, have pushed for a strong turnout on the idea that it would help the political mainstream and dilute the impact of more ideological voters.

Polls for months have shown that Sarkozy and Hollande are likely to make the cut - and suggest Hollande would win the campaign finale.

“This is an election that will weigh on the future of Europe. That’s why many people are watching us,” said Hollande after voting in Tulle, a town in central France. “They’re wondering not so much what the winner’s name will

French incumbent President, and ‘Union pour un Mouvement Populaire’ (UMP) party candidate for the 2012 French Presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla BruniSarkozy (left) leave the Jean de la Fontaine high school after they cast their vote in the French Presidential elections, in Paris, France, April 22. (EPA)

be, but especially what policies will follow.”

“That’s why I’m not in a competition just of personalities. I am in a competition in which I must give new breath of life to my country and

a new commitment to Europe,” he added, urging a big turnout from voters.

Sarkozy waved to supporters and apologized to polling station attendants “for the

Scores injured as Amsterdam trains collide

AMSTERDAM: Two passenger trains have collided head-on near an Amsterdam park, injuring scores of people including more than 40 seriously, a police spokesman has said.

About 42 people were seriously injured in the crash late on Saturday evening between a double-decker intercity train and a commuter train, Eberhard van der Laan, the Amsterdam Mayor, said on Sunday.

Many passengers suffered broken bones and neck injuries with about 70 travelers escaping with minor injuries.

Dutch railway officials said on Sunday that rail traffic around Amsterdam would be disrupted throughout the morning as the two damaged trains remained on the tracks where they collided.

Bus services were being laid on to try to get passengers to their destinations.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the accident. Two separate investigations will focus on whether human error or a mechanical

Rescue workers evacuate injured passengers at the scene of a train collision near Amterdam, The Netherlands, April 21 (EPA)

Deaths in Mexico bar shootout CHIHUAHUA: Fifteen people have been killed and at least one seriously wounded in a suspected drug-related shootout in a bar in northern Mexico, a region that has been brutalized by fighting between criminal gangs.

The local attorney general’s office said in a statement on Saturday that armed men entered the bar in Chihuahua, capital of Chihuaha state, and opened fire on a group of people inside suspected of involvement in drug dealing. The deceased included two journalists, the office said.

“They have been identified as Hector Javier Salinas Aguirre and Javier Moya Munoz, who were journalists from the city of Chihuahua with many years working at radio stations,” a source from the Chihuahua state attorney’s office told AFP news agency.

Witnesses said that in the attack on Friday night about seven heavily armed men burst into a bar called La Colorada and demanded to know the whereabouts of two or three other men.

After getting no response, they opened fire indiscriminately, police said.

Chihuahua state attorney’s office also said that two other people died in a separate bar attack in the city, bringing the death toll for Friday night to 17.

The massacres follow a similar shooting February 4, when an armed group burst into

another Chihuahua bar and opened fire, killing nine people.

They included five members of a band and a policewoman.

Authorities have not yet established a motive for the attack on Friday night.

Since 2008, Chihuahua, and in particular the city of Ciudad Juarez on the border

SYDNEY: Australia’s parliament speaker said on Sunday he was temporarily stepping down over a sexual harassment lawsuit which threatens to further weaken Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s hold on power. Gillard’s Labor government has suffered poor poll figures in recent months which give a big lead to the conservative opposition under Tony Abbott.

Speaker Peter Slipper issued a statement “emphatically” denying all allegations against him by a male former staff member, who says the speaker sexually harassed him.

But Slipper said he could not continue in his role pending investigation of the allegations in a suit filed in Australia’s Federal Court in Sydney on Friday.

“The allegations include both a claim of criminal behavior and a claim under civil law,” Slipper said in the statement issued after he returned from a trip to the United States.

“As such I believe it is appropriate for me to stand aside as speaker while this criminal allegation is resolved.”

Slipper, 62, indicated he would retain his seat in parliament. Former staffer James Hunter Ashby, 33, also alleges

NEWS IN BRIEF

big fuss” as he voted at a high school in posh western Paris along with his wife, Carla BruniSarkozy - and a throng of journalists in tow.

Behind barriers, a small crowd chanted “Bravo!

Bravo!” as they left. He didn’t speak to the media on the way out.

Sarkozy, defending his record on the campaign trail, has repeatedly pointed to a tough economic climate and debt troubles across Europe - not just in France.

But with turnout a looming question, surprises could await among candidates including far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon or centrist Francois Bayrou.

While they are not expected to win, a strong performance by one or all of them could cast a shadow over the second round vote. Polls show the five other candidates are expected to receive low single-digit percentages.

Balloting got under way Saturday in France’s embassies and overseas holdings. Polls have shown that concerns about jobs - with the unemployment rate hovering near a 10-year high - and the economy are top issues.

The campaign has often centered on hotbutton issues such as immigration, Islam in France, and calls for taxes on the rich - which experts suggest will in fact have little effect on France’s high state budget deficit.

TV images showed Hollande and several other candidates voting at polling stations around France. Some voters expressed disappointment about the crop of presidential aspirants, while others say France needs a new track. -AP

fault led to the two trains winding up on collision course.

The accident happened at around 6.30pm local time [16:30 GMT] when a local train leaving Amsterdam hit a high-speed train, Babet Verstappen, the Dutch rail network Prorail spokeswoman, told AFP news agency.

Emergency personnel treated some of the wounded at the scene, on a bridge between Sloterdijk and Amsterdam Central Station, he said.

Pictures from the scene showed the crushed front ends of both the trains and smashed windows in some of the carriages.

“Some of the injured had to be rescued from inside the train,” Elke van den Hout, Amsterdam fire service spokeswoman, said.

The Netherlands’ worst train disaster happened on January 8, 1962, when two passenger trains smashed into one another at Harmelen, near the central Dutch city of Utrecht, killing 93 and injuring 52 others. -AFP

Taiwan plans to buy ‘four warships from US’ TAIPEI: Taiwan plans to purchase four warships from the United States as part of the island’s efforts to modernize its forces and offset the perceived military threat from China, local media reported on Sunday. The defense ministry briefed President Ma Ying-jeou on the proposed arms deal during a meeting last month and is prepared to set aside the budget next year, the United Daily News said, without specifying the cost. The ministry declined to comment on the report. If finalized, the arms deal will increase to 12 the total number of such warships owned

by Taiwanese navy. -AFP

Maoists kidnap government official in central India CHATTISGARH: Maoist rebels in India have taken a government official hostage and killed his two bodyguards in the central state of Chhattisgarh, police said Sunday, in the latest of a series of kidnappings. The guerrillas shot the two guards dead when capturing Alex Paul Menon on Saturday as he toured a village in Sukma district, 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the state capital Raipur, police said.

Menon, 32, is Sukma’s district collector, a role that makes him the most senior civil servant in the area. -AFP

Pakistanis skeptical about crash probe ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority has said it is looking at all possible reasons for Friday’s air crash near the capital, Islamabad, that killed 127 people.

The head of Bhoja Air has been blocked from leaving the country. However, few believe that the investigators will ever receive answers as to what brought down the Boeing 737 or whether it is really safe to travel by air in Pakistan. The accident is Pakistan’s second major aviation disaster in less than two years. -AFP

Sri Lanka rejects call to withdraw army from north COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president has rejected a call by Indian legislators to withdraw soldiers from the island’s former war zone in the north where minority Tamils are concentrated, his spokesman said Sunday. President Mahinda Rajapakse told a delegation of visiting Indian lawmakers that troops could not be pulled out despite the end of the decades-long Tamil separatist war in 2009. “The president explained that there are troops elsewhere in the country as well,” spokesman Bandula Jayasekera told AFP. “They are not only in the (Tamil-dominated) north.” -AFP

Pakistan buries victims of airline crash with Texas, has been the area worst hit by turf wars between drug cartels following the crackdown on gangs Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, launched soon after taking office in December 2006. The gang violence and clashes with security forces have killed more than 50,000 people in Mexico in the past five years. -AFP

Police forensic vehicles are parked outside a neighborhood bar in Chihuahua in the state of the same name April 21, following the killing of at least 15 people by gunmen before they fled. (EPA)

Australian parliament speaker stands aside amid lawsuit row

5

misuse of taxpayer-funded taxi dockets by Slipper in the lawsuit. The government holds an effective one-vote majority in the 150-member House of Representatives, parliament’s lower chamber, thanks to votes from independents.

Deputy Speaker Anna Burke is to act as speaker for the interim. Opposition leaders have called on Slipper to resign from his seat, a move that would force a critical by-election.

Slipper’s departure could potentially throw the slender majority into doubt as Gillard would have to find another member of parliament to replace him. Gillard’s position was bolstered when Slipper last year became speaker after defecting from the opposition in a move backed by the prime minister.

The speaker’s position is ceremonial, but his casting vote can be significant in the event of a tie, where the speaker traditionally votes with the government.

Analysts said the row, however embarrassing, would not bring down Gillard’s government just yet as independents backing her were unlikely to withdraw support and force a new election in which they could lose their seats. -AFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday buried victims of an airline crash near Islamabad that killed all 127 people on board, as investigators probed the causes of the fatal incident.

The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital on Friday evening, in the city’s second major fatal air crash in less than two years.

Thirteen of those killed were buried late Saturday in Islamabad and funerals for 36 other victims were held in Karachi and other cities early Sunday, with more ceremonies expected in different cities throughout the day.

Television broadcasts showed footage of distraught relatives, weeping and hugging each other, as the dozens of coffins left Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital where the remains had been taken.

Some nine dead bodies have not yet been identified and will undergo DNA tests, a hospital official said.

An AFP reporter who visited the hospital late Saturday said some of the remains still at the hospital were no more than body parts, stored on stretchers and covered by white sheets.

The disaster is the city’s second major plane crash in less than two years - an Airblue plane came down in bad weather in July 2010, killing 152 - and victims’ families have voiced fury at the authorities.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director gener-

China and Russia ‘start first navy drills’

BEIJING: China and Russia on Sunday launched their first joint naval exercises, state media said, amid tensions between China and its Asian neighbors over regional territorial claims.

The six days of drills are talking place in the Yellow Sea off China’s east coast, the official China News Service said, adding these were the first exercises involving the navies of the two countries. The exercises - taking place near China’s Qingdao city off the coast of Shandong province - were launched by Russian and Chinese military officials on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.

They come as China boosts military spending and asserts claims over disputed territory, including a chain of islands in the East China Sea, which is also claimed by Japan. Beijing and Tokyo have a long-running dispute over the islands, called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan - which sit in rich fishing grounds that may harbor lucrative energy resources. The exercises will focus on joint air defense, anti-submarine tactics and search and rescue, Xinhua has previously said. They will also include simulated rescue of hijacked vessels and anti-terrorism drills. China has 16 naval vessels and two submarines taking part while Russia has four warships. China said Thursday that the exercises were aimed at upholding regional peace. -AFP

al Nadeem Khan Yusufzai said the plane suddenly dropped from 2,900 feet to 2,000 feet as it made its final approach to land, and vanished from the airport radar.

He said another plane from the private Airblue airline landed safely from the same approach about 10 minutes afterwards and there was no indication from the Bhoja pilot that he was in distress.

The flight data recorder has been recovered and will be sent abroad for analysis, and the overall investigation could take up to a year to complete its work, he told reporters Saturday, Interior minister Rehman Malik said a committee had been set up to investigate the crash and the head of the airline Farooq Bhoja had been put on an “exit control list”, banning him from leaving Pakistan.

All 127 people on board - 121 passengers and six crew - were killed when the plane crashed and burst into flames at around 6:40 pm on Friday.

There were 11 children among the dead.

The crash came less than two years after the worst ever air disaster on Pakistani soil.

In July 2010 an Airbus A321 operated by Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land in heavy rain and poor visibility, killing all 152 people on board.

Friday’s flight was Bhoja’s first evening trip from Karachi to Islamabad since resuming operations last month after a 12-year suspension for not paying Civil Aviation Authority dues. -AFP

6

ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION

monDAY, april 23, 2012

A lesson learned is a lesson gained Fuad Al-Hashem

W

hen I was 10 or 12 years old, I saw my dad, May God bless his soul, while reading Lebanese and Egyptian newspapers which he used to receive through his mail box, muttering some words and then start spitting at one particular page. He had done this several times. One day I was extremely curious to find out more about my dad’s peculiar behavior. One day I saw him doing exactly the same as he was reading one of the newspapers and started murmuring, it was then when I barged my head to have a closer look at that thing which used to get him on his nerves.

What I saw was a big photo of the most famous minister of defense in the history of Israel. I am talking here about Moshe Dayan, the man with one eye. Dayan was a Palestinian Jew, which means that he was born in Palestine unlike many leaders of the Zionist state who came from different other countries.

Born on May 1915, the young Moshe became a member in the Jewish gangs of Haghana and Palmach prior to the World War II. He initially fought against the British and then as the Allies declared war on the Axis; he joined the British Army against Germany, Italy, Japan and French Fiji.

As for the story of his eye, he was with the Australian Army in Syria when a skilled sniper managed to hit him on the eye as he was using the binoculars. This means the bullet went through the binoculars hitting the left eye instantly. Since that day, he became known by the Arabs

The social networking websites are double-edged

Perhaps it is time that someone provides the readers with an adequate answer to explain the sudden disappearance of such a large amount of money from the country’s public fund

as the one eyed man.

Former Prime Minister Levy Eshkol never really liked him but was coerced to appoint Dayan as minister of defense early 1967. The Israeli force then managed successfully to destroy the entire Egyptian airports in the morning of 5/4/1967. The result of the attack was total annihilation of the Egyptian air force, the fall of the Sinai, Golan Heights and West Bank as well as Jerusalem.

Dayan was naturally arrogant about his achievement.

In a press conference, he boasted how he managed to defeat the Arabs saying that the Israeli army is not beatable and that if need be he would defeat the Soviet army.

The Soviets didn’t receive Dayan’s last comment well.

Senior officials met and decided to sent a cable to Washington DC asking the administration to warn Dayan from making such statement again the red army otherwise he would see with his own “eye” something he would mostly detest the rest of his life.

It wasn’t long, in fact less than 24 hours since he made his infamous statement, when the Israeli minister

of defense Moshe Dayan once again in a press conference apologized for his careless statement.

Dayan became despondent about the whole affair and in the 1973 war when the Egyptian army reached Bar-Lev Line 6/10/1973, Dayan felt extremely defeatist and declared that Tel Aviv would have to use weapons of mass destruction if the secularity and safety of Israel is compromised.

But the ugly old Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir immediately contacted the United States for help before the situation escalates. An aerial line was established and all heavy artillery, weapons and tanks were transported directly to Sinai so much so that unmarked tanks and artilleries were seen deployed from the US aircrafts. The rescue mission on the part of the biggest ally of Israel managed to save the day for the Israelis and for the one eyed Moshe Dayan.

After the 1973 war, Dayan lived a life of a recluse away from the public eye. He became fanatic about one thing: the Egyptian artifacts, monuments and relics which

he and a group of close friends managed to steal from the Sinai desert when that area was under the Israeli occupation.

He was assisted all along by his daughter Yael whose beauty is unmatched by anyone! In fact, Yael was incredibly ugly so much so that I doubted very much that she had had the interest of a single Israeli. Dayan died on 16/10/2008 and was buried in his hometown.

Now I am nearly as old as my father when the spitting began some forty years ago. Like my father, I was reading the other day the newspaper and one page attracted my attention when I read a press statement made by the Iranian president Ahmadinejad on the occasion of the Iranian Army celebration in which he said that his country’s army is unbeatable and there is no single power which can stand on its way.

Unlike my father, I will only say “May God bless us all!” Indeed, a lesson learned is a lesson gained.

Moving to a local issue, I had some three weeks ago asked about 30 million Kuwaiti dinars the cost of an advertisement tender which was pinched by the Syrian Kiwai from the public fund along with his Egyptian associate. Perhaps it is time that someone provides the readers with an adequate answer to explain the sudden disappearance of such a large amount of money from the country’s public fund. Finally, I have received an interesting question from one of the readers. He is asking me about the agent for Shell Oil Company in Kuwait. I truly have no idea. Can any one assist us here?!

BU QUTADA & BU NABIL 1995 w il l Ve ry soo n we le ib n atu ra li z e el ig g on ca n d id ate s a m n u o th e Bed

The youths can benefit from social networking websites to exchange news, researches, and information in a short time and the cost is very low as well.

2000 It’s OK. We have formed a committee in order to naturalize the Bedoun

ns ...

C ongrat ul at io e W .

K O ’s It w il l gran t yo u ci ti ze ns hi p ve be ca us e yo u ha t ai uw K ed rv se

or r y ; Don’t w ceive re you w ill ship c it i ze n ou y be c a u s e d e d n e f h a ve d e i t a Kuw

Dr. Salwa Abdullah Al-Jassar

T

he social networking websites could attract the attention of youths and who are usually interested in such websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other ones because they can express their opinions and exchange information freely especially in the societies that they live in which are faced with different restrictions. The networking websites helped youths to go beyond the geographic borders and strengthened ties amongst people.

The websites also became a part of the daily lives of youths wherein they can relax and some youths became addicted to such websites and others try to abandon networking websites in vain.

However, the new technology can be considered as a double-edged sword in which youths can benefit from if they use them well but they in the meantime can harm youths if the websites are not used properly. The youths can benefit from social networking websites to exchange news, researches, and information in a short time and the cost is very low as well.

At the present time even media sources like TVs depend on websites to cover certain events.

The social networking websites have succeeded to enable youths to express their thoughts and the changes that they aspire to and they are influenced by the international cultures.

But if the very websites are misused then they will contribute in destroying values and manners. They can also be used to falsify facts, fabricating certain stories and rumors that will influence society. The overuse of websites makes youths live in isolation because they spend most of their time on browsing social networking websites and checking different things. The overuse also interrupts youths from spending enough time with their families and relatives which in turn will affect their social lives immensely. The lack of monitoring children and youths by families might cause youths and kids to plunge more in such matters and they might mature with undesired behaviors by the social networking websites. We have a lot of examples about smart youths who were influenced by strange thoughts and the strange thoughts destroyed the lives of youths later on.

It is important to notice that such matters can be exploited by certain sides who look for undermining national unity under the pretext of freedom or irresponsible freedom.

Some Kuwaiti male and female youths spend a lot of their time and focus on rumors, statements that stir sedition by looking for mistakes of others to scandalize them. Some of youths also used statements incite youths for violence and scolding other people, breaking regulations, disrespecting others and their opinions under the pretext of freedom of expression and opinion. There were many groups divided because of such matters and the same problem- websites- affected education of youths because they waste their time on watching and reading the rumors and the other hot issues on the websites.

As a result, the family, society and the government should interest more in the affairs of youths especially educating them and training them to face the negative influences of such websites and the suspected calls that might aim at stirring sedition.

The relevant authorities have to make laws for regulating the use the websites as well as conducting awareness campaigns, symposiums, debates and workshops to show the positives use of websites as such steps contribute effectively in protecting society and the stability of the country too.

2012

2005 We will soon naturalize you. Just wait..

r ve d e se i p u o Y e n sh c i t i z s e yo u u be c a pa r t i n g k o lvin to i n vo i t s r wa u wa K

Now we are granting citizenships..come on..come on..

We need citizenship

Mohmmed Thallab

Well, what about me who served the country?!

mthallab@alwatan.com.kw

I was sorry for the poor aspirations of youths Marzouq Fulaij Al-Harbi

A

s my daughter insisted to visit the exhibition “I am proud of being Kuwaiti” which was established in Kuwait International Fairground a few weeks ago I visited the exhibition at 5 p.m. in order to avoid visiting the exhibition late in the evening because it would be too busy. I was surprised by the large number of visitors. I was certain that if I had arrived later then I would never have a chance to visit the areas that I wanted to visit.

I was surprised and felt sorry while seeing a significant number of visitors gathering in a certain area. I then headed there to

find that visitors gathered just to watch a preparation of certain kinds of food, sweets and some accessories in which if society did not enjoy them it would not be losing much.

Last week, I visited a similar exhibition established by a telecom company. During my visit I recognized how the new generation lives wherein some youths speak English, holing their Blackberry phones and wearing color trainers besides to sunglasses that looked bigger than their faces. We also noticed the long hair of boys.

I was really sorry to see our boys and girls like this and I felt sorrier for society which supports such behaviors of youths

which is also considered as a great achievement! I hoped for having certain developmental projects to improve the skills of such youths especially that a lot of projects can be achieved by youths such as wastes recycling projects but there are certain sides that don’t want to support youths. They want youths to just think about the things that they eat and wear but the vocational jobs in the whole country are occupied by expatriate workers.

However, I focus on such an issue because more than 30 youths have already submitted studies about establishing certain projects to deal with the five million tires near Jahra city before the disasters occurs

but Industry Authority did not approve any license for the projects of youths. According to the project the tire were expected to be re-manufactured into metal and certain kinds of constructional objects.

The authority rejected all the requests of youths except one request and it was interrupted later on! There are other projects submitted by youths for recycling wastes near the seventh ring road that were rejected then the tender of this project was given to a company but the company paid the government nothing.

On the contrary, it attempted to take money from the government for carrying out the project.

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views

monDAY, april 23, 2012

More firepower, less force for IMF James Saft Reuters

T

he International Monetary Fund may emerge from its meeting this week with more firepower but less force.

While the fund is looking on track to add at least the 400 billion US dollars it has argued it needs to deal with the potential fallout from the euro zone crisis, it will have to cope with a US which is partly sidelined by domestic politics during a period of rising international economic tension and protectionism.

Even the 400 billion US dollars is a downgrade from a 600 billion US dollars figure bandied about earlier.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has been busily putting a positive gloss on the shortfall, arguing that matters have improved substantially in Europe since the bigger figure was suggested.

Japan, Norway, Denmark and Sweden have pledged a combined 86 billion US dollars but the IMF will have to make shift without additional money from the US, where ponying up more cash during election season is considered politically unwise.

That is causing difficulties in raising cash from emerging market states, which want more power over the IMF to go along with bigger financial commitments, a step requiring US congressional approval which simply isn’t going to happen this year.

None of this is wrong - it’s right that the emerging world contribute more and that it have a bigger say. It is not the justice of the change in arrangements which is at issue; it is the force and ability of the institution to be effective with a hamstrung US That’s because the IMF’s real power is not in its bankroll, which truly never can be big enough to cope with the kind of damage that might result from a euro zone exit by a major player, but rather in its cohesiveness.

To borrow a concept from Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group, this illustrates the difficulties for the IMF of operating in a G-Zero world, one without a truly dominant power here.

This is not simply about coordinating without a dominant leader, which of course

World Bank President Robert Zoellick speaks at a panel discussion called “Closing the Gap: Financial Inclusion”, during the spring International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank meetings in Washington April 19, 2012. (Reuters)

This is not simply about coordinating without a dominant leader, which of course will be difficult, it is about the inevitable ways in which interests will diverge, sharply. will be difficult, it is about the inevitable ways in which interests will diverge, sharply.

A dominant state, like the US 20 years ago, will find it in its own interest to spend some of its capital monetary and otherwise on making

longer-term investments in a workable global economic accommodation.

If power is spread more equally a leadership vacuum may develop, with none of the major players feeling rich enough and invest-

Occupy defined-benefit pension funds!

ed enough to drive policy and take political heat for it at home.

So far, the post-financial-crisis landscape has been relatively free of hard protectionism, especially given the depth of the difficulties

Reuters

S

Most employers still have some kind of legacy defined-benefit scheme, and those schemes, as a rule, tend to be invested pretty sensibly.

Felix Salmon Reuters

I

’m working my way through The Occupy Handbook, your excellent one-stop shop for analysis of the financial crisis and everything about it. A lot of really big names have pieces here: among the authors you’ll find Michael Lewis, Paul Krugman, Gillian Tett, John Cassidy, Raghuram Rajan, Bethany McLean, Daron Acemoglu, Carmen Reinhart, David Graeber, Nouriel Roubini, Pankaj Mishra, Ariel Dorfman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Peter Diamond, Brad DeLong, Martin Wolf, Scott Turow, Robert Reich, David Cay Johnston, Eliot Spitzer, Lawrence Weschler, Tyler Cowen, Jeff Madrick, Dan Gross, Jeff Sachs, and even Paul Volcker. (Full disclosure: I’m in there too.)

One author who might not be familiar to a financial audience is Arjun Appadurai, who has an excellent short chapter entitled “A Nation of Business Junkies”.

“Business news was a specialized affair in the late 1960s,” he writes. “Now it is hard to find anything but business as the topic of news in all media.”

He explains: Look at the serious talk shows, and chances are that you will find a CEO describing what’s good about his company, what’s bad about the government, and how to read his company’s stock prices.

Turn to the newspapers and things get worse. Any reader of the New York Times will find it hard to get away from the business machine. Start with the lead section, and stories about Obama’s economic plans, mad Republican proposals about taxes, the euro crisis, and the latest bank scandal will assault you... Turn to the sports section: it is littered with talk of franchises, salaries, trades, owner antics, stadium projects, and more. I need hardly say anything about the Business section itself, which has now become virtually redundant...

Go through the magazines when you take a flight to Detroit or Mumbai, and there is again a feast of news geared to the “business traveler”. This is when I catch up on how to negotiate the best deal, why this is the time to buy gold, and what software and hardware to use when I make my next presentation to General Electric.

I thought of Appadurai’s chapter earlier today when I was talking to a fund manager at a conference in DC. He was talking

about the move from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pension plans, and was bemoaning the fact that people who invest in defined-contribution plans have seen returns not only below the returns in the stock market or the bond market, but even below the level of inflation. The solution, he said, was more education: we had to teach people about the power of diversification, the intelligence of passive investing, and so on and so forth.

My feeling was that such attempts would never work. The investment returns of people with defined-contribution pensions are woefully low - much lower than the returns seen by the managers of defined-benefit schemes. And the difference, to a first approximation, is rents being extracted by the financial-services industry.

That’s the industry which does all of the educating: so it’s unrealistic to assume that it’s going to educate people and thereby reduce its own income.

Besides, as Appadurai says, the US population has never been more educated about matters financial than it is now. We can try to improve the level of education even further. But a little financial education can be a dangerous thing, if it instils overconfidence.

And what’s more, there’s zero empirical evidence that educated investors have higher realized returns. Besides, you can’t hope to effectively educate everybody. Much better, I think, to allow people to invest alongside the defined-benefit scheme of their employer, and accept the returns of that scheme. Most employers still have some kind of legacy defined-benefit scheme, and those schemes, as a rule, tend to be invested pretty sensibly. Those pension funds should accept defined-contribution money alongside their definedbenefit money: it would beef up their AUM and thereby their negotiating power, while at the same time delivering higher returns to the company’s employees.

Some employees, of course, will think that they are very clever and will be able to get large returns for themselves. But most of us aren’t that hubristic, and consider asset-allocation decisions and the like to be something of a chore. Give us the opportunity to outsource those decisions to somebody acting on our behalf, and we’ll jump at it. We might not get the same implied returns as the lucky people on defined-benefit plans. But at least we’ll have our money professionally managed, at little or no cost.

Felix Salmon is the finance blogger at Reuters. The opinions expressed are his own.

and the lackluster and halting recovery. That may be changing.

Exhibit A is Argentina’s outrageous move to nationalize most of Spain’s Repsol’s stake in oil company YPF SA. Given Argentina’s dodgy track record - it has already seized pension assets and its economic data is widely disbelieved - this is not entirely surprising, but it is alarming.

Sadly, it is not just Argentina. Brazil has worked hard to weaken its currency, which is up by nearly half against the dollar since 2007, and has introduced a series of measures to protect domestic industry. The rise of such measures in Latin America, always justified as being a reaction to protectionism elsewhere, was a main focus of attention at the Americas Summit in Colombia last week.

And while things have been relatively quiet on the currency war front between the US and China, the US has been more aggressive in bringing trade actions against what it calls unfair Chinese competition and China has been increasingly pointed in its responses.

As the US election heats up, expect to see this particular battle come out more into the open.

It may simply stay a matter of political theater, but it also could easily harden into something more dangerous and destructive.

The truth is that there are huge constituencies all around the world which each want to export their way out of the current malaise, as is the case for Europe and the US, or which want to continue to see their standards of living close the gap with the rich world at a satisfying clip, as in China and Brazil.

Unless life is discovered on Mars and they happen to want cars, iPads and flat-screen televisions, this simply is not going to happen.

What is going to happen is rising tension, at the least, and a destructive wave of protectionism, at the worst. That worst outcome is more likely, and the IMF’s ability to head it off is less, because we live in a multi-polar world.

That reality is far more important than an extra 400 billion US dollars or even 600 billion US dollars.

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

At the site of a European massacre, fears of genocide by ballot David Rohde

Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement sit on the steps of Federal Hall in the financial district across from the New York Stock Exchange in New York April 16, 2012. (Reuters)

7

ix months from now, a municipal election will be held in this isolated mining town, the scene of the largest massacre in Europe since World War Two. The town’s current mayor, a 33 year-old Bosnian Muslim, says the election will hand Bosnian Serbs control of the town and complete the “ethnic cleansing,” or removal, of all Muslims from eastern Bosnia. Serbs say it is democracy, plain and simple.

Seventeen years ago, Serb forces executed 8,100 Muslim men and boys here in the largest single mass killing of the war in Bosnia. The US and its European allies - who had declared the town a UN protected “safe area” - stood by as the Serbs rampaged for days in the summer of 1995.

In local elections since then, a special exemption has been granted that allows Muslims who lived here before the war to vote in Srebrenica - even if they no longer reside here. This year, the country’s High Representative - a foreign overseer with sweeping powers - plans to issue no such exemption. In a visit to the town this week, he called for Serb and Muslim politicians to compromise.

“The challenge in Srebrenica goes far beyond the elections,” said Valentin Inzko, an Austrian diplomat who has pressed local officials to take more responsibility since becoming high representative in 2009. “People want a better life, and the key to that is constructive politics and economic development.”

Under the exemption, Muslims have controlled the municipal government, interned the bodies of 5,137 of the victims in a sprawling memorial here and tried to reverse some of the impact of the killings by slowly moving back.

Today Srebrenica’s population, which was 75 percent Muslim before the war, is evenly split between Serbs and Muslims.

And that is where the good news ends. Already a glaring symbol of international fecklessness, the town’s sorry state today sets a new standard for Western half-measures gone astonishingly wrong.

The 17-year effort to move Muslims back to this town began with a whimper. Clinton administration officials, eager to avoid American casualties, made little effort in the late 1990s to arrest the Serb nationalists who carried out the executions. Fears of violent clashes blocked large-scale efforts to return Muslims to Srebrenica.

Frustrated, the roughly 30,000 Muslims who had survived the town’s fall scattered across Bosnia and the world. Roughly 20,000 resettled in Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia. An additional 15,000 fled abroad; an estimated 7,000 arrived in the United States.

Many of them eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri, a city with a Bosnian community already 80,000 strong, the largest in the United States. Today, roughly 5,000 refugees from Srebrenica live in St. Louis. The Midwestern American city is home to more Bosnian Muslim survivors of the massacre than Srebrenica itself.

One of the Srebrenica refugees who arrived in the US was Camil Durakovic, the town’s current Muslim mayor. After he survived the fall of Srebrenica at the age of 16, his family resettled in Manchester, New Hampshire. After attending a local high school, he graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 and planned to attend graduate school in the US. A 2005 summer trip to Srebrenica convinced

him that his home was here. He started working for the town’s mayor. When the mayor passed away earlier this year, Durakovic, a burly man with a boyish face who wore a pin-striped suit and pink shirt in the town hall today, took over.

In an interview in his office on Thursday, he said returns of Muslim families rose from 2002 to 2005, largely as a result of heavy American and European support. In recent years, though, they have slowed.

The economy has not helped. Unemployment is 50 percent in Srebrenica, making it a difficult place to settle for Muslims and Serbs alike. Today, 3,500 Bosnian Muslims live in Srebrenica. Because Serb officials decline to pay their pensions and other government benefits, many Bosnian Muslims maintain their official addresses in Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia.

As a result, even though half the town’s residents are Serbs and half are Muslims, its registered voters are roughly 60 percent Serb. Unless the high representative or national government grants another exemption allowing Muslims who lived in the town before the war to vote, Serb politicians will likely gain control of the local government this fall.

With foreign aid and interest in the town dwindling, Durakovic and other survivors predict that Muslims will flee.

“It will be the finalization of the genocide,” Durakovic told me. “Definitely.”

Radomir Pavlovic, the likely Serb candidate for mayor in the October municipal elections, insisted that Muslims had nothing to fear. But he then echoed the divisive statements of the head of his political party, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik.

Initially perceived as a moderate by the West, Dodik has rejected rulings by the International War Crimes Tribunal that genocide occurred in Srebrenica and has systematically thwarted international efforts to unify the country.

Pavlovic, the probable mayoral candidate, expressed views that are widely held among Bosnian Serbs. He said he believed 2,000 - not 8,000 - Muslims died in the executions, blamed “foreign mercenaries” for the killings and expressed sympathy for General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander now on trial in the Hague for carrying out genocide after evading arrest for 16 years.

“Others are more responsible than him and will go unpunished,” Pavlovic told me. “It’s always the pawns that get blamed.”

Denial is nothing new here. After the fall of Srebrenica, Bosnian Serbs insisted that no mass killings had occurred and blocked journalists from investigating them. (Bosnian Serb forces jailed me for 10 days in 1995 after I discovered mass graves near the town while covering the conflict forthe Christian Science Monitor.)

After the bodies were exhumed, the Bosnian Serbs said too little attention was paid to the Serbs killed by Muslims around Srebrenica. As many as 1,300 Serbs may have died here, as Pavlovic argued, but that number is dwarfed by the 8,100 Muslim dead.

The high representative has until May ninth to grant an exemption for Bosnian Muslim voters here.

He should immediately do so. The Dayton Peace Accords mercifully ended the war in 1995, but they created a still-born country with a constitution that makes it easy for corrupt nationalists on all sides to divide the country.

Until desperately needed constitutional reforms are implemented, the Bosnians who lived in Srebrenica before the conflict should be allowed to vote here. Serb nationalists should not gain control of a town that was 75 percent Muslim before the war.

Genocide should not be rewarded.

David Rohde is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

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BUSINESS

mondAY, april 23, 2012

mar ket watc h KUWAIT

DUBAI

QATAR

0.61% 6303

0.7% 1650

0.7% 8703

Iraq oil exports jump nearly 15% in March, highest in over 20 years BAGHDAD: Iraq says oil exports jumped by 15 percent in March compared to the previous month, putting them at the highest level the nation has seen since 1989.

Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Sunday that last month’s oil exports averaged 2.31 million barrels a day, up from an average of 2.01 million barrels a day in February.

OIL M A RKE TS

OMAN

ABU DHABI

BAHRAIN

0.6% 5970

0.2% 2496

0.2% 1157

EGYPT 2.0% 4800

SAUDI

0.5% 7583

US Crude $104.04 $0.16 London Brent $118.83 $0.07 Kuwait Crude $114.84 $0.13 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

CURRE NCIE S US Dollar

British Pound

Saudi Riyal

Qatari Riyal

Indian Rupee

Euro

Japanese Yen

UAE Dirham

Bahraini Dinar

Philippine Peso

Buy 0.2781 Sell 0.2784 Buy 0.3676 Sell 0.3681

Kuwait March inflation at 4-month high of 4.1% Global economic outlook remains challenging

CAPITALS: Kuwait’s annual inflation edged up to a four-month high of 4.1 percent in March, helped by a jump in food prices, data from the Gulf Arab country’s Central Statistics Office showed on Sunday.

Consumer price growth accelerated to 0.8 percent month-on-month in March from 0.2 percent in February as food prices surged 2.6 percent, the fastest rate in 15 months, the data showed.

Analysts have expected price growth in one of the world’s biggest crude exporters to ease this year partly due to a global economic slowdown.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member’s economy is seen growing by 3.8 percent this year after an estimated 4.5 percent in 2011, when it was helped by robust crude prices and increased government spending.

In more news, the World Bank said late on Saturday that the global economic outlook remains challenging while calling for structural reforms to promote poverty reduction.

“The global economic outlook remains challenging.

Policy adjustments and improved economic activity have reduced the threat of a sharp global slowdown”, said the World Bank’s development committee in its communique.

“Growth in emerging and developing economies continues to be relatively strong, but poor countries still need support. Implementing policies and structural reforms to promote poverty reduction and inclusive growth must continue”, it added.

The communique called on the World Bank to “develop more innovative and stronger partnerships with middle income countries. Providing knowledge and financing for global public goods will also remain key”.

KUWAIT: Chairman of Kuwait International Bank (KIB) Sheikh Mohammed AlSabah announced that the bank achieved about four million Kuwaiti dinars in profits for the first quarter (Q1) of 2012 compared to three million dinars in Q1 last year, with a 34 percent growth rate. He added that the bank’s investments during Q1 of this year were positively reflected on the total operational revenues, where the bank achieved KD 10.1 growth in this quarter compared to KD 9.7 million for Q1 last year, with four percent growth rate.

In a press statement, he explained that the profits reinforced the value of shareholders’ equity to reach KD 206.8 million compared to KD 198.8 during the same period last year.

He asserted that such positive results during the first three months are the fruits of the hard work of the employees who worked relentlessly to increase operational

Buy 0.4483 Sell 0.449

Buy 0.003409 Sell 0.003414

Buy 0.0741 Sell 0.0742

Buy 0.0757 Sell 0.07579

Buy 0.07646 Sell 0.07635 Buy 0.7373 Sell 0.73837

Buy 0.005346 Sell 0.005339 Buy 0.006549 Sell 0.006527

Prices in Kuwaiti fils as of April 22, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

BUSINESS MATTERS

MLS: A good business for Kuwait?

Dr. John P. Hayes Exclusive to Al Watan Daily

Kashmiri Muslim potter, Ghulam Mohammad Kumar shapes a pot in his workplace on the outskirts of Srinagar on April 22, 2012. The earthen pots are made from a special clay that at one time was in great demand in Kashmir. One of the oldest professions in Kashmir, the trade has declined slowly over the decades as older potters have died and others have turned to different means of making a living, as many potters earn only 130 Indian rupee (2.49 US dollars) a day. (AFP)

The development committee expressed “profound appreciation and gratitude” to the Bank’s outgoing President Robert Zoellick and congratulated Jim Yong Kim on his selection as the next President starting in July.

The communique noted that social protection “makes

KIB achieves operational profit of KD 10.1 million in Q1 2012

Staff Writer

See page 10

profit and lower cost of financing.

Al-Sabah stressed that the bank’s executive management that is spearheaded by Acting chief executive officer (CEO) Loay Makames highlights the level of quality of operations, where it carefully selected financing operations to limit risks.

The value of net financing assets reached KD 712 million by the end of Q1 this year compared to KD 703 last year. In addition, the total value of assets increased in Q1 to reach KD 1.17 billion with a 4 percent increase. Deposits accounts increased in value to reach KD 743 million in March 2012 after the value was KD 688 million by end of Q1 of 2011. Average rate for shareholders’ equity reached 7.76 percent, while earnings per share reached 4.3 Kuwaiti fils compared to 3.22 fils by end of Q1 last year.

Moreover, he revealed that since the bank plans to cement its financial status and increase its profits, it will open more branches this year, in order to geographically spread throughout Kuwait.

Dubai’s Arabtec wins contract from shareholder Aabar

DUBAI: Dubai builder Arabtec on Sunday said its unit won a 222 million UAE dirhams (60.44 million US dollars) construction contract from top shareholder Aabar Investments to build a residential development in the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Arabtec, in which state-owned investment fund Aabar owns a 10.45 percent stake, said the contract to build a tower of 229 apartments would take 22 months to complete.

Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Aabar, which owns stakes in high-profile names such as German carmaker Daimler, commodities trader Glencore and Italy’s UniCredit, doubled its Arabtec stake to 10.45 percent in April after it boosted its holding to 5.3 percent in early March.

Analysts have said the fund may increase the stake further and some of Aabar’s top executives were nominated to the board of Arabtec this month, in a sign of the fund’s growing influence in the Dubai builder.

Aabar, which was unsuccessful in buying a 70-percent stake worth $1.7 billion in Arabtec two years ago, is involved in some master developments across Abu Dhabi. It has cut about a third of its staff amid a continuing property downturn.

Some Abu Dhabi developers have been forced to cancel projects and restructure debts.

Arabtec, the largest builder in the United Arab Emirates by market value, reported a three-fold rise in fourth-quarter net profit last month.

Its shares have more than doubled in value this year on the Dubai bourse, riding on key contract wins and stake purchase by Aabar. -Reuters

sound development sense. Social safety nets bolstered poor people’s resilience to the last financial crisis and are also an important component of longer-term poverty reduction when they are well-targeted, affordable, gender sensitive and sustainable”. -Agencies

Canada’s RBC to double Mideast wealth management team DUBAI: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) expects to double the number of wealth management employees in its Dubai office in the near future, and is open to opportunities for acquisitions, a senior executive said on Sunday.

Toronto-based RBC has set its sights on global wealth management as a key driver for growth, targeting organic growth in the United States, Britain, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America as well as small or mediumsized acquisitions to build its global wealth, private banking and trust business.

“We currently have 15 people in our Dubai office and will expect to double that in the next two to three years,” Barend Janssens, head of the bank’s wealth management in emerging markets told reporters in Dubai.

The world’s sixth-largest wealth manager wants to more than double its adviser headcount in emerging markets to at least 220 by 2015 as it seeks to expand its business there from 20 billion Canadian dollars (20 billion US dollars) to 50 billion dollars, it said last month.

RBC, Canada’s largest retail bank and the one most focused on wealth management, has been relatively unscathed by the global financial crisis and has successfully lured away top talents from crisis-hit US and European institutions scaling down operations.

The bank also agreed to buy some overseas divisions of the Coutts private banking business from Royal Bank of Scotland

last month.

“We are seeing acquisition opportunities across the board now. For the first time, you are seeing examples of big banks retrenching from certain regions. So you see moves around banks within the industry which we are watching closely,” Janssens said.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Bank of America Merrill Lynch had put its wealth management units outside the United States up for sale, hoping to bring in up to three billion US dollars for the sub-scale business.

Janssens declined to comment whether RBC would be interested in the potential sale.

The Gulf Arab region, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), together pump a significant share of the world’s crude oil production, and global private banks have flocked to the region lured by the region’s growing ranks of millionaires.

The Middle East and Africa wealth management sector grew 8.6 percent in 2010 and overall assets under management could grow to $6.7 trillion by 2015 helped by high oil prices, a study by the Boston Consulting Group in June last year showed.

The region’s private banking sector has several pure-play private banks like Julius Baer and Sarasin Alpen, competing with diversified banks such as, J.P. Morgan Chase and UBS. -Reuters

FILE - Royal Bank of Canada offices are seen in this undated file photo. RBC expects to double the number of wealth management employees in its Dubai office in the near future, and is open to opportunities for acquisitions, a senior executive said on Sunday, April 22, 2012. (AP)

KUWAIT: There may be a real estate multiple listing service (MLS) in Kuwait and I missed it, but if it doesn’t exist, and there are no objections to launching one, I’d say it’s the business to start in Kuwait.

An MLS would save time, generate more money faster, and create happy customers.

Before moving to Kuwait, I shopped online for houses.

If I knew the area where I wanted to buy a house, most of the houses for sale in that area were listed in the MLS. All I had to do was tell my Realtor(r) my price range and area of interest and it was that easy to find houses. A similar service exists for rentals.

The MLS makes life very easy for sellers (and landlords), buyers (and tenants), and, of course, Realtors(r), who are paid commissions when they sell or rent a property, or when a property that they listed in the MLS is sold or rented even by another agent.

Who’s Knocking?

I started my Kuwait rental search a month in advance of my move, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. New expats are at a disadvantage because they don’t know the areas or the nuances. An agent told me the way to find a rental is to drive around at night looking for lights in vacant properties.

He said that’s the way local landlords advertise their rentals. . . . Really? No one minds strangers knocking on their door at night?

I had lined up 12 agents who were eager to show us their properties. “Their” was a key word because they could only show properties for which they held the listing. Unfortunately, they didn’t know about any other properties (nor would they get a commission if I rented one of those other properties).

Four weeks after landing in Kuwait we were still looking! My dozen agents had dwindled to two who really understood what we required and worked diligently to find us the perfect place. But the process took much longer than needed for everyone.

Here’s What The MLS Can Do

Imagine if an agent could learn about all of the properties for rent in an area. Agents will still work hard with MLS, but they will work smarter armed with knowledge.

They have online access to all properties, indexed by area, size, rent amount, and more.

Imagine if landlords could add their properties to the MLS and thereby let all of Kuwait’s agents know that they need a tenant! Suddenly they’d have dozens of agents working for them. And just think about the savings in electricity, not to mention keeping strangers from showing up on their doorsteps!

Imagine if a prospective renter could call just one agent and rent a property in Kuwait. . . . Well, I just did! So who’s going to start Kuwait’s MLS? How can you improve your business? Dr. John Hayes will help you discover points of opportunity. Free analysis for qualifying businesses. Send a paragraph describing your business; selected businesses may be featured in Business Matters. Dr. Hayes is a professor in the College of Business at GUST. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions presented in the column are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Al Watan Daily and its staff.

KSE ends Sunday trade on green notes

KUWAIT: The indices at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) were mainly in green territory upon closing Sunday, with the price index reading 6,302.9 points on a gain of 38.3 points, and the weighted index 420 points, on a gain of 3.19 points.

Trades came to 4,558 transactions worth 30,147,920 Kuwaiti dinars, with 460,270,000 shares changing hands. Five of the eight sector indices were green, with top hefty gain of 169.7 points seen in the banking sector. The insurance and food indices showed no change and the lone loser today was the industrial sector, on an index loss of 14.7 points. Top gainer share for the day was that of Investors Holding Group Company, which was also the top-volume share today. Biggest loser was meanwhile the Al-Safat Company stock. Trading at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) starts the week in green with 21.8 points, reading 6,286.4 points at 9:40 a.m. Sunday, while the weighted index came to 416.74 points, down 0.07 points.

Trades came to 1,282 spot transactions, valued at KD 8.1 million and with 150.6 million shares changing hands. -KUNA

10

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

monDAY, april 23, 2012

Iraq oil exports jump nearly 15% in March, highest in over 20 years

Qatar says has 3% of Total, undecided on further buys

Sovereign fund has $30 billion to spend this year

DOHA: Qatar Holding, a unit of the Gulf nation’s sovereign wealth fund, has increased its stake in French oil group Total to three percent and is undecided on buying more shares, Qatar Holding’s chief executive said on Sunday.

“This is good for both sides - it is good to be in Total. They have a huge investment in Qatar,” Ahmad Al-Sayed told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

“It is very open. We haven’t decided yet,” he

said when asked if Qatar would buy more in Total.

Qatar’s aggressive sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), has $30 billion to spend this year, executive board member Hussain Al-Abdulla said at a conference on Sunday.

QIA has been the most active of the region’s sovereign wealth funds in recent years, deploying the Gulf nation’s natural gas riches in assets ranging from German sports car maker Porsche to British bank Barclays.

Abdulla said QIA had invested two billion US dollars in agriculture over the past two years through its Hassad Food food security unit. -Agencies

Aldar says will repay debt, sees more consolidation

FILE - A worker adjusts the valve of an oil pipes at Doura oil refinery in Baghdad, Iraq April 9, 2012. Iraq says oil exports jumped by 15 percent in March compared to the previous month, putting them at the highest level the nation has seen since 1989. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD: Iraq says oil exports jumped by 15 percent in March compared to the previous month, putting them at the highest level the nation has seen since 1989.

Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Sunday that last month’s oil exports averaged 2.31 million barrels a day, up from an average of 2.01 million barrels a day in February.

He added that the sales grossed 8.472 billion US dollars, an increase of nearly 28.5 percent from February’s revenues of $6.595 billion.

The oil was sold to a 28 international oil companies.

Iraq relies on oil exports for 95 percent of its revenues. The increase is attrib-

uted to the inauguration of a new export terminal in the Arabian Gulf last month.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s second of five floating Gulf oil terminals came online last week, adding 900,000 barrels per day to the country’s export capacity, the head of the Southern Oil Company said.

“A ship with a capacity of two million barrels of oil has docked at the second floating oil terminal,” and pumping has begun, Dhia Al-Mussawi told a news conference in Basra.

The first of the floating terminals began exporting oil in March.

With the new platform, Iraq’s export capacity from the south will be 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd), Al-Mussawi

said, adding that “this is an important step; it is a very important day for us in the Southern Oil Company.”

Iraq currently produces about 2.15 million bpd from the south, though that figure is set to rise to 2.75 million bpd by the end of the year, Al-Mussawi said.

Oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad has said that the eventual goal is for Iraq to be able to export five million barrels per day of oil from the south alone, he said.

Oil sales account for the vast majority of Iraqi government income and around two thirds of gross domestic product. The country exported an average of 2.1 million bpd in 2011, according to Oil Minister Abdelkarim Al-Luaybi. -AP

ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties, currently in merger talks with rival Sorouh Real Estate, says it is committed to repay its huge pile of debt and sees further consolidation in the emirate’s battered property market.

The company, which has been rescued twice by Abu Dhabi with funds amounting to nearly 10 billion US dollars, will not need any more funds from the government, chief executive Mohammed Al-Mubarak, said on the sidelines of a property conference on Sunday.

“We are committed to all our debts and they will be paid, we are in a healthy financial position,” Mubarak told reporters.

“We won’t need more (financial) help, we are comfortable on the financing side,” he added.

The potential merger of struggling Aldar and Sorouh unveiled last month could take some pressure off state investment fund Mubadala, which owns about 35 percent of Aldar.

Aldar’s $1.25 billion 10.75 percent bond, maturing 2014 was bid at 109.5 on Saturday, according to Thomson Reuters data, to yield 5.847 percent, about 23 basis points tighter since beginning of the month.

The builder of the Yas Marina Formula One circuit, which was forced to sell key projects to the government including the Ferrari World Theme Park, is generating income from the lease of “many residential and retail projects”, Al Mubarak said.

“Our model has to be to build more projects,” he added.

Aldar secured a four-billion UAE dirham ($1.1 bil-

lion) credit facility from National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) last week, a deal expected to help the developer manage its liquidity needs.

State-owned investment fund Mubadala, which holds a near-majority position in Aldar said last month that it transferred a 14 percent stake in the developer to secure a loan facility from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Shares of Aldar were up 2.8 percent at 1.12 dirhams at 0837 GMT. Consolidation

Abu Dhabi is poised for more consolidation as it streamlines state-linked firms in the face of tougher property and economic conditions.

“Abu Dhabi market is growing - on that front it has to be managed, this could be either through consolidation or other means,” Al-Mubarak said.

The state-backed tie-up between Aldar and Sorouh to create a company worth some $15 billion in assets comes as prices slide in the emirate’s real estate sector, which has not recovered from the downturn seen after the 2008 global financial crisis. Property firms have been forced to cancel projects and restructure their huge pile of debt.

Sorouh, which has assets of 14.1 billion dirhams, has fared better than its bigger rival, supported by a focus on existing project completion and delivery.

While Dubai’s real estate crisis came as a shock to global markets, the Abu Dhabi reckoning has been a more gradual and incremental process as real-estate values continue to slide. -Reuters

Our investments in Kuwait are at $36 million: Mark Mobius

no right to vote in the United States in a few companies, such as Facebook that has a small group of shareholders that control the company. Facebook shareholders do not care about that matter, as long as the company makes profits.

I am really wondering why the bourse in the United States has not intervened to put an end to such incorrect practices that allow a handful of shareholders to control major corporations.

Mahmoud Abdurrazzaq Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Kuwait currently witnesses activity in various financial, social and economy fields, where visits are made to Kuwait by experts and executives of corporations from all around the globe. During those visits, they meet their clients and partners that include businessmen, companies, and investors in Kuwait. Other experts give lectures, and hold forums and interviews that are of great interest to those working in the financial and economy fields in Kuwait. Those lectures and forums are attended by large numbers of people interested in various issues discussed during those activities.

Al Watan met one of those experts, who is Dr. Mark Mobius, the Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group. Mobius stated that his company invests 35 million US dollars in stocks of Kuwaiti banks, and considers Kuwait one of the most important markets in the world, due to absence of foreign investment restraints. He stressed the importance of cementing transparency in Kuwait Stock Exchange, and asked the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to enforce its authority, in order to avoid manipulative traders, not to mention underlining the principles of governance in companies to protect the interests of shareholders and investors.

Mobius believes that Kuwaiti banks are capable of financing development projects, due to their high financial coverage and abundant liquidity. He also called for improving the means of floating tenders, and asserted that postponing or the cancellation of tenders has a negative impact and damages the concerned companies, in addition to hindering the development process.

The following is the interview:

What is the purpose of your visit to Kuwait? Which authorities have you met?

Mobius: Since we are keen to be constantly linked to our investors, whether companies or individuals, I met with the officials of several banks in Kuwait and other companies that my company shares business relationships with. I also visited the Foreign Investment Bureau at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

What is the volume of your investments in the world and Kuwait?

Mobius: Our investment portfolio of assets in emerging markets reached $52 billion, while our investments in Kuwait reach $36 million and focus on bank shares.

Do you have plans to increase those investments in Kuwait?

Mobius: We seek to know the opportunities that allow us to increase our investments, and this depends on the rates and how Kuwait is compared to other countries. If the rates are cheaper, we make investments, but if the rates are higher, we search for other markets with better rates. However, we never sell our shares, since we are keen to keep those shares as a long-term investment.

How do you assess Kuwaiti investments in the Templeton investment portfolio? Are clients satisfied? Do they wish to increase those investments?

Mobius: Kuwaiti investments reach three percent of our total investments in stocks. You have to keep in mind that

Have you heard about such companies in any GCC country?

Mobius: As far as I know there are no such companies in Kuwait, but they might exist in some GCC countries.

However, there are many companies that sideline common shareholders, which render them ineffective concerning the decisions taken by the general assembly that is dominated by a small group of shareholders. This is common in many markets.

What do you think of claims made about the poor performance of the Kuwaiti public sector, despite the privileges coming from oil revenues that place the economy in a strong position?

Dr. Mark Mobius, the Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group being interviewed by Mahmoud Abdulrazzaq, Al Watan reporter.

there are no investments in any steady income instruments, because all investments are limited to stocks. We do believe that Kuwaiti investors are aware of the developments occurring in the financial markets arena; especially in light of the increase in income rates in Kuwait, due to the prospering economy in Kuwait. We see Kuwait as one of the most significant investment markets in the Middle East; especially that legislations and rules that restrain foreign investments are absent. In addition, Kuwait has high expenditure levels for individuals compared to any other financial markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Some people criticize Kuwait for the foot-dragging of procedures and rigid laws that govern direct foreign investments. Those people believe that those factors are responsible for the low investment inflow. What can you say about that?

Mobius: Actually we did not face any obstacles of that kind.All markets worldwide face problems that include speculations and lack of transparency. The markets in the United States lack governance and good management. It becomes very challenging for governments to take steps regarding such issues. It is true that some laws and legislations need to be amended or are insufficient, but they remain minor.

Do you think that the current laws concerning the bourse are sufficient to protect investors and ensure fair treatment in the market? What is the role that the Capital Market Authority should play?

Mobius: The presence of the Capital Market Author-

ity (CMA) will not necessarily prevent incorrect practices.

There is a similar authority in the United States, but everyone knows what happened in the markets there during the past few years, not to mention the losses that investors shouldered as a result of the residential real estate and derivatives crises. However, the robustness of the economy in the United States allows it to absorb such crises, not to mention the procedures taken by the authority there to track down those who perform practices that harm the economy and the investors. However, the main responsibility shouldered by the authority is to guide and raise the awareness of investors, which assist them in making correct investment decisions.

Do you think such principles can be applied in Kuwaiti bourse?

Mobius: Yes, if the Capital Market Authority starts to exercise its authorities, it will be possible. However, those authorities must be applied strictly and independently, while taking into consideration the rights of investors and shareholders in the market. If fairness, efficient operations, liquidity, and transparency are found, markets will be under control and prosper, and those seeking to make illegal gains on the expense of others will fail.

What should the Capital Market Authority do to apply the principles you mentioned?

Mobius: Every shareholder must have a vote, or else voting privileges will be limited to some shareholders or any other groups that will lobby and dominate the company.

However, there are certain cases when the shareholder has

Mobius: The situation in Kuwait is very special and cannot be found in any other country around the world. In Kuwait, most of the citizens are unproductive employees working at the private sector. This is because the government secures their jobs, and those employees do not fear getting terminated for poor performance, not to mention the high salaries they receive. However, there is an advantage to this point, which is the high consumption expenditure due to high salaries. When people feel that they face no risks and that they are financially protected through the continuous cash inflow, they tend to gamble and speculate in the bourse. I believe that such speculations will lead to large bubbles in the stock market, in addition to their influence on the market through the astronomic inflation of prices of consumption items.

What do you think of the development plan that the government had announced? Do you think that it is on the right track? Do you think it is capable of helping Kuwait regain its previous status among the GCC countries?

Mobius: We have been listening for years about the development plan that includes major projects, but I believe that Kuwait requires planning that is based on a time schedule, in order to execute vital projects. However, I believe that what is more important is the focusing on developing human resources through education and technical training.

This will allow Kuwait to take part in more researches and development activities that will eventually lead to a boost in productivity. I also believe that the sooner the projects of the development plan are executed, the more potential Kuwait will have to make great strides forward.

Do you think that is possible in light of the arguments and conflicts between the MPs in the National Assembly and the government?

Mobius: All countries have disputes between the parliament and the government. In the United States, when a party wins the elections, tens of thousands of employees are changed. President Obama placed all his supporters in all the important positions, which makes him powerful. Every democratic system is corrupt.

Saudi Arabia obtained the 9th place in the world in terms of economic stability, overtaking a number of developed countries. The Ministry expects the Kingdomʼs global competitiveness rate and investment-friendly status to improve in the coming years as a result of the governmentʼs economic reforms. In another report conducted by HSBC, Saudi Arabia and Qatar lead some regional economies as they are expected to offer a strong policy response to global and regional headwinds. The Kingdom is expected to benefit from oil prices around USD 100 a barrel over the coming two years which will help oil earnings remain sufficiently high to leave the ALWATAN DAILY Kingdom with substantial current account surpluses.

Regarding inflation, consumer prices edged up to a 14-month high of 5.4 per cent on an annual basis in February-12 on the back of higher food and housing costs. On the month, consumer prices up by 0.3 per cent after a MONDAY, APRIL 23,were 2012 0.1 per cent rise in January-12.

investors are bullish for the Q1-12 earnings season after strong FY-11 earnings that rose 16.5 per cent to SAR 25.6 bn in 2011 from SAR 22 bn in 2010 indicating that banks may have a strong Q1-12. The banking sector led the TASI to a fresh three and a half year highs on expectations that the financial sector will lift the market further, backed by strong fundamentals and expected higher demand for credit. The TASI crossed the 7,800 mark for the first time since 2008 and is currently facing a strong resistance level at the 8,000 psychological mark.

BUSINESS

11

In Q1-12, the TASI registered a whopping 22.09 per cent rise to lead the GCC equity markets.

Major highlights during the quarter included Saudi Arabia stating that it will permit foreign companies to list on its stock exchange for the first time, in what is seen as a first step toward opening up its famously-closed investment market to outsiders. In an announcement, the Saudi Capital Market Authority said it would allow listing by foreign companies that already have their shares listed on other regulated exchanges, providing the rules in the other jurisdictions in which they are listed are at least equal to those of Saudi Arabiaʼs. The result of such a decision would allow Saudi Arabiaʼs stock market to gain MSCI frontier market status if it were to open up its market to foreign investment. Also, positive growth rates and news that development projects in the country are seeing progress helped add to investor sentiment.

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) plans capital spending of about SAR 44 bn annually over the next five years, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch anticipates that the massive capital spending program will put pressure on credit metrics and will be critical for the financial viability of the company and its ratings to receive ongoing state aid. Fitch also affirmed SECʼs Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating at ʻAA-ʼ with a Stable Outlook. Fitch has also affirmed SECʼs three Sukuk issues at ʻAA-ʼ.

TASI gains confidence as Q1 closes over 7,800-point benchmark TASI 52 Week Performance Relative to Volume

TADAWUL Most Active Stocks for the Month

7,900

800

TASI Value

7,300

Strong economic fundamentals and expectations of opening up gradually the local market to foreign investors and allowing international companies to list their shares on the local bourse coupled with positive future prospects for the economy and expectations of a bullish earnings season as Q1 2012 came to an end, pushed confidence in the Kingdom higher, taking the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) to levels not witnessed since 2008 as it closed above the 7,800 level. As a result, the TASI ended the month of March up 608.72 points, or 8.42 percent, to close at 7,835.15 points and end as the best performing market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). During the first quarter (Q1) of 2012, the TASI continued its rally to 22.09 percent overcoming Dubai Financial Market (DFM) as the best performer so far as well. In March, Tadawul market capitalization rose 8.1 percent to 1.54 trillion Saudi riyals (410 billion US dollars) as compared to 1.42 trillion riyals ($380 billion) recorded at the end of February 2012 supported by market heavyweight Petrochemical Industries sector, which represents 34.6 percent of the aggregate market cap, increasing 7.41 percent to 533 billion riyals ($142.2 billion); and Banks & Financial sector rising 6.9 percent to 379 billion riyals ($101 billion). Trading indicators recorded double digit increases for the second consecutive month with volume and value traded jumping 61 percent and 52 percent, respectively. During March, the total traded volume reached 15 billion shares distributed over 5.6 million transactions while value traded rose to 319 billion riyals, up from 210 billion riyals in February 2012.

The TASI’s bullish performance during the first week of the month pushed the index higher for its 14th consecutive session on March 6, marking the longest winning streak in more than five years, as high oil prices fuelled buying in petrochemical stocks. Furthermore, telecom stocks supported the index as they continued

7,150

700

7,000

600

6,850

500

6,700

400

6,550 6,400

300

6,250 6,100 5,800

Company

Ÿ

High

Low

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

1,080 440 610 930 285 425 760 590

1,060 430 610 880 275 425 750 590

Kw Investment Commercial Facilit.

Int'L Financial Adv. National Invest.

Kw Projects Ahlia Holding Coast Invest.

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

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

104 265 148 320 62 104 33.5 150 53 31 38.0 280 38.5 234.0 104.0 75.0 188 30.0 57 53 114

104 260 148 315 61 100 33.5 148 51 30 36.5 280 38.0 230.0 100.0 71.0 180 30.0 53 52 110

-

-

Global Index - Banking

Ÿ

Global Index - Investment

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

-

Global Index - Insurance

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

57 116 142 230 236 38.5 96 1,000 76 18.5 67.0 90 61 67 79 37.5 83 21.0 87 46.0 65 71 47.0 38.5 23.0 40 62 340

Global Index - Real Estate

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

Heavy eng. & Ship.

Marine Services Portland Cement

Ÿ Ÿ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ź

230 122 465 1,240 310 890

228 120 465 1,240 290 870

3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 2.5% 1.6% 1.8% 2.4% 2.0% 0.0% 1.9%

1,220 510 800 680 930 285 480 900 600 326.42

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

15.55 37.84 1240.61 18.34 34.88 26.79 12.99 27.47 128.53 19.83

5

40,000 600,000 200,000 1,450,000 1,120,000 2,720,000 1,360,000 5,280,000 2,240,000 3,760,000 1,040,000 10,000 480,000 840,000 2,500,000 10,840,000 280,000 240,000 1,360,000 1,880,000 1,960,000 40,200,000

2 19 8 35 23 38 9 28 29 41 11 1 6 38 54 150 14 3 19 42 56 626

4,160 156,050 29,600 456,850 69,280 275,040 45,560 781,720 116,560 112,760 39,120 2,800 18,360 193,880 254,880 791,640 51,160 7,200 76,600 98,920 219,400 3,801,540

104 255 148 315 61 100 116 33.5 148 51 30 36.5 61.0 280 38.0 228.0 100.0 71.0 186 30 72 65 57 52 110.0

106 260 150 320 62 230 102 118 102 150 52 31 38.5 69.0 290 60 38.5 232.0 102.0 72.0 188 285 66 53 112.0

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.8% 4.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.4%

112 285 67 182 345 18.5 69 25.0 130 36.0 230 122 120 102 52 35.5 150 65 35 71 44.0 48.5 70.0 26.0 295 65 39 51 47.5 104 270.0 130.0 25.0 33.5 96.0 29.0 190 310 114 32 89 73 60 59 64 42.5 140.0 85.99

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

16.16 9.83 0.00

-

-

-

255 500 30.0

300 510 550 43.0

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

325 610 540 148 220 134 40.5 44.91

13.38 280 13.67 520 11.92 450 21.80 102 63.13 220 102 40.5 64711.96 13.38 42.22

3,920,000 1,400,000 3,300,000 20,000 40,000 4,400,000 80,000 120,000 160,000 55,840,000 10,440,000 720,000 880,000 6,920,000 40,000 80,000 920,000 19,200,000 40,000 10,240,000 1,400,000 880,000 52,880,000 3,440,000 24,160,000 560,000 1,920,000 440,000 204,440,000

38 16 51 1 2 52 1 7 4 264 108 6 21 66 1 1 19 130 1 87 15 8 284 36 198 7 45 20 1,489

218,960 159,720 451,800 4,600 9,400 166,320 7,680 120,000 12,080 994,240 684,840 64,760 52,920 458,320 3,160 3,000 75,560 393,240 3,480 460,600 88,400 60,520 2,419,960 131,920 541,480 22,040 116,400 148,000 7,873,400

56 112 140 228 230 110 90 38.0 95 1,000 74 18.5 65.0 89 59 66 79 36.0 81 21.0 87 44.0 61 66 150 46.5 38.0 23.0 38 60 330

57 114 142 234 31.0 236 138 38.5 96 1,020 75 66.0 90 61 67 83 38.0 83 89 45.0 64 72 168 47.0 38.5 62 340

0.0% 4.4% 0.0% 6.5% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 7.7% 0.0% 6.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.6% 6.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.0%

63 118 152 246 37.5 250 130 100 52.0 120 104 1,080 85 20.0 68.0 97 75 73 90 38.0 92 23.0 91 17.5 45.0 70 80 174 52.0 39.5 40.5 28.5 25.5 134 40 220 70 480 58.42

47 97 108 200 28.5 224 114 77 27.0 108 94 840 62 11.0 35.0 77 54 52 74 33.0 59 13.5 87 17.5 31.0 57 64 116 27.5 22.0 25.0 17.5 15.0 134 31 220 49 270 49.06

1,600,000 1 600 000 640,000 10,000 5,000 160,000 300,000

14 21 1 2 15 17

367,800 367 800 77,600 4,650 6,200 47,000 261,300

228 120 450 122 1,240 285 130 860

230 122 465 132 1,260 290 142 890

0 0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.2% 0.0% 5.9% 3.4% 0.0% 7.3%

260 136 475 158 1,480 345 222 920

214 116 415 122 1,240 290 134 660

Ÿ

56 114 142 230 28.5 236 118 91 38.5 110 96 1,000 75 18.5 66.0 89 59 67 79 37.5 82 21.0 87 17.5 45.0 62 66 160 47.0 28.5 38.5 17.5 23.0 134 134 220 61 340 58.38

55 116 132 232 28.5 234 118 91 36.5 110 95 1,000 75 16.0 67.0 91 59 66 79 36.0 82 18.5 87 17.5 44.5 64 70 160 44.5 28.5 37.5 17.5 20.5 134 134 220 58 340 57.98

1 -2 10 -2 2.0 2.0 Ex-D 1 2.5 1.02.01 1.5 2.5 0.5 -2 -4 3 1.0 2.5 Ex-D 3 0.40

ŷ ź ź ŷ ź ŷ ŷ ŷ

230 120 465 122 1,240 290 134 890

230 122 475 122 1,260 290 134 890

-2 -10 -20 -

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

-

-2 2.5 4 1 2 -5 0.52.02.04.0 2.0 5 2 2 0.46

31.3.12

3.3.12

17.3.12

4.2.12

18.2.12

7.1.12

21.1.12

24.12.11

10.12.11

26.11.11

12.11.11

29.10.11

1.10.11

15.10.11

3.9.11

17.9.11

6.8.11

20.8.11

9.7.11

23.7.11

25.6.11

11.6.11

28.5.11

14.5.11

30.4.11

2.4.11

16.4.11

1,080 440 630 280 425 760 600

Ex-D Ex-D Ex-D -

Ÿ ź Ÿ ź ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ Ÿ

Last Ask

1,060 435 610 930 275 420 750 590

300 520 500 134 220 122 40.50 43.48

ŷ ŷ

Last Bid

MTD YTD 0.79% -1.34% 2.24% 8.41% Div. Annual Close Yield High Low P/E

1,734,300 225,750 3,050 666,000 1,007,800 4,250 410,750 1,752,300 5,804,200

300 520 500 134 220 122 40.50 43.48

ŷ ŷ

DTD 0.77% 0.61%

33 19 1 28 56 1 28 50 216

-

20.20

Emaar The Economic City

18,697,782

851,680

Source: KAMCO Research

TADAWUL Best Return Performers

13.05

TADAWUL Worst Return Performers

56.50

71.2%

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate

13.10

43.2%

Emaar The Economic City

13.05

18.80

13.10

10,247,507

M-T-M % Chg

19.00

Close (SAR) Saudi Fransi Coop. Ins. Co.

47.9%

Allied Cooperative Ins. Group

38.2%

Yamamah Saudi Cement Co.

38.1%

77.25

40.50

Saudi Research and Marketing

24.85

Saudi Printing & Packing Co.

29.30

49.80

M-T-M % Chg (22.9%)

(13.8%)

(12.2%)

(11.9%)

(11.2%)

Source: KAMCO Research

foreign companies to list on its stock exchange for the first time, in what is seen as a first step toward opening up its famously-closed investment market to outsiders. In an announce- 3 ment, the Saudi Capital Market Authority said it would allow listing KAMCO by foreign companies that Research already have their shares listed on other regulated exchanges, providing the rules in the other jurisdictions in which they are listed are at least equal to those of Saudi Arabia’s.The result of such a decision would allow Saudi Arabia’s stock market to gain Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) frontier market status if it were to open up its market to foreign investment. Also, positive growth rates and news that development projects in the country are seeing progress helped add to investor sentiment.

On the economic front, the Ministry of Economy and Planning stated that Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product (real GDP) rose by 4.64 percent in the first year of the ninth development plan (2010-2014), exceeding the target of 4.3 percent, backed by soaring oil prices and public revenues. The report added that economic stability is the Kingdom’s basic strength and that Saudi Arabia obtained the ninth place in the world in terms of economic stability, overtaking a number of developed countries. The Ministry expects the Kingdom’s global competitiveness rate and investment-

Date of Closing Prices:

1,610,000 520,000 5,000 730,000 3,600,000 10,000 545,000 2,970,000 9,990,000

-

16,794,350

friendly status to improve in the coming years as a result of the government’s economic reforms. In another report conducted by Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), Saudi Arabia and Qatar lead some regional economies as they are expected to offer a strong policy response to global and regional headwinds. The Kingdom is expected to benefit from oil prices around $100 a barrel over the coming two years which will help oil earnings remain sufficiently high to leave the Kingdom with substantial current account surpluses. Regarding inflation, consumer prices edged up to a 14-month high of 5.4 percent on an annual basis in February 2012 on the back of higher food and housing costs. On the month, consumer prices were up by 0.3 percent after a 0.1 percent rise in January 2012.

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) plans capital spending of about riyals 44 billion annually over the next five years, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch anticipates that the massive capital spending program will put pressure on credit metrics and will be critical for the financial viability of the company and its ratings to receive ongoing state aid. Fitch also affirmed SEC’s Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating at ‘AA-’ with a Stable Outlook. Fitch has also affirmed SEC’s three Sukuk issues at ‘AA-’.

05 / 01 / 2012

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

20 5 50 10 -10 4.24

104 260 52 148 315 13.0 62 25.0 130 25.0 230 104 116 102 52 31.0 146 52 29.5 71 36.5 48.5 64 26.0 285 55 38.5 51 38.5 100 232.0 102.0 22.0 22.5 73.0 29.0 182.0 265 114 28.00 75 66 52 51 64 42.50 110 81.83

ŷ

55 114 130 230 234 37.5 96 1,000 75 16.5 65.0 89 59 65 79 37.5 82 19.5 87 44.0 62 66 45.0 37.5 21.5 39 58 335

1060 435 790 610 880 280 425 750 600 320.31

Previous Close Change 179.35 1.38 6,264.60 38.30 Trading Activity Chng Volume Tran. Value(KD)

104 260 52 148 320 13.0 62 25.0 130 25.0 230 102 116 102 52 33.5 150 52 30.5 71 38.0 48.5 64 26.0 280 55 38.5 51 38.0 100 232.0 100.0 22.0 22.5 71.0 29.0 186 265 114 30.00 75 66 57 53 64 42.50 112 82.29

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

-

1080 440 790 610 930 280 425 760 590 324.56

859,296

1,606,642

Trading Prices of Kuwait Stock Exchange Date of Closig Prices: 22/04/2012

For more Information please contact "Global" at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net Last Close 180.73 6,302.90 Last Prev.

Close Close

Saudi Kayan

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co.

Saudi Public Transport Co.

to trade at attractive valuations as investors global economy helped petrochemical stocks On the economic front, theconsumer Ministry ofdemand Economy and stated that Saudi Arabiaʼs real speculated that growing gain Planning as demand became stronger.

Moreover, th development gross domestic product (real GDP) rose by 4.64 per cent in the firstfrom year China of the 9will will initiate fierce competition among telecom growth numbers play a signifioperators. Cement stocks also extended gains 2 cant role for the sector as it represents a major after the Kingdom removed an import ban. The market for Saudi petrochemical companies.

Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated earThe world’s second-largest economy grew 8.9 KAMCO Research lier in the month that it was taking decisions, percent in Q4 2011 from a year earlier; howevwhich included halting export licenses, to meet er the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had local demand and to ensure price stability, orcut its growth forecast for 2012 to 8.2 percent dering local cement factories to work at full cafrom a previous nine percent. By the end of the pacity. Nevertheless, the cement sector ended month, Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporathe month to the downside shedding 2.7 pertion (SABIC) and SAFO closed at 108 riyals cent from its market cap. Sentiment in Saudi and 190.5 riyals to post gains of 6.4 percent Arabia remained bullish despite the recent and 4.24 percent, respectively. As for the bankrally resulted in investors booking profits. Neving sector, investors are bullish for the Q1 2012 ertheless, the TASI soon recovered the losses earnings season after strong fiscal year (FY) with heavy trading in small-caps, specifically 2011 earnings that rose 16.5 percent to 25.6 stocks of cheap value but not valuations. Specbillion riyals in 2011 from 22 billion riyals in ulators continued to trade stocks near riyals 10 2010 indicating that banks may have a strong for quick profits as they weren’t driven by funQ1 2012. The banking sector led the TASI to a damentals. These speculations in cheap stocks fresh three and a half year highs on expectadrove turnover to the highest level in five years tions that the financial sector will lift the maras market turnover reached 21.6 billion riyals ket further, backed by strong fundamentals and on March 19, the highest one day value since expected higher demand for credit. The TASI April 2007. crossed the 7,800 mark for the first time since Although small cap stocks witnessed heavy 2008 and is currently facing a strong resistance trading in March, market heavy-weights banklevel at the 8,000 psychological mark. ing and petrochemical sectors also played a In Q1 2012, the TASI registered a whopkey role in setting the trend for the market. ping 22.09 percent rise to lead the GCC equity Global oil prices and progress on resolving markets. Major highlights during the quarter Greece debt crisis along with recovery in the included Saudi Arabia stating that it will permit

10.85

15.60

Knowledge Economic City

Source: KAMCO Research

25,691,496

26,839,774

Saudi Enaya Cooperative Ins. Co.

0

Date of Closing Prices: 22 / 04 / 2012 For more information please contact “Global” at (+965) 180 42 42 or www.globalinv.net Ÿ

2,467,554

(SAR)

1,828,844

Close (SAR)

100

5,950

Close

(000 SAR)

Alinma Bank

200

Trading Prices of Kuwait Exchange Trading Prices of Kuwait StockStock Exchange

Global General Index KSE Price Index

ZAIN KSA

900

7,450

Value

(000 shares)

1,000

7,600

Tadawul review

Volume

1,100

7,750

Vol. Traded (shr. mil.)

KUWAIT: The following is a report prepared by Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) Asset Management Company (KAMCO) Research that analyzes the performance of the Saudi Stock Exchange during March 2012 in addition to assessing the latest key economic and market developments and their effect on the performance of the stock market.

14.24 0.00 9.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 47.26 0.00 0.00 67.72 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13.76 0.00 0.00 0.00 18.57 20.94 16.18 573.07

0.00 0.00 5.59 14.00

50.32 13.40 16.05 23.03 9.61 15.16 24.12 29.41 0.00 15.51 393.14

116.65 0.00 12.09 8.00 202.69 0.00 0.00 26.88 439.41 0.00 0.00 19.22

20.78 7.17 13.08 16.78 31.88

ACICO 230 United Industries 89 Company High Boubyan Petroch.

630 1,140 Gulf Glass National Bank Gulf Bank 495 Hilal Cement 216 Commercial 770 Al Kout Ind.Bank Project Ahli Bank 640 K-PAK Ahli UnitedMaterial Bank 850 Building International 248 Nat. Ind.Co.Bank 460 Burgan Bank Equipment Holding 152 Kw Finance House Consumer Industries 890 Boubyan Bank 590 Kuwait Gypsum Global Qurain Index - Banking 214 Salbookh Trading Kw Investment - IKARUS 265 Commercial Facilit.

Boubyan Int'LAdv. Ind. 4175 Int'L Financial 174 National GlobalInvest.

Index - Industrial Kw Projects 300 National Cinema Ahlia Holding 13.5 Kw Hotels Coast Invest.

53 405 Agility Int'L Investor Market Complexes Securities House ZAIN 740 Ind. & Fin. Inv. Safat Energy 80.0 Securities Group Educational Group Int'L Finance Indep. Petroleum 110 MARKAZ National Cleaning 168 KMIFIC Sultan - 116 Int'L Inv. Center Group Arabi 132 Aref Inv.Group Group City Group Investment Dar - Tele.

2,440 AlWataniya AMAN Inv. Kw Gulf Link 140 ALOLA Inv. 110 Kw Cable ALMAL Inv. Vision 50 Automated System - Gulf Inv. House NAPESCO - A'ayan Leasing KCPC 300 32.5 Bayan Inv. K.S.H Inv. GLOBAL EyasInv. Osoul Hits Telecom GULFINVEST - 110 KFIC -19.0 Al Safwa Holding KAMCO - Human Soft Int'l Leasing & Holding Inv. -77 Privatization Nat. Int'l Holding -99 Nafaaes Holding - Housing Finance National Slaughter MADAR 124 Aref energy 26.5 AlSafwan Deera Holding AlGulf Safat Inv. 72.0 Petroleum 122.0 AlGulf Salam Group 24.5 Franchising 41.0 Ekttitab Credit Holding & Collection AlNational Qurain Holding -23.0 Ranges Sokouk BurganHolding Well Drilling 16.5 Al-Madina 40.0 IFA H&R Finance 420 NOOR Combinted Group 1,680 Tamdeen Inv. 160 Jeeran Holding KW BH Int'l Exch.

Palms Agro 126 Taiba Kuwaiti Holding 74.0 Safat TEC Kuwait Syrian Mushrif Trading 90 Strategia UPAC 53 Kuwait China Inv. 305 ALAFCO Manafae Inv. Al-Muwasat - Gulf North Africa 295 Mashaer Holding Amwal Fuel AlOula Masar Future Comm.

Al-Imtiaz 132 126 Hayat Comm.

Global Index - Investment 66 Mubarrad Transport Kuwait Insurance 46.0 Kuwait Resorts Gulf Insurance - Advanced Technolgy - Ahlia Insurance Yiaco Medical 112 Warba Insurance Al Jazeera Airways 455 Kuwait Re-Ins. Al Soor Fuel 238 First Takaful - Future Kid Ins. Wethaq Insurance 285 KGL Global Index - Insurance81 Al Nawadi Alrai Media Kuwait R.E. 48 Zima R.E. Holding United 100 National 126 GlobalR.E. Index - Services Salhia R.E. 204 LiveStock Trans.

Pearl R.E. Dana Al-Safat 22496 Tamdeen R.E. United Poultry Ajial R.E. Kw FoodStuff 1,360 Massaleh R.E. United Food Arab R.E. 30.0 Kout R.E. Food - Union Shuaiba Industrial

Metal Collecting Global General Index Kuwait Foundry KSE Price Index

- źŷ - źŷ 228 Ÿ 85 Ÿ Low 620 ŷ 1,120 - ŷŷ 490 216 ŷŷ 770 - ŷŷ 640 - źŷ 800 - Ÿ 248 - ŷŷ 455 144 źź 880 - źŷ 580 - ŷ 212 źŷ - - ŷŷ 260 - źŷ 4074 źŷ 170 źź 300 - Ÿŷ 12.5 ŷ - ŷ 52 ź 395 Ÿ ŷ - ŷ - ŷ 730 ŷ ŷ 78.0 Ÿ - ŷ - ŷ - ŷ 108 - ŷŷ 160 - ŷź - 108 ŷŸ 132 - ŷŸ - - ŷŷ 2,380 ŷŸ 130 ŷź 108 49 - źŷ - - ŷŷ - - ŷŷ 290 ŷŷ 31.0 - ŷŷ -ŷ - 106 ŷŷ - 18.0 ŷŸ - - ŷŷ -75 ŷŸ -99 ŷŸ - - ŷŷ - ŷŸ 120 26.5 - ŷŷ - ŷŷ 70.0 114.0 24.0 Ÿź 39.0 - źŷ - 22.0 ŷŸ 16.5 - ŷŷ 38.5 395 źź ŷŷ 1,680 158 źŷ - ŷ 122 Ÿ - ŷ 74.0 Ÿ - ŷ 88 ŷ - ŷ - ŷ 53 ŷ 300 - ŷŷ - - ŷŷ 290 - ŷź - ŷŷ 124 - źŷ 114 źź 63 Ÿ - ŷź 46.0 - - ŷŷ - - ŷŷ 108 445 źŷ 238 ź - -ŷ 285 ŷŷ 81 źź 48 - źŷ 100 - Ÿŷ 118 ŸŸ 200 ź - ŷ ŷ 22495 źŷ - - ŷŷ 1,360 - ŷŷ 30.0 - źŷ - - ŷŷ

Global Index - Food 98 96 ERESCO 860 - 840 Mabani Sharjah Cement 7588 7486 INJAZZAT RE Gulf Cement Inv. Holding Um QuwainGrp Cement 12.070 11.570 Int'L Resorts Fujaira Cement 78 77 Commercial R.E 126 126 Ras AlKheimah 70 65 Sanam R.E. ARIG 54 53 Aa'yan R.E United Gulf Bank Aqar Egypt Kw Holding Kuwait R.E Holding Bahrain Kw Ins. 59 AL Mazaya 60 56.0 Gulf Fin. House 58.0 14.0 Al Dar National R.E 14.0 InovestInt'L Holding -71 -67 Themar Ahli United Bank - 168 Grand R.E Projects - 168 - 30.0 Tijara & R.E Invest -32.5 Ithmaar Bank AlGlobal TameerIndex - Non-Kuwaiti Arkan Al-Kuwait R.E 70 70 Markaz Real Estate Safat Global AlInvestment Argan Int'L Funds 28.5 28.0 Abyaar Al-Bareeq Holding 23.5 - 23.5 Munshaat AFAQ First Dubai 26.0 - 25.5 Al-Shamel KBT Al-Safat Real Estate 27.0 19.5 27.0 19.5 Manazel 16.533 15.532 Ajwan Real Estate REAM Specialities Group 455 460 - Mena Real Inter.

Estate - Masaken AlDulaqan MoudonR.E Intl. R.E - - Markaz Real Estate 57 56 Eid Food Kuwait Remal 295 - 285 Maidan ClinicR.E

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

Last Close Previous Close - Change Ex-D 216 216 114 176.53114 177.24 -0.70 - 5,754.20 - -27.30 3505,726.90 350 4 120,000 4 27,520 230 226 Last Prev.

Trading Activity 4 1,880,000 35 164,080 89 85 Close Close Chng - Volume 710,000Tran.8 Value(KD) 440,250 630 630 1,100 1,100 3,796,050 - 1120 1120 69 3,377,500 20 1 495 495 - 830,000 407,950 4,320 216 20,000 216 770 770 10,000 1 7,700 - 415 415 640 -20 2 6,400 660 10,000 275 275 800 50 850 350,000 23 282,700 224 Ex-D 224 16 248 248 - 700,000 173,600 310 310 460 465 5 500,000 10 229,750 55 152 1,640,000 -4 241,760 148 890 -10 880 1,280,000 66 1,127,050 102 102 590 590 607,850 1,035,000 33 128 Ex-D 128 319.37 319.54 8,092,500 6,639,050 0.17- 120,000 240 5 212 212 25,560 44 44 106 106 - - - - 194 194 260 265 -5 250,000 14 65,750 8,920 120,000 4075 1,680,000 -1 67,160 4175 13 3 1,676,960 168.38 7,325,000 181 0.66169.05 170 1,040,000 20 172 -2 177,720 300 110,000 5 33,000 295 5 960 960 7,040,000 12.5 12.5 46 90,920 280 280 1,280,000 22 52 53 -1 67,280 560,000 405 35 225,150 5 400 25.0 25.0 52 52 130 130 554,100 755,000 740 37 740 31.0 31.0 7,400,000 79.0 70 581,960 78.0 1.0 230 230 110 110 102 102 350 350 -108 112 73,920 680,000 18 629,000 3,860,000 108 166 4.0162 50 50 2,860,000 116 321,120 110 6 44.0 44.0 -92 500,000 66,000 122 132 52 52 -10 -10 550 550 74 74 - - - - 65,000 2,400 156,600 2,440 28.5 28.5 - 40 -15 681,520 5,040,000 109 130 132 108 14 54,920 108 --2 500,000 58 4958 49.5 15,840 -1 320,000 4 300 300 23 - - 23 - - 355 355 71 - - 71 - - 49,950 170,000 290 290 31.0 31.0 58,760 1,840,000 2212 - 255 255 48.5 - 48.5 - - 260 260 - - 68 68 -Ex-D - 646,240 5,940,000 108 108 20.5 20.5 -76 26.0 26.0 1 31,600,000 175 584,920 17.5 18.5 244 - 244 - - - 270 270 9477 -1 9476 -34 145,720 1,920,000 -1 5194 5199 -5 3,960 40,000 - 36 36 - - - 154 154 -32 51 51 -2 95,880 780,000 120 118 26.5 26.5 2 6,360 240,000 550 550 75 75 -68 3,840,000 72.0 273,120 72.0 -8.0 120.0 112.0 1,305,280 5,800 24.0 25.0 240,000 212 3 1.0- 11,180,000 2.039.5 41.5 24 77,080 1,920,000 120 120 19.0 19.0 - 0.5 22.5 250 1,212,600 22.0 53,680,000 16.5 5 7,920 16.5 480,000 260 260 39.0 0.593 8 419,440 38.5 395 410 -15 10,640,000 32,200 80,000 29.0 29.0 -3 21,000 1,680 12,500 1,680 160 2.0158 12,680 80,000 4 88 88 255 255 7,440 126 120 6 60,000 3 114 114 5,920 74.0 72.0 2.0 80,000 2 26.00 26.00 1 280 000 113 720 88 88 1,280,000 29 113,720 68 68 340 340 53 200,000 53 10,600 2 305 305 54,850 180,000 - 60 -7 60 168 168 46.5 - - - - 46.5 295 300 450,000 131,300 64 --5 -23 64 265 265 42.50 - 42.50 - - - 265 265 128 130 -2 1,240,000 38 157,920 118 124 6.0- 40,720,000 114 378,600 3,140,000 558 76.02 0.1275.90 2,702,550 64 63 124 1 490,120 7,560,000 -1 325 325 46.0 48.0 80,000 3,680 2.0- - 560 560 - 770 770 -485 485 - 350 350 118 -8 120,000 110 610 13,200 455 230,000 455 102,500 220 220 Ex-D 238 240 20,000 1 -2 4,760 114 114 - - - 108 Ex-D 108 40.50 40.50 285 285 890,000 35 253,650 43.63 43.43 0.19120,000 62 13,200 81 82 80,000 6,480 -1 118 118 1 3,840 49 -1 48 80,000 98 92,000 9 100 9998 1 920,000 383,920 124 120 4 105 3,100,000 1,489 744.75 741.93 133,392,500 2.82 7,839,860 12 104,680 200 204 -4 520,000 184 184 37.5 37.5 560,000 96 53,640 96 313 224 10.0- 100,000 22,400 234 136 136 120 120 102,500 1,360 139,400 1,360 82 - -4 82 340 340 1 30.0 80,000 30.5 0.5- 2,400 560 560 - 108 108 - - 662,500 334.98 193,040 334.98 31,160 --1 320,000 98 97 817 1,656,950 10 1,935,000 850 57 860 80 80 2 8,960 120,000 22 7588 7386 480,000 12 41,760 1513 23,960 11.5 12.0 0.5- 2,000,000 840,000 70 58,800 70 38.0 38.0 91 91 3 18,520 78 77 1 240,000 30,240 6 126 126 240,000 67,400 17 1,000,000 65 70 -5 114 114 4 10,720 54 -1 55 200,000 178 178 90 90 280 280 38.0 38.0 Ex-D 455 455 11 59 26,160 440,000 -4 63 22,040,000 2 1,249,920 56.0 58.0 224 1 80,000 1,120 14.0 14.5 0.52 523,440 7,560,000 -89 9170 9168 23,520 168 168 140,000 -3 17.5 17.5 31.0 31.030.0 32.5 32,960,000 193 1,031,240 3 59 59 2,958,920 0.21 41.83 64,260,000 540 42.04 -4 320,000 2 22,400 70 74 122 122 48.5 48.5 - - - 124 124 12 0.52,720,000 76,880 28.0 28.5 144 144 1.0- 80,000 1 1,880 23.5 24.5 106 106 0.5240,000 6,160 3 26.0 25.5 250 250 Ex-D 946,080 - 2.5- 35,040,000 41 27.0 27.0 80,000 19.5 22.0 1,560 1,200,000 85 1.0-2 19,240 16.5 15.5 33 400,000 32 12,920 - -5 -14 134 134 460 465 210,000 96,550 - - - 134 134 51 51 - - - - 220 220 345 345 1 240,000 6 13,520 57 58 106 106 47 610,850 295 290 5 2,110,000 2,260 2,260 0.02- - 53,085,000 - 332 4,151,200 49.73 49.75 41.0 41.0

Global Index - Real Estate Flex 92.0 Dar Al-Thuraya Real E 242 232 Nationl Ind. Group 232 źŷ Kw Medical Services 128 - 126 - ŷŷ 128 65 Pipes Ind. & Oil 450 Kuwait Cement 455 450 ź Amar For Fin. & Leas.

55 - ŷ 150 - ŷ Refrigeration Ind.Market Total Parallel 1,420 1,420 1,420 ź Gulf Cables & Elec.

335 - ŷ Heavy & Ship.

Totaleng.

Market 212 Marine Services - ŷ GlobalCement Special Indices 720 720 ŷ Portland 720 Ÿ GlobalIndustrial Index - Kuwaiti Co.'s 180 - ŷ Shuaiba Ÿ Global Index - 10 Large 104 104 ź Metal Collecting 110 Cap. 460 Ÿ - ŷ Kuwait Foundry Global Index - Islamic -

92.0 242 -10 13,220,000 - 154 128 - 140,000 6 65 470 20 50,000 2 55 150 -20 690,000 1,460 -40 2,500 1 335 460,270,0004,558 212 Close Prev. Close 720 230,000 19 189.33 180 190.82 184.133 106 186.20-2 80,000 460 576.66 568.85

DTD MTD YTD 0.0% 216 180 12.59 196 216 -0.40% 116 -1.55% -1.55% 0.0% 120 102 110 495 0.0% 315 345 355 -1.50% -0.47% -1.50% 230 2.2% 196 28.55 226 230 Annual Close 79 Last87 Last 89 Div. 0.0% 102 36.43 Bid620 Ask 630 Yield High630 Low550 P/E89.84 0.0% 1,100 3.6% 1,400 1,100 17.40 1,120 3.6% 1,140 1,120 1,100 14.74 490 495 510 490 33.95 220 0.0% 6.9% 216 206 12.38 210 770 780 1.9% 790 770 88.62 390 8.4% 340 9.94 415 640 660 - 3.1% 660 640 17.34 275 5.20 0.0% 300 255 840 850 - 1.6% 850 790 29.68 2.2% 228 224 35.32 246 248 255 248 23.59 305 310 0.0% 3.2% 25.33 325 260 460 465 475 46051 12.26 146 0.0% 0.0% 144 152 880 - 2.3% 900 88093 25.07 870 0.0% 102 590 - 0.0% 580 590 590 112.24 5.5% 128 18.88 128 18.61 212 214 2.0% 0.0% 319.54 210 12.90 222 318.41 0.0% 0.00 102 106 - 0.0% 10651 10641 40.56 194 4.1% 198 8.5% 214 162 17.30 260 265 265 260 12.09 0.0% 4074 4075 0.0% 4288 4070 2.7% 174.76 163.04 13.83 172 168 0.0% 174 170 88.93 295 300 305 295 12.13 960 910 1,000 6.7% 4.4% 1,120 18.02 12.5 13.0 0.0% 13.5 12.5 1.33 0.0% 280 280 51 52 0.0% 54 52 7.4% 400 405 430 340 15.68 0.0% 25.0 25.0 0.00 0.0% 41 0.00 65 0.0% 130 130 8.8% 730 740 900 690 11.15 33.5 0.0% 36.0 31.0 78.0 79.0 0.0% 81.0 45.0 0.0% 230 230 0.0% 110 110 58.86 0.0% 102 102 0.00 325 355 9.3% 0.0% 350 295 106 110 116 108 160 162 3.1% 170 110 20.70 0.0% 50 50 0.00 0.0% 136 102 - 114 - 116 0.0% 44.0 44.0 0.00 132 0.0% 132 11.15 - - 0.0% 52 5284 0.00 540 0.0% 550 530 0.0% 74 74 0.00 2,420 2.0% 2,440 0.0% 2,440 1,920 12.74 27.0 29.5 28.5 28.5 0.00 132 0.0% 0.0% 130 132 110 112 10895 0.00 108 0.0% 49 5056 0.0% 5168 4958 285 320 0.0% 8.3% 350 230 22.18 21 24 23 22 375 395 7.0% 340 8.75 - 0.0% 71 71 0.00 295 0.0% 285 305 3.4% 260 9.91 31.0 32.5 31.5 31.0 - 0.0% 7.1% 260 255 12.82 - 250 48.5 48.5 - 0.0% 260 260 7.7% 4.79 68.0 64.0 68.0 32.31 132 355.94 0.0% - 106 - 108 0.0% 20.5 20.554 - 18.0 - 18.5 0.0% 26.0 26.0 0.00 23.5 14.0 0.0% - 238 244 244 290 0.0% 270 12.91 280 0.0% -76 -77 0.0% 9484 9461 0.00 13.63 6.5% -95 54 - 0.0% 51 5184 116.80 104 0.0% - 0.0% 36 36 0.00 184 154 154 9.95 0.0% 0.0% 51 5191 0.00 120 122 0.0% 120 26.0 26.5 27.0 27.5 520 710 4.9% 520 13.35 550 0.0% 0.0% 75 75 0.00 70.0 78.0 72.0 0.0% 30.0 11.18 99.0 120.0 120.0 118.0 22.5 28.5 16.0 26.0 0.0% 0.0% 19.5 39.0 - 0.0% 41.5 120 0.0% 140 19.0 20.0 19.0 18.0 22.0 22.5 0.0% 0.0% 22.5 0.00 12.0 16.0 16.5 17.0 16.5 265 0.0% 42.66 275 198 0.0% 39.0 38.0 38.5 39.0 400 0.0% 390 86.17 0.0% 490 380 0.0% 29.0 0.00 % 29.0 1,660 1,680 15.98 1,740 1,500 4.2% 156 8.28 3.8% 156 160 162 84 92 5.84 0.0% 89 73 255 22.77 255 270 5.1% 120 128 14.61 7.9% 126 86 11.92 114 0.0% 114 72.0 74.0 0.0% 78.0 57.0 26 27 0.0% 28 0 0% 0 00 88 89 0.0% 104 80 0.00 68 43.00 63 73 0.0% 68 340 335 345 12.34 8.8% 270 53 53 52 0.0% 55 280 300 305 315 3.99 3.3% 60 61 0.0% 60 130 6.0% 7.71 178 10.8% 168 47 47 - 47 172 4.4% 290 295 305 10.49 64 0.0% 69 64 0.0% 21.52 265 305 42.5 0.00 - 260 - 265 0.0% 42.5 300 128.0 0.0% 265 0.0% 18.62 265 124.0 128.0 132.0 5.19 118 2.4% 0.0% 124 75.90 70 116 10.01 76.32 65 51 0.0% 72 64 16.97 325 300 325 325 47.5 6.2% 0.0% 62.0 20.03 44.0 46.0 12.90 610 510 560 560 1.9% 770 640 31.91 750 4.5% 9.91 460 500 5.2% 520 485 4.3% 390 11.47 345 350 375 17.37 108 114 118 110 0.0% 485 410 9.48 445 455 9.1% 220 220 2.7% 0.0% 270 236 296.83 17.51 236 240 134 11498 110 4.6% 14.91 114 104 108 0.0% 40.5 43.0 0.0% 40.5 300 218 8.72 7.0% 280 285 12.60 44.80 92 43.43 77 8.6% 7.03 80 86 4.7% 0.0% 156 21.95 114 112 118 0.0% 37.20 49 49 48 48 106 0.0% 0.0% 110 12.83 100 100 9994 99 126 0.0% 120 22.21 128 122 12.1% 791.90 705.36 11.37 202 10.0% 200 17.83 208 200 0.0% - 0.0% 222 182 15.27 37.5 37.5 37.5 0.0% 114 234 22490 16.20 22497 4.5% -95 126 3.7% 136 126 6.02 0.0% 130 120 110 130 4.8% 1,500 1,360 1,360 11.38 1,340 6.1% 82 82 5.29 85 350 1.5% 390 44.60 340 0.0% 30.5 30.0 31.5 5.4% 610 600 6.5% 500 10.04 540 108 108 15.28 112 118 4.2% 365.22 334.34 11.38 0.0% 100 96 39.65 95 98 860 840 21.70 86079 87080 0.0% 0.0% 44 95 76 73 7680 0.0% 7179 0.0% 108 55 0.00 12.573 11.543 11.587 12.089 0.0% 10.0% 32.52 38.0 38.0 35.5 37.0 70 71 0.0% 0.0% 122 46 0.0% 78 14.56 77 77 79 7.9% 126 86 11.30 118 93 0.0% 75 65 65 124 0.0% 132 128 102 54 26.32 0.0% 55 53 54 112 0.0% 232 387.72 172 116 0.0% 90 90 91 330 176 250 6.24 184 7.1% 0.0% 38.0 38.0 40.5 0.00 455 455 275 290 5.5% 63 60 0.0% 59 531.96 40.5 74.0 0.0% 14.5 4.15 14.5 14.0 0.0% 13.5 0.0% 9457 5.5% 91 91 9056 7.1% 9.27 17.5 17.5 - 70 0.0% - 69 33.5 31.0 31.0 19.44 30.0 0.0% 168.0 170.0 0.0% 57 0.0% 59 59 4.3% 40.74 47.16 8.61 70 74 0.0% 78 70 11.37 1,220 1,220 0.0% 0.00 48.5 48.5 116 126 0.0% 144 124 5.38 28.0 28.5 - 0.0% 29.0 28.0 27.28 0.0% 25.0 - 0.0% 24.5 23.5 23.5 5.03 4.7% 25.0 25.5 26.0 25.5 13.99 6.0% 255 0.0% 24.5 28.0 28.5 27.0 0.0% 22.5 0.0% 15.532 16.034 0.0% 16.5 15.5 0.0% 134 130 134 23.07 14.77 6.2% 460 465 3.7% 32 29 3250 0.0% 32 0.0% 220 - - 0.0% 220 18.82 218 816.78 0.0% 57 60 0.00 5580 57 - 0.0% 9.98 0.0% 295 270 0.00 290 295 - 0.0% 0.0% 1.1% 49.86 49.73 16.27 39.0 43.0 0.0% 23.03

-3,111,120 17,800 122 22,550 455 150 111,030 3,550 1,420 30,147,920 310 Change 710 165,600 1.49 178 2.07 104 8,480 435 7.81

94.0 232 13070 46555 1,440 340 216 DTD 720 0.78% 190 1.12% 108 1.37%

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 0.0% 3.3% 0.6% 4.6% 4.69% 3.0% 2.4% 13.9% 5.6% 0.0% 4.3%

232 260 130 128 470 450 158 150 1,460 1,420 340 335 212 222 MTD 710 740 -1.22% 180 180 -2.14% 104 116 460 460 3.05%

70.58 18.38

13.39 6.49 14.80 8.02 193.84 YTD 96.15 0.67% 10.91 -2.05% 23.15 26.77 2.61%

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

12

ALWATAN DAILY monday, april 23, 2012

April 21, 2009 April 22, 2012 Rebased RebasedPerformance Performance 113

DailyIndex Index Performance Snapshot Daily Performance Snapshot

1% 6%

3% 6%

113

115

111

4%

Kuwait

Dubai

2%

Qatar

2% 1%

111

-6%

Saudi Oman

90

GCC Best Performers

Saudi

95 22-Jan-12 85

22-Feb-12

22-Mar-12

MENA Best Performers

-1%

22-Apr-12

-6% -2

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

1

MENA Indices Highlights Country (Index)

Index Level

% Chg.

YTD

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

Index 7,583 Level

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

2,496 5,250

-0.2% -4.0%

QaUAUAE Qatar (DSM Index) (ADSM Index)

8,703 2,695

0.7% 0.6%

BaQa Bahrain Qatar (BSE (DSMIndex) Index)

1,157 5,590

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

2,024

Ku Kuwait (KSE Weighted Index)

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

OmOman UAE(MSM (DFMIndex) Index)

420

1,650 406

5,970 1,745

Eg Egypt (EGX 30 Index)

OmOman (MSM Index)

Ba Bahrain (BSE Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)*

Eg Egypt (Hermes Egypt Index (HFI))*

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)*

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)*

Tu Tunisia (Tunis SE Index)*

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)* *Market Closed

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

4,800

5,478

1,681

10,378

463

1,174

2,825 471

10,621

5,115

1,094 546

Tu TunisiaClosed (Tunis SE Index)* * Market

3,282

52 Wk High

%-0.5% Chg.

0.8%

3.5%

5.1% 0.4% -

-

2.2%

-0.1% -

-

-

0.9% -

109

Trailing

13.03

101,780

8,071 2,137

113 122

126,119 69,783

11.54 7.29

1.1% -18.8%

1,407 12,627

1,129 4,230

0 196

17,346 65,352

9.23 8.85

2,214

1,921

6,372 5,860

32.5%

5,628

0.7%

12,109

1.6%

-6.8%

2,903

-6.7%

8.5%

-0.3%

5,115

4,091

23.6%

739

407

2,119

13.6%

3,418

-

465

14,635

-7.2%

-

1,164

-3.3%

7.5%

-

328

9,406

-

-

1,043

-

2,837

-

4

13.77

63,640

7.67

18,727

0

1.62

1.29

3.23

1.56

6.27

33,782

12.71

10,211

15.65

2,519

0.84

2.15

9.01

59,990

1.14

18.36

8,507

2

1.68

15.16

10,460

67

1.32

8.07

57,227

3.95

1.78

6.47

2,079

0.86

8.67

6,576

MENA Worst Performers

2.50

13.85

1.92

SAUDI ARABIA *Market Closed

IFA IFA Hotels & Resorts

225 Saudi Industrial Inv. Grp.

101 Riyad Bank

115

115

-6.4%

601,185,535 407,886,960

422 Emaar the Economic City (KSA)

Turnover (USD)

301,858,626

115 Alinma Bank (KSA)

343,553,085 146,921,602

201 (KSA) 201Saudi SaudiBasic BasicIndustries IndustriesCorp.

Corp.

(KSA)

119,955,261 119,113,875

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

97,126,838

NBKNational Bank of Kuwait (KUW)

1,488,332,474

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

88,742,222

1060.SSE SABB

1 Alinma Bank

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

550,985,390

20Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

22-Apr-12

% Chg.

13.35

3.9%

12.10

3.0%

64.50

1.6%

37.00

4280.SSE Kingdom Holding Co.

1.4%

12.30

Turnover (SAR) 2,254,565,992 2290.SSE Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co. 1,529,657,679 1090.SSE Samba Financial Grp. 1,132,030,219 1150.SSE Alinma Bank

42Emaar the Economic City

22-Mar-12

Close

1.2%

Worst Performers

43Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

22-Feb-12

64,280,166

4300.SSE Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

Highest Turnover

105

95 22-Jan-12

SAR 24.70

-6.8%

Turnover (USD)

MENA Highest Turnover

11,646,967

Turnover (SAR '000)

-2.8% -8.9%

-2.2% -8.6%

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

7,931 / 5,916 2280.SSE Almarai Co.

Tadawul Index 52 week High / Low

118

-4.0%

SAR 15.25 SAR 48.00

SAR 13.70

GCC Highest Turnover

0.55

Advance/Decline Ratio

% Chg.

SAR 52.25 SAR 22.95

85% 4220.SSE Emaar the Economic City

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

3.1%

8.0%

OMR 1.080 -13.1% -2.9% KWD 0.265

7,583 (-0.5%)

Tadawul Index (% Chg.)

125

3.9% 8.6%

KWD 0.395% Chg. -3.7% Close

EMAEmaar Properties (UAE) Best Performers

Summary

5.5% 8.8%

SAR 54.00

KFI Kuwait Finance House (KUW)

Rebased Performance

7.6% 9.8%

8.0%

Close

229 Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co.

0.89 201 ###Saudi Alinma Bank 1.74 Basic Industries Corp.

9.50

27,716

OMR 0.720

GCC Worst Performers

1.91 FAC RCC Raysut Cement Co. Co. 1.37 Commercial Facilities 1.61 109 Samba Financial 0.88 238 Rabigh Petrochem.Grp.

9.48

15,024

15

1.03 1.77

10.80 6.87

56,368

46

1,572 2,551

513

18,364 37,413

35

4,224

5,044

34,598 98,547

7 305

3,587

10,233

1,403

2.4%

63 718

5,419 1,433

12,203

1,033

-1.3%

1,301 316

2.04

0.78 1.52

8,892 5,148

QAR 21.60

BKMBankMuscat

PB

10.70 9.99

-0.8% 12.8%

1,754 787

8.69 10.24

AED 3.30

QGTQatar Gas Transport Co.

PB1.43

65,919 264,263

SAR 13.35 QAR 6.35

EMAEmaar Properties

PE 14.32

13 2,183

4.8% 6.6%

0.1%

Mkt.396,867 Cap. USD million

KWD 0.116 OMR 0.703

422 Emaar the Economic City KCB Al Khaliji Commercial Bank

PE

2,293 4,130

-0.6% 1.9% 2.0%

396

Turnover 3,106 USD million

KWD5.60 0.142 SAR

SULSultan Center Food Products Co. GEC Galfar Engineering & Contracting

Trailing

Mkt. Cap. USD million

2,775 10,090

21.9% -0.2%

-0.2% 3.9%

467

525,916 Wk Low

Turnover USD million

3.8% 9.3%

0.7% 1.8%

-

52 Wk 7,931 High

18.2% YTD

52 Wk Low

% Chg.

USD 0.115% Chg. 9.5% Close

NRKingdom NationalHldg.

Real Co. Estate Co. 3 428

Period's Liquidity Ratio (PLR x)*

MENA Indices Highlights

Close

4 ITH Ithmaar Bank

Period's Liquidity 1 Ratio (PLR x)

-1

Abu Dhabi

-1%

Bahrain

Abu Dhabi

-4%

Palestine

Abu Dhabi

Dubai Palestine

95 100

Bahrain

Saudi Dubai

0%

-2% 0%

Qatar Saudi

Abu Dhabi

0%

100

105

Kuwait

Oman Qatar

Return DailyDaily Return (%)(%)

Dubai

Kuwait Oman

110

0%

Jordan Kuwait

105

Jordan Egypt

115110

Oman

Qatar

Bahrain Bahrain

120115

Bull/Bear Indicator Bull/Bear Indicator

446,700,855

70Zain - Saudi Arabia

1040.SSE Saudi Hollandi Bank

3020.SSE Yamama Saudi Cement Co.

Close

% Chg.

54.00

-4.0%

15.25

-2.2%

52.25

28.70

51.00

-2.8% -2.1% -1.9%

Saudi SE

Quotes Company Name 1 Al Rajhi Bank

1 Alinma Bank 2 Almarai Co.

1 Arab National Bank

1 Bank AlBilad

1 Bank Al Jazira

Close 78.75

15.25

64.50

31.20

31.20

29.30

Daily % Chg. 0.0%

High 79.25

Low 78.50

-2.2%

15.65

15.20

0.3%

31.20

30.80

1.6%

-1.6%

-1.0%

65.00

31.80

29.60

Turnover (SAR '000) 66,383

1,132,030

63.25

32,207

30.80

79,286 3,672

7,936

28.90

23,353

12.00

2,254,566

68.00

74,602

Volume ('000) 841

73,444 502

256

52-Week High

-4.8%

13.3%

71.75

48.41

-10.1%

12.7%

33.70

-1.8%

0.2%

13.60

4 Jabal Omar Development Co.

21.40

0.2%

21.75

21.20

292,719

13,609

21.35

12.20

32,057

23.00

60,994

52.00

29,826

34.30

33,712

4 Kingdom Holding Co.

2 National Industrialization Co.

2 Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co.

1 Riyad Bank

1 Samba Financial Grp.

160.50

25,915

35.90

-1.6%

36.60

35.60

92,577

25.30

0.8%

25.20

16,750

12.30

23.10

52.25

1.2%

0.0%

-2.8%

12.55

23.25

25.40

53.75

2 Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co.

180.75

-1.2%

183.00

180.75

49,067

2 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

103.25

-0.7%

104.50

103.00

550,985

13.90

117,043

22.80

54,285

1 Saudi Arabian Mining Co. 3 Saudi Cement Co.

5 Saudi Electricity Co.

1

Saudi Hollandi Bank

22 Saudi Industrial Investment Grp.

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

2 Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co. 7 Zain - Saudi Arabia

34.50

95.50

13.95

-1.4%

1.1%

-0.4%

34.90

96.50

14.20

94.75

20,224

650

183,646

68.25

50.00

0.4%

159

161.75

101.83

2,571

50.75

35.10

2,590 2,636

22.30

22.00

20,681

17.85

185,887

34.20

6,933

36.50

15,144

410

53.00

222,880

4,109

17.90

-1.4%

18.25

19.00

4,130

41.80

-1.7%

42.60

41.60

116,073

101.25

0.8%

104.75

100.00

7,211

34.70

37.00

51.00

54.00 9.70

-0.9%

1.4%

-1.9%

-4.0%

-1.5%

35.10

37.20

52.50

56.25

10.00

50.75 9.60

71,128

446,701

16.30

29.30

11,347,500

76.1%

58.6%

30.5%

16.2%

39.0%

-14.4%

0.4%

15.50

-16.0%

23.70

-2.3%

2,758

42.50

33.00

70

106.75

62.50

1,375

45,583

83.25

56.25

11.50

2.9%

2.5

4.3%

45,187,500

11.1

5.0

-7.6%

309,750,000 14,611,500

10.6

15.4

2.2

5.0

8.6%

58,123,984

26.2

1.1

-9.1%

10,305,000

19.5

1.7

0.3%

10,477,500

14.8

1.2

6.5%

18.0%

nmf

1.8

1.3

11.7%

-9.3%

-10.0%

nmf

2.2

12.1

12.9%

15.55

17.75

nmf

37,950,000

15.6%

21.00

46.30

1.8

12.85

217

35.50

8.2

45,582,352

73.6%

20.5%

199

20,011,682

32.6%

-2.0%

1.5

10.7

-2.6%

21.42

0.9

18.9

55.50

7.3%

-2.7%

nmf

9,705,000

29.7%

2.7%

-15.8%

21.30

-2.7%

12.0

1.9

2.6

36.4%

18.55

10,322

39.8%

32.5

9.4

19,889,160

-8.0%

24.25

27.20

24.45

57.5%

47,950,000

47,025,000

2,355 934

29.2%

-3.7%

-8.2%

23

96.3%

13,068,000

12.1%

87.75

8,324

81.6%

31.5%

-7.9%

112.50

-0.9%

19.25

42.40

5,305

98.00

1.8

66.9%

20,235,600

-9.6%

210

12.1

8,790,000

-4.7%

165.00

37.50

35,166,295

56.7%

-0.6%

200.00

972

56.75

1.6

6.4%

72.9%

8.6%

-22.5%

12.2

1.4

2.7

-5.9%

21.20

26,520,000

nmf

28.6

-11.8%

270

565

22.00

-0.5%

-6.1%

22,875,000

9,360,000

-29.3%

23.10

28.70

19.05

29.80

7.05

0.0%

26.90

29.50 23.25

13.10

11.10

661

-2.1% -0.9%

-8.2%

-12.6%

1,087

13.85

15.75 6.05

28.70

22.90

-4.3%

6.20

111,955

168.50

3.6

15.5%

1,529,658

0.0%

22.5

-2.8%

13.20

161.75

25,800,000

30.00

14.05

4 Jarir Marketing Co.

19.0%

40.00

3.9%

69.00

3.6

94

31.90

PB

16.0

69.1%

800

Trailing PE

118,125,000

57.2%

13.35

0.4%

13.5%

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

4.7%

52.5%

-5.2%

4 Emaar the Economic City

68.50

-7.4%

63.1%

17.20

38.80

7 Etihad Etisalat Co.

26.60

-6.2%

32.90

39.10

12.55

9.05

12 mths

2,534

-0.5%

3.0%

YTD

67.25

38.90

12.10

on high

82.75

16.25

1 Banque Saudi Fransi

4 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

% Change

Low

2.3%

31,912,500

11,391,030 8,066,667

26,850,000

10.9 nmf

11.2

11.0 nmf

1.7 1.9

1.5

1.5

1.8

-1.6%

23.7%

14.5%

83,600,000

11.0

1.8

-5.2%

17.7%

63.3%

14,175,000

15.8

5.4

47.50

-38.7%

-27.1%

-10.1%

5.25

-15.7%

74.8%

40.6%

34.20

41.60

-20.1% -4.0%

20.9% -9.1%

22.7%

30.5%

-18.5%

4.3%

17,350,000

37,000,000

14.6

12.8

10,327,500

14.0

13,580,000

nmf

30,375,000

9.6

2.2

2.2

3.1

2.9

3.5

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

13

ALWATAN DAILY monday, april 23, 2012

KUWAIT Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 6,303 (0.6%)

KSE General Index (% Chg.)

120

420 (0.8%)

KSE Weighted Index (% Chg.)

54%

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price 115

1.25

Advance/Decline Ratio

115

100

1,734,300

N National Bank of Kuwait

1,007,800

K Kuwait International Bank

554,100

ZA Zain Kuwait

22-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

1.080

1.9%

2.440

1.7%

5.5%

0.120

1.7%

Worst Performers Turnover (KWD) 1,752,300

B Boubyan Bank

22-Mar-12

National Bank of Kuwait

Highest Turnover

104

22-Feb-12

NBK.KSE

0.116

28,304,971

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

95 22-Jan-12

7.6%

SULTAN.KSSultan Center Food Products Co.

30,242

Turnover (KWD '000)

105

0.142

467 / 396 NMTC.KSE Wataniya

KSE Weighted Index 52 week High / Low

% Chg.

National Real Estate Co.

6,523 / 5,694 AREFENRGAREF Energy Holding Co.

KSE General Index 52 week High / Low

110

Close NRE.KSE

456,850

K Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding)

Close IFAHR.KSEIFA Hotels & Resorts

ALTIJARIA The Commercial Real Estate Co.

0.089

IFC.KSE

0.102

KCEM.KSE Kuwait Cement Co.

International Finance Co.

KAMCO.KSKIPCO Asset Management Co.

% Chg.

0.395

-3.7%

-2.2%

0.465

-2.1%

-1.9%

0.280

-1.8%

KSE Weighted Index

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (KWD '000)

A Agility

0.405

1.3%

0.405

0.395

225

T Al Themar Intl. Holding Co.

0.087

0.0%

0.087

0.087

3

A AREF Energy Holding Co.

0.120

1.7%

0.124

0.120

A Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

0.610

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

B Boubyan Petrochemical Co. B Burgan Bank

0.305

-1.7%

0.425

0.0%

0.630 0.260

C Commercial Bank of Kuwait

0.790

F Commercial Facilities Co. G Global Investment House

0.0%

0.590

A Burgan Co. for Well Drilling

C Combined Grp Contracting Co.

0.0%

0.0% -

0.085

55

180

0.590

1,752

2,970

0.620

10

0.524

13

-

780

440 -

0.380 0.124

710

4

-

21

0.280 0.530

0.630

0.530

-4.4%

-13.0%

88,088

nmf

-3.2%

13.2%

0.0%

12.5%

-38.1%

22.6%

-16.0%

0.0%

-19.7% -4.8%

-18.9%

1.945

1.300

-13.6%

0.255

-31.6%

0.198

156

600

0.380

0.440

1.2%

0.440

0.430

226

520

0.552

0.425

-20.3%

0.395

-3.7%

0.420

0.395

32

80

0.495

0.285

-20.2%

0.102

-1.9%

2,720

0.242

-

-1.6% -

-

-

-

-

1.240

-

-

-

0.104

0.100

-

-1.8%

0.445

103

0.280

0.455

0.280

3

0.465

-2.1%

0.465

0.465

5

1.360

0.0%

0.760

K Kuwait International Bank

0.280 0.890

1.3%

0.760

0.750

411

0.0%

0.285

0.275

1,008

0.315

457

0.0%

0.320

0.280

1.6%

1.360

1.360

0.890

0.320

-

261

0.019

1.680

1.240

0.214

230

0.138

0.096

0.485

10

0.120

0.295

10

0.236

0.630

0.415

-10.9%

-3.0%

-3.2%

237,830

-3.3%

1,031,459

-6.0%

-15.8%

656,611

6.3%

-7.6%

0.0%

0.0% 0.0%

1.7%

10.5%

-44.7%

-16.0% 22.5%

nmf

305,613

34.9

54,503

37.2

139,559

9.8

0.9 2.7

nmf

1.0

9.5

3.9

2.0

81,894

-5.1%

14.8%

100,100 73,724

nmf

-26.2%

1.1%

-22.5%

296,510

20.8

-24.0%

-8.8%

-25.4%

2,207,165

36.7

1.2

3,600

0.350

0.236

-20.0%

9.8%

-15.2%

290,451

26.8

1.4

1,450

0.405

0.281

-21.0%

10.3%

-17.9%

427,704

14.2

0.7

-

-

0.0%

21,780

300

1.360

1.580

0.660

-16.0%

-8.1%

-43.7%

25.4%

-2.0%

27.9%

-11.7%

546,723

-42.2%

80,905

1.9%

1.080

1.060

1,734

1,610

1.145

0.909

-5.7%

N National Industries Grp. Holding

0.230

0.0%

0.230

0.228

368

1,600

0.285

0.192

N National Real Estate Co.

0.142

7.6%

0.142

0.130

452

3,300

0.168

0.212

0.0%

0.214

0.212

26

120

0.226

5.5%

0.116

0.108

321

2,860

0.136

0.093

-14.7%

0.089

-2.2%

0.090

0.089

65

720

0.097

0.067

-8.2%

15.6%

23.6%

163,298

2.440

1.7%

0.0%

25.8%

27.1%

1,229,840

N National Industries Co.

N National Investments Company O Oula Fuel Marketing Co.

A Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Co. S Salhia Real Estate Co.

S Sultan Center Food Products Co. T Tamdeen Real Estate Co.

A The Commercial Real Estate Co. S The Securities House N Wataniya

Z Zain Kuwait

0.310

-

0.148

0.0%

0.265 0.230 0.116 0.236 0.130

-

-0.9%

0.9% -

0.740

0.0%

-

-

0.148

0.148

-

-

0.230

0.230

0.236

-

-

-

2.440

2.380

0.740

0.730

40

157 554

65

755

4.2

2.3

0.1

-19.3%

-11.5%

-17.9%

297,873

nmf

0.8

0.056

-15.5%

10.9%

31.5%

115,616

0.186

-6.2%

8.2%

233,200

-7.9%

67,144

-

1.880

1.200

29.4

2.1

0.216

2.440

1.3

15.5

0.200

-

31.9

4,701,777

0.265

0.270

0.0%

611,189

1.9

-2.6%

0.144

0.246

0.0%

42.9%

11.4

6.1%

0.260

0.360

20

-

-

0.285

-

9

0.691

0.340

200

5

-

1.020

-

30

0.234

-

120

-

0.9

0.720

1.620

1.080

N National Bank of Kuwait

-

0.7

1.000

103

120

-

nmf

285.6%

1.000

-

3.7

17.3

1.000

0.033

1.5

145,500

0.0%

M Mena Holding

3.1

7.2

0.0%

-1.8%

1.9

nmf

179,283

260,315

1.000

M Mabanee Co.

nmf

-13.2%

-60.0%

1.0

4.0

-16.8%

0.0%

1.5

16.4

64,309

32.9%

4.3

1.2

162,339

37.8

14.1%

1.3

13.0

1,158,558

-9.3%

1.0

1.6

nmf

-16.0%

-24.4%

1.9

6.0

90,000

1,004,898

-30.7%

0.5

20.3

-9.5%

-12.7%

-6.2%

923,076

-19.7%

-26.2%

-57.9%

1.7%

545

139

0.870

0.700

0.055

5

275

0.0%

0.940

-

6

1.240

-

-

PB

-16.3%

-7.2%

0.410

0.420

Trailing PE 15.7

0.260

K Kuwait Finance House

K Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding)

0.079

0.590

Market Cap. (KWD '000) 423,969

0.265

0.455

P Kuwait Portland Cement Co.

0.104

0.657

12 mths -3.6%

0.0%

JAJazeera Airways

F Kuwait Food Co.

40

5

YTD 8.0%

0.260

0.194

K KIPCO Asset Management Co.

-6.9%

0.300

0.425

-

0.248

3

0.620

0.425

0.435

1.680

IK Ikarus Petroleum Industries Co.

K Kuwait Cement Co.

0.630

560

0.610

96

on high

1.680

1.240

IF International Finance Co.

0.590

% Change

Low

0.0%

C Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Co.

IF IFA Hotels & Resorts

0.305

High

1.680

0.049

G Gulf Bank

0.610

52-Week

Volume ('000)

0.690

-8.8%

-48.1%

10.7%

-14.0%

-6.1%

-49.8%

-26.4%

-11.7%

-11.7%

-6.5%

10.6%

12.7%

-12.6% 0.0%

-38.3%

-0.9%

-3.3%

2.6%

0.0%

-17.8%

107,323

25.3

129,680

-7.5%

0.0%

-38.3%

nmf

0.7

nmf

87,370

21.5

117,926

16.4

0.7

2.1

12.9

1.1

0.9

nmf

88,056

23.0

88,400

nmf

3,187,576

1.4

1.0

0.9

15.5

0.7

7.0

3.4

1.5

11.2

1.5

UAE Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,650 (0.7%)

DFM Index (% Chg.)

135

2,496 (-0.2%)

ADSM Index (% Chg.)

Advance/Decline Ratio

DFM Index 52 week High / Low

123 115

115

TATamweel

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

Abu Dhabi SE

16,522,470

D Dubai Financial Market

22-Apr-12

1.11

Turnover (AED) 95,884,936 TAQA.ADS Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. 42,334,670 ARKAN.AD Arkan Building Materials Co. 19,587,846 DEYAAR.D Deyaar Development Co.

A Arabtec Holding

22-Mar-12

1.9%

1.8%

Worst Performers

E Emaar Properties

22-Feb-12

2.3%

1.10

397,865,106

Market Cap. (AED '000)

107

95 22-Jan-12

2.3%

0.91

278,113

Highest Turnover 105

3.1%

1.80

2,775 / 2,293 ALDAR.AD ALDAR Properties

ADSM Index 52 week High / Low

Turnover (AED '000)

% Chg.

3.30

59% ARMX.DFM Aramex 1.38 SIB.ADSM Sharjah Islamic Bank 1,754 / 1,301 SOROUH.A Sorouh Real Estate Co.

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price 125

Close EMAAR.DF Emaar Properties

12,122,229

A ALDAR Properties

ADCB.ADS Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank TAMWEEL Tamweel

Close

% Chg.

1.31

0.94

0.38

3.16

1.18

-2.2%

-2.1%

-1.8%

-1.6%

-0.8%

Dubai FM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (AED '000)

A Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

3.16

-1.6%

3.20

3.12

2,064

T Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.

1.31

-2.2%

1.31

1.25

40

A Air Arabia

0.63

-0.6%

0.64

0.62

A Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

A Abu Dhabi National Hotels A ALDAR Properties

3.18

2.19

-

3.21 -

D du

0.38

3.17

0.71

-44.0%

-6.9%

-42.7%

0.0%

0.48

0.46

4.4%

-33.8%

-

-1.8%

0.0%

3.1%

0.0% 0.2%

0.9% -

0.0%

1.78

-

-

0.38

3.19

-

0.38

3.15

-

3.31

8.75 9.15

1.10 -

8.60 -

-

1,038 -

2,828 1,032 3,344

16,522 4,586

-

580 -

6,041

2,707

1,057

14,282 2,273

-

1.96

-

1.69

-15.1%

-0.4%

0.46

0.20

-16.3%

78.9%

3.63

1.42

2.28

0.34

2.80

1.88

-11.8%

2.65

-39.5%

0.67

-27.3%

2.41

8.59 9.12

11,571 2,849

1,336 312

11.20 10.75

8.57 6.98

-

102.00

74.70

4.70

3.00

1.02

0.80

-

-

-

-

8.60 -

52

26

-

160

-

48 3

-

9.00

2.24

7.38

9.7%

53.5%

-25.9%

-10.3%

-9.9%

6.0%

-0.9%

-20.8%

95.7%

0.45

-0.5%

0.45

1,044

2,317

0.50

0.24

-9.9%

72.9%

U United Arab Bank

3.95

0.3% -

2.95

0.46 -

2.90 -

638 -

219 -

3.90

4.50

2.82

3.28

-25.1%

-12.2%

13.2

9,280,000

7,632,079

nmf

7.6

2.3

1.2

0.8

4,961,000

17.7

2,207,205

8.8

15,561,769

894,996

33,321,202 2,848,000

-21.0%

0.53

14,491,429

1.8%

6.1%

8.5%

1.49

0.6

0.4

18.8

-12.6%

16,611

1.51

nmf

15,462,089

22.4%

1.0%

19,588

7,541

2,201,418

1.7 1.0

-28.6%

1.15

8,313

0.9

6.1

11.7 7.4

29.4%

1.21

1.09

7.0

3,102,941

68,467,172 27,420,000

-27.2%

-0.8%

1.12

1.4

-16.3% 1.3%

0.67

1.18

1.9%

1.0

12.5

0.6

-7.3%

8.3%

nmf

2,635,380

11.2

-1.7%

-10.8%

1,645,000

1.1

20,101,087

-20.5%

0.89

1.7

nmf

-5.4%

1.63

0.91

0.6

20.2

1,530,000

-2.2%

-26.3%

-5.1% 18.3%

0.3

5,142,800

14.8%

-4.8%

-22.7% -15.0%

8.7

1.1

0.6

5,605,468

-11.8%

6.5

7.1

-3.7%

3.6%

28.4%

-4.4%

-5.8%

-20.5%

-4.1%

-4.0%

0.0%

38.1%

2.3%

1.10

176

1.50

-12.7%

-18.3%

3.44

4.63

-32.9%

0.68

29,183

1.08

0.0%

2.75

0.70

95,885

6

-8.2%

0.0%

3.24

3.22

17

0.0%

0.91

2.92

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

2,190,000

-18.1%

1.68

8.60

U Union National Bank U Union Properties

-25.0%

7.0%

36

2.80

T Tamweel

-0.5%

-17.3%

34

1.76

2.88

S Sorouh Real Estate Co.

-25.5%

0.57

0.93

1.80

0.0%

S Sharjah Islamic Bank

10.9

2.02

0.76

0.94

2.3%

2.80

N National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain

2,926,021

2.94

-2.1%

E Emirates NBD

4.51

1.1

124.8%

1.98

N National Bank of Fujairah

12.5

116.4%

2.03

N National Bank of Abu Dhabi

8,154,750

-5.2%

0.5%

1.09

-15.5%

7,519,765

1.24

2.01

91.45

9.2%

-3.3%

3.63

D Dubai Islamic Bank

M Mashreq

-19.6%

0.6%

12,154

1.14

G Gulf Cement Co.

0.8

-10.4%

42,335

-

1.17

8.66 9.14

5.8

3.43

-

0.9%

E Etisalat F First Gulf Bank

-

3,644

17,682,088

3.54

-

1.16

3.30

1.14

2.92

17.5%

4,534,493

D Dubai Financial Market

E Emaar Properties

1.63

3.55

PB

13.7%

-33.9%

0.47

D Deyaar Development Co.

30

107

Trailing PE

-4.8%

20.7%

D Dana Gas

2.75

2.69

Market Cap. (AED '000)

-32.7%

0.94

C Commercial Bank of Dubai

3.32

12 mths

0.76

A Arkan Building Materials Co.

1.80

653

YTD

1.65

-0.6%

A Aramex

-

2,283

on high

10,908

3.44

1.02

-

339

% Change

Low

12,122

1.12

A Arabtec Holding

3.16

High

1.10

1.8%

A Amlak Finance

1.11

0.3%

52-Week

Volume ('000)

1.1%

2,887,500

6.1

nmf

1.3

8.9

0.9

8.6

1,180,000

12.7

2.8%

1,501,618

nmf

3,935,785

0.7

1.3

9.0

19.2%

7,287,225

0.4

4.8

11.9

2.4

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.7

0.6

1.9

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

14

ALWATAN DAILY monday, april 23, 2012

QATAR Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 8,703 (0.7%)

DSM Index (% Chg.)

120

DSM 52 week High / Low

50% IQCD.DSM Industries Qatar 4.00 QIIK.DSM Qatar International Islamic Bank 8,892 / 8,071 DHBK.DSMDoha Bank

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

459,275,321

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

Advance/Decline Ratio

115

411,446

Turnover (QAR '000)

110

14,674,481

B Barwa Real Estate Co. 22-Mar-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

13,678,415

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

22-Apr-12

2.3%

52.00

2.2%

59.50

2.1%

140.80

1.9%

77.80

Turnover (QAR) 52,529,842 ERES.DSMEzdan Real Estate Co. 22,231,976 VFQS.DSM Vodafone Qatar

MMasraf Al Rayan

22-Feb-12

% Chg.

143.00

1.0%

Worst Performers

IQIndustries Qatar

90 22-Jan-12

QIBK.DSM Qatar Islamic Bank

Highest Turnover

102

100

QEWS.DSMQatar Electricity & Water Co.

Close

8,275,460

Q Qatar National Bank

Close

% Chg.

19.00

-1.8%

8.55

QGTS.DSMQatar Gas Transport Co. QNBK.DSMQatar National Bank

-1.5%

16.64

-1.5%

26.95

0.4%

134.40

MARK.DSMMasraf Al Rayan

0.2%

Doha SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

A Aamal Co.

19.00

Daily % Chg.

High -

Low

-

-

Turnover (QAR '000) -

16.45

0.4%

16.50

16.38

C The Commercial Bank of Qatar

74.30

0.4%

74.70

74.10

1,978

19.00

87

B Barwa Real Estate Co.

27.85

D Doha Bank

59.50

E Ezdan Real Estate Co.

-1.8%

26.95

0.4%

143.00

Q Qatar Electricity & Water Co.

140.80

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

Q Qatar International Islamic Bank

129.90

V Vodafone Qatar

58.50

1,059 52,530

1.9%

141.00

138.90

1,942

2.2%

52.10

50.50

6,547

1.0%

Q Qatar Telecom

19.10

14,674

140.60

77.80

134.40

Q Qatar Navigation

59.70

27.45

143.10

-1.5%

Q Qatar National Bank

28.00

2.3%

16.64

52.00

Q Qatar Islamic Bank

2.1%

19.00

IQIndustries Qatar

M Masraf Al Rayan

0.7%

27.15 16.81

77.80

26.75

22,232

16.59

13,678

77.20

3,079

69.90

883

0.2%

135.00

134.10

8,275

0.9%

129.90

129.00

1,344

70.20

0.4%

8.55

-1.5%

70.30 8.63

8.50

-

1,085

K Al Khalij Commercial Bank

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High

33.25

27.65

-16.2%

-7.0%

16.06

67.00

-11.5%

18.60

-23.9%

-10.7%

-5.0%

-9.1%

76.30

-8.8%

45.50

61

141.73

122.73

10

135.60

107.69

396

22.50

87.50 9.22

0.9

16.59

56.20

13

9.0

13.2%

129.50

85.30

10,837,121

-3.2%

148.00

40

-15.1%

5,922,000

-4.1%

14

126

1.6

-11.6%

50,397,437

-4.9%

-7.5%

-5.2%

69.40

-19.8%

7.24

-7.3%

-4.2%

7.5% 0.9%

-3.7% -7.7%

PB

19.1

-17.8%

-3.7%

-7.2%

PE

9,405,000

-14.4%

-11.2%

Trailing

7.5%

18,385,265

118.80

18.63

12 mths

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

3.1%

148.50 28.10

-4.2%

-13.1%

50.00

24.97

-10.8%

68.00

368

820

3,380

19.5%

85.50

824

YTD

-21.1%

27 5

on high

15.40

18.44

18

Low

24.09

66

528

% Change

15.3%

12,298,519

-3.1%

10.9%

1.9

nmf

14,080,000

10.8

7,871,175

1.3

9.7

10.2

9,215,964

1.1

9.8

78,650,000

20,212,500

-3.6%

12.1

1.8

3.3

14.4

2.4 4.6

11.2

4.8

11.8

1.7

-1.6%

18,383,611

-8.2%

-15.4%

8,039,669

11.4

0.8

13.2%

6.7%

7,228,170

nmf

1.1

-2.7%

19.9%

5.9%

94,043,636

11.5%

29,721,120

12.8

1.7

12.0

2.3

11.5

1.4

OMAN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 5,970 (-0.6%)

MSM Index (% Chg.)

120

47% RNSS.MSMRenaissance Services 0.17 OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co.

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

115

6,372 / 5,419 BKMB.MSMBank Muscat 2,801 NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman

MSM 52 week High / Low Turnover (OMR '000)

110

7,070,085

Market Cap (OMR '000)

107

BKDB.MSMBank Dhofar

Highest Turnover

100

113,854

B Bank Muscat

22-Mar-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

16,521

R Raysut Cement Co.

22-Apr-12

0.3%

1.28

-0.1%

0.30

-0.3%

0.63

-0.2%

0.46

Turnover (OMR) 178,012 RCCI.MSM Raysut Cement Co. 143,851 OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co.

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

22-Feb-12

% Chg.

0.65

-0.4%

Worst Performers

R Renaissance Services

90 22-Jan-12

Close

15,026

N National Bank of Oman

Close

% Chg.

1.08

-2.9%

BKDB.MSMBank Dhofar

0.46

-0.4%

BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

0.63

-0.2%

0.62

NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman

-1.0%

0.30

-0.3%

Muscat SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

B Bank Dhofar

0.456

N National Bank of Oman

0.302

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

1.283

-0.1%

R Renaissance Services

0.651

0.3%

B Bank Muscat

O Oman Cement Co.

R Raysut Cement Co.

-0.4%

Low

0.458

0.454

Turnover (OMR '000) 3

0.629

-0.2%

0.630

0.627

114

0.623

-1.0%

0.624

0.620

13

1.080

-0.3%

-2.9%

0.300

15

1.285

1.282

144

0.659

0.640

178

0.302

1.100

1.080

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High 6

Low

0.549

on high

0.423

-16.9%

0.291

-6.8%

181

0.679

0.572

21

0.629

0.416

50

17

% Change

0.324

-1.3%

44.2%

-2.9%

42.1%

-10.0%

273

1.053

0.458

-38.2%

0.711

-3.2%

-1.0%

1.041

1.112

-16.6%

-5.6%

1.425

12 mths

0.2%

-7.4%

112 15

YTD

Market Cap. (OMR '000) 501,653

Trailing PE

PB

12.5

2.2

9.8

1.2

-6.1%

1,130,183

2.5%

206,134

16.1

216,000

14.4

334,624

-2.0%

15.6%

962,250

19.5%

-37.8%

183,643

-1.5%

9.6

1.3

1.4

8.6

1.9

2.1

nmf

1.1

BAHRAIN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,157 (-0.2%)

BSE Index (% Chg.)

120

26% ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank

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

115

Turnover (BHD '000)

1,905

A Arab Banking Corp.

530

A Ahli United Bank

22-Apr-12

9.5%

0.61

#N/A

#N/A

Turnover (BHD) 23,936 BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co. 12,652 #N/A #N/A

IT Ithmaar Bank

22-Mar-12

#N/A

Ahli United Bank

0.0%

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

0.48

-1.7%

Worst Performers

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co.

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

Highest Turnover

102 100

22-Feb-12

184

6,539,459

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

90 22-Jan-12

AUB.BSE #N/A

% Chg.

0.12

1.00

1,407 / 1,129

BSE 52 week High / Low

110

Close

-

B Albaraka Banking Grp.

AUB.BSE

Ahli United Bank

ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank

Close

% Chg.

0.48

#N/A

0.61

0.12

BARKA.BS Albaraka Banking Grp.

0.93 -

-1.7%

#N/A

0.0%

9.5%

Bahrain SE

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

Low

Turnover (BHD '000)

A Ahli United Bank*

0.610

0.0%

0.610

0.610

A Arab Banking Corp.*

0.420

0.0%

0.420

0.420

0.478

-1.7%

0.480

0.478

797

-

-

-

-

-

-

B Albaraka Banking Grp.* B Bahrain Islamic Bank

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co. B BBK

IN Investcorp Bank* IT Ithmaar Bank*

N National Bank of Bahrain U United Gulf Bank

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

0.930 0.088 0.400

-

0.115

9.5%

0.304

-

0.550

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

0.115

0.115

-

-

-

-

52-Week

Volume ('000) 1 5

24

-

2

% Change

Low

0.680

0.599

12

0.530

0.420

50

0.488

-10.3%

YTD 1.2%

12 mths

3,192,469

-26.3%

1,306,200

-0.4%

688,320

-0.4%

-14.6%

0.082

-24.1%

-2.2%

-24.1%

0.426

0.390

-6.1%

291

0.115

0.065

-

0.424

0.270

-

-

0.116

797

0.600

0.380 797

0.550

-20.8%

0.0%

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

-7.9%

-12.5%

-

1.063

on high

0.857

-

34

High

943,462

-30.0%

637,560

-4.3%

-8.3%

470,448

76.9%

-28.3%

1.3%

15.0%

-25.1%

6.4

10.6

0.0%

0.0%

8.0

340,542

0.0%

-8.3%

10.3

nmf

21.9%

-6.5%

PB

82,691

-2.0%

-3.4%

Trailing PE

307,943

253,707

8.6

1.3

0.8

0.4

0.8

1.4

1.4

4.5

0.6

10.2

1.7

nmf

nmf

0.5 1.2

LIFE

8 Hours to Healthier Cells

Want healthier cells in just 8 hours? Then get some solid shut-eye tonight. Your body does important things while you sleep – like healing your cells. But just one night of tossing and turning could trigger cell-damaging inflammation. So turn off the tube, slip on that sleep mask, and get your 40 winks.

In a recent study, sleep-deprived people – especially women – showed a marked increase in their levels of a protein called NF-kB. That’s bad news, because NF-kB plays an essential role in the body’s inflammation response. The study may help explain why poor sleep is associated with several inflammation-related disorders, including cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

monDAY, april 23, 2012

Plants altered environment, fueled human evolution NEW YORK: The arrival of a new variety of plants, particularly grasses, may have altered the environment in ways that could have helped push our ancestors to acquire traits that would come to define modern human reports LiveScience.

Researchers have long pondered what prompted the emergence of upright posture, tool use, symbolic communication and enlarged brains. Some scientists point to changes in the environment, including a shift from forest to savanna in Africa, after humans’ line split from that of chimpanzees, more than 6 million years ago.

The spread of the savanna grasses may have been a precondition for the evolution of the traits that characterize our genus, Homo, suggested Rowan Sage, of the University of Toronto, at a conference on human evolution and climate change at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York over the weekend (Modern humans’ full scientific name is Homo sapiens, meaning “wise man.”)

The key - as it is to so much about life on Earth is photosynthesis, Sage said. In photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and using water and energy from the sun, convert it to organic matter. In the process they produce oxygen, a component of the atmosphere and an element necessary for animal life.

After about 35 million years ago, an upgraded version of photosynthesis emerged, called the C4 pathway. And in time the plants that employed it, including grasses and sedges, spread. A declining level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere appears to have been responsible for the switch to C4. Chemical evidence suggests the greenhouse gas declined over tens of millions

of years.

C4 plants could use carbon dioxide more efficiently to feed themselves, and they used less water, making them well adapted to dry environments, like those favored during the Pliocene Epoch, which began about 5.3 million years ago, when grasslands and savannas spread.

As a potential source of food, the C4 plants weren’t the best innovation. They offered tough, fibrous leaves, small-seeded grains and small, fibrous rhizomes. Even today, only a few dozen C4 plants, most significantly maize and sugar cane, are cultivated for food.

But some other animals were better adapted to digesting these plants. Ruminants, such as cows and buffalo, regurgitate and re-chew a tough meal, Sage said.

“So the possibility is human evolution was driven by our ancestors going out and taking down the (animals) who could digest the C4 vegetation. But they would have to deal with these guys,” he said, referring to a photo of a lion during his presentation.

So, given the option of eating the C4-eaters and the need to avoid predators, early humans may have evolved an upright stature, begun running long distances, carrying out extended hunts in groups and defending against predators, and evolved other distinctly human traits, he said.

By putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and other activities, modern humans may be shifting the balance between C4 and C3 plants, according to Sage.

At close to 300 parts per million near 1900, carbon dioxide concentrations have risen to 390 ppm, and there is some evidence grasslands are filling in with woody C3 plants, he said.

Global warming is already changing the world

NEW YORK: Over the last 100 years, global temperatures have warmed by about 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit (0.74 degrees Celsius) on average. The change may seem minor, but it’s happening very quickly - more than half of it since 1979, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports LiveScience.

Though it can still be difficult to tease out how much climate change plays in any given weather event, changes are occurring.

In the spirit of Earth day, here’s a look at our marvelous blue marble and the ways people and other living things are responding to global warming.

Moving the military northward

As the Arctic ice opens up, the world turns its attention to the resources below. According to the US Geological Survey, 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil are under this region.

As a result, military action in the Arctic is heating up, with the United States, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Canada holding talks about regional security and border issues. Several nations, including the US, are also drilling troops in the far north, preparing for increased border patrol and disaster response efforts in a busier Arctic.

A woman plants a pine tree in Tatumbla muinicipality, Francisco Morazan department, 13 km east of Tegucigalpa, on April 21, 2012. (AFP)

FDA proposes rules for nanotechnology in food WASHINGTON: Regulators are proposing that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

The Food and Drug Administration issued tentative guidelines Friday for food and cosmetic companies interested in using nanoparticles, which are measured in billionths of a meter. Nanoscale materials are generally less than 100 nanometers in diameter. A sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. A human hair is 80,000 nanometers thick.

The submicroscopic particles are increasingly showing up in FDA-regulated products like sunscreens, skin lotions and glare-reducing eyeglass coatings. Some

scientists believe the technology will one day be used in medicine, but the FDA’s announcement did not address that use.

The draft guidance suggests the FDA may require food companies to provide data establishing the safety of any packaging using nanotechnology.

Under longstanding regulations, companies aren’t required to seek regulatory approval before launching products containing established ingredients and materials, such as caffeine, spices and various preservatives.

But FDA officials said Friday that foods and packaging containing nanoparticles may require more scrutiny.

“At this point, in terms of the science, we think it’s likely the exemption does

not apply and we would encourage folks to come in and talk to us,” said Dennis Keefe, director of FDA’s office of food additive safety.

Keefe said companies are studying whether nanoparticles can reduce the risk of bacterial contamination in certain foods. He said the agency is aware of just one food package currently on the market that uses nanoparticles but did not identify it. He said more are expected in coming years.

The FDA has previously stated its position that nanotechnology is not inherently unsafe; however, materials at the nano scale can pose different safety issues than do things that are far larger.

“This is an emerging, evolving tech-

Space mining startup set for launch in US Mysterious cosmic rays leave scientists in the dark PARIS: A startup evidently devoted to mining asteroids for metals is to make its public debut on Tuesday in the US northwest city of Seattle, seeking to redefine the term “natural resources.”

X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and a former NASA astronaut are slated to unveil Planetary Resources, which boasts an impressive list of backers including Google co-founder Larry Page and famed

film maker James Cameron.

“The company will overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” Planetary Resources said in a brief release announcing the Tuesday press event in the Pacific Northwest city.

“This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources.’” -AFP

Altering breeding seasons

As temperatures shift, penguins are shifting their breeding seasons, too. A March 2012 study found that gentoo penguins are adapting more quickly to warmer weather, because they aren’t as dependent on sea ice for breeding as other species.

It’s not just penguins that seem to be responding to climate change. Animal shelters in the US have reported increasing numbers of stray cats and kittens attributed to a longer breeding season for the felines.

Altered Thoreau’s stomping grounds

The writer Henry David Thoreau once lovingly documented nature in and around Concord, Mass. Reading those diaries today has shown researchers just how much spring has changed in the last century or so.

Compared to the late 1800s, the first flowering dates for 43 of the most common plant species in the area have moved forward an average of 10 days. Other plants have simply disappeared, including 15 species of orchids.

Genetic changes

Even fruit flies are feeling the heat. According to a 2006 study, fruit fly genetic patterns normally seen at hot latitudes are showing up more frequently at higher latitudes. According to the research, the gene patterns of Drosophila subobscura, a common fruit fly, are changing so that populations look about one degree closer in latitude to the equator than they actually are. In other words, genotypes are shifting so that a fly in the Northern Hemisphere has a genome that looks more like a fly 75 to 100 miles (120 to 161 kilometers) south.

Hurting polar bears

Polar bear cubs are struggling to swim increasingly long distances in search of stable sea ice, according to a 2011 study. The rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic is forcing bears to sometimes swim up to more than 12 days at a time, the research found. Cubs of adult bears that had to swim more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) had a 45 percent mortality rate, compared with 18 percent for cubs that had to swim shorter distances.

More mobile animals

Species are straying from their native habitats at an unprecedented rate: 11 miles (17.6 km) toward the poles per decade. Areas where temperature is increasing the most show the most straying by native organisms. The Cetti’s warbler, for example, has moved north over the last two decades by more than 90 miles (150 km).

nology and we’re trying to get ahead of the curb to ensure the ingredients and substances are safe,” Keefe said.

In a separate guidance, the FDA laid out suggestions for the use of nanotechnology in cosmetics, a practice which has been in use since the 1990s. Nanoparticles are used in skin moisturizer, mineral make up and other cosmetics.

The FDA has less authority over cosmetics than food additives. Generally, the FDA does not review cosmetics before they launch, and companies are responsible for assuring the safety of their products.

The FDA will take comments on both proposals for 90 days. There is no deadline for finalizing the documents. -AP

NEW YORK: The mystery of the origin of the strongest cosmic rays has deepened as new clues into key suspects, the most powerful explosions in the universe, suggest they are likely not potential culprits, researchers say according to SPACE. Cosmic rays are charged subatomic particles that streak to Earth from deep in outer space. A few rare cosmic rays are extraordinarily powerful, with energies up to 100 million times greater than any attained by human-made particle colliders, such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The sources of these cosmic rays are a mystery.

“Nature is capable of accelerating elementary particles to macroscopic energies,” said study co-author Francis Halzen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, principal investigator at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive telescope designed to find the tiny subatomic particles. “There are basically only two ideas on how she does this - in gravitationally driven particle flows near the supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies, and in the collapse of stars to a black hole, seen by astronomers as gamma-ray bursts.”

The prime suspect

The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope looks skyward during a moonlit night on Chajnantor Plateau in Chile, one of the highest and driest observatory sites in the world.

On the left shines the tail of the constellation of Scorpius, the Scorpion. Across the sky stretches the plane of the Milky Way. Elsewhere in this photo, one can see the constellation of Sagittarius, The Archer, looming over APEX’s dish. Also, Messier 7 (AKA Ptolemy’s Cluster), Messier 6 (the Butterfly Cluster), and the Lagoon Nebula all appear here. (AFP)

NASA to test air force drone for quiet supersonic flight WASHINGTON: A new US Air Force drone could help solve the sonic boom problem that has prevented supersonic airline travel from really taking off according to SPACE. NASA plans to see how the robotic airplane’s computer can adjust to turbulence during subsonic test flights this summer.

The small X-56A drone has long, thin wings and flies slower than the speed of sound. But it can test software programs that respond automatically to uncontrollable vibrations from the force of air flowing over its flexible wings - useful knowledge for designing quieter, lighter supersonic or hypersonic airliners of tomorrow that won’t rattle people or windows below.

“Flexible wings and fuselages can result in significant reductions in the structural weight of aircraft,” says Gary Martin, deputy project manager for NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.

NASA plans to oversee test flights of the MultiUse Technology Testbed drone built by Lockheed Martin and commissioned by theAir Force Research

Laboratory. The US space agency will take over use of the experimental drone after the Air Force tests finish up in the fall. The drone has a length of 7.5 feet (2 meters) and wings stretching 28 feet (8.5 meters) - bigger than any living or dead bird’s wingspan. It must rely upon smart flight software to protect its long, thin wings from having problems with “flutter” vibrations and stresses from wind gusts or atmospheric turbulence.

“To maintain the long-term health of the structure and ride quality in a more flexible airplane, we need to actively alleviate gust loads on the airplane and suppress flutter, so gust load alleviation and active flutter suppression are two of the key technologies that NASA is working to advance,” Martin said. Successful flight tests this summer could lead to a better design for the proposed X-54 - a supersonic aircraft that will test technologies for muffling sonic booms. Such experimental aircraft could eventually create a future for supersonic airliners such as the retired Concorde to fly once more in the friendly, quieter skies.

Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe. They can emit as much energy as our sun during its entire 10billion-year lifetime in anywhere from milliseconds to minutes.

“Some gamma-ray bursts are thought to be collapses of supermassive stars - hypernovas - while others are thought to be collisions of black holes with other black holes or neutron stars,” said study coauthor Spencer Klein of the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Both types produce brief but intense blasts of radiation.” New evidence may now rule out gamma-ray bursts as sources of these ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.

Researchers employed the IceCube neutrino detector, an array of thousands of detectors encompassing a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice at the South Pole. Neutrinos are ghostly particles that often pass right through matter, only rarely striking atoms.

“This is a coming-of-age for neutrino astronomy - the first time we’re able to use neutrino data as a new way of looking at astrophysical objects and say something substantive about them,” said study co-author Nathan Whitehorn, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the recent gamma-ray burst research with Peter Redl of the University of Maryland.

Evidence points elsewhere

The investigators focused on neutrinos whose energy levels suggest they are linked with gamma-ray bursts. The fireballs that give rise to the gamma rays seen in gamma-ray bursts were thought to potentially hurl particles at very high energies, generating both cosmic rays and energetic neutrinos.

After analyzing data on 307 gamma-ray bursts in 2008 and 2009, the scientists discovered the levels of these neutrinos were at least 3.7 times lower than expected. This suggests gamma-ray bursts are probably not the sources of the most powerful cosmic rays. “After observing gamma-ray bursts for two years, we have not detected the telltale neutrinos for cosmic-ray acceleration,” Halzen said.

Still, it could be that current models of neutrino production from these events might be off. Instead of gamma-ray bursts, researchers note that black holes at the centers or nuclei of active galaxies may be responsible for these ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, sucking in matter and spitting out enormous particle jets as they gorge.

IceCube has looked for neutrinos from active galactic nuclei, but as yet the data is inconclusive.

16

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

monDAY, april 23, 2012

Talal’s Cakes, the art of cake decoration

Some of Talal Al-Hamdhan’s cakes.

Onilda Fernandes Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The homely task of cake decorating has been elevated to an art by Talal Al-Hamdhan. A master of the quirky, elaborate, innovative and outright gorgeous, this Kuwaiti baker whips up cakes for all occasions, like one would design outfits, complete with embellishments. There are a variety of flowers, pleats, stones, pearls, cords, embroidery, the works, that adorn each cake and everything you see is edible. “A teacher once told me, ‘Once you reach a point where everything and anything you see inspires you, you know you have reached a high level of creativity.’ I see a window design, flowers, and anything around me inspires me. I take plenty of pictures, and then I expand based on that,” shared Al-Hamdhan with Al Watan Daily.

Developing an interest in designing cakes during his study period in the USA, Al-Hamdhan’s curiosity soon evolved into an obsession when Food Network began broadcasting the cake decoration challenge. “My family and I had moved to the US as my wife was working on

her PhD. At the time, I had a group of Arab friends I met up with every weekend, so I got into the habit of cooking for them. I realized I missed home-cooked food, especially my mother’s food. So, I called her up for some recipes, and I just became very interested in baking. I started with my close friends, and then my weekend specialties spread around the community I lived in. I used to watch the Food Network, watch the cake challenges, and I became completely engrossed in the whole art of cake designing. I then took classes with teachers of the cake challenges such as Michelle Bommarito, Ron Ben Israel and others. The cake challenges taught me so much, and I learnt so many techniques by simply watching, let alone taking classes with these great masters,” recalls Al-Hamdhan.

Returning home to Kuwait a while later, Al-Hamdhan followed the same recipe here and opened “Talal’s cakes”.

Initially he just baked cakes for family members, then friends soon got wind of it and there was no looking back. “Word of mouth and mobile technologies such as what’s app took over and before long, I began getting orders. And I thought to myself, why not?! This could always add to my portfolio.

Suddenly, the media contacted me, and I was so surprised by the interest people showed towards my hobby,” says AlHamdhan, who thinks the fuss surrounding him is because his specialty is very rare. “I am the first Kuwaiti male cake designer trained with such great professionals in cake decoration and sugar art. My family has been very supportive, especially since I had already finished my higher education and my wife has been my biggest strength all along, pushing me in this profession.”

Currently operational in a small designer cake studio, Al-Hamdhan works by himself with little help from his wife.

So an occasion cake will take nothing less than two-three days whereas a wedding cake may take months to prepare.

“The decorative items such as flowers or sugar jewels need to be made in advance,” explains Al-Hamdhan. “But I love to decorate wedding cakes because I exercise most of the cake decoration techniques there. The best part of cake decorating generally is when I start beautifying the cake after covering the cake with fondant.”

So far, his favorite cake has been his wife’ graduation cake and till date, does not have a structural difficult piece

Rare Egyptian scrolls found in Australian collection FRANCE: A British historian said Saturday he had unearthed a trove of Egyptian Book of the Dead fragments by a top ancient official after chancing upon a scrap on show in an Australian museum.

John Taylor, a world-famous Egyptologist from the British Museum, said his discovery began with a shred of papyrus on display at Queensland Museum’s new mummies exhibition bearing the distinctive hieroglyphs of Amenhotep.

The 15th century BC figure, son of Hapu, was Egypt’s chief architect and is among those credited with designing and constructing the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, near Luxor -- one of modern Egypt’s most visited landmarks.

Excited and intrigued, Taylor said he asked if there were any more such fragments in the museum’s archives and was shown into the conservation lab.

“After a very short period of time it became

FILE-File picture shows a papyrus with hieroglyphs (right) and hieratic script (left) from the Library of Alexandria. (AFP)

Wealthy Iranians spark luxury car boom

FRANCE: Wealthy Iranians are fuelling an unprecedented luxury car boom despite sanctions hurting their economy, paying up to $360,000 for high-end autos, according to showroom employees and reports on Sunday.

“Buyers are paying upfront for these cars, which generally cost two to three times more than abroad,” one car salesman in Tehran told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A newspaper citing official customs data, HafteSobh, reported that “some 563 different Porsche models were sold in the last Iranian year (to March 2012),” worth a total $50 million before a hefty 100-percent import tax.

Porsche’s goal is to sell 800 of its cars in the Islamic republic this current Iranian year, media said, underlining the inroads the flashy German automaker is making into a niche market previously dominated by the more discreet offerings from rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Maserati, the growling musclebrand owned by Italy’s Fiat, is also looking to get a slice of the action by opening its own Tehran showroom within weeks, reports say.

The ostentatious splurge by Iran’s elite starkly contrasts with the straits experienced by ordinary Iranians.

They are confronted with inflation of over 20 percent, an estimated unemployment rate of 12-25 percent, a currency severely weakened in the past four months, and Western economic sanctions imposed to curb Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

While the wealthy are forking out for supercars costing between $110,000 (for an entry-level Porsche Boxster) to $360,000 (for a Porsche Panamera Turbo or a Maserati GranTurismo), working Iranians are getting by on an average monthly salary of $700.

Iran’s automobile market is highly protected against imports, allowing in only 40,000 vehicles last year, despite steadily growing demand mostly met through domestic production of some 1.6 million cars per year.

There are now an estimated 14 million vehicles on Iran’s roads, more than double the six million registered in 2005. -AFP

apparent that we did indeed have many fragments of the Book of the Dead of this extremely important man,” he told The Weekend Australian newspaper.

“This is not the papyrus of just anybody, this is one of the top officials in Egypt at the peak of Egyptian prosperity,” added Taylor, describing it as a “once in a lifetime” find.

The fragments were donated to the museum by a private citizen in 1913 and are not normally on public display, but had been brought out to accompany the British Museum’s touring mummies exhibition, which Taylor was here to open.

He said there were pieces of Amenhotep’s scroll scattered across global institutions including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, British Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Australian specimens would be photographed to try and determine where they fit in the scroll, which Taylor said could be up to 20 meters long -- among the largest and most significant Egyptian burial scripts recorded.

“In Egypt in the 1890s people were collecting and digging up antiquities at a very fast rate and often it wasn’t documented where these things were going,” he said.

“Private individuals would go on holidays to Egypt and buy things like this and take them home, so there’s still a lot of material out there that people haven’t seen.” -AFP

on his resume, because “I skittish the cake before I start to design it and follow it step by step. In this case you tend to avoid any difficulties.” The final price of course, depends on the size and complexity of each cake. Flavors to choose from vary between the regular vanilla, chocolate and red velvet to dates, pistachio, lemon, carrot, nutella, pumpkin, hazelnut, Oreo, peanut butter, M&M’s, fudge, Italian Meringue and coconut pecan among others. “I can customize any flavor depending on the client’s needs,” insists Al-Hamdhan.

Welcoming any opportunities on a first come first serve basis, Al-Hamdhan still feels the Kuwaiti market is yet to pick up on his profession. “Sadly, people still don’t fully understand the concept of cake design here. However, it is increasing now given the positive feedback I am receiving.”

With his fine detailed work, application of design and harmony principles, Al-Hamdhan loves to tailor a cake to reflect your individual personalities, transforming your vision into an amazing cake with the “wow” factor. As his website aptly states it, “Let your imagination become your cake creation - We can put to cake anything you can imagine.”

Tea to be declared India’s national drink

Tens of thousands pray for Russia’s church MOSCOW: Tens of thousands prayed outside Moscow’s main cathedral on Sunday to show their support for the Russian Orthodox Church in a controversy over a punk rock political protest.

Christ the Savior Cathedral was the scene of a brief surprise performance in February by a female punk rock group protesting Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency. Three members of the band Pussy Riot remain in police custody and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism. Their harsh treatment has provoked a public outcry and contributed to growing criticism of the church, a powerful institution with close ties to the Kremlin.

Patriarch Kirill has portrayed the punk performance as part of a broader attack on the church, considered by many Russians to be part of their national identity and an intrinsic part of a powerful state.

He had called on believers to attend Sunday’s service to pray “for our faith, our church, our sacred objects and our fatherland.”

The church maintains that desecration of icons

and other acts of vandalism have become more frequent since the punk protest. As the patriarch led a procession around the cathedral, priests carried a crucifix and an icon that had been damaged in attacks elsewhere in Russia this spring.

The priests also carried an icon that had been riddled with bullet holes in the 1920s, when atheist Communists began destroying churches around the country after taking power in 1917.

Speaking to the crowds from a stage outside the cathedral, Kirill said the church once again has come under attack from “enemy forces.”

“We have gathered to stand before God and to pray for our people, for our youth, so that our Lord will deliver them from temptation,” the patriarch said. The patriarch has joined the Kremlin in portraying the anti-Putin protest movement as a threat to Russian statehood. The protests drew tens of thousands onto the streets of Moscow in the months ahead of the March presidential election that gave Putin a third presidential term. -AP

Orthodox believers gather for a call to prayer in support of the Church led by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow April 22, 2012. (Reuters)

FILE- In this photograph taken on Oct.25, 2011, an Indian stall holder prepares tea for customers on a roadside in Mumbai. (AFP)

FRANCE: India is to declare tea as its national drink to celebrate the life of a pioneering tea-planter who was hanged

by British colonial rulers for taking part in the rebellion of 1857.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday announced the decision while on a visit to Assam, the tea-producing northeastern state that borders on Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Assam was the home state of Maniram Dewan, who is celebrated for introducing commercial tea production to the region and for his role in a plot to throw the British out of Assam during the 1857 mutiny.

The uprising, which is often called the Sepoy Mutiny, started in Meerut, a city close to New Delhi, and spread across northern India before being brutally crushed by British forces with many Indian soldiers and civilians killed.

“The drink would be accorded national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of first Assamese tea-planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan,” Ahluwalia said.

He added that tea should also be celebrated as “half of the tea industry labor comprises women and is the largest employer in the organised sector”.

The Asian Age reported that awarding tea the status of national drink may stir up trouble among “naturopaths” who suggest popular Indian beverages such as coconut water, lemon water and yoghurtbased lassi are healthier options.

Tea is generally served in India with milk and plenty of sugar, and often spiced with cardamom.

Coffee, which is grown in the southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, is becoming rapidly more popular among young urban Indians. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah

Staff Writer

Song: Call My Name Artist: Cheryl Album: Call My Name - Single Genre: Pop In short: Calvin Harris conquered the charts with Rihanna’s “We Found Love”, which raised his profile among peers; Cheryl (previously Cheryl Cole) snatched him up to produce her lead single off her upcoming third album, A Million Lights. “Call My Name” is by no means as instant as “We Found Love”, but it’s a grower for sure.

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

The Buzz One Direction fans mob wrong person in NZ New Zealand teenage girls turned out in their thousands over the weekend hoping for a glimpse of British-Irish boy band One Direction but it seems not all knew who they were screaming for. A radio producer wearing a beanie, dark glasses and a scarf, was mobbed when he left an Auckland hotel after interviewing the stars with young girls believing he was a member of the five-piece band. Guy Parsons, 23, is older and taller than members of One Direction but still fooled the hysterical young girls who chased him down the street. Some realized he wasn’t who they thought he was when he turned around, but others didn’t care. “I said ‘I’ve got you, I’m not one of them’, but they still wanted photos,” Parsons told the Sunday Star-Times, adding he enjoyed his brief moment of fame. “I don’t think I could do that everyday, but for the three minutes I was posing and running away from the girls I liked the attention.” -AFP

American Idol Taylor Hicks to launch Vegas show “American Idol” Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks is getting his own short-term show on the Las Vegas Strip. Casino officials announced the Alabama native will headline an eight-week show at Bally’s Las Vegas beginning June 26. The singer’s show in Las Vegas is a return to where his winning run began in 2005.

Hicks had been in New Orleans the night before Hurricane Katrina struck and was given a free airplane voucher when his flight was cancelled. He used the voucher to fly to Las Vegas, where he auditioned for “American Idol” and ultimately won over viewers with his renditions of southern soul, R&B, country and blues songs. -AP

Carey Mulligan, Marcus Mumford wed Carey Mulligan and musician Marcus Mumford wed on Saturday, USWeekly reports; according to TV Guide.The 26-year-old Oscar-nominated actress and the 24-year-old Mumford & Sons singer wed on a farm in Somerset, England, in front of family and friends, including Colin Firth and Jake Gyllenhaal. Report: Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford are engaged After five months of dating, Mumford popped the question last August.

The couple has a long history, as Mulligan and Mumford were childhood pen pals. They reconnected in February 2011 at a Mumford & Sons concert and have been dating since.

Lady Gaga arrives in S. Korea at start of tour US pop diva Lady Gaga arrived in South Korea late Friday, one week before a Seoul performance which will kick off her third concert tour. The singer, wearing a floor-length low-cut white dress, white gloves and a pearl-encrusted mask, blew kisses to fans at Seoul’s Gimpo airport who tried to snap her image on smartphones. Her schedule in South Korea for the coming week was unclear and concert organizers Hyundai Card declined to give details. “The Born This Way Ball” tour begins on April 27 at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. From there Lady Gaga will take her hits and extravagant costumes to Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia, and then on to 21 European cities. South Koreans aged under 18 have been banned from the concert after it was rated unsuitable for younger audiences.

Lady Gaga is expected to do 110 shows this year following up the success of her album “Born This Way”, which has sold nearly six million copies worldwide since it was released in May 2011. -AFP

America’s Next Top Model drops three of its stars Three of the stars of “America’s Next Top Model” have been dropped from the long-running TV show, after falling ratings.

Photographer Nigel Barker, runway coach J. Alexander and photo-shoot director Jay Manuel, won’t be returning when the 18th cycle of the show airs later in 2012, executive producer and former supermodel Tyra Banks said on Friday. “To my Nigel Barker, Miss J. And Mr Jay: Thank you for all our years together on ‘America’s Next Top Model’,” Banks wrote on her Facebook page and Twitter account. “Working with you is always an absolute pleasure. Excited for what the future holds for us,” Banks wrote. There was no information about who would replace them. “America’s Next Top Model,” which airs on the CW channel, has lost more than half of its 2005 audience, and is currently watched by less than two million people.

-Reuters

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MONDAY, april 23, 2012

James Cameron eyes co-production projects in China BEIJING: “Avatar” and “Titanic” film director James Cameron said on Sunday that he was looking at co-production of films in China, but would have to weigh issues like censorship and other restrictions before making any decisions. Hollywood has begun paying serious attention to China, despite the problems of government controls and piracy, reflecting the fast-growing Chinese middle class spending more money in theatres and less on pirated movies.

The next “Iron Man” film, for example, will be co-produced in China under a joint agreement between Walt Disney Co, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment.

Disney also said it would work with China’s Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings to promote the animation industry in China, while Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc in February said it would build a studio in Shanghai as part of a joint venture with some of China’s biggest media companies.

“We’re all looking very seriously at the possibility of a co-production.The question is, what’s required of us? In terms of configuring the market for the Chinese marketplace, and what economic benefit do we get in return?”

Cameron, in Beijing on a five-day visit, told Reuters in an interview.

“If it works - and I want to definitely stress if - it seems to me it could be very advantageous to the Chinese film community, because for us to do a film like ‘Avatar’ which is an entirely studio shoot, we wouldn’t be here for the scenery,” he added, sitting in a Bei-

FILE - Director James Cameron, (center), accompanied by producer Jon Landau, (right), and subtitles translator Natsuko Toda, listens to a reporter’s question during a press conference to promote his 3D version of “Titanic” in Tokyo Friday, March 30, 2012. (AP)

jing hotel room. “We’d be bringing in infrastructure to do virtual production, to do 3D photography and so on, which I would think would be a positive technology exchange into this film-making community.”

Cameron said he would have to consider issues such as censorship, in a country which still has strict rules on what can and what cannot be shown on screen.

“It all needs to be dealt with upfront.

Here’s the script, this is what we’re doing, and if there’s a problem with that then I have to decide creatively if I’m going to accommodate, or if I’m going to pass,” he added.

“I’m here to explore the idea of a co-production, find out what restrictions need to be met, find out what content guidelines need to be met, and find out the economic incentives

are, and I will weigh them all out.”

“Avatar”, Cameron’s blockbuster flick about an alien race, was the highest-grossing movie in China in 2010, raking in 540 million yuan ($85.6 million) in only 15 days.

Though they form a small percentage of movies screened, Hollywood movies drew 44 percent of the 10 billion yuan in sales receipts that year.

A deal hammered out during Vice President Xi Jinping’s February visit to the United States paved the way for the import of 14 premium format films, such as IMAX or 3D, which will be exempt from China’s annual quota of 20 foreign films per year.

“I think that any restrictions that are not strictly market driven are unnecessary. I think the Chinese people will vote with their wallets about what it is they want to see,” added the 57-year-old Canadian-born director.

Cameron has emerged as one of Hollywood’s hottest entrepreneurs by cashing in on the 3D technology he created for “Avatar”, which ranks as the highest-grossing film with a worldwide box office take of $2.8 billion.

But when asked when cinema-goers may be able to experience 3D without some wearing some kind of glasses, Cameron said it was possible that would never happen.

“In a movie theatre, it’s anywhere from 10 years to never, because you’re talking about hundreds of separate viewing angles.

There really is no technology right now that can deal with that, that I’ve seen,” he said.

-Reuters

Levon Helm, key member of The Band, dies at 71 ALBANY: With songs like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight” and “Up on Cripple Creek,” The Band fused rock, blues, folk and gospel to create a sound that seemed as authentically American as a Mathew Brady photograph or a Mark Twain short story. In truth, the group had only one American - Levon Helm.

Helm, the drummer and singer who brought an urgent beat and a genuine Arkansas twang to some of The Band’s best-known songs and helped turn a bunch of musicians known mostly as Bob Dylan’s backup group into one of rock’s most legendary acts, has died. He was 71. Helm, who was found to have throat cancer in 1998, died Thursday afternoon of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said Lucy Sabini of Vanguard Records. On Tuesday, a message on his website said he was in the final stages of cancer.

Helm and his bandmates - Canadians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel - were musical virtuosos who returned to the roots of American music in the late 1960s as other rockers veered into psychedelia, heavy metal and jams. The group’s 1968 debut, “Music From Big Pink,” and its followup, “The Band,” remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as “The Weight,” ‘’Dixie Down” and “Cripple Creek” have become rock standards.

Early on, The Band backed Dylan on his sensational and controversial electric tours of 1965-66 and collaborated with him on the leg-

endary “Basement Tapes,” which produced “I Shall Be Released,” ‘’Tears of Rage” and many other favorites. Dylan said on his website Thursday: “He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation. This is just so sad to talk about.” Hudson said on his website that he was “terribly sad.”

“Thank you for 50 years of friendship and music,” he posted. “No more sorrows, no more troubles, no more pain. He went peacefully to that beautiful marvelous wonderful place. ...

Levon, I’m proud of you.”

The son of anArkansas cotton farmer, Helm was just out of high school when he joined rocker Ronnie Hawkins for a tour of Canada in 1957 as the drummer for the Hawks. That band eventually recruited a group of Canadian musicians who, along with Helm, spent grueling years touring rough bars in Canada and the South.

They would split from Hawkins, hook up with Dylan and eventually call themselves The Band - because, as they explained many times, that’s what everyone called them anyway.

In some ways, The Band was the closest this country ever came to the camaraderie and achievement of the Beatles. Each of the five members brought special talents that through years of touring, recording and living together blended into a unique sound.

They bid farewell to live shows with a bang with the famous “Last Waltz” concert in 1976.

Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Dylan were among the stars who played the

Bee Gee Robin Gibb wakes from coma LONDON: Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb has woken from a coma more than a week after he lost consciousness and has attempted to communicate with family members at his hospital bedside, the BBC reported on Saturday.Gibb, 62, has begun to show signs of recovery and has been able to nod and communicate with his family, spokesman Doug Wright was quoted as saying by the BBC. Wright could not immediately be reached to confirm the report. The singer contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma at a central London hospital earlier this month. He had been receiving treatment for colon and liver cancer. He founded the Bee Gees with his twin brother Maurice and older brother Barry in the late 1950s. They have sold an estimated 200 million records during a career spanning more than 50 years. The group helped to define the disco sound of the 1970s with a string of hits, including “Stayin’ Alive”, “Night Fever” and “Jive Talkin’”. Their distinctive sound was characterized by falsetto vocals, tight harmonies and lush orchestration. -Reuters

FILE - In this dated Feb. 5, 2010 filed photo shows British singer Robin Gibb arriving for the awardings of the Goldene Kamera 2011 (golden camera media prize) of the Axel Springer Verlag publishing house in Berlin. (AFP)

CBS sues over Happy Days and other series LOS ANGELES: Surely, this is a situation to which the Fonz would give a thumbs-down.

CBS Television Distribution is suing ComStar Media and FamilyNet for allegedly airing several series, including “Happy Days” and “Family Ties,” without paying licensing fees for the programs. CBS is seeking more than $1.5 million in the suit, which was filed Monday in US District Court in California.

According to the suit, CBS and FamilyNet entered a licensing agreement in December 2008, to license the series “Happy Days,” “Family Ties,” “My Three Sons” and “Early Edition,” with FamilyNet paying license fees in both a down payment and monthly installments. However, the suit says, after ComStar Media - a company owned by GodTube founder Chris Wyatt and “Hour of Power” minister Robert Schuller - acquired FamilyNet, the payments soon stopped coming in. CBS claims that ComStar made a payment of somewhere

over $100,000 in June 2010, but haven’t made any installments since then. According to the suit, ComStar says that it isn’t obligated to pay the license fees, because they didn’t acquire FamilyNet’s liabilities when they purchased it.

The suit names FamilyNet, ComStar Media, ComStar Networks, FamilyNet Management which was set up by ComStar to acquire FamilyNet - and Resolute Media Atlanta. FamilyNet has not yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment. Alleging breach of contract and copyright infringement, CBS is seeking damages “at least in the amount of $1,546,880.08,” plus court costs, attorney fees, and an injunction against the defendants.FamilyNet bills itself as “America’s trusted entertainment network dedicated to providing responsible, relevant, and entertaining viewing choices for today’s diverse family.” ComStar emphasizes that it’s a “family based business” on the company’s website. -Reuters

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2009 file photo, Levon Helm, (right), performs with his band on the “Imus in the Morning” program on the Fox Business channel, in New York. (AP)

show in San Francisco, filmed by Martin Scorsese for a movie of the same name, released in 1978.

While Helm’s illness reduced his voice to something close to a whisper, it did not end his musical career. Beset by debt, in 2004 he began a series of free-wheeling late night shows in his barn in Woodstock that were patterned after medicine shows from his youth. Any night of

the bi-weekly Midnight Rambles could feature Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello or his daughter Amy on vocals and violin.

He recorded “Dirt Farmer” in 2007, which was followed by “Electric Dirt” in 2009. Both albums won Grammys. He won another this year for “Ramble at the Ryman.” Original members of The Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. -AP

Bronze statue of singer Willie Nelson unveiled in Texas AUSTIN: An 8-foot-tall bronze statue of country singer Willie Nelson in his trademark braids was unveiled in Austin, Texas, on Friday, an unofficial pot-smoking holiday.

Nelson, who has long advocated legalizing marijuana, sang “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” The statue features the country music legend sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar, Trigger. Even the W sign at the nearby W Hotel wore braids on Friday. “I thought he did a pretty darn good job,” Nelson, an Austin resident, said of Philadelphia sculptor Clete Shields after the cover was lifted off the 2,000-lb statue. Lawrence Wright, president of the board of the nonprofit Capital Area Statues Inc, which raised private donations for the statue, said it was not easy to find an artist who could capture Nelson. “We wanted the sense of connection Willie and his fans have, which is so electric and so human,” Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, told Reuters before the unveiling. Nelson, an Austinite, is “the man

who really, more than I think any other person, made the city of Austin, Texas, the live music capital of the world,” Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell told a crowd that included musician/ actor Kris Kristofferson at the entrance to the Moody Theater at a plaza along Willie Nelson Boulevard.

Among the fans at the unveiling were Austin residents Alli and Richard Roberts - who said they own all Nelson’s albums - and their 6-month-old son, Richard.

“I’ve always loved Willie Nelson,” Alli Roberts said. “He’s an awesome guitar player and singer. And he’s good people.”

That the ceremony took place on April 20 - 4/20 - at about 4:20 p.m. local time drew a lot of chatter on social media given that 420 is widely known among the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things marijuana. Nelson had this question for the crowd: “What time is it?” He added: “I can feel it’s getting close to something.” -Reuters

Singer Willie Nelson poses beside a statue of himself during its unveiling in downtown Austin, Texas April 20, 2012. (Reuters)

18

ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012

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

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

International award ceremony held at KES

Sudoku

Elementary

KUWAIT: Last Thursday, April 19, Kuwait English School (KES) held its annual award ceremony for recipients of the International Award Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates. These were presented by the guest speaker, General Edward Brown MBE, Commander of the British Forces in Kuwait. The organizer of the award scheme at KES, Ronelle Hendricks, praised the stu-

Month a t

Advanced

Intermediate

dents for all their endeavors and commitment. As part of their training, students had to camp out on Mutlaa Ridge and undertake expeditions to Thailand and Jordan. The Vice-Chairman of the school, Madame Naela Al-Saddah also complimented the participants on their dedication and congratulated them on successfully completing all the tasks for this prestigious award.

General A n n o u n c e m e n t s

a glance are mundane encounters of beauty that sprouted from the ego and surrounding events, creating emotions which dissolved into aesthetic visual messages.

Golden era club April 27/ 5 p.m. - 7 p.m./ Rumaithiya: Join the Golden Era (an exclusive seniors club) for a 3500 km, zero carbon footprint, journey to a beautiful European country credited with amazing achievements. Dr. Leos Tovarek’s dynamic presentation will give a unique insight into the Czech Republic; its history, culture, strengths, potential and future. Home sick Czech nationals are particularly invited to share their culture. Venue- House #34, next to AbuTammam Intermediate School for Boys, Sate Alhusari St., Block 2, Rumaithiya. For details call 97172788/ 66208183.

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

Marriage counseling session Diwaniya presentation April 24/ 7 p.m. / The AWARE Center: The AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation entitled, “Beachcombing in Kuwait,” by Claudia Farkas Al-Rashoud. Virtually everyone who walks along a beach starts to collect odd bits and pieces that have been washed up and deposited along the strandline. On Kuwait’s beaches you can find many things that make beachcombing an interesting pastime. There are more than 500 varieties of mollusc shells alone. For more information, call 25335260/70.

Presentation on iconic rugs April 24/ 6 p.m. / Sadu House: The KTAA under the auspices of Al Sadu House cordially invites you to the presentation: ‘The Turkmen Yurt and Its Furnishings’ by James Bishop. Inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, the diminishing nomadic people of Turkmenistan weave some of the most iconic rugs. The weavings of each tribe are distinctive with characteristic octagons or guls. This evening you will learn about some of the major tribes, the primary design features of their various guls, their bags (chuvals, torbas, jollars, etc.), tent bands, animal trappings, and chirpies.

Art exhibition April 15-26/ 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. / Gallery Tilal: Abdul Rasool Salman’s rhythms

May 2/ 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. / TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites all ladies to a lecture on Marriage Institution by Joanne Hands (Psychologist, Licensed Counselor, Marriage & family Therapist). The lecture will cover on a brief introduction to the stages of marriage institution, a successful approach to the day to day marriage life, tricks of nourishing and improving your marriage relationships and techniques of overcoming the marriage challenges.

Refreshments will be served. For more information please contact us on 97228860/2523015/6 or emailinfo@tiescenter.net.

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

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

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.

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.

Dilbert

Royal Thai Embassy The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait wishes to invite Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14.

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

Financial good fortune continues, although old habits are hard to break and you might have difficulty adjusting to it.You could alternate between wanting to buy out the store and continuing to pinch pennies the way you used to. That’s OK. Everybody has to make adjustments in life. Second only to falling in love, this will probably be one of the most pleasant adjustments you’ll ever have to make!

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Are you going on a trip or possibly moving, Taurus?

Is education involved in some way? Whatever your reasons for going away, you’re going to gain whatever you hope for - and more. Writing, teaching, and anything involving communication should go very well right now, including conversations with a romantic partner. Your mind is quick and retentive right now, so make the most of it.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

You tend to be intuitive by nature, Gemini, but today you could receive psychic impressions by the dozen. You might even experience visions or hear voices. Don’t worry - you aren’t going crazy! You do, however, need to pay attention to these messages. They may have immense personal or even planetary significance.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Communication with friends and partners should be clear, open, honest, and supportive today, Camaraderie flows freely, and affection is shown without restraint or overkill. If you’re presently involved but not yet committed, a declaration of love and an expression of desire to move the relationship to the next level could be in the wind. At the very least, your lover should pay you a compliment or two!

Leo: July 23 - August 22

Have you been reading about how a positive mental outlook creates a healthy body and a happy life, Leo? If so, you might just find that this attitude brings results.You’re feeling fit, and mentally sharp. Career interests seem to be looking up for you.A fringe benefit is that you’re probably feeling especially intuitive, too. Keep doing whatever you’ve been doing to bring this all about, because it’s working!

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Research that you’ve been doing for a particular project may finally be completed, Virgo. Now you’re ready to finish your work. Your mind is especially sharp right now, so this is a good time to work on any kind of project that involves communication. If you’re a writer, your publishing prospects look good.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

Dreams and visions about your family paint a rosy picture of your future, Libra. These dreams could well be prophetic, but don’t jump to that conclusion without first analyzing the symbols and discerning what your dreams are trying to tell you. There could be something that you need to consider before you can move ahead toward the future you want to create.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

Tonight you might decide to attend a social gathering held in your community that involves a lot of people who are into psychic or spiritual matters, Scorpio. This should be an interesting experience for you, because you could not only glean a lot of fascinating information but also make some new friends. Someone could recommend a few intriguing books.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

If you’ve been uncertain about the possibility of a raise in your salary, Sagittarius, today you could finally be told for certain that it’s coming. This is definitely cause for celebration. You might want to call a friend and propose a night on the town.Your good luck shows signs of continuing if you keep on working as hard as you have been.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

Love and romance take top priority with you today, Capricorn. You might be feeling a little insecure about the stability of your current relationship, but you’re wasting your energy. For now, at least, things look very promising for you and your current lover.

You should be communicating well and getting along great. Use your intuition to tune in to your friend’s mind.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

If you play your cards right, you just might be able to turn what you’re picking up psychically into an exalted creative effort. The emotions and images flowing into your brain might be obscure, but they’re significant in some way. Whether you write, play music, dance, or paint, you could be blown away by your own work. Whatever your materials, get them out and memorialize your inspiration.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

Expect to exchange a lot of phone calls and emails with friends today, Pisces. Communication with others is your top priority. You have a lot of news to deliver and you’ll receive a lot in return. Much of what you hear could be useful for whatever you’re involved with now. The only downside is mental overload.

19

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

monDAY, april 23, 2012

Formula one

Vettel back on top with Bahrain victory MANAMA: Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel returned to the top of the standings on Sunday with Red Bull’s first victory of the season in a lively Bahrain Grand Prix that went ahead without incident despite protests against it.

The 24-year-old German’s 22nd career triumph, and first in the troubled Gulf kingdom, made him the fourth different winner in four races.

He was pushed hard in the closing laps by Finland’s 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who finished second ahead of Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean in the Frenchman’s first appearance on the F1 podium. Australian Mark Webber was fourth in the other Red Bull for the fourth successive race.

With the main grandstand half empty, and few spectators to be seen elsewhere at a circuit with a maximum capacity of 45,000, the race was a far from normal affair after days dominated by talk of petrol bombs and teargas.

There have been almost nightly clashes elsewhere on the island between

anti-government protesters and riot police, and teams and organizers could breathe a sigh of relief that the race went off without trouble on the track.

Vettel, who had started from pole position for the first time this season after a record 15 starts from the top slot last year, made his trademark singlefinger salute for the first time since last year after taking the chequered flag.

With fuel running low, he was then told to pull over and stop immediately at the pit exit - which meant he had to run down the pit lane to embrace his mechanics.

Vettel now has 53 points, ousting McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton from the top. The Briton, who finished eighth after two nightmare pit-stops, has 49. Red Bull also overtook McLaren in the constructors’ championship.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg, winner of the previous race in China in the first victory by a Mercedes works team since 1955, finished fifth with a stewards’ enquiry hanging over him for moves on Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. -Reuters

Basketball

Rose returns, Bulls move closer to East title Carlos Boozer (5) of the Chicago Bulls grabs a rebound against Ian Mahinmi (28) and Shawn Marion (0) of the Dallas Mavericks at the United Center, April 21, 2012.

(AFP)

CHICAGO: Luol Deng scored 22 points, Richard Hamilton added 19 and the Chicago Bulls held off a fourth-quarter rally to beat the Dallas Mavericks 93-83 on Saturday night. The victory by the Bulls (48-16) gave them a 2 1-2 game lead over Miami for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Chicago has two regular-season games left, against Indiana and Cleveland.

Bulls star guard Derrick Rose returned to the lineup after sitting out three games with a right foot/ankle injury and he had 11 points with eight assists in 32 minutes. Defending NBA champion Dallas, which clinched a playoff berth on Thursday night when Houston lost, was playing the second game of a back-to-back, so veteran guards Jason Kidd and Jason Terry sat out to rest. Dirk Nowitzki scored 17 points and Rodrigue Beaubois, start-

ing in place of Kidd, added 16 - 10 in the final quarter.

Deng’s 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer capped an 11-0 run and gave the Bulls a 66-56 lead. But Dallas rallied as Vince Carter had nine points and Brandan Wright’s follow-up basket cut the lead to 75-72 with just under 6 minutes remaining. Joakim Noah and Rose scored for the Bulls before Kyle Korver hit his third 3-pointer of the game to restore the lead to nine points.

Deng then hit a 3-pointer from the corner with just under 2 minutes left and Chicago had a 90-79 lead.

Nowitzki’s eight second-quarter points helped the Mavs close a 13-point deficit down to six by halftime.

Hamilton had 10 points and Carlos Boozer eight as Chicago opened a 21-8 lead after one quarter - the Mavericks’ lowest scoring quarter of the season. -AP

Cricket

Risk-free Aussies go for kill against Windies WINDSOR PARK: Australia coach Mickey Arthur vowed his team will go for the West Indies’ jugular in the third and final Test even if their full throttle assault backfires. Australia have already ensured they will keep the Frank Worrell Trophy they have held for two decades after winning the first Test in Barbados and then seeing the rain-hit second match in Trinidad peter out into a draw. But Arthur said his side will continue their positive approach, which was highlighted by two sporting declarations made by skipper Michael Clarke in the first two games. “I’d rather lose a Test match trying to win it than just play dull cricket, because then you don’t learn anything about your players,” said Arthur, ahead of the final Test which starts at Windsor Park on Monday.

“You want to see players stand up in pressure situations. I’d rather that we went all out to win a game rather than just let a game meander.” Australia face a selection dilemma after fast bowlers Peter Siddle and James Pattinson were both forced to return home with back injuries. That means Ryan Harris, man of the match in

Lotus F1 Team’s Kimi Raikkonen, Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel (center) and Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean (right) celebrate on the podium at the Bahrain International circuit in Manama, April 22, 2012. (AFP)

Tennis

Nadal hammers Djokovic to win eighth Monte Carlo crown MONTE CARLO: Rafael Nadal won an unprecedented eighth straight title at the Monte Carlo Masters on Sunday, defeating Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-1.

The victory also marked the end of a seven-match losing streak in finals to the Serb world number one, whose last victory over Nadal came in a six-hour Australian Open final. Nadal’s victory was his 42nd in a row at the Mediterranean venue and marks his 47th career trophy and 20th in a Masters 1000 tournament, the first to achieve that honour. The win was also his first ATP trophy since winning Roland Garros last June.

“I’ve always felt unbelievable here,” said an emotional Nadal. “It’s unbelievable to win this historic tournament eight times. I always feel great when I come here. I had lost to Novak seven times, so losing eight would not have been much different. But to win this one makes a big difference. Hopefully I will stay healthy and go to Barcelona and play a good tournament.” Djokovic won the first game of the match to love but slowly found himself losing grip at the cliffside club on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Djokovic, who also played and lost the 2009 final against Nadal, and was competing this week after learning of the death of his grandfather in Serbia. He had rallied from a set down in two of his four previous rounds.

The Serb world number one was playing in his 45th ATP final and now stands 30-15. He trails Nadal 14-17 in their career series. Monte Carlo is one of only

two Masters 1000 tournament that Djokovic has not won.

“I’m sorry for my performance today, Rafa played well and deserved to win today,” said Djokovic, who went down in 78 minutes. “I’m still very happy to reach the finals for the second time. This is one of my favorite events at the most beautiful centre court in the world.”

Djokovic stands 24-3 on the season with titles at the Australian Open and Miami. Nadal advanced as he fired his only ace of the final on match point after saving the lone break point he had faced two games earlier. The Spanish winner now owns a 44-1 record in the principality, with titles in eight of his nine appearances. -AFP

Football

Humaidani reaps the 2012 Red Bull Street Style in Kuwait

Barbados before being rested in Port of Spain, may be recalled while left-armer Mitchell Starc could also get the nod if the pitch looks likely to favour pace.

In Trinidad, Australia played two specialist spinners in Nathan Lyon and Michael Beer while paceman Ben Hilfenhaus remains the visitors’ top wicket-taker with eight at an average of under twenty.

“When you lose two of your quality quick bowlers it does disrupt plans just a little bit,” admitted Arthur.

“They’re world-class bowlers so it is a bit of a pity but we cater for that. We felt Ryan needed a break. We’re going to have him fit and ready to go and we’ve got Starc, who has been fantastic all tour, to take his spot if we decide to go with three seamers.” Windsor Park has only staged one other Test when India were the visitors 10 months ago and the match was drawn.

For theWest Indies, Fidel Edwards, who bowled some excellent spells without luck in Trinidad, has some back soreness. He was the most successful bowler for the West Indies in the previous Test at Windsor Park. -Reuters

Seen in this picture is the final round between Karam Humaidani and Abdulwahab Al-Otaibi Jameel W. Karaki

Australian cricket team captain Michael Clarke (right) plays a shot as West Indies wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh looks on, April 9, 2012. (AFP)

Prince Albert II of Monaco (left) congratulates Rafael Nadal of Spain, after Nadal defeated Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, during their final match of the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters tournament, April 22, 2012. (AP)

KUWAIT: Free style football is the art of expressing yourself with a football, while performing various tricks with any part of the body and also includes Control, Creativity. This support has seen a surge in popularity as a result of global advertising campaigns social media and special events organized by corporate.

On Friday, April 20, 2012 Talented Karam Humaidani put in an exceptional performance to win the 2012 Red Bull Street Style in Kuwait which took place at the Marina Crescent.

Humaidani dazzled the judges with a jaw-dropping range of tricks as he outclassed in the final freestyler Abdulwahab Al Oteibi who settled for second place.

Third place went to Armaan Kurji who managed to outperform Daniel Attieh.

Tala Al Ameen was the only female in this competition, but she could not qualify for the finals due to rough competition, while one player withdrew due to a Muscle strain.

Humaidani managed to beat three opponents on his way to the final. From the first match he showed his mettle as he displayed a combination of incredible tricks and moves with the ball.

The final which took place at the Marina Crescent was watched by more than 2,000 spectators who enjoyed every single minute of the two hours event.

Humaidani will join competitors from more than 50 other countries around the world in the 2012 Red Bull Street Style

World Final that will take place in Italy.

The Judging panel in the final featured Ahmad Al Mutairi, Kazma football club star, who evaluated the Control category.

Marzouk Al Ajmi, head of sports in Annahar newspaper and Media Coordinator of the 2006 FIFA World Cup evaluated the style category while Khris Njokwana the Freestyle Champion from South Africa handled the creativity category.

The Red Bull Street Style final saw the best 16 freestyle footballers compete against each other in head-to-head battles for a ticket to the World Final.

Each battle followed the same format: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball, with each freestyler having 30 seconds to impress the judges before passing the ball back to his competitor.

MONday, april 23, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlight BERLIN: Schalke 04 midfielder Jermaine Jones and striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar are the latest German league stars to come to blows after pictures emerged on Sunday of them fighting in training. After Bayern Munich were reported to have fined French star Franck Ribery 50,000 Euros ($66,000 US dollars) for an alleged dressing room bust-up with team-mate Arjen Robben, the Schalke stars had to be separated at training on Saturday. Holland’s Huntelaar and USA star Jones traded blows and had to be restrained by team-mates as they prepared to face Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday, but Royal Blues manager Horst Heldt insisted it was a storm in a tea cup. -AFP

Football

Champions League Everton draw stuns United as title race stays alive within reach, says Pardew LONDON: Alan Pardew admitted Newcastle were daring to dream of Champions League qualification after an emphatic win over Stoke lifted the Magpies into fourth place. French midfielder Yohan Cabaye scored twice and created another for Papiss Cisse in a comprehensive 3-0 win which also saw another virtuoso display from winger Hatem Ben-Arfa. With Tottenham losing 1-0 at Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle now have sole possession of fourth spot, three points of clear of Spurs in fifth.

“The Champions League is still a possibility and we are not hiding from that,” said Pardew, who will be a keen observer of Everton’s match at Manchester United on Sunday.

Manchester United’s English forward Wayne Rooney (center) scores a goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Everton, April 22, 2012. (AFP)

MANCHESTER, London: Manchester United twice conceded in the final eight minutes as Everton fought back to secure a remarkable 4-4 draw at Old Trafford here on Sunday. Premier League leaders United were on course to go eight points clear of Manchester City before the second-placed side kicked off away to bottom of the table Wolves later on Sunday. But instead this match ended all square and with the title race in the balance once again.

United appeared to have taken control with a second half spell that featured three goals in 13 minutes -- including a response from Everton’s Marouane Fellaini.

Nani made the first of those goals after 56 minutes, winning an aerial challenge and squaring to Welbeck on the edge of the Everton penalty area. The forward neatly side-stepped John Heitinga before placing an unstoppable shot past former United keeper Tim Howard from 17 yards. The relief around Old Trafford was obvious and, suitably buoyed by the goal, United clicked up through their attacking gears with Nani making it 3-1 after an hour. The Portuguese winger played a short pass to Michael Carrick who, in turn played in Welbeck.

The striker’s quick-thinking saw him move the ball on to Nani who chipped the ball over the advancing Howard from six yards. However, Fellaini’s 67th minute goal gave Everton hope, the midfielder scoring with a stunning, first-time, right-foot volley from a dozen yards, connecting with a right-wing cross from Tony Hibbert. But United’s next attack capped their golden spell and appeared to have settled any lingering doubt

about the game’s outcome.

Former Everton favorite Rooney and Welbeck exploited the growing gaps at the back of the Everton defence, exchanging passes which allowed the England striker to race clear and bury the ball emphatically past Howard. With the score at 4-2, United’s Patrice Evra hit the post with a header. Everton though were clearly in the mood to have a decisive say in the title race. After 82 minutes, Phil Neville’s pass forward saw Fellaini rise with two defenders, the ball breaking kindly for Jelavic who converted clinically from eight yards. United were rattled and there was an air of inevitability about the equalizer, two minutes later. Neville again set up the goal with his pass finding Fellaini who turned brilliantly before laying the ball off for the unmarked South Africa star Pienaar to score, on the run, from the six-yard line.

The frantic activity merely raised the stakes on what had been an equally absorbing first period in which the title race seemed to have taken a dramatic twist after 33 minutes when Everton capped what had been an impressive start to the game by taking the lead through Jelavic, the forward signed in the January transfer window by David Moyes. Former United midfielder Darron Gibson started the move with a pass wide to the right wing and overlapping full-back Hibbert whose deep cross hung in the air invitingly, allowing Jelavic to outjump Rafael and send a perfect header looping back across David de Gea into the United goal. Five minutes before the interval, United were level as Evra fed Nani wide on the left and the winger made space before curling over an expert cross which Rooney planted into the Everton goal via a bouncing header. -AFP

“If Everton don’t win, that’s qualification for the Europa League for us and and that’s a big, big achievement for this club. But we haven’t lost sight of the fact that the city feels there’s a chance to do something really special. With four games left, we can still get into the Champions League. We will try to win them all and see where that takes us.”

Stoke, who were one of England’s Europa league’s representatives this season, were out-classed for the entire 90 minutes, with Cabaye and Cheick Tiote dominating the midfield.

The match was effectively settled inside the first 18 minutes. Cabaye headed in the first goal from close range after Cisse headed Ben Arfa’s cross against the

Spurs feeling Euro stress, admits Redknapp ENGLAND: Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp admitted his players are currently feeling the pressure far more than Champions League rivals Newcastle United.

A 1-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, after Newcastle had beaten Stoke 3-0 earlier in the day, means Alan Pardew’s Magpies are now three points ahead in fourth spot in the Premier League with four games remaining.

Tottenham held a 10-point lead over Arsenal, the club now in third, a few weeks ago but just one win in their last nine league games has seen them falter at the most crucial point of the campaign.

Newcastle, in contrast, had not been ex-

pected by many to be challenging for the Europa League at the start of the season let alone the Champions League.

“I wouldn’t think there is any pressure on them,” Redknapp admitted. “They have achieved a miracle. What Alan has done there has been fantastic to get them in the position they are in. It has been a great achievement so they can relax and play. You have to give them credit for what they have done. And they do look good at the moment. They have some fantastic forwards.”

Taarabt’s goal was even more painful for Tottenham given that he is a former Spurs player, with Redknapp opting to sell him to Rangers, then in the Cham-

1989-90 season. “We are very happy to win in the Nou Camp and beat the goals record. Now we have to look to the Bayern game in front of our own fans and we’re very keen to get a good result,” added Ronaldo. Madrid trail 2-1 to the Germans in their semi-final ahead of the second leg.

Ronaldo’s winner gave Madrid their first league win over Barcelona in four years and, barring a major stumble, ensured the title will return to the Santiago Bernabeu for the first time since 2008. It will also end Barcelona’s three-year grip on the title.

For coach Jose Mourinho, it was his first win at Camp Nou with Madrid and only his second triumph in 11 attempts against the Catalans.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hailed Real Madrid as the new champions.

“I congratulate Real Madrid for their victory and also for their league title which I have no doubt they have clinched tonight,” said Guardiola. “We played a good match, but it wasn’t good enough. We played the kind of game that we needed to play but we just couldn’t do it.” -AFP

pionship, in 2010 after just 16 games in three seasons.

Redknapp refused to admit that the 22-year-old had been inspired by a desire to wreak revenge on his former manager.

“No, he played against us at Tottenham earlier in the year and he was useless,” Redknapp remarked wryly. “He has got bags of ability and when he is on his game he can be a fantastic player. He has got nothing to prove to me, I always said he was a good player. Unfortunately there wasn’t really a place for him in the team because Gareth Bale was playing and there was Luka Modric. He had to go and play somewhere and he has done that very well.” -AFP

‘Fascinating’ Dortmund take plaudits for title

Delighted Ronaldo overshadows Messi as Real eye title SPAIN: Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed his 54th goal of the season as Real Madrid moved closer to a 32nd La Liga title with a 2-1 win at Barcelona for whom Lionel Messi was reduced to a bit-part role.

“It was an important goal but the win for the team is more important, we have four matches left and with the seven-point gap (over Barcelona) we are in a comfortable position,” said Ronaldo.

The goal also means Ronaldo moves one ahead of Messi on 42 league goals in the battle to be ‘pichichi’, La Liga’s top goal-scorer.

On the night, Ronaldo was far more dangerous than Messi, with six attempts at goal to Messi’s one, a statistic which illustrated the Argentine’s miserable evening.

“I am very happy,” added Ronaldo. “I have scored now in the last three games here at Camp Nou, but the most important thing is the team and I congratulate my colleagues on their performance.”

Madrid’s two goals almost meant it was 109 for the season making them the highest-scoring team in a single season in Spanish football history, beating the record of 107 previously held by the Madrid side of the

bar, then Cisse took advantage of that pass which so delighted Pardew.

Cabaye added another in the 53 minutes with a composed finish, while Stoke never threatened to find a way past a Newcastle defence that has not conceded a goal in 398 minutes.

Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, suggested the difference between the two teams was the way Newcastle accepted their chances, but the reality was that they were outclassed by a team he believes can finish in the top four.

“Newcastle have lots of momentum.

They have goals in them and can be very confident and assured in the last few games because they will score goals,” he said. -AFP

Dortmund’s Mats Hummels (left) and Lucas Barrios celebrate after a Bundesliga football match between Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Moenchengladbach, April 21, 2012. (AFP)

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund were heralded as a “fascinating” team on Sunday after clinching their second successive Bundesliga title, keeping them on course for a domestic double.

Dortmund won the title with two matches to spare after beating Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 on Saturday, setting a league record after going 26 straight games without defeat.

They will complete a sparkling season next month if they beat Bayern Munich in the German Cup final in Berlin.

Dortmund, whose last defeat was back in September, also produced a near perfect second part to the season, winning 13 and drawing two in 15 games.

Thousands of fans poured onto the

streets of the Ruhr valley city on Saturday to celebrate their title, honking car horns and spraying beer.

“I am very impressed by the unity of Borussia,” Germany coach Joachim Loew told reporters.

“Between coach team, officials and fans there is such a strong bond.The team played in this season with great intensity and will and were very consistent especially in the second half of the season. It is impressive how this young team won the title for the second straight time.”

Dortmund, who have the second highest attendance in Europe with 80,000 fans per game behind Barcelona, refused to buckle in the title race, despite trailing Bayern at the halfway mark.

“It is their particular strength to get points against their biggest Bundesliga rivals,” said Germany manager Oliver Bierhoff after Dortmund beat Bayern, third-placed Schalke 04 and Gladbach, in fourth, in consecutive league games in the last weeks. Bayern also paid tribute to Dortmund.

Loew has at times been criticised for making limited use of Dortmund players in the past two years but he told Bild newspaper on Sunday this could change for the Euro 2012 this summer.

“There will surely be more than just Mats Hummels and Mario Goetze.

I also do not rule out that there are even more Dortmund players in the starting eleven.” -AP

Inter toil in Florence as UCL hopes fade Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is challenged by Barcelona’s Carles Puyol (right) as Daniel Alves looks on during their Spanish first division “El Clasico” soccer match, April 21, 2012. (Reuters)

FLORENCE: Inter Milan’s Champions League qualification hopes slipped further away following a 0-0 draw at Fiorentina on Sunday. Sixth-placed Inter closed the gap on third-placed Lazio to five points but having played a game more. And it could have been worse as Fiorentina missed a penalty in a lacklustre affair. The only real plus for Inter was that coach Andrea Stramaccioni maintained his unbeaten start on the bench. It certainly wasn’t a great advert for Italian football in a tight match that never really came alive.

Houssine Kharja had an early opportunity for the hosts but shot just wide

while Diego Forlan’s left footed effort at the other end was saved by Artur Boruc.

Alessio Cerchi for Fiorentina and Mauro Zarate for Inter were both guilty of squandering good opportunities when shooting from a tight angle instead of slipping in a better placed team-mate.

But that was all that happened of note in a dire first 45 minutes. The game perked up halfway through the second period when Kharja’s reverse pass put Andrea Lazzari in behind the Inter backline. Julio Cesar came out and was adjudged to have brought down the Fiorentina midfielder and was booked for his troubles.

However the Brazilian made amends

by plunging low to his right to tip Adem Ljajic’s spot-kick around the post.

La Viola came close again as Matija Nastasic was left alone at the back post at a corner but his volley sailed over.

Boruc saved a low shot from Zarate and Japan full-back Yuto Nagatomo squeezed another just past the upright as Inter belatedly started to push. Diego hit a half-volley with power after a smart turn but Boruc was well placed to block.

On Saturday Napoli kept alive their Champions League qualification hopes and ended a run of three straight defeats with a 2-0 win over Novara, who remain second bottom. -AFP