April 7, 2012

SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1397

12 PAGES

www.alwatandaily.com

150 Fils with IHT

Mali’s Tuareg rebels declare independent nation

BAMAKO: Mali’s Tuareg rebels, who have seized control of the country’s distant north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup in the capital, declared independence Friday of their Azawad nation. “We, the people of the Azawad,” they said in a statement published on the rebel website, “proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012.”

The military chiefs of 13 of Mali’s neighbors met Thursday in Ivory Coast to hash out plans for a military intervention to push back the rebels in the north, as well as to restore constitutional rule after disgruntled soldiers last month stormed the presidential palace and sent the democratically elected leader into hiding. The confusion in the capital created an opening for the rebels in the north, who have been attempting to claim independence for more than 50 years.

France, which earlier said it is willing to offer logistical support for a military invasion, announced Friday that it does not recognize the new Tuareg state.

“A unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African states means nothing for us,” said French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet. The European Union concurred.

“We will certainly not accept this declaration. It’s out of the question,” said Richard Zinc, the head of the European Union delegation in Bamako.

The traditionally nomadic Tuareg people have been fighting for independence for the northern half of Mali since at least 1958, when Tuareg elders wrote a letter addressed to the French president asking their colonial rulers to carve out a separate homeland called “Azawad” in their language. Instead the north, where the lighter-skinned Tuareg people live, was made part of the same country as the south, where the dark-skinned ethnic groups controlled the capital and the nation’s finances.

The Tuaregs accuse the southerners of marginalizing the north and of concentrating development, including lucrative aid projects, in the south. They fought numerous rebellions attempting to wrestle the north free, but it wasn’t until a March 21 coup in Bamako toppled the nation’s elected government that the fighters were able to make significant gains. In a three-day

period last week they seized the three largest cities in the north as soldiers dumped their uniforms and retreated.

Their independence declaration cited 50 years of misrule by the country’s southern-based administration and was issued by the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, whose army is led by a Tuareg senior commander who fought in the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s military.

The group is secular and its stated aim is creating Azawad.

However, they were helped by an Islamist faction, Ansar Dine, which abides by the extreme Salafi reading of the Quran. They are now attempting to apply Sharia law to Mali’s moderate north, including in the fabled tourist destination of Timbuktu, where women have been told to wear veils and not be seen in public with males who are not relatives.

In all three of the major cities in the north, residents say they do not know which of the two factions has the upper hand. In the city of Gao, from where the NMLA declaration of independence was written, a resident said that it appeared that the Islamist faction was in control, not the NMLA. “I heard the declaration but I’m telling you the situation on the ground. We barely see the NMLA. The people we see are the Salafis,” said the young man, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. “I can’t tell which group they are exactly, but we know they are the Islamists because of their beards. They are the people in control of Gao. I’m right near the Algerian consulate right now which they have taken control of and they are here. They are armed and other are in the back of their pickup trucks,” he said.

The black ethnic groups that live in the north are concerned that the creation of the Tuareg state will mean they will be chased out of their own homes. Already the roughly 300 Christians living in Timbuktu have fled, said the mayor. The representative of Timbuktu in the nation’s parliament in Bamako, who is from the dark-skinned Sonrai ethnicity, said there will be civil war if the Tuaregs attempt to impose their will on blacks in the north.

“I consider that the communique regarding the independence of the Azawad by the MNLA is null and void,” El Hadji Baba Haidara said on Friday. “An armed movement cannot speak in the name of the people of the Azawad.” -AP

Malawi’s President dies leaving nation in political suspense

3

Majority Bloc rejects political escalation

Staff Writers

KUWAIT: The Majority Bloc will hold a crucial meeting tomorrow (Sunday) to discuss and assess the interpellation motions that will be submitted by some members of the bloc against the government. The meeting is expected to take place either in the office of the MP Khalid Sultan Al-Sultan Sunday morning or in the Diwaniya of the MP Dr.Waleed AlTabtabaie in the evening, MP Bader Al-Dahoum said.

Al-Dahoum told Al-Watan that the Justice Bloc will give its opinion about the various interpellation motions, such as the motion which will be submitted by the MP Mohammad Hayef against the Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, adding that the meeting will also focus on finalizing certain laws like the provisional detention law, early retirement and the law of establishing Jaber university.

Meanwhile, informed sources affirmed that the Majority Bloc will reject any political escalation towards the government within the coming period or even through threatening to file interpellation motions or forming investigation committees, because the bloc has to achieve its agenda and accomplish the drafting of several laws.The sources pointed out that some MPs prefer to delay any motion or even suspend-

Filipino Good Friday devotees nailed to crosses

ing it, in an attempt to give the government further chances for it to do its work. The majority bloc is also expected to focus on the interests of the country more than any other issues within the next period. On his part, the MP Mohammad Al-Kandari announced that some interpellation motions are not worth discussion and are rejected by many, indicating that MPs have many laws to draft such as, early retirement, women’s rights and salary raises and that they are more important than filing motions.

MP Mubarak Al-Hatlani said that the loan interests case will be amongst the priorities of the Majority Bloc, in addition to focusing on other laws for improving the living conditions of citizens. On the other hand, the parliamentary committees will pursue their meetings tomorrow, wherein the committee of legislative and legal affairs will hold a meeting to discuss requests for lifting the parliamentary immunity of MP Faisal Al-Mislem.

The committee of budgets will hold a meeting to discuss the budget of the Public Authority for Youth and sports while the committee of financial and economic affairs will hold a meeting to discuss a draft law for establishing a national fund for boosting and developing minor projects and another draft law for establishing the Kuwaiti fund for development.

10

Activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan, set fire to a US flag during a protest rally in Karachi on April 6, 2012. Hundreds of Pakistani Islamist activists poured onto the streets on April 6, demanding holy war and torching US flags to condemn a $10 million US bounty slapped on the founder of a terror group. (AFP)

France fears serial killer on loose after new murder

PARIS: French authorities said on Friday they feared a serial killer was on the loose after a gunman shot dead a woman in a Paris suburb, using a weapon employed in three other killings in the same area within the last five months.

“This series of killings deserves our maximum attention and we are putting all our resources into this affair,” Interior Minister Claude Gueant told Europe 1 radio.

In each of the four shootings, the first of which was in November, a lone gunman used the same 7.65 mm caliber semi-automatic pistol, prosecutors said.

The latest shooting took place on Thursday when a gunman on a motorbike struck.

“It was a pistol, a semi-automatic pistol,” said Marie-Suzanne Le Queau, public prosecutor in Evry, a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris. “This element alone is not enough to affirm at this stage that it is all part of the same affair.”

There were obvious similarities in the way the latest three killings were carried out in February, March and April, but no clear link to the first killing in November, she added.

Around 100 investigators were working on the case and police were examining several leads, she said. -Reuters

Egypt ex-spy chief to run for president

Supporters of former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman hold his pictures as they gather in Cairo’s Abbassiya Square on April 6, 2012 during a rally calling for his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election. (AFP)

CAIRO: Egypt’s former spy chief Omar Suleiman has decided to contest next month’s presidential election, the official MENA news agency reported on Friday, two days after ruling himself out of the race.

His change of mind came after a group of demonstrators gathered in a Cairo district to urge Suleiman, who served as Hosni Mubarak’s vice president before the strongman’s overthrow last year, to run. “I was very moved by your strong stand,” Suleiman said in a statement carried by MENA. “The call you issued today was an order, and I am a soldier who has never in my life disobeyed an order ... I cannot but reply to the call and join the race despite the obstacles and difficulties,” he said.

The former military man who took over as intelligence chief in 1991 vowed to “make every effort ... to achieve the expected changes and complete the aims of the revolution, and live up to the hopes of the Egyptian people.”

Suleiman had said on Wednesday that he would sit out the May 23-24 election because the nomination procedures

were too tough. “I tried until yesterday morning to overcome the obstacles related to the current situation and the administrative, financial and organizational demands of candidacy, but I found that was beyond my capability,” he said.

Candidates bidding for the presidency need 30,000 signatures from people or the support of a party in parliament.

The military says it will hand power to the winner by the end of June. The front runners include Khairat El-Shater, a leader of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, and former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

Many in Egypt regard Suleiman as having formed part of the inner circle of Mubarak, who shortly before his fall named the intelligence supremo as vice president.

Born in 1936 to a well-off family in the southern town of Qena, Suleiman graduated from Cairo’s military academy in 1955. Under Mubarak, Suleiman served as a negotiating partner for the United States, Israel and the Palestinians, orchestrating a series of short-lived truces. -AFP See also 2

UN steps up pressure on Syria NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that Syria’s conflict is deepening and attacks on civilian areas show no sign of abating, despite the government’s claim that it is withdrawing troops before an April 10 UN deadline to end the violence.

“Cities, towns and villages have been turned into war zones. The sources of violence are proliferating,” Ban told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

“The human rights of the Syrian people continue to be violated. ... Humanitarian needs are growing dramatically.”

Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, told Al Jazeera that the humanitarian situation in Syria was also deteriorating. The UN estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the year-long uprising.

More on 2

Believers gather around the Macarena Virgin (Our Lady of Hope) during a Holy Week procession on April 6, 2012 in Sevilla. Christian believers around the world mark the Holy Week of Easter in celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (AFP)

Five charged after Chinese teen sells kidney to buy iPhone

BEIJING: Five people in southern China have been charged with intentional injury in the case of a Chinese teenager who sold a kidney so he could buy an iPhone and an iPad, the government-run Xinhua News Agency said on Friday.

The five included a surgeon who removed a kidney from a 17-year-old boy in April last year. The boy, identified only by his surname Wang, now suffers from renal deficiency; Xinhua quoted prosecutors in Chenzhou city, Hunan province as saying.

According to the Xinhua account, one of the defendants received about 220,000 yuan (about 35,000 US dollars) to arrange the transplant. He paid Wang 22,000 yuan and split the rest with the surgeon, the three other defendants and other medical staff.

The report did not say who received and paid for the kidney. The teen was from Anhui, one of China’s poorest provinces, where inhabitants frequently leave to find work and a better life elsewhere. He bought an iPhone and iPad, and when asked by his mother where he got the money, admitted selling a kidney.

Apple products are hugely popular in China, but are priced beyond the reach of many Chinese. IPhones start at 3,988 yuan ($633), and iPads begin at 2,988 yuan ($474). Wang’s renal deficiency is deteriorating, Xinhua quoted prosecutors as saying.

Only a fraction of the people who need organ transplants in China are able to get them, leading to “transplant tourism” where patients travel overseas for such operations, and to a black market for human organs.

China banned the trading of human organs in 2007, Xinhua said. Several other suspects involved in the case are still being investigated. -Reuters

Venus may have auroras without a magnetic field

WASHINGTON: The same magnetic phenomenon that causes auroras on Earth has now surprisingly been discovered creating giant magnetic bubbles aroundVenus, a planet without a magnetic field according to SPACE. These findings could help explain mysterious flashes of light from Venus, in addition to the way comet tails work, researchers say. The Northern and Southern Lights on Earth are caused by magnetic lines of force breaking and connecting with each other. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, can explosively convert magnetic energy to heat and kinetic energy.

Scientists had seen magnetic reconnection with planets only when they had intrinsic magnetic fields, such as Earth, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. These magnetic fields deflect charged particles in the solar wind streaming from the sun into a shell surrounding the planet known as a magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection can occur within magnetospheres, leading to auroras and magnetic storms.

On the lee sides of planets facing away from the solar wind, magnetospheres elongate into so-called magnetotails. Despite having no magnetic field, Venus does have a magnetotail, caused by the solar wind interacting with the ionosphere, the upper part of its atmosphere loaded More on 9 with electrically charged ions.

2

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

saturdAY, april 7, 2012

UN steps up pressure on Syria Ban Ki-moon warns of worsening violence as Security Council threatens further steps unless government honors ceasefire

NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that Syria’s conflict is deepening and attacks on civilian areas show no sign of abating, despite the government’s claim that it is withdrawing troops before an April 10 UN deadline to end the violence.

“Cities, towns and villages have been turned into war zones. The sources of violence are proliferating,” Ban told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

“The human rights of the Syrian people continue to be violated. ... Humanitarian needs are growing dramatically.”

Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, told Al Jazeera that the humanitarian situation in Syria was also deteriorating. The UN estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the year-long uprising.

“We estimate around a million people need help with healthcare and access to food. Even though food is available, getting access to food is a problem,” said Amos.

Battles raged on Friday between army deserters and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, activists said, amid calls for massive protests in support of arming the rebellion.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fierce battles were taking place in the villages of Al-Tiba, Al-Qabu and Shniyeh in central Homs province.

The fighting broke out after armed groups loyal to Assad opened fire on a group of seven women, killing two and wounding four, the UK-based Observatory said in a statement.

It said regime forces were pounding districts of Homs city and that the encircled town of Rastan to the north was being bombarded with mortar rounds and heavy machinegun fire.

Syrian forces also broadened an offensive against op-

An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on April 6, shows protestors waving Syrian pre-Baath national flags during a demonstration against the President Bashar Al-Assad in the Damascus suburb of al-Maliha. (AFP)

position fighters in three Damascus suburbs on Friday in an apparent attempt to crush pockets of rebellion near the capital.

Troops conducted raids in the suburbs of Saqba and Douma following overnight clashes with army defectors in Saqba and the nearby suburb of Arbeen, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The group said three members of the military were killed.

Tanks patrolled deserted streets in the sprawling Douma

US not backing off as Iran sanctions bite

Iran oil sanctions bite deeper as shippers, insurers back off. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration’s man in charge of squeezing Tehran over its nuclear program is unapologetic for the difficulties faced by banks in their dealings with Iran since the US tightened sanctions against the country.

Companies that trade with Iran are struggling to get paid and the biggest Asian countries are scrambling to work around US sanctions that aim to deprive Tehran of revenue needed to develop its nuclear program. “I don’t feel apologetic about it because that is the consequence of these banks in Iran willingly facilitating transactions for Iran’s nuclear programs,” said David Cohen, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury Department.

“If they are going to do that, they shouldn’t be accessible to the international financial system. They shouldn’t be financial institutions that any reputable bank wants to deal with,” Cohen said in an interview.

The pressure has forced Iran to listen to US demands, he said. “Do we think we have the attention of the leadership on their end? We have it like never before,” he added.

Cohen’s comments were a strong display of administration confidence in the measures against Iran, even as their effects have rippled through the marketplace faster than many had expected.

J.P. Morgan warned on Thursday of an acceleration of Iranian oil cutbacks, predicting Iranian supplies could be slashed by one million barrels a day in the first of the year. Since January, the price of oil has shot up nearly 15 percent.

The White House has not yet stated its position on proposed new bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation in the United States that would target Iran’s main oil and tanker companies, as well as tighten up other loopholes. Mindful of the potential to cause more uncertainty over supply and push world oil prices higher, some senators are seeking amendments to the new sanctions package to assure insurers of allowed oil shipments that they will not be stung by sanctions. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid so far has said he

does not want to allow the package to be amended.

US entities have been prohibited from working with Iran for years. But what Washington and its allies see as signs that Iran is closer to getting atomic weapons and unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East have triggered Washington to increase the heat on the country. Tehran says its nuclear activities are peaceful.

Over the past three months, Cohen and other top Obama administration officials convinced Europe to impose similar sanctions on Iran’s main recipient of oil payments, the Central Bank of Iran.

The administration, as well, has been twisting arms trying to get Iran’s biggest oil buyers, China, India, Japan and South Korea, to stop relying on Iranian crude.

The current US sanctions allow President Barack Obama to block foreign financial firms from US markets if they continue to deal with Iran’s central bank starting June 28. However, if countries manage to reduce their Iranian oil imports, they can win exemptions from the US law so that their banks are not barred from the US financial system.

Despite the looming sanction deadlines, countries and companies have managed to do some business with Iran - a provision that the Obama administration defends.

“I don’t think the measure of an effective sanctions program is that it creates a hermetic seal through which nothing permeates,” said Cohen. “The fact that they are still selling some oil, I would not chalk that up to a failure of the sanctions program,” he said.

Cohen said the question should be whether Iran was able to make use of the revenue that it earns from its oil sales rather than whether it was profiting from crude exports.

“It is increasingly difficult for Iran to make use of, or to get access to the funds that it is earning from its oil sales,” he said.

Currently the exemptions, which the State Department granted late last month to Japan and 10 countries in the European Union, apply only to banks. -Reuters

district, about 12 kilometres outside Damascus, with snipers setting up positions atop a 12-storey medical building.

Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy trying to end the conflict, said Syria has informed him of partial withdrawals from three locations - Idlib, Zabadani and Daraa - “but it is clear that more far-reaching action is urgently required.”

“We must silence the tanks, helicopters, mortars and guns, and stop all other forms of violence too: sexual abuse, torture, executions, abductions, destruction of homes,

forced displacement, and other such abuses, including on children,” he said, addressing the General Assembly from Geneva by video conference.

Annan and Ban spoke to the assembly minutes after the UN Security Council called on Syria to “urgently and visibly” fulfill its pledge to halt the use of troops and weapons

by April 10.

It called on the government and opposition to stop all violence within 48 hours if Syria met the pullout deadline.

The presidential statement, read out by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, whose country holds the Council’s presidency for the month of April, raised the possibility of “further steps” if Syria failed to implement the six-point Annan plan, which Assad agreed to on March 25.

The statement called on all parties, including the opposition, to stop armed violence in all forms in 48 hours after the Syrian government fully fulfills the measures.

“The Security Council requests the envoy to update the Council on the cessation of violence in accordance with the above timeline, and progress towards implementation of his six-point proposal in its entirety. In the light of these reports, the Security Council will consider further steps as appropriate,” it said.

Ban said the situation on the ground in Syria was continuing to deteriorate in remarks that were highly critical of the Assad government for unleashing attacks in response to what he said were “the legitimate demands of the Syrian people - the same demands that people across the Arab world have been making for more than a year now”.

Calling for all parties to honour the ceasefire agreement, he said: “I urge the government and opposition commanders to issue clear instructions so that the message reaches across the country, down to the fighter and soldier at the local level.”

A UN team arrived in Damascus on Thursday to start technical preparations for the possible deployment of UN monitors for any ceasefire between Syrian troops and rebel forces.

Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the UN was looking for a team of 200 to 250 soldiers to monitor a ceasefire.

The deployment of UN monitors would first have to be authorized by the 15-nation Security Council.-AFP

Motorbike bomb kills two suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen ADEN: Two suspected Al-Qaeda militants died in southern Yemen on Friday after a bomb they were carrying on a motorbike detonated prematurely, an official said.

The incident occurred in the Mansoura district of the southern port city of Aden close to the headquarters of the Central Security Service.

“It blew up as it was getting near the building,” the security official told Reuters, adding that he thought the dead men were suicide bombers.

He said one of the men had been identified, adding that the explosion did not damage the building and that nobody else was hurt in the blast.

Al Qaeda-linked militants have often used motorbikes for armed attacks on military checkpoints in the past, as well as for some suicide attacks.

Last April, suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen on motorbikes attacked a military checkpoint outside

Zinjibar, in the flashpoint southern province of Abyan. A passing shepherd was killed in that attack, a child wounded, and two soldiers were hurt, a local official said at the time.

Friday’s incident came a day after authorities beefed up security at foreign missions and government sites in the capital Sanaa over warnings of a possible Al-Qaeda attack.

“We have received information concerning plans by Al-Qaeda to move its operations to Sanaa,” a security official told Reuters. “We believe it is preparing to carry out these operations using car bombs any time soon.”

Yemen is battling Islamist militants in the south of the country from Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaedalinked group.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in late February, vowing to fight the militants

who had exploited political turmoil during the rule of his predecessor to make territorial gains.

Mass protests aimed at ending the 33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, long a key figure in Washington’s fight against Al-Qaeda, erupted in early 2011.

Washington backed Saleh’s succession under a deal engineered by top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which fears chaos in Yemen could spread across its border.

The majority of attacks have taken place in southern Yemen, where most of Ansar Al-Sharia’s fighters are based. In their deadliest attack, militants killed at least 110 soldiers and took dozens hostage on March 4 in Zinjibar.

The government responded with air strikes and the United States has repeatedly used drones to attack militants. -Reuters

Chinese freighter hijacked by pirates off Iran

BEIJING: A Chinese freighter has been hijacked by pirates off southern Iran, the Chinese Embassy in Tehran reported on Friday.

The cargo ship, the “Xianghuamen,” belongs to Nanjing Ocean Shipping Co Ltd in Nanjing, eastern China, the embassy said in a posting on its website.

The ship was commandeered Friday morning in the Gulf of Oman near the south Iranian port of Chabahar, the embassy said.

The embassy is in touch with Iranian authorities and has asked the government to take all necessary steps to recover the vessel and its crew safely, according to the statement.

There were no other details, including the number of pirates or crew members.

An official with Nanjing Ocean Shipping contacted by telephone confirmed the hijacking, but would not provide further information. -Reuters

UAE offices of foreign agencies shut down DUBAI: The Foreign Ministry of the UAE has shut down offices of some foreign organizations because they have violated the country’s rules. In a statement, Dr. Abdul Rahim Al Awadhi, assistant UAE foreign minister for legal affairs, said these institutions violated the terms of their licenses. “Some foreign institutions were operating without licenses. This obliged the legal authorities to issue instructions that they should cease their work in the UAE,” WAM quoted Al-Awadhi as saying. He did not name the affected institutions.

There were media reports that the Dubai office of the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Abu Dhabi office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, an organization based in Germany, were shut down last week.

The NDI is a US-funded pro-democracy group and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation has close ties with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, Union of Christian Democrats. -Reuters

The pirates at the coast of Iran spootted by the US Coast Guard. (Reuters)

Egyptian protesters rally to keep Islamist in race CAIRO: Thousands of people are rallying in Cairo in support of an ultraconservative Islamist presidential hopeful who may be disqualified from the race after it was announced that his mother was an American citizen.

The Egyptian election commission ruling has angered Hazem Abu Ismail’s supporters, who were marching Friday to the capital’s Tahrir Square, a focal point for protests.

Abu Ismail has said he faces a “plot.” His campaign chief Gamal Saber says that the country’s military rulers were looking for ways to disqualify the candidate. If Abu Ismail cannot run, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater would lose his main competitor for the powerful Islamist vote. The presidential elections end of May are the first since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in last year’s uprising.

Meanwhile, thousands of people rallied in central Cairo on Friday in support of a Salafist candidate who could be ruled out of Egypt’s presidential election because his mother reportedly held US nationality.

Under the country’s electoral law, all candidates for the presidency, their parents and their wives must have only Egyptian citizenship.

“The people want Hazem Abu Ismail! No to manipulation!” the demonstrators shouted after making their way through central Cairo to Tahrir Square, epicenter of last year’s revolt which toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

The protesters, including women in full Islamic veil, carried portraits of Abu Ismail and waved their fists, angrily condemning any attempt to disqualify their candidate.

Abu Ismail launched his candidacy on March 30 with a large motorcade that took him to electoral commission headquarters in Cairo.

Commission chief Hatem Begato said on Thursday that the agency had received information according to which Ismail’s mother had “used an American passport for travel to and from Egypt” before her death. Files will be examined on April 12-13 and any candidate not meeting the requirements informed, the commission said. Those rejected would then have 48 hours to appeal before the final list of candidates is announced on April 26. Abu Ismail advocates a strict interpretation of Islam similar to the one practiced in Saudi Arabia and has become a familiar sight in Cairo, with his posters adorning many cars and micro buses. -Agencies

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

saturdAY, april 7, 2012

French hard left to back Hollande in Sarkozy duel PARIS: Supporters of French hardline leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon will be urged to vote for Socialist Francois Hollande in a presidential election runoff against incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, a spokeswoman for the increasingly popular candidate said on Friday.

Clementine Autain also said Melenchon’s Left Front aims to secure seats in a left-wing government.

Hollande and Sarkozy top the field of 10 candidates for the first round on April 22 and are likely to go through to a May 6 duel, in which opinion polls suggest Hollande will beat the conservative leader and become the first left-wing president in 17 years.

Melenchon, who quit the Socialist party in 2008, is backed by the Left Front, a coalition of Communists, his own Left Party and others who believe the Socialists have lost their soul.

He has leapfrogged into third place in the polls and often draw bigger crowds than either of the frontrunners. While Melenchon himself rarely says so explicitly, Autain made it clear that the Left Front wanted to capitalize on the former Trotskyist’s success and secure a role in government if the left wins.

“We will call for a victory over Sarkozy and

we will vote for the left-wing candidate who’s in front,” Autain said.

“We want to ensure the left’s success.

We would like to see the political conditions emerge for us to take part in government,” she said in an interview on RMC radio.

Melenchon, who promises among other things a 20 percent rise in the statutory minimum wage and a maximum salary of 360,000 euros a year, has stopped short of stating outright that he would urge his backers to vote for Hollande in a runoff.

Polls show between 70 and 90 percent of his supporters say they would vote for the Socialist if their own candidate is eliminated in the first round as expected.

Melenchon has overtaken far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in several polls as the thirdranked candidate but he remains well short of the scores of 25 to 30 percent that Hollande and Sarkozy are seen taking in the first round.

France’s presidential election will be immediately followed by parliamentary elections, which the left last won in 1997, paving the way for five years of government by a Socialist-led coalition that included Communists and environmentalist Greens. -Reuters

Francois Hollande, Socialist Party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election, waves to supporters after delivering a speech during a campaign rally in Nimes, April 5. (Reuters)

Mutharika’s ruling DPP party in 2010 after an argument about succession.

Mutharika appeared to have been grooming his Foreign Minister brother Peter as his successor, although there was little question of the army and police not respecting the law, said former Attorney General Ralph Kasambara.

“The army has been very professional,”

Myanmar holds landmark political talks with Karen rebels

Delegates from the Karen National Union (KNU) (left) and Myanmar government’s Union Peace Committee’s members (right) shake hands after their meeting at Sedona hotel in Yangon April 6. (Reuters)

YANGON: Myanmar’s government started talks on Friday towards a political agreement with one of the world’s oldest rebel armies, marking one of the biggest steps taken by the country’s civilian rulers after decades of conflict with ethnic minority insurgents. The talks with the Karen National Union (KNU) were the beginning of the second stage of a three-phase plan outlined by the year-old government towards “everlasting peace” with all of its ethnic minority rebel groups.

The first phase was to establish ceasefires, at regional then national level. Two government negotiating groups have struck agreements with about a dozen armies or ethnic-based political groups that responded to President Thein Sein’s call for dialogue last August. “We now have six points on our agenda at the present talks at the union (national) level,” Tu Tu Lay, a member of the KNU team, told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting in the commercial capital, Yangon.

The KNU and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), have fought successive governments for greater autonomy since 1949, a year after Myanmar gained independence from Britain. The KNU is optimistic a political deal can be struck with the reform-minded civilian government that came to office in March 2011 when the military ceded power after 49 years of rule.

Pakistani policeman accuses colleague in blast

NATO fuel tanker blaze kills seven in Afghanistan

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika is seen during the 18th African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa Jan. 28. President Mutharika has died after a heart attack, medical and government sources said on April 6. (Reuters)

‘Warm Heart of Africa’.

“I am yet to see anyone shedding a tear for Bingu,” said Martin Mlenga, another businessman. “We all wished him dead, sorry to say that.” The constitution says Vice-President Joyce Banda will take over as head of state.

Analysts said there would be a smooth transition even though Banda was booted out of

NEWS IN BRIEF

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani police officer has accused a colleague of organizing a suicide attack against him in the country’s largest city of Karachi. Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan said Friday he had unspecified “evidence” showing that the officer and two of his brothers were involved in the blast Thursday that killed four people. He said he had filed a criminal case against the men. The men he accused were not immediately reachable for comment. -AP

Malawi’s President Mutharika dies leaving nation in political suspense LILONGWE: Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has died after a heart attack, medical and government sources said on Friday, although few of his countrymen mourned a leader widely seen as an autocrat responsible for a stunning economic collapse.

The 78-year-old was rushed to hospital in Lilongwe on Thursday after collapsing but was dead on arrival, the sources said. State media said he had been flown to South Africa for treatment although his immediate whereabouts remained unclear.

Medical sources said the former World Bank economist had been flown out because a power and energy crisis in the nation of 13 million was so severe the Lilongwe state hospital would have been unable to carry out a proper autopsy or even keep his body refrigerated.

Many Malawians blamed Mutharika personally for the economic woes, which stemmed ultimately from a diplomatic spat with former colonial power Britain a year ago.

“We know he is dead and unfortunately he died at a local, poor hospital which he never cared about - no drugs, no power,” said Chimwemwe Phiri, a Lilongwe businessman waiting in a snaking line of cars for fuel at a petrol station. There was no official announcement. State media said a statement would be made at midday (1000 GMT).

As rumors of the death of the self-styled ‘Economist in Chief’ swept the capital on Thursday night, there were even pockets of drunken jubilation among locals who saw him turning back the clock on 18 years of democracy in the

3

Analysts and diplomats say the peace process is one of the biggest challenges facing the government, which has embarked on an astonishing wave of economic, social and political reforms. The second stage could be tricky: it will focus on how the Karen can be brought into the national political fold while retaining some element of self-governance.

The process is likely to have been boosted by last week’s by-election landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in a ballot widely seen as free and fair, helping the credibility of a government comprised of the same generals who brutally crushed dissidents and ethnic minorities.

The talks with the Karen were led by Minister of Rail Transport Aung Min, a moderate of the former junta, who heads one of the two negotiating teams.

He has won the confidence of many groups, despite decades of mistrust and bad blood.

The army was accused of committing a litany of human rights abuses against the Karen and other minorities, from rape and forced labor to torture and murder, violations that convinced the West to impose sanctions, some of which could be lifted later this month. Among the KNU’s demands are ensuring the truce holds, confidence-building measures, an ending of forced labor and extortion, the immediate release of political prisoners, rehabilitation of affected people and redistribution of land. -Reuters

Kasambara, now a human rights activist, told Reuters. “He was very unpopular. People were praying for his death. We can’t get any worse than we are.”

Police deployed in force across the capital immediately after Mutharika’s hospital admission, although it was business as usual on Friday as residents went about their daily struggle to get by. Mutharika came to power in 2004 and presided over a seven-year boom - underpinned by foreign aid and favorable rains - that made Malawi one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The good times came to a halt last year after a dispute with Britain, Malawi’s biggest donor, that led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and the freezing of millions of dollars of aid.

The cause of the row was a leaked diplomatic cable that accused Mutharika of being “autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.

The aid freeze exacerbated an already acute dollar shortage, hampering imports of fuel, food and medicines, and leading to a fall in the value of the kwacha against the dollar.

Malawi’s diplomatic isolation and economic plight worsened in July 2011 when the United States shelved a $350 million overhaul of the dilapidated power grid after police killed 20 people in a crackdown on an unprecedented wave of anti-government protests.

Mutharika hit back in typically combative style, urging his supporters last month to “step in and defend their father rather than just sit back and watch him take crap from donors and rights groups”. -Reuters

North Korea leader visits navy amid rocket launch tensions PYONGYANG: North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-Un has visited the naval unit that captured a US spy ship in 1968, the official news agency said, amid tensions over its planned satellite launch.

Any attempt to intercept the satellite would be “an act of war”, the North said late Thursday after South Korea and Japan prepared to shoot down the rocket should it fall towards their territory.

In the latest of a series of military visits, Kim inspected Navy Unit 155 in the southeastern province of Kangwon and highly praised its past feats, the agency said.

It “startled the world” by sinking the US heavy cruiser Baltimore with just four torpedo craft during the 1950-53 Korean War and also captured the US spy ship Pueblo, it said.

Kim “stressed the need for the seamen of the unit to firmly take over the baton of the revolutionary forerunners (and) send the enemies into the bottom of the sea if they dare intrude into the territorial waters”. The North captured the spy ship with 83 crew members after it allegedly intruded into its territorial waters, sparking a Cold War crisis.

The crew were detained for 11 months before being released but the ship is still

held by the North and moored on the Taedong River in Pyongyang.

Kim, supreme commander of the North’s 1.2-million-strong military, earlier inspected a unit guarding Ryo Island near the southeastern port of Wonsan.

He urged troops there to “protect the island with barricades of iron and bury the enemy in the water if they invade”, the news agency said in a report Wednesday.

Analysts said such trips and the upcoming launch are aimed at bolstering military loyalty to the young and untested leader.

The North says it will launch a peaceful satellite between April 12-16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late founder Kim Il-Sung.

The United States and other countries see it as a pretext for a long-range missile test banned under US resolutions.

An official North Korean body in charge of cross-border relations, The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, warned Thursday that interception of the satellite would be “an act of war” and would cause a “tremendous catastrophe”. Seoul and Tokyo say they will open fire on the rocket only if it threatens to fall on their territory. -AFP

This undated picture, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on April 6, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right) inspecting a unit on Ryo Island defending a forward post on the east coast. (AFP)

KABUL: Seven people were burnt to death in southern Afghanistan when a fuel tanker supplying a NATO base crashed and set their vehicle on fire, officials said.

The security chief of Panjwayi district and the Kandahar police chief said there was no insurgent activity at the time, and residents later pulled back from claims that the Taliban had attacked with rocketpropelled grenades. A US soldier serving in NATO’s US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was charged this month with 17 counts of murder following a killing spree in the same district of Kandahar province on March 11. -AFP

New Nigeria free information law changes little LAGOS: After years of delays, Nigeria’s president signed into law the country’s first Freedom of Information bill last year, supposedly cutting away old colonial-era secrecy laws and allowing the public access to government documents in this democracy for the first time. However, a test request filed by The Associated Press for basic information from one government agency shows the problems still plaguing the oil-rich nation’s creaking bureaucracy. Months after the one-week deadline allowed by law, the agency continues to refuse to release the information. “We are coming from a culture of secrecy,” said Maxwell Kadiri, a lawyer who works on freedom of information issues with Open Society Justice Initiative.

“The (law) is basically coming to change over a century of a secrecy culture in the public service.” -AP

Japan sets new safety standards for nuclear plants TOKYO: Japan is setting stricter, clearer safety guidelines for nuclear power plants to ease public concern about restarting reactors idled after the disasters a year ago. Facing a national power crunch, the government is anxious to restart two reactors in Fukui, western Japan, before the last operating reactor of the 54 in the country goes offline in May. But the public strongly opposes nuclear energy since the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and local leaders are reluctant to approve restarting any of the reactors.

The guidelines announced Friday are more extensive than computer-simulated “stress tests” designed to estimate how reactors would cope in the event of a major earthquake and tsunami like what overwhelmed Fukushima Dai-ichi last year. Unlike in France and other countries where stress tests are meant to find weaknesses or suspend a facility, Japan tried to use them as a safety guarantee.

Many people questioned the objectivity of the tests, though two reactors passed them.

If utilities meet the new guidelines, authorities hope the public will be convinced the reactors are safe, including the two in Ohi, Fukui prefecture, that have finished regular safety checks and the stress tests and are ready to restart.

Economy and Trade Minister Yukio Edano called the guidelines “easy to understand” criteria that aim to set higher standards for natural disasters, but do not factor in terrorist attacks, airplane accidents and other emergencies.

The guidelines, based on 30 recommendations adopted last month by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, require nuclear power plants to install filtered vents that could reduce radiation leaks in case of an accident, as well as a device to prevent hydrogen explosions. About 13 of the recommendations - the most crucial measures needed to secure cooling functions and prevent meltdowns as in Fukushima - were implemented, but the rest were not. The guidelines did not set deadlines for the steps to be finished. -AP

4

news in pics

Choir boys read comics prior to their performance in the St Matthew Passion at the Pieterskerk in Leiden on April 6, 2012.

(AFP)

ALWATAN DAILY saturdAY, APRIL 7, 2012

In this image made available by the 2012 FIA World Cup for cross-country rallies, Dubai’s Khalifa Al-Mutaiwei and German co-driver Andreas Schulz race past camels in their X-raid Mini All4 on the fifth and final 287.32km leg of the 2012 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on April 6, 2012.

(AFP)

An Afghan boy rides his bike on one wheel while an elderly Afghan man watches him near the Darul Aman Palace in Kabul on April 6, 2012. Nestling beneath the mountains that ring Kabul, the shattered shell of the Darul Aman Palace stands in mute testimony to the brutality and callousness of Afghanistan’s history of conflict. (AFP)

Women carry a statue during the Good Friday procession in Villarosa on the Italian island of Sicily on April 6, 2012. Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Friday in a series of ceremonies culminating on Sunday, when they celebrate Christ’s resurrection. (AFP)

Toys and flowers left on red chairs displayed along main street in Sarajevo to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian War on Friday, April,6, 2012. (AP)

Cars passing on east third ring road after sunset in Beijing, China, Friday, April 6, 2012. (AP)

A worshipper lights a candle during Good Friday Mass at Krijtberg church in Amsterdam, Friday April 6, 2012. (AP)

A giant Easter bunny greets visitors to the Britzer Garten amusement park on Good Friday in Berlin April 6, 2012. (Reuters)

Qatar ups March Marine crude OSP to $124.90

saturdAY, APRIL 7, 2012

BUSINESS

TOKYO: Qatar has raised its March retroactive official selling price (OSP) for Qatar Marine crude to 124.90 US dollars a barrel, up $6.50 from February, Qatar News Agency said. This puts the Qatar Marine OSP at a $2.43 per barrel premium to March Dubai quotes average of $122.47, compared with a $2.24 premium in February.

The Gulf Arab state also set the March Qatar Land crude OSP at $126.00, up $6.45 from February, the report said.

The Qatar Land OSP is at premium of $3.53 a barrel above Dubai quotes, compared with a $3.39 premium for February.

Qatar is one of OPEC’s smallest oil producers. -Reuters

Kuwaiti oil price drops to $120.1 Oil rises as US data, supply fears fuel rebound

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil dropped 1.02 US dollars to $120.1 per barrel (pb) on Thursday, compared to $121.13 pb on Wednesday, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Friday.

It noted re-emerging concerns about eurozone debt crisis have pushed oil prices down due to the uncertainties about the impact of the crisis on the global economic recovery and demand for oil. The fears resurfaced again after Spain and Italy’s decision to raise interest rates on government bonds, a move that raised doubts about the course of the eurozone debt crisis.

Oil rose on Thursday after two straight days of losses, as a drop in US jobless claims to near four-year lows and fears of Iran-related supply disruptions spurred a rebound from the previous session’s heavy losses.

Data from the US Labor Department showing first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since April 2008 gave US prices an early boost, with further strength coming from short covering ahead of the three-day holiday weekend.

In recent months, new jobless claims have fallen sharply, boosting hopes that the end of a long stretch of heavy layoffs will lead to more hiring, ultimately boosting demand for motor fuel and other energy products.

Fears of supply shrinkage also helped push oil higher, highlighted by a note to clients from JPMorgan that Iran’s crude oil production could fall 1 million barrels per day by the end of June to below 2.5 million bpd.

The reason is that refiners have cut oil demand from the Islamic Republic faster than previously expected, the bank said, ahead of a European Union embargo on Iranian that takes effect by July 1.

The Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab is displayed for customers at a store in Seoul April 6, 2012. Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly profit of 5.15 billion US dollars, driven by booming sales of its smartphones and the Galaxy Note ‘phablet’, which it hopes will show it has a flair for innovation to match rival Apple Inc. (Reuters)

In London, ICE Brent crude for May delivery settled at $123.43 per barrel, up $1.09, climbing back from the session low of $121.82. For the week, the contract rose 55

Japan’s forex reserves down on lower bonds, gold values TOKYO: Japan’s foreign exchange reserves fell for the second straight month to 1.289 trillion US dollars at the end of March, down 1.1 percent from the previous month, but remained the world’s second-largest, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

The drop in foreign exchange reserves, which includes convertible foreign currencies, gold and International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights, was mainly due to the declining market value of Japan’s foreign bond holdings, including US government bond holdings, which were affected by higher interest rates in the US and Europe, the ministry said.

Other factors included a fall in gold prices and increased loans to the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

As of March 31, foreign currency reserves stood at $1.21 trillion, gold at $40.90 billion, IMF reserves at $16.92 billion and special drawing rights at $19.93

billion. Japan’s foreign reserves are closely monitored for evidence of how Japanese authorities are managing vast foreign currency holdings, as the actions have significant impact on currency exchange rates and global bond markets, particularly in the US government bond market.

The ministry has said it did not intervene in currency markets in February and March to stem the yen’s rise after spending 9.09 trillion Japanese yen between Oct. 28 and Nov. 28, including the biggest ever single-day intervention on Oct. 31, when the Japanese currency hit a postwar high of 75.32 yen against dollar.

Japan is the only country with foreign reserves of more than one trillion dollars besides China, whose holdings hit a record of $3.18 trillion at the end of December, according to the latest comparable data.

-KUNA

CNPC, Shell in talks about China’s shale oil exploration

TOKYO: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the nation’s biggest oil company, is negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and another foreign firm to jointly explore shale oil in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the state-run newspaper reported Friday.

The three are now in commercial talks on block division of Xinjiang’s Santanghu Basin and work requirements during the exploration phase, CNPC said on its website, according to the China Daily. The major aim of the cooperation is to introduce cutting-edge foreign technologies and management expertise to explore shale crude in a fast and efficient manner, CNPC said.

Shell and New York-based Hess Corp. will bear the entire investment during the exploration period before entering the development period, when a production-sharing contract will be introduced.

CNPC did not reveal the investment amount. In March, Shell and CNPC also signed a production-

sharing contract to explore, develop and produce the 3,500-square-kilometer block in the Sichuan Province, the first such contract in China.

China’s oil majors have ambitious plans for the production of shale gas and oil as the country gears up its efforts to explore the sector to ease its heavy dependence on foreign oil.

The government stressed that China will lay the foundations during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) for the sector’s takeoff beyond the period.

“If China exploits unconventional gas, the nation’s dependence on imports of natural gas will be less than 10 percent within 20 years. Otherwise, the dependency rate may be as high as 70 percent,” Pan Jiping, a researcher at the Ministry of Land and Resources, was quoted as saying. Pan said Chinese oil companies need to gain technological expertise from their foreign counterparts in order to make progress in the field. -KUNA

Saudi’s SABIC plans $100 million China R&D center

RIYADH: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), the world’s largest chemical producer by market value, said it was planning to invest 100 million US dollars to build a technology research and development centre in China.

The facility in the Shanghai region will house a total of about 400 employees when it is completed in 2013, the company said on Friday.

“In addition to commercial and corporate function staff, there is a research and development team of over 200 scientists and engineers, who will focus on advanced engineering plastics

materials that can be used in a broad array of industries from automotive, personal electronics, IT, alternative energy, building and construction to infrastructure,” SABIC said. SABIC, 70 percent owned by the government of Saudi Arabia, makes chemicals, fertilizers, plastics and metals used in paint, rubber, textiles, leather, cleaning products, glass, food and other consumer industries. In May, SABIC said it was strengthening its presence in the Asia by investing in two technology and innovation centers in China and India, both expected to be operational by 2013. -Reuters

cents, after three consecutive down weeks.

US May crude settled at $103.31 a barrel, gaining $1.84, after climbing to the day’s high of $103.40 in a late

burst of short-covering. For the week, the contract rose 29 cents, ending three successive weeks of losses.

“The move higher on crude has also liquidated the gasoline crack, which hit a high of more than $40 yesterday, but has fallen to $36.75 today,” added Tony Rosado, options broker ag GA Global Markets in New York.

Brent crude’s premium against US crude narrowed to $20.12 at the close, after hitting $21.72 on Wednesday, the widest since October, supported by US government data showing oil stockpiles at the US delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose sharply last week to hit their highest level since May 21.

Total US crude oil inventories jumped by more than 16 million barrels over the past two weeks, the biggest increase since March 2001. The rise eased concerns about supplies after a string of outages from the North Sea, South Sudan, and Syria as well as the potential loss of Iranian exports due to US and EU sanctions sent Brent prices up 15 percent this year. Wednesday’s oil futures slumped more than 2 percent as a result.

“With oil falling so sharply, traders simply grabbed WTI today, but upside movements on Brent and US product futures were not as strong,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “Book squaring ahead of the long weekend and short-term technical support also figured in the day’s trade,” Evans added.

Thursday’s Brent crude trading volume was down 4 percent while US crude dealings fell 24 percent, both based on their 30-day average, according to Reuters data.

In early trade, supply disruption worries lifted prices on news that a major Chinese ship insurer will halt indemnity coverage for tankers carrying Iranian oil, a move that could seriously complicate Iran’s oil exports before the EU embargo comes into force.

China is the top buyer of Iranian crude and the insurance move is the first sign Chinese refiners may struggle to obtain shipping and insurance coverage the4y nee3d to keep importing from OPEC’s second biggest producer.

Japanese refiners also plan to cut crude imports from Tehran yet again in April as they shy away from renewing annual contracts. -Agencies

Kuwait’s salary increases to take inflation rates up KUWAIT: The direct governmental increases in salaries and wages will play a role in increasing inflation pressure in Kuwait, due to an increase in liquidity and demand, a specialized economic report showed Friday. The report, issued by Research Department at Kuwait Finance House (KFH), expected that inflation rates will increase to reach 3.5-4 percent during the first half of this year.

It also noted that inflation rates increased in February to 3.8 percent as a result of the increase in prices of most consumption items; especially food. It said that food prices are expected to continue increasing, while the rates of the residential sector remained stable during February, due to an increase in supply.

“Kuwait’s consumer price index (CPI) based inflation rose by 3.8 percent y-o-y in February 2012 from 3.5 percent y-o-y in January 2012, mainly driven by higher food prices, according to the Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Kuwait. On a monthly basis, inflation inched up to 0.2 percent in February 2012 from 0.1 percent in January 2012,” reads the report.

KFH added that the increase in Kuwait’s overall inflation is similar to other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. For instance, both Bahrain and Saudi’s CPI inflation rose by 0.4 percent y-o-y and 5.4 percent y-o-y, respectively, in February 2012 driven by higher prices of food and beverages. The GCC imports most of its food items for domestic consumption.

The food segment (which attributes 18.3 percent of Kuwait’s CPI basket) rose by 8.6 percent y-o-y during February 2012 from 8.1 percent y-o-y previously.

Soaring food prices in Kuwait is parallel with the rising trend of global food prices.

The report went on to say that besides that, other segments of the CPI also recorded a notable price rise due to strong domestic consumption in Kuwait. “Clothing and footwear (attributes 8.9 percent of CPI basket) segment prices rose to 4.9 percent y-o-y in February 2012 (January 2012: 3.2 percent y-o-y). Educational and medical services (attributes 4.7 percent of CPI basket) segment prices rose to 2.8

percent y-o-y in February 2012 (January 2012: 0.9 percent y-o-y). Prices of beverages and tobacco increased considerably to 7.2 percent y-o-y in February 2012 from 3.6 percent y-o-y in January 2012.”

Nevertheless, prices of the housing segment, which contributes the largest portion of Kuwait’s CPI basket (26.7 percent) remained subdued at 2.0 percent y-o-y in February 2012 (January 2012: 2.0 percent y-o-y) on the back of lower rents following excess supply, both in the commercial real estate and residential sectors.

“Due to rising global fuel and food prices, we expect Kuwait’s inflation to remain high at a range of 3.5 percent-4.0 percent y-o-y in 1H12. Nevertheless, we expect the inflation will ease to 3.0 percent-3.5 percent y-o-y in 2H12 as the government’s extensive subsidy system will prevent higher inflation in the future.

Particularly, oil related subsidies (which are part of the Kuwait’s annual state budget expenditure) may reduce the cost of transportation and electricity and thereby price of goods and services,” the report warned. -KUNA

Facebook leaning toward Nasdaq, reports say

NEW YORK: Facebook will list its shares with Nasdaq, according to media reports. That would be a big win for the Nasdaq, which competes fiercely with NYSE Euronext Inc., especially for an initial public offering as large as Facebook’s, pegged at five billion US dollars. The New York Times and CNBC cited anonymous sources on the potential listing.

Calls to Facebook and Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc. were not immediately returned Friday.

Part of the reason the Nasdaq is considered the more attractive option for Facebook is because of the Internet heavyweights already listed there, which include Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

NYSE snared LinkedIn Corp.’s IPO last year. The professional networking site doubled its IPO price in its first day of trading in May 2011 to give it a market value of nearly nine billion dollars. It was the largest for any Internet company since Google had its IPO in 2004.

Facebook Inc. is in another economic sphere. In papers filed in early February, it was disclosed that Facebook’s IPO could place the value of the Menlo, Park, Calif. company at $100 billion. That would make it one of the world’s most valuable companies eight years after it began as a dorm-room startup at Harvard University.

If Facebook can raise five billion dollars by selling a small percentage of its shares to the public, as is expected, it will dwarf all preceding Internet IPOs. The final tally will shift with Facebook’s bankers gauging demand for those shares on Wall Street.

Joining corporate America’s elite

would give Facebook financial clout as it tries to make its service even more pervasive and expand its global audience of about 845 million users. It also could help Facebook fend off a challenge from Google, which wants to rival Facebook as with its own social networking system.

Following the model of Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set up two classes of stock that will ensure he retains control of Facebook as the sometimes conflicting demands of Wall Street exert

new pressures on the company. He will have the final say on how nearly 57 percent of Facebook’s stock votes, according to the company’s February filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of big-name tech companies have gone public in recent months.

Among them: Groupon Inc., Pandora Media Inc. and Zynga Inc., which has close ties to Facebook.

Facebook is expected to begin trading under the ticker “FB” in either May or June. -AP

FILE- Jimmy Fallon and Madonna sign the Facebook wall before their livestream interview at the Facebook offices on March 24, 2012 in New York City. Facebook will list its shares with Nasdaq, according to media reports. (AFP)

saturdAY, APRIL 7, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlight LONDON: Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere must prove his fitness in the next few weeks to keep alive his bid to play for England at Euro 2012.

Wilshere, 20, has been sidelined since the start of the season due to a troublesome ankle injury which needed surgery after it took longer than expected to heal. Wenger insists there is no chance Wilshere will be able to go the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine unless he has proved he is completely recovered by playing for Arsenal before the end of the current campaign. And with only seven matches left in Arsenal’s Premier League season, the Gunners boss knows time is running out for his young star. “To go to a big competition without having played at all is impossible,” Wenger said on Friday. -AFP

FOOTBALL

Fergie won’t be drawn on title talk Di Matteo won’t

risk Terry against Wigan

Manchester United’s Manager Alex Ferguson walks onto the pitch ahead of the Premiership football match against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane Park in London, March 4, 2012.

(AFP)

LONDON: Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his Manchester United players to ignore Roberto Mancini’s claim they can effectively wrap up another Premier League title this weekend.

United, chasing a record 20th crown, will go eight points clear at the summit if they overcome struggling QPR at Old Trafford on Sunday before Manchester City take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

City manager Mancini, who has seen his expensively-assembled side lose momentum over the last few weeks, admitted on Thursday that his side will have no chance of catching United if they defeat QPR and his side lose at Arsenal. But Ferguson, asked about Mancini’s comments at a press conference on Friday, refused to be drawn into more mind games with the Italian after their recent verbal sparring.

“I’m not getting into that. I don’t need to get into that,” Ferguson said. “We must concentrate on the game ahead and that’s Queens Park Rangers. We’ll focus on that, not worry about elsewhere.”

United are strong favorites to win the title for the fifth time in six seasons after hitting a fine run of form.

Ferguson’s side have taken 31 points from the last 33 available since losing at Newcastle on Jan. 4, and are

considered to have an easier run-in to rivals City. But the United manager is taking nothing for granted.

“I wouldn’t anticipate complacency (from my players) but I do think if you’re concentration is not 100 per cent then there will be moments in games like we experienced recently against Fulham,” he said. “Four or five of our player gave the ball away in the space of about five minutes and it created a bit of nervousness.

We survived that. I made the point that it was good for us to have that because that is an indication of how the games are going to be between now and the end of the season.”

QPR, managed by former United star Mark Hughes, are fighting against relegation.

United had to wait until the final 10 minutes before scoring twice to seal victory at relegation-threatened Blackburn on Monday, and Ferguson believes his players will again have to show patience on Sunday.

Ferguson also revealed Portugal winger Nani could be involved after being sidelined for the last five games with an ankle problem.

“He’s been training all week. He’s such a talented player and makes the squad that bit stronger,” said Ferguson. -AFP

Redknapp unsure over Adebayor future

Emmanuel Adebayor of Spurs is tackled by Sam Ricketts of Bolton during the FA Cup sixth round match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers at White Hart Lane, March 27, 2012. (AFP)

LONDON: Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp admits Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor’s long-term future at White Hart Lane is still uncertain.

Adebayor has scored 14 goals since arriving on loan from Manchester City at the start of the season and Redknapp credits the 28-year-old as a key figure in his side’s impressive form this term.

It is believed Adebayor is keen to stay at Tottenham on a permanent basis, but Redknapp knows the former Arsenal star’s reported weekly wage of £170,000 could prove a big stumbling block in negotiations.

“He scored two goals last week against Swansea and he has been excellent, but whether it’s possible to do a deal, I wouldn’t be sure,” Redknapp said. “Manu is on loan at the moment and that’s where we’re at. The chairman will deal with (any negotiations) at the end of this season. I wouldn’t have a clue whether (a permanent transfer) is a possibility or not.”

Some reports claim City’s players want Adebayor back next season to add a different dimension to their forward line.

But Redknapp doubts that will happen as the player had a difficult relationship with boss Roberto Mancini, who has a wealth of other attacking options.

Barca not invincible says Kalou LONDON: Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou insists Barcelona have weaknesses that his side can exploit when they meet in the Champions League semi-finals later this month. Many pundits make Barca favourites to beat the Blues and advance to their third Champions League final in four seasons, but Kalou is adamant Pep Guardiola’s defence has enough flaws to offer hope of eliminating the holders.

While Barca’s strength lies in the world-class skill of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi, Ivory Coast

“His future doesn’t seem to be there,” Redknapp added. “He probably needs to move on. City have just gone through a dicky little spell recently but they have lots of good strikers there. If you look at the quality they have up front, they are full of top players.”

Redknapp will need Adebayor on peak form when Spurs travel to Sunderland on Saturday.

The north London club are currently five points ahead of Chelsea and Newcastle in the race to secure Champions League qualification, but Redknapp knows that advantage could be cut over the busy Easter programme.

Spurs are without an away league win in 2012, their last victory on the road coming at Norwich on December 27, and Redknapp is keen to end that run at the Stadium of Light.

“Last week we had a good week, beating Bolton in the FA Cup and beating Swansea and drawing at Chelsea in the league, so we are in good form again,” he said. “We can’t afford to drop too many points, though, because Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle are all right there. It will be a right dog fight until the end so we have to go up there and make sure we get the right result.” -AFP

star Kalou is less impressed with their back-four.

“They have their weaknesses,” Kalou said. “We know that they haven’t been so confident at the back, conceding a lot of goals, so that is something we can play on. People see the way Barcelona play today and they can say, ‘Chelsea have no chance against Barcelona’. But, as a player for Chelsea, we work hard every day in training and we believe that on the pitch is the only way of answering all those negative thoughts. Our fans expect us to win, we expect to win.” -AFP

LONDON: Chelsea interim manager Roberto Di Matteo confirmed on Friday that John Terry will miss Saturday’s clash against Wigan because he doesn’t want the defender to do further damage to his cracked ribs.

Di Matteo’s side are engaged in a desperate struggle to catch fourth placed Tottenham as they try to guarantee a place in next season’s Champions League, but the Italian doesn’t want to risk Terry against the Latics with so many crucial cup matches looming.

Terry suffered the injury during the first leg of Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final against Benfica and was forced to come off after an hour of Wednesday’s return clash with the Portuguese side as he was struggling to breathe.

Di Matteo, whose side are five points behind Tottenham, acknowledged that taking another blow to the area would risk a significant period on the sidelines for the Chelsea captain, which is unthinkable given their forthcoming Champions League semi-final against Barcelona and FA Cup semi-final meeting with Spurs.

“With a rib injury, it needs time to heal. Every time you get a knock, you probably go a step back,” Di Matteo said on Friday. “We’re just trying to manage the injury at the moment. We’ll just have to see how quickly he can recover. It’s one of those injuries that are difficult to deal with because there’s not much you can do. It’s in a position where it’s difficult to make it better. We need to just deal with the pain level and give him a bit of time to recover. As with all the players, we always assess the risk factor.Sometimes, you can play with a little pain, but if the pain is too much then it is not worth it, because you won’t be able to perform at the best level.”

Meanwhile, Di Matteo has accused the English Football Association of ignoring Chelsea’s concerns about the scheduling of their FA Cup semifinal.

FILE - Chelsea’s John Terry, (right) vies for the ball against Wigan’s Victor Moses during their English Premier League soccer match at the DW Stadium, Wigan, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP)

The Blues had wanted next weekend’s match at Wembley played earlier than at 1700GMT on Sunday, but have now conceded the FA won’t change their minds, leaving Di Matteo furious that the Spurs clash will go ahead just three days before the semi-final first leg against Barcelona.

“I’m very disappointed that common

sense hasn’t prevailed in this,” he said.

“Obviously, they didn’t take into consideration anything that we said. Barca will have one more day to recover than us and it might give them a little advantage. Other federations are very helpful. The English federation hasn’t seemed very helpful in our case.” -AFP

Mancini needs strikers to fire at Arsenal LONDON: With his team’s English Premier League title challenge starting to falter, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini must make some big decisions regarding his all-star forward line ahead of the crunch match at Arsenal on Sunday.

In Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, Mancini has a wealth of options up front but the expensive quartet have entertained and frustrated in equal measure this season.

Aguero is hoping to return from a bizarre ankle injury, Tevez is itching to start after three substitute appearances following his return from lengthy strike action, while the mercurial Balotelli has again made the headlines for the wrong reasons because of more off-field misdemeanors this week. Whichever strike force he selects at Emirates Stadium, Mancini needs them to deliver the goals to keep City in touch with Manchester United at the top of the table.

If United beats Queens Park Rangers in Sunday’s early match, City would be eight points behind in second place by kick-off against Arsenal. Both teams will have six games remaining after this weekend. Mancini appears to be losing patience with Balotelli, criticizing the Italy international’s work rate in recent games and becoming increasingly infuriated with the 21-year-old striker’s off-field antics.

Aguero looks to have recovered from what Mancini last week called a “stupid” injury, a swelling of the Argentina international’s foot after a reaction to a spray applied as treatment.

However, Mancini could yet hand Tevez a start after easing the player back into contention while he recovered his fit-

FILE - Kolo Toure of Manchester City blocks the attempt on goal of Robin van Persie of Arsenal during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Arsenal, Dec. 18, 2011. (AFP)

ness after six months away from the club.

Defender Joleon Lescott is available while midfielder Samir Nasri could return after missing last week’s 3-3 draw with Sunderland because of a family problem and slight injury.

Arsenal is level on points with north London rival Spurs in the race for the third automatic qualifying spot for next season’s Champions League. Chelsea, their likely rival for a top-four finish, is three points further back.

Liverpool is seemingly out of contention for a Champions League place, having dropped to eighth following a dreadful

run of six losses in seven league games.

The position of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is under scrutiny, despite the club having won the League Cup and progressed to the semifinals of the FA Cup. “There are a lot of challenges ahead this season. I’d ask the supporters to be patient; we will get it right,” said Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard ahead of Saturday’s match at home to Aston Villa.

“We’re in a league position we’re not happy about and we need to look at ourselves and try to move up the league as soon as possible.” -AFP

Spanish dominate as Raul loses out with Schalke SPAIN: Three Spanish clubs showed the quality of La Liga extends beyond Barcelona and Real Madrid by cantering into the semi-finals of the Europa League on Thursday, where they were joined by Sporting Lisbon to complete an all-Iberian quartet.

Spanish legend Raul may have won honors in his Real Madrid days, including a trio of Champions League titles - but he was unable to keep Germany’s Schalke on the route to Europa League glory despite a goal at Athletic Bilbao.

The veteran striker’s best efforts could not prevent the conquerors of Manchester United reaching the semi-finals following a 2-2 second leg draw at the San Mames stadium, enough to send the Basque side through 6-4 on aggregate after their 4-2 success in Germany.

Raul scored in both games but the

damage had been done for the Royal Blues in the home leg and although KlaasJan Huntelaar put the visitors ahead early on with a low shot past Gorka Iraizoz a superlative strike by Ibai Gomez ensured that the Germans still had a mountain to climb.

A 20-metre effort shortly after the restart from Raul gave the visitors, winners of the Europa League’s forerunner the UEFA Cup in 1997, renewed though brief hope.

But those hopes were dashed again just three minutes later when Iker Muniain found Markel Susaeta and he drove home past Lars Unnerstall in the Schalke goal to set up a tie with Sporting Lisbon, who drew 1-1 at Metalist Kharkhiv of Ukraine as the Portuguese advanced 3-2 on aggregate.

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel headed in

for the visitors just moments before the break before Argentinian striker Jonathan Cristaldo leveled for the Ukrainians.

Just as Bilbao ended Schalke’s dreams, so 2010 winners Atletico Madrid provided further grief to German fans in knocking out Hanover.

Atletico already held a 2-1 lead from the first game in Madrid and produced an identical scoreline in the return.

The Spaniards gave themselves breathing space as Adrian Lopez put them ahead after the interval after twisting and turning past three defenders before slotting home.

Mame Diouf slid home the equalizer with nine minutes remaining but Colombian hitman Radamel Falcao - who won the tournament last year with Porto drilled in the clincher for a 4-2 aggregate success in the dying minutes. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

saturDAY, APRIL 7, 2012

7

Basketball

Deng, Noah lead Rose-less Bulls past Celtics

Anthony leads Knicks past reeling Magic 96-80

ORLANDO: The New York Knicks seemed to be the NBA’s resident teamin-turmoil last month, stumbling through coaching issues and their second prolonged losing streak of the season. In their second matchup with Orlando in just over a week, it was the Knicks that took advantage of a team caught up in off-court drama for a 96-80 win over the Magic on Thursday night.

Carmelo Anthony scored 19 points, and Tyson Chandler had 12 points and 12 rebounds to lead New York past a Magic team that appears to be sliding headfirst back into the soap opera that has trailed center Dwight Howard all season.

Lost in all the Magic malaise, though, might have been one of the Knicks’ better recent efforts, and definitely one of

the best since they lost both center Amare Stoudemire and point guard Jeremy Lin to injury six games ago.

Lin is out for the season and Stoudemire remained sidelined Thursday, but Chandler and the NewYork reserves filled in the gaps in picking apart the Magic for the second straight meeting. J.R. Smith and Toney Douglas each added 15 points for the Knicks, who won for just the third time in their last 13 visits to Orlando.

New York also hit 13 3-pointers.

The Knicks improved to 28-27 and more importantly continue to hold onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Douglas, who has spent a great deal of time on the Knicks’ bench this season, said it felt good to have the kind of game he knows he is capable

of. He had his highest scoring output since December. The Knicks built their lead with shot after shot from beyond the arc and with easy buckets underneath.

Chandler also rendered Howard ineffective on the defensive end, holding the Magic’s star center scoreless until a dunk with 3 seconds left in the third quarter.

Orlando never really threatened in the fourth. The Knicks shot 48 percent (38 for 78), marking the fifth straight game the Magic have allowed an opponent to shoot at least 47 percent from the floor.

The Magic, who fell to 32-23, also dropped to sixth place in the East. Magic point guard Jameer Nelson said the focus going forward will be to ignore all issues that don’t pertain to what’s happening on the court. -AP

Tennis

Spain cruise against Austria, Tsonga lifts France Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah (13) reaches for the ball with Boston Celtics power forward Kevin Garnett (5) during their NBA basketball game in Chicago, April 5, 2012.

(Reuters)

CHICAGO: Even without the league’s reigning MVP for a major part of the season, the Chicago Bulls have kept up their winning ways.

Luol Deng scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half and Joakim Noah added 17 points and nine rebounds to rally the Chicago Bulls to a 93-86 win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

The Bulls again played without Derrick Rose, out due to a strained groin for the 12th consecutive game.

Chicago, which has been without Rose for 22 games this season, improved to 15-7 in his absence - including 8-4 during the latest stretch.

The Bulls rallied from 13 points down in the first half and pulled away in the fourth quarter to end their first two-game losing streak of the season. Trailing by 11 at halftime, Chicago outscored Boston 55-37 after the break. Paul Pierce scored 22 points for Boston, who has lost two in a row after a winning a season-high five straight. Pierce had only one point in the fourth quarter.

Rose, who last played March 12 in a win against New York, was a game-time decision. He practiced on Wednesday, taking contact for the first time since the injury, and said afterwards he was optimistic he will be able to play against the Knicks on Sunday.

Leading 74-73 in the fourth, Taj Gibson and Deng had back-to-back baskets, and after Avery Bradley’s steal and layup for Boston, Kyle Korver made a 3 to give Chicago a 81-75 lead with about 7 minutes remaining.

Later in the quarter, Deng had eight points during a 10-4 run that was capped by Carlos Boozer’s dunk to put the Bulls up 91-81 with 1:42 left.

The Celtics gave the Bulls a little scare in the final two minutes. Rajon Rondo had a breakaway layup and Ray Allen’s 3-pointer was changed to a 2 after a replay, pulling Boston to 91-86 with 42.3 left. Rondo missed a 3 with 10 seconds left that would’ve cut the Celtics’ deficit to three points.

Trailing 56-47 with 8:10 left in the third quarter, the Bulls scored eight straight points to cut Boston’s lead to one. After Brandon Bass’ putback dunk, Watson made back-to-back 3s to give Chicago a 61-58 lead with 3:42 to go in the period.

Leading 38-33, the Celtics went on a 11-3 run late in the second quarter, capped by Rondo’s runner that gave the Celtics a 13-point lead. Watson made two free throws to cut the Celtics lead to 49-38 at halftime.

Rondo had 10 points and 12 assists for Boston after an 87-86 loss to the Spurs at. -AP

Cricket

Swann’s late strikes take England close to win

England’s Graeme Swann (center) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Thilan Samaraweera during their fourth day of final test cricket match, April 6, 2012. (Reuters)

MADRID: Nicolas Almagro and David Ferrer comprehensively outplayed Juergen Melzer and Andreas Haider-Maurer in the opening singles as holders Spain raced into a 2-0 lead at home to underdogs Austria in their Davis Cup quarterfinal on Friday.

As the four World Group ties got under way, including France against the US, Czech Republic against Serbia and Argentina against Croatia, Almagro thumped Melzer 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 and Ferrer thrashed Haider-Maurer 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to put the hosts in command on the clay in a blustery Marina d’Or on the Spanish coast.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, leading the French charge against the Americans in Monte Carlo, put the 2010 finalists 1-0 ahead when he dispatched teenager Ryan Harrison 7-5, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, while Tomas Berdych secured the advantage for the Czechs with a 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 success against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in Prague.

Clay kings Spain, who have won their last 22 home Davis Cup ties and are bidding for a fourth title in five years, appear to have far too much quality for Austria despite the absence of world number two Rafa Nadal.

The French Open champion has opted not to play in the competition in an Olympic year, citing the packed calendar, and is also carrying a knee injury aggravated last week in Miami. Almagro and Ferrer ensured he probably will not be missed too much as they put Spain on the verge of a September semi-final against France or United States.

“That was possibly my best match in Davis Cup,” Almagro said in an interview with Spanish television. “I knew that I was going to be nervous and I was

Spain’s Nicolas Almagro returns the ball to Austria’s Jurgen Melzer during their Davis Cup quarter-final tennis match in Oropesa del Mar, eastern Spain April 6, 2012. (Reuters)

tense at the start and so were the first three or four games,” added the world number 12. “But I threw off the shackles and then the tennis started to flow.” Ferrer said his match had been a lot easier than he expected. “He (Haider-Maurer) made a lot of mistakes and I was able to play my game without ever really getting into a rhythm,” the world number five told Spanish TV. “Let’s hope we can wrap things up tomorrow (in the doubles) but it’s going to be a tricky match.”

Spain captain Alex Corretja said he could have to deploy Almagro or Ferrer to partner Marcel Granollers on Saturday as Marc Lopez was carrying a back injury

and may not be able to play.

There was a party atmosphere at the Parque Roca in Buenos Aires for David Nalbandian’s opening singles against Marin Cilic as Argentina seek to make up for the disappointment of losing to Spain in the 2011 and 2008 finals.

Juan Martin Del Potro will take on Croatia’s big-serving Ivo Karlovic in the second singles on the clay.

Gilles Simon was due to play John Isner in the second singles in Monte Carlo, while Radek Stepanek will look to put the Czechs 2-0 ahead against Serbia, missing world number one Novak Djokovic, when he plays Janko Tipsarevic. -Reuters

Serena and Venus advance in Charleston

CHARLESTON: Fifth-seeded Serena Williams overpowered New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-2, 6-2 as she and sister Venus edged closer to a clash on the green clay courts of Charleston.

Serena fired six aces and won 80 percent of her first serve points to advance to the quarter-finals in emphatic style.

She could eventually face a semifinal showdown with elder sister Venus, who rallied from 2-4 down in her opening set to beat Australian Anastasia Rodionova 7-5, 6-2.

“I hope we both get there,” said Serena, who must get past big-hitting German

Sabine Lisicki, the sixth seed, in the quarter-finals. “I have to win another match, and I really, really hope we both get there, so we’ll see.”

Lisicki rallied from a break down in both sets to beat Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5, 6-4. This is the third time both Williams sisters have played the WTA tournament in Charleston in the same year, but the first time both have made the quarters in the same year.

Venus will have to wait until Friday to find out who she faces in the quarter-finals after heavy storms moved into the area and halted play for the night as second-

seeded Samantha Stosur led unseeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 4-2.

Stosur, the US Open champion ranked fifth in the world, was left as the highestranking player in the field after the injury withdrawal on Sunday of Agnieska Radwanska, just a day after her triumph in Miami.

Marion Bartoli, the third seed from France, was toppled 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 by 14thseeded Polona Hercog of Slovenia. Hercog set up a quarter-final clash with Russian Nadia Petrova, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over eighth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. -AFP

Formula one

Mercedes looking to unlock pace in China

COLOMBO: A double strike by off-spinner Graeme Swann in the penultimate over of the fourth day put England within reach of victory in the second and final test against Sri Lanka on Friday. England need to win the match to square the series and retain their world number one ranking.

Having safely negotiated the second new ball, Sri Lanka appeared to be relatively safe at 215 for four before Swann sent back Thilan Samaraweera (47) and nightwatchman Suraj Randiv for a duck in the space of three balls to swing the test England’s way. At the close, Sri Lanka who trailed England by 185 runs on the first innings, were 218 for six, an overall lead of 33 runs.

Sri Lanka’s hopes of saving the test match rest on the shoulders of captain Mahela Jayawardene, who was unbeaten on 55 with Angelo Mathews on three. Swann, who also dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan (35) and Kumar Sangakkara (21), ended the day with four wickets for 82. Dilshan, who was fined 10 percent of his match fee for excessive appealing, was unhappy after he was given out, caught at slip by James Anderson.

The batsman asked for a review but with no Hot Spot technology available, there was no conclusive evidence to overrule the on-field umpire’s decision.

Swann then removed Sangakkara, who had struggled

for nearly two hours before edging a catch behind the wicket to Matt Prior.

Sri Lanka lost both openers in the morning session when the English pace bowlers removed Dhammika Prasad (34) and Lahiru Thirimanne (11) but not before the visitors paid for some sloppy fielding.

Anderson got rid of the shaky Thirimanne, who edged a catch to Andrew Strauss at slip with the total on 23. Prasad, sent in as a nightwatchman, justified his promotion and hung around for 87 minutes before he pulled Steven Finn straight to Tim Bresnan at deep square leg. It was some relief for Finn, who had dropped Prasad at mid-off when the batsman was on 21. The missed opportunity was a second heartbreak for Swann, who earlier saw Matt Prior gift Thirimanne a reprieve by wasting a simple stumping chance.

Bresnan also dropped Jayawardene on 20 when he lofted Samit Patel but the fielder, at deep mid-wicket, could get only a hand to the ball as it sailed over his head for four.

“Every single bloke in the dressing room wants to stay at number one,” said England wicketkeeper Matt Prior. “We want to prove we are the best team in the world. We want to win this match because you want to win every single test.” -Reuters

LONDON: Mercedes missed the mark in the first two races of the Formula One season but they know what went wrong and should do better in China next week, according to team principal Ross Brawn.

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher and fellow-German Nico Rosberg scored just one point between them in Australia and Malaysia despite the Mercedes showing good pace in qualifying. Schumacher started third on the grid in Malaysia but ended up 10th.

Brawn said in a team analysis on Thursday that the problems were related to getting the Pirelli tyres to work in the different conditions.

“In Melbourne (the season-opener), we overheated the tyres. It was under control on Friday, then we developed the set-up in a direction which did not prove helpful in the warmer conditions,” he explained. “In Malaysia, having done a lot of work in practice to make sure we didn’t suffer from the same problem, the cooler conditions on Sunday dropped us out of the window again.”

Brawn said Mercedes had too narrow a ‘window’ for getting the best out of the car and had to broaden that and build in more tolerance.

“Our analysis since Malaysia has

given us an even better understanding, and we have plans and actions in place to improve our tyre management,” said the Briton. “We clearly have a reasonably quick car - we have shown that in qualifying - and now we have to convert our speed into race performance.”

Schumacher’s 91st and last win to date came in Shanghai with Ferrari in 2006.

“I’ve never had much luck in Shanghai, apart from my win in 2006; however that could change this year,” he said in a team preview. “In the first two races of 2012, we didn’t manage to maintain our qualifying pace in race conditions. We’ve been working intensively on this, so that we can offer our fans a strong performance in China.” -Reuters

FILE - Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany leaves his team’s garage during the first practice session of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix, March 23, 2012. (Reuters)

8

ALWATAN DAILY

SERVICES

HOTLINE SERVCES

saturdAY, april 7, 2012

EMERGENCY - Police - Fire - Ambulance 112 - TRAFFIC HOTLINE 1 88 41 41 CIVIL ID 1 88 99 88 - AIRPORT 1888 180 - KAC BOOKING 17 1

Prayer Times Fajer

WE FIX IT

04 : 10

Shorook

05 : 30

Dohor

11 : 50

Aser

03 : 23

Maghreb

06 : 10

Ishaa

07 : 28

KD KD KD KD KD KD KD

95 90 55 55 55 40 40

Jabriya (Surra) Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Old Jahra New Jahra & Abdaly Hawally Ras Al-Salmiya Al-Riqa Salmiya Shuwaikh Sabah Al-Salem (Messila) Sulaibiya Sulaibikhat

2531 0000 2431 0000 2477 0000 2457 0000 2261 0000 2571 0000 2394 0000 2561 0000 2481 0000 2551 0000 2467 0000 2487 0000

South Sabahiya Fintas Zoor Ahmadi Ardiya Fahaheel Farwaniya Kuwait City Mishref Manqaf Nuzha Umm Al Haiman & Wafra Shuaiba

2361 0000 2390 0000 2395 0000 2398 0000 2488 0000 2391 0000 2471 0000 2240 0000 2538 0000 2371 0000 2251 0000 2328 0000 2326 0000

metropolitan

Bus No. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 29 31 32 34 36 38 39 40 41 51 59 * 101 102 103 105 139 501 502 506 507 602

a re a b u s ro u tes

Origin

Orthopaedic Orthopaedic Kheitan * Messila Salmiyah * Kheitan * Salmiyah Orrthopaedic Al-Jleeb Al-Jleeb * Al-Jleeb Kheitan Salmiyah Jahra Gate Sulaibiya Al Jleeb Kheitan Jabriya Salmiyah Al-Jleeb Messilah Kheitan Fahaheel Kheitan Al Jleeb * Al-Jleeb * Fahaheel Fahaheel Jahra Fahaheel Jahra Gate Airport Fahaheel Al-Jleeb Al-Jleeb Fahaheel

Destination

Sharq Sharq Mirgab Mirgab Mirgab Jahra Gate Sharq Mirgab Sharq Mirgab Sharq Mirgab Mirgab Jabriya Sharq Mirgab Sharq Sharq Sharq Salmiyah Jahra Gate Sharq Sharq UN Circle Mirgab Mirgab Mirgab Mirgab Mirgab Al-Jleeb Fahaheel Mirgab Mirgab Jahra Gate Sharq Fahaheel

Via

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

KD 70 KD 140 KD 40 KD 40 KD 40 KD 40 KD 40

VISITORS RESIDENTS

H.S.C. Barium Enema Barium Meal O.C.G. Ultrasound Ultrasound desfruct M.R.I.

KD 40 KD 50 KD 45 KD 45 KD 15 KD 130 KD 245

KD 40 KD 35 KD 30 KD 30 KD 10 KD 65 KD 180

eMbassies &

Ministry of

C omm u nic a tions Telephone for Test & Complaints

warsha@warsha.com

f or e x p a tri a tes

VISITORS RESIDENTS

C.T. Scan Angiogram I.V.P MCUG Asc Urothrogram Sinogram Sialogram

Tel.: Afghanistan 2532 9461 Algeria 2251 9220 Argentina 2537 9211 Austria 2255 2532 Australia 2232 2422 Azerbaijan 2535 5247 Bahrain 2531 8530 Bangladesh 2531 6042 / 3 Belgium 25722014 Bhutan 2251 6640 / 50 Bosnia 2539 2637 Brazil 2532 8610 Bulgaria 2531 4458 Canada 2256 3025 China 2533 3340 Cuba 2254 9361 Cyprus 2243 3075 Czech 2252 9018 Denmark 2534 1005 Egypt 2251 9956 Ethiopia 2533 4291 Eritrea 2531 7426 Finland 2531 2890 France 2257 1061 Germany 2252 0827 Greece 2481 7101 Georgia 2535 2909 Hungary 2532 3901 India 2253 0600 Indonesia 2483 9927 Iran 2256 0694 Italy 2535 6011 Japan 2530 9400 Kenya 25353314 / 25353362 Lebanon 2256 2103

Libya 2257 5183 Malaysia 2255 0394/5/6 Morocco 2531 2980 / 1 Netherlands 2531 2650 Niger 2565 2943 Nigeria 2562 0278 North Korea 2532 9462 Oman 2256 1956 Pakistan 2532 7651 Philippines 2534 9099 Poland 2531 1571 Qatar 2251 3606 Republic of Botswana 2538 3619 Romania 2484 5079 Russia 2256 0427 Saudi Arabia 2240 0250 Senegal 2257 3477 Slovak Republic 2535 3895 Somalia 2539 4795 South Africa 2561 7988 South Korea 2533 9601 Spain 2532 5829 / 7 Sri Lanka 2533 9140 Switzerland 2534 0172 / 5 Syria 2539 6560 Thailand 2531 7530 Tunisia 2252 6261 Turkey 2253 1785 UAE 2535 5764 UK 2259 4320 Ukraine 2531 8507 USA 2259 1001 Venezuela 2532 4367 Vietnam 2531 1450 Yugoslavia 2532 7548 Zimbabwe 2562 1517

2257 5182 2255 0384 2531 7423 2532 6334 2564 0478 2562 0296 2535 1097 2256 1963 2532 8013 2532 9319 2531 1576 2251 3604 2539 3529 2484 8929 2252 4969 2242 0654 2254 2044 2535 3894 2539 4829 2561 7917 2531 2459 2532 5826 2533 9154 2534 0176 2539 6509 2531 7532 2252 8995 2256 0653 2259 4339 2538 0282 2532 4368 2535 1592 2532 7568 2562 1491

Police stations Tel.:

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

Ambulance

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

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

Private Hospitals

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

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

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

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

25624000 22802555 1828282 1883883 25726666 22533177

Private Health Centers/ Clinics

Boushahri Clinic British Medical Center Care Clinic International Clinic

Public Hospitals

cons u l a tes

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

centr a l 4 7 2 2 0 0 0

94904040

hospital charges

medical services

Call, sms, Email us

O n- s i t e I T s e r v i c e s

23940600 24815000 24848067 22450080

1885544 23713100 22610666 25745111

Public Health Centers/ Clinics:

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

24832067 24883000 24840300 24575300 25312700 24840027 24874240

22447602 22545188 24726033 22611645 25750777 25524821 25723500 25610660 24848913 25336482

DOCTORS & DENTISTS

I N PR I VAT E PR AC T ICE

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

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

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

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

2565 0064 2533 3501

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

2572 8004 2532 9924

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

Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Adel Quttainah

2562 5030 / 60

Ministries

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

2248 0000 2248 0000 2481 9033 2484 8300 2481 7702 2487 7422 2240 1300 2537 1000 2248 0000

Foreign Affairs Housing Information Justice, Legal & Administrative Affairs Energy Planning Social Affairs & Labour Public Works

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noodles Salmiya Tel: 25712233

Bukhara Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055

The Peacock Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000

Tourist Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22411702

Noodle Factory Avenues Tel: 24954751

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

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

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

Tel: 22997000

L I S T I N G S

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

Kuwait City Tel: 22400737

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

Sakura Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

AlRoshinah Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

Shogun The Palms Hotel Tel: 27070022

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

Manousha Salmiya Tel: 25722607 / 8

Al-Noukhaza Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

Fakhr Al-Din Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22423180

Villa Fairouz Shaab Tel: 22652030

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

Garden New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Yeldes Palace Kuwait City Tel: 22455212

Kabab-Ji Tel: 1861616

Zahrat Tunis Hawalli Tel: 22662444/333

Mais Al-Ghanim Kuwait City Tel: 22402590

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

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

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

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

Shabistan Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

The Gaucho Grill The Palms Hotel Tel: 25667370 -

• Seafood Al-Ahmadi Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

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

Al-Boom Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25756000

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

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

Flavors Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

• Italian Ciro’s Pomodoro Kuwait City Tel: 22424004

Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822

Te l : 1 8 3 9 0 9 0

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

HOTELS

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

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

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

22452740 22997000 23281897 22415001

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

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

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

22528766 22465489 22443136 22532100 25742410 25713872 22928080

TWO STAR International Hotel Kuwait Residence Hotel

25741788 22467560

LIFE

What triggers ingrown toenails?

An ingrown toenail occurs when a nail grows into the skin on the sides or top of a toe.This painful condition can lead to infection.The American Podiatric Medical Association says risk factors for ingrown toenails include: •Trimming a toenail unevenly, rather than straight across.

•Wearing shoes that are too tight or crowd the toes.

•Having feet that are frequently subjected to injury during everyday activities.

saturDAY, april 7, 2012

Climate change is a moral issue on a par with slavery: NASA scientist Prof Jim Hansen to use lecture at Edinburgh International Science Festival to call for worldwide tax on all carbon emissions

LONDON: Averting the worst consequences of human-induced climate change is a “great moral issue” on a par with slavery, according to the leading NASA climate scientist Prof Jim Hansen reports The Guardian.

He argues that storing up expensive and destructive consequences for society in future is an “injustice of one generation to others”.

Hansen, who will next Tuesday be awarded the prestigious Edinburgh Medal for his contribution to science, will also in his acceptance speech call for a worldwide tax on all carbon emissions.

In his lecture, Hansen will argue that the challenge facing future generations from climate change is so urgent that a flat-rate global tax is needed to force immediate cuts in fossil fuel use. Ahead of receiving the award - which has previously been given to Sir David Attenborough, the ecologist James Lovelock, and the economist Amartya Sen - Hansen told the Guardian that the latest climate models had shown the planet was on the brink of an emergency. He said humanity faces repeated natural disasters from extreme weather events which

would affect large areas of the planet.

“The situation we’re creating for young people and future generations is that we’re handing them a climate system which is potentially out of their control,” he said. “We’re in an emergency: you can see what’s on the horizon over the next few decades with the effects it will have on ecosystems, sea level and species extinction.”

Now 70, Hansen is regarded as one of the most influential figures in climate science; the creator of one of the first global climate models, his pioneering role in warning about global warming is frequently cited by climate campaigners such as former US vice president Al Gore and in earlier science prizes, including the $1m Dan David prize. He has been arrested more than once for his role in protests against coal energy.

Hansen will argue in his lecture that current generations have an over-riding moral duty to their children and grandchildren to take immediate action. Describing this as an issue of inter-generational justice on a par with ending slavery, Hansen said: “Our parents didn’t know that they were causing a problem for future generations but we can only pretend we don’t know because the science is now crystal clear.”We understand the carbon cycle: the CO2 we put in the air will stay in surface reservoirs and won’t go back into the solid earth for millennia. What the Earth’s history tells us is that there’s a limit on how much we can put in the air without guaranteeing disastrous consequences for future generations. We cannot pretend that we did not know.

Hansen said his proposal for a global carbon tax was based on the latest analysis of

FILE - Prof Jim Hansen: ‘We’re handing future generations a climate system which is potentially out of their control’. (AP)

CO2 levels in the atmosphere and their impact on global temperatures and weather patterns.

He has co-authored a scientific paper with 17 other experts, including climate scientists, biologists and economists, which calls for an immediate 6% annual cut in CO2 emissions, and a substantial growth in global forest cover, to avoid catastrophic climate change by the end of the century.

The paper, which has passed peer review and is in the final stages of publication by the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that a global levy on

fossil fuels is the strongest tool for forcing energy firms and consumers to switch quickly to zero carbon and green energy sources. In larger countries, that would include nuclear power.

Under this proposal, the carbon levy would increase year on year, with the tax income paid directly back to the public as a dividend, shared equally, rather than put into government coffers. Because the tax would greatly increase the cost of fossil fuel energy, consumers relying on green or low carbon sources of power would benefit the most as this dividend would come on top of cheaper fuel bills. It would promote

a dramatic increase in the investment and development of low-carbon energy sources and technologies.

The very rich and most profligate energy users, people with several homes, or private jets and fuel-hungry cars, would also be forced into dramatically changing their energy use.

In the new paper, Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and his colleagues warn that failing to cut CO2 emissions by 6% now will mean that by 2022, the annual cuts would need to reach a more drastic level of 15% a year.

Had similar action been taken in 2005, when the Kyoto protocol on climate change came into force, the CO2 emission reductions would have been at a more manageable 3% a year. The target was to return CO2 levels in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, down from its current level of 392ppm. The paper, the “Scientific case for avoiding dangerous climate change to protect young people and nature”, also argues that the challenge is growing because of the accelerating rush to find new, harder-to-reach sources of oil, gas and coal in the deep ocean, the Arctic and from shale gas reserves. Hansen said current attempts to limit carbon emissions, particularly the European Union’s emissions trading mechanism introduced under the Kyoto protocol which restricts how much CO2 an industry can emit before it has to pay a fee for higher emissions, were “completely ineffectual”. Under the global carbon tax proposal, the mechanisms for controlling fossil fuel use would be taken out of the hands of individual states influenced by energy companies, and politicians anxious about winning elections.

Venus may have auroras without a magnetic field Scientists closing in on black hole at center of our galaxy WASHINGTON: The same magnetic phenomenon that causes auroras on Earth has now surprisingly been discovered creating giant magnetic bubbles around Venus, a planet without a magnetic field according to SPACE. These findings could help explain mysterious flashes of light from Venus, in addition to the way comet tails work, researchers say.

The Northern and Southern Lights on Earth are caused by magnetic lines of force breaking and connecting with each other.

This process, known as magnetic reconnection, can explosively convert magnetic energy to heat and kinetic energy.

Scientists had seen magnetic reconnection with planets only when they had intrinsic magnetic fields, such as Earth, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. These magnetic fields deflect charged particles in the solar wind streaming from the sun into a shell surrounding the planet known as a magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection can occur within magnetospheres, leading to auroras and magnetic storms.

On the lee sides of planets facing away from the solar wind, magnetospheres elongate into so-called magnetotails. Despite having no magnetic field, Venus does have a magnetotail, caused by the solar wind interacting with the ionosphere, the upper part of its atmosphere loaded with electrically charged ions.

Now, using data from the European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft, scientists have discovered magnetic reconnection in Venus’ magnetotail. The result was essentially a magnetic bubble of plasma 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) wide that lasted for 94 seconds.

“The plasma dynamics of Venus and Earth are surprisingly similar, despite their very different magnetic environments, with and without intrinsic magnetic fields,” said study lead author Tielong Zhang a planetary scientist at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Science and principal investigator of the Venus Express magnetometer.

These findings could help explain mysterious nighttime lights seen on Venus.

“For many decades, dim flashes of light have been observed by various means, and were interpreted as auroras,” Zhang told SPACE. “However, the cause of Venus’ auroras has puzzled people for a long time, since Venus has no intrinsic magnetic field.”

Now that mystery may be closer to being solved.

FILE - Venus’ southern hemisphere, as seen in the ultraviolet. (AFP)

In addition, these findings could shed light on comets, which, like Venus, are not magnetic. The way that magnetic reconnection led a magnetic bubble to detach from the magnetotail of Venus could help explain why comet tails can disconnect from comet heads, Zhang said.

Obese people hit with more radiation during medical tests

CONNECTICUT: Obese people may be exposed to more radiation when they undergo a CT scans or X-rays, compared with normal-weight people, a new study says according to HealthDay News.

The study, conducted using computer models, suggests the organs of obese individuals receive up to 62 percent more radiation energy during a CT scan, compared with those of normal weight individuals.

The increase in radiation exposure occurs because radiologists often increase the power settings when doing scans on obese people, said study researcher Aiping Ding, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. When scanners are used on their normal settings, the image is blurry because the extra fat tissue shields the organs from the X-rays.

As a result, the machines generate higher-energy X-rays that expose people to more radiation, Ding said.Very high doses of radiation are known to increase cancer risk, but

the risk from doses used in medical imaging tests, are less clear, according to the American Cancer Society.

The increased risk from a single CT scan is small compared to the medical benefit, but it is prudent to avoid unnecessary scans, for any patient, regardless of weight, Ding said.

As long as CT scans are used only when necessary, the benefits of the scan will still outweigh the risks, said Dr. Nagy Elsayyad, an assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study.The extra risk posed to an obese individual from any one scan is so slight that it will not change the way doctors use the scans, Elsayyad said.

Ding and colleagues generated 10 threedimensional computer models of normal weight, overweight and obese individuals known as “phantoms.” The researchers then simulated a CT scan on the phantoms using different settings, and calculated the radia-

tion exposure for each body type.

On the normal setting, excess fat in the obese phantoms protected organs from radiation, resulting in a 59 percent decrease in radiation exposure to organs deep in the abdomen, such as the colon.

But when the scanner settings were adjusted to obtain a clear image, there was a 59 percent increase in radiation exposure for obese women, and a 62 percent increase in radiation exposure for obese men, compared with normal weight people, the researchers said.

Currently, adjustment of the CT scanner for a better image is done by trial and error.

The researchers are developing a software program to cut down on this guess work, which could reduce the amount of radiation people are exposed to. The program allows researchers to test scanner settings and chose one that will minimize the radiation dose while still providing a clear image, Ding said.

WASHINGTON: Though scientists have suspected for a while that a giant black hole lurks at the center of our galaxy, they still can’t say for sure it’s the explanation for the strange behavior observed there. Now researchers are closer than ever to being able to image this region and probe the physics at work - potentially shedding light on the great conflict between the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics according to SPACE. At the heart of the Milky Way, astronomers see some wacky things. For example, about a dozen stars seem to be orbiting some invisible object. One star has been found to make a 16-year orbit around the unseen thing, moving at the hard-to-imagine speed of about 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) a second.

By comparison, the sun moves through space at a comparatively glacial 137 miles (220 kilometers) a second.

Based on the laws of motion, these dozen stars’ orbits should be caused by the gravitational pull of some massive object in the center of the galaxy. Yet telescopes observe nothing there.

“The really important thing is that all the orbits have a common focus,” astrophysicist Mark Reidof the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said during the recently concluded April 2012 meeting of the American Physical Society.”There’s one point on the sky, and there’s nothing you can see on images at this position.”

Plus, all this is happening in a region only about 100 times as wide as the distance between the Earth and the sun - very tiny in the galactic scheme of things.

There is, however, a very faint emission of radio waves coming from this area, which scientists call Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-Star”). By comparing it against the sun’s movement around the Milky Way, researchers have been able to determine that this object is barely moving at all - less than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) a second, much slower even than the rate that the Earth revolves around the sun.

If Sagittarius A* were any moderate-mass object, it likely would be pulled by the gravity of nearby objects and experience some motion.

Reid said of the object’s apparent stillness: “The only way that this can happen is if Sagittarius A* is tied to a very massive object.When you do the analysis, you get a lower limit of 4 million solar masses.”

The density limit of a black hole

Astronomers can’t see the galactic center well enough to measure exactly how large Sagittarius A* is, but they can say for sure that its radius is no larger than about two-tenths the distance between the Earth and the sun.

The means that in the center of the Milky Way, something packing about 4 million times the mass of the sun is sitting within an area that could fit inside the orbit of Mercury and is basically invisible, producing much less light than any of the stars orbiting it.

Right now, that puts this object’s density at about an eighth of the theoretical limit for a black hole. So while scientists can’t say for sure the object is a black hole, it’s looking mighty likely.

“Although there are alternative explanations, they would actually be even much more fantastic than the rather mundane supermassive black hole that almost certainly is there,” Reid said. One of these other, exotic explanations is that there exists a ball made of an unidentified variety of heavy fermion particles. But even such a ball would be unlikely to have the density required to explain all the evidence.

Looking closer

To finally solve this riddle, astronomers yearn to image the center of the galaxy directly. Not only is it very distant and faint, this region is hard to see because of all the dust between it and Earth.

Astronomers have recently begun a project called the Event Horizon Telescope. This instrument would integrate many radio observatories around the world, turning them into a giant interferometer capable of very precise measurements. Ultimately, the resolution should be sharp enough to distinguish Sagittarius A*.

So far, the Event Horizon Telescope has integrated only three observatories, in Hawaii, California and Arizona, for an observing time of between 15 and 20 hours. But astronomers hope to add more locations and observing time soon.

“EHT is not a dream, it’s not on the drawing board,” said Avery Broderickof Canada’s University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.”It’s something that works.”

One of Broderick’s goals is not only determining once and for all if Sagittarius A* is a black hole, but probing the physics of the object.

FILE - Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Large Magellanic Cloud. (Agencies)

10

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

saturDAY, april 7, 2012

Filipino Good Friday devotees nailed to crosses SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines: Thousands of people gathered in Philippine villages to watch devotees being nailed to crosses as they marked Good Friday by re-enacting Jesus Christ’s suffering, a yearly rite that continues even as church leaders discourage the practice.

Nine men wearing crowns of twigs on their heads were crucified for a few minutes by villagers dressed as Roman centurions in northern Pampanga province’s San Pedro Cutud village. At least eight other people were nailed to crosses in neighboring villages.

The spectacle reflects a unique brand of Catholicism that merges church traditions with Philippine folk superstitions.

Many of the mostly impoverished penitents undergo the ritual to atone for sins, pray for the sick or a better life, or give thanks for what they believe were God-given miracles.

Friday’s crucifixion was the 26th for Ruben Enaje, a 51-year-old sign painter. He began his yearly rite after surviving a fall from a building.

Hours after his palms and feet were nailed to a cross, Enaje, a grandfather of four, said he felt fine and had already walked to the village captain’s house.

“I feel good because my suffering has ended,” he said.

Prior to the crucifixions, dozens of male penitents walked several kilometers (miles) through village streets, beating their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and

pieces of wood. Some of the penitents had their backs inflicted with cuts to keep them bloody.

“We do not judge and condemn, but we discourage it,” Archbishop Jose Palma, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said of the crucifixions.

The Rev. Melvin Castro, also of the CBCP, said “the church’s position is there’s no need to go through this physical and literal pain on the body because Christ already did that for us.”

He said what the church asks is for people to “enter into the passion and death of Christ by internal sacrifices,” including going to confession and giving alms.

But Canadian tourist Samantha Todd said the crucifixions touched her.

“Even though it’s not my faith, it makes me feel something inside,” she said.

Foreigners have been banned from taking part since an Australian comic was nailed to a cross under a false name a few years ago near Pampanga. Authorities also believe that a Japanese man sought to be crucified as part of a porn film in 1996.

On Friday, two foreign students were allowed to film the rites for their thesis, but they angered organizers when they joined the procession, taking turns in carrying a cross, said San Pedro Cutud village captain Remigno dela Cruz.

The two women were not allowed to go to the mound or be nailed to the cross, he said. -AP

Filipino penitent Jonjon Tanael is carried after being nailed to a wooden cross during Good Friday rituals on April 6, 2012 at the municipality of Paombong, Bulacan province, northern Philippines. (AP)

Creator of Porsche 911 sports car dies aged 76 FRANKFURT: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the creator of Porsche’s 911 sports car, has died at age 76, Porsche said on Thursday.

A grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who founded the Stuttgart-based sports car maker and developed the Volkswagen Beetle under a contract with the Nazis in the 1930s, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche invented the 911 model in 1963.

Originally labeled as 901, Porsche’s two-seater classic model has since been upgraded over seven generations of the car with the latest version unveiled at last September’s Frankfurt Auto Show.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche quit the company’s operational business in 1972, though stayed on as member of Porsche’s supervisory board.

He was chairman between 1990 and 1993 when Porsche was still saddled with losses stemming from declining vehicle sales and towering development costs.

The company gave no cause for Porsche’s death. A cousin of Ferdinand Piech, the chairman of VW, Porsche was a member of the Porsche and Piech families who together control about 90 percent of common shares of Porsche SE, the hold-

ing company which holds about 51 percent of VW stock.

VW and Porsche agreed to combine in 2009 after Porsche racked up more than 10 billion euros ($13.06 billion) of debt in a botched attempt to take over VW. Europe’s biggest carmaker is in the process of buying the remaining 50.1 percent stake in Porsche’s automotive business it does not own after the two companies dropped plans for a merger last September because of pending lawsuits in the United States. -Reuters

Fast food doesn’t have to mean bad food BERLIN: Fast food has a bad reputation. It’s generally considered unhealthy - high in fat and sugar and low in vitamins especially when consumed over long periods and to the exclusion of other healthy foods. But who can deny that when they are in a hurry, they grab something on the go?

A growing number of restaurants are putting a new twist on fast food, saying it can be nutritious and delicious without flavor enhancers, fat and a lot of calories - exactly the things that give people a bad conscience about it. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time to cook or take a break to eat, and opting for fast food in these situations isn’t necessarily bad.

“Fast food is often too sweet, too salty, too fatty and it often is low in fiber,” said Elfriede Leichsenring, a dietary expert at a clinic in Germany.

Leichsenring has no objection to occasional consumption of French fries, hamburgers and other common fast food as long as it’s not eaten too often and not if it’s the only type of food a person eats.

There are now fast food restaurants that prove fast food isn’t necessarily unhealthy food. An example is a Berlin restaurant called Auf die Hand - Feinstes Fast Food. (In the Hand - The Finest Fast Food).

“We don’t sell anything fried, rather foods that are quickly prepared,” said owner Stefanie Arnan.

“We work a lot with herbs and fresh vegetables, don’t use flavor enhancers or convenience products and use frozen foods only if we have to.”

Soups make especially good homemade fast food. They are easy to make and store and can be combined with fresh ingredients to make them more interesting.

“To ensure it can be quickly prepared, the ingredients should be cut as small as possible,” said Oliver Schneider, owner of Oliver’s Cooking School in Germany. Pumpkin soup, for example, can be made with Hokkaido pumpkin cut into small pieces to reduce the cooking time. To make the soup more exotic, use ingredients like coconut milk, cayenne pepper, ginger and a little nutmeg.

Meat patties cooked in the oven rather than fried in a pan are another example, said Schneider.

Coat the cooking tray with a little oil and the patties don’t need to be turned. “This type of preparation is lower in fat that frying the patties in a skillet,” he said.

Another quickly prepared food is the egg roll.

FILE - A growing number of restaurants are putting a new twist on fast food, saying it can be nutritious and delicious without flavor enhancers, fat and a lot of calories - exactly the things that give people a bad conscience about eating it. (dpa)

The key to making them is finding packaged dough at the grocery store. It can be filled with goat cheese and bananas and then sautéed, said Schneider.

Serve the egg roll with honey and soy sauce.

A similar dish is filo dough pockets with a spinach and feta cheese filling. Sprinkle them with sesame seeds and bake them in the oven. Left-over mashed potatoes also makes a good filling.

“It’s important to differentiate between fast food and junk food,” said Schneider. While junk food such as hamburgers, French fries and pizza are indeed unhealthy foods if eaten over a long period of time, fast food is simply something fast.

A deciding factor is that the food doesn’t have too many ingredients and too much seasoning. Five to six components is enough.

A few different dishes in high quantities is the motto of a Hamburg restaurant called Edelcurry.

Joerg Klatte also offers mayonnaise with truffles and curry with champagne, but “classy is our stan-

dard,” said Klatte, who wants to distinguish his establishment from other fast food restaurants.

Before opening his fast food restaurant he operated fitness studios and he so doesn’t want to offer unhealthy fast food.

His curry sausage recipe is secret, but he revealed a bit about it. The sausage is made exclusively from beef that is only 20 per cent fat. The curry sauces - sate peanut and honey mustard are examples - were developed with the help of a gourmet cook. The French fries are homemade rather than frozen. Another alternative is a classic fast food such as the hamburger made at home and rather than bought ready-made.

“It tastes better in any case than a hamburger at a fast food restaurant,” Schneider said, recommending the patty be made with high quality hamburger meat, onions, garlic, capers and olives.

“Served on a tasty bun and you’ve got good food,” he said. -dpa

Should children’s fashion make them look like little adults?

BERLIN: Children can dress like their fathers these days, in skinny jeans and printed shirts, or like their moms in miniskirts.

“In the last five or six years the market for children’s clothing has grown extensively,” said Susan Kohlmorgen, a designer for children’s fashion in Berlin.

Ever since pop stars like Madonna and actor Charlie Sheen brought out lines of children’s clothing, it’s been clear that youngsters have become an important target group.

As a result, many known fashion houses have come out with children’s clothing lines and parents are paying greater attention to their children’s wardrobe. Often the clothing strongly resembles that made for adults, raising the question from many parents and designers: Should a child dress like a child or sometimes pretend to be a grownup?

Can children actually move on the playground wearing tight jeans that are like the ones their mother wears? Is a leather jacket the right thing to wear when playing? Asked about the buying criteria of her little customers, boutique owner Barbara Freres said, “Children often choose the same style and brands their parents wear.”

Thus her children’s collection is oriented toward the trends of the clothes for adults. Currently, that means elements borrowed from the ‘50s and ‘60s. For girls that includes tulle and crinoline, but it needn’t be so over the top.

C&A, for example, is showing comfortable and casual matching clothing for mothers and daughters - white shorts and floral blouses. While the mother ties the shirt tails high and lets a bit of belly show, the top for the girl is long.

United Colors of Benetton has summer clothing for boys that can also be worn by older boys such as loose shorts combined with cool checked and floral shirts or shirts with large lettering.

A study by a German fashion trade magazine confirms the trend of matching clothing for children and adults. Sixty per cent of the participants from the sales personnel in the children’s segment have observed that children want to wear the same clothes their parents wear. Nearly all the participants agreed with the statement that as they get older children feel targeted by the collections that are oriented toward adults, said editor Andrea Hackenberg.

Many designers don’t want to embrace the trend. “Children should dress like children, not like little adults,” said designer Jutta Jung from the label Early Fish. Designer Anne Sofie Tobiasen of the Danish label Serendipity said, “With our pieces we don’t orient ourselves so strongly toward current trends.” It’s more important that the garments are appropriate for children and pleasant to wear. The label offers natural colors, flowing forms and gentle patterns.

“Actually, children have similar requirements to professional dancers: They have to be able to move easily and still look good,” said designer Susan Kohlmorgen from the label Susiko. She got the idea to design her own clothing - like many designers of children’s clothing - when she became a mother and found clothing for children not to her liking.

As she developed her collection, she placed value on designing pieces that could be worn on the playground and also everyday and on special occasions.

The clothing also should light up children’s eyes. In other words they should be extraordinary. Some of the pieces in her collection are so playful that children could go on stage wearing them.

In addition to cut and color, Jung pays close attention to the ecological aspects of the clothing she designs. She uses organic cotton because “the material lies directly on their skin, and kids sometimes put their sleeves in their mouths.

Formaldehyde, heavy metals and other poisons have absolutely no business in items for children.”

But the garments don’t have to be boring. Instead they are colorful with child-appropriate details and patterns. “I wanted to show that color and durability do not cancel each other out,” said Jung. -dpa

Too many treats making US house pets fat

WASHINGTON: Duke weighs 43 kilos, a hefty amount for a dog and a size that has earned him the nickname Sausage. The labrador-beagle mix is 13 kilos overweight and this makes walking more difficult. The dog is out of breath only a few meters from the door of his owner’s house.

Duke is hardly an exception. In the United States, where obesity is an acknowledged problem among people, a recently published study shows that it is also a growing problem among pets. The study estimated that 54 per cent of all full-grown dogs and cats in the United States - 88.4 million animals - are overweight or obese. The study also points out the dangers of having a fat dog or cat. “Of course Duke is not going to the fridge on his own,” said owner Horacio Artiga while on a walk with the dog around a residential block in Washington, DC. “We have allowed him to become that fat.” The 35-year-old father and his wife are both professional dog sitters. Although the pair keep dogs that belong to other people fit, Artiga was never able to prevent his mother giving Duke roasted chicken wings at every opportunity.

“Since our first survey in 2007 we’ve witnessed

an increase in the percentage of obese pets,” said Ernie Ward, founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Using a formula similar to the body mass index for humans, Ward and his colleagues evaluate cats and dogs based on weight and size.While an index of 3 is in the green zone, an index of 4 represents an overweight pet and 5 indicates obesity.

“The most distressing finding in this year’s study was the fact that more pet owners are unaware their pet is overweight,” Ward said. “In simplest terms, we’ve made fat pets the new normal.” Sean Prichard, a fitness trainer for dogs in Washington, confirms the findings of Ward’s study. He makes sure dogs that need to trim their bellies or otherwise slim down get on a treadmill and work off their fat. Although his services are aimed at fat dogs, most of his clients are normal weight. This makes them a lot like people, Prichard said. “Most people at a gym are at a normal healthy weight,” he said. “The people that need to go to the gym the most are the ones who are least likely to go.

The same thing happens with dogs.”

The causes of obesity among pets in the US are food high in calories and insufficient exercise, accord-

ing to the APOP study. “Treats are the silent saboteur of slimming down,” said Ward. “Those tiny treats are often hiding a significant amount of calories.”

Americans feed their pets so much that Rene Carlson, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, warned: “You’re killing your animals with love.” Duke’s extra weight combined with his age have led to serious arthritis. If Artiga was as overweight as Duke, he would be carrying around an extra 27 kilos.

In addition to joint ailments such as arthritis, overweight pets also suffer more critically from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney problems. The prevention of overweight remains the same as it always has been, said veterinarian Sarah Bowman. “We weigh our patients every time they come in. But it is quite difficult to convince pet owners of continually measuring their pets’ meals and increasing their exercise.”

More than half of the 5,800 cats Bowman weighs each year are overweight. It often is already too late when a pet owner becomes aware that their animal is too fat.

“Five years ago we could have done something,” said Artiga. “But now, at his age, Duke cannot exercise enough to lose weight.” -dpa

FILE - Children and dancers have similar requirements when it comes to clothes: both want to be able to move easily in their clothes and they both want to look good. (dpa)

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Brand New Luv Artist: Robin Thicke Album: Sex Therapy: The Experience Genre: Hip-Hop/Soul In short: When it comes to soul-drenched R&B/Hip-Hop music, Robin Thicke is probably the only white guy to get it better than most of that genre’s swarm of artists. “Brand New Luv” puts Thicke’s higher register to good use, resulting in something too beautiful to comprehend at first.

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

The Buzz Captain America sequel heads to theaters in 2014 Captain America is getting another solo shot on the bigscreen. Walt Disney Studios announced Thursday that a sequel to last year’s superhero hit “Captain America: The First Avenger” will arrive in theaters on April 4, 2014. The first movie starred Chris Evans as the patriotic fighter for justice dressed in red, white and blue. “Captain America” took in $368 million at the worldwide box office. Evans reprises his role as Captain America in “The Avengers,” an ensemble adventure featuring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner as a team of Marvel Comics heroes. “The Avengers” is due out May 4. -AP

Actress Amanda Bynes arrested on suspicion of DUI Authorities say actress Amanda Bynes has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after she grazed a sheriff’s patrol car.The 26-year-old actress was arrested around 3 a.m. Friday in West Hollywood. The Sheriff’s Department says in a news release that Bynes attempted to pass a patrol car making a right turn and hit it. Deputies arrested her after the incident. Bynes is being held on $5,000 bail. A phone and email message to her publicist Melissa Raubvogel was not immediately returned. The actress appeared in 2010’s “Easy A” and the Nickolodean series “What I Like About You.”

Evita star Ricky Martin still feels stage pangs Ricky Martin commands the stage with an air of confidence, yet the Latin superstar admits to being self-conscious at times. “I’m still human and sometimes I feel uncertain about things,” Martin admitted Thursday night at the Broadway premiere of the revival of “Evita,” the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. As for “coming out” over his orientation, Martin admits that was an important step for him. “That helps a lot” the Grammy-winning performer said. “Now I’m just allowing myself to feel onstage and see lives though the life of this character.” Martin has a few lives of his own to deal with these days as the performer is “Livin La Vida Familia” with his partner, Carlos, and their twin sons. “I’m loving every minute of it. Loving every minute of it,” Martin said. Martin plays Che, the every-man narrator in the show currently playing at the Marquis Theater. -AP

Another finalist sliced from American Idol “American Idol” viewers apparently didn’t like Deandre Brackensick. The falsetto-powered 17-year-old student from San Jose, Calif., impressed the “Idol” judges with DeBarge’s “I Like It” on Wednesday’s 1980s-themed installment, but he wasn’t rescued by the panel Thursday after receiving the fewest viewer votes. Jennifer Lopez told Brackensick that she was outvoted by Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson to use the judges’ one-time-only ability to save him from dismissal. “I only get one vote,” said Lopez. “I’m sorry. We’re not saving you tonight.” Before his last-chance performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster,” Brackensick was joined in the show’s bottom three by rockin’ 28-year-old teacher Elise Testone, of Charleston, S.C., and booming 18-year-old vocalist Hollie Cavanagh of McKinney, Texas. Testone and Cavanagh seemed more likely to be eliminated after receiving the judges’ harshest criticism on Wednesday. The other singers remaining in the competition are Colton Dixon, 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Skylar Laine, 18, of Brandon, Miss.; Joshua Ledet, 19, of Westlake, La.; Jessica Sanchez, 16, of San Diego; and Phillip Phillips, 21 of Leesburg, Ga. The seven finalists will return to the stage Wednesday and face elimination again Thursday. -AP

saturDAY, april 7, 2012

Older, raunchier American Pie gang back for Reunion LOS ANGELES: It’s been 13 years since the hit teen comedy “American Pie” introduced a pack of horny high-schoolers out to lose their virginity before graduation and made an unlikely star of a warm pie.

Now the gang is back - a little older if not much wiser - in a fourth sequel, “American Reunion,” in theaters on Friday, and they are again pushing the boundaries of good taste with plenty of full-frontal nudity and outrageous behavior.

Together for a high-school reunion, and encouraged by party-meister character Stifler (Seann William Scott), even the more responsible among the group, including Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) who are now married with a kid, soon find themselves caught up in a wild weekend.

Eddie Kaye Thomas (Finch), now 33 with such credits as “Harold & Kumar” on his resume, called the film “an homage” to “American Pie” in recent interviews with reporters.

“The first touched on that great period in everyone’s lives where you’re terrified you’re not cool enough and going to graduate as a virgin - and nothing could be worse!

But this one deals with the fact that, ‘I’m 30 now and nothing like I hoped I’d be,’” Thomas said.

Thanks in part to the original 1999 “American Pie,” comedy movies have increasingly embraced raunchy humor, no-holds-barred sexual situations and outrageous stunts.

For recent examples of “Pie” offspring, see “Bridesmaids” and “The Hangover” franchise.

FILE - Cast members of the film “American Pie 2” accept their award as Choice Comedy Movie at the Teen Choice Awards taping Aug. 4, 2002 in Los Angeles. Shown (L-R) are Chris Klein, Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari, Shannon Elizabeth, and Alyson Hannigan.

(Reuters)

“Our comedy always goes all-out, and we both love that type of comedy, and Hayden Schlossberg, who along with Jon Hurwitz wrote the screenplay for “American Reunion.” The two also were the pair behind the “Harold & Kumar” raunchy comedy franchise.

Schlossberg called writing the movie “a fun challenge to figure out what the new poop

joke is going to be, or how you’re going to have nudity in a way that makes people uncomfortable.”

Both writers stress that, as major fans of the original “Pie” movie written by Adam Herz, their main goal was to preserve the heart of the 1999 comedy and its great characters.

“The characters are what we loved so

The Weinstein Co. scores PG-13 rating for Bully LOS ANGELES: The Weinstein Co. said Thursday an edited version of the film “Bully” will be released across the US on April 13 with a PG-13 rating.

The Motion Picture Association of America initially gave the film an R rating for language, meaning kids under 17 were restricted from seeing it without an accompanying adult.

The MPAA declined to change the rating when The Weinstein Co. appealed. The company released the film March 30 in limited release without a rating.

“Bully,” directed by Lee Hirsch, is an examination of school bullying that follows five kids over the course of a school year.

The Weinstein Co. said three uses of an expletive were removed to earn the PG-13 rating.

“I feel completely vindicated with this resolution,” Hirsch said in a statement. “While I retain my belief that PG-13 has always been the appropriate rating for this film, as reinforced by Canada’s rating of a PG, we have today scored a victory from the MPAA.” Hirsch initially declined to edit the documentary’s of-

fensive language because it would diminish the painful reality of bullying.

The Weinstein Co. later decided to resubmit a new version of “Bully,” and the MPAA ratings board gave it a PG13 for intense thematic material, disturbing content and some strong language - all involving kids, Joan Graves, chairman of the classification and rating administration, said in a statement.

“The ratings system has worked exactly as it is supposed to,” she said. “Parents have been kept informed of the content of each version of the film, and they have been given the information they need to make movie-going decisions on behalf of their kids.”

The ruling ends a month long dispute between The Weinstein Co. and the MPAA over the rating that prompted 17-year-old high school student Katy Butler of Ann Arbor, Mich., to start an online petition calling for a lower rating so more young people can see it.

Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees were among the celebrity supporters of the film. -AP

much about the original film,” said Hurwitz.

“Yes, Jim had sex with a pie, but we loved how it dealt with first love and father-son relationships. We wanted to keep that balance between raunch and sweetness.”

All the players, which once again include Tara Reid as Vicky, Mena Suvari (Heather), Chris Klein, whose Oz is now a successful sportscaster, Thomas Ian Nicholas (Kevin), Eugene Levy as ‘Jim’s Dad’ and Jennifer Coolidge as ‘Stifler’s Mom,’ said they were eager to return.

Klein said the franchise’s enduring appeal lies in its timeless themes.

“Sex - well, we’re all still dealing with that,” he said. “Relationships - who’s got that figured out ten years later? And we laugh at that ... We get ourselves into some hectic situations, but it’s OK. It’s gonna happen.

“Ten years ago, we saw Jim turn around and he had a pie in his crotch. And ten years later we see him turn around, and we see his (penis)! Things are only getting worse, or better, depending on your perspective,” Klein told reporters.

Back in 1999, a pie was used infamously to simulate sex, but Jim’s penis was never shown on the big screen. Thirteen years later, following the increasing use of full-frontal male nudity in Hollywood comedies, Jim is caught in the kitchen with his pants down -sans both underwear and American pie.

“When they asked me, ‘Would you be willing to show (it)?’ I was like, ‘absolutely,’” said Biggs, adding that he was inclined to do “anything - as long as it was funny.” -Reuters

Oprah calls her new cable venture a tough climb

Matt Lauer to stay with Today, signs new deal LOS ANGELES: Matt Lauer is sticking with NBC’s “Today,” ending speculation that the top-rated show might have to face ABC’s rising “Good Morning America” without him.

Lauer planned to announce Friday on the air that he has signed a long-term contract to remain as co-host of the No. 1 morning show, NBC News spokeswoman Megan Kopf said Thursday.

Although “Today” is on a historic winning streak in the ratings, “Good Morning America” has been gaining ground.

Lauer’s decision provides important stability for “Today” and puts to rest suggestions that he might reunite with his former co-host, Katie Couric, on the syndicated show she’s launching this fall.

Lauer said last May that he had discussed joining with Couric on a new venture. But he predicted then that he would be staying at “Today” for “a long time.”

“Given how strong the ‘Today’ show has been, I don’t think the outcome was ever in doubt,” said industry analyst Larry Gerbrandt of Los Angeles-based Media Valuation Partners.

Lauer has been a fixture with the show since 1994, and “Today” has remained No. 1 in the weekly ratings since 1995. He’s created a popular “Today” catchphrase with his globe-hopping “Where in the world is Matt Lauer?” segments.

For broadcast networks, morning represents one of the most important parts of the day. The shows are hugely profitable at a time of declining TV viewership, and none has been more of a cash cow than “Today.”

A recent report said Lauer could end up with a $25 million deal, but NBC President Steve Capus dismissed the speculation as “complete silliness,” the New York Times

said. NBC declined to provide further details Thursday on the contract.

The morning scene drew increased attention this week as the NBC and ABC programs featured dueling celebrity co-hosts: “Today” had Sarah Palin for a day, while Couric spent the week as substitute anchor at “GMA.” Lauer’s announcement Friday, flagged in advance, will serve double duty as a ratings stunt against his onetime colleague.

Palin, the former Alaska governor, helped “Today” maintain its winning streak against “GMA” on Tuesday, but Wednesday proved a cautionary tale for NBC. With Couric on board, “Good Morning America” was able to claim a one-day victory in viewership over “Today.”

About 5.24 million viewers watched “GMA,” while 5.15 million viewers tuned into “Today,” according to the Nielsen Co. ABC’s advantage was the latest twist in a morningshow battle that has seen “GMA” chipping away at the ratings lead that “Today” has maintained every week for 16 years.

Overall last week, “GMA” shrank its gap behind “Today” to 119,000 viewers from 137,000 the previous week.

There had been some reports that “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest could replace Lauer, and the two bantered about it Wednesday when Seacrest visited “Today” to announce he would take part in NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics.

“What kind of conversations have you had with NBC officials about joining the ‘Today’ show?” Lauer asked Seacrest during a lighthearted exchange.

“Oh,” said Seacrest, grinning, as off-camera laughter was heard from the crew. “They didn’t tell you?” -AP

$5-6 million expected on first day for Titanic 3D The 3D re-release of James Cameron’s “Titanic” was steaming toward a possible $6 million haul at the box office in its debut Wednesday, as the 100th anniversary approaches of the sinking of the real Titanic. Domestic distributor Paramount is projecting that the film, converted into 3D for a hefty $18 million, will take in around $20 million-$25 million over the five-day holiday weekend. Box-office observers outside the studio say it could do up to $30 million. That would be impressive, given that the film’s lengthy running time - 3 hours, 23 minutes - limits the number of daily showings. It’s playing in 2,600 locations in the US and Canada, including 79 Imax theaters. Fox is handling international distribution for the film, which is opening in virtually all major territories this weekend as well. The original “Titanic” opened to $28.6 million in December 1997, held the No. 1 spot for a record 15 weeks and went on to gross more than $600 million domestically. -Reuters

11

“Today” show co-host Matt Lauer and guest co-host, Sarah Palin, talk on the show’s set in New York on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. (AP)

FILE - In this April 14, 2011 publicity image originally released by OWN, TV personality and media mogul Oprah Winfrey presents at the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network portion of the Discovery Communications Upfront at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. (AP)

NEW YORK: Oprah Winfrey says creating her new cable network has turned out to be a steep climb.

“I’m climbing Kilimanjaro,” she told advertisers Thursday at a presentation for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. She quickly explained that her Kilimanjaro is at the offices of OWN. “You know that song, ‘The Time of My Life’? I’ve had the climb of my life,” she cracked.

The network has struggled to build an audience since its launch in January 2011. It recently announced severe staff layoffs and a management shakeup with Discovery Communications Inc., the company that’s bankrolled it with $300 million-plus.

But Winfrey struck a hopeful note in her brief remarks, even as she allowed she’s still nowhere near the channel’s summit of success.

“With our restructuring and right-sizing and getting into the sauce of what needs to happen every day, I feel like I can at least now see the summit,” she said.

OWN was unveiling four new prime-time series, including “Elura and Michele Take Staten Island,” a reality series with two outspoken former prosecutors who tell people how to straighten out their problems; “Iyanla Fix My Life,” starring the author and inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant; “Married to the Army: Alaska,” which focuses on Alaskabased wives and families of military troops who are off serving in Afghanistan; and “Six Little McGhees,” about high school sweethearts Mia and Rozonno McGhee, parents of the first sextuplets born in Columbus, Ohio.

In addition, OWN will introduce a new game show, “Are You Normal, America?” It measures its contestants’ opinions and habits against those of the nation overall.

Winfrey’s appearance at the Discovery “upfront” presentation came the week she was interviewed on “CBS This Morning” about her challenges at OWN. “The idea of creating a network was something that I wanted to do,” she told the program’s co-host - and her best friend - Gayle King on Monday. She added, “Had I known that it was this difficult, I might have done something else.”

“If I knew then what I know now, I might have made different choices,” she declared. “If I were writing a book about it, I could call the book ‘101 Mistakes.’”

Among those mistakes: going on the air before the network was ready.

But Winfrey insisted, “I feel better about our network now, today, than I ever have.” -AP

12

ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012

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

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

MOUAWAD launches diamond bridal classics collection

KUWAIT: Mouawad, the luxury jewelry and watch brand with a 121-year heritage, today launched the Diamond Bridal Classics, a collection of diamond pieces especially designed for brides, across its Gulf boutiques. Offering a variety of styles and cuts, Mouawad’s Diamond Bridal Classics encapsulates the traditional elegance of diamond wedding jewelry within a collection of contemporary engagement rings, wedding bands, necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

Using only the finest quality diamonds to maximize brilliance, the 18k white and yellow gold and platinum pieces are artistically worked to create stunning settings for the diamond, the gemstone of everlasting love.

The collection is designed to appeal to every modern couple, with pieces ranging from traditional to contemporary, each made with the unmistakable Mouawad touch.

“At Mouawad we believe in marking those magical moments in life with something precious, and there should be nothing more memorable than a marriage proposal or wedding day”, said Fred

Month a t

Mouawad, member of the fourth generation of the Mouawad family and co-guardian of the brand.

“Diamond Bridal Classics is our way to help our customers to celebrate the timeless promise of love for eternity”.

Diamond Bridal Classics features four classic diamond cuts - round, brilliant, princess and emerald - with each piece handset using the micro-pave method; gemstones are set with the use of a microscope to ensure the precise placement of stones over the entire work.

The finishing techniques used

by Mouawad’s expert craftsmen produce the finest finish for rose, white and yellow gold, leaving even the matte finished pieces with a brilliant luster that reflects like a mirror.

Diamond Bridal Classics collection is now available in all Mouawad stores across the region, with prices starting from 13,000 AED. For more information about Mouawad, its collections and boutique locations, visit the Mouawad website www.mouawad.com.

Sudoku

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

General A n n o u n c e m e n t s

a glance countries. His body of work consists of a central iconic image that of a finger imprint, within each thumb impression he has formulated a pseudo-calligraphic narrative of life experiences on luminous and luxurious enamel weaves.

Help save animals April 10/ 7 p.m. /The AWARE Center: The AWARE Center cordially invites you to its lecture entitled, “you can help us save animals in Kuwait,” on Tuesday

by Claudia Farkas Al-Rashoud & Nadia Al-Kandari. With the inhumane ongoing official policy of poisoning stray dogs & cats, the status of animal rights in Kuwait has reached a new low. For more information, call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.

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

Golden era club

K’S PATH’s last Shelter Open Day April 14/ 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. / Wafra: This is a great opportunity for visitors to interact and socialize with our dogs and cats for adoption, get acquainted with K’S PATH’s work in animal welfare and habitat protection through a shelter tour, and meet K’S PATH’s growing team of volunteers and staff. We will also hold an educational session for children on Kuwait’s desert and marine species followed by a crafts session to build a model desert and marine habitat.

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

Dar Al Funoon hosts artist Karim Ghidinelli April 2- 19/ 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. / Dar Al Funoon: Born in Italy in 1976, Karim spent his childhood in this city; he went to middle school and high school in African

April 13/ 5 p.m. -7 p.m. /Rumaithiya: Join the Golden Era club for a fascinating Earth Day activity. Come armed with old newspapers, a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue. You also get to join Dr. Leos on a fascinating journey through a jewel nestled in central Europe, ranking high in human development. Seniors (60+) don’t miss out on the adventure! Venue- House #34, next to Abu-Tammam Intermediate School for Boys, Sate Alhusari St., Block 2, Rumaithiya. For details call 97172788/ 66208183 or drop a line to goldenera60@yahoo.com

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

New Toastmasters Club Second and fourth Tuesday/ 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. / Jabriya: A new Toastmasters Club is being formed and encouraging new members to join. Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. It is a non-profit international organization dedicated to improve member’s communication and leadership skills by attending and participating toastmasters meetings. For more information, please contact Khaled Al-Hashem at 65588824.

On the occasion of the Easter holiday, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Kuwait would like to inform the public that the Embassy will be closed on Sunday, April 8 and Monday April 9, 2012. The Embassy will resume its normal duties on Tuesday April 10, 2012.

French Embassy

Brainbang session

The French Embassy in Kuwait will be closed on Sunday April 8, 2012 for Easter holidays.

October 7-April/ 11:45 a.m. -1:45 p.m. /Salmiya: BRAINBANG, the creative arm of Friends of CRY Club (FOCC) invites all students aged 11 and above, to join us fortnightly on Fridays. The areas of development are: Creativity in learning, tools and techniques to empower your mind, profile based learning, activity, fun, games and worksheet based assignments, practical experiments, mind gymnastics and application of learning techniques to conventional study.

E-mail: brainbang@focckwt.org or call 25660835/25618471/97677820.

Dilbert

Embassy of the Slovak Republic

Embassy of Korea The Embassy of the Republic of Korea wishes to inform that it has moved to Mishref, Block 7A, Diplomatic Area 2, Plot 6. Contact: 25378621/2/3/4/5. The embassy also wishes to inform that it will be opened to the public on the following office hours: Morning: 8 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Lunch break: 12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. Afternoon: 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

Keep your ears wide open today, because if you do there is a good chance that you will hear something substantially to your advantage. The news you receive may relate to a long term relationship but it is much more likely to be concerned with some financial opportunities on the horizon.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

It will seem as though the obligations of work or home life will curb all your sense of fun, and fun and games is all that you’ll be in the mood for!

But there’s the chance that you’ll over indulge the fun side of things without the necessary routine of work to rein you in!

Gemini: May 21- June 21

You’re feeling emotionally insecure today and are in need of some good friends or ideally a family member to confide in. On the positive side your creative juices are definitely flowing later in the day and you should try at hand at some form of expressive writing.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Lady Luck is definitely your friend today so be sure to make the most of what is a relatively short lived opportunity to improve your fortunes. While you tend towards a careful and well planned approach to life this is a time for taking a risk. It may feel uncomfortable at first but it has every chance of paying off.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

You’ll be feeling a lot calmer today, but it is possible that someone will take advantage of your tranquil temper by making too many demands on you and that you’ll find it very difficult to say no.

However, someone is looking out for you and will give you the support you need.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Although you are quite shy in romantic matters there are a number of positive influences that mean that now is the time to grasp the nettle and let that special someone know exactly how you feel. You may well be surprised at just how positive they are in their response!

Libra: September 23 - October 22

It may be that you find yourself thinking of a new career or if you are of school going age it is likely that you will be considering changing the group of friends that you spend time with. Whatever the issue, it’s important that you go with your natural instincts and trust your intuition.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

You’ll be experiencing a range of emotions today; on one hand you’ll be feeling particularly sensitive today and will be perceptive to any undercurrents.

On the other hand you’ll be in the mood for some passion and excitement too! So come the evening forget work and settle down with someone special!

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

You are likely to be lacking your usual energy today and will not feel like your normal active self.

However, this is a good thing because the planets are encouraging you to take the time to sit down and have a serious think about your values in life. In particular now is a time to reassess what it is you really want out of life.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

The confidence that usually fills you and communicates itself to everyone around you will be in somewhat short supply today. A chance word from someone or even a memory that pops into your mind will call to mind a figure of authority from your early childhood whose influence was left than helpful.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

You’ll be a bit of a stickler for the rules today as you’ll tend to see everything in terms of black and white. People may be inclined to regard you as uptight. To counteract this take your friends out to the mall for some shopping and demonstrate that your color palette is as adventurous as the next!

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

You will probably feel in a rather possessive mood today. Whether that’s with money and possessions or with your partner or friends will depend on your general outlook in life. But one thing is certain, you need to chill. Taking up some activity that requires a lot of concentration will help distract you from feeling irritable.