June 1, 2012 by Al Watan Daily

FRIDAY, JUNE 1 , 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1452

12 PAGES

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150 Fils with IHT

MP accuses ICM of implicating Kuwait in Dow deal Staff Writers

KUWAIT: Member of Parliament (MP) Faisal Al-Duwaisan launched a scathing attack on the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) accusing it of implicating Kuwait in the Dow Chemical deal through the appointment of its senior figures to leading positions at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Al-Duwaisan called on the people of Kuwait not to have mercy for it, as it caused Kuwait to bear the cost of the penal clause. The MP noted that widespread rumors in the United States say that there are beneficiaries from the deal. Commenting on parliamentary investigation panels, Al-Duwaisan categorically made it clear that he does not trust those probe panels set up by the majority because its members serve as defendants and judges, and stressed that they come to nothing. Addressing parliamentary queries to the Oil Minister, the MP stated in the preamble that the

MPs should be on a lookout for those who implicated Kuwait with this penal clause, noting that there is no fine in any contract in the world of this huge sum. This comes at a time when MP Al-Saifi Al-Saifi denied press reports circulated on electronic sites that he had faced pressures from MPs Musallam Al-Barrak and Khaled Shukhayyar to withdraw his interpellation motion against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib. The MP stressed that he will proceed with his plans to question the minister. Speaking to Al Watan, Al-Saifi emphasized his respect for the Majority Bloc’s Ethics Charter which dictates that members of the bloc should present items of their interpellation to it before being presented. The lawmaker explained that he did brief members of the bloc about the issues contained in his interpellation during a recent meeting at MP Khaled Al-Tahous’s diwaniya. Al-Saifi elaborated that although the Majority

Tweeter jailed 6 months for insulting Shiites

Bloc gave the government ample time to dismiss Al-Rujaib from his post, it paid no heed to the demand. Hence, he added, my decision to grill the minister is consistent with the majority’s standpoint, while expressing understanding for the declared position of certain members of the bloc who voiced their unwillingness to back the motion. “I do respect all opinions ... the MPs are free to express their opinion. However, prejudgments should not be made until both sides are heard,” Al-Saifi stated. For his part, the Chairman of the Parliament’s Education Committee lashed out at government, saying that he has confirmed information that the executive authority yielded to pressures from influential figures and private university owners to send back the Jaber University Law on the grounds that the construction of universities is an executive duty, hence the Parliament’s decision to pass the law is considered an interference with the jurisdiction of the executive.

Syria: Anti-government groups committed Houla massacre BEIRUT: Syria said on Thursday a preliminary investigation showed that anti-government armed groups committed a massacre last week in Houla, in which 108 people were killed, with the aim of encouraging foreign military intervention against the Syrian government. Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, head of the investigation committee formed by the government, said the victims were families “who refused to oppose the government and were at odds with the armed groups”. He said many of the victims were relatives of a member of the Syrian parliament. Moreover, the government said that it wanted international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan to succeed in ending the violence so the 14-month-old crisis could be resolved through political dialogue. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi also called on opposition groups that reject foreign intervention to come to Syria for talks with the government. Meanwhile, a Russian cargo ship that Western officials say was heavily laden with weapons for the government of Syria docked at the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend, a rights group said on Thursday. “Today’s updated shipping databases show that the Professor Katsman did in fact dock in the port of Tartus on May 26, 2012 before heading to Piraeus, Greece,” Sadia Hameed of Human Rights First told Reuters. Western officials confirmed her remarks, adding that they understood the ship had been carrying arms for the government of Syria, which for 14 months has been using its security forces to attack an increasingly militarized opposition. A spokesman for Russia’s U.N. mission said he would look into the issue. -Reuters See also 3

Chinese bridal couples dance after their symbolic wedding in Fuessen May 31, 2012. 15 Chinese couples who already got married in China, travelled to Germany to repeat their promise of marriage at Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the most popular destinations in Europe. (Reuters)

Misbah calls for India, Pakistan revival

11-year-old played dead to survive Syria massacre

BEIRUT: When the gunmen began to slaughter his family, 11-year-old Ali el-Sayed says he fell to the floor of his home, soaking his clothes with his brother’s blood to fool the killers into thinking he was already dead. The Syrian boy tried to stop himself from trembling, even as the gunmen, with long beards and shaved heads, killed his parents and all four of his siblings, one by one. The youngest to die was Ali’s brother, 6-year-old Nader. His small body bore two bullet holes - one in his head, another in his back. “I put my brother’s blood all over me and acted like I was dead,” Ali told The Associated Press over Skype on Wednesday, his raspy voice steady and matterof-fact, five days after the killing spree that left him both an orphan and an only child. Ali is one of the few survivors of a weekend massacre in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages and olive groves in Syria’s central Homs province. More than 100 people were killed, many of them women and children who were shot or stabbed in their houses. The killings brought immediate, worldwide condemnation of President Bashar Assad, who has unleashed a violent crackdown on an uprising that began in March 2011. Activists say as many as 13,000 people have been killed since the revolt began. UN investigators and witnesses blame at least some of the Houla killings on shadowy gunmen known as Shabiha who operate on behalf of Assad’s government. Recruited from the ranks of Assad’s Alawite religious community, the militiamen enable the government to distance itself from direct responsibility for the execution-style killings, torture and revenge attacks that have become hallmarks of the Shabiha. -AP

Six blasts across Baghdad kill at least 17

BAGHDAD: Six explosions hit neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more in the most deadly attacks on the Iraqi capital in more than a month. The attacks - a truck bomb in a market, a car bomb and roadside explosives - broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad just as Iraq’s government, shared among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs, wrangles over a crisis that risks reigniting sectarian tensions. In the largest blast, a bomber detonated a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives near a restaurant in a market, killing at least 13 people and wounding 38 in the mainly Shi’ite Shula district, police and witnesses said. “The pickup truck came into the market and the driver left it saying he was going to get people to unload vegetables,” said Haider Fadhil, one of the wounded. “It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital.” A car bomb exploded near the vehicle of one of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s advisers, killing one civilian and wounding three in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. It was not clear whether the adviser was targeted. Two roadside bombs also exploded in Amiriya district, killing two people and wounding four more, while roadside bombs killed one and injured 15 more people in other mixed neighborhoods in western and southern parts of the capital. -Reuters

Lebanese students dressed as clowns participate in an anti-war protest organized by activists and former militiamen who were ﬁghters during Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), and who marched in the former Green Line, in Beirut May 31, 2012. (Reuters)

Iran cancels $2 billion dam deal with China

Al-Mudhaff case adjourned Ibtisam Saeed

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Administrative Court on Thursday adjourned a case involving the former Manager of the Credit and Saving Bank, Salah Al-Mudhaff, who has been recently dismissed by the Minister of State for Housing and National Assembly Affairs Shuaib Al-Muwaizri. The court is due to hear the case next Thursday when the particulars of the interrogation will

be presented. Both the minister and the dismissed official hired private lawyers despite the presence of the Fatwa (Edict) and Legislation Department, as far as government is concerned. Al-Mudhaff’s lawyer argued that the minister should not have hired a private lawyer in the presence of the Fatwa Department. However, Al-Muwaizri rebuffed this argument citing precedents where government institutions hired private lawyers outside government.

Egypt on edge before verdict in Mubarak trial, emergency law ends

CAIRO: Egyptians could hardly believe their eyes when Hosni Mubarak went on trial for complicity over the killing of protesters last year, but those who toppled him doubt Saturday’s verdict will deliver justice for the almost 850 who died. Still less will it deal with the legacy of an autocratic ruler who ran a police state that rode roughshod over human rights for 30 years until popular frustration exploded. “Justice will not be achieved,” said Ahmed elFekky, who was blinded in his left eye during the protests against Mubarak. The verdict promised by Judge Ahmed Refaat more than three months after he closed the trial on February 22 is keenly awaited, not least because of its timing, bang in between two rounds of Egypt’s first truly contested presidential election. If Mubarak, 84, is convicted, he could face anything from three years in jail to the death penalty. Few expect the ex-air force chief to hang, given his age and the perceived weakness of the prosecution case. Appeals could prolong the case for years. An acquittal or a light sentence could ignite a furious reaction on the streets from Egyptians already disappointed that their “revolution” has yet to bring much real change.

Many of those who took to the streets are frustrated that reform has yet to touch the army, the hated police force, the judiciary and much else of the system that propped up his rule. Acquittals of low-ranking officers accused of shooting protesters have raised fear that no one will be brought to book. Meanwhile, Egypt’s decades-old state of emergency came to an end on Thursday as its last renewal expired, the ruling military said, vowing to continue to “protect” the nation. The military will continue its “national and historic responsibility, taking into account that the state of emergency has ended, in accordance with the constitutional declaration and with the law,” it said. It said it would continue in that role until it hands over power, as it has promised it would to an elected president by the end of June. A runoff between the two frontrunners from the first round of the election is to be held on June 16-17. Egypt has been under a state of emergency continuously since president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981, allowing authorities to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts. More on 3

spheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. “It’s just a reminder to everybody that we haven’t fixed this and we’re still in trouble.” Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from decomposing dead plants and animals. Before the Industrial Age, levels were around 275 parts per million. For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say. More on 8

A woman reads a book in front of her house in a street decorated with ﬂags, soccer symbols and the Dutch national soccer colors, in Goirle, the Netherlands, Thursday, May 31, 2012. The European soccer championships in Poland and Ukraine starts on June 8. (AP)

ALWATAN DAILY

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FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012

Kuwait expects China to support Annan’s plan to stop Syrian bloodshed Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled asserted that Kuwait expects China to support the plan of the Arab League and United Nations’ envoy Kofi Annan regarding the escalating unrest in Syria. He added after meeting his Chinese counterpart, two days ago at Al-Hamamat city on the sideline of the Arab-Chinese forum, that Kuwait seeks to exert relentless efforts to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria, based on Annan’s plan. Moreover, Al-Khaled discussed with his Chinese counterpart bilateral, regional and international issues of common interest. It is worth noting that Kuwait and the Arab League had called for a meeting that will be held on Saturday in Qatar’s capital Al-Doha. In addition, Al-Khaled met with his Moroccan counterpart Saad Al-Deen Al-Othmani, where they discussed the horizons of cooperation between Kuwait and Morocco as well as means of establishing mechanisms for future collaboration. Al-Khaled had also met the Secretary General of Arab League Nabil Al-Arabi to discuss necessary procedures to defuse the escalating unrest in Syria. It is worth noting that after reaching Tunisia two days ago, Al-Khaled had stressed that the Arab countries are keen to cement cooperation with major powers such as China. He added that the Arab countries seek to take advantage of the Chinese role, since it is one of the countries with permanent membership at the UN Security Council. He highlighted the importance of the strategic cooperation with China, and the means necessary to reinforce collaboration mechanisms in various fields. Furthermore, Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafiq Abdul Salam underlined the strong relationships between Kuwait and his country, and praised the visit of Tunisian President Al-Munsef Al-Marzouqi to Kuwait.

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khaled Al-Jarallah (right) and Italian Ambassador to Kuwait Fabrizio Nicoletti (left) at Italy’s celebration of its National Day on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (Al Watan)

In another development, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khaled Al-Jarallah said that the bilateral relationships between Kuwait and Italy were strong. Al-Jarallah gave his statements on the sideline of an event held to celebrate Italy’s National Day. Italy’s National Day that was attended by several foreign and Arab ambassadors,

in addition to other public figures. He added that the bilateral committee regarding the two countries will be revived soon to further cement the existing relationships between Kuwait and Italy. Regarding his assessment of the GCC-European collaboration, he stated it is strong and strategic.

Embassy sponsors educational event in Japan TOKYO: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi sponsored Wednesday evening a ceremony honoring the graduates and teachers of the Japanese School in Kuwait, which closed its doors in the summer of 1990. Speaking at the event, Ambassador Al-Otaibi said that he was glad to have sponsored the event that showcases the strong relations between Japan and Kuwait. He indicated that the ceremony, attended by over 100 former students and school staff, comes to recall past friendships and happy memories between both peoples. On his part, Daisuke Umayabashi, a spokesman for the graduates of the former school, thanked the Kuwaiti embassy and its ambassador for sponsoring the event which gathered people, who have not seen each other for 30 years. He stressed that their memories of Kuwait are profound, urging more events of such a nature be held in the not too distant future. -KUNA

Tweeter jailed 6 months for insulting Shiites

KUWAIT: “The court of appeals Thursday reduced a seven-year jail term of a Sunni tweeter to a six-month imprisonment for allegedly insulting the faith of the Shiite minority,” his lawyer said. “The (appeals) court reduced Mohammad Al-Mulaifi’s jail term to just six months,” Fahad Al-Braikan told AFP. The case will now go to the Supreme Court for a final decision, he added. The reduction of the jail term came after the court acquitted Mulaifi, a writer, from the charges of spreading false news about the Gulf state and promoting an illegal clandestine group, according to the court ruling. He was convicted only on the count of disparaging the Shiite faith in an Internet article which he posted on his Twitter account in February. Kuwaiti Shiites, who make up around a third of the native population of 1.18 million, staged a rally in protest against the article and demanded that authorities take action. Al-Mulaifi, an employee of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and a widower with four children, had categorically denied all the charges and insisted that he did not mean to insult any faith. Sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in the Gulf state have increased rapidly in the past several months, reflecting regional tension over Bahrain and Syria. Kuwaiti courts over the past several months have clamped down on Sunni and Shiite activists accused of committing religious offences, sentencing several of them to various jail terms. Several others are currently on trial. Earlier this month, Kuwait’s appeals court upheld a 10-year jail term on tweeter Orance Al-Rasheedi for insulting the Gulf state’s ruler and calling for the overthrow of the regime. The lower court is scheduled to issue a verdict Monday on Shiite tweeter Mohammad Al-Naqi on charges of insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, his wife Aisha and some of his companions. -AFP

Iran has no links to the network says, Qahremani

Jameel W.Karaki

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Iranian Ambassador to Kuwait Rouhullah Qahremani said in a statement on Thursday that The Islamic Republic of Iran denies any links with the alleged network and confirms that the political approach of Iran towards neighboring countries, especially Kuwait is based on mutual respect and noninterference in internal affairs. Qahrmani pointed out that the case is not over yet and justifiability stages continue, adding that there is a perseverance quest by the wise leaderships in both countries to cement the bilateral flourishing ties and promoting trust in the midst of these difficult circumstances faced by the region. He added, “We shouldn’t disrupt the existing relations between our two neighboring countries and Muslim people, as the recent months witnessed the exchanged visits of the officials from both sides represented through the recent meeting of the joint committees of trade and consular rights, and will be crowned with the meeting of the higher joint committee in Kuwait under the chairmanship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the coming weeks.”

Ban on open sun laborers: Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Mustafa Al-Pasha

Staff Writer

Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi (left) on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (KUNA)

Anti-smoking campaign escalates its fight Staff Writer

KUWAIT: A group of bloggers, lawyers and activists launched an anti-smoking campaign in the purpose of which is to encourage both citizens and expatriates to quit smoking in closed areas. The campaigners are urging the public to record any violations committed the outcome of which will be passed as a petition to the National Assembly for the MPs and ministers to start actively working on the re-activation of the anti-smoking law. The petition is expected to be submitted within two weeks and a group of lawyers have been volunteering to underscore the issue so that rapid actions and serious decisions are taken in favorable terms to stop smoking in public places. Spokesman for the Record a Stance against Smoking in Public Places and lawyer Hussein AlAbdullah said that the campaign coincides with the World No Tobacco Day May 31. “Social media websites has been dedicated to

the purpose of registering anti-smoking stance and that would be @sajelmawqef at Sajelmawqef@ gmail.com where anyone may record and make note of any violations in this regard.We in turn will take all the legal measures against such violations either by making repeated warnings against such offence or take the matter further to the courts if need be,” he explained. Al-Abdullah went on to say that this campaign is the first of its kind to encourage the public and the concerned authorities to make note of any violations and “this would be done either by sending a text message or by contacting us by telephone using the hotline which will be declared later on. This is not a publicity stunt. This is a serious matter and we are taking it very seriously. This is a legal announcement and this means legal measures will be taken against those who attempt to violate such ban. The whole campaign is a humane one in nature and has nothing to do with politics or otherwise. Its ultimate aim is to put the lid on smoking

in public places,” he remarked. As for the ministerial decisions and decrees, Al-Abdullah said that such measures need the support of the authorities concerned and that those who are appointed to cite such violations need to be authorized and has the power to do so, and then refer the violations to the court of law where they are penalized for maximum 50 Kuwaiti dinars penalty. “In the event that the same offence is repeated by the same offender, the court will as a result double the penalty according to law 7 no. 15/1995,” he noted, adding that such penalty is relevant only to public places such as hospitals, clinics and other medical and social institutions where social and culture activities are held, then it would have an official status and for that staff from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor would be able to cite the violations. Al-Abdullah further said that he personally prefers the recruitment of new staff just to carry out such tasks.

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor launched its annual inspection campaign regarding the ban on working in open areas between 11 and 4 in the afternoon. Speaking to the press, Acting Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Undersecretary for Labor Affairs Ahmad Al-Sawwagh said that the decision is in line with the law 189/A/2010, which was later amended to 212/A/2012 concerning laborers working in the open sun. He added that the minister of social affairs has been authorized to reduce the number of hours during severe conditions and unbreakable weather. He added that the decision had been praised by many and that international labor organizations hailed it as a step in the right direction. The ban only lasts for three months and is effective July 1 to the end of August.

MoPW to sign contract on 1st Ring Road development soon

KUWAIT: Kuwait Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) said Thursday it’s ready to sign the contract to develop the second stage of the 1st Ring Road development project after the Central Tenders Committee (CTC) cleared its bid. Speaking to reporters at the inauguration of the final sections of the road, director of the project Eng. Mohammad Abdeen said the Ministry is keen to ensure that all projects, entrusted to it, meet the standard specifications. “Today we have finalized the first stage of the project which involves the major works and the stage is set for the start of the second stage,” he added. Meanwhile, director of the license section at the Interior Ministry’s engineering department Eng. Mansour Al-Shemmeri said the 1st Ring Road has been opened in collaboration with all concerned state departments. “The Sheraton intersection has been linked to the Gulf St. and the Jamal Abdul-Nasser St. to the Al-Saqr intersection No. 3,” he pointed out. Al-Shemmeri affirmed that the three-stage project contributes greatly to the facilitation of the traffic flow from and to Kuwait City and the trade zone. -KUNA

Kuwait, Cambodia discuss boosting legal cooperation KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuwaiti ambassador to Cambodia Dhirar Nasser Al-Tuwaijri has discussed means of cooperation with the Cambodian Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vattana. He told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) in a phone call on Thursday, that this meeting is part of the outreach program with local officials and figures in the Southeast Asian nation. Vattana welcomed the ambassador, and wished him success in his mission of enhancing and bolstering bilateral ties between the two countries in various fields. They tackled means of stretching cooperation in legal and judicial fields, besides

exchanging visits of delegations between the two nations. Al-Tuwaijri stressed on the importance of the legal and judicial fields in Cambodia, and the way they affect the local economy and investments. He congratulated the Cambodian government for the fair and historical trail of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime in cooperation with the United Nations (UN), hailing the independence of the judicial system in the country according to the new institution approved in 1993. He praised the allowing of new legal reforms on the judicial system in Cambo-

dia, he described as “positive”, and the efforts the government exert to protect the civil and legal rights of its citizens and expatriates. The Kuwaiti diplomat wished Cambodia further progress and prosperity, considering the Khmer Rouge Regime trial a great model to be followed in punishing those who commit crimes against their people. The ambassador conveyed the greetings of the Kuwaiti Minster of Justice Jamal Ahmad Al-Shihab to Vattana, hoping to continuously boost the bilateral relations, and wishing his country further progress and prosperity. -KUNA

The Kuwaiti ambassador to Cambodia Dhirar Nasser Al-Tuwaijri (left) with the Cambodian Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vattana (right) during a meeting held Thursday, May 31, 2012. (KUNA)

ALWATAN DAILY

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Decades-old Egypt emergency law ends CAIRO: Egypt’s decades-old state of emergency came to an end on Thursday as its last renewal expired, the ruling military said, vowing to continue to “protect” the nation. The military will continue its “national and historic responsibility, taking into account that the state of emergency has ended, in accordance with the constitutional declaration and with the law,” it said. It said it would continue in that role until it hands over power, as it has promised it would to an elected president by the end of June. A runoff between the two frontrunners from the

first round of the election is to be held on June 16-17.Egypt has been under a state of emergency continuously since president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981, allowing authorities to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts. Parliament renewed the emergency law for two years in May 2010 when now ousted president Hosni Mubarak was still in power, but limited its application to terrorism and drug crimes. The military, which took charge after Mubarak’s overthrow in February 2011, at first extended the law to include strikes but then

said it would apply only to “thuggery.” A constitutional declaration ratified in a referendum in March last year gave the military the responsibility to “protect” the country but said only parliament had the right to proclaim a state of emergency, at the executive’s request. The military had suspended the constitution after Mubarak’s overthrow. Essam Erian, the deputy leader of the Islamist Freedom and Justice Party, which has the most seats in parliament, told AFP the military’s statement indicated it would not ask parliament to extend the law.

The party’s leader and presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi has said the law will not be renewed. Ending the state of emergency was a key demand of protesters who toppled Mubarak in an 18-day popular uprising in January and February last year. Thousands of Egyptians had been jailed under the law over the previous decades. Many have been released since the military took power. But the ruling generals have themselves been criticised for trying thousands in military courts, which resemble the state security emergency tribunals in the limited rights afforded to

defendants, human rights groups say. “This is historic because the state of emergency was one of the Mubarak police state’s tools,” said Heba Morayef, a Cairo-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. “It is a reflection of the fact that the age when the interior ministry was above the law and had unlimited power is over,” she said. “Unfortunately, this will not end most serious abuses that we saw over the last year and a half, because those were committed by the military and legitimized by military courts,” she added. -AFP

Syria rebel chief urges Annan to declare peace plan over Buildings at Iran site BEIRUT: Syria’s main rebel commander urged Kofi Annan on Thursday to announce that his peace plan had failed to free insurgents from any commitment to a ceasefire deal, which the United States said may collapse and trigger a broader Middle East crisis. Colonel Riad Al-Asaad, who is based in Turkey, contradicted a statement by the rebels inside Syria who issued a 48-hour ultimatum on Wednesday for President Bashar Al-Assad to abide by the conditions of Annan’s plan. “There is no deadline, but we want Kofi Annan to issue a declaration announcing the failure of this plan so that we would be free to carry out any military operation against the regime,” Al-Asaad told Al Jazeera television. Annan’s plan has not stemmed bloodshed in Syria and the US envoy to the United Nations warned that unless the Security Council acts swiftly to pressure Syria to end its crackdown on opposition, countries may act outside of the world body. Susan Rice outlined what she said was both a worst case and most likely scenario in which “the violence escalates, the conflict spreads and intensifies ... It involves countries in the region, it takes on increasingly sectarian forms, and we have a major crisis not only in Syria but in the region.” In that case Syria - a mainly Sunni Muslim country whose Alawite leader is allied to Shiite power Iran - would become “a proxy conflict with arms coming in from all sides” and world powers would consider taking unilateral actions, Rice said. The rival statements from rebels inside and outside Syria showed once again how deep divisions run between Assad’s foes, who have failed to unify either political or military operations more than 14 months after Syria’s uprising first broke out. UN observers on Wednesday reported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacre last week of 108 men, women and children in the western town of Houla. The United Nations has said the army and pro-Assad gunmen were probably responsible for the killings, an accusation that Damascus has denied. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday that another atrocity could pitch Syria into a devastating civil war “from which the country would never recover”. A senior army commander in Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in a war 45 years ago, said the country was heading for collapse and would become a “warehouse of weapons” for

‘razed’-US think-tank

A handout image released by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network , allegedly shows a street blocked with burning tires during an anti-regime demonstration in Damascus on May 31, 2012. (AFP)

Islamist militants. Al-Asaad said rebels had so far honored their commitments to Annan’s plan. But activists have reported frequent attacks by militants and army defectors on Assad’s forces since the April 12 ceasefire deal. Government forces have also bombarded towns, fired on protesters and attacked rebel strongholds, killing many hundreds of people in the last seven weeks, the activists say. Russian President Vladimir Putin flies to Berlin and Paris on Friday for talks which European leaders may hope to use to lean on Putin to loosen Moscow’s strategic links to Assad. Ban, speaking in Turkey, said Assad must respond to world opinion. “I demand that the government of Syria act on its commitments under the Annan peace plan. A united international community demands that the Syrian government act on its responsibilities to its people,” he said. Syrian state television said on Thursday 500 prisoners who had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the uprising had been freed, two

days after Annan urged Assad to take bold steps and immediate steps to rescue the plan. Annan met Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday to discuss the regional impact of the Syrian crisis, his office said. Lebanese sources said he would meet Lebanon’s president in Beirut later in the day. Major-General Robert Mood, Norwegian head of the observer mission, said on Wednesday the 13 corpses found in Assukar, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Deir El-Zor, had their hands tied behind their backs. Some had been shot in the head from close range. Mood called the latest killings an “appalling and inexcusable act” and appealed to all factions to end the cycle of violence. He did not apportion any blame but Syrian activists said the victims were army defectors killed by Assad’s forces.The unrest has spilled over several times into neighboring Lebanon. In the latest incident, gunmen kidnapped two Lebanese farmers in the country’s north and took them across the border into Syria on Wednesday, a Lebanese security source said. -Reuters

Iraq VP lawyers ask for president to testify BAGHDAD: Lawyers for fugitive Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi, charged with running a death squad, called Thursday for officials including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to give evidence at his trial. The three-judge panel hearing the case denied the request, however, and after receiving testimony from five witnesses who all said the senior Sunni official orchestrated attacks in the latest episode of Al-Hashemi’s trial in absentia, adjourned

the trial until June 19. “They have asked for Jalal Talabani, (former Vice President) Adel Abdel Mahdi, (Talabani’s chief-of-staff) Nasser Al-Ani,” and four MPs belonging to Al-Hashemi’s mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc to testify, one of the judges said. The judges denied the request on the grounds that defense lawyers had not asked for the group to be questioned before the trial, and because “the

FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2011 file photo, Iraq’s Sunni Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi speaks during an interview with the Associated Press near Sulaimaniyah, northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)

request did not clearly indicate what things they want to prove with these witnesses.” Judges in trials at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq are not identified, for their protection. Muayad Al-Izzi, the head of Al-Hashemi’s legal team, later told AFP they intended to use the officials as character witnesses. The refusal was the second time a request made by Al-Hashemi’s defense lawyers was denied, after they were told the vice president’s travel schedule was not relevant evidence at the last hearing on May 20. At the time, the defense team withdrew from the case and on Thursday, they sat with spectators, but continued to speak directly to the judge and present requests. Also on Thursday, the court in central Baghdad heard from three of Al-Hashemi’s bodyguards, who all said the vice president, last known to be in Turkey, had orchestrated violent attacks. Two officials - one a police brigadier general and the other a member of the Sunni Endowment, which manages Sunni Muslim religious sites in Iraq - also gave similar testimony. Previous hearings have seen Al-Hashemi’s bodyguards and other officials testify they were offered money, or were coerced, into carrying out attacks on the vice president’s orders. Al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s top Sunni Arab officials, was accused in December of running a death squad and, along with his staff and bodyguards, faces around 150 charges. He insists the accusations are politically-motivated. After the initial charges were filed, he fled to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, before embarking on a regional tour that has taken him to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and now Turkey. Ankara has said it will not extradite him to Iraq. -AFP

VIENNA: A US think-tank has published satellite images which it says underscore suspicions that Iran is trying to destroy evidence of possible nuclear weapons-related research at a site that UN inspectors have not been allowed to visit.The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) posted the pictures on its website hours after the UN nuclear watchdog showed diplomats similar images that western envoys said indicated a clean-up at the Parchin military facility. Parchin, which Iran says is a conventional military complex, southeast of Tehran, is at the centre of western allegations that Iran has conducted experiments - possibly a decade ago - that could help develop atom bombs. Iran denies any such ambition. The new satellite images appear to back western suspicions that Iran is cleaning the site of any incriminating evidence, such as traces of uranium or other materials, before possibly allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to go there. Western diplomats who attended Wednesday’s closed-door briefing by the IAEA in Vienna told Reuters that two small buildings at Parchin had been removed, and ISIS said its pictures from May 25, published on http://isis-online. org, showed that they “have been completely razed”. “Iran is worried that the agency might find something there. Otherwise it wouldn’t be going through the sanitization process,” a senior western official said. The pictures have been published after inconclusive talks last week between

Tehran and six world powers that aim to end a nuclear standoff in which the West has intensified sanctions on Iran, and Israel and the United States have threatened military strikes to stop the Islamic Republic getting the bomb. The IAEA has repeatedly asked Iran for access to Parchin. Last week, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying the IAEA had not yet given good enough reasons to visit the site. Iran says its nuclear activities are for electricity production and medical applications and has so far refused to let inspectors visit Parchin, saying there must first be a broader agreement setting out how the IAEA’s probe will progress. Iran’s IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, dismissed western suspicions of clean-up efforts at Parchin, telling reporters after the May 30 briefing at IAEA headquarters that “this kind of noise and allegations are baseless”. ISIS, which publishes research about nuclear proliferation, said the satellite images showed tracks “made by heavy machinery used in the demolition process.” The two buildings which now appear to have been dismantled - near the main structure that is of interest to the IAEA - were intact as recently as early April, it said. “Heavy machinery tracks and extensive evidence of earth displacement is also visible throughout the interior as well as the exterior of the site’s perimeter,” ISIS said. “The newest image raises concerns that Iran is attempting to raze the site prior to allowing an IAEA visit,” it said. -Reuters

Six blasts across Baghdad kill at least 17 BAGHDAD: Six explosions hit neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more in the most deadly attacks on the Iraqi capital in more than a month. The attacks - a truck bomb in a market, a car bomb and roadside explosives - broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad just as Iraq’s government, shared among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs, wrangles over a crisis that risks reigniting sectarian tensions. In the largest blast, a bomber detonated a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives near a restaurant in a market, killing at least 13 people and wounding 38 in the mainly Shiite Shula district, police and witnesses said. “The pickup truck came into the market and the driver left it saying he was going to get people to unload vegetables,” said Haider Fadhil, one of the wounded. “It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital.” A car bomb exploded near the vehicle of one of Prime Minister Nouri AlMaliki’s advisers, killing one civilian and wounding three in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. It was not clear whether the adviser was targeted. Two roadside bombs also exploded in Amiriya district, killing two people and wounding four more, while roadside bombs killed one and injured 15 more people in other mixed neighborhoods in

western and southern parts of the capital. Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height of the sectarian slaughter triggered a few years after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Suicide bombings and blasts claimed hundreds of lives daily in 2006-2007. In the last major attacks, 20 bombs hit cities and towns across the country in mid-April, killing 36 - including 15 people in mainly Shiite areas in Baghdad - and raising fears of renewed sectarian strife. Since the last U.S. troops pulled out in December, Sunni Islamists have often targeted local security forces and government buildings, but have also sought out Shiite victims in an attempt to stir sectarian tensions. Many Iraqi Sunnis say they fear AlMaliki wants to shore up Shiite power by sidelining Sunni leaders from the powersharing government set up over a year ago after inconclusive 2010 elections. Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for April’s attacks, saying they were in response to detentions and confiscations it said the Shiite-led government had carried out in Sunni areas.A Sunni vice president, Tareq Hashemi, has fled to Turkey after a court sought his arrest on charges he and his bodyguards ran a death squad. Hashemi says the charges are political, but Al-Maliki’s supporters say it is just a criminal case. -Reuters

Sudan denies armed police still in Abyei KHARTOUM: Sudan denied on Thursday that armed police remain in the contested border territory of Abyei, after UN chief Ban Ki-moon and South Sudan urged the country to complete its pullout. Ban welcomed the “full withdrawal” on Tuesday of the Sudan Armed Forces from the Abyei area, a move confirmed by UN peacekeepers there, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. But he “calls on the government of Sudan to withdraw all remaining armed police forces,” Nesirky added on Wednesday.

“We didn’t have any police at all inside Abyei area, now or in the past,” foreign ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh told AFP. “We only have an army, which we have withdrawn. And we are committed to what we have announced.” South Sudan rejected Khartoum’s claims to have pulled out from the area, which it partially occupied a year ago. “We made our position very clear that it was a partial withdrawal; Sudan Armed Forces withdrew their forces leaving two platoons,” South Sudan’s chief negotiator, Pa-

gan Amum, said in Addis Ababa where the two countries are holding their first talks since coming to the brink of all-out war in April. “We call on Sudan to withdraw all their forces as they are required by the (UN) resolution,” Amum said on Wednesday. Diplomatic sources said Sudan’s pullout involved about 300 troops. After fighting along the disputed border in March and April, the UN Security Council called on the two sides to cease hostilities and resume talks on a

number of issues, including the status of Abyei, the most sensitive matter left unresolved before South Sudan’s independence last July. The council’s May 2 resolution said both sides had to pull their forces out of Abyei by May 16. South Sudan complied, withdrawing police who were based there, while Sudan pulled its army out after the deadline. The United Nations says more than 100,000 people remain displaced from Abyei, mostly in Agok in the area’s far south, and in South Sudan. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION / VIEWS

The diet debacle

friDAY, june 1, 2012

Combining fat and carbohydrate places high demands on the metabolic process. And adding sugar is particularly egregious.

Robert H. Lustig Project Syndicate

wo seemingly benign nutritional maxims are at the root of all dietary evil: A calorie is a calorie, and You are what you eat. Both ideas are now so entrenched in public consciousness that they have become virtually unassailable. As a result, the food industry, aided and abetted by ostensibly well-meaning scientists and politicians, has afflicted humankind with the plague of chronic metabolic disease, which threatens to bankrupt healthcare worldwide. The United States currently spends 147 billion US dollars on obesity-related healthcare annually. Previously, one could have argued that these were affluent countries’ diseases, but the United Nations announced last year that chronic metabolic disease (including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and dementia) is a bigger threat to the developing world than is infectious disease, including HIV. These two nutritional maxims give credence to the food industry’s self-serving corollaries: If a calorie is a calorie, then any food can be part of a balanced diet; and, if we are what we eat, then everyone chooses what they eat. Again, both are misleading. If one’s weight really is a matter of personal responsibility, how can we

explain toddler obesity? Indeed, the US has an obesity epidemic in six-month-olds. They don’t diet or exercise. Conversely, up to 40 percent of normal-weight people have chronic metabolic disease. Something else is going on. Consider the following diets: Atkins (all fat and no carbohydrates); traditional Japanese (all carbohydrates and little fat); and Ornish (even less fat and carbohydrates with lots of fiber). All three help to maintain, and in some cases even improve, metabolic health, because the liver has to deal with only one energy source at a time. That is how human bodies are designed to metabolize food. Our hunter ancestors ate fat, which was transported to the liver and broken down by the lipolytic pathway to deliver fatty acids to the mitochondria (the subcellular structures that burn food to create energy). On the occasion of a big kill, any excess dietary fatty acids were packaged into lowdensity lipoproteins and transported out of the liver to be stored in peripheral fat tissue. As a result, our forebears’ livers stayed healthy. Meanwhile, our gatherer ancestors ate carbohydrates (polymers of glucose), which was also transported to the liver, via the glycolytic

pathway, and broken down for energy. Any excess glucose stimulated the pancreas to release insulin, which transported glucose into peripheral fat tissue, and which also caused the liver to store glucose as glycogen (liver starch). So their livers also stayed healthy. And nature did its part by supplying all naturally occurring foodstuffs with either fat or carbohydrate as the energy source, not both. Even fatty fruits - coconut, olives, avocados - are low in carbohydrate. Our metabolisms started to malfunction when humans began consuming fat and carbohydrates at the same meal. The liver mitochondria could not keep up with the energy onslaught, and had no choice but to employ a little-used escape valve called “de novo lipogenesis” (new fat-making) to turn excess energy substrate into liver fat. Liver fat mucks up the workings of the liver. It is the root cause of the phenomenon known as “insulin resistance” and the primary process that drives chronic metabolic disease. In other words, neither fat nor carbohydrates are problematic - until they are combined. The food industry does precisely that, mixing more of both into the Western diet for palatability and shelf

life, thereby intensifying insulin resistance and chronic metabolic disease. But there is one exception to this formulation: sugar. Sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup are comprised of one molecule of glucose (not especially sweet) and one molecule of fructose (very sweet). While glucose is metabolized by the glycolytic pathway, fructose is metabolized by the lipolytic pathway, and is not insulin-regulated. Thus, when sugar is ingested in excess, the liver mitochondria are so overwhelmed that they have no choice but to build liver fat. Today, 33 percent of Americans have a fatty liver, which causes chronic metabolic disease. Prior to 1900, Americans consumed less than 30 grams of sugar per day, or about 6 percent of total calories. In 1977, it was 75 grams/day, and in 1994, up to 110 grams/day. Currently, adolescents average 150 grams/day (roughly 30 percent of total calories) - a five-fold increase in one century, and a two-fold increase in a generation. In the past 50 years, consumption of sugar has also doubled worldwide. Worse yet, other than the ephemeral pleasure that it provides, there is not a single biochemical process that

requires dietary fructose; it is a vestigial nutrient, left over from the evolutionary differentiation between plants and animals. It is therefore clear that a calorie is not a calorie. Fats, carbohydrates, fructose, and glucose are all metabolized differently in the body. Furthermore, you are what you do with what you eat. Combining fat and carbohydrate places high demands on the metabolic process. And adding sugar is particularly egregious. Indeed, while food companies would have you believe that sugar can be part of a balanced diet, the bottom line is that they have created an unbalanced one. Of the 600,000 food items available in the US, 80 percent are laced with added sugar. People cannot be held responsible for what they put in their mouths when their choices have been co-opted. And this brings us back to those obese toddlers. The fructose content of a soft drink is 5.3 percent. Of course, many parents might refuse to give soft drinks to their children, but the fructose content of soy formula is 5.1 percent, and 6 percent for juice. We have a long way to go to debunk dangerous nutritional dogmas. Until we do, we will make little headway in reversing an imminent medical and economic disaster. * Robert Lustig is Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program, and member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

China’s political storm Brahma Chellaney Project Syndicate

s senior leaders are purged and retired provincial officials publicly call for Politburo members to be removed, it has become clear that China is at a crossroads. China’s future no longer looks to be determined by its hugely successful economy, which has turned the country into a world power in a single generation. Instead, the country’s murky and increasingly fractured politics are now driving its fate. One need look no further than the ongoing power struggle in the run-up to this autumn’s planned leadership changes, or official figures showing that rural protests have been increasing at the same rate as China’s GDP. The sudden downfall of Bo Xilai - and the call from Yunnan Province for the removal of the two Politburo members closest to him - is just one example of the no-holds-barred infighting now taking place in Zhongnanhai, the closed leadership compound in Beijing. Indeed, the internecine squabbles are said to be so vicious that there have been rumors, denied by the regime, that the Communist Party’s congress at which a new president and prime minister are to be anointed this autumn, might be postponed. The Party’s abrupt vilification of Bo after lauding him for his leadership in Chongqing has fueled public cynicism over his orchestrated downfall and laid bare the leadership’s thin ideological core. If China is to preserve its gains in global stature, it must avoid a political hard landing. For the time being, at least five different scenarios are conceivable. Re-equilibration: The Party protects its legitimacy, keeps the military subordinate, and manages to put a lid on popular dissent. In other words, the status quo prevails for the foreseeable future. This is the least likely scenario, owing to deepening internal Party disagreements and rising popular discontent. Implosion: This likelihood of political disintegration, economic collapse, and social disorder may be no higher than that of re-equilibration. The government’s fixation on weiwen, or stability maintenance, has resulted in China becoming the world’s only important country whose official internal-security budget is larger than its official national-defense budget. This underscores the extent to which authorities have to carry out internal repression to perpetuate one-party rule and maintain control over the restive ethnic-minority homelands that make up more than 60 percent of China’s landmass. But it may also explain why one selfimmolation in Tunisia helped to kindle the Arab Spring, whereas some three dozen self-immolations by Tibetan monks and nuns have failed to ignite a similar popular movement against the Chinese state. The Soviet Union imploded because the party was the state, and vice versa. China, by contrast, has established strong institutional capacity, a multi-tiered federal structure, a tradition of civilian leadership turnover every ten years, and a well-oiled, sophisticated security apparatus that has kept pace with tech-

nological advances. Thus, China’s government can pursue a policy of wai song nei jin - relaxed on the outside, vigilant internally. Guided reform: A process of gradual political change begins, in keeping with outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao’s warning that without “urgent” reforms, China risks turmoil and disruption of economic growth. Can China emulate the recent example of neighboring Myanmar (Burma), which has initiated significant, if still tenuous, political reforms? As the political heirs of the country’s Communist revolutionaries, the third-generation leaders that are taking over the reins of power in China may possess a strong pedigree, but they are also scarred and limited by it. These so-called princelings are trapped in the same political culture that led to the death of millions of Chinese and the continuing repression of opponents (real or imagined). They do not look like political reformers in the slightest. Great leap backward: A new “Cultural Revolution” erupts, as the clique in power ruthlessly seeks to suppress dissent within and outside the establishment. As the Dalai Lama recently warned, there are still plenty of “worshippers of the gun” in power in China. Indeed, such is China’s political system that only the strongest advance. One fallen princeling, Bo, has been accused of cruelty and corruption - traits that are endemic in China’s cloistered but fragmented oligarchy, which values family lineage and relies on networks of allies. Praetorian takeover: The People’s Liberation Army rules from behind a civilian mask, increasingly calling the shots with government officials, who are beholden to it.While the civilian leadership has become diffuse (every Chinese leader since Mao Zedong has been weaker than his predecessor), the military has enjoyed greater autonomy and soaring budgets since 1990. Indeed, the Party, having ceased to be a rigid monolith obedient to a single leader, has become dependent on the military for its political legitimacy and to ensure domestic order. The PLA’s growing political clout has been manifest in the sharpening power struggle within the Party. In recent weeks, an unusual number of senior military officers have published articles in official newspapers calling for Party discipline and unity, and alluding to the military’s role in containing the infighting. Another development is the increasing tendency of military generals to speak out of turn on strategic issues and undercut diplomatic strategy. The simple truth is that the foreign ministry is the Chinese government’s weakest branch, often overruled or simply ignored by the security establishment, which is ever ready to upstage even the Party. China’s internal politics has a bearing on its external policy. The weaker the civilian leadership has become, the more China has been inclined to discard Deng Xiaoping’s dictum tao guang yang hui (conceal ambitions and hide claws). China has lately taken pride more in baring its claws than in retracting them. Under any plausible scenario, a restrained and stable Chinese foreign policy may become more difficult. * Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, is the author of Asian Juggernaut and Water: Asia’s New Battleground.

SYRIAN POLITICAL OPPOSITION

Ali Farzat

INTERNATIONAL SYMPATHY

Various shortcomings witnessed in our system of education Shamlan Yousef Al-Esa

itizens across the country are well aware of the fact that our academicians at Kuwait University undergo a series of inconveniences based on the fact that immense pressure is imposed on them not only by their peers and seniors but also those in authority. Pressure is imposed on them to ensure that they do not fail the students in examinations even if they have fared badly and need to be detained in the same class. It is no secret here that parents, officials in various departments and even MPs pressure academicians to pass their sons and daughters and promote them to higher classes despite having failed miserably. There can be no doubt in one’s mind that we are faced with this shortcoming simply because most of the junior students who join the university are downright weak and hence are just not qualified to study at the university. We’ve got to face the underlying fact that there is just a sprinkling of students who are really studious and qualified enough to join the university while there are those others who prefer to take advantage of scholarships to study abroad. There is also another batch of students who head straight to the faculties of medicine or engineering and are not faced with any serious problems. The only ones that are faced with a plethora of problems are those that are very weak. This is evident in the fact that they are refused admissions in various colleges based on the fact that they have failed to secure the required percentage of marks. It is here that the entire process goes haywire in the sense that parents

of those students who fail to seek admissions at the university, due to the fact that they have fared badly in their examinations then start to contact the representatives of their respective constituencies and who in turn; tend to impose undue pressure on the education minister to help their children secure admissions at the university. It is an uncontested fact that most of our MPs deliberately tend to overlook the significance of education and knowledge and it is even worse when they deliberately ignore the fact that university students have to literally depend on themselves if they really want to obtain university degrees with high percentages. All that our MPs are concerned about is how to go about appeasing citizens and the parents of such students in desperate attempts to ensure that their vote banks are full to the brim during the upcoming parliamentary elections. What can we; as citizens of this country, do to combat the pressure being imposed by MPs on academicians coupled with the government’s lackadaisical attitude in dealing with such an important issue? I feel extremely sorry for all those junior male and female students who seek admissions at the university simply because they are unsuspecting victims of the primary, intermediate and high school teaching process which focuses on actually encouraging students to memorize and not how to think and be creative. The parents of such students should also be held responsible for this current state-ofaffairs because they are simply not interested in their children’s progress during the various educational stages and hold the teachers responsible for their children’s deficiencies and

shortcomings. They even go to the extent of dumping their own responsibilities on teachers in schools. The education ministry, on the other hand, is just not equipped to deal with such an overwhelming situation because of the huge numbers of students in each class, the lackadaisical attitudes of Kuwaiti teachers and most importantly a curriculum that is simply not in keeping with the times. Coming back to the main problem that is usually faced by students, I personally think that we should focus on encouraging the students to first understand the subject through his/her personal participation, dialogue and group discussions. This is how I went about my own educational process in the United States during my academic studies. The choice of passing or failing in examinations in the US certainly depends on the concerned students. Professors in US schools and colleges usually ask students to read a chapter from the book during a lecture after which the professors ask them various questions on that very chapter during the following lecture. I tried to apply the same procedure on my own students but they just could not bring themselves to answer any questions. In fact I always got this distinct feeling that they did even not want to participate in the lecture. We also tried to encourage students to conduct field researches by reading certain sections in local newspapers and commenting and compiling theses on various issues faced by women. To my mock horror, I realized that they were not even interested in reading any newspapers - local or international. Eventually, they were compelled to do it simply because I had insisted that they comment on certain issues!

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ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

fridAY, June 1, 2012

Nationwide strike in India over fuel price hike NEW DELHI: India’s opposition parties held a nationwide strike on Thursday, vowing to shut down the country in protest against steep petrol price rises announced last week. Political parties and trade unions planned anti-government marches, roadblocks and pickets outside government offices to focus anger on the administration of embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “We will lodge a strong democratic protest over the petrol price hike,” Prakash Javdekar, spokesman of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told AFP. “People are angry and they want to protest and this is the only legitimate way.” The strike called by the BJP and other opposition parties is not a threat to the Congress party-led government, but poses a fresh challenge as Singh struggles with declining economic growth and policy paralysis in parliament. “The price rise is killing us and the government is sleeping but today will wake them up,” said Ravikant Sahai, a grocery shop owner in New Delhi, where many roads were quiet on Thursday morning. Sahai, 43, said he would not open his shop

and hoped many other traders would join the strike. “Petrol price rises hurt everyone. Our business suffers. Why is this government determined to hurt us?” he said. Last week, Indian state-run oil firms announced the sharpest jump in petrol prices in nearly a decade to offset growing losses caused by subsidized rates, rises in the international oil price and a plunging rupee. Once taxes are included, the price increase of 6.28 rupees (11 US cents) per liter will result in a 7.5-rupee hike for consumers in cities such as Delhi. “It is unjustified and the government only has itself to blame for the present crisis,” said D. Raja, national secretary of the Communist Party of India. “Our demand is the oil companies must roll back the hike,” Raja told AFP. In 2010 the government deregulated petrol prices in a reform aimed at reducing the massive subsidies it pays to state-run fuel refiners which rely on imported energy. A series of smaller petrol price increases last year caused a major headache for the government with the second-largest party in the ruling coalition threatening to pull out. -AFP

Tibet, according to Tibetan rights groups. At least 27 have died. Late on Wednesday, Radio Free Asia cited a source as estimating that about 600 Tibetans had been detained since the Sunday’s protests in Lhasa. The number could not be independently confirmed because foreign journalists are barred from entering Tibet. Hao Peng, deputy party secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region, has urged authorities to tighten their grip on the Internet and mobile text messaging, reflecting government fears about unrest during a month-long Buddhist festival which started last week. The move is the latest in a series of measures the government says are intended to maintain stability. “Hao Peng stressed that...the trouble

NEWS IN BRIEF Suicide car bomber kills 5 police in Afghanistan KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle full of explosives outside a district police headquarters in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing five policemen, a government official said. The attack in Kandahar province’s Argistan district also wounded six policemen, said Javid Faisal, the provincial governor’s spokesman. Kandahar is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and has been one of the most heavily contested areas between the militants and Afghan and foreign forces. The US poured tens of thousands of additional troops into Kandahar and other areas of the south in 2009 and 2010 to reverse the Taliban’s momentum. While violence has fallen in some areas, attacks still occur frequently. -AFP

New North Korea constitution proclaims nuclear status Indian supporters of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) burn an effigy representing Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a nationwide strike in Siliguri on May 31. (AFP)

‘Hundreds detained’ in Tibet after self-immolations BEIJING: Hundreds of Tibetans in Lhasa have been detained by Chinese security officers after two self-immolation protests against Chinese rule over Tibet, a US-broadcaster said, stoking concerns of spreading unrest among Tibetans in China. On Sunday, two Tibetan men set themselves on fire in Lhasa, state news agency Xinhua said, the first time in four years of a major Tibetan protest against Chinese rule. One of the men died. China has branded the self-immolators “terrorists” and criminals and has blamed exiled Tibetans and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting them. At least 35 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against China’s six-decade rule over

caused by the activities of the Dalai clique has persisted, and the situation for stability maintenance is still complicated and grim,” the official Tibet Daily newspaper reported. The detentions come amid news that a Tibetan woman had set herself ablaze on Wednesday afternoon in Aba prefecture in southwestern Sichuan province, according to Tibetan advocacy group Free Tibet and Radio Free Asia. Experts say Beijing may introduce tighter restrictions to halt the growing unrest in China’s ethnic Tibetan areas. Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a separatist. The Dalai Lama says he merely seeks greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland. -Reuters

China spy cloud ‘threatens Japan minister’

Militants deny link to Pakistani doctor

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will sack his agriculture minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle as early as next week. (AFP)

TOKYO: A spy scandal involving a Chinese diplomat working at the embassy in Tokyo looks set to cost a Japanese cabinet minister his job, a report said Thursday. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will sack his agriculture minister amid claims an alleged Chinese agent met with the minister’s underlings and could have seen classified information on exports, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The paper reported police believe Li Chengguang, a former member of China’s intelligence service who was first secretary at the Tokyo embassy, met with staff working under Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano. Police are probing claims the diplomat also had contact with defense firm employees and research and development organization officials in a bid to obtain information about military technology, the Yomiuri said. Earlier reports said Li, who is fluent in Japanese, fled the country before police could question him. Beijing on Wednesday dismissed claims the 45-year-old was a spy as “totally groundless” and said he had left Japan after completing his tenure at the embassy. A Chinese government spokesman said Li was a scholar on Japan with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading government think-tank, who had been assigned to the economic section of China’s embassy. The Yomiuri said Noda would remove his minister to avoid any risk of his being grilled over the spying claims by opposition lawmakers. The prime minister is expected to make the move as part of a cabinet reshuffle as early as next week that will also see the departure of the defense and transport ministers, both of whom have been censured by the opposition-controlled upper house. -AFP

Kazakh border guards found dead near China frontier

The charred bodies of at least 12 Kazakh border guards and a gamekeeper have been discovered at a burnt-out border post on the frontier with China. (Reuters)

PYONGYANG: North Korea’s new constitution proclaims its status as a nucleararmed nation, complicating international efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon atomic weapons, analysts said Thursday. An official website seen late Wednesday released the text of the constitution following its revision during a parliamentary session on April 13. “National Defense Commission chairman Kim Jong-Il turned our fatherland into an invincible state of political ideology, a nuclear-armed state and an indomitable military power, paving the ground for the construction of a strong and prosperous nation,” says part of the preamble. -AFP

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Deepening the mystery in a case that is straining Islamabad’s relations with Washington, a Pakistani militant group said on Thursday it never had ties to a doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden, even though he was jailed for aiding them. Last week, after Dr Shakil Afridi was convicted by a court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said the decision was based on treason charges for helping the CIA and conspiring against the state. After that announcement rankled US officials, Pakistan then said the doctor had a history of womanizing, sexual harassment and assault and stealing, allegations that could not be independently confirmed. -AFP

US military trainers trickle back into Pakistan WASHINGTON: The United States has sent a handful of military trainers back into Pakistan in a sign the two nations may be able to achieve some low-level cooperation against militants despite a string of confrontations that have left Washington’s relations with Islamabad in crisis. Fewer than 10 US special operations soldiers have been sent to a training site near the border city of Peshawar, where they will instruct trainers from Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency warfare, a US official said. But Pakistan denied that any US military personnel had returned. The number of American military instructors in Pakistan dropped to zero after US aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in late November. NATO labeled the border incident an accident but it enraged Pakistanis and sent already tense ties with the United States into a tailspin. -AP

Bali bomb-maker pleads for leniency

ASTANA: The charred bodies of at least 12 Kazakh border guards and a gamekeeper have been discovered at a burnt-out border post on the frontier with China, a senior official from the country’s border guard service said on Thursday. Fifteen guards had been stationed at the post in southeast Kazakhstan, said Turganbek Stambekov, first deputy chief of the border guard service. He gave no details about the fate of the three missing servicemen. “At present, the charred remains of 13 bodies have been found, including the body of a gamekeeper from a hunting reserve adjacent to the border post,” Stambekov told a news briefing, reading from

a prepared statement. He declined to answer questions and did not say whether the victims were believed to have died in the fire or beforehand. The border guard service is under the jurisdiction of the National Security Committee, successor to the Soviet-era KGB. Stambekov said investigators had travelled to the scene, near the Kazakh town of Usharal. Local news agencies, citing unidentified sources, said the border post was reinforced during the summer months to guard against the illegal gathering of rare medicinal plants that grow in the region. Last Monday, May 28, was the annual

Soviet-era holiday for border guards, an event still celebrated in former Soviet countries. The bodies were discovered on May 30, Stambekov said. Kazakhstan shares a 1,530-km (960mile) border with China and exported goods worth more than 16 billion US dollars to its neighbor last year, more than 18 percent of its total export revenues. There is no post-Soviet history of violence at the border. Shootouts between drug traffickers and militants occur sporadically in other Central Asian countries, particularly Tajikistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan and lies on a conduit for Afghan opiates en route to Russia and beyond. -Reuters

JAKARTA: Umar Patek, accused of playing a key role in the Bali bombings, insisted Thursday the attacks that killed 202 people were “against my conscience” and begged for a light sentence. In emotionally-charged testimony, Patek, 45, maintained he played only a minor role in the 2002 bombings and had shown remorse by apologizing to the victims’ families. Prosecutors have recommended a life sentence for Patek, claiming he was a main bomb-maker in attacks on two nightclubs on the Indonesian resort island which killed many tourists. “I only helped to mix less than 50 kilograms of chemicals,” Patek said, reading from a lengthy statement with Qur’anic verses in Arabic. He added that others mixed a remaining 950 kilograms (2010 pounds) for the explosives. “I did it half-heartedly, only because the person who was mixing looked tired and tense. It’s not my soul’s calling and it’s against my conscience.” “I will turn 46 in 50 days, which is considered old, and a long term behind bars will be too severe. I am yet to have children,” he told the West Jakarta District Court. “I hope the judges will consider my plea and give the lightest possible verdict that is true and fair.” He also urged the panel of five judges not to be influenced by “stigma surrounding my identity, theories, opinions

and speculation in the mass media in making a final decision”. He criticized prosecutors for not considering the points raised by witnesses in drafting the recommendation. “All the facts uncovered in the trial specifically from witnesses and my statements were thrown aside,” Patek said, raising his voice. “Their recommendation was simply made by copying and pasting from the indictment.” Patek, part of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, was arrested last year in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, four months before US commandos killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden there. Indonesian prosecutors stopped short of recommending the maximum death penalty last week, arguing that Patek’s remorse should spare him from the firing squad. Three of the Bali bombers have already been executed. At the trial which started in February, Patek has repeatedly denied any major involvement. He claimed he had a change of heart and tried to stop the attacks at the last minute. The court is expected to announce its verdict in June. Patek was once the most-wanted terror suspect in Indonesia and spent nearly a decade on the run with the US offering a 1 million US dollars bounty for him under its rewards for justice program. -AFP

South Korea police arrest two for spying for North

SEOUL: Two people including a Korean businessman in New Zealand have been arrested on suspicion of collecting intelligence on military equipment for North Korea, police said Thursday. The pair, arrested in early May, were a 74-year-old man identified only as Lee, and Kim, 56, who acquired New Zealand citizenship and was involved in trading with North Korea. Lee was sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges in 1972 and was released on parole in 1990, but still re-

tains allegiance to Pyongyang, police said in a statement. The two had collected information on military equipment and devices capable of disturbing global positioning system (GPS) signals, an investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity. They also met a suspected North Korean agent last July in China’s northeastern border city of Dandong, he said. “We have secured evidence to prove they collected intelligence on sensitive military equipment, but it’s not clear whether they have actually passed the information

to the suspected agent,” he said. The South periodically detains people accused of spying for its communist neighbor. Espionage can carry a maximum penalty of death in the South, although no one has been executed for any crime since 1997. The latest case followed Seoul’s accusations that Pyongyang had transmitted signals designed to jam GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea from April 28 to May 13. Seoul said the signals originated from the North’s bor-

der city of Kaesong, forcing sea and air traffic to use other navigational equipment to avoid compromising safety. The North rejected the South’s accusations as “sheer fabrication” aimed at slandering the communist state. The GPS jamming incident came at a time of high cross-border tensions. The North has threatened “sacred war” against the South in retaliation for perceived insults during Pyongyang’s commemoration in April of the centenary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung. -AFP

Iran cancels $2 billion dam deal with China

BUSINESS

fridAY, june 1, 2012

m ar ket watc h KUWAIT 0.76 % 6194

DUBAI

QATAR

OMAN

ABU DHABI

0.66% 8416

0.55% 5754

0.36% 2441

0.06% 1471.9

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OIL MARKETS BAHRAIN

EGYPT

0.22% 1139

0.01% 4686

SAUDI

0.82% 6975

US Crude $87.40 $0.42 London Brent $103.09 $0.38 Kuwait Crude $103.90 $0.37 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

CURRENCIES US Dollar

British Pound

Saudi Riyal

Qatari Riyal

Indian Rupee

Euro

Japanese Yen

UAE Dirham

Bahraini Dinar

Philippine Peso

Buy 0.2804 Sell 0.2809 Buy 0.3479 Sell 0.3486

Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan up 61% Japan’s April crude imports from Iran fall

CAPIATLS: Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan jumped 61.0 percent in April from a year earlier to 9.74 million barrels, or 325,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the third consecutive monthly gain, the government said Thursday. Kuwait remained Japan’s fourth-biggest oil supplier last month since overtaking Iran in March, providing 8.3 percent of the country’s total crude imports, compared with 5.7 percent in the same month of last year and 8.1 percent in March, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report. Japan’s overall imports of crude oil in April increased 10.2 percent year-on-year to 117.92 million barrels (3.93 million bpd) for the third straight monthly expansion. Shipments from the Middle East stood at 3.27 million bpd and accounted for 83.1 percent of the total, down 1.4 percentage points from a year before. Saudi Arabia was Japan’s biggest oil supplier, with imports from the kingdom growing 9.7 percent from a

year earlier to 1.07 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 1.00 million bpd, up 20.1 percent. Qatar ranked third with 451,000 bpd, up 44.4 percent and Russia fifth with 222,000 bpd, up 53.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, shipments from Iran plunged 26.1 percent on the year to 189,000 bpd. Japan, the world’s third-largest oil consumer after China and the US, is buying more fossil fuels for thermal power generation as all of the nation’s 54 commercial reactors are currently idled due to safety concerns following the radiation accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year. In more news, Japan’s crude oil imports from Iran fell 26.1 percent in April from a year earlier, as the world’s third-largest oil consumer stares at a complete halt in imports from the member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) from July due to tightening Western sanctions. Iran’s share of Japan’s crude imports fell to 4.8 percent from 7.2 percent a year earlier, making the Islamic Republic the sixth biggest supplier to Japan, down from fourth last year. Japanese crude buyers are making the cutbacks to

comply with Western sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program that make it tough to pay for, ship and insure Iranian crude imports. Japan’s imports from Iran fell to 189,100 barrels per day (bpd) last month, against 10.2 percent rise in overall crude oil imports to 3.93 million bpd, data from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) showed on Thursday. Japan will load about 123,000 bpd in May from Iran, about the same as in April, traders said earlier this month, about 60 percent less than the 305,114 bpd average imports from Iran in the first three months of the year. Shipments take about 20 days to reach Japan from the Middle East. In March, imports from Iran fell 36.4 percent yearon-year to 270,700 bpd. Japan’s Ministry of Finance released customs-cleared crude imports data for April on Wednesday, but the oil industry regards the METI data as the benchmark because it tracks the actual import status of oil tankers. The Ministry of Finance data showed that customs-cleared crude imports from Iran tumbled 65.5 percent from a year earlier to 564,962 kiloliters (118,450 bpd) in April. -Agencies

Oil up near $104, but eyes worst month in 2 years LONDON: Oil edged up near 104 US dollars on Thursday as buyers moved back in after Wednesday’s heavy sell off, but continuing nervousness around the demand outlook and the eurozone crisis kept oil on course for its biggest monthly percentage drop in two years. Brent crude futures for July delivery were up 50 US cents at $103.97 per barrel by 0945 GMT, off a low of $102.90 hit earlier in the session. Prices were on track for a monthly loss of around 13 percent, the biggest since May 2010, after slipping three percent on Thursday. US crude for July delivery was up 36 cents to $88.18 per barrel. Prices were headed for a steep monthly loss of around 16 percent - the worst since late 2008. “The market is in a state of flux right now, driven by currencies and safe haven flights,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. Dollar weakness and the euro’s recovery from a twoyear low helped lift oil prices as London traders arrived at their desks.A weaker dollar makes commodities priced in dollars more affordable for buyers using other currencies. Hansen saw US crude finding support down towards $85 and ahead of $100 for Brent, as this is a crucial level from a technical point of view and given repeated statements by the Saudis. “We are pretty close to a good support here,” he said. “We’ve completely removed the geopolitical risk factor and now the demand side has come back into focus. There is some nervousness we could see a deeper slowdown than what was expected.” He pointed to the poor economic performance data out of India, which has been one of the growth engines for energy consumption. India’s annual economic growth slumped in the first quarter to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent as the manufacturing sector shrank. Eurozone crisis

The ongoing crisis in the eurozone also continues to dominate market sentiment. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), warned on Thursday that the ECB could not fill the vacuum created by the lack of action by national governments. Spain’s centre-right government has so far failed to spell out how it plans to finance a 23.5 billion euro ($29

KSE ends session with all indices in red

KUWAIT: The trading session at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended on Thursday with all three main indices in red. The price index came to 6,193.82 points upon losing 47.6 points, and the weighted index came to 404.7 points shedding 3.78 points, while the KSX 15 index came to 969.4 points on a loss of 9.52 points. There were 4,786 trades till end of business, worth 25,281,454.445 Kuwaiti dinars and with 313,270,329 shares changing hands. A total of 13 sector indices closed in red, while only two were in green, with the Market IXP as top loser with 47.6, and Parallel Market IXP as top gainer with 4.42 points. Top gainer of the day was Kuwait Gypsum Manufacturing and Trading CO, while top loser was Kuwait and Middle East Fin. Inv. Co. KSCC. -KUNA

Workers walk in front of a multi-story commercial building under construction on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad May 31, 2012. India’s annual economic growth slumped in the JanuaryMarch quarter to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent as the manufacturing sector contracted and a fall in the rupee to a record low suggests the economy remains under pressure in the current quarter. (Reuters)

billion) rescue of Bankia, the country’s fourth-biggest lender. This is unnerving markets and has driven the country’s borrowing costs to levels at which Ireland and Portugal sought international bailouts. Spain’s 10-year bond yield is currently around 6.58 percent, close to the crucial seven percent mark. “The situation in Spain at the moment is untenable, not only is there concern over the state of its banking

Jordan raises rates to bolster currency

AMMAN: The Central Bank of Jordan raised its overnight deposit rates on the dinar by 50 basis points on Thursday but kept its other key benchmark rates unchanged to prevent stifling already slow growth in a move to bolster dinar-denominated assets at a time of regional uncertainty. The bank raised overnight rates on the dinar, which banks receive on excess liquidity, to 3.25 percent but left unchanged its discount rate at five percent and the repo rate at 4.75 percent. The move is the second increase since a hike last February also by 50 basis points on key benchmark interest rates to encourage savings in dinar-denominated assets at a time of regional political uncertainty, the central bank said. “This move helps improve the competitiveness by raising the return on dinar savings that helps to ensure monetary stability and improve the local and investment climate,” a Central Bank statement said. The bank began raising rates last year after a period of cuts since 2008, when the bank eased monetary policy to cushion the economy from the impact of the financial crisis and to curb inflationary fears. The central bank has vowed to bolster monetary stability as the country faces slow growth and the impact of regional political uncertainty on investment sentiment, with a drop in foreign capital inflows last year. The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) has traditionally maintained a high interest rate policy to preserve the attractiveness of dinar-denominated assets and to hamper any excessive outflow of dinars into dollardenominated assets. The rise in the key overnight deposit rate will widen the differential between the dinar and the dollar to over four percent from an average three to 3.5 percent, bankers say. Bankers predicted the move will have an immediate impact on increasing dinar accounts in a banking sector with over $34 billion deposits and where currently interest rates on dollar deposits are at a marginal 0.2 percent. -Reuters

sector but there is little confidence its government will actually be able to bail them out,” said Michael Creed, an economist at the National Australia Bank. This is keeping investors on the sidelines. Adding to the nervousness in markets is the fact that the outcome of the Greek election remains finely balanced, as different polls in recent days have produced highly contradictory results. -Reuters

Kuwait April inflation at 4-month low, food cheaper KUWAIT: Kuwait’s annual inflation eased to a four-month low of 3.3 percent in April and prices fell on a monthly basis for the first time in more than a year due to a drop in food prices, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) data showed on Thursday. Inflation in the major oil exporter edged up to 4.1 percent in March after easing gradually from a peak of 5.4 percent in May 2011. Consumer prices in the country’s 177 billion US dollar economy contracted 0.6 percent month-on-month in April, compared to a 0.8 percent rise in March, KUNA said citing data from the Central Statistics Office. Analysts polled by Reuters in March expected average inflation of 4.5 percent in 2012, down from a three-year high of 4.8 percent last year. Food costs, which account for almost a fifth of Kuwait consumer expenses, fell by 2.6 percent month-on-month in April, back down to February’s levels after a similar jump in March. Transport prices edged up 0.2 percent from the previous month. Around 3,000 Kuwaiti customs workers went on a week-long strike in March, which disrupted traffic at ports, demanding salary increases despite the government plan for a 25 percent rise in public wages. Employees at national carrier Kuwait Airways grounded planes for three days during a walkout. Kuwait’s civil service commission eventually agreed to wage rises of 25 to 30 percent for public sector employees. It also proposed increases of up to 330 Kuwaiti dinars ($1,190) per month for Kuwaiti private sector workers. While the country’s oil wealth enables it to absorb a spike in earnings in the short term, policymakers and economists warn price pressures will mount if settlements do not moderate. Most Kuwaitis work for the state in well-paid secure jobs. Around two-thirds of Kuwait’s roughly 3 million inhabitants are foreigners. -Reuters

Buy 0.435 Sell 0.4359

Buy 0.003561 Sell 0.00357

Buy 0.0748 Sell 0.0749

Buy 0.07634 Sell 0.07649

Buy 0.07717 Sell 0.07702 Buy 0.7438 Sell 0.74523

Buy 0.005009 Sell 0.005 Buy 0.006462 Sell 0.006443

Prices in Kuwaiti fils as of May 31, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

Agility announces KD 27 million 2011 net profit Approves 30% cash dividends at AGM

Tarek Sultan, Chairman and Managing Director of Agility

KUWAIT: Agility held its Annual General Meeting where it approved all items on the agenda including a 30 percent dividend distribution for 2011. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, Agility’s net profit was 27 million Kuwaiti dinars with revenue of KD 1.3 billion, and operating profit at KD 19 million. This was stated in a press release on Thursday. Agility enjoys a healthy balance sheet with low leverage, a net cash position of KD 57 million and free cash flow of KD 22 million. Speaking to shareholders, Tarek Sultan, Chairman and Managing Director of Agility explained that 2011 was a year of transition for Agility, as they operated without defense and government business for the first time and spent the year heavily focused on strengthening their core commercial business. This included redeploying resources: selling the bulk of vehicle fleet in the Middle East and freeing up warehousing space for commercial customers. It also included restructuring the business, managing costs, and using technology as a driver of productivity improvements. The Infrastructure group of companies also continued to provide Agility with the ability to address profitable niches in the marketplace, and has showed steady growth in the last several years. In 2011, Agility successfully closed two deals: a merger of Agility Qatar operations with Gulf Warehousing Company (GWC) that realized a gain of KD 8.2 million and a joint venture with France Telecom converting Korek debt into equity. Today, Agility has an indirect stake of 24 percent in Korek and 100 million US dollars debt, yielding 12 percent per annum. Profits grew by eight percent in 2011 even though overall revenues fell. Excluding defense and government services, however, revenue grew by 3.2 percent in the commercial business and 18 percent in the infrastructure group. Reflecting Agility’s commitment to financial discipline operating expense was reduced by 15 percent and working capital was converted into cash. “We are a different company today than we were a year ago, and we consider 2011 a new financial baseline against which we will measure future performance. Having undergone some heavy lifting in terms of restructuring over the last two years, the company anticipates solid gains in 2012 and beyond.” Sultan highlighted. Agility’s core business is in commercial logistics, executed through the Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) business group. Revenue for GIL for the full year of 2011 was KD 1.2 billion, a decrease of 1.4 percent from 2010. Excluding government and discontinued business, however, GIL’s revenues grew by 3.2 percent relative to 2010, despite softened trade volumes that prevailed in the last two quarters of the year. Agility’s strong position in high-growth emerging markets was a major contributor to revenue, as reflected in double-digit growth in Asia-Pacific region. In 2011, Agility opened a new warehouse in Seoul, South Korea, broke ground on a state-ofthe-art logistics facility in Melaka, Malaysia, and expanded its cross-border trucking network from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos and Thailand into China. Agility’s Infrastructure companies contributed KD 156.7 million to 2011 revenue. Infrastructure revenue grew 18 percent from 2010, excluding government-related business. Agility’s Real Estate business, in particular, is an important contributor to financial performance, but other entities like National Aviation Services (NAS) have also shown healthy growth over the last several years. The company is taking a number of actions to further enhance the potential of these companies. Meanwhile, Agility has stayed committed to its culture of giving back to its employees, communities, and world. In 2011, Agility published its first Corporate Social Responsibility report, using the United Nations reporting framework as a guideline. Agility’s humanitarian logistics program, which assists relief agencies in getting relief goods to the site of a natural disaster, has grown tremendously since it was first launched it in 2006. Agility has responded to more than 22 disasters in the last five years, in countries such as Myanmar, Haiti, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Lebanon and others. Its community volunteer program has also grown. They have implemented more than 550 projects in over 60 different countries, focusing primarily on youth and education and health. In 2011, those projects included building preschools in Cambodia and a school in rural Indonesia; training 8,000 high school girls in the Philippines; supporting an elderly home and cancer society in Lebanon; delivering more than 4,000 food packages across Jordan; transporting footballs to Uganda to put a smile on kids’ faces; and mentoring youth in Kuwait through Injaz. The company also continues to make progress in its environmental journey, working with customers to measure and manage carbon emissions, and finding ways to reduce impact in its own operations. “As a business, we work hard to maintain high standards in employment, customer service, and quality.” Sultan explained. Despite the changes over the last two years, Agility continues to be strong and financially stable. It has a strong balance sheet with over KD 1.4 billion in assets and KD 0.9 billion in total equity, a global network and a market-leading position in emerging markets that are continuing to grow. And above all, it has 22,000 employees who are committed to the company’s long-term success. “Although 2012 is likely to be another tough year for the global economy, we are committed to continuing to drive the company forward. Sultan reiterated.

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

friDAY, june 1, 2012

Iran cancels $2 billion dam deal with China

BEIJING: Iran has cancelled a two billion US dollar contract for a Chinese firm to help build a hydroelectric dam, Chinese state media said on Thursday, a move that risks upsetting one of Tehran’s most important economic and political allies. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to visit China next week for a security summit, where he is expected to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on Iran’s disputed nuclear program. In March 2011, Iran’s official news agency said China’s Sinohydro Corporation had signed a contract with Iranian hydro firm Farab to build the dam, described as the world’s tallest, in Iran’s western province of Lorestan. It was designed to support a 1,500-megawatt power station. The Global Times, a popular tabloid owned by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said the Iranian government had decided to cancel the contract. The report did not cite sources or give a reason. But it quoted Iranian media reports as saying Iran’s central bank was “dissatisfied” with financing options offered by China. A Sinohydro official told Reuters by telephone the company was “checking with colleagues in Tehran on this issue”. China’s Foreign Ministry said it had no information about the case. Guo Xian’gang, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, a government think tank, said he did not see the cancellation affecting Sino-Iran ties. “Some projects may be cancelled due to some technical reasons, other projects

are still going on, it is really normal,” Guo said. “The outside world does not need to exaggerate this.” Guo, who is an expert on the Middle East, added the cancellation would not affect Ahmadinejad’s visit to China. China and Iran have close energy and trade ties, and Beijing has repeatedly resisted US-led demands to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. However, differences have arisen between China and Iran in the development of Iran’s oil and gas resources. State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation was given a month’s deadline by Iranian Oil minister Rostam Ghasemi in April to make a serious start on the giant South Pars gas field after 32 months of delay. China and Iran have signed many agreements of intent for investment in Tehran but these have been “difficult to implement”, said Yin Gang, a professor at the China Academy of Social Sciences and an expert on China’s Middle East policies. “Part of it has to do with the unstable situation in Iran, China needs to be careful in doing business,” Yin said. “At the same time, the Iranian businessmen can be quite tough at the negotiating table.” In September last year, Reuters reported China’s reluctance to progress with oil and gas investments in Iran. Many foreign companies have been forced to pull out of the Iranian energy sector due to the fear of sanctions, but state-owned Asian firms are less susceptible to Western pressure to stay away from the Iranian market. -Reuters

Transition to green economy could yield up to 60 million jobs: ILO

GENEVA: The transformation to a greener economy could generate 15 to 60 million additional jobs globally over the next two decades and lift tens of millions of workers out of poverty, according to a new report led by the Green Jobs Initiative. The study ‘Working towards sustainable development: Opportunities for decent work and social inclusion in a green economy’ says that these gains will depend on whether the right set of policies are put in place. “The current development model has proven to be inefficient and unsustainable, not only for the environment, but for economies and societies as well”, said International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia. “We urgently need to move to a sustainable development path with a coherent set of policies with people and the planet at the centre”. “The forthcoming “Rio+20” United Nations conference will be a crucial moment to make sure decent work and social inclusion are integral parts of any future development strategy”, he added. Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), said, this report comes on the eve of World Environment Day on June 5 under the theme ‘Green Economy: Does it Include You?’. “The findings underline that it can include millions more people in terms of overcoming poverty and delivering improved livelihoods for this and future generations. It is a positive message of opportunity in a troubled world of challenges that we are relaying to capital cities across the globe as leaders prepare and plan for the Rio+20 Summit,” he added. The report - published almost four years after the first study by the Green Jobs Initiative - looks at the impact that the greening of the economy can have on employment, incomes and sustainable development in general. At least half of the global workforce - the equivalent of 1.5 billion people will be affected by the transition to a greener economy. While changes will be felt throughout the economy, eight key sectors are expected to play a central role and be mostly affected: agriculture, forestry, fishing, energy, resource-intensive manufacturing, recycling, building and transport. Tens of millions of jobs have already been created by this transformation. For example the renewable energy sector now employs close to five million workers, more than doubling the number of jobs from 2006-2010. Energy efficiency is another important source of green jobs, particularly in the construction industry, the sector hardest hit by the economic crisis. In the United States, three million people are employed in environmental goods and services. In Spain, there are now more than half a-million jobs in this sector. Net gains in employment in the order of 0.5-2 percent of total employment are possible. In emerging economies and developing countries, the gains are likely to be higher than in industrialized countries, because the former can leapfrog to green technology rather than replace obsolete resource-intensive infrastructure. Brazil has already created just under three million jobs, accounting for some seven percent of all formal employment. These good results have one thing in common: the recognition that environmental and socio-economic challenges need to be addressed in a comprehensive

and complementary manner. First, this means promoting and implementing sustainable production processes at the level of the business itself, especially among small-and-medium-sized enterprises in the key sectors mentioned above. Second, an extension of social protection, income support and skills training measures is key to ensuring that workers are in a position to take advantage of these new opportunities. Third, international labor standards and workers’ rights can provide a legal and institutional framework, as well as practical guidance, for work in a greener and sustainable economy, especially when it comes to job quality and occupational safety and health. Finally, effective social dialogue involving employers and trade unions is central to the governance of sustainable development. “Environmental sustainability is not a job killer, as it is sometimes claimed. On the contrary, if properly managed, it can lead to more and better jobs, poverty reduction and social inclusion”, said the ILO head. According to other key findings of the report, in the EU alone, 14.6 million direct and indirect jobs exist in the protection of biodiversity and rehabilitation of natural resources and forests. The targeted international investments of 30 billion US dollars per year into reduced deforestation and degradation of forests could sustain up to 8 million additional full-time workers in developing countries. Experiences from Colombia, Brazil and other countries show that the formalization and organization of some 15-20 million informal waste pickers could have significant economic, social and environmental benefits. The building renovation program for energy efficiency in Germany is an example of the possible win-win-win outcomes: it has mobilized 100 billion euro in investments; it is reducing energy bills, avoiding emissions and creating around 300,000 direct jobs per year. Overuse of natural resources has already caused large losses, including over a million jobs for forest workers, mainly in Asia, because of unsustainable forest management practices. The fisheries sector is likely to face a major, albeit temporary transition challenge for workers due to overfishing. Temporary reductions of catch may be needed in many fisheries to allow declining stocks to recover. Of particular concern is that 95 per cent of the 45 million workers employed in fishing are often poor artisanal coastal fishermen in developing countries. In much of Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Europe, the proportion of expenditure on energy by poor households is three times - and can be as much as 20 times - that of richer households. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India and the social housing and ‘green grants’ programs in Brazil are good examples of social protection policies that contribute to sustainable development. Women could be among the main beneficiaries of a greener, more socially inclusive economy, with better access to opportunities to jobs, for example in renewable energy, higher incomes, in particular in agriculture, formalization of employment, notably among the 15-20 million recycling workers and many burdens reduced among other from access to clean energy, enhanced food security, energy and water efficient social housing. -KUNA

Thursday 31 May, 2012 Index Price index Weighted Index KSX 15 Security

Change ź ź ź

High

-47.60 -3 78 -3.78 -9.52

Low

Volume

Closing

Last Closing

High

Low

6,193.82 404 70 404.70 969.40

6,241.42 408 48 408.48 978.92

6,246.56 408 55 408.55 979.18

6,179.30 402 26 402.26 961.17

Trades Value (KD)

Trades

MARIN

IKARUS

184

182

30,010

5,472

IPG

Last

184 0

Change

ŷ ź ŷ

00 0.0

-4.0 0.0

NAPESCO

350

320

7,739

2,477

AREFENRGY

130

128

141,999

18,200

GPI

79,920

4,855

ABAR

204

186

3,128 262,796

613 31,616

7 31

190 954.03

ź ź

-6.0 -4.00

112

110

122,830

13,527

112

0.0

630

610

573 894 573,894

359 785 359,785

ALQURAIN Basic Materials

216

214

484,494 1,181,218

104,438 477,750

29 51

214 988.52

KCEM

405

37,000

14,985

405

REFRI

162

20,000

3,240

CABLE

1,220

19,024

23,209

Oil & Gas PIPE KFOUC BPCC ALKOUT

SHIP

210

194

218,220

44,672

PCEM

870

850

16,000

13,704

PAPER

194

186

4,500

857

MRC ACICO

240

238

157,000

37,526

GGMC

720

700

6,970

4,937

HCC

218

100

KPAK

KBMMC

NICBM

244

5,038

1,229

EQUIPMENT

NCCI

132

10,999

1,452

GYPSUM SALBOOKH

AGLTY

395

390

938,563

368,402

EDU

128

108

31,020

3,351

CLEANING CITYGROUP

130 475

122 470

2,596,360 46

323,414 22

134 3

KGL

110

106

3,702

401

KCPC

335

320

29,262

9,367

HUMANSOFT

250

238

1,683

409

NAFAIS

104

SAFWAN

GFC

35,010

953

MAYADEEN

48,879,498

1,016,667

304

1,320

17,700

23,364

MTCC

401,999

35,738

UPAC

355

5,000

1,775

ALAFCO

CGC

290

285

120,100

34,229

MUBARRAD

LOGISTICS

280

275

212,787

59,526

SCEM

200,000

16,400

350 128 62

630 0

162

1,220 210

860

186 0

238 700

218 0

244 0 0

132 32

395

108

124 475

108

335

250

104 0

1,320 89

355 290 0

275 82

Ÿ ŷ ź

ŷ ŷ ŷ

10.0 0.0

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

106

301

ERESCO

506,387

46,799

0.0

MABANEE

980

960

89,939

87,303

INJAZZAT

73 368 73,368

4 475 4,475

0.0

INVESTORS

15,831,715

303,744

185

IRC ALTIJARIA

56 83

53 82

23,787,240 147,500

1,294,188 12,119

196 7

SANAM

40,000

2,400

AAYANRE

316,000

26,535

AQAR

10,000

990

ALAQARIA

MAZAYA

271,001

21,240

ADNC

THEMAR

GRAND

TIJARA

470,000

18,105

TAAMEER

113,260

4,910

ARKAN

ARGAN

190

ABYAAR

5,778,001

261,574

MUNSHAAT

470,002

15,727

FIRSTDUBAI

955,712

36,851

KBT

10.0

REAM

MENA

-5.0

ALMUDON

0.0

-6.0 0.0

10.0

-20.0 2.0

0.0

-4.0

-50.0

-10.0 0.0

0.0

-4.0 0.0 0.0

-2.0

-10.0

122

116

1,560,916

184,433

107

320

443,531

142,088

COAST

2,004,098

96,894

TII

SECH

25.0

IIC

SGC

122

500

0.0

IFC

3,390,646

332,239

MARKAZ

KMEFIC

20,001

1,084

0.0

5.0

-10.0 1.0

-1.0

-2.0 3.0

-8.0

NIH

9,197

424

ISKAN MADAR

0 0

0.0

0 -4.17

KCIN

980

890

3,601

3,386

900

-40

KHOT

405

390

31,930

12,794

SOOR

FUTUREKID

JAZEERA

ALNAWADI

290

400

ŷ ŷ

ALRAI

118

ZIMAH

250

234

1,700

405

0 828,253

0 230,242

0 56

0 941.92

ŷ ź

710

690

933,685

653,306

700

2,160

2,060

247,628

518,099

3,829,561 5,010,874

290,956 1,462,361

147 308

75 881.00 1,040

UFIG KOUTFOOD Consumer Services ZAIN NMTC

HITSTELEC 78 Telecommunications NBK

1,060

1,020

3,758,932

3,904,582

GBK CBK

415 760

400 750

798,133 54

328,906 41

27 2

ABK

570

560

9,500

5,365

ALMUTAHED KIB

880 270

870 260

11,154 1,743,562

9,716 462,544

2 42

118 0

234

2,060

415 760

570

1,765,804

744,138

579,478

431,613

BOUBYAN

610

600

136,240

81,750

UGB

188

500

AUB ITHMR

0 46

0 44

0 23,969,215

0 1,064,650

0 343

32,772,572

7,033,398

642

983.45

GINS

AINS

395

385

23,000

8,995

WINS

600

188 0 45

390

130

-10

-20 0

ź Ÿ ŷ Ÿ

92 0

89 0

6,716,013 0

605,011 0

159 0

ALMADINA

NOOR

TAMINV

1 174 4

162

125,168 12 168

20,945 20 94

EXCH

232

250

TAIBA

104

20,000

2,080

KSHC

49,850

1,545

STRATEGIA

KCIC

291,116

19,266

MASAR

ALIMTIAZ

MANAZEL

29,956,925 29 956 925

1 012 853 1,012,853

356

NIND

220

218

1,072,519

233,969

UIC

2,144,000

184,385

BIIHC

119,042

7,628

0 6.81 -6.81

SHOP SENERGY

0 75

0 73

0 1,538,000

0 114,186

0 22

AGHC

136

132

302,825

40,577

-10

ALSAFWA

KPPC

4,020,400

305,708

TAHSSILAT JEERANH

70 87

70 82

2 253,860

0 20,819

2 26

-2 0

-10

-100

270

325

120 48 0

122 98 0

58 0

144 0 33 0

37 0

68 0

238 45

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

0 0

ŷ ŷ

38 242 89 0 0

174 1 4

232 104 31 0

66 0

ź ź ź ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ź ŷ ź ŷ ź ŷ Ÿ

220 86

ŷ ź Ÿ ŷ ź

0 74

ŷ ź

134 75

70 84 0

ź ź ź ź ŷ

-5.0

-0.5 0.0

0.0

-8.0 -1.0 0.0

-11.0 0.0

0.5

0.0

0.0 -0.5 0.5 0.0

-1.0 0.0

-3.0 0.0

-2.0

-1.0 0.0 0.0

-1.0 0.0

-6.0

-3.0 0.0 0.0

0.0

6.0 60

-10.0 0.0

-2.5 0.0

-2.0 2.0 0.0

0.5

0.0

-0.5 05 2.0

0.0

-1.0

0.0 3.0 -3.0 -2.0 0.0

-1.0

-5.0 -3.0 0.0 00

EKHOLDING

GFH

72,689,402

3,322,439

558

5 10

INOVEST Financial Services

1,516,300 153,108,294

83,803 7,860,304

46 2,122

54 924.37

ź ź

-2.0 -14.09

-10 10 0

MAREF 0 Investment Instruments

0 0

0 0.00

ŷ ŷ

0.0 0.00

520

30.0

-20

-5 0

-10 2

0 2

0.0

-10.0 2.0

5,869

FTI

WETHAQ

ARIG

BKIKWT Insurance

0 68,225

0 14,864

0 11

0 1117.87

ŷ ź

0.0 -0.80

AINV

SOKOUK KRE

0 53

0 52

0 1,023,552

0 54,203

0 18

ŷ ŷ

EKTTITAB QURAINHLD

0 53

AMWAL

45,225

88,606

364,470

128

240

246

130

ALSALAM

34,372

KUWAITRE

720,050

72,490

-2.23

1,919,101

-20

ALDEERA ALSAFAT

GNAHC

-3 -29.62

Ÿ Ÿ

KFIC

MANAFAE

ź ź

420 740

750

420

425 750

ź ŷ

BURG

KINS

870 265

KFIN

Banks

0 8

ŷ ź

0 4,445

460 1200.82

0 119,999

16 18

150,903

0 37

3,912

108,375 108,429

0 38

237,500 237,565

511,732

AAYAN BAYANINV

17,008

455

0 181

460

285

0 439,110

230

YIACO Health Care

0 13,455,502

295

0 32

240

MUNTAZAHAT

0 33

KAMCO

0.0

OULAFUEL

ALMAL GIH

-2.0

-20.0 -20.15

127,232

ź ź

265

890,500

830

350

142

353

840

144

ATC

ALOLA

5,192

805

56,022

28,333

2,300

859,000

215,449

260

OSOUL

350

ALAMAN

GLOBAL

MHC

265

AIG

-6.0

1,280 935.14

350

-1.0

325

5 50

MASHAER

0.0

NINV

IFAHR

KPROJ

0.0

-2.0

61,648 119,401

0.0

121

2.5

265,911

48,403 481,388

6,222,515

1,260

0.5

-1.0

IFA

1,280

EYAS

2.0

7.0

1.0

-2.0

-1.0

2,142

-2.0

100

46,789

102

190

21,001

312,070

0.0

9,038

102

317

0.0

54,005

144

5,610

-1.0

90,376

102

6,540

200,020

285

55,000

265

PAPCO

5.0

0.0

100

NSH

102

270

0.0

-1.0

100

102

-1.0

FACIL

2.0

SULTAN

KINV

-2.0

CABLETV

-5.0

-2.0 0.0

15.0 -3.59

ź ŷ

4.0

-0.5

Ÿ ź

53 83

Ÿ ź

0.0

30.0

355 968.21

840

-4.0

KSH

970

82 783

0.0 -4.03 4.03

960

ŷ ź

FOOD Consumer Goods

-6.0 -0.5

1,154,288 5,797,134

114 933.12

POULT

ź ź

20,001

1 705

96 37

-4.0

-2.0

3,303,977 64,182,267

1 2,139,360

ź ź

0.0

-2.5

10 55,079,593

345

114

224

162

114

20 2.0

-2.0

355

RKWC Industrials

265

Ÿ ź

REMAL Real Estate

106

126

Change

MARAKEZ

8,823

Last

-6.0 -10.0

1,001

UREC

99,914

965

2 12

47,440

30,010

0 3,816

FCEM

181,501

2 104,602

260

96 36

265

PEARL

112 37

87,329

CATTL

SRE

MASSALEH ARABREC

12,090

DANAH

925,990

25,200

185,000

2 394 2,394

200,000

4,548

102

23 000 23,000

126

2,366,329

146

104

28,816

106 126

10,406,359

URC NRE

222

GCEM

Trades

156

QCEM

Trades Value (KD)

228

-5.0

Volume

164

Low

AREEC

-4.0 -3.70

High

313,902,830 25 508 289 25,508,289 4,839

TAM

-1.0

ź ź

Security

Volume Value (KWD) Number of Trades

ASC

520

470

5,300

2,594

SAFTEC

49,980

3,649

FUTURE

232

1,002

232

HAYATCOMM Technology

120

116

1,002 1 002 57,284

120 6,595

3 9

BAREEQ

AFAQ

ALSHAMEL

SAFRE

20,000

440

AJWAN

140,001

5,040

0.0

SPEC

500

480

452,500

220,675

MASAKEN

0.0

DALQAN

ALEID

MIDAN FLEX

0 34

0 20,000

0 680

0 1

0.0

00 0.0

0.0 0.0

THURAYA

KCLINIC

AMAR Parallel Market

0 632,501

0 226,835

0 53

For more information, call 1 80 42 42, www.globalinv.net

232

120 1183.14 0

500 0

0 34 0

0 963.13

ź ź Ÿ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ź Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ ŷ ŷ ŷ Ÿ

-2.5

-5.0

-10.0 2 2.0 0 3.93 0.0

0.0

0.5

-2.0

15.0 0.0

0.0

00 0.0

0.0 2.5

0.0

0.0 4.42

LIFE

Help Prevent Colon Polyps

Colon polyps are abnormal growths that form inside the colon. Often discovered during an exploratory procedure called a colonoscopy, these growths can be either benign or cancerous. The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse says although there’s no surefire way to prevent colon polyps, it offers these recommendations that may help reduce your risk: • Cut back on fatty foods, and load up on vegetables and fruits. • Don’t smoke. • Avoid alcohol. • Exercise most days of the week. • Lose excess weight. • Eat a diet rich in calcium. • Talk with your doctor about possibly taking a daily low-dose aspirin.

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012

Warming gas levels hit ‘troubling milestone’ WASHINGTON: The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395. So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon. “The fact that it’s 400 is significant,” said Jim Butler, global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. “It’s just a reminder to everybody that we haven’t fixed this and we’re still in trouble.” Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from decomposing dead plants and animals. Before the Industrial Age, levels were around 275 parts per million. For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say. It’s been at least 800,000 years - probably more - since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists said. Until now.

Readings are coming in at 400 and higher all over the Arctic. They’ve been recorded in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and even Mongolia. But levels change with the seasons and will drop a bit in the summer, when plants suck up carbon dioxide, NOAA scientists said. So the yearly average for those northern stations likely will be lower and so will the global number. Globally, the average carbon dioxide level is about 395 parts per million but will pass the 400 mark within a few years, scientists said. The Arctic is the leading indicator in global warming, both in carbon dioxide in the air and effects, said Pieter Tans, a senior NOAA scientist. “This is the first time the entire Arctic is that high,” he said. Tans called reaching the 400 number “depressing,” and Butler said it was “a troubling milestone.”

Artificial platelets mimic nature to stop bleeding

NEW YORK: Wounded soldiers or surgery patients could soon get new help to stop the bleeding. A lab has successfully created tiny, disk-shaped cells that mimic the human body’s natural platelets, which allow blood to clot according to LiveScience. Such lab-made platelets could do much more than just form blood clots on wounds. They could act as messengers to deliver imaging markers for examining damaged blood vessels, or possibly carry clot-dissolving drugs to their targets in a person’s bloodstream. “The synthetic platelets can have profound implications in wound-healing problems for trauma and wounds arising in both battlefield situations and during surgery,” said Frank Doyle, director of the Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Platelets have an average size of just 2 to 4 micrometers, about 50 times smaller than the width of a human hair strand. (A micrometer is one millionth of a meter.) Over the past 100 years many labs have tried mimicking the form and function of platelets, but no method copied the actual physical features of natural platelets until now. “In order to mimic the size, shape, and surface functionality of natural platelets synthetically, polymeric particles are particularly attractive,” said Nishit Doshi, a chemical engineer at UC Santa Barbara. “However, polymeric particles are orders of magnitude more rigid than platelets.” The inflexibility problem required a clever solution. Researchers first used a polymeric core as the foundation for layers of proteins and other components making up the synthetic platelet. Then, once the platelet-shaped particle formed, researchers dissolved the rigid core to give the platelet flexibility. Synthetic platelets may prove especially useful on battlefields because the supply of natural platelets has a short shelf life. They also could help patients who suffer from higher risks of bleeding because of low platelet counts. But the lab-made platelets first must undergo more testing and eventually reach clinical trials in human patients.

In this image released by NOAA, Chris Carparelli, adjusts a glass flask that line the walls of an air sample processing room at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (AP)

“It’s an important threshold,” said Carnegie Institution ecologist Chris Field, a scientist who helps lead the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It is an indication that we’re in a different world.” Ronald Prinn, an atmospheric sciences professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said 400 is more a psychological milestone than a scientific one. We think in hundreds, and “we’re poking our heads above 400,” he said. Tans said the readings show how much the Earth’s atmosphere and its climate are being affected by humans. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels hit a record high of 34.8 billion tons in 2011, up 3.2 percent, the International Energy Agency announced last week. The agency said it’s becoming unlikely that the world can achieve the European goal of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees based on increasing pollution and greenhouse gas levels. “The news today, that some stations have measured concentrations above 400 ppm in the atmosphere, is further evidence that the world’s

political leaders - with a few honorable exceptions - are failing catastrophically to address the climate crisis,” former Vice President Al Gore, the highestprofile campaigner against global warming, said in an email. “History will not understand or forgive them.” But political dynamics in the United States mean there’s no possibility of significant restrictions on man-made greenhouse gases no matter what the levels are in the air, said Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow of the libertarian Cato Institute. “These milestones are always worth noting,” said economist Myron Ebell at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. “As carbon dioxide levels have continued to increase, global temperatures flattened out, contrary to the models” used by climate scientists and the United Nations. He contends temperatures have not risen since 1998, which was unusually hot. Temperature records contradict that claim. Both 2005 and 2010 were warmer than 1998, and the entire decade of 2000 to 2009 was the warmest on record, according to NOAA. -AP

Supervolcanoes may have shorter fuse than thought NEW YORK: A doomsday volcanic eruption with the power to wipe out civilization may sound like the premise for a bad movie, but so-called supervolcanoes are far from fictional. And now scientists are warning that supervolcanoes require far less time to build up the ammunition for a cataclysmic eruption than once thought according to LiveScience. However, this newly discovered “short fuse” must be put in context: The buildup of a supervolcano toward eruption still may take several hundred or thousands of years. There are quite a few supervolcanoes around the world, from the one in Yellowstone Park to what could be a new supervolcano in Bolivia.While none of them appears primed for an eruption, understanding their behavior illuminates Earth’s past and gives a better picture of the danger they pose. Supervolcano short fuse Previous studies indicated that supervolcanoes - volcanoes that spew out roughly 1,000 times more material than Mount St. Helens did in 1980

- need 100,000 to 200,000 years to build up a reservoir of magma before they can unleash a violent eruption. Yet research suggests that these giant magma pools, typically 10 to 25 miles (16 to 40 kilometers) across, exist for only a few thousand to even just a few hundred years before a supervolcano goes off. “Our study suggests that when these exceptionally large magma pools form, they are ephemeral and cannot exist very long without erupting,” Guilherme Gualda, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University, said in a statement. Gualda and colleagues studied Bishop Tuff, a plateau in California that is essentially the remains of a supervolcano that erupted about 760,000 years ago. They used a dating technique that looked at the rate of quartz crystallization - as opposed to a more traditional method that uses the decay of elements such as uranium and thorium in zircon crystals - to determine the lifespan of the magma pool that sparked

the massive eruption.The study yielded compelling evidence that the magma pool may have formed in 10,000 years - and most likely formed in as little as 500 to 3,000 years.

Hundreds of salmonella cases tied to chicks ATLANTA: Those cute mail-order chicks that wind up in children’s Easter baskets and backyard farms have been linked to more than 300 cases of salmonella in the US - mostly in youngsters - since 2004. An estimated 50 million live poultry are sold through the mail each year in the United States in a business that has been booming because of the growing popularity of backyard chicken farming as a hobby among people who like the idea of raising their own food. But health officials are warning of a bacterial threat on the birds’ feet, feathers, beaks and eggs. “Most people can tell you that chicken meat may have salmonella on it,”

This Wednesday, May 30, 2012 photo shows one of Jonah McDonald’s chickens at his Atlanta home. (AP)

More scrutiny needed

Gualda said that means the world’s supervolcanoes may bear closer scrutiny than they now receive. “The fact that the process of magma body formation occurs in historical time, instead of geological time, completely changes the nature of the problem,” he said. The most recent super-eruption occurred at Taupo in New Zealand, about 26,000 years ago; the most dramatic to occur while humans walked the Earth happened 74,000 years ago, in Indonesia, when an eruption at Mount Toba rained ash all over South Asia and filled the atmosphere with so great a load of ash and small particles that it altered global weather for as long as a decade. There are indications that the eruption took a devastating toll on the world’s human population.

said Casey Barton Behravesh of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But surprisingly, we found many people are not aware that live chicks and chickens can spread salmonella to people.” Since 2004, at least 316 people in 43 states got sick in an outbreak tied primarily to one mail-order hatchery. Health officials believe thousands more illnesses connected to the business were probably never reported. No one died, but three dozen people were hospitalized with bloody diarrhea or other symptoms. The illnesses were detailed Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach pain but is rarely fatal. It is most dangerous to very young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. The infection is usually contracted from food, but live animals can transmit it, too, because the bacteria can be in their feces. Salmonella outbreaks have been linked to hatcheries for more than 50 years. And health officials have long warned that people can get salmonella from touching chickens - especially children, who tend to put their fingers in their mouths. Indeed, the CDC says children under 5 shouldn’t be allowed to touch chickens at all. Health officials also advise people not to bring birds into their homes and to wash their hands thoroughly after handling live poultry. About 20 hatcheries mail live chicks overnight in the US, supplying not only feed stores and farms but amateurs with backyard coops. The mail-order houses have been seeing record sales in recent years. “It’s all part of this greener, healthier lifestyle,” said Behravesh, a veterinary epidemiologist. The CDC described an eight-year investigation into salmonella illnesses, with more than 80 percent of the cases tied to a single hatchery in the western US While CDC officials refused to identify the business, a previous report on the investigation by the health agency indicated it is in New Mexico. During the eight years studied, the annual number of illnesses linked to the hatchery ranged as high as 84, with 29 cases last year and only one so far in 2012. -AP

SpaceX Dragon capsule completes test flight with splashdown CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Space Exploration Technologies’ unmanned Dragon capsule splashed down off the coast of California on Thursday, completing a pioneering mission for commercial firms seeking a major role in space travel. Riding beneath three parachutes, the bell-shaped capsule ended a nine-day spaceflight with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about 560 miles west of Baja California at 11:42 a.m. EDT. Dragon, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, was the first privately owned spacecraft to reach the $100 billion International Space Station, which flies about 240 miles above Earth. “It’s been an extremely successful joint mission,” said NASA mission commentator Josh Byerly. The United States has been without its own transportation to the station, a project of 15 nations, since its space shuttles were retired last year. Rather than build and operate a government-owned replacement, NASA is investing in companies such as SpaceX, with the aim of buying rides for its cargo - and eventually astronauts - on commercial vehicles, a far cheaper alternative. The successful trial run is expected to clear SpaceX to begin working off its 12-flight, $1.6 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the station. A second commercial freighter, built by Orbital Sciences Corp, is expected to debut this year. Orbital also has a contract to deliver space station cargo valued at $1.9 billion. In Thursday’s operation, astronauts detached the Dragon capsule from its berthing port on the station’s Harmony connecting node at 4:07 a.m. EDT using the station’s 58-foot long (17.7-meter) robotic crane. The spacecraft then soared around the planet at 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kilometers per hour). European, Japanese and Russian cargo ships now flying to the station only make one-way trips, leaving Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which are used to transport crew and have little room for cargo, as the only vehicles now flying that return to Earth. -Reuters

One in seven suffer malnourishment: UN food agency

PARIS: One in seven people suffer from malnourishment, the head of the UN’s food agency said Wednesday in a report released ahead of a summit on sustainable development to be held in Rio de Janeiro June 20-22. “We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims of undernourishment,” said FAO director general Jose Graziano da Silva. “At the Rio Summit we have the golden opportunity to explore the convergence between the agendas of food security and sustainability,” he said, referring to the difficulties in making sure that the poor have sustained access to food. The report calls on governments to invest in infrastructure and protect the rights of the poor to food resources. Three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods, it said. Access to natural resources -- such as land, water or forests -- is essential for the 2.5 billion who produce food for their own consumption and income. “Hunger puts in motion a vicious cycle of reduced productivity, deepening poverty, slow economic development and resource degradation,” the report said. The FAO called for food consumption and production systems to “achieve more with less,” and said it was necessary to shift to nutritious diets with a smaller environmental footprint, as well as reducing food losses and waste. Global food losses and waste amount to 1.3 billion tonnes per year, roughly one-third of the world food production for human consumption, it said, and correspond to over 10 percent of the world’s total caloric energy consumption. “In 2050 there will be an expected global population of 9 billion, with increased incomes and rising food demand. Pressure on the world’s agricultural and food systems and the resources they use will grow,” the agency said. “Worse, unless purposeful action is taken, the increase in food production of 60 percent needed to meet effective demand will still leave behind over 300 million people who are expected to suffer from chronic hunger in 2050.” The Rio conference comes 40 years after a Stockholm conference on the environment in 1972, 20 years after a Rio conference on development in 1992 and 10 years after a summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in 2002. The themes of the so-called Rio+20 conference next month were laid down in a United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted in December 2009, and aim to renew political engagement in sustainable development. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

friDAY, june 1, 2012

‘Slum tourism’ treads between aid and exploitation FRANCE: “I decided to experience the real Jakarta,” said a tourist, stepping gingerly between puddles of putrid water and a scurrying rat in a scene that would never make a postcard. Rohaizad Abu Bakar, 28, a bank employee from Singapore, said he could not believe his eyes as he wandered around the slum in the Indonesian capital, a jumble of hundreds of shacks, some less than a meter from a railway line. Nearby, a small girl picked up a discarded juice bottle in search of a sip while a man wearing tattered shorts lay slumped on a dirty old mattress. Only a blue plastic tarpaulin offered shelter from tropical downpours. So-called “poverty tourism” is on the rise in Jakarta. Organizers say it raises awareness and brings aid to the destitute of the city, but accusations of exploitation are never far away and critics say poverty should not be a tourist attraction. A few hundred families cram into the slum in the Tanah Abang neighborhood, minutes from gleaming shopping malls where the likes of Gucci and Louis Vuitton compete to lure the newly-minted beneficiaries of Indonesia’s economic miracle. Abu Bakar opted against the picturesque landscapes of other parts of the country to instead join a “Jakarta Hidden Tours” trip, which aims to show visitors the squalid conditions of the nations poor. “Tourists stay in their ghetto. We show what is really Jakarta,” said Ronny Poluan, 59, an Indonesian documentary maker who created the non-profit organization in 2008. Recent years have seen “poverty tourism” mushroom globally, from the favelas of Brazil to the slums of Dharavi in Mumbai, popularized by the film “Slumdog Millionaire”. “We have about 10 tours per month, with two to four tourists each time. More and more people are coming, some now even come just for my tour,” Poluan said. “I’ve had tourists from as far away as Washington. They’re not only backpackers, but also businessmen, bankers,” he added before being cut short by shouting reverberating around the slum. “Kereta! Kereta!” (“A train, a train”) cried mothers rushing to grab children playing on the track as a roaring locomotive approached, whipping up clouds of dust and garbage as it surged towards the flimsy-looking shacks. The train recently claimed the life of one little girl who died as she ran after her cat. The slum dwellers, like half of Indonesia, live on less than two dollars per day. Each tourist pays 500,000 rupiah ($54) to visit, with half of that going to the tour company, and the rest funding doctor visits, microfinance projects or community projects such as school building.

In this photograph taken on April 6, 2012 a slum is seen in North Jakarta. Poverty tourism is gaining ground in Indonesia with more tourists looking to “experience the real Jakarta”. (AFP)

“I don’t give cash. I pay the doctors directly for example,” said Poluan. But that does not reassure some critics. “I’m against slums being turned into tourist spots,” Wardah Hafidz, an activist with the Urban Poor Consortium, told AFP. “It’s not about shame. People should not be exhibited like monkeys in the zoo. “What residents get from these tours, in cash or whatever form only strips them of their dignity and self respect, turning them into mere beggars. “They not only become dependent on handouts, but come to expect them. It doesn’t help them to believe they are capable of standing on their own two feet or getting them out of the spiral of poverty,” she added.

Nonetheless, residents say they look forward to the daily influx of foreigners witnessing their lifestyles. “I like that foreigners want to know about us. It’s good they want to know about us,” said Djoko, a father in his fifties, as he removed labels from a pile of glass and plastic bottles before selling them for recycling. Tourists deny voyeurism, instead saying that what they witness inspires them to action. “If I had not seen it, I would not have done anything about it,” said Caroline Bourget. A teacher at Jakarta’s French school, she is now discussing setting up a mobile school in the slum to give disadvantaged children a better chance in life. “Here we are at the heart of reality,” she said. -AFP

London organizers promising tasty Games

LONDON: Toasted tea cakes dripping in Yorkshire butter for breakfast, cod and chips, or maybe a pole and line caught tuna salad washed down with a glass of London 2012 red wine for lunch - spectators at this year’s Olympics will not be going hungry. Games organizers on Wednesday released details of the food and drink options for the millions of fans expected to converge on the various venues from July 27 in what they say will be the world’s biggest peace time catering operation. While there was no mention of jellied eels, a Cockney tradition, more than 800 spectator concessions will feature 150 different dishes showcasing the best of traditional British cuisine and the country’s ethnic diversity, says LOCOG. “We want everyone who attends the Games this summer to have a fantastic experience and central to that is the food and drink that is available,” LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton said. “We have gone to great lengths to find top quality, tasty food that celebrates the best of Britain.” More than 14 million meals will be served to fans and the 15,000 athletes during the Games, across 40 locations, with the focus on ethical and sustainable produce, according to LOCOG. On the busiest day of the Games, 65,000 meals will be fed to hungry athletes, many of them eating in the 5,000-seater dining room at the heart of the Olympic Village, a sprawling cathedral of food split into British, European, Mediterranean and African/Caribbean themed zones. With the country stuck in a double dip recession and budgets tight, Deighton promised pricing would be family friendly. “We believe that our prices are more than comparable to those found at other major sporting events which because of their temporary nature are often more expensive than the high street,” he said. Organizers say a family of four will be able to dine on delights such as jacket potatoes with bacon, chicken and herb mayonnaise, scotch beef with mashed potatoes or Singapore noodles for less than 40 pounds. As well as being affordable, organizers say food will meet London 2012’s animal welfare and sustainability commitments, aiming to become the first Zero Waste Games. All meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables will be ethically sourced, say LOCOG, much of it carrying the British standard Red Tractor mark, while fans sipping an afternoon cup of Rosie Lee (Cockney slang for a cup of tea) while watching the archery at Lord’s will do so knowing it is Fairtrade. “We are proud that the catering industry has been quick to adopt the standards of our Food Vision, leaving a stronger and sustainable industry as a legacy of the Games,” said Deighton. -Reuters

Revered Jerusalem church comes alive at night In Myanmar, JERUSALEM: After the last tourists leave the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City at nightfall, a little-known but centuries-old tradition unfolds at one of Christianity’s holiest sites. Clerics from the three largest denominations represented in the church - Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic - gather each night for special prayers reserved for the men who take care of the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Starting at midnight, clerics and monks sing and pray for hours, their chants echoing through the cavernous chambers of the Holy Sepulcher’s darkest rooms. “The door of the church is closed, no pilgrims, no tourists, it’s very quiet,” said Father Isidoros Fakitsas, the superior of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate at the church. “It’s amazing to feel the liturgy with no people, only the monks.” Isidoros said he has attended the services for 21 years. The preparations require a rigid routine. Before the first prayers of the new day, the Christian shrine needs to be cleaned, and maintenance work has to be done. The clerics sweep the floors, replace oil lamps and clean candle holders, after thousands of pilgrims visited throughout the previous day. Occasionally a small number of devoted pilgrims help them with the cleanup and are permitted to stay and pray inside the church all night. The early morning mass is a tradition associated with monastic life, said Father Eugenio Alliata, professor of Christian Archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. “Mostly monks and religious people want to pray not only all the day, but also all the night, or part of the day or part of the night. It is part of the desire to pray without ceasing because prayers to God must be given all the time, day and night,” Alliata said. Father Fergus Clarke, the guardian for the Franciscan community inside the Holy Sepulcher, said the night prayers require a certain amount of personal sacrifice, but also bring greater spiritual fulfillment. “That’s a wonderful vocation ... to be able to do something like that, to know that while people are sleeping, others are praying,” he said. The night liturgies inside the Holy Sepulcher are regulated by a consolidated tradition: The Greek-Orthodox start to celebrate mass inside Jesus’ Tomb at

A view of the sculpture ‘Han’ (He) on May 31, 2012, in Elsinore. The artist duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset made the sculpture, a representation of a male counterpart to the Little Mermaid. The sculpture will be placed in front of the ‘Kulturvaerftet’ culture house in Elsinore and be unveiled there on June 2. (AFP)

12:30 a.m., before handing over to the Armenians and then the Franciscans. The Greek Orthodox liturgy at the tomb is the longest, lasting for about three and a half hours; the Armenians then take over for an hour and a half and the Franciscans for another half hour. The night service is subject to some variations. On the feast of Saint Matthias on the morning of May 14, for example, Catholics lead a procession to Jesus’ tomb during the Greek Orthodox liturgy. Sounds collided with one another that night. The celestial voices of Armenian priests rose from their wing of the Church as the sound of a Franciscan pipe organ came from the opposite direction. Competing for attention is nothing new in the ancient church. The three main denominations that share the church jealously guard their turf, and an air of mistrust lingers as each group makes sure no one else crosses into their space. While the Tomb of Jesus and the main passages of the Holy Sepulcher are considered common spaces, the three main religious communities each own a part of the church: The Chapel of Saint Helen, near the place where Jesus’ cross is said to have been found, belongs to the Armenians; the Greek-Orthodox Church has ownership over the largest part of the church, including the Altar of the Calvary, where Jesus’s cross was raised; the Franciscans own the Chapel of the Crucifixion where Jesus was crucified, along with the northern part of the Church, where according to tradition Jesus appeared to his mother. The church was first built by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325, at the site where the tomb of Jesus was believed to have been found. Constantine’s structure was destroyed in 1009 by Muslim Caliph al-Hakim. A 12th century restoration by the Crusaders gave the Holy Sepulcher its current appearance. Life inside the Holy Sepulcher is regulated by a complex maze of norms that are often subject to different interpretations, said Father Samuel Aghoyan, the Armenian Superior of the Holy Sepulcher. At times, tensions have even spilled over into violence, with monks pushing and punching each other. “We keep almost awake at night here to see that things are done properly, on time, that no one will trespass the other’s right by doing things that he’s not supposed to do,” said Father Samuel. “So we have to be careful and watch what we do or what they do.” -AP

stigma and neglect add to HIV misery YANGON: The mother and child who touch hands in an overcrowded Yangon hospice are not family, but their tragic history begins in the blood. Jam, 42, a mother of six, and Kanama, aged 2, are both HIV positive. Abandoned by their families, they must now find comfort in each other, although Jam still yearns for her husband to return to the private HIV hospice in the suburbs of Myanmar’s biggest city. “He promised to come back but I’m afraid he never will,” said the woman as she burst into tears. She is known in the hospice by her nickname, Jam. The hospice is home to 182 HIV patients, whose plight demonstrates the painful limits of Myanmar’s new democracy. A reform-minded government has vowed to overhaul a decrepit health system, but little change is likely for HIV/ AIDS sufferers, who thanks to social stigma and medical neglect, are shut off in hospices that bring to mind leper colonies. In 2009, the United Nations estimated 240,000 of Myanmar’s 60 million people were infected with HIV and about 18,000 were dying a year. Neighboring Thailand, with a slightly bigger population, has more than twice the number of people with HIV but access to drugs and greater public acceptance mean that many can lead normal lives. Jam once lived in Kadon, a fishing village in the impoverished Irrawaddy Delta, with her farmer husband and their six children. In 2008, feeling unwell, she was treated by a self-styled medic, who injected her with a drug. The needle was dirty and had been used repeatedly. She was probably now HIV positive, although she didn’t suspect it, and her personal tragedy was soon subsumed by a national one: Cyclone Nargis. The typhoon slammed into the delta in May that year, killing at least 138,000 people, including Jam’s sons, aged 17 and 18. She narrowly escaped, clutching her youngest child, who is six. Nargis wiped her village off the map. Jam and thousands of other survivors struggled to rebuild their lives. Another four years passed before she fell ill again, this time more gravely, and a hospital referred her to the Yangon hospice. Tests confirmed she had AIDS. That was two months ago. Jam is mostly alone now. Apart from her six-year-old, her children shun her. Her husband, who is not HIV positive, returned to the farm. Five or six people from her village were also treated by the same medic and exhibit the same symptoms and weakness, says Jam, but they refuse to be tested for HIV. Her neighbors would allow her to return to the village, she says. “But they will not talk to me, because they know my ill-

HIV-positive Ma Jam sleeps at the HIV/AIDS hospice founded by a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the suburbs of Yangon May 26, 2012. (Reuters)

ness is dangerous.” Not that Jam is going anywhere. Weak and skeletal, she can barely walk or talk. She doesn’t eat and is responding poorly to the drugs the hospice gives her. Her only solace is Kanama, who was brought to the hospice by her father in 2011. He and Kanama’s mother have both since died of AIDS. While her siblings, who are not HIV positive, stay with their grandparents, Kanama is mostly looked after by Thein Htay, 73, who has been a volunteer at the shelter for three years. The children get better care and more sympathy here, he says, although not always from the shelter’s neighbors. “They were scared at the beginning and were avoiding people from the centre,” says Thein Htay. “But we explained them what is HIV and how it works. Now, most are much more relaxed - but not all.” Drugs and education

The hospice is basic; its bamboo walls decorated with pictures of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Doctor’s pays visits, but patients cook and clean for themselves, helped by volunteers. Volunteer Thein Htay expects little help from the government, even that of a reforming President Thein Sein. “It does not matter what I expect, they will do nothing. So, I don’t expect anything. Just to let us alone, not to disturb us. Things will change only when NLD becomes the government.” The NLD, or National League for Democracy, won historic by-elections in

April by a landslide, sweeping its leader, Suu Kyi, and 42 other members into parliament. One of the new MPs is Phyu Phyu Thin, the HIV activist who founded the hospice in 2002. The government threatened to close the centre in 2010 after Health Ministry officials warned of “the possible spread of infectious disease from the patients”, reported the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper. But the centre, which Suu Kyi visited after her release from house arrest in 2010, remains open. A sister hospice nearby is home to another 82 HIV patients. Jam’s story of rejection is shockingly common, she says, recalling an HIV sufferer who was left to starve by villagers, then possibly cremated while in a coma. “HIV patients are often left alone and abandoned by the family,” she says. Doctors Without Borders, a medical aid group, says some 85,000 HIV-infected people in Myanmar are not getting treatment because of a lack of funding, despite an increase in international engagement with the government. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is cutting funding worldwide because of a lack of donations, jeopardizing a plan to provide HIV drugs to 46,500 people in Myanmar. The new government has brought little hope, said Phyu Phyu Thin. “Actually, nothing has changed. The situation has even declined,” she said, adding that the number of patients in the hospice doubled between 2010 and 2011. -Reuters

ALWATAN DAILY

ENTERTAINMENT

Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Home Thoughts From Abroad Artist: Rumer Album: Boys Don’t Cry Genre: Soul/Jazz In short: On her sophomore album, Rumer leads with her tender voice to shake up hidden emotions with her soft phrasing and lyrical prowess; at first listen, “Home Thoughts From Abroad” stands out instantly from the rest of the album. To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.com E-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz Broadway producer Edgar Freitag dies at 80 Theater producer Edgar “Buddy” Freitag, who helped back some of Broadway’s most buzzed-about shows, including “The Drowsy Chaperone,” ‘’Memphis” and “The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?,” has died. He was 80. Freitag died Wednesday in New York of complications from a brain tumor, according to his wife and producing partner, Barbara Freitag. He died less than two weeks before the Tony Awards, with several of his shows - including the hit revival of “Porgy and Bess,” ‘’Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “End of the Rainbow” - vying for top honors. Freitag had a 17-year career at Grey Advertising Agency in New York City and then cofounded United Financial of America, Inc., a national commercial mortgage banking and brokerage firm. After the sale of his company, he and his wife began investing in off-Broadway and Broadway shows. In 2007, he began his Broadway producing career with “The Homecoming” and went on to back such shows as “Passing Strange,” ‘’The Miracle Worker,” ‘’Catch Me If You Can,” ‘’West Side Story,” ‘’Legally Blonde,” ‘’In the Heights” and “All My Sons.” In addition to his wife, he is survived by their four children, Larry, Eve, Harry and Liz, and seven grandchildren. -AP

Tim Daly dismissed from Private Practice “Private Practice” star Tim Daly will not be returning to the ABC medical drama for its upcoming sixth season, tweeting that series creator Shonda Rhimes informed his agent he was finished. “Wonderful fans of PPP. Shonda informed my agent today that Pete won’t be returning for season 6. It was a great 5 yrs. R.I.P. Pete Wilder,” Daly tweeted late Tuesday. An ABC rep did not immediately return Reuters’ request for comment. The status of Daly’s “Private Practice” character, Dr. Pete Wilder, was left up in the air at the end of season five. Wilder had been jailed after helping to end the life of a patient dependent on machines to survive. He was released on bail in the season finale. The show was renewed for 13 episodes for next season. -Reuters

TV executive behind Ellen, Tyra Banks shows dies Jim Paratore, who developed and steered series including “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Tyra Banks Show,” as a Warner Bros. TV executive, has died. He was 59. Warner Bros. said Wednesday that Paratore suffered a heart attack Tuesday while bicycling in France. Paratore was Warner Bros. Telepictures Productions president from 1992 to 2006 and executive vice president of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution since 2002. He built Telepictures Productions into a top producer of syndicated TV and a supplier of primetime reality shows including “The Bachelor.” In 2006, Paratore founded TV production company paraMedia, which had an exclusive deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group. He was an executive producer of DeGeneres’ talk show and the “TMZ” TV magazine. He is survived by his wife, Jill Wickert, and his daughter, Martinique Paratore. -AP

Dina Lohan to guest on VH1’s Hollywood Wives She’s a famous Hollywood mom and ex-wife, so Dina Lohan should have plenty to talk about when she spends time with other famous exes on VH1’s new reality series “Hollywood Wives,” premiering on the network on June 27. Lohan is not a regular cast member of the show, but she will appear in one or two episodes at midseason, a VH1 rep confirms to TheWrap, as she is friends with some of the cast members. TMZ.com first reported Lohan’s guest appearances on the show, which will air in 10 one-hour episodes. The regular cast includes Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife, Nicole; Sheree Fletcher, Will Smith’s first wife; Jose Canseco’s ex-wife Jessica; Andrea Kelly, ex of R. Kelly; and Mayte Garcia, Prince’s ex-wife. -Reuters

Robin Gibb memorial planned for later this year Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb will be given a private funeral in Britain next week, and a public memorial service will be planned for later this year. A statement posted Wednesday on the website of the singer, who died in London on May 20 after a long struggle with liver and colon cancer, said a private funeral would take place on June 8 and be restricted to close family and friends. The family has asked for no flowers but for donations to two children’s charities, Rebecca House and Wish Upon a Dream, on the Isle of Man where Gibb and his musical brothers were born. Gibb was the third brother in the family to die. Fellow Bee Gee Maurice died in 2003 and Andy Gibb died at age 30 in 1988. -Reuters

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012

TV fights a bleeping battle with censors in India MUMBAI: When Bollywood film-maker Kunal Deshmukh set out to make “Jannat 2”, a raunchy tale about arms dealing with plenty of swearing and bare skin, he ended up shooting two versions - one for cinema audiences, and the other for television. Deshmukh was not being extravagant. Like many Indian movie producers and TV broadcasters, he walked a tightrope of catering to the tastes of a rapidly modernizing but largely conservative country, whose censors have scant tolerance for adult content. “I didn’t want to take a chance. TV rights for movies are important revenue earners and I would like my movie to be shown at a prime-time slot,” Deshmukh told Reuters. “I would much rather spend some time and re-shoot certain scenes so that they are fit for TV.” The tussles over what is and what is not acceptable material reflect a wider debate about censorship in a country proud of its status as the world’s largest democracy, but which has witnessed several controversies over free speech this year. “It’s ridiculous. You would think there would be some space for self-regulation, but this has become arbitrary,” says Paritosh Joshi, a former member of the Indian Broadcasting Federation, an industry body that looks at content regulation. Regulating content is an unwieldy job in a country of 1.2 billion that has witnessed an explosion in its TV and media industry since the start of India’s economic boom more than two decades ago. In that time, the country went from having two state-run channels to nearly 500 private ones. India had 146 million TV-viewing households in 2011, more than the United States with 114 million, according to an estimate by the global information company Nielsen. Making content suitable for family audiences includes beeping out words such as “ass”, commonly heard on American shows. The subtitles in India for such shows often swap an offensive word with a more palatable substitute - so “ass” could become “rear” or “behind”. Also on the black list are words such as “beef”, as the cow is considered holy by India’s Hindu majority, and “sucks”. Deshmukh isn’t the only one to have struggled in India, home to the world’s largest movie industry. “The Dirty Picture”, a film about the life of a 1980s South Indian soft-porn star, which won accolades from audiences and critics alike, was stopped hours before its television premiere in April after two court petitions objected to its content. This was after the makers of the film were asked to make 59 cuts in the movie so that it could be rated U/A, India’s version of a Parental Guidance rating, for television. Sitting in a cubicle in swanky glass-and-chrome office in

FILE-Indian Bollywood personalities Tushar Kapoor, director Milan Luthria, actress Vidya Balan and producer Ekta Kapoor pose during the DVD release event for the Hindi film ‘The Dirty Picture’ in Mumbai on Jan.30, 2012. (AFP)

Mumbai’s bustling suburb of Malad, Eliza Johny is in charge of sanitizing content for Sony Pix, part of a media group that is majority-owned by the movie studio Sony Pictures. Her job involves watching two movies every day. She peers at the 14-inch television on her desk, watching Jennifer Aniston whisper sweet nothings to Aaron Eckhart in the 2009 romantic comedy “Love Happens”. She then checks the subtitles on her computer screen, making sure there are no objectionable scenes or words spoken. Then, she rewinds and watches the movie again. It’s a tedious process, but a necessary one. “We reach more than 20 million people in India. There’s a lot at stake. You cannot afford to offend anyone,” Sunder Aaron, who heads Sony Pix, told Reuters. India’s Broadcast Content Complaint Council, set up to

Director Cameron sees slow takeoff for 3D at home LONDON: Home viewing of movies in three dimensions will be slow to catch on until technology improvements deliver highquality viewing without special 3D glasses, according to James Cameron, director of films including “The Terminator”, “Titanic” and “Avatar”. Cameron, a fervent believer in 3D, said a lack of high-quality content was also a barrier to wider adoption, but a poor technology to accommodate groups of people watching from different angles without glasses was the main obstacle. “The biggest hurdle right now is the experience in the home. While it’s quite good, it requires committing to wearing glasses,” Cameron told Reuters in a telephone interview. “It’s a family phenomenon so it has to be seen from different angles. High-quality, full HD-resolution, glasses-free displays are two to four years away,” he said. “In the next few years, I think the market will explode.” Three-dimensional films, which enhance the perception of depth by being shot from two perspectives, gained in popularity during the 2000s and achieved a breakthrough with Cameron’s Avatar in 2009, which became the top box-office earner ever. Films shot in 3D are still few and far between, but many studios are converting their back catalogues of

traditional films into 3D - with mixed results. “One of the things that I think has hurt the business are quick and shabby versions in 3D,” said Cameron. “It’s not worth it if you can’t do it right.” Cameron’s own Titanic was re-released in a 3D version in cinemas last month, after a year of work on the conversion personally supervised by Cameron, it will be released on high-definition Blu-ray for home viewing in 2D and 3D on September 14. The disc will include extra footage including world experts on the Titanic disaster trying to solve the mystery of how the “unsinkable” ship sank a century ago. But few fans will be in a position to enjoy the 3D version: according to media analysis firm Screen Digest, just 18 million households globally will have the television set, player and glasses necessary to play Blu-ray 3D at home this year. The dual perspective creates challenges for viewing: without glasses, the image has to be focused for the audience in another way, which is easier for single viewers with a fixed perspective than for groups of people, each in a different place. For that reason, Cameron said, 3D was likely to catch on faster on tablets and laptop computers, where viewers typically watch on their own, than on large screens in the home. -Reuters

look at objectionable TV content, has received more than 4,500 complaints from viewers in less than a year since it was set up. American shows like “Sex and the City”, “Modern Family” and “Californication” figure in the list of complaints, as do Indian TV shows like “Roadies”, which airs on MTV. Tight regulations mean broadcasters like Aaron have to be careful what kind of content they pick for Indian audiences, disappointing a growing base of English-speaking viewers who want to watch content at the same time as US viewers do. “We have picked shows like “Boardwalk Empire” and “True Blood” for India, but know that a show like “Sopranos” would never work here because there would just be too many cuts,” says Shruti Bajpai, Country Head of the TV network HBO. -Reuters

Springsteen lashes out at bankers in Berlin show

BERLIN: Rocker Bruce Springsteen touched on a nerve of widespread discontent with the financiers and bankers at a Berlin concert on Wednesday, railing against them as “greedy thieves” and “robber barons.” Springsteen, a singer-songwriter dubbed “The Boss” who has long championed populist causes, played to a sold-out crowd at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, singing from his album “Wrecking Ball” and speaking about tough economic times that have put people out of work worldwide and led to debt crises in Greece and other countries. “In America, a lot of people have lost their jobs,” said Springsteen, 62, who performed for three hours to some 58,000 fans in the packed stadium that hosted the 1936

Olympics and the 2006 World Cup final. “But also in Europe and in Berlin, times are tough,” he added, speaking in fluent German. “This song is for all those who are struggling.” He then introduced “Jack of All Trades”, a withering attack on bankers that includes the lyrics: “The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin.” Europe has been especially hard hit since 2008’s financial meltdown that sparked an enduring sovereign debt crisis. Unemployment on the continent has risen to levels not seen since the 1990s. Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball” tour began on May 13 in Spain, which is struggling with its crushing debt load, and it runs for 2-1/2 months with 33 stops in 15 countries before concluding on July 31 in Helsinki. -Reuters

Michael Jackson’s sleepless note pulled from auction

LOS ANGELES: A note written by Michael Jackson in which he complains of being unable to sleep has been withdrawn from auction at the request of the late singer’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, the auction house said on Wednesday. Jackson, who died in 2009 after asking his doctor to give him a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep, wrote the note to Presley sometime between 1993-1996, when they were close friends. The two later became husband and wife. “Lisa I truly need this rest I haven’t slept litterally (sic) in 4 days now. I need to be away

from phones and business people. I must take care of my health first Im’(sic) crazy for you,” reads the handwritten note, scrawled on yellow paper. Julien’s Auctions, which had listed the letter in an upcoming celebrity memorabilia sale, said on Wednesday it pulled the note from its Music Icons auction on June 23rd and 24th at Presley’s request. “I’m assuming that it’s because the note is of a personal nature, and we want to honor the request and continue our good relationship with Ms. Presley,” chief executive Darren Julien said. -Reuters

MOVIE REVIEW

Snow White a gorgeous take on fairy tale Astonishingly beautiful and breathtaking in its brutal imagery, “Snow White & the Huntsman” is thrilling and frightening in equal measure, yet as bereft of satisfying substance as a poisoned apple. Rupert Sanders’ revisionist take on the classic Brothers Grimm fable, the first feature from the respected British commercial director, upends expectations of traditional gender roles while simultaneously embracing what a fairy tale should be. It’s dark and dangerous, vicious and violent. Yes, there are dwarves and adorable, furry woodland creatures but more often, death is a constant threat. And yet the performances - notably from Kristen Stewart as the iconic title character - don’t always live up to the film’s visionary promise. First, there’s the problem of casting anyone who’s supposed to be fairer than Charlize Theron as the evil queen. But beyond Stewart’s distractingly inconsistent British accent, she simply lacks the presence to serve as a convincing warrior princess. She’s too slight, her Snow White seems too reticent and insecure as she leads her minions into battle, and she still relies on all those Bella Swan tics that define her performances in the “Twilight” movies: the sulking and sighing, the skittish side glances. Theron, at the opposite end of the spectrum, tends to get too screechy; with her imposing height, deep voice and mesmerizing beauty, she’s far more powerful when she dials it down. She’s long been willing to play deeply flawed and even cruel characters, but here she gets downright campy at times. Still, she is always a startling vision to behold in Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood’s dramatic, intricate dresses and crowns.

This film image released by Universal Pictures shows Charlize Theron in a scene from “Snow White and the Huntsman”. (AP)

The look and the energy of “Snow White & the Huntsman” are what keep it engaging, if a bit overlong. Theron, as the magical and manipulative Ravenna, has married (and quickly killed) the widower king, locked his daughter Snow White in a tower and plunged a oncepeaceful realm into a wasteland of misery and strife. Once Snow comes of age and earns her fairest-of-them-all status, Ravenna’s power is threatened, and nothing short of eating the princess’ heart will sustain her.

This sets the film’s chase in motion: Snow White escapes, and Ravenna hires a veteran huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to track her down in a treacherous place known as the Dark Forest. But instead, this tormented soul ends up becoming her reluctant protector, which means Ravenna must send yet another team of bad guys to find them both. Hemsworth, the hunky “Thor” star, continues to solidify his intriguing screen presence; he’s got the looks and swagger of a bigger, bulkier Brad Pitt but also gets to show off his vulnerability and even some comic timing, too. And laughs are hard to find around here, which is why it’s so surprising to see our old friends the dwarves show up; given that everything else about this telling of the familiar fairy tale is so different, you don’t really expect them. There are eight of them, not seven, and they certainly don’t whistle while they work; similar to the dwarves in the other Snow White movie this year, the jokey, ornate “Mirror Mirror,” they’re scoundrels and thieves making mischief in the forest. But it’s the way they’re presented once they meet Snow and the huntsman that’s the real surprise, and it may cause you to do a double take. Sanders has rounded up a veritable who’s-who of esteemed British character actors - including Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost and Eddie Marsan - and, through some digital trickery, seamlessly depicted them as little people. “Snow White & the Huntsman,” a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sensuality. Running time: 125 minutes. Three stars out of four. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012

Basketball

Heat edge overtime win as Rondo sizzles for Boston MIAMI: The Miami Heat withstood a virtuoso performance from Rajon Rondo, who tallied a career-high 44 points, to emerge with a 115-111 overtime victory over the Boston Celtics and claim a 2-0 Eastern Conference finals lead on Wednesday. The outstanding Rondo, who added 10 assists and eight rebounds, was on court for the entire 53 minutes of a hugely entertaining encounter but was left to fight without Paul Pierce wwith 21 points in overtime after he fouled out in the fourth. Rondo’s range of skills - his pinpoint shooting, lightfooted dribbling, vision and fitness - were all on display and he scored all 12 of his team’s points in overtime but remained unmoved by his outstanding statistics. “It’s irrelevant. We lost. It’s as simple as that,” a dejected Rondo told reporters. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, however, knew that he had seen something special from his point guard. “He was absolutely phenomenal and put the whole team on his shoulders at times. “It’s tough to have him play that way and not win the game, honestly, because he basically did everything right”. Miami had to dig deep to muster an impressive third-quarter comeback to haul themselves back into the contest after trailing by as many as 15 points during the second quarter and went into the halftime interval 53-46 down. By the end of the third, however, Miami had moved 81-75 ahead, having outscored the Celtics by 13 points in the quarter, Dwyane Wade finally breaking free of close attention with 12 points, after managing only two in the first half. The crowd were on their feet throughout the fourth quarter sensing victory but there were a few more

twists and turns before Miami had the win in the bag. Miami led by three points with 34.3 seconds left on the clock but they allowed Ray Allen space for a threepointer which he sank with characteristic aplomb and then LeBron James (34 points) missed a jump shot in the final second of regulation to leave with the scores level at 99-99. With two minutes of the extra period remaining, Rondo drained a three-pointer, reduced to two on review, to put Boston ahead but baskets from James, Udonis Haslem and Wade carried Miami to victory. Boston were angered that no foul was called with the score tied at 105-105 when Rondo went for a layup but missed as he was struck in the face by Wade. “We all thought he got it, I’ll say it,” Allen said. “He did, but what can you do about it?” The win is the tenth time in franchise history that Miami have taken a 2-0 series lead and ominously for Boston, the Heat they have gone on to win in each occasion. A road win would have really opened up the series, ahead of two games in Boston, but Wade said he did not expect the Celtics to be demoralized by the cruel loss. “I think if it is another team, possibly, but not them. They are not as great as they are individually and as a team without being resilient, without overcoming,” he said. Rivers said his team’s spirit had been outstanding and promised his team would be prepared for Game Three in Boston on Friday. “Listen, we played terrific, I told the team ‘we played extremely hard’. I thought we played with great heart but I don’t think we played smart all the time. “There are things we can absolutely fix and we’ll do that. We’ll be ready for Friday.” -Reuters

Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade (left) tries to get past Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett (right) and Rajon Rondo (center) in the third quarter during Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Finals NBA basketball playoffs in Miami, Florida May 30, 2012. (Reuters)

Tennis

Murray fights pain, Tsonga wins after rain at French Open PARIS: Fourth seed Andy Murray, grimacing in pain, battled his way into the third round of the French Open on Thursday by defeating Finn Jarkko Nieminen 1-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 despite back problems. The Briton was joined in the third round by French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who returned to complete a match suspended overnight because of rain and finished off German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2 4-6 6-2 6-1. Murray was a semi-finalist last year - his best result at the claycourt grand slam - but looked to be heading for an early exit in the first set of his match on Philippe Chatrier court. He summoned the trainer three times and lay, with his teeth clenched, as his

back was massaged, then got up again to move stiffly around the court. At changeovers, he stayed on his feet rather than sitting down. Nieminen, however, was unable to take advantage and as the match progressed, and Murray loosened up and started going for more shots, the 48th-ranked Finn began hitting unforced errors. When he hit a backhand out to give Murray breakpoint at 2-4 in the fourth set, Nieminen dashed his racket to the ground and stamped on it. His next action was a double fault and Murray found himself serving for the match. Though Nieminen saved one matchpoint with a winning service return, Murray hit a service winner on the second and

France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hits a return to Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe during their men’s Singles 2nd Round tennis match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, on May 31, 2012. (AFP)

will now play Colombian Santiago Giraldo, who knocked out 25th seed Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4 6-1 6-3. Nieminen said he was disappointed with himself, adding: “I feel like I had him - I felt that I should have taken the second set. Overall I’m not happy the way I played.” Tsonga had gone off court on Wednesday evening level at one set all and 1-1 in the third with Stebe when rain fell on Roland Garros for the first time this week. The Frenchman started Thursday with a break and needed less than an hour to see off Stebe and set up an appointment with either Serbian 28th seed Viktor Troicki or Italian Fabio Fognini. Tsonga was delighted that rain had cut short Wednesday’s play, saying he had had trouble concentrating. “It was children’s day yesterday there was a lot of noise, and I was getting a bit crazy,” he told a news conference. “So I think it was a good idea the match was stopped yesterday and I could start again in far better conditions for me.” Sixth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer had a straightforward, 6-3 6-3 6-2 win over French player Benoit Paire and will now play either 27th seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia or Dutchman Robin Haase. Women’s fourth seed Petra Kvitova, who has had a year marked by illness and injury, was in fine form on the Suzanne Lenglen court, swiftly beating Pole Urszula Radwanska 6-1 6-3. Local favorite Arnaud Clement, the oldest man in the draw at 34, bade goodbye to Roland Garros after 15 appearances here with an emotional ceremony on court after his 3-6 7-6 0-6 6-2 6-1 defeat by Belgian lucky loser David Goffin. Former Davis Cup captain Guy Forget and French tennis federation president Jean Gachassin presented Clement with a glass cube containing a sample of the Roland Garros clay. -Reuters

Li canters into third round in Paris

PARIS: Defending champion Li Na raced into the French Open third round when she brushed aside Frenchwoman Stephane Foretz Gacon 6-0 6-2 on Thursday. Chinese seventh seed Li, who last year became the first Asian player to win a grand slam singles title, needed just 52 minutes to advance on Court One.

Foretz Gacon, the world number 86, won the first two points but that was as close as she came to victory as Li bagged the opening 10 games. Foretz Gacon pulled a break back but the revival was short-lived with Li setting up a meeting against either Lauren Davis or her fellow American Christina Michale. -Reuters

Li Na of China returns the ball to Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris May 31, 2012. (Reuters)

Cricket

Misbah calls for India, Pakistan revival LAHORE: Pakistan’s Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul Haq on Thursday called for a quick revival of matches against arch-rivals India, saying that fans were keen to see the teams play. “It is very important that we have a quick revival of Indo-Pak cricket, because fans desperately want to see both countries play,” Misbah told reporters. India broke off diplomatic and sporting ties with its neighbour after the 2008 attacks on Mumbai which left 166 people dead and were blamed on militants based in Pakistan. But the visit last month of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to India has raised hopes the nuclear-armed rivals are eager to revive ties in sports, trade and travel. Cricket, the major sport in both countries, was discussed between Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with Singh passing information on to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After the talks, the BCCI gave the green light to Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 champions Sialkot Stallions to take part in October’s Champions League.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf and chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed who toured India to watch the final of the Indian Premier League on Sunday have raised hopes of an imminent breakthrough. Misbah, 38, played down reports in local media that players were not satisfied with pay rises awarded by the PCB last week, after a delay of five months. “Pakistan cricket is improving and such reports to create controversies are not good for us,” said Misbah. The PCB upped players’ monthly salaries by 25 percent and match fees by 10 percent. “I think it must be welcomed as the PCB is not earning much because of no international cricket in the country,” said Misbah. Pakistan has not hosted any major international cricket since gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009. Misbah and the rest of the one-day team fly to Colombo on Saturday for the series against Sri Lanka. Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad is already in Hambantota where the first of two matches will be played on Friday. -AFP

Olympics

BOA revives hopes of dropped Taekwondo champion Cook

Andy Murray of Britain returns the ball to Jarkko Nieminen of Finland during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris May 31, 2012. (Reuters)

LONDON: European Taekwondo champion Aaron Cook’s hopes of competing in the London Games were revived on Thursday when the British Olympic Association (BOA) refused to ratify a decision not to select him. Despite being poised to become world number one, 21-year-old Cook was overlooked in the under 80kg category by British Taekwondo, who instead nominated lowly-ranked Lutalo Muhammad. The BOA’s Olympic Qualification Standards (OQS) panel met on Thursday and refused to accept the decision, ordering the selection committee to reconvene instead at the earliest opportunity. It asked Sport Taekwondo UK, British Taekwondo’s performance division, to consider also a number of points in making its decision. One of them was that “a disproportionate amount of emphasis should not be given to the so-called ‘head shot rule’ in international taekwondo, which is subject to different interpretation, or any other factor.” GB Taekwondo were understood to have argued that rule changes on scoring favored Muhammad rather than Cook, who quit British Taekwondo’s World Class Performance Program last year to train independently. The BOA said both athletes should receive “equal and in-person representation before the Selection Com-

FILE- Britain’s taekwondo athlete Aaron Cook (right) aiming a kick on his way to controversially beating Ramin Azizov of Azerbaijan at the Manchester Regional Arena, Manchester, England, May 5, 2012. (AP)

mittee, preferably by their personal coach” with an independent observer also present. -Reuters

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlight

LONDON: Manchester United are to play a friendly against Shanghai Shenhua as part of a pre-season tour of China in July, the Premier League club confirmed on Thursday. United, who last played in China three years ago, will play the local giants at the Shanghai Stadium on July 25, a statement said. “We had a fantastic amount of support from our fans last time we played a pre-season game in China,” United chief executive David Gill said. “We were overwhelmed by the passion and excitement generated by the fans who came out to support us and we hope many more join us again this year.” Several Premier League clubs are touring Asia during the close season. United’s friendly with Shanghai comes just two days before Premier League champions Manchester City face Arsenal in Beijing on July 27. -AFP

Football

Neymar powers Brazil over host US WASHINGTON: Brazil playmaker Neymar scored one goal and set up two more to spark the five-time World Cup champions past the United States 4-1 in an international football friendly. The Brazilians used the match to study talent ahead of the London Olympics, with 17 Olympiceligible players on the roster, including Neymar, a 20-year-old Santos forward who has attracted interest from many of the world’s top clubs. The Brazilians improved to 16-1 all-time against the Americans, winning for the ninth time in a row since suffering their only defeat, by 1-0, in 1998. And they did so with a young roster looking to London and Brazil’s 2014 World Cup. “It’s a great satisfaction,” Neymar said. “We all knew the doors would open for the national team and we’re all happy about that.” A crowd of 67,619 saw the Brazilians, coming off a 3-1 victory over Denmark on Saturday, end a five-match win streak for the Americans, who beat Italy 1-0 and routed Scotland 5-1 last Saturday in their run. “I didn’t expect this, really,” Brazil coach Mano Menezes said. “But I saw the confidence of young players and I knew we could trust them. The response was very good. You can see in the faces of the players they can feel the accomplishment. We played better than we did against Denmark. We need to improve every game.” US coach Jurgen Klinsmann was impressed with Neymar and his teammates, but sees flaws compared to past Brazilian dynasties. “Neymar and the technical skills he has, he has the freshness to try things out -- he does things you don’t expect,” Klinsmann said. “They have a very good young team. It’s a promising team. But it’s a beatable team.” The Americans are preparing for the start of their 2014 World Cup qualifiers on June 8 against Antigua and Barbuda. “We’re ready for qualifiers,” said US forward Herculez Gomez, who scored the lone goal for the hosts in the 45th minute. “We played well in stretches. We learned some things from this match. Once we get a little nasty I feel like we will be a lot

Dzeko still a Bayern target: Report

BERLIN: Bayern Munich are lining up a bid for Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko in the hope of partnering the Bosnian with their top scorer Mario Gomez, according to a report on Thursday. Bayern shied away from media speculation linking them to Dzeko on Wednesday, but a report in the Bild daily insisted the German giants have already been in contact with Dzeko and need only iron out his personal terms. Gomez recently signed a contract extension with Bayern, the beaten Champions League finalists, that will keep him at the club until 2016 on an annual salary of nine million Euros (_£7m, $11m). Bild, Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper, added that Dzeko was Bayern’s favored choice but that the club had also scouted Frenchman Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Dutchman Luuk de Jong (Twente) and Argentinian Matias Suarez (Anderlecht). Bayern have already acquired a top striker in Peruvian Claudio Pizarro, 33, who signed a one-year deal after his contract with Werder Bremen expired. Dzeko, 26, already has experience of the Bundesliga, having excelled for Wolfsburg when they won the title in 2009. In January 2011 he signed a four-anda-half-year deal with City. City secured the Premier League title just over a fortnight ago, with Dzeko ending the season on 14 league goals. -AFP

Brazil’s Neymar (center) tries to evade Steve Cherundolo (left) and Oguchi Onyewu of the US during their international friendly soccer match in Landover, Maryland, May 30, 2012. (Reuters))

better off.” Neymar opened the scoring on a penalty in the 12th minute after US defender Oguchi Onyewu was whistled for blocking a shot with his left forearm at the top of the penalty area. Neymar went to the spot against US goalkeeper Tim Howard, a standout for Everton in the Premier League. Howard dived to his right as Neymar fired into the open side, netting his ninth goal in 17 matches for Brazil. The visitors took a 2-0 lead in the 26th minute when Neymar lofted a corner kick into the heart of the penalty area and Brazilian captain Thiago

Silva headed the ball into the goal. Gomez, a striker for Santos of Mexico, answered for the hosts, taking a cross from onrushing defender Fabian and deflecting the ball into the goal to trim the half-time deficit to 2-1. Neymar set up Brazil’s third goal from the backline to the right of Howard, flicking a backward centering pass to Real Madrid defender Marcelo, who blasted the ball past a helpless Howard in the 52nd minute for a 3-1 Brazil lead. Brazil closed the rout in the 88th minute on a left-footed blast by AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato. -AFP

Schalke tempt Van der Vaart with C1 football

Rafael van der Vaart of The Netherlands celebrates his goal against Slovakia during their international friendly soccer match leading up to Euro 2012 in Rotterdam, May 30, 2012. (Reuters)

BERLIN: Bundesliga side Schalke 04 are on the trail of Tottenham’s attacking midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, according to reports Thursday. Dutch international van der Vaart is linked with Spurs until June 2014, but the player’s agent Robert Geerlings told the German magazine Kicker: “I can confirm that Schalke are interested (in signing Van der Vaart).” Van der Vaart, who scored the second goal Wednesday for the Netherlands in a 2-0 win over Slovakia, a warm-up match for Euro 2012, said would not rule out moving to Germany. “Normally, I’m staying with Tot-

tenham, but in football you can never say what’s going to happen,” said van der Vaart. In contrast to Spurs, who finished fourth in the Premier League but will lose out on a Champions League place after Chelsea’s recent triumph, Schalke are assured a place in the competition next season. Van der Vaart is also seen as a perfect replacement for Spanish star Raul, who will play in Qatar next season, and one who would link up well with compatriot Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the Bundesliga’’s top scorer last season. -AFP

Zeman set to become new Roma coach

ROME: Zdenek Zeman is set to be the new AS Roma manager after Pescara president Daniele Sebastiani revealed on Thursday that he was leaving his newly-promoted side. “Zeman will go Roma, but a piece of his heart will always be in Pescara,” Sebastiani told Radio Manà Manà Sport. “His choice (to go to Roma) was inevitable, because returning to the capital was too attractive an offer for him.” Ansa news agency reported that Zeman and Roma had not yet reached agreement over his contract and transfer targets. However, Roma’s managing director Claudio Fenucci made confident noises to Roma Channel, the club’s official television station. “Soon we will formalize the agreement with our new coach and from there will begin the building of a team that I hope this year will give great satisfaction to our fans,” Fenucci said. “We would like to move our project of a spectacular and fun team forward.” Zeman, who was born in Prague but is a naturalized Italian, managed Roma between 1997 and 1999, and the flamboyant style of football his side played left a deep impression on theIR supporters. Pescara were promoted to Serie A last season with a team that drew plaudits for their attacking style. Roma lost 14 league matches last season under Luis Enrique and failed to qualify for European competition. -Reuters

Mazzarri extends Napoli contract for a year

ROME: Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri has signed a one-year contract extension with the club, it was announced Thursday. Mazzarri has had an excellent three years in charge of the southerners and recently steered them to third place in Serie A and a place in next season’’ Champions League as well as victory in the Italian Cup. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis says he is happy to be keeping hold of one of the most sought-after coaches in Italy. “I’m very satisfied, we spoke at length, analyzing last season and setting the foundations for the next one,” he said. “I also negotiated with Mazzarri to prolong his contract for another year.” Mazzarri claimed he understood the need to balance the books, meaning some of Napoli’s top stars may leave in the summer. “Together with the president we agreed on the necessity to work for the development of Napoli with signings aimed at strengthening the squad while respecting financial fairplay,” he said. Napoli finished fifth in the league last season having finished sixth in Mazzarri’s first season. -AFP

Chelsea triumph can inspire England: Lampard ENGLAND: Frank Lampard has already witnessed one new manager defy all the odds to win Europe’s biggest club trophy - he is now hoping that another new man can silence his critics and transform England’s fortunes at the European Championships. Roy Hodgson might not have been the fans favorite to take over from Fabio Capello when he left the job back in February, but the Football Association believe they have the best man to help England restore some much needed pride. Hodgson has only had 40 days to prepare for such a big competition, but Lampard feels that is enough time to help England go all the way in Poland and Ukraine. The experienced midfielder is in a good position to voice those views having witnessed Roberto Di Matteo transform a Chelsea team in such a short space of time. It was only three months ago that Andre Villas-Boas had clearly lost the support of his Chelsea players and the west London club was in disarray. But they never looked back after Villas-Boas was shown the door at Stamford Bridge and Di Matteowon back the support of the dressing room and steered them to FA Cup success and more importantly the Champions League trophy.

Having ended the season as a European Cup winner, Lampard has now switched his attentions to the national side and hopes Hodgson can have a similar impact on the England squad. “It’s certainly possible to kindle something very quickly. There’s no magic formula in football. In my opinion manmanagement is of the utmost at top football these days,” said Lampard. “When you’ve got a very good squad of players of course there’s training and tactics which is important as well, but the man-management issue at Chelsea was the huge thing. Robbie took players aside and talked to them and made them feel confident and brought the best out of them, so then you’ve got a chance. If England can do that as a group then I still think we’ve got a great chance. We’ve got very good players in the squad so it’s not so much a matter of time, the fact expectations are less because of that might work in our favor, it’s a hard one to call.” Lampard is the first to admit that the change in manager at Chelsea not only transformed the team’s fortunes, but also helped him get his career back on track for both club and country. The 33-year-old was frozen out of the team by Villas-Boas and lost his place in the England squad even though Steven

Gerrard and Jack Wilshere were both missing through injury. He started to think that he had played his last major tournament for his country and was not expecting to board the plane for Poland and Ukraine. But in a remarkable turn of events, Lampard quickly regained his best form under Di Matteo. It would not be England heading into a major competition if the debate surrounding whether Lampard can play alongside Gerrard would not surface once again. Lampard has been playing a different kind of role in recent months as a more defensive midfielder but he seems to have relished his new position. With Gerrard still regarded as one of the best attacking midfielders in Eurpoean football, Hodgson might yet be able to find a solution which can accommodate playing two of England’s finest midfielders in recent times. When asked if he thought he can play alongside Gerrard, Lampard replied: “I think, yes. That’s the headline straight away. I’m not going to say no and talk myself out of the team. Steven’s a great player and I’ve had the pleasure to play alongside him for many a year even though it hasn’t always been completely successful. -AFP

Norwich refuses to accept Lambert’s resignation

LONDON: Norwich manager Paul Lambert has offered his resignation from the Premier League outfit but club officials have refused to accept it, it was confirmed on Thursday. Norwich said in a statement it would not accept Lambert’s resignation whilst “discussions with another club are taking place”. Lambert reportedly handed in his resignation late Wednesday after the club rebuffed a request by Aston Villa to open talks with the highly rated Scottish manager. “The club regrets to confirm that Paul Lambert has offered his resignation from his position as Norwich City manager,” the Carrow Road side said in a statement. “We have fought hard to keep Paul at Norwich City and have not accepted his resignation whilst discussions with another club are taking place. However whatever happens we want to place on record our sincere gratitude for everything Paul has done for the Club over the last three fantastic seasons.” -AFP

England midfielder Frank Lampard speaks during a press conference at a hotel near Watford on May 29, 2012 as the team begin preparations for their final international friendly match. (AFP)