June 27, 2012 by Al Watan Daily

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27 , 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1472

12 PAGES

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150 Fils with IHT

New Cabinet to be named next week

Mohammed Al-Salman, Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Osama Al-Qatari and Ahmed Al-Shemmari Staff Writers

KUWAIT: A decree is due within two days for the reappointment of His Highness Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah as Prime Minister to form a new Cabinet, an informed source reported. According to the source, once the decree is issued, the new Cabinet lineup will be ready early next week. It has been reported that no changes will be made to the Cabinet, apart from the appointment of an MP, which implies that the Cabinet will not have to be sworn in before the 2009 National Assembly. The source further noted that the resignation of Cabinet and the forming of a new one is not meant to reshuffle ministerial positions; rather it seeks to rectify the Cabinet’s constitutional structure so that its decisions or the decree to dissolve the 2009 assembly are not appealed against in the future. Further, it has been informed that there has been difficulty in finding a candidate among the 2009 MPs who will be willing to join Cabinet, but sources intimated that Al-Mubarak will start consultations with some of those lawmakers to convince them to do so. Moreover, parliamentary sources have revealed that Al-Mubarak met with MPs Musallam Al-Barrak and Jamaan Al-Harbash who conveyed to him

a message from members of the Majority Bloc in the 2012 Parliament urging him not to deal with the 2009 assembly. The lawmakers have reportedly argued that the 2009 Parliament has been rebuffed by the people and dissolved by His Highness the Amir; hence he should not take oath of office before that “unconstitutional assembly.” Sources have equally disclosed that the said MPs have told the premier that the Majority Bloc is currently drafting a memo to appeal against the ruling which annulled the 2012 Parliament and will submit it to the Supreme Judiciary Council. Other sources revealed that the Majority in the 2012 assembly is considering sending a delegation to the top leadership to appeal for the withdrawal of the Constitutional Court’s verdict. In another development, the former MP and exminister Shuaib Al-Muwaizri stated that the detachment of those in power from the reality and jurisdiction encroachment, among others, are the main causes of the current crisis. The former official, however, noted that all the differences can be bridged for the sake of Kuwait. For his part, MP Adnan Abdulsamad asserted that the current impasse can only be resolved through the Constitution, adding that the 2009 Parliament is valid by virtue of the court order. He was however quick to note that the final decision rests with His Highness the Amir.

Atom Smasher sets Guinness record for hottest man-made temperature

Turkey dubs Syria ‘a clear threat’, vows to retaliate

PARIS: Turkey branded its former ally Syria “a clear and imminent threat,” on Tuesday as its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vented his fury over the downing of a Turkish fighter jet. In his most outspoken criticism of the Damascus regime, Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the “heinous act” and promised a change of military attitude to any Syrian officer approaching the common border. “The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed given this new development,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament following the shooting down of F-4 Phantom jet Friday. The two pilots are still missing. Any risk posed by Syria on the Turkish border will be “considered a threat and treated as a military target,” he said in a jam-packed room of lawmakers who frequently interrupted the address with applause. Erdogan said his government would retaliate “with determination” and take what he called the “necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself”. The prime minister said Turkey’s military jet violated the Syrian airspace for a short time and “by mistake” and repeated that it was unarmed, flying solo when it was shot down by Syria “without a single warning.” “We did not receive a single warning, note from Syria (regarding airspace violation)...They acted without warning. This is See also 3 a hostile act,” Erdogan said. -AFP

Opposition protest constitutional court ruling at Square

KUWAIT: Security forces were deployed to the Irada (Determination) Square in case of any emergency following a call by members of the opposition for a gathering there on Tuesday night. Early estimates of the attendees’ numbers were sparse and increased as the evening progressed. Earlier, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah received on Tuesday senior security officials and passed instructions to them to deal with gatherings in a civilized and humane manner within the parameters of the law and in line with the freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution. In the same vein, the Democratic National Alliance announced that it will not take part in the gathering, while criticizing the tirade being launched against the judiciary by certain MPs and politicians. Similarly, the 11/11 Forces announced that it was staying away from the gathering it described as an electoral carnival for certain MPs who are just “selling delusions.” MP Khaled Al-Sultan said that the gathering is aimed at reaffirming rejection to the “corrupt assembly,” while Ali Al-Damkhi said that the 2012 Parliament has been fought because it couldn’t be manipulated. Mohammad Al-Hatlani, for his part, stressed that the people are dignified and will not therefore bend. Organizers cautioned attendees of the event against leaving the prem-

Bahrain to pay $2.6 million compensation for revolt deaths

DUBAI: Bahrain will pay $2.6 million in restitution to 17 families over the deaths of 17 relatives last year during an uprising suppressed by the Gulf Arab state, a government statement said. Separately, a high court toughened charges against three policemen, ruling they would be tried for murder - exposing them to a possible death sentence - rather than manslaughter for killing three protesters. Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based, has been under pressure to implement recommendations for police, judicial, media and education reform made by an investigative commission of international legal experts. But the country remains in turmoil as opposition groups led by the Shi’ite Muslim majority continue protests for democratic reforms and against what they say is discrimination. “Disbursement of compensation to the families of 17 deceased persons has begun in keeping with the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI),” said the statement, citing a justice ministry official. It said the payments amounted to $153,000 per person, but did not say who the recipients were or give further detail. -Reuters

Reading offers Brazilian prisoners quicker escape

Famed Galapagos tortoise to be embalmed, displayed

A lumbering giant Galapagos tortoise known as Lonesome George lifts his head up during a walk in his protected home in the island chain in Puerto Ayora in this February 5, 2001 ﬁle photo. (Reuters)

QUITO, Ecuador: The beloved Galapagos Islands giant tortoise known as Lonesome George will remain a tourist attraction even in death. Ecuador’s environment minister says the reptile that became a symbol of disappearing species will be embalmed and placed on display on Santa Cruz island. Minister Marcela Aguinaga told reporters Tuesday that an autopsy determined that Lonesome George died of old age. He was believed to be about 100 years old. Lonesome George was the last of the Pinta Island giant tortoise subspecies, and he failed to leave offspring despite the best efforts of conservationists. He was discovered in 1972 discovery on Pinta Island and became an ambassador of sorts for the archipelago off Ecuador’s coast whose unique flora and fauna helped inspire Charles Darwin’s ideas on evolution. -AP

General view of attendees at Determination Square rally organized by members of the opposition on June 26, 2012. (Al Watan Daily)

ises of the square with intent to continue protests or rallies elsewhere. Obaid Al-Wasmi was quoted as saying, “You did not listen to my advice when I said we would respect you if you respected us, and there can be no reform without accountability.” Faisal Al-Mislem said, “It has not been

proven yet that the money transfers which took place last year have been used in the interests of the public, and these funds have not been returned as is claimed by some.” On his part Musallam Al-Barrak said that “reigning powers must issue a decree to dissolve the shameful and disgraceful Parliament.”

More than 100 missing after Uganda landslide

BUNAMULEMAWA: More than 100 people were missing and about 30 confirmed killed in eastern Uganda on Tuesday after a landslide the previous day buried villages in a coffee-growing area on the slopes of Mount Elgon, the government said. On Monday, the Uganda Red Cross said at least 18 people had been killed in the disaster, but on Tuesday government officials said the number of fatalities was higher and that 109 people were still missing. Heavy rain triggered a mudslide on Monday afternoon that cut through trees and bushes, burying two villages in mud, officials said, adding that 178 people had survived. The search and rescue operation was called off on Tuesday after officials said the chances of finding any more survivors were slim. “It is feared the landslide and floods buried about 29 homes with about 30 people dead,” Stephen Mallinga, the minister of disaster preparedness and refugees, told a news conference. He said the timing of the landslide - in the early More on 5 afternoon - had prevented a much higher death toll.

31. The deposed president had used emergency law throughout his 30 years in power to repress Islamists and other dissenters. “The court has blocked the decision of the Justice Minister that gave military and military intelligence officers powers of arrest,” said Cairo administrative court Judge Ali Fikry. With Islamists and generals set for a long power struggle, there was no indication the court ruling was part of any army-Brotherhood More on 3 compromise on Egypt’s future governance.

Tennis’s Fish makes winning comeback after heart op

New Greek finance minister appointed

ATHENS: Respected economist Yannis Stournaras, who was part of a team that negotiated Greece’s entry to the euro, has been appointed as new finance minister, the government announced on Tuesday. Greece’s new conservative-led government scrambled to make a quick decision on the post after their first choice, banker Vassilis Rapanos, quit on Monday on the advice of doctors after spending four days in hospital suffering dizziness and abdominal pains. His sudden resignation threw the government into confusion at a time when it faces the daunting task of trying to persuade skeptical international lenders to ease the harsh terms of a bailout that has enraged the population. “Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has

decided to name Athens University economics professor ... Yannis Stournaras as finance minister,” Samaras’s office said in a statement. Party officials said the three Greek coalition leaders had quickly agreed on Samaras’s choice of Stournaras, 55, who is nicknamed “Mr. Euro” in Greece. Samaras, who is recovering from eye surgery, will meet leaders of his two coalition allies - the Socialist PASOK party and the smaller Democratic Left - at his home later on Tuesday to discuss the government’s plans to renegotiate the bailout, a party official said. The new finance minister faces a difficult juggling act - pushing for more time and money from skeptical foreign lenders while coaxing reluctant officials at home to push through unpopular reforms. -Reuters

ers said. In estimating the true number of deaths, the researchers gave a range of 151,700 to 575,400. Of the global swine flu deaths, the researchers estimated that 59 percent occurred in southeast Asia and in Africa, which together hold 38 percent of the world’s population. The new numbers could be used “to improve the public health response during future pandemics in parts of the world that suffer more deaths, and to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of influenza prevention,” said lead author Fatimah Dawood, a CDC epidemiologist. More on 8

A slurry bomber drops retardant on the Waldo Canyon Fire on a ridge above Queen’s Canyon in Colorado Springs, Colo. Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Fireﬁghters are battling to keep the Waldo Canyon ﬁre from reaching the Air Force Academy and residential areas north of Colorado Springs. It’s burned about 8 square miles and is only 5 percent contained. But so far, it’s only destroyed a shed. About 5,000 people remain evacuated from their homes. (AP)

ALWATAN DAILY

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WEDNESday, JUNE 27, 2012

State Audit Bureau confirms KD 95 million spent on former PM orders Al-Mislem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Member of Parliament (MP) Dr. Faisal Al-Mislem explained that the foreign money transfers’ investigation committee, which he chaired in 2012 Parliament, held 23 meetings in addition to one visit to the Diwan of the Prime Minister and Central Bank of Kuwait. They also visited the Foreign Affairs Ministry five times, upon the decision made by the committee to assign its chairman to have access to documents related to the work of the committee. Al-Mislem said that the committee has interviewed most of the witnesses and was about to complete its report to be submitted to the parliament, after His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mo-

hammad refused to show before the committee. Al-Mislem said that he can claim that the results reached by the committee after reading documents received from the government bodies are considered the most important reason behind targeting 2012 parliament. He said that it is obvious that public funds are being wasted, adding that there is no evidence on using public funds for the public interest. He explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that about 90 million Kuwaiti dinars were spent upon the orders of AlMohammad, but the current Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the amount reached KD 87 million only while the ministry said that KD 81 million were spent. However, the State Audit Bureau confirmed that it was KD 95 million and not the

amounts claimed by the Ministry or Minister of Foreign Affairs. Al-Mislem said that tens of laws, regulations and decisions, including those of the State Audit Bureau, have been violated. He added that it was proven that a number of propel were appointed as ambassadors and undersecretaries for personal interests, adding that they received very important information despite the lack of cooperation of government bodies. Al-Mislem held the general secretariat of the Parliament accountable for protecting the secrecy of documents received from government bodies, which clearly prove the reluctance of government bodies and condemn the former PM and his Diwan as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Blogger seeks to topple political order: Lawyer Al-Fadhli Nayef Kareem

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti lawyer Mohammad AlFadhli lodged a complaint at the office of Public Prosecutor in his capacity as a Kuwaiti citizen against a blogger accusing him of fomenting sectarian strife and political instability in the country. In his complaint,Al-Fadhli stated that the blogger used one of the social networking sites, and in this case Twitter, urging the public “to stage public

demonstrations at the Square of Determination so that this time the regime would be toppled.” According to Al-Fadhli, the blogger had gone a step further by disparaging the very name of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The lawyer has also complained that the Ministry of Communication has not taken the necessary measures against the blogger and that the least it could do was to disconnect him as his activities are construed to be crimes against the state. “The blogger’s activities are punishable by

law 31/1971, which is an amendment to the Penal Code 16/1960 and in particular Article 29 which clearly states that “whomever publicly incites the crowd or such activity is substantiated through the use of visual or audio materials, written or verbal, drawing or any other means of communications the aim of which is to incite, encourage or provoke anti-state feeling and sentiments or working at toppling the country’s governorship be it through violence or otherwise, would subject the person in question to a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment,” Al-Fadhil explained.

Al-Mutairie: aids to carry on even after fall of Assad regime Hamad Al-Jadae

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The General Coordinator of Metairie Campaign for relieving the Syrian people Ghamin Al-Mutairie announced that the first campaign has achieved its targets. Meanwhile, he pointed out that the second campaign has already started collecting donations again to relieve the Syrian refugees in Turkey. He told Al-Watan that the first campaign was achieved successfully through providing aids to the needy Syrian refuges in Jordan wherein aids

included medicine, foodstuffs and electric sets, adding that the campaign has also paid fees of a number of surgery operation conducted for some injured Syrian refugees as well as establishing some charitable projects there such as Mutair Central Market and Mutair Ramadan Tent. Al-Mutairie affirmed that the first campaign has also succeeded to provide some aids to Syrian refugees in Turkey in addition to giving money to several needy families there and establishing a special center for memorizing the holy Quran. He unveiled that the second campaign or convey will head to the Syrian refugees south Turkey

immediately after completing the donation process next Thursday, indicating that donations are collected in front of Jaber Stadium. He said that the administration of the campaign decided to send the second campaign to Turkey because Jordan has opened the door for receiving donations to relieve the Syrian people in Jordan therefore the Syrian refugees in Turkey might need aids more at the present time than the Syrian refugees in Jordan. Al-Mutairie emphasized that the campaign for relieving the Syrian people will last even after the fall of Assad regime.

Inspection teams to check hygiene in ration branches: UCCS

Ministry: Secondary School exams’ results to be announced 3 p.m. Abdulaziz Al-Fadli

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education announced that the Secondary School exam results will be announced today at 3 p.m. Sources at the Ministry of Education revealed to Al Watan that the Minister of Education Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf is following on marking process in control rooms, adding that heads of control rooms told the minister that the results could be ready today noon. Accordingly, Minister Al-Hajraf gave instruction to announce the results once they are ready and a time was set at 3 p.m. for announcing the results. During a ceremony held to honor the outstanding female students at Al-Yarmouk Secondary School under the patronage of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Homoud Al-Sabah, Director of Capital City educational Zone Ruqiah Ali Hussein made a statement to Al Watan in which she said, “the results will be good and students will rejoice.” She added that certificates will be distributed to students at their schools as of tomorrow until next Sunday. She congratulated the outstanding female students and said that they exert great efforts to achieve their goals.

Public Prosecution ordered detention of MP Dashti over KD 600,000 cheque Ibtisam Said Yousef Al-Yousef

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Following the Criminal Court’s ruling to postpone its verdict in the case of breaking and entering into the National Assembly to October 8, calling on lifting off the parliamentary immunity of MPs involved in the felony and at the same time the release of all those who were accused, the office of Public Prosecution ordered the detention of Member of Parliament (MP) Abdulhamid Dashti over a 600,000 Kuwaiti dinars cheque. Kuwaiti lawyer Adel Qurban lodged a complaint to the office of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) against the MP.

Fire occurrences grew 13 percent in first quarter of 2012: Insurance data

KUWAIT: Fire occurrences in Kuwait have increased to 13 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2012, latest statistics reported on Tuesday. Assistant General Manager (GM) for Technical and Reinsurance Affairs at Wethaq Takaful Insurance Company Al-Sadiq Al-Tawali said in a press statement that fire incidents in residential areas had dropped by 21 percent in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the same period of 2011. However, they rose 42 percent in nonresidential areas in the first quarter of 2012, in comparison to the same period of 2011. “There were three huge fires in one day during the month of April which inflicted great damage to properties,” he pointed out. He added that there were other disastrous fire accidents that took place in amghara area recently. Experts estimated that 56 percent of fire causes were due to electrical short circuits as well as by unsupervised children. Meanwhile, nine percent of fires were attributed neglected cigarettes stubs. Al-Tawali pointed out that fire insurance is undermined even though it provides necessary preventive precautions and it can fully compensate for loss and damage. Therefore, he stressed the full cooperation between insurance companies and fire departments as precautionary procedure to ensure the safety of lives and properties. -KUNA

Banks Association: demonstrations, sit-ins to impose pressure upon authorities ‘red line’ KUWAIT: The Board of Banks Association announced its support and loyalty to all constitutional procedures that His Highness the Amir of Kuwait endorses, especially that such procedures usually show the great interest of His Highness the Amir to abide to the constitution in order to maintain security of the country and people. The association said in a press statement that it rejects all suspected statements that might contribute in erupting chaos in the country through inciting certain people to take to streets in order to stage sit-ins and demonstrations. Such steps aim at imposing pressure upon the executive authority under the pretext of calling for freedom and democracy as well as prosperity of the country. The union asked all people who are incited by others to take to streets to think well about what happened to those who committed similar mistakes before in which a number of youths were referred to the court after storming the headquarters of the parliament. They took to streets under the pretext of calling for reforms but such practices will never lead to reforms that the Kuwaiti people aspire. The association has also appealed the different political powers to abide to the opinion of His Highness the Amir and the other senior leaders to maintain security of the country particularly that our religion calls for abiding to the instructions of our rulers.

Chairman of Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies Abdulaziz Al-Samhan (center) speaking during a UCCS meeting held Sunday, June 25, 2012. (Al Watan) Hamed Al-Sayed

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Chairman of Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies (UCCS) Abdulaziz Al-Samhan rejected issuing violations to 22 ration branches for issues related to providing services and hygiene. He said that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s report on this issue is unacceptable.

This came in a speech made by Al-Samhan during a meeting held by UCCS with the Head of Ration Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Mohammad Al-Enzi in the presence of UCCS Secretary Nabeel Al-Mefreh, Head of Media Committee Mohammad Al-Habish, UCCS Director and heads of ration branches in cooperative societies. Al-Samhan held the heads of ration branch-

es responsible for any negative remarks, adding that UCCS will send inspection teams to all branches to check commitment to hygiene standards and that they provide the best services to consumers. He added that shutting down any branch will negatively affect the cooperative society where the branch is located and will make it lose the confidence of consumers.

Kuwait embarks on ferocious drive against drugs: Ministry KUWAIT: “Kuwait will continue its relentless drive against drugs to protect people, particularly youth, from this devastating scourge,” the Ministry of Interior underscored Tuesday. “We are proud of our achievements in drug control and addicts treatment,” said Kuwait First Deputy Premier, Interior Minister and Head of the National Committee for Drug Control (NCDC) Sheikh Ahmad Hamoud Jaber Al-Sabah, in a speech delivered on his behalf by Assistant Undersecretary for Criminal Security, Major General Abdul Hamid Al-Awadi at a NCDC ceremony to mark the International Anti-Drug Day. Sheikh Ahmad pointed out Kuwait identified

the problem a long time ago and started actions to control it through coordination between government and civil society organizations. The Ministry of Interior has mobilized all its potential in the fight against drug dealers and promoters through monitoring of land, sea and air, he said, adding that this led to seizure of huge quantities of drugs. The Interior Minister applauded the great positive role played by other government agencies and civil society in raising people awareness about the drugs danger as well as in treating and rehabilitating its victims. Every year on June 26, the world marks the International Anti-drug Day with a slogan deter-

mined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC. On this day different countries express their present challenges in the field of narcotics, measures taken and the solutions for resolving this problem. This day is a universal symbol which reminds the consequences of cultivation, trafficking and consumption of drugs and requires governments’ firm resolve for an all-out campaign against this grave social problem. Based on the estimates declared by the UN, presently there are over 200 million addicts who consume different types of narcotics including opium, heroin, marijuana and so on. -KUNA

Singaporean delegation expresses interest in boosting joint investments with Kuwait KUALA LUMPUR: A Singaporean business delegation expressed great interest in boosting joint investment projects with Kuwait, especially with the country’s private sector. Head of the Singaporean delegation that recently visited Kuwait said during a dinner held by the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Singapore Abdulaziz Al-Adwani that he is looking forward to enhancing ties with the Kuwaiti private sector on all possible domains, especially those concerning the country’s development plan. The Singaporean chief shabbir hassanbhai described the latest visit which took place on May 28-31, to Kuwait as “encouraging” and “proper” for enhancing economic ties between the two countries. On his part, the Kuwaiti envoy told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on the phone that the Singaporean delegation consisted of representatives from 15 biggest investment companies in the Asian country. The visit was organized by Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry and Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry. -KUNA

Photo of Kuwaiti Ambassador to Singapore Abdulaziz Al-Adwani (center) with the Singaporean business delegation Monday, June 26, 2012. (KUNA)

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

wednesdAY, June 27, 2012

UN mission in Syria to stay suspended, say officials UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT: The United Nations monitoring mission in Syria will remain suspended because of the mounting conflict, the head of UN peacekeeping told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Diplomats at a closed Security Council meeting quoted Herve Ladsous, UN peacekeeping chief, as saying civilians are in “increasing danger” in Syria and “conditions are not conducive to resume operations.” Meanwhile, Rebel forces and Syrian army units waged deadly clashes around elite Republican Guard posts in the suburbs of Damascus on Tuesday, as 31 people were killed across the country, a monitoring group said. “Violent clashes are taking place around positions of the Republican Guard in Qudsaya and Al-Hama,” eight kilometers (five miles) from central Damascus, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Six people were killed in Qudsaya, according to the Observatory, without specifying if they were civilians or fighters. Fighting has intensified in recent weeks in and around the capital, where government buildings and security posts are heavily defended, but the violence on Tuesday was the most intense in the area, Abdel Rahman said. “This is the first time that the regime uses artillery in fighting so close to the capital,” he said. “This development is important because it’s the heaviest fighting in the area and close to the heart of the capital.” “These suburbs are home to barracks of troops which are very important for the regime like the Republican Guard. This is also where families of (army) officers live,” he said. The rebels blew up an artillery piece at the entrance to Qudsaya, according to Abdel Rahman. The Observatory also reported that troops backed by “large military vehicles,” stormed the Barzeh neighborhood of the capital amid heavy shooting. Elsewhere, five people, including a child, were killed in the eastern city of Deir El-Zor, where several neighborhoods came under army bombardment. In the town of Khan Sheikhun in the northwest province of Idlib, at least four members of the security forces were killed in a car bombing. Also in Khan Sheikhun, one rebel fighter was killed in clashes with regime troops and one woman was killed during shelling. In other parts of the province, five regime troops were killed in Khan Sabel, while two civilians were killed in the town of Saraqeb, which was hit by “more than 20 shells in half an hour” after midnight, according to the watchdog. It added that a helicopter was reportedly shot down during the

A military vehicle is seen after members of the Syrian free army captured a government army base in Daret Azzah near Aleppo June 24, 2012. Picture taken June 24. (Reuters)

clashes. In central Hama province, a rebel battalion commander was killed in the town of Suran during clashes, which took place after midnight Monday between rebels and regime troops. Six people were killed in the southern province of Daraa,

order to put together a serious defense.” The trial was adjourned until July 10 at the defense team’s request. The public proceedings mark the first trial of a senior Libyan official accused of killing demonstrators in the 2011 uprising that ended Gadhafi’s rule. “There are no obstacles to communicating with the accused,” Al-Mansuri told journalists, adding that although he had not met with his client since the last hearing, he speaks regularly with him on the phone. Dorda, who needs the support of crutches to walk after breaking his hip, made no statements in the court room. Dorda served as Libya’s UN envoy in the late 1990s and replaced Mussa Kussa as head of external intelligence services in 2009 before

Egypt court rejects army powers to arrest civilians CAIRO: An Egyptian court onTuesday tossed out a government decree allowing the army to arrest civilians, a setback to military rulers preparing for this week’s formal handover to Mohamed Mursi, Egypt’s first Islamist president. The Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of military rule were furious when the armybacked interim government empowered soldiers to arrest civilians, effectively reinstating Hosni Mubarak’s hated state of emergency, which lapsed on May 31. The deposed president had used emergency law throughout his 30 years in power to repress Islamists and other dissenters. “The court has blocked the decision of the Justice Minister that gave military and military intelligence officers powers of arrest,” said Cairo administrative court Judge Ali Fikry. With Islamists and generals set for a long power struggle, there was no indication the court ruling was part of any army-Brotherhood compromise on

Egypt’s future governance. But Brotherhood officials said they had struck some accords with the generals on the president’s prerogatives, on an assembly that is supposed to write a long-delayed constitution, and on the fate of the dissolved Islamist-dominated parliament. The army council that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak’s fall stripped the presidency of many of its powers in a decree issued just as the presidential run-off vote ended on June 17. Three days earlier, the Supreme Constitutional Court, still staffed by Mubarak-era judges, had dissolved the lower house of parliament, saying rules had been broken when it was elected six months ago. That decision, backed by the army, threatened to force a new parliamentary election, which could erode the large bloc won by the Brotherhood and its allies, and further undermine Egypt’s uncertain and sometimes bloody transition to democracy.

The Brotherhood ordered its followers to stage open-ended street protests against what it called a military coup. Yet behind the scenes, it has been negotiating with the generals to define the president’s authority and salvage at least part of the dissolved parliament, in return for concessions that would safeguard some military privileges. “We do not accept having a president without powers.The solution being worked out now is scaling back those restrictions so that President Mursi can deliver to the people what he promised,” said Essam Haddad, an aide to the president. Military officials were not available for comment. The new president will be sworn in on Saturday, probably before the Constitutional Court. The Brotherhood will also stage a symbolic swearing-in ceremony in Tahrir Square. Presidents were previously sworn in by parliament, whose building is now shuttered and under military guard. -Reuters

Israel starts West Bank outpost evacuation BEIT EL: Residents of Israel’s Ulpana settlement outpost neighborhood in the West Bank began evacuating their homes on Tuesday after a court ruled their homes illegal and ordered them razed. The evacuation was proceeding peacefully, with 15 of the neighborhood’s 30 families moving their possessions to a nearby temporary neighborhood - also in the West Bank with help from defense ministry workers. Israel’s High Court has ordered the demolition of 30 apartments in five buildings in the outpost, a neighborhood of the Beit El settlement. The demolition, which is scheduled to occur before July 1, was ordered because the homes were built on private Palestinian land. Three other families in mobile homes on the private land

were also ordered to move. An agreement reached between the settlers and the government last week ensured a peaceful evacuation in return for Israel constructing 300 new homes in Beit El. The evacuated homes will be removed and transported to new locations, rather than being destroyed. But residents still expressed resentment about the move. “I am not being evacuated, I’m being expelled from my home,” resident Amir Israeli told AFP. “I’m extremely disappointed by the government that is ruining 30 families for no good reason, this hurts.” “The Israeli government betrayed us,” he added. Despite the discontent, there were no confrontations or disruption, and no soldiers or police were at the site dur-

ing the evacuation. Defense ministry employees were helping residents - wearing black shirts sporting the wording “We will be back” - move boxes to trucks. “The defense ministry has invested lots of time and energy in coordination with the local leadership,” a ministry official told AFP. “I believe this investment is paying off today.” On Thursday, the remaining 18 families are to make the move, most of them to the temporary neighborhood but a few to rented homes elsewhere in Beit El and Israel. Israel considers settler outposts built without government approval in the West Bank to be illegal, but the international community views all settlements in occupied territory as unlawful, whether approved by the government or not. -AFP

Yemen and Oman hunt Al-Qaeda infiltrators

SANAA: Omani and Yemeni security forces are hunting for several Al-Qaeda members fleeing a US-backed military offensive in southern Yemen who have crossed into Oman, a senior Yemeni security source said on Tuesday.The infiltration into Oman, which sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a third of the world’s seaborne oil exports, raises concern that Islamist militants may try to set up a base in a region of strategic importance for the United States. “A limited number of Al-Qaeda elements managed to cross the border line to Oman in recent days,” the Yemeni source told Reuters. “Both sides are coordinating at the level of the border guards and the intelligence service to pursue and capture them.” He declined to give further details. An Omani foreign ministry official, Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi, told the newspaper “Oman” that his country was hunting infiltrators from Yemen but said no arrests had been made and

Russia says downing of Turkish plane not provocation NATO strongly condemns Syria’s downing of Turkish jet

known as the cradle of the uprising, including three who died during shelling on the town of Kafr Al-Shams, which saw clashes as regime troops tried to gain control over the area. The other three were killed in shelling on the town of Atman. -AFP

Trial of Gadhafi intel chief adjourned

TRIPOLI: The trial of Bouzid Dorda, the first of Muammar Gadhafi’s senior officials to face trial in Libya, was adjourned on Tuesday after his lawyer requested more time to review his client’s case. The former foreign intelligence chief, whose trial started on June 5, is accused of ordering security forces to fire live ammunition against demonstrators last year. He faces five other charges, including detaining people without evidence of any crime and organizing members of his tribe into an armed militia with the aim of sparking a civil war. “We did not complete the review of the case due to the volume of the file,” which is more than 500-pages thick, said Daw Al-Mansuri, Dorda’s lawyer. “This needs sufficient time in

declined to give any further information. The small oil and gas exporter is an ally of the United States and Britain. Saudi Arabia fought a militant insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which Al-Qaeda members killed dozens of people in attacks on foreign workers and on government facilities. Many of the militants fled the Saudi crackdown and regrouped to set up a base in Yemen. Ansar al Sharia, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, last year exploited political turmoil to capture several cities in southern Yemen, before being driven out this month. Yemeni officials have said some of its fighters have fled toward a province bordering Oman. The sultanate was rocked last year by mass protests against corruption and unemployment triggered by the Arab Spring uprisings. These protests have now largely given way to sporadic labor protests in the oil, health and education sectors. -Reuters

he was detained in September by forces loyal to the now ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). The new authorities are keen to show the world they have a functioning judiciary and are capable of conducting fair trials for high profile figures. They have requested the extradition of former spymaster Abdullah Senoussi, who was detained in Mauritania in March. Ex-prime minister Baghdadi Al-Mahmudi, who had been held in Tunisia since September 2011, was extradited to Tripoli on Sunday in what marked a diplomatic coup for Libya. And the NTC hopes to try Gadhafi’s son Seif AlIslam, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, at home. -AFP

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday said Syria’s shooting down of a Turkish warplane should not be seen as a provocation and warned world powers against using the incident to push for stronger action against Damascus. The comments were Moscow’s first reaction to Friday’s downing of a Turkish military aircraft by Syrian air defenses. Meanwhile, NATO strongly condemned as “unacceptable” Syria’s downing of the Turkish jet and expressed “solidarity” with Turkey on Tuesday but stopped short of raising any possibility of military intervention. “We consider this act to be unacceptable and condemn it in the strongest terms,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after emergency consultations at Brussels headquarters. The talks, gathering ambassadors of the 28-nation Atlantic alliance, were requested by Turkey under Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty. It enables any member to call for consultations should their territorial integrity, political independence or security be considered under threat. During the talks, which lasted about 90 minutes, “allies have expressed their strong support and solidarity with Turkey”, Rasmussen said. “The security of the alliance is indivisible.” At the meeting Turkey’s ambassador to NATO outlined the circumstances of the downing of a Phantom 4 jet Friday while on a training mission over international waters. The two men on board remain missing. The Turkish ambassador said the fighter plane entered Syrian air space for around five minutes and was shot down some 13 nautical miles off the Syrian coast while above international waters. He also said there could be no disputing these facts, according to a Western diplomat. After his presentation, the ambassadors one after the other expressed their solidarity with Ankara but not one alluded to a possible military response, a diplomatic source said. “We think it is important that what happened is not viewed as a provocation or a premeditated action (by Syria),” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. Any political escalation would be “extremely dangerous” and threaten a Syrian peace plan drawn up by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, the ministry added. -Agencies

ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION / VIEWS

wednesdAY, June 27, 2012

The end of the world as we know it

The fire in the monastery

Robust democratic institutions like Brazil and India are relative havens, even though their growth prospects are severely diminished as well.

Dani Rodrik

Project Syndicate

onsider the following scenario. After a victory by the left-wing Syriza party, Greece’s new government announces that it wants to renegotiate the terms of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. German Chancellor Angela Merkel sticks to her guns and says that Greece must abide by the existing conditions. Fearing that a financial collapse is imminent, Greek depositors rush for the exit. This time, the European Central Bank refuses to come to the rescue and Greek banks are starved of cash. The Greek government institutes capital controls and is ultimately forced to issue drachmas in order to supply domestic liquidity. With Greece out of the eurozone, all eyes turn to Spain. Germany and others are at first adamant that they will do whatever it takes to prevent a similar bank run there. The Spanish government announces additional fiscal cuts and structural reforms. Bolstered by funds from the European Stability Mechanism, Spain remains financially afloat for several months. But the Spanish economy continues to deteriorate and unemployment heads towards 30 percent. Violent protests against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s austerity measures lead him to call for a referendum. His government fails to get the necessary support from voters and resigns, throwing the country into full-blown political chaos. Merkel cuts off further support for Spain, saying that hard-working German taxpayers have already done enough. A Spanish bank run, financial crash, and euro exit follow in short order. In a hastily arranged mini-summit, Germany, Finland, Austria, and the Netherlands announce that they will not renounce the euro as their joint currency. This only increases financial pressure on France, Italy, and the other members. As the reality of the partial dissolution of the eurozone sinks in, the financial meltdown spreads from Europe to the United States and Asia. Our scenario continues in China, where the leadership faces a crisis of its own. The economy’s slowdown has already exacerbated social conflict, and recent developments in Europe have added fuel to the fire. With European export orders canceled en masse, Chinese factories are faced with the prospect of massive layoffs. Demonstrations begin in major cities, calling for an end to corruption among party officials. China’s government decides that it cannot risk further strife and announces a package of measures to boost economic growth and prevent layoffs, including direct financial support for export-

ers and intervention in the currency markets to weaken the renminbi. In the US, President Mitt Romney has just taken office, following a hardfought campaign in which he derided Barack Obama for being too soft on China’s economic policies. The combination of financial contagion from Europe, which has already led to a severe credit crunch, and a sudden flood of low-priced imports from China leave the Romney administration in a bind. Against the advice of his economic advisers, he announces across-the-board import duties on Chinese exports. His Tea Party backers, who were critical in mobilizing electoral support for him, urge him to go further and withdraw from the World Trade Organization. Over the next few years, the world economy slumps into what future historians will call the Second Great Depression. Unemployment rises to record-high levels. Governments without fiscal resources are left with little option but to respond in ways that will only exacerbate problems for other countries: trade protection and competitive exchange-rate depreciation. As countries sink into economic autarky, repeated global economic summits yield few results beyond empty promises of cooperation. Few countries are spared the economic carnage. Those that do relatively well share three characteristics: low levels of public debt, limited dependence on exports or capital flows, and robust democratic institutions. So Brazil and India are relative havens, even though their growth prospects are severely diminished as well. As in the Great Depression, the political consequences are more serious and hold longer-term significance. The eurozone’s collapse (and, for all practical purposes, that of the EU itself) forces a major realignment of European politics. France and Germany compete openly as alternative centers of influence vis-vis the smaller European states. Centrist parties pay the price for their support of the European integration project, and are repudiated in the polls by parties of the extreme right or extreme left. Nativist governments begin to kick out immigrants. For nearby countries, Europe no longer shines as a beacon of democracy. The Arab Middle East takes a decisive turn towards authoritarian Islamic states. In Asia, economic strife between the US and China spills over into military conflict, with increasingly frequent naval clashes in the South China Sea threatening to erupt into a full-scale war. Many years later, Merkel, who has withdrawn from politics and become a recluse, is asked whether she thinks that she should have done anything differently during the euro crisis. Unfortunately, her answer comes too late to change the course of history. A remote scenario? Perhaps, but not remote enough. Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, is the author of The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy.

Dealing with repeated political standoffs Shamlan Yousef Al-Eisa

he recent decision of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to call for the immediate suspension of parliamentary sessions is indeed well-deserved, well thoughtoff and come at the right time. I say the decision was taken at the right time simply because we are all aware of the fact that the country and its citizens are going through a tumultuous phase through several eruptions witnessed in parliament culminating from the fact that members of the executive and legislative authorities are always at loggerheads with one another. It is also an unprecedented decision on the part of his Highness the Amir that he has thought it wise and just to invoke Article 106 of the Kuwaiti Constitution for the first time in history. Article 106 of the Kuwaiti Constitution gives His Highness the Amir the royal prerogative of suspending all parliamentary activities for a period that does not exceed one calendar month. The decision, has however, raised several questions as is evident in the fact that writers have expressed their points of view in articles that are published in local newspapers indicating that the main reason for this suspension was prompted by the fact that His High-

ness the Amir is definitely not pleased with the performance of the parliament. It is also common knowledge that His Highness the Amir is simply fed up with the constant bickering and disputes witnessed among members of the executive and legislative authorities as well as the plethora of differences that are rooted deep down within them. Moreover, it is also unfortunate that some MPs have even gone to the extent of heaping verbal abuses on their adversaries not to mention the other fact that they talk inappropriately about some icons and personalities of Kuwait including those from the judiciary. Now regardless of the reasons responsible for the parliament’s suspension, I just wonder if our honorable MPs will ever learn valuable lessons from past mistakes. On the other hand, I also wonder when will all those members of the Majority Bloc stop promulgating their vested agendas most of which are aimed at imposing their own agendas on the government?! The meeting that took place recently between members of the Majority Bloc and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah focused on several positive points that the premier said should be considered carefully by one and all in the best interests of the country and its

The fate of people arbitrarily imprisoned due to their religious beliefs and participation in recent protests adds to the growing worries about stability in Tibet.

Andr Glucksmann Karel Schwarzenberg Desmond Tutu Richard von Weizsacker Project Syndicate

The grim spectacle of young monks, nuns, and lay people setting themselves on fire to protest conditions in their homeland is a stark reminder of the gloom and despair that now prevails on the Tibetan Plateau. These acts of self-immolation - at least 36 since March 2011 - have been staged to protest the increasingly heavy controls that China’s government in Beijing has imposed on Buddhist religious practices. At the end of May, a self-immolation occurred for the first time, in Lhasa, the capital, which may be a powerful portent of new turmoil in Tibet. The self-immolations are a stark rebuke to the Chinese government’s claims that the lives of many in Tibet have been improving. These singular acts of desperation, irrespective of their motives, should be viewed in the wider context of ongoing religious and political problems in Tibet. Current official Chinese policies threaten the continuing existence of the Tibetan language, culture, religion, heritage, and environment. Simmering tensions have been fueled largely by the lengthy “re-education” campaigns imposed on the Tibetans, who are forced to renounce publicly their spiritual leader and profess patriotism and loyalty to China. The escalating situation in the Aba/ Ngaba region, a heavily Tibetan area in Sichuan province where tensions have led to the imposition of unprecedented security

measures, is particularly worrisome. Aba has long had one of the densest concentrations of Buddhist monks and monasteries anywhere in the world. The security crackdown to stem protests there, and the virtual sealing off of the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, where the first of the current wave of self-immolations occurred, appears merely to have spread protest farther afield. Article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees all citizens the right to freedom of religion; therefore, religious freedom in Tibet should be respected. In April, a group of 12 Nobel Peace Prize laureates sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to “respect the dignity of the Tibetan people” and open “meaningful dialogue” with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders. The US Senate and the European Parliament have adopted resolutions expressing their frustration over Chinese policies. There should be no doubt that the rest of the world is well aware of the gross violation of the Tibetan people’s fundamental rights and dignity. China has legitimate aspirations to be accepted as a responsible stakeholder in global affairs. But the best way for its government to achieve this goal is to demonstrate that it can care for the needs of all of the people living in China, including Tibet-

ans, in a responsible manner. The Chinese government should contemplate the merits of greater openness in Tibet and put a stop to intimidation and harassment, which merely breed further frustration and resentment. The fate of people arbitrarily imprisoned due to their religious beliefs and participation in recent protests adds to the growing worries about stability in Tibet. To ensure greater transparency, the Chinese authorities should lift restrictions on visits by independent international media and human-rights monitors to provide as accurate a picture of the situation on the ground as possible. The international community ought to initiate an open and honest dialogue with China at all levels, urging it to guarantee freedom of religion to all of its citizens in accordance with its international obligations - and its own laws. • Andr Glucksmann is a philosopher and essayist. • Karel Schwarzenberg is Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic. • Desmond Tutu is Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. • Richard von Weizsacker was President of Germany. The views expressed here are their own.

Citizen

Reform

Mohmmed Thallab

It is indeed pathetic that some MPs desperately try to secure their own place in the halls of notoriety through repeatedly erupting crises between the government and parliament. people. Surely, it goes without saying that if the two sides abide by all those points in the strictest manner possible; they will be able to overcome many problematic issues that are thorns in the sides of both the authorities and work closely together for a better future. The honorable prime minister has, time and again, affirmed that members of the government are simply not interested in scheming against members of the Majority Bloc while members of the government are surely convinced that there are some MPs whose only aim is scheme against certain ministers as is evident in the fact that those MPs attack ministers to settle some old scores and personal differences. It is common knowledge that MPs do not

usually criticize and attack ministers because of their shoddy performances but to settle personal scores as is evident in the fact that members of the Majority Bloc have already decided and announced their intention of submitting a vote for no confidence against the former finance minister even before giving him an opportunity to discuss the interpellation motion with those very MPs who filed the motion. The honorable premier has, time and again, appealed to all MPs to avoid engaging in such malpractices, adding that the government will never be prompted to work in the best interests of the country and its citizens if MPs doubt its performance and display a sense of mistrust in its capabilities. One of the main points which the premier highlighted

was that the most of the parliamentary speakers do not observe a neutral stand and this should be discouraged as speakers are, by virtue of law, always expected to observe a neutral stand. The premier also indicated that he would be only too willing to appoint four ministers in the upcoming parliament and added that he is still optimistic about cooperation among members of the executive and legislative authorities in the upcoming stage. On the other hand, we are all aware of the fact that most, if not all, MPs would definitely like to cooperate with the government while it is indeed pathetic that there are those MPs who desperately try to secure their own place in the halls of notoriety through repeatedly erupting crises between the government and parliament.

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ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

wednesdAY, June 27, 2012

More than 100 missing after Uganda landslide BUNAMULEMAWA: More than 100 people were missing and about 30 confirmed killed in eastern Uganda on Tuesday after a landslide the previous day buried villages in a coffeegrowing area on the slopes of Mount Elgon, the government said. On Monday, the Uganda Red Cross said at least 18 people had been killed in the disaster, but on Tuesday government officials said the number of fatalities was higher and that 109 people were still missing. Heavy rain triggered a mudslide on Monday afternoon that cut through trees and bushes, burying two villages in mud, officials said, adding that 178 people had survived. The search and rescue operation was called off on Tuesday after officials said the chances of finding any more survivors were slim. “It is feared the landslide and floods buried about 29 homes with about 30 people dead,” Stephen Mallinga, the minister of disaster preparedness and refugees, told a news conference. He said the timing of the landslide - in the early afternoon - had prevented a much higher death toll. “When the landslide occurred at about 2 pm, many people had gone to the market and some children were at school. Both the market and the school were not affected,” he said. Up to 400,000 people could require humanitarian aid as the rain intensified, forcing them to abandon their homes for fear of further mudslides, he added. Banana leaves stuck out of the mud at the buried villages where a solitary shiny roof of a house was also visible as survivors fretted about the possibility of more landslides. “I fear that the thing could come again and sweep me away. It happened in seconds. The trees were shaking and the soil was going down,” said 26-year-old Julius Wabuteya. He said he had found his pregnant wife knee-deep in mud and had managed to pull

NEWS IN BRIEF Indian cabinet minister quits over graft case NEW DELHI: An Indian cabinet minister resigned Tuesday after a state court charged him with corruption, in a further embarrassment for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s scandal-tainted government. “I have given my (resignation) papers to the prime minister,” Virbhadra Singh, the minister for micro, small and medium industries, told reporters. The move came a day after a court in Himachal Pradesh charged Singh and his wife with conspiracy and corruption in a 23-year-old case related to one of his five terms as chief minister of the northern state. The couple has denied all the charges and the ruling Congress party stressed that Singh’s decision to quit was not an admission of wrongdoing. -AFP

Tropical Storm Debby threatens more flooding in Florida

People gather at the scene of a landslide in Nalenda village in Bududa district 257km (154 miles) east of Uganda’s capital Kampala, June 26, 2012. (Reuters)

her out and rush her to hospital to seek treatment for her injuries. Others were not so lucky. Mary Lubango, who wailed in grief at the scene of the landslide, said she had lost several rela-

tives when the landslide struck. Some villagers had fled the area the night before after cracks appeared in the earth, suggesting a landslide might be imminent. There were concerns that

Ukraine court postpones Tymoshenko appeal hearing KIEV: A Ukrainian court on Tuesday delayed an appeal by jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction for abuse of power, postponing a decision that could embarrass Ukraine while it stages the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. The high court in Kiev supported a call by state prosecutors for the hearing to be postponed pending a medical examination of Tymoshenko to establish whether she was fit to attend proceedings. It fixed the next hearing for July 12. A similar ruling was made by a court in Kharkiv on Monday relating to a second trial of Tymoshenko for alleged tax evasion. That court adjourned until July 10. The outcome of legal proceedings against Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and heroine of the 2004-5 “Orange Revolution” street protests in Ukraine, could shape the former Soviet republic’s relations with the European Union for years. Both court rulings mean that authorities have effectively avoided sensitive hearings that risk generating further bad publicity for the leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich while the high-profile European soccer championship is going on. Tymoshenko, who could not attend the Kiev hearing because she is receiving medical treatment for back trouble, is appealing against conviction and a sevenyear jail sentence imposed last year for alleged abuse of power. The charge relates to a 2009 gas deal with Russia which she brokered as prime minister and which Yanu-

kovich’s government says saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for gas imports. The trial and her conviction have caused outrage among Western governments which say it smacks of “selective justice” and have derailed Ukraine’s relations with the EU. The charismatic 51-year-old politician says she is the victim of a vendetta by Yanukovich, her fierce political foe who narrowly beat her for the presidency in February 2010. The 27-member EU has shelved agreements on free trade and political association with Ukraine and a number of European politicians have boycotted Euro 2012 matches played there. So far, pressure from the EU has had no effect. Yanukovich has said he will not intervene before all the trials and appeals are over. Ukrainian prosecutors, meanwhile, have heaped fresh charges on Tymoshenko, saying they suspect her of involvement in a 1996 contract killing. Tymoshenko’s legal counsel showed little optimism ahead of Tuesday’s hearing. “There can be no justice for Tymoshenko, so all the hopes of Tymoshenko’s defense lie beyond Ukraine’s borders,” said her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko, meaning only Western pressure could bring about her release. After the adjournment decision, Vlasenko said, “The main aim of all this is to exclude Tymoshenko from Ukraine’s political life and not allow her to be elected at the (October) 2012 parliamentary elections.” -Reuters

continued rain could trigger further mudslides and that more people would have to flee the area. Some 220 people have already been displaced by the landslide. -Reuters

Top NATO general to raise Haqqani attacks with Pakistan KABUL: NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, US General John Allen, will travel to Pakistan for talks in which he is expected to urge Pakistan to curb cross-border incursions by Haqqani militants blamed for several attacks in Kabul. Allen, commander of the 130,000-strong NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, will arrive Pakistan on Wednesday to review border coordination with Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan’s military said. Allen is also likely to raise mounting concern in Afghanistan about three attacks blamed on the Haqqani Network, which NATO believes is controlled from Pakistan, and which began in Kabul on April 15. The latest occurred only last week when insurgent gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel on Kabul’s outskirts and burst into a party, seizing dozens of civilian hostages and killing 20 people in a 12-hour siege ended by Afghan and foreign security forces. Allen said the attack bore the signature of the Taliban-linked Haqqani group, which he said continued to operate from Pakistan, a charge that could further worsen already tense cross-border relations with Islamabad. A June 1 bombing at a US base in Khost province - the largest in southeastern Afghanistan - was also later linked by NATO officials to the Haqqani Network, with US officials discounting the Taliban due to the complexity of the attack. Pakistan lodged a counter-protest to NATO and the Afghan military on Monday, accusing them of failing to act against safe havens in Afghanistan after a cross-border militant attack killed 13 Pakistani troops, seven of whom were beheaded. Pakistan wants Afghan and NATO to act against Afghan-based militants who cross the border to attack Pakistani forces and civilians - while the United States calls on Pakistan to stop providing safe havens for militants fighting NATO forces backing Afghanistan’s government against the Taliban. Hajji Yousouf, the Afghan police commander for Narai district of eastern Kunar province, from where the militants were said to have come, said no insurgents had crossed the mountainous border, which is notoriously difficult to control. “They are based (in Pakistan) near the border with Afghanistan and now they have turned to attack the Pakistani government. Afghans and foreign forces in Afghanistan are not involved,” he said. -Reuters

MIAMI: Tropical Storm Debby drifted slowly eastward over Florida’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday, threatening to dump more rain on areas already beset by flooding. The storm is expected to take two more days to finish its wet slog across Florida. Nearly 20 inches (51 cm) of rain has fallen in two days on coastal Wakulla County. Roads were under water in many parts of the surrounding “Big Bend” area where the Florida Panhandle meets the peninsula. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said Debby could bring another 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) of rain and possibly tornadoes to north Florida in the next two days. Debby had top winds of 45 miles per hour (75 km per hour). It was expected to weaken on Thursday as the center crossed over land, but could strengthen back into a tropical storm as it moves into the Atlantic Ocean. -Reuters

London’s Big Ben to be renamed Elizabeth Tower LONDON: Britain’s landmark Big Ben clock tower adjoining the Houses of Parliament will be renamed “Elizabeth Tower” to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 60th year on the throne, a parliamentary official said on Tuesday. The announcement follows four days of celebrations earlier this month to mark the 86-year-old queen’s Diamond Jubilee, only the second to be celebrated by a British monarch. “The House of Commons (parliament) commission welcomed the proposal to rename the clock tower Elizabeth Tower in recognition of Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and will arrange for this decision to be implemented in an appropriate manner in due course,” a House of Commons spokesman said.The ornate, 96-metre high neo-Gothic tower features four gilded clock faces, and was completed in 1859. The tower took its name Big Ben from the giant bell inside, which chimes the famous bongs heard around London’s Whitehall government district. -Reuters

Italian soldier killed, two wounded in Afghanistan blast ROME: An Italian soldier was killed Monday and two others were wounded in an explosion at a police training camp in Adraskan in western Afghanistan, Italy’s defense ministry said. The explosion hit “an observation hut near a shooting range”, the ministry said in a statement, without giving further details on what caused the blast. Military spokesman Francesco Tirino in Herat told SKY TG24 television that the blast was caused by “a rocket launched from outside the camp”. Two other Italian soldiers were wounded to the legs but are out of danger. All three belonged to the Police Specialty Training Team (PSTT). -AFP

Zambian court overturns dissolution of former ruling party

Supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko attend a rally near the court in Kiev, June 26, 2012. (Reuters)

Alleged Mumbai plotter was planning new attack: Police NEW DELHI: An alleged key plotter in the 2008 Mumbai attacks now in Indian police custody had been living in Saudi Arabia for two years and was “talentspotting” for another “massive attack”, an Indian police official said on Tuesday. Sayeed Zabiuddin Ansari, also known as Abu Hamza and Abu Jindal, was arrested at Delhi airport on June 21 on his arrival from Saudi Arabia. Police revealed his arrest only on Monday, after interrogating him for five days about the three-day rampage in the financial hub of Mumbai that killed 166 people. Police said Ansari helped coordinate the attack by 10 members of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group from a “control room” in the Pakistani city of Karachi and also helped to train the gunmen. Until his arrest,Ansari had been living in Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport, an official at New Delhi’s anti-terrorist police unit told on condition of anonymity. During his stay in the desert kingdom, Ansari sought to recruit volunteers for another Mumbai-style attack,

the official said. He would not say where the planned attack was to have taken place or even whether India was the target. Asked how India had learned of Ansari’s whereabouts, the official said: “We had inputs and we acted on them.” He would not elaborate, but some Indian media, quoting sources, said the United States, which has sought to deepen its counter-terrorism relationship with India, had provided the information. The Hindu newspaper, quoting government sources, said the arrest came after months of painstaking diplomatic talks between Riyadh, Washington and New Delhi. Indian officials had travelled to Saudi Arabia to lobby for him to be handed over, it said. It was not clear whether Ansari was in Saudi custody before his deportation from the kingdom or even how he had travelled to Delhi. One newspaper said the Saudis had asked India to send a plane to take him home. The Saudi embassy in Delhi could not be reached for comment. -Reuters

LUSAKA: A Zambian High Court on Tuesday overturned the dissolution of the former ruling party over unpaid fees, arguing the move had been excessive and against the country’s general interest. The Movement for Multiparty Democracy, whose 20-year rule came to an end in September, was dissolved by the chief registrar of societies in March for owing 390 million kwacha (75,876 US dollars) in registration fees dating back to 1993. It also faced being stripped of its parliamentary seats. “The said hereby deregistration is quashed as it was excessive and unwarranted,” said High Court Judge Jane

Kabuka. Kabuka argued chief registrar Clement Andeleki could have simply fined the party for failing to pay its annual fees. “I find the cancellation of the MMD disproportionate, it could not have been taken in good faith and this is a mutilation of the tenets of democracy,” she told the court. “The decision was not in the public interest as the MMD is one of the big parties in this country,” she added. The deregistration was announced less than six months after the party lost power to President Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front in elections that ended its 20-year stint at the helm of the copper-rich nation. At the

time, it had 53 seats in the 150-member parliament but is now left with 50 following the death of a lawmaker and the nullification of two seats owing to electoral malpractices. The party won a reprieve in March after a high court ruled that its dissolution, described by former president and party leader Rupiah Banda as an attack on democracy, could only be determined by a court. MMD national secretary Richard Kachingwe told reporters that the party was happy with the judgment as the dissolution of the MMD would have deprived Zambians of a credible opposition party. -AFP

China forces refugees back to Myanmar conflict zone

BEIJING: Chinese authorities have forced back into Myanmar some ethnic Kachin refugees who have fled across the border to escape civil war, and China is denying basic care to many who remain, a human rights group said on Tuesday. Myanmar’s government is in talks with autonomy-seeking Kachin rebels, and more than a dozen other ethnic minority rebel groups, to try to end all its decadesold conflicts. But despite several rounds of negotiations, the conflict in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state has not ended. The fighting, which flared up in the middle of 2011 after a 17-year truce, has

pushed up to 10,000 people to seek refuge across the border in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch said many of these people had little access to proper sanitation, shelter, healthcare or schools for their children. Others had been detained, refused entry to China or even forced back into the conflict zone in their country, also known as Burma, the rights group said in a report. “The Chinese government has generally tolerated Kachin refugees staying in Yunnan, but now needs to meet its international legal obligations to ensure refu-

gees are not returned and that their basic needs are met,” said Sophie Richardson, the group’s China director. “China has no legitimate reason to push them back to Burma or to leave them without food and shelter.” Human Rights Watch said it had documented two cases involving some 300 people who were ordered to return to Myanmar, and others who were sent back into the conflict zone after being turned away at the border. China’s Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, and said the people were not refugees. -Reuters

BUSINESS

m ar ket watc h KUWAIT 0.58% 5824

DUBAI

QATAR

OMAN

ABU DHABI

0.12% 1455

0.41% 8195

0.1% 5657

0.23% 2482

OIL MARKETS

BAHRAIN

EGYPT

SAUDI

0.37% 1129

2.89% 4612

0.2% 6697

US Crude $79.09 $0.12 London Brent $91.56 $0.30 Kuwait Crude $88.25 $0.50 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

Kuwaiti crude up 50 cents to $88.25 Oil climbs towards $92, tension rises over Syria

CAPITALS: The price of Kuwaiti crude oil increased by 50 US cents on Monday’s oil markets to settle at 88.25 US dollars per barrel, compared to $87.75 on the day before, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Tuesday. The increase of oil is due to continuous halt on crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, after witnessing tropical storms, as the Gulf of Mexico holds 29 percent of US oil production. Meanwhile, Kuwait’s crude oil exports to China rose 7.4 percent in May from a year earlier to 1.04 million tons, equivalent to around 245,000 barrels per day (bpd), the latest government data showed. Kuwaiti share of Chinese crude oil imports was 4.1 percent last month, compared to 4.5 percent in April, according to the General Administration of Customs. China’s overall imports of crude in May gained 18.2 percent on the year to 6.03 million bpd. Saudi Arabia remained China’s top supplier with its shipments growing 12.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.04 million bpd, followed by Angola with 930,000 bpd, up 40.1 percent. Iran became third with imports from the country shrinking 2.3 percent to 524,000 bpd, although it saw a 39.0 percent rebound from April’s 399,000 bpd. China, Iran’s biggest oil importer, reiterated earlier this month that its oil imports from Iran are fully reasonable and legitimate, opposing US financial sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, Kuwait became China’s No.1 supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in May, up 180.7 percent from a year ago and provided 28.6 percent of China’s total LPG imports. In more news, oil climbed towards $92 per barrel on Tuesday as the prospect of a decline in US crude stockpiles and rising tension over Syria offset concern about a weakening economic outlook. NATO member states condemned Syria on Tuesday for its shooting down of a Turkish military jet last week and Ankara warned Damascus against any further military moves. Brent crude rose 56 cents to $91.57 a barrel by 1243 GMT after reaching a session high of $92.04. US crude slipped 21 cents to $79. “The Turkey-Syria situation probably prompted some short covering. The market has been trending down solidly for a couple of weeks, so a

A woman looks at Japan’s parliament building in central Tokyo June 26, 2012. Japan’s lower house approved a plan to double the sales tax on Tuesday to help curb the nation’s snowballing debt following a breakthrough deal between the ruling bloc and the opposition. (Reuters)

bounce from the lows is not that surprising,” said Tony Machacek, an oil futures broker at Jefferies Bache. Oil prices are expected to be underpinned by forecasts for a 700,000-barrel drop in U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week and supply disruptions in Norway and Argentina due to labor strikes. “But economically, everything still points to the downside,” said Machacek. The American Petroleum Institute will release its latest weekly inventories report at 2030 GMT. The appetite for riskier assets is expected to stay low as the debt crisis grinds on in the euro zone, where Cyprus became the fifth country to seek emergency funding for its troubled banks. And a two-day European Union summit in Brussels later this week will be the 20th time leaders have met to sort out a crisis that has spread across Europe since it began in Greece in early 2010. Investors doubt they will resolve the crisis this time. Ample oil

Brent crude oil has shed more than 25 percent

from its 2012 peak above $128 reached in March as economic uncertainty has dimmed the global demand outlook at a time of ample supplies. Higher output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in particular Saudi Arabia, has also muted the impact of imminent sanctions on Iran oil exports. EU governments on Monday formally approved an embargo on Iranian oil to start on July 1, dismissing calls by debt-ridden Greece for possible exemptions to help ease its economic crisis. The impact of the EU sanctions is also being felt in Asia. South Korea, a major consumer of Iranian crude, has called a halt to imports from July 1 due to a European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil. The embargo comes as part of a series of measures designed to put pressure on Iran to halt what the United States and others say is a nuclear weapons program. Despite OPEC’s call to adhere to a production quota, top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is showing no sign of changing its policy of high output in order to support global economic growth. -Agencies

South Korea says to halt Iran oil imports from July 1 SEOUL: South Korea became the first major Asian consumer of Iranian crude to announce a halt to imports after the government said they would be suspended from July 1 due to a European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude. The insurance ban makes it almost impossible to ship Iranian oil as most insurance is undertaken by EU-based companies and the move comes as part of a series of measures designed to put pressure on Iran to halt what the United States and others say is a nuclear weapons program. South Korea depends on the United States for security, but it has no natural resources and has been scrambling for alternative crude supplies to replace those from a country that supplied 9.4 percent of its needs in 2011. “South Korea’s imports of Iranian oil will be suspended, as the EU will suspend crude imports from Iran and also halt its insurance and reinsurance cover on the crude imports from July 1,” a joint statement from the economy, finance and foreign affairs ministries said. “The government will continue to make efforts to minimize impacts on domestic industry and the economy including oil supply, and exports to Iran, although the imports of Iranian oil are suspended,”

the statement said. The official confirmation follows a Reuters story on May 21 that had cited sources as saying South Korea would become the first of Iran’s major Asian customers to halt oil purchases. EU governments on Monday approved an embargo on Iranian oil to start on July 1 and warned Iran that more pressure could be put in place if it continued to defy international demands for limits on its nuclear program. Around 90 percent of the world’s tanker fleet is covered by Western-based protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs, which insure against personal injury and environmental clean-up claims. South Korea is the world’s fourth largest buyer of Iranian crude oil. Japan will provide sovereign guarantees for Iranian shipments, China has asked Iran to deliver the crude while India has said it would allow state refiners to import Iranian oil, with Tehran arranging shipping and insurance, from July 1. South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude oil fell nearly 40 percent in May from a year earlier, according to official data, reflecting Seoul’s efforts to reduce purchases in return for a waiver from US sanctions that could have hit its companies. South Korea imported 29.22 million barrels

from Iran during the first five months of the year, or about 192,000 barrels per day, down almost 16 percent from a year ago, data from the state-run Korea National Oil Corp showed on Monday. To plug the Iranian supply cuts, South Korea has turned to other Middle Eastern producers, including the world’s top exporter Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Qatar. The United States earlier this month extended exemptions from its sanctions on Iran’s oil trade to seven more countries including South Korea. Of South Korea’s four refiners, only SK Energy and Hyundai Oilbank import Iranian crude. Sources said both refiners will stop importing from Iran when the EU insurance embargo takes effect from July 1. The United States and the European Union accuse Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says the program is strictly for civilian purposes. South Korea has also imposed curbs on exports of goods to Iran to reduce the risks of payment defaults. Korean exporters usually receive payments via won-denominated deposits of the Iranian central bank that are generated by Iran’s oil sales here. -Reuters

Spain’s short-term debt costs nearly triple MADRID: Spain’s short-term borrowing costs nearly tripled at auction on Tuesday, underlining the country’s precarious finances as it struggles against recession and juggles with a debt crisis among its newly downgraded banks. The yield paid on a three-month bill was 2.362 percent, up from just 0.846 percent a month ago. For six-month paper, it leapt to 3.237 percent from 1.737 percent in May. Spain has already asked its European Union partners for up to 100 billion euros in aid for its banks, but financial markets have not eased in their pressure, seeing much of the EU’s efforts as only temporary solutions. European leaders meet on Thursday and Friday for their latest attempt to address their 2.5 year old debt crisis. Spain’s ability to stop the spiraling of its debt pile amid a tough recession, to clean up its fragile banking system, and to keep its autonomous regions from overspending have kept the country at the centre of worries over a spreading euro zone crisis. Investor unease at Spain’s attempts to do all three means the Treasury has had to rely on domestic banks to sell its debt in recent auctions,

wednesDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

strengthening the vicious link existing between sovereign and banking risk. Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday at a parliamentary hearing that the negotiation of the European financial package to recapitalize Spanish banks was very complex and would take time. It was dealt a further blow late Monday when Moody’s followed up its sovereign downgrade by slashing the ratings of the country’s banking system. The Treasury sold 1.6 billion euros (two billion US dollars) of a 3-month bill, and 1.48 billion euros ($1.9 billion)of a 6 month bill, which together was just above its 2-3 billion euro target. Declining support

The Spanish government was forced to pay euro-era high rates on one- and five-year debt last week on expectations Madrid could be forced to seek a full-scale sovereign bailout following a first package targeted only at its banks. Last week’s auction meant Spain has now sold just over 61 percent of its planned medium- to long-term debt issuance after it took advantage of two bursts of cheap funding from

European Central Bank auctions in December and February that encouraged banks to buy sovereign debt. Since then the country’s financing costs have touched euro era record highs. On Tuesday a major risk measure, the difference between its 10-year bond yield and that of Germany, was 517 basis points, down from over 580 hit last week, but up 10 bps from Monday. The bill auction showed even domestic bank support for the country’s debt fading from a month ago. The bid-to-cover ratio on the 3-month was 2.6, down from 3.9 last time, and it was 2.8, compared with 4.3 last time. Spanish five-year CDS were trading around 585 basis points on Tuesday, having touched a record high above 600 basis points last week. It now costs $585,000 a year to insure $10 million worth of five-year Spanish sovereign bonds against default. This cost has crept up from closer to $300,000 at the start of the year, reflecting the growing nervousness among investors over the creditworthiness of the euro zone’s fourth largest economy. ($1 = 0.8013 euros). -Reuters

CURRENCIES US Dollar

British Pound

Saudi Riyal

Qatari Riyal

Indian Rupee

Buy 0.2805 Sell 0.2806

Buy 0.4382 Sell 0.4384

Buy 0.0747 Sell 0.0748

Buy 0.07700 Sell 0.07710

Buy 0.4919 Sell 0.4921

Euro

Japanese Yen

UAE Dirham

Bahraini Dinar

Philippine Peso

Buy 0.3501 Sell 0.3503

Buy 0.3537 Sell 0.3538

Buy 0.0763 Sell 0.0764

Buy 0.744 Sell 0.7443

Buy 0.0066 Sell 0.00661

Prices in Kuwaiti fils. As of June 26, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

S&P report expects Gulf banks’ capital to remain high CAPITALS: Banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have capitalization that generally exceeds their international peers’, says Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in its report ‘Gulf Banks’ Capital Positions Compare Well With Those Of Global Banks,’ published Tuesday. This was part of a statement released by the ratings agency. Our risk-adjusted capital (RAC) framework, which we use to measure banks’ capital adequacy, indicates that the average RAC ratio for GCC banks stood in the 12-13 percent range as of end-December 2011- about five percentage points higher than the 7.4 percent average we projected for the 100 largest banks we rate in September 2011. “We believe there are two primary factors underlying GCC banks strong capitalization metrics,” says Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Paul-Henri Pruvost. “First, banks in all GCC countries, except Saudi Arabia, must maintain regulatory capital adequacy ratios above 10 percent. In addition, GCC banks tend to operate with substantial headroom ranging from 3% to 23 percent for the banks we rate,” added Pruvost. While GCC banks tend to outdo their larger international peers in terms of capitalization, they have weaker risk positions. Their risk profiles include sizable single-name, sector, and geographic concentration in countries that have higher economic risk than more mature markets in Western Europe or North America. Still, these risks aren’t sufficient to threaten their capital positions, which we expect will remain broadly stable over the next two years. This is because we forecast subdued growth in risky assets, particularly corporate financing, combined with a gradual recovery in internal capital generation thanks to reduced impairment charges. Our expectations for GCC banks reflect this: 21 of the 26 GCC banks we rate have stable outlooks. -Agencies

Qtel bids to buy remaining $1.9 billion Wataniya stake

DUBAI: Qatar Telecom (Qtel), the majority state-held telecoms operator, has offered to buy the remaining 47.5 percent stake it does not already own in Kuwaiti unit Wataniya, a Kuwaiti bourse statement said on Tuesday. Based on Wataniya’s current market capitalization of 3.97 billion US dollars, the stake is worth about $1.9 billion, Reuters data shows. “Wataniya shares were suspended from trading temporary based on the financial market authority’s instructions. The authority has received a bid from Qatar Telecom to takeover the entire transferable shares of the company,” the bourse statement said. Qtel is being advised by Barclays Capital and the investment banking arm of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The Qtel offer was submitted to Kuwait’s Capital Markets Authority, which is reviewing the proposal, the source said. Based on the authority’s recommendation, Wataniya can review the offer and appoint financial advisors to evaluate it. Qtel bought the Wataniya stake in 2007 for about $3.7 billion. Kuwait In-

vestment Authority, the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, has a 23.5 percent stake in Wataniya and the remaining shares are publicly held. New Kuwaiti capital markets bylaws, introduced last year, requires any entity who buys more than 30 percent of a listed Kuwaiti firm to bid for the remaining outstanding shares within 30 days. Kuwait’s No. 2 telecom operator, whose chief executive resigned earlier in June, has operations in Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives. In April, it reported a 90-percent drop in first-quarter net profit, with earnings from the prioryear period boosted by a one-off fair value gain. Qtel has been raising stakes in its subsidiaries recently. Earlier in June, Qtel agreed to double its stake in Iraq’s No. 2 operator Asiacell to 60 percent for $1.47 billion as it seeks to exploit rising demand for broadband. Qtel also owns a majority stake in Omani telco Nawras. Shares in Qtel ended down 1.1 percent on the Doha bourse Tuesday, while Wataniya shares were halted in Kuwait. The statement came after markets closed. -Reuters

KSE green at end of trading KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange’s KSX 15 index ended Tuesday’s trading session with a gain of 6.39 points to read 975.86 points. The price index lost 33.32 points gaining to 5,824.34 points.The weighted index went up 3.33 points to 401.34 points. Trades came to 4,211 transactions, worth 17,902,435.796 Kuwaiti dinars and volume reached 226,071,149 shares. Top share for the day was that of Al-Safwa Group Company. The biggest loser was Boubyan International Industries Holding Company and top volume share was that of Al-Safwa Group Company. The 14 sector indices were almost all green upon closing. Meanwhile, the weighted index of Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) gained 1.61 points reaching level of 399.62 points in early trading of Tuesday’s session. Price index gained 27.61 points falling to 5,818.63 points. But the KSX 15 index gained 1.26 points reaching 970.73 points by 9:30 a.m. Number of trades amounted to 729, value of traded shares KD 2,323,231.188 and volume of exchanged stocks 52,646,051. -KUNA

Alshamel International rebrands to Alshamel Travel

KUWAIT: A new identity for the leading travel management company across the Middle East region has been unveiled. Alshamel Travel will replace the old logo of Alshamel International and Alshamel Travel & Tourism. This change will affect all the fully-owned offices located in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); as the new brand is promising Alshamel regional customers innovative travel solutions as well as best-in-class service and assistance to travelers. This was stated in a press release on Tuesday. The new logo is a symbolic articulation of Alshamel’s new approach to travel business. The new emblem is built from different slices of the globe merged to express Alshamel’s global multi-service facets. The color blend resulting from the intersection of circular slices at different angles depicts an unstopping, dynamic

motion and a constant drive for discovering new frontiers in the travel industry. This move came to reflect the company’s new comprehensive strategic directions embraced by the company’s dynamic management and its committed staff. The key objective in this rebranding process is to create a long-term brand identity that clearly communicates the values of Alshamel. These values are focused on offering innovative travel solutions, enhancing the quality of services and improving customer experience to name but a few. “There was never a better time to introduce a new logo and branding” said Khaled Al-Ghanim, Alshamel Travel Chief Executive Officer (CEO). “This is not just a logo change; we believe that the new Alshamel Travel brand will not only demonstrate where we stand today, but also where we are heading.

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

WEDNESdAY, June 27, 2012

Bahrain eyes 10-year benchmark bond this week

DUBAI: Bahrain, the Gulf Arab state hit by ongoing social unrest, plans to issue a benchmark-sized 10-year dollar bond this week, lead arrangers said, after testing investor appetite in roadshows that conclude on Tuesday. Initial price guidance for the issue, which appears to be a single-tranche deal, was at a spread of 462.5 basis points over midswaps. At current swap prices, that equates to a coupon of 6.375 percent; 10-year midswaps were quoted at 1.75 percent on Tuesday. Bahrain had initially looked to sell a one-billion US dollar conventional bond at the beginning of 2011 but was forced to postpone plans due to political unrest in the country. Analysts have said the need to attract conventional investors with the new bond, rather than Islamic investors facing a very limited supply of Sukuk, meant Bahrain would have to be fairly generous in pricing the debt. Arranging banks said a bond issue may follow this week. No specific details about size were

provided, but benchmark-sized is normally understood to mean at least 500 million US dollars. JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup Inc, Standard Chartered Plc and Gulf International Bank are mandated arrangers for the deal, which will be a conventional issue and structured under a 144a-compliant format, open to US investors. A 10-year issue should also appeal to long-term institutional investors in the West; the traditional sweet spot for regional investors is usually only a fiveyear tenor. Bahrain’s last bond issue was a $750 million 7-year Islamic bond, or Sukuk, which was priced to yield 6.273 percent. Market conditions are widely believed to be more conducive for another debt markets outing now.The 7-year Sukuk was yielding 4.8 percent on Tuesday, indicating there is demand for the paper. Bahrain’s credit default swaps (CDS), or the cost to insure its debt against default, were bid at a midspread price of 352.6 basis points on Tuesday, about 10 basis points tighter than the beginning of June, according to Thomson Reuters data. -Reuters

BLME launches service for Gulf clients looking to invest in Prime London Real Estate LONDON: In response to an increased interest in prime London real estate, Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) has launched a property advisory service that offers private clients support and advice in sourcing and acquiring property either as an investment or a residence. This was stated in a press release on Tuesday. BLME is one of the largest Islamic bank in Europe whose main shareholders are Boubyan Bank and the Kuwaiti Public Institution for Social Security. Nigel Denison, Head of Treasury and Wealth Management at BLME said; “London remains one of the most desirable destinations in the world and we continue to see an increase in demand for high quality prime residential real estate.” One of the main reasons for this high demand is that London prime real

estate has out-performed almost every other asset class over the last 40 years. Knight Frank’s May Prime Central London Property Index notes that prices have risen 47.3 percent since their post-creditcrunch low in March 2009 and rose 0.7 percent in May alone. Nigel Denison continued, “We and can advise clients on the best investment opportunities and help source property. BLME also offers support and advice through the legal and tax hurdles involved in the purchase of a property. We have helped clients find investment property, such as luxury flats or a main residence in one of the ‘Golden Postcodes’ of London. The service we offer is personalized and tailored for each individual client’s requirements and risk appetite.” To complement this service BLME funds property acquisitions and also has a property fund.

Dexia Asset Management presents fixed income perspectives for H2 2012

The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has led to a significant rise in prices for government bonds of high quality. Longterm rates of developed countries have reached record lows while these countries are facing an increasing debt burden at the same time. Government bond bubble for some, impending crash for others. What can be anticipated moving towards the end of year? A short-term focus on the American market

In the United States, the yield for 10 year US Treasuries has reached 1.45 percent despite a Federal debt close to 90 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This was stated in a press release on Tuesday. The massive support from the US Central Bank explains for a large part the fall in long term rates. In 2011, the FED purchased more than half of the long-term debt issued by the US Treasury. “With the extension of operation Twist until the end of the year, and with decaying economic data, we anticipate a very accommodative monetary policy in the US will be maintained. We also think the US dollar should appreciate further against other currencies as well as versus the euro.” says Koen Van de Maele, Global Head of Fixed Income. The on-going debt crisis in conjunction with a recession in the euro area could drive the European currency towards a level of 1.20 against the US dollar. The United States offer an interesting short term diversification for the European investor, in the light of the euro area turmoil. Euro zone: towards an intelligent and definite solution from budget authorities in response to the crisis?

Facing impending threats of multiple exits and given the on-going debates surrounding mutualization of debts, the upcoming months will remain agitated in Europe. Although many were betting on an immediate exit from Greece, we think that the recent elections of June reinforced a status-quo scenario. Greece has to find an agreement in order to soften its bailout conditions before mid-July, given that at that stage, the government will have run out of liquidity. The consequences of a Greek exit are still uncertain. Although direct costs would be manageable (in the region of four percent of Euro-zone GDP), indirect costs of a contagion would be more difficult to assess. There is no doubt that an exit from a country would create a dangerous precedent for the Euro zone. According to Nicolas Forest, Head of Interest Rate Strategy, in the face of contagion, we do not anticipate, in the short term, immediate debt mutualization. Regardless of

the recent set of new proposed solutions (European redemption fund, debt purchases by the ESM, etc), we think that Euro bonds will likely be a consequence of a solution to the crisis rather than the condition for the solution. The challenge in the upcoming days will be to obtain a concrete and intelligent solution from the budgetary authorities in response to the crisis. An ECB intervention cannot solve the political vacuum on its own. In that context, we remain very cautious on peripheral countries in the short term. On a longer time frame, in both a scenario of mutualization and one of implosion, German yields should rise significantly above two percent. Credit: favor non-financial companies

The credit market remains dominated by the sovereign crisis and by the uncertainties relating to conventional or non-conventional solutions which will be undertaken. Although the beginning of the year was characterized by a very impressive rally on risky assets following the LTRO operations, renewed tensions on Spanish debt as well as the Greek political deadlock and weakening macroeconomic data, have led to a significant rise in credit risk premiums of more than 50 bps since April. In that context, given non-financial credit offers the best risk/reward profile (with more than three percent yield), we recommend buying non-financial corporate debt from companies which display solid fundamentals, a diversified operational profile, a liquidity buffer, as well as low short-term refinancing needs (such as Vale, Vinci and Veolia Environment), according to Koen Van de Maele, Global Head of Fixed Income. “This recommendation could be extended to some companies operating in non-core countries (such as Telefonica, Iberdrola, Enel), displaying as well solid fundamentals and/or diversified activities, where their current risk premium is a function of the correlation with their respective sovereign.” With 3% yield, short-term credit represents an attractive investment opportunity. The protection of the 1 to 3 years credit bucket is comfortable in the case of widening spreads, with an average breakeven of 150 bps. Furthermore, an elevated risk premium (90 percent) as part of the total expected yield is a positive signal of future performance. In that segment, we recommend both non-financial credit as well as senior bank debt, due to the fact that short-term senior debt is side stepping the latest bank resolution regime (Bail-in). Finally, several issuers (Veolia, BNP Paribas) offer nearly two percent of additional yield on their dollar issues versus their euro issues, representing therefore a double opportunity for investors.

Tuesday 26 June, 2012 Index Price index Weighted Index KSX 15

Change Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

33.32 3 33 3.33 6.39

Closing

Last Closing

High

Low

5,824.34 401 34 401.34 975.86

5,791.02 398 01 398.01 969.47

5,830.10 401 34 401.34 977.10

5,783.00 397 54 397.54 963.42

Trades Value (KD)

High

Low

Volume

MARIN

IKARUS

325

315

14,150

4,559

Security

IPG NAPESCO

Trades

Last

00 0.0

0.0

325

0.0

Change

Volume Value (KWD) Number of Trades

226,547,509 17 950 719 17,950,719 4,237

High

Low

Volume

Trades Value (KD)

URC

106

152 000 152,000

16 112 16,112

106

NRE

118

116

22,000

2,594

118

2.0

SRE

0.0 0.5

Security

Trades

Last

Change

20 2.0

0.0

PEARL

AREFENRGY

130

99,931

12,991

130

0.0

TAM

226

1,000

226

0.0

GPI

376,500

19,138

1.0

AREEC

158

140

1,037

163

158

10.0

ABAR

188

170

677 491,258

118 36,806

3 28

180 942.34

ŷ Ÿ

0.0 2.17

MASSALEH ARABREC

90 32

88 30

30,000 501,300

2,659 15,497

4 16

90 31

Ÿ Ÿ

2.0 1.0

UREC

15,000

1,350

0.0

110

108

141,200

15,252

110

2.0

ERESCO

0.0

Oil & Gas PIPE KFOUC

290

285

4,732

1,359

285

-15.0

MABANEE

1,060

1,020

165,300

169,855

1,040

0.0

BPCC

590

580

122 300 122,300

72 147 72,147

590

0.0

INJAZZAT

225 500 225,500

13 310 13,310

-2.0

INVESTORS

13,295,065

226,340

155

0.5

IRC ALTIJARIA

39 80

38 78

586,148 241,100

22,428 18,806

20 10

39 80

Ÿ Ÿ

1.0 1.0 -4.0

0.0

ALQURAIN Basic Materials

190

188

377,272 645,504

71,557 160,314

17 32

190 929.07

Ÿ ź

4.0 -1.56

SANAM

115,000

6,555

KCEM

380

16,750

6,365

380

0.0

AAYANRE

7,252,600

521,251

160

2.0

REFRI

152

20,000

3,040

152

-4.0

AQAR

0.0

CABLE

ALKOUT

1,140

1,120

63,428

71,389

1,140

0.0

ALAQARIA

0.0

SHIP

180

178

116,756

20,996

180

0.0

MAZAYA

34,043

2,283

-3.0

PCEM

860

840

95,126

80,207

860

10.0

ADNC

6,882,840

181,151

133

1.0

PAPER

186

3,000

558

186

-4.0

THEMAR

0.0

MRC

0.0

GRAND

0.0

ACICO

0.0

TIJARA

230,000

8,690

1.0

GGMC

590

1,000

590

20.0

TAAMEER

0.0

HCC

0.0

ARKAN

500

-5.0

KPAK

0.0

ARGAN

0.0

KBMMC

0.0

ABYAAR

1,462,749

57,291

0.5

NICBM

275

260

285,800

74,345

275

10.0

MUNSHAAT

3,753,010

101,904

0.5

EQUIPMENT

146

138

95,020

13,375

146

-2.0

FIRSTDUBAI

123,400

4,472

-0.5

0.0

KBT

0.0

140

130

24,870

3,252

132

-8.0

REAM

0.0

NCCI GYPSUM SALBOOKH

40,100

1,264

1.5

MENA

0.0

AGLTY

380

375

141,452

53,326

375

0.0

ALMUDON

0.0

EDU

100

8,000

800

100

0.0

MARAKEZ

81,982

2,896

0.0

CLEANING CITYGROUP

114 520

108 520

1,195,001 80

134,464 42

53 2

112 520

Ÿ ź

4.0 -50.0

REMAL Real Estate

335

330

562,300 52,836,910

185,577 1,973,517

46 1,122

330 907.09

ź Ÿ

-5.0 3.16

KGL

339,960

30,335

-1.0

KCPC

315

295

60,550

18,222

315

-5.0

KINV

0.0

HUMANSOFT

250

248

10,000

2,490

250

0.0

FACIL

280

21,800

6,104

280

0.0

NAFAIS

0.0

IFA

1,742,240

63,148

1.0

SAFWAN

0.0

NINV

102

100

884,800

90,214

102

0.0

GFC

80,010

1,900

-1.5

KPROJ

330

325

459,510

149,346

330

5.0

16,016,802

310,633

109

1.5

COAST

2,930,000

117,073

-0.5

1,220

1,180

35,622

42,156

1,220

20.0

TII

0.0

MTCC

78,000

6,396

1.0

SECH

0.0

UPAC

0.0

IIC

0.0

ALAFCO

275

270

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

LIFE

wednesdAY, June 27, 2012

Swine flu deaths may be 15 times higher than thought NEW YORK: The number of people who died of swine flu during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic may be about 15 times higher than originally calculated, according to a new study reports LiveScience. Researchers now estimate that 284,500 people worldwide died of infection from the H1N1 virus, commonly called the swine flu, between April 2009 and August 2010. At the time, 18,500 deaths had been laboratory-confirmed as being due to swine flu, according to the study from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was expected that the original number would be revised upward, the researchers said. In estimating the true number of deaths, the researchers gave a range of 151,700 to 575,400. Of the global swine flu deaths, the researchers estimated that 59 percent occurred in southeast Asia and in Africa, which together hold 38 percent of the world’s population. The new numbers could be used “to improve the public health response during future pandemics in parts of the world that suffer more deaths, and to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of influenza prevention,” said lead author Fatimah Dawood, a CDC epidemiologist. Additionally, the researchers confirmed that swine flu killed an unusually high number of young people compared with seasonal flu viruses — 80 percent of those who died were under 65 years old, they said. The researchers used data on H1N1 deaths from 12 countries of differing national income levels in making their global estimates. They included data on lower

Atom Smasher sets Guinness record for hottest man-made temperature

File – Swine flu virus. (Agencies)

respiratory tract infection mortality rates from the World Health Organization to assess health differences across countries. The data included medical information on people who experienced flu symptoms, as well as those who died from the flu. In general, the numbers from higher income countries were more accurate; the lack of accuracy in the data from low- and medium-income countries accounts for some of the wide variation in the estimate, according to the report. For example, the estimated number of

Reality show on Mars could fund manned colony by 2023 WASHINGTON: A Dutch company aims to land humans on Mars by 2023 as the first step toward establishing a permanent colony on the Red Planet according to SPACE. The project, called Mars One, plans to drop four astronauts on Mars in April 2023. New members of the nascent colony will arrive every two years after that, and none of the Red Planet pioneers will ever return to Earth. To pay for all of this, Mars One says it will stage a media spectacle the likes of which the world has never seen - a sort of interplanetary reality show a la “Big Brother.” “This project seems to be the only way to fulfill humanity’s dream to explore outer space,” theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft, an ambassador for Mars One, said in an introductory video posted on the company’s website. “It is going to be an exciting experiment. Let’s get started.” The plan

Mars One hopes to launch a communications satellite and a supply mission to Mars in 2016, then send a large rover to the Red Planet in 2018, according to the video. This rover will scout out suitable sites for the new Mars colony. The company will then launch settlement components - such as habitat units, life-support equipment and another rover - in 2020. The two rovers will prepare the settlement for the arrival of the first humans in 2023. Mars One officials say they’ve talked to a variety of private spaceflight companies around the world and have secured at least one potential supplier for each colony component. They plan to launch many com-

ponents on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, for example, which is expected to be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle when it starts flying. The Falcon Heavy is still in development, and SpaceX officials have said the rocket’s first test flight could come as early as next year. Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four astronauts on Mars.While this may seem like a daunting sum for a non-governmental entity, the company is confident it can raise the needed funds by selling corporate sponsorships. “We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it,” Mars One co-founder Bas Landorp said in the video. “Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars.” If all goes according to Mars One’s plans, companies looking to advertise will pay big bucks for that exposure. “This is going to be a media spectacle; ‘Big Brother’ will pale in comparison,” ‘t Hooft said. “The whole world will be watching and experience this journey.” Mars One will begin selecting its first group of astronauts in 2013, according to its website. Though the company just made its plans public in the last few weeks, it’s been developing them in secret since January 2011, officials said. Mars One isn’t the only organization with its eyes on putting boots on Mars. President Barack Obama directed NASA to work on getting astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s, and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said his company hopes to fly people to Mars within the next 10 or 20 years.

Men focused on muscles are more sexist: Study NEW YORK: Men obsessed with building muscles are significantly more likely to objectify women, be hostile toward women, and have sexist attitudes, new research finds. This link may come from their own negative body image, the scientists added according to LiveScience. “We have previously found that men who hold stronger oppressive beliefs are more likely to think that thinner women are attractive,” study researcher Viren Swarmi, of the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom, told LiveScience in an email. This sexism and objectification by men can lead to a more negative body image for women, can hinder women in the workplace and can even cause women to perform worse on cognitive tests. Not only does it impact women, “but we’re also arguing that those oppressive beliefs directed at women also have an impact on men’s own body images, specifically their drive for muscularity,” Swarmi said. A group of 327 heterosexual British men filled out questionnaires for the study. Most were white, and 38.5 percent were single, 31.2 percent were in a dating relationship and 23.9 percent were married. (The rest fit into an “other” category.) [5 Myths About the Male Body] The surveys gauged participants’ desire for a more muscular body - for example, asking how often they think “I wish that I were more muscular” - and their attitudes toward women. Examples of items in the sexist beliefs portion of the survey included: “I feel that many times women flirt with men just to tease them or hurt them,” and “Intoxication among women is worse than

intoxication among men.” Those men who showed more interest in being muscular were also more likely than others to score higher on sexist beliefs, hostility toward and objectification of women. “We think men who hold oppressive beliefs about women and gender equality are also more likely to endorse traditional stereotypes of masculinity, which includes the muscular physique,” Swarmi said. “In addition, in societies where patriarchal structures are being challenged, some men may seek to reassert their masculinity by enhancing their physiques.” For example, they might react to having a female boss by beefing up at the gym. Though they didn’t study this directly, it is possible that the sexism and concentration on attaining muscle mass are both linked to increased consumption of mass media, Swarmi said: “It’s likely being driven by changes in the way the ideal male physique is portrayed in the mass media.” But that’s probably not the only reason for the correlation. “It seems likely that the mass media play a role in increasing levels of drive for muscularity we see in many contemporary societies, but we were interested in broader social influences,” Swarmi said, for example, changes in gender dynamics away from a male-dominated society. “We’re arguing that patriarchal attitudes and beliefs also play a role,” Swarmi said. Men with ideas that the family or company should be ruled by the man may have trouble dealing with changing gender roles in the modern world. Men may use their muscles to reassert their dominance and masculinity.

swine flu deaths in Mexico may be far too low, according to a comment by Dr. Cecile Viboud of the National Institutes of Health and Lone Simonsen of George Washington University, which was published along with the study in the journal. “These results are likely to be refined as more studies from low-income and middleincome regions become available, particularly from China and India, where about a third of the world’s population live but where little information is available about the burden of influenza,” Viboud said.

NEW YORK: A giant atom-smashing racetrack of sorts has just broken a Guinness World Record by reaching the highest man-made temperature ever recorded, scientists announced Tuesday according to LiveScience. How hot? 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. This scorching achievement happened inside the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which is a 2.4-mile (3.9 kilometers) underground track where particles smash into one another under conditions that existed about a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. The new feat, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., occurred when gold nuclei (the positively charged part of the atom made of protons and neutrons) were sent speeding around RHIC at near light-speed until they crashed into each other. When the ions collide, the enormous energy released is so intense it melts the neutrons and protons inside the gold nuclei into their constituent parts, namely quarks and gluons. This soup of quarks and gluons formed nearly friction-free primordial plasma thought to resemble the stuff that filled the universe just after the Big Bang created it some 13.7 billion years ago. (This matter would have cooled and condensed to form the protons and neutrons that make up the matter here today.) RHIC physicists have measured the tem-

perature of this quark-gluon plasma, finding it reaches around 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit (4 trillion degrees Celsius). “There are many cool things about this ultrahot matter,” physicist Steven Vigdor, who leads Brookhaven’s nuclear and particle physics program, said in a statement. He added that while they expected to reach such super-hot temperatures, “we did not at all anticipate the nearly perfect liquid behavior.” This friction-free liquid occurs at both ends of the temperature spectrum, the researchers said. “Other physicists have now observed quite similar liquid behavior in trapped atom samples at temperatures near absolute zero, ten million trillion times colder than the quark-gluon plasma we create at RHIC,” Vigdor said. RHIC may not hold onto its hot record for long. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland smashes lead ions together at near light-speed; one experiment there dubbed ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) may be in a position to trump RHIC’s record. “The energy density at the LHC is a factor of three higher than at RHIC,” said CERN physicist Despina Hatzifotiadou in a statement. “This translates to a 30-percent increase in absolute temperature compared to the value achieved by RHIC. So I would say that ALICE has the record!”

Brain EEG test might help spot autism: Study

CONNECTICUT: Electroencephalogram (EEG), a test that shows the electrical activity of the brain, might be used to spot autism in children, a new study suggests according to LiveScience. The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard University Medical School, looked at the synchronization of brain activity across different brain regions, as measured by EEG. “These scientists used sensors to record electrical brain activity across many different regions on the scalp,” explained Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer at the advocacy group Autism Speaks. “They then looked at the extent to which brain activity from one region was synchronized with brain activity from another region,” a phenomenon known as “EEG coherence,” said Dawson, who was not involved in the research. “Synchronization between different brain regions indicates that those regions are functioning in a coordinated, rather than independent, fashion -- in other words, they are functionally connected and communicating with each other,” she said. In the new study, Dr. Frank Duffy and Dr. Heidelise Als compared EEG measurements of nearly 1,000 children with and without autism. They found that the two groups had

widespread differences in terms of brain connectivity. EEG revealed that the children with autism had a reduced short range connectivity, indicating poor function of local brain networks. This was especially true in the left hemisphere regions of the brain responsible for language. The children with autism also had increased connectivity between brain regions that were farther apart, which might be a mechanism developed to compensate for reduced short range connectivity, the researchers said. The research was conducted at Boston Children’s Hospital and was published online June 25 in the journal BMC Medicine. The use of EEG-based testing may help diagnose autism in children and may improve early detection in infants, leading to more effective treatments and coping strategies, the researchers said. “What was unique about this study is the very large number of children studied,” Dawson noted. “Consistent with many previous studies using EEG and functional MRI with both children and adults with autism, these investigators found that, overall, children with autism show reduced coordination (coherence) across brain regions.” She said the findings are important because, “they help us understand why individuals with

autism have difficulty with complex behaviors, such as social interaction and language. As children’s brains develop, the different brain regions become increasingly connected, allowing for the acquisition of complex behaviors that require coordination across different brain regions.” Language, for example, requires coordination across the auditory, visual, and motor brain regions, as well as the participation of the prefrontal cortex, she said. “This reduced functional connectivity in the brain helps us understand impairments associated with autism,” she added. “The hope is that early behavioral intervention can help mitigate these functional impairments, helping to form the connections that natural develop in typical children.” “Although autism is still principally a clinical diagnosis, this study .. may allow for a new approach to classifying children with autism and may even assist in the early identification of affected children at a younger age,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, NY. The number of children diagnosed with autism in the United States has recently increased to one in 88.

Saturn’s jet streams powered by internal heat

WASHINGTON: Saturn’s turbulent jet streams are powered by the huge planet’s internal heat rather than by energy from the sun, a new study suggests according to SPACE. Heat from deep within Saturn causes water to condense, which in turn creates temperature differences in the atmosphere, researchers said. These temperature differences generate disturbances that accelerate the planet’s jet streams - regions where winds blow much faster than in other parts of the atmosphere. “We know the atmospheres of planets such as Saturn and Jupiter can get their energy from only two places: the sun or the internal heating,” study lead author Tony Del Genio, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said in a statement. “The challenge has been coming up with ways to use the data so that we can tell the difference.” Del Genio is on the imaging team for NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which made the observations the team analyzed in the new study. Many different jet streams whip through Saturn’s thick atmosphere, some of them high enough up to be spotted by the optical and nearinfrared filters of Cassini’s cameras, researchers said. Most of the gas giant’s jet streams blow eastward, but some blow to the west instead. To better understand the behavior and origin of these jet streams, Del Genio and his colleagues used automated software to analyze the movements and speeds of clouds captured in hundreds of Cassini images from 2005 through 2012. “With our improved tracking algorithm, we’ve been able to extract nearly 120,000 wind vectors from 560 images, giving us an unprecedented picture of Saturn’s wind flow at two independent altitudes on a global scale,” said co-author John Barbara, also at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. One of those altitudes is the upper tropo-

FILE - Saturn’s icy rings shine in scattered sunlight in this view taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.2 million kilometers (770,000 miles) from Saturn. (AFP)

sphere, a relatively high layer where heating by the sun is strong. The other layer is much deeper down, at the tops of ammonia ice clouds where solar heating is weak, researchers said. The atmospheric disturbances that give rise to Saturn’s jet stream are weak in the upper layer but much stronger deeper down, the team found. So it appears that solar heating is not driving the jet streams. Rather, the scientists think that internal heat

from Saturn is stirring up water vapor from the planet’s interior. This water vapor condenses in places as air rises, releasing heat as clouds and rain are produced. It is this heat that ultimately drives the jet streams. Such condensation heating is also the chief driver of storms on Saturn, researchers said. If the researchers are correct, then Saturn’s jet streams are fundamentally different than the ones we observe here on Earth, which are powered by heat from the sun.

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

wednesday, JUNE 27, 2012

London prepares for ‘poetry bombing’ over London’s south bank Some 100,000 poems will be dropped over London’s South Bank Center’s gardens to open the ‘biggest gathering of poets in history’

LONDON: London is set to be bombarded by poetry on Tuesday evening as Chilean arts collective Casagrande prepares to drop 100,000 poems from a helicopter over the south bank of the Thames, reports The Guardian. The event, which opens what is being called the biggest gathering of poets in world history, ‘Poetry Parnassus’, will take place at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday over the Southbank Center’s Jubilee Gardens, next to the London Eye. The half-ton of bookmark-shaped poems are by more than 300 contemporary poets from 204 countries, including Seamus Heaney, Jo Shapcott, Kay Ryan and Alain Mabanckou. “We want to create an image in the sky over these urban spaces that were bombed in the past,” said Crist—bal Bianchi from Casagrande, which has also dropped poems on Berlin, Warsaw, Guernica, Dubrovnik and Santiago. “The idea is to repeat this event in places which were bombed from the air in a completely different context.” The first “poetry bombing” took place in Chile, after dictator Augusto Pinochet was imprisoned, “as an outlet for the great joy we found in finally being able to express ourselves, particularly in public spaces”, said Casagrande, which describes the event as “an expression of peace and healing”. A poem by a poet from each of the 204 Olympic nations is included in the bombardment, along with 50 additional poems by Chilean poets and 50 by UK poets. Shapcott is representing Britain, with Phrase Book (“I’m standing here

inside my skin,/ which will do for a Human Remains Pouch/ for the moment”); Heaney is representing Ireland, with The Underground (“There we were in the vaulted tunnel running, / You in your going-away coat speeding ahead”); and Mabanckou Congo-Brazzaville with There is Nothing Worse (“there is nothing worse/ than the grief of black-rhun palms/ the sleep of swamps/ the silence of passerines”). “The extra writers from Chile and the UK that we have included are all contemporary, none more than 40 years old, so it’s the idea of looking to the future - mixing in the sky two generations of poets from different cultures and contexts,” said Bianchi. The younger UK poets include Hannah Lowe, Sheree Mack, Edward Mackay and Sabrina Mahfouz, while the Chileans include Santiago Barcaza, Jaime Huenœn, Antonia Torres and Alejandra del R’o. With hundreds of spectators expected to watch the “rain of poetry”, Bianchi predicted that not a single poem would be left behind once it is over. “Every time we have done this before there is not a single bookmark on the ground - people collect them all,” he said. “People fight for the poems, and it becomes a collective reading of poetry.” Many of the poets involved will also be appearing at Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus, a week-long celebration of poetry that starts on Tuesday and will see readings and performances in many languages. Dreamed up by the center’s poet-in-residence Simon Armitage, it is intended to echo the poetic spirit of the ancient Olympic Games.

Famous Leonardo self portrait in critical condition

FILE - A cleaner vacuums in front of a Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait drawn around 1515 or 1516, during the inauguration of the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci, the European Genius” in Brussels, Aug. 17, 2007. (Reuters)

ROME: Leonardo da Vinci is sick and no one really knows if he ever will be able to receive visitors again. Art conservation and restoration experts recently concluded weeks of tests on the famous self-portrait of one of history’s greatest geniuses, sketched in the early 1500s when he was in his 60s. And the diagnosis is decidedly grim. The non-invasive studies confirmed art experts’ worst fears: the drawing is seriously damaged and deteriorating and any restoration would be delicate and risky to say the least. “I think we need to think very hard before we do anything to this very familiar face,” said Jane Roberts, Royal Librarian and Curator of the Print Room at Windsor Castle. “But we can tell quite a lot more about it by continuing to ask questions,” she told a news conference in Rome. The small drawing of the Renaissance master, which measures 33.5 by 21.6 centimeters (13.2 by 8.5 inches), shows Leonardo with pensive, baggy eyes, bushy eyebrows and a flowing beard. The self-portrait, done with red chalk on paper, is suffering from what the art restoration world calls “foxing,” a generic term for blotches, spots and stains -- marks that should not be there. Foxing can be caused by oxidation of the pigmentation Leonardo used as well as fungi on the paper, made of hemp, flax and

wool, or rust from the iron in the pigments. Leonardo’s forehead, aquiline nose and puffy cheeks look like he has a bad case of the measles. “Because this is a masterpiece, prudence has prevailed,” said Maria Cristina Misiti, head of Italy’s Central Institute for Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Book Patrimony. “It scary to deal with a work of art of this magnitude and uniqueness,” she said. The decision on whether to restore the drawing would be a difficult one to make, and would be taken by the Royal Library of Turin, the restoration institute, and scientists, she said. The drawing was acquired by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy in 1839 and was well preserved in the Royal Library for nearly 100 years. But in 1929 it was framed and put on a wall, exposing it to sunlight. “We will continue to study it, to diagnose it. Everyone agrees on that,” Misiti said. The drawing, which is kept in a vault in Turin, was shown in an extremely rare exhibit for two months last year in connection with celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. But art experts say that any other exhibition would be for short periods of time and with a limited number of visitors, because, like any sick old man, Leonardo will need what art experts call “long periods of rest”. -Reuters

Reading offers Brazilian prisoners quicker escape

BRASILIA: Brazil will offer inmates in its crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten their sentences: four days less for every book they read. Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil’s most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced. Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must “make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing,” said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette. A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed “Redemption through Reading”. “A person can leave prison more enlightened and with a enlarged vision of the world,” said Sao Paulo lawyer Andre Kehdi, who heads a book donation project for prisons. “Without doubt they will leave a better person,” he said. -Reuters

FILE - The Southbank Center will host the Poetry Parnassus from June 26 - July 1, 2012. (Agencies)

Subway work unearths ancient road in Greece

THESSALONIKI, Greece: Archaeologists in Greece’s second-largest city have uncovered a 70-meter (230-foot) section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was the city’s main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago. The marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki’s new subway system, which is due to be completed in four years. The road in the northern port city will be raised to be put on permanent display when the metro opens in 2016. The excavation site was shown to the public on Monday, when details of the permanent display project were also announced. Several of the large marble paving stones were etched with children’s board games, while others were marked by horse-drawn cart wheels. Also discovered at the site were remains of tools and lamps, as well as the bases of marble columns. Viki Tzanakouli, an archaeologist working on the project, told The Associated Press the Roman road was about 1,800 years old, while remains of an older road built by the ancient Greeks 500 years earlier were found underneath it. “We have found roads on top of each other, revealing the city’s history over the centuries,” Tzanakouli said. “The ancient road, and side roads perpendicular to it appear to closely follow modern roads in the city today.” About 7 meters (23 feet) below ground in the center of the city, the ancient road follows in roughly the same direction as the city’s modern Egnatia Avenue. The subway works, started in 2006, present

Archaeologists and employees of Metro’s construction company present to the media and public the ancient ruins in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki on Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP)

a rare opportunity for archaeologists to explore under the densely populated city - but have also caused years of delays for the project. In 2008, workers on the Thessaloniki metro discovered more than 1,000 graves, some filled with treasure. The graves were of different shapes and sizes, and some contained jewelry, coins or other pieces of art.

A massive excavation project also took place during the 1990s in the capital, Athens, before the city’s new metro system opened in 2000. Thessaloniki’s new subway is already four years behind schedule, due to the excavation work as well as Greece’s financial crisis. Thirteen stations will operate initially, before a 10-station extension is added later. -AP

Monet’s garden replanted in the Bronx French classify ancient PARIS: Past a walkway cutting through roses and delphiniums, visitors see a small bridge arching over some water lilies. Not in France, but in the Bronx, at an extraordinary five-month exhibit recreating Monet’s gardens at Giverny in this down-at-heel New York borough. The American take on Claude Monet’s garden has already attracted over 100,000 visitors since it opened at the New York Botanical Garden in May. Hardly a detail is missing from the original. The winding central walkway, the iron door that seems to have been aged by time. At the beginning of the walk through the garden, in large Victorian-style greenhouses, visitors find a reproduction of the exterior of Monet’s house at Giverny, replete with its signature green shutters. The entrance is covered in vines and along the walkway the visitor is greeted by an abundance of roses, carnations, delphiniums and irises – the flowers immortalized in works by the impressionist painter (1840-1926), who loved gardens so much that he composed them like works of art. A little farther, the water garden has been reconstituted, smaller than the original, but with the same Japanese bridge, bamboo and weeping willows. “The gardens were a constant in his life,” said Paul Tucker, curator of the garden and four other Monet-related exhibits, and also an author of five books on the master French painter. “He tended to them lovingly and with plenty of money and with hired hands,” said Tucker. “He was fabulously rich at the turn of the century.” In this exhibit, visitors can also admire an outdoor pool, where there are several varieties of water lilies – Monet’s favorite flowers, immortalized in the series of eponymous paintings. Inside the garden’s impressive library, two of the master’s paintings are on display, one of which, entitled “Iris,” on loan from a Swiss private collector, is being shown for the first time in the United States. Accompanying the two paintings is a large wooden palette that Monet used to create his timeless masterpieces, bearing colorful smears of paint left by the artist. “I like to think of it as the metaphorical extension of the artist’s hand and eye,” said Tucker. “It’s a very intimate object, an object of great practical importance, but something that is truly united to the body of the artist.” Several documents are also on display, including photos from the original garden in all four seasons, lists of the plants, receipts and letters. Visitors also see photos of the

vines as national treasure

A visitor walks on a replica of French painter Claude Monet’s Japanese footbridge arching over a water lily pool encircled by willow trees and flowering shrubs at his house in Giverny during “Monet’s Garden” exhibition, at the New York Botanical Garden, June 21, 2012. (AFP)

artist himself at Giverny, with his long beard and famous straw hat. But perhaps the most extraordinary things about the exhibit are the plants and flowers themselves, which will change with the seasons. “We’ve been working on (the exhibit) for about three years,” Karen Daubmann, director of exhibitions and seasonal displays at the New York Botanical Garden, told AFP. Designers worked closely with local archivists and the Foundation Claude Monet, which oversees the original garden residence at Giverny. With the exception of the larger flora – the weeping willows and Japanese maple – most of the plants and flowers, chosen carefully for their hues, were planted there as seeds. For the lilies, Daubmann handed the reins to French nursery Latour-Marliac, where Monet went himself in the last century. “The flowers change almost every day,” Daubmann said, “Every morning, there is something that needs to come out, or that needs to come in. We want it to look perfect for every visitor, so we change plants all the time.” In total, some 150 varieties of seasonal and perennial plants will be represented, all of which were once used to create the master’s famous garden. The exhibit ends October 21. -AFP

PARIS: A wine plague spread by lice destroyed vines in France in the 19th century but a small area in the Pyrenees, which contains plants up to 200 years old, was spared and is being classified as a national heritage monument. Like other national treasures such as the Palace of Versailles and Notre Dame cathedral, the vines in the Ardour valley will be protected. They contain the ancient DNA of local grape varieties. Some grapes are still being used with grapes from younger generation vines to make Saint-Mont wine. “It is an exceptional plot,” said Olivier Bourdet-Pees, director of the Plaimont wine making firm. “The vines go back 200 years. They were planted in 1800 and 1810. There are 29 different grape varieties of which seven were unknown,” he said. The vine disaster forced many vintners from regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy to seek grafts, or entire vines, from as far away as America. The vines of Bordeaux were ravaged by the phylloxera outbreak from 1865, a decade after the famous classification of great wines in 1855, and had to be replanted with imported grafts on remaining stems. In Burgundy, vintners pulled up their old French vines and replanted them with American pinot noir until they discovered that grafting was the best method. Safeguarding a National Heritage

Scientists have been researching the plants and the grapes as part of a mission to safeguard the national heritage. On June 1, the local heritage and sites commission of the Midi Pyrenees region included the vines on the list of national historical monuments. “This plot of 40 acres contains very old and non-grafted stocks and offers a remarkable example of biodiversity and of genetic heritage: 600 vines in 12 rows, some 20 different varieties of which seven have not previously been recorded,” the regional authorities said in a statement. The plot also showed traces of ancient methods of agriculture, with double rows of vines planted in squares. Although the production is too small for a special wine, the vegetal material can be used to make younger vines. For eight generations the plot has been in the hands of the family of vintner Jean-Pascal Pedebernade. About 20 years ago, scientists started to study the vines. It took them until 2008 to completely map the genetic make-up of the plants in a study that helped sway the commission in its decision. The sandy soil plot lies near the village of Sarragchies near Saint-Mont in the Gers, in southwest France. The vines are planted wide apart, which may explain why it resisted the attacks by the phylloxera aphids that traveled to Europe from their original habitat in the United States. Other parcels of vines have also resisted phylloxera. Other old plots include Romorantin in the center of France, where Henry and Jean-Sebastien Marionnet claim to own a vineyard planted in 1850. -Reuters

ALWATAN DAILY

ENTERTAINMENT

Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Shady Love (Feat. Azealia Banks) Artist: Scissor Sisters Album: Magic Hour Genre: Alternative In short: Scissor Sisters’ fourth studio album saw them take a different route and adapt a full-fledged pop sound that borrows from a myriad of genres but remains cohesive throughout its 43 minutes course. “Shady Love” was set to lead the album’s campaign, but was scrapped last minute for unconfirmed reasons. Regardless, the song speaks summer in tongues LMFAO would never get. To listen to the song visit www.alwatandaily.com E-mail your feedback to falsabah@alwatandaily.com

The Buzz Jeopardy! host ‘up and about’ after heart attack A spokeswoman says “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek is “up and about” in a Los Angeles hospital as he recovers from a mild heart attack. Sony Pictures Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Monday that Trebek is “in good spirits” while doctors complete their tests. She says he has been moved to a regular room. The 71-year-old Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. He’s expected to fully recover and be back at work when “Jeopardy!” resumes production for a new season in July. -AP

Cher planning Broadway musical about her life Thanks to the magic of Broadway, Cher is going to turn back time on her journey from variety show host to Oscar-winning actress. Fear not - it’s not a stage version of her big-screen turkey “Burlesque.” Instead, the “I Got You Babe” songstress tweeted that she is collaborating with producers on a show based on her life story. The finished product will incorporate her catalog of pop hits. “Its VERY SLOW PROCESS! been working on it quite a while now,” Cher tweeted. Risa Shapiro, a spokeswoman for Cher, said that no date has been set for the show, which still faces years of work. Some details have emerged, however. The singer and actress said the show will have three versions of herself - one actress will play her through the “Sonny and Cher” years, one will portray her after she left their hit partnership and broke out on her own and the other will pick up after the “Believe” tour and take her into her present-day icon-dom. Cher even joked that she may dust off some outrageous Bob Mackie outfits and take the stage herself. “I could b old Cher!Shes wise n tells 2 young 1’s not 2 fear future,” Cher tweeted.-Reuters

Roseanne Barr to be roasted by Comedy Central Roseanne Barr better slap on the SPF 50 sunscreen, because things are about to get a tad hot for her. Barr has been tapped as the latest subject of the Comedy Central roast series, the network said Monday. The special will tape in Los Angeles on August 4 and air on Comedy Central on August 12. Ken Alterman, head of original programming and production for Comedy Central, said that he hoped the roast would be entertaining, despite Barr’s low-key personality and history. “Although Roseanne appears to be a demure, soft spoken woman eternally committed to the status quo, we believe under the surface is an explosive, trail-blazing cultural revolution. We are honored to roast her,” Alterman said. “Celebrating Roseanne’s unprecedented achievements in comedy and television will surely inspire us to make this roast more reminiscent of the classic roasts, where the intimacy of friends jousting with each other came through.” Barr also expressed her reservations about the upcoming roast’s chances, citing her unblemished record of staunch conformity. “All I can say is good luck finding anything about me to make fun of,” Barr said. “I mean, I’ve never made a mistake or offended anyone in my life!” -Reuters

Maura Tierney lands recurring Good Wife role NewsRadio” and “ER” alum Maura Tierney has joined the upcoming fourth season of the CBS drama “The Good Wife” with a recurring role, the network said Monday. Tierney will play “a self-made millionaire who has become the doyenne of Chicago Democratic politics,” CBS said. In addition to Tierney, “Hustle” and “Mad Dog” actor Marc Warren has landed a recurring role on the Julianna Margulies-starring series. Warren will portray the manipulative ex-husband of Kalinda (played by Archie Panjabi), for whom she still harbors an irresistible attraction. Both Tierney and Warren will make their debuts on the season premiere in September. Tierney, who was forced to drop out of NBC’s “Parenthood” in order to seek treatment for breast cancer, had a recurring role in the FX drama “Rescue Me” from 2009 to 2011 and also guested on an episode of “The Office” last year. -Reuters

Casablanca Oscar could fetch $3 million in hot market Michael Curtiz’s best director Oscar for the movie classic “Casablanca” is going up for auction this week and is expected to fetch $2.5 million to $3 million, auctioneers Nate D. Sanders said on Monday. The Academy Award won in 1943 by the Hungarian-born Curtiz, who died in 1961, will be sold on June 28 by the Los Angeles-based company. Online bidding, which opened last week, had already reached more than $369,000 on Monday, well past the reserve price that was not disclosed. -Reuters

WEDNESday, JUNE 27, 2012

Spice Girls unite to launch musical Viva Forever LONDON: The Spice Girls gave fans what they want - what they really, really want - Tuesday, reuniting onstage to announce the details of a musical based on their songs. Producers stress that the stage show “Viva Forever” isn’t a biography of the band, but there are plenty of real-life resonances for the 1990s “Girl Power” group in its tale of female empowerment and friendship tested by fame. The show opens in London in December. “We’re going to be introducing a whole new generation to ‘Girl Power,’” said Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, who attended a media launch alongside Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Chisholm and Melanie Brown - also known as Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Scary Spice. “Viva Forever” aims to tap the same vast female fan base as “Mamma Mia,” which has been produced in 14 languages around the world and spawned a hit film starring Meryl Streep. The Spice Girls show tells the story of four friends whose bond becomes strained when their band enters a TV talent show. Scored to Spice Girls hits including “Wannabe,” ‘’Spice Up Your Life,” ‘’Mama” and the title track, it was written by comedian Jennifer Saunders - co-creator of celebrity-skewering sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous” - and produced by Judy Craymer, the woman behind worldconquering ABBA musical “Mamma Mia.” Focusing on female friends and motherdaughter relationships, Craymer called the

The Spice Girls, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham during a photo call at a central London Hotel, June 26, 2012, to launch the musical “Viva Forever”. (AP)

musical “a heartwarming family tale” that touches on the role of media and celebrity in the modern world. “There’s just something empowering about women’s stories that interests me a lot,” Craymer said. Saunders - who once spoofed the Spice

Girls in a mock band called the Sugar Lumps - said the show aimed to catch “the joy that they brought, their energy and their positivity.” The Spice Girls said they were delighted with the show, which was unveiled for the

Michael Jackson’s convicted doctor wishes he testified: Lawyers

LOS ANGELES: The physician convicted of killing Michael Jackson regrets not testifying on his own behalf while on trial last year, two defense lawyers said on Monday after visiting the jailed doctor on the third anniversary of the pop star’s death. Dr. Conrad Murray, hired as the “Thriller” singer’s personal physician in 2009, began serving a four-year jail term in November after a jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors argued during the sixweek trial that Murray was grossly negligent in administering the surgical anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid to Jackson and that the doctor failed to properly monitor Jackson on the drug. Two of his lawyers visited Murray on Monday at the Los Angeles County jail where he is incarcerated. Attorney J. Michael Flanagan said the doctor was “adapting fairly well for a person who is

serving time and who is actually innocent”. Jackson was found lifeless at his Los Angeles mansion on June 25, 2009, about three weeks before he was due to begin a series of concerts in London aimed at returning him to the limelight after the humiliation of his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation allegations. Murray’s attorneys denied he was guilty of criminal negligence. But the physician himself never took the witness stand in his own defense, a decision he has come to regret, according to his appellate lawyer, Valerie Wass, and Flanagan, the co-counsel for his manslaughter trial. Flanagan told Reuters that Murray’s lead trial attorney, Ed Chernoff, was adamant that Murray not take the stand. Flanagan said he strongly disagreed with Chernoff, but Murray ultimately followed Chernoff’s advice and declined to testify. “Murray now realizes that he should

have testified,” Flanagan said, adding that there were various nuances in the case that Murray alone, as the only person who was with Jackson in the last hours of his life, could adequately explain to the jury. If the verdict were to be reversed on grounds of an error of law by the court or over an issue of admissibility of evidence or flawed jury instructions, leading to a retrial, the defense would then seek to put Murray on the stand, Flanagan said. Wass, who is working on an appeal for Murray, suggested that jurors might have been influenced by information they inadvertently saw about the case through social media that they were allowed access to during the trial. He said he expected that Murray would end up serving no more than two years of his term, and could find himself released before his appeal ran its course, under guidelines that allow for reduced time for good behavior. -Reuters

Unbowed by Badu blowup, Coyne, Lips aim for record NASHVILLE: Fun for Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips means collaboration, and a recent dust-up with Erykah Badu after they worked together isn’t slowing him down. Coyne and the Lips will launch an attempt at the Guiness World Records mark for most live shows in 24 hours, playing eight concerts between Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans on Wednesday and Thursday. Trailed by fans along the way, they’ll meet up with acts like Jackson Browne, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Gary Clarke Jr. and Hunter Hayes as part of the activities surrounding MTV’s O Music Awards. The Oklahoma rockers have been finalizing details and juggling schedules and logistics as they chase Jay-Z’s record of seven shows in a day. “If you had to really consider all this in the beginning, you just simply wouldn’t want to do it,” Coyne said in a phone interview last week. “Luckily, it occurs to you when you get closer and closer. I think it’s a little bit

like having a baby. At the beginning of it is a lot of fun, but by the time it’s here, really it’s too late to turn back.” That analogy isn’t too far off the mark when it comes to describing the row between Badu and Coyne, either. Things seemed to be going great until the Lips released the video for “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, their “Heady Fwends” record store day collaboration, earlier this month. The Lips eventually retracted the video after Badu accused the group of releasing it without her approval. In the video Badu sits apparently naked in a tub, then later her sister Nayrok mucks about in a milky white substance and glitter. The disagreement spilled over on Twitter where Badu invited Coyne to kiss her “glittery” posterior and Coyne responded with a picture of himself with lips covered in glitter. Coyne stopped short of saying Badu’s reaction was contrived, but said she and her management certainly knew what was going down as they spent two days film-

ing. He says her opinion changed when “easily riled” members of her audience objected. “This is not her fault. It’s just the nature of the way Twitter works,” Coyne said. “Her fans can just sometimes lash out and be as mean as they want to be, which I think is interesting. That’s the thing about Twitter - there’s no referee, you know.” Coyne doesn’t believe anything else will come of the episode. “Luckily I’m doing so many things I don’t have too much time to worry about it,” Coyne said. “And a lot of people I run into now loved, loved that video and I think it’s true to what Erykah and I, in the beginning at least, thought we were going to show the world.” The Lips will be joined on their record run by a number of musicians and celebrities, some performing along the way, some making appearances. The entire extravaganza will be streamed live online and MTV’s family of networks will offer live look-ins. -AP

Uggie the dog plants paw prints in Hollywood LOS ANGELES: Uggie, the lively Jack Russell terrier whose antics in Oscar-winning film “The Artist” stole audience members’ hearts, became the first dog on Monday to leave his prints beside the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in front of Hollywood’s famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Dressed in a black bow tie and posing for photographers, Uggie sank his paws in cement in a ceremony that also marked his retirement from the movies. The 10-year-old canine, who hit the big time as French actor Jean Dujardin’s cute sidekick in the silent movie, will appear at charity events, his trainer said. “Everybody thinks I am great trainer. I don’t think so. I think he is just a great dog,” trainer Omar von Muller said at the paw print ceremony, thanking Uggie’s fans and his thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook. Filmed in black and white, “The Artist” won five Oscars, including best picture, in February. The Blu-ray version of the movie sees its release on Tuesday. Fans mounted a campaign to have Uggie nominated

The dog Uggie, featured in the film “The Artist”, is pictured after leaving his paw prints in cement in the forecourt of the Grauman’s Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California June 25, 2012. (Reuters)

for an acting Academy Award in his own right, but the pooch was ineligible under rules that say acting awards can only go to humans.

He won the 2011 Palm Dog award at the Cannes film festival in May and the Golden Collar Award in Los Angeles in February. -Reuters

press in the grand neo-Gothic hotel where the video for their 1996 breakthrough hit “Wannabe” - in which the band promised to “tell you what I want, what I really, really want” was filmed. “Sixteen years ago when we were writing the words ‘zig-a-zig-ah,’ we could never have imagined they would be in a West End show,” Halliwell said, quoting the catchy if confusing refrain of “Wannabe.” Added Chisholm: “It’s better than we could ever have imagined.” “They sing it better than us,” said Brown. The band’s outsized personalities and Halliwell’s Union Jack dress made them icons of 1990s “Cool Britannia,” and they sold 75 million records around the world. Halliwell left the group acrimoniously in 1998 and the Spice Girls effectively split a decade ago. The five members have not appeared together since a 2007-2008 reunion tour. Since then, several have released solo records, and Beckham has become a fashion designer and part of a celebrity power couple with her soccer-star husband, David Beckham. Despite their past differences, they appeared in good spirits as they joked and praised one another Tuesday. Halliwell said her band mates “individually and collectively, they’re really lovely.” “She’s only saying that because she left!” said Chisholm. True, Halliwell conceded, “but they took me back.” “Viva Forever” begins previews Nov. 27 and opens Dec. 11 at London’s Piccadilly Theatre. -AP

Ann Curry: Too cuddly or too removed? LOS ANGELES: Ann Curry may not be perfect, but you could argue she deserves better than to be shivved by her NBC bosses in the New York Times twice in four days. She got it for the second time on Sunday, when an anonymous NBC executive singled out the “Today” show co-host for being too empathetic, in a major take-out by TV critic Mike Hale. “When she relates to people one on one, there’s a real empathy she has,” said the executive, winding up for the kill. “Sometimes in the studio that seems overwhelming. It’s like, come on now, we’re talking serious issues.” Nice. Curry’s fate was sealed last week when the Times’ Brian Stelter broke the news that Curry was going to be replaced at the top-earning show which hired her to replace Meredith Vieira and has seen declining ratings since. It appears that Hale’s take-out might have precipitated things. The West Coast print edition did not have the news that Curry was on her way out; it would not be the first time that scrutiny by a major news outlet started a chain of events. Regardless, the conclusion of the take-out was pretty clear. Hale examined Curry on the “Today” show for a month and the anchor came up wanting. Oddly, Hale actually criticized her for the opposite of empathy: according to him, Curry is too distant. And now without a job. The petition to save Ann Curry on change.org has now ballooned to 17,000 signatures since Friday. But the Times says she’ll be out this week. And so far NBC is not denying it. -Reuters

Louisiana-shot Cannes winner premieres in New Orleans NEW ORLEANS: Unlike a lot of movies shot in Louisiana, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” couldn’t have been made anywhere else. Louisiana natives and the state’s bayous and marshes tell the fictional tale of a 6-year-old girl named Hushpuppy and her struggle for survival in the southern Delta with her ailing father as a storm approaches. The film is gripping audiences around the globe for its portrayal of the spirit and resiliency of the people of south Louisiana through the fictional tale of a motherless young girl trying to hold on to her place in the world - that place being a small, tightly-knit shantytown on the bayou just beyond the government’s levee protection system. Her world is filled with wild animals, both real and imaginary. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was shot in southern Terrebonne Parish and Isle de Jean Charles, a real bayou community that is gradually eroding away because it has no levees to protect it. But the film’s makers say it isn’t a social issue movie. “It’s really about what it’s like to lose the thing that made you,” said director Benh Zeitlin, a native New Yorker and one of only a handful of people affiliated with “Beasts of the Southern Wild” not from Louisiana. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” won the grand jury prize in the US dramatic competition at the Sundance Independent Film Festival as well as its cinematography award. At France’s Cannes Film Festival in May, where many US films were shut out, Louisiana’s indie darling won the Camera d’Or for best first film. Zeitlin said the geography of the film didn’t even exist until he found the community of Pointe-aux-Chenes and just beyond it Isle de Jean Charles - the last inhabited speck of land at the end of a winding highway south of Houma, La. Finding the right actors to play the leads took more searching. Producers went on a months-long casting quest for the child who would play Hushpuppy. It included auditions of nearly 4,000 girls in countless schools and churches across south Louisiana. The Fox Searchlight film opens in select theaters, starting with showings in Los Angeles and New York on Wednesday and then New Orleans-area theaters July 4. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, june 27, 2012

Tennis

Tennis’s Fish makes winning Kvitova reaches comeback after heart op second round at Wimbledon WIMBLEDON, England: Defending champion Petra Kvitovarecovered from a shaky start to beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6-4, 6-4 in her opening match at Wimbledon. The fourth-seeded Czech looked nervous early on and was broken in her first service game on Centre Court and then saved two break points when trailing 3-0 in the first set. She found her rhythm after that and won seven straight games to take a 2-0 lead in the second set. After a 30-minute rain delay, Kvitova served out the match to love. Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title by beating Maria Sharapovain last year’s final. The 96th-ranked Amanmuradova has never reached the second round in five Wimbledon appearances. -AP

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic hits a return to Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan during their women’s singles tennis match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London June 26, 2012. (Reuters)

Olympics

Grass always greener, grounds-man eyes Olympic challenge

Mardy Fish of the United States returns a shot to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain during a first round men’s singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Tuesday, June 26, 2012. (AP)

WIMBLEDON, England: Mardy Fish made a winning return to tennis in the opening round at Wimbledon on Tuesday -- his first match following a procedure to address a frightening heart scare. The world number 12 beat Spain’s Ruben RamirezHidalgo 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 7-6 (7/1) and looked comfortable moving around the court. It was his first tournament appearance since April, when, as top seed, he fell at the first hurdle in Houston. He had a procedure called cardiac catheter ablation in Los Angeles on May 23 to correct faulty wiring in his heart. Fish said the arrhythmia had made it hard for him to sleep and his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. Fish is the top American left in the draw after world number 10John Isner was knocked out on Monday. During his two-hour, 37-minute match on the

Court 12 show court against Ramirez-Hidalgo, the world number 82, Fish sent down 24 aces and hit 61 winners. He was at ease in the third set tie-break, sealing his victory with a cross-court return of serve for his first win since Miami in March. Spanish number 10 Ramirez-Hidalgo was the oldest player in the men’s singles at 34 years and six months. He has never won a match on grass and has won just one tour-level match this year. Fish, by contrast, is a comfortable performer on the surface, has a grass court title to his name (Newport 2010) and only six other men competing here have won more singles matches on grass than him. Last year, Fish equaled his best Grand Slam result by reaching the quarter-finals, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. -AFP

Cricket

Pakistan, Sri Lanka plead for DRS

Sri Lanka’s captain Mahela Jayawardene (left) shakes hands with Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez after winning their first test cricket match against Pakistan in Galle June 25, 2012. (Reuters)

Rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka united Tuesday to demand mandatory video technology after several umpiring howlers in their first Test, placing themselves in opposition to India’s powerful board. The Decision Review System (DRS), which uses ball tracking and thermal imaging to verify umpires’ decisions, was recommended for mandatory use by cricket chiefs Monday, subject to member nations financing the technology. But Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said he wanted the International Cricket Council (ICC) to pay for the technology if individual boards, such as his own, cannot afford to fund it when they host touring teams. “The ICC must take it upon themselves to fund the system for the boards which cannot afford to, instead of leaving it to them to decide whether they use it or not,” said Jayawardene. “I have always been a fan of the DRS. It might not be 100 percent technology, but if we can use it to get the maximum number of correct decisions, it will help the umpires as well,” he said. The Galle Test, which Sri Lanka won by 209 runs on Monday, was marred by at least 12 contentious decisions by umpires Steve Davis of Australia and Ian Gould of England, with Pakistan suffering the most. DRS is not being used in the three-Test series, reportedly due to cost factors. The ICC’s Executive Board will consider a recommendation by its chief executives’ committee to make DRS mandatory at meetings in Kuala Lumpur over the next two days. The ICC had previously made DRS mandatory for all series, but changed its stance last year following objections from the influential board in India, which accounts for the lion’s share of global cricket revenues.

Mohammad Hafeez, captaining Pakistan in Galle in the absence of Misbah ul-Haq, said the uncertainty about the video referral technology should end. “One thing I want to say is that it is time for the highest authorities to make a decision about the DRS,” said Hafeez. “It should be made compulsory for every game. “I feel as a player, not having the DRS puts a lot of pressure on you and that pressure goes to the umpires. If this technology can improve the game, then why not? “The authorities should either go for it, or not at all.” Former captain and batting legend Zaheer Abbas blamed Pakistan’s defeat on inept batting and the lack of DRS. “DRS should be mandatory so that no team has any complaints,” Abbas told AFP. “What we saw in the Galle Test was that Pakistan was on the receiving end and if the ICC wants to lift umpiring standards they will have to use DRS.” Whatmore had on Sunday slammed the selective implementation of the DRS, which Sri Lanka Cricketused in the previous home series against England but not in the ongoing one. “It does not seem right to me that you have it for one series and not for another,” said Whatmore, a former Sri Lankan World Cup winning coach. India has been suspicious of DRS since making a number of unsuccessful referrals during the 2008 Test series with Sri Lanka, when the technology was on trial. India’s cricket board said in a statement on Monday that its stance on the system remained “unchanged”, arguing that it was “not foolproof”. India cannot veto a decision by the full ICC board to make DRS compulsory. But it does enjoy outsized influence thanks to the money it has generated in the world game, in part owing to the Indian Premier League’s runaway success.

LONDON: Swifter, higher, stronger - for Wimbledon grounds-man Neil Stubley, the Olympic motto is a perfect match for the grass he so lovingly grows. Just 20 days after the championships end, the players will be back on the hallowed turf of Centre Court and wear and tear are not acceptable words in the vocabulary of the 35-strong team bringing the grass back to a pitch of perfection for the Olympics. “It is a challenge but I am surrounded by a team that knows what it’s doing,” Stubley, bathed in sunshine as he sat courtside contemplating the luscious green swathes, told reporters on Tuesday. He is ashamed to admit that the grass in his own garden has grown shin-high but he has been too busy ensuring that Wimbledon produces the perfect playing stubble, exactly eight millimeters high. To ensure Wimbledon could provide the Olympics with match-ready courts, the ground staff at the world’s most fa-

mous tournament have spent the last two years experimenting with the best way to pre-germinate seeds that can be swiftly put in place. Stubley believes they can comfortably cut it fine. “The big question is how can you turn it round in 20 days,” he said. “Our answer to everybody is that this process has been going for over two years. What we have in place now, we know it works. This is what we need to do, this is what we are going to do.” “Turf Man” certainly talks the talk with real passion about the grass that Novak Djokovic was even tempted to eat after winning Wimbledon last year. Stubley’s eyes light up as he contemplates the wonders of 100 percent perennial ryegrass with its magic combination of Pontiac, Melbourne and Venice strains. The majority is grown in the Netherlands and Wimbledon uses about nine tons a year. He may be a passionate Arsenal fan but he can never watch a match prop-

erly until he has spent the first 20 minutes looking at the quality of the Premier League pitches. The weather gods do not often smile on Wimbledon with “rain stopped play” a familiar mantra boomed out across the court loudspeakers as fans on outside courts scuttle to take shelter. So what about the grass at the Olympics? “The only thing that could potentially hinder us would be temperature but it would have to be one of those one in 100 years of the coldest summers on record,” Stubley said.The British love to talk about the weather which is a national obsession and Stubley is no different. “We have the perfect grass-growing climate in Britain,” he said. “For us it is a constant battle. You will never ever ever have a baseline that doesn’t wear out. Grass is a living plant and if you kick it on the head enough, the head will fall off. But it’s all about how long you can keep the head on for.” -Reuters

Basketball

Spoelstra gave Heat a trophy before ‘real’ trophy MIAMI: Erik Spoelstra has come full circle. When the Miami Heat won their first championship in 2006, it was thencoach Pat Riley giving his-then-assistant Spoelstra ties to wear and coming up with motivational wizardry to get the team through its playoff grind. Fast forward six years - now it’s Spoelstra as head coach, providing Riley with ties, plus commissioning a secret that became the battle cry on the Heat’s march to this year’s NBA title. With Riley, it was about “15 Strong,” the phrase he coined to point out that every player on the roster had a job. With Spoelstra, it was 16 little lines, scribbled with gold marker on a black replica of the NBA championship trophy that became the unknown rallying point for the Heat throughout these playoffs. Whatever works. When the Heat championship parade rolled Monday through downtown Miami, Spoelstra had a view from the front of a double-decker bus, cap turned backwards, smile broad as can be, waving at the estimated crowd of 400,000 along with his 5 1/2-year-old nephew. A month ago, many experts suggested his job was in jeopardy. Now, Spoelstra is a NBA champion coach - and his trophy suggests he’s a champion motivator as well. “It was a testament to one another,” said Heat forward LeBron James, the NBA Finals MVP. “And it had nothing to do with anyone else.” Here’s the story: Before the playoffs started, Spoelstra had this black trophy with white lettering, a near perfect replica of the trophy presented to the NBA champions. Each player’s name and jersey number appeared on the trophy, and the phrases “All In” and “Together/Tough/ Trust” were printed on the base. Spoelstra told the team it was to serve as a symbol of what mattered in the playoffs. Each player signed the ball atop the trophy. “We signed our names to guarantee we’d bring those things onto the table,’’ Spoelstra said. “And when we weren’t, that trophy would come out and we’d remind ourselves we signed our name and we’re not being true to that. That was a powerful exercise for us.” His team took it seriously. “I didn’t put my autograph on there,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said. “I put my signature.” And they didn’t tell a soul about it.The member of the Heat equipment staff who had to carry the rectangular duffel bag that served as the trophy’s case around had no idea what was inside. Spoelstra wrapped the bag a certain way to ensure that no one would take a peek. Only he, his assistant coaches and his players knew about the trophy. Among those who didn’t: Riley, the

master motivator himself. “We didn’t tell anybody. Didn’t tell trainers. God bless you, I love you, I didn’t tell Pat. I didn’t tell management. I didn’t tell you guys,” Spoelstra said. “But it was a covenant that we made to each other, the coaching staff and the players that we would commit to a handful of things each and we would say them in front of each other. If we didn’t do those things, we would not have a real opportunity to win and play for the title.” Spoelstra took over for Riley four seasons ago. Now in his 17th year in the organization, Spoelstra has had a variety of jobs. He started in the video room, used to work players out before games as an assistant, used to be in charge of tracking certain statistics, led the scouting staff for a while. Before now, his claim to fame in the Heat world may have been how he’d put together the light-hearted Christmas videos making fun of everyone and everything. A year ago, when the Heat lost in the finals, many questioned if Spoelstra was good enough to follow Riley and lead the Heat to a title. The team’s official response to that was to give him a threeyear extension. “I remember what it was like to be on that team when we won 15 games,” Spoelstra said, going back to Riley’s final season. “That’s a miserable year. Not simply because you’re losing all the time that’s miserable enough. You’re absolutely insignificant. And sometimes what you want in this game is to be a part of something significant even if it means the negative and the criticism and all that stuff that comes with it. “You want to be part of a team that matters. You can say a lot of things about our team the last two years, but there was some significance to it.’’ There’s some significance to Spoelstra now as well, although that was the case in Miami already. “When you’re in that seat, you don’t

get enough credit and then you get all the blame,” Riley said. “It’s just the way it is. I’ve been there, same seat in L.A. Anybody could have walked off the street and coached that team. But the opportunity for him is incredible.” When Spoelstra was an assistant, he’d often pull a wrinkled suit out of his bag 20 minutes before game time, throw it on and have Riley scoff at his tie selection. Riley would insist Spoelstra wear another tie, and would give him one for the night. This would typically lead to a fashion disaster - not only could Spoelstra not properly knot the tie, but it would hang way too low. This year, the Heat were in Boston for a playoff game. Riley was frantic. He had no tie to wear. Spoelstra gave him “one of my worst ones,” he said. The Heat won. Riley kept wearing the tie. He wore it on stage a couple weeks later on the night Miami beat Oklahoma City for the NBA title. Yes, it would seem the student has become the teacher. “He’s a young coach that’s really found his way,” Riley said. “He’s getting better and better every minute.” One of Spoelstra’s first acts in the locker room just after this season ended was going to the trophy, grabbing the gold marker and getting ready to draw the 16th line - one depicting each playoff win needed to capture a championship. The champagne stopped getting sprayed for a second, just long enough for the squiggle to get added to the base. With Riley, the ploy was “Fifteen Strong” cards that he printed up by the wheelbarrow load for the 2006 title run. Spoelstra went a different way, and the result was the same - a title. Next year, he’ll have to come up with something else. For Spoelstra, that’s a nice problem to have. “It’s something we had together,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “All the things that it said, that was our motto as a team.” - AP

Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade (left) chats with Head Coach Erik Spoelstra on stage with the championship trophy between them in Miami, Florida June 25, 2012. (Reuters)

Football

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, june 27, 2012

Germany not out for revenge after 2006 ‘trauma’ GDANSK: Germany will not be seeking revenge for a bitter 2006 World Cup semifinal defeat on home soil when they meet Italy again at the same stage of Euro 2012 in Warsaw on Thursday, coach Joachim Loew said. Loew, who was Juergen Klinsmann’s assistant at the time, and 34-year-old forward Miroslav Klose, who played in their last-gasp 2-0 defeat against eventual world champions Italy in extra time, said there was nothing that could link the two matches. Three-time European champions Germany have never beaten Italy in seven tournament matches. “No game has anything to say to us. Not the old ones and not the one in 2006,” a relaxed Loew said on Tuesday. “In football there is no such thing as revenge. The past plays absolutely no role for us or for our young players who may know things only from history,” said the 52-year-old. Germany may be more interested in their more recent encounter with Italy, a 1-1 friendly international draw in February 2011, Loew said. “That was against a new Italy, stronger in offence. They are a different team than in 2010 and so are we,” he said. The Italians have gradually improved in the tournament and moved into the last four courtesy of a 4-2 penalty shootout victory against England. “I think it is silly to talk about a mental block against Italy,” said veteran Klose, who was set for an evening at the cinema later on Tuesday, watching the yet to be released Amazing Spiderman movie with his

team mates. “Yes it was a trauma (in 2006). It lasted a bit but now it is gone. This was six years ago and we have a different team and I am convinced we will do things differently.” One thing, however, that has remained the same for Loew is the quality of Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo who will occupy a special place in Germany’s preparations. “He is going through a renaissance. After 2010 you thought he was past his prime. But he is a genius strategist who plays a lot of balls through and he can play them where it hurts the other team the most. “Obviously there will be no man-marking him but we know how he plays and we will talk about it with the team.” Loew played down the importance of a shorter break for the Italians, who played 120 minutes against England on Sunday, while Germany needed 90 minutes in their 4-2 quarter-final win over Greece two days earlier. Italy coach Cesare Prandelli complained on Monday his team had too little time to recover compared to Germany’s longer break. “I do not think it is a drawback for them,” said Loew. “Four days is enough to recover and I did not see them tired. Quite the opposite, it was the England players who looked tired after a certain stage. “Every professional player who takes care of himself should be able to recover 100 percent in four days. So I do not think they will still be suffering from that game. -Reuters

German head coach Joachim Loew joggles with a ball during a training session in Gdansk on June 23, 2012. (AFP)

Domenech Giroud agrees Arsenal deal calls for new French team ethic

FILE - France’s national football team former headcoach Raymond Domenech attends the French L1 football match Brest vs Lyon on Aug. 20, 2011. (AFP)

PARIS: Former France coach Raymond Domenech has called for a sea change at the heart of the national game to prevent a repeat of the in-fighting and ill-discipline that dogged the country’s Euro 2012 campaign. Domenech, who was repaced by current coach Laurent Blanc after a similarly problematic World Cup two years ago, said in a newspaper column published on Tuesday that there was no shame in being beaten by the world champions. “But to lose without showing any hunger for competing is,” he wrote in the Ouest France daily. “In order to cure this it is vital to change the philosophy at the heart of our sports education and to make the team ethic the centrepiece of developing future French professional players. Just like the Spanish do!” France were knocked out of the tournament after losing their quarter-final match 2-0 to holders Spain on Saturday. But the defeat was overshadowed by Samir Nasri, who verbally abused an AFP journalist after the lacklustre match, as well as criticisms of the players’ performances and expected bonuses. It was not the first incident involving Nasri, while Blanc himself had a dressing room row with Hatem Ben Arfa and Jeremy Menez and Yann M’Vila squabbled. Domenech stopped short of comparing the incidents with those in 2010, when Nicolas Anelka was sent home for verbally abusing him, leading to a player mutiny in which they forced him to read out their written statement to the press. Nevertheless, while he said Blanc should be held

to account for his defensive selection and late substitutions in the Spain game, as well as his difficulty in managing over-inflated egos, the main blame should rest with the players. “A major finals reveals the strength of a group of players, of a generation of players,” wrote the 60-yearold, who guided France to the 2006 World Cup final which they lost to Italy. “This one simply exposed all these stars, amply displaying the huge swathe of weaknesses they possess. The most blatant one was their incapacity to do anything other than navel gaze. “All it takes is for a few malcontents to provoke a squad into exploding or imploding.” Domenech said Nasri, whom he did not take to South Africa because he thought he would be a disruptive influence, was the catalyst for the malaise but Menez and M’Vila had to take some responsibility. Menez gestured at captain Hugo Lloris during the Spain game, telling him to shut up, while M’Vila did not shake hands with Blanc or his replacement when he was substituted by Olivier Giroud, the former national coach noted. “The substitutes are the masons of the group,” he said. “Either they strengthen the foundations of the team, or they destroy it. “Menez is capable of starting a demolition business and I guarantee he would make a fortune. M’Vila could be his foreman based on the evidence of his remarkable reaction to being substituted against Spain.” -AFP

Spain and Russia face UEFA racism charges WARSAW: UEFA has charged the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Russian Football Union (RFS) for racist behavior and racist chanting by their national teams’ fans during Euro 2012 matches. “UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) for the improper conduct of their supporters (racist behavior, racist chanting) at the UEFA Euro 2012 Group C match against Italy in Gdansk on Sunday 10 June,” European soccer’s governing body said on Tuesday. “Disciplinary proceedings have also been opened against the Russian Football Union (RFS) for the improper conduct of their supporters (racist behavior, racist chanting) at the UEFA Euro 2012 Group A match against the Czech Republic in Wroclaw on Friday 8 June,” UEFA added in a statement. UEFA will deal with the cases on Thursday. The Croatian Football Federation were later fined 30,000 Euros (37,400 US dollars) after fans set off and threw fireworks and displayed “inappropriate and racist banners” during the Group C match against Spain

in Gdansk on June 18, their second racism-related fine of the tournament. Croatia were fined 80,000 Euros for racist chants directed at Italy striker Mario Balotelli by their fans in Poznan on June 14. UEFA has been gathering evidence following reports that Spanish fans racially abused Balotelli during Spain’s 1-1 draw with Italy four days earlier. Czech Republic defender Theodor Gebre Selassie, the first black player to represent the Czech national team, told reporters he had “noticed” racist chants directed at him during his side’s game with Russia. The issue of racism dominated the build-up to Euro 2012, co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine and the biggest sporting event in eastern Europe since the end of communism. Semi-finalists Portugal, who take on Spain in Donetsk on Wednesday, were also fined 7,000 Euros by UEFA after a fan attempted to enter the pitch during their 1-0 quarter-final win against the Czech Republic in Warsaw on June 21. -Reuters

LONDON: Montpellier forward Olivier Giroud has agreed to join Arsenal on a long-term contract, the English Premier League club announced Tuesday. The 25-year-old France striker completed a medical before agreeing terms at the club’s training ground on Monday evening. The completion of the transfer is now just the subject of “formal processes”, according to Arsenal. Giroud, whose contract with Arsenal will commence on July 1, told the club’s website: “I am delighted to be here at Arsenal and to be part of one of the great teams in English football. “It’s a huge satisfaction to join this great club and it’s been a dream since I was young to play in the Premier League.” Giroud said the style of football Arsenal, who finished third in the English top-flight last season, play under French manager Arsene Wenger had been a major factor in his decision. “I was attracted by the philosophy of football and Arsene Wenger’s ‘touch’ at this club,” he said. “I have always admired Arsenal with its great history and reputation, and I now hope to achieve great things here. I’m very proud to be a Gunner and I will give my best for all the Arsenal fans.” Wenger said: “We are delighted to have secured the signing of Olivier Giroud. He has a very good physical presence and is exceptional in the air, with a great work ethic. “We are excited about Olivier joining us and he will add an additional dimension to our attacking options next season.” Giroud arrives in north London from French champions Montpellier, where 21 goals in 36 league appearances made him

Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas kicks the ball next to French forward Olivier Giroud during the Euro 2012 football championships quarter-final match Spain vs France on June 23, 2012. (AFP)

the French league’s joint top goal-scorer last season and also earned him a place in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year. Giroud, who enjoyed a two-year spell at the Stade de la Mosson and broke into the national team in November 2011, flew to London after representing France at Euro 2012 where they exited to Spain in the quarter-finals. The Chambery-born player spent his formative years in France’s lower leagues, developing his game with Grenoble and

at Tours FC where he played alongside Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny for a season before being awarded the Ligue 2 Player of the Year award in 2009/10. “He has proved that he is capable of performing at the top level with club and country, and we saw what a big influence he was in Montpellier’s championshipwinning side last season,” said Wenger. “We all look forward to Olivier joining us and seeing him play in an Arsenal shirt,” Wenger added. -AFP

Deschamps going nowhere for now: Marseille MARSEILLE, France: Troubled giants Marseille on Tuesday confirmed that coach Didier Deschamps will be there when the first-team begins pre-season training next week amid speculation that he wants to quit. “Didier Deschamps will be there at the start of pre-season training on Monday,” the club confirmed to AFP. The club’s director of communications Luc Laboz added: “We still have a contract with our coach, we are sticking to it.” Earlier, local daily La Provence claimed that Deschamps had made up his mind to leave OM despite having two years remaining on his contract, while sports daily L’Equipe reported that “Deschamps wants to leave.” L’Equipe added that Deschamps, who has been in charge at the Stade Velodrome for three years, “made up his mind to leave Marseille several weeks ago.” The 43-year-old has won six trophies, including the 2009/10 Ligue 1 title, in his time in charge of the club he captained as a player. However, he has long endured a troubled relationship with sporting director Jose Anigo and oversaw a deeply disappointing 2011/12 season in which OM ended in tenth place in Ligue 1. With the club struggling financially and obliged to sell before bringing in any new players, the outlook for next season is uncertain and Deschamps may be convinced that now is the right time to move on. -AFP

FILE - Marseille’s French head coach Didier Deschamps leaves the pitch at the end of the French L1 football match, Marseille versus Nancy on May 02, 2012. (AFP)

Italy trio uncertain for Germany clash KRAKOW: Italy trio Daniele De Rossi, Giorgio Chiellini and Ignazio Abate face a race against time to be fit for Thursday’s Euro 2012 semifinal against Germany in Warsaw. De Rossi and Abate limped out of Italy’s quarter-final victory over England on Sunday with muscle problems while Chiellini missed that game with a hamstring injury. Chiellini trained on Monday and tweeted that he hoped to be fit but Italy doctor Enrico Castellacci said he could not be sure with any of them.

“We’re doing everything we can to get them ready,” he said. Leonardo Bonucci replaced Chiellini against England and could easily do so again while Italy have Thiago Motta who could come back into the side to replace De Rossi. The problem lies with right-back Abate as the man who replaced him on Sunday, Christian Maggio was booked and is suspended for the semi-final. If he doesn’t make it then Italy coach Cesare Prandelli will have a difficult choice to make as he has no other right

backs. Either Bonucci or veteran Andrea Barzagli could play there but that would need Chiellini to recover to come back into the centre. Otherwise Prandelli may choose to revert to a back three with wing-backs, playing Fabio Borini on the right. But when he played a back three earlier in the competition he used De Rossi as a libero and he would need either the Roma midfielder or Chiellini to recover anyway to be able to play that system. -AFP