March 10, 2012

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1369

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150 Fils with IHT

Al-Mattar: Gas leak in Ahmadi still exists

Ashour’s interpellation is unconstitutional: Government experts Mohammad Al-Salman Mohammad Al-Khaldi

Staff Writters

KUWAIT: At the time when parliamentary majority is preparing to positively deal with the interpellation motion filed by MP Saleh Ashour against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah which is included in the next parliamentary session’s agenda, informed sources revealed that Ashour has asked his office team to be prepared to face the interpellation during the next session. Sources said that Ashour has prepared documents which support the interpellation motion and is preparing for a surprise during the session allocated for discussing the motion. The motion is constitutionally scheduled on Thursday but was added on Tuesday’s session agenda. This could give both Ashour and the Premiere an opportunity to discuss the motion after the approval of the Parliament.

In the meantime, sources affirmed that a number of constitutional experts in the government confirm that the interpellation motion presented is unconstitutional because it discusses issues handled by the previous government. The sources explained that the experts submitted a report to the Cabinet, which will make its decision after discussing the report during the next session.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary source said that a number of minority MPs intend to question the Interior Minister, adding that they are drafting the interpellation, which is based on the arbitrary measures taken by the Interior Ministry against some clergies. The source said that the MPs agreed on filing the motion after discussing the one filed against His Highness Prime Minister.

In a statement to Al Watan, MP Dr. Hamad Al-Mattar said that he will announce his stance on the interpellation after listening to the responses of His Highness the Prime Minister. He added that the parliament is different from the previous one, noting that he will announce whether to be for or against the interpellation after listening to both the parties. In another development, MP Al-Mattar said that the Environment Committee will submit a request to the parliament demanding the continuation of work in the investigatory committee on the issue of gas leak in Ahmadi because the leak still exists, the residents are still suffering and the previous committee did not finalize its final report on the issue.

Al-Mattar revealed that the committee will invite Minister of Defense and Minister of Oil next week to discuss the issue of pollution of “Um Al-Qawati” and “environmental compensations”, noting that the death of fishes, Mishref disaster and pollution in Umm Al-Hayman are priorities for the committee.

MP Mohammad Al-Khalifa said that the issue of writing off loans will be decided by the parliament and not by the government, by considering the bills which have been submitted to address this issue. In a statement to Al Watan, Al-Khalifa said that usurious interests are not permissible in Islam, and that he will push toward the cancelation of these interests. He stressed that he believes in democracy and the final decision will be made by the majority. He expressed hope that this issue will be addressed, noting that the Popular Action Bloc proposed giving 1000 dinars to every citizen who did not take loans.

MP Dr. Khaled Shakheer said that the government is required to address the issue of loans and to drop the interests, which burdened citizens. Shakheer stated that the parliament will deal with this issue in order to reach a solution and to serve justice to all citizens.

Meanwhile, the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee will hold a meeting Sunday to discuss a number of draft laws. The Negative Phenomena Committee will hold a meeting to discuss its work plan during the coming period. The Budgets and Final Accounts Committee will hold its periodical meeting to complete discussing the framework of the budgets of ministries and government departments for 2012/2013, in the presence of Minister of Finance and specialists in the ministry and State Audit Bureau.

OPEC pumps record volumes despite demand worry

A helicopter drops water on one of the four wildfires that have so far ravaged 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, near the northern Spain village of Gerri de la Sal on March 9, 2012. Emergency services workers evacuated about 200 people from their homes on Thursday because of the risk from the flames but the majority have already been allowed to return to their homes. Spain is struggling through its driest winter since the 1940s, according to the national weather office. (AFP)

CAPITALS: Europe’s debt crisis and an oil price rally are the biggest threats to global oil demand this year, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Friday, adding it was still pumping above its target despite a slide in Iranian production.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) retained its view that world oil demand will grow by 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, unchanged from last month, but warned the weak pace of growth in developed economies could crimp global appetite for oil.

“The weak pace of growth in the OECD economies is negatively affecting oil demand and imposing a high range of uncertainty on potential consumption growth”, OPEC said in its monthly report.

“Although US economic data points toward a better performance, the situation in Europe along with higher oil prices has resulted in considerable uncertainties on the future oil demand for the remainder of the year.”

More on 5

UK lawmaker admits assaulting four in Parliament bar

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South Sudan accuses Khartoum of ‘enslaving’ thousands

ADDIS ABABA: South Sudan accused former foe Sudan on Friday of holding 35,000 Southerners as “slaves,” stalling talks to resolve a furious oil dispute as tensions remain high between the two neighbors.

South Sudan’s chief negotiator Pagan Amum said the abductees were taken hostage during Sudan’s bloody 1983-2005 north-south civil war which ended in a peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan’s formal independence in July.

Thousands of South Sudanese were allegedly abducted by pro-government militia forces during the war and forced to work in the north, claims rejected by the government in Khartoum.

The rivals are in the Ethiopian capital holding the latest round of dragging African-Union led talks. The two coun-

tries have been at loggerheads since the South broke away, threatening to reignite conflict between the two former bitter enemies.

Oil has been a major sticking point in the talks, since Juba took 75 percent of Sudanese oil at independence but Khartoum controls processing and export facilities.

But deals must also be made on contentious nationality issues, as well as border demarcation and the future of the contested Abyei region, claimed by both sides but occupied by Khartoum’s army.

Some 500,000 South Sudanese remain in Sudan, and Khartoum has given them until April 8 to leave or regularize their status. However, the United Nations has said it is logistically impossible to repatriate all within the timeframe. -AFP

Dravid announces retirement from international cricket MUMBAI: India batting great and former skipper Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from international cricket on Friday, saying it was the right time to “move on” and make way for the next generation of players.

The 39-year-old second highest run scorer in test history announced his decision at a news conference in Bangalore with Indian cricket board (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan and former India leg spinner Anil Kumble also in attendance.

Dravid has scored 13,288 runs in 164 tests, including 36 hundreds, and became the first of India’s senior batsmen to retire from the longer format after the team slumped to eight consecutive test defeats away from home.

“I would like to announce my retirement from international and domestic first-class cricket,” a sombre-looking Dravid read from a prepared statement, confirming what many observers had expected when the news conference was arranged on Thursday.

More on 7

Syrian forces kill at least 54 ahead of Annan’s visit Kuwait stresses on need to coordinate international efforts to deliver aid equally to Syrian people

CAPITALS: Syrian forces killed at least 54 people on Friday as they sought to quell demonstrations against President Bashar Al-Assad before a peace mission by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, opposition activists said.

Tank rounds and mortar bombs crashed into opposition districts in the rebellious central city of Homs, killing 17 people, activists said, while 24 were killed in the northern province of Idlib and more deaths were reported elsewhere.

Leader of Syria’s most prominent opposition group has rejected Kofi Annan’s call for dialogue with the government.

Burhan Ghalioun, president of the Syrian National Council (SNC), said on Friday that any solution to the crisis must be accompanied by military pressure on President Bashar Al-Assad.

Meanwhile, Kuwait stressed on the need to find an international mechanism to coordinate humanitarian efforts to secure delivery of aid supplies to the Syrian people equally.

The mechanism is to be under the UN’s umbrella.

Kuwait urged the international society to fully support humanitarian organizations for them to perform well towards the Syrian humanitarian disaster.

The Adviser at the permanent Kuwaiti mission to the the United Nations in Geneva, Talal Al-Mutairi, said at the UN international forum on Syria, held Thursday, that Kuwait welcomed such a gathering for its role in studying how to aid the people of Syria.

Al-Mutairi affirmed Kuwait’s position against the inhumane behavior taken out on civilians by the Syrian regime, which resulted in the displacement of thousands of them.

He also illustrated Kuwait’s efforts towards the people of Syria since the beginning of the crisis, and noted the campaign launched by the International Islamic Charitable Organization under the orders of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

The campaign was able to collect USD 12 million, of which USD 5 million were from the Amir.

More on 2

Filmmaker Cameron plans world record 7-mile ocean dive

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Greece secures biggest debt cut in history

ATHENS: Greece’s creditors agreed Friday to take cents on the euro in the biggest debt write down in history, providing much-needed breathing room for European nations living beyond their means.

The agreement paves the way for Greece to receive an enormous second bailout in the hopes of containing the crisis before it drags the entire continent further into chaos. Without the agreement, Greece would have risked defaulting on its debts in two weeks’ time, an event that would have sparked turmoil in the financial markets and sent shockwaves through the other 16 countries that use the euro.

Following weeks of intense discussions, the Greek government said Friday that 83.5 percent of private investors holding its government debt had agreed to a bond swap that would involve them taking a cut in more than half the face value of their investments with softer repayment terms for Greece. The bond swap was a radical attempt to pull Greece out of its debt spiral and put its shrinking economy back on the path to recovery. The deal is also a key condition for Greece to receive a euro130 billion ($172 billion) package of rescue loans from other eurozone

Greece’s Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos arrives for a news conference in Athens March 9, 2012. (Reuters)

countries and the International Monetary Fund. “We have achieved an exceptional success ... and I believe everyone will soon realize that this is the only way to keep the country on its feet and give it a second historic chance that it needs,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told Parliament.

Of the investors holding the euro177 billion ($234 billion) in bonds governed

by Greek law, 85.8 percent joined. The

deadline for those holding foreign-law bonds was extended to March 23. Creditors holding Greek-law bonds who refused to sign up will be forced into the deal, with the Cabinet approving during a meeting Friday the activation of legislation known as “collective action clauses.”

The settlement date for Greek-law bonds is set for Monday, and April 11 for foreign-law bonds. -AP

Full Titanic site mapped for first time

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine: Researchers have pieced together what’s believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field and hope it will provide new clues about what exactly happened the night 100 years ago when the superliner hit an iceberg, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic and became a legend. Marks on the muddy ocean bottom suggest, for instance, that the stern rotated like a helicopter blade as the ship sank, rather than plunging straight down, More on 9 researchers told The Associated Press this week.

World’s oldest Charles Dickens film discovered

The northern lights fill the northern sky above Gnesen Township, north of Duluth, Minn., early Friday, March 9, 2012. While a nearly full moon washed out some of the display, what the northern lights lacked in brightness they made up for in motion, with arcs and rays dancing across the sky. (AP)

LONDON: An archivist at the British Film Institute has stumbled across a 1901 movie just one minute long which turns out to be the earliest surviving film featuring a character from the works of Charles Dickens, reports The Guardian. Bryony Dixon was researching early films of China when she noticed an entry in a catalogue referring to The Death of Poor Joe, which she realized could refer to a character in Dickens’ Bleak House.Not expecting to find a film to match the catalogue entry - most movies this old have not survived - Dixon says she was astonished to discover the film was actually in the BFI’s collection, albeit under More on 10 a different title.

Hundreds of Egyptians shout anti-US slogans and raise national flags and Arabic banners reading “people demand the expulsion of the US ambassador, “ in front of the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Friday March 9, 2012 as they protest against what they say is American intervention in Egypt. Several hundred protesters gathered Friday outside the US Embassy in Cairo, raising their shoes at a picture of President Barack Obama and calling on Egypt to expel Washington’s ambassador amid a heated national debate about the trial of Americans working with pro-democracy groups who have been charged with using foreign funding to foment unrest. (AP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

world

saturdAY, MARCH 10, 2012

US could use 13,600kg bunker buster bomb on Iran nuclear facility WASHINGTON: A 13,600kg bunker buster bomb designed to smash through some 200 feet of concrete before exploding is a “great weapon” that could be used by US forces in a clash with Iran over its nuclear program, an Air Force general said.

Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle, Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, said the massive ordnance penetrator, which the military began receiving only last year, is part of the US arsenal available for strikes against countries like Iran, which has some buried nuclear facilities.

“The massive ordnance penetrator is a great weapon.

We are continuing to improve that. It has great capability now and we are continuing to make it better. It is part of our arsenal and it will be a potential if we need it in that kind of scenario,” Carlisle told a conference on US defense programs.

The Pentagon has begun working on military options if sanctions and diplomacy fail to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the National Journal in an interview on Thursday that planning had been going on “for a long time.”

Major powers are increasingly concerned about Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, which they view as an attempt to build an atomic weapon. But Tehran says it is meant for peaceful energy production.

Israel also is worried about potential for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Washington this week that time was running out for diplomacy and sanctions.

Panetta, who has said diplomacy and sanctions should be given more time, told the National Journal he did not think Israel had decided whether to order a high-risk raid

on Iran’s nuclear sites. He said the United States was committed to preventing Iran from acquiring atomic weapons and would have a greater impact than Israel if it decided force was necessary.

“If they decided to do it there’s no question that it would have an impact, but I think it’s also clear that if the United States did it we would have a hell of a bigger impact,” Panetta said.

The tough rhetoric from the Pentagon came despite President Barack Obama’s effort this week to tamp down “loose talk” and “bluster” about possible military action, saying there was still an opportunity for diplomacy.

Carlisle also told the Credit Suisse-McAleese defense conference that a conflict with Syria or Iran could see US military operations influenced by new tactical thinking at the Pentagon known as Air-Sea Battle.

That approach aims to take advantage of highly networked and integrated US forces. Carlisle said the tactics focus on operating in multiple domains, from air and sea to space and cyberspace, while networking and integrating information from the different areas, like satellites and sensors on stealth fighters and unmanned aircraft.

“There’s a space capability, there’s a cyber capability, there’s fifth-generation, low-signature force capability,” he said.

“All those things are on the table and being thought about as we do this operational planning,” Carlisle added, noting that Syria and Iran have developed significant defenses aimed at keeping potential attackers at a distance, a strategy Air-Sea Battle was designed to circumvent.

Carlisle said cyberspace could be a factor in a conflict with the two countries. “All of the leadership has said nothing is off the table with respect to what we would employ and use,” he said. -AFP

Pentagon is working on military options if sanctions and diplomacy fail to prevent Tehran from building weapons.

(AFP)

Syrian activists reject Annan’s dialogue call

United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan (center) arrives for a meeting with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi (right) on March 8, at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

(AFP)

Syrian forces kill 31 ahead of Annan peace mission DAMASCUS: The leader of Syria’s most prominent opposition group has rejected Kofi Annan’s call for dialogue with the government. Burhan Ghalioun, president of the Syrian National Council (SNC), said on Friday that any solution to the crisis must be accompanied by military pressure on President Bashar Al-Assad.

Annan, enlisted as an envoy by the Arab League and UN, said in Cairo on Thursday that “militarization” of the conflict would only make it worse and said he aimed to reach a political settlement through dialogue. The former UN chief, who is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday, cautioned against military intervention, saying it had worsened other conflicts in the region.

“These kind of comments are disappointing and do not give a lot of hope for people in Syria being massacred every day,” Ghalioun said. “It feels like we are watching the same movie being repeated over and over again.”

References

Ghalioun faulted Annan for “avoiding” any references to the essence of the problem, which he said is the government’s use of extreme military force to crush year-long protests. “As an international envoy, we hope he will have a mechanism for ending the violence,” Ghalioun said. “My fear is that, like other international envoys before him, the aim is to waste a month or two of pointless mediation efforts.”

The SNC, which has been trying to coordinate with opposition fighters inside the country, has called for international military intervention, though it is far from clear whether the majority of the opposition agrees. Clashes erupted in the flashpoint Homs province on Friday morning, the DPA news agency reported.

“Heavy clashes were raging at the outskirts of the Rastan and Al-Kussair areas between members of the [opposition] Free Syrian Army and government troops,” Abu Imad, a Syrian activist based in northern Lebanon, said. The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition group documenting violence across Syria, said troops

were bombarding areas in Karam AlZeitoun, Al-Khalidiyeh and Al-Bayada in Homs. Senator John McCain calls for intervention in Syria.

Reinforcements

The army reportedly has sent reinforcements to the northwestern province of Idlib, where activists have been fearing an assault similar to the one that devastated the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs.

In his remarks on Thursday, Annan said the solution to the worsening conflict “lies in political settlement” and must be “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned”.

“I hope no one is thinking seriously of using force in this situation,” Annan said.

“As I move to Syria, we will do whatever we can to urge and press for a cessation of hostilities and end to the killing and violence.” Speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington DC, John McCain, the influential US politician, criticized those comments, saying they made him “wonder what planet Kofi Annan is on”.

McCain called for a coalition of Arab and Western states to intervene in Syria, similar to the group that organized to implement a UN no-fly zone in Libya.

The arms and support coming to Assad’s government from Iran and Russia made the conflict with rebels an “unfair fight” and that Assad had shown no desire to make a deal, he said.

Arab League

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said clear divisions remained among Arab League countries, some of whom support armed intervention. “Some have a hawkish stand, Saudi Arabia or perhaps even Qatar, when it comes to arming the Syrian opposition,” she said.

“If you arm the opposition ... you exacerbate the possibility of an all-out civil war and the biggest risk, of turning Syria into a proxy battlefield for wars in the region.”

The UN estimates that at least 7,500 people have died since protests first broke out a year ago. Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, said she was “struck” by the devastation she saw during a visit to the shattered city of Homs on Wednesday.

Amos was allowed access to the former opposition stronghold of Baba Amr after the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group, withdrew in the face of a nearly month-long artillery barrage and a major government ground assault. She said at a press con-

ference in Ankara on Friday that she had made a request to the Syrian government for unhindered access to the worst-hit areas, but that the Syrian government had asked for more time.

Limited Assessment

The Syrian government had agreed to join UN agencies in a “limited assessment” of the situation, she said.

Amos said in Damascus on Thursday that Baba Amr is “completely destroyed” and that most of its residents were gone.

She was the first independent observer allowed into the neighborhood since government forces entered on March 1.

The army prevented aid convoys associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering for more than three days. “The devastation there is significant, that part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to know what has happened to the people who live in that part of the city,” Amos said.

The UN’s cultural agency, the Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), condemned Syria on Thursday for its crackdown on a year-long uprising but did not expel Damascus from its human rights committee as some Western and Arab countries had demanded.

Angered by Syria’s inclusion on the committee, a group of Western and Arab nations had pressed for Syria’s expulsion following the violence in the country.

US troops gone, Al-Qaeda makes Iraq peace elusive BAGHDAD: If Iraqis were hoping that the withdrawal of US forces last year would finally mean the end of war, Al-Qaeda and its Sunni militant allies are determined to prove otherwise. Daily bombings and shootings remain an endemic feature of life. In the past three months, Al-Qaeda-linked fighters have been blamed for attacks that have killed at least 250 people. In a particularly poignant reminder of militants’ potency this week, gunmen in unauthorized uniforms of special commandos drove from checkpoint to checkpoint in the western town of Haditha before dawn, gunning down police. They killed 27 including two officers dragged from their homes and slain in the street.

A return to the all-out sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in 2006-07 is unlikely. Nor are Al-Qaeda fighters threatening to again impose their rule over whole swathes of Iraq as they did in the early years after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. But unlike Shiite militia groups - which have largely declared they are ready to lay down arms now that US troops have left - Al-Qaeda and other Sunni groups have shown no sign of giving up the fight. And Iraq’s security forces show little sign of the wherewithal to vanquish them once and for all. Al-Qaeda will continue to be a menace until security forces have better intelligence, are more technologically sophisticated and can gain the public’s trust in those pockets where the militants still have support.

In the absence of American troops to oppose, AlQaeda and its allies in Iraq have hewed to explicitly sectarian rhetoric, calling on all Sunnis to join them in battle against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

“Know that the coming stage is a stage of real confrontation and war against the despicable (Shiites), whether you like it or not,” the al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni group Islamic State of Iraq said after claiming responsibility for attacks on Iraqi security forces that killed 60 people on Feb. 23.

Ibrahim Al-Shimari, spokesman for the Islamic Army, another militant group, said it would keep fighting as long as “the effects” of the former US occupation still exist. “We are continuing to defend the Iraqi people and this weapon is the guarantee of the

security of the Iraqi people.”

Iraqi authorities insist they have the situation under control. Deputy Interior Minister Adnan Al-Asadi says attacks have fallen by more than 80 percent compared to past years, with the remaining violence a sign of terrorist groups trying to “prove they are still on the scene”. “After the tightening that happened against Al-Qaeda and other groups and the heavy blows they received, the detentions of many leaders and members that contributed to cells breaking up, ... sanctuaries and sources of finance are much more restricted,” Asadi told Reuters. “That has led these groups to, from time to time, prepare an attack to signify their identity.”

Iraq’s branch of Al-Qaeda is only loosely linked to the wider organization founded by Osama binLaden, but shares its strong anti-Western ideology and its aim of restoring the strict Sunni Muslim caliphate that ruled the mediaeval Arab world.

In the early years after the fall of Saddam, AlQaeda fighters took control of cities and towns in Sunni-dominated western and central Iraq, resisting the US presence and imposing a stark interpretation of Islamic law. They also fought Shiites, who make up the majority in Iraq but are denounced by Al-Qaeda as apostates from true Islam.

Eventually Al-Qaeda’s extreme violence and rigid rule alienated Sunni tribes, who teamed up with US troops to drive them out, first from their stronghold in Anbar province and then from other areas. Since 2008 the fighters have no longer controlled significant territory. Having fought to drive the militants out, Iraqi villages and towns are unlikely to welcome Al-Qaeda back, Asadi said.

“Al-Qaeda will not return to take over any province, including Anbar, because the people of Anbar have tasted the bitterness of Al-Qaeda,” Asadi said.

But cells remain, carrying out suicide bombings and shooting attacks on a daily basis. Mostly they have struck vulnerable security forces targets, such as police checkpoints. Iraqi troops privately say a lack of intelligence-gathering capability is their biggest hurdle in combating Al-Qaeda. Without the ability to deeply analyze information, they have little choice but to mount raids as soon as tips come in. -Reuters

Resolution

But a resolution, submitted by Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Britain, Denmark, and other countries, stopped short of expelling Damascus from the key committee.

Ziad Aldress, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UNESCO, told Al Jazeera that it was impossible to use stronger language without losing crucial support for the resolution. “If we lose the votes then it will be a hopeless case,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland reported that some UNESCO officials were unhappy about the way their organization was being used as a forum for international disputes.

“Some officials at UNESCO told us privately that they are getting quite tired of playing the role of a political football,” she said. “What we’ve seen here today, once again, is the limitations of international diplomacy when it comes to trying to move forward in consensus on the subject of Syria,” she said. -AFP

Residents take part in a rally in support of the Bahraini people in Baghdad’s Sadr city March 9. (Reuters)

Egypt Islamists want ‘family’ not women’s council

CAIRO: A women’s conference organized by the dominant Islamist bloc in the Egyptian parliament has called for a council for families to replace the existing National Council for Women, a state-owned daily reported on Friday.

The conference, held Thursday on International Women’s Day, also condemned the 1978 UN convention against gender discrimination saying it was “incompatible with the values of Islamic sharia” law, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

The Freedom and Justice Party conference called for the formation of a national council for the family to “truly express the complementary roles of men and women,” the newspaper said.

The current National Council for Women has been heavily criticized for its association with former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, whose husband, veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown in a popular revolt a year ago.

The Freedom and Justice Party, political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, says it does not endorse gender discrimination, although the Brotherhood argues women should not be allowed to rule the country.

The party is the dominant bloc in both houses of parliament after a sweeping victory in a multiphase general election that began in November.

Women hold just two percent of the seats in parliament. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

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saturdAY, MARCH 10, 2012

Western hostages killed in Nigeria Italian president condemns botched British raid in Lagos

LAGOS: Two European hostages have been killed by their captors in Nigeria, after a failed rescue attempt, authorities say.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned Thursday’s killing in a statement and said the captors had been arrested and that they were members of Boko Haram, a radical Nigerian Islamist group.

The victims - Chris McManus, a Birton and Franco Lamolinara, an Italian - were captured last May in the city of Birnin Kebbi, in northwestern Nigeria. They had been working on a bank construction project.

David Cameron, the British prime minister, said he had given the go-ahead for the joint Nigerian and British rescue operation after “credible information” had been received.

Both men were killed before their rescuers could reach them.

“We are still awaiting confirmation of the details, but the early indications are clear that both men were murdered by their captors, before they could be rescued,” Cameron said.

He said the Nigerian authorities, with British support, had launched the attempt to rescue the men after “a window of opportunity arose to secure their release”.

“Preparations were made to mount an operation to attempt to rescue Chris and Franco. Together with the Nigerian government, today I authorized it to go ahead, with UK support,” he added.

Britain’s Chris McManus and Italy’s Franco Lamolinara, two hostages kidnapped in Nigeria nearly a year ago were killed on March 8, as a rescue operation sought to save them, and Nigeria said their Islamist extremist murderers were arrested. (AFP)

“It is with great regret that I have to say that both Chris and Franco have lost their lives.” Cameron did not indicate if it was clear when the men were killed.

In Rome, President Giorgio Napolitano led a chorus of condemnation on Friday of Britain’s failure to inform the Italian government before launching a botched rescue mission with Nigerian forces that led to the deaths of British and Italian hostages held by a militant Islamist group.

In the strongest Italian condemnation, Napolitano told reporters: “The behavior of the British government in not informing Italy is inexplicable.”

“A political and diplomatic clarification is necessary.”

Prime Minister Mario Monti said Italy had been informed only after the raid began against a compound in the town of Sokoto. The British government confirmed this on Friday.

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“Italy wasn’t informed or asked its opinion about a blitz that put at mortal risk an Italian citizen,” Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior official in former leader Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party, said in a television interview.

“Between allies, this sort of mission is usually talked about beforehand. The British government bypassed and completely ignored us,” he said.

While Italian media criticized Britain for acting unilaterally, commentators also said the event underscored Italy’s diminishing international clout.

They linked the incident to an ongoing struggle by Italy to free two marines on anti-piracy duty who are being held in India for shooting dead two fishermen in the Indian Ocean.

“The United Kingdom still acts, maybe unconsciously, with the nostalgia of imperial glory,” said Antonio Puri Purini in Corriere della Sera, the country’s biggest daily, drawing another parallel with the capsizing of the giant cruise liner Costa Concordia in which at least 25 people died in January.

“First the tragic farce of Captain (Francesco) Schettino and then the arrest of the marines in Kochi,” said Puri Purini. “The Italian public has a right to feel humiliated.”

Monti called a meeting on Friday with his senior security ministers and a representative of the secret services. A parliamentary committee has also said it will open a probe.

The British ambassador in Rome visited the Italian Foreign Ministry “on his own accord” on Thursday night, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said without giving further details. In Britain there were attempts to play down the spat. -Agencies

UK lawmaker admits Myanmar holds assaulting four in Parliament bar peace talks with Kachin rebels LONDON: A British lawmaker on Friday admitted assaulting four men in a drunken brawl in a House of Commons bar, a breach of Parliamentary etiquette that will cost him 4,400 pounds (6,950 US dollars) and a three month ban from entering a pub.

Eric Joyce, who admitted having problems both with alcohol and aggression, was fined 3,000 pounds and ordered to pay 1,400 pounds to his victims after he pleaded guilty to four charges of assault at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Judge Howard Riddle also banned Joyce from entering pubs and other licensed premises for three months and he will be subject to a weekend curfew.

“I’ve been lucky to avoid prison,” Joyce told reporters outside court. A jail sentence of 12 months or more would have meant automatic disqualification from Parliament.

Joyce has already been suspended from the Labor caucus in the Commons. He has said he will not seek re-election in 2015, and he is still subject to further disciplinary measures from Labor and Commons authorities.

Prosecutor Zoe Martin said the brawl on Feb. 27 started after Joyce complained of too many Conservatives in the bar.

Joyce admitted head-butting Conservative lawmaker Stuart Andrew and assaulting two local Conservative officials.

His fourth victim was a Labor Party colleague.

In Cambridge meanwhile, police on Friday arrested two people ahead of a speech

by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief whose career collapsed after he was charged with sexual assault.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary spokeswoman Sarah Redman said a man and a woman, both in their early 20s, were arrested on suspicion of vandalizing the university’s debating society building with messages critical of the 62-year-old French politician.

The Cambridge News website dis-

Eric Joyce, the Labor MP for Falkirk, has been arrested after a fracas in a bar at the House of Commons, it is understood.

(AFP)

played photos showing the walls of The Cambridge Union Society defaced with messages including “DSK GO AWAY” and “WOMEN DESERVE BETTER.” Strauss-Kahn was scheduled to speak at the society later Friday despite protesters’ calls for the event to be canceled.

Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the IMF after allegations last May that he sexually assaulted New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. Prosecutors later dropped criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn, but Diallo has brought a civil case against him.

Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, was scheduled to speak on Diallo’s behalf at a rival event Friday. A statement posted Friday on the debating union’s website states that the invitation was made before Strauss-Kahn’s controversial departure from the IMF. -Agencies

Afghanistan, US sign prison transfer deal

KABUL: The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on the transfer of a major US-run detention center to Afghan authorities on Friday, improving the prospects of a strategic partnership allowing long-term American involvement in the country.

The Strategic Partnership Agreement, which Washington and Kabul have been discussing for over a year, will be the framework for US involvement in Afghanistan beyond 2014, when the last foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan.

Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, who signed the deal to hand over the prison at Bagram airbase, said an Afghan general would soon be appointed to take charge of the facility. The transfer would be completed in about six months. “The signing of this memorandum is an important step forward in our Strategic Partnership negotiations ... ,” said General John Allen, commander of the United States forces in Afghanistan, at the ceremony.

“It is yet another example of the progress of transition, and our efforts to ensure that Afghanistan can never again be a safe haven for terrorists.”

Ties between Washington and Kabul have been heavily strained for weeks after large numbers of copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, were burned at Bagram by US soldiers.

Widespread protests erupted in which 30 people were killed. Afghan forces turned their weapons on US soldiers, killing six.

Afghanistan wants the United States and NATO to agree to stop carrying out night raids on Afghan homes as a precondition for signing an agreement with Washington and a timeline to assume control over detention centers.

A senior Afghan official said earlier this week that the transfer of the Bagram detention centre would be a first step to handing over all US-managed prisons.

The Obama administration has been hoping it can conclude a partnership agreement before a meeting of NATO leaders in Chicago in May. While the document would not nail down details, it is expected to contain an agreement in principle to some sort of long-term US military presence in Afghanistan.

A failure to broker a deal might strain US-Afghan relations and increase the chances of prolonged instability in Afghanistan. -Reuters

RUILI: Myanmar government peace negotiators reopened talks with Kachin rebels on in a bid to settle a stubborn conflict that could impact tentative Western efforts to lift sanctions on the country.

A government source with knowledge of the talks confirmed that a delegation from the Kachin Independence Army met negotiators in the Chinese border town of Ruili on Thursday to try to thrash out truce terms and end fighting that has displaced an estimated 50,000 people since June 2011.

A deal with the Kachins would clear a major hurdle for the new civilian government in its drive towards “everlasting peace” after decades of stop-start fighting in the ethnically diverse, resource-rich country. Western nations have made a successful peace process with separatist groups operating in the country one of their main demands for lifting sanctions.

Preliminary ceasefires have been reached with most of the 16 armed ethnic groups or political organizations that have responded to President Thein Sein’s appeal last August for all sides to start dialogue.

The government secured its 12th ceasefire on Wednesday with the Kayah Nationalities Progressive Party in Loikaw, the capital of eastern Kayah State, a mediator told the Reuters news agency.

The peace process has three stages; ceasefire, political negotiations, then a parliamentary conference to ratify agreements. The government has promised to resettle refugees and bring development and foreign investment to ethnically diverse areas.

The fighting in Kachin State is one of the biggest obstacles for the government’s ongoing reform drive. Thein Sein and the armed forces chief

Aung Thaung, leader of Myanmar government peace committee, talks during signing ceremony for peace agreement with Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) at Jin Cheng hotel in China’s Shwe-Li town, March.8, in China Myanmar border. (AP)

have instructed troops not to attack the Kachins, but fighting continues unabated and it is unclear which side is driving the conflict.

The main sticking point in the six previous rounds of talks has been the Kachins’ insistence that “self-determination” be part of the ceasefire agreement, but the government says the issue can only be discussed at the second stage of the process.

China returns 31 North Korean refugees

BEIJING: China has repatriated all 31 North Korean refugees it arrested last month despite international pressure against the move, activists said Friday, warning they could face severe punishment. Campaigners fear the refugees could suffer abuse or even face execution for fleeing the country during the mourning period for late leader Kim Jong-Il, who died late last year.

Do Hee-Yun, head of the Citizens’ Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, said the group of 31 people had been in three separate groups and were arrested in different places in China.

“They were returned to the North clandestinely over the past two weeks,” Do told AFP. “They are likely to be severely punished as they fled the North during the mourning period.” The North has been in mourning since Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack on Dec. 17. He was succeeded by his youngest son Kim Jong-Un. Rumors have been rife near the border that Jong-Un has issued a shoot-to-kill order against people attempting to cross the border during mourning and has also called for stern punishment for their relatives, Do said.

North Korea has in the past treated those who simply crossed the border to find food with relative leniency while punishing severely those who attempted to flee to the South, according to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity.

However, all fugitives are now treated as traitors worthy of severe retribution, the group of North Korean defectors based in Seoul said.

Seoul has repeatedly urged Beijing to treat fugitives from the North as refugees and not to repatriate them. China says they are economic migrants and not refugees deserving protection. The UN refugee agency urged Beijing not to send back the North Koreans. Rights watchdog Amnesty International says returnees are sent to labor camps where they are subject to torture.

US Representative Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, urged Washington to link treatment of refugees to its decision last week to deliver 240,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea. More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled to the South since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years. They typically escape on foot to China, hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in the South. -AFP

Kachin State is also of strategic importance to China and sustained conflict could impact its plans to use the region as a conduit in transporting energy to its southwest provinces. Construction of twin oil and gas pipeline from the Bay of Bengal, through Kachin State, to China’s Yunnan province is already underway and the region is home to several hydropower projects exporting electricity mainly to China. -AP

Embattled Chinese leadership contender defends policies

BEIJING: A Chinese politician whose ambitions for rising in the Communist Party leadership are under a cloud on Friday defended his goal of a return to Mao-inspired socialism and derided his foes after an aide triggered a political storm by fleeing to a US consulate.

Bo Xilai, the Communist Party head of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, told reporters that he was taken by surprise when the city’s vice mayor,Wang Lijun, fled to the consulate in nearby Chengdu city last month.

“I truly never expected that he would leave like this,” Bo told reporters, who pressed him about Wang’s mysterious flight during a gathering of Chongqing delegates attending China’s annual parliament meeting in Beijing.

“Wang Lijun is being investigated by the relevant central agencies,” he said. “When the results are concluded, they will be released to everyone.”

Leaders have assembled in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress session. But their traditional show of unity has been unsettled by speculation over whether Bo will be denied a spot in the next central leadership to be unveiled at the 18th Party Congress late this year. The telegenic Bo’s hopes for climbing from riverside Chongqing into the Communist Party elite Standing Committee took a blow when Wang fled to the consulate. Wang left the consulate after more than a day inside, led away by officials.

In his first questioning by media since Wang fled, Bo played down sug-

gestions that the episode could also bring him down.

“It seems that anywhere, no matter how well things are going, you need to exercise vigilance and prevent the unexpected from occurring,” said Bo, dressed in his usual dark blue suit and white shirt. He fended off questions about his own prospects, grimacing and rolling his eyes at repeated questions from Hong Kong and Western reporters about Wang.

“That’s totally a rumor, totally imaginary. There’s no such thing as a resignation,” he said when asked whether he had offered to quit. He also denied being questioned about the case.

Bo gave a combative defense of policies that have made Chongqing a controversial bastion of traditional “red” socialist culture and a model egalitarian economic development denounced by pro-free market critics. He suggested that unspecified enemies were vilifying both Chongqing and his family.

“If only a minority of people are wealthy, then we would be heading towards capitalism and we would have failed. If a new capitalist class emerges, then we’ll really have taken the wrong route,” said Bo, a former commerce minister, citing statistics indicating that China’s inequality is dangerously high.

He called “nonsense” reports, widely circulated on the Chinese internet, that his son, Bo Guagua, was seen driving around Beijing in a red Ferrari sports car. He said Guagua’s education at Oxford and Harvard was paid by scholarships. -Reuters

4

news in pics

Visitors experience a iglooshaped light art installation made of 250 polyethylene jerry cans titled Bibigloo by French artist BIBI at Singapore’s Marina Bay area on March 9, 2012.

More than 30 environmentally sustainable light art installations will brighten Singapore’s Marina Bay area as part of i Light Marina Bay 2012, Asia’s first and only sustainable light art festival, which will be held from March 9 till April 1, 2012. (AFP)

ALWATAN DAILY saturdAY, MARCH 10, 2012

Ninots (individual figures making up the scenes in the Fallas celebration) of Real Madrid football club coach Jose Mourinho and Barcelona football club assistant coach Tito Vilanova that will be set alight during the Fallas is on show on March 9,2012.

The Fallas will be burned in the streets of Valencia on March 19, 2012 as a tribute to Saint Joseph, the saint patron of the carpenters’ guild. (AFP)

A Sri Lankan child plays with a kite at the Galle Face promenade in Colombo on March 9, 2012. Galle Face, stretching along the coast in the financial area of the city is a popular recreation area. (AFP)

An ill boy lies on March 9, 2012 on a bench at Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi, where a nurses strike has brought operations at the facility almost to a halt. Kenya’s public hospitals face a potentially devastating health worker shortage after the government said Thursday it had fired 25,000 striking nurses. (AFP)

A visitor drinks coffee standing in front of a giant poster advertising Egypt at the ITB international tourism fair at the fairgrounds in Berlin on March 9, 2012. The ITB travel trade show, with 10,644 exhibitors from 187 countries, is due to run until March 11. (AFP)

A man reads newspapers’ headlines in Athens on March 9, 2012. Greece on Friday said it was 7 billion euros ($9.3 billion) short of a default-saving debt cut after a “historic” bond swap with private investors needed for an urgent eurozone bailout.

(AFP)

Men and women take part in “Huranga” at Dauji temple near the northern Indian city of Mathura March 9, 2012. Huranga is a game played between men and women a day after Holi, the festival of colors, during which men drench women with liquid colors and women tear off the clothes of the men. (Reuters)

The Light of Merlion projection by OCUBO of Portugal lights up the iconic statue during the i Light Marina Bay sustainable light art festival in Singapore March 9, 2012. The festival runs from March 9 to April 1. (Reuters)

IOM Signs MoU with USAID-Tijara to help Iraqi small businesses

saturdAY, march 10, 2012

BUSINESS

GENEVA: The international organization of migration IOM and USAID implementing partner USAID-Tijara have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate on private sector small business development in Iraq, with an emphasis on assisting vulnerable, conflict-affected groups.

The MoU aims to help small businesses through USAID-Tijara’s Iraqi Vulnerable Group Support Initiative (IVGSI) - a program that complements IOM’s Program for Human Security and Stabilization (PHSS) and Community Revitalization Program (CRP) livelihood initiatives in Iraq, said the IOM Spokesperson Chris Lom in a press briefing. “Under the agreement, IOM will identify and select from among its beneficiaries vulnerable people who want to expand their businesses through access to microfinance institutions, and refer them to USAID-Tijara, which will in turn help them to access credit under the IVGSI”, he explained. -KUNA

Kuwaiti oil prices rise $2.29 to $122.87 Oil dips as upbeat US jobs data lifts dollar

KUWAIT: The price of Kuwaiti crude rose by a significant 2.29 US dollars to $122.87 per barrel, the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said Friday.

Leading factors attributed to the rise include the fading fears on the Greek debt crisis and China’s decreasing inflation rate.

In more news, Brent oil prices fell on Friday after key US jobs data beat expectations, lifting the dollar broadly to multi-month highs against other currencies.

Brent crude was down 57 US cents to $124.77 a barrel by 1436 GMT. On a weekly basis, Brent is set to show a marginal gain and its sixth weekly rise in seven weeks.

US crude, which turned negative briefly, was up 10 cents at $106.68.

Data showed US employment grew solidly for a third straight month in February, a sign the economic recovery was broadening and in less need of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. Employers added 227,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, while the unemployment rate held at a three-year low of 8.3 percent - even as more people returned to the labor force.

Economists polled by Reuters expected payrolls to increase 210,000 last month and the jobless rate to be unchanged.

The dollar rose over one percent against the euro and to a 9-1/2 month high versus the yen.

“The fall could be linked to the weaker euro or to optimism about talks with Iran,” Christopher Bellew, a broker at Jefferies Bache, said.

“And the market has been very strong. So a bit of consolidation may be in order.”

Earlier on Friday, oil was supported by Greece’s bond swap deal to stave off default and by data from top energy consumer China showing that annual inflation had cooled to a 20-month low, giving policymakers room to ease monetary policy to support slowing growth.

An employee works inside a cotton processing unit at Kadi town, about 56 km (35 miles) north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad March 9, 2012. India will for the moment maintain a ban on cotton exports as government ministers failed to reach agreement on whether it should continue, Textile Secretary Kiran Dhingra said on Friday. (Reuters)

Reuters data shows Brent crude prices have risen about 17 percent so far this year and US crude has gained about eight percent, pushing up fuel prices across the world.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu repeated the Obama administration’s position that releasing crude oil from US reserves in an effort to bring down rising gasoline prices was still an “option on the table”.

Chu’s comment came although the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week that it saw no need to release oil stockpiles.

The IEA advises 28 industrialized nations and the United States is a member.

US trade deficit hits $52.6 billion in January

Iran

Six world powers demanded Iran keep its

WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit surged to the widest imbalance in more than three years in January as imports hit an all-time high, reflecting big demand for foreign-made cars, computers and food products.

US exports to Europe fell, raising concerns that the debt crisis in that region could dampen US economic growth. The January trade deficit widened to 52.6 billion US dollars, the biggest gap since October 2008, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Imports rose 2.1 percent to a record $233.4 billion. Exports were up a smaller 1.4 percent to $180.8 billion. Exports to Europe fell 7.5 percent.

Economists are looking for the deficit this year to widen from last year’s $560 billion imbalance, reflecting in part the economic woes in Europe, which represents about 20 percent of America’s export market. A wider deficit can depress economic growth because it usually means fewer export-related jobs.

A National Association for Business Economics forecasting panel has projected that the deficit for 2012 will narrow by 4.1 percent to $535.4 billion and will edge down further to $525 billion in 2013 as growth in exports keeps pace with import increases.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the final three months of 2011. For all of 2011, the economy expanded by just 1.7 percent, roughly half the rate in 2010. The NABE forecasting panel expects growth to improve to 2.3 percent this year and accelerate to 2.8 percent in 2013. In January, the politically sensitive deficit with China rose 12.5 percent to $26 billion. Last year, the deficit with China hit a record $295.5 billion, the highest deficit ever recorded with a single country.

At a time of high unemployment in the United States, political pressure is growing to impose economic sanctions on what critics see as China’s unfair trade practices such as a currency regime that keeps the yuan undervalued against the dollar, making Chinese goods cheaper in US markets and American products more expensive in China.

The deficit with the 27-nation European Union dropped 11.7 percent to $8.5 billion in January but that occurred because European imports fell 8.7 percent, offsetting a 7.5 percent drop in US exports to Europe.

Economists are worried that a severe recession in that region resulting from a prolonged debt crisis will crimp US exports.

The rise in imports in January reflected a 3.3 percent increase in petroleum imports to $39.1 billion and a 10.4 percent increase in imports of autos and auto parts, which hit an all-time high of $25.3 billion. Imports of capital goods such as computers and industrial machinery also hit a record at $44.7 billion.

Imports of food products also hit a record high of $9.6 billion with demand for foreign-produced fish, meat, bakery products and wine and beer all rising. The increase in exports reflected records in several categories with exports of US made cars and auto parts setting a record at $12.7 billion and exports of US made capital goods, a category that includes computers, aircraft and telecommunications equipment, setting a record at $43.2 billion. -AP

promise to let international inspectors visit a military installation, where the UN nuclear watchdog says explosives tests geared to developing atomic bombs may have taken place.

The joint call was an unusual show of unity among the powers on Iran before a planned revival of high-level talks as well as a sign of widening disquiet about the nature of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, while Israel has been threatening last-ditch military action.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed comments by US President Barack Obama about a diplomatic “window of opportunity” offered by the talks but said Washington’s simultaneous moves to “bring the Iranian people to their knees” with sanctions were driven by delusion. -Agencies

OPEC pumps record volumes despite demand worry CAPITALS: Europe’s debt crisis and an oil price rally are the biggest threats to global oil demand this year, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Friday, adding it was still pumping above its target despite a slide in Iranian production.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) retained its view that world oil demand will grow by 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, unchanged from last month, but warned the weak pace of growth in developed economies could crimp global appetite for oil.

“The weak pace of growth in the OECD economies is negatively affecting oil demand and imposing a high range of uncertainty on potential consumption growth”, OPEC said in its monthly report.

“Although US economic data points toward a better performance, the situation in Europe along with higher oil prices has resulted in considerable uncertainties on the future oil demand for the remainder of the year.”

OPEC, the source of more than a third of the world’s oil, cut its forecasts for world oil demand growth last month on fears a struggling economic recovery in developed economies could offset strong demand from China and India.

Brent oil prices have risen by more than 16 percent in the year to date as tensions between Iran and the West over nuclear policy escalate, reaching all time highs in euros of 93 euros per barrel in late February to pose a new headache for cash-strapped consumers in Europe.

In the United States, the Republican party has turned high gasoline prices into a hot debate for incumbent Barack Obama’s presidential race.

The US Energy Information Administration, one of the three most closely watched in the industry, cut its 2012 world oil demand growth forecast by

260,000 bpd to 1.06 million bpd earlier this month. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which provides energy advice to 28 industrialized countries, will be also closely eyed for signs of potential demand weakness when it is released next week. In the environment of high oil prices, OPEC production rose by 140,000 bpd in February to 30.97 million bpd, according to secondary sources, and exceeding its own self-imposed target by 970,000 bpd. It was the highest production since November 2008.

Destabilizing effects

Production from non-OPEC countries should increase by 600,000 bpd this year, down 130,000 bpd from the previous month, OPEC said due to revisions in forecasts from Syria, the former Sudanand Yemen.

In addition to these supply disruptions, a coordinated Western embargo that will hit Iranian crude from June has heated up prices, which OPEC says could ultimately boost countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and even Iran. “Heightened security concerns and possible disruptions to oil output could exert destabilizing effects on oil markets and increase oil price volatility,” OPEC said.

“Ironically, these developments might actually be positive for regional growth as they are likely to lead to higher international oil prices, boosting the fortunes of the GCC and even Iran,” it added.

The markets are eagerly watching for any signs of disruptions from the upcoming tougher sanctions to Iranian oil production and exports but the Islamic republic said last month its output was stable at around 3.5 million bpd.

OPEC said Iranian production has however slightly fallen, down to 3.42 million bpd in February, compared with 3.46 million bpd in January and 3.53 million bpd in December. -Reuters

China says inflation slows to 3.2% in February CAPITALS: China’s inflation rate slowed sharply in February from the previous month, official data showed Friday, giving Beijing more room to loosen credit restrictions to boost flagging economic growth.

The consumer price index rose 3.2 percent in February - the lowest since June 2010 - compared with 4.5 percent in January, when spending before the Chinese New Year holiday drove up retail prices.

Before January, inflation had eased for five straight months after hitting a more than three-year high of 6.5 percent in July and analysts had expected the downward trend to resume in February as the economy continued to slow.

Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking at the opening of the annual session of parliament on Monday, warned consumer prices remained high and the government’s aim was to keep the inflation rate within four percent this year.

His remarks suggest policymakers will be cautious in relaxing the tight credit restrictions imposed in the past two years to rein in soaring food and housing costs for fear of reigniting politically sensitive inflation.

The producer price index, which measures the cost of goods at the farm and factory gate and is a leading indicator of consumer prices, flatlined in February compared with a 0.1 percent increase in January.

Inflation has triggered social unrest in the past and senior leaders are anxious to keep prices of vegetables, meat and housing under control ahead of a once-a-decade power transition that begins later this year.

Beijing has twice lowered the banks’ reserve requirement ratio in the past three months, effectively increasing the amount of money they can lend, and analysts said they expect further such moves in the coming months.

But they ruled out aggressive interest rate cuts, especially against a backdrop of rising global oil prices, as they could fuel inflation in energy-guzzling China.

“We do not expect a big shift in policy settings in the near-term, with any move to ease liquidity conditions likely to take the form of further cuts in banks’ reserve requirements,” said Brian Jackson of Royal Bank of Canada.

JPMorgan expects the inflation rate to slow to 2.8 percent by the third quarter, giving the government “wider

Venders sell vegetables in a market on March 9, 2012 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.2 percent year on year in February. The growth falls to the lowest since June 2010. (AFP)

scope to implement selective policy easing measures to counter the downside risks to growth”.

China has cut its economic growth target to 7.5 percent this year from eight percent last year, in an official acknowledgement that the export-driven economy is slowing as Europe’s debt crisis and the sluggish recovery in the United States hurts demand for its products.

The Asian powerhouse expanded by 9.2 percent last year, slowing from a blistering 10.4 percent in 2010, as

global turbulence and efforts to tame high inflation put the brakes on growth. The downward trajectory in consumer prices means inflation “can be safely relegated from the top spot of government concerns” as Beijing turns its focus to boosting growth, said Alistair Thornton, an analyst at IHS Global Insight.

But he noted the “tricky” challenge facing policymakers as they try to ensure the economy expands at a fast pace while keeping prices under control. -AFP

Abu Dhabi sovereign fund looks to buy India property CAPITALS: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, plans to invest directly in Indian real estate in an effort to diversify from its current strategy of ploughing money into the country through realty or private equity funds, sources familiar with the matter said.

ADIA’s investments in Indian real estate to date total 400 million US dollars to $500 million, largely through property and private equity funds, and the fund is now scouting for direct investment opportunities, one of the sources said.

The sovereign fund, whose assets range from Citigroup bonds to a stake in Britain’s Gatwick airport, is close to hiring a country-dedicated fund manager from a large private equity firm to look for real estate opportunities in Asia’s third-largest economy, the sources said.

ADIA recently invested $50 million in an India-focused real estate private equity fund run by Red Fort Capital, one of the sources said. In January, Red Fort said it planned to raise $500 million for its second India-dedicated property fund, of which it had already raised $80 million.

Red Fort officials could not immediately be reached

for comment.

The sources did not give the name of the person ADIA is hiring and spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter has not been made public yet.

A spokesman for ADIA in Abu Dhabi declined to comment.

Large sovereign wealth funds including Singapore’s Government Investment Corp (GIC) are keen to invest in Indian property as the country’s cash-strapped developers seek funds to kickstart development and reduce debt.

Debt held by Indian developers hit 1.8 trillion rupees ($35.74 billion) as of September 2011, according to a report by Infrastructure Development Finance Corp.

International private equity firms, which have invested $13 billion in the Indian real estate sector since 2005, are expected to exit from up to five billion dollars of investments over the next couple of years, according to property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.

This will widen the funding gap for developers at a time when home sales are low and banks are cautious about lending to the sector.

GIC has been in talks with several Indian developers,

including oil-to-steel conglomerate Essar Group’s real estate arm, Equinox Realty, and developer Godrej Properties, to invest in their projects.

ADIA has expressed ‘keen interest’ in investing in the country, India’s Trade Ministry said in a statement in January, adding that it had agreed to speed up the creation of a joint working group to facilitate the fund’s investment.

Real estate investments constituted between five and 10 percent of ADIA’s overall global portfolio, according to its 2010 annual review. The real estate division is run by Bill Schwab, who joined the fund in 2009 from JPMorgan Chase.

North America and Europe accounted for a major chunk of the ADIA’s investments, with 60 percent to 85 percent poured into those regions. Emerging markets constituted about 15 percent.

The fund returned 7.6 percent on an annualized basis over a 20-year period as of Dec. 31, 2010, it said in its review.

While the ADIA does not disclose its net worth, analysts estimate its assets to range between $400-$600 billion. -Reuters

saturdAY, MARCH 10, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlight

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson says he has been told not to discuss potential candidates for the England coaching post if they are under contract at a Premier League side. Ferguson has described Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp as the ideal replacement for the departed Fabio Capello, who quit as coach last month. Ferguson says “the Premier League has written to me asking me not to talk about the England manager’s job. I don’t know why.”

League rules state club officials should not comment on other sides’ contracted employees. A number of other Premier League managers, including Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish and Newcastle’s Alan Pardew, have also backed Redknapp for England. -AP

FOOTBALL

City, United look to bounce back in Premier League LONDON: Outplayed and outfought in the Europa League, the two Manchester clubs must ensure there is no hangover when they resume their battle for the Premier League title with testing fixtures on Sunday.

Second-place United found itself in the unusual position of being utterly dominated at Old Trafford in a humbling 3-2 loss to Athletic Bilbao in the last-16 first leg on Thursday.

And while West Bromwich Albion may not provide quite the same challenge as Marcelo Bielsa’s slick team, the Midlanders are in good form having won their last three matches, most recently a 1-0 victory over Chelsea that ultimately cost Andre Villas-Boas his job.

West Brom was also the only team in the Premier League to avoid defeat at Old Trafford last season.

“We’ll be ready for Sunday,” United midfielder Michael Carrick said. “There’ll be no carryover from (Bilbao). We’ll regroup, gather ourselves again and we’ll go again. It’s a disappointment, but we’ll move on.”

Holding a two-point lead over United, Manchester City looks to rebound from a 1-0 loss at Sporting Lisbon when it visits Swansea, which has lost only two of its 13 home matches this season since being promoted.

City has won its last four league games but will be without one of its outstanding performers this season after center back Vincent Kompany injured his calf in Portugal.

Like Carrick, City manager Roberto Mancini doesn’t believe there will be any lasting impact of the loss in Europe.

“I am not worried,” the Italian coach said. “We will go through in the Europa League and Sunday will be a different game.”

It appears to be a two-horse race for the title after United beat Tottenham 3-1 last weekend to open up an 11-point advantage over Harry Redknapp’s third-place team.

After back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and then United, Spurs now face a trip to improving Everton on Saturday with just four points separating the team from fourth-place Arsenal.

Redknapp will have to cope without England internationals Aaron Lennon and Michael Dawson, who were injured in the midweek win over third-tier Stevenage in an FA Cup replay.

“Don’t get me wrong, we had some difficult

David Silva of Manchester City is tackled by Stijn Schaars of Sporting Lisbon during the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 between Manchester City and Sporting Lisbon, March 8, 2012. (AFP)

moments in the last two games but every team in the league will have those moments,” Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor said.

“We have to believe in ourselves, to keep going. We will win points, lose points, so will Arsenal, Chelsea, City and United. We have a big chance to finish in the top three and we have to keep going until the end of the season.”

Spurs will be looking over their shoulder at Arsenal, which has closed the gap with wins over its north London rival and Liverpool. Tuesday’s 3-0 win over AC Milan didn’t manage to secure Arsene Wenger’s team a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals but lifted morale even further.

“People don’t realize that we basically had half a squad at one stage and the team was just down to its bare bones,” Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs said. “Everybody has come together now and we have overcome a difficult period. We need to be consistent like this now for the rest of the season.”

Arsenal hosts Newcastle on Monday, with

fifth-place Chelsea at home to Stoke in Roberto Di Matteo’s first league game in charge since replacing Villas-Boas as manager on an interim basis.

Chelsea has won just one of its last six league games, allowing Arsenal to climb above them in the race for the fourth and final Champions League spot.

Sixth-place Newcastle, which is five points behind Arsenal, may still have designs on fourth but Liverpool’s hopes look doomed after defeat by Arsenal left it five points further back.

Liverpool could welcome back Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson from injury for the trip to Sunderland on Saturday.

The rest of the weekend’s games center on the relegation fight, where five teams are separated by two points.

Bottom team Wigan visits Norwich on Sunday, while second-last Bolton hosts Queens Park Rangers and third-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers is at home to Blackburn on Saturday. Fulham makes the trip to Aston Villa in the other game. -AP

Chelsea caretaker Di Matteo backs Torres to end goal drought LONDON: Chelsea’s interim manager Roberto Di Matteo backed beleaguered Spanish striker Fernando Torres on Friday to end a wretched goal drought stretching back 24 games to October.

“Torres is a tremendous team player, a fantastic guy and we value him very much,” Di Matteo told a news conference ahead of Saturday’s home game against Stoke City in the Premier League.

“He trains hard and he had a great game in my opinion on Tuesday night,” the Italian added in reference to the 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round replay win at second tier Birmingham City. The only thing he lacked was a goal but I don’t really care who scores the goals in my team. For me it’s about the team

ethic,” said Di Matteo.

“The goals will come for him. Everyone has moments when things don’t go as they want - it’s part of life.”

Di Matteo said he was not concerned that Torres appeared to turn down compatriot Juan Mata’s offer for him to take a second-half penalty against Birmingham.

“We’ve got designated penalty takers and it was Mata on Tuesday,” said the former Italy and Chelsea midfielder. “It was simple and Mata followed instructions.”

Di Matteo took over last Sunday when Portuguese Andre Villas-Boas was sacked after a se-

Chelsea’s Spanish forward Fernando Torres crosses the ball during the English FA Cup replay football match between Birmingham City and Chelsea, March 6, 2012.

(AFP)

Italian clubs debt rises again ROME: Italian clubs’ debt increased by 50 percent last season, according to an annual study published in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday.

Serie A clubs collectively lost 285 million euros in the 2010/11 season, up from 193 million euros in the previous campaign.

The primary guilty parties were the country’s three giants who together recorded losses of 252 million Euros.

Juventus led the way with a 95.4 million euro loss followed by Inter Milan (86.8m) and AC Milan (69.8m).

It’s a worrying trend for Italy’s top clubs with

UEFA’s new financial fairplay rules due to come into effect next season.

Juve could at least point to the construction of a new stadium for their losses but new rules regarding the sharing of television revenues will hurt the big three and benefit smaller clubs.

However, the biggest drain on resources is from player salaries, which account for 89 percent of Juve’s budget and similar figures for both Inter (88 percent) and Milan (85 percent).

Not all Italian teams are struggling in such a way, though, with some being particularly well run. One such is Cagliari who made a profit for the

quence of one victory in seven matches in all competitions.

Reports had been swirling in the media for several weeks about a rift between Villas-Boas and his players and the interim manager said he had spoken to the squad in a bid to get them all pulling in the same direction.

“I’ve had five long and busy days,” Di Matteo explained. “I’ve thrown myself into the job and I’ve just been trying to talk to all the players individually and get them on board. I feel I have everybody onside. I have spoken to almost all of the players because I believe this is a team effort.”

Asked if they were a difficult group to manage, Di Matteo replied: “Ask me again in a few weeks or a few months. I’ve been in charge for five days so I can’t answer that question yet”.

He said everyone had to take their share of the blame for Villas-Boas’s sacking.

“It has been a collective responsibility,” added Di Matteo. “We all know we are fifth in the table and we have obviously made mistakes. I know we are strong and we have a good team and we want to show we are better than where we are at the moment. We have to win games - it’s that simple. I don’t want to spend time discussing what went on earlier, I just want to look to the future. I’ve got two months to the end of the season to achieve our aims, our targets and this is what I’m going to put my energy into,” said Di Matteo.

Chelsea have a fully-fit squad to choose from against Stoke for only the second time this season.

Captain John Terry seems likely to be recalled in central defense after being sidelined for six weeks by a knee problem and left back Ashley Cole is ready to return after missing the win over Birmingham with an ankle injury. -Reuters

fifth year in a row.

Napoli, who are still in the Champions League this season, also proved that success does not necessarily have to come at a cost as they made a 4.2 million euro profit and kept player salaries down to just 42 percent of their budget.

Lazio and Udinese, both fighting for a top three finish this season and hence Champions League football in the next campaign, also made a profit.

One other club that did so was Palermo, however they were greatly helped by the 42 million euro sale of Javier Pastore to Paris St Germain.

-AFP

Prandelli says it’s time for Balotelli to behave

ROME: Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has hit out at temperamental striker Mario Balotelli, telling him it’s time to put his money where his mouth is. The Manchester City starlet was fined one week’s wages this week following his latest indiscretion in which he was photographed outside a strip club two nights before a game, breaking club rules.

He was also dropped for the last Italy match, a 1-0 friendly defeat at home to the United States, for disciplinary measures as he was serving a club suspension for having kicked Tottenham’s Scott Parker in the head.

The 21-year gave a recent interview on the BBC in which he said he agrees that he needs to mature but that he is still young. But Prandelli says words are not enough.

“I know he wants to be an integral part of this group but now he has to move on from saying to doing,” he said. “We need to grow together, he doesn’t have to resolve his problems on his own but he just needs to ask for help.”

Prandelli’s choice to drop the talented Balotelli for the US game was even more damaging given that first choice strike pair Antonio Cassano and Giuseppe Rossi are both injured. And Prandelli acknowledges that without his top players Italy will struggle at June’s European Championships.

“With 90 days to go before the Euros we need to get some players back because the last few matches have shown that we have problems without those important players,” he added. -AFP

Bayern boss Heynckes intends to see out contract MUNICH, Germany: Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes has said he intends to see out the 15 months left on his contract, despite media reports claiming he is set to quit at the end of the season.

“I have a contract here and I am working on the assumption I will see it out,” said the 66-year-old, who has a deal in Munich until June 2013.

Bayern said Wednesday they are looking at their legal options after German daily Bild reported he is set to leave in May, but Heynckes said he is ignoring any negative reports.

“They don’t bother me, they don’t weigh me down,” he insisted.

With two months and ten games left this season, second-placed Bayern are seven points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund in the German league.

They must also overturn a 1-0 deficit against FC Basel on Tuesday to reach the last eight of the Champions League in the home leg of their Round of 16 clash.

Bayern’s fortunes have taken a nosedive since Christmas with just four wins in their last nine games and Heynckes admits it is an “unsatisfactory situation”.

“I am energetic and feel relaxed. I

carry out my job with a passion. I know that we can turn the tide,” he said ahead of Saturday’s Bundesliga clash at home to Hoffenheim.

Bayern were beaten 2-0 at Leverkusen last Saturday, but Heynckes says after a week of good training his team will perform at Munich’s Allianz Arena both on Saturday against Hoffenheim and next Tuesday against Basel.

“We have had a very good mood in training which we will show on Saturday and Tuesday,” he said. “I am convinced we know how to win and deal with the pressure.”

Even though his side are lagging behind Dortmund in the league, Heynckes said his team still have everything to play for.

“We haven’t written anything off, has the title been decided after only 24 games? “It will be settled at the end of the season.”

Heynckes’ hopes of improving Bayern’s fortunes received a boost on Wednesday when Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger returned to training after tearing ankle ligaments at the start of February. -AFP

FILE - Head coach Jupp Heynckes of Muenchen walks along the pitch prior to the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern Muenchen and FC Schalke 04 at Allianz Arena, Feb. 26, 2012. (AFP)

Enrique hoping for long Roma stay

MILAN: Luis Enrique is hoping for a long stay with Roma despite his contract running out at the end of next season.

The Spaniard is under pressure at the capital club following last week’s derby defeat to Lazio, and the sixth-placed giallorossi face a tough trip to Palermo on Saturday as they try to break into a European qualification position. But despite criticism from local press, the coach is looking to the long term.

“I’ll stay until 2013 at least but then who knows, maybe you’ll have to put up with me for four or five years,” he told reporters. “When the club no longer thinks I’m the right person then that will be my last day but as long as the club and fans have faith in me...”

However, the former Barcelona reserve team boss acknowledged that things have not been easy since the 2-1 home reverse against Lazio.

“Mentally, this has been a difficult week for my players because we have to recover from a painful defeat,” he added. “Hence tomorrow’s game in Sicily will also be tough from that perspective as well as the fact Palermo are doing very well. They’ve got an excellent squad especially up front with players such as (Fabrizio) Miccoli, (Igor) Budan and (Josip) Ilicic. They’re particularly good on the counter-attack. It will be an important game for us to evaluate our future but from my perspective I’m expecting the wheel to turn.” -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

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saturdAY, MARCH 10, 2012

Cricket

7

basketball

LeBron Dravid calls time on international career shrugs off growing MVP chatter MUMBAI: India batting great and former skipper Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from international cricket on Friday, saying it was the right time to “move on” and make way for the next generation of players.

The 39-year-old second highest run scorer in test history announced his decision at a news conference in Bangalore with Indian cricket board (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan and former India leg spinner Anil Kumble also in attendance.

Dravid has scored 13,288 runs in 164 tests, including 36 hundreds, and became the first of India’s senior batsmen to retire from the longer format after the team slumped to eight consecutive test defeats away from home.

“I would like to announce my retirement from international and domestic first-class cricket,” a sombrelooking Dravid read from a prepared statement, confirming what many observers had expected when the news conference was arranged on Thursday.

“It has been 16 years since I played my first test for India. I feel its time for me to move on. I have had a wonderful time but now it’s time for a new generation of young players to make their own history and to take the Indian cricket team even further.”

Flanked by Srinivasan and former India captain Kumble, who is now president of the Karnataka state cricket association, the father of two said he would now look forward to spending more time with his family.

Critics and disgruntled fans had called for Dravid and Vangipurappu Laxman (37) to make way for new blood after India were whitewashed 4-0 in their last two away series in England and Australia.

The third member of the ‘Big Three’ Sachin Tendulkar (38) has struggled for form since reaching his 99th international century a year ago and at 38, could soon be expected to limit his participation to test matches only.

Last year, Dravid retired from the limited-over’s formats of the game after India’s disastrous tour of England, where the team failed to win a single match.

The stylish right-hander, one of cricket’s most technically sound batsmen, also has 12 hundreds in one-

FILE - Rahul Dravid of India walks to the pavilion after scoring 117 runs during the second Npower Test match between England and India at Trent Bridge on July 30, 2011. (AFP)

day internationals and while he will be unable to add to that tally, cricket fans will still be able to see him play in the shortest format.

Dravid will continue to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament, where he will lead the Rajasthan Royals, replacing the retired Shane Warne as captain of the franchise. -Reuters

formula one

Vettel aims to join trio of F1 greats F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel speaks to the media during a test session at the Montmelo racetrack near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 4, 2012.

(AP)

LONDON: Sebastian Vettel will have to be the best of the best if he is to join Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the only drivers to have won three successive Formula One titles.

Kimi Raikkonen’s comeback with Lotus means that, for the first time, six world champions will line up together on the grid in Australia next week to start what will also be the most gruelling of seasons with a record 20 races. Bahrain is back after last year’s cancellation due to violent civil unrest while Austin, Texas, makes its debut on the calendar in a long-awaited return for the United States after a five-year absence.

Vettel, the youngest double champion at 24, won 11 of last year’s 19 races as his Red Bull team chalked up their second constructors’ crown in a row but the German cannot expect such domination again.

Even if pre-season testing can be hard to read, with Melbourne the moment when the flag drops and the pretence stops, the signs are Red Bull’s rivals have closed what was at times a gaping chasm between them.

Ferrari may be struggling to extract the maximum performance from their car, one of the ugliest they have unveiled with its step-nosed solution to new regulations, but they can be counted on to sort it out while McLaren, Mercedes and Lotus (formerly Renault) have looked quick and reliable.

Apart from Vettel, Schumacher and 2007 champion Raikkonen, the list includes the McLaren duo of 2008

title holder Lewis Hamilton, 2009 winner Jenson Button and Ferrari’s double champion Fernando Alonso.

Only Schumacher, winner of five titles in a row with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004, and the late great Argentine Fangio, who triumphed four times in succession between 1954 and 1957, have managed to extend their reigns into a third consecutive year.

Button, runner-up in 2011 and the first team mate to beat Hamilton over the course of a championship, could be one to watch. Webber struggled to master the new Pirelli tires early on last year but won the final race in Brazil and will be giving this season his best shot knowing he might not be around for much longer.

The midfield also looks tighter than ever, with Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso all putting in the laps in testing and extracting encouraging times. Former champions Williams, who endured their worst season in 2011 with just five points, have rung the changes and have a new Renault engine while Malaysian-owned Caterham, formerly Team Lotus, are poised to make a big step up and score their first point.

Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of triple champion Ayrton, replaces compatriot Barrichello at Williams while Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg returns to the grid as a Force India driver after a year as reserve. Trulli’s departure means there are no Italians starting the season for the first time since 1970 but all that matters in Maranello is that Ferrari should come good. -Reuters

Hamilton makes Monaco a home race LONDON: Lewis Hamilton has made his move before the start of the Formula One season and can now call Monaco a home race as well as his favorite grand prix. McLaren’s 2008 world champion has left Switzerland, his home for the past few years, for a new base in the Mediterranean principality where he will have several F1 drivers as neighbors. Hamilton limbered up for the season, which starts in Melbourne next week, by driving reporters around a track in southern England in McLaren’s fearsome MP4-12C GT3 race-spec sportscar. He looked sharp, hungry to be back behind the wheel and determined to focus on the future. The championship opens with four long-haul races but the Briton, who had a nightmare season last year while trying to keep alive a transatlantic relationship with American singer Nicole Scherzinger, intends to be more settled in 2012. He said he now planned to spend much more of his time at home when in Europe.

Hamilton won three races last year but ended up beaten overall by team mate Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, in a championship dominated by Red

Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Testing times can be misleading but the title battle already looks like being much tighter with McLaren, who were playing catch-up this time last year, looking quick and tipped to take the battle to Red Bull right from the start. Hamilton was clearly pleased with how the winter tests in Spain had gone.

“I kept a nice amount of fuel in the car for all of my tests. I wasn’t really bothered with positioning. What matters is when we get to the first race,” he smiled. “It looks like it could be a bit different to the past couple of years where we’ve had the Red Bull just much quicker than everyone else.

The Lotus looks like it can be really quick, a couple of the teams have different exhaust solutions. Us, Ferrari and Red Bull generally have a similar exhaust solution. The others, like the Lotus have a different solution, so do Mercedes and they still seem to be quick,” he added. “So it will be a battle as to which of those designs has the longest road of development, and how far ours can go.” -Reuters

MIAMI: James is a leading candidate to be the league’s MVP this season, an award that would be his for the third time in four years. He’s on pace to become one of the top 50 scorers in NBA history by early April, and is the only player in the league ranked among the top 25 in points, steals, rebounds and assists per game this season. But Wade thinks James shouldn’t just be in the MVP conversation-he’s advocating him for defensive player of the year as well.

“The guy guards any position and does it every night,” Wade said of James, who plays inside and on the perimeter at the offensive end. “I think he should be in the discussion for that.” Case in point, the way the Heat closed out the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Asked if he’d rather win MVP again or defensive player of the year for the first time, James paused and thought for several seconds before answering. “It would mean a lot to be considered defensive player of the year-a lot,” James said. “I know how much I’ve put into it and I know I don’t get the 15 rebounds a game, the 13 rebounds a game, I don’t get the 3.5 blocks per game as well and I know that plays a big part in defensive player of the year. For me, I take just as much pride on defense as I do on offense. And that’s every night.”

Getting James to say even that much about any postseason award takes a bit of doing. Whenever Wade tries to engage James in MVP talk, it’s usually a onesided conversation. Even among friends, James doesn’t want to say much.

“He won’t talk about it,” Wade said.

“I bring it up and he says, `I don’t really care.’ But I want him to get it. I’ve never

FILE - Lebron James of the Miami Heat drives for a shot attempt against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2011 NBA Finals at American Airlines Center, June 9, 2011. (AFP)

played with someone who’s won MVP before. I want him to get it. I want to be at the press conference. I want to be there.”

James and the Heat are 30-9 this season, and he entered Thursday ranked third in the NBA in scoring (27.7), ninth in steals (1.8) and 14th in assists (6.7).

Using the formula known as PAR (points, assists and rebounds) James is having the best statistical season of anyone in the league, his nightly average of 42.8 better than Kevin Love (41.2), Kobe Bryant (39.3) and Kevin Durant (39.3).

There have been two games this season in which a player has posted at least

35 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and no turnovers. James has both, on consecutive nights earlier this month, no less. According to STATS LLC, there have only been 11 other such games in the last 25 seasons. And when adding in his five steals to a 38-point, 11-rebound, six-assist, noturnover night at Portland on March 1, that’s a game that hadn’t been duplicated since individual turnovers began being charted in 1977.

“For me, every time I step on the court I try to be the MVP for our team and that means doing it on both sides of the floor,” James added. -AP

Orlando rediscovers magic touch to tame Bulls

CHICAGO: Dwight Howard had 29 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Orlando Magic to a 99-94 win over the Bulls on Thursday, snapping Chicago’s eight-game winning streak. Chicago twice overcame double-digit deficits and led 91-89 with 2:56 to play after Derrick Rose passed to Carlos Boozer for a jumper.

Orlando responded with an 8-1 run started by Jameer Nelson’s lob to Howard for a dunk. Ryan Anderson hit a 3 and a pair of free throws in the game-deciding rally.

The Magic bounced back from a 100-84 loss at Charlotte, beating the league-best Bulls two nights after losing to the last-place Bobcats.

Boozer led the Bulls with 26 points. Rose added 17 points and nine assists, but shot just 6 for 22 from the field.

Jason Richardson scored 18 points and hit four 3-pointers for the Magic. Orlando hit 11 3-pointers.

Orlando led by 10 early in the fourth quarter before Chicago tied the game with a nine-point run. Boozer scored eight points in the first three minutes of the quarter.

The Magic jumped out to a 17-point lead in the first quar-

ter after a conventional three-point play finished by Howard capped an 11-point Orlando run. Orlando shot 15 for 20 and hit six 3-pointers in the opening period.

The Magic still led by 15 after Howard put in a lob from Hedo Turkoglu with 1:58 to go in the first half. Howard scored 19 points before the break.

Kyle Korver scored eight straight Chicago points to keep the Bulls in the game, then Chicago reeled off the last 10 points of the quarter to gain the momentum heading into the break.

Luol Deng hit a wide-open 3 after an offensive rebound

by Joakim Noah, cutting the Orlando lead to single digits for the first time since midway through the first quarter. Nelson threw away a pass and Rose hit a running 3 as the half expired, drawing Chicago within 57-52.

In the third quarter, Boozer capped an 8-2 run with a short jumper that gave Chicago its first lead of the game.

Orlando responded with a 13-4 run to end the quarter, the last six of its points coming on back-to-back Richardson 3-pointers. -AP

tennis

No fixation to end Djokovic dominance, says Nadal

INDIAN WELLS, California: Rafa Nadal has lost his last seven matches against world number one Novak Djokovic but the Spaniard denies that he has a burning obsession to beat the Serb.

The pair last met in January’s Australian Open final when Djokovic clinched the title for a third time with an epic 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 victory that lasted almost six hours.

While Nadal enjoys a 16-14 career advantage over the Serb, he has been beaten on all types of surfaces in their past seven encounters, all of them in finals.

“I say it always the same, I want to improve for me,” world number two Nadal told reporters on Thursday while preparing for the Indian Wells ATP tournament in the California desert.

“I don’t want to improve to beat Novak, to beat Roger (Federer) or to beat nobody. I try my best every day to improve my level of tennis, to be a better player year by year.

And if that’s enough to beat Novak, fantastic. If not, I’m going to keep working. When I wake up every morning and I go on court for practice, I don’t think about Novak. I think about the things I need to keep improving, I think about myself.”

Nadal, a 10-times grand slam champion, said he had maintained the same strategy throughout his career, both before and after he eclipsed Federer as the game’s top player.

“It’s worked well all this time, maybe now it’s not working any more as well but hopefully yes,” the Spanish left-hander added with a smile. “But that’s my way and that’s the way that my mind works.

FILE - Rafael Nadal of Spain (left) walks past Novak Djokovic of Serbia between games in the men’s final match on day 14 of the 2012 Australian Open tennis tournament, Jan. 30, 2012. (AFP)

I don’t have the spirit of revenge, I don’t have the spirit of obsession with another player. My spirit is to try and be a better player every day for myself. That’s my satisfaction.”

Asked whether he felt the sport’s number one player would always lift the game of his closest rivals, Nadal replied: “To have somebody in front always helps to have a reference in what you have to improve.

“When you are behind somebody, it is sometimes a little bit easier than when you are on the top. At the same time, I

prefer to be in front.”

While Djokovic clinched his fifth grand slam title at Melbourne Park in January to continue his recent domination over the Spaniard, Nadal was largely happy with how he had performed against the Serb. :I am happy with how I did and I am going to keep working hard every day to try to keep having chances to compete against everybody with good chances of success. The periods of victories for everybody have an end and that’s part of life.” -Reuters

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

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

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

25624000 22802555 1828282 1883883 25726666 22533177

Private Health Centers/ Clinics

Boushahri Clinic British Medical Center Care Clinic International Clinic

Public Hospitals

cons u l a tes

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

centr a l 4 7 2 2 0 0 0

94904040

hospital charges

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

23940600 24815000 24848067 22450080

1885544 23713100 22610666 25745111

Public Health Centers/ Clinics:

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

24832067 24883000 24840300 24575300 25312700 24840027 24874240

22447602 22545188 24726033 22611645 25750777 25524821 25723500 25610660 24848913 25336482

DOCTORS & DENTISTS

I N PR I VAT E PR AC T ICE

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

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

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

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

2565 0064 2533 3501

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

2572 8004 2532 9924

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

Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Adel Quttainah

2562 5030 / 60

Ministries

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

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2242 5141 2530 1000 2241 5301

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noodles Salmiya Tel: 25712233

Bukhara Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055

The Peacock Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000

Tourist Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22411702

Noodle Factory Avenues Tel: 24954751

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

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

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

Tel: 22997000

L I S T I N G S

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

Kuwait City Tel: 22400737

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

Sakura Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

AlRoshinah Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

Shogun The Palms Hotel Tel: 27070022

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

Manousha Salmiya Tel: 25722607 / 8

Al-Noukhaza Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

Fakhr Al-Din Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22423180

Villa Fairouz Shaab Tel: 22652030

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

Garden New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Yeldes Palace Kuwait City Tel: 22455212

Kabab-Ji Tel: 1861616

Zahrat Tunis Hawalli Tel: 22662444/333

Mais Al-Ghanim Kuwait City Tel: 22402590

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

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

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

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

Shabistan Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

The Gaucho Grill The Palms Hotel Tel: 25667370 -

• Seafood Al-Ahmadi Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

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

Al-Boom Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25756000

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

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

Flavors Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

• Italian Ciro’s Pomodoro Kuwait City Tel: 22424004

Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822

Te l : 1 8 3 9 0 9 0

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

HOTELS

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

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

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

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

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

22528766 22465489 22443136 22532100 25742410 25713872 22928080

TWO STAR International Hotel Kuwait Residence Hotel

25741788 22467560

LIFE

Protect yourself from heart disease

The most common type of heart disease occurs when fatty plaque deposits build up on the walls of vessels that carry oxygenated blood to the heart.

The womenshealth.gov website offers these suggestions to help lower your risk: • Keep cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure under control.

• Don’t smoke.

• Maintain a healthy body weight.

• Get plenty of regular exercise.

saturDAY, march 10, 2012

Solar storm shakes Earth magnetic field WASHINGTON: A solar storm shook the Earth’s magnetic field early Friday, but scientists said they had no reports of any problems with electrical systems.

After reports Thursday of the storm fizzling out, a surge of activity prompted space weather forecasters to issue alerts about changes in the magnetic field.

“We really haven’t had any reports from power system operators yet,” Rob Steenburgh, a space weather forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., said early Friday. “But sometimes they don’t come in until after the storm.”

He said the storm reached a moderate level late Thursday, before going to a strong level early Friday. For most of Thursday, it was rated as minor.

Scientists say such storms don’t pose a threat to people, just technology.

The space weather center’s website says a storm rated as strong could force corrections to voltage systems and trigger false alarms on some protection devices, as well as increase drag on satellites and affect their orientation.

The forecasters weren’t aware of any significant impact to electrical or technological systems, but said there was a two-hour blackout of high frequency radio communications - affecting mainly ham radio operations - stretching from eastern Africa to eastern Australia.

Steenburgh also said that there was another solar flare late Thursday, similar to the one a few days ago that set off the current storm.

“Right now we’re still analyzing when it will arrive” and how strong it could be, he said.

The space weather center had reports of Northern Lights across Canada and dipping into the northern tier of US states, Steenburgh said. While some experts thought the threat from the solar storm passed by earlier Thursday, the space weather center maintained the storm’s effects could continue through Friday morning.

The current storm, which started with a solar flare Tuesday evening, caused a stir Wednesday because forecasts were for a strong storm with the potential to knock electrical grids offline, mess with GPS and harm satellites. It even forced airlines to reroute a few flights on Thursday.

It was never seen as a threat to people, just technology, and teased skywatchers with the prospect of colorful North-

NASA video crushes 2012 Mayan Apocalypse claims

This handout image provided by NASA shows a solar flare heading toward Earth. (AP)

ern Lights dipping further south.

But when the storm finally arrived around 6 a.m. EST Thursday, after traveling at 2.7 million mph, it was more a magnetic breeze than a gale. The power stayed on. So did GPS and satellites. And the promise of auroras seemed to be more of a mirage.

Scientists initially figured the storm would be the worst since 2006, but now seems only as bad as ones a few months ago, said Joe Kunches, a scientist at the NOAA center. The

NEWYORK: Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have put out a new video to address false claims about the “Mayan apocalypse,” a non-event that some people believe will bring the world to an end on Dec. 21, reports SPACE. In the video, which was posted online Wednesday (Mar. 7), Don Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA/JPL, explains away many of the most frequently cited doomsday scenarios.

Addressing the belief that the calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilization comes to a sudden end in December 2012, and that this will coincide with a cataclysmic, worldending event, Yeomans said: “Their calendar does not end on December 21, 2012; it’s just the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new one. It’s just like on December 31, our calendar comes to an end, but a new calendar begins on January 1.” Yeomans also attempted to allay fears regarding potential causes of a Mayan apocalypse, including Nibiru, an imaginary planet that some people think is swinging in from the outer solar system just in time to collide with Earth in December.

“This enormous planet is supposed to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would have seen it long ago. And if it were invisible somehow, we would have seen the [gravitational] effects of this planet on neighboring planets. Thousands of astronomers who scan the sky on a daily basis have not seen this,” he said.

He added that there is zero possibility of a NASA coverup. “Can you imagine thousands of astronomers who observe the skies on a daily basis keeping the same secret from the public for several years?”

As for solar flares, Yeomans explained that these do exist - in fact, two massive solar flares erupted just days ago, sending bursts of solar radiation into space - but they are part of the sun’s normal 11-year cycle. Radiation from solar flares can damage orbiting satellites, but Earth’s magnetosphere shields its inhabitants from the blasts, and the flares are not a health concern.

“Then we have planetary alignments,” Yeomans said.

Some doomsayers believe the other planets and the sun will align with the Earth in December and cause catastrophic tidal effects. “Well, first of all, there are no planetary alignments in December of 2012, and even if there were, there are no tidal effects on the Earth as a result. The only two bodies in the solar system that can affect the Earth’s tides are the moon, which is very close, and the sun, which is massive and also fairly close. But the other planets have a negligible effect on the Earth.”

(Incidentally, it is perfectly normal for the sun and moon to align, bolstering each other’s gravitational pulls on Earth and generating higher-than-normal ocean tides. This happens twice each month.)

Addressing the claim that Earth’s axes are going to shift on Dec. 21, 2012, he said: “The rotation axis can’t shift because the orbit of the moon around the Earth stabilizes it and doesn’t allow it to shift.”

Yeomans noted that the magnetic field does shift every half-million years or so, but “there’s no evidence it’s going to happen in December, and even if it were to be shifting, it takes thousands of years to do so. And even if it did shift, it’s not going to cause a problem on the Earth apart from the fact that we’re going to have to recalibrate our compasses.”

Invoking the astronomer Carl Sagan’s famous maxim, he said: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Since the beginning of time there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we’re still here.”

strongest storm in recorded history was probably in 1859, he said.

“It’s not a terribly strong event. It’s a very interesting event,” Kunches said.

Forecasters can predict the speed a solar storm travels and its strength, but the north-south orientation is the wild card. This time it was a northern orientation, which is “pretty benign,” Kunches said.

Southern would have caused the most damaging tech-

nological disruption and biggest auroras.

On Thursday, North American utilities didn’t report any problems, said Kimberly Mielcarek, spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a consortium of electricity grid operators. Her office didn’t respond to a phone call early Friday.

Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, forecast to be strong and ending up minor, still may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.

The storm is part of the sun’s normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach a peak next year. Storms as large as the latest one will probably happen several more times as the cycle ramps up to that peak, scientists said.

The region of the sun that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. Another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth.

“This is a big sun spot group, particularly nasty,” NASA’s Hathaway said. “Things are really twisted up and mixed up.

It keeps flaring.”

Storms like this start with sun spots. First, there’s an initial solar flare of subatomic particles that resembles a filament coming out of the sun. That part usually reaches Earth only minutes after the initial burst, bringing radio and radiation disturbances. Next is the coronal mass ejection, which looks like a growing bubble and takes a couple days to reach Earth.

Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions.

In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.

For North America, the good part of a solar storm - the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights - was likely to peak Thursday evening. Auroras were likely to dip only as far south as the northern edges of the United States, Kunches said, but a full moon would make them harder to see.

Solar storms can bring additional radiation around the north and south poles - a risk that sometimes forces airlines to reroute flights. On Thursday, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines sent 11 flights to Asia on a more southern route rather than their more common path over the Arctic. Three American Airlines flights flew lower than normal over the northernmost parts of their routes to Japan and China. -AP

Entire Pacific nation could one day move to Fiji NEW YORK: Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji. Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could provide an insurance policy for Kiribati’s entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave. “We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it,” Tong said. “It wouldn’t be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won’t be a matter of choice.

It’s basically going to be a matter of survival.”

Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the International Date Line, has found itself at the leading edge of the debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.

Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the island’s underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly. Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters per year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Fiji, home to about 850,000 people, is about 1,400 miles south of Kiribati. But just what people there think about potentially providing a home for thousands of their neighbors remains unclear. Tong said he’s awaiting full parliamentary approval for the land purchase, which he expects in April, before discussing the plan formally with Fijian officials. Sharon Smith-Johns, a spokeswoman for the Fijian government, said several agencies are studying Kiribati’s plans and the government will release a formal statement next week. Kiribati, which was known as the Gilbert Islands when it was a British colony, has been an

independent nation since 1979.

Tong has been considering other unusual options to combat climate change, including shoring up some Kiribati islands with sea walls and even building a floating island. He said this week that the latter option would likely prove too expensive, but that he hopes reinforcing some islands will ensure that Kiribati continues to exist in some form even in a worst-case scenario. “We’re trying to secure the future of our people,” he said. “The international community needs to be addressing this problem more.” Tong said he hopes that the Fiji land will represent just one of several options for relocating people. He pointed out that the land is three times larger than the atoll of Tarawa, currently home to more than half of Kiribati’s population. Although like much of the Pacific, Kiribati is poor - its annual GDP per person is just $1,600 - Tong said the country has plenty of foreign reserves to draw from for the land purchase. The money, he said, comes from phosphate mining on the archipelago in the 1970s. -AP

Full Titanic site mapped for first time SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine: Researchers have pieced together what’s believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field and hope it will provide new clues about what exactly happened the night 100 years ago when the superliner hit an iceberg, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic and became a legend. Marks on the muddy ocean bottom suggest, for instance, that the stern rotated like a helicopter blade as the ship sank, rather than plunging straight down, researchers told The Associated Press this week. An expedition team used sonar imaging and more than 100,000 photos taken from underwater robots to create the map, which shows where hundreds of objects and pieces of the presumed-unsinkable vessel landed after striking an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people.

Explorers of the Titanic - which sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City have known for more than 25 years where the bow and stern landed after the vessel struck an iceberg. But previous maps of the floor around the wreckage were incomplete, said Parks Stephenson, a Titanic historian who consulted on the 2010 expedition. Studying the site with old maps was like trying to navigate a dark room with a weak flashlight. “With the sonar map, it’s like suddenly the entire room lit up and you can go from room to room with a magnifying glass and document it,” he said. “Nothing like this has ever been done for the Titanic site.”

The mapping took place in the summer of 2010 during an expedition to the Titanic led by RMS Titanic Inc., the legal custodian of the wreck, along with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and the Waitt Institute of La Jolla, California.

They were joined by other groups, as well as the cable History channel. Details on the new findings at the bottom of the ocean are not being revealed yet, but the network will air them in a two-hour documentary on April 15, exactly 100 years after the Titanic sank.

The expedition team ran two independently selfcontrolled robots known as autonomous underwater vehicles along the ocean bottom day and night. The torpedo-shaped AUVs surveyed the site with side-scan sonar, moving at a little more than 3 miles per hour as they traversed back and forth in a grid along the bottom, said Paul-Henry Nargeolet, the expedition’s co-leader with RMS Titanic Inc. Dave Gallo from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was the other co-leader.

The AUVs also took high-resolution photos - 130,000 of them in all - of a smaller 2-by-3-mile area where most of the debris was concentrated. The photos were stitched

This composite image, released by RMS Titanic Inc., and made from sonar and more than 100,000 photos taken in 2010 from by unmanned, underwater robots, shows a small portion of a comprehensive map of the 3-by-5mile debris field surrounding the stern of the Titanic on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. (AP)

together on a computer to provide a detailed photo mosaic of the debris. The result is a map that looks something like the moon’s surface showing debris scattered across the ocean floor well beyond the large bow and stern sections that rest about half a mile apart.

The map provides a forensic tool with which scientists can examine the wreck site much the way an airplane wreck would be investigated on land, Nargeolet said.

For instance, the evidence that the stern rotated is based on the marks on the ocean floor to its west and the fact that virtually all the debris is found to the east.

“When you look at the sonar map, you can see exactly what happened,” said Nargeolet, who has been on six Titanic expeditions, the first in 1987. “This is quite a significant map,” he said. “It’s quite a significant advance in the technology and the way it’s done.”

At Lone Wolf Documentary Group in South Portland, producers are putting the final touches on the History documentary. Rushmore DeNooyer, the co-producer and writer of the show, points out the different items on the

map, displayed on a screen.

They include a huge tangle of the remains of a deckhouse; a large chunk of the side of the ship measuring more than 60 feet long and weighing more than 40 tons; pieces of the ship’s bottom; and a hatch cover that blew off of the bow section as it crashed to the bottom. Other items include five of the ship’s huge boilers, a revolving door and even a lightning rod from a mast.

The layout of the wreck site and where the pieces landed provide new clues on exactly what happened.

Computer simulations will re-enact the sinking in reverse, bringing the wreckage debris back to the surface and reassembled. Some of those questions will be answered on the show, said Dirk Hoogstra, a senior vice president at History. He declined to say ahead of the show what new theories are being put forth on the sinking.

“We’ve got this vision of the entire wreck that no one has ever seen before,” he said. “Because we have, we’re going to be able to reconstruct exactly how the wreck happened. It’s groundbreaking, jaw-dropping stuff.” -AP

10

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

saturDAY, March 10, 2012

Afghanistan opens first women-only internet café KABUL: Afghanistan opened its first femaleonly internet cafe on Thursday, hoping to give women a chance to connect to the world without verbal and sexual harassment and free from the unwanted gazes of their countrymen.

Swarms of hijab-wearing young visitors poured into the small cafe on a quiet street in central Kabul on International Women’s Day in a country where women still face enormous struggles even though the Taliban were toppled over a decade ago.

“We wanted women to not be afraid, to create a safe place for women to use the internet,” said Aqlima Moradi, a 25-year-old medical student and member of Afghan activist group YoungWomen4Change, which set up the cafe.

Spray-painted in bright colors with smilies, birds and Facebook and Yahoo logos, the modest cafe was named after Sahar Gul, a 15-year-old Afghan girl who was brutally tortured last year by her in-laws for refusing to become a prostitute.

“There are a lot of Sahar Guls in Afghanistan.

There are women every day facing violence,” said Mohammad Jawad Alizada, 29, who oversaw the cafe’s creation and is a volunteer from the male advocacy wing of the group.

“For as long as I can remember, Afghan women have had no rights. She (Gul) is a brave girl who stood up for herself. It is her bravery and her courage that we want to honor here,” Alizada, who also works as a social research analyst at a US company in Kabul, told Reuters.

While Afghan women have gained back basic rights in education, voting and work since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, their future remains highly uncertain as Afghan and US officials seek to negotiate with the Taliban to ensure stability after foreign combat troops leave by end-2014.

At the net cafe’s opening, high school student Sana Seerat bemoaned the lack of attention given to women: “We never have things that are just for women, everything in Afghanistan is always for men. But we are the same, equal”.

Project manager Zainab Paiman applauded the cafe initiative, but said dividing the sexes could lead to further oppression of women. “We should work on harassment together. If we do things separately then we will have to continue this in future,” she said, sporting a polka dot headscarf and long floral skirt.

Organizers said a British charity donated the

Japan wants cuisine listed as UNESCO heritage FRANCE: Japan said Friday it was applying to UNESCO to have its cuisine listed as a global cultural treasure as part of a bid to restore global confidence in its food after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Tokyo is to ask the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural arm to register “Washoku: Traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese” as part of the intangible heritage of humanity, the foreign and agriculture ministryies said.

“Washoku” or the Japanese diet is traditionally based on rice, fish and vegetables, but the varied and highly seasonal cuisine of the country has won it plaudits around the world.

The government said washoku was characterized by respect for nature and the importance placed on the way in which dishes are served as well as the quality of ingredients used.

The nation also “needs to restore confidence in Japanese food, which has been adversely affected by rumors due to the nuclear accident” at Fukushima, the government said.

The accident sent poisonous radioactive particles into the air and water, blanketing crops grown near the power station and polluting waters where seafood is harvested.

A number of products were taken off shelves, with government bans on beef, milk, mushrooms and some green vegetables. Several countries banned the import of some Japanese produce amid fears for its safety.

Japan would apply for the listing “as a symbol of Japan’s reconstruction from the disaster,” the government said.

Sunday marks the first anniversary of the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami, which triggered meltdowns in reactors at Fukushima.

The application will be filed with UNESCO by the end of March, with a decision expected by late 2013.

Certain kinds of traditional theatre and music, as well as the gastronomy of France, are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. -AFP

Afghan women surf the net in the Sahar Gul net cafe, the first internet cafe for women, opened in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 8, 2012. (AFP)

cafe’s 15 used laptops, which sit on low wooden tables surrounded by cushions where women can sit and work for the reduced fee of 50 Afghanis ($1) an hour, much less than the rates in other net cafes.

Fundraising both at home and abroad secured the approximate $1,000 a month needed for the near future to run the cafe, purposely situated near a girls’ high school, although it hopes to become self-sustaining in the future.

Like other projects designed to help women in Afghanistan, from business to culture and education, there is fear of threats and violence from the Taliban, who banned women from most work and forbade them to leave their homes without a male relative.

“There will always be threats. We’re not going

to say we are not worried. But we can’t stop because of that,” Alizada said of the cafe, which has painted windows and is discreetly marked.

There is now concern among some Western officials, activists and female Afghan lawmakers that women’s rights in Afghanistan could be compromised under any power-sharing deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Activists were outraged this week when President Hamid Karzai backed recommendations from his powerful clerics, the Ulema Council, to segregate the sexes and allow husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances, reminiscent of Taliban rule.

“We were so shocked by this. Karzai is an educated man, he should know that men and women are equal,” said teenager Seerat. -AFP

World’s oldest Charles Dickens film discovered LONDON: An archivist at the British Film Institute has stumbled across a 1901 movie just one minute long which turns out to be the earliest surviving film featuring a character from the works of Charles Dickens, reports The Guardian.

Bryony Dixon was researching early films of China when she noticed an entry in a catalogue referring to The Death of Poor Joe, which she realized could refer to a character in Dickens’ Bleak House. Not expecting to find a film to match the

catalogue entry - most movies this old have not survived - Dixon says she was astonished to discover the film was actually in the BFI’s collection, albeit under a different title.

The discovery was announced on Friday, just over a month after the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth was celebrated around the world.

“It’s wonderful to have discovered such a rare and unique film so close to Dickens’ bicentennial,” Dixon said.

FILE-Actors Laura Bayley and Tom Green in “The Death of Poor Joe”, taken from the oldest surviving film based on the works of Charles Dickens. (Agencies)

“Not only does it survive but it is the world’s earliest Dickensian film! It looks beautiful and is in excellent condition.”

Before the BFI’s latest discovery, the earliest known Dickens film was Scrooge or Marley’s Ghost, released in November 1901. It remains the earliest direct adaptation.

The Death of Poor Joe has been identified as the work of British film pioneer G.A. Smith and is believed to have been filmed in Brighton some time before March 1901.

It depicts Dickens’ Jo, a poor street sweeper in Bleak House, at night against a churchyard wall freezing in the winter snow with his broom.

A watchman comes along and catches Jo just as he falls to the ground dying. The watchman tries to help but it is too late, and Jo puts his hands together in prayer, taking the lamp for heavenly light as he dies. According to the BFI, the short film may actually have been inspired not only by Dickens but also Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl in which a child dies in the snow while fantasizing about the warmth she needs.

In the film, Jo (spelled “Joe” in the catalogue) is played by a woman called Laura Bayley, who was G.A. Smith’s wife.

The film will be screened as a special addition to the program of Dickens: pre-1914 Short Films on March 9 and 23 at the BFI in London.

No Woman’s Land book details newswomen in warzones LONDON: Both male and female journalists face grave dangers working in conflict zones, but for women, working conditions are often more complex, according to a new book.

“No Woman’s Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters”, published by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), is comprised of 40 essays written by newswomen who describe some of the hardships they confront to report stories.

It also provides safety tips on how to cope - and survive -in dangerous environments. The book was inspired by Lara Logan, the CBS television correspondent who was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in February 2011, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.

“It is meant to examine what we can do, how we can prepare, what we should know before travelling as journalists into situations that can potentially take our lives, or wound us mortally, or deprive us of our dignity,” Logan writes.

According to accounts in the book, which was edited by Hannah Storm and Helena Williams, caution and preparatory research are of paramount importance to moving safely about in dangerous environments and gathering material for stories.

“In South Asia it’s often hard to report on the streets without drawing a

crowd, and until Lara Logan was attacked in Cairo, I used to dismiss the unabashed staring and constant brushing against my bum as annoyances,” writes an anonymous newswoman. “Now I’m more cautious, and try to always plan for a sharp exit if necessary.”

“We do our jobs because we love what we do,” she adds. “As a woman you are sometimes in a weaker, sometimes in a stronger, position, and you have to adjust accordingly and sometimes take more precautions.”

Sexual harassment and assault are on the agenda in a much more significant way since Logan spoke up about her experience, writes Lyse Doucet, a BBC correspondent and presenter, adding that it has made western female journalists working in Tahrir Square more cautious.

“Women journalists have started looking out for each other,” she writes.

Not only do newswomen in conflict zones face physical threats to their safety because of their gender, but they are at times underpaid, work without job security, improperly trained and outfitted with ill-fitting protective gear, according to the book.

Proceeds from “No Woman’s Land”, which launches on March 8, at Thomson Reuters in London where INSI is based, will go towards safety training for women journalists. -Reuters

Forget Boheme! Royal Opera showcases break dancing LONDON: It could have traditionalists gagging on their champagne, but the next production on the Royal Opera House’s main stage in the UK capital will feature a troupe of break dancers spinning and body-popping to the music.

“Miss Fortune”, a new work commissioned jointly by Covent Garden and the Bregenz Festival in Austria, is by British composer Judith Weir and transports an old Sicilian folk tale into the present day.

In the updated version, Tina, the Miss Fortune of the title, falls on hard times after she breaks away from her wealthy parents when they lose most of their riches.

She encounters gangs, a kebab van and a sweatshop before love and the lottery offer the possibility of a better life.

But it all depends on Fate, who pulls the strings with the help of a sinister group of young “enforcers” played by the Soul Mavericks dance troupe.

Ajay, one of six members of the award-winning

group taking part in the production, called the venture “untouched territory.

“At the end of the day it’s art, so everyone is going to have different opinions,” the 25-year-old told Reuters in between rehearsals at Covent Garden, the central London home of a Royal Opera House more used to ballet than break dancing.

“I really loved doing the show. It’s something completely different.”

Weir said the break dancers were not originally her idea, but were suggested to allow Fate to manipulate events on stage.

While the theme of losing and winning a fortune resonates with audiences today, the composer and librettist did not want her work to be seen as a social commentary.

“It’s not very interesting just to do this polarity between the filthy rich and the very poor, although we caricature those in a way in this piece, but there are also people in the middle,” Weir said.

The composer called the show a “lifetime mo-

ment” that was rare in a world where new works were few and far between. “The chances are so rare to do it, and the big question is how people build up their craft?

“There are a certain amount of opportunities to do smaller scale work and I think that can often be really great, but to have all the resources of one of the biggest opera houses, it really does not happen to people very often.”

Emma Bell, singing the lead role, stressed the importance of commissioning new music.

“I think that the way forward for opera is new work ... I think that it needs to move on from that place (familiar repertoire).”

Introducing new operas, and new ideas to old works, is fraught with difficulties, especially because the costs of staging an opera are high and audiences tend to flock to see “classic” productions.

Tickets sales for Miss Fortune, which opens on Monday, March 12, have been slower than hoped.

-Reuters

Educated women quit work as spouses earn more LONDON: Her professional pride propelled her early career as a lawyer. She was successful and well paid for it. She kept working when her first child was born and was promoted to a more senior position in Citibank after her second child arrived.

But her career eventually succumbed to something Mancini never expected would end her rise at the bank - her husband’s even bigger success. She quit in 2005 when her six-digit in-

come was overtaken by his seven-digit one.

“At that point, it was clear that my wage had become family pocket money. There was a real opportunity to do other things that did not require being chained to a desk,” said Mancini, now 50. She is far from alone, according to a new study from the Federal Reserve, due to be published shortly.

It shows that between 1993 and 2006, there was a decline in the workforce of 0.1 percent a

year on average in the number of college-educated women, with similarly educated spouses.

That contrasts with growth of 2.4 percent a year between 1976 and 1992. The result: the labor force in 2008 had 1.64 million fewer such women than if the growth rate had kept up its earlier trend, slightly more than 1 percent of the total workforce in that year. Once the 20072009 recession hit, the female retreat from the workforce halted for a couple of years: Women

A gold and citrine parure, circa 1830 in its original fitted tooled leather case is displayed at Sotheby’s auction house in London Friday March 9, 2012.

The set is comprised of a necklace, a pair of bracelets, pair of pendent earrings, three hair ornaments and a brooch with an estimated price of 20,000 - 30,000 British pounds ($31,590 - $47,391) with the sale to take place on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. (AP)

and men alike returned to the workforce when their spouses lost jobs or when their incomes fell, and also to make up for a loss in the value of housing and stocks. But as the economy stabilized in the past two years, there have been signs that the retreat has resumed, Albanesi said. Of all working-age women, 58.6 percent were either working or looking for a job in 2010, down from 59.2 percent in 2009. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expected the rate to

fall further by 2020. According to Albanesi, it’s not the tug of looking after young children that makes most educated women give up their career. “These women usually give up their jobs when their children are school-age and not babies any more,” Albanesi said. Studies by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard support that view. Only a few households can afford to give up a good second income. -Reuters

ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2012

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

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

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moderately confused

Unique cultural exhibition to open in Kuwait on March 15

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Amricani Cultural Center will be the destination for a unique cultural event held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Minister of Information and President of the National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters.

Taking place from March 15 to June 16 at the Amricani Cultural Center in Kuwait City, ‘The Golden Age of the Arab Sciences’ exhibition will present rare artifacts and texts, as well as informative audiovisual presentations, exploring the Arab world’s pioneering contribution to ancient science and philosophy. Hosted by Dar Al-Athar AlIslamiyyah (DAI), the exhibition is being brought to Kuwait by the Institut du Monde Arabe of Paris (IMA), with the support of Total and the French Embassy.

The three-month exhibition will feature priceless items from The Al-Sabah Collection of art from the Islamic world, the private art collection of Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and his wife, DAI director general and cofounder Sheikha Hussah Sabah AlSalem Al-Sabah.

Month a t

Sudoku

Elementary

Advanced

Intermediate

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

a glance

Quiz night for ladies March 14/ 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. / TIES Center: Ties Center Ladies Club invites all ladies to the educative and entertaining session. You can come with your family and enjoy the quiz night together. Refreshments will be provided. For more information/registration, contact 25231015/6 or 97228860/97793440.

New Toastmasters Club Second and fourth Tuesday/ 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. / Jabriya: A new Toastmasters Club is being formed and encouraging new members to join. Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development.

It is a non-profit international organization dedicated to improve member’s communication and leadership skills by attending and participating toastmasters meetings. For more information, please contact Khaled Al-Hashem at 65588824.

K’S PATH invites applicants for the adoption of pets Lana is a very affectionate and sweet female puppy of mixed breed. She was born in October 2011. Lana is a happy girl who loves to play and go for long walks. She will be a great addition to a family with children over 10 years of age.

Waist Watchers

Kuwaiti cuisine March 15-April 5/6 p.m. - 8 p.m./TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites you to our Kuwaiti cuisine classes which will start soon. Join us for a one month cooking program where you will learn to cook real Kuwaiti food. All ladies are invited to join our classes and let your family enjoy the mouth watering Kuwaiti cuisine. For more information/registration, contact 25231015/6.

Fiona is a beautiful female SemiLong Haired cat born in May 2008.

She loves being cuddled and a good belly rub! She enjoys being held and likes to play. Fiona would be a lovely new family member in a household with children over 5 years of age. To adopt, call (+965) 6700 1622.

Every Tuesday/ 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. / British Ladies Society: Meetings are based on the world’s most successful healthy eating plan. Weekly meetings include private weigh in, motivational talks, recipes to try, and cooking demonstrations.

Fee of KD 2.500 is required to cover for the cost of course material. For more info contact; Danielle desertdanny@hotmail.com.

Hip Hop at BAIA

Art exhibition March 5-15/ 7 p.m. / Dar Al Funoon: Mohammed Abou El Naga is a multidisciplinary visual artist, art professor, curator and developer. Throughout his colorful career, he created award winning art projects, fulfilled his responsibility towards his community and brought up new generation of young artists with his teaching, workshop and his multitude of practices.

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

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

Brainbang session October 7-April/ 11:45 a.m. -1:45 p.m. /Salmiya: BRAINBANG, the creative arm of Friends of CRY Club (FOCC) invites all students aged 11 and above, to join us fortnightly on Fridays.

The areas of development are: Creativity in learning, tools and techniques to empower your mind, profile based learning, activity, fun, games and worksheet based assignments, practical experiments, mind gymnastics and application of learning techniques to conventional study. E-mail: brainbang@focckwt.org or call 25660835/25618471/97677820.

Dilbert

Royal Thai Embassy The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait wishes to invite Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14.

EducationUSA Do you have questions regarding studying at a university in the US? AMIDEAST can help.

Please visit our EducationUSA Advising Center in Sharq, and attend one of our weekly free group advising sessions, held every Monday, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. For further information, visit: www.amideast.org, telephone us at 2247-0091, ext. 6819, or E-mail us at: kuwait@ amideast.org.

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

While you are Earthy by nature and enjoy physical passion, Aries, this might seem even more pronounced today. Racy novels and movies could be especially appealing.You may want to plan a romantic evening with a lover. If you don’t have one, don’t be surprised if an old friend suddenly looks very sexy! This is a great day to shop for clothes. You’re more likely to pick the most becoming items.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Your mind isn’t likely to be on the job today. That could cause a number of problems. You might be feeling especially romantic. You’re thinking about the evening when you can be alone with your romantic partner or at least luxuriate in racy novels or sexy movies. At lunch, buy some clothes you feel are especially flattering and then enjoy your evening!

Gemini: May 21- June 21

A renewed sense of physical vigor could have you plunging with determination into whatever projects you need to do today. However, your mind won’t really be on them, Gemini, as you could be feeling especially passionate now.Your own intellectual interests might be uppermost in your mind, right up there with sex and romance!

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

You’re in a romantic mood today, Cancer. You’re more likely to notice attractive strangers you pass on the street, and attract admiring glances from them! Racy novels and movies could seem more appealing than usual, and you might do some window-shopping for sensual products. This is definitely an evening to spend with that special person in your life.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

An evening at home with your sweetheart could seem very appealing today, Leo. Sex and romance are very much on your mind, and you might surprise yourself with how Earthy you feel. You could decide to pick up a romantic novel or see a sexy movie. You could learn to communicate better with your partner today, both verbally and physically. Make sure you look your best, and go for it!

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Communication with a significant other might hit a brick wall, and you may not be able to get through.

Money could be coming in the mail, Virgo, but probably won’t arrive today. This could be a day full of frustrations, but the evening should make up for it. Love and romance look great right now.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

You are passionate by nature, Libra, but the strength of your desires might surprise even you today.

You’re feeling especially romantic and even sexier than usual. You’ll want to spend time alone with your lover. Don’t be surprised if you attract admiring glances from others, even strangers. Communication on all levels should be clear and forthright. Enjoy a great evening!

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

Communications with family members and others should be clear, honest, and loving. Although your physical passions may be surging beneath the surface today, Scorpio, they’re still very much present.

You’re likely to be feeling particularly romantic, and might want to read racy novels or go to a sexy movie. This is the night to be alone with that special person. Make sure you look your best.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

A phone call from your sweetheart might bring out your passionate, romantic side today, Sagittarius.

You’ll probably have a lot to do, and therefore not be able to meet with him or her until late. All signs indicate that the encounter will be worth the wait. You should be especially attuned to your partner right now.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

As someone who tends to operate through your intellect, Capricorn, you might be surprised by the surge of romantic passion that comes your way at this time. For today at least, your values might shift from the intellectual to the physical. You’ll probably want to plan a romantic evening with someone special. You might even want to get out and spend some money on clothes. Enjoy your day.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

You’re a born romantic by nature, Aquarius, but today you’re likely to think more in terms of physical passion than idealized romance. You’re likely to be especially concerned with your appearance, and might want to go for a professional makeover or buy some new clothes. The color blue might seem especially appealing right now, but don’t forget to add some red for passion!

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

Even if you aren’t romantically involved, Pisces, you’re likely to feel especially passionate today and anxious to schedule an intimate evening with someone who’s caught your eye. You may not gallop off into the sunset right away, but you could dream of faraway lands. You might want to plan a trip.

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ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment

Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Killing Time Artist: MoZella Album: I Will Genre: Pop/Folk In short: MoZella’s debut studio album was very well-received by critics, with some going as far as calling her “One of the best things to come out of pop music this year.” Lack of proper marketing and radio support have kept MoZella a fairly oblivious name in the industry. One of the album’s standout tracks, “Killing Time”, shows a darker side of the singer-songwriter while questioning existence.

saturDAY, MARCH 10, 2012

Filmmaker Cameron plans world record 7-mile ocean dive WASHINGTON: A calm James Cameron has broken his own record with the world’s deepest solo submarine dive, plunging 5.1 miles in the Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea, the filmmaker said Thursday.

But that’s nothing. Later this month he says he plans to descend to the deepest place on Earth.

Cameron is aiming to plunge to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean, 200 miles southwest of Guam. It’s 6.8 miles deep.

Humans have been there only once before when a two-man US Navy team went for just 20 minutes in 1960.

The “Avatar” and “Titanic” filmmaker said he wasn’t frightened when he dove nearly that far in a practice run Wednesday that lasted 3.5 hours on the bottom.

“Certainly not nervous or scared during the dive,” Cameron told The Associated Press in a ship-to-shore phone interview. “You tend to be a little apprehensive

ahead of the dive about what could go wrong. When you are actually on the dive you have to trust the engineering was done right.”

Later, he acknowledged that the bonecrushing pressure at five miles and seven miles deep “is in the back of your mind.”

Cameron is using a one-man, 12-ton lime green sub that he helped design called DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. He is partnering with the National Geographic Society, where he is an explorer-in-residence.

“The deep trenches are the last unexplored frontier on our planet, with scientific riches enough to fill a hundred years of exploration,” Cameron said in an earlier statement.

Cameron, who has been an oceanography enthusiast since childhood, has made 72 deep-sea submersible dives, including 33 to the Titanic, the subject of his 1997 blockbuster. A 3-D version of “Titanic” comes out April 4, timed to the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. -AP

Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust immortalized on earthly plaque

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

The Buzz Taylor Swift is Billboard’s top money maker in ‘11 Taylor Swift is No. 1 again: The singer is the top act on Billboard’s “Money Makers” list. Swift earned more than $35 million in 2011, according to the Billboard list released Friday. U2 was second with $32 million. Kenny Chesney, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne rounded out the top 5. Artists’ rankings were based on US income sources from tours, albums sales and publishing royalties. Billboard said in a press release that it didn’t factor in “sponsorships, merchandise sales or synchronization deals.” Adele was tenth on the list. Though she canceled most of her US tour due to issues with her vocal cords, her album “21” sold more than 5 million units in 2011. Including sales from this year, “21” has sold nearly 8 million copies. -AP

Moonrise Kingdom opening Cannes Film Festival This year’s Cannes Film Festival is opening with a New England accent. Cannes organizers said Friday that American filmmaker Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” will kick off the 12-day festival. The movie, starring Bruce Willis and Bill Murray, portrays two young lovers who decide to run away. It was filmed in Rhode Island and is set in the 1960s in a small coastal town in New England. Anderson’s past films include “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which received an Oscar nomination in 2010 for best animated feature film. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti is president of the jury this year at Cannes. The festival runs May 16-May 27. -AP

John Abraham’s jail term suspended; out on bail John Abraham’s 15-day jail sentence for rash driving has been suspended by the Bombay High Court and he has been granted bail, the actor’s lawyer said on Friday. Abraham, 39, was briefly in court custody on Friday after a local court upheld an earlier order sentencing him to 15 days in jail in a case of rash and negligent driving. The actor crashed into two persons in a Mumbai suburb after his bike skidded in April 2006. “The court suspended his sentence and granted him bail,” Abraham’s lawyer Abad Ponda told Reuters over telephone. Abraham last appeared on screen in the 2011 film “Desi Boyz” and announced this week he was producing “Vicky Donor”, a film about infertility and the taboos attached to sperm donation. -Reuters

Actor Joy Mukherjee dies at 73 Veteran actor Joy Mukherjee, who charmed moviegoers with his boyish looks in the 1960s and 70s, died in Mumbai on Friday, hospital authorities said. Mukherjee, who was admitted to Lilavati hospital earlier this month, was known for his flamboyant dance moves and found success as a leading hero in several Bollywood romances. His credits included leading roles in “Love in Tokyo”, “Shagird” and “Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon”. Mukherjee’s pairing with Asha Parekh was quite popular. He is survived by his wife and son. -Reuters

Jeremy Rosado ejected

by Idol judges, leaving 12 Jeremy Rosado has gotten the hook on “American Idol.”

Thursday’s edition of the Fox singing contest saw the exit of the 19-year-old receptionist from Valrico, Fla. He left behind a dozen finalists still in the running. They include Elise Testone, a 28-year-old teacher from Charleston, S.C., whom the judges spared in favor of Rosado. The two were revealed as the female and male singers rated lowest by viewers after Wednesday’s show, and in a novel twist the judges were charged with deciding, on the spot, who would stay and who would go. Asked if America got it right putting those two at the bottom, judge Randy Jackson replied, “I don’t know if they got it exactly right, but probably, I’m thinking.” Among the other four who got the lowest viewer scores but, for now, remain safe: 25-year-old gentle giant Jermaine Jones, of Pine Hill, N.J.; soaring 16-year-old vocalist Shannon Magrane, of Tampa, Fla.; 26-year-old disc jockey Erika Van Pelt, of South Kingstown, R.I.; and booming 19-year-old student Joshua Ledet, of Westlake, La. On Wednesday’s show, all the guys had performed Stevie Wonder songs, while the female contestants paid tribute to Whitney Houston, who died last month. -AP

FILE-In this image released by the National Geographic Society, Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron emerges from the hatch of DEEPSEA CHALLENGER during testing of the submersible in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 28, 2012. (AFP)

Indian Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene (Left) poses with her waxworks model as she attends its unveiling at the Madame Tussauds Waxworks museum in central London on March 7, 2012. (AFP)

Vidya Balan wins National Award for The Dirty Picture

NEW DELHI: Actress Vidya Balan won her first national award on Wednesday in a rare triumph for Bollywood as regional cinema prevailed in key categories at the 59th National Film Awards.

The best actor honor went to Girish Kulkarni for “Deool” – a Marathi film that shared the top prize for best feature film with “Byari”, a movie in the Byari dialect spoken in parts of Karnataka.

Balan’s win for “The Dirty Picture”, based on the life of actress Silk Smitha, didn’t come as a surprise as she had won several Bollywood ‘best actress’ awards for her role in the 2011 film. “The Dirty Picture” also shared awards for make-up and costume design with the Marathi film “Balgandharva”. The Tamil-language “Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai” was declared the best popular film while Gurvinder Singh won the best director prize for the Punjabi film “Anhe Ghorey Da Daan”. The feature film awards were announced by jury chairperson Rohini Hattangady at a news conference on Wednesday.

Among the honors that came Bollywood’s way, “Chillar Party” walked away with three prizes: best original screenplay, best children’s film and a shared award for best child artist – with Partho Gupte also winning for “Stanley ka Dabba”. Shah Rukh Khan’s “Ra.One” won the national award for best special effects.

“Game” picked up two of the three awards for audiography while “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” won the third. Bosco and Caesar bagged the choreography award for the ‘Senorita’ song in “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”.

Onir’s “I Am” was adjudged the best Hindi film while Amitabh Bhattacharya won for the lyrics of the song “Agar zindagi” in “I Am”. The award for best film on social issues was shared by Ashvin Kumar for “Inshallah, Football” and Arun Chadha for “Mindscapes”. -Reuters

Hathaway, Sarandon, Winslet first audio book line releases

LOS ANGELES: Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon and Samuel L. Jackson will be available to read you a bedtime story tonight.

Hathaway, Winslet, Jackson and Sarandon are featured in the first string of releases in a new line of audio books from Audible.com, which brings celebrities and literary classics together for people who, for whatever reason, prefer others to do their reading for them.

In the initial installments – available Thursday – Hathaway tackles L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” while Jackson gives voice to Chester Himes’ “A Rage in Harlem.” Sarandon, meanwhile, takes on “The Member of the Wedding” by Carson McCullers, and Winslet breathes life into “Thérèse Raquin” by Émile Zola.

Future editions, to be released throughout the year, will feature Dustin Hoffman interpreting Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There,” Colin Firth reading “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene and Kim Basinger delivering Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening.” -Reuters

LONDON: When Ziggy Stardust touched down on earth he could scarcely imagine humanity lasting another five years, let alone the 40 years which have transformed the heart of central London. British singer David Bowie’s unique alien visitor persona, known for his glam makeup, fiery orange hair, and skintight jumpsuits, is being commemorated on Heddon Street in London’s trendiest shopping district to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of his album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.”

The Crown Estate, who own Regent Street and the surrounding area, are placing a plaque to commemorate the street corner location used to shoot the cover of Bowie’s famous 1972 album in a spot that has become a pilgrimage for his fans.

“It was cold and it rained and I felt like an actor,” Bowie recollected. “We did the photographs outside on a rainy night and then upstairs in the studio we did the Clockwork Orange look-a-likes that became the inner

album sleeve.” The cover depicts ‘Ziggy’ outside on a cold wet January night with his foot resting on a step outside 23 Heddon Street.

The late Brian Ward had rented a space upstairs in the building as a makeshift photographic studio, and had already shot 17 pictures when he persuaded Bowie to step outside onto Heddon Street.

The other band members thought it too cold and declined to join him for the picture.

Wearing the green jumpsuit that he later wore on the BBC 2 TV show ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’, Bowie posed for the photograph.

Bowie’s androgynous Ziggy Stardust was at the forefront of a vibrant 1970s glam rock scene, and his extreme aesthetics went on to influence glam metal bands of the 1980s as well as visual rock in 1990s Japan.

Whereas in 1972, Heddon Street was just a narrow alley, it has become a plaza full of restaurants in 2009 as part of Regent Street’s 750 million pound ($1.19 billion) regeneration by the Crown Estate. -Reuters