March 31,2012

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012

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Issue No. 1390

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Interpellations, ‘priorities’ to be raised in April Due to full agenda majority bloc to file several interpellations next month

Mohammad Al-Salman & Osama Al-Qatari Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Majority bloc’s agenda is becoming full with ‘priorities’. MPs representing the bloc have decided to meet and discuss these priorities as a wave of interpellations is expected to be filed pertaining several issues in April.

MP Musallam Al-Barrak said that he intends to grill Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali.

Similarly, his colleague MP Mohammad Hayef announced that he intends to hold a parliamentary interpellation against Minister of Al-Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Jamal Al-Shihab unless a decision to monitor husseiniyat, (Shiite religious centers) is made.

Meanwhile, sources close to the government informed Al Watan that it intends to complain to the Vice-President of the National Assembly on Sunday in a protocol meeting on its disillusionment over the previous parliamentary session during which the government felt that there was an unmistakable sectarian sense during the session.

The government will request from Vice-President of the National Assembly MP Khaled Al-Sultan to calm matters down and to keep the spirit of sectarianism at bay. Additionally, the government promised to push forward for National Unity draft bill.

As for the parliamentary interpellations expected to be made by MPs Al-Barrak and Hayef, sources affirmed that MP Hayef was approached

by the majority bloc MPs asking him to present his interpellation to them prior to any formal grill taking place. The MPs are keen to “keep the country away from descending into a sectarian strife”.

The majority MPs are keen to have access to Hayef’s interpellation because past experience have shown that individual grilling as in the case of MP Obeid Al-Wasmi’s interpellation against the Prime Minister can be unpredictable and therefore it would be advisable to partake the issue with the majority of MPs. Furthermore, MP Mohammad Hayef has already made a statement related to grilling the Minister of Al-Awqaf over the husseiniyat, something which had caused discomfort in certain quarters as it has a sectarian tinge.

It was not long when MP Saleh Ashour replied that the husseiniyats have been around in Kuwait for more than 300 years. MP Ashour pointed out that they have been constructed and built on private lands not on government’s lands and thus they are self-controlled.

He also expressed his surprise that MP Hayef should make such demand stressing that no complaints were ever made against them.

On the other hand, the majority MPs have expressed their desire to see the Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali resigning from his current post, as confirmed by MP Musallam Al-Barrak.

“Minister Al-Shamali is not perturbed by the current affairs and the repeated demands made by some for reform. He becomes an advocate of those

who are violating the laws and charged with corruption,” he said.

MP Al-Barrak went on to say that one of the topics in the parliamentary interpellation is the reduction of the government’s subsidy allotted for people with disability. MP Al-Barrak explained that the initial amount was 350 million Kuwaiti dinars but then suddenly was reduced to 86 million Kuwaiti dinars.

The MP further said that he seeks to confront the minister with other issues such as the issue of employment grading and increment. “I hope that the minister would not be evasive when the interpellation is ready so that the Kuwaiti public would realize our problem with the minister is not a personal one,” he remarked.

Egypt Islamist registers for election amid fanfare

CAIRO: Egyptian Islamist sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail kicked off his candidacy for the presidency on Friday with a large motorcade that headed to the electoral committee headquarters in Cairo.

Witnesses said dozens of vehicles packed with the ultra-conservative’s supporters left a mosque with the statutory 30,000 endorsements from citizens required to register as a candidate. Outside the mosque, they chanted “Look Obama, Sheikh Hazem is a knowledgeable cleric,” referring to US President

Barack Obama.

Abu Ismail, who advocates a strict interpretation of Islam similar to the one practised in Saudi Arabia, has become a familiar sight in Cairo, with his posters adorning many cars and micro buses.

The presidential election scheduled for May will mark the beginning of a handover of power by the ruling military to an elected civilian leader, following last year’s popular uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak. Abu Ismail will compete with more

Clashes as Palestinians mark ‘Land Day’

Members of the Hamas security forces prevent Palestinian protesters from reaching the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip, after a protest marking Land Day in Beit Hanun, on March 30, 2012. (AFP) More on 2

Sanctions loom in Mali, junta holds onto power

BAMAKO: The junior officer who grabbed power in a coup last week said Friday he plans to hold free elections and rapidly return Mali to its established order, falling short of demands by West African countries to hand power back to civilians in the next few days. Mali’s neighbors late Thursday gave the captain a 72-hour deadline to hand power back to civilians, or else face the closing of borders with landlocked Mali and the freezing of the country’s account with the regional central bank. If they go into effect, the measures will be among the toughest imposed on a state in West Africa, where coups are still a yearly occurrence.

Coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya

Sanogo told reporters Friday that he “understands” the position of the regional body, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. However, he said that he invites ECOWAS “to deepen their analysis of the situation in Mali. We ask them to analyze the reasons that led to this coup.” Sanogo grabbed power on March 21 after a mutiny at the military camp where he is based. The mutiny was sparked over the poor provisioning of soldiers sent to fight a nascent rebellion in the country’s north. Troops have been sent without enough equipment, and the junta claims that many were killed by the Tuareg separatists after running out of ammunition. -AP

Students display toy guns to symbolize a possible future full of armed violence if the government continue their alleged inaction towards irresponsible arms trade Friday, March 30, 2012 in front of Quiapo church in Manila, Philippines. The students asked the government to support a strong International Arms Trade Treaty. (AP)

moderate Islamist candidates as well as former regime figures such as Amr Mussa, an exforeign minister who headed the Arab League, and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

Islamists have made big strides since Mubarak’s ouster, winning majorities in elections to both houses of parliament.

The most powerful Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is considering going back on a decision not to field its own candidate for president and may nominate one of its leaders for the race. -AFP

France arrests suspected Islamists, Sarkozy eyes more raids

PARIS: French police commandos arrested 19 people suspected of radical Islamist activity in Friday morning raids in several cities including Toulouse, scene of the killings of seven people by an Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman earlier this month.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is waging an uphill battle for re-election, said more raids would follow.

“There will be further operations, allowing us to expel a number of people who have no business in the country,” he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio. Gunman Mohamed Merah was killed by police snipers just over a week ago after shooting dead three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in attacks around Toulouse, turning internal security into a bigger campaign issue ahead of the presidential election. Polls showed that more than 70 percent of voters approved of Sarkozy’s handling of the Toulouse shootings, which reduced his chief rival, Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, to the role of bystander ahead of the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. A police source said about 20 had been arrested in raids in Toulouse in the southwest, Nantes in western France and also in the Paris region and southeast France. Sarkozy put the number of arrests at 19.

Several television channels showed images of the early morning raids. Commandos were seen bashing down doors, smashing windows, and taking suspects away handcuffed and with their More on 3 faces covered.

Japan to lift entry ban on some Fukushima cities

TOKYO: Japan said on Friday it would lift entry bans on some cities in Fukushima prefecture that had been designated no-go zones due to their proximity to a nuclear power plant crippled by a powerful earthquake and tsunami last March.

After the natural disasters triggered the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl by causing nuclear fuel meltdowns at the Daiichi power plant in Fukushima, 240 km northeast of Tokyo, the government evacuated a 20 km radius of the complex, in which around 80,000 people lived. “We have decided to revise the restriction bans placed on the evacuation areas,” Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said at a nuclear disaster task force meeting.

From April, the government will lift entry bans on Tamura, Minami Soma and Kawauchi, three of the 11 cities and towns that fall within or straddle the 20 km radius.

This follows their declaration in December that the Daiichi plant was in cold shutdown and under control after months of cleanup efforts, signaling it was ready to move to a longer-term phase to eventually decommission the plant. After lifting the entry bans, the government will separate parts of Tamura, Minami Soma and Kawauchi into three categories, depending on radiation levels.

The government hopes that lifting the entry bans will speed up decontamination by allowing freer access.

In areas where annual radiation measurements are below 20 millisieverts per year, a government safety guideline, and residents will have free access to their homes during the day and will be allowed to return permanently at the earliest opportunity post-decontamination.

Where readings are between 20 to 50 millisieverts annually, evacuees will also have unrestricted access during the day although their permanent return will come later. In areas where measurements top 50 millisieverts, residents will not have free access and they will not be allowed to return for a minimum of five years.

The government is still in talks with the remaining eight cities over lifting the ban.

Even if residents are allowed to eventually return they will continue to live under the shadow of the devastated Daiichi plant, where it’s a huge and costly cleanup is expected to take several decades. -Reuters

A handout picture released by the General Committee of the Syrian Revolution on March 30, 2012 shows Syrian anti-regime protesters waving pro-Baath Syrian flags during a demonstration in Dael in the southern Syrian province of Daraa. International envoy Kofi Annan urged Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad to immediately implement a ceasefire, as fighting raged even after the embattled leader said he had accepted the peace plan. (AFP)

Mauritius president quits in row with Prime Minister

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Oldest animal-shaped structures discovered in Peru

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This handout picture released by the Police of the Graubuenden canton in Switzerland shows the wreckage of a bus partially covered by a landslide near Martina on March 30, 2012. One person was killed when a bus and a car were buried by a landslide in eastern Switzerland’s Graubunden, at a location close to the Austrian and Italian border, police said. The driver of the coach, who was the sole occupant, was killed in the accident which happened at around 1200 GMT while it was on the way to Livigno in Italy to pick up passengers. (AFP)

Brain images reveal surprisingly simple structure

NEW YORK: Stunning new visuals of the brain reveal a deceptively simple pattern of organization in the wiring of this complex organ according to LiveScience. Instead of nerve fibers travelling willy-nilly through the brain like spaghetti, as some imaging has suggested, the new portraits reveal two-dimensional sheets of parallel fibers crisscrossing other sheets at right angles in a grid like structure that folds and contorts with the convolutions of the brain.

This same pattern appeared in the brains of humans, rhesus monkeys, owl monkeys, marmosets and galagos, researchers report in the journal Science.

“The upshot is the fibers of the brain form a 3D grid and are organized in this exceptionally simple

way,” study leader Van Wedeen, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, told LiveScience. “This motif of crossing in three axes is the basic motif of brain tissue.”

The surface of the brain contains about 40 billion nerve cells, each making about 1,000 connections in a pattern that brain researchers have yet to decipher, said Marsel Mesulam, the director of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University. Mesulam, who was not involved in the study, called Wedeen’s work “very exciting.”

“There can be no more fundamental question in philosophy, in psychology,” Mesulam told LiveMore on 9 Science.

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saturdAY, march 31, 2012

Annan calls for ‘immediate’ Syria ceasefire

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz (right) and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton sit during a meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on March 30. Clinton discussed issues related to the Syrian crisis and other regional issues. (AFP)

Clinton in Saudi push to end crackdown in Damascus BEIRUT: Syrian artillery hit parts of Homs city and at least five people were killed in clashes around the country on Friday, opposition activists said, as peace envoy Kofi Annan urged President Bashar Al-Assad to order his troops stop shooting first.

“The deadline is now,” Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in Geneva. “We expect him to implement this plan immediately.”

Removing any ambiguity about the ceasefire terms of a six-point peace plan that Assad has said he accepts, Fawzi said it was up to the Syrian military to move first and show good faith by withdrawing tanks, big guns and troops from cities. The plan also requires lightly-armed rebels to stop shooting. But the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has not said whether it accepts Annan’s proposals and political opposition groups have not explicitly endorsed his call for a dialogue with Assad.

The Annan plan “specifically asks the government to withdraw its troops, to cease using heavy weapons in populated centers”, Fawzi said. “The very clear implication here is that the government must stop first and then discuss a cessation of hostilities with the other side and with the mediator.”

An activist calling himself Abu Mohammed said Annan, who is acting on behalf of the United Nations and Arab League, would “need to explain to the FSA what they want and what the conditions are and it will depend on the situation at the time”.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First we want to see that the bloodbath ends,” he said. If the UN plan is adopted and peace monitors are deployed, the opposition could protest peacefully and openly as Egyptians did during their revolt against Hosni Mubarak, he said. “But it’s not going to happen.”

Activists said government snipers killed two people in the cities of Idlib and Homs, two people were shot dead elsewhere and rebels killed a soldier when they attacked a checkpoint.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported

Eight die in Yemen violence SANA’A: Eight people, including five suspected Al-Qaeda members, were killed in an air strike and a shooting in Yemen on Friday, local officials and tribal sources said.

An official in Shabwa province in eastern Yemen said two drone attacks, apparently carried out by US forces, targeted AlQaeda suspects.

Five members of the Islamist group were killed when a missile slammed into their car in the town of Azzan, 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Ataq, the capital of Shabwa, he said.

Witnesses said the car burst into flames before other militants put out the fire and retrieved the bodies.

An official at Azzan hospital said six people in a car travelling in the opposite direction of the targeted vehicle were wounded, one of whom later died.

There were no immediate details on the other drone strike.

Elsewhere, two men, including an intelligence officer, were shot dead as they left a mosque in the southern port city of Aden, in an Al-Qaeda revenge attack, tribal sources said.

A member of the Assal tribe from Abyan province to which the victims belonged said the attack took place in the central district of Darim.

“Al-Qaeda wants revenge against our tribe for having driven them out of the town of Mudia,” he said.

A medic at the city’s Sadek hospital where the bodies were taken said the two men had been shot dead.

Al-Qaeda is strong in Abyan province, north of Aden, and has controlled its capital of Zinjibar since May 2011. But the Assal tribe drove them out of Mudia. -AFP

Fighting rages near key Sudan border village

KHARTOUM: Sudanese troops fought deadly battles with rebel fighters in the strategic village of Talodi, close to the border with the newly independent south, sources on both sides said on Friday. The clashes came as negotiators were finalizing the details of a joint UN, Arab League and African Union plan for aid to the area, where food shortages have sparked global concern.

Hollywood actor George Clooney, who recently visited the war zone, highlighted the issue earlier this month when he and several members of the US Congress were arrested outside the US embassy in Khartoum. They were calling for an end to a Sudanese offensive they fear will cause thousands to starve.

Sudan’s military said it repulsed the assault on Talodi by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), ethnic minority rebels formerly allied with the SPLM which is now the ruling party in the south.

The army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said he did not have immediate casualty figures. The SPLM-N said it killed more than 20 government troops.

“We lost four, and seven wounded” on the rebel side, said SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi. The figures were impossible to verify.

Lodi said that in fighting which began on Thursday and was continuing on Friday insurgents seized two Sudanese army outposts, Mafloa and Um Dual, which are several kilometers (miles) from Talodi.

“They are on the main logistics road from Talodi,” which is near a key junction between South Kordofan state capital Kadugli and the south.

Mafloa has changed hands before during the fighting which began in South Kordofan last June, Lodi added.

Army spokesman Saad said his forces do not maintain a troop presence in either place. “We only have patrols,” he said. Sudan has cited security concerns in placing tight restrictions on the operations of foreign relief agencies in South Kordofan and nearby Blue Nile state, where a similar conflict began late last year.

More than 360,000 people have been driven from their homes or suffered other severe effects from the fighting, according to the United Nations.

United States officials have warned that about 250,000 people could soon go hungry in the region.

Ethnic minority insurgents of the SPLM-N fought alongside the former rebels now ruling South Sudan, which became independent in July last year after an overwhelming vote for secession following Africa’s longest war.

Sudan has accused the south of supporting the SPLM-N, a charge denied by the government in Juba. Talodi is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the nearest point of the disputed border with South Sudan.

Northern and southern troops clashed last Monday and Tuesday in the Heglig oil-producing region, more than 100 kilometres (65 miles) southwest of Talodi, in the most serious violence between the two sides since the south’s independence.

The African Union is expected to lead crisis talks between senior envoys of the two nations in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, after the Heglig fighting sparked concern around the world and fears of a wider war. -AFP

UN and Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan meets Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad to call for immediate ceasefire.

(AP)

many wounded in fighting between troops and rebels in Idlib province. Clashes also erupted overnight in the towns of Harasta and Arbin after rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at a building, killing a soldier.

In Homs, Syria’s third city, residents said shells and mortar rounds struck anti-Assad areas as troops conducted raids. Tension rose in the Barzeh quarter of Damascus as security forces deployed and mobile phone connections went dead.

Assad’s strongest regional ally Iran said 12 Iranian citizens abducted “by Syrian opposition forces” had been released, including five engineers working for Syria’s power plant in Homs who were kidnapped in late December.

Iran’s state IRNA news agency said Syrian “armed gangs” had kidnapped dozens of pilgrims from Iran. In January, Syrian rebels released video footage of seven men they said were Iranian soldiers captured in Syria. The video’s authenticity could not be verified.

Iran is helping Syria beat Western sanctions by providing a tanker to ship Syrian oil to China, netting a potential $80 million. Iran, itself a target of Western sanctions, has promised to do all it can to support Assad, recently praising

his handling of the year-long uprising.

The United Nations says Assad’s forces have killed at least 9,000 people. The government says around 3,000 military and police members have been killed.

Along with Syria’s big-power ally Russia, China has also shielded Assad from foreign intervention, vetoing two Western-backed resolutions at the United Nations over the bloodshed.

China is not bound by Western sanctions against Syria.

In Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met King Abdullah on Friday in the Saudi capital, state news agency SPA said, as she kicked off a two-country tour aimed at raising pressure on the Syrian regime.

It said Defense Minister Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Foreign Minister Saudi Al-Faisal and the kingdom’s intelligence chief, Mogran bin Abdul Aziz, also took part in the meeting but gave no further details.

Clinton is due on Saturday to hold talks in Riyadh with ministers of Saudi Arabia’s five Gulf Arab neighbors - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - before broader meetings Sunday with Arab, Turkish and Western officials in Istanbul. -Agencies

Clashes as Palestinians mark ‘Land Day’ JERUSALEM: Clashes have broken out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces at the Qalandiya checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem amid ‘Land Day’ demonstrations. At least 121 people have been injured in clashes at the checkpoint, mostly from tear gas inhalation, according to medical sources and Al Jazeera’s correspondents in Qalandiya.

Four medical workers were reported to have been shot with rubber coated bullets and one car was set ablaze.

Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry reported that Israeli security forces tried to push hundreds of protesters back toward the nearby West Bank town of Ramallah, using water cannon and tear gas. Rocks were thrown, tires set alight and Red Crescent ambulances could be seen at the scene.

“This is a place where we frequently see clashes, and what we’re seeing here is the Israeli army needing to put a barrier up and not let people through,” our correspondent said. “These clashes seem to be a bit more fierce today, and have started earlier in the day than usual.”

Perry said hundreds of Israeli police had been deployed in occupied East Jerusalem and high levels of security were in place across the city.

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian organizer, said that activists from 82 countries were expected to participate in Land Day activities, which commemorate six Palestinian-Israelis killed by Israeli security forces in 1976 during protests over the confiscation of their land.

Mahmoud Aloul, a Palestinian leader in the occupied West Bank involved in preparations there, said demonstrations were also underway in Bethlehem, where at least six people were reported injured. Other events were held in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, were at least three people were said to have been wounded in clashes with the Israeli border police, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

A woman waves a Palestinian flag towards mounted Israeli police at the Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem during a Land Day protest. (AP)

Activists in Gaza planned to hold a demonstration about a kilometer from the Israeli border, but said they did not plan to move closer to minimize the chance of clashes. Supporters in neighboring countries also planned marches near the Israeli borders in a solidarity event dubbed a “Global March to Jerusalem”.

Israel on Thursday announced a general closure of the West Bank from late on Thursday until late on Friday “in accordance with security assessments”, while authorities have deployed thousands of troops and police across the country and along its borders.

Premier calls Arab summit ‘turning point’ for Iraq BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister on Friday praised this week’s Arab League summit in Baghdad as a turning point in the emerging relationship between Iraq and the Arab world. In a televised speech, Nouri Al-Maliki said that his government lived up to the technical, political and organizational challenges to hold the Arab summit, despite doubts that the war-battered country would be able to provide security and logistics for the 21 visiting delegations. “The summit results, in which Iraq and Arab countries have resumed relations, represents a new turning point in the relations among Arab countries,” he said.

Only half of the heads of states of Arab League members attended the summit, reflecting deep divisions between Shiite and Sunni Muslim nations. Most Sunni leaders stayed away from Baghdad, ruled now by AlMaliki’s Shiite-led coalition government.

Al-Maliki offered his apologies to Baghdad residents for the strict security lockdown that kept people from leaving their neighborhoods. Also, cellular phone service was

shut down across Baghdad for two days to keep insurgents from launching rockets with cell phone triggers. Al-Maliki said the tough measures “were necessary to secure Baghdad during the summit.” Insurgents threatened violence during the gathering, but no major attacks took place. Iraq’s top Shiite cleric also praised the summit and called for further action to reintegrate his country into the world community, his spokesman said.

Ahmed Al-Safi, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, said lifting old UN sanctions is essential for the country to gain full sovereignty. He spoke during a Friday sermon in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Through hosting the summit, Iraqi officials were seeking the support of Arab countries, especially Kuwait, to lift all the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of the tiny Gulf state by Iraq’s deposed dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Commenting on the summit in Baghdad, Al-Safi said the ayatollah is pleased Iraq is opening up to the Arab world. -AP

Yohanan Danino, the Israeli police chief, raised the nationwide level of alert “in order to handle any possible scenario, expected or not”.

Police were also expected to impose an age limit on worshippers attending the weekly Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city.

In a statement to mark the day, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Israel’s policy of denying access to land was “at the heart of the conflict”. Palestinians had a right to demonstrate peacefully and to demand “the fulfillment of their national and legal rights”, he said. -AP

Indian businessman mysteriously found dead in Muscat

MUSCAT: An Indian businessman has been mysteriously found dead in Muscat, the capital city of Oman. V.V. Vasudevan’s hands and legs were tied near his Land Cruiser vehicle in a yard behind one of his hardware shops in Al Hail suburb of Muscat.

According to his brother Vijayan, Vasudevan, a hardware and building material businessman, was last seen at 10:00 pm local time after he closed his shop. “In the evening one of the staff members called me that something was wrong, when I rushed here, I saw my brother’s body with his hands and legs tied,” Gulf News quoted Vasudevan, as saying. Apparently, Vasudevan, popularly known as Vasu, had five to six shops in al Khodh and Al Hail suburbs of Muscat. According to some of the eyewitnesses Vasu’s, 54, body bore marks of strangulation around his neck.

Vasu’s family landed in Muscat back from India, minutes after his body was found. (AFP)

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France arrests suspected Islamists, Sarkozy eyes more raids PARIS: French police commandos arrested 19 people suspected of radical Islamist activity in Friday morning raids in several cities including Toulouse, scene of the killings of seven people by an Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman earlier this month.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is waging an uphill battle for re-election, said more raids would follow.

“There will be further operations, allowing us to expel a number of people who have no business in the country,” he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio.

Gunman Mohamed Merah was killed by police snipers just over a week ago after shooting dead three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in attacks around Toulouse, turning internal security into a bigger campaign issue ahead of the presidential election.

Polls showed that more than 70 percent of voters approved of Sarkozy’s handling of the Toulouse shootings, which reduced his chief rival, Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, to the role of bystander ahead of the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.

A police source said about 20 had been arrested in raids in Toulouse in the southwest, Nantes in western France and also in the Paris region and southeast France. Sarkozy put the number of arrests at 19.

Several television channels showed images of the early morning raids. Commandos were seen bashing down doors, smashing windows, and taking suspects away with handcuffed and with their faces covered French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said five rifles, three Kalashnikovs, four automatic handguns and a bullet-proof vest had been

Paris Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur (left) and President of the French Muslim Council Mohamed Moussaoui (2nd right) arrive for a meeting with representatives of French Muslim Council at the Interior Ministry in Paris March 30. (Reuters)

found among other items.

“These are people who ... claimed they were acting for an extremely violent, jihadist and combat ideology,” Gueant told reporters after meeting Muslim associations in Paris.

“They had a paramilitary type of training,” he said without confirming if those arrested were preparing attacks.

The swoops, carried out by the RAID police commando unit and anti-terrorist specialists, were not directly related to Merah’s killing

Japan threatens to shoot down North Korean rocket

TOKYO: Japan’s defense minister has ordered missile units to intercept a rocket expected to be launched by North Korea next month if it flies over Japan.

The order from Naoki Tanaka came at a meeting of Japan’s national security council on Friday as North Korea continued preparations for the planned launch, which it says is to put a satellite into space for scientific purposes. Pyongyang says the launch will take place between April 12 and 16 to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the communist state’s founder, Kim Il-sung.

Images taken on Wednesday from a privately operated satellite appeared to show activity at the Tongchang-ri launch site on North Korea’s west coast. Japan, the United States and other countries say North Korea is also seeking to test the capabilities of its long-range missiles, in violation of international agreements. Japan’s order followed instructions issued earlier in the week for the military to prepare to intercept the rocket if it entered the country’s airspace.

The Unha-3 rocket is expected to fly past western Japan, raising concerns that a failed launch, or a falling stage of the rocket, could endanger Japanese lives or property. Osamu Fujimura, the chief cabinet secretary, said the military was preparing “just in case.”

“We don’t believe anything would fall over Japan’s territory.

Please carry out your daily lives and business as usual,” he said.

A statement from the defense ministry said that Japan would send destroyers equipped with Aegis missile defence systems to the Pacific and East China Sea and deploy mobile Patriot missile launchers to islands in Okinawa.

An interceptor missile unit is also likely to be deployed in Tokyo, although the capital is well away from the expected flight path.

Seoul has also warned it might shoot down any parts of the North Korean rocket that pass over South Korean territory. Japan mobilized its interceptor units and issued a similar warning to North Korea before a rocket launch in 2009, but did not follow through.

North Korea also conducted long-range rocket tests in 1998, 2006 and 2009, but with limited success. -AFP

spree, according to the police source.

Sarkozy, who ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists after the Toulouse killings, barred six Islamic preachers from entering the country on Thursday who wanted to attend a Muslim conference in Paris.

Gueant dismissed talk that the raids had been carried out in response to suggestions that the intelligence services had failed to monitor and track down Merah quickly enough.

The police source said the raids were not di-

Mauritius president quits in row with PM PORT LOUIS: Mauritius President Anerood Jugnauth, who has been in open conflict with Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, said Friday he was resigning to join the opposition.

“I’m not in agreement with the philosophy of the government and the way the country is run,” he told journalists, adding that his resignation would take effect Saturday. “When I’m not in agreement, I quit,” he added, at his offices in Reduit, in the centre of the island. Jugnauth will be replaced by Vice President Monique Ohsan Bellepeau, who is in the same party as the prime minister.

The resignation will end the two politicians’ row which erupted when the leader of the opposition in parliament, Paul Berenger, announced earlier this month the creation of a new opposition alliance headed by Jugnauth.

Ramgoolam asked the president, who turned 82 this week and whose role is largely ceremonial, to either confirm or deny the statement by the opposition, and, in the case of confirmation, to resign.

There was no immediate reaction to the resignation Friday from Ramgoolam, who was attending a cabinet meeting. Ramgoolam, who came to power in 2010 elections, still has a majority in parliament.

Jugnauth is the founder of the Mauritius Socialist Movement (MSM), a party currently headed by his son Pravind Jugnauth, who quit government last year along with several MSM ministers and members of parliament over a corruption scandal.

Afghan security forces escort Taliban militants clad in Afghan women dresses to be presented to the media at the Afghan intelligence department in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. (Reuters)

goes by one name. He said the gunman was assigned to a small command post when he woke up at 3 a.m. for guard duty. He then used his assault rifle to kill the nine men sleeping inside the post, took their weapons and piled them in a pickup truck.

According to Khan, Asadullah then sped away in the truck.

Khan said the victims included one of his

NEWS IN BRIEF North Korea test fires short-range missiles SEOUL: North Korea fired two shortrange missiles off its west coast on Thursday believed to be part of a test to upgrade capabilities, said news reports published on Friday, quoting South Korean military officials. North Korea has raised tensions in recent weeks by announcing it would launch a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, but regional powers are urging Pyongyang to drop the plan, saying it would violate UN Security Council resolutions. North Korea launched two short-range missiles believed to be surface-to-ship missiles from its west coast Thursday morning, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted government officials as saying.

-Reuters

Dozens of Taliban killed in fighting in west Afghanistan KABUL: Dozens of Taliban fighters were killed in US air strikes and a gunbattle in western Afghanistan after an insurgent attack on an Afghan army patrol, NATO and Afghan officials said on Friday. A spokesman of the International Security Assistance Force said the patrol came under attack in Gulistan district in western Farah province on Wednesday, prompting a call for air support. “Numerous insurgents were killed, and several motorbikes were damaged or destroyed” following two strikes by coalition aircraft, he said.

Abdul Raoof Ahmadi, a police spokesman in western Afghanistan, said 30 Taliban were killed and another 15 wounded in the fighting in the remote area. -Reuters

Fighting kills up to 23 in Pakistan badlands ISLAMABAD: Dozens of militants attacked a Pakistani paramilitary checkpoint overnight, killing two soldiers and sparking clashes which left up to 21 of the militants dead, officials said Friday.

Security officials claimed the militants were killed when troops retaliated with artillery and heavy weapons, but no independent confirmation of the death toll was possible in an area cut off to journalists and aid workers. -AFP

US soldier gives his life to save Afghan girl

Mauritius President Anerood Jugnauth reviews an honour guard on a visit to New Delhi in 2003. Jugnauth, who has been in open conflict with Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, says he is resigning to join the opposition. (AFP)

The politicians who quit went over to the opposition and ended up forming an alliance with the Mauritius Militant Movement (MMM) headed by Paul Berenger. Anerood Jugnauth will now head the MMM-MSM alliance.

Jugnauth has been in politics since 1963, head of the parliamentary opposition from 1976 to 1982, then serving as prime minister from 1982 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2003. He has held the post of president since 2003. His second five-year term was due to expire in 2013.

In 2002, the then president Cassam Uteem quit because he disagreed with a draft bill on fighting terrorism.

Afghan policeman turns weapon on colleagues, kills nine KABUL: An Afghan policeman killed nine of his fellow officers as they lay sleeping in a village in the eastern Paktika province on Friday, police said, blaming the attack on the Taliban. Provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran said the incident took place in Yayakhil town of Yayakhil district.

Bowal Khan, chief of Yayakhil district, identified the gunman as Asadullah, who

rectly related to the investigation into the case of Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, whose brother is under official inquiry and is in custody on suspicion of complicity.

The same police source said several of the people arrested were believed to be close to radical Islamist group called Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride) that was recently outlawed. Gueant said the group’s leader, Mohammed Achamlane, had also been arrested in Nantes.

Founded in 2010, Forsane Alizza came to prominence after calling that year for the boycott of Macdonald’s in the central city of Limoges accusing the US fast food chain of serving Israel.

Achamlane told the daily Liberation in January that the group could not exclude launching an armed struggle “if Islamophobia continues to intensify day by day”.

Before the Toulouse attacks, the group was known for provocative demonstrations, such as protests last year against a French ban on worshippers praying in the streets and a ban on fullface veils.

Gueant dissolved the group in February, accusing it of preparing its supporters for armed struggle.

Gilles Kepel, political scientist and specialist in Islam, said the group operated more on the internet - preaching extreme views and intimidating, but never actually turning to violence.

“It’s a big show, but obviously spreading ideas that can cause problems,” he said.

France’s 5 million strong Muslim minority is the largest in Europe, but only a portion - about 10 percent, or the same proportion as among Catholics - are practicing, according to Muslim associations. -Reuters

3

brothers and the commander of the post, identified as Mohammad Ramazan. He said two of the dead were Ramazan’s sons.

The motive for the killing was not known, but police in the area blamed theTaliban for the attack. Paktika is a stronghold of the Haqqani network, a Pakistani-based group with ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Although they mostly attack US-led coalition forces, they have often carried out assaults and bombings against the Afghan army and police.

“This man is a coward. What he did is part of the Taliban conspiracy,” Khan said.

Khan and Zadran said the killer’s two brothers were being held for questioning.

The village police is also known as the Afghan Local Police, or ALP. It is a village-level force that provides security in areas where the Afghan army and police cannot.

The ALP is trained by the U.S. troops but commanded and run by the Afghan government and police.

In an unrelated incident, a motorcycle bomb parked by the side of a road exploded on Friday and killed an Afghan police officer and wounded another in Sangin district of southwest Helmand province, police said.

They added that another police officer was shot and killed late Thursday outside his house in the capital of Helmand.

NATO said Friday that two of its service members were killed in southern Afghanistan.

They said one died in a roadside bomb explosion on Friday and the other one in an insurgent attack that took place Thursday. NATO did not disclose any other details.

So far this year, 88 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan. -AP

Under the Mauritius constitution, the president can send a bill back to parliament once with modifications. The second time he is obliged to either promulgate the law or resign.

The country, an archipelago of four islands, is officially divided into four ethnic groups: Hindus, Muslims, Chinese, and the remaining “general population”.

It has nearly always had a prime minister from the Hindu majority. Since independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has been considered a stable democracy and has sustained economic growth to make its 1.2 million inhabitants among the richest in Africa. -AFP

KABUL: There’s a video that talks about the heart breaking story of a US soldier, Sgt. Dennis Weichel, who gave his life for saving an Afghan girl from being run down in the road. Weichel was on patrol and his convoy came across several children playing across the road. He helped to move them, but one girl ran back into the path of a 16 ton army truck. Weichel pushed her out of the way just in time, but he was struck and killed. -AFP

Ugandan rights groups upset at a murderer’s pardon KAMPALA: A decision by Uganda’s president to pardon an Indian man sentenced to die for the murder of his wife has generated fierce criticism from activists who say it sends the wrong message in a country where women’s rights have long been abused. Sharma Kooky, who was set free this week on humanitarian grounds, spent 12 years in jail for torturing his wife to death in a case whose gruesome details once shocked and then galvanized the women’s rights movement. President Yoweri Museveni has rarely pardoned convicts. -AP

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news in pics

ALWATAN DAILY saturdAY, MARCH 31, 2012

Egyptians and tourists attend after Friday prayers at The Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha, situated on the summit of the ancient citadel of Salah Addin Alayoubi, in old Cairo March 30, 2012. The mosque was commissioned by Mohamed Ali Pasha between 1830 and 1848. (Reuters)

A male Sumatran orangutan spends time with its cub inside their enclosure at a city zoo in Moscow March 30, 2012. (Reuters)

An Afghan carries a bundle of wood in Nahr-i Sufi near the DHQ (Char Dara District Police Headquarter) in the province of Kunduz on March 30, 2012. The Afghan economy has always been based on agriculture, despite the fact that only 13 percent of its total land is arable and just eight percent is currently cultivated. (AFP)

A farmer throws fertilizer on a rice paddy field in La Duong village, outside Hanoi March 30, 2012. Vietnam’s rice exports to neighboring China could climb six-fold this year, a Vietnamese industry official was quoted as saying on Thursday, supporting domestic prices during the peak harvest season. (Reuters)

A visitor walks down stairs at the Villa Medici on March 29, 2012 in Rome. the Villa Medici located on the Pincio hill, is the French Academy, hosting French artists as residents and shows exhibitions. (AFP)

Worker Johannes Dengis prepares a model of Washington’s Capitol in the landscape park Miniwelt (Miniworld) in Lichtenstein, eastern Germany, Friday, March 30, 2012. The cultural park Miniworld presents about 100 original and true-to detail buildings and technical facilities in scale of 1:25 on an area of 6.5 hectares. (AP)

Picture taken on March 29, 2012 shows a tree decorated with around 10,000 Easter eggs in Saalfeld, eastern Germany. The apple tree, that is decorated every year during the Easter season by pensioner Volker Kraft, has become a regional touristic attraction. (AFP)

Men dressed as ancient Roman centurions take a picture with a tourist by the Colosseum on March 30, 2012. (AFP)

Amman bourse benchmark falls

AMMAN: Main index of Amman Stock Exchange dropped 3.7 points during the past week operations and its daily trade also fell, by 19.6 percent. According to weekly figures of the bourse, the benchmark decreased, upon closing of the weeks’ session, 1,990.4 points, compared to 1,994.1 points the week before, by a proportion of 0.18 percent. As to sectors, the main index of the financial sector dropped 0.18 percent, that of services rose 0.23 percent and index of industries decreased 0.4 percent.Volume of daily trading amounted to approximately 12.2 million US dollars, compared to $15.2 million the week before, with a decline proportion of 19.6 percent. Volume of trade of the week amounted to some $61.5 million, in contrast to $76.6 million the previous week. Number of traded shares reached 59.6 million, done through 22,876 deals. -KUNA

BUSINESS

saturdAY, march 31, 2012

Kuwaiti oil price sheds 40 cents, settles at $121.20 Crude oil exports to Japan jump 36.3%

CAPITALS: The price of Kuwaiti crude dropped 40 US cents to 121.20 US dollars per barrel on Thursday, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Friday.

The drop of oil prices yesterday comes after the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) report of increase in oil reserves, in addition to the rise of US dollar exchange against major currencies. Oil prices still on a state of fluctuation due to many factors such as the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and the Iranian halt of its oil exports and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan jumped 36.3 percent in February to 8.24 million barrels, or 284,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first rise in two months, the government said Friday.

As Japan’s fifth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 7.4 percent of the country’s total crude imports, compared with 5.6 percent in February of 2011 and 5.2 percent last month, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports of crude oil grew 2.7 percent year-on-year to 3.85 million bpd for the first expansion in four months. Shipments from the Middle East shrank 4.5 percent to 3.20 million bpd, and accounted for 83.2 percent of the total, down 6.3 percentage points from the year before.

Saudi Arabia remained Japan’s biggest oil supplier, although imports from the kingdom declined 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.13 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 719,000 bpd, down 3.8 percent.

Qatar ranked third with 462,000 bpd, up 12.4 percent, and Iran became fourth with 306,000 bpd, down 32.7 percent.

Resources-poor Japan is the world’s third-largest oil consumer after China and the US. The country is buying more fossil fuels to meet electricity demands as nearly all the 54

sharpest daily fall in more than three weeks.

US crude futures were up 20 cents at $102.98 after their biggest two-day slide since mid-December. Fears of supply disruption in the Middle East underpinned oil, but gains were capped by concern that some Western nations will release oil stocks, increasing supply and tempering prices.

There is also a focus on the untamed euro zone crisis.

In the first quarter of 2012, Brent futures rose more than 14 percent, tracking global equities. Investors began the year in ‘risk-on’ mode as the European Central Bank (ECB) continued to offer cheap money to banks.

Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) main global stock index, which hit an eight-month high this week, has rallied by around 11 percent this year.

The dollar index hit a one-month low against a basket of currencies, extending losses this week following dovish comments on US monetary policy and softer economic data. A weaker greenback supports dollar-denominated commodities such as oil and gold, rendering them cheaper for holders of other currencies.

Strategic release

A ticket for the Mega Million US lottery with a record jackpot of $540 million USD is seen in a shop in downtown Washington, DC on March 30, 2012. The chance to get suddenly very, very rich - even if it’s a one in 176 million chance - sent Americans into a frenzy Friday as the hours counted down to the $540 million draw in the Mega Millions lottery. Mega Millions mania swept the country ahead of the 0300 GMT drawing for the record prize. Newspapers, websites and television and radio reports buzzed with excitement as millions of people fantasized publicly about life with half a billion dollars. (AFP)

nuclear reactors have shut down following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident March 2011.

Brent rises

Crude oil rose to nearly $123 a barrel on Friday after

OPEC output at new high in March, despite Iran drop Japan crude imports from Iran fall 32.7% in February

CAPITALS: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output has risen in March to its highest since October 2008 as higher supply from Iraq and further recovery in Libya’s production offset a drop in shipments from Iran, a Reuters survey found on Friday.

Supply from the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has averaged 31.26 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 31.16 million bpd in February, the survey of sources at oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts found.

The survey found that exports from Iran are falling as some buyers stop or scale back purchases because of sanctions. Concern about Iranian supply has helped drive a 15 percent rally in oil prices this year to 123 US dollars a barrel.

OPEC is pumping far more than its official production target of 30 million bpd but oil prices have rallied and inventories have not increased. For some, that indicates demand may be stronger than expected.

“OPEC has been consecutively increasing production over the recent months and yet this has failed to translate in a material rise of OECD inventories from their five-year lows,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, analyst at BNP Paribas.

“This suggests to us that the market is not fundamentally developing a surplus.”

In March, the biggest increase in OPEC supply once again came from Libya, where output continues to recover after being virtually shut down during the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.

Iraq provided the second-largest boost as exports rebounded after weather-related disruptions in February and as a new Gulf shipping outlet provided a longawaited boost to capacity.

Despite fewer barrels from Iran, March’s total is OPEC’s highest since October 2008, shortly before the group agreed to a series of supply curbs to combat recession, based on Reuters surveys.

Libya, Iraq

In Libya, exports and refinery demand climbed to

1.4 million bpd up 300,000 bpd from February, according to the survey, getting closer to the pre-war rate of 1.6 million bpd expected later this year.

Iraq exported more as its new Gulf outlet, a floating single-point mooring, came into service, enabling a boost in supply to 2.83 million bpd, up 220,000 bpd from February.

The country, where companies such as BP Plc are working to expand production, is expected to provide the world’s largest expansion in export capacity in 2012.

Saudi Arabian supply edged up in March to 9.9 million bpd, the survey found. Saudi Oil Minister Ali AlNaimi criticized high prices in a piece in the Financial Times this week, but offered no sign the kingdom was boosting output further.

Output in Iran, which is facing a European Union ban on its crude from July 1, fell significantly in March, according to oil industry sources outside the country.

Reuters a week ago reported that exports were falling.

The drop this month is the first sizeable decline in shipments since the European Union announced in January plans to embargo Iran’s crude from July and Washington and Brussels sanctioned Iran’s central bank. Supply declined in both Angola and Nigeria due to reduced exports. Loading schedules indicate supply will rebound from OPEC’s two West African members in April.

OPEC at a meeting in December set a target to produce 30 million bpd, settling an argument which broke out in 2011 after Iran and other members opposed a Saudi-led plan to raise OPEC’s production ceiling.

Output has remained above the target all year as Libyan supply recovered.

In more news, Japan’s crude oil imports from Iran fell 32.7 percent in February from a year earlier to 1.41 million kilolitres (305,800 barrels per day), data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) showed on Friday. The world’s third-biggest oil consumer is trying to comply with US demands to curb purchases from Iran.

The United States last week exempted Japan and 10 EU nations from financial sanctions citing their efforts to significantly cut purchases, while Iran’s top customers China and India remain at risk of such steps.

The figures are in line with customs-cleared data issued

by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on Thursday. -Agencies

Spain swings budget axe to save $36 billion CAPITALS: Spain will make budget cuts worth more than 27 billion euros (36 billion US dollars) in 2012, including a freeze on public workers’ salaries, to rein in its public deficit, the government said Friday.

Government ministries will have an average reduction in their budgets of “around 17 percent” this year, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after a weekly cabinet meeting that approved the 2012 budget. “We are in an extreme situation. Our top priority is to clean up public accounts,” she said.

“This is a moment that demands serious efforts to reduce spending but also structural reforms to cause the economy to grow and create jobs.” Spain is racing to reduce to reduce its public deficit to reassure markets that it will not follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in requesting an international bailout.

The government unveiled its austerity budget for 2012 a day after a general strike against spending cuts and labor market reforms that make it easier to cut jobs, when violence flared at protests in some cities.

As the government unveiled its budget, finance ministers from the eurozone were meeting in Copenhagen to decide on the size of a financial firewall for the eurozone. This firewall is intended to ensure adequate funds would be available to support weak eurozone

countries suffering new debt strains, and thereby calm tension on financial markets.

Spain, having overshot its public deficit target last year, is once again a focus of concern among economists and investors. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he is determined to keep his promises to eurozone partners to slash the deficit, even at a time of soaring unemployment and recession.

The Popular Party government must bring down the public deficit to the equivalent of 5.3 percent of economic output this year from 8.51 percent last year.

That would mean at least 20-30 billion of euros ($26-40 billion) in austerity measures, on top of 8.9 billion euros in spending cuts and 6.3 billion euros in tax increases already announced this year.

The task is complicated by the recession, with the government predicting a 1.7-percent slump in economic output this year.While the Spanish government plans to freeze public sector workers’ salaries - which were cut by the previous Socialist government - it ruled out raising sales tax and said pensions would still be raised.

Financial group Citi’s chief economist Willem Buiter said Spain would likely need emergency help from international lenders this year to shore up its banks and public finances. -AFP

three losing sessions, with support from a weaker dollar and expectations of tight gasoline supplies in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer.

Front-month Brent crude futures were up 36 cents to $122.75 a barrel by 1351 GMT, recovering from their

Despite the gains this quarter, Brent prices are down 1.47 percent from last Friday as the market begins to price in expectations of a coordinated release of stocks.

The surge in oil prices has prompted the United States, with Britain and France, to consider a release from emergency stockpiles to cut fuel costs. Other countries, including South Korea and Japan, may join the plan.

Data on Friday showed that US consumer spending increased by the most in seven months in February.

Strong gasoline prices of almost $4 a gallon on average in the United States, the world’s largest consumer of the motor fuel, have become a hot issue ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Traders say gasoline prices could climb higher if demand picks up after the shutdown of several refineries, with nearly 430,000 barrels per day of refining capacity already idled in the United States at the end of 2011. -Agencies

Egypt unrest pushes Orascom Development into loss CAIRO: Swiss-listed Egyptian property and hotels group Orascom Development on Friday reported a full-year net loss of 76.82 million US dollars, due to the political turmoil in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world last year.

The firm, known mostly for building luxury resorts, took extraordinary charges in 2011 of 82.8 million francs, which included provisions, revaluation of investment properties, and legal fees connected to the political events in Egypt.

Orascom Development made a profit of 94.9 million Swiss francs in 2010, after minority interests.

Following the civil uprising that unseated Egypt’s president in February 2011, a slump in investment and legal challenges to state land sales have thrown the real estate sector into turmoil. An exodus of tourists has also made life tough for resort developers.

Orascom Development said revenues in its hotels segment fell 29 percent due in part to one month of virtually zero occupancy in Egypt’s El Gouna and Taba Heights during the first quarter of 2011 and also because guests traded down from five-star to four-star hotels.

It also said its real estate and construction segment revenues fell 71 percent due

Egyptian Samih Sawiris, owner of Orascom Development Holding stands at the construction site of the Andermatt Resort in the central Swiss village of Andermatt July 8, 2011. Swiss-listed Egyptian property and hotels group Orascom Development on Friday reported a full-year net loss of $76.82 million. (Reuters)

to a 50-day halt in construction activities in Egypt and a slowdown in demand for homes.

“Uncertainties regarding the political progress in the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region, the global economic development and international credit markets continues. Nevertheless, Orascom Devel-

China’s mobile phone subscriptions top a billion CAPITALS: China said Friday it had broken the barrier of one billion mobile phone accounts at the end of February, as more people in the world’s most populous country ditch fixed phones.

The number of cell phone subscriptions grew 20.7 million in January and February to reach just over one billion, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, up from 900.4 million in April last year.

In contrast, the number of fixed line subscriptions fell by 828,000 during that period to reach 284.3 million, the figures showed.

Mobile phone use has exploded in China in recent years as handset prices and user charges have dropped, while the continual arrival of new technologies on the market has spurred sales.

Of the more than one billion accounts, a total of 144 million used 3G technology - nearly double the figure for April 2011.

However, the figures do not indicate how many mobile phone users there are in China, as companies and individuals may have two or more subscriptions each.

China also has the world’s largest web population with more than half a billion Internet users, according to official figures. -AFP

opment expects a more dynamic development in the second half of the year,” the firm said in a statement.

The firm said credit agreements of 125 million francs finalized in January would enable it to finance all its planned activities for 2012, but did not detail the plans. -Reuters

Gold climbs as dollar index plumbs to one-month low LONDON: Gold prices rose on Friday as the dollar fell to a onemonth low against a basket of currencies, including the euro, after European finance ministers agreed to boost the euro zone’s debt crisis firewall to roughly 800 billion euros (1.1 trillion US dollars).

Spot gold rose 0.2 percent to $1,664.48 an ounce at 1333 GMT. The metal is on track for a 6 percent gain in the first three months of 2012 after posting its first quarterly drop in three years at the end of last year.

The euro rose 0.3 percent, and US and European shares gained after European finance ministers agreed to beef up the region’s crisisfighting funds.

Last year worries over the potential spread of the euro zone debt crisis helped drive gold to record highs, but the metal has since reestablished its usual inverse relationship with the dollar. News from the euro zone that boosts the euro and weighs on the dollar tends to be positive for gold.

The dollar fell to its lowest in a month against a basket of currencies on Friday, extending falls on expectations of more US monetary stimulus. The retreat in the dollar helped push oil prices up 70 cents a barrel.

Inverse link

Gold investors will be closely watching US data in the second quarter for clues as to the likelihood of a fresh round of monetary easing, which could potentially hurt the dollar and support gold.

US gold futures for June delivery were up $12.30 an ounce at $1,667.20.

Canada’s Argonaut Gold Inc said on Friday its quarterly profit more than doubled, helped by increased volumes and higher gold prices.

Silver was up one percent at $32.52 an ounce. The gold/silver ratio, or the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold, eased back towards 51 on Friday.

Spot platinum was up 0.8 percent at $1,635.74 an ounce and is on track for its best quarterly performance in three years, up 17.6 percent.

Palladium was up 0.7 percent at $647.22 an ounce. -Reuters

Sports Editors Highlight

saturdAY, MARCH 31, 2012

SPORTS

ZURICH: Soccer’s governing body FIFA has ordered clubs to release Under-23 players called up by their national teams for the Olympic Games soccer tournament. The move, approved by FIFA’s executive committee on Friday, is potentially controversial as the competition is not part of the international match calendar. The 2008 Olympic soccer tournament was marked by a tug-of-war between Barcelona and Argentina over the release of Lionel Messi, which went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). CAS ruled in Barcelona’s favor but the Catalan club then decided to release him in any case. The Olympic soccer tournament, which clashes with the European pre-season, is restricted to under-23 players although each team can field upto three overage players. The soccer tournament at London 2012 kicks off the competitive action at the Olympics on July 25. -Reuters

FOOTBALL

Wenger keen to avoid repeat of Fabregas and Nasri saga LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is determined to avoid the indecision that marred the start of the current campaign by sorting out new contracts for the club’s leading players.

Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri both began the season at the Emirates under a cloud as predicted moves played out before they eventually signed for Barcelona and Manchester City respectively before the end of the August transfer window.

The uncertainty coincided with a woeful start for Arsenal in the Premier League and Wenger says the club will work to agree new deals for players such as Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Alex Song, all of whom are coming towards the end of their contracts.

Losing Dutchman Van Persie, who has scored 26 league goals this season, is a nightmare scenario for the Gunners although their red-hot form, which has brought seven consecutive league wins to allow them to climb to third, could prove vital in keeping him.

“We will try to arrange new contracts very early,” Wenger said at a news conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to London rivals Queens Park Rangers where victory could open up a six-point gap on fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

“Yes I am confident that these players will commit,” he added when asked if he thought the club could hang on to players such as Van Persie.

“To say that I am always confident, yes I am. Of course we want to keep our best players. These players want to win things and they want to be in a team that has a chance. Our end of season (form) will help me to convince them that they can (win things) here. It depends now how well we finish.”

Arsenal were being written off earlier this season, with some even predicting they would struggle to finish in the top six, but the consistency of Van Persie and the return of key defenders such as Bacary Sagna and Laurent Koscielny

FA lacks common sense over Cup semifinal: Di Matteo

FILE - Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal looks on during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match between AC Milan and Arsenal at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Feb. 15, 2012. (AFP)

proved invaluable in their return to form.

Wenger said all that would be worthless if they took their eye off the ball now.

“What we can hope for is to be third. We can be fourth, we can be fifth, we can be sixth - we want to be as high as possible and that depends

Bayern’s Heynckes relishes ‘crazy’ title run-in

Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben (center) celebrates scoring a goal during the UEFA Champions League quarter final football match Marseille vs. Bayern Munich, March 28, 2012. (AFP)

BERLIN: Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes has admitted his team face a “crazy” finish to the season as they remain in the hunt for the treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup titles.

Bayern put one foot in the Champions League’s semi-finals on Wednesday with a 2-0 win in Marseille ahead of Tuesday’s second leg at Munich’s Allianz Arena.

Heynckes’ highfliers trail defending champions Borussia Dortmund by five points in the German league, but face a showdown at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park Stadium on April 11 and are at Nuremberg in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Bayern and Dortmund will also clash at the German Cup final on May 12, while Munich hosts this year’s Champions League final a week later, but first Heynckes’ team need to see off Marseille, then Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

“There are some crazy games waiting for us, but we can’t think too far ahead, that’s no good,” admitted Heynckes.

“We should not put ourselves under pressure, of course we have to wait until the

end of the season with seven league games left, the (German) Cup final, the match against Marseille and possibly two Champions League’s semi-finals. Everything else is at the back of my mind and will only be brought out when necessary.”

Bayern will be without midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger on Tuesday after the Germany star picked up his third yellow card of the European campaign in Marseille and is suspended.

Should Munich beat Marseille, midfielders Luiz Gustavo and Toni Kroos could miss Bayern’s semi-final first-leg on April 17 against Real Madrid if either pick up another yellow card against the French.

If Bayern reach the last four they will host Madrid on April 17, then travel to Spain for the second-leg on April 25. “We have not talked internally about Real - if only because we have too much respect for Marseille and we know we have to play another 90 minutes against them,” said Heynckes.

“So to not be presumptuous, we don’t think of anything which is too far away. I’ll let everything come to me.” -AFP

on our consistency now,” he said.

“We are in a position that nobody expected us to be in and we want to strengthen that position from now on. That depends on our performances.

I see us fighting like mad on Saturday to win the game. That’s all I see, I don’t see further.” -Reuters

LONDON: Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo has accused the FA of lacking common sense after its decision to play the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur late on a Sunday, days before a possible Champions League semi against Barcelona or AC Milan.

The tie on April 15 at Wembley will kick off at 6 pm, giving the club precious little time to prepare for Wednesday’s first leg of a Champions League semi which they can book by finishing off Benfica in the quarter-final next week.

The other FA Cup semi-final between Everton and Liverpool, also at Wembley, is being played the day before so as not to clash with the 23rd anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. “First of all we have to qualify for the semi-final, but on the other hand we have tried to communicate with the FA and co-operate, so it’s disappointing, I would say, that common sense hasn’t prevailed,” caretaker boss Di Matteo told reporters.

“I probably would have been happy with a Friday night kick-off. We have tried to co-operate with the authorities and given our point of view but it seems it hasn’t been taken into consideration.” Before their Cup exertions, Chelsea’s immediate task is trying to close the five-point gap on Tottenham in the race for a top-four finish in the Premier League and a Champions League berth for next term. Di Matteo must juggle his squad with an eye on the second leg against Benfica on Wednesday, when his side defend the 1-0 lead they gained in Lisbon this week. With Tottenham not playing until Sunday against Swansea City, Chelsea can put pressure on the north London side with victory at Aston Villa on Saturday. “I am only focusing on Saturday and then we will think about the next one. I have to assess the players tomorrow morning and try to select a team that is ready and strong to win at Villa,” said Di Matteo, who surprised pundits by picking Fernando Torres among others against the Portuguese.

Right back Branislav Ivanovic is fit for the trip to Villa after he missed the last two matches but Raul Meireles is unlikely to be risked.

“Ivanovic will be available for tomorrow, he has come through training fine,” Di Matteo said. “The only doubt is Meireles who picked up a knock the other night (in Lisbon), everybody else is OK. He’s got a knock just above his knee so it shouldn’t be too serious but he’s not ready for tomorrow.” -Reuters

Man City motivated to beat Sunderland

LONDON: Manchester City has plenty of additional motivation to beat Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday.

Victory would put leader Manchester United under pressure, pay Sunderland back for what was only its second Premier League defeat of the season and give one player the pleasure of beating his hometown club.

Sunderland-born England winger Adam Johnson played the entire game at the Stadium of Light in January, so he was on the field to see Ji Dong-won score a last-minute winner in a match City had dominated.

“That defeat was hard to take because we played really well, dominated the match but the ball just wouldn’t go in the net for us,” Johnson said. “I don’t think they had any shots of note during the game and then they nick it right at the death, so that’s certainly in the back of our minds going into this game.”

With defending champion United not in action until it plays Blackburn on Monday, City can draw level on points at the top of the table if it beats the Black Cats.

City slipped slightly further behind United last weekend with a 1-1 draw against Stoke but has won a Premier League-record 20 straight games at home and is a strong favorite to beat a side resurgent under manager Martin O’Neill.

“I’m sure they won’t be looking forward to coming to our ground,” said Johnson, who is close friends with Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole. “We’ve been fantastic on our own patch and we feel we can beat anyone, so we’ll be looking to make it 21 Premier League wins in a row against them.”

While Johnson is in contention to start, City striker Sergio Aguero is out with a foot injury.

Manager Roberto Mancini would not say what

Sunderland striker Stephane Sessegnon battles with City’s Gareth Barry (right) during the Barclays Premier League match between Sunderland and Manchester City, Jan.1, 2012. (AFP)

the injury was and raised the prospect that it was self-inflicted or sustained in an accident by stating only that it was “stupid.”

Aguero’s absence could give Carlos Tevez the chance to start a match for the first time since Sept. 10. The Argentina striker has made three substitute appearances since returning from an unsanctioned six-month break.

United’s game against Blackburn is the first of four in a row against teams in the bottom six of the Premier League and manager Alex Ferguson

Espanyol look to sell stars amid mounting debts BARCELONA, Spain: Spanish top-flight side Espanyol have admitted they could be forced into a fire-sale of their best players this summer as they struggle to balance the books in

the midst of the economic crisis.

The Barcelona-based club are believed to have total debts in the region of 160 million Euros ($212 million US dollars), with a significant

FIFA needs action not words, says Blatter BERNE: FIFA’s executive committee is bracing itself to receive an anti-corruption report on Friday with president Sepp Blatter saying soccer’s governing body needs actions, not just words.

Mark Pieth, a professor at the Basel Institute of Governance, has produced the report on the way FIFA operates as part of an attempt to reform the organization following a series of corruption scandals.

Blatter has recently sought to distance himself from his fellow executive committee members, pointing out they are chosen by their respective continental confederations and that he has no say in the matter.

Pieth, who heads FIFA’s 13-man governance committee which was set up in November, has already suggested limiting the mandates of its leading officials and carrying out “regular due diligence checks” on them.

Blatter is due to give a media conference following the executive committee meeting, which will also hear a report from Claudio Sulser who is head of a separate team aimed at bolstering FIFA’s ethics committee. The executive committee has been plagued by corruption allegations over the last two years, losing five members.

-Reuters

said it is crucial his team takes advantage to stay ahead of City until the teams meet on April 30.

“We have a small advantage: it’s not a great advantage; it can be changed in one game,” Ferguson said. “We just have to take each game as it comes along. It’s the only thing we can do.”

Chelsea is at Aston Villa in another match Saturday, when third-place Arsenal is at Queens Park Rangers. Everton hosts West Bromwich Albion, Fulham hosts Norwich, Wigan hosts Stoke and Wolverhampton Wanderers hosts Bolton. -AP

FILE - People walk near Espanyol’s office at Cornella-El Prat stadium, near Barcelona, August 20, 2011. (Reuters)

lump of that owed to Spain’s tax authorities.

Those figures are far higher than their overall budget for this season, and club spokesman Rafael Entrena says offers for their talented crop of players will be welcome come the end of the current campaign.

“It is possible that decisions will be taken that some will struggle to understand, but we must make an effort to balance the books,” he was quoted as saying on the club’s website.

“If we have to sell players to balance the books then that is what we will do, although right now we don’t know if we will be buying or selling in the summer. We do not want to see the club fall into administration,” he added, mindful that several clubs in La Liga, such as Racing Santander, Rayo Vallecano and Betis, are either in administration at the moment or have been in the recent past.

The total amount of money owed by Spanish clubs to the taxman has grown in recent years to reach 752 million Euros ( 998 million US dollars). The Spanish Sports Council (CSD) says plans to reduce the debt will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Espanyol - with a squad containing numerous homegrown talents - currently sit seventh in La Liga and remain in contention for European qualification next season, providing their finances allow them to obtain a UEFA license to compete in continental competition. -AFP

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

saturDAY, march 31, 2012

7

Basketball

Heat win finals rematch, top Dallas 106-85 MIAMI: No fourth-quarter collapse this time against Dallas. These days, everything seems to be going right at home for the Miami Heat.

LeBron James and Chris Bosh each finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem scored 16 apiece and the Heat extended the league’s longest home winning streak this season to 15 games with a 106-85 win over the Mavericks in an NBA finals rematch on Thursday night.

Mario Chalmers scored 12 points and Norris Cole added 10 for Miami, which swept its two games with Dallas this season and snapped a two-game losing streak. Dirk Nowitzki scored 25 for Dallas, but was held to 1-for-9 shooting in the second half. Lamar Odom had 12 for the Mavericks, who were outrebounded 44-29 and were held to only two fast-break points. Miami outscored Dallas 26-13 in the fourth quarter to cap the win.

It was Dallas’ first time playing at Miami since winning Game 6 of the NBA finals last June, a series that turned after an epic late Game 2 comeback by the Mavs in Miami and eventually became the ultimate payback, hoisting a championship trophy in Miami, five years after Wade and the Heat celebrated winning their title in Dallas. Still, Dallas insisted this trip wasn’t about revisiting memories.

In the fourth quarter alone, Nowitzki had the bridge of his nose bloodied, James got hit in the mouth and Wade spent a few minutes grabbing at his right index finger in obvious discomfort. Adding to Miami’s discomfort: Dallas being within 90-83 with 4:37 left after

Nowitzki made four free throws in a 27-second span.

Any angst existing at that point dissipated quickly.

Simple as that. A 9-0 run sealed it for Miami, with Wade quarterbacking the charge. His two-handed dunk pushed the Heat lead back to double figures, then he found Bosh to set up a three-point play and set up James for a slam that pushed the lead to 99-83 with 3:03 left. The Mavs called time out, took Nowitzki and three others off the floor for the night, and the Heat slide was soon over. Vince Carter and Brandan Wright each scored 11 for Dallas.

Miami’s offense has sputtered for nearly a month, but the Heat scored 60 points by halftime for the first time in 11 games. James, Bosh and Wade shot 12 for 21 by halftime, and Miami’s bench connected on 10 of 13 shots before intermission. Haslem made all four of his shots in the half and Cole was 4 for 6 after making four shots in his last seven games.

Even with all that, the lead was only 60-53 at the break, in large part because Nowitzki was 8 for 10 from the field.

Miami’s offense cooled big-time in the third, the Heat shooting an abysmal 5 for 23. And the lead actually grew by a point in the period, thanks to what went on at the other end.

An 11-2 run gave the Heat their first double-digit lead, after holding Dallas without a field goal for more than 6 minutes. Miami led by as many as 13 in the third, before Odom scored Dallas’ final seven points of the period to get the Mavs within 80-72 going into the final quarter. -AP

Miami Heat forward LeBron James (center) shoots and scores as he is fouled by Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki during their NBA basketball game in Miami, Florida, March 29, 2012. (Reuters)

Aldridge leads Djokovic downs feisty Ferrer, to meet Monaco Blazers to 99-93 win over Hornets Tennis

KEY BISCAYNE, Florida: World number one Novak Djokovic moved into the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open after holding off a brave second set effort from Spain’s David Ferrer to win 6-2, 7-6 on Thursday.

Djokovic will face Argentine Juan Monaco for a place in the final after he celebrated his 28th birthday with a 6-1, 6-3 win over American Mardy Fish on Thursday.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates match point against David Ferrer of Spain during Day 11 at Crandon Park Tennis Center at the Sony Ericsson Open, March 29, 2012. (AFP)

Serbian Djokovic cruised through the first set in just 32 minutes and broke Ferrer’s first serve of the second set but any notion of a swift and easy win quickly vanished. Ferrer broke back straight away and then held his own in the set before Djokovic, making his opponent scurry around the baseline, broke to go 5-4 up.

Even then, the Spaniard found the resolve to break back and force the game into a tie-break but, true to form, Djokovic raised his game a notch and wrapped it up 7-1 to seal the win.

“David is a great competitor in every sense and I really wanted to get it done in straight sets because physically he is always there,” said Djokovic.

Monaco, who beat American Andy Roddick in the previous round, will head into Friday’s semi-final in confident mood.

The 21st seed won 71 percent of his first serve points and proved too much for eighth seed Fish, who did not cause problems for his opponent until breaking to go 3-3 in the second set. But Monaco closed out the match in one hour and 22 minutes and was clearly delighted to have given himself a chance of reaching what would be the biggest final of his career.

“I meant every shot that I played, I did. It was a perfect match for me,” said Monaco, who has won four ATP Tour events. “It was unbelievable. That was the way to celebrate my birthday, playing like this. I feel proud and very happy.”

Fish agreed that Monaco had been too much for him to handle on the day.

“He did a lot of things well and I think more than anything else, he shrunk the court extremely well with his movement and that’s why I think you saw a ton of errors from me,” said Fish. “I was pressing a lot just because he wasn’t giving me anything. He wasn’t giving me any errors. He made one error in the first set and served 98 percent. That’s tough to beat.” -Reuters

Sharapova sinks Wozniacki to reach final KEY BISCAYNE, Florida: Maria Sharapova advanced to the Sony Ericsson Open final by beating Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday in a two and a half hour battle.

The Russian will play Agnieszka Radwanska in Saturday’s final after the Pole beat France’s Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2 to reach the biggest final of her career.

Second seed Sharapova, who has lost in all three of her previous finals in Miami, will start as clear favorite after another solid showing against Wozniacki.

The Russian was ahead early but lost the first set after her serve disappeared, allowing Wozniacki to win five consecutive games and take command of the match. But the Russian recovered in the second set, striking the ball with impressive power.

“I could have easily, after losing a few straight games, let concentration down, I could have easily just gone down in the second set,” said Sharapova. “But I really stepped it up again. I went out there and started being aggressive. I didn’t stop after I put myself in a good position. I’m extremely pleased that I pulled it out today.”

Maria Sharapova of Russia hits a backhand to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida, March 29, 2012.

(Reuters)

Wozniacki stuck at her task however and with Sharapova serving for the match at 5-3 she broke, forcing two errors out of the Russian after winning a rally with a magnificent backhand cross-court winner. The Dane held serve and then faced Sharapova serving for the match again.

There was a controversial finish when Sharapova’s serve at 40-15 was initially ruled out but the call was overruled by the chair umpire, who ordered the point to be replayed.

Wozniacki, whose return had found the net, protested the decision but with no challenges remaining she was stuck with the verdict and Sharapova subsequently wrapped up the win with a smart volley.

Radwanska dominated from the outset against a determined Bartoli and took advantage of the 35 unforced errors from her French opponent. The Pole was well set at 4-2 in the second set when the lights went out on stadium court and there was a 20-minute delay before play resumed and Radwanksa booked her place in the final. Sharapova has won seven of the eight previous meetings with Radwanska. -Reuters

PORTLAND: LaMarcus Aldridge had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers pulled away from short-handed New Orleans and beat the Hornets 99-93 on Thursday night.

Wesley Matthews added 18 points and Luke Babbitt had a career-high 16 points, including four 3-pointers, for the Blazers, who are 4-4 since the dismissal of head coach Nate McMillan.

Marco Belinelli had 27 points and Carl Landry had 24 for the Hornets, who sit in last place in the Western Conference.

Landry’s dunk with 4:09 left tied it at 89, Aldridge’s fadeaway jumper put Portland back in front, and Raymond Felton and Nicolas Batum hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 97-90 with 58.9 seconds left. The Blazers have won four straight against the Hornets.

New Orleans, coming off a 102-87 victory at Golden State the previous night, had just eight available players for

the game.

The Blazers were without reserve guard Nolan Smith, who has a left ear infection. But Portland saw the return of starting guard Raymond Felton, who missed a game to be with his mother for a heart procedure.

The game came amid a report earlier Thursday that Blazers owner Paul Allen had entertained offers for the team. Allen posted on Twitter that the report was “absolutely false.” A spokesman for the Microsoft co-founder reiterated Allen’s rebuttal of the report, which appeared on a blog for the Comcast SportsNet Northwest web site.

Rumors have swirled since the start of the season that Allen is positioning the team for sale. The Blazers are operating under an interim general manager and interim coach Caleb Canales, fueling speculation about the team’s future.

The Hornets took a 21-17 lead in the

first quarter on Greivis Vasquez’s running jumper, but Babbitt hit a 3-pointer to tie it for Portland at 23. Babbitt made another 3 to put the Blazers in front 28-27 at the end of the quarter.

New Orleans went on a 13-2 run in the second quarter to take a 42-35 lead, and the Hornets led 54-51 at the break.

Batum’s 3-pointer tied it a 61-all, and Felton’s layup midway through the third quarter put Portland in front. The Blazers finished the quarter on a 9-0 run to go up 76-70 and it looked as though New Orleans was fading. Babbitt’s 3-pointer extended Portland’s lead to 81-70. But the Hornets came back with an 11-2 run, capped by Landry’s layup to get within 83-81 with 6:19 left.

After J.J. Hickson’s dunk for Portland, Belinelli made a 3-pointer. Hickson’s layup kept Portland ahead, but Belinelli made another 3 to tie it at 87 with 4:51 to go. -AP

Cricket

Pakistan showcase security and passion for cricket ISLAMABAD: Bangladesh accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan in April for the first time since 2008 and play three one-day internationals or two ODIs and a Twenty20. A high-powered Bangladesh delegation was briefed on security by top officials of the Pakistan government. But the PCB is still waiting for a response from Bangladesh.

In the meantime, the PCB and government have been working to make cricket a safe haven for their own people. For the Super Eight Twenty20 tournament in Rawalpindi, which featured most of Pakistan’s international players, all eight teams were given beefed up security.

About two dozen armed guards in two vans escorted each team from the hotel to the stadium and back, and 1,400 security personnel were posted in a three-kilometer (two-mile) radius of the stadium.

Everything went off without a hitch, except for the fate of the home team, the defending Super Eight champion Rawalpindi Rams, who were knocked out after losing their group matches to the Sialkot Stallions and Lahore Eagles.

“For the last three years there has been apprehension regarding security measures,” said Malik Matloob, a senior Rawalpindi police official. “Whether it’s a local or international event, we consider it as an international challenge for us, that’s why we’re arranging security like it is an international cricket event.

“Now we are in a position, we can make any arrangements for national as well as international cricket.”

New Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore and fielding coach Julian Fountain regularly watched the sold-out matches from VIP boxes and the PCB felt the tourna-

In this picture taken on Wednesday March 28, 2012 spectators watch a match at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi. Pakistan. (AP)

ment served a dual purpose in delivering high-class matches to local fans.

“I think it’s very important for our own survival to have these events,” PCB director Zakir Khan said. “It’s for the international community to see that cricket is safe and at the same time we are producing quality cricketers and we are competitive in the world arena.”

Pakistan test spinner Danish Kaneria, who played for one of the two teams from Karachi, hoped Bangladesh will come to Pakistan and help break the ice.

“Once a team comes to Pakistan then automatically the other teams will get to know what our security is like,” Kaneria said. “The security provided by the PCB and the administration over here is won-

derful. They are taking care of us as if we are playing international matches.”

PCB hired DGM Securities to liaise with local police. The company has worked with the PCB for 10 years, looking after stadium security for series against New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India and the 2008 Asia Cup. Shariq Ahmed, a fan at the Super Eight wearing the green jersey of Pakistan, believed the tournament’s successful security should send positive signals abroad.

“This gives us a chance to show international players that Pakistan is a safe country,” Ahmed said. “There’s a huge response from the crowd with the stadium full in every match, and that’s a good sign for Pakistan cricket.” -Reuters

Broad ruled out of second test, Gooch backs Strauss

LONDON: Fast bowler Stuart Broad has been ruled out of England’s second test against Sri Lanka with a calf strain, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Friday.

Broad suffered the injury to his right leg in the 75-run defeat in the first test which finished in Galle on Thursday, having only just recovered from an ankle problem sustained while tripping over a boundary rope. “A scan today revealed a right calf strain,” the ECB said.

Broad’s place for the second test which starts in Colombo on Tuesday will go to either Steven Finn or Tim Bresnan.

England have lost their last four tests and captain and opener Andrew Strauss has come under pressure because of a string of low scores with the bat.

In his last eight innings he has managed only one 50 and he has not scored a test century since November 2010. He gave away his wicket cheaply as England chased 340 in their second innings to try to force an unlikely victory in Galle but former opening batsman and current batting coach Graham Gooch said Strauss was still the man to lead England.

“He is one of the two best opening batsmen in the country, along with Alastair Cook,” Gooch said. “I have every confidence in him. I see the passion in him; I see the commitment every day on the training pitch trying to improve his game. There have been plenty of captains down the years who have struggled. What we have to do is to remain faithful to all our players and believe in their ability.” -Reuters

8

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

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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

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

2242 5141 2530 1000 2241 5301

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

2248 0000 2241 5201 2242 8200 2248 0000 2538 5520

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

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

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

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

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

Noodles Salmiya Tel: 25712233

Bukhara Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055

The Peacock Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000

Tourist Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22411702

Noodle Factory Avenues Tel: 24954751

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

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

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

Tel: 22997000

L I S T I N G S

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

Kuwait City Tel: 22400737

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

Sakura Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

AlRoshinah Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

Shogun The Palms Hotel Tel: 27070022

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

Manousha Salmiya Tel: 25722607 / 8

Al-Noukhaza Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

Fakhr Al-Din Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22423180

Villa Fairouz Shaab Tel: 22652030

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

Garden New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Yeldes Palace Kuwait City Tel: 22455212

Kabab-Ji Tel: 1861616

Zahrat Tunis Hawalli Tel: 22662444/333

Mais Al-Ghanim Kuwait City Tel: 22402590

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

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

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

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

Shabistan Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

The Gaucho Grill The Palms Hotel Tel: 25667370 -

• Seafood Al-Ahmadi Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

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

Al-Boom Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25756000

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

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

Flavors Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

• Italian Ciro’s Pomodoro Kuwait City Tel: 22424004

Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822

Te l : 1 8 3 9 0 9 0

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

HOTELS

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

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

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

22452740 22997000 23281897 22415001

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

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

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

22528766 22465489 22443136 22532100 25742410 25713872 22928080

TWO STAR International Hotel Kuwait Residence Hotel

25741788 22467560

LIFE

Caring for a chemical burn A chemical burn should be treated immediately and with care, since traditional skin remedies – such as an antibiotic lotion – can react with the chemical and actually worsen the burn. The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these suggestions to care for a chemical burn: •Carefully flush the area with lots of cool water. •Promptly remove any jewelry or clothing that may have come in contact with the chemical. •Carefully wrap the area with a clean cloth or a piece of sterile, dry gauze. •Call your doctor, 911 or the local poison control center as soon as possible.

saturDAY, march 31, 2012

Scientists warn of ‘emergency on global scale’ ‘Climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy security threaten human wellbeing and civilization as we know it’

PARIS: Leading scientists on Thursday called on the upcoming Rio Summit to grapple with environmental ills that they said pointed to “a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.”

In a “State of the Planet” declaration issued after a fourday conference, the scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiraling demands for food.

They called on the June 20-22 follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit to overhaul governance of the environment and sweep away a fixation with GDP as the sole barometer of wellbeing.

“The continuing function of the Earth system as it has supported the wellbeing of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk,” said the statement issued at the “Planet Under Pressure” conference.

“These threats risk intensifying economic, ecological and social crises, creating the potential for a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.”

The conference gathered nearly 3,000 environment scientists, economists, business executives and policymakers in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Develop-

FILE - A picture taken on July 20, 2011 shows Wajir residents walking past carcasses of livestock in Athibohol, North East of Nairobi. (AFP)

ment in Rio. In a recorded message, UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon said he welcomed the declaration, saying “its timing... could not be better.”

Spectacular brain images reveal surprisingly simple structure

FILE - Grid structure of major pathways of the human left cerebral hemisphere.

(Agencies)

NEW YORK: Stunning new visuals of the brain reveal a deceptively simple pattern of organization in the wiring of this complex organ according to LiveScience.

Instead of nerve fibers travelling willy-nilly through the brain like spaghetti, as some imaging has suggested, the new portraits reveal two-dimensional sheets of parallel fibers crisscrossing other sheets at right angles in a gridlike structure that folds and contorts with the convolutions of the brain.

This same pattern appeared in the brains of humans, rhesus monkeys, owl monkeys, marmosets and galagos, researchers report in the journal Science.

“The upshot is the fibers of the brain form a 3D grid and are organized in this exceptionally simple way,” study leader Van Wedeen, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, told LiveScience. “This motif of crossing in three axes is the basic motif of brain tissue.”

The surface of the brain contains about 40 billion nerve cells, each making about 1,000 connections in a pattern that brain researchers have yet to decipher, said Marsel Mesulam, the director of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University. Mesulam, who was not involved in the study, called Wedeen’s work “very exciting.”

“There can be no more fundamental question in philosophy, in psychology,” Mesulam told LiveScience.

“The human brain is the single most complex device in the known universe, and it works by nerve cells talking to each other.

If we can’t figure out how they decide who to talk to and what they tell each other, we just don’t understand how the brain functions.”

Using a technique he developed called diffusion spectrum magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Wedeen traced the movement of water molecules along the intersections of brain fibers (the cellular projections that form the brain’s communication network), tracking the orientation of each fiber at each crossing.

This is a detail of a diffusion spectrum MR image of rhesus monkey brain showing the sheet-like, three-dimensional structure of neural pathways that cross each other at right angles.

“What emerged was astonishing,” Wedeen said. “What emerged was that the set of fibers that crossed a given fiber,

invariably - and that’s a really strong invariably - look like mutually parallel fibers all coming in like the teeth of a comb and crossing it in one direction.”

Animal studies had suggested this pattern might exist, and researchers already knew that the nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain stem were organized in very structured parallels and perpendiculars even in humans (consider the long nerve fibers that run down the backbone and then branch out perpendicularly from the vertebrae).

But it’s difficult to get high-resolution scans of fiber connectivity in the human cortex, given that humans tend to become uncomfortable if left in an MRI scanner for more than 45 minutes or so, Wedeen said. For that reason, images of human brain connections have tended to look like tangled spaghetti, he said.

Wedeen and his colleagues scanned four types of primate brains from deceased animals, enabling them to image the brains for up to 48 hours, as well as brains from living human subjects using a new scanner that can achieve 10 times the resolution of conventional MRI machines. Using special software, the researchers then reconstructed three-dimensional images of the brainfiber pathways.

“Looking across multiple species, it emerged that the pattern was substantially similar,” Wedeen said. “When you went from primates with small brains to primates with big brains ... the rules were the same, but they were being applied more diversely and with more layers in the larger, more complex brains.”

More work should be done to link the imaging methods of Wedeen with traditional neuroanatomy methods to confirm the findings, Mesulam said.

Wedeen plans to expand the map of the human brain into more detail. It’s also important to understand the relationship between a brain’s structure and its function, he said.

Understanding the structure of a typical brain would ultimately help scientists comprehend what happens when brain development goes wrong, as in Alzheimer’s or mental illness.

“Say somebody comes to you with their 2-year-old and they say, ‘My 2-yearold is just not looking me in the eyes’. Is this the first sign of Asperger’s or just an individual difference?” Wedeen said. “You’d know how to begin. You’d know what you were doing.”

“Climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy security threaten human wellbeing and civilization as we know it,” he said.

Ban added that he was considering appointing a scien-

tific board or a chief scientific advisor to advise him and other UN organs.

The conference declaration said humanity’s impact on Earth was now so great that a new era – “the Anthropocene,” a term derived from the Greek word for human – had emerged.

Globalization has shown that economies and societies are now “highly interconnected and interdependent,” it said.

These changes have brought stability and innovation but created a system vulnerable to sudden stress, as the global financial meltdown and surge in food prices had shown.

Tackling the problems of global environment change will mean major reforms, it said.

One is the question of governance.

“Existing international arrangements are not dealing quickly enough with current global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss,” said the statement.

It called for a “polycentric approach” for planetary stewardship, meaning a diverse partnership between local, national and regional governments that also includes business and grassroots groups.

But another need was to scrap obsessions with gross domestic product (GDP) as the only benchmark of progress.

Governments should also include environment, health and social factors.

“A crucial transformation is to move away from income as the key constituent of wellbeing and to develop new indicators that measure actual improvements in wellbeing at all scales,” the declaration said. -AFP

Life’s building blocks may have formed in dust around young sun

NEW YORK: The organic molecules that were the building blocks for life on Earth could have formed in the dusty disk that surrounded our sun before the solar system had planets, a new computer model shows according to SPACE. What’s more, the study suggests the process would be the same around other stars that acquired planets, which means some of those worlds, too, could be seeded with the pieces necessary for life.

Geophysicist Fred Ciesla and astrobiologist Scott Sandford showed in their computer model how the orbiting dust that provided the raw material for planets, asteroids and comets could have been exposed to the ultraviolet light needed to develop organic molecules.

“The origin of these organics has been a mystery,” Ciesla told SPACE. “There have been a number of places where they have been thought to have formed, and none are mutually exclusive.”

Scientists think Earth and the solar system’s other planets were formed around 4.5 billion years ago, in a process that began with tiny grains of dust colliding into each other as they orbited the sun, sticking together, forming

S.Africa mulls new trophy hunt rules to fight rhino poaching PARIS: South Africa may impose new limits on trophy hunts as it combats a devastating surge in rhino poaching, with 150 killed illegally so far this year, the environment ministry said Thursday.

Big game hunters are allowed to kill a limited number of rhinos every year, with their horns exported as mounted trophies.

But a Thai man was arrested this week and accused of manipulating the system, making bogus trophy hunts to feed the demand for rhino horns in the Asian traditional medicine market.

His was the fourth arrest in an alleged syndicate that hired Thai strippers and prostitutes to pose as hunters and export the horns.

The ministry “will pursue a halt to the issuance of hunting permits to hunters coming from countries that do not have appropriate legislation to monitor whether the trophy is used for the purpose as reflected on the permits,” it said in a statement.

The ministry is also in talks with Vietnam’s agriculture department on how the countries can work together to address the matter of hunting permits and ways to stop possible abuses.

South Africa has also asked Vietnam “if they could conduct inspections and verify that the white rhinoceros trophies exported from South Africa to Vietnam are still in the possession of the hunters,” the statement said.

The animals’ distinctive horns are hacked off to be smuggled to the lucrative Asian black market, where the fingernail-like substance is falsely believed to have powerful healing properties.

-AFP

chunks of rock and gradually building up more and more mass until gravity took over, pulling the chunks together.

Ciesla, of the University of Chicago, and Sandford, of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., built a computer model of this protoplanetary disk of dust grains to test whether organic molecules could have formed there.

Organic compounds include basic molecules such as carbon and nitrogen, as well as more complex forms, such as amino acids and the nucleobases that form DNA and RNA. Sandford had conducted previous experiments in the lab with sub-millimeter-size dust grains covered in ice. When these are exposed to the photons of ultraviolet light, Sandford found, the photons can break down the molecular bonds in the material, allowing atoms to recombine into more complex molecules.

Scientists were unsure, however, whether enough ultraviolet photons would have penetrated into the early sun’s protoplanetary disk to allow organics to form there.

Ciesla and Sandford’s model showed this wasn’t a problem. In fact, the disk seems to have been dynamic enough that dust grains

easily would be lofted onto the outer edges of the disk, where they would be exposed to the ultraviolet light from the sun necessary to form the complex molecules.

“It was exciting for us because it just fell out naturally,” Ciesla said. “We didn’t have to invoke any special conditions in our model.We just found everything we hoped would work out worked out perfectly.” That means it also should work out well around other stars.

“The dynamics and the processes that we’ve put in the model here, we don’t expect them to be unique to our solar system,” Ciesla said. “We expect this to be present in all planet-forming disks.”

Still, the fact that organics could have formed in the disk doesn’t explain exactly how they got onto Earth. When Earth formed, it would have been a molten mess, with temperatures high enough to destroy any organics present at the time.

However, scientists say organic compounds could have survived on the asteroids and comets left behind in the solar system after the planets formed. As these bodies pummeled the Earth over the eons, they could have deposited the building blocks for life.

Studies say commonly used pesticide may harm bees WASHINGTON: A common class of pesticide is causing problems for honeybees and bumblebees, important species already in trouble, two studies suggest.

But the findings don’t explain all the reasons behind a long-running bee decline, and other experts found one of the studies less than convincing.

The new research suggests the chemicals used in the pesticide - designed to attack the central nervous system of insects - also reduces the weight and number of queens in bumblebee hives. These pesticides also cause honeybees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives, the researchers concluded. Just last week activists filed a petition with more than a million signatures asking the government to ban the class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. The US Environmental Protection Agency said it is re-evaluating the chemicals and is seeking scientific help.

For more than a decade, pollinators of all types have been in decline, mostly because of habitat loss and perhaps some pesticide use. In the past five years, a new mysterious honeybee problem, colony collapse disorder, has further attacked hives.

But over the last couple of years, that problem has been observed a bit less, said Jeff Pettis, lead bee researcher at the US Department of Agriculture’s lab in Beltsville, Md. Other studies have also found problems with the pesticide class singled out in the new research.

These “strengthen the case for more thorough reassessing,” said University of Illinois entomology professor May Berenbaum, who wasn’t involved in the new studies. “But this is not a slam-dunk indictment that could compel a ban. It’s complicated.”

In the honeybee study, French scientists glued tiny radio transmitters to the bees managed for orchard pollination. The bees were tracked when they came and left the hive. The bees that were dosed with neonicotinoids were two to three times more likely not to return.

In the bumblebee study, British researchers dosed bees with the pesticide and moved their hives out into the field. After six weeks, they found the pesticide-treated hives were 10 percent lighter than those that weren’t treated. And more important, the hives that had pesticides lost about 85 percent of

FILE - This undated handout photo provided by credit David Goulson, Stirling University shows a bumblebee. (AP)

their queens.

Bayer Crop Sciences, which is the leading producer of this type of pesticide, says it is used on 90 percent of the corn grown in the US and is safe. Bayer eco-toxicologist David Fischer said the honeybee study used unrealistically high doses of the chemicals, amounts that would not be used on crops bees normally pollinate.

Berenbaum, Pettis and a third outside scientist said the bumblebee study was a more convincing study than the honeybee research because it used lower doses and didn’t make as many assumptions.

Bees are needed to pollinate fruit, vegetables and nuts. Without them experts say our diets would be very bland. Honeybees, which aren’t native to America, are managed by professional beekeepers, carted from farm to orchard and raised to produce honey. Bumblebees, native to this country, are wild pollinators. -AP

10

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

saturDAY, MARCH 31, 2012

Oldest animal-shaped structures discovered in Peru NEW YORK: Manmade mounds shaped like orcas, condors and even a duck may be the oldest evidence of animal mounds outside of North America, according to former University of Missouri anthropologist reports LiveScience.

Writing in the magazine Antiquity, Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus, describes a series of mounds, some more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) across, in coastal valleys in Peru. Archaeological evidence at the sites pegs some at more than 4,000 years old.

“It’s going to shake everybody’s views,” Benfer told LiveScience. “The previous oldest animal figures were at Nazca and they’re 2,000 years old.”

The Nazca Lines are simple stone outlines of animals decorating the Nazca Desert in Peru. Like the newly discovered mounds, they may have had ritual significance. In addition, the shapes likely coincided with the constellations these ancient people saw in the Milky Way. Strange shapes

Benfer discovered the mounds while looking at satellite photos of a site about which he’d long held suspicions. The feature seemed shaped like a condor, he said, but archaeological wisdom suggested that animal effigy mounds were a North-America-only phenomenon, with few exceptions, such as one at a Central America site in Mexico.

The satellite photos revealed furrows that looked like teeth as well as a burned charcoal area perfectly positioned in the spot where the eye of the bird would be. Global positional system (GPS) information and an archaeological investigation of the site convinced Benfer that he was, in fact, looking at a condor-shaped mound, with the eye likely being a site where offerings were burned. The condor is oriented according to astronomical rules: It lines up with the most extreme

orientation of the Milky Way as seen from the Chillón Valley where the mound is found.

Next to the condor is a second mound, this one oriented toward the spot where the sun rises on the day of the June solstice, the start of summer. This 1,062foot-long (324 m) mound appears to be a combination puma and alligatorlike cayman, Benfer reported. Stone pillars, plastic structures and ancient ceramics are associated with all of the sites.

Astronomical markers

In another Peruvian coastal area, the Casma Valley, Benfer discovered two additional birdlike figures, both “looking” toward the June solstice sunrise. Most likely, he said, these mounds were built under the direction of astronomer-priests. The ancient civilization that constructed the mounds would have depended on astronomical clues to know when to plant and harvest crops, and fish, Benfer said. This astronomical knowledge would eventually turn up in the Inca civilization in the 1400s and 1500s, which recognized the same constellations. “This was the beginning of a very long tradition,” Benfer said.

The oldest of the sites dates back to 2200 B.C. Benfer plans to return to the mounds to extract organic material for more precise radiocarbon dating, which is based on the time it takes that carbon to decay. The four large mounds are only the tip of the iceberg, he added - he has explored only five of the 54 valleys along the Peruvian coast and has found numerous smaller mounds, including ones shaped like orcas and even a duck. Many unexplored valleys likely hold more mounds, Benfer said.

“It’s a totally unexpected find,” he said. “It’s especially unexpected to archaeologists like me who had walked over some of these sites before without realizing what we walked over.”

FILE - Orcas hunted off the Peruvian coast 1,640 feet (500 meters) away until recently when industrial fishing removed their prey. This orca-shaped mound dated to approximately 5,000 years ago. (Agencies)

Menswear fuels global Zurich chocolate show treats nation of chocoholics luxury boom, executives say

Doves are seen inside a dress made of chocolate presented at the first Salon du Chocolat (Zurich Chocolate Show) in Zurich March 29, 2012.

(Reuters)

ZURICH: Exhibitors at Zurich’s Salon du Chocolat are celebrating “Swissness” with chocolate watches and Easter egg clocks as the travelling confectionary fair opens its doors for the first time in a country renowned for its love of chocolate.

Founded in Paris in 1994, the ‘Salon du Chocolat’ gala has toured the world to destinations such as Tokyo, New York and Cairo, and offers smaller, independent artisans the chance to exhibit their latest wares.

One such company is Swiss-based “Chocowatch”, which launched its novelty chocolate timepieces sculpted into a rock from the Swiss Alps in February this year.

Designed by Francis Gerber, who has worked as a graphic designer for Richemont’s watch brand Jaeger lecoultre, the 70 percent cocoa watches come in two styles: milk chocolate and dark chocolate and retail at 14.50 Swiss francs ($15.98).

His Renault car laden with the edible watches, distributor Bernard Matthey toured Swiss tourist hotspots, such as Verbier, Zermatt and Interlaken popular with Asian visitors who are snapping up the real Swiss watches.

“We’re not in Lucerne yet, because we didn’t have time to stop,” said Matthey’s wife Mary Josee. “But we hope to get there soon.”

Home to chocolate companies like Nestle and Lindt & Spruengli, famed for its gold foil-wrapped bunnies, the Swiss invented milk chocolate in 1875 and have been a nation of chocoholics ever since.

The Swiss consumed 94,008 tons of chocolate products in 2011, according to statistics from the Association of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers.

After two years in development, Confectioner Voland, has succeeded in building a working clock mechanism into its 128 Swiss franc Easter egg. Only 18 exclusive pieces have been made for sale at the Salon du Chocolat Zurich, which runs from March. 30 until April 1. Also playing on the Swiss theme is Geneva-based Du Rhone Chocolatier, which has produced Easter eggs embossed with chocolate Swiss franc coins for a price of 40 Swiss francs.

For more expensive tastes, Lindt & Spruengli artisans are hand-decorating three giant Easter eggs during the fair, each weighing some seven kg and costing 2,000 Swiss francs. -Reuters

Grandparents more responsible for grandchildren: Poll

NEW YORK: Generational differences and the economy are shifting more responsibilities for children from their parents to grandparents, according to a new survey. More than one-third of grandparents aged 50 and older contribute financially to their grandchildren’s’ upbringing, and 11 percent have a grandchild living with them, the poll by AARP, the lobbying group for 36 million older U.S. citizens, showed.

Forty percent of people who responded to the telephone survey, whose average age was 69, reported spending more than $500 on grandchildren over the past year beyond traditional gifts.

Education costs accounted for 53 percent, daily expenses for 37 percent and medical and dental costs for 23 percent.

Sixteen percent provided daycare for grandchildren.

“They are the safety net for American families, helping to pay for practical expenses and necessities,” said Amy Goyer, AARP’s multigenerational and family issues expert.

“We see many providing daycare services, while growing numbers even have grandchildren

living with them,” she said, referring to the 16 percent who watch their grandchildren while the parents are at work or school.

Overall nearly 90 percent of the 1,904 grandparents questioned said they play a very or somewhat important role in their grandchildren’s lives, and about 70 percent live within 50 miles of the closest one.

The poll conducted by Woelfel Research Inc. also showed that grandparents were increasingly keyed in to the younger generation’s life issues and preferred ways of communicating.

More than one-third connect with their grandchildren via email, Skype or text messaging, while half said they routinely discuss topics ranging from values and spirituality to drug and alcohol use.

Nearly 40 percent said they had discussed dating or sex with at least one grandchild. About 60 percent said they spoke with their grandchildren at least once a week.

Most of the grandparents said they had five or more grandchildren, while one-fourth said they have grandchildren of a different race, mixed race or different ethnicity. -Reuters

NEW YORK: Whether it’s a desire to be as dapper as Don Draper on television’s “Mad Men,” a need to look good for a job interview or just a hankering for new duds, men have increased their spending on fancy clothes, and executives expect the boom to continue.

German fashion house Hugo Boss AG, which generates the vast majority of its sales from menswear, is targeting sales gains of 50 percent to 3 billion euros by 2015, helped by a cultural shift around the world that has led more men to be interested in fashion and invest in their appearance.

“Men are just waking up to the beauty of being dressed well,” Hugo Boss Chief Executive Claus-Dietrich Lahrs told Reuters on the sidelines of the Fairchild Fashion Media Men’s Wear Summit in New York on Thursday. The global luxury menswear market is growing at about 14 percent a year, or nearly double the pace of luxury women’s wear, according to consulting firm Bain & Co. With demand in Europe cooling because of a slow economy and questions about whether the Chinese luxury market can keep up its torrid pace of growth, many retailers are betting on -- and benefiting from -- a luxury boom in the United States.

Alfred Dunhill, a British men’s chain owned by Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, operates three US stores and aims to add five more within two years.

“We look at America as a bit of an unpicked fruit,” Dunhill CEO Christopher Colfer told Reuters this week. “There’s a resurgence of man and our willingness to make ourselves look nice.”

Hugo Boss’s US plans include expansion of its flagship store in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle, Lahrs said. Everything from the sharp 1960’s styles on shows such as “Mad Men” -- a popular drama about a New York advertising agency -- to the proliferation of fashion blogs have ignited men’s interest in fashion and nicer clothes, executives say.

“Those shows are having an influence on the way guys are dressing,” said Matthew Singer, men’s fashion director at Neiman Marcus Group. Men are also less shy about buying accessories such as bracelets and scarves, he said.

Saks Fifth Avenue has expanded its men’s private brand collection and this week CEO Steve Sadove told investors that it will probably be Saks’ largest men’s brand this year. Coach Inc is also banking on more business from men. Globally, Coach expects sales of men’s products this year to reach $400 million, or 8 per-

cent of total sales, and climb to $1 billion within a few years.

For the New York-based leather goods maker, it is sort of a return to its roots: Coach started in 1941 as a men’s business. In 1997, men’s goods still accounted for 25 percent of sales.

Men have also been fueling luxury sales in China, the fastest growing luxury market, despite a recent slowdown in the pace of growth there.

Trinity Ltd, a leading high-end menswear retailer in China, said same-store sales rose 19.5 percent last year, and that it eventually plans to operate 500 stores in greater China, up from about 370 now.

“Men do not shop that often, do not buy a lot but they are consistent. Men are very loyal to brands,” Trinity group managing director Sunny Wong told Reuters this week.

Even outside of the pricey luxury market, men in the United States are spending more on clothes. American men increased their spending on clothing more than women did in 2011, buying more dress clothes in particular as the economy improves, a study showed.

Men’s clothing sales rose 4 percent during the year, while women’s grew 3 percent, market researcher the NPD Group said on Thursday. -Reuters

Nepal village adopts homey ways to boost tourism

GHALEGAUN, Nepal: Gam Bahadur Gurung sits cross-legged on the clean, hard-packed mud floor at the family kitchen sipping rice beer.

His wife Tek Kumari, who sits across from him at the fireplace, prepares a meal of lentils, goat meat and rice as her husband offers vodka-like home-brewed rakshi to the guests, who lie on straw mats stretching out their legs.

This has become a typical scene in Ghalegaun, about 100 km (60 miles) west of the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, which is now known as “the homestay village” for its part as the model for a scheme designed to lure tourists, many of whom were scared away during a decadelong conflict which ended in 2006. “’Come as guests, go as friends’ is our motto,” said Gurung, 50, who lives in the stone hut that has been set up with rooms with clean beds and toilets to accommodate visitors in this hill-top village overlooking some of the world’s tallest peaks.

“We live like a family sitting and eating together with the guests. We discuss even personal matters and crack jokes with them as friends,” he said.

Ghalegaun, a village of 400, sits amid carved terraces growing potatoes, onion, garlic, millet, rice and corn. It is overshadowed to the north by Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest peak at 8,163 meters (26,781 feet).

The village, which itself is located 2,070 meters (6,790 feet) above sea level, is renowned for the culture and hospitality of the Gurung, a community that came from Tibet several centuries ago and is known as one supplier of the famed Gurkha soldiers for the British and Indian armies.

Tourists stay and eat with the locals in their homes, whose doorways are so low that anybody entering has to stoop.

The prices for food and lodging are determined collectively by the villagers - a system now copied by dozens of other villages across Nepal, though Ghalegaun is the most popular.

Guests are allotted to families in a way that ensures everyone benefits. Each household earns about $150 a month, a substantial income in a country where one fourth of its 26.6 million people live on a daily income of less than a dollar.

“This is a unique opportunity to stay with locals, eat locally grown food in their kitchen and even cook meals yourself,” said Shailendra Kumar Shah, who came with his family from Nuwakot near Kathmandu.

“These things are not available everywhere.”

The majority of tourists are Nepali, increasingly attracted to the chance of spending time in quiet villages but were reluctant to venture away from safe places such as Kathmandu during the years of conflict.

Authorities said the government hopes other villages will be able to copy Ghalegaun and share the benefits of tour-

ism.

“We plan to prepare guidelines setting the minimum standard families must maintain in terms of beds, cleanliness, bathrooms and kitchens for the tourists coming to stay in their homes,” said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, a senior Tourism Ministry official.

The return of tourists is a welcome sight in these parts of Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains including Mount Everest, which emerged from a decade-long civil war in 2006 - a conflict which caused more than 16,000 deaths and scared away tourists, who contribute four percent to its gross domestic product each year.

Aid-dependent Nepal earned $330 million in 2010, the most recently available data, from nearly 600,000 foreign visitors, who dominate tourism nationwide. There is no data on how much is made from domestic tourism. -Reuters

FILE - Tourists look at a tattoo vendor during a tourism festival in Kathmandu organized to celebrate World Tourism Day September 27, 2008. (Reuters)

ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 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

Harley-Davidson invites artists to launch ‘art of custom’ campaign

KUWAIT: Harley-Davidson®, the world’s most iconic motorcycle brand renowned for its rich heritage in customization and self-expression, has teamed up with some of the best contemporary artists from across the globe to launch the ‘Art of Custom’ design competition that will search for inspirational new art to appear on bespoke HarleyDavidson fuel tanks.

The ‘Art of Custom’ Campaign and Competition was launched to the world’s media in Miami’s acclaimed Wynwood Art District, an area famous for providing walls to act as blank canvases for the world’s most celebrated street artists. Ambassador and artist ‘Lebo’, whose art graces the walls and galleries of Wynwood, has kicked off the campaign by custom designing three tanks which not only bring to life the spirit of Harley-Davidson, but are also featured on the new Harley-Davidson Digital Tank Wall; an on line version of the real-life wall housed in the Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, USA. To provide inspiration to entrants, a number of artists including Lebo and renowned Irish character artist Terry Bradley, have custom-

Month a t

Sudoku ized a selection of Harley-Davidson tanks with their own original artwork: Budding artists and designers can download the tank template and bring to life their own interpretation of the Harley-Davidson spirit in whatever style and way they wish.

From paints to graphics, entrants can use the tank as a blank canvas to express themselves just as the Harley-Davidson styling team have done for over one hun-

dred years.

Participants from the Middle East and North Africa will be entered into a regional draw to win the value of either $5000, $2000 and $500 valid at a Harley-Davidson dealership in addition to a painted fuel tank as souvenir for the first and second winners. A ceremony will be held at Harley-Davidson’s MENA office in Dubai where the three winners will be handed their prizes in the presence of media and the judging panel.

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

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

a glance ic narrative of life experiences on luminous and luxurious enamel weaves.

Diwaniya presentation April 3/ 7 p.m. / AWARE Center: The AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation next Tuesday entitled, “Similarities and differences between Arabs and Westerners,” by Iman Martin. Westerners visiting Kuwait or the Middle East for the first time find many cultural differences in the society, at work and within the local customs. Culture shock, to some degree, will be experienced by all. In this Diwaniya, we would like to share the similarities and differences between Arabs and Westerners. For more information, call 25335260/80

K’S PATH invites applicants for the adoption of pets Sepp is a Domestic Long Haired (DLH) male cat. He will be 2-years-old April 2012. This friendly, laid-back boy loves a good cuddle and likes a high vantage point in a cat tree or ledge to look out from. He would do best in a home with children over 12 years of age.

To adopt, contact +965 67006122 or visit the website www.kspath.org

Golden era club 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.

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 purpose- business, basic communication, as a second language or simply as a hobby. For more information/registration, contact 97228860/97793440.

Dar Al Funoon hosts artist Karim Ghidinelli April 2- 19/ 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. / Dar Al Funoon: Born in Italy in 1976, Karim spent his childhood in this city; he went to middle school and high school in African countries. His body of work consists of a central iconic image that of a finger imprint, within each thumb impression he has formulated a pseudo-calligraph-

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

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

New Toastmasters Club

South African Embassy closure

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

On the occasion of Easter Sunday, the South African Embassy will be closed from Sunday, April 8, 2012 to Monday, April 9, 2012. The Embassy will resume its normal working hours on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the working hours will be from 8h00 to 16h00 and the Consular Section operation hours will from 8h30 to 12h30.

Brainbang session

The Embassy of India will remain closed on April 5, 2012 on account of “Mahavir Jayanti”.

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

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

Dilbert

Embassy of India

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

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

If you’re involved in the arts, Aries, expect today to hear about an opportunity to exhibit your work publicly.There should be a very positive reaction to it, so you can expect a lot of compliments and ego-boosts.

An opportunity to earn some money from your work could also come along. Don’t turn it down out of shyness or insecurity. Go for the gold. This trend is likely to continue, so make the most of it.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Incredible feelings of enthusiasm, optimism, and sheer joy could fill your heart and mind today, Taurus. Your life is changing in a positive way, and even though it may not be readily apparent, you’re sensing it intuitively. Romance with someone from far away could be in the offing. If you’re a writer, publishing is right around the corner.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

Some beautiful dreams or visions, perhaps involving angels, spirit guides, or other such beings, could come today, Gemini. Listen carefully to the messages they bring. Whether they involve matters in your material life, intellectual or spiritual concerns, or future events, they can shed light on a lot of facts about you of which you might not be aware.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Love and romance continue to blossom, Cancer.

Social events could find you and your beloved among both old and new friends, perhaps letting some of them know for the first time that you’re actually an item. Someone close to both of you could be planning a wedding and invite you to come. Don’t be surprised if it gives your partner ideas! Let yourself dream a little today.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

Are things really going this beautifully for you, Leo? This is a question you might ask yourself now. All looks perfect as career, romance, education, and spiritual matters seem to crystallize into a wonderful life. Don’t waste time worrying if this is all too good to be true!

You’re concerned about the future, but right now, live in the moment. You’re creating some great memories, if nothing else. Enjoy!

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Expanding your horizons is definitely on the agenda today, Virgo. Travel, education, creativity - they’re all coming to the forefront of your concerns. Romance should also be going well. A friend could introduce you to a new interest, and children might also be a source of joy.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

Are you working at home now or perhaps considering it, Libra? If so, remember that you’ll probably enjoy the comfort and freedom it provides. Being in your own territory among your books and pets and wearing your old clothes will feel good. However, in no way will working on your own compromise your work ethic. If anything, you’ll get more done than ever. Dig in and go for the gold.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

A social event in your neighborhood could connect you with people who share your spiritual and intellectual inclinations, Scorpio.As a result, you’ll probably make some new friends and spend a lot of time on the phone with them over the next few days. If you’re single, one could be a potential love partner. If you’re a writer or artist, expect oodles of inspiration to hit you as a result of all this.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

A project that you’re working on, perhaps job related, perhaps personal, is likely to require more creative skill than you usually need, Sagittarius.

Writing, drawing, or computer graphics could be involved. You might have some doubts about your abilities, but you’re more likely to be surprised by the results.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

If you’re artistic by nature, Capricorn, expect a rush of inspiration to hit today, along with an irresistible compulsion to start a new project and work until you can see at least some results. If you’ve never been artistic before, you may suddenly feel like giving it a try, perhaps using computer technology. No matter what, you’re likely to derive a lot of pleasure from it, so go to it. Have fun!

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

Something wonderful could happen to you today at home, Aquarius. A lover could declare eternal devotion, spiritual revelations could come thick and fast, or great news regarding career or money matters could be just over the horizon. Whatever comes is apt to bring happiness for all concerned. You may pinch yourself to make sure you’re awake! Relax and enjoy it. You have it coming, and it’s there to be savored.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

Developments over the past few days could have you feeling very excited and particularly optimistic about your love life, Pisces. Communications with your beloved could take the form of romantic songs or poetry. If you want to give your friend a gift, by all means do.

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ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment

Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Whip It Artist: Nicki Minaj Album: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded Genre: Rap/Pop In short: Unlike its predecessor, Roman Reloaded, is diverse enough to appeal to listeners who have like any song or feature of Minaj’s. The massive success of “Turn Me On,” her David Guetta collaboration, is the true steering wheel behind half of the album’s cuts. The mindless “Whip It” might’ve passed for another tired dance song had it been given to anyone else, but Minaj’s crazy verses breathe life into an otherwise run-of -the-mill Euro-dance number.

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

The Buzz Wrath of the Titans holds European premiere The Greek gods and monsters sequel “Wrath of the Titans” is having its European premiere on the biggest screen in the U., the British Film Institute’s IMAX theater in London. Sam Worthington, the Australian lead of the 3D franchise, is walking the red carpet in London on Thursday evening, with British co-stars Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Rosamund Pike, Toby Kebbell and director Jonathan Liebesman.Worthington reprises his role as the demigod Perseus as the story picks up a decade after the action in the first movie, “Clash of the Titans.” The Titans who were imprisoned by the gods are escaping and Perseus must fight to save the world once again. -AP George Jones hospitalized in Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones is hospitalized with an upper respiratory infection. A statement from his publicist, Kirt Webster, says the 80-year-old Jones was admitted into a Nashville area hospital on Thursday and will stay overnight for observation. Jones is known for classic country hits, including “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

-AP

Katie Couric to guest co-host GMA next week Sorry Matt Lauer: Katie Couric is returning to morning television next week, but she’ll be paired with George Stephanopoulos. Couric, whose ABC daytime talk show will premiere on September 10, will fill in for the vacationing Robin Roberts. She joins Stephanopoulos, Sam Champion, Lara Spencer and Josh Elliott. Spencer made the announcement on “GMA” Thursday. Stephanopoulos told Roberts, “You get to throw away your alarm clock for the week and she has to dust hers off.” Couric also shared the new on Twitter Thursday: “Rise + shine! Excited to be back on morning TV next wk, guest hosting @GMA w/ @GStephanopoulos. #KatieOnGMA.” The “GMA” stint marks the first time Couric has co-hosted a morning show since she left “Today” in 2006. -Reuters

Julianne Moore joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt directorial debut Julianne Moore will mentor Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his untitled directorial debut. Gordon-Levitt shared his excitement Wednesday on Twitter about snagging the four-time Oscar nominee for his turn behind the camera. “I’m incredibly happy to have the brilliant Julianne Moore on board!,” GordonLevitt tweeted alongside the hashtag #pinchme. Moore joins Scarlett Johansson in the film. In addition to handling directing chores, Gordon-Levitt will star a swinging Don Juan type who tries to mend his ways. Shooting is scheduled to start in April. Moore recently earned favorable reviews for her portrayal of Sarah Palin in HBO’s “Game Change.” She is slated to star opposite Lily Collins in the comedy-drama “The English Teacher” and in “What Maisie Knew,” a modern update of a Henry James novella. Variety first reported Moore’s casting. -Reuters

Sons of Sugar Hill label founders face tax charges Three sons of the founders of the Sugar Hill Records hiphop recording label pleaded guilty Thursday to tax evasion charges. Joseph Robinson Jr., 50, of Tenafly, and 46-year-old Leland Robinson and 41-year-old Rhondo Robinson, both of Englewood, entered their pleas in federal court in Newark. The US Attorney for the District of New Jersey said the Robinsons’ failure to file resulted in nearly $1.3 million in tax losses to the government. The men’s primary source of income was royalties from the label their parents founded in 1979, prosecutors said. The men also made money as copyright administrators for different recording artists. The Sugar Hill label was best known for releasing “Rapper’s Delight,” rap’s first mainstream success. The company continued to play a part in the early years of hip-hop with a roster that included Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. The label amassed an extensive music catalogue from 1979 until 1986.

The men’s mother, Sylvia Robinson, who had a hit as a singersongwriter with the sexually charged “Pillow Talk,” and who some called “the mother of hip-hop” died in 2011. Each of her sons pleaded to different counts Thursday, charging them with failing to file tax returns between the tax years 2005 through 2008. Joseph Robinson pleaded guilty for failing to file taxes in 2005 and 2006, Leland Robinson for failure to file in 2006 and 2007, and Rhondo Robinson for his failure to file in 2005 and 2007. Each defendant faces up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine at their July 10 sentencing.

They must also pay their back taxes and penalties, as well as the costs of prosecution -AP

saturDAY, march 31, 2012

Judge ends Lohan’s probation, gives back freedom LOS ANGELES: Lindsay Lohan’s days as a criminal defendant could be over - if she can behave herself.

A judge on Thursday ended the long-running probation of the problem-prone actress in a 2007 drunken driving case after a string of violations, jail sentences and rehab stints.

The 25-year-old actress will remain on informal probation for taking a necklace without permission last year, but will no longer have a probation officer or face travel restrictions and weekly shifts cleaning up at the morgue. Lohan, wearing a powder blue suit and black blouse, let out a sigh of relief as she left Judge Stephanie Sautner’s courtroom, possibly for the last time.

“I just want to say thank you for being fair,” Lohan told the judge. “It’s really opened a lot of doors for me.”

The judge said she wasn’t going to lecture the actress, but gave her some parting advice.

“You need to live your life in a more mature way, stop the nightclubbing and focus on your work,” Sautner said.

She reminded Lohan that she will remain on informal probation until May 2014 in the necklace case and could face up to 245 days in jail if she gets into trouble again.

Still, the end of probation left Lohan looking relieved. She hugged her attorney, Shawn Holley, before leaving the courtroom, and was beaming by the time she walked past the rows of cameras waiting for her outside the courthouse near Los Angeles International Airport.

Sautner’s regimen of morgue duty, therapy and monthly court dates helped Lohan weather the drunken driving case. The judge opened the hearing by calling the case “end-

Lindsay Lohan, right, embraces her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley after a progress report on her probation for theft charges at Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, March 29, 2012. (AP)

less.” Lohan is now free to focus on her career for the first time since May 2010, when she missed a court appearance and was later jailed for failing to complete the terms of her sentence. The “Mean Girls” star has struggled with the case and her career since the two drunken driving arrests in 2007.

She had small appearances in films and did some modeling but came nowhere near her heyday as the star of Disney films and

movies aimed at teens and young adults.

Her career is already showing signs of a comeback. She is due to guest star on an upcoming episode of “Glee,” recently hosted a highly rated but criticized episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and is set to star as Elizabeth Taylor in a television movie.

“Lindsay is already talking about her next few projects,” her spokesman Steve Honig wrote in a statement after the hearing. “She is

ready to start the next chapter in her life and get back to work and doing what she loves to do - making movies.”

Lohan’s tortured four-and-a-half-year effort to complete probation is not unprecedented. Actress Michelle Rodriguez took more than five years to resolve her drunken driving case, which featured many of the same elements as the Lohan saga - missed deadlines and jail sentences.

Other celebrities resolved their DUI cases much faster.

Fellow female celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Khloe Kardashian were all sentenced to jail and faced multiple court hearings because they didn’t properly comply with orders from a judge, but their cases have long since ended.

Lohan might still have to return to a courthouse to resolve civil issues.

Two weeks ago, a nightclub manager in Hollywood accused her of grazing him with her Porsche. The actress denied the accusation and no charges have been filed. But the matter could end up in a civil court, where Lohan is already being sued by two other people for auto-related incidents.

Three men who were in a car that Lohan commandeered and used during a chase along Pacific Coast Highway are suing her and the case is scheduled for trial later this year. The incident led to her second drunken driving arrest in 2007.

Lohan is also being sued by a woman who claims she was struck by the star’s car while walking in West Hollywood, and by a former Betty Ford worker who was involved in an altercation with the actress during her threemonth stay at the facility in late 2010. -AP

Charlie Sheen promises ‘awesome’ success for new show NEW YORK: Charlie Sheen promised “awesome” success for his upcoming FX show “Anger Management,” during a video message to advertisers at the network’s upfronts presentation on Thursday.

The former “Two and a Half Men” star also joked that its success would be followed by a “whole lot of credit taking.”

FX will debut Charlie Sheen’s “Anger Management” in June along with Russell Brand’s late night show “Strangely Uplifting.” During the presentation, network president John Landgraf told advertisers that FX plans to order two to three more scripted dramas in the next year. They will join a lineup that includes “Justified,” “American Horror Story” and “Sons of Anarchy,” as well as the upcoming “The Americans.”

FX posted its most successful year in history in 2011 and said every returning series was up from the previous year.

Landgraf said the network may also add another comedy, but

Florence + The Machine get Unplugged for MTV

NEW YORK: Florence + the Machine kick off MTV’s new season of “Unplugged” on April 8 with a show that singer Florence Welch called “amazing” as her powerful voice belted out hit songs like “Dog Days Are Over” in a candlelit room.

The soulful British singer and her backing band taped their “Unplugged” concert in New York’s oldest synagogue building back in December to become the first of eight episodes airing across MTV and sister networks Vh1 and CMT. The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley also are slated to perform during the new season.

MTV debuted its Emmy-winning “Unplugged” series in 1989, and it became an instant hit by taking singers and bands typically associated with big sounding pop music and stripping them down to basic, acoustic instruments and vocals. Over the years, the show has featured performances from popular artists including Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Nirvana and Jay-Z on intimate, often unconventional stages.

Backed by a 10-person choir, The Voices of Rivers, Welch performed fan favorites such as “Drumming Song” from her group’s 2009 debut “Lungs,” as well as the single “Never Let Me Go” from her most recent record, “Ceremonials.”

Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme joined Welch for a cover of “Jackson,” most famously sung by Johnny Cash and June Carter. Welch also covered “Try A Little Tenderness.” Kanye West, who attended the taping with fellow rapper Q-Tip, sampled Otis Redding’s version of the song on “Watch the Throne,” his 2011 album with Jay-Z. Welch said she was in awe of the former synagogue in which she and the Machine played and where the stage was decorated with dozens of candles.

“I had to stop myself after every song,” Welch told Reuters. “I would be like, ‘Wow.’ “It was so amazing performing the songs stripped back and just really being able to concentrate on the songs and the emotions,” said Welch.

During the show, the soft-spoken singer told the live audience: “This is a real moment for me and to be doing an ‘Unplugged’ session is amazing.” -Reuters

FILE - Florence Welch performs with her band Florence & The Machine during the BRIT Music Awards at the O2 Arena in London Feb. 21, 2012. (Reuters)

said he did not know what the new comedy or dramas would be yet.

The network said it topped last year’s advertising expectations and gained viewers even as its competitors, including TBS, TNT and USA - the top-rated cable network - slipped.

Landgraf conceded that FX is down in the first quarter of this year - like many cable networks - but said the slide was expected because of lower inventory of new movies.

He said it hadn’t hurt the network with advertisers and that revenue was up 10 percent for the fiscal year ending in June. FX has greenlit several off-speed high profile comedies following the model established with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

That approach calls for giving show creators an unusual degree of freedom in exchange for less money up front. The network then rewards them if their shows turn into hits.

Landgraf has had less leeway to use the model with dramas because of their high production costs.

But he noted that “The Shield,” which helped establish FX and set the bar for basic cable dramas, debuted a decade ago this month.

“I really care about trying to uphold the legacy of that show,” Landgraf said.

The first of FX’s upcoming dramas, “The Americans,” stars Keri Russell and follows two KGB spies in 1980s America. It is executive produced by Joe Weisberg and “Justified” creator Graham Yost.

Landgraf also said FX was the sole ad-supported network to offer “critically acclaimed comedies and dramas.”

That’s true for now, but USA is in the process of branching off into comedy. Turner, meanwhile, airs its dramas on TNT and comedies on TBS. -Reuters