May 12, 2012

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1432

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150 Fils with IHT

Firemen hospitalized for smoke inhalation at Amghara Parliamentary delegation to meet with Al-Saadoun to discuss protocol Staff Writers and Agencies

KUWAIT: Up to nine firemen suffered from smoke inhalation, five of whom had to be transported to the Jahra Hospital for treatment, a health ministry official said, after a fire broke out in Amghara Friday.

The fire broke out in two separate scrap yards, one reserved for discarded cars, the other for old tires, said Minister of Electricity and Water Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, who was on the scene monitoring the efforts by firefighters to put out said fire.

Another official at the fire site Ibrahim Al-Tarrah, who is chief of security operations in the Al-Jahra municipality, told reporters that early investigation into the causes of the fire indicated that according to eyewitnesses a number of blue collar workers were seen furtively leaving the site of the fire moments before it broke out. He said all pertinent government agencies were on site where the incidents took place to conduct their investigations expeditiously.

Dr. Faisal Al-Ghanim, director of medical emergency management at the ministry said that nine ambulance teams had been sent to the site of the fire in Amghara, along with an on-site medical emergency treatment unit.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) Salah Al-Mudhi noted that equipment measuring the emission of gases from the fire site has shown no significant threat to people’s health.

In a separate development, despite the fact that the ramifications of the last parliamentary session on Wednesday have dominated and significantly plagued the political scene in the country, they haven’t stopped some parliamentary groups from coordinating among themselves vis-à-vis the two interpellations proposed against the Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali.

Meanwhile, three MPs from the Popular Action Bloc Musallam Al-Barrak, Khaled AlTahous and Abdulrahman Al-Anjari insisted on not merging their interpellation motions against the minister with fellow MP Dr. Obaid Al-Wasmi’s motion. Sources related to Al Watan that contacts between the Popular Action Bloc and MP Al-Anjari to acquire the support of the majority of MPs to endorse their non-confidence motion against the Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali as they see that their own interpellation against the minister is the most damaging since it discusses matters closely related to issues which has been adopted by the Popular Action Bloc since the last parliament.

On their part, sources close to the government said that the Minister Al-Shamali had asked his advisors to look into the interpellation proposed by MP Al-Wasmi and then present their finding to the audit experts in the Ministry of Finance to check figures and loans tables as they would be part of the interpellation.

Sources added that the minister has also set up a committee of legal consultants to

Sony slides to three-decade low on strategy doubts

TOKYO: Shares in Sony Corp slumped more than seven percent to near 32-year lows, as investors doubted the Japanese consumer electronics giant has a strategy to fix its loss-making TV business and compete in the smartphone market against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

The last time Sony shares were this low, in the summer of 1980, its first Walkman portable cassette player had just gone on sale in the United States.

So far this year, Sony has seen more than three billion US dollars wiped off its market value.

The maker of Bravia TVs, Vaio laptops and PlayStation games consoles on Thursday posted a record annual loss of $5.7 billion, but forecast a first profit in five years as it looks to halve losses at its ailing TV business. The net profit forecast was below analysts’ expectations. Japanese firms, which long dominated the global TV industry, have been overtaken by Samsung and LG Electronics, which are rolling out next-generation sets using organic light emitting display (OLED), in a reshaping of Asia’s flat panel sector. A stronger yen, which erodes the value of exports, has also not helped. “(In the past) if you wanted a top quality TV you had to buy a Sharp, Panasonic or Sony. Those days are gone,” Steve Durose, Senior Director and Head of More on 5 Asia-Pacific at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters last month.

scrutinize MP Al-Wasmi’s interpellation and its legality. The Committee consists of a former Director of College of Law and currently working as an advisor in the Ministry of Finance.

Sources affirmed that the preliminary findings of the committee discovered that the two interpellations against the minister have commonality in certain aspects and that by correlation the minister may have one single reply, only if the Fatwa and Legislation thinks that such tactic is constitutionally binding.

Sources further added that while the majority MPs are fervently keen to make their non-confidence motion to ensure the ousting of the minister, the government will do its best to abort such an attempt.

As for the recent unfortunate incident which had taken place in the parliament, sources close to the government said that the government is pushing for the finalization of a committee which oversees the parliamentary protocols and etiquette. The government is keen to introduce discipline and parliamentary manners to stop future misbehavior.

Sources confirmed that a meeting between a parliamentary delegation with the President of the national Assembly MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun will take place this week to discuss the parliamentary protocols. It is expected that the bylaws related to this particular issue will be put into effect once again. It is also expected that the measure against MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel will be discussed.

An injured firefighter is carted to an ambulance at a site where a fire broke out in Amghara, on Friday, May 11, 2012. (Al Watan)

Egyptian expats vote in presidential elections CAIRO: Egyptian expatriates headed to the polls on Friday, casting the first votes to name a successor to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak in what are hoped to be the first genuinely contested presidential elections in the country’s history.

The voting by Egyptians living abroad comes a day after two election frontrunners, one of Mubarak’s former foreign ministers and a moderate Islamist, squared off in the Arab world’s first ever presidential debate.

The two traded barbs over the role of religion and how to bring democratic reform to Egypt, an often fiery exchange that gave Egyptians a taste of the tactics common to presidential face-offs in the United States and Europe.

Viewers crowded around television sets in outdoor cafes for the four-hour debate, aired Thursday evening on several independent TV channels - a startling new experiment for Egypt after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule under Muba-

rak, forced out of power last year after a wave of protests.

For most of Mubarak’s rule, he was reelected in referendums in which he was the only candidate. The last presidential election, in 2005, was the first to allow multiple candidates, but Mubarak was considered a certain winner and campaigning was weak - and a direct debate was out of the question.

The debate, which ran well past midnight, pitted Amr Moussa, who served as Mubarak’s foreign minister for 10 years until becoming head of the Arab League in 2001, against Abdel-Moneim Abu AlFotouh, a moderate Islamist who broke with the Muslim Brotherhood last year.

The two are among 13 candidates competing in the election, due to begin in Egypt on May 23. The debate repeatedly turned combative, as the two candidates, each standing behind a podium, were also given time to throw questions at each othSee also 2 er. -AP

Banks prepare 5 for the return of the drachma Suicide bomb plot leak worries security experts

A demonstrator holds an illustration depicting Syrian President Bashar AlAssad during a protest against Assad in Kafranbel, near Idlib May 11, 2012, 2012. Reuters

Young adults raise skin cancer risk with sunburns, indoor tanning

NEW YORK: Young adults are doing things that dangerously increase their risk of skin cancer, according to new reports for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention according to LiveScience.

In 2010, half of all adults ages 18 to 29, and 65 percent of white people in this age group, reported that they were sunburned at least once in the past year, the report said. In addition, about a third of white women reported using indoor tanning in the past year.

Both sunburn and indoor tanning increase the risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. Indoor tanning before age 35 increases melanoma risk by 75 percent, the CDC says.

While efforts to reduce indoor tanning

have traditionally focused on adolescents, “This study suggests that as adolescents mature into young adults, they may continue to need environmental support to develop and maintain healthy behaviors and to change their perspectives about tanning,” study researcher Anne Hartman, of the National Cancer Institute, said in a statement.

In one study, CDC researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of about 5,000 adults ages 18 to 29 about their sun-protection behaviors and sunburn in the past year.

They found that while use of certain sun-protective behaviors, such as wearing clothing to the ankles and staying in the More on 9 shade.

LONDON: Counter-terrorism experts expressed concern on Friday over US leaks about an undercover operation that foiled a suicide bomb plot, saying its exposure may deter agents from volunteering for the risky job of infiltrating AlQaeda’s network. While electronic methods are increasingly used in espionage operations of all kinds, human intelligence remains crucial because al Qaeda’s best operatives try to avoid the use of any electronic communications to minimize the chance of detection.

British intelligence played a central role in the operation targeting Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, counter-terrorism

sources told Reuters, by recruiting the informant who obtained the bomb and handed it to Western intelligence officers.

The undercover operative in the plot linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, was a British citizen, possibly of Saudi origin, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The informant was working in cooperation with Britain’s two principal spy agencies. The operation appears to have been a joint venture between the British, Saudi Arabian and US intelligence services, some analysts say, and its exposure in the US media has caused widespread concern in the US inMore on 3 telligence community.

French left set to win parliament vote

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EU, Iraq sign first-ever partnership deal

CAPITALS: The European Union and Iraq signed their first partnership agreement Friday, opening the way to a slew of trade and energy deals as well as improved cooperation to combat terrorism.

“We’re opening a new chapter,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton at a signing ceremony with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

“This agreement is above all a symbol of the EU’s wish to be a positive partner for Iraq in its democratic efforts.”

The accord provides for regular political dialogue on bilateral, regional and global issues while improving trade arrangements and pledging cooperation in areas from health to energy.

“It is a great day for my country,” said the Iraqi minister. “For the first time Iraq, which used to be a pariah nation, is being reintegrated into the international community.”

“Iraq has great potential to offer to Europe.”

The agreement provides for cooperation in combating terrorism, countering proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and promoting human rights. The EU has contributed more than one billion euros (1.29 billion US dollars) towards the reconstruction of Iraq since the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, with the focus on access to basic services as well as furthering democracy. -AFP

Internet allows virtual Giza tour in 3D PARIS: Vicarious travelers and students of history can take a virtual stroll through the vast necropolis build by the ancient Egyptians in the Giza Plateau, thanks to a 3D Internet project launched this week.

The interactive recreation, to be found at www.3ds.com/giza3D, was put together by French design company Dassault Systems with material from the archives of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

“With a simple domestic computer, the public can now discover the marvels of ancient Egypt,” said Dassault employee Mehdi Tayoubi, including the insides of some of the pyramids.

“Users will be able to roam throughout the necropolis, visit the carefully restored tombs, access shafts and corridors, as well as browse all the information on

the occupants of each burial chamber, including the dates of discovery and objects collected,” added a statement.

The plateau, situated on the outskirts of Cairo, constitutes a vast necropolis spread over two kilometers (over one mile) from east to west and 1.5 kilometers from north to south.

It includes the great pyramids where the kings lay buried, flanked by smaller ones for their queens.

“The Giza Plateau is... subject to threats from all sides, whether from rampant urban sprawl, the elements or even vandalism,” the statement said.

“This raises two seemingly incompatible questions: how can this heritage be preserved, and how can it be shared with as many people as possible?” The answer: the Internet. The project is also aimed at use in the classroom. -AFP

Earliest Mayan calendar shows no hint of ‘world end’

PARIS: The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world’s end is imminent, researchers said Thursday.

Rather, the painted room in the residential complex at Xultun was likely the place where the town scribe kept records, scrawling computations on the walls in an effort to find “harmony between sky events and sacred rituals,” said the study in the journal Science.

The hieroglyphs date back to the ninth century, making them hundreds of years older than the calendars in the Maya Codices, which were recorded in bark-paper books from 1300 to 1521.

Some appear to be the 365-day solar calendar, the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus and the 780-day cycle of Mars, said archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, who led the exploration and excavation.

According to Saturno, the writing looks like someone’s attempt to sort out a More on 10 very long math problem, as if on a blackboard.

People demonstrate on May 11, 2012 in Skopje to protest against the arrest of six people over their involvement in last month’s murder of five Macedonians, as Police continued a probe into a 20-member group of radical Muslims. (AFP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

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saturdAY, may 12, 2012

Egypt rivals clash in presidential debate CAIRO: Two of the top candidates running to become Egypt’s first post-revolution president have squared off in the Arab world’s first televised presidential debate.

Egyptians crowded around television sets in outdoor cafes for the four-hour debate on Thursday night, aired in two segments over several independent TV channels - a new experiment for Egypt after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule under former president Hosni Mubarak.

But the most heated moments in the debate between Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, two of the leading candidates to become the country’s next president focused on their past records as a Mubarak-era senior official and a former member of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood, respectively.

Moussa, who served as Mubarak’s foreign minister and is a former Arab League chairman, pressed former Brotherhood member Aboul Fotouh over his connections to conservative religious groups, suggesting that if his opponent became president the country risked a return to insecurity and terrorism.

Aboul Fotouh countered that Moussa was incapable of carrying out the goals of the revolution that had toppled the former regime he had served.

The two are among 13 candidates competing in the election, due to be held on May 23 and 24.

Along with the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, they are considered frontrunners.

Others include Hamdeen Sabahi, a Nasserist MP of the Dignity Party and longtime opposition journalist, and Khaled Ali, a human rights lawyer favored by many young progressives.

Moussa, who has been campaigning throughout Egypt since Mubarak’s fall more than a year ago, is considered to be favored by secularists, liberals and the so-called “silent majority” of the middle and upper class that eventually came to support the revolution but fears more unrest.

Aboul Fotouh, who left the Brotherhood in 2011 over ideological differences and in order to run for president, has pulled together an unlikely coalition of liberals, socialists, and religious conservatives and is seen as perhaps the best chance for the politically unaffiliated youth of the revolution to win a voice in the executive branch.

Peace plan in ‘crisis’, says Syria opposition chief Thousands protest in Syria amid gunfire

A handout picture obtained from the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom shows presidential candidate and former Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa (right) and moderate Islamist fellow candidate, Abdelmoneim Abul Fotouh, during a live debate in Cairo on May 10. (AFP)

The debate repeatedly turned combative, as the two candidates, each standing behind a podium, were given time to throw questions at each other.

“My point of reference is the nation, your point of reference is the Brotherhood,’’ said Moussa, who has sought to appeal to Egyptians worried about the rising power of religious conservatives.

Religious parties, most prominently the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, won more than two-thirds of Egypt’s parliament during months of voting that ended in January. The hardline Salafist Nour Party and its allies won the second-largest share.

Moussa pushed Aboul Fotouh to explain his past affiliation with a branch of the Islamic Group - though it was a different branch that eventually turned to violence - and his stance on implementing Islamic law, suggesting that he had “made commitments’’ to hard-line Islamists, such as the Salafists. But Aboul Fotouh fired back, denying any connection to violent groups and attacking Moussa’s own affiliations.

“I want to hear one word of opposition you said under Mubarak’s regime,’’ he said, point-

ing out that Moussa had once publicly supported Mubarak for another term as president.

At one Cairo coffeeshop near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests that brought down Mubarak, supporters of either candidates broke out in claps and cheers when either candidate hit on the other’s perceived weakness - scenes of public support mostly seen in Egypt only around football games.

“This is the first time in the Egyptian and Arab history. We really are changing,” said Ahmed Talaat, a 36-year old accountant. “The uprising is really bearing fruit.”

For most of Mubarak’s rule, he was re-elected in referendums in which he was the only candidate. The last presidential election, in 2005, was the first to allow multiple candidates, but Mubarak won with more than 90 per cent of the vote.

The two touched on their economic platforms, the role of the military - which runs the country but is due to hand over power to whoever wins the presidency - women’s role in politics and even on their own health and what salary they would take if they won. -AFP

Iran helps release of Turkish reporters in Syria ISTANBUL: One Turkish journalist detained in Syria is a devout Muslim who was on a Gazabound aid ship targeted in an Israeli raid in 2010, and reported being wounded by American bombing on a trip to Afghanistan. His cameraman is a film school student who, ahead of his Syria trip, ducked his father’s disapproval by claiming he was headed to Italy. Adem Ozkose, 34, and Hamit Coskun, 21, are expected to be released after negotiations reflecting the opaque blend of regional rivalry and cooperation between Turkey, a foe of Syria’s regime, and Iran, a staunch supporter of Damascus. The Syrian government is struggling to crush an opposition movement that is increasingly retaliating with armed strikes.

Syria curbed outside media access except for a few official tours, and international journalists periodically slipped into the country, several dying in efforts to cover the uprising. Ozkose, a reporter for Milat, a startup Turkish newspaper with an Islamic background that prints 10,000 copies daily, crossed the border with Coskun, a freelancer, and a budget of $2,000. On March 10, Ozkose, who had previously lived in Syria, called his editors from Idlib, a northern province, at a time when Syrian forces with tanks and artillery were preparing to move against poorly armed rebels there. “’We’re going to follow the demonstration here, and we’ll report something soon,’” Turgut Alp Boyraz, foreign editor at Milat, cited Ozkose as saying. That was the last the paper heard from him until the two journalists made brief phone

calls from Syrian detention to their families on May 5. However, Iran was acting as diplomatic gobetween between Syria and Turkey, which has shut its embassy in Syria and wants President Bashar Assad to resign for attacking population centers.

On Friday, a Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet Daily News, cited an unnamed Iranian diplomat as saying a deal had been struck for the release of the two men. As in Syria, Turkey and Iran back opposing factions in Iraq in what some analysts call a proxy conflict tinged with sectarian tension. Turkey’s role as a NATO member troubles Iran, whose nuclear program alarms the West. Yet the regional heavyweights have close business ties and keep their public diplomacy civil.

Iran sought Turkish help this year in releasing Iranian pilgrims who were detained by the Syrian opposition, and Turkey “made efforts to contact some people on the ground” to secure their freedom, a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

After Ozkose and Coskun were seized by pro-government groups in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu raised the case in a conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi.

According to the Turkish official, Davutoglu essentially said: “’If you have any influence on the Syrians, it’s time to show it ... it’s better for you to take some steps.’” A recent video showing envoys from an Islamic aid group, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, with the journalists in Damascus offered the first public images of the pair since they

disappeared two months ago. “God willing, we will be back home in the nearest time possible, thanks to everyone who prayed for us,” Ozkose, stocky and bearded, says in the video.

“Today is the happiest day of my life,” says Coskun, who has shoulder-length hair. Both men look healthy. IHH operated the boat on which nine activists died in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Palestinian-held Gaza in 2010, triggering an international uproar. Ozkose photographed bloodied Israeli commandos who were briefly held by the passengers, and said he was hit and handcuffed by Israelis.

In a speech posted on YouTube, Ozkose also discusses an earlier reporting trip to Afghanistan in which an insurgent leader near him is killed by American bombing, and he is injured in the arm.

He recalled saying: “’God, please accept this. God willing, this blood is for you.’”

According to Dunya Bizim, an Islamic website, Ozkose spoke in 2010 at an Istanbul memorial service for Rachel Corrie, an American protester run over by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.

“If I were not a journalist, I’d be a jihadist,” or holy warrior, Ozkose said.

Turkish media reported that Ozkose and Coskun are expected to appear in a Syrian court on charges of illegal trespassing prior to their likely release. Editors at Milat newspaper were apprehensive that Syria might seek concessions, possibly by asking for the handover of wanted Syrians in Turkey in exchange for the journalists. -AP

Pirates ‘seize’ Greek-owned tanker off Oman MOGADISHU: Pirates have hijacked a Greek-owned oil tanker carrying 135,000 metric tons of crude oil while in the Arabian Sea, the first successful attack on an oil tanker off the Horn of Africa in more than a year.

Dynacom Tankers Management, which manages the vessel, said it had lost contact with the crew of the MT Smyrni, a Suezmax-class tanker, following the attack off Oman at 1115 GMT on Thursday.

“The Liberian-flagged Tanker, the MT Smyrni, is carrying a cargo of 135,000 MT of crude oil,” it said.

The hijack success rate for Somali pirates has dropped sharply in recent months (AFP)

Suezmax tankers typically can transport a crude oil cargo of up to one million barrels, compared with two to three million barrels for very large oil tankers.

Dynacom gave no further details but a Kenya-based piracy expert, Andrew Mwangura, said the vessel was headed for the Somali coastline.

Industry websites said the vessel had sailed from Turkey, but there were mixed reports about its destination.

“Aboard are nine Indians and about eight Filipinos,” Mwangura, who is maritime editor of Somalia Report, a private regional news portal, said.

“It is headed to Somalia.”

OceanUSlive.Org, a social-networking website for the maritime industry, said the attack was one of four to have taken place in the Arabian Sea in the past few days after a lull in pirate activity.

The hijack success rate for Somali pirates has dropped sharply in recent months, due in part to more merchant ships turning to armed security guards, razor wire and water cannons to protect themselves.

In its statement, Dynacom did not disclose whether the Smyrni was carrying private security personnel.

A pirate gang fired rocket-propelled grenades on Wednesday at a crude tanker 56km east of Socotra, an island lying between Yemen and Somalia’s lawless coastline, OceanUSlive.org said.

Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated 150 million US dollars in ransoms in what has become a highly organized, international criminal enterprise, security analysts say.

Somali pirates in December released an Italian-owned Aframax oil tanker, smaller than the Suezmax, after receiving an $11.5m payment. The Savina Caylyn was seized in February, 2011.

Despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea owing to the vast distances. -AFP

DAMASCUS: A Syrian opposition leader said Friday the regime is trying to destroy a UN-brokered peace plan for the country. The accusations came as security forces fanned out following twin suicide car bombings that killed 55 people in Damascus.

The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among those seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed. Assad’s government blamed the blasts on armed terrorists it says are driving the uprising.

During a new conference in Tokyo, Burhan Ghalioun, chief of the opposition Syrian National Council, said there would be no peaceful solution to the violence in Syria without “a threat of force against those who don’t implement the plan.”

“Assad feels that he can run away from implementing all of his obligations without any consequences,” Ghalioun said.

In Damascus, workers were paving over two massive craters caused by the bombs that struck a Syrian military compound Thursday. The attack, which also wounded more than 370 people, was the deadliest against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago.

Security forces armed with Kalashnikov rifles were guarding the compound Friday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a shadowy militant group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front has claimed past attacks through statements on militant websites. Little is known about the group, although Western intelligence officials say it could be a front for Al-Qaeda’s Iraq branch.

The blast was the largest and most deadly yet in a series of bombings targeting state security buildings since last December. Most of these have been in Aleppo and Damascus, Syria’s two largest cities, which have generally stood by Assad since the uprising against his rule broke out in March 2011.

Ghalioun suggested the regime was somehow behind the blasts as a way to taint the uprising. “The relationship between the Syrian regime and Al-Qaeda is very strong,” he said.

The rebel Free Syrian Army also condemned the attacks and blamed the re-

gime for staging them as a way to bolster its claims that terrorists are behind the uprising against Assad.

“The Syrian regime wanted through these terrorist explosions to support its silly story of the presence of armed and terrorist gangs,” said the statement, read by a man who identified himself as Col. Qassim Saad-Eddine and delivered in a video broadcast.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari told the Security Council on Thursday that 12 “foreign terrorists,” including a French, Briton and a Belgian have been killed in Syria. Ja’afari added that he has a list of 26 names for “terrorists of which some are linked AlQaeda.”

Mohammed Hussein, who lives across the street from the military compound that was targeted Thursday, was clearing debris from his home Friday. He said the windows and doors were blown away.

“We will have to throw everything away,” said Hussein, who was struck by shrapnel in Thursday’s blast.

In other parts of Damascus, uniformed and plainclothes policemen took positions in major intersections around noon ahead of the Friday prayers, after which crowds typically assemble for anti-Assad protests. There was also security presence outside government institutions.

Ghalioun was visiting Tokyo at the government’s invitation and is appealing for diplomatic support and more humanitarian aid. Japan has already provided $3 million in aid, and Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said Thursday during his meeting with Ghalioun that Tokyo was considering adding to that.

Ghalioun told journalists that Assad’s government had recently been resorting to terrorist tactics to keep people from going out on the streets to demonstrate.

“The Annan plan is in crisis today,” he said. The plan will die if Assad’s government continues to challenge it and “continues using terrorist bombings.”

“We believe that now we cannot reach any compromise through negotiations if Bashar Assad is still in power because he will try to abort any initiative that is based on a political solution,” he said.

If the Annan plan fails, “the only choice for us will be armed conflict,” Ghalioun said.

Also Friday, UN Mission spokesman Neeraj Singh told reporters that the number of military observers in the country has risen to 105. -AP

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syria man, right reacts as flames and smoke rise from burned cars after two bombs exploded, at Qazaz neighborhood in Damascus, Syria, on May 10. (AP)

Thousands remain in secret Libya militia prisons, says UN MISRATA: About 4,000 accused supporters of former dictator Muamer Gadhafi are still being held in Libyan militia detention centers, often in secret and many are tortured, a UN envoy said Friday.

Ian Martin, head of the UN mission to Libya, said good progress was being made toward the country’s first democratic election, but militia prisons were one of a number of “serious obstacles” to establishing the rule of law.

“Cases of mistreatment and torture of detainees continue,” Martin told the UN Security Council.

The UN has raised “deep concern” over the deaths in April of three people at a prison in Misrata which comes under government authority.

There was “credible information” that the deaths were caused by torture and that at least seven other people had been tortured at the same prison, said the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, or UNSMIL. There have also been allegations of torture at prisons in Tripoli, Zawiya and Zintan.

The UN said in October that 7,000 prisoners, mainly supporters of Muamer Gadhafi, were held by the revolutionary brigades which led the fight to overthrown the late dictator last year.

About 4,000 are estimated to remain in formal and secret prisons around the country where the transitional government is only slowly getting a grip on power, Martin said.

The justice ministry now has 31 detention facilities with about 3,000 inmates, he said. But control of many of these is shared with the revolutionary mili-

tias that have retained significant powers.

“Addressing these practices should be a top government priority in pursuit of a new culture of human rights and the rule of law,” said Martin. Gadhafi’s government was notorious for rights abuses.

The interim government has passed a law which orders militias to refer all cases against Gadhafi supporters to prosecutors by July 1.

But the envoy also raised concerns about some aspects of new laws that grant amnesty to fighters involved in overthrowing Ghaddafi and which criminalize “the glorification” of the dictator who was killed in October.

Human Rights Watch and other groups have said the amnesty law could allow people who have committed “serious crimes” to go free based on politics.

“It propagates a culture of selective justice that Libyans fought so hard to overcome,” said HRW’s Middle East and North Africa specialist Joe Stork.

Martin said that as of Wednesday night, just over one million people had registered for the country’s first ever democratic election.

The ruling National Transitional Council has pledged to hold the election for a 200-seat constituent assembly in June, but diplomats said there are worries that it may have to be delayed.

Martin said there was a potential voting list of between three and 3.5 million people.

Registration opened on May 1 and the UN envoy said women made up only 36 percent of those who had put their names down so far. -AFP

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WORLD

saturdAY, MAY 12, 2012

Glimmer of hope in Greek coalition talks ATHENS: Greek socialists ploughed ahead Friday with talks to form a coalition government, citing some progress after indecisive weekend polls.

Liberal daily Kathimerini spoke of a “slim opportunity” and pro-socialist Ethnos said a “step forward” had been made after socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos on Thursday won the conditional support of the small Democratic Left (Dimar) party in negotiations to form a cabinet.

The stalemate in Greece has raised fears of political chaos that could kill off reforms and eventually force the debt-laden nation to leave the eurozone. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview published Friday that the eurozone would cope if Greece left the currency union.

“We want Greece to remain in the eurozone,” he told the regional Theinische Post.

“But it also has to want this and to fulfill its obligations. We can’t force anyone. Europe won’t sink that easily.”

Venizelos was scheduled to meet at 0700 GMT with Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy conservative party which topped lists in Sunday’s inconclusive election that witnessed an anti-austerity backlash by voters.

“We have made a first step,” Venizelos said Thursday, adding that there had been a “good omen” in his meeting with Dimar leader Fotis Kouvelis.

Venizelos, whose party came a distant third at the polls winning 41 seats in the 300-seat parliament, had earlier said he wanted to create a unity government that would keep Greece in the eurozone - an aim echoed by Kouvelis.

His efforts follow consecutive post-election failures this week by the first-placed conservative New Democracy party and the runner-up, the radical leftwing Syriza, which had come out strongly against the tough spending cuts.

A fresh setback would result in President Carolos Papoulias calling on parties to form an emergency coalition. If that cannot be done by

NEWS IN BRIEF Flash flood in Afghanistan kills at least 17 KABUL: A flash flood swept through villages in a mountainous area of northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 17 people, authorities said. It was the second major flood reported this week in the north. Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the governor of Takhar province, said flood waters broke through a dam early Friday, washed down a valley and damaged several villages in Ishkamish district. “It was a very powerful flood. It hit around midnight,” Taqwa said. “Dozens of villages have been hit.

I’m worried that the death toll will go up.”

-AP

Protests in Malaysia over indigenous lands KUALA LUMPUR: Indigenous people in Malaysia are protesting against a proposed law that will limit their rights to ancestral lands. If the government passes the amendment, the Orang Asli people would be entitled to 50,000 hectares of land, enough for families to build homes and farm. However, activists say that it would not recognize their right for the traditional roaming area, which covers a further 80,000 hectares. -AFP

Blasts, gunshots ‘rock Nigeria’s Maiduguri’ Fotis Kouvelis’s Dimar party says cannot join any coalition which does not include the Radical Left Coalition. [AFP]

May 17, new general elections will be called.

Voters on Sunday punished Pasok and New Democracy for having pushed through severe austerity measures in return for multi-billioneuro international loans to stave off bankruptcy and keep Greece in the eurozone.

However, many still believe repeat elections are almost certain.

The European Union is sending a strong message that Greece must honour the bailout conditions of budget cuts and deep reforms after Venizelos and Samaras advocated renegoti-

French left set to win parliament vote

Now, it looks set to easily win more than the 3 percent threshold needed to win the parliamentary elections in France.

(Reuters)

PARIS: The French left will trounce the conservative UMP party of outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy in parliamentary elections next month after Francois Hollande won a presidential runoff vote at the weekend, two polls indicated on Friday.

Hollande’s Socialists and other left-wing partner parties could together win 45-46 percent of the vote in the June 10 first round of the election, compared with about one-third for the UMP. The left aims to build on its momentum after voters swept Hollande to victory on Sunday, bringing the Socialists back to government in Paris after a decade in opposition.

Pollsters CSA found that the Socialists would take 32 percent in the first round of the parliamentary election while allied Greens would get 4 percent and the Left Front 10 percent.

A BVA poll put the Socialists at 30 percent, the Greens 4.5 percent and the Left Front 10.5 percent.

The CSA said the UMP would garner 33 percent and

BVA 32.5 percent.

Sarkozy’s defeat left the UMP limping into the parliamentary election, especially with the far-right National Front looking to scoop up voters on the right after a strong showing in the first round of the presidential election in April. The UMP has ruled out any alliance with the National Front even though polls have shown a majority of its voters open to such a deal.

According to the CSA poll, the National Front could tally 12 percent in the parliamentary elections while the BVA put their score at 16 percent.

If candidates poll more than 12.5 percent in the first round, they move on to the June 17 runoff. Were candidates from the National Front, Left and UMP all to qualify, the ensuing three-way contest would be won with a simple majority.

The CSA poll was based on interviews with 1,000 people and the BVA survey included 1,160 respondents, and both were carried out on behalf of various French media. -Reuters

“It was the decision taken by private citizens who feel out of patriotism that they have to speak on the issue. Again, our constitution clearly protects freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly,” Edwin Lacierda told a press briefing on Friday. The row over the South China Sea is potentially the biggest flashpoint for confrontation in Asia, and tensions have risen since the United States adopted a policy last year to reinforce its influence in the region. The Philippines is one of Washington’s closest allies in the region. The South China Sea islands, believed to be rich in oil and other resources, are claimed wholly or in part by China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Liberation Army Daily, the chief mouthpiece of China’s military, criticized the United States’ involvement.

“The United States’ shift in strategic focus to the east and its entry into the South China Sea issue has provided the Philippines with room for strategic maneuver, and to a certain extent increased the Philippines’ chips to play against us, emboldening them to take a risky course,” it said.

For China’s ruling Communist Party,

ating the deal to boost growth.

Creditors have warned that a rescue loan installment to be paid on Thursday could be the last if Athens reneges on its reform commitments, raising questions over the future of Greece in the 17-member eurozone. -AFP

MAIDUGURI: Two explosions and gunshots rang out around a church in Nigeria’s restive city of Maiduguri, the hotbed of deadly Islamist insurgency, but it was unclear if anyone was hurt, a security source said Friday. “In the late hours we had two explosions followed by sporadic gunshots.

I don’t have any further information now on casualties,” a security official who did not want to be named, told AFP of the incident on Thursday night. -AFP

Suicide bomb plot leak worries security experts

LONDON: Counter-terrorism experts expressed concern on Friday over US leaks about an undercover operation that foiled a suicide bomb plot, saying its exposure may deter agents from volunteering for the risky job of infiltrating AlQaeda’s network.

While electronic methods are increasingly used in espionage operations of all kinds, human intelligence remains crucial because Al Qaeda’s best operatives try to avoid the use of any electronic communications to minimize the chance of detection. British intelligence played a central role in the operation targeting Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, counter-terrorism sources told Reuters, by recruiting the informant who obtained the bomb and handed it to Western intelligence officers.

The undercover operative in the plot linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, was a British citizen, possibly of Saudi origin, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The informant was working in cooperation with Britain’s two principal spy agencies.

The operation appears to have been a joint venture between the British, Saudi Arabian and US intelligence services, some analysts say, and its exposure in the US media has caused widespread concern in the US intelligence community. The Saudis and British appear to be concerned too. “The Saudis are not happy with the leaking of this information,” said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst with good contacts among Gulf Arab governments. “It is potentially harmful for future operations.

And it is the Saudis who have the agents on the ground to get these things done.”

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron declined to discuss the matter, but said: “Clearly we think that sensitive information should be protected.”

Nigel Inkster, a former assistant chief of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), said in a Twitter message: “The revelations about the British agent in AQ (AlQaeda) remind us that Beltway leaking is

China criticizes Philippines on South China Sea protest MANILA: China on Friday accused the Philippines of escalating an already tense territorial dispute over the South China Sea following a noisy but peaceful antiBeijing protest in Manila.

About 200 protesters, well below initial estimates, rallied in front of the Chinese consular office in Manila. Both Beijing and Taiwan had warned their nationals to stay indoors.

The demonstrators, carrying placards and banners and waving Philippine flags, protested against what they called Chinese intrusions into Philippine territory.

The one-hour protest ended peacefully under the close watch of dozens of batonwielding police. “Encouraging the public to march and protest was a mistaken step by the Philippine side that has made the current situation more complicated and escalated it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

A spokesman for Philippine President Benigno Aquino denied government involvement in the protest although some of the organizers have links with the president’s political allies, including his chief political adviser.

3

which is heading toward an end-of-year leadership succession, the dispute with Manila can divert attention from recent energy-sapping scandals over sacked Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and blind dissident Chen Guangcheng.

Many Chinese, including military officers, have said popular anger could grow if Beijing remains too soft in responding to rival claims in the South China Sea. A hard approach to the dispute could underline a message of patriotic unity while serving as an antidote to domestic problems.

The Shanghai government-run website, eastday.com, published a photograph on Thursday that it said showed a reporter from a local TV station planting the Chinese flag on the main reef of the Huangyan island, the Chinese name of Scarborough shoal, where the Philippine coast guard and Chinese civilian ships are engaged in a more than month-long staring match.

Besides Manila, organizers planned protests at China’s embassies and consulates in the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy and other Asian capitals. No one showed up to a scheduled protest in Sydney. -Reuters

a major security threat.”

Patrick Mercer, a British Conservative Party lawmaker and a specialist in security matters, said: “If this is not a deliberate disclosure done for an operational purpose, then it is a shocking example of a leak posing risks to highly sensitive and important work.” The operation appears to have been a notable counter-terrorism success for the United States and its allies, with the adroit use of an agent inside AlQaeda ranks likely to provide particular satisfaction to Washington two and a half years after the second most deadly attack on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

On December 30 2009, a Jordanian double agent, Humam Khalil abu Mulal AlBalawi, blew himself up inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well-fortified US compound in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, killing seven CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

The attack showed militants were

keener to kill Western spies than to infiltrate their networks, underlining the daunting challenge for Western services seeking to plant an informant among AlQaeda’s senior ranks.

And yet the disclosure of the latest operation may make it less likely that others will come forward to undertake such undercover work against Al-Qaeda in future, analysts say. In the latest case, Alani said AQAP had been duped into recruiting the informant because, among other things, he held a Western passport and appeared to have a militant cast of mind, making it easier for him to be allowed to board a US-bound plane without undue suspicion. But by definition individuals who have the temperament, background and training to infiltrate the militant network are few.

This is not the first time such leaks have disrupted operations involving British and Saudi intelligence. -Reuters

File photo of TSA workers carrying out security checks at Denver International Airport, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in Denver. (Reuters)

Bissau neighbors back parliament chief for president BISSAU: The 15-state ECOWAS group of West African states backed Guinea-Bissau’s parliament speaker on Friday to head the transition back to civilian rule after an April 12 coup, a decision immediately rejected within the country’s main political party.

The tiny coastal state of Guinea-Bissau has long been a major trafficking hub for Latin American cocaine into Europe, with key army leaders suspected by the United States and others of being implicated in the narcotics trade.

An ECOWAS delegation to the capital Bissau issued a statement declaring that, according to the constitution, parliament speaker Manuel Sherifo Nhamadjo should assume the function of interim president.

However an official for the PAIGC party of former prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior, favorite to win a presidential run-off that had been scheduled to take place days after the coup, said it would not recognize Nhamadjo.

“The PAIGC ... awaits the view of the UN Security Council on this matter,” PAIGC Secretary-General Augusto Olivaz told reporters after the ECOWAS statement, issued in the early hours of the morning after 10 hours of closed-

door talks.

However it was not clear whether Olivaz’s stance represented that of the broader PAIGC party, many of whose members have said they are favorable to Nhamadjo. Gomes Junior, who was initially held by coup leaders, is believed to be in Ivory Coast.

The coup came after weeks of tensions between the Bissau military and an Angolan force of several hundred troops sent to the country to help reform the army, which has repeatedly interfered in politics since 1974’s independence from Portugal.

Angola has said it plans to pull the force out.

ECOWAS has subsequently said it could deploy its own military advisers to take over the baton, but so far neither a clear date for the Angolan pull-out nor ECOWAS entry has been set and the idea of a joint ECOWAS-Angola force has been mooted.

ECOWAS has said it believed Army Chief of Staff General Antonio Indjai was the leader of the shadowy self-styled Military Command that seized power in the coup.

However the junta said Indjai had been deposed during the coup. -Reuters

news in pics

ALWATAN DAILY SaturDAY, MAY 12, 2012

4

A Pakistani girl cools off in a water channel in Lahore on May 11, 2012. Heatwave conditions in Pakistan have brought temperatures in excess of 40 degrees celsius in many parts of the country. (AFP)

A journalist takes notes on May 11, 2012 during an exhibition preview of US artist Jeff Koons’ art work at the Fondation Beyeler museum in Basel. The Fondation Beyeler is presenting the first exhibition ever devoted by a Swiss museum to the US artist. Koons, likely the best-known living artist, has for decades been causing a furor with the combination of popular and high culture that informs his art. (AFP)

South Korean women march with flags of participating nations at the Expo 2012 during the opening ceremony in Yeosu, a small city on South Korea’s south coast, on May 11, 2012. (AFP)

A visitor looks at the British artist Marc Quinn’s work “The Eye of History”, at the exhibition “The Littoral Zone” at the Oceanographic museum of Monaco, Friday, May 11, 2012 in Monaco. (AP)

A man is silhouetted against the setting sun as he walks with his camel in the outskirts of Karachi May 11, 2012. (Reuters)

An Afghan boy cuts the kite string with his teeth as he sits on a grave at a cemetery on a hilltop in Kabul, May 11, 2012.

(Reuters)

Painted egg-shaped elements cover the “Altar of the Nations” art installation in Sofiyskaya Square in Kiev, May 11, 2012. A 22-metre-high and 38-metre-wide art object, which consists of 15 fragments covered with wooden egg-shaped elements, was created by Ukrainian artist Oksana Mas, according to the artist’s official website. (Reuters)

A graffiti art of Spanish artist Mr. Trazo is seen at the Polizia Festival of Urban Art at the Polytechnic University in Valencia May 11, 2012. (Reuters)

saturdAY, May 12, 2012

BUSINESS

China’s Qinzhou Mayor hails KFAED development assistance CHINA: The mayor of south China’s Qinzhou City hailed development aid extended by the Kuwaiti Fund for Economic Development (KFAED). He made remarks in this respect in his welcoming speech during the official visit by a group of consuls based in Guangzhou to his city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to inspect its industrial development areas and environment for investment and business. “Development aid provided to Qinzhou by the KFAED is highly appreciated, in particular such assistance for the projects in 2008 building a highway and two seaports,” the mayor said, noting that these projects have helped attract investors from countries such as Britain and Malaysia in the new development areas established by the city government. -KUNA

Kuwaiti crude up to $108.90 per barrel Oil pares loss on upbeat US consumer data

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil went 24 US cents up, to 108.90 US dollars per barrel (pb) in transactions on Thursday, compared with $108.66 on Wednesday, reported Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Friday.

The hike, for the second consecutive day, followed Chinese data saying that inflation retracted to 3.4 percent from 4.6 percent last April.

Also contributing to the increase is the European decision to release another bail-out installment for Greece of 4.2 billion euro on May 15.

In more news, oil pared losses and seesawed near flat on Friday as an unexpectedly strong US consumer sentiment reading helped counter weak Chinese industrial growth data.

Even with the recovery from lows, Brent crude remained on track to post a small weekly loss, with US crude headed for a weekly drop of nearly two percent.

US consumer sentiment rose early this month to its highest in more than four years, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary May reading showed, helping stem oil’s losses.

The consumer data boosted Wall Street, and the stock market’s buoyancy despite news of JPMorgan Chase & Co’s trading loss of at least two billion dollars also was supportive to oil, brokers and traders said.

Earlier, crude prices felt pressure from news that China’s industrial production in April grew at its slowest pace in nearly three years.

That report followed disappointing trade numbers released on Thursday, indicating China’s economy is showing vulnerability to a global slowdown.

Brent June crude was flat at $112.73 a barrel by 11:14 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT), after falling to $111.40. Brent must rally above $113.18 to avoid a weekly loss.

US June crude also was unchanged, at $97.08, having fallen to $95.61 before recovering back above the 200-day moving average of $96.27.

Oil to stay high, says IEA Tension between Iran and the West is likely to keep oil prices high despite a dramatic improvement in world supply and a big build in stocks, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.

The agency, which advises 28 industrialized na-

A Chinese shopper selects vegetables at a market in Hefei, east China’s Anhui province on May 11, 2012. China’s inflation rate slowed in April from the previous month, official data showed, giving Beijing more room to loosen credit restrictions to boost flagging economic growth, as the country’s consumer price index rose by 3.4 percent year-on-year in April compared with 3.6 percent in March - a slowdown analysts said was driven mainly by falling food prices. (AFP)

tions on energy policy, said soaring global oil supply from OPEC countries and the United States far outpaced global demand, curbed by poor economic activity in developed nations.

The agency said global oil supply rose 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 91 million bpd in April and was now 3.9 million bpd over year ago levels, with 90 percent of the increase coming from OPEC. Saudi Arabia has said it pumped 10.1 million bpd last month, its highest for more than 30 years, in a bid to meet growing demand and curb oil prices, which hit a three-and-a-half-year high in March.

But the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report that uncertainty remained and the agency, which last year released strategic oil stocks to compensate for the outage of Libyan production, would be ready to act if necessary.

Banks prepare for the return of the drachma LONDON: Banks are quietly readying themselves to start trading a new Greek currency. Some banks never erased the drachma from their systems after Greece adopted the euro more than a decade ago and would be ready at the flick of a switch if its debt problems forced it to bring back national banknotes and coins.

From the end of the Soviet Union - which spawned currencies such as the Estonian Kroon and the Kazakh Tenge - to the introduction of the euro, they have had plenty of practice in preparing their systems to cope with change.

Planning behind the scenes has been underway since Europe’s debt crisis erupted in Greece in 2009, said US-based Hartmut Grossman of ICS Risk Advisors who works with Wall Street banks.

“A lot of the firms, particularly in Europe and also here, have been looking at that for a long time,” said Grossman, who added that the latest Greek political crisis had brought matters “to a little bit of a head”.

“But there really has been contingency planning at all of the financial institutions for that to happen ... Greece leaving the euro zone is not a new idea,” he said.

The EU says it wants Greece to stay in the common currency, and opinion polls show Greeks want to keep it. But they also voted last Sunday for parties opposed to a bailout with the EU and

FILE- A photo taken on Feb. 15, 2012 shows a person holding a 1 euro coin (right) and Greek 1 drachma coin in front of a Greek national flag. Banks are quietly readying themselves to start trading a new Greek currency. (AFP)

IMF, throwing Greece’s future in the bloc back into doubt. The elections threw into doubt the EU/IMF aid package that came at the price of harsh austerity measures, and was reached only after much haggling between banks and politicians over a 100 billion euro debt reduction.

While the deal averted financial market catastrophe by allowing Greece to continue repaying its reduced debts, any future problems could be yet more troublesome, even if Athens managed the process in a more or less orderly fashion.

A Greek departure from the euro would create legal and practical problems for the banks which would dwarf the relatively straightforward technical job of dealing in a new currency.

Scenarios

Greece would almost certainly impose foreign exchange controls if it were to drop out of the euro, bankers said, but dealing in any new currency would still be possible.

“Forex desks can get ready relatively quickly.

It depends on exactly how the exit from the euro happens,” said Lewis O’Donald, the London-based Chief Risk Officer at Japanese investment bank Nomura. Currencies that are not freely tradable, such as the Chinese yuan, are widely mirrored in off-shore foreign exchange markets through the use of derivative instruments, such as non-deliver-

“The path of market fundamentals for the rest of the year remains highly uncertain and geopolitical risks will likely continue to keep prices high,” the IEA said.

“The IEA will monitor market conditions and stands ready to act if supply conditions warrant it.” The agency kept its forecast for global oil demand growth this year broadly unchanged, raising it by just 20,000 bpd from its previous report to 790,000 bpd.

This would bring global oil consumption this year to around 90 million bpd, it said.

World oil supply was likely to more than match the increase in demand, the IEA said. OPEC oil supply had risen by 410,000 bpd in April, with Iraq, Nigeria and Libya providing 85 percent of the increase, well ahead of demand for OPEC oil.

-Agencies

Sony slides to three-decade low on strategy doubts

TOKYO: Shares in Sony Corp slumped more than seven percent to near 32-year lows, as investors doubted the Japanese consumer electronics giant has a strategy to fix its loss-making TV business and compete in the smartphone market against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

The last time Sony shares were this low, in the summer of 1980, its first Walkman portable cassette player had just gone on sale in the United States. So far this year, Sony has seen more than three billion US dollars wiped off its market value.

The maker of Bravia TVs, Vaio laptops and PlayStation games consoles on Thursday posted a record annual loss of $5.7 billion, but forecast a first profit in five years as it looks to halve losses at its ailing TV business. The net profit forecast was below analysts’ expectations.

Japanese firms, which long dominated the global TV industry, have been overtaken by Samsung and LG Electronics, which are rolling out next-generation sets using organic light emitting display (OLED), in a reshaping of Asia’s flat panel sector. A stronger yen, which erodes the value of exports, has also not helped. “(In the past) if you wanted a top quality TV you had to buy a Sharp, Panasonic or Sony. Those days are gone,” Steve Durose, Senior Director and Head of AsiaPacific at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters last month.

“I didn’t see anything positive in there (Sony’s results),” said a trader at a US bank. “There’s really nothing in there that can justify buying the stock. You see the loss narrowing in the TV business. That’s fine, but I don’t see any future in the TV business, so it doesn’t matter what they do.”

Shares of Panasonic Corp, which makes Viera TVs, also fell, 1.6 percent, to their lowest close in more than three decades. After the market closed, Panasonic also posted a record annual loss, of $9.7 billion, and predicted a return to profit this year after a heavy bout of cost-cutting and restructuring.

Sharp Corp, Japan’s other main TV manufacturer, fell 5.1 percent to its lowest

close since November 1979.

Too optimistic?

Analysts said the Sony results were largely neutral while its forecasts looked too optimistic.

“We see no catalyst that might spur a sustained (share) rally,” Deutsche Bank analyst Yasuo Nakane wrote in a note.

Shiro Mikoshiba, Nomura Equity Research analyst, wrote: “We still regard downsizing and product strategies worthy of the Sony brand as indispensable preconditions of any share price upside.”

While Mikoshiba sees a sharp profit rebound towards the end of this calendar year, “uncertainty surrounding sales of core products, including TVs, smartphones and digital cameras (means) we’re unable to pin down a turning point for the share price.”

Sony’s new CEO Kazuo Hirai has said Sony will sell more than 33 million smartphones this business year, up from 22.5 million last year, and will more than double sales of its portable game players, including the PlayStation Vita, to 16 million. Analysts, though, point to weak demand for game players in major markets and fierce competition in smartphones.

“In our view, guidance for profit improvement in digital cameras, games, li-ion batteries and smartphones looks optimistic and we see downside risk,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a client note, keeping their ‘sell’ rating on the stock. “We think TV losses may be smaller than the company forecasts ... but we see significant downside risk to overall guidance.”

The US bank trader said Sony’s forecast of 33 million smartphone shipments in the year to next March looked optimistic given that its supplier, Qualcomm, faced capacity constraints and the firm’s priority is to supply Apple, which could leave Sony without enough smartphone chips to meet its target.

Sony carried a 12-month forward price-to-book ratio of 0.56, slightly below Panasonic’s 0.64 and Sharp’s 0.67, Datastream data showed - all way below the electronics sector’s 1.08. -Reuters

Qatar buys ‘major’ stake in oil giant shell

able forwards, or NDFs. The problem may be bigger for euro zone banks which need cash for individuals or companies doing business in Greece. They face the problem of what exchange rate to use, depending on the laws Athens might draw up for trade it its currency.

If Greece forced an exchange rate of, say, one euro to one new drachma, this could impose huge losses on foreign banks because such a rate would not hold on the markets. Controls on the movement of capital could be a nightmare for banks with loans in Greece, potentially making it illegal for companies to repay debt in euros.

Even if it were not illegal, companies might no longer be able to repay foreign creditors because their cash had been converted overnight into drachmas - a currency that would rapidly lose its value due to the dire state of the Greek economy.

That would, in turn, make it tough for any lender to get its money back, whatever contract it might have. “Our assumption is that an exit route somehow has capital controls in place, or an inability for a creditor to enforce (legal rulings) under English law into Greece,” O’Donald said.

Shouting ‘fire!’

Banks have studied several options to protect themselves as best they can, including switching to US law for new derivative transactions or loans. So far few have taken such steps due to doubts about how effective they would be, and also because they are afraid to add to market concerns.

“Banks are very, very reluctant to start shouting ‘fire!’. They know what happens and what panic looks like,” said one London-based lawyer advising financial firms.

Instead, most are simply checking the governing law of their contracts, hedging against defaults and running through every legal argument a Greek euro exit could throw up.

“There are still areas which will be grey in some respect and which will lead to conflicts of law that may have to be resolved in court,” Nomura’s O’Donald said.

Many banks have been simulating a rupture of the euro in “war games”. But little is known about how an exit would work, and legal departments are poring over financial contracts, raising questions about the very nature of a currency.

“If transactions are denominated in the euro, what is the status of those transactions in the event that there is a change of the make-up of that currency?” said Miles Kennedy, a partner at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

With such questions unanswered, stuffing cash machines with enough drachma banknotes is almost an afterthought.

For Greece itself, it certainly won’t pose a problem. The country’s national bank has its own banknote printing press and mint and has continued to print euro banknotes ever since joining the single currency in 2001. -Reuters

LONDON: Gas-rich Qatar is ploughing more of its commodity wealth back into the sector with the purchase of a major stake in Royal Dutch Shell while also reportedly eyeing a chunk of Italian oil major ENI. A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the purchase while declining to detail its size but the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported earlier that Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund (QIA) was looking at a three to five percent stake. A five percent shareholding would make Qatar Shell’s biggest single investor, according to Reuters data. The Gulf nation’s massive gas supplies have made it rich, allowing it to create a sovereign wealth fund that has been buying up assets, including stakes in listed companies, around the world. “We are delighted to welcome the Qatar Investment Authority as a long term and major shareholder in Shell, and particularly given our excellent strategic relationship with the Qatari state,” the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. Shell operates multibillion dollar natural gas projects in Qatar. Shell’s London-listed “A” shares rose 0.6 percent to trade at 20.62 euros by 1357 GMT, against a 0.6 percent drop in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index. Eni, whose shares traded up 1.0 percent at 16.74 euros, had no comment on the MEES report that Qatar was negotiating a stake in ENI. Close ties

A senior executive of the Qatari fund said in April that the financial crisis had restricted investment in commodities and that he expected a supplydemand gap to emerge by 2016 or 2017. “We like commodities, we like to invest in commodities. Since 2002, the commodity price trend keeps going up,” Qatar Investment Authority Executive Board Member Hussain Al-Abdulla told reporters. Qatar Holding, a unit of QIA, said last month that it had increased its stake in French oil group Total to three percent and is undecided on buying more shares. Qatar signed a deal in April to co-invest $250 million with Barclays’ natural resources private equity investment unit. QIA has been the most active of the region’s sovereign wealth funds in recent years, deploying profit from its natural gas riches into assets ranging from German sports car maker Porsche to British bank Barclays. The fund has also been slowly buying into London-listed miner Xstrata recently. Its current holding in Xstrata, which is planning to merge with commodities trader Glencore , is about 7.2 percent. Qatar surprised many observers by passing on the Glencore initial public offering last year as rival Abu Dhabi fund Aabar bought into the flotation. -Reuters

Lebanon says economy grew 5.2% in 2011, economists skeptical BEIRUT: Lebanon’s economy probably grew 5.2 percent in 2011, the Minister of Economy and Trade said on Friday, which would be twice as fast as forecast but businessmen and economists were skeptical about the estimate.

“A recent study from the Prime Minister’s office showed that growth in 2011 was 5.2 percent,” Minister Nicolas Nahas told the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut. Some economists questioned the figure, and central bank Governor Riad Salameh said on Thursday that he expected economic growth this year would be in line with the IMF’s forecast of 3 percent - which he described as higher than last year. The central bank said last year it expected growth of two percent in 2011, and the IMF projected 1.5 percent. “This new growth figure should be viewed very cautiously,” said Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank.

“The calculations of national accounts need significant improvement and are based on a very weak statistical base in the country.” Lebanon had seen rapid growth until 2011, when the economy ground to a halt in the first half of the year following the collapse of its government and the turmoil from an uprising in neighboring Syria. Foreign direct investment in the country dropped to four billion dollars in 2011 from $4.8 billion a year earlier, according to estimates given to the forum by Nabil Itani, head of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon, a government agency. -Reuters

saturday, may 12, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlights ENGLAND: Manchester United’s Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov will be seeking to join a team outside England when he leaves his current club at the end of the season, his agent Emil Danchev said Friday. The 31-year-old striker lost his prime spot on United’s squad earlier this season, making just 12 appearances in the English Premier League, and manager Sir Alex Ferguson has now made him available for transfer, goal.com reported. The website predicted a possible return to Germany, where Berbatov played for Bayer Leverkusen, with top clubs such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund reportedly expressing interest in the former Bulgarian international. Berbatov joined the Reds from Tottenham Hotspur in 2008 for £30.75 million (38.3 million Euros, $49.6 million US dollars) and was joint top scorer in the English Premier League last season alongside Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez. -AFP

Football

City on the verge of title as finale looms LONDON: The noisy neighbors are on the verge of having the mother of all parties in Manchester 44 years in the making.

Manchester City can wrap up their first Premier League title in the club’s history in front of their fans at sold-out Etihad Stadium on Sunday with a victory over Queens Park Rangers.

While nothing is set in stone heading into the final matchday, City (27-5-5) are level with United on 86 points atop the table but have a plus-63 goal differential to the plus-55 United sport heading into their finale at the Stadium of Light versus Sunderland.

A victory would put City in a near-unassailable position that should result in the team’s first top-flight title since winning the First Division in the 1967-68 season and bring the purchase of this star-crossed club in August 2008 by Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi United Group full circle with this long-sought and desperately wanted title by the City faithful, a trophy that would be all the sweeter having been raised while their archrivals United finished second.

Not that this run-up has come drama-free. Only recently has there been a détente between manager Roberto Mancini and striker Carlos Tevez from their September bust-up during Champions League play, with the Argentine contributing four goals as City have won five on the trot.

Fellow forward Mario Balotelli has made as many headlines for his off-pitch dramatics as his on-pitch prowess, and all the while, Uruguayan forward Sergio Aguero has quietly accounted for a teambest 22 goals in league play.

Yet even with a Premiership-best 90 goals, it has been City’s rigorous defense at the Etihad that has them on the cusp of this title. They have taken 52 of a possible 54 points at home (17-1-0), outscored opponents there by a staggering 52-10 margin, posted 11 clean sheets and al-

Newcastle travel to Everton with fourth place hopes

FILE - Vincent Kompany of Man City walks dejected at the final whistle during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on April 8, 2012. (AFP)

lowed more than one goal on only two occasions. Queens Park Rangers (10-7-20), however, have no intention of being City’s sacrificial lambs for a garden party at the Etihad as they enter this contest needing a win to ensure avoiding relegation. Rangers greatly helped their cause to avoid the drop last weekend when Djibril Cisse’s 89th-minute goal provided a 1-0 win over Stoke City that vaulted them to 17th.

Manager Mark Hughes’ team are two points ahead of Bolton Wanderers in the race to stay in the Premier League and also could get by with a draw since Rangers have a superior goal differential. However, Rangers have been miserable away from Loftus Park, losing their last six by a combined 17-5 margin and are 0-2-10 on the road since a 3-2 win at Stoke City on Nov. 19 before Hughes took over.

Spurs welcome fulham home for London derby

The match also has significant weight for Hughes, who was unceremoniously dumped as City’s manager in December 2009 to make way for Mancini. Hughes did get a point at Etihad last season while guiding Fulham to a draw.

Yaya Toure provided the match-winner in the 74th minute of the reverse fixture at Loftus Road prior to Hughes’ arrival in a 3-2 victory Nov. 5. -AP

LONDON: Newcastle United will need help elsewhere on the final Sunday of the Premier League as they travel to Everton hoping to secure at least fourth place.

The Magpies are fifth in the table on 65 points, with Arsenal in third on 67 and Tottenham on 66. Third place guarantees a place in the group stage of the Champions League while fourth ensures a spot in the play-off round provided Chelsea do not win next week’s final against Bayern Munich. Arsenal are away to West Brom while Spurs host Fulham, and Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is excited about the opportunity.

Everton will not gain a place in Europe as they sit in seventh place on 53 points. They would like to solidify seventh, with arch-rivals Liverpool and Fulham one point behind them. The Toffees have finished ahead of their Merseyside rivals once in the last 25 seasons - 2004-05.

The Toffees have four wins and four draws in their last eight fixtures, although their seven-game streak with scoring at least one goal ended with last Sunday’s 0-0 result at Wolverhampton. Everton have outscored the opposition 10-0 in winning their last three matches at Goodison Park.

The danger man for Everton is Nikica Jelavic, with eight goals over his last nine matches. The Magpies won 2-1 at home Nov. 5 in the reverse fixture. They also prevailed 1-0 in last season’s corresponding fixture on a goal by Hatem Ben Arfa after being winless in their previous seven league fixtures at Goodison.

Everton will have their first look at an in-form Papiss Cisse, who has 13 goals in 13 appearances for Newcastle.

Strike partner Demba Ba, meanwhile, hasn’t added to his total of 16 goals since Cisse’s first strike Feb. 5.

No matter the results Sunday, Pardew is happy to have restored pride back to Newcastle.

“We have great potential at this football club,” Pardew said. “We are back where we should be, at the top of this division, we have tradition and history that few clubs can match. Therefore we need to compete where we are now. I’m sure David Moyes and Everton will be hoping they finish the season well at home but it’s an opportunity for us to try and win. And if we can win one more away game, we’ll see how Spurs and Arsenal get on with their respective games.” -AP

Terry still to hear from Hodgson LONDON: Chelsea captain John Terry said Thursday he is still to hear from new England manager Roy Hodgson regarding his possible participation at Euro 2012.

Hodgson is set to end the guessing game over whether Terry and Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand, long regarded as England’s premier central defensive pairing, will play together at the European Championships in June when he names his squad for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine next week.

Terry faces a court case in July over allegations he racially abused Ferdinand’s younger brother Anton during a Premier League match against Queens Park Rangers in October. Terry denies the charges.

Speaking at his appointment last week, Hodgson said he planned to hold face-to-face talks with Terry and Ferdinand to gauge whether the two could still feature in the same squad.

“I’ve not had any call yet but I’m focusing on the league and Chelsea at the moment,” Terry said at Chelsea’s Player of the Year awards on Thursday. “Hopefully, I get the call and I’m in the squad - and that goes for many of us here. I’ll always be there for my country.”

Hodgson was only thrust into the England position a few weeks before Euro 2012 after Italian manager Fabio Capello resigned from the job in protest at the Football Association’s decision to strip Terry of the England captaincy.

The FA, while insisting they were not pre-judging the outcome of any court action, said they did not want Terry, who as England captain would have more media duties than an ordinary squad player, being constantly questioned about the case during Euro 2012. Hodgson is due to name his 23-man squad on Wednesday. -AFP

Chelsea meet relegated Rovers in Premier league finale

Tottenham Hotspurs’ Jermain Defoe (left) shoots at goal against West Bromwich Albion during the Premiership match at White Hart Lane Park in London, Jan. 3, 2012. (AFP)

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur can secure fourth place in the Premier League on the final Sunday of the season when they welcome Fulham to White Hart Lane for a London derby.

Spurs are in fourth on 66 points, one point behind Arsenal and one ahead of Newcastle United. The Gunners finish away to West Bromwich Albion and the Magpies at Everton.

The match marks the return of Martin Jol to White Hart Lane since he managed Tottenham from 2004-07.

He’s keen on helping Fulham finish on 55 points for what would be their highest total in the top flight.

Fulham are in ninth place, level with Liverpool on 52 points with Everton one point ahead in seventh. Tottenham missed an opportunity to move into third place with last Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa. Spurs were reduced to 10 men on 49 minutes when Danny Rose was sent off, but managed to equalise on Emmanuel Adebayor’s penalty in the 62nd minute while finishing with a 21-4 advantage in shots.

Fulham knows all too well about failing to take advantage of a great disparity in shots from their 3-1 defeat to Spurs at Craven Cottage on Nov. 6. The home side held a 28-8 edge, marking their highest shot count

of the campaign.

“We know it will be a tough game,” midfielder Jake Livermore told Tottenham’s official website. “Martin Jol will have his team organized, so we’d love to get an early goal and build on that.”

Jol’s main job this summer may be to convince United States international Clint Dempsey to stay on. Dempsey is fourth in the Premier League with 17 goals and has scored or assisted on 53 percent of the Cottagers’ goals, with only Arsenal’s Robin van Persie (56 percent) enjoying a higher ratio within the league.

Fulham have dropped their last four league encounters with Tottenham, and have been outscored 11-1 over five defeats and two draws since their last league victory at White Hart Lane in 2003. The Cottagers own two wins in 37 combined league and cup matches while making the 18-kilometre journey to the Lane.

“I would like Spurs to play in the Champions League, of course, but, on the other hand, if we can get three points that would be good,” Jol said. “I am satisfied with what we have achieved and this is probably our best season ever when combining with European football.” -AP

LONDON: Chelsea have what amounts as one final dress rehearsal for the Champions League final when they meet relegated Blackburn Rovers at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the Premier League season Sunday.

Manager Roberto Di Matteo made eight changes from the squad that won 2-1 over Liverpool last Saturday at Wembley to lift the FA Cup for Tuesday’s Premier League rematch at Anfield. The Reds bolted to 3-0 lead inside half an hour in a 4-1 triumph that ended the Blues’ hopes of finishing fourth in the league.

Now the only way into the Champions League next season will be for Di Matteo’s men to defeat Bayern Munich in Munich next weekend. Chelsea have never won the Champions League, losing in the final to Manchester United on penalties four years ago.

The manager must decide who to include in his side Sunday, with John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Raul Meireles and Ramires all suspended for the Champions League final.

In addition, the Blues are still waiting on the fitness of defenders David Luiz and Gary Cahill, both out with hamstring injuries. Rovers, meanwhile, will end an 11year run in the Premier League with the Championship beckoning. Blackburn’s fate was sealed with Monday night’s 1-0 defeat to Wigan Athletic.

Confirmation of the drop has added to the turmoil at Ewood Park. Deputy chief executive Paul Hunt has left the club after a letter he sent five months ago was made public in which he warned the club’s owners, Indian poultry firm Venky’s, of its likely relegation. Hunt also recommended the dismissal of under-fire Blackburn

manager Steve Kean.

“The owners are here for the long term, I’m here for the long term,” Kean said. “We’re now going to take one step backwards to really push forward and try and assemble a squad and I am confident we can get there.”

Rovers have one win and seven defeats over their last eight fixtures, but players continue to back Kean.

“I’ve got nothing but admiration and respect for him,” Blackburn defender Bradley Orr said of Kean. “It’s not through lack of effort but we fell short as a group of players, and it’s resulted in relegation.

I can’t put my finger on why, it’s really hard to take.” Chelsea are unbeaten in 12 meetings with Blackburn, winning nine since a loss at Ewood Park on May 2, 2006. The Blues won 1-0 in the reverse fixture Nov. 5. -AP

Chelsea’s captain John Terry (2nd left) celebrates on the pitch with team-mates after Chelsea’s 2-1 win in the FA Cup final football match between Liverpool and Chelsea, May 5, 2012. (AFP)

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

saturDAY, may 12, 2012

7

Tennis

Serena sweeps past Sharapova into Madrid semis MADRID: Serena Williams blew away fellow former number one Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 to join top seed Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals at the Madrid Open on Friday.

The American ninth seed extended her winning streak over the Russian world number two to seven in a row and to eight from 10 meetings, since they first clashed in Miami back in 2004.

Williams, unbeaten on clay this season, battered down 11 aces, including one on a second serve at break-point in the seventh game of the second set, which seemed to end any hopes Sharapova may have had of coming back into the match. She will meet either fifth-seed Samantha Stosur or Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka in the semifinals.

World number one Azarenka was made to battle hard to overcome Roland Garros champion Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The Belarussian, runner up in Madrid last year, looked to be cruising at 4-1 up in the third before China’s Li broke back.

Li was unable to take advantage of four break-point chances, however, and 36 unforced errors told its own story.

Asked if it was confidence from having won four titles already this year that had seen her through the match, Azarenka responded: “It wasn’t very much to do with confidence.

I was thinking I had to change and come up with things to surprise her because she was playing unbelievable in the first set. I had to turn something around. I don’t know if it was confidence, or belief, or whether it was just pushing myself to be better.”

Azarenka also gave her views on the controversial blue clay playing surface, an innovation at this year’s tournament, which men’s world numbers one and two Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal slammed on Thursday.

“I’m not a fan of this court, that’s for sure,” she added.

“But I don’t want to sit here and complain about it. Nothing is going to change this year.We can talk after the tournament about maybe possible changes or something.” -Reuters

Nadal ready to shun Madrid after rare defeat

Serena Williams from US celebrates a point on her way to defeat Maria Sharapova from Russia during the Madrid Open tennis tournament, May 11, 2012. (AP)

MADRID: Rafa Nadal suffered his first claycourt defeat in 23 matches on Thursday and threatened to boycott next year’s Madrid Open if officials did not ditch the blue clay that players have labeled “too slippery.”

After the shock 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 third-round reverse to fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the French Open champion vowed not to return to the Masters event unless traditional red courts, which are slower and more suited to his game, were reinstated.

World number one Novak Djokovic has also been severely critical of the playing surface and after his 7-6 6-4 victory against unseeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka said he too would shun the event next year unless the blue clay was discarded.

“The movements are very important for me and here I cannot move so I cannot hit the ball the way that I want,” Nadal told a news conference after squandering a 5-2 lead in the final set against 15th seed Verdasco.

“The ATP and the tournament can do what they want,” he added referring to the controversial innovation sanctioned by the governing body of men’s tennis for this year’s tournament. I tried my best to prepare but I wasn’t good enough to adapt my game to this court.

The only thing that I know is that if things continue like this I am very sad but next year will be one less tournament in my calendar.”

Nadal’s outburst was perhaps understandable considering he would have been confident of beating Verdasco having won all 13 of their previous meetings.

However, an error-strewn performance ended the Spaniard’s bid for a third straight clay title this season and deprived him of a chance to avenge his defeat by Djokovic in last year’s final.

He also faces the prospect of Roger Federer replacing him as world number two if the Swiss, the 2009 champion, wins the title on Sunday.Verdasco’s first win against Nadal was all the more astonishing given that the second seed twice failed to serve out the match in the deciding set.

Verdasco broke his Davis Cup team mate seven times in all, losing his own serve six times, and clubbed 31 winners to his opponent’s 19. A typically crashing forehand drive sealed victory on his second match point and he fell flat on his back on the court before kissing the clay and heading off to play a doubles match. -Reuters

Basketball

76ers beat Bulls 79-78 and advance to 2nd round PHILADELPHIA: Omer Asik placed his hands on his hips in disbelief as an improbable 76ers’ celebration erupted around him.

Derrick Rose was lost for the series in Game 1. Joakim Noah hit the bench for good in Game 4.

Now all the Chicago Bulls are headed home after a tough tumble from the top of the East to postseason punch line.

Andre Iguodala made the go-ahead free throws with 2.2 seconds left and Philadelphia rallied for a 79-78 victory over the top-seeded Chicago Bulls in Game 6 on Thursday night, advancing to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time since 2003.

The Sixers put their season in the hands of one of the worst fourth-quarter free-throw shooters in the NBA. Coach Doug Collins was hunched over with his hands clasped while Iguodala was at the line.

Iguodala made nine of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter in this series after shooting 45 per-

cent (23 of 51) from the line in the period this season. Iguodala changed his approach at the line this series. He started thinking what it would be like to teach his son how to shoot free throws.

Asik stood motionless on the free-throw line when the stunning upset was completed. Philadelphia cheerleaders stormed the court and danced around him before he trudged off the court.

The Sixers are the fifth No. 8 seed to win a firstround series against a No. 1 seed. Memphis eliminated San Antonio last season, while Golden State (2007), New York (1999) and Denver (1994) also pulled off the rare feat.

In his second season, Collins had already led the Sixers to their first winning season in seven years. Now, it’s on to the second round for the first time since Allen Iverson was an All-Star. Iguodala hopped on the scorer’s table and played to the crowd as the catchy 76ers’ anthem blared in the arena.

The Sixers were smiling and mobbed each oth-

er as they dashed to the locker room to keep the party going. The Sixers were 2.2 seconds from playing Game 7 in Chicago. Now, they will pack their bags for the second round. They went 2-1 against the Celtics this season. Collins had a catch in his voice at the postgame podium and was joined by his 4-year-old grandson, Cooper. Collins held back tears while talking about faith, family and his guys in the locker room.

The Bulls lost Rose to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee late in their Game 1 win.

Noah missed the last three games with a sprained left ankle.

Luol Deng had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Bulls. Richard Hamilton scored 19 points and Boozer grabbed 13 rebounds.

Noah was one of the top offensive rebounders in the league and the Bulls figured on missing his presence in the middle. Led by Deng and Boozer, the Bulls instead went out and controlled the boards, holding a 49-29 edge early in the fourth. -AP

Taj Gibson (22) of the Chicago Bulls takes a shot against Andre Iguodala (9) and Lou Williams (23) of the Philadelphia 76ers in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, May 10, 2012. (AFP)

Formula one

Cricket

Button quickest in Spanish GP practice

Kamran, Razzaq disappointed at Pakistan cricket snub

BARCELONA: McLaren’s Jenson Button set the pace in Spanish Grand Prix practice on Friday with half the field separated by little more than a second.

With the frontrunners all trying out new developments on a hot and sunny day, the 2009 world champion lapped the Circuit de Catalunya with a best time of one minute 23.399 seconds set on the soft Pirelli tires.

The top 10 cars were all within a second and 12th-placed Mexican Sergio Perez, in a Sauber, lapped only 1.023 off Button’s best. Red Bull’s double world

champion and overall leader Sebastian Vettel was second in both sessions.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who gave his home fans what they wanted to see with the top time of 1:24.430 in the morning, was 14th after lunch. Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa was 11th.

Alonso is looking for big improvements in his car after tests in Italy last week ahead of the first European race of the Formula One season.

Ferrari have struggled to keep up with champions Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes despite Alonso’s win against the

McLaren Formula One driver Jenson Button of Britain drives during the first practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo, May 11, 2012. (Reuters)

odds in a rain-hit Malaysian race in March and the Spaniard is now fifth overall.

So open is the championship, with four different winners in four races, that the Ferrari driver is still only 10 points behind Vettel, however.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, winner in China in April, was third fastest in the afternoon with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton fourth. Lotus team mates Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were fifth and sixth.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan failed to set a lap time in the HRT after stopping on track in the afternoon while Australian Mark Webber went through the gravel in his Red Bull and was seventh fastest. Webber has been on pole at the last two Spanish Grands Prix, winning in 2010.

The day had got off to a low-key start with little track action and Alonso keeping his fans waiting for more than an hour before he set a serious time. Vettel, winner of the previous race in Bahrain, had been quickest until then.

While Ferrari assessed their upgraded car, McLaren were trying out a new raised nose after their strong start to the season tailed off. Button was fourth fastest before lunch.

Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas impressed with the fifth best time in the morning after taking Brazilian Bruno Senna’s place for the session.

French reserve Jules Bianchi took Paul Di Resta’s Force India for the morning while American Alexander Rossi made his Caterham debut and Spaniard Dani Clos replaced Karthikeyan.

The arrival of Clos on track will go down as a footnote in Formula One history as the first time a Spanish team had run two Spanish drivers at a Spanish Grand Prix. Rossi was the first American driver to take part in a grand prix weekend since Scott Speed left Toro Rosso in 2007. -Reuters

LAHORE: Snubbed Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal and all-rounder Abdul Razzaq Friday expressed disappointment at being continuously left out of the national team, asking selectors for their reasons.

Pakistan Thursday announced three separate squads for next month’s tour of Sri Lanka, but Kamran and Razzaq were not selected in any of the squads. Kamran said he was unaware of the reasons for his continuous omission.

“I don’t know why the selectors did not select me once again,” Kamran told reporters. “I am doing well at the domestic level and am fit and want to play for my country but I don’t know why I am continuously left out of the team.”

The 30-year-old keeper-batsman has not played for Pakistan since the World Cup 2011 semifinal against arch-rivals India in March.

Kamran, who was investigated over fixing allegations, claimed he had been cleared by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) integrity committee.

“I am cleared by the PCB integrity committee and if I am at fault in any way then ban me for good,” a visibly upset Kamran said. “This is not fair to level allegations against me because I have satisfied everyone, including the International Cricket Council (ICC).”

PCB formed an integrity committee headed by a retired judge to check the assets of players on the directives of the ICC in October 2010.

That came two months after the spot-fixing scandal in England which ended in lengthy bans on three Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.

Kamran has so far played 53 Tests, 137 one-day and 38 Twenty20 for Pakistan. All-rounder Razzaq also criticized selection for the Sri Lanka tour.

Razzaq has not been selected since being sent home from United Arab Emirates in November last year following a shoulder injury against Sri Lanka. He has so far played 46 Tests, 265 one-day and 26 Twenty20 internationals. -AFP

FILE - Pakistan batsman Kamran Akmal plays a shot during a semifinal match of The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 between India and Pakistan at The Punjab Cricket Associaton (PCA) Stadium, March 30, 2011. (AFP)

8

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Public Health Centers/ Clinics:

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

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DOCTORS & DENTISTS

I N PR I VAT E PR AC T ICE

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

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

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

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

2565 0064 2533 3501

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

2572 8004 2532 9924

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

Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Adel Quttainah

2562 5030 / 60

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noodles Salmiya Tel: 25712233

Bukhara Sheraton Hotel Tel: 22422055

The Peacock Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25673000

Tourist Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22411702

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

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

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

Tel: 22997000

L I S T I N G S

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

Kuwait City Tel: 22400737

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

Sakura Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

AlRoshinah Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

Shogun The Palms Hotel Tel: 27070022

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

Manousha Salmiya Tel: 25722607 / 8

Al-Noukhaza Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

Fakhr Al-Din Restaurant Kuwait City Tel: 22423180

Villa Fairouz Shaab Tel: 22652030

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

Garden New Park Hotel Tel: 25634200

Yeldes Palace Kuwait City Tel: 22455212

Kabab-Ji Tel: 1861616

Zahrat Tunis Hawalli Tel: 22662444/333

Mais Al-Ghanim Kuwait City Tel: 22402590

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

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

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

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

Shabistan Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

The Gaucho Grill The Palms Hotel Tel: 25667370 -

• Seafood Al-Ahmadi Crowne Plaza Hotel Tel: 24742000

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

Al-Boom Radisson Blu Hotel Tel: 25756000

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

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

Flavors Restaurant Safir Hotel & Residences -Fintas Tel: 25455555

• Italian Ciro’s Pomodoro Kuwait City Tel: 22424004

Saj Express Kuwait City Tel: 22497822

Te l : 1 8 3 9 0 9 0

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

HOTELS

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

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

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

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

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

22528766 22465489 22443136 22532100 25742410 25713872 22928080

TWO STAR International Hotel Kuwait Residence Hotel

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LIFE

Help prevent gas in babies Babies often swallow too much air while eating or drinking, leading to uncomfortable gas. The University of Michigan Health System says common causes of gas in babies also include: • Swallowing too much air while crying.

• Giving your baby too much juice.

• Giving your baby cow’s milk before age 1, or cereal before age 4 months.

saturDAY, may 12, 2012

Monster sunspot fires off powerful solar flares WASHINGTON: A huge sunspot that dwarfs the Earth is unleashing a series of powerful solar flares as it moves across the surface of the sun, NASA scientists say according to SPACE. The sunspot AR 1476 was detected by space telescopes on May 5. The huge sunspot is 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) across, so large that when it was first seen in views from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, mission scientists dubbed it a “monster sunspot.”

Earlier this week, space weather scientists predicted the sunspot would erupt with powerful solar flares, and those predictions have since come true. So far, the sunspot has fired off several flares, including a strong solar storm early Thursday (May 10).

“Solar activity has been at high levels for the past 24 hours with multiple M-class solar flares observed,” stated an update Thursday from the Space Weather Prediction Center, a joint service of NOAA and the National Weather Service. Sunspot region AR 1476 was responsible for nearly all of the sun’s storm activity, center officials said.

[Worst Solar Storms in History] On Thursday, sunspot AR 1476 unleashed a powerful flare at 12:18 a.m. EDT (0418 GMT) that registered as a class M5.7 eruption. M-class solar flares are medium-strength sun storms that can still unleash powerful blasts of radiation and magnetic solar plasma. So far, the sunspot has not triggered huge explosions from the sun, which scientists call coronal mass ejections.

On the scale of solar flares, X-class storms are the most powerful and can interfere with satellites and infrastructure on Earth when aimed at our planet. M-class storms are the second-most powerful flares and can set off geomagnetic storms that create dazzling northern lights displays when the eruptions reach Earth. C-class flares, the weakest category, have little effect on Earth. NASA officials said the Thursday solar storm is just one of many to

The sun unleashed an M4.7 class flare at 8:32 EDT on May 9, 2012 as captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. (AFP)

erupt from the massive sunspot.

“The sunspot, dubbed Active Region 1476, has so far produced seven M-class flares and numerous C-class flares, including two M-class flares on May 9, 2012 that peaked at 8:32 EDT and 10:08 EDT,” the space agency wrote in a Thursday space weather update.

“These flares were all short-lived and there were no associated coronal mass ejections, so we do not expect any geomagnetic storms at Earth,”

NASA officials added. That means a supercharged northern lights display from the recent solar storms is currently unlikely.Another NASA account stated that the sunspot has unleashed as many as 32 solar flares so far.It will take sunspot AR 1476 about two weeks to complete its trip across the face of the sun, as seen from Earth, NASA officials said.

The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11year solar weather cycle. The current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, will peak in 2013.

Green growth is not just for rich nations: World Bank PARIS: The World Bank urged global governments Thursday to heed the environment when pursuing prosperity, rejecting what it called a myth that green growth is a luxury most countries cannot afford.

The bank in a report said political considerations, entrenched behavior and a lack of appropriate financing systems are the chief obstacles to environmentally friendly development.

It urged governments to rethink their approach to growth, measuring not only what is being produced but what is being used up and polluted in the process.

“There is a frequent misconception that poor countries cannot stimulate growth without degrading the environment and burning the cheapest and dirtiest sources of energy,” said Kandeh Yumkella, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, in a statement.

“This simply isn’t true. Developing countries won’t replicate growth patterns of previous centuries, nor should they try. They need to grow smarter, greener and quicker.”

The report was released at a Green Growth Summit in South Korea, which will discuss ways to support countries pursuing environmentally friendly growth and green economy strategies.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said the two-day meeting of business leaders and experts can “give confidence to those who believe these discussions (on green growth) are only futuristic”.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, who is pushing to develop environmentally friendly technologies and industries as a new growth engine, said a Seoul-based think-tank would be launched as an international organization later this year.

Seoul set up the Global Green Growth Institute in 2010, and Lee said that government ministers would upgrade the organization at a meeting in South Korea in October.

The ministers will meet to prepare for December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar.

“Green growth is now transcending borders and becoming a global asset,” Lee said in a speech.

Among the main speakers was Masayoshi Sen, founder and CEO of Japanese mobile phone operator Softbank Corp.

He urged a worldwide end to “uncontrollable” nuclear power, following last year’s Fukushima nuclear accident which led to the testing of children and others for radiation.

“We should not repeat this tragedy, for the sake of these children and humankind. So I say no nuclear power anywhere in the world,” Sen said. He called instead for a massive harnessing of solar and wind power in places like the Gobi Desert, and an electrical “super-grid” linking Asian nations. -AFP

Like humans, chimpanzees have culture too Young adults raise skin cancer risk with sunburns, indoor tanning NEW YORK: Young adults are doing things that dangerously increase their risk of skin cancer, according to new reports for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention according to LiveScience.

In 2010, half of all adults ages 18 to 29, and 65 percent of white people in this age group, reported that they were sunburned at least once in the past year, the report said.

In addition, about a third of white women reported using indoor tanning in the past year.

Both sunburn and indoor tanning increase the risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. Indoor tanning before age 35 increases melanoma risk by 75 percent, the CDC says.

While efforts to reduce indoor tanning have traditionally focused on adolescents, “This study suggests that as adolescents mature into young adults, they may continue to need environmental support to develop and maintain healthy behaviors and to change their perspectives about tanning,” study researcher Anne Hartman, of the National Cancer Institute, said in a statement.

In one study, CDC researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of about 5,000 adults ages 18 to 29 about their sun-protection behaviors and sunburn in the past year.

They found that while use of certain sun-protective behaviors, such as wearing clothing to the ankles and staying in the shade, increased between 2000 and 2010, the prevalence of sunburn remained about the same (about 50 percent). The researchers do not know whether sun-protective methods were used properly (for instance, whether a sufficient amount of sunscreen

was applied.)

The majority of young adults did not adequately protect themselves from the sun. For instance, in 2010, 37 percent of women and 15 percent of men reported using sunscreen always or most of the time. Just 3.8 percent of women and 6.7 percent of men reported wearing a wide-brimmed hat. (Wide-brimmed hats provide full sun protection to the face, ears and neck, while baseball caps and sun visors do not provide sufficient protection, the CDC says.)

A second study surveyed about 25,200 adults ages 18 and over about their indoor tanning. Overall, 5.6 percent of adults said they had used indoor tanning in the past year. The highest prevalence was among white women ages 18 to 21, at 31.8 percent. In the Midwest, 44 percent of white women in this age group reported using indoor tanning.

Of those who used indoor tanning, about 58 percent of women and 40 percent of men reported tanning at least 10 times in the past year.

The US Preventative Services Task Force recently recommended children and young adults ages 10 to 24 receive counseling from their primary care doctor on ways to reduce their skin cancer risk.

“More public health efforts, including providing shade and sunscreen in recreational settings, are needed to raise awareness of the importance of sun protection and sunburn prevention to reduce the burden of skin cancer,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, director of CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, said in a statement. “We must accelerate our efforts to educate young adults about the dangers of indoor tanning to prevent melanoma as this generation ages,” Plescia said.

Nurture, not nature, determines baby’s testosterone levels

NEW YORK: Hormones during infancy are critical for development, with testosterone, for instance, playing a key role in the growth of male reproductive organs. But what factors influence a baby’s hormone levels have been uncertain. Now, new research finds the environment a child grows up in is more important than their genes for determining testosterone levels according to LiveScience.

Though the researchers didn’t identify any specific environmental factors that influenced hormone levels, specifically testosterone, they were able to rule out the infant’s genetics by studying identical twins.

No one had studied the causes of testosterone levels in infants before, but an earlier report, in September 2010, indicated that nutrition during infancy (measured by how quickly a baby grows) has an important impact on testosterone levels later in life: Those infants who were better nourished became men with higher sex drives, who were taller and more muscular.

“Testosterone is a key hormone for the development of male reproductive organs, and it is also associated with behavioral traits, such as sexual behavior and aggression,” study researcher Richard Tremblay of the University of Montreal, in Canada, said in a statement. This is true in both males and females, though the hormone affects each in different ways.

The researchers analyzed the saliva of 314 pairs of

5-month-old twins (both identical and non-identical) to determine their testosterone levels. Because identical twins share 100 percent of their genes and non-identical twins only share about 50 percent of their genes (similar to any two biological siblings), the researchers are able to determine how big of a role genetics plays in testosterone levels without looking directly at specific genes.

Results showed no differences in in the amount of variability in testosterone levels between identical and nonidentical twins, so the hormone levels probably don’t have a genetic component. “Our study is the largest to be undertaken with newborns, and our results contrast with the findings gained by scientists working with adolescents and adults, indicating that testosterone levels are inherited,” Tremblay said.

Though they know that environment plays a major role in determining testosterone levels in both boys and girls, the researchers didn’t take their study far enough to determine what these environmental factors were.

“The study was not designed to specifically identify these environmental factors which could include a variety of environmental conditions, such as maternal diet, maternal smoking, breast-feeding and parent-child interactions,” Tremblay said. “Further studies will be needed to find out exactly what these influencing factors are and to what extent they change from birth to puberty.”

NEW YORK: Like humans who might use a different slang term for “that’s cool” or have distinct fashion sense, adjacent chimpanzee groups also show cultural differences, in this case, in their nut-cracking techniques, researchers have found according to LiveScience.

“In humans, cultural differences are an essential part of what distinguishes neighboring groups that live in very similar environments,” study researcher Lydia Luncz, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said in a statement.

“For the first time, a very similar situation has been found in wild chimpanzees living in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, demonstrating that they share with us the ability for fine-scale cultural differentiation.”

The researchers studied 45 chimpanzees from three different groups for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 nut-cracking seasons, as they use tools to open coula nuts from a tropical African tree of the same name. The chimps use hard “nutcrackers,” which they craft from materials they find in their environment, to break the skin of these nuts against tree root “anvils.” The nuts are hard at the beginning of the season, becoming softer and easier to crack open over time.

Each of the three groups of chimpanzees in the national park ranges across about 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) of land, sharing a border with one of the other groups.

One of the groups used mostly nutcrackers made of stone to extract the meat from coula nuts, no matter how soft the nuts were. The other two groups started using wooden tools (which are easier to come by) to break open the nuts later in the season, using the stone tools only for the harder early-season nuts. All three communities had a special preference for how big of a hammer they used.

Interestingly, the chimpanzees from separate tribes are genetically the same, so they can and do interbreed between

FILE - This young chimp is using a stone to crack open a coula nut. (Agencies)

populations. In fact, the female chimpanzees of one group often move to mate with males from another group.

“We have documented differences in hammer choice within a single forest block, with members of three different adjacent chimpanzee communities that are in regular contact with one another and are thus not genetically differentiated,” Luncz said.

Somehow, the females are able to adapt to their new culture’s tool-use preferences; the researchers are currently

studying these communities further to see how these females are able change the way they use tools.

“In many ways, chimpanzees are very similar to us humans,” study researcher Christophe Boesch, also of the Max Planck Institute, said in a statement. “By studying the similarities to our closest living relatives in their natural habitat in Africa, we have the unique opportunity to learn more about the evolutionary roots of culture, which is for us humans one of the key elements of our identity.”

Botox may soon be used in UK to treat migraine PARIS: Botox may soon become an NHS-approved remedy for chronic migraine in England and Wales, following a recommendation by the health watchdog.

The toxins known as Botox are famous for their use in cosmetic treatments, to fill soft tissue and remove wrinkles.

But the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) announced on Friday that its appraisal committee is backing the use of Botox injections for migraine sufferers for whom other treatments have not worked.

Thousands of people across Britain suffer from chronic migraine, defined by the regulatory body as headaches on at least 15 days per month of which at least eight days are with migraine. The organi-

zation estimates that chronic migraines afflict around 1.6 percent of adults.

“Chronic migraines are extremely debilitating and can significantly affect a person’s quality of life,” said Professor Carole Longson, director of the health technology evaluation centre at NICE. “We are pleased that the committee has been able to recommend Botox as a preventative therapy for those adults whose headaches have not improved despite trying at least three other medications and whose headaches are not caused by medication overuse.”

NICE had been asked to advise the NHS on whether Botox, known chemically as botulinum toxin type A and manufactured by Allergan, would provide value

for money in treating chronic migraine in England and Wales.

The appraisal committee has come out in favor of the treatment after obtaining more information and analyses from Allergan.

Longson said: “We have published our final draft guidance so that registered stakeholders can highlight any factual errors or appeal against our provisional recommendations. We have not yet issued guidance to the NHS on the use of this drug.”

Once the final guidance has been published, the NHS must allocate funding for the use of Botox as defined in the guidance within three months, under the rules of the NHS constitution. -AFP

10

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

saturDAY, MAY 12, 2012

Earliest Mayan calendar shows no hint of ‘world end’

A Maya king, seated and wearing an elaborate head dress of blue feathers, adorns the north wall of the ruined house discovered at the Maya site of Xultn. (AFP)

PARIS: The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world’s end is imminent, researchers said Thursday.

Rather, the painted room in the residential complex at Xultun was likely the place where the town scribe kept records, scrawling computations on the walls in an effort to find “harmony between sky events and sacred rituals,” said the study in the journal Science.

The hieroglyphs date back to the ninth century, making them hundreds of years older than the calendars in the Maya Codices, which were recorded in bark-paper books from 1300 to 1521.

Some appear to be the 365-day solar calendar, the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus and the 780day cycle of Mars, said archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, who led the exploration and excavation.

According to Saturno, the writing looks like someone’s attempt to sort out a very long math problem, as if on a blackboard.

In this undated photo made available by National Geographic, conservator Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Maya house that dates to the 9th century A.D. in the Maya city Zultun in northeastern Guatemala.

“For the first time we get to see what may be actual records kept by a scribe, whose job was to be official record keeper of a Maya community,” Saturno said.

“The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this,” he added.

“We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change.

It’s an entirely different mindset.”

Furthermore, there is no sign that the muchhyped myth that the Mayan calendar would end in 2012, and with it the world, has any bearing in reality.

All that ended in 2012 was one of its calendar cycles, said co-author Anthony Aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University.

“It’s like the odometer of a car, with the Maya calendar rolling over from the 120,000s to 130,000,” said Aveni.

“The car gets a step closer to the junkyard as

the numbers turn over; the Maya just start over,” he added.

“The most exciting point is that we now see that the Maya were making such computations hundreds of years -- and in places other than books -- before they recorded them in the Codices.”

Even though the 12-square mile (31-square kilometer) site of Xultun, deep in a rainforest where tens of thousands of people once lived, was first discovered about 100 years ago, the house structure where the calendar is drawn on the walls was spotted in 2010.

Researchers say careful excavations have revealed that the paintings inside -- including some of human figures wearing feather head-dresses -show the first examples of Mayan art on a house interior.

“It’s weird that the Xultun finds exist at all,” Saturno said. “Such writings and artwork on walls don’t preserve well in the Maya lowlands, especially in a house buried only a meter (three feet) below the surface.” -AFP

Indian society struggling with gay rights: activist NEW DELHI: Legalizing homosexuality has had little impact on the deeply entrenched homophobia in India, where thousands of gays still face discrimination and a lack of basic rights, the country’s most prominent gay rights activist told Reuters.

Hours after US President Barack Obama turned the global spotlight on gay rights by saying that he believes same-sex couples should be able to marry, Anjali Gopalan applauded the comments but despaired over the grudging pace of acceptance for India’s gay and lesbian communities.

“I’m glad Obama has taken the stand he has taken because every step helps in this long battle,” she told Reuters by telephone on Thursday.

The activist, who was listed last month in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for her work to advance the rights of gays, said in a wider interview with Reuters last week that three years after the Delhi High Court decriminalized gay sex, homosexuals were still not socially accepted in India.

“Just because a law changes, doesn’t mean the way of thinking changes. That’s a slow process and something we have to keep working at,” the 54year-old Gopalan said last week.

“Homophobia is so entrenched I don’t think we

realize we’re being homophobic. I’m talking about those of us working with the community too. So you have many NGOs working with the community who show very high levels of homophobia,” she said.

Gopalan, who heads a pro-gay charity called The Naz Foundation, was behind the change in India’s colonial-era law which described homosexual lovemaking as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”

In 2001, she filed a petition in the Delhi High Court calling for the law to be thrown out. Eight years later, the court overturned the statute in a landmark ruling hailed as a major victory by gay rights activists across the country.

But Gopalan, whose charity works to promote better health and rights for gays, lesbians and transgenders, said homosexuals still face job discrimination, harassment by police and ostracism by their families as well as physical assault.

They also face problems in accessing public services such as healthcare in hospitals, turned away by doctors who often do not take them seriously or refuse to offer treatment.

India has moved faster than other countries in South Asia in legalizing homosexuality, and there are more young people coming out. The country

staged its first “Queer Pride Parade” in the capital in 2008, and has done so every year since.

But for most of the country’s 2.5 million gays, social stigma is a daily reality. Many are unwilling to openly admit their sexual preferences and even forced to try reverse them.

“We want to try and normalize it (homosexuality),” Gopalan said, adding that many gays are made to believe that they suffer from an illness which can be cured.

“The sad part is we still get a lot of men who say ‘Can I get medicine to not feel this way’ which is very heartbreaking - but that’s the reality.”

The attitudes of India’s politicians have not helped, Gopalan said.

Last year, the country’s Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, told a conference that homosexuality was “unnatural and a foreign disease.” This February, a senior government lawyer told the Supreme Court that gay sex was “immoral” and “spreads HIV”.

“What worries me is when we talk about rights, the courts can do very little,” she said. “It’s parliament which has to do the work. And given that the average age of our parliamentarians is 80, I don’t see anything happening in the near future.”

-Reuters

Guinness recognizes surfer for riding 78-foot wave

HONOLULU: Dude, that was the gnarliest wave ever. Guinness World Records says so. The record-keeping agency is acknowledging a 44-year-old Hawaii pro surfer for catching a 78-foot wave off the coast of Portugal, saying the November run beats a 2008 record by more than 1 foot.

Big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara of Haleiwa, on Oahu’s North Shore, told The Associated Press that the ride of his life was a fluke.

He said he originally didn’t want to attempt the waves that day after wiping out numerous times on even bigger swells in the same spot, above an undersea canyon known as one of the biggest wave-generators on the planet.

“I was really beat-up that morning,” he said. “This day, I did not want to get out of bed.” He changed his mind at the urging of friends, once they got into the ocean and he helped others catch a few waves.

“Everything came together,” McNamara said Thursday. “Everything felt right.” Video of the run shows a minuscule 5-foot-10-inch McNamara against a wall of water as he lets go of a tow rope and begins riding down the wave at Praia do Norte. He briefly disappears into the break about 10 seconds into the run, then speeds up and remerges from the wave’s tube as the swell quickly dissipates. “I knew it was big, but I didn’t know how big,” he said.

McNamara said he didn’t care at first about whether the wave was a record, but was urged by the townspeople in Nazare, Portugal, to get some kind of confirmation. He said he sent the footage and pictures to surfing legend and Billabong judge Sean Collins, who guessed the wave was 85 to 90 feet tall. Collins died in December.

The official record comes after McNamara was awarded $15,000 for the ride at the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards in California last week.

Judges for the awards, considered the official arbiters of big-wave surfing, pored over footage and high-resolution still images from several angles to calculate a more accurate estimate, event director Bill Sharp told the AP. They used McNamara’s height in a crouch and the length of his shin bone to help compare it to the wave’s top and bottom, Sharp said.

“You can’t deny how big it was for that moment,” Sharp said. Sharp said surfers don’t often get a chance to catch waves so big. He put the achievement on par with other infrequent athletic feats like four home runs in a game - which Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton achieved this week - or a perfect game.

“But add to that the fact that the stadium could collapse on you at any second,” he said. McNamara, who began surfing at age 11 and went pro at 17, said the achievement became more important to him when he realized it could help him urge more people to follow their passions. “The world would be a much better place if everyone was doing what they wanted to do,” he said. -AP

Vatican investigates seven cases of priest abuse

FILE - Photo from the official website of the Legionaries of Christ shows Mexican catholic Father Marcial Maciel celebrating Mass, in August 2005 in Rome. (AFP)

PARIS: The ultra-conservative Legion of Christ movement on Friday said it had reported seven suspected cases of child abuse by its priests to the Vatican for investigation under new anti-abuse rules.

Six of the cases “are from decades ago” and one “refers to recent events,” the movement said in a statement, adding that it had taken precautions such as “restricting the priestly ministry of the accused” to protect children.

The Legion did not give further details about the cases but said it had received allegations about abuse “in several countries” and that internal preliminary investigations found that seven “had a semblance of truth.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said: “The relevant superiors (of the movement) followed the norms in force, signalling to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith some cases that have come to light from decades ago.”

The Legion of Christ’s late founder Father Marcial Maciel was accused of having an illegitimate daughter and abusing eight seminarians.

The movement expanded hugely under late pope John Paul II and is now present in 22 countries, particularly in Latin America.

It has 800 priests, 2,500 seminarians and 70,000 lay people among its members and it also manages 12 universities.

Maciel died in the United States in 2008 at the age of 87 and Pope Benedict XVI authorised a full review of the order in 2010.

The Catholic Church has been damaged by thousands of child abuse cases in recent years, as well as accusations of cover-ups by senior Church figures.

It established new rules for handling the issue requiring all suspected cases to be reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. -AFP

Mexico’s wealthiest city manages to avoid drug-related violence MONTERREY, Mexico: Northeastern Nuevo Leon is one of the states in Mexico hardest hit by drug violence, but there is one small city, part of urban area that makes up state capital Monterrey, that is an oasis and where crime rates are said to be down, police are trustworthy and organized crime stays away: San Pedro Garza Garcia.

This city, considered the wealthiest in Latin America because of its high social, economic and industrial development, is located in the south of Monterrey’s urban sprawl. According to the Attorney General’s Office it has some of the lowest car theft, murder and kidnapping rates in the region, only one per cent of all crimes perpetrated in Nuevo Leon occur there.

However, the rest of the Monterrey area, made up of six cities, recorded an unprecedented 1,600 killings in 2011 linked to the turf war between the rival Los Zetas and Gulf drug trafficking cartels. Good security conditions for the 125,000 residents of San Pedro Garza Garcia are evident by the fact that people still go out in the evenings to restaurants and enjoy family recreation areas such as the Calzada del Valle avenue.

“It is not only the richest municipality in Latin America it is also the one with the most education and civility. Here in San Pedro

Garza Garcia we have hundreds of masters’ degrees graduates from all over the world.

We have large corporations and the highest social classes,” Mayor Mauricio Fernandez Garza told The German Press Agency, dpa.

The mayor, who took office in 2009 and whose term is set to end this year, has stirred up controversy with his provocative remarks and policies, and some have accused him of reaching an agreement with the large drug cartels, to keep out of San Pedro Garza Garcia.

The town has clean, orderly streets, large residences, and shopping malls with modern designs, as well as recreational areas. It is headquarters to such major Mexican firms as Vitro, Alfa, Cemex, Femsa and also home to many company executives and directors.

Up until about a year ago the mayor said a special intelligence group financed by businessmen had been set up with the aim of blocking organized crime from penetrating the city.

Fernandez Garza sparked criticism by claiming he would take on roles that did not pertain to his post as mayor, because he was determined to put an end to kidnappings, extortions and drug trafficking in his jurisdiction.

He even called Mexican President Felipe

Calderon a “busybody” for allegedly meddling in the affairs of the conservative National Action Party (PAN, by its Spanish acronym) to which they both belong. He also questioned the “war on drugs” launched by Calderon.

His words apparently reached the president and Fernandez Garza was called in three times to be interrogated by officials at the Attorney General’s Office in separate cases. In 2010 the Mexican press reported that Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna charged that the mayor “should be in prison, in view of his evident ties and negotiations with drug traffickers.”

City Hall officials said that one method against organized crime is prevention by offering job opportunities, as well as housing, education, sports and entertainment. San Pedro Garza Garcia does apparently have the best equipped and highest paid police corporation in Mexico.

“I have 10 times more police than the other municipalities in Nuevo Leon, even above world standards set by the United Nations. We have five police agents for every 1,000 inhabitants, when standards stipulate three. The police is the only certified force in Mexico because none of its agents were involved in organized crime.”-dpa

FILE - Many parts of Monterrey’s metropolitan area are modern and wealthy, which has not stopped the spread of violence, except in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia with its controversial mayor. (dpa)

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: Valley of the Dolls Artist: Marina and the Diamonds Album: Electra Heart Genre: Pop In short: Marina and the Diamond’s sophomore album saw a shift of a direction for the band, featuring darker material than that on their debut. The haunting “Valley of the Dolls” starts slow but builds up till the drum-led chorus hits, hooking listeners in once and for all.

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

The Buzz Reality show featuring Houston relatives planned A reality show featuring Whitney Houston’s relatives, including daughter Bobbi Kristina and mother Cissy, is in the works. Houston representative Kristen Foster confirmed the Lifetime show, “The Houston Family Chronicles,” on Friday.

It will focus on Pat Houston, sister-in-law and manager of the late singer. Pat Houston is also helping care for Whitney Houston’s only child, 19-year-old Bobby Kristina. The show promises to feature Bobbi Kristina and Cissy, as well as Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick, gospel singer CeCe Winans and other members of the Houston family. Whitney Houston drowned in a bathtub in February at age 48. -AP

Jury in Hudson family slayings case requests video Jurors have asked to re-watch video footage shown during the trial of the man charged with murdering Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.

Judge Charles Burns granted the jury’s written request Friday, on the third day of deliberations. He indicated he’d send jurors videos of the post-arrest interrogation of Hudson’s former brother-in-law,William Balfour, and surveillance footage of Balfour’s car. Prosecutors say Balfour was estranged from Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, at the time of the October 2008 slayings and that he killed the three because she refused to take him back. Defense attorneys argue there is little evidence tying Balfour to the killings. Balfour is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and would face a mandatory life prison term if convicted. -AP

Singer Julio Iglesias victim of hotel room theft Venezuelan authorities say thieves stole cash and other items from the hotel room of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias while he was performing a concert. The Venezuelan Prosecutor General’s Office says the 68-year-old artist and his nephew returned to their rooms after the concert in the city of Valencia and found that $1,600 in cash was missing, as well as items including three iPads and a suitcase containing video cameras, a computer and personal documents. Prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday that detectives had questioned hotel employees and were examining video from security cameras after the robbery on Sunday night. Iglesias performed two concerts in Venezuela on a tour promoting his latest album, “1.” -AP

American Idol now down to the last 3 finalists Hollie Cavanagh couldn’t make “American Idol” voters love her. The soaring 18-year-old vocalist from McKinney, Texas, was eliminated from the Fox singing competition Thursday after it was revealed she received the fewest viewer votes.

The spritely balladeer rebounded in recent weeks after the judges took issue with Cavanagh’s lack of stage presence, but she was dismissed after crooning Journey’s “Faithfully” and Bonnie Rait’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for her solo performances Wednesday. “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest said 70 million viewer votes were cast this week. The three finalists remaining in the competition are booming 20-year-old gospel singer Joshua Ledet of Westlake, La.; bluesy 21-year-old pawn shop worker Phillip Phillips of Leesburg, Ga.; and aspiring 16-year-old pop diva Jessica Sanchez of San Diego.

“This is a real journey,” said “Idol” judge Jennifer Lopez, who performed before the results were revealed. “This is not an easy show for these kids. For me, that’s why I feel so much when I’m watching you, all of you, not just Hollie.” The three remaining finalists will return to their hometowns before taking the “Idol” stage next week. -AP

Family Guy, American Dad renewed by Fox Seth MacFarlane is running two for three with his Animation Domination stable of series right now. Fox has renewed MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” TheWrap has confirmed. A decision on the renewal of MacFarlane’s other animated series, “The Cleveland Show,” is still pending. “Family Guy,” which was famously canceled by Fox in its early seasons before being revived due to fan interest, is preparing to wrap its 10th season on May 20. “American Dad” is currently in its 7th season, while “The Cleveland Show” is in its fourth season. -Reuters

saturDAY, MAY 12, 2012

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The Dictator film launches in offensive style LONDON: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and News Corp head Rupert Murdoch were among the targets of British comic Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical humor late on Thursday at the world premiere of his political spoof “The Dictator”.

Donning full military regalia and a false beard, and brandishing a replica golden pistol, he swept up the London red carpet standing in a bright orange Lamborghini -- with one wheel clamped and being carried on a tow truck.

Baron Cohen, in character as the freedom-hating North African dictator General Aladeen from the fictional Republic of Wadiya, was also surrounded by glamorous, uniformed female “body guards” in short skirts.

“Now while I am here, I would like to grant political asylum to (Rupert) Murdoch,” he declared to reporters and fans along the red carpet. “We also have mobile phone hacking in Wadiya. Everyone who has a phone, we hack off their hands.”

On the subject of gay marriage, in the headlines this week after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly supported same-sex marriage, Baron Cohen said: “I am very happy because yesterday Nicholas Clegg and David Cameron renewed their vows and now they are the world’s most famous gay couple.”

British Prime Minister Cameron and his coalition partner and deputy Clegg sought to relaunch their joint government this week after big losses at local elections.

Referring to the German leader, Baron Cohen added: “By the way Angela Merkel, you need to look after your appearance. I think Merkel would be more successful if Merkel has a sex change and becomes a woman.”

The 40-year-old comic has forged a successful career adopting offensive characters prone to politically incorrect pronouncements designed to amuse and offend.

Internationally he is best known as Borat, the fictitious Kazakh reporter who travels to the United States in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”.

His other well-known characters are Londoner Ali G and gay Austrian fashion journalist Bruno.

General Aladeen is the despotic ruler of an oil-rich country who is forced to travel to the United States in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a UN-backed coup d’etat.

Early reviews of The Dictator, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings as well as the nuclear programs in Iran and North

Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, playing Admiral General Aladeen, poses for photographers with models at the world premiere of the Dictator at the Royal Festival Hall in London May 10, 2012. (Reuters)

Korea, have been generally positive.

Chris Tookey of the Daily Mail newspaper awarded it five stars out of five, writing: “The Dictator may be the most conventionally structured of Sacha Baron Cohen’s films -- it’s essentially a romcom -- but to my mind it’s the funniest.”

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it four stars, and said the film delivered “an explosion of weapons-grade offensiveness”.

The Dictator, directed by Larry Charles, hits U.S. and British cinemas on May 16. -Reuters

CBS sues ABC over upcoming reality show

LOS ANGELES: CBS sued ABC on Thursday to stop an upcoming reality show that CBS claims is being developed in violation of its copyrights and with secrets obtained from the long-running reality show “Big Brother.”

The federal lawsuit seeks an injunction barring ABC from continuing its work or airing “The Glass House,” a show that will film and allow viewers to vote off contestants living together in a house.

CBS claims the show copies the formula used for its hit series “Big Brother,” and that ABC has hired 19 of the show’s former staffers to help make “Glass House.” The lawsuit also names two top “Glass House” producers and an ABC programming executive who worked on “Big Brother,” claiming they are violating non-disclosure agreements and giving

away secrets of the show to their new employers.

“In copying ‘Big Brother,’ defendants have had an unprecedented and troubling degree of access to CBS’s copyrightable expression, as well as CBS’s protected trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information related to the behind-the-scenes development, filming and production of ‘Big Brother,’” the lawsuit states.

In its lawsuit, CBS claims an unnamed ABC executive instructed others to try to hire as many former “Big Brother” staffers as possible to undercut its competitor.

ABC denied wrongdoing in a statement, calling the lawsuit meritless.

“The differences between ‘Glass House’ and ‘Big Brother’ are both fundamental and obvious,” the network wrote

in a statement, citing interactive elements, audience participation and new technologies.

It will be up to a federal judge to compare the similarities and differences in the shows and determine if CBS should be given an injunction and potentially millions of dollars in damages.

The lawsuit states many valuable elements of “Big Brother” cannot be gleaned from merely watching the show.

The suit says the processes in which story lines are created and challenges are handled involving the filming of contestants around-the-clock are protected by the non-disclosure agreements.

“Many of the ‘Big Brother’ trade secrets were developed because of the series’ fast-paced schedule and unique format,” the lawsuit states. -AP

Obama jokes with Clooney at star’s gala fundraiser LOS ANGELES: George Clooney played the suave host, chef Wolfgang Puck whipped up something for dinner and President Barack Obama and about 150 of his Hollywood donors enjoyed a few laughs at Clooney’s good-humored expense.

Obama told the crowd that his famed “Hope” poster from the 2008 campaign was based on a photograph of Obama sitting next to Clooney when Obama was a US senator. Clooney had been in Washington advocating on behalf of Darfur.

“This is the first time that George Clooney has ever been photo-shopped out of a picture,” Obama said.

“Never happened before, never happen again.”

In fact, the artist who created the poster, Shepard Fairey, used another photograph of Obama but said he relied on the Obama-Clooney picture to avoid a copyright infringement case with The Associated Press. He pleaded guilty in February to criminal contempt for fabricating and destroying evidence.

In this crowd, Obama didn’t even need to mention gay marriage to get vigorous applause. “Obviously,” the president said obliquely, “yesterday we made

some news.”

The event, held under a tent with a transparent roof outside Clooney’s sprawling Tudor-style canyon home, raised nearly $15 million, a record for a single fundraiser.

Guests paid $40,000 to attend, accounting for about $6 million of the evening’s financial haul for Obama’s campaign and the Democratic Party. The remainder came from a raffle for small dollar donors.

Two winners - both women - got to attend the dinner and, even though Clooney was the host, they brought their husbands.

Puck’s dinner menu included an artichoke salad followed by roasted duckling “Peking style” with tiny buns, a duo of lamb and beef cheek with potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and sweet corn tortelloni.

“We raised a lot of money because people love George,” Obama said. “They like me; they love George.”

Then, seriously, he added: “He seems to occupy a constant state of grace, and uses his extraordinary talents on behalf of something truly important.”

Obama and Clooney hit the basketball court on Friday morning, joined by actor Tobey Maguire and staff members.

Obama joked at Thursday’s fundraiser that Clooney had been “talking smack about his basketball game ever since I’ve known him. And we’ve actually known each other a while.”

For Obama, the A-list party was not only a financial hit, it gave the president the kind of Hollywood buzz a Republican seldom gets. But the glitzy event, with its glamour and wealth, also has its risks: It set up a stark contrast with Obama’s mission Friday to highlight the plight of struggling homeowners in Nevada.

Among those at the dinner were actors and performers Robert Downey Jr., Barbra Streisand and her husband James Brolin, Jack Black, Salma Hayek and Maguire, who shared a table with Clooney and Clooney’s girlfriend Stacy Keibler.

On the way to Clooney’s house, along the exclusive canyon roads, families gathered at dinner time to gawk, wave and cheer the presidential motorcade. Children manned a lemonade stand with a sign: “Presidents drink free.”

Around the corner, a boy held up another hand-drawn sign on cardboard: “Will trade Lakers for Bulls if you stop.”

And one more: “Our gay family says thanks Mr. President.” -AP

Stern to critics: Watch me before judging me

NEW YORK: New “America’s Got Talent” judge Howard Stern says that his critics should watch before attacking him. Stern debuts Monday as Piers Morgan’s replacement on NBC’s summertime talent show. Yet a group that calls attention to bad language and risqu content on television has already written to advertisers asking them to stay away. The Parents Television Council said the radio shock jock’s addition “will likely result in a sharp increase in explicit content.”

In an hour-long, expletive-free news conference on Thursday, Stern dismissed those concerns and said that he fully understands that “America’s Got Talent” is a family show.

“I really feel a responsibility to the people who love this show already,”

Stern said. “In no way do I want to get in the way of it. I want to broaden it and make it better.” Stern said his critics “are entitled to their opinion. They just sound awfully foolish when they haven’t seen the show.”

Still, his reputation precedes him.

Stern noted that before an appearance on “The View” Thursday, executive producer Bill Geddie came over to instruct Stern on what he could or couldn’t say on the air.

“I know the rules,” Stern said. “Bill, I’m 58 years old. I feel like I’m 14” getting a lecture, he said. “Hopefully America will like this and put everybody’s fears to rest,” he said. NBC moved the show’s base from California to Newark, N.J., to accommodate Stern’s satellite radio schedule when he agreed to replace Morgan. He said he

has taken the role of being the “honest” judge who doesn’t sugarcoat things for contestants.

Stern said he was a fan of the show before being asked to be on it, preferring it to “American Idol” because the wider variety of acts on “America’s Got Talent” makes it seem like vaudeville.

“I didn’t need the money,” he said. “I didn’t need more fame. I certainly feel famous enough. I’m comfortable in my life. I just love the show and thought how much fun it would be to do it.” He’s paired with Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne as judges, and he offered praise of their work. He flashed attitude about some rivals, though: “American Idol” makes him want to throw up, he said, and host Ryan Seacrest is “tired.” -AP

Britney Spears in as X Factor judge

LOS ANGELES: Britney Spears is coming to the rescue of Fox’s “The X Factor,” the singing contest in search of a ratings boost.

The Grammy-winning pop star has signed on as a judge for the show’s second season, a person familiar with the deal said Thursday. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A call to Spears’ publicist seeking comment was not immediately returned.

“The X Factor” debuted last fall to ratings that fell short of creator Simon Cowell’s sky-high predictions. The show’s slate was wiped nearly clean in January when judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger exited along with host Steve Jones. That left Cowell and music producer Antonio “L.A.” Reid as judges on “X Factor,” which is based on Cowell’s hit UK series.

Spears signed a one-year, $15 million contract, E! News reported Wednesday, citing an unidentified source. Fox declined to comment on Spears or other cast additions for “The X Factor.”

Shock jock Howard Stern, however, didn’t hold back at a news conference in New York touting his own new TV gig.

“I think Britney is going to stand there and eat a lollipop and wear a sexy outfit and I don’t expect great opinions out of her. I’ll tune in and see what kind of a train wreck she is,” said Stern, who debuts Monday as a judge on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

Spears, 30, is a former child performer who became an international star with her 1999 debut album, “Baby One More Time.” More hits followed, including “Oops!.. I Did It Again” and “Toxic,” but her personal life was difficult, including rehab spells and time in a psychiatric ward.

Last fall, as she toured in support of her seventh album, the hit “Femme Fatale,” she told The Associated Press in London: “I hear the older you get, the wiser you get and the more you know what you want - so hopefully it’ll be a good year.” The “X Factor” job comes at a time of change. In April, her fiance, Jason Trawick, got approval from a Superior Court judge to become a co-conservator over the singer, joining her father in that role. Earlier this year, Cowell was coy about rumors that Spears, as well as Fergie and Janet Jackson, were under consideration for the show. He was also guarded about how “X Factor” will fare when it returns this fall. After Cowell predicted it would be a hit in its freshman outing with 20 million viewers, the show averaged around 12 million weekly viewers, which is respectable but not a blockbuster. Melanie Amaro was the winner of the show’s first season. -AP

FILE - Britney Spears appears at the MTV Video Music Awards, Aug. 28, 2011. (AP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012

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

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

AUK hosts environmental forum

KUWAIT: The American University of Kuwait held an environmental forum at the AUK Salmiya campus on April 30. The forum started with an opening speech

by HE the Dutch Ambassador, Ton Boon von Ochsee; followed by a lecture by the cetacean expert, Mr. Joan Gonzalvo, from the Tethys Research Institute in Greece. The event was co-sponsored by the AUK Office of Student Life, and the Environmental Club(Al-Akhdar Club), in collaboration with the AUK Humanities Division, and Arabic Program. The forum was followed by registration booth for the Ionian Dolphin Project (IDP) volunteer program.

During his opening speech, the Dutch Ambassador outlined the interlacing nature of economical, social, and ecological factors that are vital to consider when governmental policies are developed to protect the environment.

His Excellency highlighted some issues that contribute to environmental degradation including overpopulation that contributes to the loss of biological diversity. At the end of his lecture, the Dutch Ambassador was handed an honorary plaque by AUK president, Dr Winfred Thomson.

In his lecture, Gonzalvotalked

Month a t

Sudoku about the twenty-year project on Ionian Dolphins in Greece. According to Gonzalvo,IDP has been operating since 1991 to ensure the long-term viability of dolphin species living in the coastal waters of the eastern Ionian Sea. Gonzalvo highlighted some of the pressures humans are placing on dolphin habitats in Greece. These include over-fishing of the sardines that the dolphins feed on, and the noise and disturbance from increasing boat traffic in the area. In order to instigate a local life style that is pro-

conservation, Gonzalvo outlined the local program that they have developed in order to sustain the local interest in the conservation of dolphin habitats. This includes dolphin-related events, public presentations, and production of multimedia.

The Tethys Research Institute, which is hosting the IDP, is an Italian non-profit organization specializing in cetacean research. Founded in 1986, the institute regularly participates in research contributing to conservation efforts.

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

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

a glance intersection between concept, design and the individual voice. Social activism campaigns to re-brand identity is the core essence of this year’s exhibition.

Diwaniya presentation May 15/ 7 p.m. / The AWARE Center: The AWARE Center cordially invites interested westerners to its special diwaniya presentation entitled, “My experience in Kuwait and the six sigma,” by Frank Serafini. Improvements in engineering and construction processes provide better oil refineries and hotel structures. But without improvements in business process then the new facilities would do little to improve customer satisfaction, employee loyalty, and shareholder revenue. Lean Six Sigma is a business process methodology that eliminates waste, improves speed, removes complexity, and reduces defects.

Golden era club

Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main

May 11 and 25/ 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. / Rumaithiya: Golden Era Club presents ‘The Eight Fold Path to Yoga’. Yoga here! Yoga there! Yoga everywhere! Yet, few comprehend Yoga’s true nature! Join Yoga Guru - Aacharya Shashikala Pushkarna - on this unique journey to the true ‘union’ between the mind, body and spirit. All seniors (60+) are cordially invited. Venue- House #34, next to Abu-Tammam Intermediate School for Boys, Sate Alhusari St., Block 2, Rumaithiya. For registration call 97172788/ 66208183 or drop a line to goldenera60@yahoo.com

May 18/ 7 p.m. / Maidan Hawally: Indian Cultural Society presents” Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main” with renowned playback singer from Bollywood Abhijeet and world fame theater cum comedy king Umar Sharif from Pakistan. The Chief Guest for the event will be Ambassador of India, Kuwait. Also guest of honor will be prominent personalities from Kuwait and respected embassies from different countries. It will take place at Dr. Kamil Al Rayes Auditorium, AIS opposite Police Station. Contact numbers for your assistance and information: 97270386, 94450833.

Fayre trade

International bazaar

May 12/ 10 a.m. -4 p.m. / Sadu House: Welcome to the fayre! A great day out for all the family. Do your summer souvenir shopping in the wonderful surroundings of Sadu house. Games for the kids, raffle, free admission. Relax after shopping with a scone and a nice cup of tea in the Diwaniya coffee shop.

Art and photography, handicrafts and gifts, jewelry rugs and carpets, sadu weaving, frankincense and myrrh, books, fashion. Supporting 5 charities. For more info: Fayretradeq8@yahoo.com Facebook: Fayre Trade Kuwait.

May 26/ 10 a.m.-3 p.m. / TIES Center: Stop by and have the opportunity to see and even own some international antiques on display and taste the delicious foods on display. Also have your name inscribed in Arabic calligraphy at no cost and have a taste of our Arabic ice cream. Various items will be available for sale, such as pashmina shawls, accessories, jewelry, Mexican food, Indian food, cosmetics, cookies, handbags, traditional Kuwaiti - style dresses and many more. For more information please contact 2523105/6 or 97228860

Graphic Design exhibition

Waist Watchers

May 15-17/ 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. / AUK: The Art & Graphic Design Program (GDES) at AUK will be holding the official opening of the Spring Senior Capstone Exhibition. Under the supervision of Professor Maryam Hosseinnia, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at AUK, students will be displaying their graduation projects that reflect their ability to visualize and process the complex

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

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

Dilbert

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

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

Open House for Indian Citizens Ambassador of India would be holding an Open House for Indian citizens to address their problems\grievances on Wednesdays of the second and the fourth weeks of every month between 1500 hrs and 1600 hrs in the Embassy. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day. To ensure timely action/follow-up by the Embassy, it is requested that, wherever possible, Indian citizens should exhaust the existing channels of interaction/grievance redressal and bring their problems/issues in writing with supporting documents.

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

Nancy

Horoscopes Aries: March 21 - April 19

You may be feeling a bit on edge today, Aries. Your self-confidence is shaky and you may feel in need of new challenges. The tedious tasks you have in front of you don’t inspire your imagination or creativity. Do what you can to get through this difficult day. Indulge in a good lunch or listen to classical music.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

You and your mate may be experiencing some differences of opinion. It seems you each have definite ideas about some of life’s fundamental values and they aren’t completely in sync. Make an extra effort to communicate, Taurus. Your values aren’t far apart and the rift will soon close. Hang in there.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

It isn’t exactly all lightness and harmony at home today, Gemini. There’s tension in the air and it manifests in silly family arguments. Try to arrange some space with separate activities for siblings. Encourage your partner to eat out with friends. Tomorrow everyone will be happy to eat together again.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

This could be a particularly stressful day, Cancer.

Your workload is heavier than ever, thanks to the increased responsibility you’ve taken on. The day seems endless, yet there aren’t enough hours to get done all that needs doing. Take care not to take your anxiety out on others. Be nice to them.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

Your self-confidence may be a bit low and you could doubt your abilities right now, Leo. Don’t get depressed or disheartened. Your skills are excellent. Try to look at your situation objectively and pinpoint why you aren’t progressing as rapidly as you’d hoped.

Don’t worry. Everything will work out nicely in the end.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

Today you may feel bored and frustrated with your life’s direction, Virgo. You feel buried under responsibilities, with no time left to do what you really want to do. You have other interests to pursue but no time to pursue them. If you’re creative about time management, you’ll be able to do justice to your work.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

You’re less optimistic and energetic than usual, Libra. Your mind feels sluggish - your whole body does, in fact. You’re either coming down with the flu or completely and thoroughly disheartened. It would be good to take some time off. You should sit down and address past issues calmly once and for all.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

You may be discouraged about money matters today, Scorpio. Perhaps a raise you’d been hoping for didn’t come through. Perhaps a professional project didn’t work out as expected. Now’s the time to put your ingenuity to work and figure out a way to earn the money you need. Relax for now.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

If work is beginning to feel more like a burden than a joy, it may be time to rethink your job, Sagittarius. Your personality is such that you need lots of room to stretch and grow. If you feel stifled, you know it’s time to find a new professional challenge. It’s fortunate that your skills afford you opportunities.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

You’re especially in tune with the environment and the people around you today, Capricorn. Such sensitivity is new to you, and you aren’t exactly sure what to do with the myriad messages that come into your head, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s not your usual thing, but try to accept rather than analyze.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

You’re drawn to public service, Aquarius. This desire propels you to volunteer your services with a group of some kind. You may feel a bit awkward at first, but your natural leadership abilities will soon kick in. The group will be left wondering how they ever managed without you. Your talent shines through.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

Don’t take everything at face value today, Pisces.

Information you receive might not be accurate.

Someone could be repeating gossip or even creating it just to have something to talk about. Don’t take part in the discussion. Since your workload is heavy, forego the socializing in favor of finishing the tasks.