May 9, 2012

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012

@alwatandaily

Issue No. 1429

20 PAGES

www.alwatandaily.com

150 Fils with IHT

Interior Minister grilling ends with no vote

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

Staff Writers

KUWAIT: The grilling of the Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah ended on Tuesday without a non-confidence vote, as the government promised to address the issues raised in the interpellation.

In the same vein, MP Mohammad AlJuwaihel, the interpellator, only exhibited certain supporting documents and kept others from being displayed to the dismay of members of the Minority Bloc, who were previously privy to the documents and the preparedness of Al-Juwaihel.

The session witnessed heated exchanges involving members of the Majority and Minority Blocs, and the speaker was criticized for failure to ensure order during the session. Certain MPs and the general public in the gallery also traded insults amid screams and mockery.

The discussion of the interpellation started roughly after Al-Juwaihel displayed a placard on the podium which read “Kuwait for Kuwaitis alone.” The move provoked members of the Majority who demanded that the placard be

MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel gestures during the interpellation of the Interior Minister, May 8, 2012. The placard reads “Kuwait for Kuwaitis only”, refers to allegations made against the Minister of providing illegal dual nationality to citizens. (Al Watan)

Parliament Speaker Ahmed Al-Saadoun gestures towards the audience. Warnings were issued to observers that they would be removed if they continued to disrupt the session with outbursts and insults, on May 8, 2012. (Al Watan)

removed. On the contrary, members of the Minority defended the action, insisting that there is no provision in the

ing that there is nothing wrong with it, whereas MPs Faisal Al-Mislem, Al-Saifi Al-Saifi, Mubarak Al-Waalan and Khaled

Rules of Order that forbids such a thing.

MPs Faisal Al-Duwaisan, Abdulhameed Dashti and Hussein Al-Qallaf yelled, say-

Officials warn of Syrian civil war, several killed

Islamization of laws is abuse of religion, says activist

Jameel W. Karaki

Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Progressive movement organized a seminar titled “Don’t tamper with the Constitution’s Article 7, Yes for the Civil State” at the Women’s Cultural Society on Monday evening. A group of attending intellectuals, political activists, professors and lawyers shared their thoughts about the establishment of a civil state and the challenges facing this idea. Speakers agreed that some Islamists are exploiting Islam for political gains and defined some terminologies such as secularism and liberalism.

Dr. Fawaz Al Farhan, the General Secretary of Kuwaiti Progressive Movement said that when the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of Kuwait in 1962 and ratified it by the late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-

Sabah, it was clear that this Constitution laid the foundation with a modern democratic system.

According to the General Secretary, the Constitution was subject to parliamentary tamper, which aimed to compromise the civilian character of the state through successive proposals since 1973 that called for revising Article two of the Constitution and the legislation laws to discriminate between people based on religion or sex, which is a breach of the principle of equality.

“Based on our respect for the Islam, we clearly reject the exploitation of the religion and its use in political slogans, including what has been said about ‘Islamization of laws’. The laws legislated under this slogan is contradicting and is considered an unacceptable abuse to Islam and Islamic Sharia,” he said.

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Maids die in Singapore; Indonesia calls for safety

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Nepalese riot police detain a squatter residing on the banks of the Bagmati River in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, May 8, 2012. Government forces have reportedly vacated more than 200 squatters who have set up their homes illegally along the banks of the river. (AP)

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi given first passport in 24 years YANGON: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi received her first passport in 24 years on Tuesday ahead of a planned trip to Norway and Britain.

An official from her National League for Democracy party said the passport was received Tuesday from the Home Ministry. The official asked not to be named because the matter was considered personal rather than party business.

Suu Kyi applied for the passport following recent political reforms that culminated in her election to parliament last month. Last year, a long-ruling military junta handed over power to an elected, nominally civilian government.

The passport is valid for three years. She has not had a passport since she returned to Myanmar in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother, and was

BEIRUT: Security forces killed at least seven people in fighting across Syria on Tuesday, activists said, in a 14-month-old revolt that the Red Cross and Arab League warned was becoming a civil war.

Across Syria, clashes between state forces and rebels who have joined the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad raged overnight and flared again on Tuesday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Despite a shaky truce, the carnage in Syria has not stopped even as the government held a parliamentary poll a day earlier. Damascus promoted it as a milestone on its path to reform, but the opposition slammed the election as a sham and boycotted the vote. As election officials counted votes on Tuesday, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fighting had been so intense in some parts of Syria that at times the conflict in those places qualified as a localized civil war.

Jakob Kellenberger said he was very worried about conditions in Syria, where United Nations observers are being deployed to monitor a ceasefire agreement that has been repeatedly violated by state forces and by rebels. “I really hope that the UN observers will deploy rapidly,” he told reporters in Geneva, indicating concern for the fate of UN envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan for Syria. “I still hope it will not fail.”

required by law then to hand it in.

After becoming leader of the country’s prodemocracy movement, she was put under house arrest for 15 of the following 22 years of military rule. During intermittent periods of freedom, Suu Kyi declined opportunities to go abroad for fear she would not be allowed to re-enter Myanmar, and so was unable to visit her British husband, Michael Aris, before his death from cancer in 1999. They last saw each other in 1995, after which the junta denied Aris a visa.

Since her release in November 2010 from her last term of house arrest, Suu Kyi had been invited to visit by several foreign governments. Recently, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited her to the UN headquarters in New York where she once worked.-AP

Tymoshenko row causes Ukraine to call off summit

KIEV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Tuesday called off a regional summit rather than host a partly-boycotted meeting and face a lecture over his treatment of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

The foreign ministry’s announcement of the cancellation of the talks, planned for Thursday and Friday in Yalta, was an embarrassing setback for Yanukovich and a triumph for Tymoshenko, on hunger strike in prison in the city of Kharkiv.

The presidents of Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic had all said they were pulling out of the informal summit which was attended by 20 heads of state when it was held in Poland last year.

The boycott followed allegations by Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, that she was beaten by prison guards last month.

The authorities have denied any mistreatment of the charismatic Tymoshenko, who was a driving force in the 2004 Orange Revolution street protests which doomed Yanukovich’s first bid for the presidency. But the boycott threat, and the cancellation of the Yalta gathering, highlight Ukraine’s growing isolation as it prepares to host European soccer championships from June 8 to July 1.

“Due to the inability of some European state leaders to take part in the summit ... Ukraine considers it sensible to delay it,” the ministry said in a statement. It said new dates for the gathering would be announced later. -Reuters

Shakheer insisted that the placard should be taken away.

When Deputy Speaker Khaled Al-Sul-

tan asked for a vote on the issue, tension escalated which led him to temporarily adjourn the proceedings to restore order.

At this point, Al-Juwaihel and Shakeer traded harsh insults. The latter attempted to attack Al-Juwaihel but the National Assembly Guard intervened to prevent any escalation into an outright scuffle.

When the session was resumed, the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad AlSaadoun asked Al-Juwaihel to remove the placard. However Al-Juwaihel retorted, “If you want the placard to be removed do so yourself.” The speaker struck back, “You want to be kicked out of the Chamber?” Addressing the MPs, Al-Saadoun added, “This is happening before you in order to show that this interpellation does not target the interior minister, rather it is aimed at the Parliament.” Al-Juwaihel fought back, “I shall never remove the placard. I swear to God that the Parliament can be removed but the placard will not.” At this point, a number of MPs from the Minority stepped up to the podium to defuse the tension, but Al-Juwaihel remained adamant. His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah personally intervened and convinced Al-Juwaihel to remove the slogan.

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Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for fugitive Iraq VP

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Palestinian negotiator Erakat suffers heart attack

RAMALLAH: Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has undergone an operation after suffering a heart attack on Tuesday, his wife and medical sources told AFP. The 57-year-old “woke at dawn with chest pains and decided to go to the Palestine medical complex in Ramallah where he underwent medical tests,” said his wife, Naama Erakat, referring to the city’s main hospital.

“It turned out he had suffered a heart attack, so they performed an emergency

catheterisation at hospital, which was successful,” she said.

Hospital director Ahmed Bitawi said “a blood clot was found in one of his arteries which was opened during the operation.” Erakat was recovering from the procedure but “needed a period of rest,” he added.

Erakat has been a member of every Palestinian negotiating team since 1991, with the notable exception of those who secretly conducted talks ahead of the 1993 Oslo Accords. -AFP

S. Korea cracks down on flesh capsules from China

PARIS: South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, taken by some as a cure for disease or a way to boost sexual performance, a customs official said Tuesday. The gruesome practice came to light Sunday when Korea Customs said it had uncovered 35 attempts to import a total of 17,451 such capsules since last August.

The pills -- filled with the dried and powdered flesh of fetuses or dead infants -- were intercepted in the mail or in customs searches at airports.

The customs service said that apart from ethical questions the capsules were contaminated with “super bacteria” and other disease-causing organisms.

Most pills were sent from the northeastern Chinese cities of Yanji and Jilin as well as cities including Qingdao and Tianjin at the request of customers in South Korea, it said.

Some were hidden in packages of legitimate drugs to disguise their contents.

Officials now closely monitor flights from “certain Chinese regions” and inspect all the luggage of all passengers far more often than before, Kim Soo-Yeon, a Korea Customs official in charge of customs clearance told AFP. Bringing in such pills breaches a regulation banning items that “violate social dignity and customs”, he said.

No organized attempts to smuggle in the capsules have so far been detected, Kim said, and most offenders were individual travelers. Some claimed they were unaware of what they were carrying.

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China prepared for escalation of maritime standoff BEIJING: Chinese vice foreign minister Fu Ying said Beijing was ready for “any escalation” of a tense maritime standoff with the Philippines over a disputed shoal.

The month-long flare-up is one of the most high-profile incidents for years between the two countries over their competing territorial claims to parts of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.

“The Chinese side has... made all preparations to respond to any escalation of the situation by the Philippine side,” Fu told a Philippine diplomat Monday, according to a statement posted on China’s foreign ministry website Tuesday.

The two countries have been locked in the row since April 8, when Beijing’s vessels blocked a Philippine warship from arresting crews of Chinese fishing boats near the disputed Scarborough Shoal - or Huangyan island in Chinese.

Both Beijing and Manila have ships in the area, racking up tensions in the region.

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This handout photo released by Korea Customs Service on May 8, 2012 shows capsules filled with powdered human flesh in Daejeon, officials reported. South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, seen by some as a cure for disease, a customs official said. (AFP)

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ALWATAN DAILY

kuwait

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Islamization of laws is abuse of religion, says activist Jameel W. Karaki Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Progressive movement organized a seminar titled “Don’t tamper with the Constitution’s Article 7, Yes for the Civil State” at the Women’s Cultural Society on Monday evening.

A group of attending intellectuals, political activists, professors and lawyers shared their thoughts about the establishment of a civil state and the challenges facing this idea. Speakers agreed that some Islamists are exploiting Islam for political gains and defined some terminologies such as secularism and liberalism.

Dr. Fawaz Al Farhan, the General Secretary of Kuwaiti

Progressive Movement said that when the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of Kuwait in 1962 and ratified it by the late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem AlSabah, it was clear that this Constitution laid the foundation with a modern democratic system.

According to the General Secretary, the Constitution was subject to parliamentary tamper, which aimed to compromise the civilian character of the state through successive proposals since 1973 that called for the revising Article two of the Constitution and the legislation laws to discriminate between people based on religion or sex, which is a breach of the principle of equality.

“Based on our respect for the Islam, we clearly reject the exploitation of the religion and its use in political slo-

gans, including what has been said about ‘Islamization of laws’. The laws legislated under this slogan is contradicting and is considered an unacceptable abuse to Islam and Islamic Sharia,” he said.

Al-Farhan gave some examples, such as the amendment which was adopted in 1982 on Article four related to the Kuwaiti citizenship law, when the requirement was to add the Muslim faith to the applicant to obtain Kuwaiti citizenship.

The second example he gave was about the Amendment that was added to Article one of the Electoral Act related to the political rights of women so that the “a woman who seeks nomination and voting should comply with the provisions of Islam”, describing this condition as non applicable

in reality.

Al Farhan called Kuwaiti people, national forces, and the lawmakers who are keen to maintain the Constitution to clear their positions in refusing any tamper with article 79.

On his part Attorney Mohammad Abdul Qadder AlJassem said, “using Islam as a source of legislation doesn’t mean that Kuwait will be an Islamic State, adding that the Holy Quran includes principles that can be applied for every time and place.”

Saoud Rashed Al-Enzi, the head of Graduates Society said, “Human interpretations were translated to Shiites and Sunnis and produced a variety of scholars, hence a theocratic state”. Al Enzi indicated that education curriculums hold extremist interpretation.

Interior Minister grilling ends with no vote

MP Adnan Al-Mutawaa takes away MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel’ sign that reads “Kuwait is for Kuwaitis only” during the parliamentary session held on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (Al Watan) continuation from page 1

Again, the speaker was forced to adjourn the proceedings following a quarrel involving MPs Abdulhameed Dashti and Musallam Al-Barrak.

When the discussion of the interpellation proceeded once more, Al-Juwaihel displayed an American citizenship document on the display screen allegedly belonging to a son of an MP, and urged the minister of interior to enforce the law. The MP noted that he will be satisfied with the minister’s response to this question without extending far into the one and a half hour he is allotted for the discussion. In response, the minister said he will only submit the documents in his possession to the Parliament’s Secretariat. Nevertheless, Al-Saadoun rejected the minister’s decision, saying, “You need to put forth all that you have because this is an interpellation. There are items to which you should respond.”

Al-Juwaihel further asked the minister as to why the sibling of MP Ali Al-Deqbasi was granted citizenship. “Although there are sections of Iraqis who have invaded

us, we naturalized them,” the interpellator said, while accusing Al-Saadoun of recently changing his stance on naturalization by taking part in rallies staged by the Bedoun (Stateless Arabs), in an apparent U-turn from his originally being against the issue in 1985.

Al-Juwaihel also claimed that the interior minister was lenient in naturalizing one Iranian man identified as Bedoun, and the admission of an Iraqi citizen to the Police Academy. He also alleged that a dual Saudi national regained his Kuwaiti nationality despite the fact that he was stripped of citizenship by the minister’s predecessor.

MP Al-Juwaihel insisted that he is aiming to preserve public interest and does not seek the removal of the interior minister. Reacting to the MP’s claims, Minister Al-Humoud said that the law allows for re-naturalization in the event that the person in question asks to regain their Kuwaiti citizenship. The minister further noted that the Al-Sabah family has been ruling the country for four centuries and have always been keen on preserving the country’s interests.

Governorates require more health, education projects: Al-Ahmadi Governor Nayef Kareem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Al-Ahmadi Governor Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Deij stated that cementing the role of governorates in achieving sustainable development is a patriotic step taken

by Kuwaitis who constantly seek to develop their country. It is worth noting that Al-Deij received a team of volunteers that had visited Al-Jahra Governorate last week, as part of a schedule to visit all governorates during the coming period to demonstrate the ideas and efforts of the team. Al-Deij expressed his pleasure and applauded the idea; especially that Kuwaitis have always prioritized public interest.

The team members revealed that they met each other through Twitter, and agreed to adopt this concept to serve their country. Al-Deij hoped that the team will be supported by government authorities and institutions, and said that the accomplishments made by the team will not carry their names, but the name of Kuwait and

its people. He asserted that he will support this team in every step, and hoped that governorates witness more services and development, such as constructing branches for specialized hospitals, universities, and several ministries; in order to relieve some of the pressure and traffic congestions.

Meanwhile, team member Mahdi AlDekheel said that the team needed one year to think of many ideas that can cement the role played by governorates. He added that development in Kuwait can be boosted through supporting small projects, setting up gardens and entertainment areas, and allowing governorates to diversify their sources of income through offering a competitive environment that encourages investments made by the private sector.

He revealed that this initiative seeks to cause a paradigm shift in the level of infrastructure, projects, services, and facilities, which will lead to positive competitiveness among governorates in various development fields. It will also offer Kuwaitis new job opportunities.

KRCS marks international day of Red Cross-Red Crescent with gaggle of activities

KUWAI: Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) celebrated Tuesday the international day of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by organizing a series of activities on this occasion, said KRCS chairman Barjas Al-Barjas, in remarks made to the press. He spoke glowingly of the contributions of young Kuwaiti volunteers who lend their services to the KRCS, underscoring that the latter has organized, among other things, forums, lectures, and exhibits in schools and city malls to mark this occasion. The chairman noted that the KRCS celebrated the international Red Cross and Red Crescent day on May 8 every year and encouraged all volunteers to give their time and energy to a good cause which serves to alleviate human beings worldwide victimized by natural disasters or man-made ones, such as war and strife. -KUNA

Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah during the interpellation session held on on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (Al Watan)

Al-Humoud vows to protect laws, Constitution

KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah affirmed in press statements after his interpellation that he upheld the constitution and the nation’s laws above everything as well as the security and stability of Kuwait. He said he ensured that the grilling session was held in open-doors, underscoring his dedication to his work in the ministry of interior, saying that he worked “ quietly without playing up for the attention of the press,” and that he allowed his “work to speak for itself.”

With regard to his griller MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel caustic criticism of the performance of the ministry of interior, the minister came to the defense of the employees of his ministry and noted that ever since he got his post as minister he had been exerting all efforts to address all pending files that have attracted the attention of the press or the MPs. On the notion of being grilled openly, he said it was the privilege of any MP to grill any minister in the cabinet for perceived wrongdoing and that this was the democratic way. -KUNA

Kuwait will take part in Arab Economic Forum BEIRUT: Kuwait is due to take part in the 20th session of the Arab Economic Forum due to begin in the Lebanese capital on Thursday, with representatives of the public and private sectors, a chief organizer of the planned event confirmed on Tuesday.

Kuwait’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh, Hamad Al-Marqoug, the Chairman of the Union of Kuwaiti Banks, and the former minister of finance, Bader Al-Humaidi, will take part in the twoday forum, with lectures and statements, said Rauf Abu Zaki, Chief Executive Officer of Al-Iktissad Wal Aamal Group, in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

The Gulf State, which hosts headquarters of Arab financial agencies and organizations, is a major partner in the joint Arab action, he said. It participation in the forum would re-affirm its special role at this level, as well as at the level of bolstering integra-

tion and economic cooperation among the Arab states.

Aby Zaki indicated that agenda of the forum, which in part, would address impact of the Arab Spring events on Arab countries, concerns Kuwait, as well as the other Arab states. More than 600 decision makers, namely premiers, ministers, governors of central banks, officials, leading businessmen, and senior executives of banking and monetary institutions, would take part in the forum, representing 21 states.

Beirut’s authorities have prepared for the 20th Arab Economic Forum, expected to focus on impact of “Arab Spring” on economic stability and development in the Arab world. It will be held under patronage of Prime Minister of Lebanon Najib Mikati, in coordination with the Central Bank and the Association of Banks in Lebanon.

-KUNA

More than 50 state departments are linked to one E-web: Al-Surai Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The General Manager (GM) of the Central Apparatus for Information Technology Abdulatif Al-Surai said that the apparatus has been working since its establishment on the infrastructure related to the Information Technology in the state. He pointed out that there are 12 initiatives from which data is derived to be appraised in the World Economic Forum. Speaking to Al Watan, following the conclusion of the ‘Role of the Information Technology Industry and Impact on Competitive Countries According to World Economic Forum’ symposium held Tuesday morning, Al-Surai said that out of the 12 initiatives, four are directly related to Information Technology in the world economy. He stressed that all state departments and sectors should work closely with one another to underscore such role and to make the information and technical support available to pave the way for the projects and initiatives.

“The study is presented by international companies, which was demonstrated in the presence of several ministry undersecretaries and decision makers in order to demonstrate the policies and information technology according to the criteria as set by the World Economic Forum,” he remarked. He added that the criteria and terms and conditions are true and genuine initiatives from which the data is derived from. He went on to add that since the year 2007, the country was a leader in the sector on both the regional and Arab level, but because of the economic downturn and associated circumstances, some countries sunk and rescheduled their agendas and projects in order to improve them. He said that Kuwait has started the coordination period among the state departments for such initiatives. He said that there are projects and endeavors but they are scattered as shown in the study. “It is our role here as Central Apparatus for Information Technology to standardize all such endeavors with all state departments in the finest and most accurate and comprehensive way to link the information and projects and proceed with them so that Kuwait becomes alongside the advanced countries in this particular field,” he explained. He went on to explain that more than 50 state departments are now linked in one network and that proceeded with setting up e-government with the participation of more than 39 government bodies. “This is a clear proof that the infrastructure of the information technology is ready in Kuwait and that Kuwait is well advanced in this filed,” he noted. He went on to say that following discussions, a report will be prepared on this subject to be passed to the Minister of Communication, who happens to be the Chairman of the Central Apparatus, in order to have an idea about what had taken place in this regard.

Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah receives Iranian cultural delegation on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (KUNA)

Lebanese minister extols bilateral ties

BEIRUT: Lebanese Minister of Information Walid Al-Daouk praised Tuesday the strong Lebanese-Kuwaiti relations and bilateral cooperation, particularly in the field of media. “Lebanese-Kuwaiti relations are excellent on all levels and in different domains,” Al-Daouk told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after his meeting with the visiting delegation of Kuwait Journalists Association.

Al-Daouk cited his latest fruitful visit to Kuwait in which he met His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah and Minister of Information Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

The Lebanese minister also highlighted the cooperation with KJA and Kuwaiti media institutions.

The KJA delegation is headed by veteran journalist Yusuf Al-Khalifa and includes a galaxy of other Kuwait journalists. The meeting with Al-Daouk was attended by Kuwait Embassy Advisor Jassem Al-Najim. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has also received the Kuwait delegation. -KUNA

ALWATAN DAILY

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Somali President departs after three-day official visit KUWAIT: Visiting minister of education and culture in Somalia Ahmad Adeel discussed today with Kuwaiti officials at the ministry of education means of boosting bilateral cooperation in the field of education.

Kuwait strives to support Somali students in their endeavors to get a good education here in Kuwait or elsewhere, said Tamadhor Al-Sedairawi, undersecretary of the ministry of education in Kuwait, in a meeting she had with the Somali minister.

Adeel expressed gratitude of Somali students for the concrete assistance Kuwait offers them in their pursuit of their educational careers, be that in Somalia or abroad.

Al-Sedairawi noted that the care the ministry of education in Kuwait gives to Somali students who study in Kuwaiti schools and universities dovetails with the ministry’s agreements signed in that regard with Somali officials. The Kuwaitis will continue to foster Somali students in Kuwait for as long as the students and their Somali government wished, she said.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmad and his accompanying delegation has left the country after a three-day visit during which official talks were held with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah.

The Somali President was seen off at Kuwait’s International Airport by His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Sa-

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah with the Somali President prior to his departure from Kuwait on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (KUNA)

doun and Deputy Chief of National Security Apparatus Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in Kuwait Tamadhor Al-Sedairawi with the Somali Minister of Education and Culture in Somalia Ahmad Adeel on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (KUNA)

Jaber Al-Sabah. He was also seen off by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber

Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah

Al-Sabah, Senior officials and top police and army leaders. -KUNA

Engineers cooperate Official refutes reports on two TB cases with Saudi experts on medical Health promotion a cornerstone of primary health-care technology: Al-Kharafi Mervat Abduldayem Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Under the patronage of Minister of Health Dr. Ali Al-Obaidi and in his presence, Kuwait Society of Engineers (KSE), in cooperation with the Public Authority for Safety of Food and Medicine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will organize “Kuwait Forum for Systems and Standards of Technology of Healthcare” next Thursday at the KSE headquarters.

KSE Board Chairman Eng. Hossam AlKharafi welcomed the Saudi delegation, stressing the keenness of KSE and participating bodies and sponsors to organize a successful forum. He explained that the aim of the forum is to benefit from the Saudi’s experience in healthcare technology, and boosting cooperation between Kuwaiti engineers and the concerned bodies on one hand and with the healthcare experts in Saudi Arabia on the other.

He thanked Health Minister for holding the forum under his patronage and in his presence.

Al-Kharafi said that the medical engineers in Kuwait that work in KSE are volunteers who suggested holding the forum in the headquarters under its sponsorship

in order to present the Saudi experience to the concerned bodies, mainly the Ministry of Health. He noted that Kuwait is in dire need to a public authority for health technology, especially since the Kuwaiti medical engineers are preparing this project to present it to the executive and legislative authorities.

Al-Kharafi said that the forum will witness a presentation to the Saudi experience which managed to achieve a safe healthcare program, noting that the Kuwaiti engineers seek to reach this goal. He added that the Medical Engineers Association has prepared a promising program for international cooperation in this field.

Al-Kharafi said that the one-day forum will host Deputy CEO of Medical Devices and Products Sector at the Public authority for Food and Medicine in Saudi Arabia Dr. Saleh Al-Tayar, Managing Director for Registration and Licenses Eng. Abdullah AlDabib, Head of Marketing Directorate Eng. Omar Al-Jassem, and CEO of the executive Directorate for Inspection and Implementation of Systems Eng. Abdullah Al-Rashid.

Al-Kharafi stressed that the speakers from Saudi Arabia will brief their Kuwaiti brothers on the work of the said authority and its experience in this field.

Envoy discusses bilateral ties with Laos

Kuwaiti Ambassador Nabeel Rashid Al-Dikheel (left) with Laos’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongloun Sisoulith on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. (KUNA)

VIENTIANE: Kuwaiti Ambassador Nabeel Rashid Al-Dikheel met with People’s Democratic Republic of Laos’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongloun Sisoulith where they discussed many issues of common interest.

The meeting also focused on promoting bilateral ties on political, economic, social and cultural fronts.

Sisoulith stressed the importance of activating pacts signed by the two countries and encouraging Kuwaiti investments in Laos; he also highlighted the significance of exchanging visits between officials. He pointed out that opening Kuwait’s embassy in his country contributed greatly in strengthening bilateral ties. On his part, the Kuwaiti envoy relayed the greetings of Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to Sisoulith and wished the Kuwait-Laos relations to further prosper and advance. -KUNA

KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health for Public Health Affairs Dr. Qais Al-Doweiri refuted on Tuesday recent press reports that two female students contracted tuberculosis (TB).

“Only one female student tested positive for TB and had to stop schooling temporarily as a precaution against possible spread of infection,” Al-Doweiri told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), noting that tests conducted on all people in close contact with the student came negative.

“She is receiving medical care at the lung rehabilitation center of Al-Farwaniya Hospital” he added.

Meanwhile, “Health Promotion” is a vital concept and a cornerstone of adequate primary health-care, Head of the Health Promotion De-

partment at the Ministry of Health Dr. Abeer AlBahhooh told KUNA in an interview, Tuesday.

She added the gist of the concept is enabling individuals to get more control over their health, and that individuals could turn knowledge into actual positive actions and choices that contribute to overall development with the proper social, economic, and environmental support in place.

Rather than “absence of disease or ailment”, the term health is nowadays used to mean a state of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and overall wellbeing. All parties involved must also realize that people’s health is a shared responsibility among the people themselves, the society as a whole, and the health institutions.

“Providing care also falls beyond the mere scope of state institutions, and both private sector and NGOs must also contribute.” The official noted that the term “Health Promotion” was first used in The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986), issued by the First International Conference on Health Promotion. Subsequent conferences in 1988, 1991, 1997, and the year 2000 all aimed to provide guidance in this field and

Resounding success for Kuwaiti theater in Jordan

AMMAN: The impressive performance of “Al-Boshiyyah play” by the Kuwaiti Arabian Gulf Theatre troupe have taken the breath of art critics and audience to see the marvelous Kuwaiti folklore and traditions.

The play of Al-Boshiyyah - meaning the veil covering the face- was received with repeated uninterrupted applauses from the audience, which includes art critics and performers from different Arab countries and several ambassadors including ambassador of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Amman.

The fabulous performance of the Kuwaiti troupe showed the great development of the Kuwaiti theater.

“Kuwaiti artists have again impressed Jordanian audience for a third time in less than a year,” Kuwaiti Ambassador to Amman Dr. Hamad Al-Duaji told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after the play.

“They have managed to restore Kuwait leading cultural role in Arab countries.”

He pointed out that the Jordanian audience well tastes and enjoys Kuwait arts and folklore.

Ambassador Al-Duaji hailed the great support offered to Kuwaiti culture and artists from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah A-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The play presents a society that unites against an “outsider” who in fact is a descendant of a “true member” of that same society.

The displayed is a part of the Free Theatre Festival which kicked off Saturday under the auspices of Princess Reem Ali at the Royal Cultural Center For his part, United Arab Emirates Ambassador here, Abdullah Al-Ameri, who attended the play, echoed a similar view.

“It was a great play performed by great artists,” Al-Ameri told KUNA, adding that such activities help introduce Gulf traditions to other Arab and non-Arab countries.

Furthermore, Professor of Drama and Theater in Kuwait University Nader Al-Qena said Al-Boshiyyah play represents a mix between fantasy and folklore. “The play shed lights on the social classes’ problems and the relations between the strong and the weak in the society,” he told KUNA. He lauded the neck-craning performance of the Kuwaiti Arabian Gulf Theatre troupe. -KUNA

proposed mechanisms and measures to “truly guarantee health for all.” Health Promotion involves three levels; disease prevention, screening for disease, and care to cure disease or delay and manage its symptoms as early as possible upon detection through regular follow-up.

“In a development unique for the Middle East region, the name of the department was changed from ‘health awareness’ to ‘health promotion’ in 2009, and this process also involves pushing for change of attitude in our society and stressing partnership to achieve the desired results,” she said.

As for the idea of clinics for the healthy, she said the aim behind it is early detection to guarantee timely care and treatment. A clinic was therefore set up for each health zone in Kuwait.

The State of Kuwait is in the forefront of all international efforts aiming to stem the spread of chronic non-contagious diseases, and its official figures show that such diseases are behind 24 percent of deaths among those below 60 years in age, and account for 57 percent of all deaths in the county. -KUNA

Developing human resources top priority for Ministry of Information

KUWAIT: The departments and sectors of the Kuwait Ministry of Information is keen to coordinate to modernize and update its plans, as well as bolster its activities to develop human resources, a ministry official stated Tuesday.

In statements to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Ministry of Information’s Assistant Undersecretary for Commercial Affairs Mohammad Al-Awash said the cooperation among different sectors would help address challenges and cope with latest developments, particularly those related to communication technology and its usage in media work.

He disclosed that the new plan of action of the Ministry of Information, outlined by directives from Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, set the human sources development at the top of the ministry priorities.

Al-Awash revealed that the plan includes intensive program for internal and external training for the ministry staff and media cadres.

He underlined that the Ministry’s commercial sector is an important source of income to the state budget.

This sector is in charge of the commercials published or displayed on the state-owned TV, radio and press.

He added that the commercial sector tries to build bridges with its counterparts in all media institutions in Kuwait or overseas. -KUNA

Kuwait presents theatrical show in 5th Gulf School Theater Festival MANAMA: Kuwaiti Ministry of Education presented a theatrical show entitled “Loyalty trip champions,” as a part of the Fifth edition of one-week Gulf School Theater Festival activities held in Bahrain, under the slogan “The Gulf gathers us ... The theater unites us.”

Director of the Activities Department at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education Mona Al-Fraih told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) following the theatrical show held at Manama’s Cultural Hall, late on Monday, that this was the second

participation of the ministry in this event The show shed light on educational values “within our families, like love of our parents and country, and offering dear and precocious for their sake,” she said. Actors included students starting from the elementary level till high school, she added.

She hailed the distinguished performance of the actors, and pointed out the show success which drew applause and interaction from the audience. Kuwait’s School Theatre was estab-

lished, last year, by the ministry, in order to offer shows conveying educational messages to the society, and to adopt talented students and help them overcome their problems through such activities, she affirmed. The School Theater offered 35 shows in various schools in Kuwait, Al-Fraih said.

She expressed thanks to the officials of the ministry for encouraging and supporting such theatrical works, besides offering the needed care to the young talented actors. -KUNA

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ALWATAN DAILY

regional

The first overseas round

By Hossam Fathi Staff Writer

KUWAIT: In a few hours, the first round of voting to elect a new president for Egyptians overseas will start. The elections begin May 11 and end May 17.

Over 600,000 Egyptians who are registered in voters’ lists cannot wait to take part in the most important political decision in Egypt’s contemporary history.

The elections will witness an honest battle among 13 candidates that represent various political parties and currents, in addition to Islamic parties. It is beyond a doubt that the outcome will shape Egypt’s future for the coming four years at least, if not eight years.

However, it seems that Egypt’s ambassadors and consuls were surprised to find out that the elections are approaching, since none of them bothered to address Egyptians overseas to explain to them the procedures required to take part in the elections. It seems as though the revolution never took place, and it seems that Mubarak’s men are still in control. I cannot really blame the ambassadors, but I can blame the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs who left his embassies without any information regarding the elections, although the elections will begin in a few hours. Nonetheless; Egypt will move forward! hossam@alwatan.com.kw Twitter:@hossamfathy66

IAEA inspector killed in Iran car crash TEHRAN: A UN nuclear inspector from South Korea was killed Tuesday and a colleague was injured in a car crash near a reactor site in central Iran, news reports said.

There were no immediate indications of foul play.

But the crash is likely to undergo intense scrutiny.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the International Atomic Energy Agency inspector died when the car overturned around a heavy water reactor being built in Khondab, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Tehran.

Iran says the reactor - part of the Arak complex will be used to produce isotopes for peaceful medical and industrial uses. But the US and others fear that spent fuel from the reactors could be reprocessed into plutonium for a warhead. Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons.

IRNA identified the fatally injured inspector as Seo Ok-Seok. The semiofficial news agency ISNA says another inspector from Slovakia was injured in the crash and taken to a hospital.

The Vienna-based IAEA had no immediate comment on the reports.

The incident comes ahead of a new round of technical discussions between Tehran and the IAEA to be held in Vienna beginning Sunday. Higher-level negotiations also are planned later this month in Baghdad between envoys from Iran and six world powers including the United States.

Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog regularly visit Iran’s nuclear facilities, which include a Russian-built energy reactor and uranium enrichment laboratories.

Iran’s nuclear agency issued a statement offering condolences to the nuclear watchdog as well as the victim’s family. -AP

Somali rebels shell peacekeepers, at least 9 dead

MOGADISHU: Islamist rebels armed with mortars and machine guns attacked African Union forces in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, sparking a battle that killed at least nine people, officials and residents said on Tuesday.

The Al-Shabaab militants, who are allied to al Qaeda, were forced out of most of the city last year but have kept up sporadic bomb and suicide attacks.

“It was heavy fighting last night ... Two AlShabaab dead bodies are lying here,” said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a spokesman from the Burundi contingent of the AU’s AMISOM peacekeeping mission in Somalia. “From our side two were injured.

They were also shelling our position - they missed their target,” he added.

Witnesses said shelling from the fighting hit two houses, killing at least seven civilians, four of them from one family. “A big shell landed on a house made of iron sheets. The father, mother and their two sons died, only two children survived with injuries,” resident Abdi Gaas told Reuters.

“Another shell landed on a nearby house. A mother and her son died. The fragments of the shell killed a boy in another house, we are now burying 7 people,” he added.

A Reuters reporter saw the dead bodies of seven civilians. No one was immediately available to comment from Al-Shabaab. The rebel group has waged a bloody five-year campaign to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law (sharia).

The rebels continue to hold swathes of central and southern Somalia but are being squeezed out of some areas by Kenyan and Ethiopian troops, which have launched incursions inside Somalia in support of the beleaguered government.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The overnight fighting took place in Mogadishu’s northern Daynile district, the rebels’ last position after they withdrew from the capital last year, under pressure from AMISOM and Somali government troops. -Reuters

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012

Officials warn of Syrian civil war, several killed BEIRUT: Security forces killed at least seven people in fighting across Syria on Tuesday, activists said, in a 14-month-old revolt that the Red Cross and Arab League warned was becoming a civil war. Across Syria, clashes between state forces and rebels who have joined the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad raged overnight and flared again on Tuesday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Despite a shaky truce, the carnage in Syria has not stopped even as the government held a parliamentary poll a day earlier.

Damascus promoted it as a milestone on its path to reform, but the opposition slammed the election as a sham and boycotted the vote. As election officials counted votes on Tuesday, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fighting had been so intense in some parts of Syria that at times the conflict in those places qualified as a localized civil war.

Jakob Kellenberger said he was very worried about conditions in Syria, where United Nations observers are being deployed to monitor a ceasefire agreement that has been repeatedly violated by state forces and by rebels.

“I really hope that the UN observers will deploy rapidly,” he told reporters in Geneva, indicating concern for the fate of UN envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan for Syria. “I still hope it will not fail.” Arab League chief Nabil Al-Arabi expressed similar sentiments. “Escalating military action in Syria will end up leading to a civil war in Syria, which no one wants to see,” he told reporters during in a trip to Beijing.

Beyond the ceasefire and monitoring mission, Annan’s plan also calls for free access for journalists and humanitarian aid in the country. On Tuesday, the British-based Observatory said security forces were using rockets and heavy machinegun fire on the village of Al-Hassan in the rebellious central Homs province, as they sought to wrest control from rebels in the area.

Similar bombardment in northern Idlib province that began after midnight killed at least three people, it said.

What began as a peaceful protest movement has been overtaken by an armed insurgency against Syrian forces. The government says the rebels are terrorists steered by foreign powers and says more than 2,600 people from the police and army have been killed.

Despite Syria’s bloodshed, the state news agency SANA reported a “notable” turnout for Monday’s vote but has yet to provide details of participation.

Bahrain opens review of activist convictions

MANAMA: Bahraini activists convicted of trying to overthrow the state claimed Tuesday they faced abuse in custody and were forced to sign confessions, a defense lawyer said as a civilian court began a full review of their trials carried out under martial law.

The group includes rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been on a hunger strike for three months and did not attend the session.

The appeals seek to overturn the sentences. But they also mark an overall challenge to the credibility of a now-disbanded military-led court created as part of crackdowns against the nearly 15-month-old uprising against Bahrain’s ruling monarchy.

A court last month ordered a full re-examination - effectively a retrial - of the cases against Al-Khawaja and 20 other mostly Shiite activists found guilty last year of plots to overthrow the kingdom’s monarchy. Al-Khawaja and seven others were sentenced to life in prison and the others received lesser prison terms. Seven were sentenced in absentia. Eleven of the defendants appeared for the opening session in civil court - watching proceedings from a glass-paneled holding pen - while they restated allegations of torture and other abuses while in custody, said defense lawyer Hasan Radhi. They also claimed they signed forced confessions and other documents after their arrests. The next hearing in the review was set for May 22.

Al-Khawaja’s family describe his condition as weak, but he has received medical care. His wife has claimed the feeding tubes and other measures were carried out against Al-Khawaja’s will, but authorities say it was voluntary.

In recent days, protest crowds also have gathered to demand the release of the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, who was arrested Saturday. -AP

At least 2 guards killed in attack on Libya govt HQ

TRIPOLI: Former Libyan rebels attacked the interim government’s headquarters in Tripoli on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding several others, an interior ministry official said.

“Between two to four guards were killed and many others are wounded,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Former rebels angry over unpaid stipends opened fire on the headquarters of the interim government after surrounding the building, officials said.

“Many men encircled the building and opened fire against it with weapons including anti-aircraft cannons,” a government employee said.

“Some men entered the premises and fired from inside,” he said, adding that chaotic scenes unfolded as people scrambled for cover.

Several trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns surrounded the building in central Tripoli, blocking traffic, witnesses said.

Residents in the area reported hearing heavy exchanges of gunfire. Others reported military vehicles traveling down the airport road towards the city centre where the headquarters are.

Government spokesman Nasser Al-Manaa said Defense Minister Osama Juili was negotiating with the fighters, who “came in protest over (unpaid) stipends.

Last month, citing widespread fraud, Libyan authorities paused the payment of cash bonuses to rebels who had fought against Muammar Gadhafi’s regime in 2011. Ex-fighters reacted negatively to the decision. On April 10, they opened fire against the government complex in a smaller attack that authorities brushed off as a “scare tactic.”

Security in the building has since then been beefed up with armed guards stationed all around the complex which holds the offices of Prime Minister Abdel Rahim Al-Keib. Al-Keib’s cabinet has come under attack in recent weeks over its failure to take tough decisions such as stripping former rebels from their prized weapons.

Libya’s nascent armed forces and the interior ministry have sought to incorporate anti-Gadhafi fighters into their ranks but rogue elements continue to defy the new authorities. Seventy thousand ex-fighters are now under interior ministry command, a Libyan official said on April 24. -AFP

Syrian anti-regime protesters watch as a donkey walks on a portrait of President Bashar Al-Assad during an anti-elections demonstration in the city Qusayr, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Homs in restive central Syria, on May 7, 2012. (AFP)

Many residents in Damascus said on Tuesday that few Syrians were voting, and a Reuters team at a polling booth saw only three ballots cast in their 40-minute visit.

Initial results reported by the pro-government Syrian channel Al-Ikhbariya suggested that around 700,000 people voted in Aleppo, the most populated city and province in Syria.

Aleppo city has a population of more than 2 million, while the province is home to nearly 5 million people.

Activists insisted the numbers were inflated. “I went to three different polling stations, I am telling you turnout was weak,” said a student called Tamim. “No one can believe in an election while people are dying.” -Reuters

AU-UN says Sudan halts key mission flights KHARTOUM/JUBA: The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur said Tuesday that Sudan has suspended flights to its support base in Uganda, a historic ally of South Sudan, but Khartoum denied the move.

“The ministry of defense notified us onWednesday (last week) that there could be no international flights between El Fasher (in North Darfur) and Entebbe (in Uganda),” a spokesman for the UNAMID mission told AFP. UNAMID said it was given no reason, but the move followed a month-long border war between Sudan and South Sudan, with a UN-imposed ceasefire in effect since last Friday.

“This information is completely incorrect,” said Al-Obeid Meruh, spokesman for the foreign ministry in Khartoum. “We didn’t suspend any UNAMID flights.”

Uganda backed the south during Sudan’s 22-year civil war which ended with a 2005 peace deal that led to the South’s

independence in July last year.

During the civil war the north, in apparent retaliation, Sudan backed the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Ugandan rebel group.

Passengers told AFP they had been ordered off a flight that was bound for Entebbe, a town in Uganda’s south, on Wednesday last week.

The UNAMID spokesman said he understood that with Entebbe flights suspended all international flights were to go through Khartoum, a more time-consuming and costly routing for the mission of more than 23,000 peacekeeping troops and police.

Khartoum-Entebbe flights had not yet begun, said the spokesman.

“Right now we’re working to resolve the situation,” with a senior UNAMID official travelling to Khartoum to discuss the matter, said the spokesman.

“Today they got permission to fly be-

tween Khartoum, El Fasher and Entebbe,” said Meruh. “They have to show their evidence if they received any written letter from Sudanese officials saying that their flights are suspended.”

UNAMID said it operated four flights a week from Entebbe, a logistics and rest station, as well as a support centre providing joint administrative backup for UNAMID and other African UN missions as a way to save money.

An analyst has said Sudan’s ruling elite is divided over the merits of a UN resolution which called tensions between Sudan and the South a threat to international peace and security.

The analyst said some Sudanese leaders object partly because the UN calls for Sudan and South Sudan to resume negotiations under a process supported by IGAD, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development to which Uganda belongs. -AFP

Tunisia rejects US ‘interference’ in morality trial TUNIS: Tunisia has rejected as “interference in Tunisian justice” US complaints that the conviction of a television boss in a blasphemy trial raised new fears over free expression. US ambassador Gordon Gray said on Thursday he was disappointed that a Tunisian court had fined Nabil Karoui, head of private television station Nessma, 2,400 dinars (1,550 Us dollars) for broadcasting the animated film “Persepolis”, which it found was an attack on moral values and a risk to public order. In his statement, the US ambassador said he hoped the case would be “resolved in a manner which guarantees free expression” when Karoui appeals the verdict.

Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Monday it would not

accept interference in the justice system.

“The Tunisian government expressed deep surprise at the statement of the US ambassador in which he said he was disappointed by the ruling in the Nessma TV case,” it said in a statement published on the official news agency. “The Tunisian government respects the independence of justice, in accordance with international standards and that the freedom of expression in Tunisia is a legitimate right,” it said, adding that relations between the United States and Tunisia should be based on respect for sovereignty.

Tunisia is struggling to balance religious sensitivities with newfound freedom of expression nearly 18 months after its revolution ousted veteran dictator

Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, who severely restricted political and media freedoms.

The case against Karoui, a staunch secularist, followed Nessma’s broadcast last year of Persepolis, an award-winning film about a girl growing up in Iran. The film includes a scene depicting God, which is forbidden in Islam, and enraged some conservative Salafi Islamists who subsequently attacked the station.

The fine was less severe than the prison term Karoui’s Islamist opponents had demanded and substantially less than the three year maximum sentence carried by the charges. However, the whole prosecution was criticized by rights groups, including Amnesty International, from the outset. -Reuters

Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for fugitive Iraq VP BAGHDAD: Interpol has put Iraq’s fugitive Sunni vice president on its mostwanted list after issuing Tuesday a socalled “red notice” for Tariq Al-Hashemi, who is currently in Turkey.

The Lyon, France-based organization said on its website the move came at the request of the government in Baghdad.

Iraq has charged Al-Hashemi - one of the nation’s highest-ranking Sunni politicians - with terrorism, accusing him of guiding and financing death squads that targeted government officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims.

Al-Hashemi is being tried in absentia in Baghdad. The Shiite-led government links him to about 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks. It says the death squads were largely composed of the vice president’s bodyguards and other employees. A red notice by Interpol seeks the arrest or provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to eventual extradition. The subjects of red notices are considered to be on the organization’s most-wanted list.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the red notice for Al-Hashemi “will significantly restrict his ability to travel and cross international borders.”

“It is a powerful tool that will help authorities around the world locate and arrest him,” Interpol’s website quoted Noble as saying. Officials in Ankara could not immediately be reached for comment. Al-Hashemi is staying under the

Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi speaks during a press conference on May 4, 2012 in Istanbul. Al-Hashemi, accused of running a death squad, said that he has no faith in the Iraqi justice system and fears for his life. (AFP)

protection of Turkish security agents at a luxury apartment in Istanbul, Turkey’s NTV television said. A policeman with a machinegun guards the entrance of his apartment building, and several police cars were parked outside on Tuesday, according to NTV. Al-Hashemi’s representatives maintain he left Iraq for diplomatic meetings

with regional leaders, not to escape arrest.

Al-Maliki’s media adviser, Ali Al-Moussawi, on Tuesday called on Al-Hashemi to return to Iraq and face trial.

“After the issuing of this red notice, I think that the best choice for Al-Hashemi now is to return to Iraq and stand a fair trial,” Al-Moussawi told The AP over the phone. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

WORLD

wednesdAY, may 9, 2012

Hollande, Sarkozy lead V-E Day ceremonies in Paris PARIS: In his last state ceremony before stepping down as France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy led commemorations in Paris on Tuesday marking the end of World War II in Europe.

Sarkozy was joined by President-elect Francois Hollande, and the two political rivals stood side by side at the Arc de Triomphe war memorial.

To the stirring anthem “The Marseillaise,” a solemn-looking Sarkozy began the proceedings by laying a wreath at the statue of Charles de Gaulle, the former president and leader of the Free French Forces, in a nod to Sarkozy’s Gaullist roots.

The president also shook hands at the Champs-Elysees avenue ceremony with military dignitaries, including Gen. de Gaulle’s 90year-old son, Philippe.

A cortege followed Sarkozy up the grand central artery to the Place de l’Etoile, where he and outgoing Prime Minister Francois Fillon inspected the troops.

The Arc de Triomphe has a special significance for World War II since Adolf Hitler marched his Nazi troops through the iconic monument when Germany took France over in 1940. It also was the site where Allied troops including many US soldiers - celebrated victory

over Germany 67 years ago.

Sarkozy - who looked particularly downbeat throughout the ceremony - was joined by Hollande, the winner of Sunday’s presidential runoff, to lay another wreath at a World War I memorial.

The two leaders, putting aside their differences, then stood side by side in silence for several minutes at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whose symbolic flame was made to burn brighter during the ceremony.

The rare scene of the two top officials together will no doubt feature prominently in French newspapers.

The two men then met dignitaries, including some World War II veterans, before shaking hands with each other in front of the cameras.

Speaking to the media following the ceremony, Hollande said that after a “particularly” tough campaign, “it was useful and helpful for the country to know it can still come together ... around the president still in power, and the newly elected one, for the same one cause: the country.”

The Socialist narrowly beat Sarkozy on Sunday to be the next president of France by just over 1 million votes. Sarkozy and Hollande will meet again on May 15 at the presidential Elysee Palace for the official transfer of power. -AP

Police break up all-night anti-Putin protest

Russian police officers detain opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov while protesters gather near the presidential administrations building in downtown Moscow early May 8, a day after Putin’s inauguration. (AP)

MOSCOW: Police on Tuesday broke up a demonstration by hundreds of opposition activists who had spent the night outside the presidential administration offices to protest Vladimir Putin’s return as Russia’s president.

Two prominent opposition leaders who had called their supporters to the small square in central Moscow were detained by police in the early hours of the morning but later released.

They then joined up with dozens of their supporters who had moved on to another square, where they vowed to continue the roving protest.

“If we are pushed away from here, we’ll move to other squares,” said Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of a leftist movement. “The objective is to have people on the squares every day who are struggling for freedom, for change. It is a very simple tactic, and I think it has a chance to bring a successful result.”

The cat-and-mouse game between

protesters and police began on Monday, the day of Putin’s inauguration at a formal ceremony inside the Kremlin.

Hundreds of activists tried to protest near Red Square and along the route Putin’s motorcade took to the Kremlin, but they were turned back or detained by thousands of riot police.

Police said they made about 300 detentions on Monday, but in some cases the same people were detained and then released more than once. Tens of thousands attended anti-Putin protest rallies in the months before the March election. Since then the numbers have dwindled, but the protest movement has shown an unexpected resilience. A demonstration on the eve of the inauguration drew well more than 20,000.

Putin has been in power since 2000, first as president and then for the past four years as prime minister. He has just begun a six-year term and would be eligible for a fourth term. -AP

Maids die in Singapore; Indonesia calls for safety

SINGAPORE: Eight Indonesian maids have fallen to their deaths from high-rise apartments in Singapore this year, and the Indonesia Embassy said Tuesday it is pushing for a ban on cleaning outside windows.

Indonesia, which supplies about half of Singapore’s 200,000 maids, has asked employment agencies to include a clause in work contracts that prohibits maids from cleaning the outside of windows or hanging laundry from high-rise apartments, Indonesian Embassy Counsellor Sukmo Yuwono told the Associated Press. “It’s upsetting. These are human beings dying for nothing,” Yuwono said. Singapore is under pressure to improve the working conditions of foreign maids, who live full-time in one in five households in the city-state of 5.2 million people. In March, the government pledged to mandate at least one day off a week for maids starting next year.

Last week, a court fined an employer 5,000 Singapore dollars (4,000 US dollars) and barred her from hiring domestic workers in the future after a maid fell and died from her fifth-floor apartment last year while cleaning windows standing on a stool.

Eight maids, all Indonesian, have died after falling out of windows while working this year, five of whom were cleaning windows, Singapore’s Manpower Ministry said. Four maids fell to their deaths in 2011.

Local media have published photos of maids squatting on windowsills, crawling on ledges or reaching dangerously off-balance to clean window exteriors of high-rise apartment buildings.

“When you are used to a very simple life in the village, (there’s) no such thing as a high-rise building,” said Mareyeami, an Indonesian who has been a maid in Singapore for six years. “Maybe they don’t know how to clean the windows safely, so they will just try their best.” The Indonesian Embassy helped at least one maid return to Indonesia after her employer insisted she climb out on a ledge to clean windows, he said.

“She was so scared,” Yuwono said. “But at least she is alive. I have to call the families of the maids who die. It’s very hard.” Hong Kong, another popular destination for Indonesian maids, sees far fewer accidental maid deaths because buildings hire professional window cleaners.

Many Singaporeans who hire maids would likely resist a ban on chores such as cleaning windows or hanging laundry, said Theresa Low, who has employed Indonesian maids for 10 years. -AP

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NEWS IN BRIEF Police beat reporters at land eviction in Vietnam HANOI: Police and security guards beat two Vietnamese state radio reporters who were watching them evict farmers from their land to make way for a privately built housing development, state media reported Tuesday. A video posted on YouTube showed police and guards beating and kicking two men who wore helmets and hitting them with sticks during the high-profile eviction last month. Nguyen Ngoc Nam, head of the political and economic news division of the Radio Voice of Vietnam and staff reporter Han Phi Long confirmed to Thanh Nien newspaper that they were the two men in the video clip.

The newspaper said Nam was handcuffed and taken in a car to a district prosecutor’s office while Long presented himself to local police to report the beating. -AP

US ambassador to Pakistan to step down Outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, (left), with President-elect Francois Hollande, leave the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, May 8, after a ceremony marking the end of the anniversary of World War II in Europe. (AP)

Britain’s damaged coalition to renew vows LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron and deputy Nick Clegg are on Tuesday to relaunch the ailing coalition government after both ruling parties suffered a mauling in mid-term elections.

Conservative Party leader Cameron and Liberal Democrat boss Clegg will make a joint visit to a factory in south England, during which the prime minister will reiterate his commitment to the coalition and its economic policies.

“Two years ago our two parties came together to form a strong coalition,” Cameron will say, according to a statement released by his Downing Street office.

“We agreed that our number one priority was to keep Britain safe from the financial storm and to rescue our economy from the mess left by the last Labor government.” The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, which marks its two-year anniversary this week, was rocked by heavy losses for both parties in last week’s local elections, capping off a bruising month.

Clegg plans to use his own speech on Tuesday to insist that both camps take stock after the opposition Labor Party took control of 32 councils and won more than 800 seats at the expense of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

“Our parties came together to rescue, repair and reform our economy,” he will say. “We are taking the tough choices not because we want to, but because we have to.”

Tuesday’s joint appearance will be a far cry from the pair’s cheery press conference in the sunny rose garden of the prime minister’s Downing Street residence in May 2010 when they launched the coalition.

The most damaging recent development has been Britain’s slide back into recession during the first quarter, raising doubts about the coalition’s policy of austerity.

However, Cameron was to use Tuesday’s speech in Essex to dismiss any suggestions his government should

change course.

“In these perilous times it’s more important than ever for Britain that we stick to it (fiscal tightening),” he will say, according to the Number Ten statement.

“There can be no going back on our carefully judged strategy for restoring the public finances.

“I don’t hide from the scale of that challenge -- or from the message sent by voters in many places in last week’s elections. I’m listening. I’m leading. I get it,” he will add.

Cameron will credit his government’s deficit-reduction plan for allowing the Bank of England to keep borrowing rates at 0.5 percent, and will argue that sustainable growth cannot be achieved through higher government debt. He will also call for a more balanced economy that is less dependent on the financial sector.

“We’ve got to sort out our debts...get real growth... and change this country so that once again it rewards people who work hard, want to get on and play by the rules,” Cameron was to insist.

“And that’s what I am here to do.”

On Wednesday the Queen’s Speech - delivered by Queen Elizabeth II but written by the government will set out the coalition’s plans for the coming new session of parliament.

Cameron has been under pressure from the rightwing of his party to drop plans for legalizing gay marriage and reforming the House of Lords.

Cameron also faces potential embarrassment when two former aides of Rupert Murdoch testify this week at the Leveson inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal at the now-shuttered News of the World newspaper.

Andy Coulson, who was Cameron’s media chief from 2007-2011, appears on Thursday. On Friday it is the turn of Rebekah Brooks, Cameron’s friend and the former head of News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper wing. -AFP

ISLAMABAD: The US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, is to step down this summer after serving less than two years in the job, a US official said Tuesday. Munter has been Washington’s man on the diplomatic frontline at a time when relations between the two countries have dramatically worsened, especially over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May and US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

US ambassadors usually serve three-year terms, but in posts considered as tough as Pakistan, are allowed to serve two years with the option to extend for a third.

-AFP

Air India loses flights to ‘illegal’ pilot strike NEW DELHI: At least 100 pilots from India’s debt-laden national carrier Air India failed to turn up to work on Tuesday in a move the civil aviation minister described as an “illegal” strike. The airline, which loses nearly $2 million a day, is facing mounting problems due to rising fuel prices, competition from low-cost rivals and a record of labor disputes. “About 100 pilots representing the Indian Pilots’ Guild reported sick Monday night, leading us to cancel four international flights,” K. Swaminathan, a spokesman for Air India, told AFP. -AFP

South Korea, Japan step up talks on military accord SEOUL: South Korea said Tuesday it is close to signing agreements on military cooperation with Japan, the first such accords since Tokyo’s brutal colonial rule over Korea ended in 1945. One pact would let the two nations share intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and carry out joint sea search and rescue operations, Seoul’s defense ministry said. The other allows for cooperation in logistics, excluding weapons, and service in peacekeeping operations abroad.

“We’ve been discussing dates and agenda with a view to (signing the agreements at) the end of this month,” said ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok. -AFP

Clinton presses Pakistan to do more to stamp out terrorism NEW DELHI: Standing next to India’s foreign minister, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed neighboring Pakistan on Tuesday to do more to stamp out homegrown terrorism, in comments likely to please the Indian government but annoy Pakistani leaders.

Clinton was speaking a day after accusing Islamabad of foot-dragging in the case of Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based Islamist blamed for masterminding the attack by gunmen on Mumbai, India’s financial capital, in 2008. Clinton has authorized a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

“We look to the government of Pakistan to do more,” Clinton told a joint news conference with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna on Tuesday as she wrapped up an eight-day Asian trip that also took her to China and Bangladesh.

“It needs to make sure that its territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks anywhere, including inside of Pakistan, because the great unfortunate fact is that terrorists in Pakistan have killed more than 30,000 Pakistanis,” she said. Clinton said there was a need for wider vigilance against militant attacks, pointing to the discovery of a new plot linked to the Yemen-based group, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to attack an airliner with an improved “underwear bomb”.

“The device did not appear to pose a threat to the public air service, but the plot itself indicates that these terrorists keep trying, they keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people,” she said.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan sharply deteriorated after a series of incidents fuelled mistrust between the two uneasy allies in the war on Islamist militancy.

The incidents included Pakistan’s arrest of a CIA contractor in early 2011, the top-secret US raid that killed Osama bin Laden just 50 km (30 miles) from Islamabad a few months later, Pakistan’s fury over US drone strikes and a US air assault in November 2011 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan disputes the charges of inaction, saying it has suffered more casualties than any other country in fighting the Pakistani Taliban, other

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (right) poses for a photo with India’s Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna before a news conference in New

militant groups along the Afghan border and Islamist groups inside the country. Both Washington and New Delhi have criticized Pakistan for not detaining Saeed, who founded the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the 1990s. He denies any wrongdoing and links to militants.

India blames the LeT for the Mumbai attacks in which Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people over three days and says Pakistan is also a haven for militants operating in Afghanistan. India has said that Pakistani action on the Mumbai attackers is central to tentative peace moves between the nuclear-armed rivals, which have fought three wars since their independence in 1947.

The Indian foreign minister joined Clinton in calling for Pakistan to get tougher with militants within its borders. -Reuters

China prepared for escalation of maritime standoff BEIJING: Chinese vice foreign minister Fu Ying said Beijing was ready for “any escalation” of a tense maritime standoff with the Philippines over a disputed shoal.

The month-long flare-up is one of the most highprofile incidents for years between the two countries over their competing territorial claims to parts of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.

“The Chinese side has... made all preparations to respond to any escalation of the situation by the Philippine side,” Fu told a Philippine diplomat Monday, according to a statement posted on China’s foreign ministry website Tuesday. The two countries

have been locked in the row since April 8, when Beijing’s vessels blocked a Philippine warship from arresting crews of Chinese fishing boats near the disputed Scarborough Shoal - or Huangyan island in Chinese. Both Beijing and Manila have ships in the area, racking up tensions in the region.

Currently, four Chinese surveillance ships and 10 fishing boats have anchored off the disputed shoal, facing off against two Philippine coastguard ships and a fisheries bureau vessel.

On Monday, Fu summoned Alex Chua, charge d’affaires at the Philippine embassy in China, so that she could make a “serious representation” over the situation, according to the statement.

“It is obvious that the Philippine side has not realised that it is making serious mistakes and instead is stepping up efforts to escalate tensions,” she told him. “The Philippine side... repeatedly made erroneous remarks which misled the public in the Philippines and the international community, played up the public feelings, thus severely damaging the atmosphere of the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines.

“Therefore, it is hard for us to be optimistic about the situation.” The Philippines argues the shoal is well within the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, as recognized by international law. -AFP

6

ALWATAN DAILY

OPINION

wednesDAY, may 9, 2012

The Muslim Brotherhood Movement’s nefarious activities Abdullah Al-Hadlaq

C

ontrary to popular perception and unknown to most unsuspecting citizens across the world, their only aim in life is to usurp political power; and not to study religion, practice or promulgate the tenets of religion.

They have been ferociously struggling to realize their evil schemes and malicious goals for over eight decades and are still adamant on meeting with success. They have been using religion as a facade to execute all their covert and dangerous activities and operations while claiming to be overly pious, extremely righteous and religiously ascetic in all that they do in hideous attempts to hide the horrendous reality of their scheming agendas. These people are none other than members of the ‘nefarious’ Muslim Brotherhood Movement.

My colleague and dear friend Waleed Al-Jassem (Abu Khaled) has actually preceded me when he highlighted some aspects which were expounded by Sheikh Hamad AlAtiq with regards to the factual aims and ambitions of members of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement. However, I’d like to take this opportunity of completing what he initially started through indicating the most dangerous aspect of this pragmatic terrorist movement. It is common knowledge that its members are definitely allied with the ruling regime in Tehran, the criminal Baathist regime of Bashar Al-Assad and the ruling coalition in Baghdad and the combined quest of these three alliances is to first sow the seeds of sedition and consequently topple the regimes in Gulf Arab states and throughout the Middle East in order to enable Iran to implement and realize its aspirations of colonial expansion to dominate the region through promulgating the sectarian principles of Wilyat Al-Faqih.

And in genuine attempts to prove without a shadow of doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood Movement is indeed a political gimmick and not an Islamic or religious organiza-

We must all pool in our intellectual resources and respond accordingly in order to put an end to their nefarious activities by draining their financial resources.

tion, Sheikh Al-Atiq personally acknowledged the fact that some of the founding members of the movement are Egyptian Coptic Christians such as lawyer Waheeb Doos and Lewis Fanous among others. It is also open knowledge that the board members of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement openly permits all those who belong to the movement to change their attitudes, situations and stances as they deem fit in accordance with the circumstances that they are faced with.

In fact, member of the Standing Committee for Fatwa and Senior Religious Scholars; Sheikh Dr. Saleh Al-Fawzan aptly described members of that organization saying: “The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is an organization whose sole aim is to attain political power and might irrespective of the costs involved. Members of the Movement simply do not care about calls to ensure the authenticity of doctrine and most importantly; does not differentiate between Sunnah and innovation. In fact, it is no closed-door secret that they actually engage in contradicting Sunnah.”

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement enact their policies in secret in Saudi Arabia because the Saudi leadership discourages the formation and existence of political parties. At a time when Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz was the interior minister a couple of years

ago; a time when members of the Movement perpetuated blatant acts of terrorism in Riyadh and some other Saudi cities, he issued an explicit statement saying: “The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a threat to security and stability not only to Saudi Arabia but to countries across the world and hence; we must all pool in our intellectual resources and respond accordingly in order to put an end to their activities by draining their financial resources.”

The entire world is not just sensing; but actually witnessing the imminent danger that is posed by its members under the guise of a meek organization while on the contrary, it uses religion as a facade to pursue and dabble in political Islam to further and realize their power-grabbing motives.

In this context, I’d like to recall a poem that was compiled by the renowned Arab poet Al-Buturi in which he advises people of being extremely cautious of all those that they think are friends simply because it is these very people who hide behind a deceptive facade and hence; are actually enemies that are downright spiteful.

This simply translates as: the evil intentions of enemies are absolutely clear while the actual intentions of all those that pretend to be friends are what we should be wary of.

One can never know when these so-called “friends” will unleash their wrath and fury over unsuspecting peoples and

by the time the victims are caught in their vice-like grip it will be too late and near impossible to free themselves from their deception and malice. I fervently hope that the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood Movement will be crushed once and for all and all its tentacles too will be hacked forever.

The Hamas Movement, Iran’s advocate in Gaza

Isn’t it strange indeed that soon after leaders of the terrorist Hamas Movement, which is one of the offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, received tens of millions of US dollars from Iran to delay and jeopardize any agreement of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, Tehran immediately resumed its financial support for Hamas. Iran had earlier stopped funding Hamas for over a period of six months when Hamas refused to lend its support to Iran at a time when it was cracking down on dissidents and protesters.

Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf had, at that time, confirmed that the two leading personalities of Hamas namely; Mahmoud Al-Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh, were rewarded handsomely during their respective visits to Tehran in February and March 2012 in order to undermine the reconciliation between the two warring Palestinian factions. Al-Zahar and Haniyeh visited Tehran and received millions of US dollars in order to keep Khaled Mashaal away from the political scene and to confirm the fact that they would exercise a tight grip on the Gaza Strip.

In fact, Iran even extracted a promise from them that they would be ready to fight alongside Iran on any battlefield in exchange for furthering the Palestinian cause. To confirm this fact, it is no secret that the leaders of Hamas, who are affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, took over the administration of several mosques in Gaza, which were earlier managed and supervised by the Salafis, under direct orders from Iran, which is the archenemy and fierce opponent of the Sunnis.

The discriminatory factor against citizens Rashid Al-Radaan

O

ne has got to just glance over stories published in local newspapers these days and realize how many times the phrase “Kuwait is being hijacked,” is mentioned. Of course, one can surely understand such a quote being repeated, time and again, by various former officials, writers and intellectuals simply because they have contributed positively towards the establishment and subsequent development of our country. But for the phrase to be repeated again and again by those who do not even know its implication is indeed not in good taste.

What these dignified personalities actually imply when they use the term “hijacked” is that Kuwait has changed considerably over the years simply because they belong to a generation that has seen good old times; times when although they were not as affluent, they lived exemplary lives and hence; it is this nostalgia that drives them to feel sorry at the current state of affairs wherein situations have now become so deplorable that citizens have actually forgotten what morals, values, customs and traditions are all about. In fact most, if not all, of us have even forgotten what life was all about during those years before the discovery of oil.

There are other dignified personalities who nurse the firm opinion that our country is being hijacked by members of all those religious movements simply because they want to impose their views on the people and compel the government to run the country in accordance to their whims and fancies. On the other hand, there are also those that allege that it is the Bedouns who are bent on hijacking the country through exercising their overall control over the various ministries and government institutions in the country.

And in the last category, there are those dignified personalities who swear that the country is being hijacked by a select group of affluent families that want to take it upon themselves to not only dominate the country and its wealth, just like all those bourgeois families in the last century, but want to ensure that the wealth does not fall

into the wrong hands. This is the main reason why they are exerting tremendous efforts in attempts to restore the lost glory of the country. Well, at least that is what they are trying to portray.

It is no wonder then that such thoughts actually cross our very own minds whenever we hear our MPs and all those dignified intellectuals talk about the same. It is also another wonder that all those personalities can actually talk at length, uninterrupted and without the slightest trace of hesitation even if they are absolutely certain that Kuwait is certainly not being hijacked by any party or entity from any side.

However, the reality of the situation is such all those who take it upon themselves to utter these words are actually not even aware of all that is happening or transpiring in our society simply because Kuwait has come a long way since those days before the discovery of oil and hence; the affluent Kuwait that we see today is entirely different.

Moreover, due to the naturalization process, the Kuwaiti population has increased considerably wherein most of the newly naturalized persons are now employed at various ministries while the original citizens are either rendered jobless or have to contend with meager salaries accorded to them in the private sector. This is probably another reason why those dignified personalities aver that the country is being hijacked. Dwelling on another issue, I find it indeed a humane gesture and a great sense of respect shown by a son to his mother when we watched pictures of a football player kiss the feet of his mother to express his respect.

However, what I cannot comprehend is the reason why the player gave his consent to have the picture published in local newspapers. Was that a publicity stunt? Was it prove to all and sundry how much he adores and respects his mother? We should always bear in mind that the Lord God Almighty has always decreed that whenever we engage in doing good deeds like whenever we donate to charitable causes, our left hand should not know what our right hand is giving away. God Almighty is always aware of our generosity and in the event we want to gain His blessings we should never proclaim them in public.

When religious movements devastate the social fabric Shamlan Yousef Al-Esa

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hile it is indeed commendable that religious movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood Movement and the Salafi Movement attained glorious victories during previous parliamentary elections, it is also remarkable that members of those movements actually went right ahead; allied with other tribes and succeeded in securing a whopping 35 parliamentary seats out of a total of 50. However, apart from forming alliances, nothing positive has materialized either in the best interests of the nation or its citizens On the other hand, members of the current Majority Bloc has already promised its voters that they would leave no stone unturned in waging a full scale battle against corruption, implement and enhance a plethora of reforms as well as exerting exemplary efforts in fighting the scourge of wasta. But then again, and as expected, the minute they realized their ambitions by gaining access to parliament, they simply chose to forget all their pre-election promises and went about their daily chores as if nothing happened.

And as if that was just not enough, they even plucked the audacity of promulgating vain and silly issues such as their futile attempts at Islamization of laws and compelling women to wear the hijab in desperate attempts to transform the country from a civil to a religious state. I cannot re-

ally comprehend the reasons for their inane actions despite being fully aware of the underlying fact that we live in a democratic country where freedoms are guaranteed in accordance with statutes enshrined in the Constitution. Why do they always insist on imposing their own will on people instead of letting the people decide what’s good for them and what’s not?

On the other hand, MP Al-Yahya recently announced that he is seriously considering amending certain constitutional articles in attempts to strengthen the role of the National Assembly; while overlooking the underlying fact that in doing so, he will also automatically restrict certain prerogatives of the government in parliament such as the constitutional right of ministers to vote on certain issues along with MPs. Demands such as these only tend to harmonize with the aspirations of members of movements that are affiliated to political Islam. It is also common knowledge that these movements have repeatedly called for the establishment of political parties together with their unrelenting efforts in turning Kuwait into one consolidated electoral constituency.

It goes without saying that the country and its citizenry will never ever benefit from those quaint requests while the only ones that will stand to benefit from such requests are those MPs who are staunch supporters of political Islam. It is important to note here that in the event that such laws

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Mohmmed Thallab

are approved, they will only tend to undermine the political system of Kuwait and in the ongoing process, the country will witness more chaos, commotion and widespread animosities. It also will result in devastating the democratic process for good.

Some readers might question the reasons why we should be pessimistic over those requests of certain MPs since it is common knowledge that a majority of MPs have the constitutional right to amend the Constitution and have done so in the past. Let us not waste precious little time in poring over and explaining all the minute details that are usually associated with such requests since we are fully aware of the underlying fact that statutes in the Kuwaiti Constitution were endorsed and enshrined after a mutual consensus was agreed between the Kuwaiti people on one hand and the rulers of Kuwait; the Al-Sabah family on the other. It is also vital to note here that the articles in the Constitution cannot be simply amended without the joint approval of members of parliament and His Highness the Amir.

There are also those that might question the reasons why MPs affiliated to political Islam and tribal MPs always tend to undermine the efficacy of a civil state! The answer is very simple in the sense that it is only those arrogant and pompous MPs who are insecure over maintaining their posts and their chairs permanently in parliament that usually resort to such distractions. This is the main reason why they peri-

odically submit certain suggestions; little realizing the negative impact their suggestions could possibly have on public funds! Why can’t we all pool in our intellectual resources and focus on the underlying fact that playing with the concepts of democracy is a rash and serious gamble especially when we damage those very concepts under the pretext of protecting democracy.

We as citizens of the country should never maintain a conspicuous silence over the futility of such parliamentary requests and should united as one in directing bold questions to all those MPs who repeatedly call for amending articles in the Constitution; such as: “Why do you want to amend the Constitution at this point of time” How best can we manage to administrate the country by having a real democratic system that runs along the lines of pluralism?” The current political situation indicates that we have to first strengthen and consolidate our democratic values simply because our country is still listed in the “Third World” category.

Our society is still strictly traditional while its citizens pledge their allegiance to sectarian and tribal movements.

Our social fabric too is still divided between religious loyalty on one hand and sectarian affiliations on the other - both of which weakens our allegiance and loyalty to the country; which should actually be our first and top priority. Only then we can look forward to a better future for ourselves and for all future generations to come.

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ALWATAN DAILY

views

wednesDAY, may 9, 2012

What happened to ‘Yes we can’?

The neutrino arbitrage

Don Tapscott

Felix Salmon

Reuters

Reuters

A

t this pivotal moment in the presidential race, President Barack Obama and his re-election team need to focus on a key question that could influence the outcome of this year’s election: How do they get the “we” back?

Good question. We all remember how Obama broke new ground in the 2008 campaign by using social media as a powerful political tool. Obama’s campaign created an expansive Internet platform, MyBarackObama.com, that gave supporters tools to organize themselves, create communities, raise money and induce people not only to vote but to actively support the Obama campaign. What emerged was an unprecedented force, 13 million supporters connected to one another over the Internet, all driving toward one goal, the election of Obama.

When they chanted “Yes we can,” it wasn’t just a message of hope for the future - it was a confirmation statement of collective power. They weren’t waiting to be told what to do; they were actively engaged, calling friends to come to events, learn what was at stake, contribute ideas, and help out in some way. The power of “we” was awesome to behold. The “we” not only raised hope for people but also unprecedented sums of money for the old-fashioned campaign on the ground.

But this time, “Yes we can” has been replaced by a new modus operandi for the Obama campaign. It’s “We know you.”

The Democrats are investing heavily in what’s called Big Data to give them significant new insights into the everyday behavior of each one of their supporters.

Big Data allows companies, or political campaigns, to probe and analyze information about you - your friends, your shopping habits, what type of events you go to and when, and what issues you care about. With this information, they can presumably be more accurate in sending messages out over email or in identifying the trigger points that send you to events and get you to donate money.

But whatever happened to the power of the people? Whatever happened to the “we”? We haven’t heard about it since the 2008 victory. “They built the largest online community in the history of the presidency,” says Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Media, which tracks the intersection of technology and politics. “But then they stopped talking to them and engaging them” - that is, until they called in recently with a pitch for money. Obama did make some efforts to be the first Internet president, with a twitter feed, a blog and the Internet version of the traditional town hall. He launched an open government initiative with the aim of cutting the influence of special interests and giving the public more influence over decisions that affect their lives.

Compared with other countries around the world, the US is the gold standard for government openness.

And yet, four years after Obama was elected, nothing much has changed.

Rasiej is disappointed: “Lots of us believe he squandered the massive political con-

7

At the very least, this could provide a fantastic revenue bump for physicists working at extremely expensive particle accelerators in a world of fiscal austerity.

N President Barack Obama speaks to supporters at a campaign rally at Ohio State University May 5, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio.

The rally officially kicks off the president’s 2012 campaign for reelection but his previous slogan “Yes we can” has been replaced by a new modus operandi. It’s “We know you.” (AFP)

The Obama campaign itself showed in 2008 that you can let people create their own communities without hurting the integrity of the core message. stituency that was drawn to his message of hope and change.” The 13 million supporters, for instance, could have helped Obama by lobbying their congressmen to back the healthcare legislation. Yet Rasiej thinks the White House, and in particular Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, didn’t believe in the power of “we.”

“They went back to the bully pulpit of the presidency. They literally put on the armor of 20th century communications.”

That attitude seems to have influenced the 2012 campaign. In Los Angeles, 33year-old film executive Haroon “Boon” Saleem can see the difference. Back in 2008, he organized lots of events to galvanize young professionals - comedy nights, debate-watching parties, movie nights where you could meet successful movie and TV celebrities. They spread the word, made friends and helped to raise $1.6 million for the campaign. The ideas didn’t come from the Obama organization. “We just did it,” says Saleem. This time, Saleem is planning to help out, but the Democratic National Committee’s Gen44 is in charge. “It’s perceived as a top-down hierarchy,” said Saleem. That doesn’t sit well

with some of the young people who resent being told what to do. “I know a huge number of people who are unhappy,” said Saleem. “They wanted to be connected and involved but they weren’t.”

The Obama campaign may think that it doesn’t need to worry about youth support. A new national poll of America’s 18-to 29-year-olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics shows that Barack Obama now leads his likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney by a 17-point margin, a gain of 6 percentage points since November 2011. But will young people be as keen to raise money and connect with friends to support the president? Will they go out and vote in huge numbers, as they did in 2008, when 2 million more under-30 Americans voted than in 2004, mostly for Obama? A senior figure in the Obama campaign tells me that they can’t depend on self-organization in the same way they did in 2008. For one thing, the Obama campaign cannot do or say anything that compromises the president’s first term. As an incumbent, he needs to be more cautious than in 2008, when he was a longshot candidate.

But that shouldn’t stop the campaign from tapping into the power of self-organization. The Obama campaign itself showed in 2008 that you can let people create their own communities without hurting the integrity of the core message.

The Obama campaign set out clear rules of engagement that prohibited, for instance, trash talking about Sarah Palin’s family, said Rahaf Harfoush, who worked on Obama’s social-media campaign and then wrote a book about it.Whenever supporters said something that didn’t jibe with Obama’s message, the campaign made it clear that the outlier didn’t speak for Obama. This time, the Obama campaign could write a clear rider or disclosure statement to the world that the communities do not necessarily reflect the views of the campaign. The community itself could register its approval, or disapproval, of statements by members.

Obama’s digital people also point out that they don’t need to rely so heavily on MyObama.com because there are so many other social networking tools out there. Yet as Harfoush points out: “Facebook is not equipped to help people organize, as MyBo was.” If the campaign doesn’t return to its winning ways, and fast, it risks continuing to isolate itself.

Youth don’t want to be organized; they want to take action themselves.They want to participate, not be passive recipients of campaign instructions. They want to take the initiative rather than be told what to do from all-knowing campaign strategists.

The Tea Party understands this; Obama once did too. It’s time now for his campaign to remember the power of “we.” * Don Tapscott is a Reuters correspondent. The views expressed here are his own.

ick Dunbar has a good column today on how derivatives have followed physics from being clean to being messy. Once upon a time, both physics and derivatives had beautiful, simple models: quantum electrodynamics and Black-Scholes, respectively. But nowadays they’re both vastly more complex.

Physics has moved on to quantum chromodynamics, where complex interactions dominate the simpler ones and models get gnarly, while derivatives have found themselves in a world of counterparty risks and debit valuation adjustments and credit support annexes. Put them all together, says Dunbar, and the result is that the “derivative trading books at major banks lurch around like aircraft in a thunderstorm”. All of which makes me very happy to see Bruce Dorminey’s column about a rather exciting possible application of high-energy physics to global finance. Remember the $1.5 billion being spent on transarctic fiber cables designed to cut a bit of latency between London and Tokyo? Here’s an even better idea: why not get rid of fiber cables entirely, and use neutrinos to transmit information, at the speed of light, right through the center of the earth?

At the very least, this could provide a fantastic revenue bump for physicists working at extremely expensive particle accelerators in a world of fiscal austerity. In order to make this happen, you’d need to either build your own accelerator, or lease some capacity from an existing one. The sums involved are both big enough to make physicists salivate, and small enough that the private sector could raise the money quite easily: Learned says a one-way, earth-traversing setup might be constructed for as little as a $1 billion. It also might be possible for a neutrino-communications startup to buy time on an existing accelerator, says Learned, in order to create and point a neutrino beam-line in the needed direction. Otherwise, private particle accelerators would have to be built from scratch. But Haug contends that if a group of particle physicists had the right plan for the technology, Wall Street money “would be there” to make it happen.

If this was successfully implemented, price information from Sydney could reach New York in just 40.2 milliseconds, compared to the 84.4 milliseconds it takes to send that information on fibers around the surface of the earth. The difference is more than enough time for traders in New York to make real money arbitraging securities listed in both cities.

Indeed, it wouldn’t even need to be a Wall Street bank building this technology. Back in the 1850s, Paul Julius Reuter built the company I work for today by leveraging state-of-the-art low-latency technology: the undersea cable between Calais and Dover. Maybe David Thomson can do the same with neutrinos. He might even be able to find jobs for a few of those physicist-quants laid off by Wall Street in recent years. * Felix Salmon is a Reuters correspondent. The views expressed here are his own.

The rise of lousy and lovely jobs Chrystia Freeland Reuters

M

ore bad news for the middle class: When the economy recovers, jobs in the middle won’t. That is the conclusion of an important new study that connects a long-term trend in the labor market with the business cycle of recession and rebound. Nir Jaimovich, an economist at Duke University, and Henry E. Siu, an economist at the University of British Columbia, take as their starting point one of the most important continuing changes in Western developed societies. That shift is what economists, most notably David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have called the ‘’polarization’’ of the job market.

Maarten Goos and Alan Manning, extending the research to Britain, have more colorfully dubbed it the dual rise of “lousy and lovely” jobs.

Their point is that, thanks to technology, more and more “routine” tasks can be done by machines. The most familiar example is the increasing automation of manufacturing. But machines can now do “routine” white-collar jobs, too - things like the work that used to be performed by travel agents and much of the legal “discovery” that was done by relatively well-paid associates with expensive law degrees. The jobs that are left are the “lovely” ones, at the top of the income distribution - white-collar jobs that cannot be done by machines, like designing computer software or structuring complex financial transactions. A lot of “lousy” jobs are not affected by the technology revolution, either - nonroutine, manual tasks like collecting the garbage or peeling and chopping onions in a restaurant kitchen.

An extensive body of economic research has shown that job polarization is happening throughout the Western developed world. It accounts for many of the social and political strains we have experienced over the past three decades, particularly the increasing divide between the people at the top and at the bottom of the economic heap, and

The pace of technological change is so much faster, and we live in such a complex society, that it is harder than ever to switch to a new occupation. the disappearance of those in the middle who were once both the compass and the backbone of our societies. What’s new about Jaimovich and Siu’s work is that they have found that job polarization isn’t a slow, evolutionary process. Instead, it happens in short, sharp bursts. The middle-class frog isn’t being gradually boiled; it is being periodically grilled at a very high heat.

Those spurts of change are economic downturns: Jaimovich and Siu have found that in the United States since the mid-1980s, 92 percent of job loss in middle-skill occupations has happened within 12 months of a recession. “We think of recessions as temporary, but they lead to these permanent changes,” Siu told me. “The big puzzle about business cycles is: Why have we had these jobless recoveries over the past three recessions?

These jobless recoveries are because you have these middle-skilled jobs that are being wiped off the table.”

Economists are often in the business of collecting empirical evidence of the trends many of us civilians have long experienced in our daily lives.

That turned out to be the case when Siu shared his research findings with his family. “I told my father-in-law, who used to be an executive in the oil industry,” Siu said. “He said: ‘That is exactly what happened. Every vice-president had a secre-

tary, then they fired them during the recession but after the recession we had to pair up and two vicepresidents had to share one secretary.’”

Another example may have been hinted at in the March US jobs report. Those figures showed a decline of 34,000 jobs in the retail sector despite recent improvements in store sales. Some economists attributed that apparent mismatch to the power of technology, in this case e-commerce.

“That is certainly in line with our findings,” Siu said. “Salespeople are one of the prime examples of routine jobs.” The Jaimovich-Siu paper concludes that “jobless recoveries are evident in only the three most recent recessions, and they are due entirely to jobless recoveries in routine occupations. In this group, employment never recovers beyond its trough level, nor does it come anywhere close to its pre-recession peak.”

This is, Siu told me, “a stark finding.” David E. Altig, the research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who has written a blog post about the paper, echoed that view. “One of the things you certainly note is that this is the mother of all jobless recoveries,” he told me. Siu urged me not to be too gloomy. “In the broad sweep of history, technology is good,” he reminded me. “We’ve been wrestling with this for 200 years. Remember the Luddites.” That is an important point. All of us, even the hollowed-out middle class, would be much worse off if the Luddites had won the day and the Industrial Revolution, whose latest wave is the past three and a half decades of technological change, had never taken hold.

But it is also true that every seismic shift, including the current one, has winners and losers.

And for the losers, adapting to today’s world of lousy and lovely jobs may be even harder than it was for the artisans of the Luddite era to thrive in the Machine Age. “What might be different today is two factors,” Siu told me. “The pace of technological change is so much faster, and we live in such a complex society, that it is harder than ever to switch to a new occupation.” All of us are awaiting an economic recovery. We should be braced for one that offers scant comfort to the middle class. * Chrystia Freeland is a Reuters correspondent. The views expressed here are her own.

People seeking jobs fill out paperwork as others speak to over 60 employers at an employment fair in a youth center May 3, 2012 in the Queens borough of New York. An extensive body of economic research has shown that job polarization is happening throughout the Western developed world. (AFP)

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Oil falls towards $112 on slowdown, higher output

BUSINESS

wednesdAY, may 9, 2012

m ar ket watc h KUWAIT

DUBAI

0.12% 6485

0.5% 1556

LONDON: Brent crude oil fell towards 112 US dollars a barrel on Tuesday in a fifth day of losses as economic slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic deepened fears of lower oil demand at time of ample supply from major oil producers.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said the world’s biggest exporter was pumping around 10 million barrels per day (bpd), near its highest for decades, and was storing 80 million barrels in case of any disruption in supplies.

QATAR

OMAN

ABU DHABI

0.2% 8667

0.2% 5802

0.1% 2490

See page 10

OIL MARKETS BAHRAIN 0.1% 1160

EGYPT

SAUDI

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0.1% 7367

US Crude $97.39 $0.55 London Brent $112.51 $0.59 Kuwait Crude $108.82 $3.03 Information Courtesy: KAMCO

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Kuwaiti crude at $108.82 per barrel

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Kuwait adopts new loan rules for banks

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s central bank will change its loan-to-deposit ratio rules for banks to boost lending, its governor said, according to comments carried by state-run news agency Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

The new loan-to-deposit ratios will be calculated based on loan maturities, KUNA said. Banks will be allowed to group other sources of funding such as bonds, loans and Islamic bonds along with deposits in calculating their loan-to-deposit ratios.

According to the new rules, if the funding matures after one year, banks may have a loan to deposit ratio of 100 percent, and 90 percent if the funding matures between three months and a year.

For maturities below three months, the loan to deposit ratio must not exceed 75 percent, according to the new rules.

The rules will apply from May 11, Governor Mohammad AlHashel was quoted as saying. The old rules stipulated an 85 percent loan to deposit ratio, KUNA said.

Al-Hashel said some of the goals of the adjustments were to urge banks to work towards the development of the financial markets and to increase interbank lending. -Reuters

A man walks past an advertisement of Apple Inc’s Ipod touch at an electronic store in Tokyo May 8, 2012. Unlike many beleaguered constituents of Japan Inc, Toshiba Corporation, has reason to feel cheerful about ballooning sales at Apple Inc - millions of the iPhones it sells are loaded with NAND flash memory made by Japan’s last big chip maker, who said on Tuesday it expects a 45 percent jump in profits this business year.

of Inquiry into the ‘Shell’ file, I found some of the things mentioned in it, and found it appropriate to send the file to prosecutors for consideration and investigation of any suspicions,” he said.

Al-Rai said Hussein had made the referral during his first days after taking office in February.

UGB announces Q1 net profit of $9.1 million

BAHRAIN: United Gulf Bank B.S.C (UGB), the asset management and investment banking platform of the Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) Group, has announced a net profit of 9.1million US dollars for the first quarter of 2012 - a 89 percent increase over the first three months of 2011.

This was stated in a press release on Tuesday.

Basic earnings per share (EPS) also increased to 1.11 US cents from 0.59 cents in 2011.

The increase in net profit is due to improved results of commercial banking and real estate associates. Contribution from associates increased to $20.6 million compared to $2.6 million Q1 2011. Fees and commission income also increased to $6.7 million compared to $4.2 million in Q1 2011. Investment income reduced to $3.7 million compared to $17.9 million in Q1 2011. In 1Q11 investment income included $16.3 million from exit of a private equity investment.

UGB’s total assets stood at $1.75 billion as at Q1 2012, which is slightly down from the $1.77 billion recorded at the end of 2011.

UGB retains a strong balance sheet with total equity of $621.1 million (2011: $603.2 million) and a capital adequacy ratio of 18 percent, well above the Central Bank of Bahrain’s minimum level of 12.5 percent.

AAOIFI urged to improve Islamic auditing system DUBAI: Auditors of Islamic financial institutions need better training to make sure they can conduct accurate assessments of products and practices, a major industry conference was told this week.

Internal teams of auditors check whether Islamic banks and other financial firms are obeying religious principles. They work with companies’ boards of scholars, who then issue rulings on whether specific financial instruments and activities comply with Sharia law.

The relationship between auditors and boards of scholars is a delicate one which Mufti Aziz Ur Rehman, Sharia manager at Dubai-based Mawarid Finance, said was not always certain to deliver careful and consistent supervision of companies.

In a speech to the annual meeting of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) in Bahrain, Rehman questioned the ability of auditors to conduct proper reviews if their knowledge of Sharia law was not as extensive as that of the scholars. He also questioned whether AAOIFI’s training programs and certifications for Islamic finance professionals were adequate.

“How many Sharia auditors are fully qualified?” Rehman asked the conference.

AAOIFI, one of the world’s top standard-setting bodies for Islamic finance, has said it will conduct a wide-ranging review of its guidelines, and Rehman’s

Buy 0.003481 Sell 0.003485

Buy 0.0741 Sell 0.0742

Prices in Kuwaiti fils as of May 8, 2012 Courtesy: KAMCO

Minister says oil price fair at $100

KUWAIT: Price of Kuwaiti crude oil dropped 3.03 US dollars to $108.82 per barrel (pb) in transactions on Monday, compared with $111.85 pb on Friday, reported Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, prices of the crude oil on the international markets continued falling for the fifth consecutive day, in shadow of jitters over global economy, rise of the American reserves, new reports about hike of unemployment in the US and decrease of output by OPEC. In more news, an oil price of $100 a barrel is fair, and Kuwait is producing around 3.1 million barrels of crude a day, the country’s oil minister said in comments published on Tuesday.

“The fundamentals of supply and demand indicate that $100 a barrel is a fair price,” Hani Hussein told newspaper Al-Rai in an interview, adding that international political tensions could send the price higher.

Brent crude fell 50 US cents to $112.66 a barrel by 0755 GMT on Tuesday, down more than 5.5 percent so far in May after five days of falls. US crude also fell for a fifth day, losing $1.14 per barrel to touch a low of $96.80 before recovering slightly.

Hussein said it was important for Kuwait to avoid becoming reliant on a high oil price but declined to predict future price developments.

He said he expected between seven and nine companies to make tender offers for Kuwait’s refinery projects by the end of May. The Gulf state plans a four billion dinars ($14.4 billion) construction project for a new refinery and for upgrades to two others as part of its development plan.

The delayed Al-Zour refinery project, which aims to process 615,000 barrels a day, would be the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member state’s fourth refinery. It should go on line in 2018, Hussein said.

Hussein also said Kuwait had referred a gas development contract between Shell and state-run Kuwait Oil Co. to prosecutors for investigation after a report by an investigative committee raised questions about the deal.

“When I was reading the report of the Commission

Buy 0.449 Sell 0.4495

speech may encourage it to focus on auditing as an area for potential reform.

In his speech, the Pakistani-born Rehman said the relationship between auditors and scholars was vulnerable to an imbalance of knowledge between the two.

For example, auditors might not understand products or practices, and so might not report them clearly to scholars. Or auditors might end up relying on scholars to explain complex products, undermining the independence of the audit team.

Training is a way to bridge the knowledge gap, but there are concerns over whether AAOIFI’s two industry certifications for Islamic finance professionals are rigorous enough, Rehman said.

Rehman, who holds both certifications, said there were no pre-conditions for eligibility; candidates were required to have no specific experience or education except for Arabic proficiency. A trainer and university lecturer himself, he also questioned the quality of the training and whether the curriculum fully covered all of AAOIFI’s standards.

In an interview before the AAOIFI conference, Rehman told Reuters that the audit process needed greater clarity in its roles and responsibilities. AAOIFI might achieve this, he said, by “disciplining the Sharia advisory process and addressing conflict of interest issues and corporate governance matters”. -Reuters

The contract, worth $800 million according to Kuwaiti media, has been under investigation since last year by a committee set up by Hussein’s predecessor after some lawmakers said the deal had not been transparent.

Hussein said he had also asked prosecutors to probe reports of diesel smuggling involving Kuwait. -Agencies

Saudi’s Alwaleed in talks over three investments

FRANKFURT: Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is eyeing three big investments in the near-term, setting a high bar for the acquisitions as he pursues ambitious returns of at least 20 percent, he told a German newspaper. Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s king who was estimated by Forbes magazine last year to have a fortune of over 19 billion US dollars, already owns a seven-percent stake in News Corp and plans to start a cable news channel.

“We are currently in talks over three quite big (investment) projects - one in Saudi Arabia, one in the (Arab) region and one internationally,” Alwaleed told business daily Handelsblatt’s Tuesday edition.

“Our targets are very high - at least 20 to 25 percent.

Other Arab investors take a different stance, they want to diversify away from oil and take lower returns of six to eight into account,” he added.

The prince, who has a sizeable stake in Citigroup, said he would continue to look at investments in the United States and Europe but had no plans to raise his Citigroup holding or buy into other US banks.

“We have enough,” he said of the Citigroup investment.

Asked if he is eyeing Greek, Portuguese or Spanish investments, he told the paper: “We are looking around.

And it is right, some things are cheap now. But they could become cheaper, the crisis is not yet over. There is no hurry.”

The Arab world will also be a focus for future investments, he told the paper, noting the prospect of high returns. Alwaleed’s investment firm Kingdom Holding plans to build the world’s tallest tower in Jeddah. “(The building) in Jeddah ... itself will not yield much return. That is only about ego. But because it is built, the land around it will multiply in value. And we own the land.” The Saudi prince, who backs more rights for women in his ultra-conservative country, said more political change was needed in the Gulf Arab region which has largely been spared the turmoil of the Arab Spring unrest.

“Rich countries in the Gulf have reacted quickly - socially and economically. They have shared out money, created support for the unemployed and brought in a minimum wage,” he said. “But that is not enough - people must be able to vote for their parliaments. And parliaments must then have a real say.”

In September, the Saudi king gave women the right to vote in municipal elections and join an all-male, and legally toothless, advisory chamber.

“Elections are the only option,” he said of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy. “In other parts of the Arab world, parliaments already have more power.”

The prince, who bought a stake in microblogging site Twitter in December, told the paper: “I am for freedom of opinion and freedom of press. I am for the equality of man and woman. If you invest in Twitter, you believe in freedom of information.

“I very much hope that the countries which have not yet seen the influence of the Arab Spring have understood the message. They should introduce freedom and equality. And these countries should react quickly.” -Reuters

KSE ends day trading in red after green start

KUWAIT: Trading ended at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) Tuesday with the main indices in the red zone. The price index lost 7.9 points to reach 6, 484.5 points, while the weighted index came to 417.75 points a drop of 1.06 points.

Trades came to 417.75 spot transactions worth 43,122,360 Kuwaiti dinars, with 654,097, 500 shares changing hands till end of session. As for sector indices, four of them were green and the other four were red.

Top gainer sector was services which put on 43 index points. The biggest loser sector was that of the banking with a slip of 83.5 points.

Top share for the day was that of International Financial Advisors, while top loser was the Ithmaar Bank. -KUNA

Kuwaitis keen on developing their country

KUWAIT: Ahmad Al-Arbeed, who initiates Kuwait is world’s oil capital project, said Monday Kuwaitis were keen on achieving development and noted that making “Kuwait as the world’s oil capital” was not impossible.

Al-Arbeed, of Kuwait and a former oil executive, said ambitions were high to transform Kuwait into a capital of oil of the world by 2022.

“Dreams that come true are seen by many as impossible to achieve, and some think that visions are hard to grasp,” he told reporters on sidelines of a conference about his project “Kuwait is world’s oil capital,” attended by former oil ministers, executives of oil sector.

He said attendees have boosted his expectations that his project would see light.

Attendance of over 80 public figures “is evidence that Kuwaitis are thirsty to contribute to the development of their country,” he said.

Al-Arbeed said the team of the project has recently met with oil minister, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and board chairman of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). “All of them showed complete readiness to offer full cooperation and support for the initiative.”

He called for preparing a crystal-clear document over the project to be later referred to the decision-makers. Al-Arbeed said the private sector succeeded when the oil sector was leading development.

“If this thing happens again then the private sector will make great success ... but it needs a way to be paved by the oil sector coupled with legislations that protect and help the local and foreign investors,” he said.

About Kuwait as world’s oil capital project, Al-Arbeed said Kuwait has many and diversified oil facilities. “Kuwait has all oil industry phases,” he added.

Al-Arbeed said his project has four stages, the first was the formulation of the venture. This phase has been completed with formation of teams of volunteers.

The second phase, he added, was to inform the society about the project and today’s conference contributed largely to that end. The third phase, said Al-Arbeed, was achievement. This means, he explained, the start of implementation. The fourth stage, meanwhile, was investment during which the project would be appealing to investors. There should be a maximum benefit from every oil barrel, he said. “Instead of selling the barrel with only 100 dollars, it is sold with 400 dollars with the inclusion of oil industry and the extraction of byproducts.” Al-Arbeed wanted to make Kuwait as world’s oil capital through a sustainable and creative development environment.

The project depends on Kuwaiti workforce, integration between public and private oil sectors, thus contributing to transforming Kuwait into a regional financial and commercial hub. -KUNA

Kuwait lucrative for franchise business

KUWAIT: Kuwait is lucrative for franchise deals namely sales of trademarks in shadow of existence of hundreds of successful businesses with special national labels, according to an expert in the sector.

Kuwait was one of the first countries that dealt in the franchise trade in the Gulf region and kept this reputation till today, said Mahmoud Al-Musawi, the deputy manager for sales in the Gulf Franchise Company, in an interview published by the latest edition of the magazine, The Franchise. The Kuwaiti market is distinguished with heated competition in the franchise business, for it is saturated with foreign trademarks. This condition prompted Kuwaiti investors to create local label marks and marketed the labels in the region, he said.

Certain trademarks devised in Kuwait became quite famous in other Gulf countries, and some of the Kuwaiti trademarks became known

in Singapore, Italy, France and the United States, Al-Musawi said.

Mousawi said his company started pondering marketing Kuwaiti trademarks abroad after noticing rapid and wide-scale spread of these national labels locally, he added.

Some of the most successful marks are those of food companies and restaurants, AlMusawi said, adding that Kuwaiti restaurants opened branches in Beirut, Istanbul and Sharm El-Sheikh, also noting that the marketing of the national labels in the Kuwaiti dinars would reap positive results for the national economy.

This business is lucrative and promising in the Gulf region of 30 million people with high levels of standards of living. An international exhibition on the franchise business is due in Dubai on May 9-10. Kuwaiti companies specialized in marketing labels would take part in it. -KUNA

10

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

wednesDAY, may 9, 2012

Oil falls towards $112 on slowdown, higher output LONDON: Brent crude oil fell towards 112 US dollars a barrel on Tuesday in a fifth day of losses as economic slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic deepened fears of lower oil demand at time of ample supply from major oil producers.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said the world’s biggest exporter was pumping around 10 million barrels per day (bpd), near its highest for decades, and was storing 80 million barrels in case of any disruption in supplies.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are concerned very high oil prices earlier this year could hit consumption and dent world economic activity.

But global growth prospects have weakened in recent weeks.

Political changes in the euro zone after France elected a new leader and Greece’s inability to form a new government have shaken an already fragile outlook for the debt-laden region, while disappointing US jobs data stoked concerns about growth in the world’s largest economy.

Brent crude futures for June slipped to a low of $112.11 per barrel, down $1.05, before recovering a little to trade around $112.25 at 1119 GMT. The contract is down around 6 percent so far in May after five days of falls.

US crude oil futures followed a similar path, falling to a low of $96.71, down $1.23, but then rallying to around $97.00. Eugen Weinberg, global head of commodities research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt said oil was being squeezed from both the supply and demand sides of the market.

“Renewed concerns over the health of the euro zone coincide with weaker growth elsewhere and news of better oil supply,” Weinberg said. “Saudi Arabia is pumping plenty of oil and even storing it, so there is no shortage.”

“Risk aversion is also rising and the

In a Friday, March 23, 2012 file photo, a gas station attendant pumps gas, in Portland. Brent crude oil fell towards 112 US dollars a barrel on Tuesday in a fifth day of losses as economic slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic deepened fears of lower oil demand at time of ample supply from major oil producers. (AP)

dollar is up, so all the pressures are negative for oil at the moment,” he said. $100 oil ‘fair’

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hani Hussein was quoted by a local newspaper on Tuesday as saying in an interview that oil prices should be around $100 per barrel, well below current levels.

“The fundamentals of supply and demand indicate that $100 a barrel is a fair price,” Hussein said.

The dollar rose around 0.2 percent against a basket of other currencies, while the euro faced more pressure.

Crude oil stocks in the United States, already at their highest since 1990, are forecast to rise for a seventh straight week, as supply in Cushing, Oklahoma builds ahead of a key pipeline reversal, a preliminary Reuters poll showed ahead of weekly inventory data.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released last Wednesday showed crude stocks reached the highest for two decades during the week to April 27. Cushing crude stocks were at a record of 42.96 million barrels during the period.

The weekly inventory report from

Saudi’s Al-Naimi says kingdom pumping 10 million barrels per day TOKYO: Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is pumping around 10 million barrels per day (bpd) and is storing 80 million barrels to meet any sudden disruption in supplies, Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said on Tuesday.

Worries of a supply disruption from the Middle East due to escalating tensions between the West and Iran over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program have pushed Brent prices 20 percent higher since the start of the year to a record of over 128 US dollars in March.

Prices have since eased but the more expensive crude has threatened to derail the fragile global economic recovery and strained the budgets of emerging economies. This has prompted influential Saudi Arabia, a key ally of the United States, to repeatedly stress that oil markets are well supplied.

Despite the recent declines, Al-Naimi told reporters during a trip to Japan that oil prices were still high. Asked if producer group Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) needed to raise output quotas in a policy meeting on June 14, he said: “You have to wait for the meeting. We have to discuss that.”

At 10 million bpd, Saudi Arabia’s output is the same as last month, which was the most since November when it pro-

duced more than it had done for decades.

The kingdom stood ready to tap into its spare capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day if more crude was needed, he added.

“In addition to our spare capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day, we have on the ground, in tanks and in pipelines, about 80 million barrels of inventory. These are working inventory,” Al-Naimi said.

Saudi Arabia had storage capacity of about 80 million barrels, which was full, and was ready to meet any sudden need for an increase in supply, he added.

Iran’s oil exports have been reduced

by Western sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

China, South Korea, Japan and India, the main buyers of Iran’s 2.2 million bpd of exports, have all made cuts in purchases this year and rising supplies from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Russia and other Middle Eastern exporters are helping ensure there is ample crude available.

Japan seeks stable supply

Al-Naimi told Japanese Trade Minister Yukio Edano that Japan was an important consumer and customer, and that he understood the country’s oil needs had increased following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) official

industry group American Petroleum Institute is due late on Tuesday.

Resumption of talks between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program have helped ease geopolitical tensions and reduced the risk premium built into oil prices, analysts say.

The “Iran premium” was at one point estimated to be as much at $20 per barrel, but has eased gradually as talks have continued between the major world powers.

Traders said news Iran was accepting yuan for some of the crude it supplies to China indicated supply from the OPEC member would continue. -Reuters

Iran accepts Chinese yuan in exchange for oil

ABU DHABI: Iran is accepting Chinese yuan for some of the approximately 20 billion US dollars worth of crude the member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) supplies to its main client, China, annually, an Iranian diplomat said on Tuesday, as the two countries try to maintain trade ties despite Western sanctions.

US sanctions against Iran have made paying for its crude with hard currency difficult for top oil customers including China and India, forcing them to look for alternatives.

The US dollar and euros are the two main currencies used in the global oil trade.

But tougher Western measures aimed at pressuring Iran to halt its nuclear program have forced importers of Iranian oil to pay in the Korean won and the Japanese yen.

The Financial Times on Monday reported that China for months has been transferring Chinese renminbi to Tehran through Russian banks to pay for Iranian crude. OPEC’s second largest oil producer was using the currency to spend on goods and services imported from China.

Initially, the non-barter portions of the transactions were settled in Beijing through renminbi accounts but, as a result of U.S. pressure, domestic banks such as Bank of China had stopped dealing with Iran, the newspaper said, citing unidentified industry executives.

“Yes, that is correct,” Mohammed Reza Fayyaz, the Iranian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told Reuters when asked to comment on the report.

It is unclear how much of Iran’s oil China is paying for with its own currency. China’s two major Iranian oil buyers, Sinopec Corp and Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, have been paying mostly in euros for the roughly 520,000 barrels per day of supplies they receive.

Chinese companies started paying in euros for their Iranian crude in 2006. The idea of settling some of the oil trade in the Chinese currency was first floated in 2010. -Reuters

Saudi adviser recommends adding 41 GW solar by 2032

who briefed reporters on the meeting.

The last of Japan’s nuclear reactors was idled on Saturday with no schedule for restarts because of concerns about safety. Naimi said Japan could rely on Saudi Arabia for stable oil supplies. But the METI official said that no specific country was mentioned when reporters asked if Saudi Arabia would step in to fill the shortfall from Iran.

“This offer of supply from Saudi Arabia is not to offset a particular nation’s decline in exports to Japan,” the official said. “There was no such exchange.”

Japan’s crude imports from Iran fell 36.4 percent in March from a year earlier, while overall oil consumption has risen to meet power demand with nuclear generators switched off. The north Asian nation imported 305,114 bpd of crude from the Iran in the first quarter, down 31.2 percent from 2011, when it purchased 443,535 bpd, the data showed.

Before meeting Naimi, Edano told reporters he would ask Saudi Arabia to help secure stable oil supplies.

“In general, Saudi Arabia has provided the greatest cooperation over many years in regards to a stable crude oil supply,” Edano said. “I want to thank them for that and ask for continued cooperation.” -Reuters

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia should install around 41 gigawatts of solar power over the next 20 years, more than any country has managed so far, as well as around 17 GW of nuclear capacity, the body responsible for planning the Saudi energy mix said on Tuesday.

The King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE), set up to advise on the energy mix, said the 41 GW of solar capacity would meet a third of expected peak power demand in 2032, while nearly a sixth of installed capacity should come from nuclear and about half from oil and gas.

“I’m confident Saudi Arabia will approve a diversified energy mix this year,” Khalid Al-Sulaiman, vice president for renewable energy at KA-CARE, told Reuters after a presentation outlining its recommendation to the Saudi government.

KA-CARE said the Kingdom should aim to build 16 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and about 25 GW of concentrated solar power (CSP) capacity by 2032. CSP is more expensive than PV but allows for electricity storage, so its use would not be limited to sunny periods.

A spokesman for KA-CARE added that the kingdom should install a further 4 GW of geothermal and waste-to-energy capacity by the same date.

KA-CARE’s recommendations must be approved by its board of directors, which is headed by King Abdullah and includes the crown prince and the foreign minister, oil minister, finance minister and industry minister. The group could then move directly to implement the plans, Al-Sulaiman said.

The world’s largest oil producer has built a negligible amount of solar power capacity to date, less than

Shell in talks to cut Iraq’s Majnoon output target BAGHDAD: Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with Iraq to cut the production target for the Majnoon oilfield, oil ministry documents show, in a move that may prompt discussions with other companies and lead to a downsizing of the country’s unrealistic output goals.

The documents, seen by Reuters, mention a reduction in the target at the super-giant Majnoon field to one million barrels per day from 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

Shell executives met oil ministry officials on March 15 and also proposed to extend the oilfield’s plateau period the time in which its peak production can be sustained and which is to begin in 2017 - to more than 20 years from seven years now.

Europe’s largest oil company is also seeking to slash its overall development budget for the project, the documents said.

“Shell proposed to extend Majnoon’s plateau time to more than 20 years from seven years and to cut required total development costs by 10 billion US dollars,” the oil ministry document read.

The proposals were made during talks between Shell and the oil ministry to hammer out the firm’s final development plan for the field. Shell is the first foreign firm to hold such talks, according to oil ministry officials.

The two sides are expected to meet again in the Lebanese capital Beirut in mid-May, Iraqi oil officials told Reuters.

Its discussions may prompt other oil majors to seek revisions to their existing deals with the ministry, reached when they were competing for projects in Iraq’s two bidding rounds and made ambitious promises to win contracts.

Shell has spent around one billion dollars since taking over the field in 2010, and planned to invest another $1 billion in 2012. Total spending over the life of the 20-year project was estimated to be around $50 billion.

Iraq’s service contracts initially committed foreign firms to boosting capacity beyond 12 million bpd by 2017, but this target has proved unrealistic due to widely flagged in-

FILE - An old Shell logo is seen on a vintage fuel wagon at a museum railway station in the town of Naumburg in northern Hesse March 17, 2012. Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with Iraq to cut the production target for the Majnoon oilfield, oil ministry documents show, in a move that may prompt discussions with other companies and lead to a downsizing of the country’s unrealistic output goals. (Reuters)

frastructure bottlenecks and logistical shortcomings.

It is expected to target 8-8.5 million bpd, but some oil analysts and executives see even 6 million bpd by 2017 as a stretch for the war-damaged country.

Iraq to stand firm on per-barrel fee

Royal Dutch Shell and its minority partner, Petronas of Malaysia, won a deal to develop Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield in the country’s second bidding round in December 2009.

50 megawatts, after saying a few years ago it would become a major solar power, but the 41 GW capacity target, if met, would propel it towards the top of the solar power table.

World solar leader Germany installed more than 7,000 MW in both 2010 and 2011, raising its total at the end of last year to 25 GW. “Our advice would be to change the plans to 58 GW of solar energy. It’s cheaper, faster and there is no problem of waste fuel afterwards,” said Sven Teske, renewable energy director at Greenpeace International.

Soaring consumption

A growing population and lavish subsidies have fuelled a rapid rise in Saudi electricity consumption, pushing the kingdom to burn crude oil in its power plants and thereby limiting the amount available for export. Last summer Saudi plants burned an average of 730,000 barrels a day of crude. That figure may fall this year, however, as oil is replaced in power stations by newly available natural gas. Al-Sulaiman said that if the proposed solar capacity was installed, it would save the kingdom from burning 371,000 to 527,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, depending on the season, to generate the same amount of electricity.

“Those (solar) targets are very reasonable, very realistic, very achievable and they’re all based on technologies that are available today and from pricing levels from today,” said Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive of Acwa Power, a Saudi electricity developer.

“The minute you start to value fossil fuel at the right price, the market price, it makes absolute economic sense,” he added. -Reuters

The companies had proposed a per-barrel fee of $1.39 and a plateau production target of 1.8 million barrels per day.

The documents seen by Reuters say that the oil ministry is determined not to renegotiate the per-barrel fee.

“The oil ministry is not in agreement to change the remuneration fee of $1.39 for each barrel produced,” one document read.

Officials with the state-run South Oil Company (SOC), the Iraqi partner in the deal, told Reuters they will agree with Shell’s proposal to cut output because it will help to keep reserves pumping for longer.

“We agree with Shell to cut output, but not with changing remuneration fees as this would mean we would be signing a new deal and being fooled by Shell,” an SOC official said.

Under the Majnoon contract Shell is supposed to submit its final field development plan to its Iraqi partner, SOC, according to officials of that company.

Its discussions, however, are with the oil ministry.

“The contract says (Shell) should discuss the final plan with SOC, but we can’t find a reason why they bypassed us,” the official said, in comments that may indicate there are still disagreements to be ironed out before a deal is struck.

A lower production target suits Baghdad, officials say, because it worries that adhering to the existing agreements would leave large volumes of unused capacity and deplete more than 50 percent of its proven reserves over the life of the 20-year agreements.

Cash is also a concern for the Iraqi government, which had estimated an investment of some $180 billion would be needed to finance its original countrywide production targets.

Iraq has signed multi-billion dollars deals with several international oil companies, including Shell, Exxon and BP, to develop fields in the south, where most of its crude is pumped. -Reuters

ALWATAN DAILY

BUSINESS

WEDNESdAY, MAY 9, 2012

11

Managing telecom portfolios for sustainable growth Karim Sabbagh, Senior Partner Chady Smayra, Principal

Booz & Company

KUWAIT: A decade-long growth spurt has proved beneficial for several Middle East telecommunications companies, who, thanks to numerous mergers and acquisitions, have expanded their investments across several continents. However, some portfolios contain far-flung business units that do not mesh well with each other or with the overall goals and operations of the parent company. With this in mind, experts from Booz & Company have detailed ways in which telecom operators can manage their portfolio to ensure sustainable growth and secure up to 10 percentage points on EBITDA margin over their peers. Booz & Company also explored the increasing importance of revenue diversification to regional operators, who derive a significant amount of their revenues from international operations, in many cases over 50 percent.

From growth to focus

Over the past decade, many major telecom operators expanded far beyond their domestic borders, pursuing growth in new, undeveloped markets to counter slowing growth in saturated local markets. Today, several operators have achieved global status, deriving a significant portion of their revenue from international operations. Some have footprints spanning multiple continents.

“In the Middle East, and specifically in the Gulf Cooperation Council, incumbent operators participated in this strategy, consolidating within their region and beyond. Many operators, however, did not keep a close eye on how each newly acquired operation fit into their overall portfolio,” said Karim Sabbagh, Senior Partner at Booz & Company. “During the rapid growth phase, capabilities and capability systems were less important than pursuing time-critical and scarce opportunities. As growth starts to level off and a certain level of maturity is reached, competition will increasingly be won on the basis of capabilities.”

As operators continue in their efforts to maximize the value of their portfolios, they can benefit from assessing their operations to recognize their essential differentiated capabilities that distinguish them from their competitors. At the same time and based on their

capabilities, operators need to determine the way to play for each of their subsidiaries - the strategy that will allow them to succeed and beat the competition in each of the markets in which they operate. These factors combine to present an operator with the right to win that, in turn, will translate into stronger profits, increased market share, or a number of other results - the coherence premium that operators can achieve when their capabilities and way to play operate in concert. Along with the coherence premium - an inherent advantage in focusing an entire company around a set of capabilities - there also is an incoherence penalty that can grow over time as companies expand into new markets and their strategic focus broadens. This correlation between coherence and profitability was analysed by Booz & Company in a study that shows the existence of up to 10 percent disparity on EBITDA margin between operators that build their portfolios around their capability sets and others that did not use the coherence lens in their expansion.

Finding the right to win

Companies can measure their coherence premium via a coherence index, determined by an algorithm that takes into account the different operations in a group’s portfolio and the capabilities required for each one to succeed.

The more overlap companies have in terms of the capabilities they require across the portfolio, the higher they will score on this index.

There is no single right to win formula that will apply to all operators. Ideally, an operator will have a single set of capabilities that will provide its coherence premium in the markets in which it operates, however, sometimes an operator has to organize itself into what we call clusters - countries or regions that it can group together to leverage capabilities that are specific to those markets. Operators succeed by organizing their investments in clusters - a grouping of investments with relative similarities such as geography, market maturity, ownership level, type of operations, and market position.

The cluster approach to capabilities reveals patterns that have formed successful platforms for operators. Operators can use the same methodology for measuring their overall coherence score to measure the coherence of their individual clusters.

Managing portfolios for better coherence

Some global operators already have undertaken substantive divestitures to focus on their differentiating capabilities.

“It is not always practical - or wise - for an operator to sell or spin off a unit that does not fit into its strategic strength, especially if that unit performs well on a financial basis. Nonetheless, operators can set aspirational targets or better understand the contribution to the company from each of its operating units by undertaking a two-pronged assessment of strategic and financial considerations,” said Chady Smayra, Principal with Booz & Company.

The strategic assessment measures whether an operator’s investments or potential investments are a fit with its capabilities and ways to play; the financial assessment takes into account the needs of the corporation in terms of growth and profitability. Together, they give an operator the diagnostic tools to perform an ongoing evaluation of its portfolio to determine which of its operating units it should keep and which ones it might consider divesting. In addition, the methodology serves as a forwardlooking tool to assess future acquisition opportunities by testing their anticipated impact on the coherence and financial performance of the portfolio.

Strategic assessment

Two questions drive the strategic assessment, which allows a company to calibrate its set of capabilities against those required to succeed in each market or cluster. ‘Is the market relevant?’ and ‘does the company have the capabilities to be successful in the market?’

Ultimately these questions will assist the operator to identify the fit of specific operations with the cluster in terms of the capabilities it requires for success, or the coherence of a cluster within the overall multi-regional portfolio.

The analysis will lead to a clear understanding of what set of capabilities the company would need to have in order to be successful in each market. If the analysis reveals some key capabilities are missing, the company then can assess the possibility of acquiring or developing these capabilities or phasing out from the market or even the cluster.

Financial assessment

As with the strategic assessment, two ques-

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• Business plans should be objective and realistic: As noted above, the value of the analysis hinges on a company’s forward-looking assessment of its portfolio companies. Accordingly, business plans on which the assessment is founded should be fair and realistic.

•The assessment should consider the value of synergies: The analysis should incorporate potential synergies that a company can capture from its operating units, a benefit financial analysis often overlooks. Capturing potential synergies ensures that a company is assessing investments that are in the right context, enabling it to maximize the value of each of its business operations.

• Full-fledged due diligence is mandatory: Divestment or investment recommendations are guidelines and mandate further assessment. The framework provides management with a short list of potential candidates for divestment or acquisition-but requires further validation from a detailed due diligence process before a company can make a final decision.

“A wave of expansion has transformed local telecom incumbents into regional operators, with footprints that span the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. For many of these GCC operators, migrating to group-level operating structures has enabled them to unlock value from this expansion,” said Smayra. “In the aftermath of the global economic slump and debt crisis, management and investors increasingly are clamoring for better performance.

And, as international operations account for an increasing contribution to corporate revenue, investors and management continue to scrutinize and rationalize their investments outside of their borders.”

The analysis is not only an assessment tool for the existing portfolio but also a great driver for growth as it can guide telecom group operators in their investment decisions by helping them focus on clusters of strength, the most relevant opportunities for them. The result will leave some global telecom operators with wide-reaching investments that deliver the maximum value to customers and shareholders.

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions presented in the column are the company’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Al Watan Daily and its staff.

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tions provide visibility into the financial viability of a company’s operating unit - ‘what is the business’s current financial situation?’ and ‘is this investment maximizing shareholder value?’. Answering these questions will provide a clear view to an Operator of its financial situation and priorities going forward, as well as their ability to generate cash in the future.

The outcome of the strategic and financial analysis allows companies to plot each existing operating unit or new opportunity on a matrix that could provide guidance to management in performing critical portfolio decisions.

For instance, this analysis might reveal that a particular asset is financially attractive and coherent with the overall portfolio and warrants further investment to unlock additional growth or increase exposure. Alternatively, if it is a case of limited coherence, a telecom operator might consider divestment, especially if it can generate more value from disposing of the asset either on a stand-alone basis or by bundling it with a less-attractive asset. This is the concept of ‘best ownership’. If a subsidiary is profitable but does not fit in the wider group’s capabilities system, the operator could benefit from selling the asset to a company in whose capabilities system it would really fit.

Furthermore, management can rely on the assessment framework to demonstrate the appeal of acquiring new assets, as it reveals how an operating company would fit into an existing cluster and the overall portfolio from both a strategic and financial perspective.

The process of conducting the strategic and financial assessments relies on a few considerations: • The assessment should be forward looking: The assessment should not look at what has happened in the past as previous decisions do not have any bearing on future ones, other than to act as a yardstick to gauge future performance. Thus, any framework accounts for future expected returns and treats past decisions as sunk costs.

• The assessment should be performed periodically: The value of an investment is a moving target that shifts with changes in market conditions, as well as factors specific to each company. As a result, companies should undergo assessments regularly to maintain the relevance of their investment decisions and ensure that they are regularly able to seize attractive opportunities.

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106 260 57 148 325 58 106 116 38.5 146 51 35 39.0 69.0 216 43.5 275.0 96.0 66.0 192 32 71 66 58 51 112.0

108 265 150 330 59 230 108 118 102 40.0 148 52 35 40.5 72.0 56 44.0 280.0 97.0 67.0 194 280 34 77 67 59 52 114.0

0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.6% 4.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.3%

112 285 67 182 345 18.5 69 25.0 130 36.0 230 122 120 102 52 35.5 150 65 35 71 44.0 48.5 70.0 26.0 295 65 39 51 47.5 104 270.0 130.0 25.0 33.5 96.0 29.0 190 310 114 32 89 73 60 59 64 42.5 140.0 85.99

104 255 40 144 295 11.5 50 25.0 130 21.0 230 99 102 50 52 24.0 106 47 21 71 28.5 48.5 64.0 26.0 242 51 36 51 26.0 61 99.0 19.5 19.0 16.0 38.0 29.0 154 255 114 26 58 50 51 47 64 42.5 106.0 74.96

16.47 10.02 0.00

1,982

10,600 867,360 374,040 490,800 495,680 2,063,840 35,400 1,254,720 963,760 134,240 472,360 48,480 8,280 791,360 1,060,450 231,160 214,560 88,440 5,560 18,760 24,720 2,001,640 11,656,210

20,000 20,000

1 1

2,720 2,720

280 460 450 136 30.0

300 530 460 -

6.7% 3.8% 5.4% 3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.8%

325 610 540 148 220 134 40.5 44.91

13.38 280 13.67 520 10.96 450 22.12 102 66.32 220 102 40.5 64711.96 13.03 42.22

12,960,000 320,000 380,000 300,000 720,000 80,000 140,000 1,620,000 6,000,000 480,000 600,000 1,800,000 56,080,000 29,920,000 120,000 4,440,000 360,000 100,000 1,160,000 27,440,000 1,920,000 1,960,000 20,000 16,040,000 2,240,000 4,400,000 29,280,000 640,000 1,560,000 2,010,000 205,090,000

126 6 13 8 9 3 4 40 55 8 20 37 302 287 3 99 8 3 18 262 11 36 1 82 27 47 232 8 38 38

58 110 132 248 32.0 232 154 124 41.5 93 1,000 73 22.5 62.0 85 64 69 37.5 83 38.5 86 43.0 63 80 170 48.0 36.0 42.0 43.5 39 58 350

59 112 134 250 238 130 42.5 95 1,020 75 23.0 63.0 86 66 70 100 39.0 84 39.0 90 44.5 89 48.5 36.5 42.5 39 59 355

1,831

761,680 35,760 50,160 74,400 24,120 18,960 21,520 205,080 260,560 45,080 598,950 135,880 1,340,920 1,878,280 10,360 302,960 25,240 10,040 96,960 1,170,680 86,040 123,200 3,400 783,540 81,920 194,520 1,242,840 24,960 94,560 708,550 10,411,120

0.0% 4.5% 0.0% 6.0% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 5.5% 0.0% 6.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.9% 5.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.9%

63 118 152 246 37.5 250 130 100 52.0 120 104 1,080 85 20.0 68.0 97 75 73 90 38.0 92 23.0 91 17.5 45.0 70 80 174 52.0 39.5 40.5 28.5 25.5 134 40 220 70 480 60.26

47 97 108 200 28.5 224 114 77 27.0 108 94 840 62 11.0 35.0 77 54 52 74 33.0 59 13.5 87 17.5 31.0 57 64 116 27.5 22.0 25.0 17.5 15.0 134 31 220 49 270 49.06

3,980,000 3 980 000 180,000 580,000 22,500 150,000 180,000

51 8 21 3 11 13

912,720 912 720 21,560 111,160 30,200 40,700 158,250

230 118 435 186 1,300 265 138 870

232 120 440 188 1,340 270 146 880

0 0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.4% 0.0% 5.4% 3.7% 0.0% 7.4%

260 136 475 158 1,480 345 222 920

214 116 415 122 1,240 290 134 660

14.68 0.00 8.73 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 46.00 0.00 0.00 73.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 16.60 0.00 0.00 0.00 19.36 20.94 16.18 527.23

0.00 0.00 5.69 14.38

53.01 13.16 17.31 23.22 13.52 15.16 23.87 29.41 0.00 14.99 410.74

213.85 0.00 15.57 8.50 207.01 0.00 0.00 26.88 439.41 0.00 0.00 19.54

19.67 7.75 12.17 18.03 31.52

Shuaiba Industrial

-

Metal Collecting Global General Index Kuwait Foundry 370 KSE Price Index

ACICO 255 United Industries 90 Company High Boubyan Petroch.

620 Gulf Glass 1,140 National Bank HilalBank Cement Gulf 495 Al Kout Ind. Bank Project Commercial 770 K-PAK Ahli Bank 640 Building Material Ahli United Bank 850 Nat. Ind.Co. Bank International 248 Equipment Holding 184 460 Burgan Bank 890 Kw FinanceIndustries House Consumer Boubyan Bank 590 Kuwait Gypsum Qurain Index - Banking220 Global 46 Salbookh Trading Kw Investment IKARUS 265 Commercial Facilit.

Boubyan Int'L Ind. 73 41 Int'L Financial Adv.

355 250 87 Low 610 1,120 490 770 640 800 248 178 455 880 580 216 44 260 72 40

Global Invest.

Index - Industrial 174 National 170 300 Kw Projects 300 National Cinema Ahlia Holding 13.5 12.5 Kw Hotels 280 280 Coast 53 52 410 AgilityInvest.

405 Int'L Investor Market Complexes Securities House ZAIN 730 750 Ind. & Fin. Inv. Safat Energy 84.0 83.0 -Securities Group -Educational Group Int'L Finance Indep. Petroleum 110 MARKAZ 108 National Cleaning 160 156 KMIFIC 106 106 Sultan Center Int'L Inv. Group Arabi Group 150 158 Aref Inv. Group City Group Investment Dar 2,260 Wataniya Tele.

2,280 Al AMAN Inv. Kw GulfInv. Link 130 128 ALOLA 110 108 Kw Cable ALMAL Inv.Vision 50 49 Automated System -Gulf Inv. House -320 NAPESCO 320 A'ayan Leasing KCPCInv. 360 380 31.0 32.5 Bayan K.S.H GLOBAL Inv. Eyas Inv. Osoul Hits Telecom - 89 GULFINVEST - 93 23.5 Al Safwa Holding 25.5 KFIC Human Soft KAMCO --78 Privatization 80 Int'l Leasing &Holding Inv. Nafaaes Holding -Nat. Int'l Holding -NationalFinance Slaughter --Housing MADAR 126 Aref energy 124 26.5 Al Deera Holding 630 26.5 Safwan 630 Al Safat Inv. 68.0 Gulf Petroleum 66.0 122.0 Al Salam Group 36.5 114.0 Gulf Franchising 36.0 41.0 - 39.0 Ekttitab Credit &Holding Collection Al Qurain Ranges Holding 24.0 National 26.0 16.5 - 16.5 Sokouk Burgan Holding Well Drilling Al-Madina 40.0 - 38.5 IFA H&R Finance NOOR Combinted Group 1,700 1,680 Tamdeen Inv. 160 158 95 Jeeran Holding 95 KW BH Int'l Exch.

108 Palms Agro 108 Taiba 81.0 79.0 SafatKuwaiti TEC Holding Kuwait Syrian Mushrif Trading 108 106 Strategia 330 330 UPAC 53 53 Kuwait China Inv. 295 ALAFCO 290 Manafae Inv. Al-Muwasat Gulf North Africa 280 Mashaer Holding 280 Amwal 242 Oula Fuel 255 Al Masar Future Comm.

124 Al-Imtiaz 132 122 116 Hayat Comm.

Global Index Investment 71 68 Mubarrad Transport Kuwait 49.5 49.5 KuwaitInsurance Resorts -Gulf Insurance -Advanced Technolgy Ahlia 375 375 YiacoInsurance Medical 112 108 Warba Insurance Al Jazeera Airways 410 425 Kuwait Re-Ins. Al Soor Fuel 222 218 First Takaful --Future Kid Ins. Wethaq -275 -270 K G L Insurance Global Index - Insurance 87 Al Nawadi 85 Alrai Media 120 120 48 Kuwait R.E. 48 Zima Holding 100 United R.E. 100 118 National 126 Global R.E. Index - Services 200 Salhia R.E.Trans.

204 LiveStock Pearl R.E. Dana Al-Safat 97 95 224 224 Tamdeen R.E. United Poultry Ajial R.E. Kw FoodStuff 1,380 1,360 Massaleh R.E. United Food Arab R.E. 30.0 30.0 Kout Food 510 510 Union R.E. Global Index Food 98 96 ERESCO 860 840 Mabani Sharjah Cement 86 90 75 74 INJAZZAT RE Gulf Cement 98 97 12.0 Inv. UmHolding Quwain Grp Cement 68 11.5 67 - 98 -102 Int'L Resorts Fujaira Cement 78 77 Commercial R.E Ras AlKheimah 70 65 Sanam ARIG R.E. 54 53 Aa'yan United R.E Gulf Bank -Aqar Egypt Kw Holding Kuwait R.E Bahrain KwHolding Ins. 59 AL Mazaya 60 56.0 Gulf Fin. House 59.0 14.0 Al Dar National R.E 14.0 Inovest Int'L Holding 72 67 Themar Ahli United Bank -170 Grand R.E Projects -172 63.0 Ithmaar Bank 73.0 Tijara & R.E Invest Al Tameer Global Index - Non-Kuwaiti Arkan Al-Kuwait R.E 70 70 Markaz Real Estate Safat Global Investment Funds Al Argan Int'L Al-Bareeq Holding 28.5 - 28.0 Abyaar 23.5 - 23.5 Munshaat AFAQ First Dubai 26.0 - 25.5 Al-Shamel KBT 27.0 27.0 Al-Safat Real Estate Manazel 16.5 36 15.5 Ajwan Real Estate 35 REAM --Specialities Group -Mena RealInter.

Estate -Masaken Al Moudon Intl. R.E --Dulaqan R.E Markaz Real Estate 57 56 Eid Food Kuwait 295 285 MaidanRemal Clinic R.E Global Index - Real Estate Flex Dar Al-Thuraya Real E 242 Nationl Ind. Group 232 Kw Medical Services 75 75 Pipes Ind. & Oil 128 126 Amar For Fin. & Leas. 455 Kuwait Cement 450 Refrigeration Ind. Total Parallel Market 1,420 1,420 Gulf Cables & Elec.

Totaleng.

Market Heavy & Ship.

Marine Services Global Special Indices 720 Portland Cement 720 Global Industrial Index - Kuwaiti Co.'s Shuaiba Global Index - 10 Large 104 Metal Collecting 110 Cap. Global Index - Islamic Kuwait Foundry

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

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

- Change 216 216 Last Close Previous Close 130 176.53 130 177.24 -0.70 10 80,000 8 29,100 365 5,726.90 355 5,754.20 -27.30 -5 410,000 15 102,650 250 255 Last Prev.

Trading Activity 1,000,000 20 88,000 88 88 Close Close Volume Chng 615,000 Tran.

13 Value(KD) 376,050 620 610 -10 1,000 1,000 3,796,050 -1120 1120 69 3,377,500 222 222 20 495 495 -830,000 407,950 415 415 770 770 10,000 17,700 -275 275 640 -20 26,400 660 10,000 224 Ex-D 224 800 50 850 350,000 23 282,700 310 310 16 248 248 -700,000 173,600 182 780,000 17 141,720 460 465 -5 182 500,000 10 229,750 890 -10 880 1,280,000 66 1,127,050 102 102 590 590 607,850 1,035,000 33 128 Ex-D 128 6,440,000 240 218 94 216 -2 1,403,920 319.37 319.54 8,092,500 6,639,050 0.178,080,000 45 44 83 1 364,720 106 106 188 188 260 265 -5 250,000 14 65,750 73 73 17,480 240,000 5 40 1,680,000 -1 67,160 41 13 3,798,230 168.99 22,737,500 362 0.28169.27 170 1,040,000 20 172 -2 177,720 300 110,000 533,000 295 51,000 1,000 7,040,000 12.5 12.5 46 90,920 80,000 280 280 1 22,400 1,280,000 22 52 53 -1 67,280 250,000 410 410 102,450 10 25.0 25.0 -52 52 130 130 725,100 10 980,000 740 730 54 31.0 31.0 560,000 84.0 12 46,600 1.085.0 230 230 ---110 110 -102 102 325 325 108 112 73,920 680,000 18 120,720 760,000 24 160 160 50 50 106 760,000 80,560 24 106 44.0 44.0 71 3,520,000 543,440 148 10 158 52 52 550 550 74 74 7 25,000 2,280 56,850 20 2,260 28.5 28.5 532,680 4,120,000 91 130 128 108 14 54,920 108 -2 500,000 58 58 49 49.5 15,840 -1 320,000 4295 295 23 --23 --9,600 30,000 2 10 330 320 71 71 144,600 390,000 26 --5 365 360 31.0 31.0 58,760 1,840,000 22 255 255 48.5 -48.5 --Ex-D 260 260 --68 68 -663,080 7,280,000 101 92 92 20.5 20.5 49,120,000 240 1,198,880 24.5 23.5 26.0 26.0 - -1 270 270 244 -244 ---185,840 2,360,000 43 80 80 94 -94 104 104 --51 51 --154 154 -36 36 ----8 51 51 20,120 124 160,000 126 -2 26.5 26.5 21 6,360 - 20 240,000 630 5,000 3,150 610 75 75 67.0 35 104,520 1,560,000 -67.0 8.0 120.0 112.0 11,180,000 1,305,280 36.5 28 84,320 34.0 2,320,000 212 2.5 2.039.5 41.5 24 77,080 1,920,000 120 120 19.0 19.0 - 0.524.5 259 1,451,280 25.0 58,080,000 16.5 57,920 16.5 480,000 255 255 39.0 0.5-10,640,000 93 419,440 38.5 400 400 29.0 29.0 -8 1,680 92,750 55,000 1,680 160 2.0158 12,680 80,000 41 3,800 95 94 1 40,000 255 255 2,160 108 108 20,000 1 114 114 -5 165,160 79.0 81.0 2.02,040,000 26.00 26.00 1 820 000 193 160 108 108 1,820,000 52 193,160 68 -1 68 330 330 3,300 -10,000 53 200,000 53 10,600 2 295 295 136,900 470,000 15 60 60 168 168 46.5 46.5 280 275 5 60,000 16,800 2 64 64 255 3 12,270 50,000 242 13 42.50 42.50 265 265 128 130 -2 1,240,000 38 157,920 116 118 2.042 169,200 1,420,000 76.02 0.1275.90 40,720,000 558 2,702,550 68 68 122 636,560 9,200,000 -1 325 325 49.5 49.0 80,000 3,960 0.5 --560 560 -810 810 --3 485 485 375 -110,000 375 41,250 118 -10 8 120,000 110 63 13,200 425 30,000 415 12,500 220 220 Ex-D -3 218 224 60,000 -6 13,240 114 114 ---106 Ex-D 106 -40.50 40.50 275 275 580,000 28 159,200 43.63 43.43 0.19120,000 63 13,200 87 82 160,000 13,800 5 118 20,000 2,400 120 11 3,840 49 -12 48 80,000 98 98 92,000 9100 99 1920,000 1,331 737.40 733.54 148,585,000 3.85 7,774,600 383,920 124 120 4 105 3,100,000 12 104,680 200 204 -4 520,000 184 184 37.5 37.5 920,000 97 15 88,520 97 3 224 10.0100,000 22,400 234 136 136 120 120 2 20,000 1,380 20 27,400 1,360 82 82 335 335 1 30.0 80,000 30.5 0.52,400 5,000 1 2,550 510 540 -30 108 108 945,000 337.19 18 118,470 2.87 334.32 31,160 -1 320,000 98 97 8 1,656,950 102 1,935,000 850 57 860 1,600,000 17 142,160 89 87 2 8,960 120,000 275 73 6,240,000 80 97 609,400 97 15 23,960 11.5 12.0 0.52,000,000 Ex-D 4,960,000 62 67 336,320 68 38.0 38.0 97 5 319,040 102 3,200,000 52 318,520 78 77 1240,000 118 118 67,400 17 1,000,000 65 70 5 114 114 410,720 54 -1 55 200,000 170 170 -90 --90 -295 295 ---38.0 38.0 Ex-D 455 455 11 59 26,160 440,000 -4 63 28,600,000 -3 1,640,560 56.0 59.0 295 1 80,000 1,120 14.0 14.5 0.572 111 540,360 67 7,760,000 - -5 91 91 14 139,440 170 168 820,000 - 2 17.5 17.5 63.0 68.0 73,160,000 807 4,892,080 - -5 31.0 31.0 1,438 8,619,360 0.2245.42 126,340,000 45.21 59 59 4 320,000 2 22,400 70 74 122 122 48.5 48.5 124 124 144 144 12 0.5-2,720,000 76,880 28.0 28.5 1.0-80,000 11,880 23.5 24.5 106 106 0.5240,000 6,160 326.0 25.5 250 250 Ex-D 35,040,000 946,080 -427.0 27.0 21.5 21.5 1,200,000 87 1.019,240 16.5 15.5 36 560,000 34 2 19,840 ---134 134 510 510 ---134 134 51 51 ----220 220 345 345 1 240,000 6 13,520 57 58 90 90 47 610,850 295 290 52,110,000 1,960 1,960 0.02-53,085,000 - 332 4,151,200 49.73 49.75 39.5 39.5 102.0 102.0 242 -10 13,220,000 - 154 3,111,120 232 75 75 40,000 3,000 128 -140,000 61 17,800 128 55 55 470 -20 50,000 222,550 450 150 150 -8 22,840 600,000 1,460 -40 2,500 1 1,420 3,550 7,022 43,122,360 335 - 654,097,500 335 212 Close 212 Prev. -Close Change 720 230,000 720 19 165,600 ź 188.66 189.10 -0.45 180 180 ź104 182.26 3 -0.80 106 181.46 -2 80,000 8,480 ź460 566.99 -2.17 460 564.82 -

216 DTD 122 -0.40% 130 360 -0.47% 370 250 255 Last88 Last 89 Bid Ask610 600 1,080 1,120 1,140 200 490 495 770 780 255 640 660 840 850 300 315 246 248 184 180 460 465 880 870 590 580 214 216 45 44 102 106 188 194 260 265 73 72 40 40 168 295 12.5 51 405 740 -83.0 -315 106 158 106 158 2,260 27.0 128 108 49 290 21 310 360 31.0 -250 64.0 - 91 -23.5 -79 99 -124 26.0 570 66.0 118.0 36.5 18.0 24.0 16.0 248 38.5 380 1,680 156 95 104 77.0 106 63 330 52 290 275 236 124.0 116 67 300 48.5 510 460 375 108 410 216 104 -275

87 116 48 99 122 200 96 128 110 1,360 510 112 95 860 88 71 88 11.5 96 35.5 67 77 100 118 53 112 166 -295 13.5 56 90 170.0 30.0 70 116 28.0 23.5 25.0 24.5 21.0 15.5 35 480 29 218 55 290 -122 455 150 1,420 310 710 178 104 435

172 300 1,020 13.0 280 52 410 750 33.5 84.0 -345 110 160 108 560 2,280 29.5 130 110 50 320 24 325 370 32.5 - 92 -24.0 275 238 80 104 54 184 126 27.0 640 67.0 120.0 39.0 130 20.0 24.5 16.5 255 39.0 400 1,700 160 97 270 116 79.0 27 108 73 355 53 295 61 176 47 280 69 255 270 128.0 118 68 325 51.0 610 750 500 380 114 425 222 110 108 43.0 280 120 49 100 126 202 37.5 97 224 130 1,400 85 31.5 118 98 870 89 76 89 12.0 97 37.0 68 79 102 65 120 54 120 91 178 40.5 300 60 14.5 57 94 - 67 172.0 33.5 57 74 126 28.5 25.0 25.5 255 28.0 24.0 16.0 36 130 510 32 50 -57 95 295 1,960

102.0 232 80 130 465 1,440 340 216 DTD 720 -0.24% 190 -0.44% 108 -0.38% -

0.0% 216 180 MTD YTD 13.22 0.0% 102 -1.55% 120 -1.55% 495 0.0% 315 -1.50% -1.50% 230 2.0% 196 31.03 Div. Annual 0.0% 102 Close79 36.02 Yield High P/E 630 Low 550 86.98 0.0% 4.0% 1,400 1,100 15.82 3.6% 1,120 1,100 14.74 6.8% 216 206 12.73 0.0% 510 490 33.95 8.4% 415 340 9.94 1.9% 790 770 88.62 0.0% 275 5.20 300 3.1% 660 640 17.34 2.2% 228 224 35.32 1.6% 850 790 29.68 3.2% 25.33 325 260 0.0% 255 248 23.59 0.0% 51 152 0.0% 475 460 12.26 2.3% 900 880 25.07 0.0% 102 93 0.0% 590 590 112.24 5.5% 128 18.88 128 0.0% 210 13.15 222 318.41 2.0% 319.54 18.61 0.0% 51 41 0.00 0.0% 106 106 40.56 4.3% 214 162 16.76 8.5% 265 260 12.09 0.0% 88 70 0.0% 42 40 2.7% 174.76 163.04 13.87 0.0% 174 170 88.93 6.7% 305 295 12.13 910 4.2% 1,120 18.77 0.0% 13.5 12.5 1.33 0.0% 280 280 0.0% 54 52 7.3% 340 430 15.87 0.0% 25.0 25.0 0.00 0.0% 41 0.00 65 0.0% 130 130 8.8% 900 690 11.15 0.0% 36.0 31.0 0.0% 81.0 45.0 0.0% 230 230 0.0% 110 110 58.86 0.0% 102 102 0.00 0.0% 350 295 9.3% 116 108 3.1% 170 110 20.44 0.0% 50 50 0.00 0.0% 136 102 0.0% 44.0 44.0 0.00 0.0% 132 84 13.35 0.0% 52 52 0.00 0.0% 550 530 0.0% 74 74 0.00 2,440 2.2% 1,920 11.80 0.0% 28.5 28.5 0.00 0.0% 132 95 0.0% 112 108 0.00 0.0% 68 58 0.0% 51 49 8.5% 350 230 21.81 0.0% 23 22 395 7.8% 340 7.88 0.0% 71 71 0.00 305 2.8% 260 12.30 0.0% 31.5 31.0 260 7.1% 255 12.82 0.0% 48.5 48.5 7.7% 260 260 4.79 0.0% 68.0 68.0 32.31 132 0.0% 54 303.21 0.0% 20.5 20.5 23.5 0.0% 14.0 0.0% 26.0 26.0 0.00 280 0.0% 270 12.91 0.0% 244 244 84 61 14.16 6.3% 0.0% 94 94 0.00 104 84 0.0% 0.0% 51 51 116.80 154 0.0% 154 9.95 0.0% 36 36 0.00 0.0% 51 51 0.00 91 0.0% 120 0.0% 26.5 27.5 710 4.3% 520 15.30 0.0% 75 75 0.00 78.0 0.0% 30.0 10.40 99.0 0.0% 120.0 28.5 16.0 0.0% 19.5 0.0% 41.5 120 0.0% 140 19.0 0.0% 19.0 22.5 0.0% 12.0 0.00 0.0% 17.0 16.5 275 198 0.0% 41.84 0.0% 39.0 38.0 0.0% 490 380 87.26 0.0% 29.0 0.00 % 29.0 15.98 1,740 1,500 4.2% 156 8.28 3.8% 162 6.31 0.0% 89 73 255 22.77 255 5.1% 12.52 9.3% 126 86 11.92 114 0.0% 114 0.0% 78.0 57.0 26 0.0% 28 0 0% 0 00 0.0% 104 80 0.00 68 43.00 0.0% 68 340 11.98 9.1% 270 53 0.0% 55 280 315 3.86 3.4% 60 0.0% 60 130 6.0% 7.71 168 47 10.8% 47 172 4.6% 305 9.96 64 0.0% 64 21.75 0.0% 265 305 42.5 0.00 0.0% 42.5 300 0.0% 18.62 265 0.0% 132.0 128.0 5.19 70 124 0.0% 10.01 75.90 2.4% 76.32 51 0.0% 72 16.97 6.2% 325 325 0.0% 62.0 21.56 44.0 12.90 4.5% 560 560 1.9% 770 640 33.57 9.91 5.2% 520 485 4.0% 390 12.29 345 17.37 9.1% 118 110 0.0% 485 410 9.74 296.83 220 220 2.7% 0.0% 270 236 16.03 0.0% 134 114 4.7% 14.64 98 114 40.5 0.0% 40.5 300 218 8.42 7.3% 12.60 4.7% 44.8092 43.4377 8.0% 7.56 0.0% 156 22.32 114 37.20 0.0% 49 48 94 0.0% 110 12.83 0.0% 100 99 12.3% 791.90 705.36 11.24 0.0% 120 22.21 128 10.0% 200 17.83 208 0.0% 222 182 15.27 0.0% 37.5 37.5 0.0% 90 114 4.5% 234 224 16.20 3.7% 136 126 6.02 0.0% 130 120 4.7% 1,500 1,360 11.55 6.1% 82 82 5.29 1.5% 390 43.95 340 0.0% 30.5 30.0 5.9% 610 500 9.14 6.5% 108 108 15.28 4.1% 365.22 331.33 11.45 0.0% 100 96 39.65 0.0% 860 840 21.70 0.0% 44 95 0.0% 76 73 0.0% 108 55 0.0% 0.00 12.5 11.5 10.4% 73 43 31.13 0.0% 38.0 38.0 122 0.0% 46 0.0% 78 14.56 77 8.5% 126 10.58 118 0.0% 75 65 0.0% 132 102 54 26.32 0.0% 55 0.0% 232 370.29 172 0.0% 90 90 330 250 6.57 6.8% 0.0% 38.0 38.0 0.00 455 455 5.5% 63 0.0% 59 531.96 40.5 74.0 0.0% 14.5 4.15 14.0 0.0% 0.0% 5.5% 91 91 7.1% 9.38 17.5 17.5 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 31.0 31.0 19.44 4.0% 40.74 47.16 8.74 0.0% 59 59 0.0% 78 70 11.37 1,220 1,220 0.0% 0.00 48.5 48.5 0.0% 144 124 5.38 0.0% 0.0% 29.0 28.0 27.28 0.0% 24.5 23.5 5.03 4.7% 0.0% 26.0 25.5 13.99 6.0% 0.0% 28.5 27.0 0.0% 0.0% 16.5 15.5 0.0% 3.7% 134 134 23.07 16.37 5.6% 0.0% 32 32 0.0% 220 0.0% 220 18.82 816.78 0.0% 57 60 0.00 0.0% 8.47 0.0% 0.0% 295 270 0.00 0.0% 1.1% 49.86 49.73 16.27 0.0% 22.19 0.0% 232 0.0% 260 70.58 0.0% 0.0% 130 128 0.0% 2.2% 470 450 18.38 3.3% 158 150 0.7% 14.29 4.6% 1,460 1,420 6.49 4.72% 14.58 3.0% 340 335 8.02 212 2.4% 222 193.84 MTD YTD 710 96.15 13.9% 740 -0.24% -0.47% 180 10.91 5.6% 180 -0.97% -4.54% 104 23.15 0.0% 116 0.08% 0.50% 460 26.77 4.3% 460

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

12

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, may 9, 2012

April 2009 May21, 08, 2012 Rebased RebasedPerformance Performance 120115

113

Bull/Bear Indicator Bull/Bear Indicator

DailyIndex Index Performance Snapshot Daily Performance Snapshot

1% 6%

1% 6% Oman

113

115110

111

4%

Qatar

2% 0%

Dubai

90

GCC Best Performers

Saudi

95 8-Feb-12 85

8-Mar-12

8-Apr-12

S&P 20-Mar-09 GCC Large/ Mid S&P Pan 3-Feb-09 Arab Large/ 18-Feb-09 Mid Composite 19-Jan-09 5-Mar-09 4-Apr-09 Composite

MENA Best Performers

-1%

8-May-12

-6%-2

19-Apr-0

1

MENA Indices Highlights Country (Index)

Index Level

Sa Saudi Arabia (Tadawul All Share Index) Country (Index)

Index 7,367

UASa UAE (ADX Index) Saudi Arabia (Tadawul All Share Index)

2,490 5,250

Qa UAUAE Qatar (DSM Index) (ADSM Index)

8,667 2,695

Ba Qa Bahrain Qatar(BSE (DSMIndex) Index)

1,160 5,590

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

1,975

Ku Kuwait (KSE Weighted Index)

UAE (DFM(KSE Index) Ku Kuwait Weighted Index)

OmOman UAE(MSM (DFMIndex) Index)

Eg Egypt (EGX 30 Index)

OmOman (MSM Index)

Ba Bahrain (BSE Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)

Eg Egypt (Hermes Egypt Index (HFI))*

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)

Jo Jordan (Amman General Index)

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

M Morocco (Casa All Shares Index)*

Tu Tunisia (Tunis SE Index)

Le Lebanon (Beirut SE Index)* *Market Closed

Pa Palestine (Al-Quds Index)

Level 418

YTD

% 0.1% Chg. -0.3%

0.1% -4.0%

3.0%

8,892 5,148

8,071 2,137

71 122

1.4% -18.8%

1,385 12,627

1,129 4,230

1,681

10,322

463

1,181

2,825 466

10,621

5,071

1,094

3,282

5.1%

0.0%

0.4%

-0.2%

-0.3%

-

2.2%

0.0%

0.1%

-

-

0.9% -

1,754 787

6,265 5,860

39.6%

5,628

0.7%

12,109

-0.9%

2,212

-6.8%

2,903

-7.2%

12,203

8.5%

1,033

0.3%

1,403

2.4%

5,044

-2.4%

513

-3.3%

14,635

23.6%

739

6.6%

5,115

-7.2%

2,119

13.6%

3,418

Mkt. Cap. 384,568 USD million

155

-1.2% 12.8% 1.9% 6.6%

5,478

396

1,301 316

65,742 264,263

8 305

3,587

64

32,372 98,547

4,224

17,388 65,352

46

1,921

1,572

10,218

328

1,164

2,551 465

9,406

0.73 1.52

7.67

-

2,837

-

18,727

1

8.07

1

12.71

9,894

15.77

0.85

2.15

9.23

59,990

1.10

18.36

8,507

2

3.22

1.56

6.31

33,782 2,500

7

1.29

15.14

10,518

67

3.95

6.47

2,079

13.85

SAUDI ARABIA *Market Closed

101 Riyad Bank

SAR 24.70

-6.4%

201 201Saudi SaudiBasic BasicIndustries IndustriesCorp.

Corp.(KSA) (KSA)

235,626,609 83,100,386

Turnover (USD)

82,378,322

703 Zain - Saudi Arabia (KSA)

343,553,085 68,192,306 119,955,261 51,342,566

115 (KSA) 422Alinma EmaarBank the Economic City (KSA)

97,126,838

NBKNational Bank of Kuwait (KUW)

0.63

Advance/Decline Ratio

88,742,222

5,699,377

Turnover (SAR '000)

115

1,442,244,942

Market Cap. (SAR '000) 108

70Zain - Saudi Arabia

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

3050.SSE Southern Province Cement Co.

Turnover (SAR) 883,670,471 4250.SSE Jabal Omar Development Co. 311,651,379 2250.SSE Saudi Industrial Investment Grp. 308,943,420 1030.SSE Saudi Investment Bank

1 Alinma Bank

8-Apr-12

1050.SSE Banque Saudi Fransi

255,741,604

20Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

8-May-12

% Chg.

12.30

3.4%

12.30

2.5%

68.00

1.5%

101.00

1.0%

37.50

1.1%

Worst Performers

43Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

8-Mar-12

Close

4300.SSE Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

Highest Turnover

108

105

64,280,166

7,931 / 5,916 2280.SSE Almarai Co.

Tadawul Index 52 week High / Low

-6.8%

Turnover (USD)

MENA Highest Turnover

430 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. (KSA)

2.50

-2.5% -8.9%

-2.2% -8.6%

SAR 13.70

GCC Highest Turnover

83% 4280.SSE Kingdom Holding Co.

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

95 8-Feb-12

225 Saudi Industrial Inv. Grp.

7,367 (0.1%)

Tadawul Index (% Chg.)

125

-8.3%

AED 0.88 SAR 48.00

EMAEmaar Properties (UAE) Best Performers

Summary

% Chg.

AED 1.19 SAR 22.95

KFI Kuwait Finance House (KUW)

Rebased Performance

2.5%

8.0%

AED 1.05 -13.1% -3.7% KWD 0.265

115 Alinma Bank (KSA)

1.92

3.1% 8.6%

AED 1.18% Chg. -4.8% Close

1.76

0.86

8.67

6,576

GC Gulf Cement Co.

1.37

1.59

3.4% 8.8%

USD 0.220

0.90 201 SIBSaudi Sharjah Islamic Bank Corp.

1.74 Basic Industries

1.68

5.4% 9.8%

8.0%

Close

ITH Ithmaar Bank

10.00

9.50

56,103

MENA Worst Performers

10.39 6.87

63,640

4

1

1.02 1.77

OMR 0.720

GCC Worst Performers

1.95 FAC DFM Dubai Financial Market 1.37 Commercial Facilities Co. 1.61 TAM Tamweel 0.88 238 Rabigh Petrochem.

-

1,043 407

9.98 9.99

12.96

-

4,091

15,024

1.94

PB1.42

27,200

QAR 21.60

BKMBankMuscat

PB

PE 17.00

10

SAR 12.30

QGTQatar Gas Transport Co.

9.09 8.85

57,667

KWD 0.132 QAR 6.35

430 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co.

11.63 7.29

18,119 37,413

2 196

Trailing

8.38 10.24

128,211 69,783

SAR 12.30 OMR 0.703

NR National Real Estate Co. KCB Al Khaliji Commercial Bank

12.52

100,642

44 718

5,419 1,433

PE

KWD 0.255 SAR 5.60

428Galfar Kingdom Holding Co. GEC Engineering & Contracting

Trailing

Mkt. Cap. USD million

Turnover 1,520 USD million 16 2,183

0.2% 1.9% 0.6%

52 Wk 5,916 Low 2,293 4,130

5,802 1,745

-0.1% 3.9%

Turnover USD million

2,775 10,090

15.0% -0.2%

0.2% 0.6%

462

52 Wk Low

3.6% 9.3%

-0.5% 1.8%

5,057

52 Wk 7,931 High

14.8% YTD

1,556 406

546

Tu Tunisia (Tunis SE Index)* * Market Closed

% Chg.

52 Wk High

% Chg.

USD 0.460% Chg. 9.5% Close

OUKingdom Oula Fuel Marketing 3 428 Hldg.

Co. Co.

Period's Liquidity Ratio (PLR x)*

MENA Indices Highlights

Close

4 ABCArab Banking Corp.

Period's Liquidity 1 Ratio (PLR x)

-1

Abu Dhabi

-6%

Tunisia Abu Dhabi

-1%

Kuwait

Palestine Palestine

95 100

-4%

Bahrain

Saudi Dubai Dubai

104

Bahrain

Qatar Saudi

0%

Qatar Oman

0%

-2%

Morocco

100

Kuwait

Oman Saudi

Lebanon Oman

Return DailyDaily Return (%)(%)

108

105

Qatar Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi

Kuwait Kuwait

Dubai

Egypt Jordan Jordan

110

0%

Bahrain Bahrain

105

192,550,024

42Emaar the Economic City

1020.SSE Bank Al Jazira

7020.SSE Etihad Etisalat Co.

Close

% Chg.

20.85

-1.2%

18.30

-0.8%

23.70 27.10 66.50

-1.0% -0.7% -0.4%

Saudi SE

Quotes Company Name 1 Al Rajhi Bank

Close 76.25

Daily % Chg. 0.3%

High 76.25

Low 75.50

Turnover (SAR '000) 63,048

1 Alinma Bank

14.50

-0.3%

14.55

14.30

311,651

1 Arab National Bank

30.00

0.3%

30.10

29.50

1,919

2 Almarai Co.

68.00

1.5%

68.25

66.50

36,060

Volume ('000) 830

52-Week High 82.75

67.25

71.75

48.41

21,607

16.25

64

33.70

533

% Change

Low

on high -7.9%

YTD 9.7%

12 mths

15.5

28.9%

27,200,000

23.7

55.1%

44.3%

26.60

-11.0%

9.1%

-9.1%

1 Bank AlBilad

28.90

-0.7%

29.20

28.60

27,262

941

32.90

17.20

-12.2%

45.6%

55.4%

1 Banque Saudi Fransi

37.50

1.1%

37.60

36.70

4,924

132

40.00

30.00

-6.3%

11.3%

4 Emaar the Economic City

12.90

0.0%

12.90

12.70

192,550

13.60

6.20

-5.1%

75.5%

20.80

77,655

11.80

70,693

5,684

22.20

37,016

1,660

49.40

7,752

1 Bank Al Jazira

4 Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev. Co. 7 Etihad Etisalat Co.

4 Jabal Omar Development Co. 4 Jarir Marketing Co.

4 Kingdom Holding Co.

2 National Industrialization Co.

27.10

12.30

-0.7%

2.5%

66.50

-0.4%

155.00

0.3%

20.85

12.30

34.10

-1.2%

3.4%

-0.6%

27.30

12.45

66.75

21.35

155.50 12.90

34.30

11.90

883,670

66.25

40,985

154.00

5,805

33.80

26,707

2 Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co.

22.35

-0.5%

1 Samba Financial Grp.

49.50

-0.4%

32.30

-0.3%

3 Saudi Cement Co.

90.50

0.6%

91.00

89.75

1 Saudi Hollandi Bank

27.80

-0.7%

28.10

27.80

2 1 Saudi Investment Bank 2 Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. 7 Saudi Telecom Co. 2

21.25

-0.2%

21.40

21.20

6,557

17.05

77,286

34.20

8,271

34.80

3,871

1 Riyad Bank

2 Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co.

1 Saudi Arabian Mining Co.

2 Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

5 Saudi Electricity Co.

22 Saudi Industrial Investment Grp.

Saudi International Petrochemical Co.

Savola Group Co. 0 3 Southern Province Cement Co. 0 1 SABB 3 Yamama Saudi Cement Co.

2 Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co.

7 Zain - Saudi Arabia

24.45

184.00 99.50

13.40

23.70 18.30

17.15

22.45

26.90

8,017

0.2%

24.60

24.30

3,083

0.6%

184.75

183.00

11,872

0.0%

99.75

99.00

255,742

13.40

28,546

23.60

10,672

18.25

1,652

-0.4%

-1.0% -0.8%

-0.6%

49.70

32.50

13.50

23.90 18.45

17.20

32.00

15,688 10,717

1,177

41.70

-0.5%

41.80

41.50

14,456

101.00

1.0%

102.00

100.25

5,297

-0.2%

49.10

48.20

49,986

9.50

308,943

34.80

0.9%

35.00

-0.6%

51.00

0.0%

48.70 9.60

-0.5%

35.00

35.40

51.00 9.70

50.25

32,931

296

31.90

72,776

13.85

617

15,042 3,705 38

785

15.75

-15.0%

6.05

-11.2%

69.25

50.00

-4.0%

165.00

106.00

22.90

13.10

50.75

28.20

11.10 7.05

34.10

-9.0%

-6.1%

-6.1%

-32.8%

59.9%

11.4

1.6

87.0%

10,965,000

nmf

1.5

46.8%

46.2%

6.2%

-7.9%

44,550,000

27.7%

19.2%

98.00

57.25

-7.7%

25.7%

58.1%

42

29.30

21.42

-5.1%

11.9%

10.8%

308

24.45

17.75

-13.1%

7.9%

0.2%

15.50

-19.5%

23.70

-2.0%

165.00

2,576

109.75

87.75

2,126

16.30

119

450 90

4,510 347 238

37.50

26.10 21.00

21.30

42.60 35.50

12.85

18.55 15.55

33.00

-8.0%

-9.3%

-17.8% -9.2%

4.9%

4.5%

3.4%

-3.6%

24.7%

-4.9%

3.7%

-8.8%

48.5

1.7

13,846,500

14.6

4.7

11,033,820

10.9

1.5

10,665,000

23.2

21.5

1.1

1.7

1.5

-4.7%

25,725,000

nmf

1.7

24.7%

17,400,000

13.7

35,000,000

12.1

-5.4%

17.4%

57.8%

-3.4%

-41.5%

-30.4%

-15.7%

32,210

11.50

5.25

-16.5%

73.0%

38.1%

15.9%

29,877,500

10.6

15.5%

-9.3%

1.2

1.5

7,791,667

47.50

41.60

1.6

2.4

55,832,357

83.25

56.25

11.6

10.3

1.7

-2.2%

1,030 651

8.0

nmf

9.5

2.1

23.4%

14.4%

nmf

2.1

10.4

-2.1%

-5.4%

17.2

2.6

298,500,000

64.00

27.82

nmf

-7.7%

106.75 37.00

8.8

0.9

5.1

13.3%

21.3%

36,675,000

12.0

1.7

11.3

-12.9%

-1.4%

19,008,311

30.0

46,000,000

52

110

9,300,000

19,578,600

-9.3%

-13.9%

200.00

19,377,990

-19.6%

24.25

64

486

-9.1%

46,550,000

-3.9%

-12.8%

23.10

56.75

13,284,000

45,582,352

42.40

26.90

8,130,000

43.9%

-20.7%

157

3.8

1.5

33,900,670

21.20

126

1.4

0.8%

41.9%

27.9%

-16.2%

11.7

3.5

2.5

26.7%

39.0%

25,500,000

nmf

26.5

39.0%

11.3%

21,750,000

8,670,000

69.7%

71.6%

PB

114,375,000

-10.8%

18.8%

Trailing PE

1.3%

9.05

-5.2%

Market Cap. (SAR '000)

6.0%

2.4%

10,065,000

83,400,000 14,140,000

14.2 9.7

1.7

14.8

5.8

9,861,750

11.8

13,440,000

nmf

28,687,500

1.2

9.0

2.1 2.0

2.8

2.6

3.4

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

13

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, may 9, 2012

KUWAIT Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 6,485 (-0.1%)

KSE General Index (% Chg.)

120

418 (-0.3%)

Advance/Decline Ratio

1.00 JAZEERA.KJazeera Airways 6,523 / 5,694 FOOD.KSE Kuwait Food Co.

54%

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

115

KSE General Index 52 week High / Low

Highest Turnover

104

Turnover (KWD) 2,063,840 1,403,920

A Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Co.

8-Mar-12

8-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

N National Industries Grp. Holding

912,720

MMabanee Co.

598,950

725,100

ZA Zain Kuwait

8-May-12

5.4%

0.132

3.1%

0.425

2.4%

1.380

1.5%

0.740

1.4%

Worst Performers

IFInternational Finance Co.

100

95 8-Feb-12

National Real Estate Co.

27,998,495

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

108

NRE.KSE

% Chg.

0.255

43,045

Turnover (KWD '000)

105

OULAFUELOula Fuel Marketing Co.

464 / 396 ZAIN.KSE Zain Kuwait

KSE Weighted Index 52 week High / Low

110

Close

KSE Weighted Index (% Chg.)

Close NBK.KSE IFC.KSE

National Bank of Kuwait

% Chg.

1.060

International Finance Co.

-1.9%

0.108

BPCC.KSE Boubyan Petrochemical Co.

-1.8%

0.610

AREFENRGAREF Energy Holding Co.

-1.6%

0.124

ALTIJARIA The Commercial Real Estate Co.

-1.6%

0.086

-1.2%

KSE Weighted Index

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Agility

0.410

0.0%

T Al Themar Intl. Holding Co.

0.086

-

A AREF Energy Holding Co.

0.124

-1.6%

0.610

-1.6%

A Burgan Co. for Well Drilling

0.255

-

C Commercial Bank of Kuwait

0.760

A Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

A Alafco Aviation Lease and Fin. Co. B Boubyan Bank

B Boubyan Petrochemical Co. B Burgan Bank

C Combined Grp Contracting Co. F Commercial Facilities Co. G Global Investment House

0.580

0.295 0.600 0.430

-

K KIPCO Asset Management Co.

K Kuwait Cement Co.

0.610

0.530

-1.6%

-1.2%

0.430

0.430

10

0.524

0.410

-17.9%

-

0.0% -

0.108

-1.8%

0.275

-

2.4%

-

K Kuwait International Bank

0.270

-1.8%

K Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding)

0.330

1.5%

0.126

20

0.124

0.620 -

-

-

-

-

-

-

1.700

1.680

-

-

-

93

-

-

-

0.102

2,064

-

-

-

-

-

0.110

0.425 -

-

0.730 1.380

221

0.275

0.270

148

0.325

491

0.890

0.870

158

1.000

0.0%

1.000

0.990

599

1.060

-1.9%

1.080

1.060

64

N National Industries Grp. Holding

0.230

0.9%

0.230

0.226

913

N National Real Estate Co.

0.132

3.1%

0.132

0.132

50

0.216

-0.9%

0.220

0.216

1,404

0.106

0.0%

0.106

81

0.086

10

N National Bank of Kuwait N National Industries Co.

N National Investments Company O Oula Fuel Marketing Co.

A Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Co. S Salhia Real Estate Co.

S Sultan Center Food Products Co. T Tamdeen Real Estate Co.

A The Commercial Real Estate Co. S The Securities House N Wataniya

Z Zain Kuwait

0.310

0.0% -

-

0.148 0.255 0.248 0.238

0.0%

5.4%

-

-

-

-

-

0.152

0.255

0.242 0.248

74

0.9%

0.238

0.236

19

2.260

-0.9%

-

1.4%

0.106 0.087 -

-

-

2.280

2.260

0.750

230,033

1.7%

0.0%

1,048,941

-14.9%

664,336

8.9%

-4.9%

5.1% 5.2%

-18.3%

-3.8%

-18.3%

0.375

0.255

-29.3% -3.9%

6.3%

1.9%

0.0%

93,000

-9.4%

2.1%

nmf

4.2

nmf

33.8

53,454

36.5

4.0

142,242

10.0

0.9 2.6

64,309

nmf

-19.2%

-15.8%

-1.2%

181,553

nmf

0.214

0.138

0.242

30

0.096

0.485

0.124

0.315

0.236

0.610

0.415

0.981

0.720

1.620

540

1.340

0.350

180

-55.4%

-12.4%

-12.7%

-27.9%

-26.6% -14.8% -22.9%

-

0.0%

0.192

380

0.168

0.056

0.340

0.260

0.280

0.144

0.360

0.242

0.226

0.186

300

0.248

0.200

80

0.270

0.216

0.136 0.097 -

980

4.0

19.7

1.9

554,763

11.6

1.9

79,996

31.5

1.3

611,189

29.4

4.2

280,568

280,078

-15.4%

441,069

0.0%

21,780

0.0%

4.1%

-5.9%

4,614,707

-17.9%

-11.5%

-17.9%

297,873

-21.4%

3.1%

24.5%

-8.8%

-47.1%

10.7%

-14.0%

-8.8%

-47.1%

-29.2%

-15.0%

-19.0%

0.0%

19.2%

-4.4%

0.9%

2.0

1.4

nmf

0.8

0.7

nmf

0.7

21.7

17.0%

127,155

17.7

1.0

-8.5%

88,803

23.2

0.9

88,400

nmf

19.4%

157,794

-8.9%

16.5%

13.0%

1,139,114

-17.8%

0.1

15.2

88,277

237,600

11.7%

-37.3%

0.8

2.3

nmf

-11.3%

0.690

1.4

14.7

-

5.9%

0.0%

1.6

23.6

129,680

0.067

0.0%

0.9

26.9

25.3

-11.7%

3.5%

0.8

nmf

107,323

-11.7%

-11.9%

nmf

72,408

-22.1%

1.880

1.180

9.7

0.093

-

2.480

13.8%

3.7

102,850

-19.4%

44.7%

0.280

25

5.9%

27.9%

3,980

57

-10.4%

1.6

0.9

2,090,998

-2.0%

-16.5%

-7.4%

-

-6.8%

7.7

16.8

-26.6%

0.691

0.281

0.909

120

-26.7%

-13.6%

3.1

141,000 86,711

1.9%

1.020 1.145

760

-4.3%

12.7%

-40.5%

60

50

242.7%

23.9%

-

6,440

-57.6%

-6.6%

-40.5%

-

2,500

5.9%

281,308

30.6%

0.660

0.395

-

10.6%

-19.3%

1.480

1,510 600

0.236

-12.2%

-5.6%

1.8

nmf

0.285

-19.3%

1.5

1.0

16.4

0.495

1.240

1.2

162,339

-

1.660

1.4

11.8

40.1

23

1.0

1.5

295,911

966,737

-28.4%

1.8

5.8

1,132,228

20

725

0.730

-20.3%

-17.9%

-

12

nmf

0.5

19.3

-11.5%

305

374

0.148

0.248

-1.2%

0.740

-

0.8%

0.086 0.130

0.330

87,075

877,679

-22.1%

19,360

27

1.360

-17.3%

-11.7%

-45.7%

-13.6%

0.019

15.9

-6.3%

17.0%

PB

429,203

20.3%

1.300

0.051

-5.5%

PE

1.2%

-39.3%

1.945

0.700

-7.8%

Trailing

Market Cap. (KWD '000)

0.425

-

0.720

-3.2%

9.3%

12 mths

0.552

-

13

-6.1%

YTD

210

-

0.410

0.198

0.930

-

30

0.530

0.420

-

89

0.085

0.630

55

-

0.425

-

-

-

1.340

0.132

615

4

0.430

1.360

160

376

0.610

1.2%

0.033

-17.3%

100

0.0%

M Mena Holding

-11.7%

59

0.440

M Mabanee Co.

0.079

0.580

0.590

-

0.880

0.104

-

0.657

0.600

0.720

P Kuwait Portland Cement Co.

-

-

-4.7%

0.0%

0.400

1.380

0.248

-20.3%

K Kuwait Finance House F Kuwait Food Co.

0.430

0.280

0.0%

0.425

250

0.370

0.430

JAJazeera Airways

IF International Finance Co.

on high

470

-

0.188

-

-

-

% Change

Low

137

0.265

IK Ikarus Petroleum Industries Co.

-

-

102

High

0.290

0.0%

1.340

0.405

52-Week

Volume ('000)

0.295

1.680

C Gulf Cable and Electrical Industries Co.

IF IFA Hotels & Resorts

0.410

Turnover (KWD '000)

0.0%

0.049

G Gulf Bank

Low

61,356

0.0%

-37.3%

3,187,576

2.1

13.1

1.1

nmf

1.6

15.0

0.6

7.0

10.8

1.4

11.2

1.5

UAE Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,556 (-0.5%)

DFM Index (% Chg.)

125

2,490 (0.1%)

ADSM Index (% Chg.)

Advance/Decline Ratio

DFM Index 52 week High / Low

Highest Turnover

106

8-Mar-12 S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

8-Apr-12

TATamweel

Abu Dhabi SE

16,542,000

D Dubai Financial Market

8-May-12

0.3%

0.3% 0.2%

Worst Performers

E Etisalat

95 8-Feb-12

3.12

8.64

Turnover (AED) 47,007,928 GCEM.ADS Gulf Cement Co. 18,787,695 DFM.DFM Dubai Financial Market 17,538,882 TAMWEEL Tamweel

E Emaar Properties

101

0.7%

388,514,948

Market Cap. (AED '000) 108

1.8%

2.97 8.90

221,953

Turnover (AED '000)

% Chg.

2.80

2,775 / 2,293 ETISALAT.AEtisalat

ADSM Index 52 week High / Low

105

Commercial Bank of Dubai

46% UNB.ADSM Union National Bank 0.36 NBAD.ADS National Bank of Abu Dhabi 1,754 / 1,301 ADCB.ADS Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

115

Close CBD.DFM

11,612,125

F First Gulf Bank

SIB.ADSM

UPP.DFM

Close

% Chg.

1.18

-4.8%

1.19

-2.5%

0.40

-1.7%

1.05

Sharjah Islamic Bank

0.88

Union Properties

-3.7%

-2.2%

Dubai FM

Quotes Company Name

Close

0.0%

1.24

1.20

0.60

-0.2%

0.61

0.60

1.02

-

A Air Arabia

A Arabtec Holding A Aramex

3.17

2.10

1.11 3.33

1.83

-0.3% -

0.0% -

0.0%

A Arkan Building Materials Co.

0.88

-1.1%

D Dana Gas

0.43

0.0%

C Commercial Bank of Dubai D Deyaar Development Co. D du

2.80 0.35

3.09

3.20 -

1.12 -

-

1.83

-

1.09 -

-

1.81

0.36

3.11

0.35

3.07

-3.7%

1.10

1.05

D Dubai Islamic Bank

1.98

-0.5%

2.01

1.98

E Emirates NBD

2.78

-0.4%

2.84

2.77

E Etisalat F First Gulf Bank

G Gulf Cement Co. M Mashreq

N National Bank of Abu Dhabi N National Bank of Fujairah

N National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain S Sharjah Islamic Bank

S Sorouh Real Estate Co. T Tamweel

8.64 8.87

1.18

67.00

-4.8% -

0.3%

1.75

-

4.95

-

1.14

1,098

1,820

-

8,553 -

3.06

8.68 8.90

1.18 -

8.90 -

398

2,959 30

1,007 3,423

16,542 1,650

2.92

-

-

-

107

0.0%

0.0%

148.0%

5,227,268

20.6

1.8

177

1.47

0.71

-40.1%

-12.9%

-40.1%

1,540,000

nmf

1.0

8,363

0.69

0.34

-37.7%

-4.4%

-35.8%

2,838,861

1,624 11

2,843

1,108

15,346 830

1.96

3.24

0.46

3.63

1.32

2.26

1.69

2.67

0.20

2.80

103

-

2

91

-

1.50

-14.9%

-20.5%

1.88

-12.4%

2.65

-40.0%

0.67

-21.3%

67.00

4.95

3.00

1.02

0.80

2.24

-22.4%

0.68

102.00 9.00

-13.5%

7.38

1.7%

1.4%

65.7% 6.9%

-21.3%

0.0%

8.8%

9.7%

-

-

-

-

-

4.50

3.28

-23.8%

-12.2%

968,894 -

34,483,570

-8.9%

2,800,000

2,808,750

-12.2%

56.2%

2.82

15,450,614

7.3%

10.0%

8.5%

-18.6%

3.95

-10.3%

-19.3%

0.24

U United Arab Bank

1.8 1.0

2.8%

0.50

3.90

11.7 7.1

-24.6%

3,452

252

68,309,050 26,610,000

25.9%

1,407

748

-16.5% -2.0%

-26.2%

0.40

2.92

0.8

0.6

0.67

97.3%

1.1

9.3

-3.3%

4.8%

4.7

2.3

18,334,628

-21.9%

-13.7%

7,518,167

nmf

0.3

-4.1%

1.63

-20.1%

1.45

12.9

66.2%

-34.0%

0.5

14,125,714

-30.5%

-34.3%

0.9

5.6

-4.9%

8,400,000

1.4

7.1

nmf

-5.4%

-5.4% 14.8%

5,707,386

12.0

2,039,634

-8.3%

-22.9% -17.5%

2,679,303

18.5%

2.1%

17.1%

0.53

6,746

-3.6%

-19.8%

-8.8%

-1.1%

-2.1%

25.0%

1.49

0.41

121

4.63

-6.6%

15,351

2.98

1.1

119.9%

18,788

0.7%

0.6

-3.7%

1.18

-1.7%

4.9

0.3

1.18

1.26

0.40

nmf

0.0%

8.4

1.1

3.46

-2.5%

7,229

1,530,000

-16.6%

6.5

-

1.19

1.06

0.5

4,534,493

0.88

1.09

10.4

-28.4%

2.7%

0.88

-0.9%

2,809,353

20.7%

-20.3%

-2.2%

1.07

1.0

-28.4%

8.57 6.98

-

11.4

0.76

11.20 10.75

-

7,470,000

1.55

2,031 1,310

808

-14.9%

7,496,118

7,706

17,539 11,612

-

0.8

-0.3%

2,100,000

8.57 8.82

8.85

5.4

-27.6%

2.41

2

17,458,264

-4.5%

3.30

-

0.0%

0.3%

PB

9.9%

-27.6%

0.57

15,422

-

-14.9%

-10.7%

PE

1.98

0.76

47,008

1.18

12.2%

Trailing

Market Cap. (AED '000)

2.90

3.01

287

-6.0%

12 mths

-

-

-

3.55

YTD

0.88

2.97

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

0.2% -1.0%

8.90

U Union National Bank U Union Properties

-1.0%

1.41

3,591

1.05

3.01

552

0.42

D Dubai Financial Market

E Emaar Properties

663

1,263

0.44

-1.1%

on high

2.69

156

2.80

% Change

Low

3.32

0.88

2.80

High

479

0.90

1.8%

0.0%

3.16

52-Week

Volume ('000)

1,496

1.20

A Amlak Finance

Turnover (AED '000)

3.10

T Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.

A ALDAR Properties

Low

3.17

3.12

A Abu Dhabi National Hotels

High

0.3%

A Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank A Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

Daily % Chg.

-1.1%

8.8

nmf

13.8

1.3

8.3

0.9

18.5

2,134,440

8.1

7.9

20.2%

1,190,000

12.8

4.1%

1,356,843

nmf

3,935,785

0.8

0.9

9.0

5,445,000

7,412,006

0.4

4.9

11.4

2.7

0.5

0.4

0.5

0.7

0.6

2.0

STOCKS WITH NBK CAPITAL

14

ALWATAN DAILY wednesday, may 9, 2012

QATAR Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 8,667 (0.2%)

DSM Index (% Chg.)

120

Advance/Decline Ratio Turnover (QAR '000)

466,804,266

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

108

MMasraf Al Rayan

14,335,837

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

8-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

7,303,487

IQIndustries Qatar

8-May-12

1.3% 0.8%

8.73

Turnover (QAR) 33,018,231 BRES.DSMBarwa Real Estate Co. 18,344,793 IQCD.DSM Industries Qatar

Q Qatar Telecom

8-Mar-12

16.95

1.9%

0.5%

Worst Performers

100

90 8-Feb-12

2.3%

142.00

VFQS.DSM Vodafone Qatar

Highest Turnover

100

% Chg.

20.98 57.90

8,892 / 8,071 AHCS.DSMAamal Co. 259,703 QEWS.DSMQatar Electricity & Water Co.

DSM 52 week High / Low 110

Close

50% ERES.DSMEzdan Real Estate Co. 2.25 DHBK.DSMDoha Bank

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

7,278,979

Q Qatar Electricity & Water Co.

Close

-0.4%

144.10

QTEL.DSM Qatar Telecom

-0.4%

137.20

KCBK.DSMAl Khalij Commercial Bank #N/A

% Chg.

26.80

-0.2%

16.30

#N/A

-0.1%

#N/A

#N/A

Doha SM

Quotes Company Name A Aamal Co.

Close 16.95

Daily % Chg.

High

1.3%

Low

17.00

16.55

2,302

26.70

6,846

16.30

-0.1%

C The Commercial Bank of Qatar

72.30

0.3%

73.00

72.00

5,278

E Ezdan Real Estate Co.

20.98

2.3%

21.60

20.60

2,210

27.05

18,345

16.20

14,336

78.10

5,798

67.90

543

D Doha Bank

26.80 57.90

-0.4%

1.9%

16.26

26.90

58.30

57.00

3,891 7,303

IQIndustries Qatar

144.10

-0.4%

145.00

143.60

Q Qatar Electricity & Water Co.

142.00

0.8%

142.00

140.70

0.0%

51.70

51.00

2,357

M Masraf Al Rayan

Q Qatar Gas Transport Co.

Q Qatar International Islamic Bank Q Qatar Islamic Bank

27.15 16.30

0.0%

78.60

0.3%

51.50

Q Qatar National Bank

133.40

Q Qatar Telecom

137.20

Q Qatar Navigation

68.20

V Vodafone Qatar

0.2%

8.73

27.25

16.35 79.80

134.00

133.10

2,145

-0.2%

139.30

137.00

33,018

0.0%

0.5%

68.80 8.75

8.63

High

137

16.06

32.55

26.80

-22.6% -9.5%

-17.7%

YTD 17.3% -5.1%

-10.5%

73

85.50

68.00

-15.4%

-13.9%

105

24.97

18.60

-16.0%

67

67.00

0.9

19.9%

16.30

-11.7%

-6.9%

-9.8%

76.30

-7.9%

-6.8%

-0.8%

18,572,646

-10.9%

-19.4%

7,810,619

10.8

0.7

15.6%

9.8%

7,380,342

nmf

1.1

56.20

45.50

16

141.73

122.73

239

140.40

64.09

9.22

7.6

-2.5%

46

210

10,428,540

1.1

-3.4%

22.50

87.50

-14.9%

1.6

12.0

nmf

129.50

8

5,868,000

55,649,381

148.00

85.30

-8.6%

PB

19.1

-10.0%

51

73

9,229,275

-5.5%

118.80

18.47

3.6%

Trailing PE

9.4

148.50

882

Market Cap. (QAR '000)

17,890,373

50.00

28.10

12 mths

-0.3%

51

676

1,831

on high

14.00

18.01

256

% Change

Low

21.90

48

7,279

0.1%

52-Week

Volume ('000)

781

K Al Khalij Commercial Bank B Barwa Real Estate Co.

16.31

Turnover (QAR '000)

-13.6% -3.0%

-4.1%

-8.4%

-5.9%

68.00

-22.1%

7.24

-5.3%

-2.3%

-9.7%

8.3% 1.7%

-4.6% -3.5%

114.1%

10.7%

11,967,803

-0.9%

6.3%

92.0%

1.8

2.0

10.2

3.3

14,200,000

10.4

4.7

9,027,657

9.6%

9.4

79,255,000

20,362,500

1.1%

1.3

14.2

11.0

4.7

13.0

1.8

7,795,491

11.6

93,343,907

12.0

31,391,360

2.4

1.7

2.3

12.4

1.5

OMAN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 5,802 (0.2%)

MSM Index (% Chg.)

120

42% RNSS.MSMRenaissance Services

% of stocks trading above 1yr avg. price

0.67

Advance/Decline Ratio

MSM 52 week High / Low

6,975,814

Market Cap (OMR '000)

108 103

Turnover (OMR) 487,866 RCCI.MSM Raysut Cement Co. 157,787 OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co.

R Raysut Cement Co.

84,085

O Oman Cement Co. 8-Mar-12

8-Apr-12

S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

50,247

B Bank Muscat

8-May-12

0.8%

0.61

0.3%

0.29

0.0%

1.30

-0.2%

0.67

-0.3%

Worst Performers

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

90 8-Feb-12

OCOI.MSM Oman Cement Co.

Highest Turnover

100

% Chg.

0.61

BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

6,265 / 5,419 NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman 2,939 OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co.

Turnover (OMR '000)

110

Close

3,751

R Renaissance Services

Close

% Chg.

1.23

-0.4%

OTEL.MSMOman Telecommunications Co.

1.30

-0.2%

BKMB.MSMBank Muscat

0.61

NBOB.MSMNational Bank of Oman

0.67

-0.3%

0.29

0.0%

0.3%

Muscat SM

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

0.440

N National Bank of Oman

0.293

O Oman Telecommunications Co.

1.299

-0.2%

1.301

1.295

488

R Renaissance Services

0.605

0.8%

0.608

0.593

4

0.611

O Oman Cement Co.

R Raysut Cement Co.

0.670 1.230

0.3% 0.0%

-0.3% -0.4%

-

-

-

B Bank Dhofar

B Bank Muscat

-

Low

Turnover (OMR '000)

0.614

0.607

0.293

0.670

0.670

1.235

1.220

-

50 0

0.293

52-Week

Volume ('000)

High 0.671

0

84

on high

0.423

-18.7%

0.291

-9.6%

0.572

0.324

126

158

Low

0.541

82

% Change

0.693

0.416

-3.0%

55.1%

-8.8%

6

1.006

0.458

-39.9%

0.711

-6.1%

-3.3%

1.041

1.250

-19.9%

-8.3%

1.425

-1.6%

12 mths

-3.3%

-8.9%

376

128

YTD

Market Cap. (OMR '000)

-7.0%

324,651

9.0

1.2

8.7

2.0

nmf

1.0

16.1

246,000

14.6

974,250

11.0%

-39.7%

170,667

2.1

8.9

221,685

16.0%

16.0%

PB

12.1

-0.8%

61.8%

PE

484,051

1,097,841

14.1%

Trailing

1.3

1.5 2.5

BAHRAIN Rebased Performance

Summary

Best Performers 1,160 (-0.1%)

BSE Index (% Chg.)

120

32% ABC.BSE 0.67 BISB.BSE

% of stocks trading above 1 yr avg. price Advance/Decline Ratio

Bahrain Islamic Bank 1,385 / 1,129 BARKA.BS Albaraka Banking Grp. 637 BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

BSE 52 week High / Low Turnover (BHD '000)

110

Turnover (BHD) 517,462 ITHMR.BSE Ithmaar Bank 26,968 AUB.BSE Ahli United Bank

A Arab Banking Corp.

22,831

A Ahli United Bank

8-Mar-12 8-Apr-12 S&P GCC Large/Mid Composite

7,337

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co.

8-May-12 Bahrain SE

Ahli United Bank

% Chg.

0.46

9.5%

0.09

1.1%

0.93

0.0%

0.47

-0.4%

0.61

-1.6%

Worst Performers

IT Ithmaar Bank

90 8-Feb-12

AUB.BSE

Highest Turnover

102

100

6,555,297

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

108

Close Arab Banking Corp.

3,516

B Albaraka Banking Grp.

Close

% Chg.

0.22

0.61

-8.3%

-1.6%

BATELCO.BBahrain Telecommunications Co.

0.47

-0.4%

BISB.BSE

0.09

1.1%

BARKA.BS Albaraka Banking Grp. Bahrain Islamic Bank

0.93

0.0%

Quotes Company Name

Close

Daily % Chg.

High

A Ahli United Bank*

0.610

-1.6%

A Arab Banking Corp.*

0.460

9.5%

B Albaraka Banking Grp.* B Bahrain Islamic Bank

B Bahrain Telecommunications Co. B BBK

IN Investcorp Bank* IT Ithmaar Bank*

N National Bank of Bahrain U United Gulf Bank

* Closing Prices, Turnover and Market Cap. in USD

0.930 0.090

72

0.466

7

1.1%

0.090

0.090

797

-

-

0.220

-8.3%

0.260

-

0.550

0.440

0.930

-0.4%

-

0.466

Volume ('000)

61

0.930 0.460

Turnover (BHD '000)

0.610

0.0%

0.466

0.400

0.620

Low

3

-

-

0.255

0.220

1,373

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

99

9

-

-

0.676

% Change

Low 0.599

10

1.029

0.857

35

0.116

0.082

156

-

52-Week High

16

0.530 0.486

0.420 0.380

on high 0.0%

YTD 0.0%

-9.6%

-0.4%

-22.4%

0.0%

-13.2% 0.0%

9.5% 0.0%

12 mths 0.0%

3,192,469

-19.3%

1,430,600

-9.6%

-22.4%

0.0%

0.420

0.390

-4.8%

-3.4%

5,694

0.240

0.065

-8.3%

238.5%

144.4%

-

0.424

0.260

-38.7%

-13.3%

-30.1%

-

-

797

0.600

797

0.545

0.0%

-8.3%

0.0%

-4.3%

Market Cap. (BHD '000)

-4.8%

943,462

Trailing PE

PB

10.1

1.3

8.0

0.8

84,571

nmf

0.8

340,542

10.6

671,040

-30.0%

637,560

-8.3%

470,448

589,108

216,986

6.8 8.5

0.4 1.3

1.4

4.5

0.6

10.2

1.7

nmf

nmf

1.0 1.0

LIFE

What’s Causing My Muscle Cramps?

A muscle cramp occurs when a muscle involuntarily tightens and does not release, often leading to intense pain. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says although the exact causes of muscle cramps aren’t known, the following conditions are thought to increase your risk: • Having tight muscles that haven’t been stretched.

• Having poorly conditioned muscles that become easily fatigued.

• Overusing your muscles.

• Exerting yourself in extreme heat.

• Being dehydrated.

• Having low levels of essential minerals and salt, including potassium.

WEDNESdAY, MAY 9, 2012

S. Korea cracks down on flesh capsules from China

This handout photo released

by Korea Customs Service on May 8, 2012 shows capsules filled with powdered human flesh in Daejeon, officials reported.

(AFP)

Our ancestors’ squishy skulls led to bulging brains NEWYORK: A new analysis of an old human ancestor fossil indicates that human brains started growing 2.5 million years ago, about the time humans started walking upright, reports LiveScience.

An unfused seam on the fossil’s head indicates the skull was still pliable for several years after birth, giving the brain time to grow. An imprint of the brain on the inside of the skull also gave researchers a good view of the developing human brain.

“These findings are significant because they provide a highly plausible explanation as to why the hominin brain might grow larger and more complex,” study researcher Dean Falk, of Florida State University, said in a statement. When humans started walking upright, it put pressure on infant skulls to stay flexible, allowing them to continue to grow for several years, the researchers suggest.

Small bones

Belonging to a 3- to 4-year-old AusPARIS: South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, taken by some as a cure for disease or a way to boost sexual performance, a customs official said Tuesday.

The gruesome practice came to light Sunday when Korea Customs said it had uncovered 35 attempts to import a total of 17,451 such capsules since last August.

The pills -- filled with the dried and powdered flesh of fetuses or dead infants -- were intercepted in the mail or in customs searches at airports.

The customs service said that apart from ethical questions the capsules were contaminated with “super bacteria” and other disease-causing organisms.

Most pills were sent from the northeastern Chinese cities of Yanji and Jilin as well as cities including Qingdao and Tianjin at the request of customers in South Korea, it said.

Some were hidden in packages of legitimate drugs to disguise their contents.

Officials now closely monitor flights from “certain Chinese regions” and inspect all the luggage of all passengers far more often than before, Kim Soo-Yeon, a Korea Customs official in charge of customs clearance told AFP. Bringing in such pills breaches a regulation banning items that “violate social dignity and customs”, he said.

No organized attempts to smuggle in the capsules have so far been detected, Kim said, and most offenders were individual travelers. Some claimed they were

Truly shocking unaware of what they were carrying.

“It’s not just human-flesh pills. We also target other similarly banned but popular items like seal penises and bear gall bladders,” said Kim, referring to items favored by middle-aged men as libido enhancers.

“We have drastically stepped up resources in these efforts...even risking great inconvenience to visitors from these regions,” he said.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper said the human-flesh capsules sell for 40,000-50,000 won ($35-44) each at some oriental herbal medicine shops.

Experts say the practice stems from a superstitious belief that eating body parts of young infants will give individuals special physical strength or cure disease.

“It is a bizarre...practice, just like a belief that eating the penis of actively-mating seals or drinking the bile of strong bears will help your libido,” Ha Ji-Hyun, a psychiatrist at Konkuk University medical centre, told Chosun.

Maeil Business Newspaper urged the Chinese government Tuesday to crack down on producers of the human-flesh capsules and impose heavy punishments, calling the practice “truly shocking.”

It added that desperate cancer patients and construction workers from China undertaking grueling work were the main customers in the South. -AFP

Ancient crocodile was world’s largest FILE - The comparative sizes of the newfound crocodile species and presentday Nile crocodiles, next to an ancient hominid and a modern human.

(Agencies)

NEW YORK: Scientists have announced the discovery of a newfound crocodile species that may have been the largest to ever roam the Earth. The colossal reptiles trolled East African waters between 4 million and 2 million years ago, and may have snacked on human ancestors, researchers said, reports LiveScience.

The largest fossil specimens recovered belong to massive crocodiles some 25 feet (7.5 meters) in length; and the ancient giants may have grown larger than 27 feet (8 meters), according to Christopher Brochu, an associate professor of geosciences at the University of Iowa.

Brochu stumbled upon the new species three years ago, while examining enormous fossils housed at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi. It took four men to lift the skull of one of the specimens, which were originally excavated from the Turkana Basin, an area surrounding Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

The region is a famed hotspot for human fossil finds. Many early hominids have been unearthed from the Turkana Basin, and Brochu said it’s possible some of them came to a nasty end, thanks to the prehistoric crocodiles, dubbed Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni.

“It lived alongside our ancestors, and it probably ate them.” Brochu said in a statement, adding that the colossal reptiles may have swallowed them whole.

“We don’t actually have fossil human remains with croc bites, but the crocs were bigger than today’s crocodiles, and we were smaller, so there probably wasn’t much biting involved,” he said. Brochu’s research is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The newfound species isn’t closely related to Nile crocodiles, Brochu said. “We really don’t know where the Nile crocodile came from,” he said, “but it only appears after some of these prehistoric giants died out.”

Zinc may shorten common cold but side effects common NEW YORK: A new review of past studies suggests that taking zinc may cut the time adults have to suffer with a common cold, but the alternative treatment will likely come with unpleasant side effects.

The benefits of zinc also appear to be modest, and don’t extend to children. But they could add up considering there are about 62 million cases of the common cold in the United States every year that result in 22 million missed days of work, according to the US National Institutes of Health.

For their review, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Michelle Science from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and her colleagues compiled data from clinical trials comparing people who took zinc orally to another group that either took a placebo or received no treatment.

The researchers included only randomized controlled trials -- considered the “gold standard” of medical research -- but cautioned that the quality of the results of those previous trials varied widely.

Overall, the researchers looked at 17 trials that included 2,121 people from one to 65 years old. In those taking zinc, colds were shortened by a little more than one and a half days, on average, compared to participants in the placebo group.

That changed when the researchers analyzed zinctakers by age. In adults, zinc shortened the common

cold by a little more than two and a half days compared to the placebo. In children, zinc didn’t seem to make much of a difference in cold duration.

One possible reason for the difference between adults and kids, according to the authors, is that the adults tended to use a different form of zinc than the children. Peoples’ cold symptoms also seemed to clear up faster if they took a higher dosage of zinc compared to those who took the least. The various studies used different dosages, said Science.

The authors cannot say why zinc stops the rhinovirus, a frequent cause of the common cold, from reproducing. But some believe it acts as an astringent on important facial nerves where viruses tend to congregate.

Although adults who didn’t take zinc tended to have colds lasting a week or more, there was no difference in the severity of cold symptoms on day three in any of the groups.

Side effects were more common in the people taking zinc, however. They were 64 percent more likely to experience nausea and 65 percent more likely to detect an unpleasant taste.

Zinc can lead to a person having a metal taste in their mouth, said Dr. Meenu Singh, a pediatrician at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, who was not involved in the new analysis. -Reuters

tralopithecus africanus, nicknamed “Taung Child,” the fossil skull was discovered in 1924 and dates back to about 2.5 million years ago. The specimen was initially discovered in a lime mine in South Africa, and was the first specimen of this species of hominin.

The researchers used three-dimensional scans to analyze the skull, which includes most of the face, jaw and teeth, as well as a natural internal cast of the braincase; they also compared their results with other hominid skulls, including those of chimpanzees and bonobos.

Such scans allowed the researchers to determine that the joints between the child’s skull plates (called the metopic suture) hadn’t fully fused, a uniquely human trait.

Walking upright

These brain joints close quickly after birth in monkeys and other apes, the researchers said, but in humans, this fusion happens much later. This flexibility in the

skull may have existed to help with the birthing, since passing an infant with a large head though the birth canal can be tricky, especially after the hips were reconfigured for bipedalism.

The flexibility until later in life would have also let the prefrontal cortex, a brain area crucial for advanced cognitive capabilities, expand and grow over time. The researchers could see from the imprint of the brain on the inside of the skull that these brain areas had started expanding and changing.

This flexible feature “probably occurred in conjunction with refining the ability to walk on two legs,” Falk said.

“The ability to walk upright caused an obstetric dilemma. Childbirth became more difficult because the shape of the birth canal became constricted while the size of the brain increased. The persistent metopic suture contributes to an evolutionary solution to this dilemma.” The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Study finds psychopaths have distinct brain structure LONDON: Scientists who scanned the brains of men convicted of murder, rape and violent assaults have found the strongest evidence yet that psychopaths have structural abnormalities in their brains. The researchers, based at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths’ brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders.

Nigel Blackwood, who led the study, said the ability to use brain scans to identify and diagnose this sub-group of violent criminals has important implications for treatment.

The study showed that psychopaths, who are characterized by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other peoples’ emotions.

While cognitive and behavioral treatments may benefit people with anti-social personality disorders, the same approach may not work for psychopaths with brain damage, Blackwood said.

“To get a clear idea of which treatments are working, you’ve got to clearly define what people are like going into the treatment programs,” he said in a telephone interview.

Essi Viding a professor in the psychology and language sciences department of University College London, who was not

involved in Blackwood’s study, said it provided “weighty new evidence” about the importance of distinguishing psychopathic from non-psychopathic people rather than grouping them together.

The findings also have implications for the justice system, because linking psychopathy to brain function raises the prospect of arguing a defense of insanity.

Interest in what goes on inside the heads of violent criminals has been sharpened by the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who massacred 77 people last July. Two court-appointed psychiatric teams who examined Breivik came to opposite conclusions about his mental health. The killer himself has railed being called insane.

Blackwood’s team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 44 violent adult male offenders in Britain who had already been diagnosed with anti-social personality disorders.

The crimes they had committed included murder, rape, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.

Of the 44 men scanned, 17 met the diagnosis for ASPD plus psychopathy and 27 did not. The researchers also scanned the brains of 22 healthy non-offenders.

The results showed that the psychopaths’ brains had significantly less grey matter in the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and temporal poles than the brains of the non-psychopathic offenders and

non-offenders.

These areas of the brain are important for understanding other people’s emotions and intentions, and are activated when people think about moral behavior, the researchers said.

Damage to these areas is linked with a lack of empathy, a poor response to fear and distress and a lack of self-conscious emotions such as guilt or embarrassment.

Lindsay Thomson, a professor of forensic psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in this study, said Blackwood’s findings add to evidence that psychopathy is a distinct neurodevelopmental brain disorder.

Research shows that most violent crimes are committed by a small group of persistent male offenders with ASPD. In England and Wales, for example, around half of male prisoners meet diagnostic criteria for ASPD. Such people typically react in an aggressive way to frustration or perceived threats, but most are not psychopaths, the researchers wrote in a summary of their study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal.

There are clear behavior differences among people with ASPD depending on whether they also have psychopathy.

Their patterns of offending are different, suggesting the need for a separate approach to treatment. -Reuters

Dinosaur flatulence may have warmed Earth WASHINGTON: In a major new climate finding, researchers have calculated that dinosaur flatulence could have put enough methane into the atmosphere to warm the planet during the hot, wet Mesozoic era.

Like gigantic, long-necked, prehistoric cows, sauropod dinosaurs roamed widely around the Earth 150 million years ago, scientists reported in the journal Current Biology on Monday. And just like big cows, their plant digestion was aided by methane-producing microbes.

“A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,” researcher Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University said in a statement.

“Indeed, our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced

more methane than all modern sources - both natural and man-made - put together,” Wilkinson said. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with as much as 25 times the climate-warming potential as carbon dioxide. This gas is enough of a factor in modern global warming that scientists have worked to figure out how much methane is emitted by cows, sheep and other plant-eating animals.

The inquiry raised questions about whether the same thing could have happened in the distant past.

Wilkinson and co-author Graeme Ruxton of the University of St. Andrews worked with methane expert Euan Nisbet at the University of London to make an educated guess about the degree to which gaseous emissions from sauropods could have warmed the atmosphere.

Calculating methane emissions from modern animals depends only on the

total mass of the animals in question. A mid-sized sauropod probably weighed about 44,000 pounds, and there were a few dozen of them per square mile (kilometer), the researchers found.

They reckoned that global methane emissions from sauropods were about 520 million tons per year, comparable to all modern methane emissions. Unlike emissions of carbon dioxide, which come from natural sources but also from the burning of fossil fuels, methane emissions have decreased substantially since the start of the Industrial Revolution some 150 years ago.

Before the fossil-fuel intensive Industrial Revolution took off, methane emissions were roughly 200 million tons annually; modern ruminants, including cows, goats, giraffes and other animals, emit between 50 million and 100 million tons of methane a year. -Reuters

FILE - This undated handout photo provided by the Smithsonian Institution shows the current Dinosaur Hall at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. (AP)

16

ALWATAN DAILY

CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, may 9, 2012

Effigy of ‘Lost Prince’ Henry Stuart to go on show LONDON: A bundle of old sticks, which frankly will look very odd exhibited among treasures of paintings, miniatures, manuscripts and armor by artists including Rubens, Holbein and Inigo Jones, is all that remains of a funeral effigy that 400 years ago reduced crowds lining the streets of London to “an ocean of tears”, reports The Guardian.

The National Portrait Gallery is preparing to stage the first exhibition anywhere on one of British history’s great what ifs - what if Henry, the now almost forgotten handsome, sporty, clever - and devoutly Protestant - son of James I, big brother of the feeble and sickly Charles, had not died of typhoid in 1612 aged just 18.

Would he have reigned in peace and prosperity and had a brood of healthy children, or would he too have plunged his country into civil war and lost his head on a scaffold in Whitehall?

For curator Catharine MacLeod, the ugliest and most battered object in the autumn exhibition will also be one of the most striking. The headless, armless, wooden torso once completed with a wax portrait head modeled from life, and dressed in the prince’s own magnificent robes,

is being loaned by Westminster Abbey, where it has not been exhibited for at least 200 years.

“I find it very poignant, a tremendously moving symbol of the decline into which his memory has fallen,” she said.

In 1612, the effigy laid on top of his coffin was so lifelike it had a devastating impact on viewers. A witness described “an innumerable multitude of all sorts of ages and degrees of men, women and children ... some weeping, crying, howling, wringing of their hands, others half dead ... passionately betraying so great a loss with rivers, nay with an ocean of tears.”

The wonderful clothes were stolen within a few years, the head was gone by the early 19th century, and the arms, probably originally sacking stuffed with straw, have long since rotted away. It will be shown among more conventionally splendid objects, including loans from the royal collection and museum and private collections, including a spectacular suit of armor, and designs for a court masque by Inigo Jones in which the handsome youth appeared as the fairy king Oberon.

Trinity College Cambridge is sending his copy book, showing one page of beautifully

transcribed Latin poetry and one of touchingly teenage doodles, squiggles, and trial signatures.

At the age of 16 he was already building up a spectacular art collection, including the superb Holbein drawings now among the most precious works in the Windsor Castle library. He was also so interested in shipbuilding that Sir Walter Raleigh, imprisoned in the tower, wrote him a treatise on the subject.

His death also sealed the fate of his younger brother Charles, so feeble and sickly he was left behind in Scotland for years when his father became king on the death of Elizabeth I and moved south with his family.

The Royal Collection is loaning a small bronze horse, a sculpture dating from 1600 by Pietro Tacco, which both princes obviously regarded as a particular treasure. When Henry lay on his deathbed, the 12-year-old Charles sent for the horse and gave it to his brother hoping it would cheer him up - but it was too late.

Charles was chief mourner at the funeral, which his father could not bear to attend.

Months later, in the middle of a conversation with diplomats, the king suddenly collapsed, sobbing: “Henry is dead, Henry is dead.”

‘India’s Galliano’ says it’s all about the product NEW DELHI: Indian designers are famous for their elaborate embroideries and rich textiles but have yet to come up with products to woo the world’s fashion hotspots in the West, says Manish Arora, the international face of India’s fashion industry.

Known for his colorful and psychedelic designs, Arora is the only Indian who is a regular at the Paris Fashion Week, and boasts of celebrity clients such as singers Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. Demand for Indian couture has surged in the Middle East and East Asia in recent years, but the geographically and culturally distant West remains a largely unexplored frontier.

Many designers say they just need exposure to carve out a market in places like Europe and the United States, but Arora disagrees. “I don’t think it’s like that (exposure). It’s the product which matters at the end of the day,” Arora, who just launched his Spring/Summer 2012 collection in India after showcasing it in Paris, told Reuters in an interview. “If your product is ready for the international market, then it will be there.”

While flowing dresses with intricate draping and heavy embroidery mastered over centuries in India may suit rich buyers in Dubai and Riyadh, they remain novelty items in Paris and London, where the avantgarde is celebrated. Arora, who is often described in the media as India’s “John Galliano” for his innovative and bold cuts, said his originality is what earned him recognition in Europe. “I guess what people like about my work is that I have a very strong individual style. That’s

what works for me,” said the designer, whose overseas clients account for around 70 percent of his sales.

The New Delhi-based designer is stocked in 75 stores worldwide with a majority in Europe. The price of his Spring/Summer collection ranges from 8,000 to 75,000 rupees ($151 to $1418.)

Arora’s creations are combinations of intricate Indian craftsmanship and futuristic designs which are sometimes described as “bizarre’ or “theatrical,” earning him fans like Lady Gaga.

“I don’t do anything specific to dress celebrities up.

Katy Perry, she noticed my work herself through shows ... and Lady Gaga or Rihanna, their stylists are always looking at everybody’s work and I guess I match very well with their personality,” he said.

Arora, who was appointed as creative director of French fashion house Paco Rabanne in February 2011, said he had left the label after completing his one-year contract. “I’m finished. It was just for a year,” he said.

Arora’s international success apart, a majority of Indian designers still sell around 80 percent of their products at home, where couture is still primarily a bridal wear market catering to the big, showy Indian wedding.

Despite the economic and cultural hype surrounding India in recent years, Arora said the country’s designers have yet to properly cash in.

His advice? Be original. “To each his own. Everyone has their own individual style and it depends on them,” he said. -Reuters

FILE - Funeral effigy of Henry, Prince of Wales. (Agencies)

South Sudanese in Shakespeare play, a call for peace LONDON: The moment the besieged British king in Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” defies a far stronger Roman empire to declare his people’s independence is filled with tension in any production.For the South Sudanese troupe putting on the play one chilly spring night in London, that is also the moment where Elizabethan invention and modern African reality collide. Back home, they and their countrymen face the very real threat of war just a year after gaining independence from a powerful ruler.“We had connotations that could be applicable to the situation in South Sudan,” South Sudanese playwright and director Joseph Abuk told Reuters.

Abuk translated Cymbeline into Juba Arabic and co-directed the play alongside Derik Uya Alfred. “We wanted to pick a play that has a similar conflict that has raged in the country for a very long time,” Abuk said.

Since separating from Sudan last July, after signing a peace agreement which ended decades of civil war that claimed millions of lives, South Sudan has struggled to keep peace with Khartoum.The two countries disagree over citizenship, border demarcation, and transit fees for South Sudan’s oil, which must travel through Sudan for export.

That provides the potent backdrop for Shakespeare’s tale of the rebellious British monarch who refuses to pay tribute to imperial Rome, sparking war. “Cymbeline”

was put on this May in London as part of a cultural festival tied to the Olympics.Despite the hope wrought by a peace agreement, tensions between Juba and Khartoum have escalated this year, threatening to tip the two sides back into full blown fighting.

Just hours after the company’s final performance at the Globe, South Sudan accused Sudan of launching an air strike on one of its oil regions, a development that threatened to derail a promised ceasefire. Khartoum denied the charge and accused South Sudan of having troops on its territory Simply producing a script in Juba Arabic, South Sudan’s lingua franca and a language without a dictionary, was a tall order, Abuk said.”It looked like writing a new play,” he said. “Relying on one’s own vocabulary rather than on the written text, it was certainly difficult to imagine what could be the alternative here, what could be the actual meaning here.”

Another, perhaps more basic challenge for the actors was the change in temperature. While Juba reaches springtime temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, an unseasonable London chill had audience members sitting in the open-air theatre wrapped in coats, scarves, and blankets.

“It was a very big challenge, that weather,” Alfred said. “If you change the costume, if you put something under it you will be destroying the culture.Alfred’s Kwoto Cul-

tural Centre, launched in 1994, has been active in passing down South Sudanese culture to a generation in Khartoum displaced by war.

His projects rankled the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, which was then trying to instill Islamic and Arab identity throughout Sudan. The government accused Alfred of violating national culture.“We said no, we are actually doing something which is ours,” Alfred said. “This is our right as people living in this country and we should practice it.

We will invite all the Sudanese to come on board.”

Laced throughout Abuk’s script are cultural references to his home country, which provoked laughter and nods of recognition from the many South Sudanese in attendance on the final night of the play.

The play opens with a shrill yell, is punctuated by drums and tambourines, and ends with an exuberant South Sudanese dance.

Alfred said one of the most satisfying aspects of coming to London was performing for the South Sudanese expatriate community. Several told him they had tired of being portrayed as a poverty-stricken country where insects feed on neglected, hungry children. “They said, ‘Today you guys have made us very proud of ourselves, there are no more flies in our eyes,’” Alfred said. “This kind of expression will really give somebody courage that arts is a very powerful element.” -Reuters

O’Keeffe’s connection with the outdoors on display

FILE - Indian designer Manish Arora appears with a model at the end of his Fall/Winter 2012-2013 women’s ready-to-wear fashion show during Paris fashion week March 1, 2012. (Reuters)

Painter Kinkade died of drug and alcohol overdose: Report LOS ANGELES: “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade died of accidental acute intoxication from alcohol and an anti-anxiety medication, according to autopsy report made public on Monday by local NBC Bay Area TV. The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office reported Kinkade’s cause of death as “acute ethanol and Diazepam intoxication” and manner of death as “accident,” according to the NBC station. Diazepam is the active ingredient in Valium. A Santa Clara County Coroner’s investigator confirmed to Reuters that the autopsy report on Kinkade had been completed but said he could not release it after business hours.

Kinkade, the self-proclaimed “Painter of Light,”

whose works captivated millions of Americans despite the scorn of many art critics, died in April at his home in Northern California at the age of 54.

His brother told the San Jose Mercury News newspaper that the painter had battled alcoholism for several years and suffered a relapse before he died.

Patrick Kinkade said his brother had been burdened in recent years by a separation from his wife, financial troubles and the low opinion of his work by critics.

Thomas Kinkade was arrested for drunk driving in 2010, the same year his company filed for bankruptcy.

Art galleries reported a surge in sales of Kinkade’s paintings following his death. -Reuters

The Outsiders is being released as an e-book NEW YORK: Almost 45 years after “The Outsiders” was first published, S.E. Hinton is ready to take her classic young adult novel to the next level: an e-book.

The 61-year-old Hinton appeared Monday at a luncheon in her honor hosted by her publisher, Penguin Group (USA). She says, “I just figured you need to keep up with the times.”

The electronic edition is expected this spring.

Hinton has already been active online through her Twitter feed, (at)se4realhinton.

The Tulsa, Okla., resident exchanges tweets with Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez and other stars of the film version of “The Outsiders.” She says she also keeps up with “The Outsiders” fan fiction, enough so that she’s written some of her own, under a different name. -AP

ALBUQUERQUE: Georgia O’Keeffe could handle the inhospitable conditions of the American Southwest, with its intense sun and rugged terrain.

Her clothes tell part of the story jeans worn at the knees and sneakers scuffed. Her handwritten letters tell even more about the dust, the biting gnats, unpredictable rainstorms and the repeated struggles to get to some of New Mexico’s loneliest spots.

The items along with camping gear and snapshots taken by the artist’s friends during some of their outdoor adventures are part of a yearlong exhibition opening May 11 at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The show highlights the stretches of high desert she called “the faraway” and the landscape paintings they inspired.

“The unique environment of the Southwest was always a muse for her and it continued to offer her boundless inspiration until the end of her life. But how she did it and how difficult it was is something that we don’t really often talk about,” said Carolyn Kastner, the museum’s associate curator.

The museum’s curators have turned one gallery into a slice of northwestern New Mexico’s badlands with a panoramic photograph of the area that O’Keeffe called the Black Place, where clay hills are colored various shades of black and gray.

The tent O’Keeffe and friend Maria Chabot used during their 1944 camping trip at the Black Place is on display along with their lanterns and cooking equipment.

O’Keeffe described it as an “untouched lonely feeling place” that continually drew her back.

Barbara Buhler Lynes, the museum’s curator and director of the O’Keeffe Research Center, said the artist was able to develop a personal relationship with the Southwest through her camping and rafting trips. It was through those experiences O’Keeffe also realized her independent spirit and sense of adventure, Lynes said.

While the artwork on the gallery’s walls can be mistaken for none other than O’Keeffe, visitors can expect some surprises, Kastner said.

Among them are a couple of paintings, photographs and other documentation related to a 10-day raft trip O’Keeffe took down the Colorado River through Glen Canyon when she was 74. She made the trip more than once, knowing

FILE - This image provided by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum shows “Black Place, Grey and Pink,” 1949, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, gift of The Burnett Foundation.

(AP)

that it would never look the same once the dam was built and the canyons were flooded to form Lake Powell.

Without modern amenities like GPS or four-wheel drive, O’Keeffe would set off alone or sometimes with friends to find her inspiration. There are stories of her bumping along primitive roads and finding refuge from the harsh sunlight in the back of her 1920s Ford Sedan.

She would take out the driver’s seat and turn the passenger seat around. It was just enough room to set up a 30-by-40inch canvas.

“I think it shows this amazing personal will and it was as grand as the landscape she was painting,” Kastner said. “Just to do that was an amazing effort and then to do it again and again.”

In a June 3, 1944 letter, O’Keeffe talked about how rough conditions were at the Black Place. “We came home very dusty. It is a job to get brushed and shaken off,” she wrote.

The exhibition - “Georgia O’Keeffe and The Faraway: Nature and Image” was organized by the O’Keeffe Museum and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Texas. It opened there in 2009 and this marks its debut in Santa Fe. The show also coincides with a first-time opportunity for artists to paint, sketch and draw on the grounds of O’Keeffe’s adobe estate in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

Prompted by the suggestion of an

FILE - This 1944 image provided by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum shows artist Georgia O’Keeffe at the Black Place in northwestern New Mexico. (AP)

employee who is also an artist, museum officials decided to share views of the Chama River Valley from the vantage point O’Keeffe would have had from her driveway and garden. The one-day event is scheduled for May 14. The museum is also considering a second art session in the fall. -AP

ALWATAN DAILY

entertainment Song Of The Day

Fahad AlSabah Staff Writer

Song: So High (Cloud 9 Remix) (Feat. Lauryn Hill) Artist: John Legend Album: So High - Single Genre: Hip-Hop/Soul In short: John Legend’s “So High” is a strong number on its own, but Lauryn Hill’s guest verses take it to new heights; the synergy of their voices is undeniable and the harmonies are beautifully arranged.

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

The Buzz Lost star Matthew Fox arrested for DUI in Oregon Actor Matthew Fox, star of the television series “Lost,” has been charged with drunken driving in Oregon. Police in Bend say the 45-year-old who lives in the Central Oregon city was stopped early Friday after an officer noticed a motorist failing to signal properly or stay within a lane of traffic. During the stop, the officer decided Fox was driving under the influence and took him to the Deschutes County Jail. Fox was released Friday after he was booked into custody. He has a court appearance scheduled for June 17. The authorities would not release the police report or any additional information. Fox’s lawyer did not return a call seeking comment. -AP

Dustin Hoffman saved my life: London jogger A man who had a cardiac arrest while jogging in London’s Hyde Park says his life was saved with help from a famous passer-by - Dustin Hoffman. Sam Dempster said Tuesday that the actor waited with him after he collapsed on April 27 until paramedics arrived. On his recovery blog, 27-year-old Dempster thanked medical staff and “my newfound favorite celebrity Dustin Hoffman.” Dempster initially credited Hoffman with having summoned an ambulance, but the London Ambulance Service said someone else had made the emergency call. Martin Macarthur, one of the paramedics on the scene, said Hoffman described seeing Dempster collapse and froth at the mouth. “It is essential to get a history of what has happened, and he witnessed the jogger go down. He was the main witness and saw him stagger and go down,” Macarthur said. “He stayed on the scene for the whole duration of the resuscitation which was about 15 minutes. He was very concerned.” Macarthur said the 74-year-old actor told medics, “Great job, guys” after they resuscitated Dempster with a defibrillator. -AP

The Client List gets second season on Lifetime “The Client List” has apparently rubbed Lifetime the right way. The series, which stars former “Party of Five” star Jennifer Love Hewitt as an abandoned wife and mother who takes a job at a masseuse to pay the bills and discovers that the her place of employment offers illicit services, has been picked up for a second season, the network said Monday. The 15-episode season will premiere next year. The show, which emerged from a Lifetime movie that also starred Hewitt, has been a solid attraction for Lifetime since its April 8 premiere, drawing 2.8 million total viewers with its maiden episode. To date the series has averaged 2.7 million total viewers. In addition to the numbers, the series reflects the ambitions for lifetime as a whole, Lifetime Networks’ president and general manager Nancy Dubuc said while announcing the renewal. “’The Client List’ represents everything we want to be - fresh, exciting and original with attitude,” Dubuc said. -Reuters

Alex Trebek may retire from Jeopardy What is “two”? This is the number of years Alex Trebek may have left as the host of “Jeopardy,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. Trebek, 71, says he has been “thinking about retiring” after 28 years with the game show phenomenon. Trebek said he may spend his remaining years on charity work. He is active with the humanitarian group World Vision and has embarked on several USO. tour to support troops overseas.

“But I’m torn because I enjoy doing the show so much,” he told Wallace. “A lot of people have been telling me, ‘Alex, you’ve got to go for at least 30. You’ve just done 28. Now, at least do two more.’ So that has a nice ring to it. Put in your 30 and go help people.” One answer Trebek wouldn’t provide?

Whether “Jeopardy” dumbs down questions for celebrity contestants. -Reuters

NBC orders Murphy comedy, J.J. Abrams drama to series NBC network has picked up “The New Normal,” from “Glee” and “American Horror Story” boss Ryan Murphy, and “Revolution,” from “Lost” and “Fringe” executive producer J.J. Abrams for the 2012-2013 schedule, TVGuide has confirmed. “The New Normal” is a half-hour family comedy about a gay couple (“The Hangover’s” Justin Bartha and “The Book of Mormon’s” Andrew Rannells) and the cash-strapped single mother who becomes their surrogate (Georgia King).

Ellen Barkin is set to co-star in the series, co-written by Murphy and Ali Adler. “Revolution,” from Abrams, “Supernatural’s” Eric Kripke and Bryan Burk, is a high-octane action drama that follows a group of people struggling to survive and reunite with their loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.

wednesDAY, MAY 9, 2012

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Model, billionaire settle NYC child support fight NEW YORK: In the midst of a trial that brought tales of the high life and high fashion to family court, supermodel Linda Evangelista and a billionaire French businessman have reached an agreement to end their child support fight, their lawyers said Monday.

Evangelista, Francois-Henri Pinault and their attorneys were mum about the details, which they planned to give to a magistrate on Tuesday.

“Everybody is very glad that it’s over,” Pinault lawyer David Aronson said.

The settlement came in the midst of a trial over how much, if anything, Pinault should pay toward the care of their 5-yearold son. Pinault is the CEO of a company that owns Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and other top-flight fashion lines; he’s now married to actress Salma Hayek.

Both Pinault and Evangelista had testified at the trial, answering questions that delved into her career, his high-flying finances and his limited relationship with the boy. Evangelista had been due to continue testifying Monday.

The two sides negotiated all weekend and into Monday morning, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

In legal papers, Evangelista had said she was spending $46,000 a month on armed bodyguards, a 24-hour-a-day nanny and other expenses for the boy, Augustin, nicknamed Augie. He was born in 2006 after a four-month relationship; Pinault said he and

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2012, file photo, model Linda Evangelista attends amfAR’s New York gala benefit at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. (AP)

Evangelista spent only about seven days together in all.

Evangelista’s lawyer said she willingly paid all the child’s expenses at first, but she now needs some help. While Evange-

lista - who once quipped that supermodels “don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day” - testified that she still can command about $100,000 to walk a runway, attorney William Beslow said her roughly $1.8 million-a-

year income sank last year because a major contract with L’Oreal ended.

“Ms. Evangelista is not looking to piggyback the lifestyle of Mr. Pinault,” Beslow said in an opening statement last week. He said she wasn’t asking for any particular amount.

As part of the family behind luxurybrands conglomerate PPR, Pinault makes about $4 million a year, and Forbes estimates his family’s net worth at $13 billion.

He wears a $100,000 watch, dropped about $52,000 on a 12-day vacation to Bora Bora and bought himself about $62,000 in clothes in a single year, according to his testimony.

Pinault, who has a 4-year-old daughter with Hayek and two other children from a previous marriage, legally recognized Augie as his son in 2007. Pinault said Evangelista asked for what he considered an unreasonable amount of child support, he countered with another offer, and he didn’t get a response for years. She went to court in 2010.

“We are not going to claim that he cannot pay a fair and reasonable child support,” Aronson said in an opening statement. But $46,000 a month, he said, would be “just ridiculous.”

That would indeed be high, even for New York, though there have been some other big-money child support cases here. Rap impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs was ordered in 2005 to pay about $19,000 a month in support, and Revlon Inc. Chairman Ronald Perelman was ordered in 1999 to pay more than $12,000 a month. -AP

Murdoch’s Fox TV licenses seen surviving UK scandal: Analysis LONDON: Rupert Murdoch faces limited risk of losing News Corp’s broadcast permits in America, even amid screaming headlines in Britain that the media mogul is unfit to run a major company. The US Federal Communications Commission has the power to deny a license renewal if it finds the license is not being used by people of good “character” who will serve “the public interest.”

But former FCC officials and other experts say the agency has been loath to use that power in the past, and is highly unlikely to challenge News Corp’s 27 Fox US television licenses despite calls from a Washington-based ethics watchdog to do so. “As a result of Reagan-era deregulation and broadcasterfriendly legislation in 1996, it is very, very hard for the FCC to take away a license,” said communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman.

Last week, a British parliamentary report scolded News Corp’s British newspaper arm for misleading a five-year investigation into the hacking of the phones of politicians, murder victims, soldiers and celebrities, and said Murdoch was “not a fit person” to oversee a major international company.

The report dropped a heavy hint to British communications regulator Ofcom, which is investigating whether satellite TV provider BSkyB is a “fit and proper” broadcaster. News Corp has a 39 percent ownership stake in BSkyB. In the United States, the FCC can refuse to renew the license of a US TV station if it has evidence of misconduct involving that particular station. “The only other way a license can be lifted is by revocation, which is a years-long process in which the FCC has an extremely high burden of proof,” said Schwartzman, longtime policy director of the recently closed public interest law firm Media Access Project.

Murdoch and his $50 billion global media empire have

FILE - News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch listens to remarks at the Wall St. Journal CEO Council on “Rebuilding Global Prosperity” in Washington in a Nov. 16, 2009 file photo. (Reuters)

been mired in the explosive phone hacking and bribery scandal since last summer, when evidence emerged that the nowshuttered News of the World tabloid hacked into voicemails of a missing British schoolgirl. News Corp and its 81-year-old chief executive are the subject of multiple British inquiries.

The FBI last summer opened its own investigation into possible phone hacking or other illegal reporting activities in the United States. Private lawyers have pursued their own inquiry into whether News of the World hacked the phones of 9/11 victims.

To date, however, the FBI inquiry has found no evidence such practices were employed by journalists in the United States, a law enforcement source said. “My guess is what happened in London, stays in London,” said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. The FCC and News Corp declined to comment for this story. Murdoch is no stranger to tussles with the FCC. He battled the agency in the mid-1990s over whether his TV stations were actually foreign-owned.

The Australian-born Murdoch took US citizenship in 1985 to meet FCC rules requiring US broadcasters be controlled by US nationals. But the rules also stipulate that only 25 percent of a US TV station can be owned by foreign investors.

The official inquiry was led by Hundt, who was chairman of the FCC and who employed current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as counsel at the time.

“The FCC concluded that Fox had technically violated the foreign ownership rules but because they brought new competition to the entrenched big three networks - ABC, CBS, NBC - they weren’t going to take their licenses away,” said an industry source familiar with the matter.

The last time the FCC pulled a license was when it stripped RKO General of its licenses in 1987, a battle that took 20 years to play out. The FCC ruled that the broadcaster had shown a “lack of candor” in not disclosing details of a federal investigation into bribery and anticompetitive reciprocal trade practices committed by its parent company General Tire in the 1960s. -Reuters

2 women battle over Gary Coleman estate PROVO, Utah: Gary Coleman’s ex-wife wants a judge to award her the child TV star’s estate. Shannon Price testified Monday in 4th District Court that even though the two divorced in 2008, they kept living together and presented themselves to the public as married until his death May 28, 2010.

The “Diff’rent Strokes” actor was taken off life support after suffering a head injury in a fall at his home, according to a copy of his death certificate in court records. He was 42.

Another woman,Anna Gray, says Coleman named her a beneficiary and executor of his estate in 2005. Gray managed Coleman’s affairs for a number of years and was his ex-girlfriend.

The trial started Monday and was to continue Tuesday. Gray, representing herself, asked Price why she took her name off the deed to the couple’s house in Santaquin, Utah.

“It was y’all’s home and y’all made the payments, but you thought that Gary should be liable for it?” Gray asked.

Price, 26, said she had to take her name off the deed as a condition of divorce.

Price said she met Colemen on the Utah set of the movie “Church Ball” in 2005. A marriage license says they wed Aug. 28, 2007, at Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park. They divorced less than a year later under a sealed court order. It’s not clear how much Coleman’s estate is worth, but court papers mention a $324,000 house and a pension, among other possible assets. Price said they shared bank accounts, and her lawyers say Gary Coleman listed Price as his wife for Social Security benefits as late as 2010. Coleman’s parents, Willie and Edmonia Coleman, have asserted no claim on his estate, court papers say.

Price’s lawyer, Mitchell Maughan, said the case is more about future rights to Coleman’s name and brand than assets.

“He was not a zillionaire,” Maughan said.

Price said her relationship with Gary Coleman had ups and downs, but “we couldn’t be without each other” even after divorce.

Neighbor Audra Wright however, testified that the marriage was far from perfect, the couple’s house was a mess, and the two kept separate bedrooms. Wright said Price frequently complained about fights and financial problems. Once, Price asked, “’Did you ever see a black guy with a black eye?’” Wright testified. “She called Gary over and said ‘Show her your black eye.’” Instead of holding hands, Price would grab Coleman by the wrist and pull him along. “I think that made him look like a child,” Wright said. -AP

TV group urges America’s Got Talent ad boycott LOS ANGELES: A television watchdog group has urged advertisers to boycott hit TV show “America’s Got Talent”, saying the addition of shock jock Howard Stern to the panel of judges will “likely result in a sharp increase in explicit content.” A week before Stern makes his debut on the NBC show, the Parents Television Council (PTC) said on Monday it had written to 91 companies who have previously run commercials or sponsored “America’s Got Talent” asking them to place their ads elsewhere.

The PTC said Stern, a radio DJ with satellite broadcaster SiriusXM, has a reputation for “sleaze and misogyny” and a “decades-long penchant for profanity.” “The risk of associating your hard-earned corporate brand image with such ‘shock’ is not worth the cost involved - a cost not just in terms of wasted media dollars, but also in terms of countless millions of dollars in customer goodwill,” PTC president Tim Winter wrote in the letter.

“I assure you that every advertiser on ‘America’s Got Talent’ will be held publicly accountable for underwriting any of the inevitably vile antics of Howard Stern,” Winter added.

Stern has built a reputation over decades as a radio show host, currently airing on the Sirius XM satellite network, who often uses foul language and discusses sexual content. During

From left to right executive producer of ‘America’s Got Talent’ Jason Raff, TV Personalities Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel and Nick Cannon attend the NBCUniversal summer press day held on April 18, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (AFP)

his career, he has taken his show to TV, wrote a book and even produced a movie, “Private Parts,” loosely based on his life.

He was hired by “America’s Got Talent” creator Simon Cowell and is expected to drive millions of new viewers to the family-friendly show - the most popular summer TV program on US

television - when it returns to US airwaves on May 14. So far Stern has appeared in several promotional clips, displaying a generally compassionate attitude to contestants mixed with only a few sharp quips. NBC did not respond on Monday to calls for comment on the PTC letter. -Reuters

Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon win 2012 Polar Music Prize PARIS: Acclaimed Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and “world-class songwriter” Paul Simon, also of the United States, have won this year’s Polar Music prize, organizers said in Stockholm Tuesday. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and having grown up in the United States, “Yo-Yo Ma has dedicated his virtuosity and his heart to journeys of musical exploration and discovery around the world,” the jury said in its citation. “With a cello and curiosity in his wake, Yo-Yo Ma has ... united people from every continent,” it said, adding that the 56-yearold cellist was “living proof that music is communication, passion and the ability to share experience.”

As for 70-year-old Paul Simon, the jury insisted “nobody else is more deserving of the epithet of ‘world-class songwriter’.” “For five decades, Paul Simon has built bridges not only over troubled waters but over entire oceans by (re)joining the world’s continents with his music,” the jury said, referring to his smash hit “Bridge over Troubled Water” when he was part of a famous duo with Art Garfunkel in the 1960s. “With consummate skill, innovative arrangements and provocative lyrics that never fail to capture the currents of his age, Paul Simon has compiled a library of songs which will remain open to future generations,” the jury concluded.

The winners will receive one million kronor (112,400 Euros, $146,100) in prize money from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on August 28.

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig Anderson, the publisher, lyricist and manager of iconic Swedish pop group ABBA. The prize, which has been awarded since 1992 when it went to former Beatle Paul McCartney, has also been won by American jazz star Dizzy Gillespie, Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd and Italian composer and conductor Ennio Morricone. -AFP

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ALWATAN DAILY

AROUND TOWN / TIME OUT

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012

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

Feature o f

graffiti

the day

moderately confused

Call of Duty Tournament by Fasttelco proven to be a success

KUWAIT: FAST Telecommunication Company, the leading Telecom Service provider in Kuwait specialized in offering turnkey Internet, local and international data communication solutions as well as online gaming solutions, has organized an online Call of Duty N.W.3 Tournament, a shooter video game that simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The tournament, which is taking place on Fridays and Saturdays and featuring 64 teams, is considered to have the highest participation and appreciation among the online gaming community in Kuwait. The tournament timing has been especially chosen in order not to interfere with the players’ studies and make it more convenient for them to play and participate on their free time.

So far, the competition has been running smoothly and players are particularly excited to have enjoyed the thrill of this online tournament which will be offering the highest prize ever set for an online gaming tournament, a record award of approximately 10,000 US

Month a t

Sudoku

Elementary dollars.

One of the players that we met actually expressed his excitement about joining this thrilling experience: “As a competitor, I would definitely say that the Call of Duty tournament is a great success. The level of competition is getting higher with every round, and players are truly excited about winning the valuable prize of 10,000 US dollars. In one word, this tournament

Intermediate

Advanced

has it all: starting from the excellent organization, to the high level of competition, and ending up with the valuable prizes offered!”

At the end, Fasttelco would like to thank all participants for contributing in the success of this tournament, and takes the opportunity to invite all gaming fans to participate in the coming years tournaments as they will get more thrilling and intense.

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

a glance

Aim high May 10/ 7 p.m. - 9 p.m./ Jabriya: Toastmasters Club would like to take this opportunity to invite you to a showcase meeting which is a part of a membership campaign drive to be held on Thursday at the Jabriya Public Library. The goals of the membership drive are; to promote Aim High meetings, to attract new members and to encourage members to invite guests to the club. This is a great opportunity for members and guests to meet and network with a cross section of individuals in Kuwait with common interest of improving their communications and leadership skills. For information please call: Khaled Al-Hashem - President at 65588824 or Rhea Usman - VP Membership at 90024115.

Fayre trade Golden era club 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

Annual lecture May 9/ 7 p.m. / AWARE Center: As the 22nd anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait approaches, the AWARE Center cordially invites all interested western expatriates to its annual lecture entitled, “Kuwait before and after: a photographic document,” presented by Gustavo Ferrari - Journalist and photographer. For more information, call 25335260/80

Bread baking course April 19- May 10/ 6 p.m.-8 p.m. /TIES Center: TIES Ladies Club invites all ladies the unique course of preparing the ancient traditional food “The Bread Baking”. Baking of different kinds of breads will be demonstrated including Old English Toast, Italian Bread Stick, Strawberry Sweet Heart and many more. For more information please contact us on 97228860/2523015/6 or emailinfo@tiescenter.net.

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

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.

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

Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main 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.

International bazaar 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

Dilbert

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

Issues of love and romance will go well for you Aries, and you’ll find that regardless of where you are in your relationships, you’re right where you need to be. There’s also an element of fantasy at work today that’s making you susceptible to romantic dreams and ideas.

The good news is that you have the power to put these dreams in motion. Be with a loved one tonight.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

Things are coming to a difficult stalemate regarding the love in your life, Taurus. You’ve felt like everything was going fine and you had nothing to worry about. In reality, this notion of “fine” was just your self-denial making you think you could continue on your path without really considering how your actions affected others. Be prepared for a reality check soon.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

Love is very real to you. You’re apt to take it very seriously, perhaps even too seriously, Gemini. This is one of those emotions that eventually takes over your brain and leaves no room for rational thoughts on the topic. The good news is that matters regarding love and romance should be stabilizing at this time.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Matters of the heart are likely to get a bit sticky, Cancer. Perhaps you feel as if someone is shutting off from you and being very stubborn about it. Perhaps this person is giving you the cold shoulder and will refuse to acknowledge you until you crawl back with an apology. The problem is that your pride is stubborn, and your view on the matter is just as stubborn too.

Leo: July 23 - August 22

Your warm, loving, romantic nature is noticed whether you realize it or not, Leo. Sometimes you feel like there isn’t enough excitement in your life - especially your love life. Don’t think this means you need to change in order to please others. Your stable nature is comforting to those who understand and appreciate it. Stop pretending to be someone you simply aren’t.

Virgo: August 23 - September 22

When it comes to romance in your life, Virgo, there may be a great deal of talk but not enough action.

Perhaps you’re a terrific flirt who can keep things moving at a quick pace intellectually, but nothing really comes of it when you have to take concrete action and manifest those words in a romantic setting.

Libra: September 23 - October 22

Things are coming to a dramatic climax for you in matters of love and romance, Libra. You could be nurturing a relationship and put in a lot of passion and soul into building a strong connection. This is a time of reckoning in which you take a step back and see what you’ve gained from it all. Do you have a partner for life or someone who doesn’t appreciate you?

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21

For you, Scorpio, love is like an adventure, crazy sport, or some sort of video arcade game. Lately, you may have been caught up in the fantasy aspect of it without taking into account the practical nature and nitty-gritty of what it takes to keep a relationship afloat.

You might need to take a more realistic view of it now. Be more sensitive to all your emotions in love.

Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21

Love and romance should be going well for you now.

However, today you could find that things get a bit uneasy when either you or your partner suspects something is just not true or is suspicious about the situation at hand. Someone may get caught in a difficult predicament when the veil of deception is suddenly lifted and truth revealed.

Capricorn: December 22 - January 19

The notion of truth could get shot down today due to someone who knows you better than most, Capricorn. It won’t take a long, drawn-out conversation or deep explanation to reveal the fact that there is a bit of deception that has been covering the truth. Just don’t hide from loved ones who are trying to do what is best for you. Be honest with those who really care.

Aquarius: January 20 - February 18

Do what you can to stabilize your emotions, Aquarius. Romance should be on a slow, steady path as long as you’re honest with yourself and others about how you feel. You’re so caught up in your fantasy world that you fail to see things are actually moving in your favor. Conflict that arises today will be uncomfortable but will shed some light on the truth of the situation.

Pisces: February 19 - March 20

You need to slow down in matters of love and romance, Pisces. You’re acting on assumption that things are fine and you can continue moving at lightning speed even though you lost the road map.

It doesn’t take into account a core fact that there are areas where you need to be more sensitive to your partner and all his needs.

ALWATAN DAILY

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, may 9 , 2012

19

basketball

76ers top Bulls 89-82 for 3-1 series lead PHILADELPHIA: The Chicago Bulls have failed at winning one game without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Somehow, as they head back home, the top team in the East has to win three without the pair to avoid an ugly ending.

Spencer Hawes scored 22 points and Jrue Holiday had 20 to help the surprising Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls 89-82 on Sunday and take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

Game 5 is Tuesday in Chicago.

The top-seeded Bulls played without Rose (torn ACL) and Noah (sprained ankle). Rose is out for the season and Noah is day to day for the rest of the series.

In NBA postseason history, the eighth seed has won a first-round series against the No. 1 seed four times, including last season when Memphis eliminated San Antonio. Golden State (2007), New York (1999) and Denver (1994) also pulled off the rare feat.

The top-seeded Bulls suddenly fear elimination from a Sixers team one win away from joining the short list of eighth-seeded teams to win a series.

“I’m not worried about it,” Thibodeau said. “I’m just worried about the next game. We do have more than enough to win with.”

Andre Iguodala had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Sixers, who have won the last three games after losing Game 1. The Sixers won three straight playoff games for the first time since Allen Iverson fueled their run to the 2001 NBA finals.

Holiday was sensational down the stretch after a rocky first 3 1/2 quarters.

He missed his first five 3-point attempts until he nailed one to make it 77-73. He hit another the next time down for a seven-point lead to the delight of a roaring sellout crowd. They were easily his biggest shots on a 7-of-23 night.

The undermanned Bulls kept at it and refused to use playing without their two biggest impact players

as an excuse. C.J. Watson, who scored 17 points, hit a step-back jumper to make it a two-point game. In a whistle-happy contest, Holiday went to the line with 51 seconds left and made both for an 84-80 lead.

Carlos Boozer had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls. Taj Gibson chipped in 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Without a full roster, the Bulls barked at the refs, talked trash on the court and used every self-motivational tactic they knew to gain an edge on the Sixers.

Noah, injured in Game 3, took charge on the bench as head cheerleader. Wearing a protective walking boot, he clapped, cheered and offered instruction in the timeout huddle. Noah was needed more on the court than as a de facto assistant coach.

Boozer actively did his best to keep the Bulls in the game. He played through foul trouble to score 18 points through three quarters (matching his combined total for the first two games) and he fought for some of the tough rebounds Noah would grab.

The Sixers made 22 of 31 free throws to Chicago’s 11-for-14 effort. The Sixers only averaged 18.2 freethrow attempts this season.

Iguodala played through right Achilles’ tendinitis to make so many impact plays for the Sixers. He halted a Bulls run in the third with a 3 for a 57-56 lead.

Bad leg and all, he still soared for a thunderous dunk on the break in the first half for an eight-point lead. One of the worst fourth-quarter foul shooters in the NBA, Iguodala even made both with 26.6 seconds left.

Game 4 lacked the electric atmosphere early that accompanies a postseason game because the Broad Street Run was routed in front of the sports complex.

The Wells Fargo Center was barely half full by tip and the announced crowd of 20,142 needed time to warm up. By the time Holiday hit his 3s, the arena was going wild. The Sixers crashed the boards early without Noah in the lineup and had 15 second-chance points in the half to grab a 10-point lead. -AP

Elton Brand (42) of the Philadelphia 76ers dunks the ball over Carlos Boozer (5) and Loul Deng (9) of the Chicago Bulls in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarter-finals, May 1, 2012. (AFP)

Clippers edge Grizzlies in overtime to lead 3-1 LOS ANGELES: Blake Griffin scored a gamehigh 30 points to help the Los Angeles Clippers push the Memphis Grizzlies to the brink of elimination with a 101-97 overtime victory in their Western Conference quarter-final.

While forward Griffin also contributed seven assists, All-Star point guard Chris Paul weighed in with 27 points and nine rebounds as the Clippers

took a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Griffin stole a layup with a crucial offensive rebound to put the Clippers ahead 95-89 before fouling out and the ever-reliable Paul poured in four jump shots in overtime to ensure that the home team stayed narrowly in front.

Guard Mike Conley top-scored with 25 points for the Grizzlies, who twice led by a point early in

Blake Griffin (32) of the Los Angeles Clippers shoots over Marc Gasol (33) and Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies in Game Four of the Western Conference Quarter-finals, May 7, 2011.

(AFP)

the fourth quarter and piled on late pressure with an 11-1 run to tie the game at 85-85 with 35.5 seconds left. Paul put the Clippers ahead 87-85 with a darting drive and layup and Zach Randolph responded with two free throws to level the score at 87-87 before Paul failed to score on the last play of regulation. “The worst mistake I probably made in the game was not getting that shot at the end of regulation,” said Paul. “But you’ve got to get through it. I have team mates that have confidence in me. Everything that we do is a team win.”

The Grizzlies made a fast start to Game Four, racing 10-2 up after a Rudy Gay driving layup before the Clippers fought back to lead 32-26 after the first quarter. Helped by Griffin’s dazzling form, which included twisting drives and an alley-oop slam dunk off an assist by Mo Williams, the home team maintained control as they reached halftime 51-45 ahead. The sell-out crowd of 19,167 at Staples Center roared the Clippers on in the third quarter, chants of “MVP MVP” echoing in the rafters as five-time All-Star Paul poured in two free throws to put his team 62-55 up. However, the Grizzlies stayed close, trimming the deficit to 69-68 early in the fourth quarter with a put-back dunk by Gay, then going ahead with a free throw

by Gay followed by another by Hamed Haddadi.

The lead swiftly changed hands three times before a Nick Young three-point jump shot gave the Clippers welcome breathing room with a 77-72 advantage and just over six minutes remaining.

Two free throws from Griffin earned Los Angeles a 10-point cushion with just over four minutes left before the gritty Grizzlies delivered their late flourish to send the game into overtime. -AP

Spurs sweep Jazz out of first round of NBA playoffs

UTAH: The San Antonio Spurs swept the Utah Jazz out of the first round of the NBA playoffs Monday, holding on for an 87-81 win thanks to a balanced attack that saw five players score double figures.

Manu Ginobili scored a team-high 17 points and Tim Duncan had 11 points and five rebounds for the top-seeded Spurs, who went on a 20-2 scoring run in the second half to seize command of game four in their Western Conference series.

In Utah, France’s Tony Parker had 11 points for the Spurs, who won the series 4-0, while Gary Neal also had 11 and Tiago Splitter contributed 10.

For the Jazz, Al Jefferson tallied a game-high 26 points, Devin Harris had 19 and Derrick Favors finished with 16 points and 10 boards.

Utah is now 22-25 all-time in elimination games and still no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.

“It was a good experience, going out there, playing against the Spurs,” Favors said. “It was a challenge.”

San Antonio won 21 of their last 23 regular season games as they surpassed the Oklahoma City Thunder to become the West’s top seed. The Spurs shot 10of-22 from beyond the arc, while the Jazz failed on all 13 of their three-point attempts.

San Antonio went on a scoring run in the fourth and then had to hold on at the end as Utah mustered a spirited rally of their own. The Jazz got within four points at 83-79 with less than a minute remaining.

But Ginobili helped seal the victory with an uncontested lay-up in the last minute after Utah’s Paul Millsap bobbled a pass leading to a turnover.

Utah made the postseason as the eighth seed in the Western Conference.

They were one of the youngest teams in the playoffs with seven players under the age of 26. -AFP

Tennis

Wary Djokovic hoping to avoid injury on blue clay MADRID: Wary top seed Novak Djokovic said Monday he hoped that play this week on the untried blue clay laid down for the Madrid Masters will be injury-free as the controversial surface gets a test under battle conditions. The world number one also fired a shot across the bow of the ATP, which agreed to the one-year experiment without informing players, a coup quietly pushed through without executive oversight by former boss Adam Helfant, who left at the end of 2011. “The hope of all players is that we won’t have injuries and have a decent week of tennis,” said Djokovic, who skipped the ATP event in Belgrade last week after the death of his grandfather during the Monte Carlo Masters. Serb Djokovic played through his emotional pain and reached the Monte Carlo final, where he was crushed by Rafael Nadal. “The blue clay surface makes this year different,” said the 2011 Madrid champion. “It is the first time in history. It will be interesting for everyone to see what happens. There is a certain difference compared to red clay, but we have it (blue) in front of us. I tried to prepare for it as well as I could. But it’s the same for everyone.” Djokovic joined with Nadal in criticizing ATP executives who didn’t bother to consult with at least their top-shelf players.

“The only disappointing thing from a player standpoint is that it was decided without players agreeing to it,” said the Serb. “Players should be agreeing to the change - there should be some value in what they say.

“I’m not blaming the tournament, it is fighting for its own interests. But the ATP should have done a better job on player rights in protecting what the players want.” The proposal from larger-than-life billionaire Madrid impresario Ion Tiriac is on a one-year trial, with the event saying its purpose is to help spectators see the yellow ball more clearly on the blue surface. On court, women’s holder Petra Kvitova kick-started her title defence with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic. The thirdseeded Wimbledon champion, who defeated Victoria Azarenka in straight sets to lift the 2011 trophy, went through

into the second round in 67 minutes, firing five acres and producing 28 winners. Erakovic, the number 39 who has lifted her game in recent months with a Memphis final and semi-final showing last week on clay in Budapest, was broken five times. American Serena Williams, the former number one now seeded ninth, started out with a victory over Russian Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-1 which began at the early hour of 11 am. “I always hate the early starts,” said the 30-year-old Williams. The 30-year-old has picked

up her pace in recent months, reaching a Miami quarterfinal, winning the title in Charleston and travelling to the Ukraine for Fed Cup to ensure London Olympics eligibility. Elsewhere, Czech Andrea Hlavackova out Australian Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-4 while Lucie Hradecka beat China’s Peng Shuai 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. In men’s play, Russian Mikhail Youzhny defeated local wild card Javier Marti 6-3, 6-2 and Serb Viktor Troicki out American Donald Young 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. -AFP

FILE - Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Rafael Nadal of Spain during the final of the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters in Monaco, April 22, 2012. (Reuters)

Azarenka, Sharapova reach 3rd round at Madrid Open

MADRID: Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova beat Czech opponents to reach the third round of the Madrid Open on Tuesday. The women’’s top two overcame dips in concentration to put away mistake-prone opponents. Azarenka, the defending champion, held off Andrea Hlavackova’s challenge to win 6-3, 7-6 (2) after Sharapova beat Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-3. Azarenka has already won four titles this year, including the Australian Open, but showed less convincing form on the Magic Box’s blue clay.

The Belorussian’s backhand caught Hlavackova going the wrong way for a break point and 4-2 lead. She would save four break points in the ninth game before holding serve to take the opening set. Hlavackova saved five break points to hold her serve and lead 2-1 in the second set, but was broken after double-faulting to trail 3-2. Azarenka seemed to stutter toward the end as she double-faulted to be broken for Hlavackova to tie it up 5-5. Azarenka saved set point with a forehand smash and took it to the tiebreaker where she moved out to 5-1 before clinching it when Hlavackova, who had needed treatment on her left thigh late in the second set - hit long. Sharapova was more convincing in her secondround match, as Zakopalova’s erratic serve opened her up to Sharapova’s solid groundstrokes. Sharapova won the first of five breaks in the opening game and was in command after another break saw her lead 4-1. Zakopalova came forward to break back in the next game but could get no closer as the pair held serve before Sharapova clinched the set with one of four aces. Zakopalova was overpowered again on her opening serve but saved match point and broke back to get to 5-3 before her seventh double-fault clinched it for Sharapova.

In men’s play, Marin Cilic of Croatia and Federico Delbonis of Argentina won their first-round matches. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic makes his blue clay debut later Tuesday against Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain. -AP

wednesDAY, may 9, 2012

SPORTS

Sports Editors Highlight SPAIN: Barcelona’s Carles Puyol will have knee surgery and be sidelined for about six weeks, the club said Tuesday, ruling him out of the King’s Cup final and almost certainly Spain’s Euro 2012 campaign. The 34-year-old Barca captain will have knee arthroscopy, it said. In the surgery, a tiny camera is inserted into the knee through small incisions and damaged tissue can be repaired or removed. As a result, Puyol will miss the final of the domestic King’s Cup competition on May 25, when Barcelona face Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish capital’sVicente Calderon stadium. The recovery period makes it almost impossible for Puyol to take a spot in the Spain team for their Euro 2012 campaign in Poland and Ukraine. Spain coachVicente del Bosque will release a provision line-up May 15 and a definitive list May 27. (AFP)

Football

Spain chasing unique treble at Euro 2012

FILE - A picture taken on June 29, 2008 shows Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas (center) holding the Euro 2008 championships trophy, after Spain won the final football match against Germany. (AFP)

SPAIN: Spain will begin as hot favorites to complete an unprecedented treble next month when the European Championship ventures into new territory in Poland and Ukraine. Winners of Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, Spain will become the first footballing nation to complete a hat-trick of major championships if Vicente del Bosque’s side retain their crown.

No side has ever retained the European championship, underscoring the concentrated competitiveness of the 16-team tournament which many purists regard as superior in quality to the 32-team World Cup. However Spain retain the nucleus of a side which has carried all before them on their march to World and European titles, easing their way through their qualifying group with a 100 percent record.

Del Bosque has warned his side that they cannot afford to ease up, with the failure of both Real Madrid and Barcelona to reach this month’s Champions League final serving as a timely reminded against the perils of complacency. “It’s important that we are not thinking about the last Euro and the World Cup because it is important to have excitement for a new championship like the Euros,” he said. “We cannot allow ourselves to think that we are the best because if we do that would be the first step to failure.”

Spain kick off their campaign against old rivals Italy in the Polish city of Gdansk on June 10, and will be expected to qualify comfortably from a group which also contains Croatia and the Republic of Ireland.

Meanwhile Germany, the side viewed by many as the most potent threat to Spanish hopes of retaining the title, will get their championship under way on June 9, when they face Portugal in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Germany, beaten by Spain in the 2008 final before losing out again to del Bosque’s side in the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, face a demanding Group B, where their other opponents are the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal. However the strength of the German challenge

is reflected by their ability to call on several members of the Bayern Munich side due to face Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 19, notably goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, defender Philipp Lahm, midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and striker Mario Gomez.

With the likes of Real Madrid duo Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira also available, few would bet against a German side which was the only other side to qualify with a perfect record, notching 10 wins out of 10. Meanwhile the ability of co-hosts Poland and Ukraine to mount a credible challenge remains in question.

Poland, who face Greece, Russia and the Czech Republic in Group A, failed to make it to the 2010 World Cup and only qualified for their first Euros at the 2008 event, when they went out in the first round.

However an impressive 2-2 draw in a friendly with Germany last year, which showcased the striking ability of Robert Lewandowski, as well as the emergence of Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny will give the Poles hope that they can confound pre-tournament expectations and reach the next round.

Ukraine meanwhile will be the side that no-one wants to face in Group D, which includes 2000 champions France along with England and Sweden.

France have regrouped steadily since the trauma of the World Cup two years ago, when Les Bleus were dumped out in the first round after a campaign which featured an open player revolt and ultimately led to a government inquiry. The French demonstrated their steady progress under Laurent Blanc earlier this year with a 2-1 friendly win over Germany. France open their campaign in Donetsk on June 11 against an England side who will head into the tournament with expectations at an all-time low following a chaotic build-up marked by the abrupt exit of coach Fabio Capello in February. The protracted guessing game over the identity of Capello’s successor ended last week when Roy Hodgson was named to take over as England coach. -AFP

Blackburn relegated, no tears shed in India MUMBAI: As Blackburn Rovers supporters in Lancashire awoke on Tuesday struggling to cope with the club’s relegation from the Premier League, there was little sympathy to be found on the streets of India, the home of the club’s owners. In a country of 1.2 billion cricket fans, some 60 million Indians watched the English Premier League’s 2009/10 season, roughly the same as Britain’s entire population. Most of them, however, never really cared for the former Premier League champions and there was hardly any excitement around Indian poultry giant Venky’s 23 million pound takeover of Blackburn in November, 2010. The same aloofness greeted Blackburn’s relegation from the Premier League following their 1-0 home defeat to Wigan Athletic on Monday. Bhaswar Goswami, executive director of Celebrity Management Group, felt Venky’s never made a real effort to engage the fans either in England or in India. “I feel they did not have the proper marketing

strategy. There was no real effort to connect with the huge number of Indian soccer fans. They once came to play in Pune but it was not enough. “Even to the fans in Lancashire, they lacked a clear vision. They have to take the fans there in confidence. There is strong emotional attachment to the club and Venky’s need to honour that.

They have to tell the fans where the club is heading.”

Goswami, whose company organized a friendly between Argentina and Venezuela in Kolkata last year, believed Venky’s might still hang around Ewood Park despite facing Championship (second division) football next season. “Selling the club is the easiest way to get out of the trouble. But as an Indian business entity, I expect them to stick around. To leverage something from a club like Rovers, it has to be a long-term plan. They need to look at it differently. I still believe it can be a fantastic property if you have a concrete plan for the next five-six years,” he added. -Reuters

Montpellier win at Rennes to close on maiden title PARIS: Montpellier took a significant step towards their first ever Ligue 1 title by winning 2-0 at Rennes on Monday to restore their three-point lead over Paris Saint-Germain with two games to play.

PSG had gone top on goals scored by winning 4-3 at Valenciennes on Sunday, but Montpellier are now in pole position ahead of a home game with reigning champions Lille next weekend that could decide the destiny of the title.

“The president (Louis Nicollin) was on the bench, everyone was there, and we showed that we’ll take some catching,” said Montpellier coach Rene Girard, whose side require four points to be crowned champions.

“Before Evian, everyone said it was over and that we were too far in front, and we saw what happened. We’ll keep going.

We have a big match against Lille and we have to take the points. We’ll keep plugging away and prepare our match against Lille.” Rennes winger Jonathan Pitroipa hit the crossbar with an overhead kick after 13 minutes at Stade de la Route de Lorient but the visitors took the lead with their first attempt on target in the 26th minute.

John Boye’s attempted clearance was blocked by Remy Cabella and fell for Souleymane Camara, who smashed home from close range to partially atone for his unsuccessful injury-time penalty in last week’s 2-2 draw with Evian.

Montpellier’s second goal early in the second half owed much to fortune, with Cabella’s rasping low drive bouncing off the base of the post before rebounding into the net off prone Rennes goalkeeper Benoit Costil.

Despite the defeat, Rennes remain on course for a fifth-place finish although

Montpellier’s Henri Bedimo N’Same (left) fights for the ball with Rennes Jonathan Pitroipa during the French L1 football match Rennes against Montpellie, May 7, 2012. (AFP)

they now lead sixth-placed Saint-Etienne on goal difference alone.

Lille must beat Montpellier next weekend to stand any chance of retaining their title but they at least secured a Champions League place by comfortably winning 3-0 at home to Caen earlier on Monday.

Tulio de Melo opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 26th minute after Eden Hazard was felled by Caen goalkeeper Alexis Thebaux and the Brazilian striker doubled his tally 10 minutes later by rising to head home from a corner.

Auxerre sank to the foot of the table after crashing 4-2 at home to Bordeaux, who opened the scoring through Yoan

Gouffran after 13 seconds and were 3-0 up inside nine minutes thanks to a further goal from Gouffran and a Ludovic Sane header. The defeat left Auxerre two points from safety, while Sochaux leapt from the bottom of the table to 17th place after an 85th-minute Sebastien Roudet strike secured a potentially priceless 1-0 win at home to Nancy.

Dijon sit second-bottom, a point above Auxerre and level with third-bottom Brest, after they registered a goalless draw at Lorient.

Nice’s trip to Toulouse also ended goalless, while Saint-Etienne’s Europa League push was checked by a 0-0 stalemate at home to Marseille. -AFP

Time running out for Gerrard to deliver LONDON: With a quarter-back’s eye for the killer pass and a sniper’s instinct when in sight of goal, Steven Gerrard is respected as one of Europe’s most complete midfielder players.

The Liverpool skipper has nearly 100 caps for England, has worn the skipper’s armband with pride and scored some memorable goals. But as his 32nd birthday approaches, and another tournament looms, the one-club man knows lastchance saloon is approaching if he is to leave a lasting legacy for his country.

It will also be fascinating to see how he is used by new England manager Roy Hodgson after Hodgson endured an unhappy time as Liverpool’s manager during the first half of the 2010-11 season.

His buccaneering, box to box style has been rewarded with a cabinet load of silverware for Liverpool, including a prized Champions League winners’ medal and, while he has never won the English title, he could board the plane for the European Championships in Poland fresh from a domestic cup double.

Despite his reputation, and the high esteem with which he has been held by a succession of England managers, Gerrard has never quite produced his best in a national shirt. Injuries have been a factor, as when he missed the 2002 World Cup, but Gerrard has never quite reached the heights he achieves with Liverpool when he has three lions on his chest. There have been highlights, his first goal for England came in a famous 5-1 victory away to Germany in a World Cup qualifier in 2001, but not enough of them.

His haul of 19 international goals, very few of which have come against top teams, is a disappointing tally considering he scored consistently for Liverpool since his 1998 debut.

Gerrard is far from alone among Eng-

FILE - Steven Gerrard of Liverpool fires in a shot under pressure from Gary Caldwell of Wigan during the Barclays Premier League match between Liverpool and Wigan Athletic, March 24, 2012. (AFP)

land’s senior core in suffering international disappointment.

The so-called “Golden Generation” which included the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Frank Lampard have flopped at tournaments as instinctive club form is replaced by cumbersome straight-jacketed displays.

In some senses, Gerrard has paid for his versatility. Sometimes used as an attacking midfielder, occasionally a second striker and often out on the flanks, he has been the highest profile victim of various managers’ attempts to fit square pegs into round holes in an attempt to accommodate the so-called best players.

Gerrard has never been given consistent license to maraud forward, hence his impact at Euro 2000, where he made only one substitute appearance, and Euro

2004 were minimal.

He was England’s top scorer at the 2006 World Cup before his missed spotkick against Portugal contributed to yet another quarter-final exit on penalties.

Gerrard was captain at the forgettable 2010 World Cup where England performed poorly, but insisted afterwards he wanted to continue playing for his country. Many feel he should be given the armband for a final hoorah in Poland and Ukraine this summer.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, who some thing should have been leading to the team to the finals rather than Roy Hodgson, has stated that Gerrard is the natural leader of the team, but captain or not, England fans will look to the Liverpool man finally to take a tournament by storm. -AFP

Ibrahimovic taken aback by rare failure MILAN: AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has spoken of his disappointment after missing out on the feeling of winning a league title for the first time since 2003. Juventus claimed the Serie A crown on Sunday as they beat Cagliari 2-0 and Milan crashed 4-2 to Inter in their city derby. And not since failing to win the Eredivisie title with Ajax in 2003 has Ibrahimovic experienced a fruitless year.

“I’m not used to winning nothing, it’s the first time it’s happened to me,” he said, perhaps forgetting some of his earlier years in the game, when he won nothing with Swedish side Malmo. “I’m disappointed. It’s a failure.”

Technically, 2006 was the last time he failed to win the title as Juventus were stripped of their 2005 and 2006 scudetto crowns due to match-fixing.

However, at the time, Ibrahimovic experienced the thrill of winning as those two titles were only revoked later on. He feels Milan could have won the title this

year had it not been for their well-documented injury problems. “If we’d had a full squad, we’d have had a better chance of winning,” he said. “Juventus have had a fantastic season and I congratulate them but we gifted them the title a bit because it was in our hands.”

Milan had led by four points before a draw and a defeat handed the initiative to Juve, who never let it go.

As for his own future, Ibrahimovic refused to clarify rumors linking him with a move to Real Madrid. “I want to win and everything depends on what Milan want. I have no doubts about myself but I want to understand what the club wants to do,” he said. “There was a great Milan project. We’ll see if they take it forwards. I hope they do.” That could be taken as a warning to Milan that he may opt to leave if they cannot match his ambition. Despite winning winning three titles with Inter, two with Ajax and one each with Milan and Barcelona, Ibrahimovic has never won the Champions League. -AFP

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (11) of AC Milan looks dejected after the Serie A match between FC Internazionale Milano and AC Milan at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, May 6, 2012.

(AFP)