18 Feb

tennis

THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Established in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013 / RABEE’A AL-THANI 8, 1434 AH

NO. 14967

56 PAGES

150 FILS

Gunmen abduct seven foreigners in north Nigeria Guard killed

insight The Arab Times, continues its weekly series “Insight” which appears every Monday and takes a close look at Kuwait’s society, politics, science and technology. In today’s article, Yousef Aleneze (above), a bioinformatics Analyst, is proposing a research concept regarding finding a cure for HIV at Kuwait University Faculty of Medicine.

— Page 13

BAUCHI, Nigeria, Feb 17, (RTRS): Gunmen kidnapped seven foreigners and killed a security guard when they stormed the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in northern Nigeria’s Bauchi state early on Sunday, police said.

Those abducted were a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers, including two women, police and local government officials said.

This was the worst case of foreigners being kidnapped in the mostly-Muslim north of Africa’s most populous country since an insurgency by Islamist militants intensified nearly two years ago.

No one took responsibility for the raid but northern Nigeria is plagued by attacks and kidnappings by Islamist groups.

Al-Qaeda-aligned group Ansaru, which rose to prominence only in recent months, claimed the kidnap in

Other Voices

Britain and Kuwait: Economic, trading partnership

By Roger Gifford The Lord Mayor of the City of London

STRENGTHENING the longstanding friendship between Kuwait and the UK was one of my first jobs on becoming the 685th Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Last November, I had the honour of hosting a State Banquet for HH Amir of Kuwait at Guildhall during his visit to the UK. This came seventeen years after my predecessor, Lord Mayor Sir Christopher Walford, spoke of our “special relationship” when hosting HH Amir’s brother at the same venue in London.

The special relationship between our two countries

Bahrain firmer than ‘Zagros Mountains’

Roger Gifford

egation to Kuwait. Kuwait and Britain have many shared attributes. Both are relatively small countries that act as gateways to a wider region – Kuwait to the Gulf, London to Europe. Both also have dynamic private sectors, with an emphasis on financial expertise and are democracies.

We are natural partners and this is reflected in our flourishing

Continued on Page 45

Sponsorship still open question Panel has reservations on Public Authority bill

Continued on Page 45

Opinion

is stronger today than ever before. Ours is an economic and trading partnership that can trace its roots back to the eighteenth century, when we traded saffron and silks, satin and spices through Kuwait as a key trading post throughout a joint maritime history.

But even as we celebrate our shared past we must look forward to strengthen our strategic ties. From the City of London’s perspective, we view this relationship very much as one of sharing skills and experience to grow both financial sectors. Closer partnership will support the wider goals of economic diversification and sustainable growth.

That is why I am leading a senior City business del-

By Nihal Sharaf

Social Affairs and Labor on Sunday.

Arab Times Staff

Speaking to the Arab Times, the source said the “new authority will be responsible for bringing in and recruiting workers upon the request of private sector employers and it will give more rights to foreign workers and make their application for residency permit and transferable residency easier”.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: The formation of a Public Authority for Labor Force will not necessarily cancel the sponsorship rights of the employer, said a source at the Ministry of

“Even though the authority’s powers that are stipulated by the bill seem to lay the groundwork for sponsorship cancellation, it is not yet clear if the authority, once it is formed, will undertake sponsorship in its entirety from employers,” the source said.

Moreover, rapporteur of the Health and Social Affairs Continued on Page 45

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

THOSE who indulge in pressure tactics to change the essence of Bahrain are living in the world of delusion. Neither demonstrations nor chaos can force Manama to deviate from its course.

In fact, those who feed on the strength of foreign powers will only isolate themselves from the mainstream. This is the reality that was proven time and again in Bahrain not only over the past several months, but throughout its political history. We have seen how Iran has repeatedly failed in its conspiracies which were disguised in demands of local political groups.

This should be realized by those who think that with their violent acts they can subdue the territory. This is because, regardless of its small size, Bahrain cannot be swallowed or fall prey to those who for many decades have tried to make Bahrain their doormat to distort the history of all Gulf states.

Devils Great empires have been shattered and fallen apart at the gates of the Arabian Gulf but the region has withstood the test of time, neither shaken nor weakened by the devils of Tehran and their like.

It is up to those, who live on the strength of foreigners, to learn lessons of the past three years when they tried to convince the world with their side of the story – the story laced with distorted facts and fabrications.

The world not only refused to fall for their evil craftiness but several international organizations extolled measures adopted by the government in Manama – the constitutional reforms introduced under the watchful eyes of King Hamad Essa Al-Khalifa the outcome of which was democracy and a big leap in the field of human rights.

If the so-called opposition is really concerned about reforms and protecting Bahrain — its sovereignty and security — then this opposition must commit itself to a dialogue to share the burden and carry the country forward.

However, before anything else, it is important for them to realize that violence will isolate them not only in the region but on the world stage because their actions reflect their treachery.

For thousands of years Bahrain has been a minaret of civilization and because of its distinguished characteristics it was able to outdo all its adversaries and become stronger every day.

Therefore, the creepers who lean for support on evil and terrorism dare not think they can weaken or change the leadership that was chosen 250 years ago.

A rebel fighter looks for Syrian government forces through a hole in the wall of a flat in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of Aleppo on Feb 16. More than 300 people were

abducted by armed groups in northwestern Syria over two days in an unprecedented string of sectarian kidnappings, a watchdog and residents said. (AFP) — See Page 45

Dow deal in focus

Continued on Page 45 Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Shell dropped from grilling request

By Abubakar A. Ibrahim and Nihal Sharaf Arab Times Staff

▲ ▲

US$/KD 0.28220/30

■ ▼

Yen/KD 0.003

Euro/KD 0.3772

British £/KD 0.4381

▲ KS E +9.03 pts at closing, Feb 17 See Page 43

▲ Dow +8.37 pts at closing, Feb 15 ▼ Nasdaq -6.63 pts at closing, Feb 15 ▼ FTSE -0.90 pts at closing, Feb 15 ▼ Nikkei -133.45 pts at closing, Feb 15 ■ Gold $1,612.25 per oz (London) ▲ ▲

Newswatch

NYMEX crude $95.93 per barrel Brent crude $117.85 per barrel 3-month $ LIBOR rate 0.29%

DUBAI: Bahrain has arrested eight nationals in a militant cell with links to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, the interior minister of the US-allied Gulf Arab state said in remarks published on Sunday.

The official Bahrain News Agency reported the minister, Shaikh Rashed bin Abdullah al Khalifa, as saying the eight had received training in weapons and explosives and also obtained funding from outside Bahrain.

News of the arrests came after two people were killed on Thursday on the second anniversary of an uprising to demand democratic reforms and the unrest, the most violent in recent months, continued into Saturday. The government has accused opposition groups of being linked to Shiite power Iran.

Continued on Page 45

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: MP Saadoun Hamad Al-Otaibi said he and MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai will submit a five-point request Monday to grill Minister of Oil Hani Hussein.

He added the Shell contract issue has been dropped from the grilling request. He disclosed MPAbdullah Al-Tameemi will talk in support of the grilling during the debate.

He stressed the grilling is appropriate and the minister deserves to be grilled because it is unacceptable to remain silent on the violations which have been committed by the minister. It is time to hold him accountable for his actions and remove him from the post.”

The interpellation is based on Kuwait’s deal with the Dow Chemical company, recent promotions at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries, the partnership between Kuwait Petroleum

Tehran will never ‘shut down’ plant DUBAI, Feb 17, (Agencies): Iran will never shut down its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, a senior legislator was quoted as saying on Sunday, brushing off a demand from world powers who fear Tehran is working to develop an atomic weapons capability.

The Islamic republic, which insists its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, started building the plant inside a mountain in secret as early as 2006, to protect it from air strikes.

Last week, Reuters reported Continued on Page 45

International (KPI) and Israeli fuel company Derek Group and foreign oil refineries.

Al-Fuzai has expressed his support for the grilling request. He also affirmed that he will file a grilling request against Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali on the issue of writing off interests on the consumer loans of citizens.

Continued on Page 45

French firm blamed in horsemeat scandal

Iraqis inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad’s impoverished district of Sadr City on Feb 17. A series of bombings mainly targeting Shiite areas of Baghdad killed at least 21 people, officials said, in the latest violence to hit Iraq as it struggles with protests and a political crisis. (AFP) See Page 45

PARIS/LONDON, Feb 17, (Agencies): France said on Sunday managers at French firm Spanghero were responsible for passing off horsemeat as beef, while Britain said it would investigate claims that warnings about horsemeat entering the food chain were raised in 2011 but ignored.

Revelations that some beef dishes actually contained horsemeat has caused a scandal across Europe, leading to products being removed from sale and police investigations.

It has also cast a spotlight on food labelling and the complex supply chain across the EU trading bloc, damaging Europeans’ confidence in the food Continued on Page 45

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LOCAL

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KD 5.4b allotted for 2013/14 development strategy: Shimali Finmin opens confab on role of private sector KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (KUNA): The Ministry of Finance has recently formed six teams to examine and conform ventures of the fourth development plan (2013-2014) with projects included in budgets of government departments, Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali announced on Sunday.

Al-Shimali, in an inaugural statement of the conference themed “role of the private sector in development and infrastructural projects of 2013,” revealed that more than KD 5.4 billion had been earmarked for execution of the development strategy (2013-2014). This covers forecast costs of various aspects and sections of the plan, namely concerning infrastructure.

Action is underway for improving the regulatory status of financial investments in the country, “preparing an adequate administrative and legal environment for the private sector and upgrading the infrastructure, such as hiking electrical energy output and increasing productivity of water desalination plants to meet mounting demand,” AlShimali declared.

Indicating that the private sector is being given the chance to take part in projects for upgrading Kuwait’s land, maritime, air transport networks, energy, health and education services, Al-Shimali affirmed that the national development strategy is devised to transform Kuwait into a lucrative financial hub, with an environment of free competition, equal opportunities, and mounting output.

legal clinic PRO BONO LEGAL ADVICE

3-month notice I have been working in an engineering consulting company for the last seven years. After March 2013, my company wants to terminate our jobs. My job is on a construction site. Last year, in April 2012, the company gave us a three-month notice as per the Kuwait Labor Law. But till date the project has not been completed and they asked me to continue, verbally. Our salaries are being transferred to our account regularly.

They want us to leave after March 2013 without giving us another notice. For them the previous notice given in April 2012 is enough. Are they right or should they give us another notice?

Name withheld Answer: The company is not right. The three-month notice given last year became invalid as soon as the company asked you to ignore it and continue with your services.

Unless, the company renewed your services specifically for a certain fixed period it has to give you another 3month notice. Companies can’t just say they gave you such a notice one, two or three years ago and that it stands. It has to be given three months before your services are terminated.

If it wishes to continue with the same contract and on the same terms, it has to give you another notice at a certain period in time or write up another contract (with the consent of both the parties) on the expiry of the first one.

Rent I have been staying in a studio flat in Abbasiya for the past three years (Since Jan 1, 2010) and possess the original contract as well as the rent bill presented to me every month.

In July 2012, the rent of almost 30 family studio flats was increased by 5 dinars and at the same time our landlord said that besides the increase in the rent everyone had to give the harris another 5 dinars for picking up the waste daily. From 75 dinars, original rent, we have been giving 85 dinars until February 2013.

Now the landlord has ordered us to pay another 5 dinars from March 2013 so the rent will become 85 dinars plus the 5 dinars we have to pay the harris. We, the tenants have the following questions.

1. Where can we challenge this issue. Where is the Rents Court. Where should we deposit the rent from next month if we go to court?

2. If we file a case, can the landlord order us to vacate the premises or by force (with the harris) remove us from our rooms?

3. If we file a case, do we need a lawyer to fight the case in court?

4. Can the landlord cut our electricity and water supply without our permission to force us to vacate the premises?

5. How long will it take to get the issue settled and will the verdict favor us on the rent issue or the landlord?

Names withheld

Develop

Photos by Mishaal Nayef

Above: some photos from the Scout Camp

Al-Kandari opens 66th Scout Camp Assistant Undersecretary for Public Education Affairs Mohammad Al-Kandari opened the 66th Scout Camp in Kabad for public school students under the auspices of Education and Higher Education Minister Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf. The camp is aimed at instilling the values of patriotism and allegiance to the nation in the hearts and minds of the participating scouts from different public schools.

Chief Commander of the camp Abdullatif Al-Mukaimi explained the

event gives the students an opportunity to spend their leisure time to develop their personalities in a holistic manner as it includes activities for improving mental and physical skills, in addition to social and spiritual development. Due to the success of the camp in previous years, it was opened to students from other GCC countries this year, so they can interact and exchange experiences with their counterparts in Kuwait.

‘Harsher penalties needed on price manipulators’

Co-ops eye direct import activities KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Member of Bayan Cooperative Society Board of Directors Nabil Yousuf Al-Kandari has asked the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor to lift restrictions on the cooperative societies to allow them to engage in direct import activities in order to compete with suppliers for the consumers to purchase goods at lower prices, reports Al-Anba daily.

In a recent press statement, Al-Kandari called for harsher penalties on those who manipulate prices to earn higher profits. He stressed the need for experts to coordinate their efforts in combating illegal price hikes, while wondering about the absence of government control on prices in the local market.

Claiming that some cooperative societies do not respect the decisions and regulations specified by the Cooperative Societies Union, Al-Kandari urged the cooperatives to boycott the products whose prices have been raised without any valid reason. He also appealed to the traders to help the cooperative societies address the unreasonable price hike issue.

He asked the consumers to refer their complaints or sug-

News in Brief Educational issues discussed: Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf recently discussed a number of issues concerning the educational sector with the general technical supervisors for all subjects, reports Al-Watan daily quoting sources.

Sources revealed the technical supervisors are expected to submit their reports to the minister in their next meeting. Sources said the minister has instructed the technical supervisors to look into important issues, including the unified educational system and its loopholes; ways to stop private tutorial sessions; methods for teaching Science, Math and English; and changing the school hours as one of the solutions to the worsening traffic problem in Kuwait. ❑ ❑ ❑ Workshop on Information Management: Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in conjunction with the Faculty of Engineering and Petroleum in Kuwait University, will host a workshop on “Information Management” by Consultant of Technology Transfer from World Bank Professor Alam Al-Noor.

The workshop is scheduled to take place at floor 11 of the Chamber of Commerce building on Feb 19 to discuss knowledge and economy based on understanding the essence of information management in collating and preserving data through different channels.

gestions to the board of directors of cooperative soci-

eties, so they can find appropriate and lasting solutions.

Asserting that he was hoping that the private sector, namely the banks, would take part in funding some of the key ventures to develop and modernize Kuwait further, the minister affirmed the government’s sincere desire to let the private sector have stakes in such ventures, noting formation of a technical apparatus for BOT and BBB projects.

Toufiq Al-Jarrah, Chairman of the Real-Estate Union, affirmed that the conference was aimed at promoting awareness on necessity of development and infrastructural ventures, with emphasis on the role of the private and public sectors, as well as promoting Kuwait as a major regional market for investments.

Guidelines of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah constitute the main blueprint for efforts at placing Kuwait on the map of economic development, on par with other regional countries. “Perhaps, one of the major steps that should be taken by the government currently is hiking capital expenditure,” he opined.

Elaborating on other needed moves, he noted necessity of allocating more land plots for investment and aiding stumbling companies, still suffering from ripples of the global financial crisis.

The government has expressed serious desire to coordinate between the public and private sectors to boost development, “however, some relevant laws must be amended to aid such an approach,” he cautioned.

Budgets Meanwhile, economic experts spoke about slackness in the execution of projects whose budgets were approved in 2010.

“The state bodies have to accelerate the execution of the development plan to achieve its objectives,” former Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdulwahab Al-Haroun stressed.

He added that the state executive bodies shoulder the responsibility of putting these multi-billion Kuwaiti dinars plan into effect.

“So these bodies have to employee professional cadres and experts to forge ahead with the plan projects without more loss of time,” Al-Haroun said.

He noted that accelerating the development projects would help restore people confidence and will encourage private sector and foreign investors to pour in more capitals in the Kuwaiti market.

For his part, Director of the technical committee for studying development projects Adel AlRumi said the committee has completed studying of several new ambitious development projects.

He underscored the need for significant contribution from the private sector in the development projects in Kuwait.

“The committee will do it best to overcome any bureaucratic obstacles facing the investment in development projects in a short time,” Al-Rumi said.

Answer: First of all, you all were wrong to accept to first increase without the change in contract. But as you accepted the increase, it means you gave your consent.

But now, you can refuse to accept another increase and take the case to court because no rent can be increased without the consent of both the parties or it is imposed as a result of an arbitration of the Rents Court or after five years from the signing of the first contract.

Now you can challenge this rent increase at the Rents Court in Hawalli, opposite the Qadsiya Sports Stadium.

This is also the place where you will have to deposit the rent by the 20th of every month until the case is settled.

Failure to deposit the rent by this date can result in you being officially evicted from the apartment through an order by the court.

You don’t need a lawyer to fight the case because the court will designate an expert to look into the issue. This expert will give his report, after studying your contracts and also whether the increase is justified considering the rents of similar apartments in the area. His report will recommend a solution to the problem, including an increase or status quo in the situation. It is then up to the court to accept or reject the expert’s recommendation but normally it accepts it.

If you file this case, the landlord can’t order you to leave the apartment until there is a court verdict and issue is settled. You also can’t be forcibly removed from the room and if the landlord tries to do so you can file a case with the police but please remember to keep the rents deposit slip — the one from the court — to show to the police. The police can take action against the landlord and the harris if force is used against you.

The power or the water supply can also not be cut and again in such a situation you can go to the police if this action is taken. If the landlord resorts to such an action, legal action can be taken against him, both by the police and the court.

The issue is settled very quickly and normally doesn’t take over a few months, and sometimes it is even quicker than that but we can’t say in whose favor the verdict will go although the law is on your side because once a rental contract is signed the rent can’t be increased before five years. The court has to look at a lot of things including the fact whether the rent of similar apartments is less or more. It could accept the whole rent increase or a part of it or reject it altogether.

Salary calculations (Same answer for the two questions below) I have been working in the private sector since June 1991 and have gone, many times, on vacation commencing Feb 27.

Before the New Labor Law came into effect, the February salary was divided by 28 or 29 days and leave salary by 26 days. After the New Labor Law, the February salary was divided by 24 days and last year by 25 days because of the leap year with Fridays excluded from the calculation. The leave salary continued to be divided by 26 days.

This year the company says new instructions have been issued by the Labor Department and every month’s salary, including February, must be divided by 26 days and Fridays must be excluded from the calculations. Does this mean that Kuwait now has 30 days in February.

What about January, July, and December 2013. Will I now be paid an extra day’s salary?

Name withheld ❑

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I have been working for a private company in Kuwait since 1992 and earn a monthly wage of KD 650. I will be on vacation from Sunday, Feb 17, 2013, for 5 days and shall resume work on Sunday, Feb 24, 2013, because Friday and Saturday are weekly holidays.

Working hours are 8 am to 5 pm.

The company says they are calculating my dues as per latest instructions received from the Department detailing the method of wage calculation for the private sector.

Daily wage: Salary divided by 26 days i.e. 650 ÷ 26 = KD 25 per day.

Feb 1-16 (13 days) 13 x 25 = KD 325.000 Feb 17-21 (5 days) vacation 5 x 25 = KD 125.000 Feb 24-28 (5 days) 5 x 25 = KD 125.000 Total KD 575.000

The four Fridays have been deducted from the calculation plus Saturday, Feb 23, 2013 which company says will be deducted because I will not be working the preceding week.

Last February 2012, I had taken leave and the company divided my monthly salary / leave salary by 25 days as February 2012 had 29 days with 4 weekends.

This year, it seems, February has 30 days?

Name withheld Answer: As the above two questions are on the same issue, we will give one answer to them.

First of all you must remember that only one day is to be counted as the weekend off and not two days regardless of the fact that you are getting two off days because legally, under the law, you are entitled to one day off per week and the second day has been given to you by the company after it divided the 6th day’s hours over the five days. This doesn’t mean it is your right.

Secondly, yes all the months must be considered 26 working days and the salary must be divided by 26 regardless of the length of the month. But this is only for the purpose of the leave salary and not the regular monthly salary.

For the regular monthly salary, it should be divided by the actual number of days of the month because now, unlike in the previous law, the weekly offs are now considered paid off days. Previously, these were considered as unpaid weekly off days.

It is surprising that people are complaining for the month of February and yet quietly accept the 26 working days calculation for the months of 31 days when on most occasions there are 27 working days in those months.

All said and done, the calculations in the second question are wrong. As this year February is of 28 days the daily salary must be calculated after dividing the month’s salary by 28 and the leave salary after dividing the month’s salary by 26.

But you must be paid for working on Saturday, Feb 23, because the company is closed on that day and you will be compensating for it by working the extra time over the rest of the five days.

If the company doesn’t want to pay you for Feb 23, then it can’t make you work the extra time you will be putting in to compensate for the second weekly off day.

And no, you won’t be paid an extra day’s salary for the months with 31 days. If this was the case then the company should be allowed to deduct your salary in February because it is only 28 days for three years and 29 days in the leap year.

Residence transfer I am currently on an Article 22 Visa and have started working for a Private Civil Construction Contractor Company. The project on which I am working is a Governmental Project.

If I transfer my residence to Article 18, will my visa be considered in the private category or will it be a governmental project based visa. If private then can I transfer to another sponsor after 1 year while in the other case will it be 3 years or 5 years. Can you please give your opinion?

Name withheld Answer: If your company is working on a government project, then it is natural that all the visas being provided by the company will be government project visas and in such a case you will not be allowed to transfer to anywhere in the private sector after one year.

You will have to wait for the completion of the project or five years, whichever comes earlier, or three years if you are a university graduate. Local transfers — in such cases — are only allowed if you join a private sector company which has not put you on any government project visa although in both cases the visas are Article 18.

Termination My friend has been working for a private sector company for the last four years and now his company has given him a 3-month termination notice. How many months will the company give him to search for a job?

What about his benefits?

Name withheld Answer: Normally companies give about a month after the cancellation of the residence for you to get a new residence but some companies give more than that.

It varies from company to company. It all depends on a particular firm.

But you should remember something else which is very important as far as your rights are concerned — the company, if it terminates you (but not when you resign) is legally bound to give you one day — or an equal number of hours — every week to look for a job during the notice period.

You can divide the eight hours for the day over several days if you so desire but you have to inform your company one day in advance before you avail this facility so that the company can make arrangements to replace you during your absence.

The company — if it issues the termination notice — can’t stop you from availing this facility provided in the Kuwait Labor Law enacted on Feb 20, 2010. If it does not give you this day off to look for a job, you can file a complaint with the Labor Dept in your area.

As far as your indemnity is concerned, you will get your full indemnity as you are being terminated and this will be calculated as follows: 15 days pay for each of the four years that you have worked for this company = 60 days but these days will be divided by 26 = 2.3 months salary and not two months as some companies do. So please ensure that this is how the calculations are done.

Residencies This is about Pakistani expatriates who are already in Kuwait as they entered the country over two to three years ago on family visas but due to the ban imposed on Pakistanis have not been able to get their residencies till now. What is the news for them? Can they get their residency after paying fines or not?

Name withheld Answer: According to information available with us, orders to stamp the residencies of such persons, who were in Kuwait before the ban was imposed, was given by the minister of interior over a year ago but you must not have approached the Immigration Dept or there must be some other reason for the residency of your family not to have been stamped.

Go to the Immigration Dept in your area and try again and if the residence is again not stamped approach the office of Director General of Immigration located in Dajeej, Farwaniya. We are sure that all such cases were given residence. ❑

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The Arab Times invites questions on all aspects of Kuwaiti law. If you face a problem, or need specific advice on any legal matter, from commercial and investment law to divorce and labour, send questions to the Managing Editor, Arab Times, P.O. Box 2270, 13023 Safat, Kuwait, or Fax to 24818267. E-mail: arabtimes@arabtimesonline.com

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LOCAL

3

Project for integrated health care to cost KD 3.390 mln

Haifi lays foundation stone for new Al-Razi Hospital building KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (KUNA): The new building in Al-Razi Hospital, which is expected to be completed within 18 months, is designed to improve the performance of the health system and keep up with the latest developments according to a scientific vision and future needs for health programs, said Health Minister, Dr Mohammad Barrak Al-Haifi.

During Al-Haifi’s speech at the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new building on Sunday, he said

that the project is considered a model for dozens of construction projects within the work of the ministry, in accordance with the work of the government and the state’s development plan, which aims at providing integrated health care.

The project was designed according to the latest international standards that commensurate with the population growth and expectations for the future health care needs in orthopedic diseases and surgery as the need for specialization has

increased due to demographic changes and the effects of modern civilization on health, he said.

The most prominent effects are traffic accidents and the resulting injuries, disabilities and diseases of the joints and the musculoskeletal system, resulting from advanced age and proliferation of physical activity due to modern lifestyle, he added.

The project includes 32 specialized outer clinics, in addition to radiology, laboratory, medical records and a pharmacy, leading to providing the best

medical care, said Al-Haifi.

He stated that the project will cost KD 3.390 million as it is integrated with the new Al-Razi project whose cornerstone was laid a few weeks ago and will cost more than KD 31 million, and is estimated to be completed in 730 days.

The ministry is keen on the continuous development of the medical performance through several ways such organizing conferences, workshops and training courses.

For his part, Director of Al-Sabah

Health Zone Dr. Adel Al-Asfour said in his speech that Al-Razi Hospital will benefit from the new expansion, because specialist and outer clinics will be transported in an integrated manner to the new building.

Sending patients abroad does not depend on the presence of a large number of hospitals in Kuwait, Al-Haifi said, noting that the treatment outside Kuwait is intended for severe conditions.

The required procedures to stop the spread of SARS, Swine Flu and Avian

Flu are known, and “we have taken precautionary measures to stop the spread of SARS,” said the Health Minister Mohammad Barrak Al-Haifi regarding the warnings of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the worldwide outbreak of SARS. The ministry will try to reach agreements to bring doctors from Germany for the treatment of patients inside the country, Al-Haifi concluded, adding that there will be agreements as well with Britain for health insurance of Kuwaiti students in the UK.

Journalist award winners hail PM’s initiative, panel’s efforts Govt keen to support youth: premier

KUNA photo

Sheikh Nawaf meets Lord Mayor of London at the Seif Palace.

Deputy Amir receives Lord Mayor of London His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received on Sunday at Al-Seif Palace the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Roger Gifford, and his accompanying delegation.

The meeting was attended by Mubarak Al-Kabir Governor Sheikh Ali Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, and His Highness the Crown Prince Diwan’s Undersecretary for Protocol Affairs Sheikh Mubarak Sabah AlSalem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah. (KUNA)

Envoy of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, handed a letter Sunday, from His Highness the Amir to the

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The letter tackles bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in various fields, in addition to latest developments in the regional and international arenas. (KUNA)

KUNA photo

Kuwait Today Prayer Timings Fajr ............................................... 05:05 am Sunrise ................................................ 06:25 Zohr ..................................................... 12:02 Asr ..................................................03:14 pm Maghrib .............................................. 05:39 Isha ..................................................... 06:57

Civil ID info: 1889988 Site for checking travel ban www.kuwaitcourts.gov.kw/mojweb/NGeneral/Main.jsp

deaths

Weather Expected weather for the next 24 hours:

By Night: Cool with light to moderate north westerly wind, with speed of 12-35 km/h and some scattered clouds will appear.

By Day: Sunny with light to moderate north westerly wind, with speed of 12-35 km/h and some scattered clouds will appear.

Station Max Min Rec Exp Kuwait City 23 14 Kuwait Airport 23 12 Nuwaiseeb 22 13 Wafra 23 12 Salmi 20 09 Abdaly 24 09 Jalaliyah 22 09 Failaka 22 13 Ahmadi Port 21 14 Qaruh Island 19 16 Umm Al-Maradem 19 16

4-days forecast - Weather Monday, Feb 18 Expected weather........sunny + scattered clouds Max Temp ..........................................24C Min Temp ...........................................12C Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................12-35 km/h Tuesday, Feb 19 Expected weather ..unstable + rising dust Max Temp ..........................................25C Min Temp ...........................................13C Wind Direction .................................N-NE Wind Speed............................08-28 km/h Wednesday, Feb 20 Expected weather ...........................sunny Max Temp ..........................................24C Min Temp ...........................................14C Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................15-35 km/h Thursday, Feb 21 Expected weather ...........................sunny Max Temp ..........................................23C Min Temp ...........................................13C Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................15-40 km/h

Marine Forecast Station

South Dolphin Ahmadi L/V Beacon M28 Beacon N6 Qaruh Island Umm Al-Maradem Sea island Buoy Salmiyah

Max Min Sea Exp Rec Surf

20 17 19 21 20 20 19 21

14 08 14 12 16 16 15 14

16 17 18 17 -

Today’s Waves Ht Direction

5ft 5ft 5ft 5ft 5ft 5ft 5ft 5ft

4-days forecast - Marine

SE SE SE SE SE SE SE SE

Fatooh Mansour Mohammad Al Khanfar, wife of Basem Hamad Fahad Al Reghaib, 54 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences: (Men) Dahiyat Abdullah Al Salem, block 2, Humoud Yousef Al Nesef St. house 33 Tel. 99778137-99047866 (Women) Dahiyat Abdullah Al Salem, block 1, Sana St. avenue Ahmad Al Hindi, house 14 Tel. 22519160. Qaeaid Faisal Thawi Al Utaibi, 76 years old, buried on Sunday Condolences: Riqqa, block 7, St. 12, house 122 Tel. 6665522166237986 Fatima Abdullah Mohammad Al Tewaim, 2 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences: (Men) Mishref, Diwan late Nasser Al Jehail, block 5, St. 2, house 43 Tel. 99928822 (Women) Qosour, block 3, St. 4, house 11. Daraj Saad Al Sheraian, 72 years old, buried on Sunday.

Condolences: (Men) Adan Diwan Al Sheraian, block 8, the St. OPP. to Sabah Al Salem Tel. 99443311 (Women) Bayan, block 9, St. 1, avenue 11, house 59 Tel. 96978882.

Abdullah Mohammad Ahmad Al Kandari, 65 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences : (Men) Shaab, Diwan Al Kanadra Tel. 50888881 (Women) Qortuba, block 4, St. 5, avenue 1, house 18 Tel. 50888818. Mehref Krainees Ghreeb Al Belaihi Al Azemi, 80 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences: (Men) Qasser, block 1, St. 4, house 49 Tel. 66969695-55115585 (Women) Waha, block 2, St. 5, house 968 Tel. 55663332. Badriya Yaqoub Abdul Nabi Al Lughani, wife of Hasan Mohammad Hasan Al Mula, 61 years old to be buried on Monday at 09:00 a.m. Condolences: (Men) Salam, block 1, St. 103, house 14 Tel. 99143446-97766687 (Women) Salwa, block 7, St. 720, house 8 Tel. 97842383. Fatima Hamed Jasem Al Qombor, wife of Mohammad Abdullah Al Hamaad, 77 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences: (Men) Dasma, block 5, Emrea Al Qais St. house 8 Tel. 94966614 (Women) Shuhada, block 5, St. 2, house 4 Tel. 25231284.

Feb 17, 2013 Monday, Feb 18 Expected weather........sunny + scattered clouds Sea state .....................slight to moderate Wave height .....................................2-5 ft Max Temp ..........................................24C Min Temp ...........................................12C Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................12-35 km/h Tuesday, Feb 19 Expected weather ....sunny + high clouds Sea state .....................slight to moderate Wave height .....................................2-4 ft Max Temp ..........................................25C Min Temp ...........................................13C Wind Direction .................................N-NE Wind Speed............................08-28 km/h Wednesday, Feb 20 Expected weather ...........................sunny Sea state .....................slight to moderate Wave height .....................................2-5 ft Max Temp ..........................................24C Min Temp ...........................................14C Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................15-35 km/h Thursday, Feb 21 Expected weather ...........................sunny Sea state ...................................moderate Wave height .....................................3-5 ft Max Temp ..........................................23C Min Temp ...........................................13C

Wind Direction ....................................NW Wind Speed............................15-40 km/h

Tide times at Shuwaikh Port 1st high tide:....................................05:45 2nd high tide:...................................16:45 1st low tide: .....................................22:15 2nd low tide: ....................................11:00 Sunrise: ...........................................06:25 Sunset: ............................................17:39

Recorded yesterday at Kuwait Airport Max temp ...........................................29C Min temp ............................................14C Max Rh..............................................85% Min Rh...............................................10% Max Wind ................................W 50 km/h Total Rainfall in 24 hrs...................00 mm

Recorded yesterday at South Dolphin Min/Max/ Air Temp ........................16/22C Min/Max Rel Hum.........................40/74% Wind Direction/Wind Speed.....N/42 km/h Prev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht..........N/ 1 ft Min/Max Sea Surface Temp..........16/17C Sea Current..............................Downdraft — Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Meteorological Department

KUWAIT, Feb 17, (KUNA): A number of winners of Kuwait’s Sheikh Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah’s Journalism Award lauded here Sunday efforts exerted by the sponsor of the award, HH Premier Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AlSabah for encouraging Kuwaiti journalism.

They also hailed the organizing committee for their great efforts for developing and enriching Kuwaiti journalism.

Osama Jalal said he was so happy to win the prize in a distinguished competition, saying this initiative really supported and spurred Kuwaiti journalism, especially young journalists.

He thanked his family and colleagues for helping him work hard and win this prize, hoping that this significant competition would continue.

Muneera Al-Sultan, a winner of the category of young journalists, boasted of the award which she won for writing an important feature on car-renting in the Kuwaiti market.

The feature presented a comprehensive vision on the car-renting market and supply and demand mechanism, coming up with useful and interesting findings, she said.

She said the winning of this award granted her more self-confidence, something which would certainly have positive impacts on her career in the future.

Rashed Al-Fendi greatly appreciated the sponsor of the award, Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and the organizers of the event.

HH the Premier’s sponsorship of the award showed his keenness to encourage the press in general and journalistic creativity in particular, to award skilled journalists, he said.

Abduladheem Kadhem underlined the significance of the journalism award in the encouragement of journalists to develop their professional capabilities and skills.

The awarding of young journalists this year would surely stimulate and spur them to work hard, he pointed out.

Nawaf Al-Deqbasi said the award has greatly supported journalism in the State of Kuwait on the basis that participation creates some good competition among journalists.

Al-Deqbasi lauded unlimited backing by the Prime Minister to the local press, especially young journalists, and thanked the organizing committee of the prize.

Finally, Hammad Al-Muteiri said the prize stimulates competition among journalists and encourages them to develop their skills and capabilities.

He appreciated HH the Prime Minister’s pioneering efforts for helping the youth and giving them the opportunity to join the event.

Meanwhile, minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah affirmed Sunday the eagerness of Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber to support Kuwaiti youth through the establishment of a standing ministerial committee.

The advisory Committee tasked with developing strategic priorities for the youth and studying the mechanisms related to the priorities of young people will present a report soon, the Minister said on behalf of the Prime Minister at the Sheikh Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah’s Journalism award ceremony.

He added that the study will benefit Kuwait’s vision to care for the youth and encourage them to develop the future of the country.

Sheikh Salman praised the efforts of the national project entitled “Kuwait hears”, where the youth will present a report containing 10 priorities for youth in the first National Youth Conference to be held on March 13, under the auspices of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah.

The cooperation of the executive and legislative bodies in accordance with the constitution is the basis for prosperity and evolution of Kuwait, calling for remembering the achievements made in the service of the country.

He pointed out that the Kuwaiti media organizations have advanced and they are capable of providing a responsible media according to the laws.

Photos by Meshal Alokla

Top and above: some photos from the event.

Kuwaiti journalists honor Sheikh Maktoum

Fifth UAE-Kuwait Media Forum kicks off DUBAI, Feb 17, (KUNA): The Fifth UAE-Kuwait Media Forum kicked off here Sunday under the patronage of Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

“The press domain in the Arab Gulf region is peculiar in the special bonds linking its people,” Dubai Press Club Secretary General Muna Bu Samra said in the opening session, citing the relations between UAE-Kuwaiti journalists as a clear example of the strong ties.

The two-day event is organized by Dubai Press Club, the United Arab Emirates Journalists and Kuwait Journalists Association.

The opening ceremony was also attended by Kuwaiti Consul-General in Dubai Tariq Al-Hamad, Kuwaiti

MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai’a, Secretary General of Kuwait Journalists Association Faisal Al-Qenai, chief editors of several Kuwaiti newspapers and a large number of UAE and Gulf journalists and public figures.

Bu Samra welcomed the Kuwaiti delegation, wishing the success of the forum in expanding cooperation between journalists from the two countries.

For his part, Secretary General of Kuwait Journalists Association Faisal Al-Qenai lauded the cooperation between the Kuwaiti and UAE journalists and thanked Sheikh Maktoum for his sponsorship of the forum.

Al-Qenai also presented a memorial gift to Sheikh Maktoum who toured the exhibition held on the sidelines of the Forum.

The event includes a plethora of media-related activities including seminars, lectures, workshops and exhibition.

Among Kuwaiti participants in the Forum, the Information Ministry, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science, University of Kuwait, Civil Service Commission and Kuwait Airways Corporation.

The event coincides with Kuwait’s celebrations of national days; the 52nd National Day of Kuwait Independence, the 22nd Liberation Day and the Seventh Anniversary of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s assumption of the leadership of the country.

News in Brief MoH to prevent swine flu: The Ministry of Health has taken all the necessary precautionary measures to prevent swine flu outbreak in the country, reports Al-Jarida daily quoting Minister Dr Mohammad Al-Haifi.

In a recent press statement, Al-Haifi disclosed six swine flu cases were recorded last week; five were released from the hospital immediately after undergoing treatment while one was confined only for three days.

He affirmed the ministry works closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure the people get vaccinated against swine flu.

He said the ministry has ample supply of vaccines, enough to cover the needs of the people including those suffering from seasonal influenza. ❑ ❑ ❑

New book out: The public agency in charge of printing and publishing

Holy Qu’ran and Hadith of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and its sciences has published a new book titled “History of Qu’ran Publishing in Kuwait”, reports Al-Anba daily.

Director General of the agency Dr Yassir Al-Mazroui who wrote the book said publishing of Hadith in Kuwait predates independence.

He also said the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs published the first Holy Qu’ran in the country in 30 separate parts with calligraphy by Turkish calligrapher Al-Hajj Othman who memorized the entire Holy Qu’ran.

He explained the ministry had published the first edition in Egypt. ❑ ❑ ❑

KDcow affirms safety: Kuwait Dairy Company (KDcow) affirmed Friday that all of its milk products were safe, brushing aside reports that its milk was contaminated with harmful bacteria.

KDcow CEO Saleh Al-Atiqi, in a statement to KUNA, emphasized that KDcow’s dairy products were free of any harmful bacteria and were compatible with international standards.

He said KDcow was distributing more than 20 million milk packets on ministries, hospitals, cooperative societies, supply and grocery stores every month. “There is no problem in the milk,” added Al-Atiqi.

KDcow’s laboratories were following safety procedures in line with international standards, he said and noted that health-related tests received certificates from Kuwait as well as ISO-14001, ISO-9001 and ISO-22000.

Al-Atiqi said the ministry of health and Kuwait Municipality, which were monitoring KDcow products regularly, have no complaints over the dairy products.

Al-Atiqi was reacting to reports suggesting that KDcow milk products contained harmful bacteria. (KUNA)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LOCAL

5

Kuwait top MP commends historic relations with Qatar Regional, int’l issues discussed

PAAET signs coop pact with Hyundai Industries KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (KUNA): The Kuwait Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) signed a cooperation agreement Sunday with the Korean Hyundai for Heavy Industries.

In a press statement, the PAAET said the agreement was meant to transfer Hyundai’s know-how in modern technology, particularly the eco-friendly ones, to operate and develop Kuwait technological center for industrial materials applications.

As per the agreement, the Kuwait branch

of Hyundai will offer training courses to PAAET staff and upgrade curricula of the PAAET’s affiliate Industrial Training Institute.

It also allows cooperation and exchange of related researches and studies.

PAAET was established on Dec 28, 1982, by law number (63) with the objective of developing and upgrading manpower to meet the challenge of shortfall in technical manpower created by industrial and economic development of the country.

DOHA, Feb 17, (KUNA): Kuwait parliament speaker Ali AlRashed Sunday commended the brotherly and historic relations between his country and Qatar.

In a statement to Qatari News Agency on sidelines of his visit, Al-Rashed said his visit aimed at further cementing bilateral relations.

He said his talks with the Qatari government officials and Shura Council members were to discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest, like the conflict in Syria and the Palestinian cause.

Asked about the Syrian conflict, Al-Rashed said he supported any solution that would stop bloodshed in the troubled Arab country. “We are not happy to see a single drop of blood being dropped in our Arab or Muslim world ... therefore we support the UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s endeavors,” he said.

Al-Rashed praised the great development he has seen in Qatar. “The development in Qatar is a source of pride that we feel towards a dear and brotherly country ...,” he said.

Asked about Qatari Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa AlThani’s visit to Qatar last October, Al-Rashed said the “positive” visit was part of ongoing efforts to backing the Palestinian cause and aimed at liberating Palestine.

He said accepting Palestine as a UN non-member observer state was a step in the right direction which would support the Palestinian rights.

He said His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has long been supporting the Palestinian rights including the UN membership status.

On role of Gulf and Arab lawmakers to boosting democracy in the region, Al-Rashed said the GCC countries have witnessed noticeable steps towards boosting democracy through parliaments and Shura Councils.

LOCAL

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

7

Cabinet OKs land request Expedite project implementation: Sheikh Ahmad KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (Agencies): The Cabinet has approved the request of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) to allocate land in the southern part of Sabah Al-Ahmad City for the establishment of another residential city, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting sources.

Disclosing the new residential city will be named ‘Sabah Al-Awal City’, sources said the allocated land is enough for the construction of 50,000 residential units.

Sources added the project includes government houses, apartments and all the necessary facilities.

According to sources, the land will be

handed over to the authority within the next few weeks or after obtaining a permit from the Kuwait Municipality which received an official letter in this regard from the government last week. Sources stressed the necessary environmental and demographical studies will be conducted immediately after the Municipality issues the permit, followed by coordination with the concerned institutions for the provision of various services like water and electricity.

Meanwhile, head of Government Performance Follow-up Sheikh Ahmad Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah called on officials of the General Organization for Housing Welfare to expedite the implementation of housing projects, which “will reduce the number of eligible residential applications.” This statement came during Sheikh Ahmad’s visit for the housing welfare where he

was received by the Director-General Subhi Yousef Al-Mulla and Deputy Director General for Planning and Design Fahad Suleiman Al-Saeed.

Sheikh Ahmad was briefed, during his visit, about a detailed presentation by AlMulla on the current situation of the organization’s previous and future projects and listened to a full explanation of all the obstacles that the organization may face when implementing its projects.

Head of Government Performance Follow-up praised the role of the organization’s officials on planning and implementing urban and residential suburb projects and stressed the full keenness to follow up on them. Sheikh Ahmad expressed his gratitude to the officials at the General Organization for Housing Welfare, urging them to continue working to accelerate the implementation of these projects.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LOCAL

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37 held in crackdown on cafes, beauty parlors face deportation Workers demanding food, allowances threaten strike

A delegation from the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD), consisting of Public Relations and Media Department Director Colonel Khalil Al-Amir, Head of Photography and Directing Department Captain Ahmad Al-Daihani and Head of the Media Department Salman Al-Jaidi, on Sunday visited the office of Information Ministry Undersecretary AlSayed Ali Al-Rayes as per the recommendation of KFSD Director General Major General Yousuf Al-Ansari. During the visit, the delegation praised the efforts exerted by the ministry in highlighting the role of firefighters and their hard work in saving people’s lives, as well as their cooperation in the implementation of public awareness programs on fire prevention.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: The Tripartite Committee comprising members from the General Immigration Department, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the Ministry of Interior during a crackdown on beauty parlors, shops and cafes have arrested 37 residence law violators and referred them to the, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

Reliable sources said all those arrested have been referred to the authorities to prepare their deportation from the country. ❑

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Strike threatened: Thirty percent of the employees at the Social Care Center at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor have threatened to go on strike if their demands are not met, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

According to sources the employees are demanding food, shift and other allowances. ❑

Six hurt in accidents Special to the Arab Times Six people were injured in traffic accidents recorded in the last 48 hours and rescue teams dealt with all cases accordingly.

Two youths were severely injured when their vehicle turned turtle in Mitla’a. The injured people were referred to Jahra Hospital by Medical Emergency Men for treatment.

In another incident, two cars collided in the area between Qurtoba and Adailiya and resulted in injuries to a Kuwaiti citizen and Egyptian expatriate. Paramedics were on hand to carry the injured people to the Amiri Hospital.

Meanwhile, two Kuwaitis sustained various degrees of injuries when their cars crashed on the Arabian Gulf Road. They were sent to Mubarak Hospital by Medical Emergency Men for treatment and a case was registered.

Woman’s phone snatched

Asians held with liquor bottles

By Munaif Nayef

Phone snatched: A Sri Lankan woman

Special to the Arab Times

filed a case in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh police station and said an individual had snatched her mobile and escaped while she was walking to her apartment.

She provided police with the description of the suspect, and a case was registered for investigation.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Securitymen from the Capital Governorate arrested two Asians in Shuwaikh area with 9 bottles of local brew in their possession.

Security sources said patrol officers spotted the vehicle driven by an Asian expatriate who was accompanied by his compatriot in Shuwaikh Industrial Area, and ordered them to pull over for checking.

Sources added the Asians became jittery while the officers were conducting a search inside the vehicle, and 9 water bottles filled with local liquor were found. The suspects were arrested and referred to the concerned authority for necessary action. ❑

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Olive chokes child: A two-year old child was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Farwaniya Hospital after choking by a piece of olive.

Sources said the child’s father rushed him to the Farwaniya Hospital where doctors confirmed he was choked by olive. He was alright after treatment.

News in Brief

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is believed to be in his 40s recently ended his life by hanging himself with a rope inside his home on the Al-Muthanna Street in Hawalli, reports Al-Rai daily.

Acting on information police and paramedics rushed to the spot and referred the remains of the victim to Forensics.

Police are investigating the incident. ❑ ❑ ❑

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Car broken into: Police are looking for an unidentified person for breaking into the car of a Kuwaiti woman which was parked in Salmiya and stealing KD 500, an album containing her sister’s wedding photos and wallet containing identification documents, credit car and a sum of money, reports Al-Rai daily.

In her complaint the woman said the car was parked in the parking lot. Later when the woman checked her bank balance, she discovered the suspect had stolen KD 1,100 from her account. ❑ ❑ ❑

Ex-wife assaulted: A Kuwaiti woman has filed a complaint with a police station in the Capital Governorate accusing her ex-husband of assaulting her, reports Alam Alyawm daily.

In her complaint the woman said she was

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Auditors sacked: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has fired a number of auditors for violating laws and committing transgressions related to budgets of companies, reports AlShahed daily quoting reliable sources.

The same sources said, the audit offices were earlier referred to the Disciplinary Committee.

The sources confirmed the ministry the auditors have been fired for committing misappropriations while auditing the accounts. The sources also said a complaint to this effect was filed by shareholders in the concerned companies because the auditors had failed to disclose in full the mistakes committed by directors of the companies.

The sources added the Ministry had also issued earlier a package of decisions and firm measures to control auditors and the audit firms.

The sources have called upon companies’ managements and institutions not to hire unqualified auditors who lack experience and are inefficient. ❑

KUNA photos

Top and above: The Diving Team successfully cleaned up Oshairaj beach.

17 tons of waste removed Diving Team affiliated to Kuwait’s Environmental Voluntary Foundation concluded the first phase of the sixth grand environmental campaign recently to clean the coast of Oshairaj and removed 17 tons of the wreckage of capsized ships, fishing nets, and other metal residue. The campaign was part of the National Days

celebration.

Among several agencies that participated in the campaign were the Council of Ministers’ Illegal Structures Demolishing Committee, Kuwait Municipality, LoYAC, VIVA Communications Company and Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

Others included the Directorate

General for Coastal Guard, Ministry of Information, Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources, Medical Emergency Department, Red Crescent, Salaam Group, Rawdha Cooperative Society, Our Green Community Team, Blue Circle Team and The One Team.

favor of the Ministry of Health and dismissed the case filed by the bedoun.

Case papers indicate the bedoun filed a case against the ministry after a surgery at a government hospital caused him permanent disability. This was confirmed by a committee comprising a team from the Kuwait University.

In her complaint the woman had said she had given the suspect KD 45,000 when he promised to marry and later dumped him after she discovered he was playing with her sentiments. The complainant added one day the suspect sneaked into her home and raped her.

The man was arrested while driving with a young woman in Salmiya.

Police suspected him and ordered him to pull over.

After checking his records police discovered he was the man wanted in connection with the rape.

The police source said the suspect was playing the same game with the woman in his car and was on his way to his apartment.

looking for three unidentified youths for damaging the car of a Kuwaiti woman, reports Al-Shahed daily.

In her complaint to the Shamiya Police Station the woman said she was with two of her friends and three youths kept following their vehicles.

The complainant added, when she arrived at the Faculty of Education and was parking her vehicle, one of the youths opened the car door and tried to give his phone number to one of her friends who was seated at the back.

However, since he could not open the door because it was locked, the other two friends broke the side glass of the car and escaped when the women screamed for help.

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Cheetah moving around freely

Cheetah on the loose

smoking sheesha inside a café and the husband barged in and damaged the sheesha and assaulted her in front of several people.

The woman has submitted a medical report to substantiate her claim. The ex-husband will be summoned for interrogation. ❑ ❑ ❑

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Docus stolen: Police are looking for an unidentified person for stealing a bag from the car of a Kuwaiti man, reports Alam Alyawm daily.

The man in his complaint to the Shuwaikh Industrial Area Police Station said the car was parked in front of a shop and after he returned some time later he found the bag missing.

The bag contained his company documents, his Civil ID and passports.

The complainant said the stolen documents will hamper his business activity.

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arrested a Saudi youth who was wanted by law for breaking into the home of a Kuwaiti woman and sexually assaulting her, reports Al-Rai daily.

A police source said the incident happened mid-January in 2013 and the woman had filed a complaint with the Jabriya Police Station.

By Munaif Nayef and Mishal Al-Sanousi KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: A former National Assembly candidate is said to have beaten his ex-wife and tried to drown her at Yacht Club in Maidan Hawalli.

Security sources told Al-Seyassah a Jordanian lady had called the Operations Room and reported a man was beating one woman at the club and also trying to drown her in water. She also said the man was saying over and over again ‘you should die’, while the woman cried for help.

Acting on information, security operatives rushed to the location and rescued the girl whom they later discovered was a Kuwaiti. The suspect was arrested and referred to the area police station. During investigation, the police discovered the suspect was a former parliamentary candidate and he had lured the ex-wife to the club in an attempt to kill her. The suspect will be referred to public prosecution. ❑

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Police arrest rapist: Police have

Bid to drown ex-wife

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have arrested two Asians — a Bangladeshi and an Indian — for trafficking in locally-manufactured alcohol, reports Al-Kuwaitiah daily The Bangladeshi was arrested by a police patrol in Wafra for speeding and when police checked his vehicle, they found 36 bottles of booze.

During interrogation he admitted to trading in booze. He also told police he was only the supplier and that he worked for an Indian man.

The Bangladeshi then gave police information about the Indian.

Special to the Arab Times Seven campers were recently attacked by a cheetah inside a desert camp in Mutla’a, reports Al-Rai daily.

According to sources the men were playing cards and the animal attacked one of them in the neck. The men then threw at the cheetah whatever they could lay their hands on until it escaped.

The men then followed the animal in their cars until they reached another camp and they were stopped by an unidentified Arab man.

The man then called the cheetah and it obeyed his command to the surprise of the seven men. They later discovered the animal was the man’s pet.

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Liquor peddlers nabbed: Police

Ex-candidate held

Egyptian killed: A 45-year-old Egyptian

Instance recently cancelled a search and arrest warrant also a travel ban which was imposed on a Kuwaiti businessman, reports Alam Alyawm daily.

According to case papers the businessman was involved in a dispute with an investment company which resulted in revoking his partnership. The company then ordered the businessman to pay KD 580,000 and took procedures of search and arrest and also got a travel ban issued against him.

Defence lawyer said his client should not neither be arrested nor banned from travel as long as he is able to pay the debts according to Article 292 of the civil procedures code. ❑ ❑ ❑

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MoH fined KD 80,000: The Court of Appeals recently overturned the verdict of a lower court and ordered the Ministry of Health to pay a bedoun KD 80,000 compensation for a medical error which caused the man permanent disability, reports Al-Anba daily.

The lower court had earlier ruled in

Indian kills himself: An Indian man who

Travel ban lifted: The Court of First

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Girl with dad teased: Police have arrested an unidentified person for consuming alcohol and beating another man and causing him a deep cut on his head, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

The drunkard was reportedly flirting with a young woman when she was walking with her father on the Salem Al-Mubarak Street and when the father objected to the behavior of the man, he hit the father on the head with a glass.

Patrolmen who were on duty in the area seized the drunkard and referred him to the area police station.

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expatriate died while another sustained serious injuries when they fell into a deep trench at a construction site in Subbiya, reports AlRai daily.

The corpse was referred to the Forensics Department while the injured victim was referred to Jahra Hospital for treatment. ❑ ❑ ❑

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‘Law equal for all’: DirectorGeneral of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) Dr Saleh Al-Mod’hi said the Environment Law will be applied on all without exception, reports Al-Anba daily.

He was quoted as saying the weekly inspection campaigns in camping areas were largely responsible for keeping these areas clean due to the awareness of campers and their commitment and obligation to the laws.

A jeep damaged in one of the accidents.

By Munaif Nayef

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Indian assaulted: A 32-year old Indian expatriate was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital with serious head injury after he was attacked and beaten by a group of Asians in Farwaniya area.

A security source said the Operations Room of the Interior Ministry received a report that an Indian was injured and bleeding in Farwaniya area, so a rescue team rushed to the scene and referred him to the Intensive Care Unit. A case was registered for investigation.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani man sustained serious head injury after he engaged two compatriots in a fight at Nugra area. Security sources said the Operations Room was notified about the incident by a passerby and a team of rescue men rushed to the scene and referred the injured person to the Mubarak Hospital.

The two compatriots were arrested and referred to the area police station. Investigation revealed that the fight resulted from a previous disagreement.

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2 kilos drugs seized: Customs officers at the Abdali border post have arrested a Turkish truck driver for attempting to smuggle two kilos of hashish into the country, reports AlAnba daily.

The trucker appeared confused when he approached the post and police used trained dogs to search the drugs which were neatly hidden in secret compartments of the truck.

The contraband and the smuggler have been referred to the authorities. ❑

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Hunt for eve-teasers: Police are

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Syrian trio assaulted: Police are looking for 25 people for assaulting three young Syrians and causing them serious injuries, reports Al-Rai daily.

A security source said the incident happened when a neighbor called the Syrians and said some people were damaging their truck which was parked on an open ground in a suburb of Sa’ad Al-Abdullah.

When the Syrians rushed to the spot, the suspects - some of whom were armed with knives - beat and stabbed them and escaped.

The truck is totally damaged and the Syrians have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LOCAL

10

IFAD role in alleviating DIWANIYA poverty, growth lauded

a digest of public opinion

‘Old habits die hard’

‘Kuwait committed to fund’s support’ ROME, Feb 17, (KUNA): Kuwait’s representative at Board of Governors of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) asserted Sunday Kuwait’s strong support of the Fund and unique role in the field of development, as well as the fight against poverty.

KUNA photos

Top: HH the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf (right), receives HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak at Al-Seif Palace. Above: HH Sheikh Nawaf meets Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khalid and Minister of Information Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem.

Deputy Amir receives top officials His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received on Sunday at Al-Seif Palace His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Deputy Amir also received the Acting National Assembly Speaker, Mubarak Al-Khurainij. He also received Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khalid AlHamad Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Nawaf later received Deputy

Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and also Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Nawaf also received Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipality Affairs, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, and Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anas Khalid Al-Saleh. (KUNA)

8th ‘Ragheef’ campaign launched

KRCS aid for Syrians continues AMMAN, Feb 17, (KUNA): Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) launched here on Sunday the “Ragheef” campaign, in aid of Syrian refugees in Jordan.

“Ragheef” one month-campaign is offering a total of 120,000 loaves of bread to Syrian refugees in various parts of Jordan, Head of the Kuwaiti delegation, and Head of Public Relations in KRCS Khalid Al-Zaid told KUNA. This campaign, the 8th to be launched

by KRCS, includes distributing bread and other aid in-kind to families of Syrian refugees, he added.

KRCS signed agreements with a total of 11 bakeries in the Hashemite Kingdom to supply refugees with bread, he said.

KRSC is offering a total of two kilograms of bread for each Syrian family, in coordination with the Jordanian Red Crescent Society.

The KRCS team distributed 60 tons of clothes and blankets to Syrian families in various parts of Jordan, he said. The teams started in Jerash city, in which they distributed blankets for 400 Syrian families, AlZaid pointed out.

The Kuwait Red Crescent is committed to its humanitarian mission and works to alleviate the suffering of the refugees, especially during this harsh winter season, he affirmed. He praised the efforts of Jordanian Red Crescent Society in offering assistance to reach all families of Syrian refugees.

Al-Zaid also hailed the role of the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission in Jordan in facilitating the work of KRCS in Jordan.

A total of 350,000 refugees fled their country and crossed border to Jordan, to escape the deteriorating situation in Syria.

Boost sought in Kuwait, Mali ties

News in Brief Amir congrats Lithuania: His

300 apply for AUK: The Head of

Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulations to the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, as his country marks National Day. Their Highnesses the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah sent cables of like sentiment on this occasion to the head of state. (KUNA) ❑ ❑ ❑

Admission and Public Relations at American University of Kuwait (AUK) Amal Al-Banali stated the office has received 300 applications for admission in the second semester of Academic Year 2012/2013, adding that 152 students from both sexes were admitted in the first semester, reports Al-Rai daily.

Al-Banali explained that 73 of the total 152 students who were admitted during the first term registered for the Preparatory English Language Program, and the rest registered in different programs. She also said AUK is expediting efforts to preserve its high academic level and that AUK is accredited by specialized bodies in the US, including the Administration of Business and Arts.

She noted the university is intending to give the admission priority to students with high G.P.A who are able to earn BA through different specialties, including Graphic Design, International Studies and Finance etc. ❑ ❑ ❑

Bid to revive quarry: Authorities are executing a plan to restore life to the quarry site of Al-Liah, some 20 km north of the district of Al-Jahraa, with aim of transforming the location into a natural reserve.

Dr. Ali Al-Dosari, a researcher at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), said in an interview with KUNA the national project of bringing life to the quarry of buried masonry was also intended to expand size of the natural reserves.

Dr. Al-Dosari, the head of the venture of re-habilitating the quarry, indicated that the execution of the project entered its second phase, noting that the first stage ended in 2008, adding that planting of 60,000 wild plants was underway.

Up to 35,000 wild plants have already been already been planted during the first phase of the restoration process at the fenced site, located 20 km north of the northern region of Al-Jahraa.

As a result of burial of cement blocks at the place, solid soil developed with no signs of any life, thus killing plants in the region. (KUNA) ❑ ❑ ❑

Hisham Al-Wugayyan, also Deputy Director General of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), told KUNA after his participation in the Board 36th session, which concluded meetings yesterday, that Kuwait is committed to supporting IFAD’s missions and objectives, mainly eradicating poverty through developing less fortunate rural classes.

He praised the session’s outcomes, especially ratifying the Fund’s ninth resources’ allocation of $1.5 billion for the 2013-2015 period in order to pump field investments to help some 85 million people out of poverty, pointing out that Kuwait has contributed its share of $15 million.

In this context, Al-Wugayyan pointed out that Kuwait, which was the forerunner in supporting this trend, also supported recommending IFAD President Kanayo Nwanze for a second four-year term, praising his efforts to reduce expenses and administrative reforms in the Fund, as well as establishing more regional offices in beneficiary countries.

On Kuwait’s catalyst role within the Arab and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Group of the Fund, Al-Wugayyan said that he, along with GCC representatives, have discussed with IFAD chief and officials the nature of partnership that “both parties aspire,” especially since Kuwait and the GCC states are donor countries and do not benefit from the Fund’s loans.

Yesterday’s meeting mainly discussed the possibility for GCC countries to benefit for IFAD’s technical assistance in solving problems related to fisheries, animal and soil erosion, overgrazing, lack of resources and dependence on food import; some 90 percent, he noted.

He also revealed that Kuwait, and after the success of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, which it held last October, “is currently negotiating to join the Asian Development Bank this year to become the only Arab state to join this major financial institution.” The IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations, which was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. The conference was organized in response to the food crises of the early 1970s that primarily affected the Sahelian countries of Africa.

Scholarships nod: Chairperson of the Scholarship Committee and Deputy Chairperson of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Khalid Abdullah Al-Saqer said the panel agreed to offer five scholarships to Kuwaitis who want to acquire a masters degree in Business Administration and Commercial Law during its first meeting in the KCCI. This came during the first meeting of the committee for 2013.

Interested parties should submit their applications at the Abdul Aziz Al-Saqer Training Center. Requirements will be posted soon on the KCCI website and in local newspapers.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (KUNA): Minister of Awqaf in the Republic of Mali Dr. Jacob Traore and foreign relations official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Mali Sheikh Abraham Kontaom discussed here on Sunday with the Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Sharida al-Moasherji ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the religious domain.

Al-Moasherji asserted the deeprooted ties between the two countries, reiterating Kuwait’s pursuit to provide aid and assistance to friendly countries.

He said that Kuwait is proactive in communicating with the Islamic and friendly countries stemming from the Islamic values calling for cooperation between the peoples and the emphasis on promoting the concept of moderation and peaceful coexistence and dialogue among peoples in order to keep them away from all dangers.

The Minister became acquainted with with the situations taking place in Mali, and called for providing support for scientists and religious scholars for their prominent role in the stability of nations and dissemination of moderation among Muslim communities.

For his part, Traore stressed his country’s keenness to benefit from the experience of Kuwait in Muslim areas because of the large weight Kuwait enjoys in the international arena and its leading role in the issues of Islamic affairs.

Govt on verge of crisis “AS IT has been reported recently members of a ‘coalition’ who are concerned with public affairs are currently working behind the scenes to contain the current crisis in the country and this group of people is said to have held meetings with some political currents in the country such as the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), the Salafist Movement, the Kuwait Democratic Forum (KDF) and the Democratic Coalition to discuss the crisis,” columnist Abdullatif Al-Duaij wrote for Al-Qabas daily Sunday.

“However, it looks difficult to imagine there is a real crisis in the country given the current circumstances, because in spite of everything, the situation in the country looks normal.

“For the time being, we have an elected and legitimate National Assembly and a government that has been duly and constitutionally formed like its predecessors.

“Moreover, Kuwait is a rich oil country, then what crisis are we talking about unless some people believe in the absence of a specific type of politicians or citizens away from public life, and that means the country suffers from a crisis.

“In this connection, I am Al-Duaij positive the crisis rests in the coalition in question and the politicians who boycotted the last parliamentary elections and found ultimately themselves out of the limelight and unable to deal with the public affairs or affect the country’s national policy and this was evident when the coalition members in question selected only those who had boycotted the parliamentary elections to talk with them.

“Not just that, most of these members had boycotted the last parliamentary elections and also criticized the new mechanism of the country’s voting system and this means these people are currently striving to get rid of their own crisis, not the public crisis which is only their imagination.

“In other words, these people are part and parcel of the crisis and not a neutral party nor a coalition grouping members from various parties of the national struggle.

“It is needless to say the situation in the country is stable at the moment and the claim of instability or casting doubts on the stability of the new political institutions represents something against the public interest.

“Fairly speaking stability of the current situation in the country exceeds our previous situations - the situations of the past five years. In this context, we elucidate we have at the moment a National Assembly which basks in harmony and this Assembly has genuine intention to cooperate with the government and this shall help bring to an end the previous array of differences between the executive power and legislature.

“Nevertheless, what is required at the moment is represented only by the formation of a new government that will collaborate with the members of the incumbent National Assembly and achieve the targeted cooperation and mutual understanding based on clear cut policies and visions for the sake of the country, not for personal interests to meet the satisfaction of any party at the expense of the public interest as it was largely prevalent before.

“Meanwhile, we have observed that the method of the incumbent government looks like an extension of the previous one ignoring the fact that the structure of the National Assembly at least according to the government itself, has totally changed and no longer suffers from crises and crisis-makers.

“But it seems the government method has largely remained unchanged and this was evident through the fact that says this method is still rife with all the grounds for the crises. In other words government behavior, reason behind the crises, has yet to transform.”

Also: “Some news reports said a group of 18 politicians had agreed to hold meetings with various political currents and parliamentary blocs in the country to discuss the political situations which currently prevail in the country,” columnist Abdurrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily Sunday.

“According to these reports, the group members during the past few weeks met with representatives from different political currents in the country including the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), the Islamic Coalition in addition to the Kuwait Democratic Forum (KDF) and the National Alliance, hinting the discussions focused on the grounds for the crisis currently lashing the country and the solutions that may be needed to end the crises.

“First of all, we would like to emphasize here that we support any move that is made to unify forces and give boost to national unity and eventually restore the cohesion among various components of the community, particularly since we know the differences among the components are not commensurate with the political con-

gestion which currently prevails in the country.

“Given the above, this congestion has surprised political observers and analysts outside Kuwait to such an extent some of them have started depicting us as ‘a political carnival’ through which some people in the country are attempting to imitate what is currently taking place in the socalled Arab Spring countries ignoring the fact that we are different from these countries in every way.

“What currently prevails in the country is just a disparity in the visions and attitudes among the concerned parties in dealing with certain political issues, but it goes without saying all of us are in agreement about political reforms and fighting corruption.

“Apart from the above, all of us are in agreement about our total allegiance to the ruling family and this is something which has been emphasized and given boost to during the most difficult circumstances which the country has faced, as such this allegiance doesn’t represent a controversial issue among various segments of our community.

“Such being the case, the differences among the relevant parties in the country, mostly revolve around certain marginal political issues but it is needless to say these differences shall remain prospective and can be contained as long as we believe in the unity of our homeland, its protection, security and stability.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “In every election the analysis occurs according to the basics, for example in the First Constituency we talk about sectarianism and the Kandaris and the Awazems and this applies to all the constituencies,” columnist Mishari Abdullah AlHamad wrote for Alam Alyawm daily.

“This is the social division away from political division and the presence of political currents and the existence of only one organized current such as the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM).

“I have never heard that our political currents value and can cope with the citizen as a citizen and not on the basis of belonging to a certain family, tribe and sect — the output of a nation — then how can we talk about the popular choice of a prime minister?

“The motive for the election of a popular prime minister is good provided the interests of the people are at hand without domination of a particular power, but what we actually see is totally different and a far reality.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “I am surprised at the two points of grilling contained in the interpellation filed by MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan against the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud,” columnist Mubarak Mazeed Al-Moasherji wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“The first point is difficult to believe concerning collaboration with the Israeli spy network, while the second is a composition of several issues.

“The link between Kuwait and Israel is hard to believe. If he had to say the ‘Iranian spy network’ may be we would believe him given the large number of Iranians working in the country and given Iran’s interests and since Kuwaiti courts look into the case of the so-called Iranian spy network.

“Or if he claimed that the spy network was Iraqi we would support him, since Iraq was established by the Englishmen in the twenties of the last century and the Iraqi greed still exists in some form.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “It seems the current MPs are not different from the former MPs because the unjustified escalation and threats have returned,” columnist, former MP and general manager of the Scope Satellite TV, Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“I don’t know what prompted all of them to escalation at once with the knowledge that there is a news story which said the interior minister will not attend the grilling without mentioning the reasons.

“The situation is abnormal and the fragmentation of efforts, in spite of the priorities and trying to accelerate the wheel of development which has almost stalled.

“Do these members already suffer from a vacuum or has their confidence in themselves been shaken?

“The majority of the Kuwaitis are looking forward for achievements and better cooperation between the Parliament and the government and the results of this favoring the homeland and the citizens instead of returning to the squabbles of ‘yesteryears’.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “The incumbent National Assembly does not deserve to be called as such.

We have to bear in mind that the MPs should respect legal, parliamentary and constitutional rules once they are elected to office,” Hassan Al-Essa wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Lawmakers should know their position is not a tool for taking revenge against anyone, including employees, ministers or former MPs. Our parliamentary history is full of stories on settling personal scores between MPs. It seems some lawmakers consider the legislature a venue for

serving personal interests without thinking of those who voted for them.

The worst aspect of the issue is the role of the media in inciting conflicts, particularly the submission of interpellation requests based on personal disputes.

“People should be aware that the country is in dire need of leaders who work for national development, not those who have nothing in mind but to realize their personal objectives.

Those keen on serving personal interests do not look at the bigger picture the growth of the entire nation and its citizens.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Iran’s intervention in the affairs of some countries should not be ignored, especially since its meddling method varies from one nation to another and depends on how it will benefit from the action,” Abdullah Al-Misfir AlOdwani wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“The worst threat, so far, is the closure of Hormuz Strait to stop the oil supplies from GCC countries. Arabs continue to tolerate Iran even if it poses a grave threat to the stability of the region. We should also be wary of the attitude of the US as it can change anytime. It has started showing signs of leniency towards Iran. We must not also forget that the US has always been our ally.

“I believe the establishment of the Gulf Union is the only way to solve the problem. If the GCC leaders are really keen on maintaining the stability of their countries, they should unite their forces because it is clear that the Persian force will never abandon its conspiracies in a bid to revive the Persian State.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Ongoing national dialogue in Bahrain should be successful, simply because all the participants are working toward achieving stability to end the political clashes that affect development,” Abdul Rahman Al-Awad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“In a recent interview, the spokesman for National Dialogue Essa Abdul Rahman mentioned one of the main goals of the dialogue as finding a mutual point of agreement among all the participants, in order to develop trust among them. This goal can only be achieved through the exchange of different thoughts and opinions.

“The 27 representatives of different political parties and three ministers from the ministries of Education, Justice and Public Works prove the seriousness of this dialogue and most importantly, nothing can interrupt it, as long as the majority agrees on going ahead with the plan. Although, there would be differences or disagreements on certain points, I am sure the success of this dialogue will not only become a success story for Bahrainis but the entire GCC states.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Political intrigues and provocation of crisis returned to the National Assembly and the media because the lawmakers have started using the language of threat and intimidation against some ministers,” Jawad Ahmad Bu Khamseen wrote for AlNahar daily.

“Several lawmakers have announced their plan to submit grilling requests against certain ministers despite the appeal made recently by Parliament Speaker Ali Al-Rashid to allow the ministers to work on their projects and plans for at least six months before evaluating their performance.

“His Highness the Amir made a similar appeal during the inaugural session of the legislature two months ago. He asked the lawmakers to give the ministers enough time to work after which they can be questioned on lapses, if any. Speculations are rife the incumbent legislature will be dissolved soon, as hinted in discussions in diwaniyas, seminars, ceremonies and condolence visits.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Recently, I asked an ambassador, who is concerned about Bahrain, on his knowledge on the interference of Iran in the country; but he simply said, ‘We do not have any proof. We have demanded for information from the Bahraini officials but they responded that they don’t have any proof or data’,” Ali Yousef Al-Matrouk wrote for Al-Watan daily.

“This statement is not enough to clear Iran of the alleged intervention.

It might be a way to contribute to the ongoing dialogue for harmony between the concerned parties, as well as dispel rumors spread by some people against the instability in Bahrain while attributing the public demonstrations to sectarian and foreign agendas which do not serve the interests of the country.

“My dear friends in Bahrain - the country of scholars, clerics, civilized people and poets - every problem has a solution. God Almighty has created cure for every ailment in the same manner that there is a solution to every problem. He instructed all Muslims to focus on piety and virtuous actions rather than committing sins and spreading enmity. This requires intelligent and competent arbitrators who fear God and have the best interest of the country at heart.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

MIDEAST

11

Cairo police to get 100,000 9mm pistols

Egypt army will avoid politics: Gen Sobhi ABU DHABI, Feb 17, (Agencies): Egypt’s armed forces, for decades at the centre of power, will avoid involvement in politics but could have a role if things became “complicated”, the chief of staff said on Sunday.

It also expects rival political groups to solve disputes by dialogue, Major General Sedki Sobhi told Reuters The military ran Egypt for six decades from the end of the colonial era and through an interim period after the overthrow of former air force chief and president Hosni Mubarak two years ago. About 60 people have been killed since late January in protests that erupted after the second anniversary of the uprising.

Speaking to Reuters at an industry event in Abu Dhabi, said that in a week or 15 days some kind of national dialogue would take shape between the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and oppositioin groups.

The army would not back any political party, he said.

“We are not political, we don’t want to participate in the political situation because we suffered a lot because of this in the last six months,” he said.

“But sometimes we can help in this problem, we can play this role if the situation became more complicated,” he said without elaborating. Diplomats and analysts suggest the army, fearful of further damaging a reputation that took a beating during a messy transition period when it was in charge, would only act if Egypt faced unrest on the scale of the revolt that toppled Mubarak.

Protests and violence now are nowhere near that stage.

Demonstrators demand justice for dozens killed

Protests grip Egyptian city of Port Said CAIRO, Feb 17, (AFP): Thousands of Egyptians on Sunday closed down government offices and factories in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, demanding justice for dozens of people killed in clashes with police, witnesses said.

Demonstrators also shut down schools and banks and blocked a main railway route, but their protests did not impact traffic through the strategic Suez Canal, a canal official said. The marchers were demanding justice for at least 40 protesters killed in clashes with police in late January after a court sentenced 21 soccer fans

from the city to death over a deadly football riot last year.

In February 2012, 74 people, mostly supporters of the Cairo Al-Ahly club, were killed in a football riot in Port Said.

Home fans were held to blame, with Al-Ahly supporters pledging civil disobedience in Cairo if the court acquitted the Port Said residents.

Last month’s violence in Port Said and two other Suez Canal cities prompted President Mohamed Morsi to call in the military and declare emergency law there.

Sobhi’s remarks were less categorical than those of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief, who said on Jan 29 that unrest was pushing the state to the brink of collapse and the army would remain the “solid and cohesive block” on which the state rests.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian security official said Saturday that the interior ministry has agreed to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols after low-ranking policemen went on strike demanding greater firepower to defend themselves against increased lawlessness.

The announcement ended five days of strikes by thousands of low-ranking policemen that threatened to further unravel security in the Arab world’s most populous nation, two years after the overthrow of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

It is also likely to provoke a new wave of criticism against the interior ministry by rights groups and activists who accuse police of using excessive force against unarmed protesters and carrying out the same brutal tactics of the former regime.

Tight security as Libya marks anti-Gaddafi revolt anniversary Libyan PM Zeidan calls for unity BENGHAZI, Libya, Feb 17, (Agencies): Libya on Sunday celebrated two years since the start of the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, with security forces on high alert amid fears of a fresh violence that have plagued the north African nation.

The anniversary of the uprising that ended with Gaddafi’s killing in October 2011 comes as Libya’s new rulers battle critics calling for a “new revolution” and accusing them of failing to usher in much-needed reforms.

Speaking to hundreds of people in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the uprising began,

Libyan National Assembly President Mohammed Megaryef gives a speech in Tahrir Square on the second anniversary of the Libyan revolution on Feb 17, in Benghazi. Security forces were on high alert across Libya on Sunday as north African nation marked two years since the start of the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi after four

de facto head of state Mohammed Megaryef paid homage to the “martyrs of the revolution” and the “true revolutionaries” who helped bring down Gaddafi.

He insisted that Libya would not be allowed to become a “base for terrorism” and vowed to end the marginalisation of the east.

On Friday, thousands of people gathered in the main cities of Tripoli and Benghazi to celebrate the initial February 15, 2011 protest that ignited the revolt two days later.

The authorities have taken steps to prevent any violence on Sunday, when spontaneous celebrations were expected. Libya’s borders with Egypt and Tunisia have been closed since Thursday, for four days, and all international flights suspended except at the airports of

decades of iron rule. The anniversary of the uprising that ended with Gaddafi’s killing in October 2011 comes as Libya’s new rulers battle critics calling for a ‘new revolution’ and accusing them of failing to usher in much-needed reforms. (AFP)

8 jailed for life, 4 sentenced to 30 years

Sahrawis jailed for killing of W. Sahara forces RABAT, Feb 17, (AFP): A Moroccan military court on Sunday handed prison sentences, including life terms, to a group of Sahrawis accused of killing members of the security forces in the Western Sahara in 2010.

Among the 24 defendants in court in Rabat, eight were jailed for life and four received 30year prison terms, the MAP agency reported.

Two of the accused who received the lightest sentences, two years in jail, have already served their terms in custody.

A 25th defendant was tried in absentia and given a life sentence.

Some of the defendants had feared receiving the death sentence for the crimes of “forming

criminal gangs, and violence against the security forces leading to deaths and the mutilation of corpses” in 2010, when authorities dismantled a camp where thousands of Sahrawis were living.

Authorities say 11 people died in the violence, among them members of the security forces, and 70 were wounded.

The politically-charged trial opened on February 1 after repeated delays. Observers and rights groups have expressed concern over claims by the accused that they were tortured in custody. They also insist that the trial should have been held in a civilian court.

Amnesty International condemned the mili-

Woman injured in shooting

Gunmen fire at Saudi prison RIYADH, Feb 17, (AFP): Unknown gunmen opened fire at a prison and police targets in Saudi Arabia’s Shiite-populated Eastern Province, wounding a woman and her child, police and rights activists said on Sunday.

The gunmen carried out three separate shootings in two Shiite towns on Saturday, provincial police spokesman Ziad alRukaiti said.

“The prison in Qatif came under fire from an unknown source,” said Rukaiti, referring to the prison in the Shiite town of Awamiya in the Qatif district.

Rukaiti said the shots directed at the prison were “followed by shooting at a police checkpoint” in Awamiya, and another shooting targeting a police patrol in a separate Shiite town.

Rights activists confirmed that an 18-year-old woman and her two-year-old child “were wounded by random gunfire in Awamiya.”

Since early 2011, mainly Shiite towns in Eastern Province have seen sporadic protests and confrontations between police and Shiite residents who complain of marginalisation.

tary trial as “flawed from the outset,” and said torture claims should be probed.

At dawn on November 8, 2010, Moroccan security forces moved to dismantle the Gdim Izik camp near Laayoune, the main city in the disputed Western Sahara, which thousands of Sahrawis had set up in protest over their living conditions.

The intervention sparked clashes that spread to Laayoune, where businesses and public buildings were looted and torched.

The Western Sahara issue is a highly sensitive subject in Morocco, which annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975 in a move not recognised by the international community.

Tripoli and Benghazi, while checkpoints have been set up around the two cities.

“We emphasise to our partners our determination that Libya does not become a base for or source of terrorism,” said Megaryef, who is president of the national assembly.

There was no official programme for Sunday’s anniversary, but celebratory fireworks and revolutionary songs have filled the air across the country since Friday.

Tahrir Square in Benghazi, where Megaryef was speaking, was set to be the focus of the celebration, with members of the government attending.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has hailed the Libyan people’s rejection of “injustice and tyranny and called for unity in the north African nation.”

“The joy that motivated people in towns and villages on February 15 and 16 has allowed Libyans to prove to the world that they are a civilised people who revolted against injustice and tyranny to gain freedom,” Zeidan said.

Opposition groups are demanding that former Gaddafi regime officials be barred from holding public office, and a leaflet circulated in Tripoli calls for a “popular revolt” and civil disobedience to bring down the current regime. It was unclear who was behind the leaflet and the calls to protest, but Libyan officials and several organisations, including Islamic groups, accuse remnants of the former regime of fomenting protests to “sow disorder and instability.”

A number of opposition groups and civil society organisations, including those calling for federalism in eastern Libya, have temporarily suspend their calls to protest, initially planned for Friday, for fear of stoking violence. “We understand the discontent of the population in certain regions, in particularly Benghazi,” which suffered from neglect under the Gaddafi regime, Megaryef said.

“We promise that we will push the government to take the necessary measures to put an end to this marginalisation and improve the living standards of its residents.”

‘UAE will buy Rafale fighters’ ABU DHABI , Feb 17, (RTRS): France’s senior defence industry lobbyist said on Sunday he was confident the United Arab Emirates would buy Rafale fighter jets by 2015-2016, as the defence minister in Paris said talks on a deal had resumed.

In January, a diplomatic source told Reuters that France was hopeful of selling 60 Rafales to the UAE. “There’s a very big chance the customer could consider buying the Rafale somewhere in 2015-2016 in order to have them delivered in 2017-2018,” the head of France’s Defense Industries Council (CIDEF) chief, Christian Mons-Catoni, said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (third right), heads the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Feb 17. Netanyahu is defending the actions of Israel’s security forces following a public uproar over the mysterious death of a man who apparently hanged himself while being held secretly in a maximum-security prison. (AP)

Israel spy scandal

Exposing intelligence harms security: PM JERUSALEM, Feb 17, (Agencies): Exposure of intelligence activities can “badly damage” state security, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday in his first remarks on the arrest and death of a jailed AustralianIsraeli with Mossad links.

In remarks to his outgoing cabinet, the Israeli prime minister insisted that the security forces be allowed to “quietly” get on with their jobs, in his first remarks on the mysterious spy saga which has dominated headlines in Israel and Australia. “Overexposure of security and intelligence activities can damage, and damage badly, state security and that is why in every debate we must not underestimate the security interest,” he said in remarks communicated by his office.

Criticism “And in the reality in which Israel lives, it must be a central interest,” he said in a thinly veiled criticism of the media frenzy sparked by the exposure last week of the identity of Prisoner X — an Australian immigrant called Ben Zygier who worked for Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

According to a story broken last Carr Tuesday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Zygier was found hanged in his cell in Ayalon prison near Tel Aviv in December 2010, in a case Israel went to extreme lengths to cover up.

It imposed a total media blackout on the case, but was forced to ease the restrictions after the story made headlines across the world, rendering the local gag order ineffective.

Netanyahu’s remarks were made shortly after Canberra said it was seeking answers from Israel over the circumstances of Zygier’s death.

Until now, the government

Contribution “We have asked the Israeli government for a contribution to that report,” Carr told reporters. “We want to give them an opportunity to submit to us an explanation of how this tragic death came about.”

Also at the weekend, a senior Israeli official claimed Australia’s intelligence community was “deeply involved” in the case and had even interrogated Zygier on suspicion he was spying for the Jewish state. In a separate development, Israel’s justice ministry was on Sunday mulling whether to allow publication of the inquest into Zygier’s death which rendered a verdict of suicide, press reports said.

According to Maariv newspaper, parts of the report were likely to be published later this week after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decides, in conjunction with Mossad and the military censor, which parts are to be redacted for security reasons.

News in Brief Belly dancing ‘banned’: A court in Egypt has ordered a TV channel that airs belly dancing clips off the air for showing “sexually explicit” content and operating without a broadcast license.

The judge Saturday said that ElTet airs ads that are “offensive” and can “arouse” viewers. The station carries advertisements for sexual enhancement products and matchmaking services. It is broadcast out of a Cairo apartment that airs videos 24 hours a day of scantily clad belly dancers giving sultry performances to music. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Banned items seized: Buddha statues have joined Barbie dolls and characters from “The Simpsons” TV cartoon as banned items in the conservative Muslim nation.

Authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country, according to a report Sunday in the independent Arman daily. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Building collapses: Egypt’s

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (center), attends the opening of the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre in the Emirati capital on Feb 17. A top French defense industry official said that talks to sell Rafale jet fighters to the UAE were ‘progressing well’, expressing confidence that a deal could be reached with the Gulf state. (AFP)

had said nothing on matter, although Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon on Saturday insisted that Israel abided fully by the law, even in the case of security prisoners. “I ask everyone: let the security forces continue to work quietly in order that we can carry on living in peace and security in Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“We are an exemplary democratic state and safeguard the rights of those under investigation and the rights of the individual no less than any other state. “But we are also facing greater threats and challenges and therefore we need to ensure that we protect the normal working of our security branches,” he said, expressing “complete trust” in Israel’s security forces and legal system.

Earlier on Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said his office was preparing a report looking at all communications between Australia and Israel, including between its security agencies.

official news agency says a residential building has collapsed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing one person and injuring four.

MENA said Sunday that the building was in the densely populated Moharam Bey neighborhood and that it likely collapsed because of the construction of an apartment building next door.

It is the second deadly building collapse in Alexandria in as many months. At least 25 people were killed on Jan. 16 when an eightstory apartment building collapsed. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Lieberman on trial

Ex-Israeli FM says not guilty JERUSALEM, Feb 17, (RTRS): Israel’s former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, pleaded not guilty on Sunday to charges of fraud and breach of trust at the start of a trial that has put the ultranationalist’s political career into doubt.

The allegations led Lieberman, a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to resign from cabinet two months ago.

As head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu faction, he joined forces with Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud in last month’s general election. The joint list came first in the ballot but with fewer parliamentary seats than forecast.

Netanyahu is trying to put together a governing coalition and it is unclear whether he will hold open the foreign ministry post for Lieberman until a verdict is in.

Christians arrested: Libyan authorities in the eastern city of Benghazi have arrested four people suspected of carrying out Christian missionary activities, a security official said on Sunday.

“An Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede who holds a US passport, were arrested on Tuesday at a printing house, where they were printing books calling for conversion to Christianity,” Hussein bin Hameida told AFP.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

12

‘Man trying to set up IED’

Suspected bomber killed in Kenya blast GARISSA, Kenya, Feb 17, (RTRS): An explosion killed at least one person in a Kenyan frontier town where a presidential hopeful in the country’s upcoming elections was due to hold a rally on Sunday, police said.

Residents heard a huge blast late on Saturday night in the eastern town of Garissa but police only managed to pin down the site of the explosion to a primary school field on Sunday. It was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED), they said.

Martha Karua, the only female presidential candidate in the March 4 vote and among the lower-ranked candidates by most polls, had been expected to speak at the grounds on Sunday afternoon, regional police chief Charlton Mureithi said.

“Our initial assessment reveals the man was trying to set up an IED near the dais, but killed himself as the device exploded on him ripping his body into pieces,” Mureithi told reporters.

The open field also lies next to an army camp in a town that is used as a support base for Kenya’s military mission in Somalia.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the intended attack, police said.

Karua would keep her date with her supporters in the town and would use a new venue because the primary school field was now a crime scene, officials in her campaign team said.

Kenya has experienced a spate of violent attacks, mostly

Search ops launched for attackers

Catholic priest shot dead in Zanzibar: police ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Feb 17, (AFP): Gunmen shot dead a Catholic priest outside his church in the capital of Zanzibar on Sunday, the second such attack on the Muslim-majority island in recent months.

“Father Evarist Mushi was blocked by two young men at the entrance of the church, one of the attackers shot him in the head,” said the island’s police spokesman Mohammed Mhina.

On Christmas Day, gunmen shot and seriously wounded a Catholic priest as he returned home from

church.

It is not clear if the two attacks were linked, or religiously motivated.

In November, attackers threw acid in the face and chest of a Muslim cleric, and there have been tensions between the two communities in the semi-autonomous Tanzanian archipelago.

“For now, we cannot say what the motives are for the attack, but we have launched search operations for the attackers,” added Mhina.

in the capital and close to the Somali border, since it sent soldiers into its anarchic neighbour in October 2011 to drive out the al Shabaab Islamist rebels linked to al Qaeda.

The rebels have threatened to retaliate and have launched a series of grenade and gun attacks that have raised concerns over how secure the country is heading into the March 4 national elections, the first since tribal fighting killed about 1,200 people following a disputed presidential vote in 2007.

Garissa, a market centre for trade in camels, donkeys,

goats and cattle some 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border, has borne the brunt of the wave of attacks. The largely Muslim town has a significant ethnic Somali population.

In October, Kenyan soldiers and Somali forces seized Kismayu, al Shabaab’s last big urban stronghold in southern Somalia, driving the militants out.

“Its by the grace of God that the person who was planning evil died. Many people would have lost their lives if that mission succeeded,” said Abdi Jama’a, a local resident.

‘NATO will comply with Afghan air strike ban’ Support consistent with tactical directive: US general KABUL, Feb 17, (Agencies): The commander of US-led forces in Afghanistan said Sunday he would comply with President Hamid Karzai’s order banning Afghan security forces from seeking NATO air support.

by such attacks.

Karzai made the statement after a NATO air raid killed 10 civilians including women and children in a region of eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday night.

US General Joseph Dunford, who took charge of the US-led NATO force in the war-battered country last Sunday, said he was prepared to comply.

“We are prepared to provide support in line with the president’s intent,” Dunford told Karzai Saturday said he would issue a decree ordering an end to local security reporters in Kabul. forces calling in NATO air strikes amid new tensions over civilian casualties caused Karzai summoned Dunford over the air raid in Kunar province.

“I get the broad guidance from the president and we will work out the details in the coming days,” Dunford said.

“We have restraints and constraints on each operation. I believe we will continue to support the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and meet the president’s intent,” Dunford said in response to questions Karzai’s order.

“There are other ways to support the Afghans besides aviation,” he said.

He said his troops had made “huge progress in mitigating the civilian casualties”.

Dunford said coalition forces believe they can conduct “effective operations within the president’s guidance” because it falls within a tactical directive issued last year by his predecessor, Marine Gen John Allen.

The US-led military coalition said last June that it would limit airstrikes to a self-defense weapon of last resort for troops and would avoid hitting structures that could house civilians. That followed a bombardment that killed 18 civilians celebrating a wedding in eastern Logar province, which drew an apology from the American commander.

The coalition, however, can still carry out airstrikes on its own accord. “I believe the support we will provide to the Afghans is exactly consistent with the coaliA French soldier at a check point frisks a man trying to enter Gao. seized the country’s north last year and brought in strict Sharia tion’s tactical directive,” Dunford Mali’s army is struggling to restore security after a French-led miliIslamic law. (AFP) said. tary intervention helped it push out al-Qaeda-linked rebels who had The UN mission in Afghanistan said 83 civilians were killed and 46 wounded in aerial attacks by international military forces in the first half of 2012. That figure was down 23 percent from the same period of 2011 - the deadliest year on record for civilians in the Afghan war. It said two-thirds of the casualties last year were women and children He said the move will also help “eliminate stress positions.

KABUL, Feb 17, (AFP): Afghan President In the decree, Karzai also ordered the attor- and insurgents were responsible Hamid Karzai has ordered that all interroga- any chance or place for complaints from ney general to “prosecute the perpetrators of for the overwhelming majority of tion facilities should be equipped with video other parties” about prisoner abuse. the deaths.

The United Nations, which has run an torture, so to avoid any suspect, convict or cameras in a bid to prevent torture, after a Karzai’s decision, however, recent UN report said detainees were abused. assistance operation in Afghanistan since the prisoner tortured in the future”. could hamper the Afghan force’s The decree strictly orders law-enforcement ability to fight the insurgency as it The decree follows a government investi- 2001 fall of the Taleban, said in January that gation into the UN report about prisoner prisoners were frequently abused and tor- bodies, police and the intelligence agencies to robs them of one of their most avoid torturing detainees. Karzai also orders potent weapons. It also runs countabuse, which found detainees were tortured at tured in the Afghan jail system. the time of arrest and during interrogations.

The UN report revealed that 326 of 635 his justice minister and the court systems to er to Afghan requests for NATO to supply their security forces with “Relevant authorities are required to equip prisoners interviewed across the country said provide defence lawyers to prisoners.

Afghanistan has been in near-continuous aircraft capable of carrying out the intelligence and investigating agencies... they had been abused, including 80 minors. airstrikes. The Afghan military has with modern equipment (and) devices... and Fourteen types of torture were described in war since the late 1970s, the last 11 years a repeatedly implored the United videotape the interrogation process,” Karzai the UN report, including beatings with cables Taliban-led Islamist insurgency being fought States for jet fighters, such as Fsaid in a decree released by his office late on and pipes, attacks on the genitals, threats of by a US-led NATO force that currently num- 16’s, and heavy weapons - includexecution or rape, electric shocks and forced bers more than 100,000 troops.

Saturday. ing tanks and artillery.

Decree follows govt probe into UN report

Karzai orders cameras to combat torture

‘Man in good health’

Yemen frees Dutch kidnap victim: ministry SANAA, Feb 17, (AFP): Yemeni authorities have freed a Dutch man held captive for a week after being kidnapped by tribesmen in the country’s west, the interior ministry announced on Sunday.

“Security forces freed a Dutch man kidnapped a week ago by tribesmen between the towns of Hard in Hajja province and Al-Zaidiya in Hodeida province,” the ministry said in a statement on defence ministry news website 26sep.net.

“The man was taken to Sanaa and is in good health,” it added.

The foreign ministry in The Netherlands said it had been informed of the possible kidnap of one of its citizens in Yemen, but without providing confirmation.

“Until now, it appears that the alleged victim

was not kidnapped,” ministry spokesman Christophe Kamp told AFP, adding that his country was in contact with the man’s family and authorities in Sanaa.

Hundreds of people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, with almost all later released unharmed.

The authorities are still trying to free two Finns and an Austrian snatched from central Sanaa late last year, however.

The Austrian man and Finnish man and woman were abducted on Dec 21 as they prepared to travel to the southern port of Aden via Yemen’s second city Taez. Last month, Yemeni security officials said the three were being held by al-Qaeda-linked tribesmen in the eastern province of Marib.

Members of a Thai rescue team carry a blast victim, after a bomb was detonated by suspected separatist militants at the clock tower intersection in Pattani town on Feb 17. (AFP)

Former Taleban militants who have turned in their weapons stand during a ceremony with the Afghan government in Herat, Afghanistan, on Feb 17. About 35 former Taleban militants from Herat province handed over their weapons as part of a peace-reconciliation program. (AP)

Timbuktu reprisals feared

Eight Arab civilians detained by military TIMBUKTU, Mali, Feb 17, (AP): Eight Arab men have been detained by the military in Timbuktu, raising fears of further reprisals against the region’s Arab minority, whose members are accused of having supported the al-Qaida-linked fighters who had ruled northern Mali for most of the past year.

Witnesses late Saturday confirmed the Feb. 14 arrests.

Ibrahim Ould Ali said his 70year-old father Ali Ould Mohamed Kalbali was taken from his shop. Mariam Mint Elbakaye, a merchant’s wife, said her husband Mohamed Ould Mohamed Lamine was grabbed by soldiers while in the street. A neighbor said two brothers were taken by the army from their home and another resident said four truck drivers were taken from the Abaradjou neighborhood.

Islamic extremists had fled Timbuktu before French and Malian forces arrived at the end of January.

In related news, the bodies are buried here, in the side of a dune less than a mile outside this desert capital, dumped out of sight in a forgotten and uninhabited zone earlier this month.

Except the wind undressed the grave.

Reveal It threw off the blanket of yellow sand to reveal a white piece of clothing. Soon the children of the shepherds who spend their days roaming the dunes with their flocks began talking about the two men buried there.

By the time journalists were led to the shallow grave 11 days after the two were last seen, the desert dwellers knew their entire biography: their names, their professions, the fact that they had been arrested by Malian soldiers on the same day that the French took control of Timbuktu from Islamic extremists. Most importantly, they knew their ethnic group - both were Arab.

Their deaths, as pieced together by The Associated Press from interviews with family members, residents and witnesses, as well as from an examination of the bodies, strongly suggest the two were taken away and shot dead by Malian forces, in reprisal against the city’s Arab minority.

Ever since al-Qaida-linked extremists seized control of Mali’s northern half last year, the international community has discussed launching a military intervention to free the occupied territory. For nearly as long, the United Nations as well as the United States has urged caution, in part over worries that Mali’s abuse-prone military could carry

out acts of revenge against the ethnic minorities which were associated with the extremists including Arabs.

Despite these warnings, France unilaterally launched a military operation exactly one month ago to take back the north, after the al-Qaida-linked fighters began pushing southward. The French swept through northern villages and towns, accompanied by Malian army troops, and liberated Timbuktu on Monday, Jan. 28.

Cheers It was around 10 that morning, as French troops in armored personnel carriers were still basking in the cheers of the crowds welcoming them, that Malian soldiers in pickup trucks sped up to the Nour ElMoubin Madrassa, a Quranic school. The headmaster of the school was a longtime Arab resident of Timbuktu, Mohamed Lamine. He was wearing a white boubou, a flowing robe like those worn to the mosque by the Wahabi, an ultraconservative sect accused of supporting the Islamic extremists.

His young wife was just returning from running an errand when she saw about six soldiers leading away her husband and a close friend, Mohamed Tidiane, a businessman who sold carpets imported from near the Algerian border.

“I saw they had bandaged his eyes,” said Ani Bokar Arby, Lamine’s wife. “Since that day, we haven’t seen him.”

Arabs and Tuaregs make up less than 15 percent of Mali’s population of 16 million, and most of them live in the north, according to estimates by the U.S. State Department. While they have lived in Mali peacefully for years, activists fear that they will now be targeted by those seeking retaliation for the Islamic extremists’ occupation.

In the first three weeks of the military intervention that began on Jan. 11, Human Rights Watch documented what they call summary executions, or killings of people without the due process of law, at least 13 people suspected of supporting the Islamic radicals, and the disappearance of five others in the garrison town of Sevare and the nearby village of Konna.

In the group’s report, published witnesses described soldiers at a bus station in Sevare detaining passengers suspected of association with the rebels, as the men frantically tried to find someone in the crowd to vouch for them. The soldiers drove or marched the men to a nearby field, shot them and dumped their bodies into four wells, according to the witnesses.

Sidelights Militants shot dead: Security officers shot dead three militants on Sunday in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the epicentre of an Islamist insurgency, local media reported.

Russia has tightened security in the surrounding region less than a year ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which it is planning to host on the western side of the Caucasus mountains, 1,000 kms (620 miles) from Dagestan.

RIa news Putin agency said the militants were hiding in a wood and opened fire on security officers searching the area in the early hours of Sunday morning.

President Vladimir Putin, who rose to prominence by crushing the Chechen rebellion, has ordered Russian security forces to be on high alert to secure the 2014 Winter Olympics, due to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Krasnodar region, separated from the North Caucasus by three small states. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ Algeria postpones trial: The

criminal court in Algiers on Sunday postponed the trial of 13 people, including FrenchAlgerians, suspected of trafficking an unknown number of Algerian children.

The case involves the alleged kidnapping of Algerian children, who were taken to Saint Etienne in France and given up for adoption in return for money.

Judge Omar Ben Kherchi postponed the trial because six defendants, including French citizens of Algerian origin, did not appear in court. Seven defendants did appear. Algerian security services busted the alleged child-trafficking ring in 2009.

In addition to child kidnapping and trafficking, the defendants are also accused of conducting criminal operations and forgery. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Bomb kills 2: A bomb killed two people in southern Thailand on Sunday and police said they had defused other devices, apparently placed by Muslim separatists showing their capacity to strike despite a failed attack on a marine base last week.

The insurgency in Thailand’s south by ethnic Malay separatists flared up in 2004 and more than 5,300 people have since been killed in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. (RTRS)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

ISSUES

13

SPECIAL REPORT

insight

A conversation with Yousef Aleneze

Bioinformatics surfaces as revolutionary approach to medicine and cures

Novel concept eyed for cure of AIDS

By Joana Saba Arab Times Staff

IF YOU ask almost anyone in Kuwait, they wouldn’t know it, but bioinformatics has recently surfaced as a potentially revolutionary approach to medicine and cures.

Bioinformatics is a novel approach to finding cures for certain diseases using a combination of computer science and microbiology, which works on identifying, targeting and/or (de)activating certain DNA which is responsible for certain diseases, such as HIV/AIDS. Bringing this research concept to Kuwait is Yousef Aleneze. Although having only recently graduated from Loyola University Chicago, his research at various universities and organizations has already led him to theoretical breakthroughs. This has included work with the NAACP on finding the potential technology that may lead to an HIV cure.

Yousef is currently proposing a research concept regarding finding a cure for HIV at the KU Faculty of Medicine, using certain novel concepts that have not yet been undertaken on a global scale.

His research has been academically published at the International Conference on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Disease, and has research experience in various fields, including ovarian cancer and malaria, amongst others.

Question: Tell us a little about yourself, your background, etc.

Answer: My name is Yousef Aleneze and I am a bioinformatics analyst. I am working on creating new bioinformatics & proteomics computational workflow systems to analyze essential biological macromolecules and antigens.

Furthermore I will incorporate a de novo fragment based drug design part in the workflow system. The next project after that is automated candidate drug manufacturing based on genomic and proteomic information of infectious pathogens.

Bioinformatics is a new discipline where you marry computer science and microbiology where you decipher the DNA that are responsible for certain diseases. You can also use bioinformatics to target different pathogens. Pathogens are microbes that cause disease. One of the main problems with pathogens, especially viruses, is that they mutate a lot, so we have to figure out the logic throughout the computation behind the mutation; is there a specific pattern that we can target to pretty much corner viruses from mutating into super-bugs.

Q: Tell us about your research, in some detail.

A: I have research experience in Loyola University Chicago and the University of Washington, on two different topics. In Loyola I did some research behind finding new ways where we could defend ourselves against the most resistant forms of malaria through a technique called biomimetics, which is using biology and nature as a model for designing new devices, processes or techniques to resolve health problems that we have.

At the University of Washington I did some bioinformatics analysis with cervical cancer and breast cancer to figure out if there are any differences between certain genes being regulated upwards or downwards, and how we could switch them off and on to decrease tumor growth.

Q: Specifically, what research have you done in HIV/AIDS? A: Regarding HIV, the way I started was through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). I got assigned as the Health Committee Chair. One of the main initiatives was to increase HIV awareness, so I decided to take it a step further and said, why can’t I contribute my education to actually find a solution for this. One of the main issues with HIV is you hear the term treatment a lot.

When it comes to treatment, this comes with financial undertones.

Unfortunately, because of the demographics of HIV, large portions don’t have the funds to actually get the treatment, so here came the quest for a cure to end this pandemic.

What I did was actually read my microbiology books and read chapters that we hadn’t taken, for my general

Yousef Aleneze

knowledge, and try to see the flaws in HIV. That is, what things it depended on, and how could we manipulate that to actually inhibit the HIV from getting to those needs. While it took some time, I decided to focus my senior project on creating a computer program that would actually analyze how HIV mutates throughout time, through a bioinformatics technique called philogenetics. You actually draw a timeline, and each timeline has a node and each node shows which part of the HIV changed. This gave us potential targets to attack, and inhibit HIV growth. While that was a success and I got officially published in the International Conference on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Disease in New Orleans, this past November.

We figured out that this was not enough to actually cure HIV because HIV has found a way to hide from medication in a very stealthy manner.

So, let’s say you have drugs attacking infected cells, HIV, through evolution, found a way to switch off its processing or transcription. When you look under a microscope, it would seem like they’re normal cells, and once you stop the medication, it spikes up again. That problem is called HIV latency.

So we had to figure out ways in which we could wake up the HIV cells and force them to reactivate. That caused difficulties because a lot of the chemicals that activate HIV are toxic, so we had to figure out ways in which we could have a non-toxic analogue of those compounds to activate HIV. With my new specific technique we decided to look further into nanotechnology because they’re cost-effective, easy to make, non-toxic and they have the ability to actually answer cells without inducing a new response.

Ultimately it’s a stealth process. With that, you can add specific functionalities and options within these nanoparticles were they can be responsive to certain stimuli. So if I want a nanoparticle to attack a tumor cell, I can add something on the surface of

biography Yousef Aleneze is a bioinformatics analyst currently working on implementing his research proposals in Kuwait. He has

the nanoparticle which binds to the specific tumors of the electronic target and would deliver the jerks that I want to deliver for the drugs to inhibit the tumor growth or drugs that would cause that specific cell to die.

So rather than chemotherapy, you selectively choose the tumor cells, leaving the healthy cells intact.

Q: What are the main developments that have occurred in nanoscale research and cures?

A: Overall, there have been big advancements in terms of reactivating latent HIV, because that’s one of the biggest obstacles that we’ve had.

Several studies in the US (Stanford University to be specific) designed synthetic analogues of this chemical called bryostatin, which is a chemical found in marine protozoa in very minute amounts.

So minute that you would need 18 tons of this protozoa to make 8 grams of bryostatin. The extraction was not very cost effective, so they had to figure out a synthetic way, and once they did they found out that the synthetic analogue was much more potent and active in HIV than the natural product itself.

Now, we figured out how to activate the HIV. Now we have to figure out how to react to HIV. To complete the strategy, we have to figure out how to kill those specific cells that have the HIV, and how to inhibit HIV infections to other healthy cells.

There were two techniques that I used. One of the techniques that I computationally used was the nanoparticles, but one of the main concerns was what target I should use to activate those nanoparticles.

These nanoparticles are going to go to all white blood cells, so I had to figure out a way where I would trick the

conducted research on nanotechnological cures for HIV, as well as malaria and other illnesses.

HIV into opening this package and releasing the drug that would actually kill the affected cell. If you want to put it into perspective, it’s like sending a letter bomb that only HIV can read, and that bomb will self-destruct without causing any harm.

Another thing is, let’s say that HIV managed to avoid the “explosive” and starts to spread, the HIV particle itself contains these long “limbs” that bind to white blood cells - CB4 cells to be exact. We had to figure out a way to cut off these arms. This can be done through catalyc antibodies.

Unfortunately many of the previous studies have focused only on antibodies that bind to these limbs - these surface proteins - , but HIV also managed to change its structure to a very flexible confirmation which would let the antibody latch-off. Rather than bind them together, we need to destroy these surface proteins so they can’t be used again.

Q: Do you have the statistics on AIDS in Kuwait vs. worldwide?

A: The statistics on AIDS in Kuwait according to UNAID state there are 214 Kuwaitis with AIDS. AIDS is not a major concern in Kuwait, but it’s a major global concern because every day 1,000 children are born with aids. 60% of them die before the age of 2. so it’s not targeted towards Kuwait only, it’s more of a global mission towards ending such a terrible enemy. But I am aiming to put Kuwait on the map in terms of the research and in terms of investing some effort in figuring out world problems.

The reason why I want to work in Kuwait is because it’s bigger than me.

I definitely want this to be a patriotic moment. I think that would actually put Kuwait in one of the leading posi-

tions in terms of biotechnology.

Q: How do you evaluate the current level of awareness on potential nanoscale cures in Kuwait?

A: It’s quite low, not many people know about it because I don’t think there’s a lot of media exposure on nanotechnology. Most of the technological exposure in on consumer products rather than industrial or clinical technology. That’s one of the main issues that we have. One of the main problems that we have is that young scientists don’t have enough media exposure.

However, I have spoken to Professor Abusalem Mustafa who is the ViceDean of Research in postgraduate studies, and the Director of the Research Core Facility at Kuwait University, and I have emailed him about my research proposal. He seemed interested and decided to schedule a seminar to speak at Kuwait University.

Q: Realistically, how long do you think it would take to implement this kind of knowledge in Kuwait and globally?

A: Honestly speaking, since it’s based on a clinical study, it would probably take a decade, because we have to make sure that this technique doesn’t kill people, because we’re dealing with lives, and the number one asset of every human being which is health. Pre-clinical studies will probably take 2-3 years.

Clinical studies might take an extra 10 years, but nevertheless if we find certain results for clinical studies, that still puts us in the top rankings in terms of latest findings and research towards taking the first steps to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. On a global scale, many companies have gone through clinical trials. In clinical trials you have phases. A lot are doing the first phase, which is testing to see if it’s toxic or not. The main issue is that we don’t know, because I don’t think any HIV drugs have gone to phase 2. Phase 2 is testing whether the drug does cure HIV or not.

With that being said, for a drug to go from the lab to the market, it will probably take 10-15 years. So our

time frame is the same on the global scale. They might be a couple of years ahead.

Just to make it clear, many researchers are aiming towards finding a vaccine rather than a cure. I honestly don’t think vaccines are going to work because HIV still finds a way where it can infect other cells in novel ways.

For example, there was a recent video where HIV infects different cells by forming a bridge, which is a new mechanism that we haven’t studied yet, between the infected cell and uninfected cell. So the tradition vaccine strategy using antibodies is going to be ineffective.

Q: What kinds of tests have been conducted, and with what results?

A: I can remember one off the top of my head, and it’s VRC-01. That’s a vaccine which was proven to neutralize the majority of different substrates of HIV. The only problem is it does not solve the problem of the internal transfer of HIV genome data from infected cells to uninfected cells. We have to infiltrate the cells rather than look at it in a vast spectrum and immobilize it. We have to attack the infected cells, because these are the reservoirs of HIV. Q: What are the potential benefits of nanoscale cures over other types of cures?

A: One of the things is that it’s very easy to make industrially. You’re dealing with manipulating particles with such a tiny structure, they can do things larger structures can’t, in terms of stability, stealth, responding to specific stimuli, and toxicity. It’s not very toxic.

You can manipulate these structures in many different ways to do different tasks. In a nutshell, it’s four things; the cost, east to synthesize, low toxicity and being able to actually select specific targets.

Also, when you are dealing with organizing chemicals in a nanoscale, they gain super physiochemical properties. They can have a super solubility, mechanical, electric and magnetic effect. We will use these advantageous properties to infiltrate HIV’s offense tactics and act upon it.

Q: Is it just AIDS that you’re trying to cure, or could nanoscale technology potentially be developed to cure other types of illnesses?

A: One of the main viruses is hepatitis, especially hepatitis C, there’s no cure for it. Using a similar technique, there are also novel techniques by which we can cure hepatitis C. Nanotechnology can also be used for a new generation of antibiotics, since the current antibiotics have been ineffective due to multi-drug resistance, such as MRSA, TB - which is the second cause of death after HIV. Since nanoparticles are inorganic chemicals, dealing with metals, bacteria particles could not be resistant to them, because they can’t manipulated the structure of non-antibiotics.

I actually unintentionally worked on finding potential therapy for malaria. The whole concept behind that was that we were trying to analyze the lining of the mosquito that carries the malaria. We were trying to figure out the biological structure of that lining - that is how come the malarial parasite does not affect the mosquito? Can we apply a similar biomimetic strategy to defend ourselves from malaria. So we were using the mosquito’s structure as a model to defend ourselves.

We actually sub-cloned a domain called GPX. GPX is actually responsible for defending a mosquito from being infected by the parasite that it carries. For now it’s still in-vitro. The principal investigator of this project still hasn’t gone to the next stage.

Q: What are the main obstacles currently in the way of implementing the theory practically?

A: One of the main concerns is the stability of the nanoparticles, and whether the nanoparticles could actually absorb into the target cells that we expressly want to target through endocytosis. Another concern would be if the stimuli-responsive mechanism would be fully effective. Would it actually deliver to the target that would actually malfunction halfway through. These are the main precaution we had to take to minimize errors. We used computer simulations and quantum molecular mechanics and quantum chemistry to figure out the optimal structure for the design of the nanodevice.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

14

World News Roundup Crime Childhood lost behind bars

Sentenced to life, woman sees hope YPSILANTI, Mich, Feb 17, (AP): More than 21 years after she went to prison, Barbara Hernandez enters the cinderblock visitation chamber at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in the turquoise blouse with applique flowers she keeps for special occasions. Her makeup is carefully applied but cannot hide the age lines that spread, thin but unmistakable, from the corners of her eyes.

“Thank you for coming,” the 38year-old inmate says softly. Her eyes, chestnut and brooding, are offset by a gentle smile. She holds out a hand in welcome.

And in that moment it is up to the visitor to begin weighing the choice the gesture offers: Is this the hand of a criminal who lured a man she’d never met to a brutal death and must be locked away forever? Or does it belong to a long-ago girl, who left home in rural Michigan at 14 only to end up in an abandoned house outside Detroit with a boyfriend who pimped her, and who now deserves a second chance?

There are more than 2,000 Barbara Hernandezes in this country — men and women sentenced to live and die in prison for murders committed when they were teens.

Last June, the US Supreme Court delivered a long-awaited ruling, wrestling with questions that have confounded the justice system for years: Should teens convicted of the most brutal crimes be punished just like adults? Or should their youth matter?

The ruling was dense with legal references and focuses on faraway cases. But in its 64 pages, the court offered new hope to inmates in 28 states.

Severe “Imposition of a State’s most severe penalties on juvenile offenders cannot proceed as though they were not children,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court’s majority.

Despite the justices’ strong words, they declined to settle the many complex questions inherent in resolving these cases. Instead, they left it to people in statehouses and courthouses, in living rooms and law offices and prison cells. In Michigan and many other states, the challenge now is to decide whether, and how, this new standard of fairness is supposed to confront the stern justice of the past.

That won’t be easy. In the closing hours of Hernandez’s trial, the prosecutor urged jurors to focus solely on her role in killing James Cotaling, a 28-year-old auto mechanic who, on a Saturday night in May 1990, told his fiancee he was going out to buy a Mother’s Day card at Kmart, but never came home.

“This would be the type of case where it would be easy to feel sorry for Barbara Hernandez, but you all promised me at jury selection that sympathy would play no role in your deliberations,” said the prosecutor, Donna Pendergast.

“You can’t look at who this defendant is. You have to look at what she did.”

Now, more than two decades later, the Supreme Court says that is not enough. But to comply with the court’s words will take more than just a change in legal process. It could well force the system to revisit the distant past and appraise its meaning, to again confront the details of terrible crimes and to take measure of childhoods left behind long, long ago.

Moved In 1987, the year Barbara Hernandez turned 13, her mother moved the family from New Mexico to live near relatives in Capac, Mich., population 1,700, whose two-block downtown is set in farmland on the state’s eastern shoulder.

The move put fresh distance between the family and Theodore Hernandez, arrested in 1984 for molesting the oldest of his three daughters and his wife’s sister.

Records show he served three years in prison for criminal sexual penetration.

But another relative, who has never been charged, soon began molesting the two younger Hernandez girls, abuse recounted by all three sisters and noted by a state social worker who evaluated Hernandez before she was sentenced.

The women say their mother knew for years what both men were doing, but either denied the abuse or blamed it on her daughters.

“She said it was my fault,”

Elizabeth Evans, the oldest, said in a recent interview. “I started my period when I was 10 years old and my mom beat me for that reason, stating that it was because I let my dad do things to me. I got hit with the wire part of fly swatters, with extension cords.”

Hernandez’s mother drank heavily, often leaving the children to take care of themselves. The youngest, Andrea Waple, recalls being in kindergarten when she was given a key and told to let herself in to the empty house. Hernandez skipped school to come to pick her up, stirring their mother’s anger.

“Barbara always tried to take care of me even though she didn’t know how,” Waple said. “We’d get into trouble about who knows what and because my mom was mad, she’d come home from work and hit us with a belt. It got to the point where we’re pretending to be crying to make her stop.”

Hernandez enrolled in eighth grade at Capac Junior-Senior High School where a junior named Jim Hyde - four years older and repeating a year after transferring from a nearby school - began passing her notes in the hall. Hernandez says she craved the attention and the two became a couple.

In this Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012 photo, Andrea Waple stands by the Flint River near her home outside of Columbiaville, Mich. (Inset): In this Oct 17, 2012

Investigators defend manhunt tactics

Recalls But Hyde was trouble, his stepsister, Deborah Erdman, said in an interview. She recalls him as a boy who blew up frogs with firecrackers and, later, as teenage drug addict.

Erdman said her mother spoke worriedly about Hyde’s domineering relationship with his new girlfriend.

“If he had told her to walk out in the middle of the road and stand in front of a speeding semi, she’d have done it. It was almost like she was hypnotized by him,” Erdman said.

When her mother described the pair, “she says, ‘Debbie, that girl is just like his slave.”

Hyde, also serving life without parole for Cotaling’s murder, did not respond to requests for comment.

In 1988, Hyde went to live with his mother in Pontiac, a down-andout factory town north of Detroit, and asked the 14-year-old Hernandez to come with him.

“I thought, ‘This is my way of getting out,’” Hernandez said.

Dorner hid in nearby condo In this Feb 15, 2013 file photo, Rick Heltebrake, with his dog Suni looks over the burned-out cabin where Christopher Dorner’s remains were found after a police standoff Tuesday near Big Bear, Calif. (AP)

Followed Hernandez followed, but a week or two later she gave in to her mother’s instructions and moved in with her older sister, Evans. She stayed most of a year, until one night when Hyde climbed to the balcony of the second-floor apartment. Hernandez says he told her unless she came with him, he would hurt her sister’s children.

The 15-year-old Hernandez moved in with Hyde and his mother on a Pontiac block notorious for drug dealing. Both found work, Hernandez at a Burger King. But the money wasn’t enough to feed Hyde’s crack cocaine habit.

Hernandez says Hyde urged her to pose as a prostitute, demand men give her money before sex, then run. That began a routine confirmed

by Hyde’s older sister in trial testimony.

By then, the sidewalk in front of the Spot Light Market had become an open market for prostitution.

“The pimps used to have their chicks walking down the street and they would watch them when people came to pick them up,” says Linda Nembhard, who has owned a house across from the store since the late 1980s. “And they used to have some young kids, not even 18.”

Hernandez says Hyde told her to put aside pretending and to trade sex for cash. His mother kicked them out of the house when Hyde stole her welfare check.

But Hyde knew a place to go an abandoned two-story house a block over where they slept in blankets on the floor. By then, the relationship had devolved into open abuse, Hernandez says, with Hyde grabbing her by the hair and beating her if she did not follow instructions.

The night before the murder, Hyde’s sister testified he told of a plan to leave town by having Barbara steal a car from one of the men who picked her up. When that didn’t work, Hyde instructed Hernandez to walk to Kmart and buy him a knife, then lure a man to the house so he could rob and kill him.

Hernandez, two months past her 16th birthday, says she did as she was told.

Continued on Page 15

photo, Jody Robinson, the younger sister of James Cotaling, who was murdered in 1990, talks about him at her home in Davisburg, Mich. (AP)

Kocontes

Luong

America US man arrested: A California man has been arrested in southwest Florida on an outstanding murder warrant in the death of his ex-wife, who went overboard from an Italian cruise ship seven years ago.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, was taken into custody Friday night by federal marshals and booked into the Pasco County Jail where he was being held without bail, authorities said in Wesley Chapel.

He was charged with one count of special circumstances murder for financial gain, according to Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Kocontes’ ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki, plunged into the Mediterranean on May 26, 2006, off the Island Escape, which was sailing between Sicily and Naples, according to the FBI. Her body washed ashore the next day in Calabria in southwest Italy.

Kanesaki, 52, was sharing a cabin with Kocontes, her ex-husband. They divorced in 2002 after six years of marriage but lived together in their Mission Viejo, California, home until 2005, court records showed.

Kanesaki left the cabin around 1 am to get a cup of tea, Andy Furlong, a spokesman for ship owner Island Cruises, said at the time. Kocontes, a lawyer, reported her missing after he woke up and couldn’t find her after a search, Furlong said.

Italian police boarded the ship, seized records and videotapes and took statements from the crew.

Prosecutors said Saturday that Kocontes strangled Kaneski on board the ship and then threw her body overboard.

(AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Conviction overturned: An Alabama appeals court has thrown out the 2009 conviction and death sentence of a Vietnamese immigrant tried for killing four small children by tossing them off a coastal bridge, ruling that publicity surrounding the case made it impossible for the suspect to have a fair trial in Mobile where the crime occurred.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for Lam Luong, whose wife testified he laughed when he told her their children — whose ages ranged from 3 years to just 4 months — would never be found. Alabama’s attorney general could appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

The case of Luong, a part-time shrimp boat worker, took odd twists that made headlines right up to the start of his trial.

SAN BERNARDINO, California, Feb 17, (AP): It didn’t take ingenuity for Christopher Dorner to elude authorities for six days. He simply opened an unlocked door.

As law enforcement swarmed a mountain neighborhood searching for the fugitive ex-cop, Dorner hid in a condominium 100 feet (30 meters) across the street from a command post and a short distance where he left his burned-out truck.

On Friday, San Bernardino County investigators revealed Dorner died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and defended tactics used during their search before a fiery gun battle ended an exhaustive manhunt. Dorner, 33, is believed to have entered the condo through an unlocked door sometime Feb. 7, soon after he arrived in the resort area of Big Bear Lake after killing three people. He locked the door and hunkered down until the condo’s owners came to clean it, said San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon.

Deputies knocked on the door that first night but moved on when they found it locked and with no sign of a break-in, McMahon said.

“Our deputy knocked on that door and did not get an answer, and in hindsight it’s probably a good thing that he did not answer based on his actions before and after that event,” the sheriff said of Dorner.

locked at that condominium,” he said.

“My instructions were that we were not going to kick the doors open to unoccupied residences or ones where nobody answered.”

Police initially weren’t sure if Dorner was killed by one of their bullets or by a fire sparked when they launched incendiary tear gas inside.

Now they believe he died by his own hand as the cabin was going up in flames.

“When about a quarter of the cabin was on fire, we heard a distinct single gunshot come from inside the house which was a much different-sounding shot than what he’d been shooting at us,” sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Lacy said.

Dorner was equipped with an arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles with flash suppressors that masked the location the gunfire was coming from as he pelted the first two deputies to arrive at the cabin, killing Det Jeremiah MacKay.

Engage

When the owners went inside the condo, Dorner tied them up and fled in their car, leading to a chase and a shootout that killed a sheriff’s deputy.

While some residents have criticized authorities for missing Dorner so close by, the sheriff emphatically supported his department, raising his voice and saying deputies “performed flawlessly.”

“Understand we found the door

“Our officers had not even pulled their guns out at that point and were not prepared to engage anybody and they were ambushed,” McMahon said.

The next five responding deputies got into a fierce firefight with bullets whizzing through trees. They deployed smoke bombs to block Dorner’s view so they could pull the wounded to safety as other officers provided cover with a hail of bullets, said Capt Gregg Herbert.

Worried he was lying in wait to ambush them, they eventually used heavy machinery to peel back walls and windows to see if they could see Dorner, who used smoke bombs to obscure their view. They eventually resorted to the tear gas, though McMahon said they didn’t intend to start the fire.

The search for the former cop began last week after authorities said Dorner

Days before jury selection, Luong said he wanted to plead guilty but he ended up withdrawing that decision. The trial judge denied requests by Luong’s defense lawyers to move the trial outside of Mobile County.

“It is clear that publicity surrounding the murders completely saturated the Mobile community in 2008. A great deal of that publicity was prejudicial,” the appeals court said in its ruling Friday. “...

Luong was denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. Therefore, we must reverse Luong’s convictions and sentence of death and remand this case for a new trial.”

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich and a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Luther Strange did not immediately return phone calls Saturday.

Greg Hughes, Luong’s lead defense attorney, applauded the decision.

Shootout

This undated evidence photo, provided by retired FBI agent Edmund Mireles, shows the Ruger Mini-14 used by one of the shooters in the deadly April 11, 1986 bank robbery shootout in Miami that left two FBI agents dead and five others injured. New models of this firearm that have folding stocks and pistol grips would be banned under proposed gun control legislation under consideration in Congress. But a similar model without a folding stock would be exempted. Both models can take detachable magazines that hold dozens of rounds of ammunition. Mireles was among the five agents injured. (AP)

launched a violent revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him, warning in an angry manifesto on Facebook that he would bring “warfare” to LAPD officers and their families.

The former Navy reservist was dismissed for filing a false report that accused his training officer of kicking a mentally disabled man.

His first victims were Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, both gunned down outside their Orange County condominium Feb 3. Quan was the daughter of former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who Dorner said he felt represented the department’s interests over his own before a disciplinary board.

After ambushing and killing Riverside police officer Michael Crain and seriously wounding his partner at a traffic light, Dorner fled to the San Bernardino National Forest, about 80 miles (130 kms) east of Los Angeles.

His burned-out truck, with a broken axle, was found within walking distance of the Big Bear Lake condo.

Dorner entered the condo through a door left unlocked for a maintenance man, McMahon said. He locked it and stayed there as officers went door-todoor checking vacation cabins and condos and used heat-seeking helicopters and metal detectors to search for the fugitive in the forest.

It was the condo’s owners, Karen and Jim Reynolds, who finally found Dorner when they arrived Tuesday and unlocked the door that they assumed the maintenance man had locked. Dorner pointed a gun at them, tied them up and fled in their purple Nissan Rogue SUV. “I really thought it could be the end,” Karen Reynolds said afterward.

Even though she was bound, she managed to call the police emergency dispatcher moments after he left.

“Maybe this will save his life,” Hughes said. “I don’t know how this will come out down the road. But he’s certainly better off than he was.” (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Marsh 3 settles 10 lawsuits: Texas millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, along with relatives and an associate, has settled 10 lawsuits filed by 10 unnamed teenagers who claim he paid them for sex acts.

In a prepared statement, plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony Buzbee and Marsh’s attorney Kelly Utsinger said the teenagers and Marsh have resolved their differences and that no side will have further comments.

Saturday’s statement was obtained by the Amarillo Globe-News.

Marsh 3, his son Stanley Marsh IV, his wife and guardian Gwendolyn Marsh and his associate David Weir settled the lawsuits.

The 75-year-old Marsh also faces 11 criminal charges filed by a special prosecutor. The charges accuse the Amarillo millionaire and artist of molesting a 15year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy in 2010. Marsh surrendered to authorities in November and is free on $300,000 bond.

Marsh’s lawyers have denied the allegations.

Special prosecutor Matt Powell did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether the settlement affects the criminal case. At the time of filing the charges, Powell said the millionaire faces six counts of child sexual assault and five counts of sexual performance by a child.

Marsh is known for planting 10 painted Cadillacs nose-down along Interstate 40 as an art exhibit. He suffered a massive stroke in 2011. (AP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

15

Crime Juvenile offenders sentence reweighed

Court may confront stern justice of past Continued from Page 14 “All these years later it’s like watching somebody else, but the horror of realizing that was me,” she says. “There’s just so many things I could’ve done and mostly I’m asking myself, ‘Why didn’t you run? Why didn’t you go to the police? Why did you just blindly go to the store? Why did you bring Mr. Cotaling into the house? Everything is whys and question marks.”

When the phone rang on Mother’s Day morning 1990, it awakened 17-year-old Jody Cotaling. Downstairs in her family’s lakeside house she could hear her mother on the line with her brother’s girlfriend, talking about a “missing persons report” and urging the younger woman to just calm down.

By nightfall, the house had turned into a family command center. Across the state line, police had arrested a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, found with the car Jimmy Cotaling had been driving.

The oldest of the seven Cotaling siblings, Jeff, grabbed one of his brother’s sweat shirts and headed out with his hunting dog to search the fields around Kmart, Jimmy’s last known destination.

Running off was not like Jimmy Cotaling, who was 28, with hooded blue eyes and kind of quiet. He was devoted to teaching skiing alongside his dad at the Alpine Valley slopes and to tinkering with engines, a vocation that turned into a job at Mr. Muffler.

Police searched three days for Cotaling before finding his shoeless body folded in a blanket inside an abandoned house. He’d been stabbed 25 times, his head nearly severed. Searchers found his body using a map drawn for them by Hernandez, who initially declined to talk to police without a lawyer, then did so on her mother’s advice.

What happened that night became clearer at trial. Even as Cotaling left home, Hernandez bought a knife, receipts showed.

When she returned, Hyde sent her back out to find a customer for sex.

Hernandez testified that she saw a man in a silver Pontiac drive by, watching her. He pulled over and followed her to the house on Howard Street.

Maintains Hernandez maintains that after entering the house, Cotaling began touching her. She knew Hyde lay in wait and when Cotaling began undoing his pants in the dark, she became scared and told him she needed to use the bathroom. When she stepped away, Hyde attacked Cotaling from behind. The medical examiner testified that the first three wounds inflicted were to Cotaling’s lower back and that two of the three — one piercing his left lung and another, his heart — were fatal.

The prosecutor argued Hyde could not have acted alone. Along with Hyde’s hair, two strands of Hernandez’s hair were found in the blood on Cotaling’s hand, she noted. What’s more, Cotaling was too big to be taken alone, she told jurors, and Hyde was too small to overcome him without help.

But reexamination raises questions. While Cotaling stood just over 6 feet, old photos show he was stringy compared to a then-muscular, 5-foot-8 Hyde.

More importantly, both the prosecutor and defense lawyers neglected to mention that Hyde was trained to fight — he was a highly ranked high school wrestler, placing sixth in the state finals. Joe Remenap, who was the principal at Capac and officiated at high school matches, said Hyde’s talent lay in a hardnosed detachment and singular focus.

Looked “When you looked him in the eyes you could see right to the back of his head, there wasn’t anything in there,” he said. “You almost have to be that way to be a wrestler sometimes.”

A point made at trial, and seized on by a state attorney at a 2010 commutation hearing for Hernandez, is that she once admitted joining Hyde in the attack on Cotaling. That argument hinges on testimony by Ralph Monday, a police detective present when Hernandez was questioned after arrest. “She said Hyde did all the stabbing. She might have helped hold him,” Monday testified.

But interviewed recently, Monday says Hernandez never made such an admission.

“My memory right now is that she had no role in even touching the guy,” said Monday, 69, now retired

and a city councilman in Findlay, Ohio. Monday said that after a reporter called, he double-checked the written statement Hernandez gave police and that there was no mention of her saying she’d helped Cotaling.

“Why I testified to that, who knows?” he said.

Weighed More than two decades later, the Supreme Court says juvenile defendants’ lives must be weighed when they are sentenced. Critics and supporters of the ruling agree it will change sentencing of juveniles in the future. But what should judges do with those already serving life?

If the new ruling applies to them, too, what should happen next?

Lawyers for prisoners want resentencing hearings to consider factors set out by the court, including lack of maturity at the time of the crime, family background, vulnerability to negative influences and the role the teen played in the killing. But officials in state after state have taken widely varying paths to resolution. California Gov Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing judges to reduce sentences to 25 years to life if an inmate shows remorse and is working toward rehabilitation. In Iowa, Gov Terry Branstad commuted all juvenile life sentences to 60 years, a decision widely seen as flouting the Supreme Court’s directive.

Pennsylvania lawmakers set minimum sentences of 25 years for defendants 14 or younger convicted of first-degree murder, while those 15 to 17 would have to serve at least 35 years.

In Michigan, the issue is being hashed out on three fronts.

In the legislature, state Rep Joe Haveman introduced bills late last year allowing for possible parole of juvenile lifers after 15 or 20 years, depending on their age at the time of the crime. But Michigan’s parole board has a reputation for releasing very few lifers and Haveman said he’s not sure how to address that.

He chose not to pursue passage and is meeting with a group, including prosecutors and defenders, to propose new bills for this year.

“I think the public is ready to look at alternative thinking and alternative sentences, than to just say let’s throw people in prison and not think about them again,” Haveman said.

Mandating A federal judge ruled in January that Michigan laws mandating life sentences for teens convicted of first-degree murder are unconstitutional. But state Attorney General Bill Schuette contends the ruling applies only to five inmates who brought the case.

Without a new law, the issue has also landed in state courts.

On a Sunday morning eight Novembers ago, Jody Robinson picked up a local newspaper topped by the headline, “Children facing life.” Inside the fold, she stared at a photo of Barbara Hernandez - jailed at 16 for killing Robinson’s brother.

Robinson says she had never been interested in politics and was unaware until then of a push to change the way courts treat teens offenders. The prospect of releasing Hernandez infuriated her.

Weeks later, she started an intensely personal campaign, testifying at a legislative hearing that reducing sentences of teen killers risked retraumatizing victims’ families.

When Hernandez was denied commutation in 2010, “my little guy said ‘Mom, why are you crying?” Robinson says. “I said, ‘They’re tears of happiness, honey.

The bad person’ — that’s what we call her — ‘is going to stay in jail.’”

At her kitchen table, Robinson opens a folder full of documents.

Her certainty that Hernandez is lying about what happened 22 years ago is bolstered by the argument that Hernandez might have admitted holding Jimmy Cotaling down.

Robinson points out that Hernandez has been written up 17 times for misconduct in prison.

She does not mention that the worst of the violations was for punching another inmate, or that the last violation was in 2007, or that Hernandez has since been chosen to mentor fellow inmates in a drug treatment program.

“If you ask some of my brothers and sisters they’ll probably tell you I’m obsessed,” Robinson says.

She is not alone in her insistence that Hernandez is guilty. The prosecutor, Pendergast, emphasizes that Cotaling had strands of Hernandez’s forcibly removed hair in his hand.

US Sen John McCain (R-AZ) (center), Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (right), and Sen Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) (left), speak to the press during a news conference on the terror attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi on Capitol Hill

in Washington, DC. The senators questioned why the Obama Administration did not seek enough help from the Libyan government during the attack. (AFP)

Illegals can get residency within 8 yrs

WH drafts immigration plan

A group of women head into the woods on snowshoes during a Shoe and Shoot workshop for women to learn gun safety, Feb 16, in Holdernes, N.H. (AP)

Long

Maciel

America

WASHINGTON, Feb 17, (AFP): The White House is drafting an immigration plan that would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent US residents within eight years, USA Today reported Saturday.

The plan would also allocate additional security funds and require business owners to check the immigration status of any new hires within four years. The estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States could also apply for a “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, the report said.

According to the draft, which USA Today said was being circulated among various government agencies, visa applicants would need to pass a criminal background check, file biometric information and pay fees.

Once approved, they would be allowed to reside in the United States legally, work, and leave the country for short visits without losing their status.

A new identification card would prove their legal residence in the country. And, within eight years, the immigrants could apply for a green card to obtain legal permanent residence if they learn English and “the history and government of the United States.”

They would also have to pay back taxes.

Playgrounds to honor victims: The

Apply

largest firefighters union in New Jersey is remembering the 26 victims of December’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut by building a playground to honor each one in a community recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

New Jersey and New York will get 10 playgrounds each, and Connecticut will get six. Each playground will link the two tragedies with the shared name Sandy to create memorials for recovery and hope.

One of the playgrounds will honor 6year-old Catherine Hubbard, who would stretch out her legs to reach up to the clouds after pushing off on her backyard tire swing and was hopping mad about leaving her beloved swing set behind when her family moved across Newtown, Connecticut, in October, two months before the mass shooting there. Catherine’s mom, Jenny Hubbard, said the idea for the playgrounds felt right as soon as she heard it - a playground was the “perfect” memorial for a 6year-old. “I immediately could think of Catherine playing and swinging,” she said Friday in a telephone interview. “I know that Catherine will be there and she will love that there are kids to play with on that playground. In a way, this is like us giving her back her swing set.”

Bill Lavin, president of the Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, a 5,000member union spearheading the project, said each playground will reflect the personality of the child or teacher for whom it is named. Jack Pinto’s will have a football theme because he was a New York Giants fan. Chase Kowalski’s will have fitness stations because he competed in children’s triathlons. Others, still in the early planning stages, may incorporate a victim’s fondness for a particular color, activity or symbol.

Grace McDonald’s playground will be decorated with peace signs, which she habitually drew on mirrors and windows when they fogged up. Grace’s mom found the outline of one on a window at home shortly after she died and had the glass etched in pink and preserved.

Catherine’s playground, to be built on New York’s Staten Island, will have a tire swing and be near a beach because of her fondness for sea animals. Her 8-year-old brother, Fred, is the honorary project foreman; he’ll be on site with a tool belt supervising as the playground is built by volunteer first responders and members of the community.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said the project is having a positive impact on the community’s recovery after Superstorm Sandy, which flooded neighborhoods, washed away boardwalks and destroyed homes and is considered the state’s worst natural disaster.

“The residents of Sea Bright lost so much from Superstorm Sandy that something like a new playground, besides providing a safe place for our children to play, is also a symbol of hope and recovery,” she said. “It has a far greater impact than just a

With greencard in hand, the immigrants would then be on a path to apply for US citizenship.

Republicans were quick to criticize the draft, and expressed anger at not being consulted.

“It’s a mistake for the White House to draft immigration legislation without seeking input from Republican members of Congress,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, flawing the ‘half-baked and seriously flawed” proposal.

“President Obama’s leaked immigration proposal is disappointing to those of us working on a serious solution.”

Rubio, who is leading Republican efforts on immigration legislation seen as crucial in the wake of his party’s poor performance with Latinos in November elections, said the president’s plan would be “dead on arrival” in Congress.

Rubio said Obama’s bill was not nice playground.” (AP) ❑ ❑

❑

‘Relatives worried about widow’: The disgraced Roman Catholic religious order the Legion of Christ bent its own rules for a wealthy elderly woman while it also isolated her from some relatives, according to newly released court documents in Providence, Rhode Island.

A lawyer said the moves show the order was intent on becoming the beneficiary of her $60 million fortune. But the Legion counted that widow Gabrielle Mee was

‘High-skill immigration held hostage’

Silicon Valley dream tied to reform SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 17, (AFP): Silicon Valley’s long crusade to break open doors to America for foreigners with key technology skills hinges on a political battle in Washington over broader immigration reform.

For more than a decade, the tech sector has been struggling to get more visas and green cards for immigrants with engineering, math or science skills.

While Silicon Valley has been largely backing reform-minded Democratic candidates including President Barack Obama, Republicans have begun paying attention to broader immigration reform, an issue dear to US Latinos.

“The election happened and the Republicans took a shellacking from Hispanics,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think-tank in Washington.

“It was a wake-up call,” he continued. “A comprehensive approach to immigration reform became viable.”

The new political landscape hobbled efforts to push through standalone legislation focused just on highskilled workers.

“High-skill immigration is definitely being held hostage to broader reform,” Atkinson said.

Stanford University fellow and Singularity University vice president Vivek Wadhwa champions STEM immigration.

“Who is behind the US tech boom

right now? Immigrants,” Wadhwa said.

“Just as the US is reinventing itself with a whole range of technologies we are cutting off the circulation in Silicon Valley.”

A Republican-backed House bill to expand visas for foreigners graduating from US universities with advanced degrees in science and technology was killed in the Senate by Democrats in the name of broader immigration reform.

“We need visas and a new-andimproved immigration arrangement for Silicon Valley and the high-tech sector, but the only way we will win reform is to fight for top-to-bottom overhaul of our immigration system,” Democratic congressman Luis Gutierrez said in an editorial on technology news website TechCrunch.

Gutierrez is chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and was responding to comments by Wadhwa, who testified in Washington this month.

Wadhwa claims the two issues are separate.

“Providing citizenship to people who jumped over the border is contentious; it’s toxic,” Wadhwa maintained.

“In the meantime you are holding hostage the legal, skilled immigrants — scientists, engineers, doctors — who the whole world wants.”

Reforming the immigration process for the tech industries would mean ramping up the number of H-1B visas, for immigrants with special skills.

tough enough on securing the long border the United States shares with Mexico, and that it “puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally.”

The National Immigration Forum, which advocates for immigration reform, said the White House proposal seemed to be “very moderate,” but lacked the necessary provisions for a future comprehensive immigration system beyond citizenship and enforcement.

“America’s economy needs the President and Congress to craft a sta-

ble immigration system that serves our economy and our workforce,” said the group’s executive director Ali Noorani.

“Commonsense immigration reform must include a functioning immigration system for the future; reform does not begin and end with citizenship and enforcement alone. We hope the bipartisan process underway in the Senate achieves this goal.”

Noorani also warned that a large increase in border patrol agents and immigration judges, as advocated in the president’s plan, “would be better used at ports of entry and reducing the backlog for legal immigrants.”

independent, strong-willed and happy and was never coerced into anything. The fact she led a less-restrictive life than others in its community shows she freely gave them her money, the Legion argues. Mee died in 2008 at age 96.

The Mexico-based Legion, founded in 1941 by the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, was taken over by the Vatican in 2010 after a church investigation determined that Maciel had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. The Vatican knew of Maciel’s abuse for decades yet held him up as a model for the faithful because of the

order’s perceived orthodoxy and ability to attract money and vocations.

Part of a lawsuit filed in Rhode Island by Mee’s niece, the documents include thousands of pages of testimony from highranking leaders at the Legion, its members, and Mee’s relatives and friends. They were sealed until Friday, after The Associated Press and other news organizations successfully argued that it was in the public interest to release them.

Mee’s niece, Mary Lou Dauray, sued the Legion after her aunt died. She said Mee was defrauded by an order whose leaders orchestrated an effort to hide its founder’s misdeeds from her aunt.

A Superior Court judge ruled in September that Dauray did not have standing to sue. But Judge Michael Silverstein took pains in his order to detail the process by which the Legion wooed Mee, bending the rules to let her become a “consecrated” member of its lay movement, giving her privileged access to Maciel and inviting her on special trips to Rome and Mexico.

Among the documents released Friday was a deposition from one of Mee’s friends, Joanne McKosker, who testified how the two had bonded in the 1980s through their deep Catholic faith. She said she would visit after Mee moved into a Legion center in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Around 2001, she asked Mee for a $5,000 donation for an anti-abortion charity. After Mee gave it to her, McKosker was prevented from visiting or calling Mee again.

“Months that went on, my trying to see her,” she said. “I was getting, I was angry because I, I wanted to be still friends with her, you know, and I wanted, I felt she wanted, too.” (AP)

A likeness of US President Barack Obama made of wire is seen Feb 16, in Key West, Florida. (AFP)

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World News Roundup Cyprus Feb 24 set

Cyprus heads into a ‘runoff’ NICOSIA, Cyprus, Feb 17, (AP): Cyprus heads into a runoff presidential election next weekend, with voters called on to select who will lead the country through a severe financial crisis after no candidate won an outright majority in Sunday’s vote.

Nicos Anastasiades, a rightwinger who presented himself as the most capable to negotiate a bailout with Cyprus’ European partners and who went into the election a strong favorite, won the first round with just over 45 percent of the vote. But he fell short of the 50 percent Anastasiades plus one vote needed for an outright victory.

He will face Stavros Malas, a left-winger who has advocated being more assertive in bailout negotiations so his country can win better conditions in return for rescue loans, in the Feb. 24 runoff.

Final results Sunday night showed Anastasiades winning 45.46 percent, well ahead of Malas’ 26.91.

Independent Giorgos Lallikas was a close third with 24.93 percent, and was eliminated from the running.

The change in leadership, after unpopular outgoing communistrooted President Dimitris Christofias said he would not seek re-election, comes at a crucial juncture for Cyprus. The other 16 countries that use the euro are expected to decide next month on a financial lifeline for the tiny country of less than a million people.

Cyprus is fast running out of cash to pay its bills, and the new president faces the difficult task of overcoming skepticism from some bailout-weary euro-area countries to secure help.

Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander, his wife Princess Maxima and their three daughters Princess Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane (left to right), leave with their own royal train for their

Italy Churches closed in central town after quakes

Italians prepare for election

Trouble Cyprus got into trouble after its banks, whose assets are bigger than the country’s entire economy, took huge losses when Greece restructured its debt. The country, with a shrinking economy and jobless rate at almost 15 percent, has already reached a preliminary bailout agreement with its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund, and has enacted a raft of spending cuts and tax increases.

But Cyprus’ help request is meeting resistance from some quarters, especially Germany, which says the country’s banks serves as money laundering hubs for Russian oligarchs, or that is too small to matter since it contributes about 0.15 percent to the euro area economy.

The size of the bailout, estimated to be up to 17 billion euros ($22.65 billion), is tiny compared to the hundreds of billions given as rescue loans to other troubled European countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But it is equivalent to Cyprus’ entire economic output, putting into question whether the country would ever be able to pay it back.

“Cyprus needs an adjustment program, a comprehensive one,” Joerg Asmussen, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, told Germany’s ARD television Sunday.

Focus It will have to focus on shrinking the banking sector in an orderly way and “financial help will be needed for that, but in order that there can be such a program Cyprus must make efforts in advance — this is not a one-way street,” Asmussen said in the interview, which was broadcast before Sunday’s election results became clear.

Cyprus will need to improve the transparency of its financial sector and taxation system, Asmussen said.

Asked about the election, Asmussen said the ECB needs “an interlocutor with whom we can negotiate on an adjustment program.”

“In order to secure debt sustainability, we will, for example, need far-reaching privatization — the current president had rejected that.

Now we will see whether we can negotiate such a program sensibly by the end of March.”

As he cast his ballot, Anastasiades, who leads the Democratic Rally party, urged voters to look beyond partisan lines when choosing who to back.

“Above all else, we must all unite forces, to counter this economic crisis which unfortunately our homeland has never experienced before,” he said.

Malas, who is backed by the communist-rooted AKEL party, urged voters not to turn their backs to what he called the most crucial election in the country’s history.

The latest round of reunification talks between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu resulted in deadlock.

holiday in Lech, Austria on Amsterdam Central Station, the Netherlands, on Feb 15. (AFP)

People stand in front of a partly damaged house in Schweinfurt, southern Germany, on Feb 17. Unknown reason led to an explosion that harmed a man. (AFP)

Rajoy

Sarksyan

Europe Spanish medical workers protest: Thousands of Spanish doctors, nurses and other health care workers, many wearing white lab coats, demonstrated Sunday in 16 cities against budget cuts and plans to partly privatise medical services.

Several thousand people marched to Madrid’s central Plaza de Cibeles from 27 hospitals in the region, waving signs that read “Your health is being sold” and “Cutting back on health care is a crime”.

They chanted, blew whistles and beat drums as they made their way through the streets of the Spanish capital, blocking traffic.

“There is no study that shows that privatising the management of hospitals leads to lower costs. This privatisation hurts patients’ health care to benefit other interests,” said Emilia Becares, a 46-yearold nurse who went to the protest with her three sons, aged seven, eight and nine.

The Madrid regional government plans to outsource the management of six of 20 large public hospitals and 27 health centres of the 270 in the region.

Spanish health care workers and many patients, who are fiercely protective of the public health system, say private providers will put profits before quality and fire thousands of support staff in favour of cheaper replacements.

“Many medications are no longer provided for free. I am here to defend the public health care system which we have built up over the years,” said Carlos Moreno, a 52-year-old doctor who came to the protest decked out in his lab coat.

Smaller protests were held in other Spanish cities including Albacete, Cuenca and Segovia.

Nationally, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has slashed health spending by seven billion euros ($9.1 billion) a year as part of a campaign to squeeze 150 billion euros out of the crisisracked country’s budget by 2014. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Armenian president set to win: Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan is likely to win a new five-year term on

ROME, Feb 17, (AFP): Austerity-hit Italians take to the polls next week with centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani leading the fray against Silvio Berlusconi in a vote that could prove crucial for the future of the eurozone.

Three-time prime minister Berlusconi had been rising fast in the ratings to as little as 2.5 points behind Bersani in one recent poll but might just have been stopped in his tracks by Pope Benedict XVI’s shock decision to resign.

“The pope’s announcement has really taken the wind out of Berlusconi’s sails,” political scientist Roberto D’Alimonte told AFP in an interview.

The irrepressible billionaire tycoon had relied heavily on his television performances but media attention has now been diverted firmly to the Vatican.

The final outcome of the February 24-25 vote, the composition of the new government and the direction Italy will take are still far from certain and the polls are being watched closely in European capitals and the financial markets.

The most recent polls indicate Bersani’s main Democratic Party and its small leftist ally SEL will easily win a majority in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, but could struggle in the upper house, the Senate.

The Bersani vote is currently estimated at between 33 and 34 percent but D’Alimonte said the somewhat staid 61-year-old former communist has gradually been losing ground and “his best hope is to stay more or less Monday after an election campaign marred by an assassination attempt on one of his rivals and a hunger strike by another.

Opinion polls suggest Sarksyan’s victory is all but certain. He is on target to win more than 60 percent of the votes in the small, landlocked country in the South Caucasus, with the next of the other six candidates barely in double figures.

Sarksyan’s supporters say an election free of the violence and fraud that tainted the last presidential election in 2008, when 10 people were killed in clashes,

where he is.”

A coalition with outgoing prime minister Mario Monti and his disparate group of centrist politicians and civil society figures could be one solution and could give Monti a key role in the new government such as finance minister.

Bersani has promised to stick to Monti’s course of budget discipline and structural reforms but has said he will also aim for more “social equity” and will face pressure from trade unions to go easy on free-market reforms.

“We are living through Italy’s worst post-war crisis,” the cigar-chomping Bersani, who has tried hard to shake off his party apparatchik image by surrounding himself with young people and women, said at one recent rally.

Defend While his programme has been short on solutions, Bersani has promised to recognise gay civil unions, reform laws to allow children of immigrants to have citizenship and cut defend spending to pay out more for schools and hospitals.

In a dig at the scandal-tainted Berlusconi, Bersani has also vowed to re-introduce laws against false accounting which was de-criminalised by the media magnate in a move widely seen as an attempt to ease his own legal woes.

Analysts say a Monti-Bersani alliance might prove unstable because it would combine the free-market advocates and Catholic community leaders in Monti’s grouping with radical leftists from SEL — “Left, would show the former Soviet republic is on the road to political stability and help sustain its economic recovery after years of war and upheaval.

“People expect from the president that he will be able to provide security and sustainability for our country,” Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview in Yerevan, the capital of the country of 3.2 million people.

“Based on that, all social-economic problems, and first of all unemployment, can be solved.”

But there are still questions about sta-

Ecology and Freedom”.

Also: ROME: Churches were closed and two temporary structures erected to house spooked citizens in the town of Sora near Rome on Sunday after three quakes shook central Italy, sparking panic but causing little damage.

A 4.8-magnitude quake which struck Frosinone between the capital and the southern city of Naples at a depth of 10.7 kms (6.6 miles), saw people race into the streets and shook apartment buildings in the centre of Rome.

The 10-second quake at 21OO GMT on Saturday was followed by two smaller tremors overnight near Frosinone and the town of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region.

L’Aquila was hit in 2009 by a 6.3magnitude quake which killed 309 people.

A 63-year-old woman in the town of Isola del Liri near Sora suffered a heart attack during the first quake and died in hospital, Italian media reports said.

Italy’s fire brigade said there were no injuries or serious damage to houses, although one building in Sora has been temporarily declared off limits. ❑ ❑ ❑ Three Italian builders and a technician were found guilty on Saturday of multiple manslaughter after a dormitory collapsed during an earthquake in the town of L’Aquila in 2009, killing eight students.

Bernardino Pace, Pietro Centofanti and Tancredi Rossicone, bility in a country that is locked in a dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, the tiny region over which a war was fought in the 1990s between Armenians and Azeris.

Tensions over the mountainous enclave still pose a threat to peace in a region where pipelines take Caspian oil and natural gas to Europe.

These concerns were underlined in an attempt to kill Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63, an outsider in the election. He was shot in the shoulder on Jan. 31 in an incident which for a while threatened to force the

Signs of thaw

Kosovo turns 5

Numerous icicles are pictured in front of a window near Oberstdorf, southern Germany, on Feb 15. (AFP)

PRISTINA, Feb 17, (RTRS): Kosovo marked five years since it seceded from Serbia on Sunday, with flag-filled streets, a military parade and growing signs of progress in EU-mediated talks to regulate relations between the Balkan neighbours.

Western diplomats say a push by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to ‘normalise relations’ between Belgrade and Pristina, is bearing fruit.

“We are seriously committed to normalising relations with Serbia,” Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s prime minister and a former guerrilla commander, told reporters.

who carried out restoration works on the house in 2000, were given four years behind bars each.

The prosecution had accused them of weakening the 1960s building further.

Pietro Sebastiani, a technician for Adsu, the university housing body which had been asked to check the dormitory a week before the deadly quake and had declared it safe, was sentenced to two years and six months in jail.

All four have been banned from working on public contracts for five years.

They were also ordered by the judge to pay 100,000 euros ($133,000) to each parent who lost a child, as well as 50,000 euros to each brother or sister.

The medieval town of L’Aquila and surrounding villages were hit on April 6, 2009 by a 6.3-magnitude quake which killed 309 people and devastated buildings.

In October last year, six Italian scientists and a government official were found guilty in a watershed trial of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of the killer earthquake and failing to alert the population.

All seven members of Italy’s Major Risks Committee, who had reassured locals and led many to stay indoors when the first tremors hit, got six years in jail.

Huge mounds of rubble still lie in the streets in the off-limits zone in L’Aquila’s city centre and in the surrounding villages, a potent reminder of the widespread destruction caused by the quake, almost four years on. vote to be delayed for two weeks. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

Bulgarians clash with police: Wielding rocks and tomatoes, protesters clashed with police on Sunday at one of a dozen demonstrations across Bulgaria against sky-high January electricity bills in the EU’s poorest country.

The protests were the latest show of anger among Bulgarians as the government has been slow to liberalise the energy market, drawing a rebuke from the European Commission last month.

Demonstrators in the capital Sofia threw rocks, firecrackers, bottles, eggs and tomatoes at police manning the headquarters of Czech power producer CEZ and the president’s office, while officers responded with batons and shields.

Around 3,000 people chanted “mafia” and “resign” outside the economics and energy ministry and the parliament and blocked a main road for half an hour, carrying banners declaring “electricity + unemployment = genocide”.

Local media reported demonstrations in around a dozen other cities, including the seaside resort of Varna, where more than 5,000 people marched behind a coffin for electricity, heating and water monopolies, according to state BNR radio.

It said two protesters were arrested in the northern town of Lovetch for breaking windows.

The week-long movement has been gathering momentum with each day, as demonstrators protest against bills with maintenance and distribution costs that surpass the price of energy consumed by around 120 percent. (AFP)

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Europe Britain blasts judges: Britain’s interior minister slammed the judiciary on Sunday in London, accusing judges of “subverting” democracy by ignoring rules aimed at deporting more foreign criminals.

Home Secretary Theresa May, writing in The Mail on Sunday newspaper, said some judges had chosen to “ignore parliament’s wishes” by disregarding guidance making clear that convicted criminals’ rights to a family life had limits.

The guidance dating from last year was aimed at ending a string of cases where Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights was being used to justify granting foreign criminals the right to remain in Britain rather than being deported.

May said some judges had “got it into their heads that Article 8... is an absolute, unqualified right.

“Unfortunately, some judges evidently do not regard a debate in parliament on new immigration rules, followed by the unanimous adoption of those rules, as evidence that parMay liament actually wants to see those new rules implemented,” she wrote.

“It is essential to democracy that the elected representatives of the people make the laws that govern this country — and not the judges.

“Yet some judges seem to believe that they can ignore parliament’s wishes if they think that the procedures for parliamentary scrutiny have been ‘weak’. That appears actually to mean that they can ignore parliament when they think it came to the wrong conclusion.

“The law in this country is made by the elected representatives of the people in parliament. And our democracy is subverted when judges decide to take on that role for themselves.”

Judges who allowed criminals to stay in Britain merely reinforced public perceptions of human rights as simply “legal dodges that allow criminals to escape proper punishment and to continue to prey on the public.” (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Briton survived Outback: A British

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives to lead the Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment on Feb 17, at the Vatican. (AFP)

Thousands flock to pay their last respects

Pope calls for Church to ‘renew’ VATICAN CITY, Feb 17, (Agencies): Pope Benedict XVI called on the Church and its faithful on Sunday to “renew themselves” as tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists attended his penultimate Angelus prayers.

“The Church calls on all its members to renew themselves... which constitutes a fight, a spiritual battle, because the evil spirit wants us to deviate from the road towards God,” he told the crowds from his window overlooking St Peter’s Square.

Families with young children, pensioners and nuns packed into the square in the sunshine said they had come to pay their respects to the pope, make their goodbyes or share in a historic event ahead of the 85-year old’s resignation.

Groups of scouts held up banners reading “We have loved you so much!” and “We will be with you ... always” and said they wanted to show Benedict that his shock decision to stand down on Feb 28 had not shaken their faith in him.

“He has done it for the good of the Church, and will keep serving us. He is retiring to pray — and God knows we need his prayers!” said Germana Blaiotta.

A serene-looking Benedict waved to the crowds and thanked them for turning out in such large numbers, calling it a “sign of affection and spiritual closeness”, as the onlookers called out “viva il papa” (long live the pope).

Greater Benedict’s brother said in an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC published Sunday that the pontiff was seeking greater tranquility with his retirement.

“He no longer has strength. He is going through the natural process of aging, as am I. My brother wants more tranquility for his old age. With the advance of his age, his strength is declining,” Georg Ratzinger, 89, said.

The Vatican said over 50,000 people had turned out to see the pope for his Sunday Angelus, while local authorities put the number at over 100,000. Benedict, whose surprise announcement last Monday that he would step down after eight years rocked the Church, called on the world’s faithful to “refocus on God by disowning pride and egoism”.

His words were seem by some as a veiled reference to internal bickering within the Church in recent months, as well as the jostle for power as cardinals from all over the world prepare to vote in his successor.

“Benedict did everything for the Church, he was always in the limelight but they did nothing but criticise him and try and undermine him.

Whoever follows him will have to have strong nerves,” said Margherita Yager, 61, from Germany.

Christine Renier, a 48-year-old teacher from Paris, said she was in Rome on holiday and had wanted to see the pontiff before he retires to a secluded monastery behind the Vatican walls for a life of contemplation.

“It is a sad day, but I think Benedict was actually too rigid and lost many faithful among the young. I’m hoping for a pope who can throw out the bureaucracy and get back to the Church’s roots, perhaps an African,” she said.

Light Amid speculation over which of the 117 cardinals in the running might snap up the Vatican’s top job, Italian media said Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan, was among the favourites backed by Benedict.

After meeting the pope Saturday, Scola said Benedict had told him “you have to become a light for everyone”, a phrase pounced on by the media as a clue.

“Significant words which will be weighed by everyone,” said the Repubblica, while La Stampa agreed they were “meaningful words”.

At St Peter’s Square, tourists snapping souvenir photographs of Benedict on their smart phones said he may have revolutionised the papacy.

“This is a moment which will go down in history. He’s opened the door to future resignations and I cannot see anyone suffering through an old age as pope again. From now on they’ll retire,” said Michele Agostino, 66.

Later Sunday, the pontiff will start a weeklong spiritual retreat and have only very few public engagements before he formally steps down — the first pope to resign because he simply cannot go on in 700 years.

Benedict will receive Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on February 23, celebrate his last Angelus prayer on Feb 24 and hold a final audience in St Peter’s Square with tens of thousands of followers on Feb 27.

Pope asked the faithful to pray for him and for the next pope, addressing a crowded St. Peter’s Square in his penultimate Sunday address before becoming the first pontiff in centuries to resign.

Speaking in Spanish, he told the crowd which the Vatican said numbered more than 50,000: “I beg you to continue praying for me and for the next pope”.

It was not clear why the pope chose Spanish to make the only specific reference to his upcoming resignation in his Sunday address.

A number of cardinals have said they would be open to the possibility of a pope from the developing world, be it Latin America, Africa or Asia, as opposed to another from Europe, where the Church is crisis and polarised.

After his address, the pope retired into the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for a scheduled, week-long spiritual retreat and will not make any more public appearances until next Sunday.

Speaking in Italian in part of his address about Lent, the period when Christians reflect on their failings and seek guidance in prayer, the pope spoke of the difficulty of making important decisions.

“In decisive moments of life, or, on closer inspection, at every moment in life, we are at a

crossroads: do we want to follow the ‘I’ or God? The individual interest or the real good, that which is really good?” he said.

Benedict’s papacy was rocked by crises over the sex abuse of children by priests in Europe and the United States, most of which preceded his time in office but came to light during it.

His reign also saw Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over his rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier.

During a scandal over the Church’s business dealings, his butler was convicted of leaking his private papers. People in the crowd said the pope was a shadow of the man he was when elected on April 19, 2005.

“Like always, recently, he seemed tired, moved, perplexed, uncertain and insecure,” said Stefan Malabar, an Italian in St. Peter’s Square.

“It’s something that really has an effect on you because the pope should be a strong and authoritative figure but instead he seems very weak, and that really struck me,” he said.

The Vatican has said the conclave to choose his successor could start earlier than originally expected, giving the Roman Catholic Church a new leader by mid-March.

Some 117 cardinals under the age of 80 will be eligible to enter the secretive conclave to elect Benedict’s successor. Church rules say the conclave has to start between 15 and 20 days after the papacy becomes vacant, which it will on Feb 28.

But since the Church is now dealing with an announced resignation and not a sudden death, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Vatican would be “interpreting” the law to see if it could start earlier.

Consultations Cardinals around the world have already begun informal consultations by phone and email to construct a profile of the man they think would be best suited to lead the Church in a period of continuing crisis.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected and then formally installed before Palm Sunday on March 24 so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, a close aide of Pope Benedict who will cast his vote for the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, says there is no reason why the new pontiff cannot be African or Latin American.

Koch, head of the Vatican department that deals with Christian unity and relations with Jews, also said he had had no doubt that Pope Benedict would resign rather than rule for life, and said that future popes would be free to do the same. “The challenges of the Church in the world are very different on different continents: in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America. The question is ‘where will the challenges be greater, on which continent, should it be a pope for, above all, Latin America, for Africa ... ,” Koch told Reuters in an interview.

backpacker who endured three days missing in Australia’s punishing Outback survived by drinking his contact lens fluid and urine, his mother said Sunday in Sydney.

Samuel Woodhead, 18, was found Friday on the sprawling remote property Upshot Station, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the far-flung central Queensland town of Longreach, from where he had set off on Tuesday.

He became lost in extremely harsh terrain and mother Claire Derry credited his training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for his survival in the remote and unforgiving Outback with little more than sunburn and dehydration.

“He tried drinking his own urine and he wasn’t able to cope much with that, so he drank tiny sips of the contact lens fluid,” Derry told the Sun-Herald newspaper. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

More arrests in crackdown: Three members of Greece’s financial crimes unit and two police officers were arrested in separate incidents, police said on Saturday in Athens, in the latest crackdown on corruption in Greece.

The three members of the Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE), aged 58, 54 and 58, were arrested in western Greece for alleged extortion of a local businessman. One of them is a senior officer of the fraud squad, a police source told AFP. Two police officers were also arrested in Athens on suspicion of blackmailing the 31-year-old Pakistani owner of a tobacco and food store.

The officers allegedly took the shopowner and his 43-year-old Bangladeshi assistant into custody on Thursday for purported health and tax violations and demanded money to release them. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑ 2 quakes hit southwestern Greece: Seismologists say two earthquakes have struck southwestern Greece, both with preliminary magnitudes 5 but with different epicenters. No injuries or damage were immediately reported.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the first quake struck at 5:12 a.m. (0312 GMT) Sunday, with an epicenter beneath the seabed 69 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of the Ionian island of Zakinthos.

The second struck more than two hours later off the southwestern shore of the Peloponnese.

The U.S. Geological survey gave the first quake a preliminary magnitude of 4.9, and the second 5. Preliminary magnitudes often vary in the early hours after a quake. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Masked intruders raid firm: About 40 masked attackers raided the facilities of a prospective gold mine in northern Greece overnight Sunday, setting machinery and offices alight, authorities said in Thessaloniki, Greece.

There has long been vehement opposition to the prospect of a gold mine and processing plant being built at Skouries in the Halkidiki peninsula, with residents objecting to what they say will be the destruction of the environment and of pristine forest in the area, leading to the loss of tourism and other local activities such as farming, the rearing of livestock and fishing.

The mining company, Hellas Gold, is 95 percent owned by Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold Inc. The Greek government has been eager for the foreign investment as it struggles through a deep financial crisis. But the dispute has led to frequent protests in the area, with tear gas and firebombs used and residents trading accusations with the company about heavy-handed reactions and the use of violence. (AP)

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World News Roundup Singapore Anti-PAP sentiment

‘Ruling party’ must change SINGAPORE, Feb 17, (Agencies): Singapore’s biggest protest in decades shows that the ruling party for over half a century is facing a more vocal electorate and must change or watch its popularity slide further, analysts say.

At least 2,000 Singaporeans chanted “we want change” and endured heavy downpours on Saturday to reject government immigration proposals, in a rare demonstration in the tightly controlled city-state of 5.3 million people.

Although low by global standards the turnout was the largest in some years in Singapore, where the People’s Action Party (PAP) has traditionally Wong responded to any dissent with a firm hand, and provides the government with much to consider.

“I think that gradually the antiPAP sentiment will build and spread unless there’s a very fundamental change in the way the PAP deals with the people, which I don’t see happening,” political analyst Seah Chiang Nee told AFP.

Couples attend a mass wedding organised by the Unification Church in Gapyeong, Feb 17. (AFP)

Runs “I think there’s going to be a further decline in the popularity of the PAP between now and 2016,” added Seah, who runs the political website www.littlespeck.com, referring to the next general elections.

For most people at the rally, held at a designated free-speech corner after a Facebook campaign, it was their first time waving placards and chanting slogans against the PAP, which has ruled Singapore for almost 54 years.

Eugene Tan, an assistant law professor at the Singapore Management University, said the high turnout showed “we now have a more contested political landscape and the PAP will have to deal with a more vocal electorate”.

The PAP, long used to winning districts uncontested, has seen its support slide since a general election in May 2011 when it recorded is lowest ever share of the vote at 60 percent and the opposition won an unprecedented six parliamentary seats.

Since then, the PAP has lost two by-elections, although it still controls 80 of the 87 seats in parliament.

Thousands marry in first ‘post-Moon’ mass wedding Thousands of Unification Church members got married in a mass wedding in South Korea Sunday — the first since the death of their “messiah” and controversial church founder Sun Myung Moon.

Some 3,500 identically-dressed couples — many of mixed nationality who had met just days before — took part in the ceremony at the church’s

Asia ‘Abuses still go on’: Human rights abuses are still occurring in Myanmar despite reforms by the quasi-civilian government, a UN rights envoy said on Saturday, singling out arbitrary arrest and torture of alleged ethnic Kachin rebels.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, was speaking at the end of a fiveday mission to the country, where President Thein Sein has pushed through reforms since the end of military rule in 2011.

“While this process of reform is continuing in the right direction, there are significant human rights shortcomings that remain unaddressed,” Quintana told reporters, calling for urgent action before the problems became entrenched.

The quasi-civilian government has agreed ceasefires with most of the ethnic rebel groups fighting for autonomy. But fighting flared up in Kachin State in June 2011 and the conflict escalated late last year when the military used air strikes to thwart what it said was rebel aggression. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

WWII shells disrupt trains: Japanese troops removed two unexploded

widow Hak Ja Han presiding for the first time without her husband who died five months ago, aged 92, of complications from pneumonia.

The church’s mass weddings began in the early 1960s. At first, they involved just a few dozen couples but the numbers mushroomed over the years.

In 1997, 30,000 couples tied the

knot in Washington, and two years later around 21,000 filled the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.

Nearly all were personally matched by Moon, who taught that romantic love led to sexual promiscuity, mismatched couples and dysfunctional societies.

Many were married just hours after meeting for the first time, and Moon’s

preference for cross-cultural, international marriages meant that they often shared no common language.

In recent years, matchmaking responsibilities have shifted towards parents, but 400 of the church members married on Sunday had chosen to be paired off a few days before at an “engagement ceremony” presided over by Moon’s widow. (AFP)

North Korea ‘Sanctions route until now has been largely ineffective’

N. Korea problem needs new approach

Feel “PAP leaders seem to have lost their feel of the ground. Their technocratic decision-making style is no longer accepted, yet they persist in ‘we know best’ policies,” said Reuben Wong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Saturday’s protesters were rallying against government projections that the population could rise by a third to almost seven million in less than 20 years, with much of the increase resulting from immigration.

Meanwhile, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, has been discharged from a hospital following a brain-related blockage, but he remains under doctors’ observation.

The 89-year-old Lee was hospitalized Friday after experiencing a transient ischaemic attack, which occurs when blood flow to the brain stops for a period of time. The condition is associated with irregular heartbeats.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says he was discharged Sunday and was resting at home. He’ll receive anti-coagulation treatments to discourage the formation of blood clots.

global headquarters in Gapyeong, east of the capital Seoul.

Mass weddings, some held in giant sports stadia with tens of thousands of couples, have long been a signature feature of the church and one that “Moonie” critics have pointed to as evidence of cult underpinnings.

Sunday’s event carried a special resonance, with Moon’s 70-year-old

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on rights in Myanmar, talks to journalists during a press conference at the Yangon international airport in Yangon on Feb 16.

Quintana is on an official visit in Myanmar. (AFP)

Gillard

Xenophon

Explanation sought Australia is seeking further explanation from Malaysia about why an Australian senator, who went to politically sensitive Malaysia to discuss electoral reform, was denied entry and deported, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Sunday.

Malaysia refused entry on Saturday to independent Senator Nick Xenophon, with an immigration official saying the decision was made because he had participated in an illegal street rally for electoral reform in the Southeast Asian country last year.

The Malaysian government is bracing for an election within months that is expected to be the closest in the former British colony’s history.

“We made immediate and strenuous representations on his behalf, not only in relation to him being detained, but into him being allowed to be in Malaysia,” Gillard told reporters in Melbourne, where Xenophon had arrived earlier on Sunday.

“Clearly we didn’t succeed. We will continue to pursue this issue with the Malaysian government.” (RTRS) wartime bombs in central and western Japan on Sunday, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate their homes and disrupting bullet train services.

Removal work began Sunday morning at a factory in Hamamatsu, central Japan, where a dud shell, believed to have been fired by a US naval ship during World

SEOUL, Feb 17, (AFP): The UN Security Council has been here before... several times: debating how to punish North Korea for — as Pyongyang would have it — reacting to the last time it got punished.

North Korea flagged its Feb 12 nuclear test three weeks in advance in an official statement released by the National Defence Commission, the country’s top military body.

But the countdown really began two months ago when the North launched a long-range rocket and set in motion a now-familiar chain of events that was always going to end in an underground chamber at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

The international community condemned the launch and the UN imposed sanctions, which North Korea then used as justification for conducting an atomic test.

An almost identical pattern was followed for the North’s two previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

The UN Security Council is certain to impose fresh or tightened sanctions on Pyongyang after the latest test, but most experts agree that the sanctions route — until now — has been largely ineffective.

“Getting unanimous Security Council consensus on another resolution doesn’t even send a signal any-

War II, was found in October, a city official said.

A bomb disposal unit of the Ground

more if we are designating North Korean entities or individuals that cannot be effectively sanctioned,” said US academic and researcher Stephan Haggard.

Corrosive “Indeed, it is worse: ritualised UN action is corrosive of our credibility because it continually paints red lines that we are forced to repaint,” Haggard said.

The option of significantly upping the sanctions ante with wider and more punitive measures — especially on financial institutions dealing with North Korea — is restricted by China.

As Pyongyang’s sole major ally and economic benefactor, China has always sheltered the North from the tough measures the United States would like to see the UN impose.

While Beijing’s patience with its recalcitrant neighbour is clearly wearing very thin, it is not about to support any action that might put the North in danger of collapse.

Most analysts, therefore, argue for a strategic re-think that throws out the old North Korea playbook and looks for a realistic long-term solution.

For some, like Andrei Lankov, a North Korean expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, this means accepting the unpalatable truth that North Korea cannot be prevented from

Self-Defense Force (GSDF) loaded the 860-kilogram (1,892 pound) shell on to a military vehicle and transported it to a

becoming a fully-fledged nuclear weapons state.

“The pipe dream of denuclearisation should be discarded; arms control is the only attainable goal,” said Lankov.

“The aim should be to reach an arms control agreement which implicitly accepts North Korea’s claim to being a nuclear power, while also limiting the size of its nuclear arsenal,” Lankov said.

Vulnerable But North Korea has a long record of reneging on agreements, as Lankov himself admits, and such an approach would be vulnerable to accusations of appeasement, especially in US and South Korean domestic political circles.

One of the main challenges of North Korea’s historical use of brinkmanship to earn concessions, is that it makes engagement with Pyongyang seem less like realpolitik and more like reward for provocation.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, believes a “new formulation” is necessary to break the provocationengagement cycle.

“A strategy of engagement that does not reward the test but seeks to moderate the regime’s behaviour through sustained dialogue may be most pro-

nearby beach, where it was detonated later in the day, the official said. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Spotted in firefight

Suspect arrested

Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (center), gives mass to the faithful at a Catholic gathering in Manila on Feb 16. Filipinos are hoping that 55-year-old Tagle, who was only made a cardinal last year, could become the next pope following the shock announcement by 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI that he would resign because of health reasons. (AFP)

COTABATO, Philippines, Feb 17, (AFP): A gun battle between soldiers and car passengers at a military checkpoint led to the arrest of a suspect in the Philippines’ worst political massacre when he was spotted among onlookers, an army spokesman said Sunday.

Although the suspect was not involved in Saturday’s shootout he was recognised by soldiers at the scene as wanted in connection with the 2009 killing of 58 people, allegedly by a powerful political clan, said Colonel Dickson Hermoso.

Talimbo Masukat was one of many curious civilians who had gathered at the scene of the firefight before he was spotted and arrested, Hermoso said.

ductive going forward,” Albright said.

Before the North’s rocket launch in December, 2013 had looked like a year full of opportunity for such a dialogue and resurrecting the six-party talks with the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

South Korea, China and Japan were undergoing leadership transitions, while US President Barack Obama was about to start his second term.

Many felt this offered the chance of a fresh start with Pyongyang, working off a blank slate, with new faces and renewed energy.

But the rocket launch and then the nuclear test have made resuming any sort of meaningful dialogue all but impossible — at least in the short term.

For South Korean president-elect Park Geun-Hye, who takes office in a week, campaign promises of greater engagement with Pyongyang will now have to be shelved for fear of inciting the hawks in her conservative party.

In the meantime, some analysts suggest the best way forward is to ignore Pyongyang completely for a while, and focus instead on building a consensus between the main outside players.

“There are signs that China is listening more to US concerns about North Korea’s nuclear provocation,” said Albright.

China shuts down two temples: Authorities have shut two temples on a sacred Buddhist mountain in northern China and arrested six people after fake monks reportedly deceived tourists into donating money, Chinese state media and an official said Sunday.

The Mount Wutai Administration Bureau closed two of the mountain’s dozens of temples and revoked their business licenses Friday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the six people were arrested over illegal funding and that the temples had reportedly hired fake monks to con tourists into buying expensive incense and paying unreasonable amounts of money for ceremonies. (AP) ❑

❑

❑

1 dead, 14 missing: A China-bound Myanmar ship carrying 24 crewmen and a cargo of coal has sunk off the northwestern Philippines, leaving one dead and 14 others missing, Filipino coast guard officials said Sunday in Manila.

Philippine coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said nine crewmen, including two who were injured, were rescued aboard two lifeboats by a passing Chinese ship after the M/V Harita Bauxite sank late Saturday off Pangasinan province. The Chinese ship notified Philippine authorities about the sinking of the vessel, whose entire crew was from Myanmar. (AP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

19

Africa Arrest Bashir – Britain: Britain called on Chad on Saturday to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir while he visits N’Djamena for a regional summit and to hand him over to the International Criminal Court.

Chad is one of the countries signed up to the ICC’s founding treaty which are legally bound to arrest Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the long-running Darfur conflict.

But several signatories have failed to do so, and Bashir visited Chad on Saturday for talks with central African leaders on security, including the operation against Bashir Islamists in Mali.

“If President Bashir is not arrested, this will be the third time the government of Chad has failed to implement warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” British minister for Africa Mark Simmonds said.

“Chad has committed itself to full cooperation with the ICC, and I reiterate the importance that the British government places on such commitments.

“The UK expects Chad to stand by its obligations and will be disappointed if it does not do so.”

The ICC on Friday issued a formal notice to the Chadian government reminding it of its obligation to arrest Bashir.

A note was also sent to Libya amid reports Bashir will also visit there this weekend, although Libya is not a signatory to the ICC. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Leaders urge support for Mali: Leaders in Africa’s Sahel region called on Saturday for further efforts to support Mali as they announced new funds to back a West African force in the country.

Gathered in Chad, leaders from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) called in a statement for “support for the ongoing political, diplomatic and military process in order to achieve final stability in Mali.”

They also announced 500 million CFA Francs (760,000 euros, $1 million) in support for the West African AFISMA mission deploying to help Malian forces reestablish control of the country after swathes of the north were seized last year

by Islamist rebels.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno, whose country has agreed to send 1,800 troops to Mali, called for the creation of an African reaction force to deal with future regional conflicts.

“The Malian case should concern us all and encourage us to speed up measures needed for the future, in other words the activation of the African standby force,” he said. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Congo peace deal due: A delayed UN-mediated peace deal aimed at ending two decades of conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is due to be signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Feb 24, the United Nations said on Saturday.

African leaders failed to sign the deal last month due to the concerns of some countries over who would command a new regional force that would deploy in eastern Congo and take on armed groups operating in the conflict-torn region.

The so-called intervention brigade would be contained within the existing UN peacekeeping force in Congo, known as MONUSCO. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent out invitations on Friday for the Feb 24 signing ceremony and intended to travel to Ethiopia for the event, his spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said. “All the invited presidents have committed to either be there or delegate power to sign,” Nesirky said. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ CPJ asks to release journalist: A leading media advocacy group is calling on Congolese authorities to release a journalist who was sentenced in December to six months in prison on defamation charges in Johannesburg.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Saturday that Joachim Diana Gikupa, editor of daily newspaper La Colombe, should be released pending an appeal. UN radio Okapi reported that Gikupa’s lawyers filed an appeal saying he was in poor health.

CPJ says that Gikupa was convicted of criminal defamation for publishing a report alleging that a Chinese company managing a local hospital had sold expired medication, among other things. It condemned Congo’s use of criminal defamation charges to jail journalists for critical reporting.

The group says the Chinese company, Gen Tai, denied the allegations and filed a complaint against the Feb 9, 2012 report.

(AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Attackers hack hand off: Attackers collecting body parts of albinos for witchcraft have hacked off the hand of a sevenyear old boy in Tanzania, the latest in a series of bloody assaults, officials said Sunday.

“The boy was attacked on Saturday by three people as he walked home with his four school friends,” said Apolinary Macheta, the local government leader in Tanzania’s southwestern Milepa district.

The boy, Mwigulu Magessa, is recovering in hospital, Macheta added.

The attack came just days after an albino mother of four had her arm chopped off by machete-wielding men, with police on Saturday saying they had arrested five men after discovering the decomposing limb hidden in a field.

In Tanzania, albinos are killed and dismembered due to a widespread belief that charms made from their body parts bring good fortune and prosperity.

Albinism is a genetic condition characterised by a deficiency of melanin pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes which protects from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

People suffering from the condition are discriminated against and persecuted in many African countries. (AFP)

A soldier puts a helmet on a boy as he tells a girl (top), to get down from the armored vehicle that is on exhibit ahead of Mexico’s Armed Forces Day in the Zocalo, Mexico City, on Feb 16. Mexico

will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its armed forces this year, and on Feb 19, Mexico will mark its Armed Forces Day. (AP) Narino department. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Ecuador

Chile arrests welder: Chilean police

Leader brought political stability to nation

Correa favored for re-election

Former sen Marina Silva speaks during the opening meeting of Rede Pro-Partido in Brasilia, Brazil on Feb 16, to try to create a new political party for the 2014 presidential elections. (AP)

Chavez

Maduro

Lat/Am Lopez to face crime charges: Venezuela on Saturday ordered opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez and his mother to show up at the prosecutor’s office to face charges for “presumed irregularities” dating from 1998.

Lopez, 41, and his mother 66 year-old Antonieta Mendoza de Lopez, are accused of “presumed irregularities” concerning donations made by the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to the Civil Association Justice First, a group that Lopez founded. The group became a political party in 2000.

Both have been ordered to appear at the prosecutor’s office to be charged, the prosecution said in a statement, without detailing the charges.

Lopez, a charismatic politician with a winning smile, has led the center-right Popular Will party since 2009.

In 2005, the office of the Comptroller General accused him of corruption and banned him from politics until 2014 for allegedly receiving illegal money from PDVSA and swindling money when he was mayor of the wealthy Caracas neighborhood of Cachao.

The cases were never brought to trial, and the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) declared the Venezuelan ruling invalid.

Lopez was a top contender to run as the candidate for the unified opposition in the 2012 presidential election, but bowed out in favor of Henrique Capriles, who shares Lopez’s telenovela-star looks. President Hugo Chavez defeated Capriles in the October presidential election.

The National Assembly, controlled by Chavez loyalists, opened a corruption probe on February 6 into two members of the Capriles’ Justice First party, accusing them of illegally accepting campaign donations without reporting them.

Chavez is in Cuba recovering from a fourth round of cancer surgery.

The move against Lopez appears to be part of a concerted government campaign against the opposition: on Saturday Vice President Nicolas Maduro on state TV accused government critics in the “corrupt right” and “parasitic bourgeoisie” of plotting “a silent coup.” (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

QUITO, Ecuador, Feb 17, (Agencies): Ecuadoreans cast ballots Sunday with President Rafael Correa, a dynamic, polemical economist, highly favored to win a second re-election. His leftist government has won broad backing from the lower classes as it leads Latin America in social spending.

Correa’s leading opponent, former Banco de Guayaquil executive president Guillermo Lasso, trailed Correa in pre-election polls by more than 20 points in the field of eight candidates.

Correa, 48, has brought uncharacteristic political stability to an oilexporting nation of 14.6 million people that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before he first took office in 2007.

He won re-election in April 2009 after voters approved a constitutional rewrite that mandated a new ballot, and he would be legally barred from running again following a victory Sunday.

To avoid a run-off, Correa needed a simple majority or 40 percent of the vote plus a 10-point margin over the No. 2 vote-getter.

Correa, a graduate of the University of Illinois-Champaign, focused his campaign on increasing tax revenue and social services.

Lasso promised to be friendlier to foreign investment, lower taxes on job-creating companies and roll back elements of what Correa calls his “21st century socialism,” such as a 5 percent tax on capital removed from Ecuador.

A champion of big government in the mold of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez but less radical, Correa has endeared himself to the lower classes by making education and health care more accessible, building or improving 7,820 kms (4,870 miles) of highways and, the government says, cre-

Guerrillas release soldier: Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the Marxist FARC, released a soldier Saturday they had held for nearly three weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Bogota.

ating 95,400 jobs in the past four years.

Correa’s critics, including leading international human rights groups, consider him an intolerant bully who arbitrarily wields his near-monopoly on state power against anyone who threatens what he sees as his “citizens’ revolution.”

Correa has eroded the influence of opposition parties, the Roman Catholic Church and the news media and used criminal libel law to try to silence opposition journalists. Critics decry his stacking of the courts with friendly judges and the government’s prosecution of indigenous leaders for organizing protests against Correa’s opening up of Ecuador to large-scale mining without their consent.

Blessing Oil prices that have been hovering around $100 a barrel have been a blessing for Correa. Petroleum accounts for more than half Ecuador’s export earnings and have allowed it to lead the region in 2011 in public spending as a portion of gross domestic product at 11.1 percent, according to the United Nations.

Voters like Fabian Garzon, a 48year-old messenger and cleaner, credit Correa with significantly improving their lives.

Garzon now has what he’s always dreamed of: his own apartment, which he is buying with a $24,000 government mortgage issued by an institution created by Correa’s government.

His monthly salary, meanwhile, has more than doubled over the past four years, from $200 to $450, and payments for his social security, vacation and other government-mandated contributions are being made regularly.

Josue Alvarez, released in southwestern Colombia, was the third hostage freed after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels let go of two police officers on Friday.

The hostage was delivered to representa-

“I worked 25 years without having my own house and at this age, thank God, I’m able to own my own home,” Garzon said.

In all, 1.9 million people receive $50 a month from the state.

Critics complain that the popular handouts to single mothers, needy families and the elderly poor, along with other subsidies, have bloated the government.

The number of people working for the government has burgeoned from 16,000 to 90,000 during Correa’s current term, Ecuador’s non-governmental Observatory of Fiscal Policy said in a December report.

Correa also has been unable to stop a growing sensation of vulnerability in a country where robberies and burglaries grew 30 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year.

Correa gained a reputation as a maverick early on, defying international financiers by defaulting on $3.9 billion in foreign debt obligations.

He has also kept the United States at arm’s length, and upset Britain and Sweden in August by granting asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the online spiller of leaked US government secrets who is wanted for questioning in Sweden for alleged sexual assault.

Correa has cozied up to US rivals Iran and China. The latter is the biggest buyer of Ecuador’s oil and holds $3.4 billion in Ecuadorean debt, Finance Minister Patricio Rivera says.

Ecuadorans head for the polls Sunday in national elections, in which President Rafael Correa is the overwhelming favorite to win reelection and possibly gain greater backing for his brand of socialism. tives of the ICRC and the local non-governmental group Colombians for Peace. Since 2008, the rebels have released more than 30 hostages to these mediators.

Alvarez, 19, was captured after rebels clashed with soldiers on January 30 in

‘Rights violators’

Seven ‘get’ life

Photo dated Jan 23, 2012 shows Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez during a meeting in Caracas. Venezuela on Feb 17, ordered Lopez and his mother to show up at the prosecutor’s office to face charges for ‘presumed irregularities’ dating from 1998. (AFP)

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 17, (AFP): Seven retired military officers were sentenced to life in prison for rights abuses committed during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship, officials said Saturday.

The seven were found guilty of kidnapping, torture and homicide in the case of 69 people who were held at navy bases in the city of Mar del Plata, 400 kms (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

The case was brought by relatives of victims and rights groups including the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Sixteen people were originally indicted, but two died before the trial could end and a third was absolved for health reasons, the Center of Judicial Information, an office attached to Argentina’s Supreme Court, said in a statement.

have arrested a man they say is responsible for the worst forest fire in decades in the hills above the port of Valparaiso.

Police say Carlos Rivas, a 27-year-old mason, confessed early Saturday to accidentally igniting the blaze with a welder’s torch.

“He’s a worker from the RVC (construction) company who was cutting steel panels with a welder’s torch,” Police Gen. Julio Pineda told State TV. “We arrived at his home, and he confessed,” Pineda said in Santiago Chile.

“Everything points to an accident but we’ll need to determine if someone else is responsible. For now, he’s the one.”

The RVC construction company has issued a statement denying any wrongdoing. But Rivas said in a written statement that his boss asked him to lie and cover up his role in the fire.

Local television aired images of Rivas being taken into a Pinera court in Valparaiso for a hearing followed by a mob of photographers and camera crews. TV reporters said he was joined by distraught family members, among them his mother, who fainted twice before she reached the court room.

During the hearing, Valparaiso prosecutor Victor Avila read Rivas’ statement, in which he says his boss pressured him to tell police that he was painting instead of welding.

“While the bushes where on fire, the site manager (Cristian Berrios) asked me: ‘Carlos what happened?’ I answered that this mess was the outcome of the work that he made me do,” the prosecutor read.

“When police arrived to the site, the manager told me, ‘Carlos you have to man up to this on your own.’ ... Mr. Berrios then called me at around 8 p.m. asking me to say that I was painting and that I never used the welding tools.”

RVC company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chile’s emergency office, ONEMI, issued a red alert after the blaze broke out on Thursday in the city’s San Roque hill, some 75 miles (120 kms) northeast of the capital, Santiago.

The fire destroyed more than 100 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 1,200 people. At least 27 people were injured, including five children.

Strong, changing winds and hot, dry weather at the height of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer holiday season stoked the fire.

President Sebastian Pinera cut his vacation short to visit the victims Friday at shelters. He has vowed to rebuild the area and give everyone new homes. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Guatemala capt. convicted: Guatemalan officials say an army captain sentenced to 20 years in prison for the slaying of a bishop has been arrested outside the facility where he was living.

Byron Lima was sentenced in 2006 along with three other men for the 1998 killing of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi. The activist clergyman had released a report accusing Guatemala’s military of being responsible for the vast majority of deaths during the country’s brutal 36-year civil war.

Lima was driving an armored SUV Friday evening along with the director of the prison where he was living. Five prison guards were protecting them in a second armored vehicle. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

4 held in Jamaica shooting: Authorities in Jamaica say they have arrested four suspects in connection with the shooting of eight people in a gritty neighborhood in the capital of Kingston.

The shooting left all eight victims injured, among them a 3-year-old.

Relatives of those shot told The Jamaica Observer that the victims were playing a game of dominoes when a group of men opened fire.

Police said Saturday that four of seven suspects in Thursday’s shooting have turned themselves in. (AP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

20

World News Roundup Environment ‘Warming real risk’

UN ‘formula’ to get 1st test OSLO, Feb 17, (Agencies): A new United Nations plan to involve all nations in marshalling science to fix environmental problems ranging from toxic chemicals to climate change will be put to the test from Monday at talks in Nairobi.

The 40-year-old UN Environment Programme will open its annual governing council to all the world’s almost 200 nations, up from a current group of 58, under reforms aimed at making the world economy greener at a time of weak economic growth.

Obama “A strengthened UNEP will ... improve and enhance international cooperation on the environment,” Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, said of the annual Feb 18-22 meeting in a telephone interview with Reuters.

Environment ministers or senior officials from about 150 nations are due to attend, out of almost 200 possible worldwide. Until now, UNEP’s governing council has left out many smaller states, from Guyana to Albania.

Sharpen The shift is meant to sharpen world focus on problems such as toxic chemicals, over-fishing and global warming. Getting more countries in the room will not necessarily make reaching agreements easier but should give UNEP decisions more authority.

Steiner said the talks would be a first chance to see how the new approach works. UNEP oversees many scientific studies guiding UN work, such as monitoring climate change or the pace of extinction of animals and plants.

Under an agreement last year at an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, UNEP will get a bigger budget. “By (Feb 22) the plan is that we will have the final steps in implementing the Rio summit’s decisions to reform UNEP,” Steiner said.

The Rio deal fell short of calls by some nations, such as France, to create a completely new UN environment agency.

“The seeds of what we are seeing will be seen only 5 or 10 years down the line,” Steiner said.

“One of the major issues is a new strategy for the organisation and a programme of work for the next 3 years,” Steiner said of the Nairobi talks that will lay guidelines for work on issues from oceans to slowing extinctions.

A general view of El Paraiso archaeological site in Lima on Feb 14, 2013. (Inset): Archaeologists work at the El Paraiso archaeological site. An Ancient temple believed to be about 5,000 years old

Ancient mysteries unveiled at Peru’s Temple of Fire The recent discovery of a ceremonial fireplace believed to be more than 5,000 years old sheds light on one of the oldest populated sites in the Americas.

The fireplace, dubbed the Temple of Fire, was discovered within the El Paraiso archeological complex in the Chillon valley, located just outside the

bustling Peruvian capital.

Archeologists say the site is comparable in age to Caral, the oldest preColumbian site in the Americas that was inhabited between 2,600 - 2,100 BC. Caral is located some 200 kms (125 miles) to the north and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The fireplace was found when arche-

ologists discovered a narrow entrance on a wing of El Paraiso’s central pyramid in January, when they were removing sand and stones.

“We quickly realized the importance of this discovery,” said Marco Guillen, the head archeologist at the site.

The entrance, measuring some 48 centimeters (19-inches) wide, leads to

a chamber measuring eight by six meters (26 by 20 feet) where shellfish, grains, flowers and fruit were burned as offerings.

The stone walls inside “were covered with a fine coating of yellow soil, with traces of red paint,” Guillen said. “The smoke allowed the priests to connect with the gods.”

The temple has four levels, “each one older than the other,” Guillen said.

The find shows that the Andean world more closely connected than previously thought — this early construction set a construction blueprint reproduced in the ancient mountain chain civilizations for the centuries to come. (AFP)

Space Region begins recovery from meteor fall

Russia halts search for meteorite

Thinning UNEP has registered some successes, such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol for limiting emissions of gases blamed for thinning the planet’s protective ozone layer, or a treaty due to be signed in Japan this October to limit toxic mercury.

Climate change has proved far tougher to solve as global emissions of greenhouse gases have continued to rise. China, the United States and the European Union are top emitters.

Governments aim to work out a deal by the end of 2015 to slow global warming and make it effective from the end of 2020. World leaders including US President Barack Obama failed to nail down a treaty at a summit in Copenhagen in 2009.

“On the current trajectory of negotiations it is not easy to see how by 2015 a new framework agreement will emerge,” Steiner said. But some nations have been acting on their own and extreme events, such as a melt of the Arctic sea ice, droughts, floods and powerful storms, have underscored the risks.

“It is becoming more and more clear in the minds of the public that climate change is ... a clear and present danger that will require us to act,” he said.

UNEP has overall responsibility for environmental problems among UN agencies but talks on fixing global warming are overseen by the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat.

Meanwhile, the president of the World Bank on Saturday warned the finance chiefs of the world’s leading economic powers that global warming is a real risk to the planet and already affecting the world economy in unprecedented ways.

Adressing the G20 finance ministers at their meeting in Moscow, Jim Yong Kim called on the world powers to “tackle the serious challenges presented by climate change.”

“These are not just risks. They represent real consequences,” said Kim, calling the lack of attention to the issue by finance ministers and central bank chiefs “a mistake”.

He said failing to tackle the challenges of climate change risked having “serious consequences for the economic outlook”.

was discovered at the archaeological site of El Paraiso. (AFP)

This image released by the European Space Agency and courtesy of Dave Herald, was acquired by amateur astronomer Dave Herald, Murrumbateman, Australia, earlier on April 15. It shows the approximately 50 m-diameter object about seven hours before closest approach.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is predicted to make closest approach to Earth at 20:27 CET on Feb 15 2013. It will not impact Earth, however it will pass within about 28,000 kms. ‘This is well inside the geostationary ring, where many communication satellites are located, says Detlef Koschny, Head of NEO activities at ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme office. ‘There is no danger to these satellites, however, as the asteroid will come ‘from below and not intersect the geostationary belt. While tiny against the vastness of our Solar System, it should be visible in Europe to anyone with a good pair of binoculars and an idea of where to look. (AFP)

CHELYABINSK, Russia, Feb 17, (Agencies): Russian authorities halted their search Sunday for the meteorite that spectacularly struck the Urals last week, leaving about 1,200 people injured and damaging several thousand buildings.

The 10-tonne space rock streaked over the Chelyabinsk region in central Russia in a blinding fireball on Friday just as the world was braced for a close encounter with a large asteroid.

Residents of Chelyabinsk, a city of 1.1 million and the centre of Russia’s heavy industry, were struggling to pick up the pieces and replace thousands of blownout windows in time for Monday, when schools are set to reopen.

Despite an intensive search of a frozen lake where fisherman found a large hole they thought was caused by the meteorite, no remnants have been found.

With air temperatures around minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Farenheit), Russian divers spent Saturday scouring lake Chebarkul, about 60 kms (40 miles) from Chelyabinsk, but the emergency ministry has now decided to focus on repair works in the region instead, a spokesman told AFP. one that streaked over Chelyabinsk, Russia, are much rarer. Another meteor landed in the Bay Area in October and caused a loud sonic boom, a sound that could have been from the meteor traveling faster than the speed of sound, officials said at the time.

McKeegan

“Divers worked there, but we didn’t find anything,” said spokesman Vyacheslav Ladonkin.

He said the ministry believed a circular eight-metre hole in the lake was not caused by any extraterrestrial body.

“We believe it was caused by something else,” he told AFP. “A decision has been made to stop the search. It will not be continued today.”

The meteor’s fiery entry into earth’s atmosphere set off a shockwave in an event unprecedented in modern times.

About 24,000 emergency workers were replacing smashed windows after nearly 5,000 buildings were damaged.

The force blew out a large section of brick wall at the local zinc plant, and tore holes in the walls of the city’s ice skating and hockey centre, where several matches were cancelled.

Forty people remained in hospital Sunday, mostly with cuts, broken bones and concussion, a doctor told Rossiya Channel from the Chelyabinsk hospital said, while a special centre was opened to provide psychological help to those disturbed by the incident.

“There was a white streak. We thought it was a burning plane,” Vera, a

patient who was brought to the hospital unconscious, told Rossiya as she recounted Friday’s drama.

“Then there was a blast. And then I don’t remember,” she said from her hospital bed, apparently still dazed.

“We saw a bright light, it became as light as day for a few minutes. We couldn’t understand what it was,” another witness, 65-year-old Zoya Yermakova, told AFP. The meteor strike is the most stunning cosmic incident above Russia since the 1908 Tunguska Event, in which a colossal blast most scientists blame on an asteroid or a comet levelled trees across a stretch of Siberia.

Scientists at US space agency NASA estimated that the amount of energy released in the atmosphere on Friday was about 30 times greater than the force of the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II. “People (of Chelyabinsk) can consider February 15 their second birth date,” the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Mikhail Yurevich, told reporters, saying “God directed danger away” from the most populated areas,

Another meteor that exploded April 22 was seen over a large part of Northern California and Nevada.

The center’s large telescopes did not pick up the object during a stargazing event, astronomer Gerald McKeegan told KGO-TV.

On Friday, the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland also reported receiving calls describing what appeared to be a fireball flying west around 8 p.m.

(AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Hankey

Everglades combed

Space

Python hunt nets 68

Streak of light reported: Hours after a meteor exploded over Russia and injured more than 1,000 people and an asteroid passed relatively close to Earth, residents in California reported seeing an unusual flash of light over the San Francisco Bay area that left many startled and thrilled.

Based on reports, the light streaking in the Northern California sky was a sporadic meteor, or fireball, and not a major event, said Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society in Genesee, New York. The group recorded at least 35 reports of the event, he said.

“Fireballs happen every single night, all around the world,” he said.

Experts say smaller meteorites hit earth five to 10 times a year but chances of a large meteor passing, such as the

In this Jan 16, 2013 file photo, Jim Howard of Cooper City, Fla, searches under the dense foliage in the Florida Everglades looking for pythons as part of the month long ‘Python Challenge.’ (AP)

MIAMI, Feb 17, (AFP): Hundreds of hunters spent a month combing Florida’s Everglades for Burmese pythons, in the end capturing and killing 68 of the slithery, invasive reptiles, organizers said Saturday.

The longest was 14 feet and three inches, netting the hunter who brought it in a $1,000 prize.

The Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also announced winners of two $1,500 prizes for the hunters who killed the most Burmese pythons, an invasive species seen as a threat to the wetlands’ eco-system.

The total take was 68 Burmese pythons, said Nick Wiley, the FWC’s executive director.

causing injuries but no deaths.

The drama in Russia developed just hours before an asteroid — a space object similar to a tiny planet orbiting the sun — whizzed safely past Earth at the unprecedented distance of 27,000 kms (17,200 miles).

As a small army of people worked to replace acres of windows shattered by the enormous explosion from a meteor, many joked on Saturday about what had happened in this troubled pocket of Russia.

One of the most popular jests: Residents of the meteor were terrified to see Chelyabinsk approaching.

The fireball that streaked into the sky over this tough industrial city at about sunrise Friday was undeniably traumatic. Nearly 1,200 people were reported injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

But it also brought a sense of cooperation in a troubled region. Large numbers of volunteers came forward to help fix the damage caused by the explosion and many residents came together on the Internet – first to find out what happened and soon to make jokes.

Cuba reports explosion: Cuba apparently experienced a phenomenon similar to but smaller than the meteorite that detonated over Russia this week, island media reported, with startled residents describing a bright light in the sky and a loud explosion that shook windows and walls.

There were no reports of any injuries or damage such as those caused by the Russia meteorite, which sent out shockwaves that hurt some 1,200 people and shattered countless windows.

In a video from a state TV newscast posted on the website CubaSi late Friday, unidentified residents of the central city of Rodas, near Cienfuegos, said the explosion was impressive.

“On Tuesday we left home to fish around five in the afternoon, and around 8:00 we saw a light in the heavens and then a big ball of fire, bigger than the sun,” one local man said in the video.

“My home shook completely,” said a woman. “I had never heard such a strange thing.”

Marcos Rodriguez, whom the video identified as a specialist in anthropology, said all signs point to a meteorite.

According to scientists, five to 10 smaller meteorites hit the planet each year. Larger events like the one over Russia are more rare, and some experts said it may have been the biggest such blast since another meteor hit Siberia in 1908. (AP)

Other frontrunners remain hard on their heels

Affleck’s ‘Argo’, Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ vie for Oscars crown

Film

LOS ANGELES, Feb 17, (AFP): Steven Spielberg goes into next weekend’s Oscars with the most nominations for his presidential “Lincoln,” but the momentum is all with Ben Affleck’s thriller “Argo” in the Academy Awards home straight.

And while the Hollywood veteran and the young pretender vie for the Oscars best picture crown, several other frontrunners remain hard on their heels, in one of the least predictable Oscar races in recent memory.

Taiwan-born Ang Lee’s 3D spectacular “Life of Pi,” Osama bin Laden manhunt movie “Zero Dark Thirty” and romcom “Silver Linings Playbook” could all be in

with a chance at the Oscars, the climax of Tinseltown’s annual awards season.

Spielberg and Lee are frontrunners for best director, while “Lincoln” star Daniel Day-Lewis is widely seen as a shoo-in for best actor. For best actress the hot money is on Jessica Chastain for her part in “Zero Dark Thirty” or “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence.

But Affleck’s Iran hostage drama, despite only winning seven nominations — against 12 for “Lincoln,” 11 for “Life of Pi” and eight each for “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Les Miserables” — has a clear edge for best picture.

It has swept up top prizes at a string of key awards shows, including the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and Britain’s BAFTA last weekend.

Tightlipped Affleck has gotten used to making acceptance speeches over the last two months — but he has been tightlipped on his prospects for the all-important 85th Academy Awards, to be held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre next Sunday.

“I just feel so incredibly honored to be nominated as a produc-

er for this movie. To be here at the big party,” he said at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, the annual gathering of those in the race, held in Beverly Hills on February 4.

Indeed, his best picture nomination is as a co-producer of the film — along with George Clooney and Grant Heslov — rather than as a director, a category in which he was not nominated, in a perceived snub. Snub or no snub, he will be among presenters at the show, along with a Who’s Who of A-listers including Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and Meryl Streep. “Family Guy” creator

Seth MacFarlane will be hosting, a move organizers hope will attract younger viewers among the hundreds of millions watching live around the world.

Other nominees presenting include Chastain — best actress frontrunner for playing a relentless CIA agent on the hunt for bin Laden, in Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s controversial “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Portrayal But Lawrence, star of the “Hunger Games” blockbuster franchise, could also win the category for her portrayal of mixed-up Tiffany to Bradley Cooper’s bipolar ex-teacher in “Silver Linings

Playbook.” Cooper is up for best actor, along with Hugh Jackman for “Les Miserables,” Joaquin Phoenix for “The Master” and Denzel Washington for “Flight” — but Day-Lewis is widely forecast for a record third Oscar for his “Lincoln” turn.

For best director, 66-year-old Spielberg will be hoping for his first Oscar since “Saving Private Ryan” in 1999.

But he is up against Lee — whose “Brokeback Mountain” won best picture in 2006 — as well as Michael Haneke for his Cannes-winning “Amour, David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and Benh Zeitlin for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Features

Variety

Actress Paulina Garcia poses backstage with her Silver Bear award as Best Actress for the movie ‘Gloria’ during the awards ceremony at the 63rd Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin on Feb 16. (Inset): Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer holds his Golden Bear for the Best Film he received for his movie

Pozitia Copilului (Child’s Pose), during a press conference following the awards ceremony in Berlin on Saturday. (AP/AFP)

Film Romanian melodrama scoops Golden Bear LOS ANGELES: Bella Heathcote, the wide-eyed beauty who turned heads in “Dark Shadows” and “Not Fade Away,” will join Lucas Till in “The Curse of Downers Grove,” the indie thriller’s producers has said.

The movie pairs Derick Martini, director of the 2008 coming-of-age drama “Lymelife,” with Bret Easton Ellis, sometime novelist and Twitter provocateur. Martini will slide behind the camera while Easton Ellis will handle screenwriting duties.

The film is set in an insular Midwestern town that shoulders a curse that claims the life of one high school senior every year. Heathcote will play a student who thinks she is the next victim.

In addition, Penelope Mitchell, who will star in Netflix’s upcoming original series “Hemlock Grove,” will play an unspecified leading role.

(RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ NEW YORK: IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to “The Canyons,” a Paul Schrader film starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen from a script by Bret Easton Ellis, and plans a simulataneous theatrical and videoon-demand release.

IFC also plans to release the film in conjunction with a special presentation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. “The Canyons” was made for a reported total of about $250,000, with $150,000 coming from Kickstarter contributions and the rest from the filmmakers. The many complications in making the film were detailed in a New York Times Magazine story that described Schrader, the writer of “Taxi Driver,” at one point taking off his own clothes to persuade Lohan to do a scene.

Lohan’s antics often threatened work on the film, the story said. But in a statement, Ellis said the film’s release would allow viewers to “judge for themselves rather than relying on the undeservedly snarky press ‘The Canyons’ has

Eastern Europe basks in triumph BERLIN, Feb 17, (Agencies): The 63rd Berlin film festival wrapped up Sunday after awarding its Golden Bear top prize to the Romanian melodrama “Child’s Pose” in a banner year for cinema from post-communist eastern Europe.

Director Calin Peter Netzer, a member of Romania’s renowned new wave in film-making, told the story of a wealthy and controlling mother who fights to get her son acquitted after he kills a poor teenager with his car.

“I want to thank the jury for this amazing prize, this wonderful prize,” Netzer, 37, told the panel led by Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, adding later at a press conference that he was “shellshocked” by the honour.

The Berlinale, the first major European film festival of the year and typically its most politically minded, handed two prizes to the Bosnian docu-drama “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker”.

Nazif Mujic, the real-life protagonist of the picture about a Roma couple denied life-saving medical treatment, was the surprise winner of the Silver Bear best actor prize.

The ultra-low-budget film also took the runner-up jury prize.

Its director Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar for his 2001 wartime black comedy “No Man’s Land”, said his anger after reading news reports about the couple led him to seek them out.

“I’m so happy for Nazif and his family because the whole point of this film was to try and change their lives and I hope it changes their lives,” he told reporters.

Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel hailed “worthy” winners in what it described as a disappointing competition.

received so far.”

“The DIY ethos behind the movie dovetails perfectly with IFC’s commitment to release the film this summer,” he said. Ellis praised producer Braxton Pope and Schrader for getting the film ready for release, noting that he began writing it only a year ago.

Schrader presented a master

Lohan

The Golden Bear for Netzer “reflects not only the relatively strong showing of eastern European directors this year but also the political nature of the festival”, which got its start during the Cold War, it said.

“17,000 euros and amateur actors are enough to beat the arthouse productions with budgets in the millions at a major film festival when a moving story is told well and beautifully,” the website of Der Spiegel news weekly said, referring to the meagre budget of the Bosnian film.

Message “That is the message this Berlinale jury is sending to all the film-makers from eastern Europe, a region often ignored by Cannes and Venice, whose citizens are struggling with the social upheaval of post-communism.”

David Gordon Green picked up the Silver Bear best director award for his quirky US buddy picture “Prince Avalanche”, a remake of the 2011 Icelandic film “Either Way”.

The movie, the only comedy among the 19 contenders at the festival, stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as highway maintenance workers in Texas at crossroads in their lives.

Best actress went to Chile’s Paulina Garcia for “Gloria”, a feel-good movie about a middle-aged divorcee who refuses to give up on a shot at happiness.

Best screenplay went to “Closed Curtain” by Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi and his longtime collaborator Kambuzia Partovi, a film made in secret in defiance of a ban by Tehran authorities.

“It is impossible to stop a thinker and a

Pope

class on crowdsourcing and DIY production at last year’s New York Film Festival.

Besides using Kickstarter, the film also did online casting and drummed up interest by releasing clips online, as well as trailers in grindhouse and classicnoir style.

The film follows scheming

poet. Their thoughts bear fruit everywhere,” Partovi said, accepting the award because Panahi was not granted permission to travel.

“Child’s Pose” figured in a particularly strong year for films exposing new fissures and rampant corruption in the former communist bloc.

Lead actress Luminita Gheorghiu, best known for the 2005 dark comedy “The Death of Mr Lazarescu”, dazzled moviegoers as a manipulative mother who sees the fatal accident as a chance to reconnect with her estranged son.

In spite of triumphs like the 2007 Cannes Palme d’Or for Cristian Mungiu’s chilling drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, “Child’s Pose” producer Ada Solomon said Romanian cinema needed the boost the Golden Bear would offer.

“I think that Romanian politicians should pay much more attention to the ambassador that our cinema is around the world,” she said, slamming subsidy cuts.

“I want to thank those people who didn’t help us and didn’t support us and that made us more determined.”

Powerhouse Romania claimed another major scalp on the European film festival circuit this weekend when “Child’s Pose” won the Golden Bear in Berlin, underlining the country’s emergence as a powerhouse of hard-hitting cinema in the postCommunist era.

The film, directed by Netzer, tells the story of Cornelia, an obsessive mother who uses every trick in the book to prevent her son from going to jail after he kills a boy in a car accident.

and wealthy movie producer Christian (Deen) who makes movies to keep his father appeased. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: A leading collector of the works of photographer Edward Steichen has agreed to donate 142 vintage

It is the latest in a long list of critical hits that have enjoyed startling success at festivals like Berlin and Cannes in recent years, helping to bring Romania’s cinema to a wider audience.

Some of Romania’s top directors, who have enjoyed the artistic freedom that flourished after the death of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, dismiss talk of a cinematic “new wave”, saying it lumps together very different styles and stories.

But ever since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” hit Cannes in 2005, and two years later his compatriot Cristian Mungiu won the coveted Palme d’Or there for the harrowing abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, Romanian cinema has been firmly on the map.

“It is an acknowledgement, I think, that Romanian cinema is still producing good quality cinema and has been for a few years and it is a good endowment that it is still like this,” Netzer told Reuters after receiving the Golden Bear for best film.

While each film differs, there is a common thread of unflinching storytelling and compelling human drama often laid out against the backdrop of a cold and uncaring society.

Netzer said “Child’s Pose” was not a critique of Romania today, despite its unflattering portrayal of flashy materialism and casual corruption among the nouveau riche.

“I think basically this is about a relationship, a kind of pathological relationship between mother and son,” he told reporters in Berlin after the closing ceremony late on Saturday.

photographs by the American master to three US museums.

The gift, announced last week by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will benefit the collections of LACMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at

Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Each museum will receive more than 40 works by Steichen from the Los Angeles collectors Richard and Jackie Hollander who, several years ago, purchased more than 500 images from the photographer’s estate. (RTRS)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

NEWS/FEATURES

22

People & Places Film Unique experience

Live vocals lift ‘Les Miz’ LOS ANGELES, Feb 17, (RTRS): With sound-mixing nominations for both “Les Miserables” and “Lincoln,” Andy Nelson is one of the two 2012 Oscar nominees who is competing against himself. (The other is film editor William Goldenberg, nominated for “Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”)

Nelson worked on “Lincoln” first, then immersed himself in the particular challenges of “Les Miserables,” in which almost every line of dialogue was sung and director Tom Hooper wanted all the performers to sing live on the set.

A threedecade veteran of the movie business and an 18-time Oscar nominee who has Nelson only won once, re-recording mixer Nelson told TheWrap that he embraced the idea of working with live vocals, even though it complicated his life.

Question: How did you become involved in “Les Miz?” Answer: Tom contacted me about a year and a half ago and invited me to join the crew. I think he came to meet me because I’d been involved in mixing a few different musicals over the years, like “Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita” and “Moulin Rouge.” I told him that I was very supportive of the live recording, even though I knew it was going to be a ton of work and a huge challenge. But years ago I worked with Alan Parker on “The Commitments,” and all the vocals on that were recorded live, and it made such a difference to the connective nature of the experience. And I felt that if Tom could do the same sort of thing to “Les Miz,” it would be a unique experience for the audience.

Q: Did you talk to him about the pitfalls, and the things he’d have to be particular careful with?

A: Obviously I don’t deal with the live recording myself, because I’m the re-recording mixer for the final pass of the soundtrack. So having said, “I think it’s a great idea,” I could leave him to go off and make it.

But I talked to him about the fact that regular radio mikes and clip mikes that are used by actors on the set are generally buried under costumes. And obviously the boom microphone tries to get in as close to the shot as possible. But I knew that in this instance neither of those was going to work, because the detriment to the sound when you bury a microphone under a costume is fine for dialogue — you can clean it up and push it through — but for the purity of trying to record a vocal it wouldn’t work.

So the agreement was that the clip mikes would have to be positioned on the outside of the costumes. There would have to be ways of disguising them with cloth over them, but also there would have to be many times when they were painted out digitally in the post-production process. Also of course the actors had an earwig in one ear, so that would require some work to remove that digitally.

Q: When you got the tracks, were they in good shape or were they compromised by the circumstances?

A: They were fantastic.

Clearly, there are always compromises, a certain degradation that happens just by nature of a film set.

But I was astounded by how great Simon Hays, the production recordist, had managed to record these tracks. It was extraordinary to hear just how brilliantly this stuff had been captured on the set.

Q: How does your approach change when you’re dealing with dialogue that’s sung rather than spoken?

A: Basically, I treated it like I would any dramatic movie. I’d done “Lincoln” earlier in the year, where again 99 percent was live off the set.

In some was, I treated “Les Miz” in a similar way. I prepped all the vocals the way I would in a regular dramatic movie, placing them on the screen, getting them to the level and the quality that I thought would work, and then I introduced the music to that.

That is effectively what I do on regular dramatic movies, the difference being that this is all music, it’s all singing, so the final balance of music levels against vocals became an interesting game where we had to try two or three songs in a row, go back, listen to it, go back and see how it was sounding.

What I tried to create was a sort of cradling effect. Every time the music was a little bit too strong it immediately took away from the rawness of the acting. So every time I tried to make it a little bit more beautiful or a little bit fuller or richer, it was going against the style of the film. which was to capture this real raw sound.

Lead actor nominees Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence star in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, one of nine films contending for Oscars best picture. (AP)

Film Never sweat

Lawrence shares her acting secret Left to right: Producer Mino Jarjoura, actress Fatima Ptacek and director Bryan Buckley attend Oscar Celebrates: Animated And Live Action Shorts at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International on Feb 16, in New York City. (AFP)

Grant

Shatner

Variety LOS ANGELES: Hugh Grant announced on Saturday that he had become a father for the second time after Tinglan Hong gave birth to a baby boy.

“In answer to some journos (journalists),” the British actor posted on the social media website Twitter, “am thrilled my daughter now has a brother. Adore them both to an uncool degree. They have a fab mum.”

“And to be crystal clear. I am the Daddy,” he added in a second tweet.

Grant, 52, who is best known for such films as “Notting Hill” and “About a Boy,” did not reveal the child’s name on Twitter.

The actor and Hong had their first child in 2011, when his spokeswoman said in a statement that the baby girl was the result of a “fleeting affair” but Grant “could not be happier or more supportive.” (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES, Feb 17, (RTRS): The worries began on “The Hunger Games,” where Jennifer Lawrence came to the set each day with her usual approach: lines unmemorized, attitude casual. Woody Harrelson watched his gifted co-star work, and the famously laid-back actor gave her what he figured was a real compliment: “You make me feel like I work too hard.”

But Woody’s line started to eat at Lawrence. Maybe acting wasn’t supposed to be this easy; maybe she should be poring over her lines at night, working harder, obsessing like some of her peers. “I was worried, so I brought it up to my dad,” she told TheWrap. “I said, ‘Is this bad? Do I need to be memorizing more, or saying my lines out loud?’

“And my dad just went, ‘It ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.’”

It ain’t broke.

At the tender age of 22, Jennifer Lawrence has two Best Actress Oscar nominations, the first two years ago for her role as the fiercely determined teen trying to hang onto her house in “Winter’s Bone,” and the second for her deft, comedic (but also dead serious) turn this year as the blunt, eccentric, funny, sexy, dark, wounded and defiant young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

In a year that has seen both the youngest Best Actress nominee ever (Quvenzhane Wallis, 9) and the oldest (Emmanuelle Riva, 85), Lawrence claimed another milestone: She is the youngest person to receive two lead-

NEW YORK: Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t hide his dislike of Jay Leno, but in a new Playboy interview he credits the “Tonight Show” host with being “not just a smart

acting nominations.

And she makes it look easy. “I believe that people do their best work when they’re loose — and she’s very loose,” David O. Russell, her director on “Silver Linings Playbook,” told TheWrap. “She’d be on the set telling jokes and horsing around, and then she’d go into a scene and blow the roof off it. She truly inhabits every moment.”

Lawrence knows that her approach goes beyond “never let ‘em see you sweat” — instead, it’s more like “never sweat.” And over the course of a surprising career that began when she was 14, she has slowly and with occasional doubts learned to embrace her singular approach.

Natural “I like to do as little work as possible, definitely,” she admitted, shrugging as she sat at a West Hollywood hotel three days after winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Lead Role. “I think it makes it more natural and more real. There are times when I’ve been doing a scene, and we’ve gone for five or six takes, and I’m just dead. I’ve memorized what I’m saying, I’ve memorized what my co-star is saying, and it’s not real anymore.”

But how does this no-sweat, minimal effort approach result in performances like the ones she’s given in “Winter’s Bone” and “Silver Linings Playbook”? How can you do as little as possible and end up with two Oscar

politician but also a smart guy.”

The problem with Leno, Kimmel believes, is that he doesn’t have “actual feelings, and he doesn’t seem to be that

worried about other people’s feelings.”

In the interview, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” says he doesn’t think about Leno very much, but was a fan

walking through the backstage area, she grabbed a bag of potato chips — and when she got back to her seat, she set the bag in the lap of her Dior Haute Couture gown, stuck in her hand (which was sporting a huge Chopard diamond ring that she called “a snowball”) and began snacking.

“It’s my favorite picture, and it’s of her fancy, bejeweled hand in a bag of potato chips,” said Russell. “That’s our Jennifer. She’s a surfer kid and she’s a glamorous woman.”

A Louisville native, Lawrence first acted in a MTV promo at the age of 14, then in the TBS comedy series “The Bill Engvall Show,” then in actress Lori Petty’s directorial debut, “The Poker House.” “I was really excited that people were telling me that I was good at acting, because I’d never been good at anything in my life,” she said. “I felt stupid every day in school, and I wasn’t really athletic or happy to be doing sports. I just couldn’t find my niche, and then I finally found something.”

Experiences When she got a key role as a young Charlize Theron in “The Burning Plain,” the directorial debut of “Babel” screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, she worried that her charmed early acting experiences might be anomalies. “I was terrified,” she said. “I had only done one other movie, and the director really liked me. But I thought, I’d never done it before and I don’t know what I’m doing.

when he used to watch him on “Late Night With David Letterman,” his favorite show when he was growing up.

(RTRS)

‘Shortage of staff’

Rapper’s skate park hits more snags

NEW YORK: Tom Green says that during his fight with testicular cancer he had a religious experience in the shower of a house owned by his landlord, William Shatner.

Yes, William Shatner. Green said in the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast this week that Shatner was once his landlord.

And it was in Shatner’s house that he decided to try prayer.

It was in the late ‘90s, a surreal time in Green’s life: He had an MTV hit with “The Tom Green Show,” he was dating Drew Barrymore, and he was renting a Los Angeles home from the “Star Trek” icon.

“He was a hands-on landlord,” Green said. “He’d come pick up the check.

Captain Kirk would come pick up the check, occasionally. He was a nice guy.

He was a really cool guy.” (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

nominations, plus lead roles in two ongoing franchises, “The X-Men” and “The Hunger Games”? She must really be working hard and honing her craft on some level, right?

“You would think,” she said with a grin.

“I don’t know, I’ve always studied people and been fascinated by their reactions and feelings. And I think that’s the best acting class you can take — watching real people, listening to them and studying them.”

A pause. “I know this makes me sound like I suck, but it’s just easy for me. Some people are doctors, and doing surgery comes easy to them. Some writers, the words just fly. I have a friend who can write the most beautiful song that will break your heart in 25 minutes.

There are certain things that people are just wired for. And for me, acting is one of those things.

“I understand it — and that’s good, because it’s pretty much the only thing in the entire world that I do understand.”

David O. Russell has a favorite photo of Jennifer Lawrence. It wasn’t taken on the set of “Silver Linings Playbook,” and it’s certainly not a glamour shot — in fact, Lawrence’s face doesn’t even appear in the picture.

Instead, Russell snapped it at the recent Golden Globes ceremony, where Lawrence showed up with what she said was a 103-degree fever and then won the award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Afterward,

In this Feb 2, 2013 file photo, Ang Lee poses backstage with his feature film nomination plaque for ‘Life of Pi’ at the 65th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, in Los Angeles. With 11 Academy Awards nominations, second only to ‘Lincoln’ with 12, and the sort of global box-office receipts normally reserved for superheroes, ‘Life of Pi’ is one of the most unusual megahits ever to hit the big-screen. (AP)

NEW ORLEANS, Feb 17, (AP): Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne’s skate park project in the city’s rebuilding Lower 9th Ward is off to a bumpy start.

The building that houses the park didn’t pass a city electrical inspection and had to be re-wired, and only a handful of children are able to skate at a time because of a shortage of staffing. Many days, the Trukstop skate park — named after the rapper’s Lil Wayne skateboardinginspired Trukfit clothing line — hasn’t been open at all.

“We really put the cart before the horse on this project, and right now we’re at a crossroads,” said Ward

“Mack” McLendon, who manages the facility.

But, he said, “Everybody wants to make this work.”

McLendon says Lil Wayne dropped by the facility and skated with some kids while in town for Super Bowl weekend.

“He’s on board, and he really wants this for the community,” McLendon said.

The New Orleans-born rapper, whose publicists did not return phone calls or emails for comment, announced the park’s launch last September, along with corporate partners Mountain Dew and Glu Agency, a New York-based advertising firm. At the time, the park was supposed to be open to the public seven days a week beginning Oct 1, 2012, but opening was delayed because the facility didn’t have enough staffing or insurance coverage.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

NEWS/FEATURES

23

Film Make Oscars wait

Fans in Asia want light fun TAIPEI, Taiwan, Feb 17, (AP): Lights, camera, laughs.

Tens of millions of film fanatics were entering theaters around Asia during the long Lunar New Year holiday, but Hollywood can’t count on them to boost the box office for its mostly serious Oscar nominees.

Even with the Academy Awards buzz at a peak barely two weeks before the ceremony, patrons are opting for lighter fare.

“Viewers are mostly drawn to action films, films with special effects, comedies or easyto-follow ‘popcorn’ movies,” said Ross Lee, a manager with Vieshow Cinemas, which owns one of Taiwan’s largest theater Lee chains.

“In Taiwan the big hits are traditionally disaster films like “2012.”

Lee and others say that with Chinese movie-goers using the New Year holiday to escape their daily grinds, they generally give the cold shoulder to weightier movies, like this year’s leading nominee “Lincoln” or last year’s best picture “The Artist.” “‘Lincoln’ is an American film,” said Hong Kong film fan Leo Wong, 31. “I think Americans will probably be more interested. I don’t really understand the history. And it’s too serious.”

Chris Cornell (right), and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden perform during the band’s concert at the Wiltern, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Stage

Lighter Reflecting Wong’s critique, Hong Kong’s film industry goes out of its way to pander to the local preference for lighter New Year’s selections, turning out a sub-genre of films specifically designed with holiday tastes in mind.

This year’s Hong Kong holiday crop includes “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons,” a prequel to the classic Chinese fable, and “I Love Hong Kong 2013,” a super-light comedy with an all-star cast and a crowd-pleasing happy ending.

Explaining her preference for watching locally produced comedies, Hong Kong movie-goer Christine Lam said it reinforced the spirit of the season.

“You want to do this on Chinese New Year,” she said, “to watch Chinese movies instead of Western ones because it gives you the vibe.”

Chimed in husband Andy Lam: “(New Year comedies) are funny and we have a lot of fun. We just laugh.”

Sun Shaoyi of Shanghai University’s School of Film and TV Arts and Technology said in addition to aesthetic considerations, Oscar nominees vying for attention on the mainland must also contend with officially sanctioned blackouts.

“Authorities limit the number of Western films showing during the New Year period,” Sun said. “They have to do this to protect the local market.”

Play puts Russia justice system in dock over lawyer’s death

‘Theatre based on docus more scary’ This Nov 15, 2012 file photo shows Alejandro Sanz performing ‘No Me Compares’ at the 13th Annual Latin Grammy Awards at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Univision announced recently that Sanz will receive the Excellence in Music Award at the Lo Nuestro ceremony next Thursday. (AP)

2 Chainz

Clayton

Variety

Manage But even allowing for the artistic and administrative roadblocks, some Oscar-nominated films do manage to make a big impact in Chinese-speaking markets during the New Year holiday, particularly if they are accompanied by a positive critical buzz.

Christine Lam said she had decided to use this year’s holiday to see “Les Miserables,” notwithstanding its relatively heavy subject matter.

“This is a very famous movie and people are talking about this movie very much,” she said, adding that the film’s much ballyhooed operatic style and live singing by actors had tipped the balance in its favor.

In Taipei, trading firm owner Thomas Huang said his own preference for thrillers made going to see “Zero Dark Thirty” an easy viewing choice. He said he also took in local hero Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi,” the special effect-rich story of a young man’s epic journey of discovery, “half because Ang Lee is Taiwanese and half because of the Oscar nominations.”

Huang saw best-picture frontrunner “Argo” previously and would not miss other nominated films if trusted critics endorsed them. He said he’s captivated by the pomp of the Oscar-nomination ceremony, which raised his interest in the nominated films as well.

“You don’t count on the Oscar awards as a guarantee a film is good, but they are still generally up to a certain standard,” he said.

Taiwanese film critic Wen Tienhsiang said that even if some Oscarnominated films did not do well with Chinese-speaking audiences during the New Year holiday period, scoring big on Oscar night would help to guarantee them substantial audiences later.

RIO DE JANEIRO: The glittering costumes and floats that last week marked Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Carnival are back as the top six finishers of the annual samba school competition take part in the Parade of Champions.

The final parade takes place every year on the Saturday night after Carnival.

The first group to enter the Sambadrome will be sixth-placed Academicos do Grande Rio. This year’s winner was Unidos de Vila Isabel, which will parade last.

Unidos de Vila Isabel’s agriculturalthemed parade featured a sexy spider samba queen, lady bug musicians and a giant grasshopper float. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

MIAMI: A Haitian modern dance company is celebrating its 25th anniversary with performances in Miami.

Ayikodans (ah-EE-koh-dans) survived through years of political instability, disasters and a lack of theatrical resources in Haiti’s capital. A massive earthquake in the Caribbean country in 2010 nearly shut down the company. Then it got a lifeline in the form of financial assistance from Florida’s Haitian-American community and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

At the end of last week’s performance, founding artistic director Jeanguy Saintus (zhahn-GEE sayn-TOOS) thanked Arsht Center’s audience for their support by inviting them on stage to dance. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: Terri Lyne Carrington, “Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue” (Concord Jazz) Producer Terri Lyne Carrington follows up her Grammy-winning, all-female “The Mosaic Project” by offering a fresh take on the classic trio recording “Money Jungle” — the session released 50 years ago that teamed pianist Duke Ellington, bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach.

Some of the strongest tracks — such as “Wig Wise,” which includes Brazilian rhythms and Mideastern motifs, and

MOSCOW, Feb 17, (RTRS): In a poorly lit basement theatre in central Moscow, actors play out a symbolic trial of Russia’s justice system over its failure to protect an anti-corruption lawyer who died in custody.

Without costumes or a set, the actors in “One Hour and Eighteen Minutes” take on the roles of judges, an investigator, doctor and medical assistants, reciting lines cobbled together from legal documents, media and public pronouncements on the case of Sergei Magnitsky.

His death in 2009, while awaiting trial on charges of tax evasion and fraud, has outraged human rights campaigners who see it as an example of arbitrary justice in Russia, and contributed to a rift in US-Russian relations.

A nervous giggle runs through the audience, perched on wooden chairs and benches, when an actor playing a judge says that the justice system is the only thing that is still working in Russia.

The audience is visibly taken aback when a second judge, who prolonged Magnitsky’s detention four days before his death, dismisses accusations of acting inhumanly when she says the judge’s role is not to act like a human being but as an executor of the state’s authority.

“The most horrifying moment for me was this judge saying she is not a human because she is a judge. This is

Clayton’s ballad “Cut Off” that references Ellington’s “Solitude” — spotlight the trio of drummer Carrington, pianist Gerald Clayton and bassist Christian McBride.

And Carrington enhances “Fleurette Africain” with ex-Ellingtonian trumpeter Clark Terry’s scat/spoken-word vocals and “Backward Country Boy Blues” with Nir Felder’s earthy slide guitar intro and Lizz Wright’s wordless vocals.

The hard-swinging “Money Jungle” includes sound clips on the state of capitalism from Martin Luther King Jr., Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,

very frankly put and how things really are,” said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a veteran Russian human rights campaigner.

Real “Nowadays, theatre based on documents, on real life here, is more telling and, unfortunately, more scary than thrillers.”

No one has been convicted over the death of Magnitsky, who was arrested after accusing Russian police of stealing $230 million from the state in 2007 through fraudulent tax refunds.

But Russia is now pressing ahead with plans to stage a posthumous trial of the lawyer, putting a dead man in the dock.

This prompted Mikhail Ugarov, the director of Teatr.doc, to revive a play first staged in 2010 because it seemed to him that true justice was now more distant than ever.

“In the very heart of Russia a man is killed, and not by thieves and bandits, but by doctors and prison workers, people who are in general obliged to safeguard the lives of those arrested,” Ugarov told Reuters.

“We used to think there would at least be some justice done, but it turned out completely the other way, it went horribly wrong. So our logic was that if they were not able to give justice to Magnitsky, we will instead.”

Rights campaigners and critics of President Vladimir Putin say the

while the mellow “Rem Blues/Music” has Shea Rose reciting a poem comparing music to a seductive woman and Herbie Hancock quoting Ellington’s observations on the clash between jazz creativity and commerce. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

EASTON, Maryland: Rapper 2 Chainz has been arrested on drug charges.

Maryland State Police spokesman Sgt. Marc Black said troopers stopped a van Thursday night for speeding and smelled a strong odor of burnt marijuana. A backpack

Russian judiciary is weak and open to abuse by politicians, and suggest that the Kremlin uses it to intimidate or persecute adversaries.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied those accusations, saying the judiciary is completely independent and that the government does not intervene in legal cases.

Independent “Judges are independent and subject only to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal law,” the Russian Justice Ministry said in response to a request to comment on the play.

The Kremlin also denies that there has been a crackdown on dissenters since Putin returned to the presidency last May, facing the largest protests since he first rose to power 13 years ago.

Magnitsky’s prison death has, however, damaged Russia’s image and, for critics of the Kremlin, come to symbolise what they see as the impunity of the Russian authorities and the dangers faced by those who challenge them.

It has also resulted in a political spat with Washington. The United States, in response to Magnitsky’s treatment, passed legislation late last year that is designed to punish officials linked to his case as well as other Russians deemed rights violators.

Russia hit back with a law to punish Americans it suspects of similar abus-

in the van had a marijuana grinder and trace amounts of marijuana, police said.

The rapper, whose real name is Tauheed Epps, claimed possession of the backpack and was arrested, police said.

Epps was cited for having drug paraphernalia and marijuana and was released. The citation carries up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

Agents representing Epps did not respond to requests for comment.

Last year, 2 Chainz released his solo debut, “Based on a T.R.U. Story,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Charts

‘Very intimate’

Singer enjoys return

Left to right: Christopher McDonald, Tom Hanks, Holland Taylor, Deirdre Lovejoy, Peter Scolari and Stephen Tyrone Williams attend ‘Ann’ Broadway Rehearsal Performance at Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center on Feb 16, in New York City. (AFP)

NEW YORK, Feb 17, (AP): It took a little while before Barry Manilow felt comfortable on Broadway.

The Man Who Makes the Whole World Sing is used to far bigger venues than the 1,710seat St James Theatre, one of the smaller theaters on the Great White Way. “It’s a totally different feeling from the stage. I’m in their laps; they’re in my lap. It’s very, very intimate,” says Manilow. “This is like going to somebody’s house.”

Manilow — and his fans dubbed Fanilows — are clearly enjoying his first return to Broadway in nearly 25 years.

Though his opening was postponed due to bronchitis, the singer sounded and looked great during a recent quick interview.

es.

The play’s title, “One Hour and Eighteen Minutes”, alludes to the time just before Magnitsky died when he was left without medical help in his cell despite repeated complaints about his health deteriorating while in custody.

Putin said in December that Magnitsky died of a heart attack, but the head of the Kremlin’s own human rights council had earlier said he was probably beaten to death.

Putin called the death a tragedy but said the late lawyer, who had two sons, was not tortured.

All the defendants in the symbolic court in the play deny any responsibility, saying it was not their job to help Magnitsky, that they were busy with other cases, or were paid too poorly to care. Some suggest he was asking for trouble.

In the play, the first judge at a pretrial hearing denies a glass of water to Magnitsky, saying such requests are not his concern.

Later on, an investigator involved in the case laughs with contempt at the lawyer’s repeated complaints about the conditions of Magnitsky’s detention and lack of medical care, saying a prison is not meant to be comfortable.

One actor exclaims ironically: “A dead man is good for being tried, and should be, just like someone who is alive — or is even better for being tried.”

and has achieved gold status. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: Felicity Huffman is taking aim at Fox’s assassin pilot “Boomerang.”

“Desperate Housewives” and “Transamerica” star Huffman has been cast to star in the pilot from “ER” and “Southland” producer John Wells, about a family that makes ends meet as assassins for the US government.

Huffman will play Margie Hamilton, the matriarch of the Hamilton clan and a briskly professional assassin who can kill and dispose of a suspected terrorist in the afternoon - then switch to wife and mother mode without a hitch.

Wells is executive producing the onehour drama pilot, which comes from John Wells Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Davey Holmes (“Pushing Daisies”) is writing as well as executive producing. Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) is directing and will serve as an executive producer on the pilot. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑ LOS ANGELES: CNN has hired Allison Gollust, a longtime adviser and spokeswoman for CNN chief Jeff Zucker, to be the company’s new top spokeswoman.

As new senior vice president of communications for CNN Worldwide, Gollust will oversee all messaging for CNN and serve as chief spokeswoman. She will be based in New York and will report to Jeff Matteson, senior vice president of communications for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Gollust worked with Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, for 15 years when both were at NBC. Her most recent post will do nothing to stop conservative complaints of liberal bias at CNN: She was most recently communications director for Democratic New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. (RTRS)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

24

Team Kuwait participates in World Schools Debating Championships KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Five talented debaters from Kuwait recently joined their contemporaries from across the globe in the World Schools Debating Championships 2013 (WSDC) in Antalya, Turkey.

The team was comprised of Captain, Ishita Handa (The British School of Kuwait), Imran Saleh (New English School), Emma Abdullah (New English School) and Leena Al Bader (The British School of Kuwait). They were coached

by Grainne McCreevy of New English School and Obada Al Halabi, a former student of New English School and WSDC alumni. The team was managed

by Bethan Evans of The British School of Kuwait.

The debaters were selected after taking part in a series of selection debates held at BSK. Once selected, they underwent a rigorous round of training and preparation in the months leading up to the tour-

nament. During these intensive preparations they focused upon, amongst other things, honing their skills in research, public speaking and case preparation.

Diverse In Turkey Team Kuwait faced a diverse range of prepared motions which required them to research and tackle challenging issues such as ceasing the exploitation of resources in the Arctic region and whether or not important decisions about children’s health should be made by medical professionals and not by their parents.

They also participated in debates on whether the US should have greater military presence in East Asia and the use of sovereign debt default as a legitimate strategy for debt ridden countries. In addition to this, Team Kuwait rose to the challenge of impromptu motions on topics such as whether the media should be

prevented by law from intruding in the lives of public figures, allowing prisoners to choose death over the life sentence, requiring government schools to teach religious studies and requiring university students to work in their country of origin for a number of years after graduation. The tournament was eventually won

by Team Australia who triumphed over Team Swaziland in a hotly contested final in which they proposed that Turkey would be better off outside the EU.

Skills Team Kuwait improved their debate skills immeasurably during the course of the tournament and thoroughly enjoyed going head to head with teams from Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Turkey, Malaysia, Montenegro, Canada, The Netherlands and Sweden. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to experience a culture very different to their own and

Team Kuwait pictured at the World Schools Debating Championships held in Turkey. From left to right: Imran Saleh (NES), Captain Ishita Handa (BSK), Emma Abdullah (NES) and Leena Al Bader (BSK).

to mix with students from around the world.

The students debated in a diverse range of schools in Antalya, as well as prestigious venues such as the International University of Antalya.

When they were not debating they enjoyed a fantastic tour of the historic Lycian coast of Turkey, visiting the site of the mythical Chimera natural gas fires and the historic ruins of the Roman town of Olympos.

All in all it was a once in a lifetime experience. The team is proud to acknowledge the support and sponsorship of New English School and The British School of Kuwait. The next WSDC will take place in Bangkok, Thailand in August 2014. Any aspiring debaters who would like to find out more about this tournament can email q8debate@hotmail.com for further information.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

26

‘My main priority is to create a moment’

Japan’s Living National Treasure keeps kabuki alive TOKYO, Feb 17, (AFP): Tamasaburo Bando has dedicated his life to the intimate study of women; the way they walk, the way they move, the way they hold their hands.

And he is good at it. So good, in fact, that Japan has named him a National Living Treasure, an accolade given to individuals who are guardians of a important cultural asset.

Bando, 62, is Japan’s leading specialist of “onnagata” — the theatrical portrayal of a female kabuki character by a male actor.

“More than simply recognition, this anointment represents a duty, a moral obligation to future generations for those who practise and perpetuate traditional Japanese art forms,” Bando told AFP in Tokyo.

Elaborate Kabuki is a form of traditional Japanese theatre that has been performed in the country since the seventeenth century, combining dance, drama and music.

As in its contemporary European equivalent, there are no women actors.

This picture taken on Jan 9, 2013 shows Japanese kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando, who plays a female role, smiling during an interview in Tokyo.

Tamasaburo Bando has dedicated his life to the intimate study of women; the way they walk, the way they move, the way they hold their hands. (AFP)

The all male cast dons elaborate costumes and heavy makeup to perform on extravagant sets.

“My main priority is to create a moment, a second on the stage, to share something with the audience... but if I never get there, if the people who come to watch me fail to appreciate it, then I will not be able to protect this treasure,” he says.

He once said he realised he could never see the world through the eyes of a woman, that his vision would always be that of a man.

Bando tries to create this essence piece by piece; the gestures, the eyes, the use of his fan, blurring the boundary between his male life and his female stage persona.

“The frontier is not clear. I am a man, I have never been a woman. The same concept of onnagata is based on a man’s imagining of a woman. It goes a lot further than a simple physical transformation,” he told AFP. “The real Tamasaburo is in front of you. On stage I am a dream, maybe just

a creation. It’s on stage that I am happiest,” he smiles.

A typical kabuki performance runs upwards of four hours, yet remains remarkably popular in Tokyo — a city renowned for its love affair with modernity.

Famous The metropolis’s most famous kabuki theatre, Ginza’s Kabuki-za, is expected to reopen to much fanfare in April this year following extensive renovations.

Bando believes technological changes have benefited kabuki and need to be embraced, without compromising the essence of the art.

“The kabuki of 300 years ago was very different,” he says. “There was no electricity for lighting, no electronics — for example, the trapdoor in the floor had to be moved manually.

“Kabuki evolves, but it has kept its spirit and will continue to do so in the future — just like the Greek tragedies, the opera or the ballet,” he said.

Bando started a run in Paris last week, his first in the French capital for a quar-

ter of a century. After performing three nights of kabuki solos, he will, until Saturday, be performing “The Peony Pavilion”, a classical Chinese opera that he has also directed.

Around 60 actors and musicians perform in the abbreviated version of the Ming Dynasty masterpiece, which runs to 55 acts in the original.

The complex love story, in which Bando plays the heroine Du Liniang, the daughter of an important official, received a standing ovation on its opening night on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of his tour, Bando said he was both nervous and excited about performing overseas, but was confident that the exoticness and unusual aesthetic of kabuki would survive the transition to a European stage.

“It’s enough to like the theatre,” said Bando, dismissing suggestions that audiences would need a lot of historical or cultural knowledge.

“You don’t need to know anything about the War of the Roses to love Shakespeare.”

Preen goes punk

Fashion

‘Curvy’ carve out … corner LONDON, Feb 17, (Agencies): It’s a skinny girl’s world, particularly in fashion where the thin, androgynous look always wins out. But this weekend, an alternative to London Fashion Week celebrated the larger lady and all her curves.

“Thank you all for being who you are”, declared one of the organisers at the first Official British Plus-Size Fashion Weekend in Shoreditch, an edgy district in the east of the capital beloved of young hipsters and music fans.

Here, elegantly-dressed women browse racks of clothes designed for European size 40 (UK size 12, US size 8 or 10) and upwards, snacking intermittently from plates of crisps and cupcakes spread around the venue — food here is not taboo.

The two-day event featured discussions, tutorials by bloggers and a final catwalk show featuring established and first-time models.

Wearing skirts, shorts or bikinis, the women were greeted with enthusiastic applause as they walked out on the runway, with the audience encouraging every display of confidence.

Voluptuous While many of the models could only be described as voluptuous, some of the clothes on offer were not what many people think of as plus-sized.

Hayley, a 24-year-old model who wears European size 42, berated the industry for the way it categorised women. “I think even some agencies these days call girls that are UK size 10 plus size. That’s just crazy.

“I think that plus size is the wrong word. I think a curvy model would be a better word to describe me and plus size is not necessarily the nicest expression.”

Errin Ugaru

Also: LONDON: Sophisticated and sleek

Jenahara Nasution

Above: Models present creations

by Errin Ugaru; Ida Royani and Jenahara Nasution during the Indonesian Fashion Week in Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb 16. (AP/AFP)

with a little bit of punk: Preen’s latest collection for autumn and winter hints at an edgy biker girl, but any rebelliousness is tamed by a minimalist aesthetic and clean modern tailoring.

The label, by the British design duo Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, opened day three of London Fashion Week on Sunday with long-line, mannish coats, leather and fur biker jackets, and short dresses with open backs or plunging V-necks.

Ida Royani

French chef gets rock star treatment in America

See Also Page 27

Bocuse brings culinary prowess to US palates HYDE PARK, New York, Feb 17, (AFP): Iconic French chef Paul Bocuse got a rapturous welcome this weekend in the United States for the inauguration of a new restaurant bringing his culinary prowess to American palate.

Despite a bout of ill health last month, the 87-year-old chef, among the most accomplished in history, did not hesitate to cross the Atlantic for the launch of The Bocuse Restaurant.

The Culinary Institute of America last year closed its Escoffier Restaurant, named after “the king of chefs and the chef of kings” Auguste Escoffier.

After renovations, the menu was revamped to feature contemporary French fare after some of Bocuse’s best recipes at CIA’s first new restaurant in 40 years.

Escoffier had helped make haute cuisine available to family kitchens thanks to cookbooks and restaurants at the Ritz in Paris, London’s Savoy and other distinguished institutions. At the CIA’s campus on the banks of the frozen Hudson River, hundreds of students attended Bocuse’s lecture on Friday to hear him speak about his life and dole out both advice and encouragement.

“Cook the way you like, with local, quality products,” Bocuse told the students. “This is very important.”

Donning as always his chef’s hat and apron, he was surrounded by several of the biggest names in French cuisine in New York — Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud and

‘Smaller populations in hive ... higher winter losses’

Fewer bees in US a threat to world’s almond supply TURLOCK, California, Feb 17, (AP): In an almond orchard in California’s Central Valley, bee inspector Neil Trent pried open a buzzing hive and pulled out a frame to see if it was at least twothirds covered with bees.

Trent has hopped from orchard to orchard this month, making sure enough bees were in each hive provided by beekeepers. Not enough bees covering a frame indicates an unhealthy hive – and fewer working bees to pollinate the almond bloom, which starts next week across hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) stretching from Red Bluff to Bakersfield.

“The bloom will come and go quickly,” said Trent, who works for the Bakersfield-based bee broker Scientific Ag Co. “The question is: Will the almond seeds get set? It depends if you have enough of a workforce of bees.”

That has growers concerned as

nomadic beekeepers from across the country converge on the state with their semi-trucks, delivering billions of bees to the orchards for the annual pollination. Most almond trees depend on bees to transfer pollen from the flower of one tree variety to the flower of another variety before fertilization, which leads to the development of seeds.

It’s a daunting task: California’s orchards provide about 80 percent of the global almond supply. And with almond acreage increasing steadily in recent years, the bees must now pollinate 760,000 acres (307,500 hectares) of trees. The number of bees needed is expected to increase as almond demand grows and orchards continue to expand.

Already, more than half of the country’s honeybees are brought to California at the end of February for

almond pollination, which requires about 1.5 million hives from out of state, and another 500,000 from elsewhere in the state. Honeybees are preferred for commercial-scale pollination, because they are social, build larger colonies than other bees, and their hives can easily be moved.

Bee brokers, beekeepers and almond growers around the state say there’s a shortage of healthy honeybees for this year’s pollination, especially after colony collapse disorder took a higher toll this winter. The disorder, in which honey bees suddenly disappear or die, wipes out thousands of colonies each year.

The shortage has some growers scrambling for bees – even sub-performers – as trees are about to bloom, driving up bee prices again this year, to an all-time high of more than $200 per colony.

“There’s definitely a shortage of strong bee colonies,” said Joe Traynor, owner of Scientific Ag, which connects growers with beekeepers. “There is a problem covering all the acres of almonds in the state.”

This year, experts say, the die-off has been as high as 40 to 50 percent for some beekeepers.

“We have smaller populations in the hives and higher winter losses,” said Eric Mussen, a bee specialist at the entomology department of University of California, Davis. “Bees across the country are not in as good a shape as last year. When you stress them far enough, the bees just give in.”

This year, Mussen said, many bees did not get enough nutrition because a Midwest drought reduced forage.

Conversion of pasture land to corn production for ethanol also reduced the number of flowers producing nectar.

Thomas Keller — and his son Jerome.

They paid tribute before a packed audience to the storied chef during a talk on the future of French cuisine.

“All cuisines are created equal — be they French, Italian, Chinese or American,” said Bocuse, while also highlighting France’s unique assets: “a huge aquarium, a huge orchard and a huge

vineyard.”

In honor of his birthday on Monday, the students had prepared a gigantic cake of five layers with a big “B” on top as a surprise.

Nearly a thousand people then launched into a happy birthday song, in both French and English.

Bocuse, a three-star Michelin chief

since 1965 who the CIA named Chef of the Century in 2011, then autographed cookbooks and posters celebrating his restaurant’s opening.

In the evening, he officially inaugurated the restaurant by breaking a replica of a very large soup tureen like that used for his famous black truffle soup VGE created in 1975 in honor of former president

Valery Giscard d’Estaing. “Paul Bocuse is simply stated, the most important chef in history,” said CIA president Tim Ryan.

About a hundred guests — many of whom had earlier posed to snap up photographs with Bocuse — savored a dinner that mobilized the efforts of about 50 students in the kitchen and two dozen in the dining room.

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Latest IBL registration: Indian Bowling Continued on Page 29

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

27

House of Hol land

Fashio n

Issa

Issa

LONDON: Pop singer Rihanna launched her first clothing line with British highstreet retailer River Island on Saturday, adding A-list glitz to the British leg of the international fashion circuit.

The fashion credentials of the British high street have flourished in recent years as more household clothing brands inch onto the catwalks of major fashion centres.

Models strutted in a line through a tiered catwalk of five square compartments at Rihanna’s show, pausing in each to showcase midriff-bearing mesh tops and yellow shift dresses.

Denim tops teamed with slouchy jeans and monochrome dresses with thigh-high slits mirrored the BarbadosAbove and below: born singer’s dressed-down but raunchy Models display style. creations by “I loved it — it’s so Rihanna, it’s got Issa, Julien Rihanna’s name all over it,” Los Macdonald, Angeles model Tolula Adeyemi said in House of the crowd.

Holland, Issa Rihanna, a chart-topping R&B star, and John has already made a foray into fashion, Rocha during teaming up with Armani Jeans in 2011. the London With Britain facing the prospect of a Fashion Week in London, on Feb 16. triple-dip recession, many retailers have (AP/AFP) been forced to grapple for consumers facing income squeezes. The start of 2013 has seen a number of retail casualties, such as the demise of music retailer HMV. But fashion industry and marketing experts warn A-list credentials are not always a sure-fire strategy for long-term brand success, and the haute-couture setting of the launch could even alienate Rihanna’s target mass-market highstreet audience.

Mary Ellen Muckerman, head of strategy at international brand consultancy Wolff Olins, said it was not hard for celebrities to create buzz.

“The celebrity has a built-in network to get word out and raise the profile of the collaboration very quickly, but what collaborations do struggle with is probably sustainability — how can this not just be 15 minutes of fame,” Muckerman said.

The boyish designs are Rihanna’s first with River Island, a clothing chain that traces its history on Britain’s high streets back more than 60 years and is known for its youthful clientele.

The crowd-drawing clothing line between British retailer Topshop and supermodel Kate Moss in 2007 is acdonald Julien M widely credited with initiating the burst of celebrity lines onto Britain’s high street, paving the way for acdonald Madonna and Kylie Minogue.

Julien M “Celebrity dressing drives a large part of the industry. If celebrities are wearing want to wear those clothes as well,” said it, there is confidence that you and I will Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council.

British value chain New Look said it attributed sales of just under £3 million

Julien Macd onald

LONDON a collection of printed chiffon kaftans, woven jacquards and geometric patterns.

Models wore thick jackets with shearing and fur linings, accessorised with wide brimmed hats and eagle feathers in a collection inspired by the rugged landscape of the Navajo Indians.

“There are lots of feathers, lots of feather prints, it was also inspired by rugs, different textures and body paints,” Helayel, designer for Issa London, told Reuters backstage after the show.

With buyers from 39 different countries in attendance, the British Fashion Council estimates orders of more than 100 million pounds

Issa

cha

John Ro

($4.66 million) to its Kelly Brook line in 2012. The retailer reported group

d f Hollan House o sales from its 1,100 international stores at £710.5 million ($1.10 billion) for the

($155.23 million) are placed during London Fashion Week each season.

The five-day event blends emerging talent with veteran designers such as Vivienne d n a ll o fH Westwood and is best House o known for its cutting-edge talent and avant garde trends.

Coral pink mohair bags and oversized green coats pinned at the waist with matching belts featured in John Rocha’s collection.

John Rocha, a household name in Britain who designs a high street collection for department store Debenhams, Issa said he took his inspiration from the countryside surrounding Dublin, where first half of 2012. he has lived for more than 20 years.

Clothing retailer N Brown said its “It’s based a lot on the Irish winter line with former England cricketer countryside, so almost like tree barks, or Freddie Flintoff accounted for around 5 roses, it’s all about trying to mimic the percent of sales for menswear brand colour I see outside,” Rocha told Jacamo and had spurred a ripple effect.

Reuters after the show. (RTRS) “The wider halo effect is what I see as being the real benefit of using a celebrity,” said Paul Kendrick, marketing director at N Brown.

One of Kate Middleton’s’ favoured designers, Daniella Helayel, showcased

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

28

High note

Cezary’s Picks Pope passionate piano player

‘Music’ a universal language of beauty

By Cezary Owerkowicz Special to the Arab Times

I

n many countries and continents, music became a very prestigious profession and part of life. After centuries of misery, talented artists were recognised and became famous and rich. This applies especially to today’s top actors, singers and pop and rock stars.

However, it is very rare for the name of a pianist to feature on the first page of all newspapers as well as at the beginning of radio and TV news, except in instances when the pianist is a very special person. But this happened a few days ago with Pope Benedict XVI. Few years ago, Bishop Wilhelm Emil Egger of Bolzano-Bessanone, met with journalists and explained how during his stay with The Pontiff, he enjoyed the first full day of his summer vacation in the mountainous region of Terentino-Alto Adige: “The Pope is praying, studying and playing piano”. The Bishop who jokingly called himself “the custodian of the Holy Father rest” added that The Pope will spend his holidays with his older brother, Monsignor G e o r g Ratzinger, a Owerkowicz priest and musician, who was a choir director at the Cathedral of Regensburg, Germany.

Discuss They liked to play the piano with four hands together. I found an Internet article with pictures from February 2006: “Photo of the Week.

Church Revolution in Pictures!

Progressivism in the Church! Pope Benedict Wearing a Suit!” The picture shows Benedict XVI as he meets his brother Fr Georg Ratzinger at a piano to discuss some scores of Mozart. Both The Pope and the priest are wearing suits. One can see that Fr Georg chooses a more relaxed open shirt. While his ‘conservative’ papal brother, Joseph, kept his closed. The journalist also noticed that the suit was a well tailored double-breasted blue-grey. For me, of course, the piano was a more important concern.

The family Ratzinger has always been a musical one, the father of Holy Father used to play Zither, as Joseph Ratzinger recalled in an interview.

The Pope’s father was a policeman.

He met his wife thanks to a matrimonial advertisement. She noticed it first time but second time, answered. They wanted to be a happy family, he was strict with the children but she balanced it with warm love and kindness.

The parents bought his brother Georg Ratzinger a harmonium. Later, when they heard that it was the piano, not harmonium, which should be used as in the preparation for a career of organist, they managed to buy their elder son a piano, which was then played by all three children (they have a sister).

Extensively Pope Benedict is a passionate piano player and enjoys playing Mozart in his free time. So no wonder the Holy Father, who wrote the classic ‘The Spirit of the Liturgy’, also writes extensively and with great insight about the role of music in the Catholic liturgy.

‘What Wadowice was for John Paul, Bavaria is for Ratzinger’, said Frauenlob, referring to John Paul II’s hometown in southern Poland. ‘He has very deep roots here, it’s his home.’

The Pope was born in Marktl Am Inn, three thousand small Bavarian towns on the bank of Salzach River.

Just across the river there is Salzburg, the place where on Jan 27 of 1756, Mozart was born.

The Pope’s brother reminds, “At home we played the harmonium. Our parents were of the view that it would prepare us for the organ. In one practice book was a piece of two lines reputed to be by Mozart. I could never identify it later... There was a Mozart broadcast every Sunday, at lunch time. As I was the one in the family who was the most musically engaged, I was allowed to take my father’s place at the table, which was directly next to the radio. Then in July, I went with my brother to a Mozart concert put on by the Regensburg Cathedral Choir. They sang excerpts from ‘The Impresario’ in costume, and it was quite wonderful. I couldn’t sleep the whole night.”

But let’s hear Pope Benedict himself on the subject. Ten years ago in interview published as ‘Salt of the Earth’ he answered the question, ‘You are a great lover of Mozart?’

Deal “Yes. Although we moved around a very great deal in my childhood, the family basically always remained in the area between the Inn and the Salzach (rivers of the region). The largest, most important and best parts of my youth I spent in Traustein, which very much reflects the influence of Salzburg. You might say that there Mozart thoroughly penetrated our souls, and his music still touches me very deeply, because it is so luminous and yet at the same time so deep.

His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence.”

The Cardinal Ratzinger that time said in 1980s that he tried and got in even 15 minutes a day at the piano, playing Mozart and Beethoven.

Brahms is too difficult, he added.

“The tenant in apartment No. 8 was unusually quiet. However, he sometimes did play the piano - Mozart, Bach, Palestrina - a tad too loud. One day the tenant moved out, taking up the residence in a larger apartment, diagonally across the way. He even took a new name, Joseph Ratzinger became The Pope Benedict XVI, no longer resides at Piazza della Citta Leonina No.1”, remembers Cardinal Walter Kasper.

What sort of piano did he have then? “It’s not particularly branded.

We bought it when lecturing in Freising. The action is not great, but it looks nice and the tone is fine. For the palace in Castel Gandolfo, the Steinway has donated a small grand piano, one which I also used to enjoy playing very much. Then there’s talk of getting one for the Vatican too, but my brother said it’s not worth it. For one thing, I don’t have much time, and also I gauge one’s abilities realistically. For one playing old piano is good enough!’

The Pope was impressed with the piano skills of Brazil’s Vatican Nuncio, 66 y. Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri. He even studied at Florence Conservatory. Pope heard him during visit in Brazil and invited him for home concert in Castel Gandolfo. After the dinner on Aug 7, 2007, “I almost wanted to flee from the scene but then, once the program began, it went very well”, said the piano playing Archbishop. Concert included Chopin, Debussy, Albeniz and Brazilian Villa-Lobos. The Pope was ‘very pleased, very happy and praised him for providing a tranquil, serene musical interlude.’

Concert The Pope’s opinion after other concert was — “For me, an unforgettable experience was the Bach’s Concerto that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich after the sudden death of Karl Richter. I was sitting next to Lutheran Bischop Hanselmann. When the last note of one of the great Leipzig Cantor Cantata triumphantly faded away, we looked to each other spontaneously and right then we said ‘Anyone who heard this, knows that the faith is true!”

In April 16, 2007 at the Holy See’s Paul VI Aula, was held a concert for the Pope’s Jubilee; he completed 80 years. The repertoire was chosen by The Jubilee and contained Mozart Violin Concerto with young ladysoloists Hilary Hahn, Dvorak ‘New World’ Symphony and a selection by Italian Giovanni Gabrieli. Deutsche Grammophon recorded that special concert on DVD with speeches.

Expressing his gratitude, The Jubilee said, “I am convinced that music is the universal language of beauty which can bring together all people of good will on earth and get them to lift their gaze on high and open themselves to the absolute good and beauty whose ultimate source is God himself.”

“I thank those who combine music and prayer in harmonies praise of God and his works. They help us glorify the Creator and Redeemer of the world, which is marvellous work of his hands.”

It is worth to believe. And to play.

❑

Editor’s

❑

Note:

❑

Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His email address is: cowerkowicz @yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@hotmail.com

Photo courtesy of ‘Failaka Island, The Ikaros of the Arabian Gulf’ book by Tareq Sayid Rajab

At low tide a fisherman enters the fish trap and with the help of a hand net scoops the trapped fish from the shallow water inside ‘al Hadhrah.’ The catch is usually plentiful. In the past these fish traps were made from reeds but now metal nettings, which lasts longer, is used.

Pioneers of Kuwait With hard work, dedication fulfills his childhood dream

Mohammed charts his own destiny This article takes a look at Mohammed Ahmad Selman AlBaksami, one of the pioneers and personalities of Kuwait. — Editor ❑

❑

❑

By Lidia Qattan Special to the Arab Times

M

ohammed Al Baksami comes from a family of pastry makers whose special trade has become traditional in the Gulf region. The family itself originates from Turkey.

His grandfather Selman was a man from Antakya. He left Turkey during the rule of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, whose long reign became conspicuous for its misgovernment and loss of territory. The growing discontent of his people and their plotting against him was met with murder and prison. He was finally deposed by the Young Turks Reforming party in 1909.

Leaving his country, Selman landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he set up a bakery.

He then married a lady from Kerbela, Iraq, left Saudi Arabia and settled in Kuwait where he carried out his traditional family business, making baksams, zelabya, ra’ash and other forms of confectionery; soon he had a growing clientele on his hand.

When Mohammed was born (in 1930) his family was living in a large household on the Shara Al Jadeed (new street) the main artery of old Kuwait town, where it also carried out its business. His father, Ahmad Selman was managing his own establishment while his brothers had theirs.

Enterprise When his wife passed away in 1939, he was left with two young children, Mohammed – nine years old, and his brother Ali – seven.

Mohammed and Ali, like their cousins, started working at an early age. At first they were encouraged to do little things around the house, mainly to be kept busy , but as soon as they could help around they were given some jobs to do, till eventually they could take full part in the family’s enterprise.

From the age of nine Mohammed was working like the rest of the family. Rising at dawn, soon after the Morning Prayer he had to work in the bakery till late in the evening, stopping only for meals.

Working with his uncle in the choking heat of summer was a tedious and exhausting business.

Seeing other children going to school he was dreaming of being in class with them, or playing on the shore splashing in the water or swimming; those reveries fanned his hope of changing his tenor of life one day.

The hardest time of the year in this line of business was during the religious festivities, when the demand for pastry and sweets increased tenfold and preparations had to be made in advance.

While all round him happy children were celebrating, Mohammed was bound to his job, the only time he could enjoy the festivity with the rest of his family was late in the evening, by then he was too exhausted to have fun.

Without running water or electricity and no machinery to ease their burden, life was hard indeed. Getting water was one of Mohammad’s main duties; he had to fetch it from the water tanker on the shore and carry it home in heavy buckets.

Water in those days was brought to town directly from Shat Al Arab in wooden ships (water boom), it was sold on the shore, or taken round the houses by the Kenderi men carrying heavy gallons hanging from a shoulder bow, or was sold in sheep-skins carried by donkeys or camels.

In some localities of Shamya and Hawally there was ground water but not enough to sustain the population.

Sometime people suffered from thirst when, in rough sea ships could not leave the shore or come to port. To ensure a steady supply a shipping company was formed to bring in the water and wooden tankers were built on the shore and other localities of town for distribution.

It was a great relief when in 1953 the Shuwaikh water–distillation and electricity complex plant began production supplying large quantity of water.

Distribution around the houses was carried out by motorized vehicles, some small enough to pass through the narrow streets of town, till the pipe network was established in town and suburbs.

This innovation was for Mohammed a great relief, no Lidia Qattan longer he needed to fetch water from the shore.

Opportunity The fifties were the beginning of a new era in Kuwait that revolutionized the life of its people.

Innovations in every sector were transforming the whole infrastructure of the economical, social and political life of the country. New ideas were taking root changing people’s ways. What had been impossible barely one decade before was becoming reality. Dreams and hopes were soaring high.

By then Mohammed had grown

Mohammed Ahmad Selman AlBaksami into a young man eager for a new life like most of his contemporaries. In his line of business life had became more bearable, even pleasant. Gone were the days when he had to face hot stoves in the heat of summer, which he could only withstand because of his youth.

With electricity available, equipments were brought in to speed up production, and with machinery doing the hard work he had more time to himself to enjoy life, even to take the opportunity to study, which had been denied to him in his younger days.

He began to teach himself how to write and read; little by little he expanded his mental horizon that enable him to enjoy the intellectual atmosphere he had been yearning for so long.

Everything interested him, he never felt happier than when in company of men of learning. Incidentally, among his friends was an Indian doctor who had the idea of establishing a pharmacy, but according to local laws, he needed a Kuwaiti sponsor.

In 1957 Mohammed got the license to start the business, but his friend left the country soon after, so he was left with an idea and a document he could work with.

Wasting no time in pondering, and seeing his opportunity to change his tenor of life Mohammad went ahead with the plan.

He pooled his savings, hired a Palestinian doctor and opened a pharmacy, his supplier was a pharmaceutical agent in town.

Soon a new life of freedom and discovery dawned on him; he could indulge in travelling, see places, get to know people and their culture and learn something of their language. In time he could enlarge his shop; he was doing well when the Iraqi invasion of his country halted everything.

At the time he was in Czechoslovakia, where he usually went for relaxation. When the news hit him he was appalled and dismayed, totally uncertain about what

to do. With his mind in turmoil he was following the news of destruction and killing going on in his country, thinking about his family in those terrible circumstances intensified his anguish.

When all Kuwaiti assets were frozen, being away from home it was an agonizing experience of uncertainty. For the first time in his life he was on the brim of despair. Losing his country was as losing everything, the meaning of life itself.

Trying to get a hold on himself, thinking what to do in such a predicament, he was walking through familiar places like a man in his sleep unaware of what was going on round him. He was in such an emotional stress that he began feeling a strong pain in his chest. Thinking he was having a heart attack, he dreaded the idea of dying far from home away from his people, so he forced himself to keep calm, trying to think positive, but every time he tried, the thought of his boy and girls at home in those circumstances caused him more pain. Forcing himself to keep calm he reached the hotel. He then traveled to London, UK where he had a house; as soon as he arrived, he was taken into intensive care.

Improved Mohammad felt relieved and his condition improved when he received a phone-call from his son and daughters safe in Oman, but he only regained his peace of mind when Kuwait was set free, and after water and electricity were restored, he could return home.

When he arrived most of the oil wells were still on fire, a heavy blanket of acrid smoke was filling the air, covering the landscape. His own house had been ransacked; his pharmacy suffered the same fate.

Though the loss of his property was total, as long as his country was free, nothing else mattered to him; simply being back home made him feel reborn, with emotions and sentiments stronger than he ever felt for his homeland.

Animated by that same spirit of rebirth, Mohammad rebuilt his business and now in the late summer of his life he is a contented man.

He has fulfilled the dream of his youth animated by a motto that governed his life and with which he nurtured his children: “Everyone admires and respect honest people.

Honesty is the secret of success and happiness in life, be sincere with yourself and with everyone around you, and you’ll have nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.”

Incidentally Al Baksami, like other names of families in Kuwait and in the world, is a nickname derived from traditional family business.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

29

‘We aim to offer quality and exclusivity’

Fantasy World opens new, state-of-the-art store in Al Rai KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Fantasy World, Kuwait’s first renowned toy store since 1996 and the ultimate destination for kids, celebrated the grand opening of its flagship store in Al Rai with a complete new look at a festive event amongst its valued customers and cheerful staff. Designed with an exciting brand new look and fully equipped with the latest state-of-theart technology and modern layout, Fantasy World store in Al Rai is the first specialty toy store in Kuwait with the brand having successfully gained the position of an acknowledged leader of branded and specialty toys in the country.

Commenting on the grand opening of Al Rai store Salim Kumar, Director of Shared Services (DSS) of Fantasy World said, “At Fantasy World, we believe in enhancing our customers’ shopping experience and offering them quality and exclusivity. We are extremely pleased to announce the grand opening of our flagship store with a complete new layout and design that falls in line with global standards and exciting new high techbased items that takes our offerings range to a whole new level thus

click Latest Continued from Page 26 League Season 4 will commence in March 2013. Kindly register your teams before that. It’s a mix of different nationalities and open to all. It’s fun and a good indoor sport. You will learn many things about it that you never knew. Email your applications to uly334@gmail.com IBL Season 3 –

Some photos of the Fantasy World store

expanding our customer database. Our aim is to continuously exceed our children’s needs and expectations and serve as a one-stop shop with the highest quality and variety of toys.”

The festive event, held on Feb 14, comprised of fun-filled activities for children including entertainment and

face painting while children enjoyed music along with balloons and candies. All in all, the grand opening was a whole new fun land for children with lots of games, activities and fun things to see and do.

In addition to Fantasy World’s various departments; boys, girls, early

years, amazing minds, tweens lifestyle, outdoor and sports, the Al Rai store now hosts an exclusive toys range and items for newborn’s nursery such as the Middleton dolls, Adora dolls and Lil’ Cutesies.

Fantasy World also houses hot-sellers from their private labels such as

the remote controlled wing master Ibird, a drum kit play mat, the RC wall climbing car and the hilarious Tickles Buddies Monkey. Moreover, the store now has a brand new section dedicated for high tech items called the “tech bar” that displays a range of items compatible with iPhone and

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how and when to wear one and how the delicate gold braiding “zari” is woven into every bisht.

Doors open on Tuesday, Feb 19 at the Sadu House at 6:00 pm for 6:30 pm start.

RSVP: wovenpieces@yahoo.com or SMS 97584757.

Location: Al Sadu House, Gulf Road in front of the National Museum, Kuwait City, Kuwait. ❑ ❑ ❑

February is the time of national holidays in Kuwait. This year also, Kuwait will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its parliament. But the country had been going through some political crisis. So how did that happen? What are the roots of those crises. Albara Alwuhaib is going to answer these questions and many more in the next Diwanya.

Albara Alwuhaib is an engineer, who works for the ministry of interior & was sent to work as an assistant manager to the Kuwait Memorial Museum. He is also doing volunteer work to a number of nonprofit organizations including the Aware Center, Kuwaiti Human Rights foundations, & Kuwait Transparency Society.

He is also a founder of a book club, which is part of Aljalees project. In June 2012, he gave a presentation entitled, “The Kuwaiti Resistance,” to the American Army at Camp Arifjan.

For more information, please call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw

Feb 19

KTAA meeting: The Kuwait Textile Arts Association under the auspices of the Sadu House cordially invites you to the presentation: “Al Bisht: the Elegant Traditional Men’s Cloak of the Gulf”.

In this month of celebrating Kuwait’s proud heritage and independence we are delighted to have Reyad Al Baghli speak about one of Kuwait’s oldest trades started by his family more than 150 years ago.

Come learn about the history of the bisht,

AWARE diwaniya: “The AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation entitled, “History Of Kuwait’s Democracy,” by Albara Alwohaib on Tuesday Feb 19, at 7:00pm.

Feb 21

Bangladesh Embassy closure: The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will remain closed on Thursday, Feb 21 on the occasion of the Shahid Dibash and International Mother Language Day.

iPads as well as Android operated mobile phones and tablets.

With the new store’s architecture designed exclusively in the US, the modern structure with its unique lightings and layout including a seating area for parents gives an inviting appeal to children that transport them into a whole new different world and allow the kids to enjoy excitement at a whole new level. Moreover, the store’s new layout now creates more clarity for our customers who will have ease of shopping in the simplistic environment.

Known to import some of the finest toys from around the world, the Kuwait-based toy store and a favorite of all children, is built to offer an unmatched personal experience where children can find the hottest and most exciting collection of toys in a funfilled environment. Adding on to their existing portfolio of items the newly revamped store in Al Rai delivers an unmatchable shopping experience for children and parents along with a friendly staff service.

Fantasy World can also be found at the 2nd Avenue, The Avenues, Souk Sharq and Salmiya in Al Bustan Mall.

Feb 22

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom: Indian Youth Society brings another unique show “JhoomBarabarJhoom” featuring world famous ghazal and qawwali singer Sabri Brothers and his team on Feb 22 at 6:30 pm sharp at Kuwait Medical Association Auditorium, beside Mubarak Al Kabeer hospital, Jabriya, Kuwait.

Young talents from Kuwait will be another attraction of the evening. For more details, please contact: 66127231, 69674121, 66869007, 67738135 and 99225378.

Email iyskuwait@gmail.com; Web Page: www.iyskuwait.com

Cinema Cinema programme from Thursday 14/2/2013 to Wednesday 20/2/2013

Bullet To The Head (Dig) (Silvester Stallone, Jason Momoa) Sharqia 1

13:30, 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Muhalab 1 13:30, 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 15:30 (Daily) Fanar 1 18:00, 22:00 (Daily) Marina 2 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Avenues 1 12:45 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:15, 21:45 (Daily) 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 7 14:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:15, 18:30, 20:45, 22:45 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Al-Kout 4 20:00 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Grand cine 4 13:30, 15:30, 17:30, 20:30, 22:30 (Daily)

Safe Haven (Dig) (Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel) Sharqia 1 Muhalab 1 Fanar 3

15:45, 20:00 (Daily) 17:30, 19:45, 22:00 (Daily) 13:30, 23:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 19:30 (Daily) Marina 1 16:30, 20:45 (Daily) Avenues 5 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 18:30 (Daily) Avenues 10 13:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:00, 18:15, 20:30, 22:45 (Daily) 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 9 17:15 (Daily) 360° 11 12:45 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:15, 19:30, 21:45 (Daily) 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Al-Kout 4 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 17:30, 22:15 (Daily) Bairaq 2 16:15, 20:30 (Daily) Grand cine 3 14:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30 (Daily)

Gambit (Dig) (Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz) Sharqia 1 Fanar 1

18:00, 22:30 (Daily) 13:45, 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 20:00 (Daily) Marina 2 15:45, 22:15 (Daily) Avenues 2 13:15 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:15, 01:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:15, 19:15, 21:15, 23:15 (Daily) 360° 2 14:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:15, 18:15, 20:15, 22:15 (Daily) 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Al-Kout 3 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 17:45, 22:00 (Daily) Bairaq 3 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 17:30, 21:45 (Daily) Grand cine 2 13:00, 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:15 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri)

Grand cine 5 13:00, 14:00 (Daily)

(Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney) Sharqia 2

14:15, 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 20:15 (Daily) Muhalab 3 14:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:30, 22:45 (Daily) Fanar 4 16:45, 20:30, 22:30 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Marina 3 18:30, 20:30 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Avenues 4 12:30, 23:45 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 14:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:00, 19:15 (Daily) 21:30 (Sun to Fri) Avenues 11 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:45, 18:00, 20:15, 22:30 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 10 13:15 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:30, 17:45, 20:00, 22:15 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 12 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 14:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:00, 21:30 (Daily) 19:15 (Sat to Thu) 23:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 13 13:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:00, 18:15, 20:30, 22:45 (Daily) 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Al-Kout 2 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 15:00, 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 21:00, 23:00 (Daily) Bairaq 2 14:00, 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:30, 22:45 (Daily) Laila 16:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 22:30 (Daily) Grand cine 6 13:00, 15:30, 18:00, 20:15 22:30 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri) Grand cine GC 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:00 (Daily) 00:15 (Thu, Fri)

3Ala Gosety (Dig) (Ahmed Helmi, Ghada Adel, Edward, Hasan Hosny) Sharqia 2 Muhalab 3 Fanar 5

Marina 2 Avenues 5 Avenues 6

360° 1

The Snow Queen (Dig-3D) (Ivan Okhlobystin, Nyusha) Sharqia 2 Muhalab 3 Fanar 4 Marina 3 Avenues 9 360° 5 360° 6 Al-Kout 1 Bairaq 1

12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 16:15 (Daily) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 16:45 (Daily) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:45 (Daily) 13:15 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 16:45 (Daily) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:00, 19:00 (Daily) 13:15 (Sat) 14:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:00, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00 (Daily) 12:45 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 14:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 16:30 (Daily) 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 14:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 16:00 (Daily)

360° 9

Al-Kout 1 Bairaq 1 Plaza Laila Ajial 2

18:00, 22:30 (Daily) 20:30 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 15:15, 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 17:30, 19:45, 22:00 (Daily) 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 17:45, 20:00 (Daily) 16:00, 21:00 (Daily) 23:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:30, 20:00, 22:30 (Daily) 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 13:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 (Daily) 23:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 14:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 19:45, 22:15 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:15, 22:30 (Daily) 17:45, 20:00, 22:15 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 15:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 21:45 (Sat, Sun, Tue, Wed) 18:00 (Daily) 19:45, 22:00 (Daily)

Muhalab 2 Fanar 2

Plaza

Zahra’a Area, South Surra, 6th Ring Road, corner of King Faisal Highway

2. Ajial

Ajial Complex, Fahaheel

Ajial 1

3. Al Bairaq

Between Jaber Al Ali East & Al Agalia West

Metro 2

4. Al Fanar

Al Fanar Complex, Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya

5. Al Kout

Al-Kout Complex, at the end of the Coastal Road, Fahaheel

6. Al Muhalab

Al Muhalab Complex, Behind Hawalli Clinic, Hawalli

7. Al Sharqiya

Arabian Gulf Street, Souq Sharq, near the Amiri Hospital

8. Granada

Abraq Khaitan, off the Old Airport Road

9. Laila Gallery

Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya

10. Marina

Marina Mall, Between Salem Al Mubarak Street & Arabian Gulf Street, Salmiya

11. Metro

Metro Complex, Farwaniya, near Crowne Plaza Hotel & Farwaniya Garden

12. Plaza

Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya

13. The Avenues

The Avenues Mall, Al Reggai near Al Rai, 5th Ring Road & Ghazali Road Intersection

Lokpal (Dig-Malayalam)

Metro 1

NB: Friday no show before 1:30 pm On Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday no show before 3.30 pm and after 11.15 pm in Sharq, Mohalab, Fanar, Marina, Al Kout, Bairaq, 360 and Avenues.

On Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday no show before 5:30 pm in Plaza, Laila, Ajial, Metro and Granada.

Regular show KD3:000; 3D-Digital — KD3.500; VIP show — KD6.000. ‘On Monday, price is KD1.500 except Digital movies.

Movies inquiries and Fax Back hotline 1803456

18:15, 22:45 (Daily) 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 23:00 (Daily) 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Avenues 3 14:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:15, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 (Daily) 01:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 8 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 15:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:30, 19:45, 22:00 (Daily) Al-Kout 1 20:30 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Bairaq 3 19:30 (Daily) 23:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Grand cine 1 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:15 (Daily) 00:30 (Thu, Fri)

Broken City (Dig)

15:30, 21:30 (Daily) 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 4 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 (Daily) 23:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Al-Kout 3 15:30, 19:45 (Daily) 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Laila 20:15 (Daily) Grand cine 7 13:30, 16:00, 19:45, 22:00 (Daily) 00:15 (Thu, Fri)

Save Your Legs! (Dig) (David Lyons, Brenton Thwaites) Sharqia 3 Muhalab 2 Fanar 3 Marina 1 Avenues 8 360° 5

(Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe)

Marina 3 Avenues 7

Imax film programme at The Scientific Centre

Sunday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Tornado Alley 3D 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:30 pm To The Artic 3D 11:30 am, 3:30 pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30 pm, 6:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 4:30 pm, 8:30 pm

Monday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Born to be Wild 3D 10:30 am, 3:30 pm, 9:30 pm Tornado Alley 3D 11:30 am, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30 pm, 2:30 pm 8:30 pm To The Arctic 3D 4:30 pm, 6:30 pm

Tuesday Grand Al-Hamra, tel: 22270333, www.grandcinemas.com

Marina 1

Sharqia 3 Muhalab 2 Fanar 2

15:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:45, 21:45 (Daily) 15:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:30, 21:30 (Daily)

IMAX

14. The Scientific Center Opp Holiday Inn, Salmiya, Gulf Road IMAX

15. Grand Cinemas

18:30 (Daily) 21:45 (Thu, Fri, Mon) 15:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:30, 21:30 (Daily) 15:45, 22:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:45 (Daily) 21:45 (Sun, Tue, Wed)

(Mohanlal, Kavya Madhavan) Ajial 4

16:30, 22:45 (Daily) 15:45, 22:15 (Daily) 16:00, 20:15 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 22:30 (Daily) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue)

Al-Kout 2

18:45 (Daily) 18:00 (Daily) 17:30, 21:45 (Daily) 18:45 (Daily) 18:15, 20:15, 22:15 (Daily) 15:15 (Fri, Sat) 17:15 (Tue to Sun) 19:15, 21:15, 23:15 (Daily) 01:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 19:00 (Daily)

The Guilt Trip (Dig) (Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen) Fanar 1 16:00 (Daily)

Marina 1 Avenues 1

14:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 19:30 (Daily) 360° 15 13:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:45, 18:00, 22:30 (Daily) Al-Kout 2 17:00 (Daily) Grand cine 8 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:15, 22:15 (Daily)

Snowflake, The White Gorilla (Dig) (Claudia Abate, Pere Ponce) Fanar 3 15:45 (Daily) Marina 3 Avenues 8 360° 3 Al-Kout 4 Bairaq 3 Ajial 2

15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 14:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 16:15 (Daily) 13:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon, Tue) 15:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) 17:00, 19:00 (Daily) 15:45 (Daily) 15:30 (Daily) 16:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 18:00 (Daily)

Special 26 (Dig) (Hindi) (Kajal Agarwal, Manoj Bajpai) Avenues 7 18:30 (Daily) 360° 14 Ajial 3

17:30 (Daily) 16:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 19:00, 22:00 (Daily)

Warm Bodies (Dig) (Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer) Avenues 8 00:15 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 15

20:15 (Daily) 00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon)

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (Dig-3D) (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) Avenues 9 20:45, 22:45 (Daily)

Mama (Dig) 12:30 (Thu, Sat, Mon) 14:30, 01:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 20:45 (Daily) 13:45, 00:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 20:15 (Daily) 14:00 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon)

(Prabhas, Anushka Shetty)

1. 360°

00:45 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) 360° 3 21:00, 23:00 (Daily) 360° 6 00:05 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon) Grand cine 5 17:00, 20:30, 22:30 (Daily)

(Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) Sharqia 3

Mirchi (Dig-Telugu)

How to find us

A Good Day To Die Hard (Dig)

Jayanta Bhai Ki Luv Story (Dig-Hindi) (Vivek Oberoi, Neha Sharma) 360° 14 14:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue) ‘Save Your Legs!’ starring David Lyons, Brenton Thwaites, Brendan Cowell is now showing in Kuwait cinemas.

20:30 (Daily) 23:30 (Thu, Fri, Sat, Mon)

Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Tornado Alley 3D 10:30 am, 3:30 pm 6:30 pm, 8:30 pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 11:30 am, 5:30 pm, 9:30 pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30 pm, 7:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 2:30 pm Journey to Mecca 4:30 pm

Wednesday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am To The Arctic 3D 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, 6:30 pm Tornado Alley 3D 11:30 am, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:30 pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 8:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 4:30 pm

Thursday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30 am, 2:30 pm 6:30 pm To The Arctic 3D 11:30 am, 8:30 pm Tornado Alley 3D 12:30 pm, 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 4:30 pm

Friday Fires of Kuwait 2:30 pm Tornado Alley 3D 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 8:30 pm To The Arctic 3D 4:30 pm, 7:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 6:30 pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 9:30 pm

Saturday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30 am, 1:30 pm, 8:30 pm Tornado Alley 3D 11:30 am, 2:30 pm, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:30 pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30 pm, 6:30 pm Born to be Wild 3D 3:30 pm Journey to Mecca 4:30 pm Notes: All films are in Arabic. For English, headsets are available upon request. “Fires of Kuwait” is in English. Arabic headsets are available upon request. Film schedule is subject to changes without notice.

For information call 1848888 or visit www.tsck.org.kw

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

30

Horoscope

By Jacqueline Bigar Happy birthday for Monday, Feb 18, 2013: This year you have a unique opportunity to expand your horizons. Your creativity soars, and Lady Luck seems to be riding on your shoulder. Still, don’t take anything for granted, and be sure to use good sense.

If you are single, you could meet someone very special and significant to your life history. The process of getting to know each other will prove to be unusually rewarding. If you are attached, the two of you start acting like new lovers. Romance blooms, and a new addition to the family becomes a possibility. GEMINI helps you lighten up and laugh.

The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-Average; 2-So-so; 1Difficult

Capricorn - (Dec 22 - Jan 19) ***** Realize what is happening within your immediate circle. Try to do something differently.

What has not worked in the past suddenly will.

Rethink a situation, brainstorm with others and approach it in a new way. Tonight: Live it up. Enjoy catching up on a friend’s news.

Aquarius - (Jan

20 - Feb 18)

*** You have been a bundle of energy as of late.

Suddenly, the need to slow down hits you. How you deal with a situation could change radically because of your needs. Make no definitive statement just yet.

Your finances could factor into your thinking.

Tonight: Do a little shopping.

Pisces - (Feb 19 - Mar 20) **** Your way of dealing with a problem could change radically. You’ll observe others and see different ways of handling pressure and communication issues. If you like someone else’s style, you might want to consider adapting certain elements of it. Tonight: As you like it.

home decor

button art Supplies: Photograph frame Simple piece of stationery Assorted colours of buttons Hot glue gun Instructions: Take away the glass and backing from body.

Make confident your stationery suits into the body completely so there are no visible lines. Decide on your button hues and set up on the stationery just before you glue so you like how it seems. Employing your scorching glue gun, glue every single button to the stationery. Maintain the buttons down so they adhere. Permit the buttons dry about thirty minutes ahead of shifting the stationery. Area the button sheet powering the glass and then place the backing of the body at the rear of the stationery. You may possibly need to tape the back of the frame if you employed bigger, thick buttons.

Aries - (Mar 21 - Apr 19) *** If you don’t accomplish what you want to do early on, you might find that it becomes more difficult as the day goes on. Others seem to interfere with your normal routine. View an obstacle that appears on your path as a sign to think carefully before continuing. Tonight: Talk to a friend.

Taurus - (Apr 20 - May 20) **** Emphasize the role that others play in your life in order to manifest a goal. The additional responsibility you have shouldered in the past few weeks seems to pay off. If you’re wondering which way to go with a present situation, listen to feedback. Tonight: Balance your budget.

Gemini - (May 21 - June 20) ***** You’ll head into work feeling sure of

yourself. If you want something done your way, you’ll have to take the lead. You might feel the need to start over, even if you don’t want to lose the work, as you continue to see problems arise with this project. Tonight: To the wee hours.

Cancer - (June 21 - July 22) *** Stop, and try to take in what is going on behind the scenes. Your fatigue is apparent, and you know when you have had enough. You might want to ask someone to fill in for you. Be reasonable in how you handle an unruly child or loved one.

Tonight: Head home early.

Leo - (July 23 - Aug 22) ***** Focus on long-term outcomes, especially if you are experiencing a lot of back-and-forth in your daily life. Financial matters come to the forefront. Make sure that you straighten out a hassle that has been affecting your domestic life. Tonight:

indoor gardening

Where the crowds are.

Virgo - (Aug 23 - Sept 22): *** You could feel pressured and become tenser as a result of a certain situation. Key people in your life are optimistic; however, you might feel anxious when hearing the same news and information.

Communication could become muddled. Tonight: Choose a stressbuster.

Libra - (Sept 23 - Oct 22) *** Your playfulness might become tempered by the realization of how much you need to do. Detach and prioritize, and you’ll get more done than you thought possible. Recognize what is happening with an important relationship, and try to be more nurturing. Tonight: Make it easy.

Scorpio - (Oct 23 - Nov 21)

beauty tips

*** Your communication style seems to be transforming. You might not like everything that is being revealed right now. Use your ingenuity to solve these issues and more. Do not rush through the process for an answer. Take news with a grain of salt. Tonight: Easy works.

Sagittarius - (Nov 22 - Dec 21) ***** Approach a recurring situation differently.

You might choose to be less verbal. Find out what the root of the problem is, and then work with others to fix it. As a result, you will have less to worry about. Tonight: Your optimism makes a big difference in your dealings.

❑

❑

❑

Born today: Actor John Travolta (1954), former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown (1922), actor Matt Dillon (1964)

taste buds

prosthechea garciana

brighten up your hair

lamb and olive balls

Prosthechea garciana commonly known as Garcia’s Prostechea is found growing in Venezuela. This plant blooms from late spring to fall with a single 2 cm wide flower. Flower is fragrant when sunlight is present and last up to six months. This small growing epiphyte with 7cm psuedobulbs and 8cm leaves produces long lasting flowers in ones & twos that arte 4cm across.

Site: Bright light is recommended.

Temperature: 10–18 degrees Celsius Water: Plant prefers drying periods between watering

To brighten up your hair slightly, take equal parts of 20 volume peroxide and any brand of shampoo.

Separate your hair into strands a couple inches wide.

Apply the mixture to your hair, beginning with the middle lengths of your hair, using the brush. Start applying mixture about 1/2 inch from your scalp and work quickly through to the ends. Use your fingers to apply mixture to the hair near your scalp last, as mixture works more quickly there.

Lather all over your head and leave for 10-15 minutes. Rinse bleach from your hair when the color reaches your desired level of lightness.

Ingredients: 3 slices bread, country-style white or whole wheat 2 pounds fairly lean ground lamb 1/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped 1 egg, beaten 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 bunch cilantro, chopped 3 tablespoons olive oil Method: Cut the crusts from the bread; soak the slices in water, wring them out, and crumble them. With your fingers, mix the lamb well with the bread, feta cheese, olives, egg, cinnamon, hot pepper flakes, garlic, and cilantro. Form into 10 large meatballs. In a heavy frying pan, cook the meatballs in the olive oil until crisp and brown on one side; then turn and brown the balls on all sides, no more than 10 minutes, over a fairly high heat.

The meat should be rare.

Dear Abby Jealousy may push potential man away

By Abigail Van Buren Dear Abby: My boyfriend of one year, “Eddie,” has been invited to the wedding of a waitress who works at a restaurant/bar he frequents. I was not invited. Eddie doesn’t dance and has slow danced with me only once. When I told him I would not appreciate him slow dancing with anyone there, we had a heated argument. Eddie told me I have no right to tell him what to do and that I’m trying to control him.

I have run this by many people — male and female — and they all say it’s inappropriate to slow dance with anyone but your significant other, especially when she’s not present.

I feel Eddie has little regard for my feelings. If he really cared for me, he wouldn’t want to dance with anyone else. I am interested in your thoughts.

— His only dance partner Dear his only: If you would like to “graduate” from girlfriend to fiancee, you will stop trying to control him and tell him you hope he has a good time at the wedding.

Insecurity is not an attractive trait, so calm down and recognize that a dance is only a dance. From your description of Eddie’s lack of ability, I seriously doubt he will be a sought-after partner on any dance floor.

Abigail Van Buren ❑ ❑ ❑ Dear Abby: Our two children (ages 4 and 1 year) have hyphenated last names. It works well and the names sound elegant together.

My husband and I have made this known in the family and have discussed it when asked about it by various family members. However, over the last four years our choice has been ignored by two relatives from separate sides of our family. They persist in using only my husband’s last name for correspondence and gifts. He has suggested returning the mail as “addressee unknown,” which I think might come across as rude.

Is there any way of having our children addressed correctly by relatives who seem to want to ignore their real names?

— New York mommy Dear mommy: Before doing it your husband’s way, try this: Have another chat with the non-compliant relatives, who may come from a different generation. Explain that you gave your children hyphenated last names for a reason — that you want to be equally represented — and the omission of “your” name hurts your feelings. If that doesn’t work, then go back to plan A because you don’t want your children to be confused. ❑ ❑ ❑ Dear Abby: My wife and I will be married 25 years and have three children. In my family, my dad was the boss. I always was, too, but never was involved very much with the kids. My wife never really complained about it. She just wanted to keep the family together.

Now that the kids are gone, I realize I should have been a better husband. She mostly ignores me and spends her time with the kids and going places. I feel left out. She doesn’t even want to celebrate our upcoming 25th. Should we? I know my dad drank a lot, and now I find myself thinking often about how it must have been for my mom back then.

— Regretting in Illinois Dear regretting: Ask your wife why she doesn’t think that 25 years of marriage is something to celebrate, because it should be. She may spend her time with the kids and going places because that is what she HAS been doing for all these years.

There is still time for you to mend this marriage, provided you are both willing to work on it. However, it may take the services of a marriage counselor to break the ice. ❑ ❑ ❑ Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

(Source: Universal Uclick)

Some photo from the event

ABS holds ‘evening of the arts’ The Evening of the Arts was a great success at The American Baccalaureate School. The February 7th event was held in the school cafeteria and featured a wide range of artistic talent and performances featuring elementary through high school students.

Artwork created throughout the beginning of the school year from students of all ages was

also displayed. The Evening of the Arts was organized by Ms. Heba Haji, elementary art teacher.

As well as the art work that was on display there was also three performances at the event. The sixth grade girls began with a dance to the song “Waka, Waka” (It’s time for Africa) made popular by Shakira. The dance

was choreographed by the students with assistance from their drama and art teacher, Pamela Muir. The second performance was a group of fourth graders performing “Lean On Me” originally written by Bill Withers.

Andy Litwiller, elementary music teacher, led the ensemble of singers and drummers.

The evening concluded with the twelfth

what’s on today ■ HSBC blood donation drive: One donation can help save the lives of up to 3 people.

Join HSBC Kuwait on a Blood Donation Campaign in association with Kuwait Blood Bank.

When: Today (Feb 18) Time: from 09:00 am till 12:00 noon Where: Kharafi Tower Lobby ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ Sixth Form Intro at ESF: The English School Fahaheel will hold a special Introductory evening for prospective Sixth Form students and their parents today at the Lloyd Webber Theatre. The event has been organized by Sixth Form staff.

The evening will provide information on courses offered at ESF and the extensive counseling services offered to students when applying to Universities. Guests will also view the impressive Sixth Form facilities ESF has to offer.

Students at ESF have always enjoyed considerable success in attaining places at top Universities around the world. You too can be part of ESF’s select students. ❑ ❑ ❑

■ Latino dancing classes: Salsa & Bachata classes learn the moves, unleash your potential live the experience of true Latin dancing. We provide individual attention to students. You can join as an individual or as a couple. Salsa classes on Monday and Wednesday from 8 pm to 9 pm. Bachata classes every Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm.

For details contact: 55885102, 99885102. ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ Jewelry exhibition: FA Gallery presents collectible jewelry exhibition by Lama Hourani until Feb 23. The exhibition will feature her latest collections of handmade

art-to-wear pieces and timeless classics.

Lama Hourani is a Jordanian jewelry designer residing between Amman, Barcelona and Shanghai. Hourani was recently honored as a global leader for 2012 by the World Economic Forum for her contribution to society, winner of the best innovative Design Award under the Young Arab Designers category by The Middle East Watches, Jewellery & Pens Awards. For details log on to www.thefagallery.com ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ BBBC weekly services: Bible Believers’ Baptist Church (BBBC) in Mangaf invites you to visit us for our week-

■ KLT auditions: Auditions for the Kuwait Little Theatre’s (KLT) summer musical ‘Grease’ will be held at the theatre today, from 7-9pm. For more information log on to www.theklt.com ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ Turkish language course: The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey announces that a new classes of Turkish Language for beginners will start at the Embassy’s Tourism, Culture and Information Office on Feb 17, 2013. The lessons will be two times in a week for six weeks, for further details and registration please contact: ■ the Embassy at Tel: 22277405 (only from 9 am to 3 pm).

■ or fill the application form on http://kuveyt.be.mfa.gov.tr and send it to the e-mail: embassy.kuwait@mfa.gov.tr ❑ ❑ ❑

Quarter 2 ended at for the KG students at The American Baccalaureate School with 16 students being awarded for their Perfect Attendance, 5 of who have not had a day off school or been tardy since September 9! All the students were presented with a certificate from Ms Amal and Ms. Sarah handed them all goodie bags. They then had their photographs taken as a reminder of their special day. The students with Perfect Attendance from Sept 9 - Jan 23 are: Deyain Al-Deyain PreK A, Jana Al-

Terkait KG1E, Abdulrahman Al-Sayer KG2A, Ahmed Al-Saad KG2B and Salman Al-Suwaidi KG2D. The students with Perfect Attendance from Nov 8 - Jan 23: Abdullah Al-Kharafi, Muniah Al-Omran and Ruslia Boresli all from KG1A, Jawhara AlBabtain and Munia Al-Muneefi from KG1B. Ali Abdullah KG1E, Badreyah Al-Mansour, Saeed Al-Othman and Abdullah AlShereedah from KG2C, lastly, Hana AlAsousi KG2E and Khaled Yaqoub from KG2F.

grade girls’ performance of Anton Chekov’s “Three Sisters”. The play tells the story of three women who were forced out of Moscow because of communism, and addresses the theme of the divisions caused by love and war. Catherine Tuohy, high school drama teacher, directed the classic play.

emergency number 112 ly services in English. Friday morning Bible teaching starts at 10:30 am. The Sermon and Children’s Church begins at noon. On Monday evening we hold our prayer meeting and Bible study at 7 pm.

For more details, please call 66220416 or email faithful.stewards@gmail.com ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ El Shaddai weekly fellowship: The El Shaddai DWXI-PPFI Kuwait Chapter invites all the Filipino in our weekly fellowship. ● Every Monday, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm St Joseph Hall (Basement), Holy Family Cathedral, Kuwait City. ● Every Friday (except 1st Friday), 12:30 pm to 4 pm, Sacred Heart Hall, Holy Family Cathedral, Kuwait City.

For more information please call any of the following nos: 66758948, 66523946, 99615956, 99495832, 66078953 and 67067956. ❑ ❑ ❑ ■ Father’s Love Int’l Ministries: Have you had a challenging week? Want to hear something different for a change?

Something positive and energizing?

At Father’s Love International Ministries, you will find all these and much more … Love, Laughter, Life, Liberty.

You will find a community of God-loving believers, who come every Friday, Saturday and Monday to praise and worship together, pray together and listen to God’s word together at the Father’s House.

There is always a word of blessing and edification for everyone who comes to Father’s House.

So don’t be left out! Come join the family! You will be restored, revived, and renewed and greatly rewarded!

Father’s Love Encounter Services on Fridays — 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Bible Study on Saturdays — 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Empowerment Services on Mondays — 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

For directions please call 99664030, 66550209. www.fathersloveim.com

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

31

Couch slouch

Former politician Cain joins Fox News as a contributor LOS ANGELES, Feb 17, (RTRS): Add another former politician to the list of Fox News’ contributors: Herman Cain.

Cain, who launched a brief but intensely entertaining bid for the presidency during the 2012 election cycle, has joined Fox News, the network announced

Friday. Cain will provide analysis and commentary across Fox News’ daytime and primetime programming and will contribute to Fox Business Network.

“I’m excited about joining the Fox family as a contributor because it is an opportunity to be one more voice for

intelligent thinking in America,” Cain said of the new gig.

“Cain’s impressive resume makes him a valuable addition to the Fox News and Fox Business lineup,” Bill Shine, Fox’s executive vice president of programming, said of the new addition. “As a political

expert with business savvy, he brings an important voice to the nation’s debates.”

Prior to the 2012 election campaign, Cain was a conservative radio host, columnist and author. He also served as the CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a gig that had drastic conse-

quences for his presidential run when it was revealed that he was accused of sexual harassment. Cain steadfastly denied the charges but put his campaign on a hiatus that it never emerged from.

More recently, Cain launched the web TV outlet Cain.TV.

In recent months, Fox News has added a number of new contributors, while parting ways with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris. Earlier this week, the network brought aboard former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown.

tv highlights Animal Planet 05:55 Animal Cops Houston 06:45 Wildest India 07:35 Wildlife SOS 08:00 The Really Wild Show 08:25 Bad Dog 09:15 Dogs 101 10:10 Baby Planet 11:05 Wildest Africa 12:00 Animal Cops Phoenix 12:55 Call Of The Wildman 13:20 Wildlife SOS 13:50 Vet On The Loose 14:15 Vet On The Loose 14:45 Animal Precinct 15:40 Wildest Africa 16:35 Escape To Chimp Eden 17:00 The Really Wild Show 17:30 Dogs 101 18:25 Crocodile Hunter 19:20 Too Cute! 20:15 Bondi Vet 20:40 Safari Vet School 21:10 Call Of The Wildman 21:35 Escape To Chimp Eden 22:05 Wildest Africa 23:00 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 23:25 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 23:55 My Cat From Hell 00:50 Animal Cops South Africa 01:45 Human Prey 02:35 I'm Alive 03:25 Wildest Africa 04:15 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 04:40 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 05:05 My Cat From Hell 05:55 Call Of The Wildman

BBC Lifestyle 05:55 Design Rules 06:15 Design Rules 06:40 Gok's Fashion Fix 07:30 Antiques Roadshow 08:20 Homes Under The Hammer 09:10 Bargain Hunt 09:55 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 10:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 12:00 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 13:30 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 14:25 Gok's Clothes Roadshow 15:10 Bargain Hunt 15:55 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 16:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 18:00 Homes Under The Hammer 18:50 The Hairy Bikers USA 19:15 Rick Stein's Spain 20:10 New Scandinavian Cooking 20:35 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 21:35 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 22:25 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 23:10 Bargain Hunt 00:00 Homes Under The Hammer 00:50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 02:10 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 03:05 Gok's Clothes Roadshow 03:55 Ty's Great British Adventure 04:20 Ty's Great British Adventure 04:45 Bargain Hunt 05:30 Living In The Sun 06:20 House Swap

General

Boomerang 06:00 Bananas In Pyjamas 06:25 Jelly Jamm 07:00 Ha Ha Hairies 07:25 Baby Looney Tunes 07:50 Lazy Town 08:15 Krypto The Superdog 08:40 Jelly Jamm 09:05 Gerald McBoing Boing 09:30 Cartoonito Tales 09:55 Bananas In Pyjamas 10:20 Ha Ha Hairies 10:45 Lazy Town 11:10 Krypto The Superdog 11:35 Baby Looney Tunes 12:00 Jelly Jamm 12:25 Gerald McBoing Boing 12:50 Cartoonito Tales 13:15 Krypto The Superdog 13:40 Lazy Town 14:00 A Pup Named ScoobyDoo 14:25 Tom And Jerry Tales 14:50 Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries 15:20 Johnny Bravo 15:45 Tom & Jerry 16:10 Pink Panther And Pals 16:35 The Garfield Show 17:00 What's New Scooby-Doo? 17:25 Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries 17:50 Tom And Jerry Tales 18:15 The Looney Tunes Show 18:40 Taz-Mania 19:05 Moomins 19:30 Pink Panther & Pals 19:45 The Garfield Show 20:00 Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries 20:20 Tom And Jerry Tales 20:45 Moomins 21:10 Dexters Laboratory 21:20 Johnny Bravo 21:35 Puppy In My Pocket 22:00 The Garfield Show 22:25 What's New Scooby-Doo? 22:50 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 23:15 Tom & Jerry Tales 23:40 The Looney Tunes Show 00:05 Taz-Mania 00:30 Pink Panther And Pals 00:55 Moomins 01:20 Tom & Jerry Kids 01:45 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo 02:10 Puppy In My Pocket 02:35 Wacky Races 03:00 Looney Tunes 03:25 Duck Dodgers 03:50 Dastardly And Muttley 04:00 Dexter's Laboratory 04:30 Wacky Races 04:55 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 05:20 Tom & Jerry 05:45 The Garfield Show 06:00 Bananas In Pyjamas

Discovery Channel 06:05 Mythbusters 07:00 Mythbusters Dirty Dozen 07:50 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 08:45 Masters Of Survival 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Auction Kings 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Do They Do It? 11:25 How It's Made 11:50 Fast N' Loud 12:45 Jesse James Outlaw Garage 13:40 American Chopper 14:35 Border Security 15:05 Auction Kings 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Life On A Wire 16:55 Outback Truckers 17:50 Mythbusters Dirty Dozen 18:45 American Guns 19:40 How Do They Do It? 20:05 How It's Made 20:35 Auction Kings 21:00 Auction Kings 21:30 Gold Rush 22:25 Gold Divers 23:20 Around The World In 80 Ways 00:15 Gold Rush 01:10 Gold Divers 02:05 Around The World In 80 Ways 03:00 Mythbusters Dirty Dozen 03:55 Border Security 04:20 Auction Kings 04:50 Auction Kings 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How It's Made 06:05 American Guns

Disney Channel 06:00 Phineas And Ferb 06:15 Suite Life On Deck 06:40 My Babysitter's A Vampire 07:05 A.N.T. Farm 07:30 Phineas And Ferb 07:40 Phineas And Ferb 07:55 Jessie 08:20 Good Luck Charlie 08:45 Doc McStuffins 09:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:25 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 09:35 The Hive 09:45 Mouk 10:00 Jonas 10:25 So Random 10:50 Hannah Montana 11:15 Sonny With A Chance 11:40 Kim Possible 12:05 Shake It Up 12:30 Wizards Of Waverly Place 12:55 Phineas And Ferb 13:20 Austin And Ally 13:45 Art Attack 14:10 A.N.T. Farm 14:35 Suite Life On Deck 15:00 My Babysitter's A Vampire 15:25 Shake It Up 15:50 Austin And Ally 16:15 Jessie 16:40 A.N.T. Farm 17:00 Good Luck Charlie 17:30 Gravity Falls 17:55 Suite Life On Deck 18:20 Austin And Ally 18:45 Phineas And Ferb 18:55 Phineas And Ferb 19:10 A.N.T. Farm 19:35 Good Luck Charlie 20:00 Jessie 20:30 That's So Raven 20:50 Cory In The House 21:15 Phil Of The Future 21:40 Hannah Montana 22:05 Good Luck Charlie 22:30 Good Luck Charlie 22:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:20 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:45 Hannah Montana 00:10 Hannah Montana 00:35 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 01:00 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 01:25 Replacements 01:50 Replacements 02:15 Emperor's New School 02:40 Emperor's New School 03:05 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 03:30 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 03:55 Replacements 04:20 Replacements 04:45 Emperor's New School 05:10 Emperor's New School 05:35 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 06:00 Phineas And Ferb

Disney Junior

06:00 Evil Up Close 07:00 Crime Stories

Al-Jazeera

BBC World

00:00 NEWSHOUR 01:00 News 01:30 People & Power 02:00 NEWSHOUR 03:00 News 03:30 Inside Story 04:00 Al Jazeera World 05:00 NEWSHOUR 06:00 News 06:30 Earthrise 07:00 News 07:30 Listening Post 08:00 News 08:30 News 09:00 The Cafe 10:00 News 10:30 Inside Story 11:00 News 11:30 South2North 12:00 News 12:30 People & Power 13:00 NEWSHOUR 14:00 News 14:30 Inside Story 15:00 Witness 16:00 NEWSHOUR 17:00 News 17:30 Talk to Al Jazeera 18:00 NEWSHOUR 19:00 News 19:30 Counting the Cost 20:00 News 20:30 Inside Story 21:00 NEWSHOUR 22:00 News 22:30 The Stream 23:00 Revolution Through Arab Eyes

06:00 BBC World News 06:30 World Business Report 06:45 BBC World News 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 Hardtalk 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 BBC World News 11:00 GMT With George Alagiah 11:30 GMT With George Alagiah 12:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 12:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 13:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 13:30 Hardtalk 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 BBC World News 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 BBC World News 16:30 BBC Focus On Africa 17:00 BBC World News 17:30 World Business

MBC Action

Meow 21:00 Wedding Crashers 23:00 Red 01:00 Cloverfield 02:00 Virtuosity 04:00 It’s Alive 05:30 Feel The Noise 07:00 Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery

06:05 Ben 10 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Casper's Scare School 07:30 Casper's Scare School 08:00 Mucha Lucha 08:25 Johnny Test 08:45 Adventure Time 09:05 Total Drama World Tour 09:30 Total Drama World Tour 09:55 Ben 10: Omniverse 10:20 Young Justice 10:45 Thundercats 11:10 Regular Show 12:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 12:50 Foster's Home For... 13:15 Foster's Home For... 13:40 Courage The Cowardly Dog 14:30 Powerpuff Girls 15:20 Angelo Rules 16:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 16:35 Young Justice 17:00 Ben 10: Omniverse 17:20 Transformers Prime 17:40 Johnny Test 18:00 Level Up 18:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 18:50 Adventure Time 19:15 Regular Show 19:40 Mucha Lucha 20:05 Total Drama World Tour 20:30 Total Drama World Tour 20:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:20 Hero 108 21:45 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 22:10 Grim Adventures Of... 23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:50 The Powerpuff Girls 00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 01:55 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster's Home For... 02:45 Foster's Home For... 03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuff Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10

Crime & Investigation

News

08:00 The FBI Files 09:00 Psychic Detectives 09:30 Psychic Detectives 10:00 Crime Stories 11:00 Jack Unterweger: Poet Of Death 12:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 12:30 Snapped: Women Who Kill 13:00 The Devil You Know 14:00 Crime Stories 15:00 Murder Casebook With Fred Dinenage 16:00 The FBI Files 17:00 Psychic Detectives 17:30 Psychic Detectives 18:00 Crime Stories 19:00 The FBI Files 20:00 Murder Casebook With Fred Dinenage 21:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 21:30 Snapped: Women Who Kill 22:00 The Devil You Know 23:00 I Survived 00:00 Curious & Unusual Deaths 00:30 Curious & Unusual Deaths 01:00 Richard Trenton Chase: Born To... 02:00 Watching The Detectives 03:00 Curious & Unusual Deaths 03:30 Curious & Unusual Deaths 04:00 I Survived 05:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 05:30 Snapped: Women Who Kill 06:00 Murder Casebook With Fred Dinenage

06:00 Jungle Junction 06:15 Jungle Junction 06:30 Little Einsteins 06:50 Special Agent Oso 07:05 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:30 Jungle Junction 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:15 Imagination Movers 08:40 Cars Toons 08:45 Handy Manny 09:00 The Hive 09:10 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 09:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 09:50 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 10:05 Doc McStuffins 10:20 Doc McStuffins 10:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:00 Lilo And Stitch 11:30 Cars Toons 11:35 Mouk 11:45 Art Attack 12:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 12:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 13:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 13:10 Doc McStuffins 13:25 Handy Manny 13:40 Jungle Junction 13:55 Timmy Time 14:05 The Hive 14:15 Mouk 14:30 Little Einsteins 14:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:20 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 15:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 16:00 The Little Mermaid 16:25 Lilo And Stitch 16:55 Imagination Movers 17:20 Handy Manny 17:35 The Hive 17:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 18:10 Doc McStuffins 18:25 Doc McStuffins 18:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 18:55 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 19:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 19:35 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 20:05 Timmy Time 20:15 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 20:25 Doc McStuffins 20:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 20:55 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:10 The Hive 21:20 Timmy Time 21:30 Mouk 21:45 Handy Manny 22:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 22:25 The Hive 22:35 New

Cartoon Network

Movies

tv today

09:00 Cold Case 09:45 CSI 10:30 Bones 11:15 Most Daring 12:00 WWE Main Event 13:00 CSI 13:45 Cold Case 14:30 Bones 15:30 Knockout Sportsworld 16:30 Batman Begins 18:00 WWE Afterburn 19:00 Driven 20:00 The Bourne Ultimatum 22:00 WWE Raw 23:30 Top Gear USA 00:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life 02:00 WWE Raw 04:00 The Bourne Ultimatum 05:30 Driven 06:30 Eureka 07:45 Bones 08:15 Human Target

MBC 2 08:30 11:00 14:30 17:00

Scoop With Raya 09:00 John Q Romulus, My Father 13:00 Cellular Scoop With Raya 15:00 Step Up 3 Sherlock Holmes 19:00 The Cat’s

OSN Movies Action HD 06:00 Metro 08:00 True Justice: Brotherhood 10:00 Burden Of Evil 12:00 Season Of The Witch 14:00 True Justice: Brotherhood 16:00 Deadly Hope 18:00 Season Of The Witch 20:00 The Speak 22:00 The Shining-R 00:15 Wake Wood 02:00 The Speak 04:00 True Justice: Brotherhood 06:00 Season Of The Witch

OSN Cinema 05:30 Golden Christmas 3 07:00 Win Win 09:00 Kung Fu Dunk 11:00 Happiness Is A

Sports TV listings — See Page 48 — Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 23:00 Timmy Time 23:10 Animated Stories 23:20 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 23:30 Jungle Junction 23:45 Handy Manny 23:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 00:20 Little Einsteins 00:50 Special Agent Oso 01:00 Special Agent Oso 01:15 Lazytown 01:40 Jungle Junction 01:55 Jungle Junction 02:10 Handy Manny 02:20 Handy Manny 02:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 03:00 Lazytown 03:25 Special Agent Oso 03:40 Special Agent Oso 03:50 Imagination Movers 04:20 Handy Manny 04:30 Handy Manny 04:40 Special Agent Oso 04:50 Special Agent Oso 05:00 Timmy Time 05:10 Lazytown 05:35 Little Einsteins 06:00 Jungle Junction

Disney XD 07:00 Kickin It 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Almost Naked Animals 08:15 Pokemon: BW Rival Destinies 08:40 Slugterra 09:05 Scaredy Squirrel 09:30 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:55 Zeke & Luther 10:20 Kick Buttowski 10:45 I'm In The Band 11:10 Rekkit Rabbit 11:35 Rated A For Awesome 12:00 Iron Man Armored Adventures 12:25 American Dragon 12:50 Kick Buttowski 13:15 Cars Toons 13:20 Pair Of Kings 13:45 Zeke & Luther 14:10 Rekkit Rabbit 14:35 I'm In The Band 15:00 Phineas And Ferb 15:25 Kickin It 15:50 Rekkit Rabbit 16:15 Pair Of Kings 16:40 Almost Naked Animals 17:05 Crash & Bernstein 17:30 Slugterra 18:00 Kickin It 18:25 Scaredy Squirrel 18:50 Phineas And Ferb 19:15 Phineas And Ferb 19:40 Mr. Young 20:05 Slugterra 20:30 Zeke & Luther 20:55 I'm In The Band 21:20 Rated A For Awesome 21:45 Rekkit Rabbit 22:10 Phineas And Ferb 22:35 Ultimate SpiderMan 23:05 Kick Buttowski 23:30 Scaredy Squirrel 07:00 Kickin It

E! Entertainment 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Married To Jonas 09:45 Married To Jonas 10:15 THS 12:05 Ice Loves Coco 12:35 Ice Loves Coco 13:05 Giuliana & Bill 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 14:30 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 E!es 16:30 Behind The Scenes 17:00 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 19:00 THS 20:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:00 Opening Act 22:00 Ice Loves Coco 22:30 Ice Loves Coco 23:00 THS 23:30 E!es 00:00 Dirty Soap 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 E!es 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 E!es 05:05 THS 06:00 THS

Food Network 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Unwrapped 07:35 Unwrapped 08:00 Food Network Challenge 08:50 Kid In A Candy Store 09:15 Unwrapped 09:40 Food Crafters 10:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 10:30 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 10:55 Cooking For Real 11:20 Easy Chinese 11:45 Easy Chinese 12:10 Mexican Made Easy 12:35 Mexican Made Easy 13:00 Iron Chef America 13:50 Symon's Suppers 14:15 Unique Sweets 14:40 Unique Sweets 15:05 World Cafe Asia 15:30 Easy Chinese 15:55 Easy Chinese 16:20 Food Crafters 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 19:15 Symon's Suppers 19:40 Charly's Cake Angels 20:05 Guy's Big Bite 20:30 Chopped 21:20 Chopped 22:10 Iron Chef America 23:00 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:25 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:50 World Cafe Asia 00:15 World Cafe Asia 00:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:30 Andy Bates Street Feasts 01:55 Andy Bates Street Feasts 02:20 Unwrapped 02:45 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 03:10 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 03:35 World Cafe Asia 04:00 World Cafe Asia 04:20 Kid In A Candy Store 04:50 Unique Sweets 05:15 Charly's Cake Angels 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America

Fox TV 06:30 Flash Forward 07:00 Baby TV 08:00 Ghost Whisperer 09:00 AlMaw3ed Al3emyani 10:00 Flash Forward 11:00 CSI Miami 12:00 The Block 13:00 Al Qalb Al Maftooh 14:00 Junior Masterchef Australia 15:00 MasterChef Australia 16:00 Lost 17:00 Scrubs 17:30 CSI Miami 18:30 The Block 19:15 Al Qalb Al Maftooh 20:00 MasterChef Australia 21:00 The Killing 22:00 Scrubs 22:30 CSI Miami 23:30 MasterChef Australia

Investigation Discovery 05:30 Ghost Lab 06:20 Dr G: Medical Examiner 07:10 Disappeared 08:00 Mystery Diagnosis 08:50 Street Patrol 09:15 Street Patrol 09:40 Real Emergency Calls 10:05 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

10:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 11:20 Murder Shift 12:10 Disappeared 13:00 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 13:50 Street Patrol 14:15 Street Patrol 14:40 Forensic Detectives 15:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 16:20 Real Emergency Calls 16:45 Who On Earth Did I Marry? 17:10

Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 18:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 19:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 19:30 World Business Report 19:45 Sport Today 20:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 20:30 Hardtalk 21:00 BBC World News America 21:30 BBC World News America 22:00 Newsday 22:30 Asia Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Newsday 23:30 Asia Business Report 23:45 Sport Today 00:00 Newsday 00:30 Asia Business Report 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Sport Today 02:00 BBC World News 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 BBC World News 03:30 Hardtalk 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 World Business Report 04:45 BBC World

Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown 12:00 Marion Jones: Press Pause 13:00 Little Big Soldier 15:00 Stolen Lives 17:00 A Fall From Grace 18:45 John Carter 21:00 Paranormal Activity 3 23:00 This Means War 01:00 A Fall From Grace 03:00 Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown 04:00 Marion Jones: Press Pause 05:00 Little Big Soldier

OSN Movies Comedy 06:00 Baby Geniuses 08:00 Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate 10:00 The Winning Season 12:00 Good Boy! 14:00 Scooby-Doo 16:00 The Winning Season 18:00 Mrs. Miracle 20:00 Take Me Home Tonight 22:00 High Fidelity 00:00 Neil Delamere 02:00 Take Me Home Tonight 04:00 Mrs. Miracle 06:00 The

Disappeared 18:00 Murder Shift 18:50 Forensic Detectives 19:40 On The Case With Paula Zahn 20:30 Disappeared 21:20 Nightmare Next Door 22:10 Couples Who Kill 23:00 Deadly Sins 23:50 Who On Earth Did I Marry? 00:15 Who On Earth Did I Marry? 00:40 I Almost Got Away With It 01:30 Dr G: Medical Examiner 02:20 Ghost Lab 03:05 Deadly Sins 03:55 Who On Earth Did I Marry? 04:20 Who On Earth Did I Marry? 04:45 I Almost Got Away With It 05:30 Dr G: Medical Examiner 06:20 Ghost Lab

ITV Granada 06:00 Dirk Gently 07:00 Monroe 08:00 The Jonathan Ross Show 2013 09:00 Britain's Best Dish - Celebrity Special 10:00 Emmerdale 11:00 Coronation Street 12:00 Cirque Du Soleil Zaia 13:00 Murdoch Mysteries 14:00 Dirk Gently 15:00 Monroe 16:00 The Jonathan Ross Show 2013 17:00 Jeremy Kyle USA 18:00 Emmerdale 19:00 Coronation Street 20:00 Come Dine With Me Ireland 20:30 Coach Trip 21:00 Agatha Christie's Marple 23:00 Durham County 00:00 60 Minute Makeover 01:00 Jeremy Kyle USA 02:00 Emmerdale 03:00 Coronation Street 04:00 Come Dine With Me Ireland 04:30 Coach Trip 05:00 Agatha Christie's Marple

Nat Geo Adventure HD 06:15 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 3 06:40 Food Lover's Guide To The Planet 07:10 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 1 07:35 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 1 08:05 Ultimate Traveller 09:00 Walking The World 09:55 Roam 10:20 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 10:50 The Green Way Up 11:15 Graham's World 11:45 The Frankincense Trail 12:40 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 13:35 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 3 14:00 Food School 14:30 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 1 14:55 David Rocco's Amalfi Getaway 15:25 Ultimate Traveller 16:20 Walking The World 17:15 Roam 17:40 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 18:10 The Green Way Up 18:35 Graham's World 19:05 The Frankincense Trail 20:00 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 1 20:30 David Rocco's Amalfi Getaway 21:00 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 3 21:30 Food School 22:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 22:55 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 3 23:20 Food Lover's Guide To The Planet 23:50 Delinquent Gourmet 00:15 Delinquent Gourmet 00:45 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 01:10 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 01:40 Bondi Rescue: Bali 02:05 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 02:35 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 03:00 Destination Extreme 03:30 Racing To America 04:25 Market Values 04:50 The Best Job In The World 05:20 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 06:15 David Rocco's Dolce Vita 3

Nat Geo Channel HD 06:00 The Border 07:00 Engineering Connections 08:00 Family Guns (Aka Family Combat) 09:00 Secrets of The Great Escape Revealed 10:00 Machines Of War 11:00 The Border 12:00 Bob Ballard Specials 13:00 Hooked 14:00 The Border 15:00 Engineering Connections 16:00 Family Guns (Aka Family Combat) 17:00 Secrets of The Great Escape Revealed 18:00 Machines Of War 19:00 Adventure Wanted 20:00 Animal Mega Moves 21:00 Shark Men 22:00 Adventure Wanted 23:00 Engineering Connections 00:00 Naked Science S2.5 01:00 Jurassic C.S.I. 02:00 Great Migrations 03:00 Adventure Wanted 04:00 Animal Mega Moves 05:00 Shark Men 06:00 Adventure Wanted

Nat Geo Wild HD 05:35 The Megafalls Of Iguacu 06:30 Journey Into Amazonia 07:25 Kenny And Zoltan's Venom Quest 08:20 Secrets Of The King Cobra 09:15 Crocodile King 10:10 Hippo Hell 11:05 Crimes Against Nature 12:00 Planet Carnivore 13:00 Journey Into Amazonia 14:00 Kenny And Zoltan's Venom Quest 15:00 Asia's Deadliest Snakes 16:00 Big Cat Odyssey 17:00 Snow Leopard of Afghanistan 18:00 Crimes Against Nature 19:00 Fish Warrior 20:00 Snow Leopard of Afghanistan 21:00 Kenny And Zoltan's Venom Quest 22:00 Crocodile King 23:00 Hippo Hell 00:00 Crimes Against Nature 01:00 Planet Carnivore 01:55 Expedition Wild 02:50 Swamp Men 03:45 Caught In The Act 04:40 Outback Wrangler 05:35 Snow Leopard of Afghanistan 06:30 Expedition Wild

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ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

HEALTH

32

Substance could prove useful in tissue repairs

Scientists find surgery, cancer use for mussels BOSTON, Feb 17, (AFP): Mussels secrete a powerful adhesive to hold tight on rocks swept by violent waves — and a synthetic version could prove critical for surgery and cancer treatment, researchers said Saturday.

Scientists have created materials that mimic the mussels’ sticky proteins and could have medical applications such as sealants for fetal membrane repair, selfsetting antibacterial hydrogels and polymers for to deliver cancer drugs and destroy cancer cells.

“An inland stream with water moving at only one meter (yard) per second is very hard to stand in,” said University of Washington, Seattle biologist Emily Carrington, who studies the tiny mollusks.

“Imagine something going 10 times that speed — over your whole body.”

That’s what mussels withstand — and more — as they cling to rocks, grasses and other materials under water.

Carrington said water traveling 10 meters per second would be equivalent to winds blowing 600 miles (965 kms) per hour.

Sidelines “A couple of them clinging to a rock can support the weight of a fully grown person” said Herbert Waite, a molecular biologist from the University of California.

They spoke on the sidelines of the annual American Association for the

Advancement of Science conference in Boston.

The “glue” comes from the mussel’s foot, called the byssus, which can cling to almost any surface — wet, dry, organic or inorganic.

Phillip Messersmith, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, is one of the researchers looking to reproduce the sticking power in a synthetic substance.

He and his team have developed a version that is equally water resistant, and could help close internal wounds, among other medical applications.

“The repair or reconstruction of tissues in the human body, where water is ubiquitous and its presence represents a challenge for achieving desired outcomes,” is an especially compelling potential use for the adhesive, Messersmith said in a statement.

For instance, the substance could prove useful in repairing fetal membranes that have prematurely ruptured, a condition that is difficult to treat and can lead to miscarriage, premature births and other serious complications.

Messersmith and his team are collaborating with researchers in Europe on clinical trials.

Versions Another team is working to develop synthetic versions of the mussel’s adhesive that could help repair broken bones or teeth.

Talk therapy, school-based programs appear promising

Evidence lacks on what helps kids after trauma WASHINGTON, Feb 17, (RTRS): There’s no good evidence on what types of treatment might help ward off anxiety and stress disorders in children and teens exposed to traumatic events, such as mass shootings, according to a US study.

Researchers writing in Pediatrics said that a few psychological interventions, including talk therapy and school-based programs, “appear promising” to help young people cope with the types of trauma resulting from things such as natural disasters and accidents as well as shootings.

But so far there are too many holes in the data to know what to recommend for children’s long-term health and wellbeing, according to study leader Meera Viswanathan from RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina,

and colleagues.

“Sadly, the shootings in Newtown are unlikely to be the last that we see,” Viswanathan told Reuters Health, referring to the December elementary school shootings that left 26 people dead and calling for more research. “We don’t want to be in a position that we wish we had better evidence.”

Viswanathan’s team analyzed 26 studies in which children who had been exposed to nonrelational trauma — acts committed by somebody they don’t know — were assigned to a particular treatment intervention or a comparison group.

Depending on the trial, some of those children were already experiencing anxiety and other symptoms related to the trauma.

Treatment programs varied in their

methods — from medication to talk therapy — as well as intensity and how long they lasted.

None of the studies involving antidepressants found that the they had positive effect on children’s mental health, but youths who went through some type of talk therapy tended to do better than others who weren’t treated at all.

Nicole Nugent, who has studied stress disorders in children at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said one difficulty is that children get exposed to many different types of trauma, and as a result have many different treatment needs.

But the issue needs to be addressed despite a lack of evidence on what works, she said.

“These glues are tolerated by the body and are water-resistant and that is perfect for making repairs inside the body,” he said.

In addition to the medical applications, Carrington’s team uses the mussel “glue” as an indicator of changes in the environment — especially of warming.

Laboratory experiments showed that

mussels are significantly less able hold on when the temperature rises.

The resistance of these fibers, strongest in waters 50 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 18 Celsius), diminishes by 60 percent when the water reaches 15 degrees Fahrenheit above typical summer temperatures in the mussels’ place of origin.

Researchers had already observed that

the mussel’s foot weakened at the end of summer and in early fall, just when hurricane season reaches full force, before regaining strength in the colder seasons.

“We’re trying to learn what causes this seasonal weakening — is it related to warmer weather, their spawning cycle or something else?” Carrington told reporters.

“And now we want to know if increased environmental fluctuations will help put them over the edge.”

Also: BRUSSELS: Belgian biotech firm Ablynx said a clinical study of its rheumatoid arthritis drug ALX-0061 showed promising results and it was now considering how to further develop the drug, including a partnership deal with a bigger company.

“We are now investigating the various possibilities through which we can progress the development of ALX-0061, including discussions with potential partners and other paths which will allow us to maximise the value of this asset,” Chief Executive Edwin Moses said in a statement on Wednesday. ❑ ❑ ❑ Cancer drug: A new drug from Novartis for myelofibrosis, a rare blood cancer, is not worth using on the state health service, Britain’s healthcare cost watchdog said on Wednesday.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said it had issued new draft guidance not recommending Jakavi because it could not be considered a cost-effective use of resources.

The drug costs £3,600 ($5,600) for a 60-tablet pack, corresponding to an annual cost of approximately £43,200 per patient.

Al Tijari announces winners of Al Najma Account Daily draw Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al Najma Account Daily draw on Feb 17, 2013.

The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Mr. Abdulaziz Ashkanani.

The winners of the KD 7,000 Najma Daily Draw are Hamad Faisal Mutar Mohammed Al Suleli, Bahgat Kamal Khleel Moharam, Mohammed Ibrahim

Fahmi Saleh, Abrar Humoud Abdullah Dughaim and Mohammed Khalil Mohammed Amein.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account.

Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth

Market Movements HONG KONG S. KOREA PHILIPPINES

-

Hang Seng KRX 100 All Shares

Change +31.31 +1.07 +10.06

Closing pts 23,444.56 4,247.18 4,101.44

KD 100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al Fitr, Eid Al Adha and on the 19th of June which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or 2 months prior to the mega draw. In addition,

15-02-2013 INDIA JAPAN AUSTRALIA GERMANY FRANCE EUROPE

-

Sensex Nikkei All Ordinaries DAX CAC 40 Euro Stoxx 50

Change -29.03 -133.45 -2.60 -37.68 -9.23 -20.09

Closing pts 19,468.15 11,173.83 5,054.60 7,593.37 3,660.37 2,615.26

for each KD 25 a customer can get one chance for winning instead of KD 50.

Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

The photo shows a promo poster of Al Najma campaign.

Business

Total issuances from sovereign entities reach $80.2 bln in 2012

Sukuk market seen to grow by 30 pct this year: KFH KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17, (KUNA): The Sukuk market is expected to grow by around 30 percent this year, buoyed by sovereign Sukuk that will continue to dominate, supported by emerging of new countries that issue Sukuk, according to a recent report by Kuwait Finance House (KFH).

Sukuk issuance will grow this year by 20-30 percent after the momentum witnessed by the issuance process last year that was worth $131 billion, the report, compiled by the KFH-Research, showed.

The share of the Middle East of

issuance in 2012 increased; especially in Saudi Arabia and UAE, it said, noting that the returns on Sukuk increased during the same year, compared to returns in 2011.

Sukuk remain a major facet of the Islamic finance industry in 2013. The Islamic capital market now stands aflush with more than $230 billion in outstanding sukuk papers, having developed as a crucial platform for international liquidity and fund raising activities, it said.

Renewed struggles in Europe have hampered growth in advanced

economies, leading to capital flows into emerging markets and alternative investments.

Despite this, economic growth in 2012 is estimated to have remained subdued even in emerging economies on the back of lower global demand for goods and services. This sustained sentiment has kept investors in the bond markets in a year that has seen benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields lose 9.3 percent, it said.

In 2012, a total of $131.2 billion worth of sukuk papers were recorded from the primary market, representing

a y-o-y increase of 54.2 percent. The amount dwarfs that of previo$years and even represents three times the size of the primary sukuk market pre the global financial crisis. Since 2008, total yearly issuances have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 67.4 percent.

Sovereign issuers led the market share in 2012 despite a record amount of corporate sukuk placed during the year. Total issuances from sovereign entities throughout 2012 reached $80.2 billion as compared to $58.9 billion in 2011, representing a 36.0 percent y-o-y

increase. Despite the dominant market share of 61.1 percent, sovereign papers were overshadowed by significant growth in both corporate and government-related entities which grew by 92.4 percent and 103.0 percent to $36.5 billion and $14.5 billion, respectively, the report indicated.

By region, issuances from Central and East Asia continued their growth momentum, climbing by 60.1 percent y-o-y to $104.8 billion during 2012.

This was led by Indonesia (+131.1 percent y-o-y, $6.0 billion) and Malaysia (+59.4 percent y-o-y, $97.1 billion).

Meanwhile, issuances from the Middle East and North Africa also increased by 34.4 percent y-o-y to $26.3 billion, mainly led by the 278.2 percent y-o-y jump in issuances from Saudi Arabia to $10.5 billion and the 49.3 percent y-o-y increase in issuances from the UAE to $6.1 billion.

Within the corporate sukuk market, $26.8 billion worth of papers or 73.5 percent of total issuances were issued in Malaysia, while $4.2 billion (11.5 percent) was issued in the UAE and $3.4 billion (9.3 percent) was issued in Saudi Arabia, the report concluded.

Kuwait Medical Co records KD 16,960 profit in 4th qtr Ikarus earns KD 8.95 mln in 2012 OBG and KFIB officials pose for a photo.

Kuwait economy Oxford Business Group

Report to focus on investment

OBG inks MoU with KFIB for 2013 report KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Kuwait’s plans to tap investment for a raft of infrastructure projects in line with its aim to shift the economy away from a reliance on hydrocarbons will be put under the microscope in a forthcoming report to be published by the global publishing, research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG).

The Report: Kuwait 2013 will explore the major opportunities which the country’s plans are set to generate for investors, including work on roads and ports, the expansion of Kuwait International Airport, a transportation network linking Kuwait to other GCC countries and an offshore tourism resort. It will also shine the spotlight on Kuwait’s long-term roadmap for economic expansion, the National Development Plan (NDP), providing detailed analysis of the country’s progress in laying the groundwork for diversifying its economy.

OBG has once again signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on research facilities with the Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau (KFIB) in preparation for the Group’s new project. Under the MOU, OBG will benefit from bureau’s expertise and available research which will be used in the compilation of data for The Report: Kuwait 2013.

Record OBG’s Regional Editor Oliver Cornock said that while political wrangling between the government and opposition delayed many of Kuwait’s projects last year, planned public funding for infrastructure on the back of record economic growth, together with the appointment of a new National Assembly, should shore up the country’s efforts to attract more investment.

“While Kuwait’s internal politics have hampered the political process, the country is strengthening its bid to cultivate a positive investment environment and galvanise private sector involvement through new legislation and planned reforms,” he said. “Our forthcoming report will highlight the new investment opportunities which are becoming available, including many that the international business community may not know about.”

KFIB’s Chief Sheikh Dr Meshaal Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah highlighted the contribution that the bureau was making in improving Kuwait’s competitiveness, streamlining its business environment and improving the country’s position in international invest-

ment climate indices in line with broader efforts to boost investor interest. “The opening of our Investors Services Centre sends a positive signal to foreign investors by enhancing the adoption of a customer service culture approach,” he said. “I look forward to once again working with Oxford Business Group to relay the progress Kuwait has made in enhancing its business climate through improved investor facilitation engaging various concerned government entities, especially as the country prepares to roll out a wave of mega projects.”

Benefit Country Director Caroline Nguyen said she was delighted that OBG would once again benefit from the KFIB’s input. “The Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau plays a key part in relaying the country’s investment opportunities on a global level, while also producing data and analysis for business leaders to use in the decision-making process,” she said. “I’m confident that our collaboration with the bureau will once again prove immensely useful as we begin work on this exciting, new project.”

The Report: Kuwait 2013 will be a vital guide to the many facets of the country, including its macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and other sectoral developments. The publication will be available in print or online.

Oxford Business Group (OBG) is a global publishing, research and consultancy firm, which publishes economic intelligence on the markets of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through its range of print and online products, OBG offers comprehensive and accurate analysis of macroeconomic and sectoral developments, including banking, capital markets, insurance, energy, transport, industry and telecoms. The Report: Kuwait 2013 is produced with research assistance from KIPCO Asset Management Company, Al Tamimi & Co., and Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau.

The critically acclaimed economic and business reports have become the leading source of business intelligence on developing countries in the regions they cover. OBG’s online economic briefings provide up-todate in-depth analysis on the issues that matter for tens of thousands of subscribers worldwide. OBG’s consultancy arm offers tailor-made market intelligence and advice to firms currently operating in these markets and those looking to enter them.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: The Board of Directors approved Kuwait Medical Services Company’s interim financial statements of the company for the nine months ending Dec 31, 2012.

The company reported a profit of KD 16,960 for the three months ending Dec 31, 2012 compared to a profit of KD 61,406 earned during the same period of 2011.

Particulars (9 months ending) Dec 31, ’12 Dec 31, ’11 Profit (Loss) (KD) 32,998 139,208 Earnings per share (fils) 0.43 1.83 Total current assets 712,326 684,208 Total assets 20,240,462 18,868,023 Total current liabilities 6,329,595 5,007,881 Total liabilities 8,307,685 6,968,244 T. shareholders’ equity 11,932,777 11,899,779 The total revenue from transactions is worth KD 47,686. ❑ ❑ ❑

Kuwait Stock Exchange announced that the Board of Directors approved Ikarus Petroleum Industries Company (Ikarus) annual financial statements of the company for the year ending Dec 31, 2012, dated Feb 14, 2013.

Particulars (9 months ending) Dec 31, ’12 Dec 31, ’11 Profit (Loss) (KD) 8,948,756 8,411,527 Earnings per share (fils) 11.24 11.99 Total current assets 20,624,102 13,102,799 Total assets 170,201,858 182,243,004 Total current liabilities 38,288,202 33,121,892 Total liabilities 38,288,202 33,121,892 T. shareholders’ equity 131,913,656 149,121,112

The total revenue from transactions is worth KD 246,781 and total expenses from transactions with related parties amounting to KD 212,380.

The Board of Directors of the company recommended distribution cash dividends of 12% of the nominal value of the shares 12 fils per share for the fiscal year ending Dec 31, 2012.

Note that these recommendations are subject to approval by the shareholders and the competent authorities. ❑

❑

❑

Al Maidan Dental Clinic Company’s (Al Maidan) Board of Directors approved financial statements of the company for the nine months ending Dec 31, 2012, dated Feb 14, 2013.

Al Maidan reported a loss of KD 194,861 for the three months ending Dec 31, 2012 compared to a loss of KD 886,767 incurred during the same period of 2011.

ABK representatives receiving the award.

ABK wins ‘Best Customer Service in Retail banking’ award Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait is proud to be the winner in First Place for Best Customer Service in Retail banking Category from Service Hero. ABK has consistently been among the top three contenders for the last two years, but this time, standing first among the best in the country is a tremendous achievement.

Stewart Lockie, heading Retail Banking was delighted at this presti-

gious recognition, “We have consistently committed ourselves to reach the level of customer service we provide today. I am so happy, and proud, that I am leading such a wonderful team in Retail Banking, and our dedication has brought us this wonderful reward. We will continue to strive to excel in all fields, and bring only the best to our valued customers, who today have voted us into the first posi-

tion for best customer service. We are indeed grateful to them.”

Service Hero is the Arab World’s only 100% consumer-driven customer satisfaction index. Service Hero adheres to internationally recognized research principles and is backed by an Independent Advisory Council ensuring results which are impartial, objective and which accurately reflect the voice of the customer.

Particulars (9 months ending) Dec 31, ’12 Dec 31, ’11 Profit (Loss) (KD) (1,684,120) (3,126,435) Earnings per share (fils) (11.23) (20.85) Total current assets 6,666,211 5,394,919 Total assets 37,877,085 39,688,226 Total current liabilities 32,527,643 30,898,099 Total liabilities 34,000,432 33,162,654 T.shareholders’ equity 3,876,653 6,525,572 The total revenue from transactions is worth KD 152,595.

Total expenses from transactions amounts to KD 1,514,134. ❑ ❑ ❑

Profit (Loss) (KD) 7,284,641 2,537,648 Earnings per share (fils) 80.13 27.92 Total current assets 54,430,989 47,962,879 Total assets 72,148,703 68,162,985 Total current liabilities 7,455,503 3,754,765 Total liabilities 8,522,607 4,696,718 T. shareholders’ equity 63,626,096 63,466,267

Trading Company (Gypsum) met on Feb 14, 2013 and adopted the annual financial statements of the company for the year ending Dec 31, 2012.

Board of Directors of Portland Cement Company (Portland) met on Feb 14, 2013 and adopted the annual financial statements of the company for the year ending Dec 31, 2012.

Particulars (9 months ending)

Dec 31, ’12 Dec 31, ’11

The total expenses from transactions with related parties amounting to KD 490,557.

The Board of Directors of the company recommended cash dividends of 80% of the nominal value of the shares 80 fils per share for the fiscal year ending Dec 31, 2012. Note that these recommendations are subject to approval by the shareholders and the competent authorities. ❑

❑

❑

Board of Directors of Kuwait Gypsum Manufacturing and

Particulars (9 months ending) Dec 31, ’12 Dec 31, ’11 Profit (Loss) (KD) 321,779 203,358 Earnings per share (fils) 10.8 6.8 Total current assets 1,595,565 1,628,809 Total assets 5,597,243 5,801,303 Total current liabilities 500,324 572,994 Total liabilities 840 846 1,156,319 Total shareholders’ equity 4,756,3974,644,984

The Board of Directors of the company recommended cash dividends of 10% of the nominal value of the shares 10 fils per share for the fiscal year ending Dec 31, 2012. Note that these recommendations are subject to approval by the shareholders and the competent authorities.

Plan includes construction of world’s tallest building

Abu Dhabi lays foundations for mammoth Pakistan project ABU DHABI, Feb 17, (RTRS): A member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family says he plans to spend $45 billion over up to 15 years on a real estate project in Karachi, touted in Pakistan as the country’s biggest ever foreign investment.

Sheikh Nahayan bin Mubarak alNahayan said the investment plans which his business partner in Pakistan said on Friday included the tallest building in the world - were at a very early stage.

Sheikh Nahayan, chairman of conglomerate Abu Dhabi Group, said his privately-owned construction firm, Dhabi Contracting, had signed a memorandum

of understanding with Pakistani real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain to build residential properties on an island in Karachi.

“We have signed an MoU but a lot of studies will still have to be done,” he told Reuters on Sunday on the sidelines of a defence industry exhibition in the United Arab Emirates capital.

Nahayan, who is also the UAE’s minister for higher education, gave no details of how he would finance such huge developments, beyond saying it could be done through loans or cash.

“It will be in phases. Every phase will

be studied by itself... It depends on the situation when we decide to go ahead with the projects.”

Abu Dhabi Group, which invests in emerging markets, already has large investments in Pakistan including Bank Alfalah , Warid Telecom, Al Razi Healthcare and Wateen Telecom.

A statement issued in Pakistan on Friday said the deal had the potential to transform the south of the country.

Karachi, the country’s commercial hub, is known for its violent crime, which claims about a dozen lives a day, the risk of being kidnapped and crumbling infra-

structure.

The deal included plans to construct a miniature seven wonders of the world, the tallest building in the world, a sports city, an education and medical city, an international city and a media city, according to the press release.

Sheikh Nahayan said on Sunday that a final decision to build the world’s tallest tower had not been made, adding that developments would be mainly residential.

The tallest tower currently is the Burj Khalifa, built in Dubai at a cost of $1.5 billion.

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KFH achieves targeted retail mkt sales; honors employees AGM of Commercial Sector at Kuwait Finance House (KFH) Ahmed Al-Khaled said that (KFH) achieved the targeted sales in the retail market in 2012 according to plans and programs that enhanced the financial status of the Bank, and confirmed its pivotal role and increasing share in the market.

Al-Khaled highlighted also the important role of (KFH) in supporting the national product and Kuwaiti merchants on the one hand, and the cooperation and coordination with the

events that influence the market and enhance the teamwork contribution in cementing the economy on the other hand.

Moreover, he went on to say that (KFH) is keen to grow up a team of employees who can shoulder the responsibility of progression and constant success to the bank, not to mention presenting a suitable environment for productive and creative performance.

Furthermore, he stressed during a speech at the annual meeting of Financial Services

staff management on the main role of the employees and their status as the basis for achieving success in the Islamic banking industry. He also underscored that employees should double their efforts in order to continue the success that began more than three decades.

On the sideline of the meeting, Al-Khaled honored a group of outstanding employees who were the milestone in achieving the management goals.

Ahmed Al-Khaled, AGM of Commercial Sector at Kuwait Finance House

KFH posts KD 87.7m net profit in 2012 BoD recommends 10% cash dividends, 10 pct bonus shares KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) posted Net Revenues of KD 932.8 million for 2012, an increase of KD 60.7 million, 7 percent from 2011, resulting in Gross Profit of KD 262 million, of which KD 171 million will be distributed as profits for investment depositors as follows: ■ 2.147 percent for Al-Khumasiya Investment Deposit ■ 1.932 percent for Continuous Investment Deposit ■ 1.503 percent for Al-Sedra Investment Deposit ■ 1.288 percent for Saving Investment Deposits

Net shareholders’ profits reached KD 87.7 million, an increase of KD 7.4 million and 9 percent compared to 2011.

Earnings per Share is 30.80 Fils, an increase of 2.78 Fils from last year. The Board of Directors recommended granting shareholders 10 percent Cash Dividends and 10 percent Bonus Shares subject to approval of general assembly and regulatory authorities.

As a result of implementing initiatives from its recent Capital Improvement Plan, the bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio increased to approximately 14 percent.

Assets Total Assets reached to KD 14.7 billion, an increase of KD 1.2 billion and 9 percent from 2011. Deposits also reached to KD 9.4 billion, an increase of KD 511 million and 6 percent from last year. Shareholders’ equity increased to KD 1.3 billion, an increase of KD 35.7 million compared to 2011.

Mohammad Al-Khudairi, Chairman at KFH

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the management team, Mohammad Al-Khudairi, Chairman at KFH, said: “The growth in KFH’s 2012 financial results confirms the success of KFH’s Transformation Program. We consider these results a significant milestone in this strategic program that continues to place KFH on the right track to achieving sustainable profitability, enhance its market share and to confirm its leadership in the Islamic banking industry, the foundations of which have been laid through the bank’s proven track record of success and expansion over the last 34 years”.

Al-Khudairi highlighted the positive results achieved by KFH in 2012, which resulted in a high level of asset quality and improved financing portfolio, after allocating KD 255.3 million as

provisions, also resulting in decrease of NPL ratio from 9.3 percent to 5.7 percent. Moreover, there has been a noticeable improvement in risk indicators according to the internal model for risk rating.

Affirmed Al-Khudairi affirmed that, despite the challenging local and global economic environment, 2012 marked continuous outstanding, safe and strong, operational performance across all KFH businesses. As a result, the balance sheet showed an increase of 8 percent in Return on Equity and an increase of Net Profits in 9 percent confirms the success of the development plans implemented by KFH. It also confirms that the implementation of the Transformation Program has

come at the right time, and has been implemented professionally at all operating levels.

The increase in shareholders’ profits by 9 percent, and Earnings per Share by 10 percent reflects KFH’s strong and balanced performance. In addition, the increase in total Revenues of 7 percent is another indicator that growth is on track and sustainable in-light of expenditure rationalization and maximizing returns based on asset quality, risk diversification and expansion plans.

He stressed that the growth achieved after the first year of the bank’s Transformation Program, undertaken in collaboration with Booz & Co and other international consultancies, has insured customers are the focal point of all activities and that services are being now implemented according to their requirements.

In-line with this Transformation Program, KFH has also consolidated the Retail and Wholesale operations which have contributed to growth in revenues from the retail business and local real estate. Al-Khudairi also stressed that KFH had maintained its credit ratings from major international credit rating agencies.

The bank also continued to maintain its capital standards in accordance to regulatory requirements, with the Capital Adequacy Ratio currently at approximately 14 percent.

The Board of Director’s decision to increase the bank’s capital by 20 percent is in line with the bank’s confidence in its local and global expansion plans. The Capital raising is also a result of the current transformation program which is restructuring the bank’s operations for sustainable growth.

“KFH aims to make a significant contribution to the economic development of Kuwait by supporting Kuwaiti

companies, complying with the highest international standards of banking laws and regulations.

KFH also plays a major role in Malaysia, Bahrain and Turkey in strengthening commercial and economic relationships between Kuwait and these countries.

In addition, the bank is currently investigating a number of investment opportunities in other international markets, in order to expand its network, which stands at 300 branches around the world, and better serve its customers and clients.”

Other KFH Group companies: Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank: With reference to Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank, KFH’s subsidiary in Turkey and neighboring markets, Mohammad added: “KFH continues to successfully expand in Turkey, offering unique products to the Turkish market, including the Gold and Silver accounts.

In addition to serving KFH clients in Turkey, the bank, in conjunction with the Turkish Authorities, offers real estate financing for clients wishing to own property in Turkey.

KFH Malaysia and KFH Bahrain: Commenting on the other Group companies, Mohammad said: “KFHMalaysia continued to build upon its strong financial position. The bank is in the process of implementing a plan that aims to expand the KFH presence in neighboring countries to fully cater to the high demand for Islamic banking services and products in the region.”

KFH-Bahrain launched a number of new products and services and continues to develop the largest residential project by the private sector in the history of Bahrain, Diyar Al Muharraq, which includes about 3,000 villas. KFH Bahrain also led the largest merger deal for Islamic Banking merging three high

profile banks, Elaf Bank, Capital Management House (CMH) and Capivest, forming a Financial Institution with total equity of over $340m and assets of over $400m across the MENA region, Europe and Asia, boosting the Islamic finance industry in Bahrain and in the GCC. “Locally, Al-Khudairi stressed KFH’s continuous efforts to increase its market share in all areas in the local market, through competitive products and services, expanding its customer base and maintaining the quality of its service, with the continuation of leading CSR initiatives, and focus on introducing more technological tools and programs.

In 2012, KFH introduced 10 new services and products that both achieved high client satisfaction and attracted new clients. As a result, the bank received numerous awards, including Best Bank in Financing Companies and Projects from EMEAFinance, Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait from Asia Money, and Best Online Banking Services from Global Finance.

Al-Khudairi highlighted the importance of human resources at KFH and the continuous support they have from staff at all levels of the organization. Kuwaiti Nationals working at KFH make up 62 percent of the total workforce, and KFH has intensified its efforts in its training to match the transformation process. KFH has also collaborated with the governmental program (employment system restructuring), to attract more professional and talented staff.

He added: “KFH is very keen to serve the community by implementing CSR activities in coordination with official bodies. Over the past year, KFH provided over KD 21 million to Zakat House, in-line with its aim to support the local community in which it operates.”

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Special Report

ARA Consumer Confidence Index January 2013

Benchmark shows high optimism level O

n account of its interest for monitoring the economic situation in Kuwait, “ARA Research & Consultancy” issues a monthly Consumer Confidence Index, in collaboration with the “Arab Times” newspaper and under the sponsorship of the “Lexus” trademark. The Consumer Confidence Index is considered as the only indicator that measures the Consumers’ psychological factors, based on people’s opinions and their prospects about the current economic situation and its future as well as their expectations regarding their financial conditions, and how that reflects on their purchasing power.

The Consumer Confidence Index is issued the first Sunday of each month, and is based on quantitative research on a sample of 500 people, distributed among Kuwaitis and Arab residents in different Governorates.

The study was conducted by telephone through a random call selection, taking into account that the distribution of the sample should be representative of the population in Kuwait.

The general Consumer Confidence Index is based on six indices which the researchers at ARA use to measure the level of the consumer satisfaction and optimism. These are: ■ Current Economic Situation Index ■ Expected Economic Situation Index ■ Current Personal Income Index ■ Expected Personal Income Index ■ Current Employment Opportunities Index ■ Purchase of Durables Index The indices’ results in a month basis measure the psychological state of consumers in Kuwait, which equal 100 points. This result (100 points) draws the line between optimism and pessimism among consumers. The more the index surpasses this point, the more the psychological state of consumers in Kuwait is considered to be inclined towards optimism. The more the index declines below this point, the more pessimistic the outlook.

Consumer confidence stable, youth indices decline ARA Research & Consultancy has released its January 2013 Consumer Confidence Index in collaboration with the Arab Times newspaper and under the sponsorship of Lexus.

Research findings have revealed stability in the consumer confidence indices, as the General Index recorded 125 points, down one point within a month, and up 10 points compared with the average registered in 2012. The findings have also shown a decline in most confidence indices among young

people aged 18-35 years.

A number of factors helped the January 2013 General Consumer Confidence Index to retain its high levels. These factors mainly included: ■ The stability of the relationship between the legislative and executive authorities, which paved the way for the launch of economic growth and the implementation of stalled projects.

■ The increase in the real growth of the GDP in 2012 by approximately 5.5% as a result of the stability of oil prices and the rise in the volume of production and exports.

■ The government’s decision to spend more capital on development projects.

■ The significant improvement achieved in several sectors, especially the residential real estate sector, which benefited from the investments as a result of the low level of interest rates on bank deposits. This sector registered the highest rate of real estate trading during December 2012, up 28% compared with November. Moreover, the financial market movement improved and the trading volumes increased.

■ The increase in revenues collected until November 2012, which amounted to 15.4% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The general index of citizens increased to 133 points, up 3 points, while Arab residents hit 112 points, down 8 points within a month. At the level of governorates, it seems that the capital regained its position and raised the level of its confidence, as it reported 136 points, up two points, thus occupying the top position along with Al-Jahra Governorate. The level of optimism in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate decreased to 109 points, a fall of 13 points within a month.

The findings also indicated a decline in most indices among young people aged 18-35 years, as they scored 123

points, retreating 6 points.

Current Economic Situation Index declines The research findings of ARA January consumer confidence index revealed a consensus among consumers on the decline in the level of their confidence in the current economic situation, which posted 106 points, a loss of 3 points compared to December 2012. Reasons for the decline may include the following: ■ The pressure resulting from the increasing public expenditure and the failure to strengthen the private sector and diversify the sources of income.

■ The old-fashioned laws that need to be modernized; the structure of public administration that needs to be renewed; and the labor productivity that needs to be boosted.

■ The negative repercussions of the regional political and security risks that place pressure on the psyche of consumers.

Citizens registered 114 points in the Current Economic Situation Index, down 3 points, and Arab residents scored 94 points, losing 3 points.

Private business owners were the most pessimistic, as they recorded 93 points, a drop of 27 points. Young people aged 18-35 years registered 105 points, losing 8 points within a month.

At the level of governorates, the capital regained its confidence by recording 124 points, up one point. Al-Jahra also registered 124 points, retreating 10 points compared to December results.

The capital along with Al-Jahra therefore occupied the highest level of confidence in the Current Economic Situation Index in January. Mubarak Al-Kabeer scored the lowest rate among governorates, at 98 points, down 9 points.

Remarkably, confidence at the level

of educational qualification hit its highest ratio among holders of intermediary or lower educational certificates by recording 116 points, while university graduates registered the lowest level by scoring 100 points, a fall of two points.

Strong future economic expectations The ARA January Future Economic Situation Index was strong and stable, as it registered 119 points, a good ratio despite falling one point within a month. There was a wide margin between the Future Economic Situation Index, which is characterized by optimism, and the Current Economic Situation Index, which reflects a climate of reservation among consumers.

Positive future expectations are based on a number of facts, including: ■ The achieved fiscal surplus ■ The control of the inflation rate, which will not exceed 3.5% ■ The movement of financial markets and the activity of some economic sectors ■ The increasing purchasing power and the active movement of the market Citizens posted 122 points in this index, increasing one point, while Arab residents registered 116 points, down 3 points. The research findings showed

that private business owners returned to pessimism as they reported 106 points, a fall of 19 points within a month.

The capital’s ratio also increased, as it revealed confidence in future economic prospects by recording 130 points, the highest this month, while Al-Ahmadi Governorate unusually registered 107 points, the lowest rate among governorates, thus dropping 5 points compared to December 2012.

Crisis among private business owners The research findings revealed that ARA January Current Personal Income Index had retained its good level, recording 127 points, but losing 3 points compared with December 2012.

The highest levels were achieved that month in the past year.

The research findings also showed widespread satisfaction among consumers about the current Personal income, with some exceptions mainly including the significant decline in this index among private business owners who registered 111 points, a sharp drop of 56 points within a month. This revealed signs of a crisis threatening their incomes. As ARA analysts reviewed the previous ratios of private

business owners, it turned out that those rates were the lowest among the various components of the research sample in the first half of last year, but they increased significantly in the last quarter of 2012, reaching the January index. This shows the return to a declining trend in private business owners’ confidence.

Citizens recorded 139 points, down one point, while Arab residents scored 105 points, retreating 9 points. Males registered 129 points, down 4 points, while females reported 125 points, losing two points within a month. At the regional level, Al-Ahmadi Governorate registered 151 points, the highest during this month, while Mubarak AlKabeer Governorate scored 111 points, a loss of 8 points compared to December.

Capital’s confidence up The ARA Future Personal Income Index recorded 113 points. Although it decreased one point within a month, it still reflects the satisfaction of consumers in general and their increasing confidence in the future Personal income. In this context, there was a positive upward tendency in the capital’s indices, as the capital made the Continued on Page 37

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Special Report ARA Consumer Confidence Index January 2013

Durable Goods up 17 points Continued from Page 36

highest record in January at 118 points.

Meanwhile, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate declined to its lowest level, at 94 points, down 9 points.

The rise in the volume of bank credit, the launch of some development projects and the solid material base of the Kuwaiti economy, including the size of fiscal surplus, the increasing activity of the market, and the relative control of the stock exchange and its operation mechanisms, in addition to the evolution of the size of the real estate sector raised the level of consumer confidence in the future Personal income. However, some signs of retreating confidence emerged among young people aged 18-35 years, as they recorded 110 points, a decline of 4 points. Retreat among private business owners also intensified, as they recorded 96 points, down 20 points within a month.

Movement of labor market promising The ARA January Current Employment Opportunity Index reflected the expectations and activities of the labor market directly. It recorded 183 points, a fall of one point compared to December 2012, which was the highest. ARA analysts compared the monthly results of the various rates of this index and found that the rates of most of the first eight months of 2012 with the exception of March reflected a remarkable decline in the Current Employment Index. But the index started to go up as of September 2012 to reach 184 points by the end of the year.

The findings indicate that the movement of the labor market is promising, as the ratio of January 2013 rose by 35 points compared to the average recorded in 2012.

The increase in the Current Employment Opportunity Index is based on the strength of the national economy. It is also affected positively by the attempts seeking to secure more jobs for national manpower in the private sector during the current year, which are expected to reach five thousand jobs, in addition to the care and guidance of youngsters to engage in work in various sectors. The decisions taken on increasing the proportion of national workforce in the banking sector to 70% before the end of 2014 are

also important to highlight.

Back to the ratios registered in this index in January compared to those recorded in December, there was a disparity between regions and the various groups making up the research sample.

There were also a number of variables in the rates.

Citizens posted 178 points, up 16 points, while Arab residents scored 188 points, retreating 52 points. Males registered 184 points, down 29 points, while females recorded 175 points, gaining 38 points within a month.

There was a notable decline among young people aged 18-35 years, as they reported 186 points, losing 23 points.

As for regions, Al-Jahra Governorate scored 251 points, the highest rate this month although it decreased 31 points.

Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate hit 133 points, the lowest rate among governorates.

The research findings indicate that the current employment opportunities are moving more toward people with lower educational qualifications and low wage rates than other groups.

The most active movement in markets since March 2011 The findings of the ARA January Purchase of Durable Goods Index stress the positive aspects of the movement of markets. The index recorded 171 points, the highest since March 2011, thus going up 17 points within a month and adding 27 points to the average rate recorded in 2012.

The high level of market activity depends primarily on the continuous rise in the level of consumer spending, which enhances the retail market, and is nourished by the sharp rise of purchasing power derived from the sums paid by the government retroactively to increase the wages of workers in the public sector. It is noteworthy in this regard that the size of foreign tourism expenses by Kuwaiti citizens exceeded 2.4 billion dinars in 2012, a rise of 5.4%. Also, the number of tourist went up nearly by 12% within a year. Facts show that the rate of expenditure of Kuwaiti tourists is one of the highest in the world.

The Purchase of Durable Goods Index figures reflect semi-unanimity among the various components of the sample over the rise of purchase rate among them.

Citizens registered 199 points, up 22 points, and Arab residents reported 112 points, up 4 points. As for regions, AlAhmadi Governorate achieved the highest level at 380 points, while Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate decreased sharply by 54 points registering 114 points, the lowest rate in this month.

The conclusion of the research reflects the increasing level of market movement in the last four months in general, and the increasing rate of the Purchase of Durable Goods Index during January specifically.

TAQA says has found oil in Darwin North Sea field

Saudi oil exports fell in Dec: JODI

New Kabul Bank draws just one bidder KABUL, Feb 17, (AFP): An Afghan consortium has bid to buy New Kabul Bank, the remnants of Afghanistan’s largest private bank which collapsed in a fraud scandal, after four others withdrew, officials said Saturday.

Three domestic and two international groups had expressed interest in the bank,

but by deadline Saturday only one — Ali Akbar Zhawandal consortium — had stepped forward, central bank governer Norullah Delawari said.

The value of the offer was not disclosed at a news conference. Delawari said a government evaluation committee will examine the merits of the bid and a

decision can be expected in April.

Kabul Bank was seized by the government in 2010 after the exposure of a staggering $900 million fraud, which led the International Monetary Fund to temporarily halt its hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to the country.

DUBAI, Feb 17, (RTRS): Saudi crude exports fell for the third month running in December, but the fall in shipments was less dramatic than the drop in oil production, official data showed on Sunday.

Exports fell by 92,000 barrels a day (bpd) to 7.062 million bpd, compared to a 467,000 bpd drop in oil production from November to December, according to the official data from the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI).

Over the last two months of last year, the world’s top oil exporter cut production by around 700,000 bpd while exports fell by 216,000 bpd on weaker demand.

The more dramatic drop in production than in exports reflects a drop in Saudi Arabia’s own oil use and crude being taken from storage in December, in contrast to a 5.816 million barrel stock build in November, JODI data shows.

Oil markets closely monitor changes in Saudi production because it is the only country with enough spare capacity to significantly increase output to meet increases in demand.

The country burnt an average of 303,000 bpd of crude in power plants in December, some 64,000 bpd less than in November and 29 percent less than the 424,000 bpd used in December 2011.

Crude use by Saudi refineries also fell, by 44,000 bpd, from November to December, while the kingdom took an average of around 73,000

bpd from stocks to top up supplies.

Saudi production in December was more than a million barrels below its peak of last summer, when the kingdom’s own oil use soars to meet rising air conditioning demand.

The drop in Saudi oil burning for power generation in December also comes after new gas fields came online in mid-2012.

Although official figures will not be available on JODI until March, an industry source has said that Saudi output edged up to 9.05 million bpd in January, with added stock withdrawals helping supply the market with a total of 9.26 million bpd. ❑ ❑ ❑ Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) has discovered oil in a new North Sea field off Scotland, TAQA said on Sunday.

Two columns of oil have been found since drilling began in November at the Darwin field near the Shetland Islands, TAQA, which acquired a 50 percent interest in the exploration area in early 2012, said.

Reserve The state-owned company said in a statement it was still evaluating Darwin’s reserve potential and that work on one well had been suspended pending further tests.

“This discovery proves that the North Sea still has great potential,” said Leo Koot, managing director of TAQA’s UK oil and gas business.

Darwin is close to the TAQA-

operated Cormorant South, North Cormorant and Pelican fields in the Northern North Sea. The United Arab Emirates-based company shut the neighbouring Cormorant Alpha platform in midJanuary after discovering an oil leak in one of its legs.

The leak also prompted TAQA to shut the Brent pipeline system, which runs through the Cormorant Alpha platform, for a few days as a precaution.

In November, the company which is 75-percent owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, agreed to buy some BP North Sea assets for over $1.3 billion.

Also: KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia: A subsidiary of Saudi mining firm Maaden restarted a diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser plant in Ras al-Khair on Saturday after it shut it down for maintenance during a period of low seasonal demand, Maaden said.

Maaden will ramp up output on Feb 18 as scheduled, it said late on Saturday in a bourse statement.

In January, the Saudi firm said the three-week shutdown would have no impact on its ability to meet its obligations to customers of the industrial fertilizer and that the ammonia plant at Ras al-Khair would continue to operate normally.

Maaden Phosphate Co is 70 percent-owned by Maaden and 30-percent held by Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC).

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

38

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British govt split on dealing with China: report A split has emerged in the British government on managing its cooling relations with China, The Sunday Times newspaper said, citing sources.

Prime Minister David Cameron and finance minister George Osborne are keen to avoid raising tension with Beijing due to concerns that escalating hostility could damage trade ties.

However, Foreign Secretary William Hague believes Britain must not tone down its criticism of human

rights abuses while Deputy PM Nick Clegg insists Britain must take a principled stand on issues such as the treatment of people in Tibet, the weekly broadsheet said in its main front page story.

“Hague and Clegg are on the same side on this issue. They believe we need to stand up to the Chinese,” a government ministry source was quoted as saying.

“For Clegg, human rights are a mat-

ter of principle. For Hague, it’s about not kowtowing to the Chinese. He believes we need to stand up to them, or they will simply treat us with contempt.

“Cameron and Osborne are focused on trade. They want to keep the Chinese on side.”

Britain is keen to attract Chinese investment in infrastructure projects to help boost the flatlining economy.

(AFP)

weekly report on FX markets Swiss International Financial Brokerage Co

Greenback extends rally to 5th week Report Prepared by Ahmad Shibley

A

s resolute as risk appetite seems in the S&P 500’s refusal to retreat and volatility measures’ anchor to multi-year lows, the dollar gained a significant foothold this past week. The Dollar Index won its fifth consecutive weekly rally with Friday’s close. With this impressive run, the benchmark is up over 6 percent from its September lows and currently at its highest level since September 2010.

This strength still draws confusion, though, as most associate the dollar to EURUSD. This particular pair was little changed on Friday and on the week, but it is also 2.5 percent off its highest from the start of this week. This pair hasn’t prevented the greenback’s underlying strength, but it will likely prove critical as to whether the trend can continue.

In contrast to the pressure the Euro has exacted on the dollar, the reserve currency has found considerable buoyancy through USDJPY – which is benefiting from Japan’s determination to devalue their currency. Yet, a more than 20 percent climb in the span of five months smacks of an extreme position that demands relief. Though the G20 state-

ment seems as if it will carry a soft threat to competitive currency devaluation, the market may take the opportunity to back off of the yen in general. If that is the case, the dollar’s top bullish contributor will leave a gaping hole. In steps EURUSD. A correction from the most liquid pairing and break of an established (and unfavorable for the dollar) trend can strike just the right level of strength for the greenback. But that will take something provocative – risk aversion or stimulus imbalances narrowing.

Japanese Yen Traders Watch G20, Government and BoJ Candidates There are a few different fundamental lines to keep track of for trading the yen – a situation that adds to the risk of reversal. Most immediate for FX watchers is the impact that the G20 statement will have on central bank frontrunners’ positioning. Vows by policy officials to evoke the unlimited stimulus effort and thereby collapse the currency have worked wonders. Yet, since the G7 hurled its indirect warning at Japan, the FX market has been on hold. Even if the country isn’t labeled in the bigger meet’s statement, we may have just enough to concern to deflate yen exposure. That brings us to our sec-

ond order business: a constant watch on government officials’ (Prime, Finance and Economy Ministers) remarks on policy and stimulus intentions. And, finally, we must keep a vigilance on the BoJ Governor search.

Euro Climb Threatened if ECB Eases Pressure, LTRO2 Repayment Small Though it has not been an active endeavor, the European Central Bank (ECB) has seen its balance sheet shrink – a dramatic contrast to its global counterparts. In fact, the region’s stimulus exposure has dropped over 10 percent since the pivotal policy meeting in which the group introduced its OMT program. In rough financial waters, this would prove worrisome; but in these conditions where investors chase anemic yields with no thought of risk, it is a serious boon. We have seen market rates rise substantially for the Euro. Yet, that trend certainly broke last week with short-term yields retreating.

British Pound Ready for Volatility but Can Jobs and BoE Minutes Carry Trend?

This past week, the sterling dropped against all of its liquid counterparts –

ranging from a 0.9 percent stumble against the yen up to the aggressive 3 percent drop versus the New Zealand dollar. The most recent selling extends a general trend since the year began. The pound has been significantly weakened.

What’s the drive behind this move?

Investors are starting to apply more weight to the triple dip recession the UK has fallen into which in turn leverages concerns that the Bank of England (BoE) will inevitably catch up to the Fed and BoJ with more stimulus. So far, these fears haven’t played out. Coming up, the minutes from the last central bank meeting can perhaps give more clues as to a time frame. That said, if it doesn’t feed the doves / bears and jobs data is decent; an oversold pound may receive a pop.

Canadian Dollar Traders Watch CPI Release for Signs of BoC Shift Not six months ago, the Canadian dollar seemed the perfect currency. Not only did it avoid the worst of the global financial crisis and an exaggerated recession, it carried a yield appeal and was labeled a reserve currency by central banks (later caught on to by the IMF). However, a critical aspect of this perfect façade is starting to crumble – expectations that the

Bank of Canada (BoC) is on pace to hike rates well before its counterparts and sometime this year. Governor Carney backed off of his volatile language weeks ago, and now FX and rates traders are looking for evidence as to where the central bank will fully abandon its tightening hopes. In the week ahead, we have plenty of data to crunch including housing prices, trade figures, wholesale and retail sales figures. Of greatest interest though is the CPI data well below target.

Australian Dollar: Rising 10-Year Yields May Reflect Falling Foreign Demand Equity indexes have held fast to their highs while the same market’s volatility measure is anchored to five-year lows.

Sentiment is elevated and fear is all-but absent according to these closelywatched measures. And yet, the highest yielding of the major currencies – the Aussie dollar – had a mixed week. This is yet another, running measure of the ‘quality’ of sentiment; but it also carries an element of the Australian currency’s own position in the risk spectrum. The inflow of capital seeking higher yield of AAA-assets and Europe haven flows amongst other sources seems to be

reversing current. The yield on the 10year government bond is at May highs – which suggests demand is dropping.

Gold Suffers Critical, Bearish Break as G20 Take Up FX Competition Gold has found itself in a general bear trend for the past four months, but 2013 was developing a level of stability for the troubled metal – until this past week.

Following a virtually unchanged performance through the period ending on the 8th, gold suffered a hefty 3.4 percent plunge through this most recent week. That is the biggest decline on that time frame since June – when the market was consolidating at the now 18-month range floor. The bearish trend mirrors the dollar’s climb closely. However, this past week’s – and particularly Friday’s massive 1.5 percent tumble – doesn’t find much support in the FX world. This particularly push likely comes in response to the G20’s likely adoption of a pact not to competitively devalue their exchange rates. It is interesting that eased pressure on deficit reduction was outweighed as a currency/gold balance. ❑ ❑ ❑ For more information please visit www.swissfs.com

International Markets Weekly Bloated inventories, approaching end of winter weigh on natural gas

US crude futures gain slightly during week

By Global Investment House

lower end of their range for this year.

Confidence among US small businesses rose in January as owners anticipated better business conditions in the next six months, despite higher taxes and looming government spending cuts. The National Federation of Independent Business said its optimism index increased 0.9 percentage point to 88.9 last month, pulling further from a 2-1/2 year low hit in November. Other data, The Conference Board’s US consumer confidence index fell in January to 58.6 from an upwardly revised 66.7 in December, the private business research group reported. The original figure reported for December was 65.1. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 64.0 for the January index.

Energy/Currencies

U

S crude futures ended the week slightly up, as fears about US gasoline supply pulled the complex higher, overshadowing concerns of weakening economic output in the Euro-zone. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil <CLc1> settled at USD95.86 a barrel, rising by USD0.14 for the week. In London, Brent crude <LCOc1>, settled at USD117.66, down

by USD1.24. NYMEX RBOB gasoline <RBc1> settled at USD3.1345 a gallon, for the week, the contract rose by 0.76 cents. NYMEX heating oil <HOc1> closed down at USD3.2104. For the week, it dropped 0.28 cents.

World oil demand will grow faster than previously thought in 2013, producer group OPEC said. Consumption of oil will expand by 840,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, OPEC said in its monthly report, 80,000 bpd more than previously expected. The report adds to signs that oil demand is outstripping expectations in early 2013, and supporting prices. Due to higher demand, and little change in supply expectations from producers outside the group, OPEC expects demand for its crude to average 29.78mn bpd in 2013, up 130,000 bpd from the previous estimate. Demand for OPEC crude will average 29.20mn bpd in the first half of 2013, the report estimated, while OPEC in January lowered its output by about 21,000 bpd to 30.32mn bpd according to secondary sources. Saudi Arabia told OPEC it produced 9.05mn bpd in January, little changed from 9.025mn bpd in December, confirming figures provided last week by an industry source.

Iranian oil output will likely fall further from its lowest in three decades as the West tightens sanctions on the Islamic Republic, depriving Tehran of hard currency revenues, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

The IEA, the West’s energy agency, said in its monthly report that preliminary data suggested Iran’s exports could have fallen below 1mn bpd in January due to lower Chinese and South Korean purchases after a rebound in December to 1.56mn bpd. January production was hovering below three?decade lows at 2.65mn bpd, a decline of 50,000 from December. It estimates that Iran lost over USD40bn in export revenues in 2012 or about USD3.4bn per month.

Global supplies fell by 300,000 bpd in January to 90.8mn bpd with non OPEC production slipping by 190,000 bpd as North American production growth failed to offset a seasonal downturn in biofuels, production losses in Australia and unplanned outages in the North Sea. The IEA said for full year 2013, OPEC’s crude supply was expected to fall by 100,000 bpd to an average 29.8mn bpd.

US crude stocks rose 560,000 barrels in the week to February 08, compared with expectations for a 2.4mn barrel rise, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed.

Distillate stockpiles, which include

Christian Sanfilippo Jr (left), works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. (AP)

heating oil and diesel, slumped 3.68mn barrels, compared with forecasts for a draw of 1.6mn barrels. Gasoline inventories fell 803,000 barrels, against forecasts for a 300,000-barrel build.

Refinery utilization fell 0.4 percentage point to 83.8 percent of capacity.

Analysts had forecast rates falling 0.3 percentage point.

Despite forecasts that cold weather will return to consuming regions over the weekend and next week and that nuclear power plant outages will be above normal, bloated inventories and the approaching end of winter added weight to the downside of US natural gas futures. On the New York Mercantile Exchange <NGc1> settled down at USD3.153 per million British thermal units (mmbtu). The EIA gas storage report showed total domestic gas inventories fell by 157 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 2.527 trillion cubic feet (tcf). While stocks are nearly 10 percent below last year’s record levels, they are 16 percent above the five-year average level for this time of year. Early withdrawal estimates for next week’s inventory report range from 118 bcf to 154 bcf, below the 155 bcf pulled from storage during the same week in 2012 and possibly below the five-year average decline for that week of 140 bcf.

Energy / Precious MetalsClose Oil - WTI 97.31 Oil - Brent 117.66 Gold (USD/t oz.)

1,609.06 Silver (USD/t oz.)

29.75

▲ ▼ ▼ ▼

WTD % 1.66% -1.04% -3.47% -5.22%

YTD % 5.98% 9.57% -3.90% -1.85%

The Yen fell he US dollar and Euro after a draft statement from the Group of 20 nations failed to single out Japan for using monetary and fiscal policies to weaken its currency. The Euro remained slightly under pressure against the U.S dollar after the release of data showing the Euro-zone sinking more deeply into recession than forecast.

Currency USD -EUR USD - GBR JPY - USD

Close 1.3362 ▼ 1.5516 ▼ 93.48 ▲

WTD % -0.01% -1.77% 0.88%

YTD % 1.27% -4.52% 7.77%

US US retail sales barely rose in January as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending, setting up the economy for only modest growth in the first quarter. The Commerce Department said retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after a 0.5 percent rise in December. The small increase suggested the expiration of a 2 percent payroll tax cut on January 1 and higher tax rates for wealthier Americans were hurting the economy.

US industrial production unexpectedly fell in January, weighed down by weak manufacturing and mining.

Industrial production dipped 0.1 percent last month after a revised 0.4 percent gain in December, the Federal Reserve said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected industrial output to rise 0.2 percent in January. With industrial output weak, the amount of capacity in use fell to 79.1 percent from 79.3 percent in December.

US consumer sentiment improved in February, buoyed by signs of increased hiring, though worries heightened about a decline in future income. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment rose to 76.3 from 73.8 in January, topping economists’ forecasts of 74.8. The barometer of current economic conditions rose to 88 from 85, while the gauge of consumer expectations rose to 68.7 from 66.6.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, offering hope the sluggish labor market recovery may have picked up a step. Initial claims for state jobless aid dropped 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 341,000. The prior week’s claims figure was revised to show 2,000 more applications were received than previously reported. Last week’s drop in claims exceeded economists’ expectations for only a 6,000 decline and pushed first-time filings down to the

Index Close US - DJ Average 13,981.76 ▼ US - Nasdaq Comp. 3,192.03 ▼ US - S&P500 1,519.79 ▲

WTD % -0.08% -0.06% 0.12%

YTD % 6.70% 5.71% 6.56%

Europe Output at Euro-zone factories rose for the first time since August at the end of last year in a sign the single currency bloc was slowly starting to pull out of recession. Industrial production in the 17 countries sharing the Euro increased 0.7 percent in December from the previous month. Economists polled by Reuters expected a modest, 0.2 percent rise in December from November. Durable and non-durable consumer goods, from refrigerators to ravioli, showed the most growth from November, the production of both showing a rise of 2.0 pct in December. Production of machinery to produce other goods, an indicator of future business, was also up 1.3 percent month on month.

The Euro-zone slipped far deeper than expected into recession in the fourth quarter as Europe’s two largest economies, Germany and France, both shrank markedly at the end of the year.

Economic output in the 17-country Euro zone slid by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said, following a 0.1 percent drop in the third quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had on average expected a decline of 0.4 percent.

The Euro-zone posted an increase in its trade surplus in December, albeit lower than expected, as imports fell steeper than exports. The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said the unadjusted trade surplus of the 17 countries sharing the Euro was EUR11.7bn (USD15.6bn) in December.

This was higher than EUR8.0bn a year earlier, but was below the EUR13.1bn economists polled by Reuters forecasted. The statistics office also revised down November 2012’s figure from EUR13.7bn to EUR13.0bn. For the whole of 2012, the single currency bloc recorded an overall EUR81.8bn surplus, with exports up 7 percent and imports rising 2 percent from 2011. Adjusted for seasonal swings, Euro-zone exports were down 1.8 percent in December MoM, and imports dropped 3.0 percent.

Germany’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter more than at any time

since the height of the 2009 financial crisis and may have underperformed the wider Euro-zone for the first time since then, preliminary data showed.

Economists, however, said Germany had turned a corner at the start of 2013 and would not fall into recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. Germany’s economy shrank by 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012 on a seasonally-adjusted basis, a tick worse than a Reuters forecast for a 0.5 percent contraction and the lowest since shrinking by 4.1 percent at the start of 2009. The Statistics Office said weaker foreign trade - exports fell more than imports of goods - was to blame for the decline in the final quarter.

Britain’s inflation rate unexpectedly remained unchanged for the fourth consecutive month in January, holding at its highest level since May. The Office for National Statistics said that annual consumer price inflation held at 2.7 percent, slightly below the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists for a tick-up to 2.8 percent. This was the first time inflation remained unchanged for four months in a row since records began in 1996, the ONS said. Separate data released by the ONS showed that factory-gate inflation rose 2.0 percent on the year in January, the slowest since July. Input prices climbed 1.8 percent, the fastest since March last year.

British retail sales unexpectedly fell in January hurt by heavy snow, reviving worries that the economy may be slipping into a third recession since the onset of the financial crisis. Sales volumes slipped 0.6 percent in both monthly and annual terms, the Office for National Statistics, confounding economists’ expectations for growth.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.4 percent rise in sales on the month and a 0.8 percent increase on the year. The ONS also revised December’s numbers down.

Index England - FTSE 100 Germany - DAX France - CAC 40

Close 6,328.26 ▲ 7,593.51 ▼ 3,660.37 ▲

WTD % 1.03% -0.77% 0.30%

YTD % 7.30% -0.25% 0.53%

Japan Japanese consumer confidence improved in January, with its index rising for the first time in five months, indicating widening signs of economic recovery. The survey’s sentiment index for general households, which includes views on incomes and jobs, was at 43.3 in January, up from 39.2 in December.

The Cabinet Office raised its view on the consumer sentiment index in light of the rise in the index.

Japan’s economy contracted for the third consecutive quarter in OctoberDecember, showing the country is struggling to escape from a mild recession and adding weight to the new government’s push for radical policy steps to revive growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.1 percent in October-December from the previous quarter, compared with the median forecast of 0.1 percent expansion, according to a Reuters poll.

Japan’s industrial output rose 2.4

percent in December, revised government data showed, helped by a pick-up in the transport equipment and general machinery sectors. The figure compared with an initial reading of a 2.5 percent increase, and followed a 1.4 percent decline in November. The capacity utilization index gained 2.9 percent in December from a month earlier to 84.6, the data showed.

Index Japan - Nikkei 225 Japan - Topix

Close 11,173.83 ▲ 942.41 ▼

WTD % 0.19% -1.56%

YTD % 7.49% 9.61%

Emerging Markets

China China’s combined export and import volume in 2012 still ranked behind that of the United States when using the same method to measure, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said. The ministry expects the country’s total international goods trading to be USD15.64bn less than that of the United States according to the measurement adopted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The announcement is in response to a previous report that China, with its foreign trade amounting to USD3.867tn in 2012, has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest goods trading nation.

India India posted its second highest ever monthly trade deficit of USD20bn in January, worsening from a USD17.7bn deficit in December. Exports rose an annual 0.8 percent to USD25.59bn in January, while imports rose 6 percent to USD45.58bn, a senior trade ministry official said. Imports of oil, the single biggest item, rose 6.9 percent from a year ago to USD15.9bn. Exports between April and January fell 4.9 percent to USD239.7bn, pushing the cumulative trade deficit for the first 10 months of the fiscal year to USD167.2bn, up 8 percent on the same period a year earlier. Sluggish demand from the United States has crimped India’s exports.

Index Close Honk Kong - Hang Seng23,444.56 ▲ Korea - KOSPI 1,981.18 ▲ India - BSE 19,468.15 ▼ Pakistan - KSE 17,797.22 ▲ Brazil - BVSP 57,903.30 ▼ Mexico - INMX 44,152.96 ▼ China - SSE180 6,070.07 — Russia - IRTS 1,577.26 ▼

WTD % 0.99% 1.55% -0.09% 1.83% -1.02% -2.08% 0.00% -0.81%

YTD % 3.48% -0.79% 0.21% 5.28% -5.00% 1.02% 9.37% 3.29%

India’s headline inflation rate moderated to its lowest level in more than three years in January, helped by a slower rise in fuel and manufactured goods prices. Wholesale prices — India’s main inflation gauge — rose 6.62 percent in January from a year earlier, the slowest pace since November 2009 and below the 7.0 percent annual rise predicted by economists in a Reuters poll. Headline inflation stood at 7.18 percent in December.

Fuel prices rose 7.06 percent in January from a year earlier, compared with an annual rise of 9.38 percent in December. Manufacturing goods inflation dropped to 4.81 percent from 5.04 percent in January.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

39

Arab Potash profit falls

Deutsche bank receives two ‘Best Fund Administrator’ awards Deutsche Bank announced today that it has been named by MENA Funds Managers as “Best Fund Administrator - Mutual Funds” and “Best Fund Administrator — Sharia Compliant Funds” during its 4th Annual MENA Fund Manager Performance Awards Ceremony held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The awards recognize Deutsche Securities and Services excellence in providing first class innovative solu-

tions to clients to support their needs and achieve their growth targets.

The MENA Fund Manager panel of judges stated that “the range of products and capabilities on show within Deutsche Securities and Services highlighted it to be the mutual fund administrator of choice.

In addition, it underlined its excellent capabilities in structuring Islamic-compliant vehicles and providing accounting services in both

that is well known for its Transaction Banking Operations.”

Deutsche Securities and Services (DSS) in the UAE was established in 2008 covering all three UAE markets with a leading market share for NASDAQ Dubai assets. DSS connected the two key ICSD’s Euroclear and Clearstream into the region along with being top rated in the categories for Cross Border Non Affiliate and Domestic. (AP)

Shariah and conventional accounting standards to receive the Best Fund Administrator for Sharia Compliant Funds.”

Mike Cowley, Branch Manager of Deutsche Securities and Services said: “We are very pleased to receive these awards from MENA Funds Managers, as they confirm our capability in providing powerful fund administration solutions leveraging the resource of a global bank

Jordan’s Arab Potash Company , one of the world’s largest producers of potash, said 2012 net profit fell by more than a third as costs rose, while falling global demand weighed on output. Profits fell 34 percent to 198.8 million dinars ($280 million), the firm said in a statement.

Chairman Jamal al Sarayrah said the results reflected the drop in global demand for potash, a main ingredient for fertiliser, along with a “rise

in production costs due to higher electricity, water, fuel prices and wages.”

Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, the world’s largest producer, owns 27.9 percent of Arab Potash. Several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have minority holdings. The firm’s production of potash dropped 1.8 million tonnes from around 2.2 million tonnes in 2011, according to industry executives. (RTRS)

BoD recommends 7% cash dividend

Air Arabia net profit soars 55 pct to AED 425 mln SHARJAH, UAE; Feb 16: Air Arabia (PJSC), the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier, announced today its financial results for the full year 2012, demonstrating steady growth and solid financial performance.

For the full year ending Dec 31, 2012; Air Arabia reported a solid net profit of AED 425 million, beating analysts forecast and registering an increase of 55 percent compared to AED 274 million reported for the same period in 2011.

The airline’s turnover for the full year 2012 stood at AED 2.9 billion, an increase of 21 percent as compared to AED 2.4 billion registered in 2011. Air Arabia carried over 5.3 million passengers in 2012, registering a 13 percent increase compared to 4.7 million passengers in 2011. The carrier’s seat load factor - or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats - stood at impressive 82 percent for the full year ending Dec 31, 2012.

These results were announced following a meeting of the Board of Directors of Air Arabia, who have proposed a dividend distribution of 7 percent of capital, which is equivalent to 7 fils per share.

This proposal is subject to ratification by the shareholders of Air Arabia at the company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani, Chairman of Air Arabia, attributed the strong financial results to airline’s rapid expansion plans in 2012 and the efficiency of its operations.

He said: “As these results signify, Air Arabia continued to demonstrate its concerted efforts to enter into new markets and launch new ventures, while enabling more people to fly efficiently and affordably. The year 2012 saw Air Arabia expand its global network by entering new markets, taking more aircraft deliveries as well as offering its customers wider product offerings and services.”

On the back of strong passenger numbers, the airline’s fourth quarter net profit stood at AED 83 million, increase of 6 percent compared to AED 78 million in

Dubai’s Nakheel in talks to extend $2.2 bln loan: report Developer has Islamic bond maturing in 2016 Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani.

2011. The fourth quarter turnover reached AED 755 million, representing an increase of 18 percent compared to AED 638 million reported for the same period in 2011.

Sheikh Al Thani continued: “With market conditions rebounding, the airline is fully confident in its ability to unlock opportunities for the low-cost model, which is pioneered by Air Arabia. As we continue to focus on expansion plans, we remain committed to making air travel accessible to millions of customers in the wider Arab region.”

Expansion Air Arabia, which now operates flights to 82 destinations from three regional hubs; introduced nine new destination in 2012 from its primary hub in Sharjah - Kazan, Taif, Salalah, Ufa, Odessa, Erbil, Astana, Basra and Rostov. In addition, the airline has continued its expansion from its hubs in Morocco and Egypt, reaching a global network of 82 destinations.

Air Arabia took delivery of six new A320 aircraft from Airbus in 2012 as part of an order for 44 aircraft placed in 2007.

Air Arabia is expected to take delivery of another six new aircraft in 2012.

DUBAI, Feb 17, (RTRS): Developer Nakheel is in talks to extend 8 billion dirhams ($2.18 billion) in loans due in 2015, the indebted company’s chairman was quoted as saying in a local newspaper on Sunday.

Ali Rashid Lootah dismissed concerns over Nakheel’s ability to repay its debts, which also include a 3.8billion dirham sukuk, or Islamic bond, due in August 2016, Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, The National, reported.

The government-owned builder agreed a $16 billion debt restructuring in 2011 and has scaled back grandiose plans such as building a one-kilometre high tower after becoming a high profile corporate casualty of the Dubai property crash.

Debts held by Nakheel, owned at the time by flagship conglomerate Dubai World helped trigger the emirate’s 2009 debt crisis. A last-minute bailout

by Abu Dhabi helped Dubai avert a bond default on a Nakheel bond in December 2009.

Forex reserves fall to $13.6 bln

Egypt bureaus facing dollar shortage CAIRO, Feb 17, (RTRS): Egypt’s currency bureaus are being overwhelmed by demand for dollars amid a supply shortage fuelled by political crisis, the head of the foreign exchange department at the Chambers of Commerce said.

Mohamed el-Abyad said foreign exchange offices can only supply 20 percent of the dollars for which they receive orders.

“With the dollar shortage there is a semi-halting of our operations,” he told Reuters in an interview.

More than two years of political instability following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has triggered a flight into dollars and disrupted foreign investments.

That has caused a devaluation of the local pound, which has dropped over 8 percent against the dollar in the past two months, and drained the country’s foreign reserves.

The currency crisis has also driven some dealers into the streets in search of people with dollars to sell, spawning a new black market.

Decline In an attempt to control the rate of the pound’s decline, Egypt’s central bank introduced a regular dollar auctions in December. Since then it has cut the amount of dollars it offers, to $40 million in its latest auction last week from an initial $75 million.

Abyad said the central bank’s decrease in the amount of dollars offered is “due to the decline in their supply of dollars and not because the market does not need it.”

Egypt’s foreign reserves fell to $13.6 billion at the end of January - below the key $15 billion level needed to cover three months of imports. They stood at $36 billion on the eve of the uprising against Mubarak.

“The outflow of foreign investment and the flight of capital in fear of the sit-

Jobless rate pegged at 14 pct

UAE mulls laws to lure Emiratis to private sector ABU DHABI, Feb 17, (RTRS): The United Arab Emirates is considering changes to its labour law to attract more citizens into the private sector, local media reported on Saturday, to lessen the burden of a bloated public sector in case of a fall in oil prices.

Many Emiratis prefer to work in the public sector, where working hours are shorter, holidays longer and pay tends to be higher, while foreign workers, who account for the majority of the oil-rich Gulf state’s population, fill most private sector positions.

To prepare for any future downturn in oil prices and to avert political discontent, leaders in the UAE and other Gulf states are taking steps to rebalance their employment structures.

Labour Minister Saqr Ghobash will present the government with a review of the current labour law

uation in the country is what created the dollar crisis,” Abyad added.

Egypt is negotiating a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan but talks have stalled pending a revision of the country’s economic reform programme.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said last week the government had finished

“shortly”, the local al-Khaleej newspaper reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

The review would include proposals to bring private and public sector salaries into line, as well as increasing private sector holidays, it said.

“The aim is to reach a compromise that will do justice to Emirati employees and at the same time will satisfy businessmen and company owners, so that Emiratisation be a real addition, rather than seen as a burden or that it becomes too costly,” al-Khaleej reported.

Just over 11 percent of the UAE’s estimated 8.3 million people are citizens, and most of the rest are foreign workers.

The jobless rate among Emiratis is put officially at 14 percent. UAE citizens are conferred generous benefits, receiving free government education, health care and assistance in housing.

revising its programme, and hoped the IMF team would return this month to resume loan talks.

The chief IMF spokesman said on Thursday he was unaware of the Fund receiving the revised programme. “(...There are no) clear or specific outlines of where we are going with the Egyptian economy,” Abyad said.

‘It’s too early to decide’

Etihad needs to revise Jet deal: chairman ABU DHABI, Feb 17, (RTRS): Etihad Airways needs to revise its deal to buy a stake in India’s Jet Airways and it is too soon to say when a final agreement will be struck, the Abu Dhabi airline’s chairman told Reuters on Sunday.

Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, speaking on the sidelines of a defence exhibition in the UAE capital, said officials would meet Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma to discuss the deal.

Asked if a Jet deal would be signed by March or April, Sheikh Hamed said: “I don’t know ... we need to revise it.”

The terms of the possible deal have not been disclosed, but a government source said earlier this month Etihad was in talks

to pick up a 24 percent stake in Jet for up to $330 million.

Asked if a Jet deal would be finalised soon, Sheikh Hamed said: “It’s too early to decide.”

Sheikh Hamed, who is also managing director of sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, did not specify why the deal needs to be revised.

“We need to talk with the Indians about other issues ... including this,” he said.

Unlisted Etihad’s chief executive said this month the Abu Dhabi carrier was conducting due diligence on making an investment and would present the findings to its board.

The Jet Airways deal would be the first foreign investment in India’s aviation industry since the government relaxed ownership rules last September.

This allows foreign airlines to buy up to 49 percent in the country’s domestic carriers, many of which are facing stiff competition and high operating costs.

Sheikh Hamed also dismissed talk of the carrier’s interest in India’s grounded Kingfisher Airlines as “rumours”.

Kingfisher said in December it was in talks with several investors, including Etihad, for a stake sale but those hopes have faded as the indebted airline remains grounded.

“We are talking to financial institutions to restructure our loan, which is a normal part of business because the original tenure is very short,” Lootah said.

“We have time but we are talking to them from now and engaging them from now to get a longer term. We are not worried about the sukuk. Our strategy first will be deal with the lenders.

The sukuk is a secondary issue to that.”

The bank loans under consideration are thought to be debt restructured under the 2011 agreement. This includes 6.76 billion dirhams in secured facilities provided by, among others, Dubai’s biggest bank Emirates NBD as well as 470 million dirhams in unsecured facilities, all due in 2016, according to Nakheel’s sukuk prospectus and estimates by Exotix Limited.

“This is all previously restructured bank debt. They (Nakheel) are trying to refinance all of this debt before the majority falls due in 2016,” said Gus Chehayeb, director, Middle East and Africa Corporate Research at Exotix, in Dubai.

Nakheel reported a 57-percent rise in annual profit in January. It also made interest and profit payments of around 800 million dirhams to lenders last year and has paid around 10 billion dirhams

to various trade creditors and contractors since the start of its debt restructuring.

“We have sorted all the old issues, most of the old issues,” Lootah told the newspaper.

But he ruled out re-starting work on Palm Jebel Ali, one of three man-made islands in the shape of palm fronds that Nakheel planned to build off the Dubai coast. Of these, only one - Palm Jumeirah - has been completed.

Grow “Nakheel will grow and grow and grow in a more careful manner and with a more well-studied strategy and plan,” Lootah said. “Tourism is booming in Dubai so people are looking for more options, so we are looking at that.”

Last week, Dubai gave the go-ahead for a $1.6 billion artificial island, not connected to Nakheel, as it resumes extravagant developments, despite several stalled or abandoned projects commissioned during the previous decade’s boom.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of Dubai’s Mashreq, the emirate’s secondlargest bank by market value, said he was “optimistic” about the bank’s performance this year and expects profits

to grow by between 10 to 15 percent.

Mashreq reported a 67 percent jump in net profits in 2012, on the back of lower provisioning and higher fee income. While not reaching such heights this year, Abdulaziz Al Ghurair said the bank would still see healthy growth in earnings.

“I’m optimistic about our performance in 2013... profits will be anything between 10 to 15 percent higher,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

Ghurair said he was hopefully that provisioning at the bank would continue to recede in 2013 - they dropped to Dh826.5 million ($225 million) in 2012 from Dh1.2 billion in the previous year.

Dubai lenders were hit hard by impairments on bad loans in the wake of the collapse in the local real estate market, which saw prices slump more than 50 percent from their 2008 peak, and the need for state-linked entities to restructure billion of dollars of debts.

However, most restructurings have been completed and recent months have seen signs of a recovery in Dubai’s property market, leading to optimism the worst is behind the emirate’s banking sector.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

40

protesters rally against austerity

Germany demands probe of Amazon

commitments made in return for the rescue plan, break with right-wing policies, demand the resignation of the government and new elections,” union chief Armenio Carlos said. Crushed by a soaring public debt load, Portugal has implemented tough austerity measures in return for rescue loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. (AFP)

Thousands of protesters rallied in Portugal on Saturday against austerity measures imposed on the country by its international creditors.

Answering a call from the CGTP, Portugal’s leading union, some 5,000 protesters marched in Lisbon and organisers said tens of thousands rallied in about 20 cities across the country. “We want to break with the

A German government minister called Sunday for a thorough probe into allegations that foreign seasonal workers hired in Germany by US online retail giant Amazon were harassed and intimidated.

Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that any proof of wrongdoing could result in serious consequences for the temporary employment agency used by Amazon.

“There is a strong suspicion here

Kuwait China Investment Co

Manufacturing, mining weigh

Industrial production declines in December

Deficit

As meltdown menaces Europe’s steel sector, Slovakia is scrambling to keep US Steel — the country’s largest single employer — from selling off a mammoth factory in Kosice, a gritty eastern industrial hub.

Across the EU, the steel sector accounts for some 360,000 jobs at about 500 factories, but production on the continent has slumped from 22 percent of total world output in 2001 to 12 percent in 2011 on weak demand for cars in Europe and cut-

backs at auto plants.

US Steel Kosice provides more than 11,000 direct and thousands of other indirect jobs in Slovakia, a small eurozone economy of 5.4 million people. Late last year, the steel company admitted it was considering several buyers.

The admission sent chills down spines in Slovakia especially in the wake of decision by global steel titan ArcelorMittal to shut similar plants in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. (AFP)

Japan finmin statement weighs on yen

By National Bank of Kuwait

If production activity speeds up rapidly, this could mean the economy is recovering or growing, but also can be a warning sign of up-coming rising inflationary pressures. On the other hand, if prices accelerate and the central bank undergoes monetary tightening by raising interest rates in order to curb inflationary pressures, IP, as well as economic activity, is bound to decelerate due to more expensive credit.

India’s IP has been on a downward trend since the end of 2010 and if it continues its sub-par performance, core inflation should continue to fall as well.

With core prices making up at least twothirds of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) basket, headline inflation should be kept in-check. The WPI plays a critical role in the central bank’s policy evaluations. The nation’s IP has to date contracted in six out of the first nine months of the current fiscal year, which runs until March 2013. This is having negative implications on the country’s growth prospects.

The sub-par performance in industrial activity is undeniably sending a clear signal to the government: that there is no time for complacency, even after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s policy rate cut last month.

Since September of 2012, the government stepped up its efforts to bolster economic growth: it eased restrictions on foreign investments in sectors such as retail, civil aviation, insurance and pension, and also hiked diesel prices in a bid to curb subsidies and bring its fiscal deficit down. However, there is still room for improvement. The government’s inefficient response to tackling infrastructure deficiencies and policy constraints such as delays in permitting environmental clearances and granting the right to acquire land for projects, are just some of the obstacles stalling industrial productivity.

Domestic consumption continues to get hit as purchasing power is persistently eroded by high levels of inflation. The widening fiscal deficit has had negative repercussions on the country’s investment-grade credit rating, discouraging foreign investment. Exports are tepid due to the debt-ridden euro zone, India’s trading partner. Performance is not expected to improve on the export front as the euro zone is likely to log in another contraction this year.

IP is a measure of economic activity, surveying factory production, related manufacturing processes and mining. IP reflects the consumer sentiment and interest rate conditions because levels of production are highly sensitive to those factors. Because of these qualities, forecasters use IP to understand future economic activity. IP is a coincident indicator, which means that it reflects the current state of the economy.

which is why we need to lay all the facts on the table,” she said.

“If the investigation shows there is something to the accusations against the temporary placement agency then its licence is at risk.”

A public television documentary broadcast Wednesday said workers brought in from crisis-hit countries such as Spain to help at Amazon warehouses faced bullying from security personnel, some of whom wore clothing associated with neo-Nazi groups. (AFP)

Euro marginally lower after volatile trade; pound retreats

India economy

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: India’s industrial output shocked analysts on Tuesday, after it logged in its second consecutive contraction in December. The fall was largely due to a sub-optimal performance being put on by both the manufacturing sector (which accounts for three quarters of total production) and the mining & quarrying sector. Industrial production (IP) came in at -0.6%, following a contraction of -0.8% in November.

Most analysts were expecting IP to climb back on to positive turf. Gains in the manufacturing sector continue to taper off due to dwindling domestic consumption, investment and export levels, leading to a fall in consumer and capital goods. This in turn is having an impact on the mining sector: as the level in manufacturing activity falls, there is less demand for commodities. Several factors are affecting manufacturing negatively.

Slovakia woos US Steel

United States Volatility Dominates as Europe Disappoints Last week, the currency market was thrown into turmoil after the Group of Seven issued a joint statement stating that domestic economic policy must not be used to target currencies, which must remain to be determined by the market.

Meanwhile, disappointing economic figures from the Eurozone, the UK and Japan prompted large swings in the market. The US Dollar Index started the week at the 80.20 level and dropped to a low of 79.84 at mid-week. The greenback gained at the end of the week as cautious investors unwound positions ahead of the G20 meeting. The Index closed the week at 80.48 after reaching a high of 80.62.

The Euro opened the week at the 1.3370. The currency edged higher against the greenback to reach 1.3520 following statements from the ECB President, who said that talks about a currency war is way overdone. The currency dropped dramatically amid data that showed that growth in Germany and France contracted. The Euro reached a low of 1.3305 and closed the week at 1.3362.

The Japanese Yen traded in a volatile manner at mid-week as complains from the G7 regarding the currency’s movement caused a major market confusion.

The currency initially weakened to a week’s high of 94.42 after Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said a G7 statement recognized that Japan's reflationary policies are not aimed at affecting foreign exchange markets. However, a G7 official later stated that the statement was meant to signal concerns about excessive moves in the Yen, which prompted a vicious reversal in the currency.

Additionally, Japan’s gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter, reinforcing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s case for more monetary stimulus to end deflation. The USDJPY drifted lower as investors squared their positions ahead of the G20 meetings combined with speculation that the next Bank of Japan governor may be less inclined to pursue aggressive monetary easing. The pair reached a low of 92.21 and closed the week at 93.48.

The Sterling Pound reached a high of 1.5802 at the beginning of the week. The currency weakened dramatically as data showed that inflation, which is stubbornly above the Bank of England’s target, is weighing on consumer spending. The Pound fell to a 6_-month low against the greenback as retails sales disappointed the markets. Cable closed the week at 1.5516.

Retail Sales rose in January Retail sales in the US rose in January for a third consecutive month, showing

Jason Blatt (left), of Knight Capital and Gregory Rowe of Livermore Trading Group work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York. (AP)

household spending is holding up despite an increase in the payroll tax that is weighing on wages. Sales climbed 0.1%, matching economists’ expectations. The gain was smaller than the 0.5% increases in December and November. Department stores and online merchants were among those showing growing demand as improving job prospects and a strengthening housing market helped companies such as Gap Inc., and Target Corp.

Unemployment Claims Drop The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, offering hope the sluggish labor market recovery may have picked up a step. Initial claims for state jobless aid dropped 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 341,000. The prior week's claims were revised to show 2,000 more applications were received than previously reported. Last week's drop in claims exceeded economists' expectations for only a 6,000 decline and pushed first-time filings down to the lower end of their range for this year.

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index US consumer sentiment improved in February, lifted by signs of increased hiring, despite heightened worries about a decline in future income. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment rose to 76.3 from 73.8 in January, topping economists' forecasts of 74.8.

Europe The Eurozone Economy Falls Deeper Into Recession The Eurozone slipped deeper than expected into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank at the end of the worst year for the region. It marked the bloc's first full year in which no quarter produced growth, extending back to 1995. For the year as a whole, growth fell by 0.5%. Economic output in the 17-nation region fell by 0.6% in the fourth quarter following a 0.1% drop previously. The quarter-onquarter drop was the steepest since 2009, and worse than the expected 0.4% drop.

Germany, the largest economy in the region, contracted by 0.6% quarterly, marking its worst performance since the height of the crisis in 2009 as exports declined significantly more than imports. Similarly, France declined by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, slightly worse than market expectations.

Trade Balance The Eurozone posted an increase in its trade surplus in December, lower than expected, as imports fell steeper than exports. Trade surplus of the 17 countries was 11.7 billion Euro in December.

This was higher than 8.0 billion Euros a year earlier, but was below the 13.1 billion Euros expected in the market.

United Kingdom Inflation Unchanged for Four Consecutive Months

Rates – February 17, 2013 Previous Week Levels Currencies EUR GBP JPY CHF

Open Low High 1.3365 1.3305 1.3520 1.5798 1.5461 1.5810 92.56 92.21 94.42 0.9172 0.9146 0.9245

Close 1.3362 1.5516 93.48 0.9210

This Week’s 3-Month Expected Range Minimum Maximum Forward 1.3260 1.3530 1.3368 1.5320 1.5660 1.5513 91.20 94.40 93.55 0.9015 0.9385 0.9225

Inflation in the UK unexpectedly remained unchanged for the fourth consecutive month in January, holding at its highest level since May. The Office for National Statistics said that annual consumer price inflation held at 2.7%, slightly below the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists for a slight uptick to 2.8%. This was the first time inflation remained unchanged for four months in a row since records began in 1996.

BoE Governor Speaks In the BoE inflation report, Governor Mervyn King stated that the UK’s economic recovery will prove slow, high inflation will take longer to fall, and the central bank can do little on its own to improve matters. In particular, worsening inflation indicates a further fall in real wages, which have just hit their lowest since 2003. In the conference, he added, “This hasn’t been a normal recession, and it won’t be a normal recovery.”

“There are limits to what can be achieved via general monetary stimulus in any form - on its own.” Finally, he stated that high inflation was due to a weaker currency and governmentordered price hikes, not overly loose monetary policy, and that the central bank should look through the effect of those factors on prices.

Retail Sales British retail sales posted a surprise fall in January as unusually snowy weather hurt food stores in particular.

Sales including automotive fuel fell 0.6% on the month and on the year - confounding economists' forecasts for higher sales. Economists state that the main reason behind the falls was bad weather during the month, which led to shutdowns of some smaller grocers and drove the biggest monthly fall in food sales since May 2011. Sales excluding fuel fell 0.5% weaker than expectations of a rise by 0.4% on the month. Besides the temporary hit from poor weather, Britons' spending power has been eroded by sticky inflation in recent years.

Japan Japanese GDP Declining Japan’s economy unexpectedly shrank last quarter as falling exports and a business investment slump outweighed improved consumption, bolstering Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s case for more monetary stimulus to end deflation. Gross domestic product contracted an annualized 0.1%, following a revised 3.8% fall in the previous quarter. The prolonging of Japan’s recession into a third quarter shows that benefits from a weaker Yen and rising stocks have yet to be felt.

Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.28225 The USDKWD opened at 0.28225 on Sunday morning.

exchange rates – Feb 17 US dollar BEC Muzaini Dollarco Commercial Bank Gulf Bank NBK Burgan Bank ABK Oman KBE

Sterling pound

Transfer .280750 .282900 .283100 .282850 .281700 .283800 .281150 .283250 .281700 .283800 .281200 .283300 .281700 .283800 — — .282900

Cash .432960 .441906 — .443000 .435000 .445000 .435613 .449446 .434740 .444480 .434500 .443530 .431920 .444500 — .467000 —

Muzaini Dollarco Commercial Bank Gulf Bank NBK Burgan Bank ABK Oman KBE

BEC Muzaini Dollarco Gulf Bank ABK KBE

Euro Cash .373218 .380218 — .381000 .374000 .383000 .373307 .385570 .373950 .383240 .339010 .347320 .371620 .382870 — — —

Japanese yen

Buy Sell Sell Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Sell

Buy Sell Sell Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Sell

Cash .466090 .516090 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cyprus Pound

Yemeni riyal

Thai baht

Buy Sell Sell Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell Sell

Transfer Cash Draft — — — — — — — — — .693000 .693835 .693835 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cash Draft Transfer .128600 .127600 .127600 .136600 .137600 .137600 — .001321 .001321 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cash Draft Transfer .091310 .090770 .090770 .096810 .096770 .096770 — .094870 .094870 — — — — — — — — — — – — — — – — — —

Draft .280750 .282900 .283100 .282850 .281700 .283800 .281150 .283250 .281700 .283800 .281200 .283300 .281700 .283800 .287900 .287900 .282900

Danish kroner BEC

Transfer .431906 .440906 .442340 .439850 .437156 .440415 .439521 .446295 .436240 .441480 .436000 .440530 .436400 .441450 — .475000 —

Cash .279000 .283150 .281900 .283500 .274000 .284000 .278650 .285250 .276700 .285300 .276200 .274800 .279200 .285300 — — —

Draft .466090 .516090 — — .050461 .050837 .050446 .051360 .050380 .050910 .046462 .046997 .049510 .051900 — — —

Indian rupee

Transfer .466090 .516090 — — .050461 .050837 .050446 .051360 .050380 .050910 .046462 .046997 .049510 .051900 — — —

travellers cheques BEC Commercial Bank Gulf Bank Al-Ahli Bank

Draft .431906 .440906 .442340 .439850 .437156 .440415 .439521 .446295 .436240 .441480 .444600 .436000 .436400 .441450 .444400 .475000 —

Cash .004924 .005325 – .005450 .004000 .006750 — — — — — — — — — — —

US dollar .2828000 .2840000 .2854580 .2831500

Draft .005165 .005235 .005219 .005218 — .005255 — .005324 — — .005094 .005093 .005154 .005242 — — .005229

Transfer .005165 .005235 .005219 .005218 — .005255 — .005324 — — .005094 .005093 .005154 .005242 — — .005229

Sterling .4445000 .4510000 .4549210 .4444000

Draft .373218 .380718 .381050 .378645 .376422 .379228 .376656 .382866 .375450 .380240 .380190 .340510 .375470 .380250 .378620 .382570 .382300

Transfer .373218 .380718 .381050 .378645 .376422 .379228 .376656 .382866 .375450 .380240 .380190 .344320 .375470 .380250 .378620 .382570 .382300

Pakistani rupee Cash .002608 .002888 — .003100 — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Euro — .3870000 .3853120 .3836200

Draft .002944 .003124 .002883 .002875 — .002904 — .002915 — — — — — .002952 .002951 .003175 .002883

Cash .294400 .312400 — .004550 — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .294400 .312400 .003028 .004020 .003013 .003035 .003010 .003060 .030006 .030457 .003588 .003636 .029991 .030480 — .003200 —

Transfer .294400 .312400 .003028 .004020 .003013 .003035 .003010 .003060 .030006 .030457 .003588 .003636 .029991 .030480 — .003200 —

Sri Lanka rupee

Transfer .002944 .003124 .002883 .002875 — .002904 — .002915 — — .003233 — — .002952 — 003175 .002883

Cash .001956 .002536 — .002950 .002000 .003500 — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .001932 .002237 .002231 .002229 — .002246 — .002266 — — .002546 — — .002310 — .002510 .002245

Transfer .001932 .002237 .002231 .002229 — .002246 — .002266 — — .002546 — .002310 — .002510 .002245

South African rand Cash — — — — — — — — —

Draft Transfer — — — — — — — — — — .032051 .032051 — — — — — —

local gold BEC Muzaini Exchange

Swiss franc Cash .301123 .310623 — .310000 .304000 .315000 — — .300540 .311650 .279180 .289100 — — — — —

Draft .302123 .309123 .310760 .307204 .305730 .308010 .304703 .310810 .304540 .309150 .283180 .286600 .304470 .309500 — — —

Transfer .302123 .309123 .310760 .307204 .305730 .308010 .304703 .310810 .304540 .309150 .297119 .299506 .304470 .309500 — — —

Bangladesh taka Cash .003291 .003891 — .003850 — — — — — — — — — — — .004250 —

Draft .003535 .003590 .003570 .003566 — .003610 — .003615 — — — — — — — .004170 .003579

Transfer .003535 .003590 .003570 .003566 — .003610 — .003615 — — .004017 — — — — .004170 .003579

Korean won Cash — — — — — — — — —

Draft — — — — — — — — —

Gold 999 kg — 15,060.000

Transfer — — — — — — — — —

Canadian dollar Cash .276696 .285196 — .287000 .278000 .288000 — — — — .277897 .282890 — — — — —

Draft .274696 .283696 .284240 .284485 .279922 .282009 .279140 .284472 .278860 .282890 .286988 .277020 .278890 .283200 — — .286900

Transfer .274696 .283696 .284240 .284485 .279922 .282009 .279140 .284472 .278860 .282890 .286988 .277020 .278890 .283200 — .267000 .286900

Philippine peso Cash .006952 .007232 — .007200 — —

Draft .006511 .006981 .006965 .006954 — .007044 — — .007070 — — — — — .006449 — — — — — .007297 .006000 .006467 — — — .007000

Transfer .006511 .006981 .006965 .006954 — .007044 — .007070 — — .006449 — — .007297 .006467 — .007000

Swedish kroner Cash .407540 .457540 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .407540 .457540 — — .044557 .044889 .043978 .044793 .044490 .044980 .041155 .041482 .043800 .045720 — — —

Transfer .407540 .457540 — — .044557 .044889 .043978 .044793 .044490 .044980 .041155 .041482 .043800 .045720 — — —

Saudi riyal Cash .074857 .075440 — .077000 .072000 .076000 .074148 .076208 .074050 .076740 .073684 .075774 .074140 .076230 — — —

Australian dollar Cash .283578 .295078 — — .288000 .300000 — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .281578 .293578 — — .290320 .292484 .289725 .295155 .289390 .293530 .284712 .286988 .289090 .293600 .237000 — —

Transfer .281578 .293578 — — .290320 .292484 .289725 .295155 .289390 .293530 .284712 .289490 .289090 .293600 .237000 — —

Draft .074907 .075547 .075524 .075390 .075140 .075700 .074880 .075674 .075050 .075740 .075640 .072340 .074900 .075710 — — .075595

Transfer .074907 .075547 .075524 .075390 .075140 .075700 .074880 .075674 .075050 .075740 .074280 .075640 .074900 .075710 — — .075595

Hong Kong dollar Cash .034427 .037177 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .033927 .037027 .036509 — .036327 .036598 .036118 .036706 — — — — .036330 .036600 — — —

Transfer .033927 .037027 .036509 — .036327 .036598 .036118 .036706 — — — — .036330 .036600 — — —

UAE dirham Cash .076096 .077245 — .077100 .076474 .077242 .075720 .077830 .076470 .077240 .075223 .077374 .076393 .077160 — .078600 —

Draft .075596 .077046 .077118 .076985 .076726 .077298 .076467 .077285 .076640 .077320 .077237 .074510 .076420 .077330 .078390 — .077125

Transfer .075596 .077046 .077118 .076995 .076726 .077298 .076467 .077285 .076640 .077320 .075832 .077237 .076420 .077330 — .078390 .077125

Singapore dollar Cash .225664 .231664 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Draft .224664 .230664 .230730 — .227673 .229370 .226168 .230050 .227030 .230020 .216673 .218433 .226980 .230080 — — —

Transfer .224664 .230664 .230730 — .227673 .229370 .226168 .230050 .227030 .230020 .222630 .216673 .226980 .230080 — — —

Syrian pound

Iranian tuman

Lebanese pound

Malaysian ringgit

Cash Draft Transfer .003156 .003156 .003156 .003376 .003376 .003376 — — — — — — — .003073 .003073 — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cash Draft Transfer .000078 .000079 .000079 .000080 .000079 .000079 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cash Draft Transfer .000138 .000173 .000173 .000238 .000193 .000193 — .190000 .190000 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Cash Draft Transfer .089048 .087590 .087590 .095048 .094590 .094590 — — — .093500 .091345 .091345 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Gold 999 10 tola 1,802.3400 1,772.000

Gold ounce — 483.000

Gold gm 22k — 13.785

Gold gm 21k — 13.150

Gold gm 18k — 11.275

100 gm 999 – —

10 gm 999 – 157.000

Bahraini dinar Cash .744472 .752472 — .750000 .745062 .752550 .737559 .758083 .745060 .752550 — — — — — — —

Draft .743972 .752472 .752230 .748840 .747512 .753085 .748380 .752723 .746720 .753480 .740873 .750398 .745250 .753630 — — .752100

Transfer .743972 .752472 .752230 .748840 .747512 .753085 .748380 .752723 .746720 .753480 .740873 .750398 .745250 .753630 — — .752100

Jordanian dinar Cash .393890 .401390 — .400000 .390000 .405000 — — — — — — — — — .415000 —

Transfer .393434 .400394 .399940 .398720 — .401414 — .401203 — — .394853 .398939 .395920 .402520 .401670 .415000 —

Transfer .393434 .400394 .399940 .398720 — .401414 — .401203 — — .394853 .398939 .395920 .402520 .401670 .415000 —

Indonesian rupiah Cash .000024 .000030 — — — — — — —

Draft .000024 .000029 — — — .000030 — — .000029

Transfer .000024 .000029 — — — .000030 — — .000029

Omani riyal Cash .729292 .734972 — — .730401 .737742 .722171 .742451 .730400 .737740 .735741 — — — .752000 — —

Draft .723972 .734792 .735610 — .731973 .737430 .729298 .737246 .731210 .737720 .734440 .722120 .729620 .738950 .748000 — —

Transfer .723972 .734792 .735610 — .731973 .737430 .729298 .737246 .731210 .737720 .734440 .719020 .729620 .738950 .759930 — —

Egyptian pound Cash .039445 .042144 .042100 .042500 .042000 .047000 — — — — — — — — — .056000 —

Draft .039961 .041991 .041973 .041975 — — — .042363 — — .047830 .049026 — .042700 — — .041971

Transfer .039961 .041991 .041973 .041975 — — — .042363 — — .047830 .049026 — .

042700 — — .041971

New Zealand dollar Cash .233334 .242834 — — — — — — —

Draft .231334 .241334 — — .235406 .240350 .236820 .240980 —

Transfer .231334 .241334 — — .235406 .240350 .236820 .240980 —

All rates in KD per unit of foreign currency

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

41

Obama bypasses Congress with public pitch White House recognizes that economy remains No. 1 concern WASHINGTON, Feb 17, (AP): Weeks before President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, White House aides were locking down a plan for the sales pitch that would follow during three days of travel focused on his main themes.

The effort to promote Obama’s proposals on jobs, wages and education involved visits to Asheville, North Carolina, Decatur, Georgia, and Chicago, participating in a Google+ chat and mobilizing the president’s formidable former campaign apparatus.

One thing it didn’t include? Congress.

For the White House, this is a campaign for public opinion, not one to write specific legislation.

When it comes to broadening early education or raising the minimum wage, Obama is not ready to make lawmakers a part of the process yet.

Instead, Obama is trying to change an economic debate that has been focused on deficits and on managing the national debt to one about middle-class opportunities and economic growth. Just into his second term, Obama and his aides want to move away from the type of budget confrontations that have defined the past two years and take advantage of his re-election to pressure Republicans.

“If the Republicans reflexively oppose everything the president does,

we have to go directly to the American people to marshal their support to get things done,” Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said. “The metric we’re looking at is whether you start to see fissures in the Republican coalition.”

This president, like recent ones before him, has gone to the public before in hopes of persuading lawmakers. It hasn’t always proved a winning tactic.

President Bill Clinton failed to use the public to win support for his health care overhaul. President George W. Bush was unable to make changes to the Social Security program providing benefits to retirees in his second term.

Obama tried to muster public support to fight climate change but the legislative effort came up short. Even Obama’s

all-out effort on behalf of sweeping health care changes only succeeded in keeping Democrats unified, not in winning over Republicans.

But Obama and White House aides are heartened by what they believe were successful public appeals for extending a payroll tax cut in 2010 and for preventing a doubling of interest rates on federal student loans last summer.

What made those different was that they addressed pressing issues: The payroll tax cut was expiring at year’s end and interest rates on student loans were set to double last July 1.

Expanding preschool education programs and raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour by the end of 2015, on the other hand, are policy ideas

just sprung on Congress during last Tuesday’s prime-time speech.

“When there is no clear path between what he called for in the State of the Union and then going on the road, and there’s no road map about exactly when we’re going to get into these issues, it’s a little bit like shouting in the forest,” said Patrick Griffin, the White House legislative director under Clinton.

“Something has to be queued up in order to make these visits work.”

David Winston, a Republican pollster and strategist who advises House Republicans, said the key to a successful policy campaign is two-fold.

“The first and central is how important is solving whatever problem is being defined,” he said. “The second one

is does the defined benefit solve the problem.”

He argues that even though Obama in 2010 won the health care fight in a partisan showdown, the public didn’t judge health care to be as important as dealing with the economy. As a result, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in elections that year.

The White House strategy now in part recognizes that the economy remains the No. 1 public concern even as the president engages Congress on issues such as immigration and gun violence.

It was finally on Friday, his last road trip of the week, when Obama brought his message back to guns. But even then, as in his State of the Union speech, he connected it to his main economic themes.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

42

heat on Nigeria’s petroleum industry as oil execs gather Major oil industry executives gather in Nigeria’s capital for an annual conference this week with Africa’s largest crude producer under pressure over reports alleging large-scale corruption and mismanagement.

The conference kicking off Monday evening in Abuja is expected to see appearances by government ministers and top officials from oil majors Shell, Exxon, Total and Chevron, as well as Nigeria’s state petroleum firm

NNPC. It comes on the heels of a report from a government-appointed panel alleging Nigeria has lost out on tens of billions of dollars in recent years through questionable practices in the industry.

Another audit released earlier this month said NNPC owes the government $8.3 billion for the period from 2009 through 2011.

Beyond that, a parliamentary com-

mittee report in 2012 said $6.8 billion in revenue was lost between 2009 and 2011 in Nigeria’s fraud-ridden fuel subsidy programme.

Despite pledges from the government to clean up the oil sector, there has been little change in response to such findings. NNPC and firms including Shell, which has been the country’s biggest producer, have denied any wrongdoing.

There is not likely to be much dis-

cussion of the reports at the conference itself, with topics such as Nigeria’s long-stalled effort to overhaul its oil industry more likely to be in the spotlight.

“You have all the issues there,” Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Transparency International’s local partner, said of the reports on industry mismanagement. (AFP)

‘ConocoPhillips can resume production’ The Chinese subsidiary of ConocoPhillips can resume operations at an oil field off the coast of northeastern China that was closed in 2011 after two oil spills, a regulator said.

Conoco and its subsidiary, ConocoPhillips China Inc., came under intense media criticism in China following the spills, which drained into the Bohai Sea and its bay.

The State Oceanic Admi-nistra-

tion said in a statement Saturday that conditions at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield had returned to normal after a series of rectification measures, and that ConocoPhillips could gradually resume production there.

China’s largest oil field is jointly owned by Houston-based ConocoPhillips’ Chinese subsidiary and China National Offshore Oil Corp., China’s main offshore oil and gas producer. (AP)

Most Gulf markets dip on profit-taking

Aldar lifts Abu Dhabi bourse to 39-month high DUBAI, Feb 17, (RTRS): Shares in Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties helped lift the emirate’s benchmark to a 39month high, with investors expecting strong dividend payouts, while profittaking weighed on most other regional markets.

Aldar jumped 5.0 percent to a fourweek high. The company’s board recommended a cash dividend of 6 fils, which needs shareholder approval. The developer paid a cash dividend of 5 fils in 2012.

Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments, said some investors were speculating that shareholders might press at their upcoming meeting for an even higher dividend than 6 fils, ahead of the company’s planned merger with Sorouh Real Estate, which is up 2.9 percent.

In addition, a strong outlook for 2013 corporate earnings in general is helping the stock market, he added.

Heavyweight First Gulf Bank rose 2.4 percent and telecommunications operator Etisalat gained 1.0 percent.

The market index climbed 1.1 percent to its highest since November 2009.

Dubai’s measure meanwhile, slipped 0.2 percent, extending declines from Wednesday’s 38-month high.

“The market has been resilient in the profit-taking activity with new investors entering and building positions at these levels where the market has already gone up quite a bit this year,” Shurrab said.

Shares in Air Arabia fell 2.7 percent.

The carrier reported a 6 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit but missed analysts’ estimates.

Elsewhere, Qatar’s benchmark ended 0.1 percent lower at 8,781 points, declining for a second session since Wednesday’s 10-month high.

The index is near major technical resistance at 8,844-8,910 points, where

it formed three peaks between April 2011 and April 2012.

Qatar Telecom was the main drag, falling 1.2 percent. Industries Qatar shed 0.4 percent; the petrochemical firm is down for a third session since rallying to a 4-1/2 year high.

“Industries Qatar trades at a 2013F P/E of 11.2x on our forecast and 9.9x on the consensus earnings forecast,” Digvijay Singh at VTB Capital said in a note. “While the valuations are undemanding, they factor in strong fertiliser prices in the short to medium term, while our own view is less upbeat.”

VTB changed its recommendation on the stock from ‘hold’ to ‘sell’, citing a lack of any impending catalysts or further earnings upside.

In Saudi Arabia, the bourse snapped a six-session winning streak. The index slipped 0.2 percent to finish at 7,072 points.

“The index found some resistance

close to 7,100,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of technical analysis at Cairo’s Beltone Financial. “The current key support is found near 6,900.

We are expecting a flat movement between the current support and the resistance before the index moves towards 7,250 points.”

Analysts believe that valuations in main sectors, of petrochemicals and banks, are still attractive at current levels, with selling pressure over-done during the fourth-quarter earnings.

Petrochemical sector’s index declined 0.6 percent and banking shares lost 0.3 percent.

Elsewhere, Kuwait’s bourse rose to a fresh nine-month high on earnings optimism.

Investors overlooked an estimatetrailing drop in profit from telecom operator Zain, which blamed foreign exchange losses for the decline.

Shares in Zain ended flat.

“People are accepting the results, which are not so bad if you neutralize the FX loss,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House. “There is a lot of momentum being driven by expectations of financial results. Retail traders, buying small-caps, is another force driving the market.”

National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya) rose 1.7 percent. It reported a 26.5 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit as more customers failed to offset tougher competition at home and foreign exchange losses took their toll.

Kuwait’s index gained 0.1 percent.

Abu Dhabi ■ The index rose 1.1 percent to 2,969 points.

Dubai ■ The index declined 0.2 percent to 1,890 points.

Qatar ■ The index retreated 0.1 percent 8,781 points.

Saudi Arabia ■ The index declined 0.2 percent 7,072 points.

Egypt ■ The index slipped 0.4 percent 5,696 points.

Kuwait ■ The index climbed 0.1 percent 6,407 points.

Oman ■ The index eased 0.03 percent 5,897 points.

Bahrain ■ The index gained 0.3 percent 1,095 points.

See Also Page 43

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investment funds Funds Fund Manager Valution Valued date Currency Net Asset Prev NAV Prev NAV Dated Value (NAV) ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

National Bank of Kuwait

Private Equity Funds

Money Market Funds

Watani KD Money Market Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Feb 5, 2013 KD 1.377 1.377 Jan 29, 2013 Watani KD Money Market Fund (Islamic) NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Feb 5, 2013 KD 1.161 1.161 Jan 29, 2013 Watani Foreign Currency Money Market Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Feb 5, 2013 USD 1.284 1.284 Jan 29, 2013 Watani Foreign Currency Money Market Fund (Euro) NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Feb 5, 2013 Euro 1.236 1.237 Jan 29, 2013 Watani USD Money Market Fund (Acc NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Feb 5, 2013 USD 1.091 1.090 Jan 29, 2013 to Islamic Shariah principles) Equity Funds NBK Gulf Equity Fund NBK Weekly Jan 31, 2013 USD 1.049 1.038 Jan 23, 2013 NBK Kuwait Equity Fund NBK Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.656 0.653 Jan 23, 2013 NBK Qatar Equity Fund NBK Weekly Jan 31, 2013 USD 1.357 1.342 Jan 23, 2013 Islamic Ijara Fund IX Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic Ijara Fund X Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic Ijara Fund XI Wafra Capital Partners LP Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Thahabi Ijara Fund V Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Thahabi Ijara Fund VI Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Thahabi Ijara Fund VII Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Nov 30, 2012 USD 10.000 10.000 Oct 31, 2012 Islamic KD Ijara Fund I Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 KD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic KD Ijara Fund II Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31, 2012 KD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic KD Ijara Fund III Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31, 2012 KD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic KD Ijara Fund IV Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 KD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic KD Ijara Fund V Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Monthly Dec 31 2012 KD 10.000 10.000 Nov 30, 2012 Alternative Funds Watani US Real Estate Income & Growth Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Monthly Sept 30, 2012 USD 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 Watani European Real Estate Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 Euro 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 Central European Real Estate Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 Euro 10,000.000 10,000.000 June 30, 2012 Islamic European Real Estate Fund – A Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 USD 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 Islamic European Real Estate Fund – B Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 USD 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 Islamic Asian Real Estate Fund Wafra Investment Advisory Group Inc Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 USD 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 Islamic China India Real Estate Fund Wafra Capital Partners L.P Cayman Islands Quarterly Sept 30, 2012 USD 1,000.000 1,000.000 June 30, 2012 R.Estate Security Funds Islamic Global RE Securities Fund Class A Wafra Capital Partners L.P. Monthly Dec 31, 2012 USD 1,062.376 1,048.180 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic Global RE Securities Fund Class B Wafra Capital Partners L.P. Monthly Dec 31, 2012 USD 1.017.974 1.013.814 Nov 30, 2012 Islamic Turkey Real Estate Fund Wafra Capital Partners L.P. March 19, 2008 USD 1,000.000 Multi Asset Funds Thahabi Multi Asset Fund – Con Portfolio Frontier Capital Management (Jersey) Ltd Monthly Dec 31, 2012 USD 93.044 92.730 Nov 30, 2012 Thahabi Multi Asset Fund – Mo Portfolio Frontier Capital Management (Jersey) Ltd Monthly Dec 31, 2012 USD 82.671 82.140 Nov 30, 2012 NBK Frontier Multi Asset Fund – Con Portfolio Frontier Capital Management (Jersey) Ltd Monthly Nov 30, 2012 USD 92.730 92.410 Oct 31, 2012 NBK Frontier Multi Asset Fund – Mo Portfolio Frontier Capital Management (Jersey) Ltd Monthly Nov 30, 2012 USD 82.140 81.586 Oct 31, 2012 NBK Frontier Multi Asset Fund – Plus Portfolio Frontier Capital Management (Jersey) Ltd Monthly Nov 30, 2012 USD 66.330 65.623 Oct 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Gulf Bank Al Basha’er GCC Equity Fund Kwt. Fin. & Inv. Co. & Gulf Fin. House Monthly Jan 31, 2013 USD 7.270 6.9878 Dec 31, 2012 Coast Fund Coast Investment Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.644 0.643 Dec 31, 2012 Sanaya Dow Jones Kuwait Index Fund Industrial & Financial Investment Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.629 0.614 Dec 31, 2012 Markaz Capital Preservation Programs 1 Monthly Nov 30, 2012 KD 0.959 0.959 Oct 31, 2012 Markaz Capital Preservation Programs 2 Monthly Nov 30, 2012 KD 0.960 0.995 Oct 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Commercial Bank Tijari Islamic Fund Commercial Bank of Kuwait Tw. Monthly Feb 14, 2013 KD 0.324 0.325 Feb 7, 2013 Tijari Indian Fund Commercial Bank of Kuwait Weekly Feb 11, 2013 KD 0.840 0.841 Feb 5, 2013 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Al Ahli Kuwaiti Fund Al Ahli Bank Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.943 0.928 Dec 26, 2012 Al Ahli Gulf Fund Al Ahli Bank Monthly Jan 28, 2013 KD 0.824 0.794 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Boubyan Bank Boubyan KD Money Market Fund Boubyan Bank Weekly Feb 5, 2013 KD 1.021 1.021 Jan 29, 2013 Boubyan Sukuk Fund Boubyan Bank Daily Dec 25, 2013 USD 770.110 1,001.180 May 11, 2011 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Burgan Bank Burgan Financial Fund Burgan Bank Daily Jan 2, 2013 KD 1.009 1.009 Dec 31, 2012 Burgan Equity Fund Burgan Bank Monthly Jan 27, 2012 KD 1.845 1.828 Dec 23, 2012 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Local Fund

Al Raed Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Feb 7, 2013 KD 0.991 0.998 Jan 31, 2013 Kuwait Investment Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.651 0.624 Dec 31, 2012 Al Hilal Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Feb 4, 2013 KD 0.583 0.583 Jan 31, 2013 KIC Bond Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.930 0.929 Dec 31, 2012 Al Atheer Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.072 1.044 Dec 31, 2012 International Global Bond Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Jan 30, 2013 USD 22.400 22.870 Jan 16, 2013 Diversified Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Jan 30, 2013 USD 17.440 17.310 Jan 16, 2013 European Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 Euro 15.800 15.500 Dec 31, 2012 Pacific Equity Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Jan 30, 2013 USD 32.550 32.280 Jan 16, 2013 Al-Awaed Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2012 KD 0.917 0.914 Dec 31, 2012 North American Equity Fund Kuwait Investment Co Tw. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 USD 13.870 13.210 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

lnternational Financial Advisors Local Fund

IFA Islamic Fund International Financial Advisors Monthly Oct 21 2012 KD 0.200 0.195 Sept 30, 2012 IFA Investment Fund International Financial Advisors Monthly Oct 22, 2012 KD 0.284 0.275 Sept 18, 2012 International IFA International Guaranteed Fund International Financial Advisors Monthly Dec 31, 2010 KD 9.040 0.703 Nov 30, 2010 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

National Investment Co. (NIC) Equity Funds

Al- Wataniya Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.617 0.599 Dec 31, 2012 Al-Safwa Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.461 0.457 Dec 31, 2012 Al-Darji Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.461 0.453 Dec 31, 2012 Mawarid Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.555 0.537 Dec 31, 2012 Zajil Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.745 0.733 Dec 31, 2012 Al Mada Investment Fund NIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 USD 0.650 0.615 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Mal Investment Al Huda Islamic Fund Al Mal Investment Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.399 0.395 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Coast Investment Co. Coast Investment Fund Coast Investment Co Daily Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.664 0.643 Dec 31, 2012 Coast Pearl Fund Coast Investment Co Dec 31, 2012 KD 0.790 0.789 Nov 30, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) Mumtaz Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Feb 07, 2013 KD 4.164 4.250 Jan 31, 2013 MIDAF Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Feb 07, 2013 KD 3.080 3.116 Jan 31, 2013 Islamic Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Feb 07, 2013 KD 1.633 1.657 Jan 31, 2013 Markaz Arabian Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Jan 31, 2013 USD 2.860 2.840 Jan 24, 2013 FORSA Financial Fund Kuwait Financial Center Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 3.996 0.963 Dec 31, 2012 Energy Fund Kuwait Financial Center Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.772 0.772 Dec 31, 2012 Real Estate Fund Kuwait Financial Center Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.374 1.375 Dec 31, 2012 Markaz Fixed Income Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Jan 31, 2013 USD 10.740 10.750 Jan 24, 2013 Markaz Idikhar Fund Kuwait Financial Center Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.447 0.446 Dec 31, 2012 Markaz Islamic Income Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Oct 31, 2012 KD 0.219 0.218 Sept 30, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kuwait & Middle East Financial & Inv. Co. Al Rou’yah Fund KMEFIC Monthly Jan 21, 2013 KD 1.423 1.367 Dec 31, 2012 Gulf Gate Fund KMEFIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.857 0.824 Dec 31, 2012 Al Awsat Money Market Fund (USD) KMEFIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.688 0.688 Dec 31, 2012 Al Awsat Money Market Fund (USD) KMEFIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 USD 4.787 4.784 Dec 31, 2012 Amwal Islamic Money Market Fund KMEFIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.549 0.549 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Global Investment House

Money Market Funds Islamic Real E. Funds

Kuwait Finance & Investment Co (KFIC) Al Wasm Fund KFIC Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.396 0.384 Nov 30, 2012 Al Basha’er GCC Equity Fund KFIC & Gulf Finance House Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 USD 7.270 6.988 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

KAMCO KAMCO Investment Fund KAMCO Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.977 0.940 Dec 31, 2012 Kuwait Private Equity Opportunities Fund KAMCO Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.678 0.678 Dec 31, 2012 Kuwait Education Fund KAMCO Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.428 1.428 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Madar Finance Shuwaikh Real Estate Fund Al Madar Bi-weekly Dec 31, 2012 KD 1.438 1.486 Sept 30, 2012 US Index Fund Al Madar Monthly Jan 25, 2013 KD 1.825 1.653 Nov 23, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Madina Finance & Investment Co. India Fund Al Madina Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.873 0.845 Dec 31, 2012 Al Madina Fund Al Madina Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.473 0.473 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Wafra International Investment Co. Wafra Equity Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.855 0.819 Dec 31, 2012 Wafra Bond Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.001 0.998 Dec 31, 2012 Fajir Islamic Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.619 0.589 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Shuaa Capital Co. Saudi Gateway Fund Shuaa Capital Weekly Jan 28, 2013 USD 8.470 8.470 Dec 20, 2012 The Arab Gateway Fund Shuaa Capital Monthly Feb 12, 2013 USD 24.440 24.180 Feb 5, 2013 Emirates Gateway Fund Shuaa Capital Monthly Feb 12, 2013 AED 7.370 7.340 Feb 5, 2013 Qatar Gate Fund (Q) Shuaa Capital Monthly Jan 31, 2013 QAR 94.840 89.110 Dec 31, 2012 Qatar Gate Fund (N) Shuaa Capital Monthly Jan 31, 2013 QAR 93.200 87.830 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Investment Dar Co. Al Dar Real Estate Fund Tharwa Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.134 1.133 Dec 31, 2012 Al Dar Funds of Fund Al Dar Asset Management Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.470 0.470 Dec 31, 2012 Al Dar Money Market Fund Al Dar Asset Management Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.872 0.868 Jan 21, 2013 Al Dar Securities Fund Al Dar Asset Management Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.550 0.524 Dec 31, 2012 Al Nokhba Fund Al Dar Asset Management Monthly Dec 31, 2012 KD 0.406 0.408 Nov 30, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Global Umbrella Fund - US Global Umbrella Fund - Asia/Japan Global Distressed Fund Zenith Fund Mayur Hedge Fund Global KD Bond Fund GCC Large Cap Index Fund Al-Mamoun Fund A Al-Mamoun Fund B GCC Large Cap Fund Al-Noor Fund Global Saudi Equity Fund Global KD Money Market Fund Global USD Money Market Fund Global US Real Estate Fund GCC Real Estate Fund Global Asia Real Estate Fund Global Real Estate Ijarah Fund

Al Aman Islamic Fund Al Aman Investment Monthly Feb 14, 2013 KD 0.907 0.911 Feb 7, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Housing Finance Co (ISKAN) Masaref Investment Fund ISKAN Weekly Feb 14, 2013 KD 0.907 0.911 Feb 7, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Gulf Investment Corp.

Gulf Bond Fund Gulf Investment Corp Weekly Feb 8, 2013 USD 13.920 13.910 Jan 31, 2013 Gulf Premier Fund Gulf Investment Corp Weekly Feb 7 2013 USD 21.550 21.630 Jan 31, 2013 Gulf Islamic Fund Gulf Investment Corp Weekly Feb 7, 2013 USD 6.620 6.700 Jan 31, 2013 GIC KD Bond Fund Gulf Investment Corp Monthly Feb 7 2013 USD 0.980 0.980 Jan 31, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Ahli United Bank (formerly BKME)

Kuwait Investment Co.

Fixed Income Funds Index Funds Equity Funds

Global Opportunistic Fund Global Quarterly Sept 30, 2009 USD 106.060 107.180 Global Opportunistic Fund II Global Quarterly Sept 22, 2009 USD 110.920 110.390 June 30, 2009 Private Equity Fund Global Quarterly Sept 30, 2009 KD 0.829 0.859 June 30, 2009 Global Buyout Fund Global Monthly Sept 30, 2009 USD 564.740 603.390 June 30, 2009 Country Fund Palestine Dedicated Fund Global Monthly Dec 31, 2012 USD 86.740 91.810 Sept 30, 2011 Global Egypt Fund Global Monthly Jan 31, 2012 USD 38.740 38.110 Dec 31, 2011 Sectoral Funds EPADI Fund Global Weekly Feb 5, 2013 USD 108.770 108.550 Jan 29, 2013 Islamic Funds Global GCC Islamic Fund Global Weekly Feb 5, 2013 USD 89.010 89.250 Jan 29, 2013 Al-Durra Islamic Fund Global Monthly Feb 14, 2013 KD 1.173 1.168 Feb 7, 2013 Global Islamic Fund of Funds Global Weekly Dec 31, 2012 USD 67.276 76.860 Aug 31, 2011 Global Islamic Fund Global Monthly June 28, 2012 KD 1.271 1.286 March 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Aman Investment

Al Ahli Bank

Hedge Funds

Funds Fund Manager Valution Valued date Currency Net Asset Prev NAV Prev NAV Dated Value (NAV) ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Global

Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Weekly Monthly Weekly Weekly Weekly Bi-weekly Bi-weekly Bi-weekly Weekly Monthly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly

Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012 Dec 31, 2012 Jan 31, 2013 Feb 07, 2013 Feb 07, 2013 Feb 07, 2013 Feb 12, 2013 Feb 10, 2013 Feb 10, 2013 Feb 14, 2013 Feb 05, 2013 June 30, 2012 June 30, 2009 June 30, 2009 Dec 31, 2008

USD USD USD USD USD KD KD KD KD USD SAR SAR KD USD USD USD USD USD

148.640 114.260 168.060 94.840 94.020 0.824 1.319 0.534 0.534 120.660 168.016 166.442 1.114 134.320 0.265 0.675 0.850 850.790

152.630 117.130 167.850 94.910 92.180 0.819 1.331 0.539 0.539 120.160 168.573 166.016 1.114 134.440 0.378 0.710 0.857

Sept 30, 2012 Sept 30, 2012 Sept 30, 2012 Oct 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012 Dec 31, 2012 Jan 31, 2013 Jan 31, 2013 Jan 31, 2013 Jan 29, 2013 Feb 05, 2013 Feb 05, 2013 Feb 10, 2013 Jan 29, 2013 March 31, 2009 March 31, 2009 March 31, 2009

Al Awasat Money Market Fund Ahli United Bank Monthly April 30, 2012 KD 1.132 1.104 Sept 30, 2010 Al Amin Islamic Market Fund Ahli United Bank Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.142 1.142 Dec 30, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bayan Investment Co Ea’mmar and Estethmar Fund Bayan Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.442 0.411 Dec 31, 2012 Al Themar Securities Fund Bayan Investment Co Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.452 0.445 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Tharwa Investment Co. Tharwa Investment Fund Tharwa Investment Co Weekly Feb 14, 2013 KD 1.237 1.212 Jan 31, 2013 Tharwa Islamic Fund Tharwa Investment Co Monthly Feb 14, 2013 KD 0.702 0.683 Jan 31, 2013 Tharwa Arab Investment Fund Tharwa Investment Co Monthly Feb 14, 2013 USD 1.251 1.422 Jan 31, 2013 Tharwa World Fund Tharwa Investment Co Weekly Jan 31, 2013 USD 1.073 1.042 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bank Al-Bilad Al Seef Fund Bank Al-Bilad Daily Feb 3, 2013 KD 0.524 0.528 Jan 27, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Commercial International Bank Commercial Int’t Bank Fund I CI Asset Management Weekly Feb 06, 2013 EGP 194.4450 196.390 Feb 05, 2013 Commercial Int’t Bank Fund II (Istethmar) CI Asset Management Weekly Jan 17, 2013 EGP 61.760 63.260 Jan 10, 2013 CIB and Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt Fund CI Asset Management Weekly Jan 24, 2013 EGP 42.620 42.540 Jan 17, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Noor Financial Inv. Co. Noor Islamic Fund Noor Financial Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.678 0.676 Dec 31, 2012 Noor Real Estate Income Fund Noor Financial Investment Co Monthly July 31, 2013 KD 1.124 1.126 June 30, 2012 Noor Kuwait Islamic Equity Fund Noor Financial Investment Co Monthly June 30, 2013 KD 0.633 0.636 May 31, 2011 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kuwait Real Estate Investment Consortium Kuwait Real Estate Fund Kuwait Real Estate Investment Consortium Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 1.692 1.685 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Manafae Investment Co. Manafae First Fund Manafae Investment Co Monthly Dec 31, 2012 KD 0.665 0.665 Dec 26, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Zumorroda Investment Co. Zumorroda GCC Fund Al Zumorroda Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.558 0.528 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al Safat Investment Co. Al Safat Local Shares Equity Fund Al Safat Investment Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.201 0.204 Nov 30, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al-Imtiaz Investment Co. Al-Imtiaz Investment Fund Al-Imtiaz Investment Company Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.847 0.847 Dec 31, 2012 Al-Imtiaz Real Estate Fund Al-Imtiaz Investment Company Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.889 0.889 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

BankMuscat BankMuscat MSCI Kuwait Fund BankMuscat Daily Feb 6, 2013 USD 0.429 0.431 Feb 5, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al-Muthana Investment Co. Muthanna Islamic Index Fund (MUDX) Al-Muthana Investment Company Daily Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.384 0.376 Dec 31, 2012 Muthanna GCC Islamic Banks Fund Al-Muthana Investment Company Weekly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.636 0.615 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

CapCorp Investment Co. CapCorp Local Fund CapCorp Investment Company Weekly Feb 7, 2013 KD 0.924 0.936 Jan 31, 2013 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Amar Finance & Leasing Co. Amar Real Estate Fund Amar Finance & Leasing Company Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.901 0.901 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al-Dhow Investment Co.

Waed Real Estate Fund Al-Dhow Real Estate Company Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.906 0.922 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Al-Fouz Investment Co.

Al-Fouz Real Estate Fund Al-Fouz Investment Company Annual Sept 30, 2012 KD 0.997 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Securities House Co.

Diyar Real Estate Investment Fund Securities House Company Monthly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.949 0.991 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

A’ayan Leasing & Investment Company

Awa’ed Real Estate Fund A’ayan Leasing & Investment Co. Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.680 0.680 Dec 31, 2012 Makaseb Estate Fund A’ayan Leasing & Investment Co. Quarterly Jan 31, 2013 KD 0.716 0.724 Dec 31, 2012 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Industrial & Financial Investment Company Direct investment Fund

Industrial and Financial Investment Co. (IFIC)

Jan 31, 2013

KD

1.193

1.179

Dec 31, 2012

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

BUSINESS

43

Name: Kuwait Sharia Compatible Indices

Providers: Al Madar Finance & Investment Co.

Description: Index of Sharia compatible companies traded on the KSE

Website: www.almadar-fi.com

Index name Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Composite Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Kuwait Only Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Active Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Banking Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Investment Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Insurance Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Real Estate Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Industrial Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Services Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Food Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Islamic Sector Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Non Kuwaiti Sector Kuwait Stock Exchange Index - Price S&P 500 DJ Islamic Index.

Bloomberg ticker AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC AMIC KWSEIDX SPX DJIM

Today’s value as of February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 17, 2013 February 16, 2013 February 16, 2013

Today’s closing value 203.72 199.11 87.96 334.84 95.32 25.43 56.11 143.68 282.88 278.73 154.41 249.18 6,406.67 1,519.79 2,392.91

Prev closing value 203.22 198.55 88.86 335.20 96.69 25.43 55.82 142.95 281.17 278.82 154.54 251.90 6,397.64 1,519.79 2,392.53

% change 0.25% 0.28% -1.01% -0.11% -1.41% 0.00% 0.52% 0.51% 0.61% -0.03% -0.09% -1.08% 0.14% 0.00% 0.02%

1-week change 0.34% 0.32% 3.34% -0.83% 3.47% 8.56% 1.87% 0.89% 0.44% 0.04% 0.27% 1.35% 1.81% 0.12% -0.14%

3-month change 5.70% 5.33% 18.18% 2.86% 17.18% 33.72% 2.43% 7.69% 6.55% 13.63% 5.50% 7.07% 10.78% 11.76% 10.43%

YTD change 2.83% 2.73% 14.76% 0.62% 7.82% 18.72% 4.77% 2.03% 3.31% 5.16% 2.77% 6.89% 7.96% 8.37% 5.14%

12-month change 8.51% 6.95% 22.34% 6.05% 46.02% -21.80% 26.57% -2.04% 7.00% 19.87% 8.92% 29.03% 7.10% 11.65% 5.34%

24-month change -5.80% -7.45% 26.48% -6.57% 96.54% 4.12% 32.24% -15.31% -12.73% 14.57% -2.04% 20.26% -2.33% 13.73% 3.68%

dinar

Egyptian yields The average yield on Egyptian 91-day treasury bills dropped at an auction on Sunday, figures released by the central bank showed.

The average yield on 91-day T-bills for issue on Feb 19 slid to 12.776 percent, compared with 12.872 percent in the previous issue on Feb 12. The central bank, which holds the auctions on behalf of the Finance Ministry, sold 91day bills worth 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($222.87 million). (RTRS)

The exchange rate of the US greenback was up against the Kuwaiti dinar (kd), trading for KD 0.282 on Sunday, and the EU’s euro was down to KD 0.377, according to the daily bulletin of the Central Bank of Kuwait. (KUNA)

Wataniya Telecom jumps 40 fils; Commercial Bank of Kuwait slumps

Kuwait ekes modest gains as volume ebbs

By John Mathews Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Kuwait stocks firmed up Sunday after rallying strongly in the previous week. The index pared steeper early session gains to end 9.03 pts higher at 6,406.67 pts.

The focus was mostly on the mid and low caps even as the some of the banks sagged on profit taking. The trading floor sentiment was cautiously positive as investors soaked in the latest earnings announcements.

The KSX 15 measure eased 0.44 points to 1,031.16 pts and the weighted index ticked 0.22 pts lower. The volume turnover meanwhile ebbed below the 500 million adding to the drop in the last session. 471.61 million shares changed hands — down 14 percent from Thursday. It had soared past the 800 million mark early last week driven largely by speculative buying.

The sectors closed mixed. Oil and gas outshone the peers with 2.90 percent rally whereas banks fell 0.70 percent the worst performer of the day. In terms of volume, financial services chalked the highest market share of 41.65 percent while real estate and banks followed with 29.53 percent and 11.28 percent respectively.

Aref Energy rose 10 fils to KD 0.114

and Jazeera Airways was up by same measure after trading over 1 million shares. The stock has added 10 fils from start of the month while year-to-date it has rallied 60 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co too rose 10 fils to wind up at KD 0.590.

National Industries Group held the ground steady at KD 0.218 and Kuwait Pipes followed suit. Kuwait Portland Cement climbed 20 fils on back of 1.13 million shares. The company has chalked a profit of KD 7.28 million and earnings per share of 80.13 fils in 2012 and the Board of Directors has recommended a cash dividend of 80 % or 80 fils per share. The market opened slightly weak and slipped briefly into red in early trade. The index troughed at 6,393.97 pts before rising sharply to peak at 6426.21 pts. It drifted sideways thereafter as sentiment turned brittle and managed to close with modest gains.

Spiked Top gainer of the day, Aref Energy spiked 9.62 percent to 114 fils and Gulf Petroleum Independent Group too rallied by same measure. Tahsillat slid 8.2 percent, the steepest decliner of the day, and Gulf Investment House topped the volume with 84.7 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s uptick, the winners marginally out led the losers. 46 stocks advanced whereas 43 closed lower. Of the 147 counters active on Sunday, 58 closed flat. 7,397 deals worth KD 33 million were transacted — a 23.70 percent drop in value from the day

profit of KD 2.60 million and earnings per share of 64.69 fils in the full year 2012. The Board of Directors recommended a cash dividend 45 percent or 45 fils per share plus 5 pct bonus shares.

On the downside, Kuwait National Cinema Co dived 50 fils to KD 0.860 erasing the gains in the previous session while Gulf Cables dropped 20 fils.

Kuwait Foundry Co slipped 5 fils and United Industries Co ticked 4 fils lower.

Kuwait Cement Co however stagnated at KD 0.425. In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait paused at KD 0.990 whereas Gulf Bank eased 5 fils to KD 0.410. Commercial Bank of Kuwait slid 30 fils to KD 0.690. The stock has shed 30 fils from start of the month.

Rose Photo by Mahmood Jadeed

Trading in progress at Kuwait Stock Exchange. The bourse edged higher on Sunday.

before.

Wataniya Telecom soared 40 fils to KD 0.2420 more than recouping the loss in the previous session whereas Zain held the ground unchanged at KD 0.790 off early highs. Zain has earned KD 252.14 mln and earnings per share of 65 fils in 2012 and the Board of Directors has recommended a cash dividend of 50%.

“People are accepting the results, which are not so bad if you neutralize the FX loss,” Reuters quoted Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global

Investment House. “There is a lot of momentum being driven by expectations of financial results. Retail traders, buying small-caps, is another force driving the market.”

Agility pulled up from a shallow trough earlier in the session to end flat at KD 0.560. The stock has added 10 fils so far during the month while year-to-date it has climbed 50 fils.

Metal and Recycling Co took in 2 fils with thin trading and Gulf Glass Manufacturing Co rose 20 fils to settle at KD 0.910. The company has posted a net

Al Ahli Bank rose 10 fils to KD 0.590 and Ahli United Bank was unchanged at KD 0.830. Burgan Bank too was flat KD 0.550 off early lows.The bank has recorded KD 10.05 million net profit and earnings per share 5.75 fils in the full year 2012 and the Board of Directors have recommended a dividend payout of 5% bonus shares.

Kuwait International Bank clipped 5 fils after stagnating in the previous session and the counter saw 0.67 million shares changed hands. Kuwait Finance House was flat at KD 0.810 and Boubyan Bank followed suit. Burgan Bank. The lender has obtained the approval of Central Bank of Kuwait to extend permission to buyback or sell up

to 10% of own issued shares over a period of 6 months commencing from Feb 5.

International Financial Advisors was unchanged at 55 fils whereas National Investment Co edged 2 fils lower.

Securities House Co trimmed 5 fils after trading over 9 million shares and KIPCO held steady at KD 0.405.

KAMCO climbed 10 fils to KD 0.126 in volatile trade and Osoul Investment was up 3 fils. Kuwait Financial Centre Co ( Markaz) took in 2 fils. The company has has recorded a net profit of KD 4.12 million and earnings per share of 9 fils in 2012 rebounding from KD 356,000 loss and loss per share of 1 fils last year.

The bourse was bullish during last week. It closed higher in all the five sessions and climbed 108.92 pts week-onweek. The index has rallied 161.56 pts from start of the month and is trading almost 8 percent higher year-to-date.

KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.

In the bourse related news, Mabanee Company has penciled a net profit of KD 33.27 million and earnings per share of 53.28 fils in 2012 — soaring from KD 20.78 profit and 34.2 fils in the year before. The Board of Directors has recommended a cash of 20% plus 10% bonus shares.

Mashaer Holding has announced a net profit of KD 4.31 million and earnings per share of 25 fils in the 2012 as against KD 5,20 profit and earnings per share of 29 fils in the year before.

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SUBCONTINENT

44

Parliament amends war crimes law

Dhaka moves to ban main Islamic party DHAKA, Feb 17, (Agencies): Bangladesh’s parliament Sunday amended a law to allow the prosecution of the country’s largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes in a move that could pave the way to it being banned.

News of the move was greeted by loud cheers from tens of thousands of protesters in central Dhaka who have been demanding a ban on Jamaat, whose leaders are on trial for war crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed told AFP that under the new law, “any organisation including Jamaat can be prosecuted” by a special court for war crimes and if found guilty “it can be banned” from politics.

Previously only individuals could be prosecuted for war crimes.

“It’s one step towards banning Jamaat,” deputy law minister Qamrul Islam told AFP. The move comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday indicated that she would back a ban on Jamaat, whose members are suspected in the murder of an antiIslamist blogger, as it had “no right to be in politics in Bangladesh”.

Demonstrations championed by online activists have seen thousands take to the streets for the last two weeks demanding the execution of Jamaat leaders accused of genocide, murder and rape during the 1971 war.

Rival protests by Islamists demanding a halt to the trials of Jamaat leaders have turned violent, leaving 13 people dead.

Jamaat says has nothing to do with murder

Dhaka shuts Islamist website after blogger killed DHAKA, Feb 17, (AFP): Bangladesh has shut down a blog site after it was linked to the murder of an antiIslamist blogger who helped organise protests against the leaders of the largest Islamic party, officials said Sunday.

Blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, 35, was hacked to death near his home in the capital Dhaka Friday night after he joined a huge protest demanding the execution of Jamaat-e-Islami party leaders who are on trials for war crimes.

Police have yet to comment on a possible motive, but his brother said Haider was targeted by Jamaat’s student wing for his online activities. Fellow blogger Shakil Ahmed said a pro-Jamaat website had last week named Haider as a target.

Jamaat issued a statement Sunday condemning the murder and said neither it nor its student wing had anything to do with the crime.

Officials of the telecoms regulator told AFP that the Sonar Bangla blogsite had been shut down since Saturday for spreading “hate speech and causing communal tension”.

Demonstrations championed by online activists have seen thousands take to the streets for the last two weeks demanding the execution of Jamaat leaders accused of genocide, murder and rape during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Family and friends said Haider played a key role in organising the protests and had an argument with Jamaat supporters just days before the murder.

Clashes between police and Islamists have intensified since last week after a senior Jamaat leader was sentenced to life imprisonment for mass murder.

Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have said the trials are based on bogus charges and are part of a wider political vendetta.

Both parties boycotted parliament, which passed the

amended law less than a week after it was approved by the cabinet.

The government rejects the accusations and says the trials are needed to heal wounds from the nine-month war in which it says three million people were killed, many by proPakistani militias whose members allegedly included Jamaat officials.

Pakistan party vows to ‘quit’ ruling coalition as polls loom

Indian Hindu devotees collect water, that they believe is holy, from the Sangam or confluence of the Yamuna, Ganges and mythical Saraswati rivers at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad on Feb 16. The Kumbh Mela in the town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings. (AFP)

Pakistani military personnel prepare to bury a soldier who was shot dead along the Line of Control (LoC), at a village in Bainso, about 45 kms from the capital Islamabad, on Feb 16. Indian troops shot dead a Pakistani soldier along the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region in the first deadly exchange since a truce was agreed a month ago, officials said Friday. (AFP)

Shiites lash out after bombing kills 81 Deal seen as trade corridor KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb 17, (Agencies): Pakistan’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) threatened to quit the ruling coalition on Saturday, piling fresh pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari ahead of elections due this spring.

(PPP).

“The government has given a free hand to criminals,” senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar told a news conference in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city and capital of the southern Sindh Province.

Zardari’s government could survive a walk-out by the MQM since his ruling coalition The MQM, which dominates the commercial capital Karachi, said it would leave would still retain a majority in the national assembly in Islamabad.

Nevertheless, the potential loss of one of its key coalition partners would be a blow to the coalition to protest against the authorities’ decision to drop charges against a group of murder suspects accused of links to Zardari’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party the PPP, which is gearing up for a tough election battle after a five-year tenure marred by allegations of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.

Critics say Pakistan’s politicians have been so preoccupied with the intricacies of coalition politics that they have devoted too little attention to tackling issues from militant violence to a chronic power crisis and the soaring cost of living since the last general elections in 2008.

The MQM has a record of repeatedly rescinding previous threats to leave Zardari’s coalition after wringing concessions from his government and it was unclear how quickly law-makers and ministers belonging to the party would implement their latest pledge to quit.

Meanwhile, angry residents on Sunday demanded government protection from an onslaught of attacks against Shiite Muslims, a day after 81 people were killed in a massive bombing that a local official said was a sign that security agencies were too scared to do their jobs.

Saturday’s blast at a produce market in the city of Quetta also wounded 160 people and underlined the precarious situation for Shiites living in a majority Sunni country where Local residents stand over the rubble of a damaged market caused by Saturday’s bombing in Quetta, Pakistan on Feb 17. The death toll many extremist groups don’t from the horrific bombing that tore through the crowded vegetable market in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of southwestern Pakistan consider them real Muslims. climbed to 81 with many of the severely wounded dying overnight, a Pakistani police official said Sunday. (AP) Most of the dead and wounded were Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. Shiite Muslims, including Hazaras, have often been targeted by Sunni extremists in the province of Baluchistan where Quetta is the capital, the MALE, Feb 17, (AFP): Indian diplomats are culprit, but in a thinly veiled warning asked politically motivated. A conviction would pre- southern city of Karachi and northwestern Pakistan. vent him from holding public office. “interfering” in the country’s affairs by shel- India to stay out of the affair.

A provincial official critiThe country is slated to hold presidential “I would strongly urge everyone to let our tering former Maldivian president Mohamed cised Pakistani security forces Nasheed in India’s embassy in Male, a senior institutions deal with the challenges, allow elections on September 7.

The government says the warrant for on Sunday after a bombing tarMaldives to uphold rule of law,” Jameel wrote Maldivian government official said Saturday.

Nasheed has remained at the Indian soon after Nasheed took shelter at the Indian Nasheed’s arrest has now expired and that he geting the Shi’ite Hazara comembassy since Wednesday after taking refuge High Commission compound in the capital will not be arrested. But Nasheed’s party said munity killed 80 people in the northwestern city of Quetta. they could not trust the regime. there to avoid being arrested over his failure Male.

“The terrorist attack on the The standoff comes amid political turbuAn earlier statement purporting to be from to appear in court last weekend to face charges of abuse of power while he was pres- the Maldivian Judicial Service Commission lence in the Maldives, one year after Nasheed Hazara Shi’ite community in (JSC) condemned the actions of India’s envoy — the nation’s first democratically elected Quetta is a failure of the intelliident. leader — was ousted by violent protests and a gence and security forces,” “The fact of the matter is that some indi- to Male.

Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, But the commission in an email to AFP mutiny by police and security forces. vidual Indian diplomats are interfering in our of Baluchistan The United States and the United Nations, governor internal affairs. This must stop,” a senior gov- later said it had not issued the statement, with ernment official told AFP, asking not to be a JSC spokesman telling AFP that the letter as well as India, have called for free elections province, said while touring a hospital. in the nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims. had been a forgery. named.

“We had given a free hand to New Delhi said Wednesday it was “necesIt was a “false statement “ on a “forged letThe official echoed Home Minister Mohamed Jameel’s remarks that no country terhead”, commission secretary Aboobakuru sary that the presidential nominees of recog- security (forces) to take action nised political parties be free to participate in against terrorist and extremist should prevent a citizen of another country Mohamed said.

Nasheed’s party says it considers the the elections without any hindrance” — a groups, but despite that the from facing charges. Jameel, in a series of Quetta incident took place.” tweets, stopped short of naming a specific charges of abuse of power against him to be statement seen as tacitly backing Nasheed.

This must stop: top govt official

Indian diplomats ‘interfering’ in Maldives

UK shocked by Lanka incident

Paper says unbowed after shooting COLOMBO, Feb 17, (AFP): A Sri Lankan newspaper vowed it would not be intimidated Sunday after an investigative reporter survived an assassination bid, the latest in a string of attacks against the country’s media.

Faraz Shauketaly, 54, from the privately owned Sunday Leader, was in intensive care at a Colombo hospital but making a “steady recovery” after a bullet was removed from his neck, hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa told AFP. The newspaper said the Friday

night shooting at his home in a suburb of Colombo brought back memories of the death of its founding editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was gunned down in January 2009.

“However, one thing is for sure, the attack on Faraz will not deter the newspaper,” the Leader said adding that the paper will “remain unbowed and unafraid”.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office voiced its shock and serious concern Saturday over the shooting of a British-Sri Lankan journalist in a Colombo suburb.

Sri Lanka ‘rescues’ boat people: police COLOMBO, Feb 17, (AFP): A boatload of Myanmar nationals rescued from a sinking wooden craft off Sri Lanka’s east coast after two months at sea had been trying to reach Australia, local police said Sunday.

The boatpeople, plucked to safety by Sri Lanka’s navy on Saturday, were taken Sunday to the southern port of Galle where they were rushed to hospital to be treated for dehydration and starvation, police said in a statement.

Pakistan port ‘integral’ to China maritime expansion ISLAMABAD, Feb 17, (AFP): China’s acquisition of a strategic port in Pakistan is the latest addition to its drive to secure energy and maritime routes and gives it a potential naval base in the Arabian Sea, unsettling India.

The Pakistani cabinet on January 30 approved the transfer of Gwadar port, a commercial failure cut off from the national road network, from Singapore’s PSA International to the state-owned China Overseas Port Holdings Limited.

The Pakistanis pitched the deal as an energy and trade corridor that would connect China to the Arabian Sea and Strait of Hormuz, a gateway for a third of the world’s traded oil, overland through an expanded Karakoram Highway.

Distance Experts say it would slash thousands of kilometres (miles) off the distance oil and gas imports from Africa and the Middle East have to be transported to reach China, making Gwadar a potentially vital link in its supply chain.

China paid about 75 percent of the ini- Musharraf tial $250 million used to build the port, but in 2007 PSA International won a 40-year lease with then-ruler Pervez Musharraf who was reportedly unwilling to upset Washington by giving it to the Chinese.

Although it may take up to a year for the deal to be signed, Gwadar would be the most westerly in a string of Chinesefunded ports encircling its big regional rival, India, which was quick to express concern over the impending transfer.

In Nepal, China is building a $14 million “dry port” at Larcha, near the Tibet border, along with five other ports and and is upgrading transport links with an eye to the huge Indian market.

In Bangladesh, China is one of four countries, including India, Japan and the United States, interested in building a

Resolved Andrew Small, an expert on China-Pakistan relations, believes that most of Beijing’s concerns can be resolved through cooperation, as seen in anti-piracy exercises in the Gulf of Aden that last year included drills with the US. “In the near-to-medium term, it appears that China’s interests in this part of the world lean far more towards developing capacities to deal with threats to sea lanes of communication, Chinese citizens overseas and so on,” he told AFP. “Plenty of Indian naval strategists are highly sceptical of the likelihood of many of the locations... actually being used as military facilities by China.”

But Small does believe that Gwadar is the most mostly likely port to be developed by China for use by the Pakistan Navy, and potentially their own.

“Pakistan is probably the only government where the level of trust between the two militaries is high enough to make that a completely reliable prospect,” he said.

News in Brief India to probe Italy deal:

Owners pose with their vintage cars at the Statesman Vintage and Classic Car Rally in New Delhi, India, Feb 17. (AP)

$5-billion deep-sea port at Sonadia island in the Bay of Bengal, according to the shipping ministry.

Sri Lanka in June 2012 opened a new $450 million deep-sea port at Hambantota, close to the vital east-west sea route used by around 300 ships a day, built with Chinese loans and construction expertise.

Although China has no equity stake in Hambantota, they have taken up an 85 percent slice of Colombo International Container Terminals Limited, which is building a new container port adjoining the existing Colombo harbour.

Beijing is also a key backer of a port and energy pipeline in Myanmar that will transport gas pumped offshore and oil shipped from Africa and the Middle East to China’s Yunnan province, due to be finished by the end of May. The ports were dubbed China’s “string of pearls” — or potential naval bases similar to those of the United States — in a 2004 report for the Pentagon.

But some analysts now pour cold water on suggestions that Beijing is scouting for naval bases in the Indian Ocean.

Two Indian federal investigators will travel to Italy this week to meet with prosecutors probing allegations that the Italian company Finmeccanica paid bribes to secure a 560 million euro ($750 million) deal to sell 12 helicopters to India, a government official said Sunday.

Dharini Mishra, a spokeswoman for India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, said a senior investigating officer and a law officer would travel to Italy, but she declined to give other details. Indian media reports said the CBI team would

leave for Italy on Monday. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Monks eye halal boycott: Sri Lanka’s nationalist Buddhist monks and their supporters launched a campaign Sunday to boycott Islamic halal-slaughtered meat amid mounting religious tensions in the ethnically divided nation.

Thousands of men and women led by hundreds of monks of the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force, staged a rally outside Colombo to announce the boycott, demanding that shops clear their stocks of halal food by April. (AFP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

45

Arab Spring nations need Gulf petrodollars, jobs

Rise of Islamists frays UAE-Egyptian relations DUBAI, Feb 17, (RTRS): Days before his overthrow, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received a senior visitor from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of several Gulf monarchies long supportive of the most Arab populous country and its veteran strongman.

What transpired between Mubarak and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan is not known, beyond the fact that a letter from UAE ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan was delivered.

But the significance of the Feb 8, 2011 visit was clear: It was a gesture of understanding and concern for a longtime friend who had been a trusted diplomatic ally for

most Gulf Arabs, not least in their confrontation with non-Arab Iran.

Fast forward to 2013 and the picture is starkly different.

The UAE-Egyptian relationship has been strained by the regional spread of Islamist influence — Egypt now has an elected Islamist president — with implications not only for the two protagonists but all Arab states hit by the uprisings against dictators and dynasties that began two years ago.

Poorer, densely populated Arab states like Egypt often look to Gulf states for investment and financing, as well as overseas work for their nationals, a need ever more acute with rulers under unprecedent-

For its part, the UAE needs to tread a careful line, analysts say.

Aggravating Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood could also affect UAE relations with other countries, like Syria, where Islamists are playing a major role in the revolt against President Bashar alAssad. And irking Egypt’s new rulers could also push Cairo closer to Shi’ite Iran, arch-adversary of the Gulf Arabs.

Gulf Sunni Muslim rulers fear that, despite being a Sunni group itself, the Brotherhood is soft on Iran, unlike Mubarak.

“The Emirates recognise that Egypt’s centrality in Arab affairs is an important counter to Iran,” said Frederic Wehrey,

Middle East program senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.

Gulf Arab states need a prosperous Egypt for a host of reasons, not least to protect their own investments.

But history shows that financial help from the region sometimes reflects shifts in the diplomatic climate — even if governments insist their assistance is not political.

For example Jordan’s ties with Gulf were hurt in 1990 when it refused to join an alliance against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait. Many Palestinians and Jordanians lost jobs in the Gulf where they enjoyed welfare state benefits as expatriate workers.

Bahrain firmer

Rebels seize checkpoints in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Hama

the lawmakers to wait for these committees to complete their assignments before deciding on any grilling request.”

MP Nabil Al-Fadhel said filing grilling requests indicates a political naivety and inexperience “especially because each lawmaker looks at his grilling request from his personal interest.”

He called on his colleagues to postpone their grilling requests because the general atmosphere does not accept the timing of the grilling. He added, “Though there are observations on the performance of some ministers, they need to be given a chance for correction.”

On the speculations that there is a plan to topple the Prime Minister Sheikh Jabber Al-Mubarak in March, Al-Fadhel said there is no such plan and called it a mere imagination “because there is plurality of parliamentary blocs and differences of stances in the current legislative institution.”

Meanwhile, the Public Facilities Committee in the National Assembly Sunday discussed the government draft law on the establishment of Public Authority for Food and Nutrition in the presence of representatives of Ministry of Health, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and private sector.

Speaking to reporters, the Committee Rapporteur Adnan Al-Mutawa explained the authority is important because there is no one reference or authority in the country to follow up and check all that is related to imported or locally produced foods.

He explained the authority will be directly in charge of all that is related to food and its development, in addition to its supervision and setting up international specifications and filing complaints against the violators.

He added, “We have been following through mass media the news reports about inedible foods in Kuwait and also in the world. Recent news reports in Europe said beef had been replaced by horse meat, so Kuwait was in dire need of this authority.

He added the authority will work independently and will have a special budget.

He hoped the draft law will be passed before the end of the current legislative round due to its importance in correcting problems related to food and nutrition.

On another issue, the Legal and Legislative Committee condemned the “accusations that have been directed at it and the National Assembly that it is delaying the adoption of the money laundering and anti-terrorism bill.”

The committee Chairman MP Masouma Al-Mubarak said the government was late in issuing the bill to the Assembly and that the committee is keen to fully study its importance and assured it will be adopted in the near future.

Al-Mubarak added the Ministry of Justice has requested the postponement of discussions on a bill pertaining to the organization of the judiciary system until it prepares its own report in that regard.

Continued from Page 1 In this regard, the political forces — forces which use violence and depend on foreign help to bolster their position at the table of dialogue must take a deep breath and contemplate the words of Bahrain’s Minister of Awkaf and Islamic Affairs Sheikh Khaled Ali Al-Khalifa who has said violence will lead nowhere.

The words of Sheikh Khaled illustrate the reality of Bahrain which emerges from mere patriotic endeavors aimed at ensuring the success of the historic dialogue, which is the last opportunity for all political factions in Manama.

When the whistle is blown the train will wait for no man. Those who depend on chaos, violence and acts of terrorism to achieve their goals must understand they will be disappointed. The Kingdom of Bahrain is firm, solid and stronger than the Zagros Mountains of Iran.

Britain and Kuwait: Continued from Page 1 economic relationship. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to double bilateral trade to £4bn by 2015 when he visited Kuwait in February 2011 and I am delighted that we are on track to achieve this goal.

Exports on goods from the UK rose 17% for the first 8 months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, while the services sector posted a 13% annual increase in 2011. This is a positive trend and one that I hope this visit will help to sustain.

Our mutually beneficial trade relationship will help to support the visionary plans outlined in Kuwait’s National Development Plan for a pipeline of $108bn projects to improve infrastructure. Madinat al Hareer and Bubiyan Port, in particular, are ambitious projects that pose a multitude of challenges.

The new Kuwait University City is another significant step forward.

Education is integral to releasing untapped potential and ensuring a sustainable future, particularly when it comes to nurturing the skills base needed to develop a financial services cluster.

The UK is uniquely placed to be Kuwait’s partner of choice when it comes to delivering these plans. The City is a world leader at mobilising the capital needed for such large-scale development and our companies have experience of working on ventures across the globe.

What makes the UK stand out is our hard won reputation for delivering major, high-quality projects on time and on budget – as demonstrated memorably by the 2012 Olympics. The City has vast expertise in mobilising the capital and providing the services required throughout a project’s lifecycle from design to delivery, whether using public-private partnerships (PPP) or other models.

PPP can help Kuwait to lock in longterm expertise through involving the private sector in public service delivery. Our expertise when it comes to professional services is second to none – of particular interest as Kuwait takes forward its PPP programmes.

On the other hand, Kuwait continues to play a huge part in the life and work of the City of London. We are delighted that the UK is a second home to many, with around 15,000 properties owned by Kuwaiti nationals.

Meanwhile, the Kuwait Investment Office – the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the UK – is celebrating its 60th anniversary in London this year. The KIO’s new roadmap for investing in the UK – particularly large scale infrastructure projects – will build on its reputation for making long-term investments via London. It will also support Kuwait’s discrete role in financing and driving a vast number of developments including Cheapside, the City’s fast growing retail area.

Much has been achieved to foster our mutually beneficial ties over the 60 years since the KIO set up in London. More still in the past three centuries since we began our trading partnership.

But I believe there is scope to further strengthen our friendship. Closer collaboration between Kuwait and the UK will help to boost the mutually beneficial exchange of talent, ideas and capital. I hope this visit will help to support this objective.

Sponsorship still Continued from Page 1 Committee MP Hani Shams said the committee has reservations on the public authority bill, which was recently approved by the National Assembly in its first deliberation. He added that the committee has not yet decided whether it will refer it for a second voting round during this week’s Assembly session.

The committee has reservations on the powers that will be granted to the public authority, Shams told the Arab Times, such as it’s authority to solely bring in and recruit the labor force. He added the issue of sponsorship was not raised; therefore it is likely it will remain with

ed pressure to produce jobs and services.

The UAE, home to around 380,000 Egyptian expatriates and a major investor in Egypt, pledged $3 billion of aid to Cairo in 2011. But the funds have not yet been transferred, an Egyptian source familiar with the matter told Reuters, mainly due to the political instability in post-revolution Egypt.

A break in relations between the Arab political heavyweight and the Gulf financial powerhouse would be unthinkable.

But the unfamiliar chill in their dealings reflects an increasingly complicated relationship between these two groups of countries.

Gulf states historically have sent aid and

investment to less moneyed fellow Arabs, and in return have received diplomatic support and sometimes military protection.

The UAE-Egypt spat “does have a huge bearing on the success of the Arab transitions”, said Jane Kinninmont of the British think tank Chatham House.

“Here you have a number of countries which are going through transitions but which have huge economic needs. The obvious place for them to look is the wealthy Gulf Arab countries.”

Arab countries received 62 percent of all Gulf aid from 1970 to 2008, according to a study by researchers Bessma Momani and Crystal Ennis in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Hezbollah fighters, Syrian rebels killed BEIRUT, Feb 17, (Agencies): Syrian rebels on Sunday captured army checkpoints near Nayrab military airport in the northern city of Aleppo, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and in central Hama province, a watchdog said.

In Aleppo, fierce clashes took place between Syrian troops and several rebel battalions, which resulted in the insurgents taking over the checkpoint near Nayrab airport, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Nayrab is adjacent to Aleppo international airport, a key target for the rebels, who have also been battling troops guarding Kweyris military airbase east of the city and Menegh airbase to the north.

The Observatory, which collects its reports from a network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals on the ground, said at least six soldiers and a number of rebels were killed in Sunday’s fighting.

Fighter planes carried out raids on rebel groups encircling the military defense factories in the town of Safireh east of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, at least two Hezbollah guerrillas and five Syrian rebels have been killed in fighting in Syria on the border with Lebanon, Lebanese residents and Syrian opposition sources said on Sunday.

The clash between Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah and Sunni Muslim rebels, in a religiously-mixed area southwest of the city of Homs, shows a growing role for Hezbollah in Syria’s war, which is deepening the Middle East’s sectarian divide.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, one of Lebanon’s strongest factions, is a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Move Fighting began on Saturday as Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, in control of eight Syrian border villages, tried to move into three adjacent villages held by Syrian Free Army rebels, said Hadi alAbdallah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission.

Syrian helicopters fired rockets at rebel positions to support the advancing Hezbollah unit, which included proAssad militia recruited from the villages it controls, residents said.

“The Hezbollah force moved on foot and was supported by multiple rocket launchers. The Free Syrian Army had to call in two tanks that had been captured from the Assad army to repel the attack,” Abdallah told Reuters by phone.

The villages of Burhanieh, Abu Houri and Safarja defended by the rebels lie on smuggling routes. Many locals have Syrian and Lebanese nationality and property on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah guerrillas, based in the Bekaa Valley on the other side of the undemarcated border, moved into the area last year.

Around 70,000 people have been killed in Syria’s 23-month-old conflict, which grew into an armed revolt after street protests against four decades of autocratic rule by Assad and his late father were met by live ammunition. the employer. “The problem is the on the authority itself and then the regulations will be formulated by the authority later.”

Shams explained that the committee requires more clarifications from the government in that regard and will wait for it before it refers the bill for a second deliberation. The complaints from the private sector representatives were on the residency transference which will be made easier for the work force.

“It is not feasible that I pay the authority to bring in a worker, then someone else offers to pay him KD 20 or 30 more and he transfers his residency,” said Shams.

Since the adoption of the new Private Sector Labor Law in 2010, the formation of an authority for foreign manpower and the revamping of the sponsorship system were much awaited by the expatriate communities of Kuwait. However, due the political disputes between the legislative and executive authorities, the government initiative met with delays.

The National Assembly on Feb 6 unanimously approved a government proposed bill on the formation of a Public Authority for Labor Force in the first

A member of Libya’s security forces tucks a rose into an ammunition belt in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb 16, a day ahead of the two year anniversary of the uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. (AP)

More than 130 people wounded

Baghdad bombings kill 37 BAGHDAD, Feb 17, (AP): Car bombs tore through shopping areas within minutes of each other in mainly Shiite neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100.

The attacks come amid rising sectarian discord in Iraq and appear aimed at shaking Iraqis’ confidence in the Shiiteled government. The explosions struck at the start of the local work week and primarily targeted outdoor markets.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but insurgents still frequently launch lethal attacks against security forces and civilians. It was the third time this month that attacks have claimed more than 20 lives in a single day.

The attacks began with the detonation of a parked car loaded with explosives in the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City Sunday morning. Two more parked cars later exploded elsewhere in the neighborhood.

deliberation.

Article 2 of the public authority formation bill says that the authority will undertake the authorities granted to the Labor Ministry in the Private Sector Labor Law (6/2010). It will recruit and supervise the expatriate labor force in the private and oil sectors, formulate the procedures to establish labor unions and employer unions and formulate the procedures and rules for work permits and the authority’s fees.

Gunmen abduct Continued from Page 1 December of a French national who is still missing.

Bauchi Police Chief Mohammed Ladan said the gunmen attacked a police station and a prison overnight before storming the construction firm’s compound in the town of Jama’are.

“We repelled the attack on the police station and the security men at the prison yard also repelled the attack, but they burnt two vehicles in Jama’are police station,” Ladan said.

“They then attacked Setraco construction, killed a local security guard and they succeeded in kidnapping people.”

Police said they were intensifying efforts to track down the kidnappers in the areas around Jama’are, a remote town around 300 miles (480 km) northeast of the capital Abuja. Setraco did not respond to requests for comment.

The Italian and Greek foreign ministries confirmed that one of their nationals was taken in the raid. Britain said it was investigating.

Nima Khadum, a government employee, said the blasts shattered the windows of his Sadr City house. He said the air was heavy with smoke, while burning cars littered the street and the bodies of the dead and wounded lay nearby.

“The scene was a bloody one that brought to my mind the painful memories of the violent past,” he said. “I don’t see the benefit of security checkpoints that only cause traffic jams and don’t do anything to secure Baghdad.

The government, with its failing security forces, bears full responsibility for the bloodshed today.”

Simultaneous explosions also hit the southeastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Amin, where the force of the blasts left behind little except the mangled chassis of two cars.

An open-air market in Husseiniya, just northeast of the capital, and the Kamaliya area in Baghdad’s eastern suburbs were also hit.

Another car bomb exploded near

Islamist group Ansaru’s full name is Jama’atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan, which roughly translates as “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”.

It claimed responsibility for a dawn raid on a major police station in the Nigerian capital last year, where it said hundreds of prisoners were released. Last month, it attacked a convoy of Nigerian troops en route to deployment in Mali.

French firm Continued from Page 1 on their plate and putting pressure on governments to explain lapses in quality control.

An investigation into activities at meatprocessing firm Spanghero has revealed “serious, specific and coherent” reasons to suspect it knowingly defrauded customers and consumers by selling them horsemeat labelled as beef, the government said.

However, the firm’s 330 workers were not to blame and would meet with Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll on Monday to determine how they would be paid until the plant, whose sanitary license has been revoked temporarily, A poll out Sunday found that almost a third of adults in Britain have stopped eating ready-meals as a result of the horsemeat scandal, while seven percent have stopped eating meat altogether.

The ComRes survey, for the Sunday Mirror and The Independent on Sunday newspapers, found that 31 percent have given up eating ready-meals as the discovery of equine flesh in products

street vendors and a police car in the central commercial district of Karradah.

Police and hospital officials provided the death toll, and said more than 130 people were wounded. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.

Casualties could have been even higher. Authorities carried out controlled explosions of two other car bombs they discovered in Husseiniya and Habibiya, near Sadr City, according to police.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but similar ones have been orchestrated by Sunni extremists, such as al-Qaida’s local affiliate. The group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, favors large-scale, coordinated attacks. It considers Shiite Muslims to be heretics and accuses them of being too closely aligned with neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran.

labelled beef spreads across Europe.

The poll also found a 53 percent to 33 percent majority in favour of banning the import of all meat products “until we can be sure of their origin”.

Some 44 percent agreed that the British government had responded well to the crisis, while 30 percent disagreed.

Shell dropped Continued from Page 1 Al-Tameemi said he supports AlOtaibi’s grilling request and was quoted as saying “I fully support the grilling and I will speak in support of the motion.”

Asked why he did not present the grilling request with Al-Otaibi as planned earlier, Al-Tameemi said “What actually happened was not withdrawal rather it was a distribution of roles since we had coordinated and agreed to postpone the grilling temporally.”

On the other hand some lawmakers have warned that the timing of submitting the grilling requests is not appropriate and may impede the ongoing progress of the current Parliament and the government.

MP Saud Al-Huraiji stressed nobody denies that the grilling request is a constitutional right of any lawmaker, but the timing is not appropriate to question the government especially since it is not even two months that the government has been formed. He asked, “How can a minister be grilled when the Parliament has not even completed discussions on the government program?”

He explained the Parliament has formed several investigation committees on many issues “which makes it compulsory upon

Tehran will Continued from Page 1 world powers were planning to offer to ease sanctions barring trade in gold and other precious metals with Iran in return for steps to shut down Fordow.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, referred to the reported offer on Sunday and dismissed any idea of a closure, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

“Fordow will never be shut down because ... our national duty is to be able to defend our nuclear and vital centres against an enemy threat,” Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by the agency.

“This suggestion (shutting down Fordow) is meant to help the Zionist regime (Israel),” he added.

Newswatch Continued from Page 1 “Recent media reports have revealed the discovery of a Bahraini terrorist cell with links to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon,” the agency quoted Sheikh Rashed as saying in a statement.

“The Ministry of Interior confirms these reports and also confirms the arrest of eight Bahrainis on terror-related charges.”

(RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑

NAIROBI: Somalia’s government has offered a $50,000 (37,000 euro) reward for information leading to the “successful conviction of a journalist killer”, as the country reels from a spate of murders of media workers.

Mohamed Ibrahim, journalist union chief in the war-torn nation, welcomed the “pledge for justice for slain Somali journalists” following the announcement of the reward by Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon. (AFP) ❑ ❑ ❑

ABUJA: Nigeria’s first lady has described details of a mystery illness she had that the country’s presidency refused to discuss.

Patience Jonathan, wife to President Goodluck Jonathan, talked about the illness at a church service Sunday at Aso Rock, the nation’s presidential villa.

Jonathan said she had her “intestine and tummy opened” and later fell unconscious for a week. She said she had three surgeries in all and some “sold my things off” because they thought she was dead. (AP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

LEISURE

46

Sherman’s Lagoon — By J. P. Toomey

N E W

Y O R K

T I M E S

CROSSWORD

Mutts — By Patrick McDonnell

Hagar The Horrible — By Chris Browne

Beetle Bailey — By Mort Walker

Scratch pad

odds ’n’ ends SAN FRANCISCO: A racing yacht named after one of the world’s fastest cars has docked in San Francisco after what organizers said was the fastest passage of a single-hulled sailing vessel from New York to San Francisco.

The 70-foot (21-meter) Maserati sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge late Saturday morning and tied up at Pier 39 Marina around 11:30 a.m., 47 days after pulling out of New York City, said Judy Laws, a spokeswoman for the event.

The 13,225-mile (21283-kms) journey around Cape Horn at the tip of South America is what sailors have said for centuries is one of the most challenging sailing journeys in the world.

The Maserati finished the trip in 47 days, two hours and 33 minutes, easily beating the most recent record of 57 days, three hours and two minutes set in 1998, Laws said.

“They beat it by a little more than 10 days. They smashed it,” Laws said.

“This is a big deal,” Andy Turpin, managing editor of Latitude 38, the Marin Countybased sailing magazine, told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week. “This is one of the most difficult sailing records.” (AP)

Garfield — By Jim Davis

Baby Blues — By Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott

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NANTES, France:

Two white storks stand in their nest in Biebesheim, central Germany, on Feb 16. White storks begin their mating season each spring when males return to breeding grounds.

(AFP)

Conceptis Sudoku

Challenger

The grid must be so completed that every row, column and 3x3 box has every digit from 1 to 9 inclusive.

By Steve Becker

DIRECTIONS: Fill each square with a number, one through nine.

■ Horizontal squares should add to totals on right.

■ Vertical squares should add to totals on bottom.

■ Diagonal squares through center should add to total in upper and lower right.

❑

Yesterday’s solution

Today’s Challenge Time 6 Minutes 10 Seconds Your Working Time __ Minutes __ Seconds

Word by Word

Day

(Yawn)

Every dog has his day.

Lekul kalb yawmah.

Numbers

6047

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VILJANDI, Estonia: Thousands

THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION.

Answer to yesterday’s puzzle

contract b r i d g e

A father denied access to his son was perched atop a giant shipyard crane in the western French city of Nantes for a third day Sunday, vowing to stay put until a legal order was reversed.

Serge Charnay mounted the yellow crane on Friday morning amid morning fog to highlight his case, unfurling a large banner that read: “Benoit, two years without a dad.”

Charnay has struggled to win back the right to see his son, whose age has not been disclosed, after losing custody and all visiting rights when he was accused of kidnapping the boy.

“I will stay here until I gain something significant,” Charnay said in a message. He has been sending text messages from his mobile phone. He is seeking a reversal of the judicial order that he says “has destroyed my family and our lives.” (AFP)

Six thousand and forty seven Setat alaaf wa sabaah wa arbaoun

took to the ice of a frozen lake in southern Estonia on Saturday in the hopes of catching the big one — a marked fish worth a 50,000 euro ($67,000) jackpot.

Sadly it was the one that got away, despite the 6,500 people who tried their luck at the Estonian Gold Fish Festival on Lake Viljandi, organisers said.

The annual festival saw 130 marked fish released into the lake a week earlier. To win the jackpot contestants had to catch at least 17 marked fish from three different types and the jackpot fish.

(AFP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

finger tips

Emergency 112

47

Fire Brigade 100, 105 … Traffic violation inquiry 198 … Consumer protection hotline 24820281/25720252 Labour complaints hotline 24344954 – Fax: 24347562 – The Scientific Center 1848888 Awqaf & Islamic Affairs ........................... 22480000 Commerce & Industry .............................. 22480000 Communications ....................................... 24819033 Defense ..................................................... 24848300 Education .................................................. 24817702 Health ........................................................ 24877422 Higher Education ...................................... 22401300 Electricity & Water ................................... 25371000 Finance ...................................................... 22480000 Foreign Affairs .......................................... 22425141 Housing ..................................................... 25301000 Information ............................................... 22415301 Justice, Legal & Administrative Affairs ... 22480000 Energy ....................................................... 22415201 Planning .................................................... 22428200 Social Affairs & Labour ........................... 22480000 Public Works ............................................. 25385520 IMMIGRATION OFFICES Farwaniya ................................................ 24341770 Shuwaikh ................................ 24839380, 24839607 Hawalli ..................................... 25712637/25712635 Jahra .......................................................... 24555600 Ahmadi ..................................................... 23986761 Mubarak Al-Kabeer .................................. 25415071 MEDICAL SERVICES Central .......... 4722000 Ambulance Central Adan ............................ 23940600/23941455 Amiri Hospital .......................................... 22422366 Da’iya ........................................................ 22510854 Fahaheel .................................................... 23919098 Farwaniya .................................................. 24883000 Farwaniya .................................................. 24725149 Jahra .......................................................... 24570583 Mubarak Al Kabir ..................................... 25311437 Sabah ......................................................... 24815000 Salmiya ..................................................... 25739011 Shuaiba ..................................................... 23261927 Public Hospitals Adan .......................................................... 23940600 Allergy ...................................................... 24849252 Amiri ......................................................... 22450005 Amiri Casualty .......................................... 22450005 Blood Bank ............................................... 25336538 Burns Centre ............................................. 24840300 Cancer Control Centre .............................. 24849100 Chest Diseases ......................... 24838990/24849400 Drug Control ............................................. 24837245 Farwaniya ................................ 24883000/24888000 Ibn Sina ..................................................... 24840300 Infectious Diseases ................................... 24870351 Islamic Medicine Centre ........................... 24849000 Jahra .......................................................... 24575300 Kidney Centre ........................................... 24840027 Maternity ................................................... 24848067 Military ..................................................... 24729911 Mubarak Al Kabir ................................. 25312700/ 9 Opthalmology ........................................... 24840300 Psychiatric Centre ..................................... 24843900 Quarantine ................................................. 24873272 Razi ........................................................... 24846000 Sabah ............................................... 24812000/5000 Sulabikhat Orthopedic .............................. 24874240 Transplant Centre ...................................... 24840300 Private Hospitals Ahmadi ..................................................... 23985174 Dar Al Shifa .............................................. 22423151 Hadi ........................................................... 25312555 Mowasat .................................................... 25711533 Rashed ....................................................... 25624000 Salam ............................................... 22533177/3254 Hadi Private Clinics International Clinic ................................... 25745111 Kuwait Clinic ............................................ 25739277 Maidan ...................................................... 22450001 Soor Center ............................................... 22901677 DOCTORS & DENTISTS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE Andrology, Male Infertility and Impotence Specialist Abdullatif A. Al Salim .............................. 25334438 Dentists & Oral Surgeons Ahmed Al Balool ...................................... 22622211 Badri K. Al Rayes ..................................... 25742557 Duha Al Shaqan ........................................ 22644614 Ebraheem Behbehani ................................ 25730000 Farida Al Herz .......................................... 22573883 Maria Blanaru ........................................... 25730000 Najat Essa-Bahman ................................... 22624595 Najeeb Kassim .......................................... 25739277 Salwa A. Abdulsalam ................................ 25730000 Kuwait Medical Center .......................... 25759044/5 Endrocrinologists Latifa Al Dowaisan ................................... 25728004 Kamal Abdulaziz Al Shome ..................... 25329924 Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeons Hossam Eldin Abdulfattah ........................ 25745056 Abdulmohsen Mousa Jafar ....................... 25655535 Dermatologist & Venereologists Fahad I. Al Othman .................................. 22665166 Taibah M. Almonayes ............................... 25737477 Dr. Mohamed Bo Hamra .......................... 22665166 Gastroenterologist Mohamed A. Al Shimali ................5322030/2639955 Eurologist Fawzi Taher Abul ...................................... 25650064 Ali Yousef Mehdi ...................................... 25333501 General Practitioner Dina Al Rifai ............................ 25333501/25333502 Obstetricians & Gynecologists Samira Al Awadi ....................................... 25738055 Ma’asouma Maksheed .............................. 25731275 Mohamed Gamal ...................................... 25349077 Mai Al Snan .............................................. 25321171 Psychological and Sociological Services Fahad Mubarak & Nisirine Aboul-Hosn .. 25659800 Al-Razi Counseling & Assessment Center 25711411, 97656522 Dr Kazem Abal, Ph.D., Clinical. ................25737773 Dr Vincenza A. Tiberia, Ph.D., Licensed....99816522 Dr Samira Al Dehrab, Ph.D. .......................66169099 Zainab Kahn, MA Clinical..........................25737773 Soor Center ................................22901677/22901688 Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. .......................22901677 Dr Jeremy Alford .......................................22901677 Dr Sabahat Shah ........................................22901677 Dr Siddiqa M. Hussain ..............................22901677 Susannah Schuilenberg, MA.......................22901677 Amal Al-Shatti, MSc ..................................22901677 LizNoël Duncan, MSW ..............................22901677 Zaina Al-Zabin, MSc ..................................22901677 Bonnie Robertson, MSc..............................22901677 Kevin Carrico, MA .....................................22901677 William Schuilenberg, MPCP.....................22901677 Ahmad Boustanji, BSc................................22901677 Dr Kazem Abal, Al-Razi Center 25711411/25737773 Rheumatologist Dr Sukhbir Uppal, MD,FRCP (UK)........22232188/ .....................................................22232000 Ext 2189 MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS TELEPHONE FOR TEST & COMPLAINTS Jabriya (Surra) .......................................... 25310000 Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh .................................... 24310000 Old Jahra ................................................... 24770000 New Jahra & Abdaly ................................ 24570000 Hawally ..................................................... 22610000 Ras Al-Salmiya ......................................... 25710000 Al-Riqa ..................................................... 23940000 Salmiya ..................................................... 25610000 Shuwaikh .................................................. 24810000 Sabah Al-Salem (Messila) ........................ 25510000 Sulaibiya ................................................... 24670000 Sulaibikhat ................................................ 24870000 South Sabahiya ......................................... 23610000 Fintas ......................................................... 23900000 Zoor ........................................................... 23950000 Ahmadi ..................................................... 23980000 Ardiya ....................................................... 24880000 Fahaheel .................................................... 23910000 Farwaniya .................................................. 24710000 Kuwait City ............................................... 22400000 Mishref ...................................................... 25380000 Manqaf ...................................................... 23710000 Nuzha ........................................................ 22510000 Umm Al Haiman & Wafra ........................ 23280000 Shuaiba ..................................................... 23260000 TRAFFIC HOTLINE ................................. 1884141 KAC BOOKINGS ............................................. 171 AIRPORT .......................................................... 180 CIVIL ID .................................................... 1889988 POLICE STATIONS Abu Halifa ................................................ 23717656 Ahmadi ..................................................... 23980304 Ardiya ....................................................... 24881273 Bayan ........................................................ 25387762 Dahar ......................................................... 23830500 Dahiya ....................................................... 22560855 Dasma ....................................................... 22531917 Fahaheel ..................................................... 23912959 Faiha ......................................................... 22552693 Farwaniya................................................... 24711977 Ferdous ..................................................... 24890583 Fintas ......................................................... 23904388 Hawalli ...................................................... 22641116 Jabriya ....................................................... 25315855 Jahra Ind. Area ......................... 24575565/24587392 Jahra North ................................................ 24552295 Jleeb Al Shouyoukh .................................. 24311234 Keifan ........................................................ 24832839 Kheitan ...................................................... 24722590 Mina Abdullah .......................................... 23261144 Nugra ........................................................ 22616662 Omariya .................................................... 24742160 Qadsiya ..................................................... 22574386 Qurain ....................................................... 25423772 Rabiah ....................................................... 24742160 Rawda ....................................................... 22560058 Riqqa ......................................................... 23941958

Rumaithiya ................................................ 25624123 Sabah Al-Salem ........................................ 25517229 Sabahiya .................................................... 23615619 Salhiya (Kuwait City) ............................... 22427157 Salmi ......................................................... 24576576 Salmiya ..................................................... 25726950 Salwa ......................................................... 25626950 Shamiya .................................................... 24845953 Sharq ......................................................... 22442466 Sulaiba Ind. Area ...................................... 23261789 Shuwaikh ................................. 24813726/24844842 Sulaibekhat ............................................... 24876555 Sulaibiya ................................................... 24670672 Sulaibiya Ind. Area ................................... 24672728 Surra .......................................................... 25312220 Tayma’a .................................................... 24571700 Wafra ......................................................... 23810412 Waha ......................................................... 24557902 Zour ........................................................... 23950160 CAR RENTALS Europcar .................................................... 24842988 Al-Mulla ................................................... 22421660 Avis ........................................................... 22465082 Budget ....................................................... 24810844 Al-Sayer .................................................... 22441425 Rent a Honda ............................................ 24838470 Hertz .......................................................... 24319326 Sanbouk .................................................... 22446297 Autoleas .................................................... 24846999 United Hospitality For Limousine............. 22407777 National ..................................................... 24343139 Internaitonal Car Rental Co ...................... 22453827 Al-Zamel Auto Est. ................................... 24832626 FOREIGN EMBASSIES & CONSULATES Tel. Fax Afghanistan 25329461 25326274 Algeria 22519220 22519497 Argentina 25379211 25379212 Australia 22322422 22322430 Austria 22552532 22563052 Bahrain 25318530 25330882 Bangladesh 25316042/3 25316041 Belgium 25384582 25384583 Bhutan 22516640/50 22516550 Bosnia 25392637 25392106 Brazil 25328610 25328613 Bulgaria 25314458 25321453 Canada 22563025 22564167 China 25333340 25333341 Cuba 22549361 22549360 Cyprus 22433075 22402971 Czech 22529018 22529021 Denmark 25341005 25341007 Egypt 22519956 22563877 Ethiopia 25334291 25331179 Eritrea 25317426 25317429 Finland 25312890 25324198 France 22582020 22582055 Georgia 25352909 25354707 Germany 22520827 22520763 Greece 24817101 24817103 Hungary 25323901 25323904 India 22530600 22571192 Indonesia 24839927 24819250 Iran 22560694 22529868 Italy 25356011 25356030 Japan 25312870 25326168 Kenya 25353314 25353316 Korea 25339601 25312459 Lebanon 22562103 22572182 Libya 22575183 22575182 Malaysia 22550394/5/6 22550384 Mauritania 25312943 25327245 Morocco 25312980/1 25317423 Netherlands 25312650 25326334 Niger 25652943 25640478 Nigeria 25320794 25320834 Oman 22561956 22561963 Pakistan 25327651 25328013 Philippines 25329316/8 25329319 Poland 25311571 25311576 Qatar 22513606 22513604 Romania 24845079 24848929 Russia 22560427 22524969 Saudi Arabia 22400250 22420654 Senegal 22573477 22542044 Slovakia 25353893/5 25353894 Somalia 25394795 25394829 South Africa 25617988 25617917 Spain 25325829 25325826 Sri Lanka 25339140 25339154 Switzerland 25340172/5 25340176 Syria 25396560 25396509 Thailand 25317530 25317532 Tunisia 22526261 22528995 Turkey 22531785 22560653 United Arab Emirates 22528544 22526382 United Kingdom 22594320 2 Chancery 22594339 Commercial Section 22594368 Management Section 22594352 Visa Section 22594361 Foreign & Commonwealth Office website: www.fco.gov.uk Ukraine 25318507 United States of America 22591001 Venezuela 25324367 25324368 Vietnam 25311450 25351592 Yugoslavia 25327548 25327568 Zimbabwe 25621517 25621491 WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS Name & Website/Address Tel. No. Social Work Society of Kuwait 25375031 (Human Rights Organization) Fax: 5375032 E-mail: Q8sws@q8sws.com; http://www,q8sws.com CHARGES FOR EXPATRIATES Visitors Residents C.T. Scan KD 95 KD 70 Angiogram KD 140 KD 90 I.V.P KD 55 KD 40 MCUG KD 55 KD 40 Asc Urothrogram KD 55 KD 40 Sinogram KD 40 KD 40 Sialogram KD 40 KD 40 H.S.C. KD 40 KD 40 Barium Enema KD 50 KD 35 Barium Meal KD 45 KD 30 O.C.G. KD 45 KD 30 Ultrasound KD 15 KD 10 Ultrasound destruct KD 130 KD 65 M.R.I. KD 245 KD 180 Bed in Public Ward: KD 2 per day Source: MPH LIBRARIES Name and address Tel. No. Kuwait National Public Library 22415181 Al-Mubarakia, Souk Al-Mubarakia Kuwait University Library 24816497 Khaldiya Heritage Manuscripts & Documents Center 25320900 Jabriya, Block 5, Street 3 British Council 22515512 Mansuriyah, Block 2, Street 2 Library of Gulf University 22645806 Hawalli, Musa Bin Naseer Street Al Ahmadi Public 23987086 Ahmadi Al Dae’ah Public 22515686 Al Dae’ah, Block 4 Dahiyat Abdulla Al Salem Public 22548878 Block 3, beside Co-op Al Dasma Public (Women) 22530842 Dasma Al-Faiha’a Public 22540898 Al-Faiha’a, Block 5 Al Farwaneia Public 24720570 Al-Farwaniya, behind Police Station Al Fehaheel Public 23913810 Fahaheel, in front of Post Office Al Khaldia Public 24813331 Khaldia Al Qadseia Public 22515298 Qadsia Al Rumaitheia Public 25610399 Rumaitheia, Block 7 Al Shameia Public 24818343 Shameia Al Sabaheia Public 23619328 Sabaheia Hawally Public 22644738 Hawalli, Tunis St., beside Gulf Bank Kaifan Public 24815724 Kaifan, Block 1 Kheitan Public 24712691 Kheitan Al-Babtain Central Library 22474010 Gulf Road, Next to Ministry of Planning MUSEUMS Name and address Tel. No. Bait Al-Bader Est. 22429158 Kuwait City, beside National Museum Kuwait House Museum 24846336 Shuwaikh, B17, Str 7, beside Public Theatre, Villa No. 32 Kuwait National Museum 22451195 Gulf Road Mohd Al-Shaybani Museum 25320901 Jabriya, Block 5, Street No. 3 Tareq Rajab Museum 25339063 Jabriya, Block 12, Street No. 5 Educational Science Museum 22421268 Merqab, Abdullah Al Mubarak Str. Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyah 22400992 In Kuwait National Museum, Gulf Str. KOC Display Centre 23982393 Ahmadi Sadu House 22432395

In Kuwait National Museum, Gulf Str. Popular Traditional Museum 22429158 In Kuwait National Museum, Gulf Str. Bayt Al-Qurain 25430343 Al-Qurain, Block 4, Street 3, House 59 THEATERS Name and address Tel. No. Abdulaziz Hussein Cultural Center 1804500 Mishref, beside Co-op Al Dasma Theater 22521059 Al Dasma, Al-Qahera Street, Block 4 Al-Shameia Theater 24845737 Shamiya, in front of Shamiya Union Co-op Al-Tahreer Theater 24813376 Kaifan, Block 1 Kuwait Public Theater 24816222 South Shuwaikh, Bl 7, Str 71, House 43 Kuwait Elizabethans (Eng. lang.)

25631725 Salwa Kuwait Players (Eng. lang.)

25625316 Rumaithiya The Little Theater (Eng. lang.)

23982680 Ahmadi Sha’ab Theater 25613777 Sha’ab Leisure Park ext. 228 Kuwait Theater 25720983 Salmiya, Block 5, Street No. 3 THE BEST RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS JAPANESE CUISINE Name and address Tel. No. Bonsai Japanese Restaurant 22510999 Le Méridien Kuwait Hotel, Gulf Rd. Kei 22422650 J. W. Marriott Kei 22244630 Marina Crescent Edo 22659590 Shaab, Block 8, Str. 80, Villa 5 Kamikaze 1824060 The Palms Beach Hotel & Spa Maki 25733561 Salmiya, Plajat Str. Sushi Club 25712144 Salmiya, Plajat Str., Al Saraf Complex Wasabi 22494000 Kuwait City, Al Mashoora Tower Hashi 22996414/5 Kuwait City, Salhiya Plaza THAI CUISINE Blue Elephant – Royal Thai Cuisine 23716113 Hilton Kuwait Resort Thai Chi 22253120/1 Al-Bedaa, next to Regency Hotel PIZZA RESTAURANTS Domino’s Pizza 1800800 Sbarq 25743180 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak Str., opp. Al Fanar Complex Prego 25737500 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak Str., opp. Al Rabea Bldg.

Pizza Express 23719866 Mangaf, Hilton Resort Villa Pizza 25715452 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak Str. Peppe’s Pizza 25744442 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Str., Beside Holiday Inn Hotel.

The Pizza Company 1800400 Salmiya, Souk Salmiya Pizza Inn 24924400 Salmiya, Al-Rai, Fintas GREEK CUISINE Zorba’s Green Taverna 25715124 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Street MEXICAN CUISINE Chi-Chi’s 25625811 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Str., Sultan Center Restaurant Castello 1806666 Fintas, Restaurants Str. Burrito 22552233 Bneid Al Qar, 2nd Road, Behind Al-Salam Hospital SPANISH CUISINE Viva Espanole 25755668 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak Str., Al Thuraya Complex, Mezzanine INDIAN CUISINE Caesars 22411711 Kuwait City, behind Sheraton Hotel Mughal Mahal 22425131/2 Sharq, opp. Khaleejia Bldg.

Dawat 22411685 Bneid Al Gar, beside Al Kazmi Tower Asha’s 2244502/3 Marina Mall, Crescent Side Rangoli 25673000 ‘Radisson Blu’ Hotel Winner’s 25739954 Salmiya, Hamad Al-Mubarak, Al-Tahreer Complex TAAL 22253142/3 Al-Bidaa, Gulf Road ITALIAN CUISINE Johnny Carino’s Kitchen 22663050 Sha’ab, Arabian Gulf Street Nino 22541900 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street Pizza Express 22560273 Al-Bedaa, next to Regency Hotel Piano Piano 22533993 Mansuriyah, Mansuriyah Co-op Society Loranzo 22400747 Kuwait City, Beside Sheraton Hotel Ciro’s Pomodoro 22424004 Kuwait City, Al-Watiah, Behbehani House La Piazza 22426639 Kuwait City, Al-Watiah, Behbehani House Biella 22244662 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Spago 1808060 Sharq, Arabian Gulf, at Opp. Souk Sharq Tosca 1824060 The Palms Beach Hotel & Spa SEA FOOD Danah 25756284 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf St., Opp. Sheikha Complex Al-Marsa 22510999 Le Meridien Hotel, Bneid Al-Gar Totally Fish 22244960 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Al Boom 25673000 ‘Radisson Blu’ Hotel INTERNATIONAL CUISINE Olas Restaurant 1830083 Costa Del Sol Hotel The Jungle 25750647 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak St., Landmark Store Fresh 25625838 Salmiya, Al-Khalid Complex Lamarine 22426672 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Souk Sharq Bait 7 22450724 Kuwait City, Al-Watiah, Behbehani House Sultan Center Jean’s 25625811 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Street Jeans’ Grill 22409846

Bus No. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 29 31 32 34 36 38 39 40 41 51 59* 66

Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Souk Sharq Bredz 22407707 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Souk Sharq Square 22437681 Kuwait City, Al-Watiah, Behbehani House Ritz 25755668 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak St., Al-Thuraya Complex Teatro 23725500 Hilton Kuwait Resort Ext 7309 Jamaica Blue 25747686 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak St., Marina Mall Water Lemon 22244797 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Marina Mall Richoux 22244815 Salmiya, Salem Al Mubarak St., Marina Mall Bays 24610033 Movenpick Hotel Lebresserie 22455550 J.W. Marriott Avenue Restaurant 1844444 Kempinski Julai’a Resort, King Fahad Highway, Road 245 Sea Shell 1844444 Kempinski Julai’a Resort, King Fahad Highway, Road 245 Teatro 23725500 Hilton Kuwait Resort Ext 7309 Astra Lounge 22629779 Shaab, Behind Abha Complex La Marina 22426672 Sharq, Arabian Gulf St., Souk Sharq Al Bustan 25673000 ‘Radisson Blu’ Hotel Flavors Restaurant 25455555 Al Aqeelah Beach – Seashore 209 CASUAL CUISINE Hard Rock Cafe 25710004/5 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Street, Opp. Sultan Center Chili’s 22452200 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Beside Kuwait Towers Johnny Rockets 25754040 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St. Fuddruckers 22407103 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Beside Kuwait Towers TGI Fridays 22544300 Bneid Al-Gar, Arabian Gulf Street Applebee’s 22407536 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Beside Kuwait Towers Buffalo’s Café 25728989 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road, opp. Scientific Center Ruby Tuesday 24444454 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Beside Aqua Park Subway 25748974 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St. Opp Land Mark Burger Boutique 22997775 Sharq, Al-Raya Complex, 2nd Floor The Burger Hub 22464818 Kuwait City, Arabian Gulf St., Opp Al-Seif Palace Chit Chat Restaurant & Cafe 25455555 Al Aqeelah Beach – Seashore 209 STEAK HOUSE The Gaucho Grill 25667370 The Palms Beach Hotel & Spa Terrace Grill 22455550 J.W. Marriott Le Entrecote 25729600 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Al-Fanar Mall Ponderosa 23983113 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Beside Marina Mall Cascade Restaurant Steaks & Grills 1831831 Le Méridien Tower Kuwait ARABIAN CUISINE Berdawni Palace 25661117 Salmiya, Al-Khalid Complex Al-Saraya Palace 25711101 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Street Mais Al Ghanim 22460456 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, Opp. Kuwait Towers Villa Fayrouz 22652030 Sha’ab, Bl 8, St., 80, Bld 1 Al-Bustan 25652589 Sha’ab, Arabian Gulf Street Classical Cafe & Restaurant 25740077 Salmiya, beside Marina Mall Yaldez Palace 22455212 Kuwait City, Al-Shohada St., Beside Marriott Hotel Palm Palace 25715283 Salmiya, Hamad Al-Mubarak St. Veranda Cafe & Restaurant 25727120 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road, Behind Showbiz Burj Al-Hamam 22529095 Arabian Gulf Street Kababji 22550964 Al-Adeiliya, Beside Kazma Sport Club Zaatar W Zeit 22244944 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Sarai 22253180/1 Al-Bedaa, next to Regency Hotel Awtar 22244815 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Beside Marina Mall Al-Safadi 25753555 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Beside Marina Mall Fircej Suweileh 25755991 Salmiya, Beside Marina Mall Al Roshinah Restaurant 25455555 Al Aqeelah Beach – Seashore 209 FRENCH CUISINE Le Notre 1805050 Paul 22244588 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Marina Mall Dalloyau Paris 25712541 Salmiya, Al-Fanar Complex PQ (Le Pain Quotidien) 25633684 The Palms Beach Hotel & Spa PQ (Le Pain Quotidien) 22244941/2 Marina Mall, Crescent side Cafés Starbucks Coffee 22409755 Sharq, Souk Sharq,Arabian Gulf Street Costa Coffee 25728199 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Galleria 2000 Second Cup 25731671 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Marina Mall Song Bird Cafe 23725500 Hilton Kuwait Resort Ext 7314 Casper & Gambini’s 22430054/6 Kuwait City, Al-Watiah, Old Arabic Houses Diva’s Restaurant & Cafe 25723083/4 Salmiya, Blajat Street

METROPOLITAN AREA BUS ROUTES Origin Destination Orthopaedic Sharq Orthopaedic Sharq Kheitan* Mirgab Messila Mirgab Salmiyah* Mirgab Kheitan* Jahra Gate Salmiyah Sharq Orthopaedic Mirgab Al-Jleeb Sharq Al-Jleeb* Mirgab Al-Jleeb Sharq Kheitan Mirgab Salmiyah Mirgab Jahra Gate Jabriya Sulaibiya Sharqq Al Jleeb Mirgab Kheitan Sharq Jabriya Sharq Salmiyah Sharq Al-Jleeb Salmiyah Messilah Jahra Gate Kheitan Sharq Fahaheel Sharq Kheitan UN Al Jleeb* Mirgab Al-Jleeb* Mirgab Al-Jleeb Salmiya

99

Al-Jleeb

Civil ID

101 102 103 105 139 501 502 506 507 602 999

Fahaheel Fahaheel Jahra Fahaheel Jahra Gate Airport Fahaheel Al-Jleeb Al-Jleeb Fahaheel Jahra

Mirgab Mirgab Mirgab Al-Jleeb Fahaheel Mirgab Mirgab Jahra Gate Sharq Fahaheel Fahaheel

Via Shuwaikh 4th Ring Rd Airport Rd Ras Salmiyah 4th Ring Rd 4th Ring Rd Hawalli Shuwaikh Kheitan Farwaniyah 3rd Ring Rd King Faisal Rd Hawalli Hawalli Andalus Shuwaikh Shamiyah Nuzha Farwaniyah Farwaniyah Bayan Shuwaikh Suwaikh Al Rai 6th Ring Rd Al Hasawi Farwaniya & Hawally Shuwaikh & Farwaniya Sabah Salem 3rd Ring Rd Jahra Rd Shuwaikh UN Jahra Rd Fahaheel Rd Hawalli Shuwaikh Ahmadi Hawally

Cafe Rio 25732226 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Al-Fanar Complex Numi Tea House 25725870 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St. (beside Layla Gallery) Lazord 22420837 Kuwait City, Salhiya Complex Jamaicablue 25747686 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Fanar Complex Jamaicablue 22412114 Sharq, Souk Sharq Milano Plaza 25727172 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Plaza Complex Chateau Cafe 22426802 Sharq, Souk Sharq, front of Sultan Center Zahra Cafe 25717064 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Zahra Complex Chocolate Bar 22244880 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Lina’s Cafe 22244966 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Cafe Blanc 22244644 Marina Mall – Crescent Side Shay W Nanaa 22452055 Sharq, Arabian Gulf St., in front of Seif Palace Columbus Cafe 25720186 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Al-Fanar Complex Danish Cafe 1805544 Kuwait City, Sour St., beside NBK Tea Lounge 24610033 Movenpick Hotel The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 25714174 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., beside Al-Fanar Complex Astra Lounge 22629779 Shaab, Arabian Gulf St., Abha Complex Hangout Lounge 25755588 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Galleria 2000 Café Supreme 25758858 Salmiya, Salem Al-Mubarak St., Al Bustan Mall Arabic Cafés Latino Cafe 25652770 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road, beside Sultan Centre Rest.

Puerto Banus Cafe & Restaurant 22456650 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, beside Souq Sharq Port Cafe 22456651 Sharq, Arabian Gulf Street, beside Souk Sharq Classical Cafe & Restaurant 25740055 Salmiya, beside Marina Mall Balbak Cafe & Restaurant 25750588 Salmiya, beside Marina Mall Veranda Cafe & Restaurant 25727120 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road, behind Showbiz HOME DELIVERY Burger King 1844466 Domino’s Pizza 1800800 Hardee’s 1888333 KFC 1888666 Kebabjee 1861616 Little Ceasars Pizza 1888855 Piza Hut 1815050 Shrimpy 1802662 Chicken Tikka 1822833 Turkish Grill 25654402 Zaatar W Zeit 1800333 Hotels in Kuwait Name & Website/Address Tel. No. Hilton Kuwait Resort 22256222 Fax: 2256292 www.hilton.com Kempinski Julai’a Hotel & Resort 1844444 www.kempinski-kuwait.com Sheraton Hotel 1835555 www.luxurycollection.com ‘Radisson Blu’ Hotel 25673000 Fax: 25750155 Sales.Kuwait@Radissonblu.com www.radissonblu.com/hotel-kuwait JW Marriott Hotel Kuwait City 22455550 www.marriott.com Costa Del Sol Hotel 1830083 Fax: 22662972 www.costadelsolhotels.net Crowne Plaza 24742000 wwwkuwait.crowneplaza.com Sakura, Layla Gallery 25744447 Noukhaza, Abu Halifa 23733377 Sakura, Abu Halifa 23733388 Ruby Tuesday, Abu Halifa 23734440 Ruby Tuesday, Sharq 22444454 Ruby Tuesday, Salmiya 25711171 Peppes Pizza, Hawally 22665550 Peppes Pizza, Salmiya 25744442 The Palms Beach Hotel & Spa – Kuwait 1824060 wwwthepalms.com.kw Kuwait Palace Hotel 22571030 Swiss Inn Plaza Hotel Kuwait 22436686 www.swissinkuwait.com Four Points Sheraton Kuwait 22242205 Courtyard by Marriott Hotel 22997000 Safir Heritage Village, Failaka 1881118 Safir International Hotel Kuwait 22530000 www.safirhotels.com Marina Hotel Kuwait 22230030 Fax: 22244972 www.marinahotel.com Mövenpick Hotel Kuwait 24610033 www.moevenpick-kuwait.com Ramada Kuwait Hotel 1821111 Holiday Inn Down Town 1841000 www.holidayinn.com Holiday Inn Salmiya 1847777 www.holidayinn.com Tang Chao, Ayman Zaman, L’a Roma Café Le Meridien Tower Kuwait 1831831 Fahed Al Salem Street, Kuwait City www.towerkuwait.lemeridien.com Oasis Hotel 22465489 www.OASIS.com.kw Imperial Hotel 22528766 Spring Continental Hotel 25742620 New Park Hotel 25634760 www.newpark-hotel.com Safir Airport Hotel 24722670 www.safirhotels.com Le Meridien Kuwait Hotel 22510999 Arabian Gulf Rd., Bneid Al Gar www.kuwaithotels.lemeridien.com Royal Suite 22530700 Bneid Al-Gar, Gulf Str., Sea Side Ritz Sharq Boutique 22499911 Sharq, Al-Shuhadaa Str. Mövenpick Hotel & Resort Al Bida’a Kuwait 22253100 Fax 22253101 Website: www.moevenpick-albidaa-kuwait.com Safir Hotel & Residences 25455555 www.safirhotels.com Suites Refad Palace Suite Hotel 23908630 Al-Fentas, Fahaheel Highway, Exit No. 209 Ritz Salmiya Boutique 25711001 Salmiya, Qatar St. Corniche Suites 25740006 Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road Kuwait Continental 22527300 wwwkcontl.net Carlton Tower 22452740 Second Home 22532100 Bneid Al Gar, Behind Safir Int’l Hotel Apartments Mirage Hotel Apartment 25750001 Salmiya Bahrain Str. Royal Residence 25710057 Salmiya Bahrain Str. Safari House 22443136 Merqab, beside Merqab Post Office Farah Motel 22442104 Hala Motel 22560927 Bneid Al Gar, behind Safir Int’l Motel Maha House 22523211 Bneid Al Gar, behind Safir Int’l Safir Hotel & Residences 25455555 www.safirhotels.com Country Code Time-GMT Afghanistan 93 +4-1/2 Algeria 213 GMT American Samoa 684 –11 Angola 244 +1 Antigua 1268 –4 Argentina 54 –3 Australia 61 +10 Austria 43 +1 Bahamas 1242 –5 Bahrain 973 +3 Bangladesh 880 +6 Barbados 246 –4 Belgium 32 +1 Belize 1501 –6 Benin 229 +1 Bermuda 1441 –4 Bhutan 975 +5-1/2 Bolivia 591 –4 Botswana 267 +2 Brazil:

– (Eastern & Coastal) 55 –3 Brunei 673 +8 Bulgaria 359 +2 Burma 95 +6-1/2 Burundi 257 +2 Cameroon 237 +1 Canada+ 1 –5 Cent. African Rep 236 +1 Cape Verde 238 –1 Cayman Islands 1345 –5 Chad 235 +1 Chile 56 –4 China 86 +8 Colombia 57 –5 Comoros 269 +3 Congo 242 +1 Cook Islands 682 –10-1/2 Costa Rica 506 –6 Croatia 385 – Cuba 53 –5 Cyprus 357 +2 Czech Republic 420 +1 Dahomey 229 – Denmark 45 +1 Diego Garcia – +5 Djibouti 253 +3 Dominican Republic 1809 –4 EIRE (Irish Rep) 353 GMT Ecuador 593 –5 Egypt 20 +2 El Salvador 503 –6 Ethiopia 251 +3 Falkland Islands 500 –4 Fiji 679 +12 Finland 358 +2 France 33 +1 French Polynesia 689 – Gabon Republic 241 +1 Gambia 220 GMT Germany 49 +1 Ghana 233 GMT Gibraltar 350 +1 Gilbert Islands 686 – Greece 30 +2 Greenland 299 –2 Grenada 1473 –4 Guatemala 502 –6 Guinea 224 GMT Guinea-Bissau 245 GMT Guyana 592 –3 Haiti 1509 –5 Honduras 504 +6 Hong Kong 852 +8 Hungary 36 +1 Iceland 354 GMT India 91 +5-1/2 Indonesia 62 +7 Iran 98 +3-1/2 Iraq 964 +3 Ireland 353 GMT Italy 390 +1 Ivory Coast 225 GMT Jamaica 1876 –5 Japan 81 +9 Jordan 962 +2 Kazakhstan 7 – Kenya 254 +3 Kiribati 686 +12 Kuwait 965 +3 Laos 856 +7 Latvia 371 +2 Lebanon 961 +2 Leeward Islands 1 – Lesotho 266 +2 Liberia 231 GMT Libya 218 +2 Lithuania 370 +2 Luxembourg 352 +1 Macau 853 +8 Madagascar 261 +3 Malawi 265 +2 Malaysia 60 +7-1/2 Mali 223 GMT Malta 356 +1 Martinique 596 –4 Mauritania 222 GMT Mauritius 230 +4 Mexico 52 –6 Monaco 377 +1 Mongolia 976 +8 Montserrat 1664 –4 Morocco 212 GMT Mozambique 258 +2 Myanmar 951 +6-1/2 Namibia 264 +2 Nepal 977 +5-1/2 Netherlands 31 +1 New Caledonia 687 +11 New Herbrides 678 +12 New Zealand 64 +12 Nicaragua 505 –6 Niger 227 +1 Nigeria 234 +1 Norway 47 +1 North Korea 850 – Oman 968 +4 Pakistan 92 +5 Palestinian Territories 970 – Panama 507 –5 Paraguay 595 –4 Peru 51 –5 Philippines 63 +8 Poland 48 +1 Portugal 351 GMT Puerto Rico 1787 –4 Qatar 974 +3 Reunion 262 +4 Romania 40 +2 Russia 7 +3 Rwanda 250 +2 Sao Tome 239 GMT Saudi Arabia 966 +3 Senegal 221 GMT Seychelles 248 +4 Sierra Leone 232 +GMT Singapore 65 +7-1/2 Solomon Islands 677 +11 Somalia 252 +3 Slovakia 421 +1 South Africa 27 +2 South Korea 82 +9 Spain 34 +1 Sri Lanka 94 +5-1/2 Sudan 249 +2 Sweden 46 +1 Switzerland 41 +1 Syria 963 +2 Taiwan 886 +8 Thailand 66 +7 Turkey 90 +2 United Arab Emirates 971 +4 United Kingdom 44 GMT United States 1 –5 Vatican City 39 – Venezuela 58 –4 Yemen 967 +3 Zaire (DRC) 243 +1 Zambia 260 +2 Zimbabwe 263 +2 CONVERSION FACTORS Length To convert Multiply by Inches to centimeters 2.540 Feet to meters 0.3048 Yards to meters 0.9144 Miles to kilometers 1.6093 Centimeters to inches 0.3937 Meters to feet 3.2808 Meters to yards 1.0936 Kilometers to miles 0.6214 Area To convert Multiply by Sq. inches to sq. cms.

6.4516 Sq. feet to sq. meters 0.0929 Sq. yards to sq. meters 0.8361 Sq. miles to sq. kilometers 2.590 Acres to hectares 0.4047 Sq. cms to sq. inches 0.1550 Sq. meters to sq. feet 10.76 Sq. meters to sq. yards 1.196 Sq. kilometers to sq. miles 0.3861 Hectares to acres 2.471 Volume To convert Multiply by Cu. inches to cu. cms 16.39 Cu. feet to cu. meters 0.02832 Cu. yards to cu. meters 0.7646 Cu. inches to liters 0.01639 Gallons to liters 4.5460 Cu. cms to cu. inches 0.06102 Cu. meters to cu. yards 1.308 Cu. meters to cu. feet 35.31 Liters to cu. inches 61.024 Liters to gallons 0.21997 Weight To convert Multiply by Grains to grams 0.0648 Ounces to grams 28.35 Pounds to grams 453.59 Pounds to kilograms 0.45359 Long tons to Kilograms 1016.05 Grams to grains 15.43 Grams to ounces 0.03527 Grams to pounds 0.0022046 Kilograms to pounds 2.20462 Kilograms to long tons 0.0009842

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SPORTS

48

Fichardt wins Africa Open

Shin pips Ko to Australian Women’s Open title SYDNEY, Feb 17, (Agencies): South Korea’s world number eight Shin Ji-Yai won the Women’s Australian Open Sunday, ending two strokes clear of Taiwan’s top-ranked Tseng Yani and four ahead of teen star Lydia Ko at 18-under.

Shin took an early lead in the fourth and final round at the Royal Canberra Golf Club, expected to be a shot-for-shot contest with New Zealand amateur Ko, 15, who was chasing an historic second US LPGA win.

But her day got off to a terrible start with a double bogey on the first hole and a bogey on the second, allowing Shin to slip to a three-shot advantage with a birdie.

Ko fought back to level play with Shin, notching three birdies, but faded in the back stages to finish 14-under, also allowing world number one Tseng to charge into second place with six birdies and an eagle putting her at 16-under.

Shin, 24, held her nerve to finish at 72 for a total of 274 and take home Aus$180,000 in prize money — her third victory in seven LPGA tour starts and 11th career win.

Having turned professional in January

2005, Shin is the first South Korean woman to win the Australian seasonopener in its 21-year history.

Ko, a Kiwi born in South Korea, became the tour’s youngest winner at last year’s Canadian Women’s Open, smashing US star Lexi Thompson’s record by winning at the age of just 15 years, four months and two days.

EAST

Also: LONDON, South

rounds over the 6066-metre layout. ❑

❑

Defending champion Bill Haas, lifted by a spectacular eagle at the par-four 10th, burst out into a three-shot lead in the third round of the Northern Trust Open on Saturday.

On a tricky day for scoring at a sunbaked Riviera Country Club, American Haas fired a sizzling seven-under-par 64 to take a firm grip on the tournament.

Aiming to become the eighth player to win back-to-back titles at the PGA Tour event, Haas produced flawless golf on a firm and fast-running layout to post a 12under total of 201.

The 30-year-old narrowly missed an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-four last and had to settle for matching the week’s best score, Matt Kuchar’s 64 in the opening round.

Africa:

Darren Fichardt survived making three bogeys over the closing holes to win the Africa Open golf championship by two shots Sunday from compatriot Jaco van Zyl and Gregory Bourdy of France.

The 37-year-old from Pretoria closed with a one-under-par 71 — including four birdies and three bogeys — for a four-round total of 272 over the East London Golf Club course.

It was the fourth European Tour triumph for Fichardt after the Sao Paulo Open in 2001, the Qatar Masters two years later and the Saint-Omer Open in France last season.

Van Zyl, seeking a maiden European Tour victory and level with Fichardt

❑

Jiyai Shin of South Korea holds up the winner’s trophy after the final round of the Women’s Australian golf tournament in Canberra on Feb 17. (AFP)

going into the final round, finished with a one-over 73 while Bourdy carded a twounder 70 and both ended on 274 for four

❑

❑

❑

Bernhard Langer shot a 2-under 70 on Saturday to take a three-shot lead after the second round of the Champions Tour’s ACE Group Classic.

Langer, who had a 10-under 62 in the first round, picked up where he left off

with a birdie on his first hole. He made 11 straight pars after that, birdied No. 13, and had a par on the last five holes in windy conditions. He is at 12-under 132. “(I) actually played some good golf today, had several chances, a little bit unlucky with some of my putts,” Langer said. “There’s a bunch of them that just went over the edges and none of them dropped. Very happy that I didn’t make a bogey in these tough conditions.”

Taiwan’s Lu Chien-soon and Tom

GOLF Pernice Jr, who was runner-up last week in Boca Raton, are tied for second at 9under 135.

“I’m going to have to play a good round,” Pernice said. “Bernhard’s playing awfully well, regardless whether it’s calm or whether it’s windy.”

Lu double bogeyed the first hole, then birdied seven of the next 10. He bogeyed No. 18. Pernice had four birdies and a bogey. He birdied two of his last six holes.

The wind picked up just before the

leaders teed off and only got stronger as the day went on and is forecast to be strong again on Sunday.

“Just about on most of the shots you had to ... make adjustments, allowances for either into the wind or crosswind or downwind, either way,” Langer said.

The 55-year-old Langer won this seniors event in 2011 and was runner-up last year.

Mark O’Meara was next at 8 under.

Mark Wiebe, Jay Don Blake and John Huston are another stroke back.

Bob Tway, who came into the day tied for third place, dropped on the leaderboard after being assessed a two-stroke penalty when his ball moved after he addressed it on No. 16.

Tway had back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14. He double bogeyed No. 17, then was told after the round about the penalty on the 16th that turned a bogey into a triple bogey.

Tway shot a 79, and was at even par through two rounds.

Tour rules official Brian Claar said Tway saw the ball move, but “didn’t think he did anything to cause it.”

“There is nothing to question about Bob Tway’s character,” Claar added.

Toulon bounce back to thrash Montpellier Energize your ‘heart’ Keeping Fit

Dead lift without the risk of injury

O’Shea hails ‘world class’ Care

By Lisa Roach

PARIS, Feb 17, (AFP): Top 14 leaders Toulon responded brilliantly to their humiliating 410 defeat by Bordeaux-Begles last weekend by thrashing high-flying Montpellier 51-6 on Saturday.

Toulon scored five tries, with Jonny Wilkinson contributing 26 points.

They have a six-point lead over Clermont who bounced back from two successive losses to crush bottom club Mont-deMarsan 56-3 and are 11 points ahead of Toulouse, who lost to Perpignan on Friday in what was their manager Guy Noves’s 1,000th match with the club.

Toulon head coach Bernard Laporte said his players had responded in the perfect manner.

“This victory belongs to the players,” said the former France coach.

“I am proud of how they have reacted, they have put in a great performance.

They have regained their respect.”

His Montpellier counterpart Fabien Galthie, who captained France under Laporte, said that they had held out some hope going into the second-half.

“We said that we could still come back in the second-half, if we got off to a good start. But sadly we conceded points early on like we did in the first-half,” said Galthie.

Toulon had taken advantage early in the match of two Montpellier yellow cards, Yoann Audrin shortly followed by outstanding backrow forward Mamuka Gorgodze.

Already 6-0 up they ran in two tries, firstly through former Springbok Joe Van Niekerk, who rounded off a 60 metres move, then Nick Kennedy, who finished off a break started by Matt Giteau.

Leading 29-6 at the break, Toulon did not ease up with the sixth of Wilkinson’s penalties and then the bonus point try by Benjamin Lapeyre in the 54th minute giving them an unassailable 39-6 advan-

RUGBY

Bordeaux Begles’ French scrum-half Julien Seron (left), vies for the ball with Bordeaux Begles’ Fijian fullback Metuisela Talebula during the French Top14 rugby union match between Stade Francais and Bordeaux-Begles on Feb 16, at the Stade Charlety in Paris. (AFP)

Unbeaten Broner keeps title ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey, Feb 17, (AFP): Undefeated American Adrien Broner stopped Britain’s Gavin Rees in the fifth round on Saturday to retain his World Boxing Council lightweight world crown.

BOXING Broner dropped the 32-year-old Welshman to the canvas with right and left uppercuts and landed a ferocious flurry before referee Earl Brown stopped the fight after two minutes and 59 seconds of the fifth round.

“I’m fresh. I’m fly. I’m flashy. I did my job,” Broner said. “If they didn’t stop the fight he was going to sleep anyway.

Rock-a-bye baby.”

With a successful first defense of the

crown he won last November by stopping Mexican southpaw Antonio DeMarco in the eighth round, the 23-year-old American improved to 26-0 with his 22nd stoppage inside the distance.

Rees fell to 37-2 with one drawn. The former World Boxing Association light welterweight champion gave away size and reach advantages, but pressed the attack early and after being flattened twice.

“That was a tough steak but I ate it,” Broner said. “I knew he was going to come to fight. Tough world-class fighter.

I had to see how much gas was in that little Toyota.”

Broner landed a hard right uppercut to the chin of Rees after 52 seconds of the fourth round, sending the Welshman to the canvas for only the second time in his career.

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tage.

Giteau and then 18-year-old Ivan Roux added further tries to round off their impressive day’s work.

On Friday, Perpignan’s South African centre Gavin Hume scored the only try in the 19-18 win over Toulouse to shatter Noves’ dream of celebrating his 1,000th match with the French champions with victory. ❑

❑

❑

In London, Harlequins boss Conor O’Shea praised the performance of Danny Care after the scrum-half’s fine solo try in a 25-21 win over Leicester returned the champions to the top of the English Premiership.

Care has found himself playing second fiddle to Leicester’s Ben Youngs recently while on England duty.

And the fact Care, and several other players, were released from England’s training camp for this match by national head coach Stuart Lancaster suggest they are not in line to start when the as yet unbeaten Six Nations leaders face France at Twickenham next weekend.

But after watching Care’s display in a clash of Premiership giants where Kiwi fly-half Ben Botica, the son of former dual code international Frano, kicked 20 points for Quins and Tony Flood, displaced as England’s starting stand off by Owen Farrell, scored 16 for Leicester, O’Shea was in no doubt of his quality.

“The right reaction was to come back and perform for your club,” said O’Shea.

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Special to the Arab Times

D

id you know the most dramatic demographic shifts in history were when millions of baby boomers began to turn 65 (the baby boom ran from 1946 to 1960).

This shift from working age to retirement for such a large group will have a dramatic impact on productivity, health-care costs, the savings rate and other findings.

All aspects of disease prevention are important. If we were to rank the most serious offender it would surely be heart disease, which remains the number one killer of most despite billions spent on testing, drugs and surgical treatments. The concept of lifestyle changes, such as not smoking, losing weight, exercising and proper nutrition, remains only a second thought to most health-care professionals charged with tackling heart disease.

Because of this, it is important for you to know that there are interventions you can do right now that will make a difference for your heart health.

Perhaps one of the most important heart friendly supplements you should be aware of is CoQ10 (coenzyme Q10). CoQ10is used by the mitochondria the body’s energy producing source in the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the energy molecule of the body. CoQ10 is also active in many biological processes, such as muscle contraction and the production of protein.

Any tissue in the body that requires the greatest energy production, such as skeletal muscles, the heart and liver, have the greater need for adequate CoQ10 levels. CoQ10 also works as an antioxidant and is vital to help rid the body of free radicals, which are generated during energy production.

Researchers have seen beneficial effects of CoQ10 for prevention and treatment of heart disease due to its ability to improve energy production in cells, inhibit blood clot formation, and its action as an antioxidant. One study reported that patients who received daily CoQ10 supplements within three days of a heart attack were significantly less likely to experience subsequent heart attacks and chest pain. In addition, these same patients were less likely to die of heart disease than those who did not receive the supplements.

CoQ10 has also been found to have a profound effect on the heart muscle, and it improves heart energy and function in a condition known as congestive heart failure (CHF). This condition can occur due to many causes, but the end result is a poorly contracting heart, which therefore reduces blood being pumped to the rest of the body. The study looked at all the published research between 1966 and 2005 on CoQ10 for CHF and found that they consistently reported improved heart pumping or ejection fraction in those taken CoQ10.

Primary dietary sources of CoQ10 include oily fish (such as salmon and tuna), organ meats (such as liver) and whole grains. Supplementation with CoQ10 is recognized as useful for improving heart health, and to help reduce or prevent interactions with certain cholesterol lowering drugs, called statins, such as Lipitor and Zocor. Elevated cholesterol levels are a known risk factor for heart attacks. But n some people, these same drugs can result in muscle cramping and pain. Statins can deplete levels of CoQ10

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while acting to block cholesterol molecules from being formed. By blocking CoQ10 production, the resulting low levels of CoQ10 will often result in these muscle side effects. Many cardiologists now recognize this occurrence and recommend CoQ10 supplementation when prescribing statins.

Because CoQ10 can be rapidly broken down by stomach acid, new delivery systems are now being employed to allow more CoQ10 into the bloodstream. CoQ10 “melts” can be placed in the mouth to dissolve and allow faster uptake directly into the blood vessels of the mouth. Studies have confirmed that higher CoQ10 blood levels, whether by improved delivery methods or by using higher doses (typical range 100 to 300 mg per day), may produce a greater benefit.

To further improve CoQ10 absorption, scientists have been investigating the different forms: The fully oxidized coQ10 is called ubiquinone, and this form is generally less reactive. Ubiquinol is the form of CoQ10 that is usually considered the most reactive. Scientists believe that this form of CoQ10 may be up to eight times more reactive than traditional forms of CoQ10 supplements. Recent advances in nanotechnology, which reduces the CoQ10- to the smallest molecular size, greatly enhance absorption. This permits higher blood levels using a smaller dose.

CoQ10 may reduce the effectiveness of blood thinners (e.g., warfarin and Plavix), so patients who are taking these meds should only use CoQ10 under careful supervision by their health care providers.

The information I have given you today was research from Dr. Maroon who is a board certified neurosurgeon with more than 20 years of clinical experience at the University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

He has been the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1982. He has done extensive research in teaching in the areas of sports nutrition, concussion and spinal problems. He has also competed in seven iron man triathlons.

I was asked about working out with weights, why are there so many benefits with “weight training”? Regardless of your age we all have to realize without muscle strength you cannot function very well. As we age we do loose a percentage of muscle and muscle strength due to age and inactivity.

Lifting weights does not just work you muscles, it mobilizes your entire endocrine system to muscle up. According to research reported in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, strength training can markedly raise the level of muscle building hormones, including testosterone and growth hormone.

The study utilized men of varying ages and found that all ages derived muscleenhancing benefits.

Specifically, researchers tested men in their 60s and 70s (eight total), and men in their early 20s (nine total). These young and old guys performed a full array of weight exercises, including chest presses, pec decks, lateral pull downs, leg curls, biceps curls and leg extensions. They did 3 sets of 15 reps for each movement, resting 90 seconds between sets.

This regimen raised strength endurance, and was a “sufficient stimulus” in jacking up testosterone a growth hormone, even in the older men. The study also found that the iron pumping boosted metabolism, due

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to changes in blood lactate. Again, this was evident in young and old, though more pronounced in the younger weightlifters.

One exercise which many of us do not realize there are two variations to perform this movement, the “dead lift”. I particularly like this exercise which I use in most of my programs with men and women.

Regardless of their level of fitness or age, you can always modify and the client can benefit from doing the dead lift.

Listed below will help you to perform this the correct way without putting any pressure or risking an injury.

Note: if you have a bad back or have had any type of injury, be sure to work with a trainer to insure you are using correct form and not to stress any area of the leg or back muscles.

The dead lift There are three popular variations of this exercise, the conventional dead lift, the sumo dead lift and the Romanian dead lift (RDL).

The Conventional and sumo dead lifts are total-body lifts, mechanically similar to the squat and are great for overall growth. The RDL is utilized primarily as a hamstring glutes and lower-back exercise.

How To Dead lift ■ Begin the conventional and sumo dead lifts with the bar on the floor. For the RDL it is best to begin with the bar in the rack at mid-thigh level.

■ For the conventional and sumo dead lifts, squat down to the bar and always begin the lift with your hips lower than your shoulders and the bar pulled in close to your shins.

■ Conventional: Use a hip-to shoulder width stance (find what feels best) and an alternating or overhand grip outside your legs.

■ Sumo: Use a wider-than-shoulder width stance with your toes slightly turned out and your grip inside your knees. Push your knees out as your squat down to start the lift, similar to a ballet plie’.

Points To Remember For all versions of the dead lift position your weight on your heels. Keep your shoulder blades together and an arch in your lower back.

Slowly build tension and pull the bar off the floor using your legs. Keep the bar as close to your body as possible.

Your shoulders, hips and the weight should move upward at the same rate.

Once your legs are straight, extend your hips and back until your body is fully upright.

Descent of the bar should follow the same path as the ascent.

I hope you have learned and understood about how to “energize your heart” and how to do a dead lift correctly without risking any injury.

If you have questions email me at ldsist@aol.com Have a great week, Lisa, Your Personal Trainer ❑ ❑ ❑ Lisa is a certified fitness consultant, personal trainer, and cardio kickboxing and aerobic instructress. Lisa is a professional competitor and holds several titles. She also holds health and fitness seminars for children and adults.

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ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SPORTS

49

Klasmeyts, World Class, Wrestling president quits after Olympic ‘omission’ K2E2 brush aside rivals ‘Departure could boost sport’s chances’

Siete Pares grab convincing win over Android Rollers

By Miguel Carlos Special to the Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: While most of the participating teams of the PBAK 2013 Winter Tenpin Bowling League being held at the Cozmo Bowling Center in Khaifan continue with their roller coaster ride performance, the 5th round outing of the Siete Pares lane masters was nothing else but a walk in the park as they grabbed and easy but convincing win over the hapless Android Rollers.

The fifth week of this event organized by the Philippine Bowling Association in Kuwait

The Roaring K2E2 Thunders

BOWLING (PBAK) and sponsored by United Logistics Company, Kabayan Shopping Center and Al Baha Supermarket also saw K2E2, World Class, Klasmeyts, Cozmo-1, Asian Air Safari, Nusantara, D’ Islanders, PhilEm Strike Force and All Star Strikers out bowl their respective rivals.

Coming from a not so impressive fourth round victory against World Class, Siete Pares was off to a good start in their fifth round match opposite the Indian keglers of Android Rollers beating the spicy pin busters 942-775 in game one of the 3-game series encounter. Maintaining their far more superior form than their totally out classed opponents, Siete Pares with Nitz Alinea, Egay Cabildo, Rommel Genciana, JR Angeles, Ritz Vidana, Ramon Mesina and Dorcas Sansone at the helm of the scoring chores booked convincing 985-798 and 942-906 victories in the remaining two games of the match to clinched a 2894-2479 total pin falls win that also handed them the team weekly high series award. Bowling for the hard luck Android Rollers in this uneventful outing were Samantha Fernandes, Fatima Sequiera, Uly Menezes, Joel Fernandes, Anastasius Menezes and Rudolph Castelino.

Meanwhile, the K2E2 Thunders inched closer to the top of the team standings

Klasmeyts tenpin lane masters

Siete Pares – PBAK Winter League Team of the Week

after brushing aside the fast sliding NLB water jet specialists 2885-2536. Banking on the momentum of their 3-game winning streak, the Thunders quickly gained the upper hand in the 3-game series match through an easy 984-897 win in the opening game. Despite suddenly losing steam in the next game, K2E2 nevertheless managed to keep NLB at bay with another 869-821 victory in game two.

Headed by the unlikely top scorer Jhet Tan together with Kiko Andaya, Edwin Latoja, Neng Cervantes, Mina Andaya and Alex Cervantes K2E2 closed out the

match with a 982-818 rout in game three thus sweeping all three games on hand.

For NLB who is fast slipping out of the Top 10, the top pin fall contributors were Mike Garcia, Ted Yap, Nelson de Leon and Ric Marimla. Also making headway in the quest for a place in the finals was World Class who turned back another strong contender the De Lima Blazers in a close and thrilling match that saw World Class eking out a 2838-2731 decision. With Ed Mendoza, Rod Llait, Michelle Avila, Vicky Navarro and Mar Evangelista in the lineup, De Lima

Blazers had a taste of the lead after cruising to a 953-850 victory in game one.

After cutting down the 10-mark advantage of the Blazers to seven by taking the next game 933-903, the World Class quintet of Nasha King, Bill Stiles, Dan Montano, Ted Ashley and Carol Awadi wrapped things up by routing the Blazers in the third game 1055-865.

Klasmeyts on the other hand sustained its steady rise in the standings with its 2772-2611 win over the Swooping Eagles. In posting the victory Klasmeyts grounded the Eagles in game one and two 916-852 and 954-838 courtesy of Gary Bonifacio, Bong Bermillo, Bene Crucero, Romy Fermil Rudy Zablan, Joan Gonzales and Emma Gatus. Although trailing by a big margin, the Swooping Eagles quintet Angie Bush, Danny Solis, Riz Roque, John Caldwell and Shelby Turner did not let their guards down and succeeded in denying Klasmeyts a clean sweep after emerging with a 921-877 edge in game three. Noteworthy performance was also dished out by Asian Air Safari who cut short the winning run of LEAF. In beating the green thumbs 27622568, the high flying keglers of Asian Air Safari prevailed in all three games of the match 898-820, 922-882 and 917-866.

Leading bowlers for Air Safari in this outing were Mousa Abdullah, Lito Michael, Al Bautista, Myra Manalo, Sonia Mathews and Mandy Manalo. In the other completed 5th week match ups, Cozmo 1 defeated sister team Cozmo 2 2789-2744, D’ Islanders subdued Xpress Rollers 2725-2603, Nusantara derailed Lucky Strikers 2751-2534, All Star Strikers dumped 300 Bowleros 26022490 and the PhilEm Strike Force struck out United Amco 2591-2384.

In the Individual and Team High scores the current record holders are as follows: Individual High Game-Men Class OMike Garcia 279, Men Class A-Lito Michael 237, Men Class B-Lito Mercado 220, Ladies Class A- Nasha King 227, Ladies Class B-Naning Herman 184; Individual High Average-Men Class OMike Garcia 204, Men Class A-Rod LLait 188, Men Class B-Lito Mercado 183, Ladies Class A-Fatima Al Shatti 179, Ladies Class B-Jessica Balagat 166; Team High Game (Scratch Score)-NLB 1015; Team High Series (Scratch Score + Handicap)-NLB 2905.

The team standings after the five weeks are as follows (read as rank, team name and average score per game), 1.

Cozmo 2 - 928, 2. K2E2 - 927, 3. LEAF - 906, 4. Siete Pares - 902, 5. Xpress Rollers -896, 6. D ‘Islanders - 895, 7.

Klasmeyts - 895, 8. De Lima Blazers 893, 9. NLB - 892, 10. Asian Air Safari 890, 11. 300 Bowleros - 888, 12. World Class - 887, 13. Nusantara - 873, 14. All Star Strikers - 872, 15. United Amco 862, 16. Cozmo 1 - 861, 17. Swooping Eagles - 852, 18. Android Rollers - 828, 19. Philippine Embassy - 761, 20. Lucky Strikers - 733.

BANGKOK, Feb 17, (AP): The president of the international wrestling federation quit Saturday in the wake of the IOC’s decision to remove the sport from the 2020 Olympics.

Raphael Martinetti’s resignation was announced at the FILA executive committee meeting in Phuket. The Swiss had been in the position since 2002.

On Tuesday, the executive board of the IOC dumped wrestling from the list of 25 sports guaranteed a berth in future Summer Olympics, meaning it must compete with other fringe sports for a spot on the 2020 program.

FILA member Nenad Lalovic, who has assumed an interim presidency role, confirmed at a news conference that Martinetti’s resignation was because of the International Olympic Council’s decision.

“It was difficult for a president who was in power for 11 years when the IOC decided to eliminate his sport from the Olympic Games,” said Lalovic, adding the new president will soon be elected at an extraordinary congress.

Lalovic said the bid to restore wrestling to the Olympic program would begin immediately.

“Everyone of us will have a duty. We have only one goal that is to be back on the Olympics. Lobbying is very important but it’s not something that you can’t determine in advance,” Lalovic said. “We have to prepare a serious presentation that must be prepared by professionals to present the real picture of our sport. This sport has been practiced by millions of people. We will use this fact in order to promote our sport.”

OLYMPICS Now wrestling is no longer a core Olympic sport, it must compete with seven other contenders — baseball and softball, squash, wakeboarding, sport climbing, roller sports and the martial arts of karate and wushu — in lobbying to earn the last spot on the program for the 2020 Olympics, which have yet to be awarded to a host city.

The IOC executive board will meet in May in St Petersburg, Russia, to choose which sports to propose for inclusion in 2020. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender paid tribute to Martinetti but said his departure could boost wrestling’s chances of getting back on the Olympic program.

“This decision provides international wrestling with an opportunity to change and improve,” Bender said in a statement on U.S.A. Wrestling’s website. “The sport will now be able to create a fresh new relationship with the International Olympic Committee and address some of the pressing challenges and opportunities facing wrestling.”

Alexander Mamiashvili, the head of the Russian wrestling federation, wants the FILA extraordinary congress to be held in Moscow in May and said President Vladimir Putin had ordered a committee be formed to contest the IOC decision.

“The group will coordinate and analyze the situation to prove wrestling is

Fukuda very lucid

‘Highest-ranked’ judo master dies LOS ANGELES, Feb 17, (RTRS): Keiko Fukuda, the Japanese-born granddaughter of a samurai who learned judo from its founder and became the highest-ranked woman in the martial art, has died at age 99 in San Francisco, her friend and caregiver said on Saturday.

Fukuda passed away of natural causes at her home on Feb. 9, said Shelley Fernandez, 82, who lived with Fukuda, helped her run the Soko Joshi Judo Club for women in San Francisco and referred to the woman as her adopted older sister.

Standing only 4 foot 10 inches (1.47 meters) tall, Fukuda ventured into the fire-bombed streets of her native Tokyo during World War Two to reach the dojo where she taught classes.

Fukoda continued to do judo exercises into her 90s, but Fukuda used a wheelchair in her final years. At her dojo, she sat in a chair as her assistant teachers worked with students, and would chime in with instructions, Fernandez said.

“Up until the last, she was very lucid and she never forgot any judo techniques — ever,” said Fernandez, who added that Fukuda taught at the school three times a week until she died.

In July 2011, USA Judo conferred on Fukuda the rank of “10th dan,” the highest level of mastery possible in the martial art. She was the only woman in the world and the only person in the United States to ever achieve that status.

Only three others hold that title, and they are all men who received the promotion from the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo, which is considered the headquarters for the sport.

The Kodokan promoted Fukuda to “9th dan” in 2006, five years after she received that rank from the US-based branch of judo. The same year the Kodokan promoted her, it vaulted the three current male holders of “10th dan” to that level.

‘Chose judo over marriage’ Fukuda was born in Tokyo on April 12, 1913, into an upper-class family. Her grandfather was a samurai master of jujitsu who taught the martial art to Jigoro Kano, who went on to create judo. When Fukuda was 21, Kano invited her to join a women’s division at the Kodokan. worthy of staying in the Olympic movement,” Mamiashvili told the Itar-TASS news agency of a committee that will include the sports minister and all three Russian IOC members. “The leadership of the country, and personally the president of Russia, has expressed to us their support.”

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

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Haemmerle, Moioli win maiden World Cup titles SOCHI, Russia, Feb 17, (AP): Alessandro Haemmerle and Michela Moioli claimed their first career major victories by winning snowboard cross World Cup events

on Sunday.

Haemmerle, who led the final heat from the start, was followed by American Alex Deibolds and fellow Austrian Markus

Schairer.

Moioli of Italy was a surprise winner in the women’s event when most of the World Cup leaders were eliminated in

early rounds when they failed to finish in a heavy falling snow on a long and tough course. Nelly Moenne Loccoz of France finished second and was followed by

Helene Olafsen of Norway.

“It’s unbelievable that I won this race.

But I guess, I really deserved this win today, although you always need a little bit of luck

too,” Haemmerle said. “Winning on the Olympic hill is like setting an example. And of course hopes are high now to do as good as today on this course next year.”

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

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Don Bosco, KGA make exit

UFC, AVC advance into GOA Trophy last four KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: United Friends Club (UFC) came one step closer to finally grabbing the prestigious GOA Rolling Trophy when they subdued a strong Kuwait Goan Association (KGA) 2-0, while AVC Cultural & Sports Association, and Kerala Challengers also joined them in the semifinals of the 19th edition of the ongoing GOA Rolling Trophy organized by Goan Overseas Association (Goa Maroons) and played at the MoH Grounds in Shuwaikh on Feb 15, 2013 under

the auspices of Kuwait Indian Football Federation.

Although it was KGA who started well with a couple of good moves initiated by Vitorin Mendes and

SOCCER Agnelo Martins, it was once again goalkeeper Martin Dias who kept UFC in the game with a penalty save in the 25th minute of the first half.

Mathew Fernandes made it 1-0 for UFC in the 40th minute when

he scored from a cross and Remedio put the game beyond KGA when the referee awarded a penalty in the 57th minute. The match was officiated by David of IFRA and assisted by Mubarak Yousuf and Nikush.

In the second quarter-final, although Santos United put up a spirited fight, they were no match for title favorites AVC and went down fighting 0-3. Anthony Rodrigues of AVC scored the first goal in the very 5th minute of the first half and was on the score sheet

again in the 17th minute of the second half.

The very talented Savio Fernandes added a third in the dying minutes of the game to set up a mouth watering semifinal clash with Kerala Challengers next week. The match was officiated by Mubarak Yousuf and he was assisted by Pascoal and David in the lines.

Stamina and strength was the backbone of Kerala Challengers 10 victory over a youthful Don Bosco Oratory in the last match of the day. In some rousing end to end

action, Kerala Challengers scored in the 8th minute of the first half when Jinesh latched on to a pass from Fajilu to put his team in the front.

Don Bosco Oratory came back strongly with Ashton, Loyed, Alexandro and Michael playing some delightful soccer, but the equalizer eluded them. A penalty in the 18th minute when a Kerala Challengers defender handled the ball was shot wide by the usually dependable Loyed drawing groans by the DBO supporters.

Both teams missed a number of chances in the second half, with Michael of Don Bosco coming closest to scoring, and the game ended 10 in favor of Kerala Challengers. The match was officiated by Philip and assisted by Pascoal and Julio Cardoso.

The semi-final on 22/2/2013 will feature AVC & Cultural Association taking on high flying Kerala Challengers at 6:45 am followed by Real Betalbatim versus United Friends Club at 8:30 am. Teams are requested to report on time.

S. Africa subdue Paks, take series Peterson engineers Pakistan collapse CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb 17, (AFP): South Africa reinforced their status as the world’s number one Test team when they beat Pakistan by four wickets on the fourth day of the second Test at Newlands on Sunday.

The victory, with a day to spare, gave South Africa a winning 2-0 lead in the threematch series. It came after a dramatic Pakistan collapse in their second innings.

Pakistan were bowled out for 169 after starting the day on a relatively comfortable 100 for three. They lost their last six wickets for 22 runs on either side of lunch. At one stage four wickets fell in 13 balls, including three off successive deliveries.

The collapse was engineered by left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and opening bowler Vernon Philander, who took three wickets each before Dale Steyn finished off the Pakistan innings.

Peterson finished with three for 73 and Philander took four for 40.

The result was a disappointment for Pakistan, who had seemed on top after two days before a strong fightback by South Africa’s lower order batsmen on Saturday.

Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal took four for 51 in South Africa’s run chase to finish with match figures of ten for 147.

Set to make 182 to win, South Africa lost Alviro Petersen ten runs into their chase, when he was leg before wicket to Umar Gul for one.

Captain Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla put on 53 for the second wicket before Smith was leg before to Saeed Ajmal for 29 shortly before tea.

South African cricketer Faf du Plessis plays Ajmal gained a second leg before decia shot on day four of the second Test sion when he dismissed Jacques Kallis for between South Africa and Pakistan in Cape 21.

Town at Newlands on Feb 17. (AFP) Amla and De Villiers shared a rapid 62run partnership for the fourth wicket before both batsmen perished playing attacking

Ahoure ‘upstages’ Fraser-Pryce, Jeter

BIRMINGHAM, England, Feb 17, (Agencies): Olympic sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was upstaged in her first appearance at an indoor meeting, finishing second behind Murielle Ahoure in the 60 meters at the Birmingham Grand Prix on Saturday.

The race was hyped as the resumption of the rivalry between Fraser-Pryce and world 100 champion Carmelita Jeter, but Ahoure powered clear to win in a personal-best time of 6.99 seconds.

US sprinter Michael Rodgers ran a seasonbest time of 6.53 seconds to win the men’s 60, holding off Nesta Carter of Jamaica. Antoine Adams of St. Kitts and Nevis was third.

Mo Farah, the Olympic champion at 5,000 and 10,000, gave the home fans something to cheer by pulling clear in the final lap to win the 3,000 in 7 minutes, 42 seconds. ❑

❑

❑

Bernard Lagat ran the fastest indoor twomile race by an American and Lopez Lomong became the second fastest US miler as athletes set a host of quick times at the Millrose Games in New York on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Kenyan-born Lagat clocked eight minutes, 9.49 seconds to reclaim the US best from London Olympic 10,000 metres silver medallist Galen Rupp, who ran 8:09.72 last year.

“I was more concerned about getting the time than in winning,” the four-time Olympian told reporters after claiming his 10th Millrose title, eight of them in the mile.

Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who is now a US citizen, claimed the mile in 3:51.21. Only Lagat, at 3:49.89, has run faster among Americans indoors.

CRICKET shots. Faf du Plessis became Ajmal’s tenth victim of the match before Dean Elgar hit the winning run.

Pakistan made slow but solid progress at the start of the day, seeing off the threat of fast bowlers Philander and Dale Steyn.

But they had only added 14 runs in 8.2 overs to their overnight total of 100 for three when captain Misbah-ul-Haq topedged a sweep against Peterson and was caught by Smith at short fine leg for 44.

Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq added 33 for the fifth wicket before Shafiq was unlucky to see a defensive stroke against Philander bounce up and then back on to his stumps.

The wicket fell five overs after the umpires called for a replacement ball after the original ball went out of shape.

Peterson bowled Sarfraz Ahmed, who padded up to a ball pitched outside leg stump, with the last ball of the next over.

Philander then took wickets with the first two balls of the following over.

A long vigil by Azhar Ali ended when he edged an outswinger to wicketkeeper AB de Villiers. Ali made 65 off 193 balls with seven fours. Umar Gul edged the next ball and Alviro Petersen flung himself to his left at third slip to take a spectacular catch.

South Africa were without fast bowler Morne Morkel, who left the field with a hamstring injury on Saturday, but Peterson bowled accurately for all but two overs from the Kelvin Grove end, enabling Smith to use Philander and Steyn in short bursts.

Philander, who took five for 59 in the first innings, had match figures of nine for 99.

South Africa vs Pakistan Scoreboard CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb 17, (AP): Scoreboard Sunday at stumps on day four of the second test between South Africa and Pakistan at Newlands: PAKISTAN 1st innings: 338 SOUTH AFRICA 1st innings: 326 PAKISTAN 2nd innings Mohammad Hafeez lbw b Steyn . . . . . . . . .0 Nasir Jamshed lbw b Philander . . . . . . . . . .0 Azhar Ali c de Villiers b Philander . . . . . . . .65 Younis Khan b Steyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Misbah-ul-Haq c Smith b Peterson . . . . . . .44 Asad Shafiq b Philander . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Sarfraz Ahmed b Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Tanvir Ahmed not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Umar Gul c Petersen b Philander . . . . . . . . .0 Saeed Ajmal b Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Mohammad Irfan c Petersen b Steyn . . . . . .2 Extras: (2lb, 4w) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Total: (all out) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169 Overs: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75.3.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-7, 3-45, 4-114, 5-147, 6-152, 7-152, 8-152, 9-158.

Bowling: Dale Steyn 18.3-5-38-3 (3w), Vernon Philander 19-6-40-4, Morne Morkel 3.1-

0-8-0, Robin Peterson 29-8-73-3 (1w), Jacques Kallis 5.5-2-8-0.

SOUTH AFRICA 2nd innings Alviro Petersen lbw b Gul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Graeme Smith lbw b Ajmal . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Hashim Amla b Ajmal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Jacques Kallis lbw b Ajmal . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 AB de Villiers c S Ahmed b T Ahmed . . . . .36 Faf du PLessis lbw b Ajmal . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Dean Elgar not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Robin Peterson not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Extras: (5b, 5nb) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Total: (for 6 wickets) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182 Overs: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43.1.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-63, 3-88, 4-150, 5168, 6-180.

Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 10-1-35-0 (3nb), Umar Gul 8-0-46-1, Saeed Ajmal 18.1-2-51-4, Mohammad Hafeez 2-1-11-0, Tanvir Ahmed 50-34-1 (2nb).

Toss: won by South Africa.

Umpires: Steve Davis, Australia, and Bruce Oxenford, Australia.

TV Umpire: Billy Bowden, New Zealand.

Match Referee: Jeff Crowe, New Zealand.

Kerala Challengers

AVC Sports Club

United Friends Club

McCullum hits unbeaten 69

N. Zealand downs England by 3 wickets HAMILTON, New Zealand, Feb 17, (Agencies): Captain Brendon McCullum made an unbeaten 69 to lift an injury-stricken New Zealand team to a three-wicket win over England on Sunday in the first of three one-day cricket internationals.

Martin Guptill retired hurt on 3, with a hamstring strain, then returned with New Zealand seven wickets down to help his team win with seven balls to spare.

Guptill hit a six and four fours to finish 27 not out after sharing an unbroken 51-run partnership with McCullum that carried New Zealand past England’s total of 258.

Earlier, fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan broke down with a side strain while taking his fourth wicket as New Zealand bowled out England in 49.3 overs.

McClenaghan, a 26-year-old candidate for New Zealand’s Bachelor of the Year award, took 4-56 - his second four-wicket haul in a four-match international career - to help New Zealand suppress England’s powerful batting lineup.

He bowled captain Alastair Cook

Aussie women win WC as Perry, Cameron excel MUMBAI, Feb 17, (AFP): Ellyse Perry took three wickets and Jess Cameron scored a halfcentury to help Australia clinch the women’s World Cup for the sixth time with a 114-run win over the West Indies in the final on Sunday.

Cameron smashed two sixes and eight fours in her 76-ball 75 as Australia posted 259-7, the highest total in the final, before dismissing the West Indies for 145 in the day-night match in Mumbai.

Merissa Aguilleira (23), Deandra Dottin (22) and Kyshona Knight (21 not out) were the main scorers in a below-par batting performance by the West Indies, making their maiden appearance in the final.

Seamer Perry, who also represented her country in the women’s World Cup football, got three wickets in her opening

three overs, including that of prolific run-getter Stafanie Taylor, to reduce the West Indies to 41-3.

The 22-year-old Perry, returning to the side after missing the Super Sixes round due to an injury, finished with 3-19 off 10 overs.

Off-spinners Lisa Sthalekar and Erin Osborne, and seamer Megan Schutt took two wickets each for Australia, who had lost to the West Indies in the Super Sixes round.

Cameron and Rachael Haynes (52) scored half-centuries before Australia slipped from 181-3 to 209-7, but skipper Jodie Fields (36 not out) and Perry (25 not out) added a brisk 50 to help their team cross the 250-mark.

West Indies leg-spinner Shaquana Quintyne, 17, was the most impressive bowler with 327 off 10 overs.

Cameron cracked the first six

of the innings when she pulled seamer Tremayne Smartt and then completed her half-century with a second six in the same over.

Australia made a solid start after electing to bat as Haynes and Meg Lanning (31) put on 52 for the opening wicket. Haynes also added 64 for the second wicket with Cameron.

Brief scores: Australia 259-7 in 50 overs (Jess Cameron 75, Rachael Haynes 52, Jodie Fields 36 not out, Meg Lanning 31, Ellyse Perry 25 not out; Shaquana Quintyne 3-27) West Indies 145 all out in 43.1 overs (Merissa Aguilleira 23, Deandra Dottin 22, Kyshona Knight 21 not out; Ellyse Perry 319, Lisa Sthalekar 2-20, Erin Osborne 2-26, Megan Schutt 238) Result: Australia win by 114 runs

CRICKET for 4 with a full and seaming delivery, removed Stuart Broad for 1 and dangerman Jos Buttler for 21 but suffered his injury in the delivery that dismissed Steven Finn. Veteran Kyle Mills took 2-32 from his 10 overs as McClenaghan’s new-ball partner to further restrict England’s scoring.

England laid a strong foundation for its innings with Jonathan Trott making 68, Ian Bell 64 and Joe Root 56.

But it scored at a slow rate, relying on the fluent scorers in its middle and lower order to lift it to a competitive total. That tactic failed when, after taking such pains to set the foundation, its last six wickets fell for 38 runs.

New Zealand also suffered an early setback, losing B.J. Watling when it was on 2 and had barely recovered from that blow when Guptill limped from the field.

Kane Williamson played a giant role in restoring the New Zealand innings, making 74 from 99 balls to guide the home side to 142-4 when he was out in the 34th over.

McCullum - batting at No. 5 - then took over the leadership of the innings, reaching his half century from 48 balls with five fours and two sixes.

New Zealand’s cause was still in doubt when it cheaply lost James Franklin, Nathan McCullum and Andrew Ellis to slump to 218-7. But Guptill strode back out from the pavil-

ion and joined McCullum in the final, winning partnership.

The win was New Zealand’s fifth in succession over England in one-day internationals.

“I think today was very important for us,” McCullum said. “They were 180-2 at one point and to be able to show those fighting qualities and restrict them to under 260 was a fantastic effort.”

England was sent in after losing the toss and eventually paid with an overly measured approach to its innings. It was only 77-1 after 20 overs and 101-

2 at the midpoint of its innings. Its hopes rested with the big-hitters later in the order but they were restricted by the loss of wickets and accurate bowling.

“We got off to an okay start,” Cook said. “And 260 was an okay score.

“I thought the way we bowled we defended it well but I guess 280 or 290 would have been better. When you load towards the bottom you need to go and hit the ball well and we didn’t manage to get anyone to do that today.”

The second match is at Napier on

The Australian cricket team poses with their Champion’s trophy after winning the ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 between Australia and West Indies at the Cricket Club of India’s Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Feb 17.

Australia won the match by 114 runs. (AFP)

Wednesday.

Scoreboards ENGLAND A. Cook b McClenaghan . . . . . . . . . . . .4 I. Bell c B. McCullum b Franklin . . . . .64 J. Trott b Mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 J. Root b Franklin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 E. Morgan c Guptill b Mills . . . . . . . . . .1 J. Buttler c Elliott b McClenaghan . . . .21 C. Woakes c B. McCullum b Ellis . . . .17 S. Broad c B. McCullum b McClenaghan1 G. Swann c Taylor b Franklin . . . . . . .16 S. Finn c Guptill b McClenaghan . . . . . .0 J. Anderson not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 Extras (lb 4, w 5, nb 1) . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Total (all out; 49.3 overs) . . . . . . . . . .258 Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Cook), 2-95 (Bell), 3184 (Trott), 4-190 (Morgan), 5-220 (Buttler), 6-222 (Root), 7-229 (Broad), 8-247 (Woakes), 9-248 (Finn), 10-258 (Swann) Bowling: Mills 10-2-32-2, McClenaghan 9.4-0-56-4 (2w), Ellis 10-0-67-1 (1nb, 2w), N. McCullum 10-0-42-0, Franklin 6.3-0-38-3, Williamson 2.2-0-12-0, Elliott 1-0-7-0 (1w).

NEW ZEALAND B. Watling b Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 M. Guptill not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 K. Williamson run out (Woakes/Bell) . .74 R. Taylor c Finn b Woakes . . . . . . . . .22 G. Elliott c Morgan b Woakes . . . . . . .22 B. McCullum not out . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 J. Franklin c Buttler b Finn . . . . . . . . . .3 N. McCullum lbw Swann . . . . . . . . . . .14 A. Ellis c Finn b Broad . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Extras (lb 7, w 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Total ( 7 wickets; 48.5 overs) . . . . . . .259 Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Watling), 2-75 (Taylor), 3-124 (Elliott), 4-142 (Williamson), 5-155 (Franklin), 6-186 (N. McCullum), 7-218 (Ellis) Bowling: Anderson 9-1-36-1 (1w), Finn 10-0-54-1 (3w), Broad 9.5-0-56-1 (2w), Woakes 10-0-52-2, Swann 10-0-54-1 Did not bat: K. Mills, M. McClenaghan Toss: New Zealand New Zealand won by three wickets New Zealand lead series 1-0 Umpires: Gary Baxter (NZL), S Ravi (IND) TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

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Mind-Web team

Marina Volts Team

ATC Team

Marina Volts hold-off ATC Chilis

Mind-Web outlast Barangay-Salmiya 111-89

By Iddris Seidu Arab Times Staff KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Mind-Web triumphed 111-89 over Barangay-Salmiya in a leaguers group match Friday at the UAE Exchange/Xpress Money Transfer PABAK 30th Conference tournament on Friday.

A nail-biter was in the offing when Mind-Web and BRGY-Salmiya filed into the court hungry. Knowing the teams to be equals, the crowd erupted to the buzzer. Nato Cruz dealt with 3-pointers right off the bat for Mind-Web, scoring 25 totally. The opening quarter ended 2414, Mind-Web on top.

Salmiya fought back in the second round attempting to capture the initiative.

Their effort yielded a 31-22 result which still fell short and had them still trailing by a single point at the half time mark, 46-45.

A Mind-Web fight back was the main plot of the third quarter, with Bautista digging into his hunter instincts for some crucial hauls at 14, including a 3-pointer. The ball was in orbit for most part of the 3rd

Paajarvi, Oilers rally to down Avalanche Islanders crush Devils 5-1 GCC Vipers Team

BASKETBALL quarter when Bautista fired.

The game went down to the wire in the last round, as Nato Cruz and Bautista wouldn’t let up their score chase for the Mind-Web, while Jayson Santillan and Cassala were eking out foxy points at the other corner, keeping Salmiya scorecard racing. A 2-pointer from Mind-Web’s Javillo and a dunk from Salmiya’s Santillan made the game 90-72. MindWeb followed up with yet more in a series of last minute baskets, cropping up 111-85 at the buzzer.

Marina Volts turned the tables in a lastquarter surge against ATC Chilis to finish a comfortable 90-72 in a crucial match of the tournament on Friday.

Johnny Santos and Jay Valentia’s combined score of 43 points boosted the Volts’ fortunes in the game. Santos’s affair with the hoop began from the start, opening the scoring of the first leaguers game with two consecutive 2-pointers. However, ATC were gliding into a narrow 14-13 first quarter win thanks to Alfred Chan and his crew who coordinated beautifully to make the go ahead possible.

But the Volts, determined to keep their four-match winning streak, came back very strongly in the second round, wiped off their 9-point deficit and fired into the lead to finish three points ahead, 23-20 on the backs of Valencia and Martin Sumague who scripted the rally.

Volts Captain Charlie Hipayo was also persistent, making constant forays into the opposition vital area in round two, exploiting the chinks in the opposition defenses to eke out a few valuable points. Miranda and Funtanares also assisted in subduing the ATC defenses.

The third and fourth quarters saw the ATC scores choking, points coming in trickles, while Valencia’s barrages at the other end kept the Volts’ counter clinking.

11 of Valencia’s 24 points shot in the game came in the last round.

Chicken-Inasal Shooters on the other hand suffered their second consecutive loss when KOC-EMS outpaced them, 9075 in the next game of the tournament.

KOC easily glided to a first half lead, 2717, 19-18 behind terrific play by Angel Rillo and Paul Doma, the captain. The pair of them combined beautifully to put their side ahead.

The third quarter saw the restaurateurs re-tune their game and rallied to the driving seat at the end of the quarter, opening a 4-point lead, Shane Coppin leading the charge. But KOC having led in the first half, still had a 7-point advantage. KOC came roaring back unstoppably in the final round to reclaim the initiative ripping the Inasal Shooters defenses to shreds to pave the way for their complete humiliation, 90-75 at the buzzer.

Also, the next game, a cliffhanger between Eagle Alliance and GCC-Vipers stretched into a run-off as it hung 65-65 with just seconds left on the clock. Gracia for Alliance shot the last basket for a single point to take his team ahead, 66-65.

James Carillo, Ryan Dumol, Sony Dumol, Arnold Sison and Richard Beltran starred for Alliance with 11, 10, 8, 8 and 6 in the same order. The quarters seesawed between Alliance and Vipers 27-23, 13-14, 14-9 and finally 12-19 in the tie breaker.

Alliance shone with team brilliance while Vipers stood out for individual flair. Vipers’ Viloria bagged 18 to become the highest scorer of the game. Paul Andrade, Norman Rustia and Cabico with 6, 5 and 4 were the other pricey haulers in the Vipers’ loss.

Meanwhile, D’Destroyer and IlonggoHeat squared up for a lop-sided, yet electrifying, encounter, Destroyer running wild to maul the Heats 97-79. Garry Loyola plundered the Heats with his spring-heeled dunks and lunar-gravity laps. Jay Zulieta added 16 important points to the Destroyer counter.

The star-bare Ilonggo-Heats kept the search for a win alive with Aries Garcera,

EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb 17, (AP): Magnus Paajarvi scored the go-ahead goal in the closing minutes as the Edmonton Oilers used a team-record 56 shots to rally from a three-goal deficit and beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-4 on Saturday night.

Jordan Eberle and Ales Hemsky each had two goals, and Ryan NugentHopkins also scored for the Oilers, who trailed 3-0 and 4-1 before storming back. Edmonton had 23 shots in the opening period, 15 in the second and 18 in the third when they scored three times. The Oilers topped the previous team record of 55 shots against the Minnesota North Stars in 1986.

KOC-EMS Team

Cody McLeod, Matt Duchene, Jamie McGinn and John Mitchell had goals for the Avalanche.

Maple Leafs 3, Senators 0 Ben Scrivens stopped 34 shots for his first career shutout and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the injury-ravaged Ottawa Senators 3-0 on Saturday night.

Scrivens was making his second straight start since incumbent James Reimer injured a knee in Monday night’s 5-2 win over Philadelphia. The 26-year-

ICE HOCKEY

Chicken Inasal Team

Cornor Express Team

old Scrivens has been solid as Reimer’s replacement, stopping 96 of the 100 shots he has faced.

Fraser McLaren, Tyler Bozak and John-Michael Liles scored for Toronto, which earned its fifth win in six games overall.

Lightning 6, Panthers 5, OT In Sunrise, Fla, Benoit Pouliot scored two goals, including the winner in overtime, and Tampa Bay ended a six-game losing streak.

Steven Stamkos also scored twice, and Teddy Purcell and Alexander Killorn once each for the Lightning. Anders Lindback made 25 saves.

Purcell’s goal with 11 seconds left in regulation tied it 5 as his shot from the slot hit off the post and into the net. On the winning score, the puck bounced off the end boards and out to Pouliot, who was open in front. His wrist shot went into the net 1:19 into overtime.

Tomas Kopecky and Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the third period to put the Panthers ahead. Jerred Smithson, Jack Skille, and Shawn Matthias also scored, and Jose Theodore stopped 30 shots.

Islanders 5, Devils 1 In Uniondale, NY, John Tavares scored three goals and assisted on another to lead the New York Islanders over the New Jersey Devils.

Matt Moulson had a goal and three assists, Michael Grabner scored with 35

Mike Kostka #53 of the Toronto Maple Leafs chases Kyle Turris #7 of the Ottawa Senators during NHL action at the Air Canada Center on Feb 16, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, (AFP)

seconds left, and Evgeni Nabokov made 30 saves for the Islanders, who beat the Rangers 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night.

The Devils’ lone goal was Marek Zidlicky’s power play slap shot 8:47 into the third. Johan Hedberg made 28 saves for New Jersey, which has lost two of its last three.

Canadiens 4, Flyers 1 In Montreal, rookie Brendan Gallagher had a goal and assist before leaving the game with an injury and the Montreal Canadiens downed the Philadelphia Flyers for their third win in a row.

David Desharnais, Tomas Plekanec and Rene Bourque also scored for the Canadiens, who outshot the tired-looking Flyers 29-19. Gallagher left four minutes into the third period after being hit into the boards by Luke Schenn and did not return. There was no immediate word on the injury.

Daniel Briere scored for Philadelphia, which has lost three of its last four games.

Coyotes 5, Blue Jackets 3 In Glendale, Ariz, Martin Hanzal had two goals and an assist and the Phoenix Coyotes won for the third time in four games.

Hanzal scored the final two goals of the game, the first a rare Phoenix power-

play score to break a 3-3 tie with 11:42 to play. He added an empty-net goal with 1:04 remaining. The Coyotes had gone 17 power plays without scoring before Hanzal ended the drought.

Radim Vrbata scored for Phoenix before leaving the game in the second period with a lower body injury. David Moss and Kyle Chipchura also scored for the Coyotes.

Jared Boll, Matt Calvert and Derek MacKenzie scored for Columbus, which has lost five of six.

Ducks 3, Predators 2 In Nashville, Tenn, Nick Bonino and Corey Perry scored in the shootout to give the Anaheim Ducks a win over the Nashville Predators.

The victory was Anaheim’s fourth straight and eighth in its last nine games.

Nashville’s loss halted a three-game winning streak.

In the tiebreaker, Anaheim goaltender Viktor Fasth allowed just one of three Nashville shooters to score. He improved to 8-0-0 on the season, with four of those victories coming in shootouts. Pekka Rinne stopped one of Anaheim’s three shootout attempts.

Matt Beleskey and Patrick Maroon had goals for the Ducks in regulation. David Legwand and Shea Weber scored for Nashville.

NHL Results/Standings WASHINGTON, Feb 17, (RTRS): Results & standings from the NHL games on Saturday: Tampa Bay 6 Florida 5 (OT) Toronto 3 Ottawa 0 Montreal 4 Philadelphia 1 Eastern Conference

NY Islanders Anaheim Phoenix Edmonton

5 New Jersey 3 Nashville 5 Columbus 6 Colorado Western Conference

Atlantic Division

Eagles Alliance Team

Jojo Obordo, Talite and Jayson Cruz chipping in a combined 59. Destroyer’s slight of Heats started in the second round after they overcame a first round single point deficit, 24-25 to take command of the rest of the game to the finish, 24-25, 46-31, 57-40 and finally 97-79.

The fiercest clash took place in the fourth quarter, when the Ilonggo suddenly lifted their game with Garcera suddenly coming up with two straight 3-pointers, arcing from space. He scored 10 in the final quarter, not enough to alter the 97-79 result in the Destroyers’ favor.

Marine Spa were default winners in their game against The-One due to the latter’s inability to turn up for their scheduled encounter for the weekend. Another default

winner was FBC when M-Tag failed to show up for their scheduled match.

The final game of the day saw Cornor Express Cargo thrash On-Time 115-74.

Express Cargo were in charge in the first half 53-33. From thereon, On-Time got rallied into the game, doling out a 31-10 humiliation in round three.

The Ramirez-led On-Time surge soon ended after round three, giving way for Jake Narvas, Allan Nunez and Aries Garcera to run roughshod on Global hitting the basket at will to bring the game to a 8455 finish. Rommel Dingson for Cornor Express Cargo garnered a whopping 25, Nico Legarde 18 and Soriano 12.

Teamwork and wile were the Cargo strongpoint.

New Jersey Pittsburgh NY Rangers NY Islanders Philadelphia

W 9 10 7 6 6

Montreal Boston Toronto Ottawa Buffalo

W 9 8 9 7 6

Carolina Tampa Bay Florida Winnipeg Washington

W 8 7 4 5 5

L 3 5 5 7 9

OTL 3 0 1 1 1

Central Division GF 41 48 36 45 38

GA 36 35 34 47 49

PTS 21 20 15 13 13

GF 40 34 43 35 43

GA 34 29 36 30 50

PTS 19 18 18 16 13

GF 41 55 35 33 40

GA 37 45 53 43 49

PTS 17 15 12 11 11

Chicago Nashville St Louis Detroit Columbus

W 11 7 8 7 4

Vancouver Edmonton Minnesota Calgary Colorado

W 8 6 6 4 5

Anaheim San Jose Dallas Phoenix Los Angeles

W 11 7 8 7 5

Northeast Division L 4 2 6 6 8

OTL 1 2 0 2 1

L 0 3 5 5 9

OTL 1 1 4 1 1

OTL 3 5 1 2 2

GF 48 30 48 38 34

GA 29 29 45 41 48

PTS 25 19 17 16 10

GF 38 35 30 35 31

GA 29 38 36 44 38

PTS 18 15 14 11 11

GF 50 37 38 40 28

GA 37 33 39 41 33

PTS 23 17 17 16 12

Northwest Division

Southeast Division L 4 6 6 7 8

1 2 (SO) 3 4

L 3 5 6 5 7

OTL 2 3 2 3 1

Pacific Division

Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

L 2 4 6 6 5

OTL 1 3 1 2 2

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SPORTS

53

Matt completes excellent day for hosts

Hirscher ends Austrian wait for individual gold SCHLADMING, Austria, Feb 17, (Agencies): Marcel Hirscher, the world’s top skier last season, won the men’s slalom to give host nation Austria their first individual gold at the Alpine skiing world championships in the final of the ten events on Sunday.

The 23-year-old sent the 30,000 crowd into raptures as he beat Germany’s Felix Neureuther, the son of former Olympic champion Rosi Mittermaier and 1970s slalomist Christian Neureuther, by 0.42 seconds over the two runs.

Hirscher’s compatriot Mario Matt completed an excellent day for the hosts, whose only previous gold was in the low-key team event, by finishing third to add to the gold medals he won in the slalom in 2001 in St Anton and 2007 in Are. Hirscher, who won silver in Friday’s giant slalom, led after the first run and nearly came a cropper as he attacked on the second, but recovered his balance just in time.

American Ted Ligety’s hopes of a fourth

gold medal ended early when he skidded out high on the first run.

Ligety had already won the super-G, giant slalom and combined to become the first male skier to win three golds at the championships for 45 years.

But he is not a slalom specialist and said beforehand he did not expect to win Sunday’s race.

SKIING Fans packed the stands and mountainside more than an hour before the start in sub-freezing temperatures, many of them guzzling cold beer and eating hot dogs from as early as eight o’clock in the morning.

The course, which plunged 216 metres, ended in a bowl surrounded on all sides by the crowd to create a raucous atmosphere.

However, much of noise was made by the stadium announcer, who told fans when to

jump, cheer, wave flags and blow their plastic horns, and the incessant blaring music.

Austrian pair Benjamin Raich and Manfred Pranger both blew their chances with mistakes when they were on course for a good time.

Veteran Raich lost two seconds which cost him a chance of the bronze when he slipped and Pranger failed to finish after straddling a gate halfway down.

“It’s been such a tough battle and there was a lot of pressure of course, it’s just phenomenal,” said Hirscher, who has a testy relationship with the Austrian media. “I knew the other two were fast, and I had to perform.”

Neureuther was happy with his performance given Hirscher’s form this season, especially in the slalom.

“Silver is a great success for me. I knew Marcel would be difficult to beat, it has been a great duel between us, each went to his limit.”

Hirscher last year won the overall World Cup which is considered the ultimate skiing test as it is held over the entire season and

includes results from all disciplines.

He has become dominant in the slalom, leading the category in the World Cup this season after winning four races out of six and finishing on the podium in the other two.

Results Men Slalom First Run 1. Marcel Hirscher, Austria, 55.56 seconds.

2. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 55.84.

3. Mario Matt, Austria, 56.12.

4. Manfred Moelgg, Italy, 56.21.

5. Fritz Dopfer, Germany, 56.22.

6. Manfred Pranger, Austria, 56.27.

7. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 56.34.

8. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 56.55.

9. Alexis Pinturault, France, 56.56. (tie) Ivica Kostelic, Croatia, 56.56.

11. Mattias Hargin, Sweden, 56.94.

12. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 56.99.

13. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 57.33.

14. Jean-Baptiste Grange, France, 57.36.

15. Steve Missillier, France, 57.47.

Nadal triumphs in Brazil

Austria’s Marcel Hirscher poses with his gold medal after winning the men’s slalom at the 2013 Ski World Championships in Schladming, Austria, on Feb 17. (AFP)

Cyclist favours Giro d’Italia

Challenges ‘protect’ Wiggins from failure MASCAT, Feb 17, (RTRS): Bradley Wiggins hopes favouring the Giro d’Italia over the Tour de France will be the best insurance against a lack of motivation following his careerdefining title last year.

Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour after also claiming the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine week-long races.

He followed his French triumph with an Olympic gold medal in the individual time trial.

“I wanted a new set of challenges, it took a lot time for the motivation to come back and after the Olympics there was a long time where I was thinking what the hell am I going to do here next year, because in that 18 months I had put so much into that Tour project,” Wiggins told reporters at the Tour of Oman, his first competitive outing of the season.

“So I had to find something to inspire me and the Giro is something I would really love to try and win.”

The Giro, starting on May 4 in Naples, is scheduled earlier in the season than the Tour so the 32-year-old has radically changed his racing programme, riding the Tour of Catalunya, Tour of Trentino and Liege-Bastogne-Liege - none of which he took part in last year.

“To have a different set of challenges, we put Liege in this year, the Catalunya Wiggins race I’d like to do well in,” Wiggins explained.

“Having to go to Paris-Nice in two weeks time (March 310) and defend that title and have a direct comparison with last year would not help, obviously.

“So it’s about working back from the Giro, and establishing goals and when we hit them we hit them as we did last year,” he added.

CYCLING

Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro returns a shot against Julien Benneteau of France in the final of the ABN AMRO world tennis tournament at Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands,

Feb 17. Del Potro won in two sets, 7-6, 6-3. (AP)

Del Potro wins ABN AMRO title SAO PAULO, Feb 17, (Agencies): Rafael Nadal showed he is back in business by clinching his first tournament title since ending a sevenmonth knee injury layoff, winning the Brazil Open here Sunday.

The Spanish former world number one, who has been complaining of nagging knee pain, beat Argentine David Nalbandian in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 in 78 minutes.

Currently the world number five, Nadal went on the attack from the start, breaking his opponent’s service before racing to take the first set.

The 31-year-old Nalbandian, a former world number three who now languishes in 93rd place in the ATP rankings, fought back early in the second set but Nadal came from behind to win the match, sparking wild cheers from the crowd.

The Spaniard pocketed a check of $82,300 for his win and thanked the public for “the great support” he received throughout the tournament.

Nadal was the top seed in this $455,775 tournament, his second comeback event following his long absence.

TENNIS

Potro beat Julien Benneteau 7-6 (2), 6-3 Sunday to win the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, going one better than his runnerup spot last year.

Benneteau managed what no other player at the tournament achieved ‚Äî breaking Del Potro’s service twice in the first set ‚Äî but always struggled to hold his own service against the big-hitting Argentine and crumbled in the second set.

The 2009 US Open winner had not dropped a single service game heading into the final.

Benneteau, who beat No. 2-ranked Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, is now 0-8 in ATP finals.

“We are getting closer and closer. I am sure with you I can win a title,” Benneteau said as he thanked his coach.

Benneteau saved four match points when serving at 5-2 in the second set, but it was only a stay of execution as Del Potro served out the match to love.

While Benneteau managed to break the 1.98meter (6-foot-6) 2nd-seeded Argentine, Del Potro hit back immediately, breaking Benneteau as he reeled off four straight games to take command of the opening set.

Benneteau saved two set points on his own serve at 5-3 and then broke Del Potro a second time on his way to forcing the set to a tiebreak.

But the experienced Argentine dominated to take the set.

Benneteau seemed sluggish in the second set as Del Potro ran away with the match, serving the final game with wadding in one nostril after suffering a nose bleed. ❑

❑

❑

German veteran Tommy Haas reached his first final in six months by beating John Isner 6-3, 6-4 in the SAP Open on Saturday, setting up a decider against top seed and defending champion Milos Raonic.

The 34-year-old qualified for his 25th career final and will be looking for his 14th career title. He will face Raonic, who breezed past Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-2.

“Numbers and rankings don’t mean as much to me as reaching the final of a tournament,” Haas said. “At my age, you’re always looking for another title. Hopefully I can play well again tomorrow.”

The 22nd-ranked Haas made his debut in San Jose in 1998 and reached this final for the first time.

“It’s a tough sport, it’s a grind,” Haas said.

“Moments like this, when you’re on such a high winning these matches, make you appreciate all the hard work you put in. You never know. It can be easy to just say, ‘Oh, maybe next week.’ Mentally I thought I can still achieve something and that has kept me going.”

“You might start thinking that all these

He competed in the Vina del Mar Open in Chile earlier this month, losing the singles and doubles finals last Sunday.

Considered by many to be the best ever claycourt player, Nadal was back on the court in Chile for the first time since suffering a surprise second-round exit at Wimbledon in June.

Since then he has been sidelined by a torn tendon and inflammation in his left knee, with his return this year further delayed by a stomach virus.

The world number five, who has 11 Grand Slam titles under his belt, also won the Brazil Open in 2005, when it was held in Costa do Sauipe in eastern Bahia state.

Last year, the tournament, Brazil’s premier tennis event, was moved to Sao Paulo.

It is part of the Latin American clay court swing, along with the Vina del Mar event and the Mexico Open, in Acapulco, where Nadal plans to compete later this month.

The three low-profile Latin American events are routinely ignored by the world’s top three players — Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

Earlier Sunday, Brazilian Bruno Soares teamed up with Austrian Alexander Peya to win the Sao Paulo doubles final against Czech pair Frantisek Cermak and Slovak Michal Mertinak in three sets 6-7 (5), 6-2, 10-7. ❑

❑

❑

In Rotterdam, Netherlands, Juan Martin Del

younger guys have passed you by, but you can help your all-around game. That’s what you have to keep thinking.”

Isner, who missed the Australian Open because of a bruised right knee, was successful on just 58 percent of his first serves.

“Normally I can serve better than how I did,” Isner said. “That’s what decided the match. He played a lot better than I did. He didn’t miss too many serves. He was very good.”

Raonic, undefeated in San Jose, is attempting to become the first player in the Open era began in 1968 to win here three consecutive years, and the first overall since Tony Trabert did it between 1953-55.

Raonic and Haas will be meeting for the first time.

The 13th-ranked Raonic recorded 12 aces in his match against Querrey and won 88 percent of his second serve points.

“I’ve been going up and down in regards to my return,” Raonic said. “I started aggressively and carried that through the match. I’m returning well, moving well and serving well, the whole thing. Everything is on the right track and that gives you confidence that all the work is paying off.”

The Canadian leads the tournament in service games won (31 of 31), first serve points (90 percent) and has 39 aces.

Querrey said the inability to handle Raonic’s serve made all the difference.

Australian Cadel Evans had the same goals last year as in 2011 when he won the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie stage races before clinching his only Tour de France title.

In 2012, Evans finished 32nd in Tirreno-Adriatico and 29th in the Tour de Romandie.

“I didn’t want to have that direct comparison all the time with last year,” said the Belgium-born Wiggins.

“The only way was to win all that again and that was to fail, really, and I wanted to avoid that, I didn’t want to put that pressure on myself.”

Wiggins, however, is not targeting the Giro because he fears failing to win the Tour de France again.

“It goes back to my childhood, I grew up reading magazines and the Giro was always stuck in my mind, I don’t know if it’s just the pink jersey,” he said.

“I particularly remember (1988 Giro winner Andrew) Hampsten climbing in the snow, it seemed quite inspirational. It’s the only race in cycling they never really mention doping in the whole race.

“It’s kind of refreshing in some way when you’re there, for the racing, people come out and watch the sport and spectators idolise the racers. It’s a bit of a free for all, chaos sometimes.

“I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with it. A few years ago I said I’d never go back there. In 2010, it was so hard... So I always had a soft spot for it,” added Wiggins.

Following his outstanding performances last year, Wiggins has become something of a celebrity and is often stopped on training rides by people asking for photographs, sometimes dealing with the unwanted interruptions in a novel way.

“Yeah, people want photographs but I say: ‘I’m at work.

Where do you work, let me come to where you work, turn the machine off for five minutes and take a photograph’,” he said.

“I actually pretend to ignore them, pretend I’m French.”

Wiggins’s next race will be the Tour of Catalunya from March 18-24.

Best of the Domracheva wins mass start race: Darya Domracheva of Belarus won the mass start race in the final women’s event at the biathlon world championships on Sunday.

Domracheva missed two targets at the shooting range but hit the front in the middle of the race and cruised to victory, completing the 12.5-kilometer course in 35 minutes, 54.5 seconds for her second career gold medal at the worlds.

Heavy favorite Tora Berger of Norway also missed twice to finish 8.7 seconds behind for her second silver at the championships, adding to her four golds at the worlds this year. Monika Hojnisz of Poland took bronze, trailing Domracheva by 27.6 seconds.

The championships will wrap up with the men’s mass start race later Sunday. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑ Ajax beats RKC 2-0: Ajax beat RKC Waalwijk 2-

Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal celebrates with the trophy of the Brazil Open after defeating Argentinian David Nalbandian in the single final, at the Ibirapuera gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Feb 17. Nadal defeated Nalbandian 6-2, 6-3. (AFP)

0 Sunday to take lone possession of second place in the Eredivise as Feyenoord stumbled to a 3-2 loss at PEC Zwolle.

Niklas Moisander and Christian Eriksen scored first-half goals and goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer saved a penalty from Robert Braber as Ajax easily

held off RKC. Earlier, Graziano Pelle scored three times — including an own goal — with Feyenoord going 2-0 down inside the first 10 minutes. Pelle scored into his own net in just the second minute before bringing the scores level with a brace in the 33rd and 34th minute.

Feyenoord squandered several good chances before Swedish striker Denni Avdic scored Zwolle’s winner in the 75th minute. The defeat left Feyenoord in third place.

PSV Eindhoven beat Utrecht 2-1 to stay top of the Eredivisie. (AP) ❑ ❑ ❑

Terry slams talk: John Terry rubbished reports of a rift in his relationship with Rafael Benitez after the Chelsea captain marked his return to the side with a goal in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Brentford.

Terry had started only two games since Benitez took over as Chelsea’s interim manager earlier this season as he struggled to fully recover from a knee injury suffered in November.

Benitez had insisted Terry wasn’t fit enough to start and it had been widely speculated that the former England international was at loggerheads with the Spaniard over his reduced role. (AFP)

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SPORTS

54

Lillard outshines Lin

Ross dethrones Evans to win Slam Dunk crown HOUSTON, Texas, Feb 17, (AFP): Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors dethroned defending champion Jeremy Evans of Utah to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday in a worldwide vote on social media.

After a judging panel of retired NBA players that included Chinese legend Yao Ming narrowed the field to the finalists, Ross slammed two spectacular dunks through the rim to win 58 percent of fan votes via Twitter and websites.

“It’s a dream come true,” Ross said.

Evans opened with a windmill dunk over a covered painting, then lifted the

cover to reveal his own painting of the dunk he had just performed.

Ross answered by making a running start from the side of the hoop, taking a ball bounced off the side of the backboard and catching it then jamming it

BASKETBALL through the hoop — all while wearing a jersey of ex-Raptor star Vince Carter.

Evans slammed in a one-handed dunk on a run from the side in response but Ross finished by leaping over a

ballboy, passing the ball between his legs and slamming it into the basket with his right hand.

Other winners in the All-Star festivities ahead of Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game were Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Three-Point Contest and Portland Trail Blazers rookie Damian Lillard in the Skills Challenge.

Yao and his fellow judges eliminated New York’s James White, Indiana’s Gerald Green, Denver’s Kenneth Faried and Eric Bledsoe of the Los Angeles Clippers in the opening round

of the dunk contest.

Green and White missed on their second dunks, neither completing a move within the time limit.

Green had cut down the net to attempt two dunks with one ball on the same leap, missed every attempt, then managed the trick after the time limit had expired and the dunk did not count for the competition.

In the three-point event, Irving made 17 of his first 18 three-point attempts in the final round on his way to scoring 23 points and defeating San Antonio’s Matt Bonner, who finished with 20.

Irving scored 18 points in the preliminary round to advance past New York’s Steve Novak with 17 and Indiana’s Paul George with 10. Bonner had eliminated Golden State’s Stephen Curry with 17 and Ryan Anderson on New Orleans with 18.

Lillard outclassed a Skills Challenge lineup that included Houston’s Jeremy Lin and 2012 winner Tony Parker of San Antonio to win the obstacle course event in which players dribble, shoot and pass.

In the opening round, Lillard completed the course in 28.8 seconds to

oust Asian-American Lin and Frenchman Parker.

Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, completed the course in 35.8, while Parker struggled to finish in 48.7.

Parker failed to match Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash as multiple winners in the decade-old event.

Philadelphia’s Jrue Holiday, whose preliminary run of 29.3 ousted Detroit’s Brandon Knight and Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, opened the final at 35.6 but Lillard followed in 29.8 seconds and punctuated the effort with a finishing slam dunk.

Indiana crushes archrival Purdue Duke fall to Maryland BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, Feb 17, (AP): America’s No. 1 team finally came out a winner twice this week.

Indiana’s reward: It can stop worrying about votes and start focusing on the Big Ten title chase.

Will Sheehey scored a career-high 22 points and set a new school record Saturday by going 9 for 9 from the field and leading Indiana to its second straight blowout over archrival Purdue, 83-55.

“I thought our team was asked enough letdown questions, and I think they were tired of it, too,” coach Tom Crean said. “The human dynamic can sometimes plays into it, but not today, not at all. Not with the way they are maturing, not with the way we feel about the rivalry with Purdue. It’s a big, big deal.”

It’s not just the rivalry that’s big any more.

Indiana (23-3, 11-2 Big Ten) bucked the recent trend of No. 1 teams losing games and sliding back in the poll.

Last week, the Hoosiers got a reprieve after losing at Illinois before winning at No. 10 Ohio State. They held onto the top spot only after the next four highest-ranked teams all lost, too.

The Hoosiers also assured themselves of hanging onto at least a share of the league lead as they head into Tuesday night’s showdown with No. 8 Michigan State. The Spartans faced Nebraska later Saturday.

Duke 83, Maryland 81 In College Park, Md, as the final horn

BASKETBALL

Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors dunks the ball after a pass from teammate Terrence Jones during the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest part of

2013 NBA All-Star Weekend at the Toyota Center on Feb 16, in Houston, Texas. (AFP)

Funeral for girlfriend on Tuesday

‘Bloodied cricket bat found at Pistorius home’ JOHANNESBURG, Feb 17, (Agencies): South African police have found a bloodied cricket bat at the home of Oscar Pistorius, a local newspaper reported Sunday, following the Valentine’s Day killing of his model girlfriend.

The star Olympian and Paralympian athlete was charged on Friday with the murder of 29year-old Reeva Steenkamp who was shot dead at his luxury Pretoria home in a case that has gripped the world.

His father said in a newspaper interview published Sunday that there was “zero doubt” his son had mistaken his blonde covergirl girlfriend for an intruder, a suggestion the South African police have dismissed.

Pistorius’s family has described the 26-year-old as “numb with shock as well as grief” over the death of Steenkamp, and rejected the murder allegations.

Police sources close to the investigation told South Africa’s independent City Press newspaper that Steenkamp’s skull had been “crushed”.

“There was lots of blood on the bat,” one source said.

Police are investigating whether the bat was used to assault Steenkamp, who was shot four times in the early hours of Thursday, or if she used it to defend herself.

“The suspicion is that the first shot, in the bedroom, hit her in the hip. She then ran and hid herself in the toilet... He fire three more shots,” a police source told City Press.

The paper said he could have experienced “roid rage”, aggressive behaviour linked to taking large doses of steroids, describing the case against Pistorius as “rocksolid”.

Other reports suggested there

had been a fight between the two lovers that had spilled over from Wednesday night when neighbours called security guards complaining about a “commotion” inside the Pistorius house.

The family of Reeva Steenkamp says her body is back in her hometown of Port Elizabeth and a private funeral has been planned for Tuesday.

Adam Steenkamp, the late model and law graduate’s brother, says “Reeva is back home.”

The family said Sunday that Steenkamp, who was shot dead inside boyfriend Oscar Pistorius’ house early Thursday, will be cremated in a ceremony closed to the public and the media in the city on South Africa’s southern coast.

Pistorius was charged with her murder and is expected to make a court appearance on Tuesday for his bail hearing.

The 29-year-old Reeva was seen

laughing and smiling on South African television Saturday night after national broadcaster SABC chose to air the first episode of a reality TV show she featured in.

Oscar Pistorius’ agent has begun cancelling races since the Olympic athlete was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius’ agent, Peet van Zyl, told The Associated Press that he cancelled the contract on Saturday for a high-profile rematch next month with fellow doubleamputee Alan Oliveira to promote the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics.

Oliveira, who beat Pistorius in the 200 meters at the Paralympics in London last year, and Pistorius were to run a straight 200 on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on March 31.

“I can’t plan anything,” Van Zyl said of Pistorius’ immediate run-

South Africa’s Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius (right), hides his face in his hands in the court room during his hearing on charge of murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day on Feb 15, at the Magistrate Court in Pretoria. South Africa prosecutors will argue that Pistorius is guilty of premeditated murder in Steenkamp’s death, a charge which could carry a life sentence. (AFP)

ning career, which was not a priority after the murder charge and Steenkamp’s death. “I will only have him run when he is in a condition to run as a world-class athlete. Physically and mentally fit.”

In related story, it was billed as a fitting tribute to “an intelligent, beautiful and amazing woman” but the airing of a Caribbean reality TV show featuring the girlfriend of Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius two days after she was shot dead has upset some South Africans.

In particular, women’s rights activists criticised an edited clip at the start of Saturday night’s ‘Tropika Island of Treasure’ in which law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp talks about her “exit”.

“I think that the way you go out, not just your journey in life but the way that you go out and you make your exit is so important,” she says, leaning against a palm tree in a pre-recorded interview on the show’s set in Jamaica.

At the end of the tribute, presumably recorded when she was voted off the show, she blows kisses to the camera and says: “I’m going to miss you all so much. I love you very, very much.”

Rachel Jewkes, a gender and health researcher at the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), said the clips were particularly insensitive in a country where a woman is estimated to be killed by her partner every eight hours.

“There was a big question about whether it should have been shown at all, or whether they were trying to get audience ratings off the fact she had died,” Jewkes said.

“These sort of quotes don’t make you feel any better about the suggestion they are exploiting her death.”

sounded and Maryland fans rushed the court to celebrate a rare victory over its bitter rival, weary Duke had just enough energy left to escape the mayhem for the safety of its locker room.

Seth Allen broke a tie by making two free throws with 2.8 seconds left, and the Terrapins stunned the second-ranked Blue Devils 83-81 Saturday night to end a six-game skid in the series.

Coming off a five-day break, Maryland notched its most significant win of the season at the expense of a tired Duke playing its fourth game in 10 days. The Blue Devils were worn out, and it showed.

Duke was outrebounded 40-20, never led in the second half and got only four points and three rebounds from 6-foot-10 senior center Mason Plumlee. ‘’This has been an exhausting schedule for our team,’’ coach Mike Krzyzewski said. ‘’We’re playing on fumes and I think you could tell that with Mason. I thought he looked exhausted the whole game. He’s been great.

Obviously not good tonight.’’

The Terrapins (18-7, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) did not trail after halftime but never could pull away.

Gonzaga 71, San Francisco 61 In San Francisco, Mark Few felt uneasy until the final buzzer sounded.

After three years of last-second shots and steals that always seemed to go San Francisco’s way, the Gonzaga coach had seen too many leads at War Memorial Gymnasium evaporate.

Almost happened again, too.

Kelly Olynyk had 26 points and nine rebounds, and Elias Harris added 17 points and 13 rebounds to carry No. 5 Gonzaga past pesky San Francisco 71-61 on Saturday, snapping a three-game losing streak on The Hilltop. ‘’We’ve had some crazy things happened to us in here,’’ Few said. ‘’They banked a shot from the baseline. We saved a ball up three, game over on a rebound and then threw it right to their guy so they could make a 3. It’s been about three or four others things. All that being said, it comes down to them playing with fantastic effort to put themselves in position to win and make big shots.’’

Syracuse 76, Seton Hall 65 In Newark, NJ, The road hasn’t been the best of places for No. 6 Syracuse and the chances of another detour loomed against struggling Seton Hall until senior guard Brandon Triche took over.

Triche scored a career-high 29 points to go with six rebounds and five assists, leading Syracuse to a tougher-than-expected 76-65 victory on Saturday night. ‘’Brandon was aggressive tonight and that’s the way we need him to play,’’ coach Jim Boeheim said after the Orange (21-4, 9-3) rebounded from a loss at Connecticut earlier this week and remained tied with Marquette and Georgetown for first place in the Big East Conference. ‘’He kept us in it early and then made the big plays in the end. He had an unbelievable game.’’

Marquette 79, Pittsburgh 69 In Milwaukee, Marquette coach Buzz Williams wanted to celebrate the 18th-ranked Golden Eagles’ latest win that moved them back into a first-place tie in the Big East. Then, remembering there was still nearly a month until NCAA Selection Sunday, he decided against it.

Vander Blue scored 19 points to lead Marquette past No. 16 Pittsburgh 79-69 on

Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrates after winning the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest part of 2013 NBA AllStar Weekend at the Toyota Center on Feb 16, in Houston, Texas. (AFP)

Jordan, LeBron go one-on-one HOUSTON, Feb 17, (Agencies): Michael Jordan never played against LeBron James but that has not stopped the two from going one-on-one over how to determine greatness on the basketball court.

Jordan, widely hailed as the best player of all-time and who turns 50 on Sunday, believes it is all about championship rings, while James, 28, thinks that view is a little too simplistic.

The debate has been the chief talking point of reporters and players in the run-up to the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) All-Star game in Houston on Sunday.

In an interview on NBA-TV to be aired Monday, Jordan took a swipe at James, saying his one championship could not compare with the five won by Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.

“If you had to pick between the two, that would be a tough choice, but five beats one every time I look at it, and not that he (James) won’t get five, he may get more than that, but five is bigger than one.”

James, a nine-time All-Star and threetime NBA Most Valuable Player, told reporters covering Sunday’s All-Star game that was just Jordan’s opinion.

“At the end of the day, rings don’t always define someone’s career,” said James. “If that’s the case, I would sit up and here and say (Bill) Russell over Jordan. But I wouldn’t.

“Russell has 11 rings and Jordan has six.

Or I would take (seven-time NBA champion) Robert Horry over Kobe. I wouldn’t do that.” ❑ ❑ ❑ Billy Hunter was fired as executive director of the NBA players union after 17 years in the job on Saturday after an executive committee of players voted unanimously to oust him.

The National Basketball Players Association assembled a new executive committee after player representatives axed Hunter following a review of his tenure at the top of the organization was released in January.

There was no evidence of illegal activities by Hunter but he was criticized in the review, conducted by a legal firm, for hiring family members and friends as well as questionable travel-related expenses and other charges.

Saturday for its 23rd straight home win - the fourth-longest active streak in the country. ‘’I want to be really excited and I want to dance in the locker room,’’ Williams said. ‘’I can’t. Because then I won’t work tomorrow.

And if we don’t work tomorrow and don’t figure out a way to find a way to beat Seton Hall (Tuesday), then we’ve lost the impact of what this positive work was.

Memphis 71, Marshall 59 In Huntington, W.Va., Adonis Thomas’ shooting touch felt good as soon as he entered Marshall’s gym. The Memphis sophomore’s work around the rim was solid, too, and his first career double-double was a big reason behind the Tigers’ 16th straight win.

Thomas scored a career-high 23 points and matched a career best with 10 rebounds to lead No. 22 Memphis to a 71-59 win over Marshall on Saturday night. ‘’I shot the ball really well in warmups,’’ Thomas said. ‘’I always try to get to the game early, and my shot was falling and I felt good.

I want to keep it up for the rest of the season.’’

ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

SPORTS

55

Malaga pip misfiring Bilbao

Real Sociedad draw 1-1 with 10-man Levante BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 17, (Agencies): Real Sociedad was held to a 1-1 draw at home by Levante in the Spanish league on Sunday despite having an extra player for the last half hour.

Carlos Vela scored his 10th goal of the season to give Sociedad the lead with a penalty in the 18th minute after he was tripped in the area by defender Nikos Karabelas.

Levante leveled at Anoeta stadium in the 29th when Miguel “Michel” Alfonso slipped a spot kick beyond diving goalkeeper Claudio Bravo following Gonzalo “Chori” Castro’s foul on Chris Lell.

Karabelas received his second booking for a harsh tackle in the 56th, but the visitors held firm to split the points.

Sociedad provisionally moved into fifth place after losing just once in the last 14 rounds. Levante stayed in ninth.

Meanwhile, Javier Saviola scored the only goal as Malaga warmed up for their midweek Champions League tie with a 1-0 home win over mis-firing Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Saturday.

The Qatari-owned club from the Costa del Sol, in their debut Champions League venture, visit Porto in a last-16 first-leg tie on Tuesday.

Argentine Saviola’s seventh league goal of the season gave the hosts an

SOCCER 18th-minute advantage. The safe hands of compatriot, goalkeeper Willy Caballero, then helped preserve the lead as fourth-placed Malaga moved on to 42 points.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are four points behind third-placed Real Madrid who host city rivals Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.

Lyon’s young guns end losing run in style PARIS, Feb 17, (AFP): Lyon ended a losing run of three successive defeats on Sunday as they demolished Bordeaux 4-0 away to move to within three points of Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint Germain.

Lyon youngsters Clement Grenier, the 22-yearold with his first double for the club, Gueida Fofana and Alexandre Lacazette, both just 21, scored in an impressive away performance.

Victory also saw Lyon regain second spot from Marseille, who had gained a barely-deserved 1-0 win at home to Valenciennes on Saturday, with an injury-time goal from defender Rod Fanni at least

Malaga are 20 points adrift of leaders Barcelona who were playing lowly Granada later on Saturday.

Earlier, Getafe made light work of La Liga’s worst travellers Celta Vigo, romping to a 3-1 victory with all the goals coming in the first

setting them up nicely for next weekend’s French ‘clasico’ in Paris with PSG. With PSG fans drooling over the prospect of David Beckham making his debut for the club against longtime rivals Marseille next Sunday the latter, whose last league crown came in 2010, were determined to set themselves up as realistic title challengers.

Marseille fans will hope their side produce rather more scintillating football next week than they did for long periods against a Valenciennes side destined to spend the season comfortably ensconced in mid-table.

half.

Malaga took the game to Bilbao at the Rosaleda and loan signing from Chelsea, Lucas Piazon, set up the goal for Saviola when he dribbled to the byline and pulled the ball back for the striker to score.

But Fanni insisted his side were good value for their win.

“We deserved it as we had more chances than Valenciennes. We gave it a real go in the first half and I said in the dressing room at half-time we had to calm things down — we couldn’t risk losing this chance to get back on track,” said Fanni.

“We were able to go back out and get the result.”

On Friday, Lille moved to within three points of fourth-placed Saint Etienne with a 2-0 win at home to Rennes.

Piazon and Isco were a constant threat in midfield but Malaga were sloppy in defence at times and Caballero had to make a number of sharp saves to deny Bilbao.

The shaven-headed Argentine launched a counter-attack at the end

with a punched clearance and Joaquin fired just wide of the post after sprinting the length of the pitch.

Last year’s Europa League and King’s Cup finalists Bilbao stayed sixth from bottom on 26 points.

Coach-less Samp draw back Napoli Totti rocket stuns Juve MILAN, Italy, Feb 17, (AFP): A coach-less but stubborn Sampdoria put the brakes on Napoli’s Serie A title ambitions by holding the Neapolitans to a scoreless draw at the San Paolo on Sunday.

Napoli had hoped to close the gap on Juventus to just two points after the championship leaders were stunned 1-0 by Francesco Totti’s rocket strike for Roma on Saturday.

But three days after a shock 3-0 defeat at home to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League, Walter Mazzarri’s side failed to conjure a goal for the second match in succession.

“This is not good enough,” said Mazzarri.

“If we want to be up there challenging we need more. We need consistency, it makes me angry when he show up and have these unexplainable performances.”

Despite Juve’s slip-up the champions are still four points ahead of Napoli on 51 points, with Lazio a distant third (44) ahead of their trip to Siena on Monday.

AC Milan, 2-1 winners over Parma on Friday, are fourth also on 44 points but face being overtaken by city rivals Inter, who travel to Fiorentina for Sunday’s late match.

Frankfurt’s Bamba Anderson of Brazil (rear), and Dortmund’s Mario Goetze challenge for the ball during the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between BvB Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt in Dortmund, Germany, on Feb 16. (AP)

Schalke’s poor form continues

Ya Konan nets as Hanover held at Nuremberg BERLIN, Feb 17, (AFP): Ivory Coast striker Didier Ya Konan hit his first Bundesliga goal since September as Hanover 96 were held to a 2-2 draw at Nuremberg on Sunday.

Having reached the recent Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals, where the Ivory Coast lost to eventual winners Nigeria, Ya Konan, 28, put Hanover ahead with his 68th-minute strike before Nuremberg grabbed an equaliser at the death.

With time almost up, midfielder Sebastian Polter met US defender Timothy Chandler’s pin-point cross from the right flank to poach a point.

Hanover had taken a first-half lead through Hungary midfielder Szabolcs Huszti before Nuremberg equalised when Japan midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake’s freekick was headed home

by Swiss defender Timm Klose on 53 minutes.

Hanover coach Mirko Slomka was sent to the stands for, what referee Thorsten Kinhoefer deemed, an inappropriate comment to the fourth official on 65 minutes.

League leaders Bayern Munich finished the weekend with their 15-point lead intact after Friday’s 2-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg with Mario Mandzukic netting his sixth goal in four games before Arjen Robben added the second in stoppage time.

It was Bayern’s 18th win in 22 matches, their fifth straight victory, and they have yet to concede a goal in 2013 as they head to London for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16, first-leg clash against Arsenal.

Defending champions Borussia Dortmund remain second after Germany midfielder Marco Reus netted a hat-trick in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, but Borussia had a striker sent off for the second time in the space of a week.

After Dortmund’s Poland star Robert Lewandowski had earned a three-game ban for being sent off against Hamburg last Saturday, his replacement Julian Schieber was dismissed for a second yellow against Frankfurt.

Schieber joins Lewandowski in being banned for next Sunday’s game at Moenchengladbach, leaving Dortmund without a specialist striker

Gor Mahia held in Nairobi by Reunion

Late goals spoil S. Sudan club debut JOHANNESBURG, Feb 17, (AFP):El Nasir became the first South Sudan club to compete in a CAF competition this weekend, but they conceded a couple of late goals to lose 3-1 at Azam of Tanzania in the Confederation Cup. Ivorian Kipre Tchetche was the dream-wrecker as he gave Azam the lead for the second time in Dar es Salaam on 80 minutes and added a third deep in stoppage time at the 60,000-seat national stadium.

Abdi Kassim put the Tanzanians ahead 14 minutes into the preliminary round, first leg game and Jacob Osulo levelled on the halfhour mark for the visitors from

South Sudan capital Juba.

The clubs clash again in early March with El Nasir enjoying home advantage and the goal they scored in Dar es Salaam offers some hope of overturning the firstleg deficit.

Gor Mahia, who shocked Esperance of Tunisia to lift the now defunct African Cup Winners Cup in 1987, were surprisingly held 0-0 in Nairobi by ANSE Reunion from minor football nation the Seychelles.

A three-man Gor attack could not break down the well organised ANSE defence and the Nairobi club were reduced to 10 men when Teddy Akumu was red carded for fouling Yavany Rose.

Stalemates were common with Gaborone United of Botswana and Liga Muculmana of Mozambique drawing 2-2, while Stella of Ivory Coast and Onze Createurs of Mali drew 1-1, as did Rail Kadiogo of Burkina Faso and Sahel of Niger.

Panthere Nde of Cameroon built a 2-0 lead over Elect Sport of Chad in a competition won for the last three years by a club that had to play in the preliminary phase.

FUS Rabat came through to win the second-tier competition in 2010, fellow Moroccans Moghreb Fes succeeded them as title-holders, and AC Leopards from Congo Brazzaville went all the way last year.

in their squad.

The appeal against Lewandowski red card will be heard by the German

Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday, but shoud it fail, Reus is the obvious choice to be moved up front

after his clinical finishing.

Schalke’s poor Bundesliga form continued as they twice had to come

Lamar Neagle #27 of the Seattle Sounders handles the ball against defender Rich Balchan #45 of Real Salt Lake in the second half during FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup at Kino Sports Complex on Feb 16, in Tucson, Arizona. Seattle Sounders defeated Real Salt Lake 2-1. (AFP)

from behind for a 2-2 draw at Mainz ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Istanbul’s Galatasaray.

Schalke face the Turkish league leaders in the last 16, first-leg clash having dropped from second to ninth in the Bundesliga with just one win in their last 11 games, conceding 25 goals in the process — the league’s worst record.

Bayer Leverkusen stay third after their 2-1 win at home to relegationthreatened Augsburg as striker Stefan Kiessling and midfielder Lars Bender both scored.

Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart scored his first goal for Hamburg since May 2008 with a spectacular 24th-minute thunderbolt to secure a 1-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach to move his team up to sixth.

Freiburg stay fifth, and amongst the European places, with a 3-2 win at Werder Bremen while Greuther Fuerth stay bottom after their 1-0 defeat to Fortuna Duesseldorf.

SOCCER Sampdoria had beaten Napoli only once in their last five outings, but despite missing head coach Delio Rossi, handed a twomatch ban for making a rude gesture last week, the visitors went in feeling buoyed at the break.

Early on striker Gianluca Sansone worked his way through the defence to see his prodded shot smothered by Napoli keeper Morgan De Sanctis from close in.

Napoli, wearing black armbands in honour of former player Carmelo Imbriani, who died this week at the age of 37, came closest when Lorenzo Insigne unleashed a drive that forced Sergio Romero to parry.

Striker Edinson Cavani also tested Romero while at the other end Lorenzo De Silvestri forced De Sanctis down low to smother as the visitors dominated on the half hour.

Sansone was unlucky to see his low strike tipped around the post by an outstretched De Sanctis, who then had defender Valon Behrami to thank for clearing after he misjudged the resulting corner.

Napoli struggled after the restart and had Behrami to thank for a timely clearance from Emanuele Icardi’s effort only five minutes in.

It prompted Mazzarri to replace defender Miguel Britos and midfielder Pablo Armero with Goran Pandev and Juan Zuniga respectively on the hour mark.

Pandev’s arrival proved almost decisive when his short pass to Marek Hamsik allowed the Slovakian to unleash a dangerous low shot but it came off the post and Romero scrambled to smother.

Napoli were starting to find openings, but when Hamsik put Paolo Cannavaro through with the simplest of passes the defender sent his first-time effort over the bar.

Cannavaro was one of several players who later hit out at the state of the pitch, which is so bad it is to be relaid next week.

“We missed a chance today but the fight for the title isn’t over,” said Cannavaro.

“But the real pity is we can’t play on a pitch that is worthy of Napoli.”

Napoli were to rue those missed chances as Sampdoria increased the pressure in the dying minutes with a series of counterattacks which had the hosts on the ropes before they were forced to settle for a morale-sapping draw.

Meanwhile, Catania’s fairytale campaign continued with a 1-0 home win over Bologna and a move up to seventh and

Napoli’s Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani (right), fights for the ball with Sampdoria’s Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang during the Italian Serie A football match SSC Napoli vs UC Sampdoria in San Paolo stadium on Feb 17, in Naples.

The match ended in a 0-0 drawn. (AFP)

Perth ‘shock’ Central Coast SYDNEY, Feb 17, (AP): Alistair Edwards began his tenure as coach of the Perth Glory by leading his last-placed team to a 2-1 win over first-placed Central Coast in the A-League on Saturday.

Edwards took over as coach in the week before the match, after the firing of Ian Ferguson who led Perth to last year’s grand final but had been unable to rouse it from an eight-match winless streak.

Perth went a goal down when Bernie Ibini scored for Central Coast after only 13 minutes. But Edwards’ decision to start Nick Ward in midfield – the only change from Ferguson’s last match in charge - paid dividends when Ward set up acting captain Travis Dodd for the equalizer.

New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz scored the winner, heading home a right wing cross from defender Josh Risden in the 61st minute.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the players,” Edwards said. “We worked on a few things during the week and it was really pleasing to not only get the three points, but the performance.

“We controlled the game for large parts, particularly in the second half, up against a really good Central Coast Mariners that caused us a lot of problems in the first half.

“As the game progressed, we just got stronger and stronger.”

Central Coast’s third loss in 21 matches trimmed its lead atop the A-League ladder to only one point over newcomer Western Sydney, which beat the Melbourne Victory for its sixth-straight win.

Western Sydney has won 13 matches this season compared with Central Coast’s 12 wins and has moved five points clear of the third-placed Victory.

Iacopo La Rocca and Japan star Shinji Ono scored as Western Sydney inflicted the Victory’s second straight loss and its first home defeat since its opening-round loss to derby rivals the Melbourne Heart.

“They don’t always match, performances and results,” Western Sydney coach Tony Popovic said. “But we continue with a long run of games now where we’ve been performing well.”

Western Sydney’s six-match winning streak is the best in the league this season.

Sydney FC beat fourth-placed Adelaide United for a record fifth straight home win to continue its steady climb up the ladder after its troubled start.

within sight of the European places.

Valter Birsa’s 87th-minute winner handed Torino a 2-1 victory over Atalanta, while Juraj Kucka’s 33rd-minute goal was enough to see Genoa move further away from the drop zone with a 1-0 win over Udinese.

PRIME TIME

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56

Sports

American’s hopes of capping off memorable week dashed

Azarenka topples Serena to win Qatar Open DOHA, Qatar, Feb 17, (AP): Defending champion Victoria Azarenka beat Serena Williams 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-3 to win the Qatar Open on Sunday, earning her 16th title and ending a 10-match losing streak against the American.

Azarenka will give up the No. 1 ranking to the second-ranked Williams on Monday but extended her current winning streak to 14 matches, which included her second Australian Open title.

More importantly, she may have turned around what has been a one-sided rivalry against Williams. Azarenka had not beaten Williams since 2009 in Miami, and had a 1-11 record against the American going into Sunday’s final.

“It feels incredible,” Azarenka said.

“You know, this tournament is really great. ... It had such a strong field going into it, and I’m really glad that in the end of the week I’m the one who’s holding the trophy.”

Azarenka broke to go up 2-1 when an

Schalke defiant

‘Bounce back against Bayern’ LONDON, Feb 18, (AFP): Arsene Wenger has called on his Arsenal side to bounce back from their humiliating FA Cup defeat by Blackburn when they face Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Boyhood Arsenal fan Colin KazimRichards’s second half goal sealed an unexpected 1-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday that sent secondtier Blackburn into the FA Cup quarterfinals 72 hours before Bayern arrive in north London for the first leg of their last 16 tie.

Arsenal must now overcome German giants Bayern, last season’s losing Champions League finalists, if they are to have any hope of ending their eightyear wait for a major trophy with the Gunners a massive 21 points adrift of Premier League leaders Manchester United.

“It’s a good opportunity to show we have character, and that we are men who can fight for each Wenger other in our next game,” said Arsenal manager Wenger as he tried to rally his players. “That’s all we can do.

Porto vs Malaga Aljazeera Sport+5 22:00 local (Tuesday)

Arsenal vs Bayern Aljazeera Sport+3 22:00 local (Tuesday)

“It’s about showing how strong and good we are in our next game. If we feel sorry for ourselves, we’d be completely wrong,” the Frenchman added.

“We have a massive game on Tuesday night and we have to show some response.”

Defeat by Blackburn marked the first time Arsenal had been beaten by a lower league side in the FA Cup since Wenger took charge in 1996.

And it came after another loss to a team below the Premier League — fourth-tier Bradford — sent the Gunners crashing out of the League Cup earlier this season.

Wenger insisted he did not regret leaving the likes of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla on the bench, pointing out he fielded a side packed with internationals. ❑

❑

❑

With one win in their last 11 games, Schalke 04 fly to Turkey for Wednesday’s Champions League last 16, first-leg in defiant mood despite low self-belief and with coach Jens Keller unsure of his future.

Having dropped from second to 10th in the Bundesliga, Brazil midfielder Michel Bastos saved Schalke’s blushes on Saturday with two goals as they twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Mainz and the precious point lifted them to eighth.

Schalke avoided travelling to Istanbul on the back of a third straight defeat, having been thumped 4-0 by Bayern Munich the previous week, with goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand admitting: “At least we know we’re still alive”.

The Royal Blues face runaway Turkish league leaders Galatasaray, who have been boosted by the signings of Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba, in the cauldron of Istanbul with USA midfielder Jermaine Jones insisting they must show belief.

“We have to go there with aggression and without fear”, said defensive midfielder Jones.

after eight games. Williams struggled with her first serve throughout the first set and hit 26 unforced errors, but still had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker.

However, she hit a poor forehand into the net, and Azarenka then converted her first set point with a great return.

Williams dominated the second set with her powerful serve and forehand,

TENNIS

Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka (right), and Serena Williams of the US pose with their trophies after the final match of Qatar WTA Ladies Open tennis tournament, in Doha, Qatar, on Feb 17. (AP)

erratic Williams hit one of her four double-faults in the first set, but the American ensured it was back on serve

while Azarenka could only hit 39 percent of her first serves.

Azarenka fell behind 0-30 in the first game of the decider but recovered and took a 3-0 lead. Williams then saved a match point at 5-2 to stay the match, but Azarenka clinched the win on her next service game when Williams hit a forehand wide.

“I just wanted to fight and give it my best, give myself every opportunity I can,” Azarenka said. “I started with love-

30 (in the third) and I was like, ‘You have to keep it together. You have to do something.’ Serena was on a roll ... so I had to really step up my game. I’m really glad I could turn it around and stay tough.”

Williams praised Azarenka’s performance but insisted she still wasn’t at her best. Struggling at times with a cold and still nursing a right ankle injury that bothered her at the Australian Open, Williams appeared sluggish in early-round matches and needed three sets to beat Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals.

She made 48 errors against Azarenka and only converted three of her seven break points.

“This whole week, I just don’t think I played my best tennis, and I was fighting every match,” she said. “I can’t play that quality game against a top player like Victoria. I have to be able to pick up my game, and I wasn’t able to do that today.

I stayed at a two out of a 10, and I can’t play that low.”

Williams had won her last eight finals. Still, she took comfort in the fact that she is returning to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in almost two and a half years. She becomes the oldest player to hold that title, breaking the mark previously held by Chris Evert, who was No. 1 in 1985 just shy of her 31st birthday.

“I’m definitely not happy, but I’m No. 1,” she said, smiling. “It was such a long journey, and after winning Wimbledon and the US Open and the (WTA) Championships, I thought, I just don’t think I can win anymore. I don’t know what it takes to be No. 1. So it was awesome to come here and achieve that goal.”

But with Azarenka’s win on Sunday, Williams’ stay atop the rankings may only last one week.

Azarenka can reclaim the top spot in

Dubai next week if she reaches the final and Williams does not.

But the rivalry doesn’t seem to prevent the players from getting along off the court, as they laughed and chatted about the upcoming Academy Awards after the trophy ceremony.

“I always respect Victoria. I think she’s a really good player. Obviously she’s so consistent and she plays well,” Williams said. “It’s nice to always play someone that you go home and you’re like, ‘OK, I didn’t do great, but let me work harder’. She inspires a lot of people to work harder, and definitely me.”

Azarenka agreed.

“I feel like we’re pushing each other to go to the limit every time, to step up, to improve, and that’s tremendous motivation to have,” she said. “You always know that somebody’s out there wants to push you. For me, it’s incredible privilege to be in that position.”

See Also Page 53

Blues, City advance in Cup Wigan beat Huddersfield 4-1 LONDON, Feb 17, (AP): Chelsea broke Brentford’s resistance with a potent second-half attacking display to eliminate the third-tier club from the FA Cup at the second attempt with a 4-0 victory on Sunday, while Manchester City crushed Leeds by the same score.

Held by Brentford three weeks ago, defending champion Chelsea couldn’t find a breakthrough until the 54th minute of the fourth-round replay when Juan Mata struck from the edge of the penalty area.

Oscar found the net for the second time in four days, Frank Lampard sidefooted in his 199th goal for the club, and captain John Terry completed the 4-0 thrashing with a header.

“They made it very difficult,” Terry said. “(They had) two banks of four and sat very deep.”

Chelsea will play at Middlesbrough on Feb. 27 in the fifth round. Man City is already through to the quarterfinals after beating second-tier club Leeds.

Yaya Toure put the Premier League champions ahead after five minutes before Sergio Aguero scored from the penalty spot, helped to set up Carlos Tevez’s close-range goal after the break and then collected his second off the post.

“It was important we bounced back,” City midfielder James Milner said.

“They’ve knocked a few Premier League teams out of cups this season, so it was important we did a job and we did it well. We had to improve on last week, we did that.”

In Sunday’s late cup match, Wigan beat Huddersfield 4-1.

The cup shocks of the weekend came on Saturday with second-tier club Blackburn winning at Arsenal and thirdtier team Oldham drawing with Everton.

United vs Reading Aljazeera Sport+3 22:00 local

Just how lucrative a cup run can be to lower-league teams was highlighted by Brentford estimating that it has earned more than $1 million from the two fourth-round matches against Chelsea.

The seventh-place team in League One — a point behind the playoff places — managed to repel waves of attacks by Chelsea with a disciplined display in the first half. The visitors even found the net just before half time through Marcello Trotta, but the referee had already blown for a foul on Brentford midfielder Adam Forshaw.

Chelsea’s finishing was wayward in the first half, although Oscar did hit the post. After the break, the intensity was raised — and Brentford paid the price.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech launched the ball forward, Demba Ba held off the Brentford defense, and Mata picked up possession before crisply striking into the net.

The second was even slicker from Oscar in the 68th.

Eden Hazard, who had just replaced Victor Moses, seized possession near the halfway line and powered into the penalty area where he sent the ball to Branislav Ivanovic. The right back cut the ball back to Oscar, who flicked it into

Chelsea’s English midfielder Frank Lampard (left), vies with Brentford’s English midfielder Tom Adeyemi (right), during the English FA Cup fourth round replay

Liverpool end 5-game winless run

Coutinho shines as Reds rout Swansea LIVERPOOL, Feb 17, (AFP): Liverpool ended a winless run of five games in impressive fashion on Sunday as they whipped an under-strength Swansea 5-0 in their Premier League clash.

Victory saw Liverpool leapfrog Swansea into seventh spot and give former Swans manager Brendan Rodgers something to smile about at the end of a week that saw defeats by West Brom and then Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League. A penalty from Steven Gerrard got them on their way and three goals early in the second-half from impressive debutant Philippe Coutinho, Jose Enrique and Luis Suarez wrapped up the points against a side seemingly distracted by the League Cup final with Bradford next Sunday.

Daniel Sturridge, who like Coutinho missed the Europa League match, added a fifth from the penalty spot.

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup was made to regret sending out a starting line-up shorn of several first choice players, including leading scorer Michu, preferring to give the 15-goal Spaniard time

on the bench. Liverpool, who in three previous Premier League meetings with Swansea had failed to score, made all the running from the kick-off with Suarez looking particularly sharp, going close first with a freekick and then another good effort, which crept over the bar.

Suarez, though, should have done better after Sturridge had done all the work in beating two defenders and then goalkeeper Michel Vorm before going to ground, but with the goal at his mercy

the net through three defenders.

After the struggle scoring in the first half, Chelsea took just three further minutes to make it 3-0. Mata broke down the left flank and squared the ball for an unmarked Lampard to volley into the net.

The 34-year-old midfielder’s 199th

goal puts him three behind Bobby Tambling’s club record, however he hasn’t been offered a new contract beyond the end of the season — much to the annoyance of Chelsea fans.

Another member of Chelsea’s old guard found the net in the 82nd, with Terry meeting Oscar’s cross with a head-

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the Uruguayan put the ball wide.

Liverpool’s appeals for a penalty for a foul on Sturridge fell on deaf ears.

However, the hosts did get a penalty in the 34th minute as Suarez was needlessly pushed by Kemy Agustien and Gerrard, who had missed a penalty in the defeat by West Brom last Monday, made no mistake from the spot.

Sturridge went close to doubling the lead shortly before half-time as his shot went over Vorm, but the visitors defence

EPL Standings LONDON, Feb 17, (AFP): English Premier League table after Sunday’s match.

P W D L GF GA Pts Man Utd 26 21 2 3 62 31 65 Man City 26 15 8 3 48 24 53 Chelsea 26 14 7 5 55 28 49 Tottenham 26 14 6 6 44 30 48 Arsenal 26 12 8 6 50 29 44 Everton 26 10 12 4 40 32 42 Liverpool 27 10 9 8 49 34 39 Swansea 27 9 10 8 38 34 37 West Brom 26 11 4 11 36 35 37 Stoke 26 7 12 7 26 31 33

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P W D L GF GA Pts West Ham 26 8 6 12 29 38 30 Fulham 26 7 8 11 36 42 29 Sunderland 26 7 8 11 28 34 29 Norwich 26 6 11 9 25 40 29 Southampton 26 6 9 11 36 45 27 Newcastle 26 7 6 13 34 46 27 Aston Villa 26 5 9 12 25 50 24 Reading 26 5 8 13 33 48 23 Wigan 26 5 6 15 30 51 21 QPR 26 2 11 13 19 41 17 Note: Standings read as played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points.

er.

At Etihad Stadium, a City win seemed certain from the fifth minute after neat link-up play between David Silva, Tevez and Yaya Toure led to the latter rounding goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown and scoring.

Ten minutes later, Aguero was on tar-

got back to clear the ball. The hosts did double their lead almost immediately from the kick-off as Coutinho, taking advantage of the Swansea defence not going in for the tackle, saw his shot go under Vorm and into the net.

The hosts added a glorious third in the 50th minute as Luis Enrique finished off a beautiful passing move involving Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge.

Swansea had completely capitulated and Suarez added a fourth six minutes later with a brilliant individual effort and soon after Rodgers decided Coutinho had done more than enough on his debut and took him off.

Sturridge was also a vibrant presence and Vorm had to be at his best to keep out a stinging effort but he deservedly did get his name on the scoresheet with a penalty in the 71st minute awarded for a handball by Wayne Routledge.

The hosts were reduced to 10 men for the last 10 minutes of the match, not that it mattered much to the outcome, after Fabio Borini, who had just come on as a substitute, was taken off in agony with what looked like a dislocated shoulder. get from the spot after the Argentina striker had tangled with Tom Lees.

Aguero provided the cross seven minutes after the break that Tevez tapped in at the far post. And Aguero found the net again in the 74th after latching onto Silva’s high, defense-splitting pass, and curling past Ashdown off the post.

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Editor-in-Chief AHMED AL JARALLAH

football match between Chelsea and Brentford at Stamford Bridge in London on Feb 17. (AFP)

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