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Emsak: Fajer: Shoruk: Dohr: Asr: Maghreb: Eshaa:

Deadly clashes rage in Aleppo

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

No: 15536

RAMADAN 23, 1433 AH

Vatican moves Gulf seat from Kuwait to Bahrain Bahrain provides land for construction of new church

JERUSALEM: Palestinian worshipers gather for prayers outside the Dome of the Rock at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem yesterday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim year which lasts 30 days, and is devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayers and good deeds. — AP

Max 48º Min 34º

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican is to move its representation in the Gulf from Kuwait to Bahrain to facilitate the organization of regional meetings of Christians, its regional head announced yesterday. “Bahrain is more central, since it is between Kuwait and Qatar and facing Saudi Arabia,” Bishop Camillo Ballin said in an interview with Radio Vatican. It is also easier to get visas for the Bahrain archipelago than for Kuwait, said Ballin, which “facilitates organizing meetings between priests and Catholics from other countries.” The Gulf seat is known as an apostolic vicariate, a base for the Holy See in countries where there is no diocese.

According to Vatican estimates, around two million Catholics live in the Gulf, the vast majority in strictly Muslim Saudi Arabia. Most are immigrant workers from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Between 100,000 and 140,000 Catholics live in Bahrain. A decision by Bahrain’s government to provide land for the construction of a new church is an important gesture to Catholics in the region, said Ballin. “This is a sign of openness, important for Bahrain, and I hope it will serve as a model for other countries too,” he said. The Holy See has raised concerns that Christians living in countries where Islam is the dominant religion have to hide their faith.— AFP

in the

news

iPhone-for-kidney case

3 US troops killed

Attacks kill 10 in Iraq

BEIJING: A surgeon and four other people are on trial in central China over the case of a teenager who is said to have sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad 2, state media reported yesterday. The state-run China Daily newspaper said that 18-year-old Wang Shangkun is in serious condition after receiving an illegal transplant operation last year. The five people on trial stand accused of intentional injury and illegal organ trading over the removal and sale of the organ and face three to 10 years in prison if convicted, the paper said. A woman who answered the phone at the Beihu district people’s court in the city of Chenzhou, Hunan province, said that the trial was in session yesterday, though offered no details. She declined to give her name. Citing court documents, the China Daily said that Wang agreed to sell his kidney after contacting an illegal agency online. Wang’s mother, Ou Linchun, told the court that her son did not sell his kidney to purchase the Apple devices.

KABUL: A man in an Afghan army uniform shot and killed three American service members yesterday morning in southern Afghanistan, the US military command said. The Taleban claimed the shooter joined the insurgency after the attack. The shooting happened in Sangin district of Helmand province, said US military spokeswoman Maj Lori Hodge. She gave no details and said the military were investigating. The attack is the third killing this week of coalition soldiers by Afghans they are training to take over responsibility for security once most international forces leave in 2014.

Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker, whom he identified as a member of Helmand police named Asadullah, had joined the insurgency after his attack. Ahmadi said the man was helping US forces train the Afghan Local Police troops.

The US is hoping the Afghan Local Police will be a key force to fight the insurgency after most international troops withdraw.

BAGHDAD: A string of insurgent attacks, including a car bomb targeting a Shiite mosque, killed 10 people in Iraq yesterday, officials said. The strikes highlight the challenges still facing Iraq’s Shiite-led government as it struggles to maintain security over the country. The car bomb struck a Shiite mosque as worshippers were performing Friday prayers in a village near the former Al-Qaeda stronghold of Mosul, a city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Three people were killed and 35 wounded in that attack, police officials said. Hours earlier, gunmen opened fire on a group of socalled Sahwa fighters manning a checkpoint near the town of Dujail, 50 miles north of the Iraqi capital. The Sahwa are Sunni Arabs who joined forces with the US military to fight Al-Qaeda’s Iraq branch at the height of the country’s insurgency.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Four-member gang in custody in Jleeb Copper worth KD 80,000 stolen KUWAIT: Four men were arrested recently in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh where they were caught with possession of stolen copper worth KD 80,000. Sabah Al-Salem police station officers launched investigations after receiving reports about three thefts that took place within six days at a number of stores in Sabhan. Detectives used the help of a telecom tower to detect a signal of a phone used while committing the act.

They identified its user and traced it to a location in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh.

The suspect, a Bangladeshi man, was caught as soon as he came out of the store. The stolen items were also recovered.

His accomplices, two Bangladeshi men and one Egyptian man, were arrested as police waited for them to arrive at the scene and loaded the stolen items for sale at Amghara scrap. Investigations revealed that the suspects carried out seven thefts

before and successfully sold the items in Amghara. They plan to leave the country for good. They remain in custody pending legal procedures.

Foul play Investigations are ongoing to unearth the circumstances behind the death of a 38-year-old man at Bnaid Al-Gar. The Pakistani victim was found lying unconscious near a restaurant in the area, and was pronounced dead by paramedics who arrived at the scene.

Criminal investigators removed the body for an autopsy to reveal the cause of death. Evidence of foul play was found.-Al-Rai Salmiya fraud A worker at a restaurant in Salmiya was arrested for committing fraud. He reportedly collected money for meals he agreed to distribute for free to fasting people. A

female citizen approached police and pressed charges against the worker, explaining that he collected KD 0.500 for each meal that was supposed to be given for free as per an agreement to distribute free iftar meals.

The man was put behind bars when he admitted to committing the act. He remains in custody pending legal procedures.

Suicide attempt An Asian woman who suffered severe injuries after falling off a height in an apparent suicide attempt was hospitalized. An ambulance rushed to the scene in Al-Khadliya recently after receiving a report about the incident.

The woman is currently recovering at the Mubarak Hospital where police are waiting for her condition to stabilize to launch investigations. Investigations with her sponsor are underway.

KUWAIT: The car accident along the bridge connecting the Al-Maghreb Highway and the First Ring Road.

One dead in car crash

By Hanaan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: One motorist was killed and another was injured in a serious car collision that took place on Thursday night along a bridge connecting the Al-Maghreb Highway and the First Ring Road.

Firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene in response to an emergency call. Following the collision, the vehicle skidded off the road, and the other vehicle flipped over and caught fire. A 26-year-old citizen died on the scene and another citizen was hospitalized with multiple injuries.

An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances behind the accident.

Prisoner tries to escape from hospital

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior said that security officials from the reform establishments have arrested an inmate caught trying to escape from Farwaniya hospital. The inmate is currently serving a 10-year sentence and was in the hospital to receive treatment for various health problems, when the attempted escape took place. The inmate was reportedly apprehended by security officials without incident.

Police hunt murder suspect Ahmadi public prosecutors ordered the detention of a 26-year-old Ethiopian maid who works for a citizen at Umm Al Haiman on charges of murder.

Security sources said that a newborn infant arrived at Umm Al Haiman clinic dead. After further investigation, authorities discovered the infant was the child of the Ethiopian maid, who was born out of wedlock.

According to the prosecutors, the maid placed the child into a bag after the birth, which resulted in the infant’s death.

The maid’s sponsor and his wife had noticed that the maid appeared very weak, and when they enquired she confessed that she had given birth to a child and had put the child in a bag. The sponsor opened the bag, but the infant was already dead.

Syrian expats arrested Jahra police arrested three Syrian expats in connection with collecting money for the benefit of the Free Syrian Army without permit. Policemen noticed many citizens frequenting a multipurpose hall in Jahra and caught the three Syrians while collecting money. They recovered more than KD 20,000 in cash with them.

Investigations into the case are underway.

Al-Juwaihel remanded Member of the 2012 annulled Parliament Mohammad Al-Juwaihel has been remanded into

custody for ten more days. Sources said that the decision was taken in accordance with the new law that has been approved by the annulled 2012 Assembly.

They added that the prosecution has indicted AlJuwaihel in four charges so far, and is continuing investigations. Sources said they will not reveal the nature of charges pressed against Al-Juwaihel, adding that they vary, including some felonies.

Traffic campaigns in Al-Surra

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The traffic department continued its traffic campaigns in response to citizens having filed several reports about traffic violations in their neighborhood, mainly about car racing. A campaign was carried out south of Al-Surra, in the street that separates Hittin and Al Salem.

Two patrols were in action and together handed out 26 traffic citations of different kinds, detained 3 cars and took three people to Al Zahra police station for not carrying identification.

The operation department undertook a traffic campaign just before Iftar at Al Ghous street, which resulted in 23 traffic citations and the detention of 17 vehicles. In another campaign before Iftar at Al Blajat street, 15 traffic citations were handed out and 15 vehicles detained.

Meanwhile, Mubarak Al Kabeer governorate traffic has issued 81 traffic citations, of which 43 were direct and 38 were indirect. The traffic department said that campaigns will continue throughout the state and on call roads.

Medical emergency teams ready for ‘Qiyam Al Lail’

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Medical emergency teams will directly participate in the last ten days of Ramadan at Jaber Al Ali Mosque. A clinic has been prepared for women and another for men, as well as two ambulances with full medical staff, doctors, nurses and technicians.

Additionally, there is indirect participation by connecting the mosque’s administration with the nearest rescue centers and operation departments for medical emergencies. Here are some tips for those doing “Qiyam Al Lail”, prayers at night. ● Make sure your home is secure before leaving. ● For those with high blood pressure and diabetes, be sure of your health condition before going to the mosque. ● Take the necessary medicine and your health card so that medical emergency teams know of your sickness in case you require attention.

LOCAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

‘Unite in the face of outside dangers’ MANAMA: Citizens of member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) must sense looming dangers and close their ranks to confront upcoming plots aimed at sowing seeds of discord in the region, stressed the Kuwaiti ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Patriotism and loyalty constitute the foundation for stability and security, and all considerations must be put under the umbrella of national unity, said Sheikh Azzam Mubarak Al-Sabah, addressing a meeting with religious scholars in the kingdom, late on Thursday.

Scholars play a significant role in the promotion of moderation and tolerance.

Such values are implanted in the conscience of the natives of the Gulf, said Sheikh Azzam, addressing the honored clerics.

The diplomat warned of “stormy conditions in the region,” adding, “we must sense the looming dangers and face all challenges with the heart of a single man.”

Turning to the domestic front in Kuwait, Sheikh Azzam criticized the time and energy that political debates and bickering consume, warning that pointless debates have been draining resources, instead of utilizing them for constructive action and development.

Moreover, he affirmed that guidelines of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Al-Sabah must be adopted for promotion of Kuwait. —KUNA

‘Prolonged crisis may threaten state budget’ New constitutional dilemma KUWAIT: The Cabinet’s decision to refer the electoral constituencies’ law to the Constitutional Court, leaves the fate of the 2009 Parliament dangling; until the court determines whether the current voting mechanism is constitutional.

Parliamentary sources said “a new constitutional dilemma” is looming if no action is taken regarding the parliament until October. Last Tuesday, the 2009 parliament failed to convene for the second consecutive week since it was reinstated by a Constitutional Court ruling in June.

Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi told reporters after the session was adjourned because of a lack of quorum that no future sessions will take place as the issue will be left for HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah to take the next step. The following day, Sheikh Mohammad AlAbdullah Al-Sabah, Minister of Information announced taking steps “before the end of next week” to verify the constitutionality of the electoral law which divides Kuwait into five constituencies and allows each citizen to vote for four candidates.

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity explain that according to the Constitution, the new parliamentary term will begin in late October “while we approach this date without having the current term correctly concluded.” A parliamentary term cannot be concluded

unless lawmakers pass the government’s general budget.

MP Adnan Abdulsamad warned that Kuwait could face a budget deficit by the end of the year if the state’s budget, estimated at KD 24 billion, is not passed. While explaining that the government could adopt last year’s budget of KD 19 billion in case a new budget is not passed, AlAbdulsamad noted that the state would not be able to proceed with new projects not included in the previous budget. This scenario, according to Al-Abdulsamad, would hurt new projects as well as create problems in appointing jobseekers in the public sector “since the new budget would determine the new job openings to be covered by salaries included in said budget,” reported Al-Qabas.

A group of youth activists gathered at the Iradah Square late Thursday night in protest against the government’s step, which is condemned by the opposition who had previously threatened to lead public demonstrations if the current electoral system is changed.

“The government represented by the Information Minister are putting pressure on the judiciary to release orders that fall in line with their wishes. All that happens in front of everyone to see,” MP Abdurrahman Al-Anjari said in a statement Thursday after Sheikh Mohammad Al-

KRCS distributes humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan KUWAIT: Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) affirmed on Thursday that its field team in Jordan is continuing to distribute aid supplies to Syrian refugees residing in Al-Mafraq City to alleviate current circumstances they are going through.

In a statement, KRCS quoted Nabil Boftain, head of KRCS’s field team in Jordan, as saying that aid supplies were distributed today to around 500 Syrian refugee families in Al-Mafraq City in cooperation with Jordanian Red Crescent.

Boftain pointed out that the two aid committees set up a “work plan” that includes relief convoys that would deliver aid supplies to all Jordanian governorates where Syrian refugees are currently residing, adding that the field team has monitored basic necessities of Syrian families in Jordan and is currently working on processing those necessities and deliver them to those families as soon as possible.

Furthermore, he noted that they are currently working on processing thousands of food packages that would be distributed to Syrian refugees during the upcoming days in various Jordanian cities, including Irbid governorate. — KUNA

Abdullah’s press conference. Meanwhile, a member of the annulled 2012 parliament Mohammad Al-Muttar denied rumors hinting that the Islamic Constitutional Movement(ICM) fails to share the same sentiments with the opposition about the government’s decision. “The ICM is part of the Majority Bloc, but there are parties responsible for failed attempts to hurt the solidarity of the Kuwaiti people in general,” Al-Muttar said. The Majority Bloc refers to a coalition of oppositionists who dominated majority seats in the 2012 parliamentary elections results, which were rendered null and void by the Constitutional Court’s June verdict.

Several MPs released statements urging the Cabinet to go ahead with procedures to dissolve the 2009 parliament as soon as possible. “The government’s seriousness [in resolving the current political problem] will be determined by whether they file a letter of no cooperation with the parliament to the Amir,” said MP Falah AlSawagh.

Meanwhile, member of the 2012 parliament Mohammad Al-Dallal reiterated that a vote of no-cooperation, based on which the Amir can dissolve the Parliament constitutionally, is justified “when the Parliament failed to convene in order to allow ministers to swear-in before lawmakers,” reported Al-Rai.

Kuwait to ‘organize’ use of social networking websites KUWAIT: The Information Ministry is working toward updating the audio-visual and press laws “to organize the use of social networking websites,” in Kuwait, a senior ministry official said.

“Social networking websites have become new sources of information which are yet to be organized from a legal and technical standpoint,” Undersecretary Sheikh Salman Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah said, indicating that the source of news posted through Twitter and Facebook “remain subject to intense suspicion.”

Regarding the nature of measures the ministry plans to take, Al-Sabah said, “individuals using fake accounts to spread sectarianism with the purpose of creating sectarian struggle.” He added that the ministry found out following investigation that some of the controversial topics discussed on Twitter recently “were raised by irresponsible accounts outside Kuwait, aiming to hurt national unity.” — Al-Rai

Domestic visa transfer till Nov 18

KUWAIT: Volunteers distributing Kuwait Red Crescent Society aid to Syrian refugees residing in Al-Mafraq City.

KUWAIT: The grace period during which domestic helpers will be allowed to transfer their visa from Article 20 to Article 18 will be remain till Nov 1, 2012, an official source from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL) said.

He denied that any extension will be allowed.

He said the only change made will be in allowing visa transfer to the same sponsor or any of his first degree relatives. Meanwhile, the source said that working hours have been extended to 3 pm to deal with the shortage in most labor departments.

local

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Environmentalism in Islam

T

NO: 15536

23

RAMADAN 23, 1433 AH

What was the only country mentioned in the Holy Quran?

Egypt Syria Palestine

here are many issues today that have given rise to environmentalism, which is, of course, the active participation in attempts to solve environmental pollution and resource problems. This concept is not new, however. Historically, the Quran orders the wise treatment of the earth and its resources and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) dictates a “green” character, with deep concern for the environment and its plant and animal life.

God tells us in the Quran that He has created the earth for our benefit, and has subjected it to our use. However, we are instructed not to be wasteful: “Eat and drink, but waste not by excess, for God loves not the wasters.”

(7:31) Even when resources seem unlimited, they should not be wasted, as ordered by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) when he said, “Do not waste water, even if you live near a river.” Regarding carelessness with the environment, the Quran says, “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea because of what the hands of people have earned, so that He may let them taste part of (the consequences) of what they have done so that perhaps they will reform.” (30:41) Regarding the protection of animals, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ordered his companions when traveling to let their camels graze. “When you are journeying through a fertile land, go slowly so that your camels graze. And when you pass through a barren and dry land, go quickly so that your animals don’t get hungry and weak.” (Muslim) He forbade his followers to kill animals except for food and that when they are brought to slaughter the knife should be sharp: “Do it in a way that does not inflict much pain on the animal...” (Muslim) He praised the kind treatment of animals among his people and warned that the mistreatment of animals will lead to punishment in the next life.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) forbade his followers from destroying crops and trees, even in war time, and encouraged the planting of trees, with the promise that whatever birds or animals ate from them would be considered charity. He also said, “If the Judgment comes and in your hand is a seedling, then continue to plant it.”

Most recently, environmentalists are recommending “green burials.” This is nothing new for Muslims, who bury their dead directly in the earth wrapped only in a cotton cloth. This ensures a return to the earth without the harmful chemical preservatives typically used in embalming. It also saves land, since there are no large caskets and tombstones buried in the ground.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) encouraged his followers to keep a pollution-free environment, saying, “To remove something harmful from the roads is charity.” It is easy to see how Islam is a “green” way of life and how Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was an early environmentalist with a deep respect for the earth and all its creatures. ● Courtesy, AWARE Center The AWARE Center, an acronym of Advocates for Western-Arab Relations, provides a variety of services and facilities for Western expatriates in Kuwait to make their stay more interesting and comfortable. For more information, log onto: www.aware.com.kw

LOCAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

NBK hosts Girgian for Zeina Friends Club members KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently held a Girgian event for Zeina Friends Club at Baroue at the Avenues mall.

All Zeina Friends Club members were invited to celebrate Girgian at the Baroue children’s store.

Children enjoyed many fun activities with NBK’s famous camel character Jamoul. The event also witnessed the announcing of Zeina quarterly draw winner in addition to distributing hundreds of valuable prizes and gifts.

Towards the end of the evening, each child

was given a specially packed Girgian gift from NBK. Zeina account provides children until 14 years old with their first bank account, to learn about saving and banking with the help of their parents. Zeina Friends Club is the first

club in Kuwait established in 1994 for young children.

Zeina account holders can also participate in other fun events held year round, as well as benefit from many offers especially designed for them.

Al Fallah Soup

Fattoush with majdouli cheese and habet al baraka

by Chef Kassem Al-Ashek Ingredients: 1 cup toasted thin shredded saj bread, fried 3 medium sized cucumbers, peeled and diced, 1 romaine lettuce heart, shredded 1 large tomato, or more if desired 1 large white onion 1/2 cup parsley, chopped 1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped 1/2 cup baqli leaves 2 cloves garlic 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 tsp sammak 1/2 cup olive oil 1 large green pepper 2 tablespoon molasses Salt to taste 60 grams majdouli cheese 10 grams habet el Baraka 30 grams pomegranate Method: Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl, including chopped cucumbers, lettuce, green pepper, tomato, parsley, mint, and baqli.

Sprinkle chopped onions with salt. Mix well and slowly add olive oil with molasses. Taste.

Adjust salt. Pound garlic to a paste, add salt and lemon juice. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of pounded sammak, if available. Pour into a salad bowl, add toasted bread and majdouli cheese on top, then sprinkle habet al baraka and pomegranate over the fattoush.

Ingredients: 400 gm kafta 2 liter beef stock 40 milliliter corn oil 1 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon. cinnamon 1/4 cup chopped parsley 200 gram chopped onions 200 gram diced carrots 200 gram diced potato 100 gram Egyptian rice 80 gram vermicelli Method: Grind meat several times. Mix well with parsley, onion salt and pepper. Shape into balls the size of marbles and brown in hot fat. Bring soup bones and meat to a boil with water in pressure cooker. Skim. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes heat the oil and cook the onion, potato and carrots then add the stock, rice and vermicelli. Add meatballs. Cook under pressure for 10 minutes. Add parsley and cinnamon, salt to taste.

Serve it with lemon wedges and toasted bread.

Ambassadors take part in Palms Beach Hotel Ghabqa KUWAIT: A large number of Arab and foreign ambassadors attended the annual diplomatic ghabqa held at the Jawa tent upon an invitation extended by Rabie AlSukhon, General Manager of the Palms Beach Hotel and Spa. Rabie and the management team warmly welcomed the ambassadors who experienced the magic of the ambience where they shared conversations and relished the

buffet as well as traditional Ramadan drinks and desserts prepared by expert chefs. They also enjoyed traditional eastern live music. In his speech, Rabie wished them all success in their mission and praised relations between the diplomatic corps and the Department of Hotel and Resort at Palm Beach.

The dignitaries expressed their thanks and appreciation to the hotel’s management for organizing the event.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Sinai killings, violence end Hamas-Egypt honeymoon

8

Gaddafi opponent named head of Libyan Assembly

12

Ernesto kills 3; weakens to tropical depression

14

News

in brief

Historic US town of 2 goes on auction block LOS ANGELES: A historic American town with a population of two people will be auctioned off on August 15, the auctioneers Williams & Williams said Thursday. The northwestern town of Garryowen, Montana, little over 7.7 acres, includes houses, a grocery store, a fast food restaurant, a shop and a post office. “The town has a population of two, making it one of the smallest towns in the United States,” reads the auction house’s website. The parcel of land is also situated on the site of the legendary 1876 battle of Little Big Horn, in which US troops led by General George Armstrong Custer were routed by Native American tribes, including the Cheyenne and the Sioux.

The historic defeat, in which Custer was killed, has inspired books and a number of films, including “Little Big Man” (1970), with actor Dustin Hoffman. The bid for the little piece of Americana will open at $250,000. Up for auction alongside the parcel are a collection of manuscripts and personal belongings of Custer’s widow, also up at a starting price of $250,000. Williams & Williams sold Buford, Wyoming-billed as the smallest town in America-to a Vietnamese national for $900,000 at auction in April.

14 bodies stuffed into SUV in Mexico MEXICO CITY: Police found the bodies of 14 men stuffed into a sport utility vehicle near a gas station in northern Mexico on Thursday, authorities said. The men were apparently shot to death and evidence suggested the killings were drug-related, said Gabriela Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the San Luis Potosi state prosecutor’s office. The bodies were discovered after police received an anonymous tip, she said. San Luis Potosi has been the scene of turf battles between the Zetas gang and allies of the Sinaloa drug cartel. In a separate act of violence in the north, gunmen hung two men from a bridge in Monterrey and shot them to death while horrified motorists watched Thursday afternoon, a Nuevo Leon state police official said. The assailants hung the two men by their hands from a pedestrian bridge and then shot them from the highway, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. Monterrey, the third-largest city in Mexico, is considered territory of the Zetas, a cartel that was founded by former enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. The groups split in early 2010, setting off a bloody battle for territory in northeastern Mexico. Another group, the Sinaloa cartel, later joined the fight as a Gulf Cartel ally.

Drug ‘queen’ extradited MEXICO CITY: US authorities extradited one of the most notorious women accused of links to Mexico’s drug trade on Thursday, Mexican officials said. Mexican police handed over Sandra Avila Beltran, a 52-year-old known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” at an airport in the central city of Toluca. Avila is expected to appear before a federal judge in Florida on charges of criminal conspiracy and drug trafficking. From at least January 1999 to March 2004, she is accused of belonging to “a drug trafficking organization dedicated to buying and transporting between Colombia and the United States of America,” Mexican prosecutors said in a statement. Avila was arrested in September 28, 2007, south of Mexico City.

Her lawyers had previously won three appeals to avoid her extradition.

ALEPPO: An image grab shows the bodies of three men who were killed by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in the Zahrar neighborhood of the northern restive city of Aleppo. — AFP

UK to give $7.82 million to rebels Syrians flee Aleppo; Rebels plan counter-attack LONDON: Britain will give Syrian rebels a further £5 million to buy communications equipment and medical supplies to use in their fight against President Bashar AlAssad, the Foreign Office said yesterday.

Foreign Secretary William Hague was due to announce the aid alongside an increase in contacts with the opposition, especially the Free Syrian Army, but Britain will still not supply weapons. A Foreign Office spokesman said that Hague was expected to announce the extra £5 million ($7.82 million, 6.3 million euros) at a press conference later.

Hague said in an article in The Times newspaper that Britain was stepping up its non-lethal aid because the “people of Syria cannot wait while the wheels of diplomacy turn”. “This week, on my instructions, my ambassador-level representative to the Syrian opposition has contacted and is meeting political elements of the Free Syria Army,” he said.

Hague said Britain’s contacts with the often fractious Syrian rebel movement were aimed at helping them unite against Assad. “This is not taking sides in a civil war. The risk of total disorder and a power vacuum is so great that we must build relationships now with those who may govern Syria in the future,” he said.

Meanwhile, rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces in Aleppo promised a counter-attack yesterday after losing ground earlier and residents fled in cars crammed with belongings during a lull in fighting. The rebels

were pushed back from the Salaheddin district on Thursday by troops seeking to reestablish control over Syria’s largest city and its economic hub - a crucial arena in a struggle which the United Nations said would have no winner. “I have about 60 men positioned strategically at the frontline and we are preparing a new attack today,” said Abu Jamil, a rebel commander, saying sniper fire in Salaheddine had prevented his men from retrieving a comrade’s body for two days.

Reuters journalists saw residents streaming out of Aleppo, seizing on a calm spell to pack vehicles with mattresses, fridges and toys. At least two air force planes flew overhead. Random shooting echoed from inside Salaheddine, a former rebel stronghold that controls access to Aleppo from the south, and an unmanned drone aircraft buzzed directly overhead.

Some residents of the shattered neighborhood slipped back to try to salvage possessions, despite army snipers lurking there. Two civilians were hit by gunfire in nearby streets.

One, apparently shot in the buttocks, was dragged off the street by rebels and treated by medics before being taken to a field clinic. A second man was wounded in the back and arm. Blood soaked through the sleeve of his yellow jacket and his face was contorted in pain as rescuers put him in a vehicle. Assad is fighting to crush a rebellion that aims to end his family’s four decades in charge of Syria. A member of the country’s Alawite minority, Assad is

engaged in an all-consuming fight with mostly Sunni Muslim foes who Damascus says are backed by Sunni-led states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

NO WINNER Though sympathetic to the rebels, neither these countries nor Western powers have intervened militarily. Russia and China have blocked any UN Security Council action against Syria. Iran, Syria’s closest foreign ally, called for “serious and inclusive” talks between the government and opposition at a meeting of states sympathetic to Assad in Tehran on Thursday. “There will be no winner in Syria,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a message to the conference.

“Now, we face the grim possibility of longterm civil war destroying Syria’s rich tapestry of interwoven communities.”

Diplomats said veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi could be named next week to replace the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, who quit in frustration at the deadlock among vetowielding powers at the United Nations.

Britain said yesterday it would increase non-lethal aid to Syria’s opposition, including the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Foreign Secretary William Hague wrote in the Times newspaper that he had also instructed a senior diplomat to give Assad’s foes “a tough message that they must observe human rights standards, whatever horrors are perpetrated by the regime”.— Agencies

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Sinai killings end Hamas-Egypt honeymoon RAFAH: An attack by Sinai militants that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers has brought a swift end to the honeymoon between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Egypt’s new Islamist president, analysts say. Following the election of Mohamed Morsi in June, relations with Hamas had appeared to get off to a good start, with the Egyptian leader taking steps in the past few weeks to ease the restrictions on the Egypt-Gaza border.

But everything changed on Sunday night, when gunmen killed 16 Egyptian guards in Sinai, with sources in Cairo suggesting the attackers had come from Gaza.

Although Hamas swiftly condemned the bloodshed and moved to close down the network of tunnels running under the border, its relations with Cairo were “were seriously damaged and will need a lot of time to recover,” says political analyst Mukhaimer Abu Saada. The “honeymoon phase” between Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Morsi “didn’t last long” because of “popular and military pressure on Morsi” which is likely to cause him to backtrack on pledges to extend the opening hours at the Rafah border crossing, according to Abu Saada. But the effect “will not last long if proven that no one in Gaza was involved,” says Abu Saada, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City.

Deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad has said Hamas is holding “intensive” discussions with Cairo to “contain the repercussions of the terror attack” and to avoid a “humanitarian crisis” likely to be brought on by the closure of the tunnels, which provide a life line to the Gaza Strip. But experts believe Egypt will destroy the tunnels, which are causing it a major security headache. Political scientist Walid al-

Mudalal says the Sinai attack “gives reasonable grounds to Egyptian authorities to open Rafah crossing,” to avoid the dangers of unregulated passage through tunnels.

But Abu Saada disagrees, since although the tunnels do create a problem for Egypt, closing them completely “requires an understanding with the Hamas government.” Mudalal believes

ade is lifted.” But analysts say Egypt is facing international pressure, including from Israel, to keep tight control over the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the world not controlled by Israel. “Israel is turning people against Gaza and trying to turn Egyptian public opinion against it to prevent a reopening of the crossing or ease the blockade, to neutralize Egypt in the

RAFAH BORDER: Travelers walk with their belongings towards the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing yesterday. Egypt temporarily reopened the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, which was closed after militants attacked troops and killed 16 soldiers. — AFP Egypt may allow several tunnels designated for delivering fuel and building materials until the development of a “free trade zone” on the border, which would rule out the need for tunnels. “I think both Gaza and Egypt are ready for this solution.” Ihab Al-Ghussein from Gaza’s interior ministry insists Hamas “does not need the tunnels, and will close them if the suffocating block-

Warning shots, tear gas fired to disperse Tunisia protesters SIDI BOUZID: Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets late Thursday to disperse a second anti-government protest in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of last year’s revolution. Some 800 demonstrators furious at police intervention against a protest earlier in the day threw stones at security forces who again replied with rubber bullets and tear gas. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

On Thursday morning hundreds of demonstrators demanding the resignation of the Islamist-led government had tried to force their way into the provincial government headquarters, before the police fired tear gas and warning shots into the air. The protesters broke through the entrance to the compound, but when the shots and tear gas were fired, the panicked crowd scattered, an AFP journalist said. One person wounded by a rubber bullet and four others affected by the tear gas were taken to hospital, an official there said, adding that none of them was seriously hurt.

The demonstrators had been chanting anti-government slogans such as “The people want the regime to fall!” accusing the ruling elite of “hypocrisy” and demanding the right to work. Several opposition groups took part in the protest, including the Republican Party, the Tunisian Workers Party and Al-Watan, as well as political independents. “The people’s demands for an improvement in their quality of life are becoming more and more insistent, but unfortunately the government is not there to serve the people,” Mohammed Ghadri, a member of the Republican Party said.

A similar incident took place at the end of June, when protesters angered over their living conditions attacked the same building, hurling rocks and burning tyres, with police firing tear gas to disperse them. —AFP

event of an Israeli attack in the strip,” says Mustafa al-Sawaf, a political analyst and former editor-in-chief of Hamas-run Palestine newspaper.

Yet even so, relations “will soon be back to normal, and this incident might increase security cooperation and coordination between Gaza and Egypt,” Sawaf says.

Mudalal agrees. The attack, he says “will

lead to a better security coordination” and will formalize cooperation between Gaza and Egypt, “including at the border and in confronting extremist groups.” Hamas has been engaged in a crackdown on Salafist groups, which accuse the Gaza rulers of weakness in the face of Israel and criticize them for not imposing Islamic Sharia laws in the territory, and Ghussein says their number has “significantly diminished” over the past 18 months.

But Abu Saada believes Egypt has bigger fish than Gaza to fry. “Egypt’s priority is restoring security and stability in Sinai before anything else, and lifting the blockade and improving the situation in Gaza is secondary now.” To him, closing the crossing will be disastrous and will force Gaza into an explosive humanitarian crisis. The way out of this crisis is through “Palestinian reconciliation and reconstructing the Palestinian house.” Mudalal says the relationship between Hamas and Morsi’s administration is “not transient because Hamas and the Brotherhood share both ideology and agenda.” “The fallout from the attack,” he says, “is only a storm in a teacup.” He believes the opening of the Rafah border will “start gradually for humanitarian cases and will be observed, because closing it will be a return to the collective punishment of the Israeli occupation, which is something post-revolution Egypt will not accept.” Omar Shaaban, an economist who heads PALThink, a Gazabased research institute, does not think the closure of Rafah will last for long.

“Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has a huge role to play in preventing another blockade on Gaza because it is a blockade against the people and not against Hamas,” he said. — AFP

Egypt army masses troops Sinai checkpoint attacked EL-ARISH: Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula overnight, causing no casualties, as the army massed troops to quell increasingly deadly Islamist militants, a security source said yesterday. At the same time, security sources said six “terrorists” had been arrested in the Sinai. And Egypt temporarily reopened the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, which was closed after militants attacked troops on Sunday and killed 16 soldiers.

There were no further details on the overnight attack outside the town of ElArish in a region that has been increasingly on edge since Sunday’s raid. State news agency MENA said six “terrorist elements,” who a security source told AFP were known Islamist hardliners suspected of belonging to a jihadist group, had been arrested during patrols in North Sinai province. On Thursday, trucks carrying dozens of armored personnel carriers mounted with machineguns rolled through El-Arish heading to the east, where Bedouin Islamist militants have established a presence in villages near the borders with Gaza and with Israel.

El-Arish and its environs were calm yesterday, an AFP journalist said. A number of armored vehicles had taken up positions in the town, and a tank sat behind a barrier of sandbags painted

with Egypt’s black, white and red national colors on which was written the slogan “victory or death.” The build-up comes after state television reported that military helicopters and soldiers killed 20 militants on Wednesday in the first such operation in the Sinai in decades, in retaliation for the raid.

Israel said on Thursday it gave Egypt the go-ahead to deploy helicopters in Sinai, easing the restrictions on military presence in the peninsula set by a 1979 peace treaty between the neighboring countries. At a late-night meeting with Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal al-Din in El-Arish, roughly 50 kilometers west of the Gaza border, Bedouin tribal leaders demanded to see the bodies of the militants reportedly killed on Wednesday.

“We demanded that they present us the bodies, just one or two bodies, so we can be convinced,” said Eid Abu Marzuka, one of the Bedouin who took part in the meeting.

Others said they doubted the report, which a military commander in Sinai had confirmed. The tribal leaders said they had agreed to help the military and police to restore security in the lawless peninsula and close down tunnels used to smuggle contraband and weapons to the Gaza Strip. “There was a consensus among the tribes to destroy the tunnels.

Let (the Islamist rulers of Gaza) Hamas

be upset, we don’t care. Egypt should deal with the Palestinians through the Rafah border crossing,” said Marzuka.

“We are against smuggling, and against the siege,” he added, referring to the virtual blockade Israel imposed on the enclave after Hamas seized it in 2007.

Yesterday, Egyptian state television said it had been decided to reopen the Rafah crossing in the Gaza direction only, to allow people in Egypt to return home. Among them were Palestinian Muslims who were returning from pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. It did not say how long the “exceptional” opening would last. Egypt closed the crossing after Sunday’s raid, in which militants also commandeered a military vehicle and crossed the border into Israel before being killed. The military said the militants were supported by mortar fire from Gaza during the raid. The Sunday attack stunned the government and prompted Morsi to sack his intelligence chief and two army generals.

The interior minister said his forces and the military would defeat the militants with the help of the Bedouin tribes, who have been hostile toward the central government which they say marginalizes them. “With the help of the people (of Sinai), the mission will succeed,” he told reporters after the meeting. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Crime fears go viral in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: The fear of crime is soaring in Malaysia as personal tales of abduction, assault and robbery go viral online, upping pressure on authorities to respond and triggering scrutiny of official claims that offences are down. Shopping malls and residents’ groups have launched patrols, sales of security equipment are surging, newspapers offer tips on how to avoid becoming a victim and social media are abuzz with anguish over the situation. Residents of the multi-ethnic Muslim-majority country-one of the most developed and stable in Southeast Asia-have long complained about bagsnatching and other petty crime.

But more serious recent incidents have gained wide attention on the Internet, channeling public concern in a country where nearly half the population of 28 million is on Facebook. A day after two men tried to abduct Chin Xin-Ci at knifepoint in her car at an upscale Kuala Lumpur mall in May, she wrote about the ordeal on the social networking site, a post that was shared more than 51,000 times. Fearing rape, she escaped by jumping from the vehicle as it slowed to exit the carpark. The attackers-as

in many cases-got away. “To me, it felt like one long nightmare. We never think it’s going to happen to us... and then it does,” the 24-year-old wrote.

Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged to reduce crime after taking power in 2009 and, with fresh elections due next year, his government claims progress, saying the crime problem is being hyped online. It said the number of reported crimes fell 11.1 percent in 2011 and was down 10 percent in the first half of 2012, crediting stepped-up patrols in crime-hit areas and increased lighting in public. But many victims say officers tell them there is little they can do to catch bag-snatchers and muggers, and critics say the drop in reported crimes could be due to the resulting apathy about seeking police help. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein admitted authorities were losing the “perception” battle.

“I’m not in denial. This is something that needs to be addressed,” he said last month.

Malaysia’s official crime rate appears relatively low when compared internationally.

According to the most recent government data, 740 crimes were reported per 100,000

people in 2009, compared to 665 in famously low-crime Singapore, but differing methods of data compilation make such comparisons imprecise. Skepticism over the figures is rife, given that nearly every resident of Kuala Lumpur has been a victim-or knows at least one-of bag-snatching or “smash” thefts.

In the latter case, perpetrators on motorcycles will shatter a car window at a red light, snatch belongings, and utilise the capital’s notorious traffic jams to speed off unpursued. “There has been a spike over the past couple of weeks with regard to especially this snatch theft and crimes against women,” said Lee Lam Thye, vice-chairman of the government-linked Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation. “When this goes on the Internet and YouTube the impact is very great.” Some blame illegal immigrantsMalaysia has an estimated two million undocumented workers from its poorer neighbors in the region-but victims of some of the most brazen crimes say the perpetrators were Malaysians.

Whatever the causes, Facebook users are trading stories of women assaulted in mall

carparks, and knife-wielding robbers tying up families. In April, a 12-year-old Dutch boy was kidnapped in broad daylight entering his international school in an upmarket Kuala Lumpur area, prompting other schools to ramp up security. He was freed a week later after a ransom was paid. Malls, often jammed with people escaping the tropical heat, have seen a wave of reported car park attacks against women, prompting shopping centers to install “panic buttons”.

National police chief Ismail Omar insisted last month that incidents were few, but conceded that people were becoming afraid of visiting shopping complexes. Gated communities with guards are common. But unguarded neighborhoods are also now increasingly taking security into their own hands amid the widely held view that Malaysian police are ineffective and corrupt.

Retiree Teoh Yan Sing, 65, and his neighbors have hired a security guard, started nightly walking patrols of their neighborhood in a Kuala Lumpur suburb, and recently began blocking off streets at night. One neighbor ringed his home with barbed wire after a robbery. —AFP

China tries police for Gu Kailai murder cover-up Bo Xilai wife awaits verdict in murder trial HEFEI: Four Chinese police officers went on trial yesterday charged with covering up the killing of a British man, as the wife of a senior politician awaited the verdict in her trial for his murder. The men are accused of trying to protect the spouse of Bo Xilai, who was one of China’s most senior leaders until his downfall earlier this year in a political scandal that has shaken the ruling Communist party.

All four were senior police officials in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese megacity that Bo ran until he was sacked in March, and where British businessman Neil Heywood’s body was discovered in a hotel room last November. It is not clear whether Bo knew about the alleged cover-up, although the hearing is being closely watched for any hints on the likely fate of the charismatic and ambitious former leader. Bo was sacked from the powerful 25-member Communist Party Politburo in April and placed under investigation for violating party disciplineusually code for corruption. Nothing has been heard from him since.

His wife Gu Kailai is waiting to hear her fate after her one-day trial Thursday during which her lawyer did not contest the prosecution’s claim that she killed Heywood by pouring poison into his mouth when he was drunk. There is little doubt Gu will be found guilty, but while murder carries the death penalty in China legal experts say she is likely to be spared execution and will instead face a long jail term.

Her lawyer told the court her cooperation in the investigation-including “reporting offences by other people”-should be taken into account in her sentencing.

He also said Gu was not in full control of herself when she committed the crime, a court official told journalists after the hearing in the eastern city of Hefei. China’s official Xinhua news agency has said she had business dealings with Heywood and killed him after he threatened her son Bo Guagua following a dispute over money. It remains unclear when the verdict will be delivered, but it could be days or weeks away. Gu’s trial drew comparisons with that of Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s widow Jiang Qing, who along with the three other members of the “Gang of Four” was convicted for fomenting the tumultuous Cultural Revolution.

It was the latest stage in a scandal that has ended her husband’s promising political career and exposed deep divisions among China’s leaders ahead of a 10-yearly handover of power that starts later this year. Analysts say the Communist Party is keen to resolve the crisis before a major congress to be held later this year, when seven of its most senior leaders will stand down from their positions and hand over to a new generation. “It is quite clear that the authorities have reached an agreement over Bo Xilai,” said Joseph Cheng, professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong. —AFP

Bureaucrats ‘can steal a little’: India minister LUCKNOW: A provincial minister in India’s most populous state has sparked a scandal after suggesting to bureaucrats that they could “steal a little” if they performed well in their duties. Shivpal Singh Yadav, in charge of housing and construction in northern Uttar Pradesh state, on Friday hastily withdrew the offer he made a day earlier during a meeting with government employees which was also attended by journalists.

Yadav is an uncle to the state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party stormed into power on an anti-graft platform in elections held in graft-ridden Uttar Pradesh in March. “If you work hard, you can steal a little,

but don’t behave like bandits,” the Press Trust of India quoted Yadav as saying at the meeting in Etah town, about 200 kilometers from capital Lucknow. The comments drew flak from political opponents, prompting Yadav to retract his offer and accuse journalists of sneaking into the gathering. “I have taken back those words,” he told reporters in Lucknow yesterday. “Why are you raking it up? I don’t know why the media is targeting me,” he said. The offer came a month after his nephew warned about corruption in the overwhelming poor and underdeveloped state of nearly 200 million people, a population larger than Brazil’s. —AFP

PAOMBONG: Thousands of flood victims queue for food relief at a municipal building in the township of Paombong on the outskirts of Manila yesterday. — AFP

Philippines flood death toll hits 60 APALIT: Thousands more Philippine flood victims crammed into evacuation centers yesterday as waist-high water covered vast farming regions and the death toll from a week of misery rose to 60. The flooding that submerged 80 percent of Manila early in the week has largely subsided, allowing people to return to their homes, but vital rice-growing areas to the north remained under water as more rain fell there. “We need something to eat. I haven’t gone to work or been paid for a week,” said Rogelio Soco, a construction worker and father-of-three in the small farming town of Apalit, about 60 kilometers from Manila.

Soco, 60, said the floods, which began on Monday, were the worst the area had seen since a huge typhoon struck in the early 1970s, and other locals also said they had not experienced anything like it for decades. Around Apalit, formerly green rice paddies had been turned into an enormous inland ocean of brown water. Rice farmer Pablo Torres, 58, said his two-hectare (five-acre) field planted last month had likely been destroyed, and dozens of people in his community had suffered the same fate. “We will have to do it all over again... we have lost a lot of money here,” he said.

Nearly two weeks of monsoon rains across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon peaked with a 48-hour deluge earlier this week that battered Manila and surrounding regions. The government’s disaster co-ordination council said Friday that 60 people had been confirmed killed in this week’s floods, triple the number on Thursday. The extra deaths occurred mainly in the provinces during the initial deluges from Monday to Wednesday, but government officials in the outlying areas could not immediately report the casualties to Manila headquarters, the council said. The number of people now confirmed killed across the country since the rains first began in late July is 113, according to the council’s data. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Socialist leader often invokes US threat US citizen arrested for entering Venezuela illegally CARACAS: Venezuelan security forces have arrested an American citizen who entered the nation illegally with geographical coordinates in a notebook, President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday. In the tense run-up to an Oct 7 presidential election, the socialist leader has frequently mentioned the possibility of violence by opponents with US backing. Foes say that is typical grandstanding nonsense from Chavez, intended to curry support with the masses for his re-election bid by presenting himself as a victim of “imperial” plots.

At a campaign rally in the coastal town of Catia La Mar, Chavez said the man, of Latin American origin, was arrested four or five days ago crossing into Venezuela from Colombia. “He has the look of a mercenary. We are interrogating him,” Chavez said, adding that the man had stamps in his passport from visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. When he was detained, the man tried to destroy a notebook full of coordinates, Chavez said in the middle of a speech carried live on state TV, implying a plot was

South Korea president visits disputed islands Japan fumes, recalls envoy SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak paid a surprise visit yesterday to islands at the centre of a decades-long territorial dispute with Japan, which recalled its ambassador from Seoul in protest. Lee was making the first-ever visit by a South Korean president to the rocky volcanic outcrops in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), roughly midway between South Korea and its former colonial ruler Japan. Disregarding Tokyo’s warnings that the visit would strain already prickly relations, Lee toured the main island and shook hands with coastguards as a South Korean flag fluttered in the breeze.

“Dokdo is indeed our territory and a place worth staking our lives to defend. Let’s make sure to safeguard it with pride,” pool reports quoted him as saying. TV footage showed him posing for a photo in front of a rock painted with the slogan “ROK (South Korean) territory”. The South has stationed a small coastguard detachment since 1954 on the islands known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan. Japan reacted angrily, recalling its envoy indefinitely and calling in Seoul’s ambassador to Tokyo to receive a strong protest.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the trip was “extremely deplorable”. Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba upbraided his South Korean counterpart by phone and said the visit “would have a major negative impact on our people’s sentiment”. “Our side has no choice but to take proper measures in response,” he said. The trip was made just before the men’s bronze medal Olympic soccer match between Japan and South Korea, and days before the August 15 anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender, which ended its 35-year rule over Korea. Lee’s conservative party faces a presidential election in December, although he himself is constitutionally barred from a second term. Many older Koreans have bitter memories of Japan’s brutal rule.

Historical disputes such as Dokdo still mar their relationship, despite close economic ties and a shared concern at North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. South Korea last week summoned a senior Japanese diplomat to protest his country’s renewed claim to the islands in its latest defense white paper.

Earlier in July it was Tokyo’s turn to protest when a South Korean rammed his truck into the main gate of Japan’s embassy in Seoul. Among other issues, Seoul is irked at Tokyo’s refusal to compensate elderly Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops in World War II. In June the South shelved the signing of a military information-sharing agreement with Japan following Korean protests. One analyst said Lee’s trip was an over-reaction to diplomatic strains and should have been considered more thoroughly. Strategically, the visit to Dokdo would be one of the strongest actions the president could take, said Jin Chang-Soo of South Korea’s Sejong Institute think-tank.

“In the long term, considering there will be many problems (between the two countries), I doubt whether this is the right time to play this card,” he said. Jin said Japan was currently unstable, engaged in territorial disputes with other countries, “and we’ve just added fuel to the fire. —AFP

afoot. “We have reconstructed the pages,” he said. “He says he was fleeing from someone ... It’s a powerful sign.

This citizen wanted to enter the country illegally, for who knows what reason. He cannot say where he was going, or who was waiting for him.”

ANTI-US RHETORIC Chavez, who says he is completely cured after three cancer operations in the last year, has a healthy two-digit lead in most polls ahead of the presidential election. He gave no more details of the case and US Embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Since taking office in 1999, Chavez has reveled in his role as a global champion against US power in fiery rhetoric and frequent accusations that play well with his power-base among Venezuela’s poor majority. There is no love lost between the US and Venezuelan governments, and Washington was quick to recognize Chavez’s short-lived replacement after a 24-hour military coup in 2002. But President Barack

Obama’s administration has been avoiding direct confrontation during an election period in both nations. “This obliges us to sound the alarm everywhere,” Chavez told supporters of the arrest of the unnamed American. “The losers have shown they are capable of anything,” he said, in reference to opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and his supporters. “But I warn them: ‘don’t even think about destabilizing the country.’”

Exuding energy in the latest of near-daily rallies that many thought Chavez would be incapable of attending after two bouts of cancer in the last year, he predicted a “knockout” victory. “We are going to win by 30 or 40 points,” he said, to roars from a crowd waving the red banners of his ruling party. Capriles, a 40-year-old former state governor who views Brazil’s center-left model as his inspiration, says Chavez is deluding himself. “David will beat Goliath, because together there are no obstacles we cannot overcome,” he told cheering supporters in the western state of Trujillo. — Reuters

Assam survivors too scared to go home Deadline looms BILASIPARA: There was little time to do anything but grab her two young boys and run as fast as she could when the gunmen came into the northeast Indian village in the dead of night and began firing. Along with scores of other villagers, nine-months pregnant Rohima Begum hid with her family waistdeep in the rice fields as the gunshots rang out amid the screams of those left behind.

Eighteen days on, Rohima, like hundreds of thousands in Assam state, languishes in a displacement camp - too scared to go home after the worst ethnic violence in India in a decade. But the government says the violence, in which 75 people have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced, is over and has set a deadline for fleeing villagers to return to their homes - India’s Independence Day on August 15. “How can we go back?

There is nothing left. We saw them burning down the entire village as we escaped. The fire and smoke were visible from a long distance,” Rohima says, cradling her three-dayold boy, who was born in the primary school which now houses 800 people in lower Assam’s Dhubri district.

“The people who did this to us live in villages next to us. There is no security. If we go back, they will kill us.” Violence between the Bodo tribespeople and Muslim communities broke out on July 20, after unidentified men killed four Bodo youths. In retaliation, armed Bodos - who dominate Kokrajhar and Chirang districts - attacked Muslims, suspecting them of being behind the deaths.

Communal clashes have since ensued and fleeing survivors speak of large groups of men armed with automatic weapons surrounding entire villages, going on the rampage, gunning down people or hacking them to death with machetes. Hundreds of villages have been looted and razed.

BODIES FOUND EVERY DAY Convoys of police and paramilitary vehicles patrol the main roads which run through the dusty towns in this fertile area and authorities have imposed a night curfew. The number of killings has decreased, but there are at least one or two reports of fresh

corpses being found every day and the situation remains tense. “People should start going back to their homes now,” says Nilomani Sen Deka, an Assam minister. “We will be providing them with relief and compensation. But they should start going back.

Many have gone already. It is safe now.” But both the displaced Bodos and Muslim community say they can no longer live together.

Tensions have long existed between the two groups in this region, famed for its lush tea plantations and as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s parliamentary constituency. The Bodos have long fought for a separate homeland and after a 16-year armed struggle, they signed a 2003 peace accord with New Delhi, giving them autonomy over the four districts. They say many of the Muslims, who over the years have grown to outnumber the Bodos, are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Muslims, who work for Bodos on their fields and construction sites or as rickshaw drivers, say they are Indian citizens and have voting rights. This is not the first time that the two groups have

clashed. In 1993, Bodos attacked Muslims and other communities resulting in around 2,000 deaths and thousands displaced.

Almost 300 schools, colleges and community centers have been converted into relief camps. In the suffocating humidity and soaring temperatures, half-naked children lie perspiring on school benches or desks, while women cradle babies who are listless and weak. Due to poor sanitation and a lack of clean water, disease has spread rapidly and there are tens of thousands of cases of diarrhea and dysentery. Twenty-two people have died so far in the camps, while around 8,000 children are sick, according to government figures. Medical teams visit every few days to distribute medicines and basic food rations of rice and lentils are being given three times a day to the displaced, but aid workers say there is a desperate need for more aid. “Most of the displaced fled with nothing,” says Zubin Zaman from Oxfam India. “Sanitation has to be stepped up with better hygiene practices, access to clean water and more toilets. —Reuters

NEW DELHI: Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists against alleged atrocities in Assam towards the indigenous population by illegal Bangladeshi migrants look on during a protest in New Delhi. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Mental illness issue surfaces in US shooting case CENTENNIAL: After defense lawyers disclosed their belief that the Colorado theater shooting suspect is mentally ill, victims and their families are questioning whether that argument will change the trial’s focus to him rather than his actions. “They keep talking about fairness for him,” said Shane Medek, whose 23-year-old sister Micayla Medek died in the July 20 shootings.

“It’s like they’re babying this dude.”

James Holmes is accused of opening fire in a movie theater, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. His lawyers disclosed their belief that he suffers from a mental illness during a suburban Denver court hearing Thursday, when nearly two dozen news organizations asked a judge to unseal case documents.

Defense attorney Daniel King argued that the seal and a sweeping gag order ensure fairness. He also told the judge that the defense team needed more information from prosecutors and investigators. “We cannot begin to assess the nature and the depth of Holmes’ mental illness until we receive full disclosure,” he said in court.

Analysts expect the case to be dominated by arguments over Holmes’ sanity, and the defense’s revelation was the strongest confirmation so far that mental illness will be a key issue. A court document previously revealed that Holmes was seeing a school psychiatrist for unknown reasons.

Holmes, a 24-year-old former PhD student at the University of Colorado, Denver, sat during the hearing with the familiar, dazed demeanor that he had in two previous court appearances. To people who have watched Holmes in the courtroom during those hearings and in photos and video, Holmes has appeared “seemingly out of it.”

Miranda Norris, who was in a theater next to the one where the shooting

occurred during a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie, saw him in person for the first time at the Thursday hearing. “He seems like he’s crazy,” the 17-year-old said. “It doesn’t give him the right to do what he did,” added Chris Townsond, who attended the court hearing with a wounded vic-

ceiling and furrowed his brow as a woman in the spectator section disrupted the hearing Thursday. He glanced over at her when deputies escorted her out. Medek said Holmes made eye contact with him. During previous hearings, Holmes had avoided looking at anyone in the courtroom.

COLORADO: This courtroom sketch shows suspect James Holmes during a motions hearing in district court in Centennial, Colo, on Thursday, Aug 9, 2012. —AP tim. “I don’t care how mentally damaged he is.”

King said Holmes sought out university psychiatrist Lynne Fenton for help weeks before the shooting. A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 16 to establish they had a doctor-patient relationship.

Holmes has shown hints that he understood what’s going on in the courtroom around him. He looked up at the

“He gave me a little smirk, as well,” Medek said. “I’m happy for that. ‘Cause now he knows that I’m going to be looking at him as he sits there in court, or sits there all drugged up in a mental hospital. Or gets the injection.”

Holmes’ public defenders could argue he is not mentally competent to stand trial. It was the argument used for Jared Loughner, who pleaded guilty

this week to a 2011 shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including thenRep Gabrielle Giffords. If Holmes goes to trial and is convicted, his attorneys can try to stave off a possible death penalty by arguing he is mentally ill or argue he’s innocent by reason of insanity. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Few details are known about the case because of the seal and gag order issued by Chief District Judge William Sylvester. The Associated Press and 20 other news organizations on Thursday asked him to scale back the order, which bars the university from releasing details about Holmes. Steven D Zansberg, an attorney representing the news consortium, said state law allows judges to issue gag orders barring prosecutors and law enforcement from commenting. Sylvester had said in issuing the order that he wanted to protect the county’s investigation. But Aurora officials have cited the gag order in declining to speak about the city’s response to the shootings, and even prosecution’s arguments on the order is under seal.

The court documents include the case file, which makes it impossible for observers to understand arguments on motions that are referenced by number only. Those types of documents can shed light on how police say Holmes prepared for the shooting and rigged his apartment with explosives. Gregory Moore, editor of The Denver Post, said before the hearing that the news organizations are trying to perform their watchdog role by making sure the investigation is conducted fairly. The judge said he would rule on the matter

by Monday. He did not say when he would respond to the request to unseal the court documents.—AP

Focus on violent extremists hampered by laws, pressure ‘Lone wolf’ extremists are the hardest to track WASHINGTON: Efforts by US authorities to spot and pre-empt violent right-wing extremists like the exsoldier who shot up a Wisconsin Sikh temple face serious legal and political hurdles, including free speech guarantees and pushback from political lobbies. Officials and private experts who track extremists groups say US laws, particularly the First Amendment to the US Constitution, prevent official investigators from bringing cases against Americans for having extreme beliefs.

And past attempts by the US government to highlight the threat of right-wing extremism have provoked a political backlash, further complicating attempts to deal with the issue. After the leak of a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report that noted the potential radicalization of US military veterans, conservative activists complained that it defamed the troops. DHS was forced to apologize for the document and disband the unit that produced it.

The Wisconsin shooter, Wade Page, was a military veteran, although he had been discharged years ago, in 1998. US officials confirmed government agencies over the past several years received reports linking Page to white supremacist groups. Two private groups that monitor extremist movements, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the AntiDefamation League of B’nai Brith, said they had also collected information about Wade’s involvement

with extremists, including pictures of tattoos linking him to a racist group called the Hammerskins.

But even in such cases, US laws can make it difficult, if not illegal, for government agencies even to open investigations into people who express such views. “We can’t launch investigations based on free speech,” a federal law enforcement official said. If federal investigators did investigate an individual for merely expressing extremist views, the official said, “they could get into trouble.” In contrast, laws in some European nations proscribe and even criminalize various forms of “hate speech.” German law bans “incitement of popular hatred.”

In Britain, the former captain of England’s national soccer team was recently put on trial for allegedly hurling a racist taunt at a rival player. He was subsequently acquitted. In Page’s case, “I don’t think law enforcement could have done any more than they did do to stop this,” said Mark Potok, a veteran investigator of Far Right groups with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

RACIST ROCK BAND While there was information out there that Page might have “said vile things ... the activities of this man were totally legal,” Potok said. “There was no indication that this guy was going to carry out a mass murder.” Mark Pitcavage, an investigator for the Anti-

Defamation League (ADL), said his organization had been aware of “Definite Hate,” a racist rock band in which Page played, for several years. But ADL did not focus on Page until about 2010.

Even when ADL started paying more attention to Page, Pitcavage said, there was little to indicate he was on the verge of committing violence, let alone mass murder. “I can’t fault federal or local law enforcement for not picking up that he was a loose cannon,” Pitcavage said. He said Page moved to Wisconsin only recently, and that “lone wolf” extremists who move around the country are “the hardest to track. They’re not around long enough (in one place) to call attention to themselves.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the lead federal agency in investigating cases of “domestic terrorism” and collecting intelligence on home-grown militants.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said it would not be “fair to say we focus more or less attention on a particular group. We investigate threats of criminal activity wherever it takes us.” But Bresson said that in pursuing such cases, the Bureau was obliged to be mindful of issues like freedom of speech. “No matter how offensive to some, we are keenly aware that expressing views by itself is not a crime and the protections afforded under the Constitution cannot be compromised,” he said. Some government officials who tried to call attention to what they perceived to

be a growing threat from right-wing extremists felt badly burnt after the Department of Homeland Security publicly disavowed the 2009 study they had produced.

The paper, entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” was produced by a group of analysts attached to the department’s intelligence and analysis office. In hindsight, the paper seems prophetic. It said that right-wing extremists had “capitalized on the election of the first African-American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda,” though it noted “they have not yet turned to attack planning.”

DISGRUNTLED VETERANS? The paper also asserted that “the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.” It devoted several paragraphs to “Disgruntled Military Veterans,” whose skills and knowledge, it said, “have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists including lone wolves or small terrorist cells - to carry out violence.” —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Kosovo crypto-Catholics quit closet KRAVASERI: The solemn sounds of an organ echoed around this remote mountain village in the small Catholic community gathered for Sunday mass in a newly-built stone church. A freshlypainted image of the crucified Christ looked down on seven pews packed with believers, mainly farmers, their faces tanned by the sun after toiling in the fields. “Today we sing aloud, we do not have to sit in darkness as the gloomy, terrible days are gone and joy has dawned on us,” a sister chanted in Albanian.

Nothing out of the ordinary, even in overwhelmingly Muslim Kosovo, one might think. But the church was built in 2008, the same year as 65-year-old Beg Bytyqi declared himself a Catholic Christian. Bytyqi was one of the first villagers to embrace Christianity openly after their forebears practiced the faith in secret for hundreds of years while publicly proclaiming themselves to be Muslims. “I inherited the faith from my father as he did from his. Ever since I remember, we have celebrated Christmas and Easter in secrecy, holding ceremonies at home,” he said.

Only about 50,000 of Kosovo’s 1.7 million citizens are Catholics, while more than 90 percent of the population is Muslim. About 40 people from Kravaseri village, home to around 100 families, have reverted since 2008 to their ancestors’ religion, shedding light

on the phenomenon of cryptoCatholics. Known in Kosovo as Laramans-meaning colorful or manyfaceted in the Albanian language-they have turned away from the Islam brought in by the Ottoman Turks who conquered the Balkans in the 15th century. ‘A recipe for survival’-Under Ottoman rule many Christians converted to Islam to avoid the high taxes imposed on them while churches and monasteries were turned into mosques.

But in Kosovo, many kept the faith in secret, taking Muslim names and participating in Islamic rites but remaining Christians in their inner spiritual life, said local bishop Shan Zefi. Bytyqi said his family used to “bless the bread for Christmas by ourselves, and lit candles on it.” “Afterwards, we would burn wax in a fireplace,” he said. Zefi said the believers were “broken in half” by their dual religious identity, going to the mosque by day and church by night. “It was a recipe for survival. They could not exercise their faith publicly but they kept it stubbornly inside their homes,” said Lush Gjergji, editor-in-chief of the Catholic monthly paper Drita (Light).

Bytyqi said one floor in his house “was set out for Christian rites and ceremonies” while another served for Muslim ones, “when our neighbors came for Islamic holidays.” “The elders kept the secret away from the children, fearing they would blow it,” said jour-

Kenyan justice slapped down after gun threat NAIROBI: Rebecca Kerubo, a $6-a-day security guard at a Nairobi mall, is one of the city’s countless low-wage slum residents. So when she made a formal complaint that Kenya’s second most powerful judge threatened her with a gun at a security checkpoint, few thought the struggling mother of three stood a chance. Now it appears, though, that the justice will lose her seat on the bench. In a decision that rekindled hopes that under the new constitution the rule of law can prevail in a country that has long protected the powerful, Kenya’s director of public prosecutions this week said deputy chief justice Nancy Baraza should be charged with assault.

That announcement came a day after a tribunal investigating Baraza’s conduct recommended that the judge be removed from the bench. Baraza is appealing the tribunal’s decision with the Supreme Court. Many of Kerubo’s relatives and friends doubted that the complaint she made would amount to anything. Not in Kenya, her friends and relatives reasoned. They pressured her to drop her complaint.

The credibility of the Kenyan judiciary has been in question for decades, but as part of legal reforms that saw a new constitution passed in August 2010, Kenya’s judiciary now requires that all judges be vetted. The constitution also guarantees the independence of the judiciary from executive interference. The constitution was part of a deal that brought peace to the country after intertribal fighting followed the disputed 2007 presidential election. “I am very happy because some people did not believe I was saying the truth. Now the tribunal has vindicated me for standing for the truth till the end,” Kerubo told The Associated Press. “I don’t think this would have happened a few years ago.”

Maina Kiai, a Havard-educated lawyer and the UN special expert on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, said the recommendation of the Kenyan judicial tribunal that Baraza lose her seat shows that even people in power can be held accountable. “Now it needs to extend to the legislature and executive!” he said. Kerubo, 33, accused Baraza of threatening her with a gun on New Year’s Eve. Irungu Kang’ata, Kerubo’s lawyer, said his client had been posted at the entrance of a mall frequented by well-to-do Kenyans, diplomats and expatriates where she conducted security searches. Baraza passed by the line of people waiting to be searched and went into mall to buy medicine, Kang’ata said. Kerubo pursued her after people in the line complained. Kerubo insisted the rules on searches have to be followed, according to Kang’ata. —AP

nalist Ismet Sopi. The area around Sopi’s village of Llapushnik in central Kosovo-where most of the cryptoCatholics live-”is full of Christian place names and traces of churches,” he said, pointing at the map. Jahja Drancolli, a history professor at Pristina University, said Kosovo’s proclamation of independence from Serbia in 2008 had prompted the secret Catholics to declare their own autonomy. “The atmosphere now encourages the expression of religious diversity,” Drancolli said.

Also, he added, “Looking for the identity that existed before the Ottomans, they have realized it can be found only in Europe. “The more Kosovo moves towards a more European society the more apparent this phenomenon will become.” Local Church authorities estimate that hundreds of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians have been baptized into the Christian faith since 2008. Sopi, 52, who was baptized with a dozen other people in 2008, said the move brought no “huge change” in his life. ‘Paid my debt’-”But there is no any longer any camouflage on our side,” he said.

“People have the right to declare themselves what they want... to choose between Jesus and Mohamed, the Koran or the Bible as both are holy books,” said Filloreta Bytyqi, another resident of Kravaseri.

The Catholic Church in Kosovo has managed the process carefully, to avoid creating divisions and conflicts between Muslims and Christians, said Marjan Ukaj, the head of the Church body overseeing the conversions.

“There are many people waiting to be baptized. We do not baptize anyone without preparation which takes a year at least,” Ukaj said. The process includes education to help the newly emergent believers “not to find themselves at once on the other and unknown side,” he explained.

For now, Kosovo Muslims do not mind the new converts. Islamic official Resul Rexhepi is sure that the new converts cannot change the statistical balance between the confessions in Kosovo, where Muslims “absolutely dominate.” “It is not a threat to national unity which has been tempered through history and tough times,” he told AFP in the newly refurbished headquarters of the Islamic community in Pristina. For Bytyqi, “peace of mind” has finally come after 61 years of being a Muslim in public and only four as a Christian. “I have paid my debt. But I do not impose it (the Catholic faith) on my children, it is up to them,” he said. His 39-year son Agim said he has yet to decide whether to follow in his father’s footsteps steps. “I go to the church and to the mosque, as they are both God’s houses,” Agim said. —AFP

Gaddafi opponent named head of Libyan assembly Magarief a former diplomat; opposition leader TRIPOLI: Libya’s National Assembly picked former opposition leader Mohammed Magarief as its president on Thursday as the North African country’s newly elected congress began its rule. Magarief, leader of the National Front party, will head the 200member congress, which will name a prime minister, pass laws and steer Libya to full parliamentary elections after a new constitution is drafted next year. Magarief, seen as a moderate Islamist, is effectively Libya’s acting head of state, but the true extent of his powers is yet to be determined. A former diplomat who had lived in exile since the 1980s, Magarief was a leading figures in Libya’s oldest opposition movement - the National Front for the Salvation of Libya which made several attempts to end the late Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.

Magarief’s National Front Party is an offshoot of the old opposition movement and it won three seats in the July 7 poll for the national assembly - Libya’s first free vote in a generation. “I am very happy. This is a big responsibility,” he said. Magarief won 113 votes versus independent Ali Zidan who secured 85 votes. Voting went to a second round after no one managed to win an outright majority in the first round. “This is democracy, this is what we have dreamt of,” Zidan told Reuters, congratulating Magarief. The Assembly was also set to pick two deputies for Magarief, who had been seen as a leading contender for the top job.

“He is a political personality and every-

body knows him.” said Othman Sassi, a former official of the National Transitional Council. “He has very good experience to lead congress and the Libyan democratic state.” The National Assembly began life on Wednesday after it took power from the National Transitional Council, the political

These include a car bomb near the offices of the military police in the capital, Tripoli, and an explosion at the empty former military intelligence offices in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of the revolt against Gaddafi. In the new assembly, 80 seats are held by parties. A liberal coalition

TRIPOLI: Members of the National Assembly sort ballots as they choose their president in Tripoli. —AFP arm of the opposition forces that toppled Gaddafi a year ago and which has now been dissolved. The late-night ceremony was the first peaceful transition of power in Libya’s modern history but it has been overshadowed by several violent incidents in the past week that have underscored the country’s precarious stability.

led by wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril won 39 of those seats, while the Justice and Construction Party the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood - won 17. The remaining 120 seats are in the hands of independent candidates whose allegiances are hard to pin down. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Pressure on Romney to pick Ryan as Veep Pawlenty, Portman also on short list NEW YORK: With Republican Mitt Romney on the verge of choosing a vice presidential running mate, conservatives have mounted a concerted campaign to boost the chances of Representative Paul Ryan, the architect of his party’s controversial budget-cutting plan. Often likening Ryan to Ronald Reagan, conservatives say the Wisconsin lawmaker’s supposed drawbacks as a candidate - mostly stemming from the steep cuts in social safety net programs he has proposed - are actually strengths that could bring heft, content and perhaps a spark to Romney’s campaign.

Romney, in an interview Thursday with NBC News, gave no indication who he might pick, but outlined what he was looking for in a running mate.

“I certainly expect to have a person that has a strength of character, a vision for the country that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country,” he said.

Despite the nation’s economic problems, Romney trails President Barack Obama in most polls three months from the Nov. 6 election, and may even be losing momentum. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week gave Obama a 7-point lead (49 to Romney’s 42 percent), up slightly from a month ago. Particularly enthusiastic backers of Ryan are opinion writers for the East Coast’s leading conservative publications - like the Wall Street Journal, the National Review and the Weekly Standard. As if on cue, many of them weighed in this week in support of Ryan, almost daring Romney to pick him instead of more conventional short-listers, such as former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty or Senator Rob Portman of Ohio. The case against Ryan, 42, is that he is a lightning rod for criticism of the unpopular cuts in government health programs for the elderly and poor he proposed

as chairman of the powerful House of Representatives Budget Committee, that is not a weakness, the conservatives argued, but a strength.

They want Ryan’s budget to be the issue and they want Ryan there to defend it. Such a debate, they believe, could elevate the campaign beyond questions that are consuming it now, about Romney’s unwillingness to dis-

ologue in the best sense of the term,” the National Review’s Rich Lowry wrote in Politico. “He is motivated by ideas and knows what he believes and why.

But he’s not blinkered. He is an explainer and a persuader.” Romney has a choice to make - go with the tried and true, Portman or Pawlenty, or take a bit of a risk with Ryan, or look elsewhere.

Many expect him to announce his

BOSTON: Onlookers watch as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney’s motorcade arrives at his campaign headquarters in Boston yesterday. — AP close more than two years of tax choice soon, possibly as early as next returns for example, or his leadership week when he winds up a campaign of the investment firm, Bain Capital. trip in Portman’s Ohio.

DEMOCRATS WELCOME RYAN “Mr Obama and the Democrats want The risk of Ryan becomes apparent to make this a small election over small things - Mitt’s taxes, his wealth, from talking with Democrats on Capitol Bain Capital,” the Wall Street Journal Hill. While lawmakers and congressioneditorialized Thursday as it pushed a al aides from both parties use words like “smart,” “telegenic,” “young” and Ryan choice.

“To win, Mr Romney and the “exciting” to describe Ryan, Democrats Republicans have to rise above those seem him as a dream choice for differsmaller issues and cast the choice as ent reasons. “I would love for Romney one about the overall direction and to pick him,” said one Democratic leadfuture of the country.” “Ryan is an ide- ership aide. — Reuters

Spanish broadcaster rocked by dismissals MADRID: Spanish journalists fear the conservative government wants to bring public broadcaster RTVE under its control, following the dismissal of several top radio and TV personalities. Over the weekend one of the country’s bestknown journalists, Ana Pastor, announced that she had been removed as the presenter of a popular morning television news program.

“It is a political decision,” she told the Sunday edition of daily newspaper El Pais. Pastor, who has a reputation for asking difficult questions, annoyed several top members of the ruling Popular Party during the last general election campaign.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s party, which took office in December, has accused RTVE of favoring the Socialists and Pastor’s dismissal was widely expected, but it still sparked controversy. RTVE said Pastor had refused an offer to present another program but the journalist said there was no concrete job proposal and many were not convinced by the broadcaster’s explanation.

“We think we live in a highly developed democratic system but we are going back to the tradition of when the

government changes, public radio and television changes too,” said Toni Garrido, a presenter at public radio RNE. Ratings for an afternoon news program presented by Garrido more than doubled since he took over the show in 2007 but that did not stop the new management of the radio station replacing him in mid-July. Garrido said he, along with the rest of his team, had still not received official confirmation of their dismissal. “I imagine it is difficult for those in charge to explain why we are not staying on, given the results we had. But the public radio should explain its decisions,” he told AFP. Another journalist at RNE radio, Juan Ramon Lucas, credited with a jump in the ratings of the station’s morning programming to 1.4 million listeners, reacted with concern to Pastor’s departure. “This confirms that this is not a time for rigour and independence. And not for subtleties. This last point is sobering,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said the wave of dismissals and political appointments at RTVE seems “to confirm the worst worries which point to political takeover” of the broadcaster. — AFP

New US homes burn faster, but states resist sprinklers NEW YORK: In Scottsdale, Arizona, any new home must come equipped with fire sprinklers, a decades-old rule lauded by fire safety advocates nationwide. But 12 miles away in Phoenix, city officials are not even allowed to discuss adopting a requirement like Scottsdale’s, because of a state law passed last year. The same is true in Texas, Alabama, Kansas and Hawaii, where in the past four years state governments have enacted bills forbidding cities and towns from requiring sprinklers in new homes.

A dozen have forbidden statewide building code councils from including the requirement in their guidelines. Advocates - including firefighters, fire safety groups and the sprinkler industry - say sprinklers are needed more than ever in new homes because of builders’ heavy use of prefabricated construction materials. The materials burn faster, firefighters say, causing more destruction and making rescue attempts more difficult.

The state laws forbidding sprinkler requirements are unprecedented, public-safety advocates say, and underscore the political clout of the home-building and real estate industries. A Reuters review of lobbying records from five states that considered sprinkler legislation since 2009 shows the groups grossly outspent fire sprinkler advocates. “This is the only code provision that I’m aware of in 30 years of being in this business, where we’ve seen a preemptive strike that says, ‘You can’t even consider it. It’s not allowed,’” said Gary Keith, vice president of field operations for the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization. “That’s unheard of with any other kind of provision.”

LIGHTWEIGHT RISKS Four years ago the landscape looked strikingly different. Coming off the housing market’s peak years, scores of cities adopted fire sprinkler rules despite opposition from builders. And in 2009 sprinkler advocates cheered when the International Code Council, a nonprofit organization that develops national model building codes, voted that fire sprinklers should be required in all new oneand two-family homes. Then came the worst housing market in US history and a fragile economic recovery.

Against that backdrop, lobbyists for the home-building industry, which opposes mandatory sprinklers, gained traction with lawmakers.

Even as home building picks up after years of stagnation-the US Census Bureau projects more than 500,000 single-family housing starts this year-many lawmakers remain wary of sprinkler regulations. “When you start mandating a fire sprinkler system, you are going to price a lot of people out of these new homes,” said Ned Munoz, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Texas Association of Home Builders, which lobbied heavily for anti-sprinkler legislation.

Although preemptive state laws have been imposed in other public-health policy areas, laws preempting building or fire safety regulations are unheard of, said Mark Pertschuk, an expert on preemptive laws with the Prevention Institute, a California nonprofit organization funded by private health foundations, government agencies and public health groups. “They haven’t just taken away local control,” Pertschuk said. “They’ve stopped the community debate about public safety and health.” Most cities have required sprinklers in larger multifamily residences for decades. Fire safety advocates want to extend the requirement to all single-family homes, often citing the widespread use of lightweight construction, a building technique that relies on prefabricated and engineered wood products.

Designed to carry a greater load with less material, the prefabricated components are made from real or man-made wood fragments held together by glue or metal fasteners. The materials are commonly used to frame roofs and flooring. Assembled in factories and shipped to construction sites, these building components significantly cut down on construction time and cost. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Baghdad at 1,250: a far cry from past glories BAGHDAD: Baghdad was once the capital of an empire and the centre of the Islamic world, but at 1,250 years old, the Iraqi city is a far cry from its past glories after being ravaged by years of war and sanctions.

Construction of the city on the bank of the Tigris River began in July 762 AD under Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar Al-Mansur, and it has since played a pivotal role in Arab and Islamic civilizations. “Baghdad represented the economic centre of the Abbasid Empire, and it was used as a starting point for controlling other neighboring regions to enhance Islamic power,” said Issam al-Faili, a professor of political history at Mustansiriyah University.

“Baghdad witnessed a renaissance of thought through translation, which was usually mastered by Jews and the Christians, and became a destination for intellectuals, poets and scholars from all parts of the world, and a centre for craftsmen and a city of construction,” Faili said.

“Baghdad today, after it was the capital of the world, has become one of the most miserable cities,” he said.

British consultancy firm Mercer ranked Baghdad as the worst place in the world to live in its 2010 Quality

of Living Survey. The city has been conquered several times in its history, the first in 1258 when the Mongols destroyed Baghdad. It was captured in 1831 by the Ottomans, in 1917 by the British, and in 2003 by a US-led coalition that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein but also ended up unleashing internecine violence that killed tens of thousands of people.

Baghdad was a modern capital known for its nightlife in the 1970s, but it has fallen into gloomy disrepair in the years of conflict since.

Saddam started a war with Iraq in 1980 that lasted for eight years, and then launched a disastrous invasion of Kuwait in 1990 only to be forced out in 1991.

Iraq was hit by a harsh regime of international sanctions over the Kuwait invasion, and later lived under an ever-present threat of bombings, assassinations, gun battles and death squad killings in the years after 2003. Even now, government employees, including highranking officers in the security forces, are frequently gunned down in the streets. Concrete blast walls still surround official buildings, hotels, and other structures that could be the

target of attacks. Despite its long history, there are only fleeting signs of historic buildings on even its oldest streets. Ugly, uninspired concrete boxes are far more common.

Checkpoints cause massive traffic jams, and security forces in the city are armed for war, with equipment including assault rifles, machine guns and armored vehicles.

Baghdad’s streets are often strewn with rubbish and riven by potholes.

What public works projects there are move at a glacial pace. Spider webs of power cables criss-cross many streets, linking houses to private generators-a testament to the failure of the government electricity grid to provide citizens with consistent power. The government is headquartered in a heavily fortified area known as the Green Zone, which is defended, among other things, by newly acquired US-made Abrams tanks.

Entry to the area requires passing through a Byzantine series of security checks, some of which are of questionable value in deterring attacks, and journalists’ cameras are regarded with deep suspicion. While Baghdad was once the centre of an empire, the Iraqi government has

been paralyzed by political crises for almost eight months, during which it has accomplished little. “Baghdad today is like Baghdad of yesterday in terms of the luxury that was enjoyed by the caliph and his family in the days of the Abbasid era, while the people were in misery,” Faili said.

Corruption is widespread, and while Iraq takes in billions of dollars a month in oil revenues, signs of it benefiting the general public are hard to find.

Iraq has made some efforts to return its capital to regional prominence, hosting a summit of Arab leaders in March and talks between world powers and Iran on the Islamic republic’s controversial nuclear program in May. Preparations for those events cost around $1 billion, although the impact of that outlay for most Iraqis was limited.

Iraqi writer and journalist Rifaat Mahmud said that the “issue of restoring Baghdad to what it was is a difficult matter, and cannot be achieved in circumstances such as those in which the neglected city now lives. “Baghdad needs what we can call a miracle to regain its form and heritage and at least a part of its past.” — AFP

Ernesto kills 3; weakens to tropical depression Major oil-exporting ports remain closed

ACCRA: Ghanaian soldiers carry the coffin of late President John Atta Mills during the funeral service at Independence Square in Accra yesterday. — AFP

Ghanaians mourn Mills ACCRA: Thousands of mourners including African leaders, dignitaries and ordinary Ghanaians attended the state funeral yesterday of president John Atta Mills, who died last month ahead of a re-election bid. A military cortege conveyed Mills’ body from the State House parliamentary complex, where it had lain in state since Wednesday, to Independence Square, where the funeral began yesterday morning. More than 10,000 people gathered in and around the square. Among those who viewed the body as it lay under a glass case before the service were Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as well as the leaders of Benin and neighboring Togo. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been on an African tour and arrived in Ghana on Thursday night, was also attending the funeral.

“He was like a brother to me. I will surely miss him,” Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe told

journalists. Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi, also the current African Union chairman, described Mills as “passionate about peace in Africa and in the region.” His death on July 24 at age 68 following an illness came as a shock to many Ghanaians, despite rumors that he had been sick and reports that he suffered from throat cancer. Coming just five months ahead of polls in which he was to seek re-election, it upended the presidential race in a country that recently became a significant oil producer and is praised as a stable democracy in an often turbulent region.

After the ceremony, the body will be taken to Osu Castle, the official presidential residence, for burial. Early arrivals rapidly filled the large square, where heads of state and other dignitaries were placed in a special seating area, while large television screens broadcast the ceremony for those unable to get closer. The event was also being shown on national television. — AFP

MEXICO CITY: Tropical Storm Ernesto weakened to a depression as it traveled inland from the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, but it sent wind gusts and showers across the state of Veracruz, home to some of Mexico’s busiest ports and oil installations.

The storm, now generating maximum sustained winds of only 35 mph, made landfall in the early afternoon close to the port city of Coatzacoalcos. What had been the second hurricane of the Atlantic season was heading west over southern Mexico at a speed of about 14 mph, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 2 am advisory.

The center said it expected Ernesto to dissipate over mountainous terrain yesterday. However, torrential rain threatened to generate flash flooding and mudslides in a number of areas and authorities reported three deaths. Officials from state-run oil company Pemex said there were no reports of disruptions to facilities in the region, which include the Minatitlan refinery, producing 185,000 barrels of crude per day.

The eye of the storm passed the oilfields of Cantarell and Ku Maloob Zaap, which account for just over half of Mexico’s oil production of about 2.5 million bpd.

Coatzacoalcos is home to one of Mexico’s key oil exporting ports, which has been closed since Wednesday along with Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas. Almost all of Mexico’s crude oil exports, which totaled 1.425 million bpd in June, are shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States from the three ports. Authorities in Veracruz said they were preparing emergency shelters, if needed, in the floodprone and densely populated state. The small Mina-Coatza airport, between

Minatitlan and Coatzacoalcos, was closed on Thursday and waves of 13-20 feet (4-6 meters) were reported along the coast.

The storm previously made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan coast late on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before being downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday. Two people drowned and about 100 houses were damaged as the storm swept through the swampy state of Tabasco toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to local officials. One person died in Coatzacoalcos after falling while working on home repairs, an official from the local Red Cross unit said. The storm spared major tourist areas on the peninsula from a direct hit and landed in sparsely populated lowlying jungle, near the port town of Mahahual, 40 miles (64 km) north of Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo state. Ernesto passed well south of the major tourist resort of Cancun, which saw only heavy rains.

About 2,500 people were evacuated from Chetumal up the coast to Tulum in an area known for its scuba diving and ecotourism attractions. Rainfall of 2 to 5 inches (5 to 13 cm), and possibly 15 inches (39 cm) in some areas, was expected in the states of Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca through today, the center said. August and September are usually the most active months of the Atlantic Caribbean hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov 30.

Tropical Depression Seven formed out in the Atlantic, but is heading west toward Central America. It is set to strengthen to a storm and it could reach the Caribbean over the weekend, according to the Center’s forecast. — Reuters

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Toyota inaugurates its third plant in Brazil

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Libor interest rate overhaul launched by UK regulator

Business

German economy faces recession

17

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

China oil, iron ore imports slow in July with economy

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NEW YORK: In a March 15, 2012 file photo, a trader works in the Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Justice Department on Thursday said it won’t prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees in a financial fraud probe. — AP

US DOJ drops Goldman probe Decision follows more than a year of investigation WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department said it will not pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc or its employees related to accusations that the firm bet against the same subprime mortgage securities it was selling to clients.

The decision not to prosecute Goldman, a firm held up by critics as a symbol of Wall Street greed during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, highlights the difficulty in prosecuting crisis-related cases.

Few expected the bank to face criminal charges, but in April 2011, US Senator Carl Levin asked for a criminal investigation after the subcommittee he leads spent more than a year looking into Goldman.

The accusations were aired in a heated 2010 Congressional hearing in which Levin grilled Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein for hours about whether it was morally correct for the firm to sell its clients products described internally as “crap”.

“The department and investigative agencies ultimately concluded that the burden of proof to bring a criminal case could not be met based on the law and facts as they exist at this time,” the Justice Department said in a statement late on Thursday.

The DOJ does not typically make public

statements when it concludes an investigation. Neil Barofsky, a former watchdog for the US government’s financial system bailout in 2008, said the announcement was a stark reminder that no individual or institution had been held meaningfully accountable for their role in the financial crisis.

“Without such accountability, the unending parade of megabanks scandals will inevitably continue,” said Barofsky, who has been an outspoken critic of the government’s response to the financial crisis.

In a brief statement emailed to Reuters, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said: “We are pleased that this matter is behind us.” A Levin aide had no immediate comment.

In a related civil case, Goldman settled with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for $550 million in July 2010, without admitting wrongdoing. The SEC, in one of its premier financial crisis cases, said Goldman failed to tell investors the Paulson & Co hedge fund helped choose and bet against the subprime mortgage-backed securities underlying an investment product named Abacus.

The SEC is still pursuing a civil complaint against Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman vice president involved in the Abacus deal. Separately

on Thursday, Goldman said the SEC had dropped an investigation into the firm’s role in selling a different $1.3 billion subprime mortgage-related deal arranged in 2006.

The Abacus deal was a major focus of the televised hearings held by Levin’s subcommittee in 2010. The hearings and a following report from Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations weighed on Goldman’s shares as the firm suffered a reputational hit from the unwelcome spotlight.

Goldman-dubbed a “great vampire squid” in a 2009 article in Rolling Stone magazinehas continued to be dogged by criticism, including from its own ranks. A Goldman Sachs banker in March published a withering resignation letter in the New York Times, calling the Wall Street titan a “toxic” place.

In its release on Thursday, the Justice Department said there was “not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution” against Goldman. If new or additional evidence emerged, it could make a different determination, it said.

Prosecuting financial fraud would continue to be a top priority and it highlighted other investigations, including its probe into banks’ alleged manipulation of Libor, a widely used benchmark for interest rates.

The SEC has brought a handful of highprofile cases related to the financial crisis, including against former Countrywide Financial Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and its case against Goldman. But the Justice Department has struggled to bring criminal charges.

The frustration, in part, has been because such charges involve securing evidence that shows beyond a reasonable doubt a defendant intended to break the law. For example, a federal jury in 2009 acquitted two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers accused of continuing to push souring investments as sound.

Jurors said prosecutors did not prove the case, which relied on e-mail evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt. Since then, the Justice Department has brought few major prosecutions tied to the subprime crisis.

In January, President Barack Obama announced a new task force to investigate misconduct that fueled the financial crisis, and the Justice Department has said it has issued more than a dozen civil subpoenas and has multiple inquiries underway. So far, no cases have come out of that effort, and some critics have dismissed the task force as an election-year stunt. — Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Consumer finance agency sets mortgage protections WASHINGTON: The government’s consumer lending watchdog proposed new rules yesterday aimed at protecting homeowners from unexpected costs and shoddy service by companies that collect their monthly mortgage payments.

Mortgage servicing companies would be required to provide clear monthly billing statements, warn borrowers before interest rate hikes and actively help them avoid foreclosure under the proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rules also require companies to credit people’s payments promptly, swiftly correct errors and keep better internal records. “The major failures in this industry demonstrate that all servicers need to meet basic standards of good customer service,” CFPB Director

Richard Cordray said in a call with reporters. He said the proposal reflects “two basic, common-sense standards - no surprises and no runarounds.”

Mortgage servicers are central players in the nationwide housing crisis because they are responsible for foreclosing on homes when people fail to make payments. They have faced withering criticism for practices including charging excessive fees, foreclosing without completing the required paperwork and failing to help people stay in their homes by changing their loan terms.

Under the rules, companies would be required to provide billing statements that explain how much of a payment is going to pay down principal, how much to interest and how much to fees. If an interest rate

was set to adjust, the borrower would receive an early estimate of the new payment amount. That would allow people to consider refinancing if they don’t like the new rates.

The rules also help guarantee that borrowers aren’t forced to pay excessively premiums on homeowners’ insurance that servicers require them to carry. In the past, servicers tacked on insurance when they believed someone’s coverage had lapsed. The premiums could be several times bigger than on a typical policy. The rules would require servicers to notify borrowers twice before charging them for insurance. They would have to cancel the insurance within 15 days if borrowers proved that they already had coverage.—AP

Libor interest rate overhaul launched by UK regulator BBA’s future role an ‘open question’

OSUNA: A member of the regional parliament for the United Left party in Andalucia, Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo (L), and the secretary general of the SAT Andalucian trade union, Diego Canamero (R) and SAT members protest yesterday after being peacefully evicted by the Civil Guard from The Turquillas protest camp near the southern Spanish town of Osuna. The Spanish government issued arrest warrants on August 8 for left-wing activists who looted supermarkets and filled trolleys with food to give to the needy in the recession. — AFP

Toyota inaugurates its third plant in Brazil SOROCABA: Japanese auto giant Toyota inaugurated a $600 million plant in the southeast Brazilian state of Sao Paulo on Thursday, its third in the country, with an initial aim of producing 70,000 cars a year.

The facility, located 91 kilometers (56 miles) west of Sao Paulo in Sorocaba, will begin producing Etios compact cars in September, with engines imported from Japan.

Toyota, which recently returned to the top of the global carmakers’ league, is seeking to cash in on the rising prosperity of Brazil’s expanding middle class, which today numbers around 95 million people, half the population. Toyota President Akio Toyoda, present at the inauguration, described the four-door Etios, which will be produced in hatchback and sedan versions, as “a car made by Brazilians for Brazilians”.

The car is a modified version of the model already being sold in India and South Africa, which, like Brazil, are part of the BRICS bloc of emerging powers that is completed by China and Russia.

Brazilian Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel, Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin and Japanese Ambassador to Brazil Akira Miwa attended the ceremony, as did Brazilian soccer great Zico, a former coach of Japan.

Pimentel said the Sorocaba plant, billed as environmentally friendly and

employing 1,500 workers, amounted to a vote of confidence from Toyota “in the strength of the Brazilian economy and the Brazilian auto market.”

Brazil, now the world’s sixth largest economy, is the world’s fourth largest auto market after the United States, China and Japan. Shunichi Nakanishi, president of Toyota Mercosur, said the company planned to double its sales in Brazil to around 200,000 vehicles in the next two years and become one of market leaders in the next decade.

The Japanese carmaker has been present in Brazil since 1958 but had less than three percent of the domestic auto market last year, lagging behind leading players Fiat, Volkswagen and General Motors.

Toyota has two other plants in Sao Paulo state: in Sao Bernardo do Campo, where it is headquartered, and in Indaituba. On Wednesday, Toyota President Toyoda announced after talks with President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia that the automaker also planned to invest $495 million to build an engine plant in Porto Feliz, 20 miles from Sorocaba. That facility will be ready in 2015, employ 600 people and churn out around 200,000 engines for Etios and Corolla vehicles. The Porto Feliz engine plant will eventually enable Toyota to produce the two models with 85 percent local parts, thus avoiding a 30 percent import tax.—AFP

LONDON: Libor benchmark interest rates are no longer “fit for purpose” and must be changed or replaced, Britain’s regulator said yesterday as he set out proposals to restore their credibility. The initial review by the Financial Services Authority is the first concrete step to reforming Libor after a rigging scandal that has implicated global banks and hurt the reputation of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

“The existing structure and governance of Libor is no longer fit for purpose and reform is needed,” the FSA’s managing director, Martin Wheatley, said. “It’s completely untenable that we can go forward without some level of regulatory change,” Wheatley added.

The future of other benchmarks - for everything from oil and gold to stock prices - was also under scrutiny, he told a Bloomberg News event. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, sets prices for everything from credit card payments to complex derivatives, but its credibility has been damaged since it emerged that it had been manipulated by the big banks that set it.

Wheatley’s review was ordered after British bank Barclays was fined more than $450 million for rigging Libor. Lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland also face fines. In his proposals, Wheatley makes clear alternative benchmarks to Libor should be used in some cases while the calculation of the rates themselves needs to be done differently to make it harder to fiddle.

“The short and medium term focus has to fix Libor and then there is a broader question about whether there are better rates going forward,” Wheatley said. “Ultimately it’s a market solution as to what is used. Our responsibility is to make sure that widely used benchmarks have integrity.”

Benchmarks would be based less on judgment and more on actual trades, he suggests. Banks could also be obliged to contribute to setting Libor to widen participation. Until now, membership of the Libor rate setting panel has been the preserve of a small group of banks, which volunteer daily estimates for the rates at which they would borrow different currencies for different periods.It was impossible to replace Libor straight away because so many contracts were linked to it and it might not be possible to replace completely because alternatives are not perfect, Wheatley told Reuters on Thursday. Basing benchmarks on actual trades would raise the problem of what to do when there were no trades for a specific rate, but Wheatley suggested that could be addressed through “interpolation” from more frequently traded rates.

The industry will have until Sept. 7 to respond to Wheatley’s review with final recommendations to be made by the end of next month. Some of those are expected to be enshrined in a new law next year, with changes to bank practices introduced earlier. Wheatley expects London to continue with “something called Libor”-probably based on a narrower range of currencies and periods-while other financial centres set up their own versions with the market deciding which ones to use.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King told fellow central bankers in July that radical reforms of the Libor system were needed and called a meeting in September to discuss it. The tougher regulation for benchmark interest rates could be extended to stock market indices and benchmarks for commodity prices such as oil and gold, Wheatley said. Although stock indices are based on trades, the others are often set by panels and less transparent.—Reuters

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi vendor arranges vegetables at his shop in Dhaka yesterday. Global food prices shot up last month due to extreme weather conditions, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

GM may have electric car breakthrough DETROIT: A small battery company backed by General Motors is working on breakthrough technology that could power an electric car 100 (160 kilometers) or even 200 miles (320 kilometers) on a single charge in the next two-to-four years, GM’s CEO said.

Speaking at an employee meeting, CEO Dan Akerson said the company, Newark, California-based Envia Systems, has made a huge breakthrough in the amount of energy a lithium-ion battery can hold. GM is sure that the battery will be able to take a car 100 miles (160 kilometers) within a couple of years, he said. It could be double that with some luck, he said.

“I think we’ve got better than a 50-50 chance,” Akerson said, “to develop a car that will go to 200 miles on a charge,” he said. “That would be a game changer.”

GM’s current electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, goes about 35 miles on a charge and has a small gas motor that generates power to keep the car going after that.

Few competitors have electric cars with more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) of range. Tesla Motors’ Model S can go up to 300 miles (480 kilometers), but it has a much larger battery and can cost more than twice as much as a Volt. Nissan’s Leaf and Ford’s Focus electric cars both claim ranges of around 100 miles (120 kilometers), but that can vary with temperature, terrain and speed.

Envia said earlier this year that its next-generation rechargeable lithium-ion cell hit a record high for energy density. The company said the new battery could slash the price of electric vehicles by cutting the

battery cost in half. GM Ventures LLC, the automaker’s investment arm, put $7 million into Envia in January of 2011.

The GM meeting, which was broadcast on a conference call to employees, lasted about an hour. A participant allowed a reporter from The Associated Press to listen. “These little companies come out of nowhere, and they surprise you,” Akerson said in response to a question about GM’s strategy on gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

Akerson said the company is looking at hybrids, allelectric cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and natural gas vehicles, as well as developing more efficient petroleum-powered engines. “We can’t put all of our chips on one bet,” he said. “We’ve got to look at them all.” — AP

German economy faces recession Slowdown carries risks for Merkel

SHANGHAI: An investor gestures as she looks at the stock price monitor at a private securities company in Shanghai, China, yesterday. Asian stock markets tumbled yesterday as investors withdrew from riskier assets after China’s trade suffered a steeper-than-expected slowdown. — AP

N Korea pushing for economic reform SEOUL: North Korea’s new leadership is apparently pushing for reforms in a bid to revive its crumbling state-directed economy, analysts and a South Korean official said yesterday.

“Our government is aware of North Korea’s discussion and consideration of various changes in the economic sector since the launch of its new leadership,” Kim Hyung-Suk, spokesman for the South’s unification ministry, told reporters.

These were probably aimed at improving the people’s livelihood, he said, adding specific details have not been confirmed. The extent of the latest changes was unclear. The North in 2002 introduced limited reforms but rolled them back three years later, apparently fearful of loosening the regime’s grip.

Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Thursday the regime has held public lectures about the new system, which centred on easing tight controls over output and letting each production unit become self-supporting.

Factories or companies would be given greater autonomy in management and set prices of products by themselves, RFA said. The state would distribute food rations and other materials only to government, military, education or health workers.

In agriculture, the regime would take 70 percent of the harvest from collective farms and farmers would keep the remaining 30 percent, it said. The official food distribution system largely collapsed during the famine years of the 1990s, and analysts say it currently only covers part of the population in any case.—AFP

BERLIN: Three years into the euro zone debt crisis, the gravity-defying German economy has stalled and some fear it could fall into recession in the second half of this year. Over the past week, Europe’s largest economy has been hit by a series of increasingly gloomy data releases, showing declines in manufacturing orders, industrial output, imports and exports. In an unusually stark warning yesterday, the economy ministry said these figures and a sharp drop-off in business sentiment in recent months pointed to “significant risks” to Germany’s outlook.

Next Tuesday, gross domestic product data for the second quarter is expected to show modest growth of about 0.2 percent.

But the danger of recession in the second half of the year is growing, leading economists say, at a time when Europe’s single currency bloc desperately needs growth from its economic powerhouse.

The slowdown carries risks for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will seek a third term in an election one year from now, and could influence public opinion on her crisis-fighting strategy especially if a nascent rise in unemployment accelerates.

“The German economy is losing momentum - there’s no doubt about that - and in the third quarter the economy will shrink compared to the second quarter,” said Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank.

“Things will go downhill from here. The German economy is not faring as badly as the rest of the euro zone but it can’t disconnect itself, especially as growth in China has slowed and continues to do so.” Germany is known for its export-driven growth, but the euro crisis has hit its biggest market. Roughly 40 percent of the country’s exports go to its partners in the currency zone and 60 percent to those in the broader European Union.

China, one of Germany’s fastest growing markets representing roughly 7 percent total exports, is also slowing. Chinese data this week showed factory output rising at is slowest pace in three years, new loans at a 10-month low and export growth grinding to a halt.

The hope heading into 2012 was that private consumption would compensate for the widely expected decline in German exports. Low interest rates, a robust labour market - German unemployment stood at just 6.8 percent in July - and strong wage ris-

es for both the public sector and manufacturing industry were expected to fuel domestic demand.

But recent data has been disappointing, with retail sales falling back. Last month, the chief executive of Germany’s Metro , the world’s No. 4 retailer, said retail conditions were worsening, with worries over the debt crisis overshadowing other factors that might encourage Germans to spend. Markus Schrick, head of Korean carmaker Hyundai’s German division, told Reuters he expected a sharp slowdown in sales in the second half of 2012 as customers became more cautious about spending. “The situation is difficult at the moment, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We’re bracing for more difficulties ahead.” Peter Bofinger, one of five ‘wise men’ who advise the German government on the economy, said recent industrial output data suggested the country was on the verge of a technical recession.

“It’s not the case that Germany can counter the weaker international economic situation with its own dynamism,” Bofinger told Reuters. It is too early to predict how the looming slowdown could affect Merkel’s prospects for 2013 or influence the intense

debate in Germany over giving aid to struggling euro partners such as Greece and Spain. A poll for public broadcaster ARD earlier this month showed 63 percent of Germans believe the economy is in good shape. The main reason for that is the robust labour market. Figures published on Friday showed youth unemployment in Germany stood at just 7.9 percent in June, compared to a European average of 22.6 percent.

Still, signs are emerging that a nearly uninterrupted six-year drop in unemployment is coming to an end. Seasonally adjusted joblessness has risen, albeit modestly, for the past four months. And big German companies - from Deutsche Bank to energy firm RWE and steel distributor Kloeckner - are pressing ahead with thousands of job cuts. “We expect the economic slowdown to start pushing up corporate insolvencies from the autumn,” Christoph Niering, head of the VID insolvency association, said. The same poll in which nearly two in three Germans said they were happy with the current economic climate also showed a sharp spike in the number of respondents who believe the economy will deteriorate over the coming year.—Reuters

BUCHAREST: Romanian women walk pass an exchange office’s rates notice in Bucharest yesterday. After two years of severe recession, Romania seemed on track to resume, though modest, sustainable growth. However, the lasting political crisis threatens to weaken the economy and drive away investors. — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Australia central bank hikes 2012 growth forecast SYDNEY: Australia’s central bank upped its annual growth forecast yesterday after a strong first half, but it warned that resources investment-a key driver of the economy-would peak by 2014. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said it now expected growth of 3.5 percent for 2012, instead of the 3.0 percent forecast in May, with the domestic economy powering on at above-average pace in the first six months of the year.

Australia’s mining-driven economy expanded 1.3 percent in the three months to March-a result hailed as “remarkable” by the government given the cooling in China and Europe’s woes. Even if some of the March quarter growth is revised downwards when the next growth reading is released in

September, the RBA said “the data currently suggest that growth in activity may have been above trend over the first half.”

A solid rebound in household spending and continued strength in resource investment were seen as the main drivers. Looking ahead, the bank warned that the boom in mining and energy-related spending was expected to peak “sometime in 2013-14” and begin modestly subtracting from growth over 2014.

“That peak is expected to occur somewhat earlier than previously thought,” the RBA said in its quarterly outlook on monetary policy. “Some resource companies have adopted a more cautious approach to investment opportunities currently under consid-

eration... given the more uncertain global outlook.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan welcomed the upbeat remarks, saying they confirmed that “our economy is currently travelling along better than expected.”

He noted that mining investment remained strong and the impact of it tapering off would be roughly offset by faster growth in resources exports made possible by the expansions to production capacity planned or underway. The RBA’s inflation outlook was little changed at 2.50 percent for the year to December, compared with 2.25 percent forecast in May, and the bank said it saw the current official interest rate of 3.50 percent as “appropriate”.

On the global front, the RBA said China’s growth was expected to pick

China oil, iron ore imports slow in July with economy Analysts expect bigger declines in August, Sept imports SHANGHAI: China’s imports of crude oil sank in July to a nine-month low and those of iron ore fell for the fourth time in five months as refineries and steel mills cut output due to slackening demand as growth in the world’s second-largest economy sputtered.

China is the top buyer of iron ore, coal and several industrial metals.

Investors and miners around the world rely on Chinese appetite for imports to prop up commodities prices struggling with sluggish demand in the United States and Europe.

A surprise monthly rise of 6 percent in copper imports in July was the one bright spot amid broader signs from raw material demand that China’s economy was slowing swiftly. Trade data on Friday showed China’s total July exports grew a mere 1 percent - well below the consensus call for growth of 8.6 percent.

China would face a challenge in meeting its target of 10 percent growth in trade in the second half of the year, Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng told reporters ahead of the trade data.

The country’s factory output growth slowed unexpectedly in July to the weakest in more than three years.

China’s implied oil demand stood at its second-lowest this year, despite an annual rise of 0.9 percent to 9.15 million barrels per day, while average daily imports fell 3 percent from a month ago to hit a nine-month low.

The slowdown is hitting oil demand hard in the country that has driven the increase in global fuel consumption for a decade. The International Energy Agency slashed its forecast for Chinese oil demand growth in 2012 by a third to 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) in its August monthly report on Friday. Just a month ago, the agency forecast growth of 360,000 bpd.

Reductions in steel output at mills that are struggling with high inventories as demand slows mean iron ore imports could fall further in the coming months, analysts said. “I expect to see bigger declines in imports in August and September,” said Helen Lau, a senior

analyst with broking house UOB-Kay Hian.

“We’ve already seen production cuts among steel companies and even the larger ones have scaled back output.

More importantly, there are no signs of

of the year. “The timing of this will be critical. A deeper slowdown and policy lags might delay the turning point and resultant recovery expected in the second half,” Lachlan Shaw, commodities analyst the Commonwealth Bank of

HUAIBEI: This picture taken on August 6, 2012 shows a Chinese worker unloading steel bars at a factory in Huaibei, east China’s Anhui province. China’s exports grew one percent in July year-on-year to $176.9 billion, official data showed yesterday, in a fresh sign of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. — AFP improvement in steel demand, so steel mills will probably keep inventory of iron ore low.”

Slowing Chinese demand has resulted in tumbling benchmark prices for steel, iron ore and coal. “China’s economy is facing serious external headwinds ... I think demand for bulk commodities will stay poor for the rest of the year,” said a coal dealer at a large international trading house.

The bearish monthly data has boosted expectations for more policy easing

by Beijing to shore up economic growth.

Analysts expect Beijing to cut interest rates in the third quarter and order two more cuts in the amount banks are required to hold as reserves by the end

Australia, told clients in a note. “The net impact on commodity prices will depend on whether new stimulus is timely enough to distract from a demand ‘pothole’ extending in the second half.”

Still, analysts said, any economic improvement will be fragile as the euro zone debt crisis and a sluggish US recovery hold down global growth, the key factor that pushed China’s new export orders in July to their steepest fall in eight months. Copper imports in July were 366,548 tonnes, while those of iron ore dipped to 57.87 mln tonnes.

Soy imports rose to a 25-month high of 5.87 million tonnes, up 4.4 percent on the month. — Reuters

up slightly in the second half of the year “as recent easings in fiscal and monetary policies start to take effect”.

But Europe continued to weigh heavily on the outlook as a “significant downside risk” and conditions were “expected to remain weak in the euro area for some time”.

“As a result of the trade and confidence linkages from the below-trend growth in Europe and the United States, growth may be dampened in much of Asia,” the bank said.

Though possible scenarios included “the exit of one or more economies from the euro area,” the RBA said its forecasts assumed ongoing volatility in sentiment and financial markets without a “severe disruption” to the region. — AFP

Weak Asia data shows growing toll from downturn HONG KONG: A slew of gloomy economic reports from Asian nations show that Europe’s debt crisis and the broader global downturn are taking a growing toll on the region even as governments respond with extra spending and lower lending rates. Hong Kong and Singapore, both Asian financial centers that are highly exposed to global trade, reported weak second quarter GDP yesterday, the same day that figures from China showed its trade slowing more sharply than forecast in July.

China, the world’s second-biggest economy, said its export growth slumped to 1 percent in July from the previous month’s 11.3 percent in a sign of global economic weakness.

Growth in imports sank to 4.7 percent from 6.3 percent in June, indicating that domestic demand also remains weak.

Other reports this month from economies including India, South Korea and Taiwan underlined the challenges that the export-reliant region is facing. “Given this backdrop, the 1 percent from China merely reconfirmed that the severe headwind from the euro zone crisis and the US slowdown is blowing harder,” Societe Generale economist Yao Wei said in a report.

Analysts expect China and other countries to step up efforts to fend off the downturn. China has cut interest rates twice since June and boosted infrastructure spending.

Barclay’s Capital said another rate cut is imminent after Friday’s gloomy trade figures.

South Korea held interest rates steady this week after a surprise cut last month. But it warned that Europe’s debt crisis will result in the South Korean economy, which is one of Asia’s wealthiest, underperforming for a sustained period. That led central bank watchers to predict another rate cut soon.

Among other economic developments this week: India’s industrial output fell a worse-than-expected 1.8 percent in June as manufacturing and investment slump. Singapore’s economy shrank 0.7 percent in the April-June quarter from the previous quarter on weak global demand.

Growth in China’s factory production weakened in July to 9.2 percent, its lowest since May 2009. Retail and auto sales also slowed. Taiwan’s exports dived 11.6 percent in July from a year earlier. Hong Kong’s economy grew a “tepid” 1.1 percent in the second quarter as the simmering European debt crisis cut demand for exports, the government said. It lowered its full-year growth forecast to 1-2 percent from 1-3 percent and warned of continuing risks in the global economy.

Hong Kong exports declined 0.4 percent, with the European Union the weakest market. Shipments to Europe fell at a double-digit rate. Sluggish demand in developed countries for finished products such as electronics, furniture and clothing resulted in a lower appetite for raw materials from Asian manufacturers, the government said. That meant lower shipments passing through Hong Kong’s busy port, which handles a big share of goods from China.

“The external environment turned abruptly for the worse” over the quarter, Hong Kong government economist Helen Chan said in a statement. “Downside risks in the global economy continued to loom large.” — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Companies pile on perks to keep drivers truckin’ LODI: Truck stops are getting a makeover as companies add amenities to combat a growing shortage of a precious commodity: Drivers.

On a blistering July afternoon, truckers at TA and Petro stops in Ohio played basketball, cooled off in a 60-seat theater showing Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in “Sherlock Holmes” a n d had their blood pressure checked by nurse practitioners.

TravelCenters of America, which runs TA and Petro rest stops, and other truck stop operators have spent millions of dollars over the last two years on jogging trails, gyms, clinics, private showers and healthier menus in a bid to enhance driver loyalty and keep the coun-

try’s 3 million truckers on the road.

Trucking companies are conducting a parallel campaign. Worried they cannot afford pay hikes big enough to retain experienced drivers and entice new ones, Con-Way Inc, Ryder System Inc, Swift Transportation Co and others offer perks and cushier sleeper cabs to improve the job’s quality of life.

“Probably the number one thing is pay, but the showers and other amenities and restaurants are all fantastic,” said Toney “ZZ” Murr of Brevard, North Carolina, who has been driving for more than 30 years.

Jobs in construction paid an average of about $45,000 last year, and electrician salaries averaged $53,000, compared with

about $40,000 for heavy- and tractor-trailer truck drivers, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Average driver salaries, based on government data, rose 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annually over the past three years.

Keeping enough drivers on the road is critical for the industry, which moves about two-thirds of all freight in the United States.

But a shortage of drivers, already approaching 100,000 truckers, is deepening even with U.S. unemployment over 8 percent.

By the end of next year, the shortage could more than double to 250,000, according to Noel Perry, principal of research firm Transport Fundamentals in Cornwall, Pennsylvania. “That would just put us on the

edge where you would get occasional spot shortages where freight wouldn’t move,” Perry said.

Many older truckers , who stretched out their careers in the recession, will soon retire; and the grueling hours and isolation hold little appeal for a younger generation, w ho favor jobs close to home that often pay better. “Driver pay hasn’t kept up with the skills, long hours and less-than-ideal living conditions,” said Todd Fowler, KeyBanc Capital Markets transport analyst in Cleveland. “The current generation is going to college to work at Google and Facebook, and going to trade school to become plumbers and electricians.” —AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Singapore’s economy shrinks 0.7% in Q2 SINGAPORE: Singapore’s economy shrank 0.7 percent in the second quarter, the government said yesterday, although the decline was at a slower pace than expected. The government also revised its overall growth forecast for 2012 to 1.5-2.5 percent from 1.0-3.0 percent, figures first flagged by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a speech Wednesday.

The April-June contraction was a sharp deterioration from Singapore’s 9.5 percent annualised quarter-on-

quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth in January-March, but better than estimates last month for a 1.1 percent fall.

Declines in export-driven sectors such as electronics, which are key elements of Singapore’s trade-led economy, were the main factors behind the weak second quarter showing, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.

The weak global environment, characterised by sluggish consumer spending in advanced economies, is expected

to impact Singapore, it said in a statement. “Given the macroeconomic backdrop, the growth outlook for the Singapore economy remains cautious,” the ministry said.

“Externally-oriented sectors, in particular electronics, wholesale and tourism-related services, will be affected by the slowdown in advanced economies. “Continued uncertainties in the external environment will also weigh down on sentiment-sensitive segments within the finance and insur-

ance sector.” Manufacturing activity shrank 0.5 percent on a quarter-onquarter annualised basis compared with a 20.8 percent surge in the preceding quarter. On a year-on-year basis, GDP grew 2.0 percent compared with 1.5 percent in the first quarter.

Singapore last posted negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2011, when GDP shrank an annualised 2.5 percent quarter-on-quarter. But GDP grew 4.9 percent over the whole of last year. — AFP

Japan lawmakers vote to double sales tax TOKYO: A bill to double Japan’s sales tax and partially plug its gaping debt hole cleared the final parliamentary hurdle yesterday in a triumph for the prime minister that could also cost him his job. The legislation, which at the same time makes provision to revamp the country’s precarious social security system, has been the main focus of Yoshihiko Noda’s 11-month premiership.

The bill is a rare tangible achievement in the revolving door world of Japanese leaders that has seen six new men step into the role in as many years. The House of Councillors on Friday approved the government bill by a majority of 188 to 49 with the support of major opposition parties after weeks of horse-trading.

Although his party enjoys a handsome majority in the lower, more powerful, house, Noda is without the numbers in the upper chamber and had to offer opponents the carrot of a general election in return for the bill’s passage.

Observers say Noda’s riven Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is likely to suffer at the hands of voters disappointed by their lacklustre three years in office and may punish him in September’s party leadership election.

Quibbling former party members have complained that the DPJ came to power in 2009 without reference to any tax rise. At a news conference following the vote, Noda apologised for the absence of any sales tax legislation in the party’s manifesto, but defended his move.

“We have been mired in a position that means we need to ensure stable financial sources for social security,” he told reporters. “We should not exploit our future (through borrowing). It is not feasible to have a system where benefits mainly go to the older generation while burdens go mainly to the working generation.”

Ahead of the vote, Noda’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi hailed the bill. “It is an historic achievement,” he told reporters, according to the website of the Nikkei. “Fiscal reconstruction is particularly necessary for Japan,” said Azumi, a reference to its debt level, which stands at an industrial-world high of around twice its GDP. “At a time when the global economy is unstable, Japan’s firm handling of fiscal reconstruction will get rid of one risk and lead to stability globally.” International bodies, Japanese newspapers and the bulk of domestic commentators agree that raising consumption tax in stages to 10 percent is a good idea.

But less than half of the electorate approves of the plan, polls show, with populist politicians capitalising on the unwillingness of people to pay more tax in an economy that has been treading water for years.

Noda on Thursday rode out a bid by a collection of minor parties-including former rebels from the DPJ-to pass a motion of no-confidence in him after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) agreed not to support the move.

But the vague pledge he would hold elections “in the near future” has irked his own lawmakers, many of whom are likely to lose their seats the next time the electorate is asked for an opinion. Despite their co-operation on the tax rise, the LDP is seen likely to seize any opportunity it has to be rid of Noda and has refused to rule out its own noconfidence motion against him.

“A movement to oust Noda from the premier’s post may begin and his re-election in the party presidential vote in September is now doubtful,” said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University. —AFP

TOKYO: Workers walk past an electronic stock indicator in Tokyo, yesterday. Asian stock markets floundered yesterday, as traders displayed caution ahead of the release of trade data from China. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 percent to 8,924.82. — AP

India MRPL may load 2m barrels of Iran crude in Aug Vessel has local insurance cover, source says NEW DELHI: India’s Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. may lift about 2 million barrels of crude from Iran in August, it said, and a shipping source said the company has booked its first vessel with local insurance cover to transport the oil.

MRPL imported one cargo of around 660,000 barrels from Iran in July. The August figure is still just a little over half of the 3.7 million barrels India’s top buyer of Iranian oil used to import on average every month in the fiscal year that ended on March 31.

India, like all other major Asian buyers of Iranian oil, is working around an European Union embargo that bars underwriters from providing insurance to ships carrying it. The EU ban that came into effect from July 1, combined with US sanctions, has halved the Islamic Republic’s exports.

India, the second-biggest customer for Iranian crude after China, is keeping oil from the OPEC member flowing in by asking Iran to take on all the risk. It is also asking Indian state-run insurers to provide cover to locally owned ships.

Neither approach has been entirely successful yet because the cover for local ships is limited at just $100 million, while

Iran does not have enough tankers that can use Indian ports, reducing MRPL’s ability to continue with steady shipments.

“This month, I will be getting two to three cargoes,” MRPL Managing Director P. P. Upadhya told Reuters yesterday.

Japan, the only other main consumer which has agreed to provide federal insurance on ships carrying Iranian oil, is providing cover of up to $7.6 billion.

Upadhya said MRPL’s imports from Iran could rise once its single point mooring (SPM) is commissioned later this month or early September, enabling it to import oil in bigger vessels.

MRPL, which bought around a third of India’s total 362,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Iran last fiscal year, had already cut import plans for this year by 20 percent to 100,000 bpd to help New Delhi secure a waiver from US sanctions on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The sanctions are aimed at cutting Iran’s oil revenues and forcing it to curb a nuclear programme the West believes will be used to develop weapons, which Iran denies.

MRPL has already received 93,000 tonnes, or about 680,000 barrels, for August in an Iranian vessel Gardenia,

Upadhya said. In July, MRPL received only a fifth of an initially planned 3.3 million barrels of oil from Iran, importing the crude in the Iranian suezmax tanker Magnolia as domestic shippers were not willing to make the journey with reduced insurance cover.

Only Mercator Ltd offered its Omvati Prem aframax in a shipping ministry tender seeking vessels to import Iranian oil for MRPL. The ship was built in 1994, according to the company’s website. It is scheduled to lift a cargo on Aug. 15, the first to do so using the limited Indian cover.

“I may ask Mercator to lift one more cargo for us this month,” Upadhya said.

“Omvati Prem is the only vessel that Mercator can provide as it is open and is availing insurance from United India Insurance for Iran voyage,” said a shipping source with knowledge of the deal who added that MRPL had booked the vessel. State-run United India Insurance Co is providing $50 million each per voyage against pollution and personal injury claims, also known as protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance, and for hull and machinery to protect ships against physical damage. The cover is re-insured

by General Insurance Co. — Reuters

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Blow-and-go hair salons are taking root PAGE 28

Mexican Maria Jose Cristerna, known as ‘Vampire Woman’, Guinness World Record for being the woman with more changes in her body in America, poses for visitors and photographers, during the “Expo Tatoo Art Mex” convention at the World Trade Center in Mexico City. — AFP

Aussie film industry hopes for ‘Wolverine’ boost PAGE 26

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Mischa Barton ready to design for

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he 26-year-old designer opened her fashion boutique in Spitalfields, east London, earlier this week, and she now wants to create garments for canines to ensure her own three pooches - Charles Dickens, Ziggy Stardust and Harvey - look as stylish as she does while out and about. She told The Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I definitely want to do dogwear in the future. Dogwear is really coming into its own and my dogs are so important to me - you want them to look good.” Mishca’s new planned venture comes after she recently insisted she has “given up”

Taylor Swift introduces Conor Kennedy to her folks

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he ‘Love Story’ singer began dating the 18-year-old son of Robert Kennedy Jr. and the late Mary Kennedy in June and she has shown how serious they are by taking him to her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. While they were there, the smitten pair also enjoyed a date at a barbecue diner and onlookers say they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Taylor - who has previously dated John Mayer, Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal - has already impressed Conor’s side of the family after his aunt, Rory Kennedy, gave her the

seal of approval. She said: “She’s awesome. She’s a great friend of all of ours.” Conor has had a difficult time recently after his mother Mary hanged herself on May 16 in a barn near the family home in New York’s Westchester County amid bitter divorce proceedings in which Robert won temporary custody of their four children, aged 11 to 18. He recently applied to be named administrator of his mother’s estate, a request his father had no objections to.

Kaley Cuoco is the new face of Proactiv

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he Big Bang Theory’ star’s representative confirmed that she is the newest face of the range although the start date for her campaign has yet to be announced. The 26-year-old actress follows in the footsteps of the pimple treatment line’s star-studded roster, which includes Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Naya Rivera and Katy Perry. ‘Glee’ star Naya, who is a longtime fan of the famous three-step acne-clearing system, signed on as the brand’s celebrity spokesperson in December 2011. The 25-year-old said at the time: “The makeup artist on the set of Glee gave it to me and I kept it using it because I knew it worked for other people. I really wanted to work with Proactiv because the products really helped me.” Kaley - who is filming season six of her sitcom - took to twitter to reveal she is “so thrilled” about her latest gig. She has recently tweeted her love for another skin product, Josie Maran’s Argan Oil Moisturizing Stick.

dogs

on men after a string of failed relationships and she would prefer to put all her “love, care and attention” into her three beloved pooches. The blonde beauty who has been linked with socialite Brandon Davis and British rocker Luke Pritchard - said: “I’ve given up men.

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be anyone out there for me. My last three boyfriends haven’t worked out, so I’m giving guys a rest for a while. I’m putting all my love, care and attention into my three dogs. “Don’t ask why, but they are a good replacement for men in terms of affection.”

Miranda Kerr’s grandmother is her style icon

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he Victoria’s Secret model admitted that she looks to her grandparent for fashion inspiration and it has resulted in her preference for quality clothing. She told Harper’s Bazaar magazine: “For me it’s all about keeping things simple and feeling comfortable in what I am wearing. I prefer investing in classic, well-tailored pieces. “I have always admired Audrey Hepburn’s style and my Nan has always been a style icon for me. Growing up I would play in her wardrobe and was very influenced by her. She taught me that you don’t need to have a lot of money to have style. It’s the way you put things together and how you carry yourself.”

The wife of actor Orlando Bloom and mother to their son Flynn, poses in nothing but long boots for her photo shoot in the publication. She admitted that the footwear choice is one of her favourites because it makes her feel powerful to wear them.

She said in a behind-the-scenes video to accompany the article: “I really love over-theknee boots. I think they’re super sexy and they’re fun.

And they’re also very strong and empowering.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

The Wanted go swimming with sharks

Sharon, Ozzy Osbourne rent out LA mansion

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he TV presenter and the Black Sabbath frontman - nicknamed the ‘Prince of Darkness’ have opted to let out their lavish Hidden Hills home, which is based just outside Los Angeles, as it has failed to sell for $13 million after one year on the market. The couple decided it would be more lucrative to rent out the property - which they purchased for $12.4 million five years ago - which features six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and could be ideal for a showbiz star as it is situated in a gated community, according to Trulia. And the Prince of Darkness’ pad features plenty of light thanks to the floor-toceiling windows, but the couple’s eccentric style is featured in a number of items in the home’s interior such as a black spiral staircase. The abode might be ideal for a big-name fashion designer as the master bedroom features a walk-in closet and food fans will be pleased to hear the property features a state-ofthe-art chef’s kitchen and formal dining room. While it has been tough to sell their Hidden Hills home, Sharon and Ozzy - who have three children together, Aimee, 28, Kelly, 27, and 26-year-old Jack - managed to sell their Malibu beach house for $7.95 million in March.

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he ‘Chasing The Sun’ hitmakers took the plunge while on tour Down Under after 23-year-old shark enthusiast Max George insisted the band swim with the fearsome creatures at Sydney’s Shark Dive Xtreme. Max tweeted from the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary: “Living the dream #sharks!... Best thing I’ve ever done... My love for sharks had just doubled!!” The hunk - who recently split from soap star Michelle Keegan - then added a close-up photograph of his fishy friend along with the caption: “My new friend... she was a beast.” His fellow band mates weren’t quite as enthusiastic, but were all eventually cajoled into the tank

by Max with the exception of pertified Nathan Sykes. Nathan, 19,

posted: “To people saying that we should join max, I think you are slightly confused about our sanity...” (sic) Tom Parker was also extremely reluctant, joking: “Someone just tweeted saying “go on dive with sharks with Max”. Erm, 2 things wrong with that. 1) I can’t swim all that great really... “And secondly, but must importantly..there is SHARKS inside. You know, them 4 metre long creatures that can tear your head off!! #I’llpass.”(sic) However, he seemed ecstatic after his underwater escapade and updated his fans, saying: “I ended up doing it. Unbelievable experience!” The British boy band was taking time out from their promotional tour of Australia and New Zealand. —Bang Showbiz

Rachel Weisz

likes being a US citizen

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he British actress - who lives in New York with husband Daniel Craig and her six-yearold son Henry - received American citizenship last year and loves the fact she can now vote Stateside and receives a warm welcome whenever she flies into the country. She said: “I did it [applied for citizenship] because I thought I would go back to England for a while and lose my green card. I’m not going back now, but being a citizen means I can vote here, which is exciting; not just being an outsider. “When I come back into the country now and they stamp my passport, they

say, ‘Welcome home ma’am’. I think that’s a lovely formality. No-one in England would ever say that.”

While she is happy living in America, the ‘Bourne Legacy’ star admits she misses her friends in the UK. She added to Stylist magazine: “I still have a place in London and love spending time there. I miss my friends who I grew up with, my girls.

It’s a different relationship.”

Jennifer Lopez T

he singer-and-actress has earned a reputation as a demanding star, but Jennifer is adamant she doesn’t ask for anything extraordinary backstage, she is just particular about the things she does want. She said: “I think people love to look at them (riders) and go, ‘Oh my God she wants M&M’S ... she’s crazy!’ I think everyone has their list of things that make you feel comfortable ... like a certain kind of potato chip or water. I think the crazy ones are made up.” The 43year-old star - who is currently on tour with Enrique Iglesias - and her two sisters were taught by their mother Guadalupe that drinking to excess was bad for you and her words have stuck with JLo for life. She said: “I’m not a drinker. I think my

insists she isn’t a diva

mom just ingrained in us since we were very small that it was just not a good thing to do so I just never got into it.” Jennifer has four-year-old twins, Max and Emme, with her estranged husband Marc Anthony, and although they separated in July 11 she insists they still have a deep love for one another because of their kids. In an interview on the ‘The Kyle & Jackie O Show’ on Australia radio station 2Day FM, she said: “It has been difficult, just like any divorce, especially when it involves children but at the end of the day we have a lot of love for each other and we obviously love our children more than anything so at the end of the day we have to make it work.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Art at Argentine asylum sheds light on dark corners

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undreds of patients at Argentina’s biggest mental hospital are turning fine arts training into real ability as painters, actors and musicians, and getting a fuller sense of self along the way. “Art really can be a tool for change in society. And you can see its effects, because art can heal people,” said Mirtha Otazua, a psychologist and coordinator of an acting workshop at Jose Tiburcio Borda Mental Hospital. The facility in Buenos Aires is home to 700 inpatients, all male, on a sprawling and gritty 19-hectare (47-acre) campus where efforts are afoot to change a system that has long kept such patients cut off from both the world and their own potential.

Nobody is a bigger believer in the program’s prospects for changing lives than its director, Alberto Sava. “The creative process, in and of itself, has some major positive effects,” Sava said. “But our workshops are also turning out musicians and artists of quality” performing or showing in theaters, galleries, festivals and schools outside Borda, he said. Sava sports a white beard and exudes a gentle demeanor despite being faced with crowding and facilities that have likely not been upgraded since the hospital opened in 1865.

Sava’s involvement in art dates back to the 1980s, when there was an effort ultimately unsuccessful-to shut down asylums in the hope that patients would improve if they were better integrated in society at large. As mental health care settled back on a more traditional course, Sava struck on the idea that fine arts could provide patients with a therapeutic focus. Now, in addition to serving as a social psychologist, Sava is in charge of acting and mime as the founder of the Borda Artists Front, a radical name for a simple idea.

“There are so many inpatients here with artistic potential.

You can see it in the people out on the terrace playing guitar, in the quality of painting and graffiti on the walls and in the poetry they actually sell in the hallways,” Sava said in his tiny, cluttered office at the hospital. He coordinates 13 workshops in theater, mime, literature, circus, music, painting and sculpture that bring together inpatients, outpatients, hospital staff, medical students and neighbours of the facility. In one of the groups, patients and volunteers reverse roles, with the patients pretending they are the medical staff.

‘No reason to be locked up’ For artist Oscar Ciancio, who is affiliated with the program, there is an important, clear goal. “We see how the fact that (patients) can produce art of solid quality helps change the rest of the world’s understanding of what mental illness is,” he said. “When patients work on a piece, they emerge from their confinement and begin to discover who they are,” he said, adding that “most have no reason whatsoever to be locked up, but many have been in here for 20 years.” In many cases, relatives refuse to take their loved ones back in, while others say they cannot afford to care for them. Some patients who could live alone are unable to find a job or housing.

Hospital director Ricardo Miguel Picasso stressed the importance of the art program for patients who have been abandoned by their families and the rest of society. “The workshops are really important. Artistic expression helps the patients build bridges to society,” Picasso said. The artists’ group also calls attention to what it says are some hospital policies that treat patients as second-class citizens.

Sava, with more than three decades behind him in the system, says he hopes these are the dying days of Argentina’s “insane asylums”. “Insane asylums, public or private, are places that violate human rights,” he said. “That means they offer poor quality of life, poor nutrition, poor clothing, overmedication is the norm, and there is physical and psychological violence. They are like concentration camps.”

Some system changes are in the works. Though the 1980s campaign to shut down asylums fizzled, a 2010 law-that has yet to be fully detailed and implemented-could change the mental health care landscape dramatically. —AFP

German mayor of Wilhelmshaven Andreas Wagner (left) and notary Kay Lay measure the world’s biggest 3D street art picture on Valois Square in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Gregor Wosik and three other artists created this picture which covers 1,570 sq m. Now the Guinness Society has to recognize the result so that it can be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. — AFP

Careful bear raids Colorado candy shop

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bear in a candy store is nothing like a bull in a china shop. At least not this one. A black bear went in and out of a Colorado candy store multiple times early one July morning, but he used the front door and didn’t break a thing. The bear did, however, steal some treats from the Estes Park store, including English toffee and some chocolate-chip cookies dipped in caramel and milk chocolate called “cookie bears.” Surveillance video at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory showed the bear prying open the door and grabbing some candy near the registers. He took the treats outside and ate them, then returned for more.

The bear made seven trips in about 15 minutes, finally leaving after a passing car apparently scared him away.

Store owner Jo Adams said Wednesday the bear managed to pop open the door because the deadbolt wasn’t completely secured. She said the only evidence her mindful visitor left behind was some dirt on a counter and some paper on the ground. There weren’t even any wrappers, so she assumes he ate those too.

“He was very clean and very careful. He ate a lot of candy,” said Adams of the bear break-in, first reported by the Estes Park News. Keeping bears out of human food in homes, garbage cans and cars is an ongoing struggle in Colorado’s mountain towns, including Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. A bear that broke into more than one occupied home there was euthanized last month because it posed a danger to people, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer

This image taken from surveillance video shows a bear leaving the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in Estes Park, Colorado. — AP

Churchill said. She said this year’s drought is making the intelligent animals even more resourceful in finding food, and success can put them in danger of one day being put down. Adams said she’s a bear lover and doesn’t support killing the animals. “We’re in their turf, and you just put up with these things when they happen,” she said. — AP

Eminem to fans:

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minem, who battled an addiction to prescription drugs, thanked his fans at a New York concert for helping him get through dark times. The 39-year-old told hundreds Thursday night that he “wouldn’t have gotten out of that dark place without y’all” before he performed the Grammy-winning song “Not Afraid.” He said the performance was “dedicated to anybody tonight who’s been through personal struggles.”

Eminem’s addiction and climb to sobriety is detailed in his 2010 album “Recovery.” It was that year’s best-selling album.

At the Hammerstein Ballroom the rapper performed more than a dozen songs at an event for the watch brand G-Shock, including the hits “Lose Yourself,” “Love the Way You Lie” and “The Real Slim Shady.” Hip-hop foursome Slaughterhouse opened for the Detroit-born rapper. — AP

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Sibling rivalry will play out at AARP spelling bee A n old case of sibling rivalry could spell trouble at this year’s AARP National Spelling Bee, as four siblings who were raised with more books than toys in their house gather for what they say will be more than a family reunion. Half a century after the three sisters and their brother bragged about their grades by posting them on the refrigerator, they’re about to find out who among them is the best speller.

“Our parents actually were the ones who set the bar high. They were both teachers. Their expectations were that we would do as well as possible, period,” said 67-year-old Joan Risley, of Scottsdale, Ariz., oldest of the four.

Her sister, Prudence Hopkins, 57, of Spotsylvania, Va., remembers things a bit differently: It was Joan who set the

bar so high by earning her master’s degree at 20. “My sister Joan being the oldest and the most responsible and blah, blah, blah. You know, she was valedictorian, and this and that,” said Hopkins, a hospital chaplain. “Down the line, the expectation was we’d all achieve.” The AARP bee is open to anyone age 50 and older, and it’s very competitive. The winner typically puts in many hours of preparation studying the dictionary.

More than 50 competitors from 24 states have signed up for the 16th annual senior bee at the Little America resort in Cheyenne. Joining Risley and Hopkins in Cheyenne will be their brother, Roger Risley, 62, of Port Townsend, Wash.; and sister, Chris Wagner, 60, of Sacramento, Calif. Two pairs of sisters from Colorado

also have signed up, said Wyoming AARP spokeswoman Joanne Mai. “We’ve even had a divorced couple compete before. But this is the first time we’ve had essentially a family reunion at the bee,” Mai said. “I’m not sure what sparked this family affair phenomenon, but we’re glad to have it.” There’s extended family, too: A second cousin of the Risleys, 2009 bee winner Michael Petrina Jr., of Arlington, Va., has signed up to compete again. Petrina beat Joan Risley to win a regional New York state spelling bee back when they were in middle school, and she hasn’t forgotten it. Last year’s winning word at the AARP bee was “uakari” (wah-KAR’-ee), a species of monkey. LaGrange, Ga., psychologist Tony Johnson, 58, nailed the word to win $5,000. The bee will begin

with a written round of 100 words. The top 15 from the written test advance to the oral round. Competitors in the oral round may misspell a word once but not twice: It’s two strikes and you’re out at the AARP bee. There have been no repeat champions. Petrina, a retired lobbyist who finished second in 2011 and 2008 and third in 2007, has come closer to a repeat than anybody. “We have some people who come who are extremely competitive. Then we have some people who come just for fun,” Mai said. This will be the first meeting of all four Risley children since their father’s funeral in 2003. Meeting up at the bee was Hopkins’ idea. “It’s really kind of a lark,” Joan Risley said. “My youngest sister said we haven’t gotten together since the last family funeral.” — AP

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rofessional daredevil Nik Wallenda says the sand on the tightrope made his high wire walk over a New Jersey beach Thursday more challenging. Wallenda successfully walked 1,300 feet (400 meters) along the wire while about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground. A crowd estimated by local officials at 150,000 watched. “It felt really slippery,” he said. So slippery that he considered doing the walk barefoot. But ultimately, Wallenda decided to keep on the buckskin and suede shoes his mother made him, and he completed the half-hour walk without any real difficulties.

For Wallenda, a member of the seventh generation of the famous daredevil family that’s been putting on shows for two centuries, it was another in a long line of deathdefying feats. In June, he walked farther - and higher up - over Niagara Falls. This time, though, he was unharnessed as seagulls flew by, a couple of banner-pulling planes zipped around, boats came to shore so their occupants could watch and all eyes on the beach save those of a few diligent lifeguards - were looking at Wallenda high above.

There were expected to be a boon for Atlantic City and the Tropicana Casino & Resort, which put on the event. The crowd got

a preview of the Wallenda Family Experience show opening at the casino on Sunday and the city got a spectacle of the sort it wants as it continues to deal with declining gambling revenue caused largely by the opening of casinos in nearby states. Noreen Saggese, a teacher from Washington Township, New Jersey, was staying at the Tropicana with a cousin to celebrate her 59th birthday.

“There’s no net and there’s no harness,” she said as she prepared to watch the walk. “It’s thrilling.” After the walk, Wallenda, 33, had a rehearsal for his family’s show. But first, he made time for a quick, calm news conference.

That helicopter buzzing overheard? Not an annoyance at all, he said. Where this walk ranks among his greatest hits? A diplomatic dodge: “I’ll always remember this walk because of the crowd that turned up, that beautiful boardwalk and the sand.”

His faith in the 90 or so helpers, most of them Tropicana employees weighing down support ropes to keep his high wire tight: Unwavering. The same couldn’t be said, exactly, for their faith in him. After he gave them instructions on their task, he asked if there were any questions. Just one man shouted out a query: “Are you nuts?” Wallenda didn’t answer that one. — AP Daredevil Nik Wallenda performs his tightrope walk above the beach in Atlantic City, NJ. — AP

(From left) Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, pose for the photographers during a photo call to promote the film “The Expendables 2” in Paris yesterday. — AP

2 NJ towns turn down ‘Jersey Shore’ spinoff

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he Jersey shore town that tried to close its bars early and restricts overnight parking has said no to “Snooki & JWoww.” The Point Pleasant Beach Council unanimously voted against 495 Productions’ request to tape the “Jersey Shore” spinoff featuring Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jennifer “JWoww” Farley. The request says the cast would be living outside of town. Councilman William Mayer tells the Asbury Park Press it’s not what the town needs at this point.

The state’s top liquor regulator is blocking the town from imposing a midnight bar closing. The time and overnight parking restrictions are designed to reduce noise near the beachfront. Nearby Toms River also turned down the MTV reality series.

“Snooki & JWoww” taped its first season in Jersey City. — AP This file photo shows Jenni “JWoww” Farley (left) and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi in New York. — AP

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Veteran Hollywood publicist

Dale Olson dead at 78 V

This file photo shows actor Hugh Jackman (left), Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (centre), and US director James Mangold (right) appearing on the set of the movie ‘The Wolverine’ in Sydney. — AFP

eteran Hollywood publicist Dale Olson, who represented such Hollywood legends as Marilyn Monroe, Gene Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock, and such current A-listers as Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacClaine and Steven Spielberg, is dead at age 78. Spokesman Harlan Boll said Olson died early Thursday at a Burbank hospital after a long battle with cancer. Despite his struggle, Olson continued working until recently. Perhaps Olson’s most notable role was as the spokesman for Rock Hudson during the actor’s widely publicized, ultimately fatal bout with AIDS in 1985. Olson is also credited with helping to launch the “Rocky,” “Rambo,” “Superman” and “Halloween” film franchises. He led numerous winning Oscar campaigns and was active in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Actors Fund. Other Hollywood greats represented by Olson included Steve McQueen, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis and more. — AP Dale Olson

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ustralia was once a regular destination for top Hollywood producers making big-budget blockbusters until it was priced out by its soaring currency-but a clawed mutant could herald a revival. X-Men comics spin-off “The Wolverine” is being shot in Sydney, the home town of star Hugh Jackman, courtesy of a Aus$12.8 million ($13.4 million) government subsidy. Some four years since the release of the last major blockbuster filmed Down Under, Baz Luhrmann’s romantic outback epic “Australia”, the local film industry sees the funding as a lifeline and hopes it will trigger a resurgence.

The sector’s woes are an example of Australia’s two-speed economy, where resources firms are booming but other companies struggle with the consequences of their success, particularly the rise of the Australian dollar. Back when the Aussie currency languished well below parity with the greenback, a string of big movies were filmed in Sydney including “The Matrix” (1999), Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible II” (2000) and “Moulin Rouge!” (2001).

“As you can imagine, when our dollar was 52, 65, 72 cents, 83 cents (against the US dollar)... we were seen as a very attractive destination,” said Debra Richards, chief executive of marketing body Ausfilm. With more competition from other countries, which have increased financial incentives for filmmakers, big productions in Australia have dwindled.

Richards argues the government needs to increase its appeal by lifting its subsidy for using Australia as a location from the current 16.5 percent of qualifying expenditure to 30 percent to level the playing field. “We’re not being looked at because it just is not viable financially.

Even though people want to work with us, when you look at it and you compare it to other territories, then it’s not as attractive,” Richards said. “So kicking the location offset up to 30 percent allows us to still be compared-at the moment at 16.5 we’re not.” She is hopeful the federal government’s cultural policy to be released later this year will alter the rules.

‘Australian jobs’ Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was Jackman himself who convinced her to provide the money to bring “The Wolverine” production to Australia because it would create more than 2,000 jobs and keep specialist skills in the country. She announced the funding last month on the movie set at Sydney’s Fox Studios, standing alongside Jackman who is reprising his best-known performance in the mutant title role. “He explained to me that without government assistance it would be very hard to see this venture take place in Australia,” Gillard said. “I wanted these Australian jobs, I wanted the injection into our economy.”

Australia has clocked robust economic growth in recent years despite the global slowdown, but Gillard added that while the mining and resources sectors were booming, strong creative industries helped build a diversified economy. “I wanted the skills that it would mean for the future,” she said.

“We haven’t seen a blockbuster in Australia since ‘Australia’ with Hugh and Nicole (Kidman) and we are at risk of the skill sets being dispersed around the world and importantly not bringing the next generation through.” “The Wolverine” is expected to bring more than Aus$80 million into the country but for his part Jackman, 43, said he was simply happy to be home. “To be shooting a movie of this magnitude here at home is one of the great privileges I have had in my career,” he said. Gillard said the grant was the equivalent of what the film would have received if the tax rebate was lifted to 30 percent, and indicated that she saw the benefits of providing incentives for foreign films. “We decided it was a good investment,” she said. — AFP

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n the opening pages of “The Feminine Mystique,” Betty Friedan consciously captured the despair of so many housewives and unknowingly anticipated a shift in language that would mirror the revolution to come in women’s lives. “As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night,” Friedan wrote in her 1963 book, “she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - ‘Is this all?’” The average reader might catch such “Mad Men” details as “matched slipcover material.” But a linguist or psychologist will be keeping score: “She” and “her” each are used twice; “herself” once. Not a single “he,” his” or “himself” appears.

The golden age of the male pronoun was ending. According to a study released Thursday, the “he-she” gap in books - one that has always favored the masculine - has dramatically narrowed since the release of Friedan’s feminist classic. Drawing upon nearly 1.2 million texts in the Google Books archive, three university researchers tracked gender pronouns from 1900 to 2008. The ratio of male to female pronouns

was roughly 3.5:1 until 1950, when the gap began to widen as more women stayed home after World War II, and peaked at around 4.5:1 in the mid-1960s. The ratio had shrunk to 3:1 by 1975, and less than 2:1 by 2005.

“These trends in language quantify one of the largest, and most rapid, cultural changes ever observed: The incredible increase in women’s status since the late 1960s in the US,” Jean M. Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of “Generation Me,” said in a statement. “Those numbers are quite staggering,” says James W Pennebaker, author of “The Secret Life of Pronouns” and chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas in Austin.

“Pronouns are a sign of people paying attention and as women become more present in the workforce, in the media and life in general, people are referring to them more.”—AP

Singer Damon Albarn of the English rock band Blur performs on stage at the Skanderborg Festival in Skanderborg, yesterday. — AFP

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

In this film publicity file photo released by Magnolia Pictures, Tilda Swinton (left) and Mattia Zaccaro, are shown in a scene from, “I am Love.”

great movies about

In this file photo, Michelle Williams (left) and Ryan Gosling, are shown in a scene from, “Blue Valentine.”

— AP photos

troubled marriages

eryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a long-time married couple who’ve fallen into a rut in the surprisingly honest and effective “Hope Springs.” She hopes intensive couples’ therapy will restore their romance; he’s content to fall asleep in front of the television every night watching The Golf Channel. Marriage, in all its states, is such a universal topic that it’s been portrayed in countless films.

But troubled marriages can provide showy performances and moments of uncomfortable truth. Here are five great examples:

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Williams earned the second of her three Oscar nominations here, although co-star Ryan Gosling deserved one just as much; each needs the other for their dynamic to work, and both deliver performances of convincing power. Director Derek Cianfrance skips back and forth in time between the idyllic days of their youthful courtship and the distance that divides them years later as working-class parents, once they’ve realized how different their goals are. Their overnight hotel getaway, a last gasp at salvaging their marriage, is both hopeful and heartbreaking.

“Scenes From a Marriage” (1973): One of Ingmar Bergman’s very best, this intimate and piercing drama follows a seemingly happy, upper-middle class Swedish couple over the years as their marriage falls apart. Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) destroy each other, drift apart and eventually wind up with other people, but still find themselves intrinsically tied to each other. Working with his long-time collaborator, the great cinematographer Sven Nyqvist, Bergman is unflinching and uncompromising in his examination of this flawed and all-too human love affair, and Ullmann and Josephson are pitch-perfect. Originally presented as a six-part TV miniseries, it was edited down to a feature film of nearly three hours. Not a moment of emotion has been lost.

“The War of the Roses” (1989): Because we had to have a comedy in here somewhere - even the blackest of black comedies - to keep ourselves from getting too terribly depressed. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner reteam with their “Romancing the Stone” co-star Danny DeVito, who also directs, for a film that couldn’t be more different (and more bereft of romance). As Oliver and Barbara Rose, Douglas and Turner tear each other and everything around them apart. Calling this a messy divorce would be an understatement; what happens to the couple’s opulent mansion more closely resembles a war zone. As much an indictment of the conspicuous consumption of the era as it is a cynical depiction of modern love.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966): I reference this movie a lot, I realize, but this week’s list would seem empty without it. It’s the ultimate train wreck: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton booze it up and berate each other in front of a poor, unsuspecting young couple who had the misfortune of saying “yes” to their invitation to come over one night.

Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Edward Albee’s play, his assured directing debut, would have had a relentless sense of claustrophobia anyway. But the fact that Burton and Taylor had such a notoriously tumultuous off-screen relationship (they were married to each other in real life - for the first time) made their onscreen barbs seem that much more severe.

Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, it won five, including best actress for Taylor’s scathing performance.

“Blue Valentine” (2010): A heartbreaking drama about the disintegration of a marriage depicted in such raw, unadorned and sometimes uncomfortably close fashion, it makes you feel as if you’re watching a documentary about a real-life couple. Michelle

“I Am Love” (2010): A vibrantly gorgeous film about a marriage slowly, quietly dying. The versatile and chameleon-like Tilda Swinton shows yet another side to her staggering talent here, speaking fluent Italian (and even a little Russian) as the gracious and impeccably dressed wife of a Milanese industrialist.

She would seem to have it all with her husband and three children in their palatial home - until she realizes she’s not happy. A young chef catches her eye and helps her rediscover the woman she used to be, inspiring a climactic departure of operatic proportions. Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s retro-styled melodrama recalls Visconti and Sirk in its lush trappings, but Swinton’s formidable presence at the center always keeps things grounded and real. — AP

In this 1966 file photo, Elizabeth Taylor (left) and Richard Burton, are shown in a scene from the film, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

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nside some of the busiest beauty salons in Los Angeles, you won’t find scissors, hair dye or perm solution. What you will find is women packing the shops as early as 7 am, clutching cups of coffee and dressed for the office. After a quick wash, their locks are brushed and styled amid the steady hum of blow-dryers. Half an hour later, coiffed to perfection, they rush out to start their workdays. “I like to either start my workday in this salon chair or end it here,” said Lauren Levin, 31, a regular at Drybar in West Hollywood, where 10 chairs were all filled on a recent Tuesday morning. “I used to style my hair on my own, but it never looked very good. Coming here saves time, and my hair ends up looking much more professional and polished.”

Hollywood actors and wealthy socialites have long hired pricey professionals to achieve camera-ready hairdos. Now a new breed of beauty salon is offering affordable styling for the Average Jane - at about $35 a pop. In Southern California and across the nation, socalled blow-dry bars are popping up to service women (and a few men) on the go. There is no cutting or coloring. These speedy places specialize in washing, drying and quick-styling only. It’s a 21st century spin on the old-fashioned beauty parlor, where women once went weekly to maintain elaborate hairdos. Some women now see “blowouts” as part of weekly beauty routines, along with manicures and waxing.

Unlike traditional salons, these specialty shops cater to busy professionals: Open seven days a week. No appointment needed. Equipped with free Wi-Fi. Stylists are as efficient as assembly line workers, getting clients in and out in less than an hour. Women often zip in before a business meeting, a girls’ night out or a special date. A new reality TV show even revolves around a San Fernando Valley blow-dry bar.

“If you go to your regular salon, sometimes you can’t get the appointment, especially if you wait until the last minute,” said Gretty Hasson, owner of MyBlow LA in Beverly Hills. “Here, even if all the stylists are working, you can wait 15, 20 minutes, and they can squeeze you in.” Chains and independent businesses are opening in big cities nationwide. Analysts say they’re the latest offshoot of a $40 billion salon industry shaking off recession. These specialty shops are reaping the benefits of a stagnant economy as women forgo highlights or haircuts in favor of “cheaper luxuries” such as

blowouts, said Caitlin Moldvay, an analyst at research firm IbisWorld. “We want to get you between haircuts,” said Dahlia Eshaghian, who recently opened Blow Angels in West Los Angeles. “Sometimes in the middle of the day women want to take half an hour or an hour just for themselves.” In cities dotted with pricey stylists and uber-luxe spas, blow-dry salons seek to stand out by calling themselves “bars” instead of “salons.” Many have the pastel decor of a girls-only clubhouse. Some serve cocktails. Most offer a set “menu” of hairstyles from which customers choose. Instead of making money on high-margin services such as color and straightening treatments, these places survive on high volume.

At the Los Angeles chain Drybar, customers order from a menu of seven $35 looks named after classic drinks.

There’s the Manhattan (“sleek and smooth”), the Mai Tai (“messy, beachy”) and Southern Comfort (“big hair, lots of volume.”)

Hairstylist Alli Webb founded Drybar two years ago after seeing demand grow for at-home blow-dries.

Today, Drybar has 15 locations in five states. “In California, we see a lot of women requesting Mai Tais, which is a hard look to achieve yourself, sort of the Gisele look,” Webb said, referring to the loose waves of supermodel Gisele Bundchen. “In New York, the Straight Up, which is a basic blowout with a little volume and body, is popular.” Rabbi Sherre Hirsch is a fan.

The 43-year-old said she used to battle her wavy hair because she couldn’t afford the pricey blowouts at traditional salons, but now she goes to blow-dry bars at least once a week. “It’s like therapy. I can relax and also get some work done before the day starts,” said the Westwood resident, who taps away on her laptop while her hair is being styled.

The quickie salons have attracted a celebrity following, including former “Charmed” actress Rose McGowan, who has been getting her hair blown out every three days for more than a decade. Before converting to blow-dry bars, she frequented an LA salon that charged $80 per blowout. “It’s a time saver for me.

And $35 - my parking tickets are more than a blow-dry,” McGowan said.

It has even spawned a reality television series on the bilingual, youth-oriented cable network Mun2. The show “Chiquis ‘N Control,” which premiered last month, revolves around the struggles of a Latina opening a

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blow-dry salon called Blow Me Dry in Encino. The featured tag line: “This chica’s taking over ... one blowout at a time.” One of the early chains was Blo. The Toronto company is betting that blow-dry bars will become as common as nail salons and now has 21 “blo-cations” in North America, including ones in San Francisco and Hollywood. Blo plans to open three more California salons, in Porter Ranch, Tarzana and San Diego, spokeswoman Hilary Chan-Kent said. “We want to be the Starbucks of hair.” — MCT

f you’re ready for fall temps, we’ll tempt you with fall shoes, too. Some of the season’s most stylish shoes can easily be worn with a sundress now and a sweater dress later. Jill Hathaway, owner of J.Hathaway Shoe Boutique, says some of the latest heels are so ornate and colorful that they need to be worn with a simple palette. “The colors of summer are back for fall but in different tones and patterns,” Hathaway says. “Pumpkin, teal, hunter green and mustard are big.” Brocade, houndstooth, leopard, colorblock and Aztec-inspired prints are also hitting the scene. Hathaway is seeing booties come back again but with new patterns and edgier designs, along with flats resembling driver moccasins and wedge heels. — MCT

Gina Tennen, 34 (foreground right) works on her iPad as stylist Lorena Soria works on her hair at Drybar salon located at 8595 West Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, July 31, 2012. — MCT

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

N

eon is a fashion trend that might be best suited to the cool kids - or real kids. Unlike so many looks that trickled down from designer runways to mass retailers and into teenagers’ closets, the almost electrifying shades of pink, green, yellow and orange have been hanging out in high school hallways for a while.

And they’re back again for the new school year.

“Teens stayed with neon because for them, it’s so easy to wear. It taps into youth, emotion and standing out, which they like doing,” says Seventeen senior fashion editor Marissa Rosenblum. The highlighter colors have evolved this season into accessories, beauty products and outerwear. There are still the T-shirts, colored jeans, hoodies and athletic apparel, but Rosenblum says the way to wear neon is as a single bright pop, not head to toe. (It’s probably a safe bet that lots of pint-sized athletes will buy into the bright footwear that has made Nike’s track and field sneakers one of the most buzzedabout looks of the Olympics.)

“This is the season of color: color on color, color back to neutrals. Neons are just one of the amazing color trends that are important right now,” says Anu Narayanan, vice president of women’s merchandising for Old Navy. She’d like to see mint green jeans with a yellow neon tank with a gray cardigan. “Neon looks best as a surprise within a look.” For its largely grade-school customer, The Children’s Place will pair neon with navy as the cooler weather moves in. The brand started introducing neon through bright accents for its summer products but “you’ll see even more for the holidays,” says TCP senior vice president of design Michael Giannelli. “And it will continue

into the spring and probably into next fall. ... We grabbed onto it because we have more freedom in kidswear to play with bright color.”

He adds, “The children have a sense of humor about their clothes.” Elena Klam is creative director and co-owner of the jewelry brand Lia Sophia, which is launching a fashion jewelry collection called Sisters aimed at the tween and teen set. It includes neon, preapproved by Klam’s teenage daughters and their friends. “They can be a tough crowd. They’re changing all the time, reinventing themselves all the time, trying new things. It’s an age of experimentation, but they’re also a part of the population who knows what’s going on,” she says. “They’re very savvy.”

If everyone is wearing neon, they’ll also want it for their accessories, says Klam, adding that schools with strict dress codes will likely allow superbright friendship bracelets or earrings. Her uniform-wearing girls don’t get a lot of variety in their school-day clothes, so “they change up their jewelry for a little bit of self-expression.” She expects neon citrus yellow-green to be particularly popular with kids and - as with everything neon pink. “You don’t have to be the ‘pink girl’ when it’s neon. That has a bit of an edge to it,” Klam says.

Neon, however, isn’t just a chick thing.

Giannelli points to the 1980s, when it was a staple in every kid’s wardrobe, and he says the skater-snowboarder-surfer look has brought brights back into favor for

boys. “Skater kids and surfer dudes are wearing bright pinks and deep purples, and they’re also getting into orange and banana.” These colors work surprisingly well in snow gear, particularly fleece, which often is done in one color and trimmed in another, Giannelli says.

Neon hues are probably more traditional for warmer months - and that’s what makes them so fresh for fall, says Old Navy’s Narayanan. Each year, it seems there are deep shades of brown and purple in stores, but shoppers might not have seen them with a top that has neon pink, she says. “The rules are out the window.” A word of caution, though, from Rosenblum: You might need to be a little more selective about a neon shade than you would a neutral. “You have to choose the color that looks good on you. That funny off-green is definitely an important color but it’s not for everyone. But all the colors for teens are very popular so you can find one.” — AP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

EMC NetWorker 8.0 speeds up backup transformation

FLORIDA: In this still image made from video provided by NASA, the methane-powered Morpheus lander burns after it crashed in a test flight at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Thursday, Aug 9, 2012. — AP

NASA’s Morpheus lander in fiery crash at Cape Canaveral Engineers looking into cause of accident CAPE CANAVERAL: A small NASA lander being tested for missions to the moon and other destinations beyond Earth crashed and burned after veering off course during a trial run at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, officials with the US space agency said.

There were no injuries after the prototype, known as Morpheus, burst into flames near the runway formerly used

by NASA’s space shuttles.

The insect-like vehicle, designed and built by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, had made several flights attached to a crane before Thursday’s attempted free-flight.

Morpheus’ engines, which burn liquid oxygen and methane, appeared to ignite as planned, lifting the 1,750pound (794 kg) vehicle into the air. But a few seconds later, Morpheus rolled over on its side and plummeted to the ground.

NASA video showed the vehicle engulfed in flames and then rocked by a spectacular explosion, presumably due

to the fuel tanks rupturing. “Failures such as these were anticipated prior to the test, and are part of the development process for any complex spaceflight hardware,” NASA said in a statement. An investigation is under way, the statement added. Project Morpheus began in partnership with privately owned Armadillo Aerospace, which is developing re-usable, suborbital vehicles that take off and land vertically.

NASA, which has spent about $7 million on the project over the past 2-1/2 years, is interested in developing technologies that could be used to fly cargo to the moon and other future missions beyond Earth orbit. Project Morpheus was an example of what the former project manager called “Home Depot engineering” - low-budget projects that use existing resources and partner with non-traditional aerospace companies.

“The Morpheus lander is kind of our poster child. It’s one of our first attempts to do these kinds of projects,” former project manager Matt Ondler

said in an interview with Reuters last year. “”Instead of building some elaborate test structure, you go to Home Depot and build something very quickly that gets you 80 percent of the answer and allows you to keep moving forward,” he said.

Morpheus arrived at Florida’s seaside space center in July for three months of increasingly rigorous test flights, including automated landings in a mock moonscape, complete with craters and boulders. The lander was designed to deliver about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of cargo to the moon, NASA said on its Project Morpheus website.

Technologies being developed include a propulsion system that uses liquid oxygen and methane-green fuels that could be manufactured on other planetary bodies, NASA said. The accident happened as NASA scientists were still hailing the Mars rover Curiosity’s descent and landing on the Red Planet earlier this week as a “miracle of engineering.” — Reuters

US drone to map ancient Peru ruins WASHINGTON: Archeologists in Peru plan to use a USmade drone to survey ancient Andean ruins, in the latest civilian application of the unmanned aerial vehicles used to hunt militants in the world’s war zones. The device, which can fit in a backpack, is due to be tested later this month at the ruins of the 16th-century Spanish colonial town Mawchu Llacta, some 13,450 feet (4,100 meters) above sea level. The Skate Small Unmanned Aerial System will take only about 10 minutes to map the massive site the size of 25 football fields, saving the researchers months of time-consuming cataloging, they said.

“Mawchu Llacta, with its exceptionally well-preserved layout and architecture, provides an ideal case study,” anthropologist Steven Wernke and engineering professor Julie Adams of Vanderbilt University told AFP in an email. “But the scale and complexity of it necessitated a novel approach to mapping. A UAV-based solution seemed the most fitting, since it would enable fast and

detailed documentation of standing architecture and walls.”

The researchers, who want to test Skate in different environments, developed software to collect and process data rapidly, with the aim of providing a lowcost solution to archeologists that is easy to use. Drones have mostly been used for military operations but could also have other uses, such as tracking the advance of global warming and helping first responders provide relief at a disaster site.

If it works, the system would provide the tools to build three-dimensional maps of world ruins, building a major digital archive for researchers. “As UAVs become more inexpensive and ubiquitous, they will become less and less the exclusive domain of state power,” Wernke and Adams said. “This project is part of that process, as it will develop free, open source code for flight and imagery capture.” — AFP

DUBAI: EMC yesterday announced a significant new release of EMC NetWorker Unified Backup and Recovery Software. NetWorker 8.0 advances the EMC vision for backup and recovery to support the data protection needs of IT environments today and in the future. As enterprises transform their IT infrastructures to move to cloud computing models and deliver IT-as-a-Service, backup transformation is an essential foundational element. NetWorker has been equipped with a wide array of new features and capabilities that align to the requirements of these transformational IT initiatives.

With over 23,000 customers globally, EMC NetWorker has been a field-proven mainstay of the enterprise backup and recovery landscape for over twenty years. Today, NetWorker has been enhanced with a streamlined architecture for dramatically improved performance and scalability. It also delivers the industry’s deepest integration with EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems and broadened support for Microsoft applications, as well as new multi-tenancy management which enables cloud service delivery.

Built for transformation Complementing these new NetWorker capabilities are services from EMC Global Services that optimize the performance, reliability and efficiency of the backup environment. These include infrastructure assessments that provide recommendations for optimizing and stabilizing the current backup infrastructure, as well as EMC Health Check services that help improve the capacity, performance, and throughput of the environment. These offerings are part of EMC Global Services’ deep portfolio for backup and recovery, spanning the entire technology adoption lifecycle.

Shane Jackson, Vice President of Marketing, EMC Backup Recovery Systems Division said “With the introduction of NetWorker 8.0, EMC has clearly reinforced its vision that deep integration between backup software and backup appliances represents the future of backup and recovery for our customers. This major new release of NetWorker places competing products that much further behind the curve in terms of integration, performance, scalability and support for transformational IT initiatives.”

Australian spy agency hacked by Anonymous SYDNEY: Hacking group Anonymous yesterday claimed to have shut down a computer server belonging to Australia’s domestic spy agency ASIO, reportedly briefly closing down access to its public webpage. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) acknowledged some disruption to its website. “ASIO is aware that there may have been some technical issues with its public website,” a spokesperson said. “ASIO’s public website does not host any classified information and any disruption would not represent a risk to ASIO’s business.”

Micro-blogging site Twitter has carried comments in recent days that ASIO and Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) sites were being targeted by Australian hackers linked to Anonymous. In an early Thursday morning post on its Twitter feed Anonymous Australia (@AuAnon) wrote: “The anonymous Operation Australia hackers have today again been busy with further attacks on the ASIO and DSD website.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that ASIO’s website was down for at least 30 minutes Friday morning, but it appeared to be loading normally Friday afternoon. Operation Australia, which has its own @Op_Australia Twitter stream said it would “stop the attacks at 10pm Aus. BUT we will never stop watching!”.

The personal and departmental websites of Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, the ruling Labor party’s South Australia branch and Tasmania police sites were also targeted in the plot, which was referred to as #TangoDown. It appeared linked to a controversial government plan to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years which was shelved Thursday until after the 2013 elections. —AFP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Mars rover flight engineer with Mohawk becomes Internet hit LOS ANGELES: While dozens of rocket scientists packed NASA’s mission control room during a much-vaunted landing of the Mars rover Curiosity, no one made a bigger impression on viewers glued to live TV and Internet coverage of the event than spike-haired Bobak Ferdowsi.

The 32-year-old flight engineer, better known to Marsstruck fans as the NASA Mohawk Guy, became an overnight Internet sensation and helped generate online buzz for Curiosity, thanks largely to his stars-andstripes punk-rock hairdo and his hunky good looks.

Ferdowsi, a native of Oakland, California, with a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has worn eccentric hairstyles for big missions and projects throughout his nine-year tenure at NASA, as a kind of good-luck tradition. For the occasion of Curiosity’s landing tomorrow night, colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena held a vote to choose a special new look-a Mohawk dyed red and blue and adorned with stars and stripes.

The look transformed Ferdowsi into an instant aerospace rock star among legions of Mars enthusiasts.

Some 44,000 new followers flocked to his Twitter account as fans circulated viral “memes” with his image, bombarded him with marriage proposals and created dedicated feeds on the micro-blogging site Tumblr, such as the “NASA Needs More Mohawks” page.

Ferdowsi said he was shocked at the burst of attention. “I didn’t realize that our landing would be such a heavily watched thing. I’m so glad people were as excited to watch that landing as I was. But to wake up the next morning and find tons of people have a newfound interest in me, or think that I’m the new face of NASA, is crazy,” he told Reuters.

Social media sensation As a flight engineer during the last hours before Curiosity’s do-or-die daredevil landing, Ferdowsi and his peers at mission control actually had little to do but track the self-guided spacecraft’s progression as it neared its destination. One of his last tasks before the vessel streaked into the Martian atmosphere at hypersonic speed was to send signals to the craft reorienting its computer hardware and power modules for its entry, descent and landing mode, he said.

The $2.5 billion rover mission is designed to search for signs of life-friendly habitats on Mars. The team’s successful landing and subsequent celebrations were streamed across the world, and since then, Ferdowsi said his sudden fame has elicited considerable goodnatured ribbing from co-workers. “I wouldn’t work here if I thought it was the stodgy NASA of yore. We’re still nerds and geeks here. There’s no doubt about it. We’re

Yahoo CEO considers changes in strategy SAN FRANCISCO: Recently hired Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer may scrap the Internet company’s plan to reward its long-tormented shareholders with a multibillion-dollar payout later this year, underscoring the uncertainty accompanying new leadership. The unexpected twist disclosed in regulatory documents filed Thursday after the stock market closed caused Yahoo shares to drop more than 3 percent in extended trading.

Mayer is mulling a shift in direction as part of a sweeping review that she is conducting in an attempt to revive Yahoo’s revenue growth, spur more product innovation and boost the company’s stock price. Those goals have eluded her recent predecessors. Yahoo Inc. lured Mayer away from rival Google Inc. three weeks ago to become its fifth CEO in the past five years.

Given Yahoo’s persistent headaches, shareholders presumably want Mayer to shake things up. Even so Mayer will risk alienating Wall Street if she decides to do something differently with a windfall that will pour into Yahoo after it completes an

NEW YORK: Google vice president of search products and user experience, Marissa Mayer, attends the 2010 Matrix Awards. — AP

agreement to sell half its stake in thriving Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group for $7.1 billion toward the end of the year. Yahoo pledged to distribute most of the anticipated after-tax proceeds - an estimated $4.2 billion - to shareholders. The company, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., reiterated that in a conference call held the after Mayer’s hiring was announced.

Since then, though, Mayer has decided to reassess Yahoo’s strategy in an effort “to enhance long-term shareholder value,” according to the company’s quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her review will include potential acquisitions, a restructuring plan that eliminated 1,500 jobs during the second quarter and the plans for the Alibaba proceeds, the documents said.

Mayer’s analysis could culminate in a complete about-face from the previous plans or less dramatic changes, according to Yahoo. The documents didn’t specify a timetable for completing Mayer’s review. If Mayer decides to chart a completely new direction, she will need the approval of Yahoo’s board. The directors include a major shareholder, New York hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, who stands to be one of the biggest winners from an Alibaba payday. Loeb’s fund, Third Point LLC, owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo.

Yahoo shareholders have grown increasingly frustrated as the company’s revenue and stock price have flagged, even as advertisers shifted more of their marketing budgets to the Internet. Most of that money, though, has been flowing to Google, the Internet’s search and video leader, and online social networking leader Facebook Inc. To compound investor exasperation, Yahoo squandered an opportunity to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $33 per share in May 2008. —AP

just a little more comfortable expressing ourselves,” Ferdowsi said.

Moreover, his alternative look appears to have resonated with budding scientists and engineers of the future. “It’s really awesome that people can somehow relate to me in a way that they didn’t think they could relate to people here before,” the engineer said. “If they think that they can be themselves and work here, that’s rewarding.”

The live stream of Sunday’s rover landing gained the most viewers NASA has seen so far online, according to social media manager Veronica McGregor. Twitter hash tags such as “Mars Curiosity,” “JPL,” and “Mars landing” became worldwide trending topics, and more than 800,000 users followed the @MarsCuriosity Twitter feed in the final stage of Curiosity’s voyage.

While the intensity of the Internet frenzy caught everyone at NASA by surprise, the social media team has already been working with science institutions around the country to open a dialogue between NASA scientists and students. JPL hopes to enlist Ferdowsi as a spokesman for the two-year Curiosity mission at future public events. “It’s turning engineers into rock stars,” JPL social media specialist Courtney O’Connor said. “If you have elementary school kids who now want to go into science to learn about this, that’s amazing.” — Reuters

Google pays $22.5m fine for privacy breakdown SAN FRANCISCO: Google is paying a $22.5 million fine to settle the latest regulatory case questioning the Internet search leader’s respect for people’s privacy and the integrity of its internal controls. The penalty announced Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission matches the figure reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets last month. It’s the most that the FTC has ever fined a company for a civil violation. The rebuke resolves the FTC’s allegations that Google Inc. duped millions of Web surfers who use Apple Inc.’s Safari browser.

Google had assured people that it wouldn’t monitor their online activities, as long as they didn’t change the browser settings to permit the tracking. Google broke that promise, according to the FTC, by creating a technological loophole that enabled the company’s DoubleClick advertising network to shadow unwitting Safari users. That tracking gave DoubleClick a better handle on what kinds of marketing pitches to show them. The FTC concluded that the contradiction between Google’s stealth tracking and its privacy assurances to Safari users violated a vow that the company made in another settlement with the agency in October. The latest settlement doesn’t affect a separate FTC inquiry over whether Google has been abusing its dominant position in Internet search to highlight its own services over rivals and drive up online advertising prices. The settlement also doesn’t come with any admission from Google of wrongdoing.

The company has acknowledged that DoubleClick was tracking Safari users, but insists the monitoring wasn’t by design. All Google wanted to do, according to the company, was create a way for Safari users to press on a button to signal they recom-

mended an ad. Google said it didn’t realize its tinkering altered Safari’s automatic privacy settings in a way that allowed for broader surveillance.

After the circumvention was publicized in February by a graduate student at Stanford University, Google stopped the tracking on Safari. The company says it never collected any personal information. “We set the highest standards of privacy and security for our users,” Google said Thursday. Google’s actions, though, have cast doubts about the sincerity of its commitment. The Safari intrusion is the latest privacy stumble at Google, whose dominant Internet search engine and popular email service provide valuable peepholes into people’s minds.

In 2010, Google set up a social networking service called Buzz that exposed people’s email contacts.

Following an FTC investigation, Google agreed to 20 years of oversight and a pledge not to mislead con-

sumers about privacy issues. That’s the pledge that the FTC says Google broke with Safari.

Google also got in trouble for collecting personal data transmitted over unprotected Wi-Fi networks as Google cars cruised neighborhoods around the world taking pictures for the company’s online mapping service. The FTC didn’t take action against Google for scooping up the Wi-Fi data, although the Federal Communications Commission fined the company $25,000 earlier this year for impeding its investigation into the matter.

As it did with the secret tracking on Safari, Google has framed those privacy breaches as inadvertent slips. That defense is wearing thin, according to David Vladeck, the director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection.

“In some ways, as a regulator, it’s hard to know which answer is worst: ‘I didn’t know’ or ‘I did it deliberately.’

Both are bad,” Vladeck told reporters on a Thursday conference call.—AP

SAN FRANCISCO: In this photo, Vic Gundotra, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering, talks about Google Plus at the Google I/O conference. — AP

TV listings

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

00:45 01:40 02:35 03:30 04:25 05:20 05:45 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 09:10 09:35 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:50 13:45 14:40 15:35 16:30 17:25 18:20 19:15 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:20 23:50

Crime Scene Wild Untamed & Uncut How Sharks Hunt I Was Bitten Monster Bug Wars Monkey Life Animal Battlegrounds E-Vets: The Interns E-Vets: The Interns Karina: Wild On Safari Meerkat Manor Bondi Vet Corwin’s Quest Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Breed All About It Crocodile Hunter Dogs 101: Specials Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Wildlife SOS Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Wild France Wild France Squid Invasion Wild France Cats 101 Great Animal Escapes Great Animal Escapes Untamed & Uncut

00:20 Come Dine With Me 01:10 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 02:00 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 02:45 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 03:15 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 03:40 MasterChef 04:10 Living In The Sun 04:55 Living In The Sun 05:40 MasterChef 06:35 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 07:05 Antiques Roadshow 07:55 Antiques Roadshow 08:50 Antiques Roadshow 09:40 Antiques Roadshow 10:35 Antiques Roadshow 11:30 Masterchef: The Professionals 11:55 Masterchef: The Professionals 12:50 Bargain Hunt 13:40 Bargain Hunt 14:25 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 15:40 Come Dine With Me 16:30 Antiques Roadshow 17:25 Antiques Roadshow 18:15 Antiques Roadshow 19:10 Antiques Roadshow 20:05 Antiques Roadshow 21:00 Cash In The Attic 21:45 Cash In The Attic 22:30 Bargain Hunt 23:20 Bargain Hunt

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:15 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00

BBC World News America BBC World News London Live Newsnight BBC World News London Live Our World BBC World News London Live Collaboration Culture BBC World News London Live Mishal Husain Meets BBC World News London Live Worlds Of English BBC World News London Live Fast Track BBC World News London Live Working Lives BBC World News London Live Middle East Business Report BBC World News London Live Click BBC World News London Live Sport Today Collaboration Culture BBC World News London Live Mishal Husain Meets BBC World News London Live Mixed Britannia BBC World News London Live Newsnight BBC World News London Live Our World BBC World News London Live BBC World News BBC World News London Live Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News London Live

Island 18:30 18:55 19:45 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:00 22:50 23:15 23:40

Powerpuff Girls Courage The Cowardly Dog Johnny Test Hero 108 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Redakai: Conquer The Kairu Grim Adventures Of...

Codename: Kids Next Door Ben 10 Ben 10 Chowder

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 05:45 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:15 08:30 09:00 09:15 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:15 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00 23:30

Amanpour World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Anderson Cooper 360 Piers Morgan Tonight Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa The Situation Room World Sport Cnngo World Report CNN Marketplace Africa Backstory World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Business Traveller World Sport Mainsail The Best Of The Situation Room World Report Backstory The Brief Inside Africa World Report Inside The Middle East Talk Asia Eco Solutions World’s Untold Stories Backstory International Desk African Voices CNN Marketplace Europe CNN Marketplace Africa The Brief World Sport Living Golf International Desk Inside Africa International Desk Cnngo The Best Of The Situation Room World Report World’s Untold Stories

THE TRANSPORTER ON OSN ACTION HD 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:15 23:30

Dateline London BBC World News London Live Worlds Of English BBC World News London Live Click BBC World News London Live Working Lives BBC World News London Live Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News London Live Click BBC World News London Live Sport Today Dateline London

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:15 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:55

Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies Pink Panther And Pals

09:15 The Garfield Show 09:40 Tom & Jerry Tales 10:05 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 10:30 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 10:55 The Looney Tunes Show 11:20 Dexter’s Laboratory 11:30 Johnny Bravo 11:55 Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch 12:00 Johnny Bravo 12:20 Pink Panther And Pals 12:45 The Garfield Show 13:00 Wacky Races 13:10 Dastardly And Muttley 13:35 The Scooby Doo Show 14:00 Dexters Laboratory 14:15 Dexter’s Laboratory 14:40 The Garfield Show 15:30 Looney Tunes 16:20 Tom & Jerry 16:45 Tom & Jerry 17:00 Pink Panther And Pals 17:25 Pink Panther And Pals 17:50 Johnny Bravo 18:05 Johnny Bravo 18:30 Scooby Doo And The Ghoul School 20:10 The Looney Tunes Show 20:30 Tom & Jerry Tales 21:00 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 21:25 The Garfield Show 21:50 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 22:15 Droopy & Dripple 22:40 Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo 23:05 Popeye 23:20 The Jetsons 23:45 Duck Dodgers

00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls

02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Powerpuff Girls 07:15 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi 07:40 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 08:05 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:30 Adventure Time 08:55 Regular Show 09:20 Batman Brave And The Bold 09:45 Green Lantern: The Animated Series 10:10 Thundercats 10:35 Hero 108 11:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 11:50 Adventure Time 12:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 13:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 13:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 13:55 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 14:20 Courage The Cowardly Dog 15:10 Generator Rex 15:35 Ben 10 16:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 16:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 17:15 Adventure Time 17:40 Regular Show 18:05 Total Drama: Revenge Of The

00:15 I Was Bitten 01:10 I Escaped: Real Prison Breaks 01:35 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 02:30 Crash Course 03:00 Fifth Gear 03:25 How Do They Do It? Turbo Specials 04:20 I Was Bitten 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How It’s Made 06:05 American Loggers 07:00 How It’s Made 07:25 Battle Machine Bros 08:15 Mega Builders 09:10 Extreme Engineering 10:05 Man Made Marvels Asia 10:55 Man, Woman, Wild 11:50 Alone In The Wild 12:45 Ultimate Survival 13:40 Ultimate Survival 14:35 Flying Wild Alaska 15:30 Swamp Loggers 16:25 River Monsters 17:20 Hillbilly Handfishin’ 18:15 Against The Elements 19:10 Finding Bigfoot 20:05 Gold Rush 21:00 Deadliest Catch 21:55 Hillbilly Handfishin’ 22:50 River Monsters 23:45 Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing Challenge

00:35 01:25 02:15 02:40 03:05 03:35

Mighty Ships How Stuff Works Game Changers Game Changers The Gadget Show Scrapheap Challenge

04:25 05:15 06:05 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:43 09:10 09:40 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:45 15:35 16:25 16:28 16:55 17:25 18:15 18:40 19:30 End? 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 End? 22:50 23:40

How The Universe Works Mighty Ships How Stuff Works Game Changers Game Changers Sci-Fi Science Sci-Fi Science Head Rush Stunt Junkies Stunt Junkies Nextworld Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Curiosity: Can I Live Forever?

Eco-Tech Head Rush The Tech Show The Tech Show The Science Of Star Wars Game Changers Human Nature Curiosity: How Will The World Weird Or What?

Game Changers Game Changers Curiosity: How Will The World Weird Or What?

Human Nature

00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 E!es 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 THS 06:00 40 (More) Crimes Of Fashion 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 Giuliana & Bill 11:10 Giuliana & Bill 12:05 E! News 13:05 Scouted 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 14:30 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Khloe And Lamar 15:25 Khloe And Lamar 15:55 Ice Loves Coco 16:25 Ice Loves Coco 16:55 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 17:25 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 17:55 E! News 18:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 Style Star 21:25 Fashion Police 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Haunted Dead Tenants True CSI On The Case With Paula Zahn Extreme Forensics The Haunted Dead Tenants Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared The Haunted Ghost Lab A Haunting

TV listings

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 21:00 Alaska State Troopers 22:00 Sea Patrol 23:00 One Ocean 00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00

00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00

Treks In A Wild World Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Deadliest Journeys 2 Latin America On A Motorcycle Don’t Tell My Mother Don’t Tell My Mother Kimchi Chronicles Kimchi Chronicles The Green Way Up The Green Way Up Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Departures Treks In A Wild World City Chase Marrakech On Surfari On Surfari Travel Madness Travel Madness Bondi Rescue: Bali Bondi Rescue: Bali Somewhere In China

Treks In A Wild World Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Deadliest Journeys 2 Latin America On A Motorcycle Don’t Tell My Mother Don’t Tell My Mother Kimchi Chronicles Kimchi Chronicles The Green Way Up The Green Way Up Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Travel Oz Travel Oz Weird & Wonderful Hotels Weird & Wonderful Hotels Which Way To Departures Treks In A Wild World City Chase Marrakech On Surfari On Surfari Travel Madness Travel Madness Bondi Rescue: Bali Bondi Rescue: Bali Somewhere In China

00:00 Trapped 01:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 02:00 Megacities 03:00 Aftermath 04:00 Hunter Hunted 05:00 The Known Universe 06:00 Racing To America 07:00 Departures 08:00 Trapped 09:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 10:00 Megacities 11:00 A Traveler’s Guide To The Planets 12:00 Hunter Hunted 13:00 The Known Universe 14:00 Racing To America 15:00 Departures 16:00 Storm Worlds 17:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 18:00 Megacities 19:00 Crash Science 20:00 The Last Lioness

20:00 The Perfect Host-PG15 22:00 Lords Of Dogtown-PG15

00:00 Outback Wrangler 01:00 Megafish 01:55 Expedition Wild 02:50 Shark Men 03:45 Dolphin Army 04:40 Wildlife Rescue Africa 05:35 Wildlife Rescue Africa 06:30 Monster Fish 07:25 Monster Fish 08:20 Caught In The Act 09:15 America’s Greatest Animals 11:05 Python Hunters 12:00 The Living Edens 13:00 Alaskan Killer Shark 14:00 My Life Is A Zoo 15:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 16:00 Dangerous Encounters 17:00 Python Hunters 18:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Dangerous Encounters 21:00 Python Hunters 22:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 23:00 The Living Edens

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00

Devil-PG15 Aeon Flux-PG15 The Transporter-PG15 Rocky II-PG15 Wild Bill-PG15 The Warrior’s Way-PG15 Men In Black-PG15 Wild Bill-PG15 The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 Men In Black-PG15

01:15 Jumping The Broom-PG15 03:15 True Grit-PG15 05:15 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 07:00 St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold-PG15 09:00 Jumping The Broom-PG15 11:00 True Grit-PG15 13:00 Africa United-PG15 14:45 Glorious 39-PG15 17:00 The Eagle-PG15 19:00 Green Lantern-PG15 21:00 Love And Other Impossible Pursuits-PG15 23:00 Priest-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Friends 02:00 Friends 02:30 Seinfeld 03:00 New Girl 03:30 Melissa & Joey 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Weird Science 06:00 Friends 06:30 Dharma And Greg 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 New Girl 09:00 Weird Science 09:30 30 Rock 10:00 Modern Family 10:30 Dharma And Greg 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Friends 12:30 Friends

13:00 Weird Science 13:30 Dharma And Greg 14:00 Melissa & Joey 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 30 Rock 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Friends 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:30 Perfect Couples 19:00 Mr. Sunshine 19:30 Mr. Sunshine 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Seinfeld 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00

GREEN LANTERN ON OSN CINEMA

Fairly Legal Jane By Design Castle Fairly Legal Desperate Housewives Good Morning America The Practice Castle The Ellen DeGeneres Show Desperate Housewives The View Jane By Design Fairly Legal Touch Live Good Morning America The Practice The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Drop Dead Diva C.S.I. C.S.I. New York

22:00 C.S.I. Miami 23:00 Desperate Housewives

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Criminal Minds Touch Revenge Fairly Legal Touch Revenge Criminal Minds Psych Touch Jane By Design Fairly Legal Psych Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Castle Criminal Minds Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Necessary Roughness Drop Dead Diva C.S.I. C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami Revenge

01:00 Takers-PG15 03:00 Child’s Play 3-18 05:00 Legendary-PG15 07:00 Returner-PG15 09:00 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within-PG 11:00 Legendary-PG15 13:00 Drunken Master-PG15 15:00 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within-PG 17:00 Salt-PG15 19:00 Game Of Death-PG15 21:00 Lords Of Dogtown-PG15 23:00 Survival Of The Dead-18

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Answer Man-PG15 Stealing Harvard-PG15 Kung Fu Dunk-PG15 Coming & Going-PG15 Flubber-PG The Open Road-PG15 Double Wedding-PG15 16 To Life-PG15 The Open Road-PG15 Kuffs-PG Cemetery Junction-PG15 The Trotsky-PG15

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:45 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 PG15

All Good Things-18 The Chamber-18 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 The Fantastic Water Babes-PG The Moveon.Org Story-PG15 Lorenzo’s Oil-PG15 Mademoiselle Chambon-PG15 The Moveon.Org Story-PG15 Little Man Tate-PG The Game Of Their Lives-PG15 Moonlight And Valentino-PG15 The Deep End Of The Ocean-

00:00 02:00 PG 03:45 05:30 07:15 09:00 10:30 13:00 14:45 16:30 18:00 20:00 22:00

Hitch-PG15 Justin Bieber: Never Say NeverAlabama Moon-PG15 9-PG Soul Surfer-PG15 B-Girl-PG15 The Help-PG15 Morning Glory-PG15 Despicable Me-FAM B-Girl-PG15 Just Go With It-PG15 Blackthorn-PG15 Sucker Punch-PG15

00:00 Pocahontas & The Spider Woman-PG 02:00 4 Angies-FAM 04:00 The Thief Of Baghdad-PG 06:00 Pocahontas & The Spider

Woman-PG 08:00 4 Angies-FAM 10:00 Freddy Frogface-PG 12:00 Scooby-Doo-PG 14:00 The Thief Of Baghdad-PG 16:00 Winnie The Pooh-FAM 18:00 Freddy Frogface-PG 20:00 Yogi Bear-FAM 22:00 4 Angies-FAM

00:00 Paul-PG15 02:00 Call Of The Wild-PG15 04:00 Battle For Terra-PG 06:00 Lord Of The Dance-PG 08:00 Rango-FAM 10:00 Game Change-PG15 12:00 Ceremony-PG15 14:00 Bodyguard: A New BeginningPG15 16:00 Rango-FAM 17:45 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-PG15 20:00 Blackthorn-PG15 22:00 Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son-PG15

00:00 01:00 03:30 04:30 05:00 10:55 15:40 18:30 20:40 23:30

Olympic Sailing Super League Trans World Sport European Tour Weekly The PGA Championship Live Olympic Men’s Athletics Olympic Women’s Hockey Olympic Canoe Olympic Athletics Olympic Men’s Football

02:00 NRL Premiership 04:00 Super League 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 NRL Premiership 09:00 Super League 10:55 Live Olympic Taekwondo 15:25 Live Olympic Gymnastics 18:50 Live Olympic Women’s Handball 21:15 Olympic Sailing 21:30 Live The PGA Championship

01:00 AFL Premiership 04:00 NRL Premiership 06:00 Golfing World 07:00 Live AFL Premiership 11:00 Olympic Sailing 11:55 Live Olympic Men’s Diving 14:00 Olympic Athletics 16:45 Olympic Women’s Mountain Bike 18:55 Live Olympic Women’s Athletics 20:58 Olympic Men’s Modern Pentahlon 22:25 Live Olympic Men’s Diving

01:00 WWE SmackDown 03:00 WWE Bottomline 04:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 05:00 UFC 150 Countdown 06:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 WWE SmackDown 09:00 WWE Bottomline 10:00 WWE Vintage Collection 11:25 Live Olympic Canoe 13:25 Olympic Women’s Sailing 14:25 Live Olympic Women’s Mountain Bike 16:45 Olympic Men’s Volleyball 18:50 Live Olympic Women’s Basketball 21:05 Olympic Women’s Handball 22:50 Live Olympic Women’s Basketball

00:25 02:15 03:40 05:05 07:00 08:40 10:20 12:25 14:00 15:40 17:10 18:40 20:10 22:00 23:30

The Haunting G-Men-FAM Seven Women-PG Silk Stockings-FAM The Tunnel Of Love-PG The Prisoner Of Zenda-FAM The Champ-PG Julie-PG The Seven Hills Of Rome-FAM Boys’ Town-PG Tom Thumb-FAM My Favorite Year-PG Mrs. Soffel-PG Wise Guys The Hill-PG

what’s on

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

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Ammar Mirza

Shahnoor Haq

Sameer Khan

Zahid Tallat

Ramsha Zaheer

Maliha Maqbool

Irum Abdulla

Hafsa Ijaz

Farah Waseem

Zeenat Hameed

Nimra Naeem

ISP students excel in HSSC 11 exam 2012

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he Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (EBISE), Islamabad, has declared results of HSSC II Annual Examination 2012.

Ramsha Zaheer of International School of Pakistan (ISP), Khaitan, got first position securing 952 marks in pre-medical group, Nimra Naeem got 943 marks, Irram Abdullah secured 902 marks and Usman Khan secured 901 marks in the

same group.

Zeenat Hameed of ISP was placed on top of the list who secured 975 marks in pre-engineering, Hafsa Ijaz followed her securing 920 marks, while Farah Waseem placed at third position who secured 908 marks.

Shahnoor Abdul Haq got 863 marks, Sameer Khan got 807 marks, Sheikh Zahid got 781 marks and Ammar Mirza

got 779 marks in Commerce Group.

Maliha lqbal got 813 marks in General Science Group.

Most of the Students from ISP have shown outstanding performance. The management of the school appreciated the role of its hard working faculty, successful students and their parents in bringing the outstanding results.

Birthday greetings

Usman Khan

hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! This summer, let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

You brighten up our days with the most alluring smile and you fill our hearts with love and warmth. It’s a day to celebrate that amiable presence.

Happy Birthday to our little princess, Kripa Mariam Laku (Ammu) - Appa, Amma, Rohan, Linuppa, Thottathil Family & Areekal family

KIB announces Ramadan working hours

K

‘Leniency of Islam’ An unprecedented initiative of KTV2 (English channel) is the new program by the name ‘Leniency of Islam’ presented by Shaikh Musaad Alsane and directed by Hamid Al-Turkait. The program is mainly meant to address the expatriates living in Kuwait. Religious questions are received through the program email qislam@tv.gov.kw and sms can be sent to- 97822021 and answered by the lecturer and Imam in Awqaf Ministry Shaikh Musaad Alsane - a Master Degree holder in Sharia and fiqih from Kuwait University. So don’t forget to watch the program every Friday at 1:00 pm.

Registration for Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament begins Once again this year, the stage is set for the fourth annual ‘Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament’ to be held from August 3 to 9 at the Kazma Sporting Club, Adailiya. Abdulrahim AlAwadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee has announced that doors are now open for registration to all

those who are interested in participating, stating that the deadline for registration will be August 1. The participation in this tournament is open to all and will fall under three categories this year. The first category is for amateurs from ages 17 and above, second category is for professional players from ages 20 and above and the third category is for ladies 17 and above. Following its last three years of grand success, the 4th annual Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament is being organized during Ramadan for squash lovers who will have an opportunity to practice the sport while being encouraged to develop their skills in a healthy, competitive and social environment. All details pertaining to the tournament and means to participate can be found on the tournaments facebook page under ‘Ramadan Stars Squash Tourney’ or follow the official twitter page @RamadanStars for updates. The registration is taking place at GO SPORT store located at The Avenues Mall.

Alawadi also pointed out the great interest the ‘Ramadan Stars Squash tournament’ received from the private sector, where companies took the initiative in sponsoring the tournament. Alawadi expressed his gratitude and thanks to Kazma Sporting Clun, Go Sport, Comtel, Vio, Unite Colors and Alawadi Photography guaranteeing unique prizes for all winners.

uwait International Bank has announced its working hours during the holy month of Ramadan in a press statement released by the bank stating: “We would like to congratulate our valued customers on the start of the holy month of Ramadan, and we are glad to announce that the bank’s working hours will be from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm at the head offices and its 18 branches distributed around Kuwait.” Similar to every year, KIB services and products will be accessible to all customers during the bank’s working hours, and around the clock customers can perform their banking transactions and submit their enquiries through Al-Dawli Weyak which offers a dedicated 24/7 call center and can accessed from anywhere around the world. KIB customers can also use Al-Dawli Online and SMS Banking to further manage their accounts and banking needs around the clock. For more information on KIB’s services and products, please visit the bank’s website on www.kib.com.kw or check the latest updates on www.facebook.com/aldawlibank or follow us on Twitter @alDawliBank.

Register and Win promotion at Q8India.com

C

ity Centre, Kuwait’s premier mega-market, in association with Q8India.com, a leading online Indian community portal, is holding a month-long ‘Register and Win’ promotion campaign. Any resident in Kuwait can participate in the promotion by visiting www.Q8India.com and registering their name, email and phone number. A winner will be picked each day (except Friday), from the list of names registered on the previous day, and receive a free shopping voucher worth KD10 from City Centre.

what’s on

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian ConsulateGeneral in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

Winners receive their prizes.

NBK Ramadan diwaniya brings NBK staff together

N

ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) hosted a weekly “Ramadan Diwaniya” for its staff during Ramadan. NBK employees were treated to an evening of traditional Ramadan hospitality as well as an array of entertainment activities and contests.

Yaqoub Al Baqer, NBK Public Relations officer explained, “At NBK we are keen to organize staff programs, especially on the occasion of Ramadan.” He added, “NBK’s Diwaniya, is designed to promote the great family bond we share here at

■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF BANGLADESH

NBK, and spread the importance of the community spirit among our colleagues.” Al Baqer said, “The social aspect is the main focus of the NBK Diwaniya, the event is filled with traditional Ramadan activities and various competitions between staff.” The funfilled evening included a full Ramadan suhoor and attendees participated in the various competitions and games, with many of them winning fabulous prizes ranging from travel tickets to valuable electronics.

T

he Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will follow the following office hours during the holy month of Ramadan.

Sunday to Thursday: 9 am - 3:30 pm. Friday and Saturday: Weekly holidays.

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EMBASSY OF BRITAIN

Yaqoub Al Baqer, NBK Public Relations officer

NBK staff enjoying various activities and different traditional games at NBK Diwaniya.

Aware Centre

T

he AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Summer 3 Arabic language courses will begin on August 12, 2012 until September 26, 2012. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. We cater to teachers, travelers & those working in the private business sector. Arabic classes at the AWARE Center are unique because students are provided with the chance to practice

their Arabic through various social activities that aim at bringing Arabs and Westerners together.

AWARE Arabic courses highlights * Introductory to Level 4 Arabic language basics * Better prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic * Combine language learning with cultural insights * Taught in multi-nationality group settings * Provide opportunities to interact with Western expatriates and native Kuwaitis/Arabs.

For more information log onto: www.aware.com.kw.

India’s Flag Hoisting Ceremony

O

n the occasion of the Independence Day of India, a Flag Hoisting Ceremony will take place at the Indian Embassy premises on Arabian Gulf Street at 0700 hours on Wednesday, August 15, 2012. The flag hoisting will be followed by the reading of the message of the Honorable President of India and singing of patriotic songs. All Indian nationals are cordially invited to attend the function. The customary Open House Reception after the ceremony is not being held this year in view of the holy month of Ramadan.

Attention Kids!

C

EF VBS 12 starting from Aug 24, 2012.

Six Exciting days of singing, games & bible stories for children of all ages.

HURRY Limited Seats. Register Online www.cefkuwait.org.

Consular section at the British Embassy will be starting an online appointment booking system for our consular customers from Sunday, 01 July 2012. All information including how to make an appointment is now available on the embassy website. In addition, there is also a “Consular Appointment System” option under Quick links on the right hand side on the homepage, which should take you to the “Consular online booking appointment system” main page.

Please be aware that from 1 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730l430 hrs), please contact the embassy on 2259 4320.

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EMBASSY OF INDIA During the holy month of Ramadan, the office timings of the Indian Passport and Visa Service Centres of BLS International Visa Services Co, Kuwait, situated at (i) Emad Commercial Centre, Basement Floor, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Sharq, Kuwait, and (ii) Mujamma Unood, 4th floor, Office No. 25-26 Makka Street, Fahaheel, Kuwait, will be from 8.00 am - 3.00 pm from Saturday to Thursday (i.e. six days a week). Tokens for submission of applications will NOT be issued after 2.00 pm. Delivery of passports and visas will be from 11.00 am onwards. Embassy of India, Kuwait, will maintain its usual working hours.

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EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303.

Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible. For enquiries, you can contact Consular Section on 90935162 or 97527306.

HEALTH

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Many egg-donor recruiters ignore ethical standards NEW YORK: A sizable share of the US organizations recruiting egg donors online don’t adhere to ethical guidelines, including failing to warn of the risks of the procedure and offering extra payment for traits like good looks, according to a US study.

Women are recruited to donate eggs to fulfill a growing demand by couples seeking in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but a number of websites seeking to recruit them ignore standards set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

“I would argue that there needs to be more attention from ASRM about these agencies, because you don’t want these women exploited,” said Robert Klitzman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and lead author of the study that appeared in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

Ethical standards set forth by the ASRM specify that donors should be at least 21 years old, and those between ages 18 and 20 should receive a psychiatric evaluation first.

Also, women are not to be paid for their eggs but compensated, equally, for their time. Donor traits such as college grades or previous successful donations should

not result in higher payment. But abiding by the recommendations is voluntary, and the guidelines carry no legal authority, though ASRM will sanction members who do not adhere to the guidelines. But that doesn’t cover non-member organizations.

“Our ability to influence the behavior of non-members is pretty limited,” said Sean Tipton, a spokesperson for ASRM. To see how well recruiters follow the guidelines, Klitzman and his colleagues visited 102 websites recruiting egg donors. Some represented IVF clinics run by a physician, and others were agencies that connect women with clinics but don’t actually provide any of the medical services.

Some 34 percent of the websites offered higher payment for certain traits, most commonly having previously donated successfully. Some also offered higher payments for educational achievement, athletic skills and good looks.

More than 40 percent of the sites also recruited women between the ages of 18 and 20. Klitzman told Reuters Health the findings are a concern.

“We’re not paying for the eggs... but we’re compensating people for their time and effort. So, therefore, we

shouldn’t pay for the quality of eggs,” said Klitzman, who directs Columbia’s Masters in Bioethics program.

About 26 percent of ASRM approved agencies or clinics paid more for certain traits, versus 63 percent of nonapproved sites. Clinics, which have a physician on staff, were more likely to adhere to the recommendations than egg-donor agencies.

“There’s no question that there are some agencies that don’t seem particularly interested in what our guidelines are, and we don’t know how to impact their behavior,” said Tipton.

He said the best way to avoid ethical problems is for both potential donors and patients seeking donor eggs to be aware of the ASRM recommendations, and ask if the clinic or agency follows them.

Klitzman said potential donors also need to be aware of the potential risks of donating eggs.

“To donate eggs is not an entirely benign procedure.

It’s not high, high risk, but you’re taking very high doses of hormones, having needles stuck in your ovaries.

“The idea is to help people. The problem is, you want to make sure it’s done appropriately and that people are not being exploited or taken advantage of.” — Reuters

Obese people with diabetes tend to live longer than leaner peers A surprise finding

HONG KONG: Astronauts of the Tiangong-1/Shenzhou-9 Manned Space Docking and Rendezvous Mission delegation Liu Yang (L), Jing Haipeng (2nd L) and Liu Wang (right) arrive at Hong Kong’s international airport yesterday. — AFP

Chinese astronauts visit Hong Kong HONG KONG: Three astronauts from China’s first manual space docking mission received a rowdy welcome from hundreds of flag-waving children as they arrived in Hong Kong on Friday for a fourday visit. Astronauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang, China’s first female in space, successfully completed China’s first manual space docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 module in June, becoming national heroes.

Wearing blue jump suits and flanked by officials and military chiefs, the astronauts posed stiffly for the cameras after arriving in the southern city at the invitation of Hong Kong’s government.

“I’m very happy that I met the astronauts. I want to be an astronaut in the future because I want to see what space looks like,” said Joe Yu, 10, one of the students at the airport.

Nancy Wong, 10, said she was pleased to see the astronauts but had no intention of pursuing a career in space.

“I don’t want to be an astronaut because the rocket goes into the air very fast like a roller coaster. It’s frightening,” she said. Some people queued overnight Tuesday to snap up tickets to see the astronauts at a variety show on Saturday, local media reported.

The official Xinhua news agency described the trip to the former British colony as a “charm offensive”, but some residents dismissed it as an empty propaganda stunt. “There’s no meaning in inviting them to Hong Kong-it’s just a show,” said 38-year-old clerk Stanley So, adding that the whole trip was a waste of the city government’s money.

More than 40 people accompanied the astronauts from Beijing, including what Xinhua called “key commanders” and designers of China’s manned space programme.

Aside from the variety show, the astronauts are due to meet students on Saturday and open a space exhibition the following day before leaving on Monday for the nearby territory of Macau.

The docking procedure marked a major milestone in an ambitious Chinese space programme that aims to build a space station by the end of the decade.

China has said it will land its first exploratory craft on the moon next year.

Beijing sees its space programme as a symbol of its rising global stature and technical expertise, and of the Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the once povertystricken nation. —- AFP

CHICAGO: Obesity and diabetes may not be the double whammy people expect, with an analysis of previous studies surprisingly finding that overweight and obese people who get diagnosed with the blood sugar disorder tend to live longer than leaner peers. The findings, which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, were based on data from five earlier studies that tracked people over time to identify risk factors for heart disease.

Study leader Mercedes Carnethon of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago said this sort of “obesity paradox” had been observed before in chronic diseases such as heart and kidney failure - but it doesn’t mean gaining weight is a good way to improve your prognosis if you get the disease.

In fact, it’s probably not that extra pounds are protective, but that lean people who get diabetes are somehow predisposed to worse health. “Perhaps those individuals are somehow genetically loaded to develop diabetes and have higher mortality,” she said.

“A normal-weight person who has diabetes has an extremely high mortality rate.”

More than 2,600 participants developed type 2 diabetes during the studies, and 12 percent of them had a normal weight when they got the diagnosis. The death rate was 1.5 percent per year among overweight and obese people, compared to 2.8 percent per year among their trimmer peers.

After accounting for several risk factors for heart disease, including age, blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking, lean people were more than twice as likely to die at any given point as heavier people.

The same held true for deaths caused by heart disease, which is linked to obesity.

“It was a little bit unexpected to see that,” said Carnethon. One potential limitation of the study is that the researchers couldn’t always account for how much people smoked, which might explain part of the results.

It’s also possible that a few people might have been diagnosed with diabetes outside of the studies and been told to slim down by their own doctor before they were seen by the study researchers. That could also have contributed to the findings, although Carnethon said the effect would be small.

She added that it’s not clear how to best treat nor-

mal-weight people with type 2 diabetes, although weight training seems preferable over cardio exercise.

Older people and people of Asian descent are more likely to be normal-weight when diagnosed, and Carnethon stressed that doctors need to take the disorder extra seriously when it’s not accompanied by obesity.

“These findings do apply to a growing segment of the population,” she added. —- Reuters

KOLKATA: An Indian labourer takes a nap under a mosquito net on the pavement in Kolkata yesterday. The World Health Organisation says mosquito spread dengue, infects between 50 million and 100 million people every year and kills more than 20,000 mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Latin America, but expanding rapidly including to parts of Europe. — AFP

CLASSIFIEDS Al-Madena Al-Shohada’a Al-Shuwaikh Al-Nuzha Sabhan Al-Helaly Al-Fayhaa Al-Farwaniya Al-Sulaibikhat Al-Fahaheel Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Ahmadi Al-Mangaf Al-Shuaiba Al-Jahra Al-Salmiya

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

22418714 22545171 24810598 22545171 24742838 22434853 22545051 24711433 24316983 23927002 24316983 23980088 23711183 23262845 25610011 25616368

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Clinics

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available for a Keralite bachelor at Sharq, near Amiri hospital, beside Holiday Inn. Call 99387111.

Sharing accommodation for Christian couples or working ladies in Abbassiya. Contact: 66538532. (C 4099) 9-8-2012

FOR SALE

Rabiya

24732263

Rawdha

22517733

Adailiya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Khaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Qadisiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Toyota Prado 2006, golden color, 6 clr, full options, KD 4,900. Tel: 50699345.

(C 4096) Mitsubishi Galant 2011, excellent condition, km 20000, KD 2,950. Tel: 66729295. (C 4097) 7-8-2012

SITUATION WANTED Sri Lankan driver looking for a job American or European Company, transferable visa 18 (License with pickup permit). Contact: 97970965.

(C 4101) 11-8-2012 LOST I, Ali Hakeem, son of Khalil Ahmed holder of Pakistani passport No. FS1802871 has lost my passport and driving license, anyone find please call 55789173. (C 4100) 11-8-2012 SITUATION VACANT A Kuwaiti family looks to hire an Indian or Filipino driver. Tel: 96156162 (Akram). (C 4093)

CHANGE OF NAME I, Rejimol Joseph holder of Indian Passport No: J5394310 hereby change my name REJIMOL JOSEPH PARAMMAVIL. (C 4098) 8-8-2012 I, Rajee Ramanathan Koolathu, daughter of Koolath Velappan Ramanathan holder of Indian Passport No. K1677756 have embraced Islam religion with new name Fathima Raja.

(C 4095) 6-8-2012

For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

No: 15536

POLICE STATION

Al-Madena Police Station 22434064 Al-Murqab Police Station 22435865 Al-Daiya Police Station 22544200 Al-Fayha’a Police Station 22547133 Al-Qadissiya Police Station22515277 Al-Nugra Police Station 22616662 Al-Salmiya Police Station 25714406 Al-Dasma Police Station 22530801 Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:46 11:54 15:29 18:33 19:58

information SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines QTR JZR SAI PIA RJA GFA UAE ETD OMA FDB MSR QTR DHX KAC BAW KAC JZR KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD BAB GFA UAE MSR IRM JZR MSR QTR SVA RJA KNE KAC QTR IZG KAC JZR JZR ETD UAE UAL SVA GFA JZR JZR ABY KAC KAC BAB KAC KAC QTR

Arrival Flights on Saturday 11/8/2012 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 239 ISLAMABAD 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 170 BAHRAIN 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 555 ALEXANDRIA 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 871 DUBAI 618 ALEXANDRIA 5066 MASHAD 201 DAMASCUS 610 CAIRO 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 476 JEDDAH 788 JEDDAH 134 DOHA 4161 MASHAD 118 NEW YORK 535 CAIRO 357 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 510 RIYADH 215 BAHRAIN 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 176 GENEVA 542 CAIRO 438 BAHRAIN 786 JEDDAH 104 LONDON 6130 DOHA

Time 0:20 0:50 1:30 2:05 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:50 3:10 3:20 3:25 5:00 6:15 6:30 6:35 6:40 7:15 7:30 7:35 7:50 8:05 8:15 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:00 10:45 11:25 11:55 12:30 13:30 14:25 14:30 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:15 15:45 16:00 16:00 16:20 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 17:45 18:15 18:40 18:40 18:45 19:00

MSR KAC KAC KAC JAI IRA AXB OMA MEA QTR KNE GFA KNE ALK KLM UAE BBC ABY SYR QTR FDB AIC GFA UAL JZR DLH FDB THY DHX JZR JAI

620 774 618 674 572 607 393 647 402 146 460 221 474 229 415 859 43 129 341 136 61 975 217 981 239 636 51 772 372 539 574

ASSIUT RIYADH DOHA DUBAI MUMBAI MASHAD KOZHIKODE MUSCAT BEIRUT DOHA MEDINAH BAHRAIN JEDDAH COLOMBO AMSTERDAM DUBAI DHAKA SHARJAH DAMASCUS DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMMAN FRANKFURT DUBAI ISTANBUL BAHRAIN CAIRO MUMBAI

Airlines AIC UAL DLH JZR JAI KLM THY SAI PIA UAE FDB OMA ETD MSR QTR QTR RJA JZR JZR GFA BAW ABY JZR KAC UAE QTR KAC FDB ETD

Departure Flights on Saturday 11/8/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 554 ALEXANDRIA 573 MUMBAI 413 AMSTERDAM 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 240 SIALKOT 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 643 AMMAN 200 DAMASCUS 200 DAMASCUS 212 BAHRAIN 156 LONDON 126 SHARJAH 534 CAIRO 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI

19:10 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:30 21:35 22:05 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:30 23:40 23:40 23:40 23:50

Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 0:30 0:50 0:55 2:15 2:30 3:20 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:50 7:00 7:00 7:05 8:25 9:05 9:10 9:35 9:40 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:15

BAB JZR GFA KAC KAC JZR UAE MSR KAC KAC JZR IRM MSR KAC KAC RJA KNE KAC SVA QTR IZG JZR ETD JZR QTR UAE GFA ABY UAL SVA JZR BAB KAC MSR QTR JAI IRA KAC KAC OMA MEA KNE KAC GFA KNE DHX ALK KLM ABY KAC UAE SYR QTR KAC KAC FDB BBC AXB QTR GFA KAC JZR

437 356 214 541 165 776 872 619 107 785 176 5065 611 673 617 641 461 773 505 135 4162 538 304 238 141 858 216 128 982 511 266 439 283 621 6131 571 604 331 351 648 403 477 543 222 475 171 230 415 120 381 860 342 137 301 205 62 44 394 147 218 411 502

BAHRAIN MASHHAD BAHRAIN CAIRO ROME JEDDAH DUBAI ASSIUT LONDON JEDDAH DUBAI MASHHAD CAIRO DUBAI DOHA AMMAN MADINAH RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA MASHHAD CAIRO ABU DHABI AMMAN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH BEIRUT BAHRAIN DHAKA ALEXANDRIA DOHA MUMBAI ISFAHAN TRIVANDRUM KOCHI MUSCAT BEIRUT JEDDAH CAIRO BAHRAIN JEDDAH BAHRAIN COLOMBO DAMMAM SHARJAH DELHI DUBAI DAMASCUS DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD DUBAI CHITTAGONG KOCHI DOHA BAHRAIN BANGKOK LUXOR

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

10:25 10:30 10:45 11:30 11:45 11:50 12:20 12:25 12:30 13:10 13:20 13:25 14:30 15:05 15:45 15:50 15:50 15:55 16:00 16:15 16:45 16:50 17:20 17:30 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:50 19:30 19:30 20:10 20:30 20:35 20:50 20:50 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:35 21:50 21:55 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:30 23:40 23:55

C R O S S W O R D 7 6 4

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. An antidepressant drug that acts by blocking the reuptake of serotonin so that more serotonin is available to act on receptors in the brain.

5. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

9. The act of catching an object with the hands.

13. Of or relating to or characteristic of the Republic of Chad or its people or language.

14. In bed.

15. A republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of Ireland.

16. A number to which another number (the addend) is added.

18. A small cake leavened with yeast.

19. A state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico.

20. Genus of erect herbs of the Middle East having showy flowers.

22. A state in midwestern United States.

23. Half the width of an em.

24. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

26. The occurrence of a change for the worse.

29. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

32. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

33. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

36. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

37. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

39. A toxic nonmetallic element related to sulfur and tellurium.

41. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

44. By bad luck.

47. A city in northwest Indiana on Lake Michigan.

49. An amoeba-like protozoan with a chitinous shell resembling an umbrella.

53. One of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

57. Being the one previously mentioned or spoken of.

58. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

59. United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict (born in 1934).

61. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

62. Of a light yellowish-brown color n 1.

63. A song of praise (to God or to a saint or to a nation).

64. A barrier constructed to contain the flow or water or to keep out the sea.

DOWN 1. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

2. Any branch of Shinto other than Kokka.

3. A motley assortment of things.

4. Conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence.

5. An emblem (a small piece of plastic or cloth or metal) that signifies your status (rank or membership or affiliation etc.).

6. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

7. A three-tone Chadic language.

8. A public promotion of some product or service.

9. A cylindrical drawstring bag used by sailors to hold their clothing and other gear.

10. (Babylonian) A goddess of the watery deep and daughter of Ea. 11. An edilbe seaweed with a mild flavor.

12. Large dark brown North American arboreal carnivorous mammal.

17. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

21. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

25. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

27. An associate degree in applied science.

28. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

30. Occurring or done each day.

31. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

34. A coenzyme derived from the B vitamin nicotinic acid.

35. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

38. The network in the reticular formation that serves an alerting or arousal function.

40. Yellow-fever mosquitos.

42. A native of ancient Troy.

43. (British) A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric.

45. A region of Malaysia in northeastern Borneo.

46. Any of several short-billed Old World rails.

48. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

49. A flexible container with a single opening.

50. Praise, glorify, or honor.

51. Capital and largest city and economic center of Peru.

52. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

54. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

55. An adult male person (as opposed to a woman).

56. The universal time coordinated when an event is received on Earth.

60. Before noon.

Yesterday始s Solution

sports

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

AL Roundup

Consecutive homers lift Yankees over Tigers 4-3 DETROIT: New York’s Mark Teixeira and Eric Chavez hit solo home runs on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning to put the Yankees ahead and they held on to beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in the American League on Thursday.

Detroit pitcher Joaquin Benoit (13) retired the first batter in the

eighth before Teixeira and Chavez connected, the eighth time the Yankees have hit consecutive homers this season. Benoit has given up nine hits - seven for homers - in his past 10 games.

Clay Rapada (3-0) got the last two outs with one runner on base in the seventh inning to take the win,

while Rafael Soriano escaped a first-and-third, no-outs jam in the ninth inning to record the save.

RAYS 7, BLUE JAYS 1 In St Petersburg, Florida, Matt Moore pitched six strong innings to guide Tampa Bay past Toronto.

Moore (9-7) gave up just two hits,

retiring 14 straight batters during one stretch. He won his third straight start, striking out six. The rookie is 8-2 with a 2.92 ERA since the end of May. Tampa Bay has won 16 straight series against Toronto at Tropicana Field. The Rays have won six of eight overall while the Blue Jays have lost 15 of

CHICAGO: Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier (left) tags out Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo at third base in the fourth inning during a baseball game in Chicago on Thursday, Aug 9, 2012. —AP

Cardinals rebound from blowout, beat Giants 3-1 ST LOUIS: St Louis bounced back from a 15-0 blowout the previous night to beat the San Francisco Giants 3-1 on Thursday, with Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright throwing seven strong innings. Wainwright (10-10) allowed one run and struck out seven. He has given up two earned runs or fewer in his past five starts. Carlos Beltran hit his 27th homer of the season for the Cardinals. Beltran, who leads the NL with 80 RBIs, hit a two-run homer off Madison Bumgarner (12-7) in the first.

Bumgarner has given up 15 of his 18 home runs this season on the road.

DIAMONDBACKS 6, PIRATES 3 In Pittsburgh, Jason Kubel homered twice to lead Arizona over Pittsburgh.

Both of Kubel’s home runs followed hits by Aaron Hill. Diamondbacks starter Joe Saunders (6-8) allowed two earned runs with no walks in seven innings. Arizona had lost five of his previous six starts. Pirates starter Wandy Rodriguez (7-11) allowed four runs in six innings. He is winless in three starts since being acquired from Houston.

METS 6, MARLINS 1 In New York, R.A. Dickey pitched a complete game for his NL-leading 15th win as New York arrested a ninegame home losing skid by beating Miami. Dickey (15-3) struck out 10 and walked none. Jose Reyes, the former Met turned Marlin, saw his 26-game hitting streak end. He went 0-for-4 against the All-Star knuckleballer, twice stranding runners on third base.

His hitting streak was the longest of his career and the best in the majors this season. Andres Torres homered, tripled and doubled for New York, driving in the go-ahead run after Reyes lost a popup in the sun. Torres homered off Josh Johnson (7-8) in the sixth and got an RBI triple in the eighth.

NATIONALS 5, ASTROS 0 In Houston, Michael Morse homered twice as Washington completed a four-game sweep of Houston. Morse drove in three runs and extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games, the longest active streak in the

majors. Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann (9-6) matched a career high with 11 strikeouts over six scoreless innings. It was Washington’s seventh shutout this season. The NL Eastleading Nationals have won six straight and own baseball’s best record at 69-43. Astros starter Lucas Harrell (9-8) yielded five hits with five walks in five innings as Houston dropped its fifth straight.

CUBS 5, REDS 3 In Chicago, Alfonso Soriano hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning as Chicago snapped an eight-game losing streak by defeating Cincinnati on a rain-soaked night. With the score tied 3-3, Reds reliever Sean Marshall (4-4) issued a walk. After the skies cleared and the pitcher changed, Soriano cracked a two-run shot to center field. Shawn Camp (3-5) pitched a perfect eighth for the win. The Reds lost their fifth straight but remained 21/2 games ahead of second-place Pittsburgh in the race for the NL Central title. —AP

19. Jose Lobaton drove in three runs for the Rays, who completed the three-game sweep. Blue Jays starter Henderson Alvarez (7-9) gave up 11 hits in 4 2-3 innings.

ROYALS 8, ORIOLES 2 In Baltimore, Billy Butler came within a single of hitting for the cycle as Kansas City ended Baltimore’s five-game winning streak. Butler homered in a fourrun first inning, doubled in the third and tripled in the fifth.

Needing only a single to become the first Kansas City player in 22 years to hit the cycle, Butler struck out in the seventh and again the ninth. He finished with three RBIs and scored three runs. Butler is 11 for 24 (.458) with three homers and five RBIs in six games against Baltimore this season. Baltimore rookie Wei-Yin Chen (10-7) allowed a career-worst seven runs in 4 2-3 innings. Will Smith (3-4) gave up two runs in seven innings for the Royals.

INDIANS 5, RED SOX 3 In Cleveland, Ubaldo Jimenez struck out a season-high 10 for his first win in more than a month as Cleveland downed Boston.

Jimenez (9-11) allowed three runs over six innings. He had been 0-4 with an 8.41 ERA in his previous five starts. Jason Donald hit a leadoff homer against Felix Doubront (10-6) and drove in two runs for the Indians, who took a 4-3 lead with a three-run fifth. —AP

MLB results/standings NY Mets 6, Miami 1; NY Yankees 4, Detroit 3; Tampa Bay 7, Toronto 1; St. Louis 3, San Francisco 1; Arizona 6, Pittsburgh 3; Kansas City 8, Baltimore 2; Cleveland 5, Boston 3; Chicago Cubs 5, Cincinnati 3; Washington 5, Houston 0.

National League American League Eastern Division Eastern Division Washington 69 43 .616 W L PCT GB Atlanta 64 47 .577 4.5 NY Yankees 65 46 .586 NY Mets 54 58 .482 15 Baltimore 60 52 .536 5.5 Miami 51 61 .455 18 Tampa Bay 59 52 .532 6 Philadelphia 50 61 .450 18.5 Boston 55 58 .487 11 Toronto 53 58 .477 12 Central Division Cincinnati 66 46 .589 Central Division Pittsburgh 63 48 .568 2.5 Chicago White 60 50 .545 St. Louis 61 51 .545 5 Detroit 60 52 .536 1 Milwaukee 51 59 .464 14 Cleveland 52 60 .464 9 Chicago Cubs 44 66 .400 21 Minnesota 49 62 .441 11.5 Houston 36 77 .319 30.5 Kansas City 48 63 .432 12.5 Western Division Texas 65 45 .591 Oakland 60 51 .541 LA Angels 59 53 .527 Seattle 51 62 .451

5.5 7 15.5

Western Division San Francisco 61 51 .545 LA Dodgers 60 52 .536 Arizona 57 55 .509 San Diego 49 64 .434 Colorado 40 69 .367

1 4 12.5 19.5

SPORTS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Toronto Masters hit by rain, Murray withdrawal TORONTO: Not even Novak Djokovic’s attempt at drying off centre court could salvage play at the rain-hit Toronto Masters on Thursday as singles play was washed out, while Andy Murray became the latest big name to withdraw. Top seed Djokovic, the defending champion and world number two, was among those set to play Thursday but his last 16 match against American Sam Querrey was wiped out along with the other seven singles matches on the schedule.

Djokovic, however, was unruffled by the rain as he walked onto centre court shortly after his 7 pm (2300

GMT) match was set to begin and started playing with a squeegee before hitting a few balls while holding an umbrella in his left hand. With more rain forecast for Friday and possibly into the weekend, tournament organizers could be left scrambling to get matches played in time for Sunday’s scheduled final. The rain was the latest setback for a tournament that has been hit by withdrawals from a handful of players, including world number one Roger Federer and number three Rafa Nadal.

Murray, fresh from his emotional Olympic triumph

on Sunday, not so surprisingly pulled out of the tournament with a knee injury a day after calling a medical timeout during which he received about five minutes of treatment. “I decided the best thing was to rest it and try and make sure I can let my body kind of adjust to the surface normally,” Murray, who was scheduled to play Canada’s big-serving Milos Raonic in a last 16 match on Thursday, told reporters. The world number four, who was hurt chasing down a forehand late in his match, blamed the injury on a lack of time to prepare for the switch to hard courts from grass. — Reuters

Sizzling Swede Pettersson takes command at Kiawah Woods shoots 69 in low-scoring conditions KIAWAH ISLAND: Swede Carl Pettersson flawlessly put himself in position to improve a mediocre record in the majors, spearheading a glut of low scoring to surge into a one-shot lead in the PGA Championship opening round on Thursday. The 34-year-old, who became a US citizen in January, fired a sizzling six-under-par 66 in relatively calm, sunny conditions at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort to take control of the season’s final major. Former US Open winner Rory McIlroy, long-hitting American Gary Woodland, Spaniard Gonzalo FernandezCastano and Swede Alex Noren charged into contention with 67s while four-times champion Tiger Woods was happy after opening with a sixbirdie 69.

Defending champion Keegan Bradley, 1991 winner John Daly and Dutchman Joost Luiten, who briefly led at eight under before bogeying his last four holes, were among a group of eight players who carded 68s at Kiawah, where ocean breezes strengthened later in the day. Forty-four players broke par on the longest layout to stage a major championship, making the most of conditions softened by heavy rain earlier in the week. The average score was 73.42. “I played really good,” Pettersson told reporters after breaking 70 for the first time in 21 rounds at the PGA Championship with an nerveless six-birdie display on a hot and humid day.

“Getting off to a good start was the key to the round. There really wasn’t much wind on the front nine, so I knew I had to keep going low because I figured the wind would get up. “The wind started blowing a little bit on the back nine, and I carried on solid play, hitting a lot of fairways, hitting a lot of greens and making a few putts. It was a great day for me.” Pettersson, who won his fifth PGA Tour title at the Heritage Classic in April, has missed 10 cuts in the majors while recording only two top-10 finishes.

“I haven’t contended that much in majors ... but I’d love to have a chance and see what happens,” said the Swede, who is bidding to become the 17th different player in a row to claim one of golf’s grand slam titles. “You see different people, and some of your friends, winning majors, and that motivates you. Long way to go, but I’m thrilled with the start, and we’ll see what happens.”

STAGGERING WIN MARGIN McIlroy, who won last year’s US Open by a staggering eight shots, sank a 12-footer to birdie his opening hole, the 10th, and picked up further shots at the 14th, 16th, second and sixth to rocket into contention. “It’s a great way to start the tournament,” said the 23-year-old Northern Irishman. “Hitting balls on the range this morn-

CARSON: Alvaro Morata #23 of Real Madrid dives over Rafael Garcia #25 of Los Angeles Galaxy during the World Football Challenge at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California. — AFP

ing, there was completely no wind. It was flat calm and I really thought that I had to take advantage of the conditions. “Very happy with the round. It’s a great score to build on.” Most eyes, though, were on Woods who teed off at the 10th in pursuit of his 15th major title but his first since the 2008 US Open.

Following an early birdie at the 12th he bogeyed the 13th after finding bunkers off the tee and also with his third shot, and the tricky par-three 14th, where he missed the elevated green to the left off the tee. However, Woods immediately recovered by sinking a 15-foot birdie putt at the 15th, sparking a cry of “beautiful” from a fan, before rolling in a 25-footer on the 18th green to prompt huge roars from the crowd crammed into the grandstands. Woods also birdied the first and second, stumbled with a bogey at the fourth, then picked up one more shot at the par-three eighth to finish three strokes off the early lead. “I’m pleased,” Woods said of his start on the 7,676-yard Ocean Course.

“I played well today and anything in the sixties is going to be a good start in a major championship. I’m right there.

“It’s one of those days where everyone’s going to shoot six, seven, eight under par, but the wind kicked up a little bit and it changed things quite a bit. “If it had stayed pretty benign, I’m sure you would have had to have shot probably five under par to be in the top 10.” Many of the game’s leading players did not fare as well in

the opening round, four-times major winner Phil Mickelson and Masters champion Bubba Watson grinding out 73s in the tougher conditions of the afternoon. British world number one Luke Donald carded a 74, fourth-ranked Lee Westwood a 75 and US champion Webb Simpson of the US battled to a 79. — Reuters

IOC strips Hamilton of Athens gold LONDON: The IOC has formally stripped American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his gold from the 2004 Athens Olympics and reassigned the medals after his admission of doping. IOC spokesman Mark Adams says the executive board notified Hamilton yesterday that he has been disqualified from his victory in the road race time trial. His gold medal will now go to Russian rider Viatcheslav Ekimov. American Bobby Julich will be moved up from bronze to silver, and Michael Rogers of Australia from fourth to bronze. After years of denials, Hamilton told CBS’s “60 Minutes” last year that he had repeatedly used performance-enhancing drugs. The IOC asked for documents from the US Anti-Doping Agency before reallocating the medals. — AP

Rossi to rejoin Yamaha ROME: Italian motorcycling great Valentino Rossi will leave Ducati at the end of the MotoGP season and rejoin Yamaha on a two-year deal, the Japanese-owned team said yesterday. “In June, we were able to sign Jorge Lorenzo for the 2013-14 campaign and now we are able to confirm Valentino Rossi for the next two years,” Yamaha Motor Racing managing director Lin Jarvis said in a statement. The 33-year-old nine-times world champion - seven in the premier class - first joined Yamaha in 2004 and won four MotoGP titles with the manufacturer before agreeing a two-year deal with Ducati at the end of the 2010 season. However, the dream of pairing up Italy’s best-known rider with Italy’s top team turned into a nightmare and he finished seventh on an uncompetitive bike last year.

This season has been just as bad with Rossi lying eighth. Rossi left Yamaha because he felt having two very strong riders in one team did not work. His then Yamaha team mate was 2010 champion and current championship leader Lorenzo but the Italian will now return to the same arrangement. Spaniard Lorenzo has ridden for Yamaha since 2008 and leads the current championship by 23 points after 10 races of the 18-race season. Rossi has secured just one podium finish all season. “We have run this ‘super team’ together in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and during that time we achieved the triple crown titles with Rider, Manufacturer and Team World Championship victories for three consecutive years,” Jarvis said.

“I have no doubt that with the experience, knowledge, skills and speed of these two great champion riders we will be able to challenge for many race wins and for the 2013 and 2014 World Championship titles.” Ducati said they were in the process of finalizing their 2013 championship lineup having recently renewed their agreement with American Nicky Hayden. Rossi, who last won the championship in 2009, has often been linked with a move to Formula One team Ferrari and pundits wonder whether Rossi made an error in not switching to four wheels when he had the chance with the Italians in 2006 and again in 2009.— Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Broncos thrash Bears 31-3 Eastin breaks NFL’s on-field gender barrier

ATLANTA: Atlanta Falcons running back Jacquizz Rodgers (32) is hit by Baltimore Ravens defensive end Albert McClellan (left) and linebacker Sergio Kindle (94) during the first half of an NFL preseason football game on Thursday, Aug 9, 2012. — AP CHICAGO: Peyton Manning didn’t hide his feelings. This one was special, and he simply wasn’t about to dismiss it as just another tuneup. He’s come too far for that. “I know how much hard work I’ve put in and how much help I’ve gotten along the way,” he said. “I know once we get to Pittsburgh, it’ll be all about the game. I’m not going to be too reflective.” His first preseason appearance with the Broncos was brief and a bit uneven. He hopes to have it ironed out by the opener Sept 9. Manning got intercepted near the goal line on the game’s opening possession and watched from the sideline the rest of the way as Denver beat the Chicago Bears 31-3 Thursday night.

All eyes were on Manning and the results were mixed for the four-time MVP. Considering he missed all of last season with a nerve injury in his neck that weakened his throwing arm and led to his tearful farewell from the Indianapolis Colts, it was hardly a surprise. Manning is trying to show he still has something left with Denver (No 10 in the AP Pro32), and all things considered, coach John Fox was impressed. “He’s going to continue to improve,” Fox said. “That’s the whole challenge of our team. That was a good first start, good first outing, and it’s what we do with it from here on out that’s going to count.”

On a cool and rainy night, Manning completed 4 of 7 passes for 44 yards, but didn’t have to contend with Julius Peppers or Brian Urlacher. He had all the time he needed, too, so it remains to be seen how he’ll handle a big hit. But even with little pressure, he still was a bit off target against Chicago (No. 11 tie). On

the game’s first play from scrimmage, his pass was broken up by Chicago’s Lance Briggs, and his second was nearly picked off, too. The Bears’ Geno Hayes tipped the ball near midfield, but Jacob Tamme hauled it in for a 12yard gain to the Chicago 39.

After a short run by Willis McGahee, Manning found Eric Decker on the left for 10 yards. A 19-yarder to Decker a few plays later put the ball on the 14, and the Broncos looked like they were poised to score. Instead, on third down at the 12, Manning got picked off when Denver’s Brandon Stokley deflected a pass and Major Wright dived for the interception at the 2. Wright then left the game with a hamstring injury that he said was “nothing major,” no pun intended. Manning was finished for the night, too, and that brought the biggest story to a close.

SHANNON EASTIN Meanwhile, Shannon Eastin earned her stripes by receiving the ultimate officials’ compliment: It was almost as if she wasn’t there.

Just being there earned her a place in history.

Unflappable among the oversized players and in the spotlight, Eastin became the first woman to officiate an NFL game Thursday night, serving as the line judge for a sevenman crew working the preseason opener between the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers. “She was confident and in control,” Chargers coach Norv Turner said.

Wearing No. 27 on the back of her official’s uniform and her hair tucked under the back of her cap, Eastin was dwarfed by the players as she lined up in front of San Diego’s sideline

and had a camera following nearly every move before the game. The 42-year-old from Tempe, Ariz., seemed at ease, though, taking a photo with Turner before the game and shaking hands with at least two players before the opening kickoff.

Though she wasn’t involved in many calls until late, Eastin remained steady while breaking the NFL’s on-field gender barrier, quietly working the kind of game that made the players and coaches forget who was calling it. “I thought she did a good job of communicating,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I was focused on the Packers, but there was communication before the game.” It’s no surprise.

Eastin is a referee in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, college football’s second-highest level, and a 16-year veteran of officiating. She got her NFL shot as a replacement official, among a group taking the place of the regular refs, who are locked out.

RAVENS DOWN FALCONS Matt Ryan gave Atlanta the early lead, then Baltimore’s backups, led by Curtis Painter, took over from there. Painter threw three secondhalf touchdown passes to lead the Ravens to a 31-17 preseason win over the Falcons on Thursday night. “I like the way our young guys competed and executed,” said Baltimore coach John Harbaugh. “Curtis Painter made some big plays with three TD passes.” Painter started eight games for Indianapolis in 2011 before signing with the Ravens. “Obviously, scoring three times while we were in there was a good thing,” Painter said. “Just getting some momentum going. ... It was a good first

showing. I’ve just got to keep going from here.” Ryan led two touchdown drives, including a scoring pass to Julio Jones.

Ryan completed 9 of 13 passes for 155 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

He was 5 for 5 for 71 yards, including the 7yard touchdown pass to Jones, on the opening drive for Atlanta (No 13 in the AP Pro32). “I thought the first couple of drives, especially the first drive, we got out to a good rhythm,” Ryan said. “We were in the no-huddle in the first series, and it was good for us to work that package.” Jones had six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Joe Flacco completed 9 of 12 passes for 88 yards and a touchdown for Baltimore (No 5). The Falcons led 14-0 before Flacco threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ed Dickson midway through the second quarter.

Each starting quarterback left the game in the second quarter. Ravens safety Omar Brown, an undrafted rookie from Marshall, had two fumble recoveries and an interception. Atlanta starting linebacker Akeem Dent (knee) and rookie backup fullback Bradie Ewing (head) left the game with injuries.

Ewing hurt his right knee when blocking on Dominique Franks’ 45-yard punt return midway through the first quarter. Ewing, a fifthround pick from Wisconsin, was helped off the field before being placed on a cart and driven to the locker room. Dent walked off the field with the head injury he suffered when blocking on a Falcons punt. He is expected to take over at middle linebacker after Curtis Lofton signed with the Saints and Lofa Tatupu suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in training camp. — Agencies

sports

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Barcelona dreams give Chelsea identity crisis LONDON: When Roberto di Matteo screamed “We won it” at Roman Abramovich as Chelsea started their Champions League celebrations, the Blues manager can’t have realized he was signaling the end of an era at Stamford Bridge. Just over three months after Chelsea’s rollercoaster season reached a memorable peak with the miracle in Munich, much has already changed at the west London club.

Talismanic striker Didier Drogba, the club’s Champions League final hero, is now playing in China, while long-serving stars like Jose Bosingwa and Salomon Kalou have been shown to the exit. In their place have arrived exciting young talents Eden Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin, who are expected to transform Chelsea from the battle-hardened group who excelled at grinding opponents into submission into the Premier League’s version of Barcelona. It is a remarkable transformation for a team crowned European champions and FA Cup winners so recently. But crucially it is Abramovich, rather than di Matteo, who has been the instigator on this Blue revolution. The Champions League had often been described as Abramovich’s holy grail, with the Blues owner said to have fallen in love with football from the moment he watched Manchester United and Real Madrid contest an epic encounter at Old Trafford in 2003.

But the enduring memory Abramovich retains from that 4-3 win for United is not Real’s eventual progress to win the tournament, but the exhilaration he felt at watching two teams playing with such poise and inspiration on such a grand stage. From that moment on, Abramovich, who bought Chelsea later that year, has wanted not just success, but success achieved with the style he witnessed that night in Manchester. With that in mind, even the sight of Chelsea finally winning the Champions League after a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Bayern Munich in May couldn’t completely satisfy the Russian, who has been casting envious glances at Barcelona’s breathtaking play for several years. While di Matteo might have felt his team’s epic run, that included a semi-final win over Barcelona was the ultimate achievement, Abramovich begged to differ. Chelsea’s bloody-minded refusal to accept defeat in tense ties with Napoli, Barca and Bayern deserved immense respect. But it is the subtle skills of Barca’s Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi that Abramovich wants to see when he watches his own team. And what Abramovich wants, he gets. His love affair with Barca could be seen in his failed attempt to hire their former boss Pep Guardiola-he eventually gave di Matteo a two-year contract-and also his investment of over £60 million on Hazard, Oscar and Marin.

It is those three, together with Juan Mata and Fernando Torres, who will dictate how Chelsea fare now rather than traditional trendsetters John Terry and Frank Lampard. It is easy to criticism Abramovich for meddling when he should leave team matters to di Matteo, but after Chelsea’s sixth place finish last season-their lowest in Roman era-it is clear something needed to change. Di Matteo has clearly bought into the idea of a new-Chelsea, talking enthusiastically about tactics on the club’s pre-season tour. —AFP

NEW YORK: Manchester United Executives ring the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday in New York City. —AFP

Utd IPO shows soccer’s limited investor appeal LONDON: Manchester United will make its New York Stock Exchange debut yesterday after a flotation that disappointed the English soccer club’s American owners and has enraged some of its fans.

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, but the setback for the initial public offering underlines the limited appeal of even its biggest names for investors. The IPO priced at $14, below the $16-20 range the club’s bankers had been seeking. It valued the 19-times English champions at only $2.3 billion and shaved as much as $100 million off the proceeds expected for the team and its owners.

The offering raised $233.2 million, to be split equally between the club and its owners, the Florida-based Glazer family.

The loss of as much as $50 million for the club will be a blow as it copes with a heavy debt burden and seeks to buy new players, who cost tens of millions of dollars each. The 134-year-old club looked at listing in Singapore and Hong Kong last year to tap into its large Asian fan base but pulled out, blaming volatile markets.

A group of United fans who are campaigning for greater involvement in the ownership of the club jeered the Glazers.

“When the news finally came, it was revealed they’d been forced to take $14 a

share or let the whole deal collapse. A massive humiliating blow for the Glazers,” the vocal Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) said.

In a rare example of fans cheering against their team, MUST said they hoped the share price would fall to around $10 and make the club a takeover target. “A valuation of MUFC of 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) brings it into the same ball park valuation as potential bidders,” it said. “Supporters will hope an offer from a supporter-friendly consortium, which sees the value of sharing ownership with supporters, is forthcoming and successful,” it added. The Red Knights, a group of wealthy fans including Goldman Sachs head of asset management Jim O’Neill, weighed a bid for United two years ago but were put off by the price.

LEVERAGED BUYOUT The Glazers bought United for 790 million pounds in a highly leveraged deal in 2005, taking it private after 14 years on the London Stock Exchange.

Some fans argue that the cost of the debt has forced up ticket prices for the club, which is based in northwest England but claims 659 million followers

across the world. They also say repayments have hindered the team’s ability to compete with big-spending rivals on the pitch. United suffered a rare barren season last year, losing their Premier League title to crosstown rival Manchester City, whose owner is part of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family and has pumped 800 million pounds into reviving what had long been United’s poor relation. With so much tied to success on the field, soccer clubs are an inherently risky investment. “I didn’t even look at it.

I would never, ever invest in a football club,” said the head of UK equities at an investment house running around 100 billion pounds in assets.

“The first goal of a club is not to make money for shareholders but to win trophies,” said Emmanuel Hembert of management consultancy A T Kearney. Italian champions Juventus is one of the few European soccer clubs with a stock market listing, and it is valued at only around $240 million, according to Reuters data.

“Manchester United itself has a very good business model and has been able to be profitable,” he said. “If there is one club to invest in it would be Manchester United, but being the best economically among your peers may not be enough.” —Reuters

KUWAIT: Kuwait Future Soccer team put an end to the dream of Samsung Babtain to reach the finals of Al-Roudhan Indoor Soccer Tournament after an exciting match yesterday. Meanwhile the Late Sameer Saeed team defeated Holiday Inn 1-0 while the Late Ahmad Al-Roumi team defeated Salmiya 4-2.

London 2012 Olympic Games

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Riders survive, advance to final day of BMX LONDON: There are two prevailing opinions about what makes BMX compelling. The first is simply the white-knuckle competition - the high-speed, elbow-toelbow race that starts on a ramp eight meters above the course and sends riders over a series of jumps at up to 55 kph. The other is the crashes. They’re inevitable in the newest Olympic cycling discipline, which made its debut in Beijing and is designed to help attract a younger demographic to the Summer Games. With eight riders at the start gate, there is bound to be a mishap - or several - over the course of the competition.

“You need to deal with all those crashes,” said France’s Joris Daudet. “It’s part of this sport and makes the beauty of it.”

His teammate, Quentin Caleyron, wants fans to enjoy the racing not the spills. “I disagree with the idea that this sport is beautiful because of the crashes,” he said. “People should not come and see us for that. We are a proper sport, very competitive.” There were plenty of crashes on Thursday, when the men’s field was trimmed from 32 to 16 with quarterfinal heat races. And there are bound to be even more crashes when medals are awarded. “That’s part and parcel of BMX,” said Australia’s Khalen Young.

The quarterfinals consisted of heats with eight riders in each, and at least one rider hit the deck in four of the first six races. In one of them, Daudet collided with American rider David Herman entering the first corner and together they wiped out just about the entire field.

Marc Willers of New Zealand was the only rider left on his bike. Willers and Daudet advanced from their heat by having the best cumulative finish from their first three races. They were joined by two automatic qualifiers from each of the other three heats, and the remaining riders continued for two more races to decide the

other eight qualifiers. The women’s field only has 16 riders, so there were no quarterfinals. All advanced straight to semifinals, which will pare the field to eight for the finals. Medals will be decided in a single winnertake-all affair later. Ecuador’s Emilio Andres Falla Buchely had a particularly hard Thursday afternoon, crashing twice in his first three rides and failing to advance. Moana Moo Caille of France could have moved on with a good last run, but he wiped out and watched his Olympic dreams vanish.

LONDON: Cyclists take a jump during the BMX cycling men’s final event at the London 2012 Olympic Games yesterday. — AFP

With gold, Shields gives hints of boxing’s future LONDON: Katie Taylor collapsed to her knees after winning the ninth gold medal in Ireland’s Olympic history, and the ecstatic crowd seemed to raise the lightweight boxer back up with its roars. Blinking back tears, Taylor wrapped a green, white and orange flag around her shoulders and later took a slow walk through the overjoyed masses. The scene was stirring, even breathtaking. What could anybody possibly do to top this Irish celebration?

Oh, Claressa Shields had a few ideas. With one more dynamic victory to close the first Olympic women’s boxing tournament, the U.S. middleweight showed that while Taylor is the current pound-for-pound champion of this sport, Shields is the future. The ebullient 17-year-old from Flint, Mich, easily dispatched the world’s best fighters in her weight class, capped by a 19-12 victory over Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova on Thursday. Shields danced, brawled and even stuck out her tongue at her opponent, who is nearly twice her age and about half her speed.

Taylor was named the Olympics’ best women’s boxer.

British flyweight Nicola Adams also thrilled the home crowd with a gold-medal victory that was even more impressive, upsetting world champion Ren Cancan of China. But Shields had enough talent and flair to draw a bit of attention away from the two local heroes - a feat as impressive as her win. “This was something I wanted for a long time, even when boxing wasn’t going all right, even when my life wasn’t going all right,” said Shields, who found sanctuary in a boxing gym during a rough childhood.

“All I wanted was a gold medal, and I kept working towards it, even when people were saying I couldn’t do it. I’m too young. I couldn’t do it. There were girls who were going to beat me because of better experience, more experience. I proved them all wrong.” Shields had her hand over her heart on the medal podium when she abruptly burst into laughter, her head snapping back almost as if she had just been punched in the face.

Carlos Mario Oquendo Zabala of Colombia fared better after crashing twice. He managed to win the day’s final race to slip into the semifinals. “I know our sport and we race so close to each other,” said Raymon van der Biezen, the Dutch rider who won all three of his heat races. “I am glad that I did not crash today, but that could have been the case as well, because you’ve got to be a little lucky.” Not everyone was as lucky. Sixteen of the 32 riders who started the day had crashed by the time their first three heats were over.—AP

That’s a feeling her opponents in the first Olympic women’s boxing tournament know quite well. Only they’re not laughing.

“I’m surprised I didn’t cry,” Shields said. “I was sweating, though.” Adams, Taylor and Shields triumphed in rapid succession on the final day of the London Games’ landmark tournament, claiming the first Olympic titles in a growing sport that was banned in Britain until 1996. The five-day event with 36 fighters was one of London’s biggest hits, adored by fans and praised for creating gender equality in the summer Olympic program. —AP

Heartbroken Stevenson mulls taekwondo future LONDON: Twice world champion Sarah Stevenson, who went into the Olympics heartbroken by the death of both her parents, will consider her future in taekwondo after crashing out in the first round yesterday. The 29year-old fourth seed lost 5-1 to American Paige McPherson but said the “horrendous” last 18 months, in which she lost both parents to cancer, had helped her find a balance in her life. “The last year has helped put this event into perspective. I wanted to be here, I wanted to give 100 percent and I wanted to fight,” she said. — AFP “This is the Olympics, it’s not life or death, it’s meant to be fun. There are more important things in life than taekwondo.” And now Stevenson, a bronze medalist in Beijing four years ago, is considering life after taekwondo. “I’m going to have a holiday, rest, time out with family and think about where the future lies - maybe with taekwondo, maybe not.”— AFP

McCutcheon creates new story in London LONDON: Hugh McCutcheon stayed on the sideline and watched with delight.

All around him, his players celebrated on the court, coming together for a group hug. The US volleyball coach often speaks of creating a new story. This is it.

This run by the American women’s team at the Olympics is providing all the material, and with a star named Destinee, no less. Next up is the gold-medal match Saturday night. Everything is so different now, four years after McCutcheon’s father-in-law was stabbed to death at a Beijing tourist spot right before the opening ceremony. Different athletes now, different tournament - he coached the men to gold last time amid the anguish - different everything.

McCutcheon has long since separated that China trip from his latest coaching assignment: bringing home the first Olympic gold for the American women.

They won silver in Beijing and soon after committed themselves to gold in London. While McCutcheon planned to hunker down Friday studying film and plotting strategy for the title match against Brazil, the US women’s basketball team was also getting ready. Coach Geno Auriemma’s four-time defending champions, led by Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, play France for the gold medal on Saturday night at O2 Arena.

Also today, Usain Bolt looks to add another gold to his 100 and 200 when the Jamaican sprint great runs in the 4x100-meter relay at Olympic Stadium.

Across town at Wembley Stadium, Brazil

and Mexico meet for gold in men’s soccer. McCutcheon’s players are thrilled he has another chance to coach a championship. But not because of the turmoil he faced in China. “We’ve never actually thought about that,” outside hitter Logan Tom said. “I think it’s a totally different step in his life. He was coaching guys, we’re girls. There’s definitely big differences just in that realm of things.”

Destinee Hooker delivers the offensive blows and key blocks for the unbeaten and world No. 1 Americans, who are looking at long last to win it all at the Olympics. It has been two silvers and a bronze so far for the US since volleyball joined the Olympic program in 1964. As chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” rang through Earls Court after a commanding semifinal win against South Korea on Saturday, McCutcheon quickly shook hands with the opposing team before standing back to observe - just as he always does. This is their moment. That’s the way he prefers it. He never planned for Beijing to become all about him and his adversity.

“It’s not really relevant,” McCutcheon said. “I understand the media’s interest, but generally the media are the only people who bring it up. It’s not part of our story; it’s not part of our journey.

From Day 1, it’s been about USA women’s volleyball and trying to get to the mountain top. That’s it.” During breaks, McCutcheon seems to find just the right words to motivate his players.

He seems to say just enough. —AP

London 2012 Olympic Games

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Absalon plays down triple gold chances LONDON: French mountain bike star Julien Absalon says he is putting all thoughts of making history to the back of his mind ahead of his bid for a third straight Olympic gold. Absalon stunned his rivals on a tough Beijing course four years ago, in which teammate Jean-Christophe Peraud finished second to take the silver, on his way to defending his 2004 title from Athens. If he dominates a strong field in Sunday’s cross country race in Essex, he will become the first cyclist of any discipline to win three Olympic titles.

Absalon says he has just about got over the effects of a crash two weeks ago and is hoping experience, and the lack of pressure, puts him within sight of a third gold. But says

he would be happy with a medal. “In Athens I was very young and it was the start of my dominance in the discipline,” said the Frenchman. “In Beijing I was the big favorite and had a lot of stress and expectation. I’ve come here more relaxed, I’ve got more experience, I’m the only one to have already won two gold medals and this takes some pressure off of me. “A medal here would be just a bonus.”

Both the men’s and women’s cross country races are held at Hadleigh Farm, a Salvation Armyowned site which underwent massive changes to make sure the cyclists face some tough climbing as well as downhilling challenges. They will race on a 4.8 km circuit and the numbers of laps for each race will be determined by a team captains meeting. It has been designed so the

men and women finish in a maximum time of 1hr 45min. Containing game-changing features like the ‘Rock Garden’, ‘Dean’s Drop’, ‘Snake Hill’ and the ‘Rabbit Hole’, Absalon expects the “condensed circuit” to be a challenge. “It’s very difficult, there’s not much place to recover,” he added.

When he sat facing the world’s media with the gold medal around his neck in Beijing, Absalon pointed to third-place finisher Nino Schurter and said “he will be the man to beat” in London.

Four years and one world championship title (2009) later, the Swiss remains Absalon’s big threat. “I think the big favorite this time is Nino Schurter followed by Jaroslav Kulhavy and myself. I would say there are three favorites,” said Absalon. Germany’s Sabine Spitz,

meanwhile, is also staring at a possible place in the Olympic history books.

The 2008 Olympic champion will be 40 years and 228 days old Saturday when she lines up hoping to become the oldest medal winner in an individual cycling event since Jeannie Longo won time trial bronze in Sydney 2000 at the age of 41.

Spitz, however, faces a handful of strong, younger rivals in Catharine Pendrel, fourth in Beijing, Britain’s Annie Last, Frenchwoman Julie Bresset, Georgia Gould of the United States and Poland’s Maja Wloszczokska.

Bresset believes she is “capable” of medaling on Saturday but believes Pendrel is “the big favorite”.

“She’s had three wins in the World Cup and she’s the leader in the general ranking,” said Bresset. — AFP

Jones wins gold for UK LONDON: Jade Jones won Britain’s first Olympic taekwondo gold medal after beating China’s Hou Yuzhuo in the final of the women’s featherweight division at the London Games on Thursday. Jones, who had lost to Hou in the final of last year’s world championships, rode a wave of support from the home crowd to bully her way past the Chinese fighter, running out a 6-4 winner to earn Britain’s 25th gold of the Games.

The 19-year-old from north Wales grabbed British and Welsh flags from the crowd and raced around in a lap of honor as the 8,000 fans in the ExCel arena roared her on. Jones, who won gold at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore after the people of her hometown Flint helped finance LONDON: Great Britain’s Saskia Clark (foreground) and Hannah Mills sail to the silver medal in the women’s sailing 470 two person dinghy medal race yesterday. — AFP

Australia, UK hope for wind and gold WEYMOUTH: Four points separate Australia and Britain as they set out to race for gold in the postponed men’s two-hander 470 sailing class at the London Olympics yesterday. Overall leaders and pre-event favorites Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, triple world champions, faced a tight contest with their British challengers Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell lagging just behind going into the title decider. Patience and Bithell were runners-up to Belcher and Page in the 2011 world championships.

Racing was called off on Thursday because of a lack of wind but officials hoped to get the men’s event started at 1200 local time (1100 GMT), with the women’s to follow. The sailors faced different conditions yesterday with the wind for the first time coming from the southeast. The gold-

medal race, which counts for double points, was being held on the spectator-friendly, shore-based Nothe course. The short course, which has gained a reputation for its unpredictable wind shifts, was providing the added element of swell coming from the southeast due to the change in wind direction. The race for bronze offered the opportunity for either Argentina or Italy to win their first medal in a championship in which 14 of the 63 nations taking part have already had a podium finish.

Argentina’s Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente were lying third, three points ahead of Italy’s Gabrio Zandona and Pietro Zucchetti, before the race. New Zealand’s Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders were 12 points adrift in fifth place. New Zealand already have a silver medal, won by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the men’s skiff 49er on Wednesday. — Reuters

her trip for the qualifiers, said winning gold was something special. “It feels crazy. It’s amazing and the crowd’s amazing,” she said. “To be the first (British) athlete to win Olympic (taekwondo) gold is amazing.”

Jones also paid tribute to her team mate Sarah Stevenson, who will compete in the welterweight division on Friday, and said she owed everything to her coach Paul Green. “The coach is a legend. Without him I wouldn’t be where I am today.” Green praised his charge’s work ethic and said there was more to come. “The work this girl’s been putting in over the last six months is ridiculous. She’s been getting up at six, tears every day, but she’s a fighter and she works hard. “She’s still got improvements to make in the game but the future’s bright for her. She delivers under pressure.” — Reuters

More on the agenda for ‘legendary’ Bolt LONDON: As far as Usain Bolt is concerned, it’s a done deal.”I’m a legend now,” he said.

But these Olympics aren’t quite finished. And neither is he.

With the 200-meter gold medal in his pocket after a winning run of 19.32 seconds Thursday night, The World’s Fastest Man now gets ready for the 4x100 relay. If he can lead the Jamaicans to a victory there, he’ll be 3 for 3 at these Olympics, same way he was in Beijing four years ago. He’ll likely get a day off Friday for the preliminaries, then head back to the track Saturday for the final - his last chance to set a world record, the only thing to elude him over a very fast week at the London Olympics.

The relay mark is 37.10 seconds, the third of three records Bolt set, or helped set, at the Beijing Games. “I think there’s a possibility,” Bolt said. “But you can never really say it, because it’s a relay and there’s a baton. You never know. But for me, we’re going to go out, enjoy ourselves, run fast as possible. It would be a good way to close the show again.” What a show he put on Thursday night. Bolt opened

the night, during introductions, by giving a royal wave to the 80,000 fans at Olympic Stadium on hand to see some history. Then, he ran a race fit for a king. Burning off the starting line, he took an early lead, then powered around the curve. By the time he reached the straightaway, only Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake had any chance to catch him.

Blake actually closed the gap for a moment, but then Bolt reached back and found that fastest gear - the one that has helped him become the first man to win the Olympic 100200 double twice. Blake finished second in 19.44 seconds and Warren Weir completed the Jamaican sweep, winning bronze in 19.84.

“The guy is just on another planet right now,” Wallace Spearmon, the American who finished fourth, said between sobs of disappointment. Bolt was comfortably ahead at the finish, so much so that he was able to slow down, put his left finger to his mouth and tell everyone to shush. It was less than six weeks ago that Bolt lost twice to Blake at Jamaica’s Olympic trials and the world wondered if Bolt’s days of dominating were over. — AP

London 2012 Olympic Games

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012

Is Rhythmic pure kitsch or sporting skill?

LONDON: Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan could have had a crack at gold in the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics but is it art or sport? A mixture of both would be the answer from Slava Corn, the Canadian vice-president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

Look past the spangly outifts, fixed grins and thick layers of make-up. Detractors may shake their heads in bewilderment over all this multicolored kitsch but just watch what the gymnasts can do with a twirling hoop or a swirling ribbon. “This sport has a difficulty score which is the content and it has an artistic score which is the performance and the presentation,” Corn said. “It is a sport in our minds but obviously it does have a huge artistic component. For us it is a sport expressed in an artistic way.”

Among the gymnasts you can see the wafting and willowy influence of Duncan, widely regarded as the founder of modern dance, whose passion for flowing scarves killed her.

Duncan was a passenger in an open-top car when her silk scarf got caught in the wheel axle and broke her neck. “Ballet and all forms of dance have certainly influenced gymnastics,” Corn said. The music at London’s Wembley Arena has been a gloriously incongruous mix.

The Bulgarian team went for a Beethoven piano sonata. Germany opted for “Fast Five Cheeky Bits.” Azerbaijan’s Aliya Garayeva chose Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On” while China’s Deng Senyue hoped Michael Jackson’s magic would rub off on her with

“Smooth Criminal”.

Lyrics are banned, the gymnasts can use only the tune as accompaniment. Sounds “such as engines, police sirens and objects breaking are not allowed,” the rules state. Perpetual motion. Poetry in motion. If they can combine the two, the gymnasts are up there with top marks but some real disasters must be avoided.

Never ever let your hoop flutter in the air. Woe betide the gymnast whose ribbon gets knotted. Always balance your ball impeccably like a performing seal. For the club-wielding routine, think drum majorette meets juggler. In the London 2012 competition, the commentator was lost in admiration for South Korean Yon Jae-son’s hoop routine, telling the crowd: “She handled her apparatus magnificently.” The gymnasts in their spangly outfits have to sit in the “kiss and cry” seats in front of the audience waiting to hear their scores. Detractors may dismiss the sport as being over the top but there is no doubting the skills of the gymmasts who start as young as six perfecting their ball, hoop, club and ribbon routines.

The crowds lapped it up at Wembley Arena, where Olympic “Perfect Six” figure skaters Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill staged their “Dancing On Ice Live” tour. So what does Corn say to those all too ready to mock? “Well my goodness if somebody does eight turns on her toes, that’s a skill,” she said. “If they kick an apparatus with their foot and catch it with their hand, that’s a skill. If you understand dance, you can appreciate what they are doing.” — Reuters

LONDON: Members of Canada’s synchronized swimming team compete in the team free routine final during the synchronized swimming competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games yesterday. — AFP

Germany win gold in beach volleyball LONDON: Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won the beach volleyball gold medal on Thursday night, beating the reigning world champions 23-21, 16-21, 16-14 for the first European title - men’s or women’s in a sport that has long been dominated by Brazil and the United States. One night after an all-American women’s final at Horse Guards Parade, the Brazilian fans gave it a Carinval flair - waving their flags, stamping their feet and singing along with the rock music.

But it was the Germans who heard their national anthem wafting over Henry VIII’s 500-year-old jousting yard, just a few hours after Latvia beat the Netherlands to take bronze and match Europe’s biggest medal haul since the sport was added to the Summer Games in 1996.

Brazil saved three match points after falling behind 14-11. But, needing to win by two in the first-to-15 third set, Germany took a 15-14 lead and then won it when Emanuel’s

spike landed just wide of the sideline. The Germans watched the linesman raise the red flag to signal the ball was out, then dropped to the sand to embrace.

Even as the gold and silver medalists were announced, Emanuel and Alison continued to point to the spot where the ball landed, arguing that it was in.

The German pair won the 2009 world title and the European championship the past two years. But their credentials could not match those of Emanuel, who won gold and bronze medals with his former partner and was trying to become the first man to win two gold medals on the Olympic beach and the first person to win on the sand with different partners. He took a gold medal home from Athens and a bronze in Beijing, both times with Ricardo as his partner.

Emanuel’s stature in the sport is so outsized that he is known as “The King” and it is his statue that was placed next to American Kerri Walsh Jennings’ in St. James’s Park to serve as a backdrop for the royal bands in bearskin hats that play for the crowds. — AP

LONDON: Medals table after 6 of 17 events yesterday.

Nation United States China Britain Russia South Korea Germany France Hungary Australia Italy Kazakhstan Japan Netherlands Iran New Zealand North Korea Belarus Cuba Jamaica Ukraine South Africa Spain Romania Denmark Czech Republic Brazil Kenya Poland Croatia Switzerland Ethiopia Canada Colombia Sweden Slovenia Georgia Norway Tunisia D Republic Ireland

G 39 37 25 13 12 10 8 8 7 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

S 25 25 15 21 7 17 9 4 14 6 0 14 5 4 3 0 3 3 3 1 1 7 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 0 5 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 0

B 26 19 15 24 6 11 12 3 10 7 3 15 8 1 5 1 4 3 3 6 1 3 2 3 3 7 3 6 1 0 2 11 4 3 2 1 1 1 0 2

Tot 90 81 55 58 25 38 29 15 31 20 9 34 18 9 12 5 10 9 9 10 5 12 9 9 8 11 7 9 4 3 4 17 8 7 4 3 3 3 2 3

Latvia Lithuania Turkey Algeria Grenada Venezuela Mexico Azerbaijan Egypt India Mongolia Slovakia Armenia Belgium Bulgaria Estonia Indonesia Malaysia Serbia Taiwan Thailand Botswana Cyprus Finland Guatemala Portugal Argentina Greece Moldova Qatar Singapore Uzbekistan Afghanistan Hong Kong Kuwait Morocco Puerto Rico Saudi Arabia Tajikistan Trinidad & T

1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1 1 1 0 0 0 2 4 0 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 1 1 1 5 6 2 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Leander sets sights on Rio LONDON: Leander, the British rowing club whose members have won more medals than many countries over the years, took their tally to 111 at the London Games and are now looking forward to a Brazilian bonanza in 2016. The club, whose mascot is a pink hippopotamus, started London 2012 wondering which of their number would win the 100th medal after reaching 99 in Beijing. Five Leander rowers were in the bronze medal-winning British men’s coxed eight but Alex Partridge claimed the 100th medal as the first across the line because of where he was sitting in the boat.

A banner hoisted on the front of the club’s Henley-on-Thames boathouse after the rowing competition at nearby Eton Dorney now declares proudly: “111 Olympic medals and counting” with the number 99 crossed out. The tally had been updated during the Games.

“Leander club is very proud of the achievements of our athletes who have taken our medal tally well beyond the significant milestone of 100 Olympic medals,” said spokesman Robert Treharne-Jones. — Reuters

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 LONDON: Cyclists take a jump during the BMX cycling men’s final event at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the Olympic Park in east London on yesterday. — AFP (See Page 45)

Dibaba sees double; Jamaicans jubilate Two doping cases surface, accusations fly LONDON: Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba attempts a track double in the 5,000 meters to add to the 10,000 Olympic crown she retained in thrilling fashion a week ago in London, but two doping cases overshadowed another action-packed day at the Games. BMX riders provided high-speed thrills and spills over bumps and around banked corners and Britain suffered sailing defeats on the 14th day of competition, when fresh doping scandals involving a French and Kenyan athlete emerged.

France’s 5,000 meters runner Hassan Hirt failed a test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) prior to competing in London, where he finished 11th in his first-round heat on Wednesday and failed to qualify. Kenyan athletics officials also confirmed yesterday that distance runner Mathew Kisorio tested positive for a banned substance in June, but rejected his claim that doping was widespread in the country.

Earlier in the week Victor Conte, convicted owner of a now-defunct laboratory at the centre of a global steroid scandal, said it was easy to cheat at the Olympics by using drugs. The International Olympic Committee dismissed his comments as being “like a poacher criticising a gamekeeper”.

JAMAICAN JOY Jubilant Jamaicans at home and in London were nursing hangovers following the fireworks of Thursday, when Usain Bolt became the first man to defend both the 100 and 200 sprints and sealed his place in Olympic lore. The Jamaican 12-3 in the 200, the highlight of the Thursday’s athletics, made it particularly sweet for the Caribbean island which has just celebrated the 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.

“I made a goal to become a legend,” Bolt said after his 19.32-second dash. Reflecting on what he might do next, the world’s fastest human added: “I have made my goal, now I have to sit down and make another one.”

Jamaica’s women try to keep their country’s Olympic sprint magic flowing in 4x100 relay.

Women’s double 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and third-placed Veronica Campbell-Brown will lock horns with a US quartet featuring 100 silver medalist Carmelita Jeter and 200 winner Allyson Felix. The Jamaicans will be missing from the men’s 4x400 after failing to qualify but the United States, seeking an eighth successive win in the event, are not as strong as usual and face a real battle to keep their streak alive.

They would have no chance at all but for Manteo Mitchell, who astonishingly secured a

place in the final for his team by running through the pain of a broken fibula bone in his leg. Yesterday also saw medals on offer in the women’s 1,500 meters, women’s hammer and men’s pole vault, while the heats of the men’s 4x100 relay should give another sellout crowd of around 80,000 plenty of excitement.

MEDAL RUSH Bolt’s triumph capped a remarkable Thursday when Kenya’s David Rudisha broke his own 800 world record, Britain’s Nicola Adams became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title and the United States held off a Japanese fightback to win their third successive women’s soccer gold. If she wins, Dibaba will be emulating the 5,000/10,000 double of Finnish man Lasse Viren in 1972/76.

Ashton Eaton took the unofficial title of the world’s greatest athlete late on Thursday when he won the decathlon, helping the United States to climb atop the overall medals table with 39 golds and overtake China which is on 37. The two have been neck-and-neck throughout London 2012 in the race for Olympic bragging rights, but whoever wins, home nation Britain will certainly be celebrating its best medals haul since 1908 when London first hosted the Games. Its 25 golds put it behind China

in third place and easily surpasses the previous best in Beijing of 19.

The golden glow has helped fuel the popularity of the Games among a public that has packed many venues and lifted athletes with deafening cheers. Travel delays have not been as severe as some predicted despite a surge in travelers. Transport for London said that in the first 12 days of the Games, 47 million journeys were made on the underground, up 30 percent on a year ago. There were disappointments for home fans yesterday though, including on the water where Australia won gold ahead of Britain in the men’s two-hander 470 sailing class. New Zealand repeated the trick in the women’s event.

Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli won the men’s swimming marathon though the Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park to become the first swimmer to get medals in the pool and open water. Attention turned to Sunday’s closing ceremony, when the Olympic Flame will be extinguished in the curtain call for a Games that has galvanized many Britons. Before the baton is passed to Rio de Janeiro, which hosts the first South American Olympics in 2016, the world will witness a ceremony celebrating British music, with The Spice Girls, The Who and Brian May among those set to perform. — Reuters