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NO: 15596- Friday, October 12, 2012

Arab women wage cyber ‘uprising’ See Page 11

SANAA: Yemeni girls listen to a teacher (unseen) in a class at a school on the first International Day of the Girl Child in Sanaa, Yemen yesterday. (Inset) 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman, of Yemen, delivers her speech during the World Forum for Democracy at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France.

Yemeni activist and journalist Tawakkol Karman, who galvanized Yemeni support for the Arab Spring is also a cofounder of the human rights group Women Journalists Without Chains and a senior member of the opposition political party Al-Islah. — AP

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

By Nawara Fattahova

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omen in Kuwait are finally breaking into another male bastion by going kart racing, a sport so far restricted to men. The first kart racing for women will be held next month. Within a few days of the race being announced, 17 teams have officially registered for it.

The kart racing to be held on November 24, 2012 will be a women-only event. “This is the first event of its kind for women to be held in Kuwait. Not only will the participants of the race be women but also the staff, including the marshals,” said Ahmad Hasan, the Managing Director of Dovren Events, which is organizing the event in collaboration with Pro-Kart Kuwait.

Hasan said the only men who will be permitted at the venue will be relatives of the participants and the director of the race, Karl Quick, from the United States. Single men will not be allowed to enter. “There will be guards from the police outside the racetrack to stop single men from entering. We have chosen to make it an all-women and family event in order to avoid criticism by the extremists. As soon as we announced the event on Twitter, an extremist posted a comment saying ‘Stop the farce.’ I wonder how someone can call a sport farce.

We aim to make the event successful,” he added.

The race will be held at the Pro-kart drome at the Jaber AlAhmad racetrack located on the 6th Ring Road. It will comprise of two races: one a team event and the other for individuals. About 20 teams, each comprising of three to six players, will take part. All the participants will have to be older than 16 years of age. The fun race will last for four hours and the members of one team will switch. The race will last 10 laps.

There is no limit on the number of participants.

“In case the demand is very high, we may increase the number of participating teams up to 30. Then the time will be less,” explained Hasan.

There is no age limit when it comes to individual races but every participant has to be a mother. “We made it a condition to make it a family event so the husbands and children of the participants can cheer the women and encourage them,” he further said. The idea for kart racing came since women remain marginalized in terms of vehicle-related activities. “All activities held here are for men who have now become very lazy. The girls want to participate in such an activity but they did not have a chance.”

There is a participation fee for each team regardless of the number of participants. “We provide the participants with the karts, a helmet, and a head cover under the helmet. The team members have to wear uniform suits, such as same colored tshirts. They also have to choose a logo and a name for their team to be more creative. All registered participants can start their training 48 hours before the race, free of charge. Those who are keener can start their training just after they register for discounted fees and time increase.

“This event will hopefully make women appreciate karting.

Next time, we will allow them to participate with their own cars,” he said, adding that there will also be a cash prize for the winners. The topper in the teams category will get KD 1,200, while the topper in the mothers category will receive KD 500. Also the toppers will receive trophies. In addition, there will be a prize for the best lap time which is an individual prize of KD 250.

The registration for the event will stay open till October 24.

“All the women are invited to register and participate, especially those who can represent their community through this race. Employees from any company or students from the same university can also participate as representatives of their organisation. If the participation is encouraging, we may repeat this activity again in February, for instance, and make it a more frequent event,” he concluded.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Local Spotlight

Malls in Kuwait

Just kiddin’, seriously

‘You’re fat!’

‘You’re rude!’

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Sahar Moussa

muna@kuwaittimes.net

have not seen this happening anywhere but in Kuwait.

During the weekends, the malls are so crowded that there isn’t any room to even stand. Try going to the Avenues Mall any Thursday night. It is like trying to wade your way through an ocean of people. Surely, the management of this mall would be very happy, and I do congratulate them on their success.

Personally, however, I would do my best to avoid the malls in Kuwait on any weekend for three reasons. First, there is the issue of safety and security. Although accidents in big malls are rare, and at any rate certainly not common, I do sometimes wonder what could happen if one occurred. I do recall the tragic fire in a Qatar mall that claimed many lives. I never check out the entrances or exits and most of us who visit a mall hardly have an idea about emergency evacuation plans if anything were to happen.

My second reason for staying away from the malls has to with the crowds. It is quite possible that one can pick up some

I

germs or diseases. Third, what makes a mall a place for entertainment anyway? We do not have many options in Kuwait when it comes to killing time. There are not a lot of places for entertainment. I often think that even though the malls in, say, Dubai, are busy almost all through the week, they provide visitors more variety and choice when it comes to what can one do in a mall other than just eat or shop. People can even go skiing in a mall in Dubai!

I know there is no comparison and it is not fair to compare the malls in Kuwait and Dubai, but it is true. I feel sorry for the people who think the easiest way to pass time on a weekend is going mall-hopping and eating more food, eventually putting on more weight and becoming fat.

I would rather encourage the people to go to a beach these days and play some games rather than visit the malls, but then that is what we have in Kuwait. Perhaps we need to be more creative about what to do on a weekend.

Kuwait’s my business

Who provides the best customer service in Kuwait?

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

ave you voted? One of the great benefits of a democracy is that we get the opportunity to voice our opinions in a number of ways, especially by casting ballots. And when it comes to Service Hero’s campaign to find the best service providers in Kuwait, everyone gets to vote - multiple times!

Service Hero’s Customer Satisfaction Index, the only index of its kind in the Middle East, provides a huge benefit to Kuwait’s consumers because it tells the nation’s business owners what we think. It also provides them with a report card to let them know how they’re doing in terms of satisfying their customers.

Granted, some consumers believe that we won’t get good customer service in Kuwait. While studying customer service trends in a marketing class, one of my students commented that the service providers in Kuwait are not well-trained to provide good customer service. But several other students disagreed and they named businesses that indeed do provide outstanding customer service.

Whether it’s due to the Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index, or the fact that as Kuwait attracts a larger, upscale population, Kuwait’s shop owners and restaurateurs are focusing on customer service perhaps more than ever. Businesses are spending money to train their employees to effectively interact with customers. You may have noticed that prices are increasing in supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, and stores in general. When prices go up, consumer demands also increase because people expect more for their money.

In Kuwait, we’re fortunate that we have so many malls

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and shopping centers because we can spend our money where we think we get the greatest value.

And where is that?

When you dine out, work out, bank, buy a car, book a flight, shop for housewares, or choose a communications company, where are you getting the best value for your money? Where do you feel most satisfied after a purchase? That’s what Service Hero wants to know.

It’s also what the consumers of Kuwait want to know.

You can share your opinions in eight different categories, including restaurants, automotive, financial, airline, healthcare, etc. at Servicehero.com. You’re invited to vote now.

But beware! Voting is addictive. The Service Hero restaurant category is robust. It includes fine dining, cafes, fast food and casual dining, and you can vote in all the categories. Each category has a long list of brand names, and you have the opportunity to provide your likes and dislikes for each brand that you have visited.

I’m slightly ashamed to say that I discovered I eat out way too often! I spent 15 minutes voting in the fine dining and café categories alone. I rarely eat fast food, so I won’t vote there, but I’ve got to return to the casual dining category because it includes many of the restaurants I frequent. It at least makes me feel better to know that I’m doing my part to make Kuwait an even better place to live. How about you?

Dr John P Hayes is a marketing professor at Gulf University for Science & Technology. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

sahar@kuwaittimes.net ey, long time no see! OMG! You gained so much weight! It’s been a while since I saw you... what happened to you? You look old!” These are some of the most inconsiderate and insensitive things you can ever say to someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Nobody needs to be reminded that they may have piled on a few pounds or gained a few wrinkles. I always keep wondering why people always say that. Is it stupidity, ignorance or are people simply bitter and don’t know how to start a decent conversation?

There are two golden rules that people must take into consideration in general: First, you don’t ask women about their age because believe it or not, it is a very sensitive subject, and second, you don’t mention anything about her weight, unless she asks you for your grand opinion or she’s best friends with you.

As a matter of fact, I also noticed lately that men don’t like it either, but since they are “expected” to look and act tougher than women, they try to hide their feelings.

I think it is really rude to start criticizing anybody you haven’t seen in a long time. There are a million ways to start a conversation, and make a good impression. You can start your conversation by simply saying: ”Hi, long time no see, I’m so happy to see you, you look great!” or, “Hey, it’s been such a long time since we met, and you really look good; life must be treating you well!” with a genuine smile.

Even if the person in front of you really looks older, tired or has gained weight, try to be nice and gentle with them and no, it’s not considered hypocritical because, maybe they have been going through a hard time, and trust me, I don’t think they need another negative comment from you to add to their misery.

What people don’t know is that sometimes that person will be feeling bitter as it is and can become aggressive in a second and tell you: “Really? I look fat? Do you have a mirror at home? Look at yourself!”

Sometimes we do underestimate our conversational abilities and words. Words for me are powerful; they are like magic potions that can bewitch people in a second and make them either feel good or bad about themselves. Nice and gentle words can transmit good energy while bad and harmful words can destroy you.

So people, try as much as possible to be a good “witch” and use white magic in your words to spread love, peace and positive energy.

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TRAFFIC SUCCESS STORY: The newly-opened First Ring Road that has eased traffic in down town Kuwait. — Photo

by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Lean, mean flying machine!

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fter months of preparation, Red Bull Flugtag is ready for takeoff. On Friday October 19 at the Marina Crescent, thirty teams hope to defy gravity and take flight seeking to break the current local record of 13 meters.

Red Bull Flugtag challenges teams of everyday people to build homemade, human powered flying machines and pilot them off a 6m high ramp in the hopes of achieving flight!

Flugtag may mean “flying day” in German, but all these crafts ultimately splash into the waters below. They are judged not only on their flight’s distance, but creativity and performance as well.

While there is a serious competitive spirit among the participants, the spectators can look forward to a day full of wacky skits and some serious flying (hopefully!). Here is some information to get to know what Red bull Flugtag is all about: All flying machines must be launched from the 6 meters high runway using only human power. No auxiliary lifting devices, power sources, or stored energy (e.g. elastic, batteries, clockwork springs, rocket fuel etc.) may be used.

Modified aircraft - e.g. paragliders, hang-gliders, jet-fighter planes, light aircraft, commercial jets etc. - are not permitted.

Teams may have no more than 4 members, including one pilot and a team captain (the pilot can also be the team captain). The pilot’s age should be 18 & above and the other members 16 & above Pilots are not permitted to be physically attached to the flying machine.

The wingspan of the flying machine must be less than 8 meters. The wheelbase of the flying machine can be no more than 4 meters wide. The maximum weight of the flying machine is 180kgs (including a pilot). All flying machines must have some kind of buoyancy device on all major parts of the plane to avoid them submerging on landing.

All competitors must wear

the buoyancy aid and helmet provided by the event organizers. For their own safety, all competitors must be able to swim unassisted a distance of 50 meters. The chosen flying machines, their pilots and ground crew, must arrive at Marina Crescent on Wednesday 17th of October between 6:00pm and midnight, where air traffic control will guide them to the flying bay.

From 3 - 6pm on 18th of October the Flugtag team of scrutineers will check all flying machines for airworthiness. Approved flying machines will take off from the runway over the Marina Crescent from 1:30 pm on Friday 19th of October. After the flight all flying machines will be cleared by the water safety crew and gathered in the bone yard.

Work in progress Construction of the ramp started on October 8. A 6 meter high by 30 meter long launching ramp is currently being constructed by Blink Events.

“We have a skilled team of engineers and workers building the ramp. There are three main elements we are using for the runway: floating pontoons, scaffolding and plywood. We will need around 100 hours to fix the ramp and 40 hours to dismantle it. Safety of the athletes is paramount therefore the ramp once finished will take weights up to 100 tons,” said one of the engineers of Blink Events.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

A judging tower is also being built to welcome well-known figures in entertainment, art, aviation and sports. The event is free and open to the public, starting at 1 p.m. The first flight is scheduled for 1:30p.m., and the last flight is set for 4:30 p.m.

The 3rd Red Bull Flugtag in Kuwait will be held under the patronage of Major-General Faisal Al Jazzaf, General Director of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports in Kuwait.

The event sponsored by Wataniya Telecom, Mini and Braun Cruzer will be hosted by Media

Anchor Raya Abi Rached presenter of Arabs Got Talent and Scoop along with TV presenter Abdullah Malallah.

Since the first Red Bull Flugtag took place in Vienna, Austria, in 1991, more than 100 Flugtags have been held around the globe, attracting up to 300,000 spectators for a single event. The record for the farthest flight-to-date currently stands at 69 meters and was set at Red Bull Flugtag Mainz in Germany in 2012.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Battling the bulge ‘Yes, I lost weight in just two months!’

By Lenin Kumar Polineni

W

e are all obsessed with the idea of slimming.

We want to eat and still lose weight, be it through liposuction, slimming massages or weight-reduction teas. I have discovered that trying to lose weight in just two months is not the right way.

There is a natural way to lose weight. All it takes is a little bit of diet control and determination.

Here is my success story: I lost 20 kilograms in two months without any medical intervention, operation or slimming procedures. Three months ago, I weighed 94 kilograms. Today, I tilt the scale at 74. For many, losing weight is a dream unfulfilled, especially if they are young and single.

Today, most of the people find it difficult to lose weight and are more prone to blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The core reason behind all of these is obesity.

Everyone chooses a different method to lose weight, like physical exercise, gymming, dieting, walking etc. In this fast-moving life, we are unable to spare time for physical exercise. For many people, losing weight is a New Year’s resolution; one that they fail to stick to. Gym and exercises are always good but it is hard to find time for them. Liposuctions, on the other hand, are quick but expensive and often hazardous. What I am sharing with you is my personal experience since I tried both approaches.

Before I am 37-years-old and stand at 5 feet, 7 inches.

According to the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale, below 75 kilograms weight for someone my stature would be called healthy. For the last 10 years, my weight was around 93 to 95 kgs, which meant that I was nearly 18 to 20 kgs overweight. Because of these extra pounds on my waist, I suffered a lot. I was constantly tired and felt sleepy. To add to this, my food habits were a disaster.

I decided that I needed a major change when I was on a holiday to India in January two years ago. A magazine advertisement about a hospital attracted me.

The miracle of weight-loss in no time seemed appealing to me. It was a cosmetic surgery. Just before the operation, doctors kept me for a week in bed with surgical tubes in my abdomen. Finally, I was discharged with six kilograms of weight loss. It took nearly three to four weeks to get back to normal routine, but by that time, I had put on weight again and my problems were back.

It was then that I spotted an advertisement of a yoga instructor who was promoting natural diets and a month-long weight loss program. The instructor, Sridevi Jinan, inspired me from the very first conversation. She prepared a special diet plan for me on July

25 which I started under her guidance. She told me that this is not only a weight reduction course but also a “complete detoxification of body and mind and the right way of living”.

I had to survive only on vegetables, and without any tea or coffee. I completely avoided cooked food for 10 days. It was a simple regimen of vegetables, fruits, natural foods and meditation. Sridevi monitored me every day.

Within only 15 days, I had lost five kilograms. In another month, I shed another six kilograms. Seeing such positive results, I decided to continue the diet plan for another month. In two months, I lost nearly 20 kgs.

Now I feel very healthy and active. The only sad part is that I had to change my wardrobe because my waist size has reduced from 42” to 36”. I am very grateful to my yoga teacher. This diet plan is not easy, but then if you have a little bit of commitment to having a healthy body, it is surely possible.

I figured that it is indeed doable once you are determined to do it.

What is a natural diet plan?

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he trick to eating right to lose weight loss is not really that tricky. It is as simple as eating more colourful fruits and vegetables. Now we all know we are supposed to eat fruits and veggies for their vitamin and mineral goodness and their powerful disease-fighting benefits. But apparently just good nutrition is not alluring enough for most of us. For years and years, we have been enjoying mouth-watering food. You can afford to sacrifice the taste in your mouth for the weight-loss results you can enjoy all your life.

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Day will start with lemon juice and honey with warm water at 6 am • Detoxification at 6:15 am • 30-40 minutes of meditation and breathing exercises from 6:45-7:30 am • One glass of any fruit juice at 8:00 am • Mixed fruits at 10:30-11 am • Two chapattis (kaboos) with boiled vegetable curry at 1-2 pm • Vegetable salad and sprouts (without any dressing) 4-5 pm • 5 dates, 5 almonds soaked for 10 hours in water and eat finally at 7:30 to 8:30 pm (avoid all types of food and drink as much water as you can after 8:30 pm) This diet list is only for starters. After one week, drop the chapatti (kaboos).

Note: Following this diet without a medical practitioner’s guidance is risky.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

40 Syrian expatriates register as Egyptians Bikini-clad nuisance KUWAIT: The immigration department was hit by a scandal as 40 Syrian expats, who had entered Kuwait with visitor’s visas, were found to have later registered themselves as Egyptians and granted iqamas (resident permits) that allowed them multiple trips to the country.

The expats included a Free Syrian Army Officer named Abdelwahab Ali Ramadhan, who had visited Kuwait repeatedly, and collected donations. This officer had acquired an iqama in the name of an advertising signs manufacturing company.

The immigration department discovered major forgery in the processing of documents of Syrian expatriates who had entered Kuwait on visitor’s visas but were later able to change these into iqamas through forgery by a civil employee who worked in Yarmouk service center. He was responsible for processing of ruling family transactions.

It was discovered that the civil employee deliberately entered their nationality as Egyptians in the computer to overcome the tracker placed on some nationalities, and thus they avoided either being sent to state security or referred to a different file to be signed by the interior minister. He was sent to the public prosecution after the discovery.

A team of immigration detectives was formed to trace and arrest the 40 Syrians who were involved in the forgery. It arrested the FSA officer when he was on his way to collect donation money. The state security questioned him before sending him to immigration jail for deportation. Several political activists and parliamentarians mediated for his release but to no avail.

Woman frisked by male officer A woman who was physically frisked by a male officer in a police station complained of his behavior. She said the policeman went ahead with the physical search despite her protests. She accused the interrogator of asking the policeman to carry out the search.

‘Go away, you rotten!’

Police arrested a woman driver who was driving under the influence of alcohol and misbehaved with a policeman when she was pulled over. The woman attracted attention of the policemen as she was driving erratically but when stopped, she shouted at the policeman, saying, “Go away, you rotten!” She was arrested, charged with DUI and insulting a policeman, and sent to the Surra police station.

Bikini-clad nuisance Police had to intervene when a caller complained that a bikiniclad woman found amidst families in the Al-Khiran chalets area was proving to be a nuisance. The police went to the scene and spoke to her. The woman, who was in her 30s, justified her actions as “personal freedom”. The police asked her to stay confined in her own chalet and not bother other people.

Party-pooper embarrassed Detectives are on the look-out for a man who hosted loud parties at his Hawally flat but when a woman neighbor objected, invited her to the party, thus embarrassing her. The police were told that the parties at his flat started early in the evening, caused disturbance and nuisance to his neighbors, including the owner of a women’s atelier who went to ask him to exercise restraint. However, she said she felt embarrassed when the man invited her to the party, and had to call the police to protect herself. She told police that she often had to suffer embarrassment in front of her customers who objected to people flitting in and out of the suspect’s flat when such parties were on. Hawally patrols, who were informed about the complaint, went to the flat but the owner did not answer the door. The policemen could not enter as they did not have permission from the prosecutor. Investigations are on.

Policeman too “cool” for court?

The head of the 5th penal appeals circuit judge, Ibrahim AlObeid, ordered the arrest of a policeman from the prisons security for contempt of court. The incident happened when the court was discussing appeal cases and some prisoners, who were brought from the central prison, were present before the judges. The panel was shocked to see a policeman entering the hall sporting sunglasses. He came and sat in the front row, and then crossed his legs without paying any regard to the well-known court protocol.

When the court asked him to sit properly, he removed his glasses and looked at the judges with disrespect, prompting judge Obeid to ask the police to arrest him, remove his rank and place him in the case along with the rest of the prisoners who he had escorted from the central prison. Later, he was taken to the Salhiya police station. —Al-Rai, Al-Watan

KUWAIT: Officials, journalists and media personnel are pictured at the press conference.

No attack on Syria, says Turkish official Hurmuzlu highlights Turkey’s achievements

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: A visiting Turkish official claimed that statements about military intervention in Syria were misunderstood and reiterated that Turkey had made defensive plans in case of an attack. “No Turkish attack or military intervention is planned against Syria at present. People have misunderstood the statement. It was not a war announcement but a defensive and preventive movement at the borders to be ready in case of any attack on the Turkish territory. We have to be ready before it is too late,” the Senior Advisor to the Turkish President, Arshad Hurmuzlu, said.

Hurmuzlu was speaking at a press conference held at the Kuwait Journalist Association headquarters in Shuwaikh yesterday. He said that a decision about Syria was in the hands of the Syrian nation and it should chart its own future. “Turkey decided its position towards the Syrian conflict while choosing between the Syrian regime and the nation, which was attacked by the regime. We have chosen the nation as we see them as oppressed. It is similar to our stance towards many other oppressed nations. We have always tried to let the Syrians carry out the reforms themselves,” he added.

According to him, the East is passing through its prime time. “While Europe and the West are facing economic problems, the Eastern countries are growing and developing. The economies of the Eastern countries are booming, and it is a time for improvement and modernization. We should forget extremism and intolerance dating from the middle ages. We are against any form of discrimination,” Hurmuzlu pointed out.

He also focused on the historical Turkish-Iranian relations. “We are not competing with any country, and our relations with Iran go back 2,000 years.

Any country has the right to have nuclear power if it is to be used for

peaceful purposes. We refuse to have nuclear conflict in the region. In case it was proven that Iran possessed nuclear weapons that may be used to attack other countries, then the International Agency for Atomic Energy should deal with the issue,” he explained.

Hurmuzlu also highlighted Turkey’s achievements in various fields. “We mostly focus on education as we think that the human being is the real wealth of the country. Hence, we care more

some European countries could do so.

“If women do not participate in the social life of any country, it will be considered a disadvantage for such a country. In Turkey, women occupied many high posts such as judges, members of parliament, and many others,” he noted.

Hurmuzlu invited Kuwaiti and Arab citizens to visit Turkey more frequently saying that there were many areas in Turkey that have still remained unexplored by Arab visitors. “They should

KUWAIT: Faisal Al-Qenai, Secretary General of KJA (left) is pictured with Arshad Hurmuzlu, Senior Advisor to the Turkish President at the press conference. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat about investing in humans than the material investments. Without educating the people, all other activity will collapse. Currently, there are 170 universities in different Turkish areas. There is also an increased interest in Turkey in teaching and learning the Arabic language,” stressed Hurmuzlu.

He also discussed the issue of women’s rights in Turkey. The women in Turkey gained all their political rights many years back, even before women in

come to see the great development in Turkey,” he said. Taking the point further, he stressed that recently a new law was passed that allows citizens of many nationalities to own land in Turkey by following a facilitated procedure.

“We have shared traditions and religion with the Arab countries, as 99 percent of the Turkish population is Muslims. Thus we have secular constitution and political system, and the religion is left to the people themselves.”

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

First Kuwait Integrated Digital Field center opens

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah is pictured with other officials at a ceremony held marking the opening of a one-of-a-kind center, known as the Kuwait Integrated Digital Field center (KIDF), established by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in Ahmadi.

Traffic disruption KUWAIT: The traffic department announced that starting this morning, the traffic flow to Kheitan area will be blocked completely, especially at Kheitan club bridge from King Faisal Road. Kheitan can be accessed through the side road after the Fifth Ring Road bridge towards the airport.

Experts stress need for pan-Asian cooperation KUWAIT: Prominent experts yesterday called for hiking the level of cooperation among Asian states to serve the interests of their peoples, affirming the mounting need for aiding nations thirsty for energy resources. Academic figures representing Kuwait shed light on the state’s new approach of boosting ties and cooperation with Asian nations, noting the need for marketing oil and lucrative factors, such as the economic boom achieved in some nations, namely China.

Abdul Karim Khodor Ayed, an economic expert of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), praised Kuwait’s call for hosting the Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit, due on October 15-17, noting Asian nations’ need to seek greater cooperation and follow suit of fruitful efforts in this regard in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Dr Ayed, who was speaking during the second session of an academic forum, held in preparation for the summit, said the last decade witnessed “major transformation with regard of the energy regime forecast in the world in shadow of sharply unstable prices of oil.” Current energy crisis, amid hike of costs of energy, has prompted most consumers to shun short-term policies and adopt long-term strategies to secure energy supplies, he said.

Countries in eastern Asia suffer from shortages of oil, said Dr Ayed, highlighting the energy crisis in Asia, particularly in the eastern part of the continent. Moreover, the energy-economic regime of the Asian states is closely linked to geo-strategic “changes” in the international economic system, he added, alluding to new approaches, such as “the phenomenon of strategic reserves in advanced states and mounting concern with regard of bad environment effects resulting from utilization of the energy.”

Elaborating further on Asian nations’ concerns, he indicated at their worries about securing sustainable energy supplies, considering that “oil shortages will affect the regional security of Asia.” Dr Mohammad Selim, who teaches political sciences at Kuwait University, said in his paper Kuwait’s tilting toward the East, in its foreign policy, over the past decade, was noticeable, alluding to several visits to Asian nations by top leaders, namely HH the Amir, HH the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.

KUWAIT: Under the auspices and attendance of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, a ceremony was held today marking the opening of a one of a kind center, known as the Kuwait Integrated Digital Field center (KIDF), established by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in Ahmadi.

The ceremony was attended by a number of sheikhs, ministers and Al-Ahmadi Governor Sheikh Dr Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah and officials from the PM’s office. At the outset of the ceremony the Acting Minister of Oil And Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, Hani Abdul Aziz Hussein welcomed HH the PM and explained the nature of the work of all subsidiary companies of KOC, including achieving goals within Kuwait and abroad, adding that KOC is one of the oldest establishments in the country.

KOC Chairman of the Board and Managing Director Sami Fahad Al-Rushaid and other officials presented at the ceremony a detailed explanation on the works and activities of the company. HH the Prime Minister expressed gratitude and joy at KOC efforts in enhancing its array of activities. He stressed the importance of the oil sector in the

country, which is vital to HH the Amir and HH Crown Prince in supporting these efforts to achieve prosperity to the Kuwaiti people.

Following the initial ceremony, HH the Prime Minister revealed a commemorative plaque marking the opening of (KIDF), which aims to upgrade KOC status from being a traditional model to a more technically advanced one. He pointed out his appreciation for and pride in the one of a kind center, which should help in boosting oil production as well as helping the government in charting out its oil policy.

HH the Prime Minister listened to the detailed explanation on oil and gas conversion processes to integrated numeric fields to contribute in shortening time and to improve the quality and quantity of production in all the fields. The project serves a financial and environmental gain for Kuwait, that will provide the latest technology and improve performance in health, safety and environment fields, and proposes solutions to problems consistent with KOC’s strategic plan now and through the year 2030. Moreover, the project will lift KOC’s rank in the oil industry. — KUNA

Harley-Davidson Open Day Charity Ride today Event to raise funds for UN’s World Food Program KUWAIT: The Harley-Davidson Open Day Charity Ride to be held in Kuwait today is open to everyone - riders and non-riders as well as bike aficionados alike. Similar events are planned for the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. Bikers and all those interested in participating can join the ride. By purchasing a pin, they will be contributing to the United Nations’ World Food Program. Each pin will generate funds to feed over 30 underprivileged school children a day by providing them a nutritious meal.

In a press release on the occasion of the event, Andrew Pryde, Operations Manager Harley-Davidson Kuwait, said, “We invite everyone to attend the Open Day and to become part of the Harley-Davidson family.” He added, “We look forward to welcoming the community to join the launch of our new 2013 models while supporting a good cause.”

The Open Day in Kuwait is being held for the second year with proceeds provided to the World Food Program that will help feed school children in the region. “Join the Ride, Change Lives” Open Day will raise funds for the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting global hunger. The contribution will be made with the purchase of a Harley-Davidson pin.

Last year Harley-Davidson MENA region submitted a cheque for a total of $20,600 to the UN’s World Food Program following a successful charity ride called “Make Every Day Count.”

The event comes as part of an invitation to the community to experience the spirit of brotherhood that Harley-Davidson embodies and as part of the launch of the new 2013 HarleyDavidson models in the Middle East and North African region.

Also, to celebrate its 110th anniversary, Harley-Davidson will produce a limited edition line of 2013 Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Each 110th Anniversary Edition Harley-Davidson will feature exclusive paint schemes and commemorative fuel tank badges, as well as be given a specific serial number. Each model will have a different customization, ensuring that their owners will have exclusive rides.

Each 110th Anniversary Edition model will have solid bronze fuel tank badges, plated in black nickel which is then distressed to highlight the bronze. The main body of the “single wing” badge will have a bright gold-tone Bar and Shield cloisonne. Each motorcycle will carry other anniversary badges and trims as well, depending on the specific motorcycle model.

Morocco ruler plans Gulf Arab tour KUWAIT: Morocco’s King Mohammed will make a rare tour of Gulf Arab countries before the end of the year as his cashstrapped government tries to drum up investor interest in a sovereign bond. While it largely escaped last year’s Arab Spring unrest, Morocco has little money to improve living standards and is under heavy domestic pressure to provide jobs and measures to cut poverty. “It (king’s tour) will be a roadshow ... an opportunity to market fresh investment opportunities Morocco has to offer,” said an official Moroccan source.

Morocco’s $90-billion economy is heavily exposed to the euro zone, whose troubles have hit tourism revenues, migrant remittances and foreign investment this year.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah told Reuters the monarch was expected to visit Kuwait this month or in November and would discuss investment and bilateral relations.

The monarch will also visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, Jarallah said. Rabat hopes Gulf institutional investors will buy heavily into the sale of a $1 billion-plus sovereign bond which has been delayed to the end of November from October. Morocco,

the biggest recipient of European Union financial aid outside Europe, raised about 1 billion euros via its most recent bond issue in 2010.

A Saudi official who declined to be named under briefing rules told Reuters that King Mohammed planned to visit Saudi Arabia after the haj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah which is expected to run from Oct 24 to 29 this year. A spokesman for the Moroccan king’s cabinet declined to comment.

A tour of fellow Gulf monarchies by King Mohammed would also be important diplomatically for Morocco, which is ruled by the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty but lacks the oil riches of the younger Gulf monarchies. Since his enthronement in 1999, King Mohammed has kept a distance from Gulf Arab monarchies, with far fewer official visits than during his late father King Hassan’s reign.

Some of the Gulf’s most influential rulers, including Saudi King Abdullah, regularly visit Morocco but mostly for medical or other private reasons. Concern over the spread of Arab Spring revolts has brought Arab monarchies closer to each other.—Reuters

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Mo Yan of China grabs Nobel Literature Prize

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Vatican rekindles faith 50 years after Council

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Homegrown terror - the biggest threat to France

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ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani student writes on a blackboard attached on a wall, during a math class at the EHD Foundation School, on the first International Day of the Girl Child.

— AP (See Page 12)

Arab women wage cyber ‘uprising’ Women fight for rights, equality DUBAI: Taking their cue from the Arab Spring, but fearing a backlash from Islamists the uprisings brought to power, Arab cyber activists have embarked on a daring campaign urging women fight for equality. “The uprising of women in the Arab World” is the title of the Facebook page where the campaign was launched on October 1 to highlight “discrimination” against women in the Arab world. Within days, the number of “likes” that the page has attracted has increased from about 20,000 to almost 35,000.

Some 500 people, mostly women but also a surprising number of men, have posted pictures with statements of support, some even challenging religious and traditional taboos. “We expected a response because we knew that women were holding out for a platform (to air their grievances)... but this response has been astonishing,” Diala Haidar, one of four organizers of the campaign said by telephone. The campaign began amid an outcry in Tunisia and Egypt, the first two countries to oust their long-serving autocrats in the Arab uprisings, over serious threats to women’s rights from newly installed Islamist rulers. In Tunisia, civil society groups were outraged after a woman who was raped by two policemen found herself last month facing a

charge of indecency. In Egypt, activists were enraged over leaked proposed drafts of the new constitution suggesting a lower marriage age for women, legalizing female circumcision and the use of Islamic jurisprudence in a way that could limit women’s rights to work and education.

“Revolutions aim to achieve freedom, justice and dignity. These could not be fully achieved if women are to remain in the back seat,” said Haidar, a Lebanese physicist by profession.

“There has been disappointment” over the sidelining of women in politics, she said, pointing out that “women were not standing idle during the revolts, when they faced bullets and got dragged on the streets” by security forces. Haidar kicked off the campaign along with fellow Lebanese Yalda Younes, Palestinian Farah Barqawi, and Egyptian Sally Zohney-active rights campaigners in their respective countries. Among the aims of the campaign is to stir debate “over the situation of women, mainly after the backlash they faced following the success of revolutions in (some) Arab Spring countries,” said a statement.

The group asks supporters to write “I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world”, and why, on a paper or computer screen, to take a picture of themselves with the statement and post it

on the Facebook page. Tamara Reem and Yousif Abbas are Palestinians who posed in a picture with written statements. Reem’s read: “I support the Arab women’s uprising because my virginity is my business,” while Abbas wrote that he supported the cause because a woman’s “virginity is her business.” Such declarations have not gone down well with some zealous visitors to the website who have plastered the page with insults, although this has failed to stem the flow of supporters.

“I am with the uprising... because my body is mine and you don’t have the right to sexually harass me,” wrote Nihad Mohammed from Egypt.

“No to rape. No to violence,” wrote Farah Joy from Tunisia. Fatimah from Lebanon carried a statement saying she backed the cause because her “honor and moral values cannot be represented by just a hymen”. Assil, a Palestinian, was more daring: “I’m sick and tired. I wish I had a penis so that I can go out whenever I want, just like my brother,” read her message. She was highlighting the restrictions imposed by traditional Arab families on the movement of their daughters for fear of committing acts that could tarnish a family’s honor. Sarah from Yemen highlighted the problem of child marriage and marital rape in her

impoverished nation. Abdulkarim, a 16-year-old Saudi, ridiculed a law that makes younger male members of families responsible for adult women in the ultra-conservative kingdom. “According to law, I am the guardian for my widowed mother!” he wrote. Larissa from Lebanon wrote: “A Lebanese woman should have the right to pass her nationality to her children,” highlighting a dilemma for mothers married to foreigners in several Arab states. Based on Islamic jurisdiction, men get the upper hand in courts when it comes to divorce, child custody and inheritance.

Social traditions relegate women to the level of second-class citizens, subjecting them to various restrictions depending on how patriarchal her society is. “Our aim is (the implementation of) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the CEDAW” or Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, said Haidar. Most Arab states that are CEDAW signatories have reservations on articles stipulating equal rights for women and men, mainly in matters related to marriage and nationality of children.

“We have to continue the revolution to oust male chauvinism that turns every man into a dictator over his wife, daughter, sister, and even mother,” said a campaign statement.— AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Malaysian transsexuals lose cross-dressing case KUALA LUMPUR: Four Malaysian Muslim transsexuals yesterday lost a landmark case challenging an Islamic law that bars them from dressing as women, activists said. The case was the first attempt to overturn the prohibition on cross-dressing in the conservative, Muslim-majority nation where homosexuality and transsexual lifestyles remain taboo. The High Court in Seremban, just south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, dismissed the challenge mounted by the four that Sharia, or religious law, in the state infringed on

their constitutional right of non-discrimination. Thilaga Sulathireh, an activist who helped them bring the case to court, said the judge refused to overrule the ban. Malaysia has a dualtrack legal system with Sharia courts administering certain matters for Muslims. “The (judge) said they are born male, they are still male and so the law applies to them... She said cross dressing is condemned in Islam,” she said. “It shows if you are Muslim, it’s difficult to challenge anything in this country,” she said, adding that the four

Child activist airlifted to top military hospital PESHAWAR: A Pakistani child activist shot in the head by the Taleban is still in a critical condition and is being airlifted to the country’s top military hospital for specialist treatment, officials said yesterday. The shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai on a school bus in the Swat valley has been denounced worldwide and by the Pakistani authorities, who have offered a reward of more than $100,000 for the capture of her attackers.

Two of her school friends were also injured in the attack, carried out as retribution for Malala’s campaign for the right to an education during a two-year Taleban insurgency in Swat that the army claimed to have crushed in 2009. But as she spent a second day in intensive care questions are mounting about how the attack could have happened in the first place and how the perpetrators simply walked away in an area with a police and army presence. “Now she needs post surgery care.

The doctors recommended that AFIC (Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology) has better facilities for post-surgery care,” military spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said.

Another official confirmed that a helicopter transporting her from the hospital in Peshawar to Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital Islamabad and the headquarters of the Pakistan army, was making the 25-minute journey with Malala on board.

Bajwa said Malala was still unconscious and that the next 24 hours would be crucial to her progress. On Wednesday, she underwent an operation to remove the bullet from between her shoulders. One of her doctors, Mumtaz Khan said that Malala had improved since the operation but that she was still seriously ill.

“She has been put on a ventilator for two days. The bullet has affected some part of the brain, but there is a 70 percent chance that she will survive,” he said. Mehmoodul Hasan, one of Malala’s relatives, said the family had been told doctors were sending her medical reports abroad for advice. “They are checking if better facilities are available in the UK or Dubai or any other country, then they will decide about sending her abroad, otherwise they will treat her here,” said Hasan. US President Barack Obama, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Pakistani leaders have expressed horror at the attack on a girl who won admiration for daring to speak out during the Taleban insurgency, which the army said it had crushed in 2009.

Obama believed the shooting was “reprehensible and disgusting and tragic”, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Malala won international prominence after highlighting Taleban atrocities in Swat with a blog for the BBC three years ago, when the Islamist militants burned girls’ schools and terrorized the valley before the army intervened. She was just 11 then, and her struggle resonated with tens of thousands of girls denied an education by Islamist militants across northwest Pakistan, where the government has been fighting local Taleban since 2007. The Pakistani provincial government announced a 10 million rupee ($104,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of Malala’s attackers and Interior Minister Rehman Malik has promised to catch the gunmen.

Officers in Swat say dozens of people were rounded up after the attack but no one has been charged. Local residents say four businessmen and outspoken anti-militancy advocates have been shot in Swat in recent months, raising fears about the scenic valley which Pakistan has been trying to restore as a tourist destination. Mingora police station chief Ahmad Shah said that nearly 200 people had been detained over Malala’s shooting, including the bus driver and a school watchman, but that most had been released.—AFP

were considering whether to appeal.

“They are disappointed. We are all quite shocked by the ruling.” The case was lodged by Juzaili Khamis, 24, Shukor Jani, 25, Wan Fairol Wan Ismail, 27, and Adam Shazrul Yusoff, 25, who work as bridal make-up artists and typically dress as women. All have previously been arrested for cross-dressing under Islamic law-administered by state authorities-which bars Muslim men from dressing or posing as women. Juzaili and Shukor currently face charges in court and if convicted,

they face up to six months in jail. Last year, another High Court rejected a bid by a transsexual to change the name registered on her identity card after undergoing a sex-change operation to become a woman. The 25-year-old former pharmaceutical assistant died weeks later, reportedly of heart problems. Sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison in Malaysia. Transsexuals are a marginalized community and many become sex workers after being shut out of other employment opportunities.—AFP

Denying girls school entrenches poverty ‘The State of the World’s Girls 2012’ NEW YORK: Millions of girls worldwide are not going to school, an education gap that condemns them to lives of hardship and entrenches broader extreme poverty, a new report said yesterday. The report, “Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2012,” was released in New York by Plan International on the United Nation’s first International Day of the Girl. “The estimated 75 million girls missing from classrooms across the world is a major violation of rights and a huge waste of young potential,” the child poverty alleviation group said in launching the report.

A total of one in three girls is denied education, but Plan’s report focuses especially on the 39 million girls aged between 11 and 15, right on the cusp of becoming young women, who are out of school. The report-which coincided with the news this week of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl gunned down for her criticism of Taliban campaigns against girl’s education-underlined the hugely positive impact that school can have on girls in poor countries. “An educated girl is less vulnerable to violence, less likely to marry and have children when still a child herself, and more likely to be literate and healthy into adulthood-as are her own children,” Plan International CEO Nigel Chapman said. “Her earning power is increased and she is more likely to invest her income for the benefit of her family, community and country. It is not an exaggeration to say educating girls can save lives and transform futures.” Plan called on global leaders to ensure a minimum of nine years’ schooling for all children, giving them a better chance to enter secondary education. But special priority should be given to girls, the humanitarian organization said, with greater funding and programs to stop child marriage and violence in schools-two main reasons for the current dropout rate among girls. In many cases, poor families pull daughters from school out of fear for their health or safety. In Ghana, 83 percent of parents interviewed for the report said the risks of pregnancy were a disadvantage of school. The report said that in Togo, 16 percent of children interviewed named a teacher responsible for a classmate’s pregnancy. That figure was 15 percent in Mali and 11 percent in Senegal. In Ghana, 75 percent of children said teachers were the main source of school violence.— AFP

HYDERABAD: An Indian schoolgirl stands at her father’s temporary tea stall yesterday, on the occasion of the first ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. — AFP

Mali Islamists target women UNITED NATIONS: A senior UN official who just returned from Mali says radical Islamists who now control about twothirds of the country are targeting women - demanding that they cover their heads, restricting their ability to work, and compiling a list of women who are pregnant or have children but are not married which has raised fears of punishment. Ivan Simonovic, the assistant secretary-general for human rights, said the Islamists have imposed an extremist form of Islamic law known as Shariah in northern Mali with drastic punishments including the stoning death of a couple accused of adultery, eight amputations, three public executions and a number of floggings.

While the Islamists have banned everyone from smoking and listening to music, he said they have particularly targeted women. Simonovic cited the case of a woman merchant who fled the north because she couldn’t work and had no family to support her and said it is especially frightening that the Islamists are compiling lists of mothers and pregnant women without husbands. “When I talked to people from the north, they were afraid of those lists that are being compiled,” he said. “We do not know what will happen with those lists, but certainly women were scared that there might be some action taken against them.” Simonovic said the number of forced marriages in the north is also

increasing. “The price to buy a wife is less than $1,000,” he said, “and it’s often misused.” Once forced to marry, women are quite often married to other men by their so-called husbands after a very short time, Simonovic said, “which is a smoke screen for enforced prostitutions and rapes that are taking place.” Mali’s democratically elected leader was ousted in a military coup in March. The junta accused him of failing to quell a rebellion in the north, which began in January. After the coup, Tuareg rebels took advantage of the power vacuum and within weeks took control of the north, aided by an Islamist faction. But the Islamists quickly ousted the Tuaregs and took control of the north, an area larger than France. —AFP

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International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Nigeria farmers sue Shell in Dutch court THE HAGUE: Nigerian farmers asked a Dutch court yesterday to rule that oil company Shell is liable for poisoning their fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines, in a case that could set a legal precedent for holding multinationals responsible for actions overseas. The case at The Hague Civil Court marks the first time a Dutch company has been sued for alleged environmental mismanagement caused by a foreign subsidiary and could pave the way for similar claims if it succeeds.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC long argued that the case, which was launched in 2008, should be heard in Nigeria and still maintains the Dutch court should not have jurisdiction. Lawyers for the Nigerians argue that key policy decisions

by Shell are made at its headquarters in The Hague and that means the Dutch court can rule in the case. Just how much compensation and clean-up costs Shell

faces would be addressed at a separate hearing if the court rules in favor of the farmers.

Four villagers and environmental group Friends of the Earth say Shell pipeline leaks fouled fish ponds, farmland and forests in three villages in the Niger Delta, Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo. “If you are drinking water you are drinking crude, if you are eating fish, you are eating crude, if you are breathing, you are breathing crude,” one of the farmers, Eric Dooh, told reporters outside court. “What I expect today is justice,” he added. “I expect that judges are going to proceed in this matter, have sympathy and look into our environment - tell Shell to apply the international standards where they are operating in Nigeria.”

Villagers blame the leaks on corrosion of the pressurized underground pipes.

Shell claims they were caused by sabotage and says its local subsidiary cleaned

up the environmental damage. Shell lawyer Jan de Bie Leuveling Tjeenk told the court sabotage and oil theft are widespread in the Niger Delta - with around 150,000 barrels per day stolen - and often leads to serious pollution as thieves illegally tap pipelines. An earlier Dutch court ruling accepted Shell’s assertion that the leaks were caused by sabotage, but lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the judges should revisit that decision, saying the pipe was seriously corroded.

They added that Shell did not clean up the spills quickly enough. “Shell did not do enough to prevent the oil spreading and damaging the plaintiffs’ land,” the villagers’ lawyer, Channa Samkalden, told the court. “Shell did not act as a careful oil company.” Tjeenk said Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary SPDC cleans up oil spills including those caused by sabotage in the Niger Delta even though it is not legally bound to so and invests in replac-

ing aging pipelines. Shell’s local subsidiary remains the top foreign oil producer in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, a region of mangroves and swamps about the size of Portugal. Its production forms the backbone of crude production in Nigeria, a top supplier to the gasolinethirsty US. Shell, which discovered and started the country’s oil well in the late 1950s, remains demonized by activists and local communities over oil spills and close ties to government security forces. Some Shell pipelines that crisscross the delta are decades old and can fail, causing massive pollution. Shell, however, has begun an effort in the last decade to build clinics, roads and even natural gas power plants for the region. The company blames most spills now on thieves who tap into crude oil pipelines to steal oil. A judgment in the case is expected late this year or early in 2013.— AP

Masked gunmen kill US embassy worker SANAA: Masked gunmen shot dead a Yemeni man on his way to work at the US embassy in Sanaa yesterday, a security source said, the latest in a wave of assassinations in the Arab state where Washington is battling Al-Qaeda militants. The attackers on a motorcycle opened fire on a car carrying Qassem Aqlan - who headed an embassy security team - in the centre of Yemen’s capital, the source said. “This (assassination) operation has the fingerprints of Al-Qaeda which carried out similar operations before,” said the source who asked not to be named. The Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other militant groups strengthened their grip on parts of the country during an uprising that ousted veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February.

There have been a number of assassinations attempts, some of them successful, on security officials and politicians since Yemen’s army drove Islamist fighters out of several southern towns earlier this year. Washington, wary of the growing power of Al-Qaeda, has stepped up drone strikes on suspected militant positions, with the backing of Saleh’s successor, President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi. Men armed with machine guns and rockets attacked a security checkpoint in Yemen’s southern city of AlDalea late on Wednesday, injuring two policemen, a local official said yesterday. The attackers, whose affiliation was not immediately clear, fled the scene, the official said.—Reuters

Drug smugglers slay 3 Iran border guards TEHRAN: Three Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with armed drug traffickers near the border with Pakistan, Iranian media reported yesterday, citing a border official. Two drug traffickers were also killed in the clash near the region of Koshtegan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, Colonel Mehdi Mansourzadeh said. Mansourzadeh said Iran had seized 50 tons of various drugs in the frontier regions with Afghanistan and Pakistan during the past six months. Iran is a major transit route for drugs trafficked from leading narcotics producer Afghanistan, with much of the substances bound for Western countries. The Islamic republic says it is fighting a deadly war against drug traffickers who make up half its prison population. Drug trafficking is punishable by death. More than 4,000 police officers and soldiers have been killed during the past three decades in clashes with the traffickers, who often travel in heavily armed convoys, according to officials. Iran has spent more than $700 million on building a “wall” along lengthy stretches of its 1,700-kilometre eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan in a bid to stop the trafficking, officials say. Tehran’s anti-drugs efforts are regularly praised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which regularly provides the country with financial and other assistance. However, the United States has accused some Iranian officials, particularly within the elite Revolutionary Guards, of facilitating the transit of drugs produced in Afghanistan in exchange for the services of drug lords in its eastern neighbor.—AFP

ANKARA: People speak atop the aircraft steps of a Syrian passenger plane that was forced by Turkish jets to land at Esenboga airport in Ankara yesterday. — AP

Moscow fumes as Turkey intercepts Syrian airplane Turkey endangered lives by grounding plane: Russia MOSCOW: Moscow yesterday accused Ankara of endangering Russian lives after Turkish fighter jets intercepted a Syrian airplane on route from Moscow to Damascus which Russia’s arms exports agency said was not carrying any of its cargo. Turkish military jets escorted the Damascus-bound Airbus A320, carrying about 30 passengers from Moscow, into Ankara airport late on Wednesday after Turkey said it had received intelligence that the plane had military supplies onboard.

Some of the cargo was seized in Turkey before the passenger jet was allowed to continue its trip. No details were given of what was taken off the plane. “We had no cargo on that airplane. We always deliver our weapons in full compliance with international norms,” said Vyacheslav Davidenko, spokesman for Russia’s monopoly arms exporter Rosoboronexport. “Sending weapons on a passenger airplane breaks about every law there is on weapons exports,” he said. Russia has been one of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s staunchest allies, blocking three UN

Security Council resolutions aimed at piling pressure on him while selling his armed forces nearly $1 billion in arms last year.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was demanding an explanation from Turkish authorities over the plane’s detention, saying Turkey had refused to grant Russian diplomatic staff access to 17 Russian citizens onboard during the eight hours that the flight was held up.

“The Russian side is insisting on an explanation of the reasons for such actions by the Turkish authorities,” the ministry said in a statement. It said that “the lives and safety of the passengers were placed under threat” by the incident.

The statement also said the Russian passengers were given no food and not allowed to enter the airport terminal but were only allowed to step off the plane and onto the tarmac occasionally. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said it had received no query from Russia about the plane’s interception. Yelena Kara-Sal, a top Russian consular official, said the cargo seized by the Turkish

authorities was not of Russian origin, the Interfax news agency reported. “Right now there is no discussion that the cargo is of Russian origin. The workers of the consulate will contact local authorities within a day for an explanation of the details,” said Kara-Sal. An arms industry source said Moscow had not stopped its arms exports to Damascus, despite mixed signals from Russia about whether it has continued to supply Syria with weapons since the conflict between Assad’s forces and rebels has escalated. “If we needed to send any kind of military-technical equipment or arms it would have been carried out properly and not through any illegal means, certainly not on a civilian aircraft,” the source said, according to Interfax. President Vladimir Putin said in June that Russia does not send Syria weapons that could be used in a civil conflict. A Russian-operated ship carrying ammunition was stopped and searched in Cyprus in January. The ship reached Syria with the cargo days after promising the destination would not be Syria but Turkey.— Reuters

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Consulate security in Benghazi ‘weak’ WASHINGTON: The US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi was a sitting target with weak security as requests for extra staffing were denied despite a rising Al-Qaeda threat, US lawmakers were told Wednesday. In a testy and heated hearing, Republican lawmakers grilled three top State Department officials and the former leader of a security team into what went wrong in a September 11 attack on the mission, in which four Americans died. Two officials testified that requests for extra support for US posts in Tripoli and Benghazi had been refused, and the regional security officer said he was frustrated by a “total absence of planning” for future security.

“It was abundantly clear: We were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident,” regional security officer Eric Nordstrom told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, which lasted over four hours. Nordstrom said he sought to bolster security by asking for 12 more agents, but was told by a State Department regional director that he

was asking for the “sun, moon and the stars.” In response, Nordstrom said the most frustrating part of his assignment was not the unrest gripping Libya.

“It’s not the hardships, it’s not the gunfire, it’s not the threats. It’s dealing and fighting against the people, programs and personnel who are supposed to be supporting me,” he said. “And I added it (sic) by saying, for me, the Taliban is on the inside of the building.”

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, who was in charge of a 16-strong site security team based in Tripoli from midFebruary until it was withdrawn in midAugust, agreed that “we were fighting a losing battle. We were not even allowed to keep what we had.”

The fierce and sustained attack by dozens of militants bearing heavy weapons who torched and bombarded the mission and a nearby annex has thrust President Barack Obama’s foreign policy to the forefront of the bitter White House race. Among those killed was ambassador Chris Stevens-the first diplomatic envoy to be killed on duty

Filmmaker didn’t trigger Muslim violence: Lawyer LOS ANGELES: A lawyer for the man behind the “Innocence of Muslims” video denied Wednesday his client was to blame for a wave of violence across the Middle East, as he appeared in court for a second time. Attorney Steven Seiden said US congressional hearings in Washington would shed more light on the cause of the unrest that killed a number of people, including the US ambassador to Libya.

“My client was not the cause of the violence in the Middle East. Clearly it was pre-planned, that was just an excuse and a trigger point,” said the lawyer for Mark Basseley Youssef, 55.

“As you know, there (are) congressional hearings going on now as to the source of the real violence in the Middle East,” he said after the brief court hearing in Los Angeles. When the violence erupted, “the press, the president, secretary of state were blaming my client for the violence in the Mideast, and then a week later we learned that it was all pre-planned attacks to coincide with 9/11.”

“We’ll see what they come up with, and we’ll see how that impacts his case,” he added in reference to Congress.

Youssef-previously listed as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula-was handcuffed, shackled at the waist and clad in a white jumpsuit, meaning he is under protective custody at a detention center next to the downtown LA courthouse. The amateurish film depicting the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) offended many Muslims, and sparked a wave of anti-US protests in a number of countries that cost several lives and saw mobs set US missions, schools and businesses ablaze.

On September 11, the anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Initially, US officials said that attack followed spontaneous protests against the anti-Islam film, which were occurring in other countries in the region. But this week, US administration officials gave a detailed account of the assault, in which dozens of armed men invaded the consulate setting it on fire and hunting down staff. At a hearing in Washington on Wednesday, US lawmakers were told that the consulate in Benghazi was a sitting target with weak security as requests for extra staffing were denied despite a rising AlQaeda threat. Youssef was arrested last month for eight breaches of his probation for a 2010 bank fraud conviction, and attended a preliminary probation-revocation hearing Wednesday before US District Judge Christina Snyder. In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Nakoula and others of fraudulently obtaining the identities and Social Security numbers of customers at several Wells Fargo branches in California and withdrawing $860 from them.—AFP

since 1979 - and three other diplomatic personnel. Campaign staff for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney demanded “complete candor” from the Obama administration over the events of September 11.

Obama pledged to “fix” any security flaws that needed to be fixed, adding in an interview with ABC television that his administration had put out information on the Benghazi attack as it became available and was updated.

Lawmakers had also railed against the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, who initially said the assault was triggered by a “spontaneous” protest over an Internet video that denigrates Islam.

Both Wood and Nordstrom blamed Deputy Assistant Secretary Charlene Lamb, responsible for security at some 275 US diplomatic facilities around the world, for refusing their calls for extra manpower. She was repeatedly pummeled by lawmakers in the acrimonious and highly partisan hearing, and admitted she had not supported those

requests, saying they were training local Libyan staff to take on some of those duties. Lamb added, however, that the final decision was made by her superiors. The State Department believed “we had the correct number of assets” on the ground, she said, noting: “I made the best decisions I could with the information I had.”

Wood, a former special forces soldier, said he had recommended the closure of the Benghazi mission as most other Western nations withdrew from the city.

“When that occurred, it was apparent to me that we were the last flag flying in Benghazi; we were the last thing on their target list to remove from Benghazi,” he said. Although he had left Libya before the assault, Wood said it was “instantly recognizable” as a terrorist attack. He added that the Al-Qaeda presence in Libya “grows every day.”

The hearing was told there were 230 security-related incidents over 13 months in Libya, and in June, there was a direct threat against Stevens on Facebook.—AFP

Mo Yan of China grabs Nobel Literature Prize Chinese wins Nobel for ‘hallucinatory realism’ STOCKHOLM: Mo Yan, one of China’s leading writers of the past half-century yesterday won the Nobel Literature Prize for his writing that mixes folk tales, history and the contemporary, the Swedish Academy announced. “Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition,” the academy said. This is the first time a Chinese national and the second time a Chineseborn writer has won the prize, after political dissident and exile Gao Xingian, who received French citizenship in 1997, was honored in 2000. The news was ignored by the Chinese press at the time.

Mo Yan, 57, is perhaps best-known abroad for his 1987 novella “Red Sorghum”, a tale of the brutal violence that plagued the eastern China countryside-where he grew up-during the 1920s and 30s. The story was later made into an acclaimed film by leading Chinese director Zhang Yimou, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival in 1988. Mo Yan, a pseudonym that means “Don’t speak” and whose real name is Guan Moye, told Chinese state media he was “happy” about winning the Nobel and would “strive harder” in his writing.

The Swedish Academy hailed him for a body of work which, “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.” The Academy’s permanent secretary, Peter Englund, said the Academy had spoken to Mo Yan by telephone and quoted the author as saying he was “overjoyed and terrified” at being given the prize. Englund said Mo Yan’s use of satire was important to be able to enjoy the dark sides of his work, and described his writing as both crude and

Chinese writer Mo Yan sensual. “There are things (in his books) that are among the most frightening things I have read,” Englund told Sweden’s Aftonbladet TV. Mo Yan has published novels, short stories and essays on various topics, and despite his social criticism is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors, the Nobel committee noted. His acclaimed works also include “Big Breasts and Wide Hips”, “Republic of Wine” and “Life and Death are Wearing Me Out”. His dozens of novels, novellas, and short stories, generally eschew contemporary issues and instead looking back at China’s tumultuous 20th century in tales often infused with politics and a dark, cynical sense of humor.

The backdrops for his various works have included the 1911 revolution that toppled China’s last imperial dynasty, Japan’s brutal wartime invasion, newly Communist China’s failed land-reform policies of the 1950s and the madness of Mao Zedong’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. His latest novel, 2009’s “Frog”, is considered his most daring yet, due to

its searing depiction of China’s “one child” population control policy and the local officials who ruthlessly implement it with forced abortions and sterilizations.

Despite such content, Mo Yan has so far deftly managed to avoid running into serious trouble with Communist authorities, aided by his position as vice chairman of the state-sanctioned Chinese Writers Association.

“We are very happy. This is a happy thing for the China literary world,” He Jianming, another vice chairman of the association, said on Thursday after the prize was announced. Mo Yan has also supported official policies stating that art and literature must serve the socialist cause-and, by extension, not threaten Communist Party rule. The author grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in northeastern China, the son of farmers.

As a 12-year-old during the Cultural Revolution he left school to work, first in agriculture, later in a factory and in 1976 he joined the People’s Liberation Army and began to study literature and write.— AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Sick of austerity, Lithuania set to swing left VILNIUS: Ground down by austerity, Lithuanian voters are set Sunday to deliver a damning verdict on four years of Conservative rule and hand power to the EU nation’s leftwing opposition.

Opinion polls show Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius facing a crushing election defeat, having failed to reap the political dividends of a recovery from one of the world’s deepest recessions.

“People are fed up with the politics of austerity. The current recovery is too late and not significant enough,” said Tomas Janeliunas, head of the political desk at Lithuanian weekly IQ. Voters echoed his view. “We’ve all suffered,” said 40-something civil servant Janina who declined to give her last name. “We can see that things are getting better for the country, but when you talk to people, the situation is far from rosy,” she said. Ironically,

Kubilius won office in the 2008 by ousting the Social Democrats the party now topping opinion polls. The last election also hinged on the economy, as crisis clouds gathered and Kubilius lashed out at the government for failing to rein in breakneck growth fuelled by credit and wage hikes.

Kubilius was seen as a safe pair of hands, having been premier in 19992000 when Lithuania was battered by the economic meltdown in neighboring Russia, a major trade partner. But the 2009 crisis that lashed the Baltic state went far beyond the slump during his previous stint, as the economy shrank by 14.8 percent. Kubilius’s Conservative-Liberal coalition-which has swung between a narrow parliamentary majority and minoritylaunched biting spending cuts, avoiding a currency devaluation or an inter-

national bailout. “If you want to come back to recovery, first of all you need to implement fiscal austerity measures, you need to bring back order into your financial system,” Kubilius said in a recent interview. “And we have the results,” he insisted. Growth returned in 2010, with output expanding by 1.4 percent, before increasing to 6.0 percent last year.

But with non-euro-zone Lithuania vulnerable to the impact of the crisis in the 17-nation currency bloc-home to many of its main trade partners-the finance ministry predicts a slowdown to 2.5 percent this year. “The euro crisis in the south is having an impact on public opinion,” acknowledged Kubilius. Lithuanians’ gloom has driven a rise in emigration to richer nations in western Europe-which still seem a better option despite the region’s own

Vatican rekindles faith 50 years after Council Catholic Church celebrates anniversary of Council VATICAN CITY: The Vatican celebrated the 50th anniversary yesterday of a Council that changed the face of Catholicism, as it tries to rekindle the religious fervor of the time amid rising secularism. Hundreds of bishops from around the world held a solemn procession through St Peter’s Square, after which

an unusual evening greeting from the pope from his apartment window, echoing those dramatic days of 1962.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople also attended along with 14 of the original

VATICAN: Bishops walk in a solemn procession through St Peter’s Square as they arrive for a mass led by the pontiff to announce a new global ‘Year of Faith’ at St Peter’s square. —AP Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an openair mass to announce a new global “Year of Faith” for the first time in 45 years.

“If today the Church proposes a new Year of Faith and a new evangelization, it is not to honor an anniversary, but because there is more need of it, even more than there was 50 years ago!,” the pope told gathered crowds. “Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual ‘desertification’. We see it every day around us. This void has spread,” he added. The day will close with a torchlit procession along the main avenue leading to the steps of St Peter’s Basilica and

“fathers” from the 1962 Council. The Beatles had just released their first single and James Bond had just hit the silver screen when 2,250 Catholic bishops from 116 countries met in Rome in 1962 to reform rituals and beliefs that appeared increasingly anachronistic.

Pope John XXII hailed the crowds of faithful on the night of October 11, 1962 with a famous heartfelt speech in which he called on believers to pursue “faith, hope, charity, love of God, love of brothers and the common good.”

The Second Vatican Council-dubbed Vatican II-only wrapped up in 1965 after

adopting key reforms including the chance to celebrate mass in other languages than Latin and the idea of opening dialogue with other faiths. Benedict was then Joseph Ratzinger, a 35-year-old German priest and among the most reformist voices at the Council. He has defended the achievements of Vatican II against traditionalist voices in the Church that still question it. Reformists in the Church who campaign in favor of the ordination of women and allowing priests to marry, however, accuse the pope of becoming increasingly conservative and turning his back on the ideals of Vatican II. In a personal remembrance published in the Vatican’s official daily L’Osservatore Romano the pope remembered October 11 as “a splendid day”. “There was a general feeling of expectation in the air,” he said. The pope also dismissed as “absurd” the claim that Vatican II marked a rupture with tradition and said it was “a positive step for changing times.” The “Year of Faith” lasts until November 24, 2013 and is intended “to help believers in Christ to have a more informed and reinvigorated adherence to the Bible, especially at a time of deep change that humanity is experiencing”.

Yesterday, the pope described lack of faith as a desert-like void but said people should use the “experience of this desert” to re-kindle their belief. “This is how we can picture the Year of Faith: a pilgrimage in the deserts of today’s world,” he said.

The 85-year-old pontiff also highlighted the achievements of international personalities, such as pious Catholic Urzua Iribarren, one of the 33 Chilean miners famously rescued from underground two years ago. Among the other people to be recognized is Fabiola Gianotti, an Italian physicist in charge of the ATLAS program at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland, who announced the discovery of the “God Particle” this year. —AFP

economic woes. Official data show the population at its lowest in decades, falling in April to below the psychologically-important level of three million.

In 2001, three years before it entered the European Union, Lithuania had almost 3.5 million people. A recent poll by the Vilmorus public opinion institute showed that the Conservatives would win just 12 percent of Sunday’s vote. That put them fourth behind the table-topping Social Democrats on 23 percent in the battle for seats in Lithuania’s 141-member parliament.

Next was the left-leaning Labor party, led by controversial Russian-born exminister and businessman Viktor Uspaskich, with 21 percent support. In third place with 14 percent was the right-wing, populist Order and Justice party of impeached ex-president Rolandas Paksas. —AFP

South Korea presidential favorite runs into trouble SEOUL: Less than two months ago, Park Geun-Hye seemed a shoo-in to become South Korea’s first woman president, but that was before her campaign switched focus from getting her into power to ripping itself apart. Corruption allegations against close aides, resignations, squabbles over strategy and Park’s struggle to deal with the legacy of her father, former dictator Park Chung-Hee, have all contributed to a mini-meltdown.

The internal strife, largely the product of infighting between the progressive and conservative wings of her ruling New Frontier Party, are particularly embarrassing for a candidate running on a national unity platform. “The problems will soon be sorted out,” Park told reporters on Tuesday, but with the election just 70 days away, a drastic campaign team overhaul is a damaging prospect. “Looking at the suicidal in-party fighting, many supporters of the conservative party must be feeling that it is on the path to defeat,” the Korea Herald said in an editorial Wednesday.

In an apparent damage-limitation exercise, her campaign chief of staff Choi Kyung-Hwan resigned on Sunday, saying he took “all responsibility for the skepticism raised over (Park’s) election victory”. But the infighting has continued, with other key campaign advisers threatening to resign after Park sought to broaden her appeal by recruiting staff from divergent sides of the political spectrum. “The internal strife is more serious than it looks,” said Lee Yeon-Ho, a professor of political science at Yonsei University.

“It exposes her inability to hold the party elite together and, if this continues, voters will start having doubts over her ability to lead the administration as a president,” Lee said. It’s all a far cry from Park’s triumphant, landslide nomination victory in the New Frontier Party’s primary on August 20, after which polls made her the overwhelming front-runner for the December 19 election. While she still polls highest in a threeway race with her two rivals, leftist opposition candidate Moon Jae-In and independent software tycoon Ahn CheolSoo, the latest surveys show a dead heat in a head-to-head with either.

Moon and Ahn are seen as splitting the liberal vote and there is widespread speculation that they will join camps before election day and forge a single, unified candidacy to challenge Park. Park, 60, is the daughter of Park Chung-Hee, the military strongman who seized power in a coup in 1961 and was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979. Her father is widely respected for transforming the impoverished, war-ravaged nation into an economic juggernaut, but is equally reviled in some quarters for human rights abuses during his iron-fisted rule. —AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Australians bore brunt of Bali bombings SYDNEY: When two bombs tore through Bali’s party strip in Indonesia 10 years ago Australians bore the brunt of an outrage that blew away any conception that they were immune from terrorist attacks. Of the 21 nations whose citizens died in the tourist area of Kuta on October 12, 2002, Australia suffered by far the greatest loss with 88 lives wiped out. “The Bali attack rocked Australia to its very core,” recalled John Howard, who was prime minister at the time. “It was an exercise in blind fanaticism that we will always find difficult to understand,” he said this week.

The carnage was blamed on the AlQaeda-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and it had the potential to seriously hurt ties between the two neighboring countries-one predominately Muslim and the other mostly Christian. But ultimately it achieved the opposite. “The Bali attack was a time of great testing for Australia, and our character as a nation was not found wanting,” Howard added. “Importantly, we should calmly note that far from this terrible act driving a wedge between Australia and Indonesia, it had the opposite effect. The perpetrators had wanted to sow greater hatred. In that, they failed.”

The two countries have since developed a multifaceted relationship, with burgeoning trade, investment, cultural

and political links. Counter-terrorism cooperation has also grown significantly since the atrocity, with Australia’s

trained by Australian and US police conducting bloody raids on those involved.

BALI: Indonesian police officers finalize the security at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana venue in Jimbaran on the Indonesian resort island of Bali yesterday, as Bali prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2002 bomb attack. —AFP department of foreign affairs saying ties have never been stronger. The bombings triggered a long crackdown on extremists in Indonesia, with squads

China violent forced evictions on the rise BEIJING: Violent forced evictions are increasing in China as local governments seek to pay off debts by seizing land and selling usage rights to property developers, Amnesty International said in a report on yesterday. The report, entitled “Standing Their Ground”, said growing numbers of Chinese have been forced from their homes in both rural and urban areas, with evictees sometimes beaten, imprisoned, or even killed at the hands of authorities. “The pace of forced evictions has only accelerated over the past three years,” the human rights group said in the report, based on media articles and interviews with rights activists, lawyers and academics. The report noted that such evictions had spurred a surge in self-immolation cases by desperate homeowners, saying there were 41 such cases from 2009-11. Amnesty International’s senior research director Nicola Duckworth told a news briefing in Hong Kong the figure was in stark contrast to that of the past decade, which saw fewer than 10 such cases.

Amnesty said the increase in evictions stemmed in part from a construction boom stoked by a government stimulus program implemented to ward off the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.

The loosening of credit allowed local governments to take out loans on an “unprecedented scale”, but administrations soon found themselves unable to continue financing their projects, “so they sank deeper into debt”, Amnesty said. China’s local-level governments are heavily dependent on revenue from land development projects, causing them to step up evictions in order to pave the way for such schemes, the report said. It said provincial governments “increasingly find their interests aligned with those of real estate developers”.

All land in China is owned by the state or rural collectives. There is no private land ownership, but citizens can buy and sell rights to use land for up to 70 years. The report said eviction campaigns, sanctioned by local governments, “often employ coercive tactics in violation of international law”, including “physical intimidation and a range of violent acts”. “There needs to be an end to the political incentives, tax gains and career advancements that encourage local officials to continue with such illegal practices,” Duckworth said in a statement accompanying the report. In 2011 China outlawed the use of violence during evictions and stipulated market-rate compensation must be paid to relocated residents. But Amnesty said the regulations did not cover rural areas, where forced evictions are widespread, and were unevenly enforced by Chinese courts. —AFP

Most of the men responsible have now been either jailed or executed.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was Indonesia’s security affairs minister at

the time, becoming president in 2004, and Howard paid tribute to his efforts in building relations since the attack.

“He has done much with myself and my successors as prime ministers of Australia to bring our two countries together,” he said of Yudhoyono, who has visited Australia more times than any of his predecessors. For the families of those who perished and the dozens of holidaymakers who were injured, some horribly, it has been a long decade. “For me, 700kg of explosives in a van outside the front of the Sari Club, probably 20 to 25 meters from me, changed my life forever,” survivor Phil Britten, who was 22 at the time, told reporters.

Britten was on an end-of-season trip with his friends from Perth’s Kingsley Football Club when a bomb ripped through the Sari Club as they sipped their drinks. Seven of the Australian rules football team were killed and 13 survived.”Probably the worst part was hearing the screams start, going from nothing to the slow moaning and groaning of men and females screaming for their life,” said Britten, who suffered serious burns. Many of the wounded Australians were transferred to the Royal Darwin Hospital by Australian air force planes, suffering from blast trauma, burst eardrums and shrapnel wounds.

US panel urges end to secret DNA tests 25 states now allow secret testing NEW YORK: They’re called discreet DNA samples, and the Elk Grove, California, genetic-testing company easyDNA says it can handle many kinds, from toothpicks to tampons.

Blood stains from bandages and tampons?

Ship them in a paper envelope for paternity, ancestry or health testing. EasyDNA also welcomes cigarette butts (two to four), dental floss (“do not touch the floss with your fingers”), razor clippings, gum, toothpicks, licked stamps and used tissues if the more standard cheek swab or tube of saliva isn’t obtainable. If the availability of such services seems like an invitation to mischief or worse imagine a discarded tissue from a prospective employee being tested to determine whether she’s at risk for an expensive disease, for instance - the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues agrees. Yesterday it released a report on privacy concerns triggered by the advent of whole genome sequencing, determining someone’s complete DNA make-up.

Although sequencing “holds enormous promise for human health and medicine,” commission chairwoman Amy Gutmann told reporters on Wednesday, there is a “potential for misuse of this very personal data.”

“In many states someone can pick up your discarded coffee cup and send it for (DNA) testing,” said Gutmann, who is the president of the University of Pennsylvania.

“It’s not a fantasy to think about how, without baseline privacy protection, people could use this in a way that would be really detrimental,” such as by denying someone with a

gene that raises their risk of Alzheimer’s disease long-term care insurance, or to jack up life insurance premiums for someone with an elevated genetic risk of a deadly cancer that strikes people in middle age.

“Those who are willing to share some of the most intimate information about themselves for the sake of medical progress should be assured appropriate confidentiality, for example, about any discovered genetic variations that link to increased likelihood of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia,” Gutmann said. The commission took on the issue because whole genome sequencing is poised to become part of mainstream medical care, especially by personalizing medical treatments based on a patient’s DNA. $1,000 GENOME That has been driven in large part by dramatic cost reductions, from $2.5 billion per genome in the Human Genome Project of the 1990s and early 2000s to $1,000 soon. Several companies, including Illumina Inc and Life Technology’s Ion Torrent division, sell machines that can sequence a genome for a few hundred dollars, but that does not include the analysis to figure out what the string of 3 billion DNA “letters” means. A three-year-old federal law prohibits discrimination in employment or health insurance based on someone’s genetic information but does not address other potential misuses of the data.

Without such privacy protection, said

Gutmann, people may be reluctant to participate in genetic studies that do whole genome sequencing, for fear their genetic data will not be secure and could be used against them. Recommendations from such panels are not binding but have been used as the basis for policy and legislation. One scenario the panel offers is a “contentious spouse” secretly having a DNA sample sequenced and using it in a custody battle “as evidence of unfitness to parent,” perhaps because the DNA showed a genetic risk for mental illness or alcoholism. There are no federal laws against that.

Or, the panel said, DNA information might be posted in a social networking site “by a malicious stranger or acquaintance,” possibly hurting someone’s “chance of finding a spouse, achieving standing in a community, or pursuing a desired career path.” The bioethics panel recommends a dozen forms of privacy protection, including that “surreptitious commercial testing” be banned: No gene sequencing or other genetic testing should be permitted without consent from the person the DNA came from, it said. About 25 states currently allow such DNA testing. Critics of the lack of genetic privacy thought greater urgency was needed. “The report lays out a lot of important best practices and does endorse further state and federal regulations, but it doesn’t offer a timeline,” said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a private group that monitors genetic issues. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

News

in brief

Militants plan ‘Delhi attack’ NEW DELHI: Indian police yesterday said they had arrested three Islamist militants suspected of planning bomb attacks in New Delhi during the upcoming Hindu festival season.

The men were members of the home-grown Indian Mujahideen outfit and were behind a series of blasts in August in the western city of Pune that left one person injured, New Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said.

“With the three arrests we have prevented a major strike in Delhi,” Kumar told reporters. He said the arrests followed the interrogation of Syed Zabiuddin, who was arrested in June in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-based gunmen which left 166 people dead. Police believes Zabiuddin belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla force. “These three are Indian Mujahideen operatives and linked to a Lashkar figure so it proves that the two groups have close links at some level,” Kumar said, adding the suspects had been picked up after travelling to the capital. The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for blasts in July 2008 in Ahmedabad city when 45 died and in Delhi two months later when 20 people were killed.

14 killed, 1,500 missing DHAKA: At least 14 people were killed and an estimated 1,500 fishermen are missing after tropical storms smashed into Bangladesh’s southern coastal islands and districts yesterday, police said. Police said at least 1,500 mud, tin and straw-built houses were also leveled in the storms that swept Bhola, Hatiya and Sandwip Islands and half a dozen coastal districts after midnight Wednesday midnight. At the worst-hit island of Hatiya, at least five people were killed after they were buried under their houses or hit by fallen trees, said local police chief Moktar Hossain. More than 1,000 houses were flattened. “More than 100 fishing trawlers, each carrying at least 10 fishermen, have been missing since the storm,” he said, calling it one of the most powerful in decades. Many fishermen are expected to have taken shelter in other remote islands in the Bay of Bengal or in the neighboring Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. In the past, many fishermen thought to be missing from storms returned home to coastal villages a week or two later. Four people were killed in Bhola, three in Sandwip and two at Char Jabbar, police said.

Homegrown terror - the biggest threat to France Weapons, bomb-making equipment found PARIS: A French prosecutor yesterday branded a homegrown group of Islamist extremists as the biggest terror threat the country has faced since the Algerian-based GIA carried out a string of deadly bombings in the 1990s. Announcing that he would pursue charges of attempted murder and terrorism against seven of 12 suspects arrested at the weekend, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said they had been part of an active terrorist cell that was “probably the most dangerous in France since 1996.”

The group, he said, had been plotting to mount attacks in France and to join up with other “jihadists” in Syria and elsewhere. The prosecutor added that the profile of the suspects in custody was “much more dangerous than we initially assumed.”

The GIA, or Armed Islamic Group, emerged from Algeria’s civil war and was responsible for a string of bombings in France in 1995 and 1996. One of the attacks, on the St Michel metro station in Paris, left eight people dead. The perpetrators of that attack were convicted in 1999, by which time the threat posed by the group had been neutralized as a result of arrests.

The charges against the suspects detained at the weekend relate to a grenade attack on a Jewish grocery store in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles last month. The attack left one person slightly injured but Molins said the Yugoslav-made grenade could have seriously injured anyone within a 10-metre radius. One alleged leading member of the group, 33-year-old Jeremie Louis-Sidney, was shot dead after he opened fire on officers seeking to arrest

him in a dawn raid at his home in Strasbourg. Police have since discovered weapons and significant amounts of bomb-making equipment at the home of one of the other suspects, Jeremy Bailly, in the Paris suburbs.

Bailly has admitted attempting to fabricate a bomb but has refused to say whether anyone else was involved or what his potential target was. “It was exactly the kind of bomb making used by the GIA in 1995,” Molins said. Five of the 12 initially detained were released without charge yesterday. The other seven are all French citizens, aged between 19 and 25, Molins said.

All but one of them are converts to Islam. Two of them had served time in prison for drug dealing. Investigators believe five people, including Louis-Sydney, were implicated in the Sarcelles attack, which was carried out by two men on a moped.

Molins said one of them was of African origin, the other white.

Police are not sure if they are among the seven facing charges.

Two of the seven are thought to have been central to the plans of some of the group to join opposition forces in Syria, according to Molins. One of them was in contact with militants abroad and the other had recently made a three-month trip to Egypt and Tunisia in the company of Louis-Sydney. The prosecutor’s decision to pursue charges against the seven suspects triggers the opening of a preliminary inquiry which will be overseen by three judges who will have to decide when and if formal charges are brought against the seven. — AFP

Baltimore fire kills 5 BALTIMORE: An intense fire that ripped through a row house in northeast Baltimore yesterday has claimed the lives of an adult and four children, a fire official said. Fire department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright says firefighters were called around 2 am yesterday and arrived to find heavy fire and smoke coming from the first floor of the home. “This was literally an inferno,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright says firefighters suppressed the heavy fire conditions and found the bodies of five people during a search and rescue operation. He says the victims are believed to be a grandmother and four grandchildren. One person jumped from a second-floor window to escape the blaze, Cartwright said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. A firefighter was also injured when he fell through the second floor of the home into the basement. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Sweden hunts hackers STOCKHOLM: The Swedish government said yesterday it planned to crack down on hackers, at a time when the sex assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made the country a target of repeated cyber attacks. “The government decided today to extend the remit of the cyber crime committee to include tougher penalties for large-scale data theft and other types of attacks against computer systems,” the ministry of justice said in a statement. “The range of penalties for data theft hasn’t changed since the laws were enacted almost 30 years ago,” it said. The ministry said “there are signs that the trend is towards more dangerous and important attacks against computer systems, for example the data intrusion or the attacks that have inundated the servers of banks and authorities.” The new laws will not come into force for some time, since the committee tasked with making the changes is to deliver its findings to the government on June 3 next year. Sweden has been hit by a wave of Internet attacks starting this summer, temporarily shutting down some of the country’s most visited sites. Swedish police believes there may be a link to the Assange case.

SOTTEVILLE-LES-ROUEN: Imams pray during a tribute ceremony at the house of the family of Imad Ibn Ziaten, French soldier and first victim of Islamist gunman Mohamed Merahin Sotteville-les-Rouen, western France. Merah shot dead three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers before being killed himself on March 22 following a 32-hour police siege of his flat in Toulouse. — AFP

US governor gives phone sex hotline An embarrassing mistake TALLAHASSEE: In an embarrassing mistake, Florida Governor Rick Scott gave out a phone sex hotline number to Floridians seeking information on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.

Scott was providing an update on the outbreak at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday when he announced what he said was the hotline’s toll-free phone line, but gave out the wrong number.

The governor’s office was alerted by a public radio station in Tampa, WUSF, which was monitoring the cabinet meeting and posted the number on its website. The station said it was “quickly notified by a reader that the number instead connected to an adult telephone line.”

Callers are greeted with the recording of a woman’s voice saying: “Hello boys, thank you for calling me on my anniversary.” Contacted Wednesday, Scott’s spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said the governor inadvertently misread the number. He was informed of the error and was able to correct himself about 20 minutes later in the same meeting. The correct number for the Florida Fungal Meningitis Hotline is 866-523-7339, but Scott got one of the digits mixed up. Since the outbreak began, 138 people have contracted meningitis and 12 have died, including one in Florida, according to the latest tally from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Volkswagen Behbehani unveils brand-new Passat 2013

US trade deficit rose to $44.2bn in August PAGE 21 PAGE 20

TOKYO: International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde (center) answers questions as Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab (left), Japanese Finance Minister Koriki Jojima (second left), Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (second right) and Chairman of Japan’s comprehensive electrical machinery maker Hitachi Takashi Kawamura (right) listen during a seminar as part of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Tokyo yesterday.—AFP

IMF urges action to tackle euro crisis ‘World economy falling short of pessimistic expectations’ TOKYO: The head of the International Monetary Fund yesterday called for urgent action to tackle Europe’s debt problems and an approaching fiscal crisis in the US, warning that the struggling world economy is already falling short of even pessimistic expectations.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde, speaking to reporters as the IMF and World Bank held annual meetings in Tokyo, praised recent steps taken by the European Central Bank and European governments, but said “more needs to happen, and faster.”

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven richest nations met for about 90 minutes on the sidelines to discuss the European debt crisis. They also discussed the impending budget impasse in the US, an issue that prompted some at the meeting to express concern, according to a senior Japanese Ministry of Finance official. They released no communique.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was upbeat about recent moves in Europe to stabilize and reform crisis-stricken economies. “The basic thrust of the strategy is right and good,” he told a conference on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings. “They’re already having traction in improving competitiveness.”

Geithner also sought to strike a reassuring tone regarding the threat of the so-called “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and deep spending cuts that will take effect in 2013 unless Congress and the Obama administration resolve a budget impasse. The Obama administration intends to try to fix the problem before the end of the year, Geithner said. “We’re going to take a run at it.”

The IMF has urged the US to raise the ceiling on the level of debt the government can issue, which is capped by law. In August 2011, a battle between Republicans and Democrats over raising the limit wasn’t resolved until the US almost defaulted on its debt.

Lagarde called for “decisive action” on the issue. The IMF has scaled back its global growth forecast for 2012 to 3.3 percent from 3.5 percent, and has warned that even its dimmer outlook might prove too optimistic if Europe and the United States fail to resolve their crises.

“We are not expecting a very, very strong recovery. The recovery continues, but it continues more slowly than we had expected earlier this year,” said Lagarde. The slowdown is “having a ripple effect on emerging markets, and in particular in Asia.” She did praise recent steps to shore up Europe’s financial system, which has been burdened by high government debt and weak banks in countries such as Greece and Spain, but stressed that more needs to be done.

The ECB has decided to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds to help lower borrowing costs but countries that want to benefit from that measure need to apply to other euro nations for a bailout first.

European governments have also taken steps to reduce budget deficits. A proposal to design a European banking supervision system, however, has run into obstacles, with Germany wanting more time to finalize details before making the ECB the supervisor of banks.

Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received bailouts from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Union. — AP

Kuwait stocks at 2-week low MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Kuwait’s index fell to a two-week low yesterday, dropping for a third time this week, as political instability and lack of government spending keeps investors on the sidelines.The benchmark dropped 0.4 percent to its lowest close since Sept 26. The benchmark had dropped to an 8-year low in August.

The political crisis in the cash-rich Gulf state has delayed economic decision-making within the government and put multibillion dollar investment plans on hold.

Gulf Investment House gained 6.5 percent in speculative-driven buys, while Gulf Finance House and Abyaar Real Estate dropped 2.7 percent and 4.1 percent respectively. NBK and telecoms firm Zain ended flat.

Meanwhile, other Gulf markets were muted as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of third-quarter earnings which have slowly begun to trickle down. Dubai’s index climbed 0.7 percent as renewed optimism in the emirate’s real estate market boosted property stocks. Contarctor Arabtec gained 2.4 percent and Emaar Properties added 0.3 percent.

“The turnover is still low in Dubai. A slight pick up is due to the bullish senti-

ment we have seen over the last two months heading into the third quarter earnings,” said Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments.

Abu Dhabi’s index changed little, adding 0.08 percent. Egypt’s benchmark index was trading lower by 0.5 percent at 1130 GMT, weighed down by some investor concerns that calls for protests could herald fresh tension on the streets.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohammed Morsi to power, called for a protest yesterday and today after a court acquitted some former officials accused of ordering an attack last year on protests against Hosni Mubarak. Some other groups have called for protests today against Morsi’s policy failings so far in office. Heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) is down 1.2 percent.

“There is a fear about what will happen (on Friday). That makes investors, especially foreign investors, want to sell,” one Egyptian trader said. Shares in private equity firm Citadel Capital extend gains to a second day, rising 3 percent, after its chairman outlined plans to invest $4 billion in Egypt over three years. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

US trade deficit rose to $44.2bn in August Jobless claims fall to 339K WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit widened in August as exports fell to the lowest level in six months, a worrisome sign that a slowing global economy is cutting into demand for US goods. The deficit increased to $44.2 billion in August, the biggest gap since May and a 4.1 percent increase from July, the Commerce Department said yesterday.

the lowest level in more than four years. The sharp drop offered a hopeful sign that the job market could pick up. The Labor Department said yesterday that weekly applications fell by 30,000 to the fewest since February 2008. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped by 11,500 to 364,000, a six-month low.

The positive figures follow a report

BOSTON: A container ship from China is docked at Massport’s Conley Terminal in the port of Boston. The US trade deficit widened in August 2012 as exports fell to the lowest level in six months, a worrisome sign that a slowing global economy is cutting into demand for US goods. —AP Exports dropped 1 percent to $181.3 billion. Demand for Americanmade cars and farm goods declined.

Imports edged down a slight 0.1 percent to $225.5 billion as purchases of foreign-made autos, aircraft and heavy machinery fell. The cost of oil imports rose sharply.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid plummeted last week to seasonally adjusted 339,000,

last week that said the unemployment rate fell in September to 7.8 percent. It was the first time since January 2009 that the rate dropped below 8 percent.

A Labor Department spokesman cautioned that the weekly applications can be volatile, particularly at the start of a quarter. And the spokesman said one large state accounted for much of the decline. The spokesman

did not name the state.

A wider trade deficit acts as a drag on growth because it means the US is earning less on overseas sales of American-produced goods while spending more on foreign products.

So far this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $561.6 billion, up slightly from last year’s $559.9 billion imbalance.

For August, the deficit with China dipped 2.3 percent to $28.7 billion as US exports to that country edged up modestly while imports from China fell. But for the year, the US deficit is on track to surpass last year’s record, the highest ever recorded with a single country. The widening trade gap with China has worsened trade tensions between the two countries and has become a debating point in the presidential race. GOP challenger Mitt Romney is promising to take a tougher approach than President Barack Obama has on Chinese trade practices which he says are giving the country an unfair advantage over American workers. The deficit with the European Union fell by 2 percent in August to $11.7 billion as US exports to the region outpaced imports. However, economists expect US sales to Europe to weaken in coming months because many European nations are now in a recession brought on by a prolonged debt crisis. The US deficit with Japan fell 1.4 percent in August to $6.7 billion as American exports to Japan rose to the highest level since March 1996.

US economic growth slowed to an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter.

Most economists don’t expect the economy to grow much more than 2 percent for the rest of the year.

American manufacturers have been hampered by slumping economies in Europe, China and other key export markets. Many European countries are recession. The region accounts for about one-fifth of US exports.

Dubai’s Limitless restructures $1.2bn loan DUBAI: Indebted Dubai property firm Limitless has concluded the restructuring of a $1.2 billion loan, bringing to an end talks that have lasted over two years. The former property arm of Dubai World, which once tried to build a 75-kilometre inland waterway called the Arabian Canal, will now be owned by the Dubai government, Limitless said yesterday.

“Limitless has honored all profit payments on the loan since it was signed in 2008, and will continue to make the payments under the new agreement,” the developer said.

The developer said it has cleared its obligations to 92 percent of trade creditors, and has signed settlement agreements with the remainder. It did not give details of terms agreed with creditors for the restructuring, including the time period by which the loan was extended. Hit hard by the global financial crisis, Limitless rolled over the Islamic debt facility owed to a syndicate of banks several times. The loan was originally due to mature in March 2010. The developer was a victim of Dubai’s corporate debt crisis in 2009

triggered by conglomerate Dubai World’s request to delay repaying $26 billion in debt. Dubai World reached an agreement in 2011 with banks to extend debt maturities and promising repayment mostly through asset sales.

Dubai World transferred ownership of Limitless to the government along with Nakheel, which also restructured its $16 billion debt last year. Helped by an economic revival in trade and tourism over the past year, Dubai has pushed for solutions to debt problems. State-linked Dubai International Capital reached an agreement with banks earlier this year to reschedule $2.4 billion of debt, and Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group agreed on a $555 million rescheduling last December.

Limitless’s current projects are the Downtown Jebel Ali master development and The Galleries mixed-use community within phase one of Downtown Jebel Ali. Overseas, the company is currently developing Al Wasl in Saudi Arabia, Zagorodny Kvartal in Russia and Halong Star in Vietnam. —Reuters

TEHRAN: An Iranian technician resting next to a Peugeot 206 car during a break at the Iran Khodro auto plant, west of Tehran. Auto production in sanctions-hit Iran nosedived by more than 42 percent in the past six months, media reports said yesterday. —AFP

EADS-BAE merger crash hits EU ambitions PARIS: Germany was under fire, the European aerospace industry in search of a new future and EU credibility undermined yesterday with the failure of a merger by EADS and BAE Systems. The fiasco was a huge blow to European ambitions because Germany, France and Britain were unable to seal the deal, and the immediate losers are the two companies, analysts and press comment stressed.

German newspapers blamed the government of Angela Merkel in Berlin for shooting the deal down and damaging the EU in a misguided drive to protect German jobs.

EADS is now faced with rethinking its strategy and BAE Systems faces tough options and could be taken over, some analysts said. The board of the European Aerospace Defense and Space Company (EADS) reaffirmed its support for chief executive Tom Enders yesterday.

Amid recriminations over who was to blame, French President Francois Hollande said the final decision had been taken by the firms but analysts said they were left with no choice shortly before a deadline under British merger rules. EADS and BAE Systems were salvaging what they could from the wreckage of their merger strategy, but the collapse of negotiations on Tuesday raised far bigger questions about how EU governments work together.

These were highlighted by excoriating comment in German newspapers which described the failure, widely blamed on Germany, as a “disaster” and a big blow to the “European dream.”

The mass circulation Bild accused the German government of “lacking courage” and damaging the European Union. Germany had “missed an opportunity,” it said.

“Europe needs a leading-edge industry to face international competition.”

It continued: “The percentage of influence held by the French, Germans or British matters little.” The business paper Handelsblatt was more direct, referring to “the end of the European dream.” EADS would have to restructure and BAE Systems was left with few options to develop, it warned.

And Sueddeutsche Zeitung, based in Munich in Bavaria, declared that Merkel’s ministers “took the wrong road in wanting to control EADS.” It said: “The defence of German jobs is not determined by a state’s shareholding but by the success of its products and its competitiveness.” The failure of the deal was a “disaster”.

Elections take place next year in Bavaria, where EADS has substantial activities and then Merkel faces national elections. The risk that electors would have seen a merger as a threat to jobs is believed to have weighed heavily with Merkel. In France by contrast, Hollande is in his first year as President. But he is struggling in the polls against a perception that his administration is weak at home and playing number two to Germany in the euro-zone debt crisis. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

S&P rating cut piles pressure on Spain Spain banks’ dependence on ECB continues MADRID: Spain faced renewed pressure to take the politically humiliating step of seeking sovereign aid yesterday after a credit agency cut its rating to near junk, triggering a spike in its borrowing costs.

Standard and Poor’s said recession was limiting Spain’s options on policy and said Madrid’s delay in asking for aid could drag on the new rating, which it kept on negative outlook - indicating another cut is in prospect. Another headache for the government came with data showing consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in 16 months in September, further depressing demand among cash-strapped consumers.

“We expect the current situation to continue to run until either market or political pressures become more acute,” US investment bank JP Morgan said in a note to clients. “The promise of ECB action may be holding back both sorts of pressure in the near-term, and there is little evidence to suggest that either will necessarily reappear over the next few weeks.”

The European Central Bank’s plan to buy the bonds of struggling governments has raised hopes of an end to the most acute phase of the euro zone’s crisis. Spain’s delay in asking formally for such aid is steadily undermining such hopes. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has said he will only make an aid request decision when he had all the

details, is thought to be waiting for regional elections Oct. 21 and, if the ECB effect keeps debt costs down, he may delay a decision further.

While neither Rajoy or the eurozone’s paymaster Germany seem keen for Spain to dive in to a rescue plan, further market pressure or a sovereign downgrade to junk would hasten the process, economists say. “In the short term we suspect that the noise and column inches generated by the S&P downgrade will be disproportionate to its impact,” Citi said in a note.

“But the longer term impact could be very significant if the market sees the trajectory towards Spain’s eventual exclusion from (investment grade) indices as inevitable.”

Secretary of State for the Economy Fernando Jimenez Latorre reiterated that Madrid was still considering whether to apply for aid. S&P’s action brought it in line with peer Moody’s, which also has Spain on the verge of losing its investment grade and is due to complete a review of that rating this month.

Spanish borrowing costs have fallen back from levels above 7 percent that triggered bailouts for other euro zone states, but the yield on its 10-year bond rose to near 6 percent early on Thursday before dipping back to 5.85 percent.

Improved funding conditions over the last month have helped Spanish corpo-

rates and banks, including Santander and BBVA, return to markets for funds and reduce reliance on the ECB for funding.

“There has been a window for Spanish companies and banks to tap the bond markets and that has reduced the reliance in September, but it is still too early to talk about a new trend and overall the dependence on the ECB seems high,” said Nuria Alvarez, analyst at Madrid-based Renta 4.

The Treasury plans a private placement of 4.86 billion euros ($6.3 billion) of bonds maturing in 2015, 2016 and 2017 on Thursday to finance part of a fund aimed at reducing financing costs for Spanish regions that have been shut out of markets.

Its efforts to cut back public spending and retrench the budget include a 3-point rise in VAT to 21 percent last month.

Data yesterday, however, showed that drove inflation to 3.4 percent another burden for households already struggling with unemployment of 25 percent and cuts in pay and benefits. The resulting grim growth outlook is undermining Rajoy’s plans to cut the deficit from 8.9 percent of national output to 4.5 percent next year. Economists worry that higher inflation will also lead to higher rises in inflation-indexed pensions that could further undermine the push. —Reuters

Turkey debut sukuk struggles after Gulf over-allocation DUBAI: Turkey’s first sovereign sukuk issue was a public relations triumph but it’s been a financial disappointment so far in the secondary market, showing the risks of over-allocating debt deals to a single region.

The $1.5 billion Islamic bond, maturing in 2018 and issued at a profit rate of 2.803 percent, dropped to about 98 cents on the dollar in the secondary market soon after issue in mid-September and has stayed below par since then.

Traders say bids have ranged between 99.0 and 99.5 cents in the past few days.

It was bid at 99.5 cents on Thursday to yield 2.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

As Turkey’s first official foray into Islamic finance, the sukuk issue was closely watched by investors around the world, drawing 250 separate orders totalling over $7 billion. The successful sale paved the way for Turkey to raise 1.62 billion lira ($905 million) with a local currency-denominated sovereign sukuk two weeks later.

The historic nature of the dollar sukuk, however, may have blinded some buyers to risks such as a last-minute upsizing of the issue and an overwhelming allocation to a single region, the Middle East.

“Whilst we are comfortable with Turkey as a credit, we avoided the issue

as there was no clarity on the size or pricing until the last minutes of the deal,” said Mark Watts, head of fixed income in the asset management group at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

“When buying any asset, clarity of price and size of supply are key. Turkey priced aggressively, a good deal for them, but it left little on the table for investors and slipped below its issue levels after a short period.”

Turkey, rated BB by Standard & Poor’s, was initially expected to raise between $500 million and $750 million from the issue, or up to a maximum of $1 billion, several regional investors who attended roadshows told Reuters. But the issue was expanded to $1.5 billion in the closing hours, even as price guidance continued to tighten - in contrast to the usual pattern of a substantial upsizing causing some widening of the pricing.

Another surprise was the huge allocation to the Middle East. Traditionally, Gulf investors have focused on their own region, where yields are relatively high relative to credit ratings. So an allocation of well under half of the Turkish sukuk to the Middle East would have seemed reasonable.

But the Turkish sukuk was sold 58 percent to the Middle East, 13 percent to Europe, 12 percent to Asia, 9 percent to

Turkey and 8 percent to US investors. The small Asian allocation was particularly shocking, since Malaysia is one of the biggest sources of demand for sukuk globally.

Many major investors in the United Arab Emirates, both Islamic and conventional, have told Reuters they did not put in orders for the Turkey deal. They cited various reasons, including unusually tight pricing for a first-time, sub-investment grade issuer.

The implication is that a relatively small number of investors in the Gulf ended up with considerably more of the sukuk than they had expected. In most deals, investors bid for more of a bond than they think they will be allocated, on the assumption that actual distribution of the bond will be proportional to their share of the total bid. In this case, Turkey seems to have skewed its allocation in favour of Middle Eastern bids. “It was quite expensive and over-allocated. A lot of bidders went in with conditional orders, above a certain spread, 200 (basis points over midswaps) mostly,” said a regional trader who declined to be identified. Turkish government officials declined to comment on their motivations for the allocations, but many market participants think they may have had political and strategic motives. —Reuters

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference following a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the chancellery in Berlin yesterday.—AP

Europe’s outlook darkens, German outlook fades BERLIN: Europe’s economic outlook darkened further yesterday when top economists slashed their growth forecasts for Germany and warned that public support for financial aid for struggling countries was evaporating.

In a joint report for the Economy Ministry released yesterday, leading economic research institutes said they now expect gross domestic to increase by only 1 percent in 2013 instead of 2.0 percent. They said the financial woes of other euro-zone nations were weighing on the currency bloc’s largest economy, hurting business spending on new equipment and production facilities, a key component of growth.

They said that Germany risked a worse outcome if political leaders around the euro-zone do not keep up their efforts to control the debt crisis. A new eruption of market tensions - which have calmed recently due to action by the European Central Bank - could make things worse.

If the debt crisis should worsen and borrowing costs for troubled countries spike, they said, “there is a great danger Germany will fall into recession.” They also noted that patience was “evaporating” in Europe’s richer countries such as Germany and Finland for continued financial support for indebted countries such as Greece.

The German economy is expected to keep growing mainly because exports are holding up well, the economists said. Meanwhile, financial market conditions are calmer after the ECB said it could buy government bonds issued by indebted governments such as Italy and Spain, if they promised to take steps to reduce debt. Such purchases would lower the high borrowing costs that threaten to push them to financial ruin. “Over the course of the year ahead economic activity in Germany is expected to improve, since the situation in the euro-zone should gradually ease and the rest of the world economy should gain greater momentum,” they said in their twice-yearly report.

The report - prepared by Germany’s top six economic research institutes together with one in Austria and another in Switzerland - also cut the forecast for 2012 German economic growth from 0.9 percent to 0.8 percent. The institutes’ economists said voters in more financially solid countries were getting restless about being put on the hook for bailout loans like the ones that rescued Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Domestic debates in Germany and Finland, where voter skepticism about bailouts runs high, “have shown that the readiness to increase assistance loans or make transfers is evaporating.” That increases the importance of reforming economies to increase growth and reduce deficits. European officials are currently deciding whether Greece has done enough budget-cutting and economic reforms to merit getting more money from its bailout loan.

The institutes warned that the ECB could not revive the economy by itself, and that its chances of lowering borrowing costs for governments and companies in the countries hit by the crisis will largely depend on whether politicians act. “The ECB’s chances... will largely depend on whether economic policy can restore the confidence of financial investors, companies and households,” the report said. —AP

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend. One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : In northern Finland, THE 99 try to rescue workers from a half-collapsed lighthouse.

New member HAKIMA THE WISE bravely responds to a cry from help, despite TV reporter Nicole Avenegne’s protests that Hakima has no physical superpowers...

www.the99.org

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2012, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

THEY ARE THE 99!

Opinion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Egypt men stepping up to fight sexual harassment

By Nihal Magdy

R

eports of sexual harassment in Egypt have risen drastically in the past few months.

The problem, while not new to Egypt, has become an epidemic seriously affecting the lives of millions of women in the country. Whether incidents of sexual harassment have risen or whether more women are choosing to report the incidents after the revolution is hard to verify. Nonetheless, there has been a noticeable increase in discussions about sexual harassment in the media, within academic circles and among Egyptians of varying socio-economic backgrounds.

There have been a number of initiatives over the years aimed at combating the problem, the majority of which have been volunteer-based.

However, one of the most fundamental and apparent changes underreported in international media has been the increased pervasiveness of men’s involvement in fighting sexual harassment in Egypt. Men stepping up to tackle this problem shows that they are recognising that this is not a “women’s issue” but one affecting society as a whole.

Welad El Balad (The Country’s Children) is an excellent example of a male-led initiative to fight sexual harassment. Founded by Karim Mahrous in 2011, the group trains its volunteers on the legal, psychological and social implications of sexual harassment so they can effectively engage with their communities and raise awareness of the problem and its consequences.

They also focus on encouraging women to report incidents of sexual harassment to officials.

According to a 2008 report by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR), more than 80 per cent of Egyptian women have experienced sexual harassment. Given that a mere 2.4 per cent reported the incident, Welad El Balad’s attempt at encouraging women to speak up is important. In fact, there are a number of groups that involve men and women actively working together against sexual harassment.

Estargel (Be a Man) is a volunteer-led initiative launched to tackle the problem of men riding in the women-only carriage in the Cairo underground metro. The efforts of both male and female volunteers have led to metro officials launching a hotline for women to report incidents of sexual harassment and men riding in the women-only carriage of the trains.

Another group, Imprint Movement, organises patrols that monitor underground metro stations to stop harassers during Eid, a time that has become a season for sexual harassment in Egypt, perhaps due to large gatherings in public spaces. Harassmap enables victims of sexual harassment to report incidents via SMS, which are then mapped onto a public website. The map illustrates where harassment “hotspots” are. The tool alerts police, as well as community members, about the issue, and encourages communities to stand up to sexual harassment.

Importantly, half of Harassmap’s volunteers are men.

These volunteer-led initiatives are undoubtedly positive steps forward. However, because the problem is widespread in Egyptian society, it requires a comprehensive approach that includes short and long-term initiatives to reduce the social tolerance of sexual harassment.

Education and a review of the legal framework when it comes to criminalising sexual

harassment and effectively enforcing legislation are imperative in this regard. However women alone are unlikely to create a paradigm shift in the way Egyptian men perceive and respond to sexual harassment. This is especially true given that approximately 62 per cent of men actually admitted to sexually harassing women according to the 2008 ECWR report.

This finding emphasises the need for men to play a pivotal role in eradicating what has become a critical problem in Egypt. Their stance is paramount to changing the tolerance society has developed towards sexual harassment.

Men’s involvement in fighting sexual harassment denotes that there is a growing awareness that the impact of sexual harassment is not confined to individual incidents, but has a detrimental impact on women’s overall participation in society.

The fact that Egyptian men are actively fighting sexual harassment alongside women shows there is a slow but certain shift in attitudes in the largely conservative and patriarchal society, and perhaps a paradigm shift in the way Egyptian men perceive and respond to sexual harassment. These changes suggest that Egyptians, both men and women, realise that hindering women’s public participation in society will only impede the country’s advancement - and that both men and women tackling the problem together is good for Egypt as a whole.

NOTE: Nihal Magdy is a British Egyptian Muslim blogger and Marketing Specialist based in London —CGNews

CAIRO: Hundreds of Egyptian protesters march in the working class district of Shubra in Cairo. —AFP

Salafis working to counter intolerance

By Nada Zohdy

I

n recent weeks, speculations about Salafis have erupted in headlines as people try to understand the role they played in the tragic episodes of violence associated with an incendiary video ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Salafis are a broad group of conservative Muslims who typically have a literal understanding of Islam and seek to emulate and revive the traditions of the salaf or earliest followers of Islam. As more instances of Salafi political engagement have emerged, a notable break from their long history of political passivity, several Western analysts and media outlets have highlighted the seriousness of the emerging “Salafi threat”. A recent article in The New York Times, for instance, was titled, “Don’t fear all Islamists, fear Salafis”.

While Salafis do share a loose set of socially conservative values, they are not a monolithic group. Today, a group in Egypt known as Salafyo Costa presents a stark counter-narrative to the dominant discourse about Salafis found both in the West and the Muslim world. This is a unique organisation that aims to dispel some of the widespread negative generalisations about Salafis, while uniting diverse Egyptians to work together to improve their country. It is important that we in the West and Muslim-majority countries take heed of such voices because of their potential to counter intolerance.

The name plays on the stereotype that Salafis, who are seen as anti-Western, would never drink lattes or frequent a Western coffeehouse like the Costa chain, which has opened stores in Egypt; an appropriate American parallel would be “the

Starbucks Salafis”. This unique Egyptian initiative is not only working to counter generalisations about Salafis, but also to stimulate conversations between people of opposing views on how to tackle Egypt’s most pressing social challenges. And while members of Salafyo Costa joined in many Tahrir demonstrations, the movement refuses to make any political endorsements.

When I met Mohammed Tolba, the founder of this initiative, many of my own assumptions of Salafis were fundamentally challenged - to be frank, I didn’t realise Salafis could be so light-hearted and tolerant. Mohammed emphasised some basic struggles that the group faces: reminding themselves and other Salafis that they do not have an absolute monopoly on religious truth, and encouraging Salafis to have regular and meaningful interactions with other Egyptians rather than isolating themselves as they have for many years (which in part was a result of the discrimination they faced under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak).

The group has also attracted a remarkable number of politically liberal supporters, and it may come as a surprise that Coptic Christians are among its core members. It also has nearly 150,000 fans on Facebook. Both Salafi and Coptic members share socially conservative values and guard their religious practices closely, yet recognise the necessity of transcending theological differences to work with others for the interest of their country as a whole.

Indeed, one basic principle of Salafyo Costa is its emphasis on fully preserving one’s identity while collaborating with people you may disagree with.

Mohammed Tolba explained to me their acknowledgement that theological disputes are rather counterproductive. Instead, they focus their

energies on social activities like Salafi-Coptic football games and community service - which is particularly noteworthy given the ongoing sectarian tensions in post-revolutionary Egypt. Despite Mohammed’s own somewhat traditional Salafi appearance with his long beard - although he was wearing sharp business attire - he talked about the importance of not focusing on superficial manifestations of religiosity but rather social issues that really matter, and on rebuilding Egyptian society.

I was particularly struck when, somewhat in contrast to the dominance of literal interpretations among Salafis, he expressed learning from his own Salafi teachers the importance of returning to original religious sources and recognising their underlying principles before implementing them in daily life -indeed, this is what the term Salafi refers to. It is unique initiatives like Salafyo Costa that are most likely to succeed in effectively countering the ideological intolerance and willingness to use violence to impose their viewpoint of some Salafis, by presenting an alternative from within the spectrum of religious conservatism.

We in the West, and those in Muslim-majority countries, should be aware of these and other advocates of tolerance and bridge-building across ideological divides. Not only will this help combat dangerous forms of intolerance, but giving a greater platform to such voices will also help lay the foundation for a strong democracy in transitional countries like Egypt, as open and respectful discourse between those of opposing views is a key feature of any democratic society.

NOTE: Nada Zohdy is based in Washington, DC, where she works to support civil society in the Middle East and North Africa —CGNews

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012 www.kuwaittimes.net

Abbie Cornish attends a screening of the "Seven Psychopaths" hosted

by The Cinema Society and Hugo Boss on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 in New York. — AP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012 www.kuwaittimes.net

Singer Pia Toscano arrives at OUT Magazine's 20th Anniversary Party presented by Lexus at Station at W Hotel on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 in Los Angeles. — AP

Food FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Pear-a-nomics P

ears are one of the signature fruits of autumn, and a nice change of pace from summer’s delicate fruits and berries.

Though there are thousands of varieties, Bartletts are the best known. They’re recognized by their shapely bottoms and long necks. They arrive rock-hard at the grocery store. Most pears ripen off the tree, and Bartletts are no exception. They’re picked in August and September when mature but still firm and available through December-January, according to the USA Pears Web site, www.usapears.com. Given time, Bartletts turn from green to yellow and their flesh from crunchy and tart to creamy and super sweet and juicy - perfect for eating out of

hand. If the neck near the stem yields when pressed, it means the pear is on its way to ripening.

Firm, ripe pears are what’s needed for these recipes. Softer pears will turn mealy as they cook. Pears can be used in place of apples in any recipe. The advantage of using pears is that they let other flavors shine. That means you can really taste the touch of cardamom and apricot jam in the pie. Pears also have more fiber than apples: 5 grams to an apple’s 3 grams. A medium-size pear, though, has more calories: 98 calories versus an apple’s 81.

PEAR CAKE Serves 16

Makes 20 to 30 pear chips

PEAR CHIPS

Ingredients 1 cup sugar 1\2 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 cup water 2 underripe pears Method Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

In a medium size saucepan, combine the sugar, 1 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and continue to simmer while slicing the pears.

Slice the pears 1/16-inch thick using a mandoline. Immediately immerse the pear slices in the boiling sugar.

When the syrup has resumed a rapid boil, remove the slices with a slotted spoon to a plate. When cool enough to handle, place slices on a pan lined with parchment paper. Make sure slices don’t touch or overlap. Bake 40 to 50minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Once chips take on a dry appearance, remove one from the oven and allow to cool on the counter.

If it’s crispy once it’s cooled, it’s ready.

The chips will keep for two weeks, or longer if refrigerated.

Ingredients 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 1 cup sour cream 1 cup unsalted butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups coarsely chopped firm ripe pears Non-stick baking spray Method In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add eggs, sour cream, butter and vanilla to flour.

Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat for 1minute, until blended. Scrape sides and bottom of

bowl with a spatula. Beat on medium for 1minute.

Gently stir in pears. Spread batter evenly in 13-by-9-inch baking pan sprayed with nonstick baking spray with flour. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

This cake is delicious - not too sweet - without a crumb topping.

Camilla V. Saulsbury suggests a crumb topping made with 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, 1teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Using fingertips, blend ingredients until crumbly and sprinkle evenly on batter before baking.

Food FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

PEAR PIE

Makes 1 pie Ingredients 4 tablespoons apricot preserves 5 cups firm ripe Bartlett pears (about 6 or 7) 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon each nutmeg and cardamom 2 to 3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca 3 tablespoons butter Unbaked pastry for 2-crust pie

Method Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pie plate with half the pastry. Mix pie ingredients, dot filling with butter and top with remaining crust. Vent the top of the pie. Bake 40 to 50 minutes. Check for doneness by sticking a fork into the fruit and checking for tenderness.

Pears will soften but remain firm when baked into a pie. The juices in this pie will not bubble up as in a peach or cherry pie, so less tapioca will result in a juicer filling. — MCT

PEPPERY PEAR SALSA

Makes 6 8-ounce jars Ingredients 1 cup white vinegar 8 cups coarsely chopped cored, peeled pears 3 red bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped 3 green bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped 1 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons salt 2 teaspoons dry mustard 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Method Prepare canner, jars and lids.

In a large steel saucepan, combine vinegar and pears. Add red and green peppers, sugar, salt, mustard, turmeric, allspice and black pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 5minutes. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar.

Screw band down until resistance met, then increase to finger-tip tight. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process 8-ounce and pint jars for 20 minutes. Remove canner lids. Wait five minutes to remove jars.

Cool and store the salsa.

Beauty FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Time to I

f you were born with naturally curly hair, most women with straight hair have been jealous of your hair at some point. Women with limp, stick-straight hair spend hours of their lives with curling irons trying to mimic what comes naturally to you. But if you were born with super curly hair, you may find it aggravating at times when it frizzes up in certain climates and other times when you’d like straight hair without spending hours getting it that way. There are secrets to styling naturally curly hair and I’ve discovered them.

curl up and dye

hair. Brush the oil through the hair with a natural bristle hair brush, then put a shower cap on and sleep in it, washing the oil out in the morning.

Secret 6: There are right ways and wrong ways to use a blow-dryer The blow dryer can be a curly girl’s nightmare if used improperly. To avoid poof, let hair air dry as long as possible, then blow dry hair with a diffuser like this amazing one from Deva. Hold the blow dryer under hair, cupping (not squeezing) curls in your palm up folding the hair accordion-style as you dry hair.

If you don’t use a diffuser, aim the blow dryer nozzle downward, in the direction hair grows.

Secret 1: Embrace your natural curl If you’re in a hot, humid climate, you might as well put away your flat iron. You might spend hours straightening your hair, only to step outside and ... POOF! So what to do in humid climes? Embrace the curl. In fact, many women are foregoing the flat iron and going natural. Lorraine Massey, author of “Curly Girl: The Handbook” says in Glamour magazine, “The freedom is just ridiculous.” If you go natural, your hair will be healthier, you’ll save time not drying or straightening hair and you’ll stand out in a sea of straight hair women.

Secret 7: Don’t throw out your brush It’s actually a myth that you can’t brush curly hair. While some women swear off even a comb, preferring finger-combing, Scrivo writes in her book that brushing your hair can be a miracle maker. Brushing hair for 2 minutes a night helps distribute natural oils from scalp to hair, Scrivo writes, making it “smoother, more manageable, less frizzy, softer and shinier.”

Yes, your hair will likely pouf up into a mass of curls after brushing, but Scrivo says this is okay. Simply wait until just before bed to brush and rinse hair in the morning. The benefits, she insists, are worth it. “Whether you are plagued by frizz, dryness, split ends or even hair thinning, nightly brushing with a natural-bristle brush will help to alleviate if not completely cure the condition,” Scrivo writes.

Secret 2: If you want to go straight, you can One of the great benefits to curly hair is with a little bit of muscle or chemicals, you can go straight. Nicole Kidman has been sporting stick straight hair on the red carpet for years now, but the truth is, she has super curly hair though she looks better curly. There are several types of professional hair straightening available including the controversial Brazilian keratin treatments which removes frizz from curly hair leaving you with more manageable curls that are more easily straightened with a flat iron. There’s also the Japanese hair straightening methods, which really make your hair stick straight. It’s just a matter of finding one that fits into your budget and your hair texture. The solutions used are much like the solutions for a perm, only instead of curly hair, they straighten it.

Secret 8: How to distribute product through hair Most women apply product to the top of their heads which can weigh hair down, Scrivo writes in her book. The best way to apply product is to start in the back where hair is thicker. You can then work the product through the sides and at the top of the head.

Add small amounts of product as you make your way through sections of hair. You can comb the product through or massage it into hair with your fingers.

Secret 3: Invest in a ceramic flat iron If you want to go straight on occasion, invest in a great ceramic flat iron — it’s much less time-consuming and a great iron won’t fry your hair.

Secret 4: No, You are not destined for a life full of frizz As you likely well know by now, humidity can wreak havoc on curly hair. Curly hair tends to be dry and therefore vulnerable to humid air — it simply wants to soak up moisture. This causes cuticles to expand, which causes frizz.

The secret to keeping frizz at bay involves moisture, moisture, moisture. To keep hair properly moisturized, you need a few hair products including: non-sulfate shampoo, a leave-in conditioner, a deep conditioner and a styling product involving silicone. If you have curly hair, these should be staples in your bathroom cabinet. All either keep the hair

Secret 9: Headbands are an excellent choice For curly-haired women short on time, a headband can be a lifesaver. If you pull hair back in a band while it’s damp, it’s a great way to “flatten” hair at the crown, leaving the curls at your hair’s ends. Later you can pull off the hairband and you’ll have gorgeous body. moisturized or protect the cuticle from moisture.

Secret 5: Deep condition at least once a week If your hair is susceptible to dryness, frizz or dandruff, keep away from products with

alcohol and treat hair to a deep conditioning hair mask at least once a week. Consider natural oils as well. Stylist Eva Scrivo recommends in her book “Eva Scrivo On Beauty” to take a few drops of neem oil or amla oil (olive oil or jojoba oil also works) in your palm and massage with your fingers into your scalp and

Secret 10: Get the right haircut There are so many secrets to getting the right haircut for your naturally curly hair. For instance, you should avoid bangs, longer hair works better than shorter and it’s a myth that you need a specialist in curly hair to cut yours. www.beauty.about.com

Books FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

28 books everyone should read before they’re 28 W

ith its fame for hosting informative, easy-to-skim textual snippets and collaborative written works, people are spending more and more time reading online. The 28 books listed here are of unparalleled prose, packed with wisdom capable of igniting a new understanding of the world.

Everyone should read these books before their 28th birthday.

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.

2. 1984 by George Orwell 1984 still holds chief significance nearly sixty years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an allknowing government, which uses pervasive, twenty-four/seven surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl. It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.

individual human rights within society.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This novel does not have a plot in the conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural history.

10.The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.

11.The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton A collection of thoughts, meditations and reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.

12.The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product

tury literature. Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read them all.

16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life.

Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”

17.Four Quartets by T S Eliot Probably the wisest poetic prose of modern times. It was written during World War II, and is still entirely relevant today ... here’s an excerpt: “The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The

4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent. This novel will blow you away... leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.

5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.

6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel. The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha ... and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.

7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy.

8. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau A famous quote from the book states that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” This accurately summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of

This novel firmly stands as an icon for accurately representing the ups and downs of teen angst, defiance and rebellion. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of the unpredictable teenage mindset.

21.Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky A smooth-flowing, captivating novel of a young man living in poverty who criminally succumbs to the desire for money, and the hefty psychological impact this has on him and the people closest to him.

22.The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli This book does a great job at describing situations of power and statesmanship. From political and corporate power struggles to attaining advancement, influence, and authority over others, Machiavelli’s observations apply.

23.Walden by Henry David Thoreau Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days writing this book in a secluded cabin near the banks of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. This is a story about being truly free from the pressures of society. The book can speak for itself: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

24. The Republic by Plato A gripping and enduring work of philosophy on how life should be lived, justice should be served, and leaders should lead. It also gives the reader a fundamental understanding of western political theory.

concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”

13.The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham Arguably one of the best children’s books ever written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life. It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.

14.The Art of War by Sun Tzu One of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of general strategy and business tactics.

15.The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien One of the greatest fictional stories ever told, and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in twentieth-cen-

intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire.”

18.Catch-22 by Joseph Heller This book coined the self-titled term “catch22” that is widely used in modern-day dialogue. As for the story, its message is clear: What’s commonly held to be good, may be bad ... what is sensible, is nonsense. Its one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. Read it.

19.The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald Set in the Jazz Age of the roaring 20s, this book unravels a cautionary tale of the American dream. Specifically, the reader learns that a few good friends are far more important that a zillion acquaintances, and the drive created from the desire to have something is more valuable than actually having it.

20.The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

25. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption... and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.

26.Getting Things Done by David Allen The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.

27.How To Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie This is the granddaddy of all self-improvement books. It is a comprehensive, easy to read guide for winning people over to your way of thinking in both business and personal relationships.

28.Lord of the Flies by William Golding A powerful and alarming look at the possibilities for savagery in a lawless environment, where compassionate human reasoning is replaced by anarchistic, animal instinct. www.divinecaroline.com

Books FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

28 books everyone should read before they’re 28 W

ith its fame for hosting informative, easy-to-skim textual snippets and collaborative written works, people are spending more and more time reading online. The 28 books listed here are of unparalleled prose, packed with wisdom capable of igniting a new understanding of the world.

Everyone should read these books before their 30th birthday.

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.

2. 1984 by George Orwell 1984 still holds chief significance nearly sixty years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an allknowing government, which uses pervasive, twenty-four/seven surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl. It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.

individual human rights within society.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This novel does not have a plot in the conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural history.

10.The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.

11.The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton A collection of thoughts, meditations and reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.

12.The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product

tury literature. Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read them all.

16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life.

Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”

17.Four Quartets by T S Eliot Probably the wisest poetic prose of modern times. It was written during World War II, and is still entirely relevant today ... here’s an excerpt: “The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The

4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent. This novel will blow you away... leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.

5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.

6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel. The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha ... and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.

7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy.

8. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau A famous quote from the book states that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” This accurately summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of

This novel firmly stands as an icon for accurately representing the ups and downs of teen angst, defiance and rebellion. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of the unpredictable teenage mindset.

21.Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky A smooth-flowing, captivating novel of a young man living in poverty who criminally succumbs to the desire for money, and the hefty psychological impact this has on him and the people closest to him.

22.The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli This book does a great job at describing situations of power and statesmanship. From political and corporate power struggles to attaining advancement, influence, and authority over others, Machiavelli’s observations apply.

23.Walden by Henry David Thoreau Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days writing this book in a secluded cabin near the banks of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. This is a story about being truly free from the pressures of society. The book can speak for itself: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

24.

The Republic by Plato A gripping and enduring work of philosophy on how life should be lived, justice should be served, and leaders should lead. It also gives the reader a fundamental understanding of western political theory.

concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”

13.The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham Arguably one of the best children’s books ever written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life. It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.

14.The Art of War by Sun Tzu One of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of general strategy and business tactics.

15.The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien One of the greatest fictional stories ever told, and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in twentieth-cen-

intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire.”

18.Catch-22 by Joseph Heller This book coined the self-titled term “catch22” that is widely used in modern-day dialogue. As for the story, its message is clear: What’s commonly held to be good, may be bad ... what is sensible, is nonsense. Its one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. Read it.

19.The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald Set in the Jazz Age of the roaring 20s, this book unravels a cautionary tale of the American dream. Specifically, the reader learns that a few good friends are far more important that a zillion acquaintances, and the drive created from the desire to have something is more valuable than actually having it.

20.The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

25.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption... and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.

26.Getting Things Done by David Allen The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.

27.How To Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie This is the granddaddy of all self-improvement books. It is a comprehensive, easy to read guide for winning people over to your way of thinking in both business and personal relationships.

28.Lord of the Flies by William Golding A powerful and alarming look at the possibilities for savagery in a lawless environment, where compassionate human reasoning is replaced by anarchistic, animal instinct. www.divinecaroline.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Review

McDonagh’s nutty ‘Seven

I

n his second movie, the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has mangled together a comic, self-aware revenge flick that’s half Guy Ritchie, half Charlie Kaufman. If that sounds like an awkward pairing, it is.

“Seven Psychopaths” is manic and messy (particularly in the first half) and McDonagh - whose previous film was the more centered “In Bruges” - doesn’t yet have the visual command for a sprawling, madcap tale as this. But it’s also filled with deranged wit and unpredictable genre deconstruction that makes “Seven Psychopaths” if not quite a success, a fascinating mutt of a movie. Colin Farrell plays Marty, a harddrinking screenwriter in Los Angeles and a clear stand-in for McDonagh. (The first letters of his last name are pointedly obscured on his scripts, but “McDonagh” is coyly suggested.) He has his movie title - “Seven Psychopaths” - but little else.

His friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) is his sounding board. But as Marty tries to write, he gets sucked into Billy’s own hijinks. With the help of his older friend Hans (Christopher Walken), Billy kidnaps dogs and then returns them for the reward money. This practice gets them in trouble when they swipe the Shih Tzu of a dog-loving gangster (Woody Harrelson). Bloody bodies quickly accumulate. That this is the plot isn’t necessarily clear until fairly well into “Seven Psychopaths.” At first, it’s paced by stylish introductions of various psychopaths, some of whom are fictional inventions - like a murderous Vietnamese priest (Long Nguyen) - and some of whom are among

the main characters. It’s an excellent cast: others include Harry Dean Stanton, Abbie Cornish, Kevin Corrigan, Gabourey Sidibe and a bunny-cradling Tom Waits. But this is Rockwell’s movie. The actor has long specialized in loose cannons (“Moon,” “Snow Angels”) but his Billy may be the most fun yet. He enthusiastically supports Marty, try-

Psychopaths’

meant like chlamydia or something.”

In urging Marty’s script forward, Billy also pushes along “Seven Psychopaths.” Billy whose last name, Bickle, evokes Robert De Niro’s Travis - is the movies, themselves: violent, hysterical, lunatic and totally captivating. His suggested cliched vision for Marty’s script (the psychopaths team up for a ceme-

This film image released by CBS Films shows Colin Farrell, left, Christopher Walken, center, and Sam Rockwell in a scene from ‘Seven Psychopaths.’ —AP ing to get him to write, while revealing that he, too, might be a fittingly unhinged character for the script. But even in his darkest moments, he’s gleeful at the movie he’s acting out. Many of McDonagh’s best lines are his. Explaining that he didn’t mean to suggest his girlfriend is carrying a worse venereal disease, he sweetly says, twice: “Honey, I

tery shootout) could easily be in theaters any given week. (“Smokin’ Aces” comes to mind.) He is the excited advocate for gunplay, action and, absolutely, a big showdown finale - both in the script and in his life, if there’s a difference. Marty, though, wants his film to be about “love and peace” and halfway through “Seven Psychopaths,”

he contemplates a sudden turn away from the expected plot mechanics. He imagines the characters simply leaving their guns, going to the desert and talking.

Apoplectic, Billy responds: “What are we making, French movies now?” For a while, this is exactly what “Seven Psychopaths” does and it’s when it finds its footing.

McDonagh is best in such Beckett-like limbos heavy with Catholic guilt - the delightfully grim “In Bruges” was essentially set in purgatory, a.k.a. Belgium. The very talented writer-director has often drawn fair comparisons to Quentin Tarantino (both enjoy the chit chat of hit men), but McDonagh’s work has a darker soulfulness, even when meta playfulness like that in “Seven Psychopaths” obscures it.

Also in the desert, Walken’s character whose slow, deliberate enunciations are like a soothing metronome for film - takes peyote, which is worth the price of admission, alone. After breaking apart the crime film, McDonagh puts it back together again for a conclusion worthy of the genre. In the end, the movies - in all their insanity - win. The French lose. “Seven Psychopaths,” a CBS Films release, is rated R for strong violence, bloody images, pervasive language, sexuality, nudity and some drug use. Running time: 110 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. Motion Picture Association of America rating definition for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. —AP

Capsule reviews of Argo, other new movies

C

hristy Lemire, AP Movie Critic: “Argo” - A movie about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis probably doesn’t sound like it would be a laugh riot - or should be - but that’s just one of the many ways in which this is a glorious, gripping surprise. Directing his third feature, Ben Affleck has come up with a seamless blend of detailed international drama and breathtaking suspense, with just the right amount of dry humor to provide context and levity. He shows a deft handling of tone, especially in making difficult transitions between scenes in Tehran, Washington and Hollywood, but also gives one of his strongest performances yet in front of the camera as the film’s star. It’s exciting to see the confidence with which Affleck expands his ambition and scope as a filmmaker. “Argo” reveals his further mastery of pacing and storytelling, even as he juggles complicated set pieces, various locations and a cast featuring 120 speaking parts. And the story he’s telling sounds impossible, but it’s absolutely true (with a few thirdact tweaks to magnify the drama).

When protestors stormed the US embassy in Tehran, taking 52 people hostage, six employees sneaked out a back door and sought refuge at the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). Longtime CIA operative Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a crazy scheme to rescue them: He’ll fly to Tehran, pretend that they all entered the country together to scout locations for a schlocky sci-fi movie called “Argo,” then walk right out the front door with them and fly home. Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin are among the excellent supporting cast. R for language and some violent images. 120 minutes. Four stars out of four.

to the outrageousness of this guy getting into the cage against ferocious brutes and coming back out with his teeth and vital organs intact.

The real flaws are the stabs at genuine moments the inspirational classroom hijinks, the simple-headed critiques of the shortcomings of public schools, the humdrum romancing as James slowly wins the heart of Salma Hayek (yeah, like that’s going to happen).

Coraci lets all of that stuffing linger and wander too loosely. There are decent gags and laughs, but in between, it’s “here comes the boor” - James acting the buffoon to little effect for much of the movie. He’s helped by the amiable supporting cast, especially Henry Winkler as the music teacher faced with budget cuts that propel James onto the fighting circuit to raise cash and former UFC champ Bas Rutten as James’ trainer, who steals scenes with his lowbrow, bearhugging charm. PG for bouts of MMA sports violence, some rude humor and language. 104 minutes.

Two stars out of four.

Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic: “Smashed” The title refers not so much This film image released by Columbia Pictures shows, to the nearly perpetual from left, Bas Rutten, Henry Winkler, Mark Dellagrotte state of inebriation that a and Kevin James in a scene from ‘Here Comes the Boom.’ young husband and wife

David Germain, AP Movie Writer: “Here Comes the Boom” - This comedy starring Kevin James as a tubby science teacher who becomes a mixed martial arts sensation is every bit as ridiculous as it looks. That’s not such a bad thing for the movie, whose makers embrace the fact that they’re essentially doing a liveaction cartoon. Co-writer James and director Frank Coraci assemble a likable gang of oddballs that make it kind of work. Everyone surrounding James is so disarmingly incredulous yet perversely enthusiastic about his MMA foray that they disarm the audience

put themselves in but rather to the way the wife finds her existence truly shattered when she tries to get sober. Staying at least slightly drunk all the time is easy, as Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character knows well. It’s a blissfully ignorant existence, one big party.

But once you stop drinking, the reality you’ve shoved aside returns with a vengeance. This battle with the bottle (and with bottled-up demons) is a frequent film topic, and “Smashed” deserves some credit for mostly avoiding the sort of histrionics that can be staples of the genre. Instead, director James Ponsoldt’s film, from a script he co-wrote with Susan Burke, is understated to a fault.

The bottom isn’t low enough, the struggle isn’t difficult enough, and the characters (especially the supporting ones) don’t feel developed enough to provide necessary context for our heroine’s journey.

“Smashed” is the rare movie that feels too short, too thin and it ends on an unsatisfying and rather unconvincing note, despite some recognizable, raw moments that preceded it. But Winstead (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) gets to show the full range of her abilities in her heaviest dramatic role yet as a first-grade teacher who finds her marriage and her work in jeopardy when she tries to stop drinking. Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad” does the best he can with an underwritten role as her hard-partying husband. R for alcohol abuse, language, some sexual content and brief drug use. 85 minutes. Two stars out of four. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

A fan of Indian Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan performs a prayer in front of a banner of photographs to celebrate his 70th birthday in Kolkata yesterday. — AP/AFP photos

Indian fans of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan gather outside his residence on his 70th birthday.

ndia’s favorite film star Amitabh Bachchan turned 70 yesterday, marking his birthday with a lavish celebrity party and drawing hundreds of fans to cheer their hero outside his home. Bachchan, the elder statesman of Bollywood, hit the red carpet with his family on Wednesday night for celebrations in the entertainment capital Mumbai, where he was joined by a star-studded list of 800 guests. Outside his residence in the city, fans gathered yesterday to present flowers and chant “Long Live Amitabh!” but the birthday boy stuck a modest note. “Birthdays are special for all... mine is no different,” he said to his more than 3.5 million Twitter followers.

Among the film, business and political bigwigs at the party was fellow acting superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who tweeted that he had “too much fun” dancing with Bachchan and his

I

wife Jaya, who organized the bash. Yesterday Bachchan opened a mobile diabetes van at a Mumbai hospital. Known universally as “The Big B”, Bachchan made his name as the “angry young man” of Hindi cinema. He starred in more than 150 films including the 1970s hits “Sholay” (Embers), “Deewaar” (The Wall) and “Don”. Still acting in several films a year, he was voted “actor of the millennium” in a BBC online poll in 1999 and became the first Indian actor to gain a lookalike at London’s Madame Tussauds waxworks museum.

His legions of fans monitor his health closely: he was discharged from a Mumbai hospital late in February after undergoing surgery twice for an abdominal problem. The actor nearly died following an accident on the set of the 1982 film “Coolie” where he ruptured his spleen during a fight scene.

Fans at the time prayed for his recovery, holding vigils outside his hospital and making offerings at temples and mosques.

The veteran actor is a ubiquitous figure in Indian life, hosting the local version of quiz show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” supporting charity causes such as protecting tigers, and featuring in countless advertisements. He is set to make his Hollywood debut with a fleeting appearance in the new adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and due for release next year. — AP

Indian fans of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan gather outside his residence on his 70th birthday.

Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan waves to his fans .

Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan greets his fans.

T

he recipients of the Women In Film Foundation’s 27th annual Film Finishing Fund grant program were announced on Wednesday by the foundation. Supported by Netflix, the Film Finishing Fund provides annual cash grants and in-kind production services to winners and finalists. The Netflix grants range from $25,000 to $50,000. The ten winning projects for the 2012 Film Finishing Fund include two narrative feature films, seven documentaries and one narrative short.

This includes Iram Parveen Bilal for her narrative feature film “Josh (Against The Grain),” which tells the story of a nanny who is killed by a feudal Pakistani landlord when she tries to start a self-sustaining food market in her village. The French producer Antonin Dedet also won in the narrative feature film section for the Islamist drama “Yema”;

Documentary feature winners include: Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater for “Badddd Sonia Sanchez”; Grace Lee Boggs for “American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs”; Blair Doroshwalther for “Out In The Night”; Kathy McCabe for “Good Ol’ Freda,” which tells the story of The Beatles’ trusted secretary, Freda Kelly; Roberta Grossman for “Hava Nagila” (pictured above); Gregory Peck’s daughter, Cecilia Peck for “Miss World,” Nancy Kates for “Regarding Susan Sontag,” which looks at the life of the late critic and activist. —Reuters

A

London sale of James Bond souvenirs to mark the secret agent’s 50th silverscreen anniversary has raised over $2.6 million (two million euros), Christie’s auction house said Wednesday. Buyers from 42 countries took part in the auction with all proceeds going to to charity. The auction took place in two stages, firstly online from September 28 to October 8, and secondly during a party at Christie’s auction house on Friday. Notable guests included actor Roger Moore, who played the famous agent on the big screen, and Judi Dench, who appears in Skyfall, the saga’s latest installment which is released on October 24.

Many of the objects on offer were supplied

by Eon Productions, the British company that has produced the Bond films. The highlight of the collection was the Aston Martin DBS driv-

en by Daniel Craig, the current Bond, in the opening scene of “Quantum of Solace” (2008), during an Italian car chase. The car, estimated pre-auction at between $160,000 and $240,000, finally went under the hammer for $390,101. The titanium Omega watch worn by Craig in Skyfall sold for $250,000 euros while his Tom Ford tuxedo was snapped up for $75,000. A buyer also shelled out $71,876 for the baby blue swimming trunks worn by Craig in “Casino Royale” (2006). In total, $2,615,000 was raised during both sales for various charities including UNICEF. — AFP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

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PETS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Animal shelter lends out pets for the holidays Shelter officials called on people to take in as many animals as they could, just for the weekend. A few of the people didn’t have the heart to bring the animals back

M

r and Mrs Paws were left in a box on a recent Wednesday night outside Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter. The black-and-white kittens, just 6 weeks old, aren’t ready to be adopted - but through a new program, someone can give the squirmy pair a home for the holidays.

For the first time, the city’s largest shelter has joined Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays, a national program through which people can open their homes to needy dogs and cats during a time of year when they’re often forgotten. Since the Silver Spring, Md.-based Petfinder.com launched the program three years ago, about 1,500 shelters across the country have participated.

“I’ve heard from people who did it that it was the nicest spirit of giving thing they did all year,” said Betsy Banks Saul, Petfinder’s cofounder, who was inspired to launch the openended program after seeing a 2009 TV movie called “A Dog for Christmas.” “It brings the holiday spirit in the house and can really help to make a pet more adoptable.”

BARCS tried something similar during Hurricane Irene. When the storm loomed in August, shelter officials, afraid of flooding, called on people to take in as many animals as they could, just for the weekend. A few of the people didn’t have the heart to bring the animals back.

“We found a lot of people ended up adopting,” said BARCS program director Debra Rahl.

“Any way we can get animals out of here and into homes. They just do better.” BARCS is now at capacity. There are between 80 to 90 dogs available for fostering or adoption, and about 120 cats.

They include Matilda and Tinkerbell, sedate, older Chihuahuas who reportedly love to cuddle on the sofa. And Cash, a 6-year-old gray-and-white cat who can’t resist a scratch under the chin. Both have spent the last month in the shelter. To encourage end-ofyear adoptions, BARCS has also launched a program called “Gift of Life,” where all adoptions are free through the end of December.

Kittens and puppies, too young to be adopted and susceptible to shelter-borne viruses, are ideal fostering candidates, Rahl said. Also good are older animals and those who’ve been at the shelter waiting for a home for a long time. Some animals are perfect to bring home for a couple of weeks. Others would do better if people could keep them longer.

“We will guide people toward the animals that we think need fostering,” Rahl said. “We don’t want animals to go home with someone and miss out on an opportunity to be adopted.” “There is probably an animal that would fit anyone’s idea of a foster,” Rahl said.

To be eligible to foster a pet, people must fill out an application and be prepared with character references. If they live in an apartment, they must furnish proof that their building allows pets. The shelter will send the pet home with a bit of starter food, but potential foster parents should be prepared to buy more - and other things a pet might need, like litter for cats and leashes for dogs, and toys for both. Any money spent on a foster animal is tax-deductible, Rahl said. —MCT

Debbie Rahl, program manager at Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, holds two chihuahuas.

These 6 week old kittens were available for fostering through the “Lonely Pet For the Holidays” program at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter in Baltimore, Maryland. —MCT photos

Stars

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Aries (March 21-April 19) This is a time of inner peace and harmony—a time when you should evaluate your recent past and prepare for your near future. Use your experience as a learning tool. As you correct areas of your life that need shoring up, you will make compromises with others to smooth out relationships. Now is the time for you to work hard to achieve specialized knowledge that will give you the freedom to advance your professional goals. You may apply yourself to extensive job retraining. Formal studies, especially in history, teaching, religion, law or philosophy are available now. You may publish your most ambitious and difficult work. You may embark on journeys to unfamiliar places in order to learn the customs and beliefs of different people.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Be prepared to meet exciting people, try out new ideas and make interesting discoveries. You will be seeing old problems in a new light. You would do well to shelve your ordinary routine for the day and explore instead. Relationships with female friends and relatives are very good today and they may provide you with a welcome opportunity. Expect visitors to your home this afternoon. You are on a particularly feminine wavelength now, regardless of your gender and you may have difficulty communicating with individuals that display a strong Mars characteristic. Self-indulgence and seeking pleasant recreation are your focus for the afternoon. Dig out an old creative project that you can share this evening. Light conversation and sweets are lovely.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) This is a day of increased communication and intense mental activity. This time manifests as interactions with others that may be opposed to your position. Be self-critical so that your ideas become stronger and can stand up under an onslaught of criticisms from others. You tend to have marvelous ideas for greater financial independence and your follow-though is exceptional. Think before you act and you will be able to make the best choices. You are apt to experiment with innovative moneymaking enterprises. It is, however, a favorable time for investment in technological industries. Relationships with female friends and relatives are very good today—they may provide you with a welcome opportunity to enjoy group activities.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) If you are involved in commercial activities, now is the perfect time to conclude transactions, especially if they involve buying or selling products. This day is considered lucky. Unless other planets in the horoscope constrain you in some way, you should be successful in most any undertaking. Participation in group activities is favored and you could learn something of value from your superiors today. Spend some time in review of your plans for the future. You may travel or do business over a distance. Be aware of possible inflated sense of self-importance. Indulgence in rich foods this season can contribute to unhealthy habits or excessive weight gain. You are very much aware of the beauty that surrounds you and you believe in sharing.

Leo (July 23-August 22) This is a time of much enthusiasm for you. However, it will seem as though everyone and everything is testing your will and the validity of your work. Do not fall into the temptation to argue—choose your battles! Try and negotiate, no matter how difficult or unjust it may seem. To understand more about the company for which you work, you may want to learn more about its beginnings and growth over the years. Your ability to communicate your position and come to a successful resolution is a step to success for you. You desire mental stimulation and so you may want to take a new course of study, read a book, visit a museum or just explore ideas with a friend. Make some plans for a trip to visit somewhere new. Do something fun this evening!

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is a rewarding day. Others may seek you out for your advice regarding very personal and emotional issues. You will be able to be understanding and handle problem-solving situations.

You are able to cut through the red tape and get at what is behind most challenges. Recognition comes from higher-ups today. This is a time of good fortune when things open up in a very natural way. Situations are almost tailor-made and it is easy to see which path is the one you are to take. There are plenty of opportunities to succeed at about anything you set your mind to accomplish. Some of these opportunities may lead to travel. You may find a loved one encouraging you toward a decision about any one of these opportunities this evening.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Work today takes on a greater importance and you make every effort to make a good impression and put your best foot forward, so to speak. This whole month gives you the opening to bring focus to the workplace and some understanding to a loved one on the home front. Understand your feelings and take responsibility for them—you will jump ahead in the game of life many, many steps. There are only two real feelings, one is fear and the other is love; anything else is a symptom of the two. Faith, optimism and a yearning to explore all kinds of new horizons are some of the focal points in your life now. Short trips or a vacation may begin today or tomorrow. Travel, education and other ways to stretch your horizons open new doors of opportunity.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) On this easy, calm day, you should find everything running in a smooth manner. Ideas and interaction with authority figures or older people may be in the forecast. Working with—rather than against—the flow should be easy to do. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric just now. You may have insights or breakthroughs with regard to your work situation or life circumstances. Others value you for your independence and unique qualities. This is a time when you can expect a little boost, some sort of support or recognition.

You may feel that you are in touch and in harmony with others and the lines of communication are open. The support you need is there for whatever direction you decide to take.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You have the mind of a lawyer, always able to size up a problem and come up with a solution. Using your mind to negotiate obstacles and handle dilemmas is a great talent. You have an innate ability to guide and lead others through the hurdles and hassles of life and now you have the opportunity to solve problems for yourself. Balance is good but sometimes a little stress helps us to rise to the effort and achieve. You can be a good mentor. Make some real effort to become involved in some fun and creative projects, perhaps a volunteer time with a teen group or an after school gathering such as business or science club. Instead of always fixing the adult problems that come to you, you could teach awareness and good business practice to the young.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Important financial decisions require more information than you realize. It’s important to gather all the facts necessary to give you a realistic idea of what you are getting into. You have more imagination when it comes to finances, choosing possessions and the material world in general. A growing sense of idealism affects your productivity and material concerns. You may work to establish some cooperative, communal goals. Social relationships are a special focus now. Travel and animated discussions play a part in this and could be less than satisfying in some respects. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have a special time with someone you love. A sense of support and harmony makes this a happy time.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) At times you may have sudden urges to travel and you may have direct intuitive religious or philosophical revelations. Do not take chances or risks just now. Be satisfied with the ordinary and the usual. Someone tries to tell you an untruth today but your mind cuts right through all the window dressing and gets right down to the quick. Before anyone knows it, you have the significant part out front for everyone to see. You would make a great investigator—in either scientific research or undercover work—it makes no difference. Your ability to get to the point is all but phenomenal. You may have some hectic frustrations just now. It is easy to see what you value and care about these days. If you are shopping today—compare prices.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You seek out original solutions and are willing to break past your own barriers. If you are not prepared to organize your efforts and negotiate for improved cooperation, this can be a frustrating time. Take plenty of breaks and plot your path. Your efforts to heal some negative aspects are commendable—others are watching your success. A sudden change of residence may give you that feeling of added freedom but will require much effort to stabilize. This is a change that will take some time to decide and you must do just that—take your time. This time every year is usually reserved for withdrawal from worldly concerns and the quest for inner peace. Your interests this evening may turn to art, music, therapy and social or service work.

COUNTRY CODES Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

L e i s u re

C R O S S W O R D

8 2 4

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Yesterday始s Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. The basic unit of electric current adopted under the System International d'Unites.

4. Advance evidence for.

10. Extremely pleasing.

13. Step on it.

14. Grow teeth.

15. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

16. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

17. Genus of erect herbs of the Middle East having showy flowers.

19. Someone who bakes commercially.

21. The face or front of a building.

24. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

28. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.

32. Annoy constantly.

34. A humorous anecdote or remark.

35. Being ten more than one hundred ninety.

36. Shading consisting of multiple crossing lines.

41. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

42. All the animal life in a particular region.

45. Large dark brown North American arboreal carnivorous mammal.

48. English poet and literary critic (1822-1888).

49. A Hebrew prophet in the Old Testament who opposed the worship of idols.

53. A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion.

56. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

57. (Babylonian) The sky god.

58. (anatomy) Opposite to or away from the mouth.

60. British informal term.

61. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

62. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

63. (Judaism) Sacred chest where the ancient Hebrews kept the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

64. A colloid in a more solid form than a sol.

DOWN 1. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

2. Tropical Asian starlings.

3. Of a period of maximal use or demand or activity.

4. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

5. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity equal to 10 decibels.

6. Numbered or proceeding by tens.

7. A member of the Shoshonean people of Utah and Colorado and New Mexico.

8. Soreness and warmth caused by friction.

9. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

10. A tax on employees and employers that is used to fund the Social Security system.

11. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

12. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

18. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

20. A river in central Europe that arises in northwestern Czechoslovakia and flows northward through Germany to empty into the North Sea. 22. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

23. (law) A defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question.

25. A former agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States.

26. A bachelor's degree in religion.

27. The eleventh month of the civil year.

29. Largest known toad species.

30. Queen of England as the 6th wife of Henry VIII (1512-1548).

31. American novelist (1909-1955).

33. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization.

37. A Loloish language.

38. Small buffalo of the Celebes having small straight horns.

39. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

40. A person forced to flee from home or country.

43. A particular environment or walk of life.

44. (biology) Any hook-shaped process or part.

46. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

47. Scale-like structure between the base of the wing and the halter of a two-winged fly.

50. An island in Indonesia south of Borneo.

51. Any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent.

52. One who works hard at boring tasks.

54. A pass between mountain peaks.

55. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event.

59. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

60. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

A’s rally past Tigers

WASHINGTON: St. Louis Cardinals’ Yadier Molina (left) scores a run in front of Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki on a sacrifice fly by Daniel Descalso in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the National League division baseball series. —AP

Cardinals can close out Nationals WASHINGTON: Jayson Werth’s Washington Nationals were as good as it got during the regular season, compiling a majors-high 98 wins.

That doesn’t count for much come the postseason, where the St. Louis Cardinals excel. So what if manager Tony La Russa retired after last year’s World Series title?

Who cares that slugger Albert Pujols left via free agency? Just like in 2011, the Cardinals are a wild-card club that finds a different player to lead the way each game, it seems.

Heading into late yesterday’s Game 4 of their best-of-five NL division series, the Cardinals built a 2-1 lead by outscoring the Nationals 22-7.

“It’s going to be tough to score if you don’t hit,” Werth said after St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter and three relievers shut down Washington 8-0 in Game 3 on Wednesday. “But I believe in this team. I believe in these guys. We’ve been here all year. Over a 162-game season, we were the best team in baseball. I still feel that way.” The Cardinals like their chances, too.

“It’s the biggest game of the year,” center fielder Jon Jay said. “We all know how important it is. You can’t look ahead.” Kyle Lohse, who beat the Atlanta Braves in last week’s one-game, wild-card playoff, gets the start for St. Louis. Ross Detwiler pitches for Washington, which is sticking to its long-stated plan of keeping Stephen Strasburg on the sideline the rest of the way.

“We’re not out of this, by a long shot,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said.

“Shoot, I’ve had my back to worse walls than this.”

Perhaps. Will be tough for Washington to win and extend the season if it can’t get its offense going, though. The Nationals

didn’t do much at all Wednesday against Carpenter, who finds that even something as simple as breathing can feel odd on occasion now that he’s missing a rib and two neck muscles. Taking the mound for only the fourth time in 2012 after complicated surgery to cure numbness on his right side, the 37-year-old Carpenter spoiled the return of postseason baseball to Washington by pitching into the sixth inning.

“To go from not being able to compete, and not only compete but help your team, to be able to be in this situation,” Carpenter said, “it’s pretty cool.”

Carpenter allowed seven hits and walked two across his 5 2-3 innings to improve to 10-2 over his career in the postseason. The 10 victories tie the righty for seventh-most, behind Andy Pettitte’s record 19. “If the baseball world doesn’t know what an amazing competitor he is by now,” Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday said, “they haven’t been paying any attention.” Rookie Pete Kozma delivered a three-run homer, and a trio of relievers finished the shutout for the Cardinals. With the exception of Ian Desmond - 3 for 4 on Wednesday, 7 for 12 in the series - the Nationals’ hitters are struggling mightily. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base in Game 3.

Rookie phenom Bryce Harper’s woes, in particular, stand out: He went 0 for 5, dropping to 1 for 15. He went to the plate with an ash bat and no gloves in the first inning, tried wearing anti-glare tinted contact lenses on a sun-splashed afternoon - nothing helped.

“Nothing I can do,” the 19-year-old Harper said. “I just missed a couple.” All in all, quite a damper on the day for a

Nationals Park-record 45,017 red-wearing, towel-twirling fans witnessing the first major league postseason game in the nation’s capital in 79 years. They didn’t have much to enjoy, in part because of the problems created by Nationals starter Edwin Jackson, who was on the Cardinals’ championship team a year ago.

“I didn’t feel like I was out of rhythm. I didn’t feel like I couldn’t throw strikes. I just missed across the plate with a couple of balls and it cost me,” Jackson said.

He gave up four consecutive hits in the second, the biggest being Kozma’s firstpitch homer into the first row in left off a 94 mph fastball to make it 4-0. Kozma took over as the Cardinals’ everyday shortstop in September, replacing injured All-Star Rafael Furcal, and only had 72 atbats during the regular season.

But he’s only the latest in a series of “Who’s that?” stars that seem to pop up for his club, such as David Freese last autumn. The Cardinals won 10 fewer games than the Nationals this season and finished second in the NL Central, nine games behind Cincinnati, sneaking into the postseason as the league’s second wild-card under this year’s new format.

Doesn’t matter.

The Cardinals learned to be resilient with their stretch run in 2011, also getting into the playoffs with the last NL berth.

“We saw how, if you just take it one game at a time, we’re not looking at, ‘Hey, we have got to win two out of three here in Washington.’ We’re looking at it: We have to win today,” Lohse said. “We’ve done a good job of that - winning just about every game we absolutely had to. And I think when you start doing that, you realize you can do that. Your confidence goes up.” —AP

OAKLAND: Dog-pile celebrations and whipped cream pies became a regular occurrence this season for the Oakland Athletics.

Perhaps none was as improbable or memorable as this last one, which made sure a season filled with dramatic endings wouldn’t end just yet. Seth Smith hit a game-tying, two-run double off closer Jose Valverde in the ninth inning, Coco Crisp capped Oakland’s rally with a two-out RBI single, and the A’s staved off elimination for a second straight night with a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 Wednesday night. “This club, we’ve been battling the whole year, giving 100 percent, and these walkoffs have been our MO this year,” Crisp said. The A’s rode a major league-leading 14 walkoff wins in the regular season to an improbable AL West title. Those paled in comparison to No. 15, which set up a win-or-go-home Game 5 against Justin Verlander and the Tigers.

Josh Reddick led off the ninth with a single just under the glove of diving second baseman Omar Infante. Josh Donaldson followed with a double off the wall in left-center and both runners scored on Smith’s double. Two outs later, Crisp lined a single and Smith scored easily when right fielder Avisail Garcia couldn’t handle the ball.

That set off a raucous celebration near first base as the A’s poured out of the dugout to mob Crisp, who was the recipient of a whipped cream pie that became a custom in this remarkable season in Oakland. This marked the second time the A’s erased a two-run deficit in the ninth inning to win a postseason game, the other coming in Game 5 of the 1929 World Series.

Crisp ended three games with RBIs this season, tied for most in the majors. And like the others, this one ended with Reddick nailing him with a whipped cream pie during a postgame television interview. “He’s been our walkoff leader all year,” Reddick said. “Once we got into that situation, I think everybody in the dugout knew he was going to come through for us. Once we get one or two runners on with that situation we have a really good feeling that we’re going to win the ballgame. He’s been clutch for us in the ninth inning.” Ryan Cook retired four batters for the win. The A’s, who have the lowest payroll in baseball, need just one more surprising result to win their second postseason series since 1990. Rookie Jarrod Parker will take the mound in Game 5 on Thursday night against Verlander, the reigning AL Cy Young winner and MVP. “That’s why this is the greatest game of all,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “It looked like we were going to get it. We didn’t do it. We didn’t quite get the 27 outs, that’s part of the game. You get tested all the time in this game. And this is a good test.”

The Tigers looked to be in prime position to advance to their second straight ALCS and have a rested Verlander for Game 1 when they took a 3-1 lead into the ninth behind a strong start from Max Scherzer and a homer from Prince Fielder. Now the A’s are one win away from repeating last week’s three-game sweep of Texas that gave them the AL West title on the final day of the regular season.

After losing the first two games in Detroit, the A’s won 2-0 in Game 3 and are looking to become the eighth team to rally from two games down to win a best-of-five series.

“There’s no ending yet,” Oakland closer Grant Balfour said. “I’m hoping that the ending comes at the end of October. I hope there’s a period at the end of the story. It’s an unbelievable story. It just keeps going. And we’re going to take it out there tomorrow and give it everything, just like we have the last two games. If we can do that then I like our chances.” —AP

OAKLAND: Detroit Tigers’ Jhonny Peralta is out at first on a tag by Oakland Athletics right fielder Brandon Moss in the seventh inning of Game 4 of an American League division baseball series. —AP

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Webb, Choi lead round one

TURKEY: USA’s Tiger Woods (right) and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland speak as they walk on the course before their World Golf Final Group 1 match. —AP

Woods defeats McIlroy by six strokes in Turkey BELEK: Tiger Woods beat Rory McIlroy by six strokes to advance to the semifinals of the World Golf Final yesterday, with the first head-to-head match between the world’s top two players turning into a one-sided contest.

McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked player, was eliminated from the $5.2 million exhibition after slumping to a third consecutive group match defeat on a day of low scoring at the Antalya Golf Club.

Woods shot 7-under 64 for a second straight win and will face Justin Rose of England in the semifinals later yesterday.

“It felt good and I really hit it good out there,” said Woods, who won just a half-point from four matches in the US team’s loss to Europe in the Ryder Cup last month. “My game is starting to turn around a bit and I am beginning to hit it like I did at the start of the year.”

Rose shot a course-record 62 to beat US Open champion Webb Simpson by five

strokes and also stay perfect in the event, which has a first prize of $1.5 million.

Charl Schwartzel shot an 8-under 63 to defeat American Matt Kuchar by two strokes for his third straight win. The South African, who won the 2011 Masters, will next play Lee Westwood after the fourth-ranked Englishman shot 64 to beat Hunter Mahan by three strokes. McIlroy will leave Turkey with a check of $300,000 but still has to return on Friday for a pro-am involving all eight competitors after the final.

The Northern Irishman hit his tee shot on the first hole into the water and wasn’t under par for the round until he birdied No. 17.

“I’m not that disappointed because I’ve got the afternoon off around the pool,” said McIlroy, who was cheered on by tennis-player girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki.

“I just came here because I have never

played in Turkey and there’s a lot of good players here, and I thought it would be a fun week and it has been,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy shot rounds of 76, 71 and 70 the first time he shot back-to-back scores in the 70s since finishing in 60th place at the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s in July.

Players returned to action Thursday morning after the final group games were suspended on Wednesday because of thunderstorms.

McIlroy was the only player not to shoot a round in the 60s, with Rose particularly impressive to finish at the top of Group Two. “It was a good game out there,” Rose said. “(I) ended up 9 under and Webb was 5 under but it was a much closer game than that. I’ve now got Tiger later ... and it looks like that will be a tough game as he is playing well and got himself into some form.” —AP

KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champion Na Yeon Choi shot a 6under 65 yesterday in the LPGA Malaysia for a share of the firstround lead with Hall of Famer Karrie Webb.

Choi was 5 under through 12 holes when play was delayed because of lightning, then added a birdie on the par-4 14th and finished the bogey-free round with four pars. The South Korean player won the U.S. Women’s Open in July for her first major title and sixth LPGA Tour victory.

“I put extra pressure on myself too as a lot people expect me to win here, but I like it. It makes you more nervous and encourages you to play better,” Choi said.

Webb also had a bogey-free round, joining Choi atop the leaderboard after the delay with a birdie on the par-3 17th. The Australian veteran won consecutive events early last year in Singapore and Phoenix for the last of her 38 LPGA Tour victories.

“Six birdies and no bogeys, I’m pleased with that,” Webb said.

“It’s always hard to stay in focus after you have to sit it out for more than three hours.

“Instead of wanting to finish it off quickly without making mistakes, I was trying to hit some quality shots and that made the difference.” Japan’s Mika Miyazato, South Korea’s Sun Young Yoo and 17-year-old Taiwanese amateur Min Lee were a stroke back at 66.

South Koreans Hee-Won Han and Hee Young Park shot 67, and Americans Cristie Kerr, Jessica Korda and Lizette Salas were another stroke back along with Japan’s Ai Miyazato and Momoko Ueda, South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu and Scotland’s Cartriona Matthew.

American Stacy Lewis opened with a 70. In the last tour event, she won in Alabama on Sept. 23 to equal top-ranked Yani Tseng for the tour victory lead with three.

Michelle Wie had a 74. She had an eagle and three birdies, but lost eight shots with a triple bogey, a double bogey and three bogeys.

Tseng shot a 78, leaving her tied for 66th in the 71-player field. The Taiwanese star was 1 under after 10 holes, then dropped eight strokes in the next five with three double bogeys and two bogeys.

The tournament opens the tour’s four-event Asian swing. The HanaBank Championship is next week in South Korea, followed by stops in Taiwan and Japan. —AP

Kumble lands top ICC job COLOMBO: Former Indian captain Anil Kumble was yesterday appointed head of the influential ‘cricket committee’ of the International Cricket Council (ICC), replacing West Indian legend Clive Lloyd.

Kumble, 41, is the world’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 619 scalps, behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708). He also took 337 one-day international wickets.

“The ICC Board agreed unanimously to appoint former Indian captain Anil Kumble as the new chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee,” the governing body

said in a statement. The ICC board took the decision at a meeting in Colombo, where the West Indies won the World Twenty20 tournament that concluded Sunday.

“In Anil Kumble we have a new chairman who has unquestioned experience not only as a player with India but also as an administrator with Karnataka State Cricket Association,” ICC President Alan Isaac said. He said that Kumble would bring “contemporary thinking to the committee”.

Andrew Strauss, who retired as

England captain earlier this year in the wake of a row involving batsman Kevin Pietersen sending critical text messages to their South African opponents, was also appointed to the committee.

The 35-year-old, who had been expected to return to the game in a political capacity, replaces former West Indies pace bowler Ian Bishop, who did not seek an extension to his term.

The ICC cricket committee meets periodically to recommend changes to the rules to make the game more balanced and entertaining. —AFP

KUALA LUMPUR: Na Yeon Choi of South Korea makes a putt on the 9th green during the first round of the LPGA Malaysia golf tournament. —AP

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Finally, Armstrong’s teammates do good PARIS: Lance Armstrong once said the extraordinary accusations that he doped needed to be backed by extraordinary evidence. Well, the evidence is more extraordinary than anyone could possibly have imagined. Page after page of evidence teased out of former US Postal Service teammates and corroborated by sworn affidavits that washed away the lies, the mythmaking, the fear and intimidation that kept secrets hidden, and the value of the sweat that Armstrong left on French roads.

Now, there is absolutely nothing left to believe - except for USADA’s conclusion: Armstrong’s team “ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

To worry about how the US AntiDoping Agency managed to bring down one of the biggest sports icon of the early 21st century, whether US taxpayer dollars should have been spent on schools rather than trawling through the past, and whether it even had the power to reduce

such a giant to a speck, feels trivial in the bare light-bulb glare of USADA’s findings.

The means, fair or foul, appear justified by the ends and by the hope -and it can be only hope at this point - that this is as low as any sport can sink and that cycling could maybe build a healthier future from here, if the cancer of doping is truly excised.

Because this is the end, the end of the fabulous pretense about a guy from a broken home in Texas who took on cancer and the world’s hardest bike race and beat them both. The cancer part is true but USADA’s findings appear to leave little doubt that it wasn’t just willpower that got Armstrong to the top of the Tour de France podium a record seven times. And once you burst the bubble that Armstrong’s story was essentially one of mind over matter then it loses all power to inspire. Instead, the allegations that Armstrong not only doped for the bulk of his career but supplied and pushed drugs, too, inspire only disgust. Livestrong? How wrong. Those of

you with bright yellow wristbands should ask for your dollar back. The title of Armstrong’s biography, “It’s Not About The Bike,” now looks like a cynical private joke in the light of USADA’s 164-page “Reasoned Decision,” plus reams of testimony and other evidence, explaining why it banned Armstrong for life and stripped away his titles.

If it is to be believed, then the bike, the sport of cycling, was simply a vehicle for systematic fraud and abuse of trust. “It’s All About The Spike” would, judging from his teammates’ belated confessions of rampant drug use, have perhaps been closer to the truth.

Die-hard Armstrong believers who cling to the straws that cheating was a necessary evil because practically everyone was doing it and that he still towered above a doped-up bunch must consider this: try substituting the word “heroin” for “EPO,” “testosterone,” “blood transfusion” and all the other banned substances and methods

Armstrong’s teammates allege they were pressured into or felt were necessary.

USADA’s report paints this not as a mere bunch of ambitious athletes who took a bit of this and that but as a drug-pushing, drug-taking, drug-supplying conspiracy that, among others, recruited and corrupted easily influenced young riders.

David Zabriskie rode for four years on Armstrong’s team. He told USADA that, as a teenager, cycling offered him an escape from a “difficult home life,” with a father who was a drug addict, and he viewed the sport as “a healthy and wholesome outlet that would keep me far away from following my father’s footsteps.” But after joining the US Postal squad, he broke his vow never to take drugs himself. Zabriskie testified that team manager Johan Bruyneel - the brains behind Armstrong’s assaults on the Tour - pushed him to dope with EPO and that a team doctor, Luis Garcia del Moral, administered his first shot of the bloodboosting hormone, in Spain in 2003.—AP

Investigators: Armstrong was doping ringleader

Second? I’d rather be fourth, says Raikkonen YEONGAM: Kimi Raikkonen would rather finish fourth in the Formula One world championship than end up second or third because then he can skip the official prize-giving gala in December. The Finn, 2007 world champion with Ferrari and now at Lotus, is third in the current standings after 15 of the 20 races but he made it clear on Thursday that first was all that really counted. “It doesn’t matter if I am second or 10th, it makes no difference,” Raikkonen told reporters ahead of Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix. “I’d rather be probably out of second and third place so I don’t have to go to the prize-giving. It makes no difference to be second or fifth if you don’t win.”

At the beginning of the year, when he began a comeback after two seasons in rallying, Raikkonen would have been happy enough if told he would be third at this point but his ambitions have grown since then. “Once you do a little bit well, you expect to do better and you want to do better all the time,” said the 32year-old, who has yet to win this year but has scored points in the last 12 races with six appearances on the podium.

Under championship rules, the top three drivers attend the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA)’s official prize-giving gala. It will be held in Istanbul after New Delhi hosted it in 2011. Raikkonen, a racer who just wants to get in the car and drive it as fast as possible with the minimum amount of talking, has never hidden his dislike for media activities and sponsorship functions. He will be racing at the Yeongam circuit, some 400km south of the capital Seoul, for the first time this weekend the race made its debut in his absence in 2010 - but Raikkonen said he had done no special preparation.

He hoped to walk the track before Friday practice but has done little simulator work. “It’s never the same as driving tomorrow, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference,” he said.

Fourth-placed Lotus have brought significant updates to the race, including a new exhaust layout, hoping to cut the gap on Ferrari in third place. Team principal Eric Boullier has talked about the start of a new era for the team.

Raikkonen said only time would tell. “We know some numbers from the wind tunnel and all the calculations but until we run anything, we do not really know what it is going to bring us,” he said. “Hopefully it works as we expect and it will improve our position a lot.” —Reuters

NEW YORK: If the United States AntiDoping Agency is right, then Lance Armstrong cheated his way to the top of the cycling world through an elaborate doping scheme never seen before in the sport. Hotel rooms were transformed into blood banks as riders were given late-night transfusions, doctors were paid off and competitors were warned about tests in advance, said the antidoping agency, or USADA. More than six weeks after it banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles, USADA revealed on Wednesday the findings of its investigation into Armstrong and his US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team.

Armstrong’s lawyer called the investigation a “hatchet job” and “witch hunt.”

The champion cyclist has denied cheating and has never failed a doping test.

But he did not fight the charges.

There were few new revelations in the 1,000-page report, but the weight of testimony was greater than any of the previous investigations into his conduct.

(Report: http://www.usantidoping.org/) His accusers said Armstrong - one of the world’s most famous athletes who also is well known for his cancer-fighting charity work - was not only a willing participant, but the ringleaders, ordering teammates to cheat.

In addition to financial payments, emails and laboratory test results that the agency says proves the use of performance enhancing drugs by Armstrong and the USPS Team, 26 people gave sworn testimony, including 11 former teammates.

Of the 11, the most surprising was George Hincapie, who rode alongside Armstrong when he won each of his Tour de France titles and was one of his most loyal and trusted friends.

“I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew. So that is what I did,” he said in a statement.

USADA’s dossier was the most com-

prehensive report detailing his alleged transgressions and the agency said it had provided undeniable proof Armstrong was the center of a sophisticated doping program. “His goal led him to depend on EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions but also, more ruth-

PARIS: In this July 24, 2005 file photo, Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, carries the United States flag during a victory parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris.—AP lessly, to expect and to require that his teammates would likewise use drugs to support his goals if not their own,” the report said. “The evidence is overwhelming that Lance Armstrong did not just use performance enhancing drugs, he supplied them to his teammates.”

As expected, Armstrong’s lawyers responded quickly and angrily, condemning the investigation as an inquisition based on unreliable accusations and sloppy procedures.

“USADA has continued its government-funded witch hunt of only Mr. Armstrong, a retired cyclist, in violation of its own rules and due process, in spite

of USADA’s lack of jurisdiction, in blatant violation of the statute of limitations,” said Sean Breen, one of Armstrong’s lawyers.

The International Cycling Union, or UCI, which has been highly critical of USADA’s handling of the investigation, said it was considering what to do next as the fallout from the report began to unfold. Five of Armstrong’s former teammates, who were among the riders who testified against him, released separate statements admitting they had used performance drugs. Most of the others had already confessed to cheating.

The report included testimony that Armstrong and his team used a range of performance-enhancing drugs including erythropoietin (EPO), blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids, human growth hormone and masking agents.

The report covered Armstrong’s professional career, including the seven years in a row when he won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005, and provided graphic revelations about the methods it said he used to dope and avoid detection. Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for a positive doping test, and Tyler Hamilton, who was stripped of his 2004 Olympic gold medal after confessing to drug use, both previously pointed the finger at Armstrong.

On Wednesday, Christian van de Velde, Tom Danielson, David Zabreskie and Hincapie, who were identified among former Armstrong teammates who testified against him, also came clean and admitted cheating.

Armstrong was accused of trafficking and encouraging other cyclists to use drugs, as well as conspiring with team manager Johan Bruyneel, doctor Pedro Celaya, doctor Luis del Moral, doctor Michele Ferrari and trainer Jose Pepe Marti. Ferrari and Del Moral were also given lifetime bans for their role in the alleged doping scheme while Bruyneel, Celaya and Marti are contesting the charges.—Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Stoner vows to fight on after injury

SHANGHAI: Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a shot against Feliciano Lopez of Spain during their third round match of the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament. —AP

Federer survives scare, Djokovic, Murray roll SHANGHAI: Roger Federer survived a huge scare yesterday to reach the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals and guarantee a 300th career week as world number one as Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray showed ominous form.

The Swiss 17-time Grand Slam champion came into the match against compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka with an enviable 11-1 head-to head record but struggled to impose himself and was forced to dig deep before winning 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.

In a gripping contest lasting nearly two hours, Wawrinka, who teamed up with his illustrious compatriot to win Olympics doubles gold in 2008, broke Federer in the seventh game to lead 4-3 and sealed the first set.

Out-of-sorts Federer, 31, continued to struggle in the second set as the pair swapped breaks of serve and was in desperate trouble when Wawrinka earned a break point for a 5-4 lead, which would have left him serving for the match.

But the Swiss great dodged that bullet and stayed strong in a nerve-jangling tiebreak to level the match and immediately broke his 27-year-old countryman at the start of the third set as momentum shift-

ed decisively in his favor. A dejected Wawrinka failed to win another game as Federer wrapped up the third set 6-0.

Earlier, Serbian second seed Djokovic looking to wrestle the world number one ranking from Federer barely broke sweat against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, wrapping up a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 victory in front of enthusiastic fans.

In-form Djokovic, fresh from his third China Open title in Beijing on Sunday, struck 12 aces and took advantage of some below-par serving by the left-handed Lopez, breaking him three times.

“I’m not very well known around the Tour for big serving,” said Djokovic, 25.

“But so far in this tournament, and also in Beijing, it has been working very well for me. “It has been giving me a lot of free points, a lot of confidence into the matches.”

US Open champion Murray, 25, proved far too strong for Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov, serving consistently well and seizing on five out of six break points to win 6-2, 6-2 in just 57 minutes.

It was the first match of the tournament for the Scot, who had a walkover into the third round. The top eight seeds

received a first round bye.

“I think I did a decent job,” said Murray.

“It’s very, very different conditions to last week. I think you can see by some of the results here, the guys that have come from Beijing have adapted to the conditions much, much quicker.”

Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, currently in line to secure the last singles berth in the elite eight-man field at the ATP World Tour Finals, beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) in a contest containing eight breaks.

Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych, sixth in the Race to London, set up a quarter-final meeting with Tsonga after fending off a barrage of 17 aces from American Sam Querrey to win 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4.

Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic upset eighth seed John Isner of the United States in three sets while 10th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, also in three sets.

As the season enters its final few weeks, Federer, Djokovic, Murray and the injured Rafael Nadal have already qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals. There are four places still up for grabs. —AFP

MOTEGI: World champion Casey Stoner returned from injury and vowed to go full out at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, shrugging off chances he may stall teammate Dani Pedrosa’s MotoGP title bid. The Australian has missed the last three races after injuring his right knee in a qualifying accident at the Indianapolis Grand Prix in August. The accident made it mathematically impossible for him to retain his crown.

His Repsol Honda teammate Pedrosa has won three of the last four races to trail championship leader and Yamaha ace Jorge Lorenzo by 33 points with four races remaining in the season.

With 25 points going to the winner of each race, Stoner could still eat into the Lorenzo-Pedrosa battle towards his planned retirement at the end of the season.

“It’s actually really good to be back,” Stoner said at the Motegi track yesterday. “It was not the way I wanted to finish my last season, with the injury and having to sit out some races and not having a shot at the championship.

“But we’re here to do the best job we can-from here onto the end of the season. I feel even fresh so we’ll just have to see how I get on with the bike tomorrow,” said Stoner, who underwent surgery on August 30 and will turn 27 next week. When asked what he would do if his team tells him to help Pedrosa’s bid for his first MotoGP title, Stoner replied: “They haven’t and I don’t believe they will.

“As I’ve always said in the past, for me the championship is won fair and outright and not because of the result of the teammate helping you out,” said the 2007 and 2011 MotoGP champion.

Stoner won four races before the injury which knocked him out of title contention. He and the two front-running Spaniards have taken all the 14 races among themselves so far this season.

Lorenzo, who won six races before finishing runner-up to Pedrosa in the last round at Aragon in Spain, said he was ready for another win.

“I’m always trying to fight for the pole position, always trying to fight for the podium, for the victory. This is my goal,” said the 25-year-old, aiming for his second premier-class crown since 2010.

“If it’s possible to win the race, I’m gonna try. If it’s not possible, podiums will be okay in the last four races.” He now stands at 290 points against 257 for Pedrosa, with the season ending in Valencia in Spain after three Asia-Pacific stops in Japan, Malaysia and Australia over three weeks. Stoner is in third spot with 186.

Lorenzo said he had been “progressively better” during the season with four wins to his name. “So I’m trying to do the same, trying to get focused and do well.”

About Stoner’s comeback, the 27-year-old Pedrosa said: “It’s good to have him back.” “He’s always competitive so I don’t think he can’t be fast now,” he added. “But we cannot forget that we are always fast here,” said the Spaniard, who beat Lorenzo into second spot here last year.

Stoner won the MotoGP at Motegi in 2010 and Lorenzo in 2009. All the three leaders said they like the 4.8-kilometre (threemile) geometric circuit.

Stoner said the circuit was “very stop-start with a lot of hard braking and accelerating. It’s pretty tough on the body and physically quite demanding”. —AFP

Killy hails Sochi village MOSCOW: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) promised athletes yesterday the treatment of their lives when they visit Russia’s host city of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Games.

The IOC’s chief Sochi inspector Jean-Claude Killy called the Olympic Village conditions in Sochi “impeccable” and predicted a level of services not seen at any other winter competition.

“I am not exaggerating: we are witnessing impeccable work,” Russian media quoted Killy as saying during his eighth inspection tour of the site.

Russia plans to spend some $20 billion on facility and infrastructure construction in the Black Sea summer resort-chosen for its nearby mountains following an intense personal push

by President Vladimir Putin.

The Sochi Games offer Putin a chance to showcase his

Russian achievements to a world audience. They already involve the collective investment of the country’s largest and most important firms as well as state financing.

The Russian Olympics Committee says they intend to host a total of 47 competitions before the Games open on February 7, 2014 to make sure that all the venues are up to scratch.

The city has also received an additional 42,000 hotel rooms as it prepares to start receiving a flood of international guests.

The Soviet-era Sochi resort was a disheveled city lacking investments and losing tourists for most of the two decades that elapsed before real Olympic construction commenced.

Putin now hopes to turn the city into an international travel destination point that provides foreigners a launching pad for longer vacations in the lush Black Sea region. —AFP

Casey Stoner

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Hart ready to take a back seat LONDON: England goalkeeper Joe Hart admits he is looking forward to 90 minutes with nothing to do when his side try to restore the feel good factor against San Marino in today’s World Cup qualifier.

A stormy few weeks for English football reached an ugly conclusion with Ashley Cole being charged by the Football Association for making comments at the governing body in the aftermath of the hearing that saw John Terry found guilty of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.

In the circumstances, Roy Hodgson’s side desperately need to produce an eye-catching display to get an increasingly disillusioned public back onside and San Marino’s visit to Wembley is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

England are huge favorites to beat one of the weakest teams in world football and Hart is likely to have one of the quietest matches of his international career.

San Marino have never won a qualification game and their only victory in 22 years came in a friendly against Liechtenstein in 2004.

Along with Bhutan and the Turks and Caicos Islands they sit bottom of FIFA’s rankings list on zero points and even the ultra cautious Hodgson concedes his team should win easily.

The prospect of little activity in the England penalty area would usually frustrate Hart as the Manchester City star prefers to be in the thick of the action.

But he is happy to join the 90,000 sell-out crowd as a virtual spectator if it means

England get back to winning ways after drawing their last home qualifier against Ukraine.

“You’ve got to enjoy it, of course. Because I’m hopefully playing for England,” Hart said.”I am not going to stand there and sulk because they are not coming near the penalty area. It will be a great occasion. We are playing in front of potentially 90,000 people in a qualifier so there is not a great deal not to enjoy.

“Obviously, going back to being a kid you can’t help but enjoy when you are under pressure and getting loads to do. The reality is it is a job and a livelihood and we need to win.

Ideally I don’t want to touch the ball, I want us to win 10-0 and me not to touch the ball.”

San Marino have conceded 30 goals in their last six games and their two previous meetings with England finished in 6-0 and 7-1 defeats.

That one goal conceded remains a sore point for England as it was scored by Davide Gualtieri just 8.3 seconds into a World Cup qualifier at the end of Graham Taylor’s ill-fated reign in 1993.

Yet Hart isn’t losing any sleep over the possibility of a repeat, or even conceding a goal at any stage of the game. “That’s just football.

Over the course of 90 minutes you saw the real side of that game. We won 7-1,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter in goal who you are playing against. If someone hits the ball right or they get that chance they can’t miss you are going to concede.

“You might have some interesting people scoring against you but that is the beauty of being a goalkeeper.” With regular captain

England’s goalkeeper Joe Hart Steven Gerrard suspended, vice-captain Frank Lampard struggling with a knee injury and Cole uncertain to play after his disciplinary troubles, Hart and Wayne Rooney are the leading contenders to skipper the side on Friday.

Hart admits he would love the job, but he fully expects Rooney to be given the honor.

“I’ve no idea but I’m pretty sure it will fall to

Rooney,” he said. “He is our star man with millions of caps at the age of whatever he is, 26? I imagine he is a little bit further up the queue than me.

“Of course I would like it, anyone would but that’s life. It is a great thing to play for your country. I really do mean that. I’m not really bothered who is in charge of that. I am just happy to play.”—AFP

German test for Trapattoni DUBLIN: Giovanni Trapattoni will change the habit of a lifetime as Ireland coach as he attempts to keep Germany at bay in his side’s World Cup qualifier at Lansdowne Road here today.

The Italian boss is set to switch from the trademark 4-4-2 formation that has helped him achieve two play-off spots in the last two qualifying campaigns, in favour of a 4-3-3.

The 4-4-2 formation has been heavily criticised by pundits, players and fans, but the former Inter Milan, AC Milan, and Juventus coach has stuck by it through thick and the occasionally very thin.

He did switch once before, in competitive action, to a 4-5-1 when Ireland faced Spain in the second game of their European Championship campaign in Poland in the summer.

“Remember, it went bad against Spain,” he admitted earlier this week, as he confirmed a structure change was under consideration, which appears to suggest there is no easy fix for the situation Ireland are currently in. Injuries and post-Euro 2012 retirements have hit Trapattoni and Ireland hard. Two cap centurions, Shay Given and Damien Duff, ended their careers on the back of a disappointing tournament, having both served their country with distinction.

All told, Trapattoni is missing six players who started the Euro 2012 opener against Croatia. Regular centrebacks Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger are injured, ever-present centre midfielder Glenn Whelan has a hamstring injury, and Kevin Doyle, who

Giovanni Trapattoni scored the winner against Kazakhstan last month, also misses out.

While Sunderland’s John O’Shea and Toronto FC’s Darren O’Dea are likely to step in at centre-back, it is the midfield make-up that is of most interest. The loss of Whelan in the engine room has created two gaps alongside Keith Andrews, who returns from suspension. “It’s correct to say he’s a big loss,” Trapattoni said of Whelan.

“I said earlier that we have somebody for every position (in case of injury) but I think Whelan is the exception. There’s nobody who plays his exact role.

“We have Andrews and James McCarthy and Keith Fahey but it’s a little bit different. And it’s a bigger loss now because of the opponent.”

That trio is likely to make up a

three-man midfield tasked with combating the talented German midfield, with one given the challenge to stick as close to Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil as possible.

“We put three midfielders on the pitch and one midfielder is for Ozil,” confirmed assistant boss Marco Tardelli. Up front, Robbie Keane is expected to be the lone forward, despite having sustained a knock to his Achilles in training on Tuesday.

“The Germans have respect for him,” Trapattoni insisted, but the prolific striker will need more support than when he ploughed an unenviably lonely furrow against Spain in Gdansk in June.

The task may look impossible from an Irish point of view, against the country that is second in FIFA’s world ranking, but Tardelli, at least, refuses to be pessimistic.

“We will try to win. It’s normal for us,” he said. “If we can win against Germany, it will be important for the team and for the country.”

Germany top Group C after wins over the Faroe Islands and Austria, but midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was rested for the opening two games, says the Irish will provide formidable opposition in Dublin.

“It is always something really special to play in Ireland,” he said. “It is not easy to win there because the Irish are very strong and combative, they wear their hearts on their sleeves and have an experienced coach. “In addition, they have a passionate crowd-the atmosphere there is always fantastic.”—AFP

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

World Cup European Qualifiers Finland v Georgia

18:30

Aljazeera Sport +7 Czech Republic v Malta

19:00

Aljazeera Sport +2 Faroe Islands v Sweden

19:00

Aljazeera Sport +9 Kazakstan v Austria

19:00

Aljazeera Sport +8 Armenia v Italy

20:00

Aljazeera Sport +1 Turkey v Romania

20:30

Aljazeera Sport +7 Belarus v Spain

21:00

Aljazeera Sport +2 Serbia v Belgium

21:30

Aljazeera Sport +9 Netherlands v Andorra

21:30

Aljazeera Sport +6 Wales v Scotland

21:45

Aljazeera Sport +10 Ireland v German

21:45

Aljazeera Sport +8 England v San Marino Aljazeera Sport +3

22:00

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Scotland and Wales seek to end World Cup slump LONDON: Since Jock Stein helped guide Scotland to the 1986 World Cup and sadly died in the process after celebrating a late equaliser in the decisive qualifying match against Wales, the national team has been in steady decline.

Two more World Cup appearances since in 1990 and 1998 are a paltry return for the passionate Scottish fans, whose side travel to Wales today hoping for a win to boost hopes of a long-awaited return to the pinnacle of soccer in 2014.

Wales have faced harder times with no World Cup finals matches since 1958 and twice against Scotland, in 1977 and the fateful Stein match in 1985, they looked on aghast as referees awarded controversial penalties against them.

“Without doubt, Welsh football history is defined by three penalties, two given against us against Scotland and the one we missed against Romania in 1993,” said former Welsh striker Ian Rush.

In 1977, Scotland won a disputed penalty and handed Wales a 2-0 defeat ahead of the 1978 Argentina World Cup. Then in 1985, Stein’s last match in charge, Scotland trailed 1-0 at halftime before he introduced Davie Cooper on the hour and his expertly taken penalty after 81 minutes sealed the team’s place in a World

Cup playoff. In 1993 Welsh left back Paul Bodin missed a penalty that would have put his team 2-1 up in a match they needed to win in order to qualify.

“The devastation I felt in 1985 didn’t compare to 1993. I remember sitting in the dressing room when (manager) Mike England told us what happened to Jock Stein, and all we thought about was one of the greatest managers ever had died,” added Rush.

With two draws from their opening two World Cup 2014 Group A qualifying matches and with Serbia, Belgium, Croatia, Macedonia and Wales in their way, the Scots would do well to recall Stein’s spirit and enthusiasm for the game.

Stein guided Celtic to the European Cup in 1967 when they became the first British club to win the title.

Following his death, Scotland were taken over by Alex Ferguson and beat Australia to advance to their fourth straight World Cup finals, a far cry from the current barren spell of 14 years without an appearance at a World Cup or European championship.

“Everyone knows it has been too long since we last qualified for a major finals,” said Scotland striker Steven Fletcher, who has rediscovered his passion for the side having returned from a two-year hiatus following a fall out with the management.

Nothing should fire up Scotland more than the 106th meeting of the old rivals said manager Craig Levein, wary of a Welsh backlash following a 6-1 drubbing by Serbia in their last qualifier.

“They are not as bad as Pot Six - not anywhere near it,” he said referring to Wales’ position in the table. “And we’ve got this additional history and this British conflict.” Leading the Welsh efforts will be winger Gareth Bale, who Scotland midfielder Charlie Adam has clashed with in the past.

“If you look through their team, with everyone fit, they are a formidable-looking side,” said Levein. “Bale is just a top, top player who any club in the world would be happy to have - he’s an impact player and one of the best in the world. “But they’ve got other exceptionally good players in the team. The biggest difficulty with Wales, as it has been for us, has been strength in depth.

If some of their big players are missing then it’s obviously a lot more difficult for them.”

Wales goalkeeper Jason Brown believes the hype surrounding football in Scotland will play against the visitors. “The only manager under pressure is Craig Levein. I live in Scotland. You see the press there. You hear the supporters,” said the Aberdeenbased player.—Reuters

Group favorites Portugal, Russia to clash in Moscow

Wayne Rooney

Captain Rooney vows to make up for England woes LONDON: Wayne Rooney admits he is desperate to make amends for years of under-achievement with England after being named as captain for today’s World Cup qualifier against San Marino.

Rooney will lead England out at Wembley in the absence of suspended regular skipper Steven Gerrard and injured vicecaptain Frank Lampard, and the Manchester United striker would love to celebrate the occasion with a rare inspired display for his country.

Since bursting onto the international scene with a series of dazzling performances at Euro 2004, Rooney has struggled to replicate his superb club form on England duty.

He has scored 29 times for England, but major tournaments have ended in disappointment far too often. In the 2006 World Cup he was sent off during a quarter-final defeat against Portugal and four years later he failed to score in South Africa as England crashed out in dismal fashion in the last 16.

Rooney fared little better at this year’s European Championships and the 26-year-old acknowledges that, while Everton and now United have seen the best of him, the same can’t be said of his time with England. “Am I unfulfilled at international level? That is fair. I haven’t been at my best for England and that is something I’m desperate to put right,” he said on Thursday.

“I think us as a team and as a country, we need to be more successful and better in tournament football. “At club level I’ve won nine trophies and the only thing missing is being successful and to win things with England.

“That is what we are aiming to do. There are new coaching staff and a lot of young players have come into the squad and the future is bright for us.”—AFP

MOSCOW: Joint-leaders Russia and Portugal go head-to-head here today with both teams intent on claiming top spot in Group F as they pursue their bid to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. Both countries boast a maximum six points from their opening two matches, five points ahead of their four group rivals.

Portugal manager Paulo Bento said the result of this tie may determine his team’s strategy for the remaining qualifiers, adding that he was setting his players the task of grabbing all three points.

“Our main goal is to earn automatic qualification for the World Cup,” Bento said. “A win in Moscow will greatly boost our chances of clinching a direct pass to Brazil.” Bento warned however that Russia manager Fabio Capello had improved the squad since taking over.

“The Russian team have great attacking potential. The recent European championships proved it,” Bento said. “And they serously boosted their defensive performance after they invited Capello to coach them. “In the Moscow match we are set to play our regular attacking style football. But I’m afraid we will have to play in defence more than we want to.” Portugal are expected to field a full-strength squad as their star striker Cristiano Ronaldo’s shoulder sprain, suffered in Real Madrid’s 2-2 draw against Barcelona last weekend, was insignificant.

Meanwhile, Capello has dropped three of his team’s experienced veterans ahead of his team’s quaifiers with Portugal and Azerbaijan. Arsenal forward Andrei Arshavin, Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak and former Tottenham attacker Roman Pavlyuchenko were all left out of his squad.

The 66-year-old coach continued his Russian rejuvenation, calling up 22year-old rookie Maxim Grigoriev of Lokomotiv Moscow to boost his team’s attacking line.

Cristiano Ronaldo “It’s my choice. I consider that I have gathered all Russia’s best players in my squad,” Capello said. “There’s no clear favourite in the upcoming match.

Portugal is a top-class team but Russia yield to no one.” Capello has also summoned skipper Igor Denisov despite the 28-year-old midfielder’s demotion from Zenit’s first team into the youth squad after his revolt with the club chiefs over the salaries paid to big-money signings Hulk and Axel Witsel.

Denisov, lacking recent match practice, was following an individual training programme. However, Capello has confirmed Denisov as his team’s skipper under any circumstances.

“I consider Denisov to be a very important and necessary player for our team,” Capello said. “Igor (Denisov) is a man of strong character and a player with winning mentallity.” Denisov thanked Capello fir his trust and promised to settle the problem with his club

in the near future.

“I’d like to thank our coach for his trust in me and I’ll do everything in my means to justify his confidence,” Denisov said.

“On my return to the club I’ll talk to Zenit chiefs to settle the problem.”

Russia are expecting a tough battle in what they have labelled the Group F decider. “We will have to play against a very strong team, with a set of star players in its line-up,” said Lokomotiv midfielder Denis Glushakov.

“It will be a very uneasy match but our players are all in a brave mood after winning both of our qualifiers at the start.”

Russia are trying to record their first win over Portugal in the post-Soviet era.

Portugal won two of three previous encounters with Russia 2-0 and 7-1. Their third match ended in a goalless draw.

Russia will likely enjoy strong home support with a sell-out crowd expected at the 85,000 Luzhniki arena with 63,000 tickets already sold by Wednesday.—AFP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 , 2012

Investigators: Armstrong was doping ringleader Page 44

www.kuwaittimes.net

SHANGHAI: Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns against Feliciano Lopez of Spain during their third round match at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament. —AFP

Djokovic rolls, Federer survives Page 45

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012

T

he Historical, Vintage and Classic Cars Museum of Kuwait launched its new events season for 2012 with a magnificent car parade on Wednesday that featured historical and vintage cars and also some cars from the museum teams. The parade from the Kuwait Towers to the Museum passed along the Arabian Gulf Street to announce the launch of the new season of Museum events.

The Museum plays a vital role in showcasing the rich cultural heritage and historical tradition of Kuwait, especially in the historical automotive sector. The country is considered the richest in the world in this domain. The main aim in establishing the museum was to document all the automotive information and connect the current and future generations to their past and urge them to complete the journey of our great civilization.

The Director of the Committees at the museum, Mustafa Makhseed, said while the museum has many goals, the main goal was the preserva-

and Enthusiasts Nasser Al-Shimaly said that many car enthusiasts and owners were waiting for the new season of events to start. He said the museum will organize periodic activities with different car owners in Kuwait to involve all owners of all kinds of cars and the youth under an official umbrella to showcase their hobbies.

Zakaria Dashti, the Director of Media Committee, said, “We are pleased with the performance of the Museum and what it has achieved in such a short time. We hope that the museum will also be able to encourage other automotive sectors in Kuwait.”

He said the museum was a key player in disseminating knowledge about automobiles and automobile industry across the globe through cooperation with international manufacturers of cars, as well as automotive design companies from all over the world. He also expressed the

elite car collectors in Kuwait who like to display their rare collections. Also, the collection includes internationally known cars such as the Secret Agent - James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 car that he used in his movies, in addition to many distinctive and historical cars.

Historical, Vintage and Classic Cars Museum drives into new season with a car parade

tion of Kuwaiti heritage vehicles connected to historical events. Today, the Museum is one of the main tourist attractions, all because of the support of Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad AlJaber Al-Sabah, the true supporter and sponsor of the museum and all its activities. He expressed gratefulness towards Sheikh Nasser for his efforts, and also thanked Abdulaziz Saud Ishaq, member of the Board of Trustees, for his valuable advice that inspires the Museum management to excel itself in all events and activities.

Fuad Saleem, the Director of the Coordination, said the museum is a centre for car enthusiasts and owners as they get all the information that they need about the world of automobiles. He said the museum’s doors were open to the public, private organizations and companies and is also happy to cooperate with all governmental sectors, agencies, companies and institutions in Kuwait, the Middle East and across the world.

Wael Muqadam, the Director of Technical Committee, said that the museum offers many services to the community, such as technical sessions about a variety of automobile related knowledge, and will also dispense advice and guidance to owners wanting to restore their valuable vehicles.

Fadel Al-Oraier, the Director of the Library, said the Museum’s library has a number of general and reference books covering many types of automotives, as well as magazines, periodicals and Internet services. Director of the Events

hope that the Museum could soon be cooperating with other museums in the Middle East and the rest of the world.

The museum houses many historical, vintage and classic cars, including the most important car “The Minerva”. This Belgium made car was the first one to come to Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf’s history.

In addition to the Amirs of Kuwait Cars, starting with Lincoln Continental or “The Constitution Car” that belongs to the late Amir Sheikh Abdulla Al-Salem Al-Sabah (god bless his soul), Cadillac Fleetwood of the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah (May God bless his soul), Chrysler Imperial or The “Prince of Hearts” car of the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah (May God bless his soul) during the time when he was governor of Al-Ahmedy, and an armored Mercedes-Benz that belonged to “The Hero of Liberation” the late Amir Sheikh Saad Al-Abdulla Al-Salem Al-Sabah (May God bless his soul).

The Museum also houses a car that belonged to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (May God bless him), and it is one of the rarest Rolls-Royce Coupe that was made, since there were only three made of that model, and the one on display at the Museum is the only one that people anywhere in the world can see.

The museum also exhibits some cars from

The museum is open to the public from 9 am to 1 pm and again from 4 pm to 8 pm. It is located in the Shuwaikh Industrial Area, Block One Street, 49 street.

— Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh