14th Jul

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

48 150 Fils

Terry cleared of racial abuse

No: 15508

SHAABAN 24, 1433 AH

3

Amir donates $3 million to tsunami-hit museum

Troops massacre 220 in Syria’s Tremseh village

Death toll mounts as troops fire on protesters BEIRUT: Troops shot at protesters yesterday in Damascus and Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reporting at least 63 deaths across the country, including 17 civilians, 24 soldiers and 22 rebels. Protesters had taken to the streets to renew their demands for the fall of the regime, under the slogan “Remove Kofi Annan, the servant of (President Bashar Al-) Assad and Iran,” referring to the UN and Arab League envoy.

In Damascus, “regime troops shot heavy rounds of live gunfire in the Nahr Aysha district to disperse protesters,” the Observatory said, adding that demonstrators were also shot at in the Sayida Zainab district. Three protesters were wounded in Harasta, also in Damascus province, and later several people including a child were wounded when regime forces shelled the town, the Observatory said. In the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, troops opened fire in a bid to disperse the demonstrations, the Britain-based watchdog said.

Meanwhile, about 220 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed in a village in the rebellious Hama region when it was bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks then stormed by militiamen who slaughtered some families, opposition sources said yesterday. UN special envoy Kofi Annan said he was “shocked and appalled” by news of “intense fighting, significant casualties, and the confirmed use of heavy weaponry such as artillery, tanks and helicopters” in the village of Tremseh. “I condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms,” Annan said in a statement. There were no independent accounts of the number of dead or how they were killed. UN monitors in Syria are currently confined to Damascus because of mounting violence.

An activist video, the only film record to appear so far, showed the bloodied corpses of 15 young men with faces or shirts drenched in blood. Most wore T-shirts and jeans. Syrian state television said there had been fighting in Tremseh and accused “armed terrorist groups” of committing a massacre there, but gave no death toll. It said three soldiers had been killed.

Opposition reports also said rebels of the Free Syrian Army had been killed in a battle. Lieutenant Ibrahim Zuait Al-Tarkawai was among rebels who died “defending the people of Tremseh”, the Hama Revolution Leadership Council said.

“We can verify continuous fighting yesterday in the area of Tremseh,” said United Nations monitoring mission chief General Robert Mood. “This involved mechanized units, indirect fire, as well as helicopters,” he said. UN monitors were ready to “go in and seek verification of facts if and when there is a credible ceasefire”, he said. If scores of civilians were killed, this could be the worst atrocity in 16 months of fighting between rebels and the forces of President Bashar Al-Assad. World powers are deadlocked over how to halt the bloodshed, with Russia and China opposed to Western and Arab calls for Assad to step down immediately.

Activists said the killing took place on Thursday, as the UN Security Council began negotiating a potentially crucial new resolution on Syria. Washington said it showed the need to move to tougher action, but Russia again ruled out such a step. “More than 220 people fell today in Tremseh. They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions,” the Revolution Leadership Council of Hama said in a statement.

The Sunni Muslim village, surrounded by farmland near the Orontes River, was first shelled then invaded by pro-government Alawite militiamen who swept in and killed victims one by one.

Some civilians were killed while trying to flee, it said. Armed Assad loyalists known as Shabbiha have been accused repeatedly of cold-blooded indiscriminate killings carried out on the coattails of army offensives into rebel-held districts. Another activist organization, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said over 160 people were killed on Thursday in Hama province, most of them in a massacre in Tremseh. — Agencies

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HAMA: This citizen journalism image shows a man mourning a victim killed by government forces in Tremseh. (Inset) This photo made from amateur video shows bodies of victims killed by government forces in Tremseh, Syria. — AP

Indian village bans ‘love marriages’ NEW DELHI: Police in northern India are investigating a village council after it banned “love marriages” and barred women under 40 from shopping alone or using mobile phones in public, reports said yesterday. In a slew of restrictive measures on women’s behavior, the council, or “panchayat,” in the predominantly Muslim village Asara in Uttar Pradesh state also insisted women cover their heads in public, said the Press Trust of India. Home Minister P Chidambaram condemned the orders, saying they had “no place” in a democratic society.

“Police must act against anyone issuing such diktats. If anyone takes action against any young man or woman based on illegal village courts, then they must be arrested,” Chidambaram said at a press conference. Local police superintendent V K Shekhar told PTI that an inquiry had been ordered into the content and legality of the council restric-

tions. Panchayats often comprise an unelected group of elders, who are seen as the social and moral arbiters of village life. Although their rulings carry no legal weight, they can be highly influential and have been blamed for numerous abuses, such as sanctioning “honor killings” of women whose actions are deemed to have brought shame on their family.

The measures were swiftly condemned by women’s rights groups. “This notion that women up to the age of 40 need protection and need to be controlled is extremely chauvinistic and undermines all basic norms,” said Sudha Sunder Raman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association. The head of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, said the council rulings were “laughable” and unenforceable. “Panchayats do not enjoy constitutional powers. And if there

are no powers, there is no need to follow the orders,” Sharma said. Council representatives interviewed by the Mail Today newspaper said the rules were intended to safeguard women from “bad elements” in society.

Council member Sattar Ahmed said “love marriages” as opposed to parentally arranged marriages, were damaging and a “shame on society.” “It is very painful for the parents, specially the girl’s family, because such marriages dent their respectability,” Ahmed said. The villagers themselves were reportedly satisfied with the panchayat rulings, saying they would help prevent young women being misled and forming unsuitable relationships. “Mobile phones are a curse, especially for girls. I would have been more happy if the panchayat had completely banned girls from using mobile phones,” villager Tarun Chaudhary told the Mail Today. — AFP

LOCAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Al-Saadoun hosts meeting on political reforms KUWAIT: At a meeting held at the diwaniya of former speaker Ahmed AlSaadoun, members from the former majority bloc (2012 parliament) discussed a drafting a program to reform the parliamentary system to ensure effective public participation in the government, constitutional amendments that mandate Parliament’s approval of cabinet formation and economic, electoral and judicial reforms.

At the meeting, former parliamentarians also met with youth activists at AlSaadoun’s diwaniya and discussed means to reach a consensus on amending the electoral constituencies, in addition to voting system to be followed.

Speaking at the meeting, MP Musallam Al-Barrak said that the

upcoming elections will be conducted according to the existing electoral system though the final decision has not been made after a voting was held on the suggested amendment.

The meeting also witnessed accusations being exchanged between the Popular Action Bloc(PAB) and the Justice Bloc. Ahmed Al-Saadoun, Musallam Al-Barrak and Khaled AlSultan were blamed for the suggesting that amendments be made.

Commenting on the issue, Justice Bloc member Dr Adel Al-Damkhi said that the majority bloc had agreed on the suggested amendments that will be discussed again on Sunday and cast their votes after probing the youth’s opinions on Saturday. Al-Damkhi added

Kuwaiti ‘mujahideen’ not part of Free Syrian Army KUWAIT: Responding to recent statements made by Syria’s envoy to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Jaafari about the presence of Kuwaitis fighting with ‘terrorists’ in Syria, Dr Ajeel Al-Nashmi, GCC Muslim Scholars Association Chairman, denied that Kuwaiti ‘mujahideen’ were part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Al-Nashmi asserted that such acts are considered a part of guerilla warfare rather than a war between two armies. “There is no place for strangers in such operations where warriors should know the terrain they are fighting on,” he stressed. “It only needs weapons,” he noted pointing out that what Syrians need most is financial support. -Al-Anba

that the main points to be discussed with youth activists will focus on electoral constituencies’ amendments.

Sources stressed that the majority’s decision was made in the form of a reconciliation attempt with youth activists who will be represented in the meeting.

They admitted that the youth were the key to winning the coming parliamentary elections. Sources added that the majority bloc was expected to demand a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy, request amendments be made to some constitutional articles, and the Constitutional Court law, the parliament chart, judicial reforms, eliminating corruption, setting a date to discuss financial worth declaration, interest in contradiction, condi-

tioning the parliament’s approval and trust Cabinet formation and rendering parliamentary sessions as bring constitutional even without the government’s attendance.

MP Khaled Al-Sultan disclosed that two iconic parliamentarians from the rival bloc had met with high-ranking officials and demanded issuing a ‘necessity decree’ to amend the electoral constituencies to five and allow voters to vote for two candidates. “This is sheer violation of the Constitution,” shouted Al-Sultan, accusing the MPs from the bloc of being unpatriotic. “The youth’s opinion is vital to us and we will consult them on forming their own country’s political future,” he said.

— Al-Watan, Al-Rai

National interest must be top priority: Premier Food supplies abundant: Sheikh Mubarak KUWAIT: Speaking to reporters after conducting an unscheduled inspection to Mishref co-operative society, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak urged everyone to accord top most priority to national interest. He visited the facility to make sure that food supplies were available and are affordable ahead of Ramadan.

“Ramadan teaches us many spiritual lessons that should be deeply entrenched in everybody’s soul, the most important of which is to prioritize our country’s best interest,” said the prime minister.

The premier also stressed that Ramadan food supplies are abundantly available in all co-operative societies. “I am visiting the co-op society to share citizens’ concerns, ideas and suggestions,” he underscored, noting that he was keen on checking goods’ availability and price rates. AlMubarak also expressed his admiration at

HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak the promotion organized at the co-op society where many items are on display at affordable prices. — Al-Qabas

News

in brief

Information minister attends PAAET concert KUWAIT: Minister of Information Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah sponsored and attended a concert held Thursday night by the Basic Education Faculty’s Music Department, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET). Several state departments were represented at the concert as part of the inter-departmental event.

A constellation of Kuwaiti and other GCC singers, including Fahad Al-Kebisi from Qatar, Belqais Ahmed Fatehi from Yemen and Kuwaiti female student Amal Hussein, sang popular classical lyrics in association with a student choral and orchestra led by Dr Amr Jaafar.

Detention of 11 bedoons extended KUWAIT: Police have stated that the detention of 11 bedoons that took part

in demonstration held in Taima, Jahra has been extended till Sunday so that investigations can be completed.

Kuwait wastes 25% of water produced KUWAIT: According to recent statistics released by the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), the amount of water wastage in the country now accounts for 25 percent of MEW’s total water production that stands at 453 million gallons per day. The situation calls for implementing a special plan to save and conserve water as Kuwait has very limited water resources. In this regard, sources said that MEW intends to revive the ‘water-saving pipefitting’ program that was used in the past.

Sources added that the operation of Shuwaikh Reversed Osmosis plant, which produces 30 million gallons of water a day had saved Kuwait from a water supply crisis.

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SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Tsunami-hit Japan museum gets Amir’s $3m donation Fukushima governor thanks Kuwait govt, people IWAKI, Japan: A handover ceremony for a $3 million donation from His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to Japan’s tsunami-hit marine science museum was held yesterday, giving a great encouragement to the people of Fukushima and deepening friendship between the two sides.

With attendance of Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) Director General Dr Naji Al-Mutairi and Japanese dignitaries, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi presented the donation to Aquamarine Fukushima Executive Director Yoshitaka Abe in the northeastern coastal city of Iwaki.

In his speech at the ceremony, Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato expressed gratitude to HH the Amir for the grant for the rehabilitation of Aquamarine Fukushima and confirmed his determination towards Fukushima Prefecture’s early recovery. “The restoration of the marine science museum is extremely important, as it is a symbol of revitalizing Fukushima Prefecture,” said Sato, adding that with this generous contribution from Kuwait, revitalization of Aquamarine Fukushima and this region will significantly advance.

“One year and four months passed since the earthquake, and our efforts to work towards revitalize Fukushima have been gradually bearing fruits, as production and tourism are almost coming back to the predisaster level,” Sato noted, as he renewed his commitment to the full restoration of his prefecture by cooperating with people who support Fukushima, such as the Kuwaiti people.

A magnitude 9.0-quake and ensuing tsunami on March 11 last year left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing in the region and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which is located 55 kilometers north of Iwaki. During his state visit to Japan in March this year, HH the Amir announced the grant as a surprise gift for the restoration of the severely-damaged aquarium and the promotion of science and technology. In addition, Kuwait last year extended the dona-

tion of five million barrels of crude oil worth about $500 million that has greatly helped post-quake reconstruction in the three hardest-hit prefectures including Fukushima.

Home to the damaged nuclear complex, Fukushima Prefecture has been using its allocated share of JPY 15.5 billion ($195 million) in various projects, including support to small and medium-sized companies affected by the nuclear mishap, restoration of cultural properties and rebuilding homes of disaster victims. Sato also said the fresh donation will bring the ties of Kuwait and Fukushima to a

the strong wish to cherish it for the generations to come,” the ambassador said. “I would like to convey my government’s hope that this donation will contribute to further accelerate the reconstruction of Aquamarine Fukushima and to set it back on course of pursuing its goal in paving the way of a better future for our children.”

Al-Otaibi also attached great importance to the signing of a resolution of friendship on Thursday between KISR and Aquamarine Fukushima, saying “we are totally confident that this resolution of friendship is to flourish

further heights. For his part, Ambassador AlOtaibi, who has been working as a bridge between Kuwait and Fukushima Prefecture, stressed keenness of HH the Amir, government and people of Kuwait to assist reconstruction process of Japan and Fukushima.

“The 3 million donation was made for two reasons. First, it came from His Highness’ appreciation for the mission of Aquamarine Fukushima in raising the public’s awareness on the importance of protecting our nature and our oceans.

“Second, it shows the special place that the Japanese people hold in the heart of His Highness. And such gesture showed by His Highness highlights, without any doubt, the firm friendship between our countries and

the inter-cooperation between Kuwait and Japan for the years to come.”

The ambassador also said the year 2012 has been of particular significance when thinking about the friendly relations between the two countries, shedding light on the historical state visit to Japan by HH the Amir upon the invitation of Emperor Akihito as a token of appreciation and gratitude for the support that Kuwait has extended the people of Japan since the March 11 disaster.

Opened in 2000 on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, Aquamarine Fukushima has been a popular attraction, where people of all ages can enjoy learning various mysteries of the sea. Although there were no human casualties in Aquamarine Fukushima, tsuna-

mi waves hit the main building with full force, totally destroying the electrical system, which is the facilities’ lifeline. As a result, about 90 percent, or 200,000 fish and marine animals, in the aquarium died.

Aquamarine Fukushima was closed after the disaster and resumed business on July 15 last year, the 11th anniversary of its first opening. The aquarium used to receive an average of more than 3,000 visitors per day, but the number of visitors fell by 70 percent last summer and 40 percent recently, respectively, in the aftermath of the twin natural disasters and the radiation crisis. Dr. Al-Mutairi, who signed the friendship agreement between the two institutes on the previous day with his counterpart Abe, said in a speech that KISR and the Japanese groups have expanded scientific cooperation and been engaged in many joint projects since his organization was established in 1967 by Japan’s Arabian Oil Company Ltd. Based on such a deep-rooted relationship between the two countries, Kuwait should be one of among the first countries to have extended support to Japan after the disaster, Dr. Al-Mutairi said. KISR started operations 45 years ago with just five people, including founding member Katsuji Tainaka, but currently have 1,500 researchers and employees and is cooperating with some 40 institutes worldwide. According to Abe, the money will be used in ways such as creating a facility which children can experience nature on land. He also said the aquarium will build a monument in a show of gratitude to the Kuwaiti contribution, which will become a symbol of hope for reconstruction. Former Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Teruhiko Mashiko, Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director-General Misako Kaji, Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University Dr. Miyori Kumamoto, KISR’s founding member Katsuji Tainaka, Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East Managing Director Yoshitaka Nakamura and Japan-Kuwait Society Secretary General Ryuei Izumi were also present at the ceremony. — KUNA

KFAED opens irrigation project in N Lebanon BEIRUT: The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development inaugurated yesterday an irrigation project in the town of Becharre in northern Lebanon. The project, which costs about $1.75 million, is part of the $300

million Kuwaiti grant for Lebanon after 2006 war.

Becharre residents expressed gratitude for KFAED’s role in supporting development projects in their towns and strengthening relationship

between Lebanon and Kuwait. They also voiced sincere thanks to His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahamd Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti government and people. In statements to KUNA, Head of KFAED Bureau in Beirut Nawaf Al-Dabbous said KFAED will continue its support for development in Lebanon in all economic, social, cultural, health, educational, agricultural sector. He also thanked Lebanese officials for offering all help and facilitating procedures to put the project into effect.

Since 1966 the KFAED granted Lebanon 19 loans totaling about $568 million to finance health, agricultural, transportation sectors and to rebuild districts destroyed by the Israeli war machine.

The KFAED also oversees the use of grants provided by the State of Kuwait to Lebanon, the latest of which a $300-million grant to rebuild south Lebanon and compensate victims of 2006 war. — KUNA

Sadu House welcomes LOYAC group KUWAIT: The Sadu Occupational Co-operative Society welcomed members of the Lothan Youth Achievement Center (LOYAC) group and introduced them to the art of traditional weaving in Kuwait and developing related skills in a summer program.

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SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Six sustain injuries in motor accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: A six-year-old Kuwaiti boy suffered a head injury, a 42- year-old man fell unconscious in a car accident that took place near the National Guard’s headquarters. They were admitted to AlSabah Hospital.

A 40-year-old citizen suffered chest pain after being involved in a motorcycle accident that took place in Al-Rai. He was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital.

A 33-year-old Chinese national and a 36-year-old Korean national suffered lacerations to the head and legs in a car accident that took place in Wafra. Both were admitted to Adan Hospital.

A 13-year-old citizen fractured his left thigh bone in a car accident that took place in Abdallah Al-Mubarak. He was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital.

Fire incident A 25-year- old Bangladeshi sustained second degree burns, two citizens suffered from a case of smoke inhalation and was administered treatment on site after a Jleeb house caught fire. The Bangladeshi was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital.

Brothers overpower sister’s abductor after hot chase Boy dies of suspected sun stroke KUWAIT: The brothers of a 13-year-old girl brutally assaulted a citizen who allegedly kidnapped her.

They chased him down, beat him up and stabbed him. Case papers indicate that the suspect attended a wedding and saw the girl playing outside her house. He lured her into taking a ride with him. One of the girl’s brothers witnessed the incident, and along with his other brothers, chased the suspect who drove recklessly in an attempt to escape and jeopardize the lives of others. The pursuit continued around Andalus Street, reaching the Fifth Ring Road, during which the suspect rammed into five other cars and hit a concrete barrier. The brothers later accosted him and assaulted him mercilessly until he was saved by police. A case was filed and further investigations are in progress.

Hospital reported to police that two citizens assaulted him while on duty because he did not allow them to visit the doctor. The employee added that one of the two assailants suffered from fever and according to the address on his identification card , he ought to have visited another hospital, which enraged them. The hospital security interfered and convinced the men to visit the other hospital.

Boy dies in football playground A 13-year-old boy died while playing football with friends in Fahaheel. While playing, he suddenly fell unconscious and was immediately admitted to Adan hospital. However, he was declared dead before admission.

Diwaniya catches fire A fire broke out at a diwaniya made out of wood in Ahmadi. Firefighters who responded to an emergency call rushed to the scene and put out the flames before it spread further. No casualties were reported.

Hit and run cases An Asian man died after being accidently run over by the driver of a vehicle who was in charge of picking him and other workers from Jaber Hospital construction site. An Indian was seriously injured after being run over by a speeding car in Fahaheel.

The man was admitted to Adan hospital for treatment.

Motorbike accident A 25-year-old citizen was seriously injured after he lost control over his motorbike along the Gulf Road. The man was admitted to the Amiri hospital.

Pool accident A 15-year-old citizen was admitted to Adan hospital’s Intensive Care Unit after he fell in Khairan resort’s swimming pool and sustained injuries.

Patients assault receptionist A receptionist at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer

Driver falls into coma Joggers in Rumathiya spotted a man, in his forties, found on the driver’s seat of his vehicle unconscious. However, when the police and paramedics confirmed that the man had fallen into a coma. He was rushed to the nearest hospital.

Police break up protest Riot police dispersed 30 bedoons who took to the streets in Taima, Jahra demanding the release of 11 others were arrested previously.

Freak accident A highway patrol policeman was seriously injured when his own gun, that was strapped on to his thigh, accidently fired in its holster. The bullet fractured his thigh bone and severed a major blood vessel.

Firemen honored for outstanding service

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A ceremony was held to felicitate firefighters from Capital Fire Department at the Kuwait National Library. They participated in the 10th Fireman Festival, along with entities like the Army, Fire Services Department and the National Guard. It was held under the patronage of Lt General Jassem Al-Mansouri, General Director of Fire Department.

The awards were distributed to officers who were chosen on the basis of their outstanding performance and efforts made to carry out duties.

The ceremony began with a speech delivered by Colonel Hamad Al-Hadlaq who hailed the efforts made by firemen to tackle fires and conduct rescue operations. Also, Al-Mansouri thanked Kuwait National Library for their cooperation. In the end, memorial shields were distributed to firemen.

Indian arrested for stealing passport An Indian was arrested in Khaitan for stealing his sponsor’s passport. Case papers indicate that a police patrol noticed that the suspect was trying to avoid a security check. Upon approaching him and asking him to produce his identification card, he pretended not to know Arabic. However, after the policeman performed a background check, he was found wanted in connection with sealing his sponsor’s passport.

Beauty salon burgled The workers from a beauty salon in Maidan Hawally lodged a complaint with police stating that the salon was broken into, and that all equipment was stolen. The workers suspect the building’s watchman’s involvement in the case as they had had arguments with him previously.

Campaign on fire safety

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: KFSD in coordination with KOC held an awareness campaign titled “Nabeeha Tawsal’ in order to educate people on safety and remind them of the major role fire departments are playing.

The campaign also created awareness about how to deal with incidents of fire breakouts and reduce human casualties and damage to properties.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Message of French Ambassador to Kuwait on French National Day

Kuwait-French ties: Getting closer, growing stronger

French Ambassador Nada Yafi

O

n the 14th of July, France celebrates its National Day, 223 years after the Revolution which gave birth to our democratic system.

This system has lately witnessed a smooth, quiet transition between our former President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, and the newly elected President, Mr Francois Hollande.

As an Ambassador of France to Kuwait, I take this opportunity to hail more than half a century of bilateral relations with the state of Kuwait. I am

happy to say we have strong, steady and friendly relationships between our two countries, between our heads of states, and also our peoples.

Our newly elected President of the Republic Mr Francois Hollande responded warmly to His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah’s congratulations on our presidential elections, and he emphasized the deep trust and respect in our relationship. Our President renewed the French commitment to Kuwait’s security and stability. Indeed whatever the changes of Presidents in the French Republic, the history of our friendship remains constant and firm.

Last year alone, I witnessed two visits by our Foreign affairs Minister, and many other high officials, which gave me the feeling of the importance we attach to maintaining close political dialogue with the Kuwaiti authorities. A few days ago, His Excellency Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Foreign Affairs Minister, was in Paris, for the friends of Syria meeting. Our longstanding partnership stems first and foremost from the commitment of both countries to peace and security in the region, and in the world at large.

We share common views on many regional and international issues.

In the field of defense and military cooperation Kuwait and France have

weaved for three decades strong ties, materialized by a defense agreement in 1992, which was strengthened in 2009.

The visit to Paris last month by the Kuwaiti chief of staff comes in a long process of mutual contacts, joint exercises, and various exchanges.

Our economic relations still have to grow to reach the high level of our political ties. During his visit to Kuwait last march our Minister for industry observed that more and more French companies, with excellent technology and expertise, are expressing interest in the various projects of development, in all possible fields. We are expecting a delegation of our French business leaders association in the near future. On the other hand, we are pleased to observe that the Kuwaiti investments in France are steadily increasing.

Education and culture is a vital area for France, and we are happy to have inaugurated in 2012 a true Cultural Center in Kuwait. Under the name “Institut FranÁais” this Center not only caters to learners of French, but it provides information for students wanting to study in France, and organises cultural activities, exhibitions like the prestigious “Golden Era of Arab Sciences” with Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyya, conferences like “New Media and Democracy” with three associations of the civil society, art exhibitions like the ones in Beit

Louthan, and many music concerts where East meets West. On the other hand, we are delighted to see the growing numbers of Kuwaitis visit France through the increasing numbers of visas delivered.

Strong relations indeed depend on close ties between people, and I believe French and Kuwaiti people have a lot in common., like the citizens’ interest for politics, their attachment to a Welfare state, the strong belief in democracy, to mention but a few. We are proud to have welcomed Kuwait Transparency in France in June this year on the occasion of the second tour of our parliamentary elections, where they had the opportunity to watch closely our elections procedures, adding a new field to our mutual exchanges.

I hope our ties will grow stronger in all possible fields.

Long live the friendship between Kuwait and France.

NBK reveals annual social program for Ramadan Features Iftar meals, visits to NBK Hospital and Beit Abdullah KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) revealed its annual ‘Doing Good Deeds’ program during the Holy month of Ramadan. For more than 20 years, the program comprises a

NBK Public Relations Executive Manager Manal F Al-Mattar

series of activities and events aimed at encouraging community engagement and solidarity and charity in Kuwait.

Manal Al-Mattar, NBK Public Relations Executive Manager said “NBK will ramp up its charitable activities, as a good corporate citizen of Kuwait. NBK hopes to encourage a greater sense of community and charity during Ramadan and encourages its customers and staff to participate by ‘doing good deeds’ all month long.”

“It is a well rooted tradition that has been carried out by NBK each year in its efforts to continuously have an active role in the Kuwait society. NBK believes in the power of doing good,” added Al-Mattar.

NBK fast-breaking banquets NBK Ramadan Social Program includes hosting fast-breaking banquets which have become a tradition observed annually within the “Do Good Deeds in Ramadan” philanthropic drive initiated by NBK more than 20 years ago.

The Iftar banquets will be held near the

Grand Mosque. Fast-breaking will also be offered at various mosques and other locations throughout Kuwait. NBK will also distribute Iftar meals via special convoys that will tour the more crowded areas in the country.

NBK volunteers NBK staff volunteers have already finalized all necessary arrangements for Ramadan tents to receive fasting people on the eve of first day of Ramadan. NBK staff volunteers will manage and supervise the fast-breaking banquets.

Social visits The NBK Ramadan Social Program will also include several visits by NBK’s Public Relations personnel and NBK staff volunteers to NBK Children’s Hospital and beit Abdullah, in addition to the distribution of Gerge’an throughout NBK’s branch network.

Social media activities NBK Ramadan Social Program will also include daily competitions and valued prizes through the official social media channels of NBK in Facebook & Twitter and Instagram.

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SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Ban lauds progress in Kuwait-Iraq relations UN seeks to see fully ‘normalized ties’ UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he is ‘encouraged’ by the progress in Kuwaiti-Iraqi bilateral relations and urged the two neighbors to sustain this momentum, and seize the opportunity to resolve all outstanding issues and fully normalize their relations.

In a report to the Security Council issued late Thursday on the work of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Ban said the bilateral relations between the two countries ‘witnessed noticeable improvement’ during the last four months, including the creation of a joint

Maintenance Project (IKBMP) by October 31 this year, “subject to the fulfillment by the parties of the necessary prerequisites for the field maintenance work to begin.” “The United Nations will continue to support the parties’ commendable efforts towards the completion of the IKBMP in a swift and flexible manner,” he pledged. He also recalled that the Security Council supported his recommendation last month that Iraq and Kuwait “should begin exploring other arrangements to consolidate and ensure continued cooperation in the

Ban Ki-moon commission to manage the navigation of the Khor Abdullah shared waterway.

Besides, he added, the parties agreed to take the necessary measures for the maintenance of their common border and to enhance joint security, with Kuwait, indicating that it would also open consulates in Basra and Irbil. He indicated that both countries jointly requested the UN to begin the maintenance work of Iraq-Kuwait Boundary

search for missing persons and property, including national archives.”

In a related matter, Ban said the UN “remains committed to providing all the necessary assistance to facilitate Iraq’s exit from its obligations under Chapter VII of the UN Charter,” including through the work of the high-level coordinator for the return of Kuwaiti and other nationals and property, Gennady Tarasov, as well as through the timely

completion of the IKBMP. On the political situation in Iraq, Ban said he was ‘concerned’ that political tensions have risen since he last reported to the Council four months ago.

“Unless the impasse is meaningfully addressed by all parties, it could hamper efforts to move the country toward progress and stability. Political tensions could also adversely impact the security situation,” he warned. The current political impasse is also hindering efforts to resolve outstanding issues pertinent to the disputed internal boundaries, he indicated. “I continue to firmly believe that addressing these issues remains central to Iraq’s future stability,” he stressed.

“I therefore urge Iraqi leaders to work together in a spirit of compromise and inclusiveness, in accordance with the Constitution, towards a peaceful and prosperous future for Iraq,” he said.

Regarding stability in the region, Ban said it “remains a crucial factor for Iraq’s transition to a peaceful and stable democracy. “I continue to be deeply concerned with the escalation of violence in Syria, which could have an adverse political and humanitarian impact on the region, including Iraq.”

The Council is scheduled to meet on July 25th to renew UNAMI mandate for one whole year at Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari’s request. In a letter to Ban, Zebari said “the events and developments of the Arab Spring have confirmed the credibility of the Iraqi approach to the building of a democratic State and the protection of human rights and the population. We are making progress in establishing that approach, which will serve our population. Against that background, Iraq will require the support of UNAMI,” conveying the Iraqi Government’s wish that the Mission’s mandate be extended for a further period of 12 months. —KUNA

SARAJEVO: Kuwait Ambassador to Albania Najib Abdulrahman Al-Bader meeting Albanian Foreign Minister Edmond Panariti. —KUNA

Kuwait, Albania hail bilateral ties SARAJEVO: Kuwait Ambassador to Albania Najib Abdulrahman Al-Bader met with Albanian Foreign Minister Edmond Panariti to discuss issues of common interest.

During the meeting, Al-Bader relayed Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah’s greetings to his Albanian counterpart for assuming office as the new country’s Foreign Minister. The Albanian official lauded the strong bilateral ties and expressed appreciation for Kuwait’s support for developmental projects in the country which are carried out through Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED). In May, Albanian President Bamir Topi visited Kuwait for the purpose of promoting relations in all areas. —KUNA

Myanmar’s Islamic bodies hail Kuwait KUALA LUMPUR: Islamic organizations in Myanmar have expressed appreciation to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Kuwaiti government for condemning the bloody violence against Muslims in Arkan, Myanmar.

Kuwaiti Ambassador to Myanmar Essa Al-Shimali told KUNA, yesterday, via the phone that he received a group of representatives from various Islamic organizations in Myanmar who gave him a letter in which they expressed their thanks and gratitude to the Kuwaiti leadership’s stance toward violent acts.

Violence broke out between Muslims and Buddhists after an incident on May 28 in a village in the central part of Rakhine state. Three Muslim members of the Rohingya ethnic group raped and killed a Buddhist woman belonging to the Arakan ethnic group. That incident triggered further attacks and arson throughout the state.—KUNA

NBK holds field trip for internship students KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) organized a field trip to the students of the Summer Internship Program at the end of the two-week courses to Kuwait Danish Dairy Company (KDD).

KDD representatives took the students in a tour to introduce them to the various activities as well as an exclusive visit to its factory. The students had the chance to see the different stages of food production.

The NBK Summer Internship Program is designed for students as an extension of NBK’s education outreach services.

The program demonstrates NBK’s long-standing social involvement as well as its national commitment towards providing the young generations with the appropriate opportunities to experience firsthand how the actual professional banking issues and transaction are handled and processed.

The 5-hour daily sessions of two-week internship featured a mixture of theoretical and practical training dedicated to providing the interns with invaluable knowledge on a variety of subjects such as; the team work, creative thinking, means of self expression and modern banking work procedure, in addition to helping interns to have greater exposure to daily banking work procedures.

NBK regularly organizes and designs events and packages for the youth of the country to familiarize them with the world of banking and make them responsible citizens.

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Avalanche dead loved ones mourn at French ski resort

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More than 20 killed in S African train crash

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SE Asia meeting in disarray over sea dispute with China

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BANGKOK: Supporters of the judges react to the Constitution Court ruling outside the court in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday. The court defused the country’s latest political crisis yesterday, dismissing a controversial case that alleged ruling party lawmakers trying to amend the constitution were plotting to overthrow the monarchy. —AP

Syria moves chemical weapons Analysts see move as serving a dual purpose

LONDON: Syria appears to be quietly shifting some chemical weapons from storage sites, say Western and Israeli officials, but it is not clear whether the operation is merely a security precaution amid the chaos of war, or something more. Some analysts see the move as serving a dual purpose - to keep the weapons from capture by an expanding insurgency, and to deprive Syria’s Western foes of any excuse for intervention on the grounds of securing dangerous material gone astray. The Syrian government denies carrying out the operation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, and there is no firm word on the materials involved. Syria’s undeclared stockpile reportedly includes sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide.

But the reports contribute to an impression of crumbling government control in parts of Syria, and are likely to heighten international concern about the security of what is believed to be the Middle East’s largest chemical weapons stockpile. An Israeli official said however the movements reflected an attempt by President Bashar Al-Assad to make “arrangements to ensure the weapons do not fall into irresponsible hands”.

“That would support the thinking that this matter has been managed responsibly so far.” In Washington, a national security official confirmed the US government had received reports of chemical weapons movements but was not sure of the reasons.

TIGHT CONTROL A second US official said the reported movements were “relatively new”, but not necessarily hugely frightening. Pentagon spokesman George Little said Pentagon believed the Assad regime retained control of chemical weapons but the United States and its partners were watching closely. “We would of course caution them (the Syrians) strongly against any intention to use those stockpiles. That would cross a serious red line,” he said. “We cannot assume nefarious intent,” said Dina Esfandiary, a research analyst at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies. She said mustard gas, stored in weaponised form in artillery shells, could be used against “tactical targets” like advancing troops.

“This is the reason why moving them looks suspicious - because it looks like he is moving them to be used, even though he could be moving them to more secure locations.”

Western countries believe Damascus has the world’s largest remaining stockpile of undeclared chemical weapons - including mustard gas and the deadly VX nerve agent. The arsenal could give Assad a means to project power domestically and in the region, and counterbalance Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons. In London, the British Foreign Office (ministry) said Syria was a country “of proliferation concern” and had a track record of covert weapons programs. From Israel’s point of view the biggest “red line” would be a transfer

of such weaponry to the powerful Shi’ite political party and guerrilla group Hezbollah, a sworn foe.

More localized leakage within Syria would be less worrying as such weapons are not easy to operate in the absence of a military infrastructure, Israeli officials have said.

RESTIVE AREAS But Damascus worries that even the appearance that it no longer enjoys 100 percent control of the material could trigger military action by the West to secure the sites and prevent them from getting into the hands of Islamist militants, analysts say. “The material in question may not be adequately protected, or they are near restive areas,” said Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute military think tank. Assad’s focus on the possibility that Western forces may one day seek to capture his chemical weapons may have been sharpened by the holding of regular multinational military exercises involving US forces in neighboring Jordan earlier this year.

Joshi said the US had been training for that kind of operation with nuclear-armed Pakistan in mind, “and so the stories have been trickling out (from Jordan) in a very clear US signaling that ‘we are preparing for this eventuality’. That will obviously have affected Assad.” Western media reports have said suspected sites are in half a dozen cities and towns including the capital Damascus, Latakia, Hama and near Aleppo. A sen-

ior Free Syrian Army source said two weeks ago that Assad’s forces, with Iranian help, were moving chemical weapons out of the the Tal Qartal military site, around 14 km southwest of Hama.

The source said some were going to Damascus and being airlifted to Lebanon. There was no immediate confirmation of the report.

FRONT LINES Leonard S Spector, director of the Washington office of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies research center, said there were several scenarios in which control could be lost over portions of the chemical arsenal. Writing in a June 26 article in Yale Global Online, Spector listed these as: Custodians could be reassigned to the front lines of the impending civil war. They could desert posts to protect families as domestic turmoil continues. They could defect to the rebel cause, transferring control over weapons stocks to the Free Syrian Army, with confused lines of authority and plans to manage such materials that are likely non-existent. Depending on the ebb and flow of battle, Assad could abandon the custodians if, for example, the sites fell within swathes of territory taken by rebel forces. They could be overrun by rebel troops. Free Syria Army leaders might try to demonstrate, through capture of a site symbolizing Assad’s military strength, that the Syrian leader was losing his grip on power. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Israel to deport illegal foreigners from West Bank JERUSALEM: Israel’s immigration police have been granted the power to remove foreigners without permits from the occupied West Bank, Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday. According to the report, the head of the Israeli army’s Central Command has granted the interior ministry’s enforcement arm the power to arrest foreigners who have outstayed their visa in a bid rein in foreign pro-Palestinian activists.

The order was signed on July 6, the paper said. Until now, Israel has struggled to find a way to apprehend

activists in the West Bank. “Many illegal residents within Israel choose to come to the Judaea and Samaria area to work,” an army statement said in response, using the biblical term for the West Bank.

“In the past, the (interior ministry’s Population and Migration Authority) had no enforcement power over these workers. “According to the new order, inspectors will be authorised to transfer the illegal residents into the boundaries of the State of Israel, where the regular enforcement procedures will proceed, as per Israeli law,”

it said. “The status of these illegal residents will be identical to the status of illegal residents found during routine enforcement in Israel.” The army noted that the inspectors “will not be allowed to enter a (Palestinian) place of residence without the appropriate warrant signed by a military judge admitted to a committee on the matter of exclusion from the Judaea and Samaria region.”

Last month, the immigration police began a nationwide crackdown on the estimated 60,000 illegal African migrants living in Israel. — AFP

Hamas sees Egypt’s Morsi defying Israel Egypt’s leader to meet Abbas next week

AMMAN: Jordanian lawmakers, no names available, recite verses from the holy Quran during a session for the Jordanian Parliament. Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday that it will boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections in protest over recent changes in the kingdom’s election legislation, saying they fall short of the opposition group’s demands. — AP

Jordan’s Islamists to boycott elections AMMAN: Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday it will boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections in protest over recent changes in the kingdom’s election legislation, saying they fall short of the opposition group’s demands.

A boycott would deal a blow to King Abdullah II, who has made his reforms’ campaign the centerpiece of efforts to stave off Arab Spring-type of protests.

Islamists have made gains all over the Middle East and show increasing strength in Jordan, where regular street protests over the past 18 months have called for wider public say in politics and for curtailing the king’s absolute powers.

The elections, expected at the end of the year though no date has officially been set, are critical in the king’s campaign. He has changed 42 articles, or one-third of Jordan’s 60-year-old constitution, giving parliament a say in appointing Cabinets - a task which used to be his sole prerogative.

“The government left us no choice but to boycott the elections because it did not show any seriousness toward real reforms,” Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu-Bakr told The Associated Press. Abu-Bakr, however, said the Brotherhood - Jordan’s largest opposition group - may reverse the latest decision if the government promptly acts on its demands. “We will leave that discussion until a time when the government undertakes serious and real efforts toward reforms,” he said.

Government officials did not answer repeated calls for comment. The main dispute is over a new election law, which

gave concessions to the opposition by allowing each eligible voter two ballots instead of one under legislation enacted in 2001. Parliament passed the new on Thursday. Under it, one ballot is reserved for representatives from local districts in this traditionally tribal society, while the other goes to a 27-seat national list of candidates.

That way, Islamists are expected to dominate the national list and also get some votes from the local list, while tribal pro-government candidates will likely muster most of the local support from their particular clan and relatives.

But the Brotherhood argues that the law still favors king’s loyalists and that elections held under it would produce another docile legislature. It insists on an old, 1989 election law, which allowed Jordanians multiple ballots and saw the Brotherhood at the time win almost half of the seats in the first elections in more than two decades.

In 1990, six Brotherhood lawmakers joined a Cabinet for the first time ever.

But the group’s popularity waned soon afterward as its lawmakers and Cabinet members failed to deliver on promises to create jobs and improve living conditions of the poor. Instead, they focused on trivial issues, like banning alcohol aboard flights of Jordan’s flag carrier to Arab countries and ending TV talk shows they considered too liberal.

The Islamists boycotted the last two elections but remained popular among poor Jordanians who benefit from Islamic charities that aid schools, banks and hospitals in areas outside the government’s reach.—AP

GAZA: The head of the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip said on Friday he was confident Egypt’s new president would shield the Palestinian enclave from Israeli attack and fully open its borders to end a trade blockade.

Mohamed Morsi, who won power in last month’s presidential election in Egypt, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and ideologically close to Hamas. The Gazan Islamists long complained that his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, ousted from power last year in a popular revolt, sided not just with Israel, but also with their political rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

So far, Hamas has seen little sign of a policy shift since Morsi took office and diplomats said the Egyptian leader had so many domestic problems that he could ill-afford to dedicate much time to re-tooling Cairo’s relations with the Palestinians.

However, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s Gaza government, told worshippers in a mosque that change was coming. “We are confident that Egypt, the revolution led by Morsi, will never provide cover for any new aggression or war on Gaza,” he said. “We are confident that Egypt, the revolution led by Morsi, will not take any part in blocking Gaza,” he added.

Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza in late 2008 in an effort to end repeated rocket attacks from Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist. Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the three-week war.

Low level violence continues and Israel still imposes a rigid trade blockade on Gaza, arguing that it is needed to prevent weapons of arms-making materials into the enclave.

Politicians in Israel have expressed alarm in private over the election of Morsi and fear that their country’s historical peace treaty with Egypt could be eroded over time.

Mubarak helped police the Gaza blockade and did not let any goods officially cross the border, saying this was part of longstanding accords with Washington and Israel. However, Cairo always turned a blind eye to a thriving blackmarket business with Gaza conducted through a warren of underground tunnels.

A few hundred people cross in and out of Gaza every day via Egypt and the number of passengers has increased since Morsi took office. However, officials on both sides explain this on the start of the holiday season rather than on any policy shift.

Morsi’s position will soon be put to test when he meets officials from Hamas and the secular Fatah, which is backed by Western powers and rules in the nearby West Bank.

Protocol means that Morsi will almost certainly see Abbas first, with one source saying it would happen on Wednesday. No date has yet been set for a Hamas delegation to be received.

Both President Abbas and Hamas are likely to be pressed by Egypt to end their long-standing hostilities, which at one point saw the two sides fight a brief

civil war in Gaza.

“No one can help the Palestinians more than they can help themselves. They should take daring steps to end their rifts,” an official in Cairo told Reuters by phone. Repeated attempts at Palestinian reconciliation have ended in failure, with the two sides at loggerheads on everything from setting a date for elections to cooperating on security.

“Theoretically, Morsi’s election gave a boost to Hamas, but the man has a million domestic problems to handle at home,” a diplomat in the region told Reuters, asking not to be named. “If Morsi publicly backs Hamas, he would be seen as supporting the Palestinian division and that would reflect badly on his foreign policy. He has to tread it carefully,” he added. — Reuters

CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks to reporters during a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, yesterday. The presidents of Egypt and Tunisia pledged to open a new chapter in relations following uprisings that overthrew longtime rulers, replacing them with a Muslim Brotherhood figure and an activist who was exiled. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Hospitals struggle to save victims of Nigeria oil fire YENAGOA: Medical workers yesterday struggled to save the survivors of a massive petrol fire in southern Nigeria, as the death toll, previously put at roughly 100, rose by at least four.

Relatives of those who were engulfed in flames while scooping fuel from an overturned tanker flocked to area hospitals and found family members who were hardly recognisable.

Sade Orisola said she received a call to say that her brother was among those burned early Thursday in the inferno on a major highway in Rivers state. “When I got to the hospital I met a different person wrapped under a huge bandage,” she told AFP as she sobbed outside the Federal Medical Centre in Yenagoa, capital of neighbouring Bayelsa state.

“‘Can that be my brother?’ is what I asked.” Rivers officials said more than 100 people were killed and 50 others injured in the fire. The severely burned survivors were rushed to several hospitals and medical workers were struggling to assess the full loss of life.

“What I can tell you is that we are still losing people,” Rivers information commissioner Ibim Semenitari said.

“In one of the hospitals where we had 13 wounded, four people have died,” she added.

More fatalities were feared at two other hospitals and the the state plans to release a final toll on Monday, Semenitari explained. Medical workers at the hospital in Yenagoa who requested anonymity said they were not equiped to care for victims with

such high degree burns, a common problem in Nigeria, where many hospitals lack the most basic facilities.

The tragedy happened after the tanker swerved to avoid three oncoming vehicles in Rivers’ Ahoada area, a key trading hub in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Semenitari said that the toll could have been much higher had the fire occured closer the town of Ahoada, as even more people may have rushed to the scene to collect the fuel spilling out of the toppled truck.

“In a way we may have been fortunate,” she said. Fuel leaks and oil tanker accidents in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, often draw huge crowds and many deaths have been caused by accidental fires. In October 1998, more than 1,000 people

died at Jesse, in the southeastern Delta state, when a pipeline exploded as people tried to steal fuel.

In April last year, a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint in the central part of the country, sparking an inferno in which some 50 people were killed. Rivers Governor Chibuike Amaechi has ordered a full probe into the causes of the crash.

Some Nigerian newspapers on Friday said poor roads were partly to blame, but Kayode Olagunju of the Federal Road Safety Commission has said such speculation is premature.

More than 17,000 people died in 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria between 2007 and 2009, according to the road safety agency’s most recent report. —AFP

Germany tells Jews, Muslims they will be free to circumcise

MPUMALANGA: Emergency services personel attend to an injured man at the site of a train crash at Mpumalanga, South Africa, yesterday. Over twenty people are confirmed dead with some 25 injured, some critically, following a collision between a train and a truck carrying farm labourers. —AP

More than 20 killed in S African train crash Truck was carrying 44 farm workers JOHANNESBURG: Twenty-four people were killed in South Africa yesterday when a goods train ploughed into a truck carrying farm workers at a level crossing, an official said. The train transporting coal to Mozambique collided with a four-tonne truck and dragged it down the tracks, leaving dismembered bodies in its wake in what rescue officials described as a gruesome scene. The accident occurred shortly before 7:30 am (0530GMT) near the town of Malelane in the eastern province of Mpumalanga, south of the famed Kruger National Park.

“Nineteen people died on the scene,” said Joseph Mabuza, spokesman for the provincial department of community safety. “As far as I know this is the worst rail accident in our region since 1994,” he added. The truck was carrying 44 farm workers and 25 of them suffered severe injuries. Some were airlifted to hospitals, with the death toll initially estimated at 30.

“It would appear as if the truck driver may have crossed the railway line without having a proper lookout and as a result the train hit him and then pulled him for about a kilometre to two kilometres,” said Thulani Sibuyi, head of the province’s community safety department.

“The bodies are lying all over the scene. People torn apart and so forth.” A woman at the scene described the aftermath to local radio, saying: “You

can smell blood. There are bodies everywhere. It’s a very gruesome sight.” The driver of the truck survived the crash.

“It is understood that a coal train consisting of four locomotives and 39 wagons... collided with a fourtonne truck,” said Sibongiseni Hena, the spokesman for the railway safety regulator. Police told AFP they were investigating and considering laying a charge of culpable homicide. Railways and freight rail in South Africa are owned and operated by Transnet, the staterun transport and logistics company. The firm said in a statement that the driver of the truck had failed to stop at a level crossing.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the country’s largest labour federation, said the accident exposed the terrible labour conditions where “workers are transported in open trucks”. “The accident also points to the need to re-examine all railway level crossings to make sure that drivers are fully aware of the approaching hazard,” it said in a statement.

Accidents at level crossings are common in South Africa as drivers often ignore safety signs. This year a court handed a 20-year prison term to a Cape Town minibus taxi driver who ignored safety signals at a railroad crossing and was hit by an oncoming train, killing 10 school children. — AFP

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman promised Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities yesterday they would be free to carry out circumcision on young boys despite a court ban which has provoked concerns about religious freedom.

In a country that is especially sensitive to allegations of intolerance because of the Nazis’ slaughter of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the government said it would find a way around the Cologne court ban in June as a matter of urgency.

“For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany,” said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert. “Circumcision carried out in a responsible manner must be possible in this country without punishment.”

European rabbis descended on Berlin this week to lobby against what they see as an affront to religious freedom - with the backing of Muslim and Christian leaders in an unusual show of unity, as well as the support of many German politicians.

Ruling in the case of a Muslim boy taken to a doctor with bleeding after circumcision, the Cologne court said the practice inflicts bodily harm and should not be carried out on young boys, but could be practised on older males who give consent.

This is not acceptable under Jewish religious practice which requires boys to be circumcised from eight days old, nor for many Muslims, for whom the age of circumcision varies according to family, country and branch of Islam.

“It is well know that in the Jewish religion early circumcision carries great meaning, so it is a matter of urgency that this right be restored,” said Seibert, adding that Merkel’s own office would be involved in efforts to resolve the problem.

“We know a quick decision is needed and that this cannot be put off.

Freedom of religious practice is a very important legal right for us,” he said.

Germany is a close ally of Israel and its ambassador there has promised parliament’s Diaspora Affairs Committee to defend the rights of Germany’s growing Jewish community.

European rabbis ended their meeting in Berlin on Thursday in a defiant mood. They plan talks with German Muslim and Christian leaders in Stuttgart next week to see how they can fight the ban together.

The ruling by the Cologne Regional Court applies to the city and surrounding districts with a total population of just over 2 million people. The total population of Germany is about 82 million. Cologne is home to about 120,000 Muslims, whose plans for a new central mosque has stirred antiimmigrant sentiment.

The head of the Conference of European Rabbis urged Jews in Germany to continue carrying out circumcision despite the ban.

But the German Medical Association, while opposing the ban because it could drive circumcision underground with greater risk of infection through poor hygiene, advised doctors not to carry out the operation until the legal situation is cleared up as they could risk prosecution.

Pinchas Goldschmidt, the Swissborn chief rabbi of Moscow who organised the meeting, said the ban was a fresh example of creeping prejudice in European law against nonChristians, after a Swiss ban on minarets, French and Belgian bans on Islamic veils in public and an attempted Dutch ban on halal meat.

“Circumcision represents the basis for belonging to the Jewish community. It has been practised for 4,000 years and cannot be changed,” said Goldschmidt.

Germany is home to about 120,000 Jews and 4 million Muslims. Many of the latter originating from Turkey, which has also condemned last month’s court ruling. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Avalanche dead loved ones mourn at French ski resort Avalanche hit with little warning

MADRID: Spanish King Juan Carlos (R) talks with Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (L) before a cabinet meeting at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, yesterday. —AFP

FBI to help Austria look again at Kampusch case VIENNA: Austria is enlisting the help of the FBI and Germany’s BKA Federal Crime Office to see whether mistakes were made in the investigation of one of its most notorious cases - the kidnapping of schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch.

Snatched on her way to school when she was 10 years old by Wolfgang Priklopil, Kampusch was held for eight years in a windowless cell under his house outside Vienna before escaping in August 2006. He killed himself hours later.

While it is the most thoroughly evaluated case ever in Austria, a parliamentary panel recommended the investigation be looked at again with the help of foreign experts, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Mlcoch said.

“If they find out that there really have been some mistakes then we can learn for the future,” she said. Drawing parallels with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States or the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, Mlcoch said: “There will always be some theories of what could have happened. There are always some critics who say you could have done this, and this, and this.”

She said the case was not being re-opened but the committee, set up yesterday and due to complete its work by the end of the year, would look at how the investigation was conducted.

The government had agreed to the parliamentary panel’s recommendation for the sake of transparency. “We want to show that we have a clear conscience, we know that we’ve done everything possible,” Mlcoch said.

A team working with the committee, which groups Justice and Interior Ministry officials and others, will include a cold case expert from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In her memoirs “3,096 Days” Kampusch recounted how her captor starved her, beat her, sexually abused her and forced her to clean his house half naked, calling her his “slave”.

Austria was shocked by an abuse scandal again in 2008 when it emerged that Josef Fritzl had held his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, one of which he murdered through neglect. He is in jail for life. —Reuters

CHAMONIX: Relatives of the nine climbers killed by an avalanche in the French Alps gathered at the nearby resort of Chamonix yesterday to pay their respects the day after the tragedy. The mountaineers who died in the avalanche on Mont Maudit (“Cursed Mountain” in French) in the Mont Blanc massif early on Thursday were three Britons, three Germans, two Spaniards and a Swiss.

Twelve others were injured.

Relatives of Roger Payne, a former general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council, arrived in Chamonix late Thursday, as did Britain’s ambassador to France, Peter Ricketts, and the Swiss consul. “We are here to support the families whatever way they like in these tragic times,” Ricketts said, hailing in French the memory of Payne “very well known in Chamonix and in Great Britain.”

The brother of one of the dead Spaniards went early yesterday to Chamonix hospital where the bodies are being kept in nine rooms. “We’re receiving the victims’ families at the town hall with staff and a member of the PGHM” French mountain rescue group, before taking them to the bodies at the hospital, said town hall security official JeanLouis Verdier.

“We’re trying to help them understand as best as possible why their loved ones died, so that they can mourn. There was no technical error,” Verdier said. The avalanche also injured 12 people, one seriously with throat and back injuries who has been hospitalised in Sion in Switzerland. Six of the injured have already left hospital.

The injured are three Spaniards, two Germans, two Americans, two Danes, a Serb, a Swiss and a Frenchman. Frederic Champly, in charge of emergency and mountain rescue at Sallanches hospital, said the injured there were doing well.

Danish survivor Thomas Vybro, 30, spoke from his hospital bed about his terror as he was swept away by the wall of ice and snow and how he had struggled in vain to dig his fellow mountaineers after the avalanche.

“That was terrible, I thought I would die, I really thought ‘I’m gonna die now’,” he told AFP. “Because I’m sure I would hit something, that would kill us or we would go over a cliff.

We were going so fast.”

“I had a hard time breathing. I thought it was because of the altitude but it was because I had ice in the lungs,” he said. Of the six climbers that Vybro helped to dig out of the snow, two were already dead.

“The worst thing of course was to see these people we dug up were dead and other people were very bad, with broken legs, it was horrible,” he said. Thursday’s avalanche involved a slab of snow around two metres (six feet) thick and 100 square metres in area which is not “enormous”, Champly said.

“Too many people is what led to there

An ecumenical memorial service is to be held for the victims in a Chamonix church on Saturday at 1200 GMT. Mont Maudit is the massif’s third-highest peak, rising to 4,465 metres (14,650 feet) and is considered one of the more difficult paths to the summit of Mont Blanc, western Europe’s highest peak.

Thursday’s accident was the deadliest climbing disaster in France since August 2008. Some 20,000 climbers attempt to reach the summit of Mont Blanc every summer, with up to 500 a day during peak

CHAMONIX-MONT-BLANC: Daniel Rosseto (L), independent highmountain guide and his client Thomas Wybro, from Denmark, both survivors from an avalanche in the French Alps, pose yesterday at the Sallanches hospital in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. —AFP being so many victims,” he said. British ambassador Ricketts told AFP that he had been told the climbers were properly equipped and led and had followed the recommended itinerary.

“One French official was saying to me they were doing nothing imprudent,” Ricketts said. “What we were hearing... is that it was not predictable that this piece of ice would detach itself and fall down the mountain, the conditions were normal for climbing and there was no way of predicting that.”

times. Police have launched an enquiry into the accident to determine whether there may have been human error. Strong winds led to a layer of snow building up on a steep slope that slid under the weight of the mountaineers, perhaps after one of them struck the snow with an ice axe, said local prosecutor Pierre-Yves Michau.

The investigation could take several weeks. “Victims’ relatives will be kept abreast of the probe,” as will their respective nations, Michau said. —AFP

Police seek boyfriend of woman accused of abuse KANSAS CITY: The boyfriend of Kansas City woman whose 10-year-old daughter weighed just 32 pounds when she was rescued from a closet remained at large Thursday, one day after he was charged with child endangerment.

Neighbors had long suspected Marcus R. Benson played more of a role than he initially claimed after a call to a 24-hour child abuse hotline led authorities to the family’s apartment June 22.

Inside a locked closet that reeked of urine was the girl, weighing less than half of what a typical child her age weighs.

The girl’s mother, whom The Associated Press isn’t naming to protect the girl’s identity, was charged the next day with assault, child abuse and child endangerment. She has pleaded not guilty and waived the right to a preliminary hearing during a court appearance

Thursday. Her attorney, public defender Curt Winegarner, declined to comment outside the courtroom.

Immediately after the girl’s discovery, Benson told police he didn’t live in the apartment, and said that he often visited to see his 2- and 8-year-old daughters, but hadn’t seen their half-sister in about a year, according to the probable cause statement filed in the mother’s case.

Benson said that when he asked the mother about the 10-year-old, she told him she was with her aunt or in her room because she was in trouble. He said he never knew the mother put the girl in the closet or “he would have done something about it,” the probable cause statement said.

But a couple days after the 10-yearold was discovered, longtime neighbor Aishah Coppage said she was skeptical. “I

know he knew,” she said last month, adding that he had keys to the apartment, changed clothes there and was always there when Coppage got off work.

Julie Hamilton, a spokeswoman in the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, said the probable cause statement in Benson’s case won’t be released until he is arrested. Online court records don’t list a lawyer for Benson. After his initial interviews with police, he was released while authorities continued an investigation that culminated in the two counts of child endangerment.

“The first thing he did when he got out of jail was to come over here,” Coppage said last month. “You could hear him ranting and raving because he was mad we were talking to the press and the police and everything. I don’t

care about his anger because I believe he knew.”

Coppage said last month the couple had a volatile relationship and she sometimes could hear them fighting next door. Her phone wasn’t accepting new messages Thursday. According to the probable cause statement, the mother told police she didn’t let the girl leave the house because the child is malnourished and she would “get in trouble if someone saw her.”

It’s unclear how much time the child spent in the closet. In the probable cause statement, she told police that her mother put her in the closet “a lot.” The couple’s two younger children have been placed in protective custody. The 10year-old girl was hospitalized after police found her, but it is unclear if she is still in the hospital. —AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Autistic man survives 3-week ordeal in Utah desert DENVER: A 28-year-old autistic man from Colorado was found emaciated but alive on Thursday after living off mainly frogs and roots while wandering lost for at least three weeks in the remote Escalante Desert of southern Utah, authorities said.

William Martin LaFever of Colorado Springs, Colo., told rescuers that in addition to the bits of food he scavenged, he drank water from the Escalante River while attempting to walk from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Ariz., a distance of approximately 90 miles or more by the route he appeared to be taking.

The Garfield County Sheriff’s Department estimated he had traveled about 40 miles before he was found. “It is some of the most rugged, unforgiving terrain you will find anywhere on Earth, jagged cliffs, stone ledges, sandstone, sagebrush, juniper,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Becki Bronson said in a telephone interview.

“Where William was hiking, there just isn’t anyone out there,” she said. “There

are no people. There are no towns.” The sheriff’s department said it was remarkable that searchers aboard a helicopter were able to find LaFever at all, much less alive. Deputy Ray Gardner, who had recently completed training in search and rescue operations for people with autism and was aboard the helicopter, said LaFever would not have survived another 24 hours.

The helicopter took LaFever to Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch.

The hospital said it could not release any information on his condition. LaFever was trying to get to Page because his father, John LaFever of Colorado Springs, told him he would wire money to him in there, the sheriff’s department said in a written release.

William LaFever had called his father on June 6 or 7 to say he was hiking in the Boulder area with his dog, and that someone had stolen some of his hiking gear and he had run out of money. John LaFever told his son to catch a ride to

Page to collect the money.

Unbeknownst to his father, William LaFever apparently decided to hike down the Escalante River and then hitch a boat ride along Lake Powell to Page, rather than try to catch a ride, the sheriff’s department said.

LaFever set out along the river but ran out of food. His dog left him, and LaFever began abandoning his gear until all he had was the clothing and shoes he was wearing when he was found, the sheriff’s department said.

The dog hasn’t been seen since.

Authorities do not know why the dog ran off, Bronson said. The early June phone call was the last time the family heard from LaFever, and his sister reported him missing on Monday, the sheriff’s department said.

A telephone message left at the LaFevers’ home in Colorado Springs wasn’t immediately returned. Gardner’s training in searching for people with autism taught him they are naturally drawn to

water, so the helicopter search focused on the Escalante River, the department said. The helicopter team spotted LaFever Thursday afternoon, sitting in the Escalante River about five miles from Lake Powell, weakly waving at the aircraft.

Gardner was dumbfounded when LaFever identified himself because of the long odds of finding anyone in that country, the sheriff’s department said. “In all my career I have never seen someone so emaciated,” Gardner was quoted as saying in the sheriff’s department release.

“I could not believe that he was alive, and feel certain that in another 24 hours he would not have been alive.”

Gardner didn’t immediately return a phone message late Thursday. LaFever was so weak that he couldn’t stand, but he was so eager for human contact that at first he would not stop talking long enough to eat or drink anything, the sheriff’s department said. He eventually took a drink and ate a granola bar. — AP

Leftist seeks to void Mexico’s presidential election, again Obrador disputed results of previous election

ARIZONA: In this undated photo provided by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, shows a 240yard, a complete and fully operational tunnel that ran from a small business in Arizona to an ice plant on the Mexico side of the border, July 12, 2012, in San Luis, Arizona. — AP

US nuclear plant problem worse than thought: Report LOS ANGELES: US nuclear regulators published an update on California’s troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought. A reactor at the nuclear power plant near San Diego was shut down in January after a radiation leak, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there was no danger to the public.

Investigations found unexpected erosion on tubes that carry radioactive water, and the entire plant was shut down, forcing Californian authorities to fire up alternative power generation facilities. On Thursday, an update on the tube erosion, posted on an obscure part of the NRC’s website, showed the situation had worsened.

“This reveals a far greater problem than has been previously disclosed, and raises serious questions about whether it is safe to restart either unit,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The new data shows that more than 3,400 steam generator tubes in the new steam generators at San Onofre have been found to be damaged-about 1,800 in Unit 3 and 1,600 in Unit 2 — he said. “Edison had been talking about trying to get Unit 2 back on line at end of summer; now we know to do so they would have to run with a large number of damaged tubes,” Hirsch told AFP. A spokeswoman for operator Southern California Edison did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new figures. The NRC did not comment on the figures, which were presented as tables. —AFP

MEXICO CITY: The runner-up in Mexico’s presidential race on Thursday filed suit before the country’s electoral court in a bid to void the results on charges the winner broke campaign finance laws and bought millions of votes.

Left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came in 3.3 million votes behind Enrique Pena Nieto from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), according to the official count from the July 1 vote.

But the former mayor of Mexico City, who lost the 2006 presidential race by a narrower margin, says the campaign was rigged, with major media outlets skewing coverage to promote the telegenic Pena Nieto at the expense of the other parties.

Lopez Obrador said he had proof Pena Nieto enlisted help from local governors to buy around 5 million votes by doling out pre-paid gift cards, cash, foodstuffs, building materials and fertilizer to lure poor voters to the ballot boxes.

“The massive vote buying operation was carried out before and on the day of the election,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference, adding he would next week unveil a “national plan for the defense of democracy and the dignity of Mexico.”

In 2006, Lopez Obrador also refused to accept his loss to President Felipe Calderon by less than 1 percentage point.

Financial markets were rattled when his supporters staged weeks of disruptive protests, occupying the capital’s main boulevard. This time markets have largely shrugged off the possibility of a drawn-out conflict and Pena Nieto is already naming advisers to work on his government’s transition.

Lopez Obrador stopped short of calling for protests and said his camp will argue before the electoral tribunal, known as the TRIFE, that the PRI broke the rules for free elections. His lawyers filed their complaint with election officials Thursday evening, delivering dozens of boxes filled with doc-

MEXICO CITY: Camerino Eleazar Marquez (L), Electoral Counselor of the Progessive Movement, Luis Walton (2nd R) of Democratic Convergence party, and Senator for the Democratic Revolution Party Ricardo Monreal (R) check their watches as Senior IFE official Edmundo Jacobo (2nd L) signs documents received backing up a legal complaint calling for the results of Mexico’s vote to be thrown out, after the leftist leader Lopez Obrador’s claim that Enrique Pena Nieto from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the general elections. — AFP uments, videos, photos as well as home appliances, clothes and kitchen utensils allegedly given away by the PRI campaign.

The TRIFE has until Sept. 6 to consider all claims and officially declare a presidentelect. Pena Nieto, 45, is set to return the PRI to power after 12 years in opposition.

The party ruled Mexico for seven decades straight and often turned to authoritarian tactics to stifle political rivals and rig elections. Lopez Obrador said the party resorted to its old tricks after polls showed he was gaining ground late in the campaign and a student-led movement began to rally against Pena Nieto’s candidacy.

Backed by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and a coalition of smaller left-wing parties, Lopez Obrador also claims the PRI pressured local officials to line up votes for the party in the many

states where it holds power.

Ricardo Mejia, a spokesman for Lopez Obrador’s legal team, said the lawyers will present proof that Pena Nieto spent 4 billion pesos ($296.51 million) during the campaign, 12 times the legal limit of 330 million pesos. The PRI denies the accusations and has filed a legal complaint against Lopez Obrador for making false statements.

PRI chairman Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said Lopez Obrador alienated many voters with his protests in 2006 and called him a “sore loser” who was backtracking on a promise made before the vote to accept the election results.

“We will prove the falsehood of his arguments,” Joaquin Coldwell told a news conference. “And demonstrate the legality of our triumph.” —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Thai king recovers from bleeding around the brain BANGKOK: Thailand’s 84-year-old king has recovered from minor bleeding around the brain, the royal palace said yesterday, but still canceled a day trip to western Thailand.

It would have been his fourth such recent excursion outside the hospital where he has stayed for more than two-and-a-half years.

The trips are seemingly meant to raise his profile after his extended absence from the public eye, especially as Thailand goes through a period of possible political turbulence. The palace’s statement said King Bhumibol Adulyadej had twitching in his right hand and a slightly increased pulse rate Thursday evening before a comput-

er scan found bleeding in the brain’s outer membrane. He was given medicine intravenously and recovered yesterday morning, with a normal pulse rate and blood pressure and no more twitching.

The palace said doctors urged the king not to take on any duties for a while. Bhumibol has been staying at Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital since September 2009. Originally treated for lung inflammation, he had a spinal tap procedure last year to reduce excess cerebrospinal fluid causing pressure on his brain. He was treated for abdominal bleeding that caused a sharp drop in his blood pressure in November, and for a painful digestive condition in

January. The king had been scheduled to visit a development project Sunday in the western province of Ratchaburi. In May, he made a highly publicized trip to Thailand’s old capital of Ayutthaya, wearing an army uniform for the occasion, and since then he has made two boat trips for ceremonial occasions.

Thailand’s monarchy once had near-universal respect among Thais, but the king’s fading from public life and the palace’s perceived role in the nation’s political battles have tarnished the institution in recent years.

The political troubles and the concurrent decline in Bhumibol’s health have kindled uncertainty

about the monarchy’s future. Even though there is an heir apparent, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, there is uncertainty about his capacity to rule.

The announcement on the king’s health came the same day Thailand’s Constitutional Court decided the ruling Pheu Thai party was inappropriately trying to amend the constitution. But the court rejected the more serious charge that the bill was an effort to overthrow the governing system of constitutional monarchy.

The court could have ordered the ruling party dissolved, and speculation had been high that such an order would have triggered protests and possible violence. — AP

China, Japan in diplomatic foray over embassy attacker Japan ask S Korea to hand him over for trial

DILI: Government palace guards view skeletal remains on a mass grave at the national government palace compound in Dili yesterday. Police in East Timor who uncovered a mysterious mass grave at the national government palace last month said yesterday they had found the bones of 72 bodies and clues the dead may have been Chinese. — AFP

Philippines nabs extremist for priest abduction MANILA: Philippine police yesterday said they had arrested a Muslim extremist allegedly involved in the abduction of a US Catholic priest almost two decades ago. Police and military units arrested Jumli Orie Manjuri, an alleged member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, on Thursday for the kidnapping of Father William Bertelsman in 1994 on the strife-torn southern island of Jolo.

The suspect was detained on the southern island of Basilan, which like Jolo is a rugged, heavily-forested area and a stronghold of the extremist group, a police statement said. Manjuri was part of the group that seized the American priest, who was promptly rescued by authorities, the statement said. The group has frequently abducted foreigners as well as locals since the 1990s with the aim of extorting ransom money, killing kidnap victims during rescue attempts or when payment is not made. Manjuri is also believed to have taken part in the killing of 14 military trainees in 1998 and the killing of farm workers in 2008, all in the southern Philippines, police said. The Abu Sayyaf, a small band of Islamic militants set up in the 1990s with seed money from the late Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, is based on remote southern islands and is responsible for the country’s deadliest terror attacks. The number of Abu Sayyaf fighters has dropped from roughly 2,000 a decade ago to a few hundred today, according to security analysts. However the group remains active, staging kidnappings and bombing attacks. — AFP

SEOUL: Tokyo and Beijing have been locked in a diplomatic fight over a Chinese man who hurled petrol bombs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul, officials said yesterday. The 38year-old surnamed Liu was charged with attempted arson in January after he threw four petrol bombs at the mission, leaving burn marks on its outer wall.

“Japan has asked South Korea through formal diplomatic channels to hand him over” for trial, a foreign ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. South Korea has also received an informal request from China to deport him, she said.

At talks yesterday with South Korea’s Justice Minister Kwon Jae-Jin, Chinese Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu showed his “interest” in the case, Kwon’s office. Kwon vowed to handle the case under South Korea’s

law and legal procedures, it said, declining to give details.

Liu has told investigators that he attacked the embassy because he was angry at Tokyo’s refusal to deal with the issue of “comfort women” forced to work in Japanese military brothels in World War II. He said his late maternal grandmother-a Korean-was forced into wartime sex slavery in China.

Some 200,000 women from Korea and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese army brothels, according to historians.

Japan has rejected talks on compensating them. Liu also claimed responsibility for an arson attack which caused minor damage at Japan’s controversial Yasukuni shrine last December.

The shrine in Tokyo is dedicated to 2.5 million Japanese killed in warsincluding top war criminals-and is

often seen as a symbol of the country’s wartime aggression. Meng arrived Thursday for a three-day visit to discuss cooperation in consular and immigration services.

At separate talks Friday with Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan, Meng said Beijing was “seriously” considering Seoul’s request to release four South Korean activists, the foreign ministry said.

The four were arrested on March 29 after helping North Korean refugees, and accused of endangering China’s national security, a charge that can carry severe punishment.

Almost all refugees from the North cross first to China, which repatriates any fugitives it catches, classing them as economic migrants. South Korean activists engage in secret activities in China to help the refugees travel on to Seoul. —AFP

E Timor ruling party wins 30 parliament seats DILI: The ruling party of East Timor resistance hero Xanana Gusmao has won 30 seats in parliament, according to a final count yesterday from last weekend’s vote, and will need to form a coalition to govern.

Gusmao’s centre-left National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) is three seats shy of the 33 needed for an absolute majority in the 65-seat parliament which would allow him to remain prime minister.

The National Electoral Commission count of Saturday’s vote showed that the main opposition left-wing Fretilin party had come second with 25 seats in parliament. The Democratic Party (PD), a member of the previous ruling coalition, won eight seats, while Frente-Mudanca grabbed two. The CNRT said it would decide Sunday which party to team up with. If it is unable to form a majority, Fretilin and PD could join forces and lead parliament. Yesterday’s results need to be confirmed by the Supreme Court before being officially declared, and parties have 48 hours to complain to the court of appeals.

Preliminary results given Sunday had said CNRT had won 31 seats, and Fretilin 24. The count for the other two parties remained unchanged. — AFP

MANILA: Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario addresses the media during a press conference in suburban Pasay City, south of Manila, Philippines, after his return from the ASEAN Regional Forum in Cambodia yesterday. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Magnetic bomb kills Afghan women’s official NANGAHAR: An Afghan women’s affairs official was killed yesterday when a bomb attached to her vehicle exploded, critically wounding her husband and daughter, police said.

“Laghman provincial women’s affairs director Hanifa Safi was assassinated as a result of the explosion of a magnetic bomb attached to her vehicle,” provincial police chief Abdul Rahman

Sarjang told AFP. “Her daughter and husband along with four passersby were wounded.”

Safi and Laghman provincial government spokesman Sarhadi Zwak blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.

The killing came just days after a shocking video surfaced of the execution of a woman, allegedly by

Taleban Islamists, after she was accused of adultery in Parwan just north of Kabul. The Taliban, who were notorious for their suppression of women’s rights during their rule from 1996 to 2001, are waging an insurgency to overthrow the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Their favoured weapons-indis-

criminate roadside bombs-are responsible for a majority of the deaths of both security forces and civilians, but the use of a magnetic bomb indicates that Safi was a specific target. The most recent high-profile assassination was of a senior government peace negotiator, Arsala Rahmani, who was shot dead in his vehicle in Kabul in May. —AFP

SE Asia meeting in disarray over sea dispute with China Philippines deplores inaction, criticises Cambodia

QUETTA: Activists of the secular Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP) help move a damaged truck following a bomb blast in Quetta yesterday. A bomb attack killed at least six people outside a party political meeting in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, police said. —AFP

Militants flee Pakistan after border attack KHAR: Dozens of militants from Afghanistan who attacked a Pakistani village and took scores of hostages have fled back across the border, leaving the captives behind after a deadly battle with the army, officials said yesterday. The fighters who staged the cross-border attack on Thursday around 2 pm local time came from Afghanistan’s Kunar province and appeared to be targeting members of an anti-Taleban militia in Kitkot village near Pakistan’s Bajur tribal area, in the northwest. Pakistan has railed against Afghan and NATO forces for not doing enough to stop the rising number of cross-border attacks, which it says have killed dozens of members of its security forces. However, there has been little sympathy from the US and Afghan governments, which have long complained Pakistan allows sanctuary to militants fighting in Afghanistan. The militants in Thursday’s attack fled Kitkot under the cover of darkness late that night, said Framosh Khan, a government official in the surrounding area. Locals reported seeing them carrying the bodies of 15 dead fighters, he said. Two anti-Taleban militiamen were also killed in the fighting.

Pakistani soldiers managed to free dozens of villagers who were taken hostage by the militants or were trapped in their homes during the fighting, said Khan. The information could not be independently verified because the area is largely off-limits to reporters.

Elsewhere in the country, a bomb exploded yesterday near a political rally in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing at least five people, officials said. The bombing appeared to target a rally being held by the Awami National Party, which has been attacked many times before because of its opposition to Islamist militants.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. In addition to the five people killed, 11 others were wounded, said Mohammed Jafar, a doctor at the city’s main hospital. Most of the victims were attending the political rally when the bomb went off.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, home to both Islamist militants and Baluch nationalists who have been waging a decades-long insurgency against the government for greater autonomy and a larger share of the province’s natural resources.

In southern Pakistan, prisoners at a jail in Hyderabad city took 15 staff hostage and tried to break out of the facility, said senior prison official Gulzar Channa. Guards opened fire on the prisoners to prevent them from escaping, killing one of them. Officials are trying to get the prisoners to release the hostages and go back to their cells, said Channa. Several Islamist militants convicted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 are held in the jail. —AP

PHNOM PENH: A Southeast Asian regional summit ended in acrimony yesterday over China’s assertive role in the strategic South China Sea, failing to agree on a concluding joint statement for the first time in its 45year history.

Divisions between the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) follow a rise in incidents of naval brinkmanship involving Chinese vessels in the oil-rich waters that has sparked fears of a military clash.

The Philippines said it “deplores” ASEAN’s failure to address the worsening row, and criticised Cambodia-a close ally of China-for its handling of the issue during the foreign ministers’ meeting.

Without mentioning China, Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario told a news conference in Manila that one “member state’s” intrusions into Philippine territory were part of a “creeping imposition” of its claim over the entire South China Sea and were raising the risk of a conflict.

The South China Sea has become Asia’s biggest potential military flashpoint as Beijing’s sovereignty claim over a huge, looping area has set it against Vietnam and the Philippines as the three countries race to tap possibly huge oil reserves.

The stakes have risen as the US military shifts its attention and resources back to Asia, emboldening its long-time ally the Philippines and former foe Vietnam to take a bolder stance against Beijing.

ASEAN’s divisions are an ominous sign for a bloc that wants to create a regional economic community by 2015 that would bring down barriers in trade, labour and financial markets-partly to compete with China for investment.

China is a member of the East Asian Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum which also held meetings in Cambodia. “The increasing assertion by this member state over the disputed and non-disputed areas poses a threat to the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” del Rosario said. “If left unchecked, the increasing tension that is being generated in the process could further escalate into physical hostilities which no one wants.”

China has been accused of using its heavy influence over summit chair Cambodia and several other ASEAN members to block regional-level discussions on the issue and attempts to agree a binding maritime Code of Conduct to manage the dispute.

The Philippines said it took “strong exception” to Cambodia’s statement that the non-issuance of a communique was due to “bilateral conflict between some

ASEAN member states and a neighbouring country”.

It said it had only requested that the communique mention the recent standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships at the Scarborough Shoal, a horseshoeshaped reef in waters that both countries claim. Indonesia, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, played down the rift. “No doubt the South China Sea at the moment is a difficult issue but I’m sure ASEAN will find ways and means to be able to address that problem,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told Reuters.

“combat-ready” patrols in waters it said were under its control in the South China Sea, after saying it “vehemently opposed” a Vietnamese law asserting sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino told Reuters in an interview last week that he may ask the United States to deploy spy planes to monitor the disputed waters.

China, whose trade and investment ties with Cambodia have surged in recent years, has warned that “external forces” should not get involved in the dispute, which it says should only be discussed bilaterally.

CAMBODIA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) speaks during the 5th Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Ministerial Meeting with Foreign Ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam held on the sidelines of the 45th Annual Ministerial Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh yesterday. —AFP But the rising tensions were underlined yesterday when the Chinese navy said that one of its frigates had run aground on Half Moon Shoal, about 90 nautical miles (170 km) off the western Philippine island of Palawan.

China said it was conducting a rescue mission and the Philippines said it was sending “assets” to the area to investigate and provide assistance if needed.

“That’s a very strategic location to strengthen their claim over the Reed Bank, they are getting closer to our territory, putting one foot inside our fence,” one military official told Reuters.

The Philippines scrambled aircraft and ships to the Reed Bank area last year after Chinese navy ships threatened to ram a Philippine survey ship.

China said last month it had begun

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the South China Sea. Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said he was “very disappointed” over the failure to issue a statement. In a statement issued late on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi repeated that there was “no dispute” about China’s sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal.

“China hopes the Philippine side faces the facts squarely and stops creating trouble,” he added.

The United States has stressed it is neutral in the long-running maritime dispute, despite offering to help boost the Philippines’ decrepit military forces. It says freedom of navigation is its main concern about a waterway that carries $5 trillion in trade - half the world’s shipping tonnage. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Cannibal cult arrest in Papua New Guinea SYDNEY: Police in remote Papua New Guinea have arrested members of an alleged cannibal cult accused of killing at least seven people, eating their brains raw and making soup from their male organs, a report said yesterday.

The 29 people were part of a 1,000strong group formed to combat errant sorcerers who The National newspaper said had begun charging exorbitant fees.

The cost of a witch doctor revealing a cause of death or casting out an evil spirit was usually 1000 kina ($472) cash, plus a pig and a bag of rice, but some were also demanding sex as payment.

“It’s against our traditional ethics and morals for a sorcerer to have inter-

course with a man’s wife or teenage daughter,” said one local cult leader in the Tangi area, inland from Madang province on PNG’s northeast coast.

“That was the main cause of frustration that led to the forming of a group to hunt down sorcerers. “Over time, as suspects were released to carry on as sorcerers, we got tired and fed up.”

There is a widespread belief in sorcery in PNG where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune, illness, accidents or death.

Locals determined to get revenge on the profiteering witch doctors sought their own supernatural training from village chiefs, using their “possessed” bush knives to hunt down and

kill seven people since April, the report said. “We ate their brains raw and took body parts such as livers, hearts, penis and others back to the hausman (traditional men’s houses) for our chief trainers to create other powers for the members to use,” one of those arrested said.

The killings saw police raid Biamb village last week and arrest 29 people, eight of them women. A local expert in the supernatural cited by the newspaper said the way the group operated was different from traditional PNG hausman practice, which would normally see specific people trained to hunt a sanguma (sorcerer).

“But these people never kill sorcerers in broad daylight, mutilate and eat

sorcerers’ flesh, livers, and hearts or make soup from the penis of sorcerers,” he said.

“This is insane and the cannibalism (of this group) goes beyond the local culture.” Madang provincial police commander Anthony Wagambie urged other followers of the group, believed to number more than 1,000, to surrender.

“It is the tip of the iceberg and more needs to be done to educate locals to eradicate the movement,” he told The National.

“Police cannot do it alone. It requires collective effort from government, responsible agencies, non-governmental organisations and the churches to work together.” —AFP

Japan digs for missing as 20 die after heavy rain Rescuers continue search, using heavy machinery

JAKARTA: A Muslim Indonesian holds a banner during a protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday. Hundreds of Indonesian, Muslims denounced the violence in Myanmar between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims. —AP

Australian defence chief vows to stamp out abuse SYDNEY: Australian Defence Force chief General David Hurley yesterday vowed to stamp out abuse in the military following a damning report detailing allegations of rape and sexual assault. The report, released Tuesday, was commissioned by the government last year following the so-called Skype scandal, when footage of a young male recruit having sex with an unwitting female classmate was streamed online to cadets in another room.

It detailed 24 allegations of rape that never went to trial among 847 claims of sexual or other abuse dating back to the 1950s. “Any abusive behaviour in the defence force is unacceptable and I am deeply distressed by each and every allegation,” Hurley wrote in an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I have given a personal undertaking to do everything I can to stamp out any form of abuse in the ADF and to lead our cultural change programme.” The review, conducted by law firm DLA Piper, recommended a number of options to address the allegations including an apology and compensation to victims, and a public inquiry.

Hurley said it was critical the claims be addressed as soon as practicable. “I will fully support the government in whatever process it determines appropriate,” said Hurley. “We should not, and cannot, turn a blind eye to instances of inappropriate behaviour.”

“As individuals we must also be able to demonstrate that we have the moral courage to act and the ability to respond in an appropriate and timely manner when issues arise.” But Hurley also stressed that while the allegations were serious, he strongly believed they did not define the military, which he said enjoyed a proud national and international reputation for excellence. “I have served in the ADF for 40 years and I know that the force is not characterised by abusive behaviour,” he said. As well as the rapes, the report documents “horrific” child sex assaults and brutal initiation ceremonies and paints a culture of cover-up, failure to punish perpetrators and hostility towards victims who complained. —AFP

TOKYO: Rescuers were racing against time yesterday in the search for people buried under mudslides as heavy rains that have already claimed 20 lives continued to pound southwestern Japan. Police, firefighters and troops were digging through mud and rubble with shovels as more torrential rain fell, on top of “unprecedented” downpours that swamped whole neighbourhoods on Thursday.

Television footage showed torrents of muddy water carrying uprooted trees and other debris after Thursday’s violent deluge, while rivers burst their banks and flooded towns and villages in the main southern island of Kyushu.

Reports showed residential streets in the city of Kumamoto covered in

mud, while battered cars that had been swept away by flood water were left dumped on hillsides in scenes reminiscent of the March 2011 tsunami in the northeast.

In the city of Aso in Kumamoto prefecture, central Kyushu island, landslides buried at least 17 households, killing 19 people with six more still missing, local officials said. “We will keep searching for the missing throughout the night, while urging our citizens to stand guard as heavy rain continues sporadically,” said Kumamoto prefectural official Yushin Maekawa.

In Oita, a man in his 70s died after being swept into a raging river, while another man remained missing. Public

KYUSHU: This aerial photo shows a cluster of buildings affected by flood waters left by torrential rain at Aso city in Kumamoto prefecture, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. —AFP

broadcaster NHK showed rescuers continuing their search, using heavy machinery to remove uprooted trees, boulders and debris as night fell.

The weather eased somewhat yesterday morning bringing temporary relief, but further downpours were recorded in Kyushu later in the day.

The city of Hita, Oita prefecture, issued evacuation orders to more than 14,800 people amid increasing fears the Kagetsugawa river, which runs through the city, would burst its banks, local officials said.

Nearly 25,000 people in other parts of the prefecture were advised to seek safety, the officials said. In neighbouring Kumamoto prefecture, more than 250 households were told to evacuate, while everyone living on the floodplain of the Shirakawa river in Kumamoto city was advised to get to safety.

Yesterday’s downpours were set to add to the misery for an area where 50,000 people were ordered to leave their homes on Thursday after it was lashed by the heaviest rainfall on record.

Landslides and fallen trees have cut roads and water supplies in several places, with at least one small mountain community completely cut off, the local government said. A Japanese military helicopter dropped supplies including food and water onto the isolated district, it said.

The weather agency urged residents of Kyushu to be vigilant against mudslides and floods after rainfall of 10.1 centimetres (about 4 inches) per hour was recorded in the southern region of Kagoshima early yesterday.

The weather agency forecast further about 20 centimetres of rainfall in the northern Kyushu region during the 24 hours to 6:00 am today (2100 GMT Friday). —AFP

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Clinton meets Myanmar leader at business forum

17

Spanish civil servants protest salary cuts

Business

Asia has firepower to fight slowing growth

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

18 19

JPMorgan says bad trade has ballooned to $5.8bn

TOKYO: Model cars of German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz are displayed for an anniversary event of the company’s showroom. Mercedes-Benz will hold a sales promotion event till July 29. — AFP

New Iran sanctions boost oil prices ‘Market seems kind of directionless’ NEW YORK: Fears of violence in the Persian Gulf escalated Thursday, pushing the price of oil higher. The Obama administration slapped Iran with more sanctions aimed at stifling its nuclear program. Traders, who worry that the sanctions will eventually lead to a military conflict in the Gulf, responded by buying oil. “This just puts the risk back out there,” said Phil Flynn, an oil analyst with Price Futures Group.

The US and other Western nations believe Iran is building a weapon and have heaped financial and diplomatic pressure on the country since November to force it to negotiate. Iran denies the claim. Its leaders have threatened to block a key shipping channel out of the Gulf if the sanctions continue. Such a move, or a conflict in the area, could slow down or even halt shipments out of one of the world’s most prolific sources of oil. About 20 percent of the oil traded around the world comes from the Persian Gulf. Sanctions helped cut Iran’s oil production by 188,500

barrels per day from May to June as buyers looked for other sources of crude, according to OPEC. Iran fell to No. 3 in OPEC production last month. Iraq moved to No. 2, behind Saudi Arabia.

Oil prices, which had been down all day, jumped after the sanctions were announced.

Benchmark US crude added 27 cents to end at $86.08 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which sets the price for imported oil, added 84 cents to finish at $101.07 per barrel in London. Thursday’s sanctions were aimed at companies and people affiliated with Iran’s defense ministry. Previous sanctions were meant to curtail its ability to export oil. Earlier this year, European refineries stopped buying Iranian oil, and Iran’s banks were blocked from doing business with much of the world.

For most of this month, oil prices have been on a bumpy ride, changing direction almost every day as the global economy put-

ters along. Investors and analysts say it’s hard to figure where prices are headed. China and other emerging economies appear to be using more oil. Yet those increases are offset by weaker demand in the US - the world’s biggest oil consumer - where the job market has stagnated, and in Europe, which continues to wrestle with massive government debts.

“The market seems kind of directionless,” Gene McGillian, a broker and oil analyst at Tradition Energy, said. “Are we going to see the emergence of a global economic recession, or are things going to stabilize?” The latest batch of data continued to deliver mixed views of the global economy. Reports out of Europe Thursday said borrowing costs rose in Spain and unemployment rose in Greece, stoking concerns about the region’s financial crisis.

Meanwhile the US Labor Department said the number of people filing for unemployment benefits plunged last week. Economists said

they thought the drop will be temporary.

The International Energy Agency said global oil demand should rise this year, but the increase will be less than what it predicted a month ago. Natural gas futures rose after the US said the nation’s natural gas surplus is falling more in line with historic levels. The government said the nation’s supply is 20 percent larger than the five-year average, much lower than what it was earlier in the year. The price of natural gas added 2.1 cents to finish at $2.874 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York. At the pump, retail gasoline prices were flat at a national average of $3.384 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline prices have been steady this week. A gallon of regular is about 55 cents cheaper than what it was in April. In other futures trading, heating oil rose 1.15 cents to finish at $2.7733 per gallon, while wholesale gasoline added 3.73 cents to finish at $2.8062 per gallon. — AP

business

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Clinton meets Myanmar leader at business forum Clinton in plea for workers’ rights in Asia SIEM REAP: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Myanmar President Thein Sein yesterday for landmark discussions days after Washington eased its sanctions on the once-pariah state. The pair began talks in the Cambodian tourist town Siem Reap on the sidelines of a US business conference, after the US on Wednesday gave the green light to firms to invest in Myanmar, including in oil and gas, in its greatest loosening of tough sanctions so far. It is Clinton’s second meeting with

European Union suspended most of its sanctions against the country in April.

“I am sending a very prestigious business delegation,” Clinton told Thein Sein, after shaking hands with the former general, adding that she wanted the representatives to hear his plans. A high-level group of US business leaders will be visiting Yangon and the capital Naypyidaw in the coming days. Myanmar yesterday said Thein Sein and Clinton were expected to discuss changes that have swept

SIEM REAP: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) and Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra stand during a meeting yesterday. —AFP Thein Sein after she became the first US Secretary of State to visit Myanmar in half a century during a trip to the country late last year, as reforms took hold of the long military-dominated nation.

Washington has faced criticism from rights groups concerned it is moving too fast in its eagerness to cash in on Myanmar’s vast business potential. But the decision will please US firms eager not to miss out on what some economists expect to be a gold rush in the resourcerich nation. Asian firms have been doing business in Myanmar for years, while the

Myanmar since a quasi-civilian government replaced the military junta last year.

“The meeting shows the support of the US government to Myanmar’s reform process,” Zaw Htay, director of the president’s office, told AFP. Clinton acknowledged yesterday in a speech to a women’s forum in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap that in Myanmar as it opens up “there will be a lot of challenges” but said she hoped to see “continuing progress there.”

Washington was setting up “protec-

tions to ensure that increased American investment advances the reform process” she said, as US firms will have to report on transparency and labour rights. Myanmar-along with regional neighbours-has called for all sanctions to be lifted as the country embarks on its “second wave” of economic reforms.

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed the sanctions decision, but called for greater transparency at state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, which US firms will be able to do business with under the new rules.

Her comments were echoed by influential US Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, who said operations at the organisation “remain non-transparent and the billions of dollars in foreign investment that it receives remain unaccountable to the people and parliament of Burma”. Human Rights Watch went further, saying Washington had “caved to industry pressure” because it did not insist on reforms in governance and human rights.

Thein Sein’s comments to the UN Thursday that refugee camps or deportation was the “solution” for stateless Muslim Rohingya, following communal violence last month in western Myanmar, are also likely to alarm Western nations. Left impoverished by decades of economic mismanagement and isolation under army rule, the country is seen as the next big frontier in Asia for firms wanting to take advantage of its resources, cheap labour force, high growth potential and strategic position between China and India.

Thein Sein told the Singapore Straits Times his country would sign up to an Oslo-based initiative to enhance transparency of payments in the oil and minerals sector. Clinton is hosting the USASEAN business forum in Siem Reap, which is be the largest ever gathering of American corporate leaders in Asia.

Executives from Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, DHL and Goldman Sachs are among dozens of US companies travelling to the conference. —AFP

Opel CEO Stracke resigns in middle of turnaround FRANKFURT: The CEO of General Motors’ loss-making European business abruptly stepped down on Thursday, a sign that the automaker’s top management wants to speed up what has been a slow-moving restructuring plan. Karl-Friedrich Stracke stepped down just two weeks after presenting a new plan to rebuild the struggling European Opel and Vauxhall brands and return them to profitability. Adam Opel GmbH said in a statement that he will stay with GM and take on special projects, reporting to CEO Dan Akerson. GM ViceChairman Steve Girsky, the head of Opel’s board of directors and a company troubleshooter, will serve as acting chief of European operations while the company searches for Stracke’s replacement.

The surprise moves show that GM’s upper

management is growing more impatient with the slow pace of change in Europe as the economy deteriorates faster than expected, said Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive, a consulting firm near Detroit. “Change of leadership really denotes a new direction is required, maybe a new speed at which some of the changes will occur,” Robinet said. “It also signals to labor that it’s a new sheriff in town.” The US automaker wants to make a profit on its European business, which includes Opel and the Vauxhall brand in Britain, despite tough competition among mass-market carmakers.

Opel and Vauxhall have been a drag on the company’s earnings for a dozen years, including a $256 million loss in the first quarter and $747 million last year. Stockholders and ana-

lysts have questioned whether GM is moving fast enough to stem the losses and restructure in Europe, where GM has too many factories and workers for the number of cars it sells.

The faltering European macro economy has created a situation where plant closings and other restructuring moves may now be more palatable to unions and governments as auto companies struggle, said Robinet. “That sense of urgency needs to be conveyed to labor that this is not just something we’re going to talk about every couple of months.

This is job one,” he said. GM rode strong North American profits to earn $1 billion last quarter, but its profit margin - a measure of profitability - was 5.8 percent, well below the 10 percent margin typical of Hyundai or Volkswagen, the top industry performers. —AP

Egypt’s leaders battle it out as economy heads towards cliff CAIRO: Egypt’s new Islamist president and his old military foes have come out swinging in a struggle for political power, but their countrymen need them to find a way to work together to avert economic chaos. In the two weeks since his inauguration, President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has openly defied the entrenched military by summoning the Islamist-led parliament the generals dismissed on the eve of his election. The political confrontation risks paralysing the government, and the first casualty could be Egypt’s fragile economy, fast heading towards a balance of payments and budget crisis.

The past year and a half of turmoil has frightened away tourists, sent investors packing and wrecked economic growth. Egyptians need their leaders to set aside their political quarrel fast. “Both the military and the Brotherhood are here to stay for the foreseeable future and neither side is strong enough to defeat the other, so there has to be some compromise,” said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center.

The army, in power for six decades, moved to limit the power of the new civilian president even as voters were lining up to elect him. On the first day of a two-day run-off election last month, generals dissolved the parliament. On the second day, they issued a decree restricting the president’s powers.

Mursi did not wait long to assert his own power either, issuing a decree summoning the disbanded parliament just days after he took office. The lawmakers met on Tuesday. Judges, seen as allies of the generals, responded by rebuking Morsi.

An economy in such straits will not long survive such confrontation, said economist Said Hirsh of Capital Economics: “Months, rather than years, they can hold on like this.” Morsi, whose Brotherhood was repressed under the rule of military men, wants to whittle away at the might of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the sweeping economic interests they control.

But he must also address demands of an electorate desperate for jobs and security after exhausting uncertainty since Hosni Mubarak was toppled by street power in February last year. “Confronting SCAF and improving the economy don’t always go together. Sometimes you have to make a choice to prioritise one over the other,” said Hamid.

Lost time The political crisis may have already cost Morsi valuable time to set the economy straight, and the tasks ahead are huge. Egypt’s foreign reserves have tumbled to $15.5 billion, well below half the level they were at when the anti-Mubarak uprising erupted in January 2011. Interest rates the government pays have rocketed to an unsustainable 16 percent for one-year treasury bills, their highest in a decade.

Investors will be watching closely as Morsi sets up a new government. Several names for a new prime minister are being bounced around - mostly technocrats with an economic background. “The formation of a legitimate government and evidence that that government is capable of making and implementing policy - is essential if investors who believe in Egypt’s long term prospects are to be persuaded that they can begin to deploy capital now,” said Simon Williams, HSBC economist in Dubai.

Morsi must convince the International Monetary Fund that he has enough control of government and broad political support to implement austerity measures the IMF is expected to demand to open the way for a loan facility, last put at $3.2 billion. Morsi may win breathing space with donations. He visited wealthy Saudi Arabia this week in his first trip abroad since taking office. The West - fearful of instability in the first Arab state to make peace with Israel - also will not want to see Egypt fail.

But Saudi or American handouts will not earn much respite. Egypt needs to win over investors further afield, ranging from Western bond buyers to multi-national firms, which until Mubarak’s overthrow poured in cash and delivered growth and jobs - even if Egyptians complained only the rich benefited. “External aid will buy Egypt time, but Egypt needs reform, access to private capital and growth if it is to begin to reverse the losses of the last 18 months,” said Williams.

A Western diplomat said Egypt is always likely to find a way to avert catastrophe, but that alone would not be enough to deliver on the hopes of people who expect a better future.

“They will always find a way to muddle through, but the prize is not to muddle through,” the diplomat said. “The prize is to do something different.” —Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

BoE takes Geithner Libor views on board LONDON/WASHINGTON: The Bank of England confirmed yesterday it had received US recommendations to overhaul the Libor benchmark at the heart of a global rate-rigging scandal, saying it had passed them on to the banking group responsible for the rate. Documents obtained by Reuters earlier yesterday showed that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed the British central bank in June 2008 to make changes to the way that the widely used interest rate benchmark was set.

Geithner, who was the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank at the time, sent a private email to BoE Governor Mervyn King recommending six ways to enhance the credibility of the London interbank offered rate. The BoE passed on Geithner’s thoughts in an email to the British Bankers Association (BBA) the banking group responsible for Libor - which at that stage had already decided to launch a review of the rate.

“Both the Bank and the Federal Reserve were assured by the BBA that it would take on board the recommendations, either through actions or through questions on which it would consult,” the BoE said in a news release. More than a dozen banks are under investigation by authorities in Europe, Japan and the United States over suspected rigging of Libor, which is used in financial contracts worth hundreds of trillions of dollars globally.

The June 1, 2008 email, first reported by the Washington Post, included a two-page memo dated May 27 of that year that suggested establishing best practices for calculating Libor, “including procedures designed to prevent accidental or deliberate misreporting.” It recommended the British Bankers’ Association require that auditors for banks reporting their borrowing costs for the calculation of Libor attest to the accuracy of their rates. The New York Fed is due to release documents later yesterday that it has said will show it took “prompt action” four years ago to highlight problems with Libor.

No show stopper The Bank of England also published a number of emails between members of its staff, and the BBA. “Changes are being made to incorporate the views of the Fed. There is no show stopper as far as we can see,” Angela Knight, the BBA’s former head, said in a June 3 email to Paul Tucker, who was then the BoE’s executive director for markets. He is currently deputy governor and a candidate to replace King at the top.

London-based Barclays is the only bank so far to admit any wrongdoing in giving false information as part of the complex process of setting Libor, in order to influence the pricing of derivatives and also to rebut speculation about the weakness of its balance sheet during the financial crisis. Barclays agreed to pay fines of $453 million in a settlement with US and British officials.

Libor is used for $550 trillion of interest rate derivatives contracts, and influences rates from mortgages to student loans to credit cards.

The scandal so far has been mostly confined to London, with public outcry that regulation in Britain was lax. But concern has grown about the wider impact on consumers and the involvement of US regulators. The BBA came out with a policy paper in November 2008 that included proposed changes such as improved governance structures and disciplinary procedures, and better scrutiny and analysis of the data collected for setting the rate.

A group of Democratic senators on Thursday pushed for the US Justice Department and financial regulators to step up investigations into whether global banks manipulated the interest rate benchmark. US state attorneys general are also jumping into the widening scandal, a move that could open a new front against the top global banks.

In his email, Geithner suggested one way to “eliminate (the) incentive to misreport” would be to randomly select a subset of 16 reporting banks and calculate an average after discarding the highest and lowest values, without identifying which banks may have had unusually high or low borrowing costs. During the 2007-2009 financial crisis, the borrowing costs of many banks soared as counterparties worried about their health. Some banks may not have wanted their high borrowing costs to become public out of fear it may have fueled concern about their viability. It is not clear how far the New York Fed pressed any concerns it may have had. The New York Fed declined to comment.

Thomson Reuters Corp is the British Bankers’ Association’s official agent for the daily calculation and publishing of Libor. The company said it continues to support the BBA in calculating and distributing Libor rates. — Reuters

Italy passes market test after downgrade Italy sells maximum planned amount in bonds MILAN: Italian banks came to the rescue yesterday after the country suffered a ratings downgrade, but while Rome cut its three-year borrowing costs at auction, a rise in 10-year bond yields highlighted concern it may fall victim to Europe’s debt crisis. Moody’s cut Italy’s sovereign debt rating to Baa2 yesterday, citing doubts over Italy’s long-term resolve to push through much-needed reforms and saying persistent worries about Spain and Greece were increasing its liquidity risks.

Solid domestic demand helped the Italian Treasury sell the top planned amount of 5.25 billion euros in bonds, paying less than a month ago on three-year paper. “This was a challenging enough auction without the downgrade which makes the result look all the more impressive,” said Spiro Sovereign Strategy Managing Director Nicholas Spiro. “Once again, the Treasury was able to get its debt out the door, which right now is the overriding priority.”

A new 2015 bond was sold at an average 4.65 percent rate, compared with the 5.30 percent Italy paid in June just before a cliffhanger Greek vote that had stoked fears of a euro exit and soon after an unconvincing first deal to help Spanish banks.

Italian banks’ commitment to support Rome’s refinancing of its 2 trillion euro debt and a broad domestic investor base have provided a safety net for Italy throughout the crisis.

Foreign investors’ reluctance to hold Italian debt, however, keeps the yields under pressure. Benchmark 10-year-bond yields were up nine basis points around 6 percent while Italy’s debt insurance costs also rose. “Does it mean this puts a cap on the rise in Italian yield? Well, not really,” said strategist Marc Ostwald at Monument Securities in London.

The US rating agency lauded Prime Minister Mario Monti’s commitment to fiscal reforms and structural consolidation.

But warned it could again cut the country’s marks if the next

Italian government failed to continue along this path. “The negative outlook reflects our view that risks to implementing these reforms remain substantial. Adding to them is the deteriorating macroeconomic environment, which increases austerity and reform fatigue among the population,” it said.

“The political climate, particularly as the spring 2013 elections draw near, is also a source of implementation risk.”

Analysts say political uncertainty ahead of elections is the main risk for Italy, where frustration with austerity measures and the country’s weak and fragmented party system is stoking anti-European sentiment and has helped the meteoric rise of the populist Five Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo.

Respected technocrat Monti, who was called in last November to pull back Italy from the edge of the cliff and avoid a Greek-style debt crisis, has said he will stand down next year. Three-times Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has kept a low profile since being forced out to leave room for Monti, announced this week he will return to frontline politics as the centre-right candidate, further muddling the political outlook.

He has taken an increasingly anti-European tone in recent public comments, criticising Monti’s austerity policies and openly questioning the value of remaining in the euro.

“Berlusconi seems to have picked up on the increased sense of frustration within the Italian society that the sacrifices being made by the country are not being sufficiently recognised by the markets and that part of the blame lies in the slow EU policy response,” said BNP Paribas analyst Luigi Speranza. Opinion polls suggest that a centre-left bloc would win the elections and it is not yet clear whether Berlusconi’s return to front line politics may alter the picture.—AP

MADRID: Civil servants shout slogans condemning the recent austerity measures announced by the Spanish government, during a demonstration yesterday. — AP

Spanish civil servants protest salary cuts MADRID: Spanish civil servants, some dressed in mourning, took to the streets yesterday to protest the latest round of government austerity measures and their second wage cut in as many years.

Several hundred workers left the complex of government ministries in Madrid and blocked traffic briefly yesterday. In the eastern city of Valencia, several hundred Justice Ministry workers shouted “hands up, this is a stick-up” at a protest rally.

The civil servants - who saw their wages cut 5 percent on average in 2010 in the first round of austerity cuts - are usually paid 14 times a year. The government is proposing to axe an extra payment normally made just before Christmas. The cuts are part of a raft if austerity measures unveiled by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy designed to shave 65 billion off the government’s budget through 2015. Rajoy’s Cabinet was scheduled to approve the wage cut and other austerity measures yesterday.

The cuts, which also include a sales tax increase and overhaul of benefits, were unveiled after Spain won approval from the other 16 countries that use the euro for the first 30 billion tranche of a bailout for its troubled banking sector. Spain also managed to secure an extra year to meet a European deficit reduction target of 3 percent of GDP. In the Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, about 500 civil servants gathered, about half of them dressed in black. Some women wore veils, as if they were at funerals.

Protesters blew whistles and horns. Civil servants are often ridiculed in Spain and seen as lazy, clock-in and clock-out types with the luxury of a job for life. But many earn as little as 1,000 a month. Isabel Perez, a 40-year-old librarian, said “our wages have already been cut and now they take away the Christmas payment.

I don’t make it to the end of the month as it is. The extra payment gave some relief.—AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Asia has firepower to fight slowing growth ‘All we need is stimulus’

JINJIANG: This picture shows a Chinese worker monitoring a thread-making machine at a factory yesterday. — AFP

China’s economic growth slows amid global chaos BEIJING: China’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than three years as dire problems overseas started to hit home, official data showed yesterday, fuelling expectations of more stimulus moves. The world’s second-largest economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said, the weakest since 6.6 percent during the depths of the global financial crisis at the start of 2009. “(The slowdown) was mainly due to the continued deterioration in the international environment, which further dampened foreign demand,” statistics bureau spokesman Sheng Laiyun told reporters.

“Domestic demand eased also as macro-economic tightening, particularly controls on the real estate sector, continued.”

The weak second-quarter expansion dragged down growth to 7.8 percent for the first half of the year, a period when the debt crisis in Europe has deepened and the US economy has continued to struggle. Sheng expressed confidence that the economy would stabilise and China would meet its full-year growth target of 7.5 percent. “I believe China’s economy will continue moderate and steady growth in the second half of the year,” he said, citing the potential for investment, consumption and exports to propel expansion the rest of the year.

“We are very confident in achieving the full-year growth target.” Nevertheless, the target growth rate of 7.5 percent is well down on the 9.2 percent achieved last year, and 10.4 percent in 2010. Stock market reaction in China to yesterday’s data was muted, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending a mere fraction higher. Some other markets, including in Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia, showed stronger gains amid general relief that China’s growth figure was not worse.

Tang Jianwei, economist at Bank of Communications in Shanghai, said the second-quarter result was in line with expectations and that China’s planners would be able to speed up the economy. “We expect economic conditions in the second half of the year will be slightly better than the first half,” Tang told AFP. “We’ve already seen stabilisation in investment from June’s data thanks to government stimulus policies.”

The government last week took the rare step of slashing interest rates for the second time in a month. That came after three cuts since December in banks’ reserve requirements, or the amount of money they must keep on hand. Such cuts are meant to free up funds for lending and thus boost the economy. Chinese leaders have vowed to take further measures.

Premier Wen Jiabao this week called stabilising economic growth the government’s “top priority”.

Slowing growth in China is also casting a further cloud over the broader global economy, which is still suffering the effects of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Employment figures in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, remain weak and Europe is struggling to overcome its sovereign debt crisis. Ren Xianfang of IHS Global Insight said in a report that China’s second-quarter figure marked the sixth straight three-month period of slower growth, and highlighted that the country’s economy risked losing momentum.

Still, she said that the government retained ample toolsincluding another interest rate cut, more loosening in bank reserve requirements and exchange rate stability-to spur activity. “We are expecting about 7.9 percent growth this year,” she said. Besides the growth figures, the bureau released a slew of other economic statistics yesterday that backed up the broader slowdown. Growth in retail sales, the main gauge of consumer spending, continued to slow in June, rising 13.7 percent in June compared with the same period a year earlier, marginally down from growth of 13.8 percent in May. — AFP

HONG KONG: Bad news from South Korea, Singapore and China this week failed to rattle investors’ confidence in the region, despite fears that Europe’s economic contagion is spreading rapidly to the East. China’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than three years as the weakness of Western export markets started to bite, official data showed yesterday. The world’s secondlargest economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter year-on-year, the weakest since 6.6 percent during the depths of the global financial crisis in early 2009.

South Korea meanwhile lowered its 2012 economic growth outlook to three percent, citing a global slowdown and the euro-zone debt crisis, a day after the central bank unexpectedly cut its key interest rate. And in Singapore, a tradereliant bellwether of Asia’s economic prospects, officials said the economy contracted by a surprisingly large 1.1 percent in the second quarter from the previous three-month period.

But despite the barrage of negative news, Asian markets rallied yesterday as investors concluded that things could have been a lot worse. “Chinese GDP data came in broadly in-line with official consensus numbers, but well ahead of the feared doomsday whisper numbers that had been circulating of something sub-7.0 percent,” said Cameron Peacock at IG Markets in Australia.

Much of the confidence hinged on the stable inflation outlook and the scope regional policymakers have to fire up stimulus measures to boost flagging domestic demand, analysts said. The Bank of Korea’s rate move on Thursday followed cuts last week by the European Central Bank and China’s central bank.

Brazil on Wednesday cut its rate to a record low.

China took the rare step of slashing interest rates for the second time in a month. That came after three cuts since December in banks’ reserve requirements, or the amount of money they must keep on hand. Such cuts are meant to free up funds for lending and provide impetus to economic activity. “As inflation is falling fast, it provides sufficient room for further easing. Following the recent two rate cuts, Beijing still has plenty of policy room to step up monetary easing,” HSBC wrote in a research note yesterday.

“We believe further easing measures will fully filter through to generate a modest growth recovery of 8.5 percent year-on-year in the coming quarters.”

Analysts are also predicting looser monetary policy in South Korea, where Capital Economics said the BOK’s earlier inflation fears had “seemed misguided”.

Inflation was 2.2 percent in June, amid falling global oil prices. But Hanyang University economics professor Ha Joon-Kyung said consumption would

stay soft despite a lower interest rate, because of uncertainties about the economic outlook and the euro-zone crisis.

“Consumption is expected to remain weak, along with lower circulation of money, as households will exploit a lower key interest rate to reduce debts instead of spending,” he said. In Singapore, IG Markets head of premium client management Jason Hughes said the city state’s “consumer culture” was undaunted but its export-focused economy was vulnerable to additional weakness in demand from Europe and the US. “So I think GDP and growth in Singapore will remain under pressure,” he said. HSBC Co-Head of Asian Economic Research Frederic Neumann said Asia was “under pressure” from falling global demand, explaining the sharp slowdown in growth after a strong first quarter. Even after the expected stimulus measures, he said the “global backdrop may be too fragile for growth to snap back to its original speed”. But easier bank lending should “at least prove enough to cushion another blow delivered by the West”.

“Asian financial systems remain sound.

All that’s coming is another trade shock, and one that is likely to be much shallower than in 2008 as trade financing remains available,” he wrote in a research note. “All we need is stimulus, and the region will quickly fire up again.” — AFP

Euro-zone woes hit Singapore GDP in Q2 SINGAPORE: Singapore’s trade-driven economy contracted by 1.1 percent in the second quarter from the previous three-month period as debt woes dampened European demand, a government estimate showed yesterday. The unexpected contraction, down from 9.4 percent growth in the preceding quarter, was largely due to an output drop in the biomedical manufacturing industry, the trade ministry said in a statement. Compared to a year ago, gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.9 percent, still within the government forecast of 1.0-3.0 percent expansion for the whole year and better than the first-quarter growth rate of 1.4 percent on the year. Singapore’s economy is seen as a bellwether for Asia due to its sensitivity to demand from key markets like Europe and the United States. “The figures will disappoint as most traders were expecting modest expansion,” said Justin Harper, market strategist for IG Markets Singapore.

“Up until now the Singapore economy has been pretty resilient, weathering the storm coming in from the eurozone by diversifying across a range of sectors including oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and electronics,” he said.

“But the headwinds are proving too strong as Asia takes a hit from slowing European trade.” The GDP estimate for the second quarter is computed largely from data in April and May and subject to revision. The median forecast of a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 11 economists had tipped Singapore’s second-quarter GDP to expand 0.8 percent from the previous three months. The manufacturing sector contracted 6.0 percent in April-June from 20.9 percent growth in the previous quarter, while the construction industry grew a modest 0.3 percent from 27.9 percent in the same time period.

The services sector grew 0.4 percent in the three months to June, compared with 2.7 percent growth in the first three months of 2012. Global demand weakness for Singapore’s key exports-electronics and pharmaceuticals-was the primary factor dragging down second-quarter growth, DBS Group Research said in a report. “The simultaneous surges

in electronics and pharmaceutical productions that drove GDP growth in the first quarter are not sustainable amid the global demand weakness,” the banking group said. — AFP

SINGAPORE: Korean designer Joon Courtenay displays her dragon pendant creation at the Singapore International Jewellery show yesterday. The Dragon Pendant in 18 carat white and yellow gold is encrusted with diamonds and rubies and an imperial jade circle carving with lapis lazuli and fire opal was priced at 280,000 Singapore dollars ($220,403). — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

US producer prices edge up in June WASHINGTON: US producer prices rose only slightly in June as energy costs dropped, suggesting inflation pressures remain muted and leaving the door open for more easing by the Federal Reserve. The Labor Department said yesterday its seasonally adjusted producer price index rose 0.1 percent last month.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected the index to drop 0.5 percent. The increase was driven by gains in consumer goods like household appliances, light trucks and pet food.

“The modest 0.1 percent increase in US producer prices in June is another illustration that the Fed doesn’t need to worry about inflation, at least not in the near-term,” said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto. While wholesale prices of finished goods rose, costs for intermediate and

crude goods fell, suggesting less inflation pressure down the road.

The data did not appear to affect prices on US stock index futures, which rose. Yields on US government debt hovered near record lows, with appetite for safehaven assets underpinned by a downgrade to Italy’s sovereign rating. Hiring by US companies slowed dramatically in the second quarter as employers grew worried about a sagging global economy hurt by Europe’s snowballing debt crisis.

China’s growth rate slowed for a sixth successive quarter to its slackest pace in more than three years. So-called core inflation, which strips out more volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent, in line with expectations. While overall inflation has cooled recently, core inflation has held at

higher levels. Some policymakers at the Fed worry that further moves to lower borrowing costs could fuel higher inflation, though the central bank has said it was ready to do more to help the economy if needed.

Energy prices dropped 0.9 percent in June, dragged down by a record drop in prices for residential electric power, which fell 2.1 percent. Diesel fuel prices sank 8.8 percent. The fall in energy prices is likely to help the economy as lower costs for fuels and other input prices leave companies more money to spend on other things, such as equipment or even hiring. Many employers are concerned over plans by the US government to cut spending and let tax cuts expire next year, a jolt that could send the economy into recession. — Reuters

JPMorgan says bad trade has ballooned to $5.8bn All managers responsible dismissed

HONG KONG: Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. executives, from left, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Patrick Chan, Joint Vice Chairmen and Managing Director Raymond Kwok, Deputy Managing Director Mike Wong, Joint Vice Chairmen and Managing Director Thomas Kwok and Deputy Managing Director Victor Lui, smile during a news conference yesterday. — AP

HK property tycoons charged with graft HONG KONG: Two of Hong Kong’s richest tycoons and a former senior official were charged with corruption yesterday in the biggest graft scandal the regional banking hub has seen. Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairmen Thomas and Raymond Kwok, two of Asia’s wealthiest men, were among five people charged with eight offences related to payments and unsecured loans amounting to HK$34 million ($4.38 million). Former government chief secretary Rafael Hui was also charged, along with another Sun Hung Kai director, Thomas Chan, and Francis Kwan, former non-executive director of New Environmental Energy Holdings Ltd. The case has shocked Hong Kong as the Kwoks own some of the city’s most iconic real estate and Sun Hung Kai is a blue-chip listed company and the city’s biggest property developer by market capitalisation. Hui, 64, is the most senior official ever arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The former number two in the semiautonomous southern Chinese city, he faces eight charges related to misconduct involving rent-free use of luxury apartments and unsecured loans, the ICAC said.

Thomas Kwok, 60, faces two charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, and his 59-year-old brother Raymond has been charged with three offences including furnishing false information, the ICAC said. Raymond Kwok conspired to offer Hui annual extensions of an unsecured loan, while Chan and Kwan offered the official a “series of pay-

ments” as a “reward” for cooperation, the anti-graft investigators said.

All five suspects appeared in court to hear the charges, before being released on bail-in the Kwoks’ case HK$10 million each. They were not required to enter pleas. “I believe I have not done anything wrong and that the Hong Kong judiciary system is fair. I will fight the accusations and I hope it will prove my innocence,” Raymond Kwok said outside the court.

He said he has relied on yoga to deal with the legal challenge while Thomas Kwok said he will draw on his Christian faith to fight the case, quoting from the Bible saying he believed “light will shine in the darkness”. “I want to encourage people to learn yoga because it can help you to relax and it has helped me to face the challenge in these few months,” Raymond Kwok told a news conference later where he appeared with his elder brother.

The Kwok brothers and Hui were arrested in March in a case that has sent shockwaves through the Asian financial centre, where cosy links between wealthy tycoons and officials have long raised suspicion. A third Kwok brother, Walter, was arrested in May but has not been charged. Each of the Kwoks has denied any wrongdoing. Shares in Sun Hung Kai were suspended from trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier yesterday. The company, which owns billions of dollars of land and harbourside real estate, has previously said the allegations against its directors would not impact on its business.—AFP

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase said yesterday that a bad trade had cost the bank $5.8 billion this year, almost triple its original estimate, and raised the prospect that traders had acted improperly to conceal the blunder.

“This has shaken our company to the core,” CEO Jamie Dimon said. The bank said all managers in the London office responsible for the bad trade had been dismissed without severance pay and that it planned to revoke two years’ worth of pay from each of those executives.

JPMorgan said it had lost $4.4 billion because of the trade from April through June, and its chief financial officer said the bank had lost an additional $1.4 billion in the first three months of the year. Dimon’s original estimate of the loss from the bad trade, disclosed in a surprise conference call with Wall Street analysts on May 10, was $2 billion.

The bank said an internal investigation, including emails and voice messages, had called into question the values that traders placed on certain bets, and that the traders may have been seeking to mask losses. The Securities and Exchange Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Dimon told Congress last month that the trade was meant to hedge risk to the company and protect it in case “things got really bad” in the global economy. Instead, the trade has backfired and damaged the bank’s reputation.

Speaking broadly about the trading loss yesterday, Dimon told analysts: “We don’t take it lightly.” He added: “We’re not making light of this error, but we do think it’s an isolated event.” The bank said that it was reducing its net income for the first quarter by $459 million because it had discovered information that “raises questions about the integrity” of values placed on certain trades.

Dimon said the bank had closed the division of the

bank responsible for the bad trade and moved the remainder of the trading position under its investment banking division. Overall, JPMorgan said it earned $5 billion, or $1.21 per share, for the second quarter, which covers April through June and includes the bank’s disclosure of the trading loss on May 10. Analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data, had expected JPMorgan to earn 76 cents per share. JPMorgan stock was up 25 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $34.29 in premarket trading.

Just three months ago, JPMorgan was viewed as the top American bank, guided by Dimon’s steady hand.

Since the disclosure of the trading loss, however, that reputation has been eroded. Dimon, who originally dismissed concerns about the bank’s trading as a “tempest in a teapot,” appeared before Congress twice to apologize and explain himself, and several government agencies have launched investigations. JPMorgan has lost about 15 percent of its in market value since the loss came to light. The bank could take back pay from executives in charge of the division where the losses occurred.

That procedure is known as a “clawback.” It would be the first time JPMorgan exercised such a procedure.

The most likely candidate would be Ina Drew, JPMorgan’s chief investment officer, who oversaw the division responsible for the loss and left the bank days after the disclosure. In 2011, her pay package totaled $15 million. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that three other employees of the bank tied to the trade, including one who was known as the “London whale,” had left the bank. Under close questioning from lawmakers in June about his own role in setting up the investment division responsible for the mess, Dimon declared: “We made a mistake. I’m absolutely responsible. The buck stops with me.” —AP

NEW YORK: In this photo, automobiles pass a JP Morgan Chase building in New York. — AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

AIB CEO eyes outside investment by 2014 DUBLIN: State-owned Allied Irish Banks is hopeful it can attract outside investment in 2014 and expects to have hit 90 percent of its deleveraging target by the end of this year, chief executive David Duffy told the Irish Times yesterday. AIB, effectively nationalised last year in the fallout from a property market crash, is radically shrinking its balance sheet and cutting costs in a bid to return to profitability by 2014.

“I am optimistic that if we deliver our controllable universe in terms of our performance and Europe is not too negative, there will be investors

who are attracted to an investment in AIB” during 2014, Duffy told the newspaper. The bank is already talking to a broad spectrum of investors and expects to be able to offer them a high single-digit percentage return, he said.

The bank by March had shed 14 billion euros ($17 billion) of loans and assets under a 20.5 billion euro deleveraging target, part of Ireland’s EU/IMF bailout deal, and expects to have achieved 90 percent of that figure by the end of the year, Duffy said.

AIB would support any “work-

able” proposals by the government to address the high number of lossmaking tracker mortgages on the books of Irish banks so long as it does not add risks to the state and can be funded efficiently, Duffy said.

The government is exploring ways to shift mortgages that track the ECB interest rate from AIB and stateowned Irish Life and Permanent. But Bank of Ireland, which is not fully in state hands, has said it is not involved in the talks.

“We want to make sure it is a solution that works for the whole system.

Otherwise, it’s one bank versus

another, which is not a place that anyone wants to arrive at,” Duffy said.

Duffy said he had concerns about the government’s decision to allow for mortgage debt of up to 3 million euros to be restructured under new personal insolvency legislation published by the government earlier this month.

The rules require the approval of 65 percent of the lenders to agree to the restructuring. The new rules could “start bringing in all classes of debt in an uncontrolled way,” Duffy said. —Reuters

Libya’s Kib predicts bright future for foreign investors Current production at 1.6m barrels per day

HYDERABAD: Indian farmers work in a field after monsoon rains yesterday. The monsoon rains which usually hit India from June to September are crucial for farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people. — AP

UK May building drop dents economy hopes LONDON: British firms built less in May than a year earlier even with an extra working day, official data showed yesterday, further denting hopes that the struggling economy emerged from recession in the second quarter. The country fell back into its second recession in four years at the turn of the year and a recent slew of gloomy economic data has raised fears that the downturn extended into the April-June period. Construction output dropped 6.3 percent in May on a non-seasonably adjusted basis, the Office for National Statistics said, warning that caution should be taken when interpreting the monthly movements involving May and June 2012.

Firms failed to benefit from a May public holiday being postponed until June, when another day was added to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. “This (data) supports our view that the economy remained in recession in the second quarter,” said Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics.

“In theory there should have been a boost to those numbers from the extra day, so the underlying trend is even worse than those numbers point to.” Between March and May construction output fell 7.4 percent compared to the same three months in 2011, the ONS said. New public housing work plunged by 22.9 percent, while volumes of new public non-housing excluding infrastructure and new infrastructure fell by almost as much. Official data earlier this week showed manufacturers got a lift in May from the postponed holiday, a move which then boosted retail sales in June according to a survey. Construction activity fell at its fastest pace in 2-1/2 years in June, a Purchasing Managers’ Survey showed earlier this month, and sister surveys found that the manufacturing sector contracted for the second straight month while the dominant service sector endured one of its worst months in the past three years. The economy has been basically flat for two years and is not showing a great deal of signs of impending recovery, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said earlier this week. Economists in a Reuters poll see tepid growth ahead at best, with only a small bounce from London’s hosting of the Olympic Games, leading to calls for the government and BoE to act. — Reuters

TRIPOLI: Prime Minister Abdelrahim Al-Kib predicted a bright future for foreign investment in Libya especially in the oil sector whose infrastructure needs to be overhauled, in an interview with AFP. “The plan is to revamp the whole thing and work on the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry... (an) area for projects for companies that might be interested so that we can increase production levels,” he said. The outgoing premier, whose government did not have the prerogative to sign contracts, noted the country’s 2012 crude output had surpassed expectations and reached its pre-revolution levels.

Current production is about 1.6 million barrels per day. Libya, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), holds the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. It also boasts vast natural gas reserves.

But other opportunities for investment abound: tourism along a 1,700-kilometre (more than 1,000-mile) Mediterranean coastline, basic infrastructure including roads and housing, airlines, the health and education sectors, and e-governance.

“I guarantee you, any sector you think of, there are plenty of projects to work on,” said Kib, a US-educated electrical engineer, urging international companies to make fact-finding visits.

Kib said his country was heading towards a knowledge and marketbased economy in which corruption would be replaced by a robust legal system and a competent workforce.

Libya has already allocated 650 million dinars ($500,000) to support small and medium size enterprises and over 1 billion dinars for training and education. Kib pins hopes on the private sector to generate employment and motor development. Libyans on July 7 voted for a General National Congress, a 200-member legislative assembly, in landmark elections following 42 years of dictatorship under Muammar Gaddafi. The signing of contracts, which came to a complete halt during the 2011 revolt that ousted Gaddafi, is

expected to resume with elected authorities in place. In the months leading to elections, hundreds of companies and businessmen from around the world visited Libya to assess the investment climate and look for partners. “Libya will surprise the world,” said Kib. He pointed to almost-on-time elections as his cabinet’s crowning achievement.

Preliminary tallies released by Libya’s electoral commission this week all point to a strong performance of a liberal coalition led by wartime premier Mahmud Jibril. The coalition

deadly clashes that highlighted the difficulty of disarming and integrating ex-rebels into state institutions, Kib says he has “no regrets,” only lessons learned.

One of them is balancing the high expectations of a population that swung overnight from completely subdued under a brutal dictatorship to empowered by a successful revolution. “(Everybody) wants to show that they own this place,” said Kib, noting that this was a challenge that at times could play out positively, as it did during the largely trouble-free election

TRIPOLI: Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Rahim Al-Kib is pictured during an interview. — AFP trounced Islamist contenders across the country and may hold a majority in the next congress if it wins over other parties and independents. “I think the moderates will prevail because that’s the nature of Libyan society,” Kib told AFP. “Moderation will prevail throughout the history of Libya coming into the next hundreds of years.”

Kib became prime minister in November replacing fellow technocrat Jibril, one of the architects of the 2011 revolution and leader of a coalition sweeping the polls. After managing a turbulent transition period, rocked by

day. Security, he added, will be no doubt one of the key obstacles facing the next cabinet, which should be in office by late August. But Kib was quick to point out that crime rates in Libya were lower than in many other parts of the world. Kib, who has unveiled state-of-the-art prisons and courtrooms during his term, said justice and human rights were crucial to Libya’s future, while acknowledging violations. “It is true we have had some individual violations but that is the nature of things after a revolution like the one we had,” he said. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

‘American Idol’ at crossroads after Steven Tyler’s exit Page 28

Iraqis escape country’s woes at lake resort Page 25

A model wears a creation

by Roya Hesam on the second day of the seventeenth edition of the Amsterdam Fashion Week, in the Westergasfabriek on Wednesday. —AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Pink

more aware profanities in music since giving birth

T

he singer - whose real name is Alicia Moore insists that motherhood hasn’t made her new album any softer than her past offerings though.

“Some people are worried [my new album]’s going to be a bunch of lullabies. It’s definitely not,” she said. “I’m more aware of the cursing. It didn’t stop me but I’m aware of it. It’s a very, fun, dance-y, rock-and-roll record.” The star, who has a 13-month-old child with husband Carey Hart, called in to Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS FM radio show Monday morning while breastfeeding.

She shared about her toddler: “She’s got six teeth but she’s not a biter.” Pink, who released her new tune ‘Blow Me (One Last Kiss)’ this week, told the radio host

that she had just switched sides with her nursing. She revealed: “My left is a lot more talented than my right.” In addition to promoting her new song which will be on an album ‘The Truth About Love’ due out September 18 and her participation in the I Heart Radio Music Festival on September 21 and 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pink said motherhood so far has been “amazing.” She added: “Willow has her Daddy’s looks and my attitude. She’s going to rule the world.”

Sara Ramirez has got married

T

he ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ actress - who plays Dr. Callie Torres in the medical drama TV series - tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend Ryan Debolt after a one-year-long engagement.

The 36-year-old actress’ representative told Us Weekly that the happy couple exchanged vows in “an intimate ceremony in New York”, and the private event was attended by “close family and friends”. Ryan, a business analyst, asked Sara to be his wife on June 17, 2011 while the couple were on holiday in Paris, France, and she was said to be overcome with “tears of joy” when he popped the question. A witness explained: “Her boyfriend came next to her and kneeled. He opened a case, and we just heard her saying, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my god,’ and seconds later, a really big ‘Yes!’” Earlier this year, Sara admitted she wants to have children with Ryan, but she intends to approach the prospect of having a baby with a degree of caution as she comes from a divorced family.

She said: “I’m considering having kids. It’s a huge responsibility to me. I come from a family that’s divorced, and that gives you a sense of caution. I get the timeline, I get the stats, but I want to enjoy being engaged for a minute.”

Usher

‘completely devastated’ after stepson declared brain dead

T

he rapper is said to feel “distraught” after doctors revealed Kyle Glover - the child of the singer’s exwife Tameka and her former partner Ryan Glover had “not experienced any brain activity” since being admitted to hospital on Saturday after he was struck on the head by a jet ski in Lake Lanier in Atlanta, Georgia. A source close to 33-year-old rapper told HollywoodLife.com: “Usher is completely devastated and shaken with what has occurred. “[He] is emotionally drained from the accident. He feels incredibly awful, distraught ... it’s been a complete rollercoaster of emotions.”

Kyle was riding on an inner tube in the lake when he was struck by the passing jet ski, and following the incident he was admitted to the Children’s Healthcare unit at Egleston Hospital in Atlanta. Tameka was “extremely thankful” to Usher after he reportedly chartered a plane allowing her to fly to Atlanta to be at Kyle’s side, and she has taken to her Facebook page to thank fans for their support and urge them to pray for her son. The motherof-five wrote: “Kyle, You are strong ... You’ll be saved I know it. I love you my baby. I need all #Prayers for my son! thanks you everybody! (sic)” A decision has yet to be made on whether to take the youngster off life support, and the incident is now being investigated.

Pattinson

wants to take on James Bond

T

he 26-year-old star wants to play Ian Fleming’s iconic spy but thinks he’ll be perfect for the role in two more decades. He confessed: “Yeah, I’d definitely like to go for Bond, but in more like 20 years. There’d be nothing worse than, like, ‘Let’s get a fresh-faced Bond!’ That would be the worst idea in the world. It would be ridiculous to reinvent it as some young posh kid.” He continued: “After Daniel Craig you have to have some baggage. I’d have to be tortured in the first few scenes. I’d have to do the first film with one arm or something.” The ‘Twilight saga star added that he is becoming more conscious about his health as he gets older. He told The Sun newspaper: “I think 26 is

the turning point. I’ve got to make up for 10 years of living like a degenerate.

I’ve suddenly become conscious of being unhealthy. “You’ve spent every bit of free time since the age of 15 in a pub.

And suddenly you’re like: ‘Oh God, I don’t want to be this grey ghost sitting there with a pot belly. I’ve got to get it together’.” Speaking about his new movie, ‘Cosmopolis’, Robert said he agreed to do it because it’s so “ridiculous”. He said: “I think the script was so bizarre, we thought it was quite funny it was even getting made. Literally it’s totally ridiculous.”

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Adele due

to give birth in September

T

Paula Abdul still friends with Cowell

he ‘Someone Like You’ singer is seven months pregnant by boyfriend Simon Konecki, but has hidden her bump from the public by keeping a low profile and wearing baggy clothes. A source close to the singer says Simon and Adele wanted to keep their happy news a secret for as long as possible to avoid attention. A source told heat magazine: “‘Adele has barely left the house in recent months, so she could keep this to herself for as long as possible. “She stopped exercising a few months ago, and since then

it’s been all about the baby.” Other friends say 36-yearold Simon - who has a five-year-old daughter from a previous marriage - and Adele, 24, have been keen to have children since they started dating last year.

Another source told LOOK magazine: “Family is very important to them and they’ve been talking about kids and getting married since they met last September. I think Adele’s still quite surprised at how quickly it happened, though. “She’s clearly got the usual nerves of an expectant mum, but Simon’s been

amazingly reassuring, they’re both so happy.” It has also been rumoured the couple could have married in secret, after Simon was seen wearing what looked like a wedding ring when he attended the Ivor Novello awards with Adele earlier this year. Adele revealed her pregnancy to her fans on her website in June, writing: “I’m delighted to announce that Simon and I are expecting our first child together. “I wanted you to hear the news direct from me, obviously we’re over the moon. Yours always, Adele.”

Nicki Minaj considering legal action after thorough airport security check

T T

he ‘Straight Up’ singer’s friendship with the talent show boss has been in the public eye since working together on ‘American Idol’. However the 50-year-old performer insists that they are still amicable after he traded both her and Nicole Scherzinger in for Britney Spears and Demi Lovato.

She said: “Believe it or not, Simon and I are friends. It’s a warped kind of thing.” Although she was surprised that the 52-year-old music mogul didn’t renew her contract in January, she says the past six months have given her new perspective on the matter. She told Celebuzz: “He was stuck between a rock and a hard place when he opened up his mouth. He thought change and a bold and a big departure were needed for what was going on.” Meanwhile, Paula is interested in how well the new panel, which includes last season’s L.A Reid, do without her. She continued: “I’m looking forward to seeing how they do. When you have a long career such as Britney’s, she knows what she’s doing. I hope she has fun. Same thing with Demi.” She added: “What’s the best advice I can give them? Don’t take mine, obviously.”

he ‘Starships’ singer - who played the Barclaycard Wireless Festival in London at the weekend - insisted she was touched too much, however did not name the airport where the incident took place. She said on twitter on Monday that she was fondled by a female security guard.

The entertainer was angered at how she was treated and even posted a photo of the woman who was patting her down via the micro-blogging website. She tweeted: “Pretty sure I was just overtly fondled @ this check point. By a very old lady w/an accent. Word?” Adding that she was taking photos of the situation, Nicki was even more upset that the security told her not to take photos of them after the incident. She wrote: “So TSA always takes pics of me while doing their job! But would u believe they just told ME EYE couldn’t take pics???? Wow.” Nicki apparently has made it through security and headed for a stop in Dubai before going on to her next concert location. —Bang Showbiz

Lifestyle

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Comic-con news

Arnold’s back with ‘Expendables’ C

ould there be any doubt over what the first two words would be out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mouth at ComicCon? “I’m back,” said the former California governor, who has leaped back to acting with a series of upcoming action roles including “The Expendables 2,” which Schwarzenegger came to promote at the fan convention. Schwarzenegger joined fellow stars Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Randy Couture on a panel to preview footage for Comic-Con. Quoting his famous line from the “Terminator” films, Schwarzenegger said that after eight years away from action films while governor, he took some ribbing from his co-stars, who also included Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Chuck Norris, Jason Statham, Liam Hemsworth and JeanClaude Van Damme. “‘Well, we know you’ve been out of the business for eight years. Let me show you how to load a gun again and, Arnold, here’s how you throw a punch,’” Schwarzenegger recalled his co-stars joking. But after the verbal sparring of state government, Schwarzenegger found he was able to pick up where he left off as an action star fairly fast, doing fun things like taking out a knife and killing a guy and cutting his head off. “You wish you could do some of those things when you’re in politics, but you know, you can’t,” Schwarzenegger said.

The sequel to Stallone’s 2010 hit, “The Expendables 2” casts the band of tough guys into vengeance mode after they’re betrayed on a mission.

The movie arrives in theaters in Aug 17. After the preview, Comic-Con organizers presented their Inkpot Award honoring pop-culture contributions to Schwarzenegger, who also has filmed the crime thriller “The Last Stand” since leaving the governor’s office. Stallone, who also co-stars with Schwarzenegger in the upcoming prison thriller “The Tomb,” recalled first meeting Schwarzenegger at the Golden Globes for 1977, when his boxing saga “Rocky” won for best picture and Schwarzenegger won as best

Saban’s Power Rangers POWER Up Comic-Con Day 1 at San Diego Convention Center.—AFP

Teenage mutant ninja turtles attend Nickelodeon at Comic-Con on Thursday, July 12, 2012, in San Diego, Calif. —AP new star for “Stay Hungry.” “Who is this guy as big as the whole table?”

Stallone recalls wondering of former body-building champion Schwarzenegger. After hearing the Austrian’s name called for his award, Stallone thought, “No one has a name like that. This guy is doomed, over, flash in the pan.”

Disney unveils ‘Lone Ranger’ trailer Johnny Depp made a splash at Comic-Con, and he wasn’t even there.

About 6,000 fans at the San Diego Convention Center Thursday got the first look at “The Lone Ranger,” which stars Depp as Tonto. He wears long hair and full-face makeup to portray the Lone Ranger’s Native American companion. The brief clip hinted at

the character’s craftiness, with one scene showing him riding beneath a speeding train. It also offered a peek at Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger and Helena Bonham Carter as a dame of interest, amid a backdrop of trains crossing the Western desert. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the film.

Disney unveiled the footage at the conclusion of its panel presentation that included glimpses of Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie,” Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful” and the video game romp “Wreck-It Ralph,” which features the voices of Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly.

“The Lone Ranger” is directed by Gore Verbinski, who worked with Depp on the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films and the animated “Rango.” It is set for release next summer.

In this image provided by Butterfinger, Comic-Con attendees go mad to take a photo with Butterfinger Man at Comic-Con on Thursday in San Diego, Calif. —AP

Showtime kills with ‘Dexter’ tease “Dexter” revealed a secret at Comic-Con. Showtime unleashed the first two minutes from the serial-killing drama’s upcoming seventh season at a ComicCon presentation Thursday. The scene picked right up right where the sixth season ended, with Jennifer Carpenter’s Deb discovering Michael C. Hall’s Dexter standing over the body of the Doomsday Killer. In the scene - spoiler alert! - the forensic analyst attempts to explain the awkward circumstance to his apprehensive police officer sister. She doesn’t understand why the body is wrapped in plastic. The moment abruptly ends when Deb calls for backup and Dexter seemingly lunges toward her. Does the undercover killer think his sister buys his story? “He hopes so in that moment,” said Hall, who was on hand at Thursday’s panel with Carpenter.

“She’s taking it one step at a time,” added a coy Carpenter. Yvonne Strahovski, who will be guest starring with Hall and Carpenter in the seventh season, was also present at the Comic-Con presentation, but she couldn’t divulge much about her role.

Strahovski only offered up her character’s name, Hanna, and that she’s a “woman of mystery with a dark past.”

“She meets Dexter and helps him with an investigation into an old murder mystery,” the former “Chuck” star revealed. The seventh season of “Dexter” premieres Sept 30. —AP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Lifestyle

Iraqis escape country’s woes at lake resort J

et skis skim across the lake as families picnic on the shores: a resort just west of Baghdad is an oasis of relative calm that offers escape from bombs, shootings and political squabbling. The Habbaniyah Tourism City, which lies between Fallujah and Ramadi, two of the main Sunni insurgent strongholds of past years, offers swimming, boating and a cinema. Hundreds of people relax on the beach to escape the violence, political chaos and lack of basic services that define everyday life in Iraq.

“I come here every week with my family and friends to escape from the daily problems like unemployment ... politics and sectarianism,” said Abdul Rahman Mohammed, 25, an unemployed university graduate. “When we see the Iraqis here, they are not Sunni, or Shiite, Kurd or Christian, and they have smiles on their faces, we forget everything else,” said Mohammed, who holds a bachelor’s degree in administration and economics.

His brother, 29-year-old Abdul Qader, who has a degree in history and is also unemployed, said European tourists should “come here to see the real Iraq.” The Habbaniyah Tourism City, which includes a 300-room hotel, 528 chalets, docks for boats, a cinema, shops, sports fields and five restaurants, originally opened in 1979.

But it fell on hard times after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait and decade of international sanctions that followed. The situation worsened after the 2003 US-led invasion, when insurgents used the area as a base. “Terrorist groups set up their headquarters in the city in 2006 and 2007 because it is in an isolated desert area and American forces were not present,” said Captain Laurens Saad al-Essawi, the deputy police chief.

But “we entered the city in 2008 and were able to clean it from the terrorists and it has been safe since then,” he added. A year later Habbaniyah was back in business. Jet skis ply the lake all day, while families sit under small colored tents on the shore with the men entertaining the children and the women, most of whom wear headscarves, preparing meals. The resort “doesn’t belong to any specific sect,” the resort’s director general, Hamid Abbud Tarrad told AFP. “All Iraqis from north to south have nice memories (of Habbaniyah), since 90 percent of Iraqis have visited it,” he said.

The lakeside resort reopened in March 2009 and 5,000 visitors were there for the ceremony, Tarrad said. “We now receive between 5,000 to 10,000 people during the holidays and about 30,000 on feasts and special occasions,” Tarrad said.

Oasis of calm- At the beginning of the year a Turkish company began rehabilitating the resort, with plans on managing the site over the next 25 years. “We hope that the city... will regain its historical position on the Arab and international tourism map,” said Tarrad, noting that in 1982 Tourism City was voted the best resort in the region by the World Tourism Organisation.

Habbaniyah is not without its problems, however. Rubbish is strewn on the beach and floating in the lake. Recently a fight involving dozens of people wielding knives and sticks broke outapparently over a woman-and was only stopped when members of the security forces showed up and drew their pistols. But compared to the rest of Iraq, Habbaniyah is still an oasis of calm. While violence in Iraq has declined from its peak in 2006 and 2007, bombings and shootings are a reality of everyday life, killing 132 people in May, according to official figures.

And the country has been hit by a series of intertwined political crises that began with accusations that Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki was monopolising power and escalated into calls for his ouster. The Iraqi government is paralysed, and most people have to live with woefully inadequate basic services, especially when it comes to electricity and clean water. “I used to come here before the collapse (of Saddam’s regime), and today we have returned to Habbaniyah,” said Umm Baqr, a 40-year-old who works at the education ministry. “We only feel happy when we swim. The water is our only breathing space,” she said. —AFP

“When we see the Iraqis here, they are not Sunni, or Shiite, Kurd or Christian, and they have smiles on their faces, we forget everything else”

Iraqis swim in the lake of Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad, on June 17, 2012. Jet skis skim across the lake as families picnic on the shores: a resort just west of Baghdad is an oasis of relative calm that offers escape from bombs, shootings and political squabbling. — AFP Photos

Iraqis swim in the lake of Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad, on June 17, 2012.

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Dachshunds dressed for the occasion, Dee Dee, foreground left, and her cousin Clifford, foreground right, are held by their owner Valerie Diker, as they and other dogs and people wait for the start of the most expensive wedding for pets Thursday.

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e double-dog dare you to check this out. Two dogs “got married” Thursday night at a Manhattan extravaganza to benefit the Humane Society of New York.

Bride Baby Hope Diamond, a white Coton de Tulear with black-gray markings, was led down the aisle, resplendent in her canine couture gown. Her poodle groom, a dapper dude named Chilly Pasternak from Richmond, Va., didn’t seem too excited about the whole affair but, never-the-less, went along with the ceremony. Seven year itch, anyone?

After they got hitched, the cuddly couple were presented with a Guinness World Record in the category of most expensive pet wedding at $158,187.26. The luxury goods and servic-

Dachshunds dressed for the occasion, Clifford, left, and his cousin Dee Dee, wait to take part in the most expensive wedding for pets.—AP photos

es that went into the wedding were all donated. Guests bought tickets for the fundraiser. Baby Hope was adopted by animal welfare activist Wendy Diamond after her beloved Maltese died of cancer last month. Lucky Diamond, a longtime champion of the underdog, was originally cast as the bride.

The wedding instead served as a celebration of the life of the little Maltese.

Lucky herself held a Guinness Record: The animal most photographed with famous people. She posed with more than 300 celebrities, from “Twilight” actress Kristen Stewart to hiphop star Snoop Dogg. No expense was spared for the black-tie gala, held at the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel at Central Park.

The “dream team” included a celebrity wedding planner, a “lighting guru” with experience at major museums, and highly touted chefs for the reception, to name just a few.

Since the guests came from more than one species, a company co-owned by Ellen DeGeneres provided a pet food buffet. “I am not the mother of the bride, since Baby Hope is 56 years old in dog years,” Diamond said on her website. “Just call me the Maid of Honor!” The wedding wasn’t 100 percent highbrow. It was officiated by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. — AP

Ubisoft taking blockbuster

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ideogame firm Ubisoft is moving into the film business with an adaptation of its blockbuster title “Assassin’s Creed”-sidestepping the Hollywood movie machine by producing the film itself. With rising star Michael Fassbender of “Prometheus” and “X:Men: First Class” fame signed on to play the title role, the film will be the first produced by Ubisoft Motion Pictures, a division set up by the Paris-based firm so it can retain creative control over adaptations of its game franchises.

“Ubisoft has decided to never sell its licences because it wants to have creative control,” Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet told AFP. “There are strong licences and investments in important games that require us to diversify sources of franchise value and synergies.” The firm provided no details about a possible director or release date for the “Assassin’s Creed” film, but it can rely on a rabid fan base, with more than 30 million units of the game’s franchise sold since its 2007 launch.

The series moves from one generation to another as players follow the ancestry of a fictional assassin to solve a perilous modern-day mystery. Previous instalments have been set during the Crusades and in Renaissance Italy and “Assassin’s Creed III”-set during the American Revolution-is due for release on October 30. A hallmark of the franchise has been “historical fiction” that blends rich details from past centuries with fantasy characters locked in a battle between assassins and Templars hunting for a mysterious orb of great power.—AFP

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he kept a Colt .38-caliber revolver close, while he preferred a .45-caliber pistol from the same maker. But neither weapon was enough to save American outlaws and lovers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow during a 1934 ambush by law enforcement officers. After the duo was dead, authorities recovered the revolver Bonnie had secured to an inner thigh with white medical tape. They also seized the handgun Clyde had tucked into his waistband.

Nearly 80 years later, those guns and other items connected to the infamous gangsters will be going up for auction in New Hampshire on Sept 30. An auction official estimated Thursday that each Bonnie and Clyde weapon could bring between $100,000 and $200,000. “They were pretty famous in their moment and I think that’s lasted through time,” said Bobby Livingston, vice president of RR Auction in Amherst, N.H. Besides the guns, other items Livingston’s company will auction include a gold pocket watch Clyde was wearing when he died, and a cosmetics case Bonnie was using to carry lipstick, Coty face powder and a powder puff. The brown leatherette box was inside the Ford automobile the gangsters were riding in when a posse of lawmen riddled it with bullets on a Louisiana road.

Also in the auction is a letter that Clyde wrote to his brother L.C. Barrow on the back of a photo showing a house on a platform surrounded by water. He signed it “bud,” his code name when he was on the run. FBI files say Bonnie and Clyde met in Texas in 1930 and were believed to have committed 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries by the time they died. Law enforcement

officials were among their victims. The duo became infamous as they traveled across America’s Midwest and South, holding up banks and stores with other gang members.

Texas Ranger Frank Hamer led the posse of six lawmen who carried out the ambush, and auction officials said authorities gifted him the guns from the lovers’ bodies as part of his compensation for the operation. Auction officials said all the Bonnie and Clyde items are coming from the estate of Robert E. Davis. He was a collector from Texas who acquired items Hamer had owned, along with items that came from the estate of Clyde’s sister, Marie Barrow.—AP

This pair of undated photos provided by RR Auction of Amherst, N.H., show firearms once owned by outlaws and lovers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.—AP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

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retrospective of Japan’s reclusive living legend Yayoi Kusama, 83, opened at New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art on Thursday, complete with her signature spots. Running through September, the exhibit includes some 150 works, including Kusama’s monumental multicolor plexiglass light installation “Fireflies on the Water.”

The installation is set in a dark room, with mirrors on each wall and a pool in the center, and is designed to create “visual effects that may be disorienting to some viewers,” according to the Whitney’s website. Audiences must work for the experience. “Visitors must step up onto a sixinch (15-centimeter) high platform, pass through a 30-inch (76-centimeter) wide doorway, and travel over a 30-inchwide platform with no edge protection,” the site added.

Before arriving at its final destination in New York, Kusama’s retrospective appeared at the Centre Pompidou art museum in Paris, followed by the Tate Modern in

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he Rodin Museum, a little jewel box of a building surrounded by formal gardens and showcasing the French artist’s monumental sculptures, had by most accounts lost a certain je ne sais quoi in the 83 years since it was built. Now, for the first time since the museum opened in 1929, the public will get to see it as its architects intended. The Rodin Museum reopens after a more than three-year, $9 million renovation that returned all its sculptures to their original locations inside and out, refurbished almost all of them - only “The Burghers of Calais” has yet to be cleaned up - and restored the grounds’ formal French garden, fountain and reflecting pool.

“It was long overdue,” Timothy Rub, director and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which runs the Rodin, said at a preview event Thursday. “We have a beautiful site and building and a great collection that had, frankly, lost some of its luster.” The inside galleries were rearranged to emphasize the way many figures in “The Gates of Hell” - Rodin’s colossal masterwork that dominates the museum entrance - inspired his later iconic sculptures from “The Kiss” to “The Thinker.” Behind the scenes, a new air-conditioning system will mean a swelter-free visit for summer tourists for the first time in decades.

Located between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the new Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the classical BeauxArts building contains the largest collection of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures outside of the Musee Rodin’s collections in Paris and Meudon.

It was a gift to the city from movie theater magnate Jules Mastbaum, who was introduced to Rodin’s work during a 1923 trip to Paris.

Mastbaum hired two France-born architects living in Philadelphia, architect Paul Cret and landscape designer Jacques Greber, to create the limestone museum. Its holdings include more than 140 bronze, marble and plaster sculptures, plus drawings, prints, letters and books.

“Everything you see here, the interior in particular, is a true restoration of one of the most sophisticated buildings ever,” curator Joseph Rischl said. “This is as sophisticated as a Parisian dress of 1929.” The Rodin Museum also houses a few works that were created by other artists.

Two small bronze heads, attributed to Rodin when Mastbaum purchased them, were later found to be the work of the artist’s collaborator, muse and lover Camille Claudel. In addition, the Musee Rodin permitted Mastbaum to commission a copy of “The Kiss,” one of Rodin’s bestknown works.

The marble reproduction in Philadelphia was completed in 1929, 12 years after Rodin’s death, by Jacques Greber’s father, sculptor Henri Greber. As is the case in museums around the world, the majority of the Rodin sculptures in Philadelphia’s museum weren’t cast in bronze until years after his death in 1917.—AP

London. Born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929, Kusama came to the Big Apple in 1958, where she became a fixture in the Pop and Minimalism art movements of the 1960s as she created her own brand of art. After a series of exhibitions and “happenings,” including staged events with nude participants at New York landmarks, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973.

Kusama suffered from a series of psychiatric disorders and was admitted to a hospital for mental illness shortly after her return to Tokyo, where she has lived, for the most part, until now. The Whitney exhibition features the first of Kusama’s work to be shown in the United States since 1998. Exhibition organizers say it “seeks to show the full breadth of the artist’s output throughout her lengthy and varied career, contextualizing Kusama’s American sojourn with representations of her early and late career in Japan.”

The exhibition includes paintings from Kusama’s Minimalist period in New York, as well as her famous soft sculptures, like “Accumulation” (1963), a chair painted in white, covered with fabric dressings that look like fungal growths. Visitors can watch the film “Self-Obliteration” (1968), which captures her period of experimentation with performance art, extending beyond the traditional confines of the art gallery. The exhibit was supported by French fashion designer Louis Vuitton, which has released a collection of dotted clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories inspired by Kusama’s work.

The company has launched a website that recounts Kusama’s life story in 12 languages and dialects and features images of her work at www.louisvuittonkusama.com.

The Whitney Museum features twentieth century and contemporary American art. It was founded in 1930 by US sculptor, art patron and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942). — AFP

This March 22, 2012 file photo shows Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama answering questions during a press preview for a 32hour art event at Roppongi shopping district in Tokyo.—AFP

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wo goats named Goatee and Pismo are wowing California beachgoers with their surfing skills. The goats’ owner, Dana McGregor, says he taught his goats to surf because he loves to ride the waves and thought they would like it, too. The goats stood on surfboards and cruised along the water Wednesday at San Onofre State Beach, as bystanders watched in amazement. Goatee, a nanny goat, and her billy goat, Pismo, even rode waves together. But after a few rides, Goatee swam to shore. McGregor says he got Goatee originally to eat unwanted plants on his property. He began taking the goat to the beach with him, eventually putting her on a surfboard. McGregor says he started putting Pismo on a board shortly after he was born in March. — AP

Dana NcGregor’s pet goats Pismo, left, and Goatee surf at San Onofre State Beach, Calif on Wednesday.—AP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Songstresses dominate Forbes list of rich young celebs

Tunisian singer Saber Rebai performs at the Carthage international Festival on July 12, 2012 outside Tunis. —AFP

‘American Idol’ at crossroads after Steven Tyler’s exit “A

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emale singers dominated the top of Forbes’ list of the highest-paid celebrities under the age of 30, released Thursday, starting with country pop sensation Taylor Swift. The business magazine said the 22-yearold Swift earned $57 million in the 12 months to May, a period that included the North American and Australasian legs of her 111-concert “Speak Now” tour.

Forbes said each Swift concert raked in an average of $1 million, with multi-platinum album sales and product endorsements topping up her wealth. She is expected to release a new album in October. Teen idol Justin Bieber, 18, the only male in the top five, placed second at $55 million, followed by Rihanna ($53 million), Lady Gaga ($52 million) and Katy Perry ($45 million). Last year, Lady Gaga topped the list at $90 million. Forbes said her slump is likely due to the fact that she did not tour during its Mayto-May review period.

“Expect the pop princess to earn more next year,” it said.

Forbes said it considered “album and concert sales, movie paydays, profit participation, endorsements and advertising work,” and interviewed showbiz insiders such as managers and agents, in coming up with its under-30 list. It did not deduct agent fees-typically double-digit-or what it called “expenses related to being a celebrity.” — AFP

merican Idol” is on the brink of an adolescent identity crisis.

Judge Steven Tyler is leaving and taking his naughty rock star vibe with him, fellow judge Jennifer Lopez is dithering about staying put, and ratings for the Fox show have declined as TV’s talent show field gets more competitive. When “American Idol” returns for its 12th season next January, it will have to be a reengineered version of the once-powerhouse series that turned hopefuls such as Jennifer Hudson into stars and gave network rivals fits.

One big step would be a clean sweep of the judging panel.

Aerosmith frontman Tyler got the ball rolling with his announcement Thursday that he was putting rock ‘n’ roll ahead of the show that he said had been “over-the-top fun.” “I strayed from my first love, Aerosmith, and I’m back - but instead of begging on my hands and knees, I got two fists in the air and I’m kicking the door open with my band,” Tyler said in a statement. Aerosmith is on a nationwide tour with Tyler and has an album due out in the fall.

Tyler’s departure leaves original judge Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez, but their futures are cloudy. In a phone interview with The Associated Press as the news about Tyler broke, Lopez said she was saddened to hear that he was leaving and was weighing her own decision. “I can’t even imagine anyone else there right now because I’ve just spent two years sitting next to him,” she said. “I love Steven, and we became close during that time. We were a great support for each other, on an adventure that neither one of us knew what it was going to be. So it’s hard to hear that he won’t be doing it.”

Lopez, who proved a warm charmer on “Idol,” said Tyler’s departure will play a role in her decision to stay or go. She has already indicated that there is a good likelihood that she will not be back. “All hope is never lost, not all hope, but at the same time, there are too many things that I need to think about,” she said. “I know they want me back, I

In this Jan 8, 2012 file photo, “American Idol” judge Jennifer Lopez, center, reacts as fellow judge Steven Tyler, left, of Aerosmith makes a joke about wearing Lopez’s pants as Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest are seen at right during the “American Idol” panel at the Fox Broadcasting Company Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. —AP know that I want to go back, but it’s not as simple as that. When I started ‘Idol’ ... I signed on for one year. I didn’t even think about doing it for two years, let alone three years. To make the decision to go back a second year was a big deal for me.” Jackson and his “dawg!” exclamations have been a stalwart part of “Idol.” But the show’s multi-year contracts, such as the one Jackson signed, typically include an escape clause that the network can choose to exercise or not. —AP

Adam Sandler looks to rise again in ‘Transylvania’ T he “Twilight” blood-suckers aren’t the only big-screen vampires at Comic-Con. Adam Sandler’s putting the bite on audiences, too.

On opening day at the fan convention Thursday, Sony Pictures previewed footage of Sandler’s animated comedy “Hotel Transylvania,” in which he provides the voice of the grand-daddy of vampires, Dracula.

It’s the follow-up to a rare flop for Sandler, whose string of hits came to an end this summer with the dud “That’s My Boy,” co-starring Andy Samberg.

Opening Sept. 28, “Hotel Transylvania” against costars Samberg, who provides the voice of a human

falling for Dracula’s vampire daughter.

“Hotel Transylvania” director Genndy Tartakovsky says he’s not worried that Sandler and Samberg are coming off a flop. The filmmaker says his PG-rated family tale is wildly different from the R-rated “That’s My Boy.” “Movies go up and down, and I don’t think there’s every been a history of one movie flopping and then a career ending for that person,” Tartakovsky said in an interview. “There are a lot of rebounds to this business.

“And our film’s for a different audience, so we weren’t worried either way. Our movie stands alone, really well on its own, and it’s Dracula with Adam’s

voice. It’s a family film.” The voice cast includes Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Jon Lovitz, David Spade, Cee Lo Green and Molly Shannon.

Sony’s “That’s My Boy” was a departure for Sandler, who has been one of Hollywood’s steadiest earners since the mid-1990s, with such $100 million hits as “The Longest Yard,” “Anger Management,” “Big Daddy,” “Click” and “Grown-Ups.” With a raunchier edge than his usual PG-13 comedies, “That’s My Boy” failed to pack in Sandler’s fan base of males in their teens and 20s, the movie taking in just $36 million. — AP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

French singer Mathias Malzieu from French rock band Dionysos is carried by fans as he performs on stage during the 28th edition of the Francofolies music festival Wednesday in La Rochelle, western France. — AFP

Bob Dylan rejects claim over first electric guitar

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ob Dylan dismissed Thursday a claim that a woman in New Jersey has the guitar he played at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, when he was infamously booed for going electric. A lawyer for the music icon said Dylan still has the Fender Stratocaster guitar which he played on July 25, 1965, prompting boos which forced him off stage after only three songs.

The musician had until then played solely on acoustic guitar, making his name as a protest singer with early hits including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They are aChangin’.” An upcoming television documentary reportedly claims that the guitar was left on board a plane which Dylan used after the show, and that the pilot took it with him, and left it in an attic. Dawn Peterson, a 43-year-old New Jersey woman and daughter of the pilot, Vic Quinto who died in 1977, told the PBS show “History Detectives” that her father had always said the guitar was left inadvertently on his plane.

“Since I can remember a guitar had been in the attic, although no one, including me, paid much attention to it,” Peterson told the Los Angeles Times newspaper. The instrument “remained in my mother’s attic for another 20 years until I got married and brought it to my home,” she said, adding the family had never been sure until PBS researchers confirmed the authenticity of the guitar. But Dylan’s lawyer Orin Snyder rejected the claim, made in a show to be broadcast on July 17.

“Bob has possession of the electric guitar he played at The Newport Folk Festival in 1965,” he said. “He did own several other Stratocaster guitars that were stolen from him around that time, as were some handwritten lyrics. “In addition, Bob recalls driving to the Newport Folk Festival, along with two of his friends, not flying,” he added in a statement sent to AFP. Dylan shrugged off the electric controversy-in 1966 a fan notoriously shouted “Judas” at a show in England-and went on to become “the voice of a generation” and one of the most influential musicians of modern times. The singer-real name Robert Allen Zimmerman-turned 71 this year, and is still on his so-called Never Ending Tour, which he launched in 1988. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in May. — AFP

Inspired by ‘Imposter,’ 5 stylish documentaries ith “The Imposter,” director Bart Layton takes a non-fiction subject - the disappearance of a 13-year-old boy and the emergence of a man who claims to be him years later and depicts it with all the tension, twists and turns of a gripping mystery. He accomplishes much of this feat through clever use of reenactments - a tactic the great Errol Morris used to revolutionize documentaries decades ago.

It got me thinking about other stylish documentaries I’ve loved over the years, ones that infused fascinating, real-life tales with the beauty and artistry of feature films. There are so many to choose from, I realize I’m scratching the surface here. But I only get to choose five each week.

That’s why the game is fun:

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“Hell and Back Again” (2011) Director and photographer Danfung Dennis crafted this Oscarnominated documentary about the war in Afghanistan with the engrossing, dreamlike artistry of a feature film. And yet he maintains the bracing, intimate realism needed to authentically tell a story about battle, survival and redemption. He jumps back and forth between a 25-year-old Marine sergeant’s return to his North Carolina hometown and the mission that left him seriously wounded. Dennis is so in the thick of things, he’ll repeatedly make you wonder how he got that amazing shot. Match cuts and clever sound editing provide a seamless flow between past and present.

“Man on Wire” (2008) James Marsh’s Oscar-winning documentary about Philippe Petit, the diminutive French daredevil who walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers in 1974, plays more like an intricately timed, high-stakes heist flick. You know from the start that Petit makes it -he’s alive and all too happy to talk about himself - but you’ll still hold your breath as he and his partners in crime relive the feat. One of the neatest tricks Marsh pulls off here is creating the sensation that we’re actually watching Petit make the walk. But we’re not. No footage is available.

Marsh seamlessly pieces together the event through photographs and recreations. Sitting in the audience, feeling as if we’re in on the scheme with Petit and his motley crew of co-conspirators is just one of the film’s many joys.

“Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back” (1967) Pioneering filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker set the standard for the rock documentary with this classic, behind-the-scenes look at Bob Dylan’s 1965 concert tour of England. This was impish 23-year-old Dylan before he famously went electric, and Pennebaker depicts this fortuitous moment of flux with grainy, intimate, black-and-white camerawork. The images he captured here became endlessly copied and parodied, from the 1987 INXS video for “Mediate,” in which the band members toss away cue cards the way Dylan does with “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” to “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” which parodies this time in Dylan’s life with dead-on hilarity.

The rough-hewn aesthetic is a thing of restless beauty.

“Waltz With Bashir” (2008) Unlike anything I’d ever seen before, this changed my ideas about the possibility of film. It’s a breathtakingly gorgeous animated documentary, which may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Israeli writer-director Ari Folman breaks all the rules with exhilarating creativity. Folman reconstructs the hazy memories of his time as a young soldier at war in 1980s Lebanon by visiting friends and then animating their talks. The result looks like a graphic novel brought brilliantly to life.

Dark shadows suggest impending danger, and bright splashes of color provide unexpected jolts of energy. That the figures on screen resemble real people, without appearing entirely realistic, adds to the fascination.

“Stop Making Sense” (1984) One of the coolest concert films ever, it’s probably also my favorite Jonathan Demme film; the way he structures it is just mesmerizing.

“Stop Making Sense” begins on a stage with only lead singer David Byrne singing “Psycho Killer” and playing a guitar with a boom box on the floor behind him. And then song by song, piece by piece, the place builds and fills up until the whole stage is full with the complete band, other musicians and an array of instruments. The process happened right before your eyes but it was so subtle and deliberate, you may not even have noticed it. It’s a great example of a band being playful and inventive rather than self-serious. And of course, the music is great. — AP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Despite sanctions, Apple gear booming in Iran Merchants source US products through underground routes DUBAI: At its gleaming store, RadanMac offers the latest Apple gear - the new iPad, iPhones, iPods, laptops, all-in-one desktop computers and more.

But this is no ordinary Apple store. It’s in Tehran, where Apple and other US computer products are banned under US sanctions that have been in place for years. Despite the embargo, RadanMac is one of an estimated 100 stores in the Iranian capital that openly sell Apple products, often at little more than US prices.

“Business has been booming for the last three years,” said Majid Tavassoli, the store’s owner, in a phone interview. He said his company employs more than 20 staffers and has been supplying Apple products to Iranian buyers since 1995. The company also has a servicing unit and a business sales arm whose clients have included the Central Bank of Iran, state television channels, newspapers and design professionals.

Iran’s booming Apple business underscores the limitations of economic sanctions by the United States and other countries. Washington and its allies have imposed sanctions in an attempt to curb Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran maintains is peaceful. US companies are barred from selling any goods or services to Iran unless they obtain special authorization.

The focus of the sanctions has been on Iran’s banks and oil industry, Iranian individuals and companies that Western capitals believe are assisting what they suspect is Tehran’s drive towards a nuclear weapons capability. But US consumer products and computer equipment are another matter. Although they are banned, enterprising Iranian merchants continue to source them through underground trade routes in the Middle East and beyond.

In the case of Apple, some digital sales of music, videos and software go directly through the California company - via its iTunes and App Store online services. According to Tehran computer dealers, Iran is a rapidly growing market for software downloads: Iranians register Apple accounts with randomly-chosen addresses outside the country, and use foreign gift-cards to pay for purchases.

In response, a spokesman for Apple Inc referred Reuters to its export control policy that restricts it or any subsidiaries it owns from exporting any products to Iran.

Once considered rare and sought-after, iPhones and iPads are now de rigueur in Iran among those who can afford them. The epicentre of the trade is Tehran’s largest technology mall, the bustling Capital Computer Complex, where more than 350 traders supply products for Iran’s increasingly tech-savvy population.

One of RadanMac’s competitors is a smaller firm called Apple Iran. Its website is a nearly exact replica of Apple’s own, except for the Persian language and a disclaimer: “This website is not in anyway affiliated with Apple Inc.” Apple has been attempting to shut it down, according to a person familiar with the matter. “We’re really proud of it,” says Apple Iran spokesman Ali Afghah, an Apple enthusiast and author of a Farsi-language study on the history of the company.

“I’m known as the Apple guy by friends and family,” said the 28-year-old, who bought his first Apple computer in 2002 and now describes himself as a “Mac-head.”

“It was different then,” he said. “The products were around double the price.”

Like RadanMac, Apple Iran boasts an impressive cast of corporate customers for its services.

Along with major Iranian banks, they have included IRIB - Iran’s state broadcasting network - news-

papers and magazines, Afghah said.

“There must be at least 1,000 editors in Iran now using Macs, if not more,” he estimated.

Neither government officials nor editors responded to requests for comment on whether they used Apple technology.

In recent months, Afghah said, Apple Iran has seen sales decline because of tough new sanctions imposed by the US and its allies against Iran’s financial sector. The new measures have caused Iran’s currency, the rial, to plummet and made international payments from Iranian banks much more complex. The company relies on a steady stream of creative individuals - including musicians, film editors and photographers - to keep its business going.

Tavassoli set up RadanMac - in Farsi, the word “radan” means “the one who does everything correctly” - after his employer, a Middle Eastern computer company, pulled out of Iran. He had worked there as a service engineer for Apple products.

Left with the company’s spare parts, he said he invested a few thousand dollars and spent the next 15 years combining his love of Apple technology with trying to make a living out of it.

“To start with, it was really tough,” said the 51year-old. “Four of my colleagues gave up and moved back to the States. But I love what I do.”

Despite the sanctions, Tavassoli said there was no shortage of business because of Iranians’ love for the latest technology. Still, sales come with major headaches and taking big investment risks.

Like many traders, he prefers to order directly from distributors in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. But the tightening embargoes against Iran’s financial system since the beginning of this year now make direct shipments more problematic, especially if they are large.

He can use Dubai or Turkey as an alternative transit point but that incurs additional duties and shipping fees. Iranian customs also needs to be paid: around 4% for portable products and a whopping 60% for larger components, such as desktop iMacs and monitors.

Even so, prices often remain competitive with

authorized Apple dealers outside Iran. The lowest spec MacBook Pro was priced in Tehran this month at around $1,250, compared to $1,200 (before tax) for the slightly updated model in New York. This is significantly cheaper than buying the product in many European capitals. The fluctuations in Iran’s volatile open market dollar rate mean that prices change every day.

Apple dealers in Iran often manage to obtain the company’s newest models within weeks of their release and at reasonable prices. The latest releases also show up sooner via opportunistic travelers who purchase them abroad and resell them at highly inflated prices.

Obtaining spare parts poses particular challenges. RadanMac draws customers by offering a one-year service contract with all sales. “It’s Iranian Apple Care,” Tavassoli said with a chuckle, alluding to the name of Apple’s own technical support and warranty services.

In the absence of a reliable supply of spare parts his team often has to borrow from new computers to fix old ones. “It’s one of the most difficult issues we face,” he says.

In the meantime, Iranian demand for Apple’s own online stores is rising, say Apple traders who report a sharp rise in requests from customers.

Thirty-year-old computer engineer Sina, who didn’t want his family name to be published, said he set up an iTunes account for his girlfriend after buying her an iPod. Computer users in Iran trying to download directly from iTunes eventually will see a “1009 error message,” which indicates that the service is blocked to the country from which the connection is being made.

Sina said he circumvented the block on Iranian Internet addresses by using a secure, virtual private network to access the Apple website. Then he downloaded iTunes. He first tried to register an account with a US address he found on the Internet, but encountered problems. But a Canadian address worked. He also bought online a Canadian gift card to make purchases.

“Everything worked fine,” he said. — Reuters

SUN VALLEY: Sergey Brin (left), co-founder of Google and wife Anne Wojcicki attend the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference yesterday in Sun Valley, Idaho. The conference has been hosted annually by the investment firm Allen & Company each July since 1983. The conference is typically attended by many of the world’s most powerful media executives. — AFP

This handout picture received from Imperial College London yesterday shows a person demonstrating a device which enables disabled people to control a computer with their eyes at a research facility.

Engineers said yesterday they had built a device using mass-produced video gaming equipment that lets disabled people control a computer with just their eyes with a price tagof under $30 (25 euros). — AFP

The eyes have it for disabled gamers PARIS: Engineers said yesterday they had built a device using mass-produced video gaming equipment that lets disabled people control a computer with just their eyes-with a price tag of under $30 (25 euros).

The gadget comprises two video game console cameras, costing less than $10 apiece, attached outside the line of vision to a pair of ordinary glasses, reported the team from Imperial College London.

The cameras relay the eye’s movements to an ordinary computer, wirelessly over WiFi or via USB, and used one watt of power, they wrote in the Journal of Neural Engineering.In this way, test subjects could control a cursor on a screen just like a computer mouse.

“We have achieved two things: we have built a 3D eye tracking system hundreds of times cheaper than commercial systems and used it to build a real-time brain machine interface,” said co-author Aldo Faisal. “This is frugal innovation; developing smarter software and piggy-backing existing hardware to create devices that can help people worldwide...”

It also allowed patients to interact more smoothly and more quickly than technologies that require electrode implants in the brain, and are even more expensive. “We demonstrate here that by using mass-produced video game hardware, it is possible to produce an ultra-low cost binocular eyetracker with comparable performance to commercial systems, yet 800 times cheaper,” the researchers wrote.

The technology offers hope for restoring some level of independence to people suffering from multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy and spinal cord injuries or amputees.—ÅFP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Ubisoft taking ‘Assassin’s Creed’ to big screen PARIS: Videogame firm Ubisoft is moving into the film business with an adaptation of its blockbuster title “Assassin’s Creed”-sidestepping the Hollywood movie machine by producing the film itself.

With rising star Michael Fassbender of “Prometheus” and “X:Men: First Class” fame signed on to play the title role, the film will be the first produced

by Ubisoft Motion Pictures, a division set up by the Paris-based firm so it can retain creative control over adaptations of its game franchises.

“Ubisoft has decided to never sell its licenses because it wants to have creative control,” Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet told AFP. “There are strong licences and investments in important games that require us to diversify sources of franchise value and synergies.”

The firm provided no details about a possible director or release date for the “Assassin’s Creed” film, but it can rely on a rabid fan base, with more than 30 million units of the game’s franchise sold since its 2007 launch.

The series moves from one generation to another as

players follow the ancestry of a fictional assassin to solve a perilous modern-day mystery.

Previous instalments have been set during the Crusades and in Renaissance Italy and “Assassin’s Creed III”-set during the American Revolution-is due for release on October 30. A hallmark of the franchise has been “historical fiction” that blends rich details from past centuries with fantasy characters locked in a battle between assassins and Templars hunting for a mysterious orb of great power.

Baronnet said that despite Ubisoft’s experience in producing a cinematic computer-generated experience, it has decided that a traditional live action film would be the best option for “Assassin’s Creed”. ‘Learn to exploit it’“Humans convey more emotion on the big screen.

And it shouldn’t be forgotten that actors bring viewers into the cinemas,” he said. Plans are in the works for other productions involving Ubisoft’s game franchises, Baronnet said, with its motion pictures division separated into film and television arms.

Kaspersky Lab, D-Link extend partnership DUBAI: Kaspersky Lab announces that it has extended its long-standing partnership agreement with DLink combining D-Link’s NetDefend series of UTM Firewalls with Kaspersky’s most comprehensive, best-in-class endpoint security suite to provide customers with exceptional multi-layered protection.

Starting this month, D-Link’s NetDefend UTM Firewall customers will receive free licenses for Kaspersky Business Space Security as well as an option to buy additional licenses at a special D-Link program rate. The combination of these two compelling products will enable DLink/Kaspersky Lab customers to deploy a truly reliable, multi-layered defense strategy to fight today’s ever evolving security threats.

D-Link’s UTM Firewalls have been relying on Kaspersky Lab’s signature analysis for several years to power the integral anti-malware solution on their gateway products to secure the entry point to corporate networks. The addition of Kaspersky Business Space Security will enhance the level of protection even further by providing multiple layers of defense. This adds another level of protection to networks where D-Link NetDefend UTM Firewall is deployed.

The first level of protection is the NetDefend UTM Firewall gateway itself, which, serving as the only point of access to the corporate network from the Internet, intercepts and weeds out the most prevalent and dangerous malware, spyware, or hacking attempts. However, no single solution can ensure 100% protection from modern-day malware this is where Kaspersky Business Space Security brings immense value. It establishes a second perimeter of defense for critical network assets such as file servers, user workstations, and mobile devices, neutralizing any malware that eludes the

gateway or bypasses it altogether (e.g. when employees unwittingly bring malware in on USB flash drives or are travelling outside the reach of the company network).

Kaspersky Business Space Security Suite for workstations, smartphones and file servers has been strengthened with the recently launched Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows and Kaspersky Security Center 9, providing deeper protection and comprehensive control tools. This has resulted in Kaspersky Business Space Security Suite becoming Kaspersky’s most unique and compelling corporate product offering - ever. And it’s now included with every D-Link NetDefend UTM Firewall.

Commenting on the partnership agreement signed with D-Link, Stephane Le Hir, Vice-President of Business Development at Kaspersky Lab, said “I am very pleased with our expanding partnership with DLink, which will provide customers with the best possible endpoint protection to complement its world-class gateway-based security solutions.”

Commenting on the agreement with Kaspersky, Richard Chen, SMB Director of D-Link, said “We are pleased to further strengthen our cooperation with Kaspersky. We’ve put a lot of effort into developing best-in-class solutions for SMBs, and this segment is one of our highest priorities. Having Kaspersky Lab’s solutions in D-Link security devices will help us not only to expand our distribution channels, but also to strengthen our global presence and brand equity.”

The D-Link NetDefend UTM Firewall with Kaspersky Business Space Security is available immediately to D-Link customers at D-Link’s Security Portal website: http://security.dlink.com.tw.

First up will be a television adaptation of its wacky “Raving Rabbids” franchise for French public television and US children’s channel Nickelodeon, due for broadcast next year.

Plans are also in the works for adaptations of Ubisoft’s stealth franchise “Splinter Cell” and tactical shooter game “Ghost Recon”. For all of its films, Ubisoft will maintain full creative control over scripts, directors, casting and budgets, Baronnet said. “We prefer making the film a 100 percent by ourselves instead of having a studio that could betray the spirit of the license, because this would have a negative effect on the image of the game,” he said.

Ubisoft’s move is a smart one, said analyst Laurent Michaud of European tech consultancy Idate, especially as videogames become more and more cinematic.

“The videogame is a content creator. Instead of giving up this wealth to third parties, it makes more sense to learn to exploit it yourself,” he said. “Who is in a better position to exploit the value of a licence than the one who created it?” — AFP

San Francisco sours on Apple computers Tech giant off EPEAT member list SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco city officials on Thursday said that they have soured on Apple computers due to the Macintosh maker’s decision to bail out of a program to promote making electronics earth friendly.

The California company behind coveted iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macbook computers in June abandoned the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool global registry for “greener electronics” and did not respond to requests for comment about the move.

The city of San Francisco for several years has had a rule in place that requires laptops, computers or monitors bought by departments to meet top EPEAT standards.

Apple’s name was off the EPEAT member list this week and it has removed the registry’s symbol from packaging.

“Apple’s decision to have its products removed from the EPEAT registry will make it difficult for city employees to procure Apple laptops, monitors and (desktop computers) in the future,” said city chief information officer Jon Walton.

“San Francisco has reached out to Apple and is hopeful that a solution to this challenge can be found in the future.” The procurement rule is similar to a standard used by other US cities and states as well as by the federal government, according to Walton.

“There is no ban or boycott in place in San Francisco on Apple products and none is being considered,” city Environment Department director Melanie Nutter said.

However, she added, the city purchaser “will be issuing a letter to remind city agencies about the city’s technology purchasing policies.” Nutter’s department assists in implementing the city’s green purchasing ordinance.

“We are reaching out to understand why Apple decided to withdraw its participation from the EPEAT eco-label program for computers and hope to learn about how their products meet green standards in San Francisco,” Nutter said.

The Green Electronics Council in 2009 went international with a registry that shows how computers and monitors measure up when it comes to being Earthfriendly.

EPEAT gives green ratings to computer desktops, laptops and monitors. It was launched in the United States in 2006 with corporations and other large IT purchasers in mind but the registry is available for anyone to consult online for free at epeat.net.

Electronics makers and other interested parties establish EPEAT criteria used to rate computers, with bronze, silver and gold being the top rankings.

The standards factor in energy savings, production

methods, toxic components, packaging, life spans and the ease with which electronics can be recycled.

EPEAT, which is overseen by the nonprofit Green council, was started with a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency but is supported by fees manufacturers pay to register products. — AFP

Apple CEO Tim Cook (right), with Victor Koo (left) at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. —AP

TV listings

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

22:40 23:05 23:20 23:45

00:45 Crime Scene Wild 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Sharkbite Beach 03:30 Up Close And Dangerous 03:55 Up Close And Dangerous 04:25 Wild France 05:20 Stranger Among Bears 05:45 In Too Deep 06:10 E-Vets: The Interns 06:35 E-Vets: The Interns 07:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 07:25 Meerkat Manor 07:50 Bondi Vet 08:15 Corwin’s Quest 09:10 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 09:35 Breed All About It 10:05 Crocodile Hunter 11:00 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 11:55 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 12:50 Wildlife SOS 13:45 Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous 14:40 Bad Dog 17:25 Bad Dog 18:20 Wild France 19:15 Wild France 20:10 Great Ocean Adventures 21:05 Wildest Africa 22:00 Cats 101 22:55 Great Animal Escapes 23:20 Great Animal Escapes 23:50 Untamed & Uncut

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

Walk On The Wild Side Doctors Live At The Apollo The Royle Family The Impressions Show Twenty Twelve Allo ‘allo!

Balamory Tellytales Little Prairie Dogs Nina And The Neurons Show Me Show Me Boogie Beebies Charlie And Lola Fimbles Tellytales Little Prairie Dogs Nina And The Neurons Show Me Show Me Boogie Beebies Doctor Who One Foot In The Grave Dinnerladies As Time Goes By The Weakest Link Coast Robin Hood After You’ve Gone 2 Point 4 Children Casualty Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Eastenders Monarch Of The Glen Doctor Who Doctor Who Confidential Robin Hood Allo ‘allo!

Rev. Gavin & Stacey Live At The Apollo Fawlty Towers Great Ormand Street The Impressions Show Twenty Twelve The Weakest Link: Scd Special

00:30 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 01:20 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 02:05 MasterChef 03:00 MasterChef 03:25 Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers 03:55 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 04:25 James Martin’s Brittany 04:45 MasterChef 05:40 MasterChef 06:05 Living In The Sun 07:00 Antiques Roadshow 10:25 Antiques Roadshow 11:15 Masterchef: The Professionals 12:05 Masterchef: The Professionals 13:00 Bargain Hunt 13:45 Bargain Hunt 14:25 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 15:10 Extreme Makeover: Home

Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo Popeye The Jetsons Duck Dodgers

00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Powerpuff Girls 07:15 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi 07:40 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 08:05 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:30 Adventure Time 08:55 Regular Show 09:20 Batman Brave And The Bold 09:45 Young Justice 10:05 Thundercats 10:35 Hero 108 11:00 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 11:25 Grim Adventures Of...

12:15 Courage The Cowardly Dog 13:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 13:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 13:55 Powerpuff Girls 14:45 Thundercats 15:10 Generator Rex 15:35 Ben 10 16:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 16:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 17:15 Adventure Time 17:40 Regular Show 18:05 Powerpuff Girls 18:55 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:20 Ben 10: Alien Force 19:45 Ed, Edd n Eddy 20:35 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 21:00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 21:25 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 21:50 Grim Adventures Of...

22:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Ben 10 23:40 Chowder

FIGHTING ON OSN ACTION HD Edition 15:50 Come Dine With Me 16:40 Antiques Roadshow 20:05 Antiques Roadshow 21:00 Cash In The Attic 21:45 Cash In The Attic 22:25 Bargain Hunt 23:10 Bargain Hunt

00:00 BBC World News America 00:30 BBC World News America 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Newsnight 02:00 BBC World News 02:30 Our World 03:00 BBC World News 03:10 Weekend World 03:30 Collaboration Culture 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Rendezvous With Zeinab Badawi 05:00 BBC World News 05:10 Faster, Higher, Stronger 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Fast Track 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 Middle East Business Report 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 Click 10:00 BBC World News 10:10 Weekend World 10:30 Collaboration Culture 11:00 BBC World News 11:10 World Features 11:30 Rendezvous With Zeinab Badawi 12:00 BBC World News 12:10 The Culture Show Special

13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:30

BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News Faster, Higher, Stronger BBC World News Click BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Click BBC World News World Features Dateline London

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40

Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo

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

The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show What’s New Scooby-Doo? What’s New Scooby-Doo? Droopy: Master Detective The Looney Tunes Show Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Johnny Bravo Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show Wacky Races Dastardly And Muttley The Scooby Doo Show Dexters Laboratory Dexter’s Laboratory The Garfield Show Looney Tunes Tom & Jerry Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Johnny Bravo Johnny Bravo Rockin’ With Judy Jetson The Looney Tunes Show What’s New Scooby-Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The Garfield Show The Flintstones Droopy & Dripple

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

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

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

Weird Or What?

Sons Of Guns How Sports Are Made How Sports Are Made Wheeler Dealers Revisited Fifth Gear Fifth Gear Weird Or What?

How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Swamp Loggers How It’s Made Building The Future Mega Builders Extreme Engineering World’s Toughest Tools Man, Woman, Wild Alaska’s Great Race Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival World’s Toughest Jobs Coal Extreme Fishing Hillbilly Handfishin’ Tornado Road Finding Bigfoot Gold Rush Deadliest Catch Hillbilly Handfishin’ Extreme Fishing River Monsters: Lair Of Giants

00:35 01:25 02:15 02:40 03:05 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:05 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:43 09:10 09:40 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:45 15:35 16:30 17:20 18:10 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Superships Science Of The Movies Game Changers Game Changers The Gadget Show Da Vinci’s Machines Moon Machines Superships Science Of The Movies Game Changers Game Changers Prank Science Prank Science Head Rush Things That Move Things That Move Nextworld Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Sport Science Prophets Of Science Fiction Ecopolis Future Weapons Meteorite Men Game Changers Scrapheap Challenge Mega World Futurecar Weird Or What?

Investigation X Futurecar Prophets Of Science Fiction

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:05 03:30 03:55 04:20 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:40 Cody 07:05 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:10 09:35 10:00 10:25 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:20

Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Suite Life Of Zack And So Random Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T. Farm Austin & Ally Cadet Kelly Fish Hooks Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie A.N.T. Farm

TV listings

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:00 18:30 18:45 19:10 19:35 20:00 20:25 20:50 22:30 22:55 Cody 23:20 Cody 23:45

Austin & Ally Jessie Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up So Random Jessie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure Fish Hooks Austin & Ally Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Cadet Kelly Fish Hooks The Suite Life Of Zack And

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

The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics True CSI On The Case With Paula Zahn Extreme Forensics The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery ER Who On Earth Did I Marry?

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

The Suite Life Of Zack And Sonny With A Chance

08:00 Which Way To 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:30 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 11:30 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 12:00 The Green Way Up 12:30 The Green Way Up 13:00 Banged Up Abroad 14:00 Travel Oz 14:30 Travel Oz 15:00 Meet The Natives: USA 16:00 Which Way To 17:00 Departures 18:00 Treks In A Wild World 19:00 One Man & His Campervan 19:30 One Man & His Campervan 20:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 21:00 Travel Madness 21:30 Travel Madness 22:00 Into The Drink 22:30 Into The Drink 23:00 Somewhere In China

00:00 01:00 War 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 War 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00

Master of Disaster Apocalypse: The Second World Big, Bigger, Biggest Fight Science Hunter Hunted The Known Universe Untamed Americas Perilous Journeys Master of Disaster Apocalypse: The Second World Big, Bigger, Biggest Fight Masters Hunter Hunted The Known Universe Untamed Americas

15:00 16:00 17:00 War 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Perilous Journeys Master of Disaster Apocalypse: The Second World Big, Bigger, Biggest World’s Deadliest Animals Shark Men Banged Up Abroad Sea Patrol Salvage Code Red

00:00 Wild Russia 01:00 Built For The Kill 01:55 World’s Wildest Encounters 02:50 Swamp Men 03:45 Fairy Penguins: The Secret of Sydney Harbour 04:40 Expedition Wild 05:35 Shark Men 06:30 Salmon Wars 07:25 World Wild Web 07:50 Savannah 08:20 Dam Beavers 09:15 Caught In The Act 10:10 Leopard Queen 11:05 Dangerous Encounters 12:00 Built For The Kill 13:00 Wild Chronicles 13:30 Wild Chronicles 14:00 Kangaroo Kaos 15:00 Expedition Wild 16:00 Dangerous Encounters 17:00 Hunter Hunted 18:00 Killer Dragons 19:00 Expedition Wild 20:00 Dangerous Encounters 21:00 Hunter Hunted 22:00 Killer Dragons 23:00 Built For The Kill

00:00 Treks In A Wild World 01:00 Banged Up Abroad 02:00 Travel Oz 02:30 Travel Oz 03:00 Meet The Natives: USA 04:00 Which Way To 05:00 Banged Up Abroad 06:00 Travel Oz 06:30 Travel Oz 07:00 Meet The Natives: USA 08:00 Which Way To 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:30 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 11:30 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 12:00 The Green Way Up 12:30 The Green Way Up 13:00 Banged Up Abroad 14:00 Travel Oz 14:30 Travel Oz 15:00 Meet The Natives: USA 16:00 Which Way To 17:00 Departures 18:00 Treks In A Wild World 19:00 One Man & His Campervan 19:30 One Man & His Campervan 20:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 21:00 Travel Madness 21:30 Travel Madness 22:00 Into The Drink 22:30 Into The Drink 23:00 Somewhere In China

00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00

Treks In A Wild World Banged Up Abroad Travel Oz Travel Oz Meet The Natives: USA Which Way To Banged Up Abroad Travel Oz Travel Oz Meet The Natives: USA

FASTER ON OSN CINEMA

00:00 Hallowed Ground-PG15 02:00 Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans-18 04:00 Jackass 3.5-R 06:00 Four Brothers-18 08:00 Returner-PG15 10:00 Red Faction: Origins-PG15 12:00 Fighting-PG15 14:00 Returner-PG15 16:00 Taxi-PG15 18:00 Fighting-PG15 19:45 13 Assassins-18 22:00 The Net-PG15

01:00 Brighton Rock-PG15 03:00 How Do You Know-PG15 05:00 Return To Rajapur-PG15 07:00 True Story Of Puss’n Boots-PG 09:00 Not Since You-PG15 11:00 Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard-PG 13:00 Happy Ever Afters-PG15 15:00 Oceans-PG15 17:00 Shanghai-PG15 19:00 Faster-PG15 21:00 Take Me Home Tonight-18 23:00 Biutiful-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 02:30 Two And A Half Men 03:00 New Girl 03:30 Melissa & Joey 04:00 Til Death 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 The Simpsons 06:00 Friends 06:30 Mad Love

07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Til Death 08:30 New Girl 09:00 The Simpsons 09:30 30 Rock 10:00 Modern Family 10:30 Mad Love 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Friends 12:30 Til Death 13:00 The Simpsons 13:30 Mad Love 14:00 Melissa & Joey 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 30 Rock 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:30 Friends 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Best Friends Forever 18:30 Perfect Couples 19:00 The Office 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Two And A Half Men 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

Jane By Design Smash The Bachelor Fairly Legal The Killing Good Morning America The Glades Castle The Martha Stewart Show The View Jane By Design Fairly Legal Smash Live Good Morning America The Glades C.S.I. C.S.I. Miami C.S.I. New York Law & Order: Criminal Intent The Killing

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

Cold Case Smash The River Fairly Legal Smash Jane By Design Cold Case The Ellen DeGeneres Show Inside The Actor’s Studio Jane By Design Fairly Legal Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Castle Cold Case Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Body Of Proof C.S.I. C.S.I. Miami C.S.I. New York Law & Order: Criminal Intent The River

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 PG15 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Road To Perdition-18 The Siege-18 S.W.A.T.: Firefight-PG15 True Justice: Deadly CrossingShanghai Noon-PG15 S.W.A.T.: Firefight-PG15 No Time To Fear-PG15 Shanghai Noon-PG15 Arctic Predator-PG15 Talento De Barrio-PG15 The Net-PG15 Seventh Moon-18

00:00 Mr. Nice-18 02:15 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star-PG15 04:00 Inspector Gadget (1999)-PG15 06:00 The Addams Family-PG 08:00 Love And Mary-PG15

10:00 For Richer Or Poorer-PG 12:00 Addams Family Values-PG 14:00 Last Holiday-PG15 16:00 For Richer Or Poorer-PG 18:00 Hitch-PG15 20:00 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story-PG15 22:00 Tucker Max-R

02:30 04:15 07:00 09:00 11:30 14:45 16:30 18:45 21:00 23:00

Gilles’ Wife-PG15 Munich-18 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 The Great Gatsby-PG Spartacus-PG15 Get Low-PG15 Entre Les Murs-PG15 Thelma And Louise-PG15 I Capture The Castle-18 On Strike For Christmas-PG15

00:00 Daydream Nation-PG15 01:45 Despicable Me-FAM 03:30 Mean Girls 2-PG15 05:15 Ramona And Beezus-PG 07:00 Battle: Los Angeles-PG15 09:00 That’s What I Am-PG15 10:45 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 12:30 Stone Of Destiny-PG15 14:15 Mars Needs Moms-PG 15:45 That’s What I Am-PG15 17:30 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon-PG15 20:00 Roadie-PG15 22:00 Love And Other Drugs-R

00:30 02:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

NRL Premiership PGA European Tour Trans World Sport PGA European Tour Weekly Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby PGA European Tour

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 19:30 21:30 23:30

Super Rugby WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line NRL Premiership Live AFL Premiership Futbol Mundial Live NRL Premiership Live NRL Premiership PGA European Tour Weekly Live PGA European Tour NRL Premiership NRL Premiership Super Rugby

00:00 NRL Full Time 00:30 Futbol Mundial 01:00 Volvo Ocean Race Highlights 02:00 AFL Premiership 04:30 Total Rugby 05:00 Golfing World 06:00 World Pool Masters 07:00 Futbol Mundial 07:30 European PGA Tour 12:00 NRL Full Time 12:30 Live NRL Premiership 14:30 NRL Premiership 17:00 Live Rugby League 19:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 19:30 AFL Premiership 22:00 Live Sailing World Match Racing Tour

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 21:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line UFC WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection NRL Full Time Live AFL Premiership V8 Supercars Extra V8 Supercars Highlights V8 Supercars Highlights WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown UFC

what’s on

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

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

Kuwait on top in 1st Kuwait Int’l Kyokushin Karate Tournament

T

he Kuwait Committee of Kyokushin Karate (KCKK) derived from the Kuwait Olympic Committee held its 1st International Kyokushin Karate Tournament on July 6 and 7, 2012 in the Kuwait Judo and Taekwondo Federation in Sabah AlSalem Area with 46 fighter from 16 countries: Japan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Hungary, Netherlands, Greece, Britain, Saudi, Jordan, Lebanon etc. and international referees from Japan, Uzbekistan, Nederland, Britain, Russia, Lebanon and Kuwait.

Kuwait national team achieved 1st place under 85, 2nd place under 65, 2nd place juniors plus four silver medals.

KCKK guests of honor included Shihan Loek Hollander from the Netherlands, Shihan Yoshikazu Koi from Japan, Shihan David Pickthall from United Kingdom.

The president of Kuwait Committee

Basal Al-Bannay said that the great achievement of Kuwaiti team in this international event was the result of hard work done in past courses and tournaments both in Kuwait and internationally and we are very proud of all the results which were an indication of the high level and standard of Kyokushin training in Kuwait.

Kuwait national team achieved 1st place under 85, 2nd place under 65, 2nd place juniors plus four silver medals.

Results Junior Category 1st Daniel Marmarosi (Hungary) 2nd Thari Alonizi (Kuwait) 3rd Ali Abdulaziz (Kuwait) 3rd Furiz Karomatov (Tajikistan) 65kg Category 1st Darren Stringer (GB) 2nd Jassem Malik (Kuwait)

3rd Abdulaziz Saed (Bahrain) 3rd Mohammed Al Rifai (Syria) 75kg Category 1st Abdulrahman Abu Alhassan (Saudi Arabia) 2nd Suliman Al Suliman (Saudi Arabia) 3rd Ahmad Algathban (Kuwait) 3rd Mubarak Al Sager (Kuwait) 85kg Category 1st Salim Al Rashid (Kuwait) 2nd Mutal Nazarov (Uzbekistan) 3rd Essa Bo Al Qassem (Kuwait) 3rd Aiman Swidan (Syria) +85kg Category 1st Ferry Hoogeveen (Holland) 2nd Richard Lizak (Hungary) 3rd Hamad Mamdoh (Jordan) 3rd Masaaki Shimajiri (Japan)

Announcements Indian Embassy passport and visa Passports and Visa applications can be deposited at the two outsourced centers of M/S BLS Ltd at Sharq and Fahaheel.

Details are available at www.bls-international.com and www.indembkwt.org .

Consular Open House Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall at the Embassy. For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) can be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances.

Indian workers helpline/helpdesk Indian workers helpline is accessible by toll free telephone number 25674163 from all over Kuwait. It provides information and advice to Indian workers as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. The help desk at the Embassy (Open from 9AM to 1PM and 2PM to 4:30PM, Sunday to Thursday) provides guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal and other issues. It also provides workers assistance in filling up labour complaint forms. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attachÈ in the Labour section and the head of the Labour Wing can be contacted.

EMBASSY OF BRAZIL The Embassy of Brazil requests all Brazilian citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the website www.brazil.org.kw (Contact Us Form / Fale Conosco) in order to register or update contact information. The Embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the Embassy. The registration process helps the Brazilian Government to contact and assist Brazilians living abroad in case of any emergency.

■■■■■■■

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

Please be aware that from 01 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730-l430 hrs), please contact the Embassy on 2259 4320.

■■■■■■■

Legal Advice Clinic Free legal advice is provided on matters pertaining to labour disputes, terms of contracts with employers, death/accident compensation, withholding of dues by employers, etc. by lawyers on our panel, to Indian nationals on all working days between 1500hrs to 1600hrs.

Ambassador’s Open House The Open House for Indian citizens by the Ambassador is being held on all Wednesdays at the Embassy for redressal of grievances. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day.

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

Free Arabic course IPC is opening an Intensive Basic Arabic Course for ladies commencing from June 3 to July 8, 2012. The class will be from 5-7 pm for three days a week. Registration is on! For information, call 22512257.

EMBASSY OF KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea wishes to inform that it has moved to Mishref. New Address: Embassy of the Republic of Korea Mishref, Block 7A, Diplomatic Area 2, Plot 6 The Embassy also wishes to inform that it will be opened to the public on the following office hours: Saturday to Thursday Morning: 8:00 am to 12:30 pm Lunch Break: 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm Afternoon: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the Embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303. Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible.

For enquiries you can contact Consular Section on mobile 90935162 or 97527306.

■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN During the holy month of Ramadan the general working hours at the Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan will be from 8 am till 2 pm.

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

health & science

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Heavy people more likely to have colon polyps NEW YORK: Obese and overweight people are more likely to develop colon polyps, a possible precursor to cancer, than slimmer people, according to an international study.

Previous studies have made the connection between obesity and colon cancer, a link recognized by the US National Cancer Institute. But the current study, which appeared in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, is the first to point to a higher risk of colon polyps - also known as adenomas - in heavy people. “Because there is a known asso-

ciation between obesity and cancer, there is a logical extension to expect a connection between obesity and the step before cancer, which is adenoma,” said Hutan Ashrafian from Imperial College, London, who coauthored the study. Ashrafian and his colleagues analyzed data from 23 studies involving more than 100,000 people across the United States, Asia and Europe, looking at the relationship between polyps and body mass index, or BMI, a measure of weight relative to height.

All the studies followed World

Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that define people with a BMI over 25 as overweight and above 30 as obese. In most studies, polyps were identified during colonoscopy procedures while two large studies used self-reported questionnaires.

Overall, researchers found that 22 percent of overweight and obese people had colon polyps, compared to 19 percent in people of normal weight. The polyp risk grew with increasing BMI. “The findings suggest that obesity may be having an effect (on cancer

development) much earlier than we thought,” said Ashrafian, who with his fellow authors recommended timely colon cancer screening for overweight and obese people. The findings couldn’t say whether obesity causes polyps by itself, but if it does, that may be bad news for a world where obesity is on the rise.

According to the World Health Organization, about 500 million people worldwide are obese. Colon cancer killed more than half a million people worldwide in 2008, WHO figures show. — Reuters

1,500 fish, corals seized at Manila pier MANILA: Philippine authorities seized some 1,500 live aquarium fish and about 150 live pieces of brain coral at a Manila pier yesterday just before they were to be shipped to Japan. The fish and corals in water-filled plastic bags stored in styrofoam boxes were seized by quarantine officers, said fisheries bureau law enforcement chief Andres Menguito.

He said the fish and corals were headed for Japan and likely being smuggled because there was no permit to export them. Nobody who had been transporting the aquatic species could be found. “The quarantine officers were able to inspect the cargo. Perhaps when the person in charge of the fish saw some quarantine officers

HYDERABAD: Indian exhibitors display cows preserved in formaldehyde at the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Exhibition and Conference Dairy Show in Hyderabad yesterday. —AFP

It’s not lunacy: Not-a-planet Pluto boasts five moons LOS ANGELES : Pluto may have been kicked out of the planet club, but it has gained yet another companion.

Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of the smallest moon yet around the icy orb, bringing the tally of known moons to five. “We’re not finished searching yet,” said Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University, who thinks there may be more lurking.

The discovery was made by a team of scientists who used the Hubble Space Telescope to scout out Pluto’s neighborhood ahead of a NASA spacecraft that’s scheduled to arrive in 2015.

When the New Horizons craft launched in 2006, Pluto was a full-fledged planet, but has since been demoted to dwarf planet status by the International Astronomical Union.

The newfound moon - known as P5 until it gets a proper name - appeared as a faint fleck in the Hubble images.

Scientists estimated the mini-moon to be 6 to 15 miles across, smaller than the still nameless one that they spotted last year, which is 8 to 21 miles wide. Pluto’s

largest moon, the 650-mile-wide Charon, was discovered in 1978. Two smaller moons, Nix and Hydra, were found in 2005.

The moons are thought to have formed after an ancient collision between Pluto and an object in the Kuiper Belt, a disk teeming with small bodies that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Since the launch of the New Horizons mission, scientists have been studying the Kuiper Belt in search of debris that might pose a danger to the spacecraft.

Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute said names for the new moon and last year’s discovery will not be proposed until the team finishes analyzing the Hubble data in case there are more hidden moons.

Showalter said he favors names that go together - like the mythological Greek couple Orpheus and Eurydice. “If we happen to find more moons, then we will have to pick a different story from Greek mythology,” he said in an email. —AP

were already inspecting, they disappeared,” Menguito told AFP. The officer expressed hope suspects could be traced through documents used to bring the fish, hidden inside some cartons, to the pier.

The export of live aquarium fish without a permit is forbidden, and gathering or possessing corals is illegal in the Philippines.

A conviction for those crimes can lead to up to eight years in prison, Menguito said.

Environmentalists have previously warned excessive harvesting of ornamental fish and other marine resources from the Philippines could threaten the country’s fish stocks and other sea life. —AFP

Cholera grows in Somali insurgent bastion: WHO NAIROBI: Cholera is rising in the last major town held by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shehab, with most of those stricken by the disease children, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday. The UN agency “is very much concerned about the increased number of cholera cases, particularly in Kismayo town,” it said in a statement, warning that the infectious diarrhoeal disease could kill within hours if untreated.

“One health facility did a rapid test among a sample of 10 patients, and a total of six cases tested positive for cholera,” the

WHO statement read. Of the 65 patients treated so far, 40 required “immediate hospitalisation”, it added-and most of the cases were children aged below eight.

Hardline Shebab fighters still control large parts of southern Somalia, but are left with the southern port of Kismayo as the last major town they control, after attacks

by AU troops, government forces and Ethiopian soldiers. Kismayo is blockaded at sea and on land, with main supply routes strangled by encircling forces. Kenyan troops in the AU force have vowed to seize the town by the end of August. — AFP

BAIKONUR: A camel stands in front of the space communication antennas at the Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome yesterday. The launch of the spacecraft to the International Space Station with the next ISS crew including US astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide aboard is scheduled tomorrow. —AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

health & science

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Clinics Rabiya

24732263

Rawdha

22517733

Adailiya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Khaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Qadisiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

ACCOMMODATION Fully furnished sharing accommodation available for an executive bachelor or couples with kitchen facilities and utilities. This flat is a 2 bed, with 2 bathrooms (1single Indian type) front big hall as drawing and dining.

Contact: 66639625/ 24340491 after 4:30 pm.

(C 4076) 12-7-2012 Accommodation available for two decent bachelors or a small family in a 2 bedroom spacious apartment in Shaab Al-Behri, opposite Bush Plaza, rent is very reasonable.

Contact: 66541343. (C 4074) 10-7-2012

FOR SALE Mitsubishi Lancer Ex-2008, green color (new body) 62000km, price KD 1,950/-.

Contact: 50699345.

(C 4075) 10-7-2012

CHANGE OF NAME “I, VALLATH KOZHIPILLIL NARAYANANKUTTY also known as NANDAN MENON, holding Indian Passport No: Z1120130 of SREEBHADRA, Chandrathil Road, Edappally PO, Cochin 682024 hereby change my name as VALLATH KOZHIPILLIL NARAYANANKUTTY NANDAN MENON”. (C 4077) 14-7-2012

MATRIMONIAL Proposals are invited for a highly qualified, well settled Male, 28 year old Latin Catholic boy from Cochin working at a Semi Government firm in Kuwait, from parents of catholic girls.

Interested may please email to edamana28@gmail.com (C 4078) 14-7-2012 SITUATION VACANT Full time live out maid/nanny for three months, starting mid July. Must have own residency. Work from 7am to 7pm, Saturday - Thursday in Salwa. Call 97687172 for interview.

7-7-2012

No: 15508

112 THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988 Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:25 11:54 15:29 18:50 20:20

information SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 14/7/2012 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 148 DOHA 408 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 239 ISLAMABAD 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 768 ISTANBUL 370 BAHRAIN 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 503 LUXOR 770 ISTANBUL 1541 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 3407 MASHAD 165 DUBAI 618 ALEXANDRIA 5066 MASHAD 325 NAJAF 610 CAIRO 219 BAHRAIN 673 DUBAI 57 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 535 CAIRO 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 562 AMMAN 241 AMMAN 640 AMMAN 476 JEDDAH 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 6791 MASHAD 538 SHARM EL SHEIKH 4161 MASHAD 118 NEW YORK 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 176 GENEVA 502 BEIRUT 542 CAIRO 144 DOHA 125 BAHRAIN 438 BAHRAIN 786 JEDDAH 63 DUBAI

Time 0:15 0:20 1:00 1:30 2:05 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:50 2:50 2:55 3:10 3:20 3:25 3:55 4:35 4:55 5:00 6:00 6:15 6:30 6:35 6:40 7:15 7:30 7:45 7:50 8:05 8:15 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:00 10:10 11:05 11:25 11:55 12:30 13:30 13:40 13:40 13:45 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:30 14:40 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:15 15:25 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 18:45

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

104 6130 620 618 674 5064 572 175 774 607 393 647 402 146 460 790 221 474 229 415 859 135 43 341 129 136 372 614 513 61 539 975 217 981 8053 636 51 614 772 574

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

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 14/7/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA 981 WASHINGTON 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 573 MUMBAI 413 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 240 SIALKOT 769 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 643 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 534 CAIRO 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 324 AL NAJAF 126 SHARJAH 240 AMMAN 561 AMMAN 671 DUBAI 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 537 SHARM EL SHEIKH 56 DUBAI

18:45 19:00 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:35 19:40 19:50 19:55 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:25 22:35 22:40 23:05 23:10 23:30 23:35 23:40 23:50 Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 0:35 0:50 0:55 2:00 2:15 2:30 3:20 3:40 3:45 3:50 3:55 3:55 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:50 6:55 7:05 7:10 7:30 8:25 8:25 9:00 9:05 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:35 9:40 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:05

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

107 302 437 214 3406 541 165 501 776 619 785 176 5065 220 58 611 672 538 473 174 124 617 641 461 512 789 505 135 6792 773 4162 304 141 858 216 134 128 982 511 266 613 145 64 439 283 184 621 6131 153 571 5063 604 331 351 648 403 477 543 222 475 171 230 415 1540 120 381 860 342 137 301 205 188 554 373 62 44 394 147 218 411 8054

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

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

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C R O S S W O R D 7 3 6

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. A secret agent hired by a state to obtain (military) information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors.

4. (British) A cup of tea.

9. North American woodland herb similar to and used as substitute for the Chinese ginseng.

13. Towards the side away from the wind.

14. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

15. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.

16. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

17. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

18. A Russian river.

19. Shrubby tree widely distributed along tropical shores.

21. (Greek mythology) Son of Daedalus.

24. A state of confusion and disorderliness.

25. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

28. Genus of tall smooth herbs of forested mountains of Europe and Asia minor.

30. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshy wall or pericarp.

32. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

35. An accountant certified by the state.

36. A radioactive transuranic element.

38. English monk and scholar (672-735).

40. A region of Malaysia in northeastern Borneo.

42. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

43. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

44. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

45. A light strong brittle gray toxic bivalent metallic element.

46. An African river that flows northwest into Lake Chad.

49. A detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work.

54. Away from the mouth or oral region.

57. An anxiety disorder characterized by chronic free-floating anxiety and such symptoms as tension or sweating or trembling of lightheadedness or irritability etc that has lasted for more than six months.

60. A quantity of no importance.

61. A master's degree in business.

62. A large fleet.

64. Tag the base runner to get him out.

65. A rapid escape (as by criminals).

66. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

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

DOWN 1. Winning all or all but one of the tricks in bridge.

2. Having nine hinged bands of bony plates.

3. Not only so, but.

4. A block of solid substance (such as soap or wax).

5. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

6. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

7. Seed of a pea plant.

8. Sea catfishes.

9. Highly seasoned fatty sausage of pork and beef usually dried.

10. South American cavy.

11. A person who is abnormally small.

12. Narrow-leaved green herbage.

20. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

22. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

23. Being nine more than ninety.

26. An informal term for a father.

27. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

29. 1 species.

31. A dull persistent (usually moderately intense) pain.

33. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

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

37. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

39. American professional baseball player who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth (born in 1934).

41. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

47. A member of a seafaring group of North American Indians who lived on the Pacific coast of British Columbia and southwestern Alaska.

48. A native or inhabitant of Iran.

50. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.

51. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

52. (Greek mythology) Daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

53. Fabric dyed with splotches of green and brown and black and tan.

55. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

56. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

58. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

59. The bill in a restaurant.

63. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Australia’s Lee quits international cricket SYDNEY: Australian pace bowler Brett Lee yesterday announced his retirement from international cricket after a 13-year career, saying his body and mind were no longer up to the stresses of touring. The 35-year-old said a calf muscle strain that forced him home from Australia’s recent one-day tour to Britain was the final straw after a string of setbacks caused by injuries.

“I woke up this morning and just felt like I was ready,” Lee said, adding his original plan had been to play at September’s World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka as his international swansong. “I think personally in a team environment you have to have 100 percent commitment-mentally and physically,” he told a press conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground. “And I guess looking at the next few months I just didn’t have that desire any more. “It wouldn’t be fair on me, or my team if I went with that attitude... you get to the point in life where you say enough is enough.”

Lee said he would continue to play the less demanding Twenty20 cricket in the Indian Premier League and the Australian Big Bash League. Lee’s calf injury was the latest in a long line of injuries that punctuated his playing career, of 310 Test wickets at 30.81 from 76 matches and 380 one-day international wickets at 23.36 from 221 matches. He also endured side strains, a broken toe, ankle issues, stress fractures to his back, persistent elbow problems and appendicitis. Lee was not offered a national contract in Cricket Australia’s latest round of

agreements, and decided not to take up a deal with his state side, New South Wales, for this coming summer.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland paid tribute to Lee’s contribution to Australian cricket and as an inspiration to youngsters to take up the game. “His record as a wicket-taker and leader of the attack is fantastic and speaks for itself but his resilience and ability to bounce back after numerous injuries has also been impressive,” Sutherland said. “On top of this, and this is a significant part of his legacy, Brett inspired young Australians to play cricket and bowl fast.” Lee also became extremely popular in cricket-mad India where he wrote and recorded the song “You’re the One For Me”, which reached number two on the Indian charts and led to a role in his first Bollywood movie “Victory”.

Lee said while he had enjoyed his cricket career, he was tired of being away from home for long periods and was looking forward to a different phase of his life.

“It’s been a fantastic career and I’ve loved every minute of it, but it’s stage two of my life now,” he said. “My holiday will be at home-I’m sick of being away. That was on my mind as well-time away from home. “I just want to maybe do some fishing and just chill out for a few months.” Lee retired from Tests in February 2010 as Australia’s fourth-highest Test wicket-taker but played on in one-day and Twenty20 cricket up until yesterday’s announcement. — AFP

Australia’s fast bowler Brett Lee

Millar wins 12th stage, Wiggins in yellow ANNONAY: Britain’s David Millar claimed his fourth Tour de France stage, and first since 2003, after dominating a two-up sprint with Frenchman Jean-Christophe Peraud yesterday. Yellow jersey holder Bradley Wiggins finished nearly eight minutes behind a leading group of five to retain his race lead after the 226 km 12th stage between Saint-Jean-DeMaurienne and Annonay in the Ardeche. Wiggins’ Sky teammate Chris Froome stayed second overall at 2min 05sec with Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) in third at 2:23 and Australia’s Cadel Evans (BMC) fourth at 3:19. Millar’s fourth career stage on the race comes in the wake of an “horrific” Tour campaign for his Garmin-Sharp team who have lost several riders including team leader Ryder Hesjedal.

“It’s massive. It’s been a horrific Tour for us so far,” said Millar. “I really wanted to do something... prove that we’re still here and show that Garmin-Sharp are one of the best cycling teams in the world.” A day after the toughest stage in the Alps and with the only two major climbs coming within the first 80 km, the breakaway contenders were primed from the start of the race’s longest stage. After 20 km of attacks and counter-attacks a 19strong group that included the first five finishers managed to pull itself free of the peloton to begin the 12.5 km climb to the summit of the Cucheron. On the way to the summit the frontrunners split as the demands of the category one climb took their toll.

Eleven leaders went over the summit with a lead of 53sec on the main peloton containing the yellow jersey

ANNONAY: Stage winner, Great Britain’s David Millar (right), sprints before crossing the finish line ahead of France’s Jean-Christophe Peraud at the end of the 226 km and twelfth stage of the 2012 Tour de France cycling race starting in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and finishing in Annonay Davezieux, southeastern France yesterday — AFP

and the big favorites and they would go on to increase their lead further.

Millar had been part of a five-man group that finally broke free of their companions after the descent of the day’s second climb and with around 120 km to race. By then, Millar was already considering his options.

“When it whittled down to the five riders I didn’t expect to be at the front but I was feeling great,” he said. “Once we were in the group of five I knew I was the fastest sprinter there so I decided my tactics about 120 km out, and that was to win the sprint.” They went on to build a significant lead on the peloton being controlled by Wiggins’ Sky team, taking their advantage to nearly 13 minutes.

Although there was little at stake for the yellow jersey challengers on

this stage, Millar denied the peloton had sat up to let them race away.

“They didn’t let us go, we really had to fight hard to build that advantage!” added the Scot. After collaborating all day, Spaniard Egoi Martinez of the crash-hit Euskaltel team began the hostilities with a brief attack 4 km from the finish. But it was Peraud’s acceleration 2.7 km from the slightly uphill finish that proved decisive.

Millar fought hard to get back on the wheel, and his efforts allowed the pair to open up a decisive gap on Martinez, Frenchman Cyril Gautier and Croatian Robert Kiserlovski. At the end, Millar collapsed on the ground to soak up a victory that comes 45 years, to the day, after the death of former British cycling giant Tom Simpson. — AFP

Evans optimistic despite another Sky battering SAINT-JEAN-DE-MAURIENNE: Defending champion Cadel Evans said he won’t give up his battle for the yellow jersey despite slipping further down the Tour de France hierarchy.

“Every time I lose time and the further I slip back the chances of the win are diminished but we’re still in with a chance, and for that reason I’m not going to give up,” Evans said at the start of the 12th stage yesterday. Two days after losing nearly two minutes to race leader Bradley Wiggins in the stage nine time trial, Evans suffered a first big setback in the mountains when he lost 1min 26sec to the Briton on the ‘Queen’ stage in the Alps. From sitting second at 1:53 behind Wiggins, Evans dropped two places to fourth to start the 12th stage 3:19 behind the Team Sky leader.

Evans launched an audacious bid to attack Sky and Wiggins 60 km from the finish on Thursday’s 11th stage, before being brought to heel and then paying for his efforts 5 km from the summit finish of La Toussuire. It was further proof of Team Sky’s superiority. They have raced so fast as a team that it is near impossible for rivals to attack and, crucially, sustain their efforts on the flat or the climbs. Yet is was also clear Evans simply didn’t have the legs on the day. “I wasn’t at the level that I needed to be, and paid for it in the end,” he admitted. “It’s frustrating. Fortunately, that’s behind us now and hopefully that will be the last of the disappointments of this Tour.” Although nine stages remain, few will allow Evans to close his gap to Wiggins-unless the Englishman suffers the stage racer’s biggest fear of an off-day or, worse, a crash. While there are several climbing stages left, only one-stage 17 - is a mountaintop finish. Evans, however, remains defiant. “There’s nine days of racing to go, hard racing. I still think we’re going to see some changes and the elimination of one of the contenders,” he said. The Pyrenees are up next, but already Evans is looking ahead to the final time trial over 53.5 km on the penultimate stage 19. “The Alps are certainly no walk in the park but the Pyrenees aren’t easy and then there’s the long time trial at the end there,” he added.

“Anyone who’s got anything left in the tank there can make a really big difference, looking at the results from the first time trial.” On stage nine’s 41.5 km race against the clock, Wiggins dominated the field to beat Evans by 1:53, with teammate Chris Froome in second at 35sec. At the start of stage 12, Froome sat second overall at 2:05 behind Wiggins and 18sec ahead of Italian contender Vincenzo Nibali. The chances of a Sky one-two in Paris are real, and Evans added: “The guys to beat, or try and get close to even, are certainly the Sky guys.

“But there’s still a lot racing to be done. You have to look forward with optimism, otherwise you’ve got no chance whatsoever.” —AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

US could go from major drought to total sweep LYTHAM: One year ago, American golfers were mired in their longest major title drought, Darren Clarke’s victory at the 2011 British Open becoming the sixth major crown in a row to escape US clutches. Northern Ireland’s Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, Germany’s Martin Kaymer and South Africans Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen had kept the majors outside US grasp since Phil Mickelson’s 2010 Masters triumph.

But now the tide has turned in a major way. Keegan Bradley ended the American drought by capturing last year’s PGA Championship, countryman Bubba Watson won the Masters last April and Webb Simpson claimed the US Open last month-all of them first-time major winners. If the Claret Jug falls into American hands, as it has only once in the past five years, then US golfers will own all four major titles for the first time since 2004.

Mickelson won the first of his

three green jackets at the 2004 Masters to complete a run of four major titles in a row by Americans, capping a streak that began with Jim Furyk at the 2003 US Open and included victories by Ben Curtis at the 2003 British Open and Shaun Micheel at the 2003 PGA Championship. And an American winner next week at Royal Lytham also would open the way for US golfers to complete a sweep of the calendar year’s four major titles at next month’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

That has not happened since 1982, when Craig Stadler won the Masters, Tom Watson won the US and British Opens and Raymond Floyd took the PGA Championship.

And there is always Tiger Woods, a 14-time major champion chasing the record 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus. He has won three US PGA titles this year, the most recent this month, and could capture his first major since 2008. “One of my

thoughts on the back nine was I don’t know how Tiger has won 14 of these things, because of the pressure,” Simpson said after his US Open triumph. “I couldn’t feel my legs most of the back nine. It grew my respect for Tiger all the more.”

Simpson will skip the British Open to be with his wife when she gives birth to their second child and Australian Jason Day, ranked 21st in the world, will stay home to be with his newborn son. But while Simpson cites Woods as an inspiration to a young generation of talented golfers, he also noted that Bradley’s victory at last year’s PGA gave many US players a sense that if Bradley could capture a major so could they.

“If I see Keegan Bradley win a major, I respect his game a ton, but I feel like, Keegan Bradley won one, I want to go win one,” Simpson said.

“All these guys that won before me, I played with these guys all my life. I want to win. “Everybody is so competitive in this world that we just

kind of feed off of each other.” There have been 15 different winners in the past 15 majors and the past nine majors in a row have gone to firsttime major champions, a good omen for a stellar group, including Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, seeking a major breakthrough.

England’s Justin Rose, ranked ninth, and Australian Adam Scott, ranked 12th, have shined at times this season and seek their first major triumphs as well. There are, however, some Americans in the fight as well who have yet to claim a major. Jason Dufner, ranked seventh, has two victories this year and was the nearlyman at last year’s PGA Championship, collapsing late to hand Bradley the victory. Matt Kuchar ranks eighth and Hunter Mahan 10th and either could figure into the drama at Lytham before the pot bunkers claim their final victim, as might Steve Stricker, the World No. 13 who at 45 knows his chances are running out. — AFP

Hurricanes down Chiefs

SCARPERIA: Australia’s Casey Stoner steers his Honda during the second free practice session in view of tomorrow’s Italian Moto GP, at the Mugello race circuit, in Scarperia, Italy yesterday. — AP

Stoner looks to bounce back in Italy MUGELLO: World champion Casey Stoner is determined to bounce straight back in tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix after last weekend’s crash at the Sachsenring dealt a blow to his hopes of defending his crown in his final season. The Australian crashed out with two bends of the final lap remaining in Germany, in a race won by teammate Dani Pedrosa. The main beneficiary of Stoner’s spill was Yamaha’s former champion Jorge Lorenzo who was gifted the runner-up spot to move clear at the top of the riders standings on 160 points.

Pedrosa climbed into second on 146 with Stoner on 140. “I’ve always liked Mugello, we’ve enjoyed some pretty good results there. Last year didn’t go to plan but we know what we did wrong so hopefully this year we can be a little more competitive,” said Stoner, who was third last year. “I really enjoy

the fast corners there. There are a lot of areas where we get a lot of wheel spin and a lot of fast changes of direction.

It’s not a small dinky little track that you can’t use these bikes on; it’s actually somewhere where you can open the throttle up and actually get to full throttle.

“After a disappointing race in Sachsenring, I want to get back on the bike and take some points back in the Championship.” Pedrosa, who now lies second in the championship after his maiden win of the season in Germany, earlier in the day confirmed he has signed a two-year contract extension with Honda. His new teammate will be current Moto2 championship leader Marc Marquez, who will replace the retiring Stoner. “It was great to win the race (in Germany), the feeling was so good. And after that Honda and myself announced that we will continue

together,” said Pedrosa. “This is great news for me, because I’ve been many years with Honda since I started racing.

I have always raced Repsol Honda. For us to continue it’s great and we are hoping to continue in a strong way, also now in the second half of the championship.” He added: “Here is a great track for us. Last year doesn’t count much because I wasn’t so fit, but two years ago I won the race here, so I’m pretty confident here. The Honda is normally good here. We hope to do a good job and to do a good race.”

Lorenzo, like Stoner, has had a rollercoaster spell in the championship with his win in Germany prefaced by a crash in Assen the week before. The Mugello circuit is a favorite for Lorenzo, having taken victory in the 250cc class, two second-place premier-class finishes in 2009 and 2010 and his first Grand Prix premier class win last year. — AFP

WELLINGTON: The Wellington Hurricanes upset Super 15 leaders the Waikato Chiefs 28-25 with a dramatic late try yesterday to keep their slim hopes of a top six play-off berth on life support. Hooker Dane Coles’ try four minutes after the full-time siren also dented the Chiefs’ chances of ending the regular season in top spot and guaranteeing themselves home advantage through the finals series.

While the Chiefs are already guaranteed a finals spot after winning the New Zealand Conference, South Africa’s Western Stormers can now overtake them with a win over the Western Force in this weekend’s final round of regular matches.

After a frantic first half, which included two tries to winger Julian Savea, the Hurricanes looked to have faded against their New Zealand rivals before launching a lastditch attack after being awarded a penalty. Desperately keeping possession after the siren sounded, they laid siege to the Chiefs’ line, Coles forcing his way across a jumble of bodies for a try that the television referee ruled legitimate after an agonizing delay. While the win sparked wild celebrations among the Hurricanes players, there are six teams vying for four play-off spots in this weekend’s round and they still need results elsewhere to go their way to make the cut.

Captain Conrad Smith said the Hurricanes, written off at the start of the season after a clear-out of high-profile players such as Ma’a Nonu and Piri Weepu, had proved a point regardless. “We threw everything at each other and we somehow crawled over the line to take it,” he said. “I’m proud of the way we played whether we make the playoffs or not, it’s been a heck of a year considering where we’ve come from.” The Chiefs made a perfect start with a try after three minutes, Tawera Kerr-Barlow slipping through the defense to score between the posts, with the Hurricanes complaining the referee accidentally obstructed a tackler. Whistleblower Jonathan Kaplan waved away the protest and Aaron Cruden made an easy conversion to make it 7-0.

The Hurricanes almost hit back two minutes later after a line break from Jack Lam but had to settle for a Beauden Barrett penalty as the Chiefs’ defense held firm. Smith soon found a way through for the home side, leaving the Chiefs standing with a dummy pass in the centre of the park then offloading for the Hurricanes to work the ball over to Savea for the winger’s first try. They maintained the pressure and were rewarded with Savea’s second in the 23rd minute, the big winger bulldozing his way over the line and Barrett converting to make it 15-7. — AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

McIlroy trying to master Open fears LYTHAM: Rory McIlroy will be looking to eat his own words when he tees off in the British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes next Thursday. It was a year ago that he moodily stomped off after a final round of 73 at Royal St George’s saying that links golf, and especially British weather, were not to his liking. “My game is suited for basically every golf course and most conditions, but these conditions I just don’t enjoy playing in really. That’s the bottom line,” was how McIlroy described his feelings then about finishing well down the field.

“I’d rather play when it’s 80 degrees and sunny and not much wind. “I’m not a fan of golf tournaments that the outcome is predicted so much by the weather. It’s not my sort of golf,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to America, playing in Akron, and

obviously the PGA and the Irish Open is a big one for us, as well. It’s a week that I sort of enjoy.” McIlroy’s comments took some by surprise but many others understood, in the knowledge that the then 22-year-old Ulsterman had still to master the art of curbing his attacking instincts when the wind is blowing and the rain is falling.

He promptly bounced back to top form with a string of top 10 finishes and had another title win in Hong Kong en route to becoming the second youngest-ever world No 1, behind only Tiger Woods, in March. Since then though his form has oddly deserted him with a run of missed cuts ending in failing to make it through to the weekend when defending his US Open crown in San Francisco last month.

Some have said that the celebrity status that has come McIlroy’s way since

his runaway win in the US Open last year might have gone to his head.

The lad from Holywood, Northern Ireland in quick succession has given swing tips to President Barack Obama during a state banquet at the White House, met the Queen at Newbury races, played tennis with Maria Sharapova at a Madison Square Garden exhibition and thrown the opening pitch at a San Francisco Giants Major League baseball game.

He also features regularly in the pages of the top gossip magazines through his romance with former tennis world no1 Caroline Wozniacki.

McIlroy took some time off after his US Open flop, reappearing at the Irish Open where, armed with a new driver, he began his preparations for the British Open in suitably wet weather conditions.

It would, he said, be good experience for Lytham. “I want to try to become a better wind player and better bad weather player, and the only way to do that is by playing in it,” he said. “Definitely in the past, if things haven’t gone my way, the fight goes out of me pretty quickly, and that’s something I’m working on and something that I’m trying to get better at.”

In McIlroy’s favor is the fact that he knows Royal Lytham reasonably well, having played there regularly as an amateur. “Lytham is a course I like. It’s very fair,” he said. “You have to hit good shots around there, and it really punishes you; the fairway bunkers are so punishing. If you hit it in, there’s no chance of getting to the greens. “It’s a great course and I’m looking forward to it being on the rota, and I think a lot of guys are.” — AFP

Will Tiger be toothless or claws bared at Open?

LYTHAM: Tiger Woods has produced tantalizing glimpses of the form that made him a 14-time major champion, but no definite sign that he is prepared to add to that title haul at next week’s British Open. Woods won his third US PGA event of the year on July 1 at the National, following triumphs at the Memorial in June and Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March to snap a 17-month win drought following his infamous sex scandal.

“I remember there was a time when people were saying I could never win again,” Woods said. “Here we are.” But Woods has also missed the cut for only the eighth and ninth times in his 17-year pro career, failing to make the weekend at Charlotte in May and last week’s Greenbrier Classic. And Woods has had disappointing results in the majors this year, sharing 40th at the Masters and 21st at the US Open, where he excited fans by leading after 36 holes only to falter in the final rounds.

While he leads the US PGA money list with $4.2 million and is the top-ranked American player in the world at fourth, Woods has not shown he has the game to once again capture a major title as he prepares to face Royal Lytham. “It’s something I’ve done over the years, I’ve won major championships, and I haven’t done it since ‘08,” Woods said. “We all go through periods where that doesn’t happen. Some periods are entire careers. “But I understand how to win major championships. The key is giving yourself opportunities on the back nine tomorrow every time. You’re not going to win them all but if you’re there, a lot chances are you’re going to win your share.”

Woods, chasing the all-time record of 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, has won the same events this year that he had at the start of 2009, another year in which he was coming off a serious leg injury just as he suffered in 2011. “I had a good year that year. I won six times,” Woods said. “It would be nice if I could get the same total with a couple of majors in there.”

Woods has not won a major since the 2008 US Open and has not been the man to beat tomorrow in a major since 2009 when South Korean Yang Yong-Eun outplayed him down the stretch to win the PGA Championship. But Woods took a big confidence boost from his victory two weeks ago at Congressional Country Club, his 74th career triumph moving him within eight of matching Sam Snead’s US PGA career record.

Woods says his work-in-progress swing changes in working with coach Sean Foley are finally nearing their payoff. “It was just a matter of time,” Woods said. “I could see the pieces coming together.

We can see the consistency. If you look at my ball-striking this year it has gotten more and more consistent. “There are times I revert back but it’s happening less and less. Give me a little time and I feel like this (winning) is what I can do.” In 16 majors since his 2008 US Open victory, Woods has missed four with injuries, finished outside the top 20 four times, twice missed the cut and finished in the top six in six events.

US veteran Steve Stricker is among those who has proclaimed Woods is back on form only to scratch his head when the former

Tiger Woods World No 1 stumbles in his next outing, still struggling to regain the consistency that was once his hallmark. “I guess lately we don’t know what to expect from him,” Stricker said. “When he wins, we’re all eager to look ahead and think that he’s going to be back to where he was in the early 2000s or whenever he was at the top of his game.” Woods, a three-time British Open champion, was the low amateur and shared 22nd place at Royal Lytham at the 1996 Open and he shared 25th on the same course in 2001. — AFP

Stricker on track but Matteson blitzes field ILLINOIS: American Steve Stricker made a solid start in his quest for a fourth consecutive John Deere Classic title but compatriot Troy Matteson stole the limelight with a blistering 10-under 61 on Thursday in Silvis, Illinois.

Matteson attacked TPC Deer Run with 10 birdies in a flawless opening round, taking a three-shot lead over Ricky Barnes (64) as he looks to add a third PGA title to his resume. “It was a pretty special day,” Matteson said. “I’ve been playing pretty well, just not making a lot putts. “I made a couple putts that were really, really difficult, and I had a bunch of other really, really good looks.

“I didn’t think it was going to be 10under, but definitely thought it was going to be good.” Stricker, who is looking to become just the fifth men’s player to win the same tournament in four consecutive years, joined six others in a tie for third after a back nine blitz helped him to a sixunder 65. After an even par front nine with one birdie and one bogey leaving him well off the pace, Stricker powered home with four birdies and an 80-yard hole out for eagle. “It was a slow start, really a little bit out of sorts to start with,” Stricker said. “I hit some shots that I haven’t been hitting. Just a little unsettled I guess you would say. Then I just had a really good back side.”

Young Tom Morris, Walter Hagan, Gene Sarazen and Tiger Woods sit in the exclusive club of men to win a tournament in four consecutive years and Stricker said the chance to join them was on his mind. “I’m looking at it as an opportunity.

It’s fun, but there is pressure involved,” said Stricker. “You’re trying to do it and there’s a lot of expectations not only from me, but from a lot of other people to do it too. “I try to tell myself, I’ve won it three times. But I’m trying to downplay it to myself. “It seems to be working the way I’ve been thinking about it, so I’ll just go out and try to do the same thing tomorrow.” — Reuters

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SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Hewitt advances, Nishikori ousted NEWPORT: American Rajeev Ram upset Japanese second seed Kei Nishikori 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 Thursday to book a semi-final date against Australian Lleyton Hewitt at the ATP Hall of Fame Championships. Ram, ranked 118th in the world, won his first ATP title two years ago on the Newport grass and is in position for another trip to the final if he can oust Hewitt, a former World No. 1 coming back from toe surgery. Hewitt, 31, eliminated Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-3 in the day’s other quarter-final at the $398,250 event. Playing in Newport for the first time since 1998, Hewitt broke Sela five times and cruised to victory in 78 minutes. The Aussie has been out almost four months and fallen to 233rd in the ATP rankings.

Hewitt reached his first ATP semi-final since June of 2010, when he went on to win his 28th career title at Halle, defeating Roger Federer in the final.

Yesterday’s other quarter-finals pit US top seed John Isner against South African qualifier Izak Van Der Merwe and German qualifier Benjamin Becker against US sixth seed Ryan Harrison. Becker eliminated Canadian third seed Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday while Harrison downed countryman Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-4. It will be Harrison’s fourth quarterfinal of the year and second on grass after losing in the last eight at Eastbourne last month. Becker, ranked 112th, broke Raonic three times to claim only his eighth triumph of the season and third of the week in just 63 minutes, avenging a semi-final loss to the Canadian in February at San Jose. “He didn’t serve many aces, whereas last time I played him he served nearly 30,” Becker said. “His serve wasn’t as effective today. I made him play a lot on his second serve and used my chances.”

TOMIC, HAAS KNOCKED OUT In Stuttgart, Australian third seed Bernard Tomic and German veteran Tommy Haas, the eighth seed, were both knocked out of the Stuttgart claycourt tournament at the second round stage on Thursday. Tomic went down to a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 defeat to Brazilian claycourt specialist Thomaz Bellucci while Slovak qualifier Pavol Cervenak, the world 206, saw off Haas 6-4, 6-4. Bellucci, the world 64, saved eight of the 10 break points he faced to claim victory in one hour and 47 minutes. “It was very tough,” said Bellucci. “At the beginning of the match I was a little bit nervous. When I was 1-4 down, I started to play better and in the second set I was feeling more comfortable and more confident.” In the quarter-finals Cervenak will tackle Argentine second seed Juan Monaco, who breezed past Germany’s Tobias Kamke 6-2, 63. “It’s been a bad day for me,” said Haas. “I wasn’t striking the ball well and missed a lot of crucial points.” Last month, Haas defeated Roger Federer to win the Halle grasscourt tournament. —Agencies

STANFORD: Marion Bartoli of France returns a shot to Mallory Burdette during the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University Taube Family Tennis Stadium on July 12, 2012 in Stanford, California. —AFP

Bartoli finds a winning touch STANFORD: Second-seeded Marion Bartoli won the last 11 games to surge past unranked US university player Mallory Burdette 7-5, 6-0 Thursday in the second round of the WTA hard-court tournament here. France’s Bartoli lost only seven points on her serve in the second set as she recovered from 4-1 down in the opening frame against the player who attends Stanford University, where the tournament is held. Burdette had two chances to take the first set, but couldn’t covert either one and Bartoli seized the chance to turn the tide. “She was playing well at the start,” said Bartoli, who won the title in 2009 and was runner-up last year to Serena Williams. Bartoli was also runner-up here in 2008. “She was hitting the lines and the corners. It was not easy to come

back. I had to wait for the storm to calm,” Bartoli said.

“I needed to take the momentum away from her. I stepped up and played harder. I tried to get more first serves in.

“I had the momentum going into the second set. But I knew it would not be easy until the last point, I didn’t want it to slip away.” Bartoli converted five of her 13 break chances against her inexperienced opponent, firing 26 winners with 17 unforced errors. “My experience paid off and helped me a lot,” said the world number 10. “I have good memories here. I was not worried, I knew I could come back.” Bartoli next faces fifth-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in Friday’s quarter-finals, when topseeded Williams, fresh from her triumph at Wimbledon, will take on sixth-seeded

Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.

Unseeded Urszula Radwanska, sister of Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska, survived a second-set wobble to defeat eighth-seeded New Zealander Marina Erakovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Poland’s Radwanska was up a set and a break but said she lost focus as Erakovic battled back to knot the match at one set apiece. “And she also started playing better,” said Radwanska, who won a match here last year as a qualifier. But the younger Radwanska, ranked 57th in the world, eventually held on to wrap up the match in just over two hours. She booked a quarter-final clash with American Coco Vandeweghe. Romanian Sorana Cirstea reached her fourth quarter-final of 2012 with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over China’s Zheng Saisai. —AFP

Wimbledon braced for the purple haze LONDON: When Roger Federer returns to Wimbledon later this month to begin his bid for Olympic gold, the seven-time champion will find the historic venue he regards as a second home has undergone a major facelift. Federer barely had time to pack away his racquets after his final victory over Andy Murray on Sunday before Wimbledon groundstaff began to transform the hallowed confines of the All England Club into a riot of color ahead of the Olympic tennis event.

The Games are returning to Wimbledon for the first time since 1908 and the experience will come as quite a culture shock to those used to the genteel surroundings of the south-west London arena. Aside from the high-quality tennis on show, a significant part of Wimbledon’s charm is the tranquil atmosphere. From the creeping vines and flowers that cover the outside of Centre Court to the club’s insistence that all players must wear white kit, there is something unique about Wimbledon.

Between July 28 and August 5 all that

will change and even seven-time champion Federer may be forgiven for doing a double-take when he gets his first glimpse of the overhaul.

Dark green is the dominant color during the Wimbledon fortnight, but the All England Club will be lost in a purple haze for the duration of the Games, with many of the outside courts decked out in the vivid Olympic livery and legendary ring logo within 24 hours of Federer’s triumph. Perhaps most noticeably, the Wimbledon requirement that players wear white clothing will be gone.

Instead, spectators can expect a rainbow of hues as players wearing outfits in the colors of their nation bring a splash of color to the world’s most famous tennis courts.

But despite some marked differences, one thing will have to be the same - the grass courts - and that means plenty of extra work for head groundsman Eddie Seaward and his 28-man team. Seaward is due to retire this summer after more than 20 years, but before that, he and his

team face the job of returning the courts to top condition in record time. “We’ve had Davis Cup ties before, soon after the Championships, but that’s only one court, and there will be 10 match courts for the Olympics,” he said. “There are fewer matches for the Olympics than for a grand slam, and the matches are shorter, but it’s going to be very high profile.”

They may not be able to follow the usual post-Championship renovation program, which would ordinarily take 12 months to complete, but Seaward is confident they will get it done. “We have 20 days between The Championships and the Olympics, and we’re confident that we can get the grass back on the baselines,” he said. “Between the two events, we’re going to be sowing grasses which are pre-germinated - in other words, they would have already started to grow.

That should take about three days.

“On the practice courts, it’s a different issue, as the players will start practicing about a week after The Championships finish, and we won’t have time to do

much in that time.” A shorter tournament, Olympics tennis will be condensed into just over a week, with its draw of 64 half the size of Wimbledon’s singles draw of 128, and Olympic matches, except the men’s singles final, will be best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five.

For the players, a quick return to Wimbledon is a welcome break from the daily grind of life on tour and they are keen to see how the 144-year-old venue scrubs up. “This time at Wimbledon will be different,” China’s Peng Shuai said. “It’s the first time we don’t have to play in white. I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like. “Maybe everyone should take photos for history in case it never happens again!” Women’s world number one Victoria Azarenka was also looking forward to seeing the transformation. “It’s kind of new and exciting to see how it’s going to turn out,” said the Belarusian.

“You can wear your national colors. I’m actually really excited to see some McDonald’s or Coca Cola in the back of the court. It will be funny.” — AFP

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SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Congress members furious over China-made Olympic uniforms US lawmaker wants outfits burned

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s volleyball player Nicolas Uriarte (right) taking part in a training session in Buenos Aires, ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Nicolas Uriarte will face his father Jon Uriarte, head coach of the Australian team in their opening volleyball pool match at the London Olympics. —AFP

Father v son dilemma for volleyball family SYDNEY: Jon Uriarte says it’s destiny and a gift that his Australian team will face his son Nicolas and native Argentina in their opening volleyball pool match at the London Olympics. Uriarte, 50, is in his second coaching stint in Australia and his reward for qualifying the ‘Volleyroos’ for London is a showdown to conflict the loyalties of his family back in Buenos Aires. Uriarte, who won a bronze medal with Argentina at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, has coached his home country in between stints with Australia in 2001-2004 and since May last year.

Australia qualified for a second Olympics after finishing ahead of higher-ranked Iran, Japan, China and South Korea at a qualifying tournament in Tokyo in June. He roars with laughter at the thought his emerging Australian team will have his country of birth, organized by setter Nicolas, lining up on the other side of the net in their opening game at Earl’s Court on July 29. “It’s some kind of gift. I can’t believe it that I would be at the Olympics with my son for our own achievements,” Uriarte said. “Nicolas is now 22, he’s earned his position in the Argentina national team and I’ve been so happy that life has given me this opportunity for my work to be so fulfilled. “My son is having a similar opportunity and he is earning his position in the national team and then we are going to be together in the same party at the Olympics, that is something amazing. “To be there with all of my family and enjoying being there and expressing ourselves is some kind of gift for our life.”

Jon is in regular contact with his family and Nicolas through Internet video calls and says his family was overjoyed when news reached them that Australia

had made it through to the Olympics. “That night it was 12 hours’ time difference from Japan to Argentina and when I woke up the next day I connected with them through Skype and my family was having sushi just to celebrate that we had qualified for the Olympics in Japan,” he chuckled. “All my three children play volleyball. It was their choice.

They are very passionate about their sport, everybody was just so happy. The technology allowed me to watch them having that dinner on my screen.” But now come the split loyalties among the Uriarte clan as the big day draws near. Jon’s daughter, Delfina, 15, who has played state-level volleyball in Buenos Aires and lived for four years in Australia during her father’s first stint there, knows who she will be supporting in London.

“My wife asked Delfina ‘who are you going to cheer for?’ and she said ‘I will paint my two cheeks both countries’ flags, but I want Australia to win’”, Jon said. “My family all enjoyed their time here and loved this country deeply. Argentina is our country of birth and we have the culture, but we learned to love this country so much.” Under Uriarte, Australian volleyball has grown under a junior scholarship scheme, first developed by him at Australia’s Institute of Sport in Canberra early last decade. Now Australia, with all the squad playing in overseas professional leagues, has climbed to 22 in the FIVB world rankings, won the Asian championships in 2007 and finished fourth last year. Uriarte believes his intimate knowledge of the Argentine team will give Australia its best chance of springing an upset in London. —AFP

WASHINGTON: Uniforms for US Olympic athletes are American red, white and blue - but made in China. That has members of Congress fuming. Republicans and Democrats railed Thursday about the US Olympic Committee’s decision to dress the US team in Chinese manufactured berets, blazers and pants while the American textile industry struggles economically with many US workers desperate for jobs. “I am so upset. I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference on taxes.

“If they have to wear nothing but a singlet that says USA on it, painted by hand, then that’s what they should wear,” he said, referring to an athletic jersey. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference that she’s proud of the nation’s Olympic athletes, but “they should be wearing uniforms that are made in America.” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said simply of the USOC, “You’d think they’d know better.” In a statement, the US Olympic Committee defended the choice of designer Ralph Lauren for the clothing at the London Games, which begin later this month.

“Unlike most Olympic teams around the world, the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded and we’re grateful for the support of our sponsors,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said in a statement. “We’re proud of our partnership with Ralph Lauren, an iconic American company, and excited to watch America’s finest athletes compete at the upcoming Games in London.” Ralph Lauren also is dressing the Olympic and Paralympic teams for the closing ceremony and providing casual clothes to be worn around the Olympic Village. Nike has made many of the competition uniforms for the US and outfits for the medal stand.

On Twitter, Sandusky called the outrage over the made-in-China uniforms nonsense. The designer, Sandusky wrote, “financially supports our team. An American company that supports American athletes.” Ralph Lauren’s company declined to comment on the criticism. In fact, this is not the first time that Ralph Lauren has designed the Olympic uniforms. Yet that did little to quell the anger on Capitol Hill. “It is not just a label, it’s an economic solution,” said Rep

Steve Israel, D-NY. “Today there are 600,000 vacant manufacturing jobs in this country and the Olympic committee is outsourcing the manufacturing of uniforms to China? That is not just outrageous, it’s just plain dumb. It is self-defeating.” Israel urged the USOC to reverse the decision and ensure US athletes wear uniforms that are made in America. Sens Sherrod Brown, DOhio, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, separately sent letters to Lawrence Probst III, chairman of the USOC, complaining about the made-inChina uniforms. Brown suggested that the USOC find a manufacturer with a facility in the United States, suggesting the Hugo Boss plant in Cleveland. “There is no compelling reason why all of the uniforms cannot be made here on US soil at the same price, at better quality,” Gillibrand wrote along with Israel. Sen Bernie Sanders, D-Vt, said that while millions of Americans are unemployed, “there is no reason why US Olympic uniforms are not being manufactured in the US. This action on the part of the US Olympic Committee is symbolic of a disastrous trade policy which has cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and must be changed.” In a tweet, US track and field Olympian Nick Symmonds, who will compete in the 800-meter run at the London Games, wrote: “Our Ralph Lauren outfits for the Olympic opening ceremonies were made in China. So, um, thanks China.” This is hardly the first time patriotism has been discussed when it comes to Olympic clothing. The must-have souvenir of the 2002 Salt Lake Games was a fleece beret, something that athletes wore in the opening ceremony and prompted countless people to spend hours on lines waiting to purchase during those Olympics.

Those berets were made by Roots, a Canadian company that was the official US team outfitter for that opening ceremony. In the last four years, the USOC has faced criticism for some of its sponsorship deals as it has scrambled to deal with the economic downturn.

When General Motors left as a sponsor, the USOC signed a $24 million deal with German automaker BMW that raised eyebrows. At the time, the USOC highlighted the carmaker’s 42year history of selling cars in the United States and the fact that BMW has 7,000 American employees. The USOC and the International Olympic Committee also were criticized for sticking with BP as a sponsor after the deadly oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.—AP

Blake the pretender ready to usurp Bolt PARIS: Yohan Blake is the new kid on the block, the pretender ready for a tenacious bid to usurp training partner Usain Bolt from his lofty pedestal as the world’s greatest sprinter.

The Olympics in London are the perfect setting for an intra-Jamaican duel of epic proportions, with Bolt defending his 100 and 200m sprint titles from the 2008 Beijing Games.

Blake’s run-off against Bolt in last year’s World Championships in Daegu was a washout, the latter sensationally disqualified from the final after false starting, leaving Blake a clear run to the gold medal. Winning the title at the age of 21 years 245 days made the now 22-year-old the youngest ever winner of the world 100m.

This year, Blake and Bolt avoided each other until they could no longer, lining up for a bat-

tle royale at the Jamaican Olympic trials.

And Blake pulled off what many observers had long been predicting would happen: he trumped the towering Bolt in both the 100 and 200m to send an almighty tremor through the world of athletics just weeks before the start of the London Games. The 22year-old Blake, standing 5ft 11in (1.80m) and weighing 78kg, set two world leads of 9.75 and 19.80sec in the two events and promised that there is more to come. “It’s not over. I still have the Olympics to go. I just wanted to keep performing and keep going,” said Blake, born on December 26, 1989, in St James. Blake’s 100m personal best of 9.75sec makes him the fourth fastest man ever, after Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell. —AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

The greenest Olympics ever-but is it good enough?

LONDON: Despite dozens of compromises since London’s winning bid seven years ago promised an idyllic eco-Olympics with a “clean” flame, this year’s Games are still set to be the greenest ever. Even environmental campaigners say London 2012 will surpass all others in the modern era, with Sydney in 2000 the only serious runner-up and the smog-clogged Beijing Olympics in 2008 lagging behind. Friends of the Earth senior campaigner Jane Thomas said: “There’s been some huge principles that have been good-about no private vehicles arriving, recycling, the water supply, the principle of reusing the facilities.

“That’s already set a benchmark for things that come in the future, and that can only be applauded.” When the Games start on July 27, spectators will take public transport-thanks to a deliberate lack of parking spaces-to an east London Olympic park studded with recycling bins aimed at a tough “zero waste to landfill” target. The former industrial site has been cleaned up, with two million tons of contaminated soil washed in an onsite “soil hospital”, to become a wetland park planted with 300,000 plants and 2,000 native trees.

Millions of meals of sustainably-sourced fish and local meat in compostable containers will be bought at a giant, entirely recyclable McDonald’s, whose cooking oil will become biodiesel to power its trucks. And fans will watch cycling greats in a showpiece energy-efficient, naturally ventilated arena, half the weight of the Beijing velodrome. “We’ve put a marker in the sand for managing sustainable events,” David Stubbs, head of sustainability for London 2012 said. Sydney’s Games left a legacy of solar panels and a big urban renewal project, but Stubbs said London had gone much further.

Beijing installed large areas of solar panels but sustainability standards were patchy in other areas, while many of that Games’ lavish purpose-built venues are now crumbling. “The Green Games program in Sydney was brilliant but Athens and Beijing didn’t really follow up,” said Shaun McCarthy, head of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, a watchdog for the Games. London has, however, made its own concessions to practicality. These have included axing an on-site wind turbine, halving renewable energy use from a planned 20 percent, and lighting the Olympic flame with ordinary propane and butane.

The sustainability commission criticized other decisions including heavy steel use in the “pointless” Arcelor Mittal Orbit, a 114.5-metre tall, 1,500-tonne tower.

It also lamented the production of tons of merchandise from polluting plastics with no guarantee of an ethical supply chain.

Games sponsorship has meanwhile become so contentious that campaigners set up an ironic award, “Greenwash Gold”, for the sponsor covering up the worst environmental offences. The main stadium’s wrap advertises Dow Chemical, which owns the firm behind the 1984 Bhopal disaster, while metal for the prized Olympic medals comes from a Utah mine where owners Rio Tinto face a pollution lawsuit. “Dow, with the Union Carbide factory, is particularly problematic... they could have done an awful lot more to have progressed that satisfactorily and taken on the moral responsibility,” said Friends of the Earth’s Thomas.

Some London green activists have meanwhile wrangled with whether to support a one-off event requiring huge construction work and mass air travel. Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly, said: “If we wanted to keep hosting these extravagant Games every four years, the greenest option would be to tour around four or five cities that already have everything in place.” Campaigners say the Games’ green credentials can only really be assessed afterwards. Keen to avoid “white elephant” venues, organizers want the site to stay in use and regenerate a deprived area.

But the main stadium has yet to find a long-term occupant, and in an unpromising sign, Andy Altman, head of the London Legacy Development Corporation, recently announced he would resign in August. Sponsor Coca-Cola has however developed a permanent new recycling plant in Lincolnshire in the east, while McDonald’s says it will make lasting changes to its British supply chain. McCarthy said the International Olympic Committee should demand far more such commitments. “The sponsors are keen to get involved-they’re not dragging them there kicking and screaming,” he said. Thomas said the very prominence of the green debate was a sign of progress. “It’s the first time anyone’s tried to judge it through a green prism, and that tells us we’re moving in the right direction,” she said. — AFP

Andiego punches hole in stereotype Women’s boxing included for first time since 1904 NAIROBI: Elizabeth Andiego grew up in Nairobi’s badlands.

When she turned up at a boxing training session in the Kenyan capital in 2007 the coach thought she would bail out of a sport still widely seen in the east African country as for men only. Five years on, Andiego is London-bound after getting a wild card for the Olympic Games. , Andiego packs a powerful punch and has a fistful of weeks to quicken her footwork. “The coach thought I was joking around. So he said: ‘If you really want to train, come and train, I won’t stop you,’” Andiego told Reuters after a punishing training session. “He thought I would just be there two days and then I would be gone. But I kept on training.”

Andiego, 25, trains with four male boxers in a rundown gymnasium in the Chinese-built Moi International Sports Centre that lies neglected on the city’s northern outskirts. In a grubby boxing ring she spars with the team’s coach Patrick Waweru while the men shadow box against the stop-watch. Waweru spits out the combinations as Andiego’s hands fly. Beads of sweat sting her eyes as she pummels Waweru’s pads. “Pah-pah, pah-pah-pah out, pah-pah, pah-pah-pah out,” Waweru says, urging her to keep her hands high and goading her with slaps to the legs to move her feet faster. In May, Andiego returned dejected from the London qualifiers held in Beijing after failing to win a win a place.

‘SPARKS IN THE RING’ “I thought my dreams were over when I came back from China

and I had lost. From there onwards my morale was down. I didn’t think I had an upcoming tournament,” she said. The judges in Beijing, however, had seen enough. “Now I am working hard to improve my endurance and speed. Getting that chance to represent in the Olympics is my greatest achievement so far.” Women’s boxing was a relative unknown in Kenya until a single-mother, Conjestina Achieng, nicknamed “Hands of Stone”, set the ring alight in the mid 2000s, becoming the first African woman to hold an international title. Kenyan boxers have not stood on the Olympic podium since Robert Wangila Napunyi won gold in the men’s welterweight category 1988. His compatriot Chris Sande picked up a bronze in the middleweight class at the same Games in Seoul.

Looking to end the drought with Andiego will be 27-year-old flyweight Benson Gicharu, who darts terrier-like around the ring.

“I believe in myself and I believe in God. I think my boxing prowess is a gift from God, and it even says so on my gown,” Gicharu said. However, government support for training facilities and equipment is limited. John Kameta, who heads Kenya’s Amateur Boxing Association, says Kenyan boxing is strapped for cash and wants corporate sponsors to inject money into the sport. “I’m telling you there are going to be sparks in the ring when (the boxers) see that they are earning something,” Kameta said. Asked about Kenya’s medal prospects, Kameta said: “That boy is sharp,” referring to Gicharu. “That girl is good, I’m sure she’s going to shock the world.” — Reuters

ATHENS: In this file photo, Hadi Soua An Al Somaily carries the flag of Saudi Arabia during opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Every country competing at the London Games will include female athletes for the first time in Olympic history after Saudi Arabia agreed to send two women to compete in judo and track and field.— AP

Saudi Olympic opening to women a ‘small step’ Saudi overturns decades-old taboo CAIRO: Across the world, word that Saudi Arabia would send female athletes to the Olympics for the first time immediately rocketed to the top of websites and broadcasts.

In Saudi Arabia’s official media? Not even a hint. The state-sponsored silent treatment was indicative of the deep sensitivities inside the kingdom about the measured steps the country makes from its ultraconservative traditions. While Saudi rulers accommodated the urgings of the International Olympic Committee to include female athletes, the lack of domestic news coverage showed that - in their view at least - the change was not a pivotal moment of reform in a nation that still bans women from driving or traveling without the approval of a male guardian.

“It does not change the fact that Saudi

women are not free to move and to choose,” said political analyst Mona Abass in neighboring Bahrain. “The Saudis may use it to boost their image, but it changes little.” Even the two women selected to compete under the Saudi flag - 800-meter runner Sarah Attar from Pepperdine University in California and Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani in judo - live outside the kingdom and carry almost no influence as sports figures. That’s no surprise given female sports remain nearly an underground activity in Saudi Arabia.

Ahmed Al-Marzooqi, editor of a website that aims to cover women and men’s sporting events in Saudi Arabia, said Thursday’s announcement was less about genuine change than it was about placating international organizations which had pressured

the lone nation trying to stick with an allmale Olympic team. The other former holdouts, Brunei and Qatar, had already added female Olympic athletes - with Qatar even planning to have a woman carry its flag in London later this month. “We are still disappointed here,” Al-Marzooqi said from the Saudi city of Jiddah. “I should be happy for them, but this will do nothing for women who want to be in sport in Saudi Arabia.”

Still, the move is not without significance.

The Saudi decision must have received at least some nod from the nation’s Islamic religious establishment, which hold de facto veto power over nearly all key moves by the Western-allied monarchy and gives the royal court its legitimacy to rule over a nation with Islam’s holiest sites.—AP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Politicians urge Blatter to explain payments scandal ZURICH: FIFA President Sepp Blatter has questions to answer over a bribery scandal that has further damaged the image of world soccer’s governing body, a group of European politicians said yesterday. A Swiss prosecutor said in a legal document released this week that former FIFA President Joao Havelange and former executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira took multi-million bribes on World Cup deals in the 1990s. Blatter, who has been with FIFA since 1975, and succeeded Havelange as president in 1998, said on Thursday he knew that payments were being made. He referred to them as “commission” and said they were not illegal at the time.

Politicians from the parliamentary arm of the 47-nation Council of Europe condemned FIFA for trying to hush up the affair. “If FIFA managers including its current President - were aware of these bribes, they should have been doing everything in their power to prosecute, rather than protect, the officials concerned,” French politician Francois Rochebloine said. He urged Blatter to come clean on his role in a scandal that occurred when he was FIFA General Secretary. “When exactly did he become aware of these payments? Why did FIFA hide wrongdoing and fail to take action against its perpetrators? Above all, what steps will he now take to stop this happening again?,” he added.

TAX DEDUCTIBLE Asked in a question-and-answer session with FIFA’s own website on Thursday if he had known of payments, Blatter replied: “Known what? That commission was paid? Back then, such payments could

even be deducted from tax as a business expense.

“Today, that would be punishable under law. You can’t judge the past on the basis of today’s standards.” Brazilian Havelange, who recently celebrated his 96th birthday, was head of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. He received a payment of 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.53 million) in March 1997 from nowdefunct sports marketing body ISL, the Swiss prosecutor said.

Teixeira, 65, who led the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) from 1989 until stepping down earlier this year, took 12.7 million francs between 1992 and 1997, the prosecutor said. ISL sold the commercial rights to broadcast World Cup competitions on behalf of FIFA. It collapsed with debts of around $300 million in 2001. Blatter, who has been president for 14 years since succeeding Havelange, said FIFA had reacted by “strengthening our control mechanisms.” “The ethics committee, which was created in 2006 on my initiative, is a direct result of the ISL case,” he said. “The reform process is moving exactly in this direction.

“To strengthen FIFA’s judicial system, some important steps have already been taken with the introduction of a two-chamber system - an adjudicatory body and an investigatory body. The executive committee will appoint the chairmen of these two chambers next week.” Havelange is still FIFA’s honorary president while Teixeira quit his post earlier this year, shortly after resigning as president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). “I don’t have the power to call him to account,” said Blatter of Havelange. “The Congress named him as Honorary President. Only the Congress can decide his future.” — Reuters

Webb keen to usher in new era for CONCACAF MIAMI: CONCACAF could move its lucrative Gold Cup tournament outside its traditional home in the United States and also introduce a women’s tournament as President Jeffrey Webb looks to refocus the scandal-hit body.

Webb was elected president in May after the confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) was thrown into turmoil after a financial scandal that led to the departure of former president Jack Warner. In an interview with Reuters, Webb said an investigation of past issues is being conducted in a bid to tackle problems from the era of Warner and former General Secretary Chuck Blazer.

But while a detailed report on the organization’s past is expected in about nine months, Webb wants to see energy put into future plans and a refocus on the grassroots.

The biennial Gold Cup, the continental tournament, is the main source of revenue for the confederation and every edition since it began in 1991 has been held in the United States. Next year’s Gold Cup will again be played in the United States but Webb feels it is time to consider alternatives for the 2015 edition and beyond.

“We have to look at other options and opportunities. We have to look at Canada ... we must look at Mexico and some of the other countries as well,” said Webb. “We have to.

We are not going to approach it saying that it has to, it must, continue in the United States. I think we have a responsibility to all 40 countries to look at what is best for CONCACAF.” Mexico jointly hosted the 1993 and 2003 tournaments with the United States and has plenty of stadium options, as does Canada.

But alternatives outside of those countries are

limited, unless there is a switch to joint-hosting. “There will only be a few countries that will have the facilities and capability of hosting a tournament,” said Webb.

As well as wanting to see an increase in resources for the club competition, the CONCACAF Champions League, the Cayman Islander said he wants the body to also look into fresh ideas for the women’s game.

“Should we have a women’s Gold Cup? Should we have a women’s club championship? What are we doing with women’s football?” said Webb, adding that smaller age-group youth competitions could also be introduced. Women’s tournaments in the region have generally served as qualifying events for the Women’s World Cup rather than as stand-alone continental championships.

CONCACAF found itself at the heart of a cash-for-votes scandal during the last FIFA presidential election, in which former Asian soccer chief Mohammed Bin Hammam was accused of giving cash gifts to Caribbean officials. Webb says the organization is now committed to open governance and is trying to change its image. “We do it one step at a time. We must of course regain our credibility.

We must show people that we are transparent and serious about the business of football,” said Webb. “We do have a responsibility to society at large. Hopefully over time we develop some stability and consistency and that will regain the credibility and integrity that the game deserves.” The changes are likely to include moving CONCACAF’s headquarters away from the controversial rented accommodation in a luxury apartment complex in Manhattan.—Reuters

Didier Drogba

Doubts as Drogba hits China jackpot BEIJING: Didier Drogba arrives in China this weekend amid a spending spree on foreign talent that football chiefs hope will give the local league a much-needed boost but critics say is ruining the sport. The former Chelsea striker will join his new team, Shanghai Shenhua today, making him the highest-profile overseas player in the Chinese Super League as it tries to rebuild after years of corruption and scandal. He will join the likes of French striker Nicholas Anelka, Nigerian Ayegbeni Yakubu and World Cup winning Italian coach Marcello Lippi on mega-contracts in China, with those deals funded mostly by local business titans.

Drogba and Anelka will play together at Shenhua, with each reported to be on salaries of more than $15 million a year-roughly double the amount they received in the English Premier League. The Chinese Football Association believes the domestic game, which has endured years of corruption and repeated failures by the national team, is set to take off on the back of the influx of expensive foreign talent. “The highlevel world-class players and coaches will be able to provide a learning opportunity to our domestic players and coaches,” CFA spokesman Dong Hua said.

“I hope our coaches and players can improve through this exchange and enhance the level of Chinese football as a whole.” But football analysts and players with experience in both the Chinese and English leagues say the big spending amounts to little more than the vanity projects of club owners who should instead be pouring cash into grassroots development. “The spending is ego-fuelled craziness coming from these big owners, which is not sustainable and will end in disaster in the long run,” Rowan Simons, a prominent Beijing-based commentator on Chinese football said. “The level of investment required to bring Drogba and Anelka is totally out of sync with the scale of football.

“When a single player’s salary is several times the entire revenue of the club in a year, I think it is fairly obvious that we have gone the wrong way in one direction.” Concerns from football purists also centre on the star signings being drafted in to promote the commercial interests of the mega-rich Chinese club owners. State media have reported that part of Drogba’s deal

includes him being a spokesman for a Chinese online gaming company. Anelka was reportedly paid millions to endorse an online game developed by Internet company The9, whose chairman Zhu Jun is also the chief investor in Shenhua.

Guangzhou Evergrande, who currently top the CSL, are owned by Evergrande Real Estate Group, which is controlled by tycoon Xu Jiayin.

Xu, one of China’s richest me, reportedly has a fortune of $7.2 billion and a war chest of $70 million for his club. Part of that was spent on luring Lippi for an annual salary of $12.66 million, according to Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com.

“These are not investments in football for football’s sake... and it is definitely not sustainable,” Yan Qiang, football commentator and vice-president of Titan Media, one of China’s leading sports publishers said. “Some of these owners are investing like they are carrying out some sort of personal public relations exercise, while others are doing it to increase the awareness of their own companies.”

Another former English Premier League star, Marlon Harewood, was credited with helping Guangzhou R&F, the second team from the booming southern Chinese city, rise into the top division last season during a short-term contract. The former Aston Villa and West Ham United striker said that club owners were ploughing cash into the wrong areas of the game. “They need to invest in grass roots players who are homegrown as the gap is huge between local players and the ones taken in from overseas,” Harewood said.

“It is no use just having one top level striker in the team and expecting him to score goals in every game. They need a better class of players all around the field.” The quality of Chinese players has been under intense scrutiny in recent years, with China already out of the running for the 2014 World Cup after it failed to get through a qualifying group topped by Iraq.

The failure to qualify came despite the CFA luring ex-Real Madrid and Spain boss Jose Antonio Camacho as manager on a reported $8 milliona-year contract. The national team has only qualified for one World Cup, in 2002, when it lost all three games and failed to score a single goal. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012

Sports

Millar wins 12th stage

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LONDON: In this file photo, Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand, and Chelsea Captain John Terry (left) is seen during an FA Cup 4th round soccer match against Chelsea, at Loftus Road ground in London. — AFP

Terry cleared of racial abuse Rangers demoted LONDON: Cash-strapped Glasgow giants Rangers will play in the Third Division next season following a vote of Scottish Football League clubs yesterday in a move that could have enormous consequences for the entire future of Scottish football. Already expelled from the Scottish Premier League (SPL), following the formation of a new company or newco that took place after Rangers entered administration, they were dropped to the lowest league tier of Scottish football following a meeting of Scottish Football League chairmen.

Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan had said that demoting Rangers to the Third Division would cause financial catastrophe and a “slow, lingering death” of the Scottish game and said they should be dropped to the First Division instead. But at a news conference after yesterday’s meeting it was announced that 25 out of the 30 SFL clubs had voted for Rangers to be entered into the Third Division.

The chairmen of rival clubs arrived for a meeting regarding the future of financially stricken Rangers yesterday insisting it would not be the end of Scottish football if they were demoted to the Third Division. Rangers, Scotland’s most successful side, will either be in the First Division or Third Division next term depending upon the outcome of a meeting at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, the headquarters of the Scottish Football Association.

It appears the vast majority of the voting

clubs want the 140-year-old Rangers demoted to the Third Division.

Safeguarding the multi-million pound commercial deals on which Scotland’s professional clubs rely so heavily is central to Regan’s stance, with a new television deal worth £80 million ($125m) over five seasons reputedly dependent on the screening of four Rangers v Celtic Old Firm derbies a season. Broadcasters are said to be prepared to go no more than one year without these showcase matches. But Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said yesterday that even if talk of a £16 million ‘black hole’ was accurate, the SFL clubs would deal with it. “I don’t think everybody necessarily believes those figures we’ve been given but if the figures are correct it is part of the pain we have to bear.”

Raith Rovers chairman Turnbull Hutton accused officials of exaggerating the scale of the problem were Rangers to play in the Third Division. “Some of the horror stories about the finances...15 months ago Neil Doncaster (SPL chief executive) and Henry McLeish (author of the Review of Scottish Football) stood there and said it had to be a 10-team SPL or it was going to be financial Armageddon if that didn’t happen. “Now we are talking about a 16-team SPL.” Newco Rangers chief executive Charles Green, speaking ahead of yesterday’s vote, said: “I think the vilification and persecution has to end and common sense has to prevail and I think it will.” — Agencies

LONDON: Chelsea captain John Terry was cleared yesterday of racially abusing an opponent during a Premier League match after one of the most high-profile trials involving a soccer player. The case led to Terry being stripped of the England captaincy by the Football Association ahead of the European Championship and the departure of coach Fabio Capello who disagreed with the decision. But after hearing four days of evidence at a London court, chief magistrate Howard Riddle found he was not convinced that Terry had committed a racially aggravated public order offense in a confrontation with Queens Park Rangers player Anton Ferdinand during the match in October. Terry’s legal team said in a statement: “He did not racially abuse Ferdinand and the court has accepted this.”

Terry maintained he only used an offensive term sarcastically to counter the obscenity he claims Ferdinand was accusing him of using. It followed Ferdinand goading Terry about an alleged extramarital affair with then-England teammate Wayne Bridge’s former girlfriend. And Riddle was persuaded by the defense claim that Terry could have misheard “Bridge” as “black,” prompting his belief that a claim of racism was being wrongly claimed. “It is highly unlikely that Ferdinand accused Terry on the pitch of calling him a black (expletive),” Riddle wrote in his judgment. “However I accept that it is possible that Mr. Terry believed at the time, and believes now, that such an accusation was made.

“The prosecution evidence as to what was said by Ferdinand at this point is not strong.

(Ashley) Cole (the Chelsea defender) gives cor-

roborating (although far from compelling corroborating) evidence on this point. It is therefore possible that what he said was not intended as an insult, but rather as a challenge to what he believed had been said to him.” There were cheers in Court One at Westminster Magistrates’ Court from members of Terry’s family after the verdict. “We are pleased that John can now put his mind to football and go back to training and do what he’s done for many years,” Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Riddle said there was no evidence Terry has lied and called him a “credible witness.” “The lip readers do not provide evidence that categorically contradicts his account,” he said of the incident that spread on YouTube after the game.

“What may at first sight have seemed clear to the non-expert, is less clear now. There are limitations to lip reading, even by an expert. I have assessed John Terry as a credible witness.”

Ferdinand had been reluctant to pursue a criminal case, which was prompted by an off-duty police officer making the complaint.

Prosecutors accepted the verdict, but defended the decision to take action. “The very serious allegation at the heart of this case was one of racial abuse,” Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, said. “It was our view that this was not ‘banter’ on the football pitch and that the allegation should be judged by a court. “The Chief Magistrate agreed that Mr. Terry had a case to answer, but having heard all of the evidence he acquitted Mr. Terry of a racially aggravated offense.” — AP