14 Mar 2012

CR IP TI ON BS SU

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

RABIA ALTHANI 21, 1433 AH

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Kuwait National & Liberation Days

Fracas in Assembly over MPs’ ‘black flag’ protest Govt hikes state wages amid rising inflation

Max 34º Min 18º High Tide 04:25 & 15:49 Low Tide 09:26 & 22:39

By A Saleh and Agencies conspiracy theories

Shooting rabbits

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

I

t is not the first time and I doubt it will be the last time, when American forces in Afghanistan shoot at innocent people. How many times before people who were merely celebrating weddings were killed. They were bombarded by US military planes.

On the following day of such an incident, we hear a shy apology saying that they were killed by mistake.

No investigation ever took place after that apology.

How come a pilot with a high-tech radar system could not differentiate between civilians, mainly children and women, and what the US army calls Taleban fighters.

The latest assassination incident involving 16 innocent civilians, amongst them children, is a Continued on Page 13

KUWAIT: (Standing, from left) MPs Saleh Ashour, Abdulhameed Dashti, Adnan Al-Mutawwa and Faisal Al-Duwaisan - with black flags on their desks - gesture during a heated National Assembly session yesterday.

(Inset) Dashti holds up images of last year’s raid on the Assembly at a press conference later yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Yesterday’s National Assembly session was called off early following a confrontation between minority MPs and the parliament’s majority over the head office’s decision to decriminalize the raid of the National Assembly building last November. The ruckus started shortly after the session began when MPs Falah Al-Sawwagh and Abdullatif Al-Omairi requested that fellow lawmakers remove black flags they placed on their desks in protest against the decision. Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun then put the request for voting, and the majority voted in approval.

After MPs Saleh Ashour and Abdulhameed Dashti refused to comply, altercations started and eventually forced the speaker to suspend the session temporarily.

Deputy Speaker Khaled Al-Sultan eventually called the session off after the MPs refused to remove the flags.

These developments happened two days after the parliament’s head office approved a modification to an official complaint made by the previous parliament’s head office regarding an incident on Nov 17, 2011 in which opposition lawmakers led angry protestors into the parliament’s building by force. The modification states that crowds rather entered the building after security guards voluntarily opened the doors, while property damage reported in the earlier complaint was too limited to be considered a serious offense.

Continued on Page 13

2

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

LOCAL

Customs strike paralyzes Kuwait ports, borders 19 unions to join strike

By A Saleh KUWAIT: Activity at the nation’s land border checkpoints, seaports and Kuwait International Airport was significantly hindered yesterday due to a mass strike by customs officers since early yesterday morning. MP Salem Al-Namlan told reporters that Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah “gave his word to resolve the customs officials’ problem within the upcoming couple of days”. According to eyewitnesses, long lines of cargo trucks were seen at the Salmi (west) and Nuwaiseeb (south) border checkpoints by noon, nearly 12 hours after customs officials embarked upon their strike.

Shipments arriving by container ships and by air cargo failed to enter Kuwait due to the strike,

which excluded medical supplies and items needed for humanitarian causes.

On Monday, the Government announced a maximum 25 percent increase to basic salaries of state employees, much to the disappointment of labor unions in the public sector whose demands range from 60 percent to 100 percent.

Ahmad Al-Enezi, Head of the labor union at the General Customs Department, announced later on Monday that staff members would strike en mass unless the government met their financial demands.

Kuwait Airways Corporation labor union announced yesterday they will join customs officials in their strike.

Labor protests reemerged earlier this month following months of calm, after the Government

promised to look into all demands. Many unions grew skeptical as the Government failed to meet deadlines to pass their demands. Many labor unions are expected to join the customs union in their strike during the following days.

The Kuwait Trade Union Federation has plans to start two-hour daily strikes featuring unions in at least 19 state departments starting from March 19.

In addition to salar y increases and allowances, most labor unions want the Government to update state records in order to unify job classification of staff members who share similar fields of specialty, but work in different state departments. This update will achieve equality in pay among public sector employees.

Iraq PM heads to Kuwait ahead of Arab summit BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki heads today to Kuwait in a bid to boost ties still strained by Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of the emirate, in the run-up to an Arab summit later this month.

Al-Maliki will be accompanied on the two-day visit by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Finance Minister Rafa Al-Essawi, Transport Minister Hadi AlAmeri and Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, the premier’s spokesman Ali Al-Mussawi said yesterday.

“They will be accompanied by a technical committee that will discuss suspended issues between the two countries,” Al-Mussawi said, noting that among the topics to be broached are Iraq’s payments of five percent of is oil and gas revenue as war reparations to Kuwait.

Al-Maliki’s visit to Kuwait comes just

weeks before an Arab League summit is due to be held in Baghdad on March 29. Along with the reparations, the two sides have a bevy of outstanding issues that remain unresolved.

Among them is the Mubarak AlKabir port project, which was begun

by Kuwait in 2007.

Baghdad says that once completed, it would strangle its shipping lanes in the narrow Khor Abdullah waterway that serves as its entrance to the Gulf, through which the vast majority of its oil exports flow.

UN envoys are also looking for greater progress in helping pin down the fate of Kuwaitis and other foreigners missing since the 1990 war.

Property and most of the Kuwaiti national archives also remain missing. And there are still outstanding border issues between the two countries. —AFP

Seven-member gang storms company in Subbiya

By Hanan Al Saadoun KUWAIT: Criminal detectives began a hunt for seven thieves wearing dishdashas who stabbed five workers and ran over two others. A security source said the injuries resulted after the thieves stormed a company in Subbiya to burgle it. The seven bandits used six cars without license plates. They cut a wire fence surrounding in order to steal cables. Workers there discovered what was going on and attempted to catch them, but were stabbed. The thieves stole a company vehicle. Security men took the stabilized injured employees to hospital.

Food poisoned children Three children at a Pakistani school in Ahmadi governorate were reported to have food poisoning, according to a security source. The source said it is still not known if the three children ate the food in school or before arriving there.

Shuaiba refinery leak Hazardous materials were found to be leaking at Shuaiba refinery parking lot.

Mubarak Al-Kabeer hazardous materials center operatives went to the scene and found that four barrels fell from a truck.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti customs officials staging a strike yesterday. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat and Fouad Al-Shaikh

Two of them had leaked over a 30 meter area. The leaked substance was hydrolic acid. It was treated with soda ash and brought under control.

Road accidents A 39-year-old Nepalese citizen sustained a fracture to his right thigh bone when a car hit him near Farwaniya.

A 26-year-old Bangladeshi was cut on his face, while a 50-year-old Egyptian sustained several lacerations during a car accident in Sharq area. They were taken to Amiri Hospital.

A 60-year-old Afghani sustained lacerations to his face and a 23-year-old Egyptian suffered various bruises during a fight in Subiyya area. They were taken to Jahra Hospital.

A 52-year-old Egyptian complained of pain in the rib cage following a car accident on Airport Road. He was taken to Farwaniya Hospital.

A 55-year-old Bangladeshi complained of chest pain while a 40-year-old Indian sustained fractures to his feet. They were taken to Farwaniya Hospital.

A 30-year-old Egyptian sustained various bruises when a car hit him near a supermarket in Fahaheel. He was taken to Adan Hospital.

Rise in US enterprises in Kuwait WASHINGTON: Kuwait has launched partnerships with American hospitals to improve its health care industry and is offering “a wealth of opportunities” for private firms, said the US ambassador to Kuwait.

Matthew Tueller said Kuwait is to strengthen its information technology and telecommunications sectors and infrastructure, indicating a rise in US enterprises in the country.

The diplomat said Kuwait has provided investment opportunities for private American companies, particularly in the health care and education sectors, but bureaucratic obstacles and snags face American entrepreneurs here.

“There have been cases when com-

panies have proceeded all the way through a tendering process and at the last minute political intervention will cause a project to be cancelled,” Tueller stated, following a panel discussion at the Ambassadors’ Forum event hosted by the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUACC).

Despite this, there has been an uptick over the last few years in American private sector investment in Kuwait, especially in health care and education sectors.

Johns Hopkins University Hospital, one of the nation’s leading health care institutes, signed a $250 million contract to oversee four specialist hospitals with Kuwait’s Ministry of Health. “[Kuwaitis] know what US compa-

‘Abnormal increase’ in Kuwaiti population

nies can bring, they know how they think,” Tueller said, crediting this advantage to the large number of Kuwaitis educated in the United States. “The educational tie, the cultural tie brings a great advantage for US companies coming in to do business with Kuwait.”

Tueller joined 11 other American ambassadors, members of the international diplomatic corp. and US business leaders at the annual forum aimed at promoting business opportunities in the Arab World.

“US companies have to be patient, they have to understand how the process works. But at the end of the day there are a lot of opportunities there,” he advised. —KUNA

News

in brief

By A Saleh KUWAIT: Member of Parliament Abdel Hameed Dashti said he will submit a parliamentary question to Minister of Interior, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud, about the number of citizens who have been naturalized since the Iraqi invasion until now.

He said some files have many violations because it is not realistic that the number of Kuwaitis during the invasion were 274,000 and that in 2012 the number is 1.2 million. He said this is an abnormal increase that even China has not reached.

He said he does not intend to grill Minister Al-Humoud, because it is too early to think about such a thing.

Students watch lecturer die Ahmad Al-Mayal, Kuwait University geography professor, died while lecturing at the Social Science College hall. Students noticed that the professor was very tired and suffering from fatigue while lecturing, before he sat down suddenly, and died.

Vice manager of govt press prosecuted KUWAIT: Fahad Al-Ajmi, Manager of the Government p re s s, re ce n t l y re fe r re d h i s v i ce m a n a g e r to t h e Public Prosecution Department in suspected financial and administrative violations.

The vice manager is suspended him from work until investigations into the acts he allegedly committed during the past few years are completed.

On appointment as the press Manager, Al-Ajmi reviewed all previous contracts, bonuses lists and the job descriptions of all the press officials. Having re v i e we d t h e m , h e d e t e c t e d t h e s a i d v i o l a t i o n s including a contract with a private company owned by the vice manager himself.

The sources said Al-Ajmi reported his suspicions to top Ministr y of Information officials, who expressed their full support of the measures he took so far. —Al-Jarida

GCC unifies medicine pricing KUWAIT: Dr. Omar Al-Saied, Ministr y of Health Assistant Undersecretary for medical supplies, revealed that the GCC states intend to agree upon a unified price for pharmaceuticals. He said profitability will be decided by each of the GCC states. Al-Saied said the GCC health ministers council asked, during its last meeting in Oman, to form a unit specialized in pricing medicine in the GCC states and to begin meeting in the near future. This unit will meet to discuss the CIF (cost insurance and freight), which is the basic price of medicine arriving at the ports of GCC states. He said that the proposed meeting should consider the lowest price CIF as an approval price for all GCC states, except for the profit margin which each state will decide upon separately.

Smart identification cards KUWAIT: The new smart identification cards to be issued to expatriates have been readily-designed for travelling across GCC countries, once a legislation to facilitate such travel is passed, said Musaed AlAssoussi, Director of the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI). Speaking to reporters during a press conference at PACI’s headquarters to launch smart identification cards for expatriates, Al-Assoussi said that cards will include a special chip to store all bearer’s basic data. He also noted that following the issue of cards for citizens and GCC nationals, it was high time these were issued to expats, particularly since all official transactions would rely on them, reported Annahar.

331 teachers to be honored KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education (MoE) recently announced that a special ceremony will be held under the patronage of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed on April 11 to honor 331 teachers for their outstanding performance. The ceremony will be held at the Basic Education Faculty’s stage. Meanwhile, Mariam AlWetaid, MoE’s Assistant Undersecretary for Research and Curriculum Affairs said that KD 1.5 million has been reserved for the first phase of printing.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

local

KD 50 pay hike for expat workers in public sector Warning against price increases

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah received yesterday at Bayan Palace, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his accompanying delegation. The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah and the advisor at the diwan of the prime minister, Dr Ismail Khudher Al-Shatti.

‘Reveal expired food suppliers’ KUWAIT: Announcing the names food suppliers who have been caught selling expired food is the best way to stop their distribution, argued a senior municipality official recently.

While the Municipality exercises the authority to confiscate and destroy food supplies that have tested positive for contamination, it is forbidden to mention names of suppliers to the press. “We ask the

Parliament to amend regulations that allow the Municipality to enforce stricter penalties on violators, and announce their names so that people can be warned,” said Istiqlal Al-Mislem, Director of Imported Food Department. Al-Mislem referred to law number 5/2005 of the Municipality Law according to which the Municipality can issue a maximum KD 1,000 fine penalty against expired food distributers.

KUWAIT: The increase of salaries for employees working in the public sector is not limited to Kuwaitis this time. Expatriate employees working in this sector are included in the increase, so it is a bit different. The increase is set at KD 50 for each employee, no matter of the wage received. Expatriate employees were very pleased by the news of this unexpected increase. This will help them face the price hike in goods, which took place after the pay rises and allowances for Kuwaitis employed in the public sector.

Kuwait’s government announced these increases on Monday, under pressure from labor unions. The wage hike follows a series of strikes last year, which put pressure on state bodies to increase pay packets.

But expatriates are somehow anxious that this decision may not be executed or will take a long time to be implemented. “I hope this increase is true. We heard similar announcements of increases in the past but we did not see them for months and years.

This time it was announced at an official conference, so I hope it will be executed,” Hassan, a 42-year-old teacher, told Kuwait Times.

“I am really happy with such an increase.

On the other hand, we have fears of price hikes and most probably house rents will also

increase. I hope that prices will remain stable so that we can benefit from the increase,” he added. Some expatriates, when counting this increase in their own national currency, feel the amount to be even greater. “We are glad to have our salary increased. I have children and this increase comes at the right time. The KD 50 equals more than 8,000 pesos in the Philippines and this will help my family. Also there was a recent increase in the price of commodities. Really I am very grateful to the Government of Kuwait for this decision,” said Dr. Chie Umandap, a Ministry of Health Administration Department employee. The increase is a blessing for expatriate

employees. “The KD 50 increase will definitely help us face the increased price of all commodities. I accept whatever amount they give us, and this increase is great,” noted Gar y, am ambulance medic at Far waniya Hospital.

In the wake of this week’s wage increases, the Ministry of Commerce has told traders to prevent any rises in the price of basic goods such as food. The ministry instructed trade officials to handle any attempt to raise the prices of basic commodities. People should not worry about a price hike, especially expatriate employees in the private sector who will be most affected.

Syrian visit visa ban stands KUWAIT: Syrian citizens still cannot apply for a visit visa to Kuwait, despite a recommendation from Parliament to exempt them from a ban imposed for security reasons on nationals of certain countries.

Brig Genal Talal Maarafi, General Director of Hawally Migration Department, denied reports hinting that the Ministry of Interior received orders to lift the ban.

“The Interior Ministry only received a nonbinding recommendation from Parliament to

allow Syrian nationals to obtain a visit visa”, Maarafi said on Monday, explaining that the ban cannot be lifted currently “as a precaution to protect national security given the current situation in the region”.

Maarafi urged the media to confirm similar news before publication in order to avoid causing controversy “which already happened as hundreds of applications were received as soon as the unconfirmed reports appeared in the local press”. —Al-Rai

KUWAIT: A GCC traffic delegation participating in the Unified GCC Traffic Week paid a visit to Al-Razi hospital yesterday. They were welcomed by Khalf Al-Said, public relations deputy head , in addition to Dr Hatheel Al- Naqeeb and Dr Tareq Rashed. The delegation paid a visit to different departments of the hospital, accompanied by a number of medical college students.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

LOCAL kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Arab societies’ lack of creativity

Example of successful democratic practice

By Meshal Al-Thufairi

By Abdulmuhsin Jamaal

D

uring the past couple of centuries, has the Arab World offered any discovery to help humanity as a whole?

Is there an Arab industry with dominant presence in American or European markets? The answer is no as far as I’m concerned. That doesn’t mean that the Arab World lacks intelligence, but instead suffers administrative problems that fight all attempts of people to improve.

Farouk El-Baz is an Egyptian scientist with notable achievements while working for NASA. Ahmad Zewail, another Egyptian scientist, is a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. Both of them, however, became naturalized United States citizens before they became pioneers in their respective scientific fields of study.

In my opinion, all Arab countries lack an environment which allows people to be creative. On one hand, there are countries ruled by dictators where people suffer mental and physical oppression. On the other, there are rich and poor Arab communities which live in a continuous cycle of neglect and chaos. Political systems did not create civilizations in America or European countries. Instead, these states became first world countries not through the efforts of their politicians, but through the will of their people. Their politicians had no other choice but to respect them.

A country like Yemen, which is home for multiple ancient civilizations, is living the worst case of underdevelopment in the nation’s history. I blame Arab societies for being too lazy to stand up and improve to become on par with advanced countries. Arab countries are not short of financial or human resources, but they are rich in people who choose to follow political systems - even if they fail to provide a clear vision for the future. Bureaucracy and routine in the public sector are the creation of people unwilling to break free from their state of laziness.

It is easy to identify an Arab tourist when you are on a trip to a foreign country. Just look for anyone who behaves chaotically. I do not blame Arab tourists in these cases; they are only behaving according to the culture of chaos found in many aspects in Arab communities.

A person in this case would start learning the true value of respecting the law if they stayed for longer periods in developed societies, which are built on the hard work and productivity of their people regardless of social backgrounds.

It is not something new that Arab intellectuals would leave their countries to look for a more suitable environment to realize their ambitions. I’m afraid that a time will come in which people of the Arab World will migrate to look for safety and security. —Al-Rai

M

P Saleh Ashour’s grilling of Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlSabah is characterized by many aspects which make it very different than any of the previous motions filed against the state’s Premier.

First of all, the grilling is the fastest to be filed against a Prime Minister as it was submitted less than a month after parliamentary elections. Second, the grilling is forwarded by a member of the minority, which indicates that Ashour is not counting much on the opinion of the majority. This is an indication that the grilling is not aimed to force the Cabinet out of office through a vote of no confidence, but is filed to clarify aspects regarding topics which the motion addresses.

kuwait digest

Consumer protection

By Dr Bader Al-Daihani

W

e spoke many times about the importance of having an organization or society for “consumer protection”, which will work primarily to protect consumers and defend their rights be it in the private or public sector. It also aims to increase their consumption awareness and protect them from commercial cheating, corruption, high prices and manipulation of the quality of products and services presented by some commercial stores. This is despite their harmful effect on consumer’s health, which is something that may not be felt directly by the consumer.

Not only that, consumer protection societies prepare a “black list” that contains the names of commercial stores that deliberately repeat cheating and price increases without justification. They fight monopolies over products and services, and oversee how far the quality matches the price. They also present suitable advice to consumers whether on quality or price, because price is not the only factor of determining quality. There are cheap products that may cause great harm, but does not appear for a long time.

The existence of a society for the protection of consumers depends in its work primarily on scientific and field studies based on numbers, data and official statistics that are backed by comparative studies. They will organize the efforts of consumers or customers, and will

make their voice heard and heard loudly. It will organize campaigns that call for boycotting certain products, which are sometimes called for by youths through the social media.

They will make it more effective in the commercial business sector, which normally goes after the customer because making profit depends on satisfaction. That is why they say “the customer is always right,” and the more customers are organized, the more aware they are in their rights and ability to get them. It is supposed to focus popular efforts on demanding the declaration of the “consumer protection society”, instead of spontaneous campaigns that have limited effects. Previous Governments ignored the consumer’s voice, because they rejected the declaration of a “consumer protection agency” many times despite the applications the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has kept for many years. The consumer should have a strong and clear voice in the face of corrupt traders, especially as the smell and taste of corruption has reached what we eat and drink. Will the new Government go ahead and declare the “consumer protection society,” so that it can be the voice expressing the consumers while the Chamber of Commerce is drawing up general policies related to consumers? Or will Government ignorance continue.” — Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

TAKE CARE OF YOUR COUNTRY

By Thaar Al Rashidi

M

arc Fayber, the Swiss investment director, said one of the ways to control China is to have control over oil in the Middle East. I do not care much about how Marc Fayber sees us, as he is free to think whatever he likes. What concerns me about Fayber, who is known as Dr Doom, is his political predictions which he included in his last economic report.

He is the investor known in collapsing markets, and the owner of the well known economic report

The grilling debate offers an opportunity for us to see how lawmakers, whether in parliament’s majority of minority, will react to the subjects that the motion addresses; mainly the stateless residents issue. Even if he emerges at the losing end of the debate, Ashour will still be credited for raising a case considered to be the top humanitarian issue in Kuwait today.

One of the main topics which the grilling addresses is the multimillion-dinar deposits scandal, in which Ashour himself was accused. Filing this motion could be his way to officially acquit himself and reveal secrets behind the case. Ashour was singled out for election by Kuwaiti voters from among other former MPs accused in the case who were not reelected.

The grilling debate offers an opportunity for us to see how lawmakers, whether in parliament’s majority of minority, will react to the subjects that the motion addresses; mainly the stateless residents issue. Even if he emerges at the losing end of the debate, Ashour will still be credited for raising a case considered to be the top humanitarian issue in Kuwait today.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to see how lawmakers who formed the Opposition in the previous Parliament will react to a no confidence vote if filed at the end of the debate.

The most anticipated aspect regarding the grilling is the identity of the three MPs who will speak in defense of the Prime Minister during the debate, and what their arguments will be based on.

Ashour’s grilling motion is the first test for the new Prime Minister, who did not hesitate to accept the debate after the motion was filed. If he is able to fend off accusations included in the grilling during a session broadcast live on national television, this will boost the confidence of the Cabinet and be an example for successful democratic practice in Kuwait. —Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Diversity is key to prosperity

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

We have three personalities in our National Assembly similar to the evil Dr Doom. Through their practice they can destroy everything. I wish they remain still, as the local situation does not allow sedition and the regional situation does not allow playing games. called “Gloom Boom and Boom,” that there is bound to be an American Israeli war against Iran. In the report, part of which was published by Reuters two days ago, he said “it is definite war” and concluded “I am sure that the Middle East will be set on fire”.

Such talk is very dangerous, and to be said by a man known for his accurate predictions makes the matter more dangerous. Dr Doom, who is specialized in investment and is a well known financial manager, predicted Black Monday which hit Wall Street in 1987 and also predicted the 1977 Asian markets crisis. He successfully warned his clients and those who invest with him of those two crises.

He also predicted the real estate mortgage problem, which developed into an international crisis.

Such a man, it seems, speaks out of nothing. He knows when and why to talk what he talks, and when he tells you that a war against Iran is bound to happen and even imperative then he, for sure, is not joking. We do not have to take his statement 100 percent, but it is enough to know that war clouds are covering the region.

I wish our nice, soft government takes the matter seriously and works, as a matter of precaution, to take action in case of war against Iran. The most important thing is to do something, as the region is about to be subject to a new cowboy strike.

Note: Dr Doom is the evil character in the comic series. “The Fantastic Four” which was very well known in the 1980s. We have three personalities in our National Assembly similar to the evil Dr. Doom. Through their practice they can destroy everything. I wish they remain still, as the local situation does not allow sedition and the regional situation does not allow playing games. So take care of your country. — Al-Anbaa

I

t appears that whenever I write about social changes or history of Kuwait and the Arab World, citizens with tribal loyalties feel that my words target them, or that I advocate discrimination against people of Bedouin descent. On that regard, let me reassert the fact that all people around the world are descendents of some tribal community. We come from ancient societies where people lived like Bedouins.

With that said, I believe the controversy was created due to the fact that citizens with tribal loyalties usually are deeply devoted to their cultural heritage.

I usually advocate liberation from cultural habits that are outdated. It is true that I have criticized cultural aspects that obstruct social development on many occasions. Citizens who adopt these aspects usually feel targeted by criticisms, but this is not actually the case.

I have full respect for traditional values and lifestyles, and can never criticize those that were established by our forefathers. What I have a problem with, however, is ‘forcing’ these beliefs on everyone in the society. This, by the way, is similar to the stance I have taken when it comes to religious beliefs. I do not have anything against religion, yet I refuse to be forced to follow beliefs that any religious group tries to impose on society. It is okay to impose regulations based on certain religious beliefs in an institution or a public facility. It is unacceptable when overly pious people try to force everyone to follow a lifestyle.

I am not a big fan of gathering people under a single belief system to achieve so-called national unity.

This is because I believe that every individual is unique and should be respected. I believe that Kuwaitis from different social backgrounds have something to contribute to Kuwait and enrich it.

Boosting cultural and social diversity is the right way to achieve development. Maybe that might not help achieve economic or industrial development, but it surely can result in cultural, literary and artistic prosperity.

Respecting different opinions and allowing everyone to express their beliefs not only helps in achieving social equality, but also boosts the country’s democracy by paving the way toward development. — Al-Qabas

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

local

It’s truffle season again in Kuwait

By Hazel Elizabeth Camper KUWAIT: I was watching a blind taste test on Hell’s Kitchen on MBC4 last weekend.

Robert (don’t call me Bobby) thought he was eating camel dung - but in fact it was his favorite black truffles!

That reminded me that it is truffle season in Kuwait, and after the national holiday rains there was bound to be a good variety on offer. I headed out to the roadside stalls set up at the back of the Pet Market off the Fourth Ring Road one evening for a bit of a gander.

Kuwaitis wait all winter for the truffle season to start. At the bustling open air market, locals were looking for the best and freshest produce. Truffles look something like a potato, round but irregular in shape with wrinkled skin. They vary from the size of a walnut to that of a man’s fist.

They are one of the most costly natural foods in the world. The larger sized ones are preferred and are more expensive. Huge Egyptian truffles, almost as big as a melon, were offered at KD20 a kilo. Smaller ones, about the size of oranges, were KD12, and smaller yet were KD8.

The vendors name their price but, as is customary in Kuwait, they expect you to haggle for a better deal. I spoke to Saif AlRashidi, a Kuwaiti who has been selling truffles here for 30 years. He said prices rise when there is a shortage, and this year has been yet another bad year for local truffles.

During the winter months, the local desert climate usually offers scattered rainfall of up to six inches. But not this season, he said.

Al-Rashidi said there are not enough truffles to meet local demand and most of the truffles I saw were imported. The few baskets of Kuwaiti truffles were dark in color,

Giant Egyptian truffles at KD20 a kilo small like golf balls and selling at KD10 a kilo. He said most of the truffles on offer are white ones called “zubaidi” and have been imported from Algeria. Some are from Morocco and Libya. Al-Rashidi’s come from Egypt. He said on a good weekend he can sell 10 tons a day.

Truffles have been enjoyed as a gastronomic treat for centuries. The mention of truffles conjures up images of ancient

‘No law to protect children’ KUWAIT: Although 40 percent of the population in this country are children, 60 percent of them are abused according to a conference on childhood and healthy upbringing at Bayt Lothan late on Monday.

These factors can lead to juvenile delinquencies such as drug abuse and violence according to speakers at the event, held under the patronage of Sheikha Firyal Duaij Al-Salman Al-Sabah head of Khair Al-Kuwait Charity Foundation.

The event was attended by Sheikh Sabah Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah on behalf of Sheikha Firyal. Public figures, social elites and governmental and non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives were also present.

Childhood specialists stressed the

importance of collaboration between both the private and public sectors in providing a healthy environment for children. The specialists said 40 percent of the population in this community are children, who form the future of this country. They said 60 percent of these children are abused either by the father, the mother or both. They also said children are mistreated by their house maids.

Although Kuwait has signed an international agreement for child protection, there is no law to protect children, especially girls, from parental abuse. The participants of the event also drew attention to children with disabilities. They said they should be given equal treatment to their normal peers and utmost care from their parents. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait bore the expenses of an Umrah trip organized by the Al-Dhahr Co-operative Society for shareholders and residents of the area, as part of the bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

Hanadi Al-Turkmani, Director of the CBK’s Al-Dhahr branch handed over the check to Abdullah Al-Azmi, Al-Dhahr Co-operative Society’s Director.

Japan thankful to Amir for generous donation TOKYO: Japan-Kuwait Society Chairman Kuniyasu Takeda yesterday extended a warm welcome to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, who will visit Japan next week.

“First of all, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to His Highness the Amir for offering generous donation of 5 million barrels of crude oil to Japan to relieve the suffering from last year March’s massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami,” Takeda said. “His upcoming visit, the first since he assumed the post, is very significant for the both countries, which have marked the 51st anniversary of diplomatic ties,” Takeda said.

“I deeply appreciate His Highness the Amir for his great role in the development of the friendly relations between the two countries through frequent visits to Japan,” Takeda said, voicing pleasure for having HH the Amir again in Tokyo.

“He last visited our country as Prime Minister in July 2004 with a view to maintaining excellent bilateral ties and increasing mutual investment, following the visit in October 1998 to attend “Meet Kuwait 98” in Tokyo as First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister,” the chairman said. “I sincerely hope that his visit will further develop Japan-Kuwait relations in a wide range of areas, including economy and culture. His Highness the Amir is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on March 20 for a four-day visit, during which he will meet with Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other leaders.

“I am always impressed with messages put out by HH the Amir, in which his wish to contribution towards world peace and prosperity is felt,” the chairman went on to say. “I think Japan shares Kuwait’s philoso-

Greeks and Romans, who used these fungi in Europe as delicacies, as aphrodisiacs, and as medicines. Even magical powers have been attributed to truffles. Al-Rashidi said

phy, such as compliance with international law, pacifism, the protection of human rights and humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters.”

Japan-Kuwait relationship dates back to 1958 when Arabian Oil Company, Ltd. (AOC) signed an oil exploration concession agreement with the Kuwaiti government.

Following the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1961, the two countries have benefited substantially from cooperation in broad spheres including energy, economy, scientific technology, environment protection and education and cultural exchanges.

In the fields of energy and economy, AOC has played a major role in bilateral economic cooperation since it has launched business in oil development in Kuwait in 1958. “Unfortunately, AOC withdrew from the Khafji oil field in 2008, but I am delighted to see the continuation of mutual cooperation,” he said, noting that Japanese companies are currently in talks to take part in Kuwait’s four-year infrastructure development project, while Kuwait pledges cooperation for oil supply to the disaster-hit Japan.

“However, it is regrettable that there have been no symbolic bilateral projects since AOC’s pullout, and I think it is important to create such projects through the cooperation of both countries.” Takeda also shed light on a mutual support deeply rooted on a firm friendship between Japan and Kuwait, pointing out Japan’s contribution to liberation and reconstruction of Kuwait during the Gulf Conflict and the Gulf War in 1990-1991, when Tokyo provided $13 billion for multinational forces and helped Kuwait’s postwar reconstruction. — KUNA

“The old generation say it is good for the eyes....You cook it and take the water and use it as eye liner” . Al-Rashidi has other uses for it, and he alludes to virility with a glint in his eye. I will not repeat his claims, but he says “this is the truth”. Their musky aroma and earthy flavor is certainly fascinating and, once experienced, can never be forgotten. “When I eat truffles, I feel a voluptuous, gentle, warmth that soon communicates

itself to my head,” Alexandre Dumas said.

Before eating, the truffles must be brushed clean. They are soaked in water for half an hour to an hour, and then peeled in

Truffles from Libya the same way you would scrape a new potato. Al-Rashidi says he makes them with black pepper or with spices.

Al-Rashidi says their flavor - “is something different, something incredible, you can find all the vitamins in it”. The flavor of a truffle is directly related to its aroma.

Kuwaitis smell the truffles to ensure they are fresh. Truffles only retain their smell for a few days after they are dug from the soil.

Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian truffles have the strongest smell.

The chemicals necessary for the odor to develop are created only after the spores are mature enough for release. The odor becomes stronger with age as the spores mature. Truffles must be collected at exactly the right time or they will have little taste.

Searching for them is like hunting for buried treasure.

Truffles grow beneath the soil near the roots of specific vegetation. They are sought in warm moist soil 10 to 14 days after heavy rain. The locals here dig 3 or 4 inches into the soil using a short handled metal tool.

You need a good eye to find them, but once they have been discovered, truffles can be collected from the same spot year after year.

In Kuwait, birds seek truffles for food. AlRashidi showed me a well pecked truffle.

Their presence may also be indicated by clean freshly dug pits formed by rodents in their own hunt for truffles. Not entirely a bad thing because animals disperse the truffle spores. Indeed, this rare type of tuberous fungus forms a symbiotic relationship with its environment.

David Attenborough says in his 1995 publication ‘Private Life Of Plants’ that this plant/fungi/animal relationship is a “three way harmonious trio”. The harmony is apparently contagious! As I started taking photos, I was a bit intimidated when about a dozen excited vendors started to crowd round. But they just wanted me to take their picture. I promised to return with copies of their photos, and was mobbed again when I did!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

local

‘Self study, workshops improve amateur photographers’ skills’ KUWAIT: Self study, browsing the internet and attending photo workshops are just a few of the efforts that Vikram Singh made to improve his craft. Singh is one of many amateur photographers who took part in last year ’s Kuwait Times photo competition, and is preparing for this year’s contest. His photograph was selected as one of the ‘best 100’ shots taken last year, and was honored and recognized by the Kuwait Times. Singh, who is married and has three children, works as a sales manager with the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK).

He has been gathering online information to help improve his technique, and perfect the art of photography. “I read and study a lot from the information available online,� he said. “I learnt the basics of photography from the internet. I know where to place my camera, when to use light. I know how to frame pictures, how to select the subjects and how to do it nicely if not perfectly,� he said. Although Singh has been very passionate about photography since childhood, he decided to take the plunge only last year when he bought his professional camera. Kuwait Times announced a photo contest last year in early Februar y 2011, ahead of the country’s National and Liberation days. He decided to send in some of his best photographs at that time. “I don’t know if my photos were good enough because I considered myself an amateur photographer, but I tried. When I saw the Kuwait Times ad, I was inspired to showcase my work.

My intention was to learn more and have a real experience. It’s good to listen to the voices of others, maybe I could explore more . That is why I took part,� he noted.

Singh feels that there were immense opportunities to click photographs last year when compared to 2012. “This year there weren’t many [good images, decorations] but one could still cap-

ture the best available,� he added.

Singh will submit five entries this year. “My theme will center around the celebrations. I captured many images of Kuwaitis celebrating with their families last month. Many are happy moments. I also captured some young boys playing with water guns. I have many photos to share this year,� he added. Since childhood, Singh enjoyed taking photographs of almost everything under the sun. “This is one of my hobbies today, photography. Even when I bought a normal camera, I have a particular interest in capturing beautiful

images of environment and nature. It grew more when I finally purchased the professional camera. I want to take portraits, even landscapes, or even the day to day activities of people around me,� he stressed.

Singh also suggested that Kuwait Times conduct a workshop to encourage more amateur photographers to take part in the contest. “The best institution to carry out photo-workshop will be no other than Kuwait Times,� he added. Singh’s entry was selected among the top 100 photos last year. The top 100 winners were selected and invited by the

Vikram Singh

Kuwait Times to enjoy a treat at a five star hotel. “I believe in Kuwait Times’ competence in conducting such workshop. You are a wellrespected institution in the field of journalism and photo-journalism in Kuwait. This way, you can enjoy an edge over other groups by holding such a workshop,� he added. Singh feels the need for some guidance when it comes to shooting a perfect photograph. “If the Kuwait Times conducts such a workshop, I am sure many will participate because every photographer, especially amateurs, want to improve. I really hope that the newspaper will consider organizing a photo workshop,� he urged. Besides being expensive, such workshops in Kuwait are held in Arabic, thereby marginalizing non-Arabic speakers. “Kuwait Times has professional photographers, plus the necessary contacts. Even judges can share some skills with us,� he added.

Singh now hopes to see his artistic endeavors feature among the top 10 this year. “I got into the top 100 ‘ league’ already. I believe my abilities have improved considerably this year. Last year, I took a look at the winner ’s entries. They were beautiful, but I know that I can equal it, if not make it better. Last year’s winner captured the photograph using a mobile phone, his angle was perfect and so he received the judges’ nod. So it’s all about the angle in which the photograph is taken and also choosing the right subject. It’s not really important to have a very expensive camera or the likes to enter the contest. I think my entry this year is far better than the previous year’s. I think I will definitely have a chance to win this year. Let’s, see.� Kuwait Times will receive photo entries on the theme ‘Kuwait National and Liberation Days.’ The submission deadline is set for March 30. The contest is sponsored by Canon (Kuwait) Middle East, Al-Sayer Group, Swiss-belHotel Plaza, Caesars Travel Company, and Response Media (Events & Exhibition).

Mother charges son with murder threat KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti woman pressed murder threat charges against her son at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer area. He reportedly keeps demanding money. In her statement to officers, the female citizen explained that her 28-year-old son had verbally assaulted her on numerous occasions when she refused to lend him money. In the most recent incident, the man waived a knife at his mother and threatening her if she did not pay him. The woman decided to seek police help. An order was issued to summon the suspect for investigations.

Teen flees assault A teenager sustained injures after jumping from a moving car to escape a sexual assault.

The incident took place in Um Al-Haiman. The 17-year-old accompanied a friend, who collected him from his house. On the way to the location, the suspect reportedly hinted to the youth that he planned to sexually assault him. This prompted the youngster to jump out of the moving vehicle to avoid assault. He was helped by his father to Adan Hospital where he was treated for multiple bruises and broken bones, before they reported the case.

False report A female citizen faces charges after she gave a false traffic accident report to police.

Investigations revealed that the woman tried to cover up for her sister’s offense, as she is wanted by authorities. According to security sources, the woman reported to Hawally police station that a male driver hit her car and escaped. The driver

was summoned after being identified through his car license plate number. However, the man argued that the complainant actually hit his car accidently, but he opted against pressing charges. The man also told police that the woman pressing charges is different to the one who was driving the car at the time. Police confronted the woman with their information, and she eventually confessed that she wanted to press charges to force the man to pay for her car repairs. She also admitted that her sister was driving her car at the time of the accident. She said she lied about that part because her sister is wanted for a money-related case filed with police. The woman was referred to the proper authorities for investigations.

Inmate caught with phone A female prisoner at the Central Jail was caught in possession of a cell phone. She faces charges for that and resisting apprehension.

Security officers decided to monitor the inmate, who is serving a life sentence, after she began behaving suspiciously. She was eventually caught trying to hide the cell phone. Back up police were able to restrain her, after she resisted strongly. It was discovered that the inmate destroyed the SIM card before police could confiscate her phone.

Fugitive nabbed A fugitive wanted in a case in which he is accused of failing to pay an estimated KD4 million debt was arrested by Farwaniya police. The Kuwaiti was ordered to pull over after patrol offi-

Wataniya’s first time to sponsor the Road Rush Race, which is specially designed for young ladies only to take part in. The participants raced their sports cars over two consecutive days competing against each other in different race obstacles to win valuable prizes and medals. Prior to commencing the race on March 9, a car show was hosted

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank recently concluded its participation and sponsorship of the annual “Proud 2 Be Kuwaiti�

(P2BK) Exhibition amongst other leading organizations. The exhibition, which took place from March 7 to 10, was initiated to provide common grounds for all the young and ambitious Kuwaiti entrepreneurs to exhibit their achievements from diverse sectors.

P2BK is the first and largest nonprofit organization dedicated to sup-

14-year-old raped Police are looking to apprehend a high school student accused of kidnapping his friend’s sister and raping her inside a Salmiya apartment. The 14-year-old girl returned home four days after her father reported her missing. She told her father she was kept inside a rent-by-day apartment by her brother’s friend. He saw her at the beach with a friend and forced her inside his car. The girl told her father the suspect raped her multiple times during her confinement before he let her go. Her father reported the case to police and investigations are underway.

Birth unveils crimes An Asian woman was taken into custody after giving birth to a baby boy. She admitted to using a forged passport to reenter Kuwait after being previously deported. Shortly after, she delivered a healthy child at Farwaniya Hospital. She failed to provide a marriage certificate and medical staff called police when she admitted she was not married. During investigations, police officers learned that she was previously deported after being arrested inside a brothel. She used a forged passport to return to Kuwait. The woman provided the identity of the father of her newborn, but he was deported four months ago. The woman was taken into police custody after being discharged from the hospital. —Al-Rai, Al-Anbaa

at the Kuwait Historic Car Museum in Kuwait exhibiting the participating sports car and served as an opportunity for the media to meet with the racers before heading off to Bahrain for the race.

Commenting on the sponsorship of the exciting car race and show, Abdulaziz Al-Balool, director of public relations at

Wataniya, praised the success achieved in the first Road Rush which encouraged Wataniya to sponsor the second race. AlBalool emphasized the importance of the race in reinforcing safe driving rules amongst women and car enthusiasts. The aim is to reduce car accidents on the streets which remain to be an important objective for Wataniya to achieve within the community.

Al-Balool also added: “Wataniya Telecom does not spare an effort when it comes to sponsoring sports especially those bringing the youth together and creating fun and thrilling events for them. Wataniya’s aim of this sponsorship is to support women in various areas of interest, including sports, as well as to raise awareness on racing in safe and internationally controlled environment such as the Bahrain International Circuit�.

port the minds of young Kuwaiti entrepreneurs, talents and achievements.

Burgan Bank has always championed such leading initiatives as part of its extensive corporate social responsibility drive, which aims at encouraging positive progress within the society.

Enabling small businesses to grow and cultivating other innovative ideas of the Kuwaiti youth is of paramount importance to the bank’s continued efforts of contributing to the sustainable development of its community.

Sponsored by

Photography Competition

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Kuwait National & Liberation Days

cers noticed he tried to change route when they approached his vehicle. He was arrested and taken to the proper authorities after police learned of his criminal record.

Wataniya Telecom sponsored Road Rush Race KUWAIT: Driven by its desire to spread awareness on the importance of applying safe driving rules and limit car accidents, and based on its social responsibility towards the youth population, Wataniya Telecom announced its sponsorship of “Road Rush 2 Race�, which took place on March 9 and 10 at the Bahrain International Circuit. It is

Burgan Bank sponsors P2BK exhibition

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er n offfer -in e-i de trad R tra n DSLR on no Can Ca

C Contest ontest Rules Rules

s Competition is open s Competition open to to all. taken by by the entrants entrants only. only. ss Participating Participating phot photos os should be be taken allowed per per participant. participant. ss A A maximum of ďŹ v ďŹ vee en entries tries will b bee allowed white or color, colorr, size size 30x40cm. ss Photos Photos ccan an be be in black & white copy and CD in high ss Entries Entries should b bee provided provided in hard hard copy ticipant should b rresolution. esolution. TThe he phot photo o of the par participant bee on the CD as well. well. ss Original coupon should be be stuck on the back of each photo photo Original coupon omplete inf fo ormation of the par ticipant. with ccomplete information participant. s All en tries ar eturnable and will b property of s All entries aree non-r non-returnable bee the property K uwait TTimes. imes. The The en tries ccan an be be used by by the organizer. organizer.

Kuwait entries ss Winners be chosen by by a panel of independent independent judges Winners will be judges..

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Offer valid only at Nasser Al-Sayer Showroom in Kuwait City.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

Israel-Gaza violence ebbs as truce takes effect Page 8

in the

news

Saudi executes two RIYADH: Saudi Arabia yesterday executed a Saudi who killed a man in a tribal feud as well as a Syrian drug smuggler, the ministry of interior announced. “Humam Eid AlKindar, a Syrian, was arrested for smuggling 169,000 banned pills,” state news agency SPA quoted a ministry statement as saying. Kindar was beheaded by the sword in the kingdom’s northern province of Jawf, it said. The statement added that Saeed Al-Ahmari, a Saudi, was convicted of shooting dead fellow citizen Ali Al-Ahmar at a police station during a tribal feud. He was executed in the southwestern city of Abha. The beheadings bring to 13 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.

3 policemen, local Qaeda chief killed SANAA: Three policemen were killed in a suicide attack in Yemen’s Bayda province yesterday that sparked clashes in which a local Al-Qaeda chief also died, a security official said. “Three policemen were killed and six others were wounded in a suicide attack on a checkpoint in Suwadeya,” the official said, referring to a village in Bayda province, south of Sanaa. The attack, carried out with a bomb-laden vehicle, was followed by clashes between extremists and security forces in which the province’s Al-Qaeda chief, Naser Al-Dhafri, and another militant were killed, the source said. He accused Dhafri of being the “mastermind” behind yesterday’s attack. The militants also managed to capture two policemen during the fighting, the official said, requesting anonymity.

German gun ring smashed SYDNEY: A criminal syndicate smuggling black-market handguns into Sydney from Germany was smashed yesterday with three people arrested, police said. The arrests were made by officers from Strike Force Maxworthy, which was established in February to investigate the import racket with the help of the German Federal Police. “Today, a number of search warrants have been executed in Sydney, Australia, and Remscheid, Germany,” New South Wales police said. “Three men have been arrested in Sydney and are assisting police with their inquiries.”

Bangladesh ferry disaster leaves 32 dead, 100 missing Page 12

Axe-wielding arsonist slays imam ‘Sunni extremists’ blamed for Belgian attack BRUSSELS: An axe-wielding arsonist burst into a Shiite Belgian mosque Monday, killing the imam and destroying much of the building in an attack local Muslims tipped as the work of Sunni extremists. Police said the man, detained after mosque personnel trapped him inside the building, apparently used fuel to set fire to the Rida mosque near Brussels’ international rail hub, killing 46-year-old father-of-four Abdallah Dadou.

The victim, who died of smoke inhalation, was described by worshipper Abdel Adouzeyneb, a 39-year-old real estate agent, as “a person who was loved by everybody-he was open, well integrated, smiling and happy.” A second person who was with the victim at the time of the attack was lightly injured. Police were unable to immediately name the suspect as he lacked identity papers, but authorities said the man described himself as a Muslim born in 1978. Authorities are investigating his motives and whether he had accomplices.

Azzedine Laghmich, an official at the mosque said the attacker was “a Salafist,” who sprayed petrol inside the mosque before setting it alight and shouting Sunni slogans on his way out-cries related to the conflict in Syria. “All the eyewitness accounts said so,” Laghmich added. Isabelle Praile, another senior official in Belgium’s organised Muslim community, said the Rida mosque “had already been placed under police protection several years ago,” citing direct threats from members of the ultra-conservative Salafist movement.

Around 100 men gathered on the edge of a police cordon near the mosque, angrily chanting Shiite slogans while some cried and others hugged and prayed. Police forensics teams scoured the scene of the attack. “I brought my eight-year-old son here with me so that he can see blind hate, what it can do,” said Ismael Ben Mohammad, 40, adding that he felt “a sadness difficult to describe.” The mayor of the city’s Anderlecht ward, Gaetan Van Goidsenhoven, appealed for calm at an overnight press conference, saying it was “not only necessary to live side-by-side, but also to allow justice and the police to do their work.” Prosecutor Jean-Marc Meilleur said the arson suspect had come armed with a knife and an axe, but that “people inside the mosque managed to lock him in the building” before police arrived.

“At the moment, there is only one suspect,” he said, without excluding accomplices and stressing it was “too soon” to

BRUSSELS: A sandal is seen in the Reda mosque in Brussels yesterday. A mosque near Brussels was the target of an arson attack in which the imam died. — AP pin down possible motives. Another press conference has account that she was “scandalized by this attack in my combeen scheduled for 11:00 am yesterday. The area around munity against a mosque.” “A man is dead and that is despithe 2,000-capacity mosque, one of four Shiite centers of cable, nothing can excuse such an act.” The last time an worship in the city’s overwhelming majority Sunni Muslim imam was targeted in Brussels was in 1989 when Saudicommunity, has a large immigrant Muslim population. born Abdullah Muhammad Al-Ahdal was shot dead. He Police said they received a call at 6:45 pm (1745 GMT) and served as imam in the Grand Mosque of Brussels and was the body was pulled out 45 minutes later. Belgian Interior killed in March of that year by an armed man inside the Minister Joelle Milquet said she was “very shocked by the mosque. His killing was claimed by a small pro-Iranian events that have occurred” which she condemned “with group in Lebanon who accused him of being too moderate and of having rejected the death fatwa slapped on writer firmness and indignation.”

Fadila Laanan, a regional minister, said on her Twitter Salman Rushdie. — AFP

WDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Australian commandos operating in Africa SYDNEY: Australian Special Forces have been operating in several African countries over the past year gathering intelligence on terrorist activities, a report said yesterday. The Sydney Morning Herald said 4 Squadron of the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had mounted dozens of clandestine operations in places such as Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya in a role normally carried out by spies. Citing a government source, it said the missions by the previously unknown squadron

were believed to involve terrorism intelligence gathering amid concerns about the threat posed by the Islamist Al-Shebab militia.

They are also aimed at developing rescue strategies for evacuating trapped Australian civilians while assessing African border controls and exploring landing sites for possible military interventions. The information gathered flows into databases used by the United States and its allies, it said.

The Herald added the operations have

raised serious concerns among some sections of the military and intelligence communities that the troops do not have adequate legal protection or contingency plans if they are captured.

“They have all the espionage skills but without (Australian Secret Intelligence Service’s) legal cover,” said one government source. According to the newspaper, ASIS officers are permitted under Australian law to carry false passports and, if arrested, to deny

who they are employed by. Defense Force members, such as the SAS, on normal operations cannot carry false identification and cannot deny which government they work for. Defense Minister Stephen Smith refused to confirm the group’s existence “because we don’t want to put at risk either operations or our national security”. But he insisted that all Australian operatives overseas did their job within the law and had proper protection.

“People would expect from time to

time the SAS, ASIS, and department of foreign affairs and trade are involved in making sure Australians overseas are not at risk,” he told Sky News.

“Whenever we have our people in the field they have the proper and appropriate protections. “Whether someone is working for ASIS or someone is operating for or with the SAS, we ensure they operate in accordance with domestic and international law and that they have appropriate and proper protection.”— AFP

Israel, Islamic Jihad agree to Gaza truce Deal ends 4 days of violence that killed 25

IDLIB: Aida, 32, reacts as she recovers from severe injuries after the Syrian Army shelled her house in Idlib north Syria. — AP

Syria laying mines near the borders BEIRUT: Syrian forces have laid mines near the borders of Lebanon and Turkey along routes used to escape the conflict in Syria, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said yesterday. Its report documented multiple accounts from witnesses in Turkey, Lebanon and inside Syria who had either seen Syrian troops laying mines or been injured by mines.

Opposition activists who have waged a year-long revolt against President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule use Lebanon and Turkey to bring food, medicine and weapons into Syria. Thousands of Syrians have also fled the violence into Turkey and Lebanon. “Any use of anti-personnel landmines is unconscionable,” Steve Goose, Arms Division director at HRW, said. “There is absolutely no justification for the use of these indiscriminate weapons by any country, anywhere, for any purpose.”

Syria last used anti-personnel mines during the 1982 conflict with Israel in Lebanon, the report said. Syria’s stockpile is believed to consist mainly of Soviet/Russian-manufactured mines, it added. The report quoted a 15-year-old boy from Tal Kalakh in Syria who lost a

leg in a landmine explosion in February while trying to transport a wounded person to Lebanon for medical treatment.

Opposition activists in Syria say they fear arrest, torture and death at the hands of Syrian security forces if they seek treatment in Syrian state hospitals when they are wounded in protests or clashes with police and security forces.

Turkey acceded to the international Mine Ban Treaty on September 25, 2003.

Syria and Lebanon have refused to sign the treaty, which would require all landmines in their countries to be cleared.

Nadim Hour y, HRW ’s researcher for Syria and Lebanon, told Reuters that is was very hard to get the exact figure for the number of wounded by Syrianplaced landmines because most casualties occur on the Syrian side of the border. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied access into the country to rights groups and journalists. The United Nations says more than 7,500 people have been killed in unrest against Assad’s government.

Syria said in December that “terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police. — Reuters

Iran dismisses claims of nuke site clean-up TEHRAN: Iran yesterday dismissed claims it was clearing away traces of suspected nuclear weapons research activities from a closed military site, saying the allegations were “propaganda”. The sprawling Parchin military site, located 30 kilometers east of Tehran, “is conducting normal military activities,” foreign ministr y spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in a regular briefing. “Declarations about the cleaning up of nuclear traces from this site-and those who are technically savvy know you cannot remove traces of such activity from an area-these declarations are propaganda,” he said.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Yukiya Amano, said early last week that satellite images suggested there were unspecified “ongoing” activities at the Parchin base. Western diplomats said they suspected Iran was removing evidence from the site. The International Atomic Energy Agency has focused suspicions on Parchin since receiving intelligence, outlined in a November report, that Iran may have been testing normal explosives in a big metal cylinder there with the aim of researching implosion triggers for an eventual nuclear bomb.

Iran has twice this year refused requests by a visiting IAEA team to inspect Parchin. Although the IAEA inspected parts of Parchin two times in 2005, it says it did not see the area alleged to contain the explosives test cylinder. Mehmanparast highlighted those 2005 visits and said Iran had accepted the “principle” of another visit, but that the IAEA should have been “more patient” in reaching agreement on the framework of such an inspection.

Parchin will be one of the key issues in a new round of talks being prepared between Iran and world powers likely to take place in coming weeks.

Last week, the group of nations to sit down with Iran-the so-called P5+1 comprising the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany-issued a statement urging Iran to “fulfill its undertaking to grant access to Parchin.” The talks will revive negotiations that broke

down in Istanbul in January 2011. Iran, under pressure from sanctions and the threat of military strikes on its nuclear facilities, agreed on February 14 to a P5+1 proposal to resume the discussions and has indicated it again favored Istanbul as the venue.

Mehmanparast, though, said “several countries have declared themselves ready” to host the talks, which he said should begin “soon”. He added that Iran stood by its view that uranium enrichment-one of the most contentious activities to be addressed-was permitted under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty supervised by the IAEA, as long as it was destined for peaceful nuclear use.

“The level of enrichment for peaceful activities is a technical question, and experts can determine what level of enrichment is within a peaceful framework,” he said.

Iran is currently enriching uranium to 3.5 percent, needed for nuclear energy generation, and to 20 percent, for isotopes to treat cancer patients. Uranium needs to be enriched to 90 percent or higher to make an atomic bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last weekend warned that the West should drop its “bullying” stance against his country.

“As God is my witness, the Iranian nation will not give a damn for (your) bombs, warships and planes,” he said in a televised speech on Sunday in the city of Karaj west of Tehran.

The United States and its EU allies “should talk politely, and recognize the rights of (other) nations, and cooperate instead of showing teeth, and weapons and bombs,” he said. Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes and has no military component. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called nuclear weapons a “sin”. Khamenei also praised US President Barack Obama’s recent comments cautioning against “bluster” in talking about possible war with Iran-although he also called US determination to press on with sanctions an “illusion”.— AFP

GAZA: An Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip began to take hold yesterday after four days of violence in which 25 Palestinians were killed and 200 rockets were fired at Israel. The number of Palestinian rocket attacks dropped steeply after the ceasefire went into effect overnight. The Israeli military said three rockets had hit, causing no casualties, and that there had been no Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Previous ceasefire deals after earlier rounds of fighting have often got off to a slow start, with guns falling silent within a day or two.

A senior Egyptian security official in Cairo told Reuters by phone that both sides had “agreed to end the current operations”, with Israel agreeing to “stop assassinations”, and an overall deal “to begin a comprehensive and mutual (period of ) calm”. The truce agreement followed appeals from world powers - the United States, the United Nations, France, the European Union and the Arab League - for both sides to exercise restraint. A Palestinian official close to the talks said “the factions are committed”, alluding to the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, which were most active in the fighting, but that these groups were waiting to see how Israel would respond.

Gaza’s Hamas Islamist leadership has kept out of the fighting and seemed eager to avoid a larger conflict with Israel. Israeli Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Israel Radio that “unless there are last minute developments ... this round is now behind us.” Amos Gilad, a

BRUSSELS: A sandal is seen in the Reda mosque in Brussels yesterday. A mosque near Brussels was the target of an arson attack in which the imam died. — AP senior Israeli defense official, said Israel would feel free to take “preemptive action” if Israeli lives were in danger - a reference to future strikes against Palestinian militants believed to be planning attacks. But, he told Army Radio, if “there is quiet on their part, there will be quiet on our part”.

The worst flare-up of violence along the restive frontier in months began Friday, after Israel killed a senior militant it accused of plotting to attack Israel from Egyptian territory. Israel said Gaza militants had fired about 200 rockets at its southern towns and cities from Gaza since then.

Eight Israelis were injured by the rockets, dozens of which were shot down harmlessly by Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile interceptor

system. But while Israel was keen to bar rocket fire, at its home front there seemed to be little public enthusiasm for waging a longer military campaign reminiscent of a 2008-2009 offensive in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. Twenty of the Palestinians killed in the Hamas-controlled enclave since Friday were militants and five were civilians, according to medical officials.

At least 80 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been wounded in the violence which also paralyzed life in much of southern Israel, forcing schools to close and hundreds of thousands to remain indoors.

Gaza, home to 1.7 million people, was under Israeli occupation from 1967 until 2005 and

remains under blockade.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing it from West Bankbased Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. It is fighting for an independent Palestinian state but has shunned the stalled peace process supervised by international powers and refuses to recognize the Jewish state. Violent flare -ups have been frequent between Israel and Gaza’s militant factions in the past few years, in most cases lasting no longer than a week. The last conflagration of this intensity was in August after a cross-border attack launched from Egypt killed eight in Israel and Israel struck back killing 15 Gaza gunmen.—Reuters

Israel sees Gaza rocket as part of Iran’s threat JERUSALEM: Just days after returning from Washington for talks on the Iran nuclear threat, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu found southern Israel hammered by rockets from Gaza, with the premier insisting the two threats are twinned. Four days of cross-border violence in and around Gaza ended with a truce agreement yesterday, putting an end to an episode which Israeli officials feared could escalate and deflect the world’s attention from the main problem: Iran’s nuclear drive.

Netanyahu last week held talks on the issue with US President Barack Obama, winning US assurances that Washington would ultimately be prepared to use military force to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon. “Our commitment to the security of Israel is rock solid,” Obama said. “The United States will always have Israel’s back.” But analysts said the Israeli leader appeared unconvinced. “Obama went out of his way to try and send that message,” political scientist Jonathan Rynhold said. “But I think actually that he didn’t convince the prime minister at all.”

“The disagreement that was there, is still there.”

Much of the West believes Iran’s nuclear program has a military aim, a charge which Tehran denies, but Israeli and US leaders are at odds over how soon the threat could become reality. The Obama administration maintains that tough sanctions on Iran and diplomatic efforts need to be given more time before any resort to bombing raids. Israel, however, believes that time is running out for a pre-emptive strike, and that Iran may be on the cusp of “break out” capacity-the moment when it could quickly produce weapons-grade uranium.

Despite Obama’s ver y public reassurances, Netanyahu appears as determined as ever to keep Iran at the forefront of public consciousness. On Wednesday, he returned home and two days later ordered a fatal air strike against a Gaza militant leader which stirred up a hornets’ nest and brought a hail of rockets slamming into southern Israel, most of them fired by the radical Islamic Jihad movement.

While the militar y prepared the plans, it was Netanyahu himself who gave the green light for the hit. “That decision was taken at the highest level,” an Israeli official said. Media commentators said Netanyahu and his advisors can have had no doubts about the violent consequences of that killing.—AFP

MOGADISHU: Somali children play by on the beach off the Indian Ocean in the Hamarweyne district of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.— AFP

For war-torn Somalia, lessons from stable breakaway north HARGEISA: Banknotes in piles the size of desks lie on a dusty street guarded by dozing civilians-money exchange offices in Somaliland, the northern breakaway state of war-torn Somalia. While war rages in southern Somalia-where regional armies and government troops battle Shebab fighters allied to Al-Qaeda-the relative stability achieved in Somaliland offers a sliver of hope for the rest of the anarchic land.

“We are a peaceful and democratic country,” said Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, president of the self-declared country which broke away from Somalia in 1991, the year the Horn of Africa nation erupted into all-out civil war. “People have said we are an oasis of peace in the Horn of Africa,” added Silanyo, who took the helm of this nation the size of England in peaceful 2010 polls. Like Somalia’s capital Mogadishu today, Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa was left in ruins by bombing raids in the bloody civil war. But while the wreckage of destroyed fighter jets still lies on Hargeisa’s bumpy airstrip, the scars of the conflict are rapidly fading, as bullet-riddled ruins are replaced by a spurt of new buildings.

Traders sell plump melons and bananas from farms outside the city on bustling street corners, while women offer milk

from the camels that are key to Somaliland’s mainly rural and pastoral economy. “It is not always easy, but every year there are improvements in the economy,” said businesswoman Amina Farah Arshe, who runs a fleet of fishing boats and supports women entrepreneurs. As international diplomatic, military and relief efforts focus on ending the conflict in southern Somalia, Somaliland’s experience offers lessons in how to build peace, Silanyo said. “It was not imposed by any political group, but by an agreement of all people, clans and leaders, to come together to make reconciliation and restore peace,” Silanyo said in his modest presidential compound. But while Somaliland is bound together by a unifying ambition for formal independence and international recognition, southern Somalia is riven by brutal land and power struggles fueled by clan divides and religious beliefs.

“Somaliland demonstrates it is possible to build peace and stability in Somalia” if there is a “clear objective”-in this case independence-said Georges-Marc Andre, EU ambassador to Somalia, the largest donor here. “In south and central Somalia however, for the time being, the interests are too diverse,” Andre added. —AFP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Carla, Valerie battle to be next French first lady PARIS: In May, the supermodel third wife of one French presidential candidate or the journalist girlfriend of the other will walk triumphantly into the Elysee. But whether Carla Bruni-Sarkozy reclaims her first lady spot or Valerie Trierweiler wrests it away from her, an air of glamour and a faint whiff of scandal will likely linger in the presidential palace. Trierweiler is tipped to take on the role, according to opinion polls which consistently put her partner, Socialist Francois Hollande, ahead of the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. But no one is ruling out a come-back by the combative right-wing president.

The two women-each a vital part of the campaign arsenal even if neither candidate has so far deployed his elegant partner too overtly-could not be from more different backgrounds. Bruni, 44, is the wealthy daughter of an Italian industrialist, while Trierweiler, 47, is the offspring of a disabled father and a mother who worked at the ticket office of an ice rink in the Loire Valley. Both brunettes carved out highly successful careers for themselves: Bruni as a supermodel and pop singer and Trierweiler as a political journalist for Paris Match magazine and as a television presenter.

And their relationships with their men both began in circumstances that raised many eyebrows.

Bruni, whose notoriously long string

of previous lovers include Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump, married Sarkozy in early 2008 just months after the newly elected president divorced his second wife, Cecilia. Cecilia had stood by his side on election night in May 2007 even though she knew that their relationship was over-apparently by her choice. In an ironic parallel, Hollande had stood loyally by his expartner Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children, as she battled Sarkozy for the presidency in the same 2007 race. Hollande had been in a relationship with Trierweiler, whom he had known for two decades, since 2005 but kept it quiet with the help of a compliant media.

Trierweiler, a divorced mother of three, says in a new book, extracted in the Paris Match magazine for which she works, that Royal knew of their liaison.

“She knew the truth about the real nature of the ties uniting Francois and me,” she told the author of “Valerie, Carla, Cecilia, Bernadette and the others on the campaign trail.” Reports of their rivalry led to speculation-which she denies-that Trierweiler made sure that Royal was airbrushed out of a film screened to the faithful at Hollande’s campaign launch in January. She received the unlikely support of Bruni in the book, who slams the idea of “preventing a women practicing her profes-

French leader rejects Gaddafi accusation PARIS: France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday angrily denied receiving money from deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his first presidential run in 2007, as one news website reported earlier in the day. Website Mediapart said that the Libyan regime gave 50 million euros ($65.70 million) to Sarkozy’s campaign, citing a document being used to investigate a 2002 bombing in the Pakistani city of Karachi, which killed 11 French citizens. The report comes just six weeks before the first round of the presidential election on April 22. “If he (Gaddafi) had financed it, then I haven’t been very grateful,” Sarkozy said when a journalist asked about the report on TF1 television.

In March 2011, as France and Britain spearheaded air strikes against Libya, Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam told Euronews TV that Libya had financed Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, which the president’s office also denied at the time.

Sarkozy lashed out at the journalist who asked him about the report and al-Islam’s claim, accusing her of sympathizing with the younger Gaddafi, who is being held by a Libyan militia. “I am sorry for you that you are the spokeswoman for Gaddafi’s son,” Sarkozy said, visibly angered by the question. “Gaddafi, who is known for talking nonsense, even said that there were cheques. Well then the son should just go ahead and produce them then,” he said.

Earlier on Monday Sarkozy’s campaign spokeswoman, Nathalie KosciuskoMorizet, also denied there was anything behind the report, saying that allegations had been repeatedly made but no proof had emerged. A spokesman for Socialist party challenger Francois Hollande refused to comment on the report beyond pointing out that Gaddafi

had visited Paris after the 2007 election.

“Anyone could have been legitimately surprised by how Gaddafi was received by the current government until not that long ago,” said Bernard Cazeneuve.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy The spokesman added that if Hollande won the election he would lift state secrecy rules regarding the Karachi bombing. French magistrates are examining whether the attack was a reprisal against France’s decision to stop commissions on arms sales in Pakistan, and if there was any link to campaign funding during another French election, back in 1995.

Mediapart, staffed by a number of veteran French newspaper and news agency journalists, gained prominence in 2010 when it broke news of a major political funding scandal around Sarkozy’s UMP party and L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. — Reuters

Ten years on, world court makes waves THE HAGUE: A decade after it was set up to try the world’s worst war crimes, the International Criminal Court evokes strong responses with some hailing it and others branding it a tool of the winning forces. For Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, it is a “respected global institution”, but critics say The Hague-based ICC dispenses punishment only to losers in conflicts. “When I started, people said we could not do it, we would never have a case in court,” Moreno-Ocampo said in an interview on the eve of the ICC’s first judgement since being called into life in July 2002.

“We now investigate in seven countries, we have people in prison, we are a court, we are normal,” Moreno-Ocampo said ahead of the verdict in the case of Democratic Republic of Congo militia leader Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga, 51, is one of 20 suspects against whom arrest warrants have been issued to appear in The Hague. He will learn his fate today, facing charges of recruiting child soldiers under 15 years to fight in his militia.

Considered to be a minor catch for the ICC and imprisoned in 2006, Lubanga has also been joined in a prison in The Hague by two other Congolese rebel leaders, as well as Democratic Republic of Congo former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Last year, the suspects at the tribunal’s detention unit received a new addition: former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. Fifteen procedures are now pending before the ICC, the world’s first permanent international criminal tribunal to tr y genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It held 321 hearings last year in three trials or pre-tri-

al preparations. More than 4,000 victims, many of them of ethnic violence, have taken part in proceedings before the court, which employs some 700 people and has a budget of 108 million euros ($141 million) for this year.

“The court has become a globally respected institution,” said Argentinean prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo, due to end his mandate in June. His deputy, Fatou Bensouda of Gambia, is set to take over the reins. So far 120 countries have signed up to the Rome Statute and pledged to work with the court. “We cannot attend a single meeting in New York where at one point or another the ICC is not being mentioned,” a diplomatic source at the UN said. “The added value of the court is its legitimacy and its impartiality,” the source said.

But there was a flip side, the source said. “There lies the whole challenge for the future: some countries would like to chose their suspects and decide themselves which arrest warrants should be executed. “Already, nobody lifts a finger to arrest (Sudanese President) Omar AlBashir,” the source added. Wanted by the ICC for genocide, Bashir continues to cock a snook at the ICC as he travels the world in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, the source said. The ICC does not have its own police force and is dependent on the goodwill of member states to nab suspects.

It has garnered strong support from global NGOs, but also some criticism.

“We regret that all investigations are conducted in Africa,” said Karine Bonneau of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). — AFP

sion on the grounds that she is a highprofile politician’s wife” as “ultra-macho.”

Bruni’s outrage came after Trierweiler was forced to drop a weekly television political show she presented in which

and her boyfriend on the glossy front page beside the headline: “Francois Hollande’s charming asset. The story of how their love was born.”

Trierweiler, who supports Hollande

PARIS: A combo photo shows file pictures of French First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy (left) and France’s Socialist Party (PS) candidate for the 2012 French presidential election partner Valerie Trierweiler. — AFP she interviewed presidential candidates following accusations of conflict of interest. Trierweiler, who is credited with persuading her formerly chubby partner to slim and wear sharper suits, also last November agreed not to cover politics for Paris Match during the presidential campaign. She lashed out at the magazine on Thursday after she found herself

on the campaign trail and has an office at his headquarters, tweeted her fury at not being informed by her employer that she was their top story for the week. She sarcastically congratulated the magazine, in a second, even angrier tweet, for reducing her to a trophy companion. Carla, who last October gave birth to Giulia, her daughter with

Sarkozy, has also had to put her career on hold. She has stopped touring as a singer but still writes songs and records albums. She played a small role in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris.”

Both couples are pulling out all the stops to present themselves as “normal” and down-to-earth people.

Sarkozy’s popularity plummeted at the start of his mandate after the then cigar-smoking and Ray Ban-wearing president was perceived to be consorting with the rich and famous and neglecting ordinary people.

“We are modest people,” insisted Bruni last week in a claim that has prompted mirth among political opponents. She also claims that she is happiest lounging at home in a tracksuit and watching soap operas. Trierweiler, for her part, boasts that she copes with the stress of the election campaign by doing laundry, while her wannabe presidential partner has always portrayed an image of himself as an average guy.

The Trierweiler-Hollande team is currently the favorite among the French.

An opinion poll this week in Paris Match said 40 percent wanted them to be the next presidential couple, with just 26 percent plumping for their rivals. There are of course several other presidential candidates in the race but few observers believe they have a chance of winning. — AFP

Older nuclear plants pose safety challenge

Fukushima disaster raises nuke safety concerns VIENNA: Eighty percent of the world’s nuclear power plants are more than 20 years old, raising safety concerns, a draft UN report says a year after Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Many operators have begun programs, or expressed their intention, to run reactors beyond their planned design lifetimes, said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) document which has not yet been made public. “There are growing expectations that older nuclear reactors should meet enhanced safety objectives, closer to that of recent or future reactor designs,” the Vienna-based UN agency’s annual Nuclear Safety Review said.

“There is a concern about the ability of the ageing nuclear fleet to fulfill these expectations.”

The Fukushima tragedy was triggered on March 11, 2011, when an earthquake unleashed a tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing. It also smashed into the coastal power plant causing a series of catastrophic failures at the facility. Images of the stricken plant shook public confidence in nuclear power and forced the nuclear industry to launch a campaign to defend its safety record. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano

told Reuters last week that nuclear power is now safer than it was a year ago . The report said the “operational level of NPP (nuclear power plant) safety around the world remains high”.

It cited steady improvements in terms of unplanned reactor shutdowns in recent years.

But the 56-page IAEA document also highlighted an ageing nuclear fleet, with eighty percent of the 435 facilities more than two decades old at the end of last year. This “could impact safety and their ability to meet member states’ energy requirements in an economical and efficient manner”, said the report, which has been submitted to IAEA member states but not yet finalized. Operators and regulators opting for so-called long term operation “must thoroughly analyze the safety aspects related to the ageing of ‘irreplaceable’ key components”, it added.

LESSONS LEARNT? About 70 percent of the world’s 254 research reactors have been in operation for more than 30 years “with many of them exceeding their original design life,” it said.

The document was debated by the IAEA’s 35-

SA seeks to shore up local languages JOHANNESBURG: South African radio broadcasts in 11 languages. The national anthem includes verses in five. TV ads, soap operas, ATM machines, and newspapers have all begun using more languages since the end of white-minority rule in 1994. But in a nation that has in the past been violently divided over languages, there is an awkward discomfort that English increasingly predominates in South Africa. “We always talk about being a nation united in diversity, yet we can’t afford certain languages a right to be heard,” Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said in an interview. “This is our chance to do just that,” he said.

Mashatile’s ministry has proposed a new South African Languages bill, which would require that government communicate in at least three of the official languages. Most government communication now happens in English and Afrikaans, the language most closely associated with the white -minority regime. The decision to force students to learn in Afrikaans sparked the Soweto uprising in 1976, a milestone in the antiapartheid struggle. The decision to keep most government communication in Afrikaans and English after Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994 was mainly out of convenience, since that is the way it had always been done, Mashatile said.

“We are saying add one indigenous language to be used with the two dominant languages,” Mashatile said. “This bill is meant to promote multilingualism, not just one specific language,” said Mashatile. For regional governments, the third language would be chosen based on local demographics, with preference given to “diminishing” languages, he said.

The bill, on the cards since 2007, is in response to a provision of the constitution which states that government must “take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of indigenous languages”.

“So far there has been no legal framework that binds the state to actually implement this clause,” Mashatile said.

The bill is currently open for public

debate before it is discussed in parliament. “There has been a lot of interest from the public. People take pride in their languages and it is a very emotional subject,” said Mashatile. Recently some wealthier public schools stopped teaching indigenous languages, prompting outrage from government.

Some privates schools opt for European languages like French, German and Spanish as additional languages, citing demand and interest by pupils. The bill does not address the worries about the curriculum, but Mashatile said the Department of Education would have to communicate in three languages, which would have ripple effects on the schools.

“We have noted the problem around the use of African languages in schools. This bill will have far reaching consequences in terms of addressing these situations,” he said. “No language is more important than the other”.

Most of South Africa’s indigenous languages are regional. Zulu is the most common language spoken at home, understood by 24 percent of the population, followed by Xhosa at nearly 18 percent, Afrikaans at 13 percent and Pedi at nine percent, according to government information. — AFP

JOHANNESBURG: South African Culture Minister Paul Mashatile is pictured during an interview in Johannesburg. — AFP

nation governing board last week, almost exactly a year after the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years. Last year’s tsunami overwhelmed Fukushima on Japan’s northeast coast, knocking out critical power supplies that resulted in a nuclear meltdown and the release of radiation. The reactors were stabilized by December, but high radiation levels hamper a cleanup that is expected to take decades. The crisis sparked a rethink about nuclear power and countries such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland have decided to phase out their reactors.

But other states, for example fast-growing China and India, continue to look to nuclear energy to meet their growing energy needs, the IAEA report said, adding that some “are even accelerating their nuclear energy programs”. France is building its first “advanced” reactor and Russia is seeking to double its nuclear energy output by 2020, it said. “All countries that are using nuclear power are much more serious about nuclear safety,” Amano said last week. But environmental group Greenpeace said no “real lessons” appeared to have been learnt from Fukushima. — Reuters

News

in brief

6 arrested over hacking LONDON: British police made six arrests yesterday in a wide-ranging investigation into phone hacking in the British media. Britain’s Press Association and other British media reported that the former News International executive Rebekah Brooks was among those arrested. The six people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, the force said in a statement. The charge is an indication that investigators may be focusing on a possible coverup of the scope of phone hacking. The investigation stems from widespread wrongdoing at Ruper t Murdoch’s now-closed News of the World tabloid.

The victims have ranged from celebrities and major politicians to the families of crime victims.

The Metropolitan Police said five men and a woman were arrested in various locations in and around London in a series of raids conducted between 5 am and 7 am yesterday. Police said searches of the premises are ongoing. The names of the suspects have not been released.

Iran, Azerbaijan try to soothe tensions TEHRAN: Iran and Azerbaijan are taking steps to soothe bilateral tensions most recently stoked by Baku’s ties to Israel and its reported purchase of hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons from the Jewish state. Public assurances of good neighborly relations were being made in Tehran during a visit by Azerbaijan Defense Minister Safar Abiyev that continued into its second day yesterday. “We are sure that we will face no problem from our brother and neighbor Azerbaijan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying on Monday after meeting Abiyev. “Rest assured that Tehran-Baku ties will never be harmed,” he said, adding that “artificial problems” that existed would be resolved and ties would be strengthened. Abiyev was quoted as saying that “no nation can damage ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan.” He vowed that his country “will not allow anyone to use its soil and airspace against the Islamic Republic of Iran, since we consider Iran as a friend and brother.” The professed closeness sought to mend a rift opened up by Iranian news reports that Azerbaijan had bought $1.5 billion worth of weapons from Israel.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Republicans face off in tight Deep South primaries Gingrich fights for survival, Santorum seeks knockout BIRMINGHAM: US Republicans Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich faced off in a pair of highstakes presidential primaries in Mississippi and Alabama yesterday, with polls showing a virtual three-way dead heat in both states. The contests are critical for all three top contenders in a volatile Republican White House campaign that already has featured numerous surges, collapses and mood swings. Gingrich needs a win to keep his struggling campaign afloat, while Santorum hopes to knock Gingrich out of the race and consolidate conservative opposition to Romney, the shaky frontrunner.

A surprise win for Romney in either state, however, would be a critical breakthrough that could put him on a path to the nomination by proving his ability to appeal to the party’s core conservatives in the Deep South. Polls found the three contenders within a few percentage points of each other in both states, with Romney showing strength as Gingrich and Santorum split the states’ big bloc of very conservative, evangelical voters. “It’s very close, we think we have a good chance to win both states,” Gingrich told Fox News on Monday night. “We do have a chance here to break through.”

Romney has opened a big lead in

delegates in the Republican race to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama, but has been unable to capture the hearts of conservatives who distrust him for some of the moderate stances he took as governor of liberal Massachusetts. Romney rejected the notion on Monday, however, that his inability to put away his conservative rivals would mean none of the candidates would have the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the convention in August.

“Can you imagine anything that would be a bigger gift to Barack Obama than us not having a nominee until the end of August? That is just not going to happen,” Romney said on CNBC. All three contenders spent the final day before the votes campaigning in Alabama and Mississippi.

Romney held a rally in a driving rainstorm in Mobile, Alabama, while Gingrich and Santorum appeared separately at two candidate forums, one in Biloxi, Mississippi, and one in Birmingham, Alabama.

leader who’s actually helped do these things before and who is capable of taking Obama head on is what we

‘YOUR VOTE REALLY MATTERS’ “The primary tomorrow really matters and your vote really matters,” Gingrich, the former House speaker, said in Birmingham. “I hope you will decide that having an experienced

need as a party,” he said.

In Biloxi, Santorum accused Romney and Gingrich of falling for liberal science on the issue of climate change, and he urged the crowd in Birmingham to “elect a conservative,

Guatemala sentences soldier to 6,060 years GUATEMALA CITY: A Guatemalan court has sentenced a former Special Forces soldier to 6,060 years in prison for participating in a 1982 massacre that claimed 201 lives. Pedro Pimentel, 55, was deported from Los Angeles, California to Guatemala last year to face charges of murder and crimes against humanity and is the fifth soldier to be sentenced in the Central American nation for his role in the Las Dos Erres massacre at the height of the country’s brutal civil war.

The length of the sentence is largely symbolic because Guatemala’s laws only allow inmates to serve a maximum of 50 years. A former soldier who took part in the massacre testified that Pimentel was among a group of some 20 soldiers ordered to the village in December 1982 to search for missing weapons. The soldiers then blindfolded, strangled and bludgeoned villagers and a newborn child to death with a sledgehammer before dumping them down a 15-meterdeep well.

Pimentel, a former member of the elite unit known as the Kaibiles, was given 30 years of prison for each victim killed in the attack and 30 years for crimes against humanity. Now grey haired, Pimentel denied being present at the massacre, saying he left the area in November 1982 to prepare enrollment papers for the School of the Americas in Panama. The ruling comes as Guatemala seeks to clean up atrocities from the bloody 1960-1996 internal conflict in which nearly a quarter of a million people died or went missing. A judge sentenced four soldiers to 6,060 years in prison each last August for the Las Dos Erres Massacre.

Courts opened a trial in Januar y against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt who ruled the country for 17 months

during the war’s bloodiest period from 1982-1983. Montt, denied amnesty by a judge last month, faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is accused of ordering killings of at least 1,700 innocent Maya indigenous people

ALABAMA: Supporters watch as Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen Rick Santorum gives a live interview following a rally, in Montgomery, Ala. — AP Pennsylvania senator and staunch social conservative, has gained strength among the deeply conservative and evangelical voters who make up a big chunk of the Republican electorate in the two states. He won con-

servative Tennessee and Oklahoma last week, while Gingrich kept his campaign alive with a win in his home state of Georgia.

But Romney, who fares the best against Obama in head-to-head poll match-ups of any Republican, has argued his experience as the head of a private equity firm and running the Salt Lake City Olympics makes him the best choice for resurrecting the ailing economy. Steve Pittler, a voter from Mountain Brook, Alabama, said he thought Romney had the best chance to beat Obama. “It’s more of an ‘anyone but Obama’ attitude, and who’s the one who can win against him? I think that’s Romney,” Pittler said. The other remaining Republican presidential contender, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, largely skipped the Alabama and Mississippi contests to focus on later states in the process.

Gingrich held a rally in Birmingham to watch the results in the two southern primaries yesterday, but his top rivals are already looking to the next contests. Romney plans to campaign in Missouri, which will hold caucuses on Saturday, and Santorum will watch the results come in with suppor ters in Lafayette, Louisiana, which will have a March 24 presidential contest. — Reuters

US, UK focus on foreign threats Obama, Cameron tackle foreign policy challenges

GUATEMALA CITY: Pedro Pimentel Rios, a former member of an elite Guatemalan military force known as the “kaibiles,” leaves the court after his trial in Guatemala City. — AP during a government crackdown on leftist insurgents. Montt appealed the amnesty decision to Guatemala’s Constitutional Court and is awaiting a verdict. His defense lawyers said that Montt, 85, did not control battlefield operations and that commanders were responsible for making decisions in their own posts. — Reuters

Justice Dept opposes voter ID law in Texas WASHINGTON: A photo ID requirement for voters in Texas could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of registered Hispanics, the Justice Department declared Monday in its latest move against Republican-led voting changes in many states that have drawn protests from minorities, poor people and students. The Justice objection means that now a federal court in Washington will decide whether Texas, as well as South Carolina, will be allowed to enforce its new voter photo ID requirements.

Justice’s move merely blocked a Texas law until the court rules.

Other states have similar laws and more are moving toward them as advocates portray the restrictions as needed to combat voter fraud. The Justice Department conveyed its objection in a letter to Texas officials that was also filed in the US District Court case in Washington between Texas and the department. Justice said Hispanic voters in Texas are at least 50 percent more likely and possibly more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic voters to lack a driver’s license or a personal state-issued photo ID, which the Texas law requires.

The range was so broad because Texas provided two sets of registered voter data to the Justice Department. It relied on the two Texas-supplied lists for the estimates of 175,000 and 304,000 registered Hispanic Texas voters who do not have driver’s licenses or state-issued IDs. Voter ID bills were “the hottest topic of legislation in the field

because that’s the one who’s going to be most electable” against Obama in November. Santorum, a former

of elections in 2011,” as legislation was introduced in 34 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Since the beginning of the 2011 legislative session, eight states have passed photo ID laws: Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Rhode Island. All but two were enacted by Republican legislatures and Republican governors.

Mississippi’s law was passed by voter referendum placed on the ballot by a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. Rhode Island’s law was enacted by a Democratic legislature and an independent governor. This year, the Republican-controlled Virginia General Assembly and Senate passed a voter ID measure, which Republican Gov Bob McDonnell is expected to sign.

In Pennsylvania, the Republicancontrolled House is expected to pass one of the toughest voter ID measures in the nation on Tuesday, the last step before it goes to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who plans to sign it. The new photo ID requirements have become a point of contention in the 2012 elections. Liberal groups say the push for these requirements is led by Republicans aiming to disenfranchise people who tend to vote Democratic African-Americans, Hispanics, the poor and college students. “ This is just another example of the misplaced priorities of the Obama administration,” Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said of the Justice Department objection. — AP

LONDON: Efforts to end the international mission in Afghanistan, curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions and halt the bloody repression of Syria’s opposition will dominate talks opening between US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron is heading to the United States for a three-day visit focused on current and looming foreign policy challenges, seeking to pin down details of the planned withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The two leaders, who last held talks in person at the United Nations in September, are meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago in May, when a decision on the pace of the exit from Afghanistan is likely to be confirmed. Their discussions follow the weekend killings of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly by a lone US soldier, and the deaths of six British troops last week in a roadside bomb blast the largest loss of life in a single incident for UK forces in Afghanistan since 2006.

“As recent days remind us, this remains a difficult mission. We honor the profound sacrifices of our forces and in their name we’ll carry on the mission,” Obama and Cameron wrote yesterday in a joint op-ed piece published in the Washington Post. They indicated their talks would focus on exactly when international forces plan to step back from a combat role amid public unease over the still rising death toll in the 11-year-long mission.

NATO had previously agreed that international forces would hand responsibility for the country’s security to local forces by the end of 2014, but US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said he now hopes Afghans can assume the lead combat role by mid-2013, meaning the withdrawal of foreign forces could be accelerated. The military alliance’s plan “includes shifting to a support role in advance of Afghans taking full responsibility for security in 2014,” the leaders wrote in their op-ed.

Last week’s fatalities took Britain’s death toll in Afghanistan since 2001 to 404.

Cameron has previously announced that the UK will withdraw 500 troops by the end of 2012, reducing the size of the country’s contingent in Afghanistan to 9,000. “It is worth remembering why we are in Afghanistan,” Cameron told reporters Monday. “We are

there to train up the Afghan army and the police so that country is able to look after its own security and make sure that country isn’t a haven for terrorists - without having foreign troops on its soil.” Setting modest ambitions for the end of the mission, Cameron said Afghanistan must have “at least a chance of stability” by the time foreign forces withdraw.

Alongside formal discussions, Obama plans to fly Cameron to an NCAA Tournament college basketball game in Ohio and will offer the British leader a glitzy White House dinner today. The lavish welcome is in part to offer

is preparing to shift its focus to the AsiaPacific region.

Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, which includes two former Foreign Secretaries and an ex-spy chief, last week urged Cameron to “reflect deeply on the long term implications” of the US turning its attention away from Europe. The leaders sought to ally concerns with a gushing statement of friendship. “What makes our relationship special - a unique and essential asset - is that we join hands across so many endeavors.

Put simply, we count on each other and the

WASHINGTON: The British and US flags side by side across from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, part of the White House grounds yesterday. The flags fly in honor of the visit of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife to Washington, DC. — AFP thanks for the pomp and pageantry during Obama’s visit to Britain last May, when the US president was warmly greeted by Queen Elizabeth II and bonded with Cameron over burgers as the two leaders hosted a barbecue for troops. It also underscores the strength of ties between Washington and London at a time when some British legislators fear the US

world counts on our alliance,” they wrote in their op-ed.

Obama and Cameron said they plan to discuss how to handle the resumption of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Britain and the US are among the six world powers involved in diplomacy with Tehran. — AP

Sentence struck down in US millennium bomb plot LOS ANGELES: Calling it unreasonably lenient, a federal appeals court on Monday overturned a 22year prison sentence for “millennium bomber” Ahmed Ressam, who was stopped with a carload of explosive materials before he could kill people at Los Angeles International Airport in 1999. In a 7-4 split decision, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government’s appeal and sent the case back to a federal judge in Seattle for resentencing for a third time.

The court, which contains some of the nation’s most liberal judges, said that Ressam’s plot to blow up the airport on New Year’s Eve 1999, was “horrific” and intended to intimidate the nation and the world. “Had Ressam succeeded, ‘LAX’ may well have entered our vocabulary as a term analogous to

‘the Oklahoma City bombing’ or ‘9/11,’” according to a majority decision written by Judge Richard R. Clifton. Ressam, an Algerian national who had attended training camps for Islamic terrorists, was arrested Dec 14, 1999, in Port Angeles, Wash.

He had a bogus Canadian passport but his nervousness after arriving on a ferry from Canada prompted a search of his rental car.

Authorities found more than 100 pounds of chemicals, along with timing devices and other equipment, to make a fertilizer-derived nitrate bomb. In April 2001, Ressam was convicted of nine federal charges, including smuggling explosives and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. Sentencing guidelines recommended 65 years to life in prison, but federal authorities offered lesser sentences if he

would cooperate in other terrorist cases. He cooperated for two years but later recanted some testimony.

The federal judge who sentenced Ressam said he looked at several factors, balancing the harm Ressam planned with the good his cooperation had done in fighting terrorism. But the appeals court said US District Judge John C Coughenour in Seattle committed a “clear error of judgment.” “We acknowledge that 22 years is not a trivial period of time” but it is decades shorter than the recommended sentence from federal guidelines, said the judges in the majority opinion. It noted that under the current sentence, Ressam would be only 51 when he is released from prison and still able to do damage. “Ressam demonstrated strongly held beliefs and a willingness to attack

American interests. If and when he is released, he could try again to blow up LAX or to launch some other attack,” according to the decision. — AP

Algerian Ahmed Ressam

12

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

i n t e r n at i o n a l

Negotiation ‘the only way out’ in Afghanistan WASHINGTON: The Taleban are set on vengeance after a US soldier killed 16 Afghan civilians, but the only viable exit from America’s longest war is through negotiation, experts said Monday. The attack ignited fresh public anger at the US presence, plunging US-Afghan relations to their lowest point since the 2001 invasion after Americans burnt holy Qurans last month and an earlier video showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taleban militants. Washington has insisted the mounting difficulties are simply “isolated incidents.”

And the White House and Pentagon, while deploring the latest “tragic” event, are vowing to stick to the roadmap defined by the NATO transatlantic military alliance. “You can’t necessarily take an isolated incident or two or three and draw a trendline on progress in

Afghanistan and whether or not there’s a shift in our goals,” said Pentagon spokesman George Little.

But the Taleban wasted no time in trying to capitalize on the atrocity, which saw a US Army sergeant open fire on sleeping villagers outside a US base in the southern province of Kandahar.

Most of his victims were women and children.

The militants, whose government was toppled by US forces over a decade ago, threatened to take revenge against “sick-minded American savages.” They sent fighters to mosques in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district as the funerals of the victims of the shootings took place, urging villagers to rise up.

NATO’s strategy aims to have Afghan security forces take control of security by the end of 2014 so that coalition troops can pull out their 130,000 sol-

diers. Until then, the United States hopes progress against the Taleban will convince the militants to come to the negotiating table.

Yet growing Afghan outrage at the repeated missteps could spell trouble for the coalition’s strategy, warned Moeed Yusuf of the US Institute of Peace. “If this continues, I don’t see how one can hold on to the strategy, which is in large part dependent on having the goodwill of the average Afghan,” he said. “The military strategy has dominated this where the political strategy should have dominated. The political hand has always been weak and that’s the problem.”

Sunday’s massacre poses a difficult test for the US-Afghan alliance, as the two countries pursue complex negotiations on a strategic pact to govern their long-term security relationship

once foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

Any deal would address the legal status of any US soldiers who stay behind to help prevent the country falling back into the hands of the Taleban, who were toppled in 2001 for sheltering Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Yusuf stressed that Afghan reconciliation and continued negotiations with the Americans-as appear to be taking place in Qatar, where the Taleban have opened an office-are the only way out. Despite the stalemate on the ground, he called reconciliation “the only available option right now.” The Taleban may be vowing vengeance but they have an interest in the talks as well by gaining political legitimacy, Yusuf said. “The shooting doesn’t change the war’s strategic calculus,” agreed Stephen

Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations. He said ensuring a proper security transition by late 2014 “is no longer viable” because the Taleban is still mounting significant attacks.

“What we will be handing off will be a stalemate at best,” said Biddle, a US national security and defense policy expert. “At best, the Afghan National Security Forces will be able to hold what we’ve taken.” As for reconciliation, it is not at the heart of the strategy, according to Biddle. He said the Taleban, targeted by continued military operations and eager to see foreign troops leave Afghanistan, are “still willing to discuss,” meaning there may yet be an exit out of Afghanistan. But that can only happen once “real negotiation” takes place, “where both sides make concessions and they will wait it out,” Biddle added. —AFP

Taleban threaten to behead US soldiers Afghan government delegation attacked KABUL: Suspected insurgents fired on an Afghan government delegation yesterday investigating the massacre of 16 civilians by a US soldier, officials said, hours after the Taleban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings. Two of President Hamid Karzai’s brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Addul Qayum Karzai, were with senior defense, intelligence and interior ministry officials trav-

shootings, the Taleban said Afghan government demands for an open trial of the US Army staff sergeant being held for the slayings would not blunt civilian hostility towards Western combat troops. The unnamed US soldier said to have only recently arrived in the country - is accused of walking off his base in Kandahar province in the middle of the night and gunning down at least

Karzai - who is said to be furious over the latest deaths - said the shootings had only increased his determination to get American troops out of Afghanistan.

However, Obama cautioned there should not be a “rush to the exits” for US forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001 and that the drawdown set for the end of 2014 should be done in a responsible way.

JALALABAD: Afghan protesters shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province yesterday. —AFP elling to the scene of the massacre in Najiban and Alekozai villages, in Kandahar’s Panjwai district, when insurgents opened fire.

Karzai’s brothers were unharmed in the brief gunbattle during meetings at a village mosque, but a soldier and a civilian were wounded. The area is a Taleban stronghold and a supply route. “The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahideen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers,” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the term with which the Islamist group describes itself.

As the first protest broke out in Jalalabad city over the weekend

16 villagers, mostly women and children. A US official said the accused soldier had suffered a traumatic brain injury while on a previous deployment in Iraq.

The shootings, which came just weeks after deadly protests across the country over the inadvertent burning of holy Qurans by US soldiers, triggered a protest by around 2,000 students in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The demonstrators chanted “Death to America” and demanded Afghan President Hamid Karzai reject plans to sign a strategic pact with Washington that would allow US advisers and possibly special forces to remain in the country beyond the planned withdrawal in 2014.

US President Barack Obama, speaking after a phone call with

The soldier, from a conventional unit, was based at a joint USAfghan base used by elite US troops under a so-called village support program hailed by NATO as a possible model for US involvement in the country after the 2014 drawdown. Such bases provide support to local Afghan security units and provide a source of security advice and training, as well as anti-insurgent backup and intelligence.

CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED ROGUE A spokesman for Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wisa said that tribal elders in the area of the massacre would urge against protests and work to dampen public anger if the investigation

process was transparent. “They are supporting the government and will accept any conclusion by the investigators. Today we have meetings with people in the area and all will become clear,” spokesman Ahmad Jawid Faisal said. NATO officials said it was too early to tell if the US soldier would be tried in the United States or Afghanistan if investigators were to find enough evidence to charge him, but he would be under US laws and procedures under an agreement between US and Afghan officials.

Typically, once the initial investigation is completed, prosecutors decide if they have enough evidence to file charges and then could move to an Article 32 or court martial hearing. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought in the US military justice system against the soldier, but portrayed the shooting as an isolated event that would not alter withdrawal plans. While Afghan MPs in parliament called for a trial under Afghan law, Karzai’s office was understood to accept that a trial in a US court would be acceptable provided the process was transparent and open to media.

Analysts said the incident would complicate US efforts to reach agreement with the Afghan government on a post-2014 security pact before a May summit in the US city of Chicago on the future size and funding of Afghan security forces.

Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said that despite NATO and White House references to the killings as the work of a “rogue” soldier, other similar events had happened before, including a “kill team” apprehended in Kandahar in 2010.

“In the stress of an environment of escalated violence - by both sides, but particularly after Obama’s troop surge in early 2009, it looks as if most soldiers simply see Afghanistan as a whole as ‘enemy territory’ and every Afghan as a potential terrorist. This can no longer be called ‘rogue’,” Ruttig said. NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, has promised a rapid investigation of the massacre, while security was being reviewed at NATO bases across the country. —Reuters

MUNSHIGONG: Rescue workers react on a boat carrying some of the recovered bodies of drowned passengers after a ferry accident in Munshigong yesterday. —AFP

32 dead, scores missing in B’desh ferry disaster KISHORI CHAR: At least 32 people drowned when a ferry sank in Bangladesh before dawn yesterday with scores more bodies feared trapped inside the capsized vessel, officials said. Rescue workers began removing fatalities from the double-decker Shariatpur 1 ferry, which was hit by an oil barge in the middle of the Meghna River, 40 kilometers southeast of the capital Dhaka.

“Divers have recovered 32 dead bodies from the sunken vessel including at least five women and two children,” local deputy police chief Tariqul Islam said at the scene, adding the death toll was likely to rise. “One diver pulled the dead body of a woman cradling her dead daughter to her chest,” he said. The rescue operation slowed during the day as emergency boats attempted to lift the ferry to the surface and pull it to the river bank to complete the search. “It will take hours as the vessel was far underwater and laden with cargo,” Commander Gulzar Hossain of the Bangladesh Navy, who is leading the operation, said. “It was tilted on its side and we fear a lot of dead bodies are stuck inside,” he added. About 200 passengers were thought to be on the ferry, but the exact number was uncertain as manifest lists are seldom maintained properly and many travelers buy their tickets when on board. “As soon as the ferry started to sink with a loud noise, we woke up from sleeping,” said survivor Rina Begum, standing near the accident site.

“Everyone was screaming. I jumped through a window, but my husband could not. I was rescued by a vessel one and a half hours later. I have 15 relatives missing.

We were part of a wedding party.”

Thousands of people, including the distraught family and friends of victims,

crowded the river’s edge as bodies were carried from the water. Mahbubul Alam, secretary of the Inland Water Transport Authority, said the vessel, which was built in 1991, appeared to have sunk rapidly after the collision. “We talked to a rescued passenger. He told us that the vessel sank in minutes after it hit the other vessel, giving most passengers no chance to swim to safety,” he said.

An investigation has been ordered, he added. Police said that about 35 passengers had been rescued by a passing ferry, the MV Mitali, soon after the accident at about 2:30 am (2030 GMT Monday). The Mitali’s captain told the ATN Bangla T V channel: “We stopped our vessel after hearing the cry of ‘Save us, save us’.” Other rescued passengers reported that the Dhaka-bound boat was overcrowded and was also carrying dozens of sacks of chillies. Two passengers, Khalid Hasan and Liton Mia, told the Prothom Alo newspaper website that they survived by swimming to a fishing trawler.

Bangladesh, a densely-populated and poverty-stricken country of 150 million people, is set on a delta of rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal. Boats are the main form of travel in Bangladesh’s remote rural areas and accidents are common due to lax safety standards and overloading. In April last year 32 people were killed after a passenger vessel sank in the Meghna River after colliding with a cargo ship. At least 85 people drowned in 2009 when an overloaded triple-decker ferry capsized off Bhola Island in the country’s south. Naval officials have said more than 95 percent of Bangladesh’s hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized boats do not meet minimum safety regulations. —AFP

Taiwan’s elderly suffer as family values change

TAIPEI: Photo shows Lee Hua, 77, living alone in a shabby rented house in the Jinshan district of the New Taipei City. —AFP

TAIPEI: With four grown-up children, ample savings and her own house, Lee Hua thought she could live out her golden years in modest comfort. Now, the 77-year-old collects recyclable garbage to make ends meet. In a slow and frail voice, Lee explained how she was forced from her home and now lives in a shabby rented house outside Taipei, has no money left in the bank and has all but lost contact with her three daughters and one son.

“I’ve cried so much that my eyesight has become really poor. Now I try not to think too much about what happened,” she said, sitting amid piles of used carton, plastic bottles and milk powder cans she has picked up from the street. Lee, who earns a meagre Tw$500 ($17, 13 euros) a month selling trash to recycling businesses, represents a new group of Taiwanese elderly left to their own devices by a young generation dismissing age-old notions of filial piety. Her life took a turn for the

worse 13 years ago when her oldest daughter and son-in-law talked the then-newly widowed woman into loaning them most of her money for his business. They never returned the money, and have since disappeared from her life, she recalled, fighting back tears. “I never thought I’d end up with a son-in-law like that who cheated me out all my money. This must be fate,” she said. Her second daughter ignores her too and her only son is in prison for drug abuse, she said. While her youngest daughter stays in touch, she cannot offer financial support because of her limited income as a seamstress.

Changing family values-Nearly 2,800 senior citizens sought help over abuse, negligence or abandonment in 2010, according to the latest government data, up from 2,100 in 2009. The actual number is likely much higher as some would rather “save face” than admitting that they have unfilial children, said Lee Hsiung, chief of the Elders Foundation

in Taipei. Social workers described Lee as far from an isolated case, and said that shifting family values meant a lesser sense of responsibility in some adults towards their ageing parents.

Traditional Chinese culture attached great importance to filial piety and male adults, even married ones, normally lived with their parents so they could look after them. “Raising a child means safety in old age,” according to a popular saying, and that used to be true. Large families were the norm.

Today, family structure has changed as couples opt for fewer children, causing Taiwan’s birth rate to be one of the world’s lowest, while more adults choose to live alone amid rising individualism, sociologists say. Taiwan’s population of 23 million is greying rapidly, as people aged 65 and over account for 10.7 percent, well above the 7.0 percent level at which a society is defined as “ageing” by the World Health Organization.

Wu Chiang-sheng, a staffer at the Elders Foundation in Taipei, said he has handled cases even more serious than Lee’s, citing a 90-year-old woman with seven children, each “insisting it’s the other’s duty to take care of her.” The government is considering a bill to jail adults if they fail to look after their elderly parents. “Gnawing at the bones of the old”-A form of economic abuse referred to as “gnawing at the bones of the old” sees healthy, capable and even well-educated adults-even those in their 30s and 40s-choose to remain jobless and live with their parents, relying on them for money, Wu said.

Taiwan’s jobless rate stood at 4.18 percent in January while unemployment in the 15-24 age group was a much higher 11.64 percent. The island’s economic growth eased sharply to 1.89 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the slowest pace in more than two years. Other seniors wind up having to raise their grandchildren, as their chil-

dren struggle to find jobs. “I think people in their 40s and 50s should brace themselves and not expect their children to look after them in the future.

They should actively plan their life after retirement,” Lee of the Elders Foundation said.

The Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly has been promoting the concept of “elderly economic safety,” such as encouraging senior citizens to put their money in a trust. Others call for rethink of the entire notion that the young should necessarily look after the old. “Young people don’t necessarily make more money or are more capable,” said Chiou Tian-juh, a sociologist at Shih Hsin University in Taipei. “We should build a new concept of the capable caring for the less capable.”

Social workers say it is up to the government to assume a greater role in the care of the elderly, as the old method of leaving it to the young no longer works. —AFP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

NEWS

Palestinian artist Mohammed Al-Dairi paints a mural of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (right) and late Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City yesterday. — AFP

Assad calls new election, regime ‘takes’ rebel city DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad yesterday set an election for May 7, even as monitors said fresh violence cost more than 40 lives and a pro-government daily reported the capture of a rebel city. Assad’s announcement of parliamentary elections came as UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan said he was still expecting a response from the Syrian leader to “concrete proposals” to halt one year of bloodshed. State news agency SANA said Assad, who has proposed a program of reforms in the face of an unprecedented revolt, has set May 7 as the date for elections under a new constitution passed in February. The elections would be the third such polls since Assad came to power in 2000, but the first under a multi-party system as authorised under the new law.

Washington immediately dismissed the proposed vote.

“Parliamentary elections for a rubber-stamp parliament in the middle of the kind of violence that we’re seeing across the country - it’s ridiculous,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington. Annan, speaking to reporters in Ankara after meeting with Syria’s opposition, said he was “expecting to hear from Syrian authorities today since I left some concrete proposals for them to consider”. But there was no response announced in Damascus by early evening. Annan was referring to weekend meetings in Damascus with Assad, after which he had expressed optimism the crisis could be resolved peacefully but warned the situation in Syria was at a “dangerous” level. The former UN chief also said he had a “useful meeting” with six representatives of the opposition Syrian National Council headed by Burhan Ghalioun, whom he said had “promised their full cooperation.”

In the latest clashes, 22 members of the security forces were killed in two separate ambushes in the southern region of Daraa and in Idlib province of northwest Syria, another hotspot of rebel operations, monitors said. But as the regime battles to mop up resistance, Al-Watan said government forces had recaptured the rebel stronghold of Idlib city, following what activists said were three days of heavy shelling. “A major operation launched three days ago in Idlib ... ended in record time with army units wrapping up search operations during which dozens of armed men and

fugitives were killed,” the daily said.

Activists acknowledged the army had deployed in the city but were facing pockets of resistance by rebel fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that elsewhere in Idlib province, located near the Turkish border, security forces killed at least eight civilians yesterday. The group, whose reports cannot be verified due to government curbs on foreign media, also said eight civilians were killed in and around the central city of Homs, including a woman in Tal Kalakh, near the Lebanese border. Another four civilians were killed in the Damascus region, said the Britain-based monitoring group, while a civilian and a member of the security forces were killed in the northern province of Aleppo.

Against that backdrop, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said around 30,000 Syrians had fled to neighbouring countries and another 200,000 had been displaced inside the country, quoting Syrian Red Crescent data. Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Syria has planted landmines near its borders with both countries, along routes used by refugees fleeing the country. Russia, accused of having shielded its ally Syria, said it will press Damascus to accept international monitors who could observe the implementation of a “simultaneous” ceasefire.

“The objective is for both sides to understand that there is an independent observer watching how they meet demands,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow.

“We must not have a situation in which the government is required to leave the cities and villages while the armed groups are not made to do the same,” he said.

Russia and China vetoed two past UN Security Council draft resolutions condemning Assad for the violence and have expressed reservations about a new US-backed version. Also on the diplomatic front, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a second “Friends of Syria” conference would take place in Istanbul on April 2, following an initial forum in Tunis on Feb 24. Despite international pressure and growing clamour for foreign intervention, Assad’s regime has pushed on with its brutal crackdown on a year-long revolt that has killed more than 8,500 people, mostly civilians, according to activists. — AFP

Israelis see Iran ‘mini Drill’ in Gaza flare-up JERUSALEM: Israel has emerged from the past few days of fighting with Palestinians in Gaza more confident that its advanced missile shield and civil defences can perform well in any war with Iran. “In a sense, this was a mini drill” for Iran, an Israeli official said yesterday after an Egyptianbrokered truce took hold, leaving 25 dead in the Gaza Strip and three people wounded in Israel. “There are significant differences, of course, but the basic principles regarding the ‘day after’ scenarios are similar,” the official said, alluding to Iran’s threat to respond to any “pre-emptive strike” on its nuclear facilities by firing ballistic missiles at Israel.

Employing a similar doctrine of pre-emption against Palestinians, Israel killed two senior militants in a Gaza air strike on Friday, accusing them of planning a major attack on its citizens through the territory of neighbouring Egypt.

That southern Israel weathered the ensuing scores of short-range rockets from Gaza, with sirens summoning around a million citizens to cover and the Iron Dome aerial shield providing extra protection, was savoured - warily by Israeli defence officials.

“The Israeli home front has shown once more that it can deal with the challenges,” the armed forces’ commander, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, told reporters. Though he described the cumulative threat from surrounding armies and guerrillas as “significant and abundant”, Gantz said: “I am convinced that our enemies understand the balance we have between a comfortable defence capability and our offensive capabilities, which we will use as required.”

While Iron Dome is deployed against rockets from Gaza, Israel’s answer to the bigger, ballistic missiles of Iran and Syria is Arrow II, an interceptor that works in a similar way but at far higher altitudes. Israeli officials said Iron Dome shot down some three in four of the Palestinian rockets fired in recent days. Developers of the Arrow II, which has so far proved itself only in trials, boast a shoot-down rate

Fracas in Assembly over MPs’ ‘black flag’ protest Continued from Page 1

SANAA: A Syrian woman living in Yemen holds up her son as she attends a ceremony marking the upcoming anniversary of the Syrian revolution yesterday. — AP

Shooting rabbits Continued from Page 1 serious issue. It is a very serious issue indeed. Of course this time it’s not a plane without a pilot or a radar system gone wrong. I don’t blame the Afghan parliament that asked this particular soldier to stand trial in public on Afghanistan’s soil. In my opinion it will not save the dead, but it will be a lesson for others. But the Afghan parliament is dreaming because already the head of the military rejected the idea and said that the American military will follow the procedures in this case: meaning that the soldier would stand trial in the US. The news reports said that the solider responsible for the massacre comes from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord - an area in the US military referred to as “the most troubled base in the military”. News reports indicated that the suicide rate in this base and similar murders which

happened previously could be related to many psychiatric problems and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Currently, the US military is quiet on the actual reasons, but speculations in the media say that this particular soldier had a head injury and family problems.

Believe me, any soldier who is fighting thousands of miles away from his country and is not convinced of the cause can get depressed. Especially in a country like Afghanistan. He comes to a country with no infrastructure which looks like it belongs to the BC era with old carriages and a life of basics. I will be depressed too. I will ask myself every day: “Why am I here? What am I fighting for?”

In my opinion, this does not justify shooting people and hitting them with bombs on daily bases and then blaming it on mistakes. These are humans, not shooting rabbits.

for that system of some 90 percent.

Uzi Rubin, a veteran of the Arrow program, cautioned, however, against relying too far on such defences as Iranian missiles, if not intercepted, could wreak far more damage than Gazan rockets, many of which are improvised from drainage pipes. “We are talking about 750-kg warheads, enough to level a city block,” Rubin said, noting there would be a greater impact if Iran’s allies on Israel’s borders - Syria, Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas, and Palestinian militants joined in.

Yet some Israeli experts see that axis bending to new domestic political pressures, notably after the popular Arab revolts of the past year, which may reduce the extent to which Tehran can count on their support in any conflict with Israel. Indeed, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has recently predicted that “maybe not even 500” of Israel’s civilians would die in any counter-attack after a strike on Iran.

Gaza’s governing Hamas movement stayed out of the four days of fighting waged by other militants - a reflection, perhaps, of the powerful Islamist group’s placing of domestic interests over any desire by Tehran to bleed Israel by proxy.

Hamas’s ties with long-time sponsors Iran and Syria have weakened this year. Sanguine assessments by Israeli defence officials are at odds, however, with disclosures by an opposition lawmaker last month that, despite a government-sponsored fortification drive, almost one in four citizens lacked access to shelters. Budgetary problems no doubt contributed to the lags in construction, and the economic damage of any conflict with Iran is a factor that those who counsel against over-confidence in defensive systems have highlighted. Rubin noted that while the flare-up with the lightly armed Palestinians in Gaza had disrupted life and business activity only in Israel’s southern periphery, Iran’s missiles were easily capable of striking its main industrial hubs - the Tel Aviv conurbation and Haifa port in the north. “There would be a total economic paralysis,” he said. — Reuters

“If [the opposition] insists that what they did was not a crime, then what’s the reason behind modifying the original complaint, other than it being an attempt to cover up for their crime?” said MP Adnan Al-Mutawwa, who explained the black flags symbolize the “Black Wednesday” statement by HH the Amir to describe the day when the parliament was raided.

“The black flags reflect our feelings in which we mourn the action of modifying the complaint by the [parliament’s] majority dictatorship,” Dashti said, while MP Saleh Ashour insisted that the speaker does not have the authority to order for the flag to be removed from his desk. Ashour also added that he plans to keep the flag on his desk during today’s session.

MP Nabeel Al-Fadl announced that putting the black flags was his idea to protest “a cheap and suspicious attempt to alter facts”. “They claim that the black flags violate the sanctity of the parliament’s hall, yet describe storming the parliament at a late hour of the night a political action,” Al-Fadl argued.

MP Husain Al-Qallaf said that overlooking the raid on the Assembly would encourage “ideologies that accept political coups”, while MP Ahmad Lari described the complaint’s modification as “an attempt to affect the work of the judicial system”. “[The majority] should allow us to express our frustration and prove that they are responsible enough to accept different opinions,” Lari added, while MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan slammed the action of “preventing MPs from expressing their sorrow over falsification of facts”.

Today’s session is not expected to be less heated than its predecessor, with many MPs from the parliament’s majority vowing to “stop attempts to

foil sessions”. “The same MPs who helped foil sessions in the previous parliament when they were a majority are now doing everything they can to do the same in the current parliament,” MP Khalid Shukhayyer said, while MP Bader Al-Dahoum agreed that the flags were “an intentional move to stop the session”.

Meanwhile, MP Sawwagh criticized Ashour for being too adamant to remove his flag “and risked foiling the session in which his grilling [against the prime minister] was scheduled to be debated”. Outspoken oppositionist MP Musallam Al-Barrak criticized the ‘black flag’ protest and indicated that the lawmakers could have requested to discuss the issue inside the parliament. “I can sense that the [minority] MPs still feel shocked after the election results,” Barrak said. “They are now expected to stop parliament sessions from being held the same way the progovernment majority did in the previous parliament”.

Barrak, one of the MPs who led the raid on the parliament, also argued that the original complaint contained “false and exaggerated data that went as far as charging MPs with offenses punishable by life in prison”, adding at the same time that he plans to file false report charges against former speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi.

Separately, the government, under pressure from labour unions, announced big rises in public sector wages while ordering measures to head off inflation in the prices of basic goods. Authorities said late on Monday that government workers would get a 25 percent rise in their basic salaries, while pensioners would receive 12.5 percent more. Any increase in private sector wages will be announced at a later date, the government said. The wage hike follows a series of strikes last year that

put pressure on state companies to increase pay packets, as well a snap election last month that saw the Islamist-led opposition win control of parliament.

In the wake of this week’s wage increases, the Ministry of Commerce has told economic officials to prevent any rises in the price of basic goods such as food, a top official said. The ministry has “instructed trade controllers to handle decisively any attempt to raise the prices of basic commodities”, commerce ministry undersecretary Abdelaziz Al-Khaldi told state news agency KUNA. He did not elaborate on how prices would be controlled.

The upward pressure on wages in Kuwait, partly due to increased union activity since last year’s Arab Spring social unrest in the region, has become a major issue for economic policymakers. The finance minister said last year that public sector wages had risen to about 85 percent of the country’s oil revenues, which he called “a real danger”. Last month Kuwait’s Central Bank governor Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz Al-Sabah resigned after 25 years in the post, complaining about the rapid rise in government spending.

However, state finances appear able to cope with the latest public sector wage hike, at least for now; thanks to high global oil prices, the government posted a budget surplus of $47 billion in the first nine months of 2011, nearly double the surplus in 2010. Analysts expect economic growth to stay comfortable this year at around 3.5 percent. And although the average inflation rate climbed to a three-year high of 4.8 percent in 2011, it remains far below levels hit in 2008, when it soared above 10 percent. Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent from a year earlier in January this year.

14

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

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Issues

Diplomacy all but doomed in Syria crisis

By Elizabeth A Kennedy s the fighting in Syria grows deadlier by the day, UN envoy Kofi Annan’s calls for dialogue sound woefully out of touch to the government and to the opposition, who appear united only in the fact that they see no point in talking to each other. For now, both sides believe they are making gains, making a negotiated solution all but out of the question. “It seems (Annan) lives on Mars,” Mohammad Saeed, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma, told AP during the weekend visit to Damascus by the former UN secretary-general. “We can’t hear each other even if we wanted to.”

Opposition leaders say the thousands killed at the hands of Assad’s security forces, many while protesting peacefully, mean they will accept nothing less than Assad’s ouster and the end to his family’s 40-year dynasty in Syria. Assad is not willing to give an inch, either. On Sunday, he said a political solution is impossible as long as Syria is being threatened by “terrorist groups” - the regime’s term for its opponents. His comments all but ensured the military crackdown will continue indefinitely, as Assad tries to crush an uprising that has transformed into an armed insurgency.

Neither side has scored a decisive blow in the conflict, which already has killed more than 7,500 people over a year of ferocious turmoil. Both parties are holding out for absolute victory, convinced their goals are within reach.

Many in the Syrian opposition seem to be holding out for outside intervention. The Syrian National Council is openly calling for foreign military help but even within the Syrian opposition, the subject is divisive. Many, especially those in Syria who are bearing the brunt of the battle, oppose foreign intervention, saying that it will not work in such a religiously diverse country.

International pressure on Assad reached a new peak last week when a senior US military commander said President Barack Obama was assessing options for military intervention in Syria, in the form of enforcing a no-fly zone and humanitarian airlifts. Against the backdrop of this extraordinary wave of resistance to Assad, both at home and abroad, the opposition feels no urgency to sit down and hammer out a diplomatic solution that would inevitably fall well short of its demands. On Monday, more than 150 Syrian refugees in Turkey called for his execution. “We (the Syrian people) are emphatically calling out to the whole world: You are watching what is happening on television and you’re not doing anything about it,” said Malik Ali, a Syrian refugee.

But the decision not to engage - by both sides - could backfire. Despite the Obama administration’s predictions that the regime’s days are numbered, Assad still commands a strong army that is unlikely to turn on him and he has a significant measure of support among those who fear their country will descend into chaos and extremism without him. Syrian government officials and prosperous Syrian businessman and officials have long traded political freedoms for economic and other advantages, so they are loath to join the uprising.

Many Syrians also fear being persecuted if the Sunni majority, which is the driving force behind the uprising, gains the upper hand in the country. Syria has a fragile mix of ethnic groups including Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and the minority Alawite sect, to which Assad and the ruling elite belong. Still others have stuck behind Assad or at least not openly opposed him - because of his longstanding anti-Israel policies and tough stance toward the West.

Even if they wanted to abandon Assad, the alternative doesn’t yet hold a huge attraction for many Syrians. The opposition’s fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, is made up mostly of low-level conscripts who abandoned the army and holds no territory. Internationally, Assad has also retained the iron loyalty of Russia, an alliance that many believe has given the regime diplomatic cover to intensify its crackdown and much needed support on the world stage. In February, Russia and China vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that would have supported an Arab League peace plan calling on Assad to hand over his powers.

The veto coincided with the beginning of a monthlong assault on rebellious neighborhoods in the central city of Homs. As the Syrian regime and the opposition hold out, however, civilians are feeling the brunt of the pain. The economy has taken a nosedive, food prices are soaring and crime is on the rise. But in the refugee camp in Turkey, protesters saw no room for compromise.

“Enough, enough!” the shouted, demanding that Assad leave for good. “You’ve been in power for 40 years!” —AP

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Asia weaves strands of social safety net

By Emily Kaiser hile many European countries struggle to pay for social safety nets, some in Asia are finding they can no longer afford to do without them. The shift is as much about politics as economics. Asia’s explosive growth over the past decade has created thousands of new millionaires and widened the income gap. Rising inequality is becoming a bigger issue at the polls. In Malaysia, where elections are widely expected this year, the cabinet has approved a national minimum wage for the first time, two government sources said. Hong Kong, which will select a new chief executive on March 25, adopted a minimum wage for the first time last year.

Singapore released a budget last month with the slogan, “An inclusive society, a stronger Singapore.” It included tax relief for lower-income families and more spending on medical care for the needy. India’s budget, expected on Friday, will probably contain heavier spending on social programs as well. In both countries, the ruling party lost ground in the most recent polls. Asian nations have traditionally left social protections up to families or perhaps local leaders who offer assistance in exchange for political support, said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics at HSBC in Hong Kong. “Modernization has broken this down, leaving the poor arguably less well protected and creating a need for more formal protection,” he said.

Unlike in Greece or Portugal, where debt crises have forced painful budget cuts that will weaken the social safety net, most Asian governments have light debt burdens and fiscal space to manoeuvre. The region also boasts some of the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, led by China’s nearly $3.2 trillion. India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand each hold reserves in excess of

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$100 billion. Yet almost half of the Asia-Pacific population is poor, OECD data shows.

To be sure, foreign exchange reserves are intended to serve as a self-insurance policy against the risk of financial upheaval, not to pay for a social safety net. The memory of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s is still fresh, so deep reserves are also seen as a way to ensure countries won’t have to turn to the IMF for emergency loans, which typically carry tough conditions. But the apparent disconnect between those vast reserves and the scale of poverty leads to some tricky questions. When European leaders pressed China to invest more in euro zone debt to try to alleviate the debt crisis, many economists pointed out that Chinese citizens were far poorer than Europeans and should not be expected to bail out wealthy countries.

India is one of the few fiscal exceptions in Asia because it runs both budget and trade deficits, which means it must attract foreign capital to cover its spending needs. Friday’s budget is shaping up to be a bit of Catch-22: if the government opts for more populist measures to appease voters, financial markets may balk at the expanding deficit. But scrimping on subsidies could cause even more pain at the polls. The budget “will be the litmus test on the government’s commitment to judicious economic policies,” Nomura economists wrote in a note to clients last week.

“While a poor showing in recent state elections has reduced the government’s ability to pass politically sensitive reforms, this has only increased the onus on it to reduce the fiscal deficit,” Nomura wrote.

The Asia-Pacific region, on average, spends the equivalent of about 5.2 percent of gross domestic product on social protection, barely a quar ter of the average in advanced economies, according to a report released in December by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development. Income inequality in the region is higher than the OECD average, the same report shows, with the widest gaps in Indonesia and India. Nudging up the minimum wage or boosting healthcare spending will hardly alter those statistics. What Asia really needs, according to the International Monetary Fund, is more investment in education and health care, and stronger unemployment and pension benefits.

Not only would that reduce inequality, it might also help the economy. A flimsy social safety net encourages consumers to save, which leaves countries such as China overly reliant on exports and investment for growth. Anoop Singh, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department, said in October that inclusive growth would get more attention in the fund’s regular discussions with member countries in Asia. But not all of the IMF’s ideas have been popular. For example, it recommended in February that Singapore adopt a minimum wage, and pointed out that rival Hong Kong had recently done so. Singaporean authorities “expressed reservations” about a minimum wage, concerned that it would act as a tax on labour and drive up the unemployment rate, the IMF said in its annual report on the country. In Malaysia, a study by the Ministry of Human Resources found that 34 percent of the 13 million-strong workforce earns less than 700 Malaysian ringgit ($230) a month. The poverty line for household income is currently set at 720 ringgit.

“The introduction of a minimum wage in Malaysia is really a political decision - gearing up for the elections,” said Shaun Levine, an Asia analyst with political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, based in Washington. Levine pointed out that some 3.3 million workers may benefit from the wage increase, on top of 1.1 million who stand to gain from pay hikes for civil servants. “That is a considerable number of potential voters.” — Reuters

French populism more rhetoric than reality

By Catherine Bremer resident Nicolas Sarkozy’s threat to raise unilateral barriers to trade and migration unless the European Union toughens its stance has amplified a populist tone in France’s caustic election campaign but could rebound against him. Both Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, are trying to win back voters tempted by the political extremes with simplistic proposals that experts doubt they could or would implement in practice. Hollande has proposed a 75 percent top income tax rate for millionaires aimed at shoring up his leftwing base.

But the conservative president may have more to lose from threats, spelled out in a speech to a mass campaign rally on Sunday, to pull France out of Europe’s open-border zone of passport-free travel and apply protectionist trade measures. Sarkozy’s message was aimed chiefly at supporters of far-right antiimmigration candidate Marine Le Pen, who stands third in opinion polls, but it conflicts with his efforts to project himself as a European statesman. Scapegoating Brussels over immigration and globalisation could alienate centrist voters and give the outside world the impression that France is turning inward again, as it did when voters rejected a draft EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.

“It sends off a very negative signal,” Thomas Klau at the European Council on Foreign Relations said of Sarkozy’s gambit. “He is recycling a political strategy he’s used successfully in the past. The fact that this time he’s a president in office makes this strategy more problematic, particularly when it comes to questioning the functioning of important EU policies.”

The conservative leader’s vow to defy Brussels if necessary to defend French interests follows campaign pledges to halve the flow of immigrants into France, impose minimum company taxes and enforce the labelling of ritually slaughtered halal meat.

“Sarkozy’s Europeanism had been one of his better traits but now he’s shed his skin like a snake and donned another, at least for the length of the campaign,” Harvard academic Arthur Goldhammer wrote in his French Politics blog. “The climate deteriorates by the day.”

As Sarkozy shifts to the right in a battle to catch Hollande in opinion polls, the Socialist candidate has veered to the left to claw back

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voters from firebrand leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, credited with up to 10 percent support. Hollande also wants to incentivise local production, halt the relocation of companies abroad and link wage rises to economic growth. But aides say he would be a more centrist and pragmatic leader than his leftist campaign stance would suggest. He describes himself as more “pink” than “red” and says his 75 percent tax rate proposal is symbolic and would affect very few people.

While polls show many voters have been turned off by an election race more focused on personalities than on core issues, 61 percent support Hollande’s top tax rate.

Immigration curbs and protectionist policies also tend to be popular. Blighted in his reelection bid by rock-bottom popularity ratings and public anger with years of economic crisis, Sarkozy gained a few points in polls with an energetic campaign launch in midFebruary, but has since slipped back.

A combination made yesterday shows file images of France’s incumbent president and Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate for 2012 presidential election Nicolas Sarkozy delivering a speech during a campaign meeting on March 11, 2012 in Villepinte, outside Paris. — AFP While Hollande’s manifesto omits any mention of structural economic reforms, a close aide told Reuters he fully intends to work with trade unions on labour market reforms and investment policies to try to repair France’s competitive disadvantage. Hardline Socialist Arnaud Montebourg said that Sarkozy’s ultimatum to Brussels smacked of “electoral panic”. Fellow left-winger Alexis Corbiere called it a headlong chase after Le Pen. Greens presidential candidate Eva Joly said that to threaten exiting the Schengen zone was akin to “stabbing Europe in the back” and “sacrificing it on the altar of Sarkozy’s campaign.”

Addressing some 30,000 supporters on Sunday, Sarkozy said he would suspend France’s membership of the 25-nation Schengen zone and start favouring French companies for government contracts unless he saw progress on EU border controls and some kind of “Buy European” legislation within a year.

EU diplomats say Sarkozy is merely dressing up in tougher election language existing French positions that are already driving debate in Brussels. “The message is extreme but the content is not new,” said one European diplomat in Brussels. Hannes Swoboda,

Austrian floor leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, said Sarkozy was betraying his fear of losing the April-May election. “Still, such comments from a governing president are scandalous even during an election campaign,” he said. European Commission spokeswoman Pia AhrenkildeHansen declined to engage with Sarkozy’s comments, saying: “We do not comment on national election campaign speeches.”

Even Eurosceptical analysts questioned whether Sarkozy could carry out his threat.

“It’s very unlikely that he would go ahead and suspend Schengen membership because that would mean major disruption,” said Mats Persson, director of the London-based Eurosceptical think-tank Open Europe. “Both of his promises would be difficult to deliver on.” The Schengen zone is so central to the EU’s core principles that pulling out would raise serious legal and practical issues. France would have to re-introduce border posts with friendly neighbours such as Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy that were dismantled almost two decades ago. It would also anger the many French people who enjoy passport-free European travel.

The fact that Brussels is already looking at ways to toughen up the EU’s external borders, after prompting by Paris and Rome, means that if re-elected, Sarkozy could well say he has seen enough progress not to have to make good on his threat. “The door is open for him to say: Well, my demand has been met. So I think the threat is largely rhetorical,” said Klau. Eurasia analyst Antonio Barroso said imposing unilateral trade protectionist measures would violate EU treaties and could land Paris in court. “(It) would entail a violation of treaties and would bring about infringement procedures by the Commission,” he said.

Even centre-right politicians said Sarkozy’s proposal was a political gesture that would never be put into practice. “You’d have to be crazy to think we are going to rehire customs agents and re-establish frontier posts in France,” said centrist presidential rival Francois Bayrou. “Everyone knows that won’t happen.

We will not take that big a step backwards.”

Rather than rattle outsiders, Sarkozy’s populist push is a gamble which may not pay off for his re-election bid. “It’s a high-risk strategy which he wouldn’t have chosen if he had better poll ratings. By sounding excessively shrill, he might actually make Hollande look more presidential,” said Klau. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

sp orts IOC will not act against Indian Olympic chief LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will take no action against Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi as he has essentially pulled out of running the association, it said yesterday.

Kalmadi, who was released from prison on bail in January after nine months, had been arrested in April 2011 on charges of inflating tenders worth millions of dollars for equipment used at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games which he was heading.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach said the issue was discussed at the Executive Board meeting but the IOC would not take any action as Kalmadi had effectively suspended himself. “In the end he’s not in charge,” Bach told reporters.

“So we won’t take any action.” Kalmadi is a lawmaker who has been suspended from India’s ruling Congress party.—Reuters

Lucky winner to open new London Stadium LONDON: London’s new Olympic Stadium will be opened officially by one lucky winner from a 40,000strong audience at a special ticketed event on May 5, organisers said yesterday.

LOCOG said in a statement that tickets for the “2012 Hours to go: An evening of athletics and entertainment” event would go on sale on Thursday, priced at 10 ($15.61) and 20 pounds.

One individual from the audience would be “brought into the middle of the Stadium to officially open the venue.” The ceremony will follow the last hour of the British Universities

Adriano to leave Corinthians SAO PAULO: Adriano will leave Corinthians by mutual consent, the Brazilian championship club said on Monday, a move that could signal the end of the troubled striker’s career. The former Inter Milan and Brazil forward joined Corinthians last year after a disastrous, injury-ravaged stint at Serie A club AS Roma, but has been unable to resuscitate his once-glorious career in his homeland.

“At the end of Monday (March) 12th, the directors of the Sport Club Corinthians Paulista and the striker Adriano decided, in joint agreement, to end the work contract between the two sides, which was valid until next June,” the club said in a statement on their website (www.corinthians.com.br).

“As a consequence, (Adriano) is dispensed from showing up tomorrow with the rest of the line-up.” Adriano, who has been beset by drinking, depression and weight problems in recent years, arrived at Corinthians last March, pledging to regain his Brazil spot for the 2014 World Cup on home soil.—Reuters

and Colleges Sport championships, the first test event at the 500-millionpound stadium in east London.

“This is a great opportunity for people to experience the venue that will take centre stage this summer,” said LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe. “As well as a great evening of entertainment, this will be an invaluable test and another warm-up event for the Olympic Stadium.” The Games start with the opening ceremony at the stadium on July 27. Demand for tickets for the Olympics has outstripped supply in most events, leaving many Britons frustrated at not being able to get a seat.—Reuters

Sabres roll over Canadiens

Ian Thorpe in action in this file photo

Thorpe’s London hopes on line ADELAIDE: Ian Thorpe’s hopes of competing at a third Olympic Games are on the line this week at Australia’s national swimming trials in Adelaide, where a number of local rivals are aiming to crush the five-times gold medallist’s London dreams.

The 29-year-old, who announced his comeback just over a year ago after more than five years out of the pool, has all but written off his chances of breaking into Australia’s fiercely competitive team, admitting that he left his run too late to be fully fit for the trials.

“It’s been bloody frustrating that I’ve trained the house down. I thought it would translate into good racing and results,” Thorpe said in a column carried by local newspapers over the weekend. “It hasn’t happened and that has tested my mental strength and my patience. I truly believe my hard work deserved better. I’m hoping my racing mojo returns for Adelaide.”

Australia’s head coach Leigh Nugent believes Thorpe could still spring a surprise at the South Australian Aquatic and Leisure Centre, where he will focus on the 100 and 200 metres freestyle events.

“I think with someone like Ian, the history he’s got and knowing his competitive capabilities, you could never write him out of the equation,” Nugent told local media.

“I’ve been around a long time and I’ve had a lot to do with Ian and with swimming at this level for almost two-and-a-half decades and with him, you’ve got to expect for him to pull something out of the bag ... He just has that sort of ability.” The 11-times world champion’s form has dismayed an adoring public that remembers him as a podium-topping titan, but fingers remain crossed he will pull an ace from his sleeve to book his ticket to London.

Either way, Thorpe, who makes his first appearance in the 200 preliminaries on Friday, has his work cut out to finish fastest or runnerup in the finals, which would guarantee an individual berth at London if he meets qualifying times.

His best hope appears a top-six finish, however, which would at least offer a chance of selection in the relays. Thorpe’s stiffest competition in the 100 freestyle will come from 20-yearold title-holder James Magnussen, who swam a stunning 47.63 to win gold at the world championships in Shanghai last year.

Australia’s first world champion in the blue

riband event, Magnussen, dubbed “the Missile” by local media, has talked of stripping Brazilian Cesar Cielo’s world mark of 46.91, set in a nowbanned swimsuit at the 2009 Rome world championships.

Thorpe has a better chance to qualify for the 200, although his best time of one minute, 50.79 seconds since returning to competitive swimming in November sits a lowly 19th in national standings this year. Another swimmer striving to reach her best against the odds is triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice, who will defend her women’s individual medley titles against a strong field.

Rice, who took gold in the both the 200 and 400 medley at the Beijing Olympics, has been dogged by injury in the intervening four years and carries a nagging shoulder problem into the event.

The 23-year-old had arthroscopic surgery in November and is less than halfway through a six-month rehabilitation period but is determined to swim through the pain to secure a spot on the plane to London.

Rice will be joined in Adelaide by fellow Olympic champions Libby Trickett and Leisel Jones, who along with ageing former freestyle world champion Michael Klim and Geoff Huegill, have come out of retirement for a last-ditch Olympic bid.

The 27-year-old Trickett, who retired in 2009 after winning 100 butterfly gold and the freestyle silver at Beijing, will battle favourite and world silver medallist Alicia Coutts in the butterfly event.

Jones swapped the pool for beauty school in a year-long sabbatical in 2009, and relinquished her status as the world’s best breastroker to Rebecca Soni.

The 26-year-old came back in 2010 and then finished second behind Soni in the 100 breaststroke in Shanghai but should qualify to challenge the American again in London.

Klim, who won a pair of relay golds at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, retired in 2007 with a debilitating shoulder injury but was inspired to return to the pool last year after Thorpe announced his comeback.

He will compete in the 100 butterfly against his 33-year-old one-time arch-rival Huegill, who won bronze in the 50 event at Shanghai to cap an extraordinary comeback after beating depression and weight problems.—Reuters

Italian football scandals helping rugby popularity ROME: Italian rugby is indirectly being helped by the scandals surrounding football, according to veteran national prop Andrea Lo Cicero.

Italian football has been damaged by a number of match-fixing scandals in recent years while it often gives itself a bad name on the pitch as well with diving, simulation and petulent back-chat prevalent.

And while it remains by far the most popular sport in the country, Racing Metro front-rower Lo Cicero says that by shooting itself in the foot it is having a positive effect on rugby.

Lo Cicero acknowledges that while it maybe cannot reach the kind of widespread popularity it does in a country like Wales, there is certainly room for growth. “Wales is a small country with many rugby players whereas ours is a big country with many footballers,” he said.

“It’s one of the problems, there are more youngsters who watch football first and then rugby, whereas in other countries it’s vice-versa.

“We have to live with this but now, luckily due to the ridiculous antics in football, parents are pushing their children more towards rugby because it’s educational, it teaches then to live and give their all in the right moment.”

Last weekend Italy were brushed aside 24-3

by Six Nations leaders Wales, who can complete the Grand Slam if they beat France in Cardiff this weekend.

It means the Azzurri, as so often before, head into this weekend’s clash with Scotland at the Stadio Olimpico here with both teams playing to avoid the wooden spoon and five out of five defeats. It’s the 13th season that Italy are competing in the Six Nations and yet once again it

comes down to this one match to avoid finishing bottom of the pile.

To some it may seem like they haven’t made any progress since winning their first ever Six Nations match, at home to Scotland back in 2000, but Lo Cicero doesn’t agree.

“I’m thinking of the future of the national team and this team is growing with some difficulties, of course, because just as we’re developing, so too are the others,” he said.

“There’s a bit of frustration because we want to get the results that we need. “We’re improving a lot but this isn’t enough, we need to start getting the results.”

He believes the country needs to give young players more opportunities to play. “Talent arrives when you’re looking for it, we’re working on it but youngsters also need to play to express themselves and get rid of the fear that they feel during games. “This will come with time and with the experience of the pitch, with playing and finding yourself in front of your opponents.

“They (the youngsters) have got a lot of enthusiasm, they want to work, their technique is good and that’s a great starting point.

“When we started out we weren’t so well prepared but now the academies really help the youngsters and there’s also greater professionalism which helps them become physically ready.

“We need to take many blows on the pitch to get the waters moving in Italy and to bring in professionalism.”

Looking forward to the Scotland match, Lo Cicero said it would be wrong to start thinking about winning and losing focus on the details of the job at hand.—AFP

BUFFALO: Tyler Myers scored 2:01 into overtime to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.

Tyler Ennis scored twice and Ryan Miller made 26 saves as Buffalo earned its season-best fifth consecutive home win. The Sabres (33-29-8) also improved to 9-2-2 in their past 13 games and jumped ahead of Winnipeg into ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind Washington in the race for the final playoff spot.

Erik Cole and David Desharnais scored for the Canadiens (27-32-11), who had won two in a row. Montreal managed to salvage a point when Desharnais forced overtime during a scramble with 5 seconds left in regulation.

The decisive goal came on a 3-on-2 rush, with Derek Roy driving up the left wing. He swung a pass across to Myers, who snapped a shot by Peter Budaj and just inside the left post.

Predators 5, Coyotes 4 At Glendale, Arizona, Andrei Kostitsyn scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Predators the victory. Kostitsyn, shooting first for the Preds, beat Mike Smith through his legs for the win. Phoenix trailed 4-2 early in the third, but Oilver Ekman-Larrson and Raffi Torres scored to help send the game to overtime. Martin Erat had a goal and two assists for Nashville.

The Coyotes recorded one point and remained in seventh in the Western Conference.

Colorado beat Anaheim in overtime on Monday and is one back of Phoenix with 78 points.

Nashville pulled within two points of Detroit for fourth out West.

Avalanche 3, Ducks 2 At Denver, Gabriel Landeskog scored at 1:52 of overtime and Semyon Varlamov stopped 38 shots to help Colorado remain in the thick of a tightly congested Western Conference playoff chase.

Jamie McGinn and Kevin Porter also scored for the surging Avalanche, who have won four of five to move into the eighth and final playoff spot. Francois Beauchemin and Teemu Selanne had the goals for the Ducks, a team that was rolling along until a recent slide. Anaheim has dropped six of eight to tumble even further out of the postseason picture.

The winning goal was set up by a turnover in the Ducks end. Matt Hunwick stole the puck and passed it to Landeskog, who knocked it by Jonas Hiller as the Avalanche improved to 14-4 this season in games that go beyond regulation.

Sharks 3, Oilers 2 At Edmonton, Logan Couture scored a tiebreaking goal early in the third period as San Jose stopped a five-game slide.

Joe Thornton had a goal and an assist while Torrey Mitchell also scored for the Sharks (34-259), who are trying to get back into the playoff picture after losing 11 of their previous 13 games.

San Jose is one point back of eighth-place Colorado in the tight Western Conference race.

The Avs won 3-2 in overtime against Anaheim on Monday. Ryan Whitney and Taylor Hall scored for the Oilers (26-36-7), who have lost six of seven. The Sharks got their go-ahead goal 38 seconds into the third when Dan Boyle unleashed a hard shot from the point that Couture tipped past Dubnyk while on the power play.—AP

DENVER: Colorado Avalanche left winger Gabriel Landeskog, from Sweden, celebrates scoring the winning goal against the Anaheim Ducks during overtime of an NHL hockey game.—AP

NHL results/standings Buffalo 3, Montreal 2 (OT); Colorado 3, Anaheim 2 (OT); San Jose 3, Edmonton 2; Nashville 5, Phoenix 4 (So). (OT Denotes Overtime, So Denotes Shootout) Eastern Conference Atlantic Division

NY Rangers Pittsburgh Philadelphia New Jersey NY Islanders Boston Ottawa Buffalo Toronto Montreal Florida Washington Winnipeg Tampa Bay Carolina

W L OTL GF 43 18 7 188 42 21 5 219 39 22 7 220 40 24 5 195 28 31 10 160 Northeast Division 40 25 3 222 36 25 9 216 33 29 8 174 30 31 8 200 27 32 11 185 Southeast Division 32 23 13 166 35 28 6 184 32 29 8 181 31 30 7 191 26 28 15 181

GA 148 173 197 179 206

PTS 93 89 85 85 66

164 206 196 212 196

83 81 74 68 65

191 193 195 233 207

77 76 72 69 67

St Louis Detroit Nashville Chicago Columbus Vancouver Colorado Calgary Minnesota Edmonton Dallas Phoenix San Jose Los Angeles Anaheim

Western Conference Central Division 45 18 7 183 44 22 3 217 41 21 7 200 37 25 8 209 22 40 7 161 Northwest Division 42 19 8 215 37 30 4 186 32 25 12 173 29 30 10 150 26 36 7 182 Pacific Division 38 26 5 185 34 25 11 182 34 25 9 187 32 25 12 154 29 30 11 173

135 162 179 206 223

97 91 89 82 51

172 189 191 193 209

92 78 76 68 59

183 178 175 152 196

81 79 77 76 69

Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

Thailand’s bad-boy boxer shuns London for pro ranks BANGKOK: Thailand’s former Olympic boxing champion Manus Boonjumnong has shunned an opportunity to compete at the London Games, instead opting to clean up his bad boy image, turn professional and take on Filipino phenomenon Manny Pacquiao.

Renowned in Thailand for his party lifestyle and addiction to gambling and girls, Manus told Reuters yesterday he had lost sight of his Olympic dream after bitter rows with his coaches and ugly media headlines about his wayward antics.

“I’m sorry for all Thais who want me to fight but I can’t go to the Olympics and fight without spirit,” Manus said in an interview at a suburban Bangkok coffee shop.

“It’s regrettable, but sometimes, when an athlete doesn’t have the heart, he’ll be depressed

and there’ll be no success, so I’ve decided to quit amateur boxing with honour. Whether right or wrong, it’s my decision.”

Manus, 31, shot to fame in 2004 when he won the light-welterweight (64kg) gold medal in Athens and famously broke down in tears when he received a congratulatory phone call from Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

However, after lavish celebrations in the wake of his triumph, he gained a reputation for being an ill-disciplined playboy, squandering much of the $600,000 his gold medal earned him on drinking, betting on soccer and entertaining women.

Thailand’s boxing chiefs worked hard to straighten Manus out by sending him into exile to train at a boxing bootcamp in Cuba without money or credit

cards, then persuading him to become a Buddhist monk for a few weeks.

Manus enjoyed a spectacular rebirth, at least for a while. He won gold at the 2006 Asian Games and followed up with a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he lost out to Dominican Felix Diaz after breezing through earlier rounds.

Now, he says his delinquent days are over. He no longer drinks alcohol, plans to marry his long-term girlfriend and open a humble grocer y business in northern Thailand, investing his Olympic medal earnings that are remitted to him in monthly trickles to stop him from going off the rails.

“I’ve quit ever ything,” said Manus, accompanied by his bespectacled girlfriend and dressed in a polo shirt with a

bunny logo on the chest and “Playboy” emblazoned across the back. “I just want a normal life.”

But the former kickboxer, whose speed, agility and cocky showmanlike antics have won him many admirers, will delay his retirement from the ring a little longer to pursue a new dream.

He plans to turn professional in the United States and has his sights set on a date with Pacquiao, a man widely regarded as the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer having won titles in eight different weight divisions.

“Just wait and see, in the next few months, you’ll see me turn pro,” said Manus, who will need to shed some of his 75kg body weight to compete in his preferred super-welterweight (66.7-69.9kg) division. “My target is Pacquiao and I want someone to set that up for me,” he said.—Reuters

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

sp orts

Pat Knight steps out of father’s shadow NEW YORK: For three seasons and counting, people have gone out of their way to highlight the differences between Pat and Bob Knight. The resemblance, though, never seems stronger than when one or the other starts growling.

So go to YouTube, cue up the video of Pat Knight’s nearly 8-minute rant about the seniors on his Lamar basketball team, then close your eyes and tell me he doesn’t sound exactly like his dad. At one point, he even threatens to behave like the old man, too.

“When I played, if you acted the way some of these guys did, you got shoved in a locker with a forearm up against your neck and told: ‘You don’t do that.

That’s not how we do things at Indiana,’” he said. “And that’s what we need.”

Whatever it was Lamar needed to get back on track, consider it done.

Since Knight’s postgame dressing-down in late February - after a dispirited loss at home to Stephen F. Austin - the Cardinals have won six straight behind those same seniors and grabbed one of the last rungs of the NCAA tournament ladder. Lamar plays Vermont on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, with the

winner facing mighty North Carolina in nearby Greensboro three nights later.

No matter where this experiment in tough love ends, the younger Knight considers it a success already.

“The thing I learned from my first job is you can’t coach scared,” Knight said Monday after getting off the plane in Dayton. “What I did at Texas Tech was worry about the consequences - what the media thinks, what the fans say instead of what’s best for your program.

And so two weeks ago, we’d just been having this horrible couple of days, I told my assistants before I went into the interview room, ‘I’m going to get these guys’ attention. I’m going to call them out to the media, really throw them under the bus and see what the response was.’

“I knew they were tough enough to do it,” he added, then paused. “And they did.” Few things are more fascinating than watching a son step out of his father’s shadow, but for most of his adult life, Pat Knight barely seemed to be trying.

He played basketball for Bob at Indiana, and spent only one of his eight seasons as a college assistant with

somebody else in charge. He inherited his first head coaching job from his father - at Tech, two-thirds of the way through the 2008 season - and employed the same motion offense and man-to-man defensive principles that Bob Knight pioneered and stubbornly stuck with for decades. The son earned his first ejection as the Red Raiders’ boss just three games into the next season, storming back out of the tunnel right after getting tossed to continue the argument.

Soon after, though, reports out of Lubbock painted a different Pat Knight.

He was much more subdued than his father had been in his heyday, especially around refs, and willing to experiment with an up-tempo style of play and even the occasional zone defense. But halfway measures produced middling results and he got fired at Tech with a 50-61 record and zero invites to the NCAA tournament. He was hired by Lamar less than a month later, prompting critics of both Knights to suggest the small Southland Conference school was simply looking to cash in on the family name. If so, Knight didn’t care.

“I’ve never really looked at the down-

side. I’m not going to be one of those guys on reality TV or in rehab because my parents were famous. I hate to see that on TV. I am Bob Knight’s son,” he said defiantly at his introductory news conference. “I’m proud of it.”

But behind the bravado was plenty of soul-searching, too. “You take stock of everything when you get fired. I had that spring and all summer to think things over, and the two things at Tech that were mistakes is putting up with too much BS and coaching scared,” Knight recalled.

“What I promised myself was that in the new job, I was going to do things my way, whether that meant using the things I learned from my dad and all those other coaches or not. That’s why I got into this business in the first place to start my own program, to run my own program, and build a program that I and all the people around me will be proud of.” If a winning record was all that required, Knight could have ridden the senior leadership he inherited and made few waves. As a first-year coach, especially one with a famous name, he was sure to enjoy a grace period even if the Cardinals couldn’t manage a .500

mark. Instead, Knight was good as his word and made them play and behave his way right away, suspending three players during the season and when the moment called for it, calling out the seniors whose trust he needed most.

In short order, Mike James, the guard Knight dismissed from the podium before last month’s tirade, went on to lock down MVP honors in the conference tourney and fellow seniors Devon Lamb and Anthony Miles started rebounding and handing out assists exactly the way Knight drew up the plays. For all the ways in which he was portrayed as being different from Bob, it wasn’t until the moment he felt far enough away that he could be himself.

“When I told my dad I wanted to be a coach, he told me a story about going to see Coach (Joe) Lapchick before he took his first job at West Point,” Pat said.

“Coach Lapchick asked him, ‘Is it important for you to be liked?’ My dad thought about it a second and said, ‘No.’ So coach Lapchick looked at him and says, ‘Right. And if you have plans to be a coach for long, don’t ever forget this: It’s more important to be respected than liked.’” —AP

Cuche, Weirather lead WCup downhill training

Tiger Woods plays a shot in this file photo

Tiger drives off to an uncertain future DORAL: The speculation at the start of the year was when Tiger Woods would win.

Now it’s when he can play again. The sequence Sunday at Doral was troubling.

Woods hobbled. He changed his shoes at the turn. He began lifting his left leg to try to flex his ankle. He limped.

And after one last powerful swing that produced a 321-yard drive on the 12th hole, he winced and walked over to Webb Simpson to tell him he was done for the day. “He just shook my hand and said, ‘I’ve got to go in.’ You could tell he was hurting,” Simpson said.

To what degree, only Woods knows. And when he does, it becomes a matter of how much information he will share. He started Monday night with Twitter, limited to only 140 characters: “Got good news from doc tonight. Only mild strain of left Achilles.

Can resume hitting balls late in week and hopeful for next week.”

Woods said his left Achilles tendon felt tight as he warmed up on the practice range before the final round of the Cadillac Championship, and it got worse from there.

Still unanswered is how the tendon flared up without notice. Perhaps the more important question is whether - or when it might happen again.

Remember, it’s the same Achilles tendon that caused him to miss two majors last year. The Masters starts in 24 days. This is the one major he has never missed.

Augusta National is where so many expected him to resume pursuit of the 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, the only record that really ever mattered to Woods, who has been stuck on 14 since the 2008 U.S. Open.

Beyond that benchmark, however, comes another question that no longer seems as ludicrous as the injuries keep piling up. Will Woods ever win again?

Until Sunday, he was making big strides in that direction. Woods ended last year with an unofficial win in his Chevron World Challenge against an 18-man field, with birdies on the last two holes. He started this year tied for the 54-hole lead in Abu Dhabi and finished two shots behind Robert Rock. Only a week ago, he shot his lowest final round ever - a 62 that was punctuated with a 5-iron over the water to 8 feet for an eagle that put a brief scare into Rory McIlroy. But he’s not winning. Worse yet, he’s not giving himself as many

chances as he once did. Woods has played only 32 tournaments since returning, at the 2010 Masters, from the scandal in his personal life. He has missed the cut twice. He has withdrawn three times. And he has 21 finishes out of the top 10 - that’s as many times out of the top 10 from the 2004 US Open to his last official win at the 2009 Australian Masters.

Woods has not played a complete season since 2009, and that one didn’t get started until the Match Play Championship when he returned from reconstructive knee surgery. He’s not the same player he was. That much is clear. He might not ever be. Woods turned 36 at the end of last year, but he’s an old 36. Woods already has had four surgeries on his left knee dating to when he was at Stanford. He first mentioned his left Achilles after the Masters last year, saying he injured it in the third round at Augusta while trying to play a shot from an awkward stance under Eisenhower’s Tree on the 17th hole.

He tried to return too early at The Players Championship and quit after nine holes and 42 shots, then sat out for three months until he was convinced his left leg was strong as ever. That enabled him to work on his new swing, to resume physical training, to get stronger.

There was no indication of an Achilles problem until early in the final round. And that can only lead to speculation that perhaps his Achilles really is his Achilles, more than the knee. Nicklaus only won four majors after he turned 36, and Nicklaus was never seriously injured. He didn’t have to withdraw from a major until seven years later, when he was 43, because of a bad back.

“For him to go back and win again, he’ll have to figure out that he’s a different person today than he was five years ago,” Nicklaus said last week at the Honda Classic.

“I was a different person when I was 25 years old than when I was 35 years old. I had to learn how to play. I didn’t have the strength. I couldn’t overpower the golf course. “I’ve got great respect for Tiger’s golf game, and I think he’ll be back.” Woods at least learned one lesson. After he injured his Achilles at the Masters last year, he returned a month later at The Players Championship even though some in his camp thought he should have waited another month to be sure he was fine. — AP

SCHLADMING: Didier Cuche showed his rivals that he has not given up on his quest for a fifth World Cup downhill title. The Swiss standout, who will retire after this week’s World Cup finals, posted the fastest time by far yesterday in the training run for today’s downhill race.

Later, Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein led the women’s session ahead of American pair Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn.

Cuche trails leader Klaus Kroell of Austria by 48 points in the discipline standings and is only three points ahead of teammate Beat Feuz, with a maximum of 100 points to be won in the final race.

Cuche finished the 2.9-kilometer Planai course in 1 minute, 50.70 seconds to lead second-place Dominik Paris of Italy by 0.91. Hannes Reichelt of Austria was 0.96 behind in third.

Cuche rivals Kroell and Feuz were 2.16 and 2.91 seconds behind, respectively. “I was happy when I crossed the finish line. I needed this for my self-confidence,” Cuche said. “I hope that Klaus feels even more pressure now.”

Cuche has been the best downhill skier for the past two seasons and would love to add one more crystal globe to his collection.

“I am under pressure as well though I have nothing left to prove,” Cuche said. “It would be different if I had never won a globe before. I have six globes at home, four of them for downhill. I can just go out and attack and hope Klaus hasn’t his best run.”

Kroell struggled with the soft snow after two days of rain and mild temperatures. Fog caused poor visibility at the upper part of the hill and forced organizers to lower the start by 500 meters (yards). The same course will be used for next year’s world championships.

“The snow was very weak,” Kroell said. “Of course I didn’t want to be two seconds behind but Didier is known for his fast first training runs.

I know I have something left for the race.” Kroell could become the first Austrian downhill champion since Michael Walchhofer three years ago.

“I have to give everything and race to win,” said Kroell, who lives in a small village only 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the venue. “Winning would be fantastic, especially as it is a home race for me.” Feuz is an outsider for the downhill title but has his mind set on the overall championship. He has been hampered by a left knee injury for weeks and unsuccessfully tried to win

some points in a giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, last weekend.

“I can race downhill and super-G without problems, but my knee hurts in the technical races,” Feuz said. “I can’t start calculating. I just need two top results in downhill and super-G otherwise it won’t be enough for the overall title.” On the women’s side, the fight for the downhill crystal globe is lacking a similar exciting climax because Vonn has won four of seven events to clinch the title for a fifth straight sea-

Maier is the only racer to have managed that feat when scored exactly 2,000 in the 1999-2000 season.

“I am not sure whether I can do it but I will go for it,” said Vonn, who has 1,808 points.

Weirather, whose father Harti won downhill gold at the 1982 world championships in Schladming, timed 1:50.26 on the 2.9-kilometer Streicher course to lead second-place Mancuso by 0.29.

“It’s good spring conditions,” Mancuso said.

“It’s actually not so bad. I like this kind of snow.

AUSTRIA: Switzerland’s Didier Cuche speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men’s World Cup downhill training. —AP son. In Tuesday’s training, Vonn stood up out of her tuck well before crossing the finish line but still posted the third-fastest time, 1.01 seconds behind Weirather, who later acknowledged she missed a gate.

“It’s pretty warm and it has been raining a lot for two days, so it won’t be a normal race, it will be a spring race,” Vonn said. “Usually I am not at my best on these snow conditions but I will try everything.” Vonn, who has also secured her fourth overall title, is trying to become the first female skier to break the 2,000-point mark in one World Cup season. Austrian great Hermann

It’s compressing and it’s not dangerous, it’s not braking anywhere, it’s very consistent. That’s very important for safety.”

Mancuso won the downhill at the World Cup finals last year and is looking to repeat that achievement. It would be her first downhill victory of this season.

“I definitely like where my skiing is right now,” said Mancuso, who added she liked the course.

“There is a couple of turns and I thought it was pretty fast. It’s not super challenging because it’s not steep anywhere but there are some big winding turns.” —AP

Ouch! Athletic skill can’t stop cuts and bruises NEW YORK: One guy needed a titanium plate and nine screws to fix the collarbone he broke while carrying deer meat. Another burned his hands trying to put out a candle. And then there are the geniuses who developed elbow problems after spending too many hours on the computer or playing video games. A collection of klutzes trying to make it through a day without a bump or a bruise? Hardly.

These are some of the most athletic, agile people on the planet.

As New York Yankees reliever David Robertson reminded everyone last week, world-class athletes may be physical freaks of nature, able to do things that defy gravity

and imagination. But everyday life can be a doozy of a challenge, even for them. “It’s embarrassing,” said Robertson, who is missing a few spring training games to nurse the foot he bruised when he tripped down a step while taking boxes out to be recycled. “I’d rather be like, you know, I tripped over a chair in the clubhouse or something than tell you I fell down the stairs in my house. And not like a full flight of stairs - just one stair.”

He’s by no means the first athlete done in by an “unusual” injury.

Baseball players alone could fill up an ER when it comes to goofy accidents. Consider: l Tampa Bay pitcher David Price

LONDON: US boxer Lamont Peterson (left) poses for photographs with British boxer Amir Khan after a press conference in London. Khan yesterday vowed to learn from his mistakes when he faces American Lamont Peterson in their keenly anticipated world title rematch in May. —AFP

had to leave a spring training start early last week with neck spasms brought on by drying his neck with a towel between innings. l San Francisco Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt missed the last month of last season after cutting himself separating frozen hamburgers. l Former Detroit Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya missed three games in the 2006 American League Championship Series with inflammation in his wrist and forearm, apparently the result of too many hours playing “Guitar Hero.” l The Marlins’ Chris Coghlan, the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year, tore the meniscus in his left knee while trying to deliver a celebratory pie in the face to a teammate in July 2010. l Sammy Sosa once missed a month - a month! - after sneezing hard twice and spraining a ligament in his back. l Former Cincinnati Reds catcher Joe Oliver slashed his forearm on a knife while emptying the dishwasher. l Former outfielder Glenallen Hill, who had a fear of spiders, wound up on the disabled list after a nightmare about the critters sent him crashing into a wall. “You can get some strange ones,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, adding that he knew a player who hurt himself putting together his daughter’s play kitchen set. Think of any sport, and odds are you’ll find someone

hurt while doing something, well, odd.

Stepping on broken glass at a restaurant wound up keeping Serena Williams off the tennis court for almost a year. Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi missed three weeks of training last fall because he forgot to take a nasal strip - that’s correct - out of his shoe before the New York Marathon. It irritated his foot so badly it caused an infection. Mitch Seavey, the 2004 winner of the Iditarod, had to pull out of last year’s race after nearly severing a finger opening a bale of bedding straw for his dogs.

On and on it goes.

“Those kinds of things aren’t necessarily stupid things. They’re not necessarily things they’ve done wrong. It’s just part of life,” said Marjorie J. Albohm, president of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

“Of course we look at them as superhuman beings because we watch them perform, as superhuman beings. For us to think, ‘Gosh, she could actually sprain her toe getting out of shower? No way.’ Yes, they’re superhuman in the skills they perform. But in life, they’re just normal people. “It’s just part of daily living, and you can’t put yourself into a bubble.” No, but knowing that extraordinary athletes also have ordinary clumsy accidents does somehow make us mere mortals feel the tiniest bit better about ourselves when we run into a door or cut ourselves making dinner. — AP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

S P ORT S

Baylor, Stanford, UConn, Irish earn No. 1 seeds NEW YORK: Brittney Griner and the Baylor Lady Bears have one goal this season - a national championship.

Anything less would be a disappointment for the undefeated top-seeded Lady Bears, who are looking to become the seventh school to run through a season unbeaten.

Standing in the way could be the other No. 1 seeds - Stanford, Connecticut and Notre Dame, dominant all season long. The Huskies and Irish both lost competitive games at Baylor this season.

Griner and Baylor, who lost in the regional final last season, could be the first team ever to win 40 games in a year, but coach Kim Mulkey only cares about one thing - a second national title for the school.

“We started hearing about that, and it’s never been a goal of ours,” Mulkey said of winning 40 games. “Our simple goal is to win a national championship.”

The basketball madness gets started Saturday - the first step en route to the Final Four, which begins April 1 in Denver.

To get to their second Final Four in three seasons, the Lady Bears might have to get through Tennessee, which is appearing in its 31st straight NCAA tournament.

“I wish I was not in the same bracket as Pat (Summitt), because of the respect I have and also because we’ve already played,” Mulkey said.

The two teams met in November, and Tennessee

held an eight-point lead early in the second half before Griner took over en route to a nine-point victory.

The 6-foot-8 phenom has been dominant lately scoring more than 40 points twice in the past 10 games, including a 45-point effort in the Big 12 tournament semifinals this past weekend.

The Lady Vols have won eight national championships but haven’t been to the Final Four in three seasons. They pledged at the beginning of the season that they would not go a fourth consecutive year without reaching the Final Four - something they’ve never done - and would try to win a national title to honor Pat Summitt. The coach announced in August she’d been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

Summitt’s squad will face her alma mater Tennessee Martin - in the opener. “I like my alma mater,” Summitt said. “I like winning and moving on better.”

Before a potential matchup with Baylor, Tennessee could meet Delaware and the nation’s leading scorer Elena Delle Donne. The 6-5 star is averaging 27.5 points this season and has guided the Blue Hens to a 30-1 mark. Now they are looking for their first NCAA tournament victory. Connecticut hopes to win its eighth national championship (tying Tennessee) and will start with a matchup against Prairie View.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma told the Huskies’

faithful in the preseason that this team wouldn’t win a national championship. But his young team has developed over the past five months, and Connecticut looks poised to make another run after beating Notre Dame for the Big East tournament title.

“If you have to rely just on momentum then you don’t have a good enough team,” Auriemma said.

“We’ve got to hope we have a good enough team and then rely on momentum as an extra asset.”

The Irish also have been focused on winning a title after falling just short last season, losing in the championship game to Texas A&M, which is a No. 3 seed in the Raleigh region. The two teams could meet in the regional final.

Notre Dame, which will open up at home against Liberty, reached the national title game last year by knocking off UConn in the Final Four. It was the fourth straight season that UConn made the Final Four. The two teams, who already have played three times this year, could meet for a fourth time in Denver.

The Cardinal also have advanced four straight seasons to the Final Four, and coach Tara VanDerveer is looking to get her first title in 20 years. She’ll begin with a trip East to Norfolk, Va. to face Hampton.

Stanford, which has won 28 straight games since its lone loss of the season to Connecticut, hasn’t been east of the Rockies since 2001, when they went to Oklahoma.

“Well last year at this time I don’t think anyone thought Texas A&M was going to win either,” VanDerveer said. “Baylor has had a great year. I think that Brittney Griner is a great player, she’s a tremendous talent. We know that every team is beatable. I hope we have a chance to play them. We want to go as far as we can. If that means playing Baylor, we’ll be ready.”

Standing in the way of a fifth trip to the Final Four could be second-seed Duke, which lost in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. The Blue Devils are led by talented freshman post Elizabeth Williams and sophomore guard Chelsea Grey and will face Samford in the opening round.

Another intriguing team in that region is thirdseeded St. John’s, which ended UConn’s 99-game homecourt winning streak in February. The Red Storm have won 14 of their last 17 games after falling to the Huskies in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

Third seed St. John’s faces Creighton in its opener.

Missing from the tournament is North Carolina, which is hosting the first two rounds, but didn’t make the field for the first time since 2001.

While the Tar Heels will be missing, three schools Albany, St. Bonaventure and Florida Gulf Coast - are making their first appearance, and the Big Ten has a conference record seven teams. The Bonnies and Eagles will be meeting in the first round. — AP

Kohli, Gambhir set up India win

COLOMBO: England’s Tim Bresnan reaches out to catch a ball during a practice session in Colombo. — AP

Namibia beat Ireland in Twenty20 qualifier DUBAI: Namibia yesterday boosted their chances of an appearance in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament, overcoming second-ranked Ireland for a surprise four-run victory.

Left-hander Louis van der Westhuizen scored 24 to help the African side to 1608 and took two for 37 with the ball to restrict the Irish to 156-9 and earn him the man of the match award.

Ireland had been 65-5 in the 11th over before Gar y Wilson (49) and John Mooney (38) put the team back in contention with a 71 sixth-wicket partnership. But the 18 required off the last over proved just too much.

Van der Westhuizen was pleased with the overall performance and predicted that on their day, Namibia were a match for any team.

“It always helps when the team spirits are up and playing Ireland is always a really big game. It is good to play the biggest team on the opening day and it is great to get a win against them,” he said. “Namibia can be quite an unpredictable team but when it comes off then we can beat anybody. The biggest

challenge for us will be to be consistent throughout the event and keep up our performance levels.”

Ireland coach Phil Simmons maintained that his players had not underestimated their opponents but they were already on the back foot after allowing Namibia to score too many runs in the opening overs.

“Everything needs to improve from tomorrow, as we are not where we need to be in every aspect of our game for this event and that improvement has to start now,” he added.

Sixteen teams are in the United Arab Emirates to battle it out for two places at the 2012 finals in Sri Lanka in September and October. Namibia play Scotland on Wednesday while Ireland take on Kenya.

In other matches, much-fancied Afghanistan beat Papua New Guinea by six wickets, Nepal won by 28 runs against Hong Kong, the Netherlands beat Canada by 42 runs and Denmark beat Bermuda by seven wickets. Italy crushed Oman by nine wickets, Uganda beat the United States by four wickets while Scotland beat Kenya by 14 runs. — AFP

ICC-T20 SCORES DUBAI: Here are the scores from the ICC World Twenty20 qualifying tournament in the United Arab Emirates: Group A Papua New Guinea 112-6, 20 overs (Jason Kila 28; Dawlat Zadran 2-20) Afghanistan 113-4, 19 overs (Mohammad Nabi 52 not out; Rarua Dikana 2-23) Result: Afghanistan won by six wickets Man of the match: Mohammad Nabi (AFG) Netherlands 134-6, 20 overs ( Tom Cooper 29, Alexei Kervezee 29, Mudassar Bukhari 28 n.o.; Harvir Baidwan 3-29) Canada 93 all out, 16.4 overs (Jimmy Hansra 30; Mudassar Bukhari 2-22, Pieter Seelaar 3-16) Result: Netherlands won by 43 runs Man of the match: Mudassar Bukhari (NED) Nepal 130-6, 20 overs (Paras Khadka 68, Gyanendra Malla 26; Muniro Dar 3-15) Hong Kong 100-9, 20 overs (Nizakat Khan 31; Chandra Sawad 4-23, Shakti Gauchan 2-11, Basant Regmi 2-18) Result: Nepal won by 30 runs Man of the match: Paras Khadka (NEP) Bermuda 116-7, 20 overs (Dion Stovell 56, David Hemp 36; Sair Anjum 2-15) Denmark 117-3, 19.1 overs (Freddie Klokker 50, Rizwan Mahmood 47 n.o.; Dion Stovell 1-20) Result: Denmark won by seven wickets Man of the Match: Freddie Klokker (DEN) Group B Namibia 160-8, 20 overs (Louis van der

Westhuizen 34, Raymond Van Schoor 31, Sarel Burger 21, Craig Williams 19; Paul Stirling 3-20, George Dockrell 3-20, Alex Cusack 2-26) Ireland 156-9 (Gary Wilson 49, John Mooney 38, Kevin O’Brien 20; Louis van der Westhuizen 2-37) Result: Namibia won by four runs Man of the match: Louis Van Der Westhuizen (NAM)

DHAKA: India’s Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir both cracked their 10th one-day centuries to set up a comfortable 50-run victory over Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup in Dhaka yesterday.

Man-of-the-match Kohli (108) and lefthanded opener Gambhir (100) added 205 runs for the second wicket as India posted a challenging 304-3 before bowling Sri Lanka out for 254 in the day-night match.

Seamer Ir fan Pathan was the pick of India’s bowlers with four wickets, while offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin and paceman Vinay Kumar took three apiece.

Sri Lanka raced to 122 in the opening 18 overs, thanks to sk ipper Mahela Jayawardene, who kept alive his team’s hopes of hunting down a stiff target with a brisk 59-ball 78.

But they suffered a setback when Jayawardene was caught behind off Irfan in the 19th over after smashing two sixes and 10 fours. He added 93 for the second wicket with Kumar Sangakkara (65).

“There were not many boundaries in the Virat-Gautam partnership but they did well to set up a base,” said India sk ipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“It is a tough ground to defend with a quick outfield. It was difficult when Mahela was batting well. The wicket changed a bit and the ball came onto the bat better and they were able to play their shots.”

Sri Lanka’s chances receded sharply after the dismissal of Sangakkara, caught at deep mid-wicket off Ashwin, who also trapped Lahiru Thirimanne (29) lbw in the same over.

Vinay removed Nuwan Kulasekara and Chamara Kapugedera off successive deliveries as Sri Lanka were reduced to 216-7, losing four wickets for 20 runs.

“I played a pretty bad shot,” said Jayawardene. “ We needed to finish the chase which we did not do. Initially, they set it up nicely with Gautam and Virat and I thought we gave away 15-20 runs (too many).”

Kohli earlier top-scored for India with his second successive hundred against Sri Lanka, having made an unbeaten 133 at Hobart in the recent triangular one-day series in Australia.

India plundered 78 runs off the last 7.1 overs, with Dhoni smashing a 26-ball 46 not out and Suresh Raina an unbeaten 30 off just 17 balls. India lost Sachin Tendulkar early in the innings before Gambhir and Kohli bolstered their team with their impressive knocks. Tendulkar, chasing an elusive 100th international century, could make only six runs before pushing a Suranga Lakmal full-

toss straight to Jayawardene in the covers.

Sri Lanka then had to wait for 37 overs to get their next wicket as Gambhir and Kohli continued to gather runs comfor tably against both pace and spin.

The pair reached their centuries in the 42nd over before both falling in the next

Vincenzo Nibali

MILAN: Italian Vincenzo Nibali of the Liquigas team overcame a 06-second deficit to American Chris Horner to triumph at Tirreno-Adriatico yesterday.

Switzerland’s Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack won the final stage time trial, held over 9.3 km around San benedetto del Tronto.

A seven-stage race that dozens of riders use to rack up the kilometres ahead of the gruelling Milan-SanRemo one-day classic this weekend, the battle for overall victory came down to Nibali, Horner and Czech Roman Kreuziger.

RadioShack all-rounder Horner came up short, finishing 20sec adrift of Nibali in the race against the clock to drop to second overall at 14.

Kreuziger, of Astana, was third at 26.

Nibali’s victory hoists him up to second place in the UCI WorldTour rankings behind Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, alongside Paris-Nice winner Bradley Wiggins of Britain.

“I’m very happy, I felt good all morning and was confident,” Nibali, the 2010 Tour of Spain winner, told RAI Sport. “This season I had a lot more races in my legs than a lot of riders going into Tirreno-Adriatico, and the team was perfect.”

Although succeeding Australian Cadel Evans, who went on to win his maiden Tour de France last July, Nibali was cautious about declaring his podium ambitions for the three-week epic.

DHAKA: India’s Virat Kohli (right) and Gautam Gambhir run between the wickets during their Asia Cup cricket match against Sri Lanka. —AP

SCOREBOARD DHAKA: Complete scoreboard of the Asia Cup match between India and Sri Lanka in Dhaka yesterday: India: G. Gambhir c Tharanga b Maharoof 100 S. Tendulkar c Jayawardene b Lakmal 6 V. Kohli c Thirimanne b Maharoof 108 MS Dhoni not out 46 S. Raina not out 30 Extras (lb7, w7) 14 Total (for three wickets; 50 overs) 304 Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Tendulkar), 2-224 (Gambhir), 3-226 (Kohli).

Bowling: Kulasekara 10-0-67-0 (w1), Lakmal 10-167-1 (w2), Dilshan 10-0-54-0, Prasanna 9-0-45-0 (w1), Maharoof 10-0-57-2 (w3), Kapugedera 1-0-7-0.

Sri Lanka: M. Jayawardene c Dhoni b Irfan T. Dilshan c Kohli b Irfan K. Sangakkara c Jadeja b Ashwin D. Chandimal b Ashwin

78 7 65 13

L. Thirimanne lbw b Ashwin 29 N. Kulasekara b Vinay 11 U. Tharanga b Irfan 17 C. Kapugedera c Kohli b Vinay 0 F. Maharoof c Raina b Vinay 18 S. Prasanna c Tendulkar b Irfan 8 S. Lakmal not out 0 Extras (lb2, w6) 8 Total (for all out; 45.1 overs) 254 Fall of wickets: 1-31 (Dilshan), 2-124 (Jayawardene), 3-152 (Chandimal), 4-196 (Sangakkara), 5-198 ( Thirimanne), 6-216 (Kulasekara), 7-216 (Kapugedera), 8-241 (Tharanga), 9-254 (Maharoof ), 10-254 (Prasanna).

Bowling: Irfan 8.1-1-32-4, Praveen 7-0-47-0 (w1), Vinay 9-0-55-3 (w3), Jadeja 4-0-31-0, Raina 5-0-340, Ashwin 9-0-39-3 (w2), Sharma 3-0-14-0.

Result: India win by 50 runs.

over off seamer Farveez Maharoof as they attempted to step up the run-rate. Gambhir, dropped on 36, made the most of the chance and hit seven fours in his 118-ball knock, while Kohli also struck the same number of boundaries in his 120-ball innings. — AFP

Nibali triumphs in Milan

Oman 89-9, 20 overs (Sultan Ahmed 16, Carl Sandri 4-9, Gareth Berg 2-22) Italy 90-1, 14 overs (Michael De Venuto 42 not out; Peter Petricola 39 not out) Result: Italy won by nine wickets Man of the match: Carl Sandri (ITA) USA 123-8 in 20 overs (Sushil Nadkarni 38, Adil Bhatti 21; Jonathan Sebanja 2-32, Roger Mukasa 2-14) Uganda 124-6 in 19.2 overs (Frank Nsubunga 30, Davis Arinaitwe 27 n.o.; MuhammadGhous 2-16) Result: Uganda won by four wickets Man of the match: Davis Arinaitwe (UGA) Scotland 178-7, 20 overs (Calum MacLeod 55, Kyle Coetzer 46; James Ngoche 2-31) Kenya 164 all out, 20 overs (Collins Obuya 50; Gordon Drummond 3-50, Majid Haq 2-32) Result: Scotland won by 14 runs Man of the match: Calum MacLeod (SCO)

He added: “I’m not hiding the fact the Tour (de France) is on my race programme, but we’re talking about time trials that are 50 km long, which is a different story altogether.

“This year it will be a lot more open in the absence of (Alberto) Contador (suspended for doping). But hopefully we can have some real ambitions.”

Cancellara, a four-time world time trial champion, clocked 10min 36sec to finish 12secs ahead of Italian teammate Daniele Bennati.

The Swiss, who triumphed last week at the gruelling Italian race Strade Bianche, has thus confirmed his form ahead of the first-one day classic of the season.

Cameron Meyer, meanwhile, put in a notable performance for GreenEdge, the Australian finishing third at only 16.

Meanwhile, Australian outfit GreenEdge have become the latest pro cycling team to join a body whose aim is to promote clean and credible sport through strict anti-doping measures.

The teams signed up to the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), created in 2007, promise to abide by the strictest anti-doping measures including those laid out by the World Anti Doping code.

It means, for example, teams will prevent any rider who is being investigated for any kind of suspected doping infraction is barred from competition until cleared. —AFP

18

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

S P ORT S

No need for Manchester City to feel blue LONDON: For those who fear that money is hijacking soccer, that victory on the field is becoming a preserve of the wealthy, a ray of hope came this weekend from an unlikely source - Wales.

Swansea, fielding a starting lineup that cost peanuts in soccer terms (less than $15 million), beat one of the richest sides in England, Manchester City, bankrolled by an ambitious Abu Dhabi billionaire.

Swansea’s 7-year-old, 20,000-seat Liberty Stadium, which it shares with the Ospreys rugby team because neither club could afford a new home of its own, cost less to build than Manchester City spent last July on just one player, Sergio Aguero.

The Argentine is City’s top goal-scorer this season. Manager Roberto Mancini hurried him on as a first-half substitute on Sunday as it quickly became apparent that

City was being outplayed. But even Aguero couldn’t make the crucial difference.

Michel Vorm, Swansea’s Dutch goalkeeper, did make a difference with an acrobatic save that kept out a shot from City’s Kolo Toure. He cost the Welsh team $2.3 million to buy from Utrecht last August. That is far less than City’s bad boy Carlos Tevez has squandered in fines and lost wages this season during his disputes with the Manchester club.

Swansea was in such trouble as recently as 2001 that it was twice sold in the space of months for the nominal sum of 1 pound each time. Although in better shape now, even the $5.5 million the club spent on Danny Graham, its most expensive player and top scorer this season, would be small change for City.

So, on paper, this wasn’t meant to be a

match of equals. But in its first season in the Premier League, Swansea is making a habit of confounding expectations.

Because of their passing game, manager Brendan Rodgers’ players together have earned the nickname “Swans-alona,” a nod to Barcelona, the master of the art. Swansea midfielder Leon Britton’s stats for passing accuracy have this season rivaled those of Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez.

But unlike Blackpool, another cheap and cheerful team that was the surprise package last season, Swansea can defend, too.

Its 1-0 defeat of City was the 11th time in 28 Premier League games that it prevented an opponent from scoring. Only City and Manchester United, with 13 clean sheets each, have done better this season.

At the Liberty Stadium, Swansea has been nearly unbeatable - losing only twice

and letting in just 10 goals. Again, only City has done better at home this season, letting in just six goals at its Etihad Stadium.

In short, City’s loss in Wales wasn’t as much of a shock as headline writers suggested. It doesn’t mean that City’s expensive squad of stars is failing to jell into a cohesive team. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Manchester United is bound to win the league title now that City, the previous league leader, has faltered.

Arsenal lost at the Liberty, too, and both Chelsea and Tottenham contented themselves with draws there. Of the league’s top five, only Man United came away from Swansea with a win - 1-0, in November.

“David beats Goliath” results like this weekend’s have a long history in England, too. Remember Burnley 1, Manchester 0?

That was United, not City, on Aug. 19,

2009. Alex Ferguson’s side was the defending league champion, but it managed to lose to a club that hadn’t beaten United in 41 years and which was relegated at the end of that season.

Or Sheffield United 2, Manchester 1?

Again, that was United, not City, on Aug. 15, 1992. That was United’s first match in the new Premier League. It also managed to lose 1-0 at Oldham that season. Both Sheffield and Oldham dropped out of the top flight the following season. In short, upsets happen.

The tweeting classes buzzed about a City supporter who looked utterly heartbroken when Luke Moore headed Swansea’s winner in the 83rd minute. Television images appeared to show the grown man weeping.

But he needn’t have been so blue. Not yet, at least. This title race is far from over. —AP

Bulls charge past Knicks not won in Salt Lake City since 2002 -losing their last nine visits here.

The win ended a drama-filled day for the Jazz that started with a closed-door meeting between guard Raja Bell and team officials.

It came two days after Bell was sent home from a road trip following a verbal clash with coach Tyrone Corbin, but both sides proclaimed the matter closed. Bell started, but had just one point.

CHICAGO: Derrick Rose scored 32 points as the Chicago Bulls beat New York 104-99 on Monday night, handing the Knicks their sixth straight loss.

Rose shot 12 of 29 from the floor and had six rebounds and seven assists as the Bulls got their 10th win in 11 games. Taj Gibson had 15 points and a team-high 13 rebounds for Chicago.

Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 21 points and Amare Stoudemire added 20, but the two combined for just seven points in the fourth quarter as the Bulls pulled away.

Jeremy Lin had 15 points and eight assists for New York, but shot just 4 of 11 from the floor and had little luck stopping Rose.

T’wolves 127, Suns 124 At Phoenix, Kevin Love scored 13 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter as the Minnesota Timberwolves outlasted the Suns.

Nikola Pekovic scored 24 points and Derrick Williams added 19 to help the Timberwolves end a ninegame losing streak in Phoenix.

Jared Dudley scored a seasonhigh 28 points, Steve Nash had 25 and Channing Frye added 18 for the Suns, who snapped a threegame winning streak.

Sebastian Telfair scored six points in seven seconds - converting a four-point play and stealing the ensuing inbounds pass and scoring a layup - to give the Suns a 111-107 lead with 6:38 left.

Luke Ridnour put Minnesota ahead for good, 121-120, with 1:50 to go and the Timberwolves made six straight free throws in the final 37.8 seconds to close out the game.

Celtics 94, Clippers 85 At Los Angeles, Paul Pierce scored 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and Kevin Garnett added 21 points and eight rebounds as Boston made an impressive late rally to win for the second time in their last nine road

Spurs 112, Wizards 97 At San Antonio, Tony Parker scored 31 points in his return from a one-game absence to lead San Antonio past Washington.

Parker, who missed Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers with a strained right quadriceps, hit 13 of 18 shots and had seven assists.

Tiago Splitter scored 17 points, Tim Duncan added 14, and DeJuan Blair had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Spurs extended their winning streak over the Wizards to 12.

Washington has lost nine of its last 11 and fell to 3-15 on the road.

JaVale McGee led the Wizards with 21 points and 15 rebounds, and Jordan Crawford added 19 points.

CHICAGO: Bulls center Joakim Noah (13) blocks the shot of New York Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire (1) as Bulls’ Jimmy Butler (21) watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game. —AP games.

Ray Allen scored 15 points and Rajon Rondo had 12 points and 10 assists for the Celtics, who recovered after blowing a 10-point lead in the final minutes.

Blake Griffin had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers, who have lost four of five while falling behind the Lakers atop the Pacific Division. Chris Paul had 14 points on 3-for-12 shooting in his second game wearing a clear pro-

tective mask over his broken nose.

Jazz 105, Pistons 90 At Salt Lake City, Al Jefferson scored 33 points to lead Utah past Detroit. C.J. Miles added 15 points, including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, to help the Jazz end a two-game skid and snap Detroit’s three-game winning streak.

Rodney Stuckey scored 29 points for the Pistons, who have

NBA results/standings Milwaukee 105, New Jersey 99; Chicago 104, NY Knicks 99; Charlotte 73, New Orleans 71; San Antonio 112, Washington 97; Utah 105, Detroit 90; Minnesota 127, Phoenix 124; Boston 94, LA Clippers 85.

Western Conference Eastern Conference Atlantic Division Northwest Division W L PCT GB Oklahoma City 32 9 .780 Philadelphia 25 17 .595 Denver 23 19 .548 9.5 Boston 22 19 .537 2.5 Minnesota 22 21 .512 11 NY Knicks 18 24 .429 7 Utah 20 21 .488 12 New Jersey 14 29 .326 11.5 Portland 20 21 .488 12 Toronto 13 28 .317 11.5 Chicago Indiana Milwaukee Cleveland Detroit

Central Division 35 9 23 16 18 24 16 23 15 27

.795 .590 .429 .410 .357

Miami Orlando Atlanta Washington Charlotte

Southeast Division 31 9 27 15 24 17 9 31 6 34

.775 .643 .585 .225 .150

9.5 16 16.5 19

LA Lakers LA Clippers Phoenix Golden State Sacramento

Pacific Division 25 16 23 17 19 22 17 21 14 27

.610 .575 .463 .447 .341

1.5 6 6.5 11

5 7.5 22 25

San Antonio Memphis Dallas Houston New Orleans

Southwest Division 27 13 24 16 23 20 22 20 10 32

.675 .600 .535 .524 .238

3 5.5 6 18

World motorcycling Grand Prix next week KUWAIT: The Kuwait Quarter Mile Club hosts next Saturday the motorcycle racing world championship grand prix, under the patronage of Ahmadi Governor Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah. The tournament is officially supervised by the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM).

This was announced yesterday by secretary of the Kuwait Quarter Mile Club, Sheikh Ali Al-Fawaz Al-Sabah, who said in statements to the Kuwait News Agency that the race features contestants from the Gulf Cooperation Council and other countries around the world, and takes places at a racetrack south of the country at the King Fahad Highway prepared specifically for the competition.

Top FIM officials will attend the event, including Vice President Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Attiya, in addition to Vice President of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), Mohammad bin Sulaiyem, Al-Sabah added.

Bobcats 73, Hornets 71 At New Orleans, Gerald Henderson scored 15 points and rookie Bismack Biyombo blocked Trevor Ariza’s driving dunk attempt in the final seconds as Charlotte held on to beat the Hornets.

Kemba Walker added 14 points, including 10 during a decisive 22-5 run the spanned from late in the third quarter to midway through the fourth. Biyombo finished with 12 points and four blocks for Charlotte, which snapped a threegame losing streak but still has the league’s worst record at 6-34.

Jarrett Jack 15 points and nine assists for New Orleans, which has lost five of six in falling to 10-32.

Chris Kaman has 12 points and 16 rebounds, while Marco Belinelli and Ariza each scored 12 points for the Hornets.

Bucks 105, Nets 99 At Newark, Brandon Jennings has 34 points, seven assists and seven rebounds as Milwaukee beat New Jersey for the 10th consecutive time.

Drew Gooden added 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as the Bucks rallied from an early 12-point deficit. Beno Udrih added 15 points and seven assists and Mike Dunleavy had 15 points, including a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:30 to go that opened a 10-point lead.

Kris Humphries had a careerhigh 31 points and 18 rebounds for New Jersey, which lost its second straight without point guard Deron Williams. Jordan Farmar added 17 points and seven assist, while Anthony Morrow also scored 17. —AP

ICC dismisses India match-fixing claims DUBAI: The International Cricket Council on Monday dismissed a claim in a British newspaper that Indian bookmakers were fixing the results of English county games and overseas fixtures.

The chief executive of the sport’s world governing body, Haroon Lorgat, described a report in Britain’s Sunday Times that it was probing last year’s World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan as “baseless and misleading”. “The ICC has no reason or evidence to require an investigation into this match,” he said in an emailed statement to media. “It is indeed sad for spurious claims to be made which only serve to cause doubt on the semi-final of one of the most successful ICC Cricket World Cups ever.” The weekly claimed on Sunday that it had uncovered evidence that tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) was on offer to players to throw part or all of international match-

es, including the crunch semi-final between the bitter South Asian rivals. India won the match and went on to beat Sri Lanka in the final. One New Delhi-based bookmaker was quoted as saying that English county cricket was a “good new market” because matches were low-profile. Money was on offer to batsmen to score slowly and bowlers to concede runs in a set pattern, the report said.

The allegations came just weeks after former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield became the first English cricketer to be jailed for corruption, after admitting accepting money to fix a match against Durham in September 2009. Last year, Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were also jailed in Britain for their role in a separate “spot-fixing” scandal concerning a 2010 Test match against England. —AFP

INDIAN WELLS: Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden returns a shot to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament. —AP

Wozniacki survives close tussle with Arvidsson INDIAN WELLS: Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki recovered from a shaky opening set to battle past Swede Sofia Arvidsson 3-6 7-5 6-2 in the third round of the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Monday.

Wozniacki, who beat Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in last year’s final, initially struggled to hold serve on a cool evening but found her form to break her opponent three times in the final set and seal victory in two hours, 37 minutes.

The 21-year-old Dane, wearing an orange dress and matching visor, pumped her left fist in delight after pouncing on a drop shot and unleashing a crosscourt backhand winner to break the Swede and lead 5-2.

Fourth-seeded Wozniacki then coolly served out for victory, ending the match with a forehand winner after Arvidsson had again teased her forward with a drop shot.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” a smiling Wozniacki said in a courtside interview at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden after a marathon baseline battle between the two Scandinavians.

“I’ve known Sophia since I was 12 or 13 and we know each other’s games so well. “She just came out from a win in

Memphis and I knew she was on fire. I’m so happy with this win,” added the Dane, who will next play Serb Ana Ivanovic, a 67 6-3 6-2 winner against Kazakhstan’s Ksenia Pervak.

Arvidsson, through to the third round at Indian Wells for the first time in five attempts, won a topsy-turvy opening set that ended with three successive breaks of serve, two of them in the Swede’s favour.

Both players struggled to hold service in the second set with four breaks in the first six games before Wozniacki took control. She broke Arvidsson to love in the 11th game and then held to level the match after the Swede hit a forehand long.

The Dane made a fast start to the third set, breaking her opponent in the first and third games to lead 3-0 before Arvidsson broke back to love in the fourth after Wozniacki double-faulted.

The next two games went with serve until the Dane broke the Swede in the seventh, chasing down a poorly executed drop shot and hitting a backhand crosscourt winner to lead 5-2. Wozniacki, a winner of 18 WTA titles, held serve in the eighth to improve her career record against Arvidsson to 5-2. —Reuters

Djokovic fends off Anderson, Fish out INDIAN WELLS: Novak Djokovic blunted the power serving of South African Kevin Anderson to reach the fourth round of the Indian Wells ATP tournament on Monday, while Mardy Fish was upset by Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden.

World number one Djokovic, who beat Spaniard Rafa Nadal in last year’s final at Indian Wells, broke the towering Anderson twice in a marathon opening set and once in the second to triumph 6-2 6-3 in one hour, 37 minutes.

“It was a very close match,” the Serb said in a courtside interview after breaking Anderson in the sixth and eighth games to win the first set in just under an hour. “The scoreline does not reflect how close it was, especially the style of the match. In most of our matches ... the first set goes on for half an hour or more. I was fortunate to hold that break and I returned well today.”

Djokovic lost to Anderson when they first met at the 2008 Masters Series event in Miami and, despite winning their next three encounters without losing a set, he had expected a tough challenge on Monday.

“He’s very aggressive on the return games and he has a great serve, as you can imagine for his height,” said the Serb. “So I had to return well.

I had to just be patient, and wait for my chances.

“I didn’t serve well in the opening set ... but then I served well and put a lot of pressure on him. So I’m really happy with this win today. It wasn’t easy to expect to win.”

Djokovic, who won his fifth grand slam crown at the Australian Open in January, fired down five aces while the six-foot eight-inch (2.03 metres) Anderson delivered seven, but the South African won only 41 percent of his second serves. “This is one of my most successful tournaments,” added Djokovic, who was champion here in 2008 and again last year. “I love coming back to the desert.”

Djokovic will next meet Pablo Andujar, who advanced with a 7-6 6-4 win against fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos. Fish, runner-up here in 2008, lost to South Africa-born Ebden in a

match where the American was slapped with a hindrance call in the second set after he shouted “Come on” during a rally.

“First off, it was totally my fault,” said Fish, who was penalised in the ninth game before being broken to trail 4-5. “I made a mistake, and I would have been totally fine with playing a let on it. “I was just trying to fire myself up, to be

Andy Roddick honest with you,” he added of his yell after hitting an attempted volley winner. “For him to get that on one bounce was an amazing get.”

Ebden, a speedy player across the court, did not hit the return as the chair umpire intervened with the hindrance call.

“I think umpire made the right call,” the Australian said. “Unfortunately he (Fish) did say ‘Come on’ before I hit the ball. I did get there in reasonable time to hit the ball. I still had a decent play on it.”

Ebden, who broke Fish once in the opening set and three times in the second, was delighted with his victory over the world number eight. —Reuters

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

S P ORT S

Teixeira exit a boon for Brazil World Cup

RIO DE JANEIRO: The resignation of Ricardo Teixeira, the corruption-tainted boss of Brazilian football, marks the end of an era of “absolute power” and brings hopes of a more transparent 2014 World Cup, according to analysts.

“The era of absolute power is over,” sports analyst Juca Kfouri, who has been tracking Teixeira’s career for years, told sports channel ESPN. Teixeira, who had led the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) since 1989, handed over his post to his deputy, 79-year-old Jose Maria Marin, on Monday and also resigned as head of Brazil’s organizing committee (COL) for the 2014 World Cup.

His 22-year stewardship of CBF was marred by controversy, with repeated calls for his resignation amid allegations of irregularities in Brazil and abroad.

Teixeira, 64, allegedly took millions of dollars worth of bribes in the 1990s from the Switzerlandbased ISL sports marketing company that later went bankrupt.

He was also accused of diverting public funds from a friendly match played by Brazil in 2008.

“The CBF is a black box, an impenetrable kingdom,” Marcos Guterman, author of the book ‘Football Explains Brazil: A Story of the Biggest Popular Expression of the Country’, told AFP. “ There was no control. No open accounts, no external audit-

ing. Everything revolved around Teixeira. “With the departure of a figure so tied to scandals, concentration of power, influencepeddling and backroom dealings, condemned by so many Brazilians, it is possible that the clubs will now conduct themselves in a more transparent and open manner.

“And the World Cup and its organisation may be more transparent.” Marin, who is succeeding Teixeira both as CBF chief and head of COL, vowed to ensure continuity but faced immediate calls for more transparency in the running of the confederation and preparations for the 2014 World Cup, which Brazil is hosting.

Elena Landau, a lawyer and

economist specialising in football, said that with the departure of Teixeira, “the CBF must stop being untouchable”.

“CBF is what it is because it exploits perhaps the most important cultural trait of the Brazilian people, which is the love of football,” she told Globo’s CBN radio.

Unlike her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President Dilma Rousseff always kept her distance from Teixeira and never granted him an audience.

Teixeira’s departure was “quite a coup” for President Dilma, according to Kfouri. Lawmaker Alvaro Dias, who investigated the CBF in 2001, meanwhile saw it as an opportunity for the government to gain more space in the

organisation of the World Cup. “The Cup is being organised with public funds, the government must assume its responsibility,” he added.

Guterman and other analysts did, however, point to Teixeira’s positive legacy, saying he “transformed the national squad into something professional and won two World Cups (1994 and 2002), while the 2014 Cup in Brazil is a reality”. And the CBF today has 11 sponsors, which pay it $126 million annually. But the experts deplored the fact that the national squad only plays abroad, in line with the interests of its sponsors, at the expense of the interests of Brazilian fans. Brazil’s former striker and 1994 World Cup winner

Romario, now a lawmaker and a frequent critic of organisational progress for the World Cup, compared the departure of Teixeira to “extirpating a cancer ” and demanded a thorough CBF clean-up, which, he quickly added, was “very difficult, if not impossible”. “Marin (whose term as CBF chief ends in 2015) represents continuity, if not a step backward,” the daily Folha de Sao Paulo said in an editorial.

“The overhaul of CBF will be difficult in the coming years.” At least four of Brazil’s 27 football federations (Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Bahia) have called for immediate elections to choose a new president for the confederation.—AFP

Preview

Chelsea fired up for Napoli salvage job

KATHMANDU: North Korean football player Jang Kuk Chol (center) and Indian football player Raju Eknath Gaikwad (second left) compete for the ball during their AFC Challenge Cup Nepal 2012 football match. North Korea won the match 4-0.—AFP

Barrada leaves Villarreal mired in relegation battle MADRID: Abdelaziz Barrada snatched a late goal for Getafe to win 2-1 at Villarreal, leaving their hosts hovering above the La Liga relegation places on Monday.

Villarreal started the campaign in the Champions League after finishing fourth last season, but a fourth match without a win left them 17th and three points above the bottom three. Getafe scored through Diego Castro after only six minutes at the Madrigal, with the hosts dominating possession and the visitors playing on the break.

Villarreal’s Borja Valero had an 18thminute penalty saved and Marcos Senna

crashed a free kick against the crossbar before Nilmar won them a second penalty, flinging himself to the ground just before the break. The Brazilian international scored from the spot, but Barrada poked in the winner in the 72nd minute after another well-worked breakaway. Getafe climbed to 13th with 32 points, five ahead of Villarreal who left the pitch to a barrage of whistles. Real Madrid top the standings with 70 points and 12 matches left to play after a 3-2 win at Real Betis at the weekend. Champions Barcelona are 10 points back in second place after beating Racing Santander 2-0.—Reuters

Arsenal strike late to turn up heat on Spurs Arsenal 2

Newcastle 1

LONDON: Arsenal narrowed the gap on thirdplaced Tottenham Hotspur to one point when Thomas Vermaelen struck deep in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 win over Newcastle United in a dramatic Premier League match on Monday. It was the fourth successive league game that Arsene Wenger’s side have come from behind to win as Arsenal have made the most of a slump in form by bitter north London rivals to challenge their grip on third spot. “Tottenham have got be watching over their shoulders now,” man of the match Theo Walcott told Sky Sports. “We are getting our jobs right, defensively we have been fantastic.

We know we can always score goals ... It’s been an up-and-down season but it’s the way you finish.” Visitors Newcastle went ahead in the 14th minute through Hatem Ben Arfa’s low drive but their celebrations were extremely short-lived as Arsenal’s man of the moment Robin van Persie struck to level the scores less than a minute later.

Arsenal were in danger of failing to turn their dominance into more goals before Vermaelen prodded home in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Newcastle failed to clear. Despite a series of misses by the likes of Gervinho, Van Persie and Tomas Rosicky, Wenger said he had never doubted that yet another comeback was on the cards. “I said to my assistant (Pat Rice), one more attack and we will score,” he said. “We caught them on a counter-attack on the final movement of the

game. We got five minutes of extra time and that allowed us to win the game.”

The result left Arsenal in fourth with 52 points from 28 games, one behind arch-rivals Spurs whose stranglehold on third spot has loosened after three successive defeats.

Newcastle stayed sixth on 44 points, five behind fifth-placed Chelsea.

Manchester United jumped above Manchester City at the top of the table after beating West Bromwich Albion 2-0 on Sunday as their title rivals lost 1-0 at Swansea City. A few weeks ago Spurs had looked to have sewn up third spot and automatic Champions League qualification, leaving Arsenal and Chelsea battling it out for fourth spot, but a top-three finish for Wenger’s side is now a distinct possibility.

Wenger’s men were 12 points behind their north London rivals at the start of last month but thanks to the Van Persie goal machine and a resurgence in the form of Rosicky, who signed a contract extension earlier in the day, Arsenal are on song. —Reuters

Matches on TV (Local Timings) UEFA Champions League Real Madrid v CSKA Aljazeera Sport +2 Aljazeera Sport 2 HD

22:45

Chelsea v Napoli Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Aljazeera Sport +4

22:45

ITALY: Chelsea will attack from the first minute as they seek to put behind them the rocky Andre Villas-Boas era by overhauling a 3-1 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie at home to Napoli today.

The London club have sacked their young Portuguese manager since last month’s first leg and face the Italians under interim boss Roberto Di Matteo, whose first taste of European action could be his last unless his players stage a stunning comeback.

If Chelsea needed any encouragement that their bid to book a quarter-final berth was not an impossible task, they only have look to fellow Premier League side Arsenal who fell just short when faced with a much bigger challenge last week.

Arsenal trailed 4-0 from their first leg at AC Milan but scored three goals at home to lose 4-3 on aggregate. Chelsea’s job is easier than that even if Napoli are on a run of six successive wins in all competitions.

“From the first minute we have to try to create chances to score. We know they have very good strikers and we have to be careful with them, but we will press from the first minute,” winger Juan Mata said on the club’s website (www.chelseafc.com).

Mata’s goal in Napoli could prove valuable as a 2-0 win in London would put England’s only remaining representatives through on away goals.

“In football nothing is impossible and at Stamford Bridge we have had good results in the Champions League, so I think we can do it,” the Spaniard added.

LONDON: Chelsea’s Spanish striker Fernando Torres (center) and teammates attend a training session at Stamford Bridge on the eve of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match against Napoli.—AFP “All the supporters will be cheer- goals coming from different play- Walter Mazzarri will be serving ing us, it’s a final for us, and we ers. While they have never won in the second of a two-match England, they did manage a 1-1 touchline ban during today ’s can do it.”

The return of captain John draw at Manchester City in the game.

Probable teams: Terry to the starting lineup for group stage this season which Chelsea: 1-Petr Cech; 2Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League should give them confidence win over Stoke City should pro- even if they are wary of Chelsea Branislav Ivanovic, 24-Gary Cahill, vides a boost to their central charging out of the blocks like 26-John Terry, 3-Ashley Cole; 8Frank Lampard, 7-Ramires; 23Arsenal did against Milan. defence for the return leg.

“We have an important advan- Daniel Sturridge, 10-Juan Mata, However, for all the hope Chelsea might have after back- tage but we should play as if it 5-Michael Essien; 11-Didier to-back wins and clean sheets were 0-0,” defender Paolo Drogba.

Napoli: 1-Morgan De Sanctis; since Di Matteo took charge, they Cannavaro said. “We are certainly come up against a team on an going to have to suffer but with a 14-Hugo Campagnaro, 28-Paolo little bit of concentration in the Cannavaro, 6-Salvatore Aronica; even better run.

11-Christian Maggio, 23-Walter The only one of five debutants first few minutes, we can do it. “ The first half will be ver y Gargano, 88-Gokhan Inler, 18still in the competition, Napoli warmed up for their trip to important, you just have to look Juan Zuniga; 17-Marek Hamsik, London with a 6-3 victory over at AC Milan who were trailing by 7-Edinson Cavani, 22-Ezequiel Cagliari in Serie A with all the 3-0 at halftime.” Napoli coach Lavezzi. —Reuters

Preview

Real and CSKA prepare for Champions showdown MADRID: Real Madrid go into tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg with CSKA Moscow full of confidence that they can progress to the last eight after the 1-1 draw achieved in Moscow.

Madrid won all six of their Champions League group games, becoming only the fifth side to do so, and were on course for a seventh victory in the first leg before a Pontus Wernbloom equaliser in the last minute gave CSKA an unexpected result.

Cristiano Ronaldo got Madrid’s goal in the Luzhniki stadium and the Portuguese superstar scored twice on Saturday night to make it 11 straight league wins as ‘Los Merengues’ overcame Real Betis 3-2 in a match that marked Jose Mourinho’s 100th match in charge of the club.

The former Inter Milan and Chelsea coach has achieved the best record of any Real coach in those games, winning 77 of them to leave Madrid 10 points ahead of Barcelona in La Liga. Mourinho also has experience of beating CSKA in the Champions League after his Inter Milan team beat them 1-0 home and away in the 2009/10 quarter-final on their way to the trophy.

Today he will be able to call on French forward Karim Benzema, out since the first leg with a muscular injury, who is in contention along with Argentinian Gonzalo Higuain to lead the attack with Ronaldo.

Another man playing his part in Madrid’s amazing recent run is Brazilian midfielder Kaka, who has enjoyed a good spell in the side in the absence of Angel Di Maria, who is still struggling with injury.

Kaka is looking forward to the tie and has called on the home

Saturday, a result that means both clubs lose ground to Russian league leaders Zenit St. Petersburg, CSKA sit second six points behind Zenit and two ahead of Dynamo.

CSKA went a goal ahead on three minutes thanks to a strike

MADRID: CSKA Moskva’s Liberian midfielder Sekou Oliseh (center) trains with teammates at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on the eve of their Champions League football match against Real Madrid. —AFP crowd to help the team over the line.

“I’m always motivated to play this competition because they are always difficult games but we need our fans to get behind us because CSKA are a quick team and have players that can cause us problems,” he said.

CSKA could only draw 1-1 with local rival Dynamo Moscow on

from Seydou Doumbia but they lost their way a little in a second half and Igor Semshov managed an equaliser for Dynamo.

The first leg result meant CSKA have not lost in six matches against Spanish opposition and will look to provide a stern test in the Spanish capital.

At this stage two years ago CSKA put out another Spanish

team, Sevilla, with a 2-1 away win thanks to goals from Tomas Necid and Keisuke Honda after the first leg in Russia had finished 1-1.

Both players along with Doumbia will be the dangermen that Madrid will need to keep quiet to avoid any surprises.

Alan Dzagoev, missing through suspension on Saturday, will be available in the Santiago Bernabeu, but inspirational goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev will miss the game through injury.

However, coach Leonid Slutsky is optimistic ahead of the tie.

“Madrid score lots of goals, even without their key players, and they make it difficult for the opposition to score against them, they are very fast and have some of the best players in the world. “ We need to be strong in defence and not give them any space but I believe in miracles and playing against them in the Santiago Bernabeu will be amazing,” he said.

CSKA’s Chilean midfielder Mark Gonzalez scored for CSKA in the first leg against Sevilla last season and he knows what it is like to beat Real Madrid having scored the winner for Real Betis in a 2-1 victory over ‘Los Blancos’ in 2008.

During his time in Spanish football the former Liverpool player also scored for Real Sociedad in a 1-1 draw in the Santiago Bernabeu and his experience will be crucial if CSKA are to achieve a miracle result today and progress.—AFP

Wozniacki survives close tussle with Arvidsson

Kohli, Gambhir set up India win

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

Chelsea fired up for Napoli salvage job Page 19

Qadsia win HH Amir Cup

KUWAIT: Qadsia football team clinched His Highness the Amir 50th Cup, their 14th title in this tournament, after defeating Kamza 1-0 yesterday. The match, held at Al-Kuwait football stadium witnessed great runs by Qadsia and the players capitalized on the last minute of the first half, thanks to a header by Omar Al-Soma. In the first 15 minutes of the first half, the referee issued one red card against Kazma player Talal Sulaiman leaving Kazma with ten-men. The second half also witnessed intensive football by both teams. Qadsia has won the cup for the 14th time, Kazma seven times, and Arabi has clinched the cup 15 times. — KUNA

Records fall as Bayern maul Basel

ITALY: Inter Milan’s Argentine defender Javier Zanetti (right) vies with Marseille’s Ghanaian forward Andre Ayew during their second leg Champions League round of 16 football match in Milan’s San Siro Stadium. — AFP

Brandao stuns Inter as Marseille progress MILAN: Brazilian substitute Brandao scored in injury time to send Marseille into the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since winning the competition in 1993 as they ousted Inter Milan.

Inter won the second round, second leg match 2-1 at the San Siro after a hectic finish in which Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda was sent off giving away a penalty even later in injury time.

Giampaolo Pazzini, who was brought down

by Mandanda, dispatched the spot-kick with the last kick of the match to give the Italians victory but they still went out on away goals.

Diego Milito had earlier given Inter the lead 15 minutes from time and the match looked to be heading into extra-time until the eventful three minutes of injury time.

Almost everything in this last 16 tie happened in injury-time with Andre Ayew giving the French victory in the first leg three weeks ago with a last-gasp goal at the Stade Velodrome.

Inter coach Claudio Ranieri may well be searching for a new job after this defeat with his team out of contention for silverware and facing an uphill battle in the league just to qualify for Europe next season. They made a blistering start and only the brilliance of Mandanda kept the scores level.

Inter captain Javier Zanetti burst down the right, cutting into the box, twice dummying a cross before picking out Wesley Sneijder, via a slight deflection, seven yards out but Souleymane Diawara and Mandanda between them sprayed their bodies in front of goal and

kept the ball out.

Moments later and the hosts put together another lovely move with Dejan Stankovic releasing Sneijder down the right and his fizzed cross found Milito inside the six-yard box.

The Argentine forward made an instinctive thrust with his chest to push the ball goalwards, but Mandanda again made a stunning reaction save.

That, however, was as good as it got for the rest of the half. Cesar Azpilicueta picked out Loic Remy from the right but the forward headed Marseille’s only decent chance of the half wide.

On the stroke of half-time Sneijder curled in a free-kick that Mandanda held easily before Maicon picked out Diego Forlan but he headed wide.

If Inter had gathered up a head of steam when they came out of the blocks, the wind seemed to have blown out of their sails by the second period.

They didn’t create anything resembling a chance until halfway through when Stankovic fired a free-kick from 25 yards over the bar.

In fact it was Alou Diarra who came closest with a header from a Mathieu Valbuena freekick that goalkeeper Julio Cesar did well to claw away from his left-hand post. But 15 minutes from time master poacher Milito struck following a goalmouth scramble at a corner.

First Walter Samuel poked the ball goalwards, it fell to Pazzini but his prod was blocked by a sprawled Jeremy Morel before the ball broke to Milito to clip home with Mandanda helpless. — AFP

MUNICH: Germany striker Mario Gomez scored four goals as Bayern Munich marched into the Champions League quarter-finals by smashing FC Basel 7-0 in the second leg of their last 16 clash yesterday.

It was the biggest win in a Champions League knockout match as records tumbled in Munich and Bayern bettered their 7-1 home win over Sporting Lisbon from the 2009 competition, also in the round of 16.

Having come to Germany holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg three weeks ago, Basel’s dreams of reaching the Champions League’s last eight for the first time were rudely awakened as they lost the tie 7-1 on aggregate.

It was also Basel’s worst ever away European defeat, breaking the 5-0 record set in 1963 at Celtic and equalled in 2008 at Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.

Munich’s Allianz Arena hosts the final here on May 19 and the Bavarians strolled into Friday’s quarter-final draw at UEFA headquarters in Nyon.

Bayern warmed up for the return leg by demolishing Hoffenheim 7-1 at home in the German league and having netted a hat-trick last Saturday, Gomez scored four more, while Dutch winger Arjen Robben again scored twice against Basel.

The Swiss side ended Manchester United’s involvement in this season’s campaign in the group stage, but spent the majority of the match defending their own half as Munich ensured they did not become Basel’s second major scalp.

Coach Jupp Heynckes stuck with the same team that hammered Hoffenheim and they were 3-0 up at the break. Robben opened the scoring on 11 minutes when he played a pass into Thomas Mueller, whose shot clipped a Basel defender’s boot and fell into Robben’s path to blast home from 12 yards.

It was all Bayern as Basel won only their first corner with 34 minutes gone and any threat was comfortably dealt with by Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Mueller made it 2-0 on 42 minutes when he converted a Robben cross and found enough space at the near post to beat Yann Sommer on the volley.

The third came less than two minutes later as defender Holger Badstuber squared the ball from a free-kick and with Gomez and Luiz Gustavo queueing up to score, it was Gomez who got his boot to it.

Gomez added his second on 50 minutes when he turned in a Franck Ribery cross and in an almost carbon copy of the fourth goal, Gomez completed his hat-trick when he latched onto a Ribery cross and headed home on 61 minutes.

The 5-0 scoreline equalled Basel’s worst away defeat in the Champions League and the record fell when Gomez netted his third after the break on 67 minutes when he slotted home yet another cross from Ribery, who was untroubled down the left flank.

By this stage the Basel defence had been cut to ribbons and Robben added more salt to their wounded pride by rounding Sommer to slot home Bayern’s seventh and his second of the night on 81 minutes. — AFP

MUNICH: Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez (left) and Basel’s David Angel Abraham challenge for the ball during the round of sixteen second leg Champions League soccer match. — AP

Gerrard hat-trick sinks Everton Liverpool 3

Everton 0 LIVERPOOL: Steven Gerrard marked his return to Liverpool’s starting line-up with a hat-trick as Kenny Dalglish’s side returned to winning ways with a 3-0 win over Everton in the Merseyside derby yesterday.

Gerrard, who has been plagued by injury this season, became the first player since Ian Rush in 1982 to score a treble in the fixture as David Moyes’s 10th anniversary celebrations in charge of Everton fell LONDON: Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard cel- flat at Anfield.

Liverpool’s first win in four league ebrates after scoring a hat-trick against games lifted them to within two points Everton . — AP of sixth-placed Newcastle while Everton’s

first defeat in 10 games continued their miserable record at Liverpool, where they have not won since 1999.

They might have secured the League Cup last month, but Liverpool’s results since the beginning of 2012 have been anything but impressive. Dalglish’s side had lost five of their previous eight topflight outings prior to this game.

Everton made the short journey to Anfield on the back of a nine-match league and cup run, but Moyes risked criticism from his own fans after resting the likes of Tim Cahill, Phil Neville, Leon Osman, Nikica Jelavic, the goalscoring hero in the last game against Tottenham, Royston Drenthe and John Heitinga ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final with Sunderland.

Liverpool started with Gerrard for the first time since suffering a hamstring problem, and the influential midfielder was at the heart of his side’s high-tempo start as Dalglish’s side looked determined to avoid an embarrassing fourth straight

league defeat.

It needed a stunning seventh minute save by Tim Howard to deny Gerrard after Luis Suarez’s defence-splitting pass.

Everton’s United States keeper stood his ground to beat away Gerrard’s fierce shot, with Jack Rodwell marking his return with a goal-saving block to keep out Jordan Henderson.

In an entertaining start, South African midfielder Steven Pienaar fired over the bar from a good position in front of ther Kop after clever work by Leighton Baines.

Eleven red cards have been shown in the last 14 meetings between the neighbours from across Stanley Park. But referee Phil Dowd did not even have to produce a yellow in the first half despite the frantic pace of the derby.

Andy Carroll and Suarez both spurned further chances before Gerrard’s inch-perfect lob earned Liverpool a 34thminute breakthrough after Martin Kelly was denied by Howard. — AFP

Moody’s cuts Cyprus to junk on Greece worries Page 22

Spain wins major deficit concession Page 23

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

Hyundai Motor unveils first look of Santa Fe

World stocks rise ahead of Federal Reserve meet Page 25

Page 26

Gulf producers worried by price spike World’s oil producers, consumers meet

KUWAIT: Delegates pose for a group photograph at the opening ceremony of the International Energy Forum yesterday. (Inset left) HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (centre), HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (left) and National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun are pictured at the ceremony. (Inset right) Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hani Hussein (left) and Swiss Environment and Energy Minister Doris Leuthard are pictured. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Top exporter Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers say surging oil markets are beyond their control and prices could spike higher unless tensions between the West and Iran subside. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri are expected to focus on high oil prices in their addresses to the International Energy Forum gathering of oil ministers and executives today, several OPEC sources said.

“Volatility is a concern for us and it can only be resolved if the issue with Iran can

be resolved,” said a Gulf oil industry source.

The Forum in Kuwait is one of the biggest gatherings of the oil industry bringing together producing and consuming nations, including the United States the European Union and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Gulf OPEC oil ministers said they would prefer to see oil trading at around $100 a barrel, rather than current levels of $124 that they fear could hurt the global economy and lead to a repeat of a spike and sub-

sequent collapse in oil prices in late 2008.

Oil prices climbed to 10-month highs and hit an all-time record in euros last month on concern over potential disruption to supplies of Iranian oil. “Oil prices are on the high side but they are really reacting to what is happening in the Middle East,” UAE’s Oil Minister Mohammed bin Dhaen Al-Hamli told reporters.

High oil prices have become a major headache for Western politicians heading for re-election this year, including United States President Barack Obama, due to

fears they could hamper a fragile global economic recovery. “It’s starting to hurt, we’re seeing signs,” said chief executive of oil major Total Christophe de Margerie.

OPEC ’s lead producer Saudi Arabia holds most of the world’s spare production capacity but oil markets are increasingly worried it would not be enough to fill a supply gap created if Iranian oil exports are disrupted or if Iran reacts to western pressure over its disputed nuclear programme by tr ying to close the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Higher oil prices start to pinch Asian consumers SINGAPORE: Surging oil prices are starting to pinch the pocketbooks of Asian consumers and could quicken inflation and slow economic activity in a region that has led global growth in recent years. The jump in crude - the US benchmark is trading near a ten-month high of $107 a barrel from $75 in October - has sent fuel prices higher across Asia, where only Malaysia is a net oil exporter among the major economies. In Singapore, for instance, a litre of 92-octane gasoline at ExxonMobil stations has risen 6 percent this year to 2.15 Singapore dollars a litre ($6.48 a gallon).

Higher oil prices have already made Asian policymakers think twice about cutting lending rates and implementing other stimulus measures designed to boost economic growth as shockwaves from Europe’s debt crisis spread. If crude gets much higher, it could force central bankers to raise rates, sacrificing growth to tame inflation.

The backbone of Asia’s economy has traditionally been exports to the US and Europe but a growing middle class and a boom in purchasing power in recent years in countries such China and Indonesia have made Asian consumer demand increasingly vital to the global economy. “I spend most of my day on the road driving clients around to see properties,” said 27-year-old Singapore real estate agent Timothy Chen, who switched last week to a less expensive, lower-octane gasoline to help stem his rising fuel bill. “It’s frustrating because I’m paying more for petrol but I’m not making more money.”

Some in the region, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, import all of their crude and are particularly exposed to higher energy prices, which boost transport and production costs, and therefore the cost of most goods. The cost of crude has spiked recently amid investor optimism that an improving US economy will boost demand and fears that rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program could lead to global supply disruptions.

“Rising oil prices appear more like a tax on global growth, eating into spending power in the U.S. and Europe, and hitting many Asian economies at a time when they are slowing,” said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank. “The impact of oil prices on the global economy can never be underestimated. Rising oil prices are usually the biggest threat to continued global growth.”

Asia’s strong trade and government surpluses have so far helped it absorb higher

global oil prices without a significant impact on the region’s inflation and economic growth. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting gross domestic product in Asia will expand 6.7 percent this year from 6.3 percent last year. However, GDP forecasts won’t take the sting out of higher fuel costs, especially for the region’s poor.

Hanoi motorbike taxi driver Nguyen Van Hung, 42, said he had to raise his fare by 1,000 dong (5 cents) per kilometre after the government boosted gasoline prices by 10 percent to a record high earlier this month.

“My customers just walked away when I told them I had to raise the fare,” said Hung, who earns about $5 a day and supports a family of four. “They said they could not afford that much.”

Even if the most recent data suggest inflation remains largely in check, Asia may still be hurt by the recent surge in oil prices since it can take months or years for higher energy costs and tighter monetary policies to work their way through an economy, said Sean Darby, chief global equity strategist with Jefferies in Hong Kong. “Well after the oil shock occurs, the economy will still be impacted,” Darby said. South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are the biggest net crude importers relative to the size of their economies while India - with trade and government deficits and an inflation rate at 6.6 percent in January - is in a weak position to absorb higher energy costs, analysts said. Another worry is that higher oil prices will force countries that subsidize consumer fuel costs - such as India, Indonesia and Thailand - to spend more on crude and less on other public expenditure that could help economic growth.

China raised gasoline prices 3.3 percent last month to equal a record high of 9,380 yuan per litre ($4 a gallon), but China has in the past been able to absorb increases.

Since 2003, gasoline prices have nearly tripled while the country has averaged growth of about 10 percent a year. “Asia has shown in recent years that high prices are not a barrier to the region’s continued rapid economic growth,” said Daniel Mar tin, Asia economist with Capital Economics in Singapore. But if prices jump because of a supply disruption from a violent conflict over Iran’s nuclear program while the global economy slows, the impact on Asia would be worse than, say, a scenario in which prices rise more gradually because Europe has stabilized and the global economy and oil demand are growing faster. — AP

“The geopolitical tensions around the Gulf are much more real than before. I hope we will pass 2012-2013 without some kind of a flash point,” Shihab Eldin, OPEC’s former head of research, said. Eldin said new oil supply capacity due to come online over the next few years could inflate the spare capacity cushion if diplomacy can stave off any conflict in the Gulf in the meantime. “If at the moment spare capacity is a little bit on the low side, I think in a year or two you will see it back above average,” he said. — Reuters

US asks Saudis to lift oil output from July

MUNICH: Visitors look at a BMW I3 Concept Car during the company’s annual results press conference yesterday. —AFP

Total and KPC sign China refinery deal KUWAIT: Kuwait Petroleum Corp. and France’s Total yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to be partners in a Kuwait-China oil refinery joint venture, the French energy giant said. The joint venture, in partnership with China’s Sinopec, will develop a refinery with a processing capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, in addition to a petrochemical complex, Total said in a statement issued on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Kuwait.

The complex to be built in Zhanjiang, in China’s southern Guangdong province, will process Kuwaiti crude oil.

Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), KPC’s international arm, and China’s state-owned Sinopec signed an agreement more than two years ago to build the $9 billion (6.9 billion euro) complex.

KPI has been negotiating with international oil majors to sell 20 percent of its 50 percent stake, or 10 percent of the total project. “This agreement will be the keystone of a long-term relationship with KPC,” Total chief executive officer Christophe de Margerie said in the statement. “The project is in line with our strategy of expanding in growth markets, based on a few highly competitive and integrated platforms,” he said.

KPC chief executive officer, Farouk alZanki also hailed the state -owned group’s new cooperation with Total.

“Total, with its long experience in the downstream business in China coupled with know how in refining and petrochemical operations, will add value to the China project,” he said, according the French statement. — AFP

KUWAIT: The United States is pressing Saudi Arabia to boost oil output to fill a likely supply gap arising from sanctions on Iran, Gulf oil officials said, adding that an increase in production is unlikely to be needed before July.

Saudi Arabia is the only producer with spare capacity and oil importers will rely on Riyadh to fill the gap should Iranian output drop.

Saudi Arabia has made clear it will only raise output if it sees additional demand for crude and does not want its oil policy implicated in efforts to disrupt Iran’s atomic programme which the West says aims to develop a nuclear weapon. “ There were talks held between Saudi and the US and the US asked if Saudi could be accommodating once the sanctions take effect in July. And the Saudi re s p o n s e w a s t h a t i t w a s re a d y t o m e e t demand in the market if required, but would not like to take part in the politics,” one Gulf official said.

The official was speaking at a gathering of energy ministers from producer and consumer nations at the International Energy Forum (IEF) in Kuwait. Attending the conference, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi gave reassurances yesterday to importing nations on Riyadh’s willingness to supply more oil if the need arises.

A European Union embargo on I ranian crude takes effect on July 1. US and European financial sanctions have made it more difficult for other importing nations to process payments for Iranian crude. Oil prices have risen sharply this year to $125 a barrel for Brent crude. Oil traders are keen to know the likely timing of any Saudi supply increase to counter the expected decline from Iran. “ There will not be any surprises in Saudi production over the coming few months, we are yet to see what demand in April will be.

But generally production will stay up or down 200,000 barrels per day from the current 9.8 (million bpd),” the Gulf official said. “The situation is still not clear, by July there will be a clearer pic ture,” another Gulf source said.

Already running close to record highs of about 10 million bpd, Saudi says it has the capacity to reach 11.4-11.8 million very quickly and could bring on another 700,000 bpd in 90 days to reach full capacity of 12.5 million bpd. — Reuters

22

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

business

PepsiCo revamps management team NEW YORK: PepsiCo Inc. revamped its management structure Monday in a move intended to strengthen its lineup of potential successors to CEO Indra Nooyi and leverage its scale as a global company. The management restructuring puts John Compton, who heads the company’s Americas foods division, in charge of all the company’s global groups in the newly created role of president. PepsiCo said Compton will also work with its regional groups for Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa to build brands, develop new products and cut costs.

Compton, who is 50, started his career with PepsiCo when he was 22 and has been there ever since. Brian Cornell, who was president and CEO of Wal-Mart

Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club division, will take over for Compton as CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods. The unit includes the Purchase, N.Y.-based company’s Frito-Lay and Quaker foods and snacks businesses.

Cornell, who is 52, previously held management positions at Pepsi, including president of its Tropicana brand and its Europe and Africa beverage businesses, before leaving the company in 2004.

PepsiCo said the appointments are effective immediately. John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, said the appointments were in line with PepsiCo’s recent focus on becoming known more as an international company like its rival The Coca-Cola Co. “They want to extract all the benefits they can from being as big

and global a company as they are,” Sicher said, citing the company’s plan to launch its first global ad campaign this summer.

The focus on international markets has become increasingly critical for beverage and snack food companies, given the flat growth at home in recent years. PepsiCo in the past two years even created three new groups - global beverages, global snacks and global nutrition. The company said Compton will assume responsibility for those groups, as well its global operations, marketing and strategy.

The new management structure comes as PepsiCo, the nation’s No. 2 cola company, has lost ground in recent years to Coca-Cola and faced speculation that Nooyi would step down amid investor

dissatisfaction. In a note to investors, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Mark Swartzberg said he considered the appointments positive for the company’s long-term fundamentals. Although he said he had no inside knowledge of the situation, he said it was a “reasonable outcome” that Nooyi would soon leave the CEO she has held since 2006, paving the way for Compton or another senior PepsiCo executive. At its annual investor meeting last month, PepsiCo said it plans to focus on regaining market share in North America by rolling out new products and significantly boosting its ad spending. The company also said it would cut 8,700 jobs, or about 3 percent of its work force. While PepsiCo is clearly

Moody’s cuts Cyprus to junk on Greece worries

Etisalat eyes $700m from Axiata sale

Government says cut not justified NICOSIA: Moody’s Investors Service cut Cyprus’s sovereign ratings to junk yesterday, saying there was a heightened risk the government, shut out of debt markets, would have to support its banks that have been battered by exposure to Greece. Moody’s cut the island-state one notch to Ba1 from Baa3. The outlook was negative, it said.

It is the second ratings agency to cut Cyprus to junk, after Standard and Poor’s, which has Cyprus at BB+. Fitch rates Cyprus BBB-, one notch above junk. Among other euro zone countries, Portugal is rated junk by all three rating agencies, Ireland has one junk rating from Moody’s, and Greece is either rated junk or in default by all three.

Moody’s said there was an increased risk the Cypriot government, itself shut out of financial markets for funding, would have to prop up banks. It said the level of recapitalisation required could exceed 20 percent of Cyprus’s GDP. In a statement, Cyprus’s finance ministry said it believed the downgrade was unjustified because conditions had not materially changed since Moody’s last cut its ratings in November.

It said that it would continue to work to meet fiscal targets and cooperate with the central bank to meet challenges in the banking sector.

Cyprus, the euro zone’s third-smallest economy with a gross domestic product of about 17 billion euros, has been hammered by ratings agencies for fiscal slippage and exposure of its banks to Greece’s sovereign debt and its economy. Not a frequent borrower on international markets, its borrowing costs are nonetheless prohibitive. It turned to close ally Russia for a 2.5 billion euro bilateral loan which authorities say will cover its needs this year. The yield on a 10-year bond was quoted at 13.04 percent yesterday, according to Reuters data. Moody’s downgrade focused primarily on Cyprus’s risks from Greece, while acknowledging that the island had undertaken fiscal consolidation and a greater number of structural changes than anticipated.

Bank exposure Cyprus’s two largest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Marfin Popular posted record losses after

taking a writedown on Greek sovereign holdings. Marfin Popular, which held 3.0 billion in Greek government bonds before the writedown, needs to boost its capital by 1.35 billion euros by the end of June. The bank says it plans to offer equity either to existing shareholders or new ones. It says it is talking to investors, but has not provided further details. Moody’s estimated that

focused on identifying its business fundamentals and ways to strengthen its advantages, Citi analyst Wendy Nicholson also noted last month that it would be “a mistake to underestimate the chaos factor” at PepsiCo. She cited the high level of turnover during the past year, including the company’s announcement that Massimo d’Amore, the president of its global beverages group, would retire early next year. “While we believe change is good, especially for an organization that has underperformed, we also wonder how much more shifting of responsibilities is yet to come,” she wrote. Shares of PepsiCo gained 79 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close at $63.94. — AP

ue, with a high potential for further shocks to funding conditions for the sovereign and the domestic banks,” Moody’s said.

Its decision to assign a negative outlook was a reflection of “very significant risks” that continue to emanate from the Greek sovereign crisis, and which will continue to challenge Cyprus over the next 18 to 24 months, it said. It said its

JAKARTA/DUBAI: UAE telecom operator Etisalat plans to sell its entire 13.29 percent stake in Indonesia’s No.3 phone firm PT XL Axiata, to raise between $600 to $700 million this year, sources said yesterday. Etisalat has been considering the sale for months after failing to expand its partnership with XL Axiata’s major shareholder, Malaysia’s Axiata Group, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

“Etisalat thinks it hasn’t been treated well in this deal... the reality is that the relationship soured a bit with the new management of Axiata,” said one of the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“They have never been able to find a way to work together in four years.” Etisalat and XL Axiata declined to comment.

Etisalat bought its XL Axiata stake in 2007 for $440 millionas part of a strategy to expand in east Asia. If the sale goes ahead, it would be the second time for the Middle Eastern firm to exit from an Asian country this year after it decided in February to shut down its joint venture in India, where it has alleged fraud against its partners.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has drawn strong foreign investment in recent years and was recently lifted to a sovereign investment grade status, though its markets have sagged in recent weeks and analysts say the case for piling in more money has weakened. Analysts said a maturing telecoms market in Indonesia could also be a factor in the planned stake sale.

“The telecom industry overall is not attractive anymore... Etisalat might think it’s a good time to cash out,” said Teddy Dwitama, a market analyst at Jakartabased brokerage OSK Nusadana. “XL’s profit might have soared significantly in 2008 to 2010, but we expect slower growth in 2012 due to stiff competition.”

Etisalat has hired JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley to handle the sale, which may launch via an equity placement, the sources said.

JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. XL Axiata, which has a market capitalisation of $4.3 billion, is itself currently in the process of selling 7,000 telecom towers for $1.4 billion this year, and has hired Goldman Sachs to handle this sale. — Reuters

Jordan refinery workers call off open-ended strike NICOSIA: An elderly man walks by a closed empty shop yesterday. — AP under the banks’ participation in Greece’s private sector debt-swap scheme, and factoring in a deterioration in asset quality in Cyprus and Greece, the banks would need a capital increase equivalent to more than 20 percent of GDP. Although some of this capital is included in present bank recapitalisation plans, Moody’s said there was a “very material risk” that the private sector would not be able to provide all the capital needed.

“Overall, the fragile market confidence in Cyprus, which has already led to a loss of access to international debt markets, is likely to contin-

downgrade was limited to one notch, acknowledging a government fiscal consolidation programme and the discovery of substantial gas reserves off the island’s shores.

Cyprus announced a discovery of between 5 and 8 trillion cubic feet of gas in an offshore field in December. It has now declared a licensing round for another 12 blocks. Although authorities are likely to realise some one-off gains from the sale of licences to tap reserves, it will probably take nearly a decade for the island to realise the most significant and sustained benefits, Moody’s said. — Reuters

LONDON: Workers at Jordan Petroleum Refinery have agreed to call off an openended strike that was scheduled to start today, a refinery offical said. “Yesterday’s meeting solved the problem,” a refinery official told Reuters yesterday, adding that many of the demands made by employees over working conditions had been met.

Among workers’ concerns is the prospect that they and other Jordanians would have to pay higher prices for electricity, because of a series of attacks in Egypt on the Sinai pipeline bringing natural gas to Jordan. The government move to increase power prices to cope with soaring electricity generation costs was met by an outcry by business and industrial lobbies.

The bombings in Egypt have forced Jordan, along with other countries in the

region, to seek additional supplies of gasoil, a more expensive fuel that can be used to generate power instead of gas. The refinery has been responsible for the purchases. The large imports of gasoil, organised via monthly tenders, have helped widen Jordan’s trade deficit by 21 percent over the past year. But Jordan has also at times been forced to make big purchases on the spot market to fill in for unexpected gaps, paying large premiums for its gasoil.

The additional expense has also led to strain on the finances of the refinery, contributing to the tension with the workforce.

In a February tender for instance, it agreed to pay a premium of nearly $36 a tonne over Middle East quotes for 350,000 tonnes of gasoil, which helped send prices rocketing in the region. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4330000 .3620000 .2990000 .2780000 .2900000 .0040000 .0020000 .0755120 .7356930 .3830000 .0720000 .7212150 .0040000 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2781500 GB Pound/KD .4356390 Euro .3640840 Swiss francs .3017470 Canadian dollars .2802380 Danish Kroner .0489710 Swedish Kroner .0408190 Australian dlr .2929610 Hong Kong dlr .0358540 Singapore dlr .2205260 Japanese yen .0033790 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0757590 Bahraini dinars .7380920 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0741930 Omani riyals .7227490 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.598 5.667 3.154 2.436 3.341 213.250 35.672 3.580 6.336 8.873 0.271 0.273

.2815000 .4430000 .3790000 .3100000 .2870000 .3020000 .0070000 .0035000 .0762710 .7430870 .4010000 .0770000 .7284630 .0072000 .0500000 .2802500 .4389280 .3668330 .3040250 .2823540 .0493400 .0411270 .2951730 .0361240 .2221910 .0034040 .0056410 .0023050 .0030990 .0034410 .0763310 .7436650 .3963930 .0747530 .7282060 .0066170

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

GCC COUNTRIES 74.150 76.402 722.230 738.540 75.715

Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 47.500 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.282 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.272 Tunisian Dinar 189.860 Jordanian Dinar 392.670 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.865 Syrian Lier 6.003 Morocco Dirham 33.814 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 277.950 Euro 370.650 Sterling Pound 431.930 Canadian dollar 268.420 Turkish lire 153.940 Swiss Franc 300.620 Australian dollar 277.000 US Dollar Buying 277.750 GOLD 315.500 159.000 81.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

COUNTRY

SELL CASH

Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal

298.100 742.260 3.650 285.100 548.200 45.500 50.400 167.800 47.550 372.100 36.670 5.810 0.032 0.159 0.240 3.480 395.530 0.189 94.240 45.400 4.290 233.200 1.808 50.500 724.970

SELL DRAFT

296.600 742.260 3.407 283.600

223.500 46.252 370.600 36.520 5.600 0.031

10 Tola Sterling Pound US Dollar

76.000 279.100

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 439.300 279.100

Selling Rate

277.750 283.990 442.665 368.570 305.435 738.165 75.870 76.515 74.295 392.380 46.222 2.286 5.633 3.069 3.398 6.533 683.765 4.405 9.195 5.870 3.640 92.240

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

298.49 283.59 306.27 369.79

442.50 3.70 3.550 5.780 2.625 4.250 3.180 76.45 743.00 47.40 395.80 726.00 77.25 74.85

279.300 3.078 5.605 2.305 3.415 6.590 76.145 74.635 742.500 46.275 444.100 3.190 1.550 371.500 287.200 3.510

Al Mulla Exchange

UAE Exchange Center WLL Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro

441.11 3.47 3.410 5.583 2.293 3.499 3.078 76.01 743.06 46.31 397.42 726.01 77.03 74.59

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Currency

724.790

307.100 3.700 9.320

Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

Currency

395.490 0.188 94.240 3.520 231.700

3.085 6.560 76.520 74.520 223.450 39.540 2.288 439.300

GOLD 1,783.680

Rate for Transfer

Bahrain Exchange Company

3.130 6.810 77.210 74.520 223.450 39.540 2.669 441.300 42.100 308.600 3.700 9.480 198.263 76.100 279.500 1.350

298.00 286.00 307.00 370.50

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

278.650 370.400 439.100 283.400 3.385 5.590 46.225 2.281 3.412 6.555 3.075 742.150 75.900 74.450

23

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

BUSINESS

Spain wins major deficit concession Eurozone’s decision sparks Austria appeal

PARIS: Italian President of the Financial Stability Board, Governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi, talks during a symposium with Le Monde and French association of private enterprises (AFEP) yesterday. —AFP

Italy pays reduced bond rates as confidence builds MILAN: Italy paid sharply lower rates at a bond auction yesterday when it raised 12 billion euros ($15.8 billion) in a sign of new-found market confidence in the eurozone’s third-biggest economy. The success of Italy’s recent bond auctions marks a remarkable turnaround from the end of last year when the country was seen at risk of being potentially the next eurozone member to fall into a debt spiral.

The latest auction of bonds for three months and one year came after eurozone ministers in Brussels gave Spain extra room for its high public deficit and as Greece prepared to wrap up its second bailout in as many years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is torn between domestic pressure to stop stumping up aid for eurozone laggards and demands for increased aid to stop the contagion from Greece, was also due to visit Rome later yesterday.

The rate for one-year bonds plunged to 1.405 percent from 2.230 percent at the time of the last such issue on February 13, and the rate on three-month bonds dropped to 0.492 percent from 1.907 percent on September 12. Investors put up a total of 19.5 billion euros for the 12 billion euros’ worth of debt on offer.

Stocks in Milan were up 1.21 percent following the auction.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was ousted in November 2011 by a parliamentary revolt and a wave of

panic on the financial markets and replaced by economics professor and exEuropean commissioner Mario Monti.

Monti quickly implemented a round of tough austerity measures in December and has also launched a sweeping programme of reforms to open up the economy which is set to be approved by parliament later this month.

He is holding talks with trade unions and employers to overhaul labour laws by making it easier to fire employees on long-term contracts. Italy, which returns to the market on Wednesday with a medium-term bond issue, has benefited from a sharp drop of yields on its traded bonds since the beginning of a crucial year for Italy’s debt. Italy has debt totalling about 1.9 trillion euros, or 120.1 percent of gross domestic product, and this year it needs to sell short-term and medium-term bonds to raise nearly 450 billion euros.

The yield, or interest rate, on its benchmark 10-year bonds is about 5.0 percent, down from about 7.0 percent at the end of 2011. Bond yields of much above 6.0 percent are widely considered to render the debt of eurozone countries unsustainable. Analysts said the borrowing rates paid by Italy had also been pushed down by massive injections of money into the eurozone system by the European Central Bank with cheap loans for commercial banks. —AFP

German central bank warns on ECB measures FRANKFURT: Germany’s top central banker has urged the European Central Bank to come up with a plan to eventually withdraw its massive emergency loans to banks, warning that they carry significant risks and have only bought Europe time to deal with the deeper causes of its debt crisis. Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann said yesterday that the ECB and national central banks had run up risks by loosening collateral requirements for the loans and from the sheer size of the loans and therefore needed to be aware of the pitfalls. That does not mean that crisis measures need to be withdrawn now but that “we as central banks must develop an idea of how we will organize and execute an exit from the special measures, how we will limit the risks that we have taken during the crisis,” Weidmann said at the Bundesbank’s annual news conference.

By loosening collateral requirements, the ECB gave banks more than 1 trillion ($1.31 trillion) in loans in two operations Dec. 21 and Feb. 29. The actual amount of new cash in the system is around 500 billion because banks moved some of their loans from other ECB offerings to these new ones, called longer term refinancing operations, or LTROs. Weidmann also noted that the loans will help prop up banks with unsustainable business models, and that governments will slack off on their efforts to clean up their finances and reform their economies. “A sensible limitation of risks starts with the causes,” Weidmann said. “With these measures we have only bought time.” ECB head Mario Draghi urged banks and governments to use that time wisely to strengthen themselves and help the wider economy to return to growth. “Countries should use this phase of financial stabilization to make further progress on their programs of economic reform to strengthen their potential growth, to boost unemployment and to enhance competitiveness,” he said in a speech to an economic conference in Paris.

“Banks, too, should use this currently more benign environment to strengthen their resilience further.” He said that by reinvesting their profits - and not distributing them in bonuses and dividends - banks could make more loans to the so-called “real economy” - households and businesses. The ECB’s 3-year emergency loans at a current interest rate of 1 percent have been credited with helping ease Europe’s government debt crisis by steadying banks that could not borrow elsewhere. It also helped governments borrow affordably as some banks used the fresh cash to buy government bonds.

Weidmann, who sits on the ECB’s 23-

member governing council and apparently voted for the emergency loans, acknowledged that the extra liquidity had eased severe tensions in financial markets.

Although he only carries one vote, Weidmann’s views carry particular weight because he comes from the eurozone’s biggest economy. The Bundesbank has a reputation for defending anti- inflation monetary policy and strict adherence to the EU treaty provisions barring the central bank from supporting the finances of governments.

With the emergency loans, the ECB took on additional risk by broadening the range of financial assets it accepted as collateral. It says it is managing those risks by demanding in some cases far more collateral than the amount of the loans. Some have also been concerned that the loans could eventually push up inflation, but Draghi stressed that price increases remain in check.

“We are continuously alert to the risk of inflation, but this risk is not materializing at the present time,” he said, adding that the ECB has a tremendous record of price stability and that he was committed to maintaining that record. New governments in Italy and Spain are tackling the deeper causes of the government debt crisis that has pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal to take international bailout loans. They are trying to loosen rules on hiring and firing that have held back economic growth and high unemployment, particularly among young people.

But those steps will take years to have an effect. The ECB moves are viewed as buying the eurozone time, but a key question is whether lower pressure from financial markets will cause politicians to see less urgency in making controversial changes in their economies.

In an interview in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published Monday, Weidmann said that the ECB was carrying out its key role as lender to banks, but added “it is not the task of monetary policy to artificially keep insolvent banks alive or to secure the solvency of states.” He conceded that it may be difficult to tell whether banks are suffering temporary cash shortage or are facing insolvency. “In crisis situations a certain flexibility is called for,” he wrote. The Bundesbank on Monday said that its profit for 2011 fell to 600 million from 2.2 billion the previous year.

The reason was the bank’s decision to add to its risk buffer against possible losses on government bonds that the European central bank system has bought or on any possible losses on loans to banks. The money was paid to the German government. —AP

BRUSSELS: Spain wrung a major concession from the eurozone Monday, winning leeway in its struggle to tame a runaway public deficit amid rampant unemployment. After relentless austerity going back two years, but faced with renewed recession snagging the entire eurozone, the government in Madrid secured a substantial Brussels U-turn days after officials warned there would be no negotiation. “ The figure announced previously by the Spanish government... is dead,” said the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

The sums involved are big-”slippage” in Spain’s 2011 deficit, from a targeted 6.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to the most recent estimate of 8.5 percent equated to some 90 billion euros ($120 billion). That’s roughly the same as the entire bailouts given to Portugal or Ireland.

Diplomats have said Madrid blames its autonomous regional governments for overspending.

Spain was originally meant to bring its deficit down to 4.4 percent of GDP this year, but Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said at a European Union summit last month that Madrid would instead aim for 5.8 percent of GDP. However, finance ministers agreed to allow Spain to target 5.3 percent of GDP. Stung by the Greek debt debacle, the EU had heavily flagged over the past year its efforts to tighten laws covering national borrowings. Hungary, for instance, is set to be docked substantial monies yesterday under new oversight powers for Brussels, despite Budapest figures showing it fell officially within the EU limits last year, its target date.

But Spanish Finance Minister Luis De Guindos insisted: “There is no doubt about Spain’s commitment despite a complex, recessionary climate, not only in Spain but also in Europe.” Austria’s hardline Finance Minister Maria Fekter had urged currency partners to adopt a “severe” attitude towards Spain, the eurozone’s fourthbiggest economy, in order to at least appear “serious.”

But Juncker insisted that the 2013 target-date for Madrid to get back within longstanding EU

spending limits of 3.0 percent of GDP was “far more important.”

Asked about the signal the eurozone was sending out, at a time when Belgium has agreed to squeeze another 2.0 billion euros out of its spending this year but the Netherlands is still trying to find 10-17 billion euros to keep its numbers on track, Juncker maintained that “we are not easing” up on the new EU budgetary rules.

oversight of national budgets, he added: “Expect the battle about permissible levels of Spanish deficits to be replayed across a growing number of euro area member states.” London-based analyst Gilles Moec of Deutsche Bank though said in a note to investors that giving Spain time to reach 24-month goals was “reasonable.”

The decision came as Greece

presented as a default deadline.

Discussions on boosting the eurozone’s firewall made little headway, as did talks on replacing Juncker as Eurogroup chair.

Meanwhile, the decision by finance ministers of the 17-country eurozone to give Spain some leeway on cutting this year’s deficit has already triggered demands from other European countries for more fiscal leniency.

MADRID: A protester shouts during a demonstration against banks on March 12, 2012. —AFP EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn said Madrid had to deliver “a credible and convincing path of fiscal consolidation over the coming two years,” which would “run in parallel with economic reforms that can bring sustainable growth and better jobs in Spain.” A Eurogroup statement said only that the Spanish government “expressed its readiness to consider” the eurozone’s call for an additional 0.5 percentage points in the ratio of deficit-to-output to be implemented this year as it finalises new budget proposals due by next month.

The decision however amounted to “a big compromise” for the eurozone, said Sony Kapoor, who heads the Re-Define economic consultancy. “Warning that Spain has become “a test case” for EU

Dubai state-linked firms in good shape DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates is not planning to issue its first federal sovereign bond for at least two years, Finance Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said yesterday, dousing market expectations for an issue this year.

Other senior ministry officials had previously been quoted as saying the UAE’s debut sovereign bond could come at the end of 2012, once a long-awaited public debt law is approved, and be worth about $1 billion. Asked whether the Gulf Arab state had any plans to issue a bond this year or in 2013, Sheikh Hamdan, who is also a deputy ruler of Dubai, said: “No, we don’t have.” Sheikh Hamdan, speaking during a visit to an exhibition in Dubai, also said that Dubai’s statelinked companies, which have been undergoing restructuring since a debt crisis in 2009/10, were in good shape.

“They are alright. We have no problem with the companies, everything is done and DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) is in a good position,” he said. His comments reiterated those of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed AlMaktoum, the head of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee and the uncle of the emirate’s ruler, who told Reuters this month that he was happy with the restructuring currently in place and the business performance of the state firms was good. The UAE economy has been gradually recovering from the debt crisis, which forced the trade and propertyfocused emirate to restructure $25 billion worth of debt in its flagship Dubai World conglomerate. A sovereign bond issue would help the government finance infrastructure projects. The UAE’s top advisory council passed a new public debt bill in December 2010, aiming to establish a local debt market but the legislation is still awaiting presidential approval before it can become law. Some of the OPEC member’s seven individual emirates have already sold government debt, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, whose statelinked firms also borrow. —Reuters

Dubai Holding eyes stake sale in Axiom DUBAI: Dubai Holding, the conglomerate owned by the ruler of Dubai, is considering a sale of its remaining 26-percent stake in local mobile phone retailer Axiom Telecom, three sources familiar with the matter said. A sale could fetch a price of $300 million for Dubai Holding’s unit Emirates International Telecommunications LLC (EIT), said a banking source speaking on condition of anonymity. The holding company is in the process of nominating an adviser to evaluate options for the stake, two other sources said. Dubai Holding declined to comment. Axiom Chief Executive Faisal Al-Bannai declined to comment on the possibility of a Dubai Holding exit and only said: “Every shareholder at Axiom has the right to evaluate their stake and test the market. The company operates independently from any change in shareholding.” —Reuters

moved towards wrapping up its second bailout in as many years, with the Eurogroup saying its latest analysis of the sustainability of Athens government debt would now see it fall to within an acceptable level.

The eurozone will therefore later this week sign off on the remainder of a 130-billion-euro second bailout after Athens completed a historic bond swap to erase more than 100 billion euros in privately-held debt. Some of the bailout was already needed as “sweeteners” for big debt-holders, to recapitalise Greek banks left on their knees by the write-down and also to guarantee the debt-swap in case it went badly wrong.

Greece previously had a total public debt of over 350 billion euros and faced a big bill on March 20

The move also signals the difficulty Europe faces in enforcing the strict spending rules it has worked out over the past two years amid renewed recession.

Spain on Monday night was given the go-ahead by eurozone finance ministers to run a deficit of 5.3 percent of gross domestic product this year - above its original target of 4.4 percent. However, Madrid still has to cut its deficit back to 3 percent by 2013, as had been planned.

The European Union’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, who is in charge of policing the bloc’s fiscal rules, said the 2012 target had to be eased because Spain’s 2011 deficit of 8.5 percent of GDP was much higher than expected and the country’s economy is also doing worse. —Agencies

When emerging economies sneeze, markets shiver PARIS: Signs of slowing growth in emerging economies, the new engines of global growth, highlight the importance and integration of these markets. Financial markets were destabilised on Monday by Chinese data showing that China, the world’s leading exporter, posted a huge trade deficit last month, largely because of slowdown in exports to advanced economies. “It was emerging markets growth that had the higher delta (dynamic), so slowing emerging market growth is very consequential for global growth in general,” UBS economist Bhanu Baweja noted.

Some good news came from the OECD though, which said on Monday that tentative signs of economic upturn had appeared in the eurozone even as business activity showed signs of flagging in China and Brazil.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the United States and Japan had the most improved growth prospects. “Stronger, albeit tentative” signals were evident in major economies and in the eurozone. But figures for China and Brazil were now below trend.

China, the second-biggest economy in the world, has cut its 2012 growth target to 7.5 percent from a previous estimate of 8.0 percent, as it swung into a trade deficit of $31.48 billion in February. Brazilian growth slumped to 2.7 percent last year from 7.5 percent in 2010, while India’s economy expanded by 6.1 percent in the last three months of 2011, the weakest pace in three years. They have been hit by several factors, including economic slumps in markets like the United States and Europe, and the rising cost of energy.

But even Russia, which relies on providing natural resources like oil and gas for much of its economic growth, expects 3.7 percent growth this year, down from 4.3 percent in 2010. Moscow’s main market, the 17-nation eurozone, has been held back by a chronic debt crisis and is now in a “mild recession” according to European Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. However, the latest trend indicators for Russia, and for India, point to a possible upward turning point for growth. The latest forecast by the European Central Bank says that the eurozone economy

will contract by 0.1 percent this year, and then grow by 1.1 percent in 2013. Italy, the thirdbiggest eurozone economy and has approved austerity measures to battle heavy debt, entered recession late last year with a fourth-quarter contraction of 0.7 percent, the state statistics office said on Monday.

OPEC has trimmed its 2012 global oil demand growth forecast for the second time owing to the slowdown in major economies and higher crude oil prices. Indicators from developed economies have presented a fairly gloomy picture, with consumer confidence falling in Japan and France, and a eurozone purchasing managers index slipping back in February.

Other data is a little more promising however, such as that for German and Indian industrial output which rebounded in January, and news from the United States which also give reason for hope. The US economy created 227,000 new jobs in February, and US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says growth this year will stay close to or slightly above the 2.25 percent pace of late 2011.

A study by the consulting group Grant Thornton noted a growing dependence of “BRIC” economies, those of Brazil, Russia, India and China, on the rest of the planet. Threefourths of business leaders from those countries said they were concerned about a possible global slump in the coming year.

Those most worried were in India at 96 percent, but all forecast stiff headwinds for exports. Baweja at UBS nonetheless felt the worst might have passed. “The slowdown in emerging markets is not new, they have been slowing down since June” of last year, he noted, in part because of restrictive policies aimed at keeping those economies from overheating. “Now the story may be the opposite, that emerging countries may be close to bottoming out,” though the economist forecast “a very, very modest” rebound.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has also estimated that the point of the sharpest slowdown in growth has passed, as the Reserve Bank of India was set to cut its key interest rates today. Brazil’s central bank is expected to do the same. —AFP

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business

Bourse ends on mixed note GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended yesterday’s session on a mixed note after Kuwait’s government, under pressure from labour unions, announced big rise in public sector wages while ordering measures to head off inflation in the prices of basic goods.

Authorities said that government workers would get a 25 percent rise in their basic salaries, while pensioners would receive 12.5 percent more. Any increase in private sector wages will be announced at a later date, the government said. The benchmark KSE Price Index plunged, while the market weighted reference, Global General Index (GGI) surged during the day backed by banking, industrial and investment stocks.

Market indices The Global General Index ended the day up by 0.05 percent at 183.61 points. As measured by this index.

The market benchmark, KSE Price Index recoiled by 1.6 points (or 0.03 percent) to close at 6,148.6 points.

day as Global Food Index appreciated by 0.93 percent.

Kuwait Foodstuff Company (Americana) was the sole gainer in the sector, adding 1.41 percent to close at KD 1.440. Global Industrial Index rose by 0.63 percent, on the back of the Kuwait Cement Company. The scrip closed up by 1.19 percent at KD 0.425. National Industries Group (Holding) too added 0.84 percent. The Global Banking Index, climbed 0.31 percent. The market’s heavy-weight, Kuwait Finance House closed up by 1.16 percent at KD 0.870 Meanwhile, services stocks succumbed to the selling pressure, driving the sector index tumbling by 0.73 percent. National Mobile Telecommunications Co.’s 1.77 percent loss undermined the sector’s performance.

Corporate news Strategia Investment Company said its board has proposed doubling the company’s capital to KD 30 million ($107.7 million) from the current KD 15 million. The

investment and asset management firm said that to achieve the capital hike it will issue 150 million new shares at 102 fils each. The share price will consist of a par value of 100 fils and an issue premium of 2 fils.

Oil news Price of Kuwaiti crude fell 11 cents to $123.05pb on Monday, in comparison to $123.16pb on Friday, the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said Saturday. The Kuwaiti crude price dropped amid prevailing jitters on international markets over the global economy due to negative figures of China’s exports, the world’s second largest economy and the second consumer of energy after the US. Prices of oil are forecast to drop, during this week, as a result of Iranian-western negotiations. The rates of the crude have been unstable due to various geopolitical factors, the Iranian question and speculations on the international energy markets.

Daily trading activity The upbeat mood of investors helped strengthen trading activity. Volume of shares traded on the exchange increased by 31.97 percent, at 569.15 million shares. Real Estate groups accounted for 186.96 million shares (32.85 percent) of the market’s total volume.

Gulf Finance House was the most actively traded stock, with 92.16 million shares changing hands. The scrip closed down by 6.56 percent at KD 0.057. The bank clarified media reports regarding signing an agreement with DEMTAS Group and announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with the latter to work on the Tunis Financial Harbour.

Top gainers and biggest decliners In terms of top gainers, Automated Systems Co., was the top gainer for the day, adding 9.80 percent. On the other side, Industrial & Financial Investments Company was the biggest loser, as its share price fell by 9.62 percent to close at KD 0.0235.

Sectors wise Five out of the eight sectors ended the day on a positive note. Food sector topped the gainers for the

Standard Life profit up on cost cuts LONDON: British insurer Standard Life reported a better-than-expected 28 percent increase in its 2011 profit, helped by cost cuts and a strong performance at its Canadian unit. Edinburgh-based Standard Life, Britain’s fifth-biggest insurer, made a pretax operating profit of 544 million pound ($849.43 million) last year, it said yesterday, ahead of the 476 million pounds expected by analysts in a company poll.

The improvement was driven in part by 45 mil-

lion pounds in cost cuts, as well as a 70 percent increase in profit at Standard Life’s Canadian division. Standard Life, which has been investing heavily on new products and technology, also cut total investment spending to 137 million pounds from 149 million pounds in 2010.

“Today’s results again demonstrate that we are well on track to transform the operational and financial performance of Standard Life,” Chief Executive

David Nish said in a statement. Standard Life is paying a total dividend for the year of 13.8 pence, an increase of 6.2 percent, and ahead of the 13.65 pence pencilled in by analysts. Standard Life shares closed at 237.6 pence on Monday, valuing the company at about 5.5 billion pounds. The stock is up 15.6 percent since the start of the year, outperforming a 13 percent rise for the Stoxx 600 European insurance shares index. — Reuters

Egypt falls to 3-week low MIDEAST STOCKS CAIRO: Egypt’s bourse slumped to a threeweek low yesterday after a series of reports indicating its economic and political troubles are far from over, while Gulf bourses closed mixed. Cairo’s benchmark index fell 3.3 percent to its lowest close since Feb. 22. The index had risen by almost 50 percent in the two months to March 7. Investor concerns have grown since Egypt’s parliament voted on Sunday to begin steps to withdraw confidence from the military-appointed government, traders said.

“The intention of parliament to make a vote of no confidence has affected the market. Everyone is reassessing the situation,” said Osama Mourad of Arab Finance Brokerage. Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities said financial companies plunged partly on a report in Al-Ahram newspaper that an accord for a $3.2 billion loan Egypt is seeking from the IMF won’t be signed until April instead of the previously announced March.

Egypt is counting on the loan to help it stave off a fiscal crisis after more than a year of economic and political instability. Pioneers Holding plummeted 9.8 percent, Citadel Capital lost 9.6 percent and EFG-Hermes fell 7.5 percent. Real estate companies also suffered after Palm Hills , Talaat Moustafa (tm) and Amer Group reported losses or poor earnings for 2011 over the last few days.

Amer Group dropped 8.9 percent after reporting yesterday a 56 slump in 2011 net profit. TM plunged 9.8 percent. It posted a 9 percent drop in full-year profit. In the UAE, the two bourses lifted in late-trade as fresh buying at lower entry levels boosted stocks.

Abu Dhabi’s benchmark climbed 0.3 percent in its fourth straight gain, recovering most of last week’s sell-off.

Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate recovered early-session losses, closing 1.5 percent and 2.2 percent higher respectively.

Property and construction stocks lead gains in Dubai. The index closed 0.9 percent higher.

Emaar Properties gained 2 percent, while Deyaar Development rose 3.8 percent.

Contractor Arabtec was up 2 percent.

Emirates NBD slipped 0.3 percent. Dubai’s largest bank, which has been grappling with impairments, plans to lay off up to 15 percent of its workforce. “There are sectors in Dubai which are core drivers of the economy, like retail, tourism and logistics, and some of them have recovered, while others, like real estate and banks, remain in a challenging spot,” said Ibrahim Masood, senior invest-

ment officer at Mashreq bank. “There’s clearly a lot of speculative trading and investors should be careful in evaluating their riskreturn trade-off if they are looking to initiate new positions.” Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s index halted a three-day rally, slipping 0.2 percent, with banks stocks dragging.

Heavyweight Al-Rajhi Bank and Samba Financial Group dipped 0.6 and 1.5 percent respectively.

In Oman, Bank Dhofar surged to a sevenmonth high after a court rules in favour of the lender in a 26.1 million rial ($67.8 million) lawsuit. Shares in Dhofar finished 9.9 percent higher. It was ordered to pay the sum to Oman International Bank (OIB) last year, but an appeals court overruled the previous judgment, a bourse statement said yesterday. OIB slipped 0.4 percent. Dhofar had provisioned the full amount in the second quarter of 2011, which analysts say it can write back on its books. Muscat’s index gained 0.9 percent to its largest one-day gain in two weeks, to close at its highest level since July 2011.

Yesterday’s Highlights Egypt The measure fell 3.3 percent to 5,052 points.

Saudi Arabia The index slipped 0.2 percent to 7,522 points.

Oman The index gained 0.9 percent to 5,957 points.

Dubai The index climbed 0.9 percent to 1,682 points.

Qatar The benchmark eased 0.05 percent to 8,630 points.

Kuwait The measure slipped 0.03 percent to 6,149 points.

Abu Dhabi The index climbed 0.3 percent to 2,623 points.

Bahrain The measure advanced 0.2 percent to 1,152 points. —Reuters

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business

World stocks rise ahead of Federal Reserve meet BANGKOK: World stock markets rose yesterday as investors hoped to hear encouraging words about the US economy when Federal Reserve policymakers conclude a meeting later in the day. Benchmark oil rose to near $107 per barrel while the dollar gained against the euro and the yen. Analysts don’t expect Fed chief Ben Bernanke to announce any changes to its key interest rate, which is already close to zero, but are waiting to see if the Fed expresses confidence in the economic outlook. Recent reports suggest that the US economic recovery is gaining momentum.

Employers added 227,000 jobs in February, more than analysts were expecting.

“They will maintain loose money and a low interest rate. And I think that will help the US on the way to recovery,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.

Still, the global economic outlook remains fuzzy. China’s trade figures released on the weekend suggested the world’s No. 2 economy continues to slow.

On Monday, Greece implemented the biggest debt writedown in history

when private investors agreed to accept big losses on their bond holdings. The move should help Greece stave off default later this month, but the country is still in a severe recession, and deep-rooted problems continue to haunt other struggling European economies.

European stock markets opened higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,918.69 and Germany’s DAX gained 0.8 percent to 6,953.38.

France’s CAC-40 added 0.7 percent to 3,514.56. Wall Street was set to gain, with Dow Jones industrial futures 0.4 percent higher at 12,946. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4 percent to 1,372.50.

In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.1 percent to 2,025.04 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1 percent to 21,339.70. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.2 percent to 4,247.60.

Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China and Indonesia also rose. The Nikkei 225 index closed less than 0.1 percent higher at 9,899.08, giving back most of its earlier gains.

The Bank of Japan yesterday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at zero to 0.1 percent. Japan’s central

bank also said it is allowing companies in areas struck by a disastrous earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 an extra year to pay back debts and adding more money to lending to encourage growth.

Chinese banks and insurance companies got a boost from the country’s central bank chief, Zhou Xiaochuan, who indicated Monday that there was room to lower the level of reserves Chinese banks are required to hold - a move that would free more money for lending to businesses.

“That means more profit for the banks. So as a result, the mainland banks and insurance companies are driving up the market today,” Lun said.

In Hong Kong, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank by market value, added 1.5 percent. China Life Insurance Co., the country’s biggest life insurer, shot up 2.2 percent. Banks elsewhere rose, including South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group, up 4.4 percent.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group added 1.7 percent.

Japan’s Asahi Kasei Corp. tumbled 5.4 percent, a day after it said it

reached agreement to acquire Zoll Medical Corp., a Massachusetts-based maker of emergency medical resuscitation equipment, for about $2.2 billion. Australian uranium miner Paladin Energy rose 3.3 percent after a three-

year moratorium on mining of its Canadian deposits was lifted.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 57 cents to $106.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. — AP

NEW YORK: In this photo traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP

China gives homegrown brand names solid boost China’s TCL boasts the largest LCD screens

SEOUL: A currency trader smiles in front of the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, (left) and the exchange rate between the dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters yesterday. — AP

Tokyo ready to buy Chinese govt bonds TOKYO: Japan said yesterday it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia’s two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together. China does not allow investors to freely purchase its debt, requiring official approval instead. But analysts said it appeared to be the first time a major economy had bought government bonds directly from Beijing.

The green light for Tokyo points to a new closeness on the economic front at least, although the two countries remain at odds on a host of historical and territorial questions. Japan was cleared to buy Chinese government bond issues worth $10.3 billion, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said in Tokyo. “I think this is an appropriate amount for the initial purpose of strengthening bilateral economic ties,” he said. The announcement came the same day the World Trade Organization confirmed it had received a joint complaint from the the EU, US and Japan over restrictions on rare earth exports.

China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earths — 17 elements critical to the making of high-tech products from iPods to missiles-and its moves to dictate production and exports have raised a global outcry. Japan and China had initially agreed to the bonds purchase in December, subject to regulatory approval, as part of a wider deal aimed at stabilising Asian financial markets amid global economic turmoil, Azumi said.

Under the deal, Beijing gave the nod for Tokyo to buy 65 billion yuan ($10.3 billion) in Chinese public debt, but completing the purchase “will take several months” because of administrative requirements, he said. China has already been investing

in Japanese government debt in an apparent bid to diversify some of its currency reserves-the world’s biggest-into yen amid concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and prospects for the US dollar.

The December deal, following talks between the Japanese and Chinese premiers in Beijing, aimed to include “supporting sound development of the yendenominated and the yuan-denominated bond markets”. But no further details of the Japanese purchase were given at the time. The Asian economic powers also agreed to promote the use of their currencies in bilateral transactions-such as yuandenominated foreign direct investment by Japanese companies in China-to reduce foreign exchange risks.

Despite frequent spats over animosities from Japan’s 1930s invasion of China and lingering territorial claims, China is Japan’s largest trading partner. But about 60 percent of their mutual trade is denominated in US dollars. Alaistair Chan, China economist with Moody’s Australia, said the bond purchase had strong symbolic value as Beijing seeks to encourage international use of the yuan currency.

“The approval is another small step in the opening of China’s financial markets,” he said. “Although it does not mean much at this stage, given the small allocation $10.3 billion-and the fact that China is able to fund all its debts domestically, having Japan purchase Chinese debt is a big signal of approval for China. “It shows that its debt is secure and safe and a reliable investment.” Akio Takahara, professor of Chinese politics at the University of Tokyo, agreed that the bond purchase was “symbolically important, in a sense that Japan showed its willingness to support Chinese economic growth”. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian railway porters, locally called coolies, shouts slogans during a protest yesterday. The luggage porters were demanding better wages and housing, medical and pension facilities a day before the Railways Budget is to be presented in the Parliament today. — AFP

BEIJING: Two new Chinese LCD screens in Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People have replaced screens made by a Japanese competitor, in a sign of resolve to supply the world with Chinese brands and not just Made in China products. The screens, installed for the annual session of parliament ending today, are made by Chinese electronics giant TCL. At 110 inches, they are the world’s largest, just a touch wider than the 108-inch Panasonic models they replaced.

“We have broken through the Japanese and South Korean monopoly of big flat-screen TVs!” TCL chairman Li Dongsheng boasted at a launch ceremony on Friday. Officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and the government of Shenzhen, TCL’s hometown, clapped and nodded.

The government is encouraging its companies to move up the value chain and develop margin-producing brands, partly as a matter of national pride but also to shift the world’s second-biggest economy away from gritty, low-profit manufacturing. But creating recognisable brands has not been easy. With the possible exception of computer-maker Lenovo and appliance maker Haier, China has few brands that foreign shoppers would recognise. Even at home, producers often find themselves supplanted by high-end foreign brands.

“That is a big hurdle, especially in autos.

(The domestic brands) are almost non-existent in large cities like Shanghai or Beijing because no one wants to be seen going lower than a Japanese or a Korean brand,” said James Roy, a senior analyst with China Market Research Group, a Shanghai-based consultancy. Beijing has been ready to lend a hand.

This month, MIIT posted new rules requiring officials, who overwhelmingly prefer German luxury brands like Audi, to buy only local cars. Other efforts, including government support for domestic companies engaged in “indigenous innovation”, have led to allegations that China is unfairly trying to tilt the playing field towards its own industry by guaranteeing government purchases and by setting standards that favour Chinese companies over established industry leaders.

“If Chinese companies want to go global, they can’t just compete in a protected domestic market,” said Zhao Yuhai, high-and new-technology development and commercialisation director general at the Ministry of Science and Technology. “That way you will never win the global market. So this concern is unnecessary,” Car-ving out a market For policymakers, overseas presence is a sign that a brand has succeeded. Companies aspiring for international brands should aim to earn one-fifth their revenues and one-third of their profits from sales abroad, Yang Mianmian, the president of the world’s largest appliance maker Haier, told the National People’s Congress, or parliament, a few years ago. Haier sells compact appliances like washing machines and mini-fridges under its own name in the United States, but still sells in Europe under European brand names. Few other companies have reached even that level. “Some brands have started (to get international recognition), but most need more work,” Zhou said. “Of course, there are different kinds of markets, high-end and low-end, and I think brands like TCL are still at the midto-low-end stage. But they’ll move up.” TCL sells under its own name in developing markets, but markets under the Alcatel, Thomson

Rusal chairman quits in Russian oligarch conflict MOSCOW: Russia’s aluminium giant Rusal said yesterday that its board chairman Viktor Vekselberg had resigned amid a bitter struggle between its oligarch shareholders over ways to get the firm out of debt. Vekselberg said Rusal was facing “a deep crisis” in which its problems with debt-estimated at $11 billion at the end of last year-were being compounded by flaring boardroom disputes over daily operations and strategy.

“UC Rusal has, in my opinion, deteriorated from an international aluminium leader into a company overburdened with debt and entangled in numerous lawsuits and social conflicts,” Vekselberg said in a statement released by his Renova Group.

Rusal is operated by its biggest shareholder and Russia’s one-time richest man Oleg Deripaska. The chief executive owns a 47.4-percent stake in the company through a subsidiary of his Basic Element holding. Fellow tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov controls a 17.0-percent stake while the Russian arm of the Swiss-based Glencore miner owns 8.75 percent.

Vekselberg himself controls 15.8 percent of the world’s biggest aluminum producer and initial rumours of his resignation had triggered a suspension of trading in the Hong Kong-listed company.

Shares in the firm had already fallen 1.3 percent early yesterday on concern that the Russian billionaire was about to dump his Rusal stake. Deripaska hit back at Vekselberg yesterday in a Rusal statement that described him as an inattentive chairman who skipped regular meetings and was about to be squeezed out by the board. The “decision of Mr. Vekselberg to resign... pre-empted the anticipated consideration of this matter by the board,” Rusal said. Rusal was left

with massive debts by the 2008-2009 financial crisis and has been under unceasing pressure from its shareholders to part with its 25-percent stake in the

MOSCOW: A file picture shows Russia’s aluminium giant Rusal board chairman Viktor Vekselberg smiling at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre. — AFP world’s largest nickel producer Norilsk.

Vekselberg has previously sought to orchestrate the buyout with a partner while Deripaska has firmly refused to part with the stake. Rusal managed to restructure its debt by the end of last year but has since anger shareholders by failing to follow through on its promise to begin regular dividend payments. Its various tribulations have seen the company’s shares fall more than 40 percent since its January 2010 listing. — AFP

and RCA brands in the West. “To fully sell under our own name isn’t a question of technology but of marketing. Because if we promote a new brand, our own brand, it would take time,” TCL’s Li told Reuters.

“If there is already a local established partner, using their brand is quicker. For our company, the most important is bigger sales turning into greater revenue.” For many companies those big sales come at home. Unlike South Korea or Taiwan, China’s domestic market is big enough that many producers do not yet need to focus on developing international brands, said Roy of China Market Research Group.

“That there aren’t many Chinese brands that are globally known shouldn’t necessarily suggest that Chinese companies don’t know how to brand,” he said. “The main opportunity for brands has been the domestic market.” The auto industry is still a major front in the brand wars. The government hinted to foreign automakers last year that applications to expand joint venture production were unlikely to be approved unless they worked with their Chinese partners to develop Chinesebranded cars. General Motors has since launched the “Baojun” ( Treasure Steed), although it denies that it was in response to Chinese government pressure. The policy helps correct what planners now see as a mistake although China is the world’s largest vehicle market, it lacks the defining national auto brand enjoyed by such smaller markets as Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, even Poland. When China married foreign automakers to its largest state-owned firms, the unexpected consequence was that the joint ventures saw rocketing output, but left the state-owned firms with zero incentive to develop by themselves. — Reuters

Billions in cash exit Afghanistan KABUL: Wealthy Afghans are carrying about $8 billion-almost double the state budget- in suitcases out of the country each year, an amount likely to rise as the exit of foreign troops nears and threatening to ruin the fragile economy, a senior official said. In an interview with Reuters, deputy central bank governor Khan Afzal Hadawal said confidence in the economy had eroded to such a degree over more than a decade of war that cash was pouring out of Afghanistan in suitcases and carry-on bags, taken to safe havens in Dubai and elsewhere.

Sitting in his office in the run-down Kabul central bank building, Hadawal put little faith in a the government’s recently imposed $20,000 limit on cash being taken out. “The measures will not stop the money from going out,” he said. “We definitely prefer them to invest inside the country. Everything depends on security. If it doesn’t improve, nobody will invest their money where there is no security.”

US plans to wind down the war make officials like Hadawal nervous. The Americans want to replace large combat formations with advisers, and perhaps special forces, as foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw at the end of 2014. It will then be up to ill-equipped Afghan forces to take control of security.

If they fail, Afghanistan could again face civil war and prolonged instability, making foreign investors and wealthy Afghans even more reluctant to keep any money in what is already one of the world’s most turbulent nations. Asked if 2014 was too soon for foreign combat troops to head home, Hadawal said: “There are a lot of things that need to be done. We still need foreign assistance.”

Suitcases with $8 billion in cash Hadawal estimated that up to $8 billion in cash leaves Afghanistan’s airports every year, half of it from Kabul alone. “The $8 billion being taken out is double the total assets of the (central) bank,” said Hadawal. It is also nearly double the size of last year’s national budget. A U.S. government audit report last year found it was almost impossible to track where much of the billions of dollars spent on security and development projects in the last decade had gone given the country’s dysfunctional financial tracking system and poor bank oversight. — Reuters

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BUSINESS

Abraaj Capital, PIF announce first closure of $50m fund

Hyundai Motor unveils first look of Santa Fe All-new Santa Fe embodies ‘Storm Edge’ design concept Hyundai Motor Co., one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing automakers, yesterday unveiled exterior teaser images of the all-new Santa Fe. The all-new Santa Fe will have its world premiere at the New York International Auto Show in early April, and is set to build on the popularity of the current model when it arrives in the Middle East.

Hyundai will keep the name “Santa Fe” for the new vehicle, continuing the solid brand heritage of the automaker’s most representative SUV model. The all-new Santa Fe, which is entering its third generation, has reached worldwide cumulative sales of about 2.56 million units since its 2000 debut.

Tom Lee, Head of Hyundai Middle East’s

Regional Headquarters, said: “the Santa Fe has proved popular with buyers in the Middle East, and last year saw sales increase by almost 5 percent.”

Based on Hyundai’s design philosophy, Fluidic Sculpture, the new Santa Fe adopts its own design concept called “Storm Edge,” which captures the strong and dynamic images created by nature during the formation of a storm.

The third-generation Santa Fe features sophisticated and refined lines, which are in harmony with bold and voluminous surfaces, completing a more aggressive and classic look than its predecessor.

The design adopts the hexagonal grille - a

key design cue of the Hyundai family look - a two-tone voluminous bottom car body and wider front and rear bumpers, creating a futuristic and urban-style SUV image.

Dynamic side character lines give a more aerodynamic feeling, while emotional details expressed on the exterior design deliver a premium image, suggesting a new design direction for Hyundai’s next-generation SUVs. The all-new Santa Fe, whose core product concepts are “Refinement,” “Smartness” and “Practicality, “ is expected to be a hit in the global SUV market, offering the best value to customers in every aspect, with its differentiated design, cutting-edge technologies, good fuel economy and practical use of space.

3M launches VIMS

Prada and LG create a style statement KUWAIT: With a heritage of producing handsets that combine the best in style and substance, Prada and LG unveiled the partnership’s latest must-have smartphone, the Prada phone by LG 3.0. This highly anticipated handset is the third phone to come from the collaboration and represents a key design venture for both companies. The Prada phone by LG 3.0 combines Prada’s distinctive style

with LG’s innovative technology, including one of the biggest and brightest screens in the world with 4.3inch and 800-nit screen.

Styled with Prada’s clean and sharp design philosophy, the handset features a full glossy touchscreen to the front and Prada’s signature Saffiano pattern to the back, all finished in classic black. With every detail designed for chic simplicity,

this handset also boasts LG’s signature Floating Mass Technology, optically enhancing the thinness of its already impressive 8.5mm depth, with minimal hardkeys completing the sleek simple finish.

As effective as it is striking, the Prada phone by LG 3.0 boasts a 1.0GHz DualCore/Dual-Channel architecture for highspeed performance, and dual-band Wi-Fi for high-speed surfing on the go. The smartphone’s sleek design is also reflected once switched on. The Prada phone by LG 3.0 offers a specially created user interface featuring a unique black, grey and white menu and icons. Through this interface users can enjoy all the latest benefits of Android’s Gingerbread OS, with a future scheduled upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich.

This unique user interface experience can be enjoyed on the device’s 800-nit, 4.3inch NOVA High Brightness Display, allowing users to view all their favorite photos and content even in direct sunlight. Plus with an 8MP camera and up to 8GB of user memory, all life’s good moments can be captured and enjoyed in high quality. To complement the handset, users will have access to a full line of Prada phone accessories such as a Prada branded cradle and Bluetooth ear set.

Users can also carry their Prada phone by LG 3.0 in a range of stylish pouches.

10% discount for AUB cardholders KUWAIT: Ahli United Bank (AUB) in cooperation with second cup announced an innovative promotion exclusively designed for AUB’s credit card holders. As part of AUB’s strive to provide its credit card holders with a world of benefits that compliment their needs, Crocs is offering them a discount of 10 percent on all their products.

The participation of second cup in AUB’s Instant Pearls Program is an added value to the program in terms of variety of the services provided to AUB credit card holders.

AUB continues to enhance its strategic alliances with successful retailers such second cup which reinforces AUB commitment to constantly deliver added value services & privileges to its customers.

Second cup started in coffee retailing in Toronto, Canada in 1975 and since then have grown their offering to better serve their second cup cafÈ guests. Over the past 33 years second cup has expanded globally and their first second cup international regional franchise was established in 2003, in Dubai, and they continue to be a second

home to tens of thousands of discerning guests every day. Second cup opened in Kuwait in 2003 with D&H international as the franchise partner and they are on a long and successful run in the country with the support of their loyal customers.

AUB additionally extends its cardholders the “Pearl Rewards” Program which offers three pearl points for every KD 1 spent with AUB credit cards anywhere in the world. These points can be converted to equivalent air miles and redeemed at any of the three leading airline partners; Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways & Gulf for free flights, upgrades, hotel accommodation etc.

So the more you use your credit card, the more air miles you earn to enjoy free flights, upgrades, hotel accommodation and lots more additional benefits offered by each Airline’s Membership Program”.

AUB credit holders also get free worldwide travel and emergency medical insurance family coverage when tickets are purchased using AUB credit cards.

KUWAIT: 3M Gulf, a recognized leader in research and development, has announced the launch of its innovative product, 3M Volition Intelligent Management System (VIMS) across the region GCC and Levant in March 2012.

3M VIMS is a comprehensive infrastructure management solution serving the organization at every stage of the operation - from planning through installation and implementation and on to network maintenance and monitoring. 3M VIMS is a physical layer network management system that offers an end-to-end structured cabling system in either copper or fiber. It can be used for both enterprise and data centre applications, using innovative fiber and copper connectors, cable assemblies, patch cords, patch panels and other infrastructure products.

3M Volition Intelligent Management System (VIMS) works by providing a non-intrusive overlay system on the main patching frame that can be continuously monitored to give real-time visibility and control of the connections, and can be managed from any location with internet access.

These monitored locations and data from assets in both the active and static parts of the network are combined into a trusted, accurate configuration database that forms the basis of the control that an intelligent management system can bring. It also can simplify infrastructure administration, optimize the service support, enable automated planning, deployment and provisioning, maximize asset utilization and minimize downtime.

VIMS is an infrastructure management solution delivering quality, reliability and ease of installation and use no matter how large or complex the project is. Abdel Rhman Obaid, Area Business Manager - Electro & Communications Business (ECB), Middle East & Africa 3M Gulf said: “Many organisations are looking at upgrading their existing local area network cabling systems to a level and standard that they will benefit from for many years to come, and we at 3M are working closely with our partners that have the experience and expertise to bring these organisations innovative solutions. Whether a system owner, an installer, consultant or systems integrator, 3Mhas the ideal solutions provider for intelligent management systems, with a system that will perform in even the most demanding of ‘mission-critical’ situations. All 3M cabling solutions are backed by a flexible range of consultancy and project support services.”

3M has a track record that is hard to rival, spanning over 40 years of network design and product innovation. 3M has installed high-caliber cabling solutions across the world, for many of the biggest global organisations and in some of the most demanding situations imaginable. Employing some of the best experts in the industry, 3M has worked closely with the industry associations tasked with creating international cabling standards for many years.

Furthermore, over and above the excellent technology in the product, it is critical to support it with customer and channel partner service. 3M provides a broad range of support options for every stage of the system’s life including network design and project support, on-site assistance, certified installer training and advice on system upgrades. The system also comes with a 25 year warranty for the passive cabling system.

3M Telecommunications offers cost-effective, quality network solutions for end users in government, healthcare, entertainment, telecom, finance, sports, hotels, utilities, industrial and residential areas that need to implement structured cabling systems for local area networks.

RAMALLAH: Abraaj Capital, Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), Bank of Palestine (BoP), Cisco and the European Investment Bank (EIB) jointly announced yesterday the first close of the Palestine Growth Capital Fund, which will provide private equity growth capital investments and management support to high growth small and mid-cap companies (SMCs) in Palestine. The announcement was made yesterday during an event in Ramallah attended by SMCs, the business community, investors and the media.

The Palestine Growth Capital Fund (“the Fund”) is part of Abraaj Capital’s $650 million SMC investment platform, Riyada Enterprise Development (RED).

The fund will target investments in 13-15 businesses, which are expected to achieve tremendous growth and have the potential to expand into new regional and international markets. This will enable Palestinian SMCs across all sectors to strengthen their ongoing development, resulting in substantial job creation, innovation and long-term economic growth in Palestine.

The fund was able to achieve a strong first closure of $36 million with active support from fund partners such as PIF (Co-sponsor of the Fund in Palestine), BoP, Cisco, EIB, and Abraaj Capital, who constitute the anchor investors in the Fund, in addition to several other individual partners both in the region and the United States.

Yesterday, the fund announced its first strategic investment in a Palestinian SMC: Thimar Agricultural Investment Company, a leading fresh herb and produce exporter in Al-Oja, in the Jordan Valley. The company was chosen for its growth potential, innovation and strong management team. Thimar will now leverage the regional network of Abraaj Capital, who will support the ongoing growth and development plans of the firm. The RED platform operates at a regional and country-specific level with investment teams in eight MENA countries, providing economies of scale and the ability to facilitate geographic expansion of its partner companies.

Speaking at the event Dr. Mohamad Mustafa, President, Palestine Investment Fund, said: “We at PIF view the partnership with Abraaj Capital in the Palestine Growth Capital Fund as fundamental to our commitment to promoting SMC investments in Palestine. PIF has been supporting this sector through a multitier approach, from credit facilitation to loan guarantees. However, we feel that the private equity model introduced by RED Palestine and the regional and global network of Abraaj Capital offers tremendous growth potential for our SMCs. This partnership will further help

SMCs to benefit from Abraaj Capital’s management expertise and its regional network, which are critical for their next phase of growth. We commend RED Palestine on its first close and first investment as we look forward to a long-standing partnership.”

Claudio Cortese, Deputy Director General of Operations Outside of the EU at the European Investment Bank, said: “In line with FEMIP’s priorities, EIB’s investment in the Palestine Growth Capital Fund demonstrates the bank’s continued support for SMEs in Palestine, a key sector for growth generation and a cornerstone for sustainable employment generation. We are delighted to continue our partnership with Abraaj Capital in Palestine and other markets in order to

Tom Speechley help provide the finance and hands-on expertise that these companies need to grow.”

Tom Speechley, Senior Partner, Abraaj Capital said: “ We are delighted to announce the first close of the Palestine Growth Capital Fund, which will nurture small and mid-cap companies in Palestine by providing growth capital and expertise, which are critical for them to compete on a regional and international level. We are equally happy to be here in Ramallah with our Fund Co-sponsor PIF and all our fund partners from Palestine and overseas. This has been a great synergy of vision, energy and foresight, and this partnership will further integrate Palestine into the regional private equity market through a range of benefits that can be reaped from our global SMC platform.”

The global platform for SMC investments has rapidly grown within Abraaj Capital and its RED platform. Abraaj Capital recently announced the acquisition of Aureos Capital which, pending certain approvals, would create a truly global emerging markets private equity firm with $7.5 billion in assets under management, a presence in 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America and 153 investments managed by a seasoned team of over 150 investment professionals.

Al-Dajeej station provides 24-hr service KUWAIT: Oula Fuel Marketing Company announced the change of its working periods of Station 103, located in AlDajeej, in between the way to Kuwait International Airport and Al-Ghazali. It will open its doors 24-hours daily, seven days of the week, as a commitment from the company to facilitate customer service which is an integral part of the company’s priorities and strategy as well as to improve the quality of the service.

Al-Dajeej gas station started its new working hours on Sunday, March 11, which makes it the 36th station for Oula Fuel Marketing Company that operates full-day in order to provide various services that suit all customers during any period of the day, and in any place in Kuwait. It is also worthy to mention that Oula Fuel Marketing Company is seeking to implement an ambitious plan to make all its stations in Kuwait offer their services during the whole day in order to satisfy customers and reduce overcrowding in some stations.

Commenting on this innovative step, Managing Director of Oula Fuel Marketing Company Hamza Bakhash, claimed: “Through our belief in the need

to continuously improve our services and develop our products on an ongoing basis, Oula recently started the implementation of an ambitious plan to develop its quality of services, through extending the station’s working hours to operate full-day instead of only a couple of hours a day. This is to satisfy Oula’s valued customers and to facilitate their daily activities. Moreover, Oula’s strategy for the renewal of all its stations is ongoing in full power.”

Bakhash added: “Oula Fuel Marketing Company benefits from a track record of achievements on its development of services and maintaining safety and the environment. From its notable achievements is what was recently accomplished, introducing retractable hoses to ease traffic flow in high-traffic stations.

Also, other remarkable achievements were: allowing payments through the Oula Fuel Cards; the installation of the automatic tank gauge system; and operating mobile laboratories for air quality tests in stations. We still look forward to more initiatives that would enrich the experience of our customers in order to take advantage of our various services.”

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

TECHNOLOGY

HP powers action-packed film ‘Act of Valor’

KUWAIT: Now in theaters, “Act of Valor,” the first feature film from the media company Bandito Brothers, harnesses the power of HP Workstations and HP DreamColor displays to develop an extraordinary composite of real-life heroism and innovative filmmaking.

The film stars a group of active-duty US Navy SEALs in a fictionalized account of Navy SEAL operations. It takes audiences on a mission to recover a kidnapped CIA operative that unexpectedly results in the discovery of an imminent, terrifying global threat. The filming of “Act of Valor” took place on 48 days over 12.5 months and was shot in 12 states and five countries on four continents in harsh and technology-deficient environments.

“We have a reputation for working with virtu-

ally any format and giving it the best look it can possibly have,” said Jacob Rosenberg, chief technology officer, Bandito Brothers. “To make a film like ‘Act of Valor’ we had to develop innovative solutions and push our technology to the limit — - HP was right there with us.”

HP tech behind the scenes An independent film studio, Bandito Brothers keeps a close eye on overhead costs. HP technology combines uncompromised speed and quality with cost efficiency. The small crew developed innovative uses of technology to capture the striking combat sequences, up-to-the-minute battlefield technology and heart-pumping emotion for an ultimate action adventure film that showcases the skills, training and tenacity of the

Navy SEALs. Bandito Brothers stands at the forefront of the Digital SLR filmmaking revolution. Its filmmakers often shoot with Canon 5D Mark II Digital SLR cameras and use HP DreamColor displays to immediately review footage and ensure color accuracy on location. Video that once took filmmakers several weeks to shoot can be captured by Bandito Brothers in a single day.

For the shoot of “Act of Valor,” Bandito Brothers set up a trailer with HP EliteBook M obile Workstations that backed up captured footage to hard drives as soon as it came off the camera.

While on location, Bandito Brothers also used HP DreamColor displays to immediately review their work.

In post-production, since desktop tools like Adobe(r) Production Premium and Cinnafilm are

optimized to work seamlessly on HP Workstations, Bandito Brothers relies on HP Z800 Workstations equipped with Nvidia Quadro FX 5800 graphics cards that enhance software performance.

In total, Bandito Brothers captured roughly 200 hours of raw 5-D footage (4 terabytes of data) and 20-30 hours of film footage that was rendered, edited and processed on HP Workstations.

“In the past, the render processing to make footage film ready took an hour per minute of content, so 50 hours of source material would take 3,000 hours to render,” said Mike McCarthy, director, Technology, Bandito Brothers. “With the HP Z800 Workstations the process was twice as fast, allowing us to complete the render process on four systems in about one month.”

Yahoo sues Facebook for infringing 10 patents

ALDERSON: This image provided by Advanced Technologies Group Inc. shows an MP3 music player that they produce in Des. Moines Iowa. 405 inmates at the Federal Prison camp in Alderson, W.Va., have spent $69.20 to buy a personal MP3 player from the commissary. Federal prisoners have been able to buy radios for decades.

But if it works in West Virginia, it will be rolled out to other federal facilities in late spring or early summer. — AP

Chicago hospital doctors say iPads raise their efficiency NEW YORK: When doctors-in-training at the University of Chicago were given iPad tablet computers to use on their rounds, they found that using the device helped them be more efficient at ordering tests and procedures for their patients.

The study from the university program, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked 115 residents who received devices purchased by the hospital. There was no funding reported from Apple Inc, which makes the iPad. Most residents who used the devices to access patient records and coordinate their care said they cut about an hour per day off their workload. Researchers also found that the internal medicine trainees tended to put in orders for patient procedures earlier than before they got an iPad. “What’s happening to medicine now is it’s very data-driven, and a lot of the data is being put into computers and the computers aren’t at the (patient’s) bedside,” said Dr. Bhakti Patel, the study’s lead author from the University of Chicago. “A lot of people are feeling that they can’t spend a lot of time at the bedside because they’re kind of shackled to the computer,” she told Reuters Health.

The researchers didn’t test the iPads against any different devices, such as other brands of tablets or smartphones. Patel said that other medical training programs might consider varying types of devices, depending on what fits their needs.

After a first try of giving a few residents

iPads went well, Patel and her colleagues handed the devices out to all 115 of their internal medicine doctors-in-training in late 2010. The iPads allowed residents to see patients’ electronic health records, to contact the hospital laboratory or other departments if they needed tests done and to show patients their own x-rays and other test results, as well as access medical journals. A few months into using the iPads, Patel’s team surveyed the residents and found that almost four out of five said they were more efficient on the wards with the devices, and 68 percent said they avoided delays in patient care by using them.

Compared to before they got the tablets, the residents put in the same number of orders for tests and procedures for their patients, but slightly more of those were placed within two hours of a patient’s hospital admission.

The devices cost the program about $650 each, including insurance and software. “Clearly this is demonstrating a new trend in integration of personal computing devices with the electronic health record,” said Yan Xiao, from the Baylor Health Care System in Dallas. Xiao said his personal views don’t represent those of his institution.

“There’s a lot of interest in using the iPad, not only by residents but by nurses and others - and also other devices like the Android,” said Xiao, who has studied those trends but wasn’t involved in the newly published research study. — Reuters

EU open to settlement with e-book publishers BRUSSELS: EU regulators are open to a settlement with e-book publishers owned by Lagardere, News Corp and three other firms if they offer concessions to resolve competition concerns, the EU’s antitrust chief said on Monday.

Since last December, the European Commission has been investigating whether the publishers fixed prices with Apple Inc for electronic books, an action that might have blocked rivals such as Amazon and hurt consumers. Lagardere’s Hachette Livre unit and News Corp’s Harper Collins are being investigated. The other three publishers are CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster, Pearson’s Penguin and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany.

“This possibility of a settlement is only open in the case the publishers will be ready to remove all our objections,” European

Commissioner for Competition Joaquin Almunia told reporters. He said EU regulators were co-ordinating with U.S. counterparts, which are also looking into such pricing deals under an agency model adopted in 2010 in which publishers set the retail price.

Under the Commission’s settlement procedures, companies could offer concessions to avert a fine of up to 10 percent of their global sales. Regulators would then drop their investigation without the companies admitting to any wrongdoing.

US regulators have warned Apple and the five publishers that it plans to sue them, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. The person also said several of the companies were holding talks to settle the case. The wholesale model used by Amazon allows retailers to pay for the product and charge what they like. — Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc sued Facebook Inc over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, opening the first major legal battle among big technology companies in social media.

The lawsuit, filed in a San Jose, California federal cour t on Monday, marks a major escalation of patent litigation that has already swept up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwar ts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. Yahoo’s patent lawsuit follows Facebook ’s announcement of plans for an initial public offering that could value the company at about $100 billion. Facebook spokesman Jonathan Thaw said Facebook learned of the lawsuit through the media.

“We’re disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation,” he said. In an emailed statement, Yahoo said it is confident it will prevail. “Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court,” the company said in a statement. Yahoo,

one of the Web’s pioneering companies, has seen its revenues decline in recent years at a time when rivals such as Facebook and Google have thrived. In January, Yahoo appointed former PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new chief executive, replacing Carol Bar tz, who was fired in September.

Yahoo said late last month it was seeking licensing fees from Facebook over its patents and that other companies have already agreed to such licensing deals.

Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara Law in Silicon Valley, said companies are usually more vulnerable to patent suits when they are in the IPO process. “As a general proposition, when a company is about to go public, the last thing it needs is to get involved in a knock-down, drag out litigation fight,” Chien said.

“So that might make Facebook more willing to resolve its differences with Yahoo.” Yahoo has used similar timing to its advantage in the past. Google agreed to issue shares to Yahoo nine days before Google went public in 2004 in exchange for a license to Yahoo’s patents. Google later took a $201 million non-cash charge related to the transaction.

In deciding to sue Facebook,

Yahoo has retained the same law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, used by Google and other manufacturers in many Androidrelated smartphone patent cases.

Google is a player in social media with its Google+ service.

Quinn Emanuel also counts social gaming service Zynga Inc as a client, according to the law firm’s website. Yahoo has not said whether it will bring patent claims against other social networking companies and a Google spokesman declined to comment on Quinn Emanuel’s involvement.

Zynga also declined to comment.

In the lawsuit, Yahoo says Facebook was considered “one of the worst per forming sites for adver tising” prior to adapting Yahoo’s ideas. “Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, has conceded that the design of Facebook is not novel and is based on the ideas of others,” the lawsuit said.

Only two of the 10 patents at issue are directly related to social network ing technology. Most focus on online adver tising, including methods for preventing “click fraud,” as well as privacy and technology for customizing the information users see on a Web page. “If what Yahoo is saying is literally true, then it seems like a lot

of companies would be liable,” said Shubha Ghosh, a professor who specializes in intellectual property at The University of Wisconsin Law School. But he added, much would depend on whether a judge defines the patents broadly or narrowly. Several social networking companies, including Facebook, have seen an uptick in patent claims asserted against them as they move through the IPO process. However, most of those lawsuits have been filed by patent aggregators that buy up intellectual property to squeeze value from it via licensing deals and none by a large tech company such as Yahoo.

The lawsuit is a change for Yahoo because the company has never initiated offensive patent litigation against such a large publicly traded company, according to a search of federal court dockets on legal database Westlaw, a Thomson Reuters unit.

A classic defense for companies targeted with patent claims is to threaten a countersuit using its own patents. But Yahoo possesses far more patents than Facebook.

According to a US government database, Yahoo has over 3,300 patents and published patent applications, while Facebook has 160. — Reuters

Apple’s market clout likely to draw more scrutiny SAN FRANCISCO: In everything it does, from product design to business deals, Apple strives for as much control as possible. But as the world’s most valuable company sets out to define and dominate the rapidly evolving markets it created with the iPhone and the iPad, Apple is likely to face antitrust regulators who want to curb its power.

Apple’s clout is coming under scrutiny as the US Justice Department considers filing a lawsuit against the company and five US publishers on allegations they orchestrated a price-fixing scheme on electronic books. The involved parties are trying to avoid a highprofile court battle by negotiating a settlement, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper broke the news last week about the government’s plans to allege that Apple Inc. and the publishers tried to thwart e-book discounts offered by Amazon.com Inc. and drive up prices since the 2010 release of the iPad. “I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Apple,” says Ted Henneberry, an antitrust attorney for the Orrick law firm in Washington. Apple declined to comment. The e -book case demonstrates the market leverage Apple has gained from its system of Internet-connected devices that tie into iTunes, its digital marketplace for mobile applications, books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, movies and music.

“ That platform has become really essential for a lot of people,” says David Balto, an antitrust attorney who was a Federal Trade Commission policy director during the Clinton administration. “Apple clearly has gained a lot of power in a number of markets.”

annual revenue has soared from $5 billion in 2001 to $108 billion last year. About three-quarters of that revenue comes from sales of iPhones, iPads and iPods. The company, based in Cuper tino, Calif., now has a market value of about $510 billion - more than

SHANGHAI: In this Feb. 28, 2012 file photo, men walk past an advertisement of Apple’s iPad 2 in Shanghai, China. In its latest statement on a simmering dispute over the iPad brand name, Apple Inc. said yesterday, that Proview Electronics’ insistence that it still owns the mainland China iPad trademarks is misleading and unfair. — AP Apple has sold more than 315 million iPhones, iPads and iPods that run on its mobile operating system, giving it the keys to a market that will become increasingly influential as more people buy digital content for such devices.

Apple’s success has transformed the company from a technology boutique to a trend-setting juggernaut in the past decade. Its

Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. combined.

So far, though, government regulators haven’t paid as much attention to Apple as they did to Microsoft during the 1990s and to Google during the past four years.

Microsoft’s efforts to maintain and increase its dominance of personal computer software provoked an antitrust lawsuit that unsuccessful-

ly attempted to break up the company. Allegations that Google has been abusing its dominance of the Internet search and advertising markets have sparked wide-ranging government probes into the company’s business practices in the US and Europe.

Apple may simply behave better than some of its rivals, or it may be doing business in areas that are so new that government regulators are still learning how those nascent markets function, says D. Daniel Sokol, a law professor who focuses on antitrust issues at the University of Florida.

“To attract antitrust attention, you have to be more than just big.

You have to be big and bad,” Sokol says. “It was only 2007 when Apple released the iPhone, and only 2010 when it released the iPad. The company hasn’t had that long to be bad yet, if it is indeed bad.”

Apple hasn’t fully avoided the government’s scrutiny. In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into whether Apple and Google had been stifling competition by sharing two of the same directors - Eric Schmidt and Arthur Levinson - on their respective boards. That inquiry ended when Schmidt, then Google’s CEO, resigned from Apple’s board and Levinson, former CEO of biotechnology company Genentech, resigned from Google’s board.— AP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk SEATTLE: Circumcised men may have a slightly lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who still have their foreskin, according to a US study. The World Health Organization already recommends the controversial procedure based on research showing it lowers heterosexual men’s risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Last year scientists also reported that wives and girlfriends of circumcised men had lower rates of infection with human papillomavirus or HPV, which in rare cases may lead to cervi-

cal and other cancers. And last week, researchers reported that African men who were circumcised were less likely to be infected with a particular herpes virus.

The new study, published in the journal Cancer, jibes with those findings but falls short of actually proving that circumcision will reduce a boy’s future cancer risk , said Jonathan Writer, at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who led the study.

“I would not go out and advocate for widespread circumcision to prevent

prostate cancer,” Wright said. “We see an association, but it doesn’t prove causality.” Although most U.S. men are circumcised, the procedure has become less popular over the past decade, and various groups have spoken out against it. In September, the Royal Dutch Medical Association discouraged the prac tice, calling it a “painful and harmful ritual.”

For their study, Wright and his colleagues compared two groups of more than 1,600 men who had answered questions about their medical history, sex life and whether or not they were

circumcised. Half had prostate cancer, the others didn’t.

In the group with cancer, 69 percent of the men have been circumcised, compared to 72 percent of those without cancer- suggesting a small protective effect. Even accounting for a host of other factors, such as age, race and whether or not the men had been screened for prostate cancer, those who were circumcised still had a 15 percent lower risk of the disease.

“Circumcision before first sexual intercourse is associated with a reduction in the relative risk of prostate can-

cer in the study population,” Wright and his colleagues wrote. The foreskin is prone to tiny tears during sex, which may help bacteria and viruses enter the bloodstream.

Wright said that some viruses can trigger cancer when they are incorporated into human DNA. Another possibilit y is that sexually transmitted microorganisms could lead to cancer by causing chronic inflammation. One in six US men will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, although only a minority of them will die from the disease. — Reuters

Bayer mulls challenge to India cancer drug ruling Pfizer, India’s Biocon scrap insulin pact

BARCELONA: Monica (C) and Marcos (R) pose with their 16-month-old daughter Alaitz yesterday outside the Clinic in Barcelona. Doctors at the clinic perfomed the first corrective lung foetal surgery on Alaitz at 26 weeks gestation which yesterday was pronounced a success by the medical team. —AFP

Study prompts call for wider ban on metal hips LONDON: New research confirmed that allmetal artificial hips fail more often than other types, fuelling concerns about the devices and prompting a call from researchers yesterday for a ban. The analysis in The Lancet medical journal came two weeks after Britain’s medical regulator said nearly 50,000 Britons with metal-on-metal hips needed annual check-ups to monitor for problems, including exposure to toxic metals.

The finding will likely fuel criticism about the regulation of medical devices in the wake of a scandal over French-made breast implants and past problems with other implantable devices, including faulty leads on some heart defibrillators.

Metal-on-metal hips were developed to be more durable than traditional implants, which combine a ceramic or metal ball with a plastic socket. But recent experience suggests they may actually do worse, prompting the recall of one device made

by Johnson & Johnson that critics argue should never have been allowed on the market.

Results from the most comprehensive study to date now show that there is a 6.2 percent chance patients with all-metal hips will need a replacement within five years some three times greater than the revision rate seen with older implants. The rate was particularly high with larger-head implants and those used in women, in whom failure rates were up to four times higher, the researchers said.

The team from the University of Bristol analysed data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales covering more than 400,000 hips replacements, including 31,171 all-metal ones, that were undertaken between 2003 and 2011.

The results, they said, were unequivocal: “Metal-on-metal stemmed articulations give poor implant survival compared with other options and should not be implanted.” Their analysis did not cover resurfacing systems, which avoid the use of a stem

sticking into the bone, such as Smith & Nephew’s Birmingham Hip Resurfacing joints.

In recent years, the use of metal-onmetal implants has declined in Britain, but they are still used extensively around the world, including in the United States. Art Sedrakyan of Cornell University said the problem highlighted weaknesses in the regulatory systems on both sides of the Atlantic due to “outdated and low-threshold regulatory pathways”.

In a strongly worded Lancet commentary accompanying the latest research, he called for better studies before implants reach the market. “We are left with more than 500,000 patients with metal-on-metal prostheses in the USA and more than 40,000 in the UK who are at elevated risk of device failure, which will inevitably result in the burden of further surgical treatment as well as billions of dollars in costs to taxpayers,” he said.

Ashley Blom of the University of Bristol said that total hip replacement surgery remained a very successful operation for the vast majority of people but regulators should learn lessons as they seek to balance safety against innovation.

“In this case, with the benefit of hindsight, I think that tighter regulation may have prevented this,” he told Reuters.

Under the new guidelines from Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), doctors are being advised to consider removing and replacing implants if patients have abnormal MRI scans or if metal ion levels in the blood reach worrying levels.

With the exception of J&J’s DePuy ASR system, which was pulled from the market in 2010, the MHRA decided in its recent ruling against a ban on use, arguing that stemmed metal-on-metal implants could still be good news for some patients. Other companies that make metal-on-metal hip implants include Zimmer, Stryker, Corin and Biomet. — Reuters

SEOUL: South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk (L) and Vasily Vasiliev (R), vice director of North-Eastern Federal University of Russia’s Sakha Republic, exchange agreements during a signing ceremony on joint research at Hwang’s office in Seoul yesterday. The research collaboration agreement will help Russian and South Korean scientists to recreate a woolly mammoth which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Bayer AG said yesterday it was mulling ways to challenge a ground-breaking Indian ruling allowing a local firm to produce a vastly cheaper copy of a cancer drug made by the German pharmaceutical giant.

India’s patents chief ruled Monday the price Bayer was charging in the country for the drug was “exorbitant” and ordered the German firm to give a licence to manufacture the medicine to Indian company Natco Pharma. The ruling marked the first time a so-called “compulsory licence” for production of a patented drug has been granted in the country of 1.2 billion, known as a global generics drug powerhouse.

“We will evaluate our (legal) options to further defend our intellectual property rights in India,” Bayer spokesman Aloke Pradhan told AFP. Natco will pay Bayer a six percent royalty on sales of the drug and sell the medicine for 8,800 rupees ($175) a month-compared to the 280,000 rupees the company charges, which is more than 30 times as much.

The drug is used to extend lives of advanced kidney and liver cancer patients. Patent controller P.H. Kurian granted the right to Natco to produce the drug after concluding Bayer’s pricing made it “out of reach” of most Indian patients.

The decision could pave the way for a rush of other “compulsory licence” applications in India and potentially in other poor nations, allowing access to patented life-saving drugs at a fraction of the cost, patients’ groups said.

“This is an event which will cause multinationals to start thinking about differential pricing and how they price products in countries such as India,” Rajeshwari Hariharan, lawyer for Natco,

told AFP. Under the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement, which governs trade and intellectual property rules, compulsory licences are a legally recognised means to overcome barriers in accessing affordable medicines. “(The decision) serves as a warning that when drug companies are price gouging and limiting availability, there is a consequence,” said Michelle Childs, a policy director at Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

“The Patent Office can and will end monopoly powers to ensure access to important medicines,” she said. India, known as the “pharmacy to the developing world”, has long been a key provider of cheap generic medicines as it did not issue drug patents until 2005, when it was obliged to adhere to WTO intellectual property regulations.

Competition among generic manufacturers in India has reduced HIV drug prices by nearly 99 percent since 2000 — from $10,000 per person per year to $150, Medecins Sans Frontieres said.

But after a new patent law was introduced in 2005, newer medicines are increasingly being patented in India, keeping prices high.

In a separate case also with important ramifications for access to medicines across the developing world, Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis is challenging India’s decision to not grant patents on medicines that according to the patent law are not sufficiently innovative to merit patent protection.

Meanwhile, India’s largest biotechnology firm, Biocon, and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said yesterday they would scrap a joint plan to sell insulin products, sending Biocon’s shares plunging. Following the news Biocon shares fell

as much as 11.09 percent to a low of 238 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange, before retracing partly to end the day at 250.8, still down 6.31 percent.

The companies said in a joint statement that the split was due to “individual priorities” for their respective businesses, adding it was “in their best interest to move forward independently”. They did not elaborate.

“The development will have a psychological impact for Biocon. It cannot find a joint venture partner like Pfizer every day,” Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Global Securities, told AFP. According to the deal struck in October 2010, Pfizer was to sell cheaper copies of diabetes products in some emerging markets and in Europe that the Bangalore-headquartered Biocon would make.

“With the Pfizer deal hitting the rocks, Biocon will have to scout for newer partners, especially for developed markets,” said Sudarshan Padmanaban, analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher brokerage, in a note to investors.

The decision to abandon the plan comes at a time when multinational drug makers are increasingly tying up with Indian pharmas to source cheaper generic products for sale globally. “Biocon will work with existing partners in several countries and pursue a commercial strategy on its own and through new alliances in other markets,” its chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said in the statement.

Pfizer’s general manager Diem Nguyen said the firm would “continue in active research and business development for diabetes, which represents a huge unmet need”. — AFP

Eye problems common in astronauts: Study

PORTLAND: In this Feb. 24, 2012 photo, Dr. Peter Goodwin, a Portland physician who for years to give terminally ill patients the right to die on their own terms, smiles for a photo in Portland, Ore. Goodwin died March 11, 2012 in his Portland home after using lethal chemicals obtained under an Oregon law he championed. He was 83. —AP

British court: Right-to-die case can proceed LONDON: In a case that challenges Britain’s definition of murder, a severely disabled man who says his life has no “privacy or dignity” will be granted a hearing on his request that a doctor be allowed to give him a lethal injection.

Tony Nicklinson suffered a paralyzing stroke in 2005 that left him unable to speak or move below his neck. The former rugby player and corporate manager requires constant care and communicates largely by blinking, although his mind has remained unaffected.

“I am fed up with my life and don’t want to spend the next 20 years or so like this,” Nicklinson said in a statement. In January, Nicklinson asked the High Court to declare that any doctor who kills him with his consent will not be charged with murder. On Monday, a judge said the request may proceed, making it the first right-to-die case of its kind to get a hearing in a British court.

The 57-year-old’s condition is stable, though Nicklinson has refused since 2007 to take any life-prolonging drugs recommended by doctors, including heart medication or blood thinners. The ministry of justice argued that granting Nicklinson’s request would require changing the law on murder and that such changes must be made by Parliament. The government had applied to have the case dismissed.

In his ruling, Justice William Charles said Nicklinson was “now inviting the court to cross the Rubicon” and that his case had “an arguable base.” Nicklinson argued that British law hindered his right to “private and family life” - guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights - on the grounds that being able to choose how to die is a matter of personal autonomy.

“The decision to go to a hearing is quite a small step, but what’s tremendously significant is what Tony Nicklinson is asking for,” said Emily Jackson, a law professor at the London School of Economics. “Normally, it would be for Parliament to make any change to the law on

murder, so it would be a very, very big deal for the court to make a change like this.”

Nicklinson’s wife, Jane, says the only way to end her husband’s suffering is for him to die. “A life like this is unbearable for him,” she said. “We know there are doctors out there that would do this if it is made legal.”

A recent British commission headed by a former justice secretary concluded there was a strong case for allowing assisted suicide under strict criteria. The commission was set up and funded by advocates who want the current law changed. Assisted suicide is usually for people who have at least some capacity to kill themselves, perhaps by drinking a lethal beverage or taking a fatal dose of drugs. The report did not support euthanasia, which is when a doctor actively kills a patient.

The commission recommended assisted suicide only be allowed for terminally ill people, which would exclude Nicklinson. In 2009, the British government’s top prosecutor said people who helped terminally ill relatives and friends die were unlikely to be charged if they acted out of compassion.

In Europe, euthanasia is allowed in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Penney Lewis, a law professor at King’s College London, said the UK had become more receptive to allowing assisted suicide in recent years but not euthanasia. “Granting Nicklinson a hearing does not mean euthanasia will be allowed, but it is a big step,” she said. Legalizing euthanasia in the Netherlands began in a similar fashion, with doctors in court cases employing arguments much like those of Nicklinson’s legal team, Lewis said. Part of Nicklinson’s argument depends on the “defence of necessity,” meaning that in exceptional circumstances, a person must be allowed to break the law. In the Netherlands, doctors on trial for killing their patients argued they had no choice when confronted with dying patients begging for relief.— AP

WASHINGTON: Brain and eye problems have surfaced in astronauts who spent more than a month in space, marking a potential setback to plans for longer deep space missions, a US study said yesterday. The research in the journal Radiology analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 27 astronauts with an average of 108 days in space, either on space shuttle missions or aboard the International Space Station.

Shuttle missions typically lasted a couple of weeks, while ISS stints can last more than six months. A Mars mission to bring astronauts to the red planet in the coming decades could last a year and a half. Among the astronauts who spent more than a month in space over their lifetimes, researchers found a variety of complications that appear similar to a syndrome caused by unexplained pressure on the brain. These symptoms included excess cerebral-spinal fluid around the optic nerve in 33 percent of the astronauts studied and flattening of the back of the eyeball in 22 percent of them. Fifteen percent had a bulging optic nerve and 11 percent showed changes to the pituitary gland-which is located between the optic nerves, secreting sex hormones and regulating the thyroid-and its connection to the brain.

Similar effects, which can lead to problems with vision, have been observed in non-space travelers who suffer from unexplained pressure buildup in the brain, a condition known as intracranial hypertension. “Microgravity-induced intracranial hypertension represents a hypothetical risk factor and a potential limitation to long-duration space travel,” said lead author Larry Kramer, professor of diagnostic and interventional imaging at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

“The MRI findings revealed various combinations of abnormalities following both short- and long-term cumulative exposure to microgravity also seen with idiopathic intracranial hypertension.” While bone loss and temporary muscular aches and nerve abnormalities have been known to afflict astronauts in the past, the new data on eye problems has many at NASA concerned about the health of its spaceflight corps. “NASA has placed this problem high on its list of human risks, has initiated a comprehensive program to study its mechanisms and implications, and will continue to closely monitor the situation,” said William Tarver, chief of the flight medicine clinic at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He said the findings are suspicious but not conclusive of intracranial hypertension, and said no astronauts have been rendered ineligible for future spaceflight as a result of the findings.— AFP

ATHENS: Members of a theatrical group stage a happening outside the Ministry of Health during a protest against the cuts in the social health system and especially at the sector of the mental health treatment yesterday. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

H E A LT H

Red meat can kill: Scientists LONDON: Red meat is not only unhealthy but can be positively lethal, according to new research yesterday.

Regularly eating red meat - especially the processed variety - dramatically increases the risk of death from heart disease and cancer, a major study has shown, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Each additional daily serving of processed red meat, equivalent to one hot-dog or two rashers of bacon, raised the chances of dying by a fifth. Conversely, replacing red meat with fish, poultry, or plant-based protein foods contributed to a longer life. Nuts were said to reduce the risk of dying by 20% - making a case for swapping roast beef for nut roast.

Data from 121,342 men and women taking part in two large US health and lifestyle investigations were analysed to produce the findings, published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The studies monitored the progress of their participants for more than 20 years and gathered information about diet.

In total, scientists documented 23,926 deaths including 5,910 from heart disease and 9,364 from cancer. A striking association was seen between consumption of red meat and premature death. Each daily serving of unprocessed red meat, equivalent to a helping of beef, lamb or pork about the size of a deck of cards, raised the risk of death 13%, while processed meat increased it by 20%. When deaths were broken down into specific causes, eating any kind of red meat increased the chances of dying from heart disease by 16% and of cancer by 10%.

Processed red meat raised the risk of heart disease and cancer deaths by 21% and 16% respectively.

Senior author Professor Frank Hu, from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, said: “This study provides clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death. “On the other hand, choosing more healthful sources of protein in place of red meat can confer significant health benefits by reducing chronic disease morbidity (illness) and mortality.”

The study found that cutting red meat out of the diet led to significant benefits,the paper added. Replacing one serving of red meat with an equivalent serving of fish reduced mortality risk by 7%. For poultry an even bigger risk reduction of 14% was seen. Legumes and low-fat dairy products lowered the risk by 10%, whole grains by 14% and nuts by 19%.

Halving red meat consumption could have prevented 9.3% of deaths of men and 7.6% of women taking part in the study, said the scientists. The researchers came to their conclusions after taking account of known chronic disease risk factors such as age, body weight, physical activity and family history.

Cancer prevention charity the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommends that people avoid processed meat entirely and limit their consumption of red meat to 500 grams a week.

Dr Rachel Thompson, the charity’s deputy head of science, said: “This study strengthens the body of evidence which shows a link between red meat and chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease. The research itself seems solid and is based on two largescale cohort studies monitored over a long period of time. “The study calculates that lives would be saved if people replaced red meat with healthy protein sources such as fish, poultry, nuts and legumes and we would like to see more people replacing red meat with these type of foods.” — KUNA

Dar Al Shifa hospital hosts workshop ‘Tracer methodology and patient safety’ KUWAIT: In line with its continued efforts to maintain the highest standards in medical practice, Dar Al Shifa hospital hosted a special workshop on ‘Trace Methodology and Patient Safety’ on the 4th, 5th & 6th of March.

Attended by the hospital’s clinical and non clinical staff, the workshop was aimed at improving patient safety practices and utilizing the techniques of Tracer methodology to ensure compliance in procedures.

A program of speeches, video presentations and group activities, showcased techniques for the staff to use in order to measure the safety levels in the day-to-day clinical practices. The attendees were also introduced to an interactive process which shall help them in identifying areas of improvement.

Ms Sandra Kearns, an expert in Corporate Risk assessment and patient safety program developer from Canada conducted the workshop. “It has been identified in the recent decades that well-meant healing procedures can sometimes have an adverse effect on the patient,” she stated.

“Thus resulting in a new category in medi-

cine, patient safety, this focuses on identifying and eliminating avoidable mistakes from the various procedures.”

“In the field of medicine, there is something new to learn every day, be it the discovery of new diseases or the founding of an improved patient-care procedure,” commented Kris Gustavson, an expert in Accreditation and Patient Services activities. “Procedures for patient-care are a mat-

ter of sensitive nature, and require careful attention to detail, and a willingness to continuously upgrade and improve. Dar-AlShifa recognizes that, and hence it placed a lot of significance on this workshop.”

Tracer methodology is an evaluation method in which surveyors select a patient, or process and uses this as a roadmap to evaluate the organization’s compliance with the standards and systems of provid-

ing care and services. Training in this methodology helps the clinical staff deeply involved in the clinical process and thus ensuring the delivery of safe & quality health care. Dar Al Shifa Hospital continues to ensure that patient services remain at the highest standard, and therefore the staff is required to go through monthly training sessions and workshops.

Dar Al Shifa Hospital was established in 1963 as the first private hospital in the State of Kuwait. It began as a private maternity care hospital, and has since then steadily grown to encompass a wide spectrum of healthcare services. In 2004 Dar Al Shifa Hospital established an affiliation with CARE-Fertility Unit, a leading independent fertility specialist in the UK. The hospital is distinguished by being the first and sole representative for CARE-Fertility’s in -vitro fertilization (IVF) unit in the Gulf Region and the Middle East. In 2007, Dar Al Shifa Hospital became the first hospital in Middle East to receive accreditation by accreditation Canada, and it continuously introduces healthcare services as well as the latest medical equipment.

Work burnout tied to ‘emotional eating’ in women MASSACHUSETTS: Women who are fed up with their jobs may be more likely to turn to food for comfort in times of stress, according to a Finnish study. The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who reported work burnout were also more likely to have a habit of “emotional” eating, or eating when stressed, anxious or down, rather than just hungry.

What’s more, they were more prone to “uncontrolled” eating the feeling that you’re always hungry or can’t stop eating until all the food’s gone. “Those experiencing burnout may be more vulnerable to emotional eating and uncontrolled eating and have a hindered ability to make changes in their eating behavior,” wrote Nina Nevanpera of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, who led the study. “We recommend that burnout should be treated first and that burnout and eating behavior should be evaluated in obesity treatment.” The findings are based on 230

women ages 30 to 55 who were part of a clinical trial looking at healthy lifestyle changes. All were employed, and at the start of the trial they completed surveys on job burnout and eating habits.

Overall, 22 percent of the women had some degree of work burnout. As a group, they scored higher on measures of emotional eating and uncontrolled eating. On top of that, women who did not have job burnout at the study’s start tended to cut down on uncontrolled eating over one year. But, on average, the burnout group failed to make that change. “Work permeates our lives,” said Sherry Pagoto, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a clinician at the university’s Weight Center. “People may be in a job where they’re unhappy, or a marriage where they’re unhappy, and eating can become one of the few pleasures in their lives,” added Pagoto, who was not involved in the

study. There was no obvious effect of burnout on the women’s weight, however. At the outset, half of the women reporting work burnout were normal weight-compared with a third of women reporting no burnout.

One reason might be education, Nevanpera said.

Women with work burnout generally had a higher education level, and education, in turn, was linked to lower weight. Still, she added, emotional eating is a potential risk factor for becoming heavy in the future. And it’s not particularly healthy, since stressed-out people are more likely to reach for chocolate or fast food than an apple.

Pagoto agreed that addressing sources of stress in general was important, adding that big stress triggers in life may make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. When people are not overweight, emotional eating is still not a good idea, she said. “It’s reinforcing a habit that’s not healthy.” — Reuters

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N Greetings

Math week at ABS

H

appy birthday Godswill! May the good Lord guide you as you grow to be a blessing to our family Amen.

Greetings from daddy, mummy, Laif, Arnold, Nnaemeka, Oluchi, Chinenye, friends and well-wishers.

T

he American Baccalaureate School’s Elementary Math Week was a roaring success this year. Students were incredibly enthusiastic about participating in break-time activities such as math bingo games, contributing to a graffiti “Math Wall”, guessing how many candies were in a jar, and our first ever math scavenger hunt! To end our Math Week, students were treated to a numbered free-dress day on March 1st in celebration of the 100th day of school.

H

appy birthday to Arsenia Kadil. Best wishes from Marivic Kadil, Jun Evican, Arsad Kadil, Rafat, Laila, Hassan, Duli, Lisil.

Announcements ILF legal seminar The Indian Lawyers’ Forum (ILF), associatio of Indian Lawyers and Law graduates’ in Kuwait is conducting a legal seminar, on 16th March Friday 2012, at 10:30 am at United Indian School, Abbassiya, Jleeb Al-Shuyukh.

The legal seminar will include Kuwait new labor law and company formation by Adv Rajesh Sagar and adv Stephen Thomas and discussion on the subjects. All Indian Lawyers & Law graduates working here in Kuwait are cordially invited to participate with their families and friends. For further information please contact, advocate Thomas Panicker 24346934, 97203939, Adv Suresh Pulikkal 97260159.

IOC arts cpmpetition Indian Overseas Congress, Kuwait is conducting Arts Competitions-2012 on 11th and 12 May 2012 at United Indian School. The winners of this prestigious competition will be awarded with trophies and medals. The awards will be distributed during the Gandhidarshan Program in October, this year. The competitions include Elocution, Solo, Poetry Recitation, Dance, Indian Patriotic Song, Mono act, Drawing/Painting and Poster Poetry. Although the competitions are mainly meant for children from various disciplines, Elocution and Indian Patriotic Song Competitions will be held for elders also. For entry forms, please contact the following collection points.

Abbassiya - Hidine Super Market, Sakina Book Stall; Salmiya - Uduppi Restaurant, Sakina Book Stall; Riggae - Al Dallah Super Market; Fahaheel - Royal Mobile Services and Sales. For details, contact 24316426, 24884175, 24343173, 66110570, 66853100.

Filled forms can be sent to fax : 24331461 or Email : iockuwait@yahoo.com Or deliver by hand to Sakina Book Stall, Abbassiya.

The People Are Missing lecture

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he Center for Gulf Studies (CGS) at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) is hosting a lecture entitled “‘The People Are Missing’: Palestinians in

Kuwait” by Dr. Mai Al Nakib, Assistant Professor of English at Kuwait University.

During her lecture, Dr Al-Nakib will

look at the status of the Palestinian community in Kuwait prior to the first Gulf War, discussing the ethical consequences to Kuwait after their expulsion in 1991.

Dr Al Nakib received her Ph.D. from Brown University. Her research centers around Middle East cultural studies in relation to the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 21- 6 pm in the AUK Auditorium, located in the Liberal Arts Building - AUK Salmiya Campus. The lecture will be in English, and is open to the public free of charge.

For more information about the lecture and other CGS activities, please visit the CGS web link: http://www.auk.edu.kw/cgs/project_lectures_kuwait.jsp

ACK to sponsor education exhibition

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ustralian College in Kuwait (ACK) announced sponsorship of Education Exhibition 2012, to be held under the auspices of the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf, at the International Fair Grounds - Mishref, from March 12-15.

On this occasion, Dr. Raghd Al-Kazmi, Director of Students Affairs at ACK, stated: “The College is keenly desirous to sponsor the Education Exhibition 2012, for its positive reflections on high school students, allowing them proper opportunity to familiarize with the disciplines and programs provided by ACK to its affiliates.”

“The mission of ACK is to enable individuals by maximizing their capacity in a sponsoring environment. This mission is based on academic principles to empower a new generation of young manpower with knowledge and personal skills,” she said.

“Accordingly, ACK provides academic disciplines and system to global standards, in collab-

oration with a selected partnerships with universities and colleges, whereby the graduates can attain the opportunity to study for diploma or bachelor degree in the various disciplines, such as mechanical and civil engineering, electronics, communication, oil and gas, aircraft mechanics engineering (1.1B, as well as Management, marketing and human resources.

Graduates obtain a degree from ACK and partner universities,” she elaborated.

Dr. Al-Kazmi stressed that ACK supports the local labor market with human resources that are provided with scientific and practical qualifications in the areas of engineering and management at diploma and bachelor levels through a global system. In this process, ACK established the “Project-based Education” concept, which enhances the students’ applied and professional skis and their capability to work in several fields. “The scientific side is one of the most significant areas focused by the education system in ACK,” she concluded.

Jayachandran to perform in Kuwait Popular south Indian singer P Jayachandran, who has won one National Award, four Kerala State Awards and four Tamil Nadu State Awards, will perform in Kuwait on March 23, 2012 during stage mega show by Kalanjali Kuwait. Major Ravi, a well known Malayalam Film Director will be an added attraction during the show. Major A.K. Ravindran, (alias) Major Ravi is a former Indian Army Officer & a Malayalam filmmaker. For details: 55457286 / 66851263 / 25655912 or send an email to kalanjaliq8@gmail.com Talent launch Kuwait’s Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) called on to the Kuwaiti community to come out and support its local young talented Kuwaitis by visiting the “Mawaheb” gallery exhibition on March 15, 16, and 17 at the Avenues Mall. The exhibition, created and organized by SACGC, provides a platform for 15 of the top Kuwaiti photographers, artists and musicians, to showcase their talent directly to the community through unique, signature performances, displays, and presentations. SACGC General Manager, Dr Omar Al Bannai said, “”Mawaheb” is a talent-driven exhibition that connect Kuwait’s undiscovered talents to the community and showcases to Kuwait some of the great art. “Mawaheb” will kick-off on 7 pm on March 15 at the Avenues location near Dean and Deluca in the presence of SACGC CEO, Dr. Bader Al-Omar, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences General Manager, Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, SACGC General Manager, Dr. Omar Al Bannai, and all members of the SACGC Board of Directors.

Lecturers at AUK The Center for Gulf Studies (CGS) will be organizing the following events in March. Event Title: “The People are Missing” Lecturer By Dr Mai Al Nakib, on March 21, 2012 at 6-9 pm, AUK Auditorium. Event Description: Dr. Mai Al-Nakib’s presentation looks at the Palestinian community in Kuwait prior to the first Gulf War, and considers the ethical consequences to Kuwait after their expulsion in 1991. Event Title: City Images, on March 27, 2012, at 6-9 pm, AUK Auditorium. Event Description: This talk presents the issues surrounding the concept of ‘branding’ in relation to the city states of the Gulf, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar.

Event Title: “Energy Conservation” Lecture by Jim Krane, on March 28, 2012 at 6-8 pm, AUK Auditorium.

Event Description: The speaker discusses the energy consumption issue in the Gulf. He examines the role of government, the population, and the barriers to promoting less consumption and reforming the energy sector. All events are open for public.

IES made it a D-Day for class 12

I

ndian Educational School, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kuwait, made Thursday the 8th of March 2012 the D-Day for both the students and teachers of class 12. Two batches of the Science stream and one batch of the Commerce stream assembled in the auditorium to mark the ceremonious beginning of their well chalked out plan of action for the academic year 2012-2013.

Well begun is half done. Proving this epigrammatic adage word by word true,

the programme started off with an invocation of the divine guidance. The melodious recital of a hymn from Gitanjali, the sublime procedure of the lighting of the lamp and the soothing verse sung

by Anjana Mohan of the outgoing 12B all added splendour and solemnity to the function. The panel discussion arranged on the occasion opened up a platform for both the students and the teachers to build up a better and stronger rapport with each other.

Moreover it proudly proclaimed the friendly and frank relationship they maintain in the school.

The timely interaction between the teachers and the taught gave chances to everyone to express his/her heart without any inhibition. The students had innumerable queries about matters like home assignments, time to be spent on studies on regular basis, examinations, career guidance and periods for Work Experience, General Studies, Physical

Education and many more.

Teachers too had questions to test the mettle of their students, and the prodigies who answered the questions were felicitated with fabulous prizes.

May the day’s success be the beginning of tomorrow’s achievements. The sweets distributed by the teachers on the occasion epitomized the sweetness of their dream and determination.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy Information 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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 12:30 to 01:00 pm for lunch break. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 A.M until 12:00 P.M on Sunday through Wednesday. Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad.

This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca.

The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.uae.gc.ca. nnnnnnn

Whizkid - a day of joy at ICSK Amman

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hildhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing.

Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing. — EUGENE IONESCO How true do the words of the Romanian genius sound when we think about the children - the miracles of existence. At ICSK Amman, we realize the importance of nurturing and exhibiting the talent of the blooming buds in order

to let them grow up into strong and smart individuals. and the “Whizkid” competition is the perfect platform for that. On 29th February, 2012 the programme was conducted with great pomp and splendor. The darling buds of the KG and Prep were sparkling in their colourful attire.

A number of competitions such as “Complete the Picture”, “Action Song”, “Memory Test”, and “Dance” etc. had been conducted during the month of

January. The winners of these competitions were honoured and awarded by our beloved Principal Mrs Sridevi Pradeep, who also in her inimitable style welcomed the august gathering of the PAC members and the proud parents.

Mughal Akbar Chakravarthy, the PAC Representative of Amman to the Board of Trustees added grandeur to the event by his revered presence as the Chief Guest. Reji Mathew, the PAC Representative to the BOT from Khaitan

was the Guest of Honour. The other esteemed PAC members who graced the occasion were A.V. Shamsudheen George Mathew, Suraj C Valsalan and Elvin Robert.

It was a sight to behold, the Amman auditorium glowing with the beaming young winners, their charmed parents and the proud teachers. At ICSK Amman we believe in the age old dictum of “Catch ‘em young” and the Whizkid programme is the proof for that.

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus requests Cypriot citizens living in Kuwait to register with the Embassy has moved. This registration service is provided so that the Embassy can update its contact list and assist Cypriot citizens in cases of emergencies. Registration information can be emailed to cyprusembassykwt@gmail.com or faxed to 22253227 or given by phone to 65906048 (Mrs Christine). nnnnnnn

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: Saturdays 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 nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, AlSalaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location.

Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com nnnnnnn

Manikgonj Emigrant Society releases poems by Azad Nur

M

anikgonj Emigrant Co-operative Society, Kuwait recently released poems “Think to continue by yourself’ written by A.K. Azad Nur on Sunday 26-02-2012.

The program began with recitation of

the Holy Quran by Abul Hassan Cashier.

A.K. Azad Nur President of Manikgonj Emigrant Co-operative Society.

The Chief Guest was A.S.M. Nazrul Islam Country Manager Bangladesh Airlines, special guests were Eng

Ashrafuddin, Hafiz Mawlana Nurol Alam President Bangladesh Quran Institute Kuwait, Eng. Kazi Manzurol Alam President of Great Noakhali Society, Al Haj Jubayer Ahmed, Abdul Kader Mollah President of Bangladesh Welfare

Association, vice-president Enamul Haque Khan, vice-president Salauddin, Badal Hossain Khan General Secretary, Mojibar Rahman, Ajibur Rahman, Shohel Rana, Abdur Rahim.

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” (+ 965) 972-79-206.

Kala-Kuwait forms new unit at Mina Abdulla

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EMBASSY OF VENEZUELA Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, request Venezuelan citizens living in Kuwait to register with the Embassy, This registration service is provided so that the Embassy can update its contact list and assist Venezuelan citizens in cases os emergencies. Registration Information 25324367 or by email: embavenez@gmail.com. Our time is from Sunday to Thursday from 8.30am till 2 pm.

K

Praveen

Sajeev

Subash

ala Kuwait formed a new unit at Mina Abdulla. Kala president Vinod inaugurated the first session of the meeting followed by which Kala central committee member R. Naganathan elaborated on the socio-cultural activities as well as various endeavors contributed by Kala ranging from charity programs to the promotion of art and culture among the to the Keralite community in Kuwait.

Subash S was elected as the first convenor for the newly formed unit where as Praveen and Sajeev Kumar were selected as Joint Convenors followed by Pankjakshan Pillai, Sugathan S, Rajan P and Ullas as executive committee members.

Kala Vice president P.R.Babu, unit members David Paul, Ullas delivered felicitations congratulating the newly elected members. Finally, the new convenor Subash rendered the vote of thanks.

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Awami Volunteer League observes Mother Language Day

B

angladesh Awami Volunteer League Kuwait Branch met on a discussion meeting in observance of International Mother Language Day and Glorious Martyrs Day on 21 February. The meeting was presided over by Mohammed Masud Karim president of Awami volunteer League Kuwait Branch.

Engineer Abbur Rob President of Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait Branch and chief patron of Awami Volunteer League Kuwait was the

chief guest at the function.

Mohammed Shamim Ahmed vice-president of Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait branch, Mohammed Hasan Ali General Secretary of Joybangla Cultural Group, Jahangir Hossain Bablu President of Jatio Kobita Porishad Kuwait Branch, Poet Salim Reza General Secretary of Bornomala Sangskritik Songsod Kuwait Hafiz Uddin General Secretary of Awami Volunteer League Shuwaikh Branch were special guests.

The program was conducted by Kabir Hosain Joint Secretary of Awami Volunteer League Kuwait branch. The program started with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran. In the program one minute silence was observed in honor of language day martyrs.

Deiwar Hossain organizing secretary of Awami Volunteer League delivered the opening speech. It was followed by speeches by chief guest, special guests and Awami Volunteer League leaders.

EMBASSY OF THAILAND The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait, wishes to invite the Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 25317531, Ext: 14.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

00:50 Animal Cops Miami 01:45 Untamed & Uncut 02:40 Crime Scene Wild 03:35 Wild Animal Orphans 04:30 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 05:25 Speed Of Life 06:20 Escape To Chimp Eden 06:45 Planet Wild 07:10 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 08:00 Orangutan Island 08:50 Talk To The Animals 09:15 The Really Wild Show 09:40 Project Puppy 10:10 America’s Cutest...

11:05 Speed Of Life 12:00 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 12:55 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

13:20 Wildlife SOS 13:50 K9 Cops 14:45 Animal Cops Houston 15:40 Speed Of Life 16:30 Shamwari: A Wild Life 17:00 The Really Wild Show 17:30 Breed All About It 18:25 Dogs 101 19:20 Bad Dog 20:15 Orangutan Island 20:40 Wildlife SOS 21:10 Gorilla School 21:35 Planet Wild 22:05 Extreme Animals 23:00 Wild France

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

00:05 00:55 01:20 02:50 03:40 04:25 04:50 06:20 07:10

Eastenders Doctors Red Cap 2 Point 4 Children dinnerladies My Family Me Too! Charlie and Lola Gigglebiz Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Tikkabilla 3rd & Bird The Adventures of Spot Me Too! Charlie and Lola Gigglebiz Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Tikkabilla 3rd & Bird The Adventures of Spot 2 Point 4 Children dinnerladies The Weakest Link Eastenders Doctors Holby City Mastermind Doctor Who Confidential My Family 2 Point 4 Children The Weakest Link Eastenders Doctors Holby City Mastermind Doctor Who Confidential The Weakest Link Eastenders Doctors Casualty 2 Point 4 Children One Foot In The Grave Lark Rise to Candleford Keeping Up Appearances

Antiques Roadshow James Martin’s Champagne French Food At Home 10 Years Younger Fantasy Homes By The Sea James Martin’s Champagne French Food At Home Antiques Roadshow French Food At Home

07:35 08:05 10:20 11:05 11:55 12:45 13:30 15:10 15:55 16:40 17:25 18:15 19:00 20:55 21:45 23:30

James Martin’s Champagne French Food At Home Bargain Hunt Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me 10 Years Younger What Not To Wear Fantasy Homes By The Sea House Swap Bargain Hunt Antiques Roadshow Cash In The Attic USA French Food At Home 10 Years Younger What Not To Wear Bargain Hunt

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

Wacky Races Dastardly And Muttley New Yogi Bear Show Duck Dodgers The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Jetsons Puppy In My Pocket Popeye Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Droopy: Master Detective Wacky Races The Flintstones A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye Classics The Garfield Show Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Jelly Jamm Pink Panther And Pals Puppy In My Pocket The Scooby Doo Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Duck Dodgers Tom & Jerry Kids Pink Panther And Pals Wacky Races Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Bananas In Pyjamas The Garfield Show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-

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

Backstory World Sport The Situation Room World Report Anderson Cooper 360 Piers Morgan Tonight Quest Means Business Erin Burnett Outfront World Sport News Special World Report World Sport Inside Africa World Business Today Backstory Cnngo World One Piers Morgan Tonight News Stream World Business Today

Looney Tunes Puppy In My Pocket Pink Panther And Pals Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show The Scooby Doo Show Scooby-Doo And ScrappyJelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Pink Panther And Pals Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Droopy: Master Detective The Flintstones

17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Cnngo 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson

00:00 KSA 07:00 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:20 11:45 12:10 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:30 17:55 18:20 18:45 19:15 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:55 21:20

Programmes Start At 7:00am Kid vs Kat Pokemon: Black And White Phineas And Ferb Pair Of Kings I’m In The Band Kick Buttowski Zeke & Luther Phineas And Ferb Kid vs Kat Spiderman Pair Of Kings Rekkit Rabbit American Dragon Kick Buttowski Phineas And Ferb I’m In The Band Kid vs Kat Pair Of Kings Zeke & Luther Rekkit Rabbit Pokemon: Black And White Kickin It Phineas And Ferb Rekkit Rabbit Rated A For Awesome Pair Of Kings Kickin It Scaredy Squirrel Pair Of Kings Pair Of Kings Rated A For Awesome Pokemon: Black And White Phineas And Ferb Zeke & Luther Kid vs Kat

00:15 01:05 01:55 02:45 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:00 06:15 06:40 07:05 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:10 09:35 09:49 10:00 10:25 10:45 10:50 11:15 11:40 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:20 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:30 17:55 18:20 18:45 19:10 19:30 19:35 20:00 20:25 20:50 21:15 21:40

Fairly Odd Parents Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Emperor’s New School Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fish Hooks Recess Timon And Pumbaa Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny The Hive Recess So Random Have A Laugh Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Jake & Blake Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb So Random Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie A.N.T. Farm Phineas And Ferb Recess So Random Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Shake It Up A.N.T. Farm Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Have A Laugh Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Fish Hooks Recess

WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH ON OSN ACTION HD

00:15 Destroyed In Seconds 00:40 Surviving Disaster 01:35 Dirty Jobs 02:30 Overhaulin’ 03:25 Ultimate Survival 04:20 Mythbusters 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How It’s Made 06:05 Dirty Jobs 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Deception With Keith Barry 08:45 Mythbusters 09:40 How Do They Do It? 10:05 Cake Boss 10:30 Border Security 10:55 Dirty Money 11:25 Extreme Fishing With Robson Green 16:00 Overhaulin’ 16:55 Ultimate Survival 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Cash Cab Us 19:10 Border Security 19:40 Dirty Money 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Rebuilding Japan 21:00 Cake Boss 21:30 The Future Of...

22:25 Mythbusters

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

Engineered Nasa’s Greatest Missions The Tech Show Race To Mars Meteorite Men How Does That Work?

How Stuff’s Made Science Of The Movies Thunder Races Nasa’s Greatest Missions The Gadget Show How Does That Work?

How Stuff’s Made Race To Mars Meteorite Men Engineered Thunder Races Nasa’s Greatest Missions Science Of The Movies How Does That Work?

How Stuff’s Made The Gadget Show The Tech Show Thunder Races Engineered Nasa’s Greatest Missions Weird Or What?

What’s That About?

The Gadget Show Thunder Races Weird Or What?

What’s That About?

00:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 00:40 Meat & Potatoes 01:05 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 01:30 Good Eats 01:55 Guy’s Big Bite 02:45 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:35 Meat & Potatoes 04:25 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 05:15 Unique Sweets 05:40 Good Eats 06:05 Aarti Party 06:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 06:50 Food Network Challenge 07:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 08:00 Food Network Challenge 08:50 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 09:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:40 Good Eats 10:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 10:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 10:55 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 11:20 Lidia’s Italy 11:45 30 Minute Meals 12:10 Unwrapped 12:35 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 13:00 Good Eats 13:25 Guy’s Big Bite 13:50 Aarti Party 14:15 Cooking For Real 14:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 15:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 15:30 Unwrapped 15:55 Paula’s Best Dishes 16:20 Meat & Potatoes 16:45 Chopped

00:20 Special Agent Oso 00:50 Lazytown 01:15 Little Einsteins 01:40 Jungle Junction 02:10 Little Einsteins 02:30 Special Agent Oso 03:00 Lazytown 03:25 Little Einsteins 03:50 Jungle Junction 04:20 Little Einsteins 04:40 Special Agent Oso 05:10 Lazytown 05:35 Little Einsteins 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:30 Little Einsteins 06:50 Lazytown 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:15 Jungle Junction 08:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:10 The Hive 09:20 Handy Manny 09:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 10:15 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 10:20 Mouk 10:45 The Hive 10:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:45 Art Attack 12:10 Imagination Movers 12:35 Special Agent Oso 12:45 Lazytown 13:10 Handy Manny 13:25 Jungle Junction 13:40 Imagination Movers 14:05 The Hive 14:15 Special Agent Oso 14:25 Little Einsteins 14:50 Lazytown 15:15 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates

16:05 Mouk 16:25 Handy Manny 16:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 16:55 Imagination Movers 17:20 Lazytown 17:45 Art Attack 18:15 Jungle Junction 18:35 Handy Manny 18:55 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 19:10 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 20:00 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 20:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 20:25 101 Dalmatians 20:50 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:20 The Hive 21:30 Mini Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 21:35 A Poem Is...

21:40 Animated Stories 21:45 Mouk 22:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 22:25 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 22:40 Special Agent Oso 22:55 Little Einsteins 23:20 Timmy Time 23:30 Jungle Junction 23:45 Handy Manny 23:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 E!es 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Bridalplasty 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Ice Loves Coco 13:35 Ice Loves Coco 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 Dirty Soap 17:55 E! News 18:55 E!es 19:55 Khloe And Lamar 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:00 Enfusion 00:50 Dragrace High 01:40 Blood, Sweat And Gears 02:30 World Combat League 03:20 Dragrace High 04:10 Enfusion 05:00 Fantasy Factory 05:50 Blood, Sweat And Gears 06:40 World Combat League 07:30 Ride Guide Snow 2008 09:00 From Romania With Love 09:25 Summer Dew Tour 2011 10:15 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 11:55 Man’s Work 12:45 Ed’s Up 13:35 Dragrace High 14:25 Blood, Sweat And Gears 15:15 World Combat League 16:05 Man’s Work 16:55 Ed’s Up 17:45 From Romania With Love 18:10 Summer Dew Tour 2011 19:00 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 20:40 Blood, Sweat And Gears 21:30 Dragrace High

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

Extreme Forensics Ghost Lab A Haunting Couples Who Kill Deadly Women Extreme Forensics Ghost Lab A Haunting Mystery Diagnosis FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Mall Cops ‚Äì Mall Of America On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Mall Cops ‚Äì Mall Of America On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Mall Cops ‚ Mall Of America On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared I Almost Got Away With It I Faked My Own Death

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

Dive Detectives A World Apart Treks In A Wild World Endurance Traveller On The Camino De Santiago The Music Nomad The Green Way Up Dive Detectives A World Apart Treks In A Wild World Endurance Traveller On The Camino De Santiago The Music Nomad The Green Way Up Dive Detectives On Surfari Word of Mouth The Frankincense Trail Don’t Tell My Mother Adventure Wanted A World Apart Treks In A Wild World On Surfari Word of Mouth The Frankincense Trail Don’t Tell My Mother

ALABAMA MOON ON OSN CINEMA 19:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00

Trans World Sport European Tour Weekly NRL Full time Top 14 Highlights Total Rugby Futbol Mundial

01:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 13:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 20:00 23:00

V8 Supercars Speedway UFC Unleashed WWE Vintage Collection WWE NXT Speedway Mobil 1 The Grid WWE This Week V8 Supercars WWE SmackDown WWE This Week Mobil 1 The Grid Speedway WWE Vintage Collection V8 Supercars Highlights UFC 144 WWE SmackDown

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

Swamp People Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Storage Wars Pawn Stars Storage Wars Mud Men Swamp People Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Storage Wars Pawn Stars Storage Wars Mud Men Swamp People Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Storage Wars Pawn Stars Storage Wars Mud Men American Pickers Patton 360 Scots At War Sniper

00:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 01:00 Futbol Mundial 01:30 ICC Cricket World 02:00 NRL Premiership 06:00 ICC Cricket World 06:30 ODI Cricket Highlights 07:00 Futbol Mundial 07:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 08:00 Scottish FA Cup 10:00 World Cup Of Pool 11:00 World Pool Masters 12:00 Ping Pong World Championship 13:00 ODI Cricket Highlights 13:30 NRL Premiership 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 Ladies European Tour Highlights 17:00 Super Rugby Highlights 18:00 Trans World Sport 19:30 Top 14 Highlights 20:00 Super Rugby 22:00 NRL Premiership

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

Big Rich Texas Jerseylicious Fashion Classics Open House Videofashion Daily Videofashion News How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Clean House Videofashion News Videofashion Daily Open House Fashion Classics How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Clean House Dress My Nest Mel B: It’s A Scary World How Do I Look?

Giuliana & Bill Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Giuliana & Bill Big Rich Texas The Amandas Tia And Tamera How Do I Look?

03:00 World Cup of Pool 04:00 World Pool Masters 05:00 Ping Pong World Championship 06:00 NRL Full time 06:30 Top 14 Highlights 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 ICC Cricket World 08:30 Cricket ODI Highlights 09:00 Super Rugby Highlights 11:00 Ladies European Tour Highlights 12:00 Super Rugby 14:30 Cricket ODI Highlights 15:00 Golfing World 16:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 16:30 Anglo Welsh Cup 18:30 Ladies European Tour Highlights

00:00 Globe Trekker 01:00 Glutton For Punishment 01:30 Trabant Trek 02:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 03:00 Sophie Grigson In Thailand 03:30 Sophie Grigson In The Orient 04:00 Planet Sports 05:00 Globe Trekker 06:00 Planet Food 07:00 Glutton For Punishment 07:30 Going South 08:00 Globe Trekker 09:00 Tall Ship Explorers 10:00 Cruise Today 10:30 4real 11:00 Planet Food 12:00 Flavours Of Spain

18:00 Blue Streak-PG15 20:00 Threesome-18 22:00 Killing Bono-18 00:00 Across The Hall-PG15 02:00 Legion-18 04:00 Warriors Of Heaven And Earth 06:00 Stonehenge Apocalypse-PG15 08:00 The Bannen Way-PG15 10:00 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 12:00 Superman/ Batman: Apocalypse-PG15 14:00 The Bannen Way-PG15 16:00 Arlington Road-PG15 18:00 Superman/ Batman: Apocalypse-PG15 20:00 Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans-18 22:00 Malibu Shark Attack-18

01:00 Drag Me To Hell-18 03:00 Jonah Hex-PG15 05:00 Alabama Moon-PG15 07:00 Ice Dreams-PG15 09:00 The LXD: The Uprising Begins 11:00 Alabama Moon-PG15 13:00 Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs.

Evil-PG 15:00 Flipped-PG 17:00 The Open Road-PG15 19:00 Takers-PG15 21:00 Bright Star-PG15 23:15 Lost Boys: The Thirst-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Weeds 02:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:30 The Cleveland Show 03:00 The Simpsons 03:30 Mr. Sunshine 04:00 Dharma And Greg 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 The Simpsons 06:00 Just Shoot Me 06:30 Yes Dear 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Dharma And Greg 08:30 The Simpsons 09:00 The Simpsons 09:30 Two And A Half Men 10:00 Hot In Cleveland 10:30 Yes Dear 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Just Shoot Me 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 The Simpsons 13:30 Yes Dear 14:00 Mr. Sunshine 14:30 Hot In Cleveland 15:00 Two And A Half Men 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Just Shoot Me 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 The Simpsons 18:30 Mr. Sunshine 19:00 Two And A Half Men 19:30 Hot In Cleveland

01:00 Julia’s Eyes-18 03:00 Warriors Of Heaven And Earth-PG15 05:00 Game Of Death-PG15 07:00 The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 09:00 Attack On Leningrad-PG15 11:00 All Star Superman-PG15 13:00 Last Breath-PG15 15:00 Attack On Leningrad-PG15 17:00 Four Brothers-18 19:00 Child’s Play 3-18 21:00 Gothika-18 23:00 Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night-PG15

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

Kung Fu Dunk-PG15 Feed The Fish-PG15 A Pyromaniac’s Love Story Tom And Huck-PG15 Knucklehead-PG15 I’ll Be Home For Christmas-PG The Country Bears-PG Mean Girls-PG15 Kung Fu Dunk-PG15

01:45 Asylum-18 03:30 Garfield-PG 05:00 The Tender Hook-PG15 07:00 I Am Number Four-PG15 09:00 How Do You Know-PG15 11:00 Celine: Through The Eyes Of The World-PG15 13:00 Lottery Ticket-PG15 15:00 The Fourth Kind-PG15 17:00 How Do You Know-PG15 19:00 Going The Distance-18 21:00 Bright Star-PG15 23:00 The Other Guys-PG15

00:00 Micropolis-FAM 02:00 Ramses Of Egypt-PG 04:00 Jetsons: The Movie-FAM 06:00 Winnie The Pooh-FAM 07:45 Zorro’s Secrets-PG 09:45 The Enchanted Mountain-PG 12:00 Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader-PG 14:15 Winnie The Pooh-FAM 16:00 Flubber-PG 18:00 Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader-PG 20:00 The Wind In The Willows-PG 22:00 The Enchanted Mountain

01:00 02:00 02:30 03:30 07:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 11:30 12:30 13:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Super Rugby Highlights Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport Premier League Darts Super Rugby Futbol Mundial Volvo Ocean Race Highlights Super Rugby Highlights Cricket ODI Highlights Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Premier League Darts Cricket ODI Highlights Volvo Ocean Race Trans World Sport UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Trans World Sport

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya with Keralite Christian family near German clinic, rent KD 55 (Christian visiting couples only).

Contact: 97145592. (C 3909) 13-3-2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines JZR PIA JZR JZR ETH THY UAE DHX QTR FDB ETD GFA RBG THY DHX FCX JZR JZR BAW KAC AFR KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD FDB BAB GFA FCX IRA KNE JZR RBG IRM MEA MSR JZR UAL CLX GFA SYR FDB KAC IRC QTR KNE SVA RJA ABY JZR KAC JZR QTR JZR JZR IYE ETD UAE KAC GFA SVA ABY JZR ALK JZR FDB KAC KAC JZR KAC BAB KAC KAC AIC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC JAI OMA AXB DHX GRF MEA GFA QTR UAE JZR UAL SAI JZR DLH

Arrival Flights on Wednesday 14/3/2012 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 205 LAHORE 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 620 ADDIS ABABA 772 ISTANBUL 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 148 DOHA 67 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 211 BAHRAIN 3965 LUXOR 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 201 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 529 ASSIUT 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 6702 PARIS 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 301 ABU DHABI 55 DUBAI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 203 DUBAI 603 SHIRAZ 839 JEDDAH 165 DUBAI 3553 ALEXANDRIA 5066 MASHAD 404 BEIRUT 610 CAIRO 201 DAMASCUS 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 792 LUXEMBOURG 219 BAHRAIN 341 DAMASCUS 57 DUBAI 790 MEDINAH 6791 MASHAD 140 DOHA 745 JEDDAH 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 123 SHARJAH 257 BEIRUT 546 ALEXANDRIA 213 DEIREZZOR 134 DOHA 561 SOHAG 1535 CAIRO 824 SANAA 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 550 SHARM EL SHEIKH 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 127 SHARJAH 777 JEDDAH 227 COLOMBO 177 DUBAI 63 DUBAI 542 CAIRO 618 DOHA 787 RIYADH 786 JEDDAH 438 BAHRAIN 614 BAHRAIN 674 DUBAI 975 CHENNAI 166 PARIS 102 NEW YORK 774 RIYADH 61 DUBAI 1786 JEDDAH 572 MUMBAI 647 MUSCAT 393 KOZHIKODE 372 BAHRAIN 81 BAGHDAD 402 BEIRUT 217 BAHRAIN 136 DOHA 859 DUBAI 135 BAHRAIN 981 BAHRAIN 441 LAHORE 239 AMMAN 636 FRANKFURT

Time 0:20 0:25 0:45 0:50 1:45 2:15 2:35 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 4:40 4:50 5:15 5:30 6:00 6:20 6:40 6:45 7:00 7:40 7:45 7:50 7:50 7:55 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:05 9:15 9:20 9:40 9:55 10:30 10:40 11:05 11:20 11:35 11:50 11:55 12:55 13:00 13:05 13:15 13:25 13:45 13:50 14:00 14:20 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:40 14:45 15:00 15:20 15:20 15:25 16:10 16:25 16:35 16:50 16:55 17:10 17:15 17:20 17:40 17:45 18:10 18:15 18:40 18:50 18:55 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:30 19:35 19:40 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:40 21:00 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:35 21:40 21:55 22:00 22:40 22:45 23:50

Airlines AXB BBC AIC DLH PIA ETH THY GRF FDB UAE DHX ETD RBG QTR THY JZR GFA JZR FDB KAC BAW AFR JZR JZR KAC KAC JZR JZR UAE ABY ETD KAC FDB QTR BAB KAC GFA IRA FCX KNE KAC JZR RBG KAC MEA IRM KAC JZR MSR KAC GFA UAL FDB SYR CLX KAC KNE IRC ABY RJA KAC SVA JZR KAC KAC QTR JZR QTR IYE ETD JZR UAE GFA ABY KAC SVA JZR JZR ALK FDB JZR BAB KAC KAC FDB KAC DHX KAC JAI OMA KAC DHX MEA GFA KAC FCX QTR KAC JZR UAE KAC JZR KAC UAL SAI

Departure Flights on Wednesday 14/3/2012 Flt Route 390 KOZHIKODE 44 DHAKA 982 AHMEDABAD 637 FRANKFURT 206 LAHORE 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 94 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 3556 ALEXANDRIA 149 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 54 DUBAI 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 6702 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 1534 CAIRO 549 SHARM EL SHEIKH 789 MADINAH 560 SOHAG 212 DEIREZZOR 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 302 ABU DHABI 117 NEW YORK 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 437 BAHRAIN 177 FRANKFURT 214 BAHRAIN 602 SHIRAZ 204 DUBAI 840 MADINAH 541 CAIRO 776 JEDDAH 3554 ALEXANDRIA 103 LONDON 405 BEIRUT 5065 MASHHAD 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 1785 JEDDAH 220 BAHRAIN 982 BAHRAIN 58 DUBAI 342 DAMASCUS 792 GIALAM 673 DUBAI 746 JEDDAH 6792 MASHHAD 124 SHARJAH 641 AMMAN 617 DOHA 503 MADINAH 786 RIYADH 613 BAHRAIN 773 RIYADH 141 DOHA 238 AMMAN 135 DOHA 824 SANAA 304 ABU DHABI 538 CAIRO 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 153 ISTANBUL 511 RIYADH 266 BEIRUT 134 BAHRAIN 228 DUBAI 64 DUBAI 184 DUBAI 439 BAHRAIN 283 DHAKA 361 COLOMBO 62 DUBAI 331 TRIVANDRUM 171 BAHRAIN 351 KOCHI 571 MUMBAI 648 MUSCAT 543 CAIRO 373 BAHRAIN 403 BEIRUT 218 BAHRAIN 381 DELHI 102 BAHRAIN 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 554 ALEXANDRIA 860 DUBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 502 LUXOR 415 KUALA LUMPUR 981 WASHINGTON DC 442 LAHORE

Time 0:05 1:00 1:05 1:20 1:25 2:45 3:15 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:00 5:20 5:40 5:50 6:55 7:00 7:30 8:25 8:30 8:40 8:45 9:00 9:15 9:15 9:25 9:30 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:25 10:35 10:40 11:40 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:15 12:15 12:30 12:55 13:20 13:40 13:50 13:55 14:05 14:20 14:25 14:35 14:45 14:45 15:05 15:10 15:20 15:25 15:35 15:40 15:45 15:50 16:20 16:25 16:30 17:15 17:25 17:35 17:35 17:40 18:10 18:15 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:45 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:55 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:40 21:00 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:45 22:50 23:00 23:35 23:45 23:45 23:50

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

Accommodation available in Abbassiya double bedroom flat, two bachelors accommodation available April 1st, rent KD 40.

Contact: 99162583.

(C 3900) Sharing accommodation in Farwaniya near Gulf Mart, big room for bachelor or couple, Filipino only, available April 21. Contact: 94418396.

10-3-2012

FOR SALE Toyota Prado 2006, golden color, 6 clr, 4 doors, km 101000. Price KD 5250.

Mob: 66729295. (C 3908) 13-3-2012 VW Tiguan (car) 2010, exterior white, interior black / Tan manual gear, in great condition, 22000 mph, under Kuwait warranty. Price KD 4900. Contact: 66663494. (C 3907) Mitsubishi Pajero 2003, baige color, GLX, 1,35000 km, 2 doors, 6 cyl, (one owner, company maintained). Contact: 66133001.

12-3-2012 Lady driven Land Rover model 1996, passing up to Nov 2012, available for sale, KD 550. Contact: 97358878.

(C 3905) 11-3-2012 Mitsubishi Colt model 1993, white color, good condition. Insurance till 25th Jan. 2013. Price KD 250. Contact: 99322585/ 99337034. (C 3899) 8-3-2012

SITUATION WANTED Female, MBA, with total 8 years experience (3 years, in Kuwait). Specialized in all areas of HR/Admin functions of big companies.

Looking for suitable post.

Contact: 94062123. (C 3902) 10-3-2012

MATRIMONIAL Alliance sought for Brahmin boy aged 28, decently employed in Kuwait, from parents of girls preferably employed in Kuwait. Please contact: nagan21@gmail.com 11-3-2012 Proposals invited for a Keralite Marthoma girl 24/154, BBA, working in India (Baroda), seeks alliance from God fearing, well-educated employed boys (Kuwait/ India). Email: sunilvgs73@gmail.com (C 3898) 7-3-2012 An Indian man from Kokan (Ratnagiri) wants to marry an Indian lady (40-45 years) preferably from Kokan (Ratnagiri), Muslim, educated, (divorced or widow alone). Contact: P.O. Box 41529, Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Kuwait 85856. Email: mohd_younas59@yahoo.com (C 3895) 6-3-2012

SITUATION VACANT A Kuwaiti family looks to hire experienced driver and cook. Contact: 97691119.

(C 3911) Housemaid wanted for an Indian doctor family in Kuwait City. Call 55003696 / 55003699. (C 3912) 14-3-2012

LOST Lost Indian Passport No. Z1959053, finder please call 99866856 or Indian Embassy 22530600, will be rewarded.

(C 3901) 10-3-2012

CHANGE OF NAME I, Kandli Qadar Shaikh Ahmed, Indian Passport No: E5351994, hereby change my name to Kadar Ahmed Kundlik. (C 3906) 11-3-2012

TUITION Math teacher for secondar y stage, language schools, bi-lingual schools and intermediate stage: Algebra, Gmath, Geometry, Statistics for arts and science branches. Tel: 66974020.

English language teacher specialized in starting elementary and intermediate, 10th and 11th experienced in starting functions, grammar, set book, vocabulary, notes and model exams available. Tel: 65791555.

Female Syrian Arabic language teacher for elementary and intermediate, and starting the weak using Halaby method in her house located in Abdallah Al-Mubarak area. Tel: 50513699.

Senior biology and science teacher for 12th, 11th and 10th grades, and science for all intermediate classes, religious institutes, nursing, educational experience, simple explanation for fast understanding. Tel: 66543474.

Arabic language teacher, masters in methods of teaching for secondary and intermediate students. Tel: 50644685.

Senior Arabic language teacher, elementary and intermediate, long experience in Kuwait curricula, explaining grammar rules and starting those weak in reading and writing. Tel: 99262948.

Senior chemistr y and physics teacher. Long experience for 10th, 11th and 12th stages.

Intermediate science and applied institutions. Highly competent. Tel: 99542922.

Mathematics and statistics female teacher for female students in the secondary, intermediate, university and applied institutions female students. Tel: 99410370.

Senior Arabic language and Islamic studies teacher to help weak and slow learning students in a short time. 20 years experience, teaching all elementary subjects excep E. Arabic and Islamic studies for elementary and intermediate.

Tel: 66896088.

Senior mathematics and statistics teacher. Long

No: 15387

experience in Kuwait curricula to teach secondary students both science and arts branches, and university admission exams. Tel: 97975096.

Senior chemistry teacher for secondary students and science for intermediate. All reviews and exams, and university qualification chemistry. Tel: 99560268.

Female senior mathematics teacher, 35 years experience in Kuwait for secondary, intermediate and elementary stages, applied, initial university, communications and navigation and special courses. Tel: 97926737.

Elementary stage teacher, 12 years experience, ready to give remedial lessons for all topics in the elementary stage in a simple method.

Tel: 66594901.

FOR RENT

Flat in South Surra, 3 bedrooms, 2 of which are master + living room + kitchen + maid room, new, super deluxe. Tel: 97864628.

For rent, commercial flat in Hawally, can be used as workshop, large area. No middle men. Parking. Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Bneid Al-Gar, 2 rooms + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + Gym + swimming pool overlooking the sea, central satellite + internet. For families, no middle men.

Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Salmiya 3 bedroom + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + central satellite + internet. 4x4 rooms, 4x8 living room for expatriates only. Rent KD 330. No middle men. Tel: 66043961.

Flat in Salmiya 2 rooms + 2 bathrooms + living room + kitchen + central satellite + internet. Families only, no middle men. Tel: 66043961.

A commercial floor in Salmiya. Close to Blajat. Car parking. No middle men.

Tel: 66043961.

First floor in Shuhada, 4

rooms + living room + 5 bathrooms + maid room + balcony. Must be small family. Tel: 60308586.

Flat in Zahra, 2 rooms + living room + kitchen + 3 bathrooms + laundry room + maid room. Tel: 60308586.

A floor in Zahra, 4 rooms + living room + kitchen + 3 bathrooms, second floor, elevator. Must be small family. Tel: 99719887.

Flat in west Jleeb, 3 rooms + living room + kitchen + 2 bathrooms first floor. No elevator. Must be newlyweds or one child only.

Tel:99719887.

Flat in Salam, 3 rooms + living room + kitchen + 3 bathrooms + maid room.

Must be newlyweds or two children only. 60308586.

First floor in Rumaithiya. 4 rooms + living room + kitchen + maid room + 6 bathrooms. Super deluxe.

Must be foreigners and expats only. Tel: 60308586, 99719887.

Large first floor with the roof in Firdous. No middle men. Tel: 99490502.

Fully furnished flat in Mahboula 2 rooms + 2 baths + living room + Gym + DSL, Satellite + full sea view. Rent starts from KD 450. Tel: 66060822.

Furished flat in a Salmiya resort 3 rooms + maid room + garden + swimming pool + children play room + DSL. Sea view + hotel service + car parking. Rent KD 800.

Tel: 66060299.

For rent or investment, medical clinics in Salmiya.

Good location licensed and unlicensed. No brokers. Tel: 66060299.

Flat in Salmiya, 3 bedrooms (2 master) + maid room + 3 bathrooms + 2 balconies + sea view + Gym. No brokers. Rent KD 550. Tel: 66060299.

Commercial floor in Salmiya, main street, sea view, good location. Can be used for saloon, clinics, lawyer office. Rent KD 1650.

Tel: 66297171.

34

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

stars CROSSWORD 616

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) Your personality is magnetic and could be passed very easily to other people today. You will be highly successful, particularly if you are involved in sales, teaching, persuasion issues or any other activity that puts you in the position of being persuasive. Allow your positive energy to work through you now. Your instinctive orientation at this time is toward getting down to the basics and eliminating any negative vibrations. Emotions today, as well as the feelings of those around you may be clear; if solutions are needed, they will be available. If you are not entertaining this evening, you will most certainly find yourself being put to good use by your friends. Begin your evening with laughter—it is likely to continue.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Some indecision today can get in the way of smooth and immediate progress in the workplace. Perhaps there is a sense of challenge or blockage. You will, however, be able to grasp a problem so that you can find any needed changes. You are able to communicate the desired results in order to profit from a difficult project. You are able to cut through the red tape and get at what is beneath and behind. Ambitious schemes and the pursuit of success and status take on a high priority now. This brings a focus on the practical, the successful and the pragmatic—whatever it takes to get you ahead in the long run. You may decide to cook at the evening meal. Romance and such creative pursuits as hobbies may be outlets for much of your energy tonight.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS

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

4. Affect with wonder.

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

13. (informal) Of the highest quality.

14. (neurology) Of or relating to the vagus nerve.

15. God of the Underworld.

16. Title for the former hereditary monarch of Iran.

18. An aromatic ointment used in antiquity.

19. A recurring sleep state during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming does not occur.

20. A person of Polish descent.

22. A public promotion of some product or service.

25. African antelopes.

29. Edible viscera of a butchered animal.

33. A slight amount or degree of difference.

34. A pass between mountain peaks.

35. (prosody) Of or consisting of iambs.

36. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

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

40. An honorary law degree.

41. Black honeycreepers with yellow feathers around the tail.

42. Singing jazz.

44. A doctor's degree in religion.

46. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

49. The vein in the center of a leaf.

53. Widely distributed lichens usually having a grayish or yellow pendulous freely branched thallus.

56. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

57. A genus of Ploceidae.

60. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

61. Hormones (estrogen and progestin) are given to postmenopausal women.

62. Bearded reddish sheep of southern Asia.

63. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

64. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

65. An ancient upright stone slab bearing markings.

66. A small cake leavened with yeast.

DOWN 1. A short labored intake of breath with the mouth open.

2. The persistence of a sound after its source has stopped.

3. (archaic or Scottish) Faithful and true.

4. The eleventh month of the civil year.

5. A town in southern Minnesota.

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

7. (Middle East) An ornamental metal cup-shaped holder for a hot coffee cup.

8. Late time of life.

9. A syntactic string that forms a part of some larger syntactic unit.

10. The work of caring for or attending to someone or something.

11. A primeval personification of air and breath.

12. Informal terms for a (young) woman.

17. German chemist who was co-discoverer with Lise Meitner of nuclear fission (1879-1968).

21. (Greek mythology) Daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

23. The basic unit of money in Gambia.

24. The 3 goddesses of fate or destiny.

26. Fallow deer.

27. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

28. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

30. (usually followed by `to') Having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something.

32. An honorary degree in science.

37. A blind god.

39. (zoology) Lacking a tail or taillike appendage.

40. Late time of life.

43. The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet.

45. Type genus of the Dipodidae.

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

48. Molten rock in the earth's crust.

50. A United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments.

51. The specified day of the month.

52. A member of the British order of honor.

54. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

55. A quantity of no importance.

58. Small cubes with 1 to 6 spots on the faces.

59. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You are at your most practical when it comes to dealing and working with others. Whatever you want within the business realm is yours for the asking. You are in a planning mood and are very clearheaded and able to view all the alternate paths. Go ahead and make those decisions. You can see the road ahead and will make the right choices. You can appreciate feelings and movement. You may want to just get out and walk or exercise this afternoon. You may have just enough time to tend to some sort of personal business—afterward, friends want your attention. Close relationships take on more emotional depth, power and importance. Feeling cared for and needed is important; the lack of these things can cause uneasiness.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

This is a great time to be with others and to work together. You may be sought after as just the person for a particular job. Your management and directional abilities are in high focus. By late afternoon you will be receiving praises and rewards for the result of your hard work. You may be giving a lecture, finishing a creative project or baking a cake. Whatever you do now will have rave reviews from your efforts. Friends this evening may unconsciously bring to bear an old issue you thought had disintegrated. Take a look at the things that move or twist your emotions the most and you may shed some light on what is really behind some longterm issue. This evening you may enjoy a good movie or book or feel like escaping from day-to-day realities.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Reach beyond your norm and make every effort to finish what you begin. Your personal popularity is on the upswing. Whatever you are doing to achieve, keep it going—it is working to your advantage! Be aware that someone is interested in giving you money or backing you in some project you want to push forward. In everything you do, create a balance with the other parts of your life; make sure your energies match the things you strive to achieve. You are credited for your ability to make practical decisions and you may be chosen to lead a group. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have a special time with someone you love this evening. Good feelings and a sense of support make this a good day.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Organizing and administering people and projects may seem to be taking over your life just now. People seem to need your guidance at work and at home. It is ideas that count for you now and with your creative tendencies you will be able to find the trigger that will help motivate others into great achievements. The new and the unusual are the things that instinctively appeal to you at this time. This evening you must put work behind you—relax and enjoy doing things for yourself and your family. Charitable work and meditation offer you favorable growth opportunities all the time so do not forget this option. When life becomes a bit stressful, meditation will have a way of helping you maintain a focus and a light heart.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

You may feel particularly independent today. However, teamwork and the understanding of others are your best guarantee for peaceful negotiations at work and at home. There is not only financial growth during the next few days, but also an increase in feelings of intimacy and closeness in your personal relationships. You take the opportunity today to show your gratitude and appreciation for others who share your life. You are entering a phase of emotional directness. There is a heightened interest in health and diet, as well as an urge to get things organized into a rational system. There is much mental busywork. While you hate to waste time, do not go overboard—all work and no play can make Jack or Jackie, a dull person!

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Higher education as well as the knowledge of business trends will help you in your quest to get ahead professionally. You appreciate your responsibilities and duty. Rather than being perceived as obstacles, problems just now are valued for the lessons they represent. This is a good day to get things done. Good concentration and creative knowledge bring wonderful results. A belief in your own abilities makes almost any task run well. You can really get your thoughts and ideas across—good communication; you could teach. Your advice is important and others look to you for answers in professional as well as personal issues. You are able to cut through the stories, get to the real problem and find solutions. It would be good to go outside some today; get fresh air.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) This is a great time to be with others in play or work. Your ability to manage and direct yourself and others is now finetuned and you are ready for some type of management position. You should find this a calm day with everything running smoothly. Working with—rather than against—the flow should be easy to do at this time. This afternoon you concentrate on becoming even more organized. Health and work goals take on greater importance for you. You are at the end of a major cycle in your life and could be facing dramatic changes while still clinging onto past memories. Faith and love will steer you through any changes and you guide others as well. Consider the art of story writing; a poem would be a fine beginning.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Focus is the secret word today. Put your mind to work and take care of any details that you may have put aside earlier. When you sense that you are getting out of focus, take a break. You can accomplish much if you channel the aggressive energy that is present today. Walk during your breaks. Your creative side could be best utilized through writing just now. You might consider writing children’s stories or short stories to get you started with this endeavor. The ultimate mysteries of life and death take on greater importance now. Sex and healing are manifestations that play a bigger role in your life. This is a good time to exchange ideas and find new ways to invest. Travel can enhance your love life—why not think about some travel this weekend?

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Today is a great time to be with others and to work together.

You may be sought after as just the person for a particular job. Your management and directional abilities are in high focus. Being on the go and keeping a finger to the winds of change make you feel in touch—learning and communicating. You could come up with new solutions or inventions today. It would not be unusual to come face-to-face now with someone who has very different values than you—especially if you are working with the public. You could find yourself cast in an opposing position and this might require you to express yourself without becoming aggressive in order to make your point. You will enjoy some meaningful time with young people this evening.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Ambition and achievement may be some of your tougher goals at this time. You win reward, recognition and authority through hard work and knowing the score; otherwise, you may find that someone hungrier will surpass you. Progressive people and idealistic groups or concepts play an important role in your life. You are coming to a time of experimenting with new concepts. Your friends and co-workers may discuss local businesses and citizen projects this evening.

Becoming involved in neighborhood projects is a good thing and will help you as well as the neighborhood. Consider ideas for a flower show or some improvement plan with as many people as possible. The best reason for the project is a good environment and better salability on the homes.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

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

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

lifestyle G O S S I P

Jay-Z brings the hype to South By Southwest ay-Z may have 99 problems, but getting to the venue isn’t one. The rapper brought the beat to South By Southwest, but not before he needed a police escort to make it from the airport to the show, which started 40

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minutes late. Jay-Z played a hits-filled set for a standing room-only crowd after flying in late Monday afternoon. He was on the town with his wife, Beyonce, in New York City the night before to see fellow SXSW participant The-

Dream, perhaps explaining his late arrival in Texas. The show at the Austin City Limits Live venue marked the end of South By Southwest’s interactive conference and an unofficial start to South By Southwest’s music conference, which gets under way yesterday.

The 80-minute show, to promote American Express’ new partnership with Twitter and streamed live online, was packed with Hova’s hits, including “99 Problems,” “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “Empire State of Mind” and “Glory,” his ode to Blue Ivy Carter, the 2-month-old daughter he has with Beyonce. “I’m feeling a lot of love in this building,” Jay-Z said. “I’m feeling a lot of love in this city today. I’m feeling a lot of love in this city tonight.” Hova’s appearance was fitting in a year when rap appears to be a main draw at South By Southwest. Little Wayne, Nas, T.I., B.o.B. and many others also have shows scheduled in Austin this week. JayZ, wearing a cap with a polka-dot brim, his trademark sunglasses and a sparkling gold chain, led the crowd in several rap-a-longs and kept everyone on their feet. Fans lined up for entrance more than two hours before show time. “You had a beautiful time and I had a beautiful time,” Jay-Z said to the crowd. “That means every single person in this building from the front to the top, front to the top, everybody, everybody, everybody, scream.”

‘Suge’ Knight lawyer gets new date in Vegas case A lawyer for rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight is working on a plea deal with a Las Vegas city prosecutor on unpaid tickets that led to Knight’s arrest last month on traffic warrants.

The 46-year-old former Death Row Records executive didn’t appear Monday in Las Vegas Municipal Court while attorney Richard Schonfeld got a new court date March 19. Knight was arrested Feb. 8 in Las Vegas on warrants issued after police say he failed to appear on tickets issued in November 2008. Knight also was accused of possessing less than one ounce of a controlled substance on a report that marijuana was found in the car. No charge was immediately filed in the marijuana case. That’s scheduled for June in another court.

Mystery witness emerges in ‘Housewives’ trial A

judge wants to talk to a “Desperate Housewives” worker who claims he mistakenly received an email suggesting a cover-up of information about Nicollette Sheridan’s firing from the show. The man called Sheridan’s attorney Sunday afternoon stating he was a low-level employee on the series, but received an email indicating messages about Sheridan’s departure from the show would be purged. The message was left as Sheridan’s wrongful termination trial draws to a close, with closing arguments expected on Tuesday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White ordered the man to appear in court Tuesday to determine whether he should be allowed to testify. Sheridan’s attorney Mark Baute has claimed “Housewives” creator Marc Cherry and others conspired to hide info about when they decided to kill off the actress’ role.

Nicki Minaj is writing two books

Minnelli not taken by lavish lifestyle iza Minnelli finds it “weird” that so many of her showbiz friends have died. The legendary singer-and-actress was shown a picture of herself with late pals Whitney Houston, Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson by talk show host Rosie O’Donnell and she admitted she finds it strange that she is the only person in the photograph that is still alive. She said: “It’s weird, It’s really weird.” Elizabeth died last year aged 79 of heart failure, while Michael died in 2009 of acute Propofol intoxication aged 50. Whitney passed away in February aged 48, after allegedly ingesting prescription drugs and alcohol. Liza - daughter of Hollywood star Judy Garland - added she always felt different from her friends as she was never into “the pomp and the circumstance” of a lavish lifestyle that wealth and fame made possible. She added: “I’d seen all that when I was little. What impressed me was people who were funny and talented and adored life. And that’s what I wanted to be like.”

Liza, 66, also talked about her unusual upbringing as the daughter of superstar Judy, who was married five times and had problems with alcohol and financial instability. Speaking on ‘The Rosie Show’ - set to air in the US tonight - she added: “Mamma always kept us with her, she gave us a choice me, my brother and sister, she said, ‘You should have a normal life, and you can. Or you can come with me and we’ll do the best we can.’ We all said, ‘We’re with you.’ “ Liza admitted Judy was never a strict mother but she insists she did well at school. Asked if Judy had pressured her to do well academically, Liza replied: “No and also I didn’t talk about it very much, but I got good grades in certain things, like English and History and Theatre.”

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im Kardashian’s sister thinks she and Kanye West would make a great couple. The socialite - who filed for divorce from husband Kris Humphries after just 72 days of marriage last October - has previously been romantically linked with the rapper and though Khloe Kardashian insists the pair have never dated, she thinks they would be able to find lasting love together.

Speaking on DJ Sway’s Shade 45 radio show last week, she said, “They were talking and trying to go on a date here and there, but it just didn’t work out. “I know they hung out, but I know it’s never gotten to there ... I genuinely think that because we have so much in common - like our families, losing parents and we do have a lot of connections - I think that if they were to go there, it would be a long relationship.” Earlier this month, Kim sat front row at Kanye’s Paris Fashion Week show. The 31-year-old beauty enjoyed a upclose view of his second collection in the French capital, which featured large amounts of fur, leather and sleek, dark eyes. He also used crocodile skin and fox fur bags.

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Bono helps Courtney to move into apartment B ono wrote a character reference for Courtney Love so she could move into her new apartment. The Hole singer - who moved out of her New York townhouse last month despite winning a long-running legal battle with her former landlord - is now living in a rented condominium in the Nolita district of Manhattan, thanks to a glowing report from the U2 frontman. She told the New York Daily News newspaper: “They didn’t even credit-check. They chose Bono [from my character references]. And he wrote me a paragraph.” And Courtney - widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain - says she will keeping the noise down at her new home after finding out one of the neighbours was pregnant. She said: ‘It’s all good now. I didn’t know! I don’t do noise complaints.” In January, a court case against Courtney claiming she owes back rent on her New York home was dropped. The mother-of-one had been renting a $27,000-a-month townhouse on West 10th Street

for 11 months, and while owner Donna Lyon had alleged in court that she owes $54,000 in rent, Judge Jean Schneider of New York County Housing Court threw out the claim. Judge Schneider ruled that Ms. Lyon had improperly relied on outdated lease provisions. Courtney’s lawyer, Eric Sherman, said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision. The judge decided there was no non in the nonpayment. She has always paid her rent on time, in fact sometimes in advance of when it was due.” —Bang Showbiz

Pattinson can’t compete with Lautner

Kardashian’s sister wants her to date Kanye

he ‘Super Bass’ hitmaker - who already has her own nail polish range, a shade of M.A.C. lipstick and is planning a fashion line - is to turn her hand to a new venture and has revealed to fans she now wants to add author to her resume.

Asked if she would ever consider writing a book, she tweeted: “Wrkng on 2 books actually...(sic)” Nicki has admitted she has set her sights on expanding her career beyond music to create an “empire” that would rival hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, who is involved with a number of ventures, including a basketball team, clothing line and nightclubs. She told Allure magazine: “I never thought about music as just being the end-all, be-all. I always looked at it like a business, something that I could create an empire out of. So that’s why I’m only about to put out my second album and I’m already thinking about this. “I had a little conversation with Jay-Z at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. He said, ‘Congratulations on all your success.’

obert Pattinson would have to make a “lifestyle change” if he wanted to do shirtless acting. The British hunk is often asked to do scenes without his top on when he is filming but says he doesn’t have the requisite muscles like his ‘ Twilight Saga’ co-star Taylor Lautner and would need to put in some serious effort to get the actor’s impressive six-pack.

He told Reveal magazine: “I’d have to make a lifestyle change if I wanted to do shirtless acting. But it seems like every single actor in the world is going a ‘Taylor Lautner’ scene it’s crazy. They have a scene where they walk out with like a 12pack. It’s like, ‘Really? You’re playing a normal guy! That doesn’t make any sense.’ But that’s a prerequisite of being an actor. Or you can get fat!” Robert also revealed he and girlfriend and costar Kristen Stewart passed the time on the epic shoot of ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2’ by training their dog Bear. He said: “We got a dog when we were filming ‘Breaking Dawn’ as there was a lot of waiting around. We were in Louisiana, so we spent time training him there.”

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

lifestyle M U S I C

B

M O V I E S

Rushdie to visit India after death threats

ritish author Salman Rushdie is to speak at a conference in India on Friday, organizers have announced, two months after death threats forced him to pull out of a literature festival in the country. Rushdie, whose 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” is still banned in India for allegedly blaspheming Muslims, is due to address the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on Friday afternoon, event officials said. The author withdrew from the Jaipur Literature Festival in January after Islamic hardliners threatened to disrupt the gathering and police told him assassins from the Mumbai underworld were plotting to kill him.

The 64-year-old writer, who was born in Mumbai, spent a decade in hiding after Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa

in 1989 calling for his death over “The Satanic Verses”. According to the conference website, Rushdie’s one-hour appearance on Friday will be titled “The Liberty Verses-I am What I am and That’s All That I am”. “I can confirm Mr. Rushdie will be attending in person,” an event official told AFP yesterday, declining to give her name. After Rushdie was forced to abandon his trip to Jaipur, he vented his fury against radical Muslim activists and the Indian politicians who had failed to stand up to them. “I will come to India many times, as I choose, to do what I will, and I will not allow these religious gangsters and their cronies in the government to prevent me,” he said in a television interview from London. Rushdie, who won the Booker prize for his 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children”, suggested police

Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys performing at Madison Square Garden on Monday in New York.

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claims of an underworld plot may have been invented to prevent him attending the festival and to avoid antagonizing radical Muslims. He said he suspected the protests were connected to state elections in Uttar Pradesh, where about 18 percent of the population is Muslim. The elections have now been completed.

Muslim groups behind the campaign in Jaipur were not immediately available to comment on Rushdie’s planned appearance, but they have previously called for him to be banned from visiting India. Pakistan cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor and US former diplomat Henry Kissinger are also due to speak during the two-day event at the luxury Taj Palace hotel. — AFP

File photo shows Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie as he arrives to dedicate his book in Hungarian language at the Libri bookshop of Mammut Plaza in Budapest. — AFP

Drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. — AP photos

Black Keys rock Madison Square Garden like pros

here were few flashing lights, the backdrop wasn’t overloaded with visuals or videos, and the band rarely spoke, if it wasn’t in song. The Black Keys are rock stars, and their traditional rock sound electrified Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

The duo performed more than 20 songs in a 90-minute show that was exhilarating, bluesy

and loud. Singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach was top-notch throughout, especially on “Same Old Thing,” “Run Right Back” and “I’ll Be Your Man.” The petite, bearded musician was a monster on the guitar, playing it like a mad man on “Little Black Submarines” and “Lonely Boy,” which got the crowd dancing, swaying and jumping around like mad men (and

women, too.)

Drummer Patrick Carney was just as good, rocking away as the duo was backed by a bass player and another guitarist, who also played keys. English rockers Arctic Monkeys opened up for The Black Keys, setting the tone for the night. The Ohio-based Black Keys have released seven albums since 2002, and

they finally struck gold with their last two efforts, 2010’s “Brothers” and “El Camino,” released in December. They’ve collaborated with Danger Mouse and Mos Def, and last year won three Grammy Awards. “ We’re thrilled to be playing at the Garden,” Auerbach said. “Pretty mind-blowing. Thanks for sharing that with us.” The oddest part of

the night was when disco balls appeared onstage and at the center of the venue before the duo’s encore. Returning, they performed “Everlasting Light,” where they sounded vintage thanks to its simple drum beat and Auerbach’s high pitch tone. The lights were bright, but the musicians still remained at the core of it all. — AP

‘Hunger Games’ fans devour film’s world premiere

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American musician Matthew Dear performs at the Ford and Kick Kick Snare Emerging Artist Showcase and Escape Lounge on Monday. — AP

Streep as Clinton?

Tribute gets people talking M

eryl Streep is fresh off her Oscar win for playing Margaret Thatcher. But she had an entire theater at Lincoln Center wondering if an even better role for her would be a political icon closer to home: Hillary Rodham Clinton. The question arose as Streep paid a glowing and affectionate tribute to the secretary of state at the Women in the World summit, an annual gathering of prominent women leaders and unsung heroines from across the globe that closed over the weekend.

“This is what you get when you play a world leader,” Streep said Saturday, hoisting up her best-actress Oscar for “The Iron Lady.”

“But if you want a real world leader,” Streep continued, “THIS is what you get!” Clinton strolled onstage at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ David H. Koch Theater, and Streep enveloped her in a hug. The three-day summit, now in its third year, is organized by Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Besides Streep and Clinton, feminist icon Gloria Steinem and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Brown harnessed the star power of Angelina Jolie, who came to read the words of Dr Hawa Abdi, a Somali humanitarian facing danger from Islamist rebels there.

Also given star treatment was International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who delighted the delegates at dinner Thursday when she suggested that the financial crisis might have been averted, or at least been much less serious, if more women had been at the helm of financial institutions. “If Lehman Brothers had been a bit more Lehman Sisters ...

we would not have had the degree of tragedy that we had as a result of what happened,” Lagarde said. She added that recent studies have shown “what the level of testosterone in a given room can produce when you do trading.”

Many global problems were addressed by the dozens of panels attended by some 2,000 delegates each day. But a constant undercur-

Academy Award winning actress Meryl Streep waves during a press conference to promote “The Iron Lady” in Tokyo, Japan. —AP rent was an issue at home: the debate in Washington over women’s reproductive health care. Clinton and other speakers referred, obliquely and not, to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh’s insulting remarks about law student Sandra Fluke, who came under attack after she testified to congressional Democrats in support of their national health care policy that would compel her Catholic college’s health insurance plan to cover birth con-

trol. The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, of Liberia, was the most blunt, saying women had been too passive: “Where are the angry American women?” she asked.

From Liberia to Egypt: Panelists discussed whether the Arab Spring risked becoming an Arab Winter for women, who were central to the popular uprising but now fear being marginalized. “Tell people there is no spring without flowers and there is no Arab Spring without women,” said Dalia Ziada, Egypt director of the American Islamic Congress. Other popular lines of the weekend included the definition of “glass ceiling,” from Jane Harman, the former California Democratic congresswoman: “It’s actually a thick layer of men.” How do you puncture that layer? Kah Walla, a political leader from Cameroon, spoke of empowering women across Africa but added that in the United States, too, the level of female representation in politics was a serious issue. “Every woman here needs to be involved with getting a woman elected,” she said. The opposition leader in Israel, Tzipi Livni, of the Kadima Party, spoke about the nuclear threat from Iran. But she said she would not engage in what she called “megaphone diplomacy.” “Maybe that’s something men do,” she quipped. And Steinem had a good line - speaking on a panel about women leaders, moderated by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, she speculated on why some men feel uncomfortable with females in power. “The last time a lot of powerful guys saw a powerful woman, they were 8,” Steinem said. “They feel regressed to childhood by a powerful woman.” —AP

hen it comes to predicting the big- Team Gale - Katniss’ two prospects. “Hottest screen success of “ The Hunger thing since sliced bread: Peeta,” read one Games,” the fans have spoken. sign. “Gale ensnared my heart,” read anothActually, make that cheered. Hundreds of er. About 400 fans lined the black carpet fans who won tickets to Monday’s world where the film’s stars arrived and sat alongpremiere cheered for hours before any stars side them at the premiere. Hundreds more arrived, screamed when they did and kept lined up behind barricades across the street, the applause going right through the film. “I toting cameras and signs.

“The passion of these fans is unlike anythought it was amazing,” said Ruzena Zatko, 28, a fan of “The Hunger Games” books who thing I have ever been involved with,” said drove from Las Vegas and spent two nights’ Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie Trinket in camped out in front of the Nokia Theatre to the film. “For me the biggest star here is win passes to the premiere. “He stayed true Suzanne Collins, who wrote the books and is the creator of this entire universe, all this to the book.”

Based on the best-seller by Suzanne pandemonium.”

Director Gary Ross thanked the author Collins, “The Hunger Games” stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam from the stage before introducing the film’s Hemsworth as teens fighting for survival in stars, saying, “None of us would be here a government-controlled world that hosts without the wonderful, brilliant mind and annual televised games in which young par- imagination of Suzanne Collins.” Meanwhile, ticipants are forced to kill their opponents. as the premiere wrapped, Zatko prepared It opens in theaters March 23. Fans Ariel for the long drive back to Las Vegas. “We’re Pemberton and Amanda Shultz loved the totally sleep deprived,” she said. “But it was book so much they doubted the film could all worth it.” — AP match it, but they came away impressed with its look and feel.

Pemberton said it was “way more emotional” than the book, while Shultz enjoyed seeing Collins’ post-apocalyptic world come to life: “We all had different ideas what it looked like, so to see it was so cool.”

Box-office prognosticators say anticipation for “The Hunger Games” matches and may even surpass that for the “Twilight” movies. (The last “Twilight” film is due in the fall.) They predict “ The Hunger Games” could bring in more than $100 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend. Some have compared the two series. Each is aimed at young adults and features a female heroine with two potential suitors. But fans say the similarities end there. “This doesn’t focus on the love triangle,” said 22-year-old Stephanie Zatko, a “Twilight” fan whose sister-inlaw convinced her to check out “ The Hunger Games.” “She’s actually doing something. Bella just sits there.”

“Katniss is a stronger female,” said Alyssa Walker, 20, who read all three books in the series. “The guys are a thing, too, but she does her own thing.” Still, some in the crowd held homemade (From left) Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence and posters declaring themselves Liam Hemsworth arrive at the world premiere of “The members of Team Peeta or Hunger Games” on Monday in Los Angeles. — AP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

lifestyle T R A V E L

Relax, refresh and get healthy at

Florida’s Pritikin Center

The lounge area overlooking the pool, golf course and gardens at the Pritikin Longevity Center (plus) Spa.

By Amy Bertrand

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here I was, scooting awkwardly across the floor of the warmed pool, lifting my water weights high in the air, palm trees swaying in the background, when a woman next to me leaned in and whispered, “This place is a miracle. It’s changed my life.” Caroline Pinkus, 53, of London, wasn’t kidding. Nearing the end of her monthlong stay at the Pritikin Longevity Center + Spa, she was losing weight and feeling better, and more importantly had gone from taking five blood pressure pills a day to half a pill.

“I’d gone through life burying my head in the sand. I thought if I dressed nice and fixed my hair and my nails, I still looked good, but I was carrying this weight and I wasn’t healthy,” she said. “This place has reformed me.” Pritikin has been changing lives for nearly 40 years. In the 1970s, Nathan Pritikin was among the first to assert that diet and exercise, not drugs and

The omelet bar, with omelets made from egg substitute or egg whites. —MCT photos

The hummus dip made during cooking school.

surgery, should be the first line of defense against cardiovascular disease. He brought that philosophy to the first Pritikin Longevity Center, which opened in 1975 in California.

Today, the Pritikin Longevity Center + Spa calls Miami home.

About two years ago, it moved into the spa portion of the Doral Golf Resort. The resort itself includes a large spa, suites, meeting rooms, several pools, a fitness center, dining and golf. For most of us, part of enjoying a new city or country involves sampling local fare.

Often, we sample lots of it. But what if you actually lost weight on vacation? Pinkus did. In my three-day stay at Pritikin I lost three pounds, and my husband lost five (yes, much of it was water weight, but I didn’t feel bloated and disgusting on the airplane home as I normally do after a vacation).

Most of the people I talked with at Pritikin were on a return trip or an extended stay, and many said the reason for their trip was to become more healthy. Some were taking a week out of their busy schedules running companies; others brought their retired parents, hoping that the experience would inspire them to live healthier.

The environment, made safe by doctors, trainers, nutritionists and spa workers around every corner, is what draws many of them. “I feel safe, and not scared to do new things,” Pinkus told me. Other health vacations might have the spa, the food and the exercise, but Pritikin prides itself on the educational component. “We give you the tools you need to be successful after you’ve left here,” says Hubert Wewer, the general manager.

Indeed, the Pritikin program involves at least four one-hour classes a day, teaching everything from label reading to cooking to dealing with stress. Dietitians take you grocery shopping and even escort you to a Japanese steakhouse, so you know how to order. The Pritikin philosophy is built on three components: eating right, exercise and a healthy mind-body connection.

The eating right is often the hardest part, but it’s a simple philosophy. You eat healthful, satisfying foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nonfat dairy, soy and small portions of lean animal protein. You eliminate high-calorie foods that don’t fill you up (such as oils and fatty cheeses). It’s a matter of what’s called calorie density, how dense a food is with calories in relation to its weight.

For example, if you eat two pounds of something healthful such as tomatoes, you only take in about 160 calories. If you eat two pounds of

The rooms at the Marriott-owned spa. and more within three weeks (Archives of Internal Medicine).

Much of this success is achieved through individualized medical attention. On my second day there, I had a nearly one-hour meeting with a physician. When is the last time your doctor spent an hour with you? My husband had a nearly two-hour appointment with Frank Musumeci, biomechanical and musculoskeletal director.

Pritikin shares space with the Spa at Doral, which means Pritikin guests have unlimited access to the sauna, rainshower and hot and cold baths of the spa. It also means you are just

A group participates in an outdoor tai chi lesson. candy bars, you will have taken in at least 4,000 calories. Those 160 calories of tomatoes would make you feel much more full than 160 calories of a candy bar.

“Most diet and exercise programs fail because they ignore biological issues like hunger,” said Jay Kenney, nutritional research specialist and educator. “This isn’t rocket science. It’s nothing new. It’s common sense. And it makes a lot of sense.” The classes, in both the classroom and the cooking school, help you make sense of the program. But perhaps the biggest education comes in the dining room, where Pritikin serves three meals and two snacks a day.

You don’t get much meat; beans provide protein. You don’t drink your calories, which, at the resort means no alcohol and no caffeinated beverages. The diet features very little salt, which takes some getting used to, but by the second day, I wasn’t missing it.

Breakfast and lunch are buffets. Dinner is a sit-down meal, and you can order as much (or as little) as you want off either of two menus, one hard-core and the other with options to help you ease into the Pritikin plan. Some of my meals were more successful than others.

The crab cake made of a soy product was a miss; the scallops in a citrus sauce and the vegetable pasta were delicious.

Exercise is another large component of the program, and there’s lots to choose from.

When you arrive, you’ll be given a stress test to assess your fitness level. You’ll be put into col-

or-coded groups, and your workouts will be based on your heart rate. It’s important to note that most of the other guests I saw at Pritikin were probably over age 60; some in fabulous shape, some in not-so-fabulous shape. Trainers and health professionals are there to monitor you and make sure you don’t overdo it. Trainers are also there to make to your workouts harder.

My trainer, Brandicus Coleman, would even come by and crank up my machine for me.

How sweet. My day started at 7:30 am with a 45-minute cardio workout. I chose a treadmill, but you could do elliptical or bike. One day, we’d get in our heart rate training zone, the next we’d do interval training. Next, was a 45minute weight training or toning class, followed by an optional class. I tried yoga and aquatics; Zumba and tai chi are also available.

More than 100 studies in top medical journals have documented the results achieved by guests at Pritikin. Here are highlights: • Cholesterol and triglyceride levels fell 23 percent and 33 percent, respectively, after a three-week stay (Archives of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine).

• More than 70 percent of diabetics on medication left drug-free after a three-week stay (Diabetes Care).

• Nearly 60 percent of people with hypertension normalized blood pressure and left drug-free after a three-week stay (Journal of Applied Physiology).

• Overweight individuals lose 11 pounds

A group weight-lifting class. a short walk from a relaxing massage or a more intense facial treatment. Pritikin guests stay in either the luxurious suites adjacent to the main spa building or in nearby rooms that are part of the larger Marriott complex.

If you are only staying for one week, you won’t have a lot of downtime. In fact, I had to skip a lecture just to catch some rays at the pool (hey, I was in Miami in January!). But for those staying longer (Franceschelli said the average stay is just under two weeks) you could find time for golf, sunbathing, shopping and more. In fact, every night they show a movie at 8 or 8:30. But truthfully, by 8:30 I was wiped. A hot bath and warm bed beckoned me because I knew the next day, I had work to do. —MCT

NASCAR cars among new Myrtle Beach attractions F

ree falling from a 60-foot (18-meter) tower, slipping down an oceanfront zip line or fighting through a curve in a car once driven by a NASCAR great are among the new attractions that will greet visitors to Myrtle Beach during a new beach season. There are also improvements to one of the area’s most popular piers and, for a change of pace, a yearlong celebration marking the local art museum’s 15th anniversary. Myrtle Beach is located on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, a 60-mile (96-kilometer) reach of beaches along the state’s northeastern coast that attracts about 14 million visitors a year and is the heart of South Carolina’s $14 billion tourism industry, one of the largest industries in the state.

While the beach is the big attraction, many folks also find time to swing golf clubs at one of the area’s 102 courses. For those who like windmills in their fairways, there are also about 30 miniature golf courses. This year, one of the most visible changes is the zip line and free fall tower being built in the center of downtown on a vacant tract where the Myrtle Beach Pavilion amusement park stood for decades. The new Myrtle Beach Adrenaline Adventures attraction, opening in April, will allow daredevils to leave a platform 40 feet (12 meters) above the ground and, as they

look out over the gray-green Atlantic, zip 600 feet (183 meters) to another platform 20 feet (6 meters) lower.

“Zip lines are becoming very popular.

People just enjoy the fly,” said Shane Bull, an owner of Adrenaline Adventure Courses, which operates another zip line near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky The Myrtle

The Art Museum of Myrtle Beach, SC.

Beach attraction has another free fall jump in which patrons jump off a 60-foot (18 meter) platform and free fall until they are slowed in their harness near the ground.

Bull’s company plans a second zip line this one a course where customers can zip between four towers - on the south end of Myrtle Beach. He said it should be open by

Memorial Day. The NASCAR Racing Experience comes this year to the Myrtle Beach Speedway just across the Intracoastal Waterway from downtown.

Also opening next month, it will make it easier to get behind the wheel of a car that was once driven by a NASCAR driver like Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company offers its classroom training and track driving experience at 10 NASCAR tracks around the country. But because it now owns the Myrtle Beach track where NASCAR drivers drove decades ago, it will be more accessible to would-be stock car drivers. “If you come off the beach and you want to drive a race car, you can come up here,” said Bob Lutz, the president and CEO of the company. “We would like people to make reservations but we will accept walkups. In other locations like Charlotte, we fill up the experiences two or three months in advance. Here we will have a lot more flexibility.” Last year, about 70,000 people participated in the NASCAR Racing Experience at the other tracks. This year, in Myrtle Beach alone, Lutz expects 40,000. His company is planning several million dollars in upgrades to the track during the next three years and plans races and other events beyond the driving experience. About 75 percent of those who sign up for the expe-

rience are men. But the Myrtle Beach Speedway is in an ideal location with the Tanger Outlets complex just across the street, Lutz said.

Couples and families can split up and take their pick, with shoppers heading to the nearly 100 stores and thrill-seekers taking on the challenges of the speedway’s half-mile oval. For those wanting a more sedate beach experience, the Franklin Burroughs-Simeon Chapin Art Museum is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a year of events, including plans for an artthemed miniature golf course, collector’s events and runway fashion competitions.

The museum is located on the south end of Myrtle Beach in a beach house once owned by Elliot Springs of Springs Industries. Built in 1924 in the city’s north end, in 1984 it was moved 8 miles to its current location. It expanded and opened as an art museum 15 years ago. Just outside the museum is the popular Springmaid Pier, the longest pier in the city at more than 1,000 feet with sweeping views of the Myrtle Beach oceanfront. Both the pier and its restaurant, BARnacles, have recently undergone renovations. In downtown Myrtle Beach, the iconic Peaches Corner restaurant near the new zip line has undergone renovations and now features a new facade with a giant spinning peach. — AP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

lifestyle T R A V E L

Wedding Bluff at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego is a peaceful place for a small wedding.

Wedding officiant Grant Daversa shows one of the bouquets made for a bride for a beach wedding.

Sea of love:

San Diego’s inspirational vistas make it grand for a simple wedding T

he bride wore silk and sandals. The groom wore a tie and sneakers. The 20 guests stood. The music was the ocean. And in 15 minutes, it was all over.

Married. Elaine Mashburn, 29, and Mark Mezta, 28, of San Diego got hugs, congratulations and photos as their non denominational minister, the Rev Grant Daversa, packed up his little folding tray in the sand and headed for his next beach wedding that day. Why did Mashburn want to get married here, and so simply? “It’s pretty. It’s Coronado. It’s local,” she said, beaming and as radiant as any bride ever was. In the middle of winter, it is easy to dream about running away, eloping, or just getting married on a beach somewhere warm and beautiful.

But in San Diego County, it’s not that hard to make it come true. In California, there is no waiting period for a marriage license. You just make an appointment at

Elaine Mashburn, 29, and Mark Mezta, 28, hold hands during their small wedding ceremony on Central Beach in Coronado, California. — MCT

the county clerk’s office, get your license and, bingo, you are good to go. In addition, there are so many inspirational spots with grand views to host a simple wedding here, including San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs on the ocean and Cabrillo National Monument with its incredible vistas of San Diego Bay and the Pacific.“People come from all over the country and all over the world, and they want to get married in the sand,” says the Rev Renate Daversa, Grant Daversa’s wife and fellow minister. Ten years ago, the two of them eloped to Catalina Island, so they understand the romantic impulse, the grand gesture of the sweet small service.

“Our company is flexible,” she says. “We are

How to say I do Marriage licenses: Nonresidents can get immediate marriage licenses in California ($70), but in San Diego County, you must have an appointment at the county clerk’s office. Book up to two months in advance at 619-237-0502 (follow the prompts for marriage licenses). Details: http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us.

Locations Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego: Wedding permits on a sliding scale, up to 100 guests; for 1-10 people it’s $100 plus a $75 application fee. Weddings can be held 9 am -3:30 pm on Wedding Bluff near the lighthouse, with no chairs or set-up allowed (exceptions made for disabled guests).

However, regulations may soon be loosened, so contact Ranger Marty Lane (marty.lane@nps.gov) or see www.nps.gov/cabr for more information.

Coronado Central Beach, Coronado: No permit needed for groups of 24 or under, and you can set up chairs (regulations are under city review, so check to confirm on the parks and beaches page at www.coronado.ca.us or call 619-522-7342).

Luscombs Point, Sunset Cliffs, San Diego: Permit is $273 through San Diego Parks and Recreation Department. Check availability and information at www.sandiego.gov/park-andrecreation and search permits, or call 619-2351169 . You also can book permits for other county-owned shoreline parks here.

Wedding officiants: There are many. The Daversas can be reached through their website (www.abeautifulwedding.us). Others include Elope San Diego (www.elopesandiego.com) and Elope to San Diego (www.elopetosandiego.com).

last-minute specialists.” The company, A Beautiful Wedding, does weddings as simple as a service only ($300) or as complex as a beach wedding with chairs for 24 guests, music, a wedding arch and more ($1,950). In California, you need only one witness.Many couples, like Mashburn and Mezta, don’t want anything too fancy. Their $850 Memories package included the service, bouquet, boutonniere and photographer. San Diego has several wedding officiants who specialize in small beach, military and elopement weddings. Not to throw cold water on anyone’s romantic dreams, there is some controversy about beach weddings. In November, the Coronado City Council discussed whether too many weddings were disrupting traffic with trucks, guests and elaborate set-ups.

The issue is being studied. Right now, no permit is needed for weddings of 24 people or fewer. However, at the same time, the nearby Cabrillo National Monument across San Diego Bay is looking to expand its outdoor wedding business. The park allows

Sandals, the bride’s footwear for beach wedding in Coronado. some regulations to attract more weddings, says Ranger Marty Lane. Another famous wedding spot, Sunset Cliffs’ Luscombs Point in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood, is a broad stony plateau near Hill Street. On the flat stones jutting out into the ocean, there are three white benches. The coast turns to gold in late afternoon as the sun sets. The downside? Surfers use the spot to slide into the ocean, and there is a constant stream of runners, walkers, dogs on leashes and cars passing by.

Still, the charm of a simple wedding is that it does not have to be perfect. Back at Coronado Central Beach, the Saturday afternoon wedding of Mashburn and Metza happens to be on a warm, perfect day. The wedding party is small, dwarfed by sun worshipers pitching umbrellas, shouting children, women in bikinis and swimmers toting boogie boards.

But during the modest service, distractions fade. Here is the bride, walking through the sand on the arm of her father.

The lovely plateau of Luscombs Point along Sunset Cliffs in San Diego is an inspira- Here is the groom, taking her hand. Here tional spot to get married. are two people getting married, with their only daytime weddings, no more than 100 would be bad form for the bridal party to earnest faces speaking their heartfelt vows, their loved ones standing close by, their people, no chairs or set-up, and only at a blow over the edge.)

However, this spring, Cabrillo plans to warmth encircling the new husband and spot called Wedding Bluff, a breezy spot near the lighthouse. (“We don’t recommend expand hours, allow couples to shoot wed- wife on their path together. And you know, I hoop skirts,” warns Ranger Bob Munson-it ding photographs in the park, and loosen get a little teary. —MCT

DC’s cherry blossom tree tradition turns 100, events planned

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ashington, DC’s 100-year-old tradition of arboreal glory will hit peak bloom between March 24 and March 31. That’s the date the National Park Service has given for the annual cherry blossom display to be at its height. This is a centennial year for the trees. The first set arrived in 1910 but had to be destroyed because of pests. The second set, 3,020 trees of various varieties, are planted around the White House and the Tidal Basin. On March 27, 1912, two Yoshino trees were planted in a small ceremony by first lady Helen Taft and the Japanese Ambassador’s wife, Viscountess Chinda. According to the Park Service, these original trees still stand.

For the centennial year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival has produced a special poster by renowned artist Peter Max, a silver blossom necklace, black long-sleeved tee shirts decorated with the five different sorts of blossoms, and “Cherry Blossoms: The Official Book of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.” Both Japan and the US have created commemorative postal stamps.

Events include the National Cherry Blossom Parade on April 14. The opening ceremonies of the festival are March 25, but it runs five weeks, from March 20 to April 27, National Arbor Day. Among the events being planned in Washington celebrating the “sakura,” or cherry blossom, are: The Arthur M Sackler Gallery, one of the two Smithsonian museums of Asian art, has a rare exhibit of the

complete set of “Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” wood block prints. The 46 prints — 10 were added to the initial set — has been borrowed from seven museums and

“Under the Wave of Kanagawa” by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the wood block prints on exhibit as part of the “Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” exhibit at the Arthur M Sackler museum from March 24 to June 17, 2012. — MCT photos

The cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, show their peak bloom. two private collections. It opens March 24 and ends June who helped raise money to buy the trees and have them brought to America. The Japanese Information Society has 17.

The National Gallery of Art will have “Colorful Realm: “Serenity in Silk,” a display of 30 works of Japanese embroiJapanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings” by Ito Jakuchu. For dery including cherry blossoms. The Library of Congress the first time all 30 scrolls will be on exhibit for only a has “Sakura: Cherr y Blossoms as Living Symbols of month, March 30 to April 29. They are being lent by the Friendship.” The show exhibits photographs, wood block prints and even political cartoons from their collections.

Japanese Imperial Household.

There are two exhibits at the National Geographic The “Blossom Kite Festival” will be held on the National Society. One is the Japanese “Samurai: The Warrior Mall on March 31. —MCT Transformed” and the other focuses on Eliza R. Scidmore,

Rushdie to visit India after death threats

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012

37

Equestrian competitions, camel contests

attract large crowds

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questrian competitions were held on Monday at the Hunting and Equestrian Club, as part of the ongoing Popular Heritage Festival. The horse ‘Mutakarrem’ from Al-Nisf stable won the ninth round of the 1,800 meter race. Led by jockey Clemens, Mutakarrem finished ahead of horse Tawakkul from Al-Nashama stable led by the jockey Dew, and horse Ghala Nayef from Nayef AlDabbous stable led by jockey Wahabi.

The ninth round was the last of Monday’s equestrian competitions, followed by eight other rounds that were dedicated to horses from Al-Ahmadi and Al-Farwaniya equestrian clubs. Sheikh Ali Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah, President of the Hunting and Equestrian Club graced the occasion and watched the races keenly.

On Monday, a fresh camel beauty contest was held featuring breeds known as Al-Shaqh among Bedouin tribes. Nineteen camel breeders contested in the 25- herd category. “This year’s competition was a huge success, in terms of attendance as well as the quality of participating camels. Some were valued by the judging committee at KD 1 million,” said Sheikh Sabah Fahad Al-Nasser Al-Sabah, Head of the judging committee.

In addition, two competitions were held for

male camels of the ‘Al-Humr ’ and ‘AlMujaiheem’ breeds respectively, in which 38 and 16 contestants took part. The winners were chosen after being evaluated based on physical shape and productivity.

The Popular Heritage Festival is an annual event featuring traditional sporting activities related to the Bedouin nature of the Gulf region. It features beauty contests for camel,

World’s tallest man may have stopped growing

T

Sultan Kosen

hanks to treatment by researchers at the University of Virginia Medical Center, the world’s tallest man may have reached his peak. Measuring in at 8-feet-3 inches, Sultan Kosen of Turkey is listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the tallest living man.

Kosen visited U.Va. in May 2010 for treatment for a disorder called acromegaly, which is usually caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/AtJeHK ) reports that Kosen was placed on a new medication that could potentially help control the production of growth hormone and stop his continued growth. According to U.Va. officials, doctors in Turkey say Kosen has stopped growing. Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com.

—AP

sheep and falcons across different locations in Al-Roudhatain.

The festival also features horseracing and Arabian horse beauty contests at the Hunting and Equestrian Club, as well as fishing competitions organized by the Fishermen’s diwaniyas in Al-Fintas, Al-Salmiya and Al-Wuttiya. All events are covered daily by Kuwait TV and the local press.

That’s not a salad, it’s a symphony

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endors at the local market in Beijing could be forgiven for thinking that Nan Weidong and Nan Weiping run a restaurant. But the bags stuffed full of vegetables the brothers lug back home are used for a very different purpose-musical instruments. The two grew up surrounded by vegetables in China’s central Anhui province, but their music teacher father encouraged them to learn conventional instruments from a young age. As teenagers, they joined a local theatrical troupe.

But it wasn’t until two years ago that they thought of making instruments out of vegetables, an idea that has fascinated them ever since. They now live and work in a narrow Beijing apartment, drilling holes in carrots, marrows, lotus roots and Chinese yams and testing the pitch against an old electronic tuner- nibbling silently on the shavings all the while.

A sweet potato becomes a perky ocarina, a bamboo shoot a mellow, reedy flute. A row of carrots tied upright to leeks is transformed into a set of Chinese panpipes. “The deeper the hole, the lower the pitch. The shallower the hole, the higher the pitch,” said pony-tailed Nan Weiping, at age 41 the younger by two years.

“The size of the holes also matters to guarantee the quality of the sound. The leeks only serve as decoration.”

But controlling the pitch is extremely difficult, he added, with changes in the air temperature and humidity potentially warping the shape of the holes, putting the notes out of tune. Their repertoire is as varied as their instruments, ranging from traditional Chinese flute music to Western songs such as Auld Lang Syne.

The two have appeared on numerous talent shows in China and often receive payments of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan ($4,800 to $7,900) for a performance-their sole income. Each show requires making a whole new set of instruments. —Reuters